The Hunger Games

 We've managed to stay busy the last few days since Christmas...visiting with family and trying to get some cleaning and organizing done around the house.  Sometimes though, I don't know why we bother.  Yesterday they kids brought all 1,000 of their beanie babies downstairs and had them in a big snaking line winding through the family room, kitchen, hall and dining room.  After I spent the entire day tripping over them any time I went somewhere, I just about snapped.

It's feast or famine in this house...my kids love to test my patience in every way possible....and feeding them seems to be more difficult than ever.  I am not sure why because they always seem to be hungry.  They are, of course most hungry at inconvenient times like between meals or when we are out running errands, or right before bed.  Sienna has been on this little routine of telling me right after I finish cleaning up dinner that she needs a snack.  She also is a sight eater, wanting to eat anything she sees someone else eating.  She is also insistent on only drinking out of sippy cups again, even though we bought her six of these really nice straw cups that amazingly do not leak.

Running errands with the four kids is such a monumental task...I am in awe of other moms with this many kids ( or more) who make it look so easy.  Of course winter is worse with all of the gear...but seriously it feels like we take half the house with us wherever we go, whenever we leave the house.  Going to the library and grocery store and bank yesterday went something like this....

Stopped at PNC drive through to deposit cash... Reese asked, "Dadda is all our money in Panic Bank?"
Went up to grab discounted wrapping paper and labels in Target.   Kids were arguing over which wrapping paper to buy.  I now own pink Disney princess paper and Santa ABC paper for Christmas next year.  They were walking down the aisles using the rolls as walking sticks and sword fighting each other with them.

Next was the library, where of course we returned 57 books and checked out another 64...not kidding.   Lawson chose that time to get really crabby and start screaming...cuz that's the perfect place to scream.  Feel like I'm always having to apologize for my kids at the library...."I'm sorry we are so loud."  "I'm sorry my toddler just ripped 100 books off the shelves as she ran up and down the aisles and left all of them on the floor."  "I'm sorry she isn't wearing shoes or socks but I can't find them anywhere."  Well, you get the picture...

We left the library and stopped at Whole Foods next...I stayed in the car to feed Lawson and read library books to the kids...smashed between them in the backseat.  Derrick went in with Sienna  to buy groceries.  By the time he came back I had also had to dig out snacks for both kids and change a poopy diaper.  As he was buckling Sienna into her seat he realized she had somehow taken a whole roll of the green plastic bags from the produce department and was clutching it to her stomach.  She was very attached to "MY bags!"  Sigh...a shoplifter at 2... 

It was now well-past lunchtime and the kids were munching on mini-Oreos and sun chips.  I came so well prepared.  And by the time we got home and I got lunch out...no one was hungry.  I need to do better with on the go snacks I guess.

But...it's letters like the one Reese wrote me two days ago that keep me going on the long, tough days.  Thanks Reese, for making me feel "Osum!"

Christmas 2014

Whatever caused me to think that a water toy with a xylophone, 5 flutes and a drum was a good Christmas gift for the kids???  Yea, it was a super fun bath last night as all three of them simultaneously piped away at eardrum-bursting volume, (spewing water everywhere since the flutes filled up with water to change their pitch.)  I kept asking them, as politely as I could, not to spray water in my face.  Derrick was sitting behind me bathing Lawson and I definitely caught him laughing as I kept taking the flutes away from them one at a time.  After I got to the fourth flute, I turned to him in frustration and asked how many flutes this set came with!?!  Apparently 5.  And even after removing every one from the bathtub, we still got to enjoy a nice drum/xylophone concert for the remaining 10 minutes.  I hate to seem like such a kill-joy....I want my kids to have fun. I bought the toy for them, for goodness sake.  It's just that at a certain point in the day, my brain and ears and patience can only tolerate so much...

We survived Christmas...barely...yes I'm not going to put a big red bow on it and pretend it was anything more than pure survival.  Lawson has pretty much pushed us beyond our limits with his nighttime crying, every night...until midnight.  Sienna hits us on the other end, waking up bright and early and hitting us with demand after demand after demand the second she is out of her crib.

Science experiments with Aunt Jess

I was able to find about 80% of the kids' gifts at the thrift store this year, much to my excitement.  And this allowed us to give them a new trampoline, which they are of course dying to get set up in the yard.

So we wrap up this holiday week and the year with a lot of great memories and the hope of a little more sleep and a little less crying in the new year...

Another Beanie Baby

Derrick's new garden shirt with the kids hand prints...

What Would Santa Do??

Oh no....oh dear....he did not just do this today.  After having a full blown debate last night about wanting a big trampoline but not putting it on his wish list because "mama would never let me have one," and "It won't fit in Santa's sleigh"... (By the way they are getting one this year)....today he made me feel even worse.  Why is it I am the bad guy???  He found two plain white t-shirts in his dresser and he and Reese asked if they could decorate them with Sharpies...

Sure...why not.....what's the harm in that????  Meanwhile a toddler playing with playdough and a crabby baby kept me occupied for a bit and when i returned....he had created this masterpiece.  He even wore it to basketball practice tonight....and there is more on the front...will have to take another picture tomorrow...

When he was asked by my mom this afternoon what kind of dog he wanted...he said, "Well, Reese wants a pug and I want a Husky.". OK could we maybe pick two more different breeds??

True Love

Today in church, our pastor preached a sermon he actually did about two years ago.  He said it was the most requested sermon of his that people wanted to hear again.  And before he even began I knew the one he was referring to...because the first time I heard it, I was totally blown away.  It caused me to look at the Christmas story in a whole new way, in addition to Creation and the fall of mankind.  It was revolutionary in my walk with The Lord.  Few others times could I pinpoint one single event and find such meaning and enlightenment.  The Sermon title is "Wonders of His Love" and it will be posted HERE in another day or two.

Never have I come away feeling so loved and so much purpose in my life as when I heard this particular message.  God made provisions for us and for our salvation....before he even made us!  His love for us reflects through creation so poignantly...and even more so after hearing this message.

Just earlier this week, while reading the Psalms, I was struck by some verses about His love.

Psalm 103: 8-12 says...

The Lord is compassionate and gracious,
    slow to anger, abounding in love.

9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.  For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.



When I look at a picture of the baby in the manger, I see His love...

When I wake to a beautiful sunrise, I see His love...

When I look at my children and realize, again, the miracle that took place to bring them into being, I see His love.

Time after time, when I fail and fall down, and make the same mistakes, He dusts me off, forgives me, and I see His love.

I hope at this wonderful time of year, we can all take time to reflect on the birth of Jesus and really imagine what that must have been like for him...to make himself so completely vulnerable to a cold, cruel world...to want to come into this world, for us, knowing full well what would happen to Him.  Now that is true love.

Silent Night...

I need a new alarm clock...

Mine just isn't cutting it.  I mean, first of all, the snooze button is non-existent.  When it starts going off, the only way to shut it off is to get out of bed.  The noise it emits is also completely jarring...it is a constant and steady "Mama, mama, mama, mama..." and it goes on and on getting louder and louder and more and more irritating.  There is also the risk that it will wake up other children in the house, so the urgency of stopping it is great.  There is no warranty on this alarm clock and no option to return it.  So basically, I'm stuck with it...  It's a Sienna model, in case you were wondering or trying to avoid ending up with the same problem.  Oh and if there is ever a morning that you actually need to get up early...well, don't rely on it then.  It won't work on those days.





I need a new beauty regimen...

I try to wake up early so I can get ready before said alarm clock starts going off.  I shower the night before so I can just pull my hair back, put on some make-up to conceal the dark circles, and throw on some clean clothes. But it feels as if all is for naught when I go to feed Lawson and he immediately spits up all over my clothes and hair.  The Spit de Bebe leave in conditioner is rather smelly...also leaves a crusty coating on your strands.  I give it a D-...



I need a new magazine subscription...

I am a longtime Fitness magazine reader, but if I read one more article about getting a good night's rest in order to maintain your health, I might just throw up.  Could you possibly find a more unkind thing to say in front of any parent than, "get 8 hours of sleep per night"?  I am just scraping by these days in the sleep department, and I don't need to read about how my body is going to completely self-destruct if I don't start sleeping more.  Believe me, I want to!!!!  I was also not at all amused when Carter told me very matter of factly at bedtime "I'm so much more tired than you."  Yea, it must be rough sleeping 10 or 11 hours a night and playing all day...I feel for ya, buddy.



I need a night without crying...

We tried to put Lawson to bed at a decent hour last night and it was a miserable failure.  He will wake up out of the most sound sleep if we ever try to lay him in his crib before 11:30 or midnight.  I do not understand it, but the amount of crying that ensues if we violate this schedule is totally not worth it.  So yes, I the ever early-to bed, early to rise person have now become a late to bed, early to rise person in my old age.  Talk to anyone who knew me in my younger years and they will tell you that 9 pm used to be a late bedtime for me...haha...  Oh cruel, cruel world...

The Little Dictator

These are Sienna's actual comments (recorded by Derrick) from about a 1.5 hour time period one morning.  We were joking that she makes so many requests every morning...and...well...when you see them all in a list, it's pretty hilarious...  Without further ado, I give you, the Little Dictator:

I need a pretty (hair tie)
 I need baby Lawson

 I want to read a book

 Read me that book

Hold that book

I want to go downstairs

Turn on the light

I want a cheese stick
I need an ola bar (that's granola bar)

I need my drink

I don’t need a special treat

I need snoopsy plugged in (A Snoopy light-up decoration for Christmas)
 I need a poot poot (grapefruit)
I want ice
 I want a snack
I want to hold baby Lawson
I want to do exercise (she saw my shoes and weights sitting on the floor)
I want a pancake
I want cereal
I want milk
I want that (cereal box)
I want milk in my bowl
I’m very thirsty (drinks milk out of bowl) I want more
I need my pants off
I need a diaper
Reese put the baby in there
 Lawson needs his jammies off
I want to see
Pull my pants up (after changing her diaper)
I need to watch pecka pig  (Peppa Pig cartoon)

Have I mentioned noise cancelling headphones are on my Christmas list??

Picture Perfect

Carter started a two week art project yesterday...painting Seurat's Eiffel Tower.  He LOVED it.  I am so proud of him for taking on such a challenging picture.  Can't wait till it's finished.

Running errands today, we made a quick stop at the bank drive-thru.  "Mama, what's Panic Bank?" asked Carter from the back seat.  (we were at PNC Bank)

When we got to Home Depot, I opened the door and told the kids to hop out.  Reese was in the backseat, screaming, "I'm Stuck!!!"  I looked and there she was with her head stuck between two of the headrests in the back seat.  She was trying to look into the trunk for something that fell back there.

We told the kids to go down and clean up the basement after dinner.  It was pretty messy and they were NOT happy about it.  We overheard them talking and Reese said, "This is the worst day of my entire life."

I stepped into the bathroom to wash my hands.  There were two pair of inside-out socks in the sink (Carter and Reese's) and it looked like someone had been spitting on their hands and wiping it all over the mirror.  You just never know what you might find in this house.

 We enjoyed a fun visit from my dear friend Kelly today and she was kind enough to take some pictures of our family.  Some will be a "secret" until the Christmas cards go out....

 

The girls...

Sienna was up bright and early again today with her usual routine.  She calls out "Mama, mama, mama, mama" until one of us goes in to get her out of her crib.  Then as soon as we walk in she starts saying, "I want a pancake.  I want a pancake.  I want a pancake."  More often than not, if we do give her a pancake, she doesn't even eat it.

She is also really loving the whole chocolate advent calendar routine.  I think come December 25th, there may be tears, despite all the presents, because she won't get her piece of chocolate before breakfast.

Reese was angry that Sienna was trying to help her do a 150 piece puzzle today...and understandably so.  Sienna's idea of "helping" is mostly scattering the pieces everywhere.  Reese angrily grabbed the box and said, "Sienna, this puzzle is not for 2 year olds!"  "Not for 2 year olds," Sienna mimicked her.  "I don't see an age on this box!" screamed Reese.  "I'm going to make an age on it."  "What age would you write," I asked.  "Five Plus!" she said.

Eat it Up, Wear it Out

My 100-year-old friend at Bible Study is being honored today to celebrate a couple weeks in advance her turn of the century.  (her birthday is Christmas day!)  She has so many words of wisdom to share...when she talks, everyone in my group takes up their pens to write down whatever she says.

Last week we were talking about materialism and how Christ ordered His disciples to come follow Him but not to bring any material possessions with them.  She looked up and said, "My Mother used to have a saying about materialism that went like this, 'Eat it Up.  Wear it out.  Make it Do...or do Without.'"  We all laughed at this witty phrase but there is so much truth in it and so much of this mentality of the older generations who knew real economic hardship is completely lost on the generations of today.  We waste, we waste and we waste some more.  We throw away perfectly good food because we just don't want it or are too picky to eat it.  We throw away or give away clothes after just a season or two.  We lack ingenuity to use things for very long in new and creative ways.

All you have to do right now is turn on the computer, TV or radio and you will be inundated with the exact opposite of this phrase.  I hope I can be a good steward of all the things I have been given and also pass this mentality on to the kids...that we should be thankful for everything we have...food and possessions...and not take them for granted. I hope at Christmas I can emphasize to them the importance of the gifts that we don't open...the gifts of Love and friendship, the gift of Christ's birth and His life and His death which brings us our salvation, and the gifts of family and friends.

The Candy Junkie

My head's a little fuzzy from so much interrupted sleep this week.  Every night Lawson did sleep longer, either Sienna or Reese woke up or the one night the power went out...twice.  Seriously??  Oh well, my body wouldn't know what to do with more sleep anyway at this point.

Derrick was trying to give the kids a crash course the other day in surfing the internet for information to answer their questions.  He told them they could find answers to just about anything they wanted to know about on the internet.  Reese turned to him immediately and said,  "Even Jesus?"

We had friends over last night who graciously watched the three older kids so Derrick and I could go out for dinner.  (It was WONDERFUL).  When they were leaving to go home, we told the kids to say goodbye.  Reese ran up to them to give a fist-pump and said, "I'll give you a knuckle sandwich."  Hmmm, we may need to work on that...

Sienna didn't eat her breakfast before leaving for church this morning, hence she was absolutely miserable on the drive home when I didn't have any snacks left in the diaper bag to give to her. All I had was one lollipop in my purse, which she devoured in 10 seconds and immediately began crying again.  When we got home, the closet door was open and I found her, lying on the floor with the enormous bag of lollipops from Sam's Club, one in her mouth and another in each hand.  Is this concerning behavior?

 Our group photos get more and more challenging each year with the addition of more kids....but we managed to get a few good ones today.  

Little Tree Choppers

 Today was the annual tree chopping trip.  The kids and Derrick had a fun time picking out the biggest, fattest, tallest tree they could find.  Derrick did a thorough search for any hidden mouse nests before cutting it down.  You might remember our little "Mouse Incident" from last year...if not, refresh yourself by reading this post.

 Carter asked me on the way back to the car with the tree whether Santa would come early since we got our tree before Christmas.  Sorry buddy...doesn't work that way.  AND all of your presents are still in various stages of un-wrapped-ness...still being shipped, ordered and hidden in my closet.  This "Santa" needs to get her act together fast!!

















I was feeling pretty good about myself this morning when I weighed in and saw that I had reached my pre-baby weight only 2.5 months after having Lawson.  But leave it to a kid to deflate that ego right away.  When Reese came downstairs this morning she was sitting on the counter talking to me and said to me, "Momma, if you went on the Biggest Loser, you would win."  OK, so in her defense, I think she meant that I would be a strong contender in the physical challenges...not that I am morbidly obese and would lose the most weight.  So she slightly missed the entire premise of the show...oh well...

Sienna's best "Drop and Give Me 20" stare

Anyway, I really should come clean.  The truth is, I've got a personal trainer...and she's brutal.  She would bring Jillian Michaels to her knees.  Added bonus is...she lives with me and provides 24/7 training.  Her methods are a little unconventional at times....basically she has just one rule...Never.  Sit.  Down.  Yup and as long as you abide by that rule, things go fairly smoothly but the second you deviate, she's all over you like whipped cream on an ice cream sundae.  "I need a drink"  "I want grapes"  I need a diaper"  "I want more water"  "I want ice in my cup"  "I want to go outside"  "I want to read a book"  "Read that book"  "READ that book!!!!"

If you'd like to hire her to train you, there's a long waiting list of clients...and she's pretty pricey...but it's worth the wait.

You think I'm kidding...that's 20 more!!

Being Present

I've been more and more convicted lately to try and be more present with my kids and just throughout the day.  I feel like sometimes there are an overwhelming number of distractions that can crowd in and pull my attention away from the things that are truly important.

I was tempted yesterday to pull out my phone and make a couple of phone calls while shopping at the grocery store.  But as I was walking in I decided against it, figuring it could focus better on getting my shopping done when I wasn't trying to multi-task.  As I was grabbing a couple cartons of eggs and turning back for one more, I saw out of the corner of my eye, two full cartons of eggs, falling off the shelf.  I instinctively reached for them and amazingly caught them, mid-fall.  I was actually pretty shocked that I managed to pull this off.  The guy who had been restocking them from behind, sucked in his breath when he realized what had happened.  He peeked through the shelves to try and see me.
Guy: What just happened?
Me: I caught them.
Guy: Wow....you caught them?  Thank you!!
Me: Sure, no problem.
Guy: Thank you SO MUCH!

If I'd been talking on the phone they surely would have smashed all over the floor.

When I had finished with my errand and returned to Reese's gymnastics class, another mom was talking about buying all of her kids their own iPads, and was bemoaning the fact that her husband took his iPad with him everywhere, even to brush his teeth, and in the bath so he could read. "He pays more attention to his iPad than the kids," she said.  I think this kind of technology overload is running rampant these days, and honestly, it's kinda scary.  The woman's little girl was running around the room with, not one, but two iPads while she had this conversation and dropped both of them on the floor.  I was speechless.

While I am at home with the kids all day every day, it's easy to justify getting caught up in technology to try to pass the time.  But when I stop and really pay attention to my kids, that is where the real reward in parenting is found.  I don't want to miss these opportunities to connect with them now, when they are young and eager for my attention.

Rudy Duty

It's the most wonderful time of the year!!!  I can hardly believe it's already December.  It honestly feels like it was just yesterday that I spent those 4 hours walking around the zoo with the kids on a hot September day, hoping the baby would come soon...and here we now are, months into having 4 kids and Christmas just around the corner.

With December comes the Elf on the Shelf and Derrick set the bar HIGH last night.  The kids left a cookie and a bag of cards and pictures they colored for Rudy.  Derrick took everything out and left a trail of stickers across the whole counter, around the window, and up the cabinet where Rudy was hiding.








When Reese came down this morning, she saw everything sitting out, saw the stickers and followed them all the way over the the cabinet, stood in front of it for a moment, and said, "Let's see if he is hiding in the basement!"  Ugh...guess she didn't get the hint to look inside.  Fortunately, Carter figured it out.







Both kids wrote "Thank You" letters to Rudy for coming to our house.  Reese's letter was dictated to Auntie V, who was kind enough to tell me that the P.S. was dictated to her by Carter.  He didn't want Rudy to think Reese had better handwriting than him.  hehehe







Tonight while Carter played basketball, I took Lawson and ran some errands for an hour.  I was at my third and final stop and he was starting to get really fussy.  I went into the store with a return and there were four people already in line.  I hate standing in line with a screaming baby.  The lady who was first in line turned around and said to me, "I've been there before, why don't you go ahead."  She then asked the other two people behind her if they were OK with that and they both agreed.  I was SO grateful!  As I was waiting to be called up, I adjusted Lawson's pacifier in his mouth, removing the canopy that was covering him in his seat.  I joked with the people who had let me go ahead and said, "At least you can see there's a real baby in here and it's not just a recording."  The man behind me laughed and said, "That's an ingenious idea though!!"  :)  It's nice to know there are still so many kind people in the world.  I'll be ready to pay it forward next time I see a mom in distress!

Dear Rudy,  We are Reese and Auntie V!  Here are some stickers you might like.  Thank you for coming in three days!  Love, Reese     p.s. Auntie V wrote this!

Thanksgiving Week

Yep, that's ALL of them...cleaning up was fun!!!

From building every puzzle in the house, to building gingerbread houses...from the Science Center to hosting 30 people in our house on Thursday...we sure did pack a lot of fun into one week!  Our former neighbors stopped by for a visit on Tuesday, which we all LOVED.  Then Nani and Pop Pop and Auntie V and Uncle Mark all arrived.












We made a fun trip to the Science Center on Wednesday and the kids got to play in the Blue Room again as well as construct a tower that survived a mock earthquake, see the robot room, and play with floating planets.

Special visit with special friends

Thursday was a fun convergence of members from both sides of the family...30 people in all.  I feel so blessed to have so many family members who all enjoy spending time together.  Boy did we have a LOT of food!!

Friday was the construction of the annual Gingerbread House, only this year it was a Gingerbread Manor...2 stories tall!  The icing was unfortunately not strong enough to hold it together, so I did "cheat" a little and used the hot glue gun to keep it from caving in.  It turned out great thanks to Uncle Mark and Auntie V's creative decorating skills!

Yesterday when I was telling Carter that Uncle Mark and Auntie V had to get home to work again, and told him that they were both teachers.  "Oh," he said, "I didn't know that they were teachers."  "Yes" I told him, "What did you think they did for their jobs?"  "I thought they played soccer."  Hmmm, guess we hyped up the idea of playing soccer together when they came so much he thought they were both professional soccer players.  :)


Carter's Sunday School teacher met us in the hall after church this morning and said they were talking about the Thanksgiving Holiday and what the kids liked about it.  She said Carter had answered, "What I don't like is the dinner."  When she asked him why, he told her because he had to eat it again and again and again and that he didn't like leftovers.  Ugh, guess that means I have to cook dinner tonight!!

Earthquake-proof tower

Lawson with his Aunties

The Hellers + Mom singing "Simple Gifts"

The Gingerbread Manor!!