This is why we don't have a dog. Instead, we had a third child, who is probably worse than a dog is some ways. But we still love him.






I'm not sure if it's the fact that Santa is coming soon or if it's a result of kids suddenly deciding that sleeping in might actually be a good thing, but behavior has been pretty much on the up and up lately. Which makes mommy and Santa very happy. Look we even look like we like each other here.




Here's a few pictures I took in addition to taking our Christmas card picture. I absolutely love them.

A Month Later

Almost a month since I've posted last. That's pretty bad and it makes me a little sad to think about all of the cute moments that I didn't post an probably will/ have forgotten.

The kids are finally starting to adjust to being inside more. We have fewer fights and breakdowns, which I am so thankful for. It's not perfect, but they're 2 and 3, what do you expect? I felt a little guilty today when I realized that Sweet and Sugar are cutting molars again. Maybe that's been part of the reason for all of the fits, drama, and attitude. Maybe they're grumpy because their mouths hurt, not just because they're three and trying to rule the world. They never mentioned it, I only noticed it because Sugar's gums bled when he brushed his teeth tonight.

We had Sugar's nose cauterized a couple of weeks ago. The poor kid just couldn't stop getting nose bleeds and they lasted forever. They usually ran 30 minutes +. And once he got one, he would get them at night so when I went in to get him in the morning everything was covered in blood. Plus every time that he got upset, he would start again, so enough was enough. He did much better than I expected. He didn't cry at all on the first side. He cried as the Dr was finishing up the second side. He was handsomely rewarded with french fries (something my kids rarely get) and then we went to a pottery place to decorate Christmas ornaments. The only problem was that the stuff that they used had dripped when he cried so this is how he looked for a few days. He had a few mild nosebleeds in the days after wards, but nothing since.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving. We spent the first part of the day at my parent's house and then went to Chuck's grandparent's house for the second part, before going back to my parent's house again. There was no way that I was going to take the kids home before bed time when they had a busy day and didn't get naps. Chuck's sister and her family were in from out of state, so it was nice to get to spend some time with them.



I was one of those crazy shoppers that was up and shopping way before anyone should be on black Friday. Mostly I went out to be with the other women in my family. I didn't buy much for Christmas, most of the stuff I bought was for the kids for next year pjs, etc. It was however eventful when I locked the keys in the trunk and had to call a tow truck to open the car, but they couldn't open the trunk. So two truck #2 eventually came and took it into the shop where it took over 4 hours to make a new key. Needless to say, it wasn't quite what I had planned for the day.

We have our tree up. Actually I put the tree up the day before thanksgiving. Chuck put garland on it the day after thanksgiving and we (kids and I) decorated it two days ago. I decided to do it in stages this year to hopefully acclimatize them to it. I think it has helped some. They didn't bother it at all until it was fully decorated and really it hasn't been that much. Bam did however love the tree skirt and decided that it was a perfect place to lay. They got to help decorate and absolutely loved it. It was a little over decorated at the bottom with all of the ornaments hanging below the tree, so I did go back through later and relocate some before the cat did.


We did a trial run of Santa pictures the other day. We had to go to the store and there just happened to be a very bored Santa there so we did pictures even though the kids were not dressed up. We will probably do more pictures in nicer clothes since theses went so well. When we asked if they wanted to do it, Sweet and Bam weren't so sure, but Sugar announced that he wasn't' afraid of Santa and walked right up, which gave the other two courage or maybe that was the candy cane incentive.



We've had our first round of colds of the season. Bam got it first and hardest. Sweet and Sugar really only had it for a day. Bam's still got it, but getting better. Sweet and Sugar finally get flu shots tomorrow. I had apts scheduled for them a while ago, but the Dr ran out so we've been waiting. We're not doing the h1n1 shots. Something so new makes me a little nervous, even if it is made the same way. I think we'll just practice flu prevention instead.

Blah!

Sometimes I don't like where we live. I love snow at Christmas, but I don't like that it's harder to get the kids out when it's cold. I don't like how grumpy my kids get when we're cooped up because it's cold and we're not going outside much or to as many indoor public spots anymore (due to my fears of the dreadful flu). Nor do I like how much meaner my older two have turned now that they are 3 compared to a few short months ago when my beloved Sweet rarely gave me any problems. I really hope everyone adjusts to the cold weather/more indoor playtime soon.

Happy Halloween and Then Some

Happy Halloween! Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love haunted houses and scary movies. I loved getting to dress up as a kid. You can be anything you want to be, even if it's just for one night.



Two out of three of the kids love the Halloween stuff. One likes most of it, but is a little more skittish about masks and loud animated decorations. We've been trick or treating twice so far, once at a local grocery store and once at an outlet mall. The grocery store was a quick little fun thing for them. The outlet mall was very crowded and a good intro for the Sugar to get used to masks and scary costumes at night. They didn't get many goodies since the lines were really long but they did get to ride the train again.

Tonight is trick or treating with family and friends. We always meet up at a family members house for dinner, trick or treating, and handing out some candy too. Trick or Treating is definitely more scary now that I have a little one with food allergies. He can't have most of the candy that he'll probably receive tonight. I bought a bad of stuff that he can have so that I can trade him.



We carved pumpkins the other night. Sweet is still the only one who enjoys it. The boys wanted nothing to do with cleaning out the pumpkin. Sweet on the other hand didn't want any help. Bam is a huge fan of the toasted pumpkin seeds. Sugar loves to look at his pumpkin at night.



We've been busy this month trying to get things ready for winter. I got the basement cleaned so that the kids can start using it as extra play space again. I got some of the smaller gym set and some of the outdoor toys cleaned up and brought them in. We've also had quite a few family(extended) illnesses or surgeries. I hope everyone recovers soon.

We had a dry spell long enough for us to get some of the leaves in a pile. Sweet loves to be burried in them. Sugar enjoys playing in them and running through them. Bam would rather use the rake.

A Little of Vacation

We were on vacation last week. We enjoyed a week of beautiful weather at Surfside Beach. This was our house. It is rather large. We went with other family. The whole idea of the first vacation with three toddlers is a little intimidating so we jumped at the opportunity to have some back up.



We left at 2am and arrived at 4:30pm. It was a long drive that involved lots of potty breaks (made me wonder why I potty trained them early) and a stop that lasted over an hour to clean up from a car sick little boy. The directions that we got from AAA were awful. They sent us through a bunch of little towns and through an area that I definitely didn't want to break down in for fear of having to hike 20 miles before finding another human. Thus we got internet directions for the way home and will probably get a GPS for the next trip.

Sweet slept great the while time, but they boys were a different story. This was Bam's first time out of a crib. We tried putting him on a mattress on the floor next to Sugar's bed but that was a no go. The boys ended up sleeping (if you want to call it that) together. I think they discussed whose turn it was to keep mom up that night. I think I got more sleep the first 2 nights home than I did the entire week. Thankfully they fell right back into their regular sleep paterns the first night home. The only sad thing is that Sugar stayed dry all night there and hasn't been able to keep it up here.

The kids absolutely loved the beach. Sweet and Bam had no fear of the water. Sugar was a little more cautious, but loved the little pools of water farther in on the beach. They had a great time playing in the sand and water, chasing the birds, running on the beach, looking for shells, and playing in the pool under the house (who puts a pool where it doesn't ever get sun, only the breese from the beach?).


The trip home went pretty well. I got some meds to keep Sugar healthy, but gave them to all of the kids after the other 2 started puking about an hour into the trip. Thankfully they hadn't eaten yet so it didn't take an hour to clean up. I also had a bucket in reach for such things on the way home. They were awake most of the trip and actually pretty content most of it. They traveled much beter than I thought they would. It was definately easy to tell when we needed to take a break to let them get out and run, but who doesn't want a break after awhile.

I'm sure that I'll post more stories in the next couple of days.

Cakes are Finally Done

Well it's been awhile since I've done a cake, but I think they turned out ok. I thought barbie would be the easiest, boy was I wrong. First off, barbie is way too tall for the skirt so I had to bake brownies and put the skirt on it. She's still too tall so I just built up icing around her to cover her. Plus by the end the icing was too soft. I think if it's too hot tomorrow the barbie cake may be a little obscene. I hope they like them.

Harvest Time

I've been very busy lately harvesting from my garden and my mom's garden and pear tree. I had not had a garden since we had kids and then it wasn't the best garden. We decided to give it a try again this year now that I'm a SAHM. It has been great. I have approximately 100 bags of tomatoes frozen, a little over 20 bags of zucchini and yellow squash, around 10 (so far) of shredded squash (I add it to recipes to increase the veggie content), 8 jars of salsa, 4 bags of acorn squash (so far), 3 jars of pear jelly, 22 bowls of pear sauce (like apple sauce), plus pear juice. This week I plan to start making some tomato sauce. Next year I plan on increasing the size of my garden and growing a few more varieties of squash and some cauliflower and broccoli. I would also like to get a few more fruit trees (we have two apple, but one is dying) and some berry plants. I have already let my family know that I would love some fruit trees and berry plants for my birthday next year. The only problem is that I think my excitement over being able to cut some of our grocery costs is going to be more than our freezers can handle. I'll have to learn to can, it's just so much more work than freezing. It's also done wonders for the kids eating too. Sweet and Sugar do pretty good with most veggies, but have never liked beans of any kind. Now that they've had fresh green beans they love them, even out of the can. Bam ate an entire can of green beans by himself with dinner the other night. Sweet is not a huge fan of tomatoes. She tolerates them, but certainly won't go out her way for them, that is unless they're fresh from mom's garden. They're excited to see what we're growing and want to eat it.

Other than that, we've had a good birthday week. The kids have to love this week because they rarely get sweets, but everyone gets a special sweet made in honor of their day so I've already baked a cake, hot fudge cake, and iced brownines this week. Plus we have a birthday party with family on monday in which they will each get their own cake. One cake would probably cut it and that's what we've done in the past, but every other kid gets their own cake. I want them to like their birthday and not feel as if they get short changed because their birthdays are so close together. So tonight I baked Sweet's cake, which will be a princess. Tomorrow I will bake the boys cakes; a tractor and a dinosaur. I would say which is which, but Sugar can't make up his mind which one is for him. I'll have to decorate all of them tomorrow too. It's been a long time since I've done much cake decorating so we'll se how it goes. I hope they atleast come out presentable.

I am also looking forward to some time with my hubby. He has some time off of work coming up and I look forward to having him around more. It's so much easier when it's two on three rather than one on three. It's so much easier to get things done when he can take them out to play while I work on something rather than me having to get things done during nap time and after bed time or with kids under my feet. I also know how much the kids enjoy spending time with their dad. He took them out to play this morning while I finished up the pearsauce and cleaning so tonight when I asked Sweet what her favorite part of the day was, her responce was playing outside with daddy. That makes my heart melt.

I also got to go to a presentation earlier this week on food alergies. It was very well put together. It was aimed more at awareness for those who don't know anyone with an allergy. The woman who presented has worked with several of the school districts in our area to put food allergy plans in place. I was very disapointed that the school system that my kids will be going to does not currently have one, but I was relieved when I takled to her afterwards and she said that she's working with the school nurse to put one in place. It's funny that a couple of years ago I was one of those that kind of scoffed at having to make special arangements for just one or two kids and now I've learned how truely important it is. I am very selective about who watches our kids and who they are around with food for fear that Bam may come into contact with something he's not supposed to have. People don't think to read every single label (we had an incident at Easter with a jelly bean that was processed on equipment with peanuts). Just 1/1000 of a peanut can cause a serious, deadly reaction. Food allergies are a big deal. They can kill.

Now on a lighter note. Bam doesn't like vegetables. He never has, other than a select few. He has grown to tolerate most of them now. He ususally needs some encouragement and or help to eat them but no longer screams and cries about it. But for the mear mention of cake, he will eat them without any help or need of encouragement. It may not be pretty (note picture). He may gag on every bite, but he will put bite after bite in until they are all gone to get his beloved treat. Did I mention that my kids love birthday week?

Happy Birthday Sugar!

Last but certainly not least of the birthdays for the week. You are a very energetic intelligent little man. You are mechanically inclined and so so incredibly athletically gifted already. You like to push the limits and challenge authority. Sometimes your energy is overwhelming. You love to run and run and run. You often squeal and shriek when you run. You are so flexible and contort your body into odd positions to get a laugh. Your smile is contagious. Tickle Me is a common request from you. You love to be the center of attention. Yet you are a very sensitive and emotional little boy, a little dramatic at times. You are sweet as sugar and love your one on one time. I am so thankful that you are in my life and that I get to be your mommy.

Happy Birthday Sweet!

Happy Birthday Baby Doll. I can't believe that you're three already. You are growing so fast. You are such a sweet loving little girl. You mother your brothers and sometimes us. You make me smile when you talk to me in the tone that I talk to you ex. are you ok honey?. You love to do everything mom is doing. Your laugh could make the grumpiest person smile. At one point I thought you would never talk, but now you don't stop. You want to do everything yourself, little miss independent. You potty trained in one day, something that I will forever be grateful for. You love horses, princesses, and butterflies, but don't want to play with any of them, just wear them. You are already picky about what you wear and how your hear is done. Your favorite color is pink. You will often go off and play by yourself when you're brothers are getting into mischief, smart little one. I could not imagine my life without you and am so thankful that I get to be your mom.

Happy Birthday to My Baby Boy

I can't believe you're two already. I still remember the day that I found out you were you and that I was going to be a momma to three. How lucky am I? I would not change a single thing. I love watching you grow teaching you and learning from you. Watching your personality develop, you are a very stubborn, very loving, rough and tumble kind of little boy, who is very quick to figure things out when I hope you don't, and yet you take your time on other things. Often you don't seem to know your own strength. You're pain tolerance is something else, which is good since you have no fear and love to climb, jump, run, etc. You are already starting to use the potty (yeah!), working on brushing your teeth, and mimicking everything your daddy and I do (kissing your own booboos has to be my favorite). You take a few minutes to become yourself after waking (you get that from your dad). You are definitely in a mommy stage as you tend to scream momma when I leave your sight and no one can make you feel better as quickly as I can (yes I am reveling in it while it lasts). I love your cuddles and your sweet kisses. You are one of the greatest loves of my life. Happy Birthday Buddy!

2 twos and 1 one

Today was my last day of having two two year olds and one one year old. Tomorrow I will have three two year olds. My babies are growing too fast. This is birthday week. Bam's second b-day is tomorrow. Sweet's third b-day is Tuesday. Sugar's third b-day is Friday.
Three years ago, I was praying for two women that I will never meet, but have given me the best gifts I could ever receive. I am so thankful that I get to be mom to Sweet and Sugar. They are truly amazing little people. I hope that their birth moms found peace with their decision and know that Sweet and Sugar are so dearly loved and spoiled.
Two years ago today I was so scared and upset. I was scheduled to be induced for Bam's birth due to complications, aka he decided that he didn't need to grow. I knew that he was fine and was sad that they were making me have him instead of letting him decide when he was ready. To this day he's still stubborn and refuses to do anything before he's good and ready to.
Life has sure changed a lot in the last couple of years. This isn't where I thought that I would be at this point, but I'm sure glad that this is where I've ended up. I could not imagine my life without any of them.

Dinosaurs!

Yesterday we went back to the zoo again. My grandparents get us a membership for Christmas every year. It's a great present. The kids love the zoo and it's a cheap day out for us. We never get to see everything I'd like to, before the kids could walk we could do the entire zoo in 3 hours. Now we take 3 hours to see a third of it, but the kids get to wonder around some and they have a blast. The really important thing, was to see the dinosaurs again, it was the whole reason we went back to this zoo for like the fifth time this year instead of going to another zoo in the area (which we will be going to soon since they have their jelly fish exhibit again). Our zoo has had a dinosaur exhibit several times. This is the first year that we've seen it and the kids love it. They would go daily if I would take them. The dinosaurs are animated and make noises. Bam was a little nervous about them this time. He would go up to them and then when they started roaring, he would take a few steps back. Last time it was busy so we kept them in the stroller, this time they got to roam which was nice. There's one dinosaur for pictures. I tried to get Sugar to put his head in the mouth for a picture, but he didn't like the idea of that. They also got to play on the play ground but Bam just wanted to check out the statues.

STRESS

Life has been a bit stressful lately. We've completed a few projects this summer, yeah! Trying to do big projects with 3 little ones around can get a bit hairy at times. Projects tend to take a little longer, especially when one of us works third shift. Hopefully things will start to calm down a little, really I doubt it though. We have managed to finally get all of our new trim up, tear down a chimney, fill hole from chimney, replace roof where chimney was, dig out play set area, fill with gravel, build play set, these are in addition to the normal things that everyone does like put in a garden, mulch, etc.

Sweet and Sugar may need new nicknames for this coming year. They turn three at the beginning of next month and it's been trying, incredibly trying, lately. Prior to children, we wanted children more than anything in the world. If not we wouldn't have made it through the adoption process. At that time, hearing someone complain about something dealing with their children drove me up a wall. I had a million evil thoughts come through my head every time like I'll trade you, I'll take them off of your hands, I wish I had that problem, etc. I didn't think I would do that, but enter the threes.

Sugar likes to get into trouble just to test the limits which are not budging which results in massive fits over and over again. He breaks a rule, gets in trouble, throws fit, is sent to time out, continues to throw fit, finally gets calm and gets out of chair, then when I ask why he did x, he mumbles because I wanted to do x. He will acknowledge that he knows that he's not allowed to do x and that x is not nice and could hurt himself or someone else, but he doesn't seem to care. He continues to get in trouble for stupid things over and over again. Yes, I know that he's three (almost) but it is rather frustrating all the same. This picture is just to remind me that he really does get along with his siblings sometimes.

Sweet has developed massive attidute. She doesn't break the rules too often, but gives attitude about everything. She doesn't want to do anything that's asked of her, she stomps and sulks around the house like a teenager. Yeah, let me tell you how excited I am about the idea of three teenagers in the house. I a will have gray hair by then, or b will have no hair by then. Tonight she didn't like the choices that I gave for their bedtime snack so she threw herself onto the floor, so I said that's fine you don't need a snack to which she got up and said I need a snack! Too bad you made your choice. When it was time to brush her teeth (this is something that they've always run to the bathroom to do), it was I don't want to, too bad. So after she was ready, she was awarded the privilege of waiting in her bed for everyone else to get ready for bed instead of being able to play.

I know they are three and asserting themselves but really it's like talking to a wall sometimes. I miss work at times just because it was a break from being just mommy. I got to use my brain for other things and acomplished things. Yes, being mommy is rewarding, but it can be very stressing at times. Then again there have been three shootings within blocks of my old work this week, unfortunately one resulted in the death of a teenager (I hated the sad situations that surrounded my job). So maybe being stressed and getting attitude and fits all day isn't so bad. Thank God my kids are cute is something that I remind myself and them over and over again.

Bam has been pretty good lately. Don't get me wrong, he's no angel, he's just as stubborn as he's always been, but he hasn't developed anymore attitude or affininty for pushing the limits. He does however love the gravel around the play set. He lies in it and tries to burry himself as if it's sand. He digs and halls it all over the place. He also has suddenly decided that reading is the best thing in the world. He has enjoyed books for some time now, but suddenly wants to be read to every minute of the day. He wakes up asking for a book and read and continues non stop all day. I'm glad that he loves books, but at the same time I think I've read every children's book we own plus the ones from the liabrary at least a dozen times, and his favorites probably 50 times this week. At this point I could
probably recite all of them by heart. He also has a thing for babies real or fake. He loves Sweet's dolls and will carry them all over, pretending to change their diapers, feed them, and put them to bed. He is very posessive of them, heaven forbid you to touch one of them unless he says it's ok.







This is what you can do if you're in the country and really bored. The kids love it.

Birthday Present is Finally Complete!

It's been a little busy and crazy around here. We had a skunk spray our house one night while the windows were open and fans were going. Lovely, I know. We finally got the smell out. It was strong enough to make you feel sick. I hate skunks!

As for good news, Bam has suddenly decided that he would like to use the potty before naps and bedtime. He comes in and pulls the little potty out strips and almost always does his business. I am shocked and very pleased, but not ready to start potty training again. I'll let him lead for now, maybe this fall or winter I'll work with him. For now, I'm happy with him using it when he chooses. He's still young so I'm not pushing it. I can't believe that he'll be two this month or that my other kiddos will be 3 next month. Time really does fly after kids and they do grow way too fast.

My sister in law had her baby over the weekend. It was her third and was her second biggest at 11#2oz, born one day prior to his due date. Yes that's correct, not a typo. My other nephew was a whopping 11#5oz born on his due date. Thank god I did not get that big bay gene. I think I might have fallen over if Bam had been that big, although I would have loved for him to grow a little more since they made me go through all kinds of extra tests and then induced me because the little bugger wasn't growing.

We found a play set for the kids for their combined birthday present. It was marked way down so we went for it. We finally got it all together this morning. This has been a huge project. Digging out the area, filling it with gravel and then the construction. I now know why they charge so much to assemble them, the huge slide that has 96 bolts in it, and the directions are less than perfect. You think you might want to mention that the last section needs to be rotated in the opposite direction of every other one? Plus there was the issue of missing screws, you think QC might notice that it's 150 screws short and that one of the boards is shattered? Nah looks good. We'll have to have some of the kids friends over to play now that we have something for multiple kids to play on.


It's been dreadfully hot here lately. The kids have enjoyed their time in the water. I gave them some cups to play in the water with and they think that it's the coolest thing ever.


Tonight it rained, which was lovely since I was trying to get the grass cut when it decided to let loose. So we ended up spending a night playing inside. They wanted to color and then practice writing their names so we worked on that for awhile. They still get bored with the idea of having to take turns. So I ended up getting some funny faces while they waited. My response is suck it up you will never be an only child so get used to it.