Halloween present

These are the kids tonight... are they cute or what?

Kid1 sweetly loaned his costume to someone else who needed it tonight and is just walking the girls house to house so Mr. B and I can stay home and answer the door.

Kid2 is a "drama queen", kid3 is the headless horseman (long story about his costume), and kid4 is Princess Belle.

Halloween past

These cute kids are the kids from my past…. Or they are my kids in the past…. Whatever.

In a kids life there are only 18 Halloweens if you’re lucky, don’t hold your breath- they don’t dress up for all of them and they certainly don’t let YOU dress them for many of them. I dressed my babies for Halloween for a long time as they lovingly realized that Halloween is really all about me and how I swoon over them because they are so cute!

The pictures above are the kids when they were very little and the one with all of the kids is the picture I made them take a few years ago because I was scared to death that it would be the last Halloween they would ALL dress up! Much to my surprise ALL my kids want to dress up again this year – I’m thrilled! Who says they are too old? You’re NEVER too old to dress up, Halloween is about enjoying your siblings, friends, having fun dressing up and eating candy!

Stay tuned for pictures of Halloween present

boys best friend....

Does your dog love your kid THIS much? Does your kid love your dog THIS much? I snapped this picture last night of kid3 and our dog - it's either really sweet or really gross- I can't decide!

let the pumpkin carvin' begin

Tonight we had carving fest 08’ and here are the pictures….

just in case your wondering the pumpkins are Kid1-elephant for election of course, kid2 comedy and tragedy masks for drama, kid3 football, kid4 princess Jasmine and Mr B. made the Navy 'N'.

"Hot Mommies"

One day a long time ago I was home sick with kid3. He was about 6 I think. He was resting and watching TV and playing in the playroom and I decided to take a nap. So I told this particular kid that I was going to take a little nap and he could play or watch TV but do not answer the door, phone etc.... all things Mom's say to keep their kids safe when they are napping!

I had a great nap, slept great! I got up to check on kid3 and wondered how he had filled his time and wandered to the Play room to check on him. He was watching cartoons and sitting on the couch. He and I talked for a few minutes, I asked him how he was feeling, etc.

As we sat there watching cartoons together he says this to me-

"Mom, I tried to watch 'Hot Mommies' on one of the hundred channels but I couldn't get it to turn on, I really wanted to see THAT show"

I look shocked I just know it because I don't hide my emotions, Im not good at it! Im sure my mouth was wide open. He then said this to me-

"do you not want me to watch 'Hot Mommies', can you show me how to make THAT channel work?

So I pulled it together and said "No, we don't have those channels honey, you'll just have to stick to cartoons".

He then said "What do you think THAT show was about?"

I smartly lied and said "You know, I have NO idea"..... and ran out of the room!

I laughed when I thought about this today and Im not sure why it even came to mind, but I was thinking about how awkward it was then and how funny it is now! We had DISH TV back then and all the titles were shown even if you could not turn to the channels- I was terrified for my kids to read these channels.... I was terrified for my kids to read at all with the world in the state that is in... but thats another blog for another day.

"older"

Kid4- DADDY ...... DADDY......

Daddy- what honey?

Kid4- can you help me?

Daddy- What do you need?

Kid4- I need your help!

Daddy- Can you do it by yourself?

Kid4- NO Daddy, Im not older enough!

update

My mother in law is doing pretty well... she is on lots of pain meds and we will see in the next few days how she is feeling. Thanks for your prayers!

please pray ...

Dear Friends,

Please pray for my mother in law today (Tuesday 10-28-08) as she is having surgery for lung cancer. She is so scared and rightly so. She is a sweet lady, mother to my husband and brother in law, sister, aunt, wife, daughter and friend to many. We are going to be praying and sending her well wishes as she heals.

The picture above is my mother-in-law and brother-in-law and I love this picture. It captures the sweet relationship of a mother and son.

cause for concern?

Is this note written to my kid2 a cause for concern or just cause for extreme sadness? Kid2 is a sweet girl, she is understanding and kind to others and has had a few admirers over the years. This admirer however is scaring me a little bit. This note makes me sad for kids these days, they face such things that we cannot imagine. Should I be concerned?

kid2's first high school dance.... am I old?

My oldest daughter kid2 went to her first high school dance last night. Her Dad and I were nervous wrecks!

She looked beautiful and was so excited. I don’t spend enough time on this blog talking about kid2 probably because she is so independent. She truly is amazing. She is a 14 year old girl with the confidence of a four star admiral. When I asked her who she was going to the dance with earlier this week she said “Mom, I have a bunch of friends who will be there”. I would have never gone to a dance alone just to meet friends there. She is confident beyond words.

Kid2 has been the apple of our eye and a spitfire from birth. As soon as she could crawl she took over the house and has never given it back. She is capable of leaping tall buildings in a single bound I assure you. Kid2 is competitive, strong, a leader, a trend setter, and a kind hearted girl who is able to look deeply into others and know the words they need to hear. My Granddaddy calls her “The Senator”.

Dear kid2 the minute I saw you I knew you would change the world with your strong ways, the minute I heard your cry I knew you would change us. You have always been so strong but also able to understand people deeply and know what they need. I’m proud of you daily for being the strong teen that you are, for standing up for what you believe in always and so many more reasons. You’re ability to be kind but firm with people is something that is so rare in a teenager. I love the high standards that you have set for yourself. The faith you have in God is something to behold, I wish I could have that deep faith and understanding in things that I cannot see. Thank you for being you, for being the girl in the middle of two brothers and doing such a great job of being the middle child. I love you!

love for "the brothers"

Kid4 lovingly describes her brothers as “The brothers”. She always says things like “Don’t forget to pick up the brothers “and “can I wake up the brothers?” she will say “where are the brothers” or “when are the brothers getting home from school”.

“The brothers” (kid1 and kid3) adore Kid4. They will do anything she requests. I often watch her ask either one of them to take her to the park and they almost always do. One of “the brothers” will be sitting there with her watching her like a hawk. She will asks one of “the brothers” to play baby with her which consists of her making one of them lay on the floor, covering them with a blanket and shoving a paci in their mouth.

I am always proud and over come with love for “the brothers” when I see them playing so patiently with kid4 because I think it shows a lot of character on their parts to be so easy going, and let her use her imagination at their expense.

Often she gives us names like “Mama Goose, baby goose, Daddy goose” etc. this morning she said she wanted to be cats. She mentioned how we would be “Mama Kitty, Daddy kitty, baby kitty” and……. Drum roll please…….. “Brothers kitty”. Are you surprised? All of that lead me to this post and the pictures of her special wonderful brothers who adore her every move. One day she will know how lucky she is to have them and I hope she will read this!

let me be clear here....

Must we always be so clear? Is it necessary to be THIS clear? Could there really have been such a problem in the dressing room?

Goodbye Summer

Goodbye Summer

Goodbye warm days

Goodbye sprinkler

Goodbye long nights

Goodbye diving

Goodbye picnics

Goodbye hot sun

Goodbye Summer

so fun!

I got this great idea from The Pioneer Womans website! This is too fun- please try it.. please please please!!

to you...

"There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of one's self, the very meaning of one's soul." - Edith Wharton

"apple princess" chapter 2

Yesterday I took my kids on a road trip to Ellijay Georgia to pick apples, hang out, eat something local and antique shop.

The older kids were less than thrilled when we headed out for the long trip ahead and were hooked to their I-pods, game boys, PSP’s etc. so I enjoyed the silence for about an hour and then mayhem broke loose in the car!

Kid4 was throwing up! She threw up all over her car seat, her cute Halloween clothes and some of the seat. Luckily she threw up near a Carters outlet so we pulled and re-outfitted her in the adorable outfit above. I think we hurried out before she finished breakfast and the vitamins must have grabbed a hold of her tummy and revolted. Anyway Kid2 and I cleaned her all up, got her dressed in her new clothes and off we went. (She said she was fine and she was no longer green so we believed her) She did not throw up again.

Anyway as we headed north to the beautiful mountains of Georgia we all settled in to talking and having a nice time, the electronic devices were put down (ran out of batteries) and we all enjoyed good conversation and stories.

I have to say that I like my kids. Sometimes I think parents get discouraged by teen’s negative attitudes and their unwillingness to enjoy outings. My kids are use to my get in the car and go personality and I wouldn’t change a thing. Buckling the kids in the car and having them held hostage is the best time to talk about important things, laugh or just enjoy each other.

We had a great time! Ellijay is beautiful and the kids are begging to go back again today. With gas prices we are going to skip it but maybe next weekend?! If you find yourself in the mountains of Georgia go to Ellijay, it’s breathtaking. If you find yourself in the car with teens, give them a minute and then enjoy their stories and the time you have. The time we are given with our kids is so short- cherish it.

-oh yeah I bought about 100 lbs of apples, a giant bag of sweet potatoes, a giant bag of sweet onions and lots of apple cider! I am making homemade applesauce, apple pies and apple butter!

"apple princess" chapter 1

This morning I am taking my kids on a road trip to north georgia to an apple picking orchard. While I was getting Kid4 dressed she handed me a "fairy wand" and I tapped her on the head and said- "I deem you fairy princess of apple picking". She then turned to me sweetly, curtsied and tapped me on the head and said- "Ma-ma I DAM you fairy princess of apple picking too". I skipped the curtsy and the laugh and thanked her for "Dam-ing" me, like I needed that today with 2 teens and a preteen in the car all day!

**This is her last year picking apples

once upon a time....

On a beautiful day a long long time ago I worked and worked and looked forward to the end result.

The end result was this beautiful little boy. He is 12 now and I still think he is beautiful.

I found this sweet little picture of my littlest fellow and fell in love with him all over again.

Kid3 you are the sweetest little person I have ever met. You are patient with your friends, kind when others are not and smile even when you don’t want too. You are so smart, I am always proud of you and your grades. I love how when you get a B you feel like you need to work harder. You have a great sense of pride in yourself that is so rare. Every morning your face is smiling when you hop out of bed and I am always thrilled to see you. Your hands have always been so thick and strong, I love to see them wrapped around your handle bars riding your bike and laughing. I love your silly huge laugh, I love you Kid3. You amaze me every day. I don’t know how I got to be the lucky one to have you but I am so thankful that I am.

*picture 1 is me working hard
*picture 2 is the beautiful end result my kid3

Whittling, microscopes, feelings and this crazy lady...

Do you ever have something on your mind and you just whittle and whittle away at it? As you whittle you hope and pray that it will just go away but sometimes it seems like the more you whittle the bigger it becomes? I’m a mind whittler- I think and think and think about things until they are gone or dealt with. There are always those things that you whittle and work on and process and turn over and over and they just won’t go away. What do you do with those things?

Mr. B. always says that men compartmentalize things and women have one main file they like to store everything in. Although I tend to agree with that for the most part, I’m not sure about it 100% of the time. I think my mind is more like scientific slides. I was at the children’s museum with Kid4 Thursday and as we looked through the big microscopes at slide after slide I began to think that my brain was like that. It’s like having hundreds and hundreds of slides stacked all together. You can see through every one of them but you can’t always see just one. My thoughts are “compartmentalized” they are just in transparent files so to speak.

I don’t hide my feelings well. I don’t think I ever have- you’d have to ask Steph if I was a feelings hider in high school? I know I’m not now- that’s for sure. So, if I’m disappointed in someone or something I am just simply disappointed and don’t hide it. If I’m sad, I’m just sad and don’t hide it. I couldn’t hide my feelings if I tried, so if I’m feeling something I usually just avoid everyone because I don’t think it’s someone else’s responsibility to have to deal with my inability to not hide my feelings. Does that make sense?

I always hope I don’t come across like the lady (I use the term “Lady” loosely) in this picture above. She had absolutely no ability to hide her feelings whatsoever on the show wife swap. I really worry that my inability to hide my own feelings makes me come across a little nutty sometimes.

Yes! I have watched the show…. Yes I know it’s a waste of time…. Yes I am embarrassed about it… yes! I have watched it more than once…. NO! I don’t want to talk about it!

So, is it better to be able to hide your feelings away in a file and trap them in your head or let them all hang out and risk being practically transparent? This is the question of the day and probably the year!

hiding from the light...

Do you ever wish you could throw some sun glasses on, close your eyes and sleep for weeks and weeks? Does life ever exhaust you that much? It does me!

a cookin' kind of a day

I cooked and cooked all day long! I seriously started at 9:30am and ended at 6:30pm. I made two lasagna's one frozen and one for tonights dinner. I made chicken spaghetti without the noodles and froze it, enough for two nights. I made home made applesauce for three nights and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. My feet are killing me, my freezer is over flowing and I am going to sleep like a baby.... well someone else's baby- mine never slept!

strange but true

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgtfC5LBAW4

This is truly how I feel often... it may be a stain- big strange hair- a hair hanging from someone's clothes- a booger- an eye twitch- something in someones teeth.

If there is something "not quite right" about someone, I swear I hear the same thing this man is hearing. When I saw this commercial I shouted out- "Thats how I feel everyday"

strange but true.

I *hate* sleepovers but I love these little girls...

Im sorry, I truly am! I honestly hate sleep overs! It doesn't matter what I say- they ARE going to be loud. I hate to complain about my kids laughing loudly- doesn't that seem crazy? I just want to tape all mouths shut when they come in the door. I know I'm mean, I'm the sleep over Nazi, the queen of mean.... At least Im letting them do a sleep over and I'm not saying a word- YET!

**note to self- wear ear plugs!