Happy Halloween from the House of Chaos

Noah was "robot-man". He's dressed in Josh's 180 ear warmers, Josh's shades and has an old vacuum nozzle on his hand. He's had this costume for a long time. I tried to get him to dress up like an old man, but he insisted on "robot-man."

Juddson as a granny.

Harper as a granny.

Big Fat Black Permanent Marker

Today we got back into the school/gym routine. A little late, but still. Noah did not want to go, so it was a challenge getting every one ready and out the door. Hoover didn't care for us being gone either. Miss Holly said Noah was "wild" and ran around the room all morning. Josh got home for breakfast late, but was done for the day, so he went with us to take Noah to therapy and then we went shopping for his birthday. We ended up getting him a Wii, since he gets the clickers and pretends he's playing against Luke all the time. He thinks about it alot and he's only played a few times... So, we know he'll love it. We just have to be sure the puppy doesn't get ahold of one of those clickers... those things are pricey!! Anyways, we are really, seriously worried about Harper. She is in a depression or doesn't feel good. She is not herself, won't eat, sleeps all the time, cries all the time, everything hurts her and she constantly wants to be held, which I wish I had more time to do. I wonder if she is hurting? or bored? or just sick? It's stressing me out and finally Josh told me to have her checked out-- and if he says it, you know it's noticeable! I guess our first step is blood work, according to Dr. Fred, so that should be fun. Say an extra prayer that she is fine.
After therapy, Juddson was asleep and Noah went out back to play with Hoover and I tried to do a project with Harper in hopes to cheer her up. We started to carve her pumpkin, but she went back and sat on the couch with Cat after 2 minutes and was no longer interested. So, that made me sad. She was so excited to go shopping today, and then when we got there she whined and cried and wanted me to hold her the whole time.
So, after Noah was inside and Juddson was up, the boys were watching "Yo Gabba Gabba" and Harper was sitting on the counter watching me cook dinner, and after a little while, I noticed it was too quiet in the other room. I went in there and saw the front door wide open and couldn't find Noah... so, of course, I ran outside in a panic yelling his name and I see him climbing up in between the box and the cab or Josh's big work truck. Scared me to death! So, back inside I was talking to him and noticed he had black marker all over his hands and arms and asked him where the marker was. He got down on the floor in between the chair and the couch and there it was alright, there with a ton of black marks (roads as Noah says) on the hardwood floors!!! Oh man...... I tried to get it up with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, which got most of it, but you can still see it. I will let Josh notice on his own or read this. I did all I could to save it. These floors need redone anyways.... I still don't know where he found that marker.
The rest of the night was chaotic. The dog was wild, Noah was busy, Juddson threw a tantrum and was laying on the floor crying and lifted his head up and smacked his face into the floor as hard as he could (and it sounded awful, like he broke his nose and knocked his teeth out) but he is fine... (Little Bice temper shinin' through :) ) and Harper was tired and crying, ugh.....whose idea was a puppy again??? Anyways, everyone is sleeping, and that's where I am heading too.

Body Fluids...

are what I have been knee deep in for the past 4 days! Trying to potty train a stubborn dog, and have 2 sick kids who have been throwing up and down is no fun at all. Hoover just peed on Josh's dry cleaning pile, just this second.....But, hopefully we are through the worst now. Until Noah and I get it.
This weekend we tried to keep the kids away from other kids, so not to spread our germs. We did have a get together at Nanna's Saturday night. Since Lex and Luke weren't there, we decided to take the kids, and they did really well and we had a great time watching the game, eating pizza, and hanging out with the fam. (Although it worsened my baby fever being around the 2 pregos...) but, I can't change Josh's mind, so I will just have to deal with it. Harper and Juddson begged me to let them take a bath after they ate supper, so they played in there with their paint soaps Nanna got for them for a long time. Noah stayed pretty much to himself in the bedroom and watched SpongeBob and played trains.
Sunday we didn't go to church, once again, so not to infect the whole nursery with hand, foot, and mouth disease. Mom, Dad, and Kara did risk their health to come and eat lunch with us. Later on in the day we took a walk to Westark and let the kids play in the grass under the trees by the bell tower, but the bells were playing music and it must have disturbed some huge yellow jackets nest that was way up in the tower because thousands of them were flying around, and it was making me nervous, so after a few minutes of play we left and walked back home. We decided to try to take Noah (since he hadn't had any symptoms) to the dollar movie to see Wall-E and Nanna came over to keep the other two.... by the time she got there, Noah didn't want to go and Harper did, so we took Harper and Nanna watched the boys for us. Harper ate her bag of popcorn, and when it was empty, she was ready to go. "Mommy, I wanna go home now, mommy, take me home... mommy I wanna see Banna" over and over and louder and louder... So, I just left with her. We got the stroller out of the truck and started walking home. Josh picked us up on about 47th street, and not a minute too soon, I was literally about to pee in my pants... I was looking for a bush or drainage ditch or something, I was miserable. After we got home and saw the boys and talked for awhile; Nanna generously let us trade cars with her for the next couple of weeks while mine is in the shop. Nanna has a Sequoia too, so it is perfect and will hold all 3 car seats. THANK YOU NANNA!!! So, Josh cleaned out the cars and got the car seats switched out and Nanna left. We ate dinner and the kids went to sleep. Around 2:30am, Harper started throwing up, which woke up Josh and Noah and myself, since I got thrown up on, of course. After she settled down and the mess was cleaned up, she wanted to watch Wubbzy and after Wubbzy, Noah wanted to watch Little Bear. We watched those shows, and they finally went back to sleep.
So, this morning, there was no school for anyone. I did take Noah to therapy and Judd and Harper and I went to WalMart. That place is as germy as it gets, so I didn't worry too much about spreading their germs there-- sorry people, I had to get some stuff. After Walmart, picked up Noah, stopped by the bank to see the girls, unloaded groceries, made dinner, went for a run (thanks, Josh!) ate dinner, bathed the kids, jammied them, put them to sleep, went to El Mercado, paid for the bounce- a -round for Noah's party this weekend, came home, chilled for a minute and watched a couple of Curb's.....
No new funnies really, Judd is starting to say "uh hu" for yes, because he only answers with his long drawn out "noooo" so that's kind of funny. Noah got out Josh's tools today and showed us how to use each one, and carried them around and fixed things. Harper was sick and clingy and wanted to go to bed and watch baseball with her daddy.

A little "venting" tonight.

Noah took ALL his trucks outside to the top of the slide to slide them down.

The pile at the bottom, he was just getting started.

Thursday, oh the hell of Thursday! We woke up Thursday morning as usual, but Josh slept in and wanted to do breakfast early, rather than coming home at 10:30 for breakfast....which was fine, but when it was time for him to leave, he couldn't find his keys, and I had to help him, instead of get the kids ready, and by the time we (eh em, I) found his keys (that were somehow at the bottom of laundry "monster" as Josh says)---we still haven't figured out how they got there-- he was way late and it was too late to get Noah to school. So, he skipped school. I got them ready and we went to "exercise school." I was supposed to take Juddson in for his 18 month check up at 10:30 and called Dr. Fred's as we were leaving the gym to make sure he was running on time. Of course he wasn't, so they said to wait 30 minutes, then come. So we killed time by running to Walmart to pick up a few groceries I needed, and the kids got their usual popcorn chicken, then we went to Dr. Fred's. (me and all 3 kids by myself remember) and we sat in the waiting room for about 10 minutes, then got called back into the little tiny, tiny, tiny room and waited for Dr. Fred. Let me just say, we didn't get home til after 1pm. I was furious. The kids were tired and it was right during their nap time, they were thirsty and bored, and I felt so bad for them. Plus, I was mad because I assumed I would get home way earlier and I left Hoov in his crate, with no one to let him out until I got home, and I felt bad for him-- and I just think if you are running that far behind that you should call people and reschedule rather than screw up their WHOLE day! Anyways, I will get off the soap box now. But, anyways, to top it off, Judd has had diarrhea, and I attributed it to teething, but come to find out, they have hand, foot, and mouth disease, and that's why they've been sickly and tired and have had fever on and off this week. Lovely. So, he told us not to go anywhere or be around kids for a week. Then, we get home, and Josh calls and tells me that my truck has to go in the shop from the stinkin' hail damage and I am going to be without transportation for 2 weeks at least! What in the world am I going to do? I can walk Noah to Tillis everyday instead of going to the gym, but how are we going to hike to Van Buren twice a week for his therapy? I don't want to just skip it.. ugh.. and hopefully I won't need to go to the store or bank for 2 weeks... gimme a break, what are they thinking??? So, that ticked me off... After I got off the phone with Josh, I went to look for Noah, who I found in the back yard. He had the lid off the charcoal grill and was pouring the ashes out on Hoover, so he could have a "white dog." I felt so sorry for that dog. He would shake and it would just be a huge cloud of white dust and it was getting into his eyes, and he tried to use his paws to get it out and so Noah got in trouble and Hoover went straight to the bath. (Luckily, earlier that day, I bought a new bottle of dog shampoo at Walmart)... Unless you have actually tried to wash ashes out of hair, you wouldn't know, but for some reason, it's really hard to get out, it's not like powder that rinses off, this stuff turns sticky, and once you get the sticky out, you have this gritty--little tiny black beady things leftover, that you have to start over and wash out... I am sure dad has the explanation for this, but I used almost that entire bottle of shampoo on poor Hoovy. He is one clean dog now though.
Meanwhile, we got a Toys R Us book in the mail. Noah must have read that book a hundred time and brought it to me and showed me what he better have. "better have one" is what he says. It's cute, but a hundred times is a little much. I don't even remember what else happened that day, I know I just couldn't cook due to the fact that my head was about to pop off, so Josh brought home Dominoes hot sub sandwiches for dinner (Yuck, by the way) and then we finally got the kids to bed. I drove off 5 miles, and they were out.

Today wasn't much better, Hoover had some peeing in the floor issues this morning, which started my day off on the wrong foot. I am totally overwhelmed with clothes and laundry and sorting through summer and winter and too small for next year and too big for this year... maybe, depending on who grows how fast???... and toys that I pick up and the kids immediately have to dump back out. It's one of Noah's traits that he likes to be surrounded by his toys, and he constantly is. And dishes and dishes and dishes... I am thankful for my dishwasher, but it's so little..... I need to do like 4 loads a day, which for some reason, I only get to 2, so I have dishes piled in my tiny sink and on my tiny kitchen counter. My only counter, so then I have no room to cook, and try to scoot them over, but then I need the mixer or something electric, and oops, I forgot, none of the outlets on this one side work, so I have to scoot everything back over to the other side and use the outlet, and then my lights in the kitchen go out because our house needs to be rewired or because we have a ghost, you can choose, so then I have to cook in the dark, all the while, 2 kids are standing at the gate and Judd is screaming because his poor bottom is raw and Harper is crying that she "wants me so much all day" and Noah is finding ways to jump over the gate and Hoover is running around my feet peeing in the kitchen floor and Josh is in the shower hollering for me to get him a towel because there's none in the bathroom because they are all in laundry mountain.... Whew.... and that's just the beginning, but I won't bore you with the rest-- you get the idea of my mental state....... Anyways, where was I??? I know, I know, I got myself into this, wanting all these babies, and wanting to live in an old house with "character" instead of a new cookie cutter house... and wanting to get a puppy for the kids....(actually, I wanted to adopt an older dog that was pre-trained, but Josh wanted a puppy... don't get me wrong, I love this cute little dog, but he's a handful, and my hands are already full!!!) I know I know, doesn't mean I can't vent though, right????? OK, so that was pretty much the day. I got laundry mountain down to a hill, so that's a good thing. Noah thinks it's funny when Hoover cries, and tonight I was in the other room looking something up online and here Hoover whimpering, crying, and it took a second and I realized Noah was back here, and he'd opened the crate and then shut it, and was trying to lock it, but Hoovy's leg wasn't in all the way and Noah was just pinching it, trying to lock the door back and Hoover was just crying and couldn't move, and Noah was laughing!!! It scared me to death, I thought Noah broke his paw or something. Noah got in BIG TROUBLE and a lecture about how that hurt the dog and it's not funny when he cries... but I still don't know if Noah knew his paw was caught and he was mashing it... I think he just thought Hoover was making a funny noise. Hoover is ok, as far as I can tell; he's been running around and seems fine. Then, I had to make a cake. I had big fancy plans in my mind. I let each kid help me, (Judd just got to help lick) and they had a blast. The cakes didn't turn out at all.... so now I have to order one. blah... oh well.. the kids had fun-- we'll just have to eat ugly but yummy cake for a few days. Finally, once again-- they are all asleep. Breathe in, breathe out.... slowly... repeat...

Judd and Harper had sword wars with the beaters, sending batter flying! Yeah, more stuff to clean up!

Hay Rides and Marching Bands

On the hay ride:

It's been a busy week loaded with fun stuff. Monday we went with Noah's class on a field trip to Wild Things Farm in Pocola. First, we took a hay ride to the horse pasture and the driver stopped in the middle of the field and got a pretty Paint and brought her over to the trailer we were in and walked her around for all the kids to see and pet. Noah got the first pet because we were at the back of the trailer and he walked across the aisle and got the last pet on the other side. We drove off to the next activity and Juddson was waving and hollering "Hose, MumOn!!" (Horse, come on)-- if you need that translated. Next we arrived at the pumpkin patch and all the kiddos jumped out and ran for their pumpkins. We were in a hurry to get all the activities in, and so as soon as they picked one, they were supposed to bring it back and put it in the wagon. All the kids did so, but after Noah chose his, he ran off through the field, and Miss Holly had to go get him (because I was occupied with Harper and Juddson.)

(you can see them off in the distance)He got into a little trouble and said sorry and then was grumpy the rest of the trip. After we got our pumpkins, we watched a lady demonstrate an old timey pumpkin launcher thing, and she hit the statue on the first try. Impressive. After that, we had a little snack, then went to visit the animals. They all got a handful of feed and fed the goats and pigs. (Judd was a little scared) After that, they got to milk a pretend cow, then it was time to load up. Noah wouldn't ride the bus, he wanted to ride in the white truck with mommy...but Harper wanted to ride the bus and the bus driver said she could. I was nervous, but let her. They all wear car seats, and I followed right behind the bus... I was still nervous though. When we arrived at school, Harper got out of the bus and went and lined up on the fence, where we drop Noah off in the morning, waiting for the other kids to line up beside her, so she could go to school. She was so sad and disappointed (and threw a huge fit) that school was over, and she couldn't go to class. She was such a big girl riding the bus!

After the trip, the rush was on for breakfast, letting the puppy play and potty and then we got ready to take Noah to therapy. I felt bad for leaving Hoover again, so we loaded him up too. After we dropped Noah off, we went to Nanna's bank and tore up the turf there for 2 hours! The kids were wild, Hoover was a little wild, and had a tiny accident on the carpet, that Miss LaDonna helped clean up... They all had a blast, and we were all worn out by the time we got home. I still had dishes piled to the ceiling from the weekend get together and didn't feel like cooking, so Josh picked up a nugget tray from Chick Fil A and we had that for dinner. Yum... I drove the kids and they went down really quick, and came home and went to bed.

Tuesday after school and the gym and breakfast, I cleaned! I had to get the house in decent enough condition for Miss Becky to come over. She came in the afternoon, during Judd's nap time and taught Noah and Harper a couple of new games and gave us some new books. She is so sweet and we have a great time during her visits. She told us that the battle of the (marching) bands concert thing -- sorry, I don't know band terminology-- was that night... and Harper loves bands. Have I mentioned that after we drop Noah off at school, that we have to stop by the practice field at Darby to watch and hear the band practice... hope the teacher's don't get mad, but anyways, Harper and Juddson love it. Judd claps so big for them. Later in the afternoon, Noah felt hot, and I could tell he didn't feel good because he just layed around. I took him to play at mom and dad's and I took Harper and Judd to NHS. We parked far away and I carried Judd in the Kozy on my back and carried Harp in the front. What a good workout. We had watched a couple of bands by the time Josh showed up. It took a long time for each band to get on the field and get set up and actually play and the kids got really restless during that time. Judd would say "gin" for again, and want them to play more music. Josh and I were starving, so we waited in line and got the kids pizza and we ate burgers and nachos. We found a nice spot in the grass and had a "picnic" with the kids. We missed Noah, but I don't think he would have enjoyed it, especially since he didn't feel very well. He had a great time with Pa and Granny and Gussieboy. He played with Gus of course, did markers with Pa, and played hide and seek with the "CSI flashlight. He was glad to see us, and I let the other 2 go in and say hi and then I changed them into jammies and loaded them back up and drove them til they slept.

Today was our usual busy Wednesday. I am ready for things to settle down, we've been running all week.

Another Week

Halloween jammies:

Time is flying by faster than I can keep track of. I can't believe we're already approaching the end of October, and that in a few weeks, my baby boy will be 4. It makes me sad to sit here and realize how fast time goes by and how little time I have spent with him. It seems my days are filled with laundry and dishes and trivial stuff like that rather than more hugs, more games of chase and more cuddling with the kids. But still, I am so thankful that I get to stay home with them rather than send them off to daycare every day.
The big event of this week was adding a brother to our family. Hoover, the chocolate lab puppy has joined us, and I don't know what it was like before he came. Even with the doggie accidents and doggie messes, he's been a joy and the kids adore him. The first night we got him, Noah played "your yit" with him for hours. Hoover would grab Noah by his bottom and yank his sweats off until Noah fell down, pant-less. Noah, laughing all the way of course. Noah's been wearing the same outfit since we got him because Hoover plays with Noah the most and has torn several holes in his clothes just from playing with him....so not to ruin too many outfits, Noah has just worn the same one. Noah, usually a sleepy head in the mornings, woke up at 6 am, Hoover's 2nd day here asking if "his dog was ready to play." Which, of course, Hoover was... That poor puppy is going to think his name is "your yit". Harper and Juddson love him too, but he's a little rough with those fragile kiddos. For some reason, he loves to nibble on Judd's ears, and Judd hates it. He also goes for Harper's hair bows--while they are in her hair, and she doesn't care much for that either. The other day, while playing with him, Noah was saying "he wuvs me, he wiwee wiwee wuvs me!" Ahhh, how sweet is that? Harper forgets his name a lot and mainly calls him "Hubert", which cracks me up. That's about all the excitement that's going on here.
Three cute stories I have jotted down from last week are:
Juddson was crying while I was cooking dinner, so I dumped a few m&m's out on the little table in the kitchen to appease him until dinner was ready. I went to the den to sit down for a second, and Josh was watching through the door as Juddson was loading all the m&m's up in an empty crayola box. Judd got every last one, and came in and sat on the rug in the den and said "there."

Noah got a shirt with a robot on it. It's a little hard to explain, but the robot is up high on the shirt, and doesn't have a head... So, Noah's head is supposed to be the head of the robot.... and I was picking him up from school and he was playing on the jungle gym, giving me a hard time and not wanting to come with me, and I said, "Come on, right now." and he said "No, robot wants to play."

And finally, I have started to let the kids watch a couple of episodes of sponge bob. I don't know what draws them to that show, I hate it and don't think it's good for them to watch, but anyways, they've seen a few.... and the other day, Noah wanted a "krabby patty" for lunch. I made him a salmon patty and he took a bite and with a wrinkled up nose he was like "mmm, that's good, co co please..." So I got him a drink to wash it down, and he didn't eat any more....

I love you

The most exciting part of the day for me happened tonight. I tried to drive the kids to put them to sleep, but only Juddson went down. I carried Harp in next and put her in bed with Josh, then went to get Noah. As I was carrying him in, I kissed his cheek. He looked up and kissed me and said "I love you." Ahh, it was so precious and special. It's really the first time he's said it unprompted to me. Sweet baby boy!

Other than that, the day was stressful as usual. We went to pick Noah up from school and I guess they had a tornado drill or something, and were all walking back into the building and I knew as soon as I saw him spot the truck, he was going to take off... which he did. Poor Miss Reynda had to take off right after him and caught him just as he neared the end of the sidewalk! He got into a little trouble, cried a little, and had to WALK back down the sidewalk with the rest of the class. Miss Holly said he answered an abstract "why" question today, and she was proud of that improvement! We went home and rushed through the Monday morning routine of getting the trash out, getting breakfast made, and everyone fed, and washed, and changed, and we did our morning devo, and loaded the kids back up and were off to therapy. After we dropped off Noah, Juddson and Harper and I headed to Alma to see baby Levi, who is a little (big) cutie pie. Juddson just liked Cassie, the great dane, and kept bringing her handfuls of dog food from her bowl and throwing it at her and saying "EAT IT!" while Harper nicely rocked the stuffed giraffes to sleep in the bassinet. Noah's therapy called while we were there and they are going to start cutting off his sessions 15 minutes early because an hour and 45 minutes may be too long for him.... I didn't say I told you so, but I wanted to. Before we left, I told the kids to give kisses, so Juddson went up to Cassie and grabbed her big head and gave her a big open mouth kiss right on the nose. I am sure she appreciated that. We loaded up and headed back to Van Buren. We didn't get to go to the store, just the bank-- which took FOREVER, and seemed especially longer with 2 screaming kids... then went to get Noah, who cried and was sad sad sad because he wanted to stay there. Go figure. On our way home, I searched up and down Towson for the auto parts store to pick up the lady's taillight that I got into the fender bender with the other day. Then, I was going to mom's to borrow a pack of corn bread mix and remembered I had to reserve the bounce around for Noah's birthday party, and all 3 kids were asleep, so mom road with me and stayed in the car while I went in to reserve it. When I got back into the car, they were all awake and Noah told us he wants 20 dogs for Christmas. Harper said she just wanted 1. We visited mom's house for a while and Juddson got a kick out of Gussieboy and ate 2 Reeses and a bunch of jellybeans and wanted "mo mo mo." We didn't stay too long because I needed to get home and get stuff done. Noah talked about the 20 dogs all day.... He wouldn't settle for 2 or 10 or 30, it has to be 20 dogs. He said "20 dogs on the couch" and I said "I think we'll need a bigger couch" and Harper said "Yeah, the blue couch, not Nanna's couch" ha ha ha.... she misses her blue couch!!! We all finally had dinner and the kids played train and then I drove them... which is the story I started with.... insert here...
Since they didn't go to sleep, I just put them in bed with Josh and we all layed there and watched baseball together. Noah was wearing his Mario shirt-- shocker! and started pointing to and naming all the characters. He is "red Mario", Harper is "weegee" daddy is the monster and Juddson is the turtle. Juddson woke up crying, so I had to get up and feed him back to sleep and by the time I got done, all 3 of them were asleep... so I am up doing laundry and blogging.

Oh yeah, yesterday. We skipped church because Josh's back is still hurt and I can't carry all 3 kids by myself, plus I just wanted them to sleep some more. Harper ended up waking up with fever, but I gave her Ibuprofen and it never came back. Josh thinks she got a little food poisoning for McDonald's the night before because after we got home from there, she said she had a tummy ache. I don't know, she's been fine since then, so we'll just see. Harper wanted Geno's pizza and white dip for lunch, so after church mom and dad and Kara came over and ate Geno's with us. We didn't do anything except for lay around all day, which was nice.

"I wub you guys!"

This morning Judd started crying and woke me up a little earlier than I would have liked to have gotten up, so I was a little cranky. Also, I found a chocolate lab puppy from a rescue in Oklahoma that's potty trained, crate trained, doggy door trained, that loves kids and cats... but Josh thought he was too old (at 6 months) and passed on him. So, that made me a little sad too. After coffee and breakfast, Josh volunteered to take the kids on a walk, so I could get laundry mountain knocked out. (which I greatly appreciated) Noah stayed home with me, but he didn't feel good, and he mainly layed down on the couch and played robots and watched shows. Josh was gone for a long time. He said they walked up to WestArk and he let them run around the grass. He said he'd tell Harper which trees to run, and she'd remember which ones and what order and run to them like bases and run back to him. He said she was very motherly towards Juddson and wouldn't let him wander off too far and would tell him where to sit. After they got home, we all had lunch, then they all took baths, and went right to sleep. I caught up on some computer work and blogging while Josh napped, and Noah sprayed sticky, smelly rice vinegar all over everything and I mean everything in the den. I had just found it when I was finishing up the previous post. So, I went in there and instead of spanking him, I gave him rags and made him help clean it up. After he got done he said "go time out now??" and I told him no, that his punishment was helping me clean, but gave him a little lecture about why he shouldn't do that and he went happily on his way. Harper woke up in a great mood and cuddled up in bed with Josh and me and just talked to us. She talked about their walk and about not wanting to poop in the potty. At one point, she was in between us looking at us, and she put one hand on Josh and one hand on me and she said "I wub you guys" and then she fell into us and gave us big hugs. It was the sweetest thing. We got them all ready and took them to McDonald's playland which turned out to be a bad idea, because it made Noah's cough worse, and made Harper have a tummy ache and made Josh's back hurt worse, because he had to help with them while I ordered.... There were a bunch of mean, big kids in there, who were pushing Harper and teasing (tormenting) Noah... so we left. Harper fell asleep as soon as we got home-- cuddling up to Josh watching football. Judd and I took a bath together and then he played with Noah for a little while. I put him in his crib to watch a movie, and Noah told me "I tired", so I held him in my lap and told him stories until he fell asleep. I put him in bed with Harper and Josh and I started a movie, but Josh didn't like it and wanted to watch baseball, so I sat on the couch with pen and paper and tried to figure out a schedule and way to organize our lives better. Judd just woke up and I had to give him Tylenol for his teach and "feed" him back to sleep.... My eyes are so heavy as I type... I am heading to bed!

Here we go again

This is now where I put the kids, when I have had enough.....

JUST KIDDING!!! I found a great deal on this crate, so I bought it early for the Christmas puppy we are getting. The kids love it, and Noah asks to go in the "gate."

Well, as some of you may know. Last Wednesday, I had a little temper tantrum and tried to delete one of my blogs, and accidentally deleted my family blog, and was uncontrollably upset. The blog was the only place where all the kid's "firsts, funnies" and other memories were stored... so losing this was a huge heart break for me. Thankfully, my friend Brandon, from college, retrieved a copy of the whole thing and emailed it to me! I was in shock and I thank God for his knowledge and his thoughtfulness... some may not think it was a big deal, but to me, it was huge! With the blog, we plan on somehow printing it, one bound book for every year and keeping Bice Family Fun volumes... for me to read when I am 85, rocking in my rocking chair on my front porch, with my 5 dogs at my feet and my 12 or so cats sitting in my lap and on the porch rails while Josh is off playing golf at the senior resort....also, I have a gazillion pics of the kids and plan on scrapbooking them all... when I have time... the blog was my resource for dates and other stuff to record in their scrapbooks, and without it, I wouldn't have known the day Judd took his first step... or the day of Harp's first haircut...etc... so, now you understand the importance of my blog.... Someone better teach me how to back this thing up, because I am not losing it again!!! Maybe it's been a good lesson for me in the "patience" department.

The week has been busy- as usual... I had a draft saved in the old blog about some things from early last week, but those are lost. I can live with 2 days being lost...just not 10 months. Anyways, Wednesday was the day this all happened, and I was so upset and trying to search for a phone # for Google or Blogger, or at least an email to technical support that I didn't get Noah to therapy on time. I did remember to call him though.... so, we finally got him there, and then I had to get gas and then Juddson, Harper and I went to Nanna's bank. She got to see the kids for a while, and let me borrow her computer to communicate with Brandon about restoring the blog, which I greatly appreciated. We picked up Noah from school and rushed home to give Daddy the Sequoia to take to get an estimate on the hair damage from last April.... they will have it in the shop 5 days, and I have no clue what we'll do then... Wednesday night at 7, I was exhausted, mentally and physically, so I loaded the kids up and drove them. They were all out by 7:15, and I drove home and put them all to bed, and Josh and I got in bed by 7:30, watched a show and were out by 8:30-- how awesome is that?

Thursday morning, Noah didn't want to go to school; since he stayed home Monday because he was sick, he tries it every morning. "No school, I sick." Even though he is still a little sick, I didn't think it was bad enough to keep him home, so he went. I took the other 2 to "exercise school" and they ran in, happy as usual, saying "Hi!" to all of their gym buddies. We picked up Noah and came home and ate breakfast with daddy and were happy to be home the rest of the day. I was going to drive them again at 7:30, but they were still pretty wound up, and I still needed to do dishes, and Nanna called and she stopped by to visit. Juddson showed off his new dog tricks for her. He pretends he's a dog and pants with his tongue out and I will throw a ball and say "fetch" and he runs, and when he gets to the ball, he gets on his hands and feet and bends over and gets the ball in his mouth, and then runs it back to me. I will pat his head and tell him what a good dog he is, and then give him a biggest, which we pretends to scarf down in one big bite. He learned all this from Harper, who likes to pretend she is "Gussieboy" but Noah calls her "Harpdog."

After Nanna went home, they settled down and I drove them again, they still got to bed by 8:30 or 9, which was nice. I went home to watch Survivor, that mysteriously didn't record and baseball did record, so I was agitated and we just went to bed. (but it was just an accident.....) You may notice, I didn't say anything about date night.... We've put a hold on all functions for a while. We are just going to stay home and rest and get the kids well for a while. I feel like we've been going and going and are hardly ever home, and don't ever get to just sit and hang out... We are always rushing around, so it's been a nice break to just be home.

Friday, Noah said "No ex size school, stay home" so we did... didn't have to do much convincing there... and Kara was coming over to walk/jog with us. She was a little late as usual, and I had them loaded and ready to roll when she got here. We took a good walk, and stopped to let them throw rocks. It was the first time, Juddson was able to throw just as well as Harper, and he was proud of it. We came home and waited on our Friday visit from Granny and Grandmom, but it turned out, mom was sick, so Kara left and went to take Grandmom to her usual Friday food stops. Mom was supposed to watch the kids for me while I went to Sam's, but since she was sick, Kara volunteered. She missed them, since she didn't get to babysit the night before-- which was great with me. In a rush to leave, I was only watching my mailbox side when backing out, because a neighbor lady was parked in the street talking with another neighbor, and I knew I had to cut it tight to not hit her... but I hit her anyways, because I was too worried about not hitting my mailbox. Luckily, it only barely scratched it and it busted out her tail lite. I ordered a new one, it's only 50 bucks, and Josh can put it in. I am thankful she was cool about it and didn't make me call the police and file a report with insurance and all that stuff... Ugh.. just what I needed... So, after all that, (I did most of my calling car repair places, etc from the Sam's customer service booth because my cell phone battery was dead by this point)...so I finally started to shop.... and finally got done and got everything loaded into my truck-- that was already packed to the brim with garage sale stuff, which I forgot was in there, so I have to cram 300 bucks worth of big diaper and wipe boxes in there on top of all that stuff, it's a wonder I made it home. Paige called and asked if I could get some red tape and come repair it with that until her light came in, which I did... then went home. When I walked through the door Harper Jane ran and sat at the table and asked for her chicken, that I promised I would bring home for her, and of course, I had forgotten it, with all the fender bender fiasco stuff that happened....SO- I left again and sat at the McDonald's drive through for 15 minutes, got overcharged for chicken strips and came home... to speed clean before Matt and Maddie arrived at 6:30... but, Josh got home and told me they'd be there in like 30 minutes, so it really didn't matter anyways. Whew... I am tired just thinking about it. So, Josh grilled out and I made baked potatoes, salad, corn on the cob and sweet tea... No dessert.. sorry... And they watched the most boring baseball games on earth while I played with the kids.... and then it was bed time.

Noah's weekend projects: window of robots

and the cars lined up at the door. "ready, set....."What I "lovingly" refer to as "laundry mountain" which I got COMPLETED today... and don't let me let it get this bad again!!!

This is how tired we've been lately:

Juddson, growing too fast.

Lately, they've all been suckered in by the toy commercials. I guess companies are getting ready for Christmas, so there are a lot of new ones out lately. Harper started it, by saying "I want that".... Her favorites are the mermaid Barbies, the swimming baby doll (the girl one), the swimming puppy, and the Wowee Baby Alive lion cub. If it's a commercial for a space ship or dinosaur, something like that, she'll point and say "Noah like that, Noah want that." Now, Noah has started saying "better have it?" He notices Handy Manny's truck/tool box, Little Einstein's rocket ship and any video game that's advertised. He LOVES mario. Yesterday, Juddson put his little hand out and made a grabbing motion and said "want dat" and I don't even remember what the commercial was for.... I was in shock he is wanting stuff already... Congrats to the commercial makers... it works!!

PS: As I am sitting her typing this, I am smelling vinegar and wondering where it's coming from... I am back in the office... I go into the den and Noah is squirting sad man (our spray bottle full of potent vinegar) all over the house. Mainly on the tv, my pictures, and his computer. I looked a little closer and turned his keyboard upside down and it poured out. The whole house reeks and I mean it's stout and I have a lot of cleaning to do.