Happy Holidays!

A late Merry Christmas and early Happy New Year to you all!  I hope everyone is feeling the stress of the holidays lifting off their shoulders, and preparing for the new year!

I love Christmas, it is absolutely the best holiday.  For me, the thrill of buying gifts and then watching people open them has always been my favorite part.  Add to that the decorations and lights and parties, and what is there that you could possibly not like? 

The last couple of years our families have started drawing names to make home-made gifts for each other.  This is a really cool thing to do - you may want to think of doing it with your family.  It really takes away from the "greediness" of the season and really takes kids and adults back to basics. 

This year, I went completely outside my comfort level and painted my 2 gifts.  My sister is the painter in the family, not me, so this was a really big deal. 

Here is the stool I made for my step-mom who has a Coke themed kitchen (it says Coca-cola - made to look like an old advertising button - if you can't tell).

Here is the little cubbard I painted for my sister-in-law, whose favorite flower is yellow roses - if you can't tell (I was really hoping her favorite flower was sunflowers, because I can trace a circle!)

Because of our little confidence boost in our home-made gift making abilities, the hubs and I have decided to start making our kids home-made gifts too.  This year we scrolled out the first letter of each of their names in redwood, then stained them with redwood stain too.

Hopefully they will be something each one of them will keep through the years.  In a couple of years we will draw names in our family and continue the home-made gifts in house.  For right now, we make really cool ornaments for the tree.  ;-)

What is your favorite family tradition during Christmas time? 

In Your Face!

Ever had that "what the hell is wrong with you" feeling about your own child?  Lately the hubs and I have been dealing with that with the noodle.  I don't know what is going on in that little brain of hers, but she will not get it through her head to stop screaming, spitting, spraying water, hitting, poking, etc. in the babies' faces!

Take for example this weekend...we're playing blocks inside and everyone is happy.  Ella decides that she really wants that tower Karlie just built and tries to take it from her.  Karlie snatches it back, holds Ella by the shoulders, gets as close to her face as possible, and screams "NO, NO ELLA, IT'S MY TOWER!!!."  To which much crying ensues from both parties, because now no one is playing blocks (Mommy's solution because this is the second time it has happened).

Fast forward an hour.  We're outside playing/hanging lights.  Karlie has the hose and she is cleaning off her turtle that was muddy.  I say, "Make sure that none of that water gets close to the babies.  Just clean off your turtle and then turn off the water."  To which Karlie replies, "OK Mommy" in that super sweet 3-year old voice.  Two seconds later, the hose is aimed directly in Maggies face drenching her completely.  More crying from both parties, because water is done, Maggie is soaked, and Karlie is in time out (Mommy again).

Bath time.  Everyone playing and having a great time.  They're splashing, they're acting like fish, it's all good.  Until...Karlie dips down, puts water in her mouth (tasty right?) and spits it DIRECTLY in Maggie's face.  More crying, this time only from Karlie because she is done playing in the bath (Yes, Mommy again).

20 minutes later.  I'm finished mopping up the bathroom and walk through the living room.  Here are Karlie and Mags playing on the floor.  Karlie has a straw and is poking it repeatedly in Maggie's eye!  In her eye with a straw!!!!  And Mags is taking it like a champ!  Can you guess what happens next?  Yep, more crying for the noodle.  Spanking and bed time.  (Yep, Mommy - can you see a pattern here?)

OMG!  All in the same day!  What am I going to do with that one?

A REALLY Big One

"That was a really big one!"
"It won't come out!"
"Silly poop, it's in my pee!"

Just some of the gems the noodle has come up with lately.  BUT....it's official!  We are potty-trained!  All the way, I'm talking about.  Daytime, night-time, going out in public - ALL OF IT.  FINALLY!!!!!!!!!

So lots of people had been pressuring us for a while to get her trained.  Well, I have my own way of doing things.  I read all of the books, and lets not forget that little psych degree I have, but regardless, I know my kid.  She wasn't ready.  She regressed so much when we brought the twins home that every time we tried to train her, she just wasn't interested.  But now that the twins are older it was a breeze.  They don't get babied so much and so she doesn't think she needs to be either.  It took a solid month, but wow, we don't even do pull-ups anymore.  Woo-hoo!!!!!

I think it was the old-school training pants that did it.  My sister-in-law gave us some cloth ones, and they really seemed to do the trick.  Pull-ups are just too much like diapers - the cool alert and learning designs just don't do the same trick as being soaking wet.

ANYWAY, we are one down, and two to go.  Diaper free is the way to be!!!!

378lbs and Counting

Despite the blight on my tomatoes, bugs on my squash and bean plants, and of course my ever so helpful babies; we have grown 378 pounds of food so far in my little gardens.  Can you believe that?  This is my chart - which may seem a bit ridiculous to some (super high tech I know), but I wanted to see how "worth" the effort gardening was going to be.  So, every morning after picking I would log what was what - for example 2 large cucumbers equaled a pound, 10-12 okra equaled a pound, 2 large tomatoes equaled a pound, etc.  Definitely not a fail proof method, especially since my girls tend to pick and eat- completely ignoring mommy's logging method, and obviously I guesstimated quite a bit, but I don't think it's a gross over-estimation by any means.

So, just in case you are wondering, my garden is still kicking.  We are picking tomatoes (which have jumped back now that it's not 120 degrees out), okra, cucumbers, wax beans, green beans, peas, bell peppers, basil, Swiss chard, collards, lettuce, radishes, carrots, and hopefully soon winter squash (that was just planted so it'll be a while).  I fully anticipate the collards and Swiss chard to go all winter long too.  Isn't gardening in Bama crazy?  Actually, I think the reason that everything has done so well is because it had to have an extreme will to live - babies and their feet are not so attentive or forgiving to tender little plants.  Add in a couple cats and dogs and I'm surprised everything wasn't trampled to death back in May. 

In all seriousness, the only things original in the big garden now are the pepper plants, the okra, basil and my big, beautiful German heirloom tomato plant.  Everything else has done it's thing, been yanked out, then re-planted with something else. 

I've decided that you must have a tenacious personality to garden; unless of course you are my sister who grew an entire crop of tomato plants without planting anything (Trac, are you kidding me?)  Regardless, I'm feeling a little proud - not too bad for a city chick on a 1/4 acre lot, and very blessed.

"Patience and tenacity of purpose are worth more than twice their weight of cleverness." 

94 Cents and a Parking Token

Alright, alright.  Been slacking, I know.  Computer issues, camera issues, and baby issues.  Blah, blah, blah.

After the Falls, we were headed to Raleigh.  More family time, and supposedly the beach and the Hall of Fame.  OK, what were we thinking???  Who goes on their first vacation with 3 little bitty children and decides to drive 3100 miles in 8 days?  Well, the hubs and I do of course!!!  The same people who decide to drive on a toll road with absolutely NO CASH.  The only toll road along our entire trip that ONLY takes cash.  This of course led to a frantic search along the floor boards of the car, and dumping out my purse in order to find EXACTLY 94 cents and a parking token, to which the toll money "taker" thought we were nuts, but after much pleading, let us pass on through anyway.

So we head to Raleigh and arrived about 5am after driving the 56 miles of construction through D.C.  Why would we find out if there is construction first?  That would be just silly.  We got to see Aunt Suzy again, and 2 of my cousins.  They took us to the absolute coolest museum for kids ever - Marbles Kids Museum (http://www.marbleskidsmuseum.org/galleriesandexhibits).  In which, they had the biggest Legos I have ever seen, so my cousin Andrew and I absolutely had to build a fort, complete with windows, doors and roof (after which the kids didn't even really play in, but we had a good time).

So we left Raleigh, and decided that there was no way in hell we were driving out of our way.  I mean AT ALL.  The kids were really not having a great time in the car at this point, so we decide to just pick an attraction on the way home.  So, we decide to go mining for gemstones. 

Yep, we went to the backwoods of who knows where with our 3 small children and bought a bucket of rocks to mine for gemstones.  Now, don't get me wrong, the people seemed fairly nice, but people make entirely too much fun of Alabama when everyone we met had like 2 teeth.  I digress....We bought a bucket of rocks.  We do have a whole slew of uncut gemstones now, and one of the smoky quartz that I found was made into a necklace, but I'm still having a hard time with buying of a bucket of rocks from a man that only had 2 teeth.  As usual though, the hubs and I had a good time, sifting through rocks and letting the kids play.

After that, it was beyond time to go home. 

All in all, we had a great vacation.

I Want to Slide Down on My Butt



Niagra Falls.  Isn't it gorgeous?  Everyone should go - at least once.  Correction - everyone should go at least once and ride the Maid of the Mist.  I knew when we rode the boat it would take us close to the base of the falls, but I had no idea HOW close we would be. 

Incredible. 

Awesome. 

Breathtaking.

Even the baby falls were amazing.             

We took all the babies on the Maid of the Mist.  Ella LOVED it.  If you've never ridden, you have no idea that you get soaked and it's a little scary - this of course is why my little thrill-seeker was having such a great time.  She was laughing and screaming and waving her arms around - meanwhile, Maggie and Karlie are not really enjoying themselves at all. 

When we got off the boat, the hubs (who took Karlie) and I took turns going up the stairs on the side of the falls.  Ok, that was crazy.  You could barely make it up to the top with all the wind and waves coming at you!  Karlie was petrified, and still, all she has to say about the biggest waterfall ever is..."I want to slide down on my butt."

Still.  That's it.  It was the biggest waterfall ever, and she wants to slide down on her butt. 

Crazy kids.

Farm Girls

We are in New York, first leg of our trip.  It is one of the most beautiful parts of the country that I have ever seen.  The people are unbelievable - extremely nice and REAL.  We're staying on Stephen's (the hubs) Aunt's dairy farm - I have never seen so many cows in one place at a time.  Every morning we have to take a trip around the farm and see all the cows, and every night we have to say goodnight to them.  The very first of one of these trips, all of our girls ended up covered in poop running and falling through the barn and had to be hosed off-it felt a lot like home, except at our house it's usually some mud puddle they made.  Because of our excursion, every time Karlie sees a cow, real or not, she exclaims, "they have really big poops and pees."  It's still funny now, a hundred of such exclamations ago.

Yesterday we went to ride horses and then to a Cider Mill.  The girls were unbelievable.  We could barely keep Karlie off of the horse long enough to let the babies ride!  She was a natural! 

Maggie loved it too.  She was all smiles the entire time.  When we took her off, she would follow the horse around the arena yelling.

Ella on the other hand wasn't too sure she was into it.  She was a little peeved that we kept picking her up out of the sand she was eating.

She perked right up when we put Mags on the horse with her though.

And here is all three - what a picture!  They all had a blast! 
Afterwards we went to the Cider Mill and got to pick out the tastiest apples we've ever had, then feed the ducks.  How bored are my kids going to be when we get home?

Oh well, can't wait to see what they'll think of "the biggest waterfall ever"!