New Years Eve

It's New Years Eve. It used to mean something to me. It meant Sean and I would drive to our friends Dru and Charity's house and help them (and their 20 closest friends) ring in the new year. It was tradition. I enjoyed it. Then Charity and I got pregnant on the same month and had babies three days apart. That was in 2007 and things have been a bit different since then. No more parties. We stay in now. Load the fridge up with junk food, get a little alcohol (maybe a couple of beers...we don't really drink) and watch movies to ring in the new year. Oh how the times have changed. Children really do bring out your inner couch potato. And you know what? I wouldn't change it for the world.

I hope everyone is having a great New Years Eve however you wish to ring it in. And since I can't possibly write a post right now without including my new baby goats, here is a video of them shortly after they were born yesterday. I am so enamored with them, I must have spent three hours out there today just sitting in their pen letting them sniff and climb on me. Talk about no fear. They are just precious.

New Kids on the Block

I now have two new kids in my life. Aren't they freaking precious?! Dym had a little doeling and buckling (girl and boy) around noon today. I went out to check on her (as I'd been doing every twenty minutes) before Jessica came over for a playdate. No laboring, no kids. So there we were sitting in the living room with the baby monitor near us and Jessica heard the faintest of a little baby goat noise. She said "Dude! You've got a baby out there!" and I went "Oh my gosh!" and ran out there to find Dym cleaning up a just born kid. First out was the little boy whom I named Heston. Don't ask me why, just liked it. I helped her dry him off a little and dipped his umbilical cord in iodine, then showed him where the buffet was. I ran inside to tell everyone and help feed all the children lunch. By the time I got back out there (10 minutes later?) she already had the second baby out. Wish I would have stayed out there, I would have loved to see it. The second kid out was the little girl whom I named Coco (well actually Jessica named her). They are both doing great and I just adore them, as does Dym. She is such a good Mom, licking them nonstop. I have had to help them find the milk every time I go out there as poor Dym's teats are really long and almost drag the ground when she's in milk. I was worried they weren't getting enough colostrum (first milk) that I milked her a bit and bottle fed each kid a few ounces. They seem to be doing well, already bouncing around trying to leap on top of tired Dym. I was sitting in the pen and Heston bounced over to me and jumped in my lap then proceeded to fall asleep. I think I'm going to enjoy helping raise these kids. :)

Just born.

Tiny next to Mom.

Checking out the strange creature in the corner.

Goat Watch: Day1

This is the big week! Dym is having her babies this week. She is due on Wednesday but it's normal (like any birth) to go into labor a few days before or a few days after your due date. I'm totally excited. Ask my husband, it's all I talk about. I received several more books for Christmas about raising goats and making cheese so that has just added fuel to the fire. I feel ready for the big event. I have assembled a birthing kit that includes all the essentials and a few things that are above and beyond the realm of the normal kit. Since I've never helped out with a birth I'm not really sure I'll know what to do with all the equipment, but at least I'm prepared. We even set up a baby monitor in the shop (where Dym is set up in a birthing stall) and have the receiver next to my side of the bed.

We had a false alarm this morning. I got up early because I couldn't sleep at 6:30 am and went downstairs to surf the web. Sean woke up to a lot of goat noises coming out the baby monitor and was getting dressed when he found me in the basement. I jumped off of the couch and threw on my coat and Sean and I ran out to the shop to find Dym peacefully lying there chewing her cud. Turns out the constant meow of the cat sounds similar to a goat over a baby monitor. It made me smile knowing Sean was eager to help with the birth had it been in full swing.

So anyways, any day now I hope to update the blog with freakin adorable pictures of baby goats. Oh I literally can't wait.

All my pictures of Dym look like this one, she's right up in the camera at all times. She's just hoping I have food.

Christmas through pictures

I hope you all had a blessed and relaxing Christmas day! We were lucky enough to have family at our house all day yesterday. My folks and my sister and her family came. The girls (my sister, my Mom and myself) went to a candle light service Christmas eve. It was beautiful and really put me in the spirit of the season. The boys stayed home to bathe children and put them to bed, and to also be Santa and place present under the tree. Thank you boys!

This year was special in that Wesley is finally getting excited about the concept of Santa. He's 3.5 years old and was really in awe of the concept of a jolly old man flying around in a sled with reindeer. We placed a plate of cookies out and the next morning Wesley looked down from the upstairs balcony and shouted "All but one of the cookies are gone, they're gone!!". I think next year will be even more fun, I can't wait.

Santa was very generous this year. The kids got some really great toys. Toys that will keep them occupied throughout the year (thank goodness!). Anyways, it was a great day.....thank you to all that made it happen.

The grand babies loving the toys!

My jolly old elf. :)

Blake and Emery in his cute Christmas sweater.

Wesley doing something obscene to his Curious George doll.

Showing off the kitted goodies made by Granny Randi. They are absolutely beautiful Randi! My scarf is so ornate, I love it. Greta would have been in the picture but you can just look at this picture and know what she looked like.

Christmas dinner: ham, mac and cheese, shrimp scampi, green bean casserole, scalloped potatoes, cranberry relish and rolls. Delish! 

Great learned how to smile on command this weekend. It's too cute.

See? More smiling.

Wesley and Papa loving the hats. You rock Randi!

The "after opening presents chaos".

My Mom and Greta enjoying a game of connect four. Thanks for the game Jessica!

Baby Emery became a pro at tearing open presents. He's a doll.

Merry Christmas!

Seeing Christmas through the eyes of a child is one of the greatest perks of being a parent. I just wanted to drop a note this fine Christmas morning to everyone reading this: Merry Christmas from our family to yours. May it be blessed and please don't forget the reason for the season!"

"There has been only one Christmas - the rest are anniversaries.  ~W.J. Cameron"

I'm off to watch the children open presents. 

Conversations with a three year old.

Me: "Time to get your shoes on."


Wesley: "Where are we going?"


Me: "We are going to the craft store."


Wesley: "The crap store?"


Me: "No, the CRA-F-T store."


Wesley: "The CRA-P store??"


Me: *sigh* "Actually you're right."

Merry Christmas Mail Thief

 I want to wish a Merry Christmas to the mail thief that has been stealing mail up and down our road (and who knows how many other roads). Because of you we have purchased an over priced monstrosity of a locking mailbox. Actually it's not all that expensive but we sure could have been spending our money on other things this time of the year. It will hopefully keep our mail safe and that's all we're interested in. So good luck trying to steal anything from us, you'll need it. In fact, just go find another road because we are just one of many people putting in new safer mail boxes. I figure the price of this box is far cheaper than trying to repair our credit once you steal our identity. Hope you have a fun time trying to get into this bad boy!

Rambling Children Update

 The kids are still sick. The stomach bug of Thanksgiving turned into diarrhea from hell which turned into a cold with nuclear green snot (it was crazy how green it was) which has turned into a consistent barking cough. The cough has been with Wesley for over a week and this morning he woke up with a dried trickle of blood coming out of his nose so off to the pediatricians office we went this morning. The blood from his nose was from dried out mucous membranes and the cough will take care of it's self over the next week. The doc told me to watch out for a secondary infection and told me I can give him some antibiotics if I'd like (I LOVE it when they give you the choice) which I turned down. I'm all for letting them get over it without the help of antibiotics.

When we were at the Christmas program I took Wesley behind the stage to line up with his class and as I left all I heard was a chorus of coughing. Gotta love it! He had his Christmas party on Thursday and Santa stopped by. When I went to pick him up he excitedly told me about seeing Santa and the teacher added that Wesley was one of the few that wanted to sit on his lap. I'm proud of him, he's sure breaking out of his shell. Apparently he told Santa he wanted a fire truck for Christmas. Got it covered! The interesting thing is that the four year old preschool class was individually asked at the program what they wanted from Santa and one after another said "A DS", or "a pink DS". I'd say five of the 10 kids said a DS. It took me a few minutes to figure out they were talking about a Nintendo DS. Mind you this is a bunch of four year olds. I was flabbergasted. I thought we had until maybe seven or eight years old until we had to think about hand held video games. Ugg.

While I'm on the subject of preschool, I dropped Wesley off last week and I always lug Greta in on my hip. Well, I had to set her down to take off Wesley's coat and the teacher came over and was looking at Greta sitting on the ground. She asked me when her birthday is and I told her it was back in September. This very concerned look came over her face and said "She's still not walking!". Mind you this doesn't phase me much anymore since Wesley was a late walker as well, walking at 15 months. My kids are just late in the mobility department. They sure catch up quick though. I'm proud to say that Greta is standing up in the middle of the room without holding on to anything. She kinda looks like a surfer with the legs spread out for balance. She's so proud of herself, she usually claps. It's precious. As if I haven't been adding enough video lately (I go for months and months without and then bombard you in December) I am adding a video of her standing.

Greta loved the program. It's sure strange seeing your children sitting in the same high school auditorium that you graduated from 13 years ago.

Wesley enjoyed decorating the tree.

The tree, a safe distance from Greta and behind a baby gate. :)

Anything and everything goes on her head. In this case, Wesley's chuck bucket.

The Christmas Program

I was one proud Momma this evening. My little boy got up on a big stage in front of everyone and sang Christmas songs. It was the most precious and hilarious thing I've seen in quite some time. Precious in that it was my little baby boy who's turned into a big boy. Hilarious because it was 25 three and four year olds all singing (rather screaming) in different keys to the music. I laughed so hard I cried. I'm really impressed with the amount of work that the teacher put into teaching all these kids the songs and hand movements to go with each song. It was great. I'm adding a little video for anyone wanting to see Wesley belt it out.

P.S. I made the Peppermint Whoopie Pies and they were delicious and also the first thing gone among all the cookies after the program. Victory. :)

Preparations

Such a busy time of the year. Is everyone as busy as I am? Maybe you're busier, although I don't envy you that. It's been go go go since we got home from Thanksgiving. The illness combined with the driving all night to get home really knocked me out for almost a week and a half. Naturally this is also the time when my business is at it's peak and I'm required to have Christmas sculptures finished. I've decided I'm doing things differently next year. No more working my fingers to the bone (quite literally) right up until Christmas. This is supposed to be a fun time of the year, a time to celebrate with family. It's a time to be joyful, not utterly exhausted...falling into bed every night. Next year will be different.

There is also a big event getting ready to happen. Well it's a big event to me anyways. Our Nubian goat is about to have her babies. She's got about two weeks left until the big day. I'm actually quite anxious (nervous?) about this. It's the first time something has been born here....that is if you don't count the one cockatiel that hatched from the clutch of six eggs. Anyways, I'm super excited! Dym, the goat, is getting wider and wider each day. She's always starving and will literally knock you over to get to food (as would most pregnant women). The dilemma was where was she going to have the kids. She has a small stall in the horse shed that I lock her in nightly to keep her safe but it just wasn't the kind of place to give birth. First of all there are no lights out there, no electricity, too small....the list goes on. The place I wanted her to stay was in the shop. Now you must understand that the shop is divided into two sides. The uninsulated side is where the hay is kept along with the mower. The insulated side is Sean's side. He framed it out, sheet rocked it, painted it. The works. It's his place to play with all of his man toys. It's nice in the winter because of the insulation it stays fairly warm in there. If it's 12 degrees out (which it was last night) then it's probably 35-40 degrees in the shop. Water doesn't freeze. SO...you see where I'm going here? I pleaded my case that poor Dym can't have her kids out in the freezing cold (think 12 degrees and having babies). She needed a nice cozy stall full of straw that was away from drafts. I worked on him and he finally agreed to letting me build a stall in his side of the shop for Dym. He's such a sweet guy. So yesterday I went out and built an 8 X 8 foot pen for Dym out of left over deck wood and welded wire. Then down went a sheet of plastic, some shavings and a bale of straw. Isn't it stunning? It's not much to look at but Dym sure likes it!

 

I feel like I'm fairly ready for this birthing experience to happen.  I've asked poor Jennifer (the goats former owner) so many questions she's probably sick of me by now. That along with the internet and books galore have given me oodles of info on birthing and raising baby goats. Let's hope I'm ready and let's hope Dym knows what she's doing....cause I'm afraid I don't.

Mover and a Shaker

Greta is not walking yet but she's a mover! I bet another month and we'll have a walker. She's been pushing these chairs around for about a month. She's also exploded verbally over the past couple of weeks. If you ask her to say a word she'll try as hard as possible to say something similar. She's got "Yes", "cookie", "Daddy" and "Hi" down pat. Greta loves to give high fives and shake your hand. She's almost fifteen months old and it's a fun age.

Peppermint Whoopie Pies

Wesley's Christmas program in on Monday and I'm super excited! My little tiny spawn is going to be up on a stage belting out Christmas songs along with a bunch of three year olds. How freakin cute will that be? Our assignment as parents is to bring cookies that will be devoured after the program. I want to bring something awesome. Something not ordinary, something mouthwatering. I've been looking through my cooking magazines and online recipes and think I've found a winner. They look labor intensive but I think it'll be worth it. Plus, how bad could they be coming from a website called butterisbest.com Mmmmm.....
I'll let you know how they turn out.

Ingredients:

Cookies:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 cup buttermilk

Filling:
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 7.5-ounce jar marshmallow fluff
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 cup crushed peppermint candies (about 50 peppermint discs)

Cooking Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. In medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.

In large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg and extracts; mix well. Slowly add flour mixture and buttermilk, alternating, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Cover dough and chill at least 30 minutes.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto parchment-lined baking sheet, placing cookies 2 inches apart. Bake cookies 9 to 12 minutes, or until firm. Cool cookies on pan 3 to 5 minutes or until set, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

For filling, in large bowl, cream together butter, fluff, and vanilla extract until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar slowly; mix well. Spread flat side of half the cookies with heaping tablespoon of filling; top with second cookie to create sandwich. Roll edges in crushed peppermint candies; chill cookies to set filling.

Store unfilled cookies and filling in airtight containers in refrigerator for up to 1 week, and filled cookies for up to 3 days. Bring cookies to room temperature before serving.

Our Crumbling Problem

A couple of months ago I was going through our Netflix queue and was surprised to see the movie The Money Pit on it. I've seen that movie a long long time ago and it's one of my favorite Tom Hanks films. Sean had put it on the queue as he's never seen it. So we sat down one night and watched it and laughed our hineys off. We laughed not only because the movie is hilarious but also because we are living that movie. We bought our house almost seven years ago. It was a foreclosure and marked below it's market value. We fell in love with the property and knew even before looking at the house that we'd be putting an offer in on it. Were we ignorant kids at the time? You betcha! This house could have been completely gutted and falling into the ground and we probably still would have bought it. Ends up it was falling into the ground. Not even six months after closing on the house we started seeing the first of many cracks develop in the tile flooring in the dining room. Our house is "special" in that it has a partial basement and the rest is a slab. The basement takes up about 2/3rds of the house while the dining room and our bedroom sits on the slab. The basement has no problems, there is no shifting or leaking happening down there. The slab is another matter. The clay soil under the slab is contracting causing the slab to crack and shift. And boy is it cracking.....big honking cracks you can stick your finger in.

So four years ago we had several companies come out and give us quotes on jacking up the corner of the house. The first quote made my eyes almost pop out of their sockets. I remember calling Sean at work and laughing because the quote was astronomical. Turns out that first quote was the lowest of all of them. *groan* So with our options being what they were, we refinanced our money pit and had the foundation jacked up. They put four jacks around the outside of the foundation and then came inside and jack hammered three holes in the middle of my dining room. They then placed three more jacks under the interior of the slab. That was four years ago. Then yesterday they came out and did it all again. Turns out the ground can shift some more and the jacks shift with them.

So I guess it's a blessing we never got around to putting down new flooring. It's also a blessing we picked the company that gave us a warranty, seeing as this probably is going to happen every four years. If I can offer any advice to prospective home buyers: get a home inspection done by a competent inspector that knows foundations. I would like to have thought we wouldn't have bought this house if we knew all the issues we were going to have with it. But, like I mentioned, we were ignorant and young and probably would have bought it anyways.

My beautiful dining room.

Conversations with a three year old

I have to set this up for you. When Wesley was on his Toy Story kick last summer I would pick up random toys from the movie whenever I ran across them, usually always at garage sales. So we have roughly three Woody characters in varying sizes....a little one, a medium one and a large doll. I must admit that in hindsight it might have been better for Disney to name Woody something different.

Me: "What are you doing in your room?"


Wesley: "Just playing with my big Woody."


Me: giggling "Ok" 


-----------------------

Wesley: running up to me clearly distraught "Mom, I can't find my little Woody anywhere!!"


Me: giggling (clearly I have the mentality of a 12 year old) "We'll find it Buddy."

New Mexico

I'm finally feeling well enough to sit and upload pictures of the trip. And I have a lot of them. I shaved them down to ten pictures. Here we go!

The gang (minus Nate and his family who had left for home).

I love the colors of this picture (and that smile)!

A great picture of Becca and Jeremy (Sean's brother).

I finally got to meet Berkley! She's a doll.

Sean's folks, we miss you already!

Sasha and Wesley enjoying Dora for quiet time.

A happy 14 month old as long as she was on Daddy's lap.

The tradition continues. All the grandchildren leave hand prints for Granny Randi.

Greta sure liked April, but then we all like April.

Back home, taking the car seat apart to clean the puke out. Fun!

It's bad, stinky and we're almost out of toilet paper.

I'm back home. This Thanksgiving will go down in history as my most memorable Thanksgiving. Ever. We left for New Mexico last Sunday, cramming the car up to it's gills with everything needed for a week away from home. The car drive down there went smoothly. I thought Greta would be more of a handful than she was. She did beautifully considering it was 16 hours each way. Wesley was slightly annoying chiming in with the "I want to go home" or "Are we there yet?". Luckily this didn't start until Albuquerque, only leaving 4.5 hours of this annoying chatter. It was wonderful getting to my in laws house. They are sweet people with a warm and inviting house. We always have a great time enjoying everyone's company. I got to see all my darling nieces, man are they growing up fast! Wesley and Greta had fun hanging out with all the girls. I sincerely wish we all lived closer.

Thanksgiving was delicious. There were 24 people there for dinner. My in laws are very generous people that opened up their house to people that didn't have anywhere else to celebrate Thanksgiving. I met many interesting people that evening and ate way too much food. Any weight I gained from Thanksgiving is gone now along with a few more pounds.

It started Saturday morning, the morning we were to leave for home. We awoke to the sounds of Greta throwing up in her crib. It was 5:30 so we cleaned her up and brought her into our bed. Poor thing threw up four more times before we even got on the road. That was the beginning of the end. Luckily she only threw up one more time while we were in the car. About an hour into our drive I look in the back seat to find Wesley throwing up. He got a full breakfast that morning so you can just imagine how much vomit was coming out of the kid. I didn't even have a bucket or anything so he completely covered himself, the car seat and stuff under his feet in the car. It was seriously awful. We pulled off on the first exit we could find to figure out what to do. Luckily it was southern New Mexico and the weather was in the 60's so we took the poor kid out of his car seat, stripped him down on the side of the road, and cleaned him up. I scooped up vomit that was in his car seat, there had to have been two cups just there alone. We ran out of baby wipes and resorted to using clothing from the suitcase. There are several things that probably won't be ever worn again.

The strange thing about kids when they puke is that you would never have known that they were sick before or after the event. Here was Wesley kicking, singing and all around being a three year old, then the next thing there is chuck everywhere, then he's back to kicking and singing. It's totally bizarre. As a bystander you might have not even know anything happened except for the hysterical woman in the front seat exclaiming "OH MY GOD, WESLEY'S CHUCKING EVERYWHERE.....HOLY COW IT'S EVERYWHERE SEAN......OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH". This of course upset poor Greta and she started screaming at the hysterical woman (me).

So we get back on the road after our thirty minute clean up stop. We find a toy bucket that will suffice as a chuck bucket. Wesley proceeds to throw up every half an hour for five hours. Luckily he's at the age where he knows he's about to throw up and can remember to use the bucket. So we don't have anymore messes to clean up.  Every half an hour we would pull off on the nearest exit. Pull over, pour out the bucket (which contents got smaller and smaller) and pull back on I-40. If you were following us it might look like a game, we were constantly pulling over. After about five times of doing this we decided to just start pouring the chuck into a drink cup, then pouring hand sanitizer over it to mask the smell. It was awesome (please note the sarcasm).

We decided to drive home in one day rather than stop near Amarillo, TX and get a hotel. We thought if we were to stop and then get sick ourselves then we'd be stuck in the hotel for who knows how long. So we traded off sleeping and made it home at 3:50 am Sunday morning. The kids slept well in the car after their ordeal. We had no throwing up after 6:30 pm. I thought all was well. Wesley was keeping stuff down. We stopped and got some Pedialyte.

Then last night Sean and I got it. We were hit hard. All night long we were hugging the toilet. The fun thing about this virus is it affects you on both ends. During the night I got up after dry heaving to find poor Wesley sleeping in the hallway with his pants pulled down and his little potty full of diarrhea. The little guy had gotten to the bathroom but didn't make it back to his bed. He just gave up and was sleeping on the floor.  It was a bad night for everyone. The kids aren't throwing up anymore but the diarrhea is awful. Greta has the worst diaper rash I've ever seen. I just can't keep her dry.

I think I'll just stop here. I could keep writing about how bad these past two days have been but I think I've painted a pretty vivid picture without going any farther. It's bad. It's stinky and we're almost out of toilet paper. Pray for us.

The Wednesday Write Up

-This time of year is just plain crazy. I'm exhausted from staying up late trying to get Christmas orders done and it hardly seems like I'm making a dent in the list. To add to that, we are preparing for our annual trip to New Mexico. I'm totally excited to see everyone but I am absolutely dreading the drive. Who wouldn't be though. Fifteen some odd hours in the car, each way, with a three year old and a one year old. I'm cringing at the thought of it, so I just won't think about it. See, all better, not thinking about it.

-Preparing all these animals for me being gone is quite the undertaking.  I think I'm ready though. Feed is purchased and piled up, two round hay bales delivered, dog house made, heated waterers and stock tank heater working. I am so lucky to have a friend that will come over twice a day to run dogs, feed animals and collect eggs. Thank you Jessica, without you I don't think we'd be able to go on trips. Ever. Seriously.


-Greta is blossoming into a little girl. She's growing her personality and it's just adorable to watch. Her newest thing is waving nigh night. If you say it's time to go to bed she grabs her blanket and waves to everyone (including the dog). It just melts your heart. She's finally starting to cruise the furniture while walking. She gets up behind a chair and will push it around the hardwood floors. Wesley started walking at 15 months, she's probably going to be more like 16 months I'm guessing. Which is fine, I'll miss her little crazy crawl she has when the walking starts..


-Wesley's first Christmas program is approaching. His preschool teacher has been teaching them all sorts of Christmas songs in preparation. He sings them during dinner, while playing and even during bath time. It's freaking adorable. I can't even imagine how cute the actual program will be. We're hauling Grandpa and Grandma along. Can't wait.


That's all that's happening around here. Hope ya'll are staying warm!

Cuties

So many pictures, so little posting. Here are a few winners. Just soaking up the vitamin D.

Hello Fall

Hello Fall. You have arrived seemly overnight. Making all the beautiful trees turn red, yellow and orange. You have brought beautiful crisp cool days. Days where Wesley and I put on a jacket and run through the yard kicking piles of leaves into the air. I don't know what I'm going to do with the kid once you leave and we are left with Winter. I shall not think about that right now. For now we are enjoying your presence, soaking up the sun while it's here.

 

 We have five of these ginormous oaks around our house and I always thought they were red oaks but was told they are probably pin oaks. Anyone know?

Lucky for us we have our very own leaf eating machine.  She's about 140 pounds and eats as many as she can fit in her mouth. If she is pregnant she only has a month and a half left before she kids. The previous owner, Jennifer, told me about a blood test that can confirm her pregnancy. If I felt more comfortable drawing blood then I'd do it in a heartbeat, but at this point I figure she'll let me know in a month and a half one way or the other. Although I'm still dying to know.

She's looking fairly rotund, so my bet's on there being baby goats in there. Here's hoping! Otherwise I suppose I need to lay off the treats. What do you think? (Jennifer, please tell me what you think if you happen to read this...you would know more by looking than anyone else I can think of).

Last but not least here is a picture of my children's morning routine. They watch Curious George on PBS every morning. Usually it's just Wesley who watches, on the ground with the couch pillow and a blanket. Then Greta wanted to join in the fun, so she crawls up on the pillows and plops back to watch a few minutes. It's a rough life.

One of those mornings

Being a stay at home, work from home mom has afforded me some luxuries. One of them is almost no schedules. I wake up when the kids wake up, we take it easy throughout the day doing whatever comes to mind. Doctor appointments are never scheduled before 10 am. This worked for us, especially with two young kids. Then preschool started. I have to wake up to an alarm clock twice a week (God forbid), rush around trying to get two kids awake, fed, clothed and out the door at a specific time. Mind you this is only two days a week and I can hardly do it. Oh and we're talking about getting them out the door at 9 am....this isn't even like 7 am. I have no idea how the rest of the civilized world does this on a daily basis. No idea. It's crazy on those mornings. Lately I've been getting better, I'm more organized. Things have to happen in a specific time frame or we'll be late. I'm getting it down.

But now a road block as arisen. A three foot road block who's name is Wesley. Five minutes before we are to leave I get shoes on, backpack ready, jacket on. Then my little road block tells me he has to poo. *sigh* So off come the shoes, jacket, pants and undies and off he trots to sit on his little potty and read. You see he has this slight phobia about pooing on the big adult potty. He knows Miss Cindy, his preschool teacher, doesn't have a little potty (how does a preschool teacher NOT have a little potty I ask??) so he always goes poo on our little potty. The problem here is that he inevitably  does this three minutes before we are to run walk out the door. All morning I tell him if he needs to poo then to do it before we are ready to leave. And every day he trots off to the potty as we are leaving. Today was bad. We ended up being five minutes late to preschool because of his this. This is even after prying him off the potty because he was just sitting there. He was crying that he needed to poo, clock was ticking, nothing was happening. I'm starting to think this is his way of stalling going to preschool. Some days he loves preschool other days he wants nothing to do with it. I just wish he'd figure this out before I go insane. Three year olds, you can lead them to the potty but you can't make em poo.

Birthday Boy!

We spent the weekend in Kansas City celebrating my nephews very first birthday. He's turning into quite the little man! Hard to believe these babies are one now. It's fun watching them get together, we can just toss them on the floor and they entertain themselves for long stretches of time. I just thought I'd share pictures from the weekend. Hope everyone is having a nice and relaxing one!

The Birthday boy! Happy Birthday Emery!

Emery is going to be a big brother in April. Betsy at 19 weeks along.

Wesley had fun playing this weekend.

Blake and Greta. She just wouldn't crack a smile.

The babies and I.

Emery's monkey cake took me some time to make, but I think it turned out cute....

.....and Wesley thought it was delicious.

The look on Greta's face cracks me up. She looks paranoid about Papa back there.