Picture Challenge!

This week's picture challenge!
November 2007
picture #44

At first I was worried I did have 44 pictures but of course I did...we put the tree up in Novemeber! So here is Peanut watching the older kids and Red taking a break from helping to entertain her and show her the tree.

Thrown Off

So yesterday was our Friday school wise. Too celebrate this 3 day weekend we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. It was packed in there. I guess they were having some sort of fundraiser in one of the schools. Very glad that J came with because the spot that we parked in was extremely hard to get out of due to the two vehicles that came after we were already there. People were making their own parking spots! If I tried getting out someone would of gotten hit. It was a fun night though.

Then this morning it was up and out the door to church. This Bible study is so good and there is just so much good parenting information on doing it biblical. We got home around 1:30 the two little ones took naps and the big ones helped clean the house for our company tonight. Tomorrow is our relaxing day at home and Sunday is the all church family lunch and then meeting after then later we are heading to our friends from church for a Super Bowl party. I love our church!!! They are like extended family :) Have a good and safe Super Bowl weekend!

Why does life always...

get in the way of my plans? This is the first and only day this week that all three kids will be at school so I had plans to clean, do laundry and run a few quick errands. I got all but one errand done, and I got the house vacuumed but not dusted and I had unexpected load of laundry that took priority over the last load I needed to get done today. I've had a very productive day but I don't feel like I have accomplished all I've wanted too and Peanut is sleeping now so I'm stuck doing quiet things until she wakes at 3 something just in time to get the other 3 kids bring them home have them grab there Awana stuff, Jeff get home and out the door we go. Maybe I can get the dusting done while she is sleeping and then I can mark off cleaning from my list. And hopefully I can get the last load done in 2 hours? I don't like doing things half way. But tonight is moms night at Sparks and the kids are both super excited about it.

Update from yesterday. As soon as Monkey jumped in the van I said, "I'm so sorry I forgot to make your chili. I brought it for you to eat on the way home. I'm the worst mommy. I feel so bad. What did you eat?" He looks at me with those sweet big brown eyes and says, "You're not the worst mommy. I forgive you. GG gave me her slim jim to eat and one of my friends gave me some chips." I asked him why he didn't tell the teacher so she could of called me? That I would of brought him food. He said he didn't think of it. I'm glad that his big sister came through for him. I always pack a lot of food in her lunch because she gets to have a snack during the last period of the day so she had plenty of food to spare and she got to have a snack too.

Better day!

We have had a much better day though I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we had a much better night! We got up took the kids to school, put gas in the van (1.99 per gallon), paid a few bills, and went to playgroup. Got to have adult conversation with women I really like...total plus :) Then we went out to eat with some friends. We just got home and the kids are sleeping. I started some laundry and I need to do some dishes and then I might curl up on the couch and start a book. I've got about 2 hours before school pick up...

Oh my goodness...I feel terrible...so not going to win Mother of the Year for this. Monkey loves chili and I made some for dinner a few nights ago. He wanted to have it for lunch today at school. I got the thermos down to make in the morning. He even reminded me but I got too busy with getting everyone ready for the day that I totally forgot to make it. He went to school with cottage cheese, peaches and a juice box for lunch. No one called me and I just remembered. I am going to pick him up from school with the chili for him to eat in the van on the way home he is going to be so hungry. And it's not like I can take him food the little guys are sleeping. I was thinking he was going to have a nice hot lunch today...

How does this happen?

In my 8 years + being a mom, unless my memory fails me, I don't believe I have ever had a child have diarrhea in the middle of the night. Throw up yes, the other end, I really don't think so, that is until last night. A little after 2am I hear Red and I look and see the bathroom light on. I thought I heard him say he peed his bed. I got up ready to deal with a wet bed. As I got into the bathroom he was crying and said he pooped his pants. Sure enough there was diarrhea on the floor. I get him and the bathroom (it was on the toilet, floor, and cabinets...that one I don't understand) all cleaned up and put him in bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow Peanut woke up and wanted to nurse. Up she came. When she was done and asleep she was squirming and I had to take her back to her bed. Then she woke up again when she normally wakes in the morning about 5am and came back to my side of the bed wanting in. I really didn't want to deal with her but I really wanted more sleep. So in the bed she came and stayed there until my alarm went off. I got up and got the two older kids up and ready and sent them to school with J. I was hoping that Red would of stayed sleeping but all the noise woke him up. He really dislikes missing school. This is how our week started hopefully it will end better!

Unmotivated

The last few days I have been unmotivated to blog. I think it probably has something to do with the fact that I'm not feeling the greatest. I had a wonderful mommy moment yesterday were I put my two oldest in tears. I didn't yell I simply told them I couldn't handle the fighting and teasing anymore and that maybe I shouldn't be there mom anymore since they don't listen to me. I was in tears too. It is EVERY. LITTLE. THING. with them. I think when I have bad days health wise I let things slide because I physically can't handle them. Something needs to change and I'm praying it is my health. But in all things God will give J and I the strength and wisdom to guide and train these children to His honor and glory. After J got home and the storm quieted down I was able to take Monkey out on a date. We had been trying to get a night that I could take him for the last few weeks and last night I just said tonight I'm doing it! We had a great time just the two of us. I really love that kid...he is super funny!

Today so far as gone a lot better. We needed to get to school a little earlier today because Red had his Christmas program that got snowed out in December. Monkey was the first ready and he helped with Red and other things that needed to get done for me. The kids had asked if they could go to the program and I told them I didn't know. Well I decided that they could come and they were very well behaved and GG took pictures for me. J did the video recording and I handled Peanut, who was not wanting to stay still and watch the program. Before we left the house this morning Red said to J, "Do I look handsome?" as he did a little dance with his fancy shoes on! And he DID look super handsome ;) Here are some of the pictures from today...

He was doing the motions to the song their were singing so sweet!

Reading

The school my kids go to encourage reading big time. They do the "book it" program with Pizza Hut and they also do the Read to Succeed with Six Flags. My kids love to read so these two programs aren't really hard for them to accomplish the goals. For book it they have to read a certain amount of pages per month but the Read to Succeed is by minutes and they need to read 6 hours (360 minutes) in 6 weeks in order to get a free ticket to Six Flags. These kids LOVE roller coasters so that is a great incentive. It has been 2 1/2 weeks and they are more than half way done. I have been sitting with Monkey while he reads to listen and make sure he is reading correctly and so on. And he has been cracking me up. They have been working on punctuations in school and when there is a question mark at the end of the sentence they should say it like a question and if there is an exclamation point it should be read like you are exclaiming it. Well he doesn't realize until the second to last word in the sentence that it has an exclamation point at the end so he reads those two words really loudly and excitedly. It is just the cutest and funniest thing to listen too. I don't listen to GG every time she reads because she is a stronger reader but I do make her read out loud to me every few chapters just to make sure she is still doing good. She when you read a sentence and you see an exclamation point at the end read it only exclaiming the last two words and you'll see how funny it sounds! I love that kid so unique.

The best!

I really feel that God gave me the best husband for me. I think that there are many wonderful/best husbands out there but that each one is prefect for their own wife, does that make sense? Yesterday after church we went out to eat with some friends and then headed to the mall to look for some new shoes for Red. While we were there we checked out the jewelry store across the way, the lady who sold J my engagement ring works there and we wanted to see if she was working. She likes when we pop in with the kidlets. She wasn't working but while we were there I spotted a pearl necklace on sale. It was a really good price cheaper than the pearl earrings that I got for Christmas. I asked J if I could get them so that I had something nice to wear with the earrings he said YES. I was so excited. Now he just needs to take me on a date so that I can get all fancy! Well this morning at 7am J rolled over gave me a kiss and asked, "Do you want to sleep in? I'll take the kids to school". I said, "Don't you have to work?" He told me. "I took the day off so we could spend it together." Awesome! The only thing was that I didn't get all my errands done until later than normal but I got to do most of them with HIM. It was great. The only one I did without him was going to the Market Day store to get some food. I wish he would of been with me as Peanut and I almost got creamed by a UPS driver. I was driving straight and they were turning out of the parking lot and almost hit me. I swerved so far to the right that I almost ended up on the sidewalk. Peanut sits behind the drivers side and if I wouldn't of done that she could of gotten majorly hurt. I was so shaken up but so thankful we weren't hurt. I was only going about 5 miles an hour but those UPS trucks are much bigger than my van. After that errand I was so happy that I didn't have to drive the rest of the day. When Peanut wakes up from her nap we are going to go to Sam Ash and then get the kids from school. We are also going to register them for next year!

Stick a fork in ME...

I'm DONE! The party last night was a huge hit and so much fun but oh so tiring. I was asleep before 10:30 and that is highly on like me. Anyway, her party theme was a "pretend" sleepover so no one actually slept at our house. I got the idea from a friend from church. Basically you do all the sleepover type activities then you send the girls home to sleep in their own beds. GG had 9 friends come so there was a total of 10 little girls...oh the level of noise was UNreal. I will boil the night down for you. They all got to our house about 4pm right after school was over. They came in and started to changed into their jammies. I laid out two sleeping bags in the living room and they all brought their pillows. I gave them a few blankets and put on Sleeping Beauty. I left to go get the pizzas and crazy bread. I left my helpers in charge while I was gone. There were 3 of them here so I knew it was under control. I got back with the food and the girls got a plate of food and took it back into the living room for a picnic dinner while watching the movie.
Once everyone was done eating we got down to girly business. Three of the girls did hair and me and my friend did nails. The hair took longer to do, of course! While we were waiting for all the girls to get beautified they played the hand clapping games. That is when the noise level went through the roof. As the last girl was getting done they started doing pyramids...too funny.

And here is a picture of the girls hair all done up pretty!

J came home with the other three kids and we did cake and ice cream followed by gift opening. Before we were even done opening gifts moms were starting to come to pick up the girls. I heard a few of them say that they didn't want to leave=succeesful birthday party.

This morning we got up and cleaned up from last night as I was too worn out to do it then and started getting ready for the family coming over to celebrate GG's 8 years on this big ole earth. I made lunch today instead of ordering we had baked mostacholi, ceasar salad, rolls, and pretzel salad (grandma made that!). Then we opened presents and had cake and ice cream. Everyone left around 2pm and we left for a friend's birthday party around 3pm. Like I said stick a fork in ME...I'm so done!

This little girl made out like a bandit. She got from her friends party; a gift card to Toys R Us, gift card to Walgreens, gift card to Limited 2, and a gift card to Culvers, she got a High School Musical water bottle, blanket, and bucket set, Hannah Montana shirt, friendship bracelet kit, HM key chain and coin purse, pajamas with matching socks, polly pocket horse ranch set, webkinz and webkinz outfit, puppy in my pocket (never heard of these before), gumball machine, note cards, finger nail polish set, gum, tic tacs, money to buy a webkinz, and a purse with American girl doll soap, lotion and glitter perfume. See she got spoiled! It was complete chaos opening the gifts that I have to watch her video to find out who gave her what so that she can write thank you cards! Then today she got from her family party; 3 shirts, a dress, shirt and leggin set, 1200 stickers, stickers and tatoo set, American Girl doll book, 5 books in the series that she is addicted too from our Family Christain Bookstore, a precious moments 8 year old figurine, bubble gum tape, two mini webkinz (so excited about them), and what she calls her favorite gift....(from her mom and dad)

A NEW BIKE!!!

Dear Birthday Girl,
Your daddy and I have enjoyed these last 8 years with you. We are so blessed to have you in our lives. We thank God for you daily. I really hope you had fun at your birthday parties. I want you to know how special you are to us and what a joy you have been to us. We love you so much sweet little girl...never stop being you. You are so loved!

I'm still alive...I promise

So today is the big day for the "pretend" sleepover birthday party!!! There are a few things I still need to get done before I go get the kids from school. Yes they had school today even though all schools around us were canceled :) She invited a total of 16 girls. 5 of the girls never responded to the invitation. All the rest said they were coming. Then today two of them canceled so there will be 10 girls here that is including GG. We might have more if the other ones show up. I just wanted to get on here real quick before I frost the cake and decorate the house! We are going to have so much fun and also I have 5 people coming to help with the party. That in and of it's self is a huge relief. J is taking the boys and possibly Peanut to Legoland during the party. Should be had all around. Tomorrow is her family party and then her birthday dinner tradition. We also have another birthday party to attend tomorrow so as you can see we've been busy busy busy! Have a great weekend. And thank you to all the people who commented and let me know that you were actually reading.

Delurking

There is always a week in January were you are asked to come out of the wood work and comment on the blogs you read so that people know there are people out there reading! Well apparently, it is this week so, party people leave me some comment love and let me know that you have read this post if nothing else. Say "Hi." I promise I won't bite. You don't even have to have a blog to comment just hit anonymous, but if you do please sign your name so I know who you are. Thanks...much love!

Now that I got that out of the way, today we had a day of, shall we say, CLEANING. I canceled all my normal Tuesday happening and got down to the nitty gritty. J had to change his hours of work and went in an hour later so he took the kids to school that was so nice. Though I still got up at the same time I didn't have to brave the elements. I just wish that Peanut could of been on the same page with the whole cleaning thing, but she did do fairly well until about 11:30, she was hungry and getting tired. I do feel like I am starting to get a grip on what needs to be done to help with Monkey's allergies. To be honest with you I am a bit warn out from today and can't seem to focus on typing a entry that makes a whole lot of sense. I'll end this now so that you can delurk and leave a comment!!!

Peace

I have a lot of different topics running through my head today and really want to post about peace. When Monkey and Red were about 16 months old I started getting the itch for another baby. I really desired to have more kids. When I would hear someone was pregnant I would think I wish it was me. Well Peanut is almost 16 months old and you know what? I have no itch or desire to have another baby. I am so at peace with her being the baby and that my body will never again inhabit a growing baby. I came to the realization of this fact over the weekend when I looked at her and thought, "she is getting big and really isn't a baby anymore." She has started talking more and communicates with us all, no more baby-ness, well maybe a little! I was sad but it wasn't an overwhelming saddness. I am surrounded by pregnant people in our church there are 4 women my age pregnant and then I know a few more at school. I am so happy for them and I *can't* wait to hold their babies but I don't want one. This is an amazing feeling to have peace about our family. I have peace in my fears as a mother...am I doing a good job, do they know I love them, will I get to see them get married and have children and so on. I have peace because I know the one who is control of everything. He knows what tomorrow brings, even if I don't. I take peace in that even if it is heartache for us, because I know we aren't exempt from pain. I have peace in our financial state and J's job security. God has blessed us with a house (even if I think it is too small), food, clothing and extra money to be able to do fun things like a trip to Disney. I think of a blog I started reading about the husband not having a job and they have no home and they have 4 kids. Would I be able to find peace in that situation? I would like to think yes, but I really don't know and I really would not like to find out. Not saying that I don't ever feel overwhelmed because I do, case in point Monkey's allergy. When I started reading all the stuff that needed to be done I was majorly overwhelmed but God gave me the strength, wisdom and peace to do the important things in the house to help him and you know what? It is helping! If your spirit isn't at peace then I would love to talk to you and help you get to that peace that only comes from knowing God and having a personally relationship with Him.

The baby...

Have I mentioned how much I love this little girl? She is just the sweetest and lovable little person. She knows how to win people over by holding her little hands up to them and giving her money making smile. She melts hearts, I tell ya. Well today on our way to church J had his guitar under her seat and she started kicking it and we told her no. From that point on she held her feet straight up in the air so that they didn't touch the guitar at all. It was the funniest thing and our trip is about 20 minutes. I kept trying to get her to put her feet down but she wouldn't so silly that little one.

As I was typing that I remember something that Red said to me tonight after he had already been in bed for a half an hour. He says, "Mommy I need to tell you something." I go in there and he proceeds to tell me that his friend Grayden puked in Wee Church this morning and that he touched it. How gross. Why would you touch someone else's puke if you weren't cleaning it up? Silly kid. I just hope and pray that we don't get sick with that and that if we do it is over by Friday.

GG is getting so excited about her birthday. J and I just got her present this weekend and J needs to put it together sometime this week so she can have it on Saturday. Other than that she has a report for school about a country in her heritage. She chose Italy. She is such a perfectionist. So did not get that from me, but totally the reason she is a straight A student.

Oh I have great news to report on Monkey. After only a few days with his new pillow and cover and mattress cover he can almost clearly breath out of his nose when his mouth is closed. I am so happy that we don't have to put him on medicine. And this little boy is obsessed with Lego Star Wars for the Wii he doesn't even play it that much because he only likes to play with daddy but he talks about it ALL. THE. TIME. Put it this way he named the Webkinz that he got for Christmas Luke Skywalker. Hmm wonder where he came up with that name. Ha!

J is still working day shift and we are still loving it. He is able to help at home with dinner, homework and bedtime. I couldn't be happier.

Lastly I wanted to mention that my Friday night out was a BLAST. We went to PF Changs for dinner, it is Chinese food, if you were wondering. Then we went to see Bride Wars. It was a really cute movie, a little cheesy, but exactly what you would expect from a PG movie. Ok now that the title of this post doesn't make much sense anymore. Too bad I'm not changing it!

Random Picture Challenge...

Brittany has a random picture challenge going on over at her blog. She wants you to go in you May file folder and post the 21 picture you took. This is mine. Peanut had been pulling her socks off for a while and then sticking them in her mouth. I wanted a picture to remember her silliness and there you have the reason for this random picture! Your turn. Let me know if you play along so I can come check it out :)

A ME day...

After yesterday I was really looking forward to today. By the way, after the kids went to bed I took a nice hot bath and shaved my legs! Exciting I know ;) Then I got a nice back rub from the hubby which was so needed. This morning we all got up and ready I took the 3 kids to school and Peanut and I headed out to Bible study. The roads were pretty bad so it took us a little longer than normal and I thought for sure that I was going to be the last one there since we live the farthest away. Except I wasn't! I dropped Peanut off in the nursery and went to study. We had such a great discussion today and it was so nice to be with all the other moms in church again after the 5 week break. For Mom's Day Out we ate at Potbelly's. I like that place. Picked up Peanut at 1pm and headed home. I was hoping she would fall asleep during the ride but she didn't. I think she wanted to be able to nurse before she took her nap. Now she is sleeping and probably won't wake up until it is time to go get the kids. Then tonight I am going out with some friends to celebrate one of my friends 30th birthday. Dinner and a chick flick! It is a total ME day. I will be mom for about 2 hours total today that never happens and J is all for it. He wants me to take more time to get refreshed. I don't think I mentioned this yet but my dad wants to take me on a 4 day trip in February and I wasn't sure if I should go and J was telling me too. I think we are going to go to Disney! I'll be bringing Peanut with me because she is so little and because I don't want to have to find someone to watch her on the Friday and Monday we'll be gone. That is about all for now...enjoy your weekend!

My Life somedays...

First my night was better than last night...only got woken up twice by the baby so maybe tonight it will only be once?! Well for some reason the kids were crazy this morning. We didn't leave the house until 8:22 and school starts at 8:30 we normally are pulling out at the latest 8:18. I really don't know what got into them this morning. They got ready for the most part and then stopped doing what they were suppose to and started playing. What? Get your butts going! I was so mad at them. I pulled up to the school at 8:29 don't think they made it to their class by 8:30. Oh well...they will live and learn.

Then I had a little over an hour to kill before we met our friends at the Mall play place. I hadn't had time to go get Monkey's allergy proof bedding yet so I thought I'd try wal*mart because they are cheap and online the stuff was expensive. I go in and sure enough they have a allergy certified pillow. Then I find the pillow covers and mattress covers. I *always* check the price of the things I am getting because I've been burned way too many times by that store and the price being higher at the check out. The pillow and mattress cover ring up right but the pillow cover rang up more then 5 dollars higher than it was listed in the back. She calls and they come up. They tell me that it is the right price. I stand firm that it isn't. We go back I show her the price tag with the words Allergen Standard and the price. She tells me that it isn't the price it has the wrong upc numbers. There is only one kind of allergen cover and three different sizes. She was trying to tell me that the standard size is more money then a king size pillow would be. She gets the manager to which I tell her that the price they are telling me is right isn't even listed on any of the tags. I was going to buy two one for Monkey and the other for Peanut. I have a feeling that she may have the same allergy and I figured it wouldn't hurt her to have one. Well the lady tells me that she will give one of them to me at the price marked on the tag but the other I have to pay the 5 extra dollars on. To which I said, "Then I will just take the one. Thanks." Stupid store. Now I do know that people move stuff and that they aren't always hung in the right spot that is why I always check. It was the only tag that said allergen on it in a standard size! I was just so shocked that they argued with me for one and for two that they had nothing to back up the price being what they said was the correct price.

Anyways, we go to the mall and have a great time playing. The Libby Lu stores are closing and there is one right next to the play place. Most stuff is marked 50% to 85% off. I asked my friend if she would watch Red while I ran in there real quick with Peanut. I found a few things for Christmas next year and it was super cheap. Yes, I am one of those people that bargain shop all year round for Christmas presents. But it helps not break the budget at the end of the year!

Today started Red's first day of gymnastics. We got there about 5 minutes early to realize that I had signed him up for the wrong class! Man, I hate when that happens. Apparently I signed him up for the 0 to 3 year olds mom and me class. He will be 4 soon and totally too old for this class. I was not expecting to have to be in the gym with him helping him with the equipment and holding/watching Peanut at the same time. We did make it through the 45 minutes and next week will be so much better. We worked it out with the teacher to get him into the Thursday class that is the drop off and watch type. The time for that class actually works out better for me too. I was very happy about that! My plan was the eat a snack while he was in class but since I was with him I wasn't able to eat. The class was from 11:15 to 12:00 and I was hungry afterwards so against my better judgement we made a golden arches stop for lunch. Looking on the bright side I didn't have to clean up :) The kids both went to bed right away and I started in on the cleaning and laundry. Red woke up right after I was done with my tasks and before I started this post he is watching a movie as not to wake his sister. I'm hoping that tonight is laid back and mellow we have only homework to do so we'll see...

11:12am

That is what time it is right now. I am sitting here in my pj's after just taking a morning nap with Peanut. Last night was terrible sleep wise. I fell asleep around 10:45pm and the phone rang at 12am. I hit the button to make it stop and then there was a voicemail. I hit the button again so it wouldn't continue to beep. About a minute later the phone started ringing again. I decided that I should probably answer it because it could be something big. It was one of our towns dispatchers calling to tell us that a cop drove by our house and the garage was open and that we might want to shut it so that we didn't get robbed. We have all the kids outside toys in there along with all J's outside toys/tools! We always shut the garage so it was strange. J even said I thought I shut it. The neat thing is that the dispatcher is one of our friends and we go to church together. So this morning when I listened to the message it said, "Hey Tonya, this is Ryan H___ there is a police outside your house and your garage door is open. I will try calling back in a minute." I'm guessing that he heard our address come out and took it upon himself to contact us. We don't have a landline only cell phones. We are blessed to have such great people looking out for us and our family. Well J got home around 8pm last night and the call came at midnight so it was open for 4 hours. I had a hard time falling back to sleep because my mind started racing about what could of been taken and we'll see in the morning and on and on. Oy. I did end up falling asleep at some point only to be woken up by Peanut at 2 something in the morning. I was going to just put her back in bed but when I picked her up I noticed she still had a fever. She had a 100.1 temp when she went to sleep. I think it is teething related because she is tearing up her hands by constintantly biting them. I ended up bringing her into our bed and nursing her when she was done she was so restless and was kicking me in the side I couldn't fall asleep. Back to her bed she went. She didn't cry she just went right to sleep! Then about 4:30am she got up and starting walking around our room calling Ma. J put her back in bed and she didn't like that. By this time I wasn't feeling the greatest so I went and slept on the couch for the last few hours of night. Got up, got kids ready took them to school in my pj's and Peanut's came home and we both went back to sleep at about 9am until 11am. I guess the laundry is going to have to wait until this afternoon...but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get her back to sleep!

The Doctor's Office

Do you remember I took the boys to the doctor on Friday? Did I post about it? I don't remember if I did or not. Anyways, I took the boys to the doctor because they tummy's were hurting them and it had been over a week since it started. While we were there I showed the doctor how Monkey can't breath through his nose, I had already paid my co-pay might as well get my moneys worth. She wanted to have him allergy tested. I took all 4 kids to the lab to get his blood drawn. That is a story in and of it's self. Let's just say I was not a happy mommy after that experience and it had nothing to do with my kids. I digress. Though I do want to state that Monkey did not shed a tear during the blood draw. He sat on my lap and looked in my eyes as I held him tight. He was so brave. Well the doctor's office called with the results of the test. He is allergic to dust mites. I need to go get him a new pillow and a cover for his bed and I need to have the carpets cleaned and they need to be vacuumed once a day and I need to dust at least every other day for him. This is going to be major work but for my little boy to be able to breath out of his nose I am up for the challenge. I wish we would of gotten this done sooner but I think he was at the perfect age to handle the needle. If there are any mom's out there that have kids with this type of allergy I could use some tips or anything that has been helpful for you!

Back to School

This morning went rather smooth which I was very happy about. We got to school right when the doors opened and GG passed out her birthday invitations. She invited A LOT of girls this year. I'll come back to that later. At noon I got a phone call from school saying that they couldn't find Red's lunch. I had just gotten Peanut down for her nap and really didn't want to have to take him another lunch. When we got to school and during the handing out of invitations one of the preschool teachers (and one of Red's favorite) was taking her boy to class. Her son is in the same class with Monkey and they go to the same church as us. She offered to walk him to class which worked out great because I was meeting J at the preschool to drop off all the toys we purged from the house. They just started another class in the preschool and we figured they could use those toys and also they got out of our house. Anyway, his lunch was in the van and I brought it in when I went down with the van. When his teacher called about him not having a lunch she told me that he told her that he had left it in the van which he did but he didn't know that I brought it in. Making a short story even longer I called back after about 5 minutes and they had found it. I was so happy.
It was nice having the kids at school so I could run errands with just Peanut but man was she out of sorts. She kept walking around the house looking for her playmates. I felt so bad for her but she was so excited to see them this afternoon. Hope she will get used to them being gone fast.
Ok about the party... we are having it at our house and I'm actually really excited about it. We haven't done a house party since her third birthday. The theme is a "pretend" sleepover, I got the idea from a mom at church. The girls are bringing their pj's and a pillow. We're going to have pizza and cake and do hair and nails, you know what you do at a normal sleepover except that they will all go home at 7:30pm. That is my favorite part. I have enlisted a few high schoolers to help and another mom and have banished J and the other three from the party! Don't want Peanut or Red walking around with the fear of them burning their hands on the curling irons and such or nail polish spilling or just annoying the girls. Of course, if Monkey was here he would totally leave the girls alone NOT! He is only a grade below them and it just wouldn't be good so away they go. I can't believe she is going to be 8 years old, do you know what that means??? She is going to be out of a car seat, FOREVER. I will only have 3 kids in car seats it is a huge milestone for me her. Next she will be able to sit in the front seat. Make her stop growing so fast.

This is how we celebrated New Years Eve...

GG and Monkey making a Crafty sandwich...this is GG's best friend.

Red Playing

Peanut ready for the count down...

we counted down at 8pm in our pj's!

more pictures...

We only got pictures of J's family Christmas because it was at our house and so the camera was there! I'm terrible at remembering to bring it places. We got a group picture because his brother and his wife and son were in town from out of state. Here is all the people at our house!

The kids made out this day...with 6 new Wii games and other various toys and movie.

Our Christmas at a glimpse.

This is one of our family traditions on Christmas. We make a birthday cake to honor Jesus' birth.

The tree with all the presents under it.

the fun begins

they are so into opening. Ha! They opened all the presents from us all at once and then they one by one opened the presents they got from each other. I think that was my favorite part.
This picture of Red I thought was just too funny. He accidentally grabbed a present from Peanut's pile and opened her hot pink shirt! Poor Peanut had two presents opened by other family members Red and her dad...he didn't see her name on the present and I told him all his didn't have names on them. Honest mistake for both guys!

love these Smiles...

this was just our family...we had 4 other celebrations. It only took me a week to post it!