I NOT PINK!!!

Yesterday, I was bad and skipped the gym. The morning was spent cleaning, but it all went wrong and turned into finding old toys the kids hadn't seen in a while, which they proceeded to scatter throughout the house. Noah wanted a track made, then created a big traffic jam on it. Harper played a little bit of everything and we found all 5 gabba men and Judd played with the Plex mobile.

Daddy came home for lunch and we all ate Geno's pizza and white dip! Harper drank her white dip out of the little plastic container it came in, then asked for the "wids" so she could "wik them". Kara, condiment queen, is proud of this trait...I find it disgusting.
We enjoyed an early afternoon visit from Grandmom and Granny, who brought more treats! Arby's curly fries and milky ways. We eat really healthy here... Anyways, Harper performed the ABC song and leg kick and booty shaker and the new exercise dance for them and they were impressed. Judd did some push-ups. Noah gave Grandmom a big hug and sweet kisses. The kids were getting tired and cranky from not having naps yet, and I still had to go to Sam's and to the grocery store, so mom and grandmom went home and I got the kids ready and loaded. Judd was the first one loaded into the car and fell asleep before I got everyone else in. I took him to mom's and she held him for the entire time we were gone... he had a good nap.
Thankfully, Daddy met us at Sam's. I was out of everything and he messed with the kids while I loaded the cart. Noah and Harper had coke icees while shopping, and Noah ended up drinking both, and had to go to the potty twice, so I was extra thankful Josh was there to take him. After Sam's we took a load of "cold stuff" home and put it in the fridge and Josh got in the car with us and we went back out for a trip to the grocery store. The kids did great and Noah walked by the cart and ate popcorn chicken. He would say "we need something..." and scratch the side of his head with his pointer finger, as if he was in deep thought.... and I would scratch my head and think and say... "oh yes, we need this or that" and point to it and he would get it and put it in the cart. About the half way point, he said "we need to open something" and I said "open something??" and he said "yes, the eggs." Very smart, we were almost to the eggs, and I needed to open them first, he was right.
After the store we were broke and tired and cold and had to go get Judd. He had just woken up (4 hours later) and said "Mo mmmmmeeeee! Car...... Home" I said "Do you want me to put you in the car and go home?" "UH HUH!" with a big head nod was his reply. We got home and I dealt with the kids and Josh unloaded the truck... then I had to put everything up and he fixed the plug on the extra freezer so I could have more room to put stuff. We finally got to eat dinner, and then headed to bed. I lay down in Harper's bed with all 3 kids and they would not wind down. Finally, after several threats... Judd wouldn't stop rolling around, so I put him in his crib. He only cried for a second, and then fell asleep. Noah and Harper FINALLY fell asleep and I got to bed around midnight.
This morning, I let them sleep for a little while, while I shopped on craigslist. I am an addict. It's free online classifieds for those of you who haven't heard of it. Anyways, Judd got up first. I was cuddled on the couch with him and he was tugging at his diaper, so I thought I would let him "air out" for a while and I took it off. Big mistake. He tooted and then exploded... if you know what I mean, all over my lap... Ugh... I didn't have anything nearby, so I grabbed his wet diaper and tried to scoop it up and then I layed him down on a towel and told him to stay while I went and changed clothes. He, of course, didn't stay, and when I came back into the room he was saying "uh oh mommy, uh oh mommy" over and over and he looked down at a big wet spot on the floor... So, I got him cleaned up and changed into a dry diaper and I cleaned up the floor and I cleaned off my clothes and put them in the laundry and came back into the room and looked at Judd and he said "thank you mommy." Ahh, that just made it all worth it. He's so sweet... such a precious baby.
So, after starting the morning off like that, the day had to get better, right? We got ready, which takes forever because they piddle around and we made it to the gym by 10. The childcare was packed, so I only stayed an hour and a half. On the way home Noah saw a bright yellow mustang and said "look at dat car mommy, i wike dat yeddow car!" I said "oooh, I know, I like that yellow car too..." to humor him and Harper yells "I WIKE WED CARS... NO PINK CARS! I wike pink cars" and I said "I don't know if I have ever seen a pink car, Harper" and she says "Well, I wike pink cars." Then Noah says, "NO, NOT PINK, YEDDOW!!" and Harper screams back "NO, I WIKE PINK" and Noah says "NOT PINK, NO!!!" so this goes on a few minutes and I say "HEY, chill out.... Harper likes pink and Noah likes yellow... you don't have to like the same color." And there was silence for 2 seconds, then Noah says "Judd wikes bwue" and I said "Judd, do you like blue cars?" And he says a big "UH HUH!" and then he said "Hoppa, pink" and Sassy pants, I mean, Harper yells "I NOT PINK!" and Judd says "Hoppa, pink" and she yells again, louder, "I NOT PINK" and starts to cry.... So, I am trying to be heard, saying "No, Harper, he's trying to say that you like pink cars," She said "Say I not pink." I said "YOU ARE NOT PINK!!!! YOU LIKE PINK CARS." ....................silence....................... for the rest of the trip home... Whew, I got a headache just writing about that conversation....
Anyways, the house is a wreck... Josh will be home in an hour, and I am typing this. The kids made a train with some of the Sam's items and played on it...


I have to go clean the toys up, finish the laundry, do the dishes, organize the 500 bucks of groceries, clean the bathrooms, and collect trash from around the house... and that's just to get it decent and picked up... and I need to play with poor Hoovy Boy.

2009!?! and SpongeBob

For some reason, it just hit me that I should be writing 2009 on checks, etc....Wow, would you call that a month behind or a year behind? Oh well, at least I have it all figured out now...
Yesterday we were a little late to school. The kids all have some kind of eye funk and we are supposed to put 2 drops into each eye 4x's a day. Times 3 kids, that is a lot of eye dropping. I tried it in my own eye, it doesn't hurt, but you'd think I was prying their eyes open sticking needles into them. It's REALLY hard to do by myself, because I have to use one hand to hold the dropper, one hand to hold their eye open, and my legs and body to hold their hands down, which doesn't work really well... That is a two man job... Anyways, that's why we were a little late to school, because I had to do it by myself. Harper and Judd were glad to be back at exercise school. Harper helped Miss Stephanie make her grocery list and told her to write down "apples and potatoes and buns." Miss Stephanie asked her what she needed buns for and Harper said "For Krabby Patties!" Like, duh....didn't she know that? Ok, I think that means we are watching too much "SomeBob" as HJ says... I always SWORE I would never allow my children to watch that show... and now, sadly, they are. Am I a failure? I don't know why they love it so much... Josh will watch that one with them, and he hates sitting in front of all other cartoons, I admit, I have even laughed at a couple of episodes.... oh well..
I worked on Kara's flier yesterday and it turned out pretty well, I was proud. I would like to do that from home-- make fliers for people. I wonder how many peeps need fliers made? Hmm, probably not much money in that. Oh well. I am busy enough.

Soon to be uncle, Scott texted me today. He found us a great deal on an awesome dining table and 6 chairs. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it, it's exactly what I wanted except I WISH it were a little bit darker... but it's such a good price, we may just get it and live with the light finish... What do you think?


Noah is really into "20" right now. I guess because we let him play video games in 20 minute increments. He will say "watch 20 spongebobs?" and at night he'll say "20 little bears, and 20 footballs?" He loves going to sleep to football... a man after daddy's heart!

Snowed In

Being snowed in was really nice. Josh couldn't work and it was great having him home for the day. We let the cats in and the kids enjoyed that. Judd followed them around calling "nananna, cooooooper" (Savannah and Cooper) and says "kitty kitty". The cats, of course, run from him. Cooper ran under the bed and Judd said "cat, hiding" and then he covered his eyes and said "2, 3, 5, 8, 10, 8!!, 10!!" (He was counting-- like he was playing hide and seek with Cooper.)
We stayed busy playing sick baby doll, little people town, soccer, video games, and a lot of projects-- markers and playdoh-- and Noah even did a combo project-- drawing with markers on the playdoh, which was interesting.
For dinner, Josh went and picked up some "pecker-oni" pizza as Harper says, with "karmet jon" cheese-- that would be the white cheese you sprinkle on top, otherwise known as Parmesan.
Harper wore panties all day! Woo Hoo!! But we had to force her to pee, and she never pooped. Right before bed time we put a diaper on her and Josh said "she just filled that thing in 5 different ways as soon as I put it on her." I was just getting out of the bath when he told me all this, and I said I would change her... I yelled in there if she was finished, and she said "1 more" and then kind of grunted and pushed...lolololol... ok-- a little too much info probably, but it's hilarious... She knows what she's doing, I don't know why she won't do that in the potty... So, I got her changed and got them all jammied up and all 5 of us went to bed. After an hour, they were all 3 asleep, so I moved them to their beds... but 2/3 were back within an hour or so.
This will be a weird day today-- we haven't been out all week, so it's going to feel like a Monday, but it's really a Thursday, which is kind-of like our Friday, since Noah doesn't have school on Fridays... hmmmm

The day after...

The first thing out of Harper's mouth yesterday morning: "It's not my birthday any more?" I said, "No, honey, it's not... but you are still my special 3 year old girl." She looked up and said "It's Judd's birthday?" I said, "No, nobody's today." She said "Well, when's my 'nother birthday?" and I had to tell her it's a long, long time away. She was ok after that and wanted her Chuck E. Cheese bendy straw to drink her juice with and wanted Maggie on, and she was fine. After Maggie, we were putting her clothes on, and I usually let her pick her outfits, and today she picked out her outfit Nanna got her for her birthday. She discovered the greatness of pockets and walked around all day with her little hands tucked inside her sweatshirt pockets. She picked her new "poke-it dot gwoshes" to complete the outfit. She begged me all day to go jump in the puddles, and didn't understand it was 33 degrees all day and on the verge of sleeting.
Judd still doesn't feel very well, and I think it may just be a cold, plus maybe he's teething or on a growth spurt. He's really clingy to me and isn't happy just playing. He mainly just wants to be held, but that's ok... one day he won't want to be held, so I take advantage of it now, while I can, and let the chores pile up. He did fall asleep on my bed while holding his muno baby and watching Gabba. That was precious. He and Harper both took a long nap in my bed, which allowed me time to finish laundry mountain-- Can I get a HOORAY??? And change the sheets on the kids bed, and clean the kitchen and clean Harper's room... So, I felt I had a productive day overall.
Since Noah has been such a good boy, and his eyes seemed a little better, we got the Wii back out and let him play his new SSX Blur (snowboarding) game for a while, which he got the hang of so quickly it's unreal... You have to use the controller and the nun chuck and I can't even do it both-handed, but he has no problem at all. He seems to be talking a little more each day. After Josh got home from work they were playing soccer. Noah was standing by the table, trying to kick it to the couch, and Josh was standing at the couch trying to kick it past the table. When Josh scored, he'd cheer real big and Noah HATES to lose, and he said "Daddy, don't kick it so fast." So I gave Josh a look, and Josh eased up on him a little :) You gotta reward him for such a big, long sentence like that! Noah has pretty good soccer skills, he hardly used his hands and could maneuver that ball pretty well! Maybe he'll be able to play on a little team next season... We'll see...
We had a big family wrestle, tickle session on our bed and in the middle of it, one of Harp's boots got knocked off and she said "Wait, I meed to fix my guwash." and she pulled it back on by the handles, like she loves to do... and it was game on again.
After dinner, and baths, Josh was on our bed with all his paper work spread out. I was in the kitchen and yelled "JOSH!" and said "Where is Josh?" Harper yelled back "He's in dere paper workin'." Very nice.

Harper's 3rd Birthday!!!

We spent the day at home, praying the ice would hold off until after Harper's party. I knew she'd be crushed if we had to cancel, and I was determined to get her to Chuck E. Cheese's. Thankfully, it just rained a little bit and it stayed right above freezing for a little while, in time for us to have her party. And, everyone got to come: Mom and Dad, Kara and Scott, Nanna and Pappa, Lex and Luke and even Jen and Hayley stopped by for a few minutes. Harper got to play (thank you Kara for taking her from game to game-- and thank you Scott for playing with Juddson) and eat pizza and drink Coko and see Chuck E and blow out her candle and eat cake and open presents and be a "star"! She really had a great time and felt like the special princess she is. We got home and she said "Mommy will you hold me for firteen minutes?" So I changed her into comfy clothes and cuddled up with her and cat until it was time to go to bed. She was worn out!

PS: In the slide, you'll see some pics of Noah helping Harper get ready for her party, and they are precious. She didn't want to wear the earrings because they pinched her ears and Noah was very concerned about that because those were for "Hoppa." He gave her a big birthday hug and told her "Happy Birthday Hoppa!" SO SWEET!!! He does love her.

Pupcakes, Northside and More!

I forgot to write about our trip to the bank to see "Banna" last Wednesday. As soon as we got there they were climbing on Nanna's lap wanting to watch the baby in the water video on her computer. They are so stuck on that thing! After that it was on to Debbie's rubber band tin, their favorite bank toy, along with her antique horse race thing, that I am terrified they are going to break. After getting water, and candy and suckers, and drawing, and watching more videos, it was time to go. Harper was wearing her cupcake dress and tights and the ladies were commenting on how cute it was. So, before we left Harper pretended to pick "pupcakes" off her dress and gave one to each of the ladies to "eat".

Friday-- our trip to Northside! We went to Northside to participate in a science fair project for one of Mrs. Hall's students. She had a pile of toys and she wanted to see what toys the kid's picked. They had to go to a room with her one at a time and choose toys. I am pleased to say they "passed" and picked sex and age appropriate toys. Poor Noah did pick up a Barbie, but he just used it to wipe his nose with and put it back down... he did not play with the Barbie... :) I offered to take Barbie home and wash her, but the girl said it would be ok. Dad was really excited to have the grandkids at school. He ordered us a pizza and we had lunch there with him in his classroom. The kids were a little too distracted to do much eating though. Harper mainly drew on the chalkboard, Juddson ran around trying to escape and Noah found a spot with the big boys, playing computer games of course. The students seemed to enjoy them and they helped keep them from destroying anything or drinking a bottle of poisonous chemicals! Thanks dad, for letting us come for a visit.
The weekend was busy... I didn't get a lot done at home, but we had several outings and did a lot of playing with toys. I have been letting them play too many computer and video games and watch too much tv, so we tried to stay away from all that this weekend. Saturday morning, Josh and I went to the gym together, which was awesome to have him there with me. After we finished there, we went to "chicken donald's" as Harper says (McDonald's) for lunch and let the kids play in the playland for a while. After that we went through an automatic car wash and Juddson screamed and tried to get out of his carseat the whole time because he was scared to death! After that, I ran inside Hobby Lobby and they all waited in the car for me. After that we went home! We were all worn out. Harp and Judd took a little nap and we let Noah play his snow game for a few minutes. After they woke up, we set up Little People town again and we all played with that for a while. They LOVE the laugh and learn town, it's an awesome toy and if you have a little kid, you should get it, another toy that's fun and educational... I like it too, I like to put the 10 apples through the slot and watch it fall down the tree... the hard part is finding the apples.
Judd had some fever during the night, I don't know if he has a cold or is teething or what, and Noah was up most of the night with awful night terrors. I got kicked by his heel into my eye and felt it was too dangerous, so I made Josh take Harper into her bed, and they stayed in there while I dealt with Noah for a few hours until he finally snapped out of it and went back to sleep. So, since the kids didn't feel well and we didn't get any sleep, we missed church. Mom and Dad and Kara still came over after church for lunch and after that it was off for more errands. We had gotten Harper a little cubical shelving unit for her bedroom for one of her gifts and Josh opened it to put it together and it was damaged, so we went to target to exchange it. Judd stayed with mom and dad. We went to get him and Harper went in to kiss Gussieboy. We got home and Judd didn't feel well again, so I held him, and the house stayed a mess.
Some funnies by Harper:
She always wants to know "who gave me this" or "who fixed this for us".... Like she points at our new light fixtures and asks, "who fixed those?" and I will say "Matt" and she nods and says "yeah, Matt" and say something like, "he's my friend." Yesterday she looked out the back window and said "Who made that slide for us?" and I said "Cory and Brock and Daddy" (Brock was the guy who we bought it from who 'helped' Cory and Josh put it together) Last time Harper asked this same question, I answered "Cory and Daddy" and that didn't work, she said "and the other guy" So, now I just answer all 3 of them, even though Brock didn't do much and we don't know him! Anyways, I answered "Cory and Brock and Daddy" and she said "Yeah, I wub dose guys, they are my family" Ahh...
I may have written this next one already, but oh well... we were in a store and 2 men walked by and she waved at them and said "Hi!" and they were nice enough to wave back and keep walking and I said "Who was that, did you know them?" Harper said "yeah, those were my friends James and John." I guess she's been learning about them in Sunday school...
When we were driving to NHS, Pa was in front of us, we were following him and Noah was telling me to go faster and catch him because EVERYTHING is a race or competition to him (I will never allow him to have a driver's license because he cries when we get passed on the interstate...) And I told him I couldn't go any faster. Harper said "yeah, Noah, she can't, the police will get her and take her to jail with the dangerous guys." I guess she got that from me telling them about the numbers on speed signs and that the police will get me if I go over those numbers.... I don't know where she got the 'dangerous guys' part from though.
Dad said Harper told a student that she was "14 months" old. We figured she got that because every day people ask me how old they are, how far apart they are, if they are twins etc. and I tell them their ages and that they are all 14 months apart. She listens and remembers everything..... And speaking of that little sweetie, today is her 3rd BIRTHDAY!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARPER JANE!!! She is my sweet baby girl, my Harper helper! I am so proud of how beautiful she is on the inside and out! Hopefully everyone will come to her Chuck E. Cheese party tonight, she is SO EXCITED and has a super duper, razzle dazzle new birthday outfit with a birthday girl tiara to wear to the party tonight!

Not for the weak of stomach...

I am finally getting caught back up. Josh thought it would be a good idea for me to start waking up when he does instead of staying up late at night to get caught up, so we would be on the same schedule. It's hard. I applaud him for working so hard for our family, so I can stay at home with the kids... It is not easy to wake up at 4:30 and 5:30 every other day... I like to wake up with the sun, not in the dark!!! I am really proud of him.
Anyways, that change has helped me get more done. While the kids are still asleep, I am able to get the laundry done and the checkbook balanced and the bills paid, and most importantly the blog caught up :), all uninterrupted, which is nice. Now I just have to find time to train Hoover. Anybody have any good dog training tips?
Ok-- so, Tuesday... We came home after school and I was busy in Harper's room and I saw her kind of sneaking into the bathroom and she was rubbing her hands together. I asked "What is that on your hands?" and she looked away... I started walking towards her and asked again... "Poop" she said. She had stuck her hands down the back of her poopy diaper and had fist fulls of poop... stinky, nasty poop... oh my. After I gagged a few times-- and I have developed a very strong stomach and gag reflex over the past few years, but this one was awful-- the way she was squishing it around her fingers, UGH!! So, I held her up to the sink and squirted soap in her hands and made her rub most of it off. It was still under her finger nails, and in the crevices of her cuticles and in between her fingers, so I had to just do it myself and clean it. After washing with antibacterial soap, which I felt wasn't strong enough, I broke out the germ-x and we both used up a gallon of that. I feel as though we are now disinfected. So, I changed her diaper and she got a lecture about why we don't do that and she said "well, I just wike it..." Whatever that means... Later in the day I smelled the same poop smell again and saw a diaper laying in the floor and saw Harper, whose butt was dirty and she'd pooped and taken it off and was walking around with a dirty rear! At least she didn't sit down.... So, once again, I put a towel down, and cleaned her, then put her in the bath, then cleaned up the diaper. It is SO time for her to potty train, she refuses to poop in the potty though.... I am going to lose my mind.
Tuesday was also mom and Kara's birthdays. ~~~HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND KARA~~~ even though neither of you read this... Mom has had a really bad toothache and had foot surgery; so our plans of going out to dinner were foiled. I cooked dinner and had dad and mom and grandmom and kara come over and eat. After we were finished, Harper and Juddson put on an exercise show for them. Harper does leg kicks and booty shaker, but she's made up some new "ex size dances". She'll jump and punch and all kinds of cool stuff :) Judd got into it too. He mimicked her for a while, then the layed on the floor on his belly with his hands out in front of him and started lifting his butt up and down. We finally realized he was copying Josh's push ups (that Josh has been doing every night) and it was HILARIOUS!!! I wish I had a video camera~
That was all the adventure I can remember from Tuesday.
On the way to school Wednesday morning, Noah looked at me and said "Mommy, you have sparkle eyes." Ahh, how precious is that? What a nice compliment!!! He's big into making "new friends" on his Wii, I guess they are really called Mi's, but he's got about 75 friends that he creates, plus everyone we know has one. And, on the Mi he made for me, he made my eyes with sparkles in them-- I wonder how he sees me... I think it's really neat though. Yesterday, we ran out of time and didn't get to do it, but he is wanting to make a "friend" of Grandmom-- this should be interesting....
Judd is talking so much... I can't get over it, he can communicate anything he needs too. His thing right now is, when I say "Judd, are you poopy?" He'll say "Hoppa" and I will say, "Harper's poopy?" he's says "uh huh." and then I ask again..."Judd.... are you poopy?" and he'll say "woewa"... and I say "Noah's poopy?" and again, he says "uh huh!" it's so funny... He's a big tattle tail too, have I mentioned that? He'll run to me crying and point "Woewa!" and I will say "what did Noah do" and he'll say "hit" or "boo boo" or something like that... Gotta get 'em ready for school... Pics coming soon... I did add the Christmas pics, but you'll have to scroll down, I kept them in chronological order.

And still behind...

I am supposed to be sleeping right now, but it's driving me nuts that I got behind on the blog again... They've been so cute lately-- I will try to fill you in...

Harper and Juddy Boy are still big into "school day" and "overboard." We have started trying to break Noah a little bit from the technology habit he is so absorbed in. He is doing much better in his communication though... Friday afternoon he wanted to call Nanna, so I let him, and he invited her over. So, Friday night she and Pappa came over and ate dinner and then Noah actually wanted Pappa to play MarioKart with him. He loved it, of course he beat Pappa every time, but he got a big kick out of Pappa's animation!

Yesterday, Josh needed a nap, so I took all the kids out for the afternoon. We started at PetCo and picked up a couple of things for Hoover, then we looked at all the animals. Noah would "find" the snakes and lizards in their cages and thought they were cool, they all loved the fish and Harper and I love the neon glow fish, we may have to get some of those one day... Judd loved the birds and said they were "CUTE" and Harper loved the white parakeet. We went past the guinea pigs and Harper spotted it, and said "ahhh, Hi little fella." How cute is that? They got the biggest kick out of the $2 mice. We watched one tank of them for a really long time. There were 3 little mice that were very playful and were all playing on the wheel, some would run on the inside while the others were trying to climb up the outside of the wheel, then they'd fall down and Noah was just belly laughing at them... it was fun. After PetCo, we went next door to shoe carnival and it really was a carnival-- Nanna can testify from the previous trip to shoe carnival. I finally got them measured, picked out shoes, then tried on. Noah first found a pair of high top but unfortunately, very unfortunately... they didn't have his size... next he picked out a $4 pair of "cherry red" crocs, and they were really out of his size in those... I would have gotten him those for backyard play though, he loved those red shoes.... But, eventually he found a smooth pair of silver, navy and lime green nikes that we both could live with and boy is that kid proud of those shoes. He didn't have school today, since it was Martin Luther King day, and he went to exercise school and the first thing he did was stick his feet out to show everyone his new shoes. He did the same thing to Jennifer and Michelle at therapy too. After Noah was satisfied and checking out his find, I grabbed some for Judd and tried them on, check-- he was done... Harper was mad and tired and wanting out of the stroller by this point, and was not happy with any shoes I showed her. I wanted to get her some white and pink new balance, but they were a little pricey, so we got her the girl version of the kind Noah got... silver, black and hot pink... a little flashier than I would have liked, but she finally admitted she liked them and they weren't too expensive and I wanted to get outta that store, so we just got those and left. Judd fell asleep in the stroller and stayed asleep to the carseat transfer and Harp fell asleep as soon as she was strapped in. I still braved it, and we went to Target. They did awesome, especially for only having 10 minute naps. We started off by getting coke icees and that made them happy. We shopped for a long time and got H all her b-day gifts and I got a little something for each of the boys. On the clearance aisle, we happened to find a singing dancing Brobee. The box was torn and it was marked like 8 bucks... Judd had to have it... I walked away with out it and he threw the biggest fit, crying and crying for Brobee. We walked back and I handed it to him and he hugged Brobee like it was his long lost best friend. He'd push his toe and make him sing and sing along so loud, and as soon as Brobee was done, Judd would say "toe" and hit his toe again and start it all over. Brobee is now hidden in the closet and will be 'til H's birthday party next week. I can NOT believe she is going to be 3... time is flying by too fast.

After Target we came home and the kids were starving. Noah ate some leftover pizza and Harp and Judd scarfed down "meat" --as Judd says...sausage and waffles. Then had baths, then to bed.

Today was busy with the gym and therapy. We got home and is was pretty nice outside, so we went out back and played on the swingset and played with Hoover. Harper got really muddy and after a while they all came in and had a hot shower.
Pa stopped by for a quick visit and played school and played jump with Judd. Once, Judd jumped while Pa wasn't looking, but Pa caught him anyways, and both suffered only minor head injuries. Pa taught Judd to say "PA!" then to jump... It's so cute, he'll get on the little stool and say "PA!" and put his hand in the air with his little pointer finger up. They were all tired from having a long 2 days, so we drove them around 7:30 and they were all out by mile 3.

Catching Up

I am still behind from our stomach bug last week. I was looking at the laundry today-- in every room-- covering the loveseat, clean and waiting to be folded, all the piles in the den-- folded, waiting to go to their destinations, and all the dirty clothes, scattered on the floors in every room, and then the monster-- the pile of dirty laundry waiting to be laundered... Ugh, it never ever ends, and as soon as I catch up, something happens to back it up again. Anyways, as I was looking at this, I was thinking back to when Noah was first born, and I would do laundry with expensive specialized baby detergent so it wouldn't hurt his perfect skin, and I would admire and smell every tiny little article of clothing that came out of the dryer and perfectly crease and fold it and lay it so gently in the drawer, and think ahhh-- look at these precious little clothes, and now I go to Sam's and get the biggest, cheapest bottles of detergent they have, doesn't matter what it does to the skin, just as long as it gets the clothes clean-- and as these rash making clothes come out of the dryer, I no longer oooh and ahh over them, instead I sigh and think 'the end is not even in site.' knowing it's not now, and won't ever be until they move out, and then they'll probably just bring it home for me to do on the weekends... oh well, at least it's an excuse to come see me... Yeah right... Oh well...
Anyways, this blog is about the kids, not laundry, but I really feel like I am seeing more laundry than the kids lately....
Harper was hilarious yesterday. I told her yesterday morning that Cory and Jessie were having their baby and we would go to the hospital later to see her new baby cousin "Livie." So-- all day, Harper was so excited about her baby sister "wibbie" and told everyone we saw about her. Finally, after errands last night, we got to go see her. She was precious and beautiful and Harper really admired her. She was so gentle with her, rubbing her head and peeking under her hat. While we were there the nurse came in and gave her shots and bathed her, and that really distraught Harper, because she got hurt and their was red blood on her legs and she is in the hospital. Ohh... sweet girl, she is so thoughtful... She is also HIGH MAINTENANCE right now, along with her "Juddy boy" as she has so lovingly named him. Those kids are precious and I love them to death, but they are wearing me out right now. "Hold me, hold me" says Judd all day long and follows me around from room to room and cries and plops on the floor and flings his head back if I don't hold him right that second. And right next to Juddy boy following me around is Harp, "hold me berry much" is her line and she just whines and cries and grabs my legs if I don't pick her up. Noah is still spending his free time playing computer games and playing Wii. He played his truck game right after Christmas, but it's a little hard for him and he can't win, so he's not into that game anymore. He moved onto "Mario Daseball" and got all the "friends" he could on his team and now has gone back to "MarioKart Wii" were he wins every level.

Not such a great start

The new year isn't starting off as smoothly as anticipated. I was hoping to have every room totally organized by now and everyone back onto a "regular" schedule but that has yet to happen. We've been busy dealing with electrical repairs and buying fixtures and more fixtures and then I got the stomach flu which not only set me way behind, but Josh had to take off work to stay home with the kids and that put him way behind at work. He did a great job taking care of us all yesterday, and today I am finally starting to feel better and am dealing with the aftermath. Pretty much all the dishes are dirty and all the clothes are dirty-- that said, not being Josh's fault, I should've have been caught up with all that before I got sick, but wasn't, so missing another day of it, doubled the load... Anyways, hopefully after this weekend everything will be back to normal. Is there a normal anymore?
The kids are all ok, thankfully, Judd's stomach bug only lasted 12 hours and Harper only threw up one time... I am praying Noah and Josh will not get it at all. They have been good, playing and watching shows, and Noah has been especially glad to miss another day of school... oh well..

Happy New Years!

Well, one of my resolutions is to stay organized and on top of things, and that includes the blog... more pics, more posts.... So, since I am pretending today is the start of my new year, here we go.
Also, I have been blogging for one year~~~for you new readers, you probably don't see posts going back that far, that's because my blog accidentally got deleted and they are non-recoverable by blogger. Thankfully, Brandon, one of my college friends, somehow found an archive that contained the ENTIRE blog and so I have a PDF and a Word copy on my computer! Thanks again Brandon... so now, I have started this one and will be more careful with it in the future. I have a ton of Christmas pics to put up, but they are on the other computer, so I will have to do that later tonight. So, for now, I will skip the Christmas post and go directly into New Years.
Our New Years Eve was awesome. Josh and I met Kara and Scott at Red Lobster and had a great time together. We all shared our resolutions and had a fun 3 hours at RL.
We've enjoyed our Christmas break and have tried to stay at home as much as possible. Every morning of break, Noah woke up and would say "no school today!" with a huge smile on his face. Sweet boy! I think he's going to have a hard time waking up this morning, and I dread it, but it'll be good getting back into our routine, I am so ready to get back to the gym!
I have been in the process of taking down the tree and the Christmas decorations and Noah has had the hardest time with that. If you don't know Noah personally, you need to know how sentimental and sensitive he is. He saw me taking down the tree and immediately started crying. He was saying "no, not my tree, Christmas not over." So, I felt so sorry for him crying about that tree, I thought it wouldn't hurt to leave it up and just do a Valentine's tree, an Easter tree, and 4th of July tree, etc... and the kids would enjoy helping with all the different "holidays tree" decorations. So, I told Noah to go ask daddy, who immediately said "No, the tree is coming down." His argument was that it wouldn't be as special at Christmas time if we had it up all year, and I get that too, I just felt so sorry for Noah. So, I didn't touch it the rest of the night... the next day I was taking all the "ball" ornaments off first and had a big bag of red and gold balls. Again, Noah noticed what I was doing and ran in to stop me. I told him nicely, that we had to take it down, but I didn't have to right then. So, I started doing something else and a few minutes later I came back to the room and Noah is down by the tree hanging the ornaments BACK on--- HOW STINKIN' CUTE IS THAT? He was SO PROUD and ran up to me and said "Mommy, Look I fixed the tree!" So, I left his up for a couple more days. Even in passing, if he looked over and saw the half taken down, half decorated tree he'd cry. Finally, last night, we finished, through a few tears, the beloved tree is now in it's box awaiting the arrival of next Christmas.
Pa has spent a lot of time at our house during the break also, he can't wait to retire to be able to see the kids more. They loved it, Harper and Juddson started to play "school day" with Pa. They will answer questions, or have Pa answer questions and will run to the wall and draw an imaginary mark and say "check mark" and then go on to the next question. It's so cute to hear Judd say "check mok." Harper and Juddson have also started playing "overboard." They pile up pillows and their HUGE stuffed animals they got for Christmas up and jump off her bed into the pile while yelling "overboard!" Judd says that too "ove bord" and he'll count too, "1, 2,5,6, 8" and then jump-- at least he's got most of them down!
Cory made Josh an awesome marshmallow gun for Christmas (thanks for that Cory...) And Josh likes to shoot our children with it... well, he had it out and was going to shoot Noah, and Harper ran in front of him, and said "No, he's my friend!" and when she stepped in front of him, Josh had already shot and it hit her arm at pretty close range. I don't think it hurt her, just shocked her that he actually shot her, and she cried and cried... it was so sad because she was protecting Noah and she took the shot. Now, Josh will get it out to play with Noah, because Noah loves to get shot with it, and she'll grab Judd's hand and run him into the bedroom to hide him so he won't get shot and she'll scream at daddy to not shoot them.
Another thoughtful thing she did was when we were all playing Hungry Hippo. We tried to play in on the bed, which was a terrible idea because it slanted to one side, the side with the most weight-- where Josh was laying. Anyways, we played and since I was opposite of Josh, I ended up with like 1 ball, Harper, who had several, grabbed a handful and gave me some... I think that's so sweet of her, she didn't want me to feel like a Hungry Hippo failure.
They got a little fun to learn table and it has a flip top, one side is music and the other side teaches you to write numbers and letters and draw, when that side is down, Harper says she is "doing my job" and no one can bother her.
The other day we were in the office and Noah flipped the light switch on. After a second, Harper said "Nice reach Noah" and I said "Nice reach? What do you mean?" and she walked over to the switch and said "I can't weach, I too wittle, Noah had a nice weach!"
Two nights ago, they were all 3 in the bath... it was cold in our house and the water was pretty hot. Noah was standing up and the steam from the bath was around him and concerned Harper pointed to Noah and said "He's burnin'."
Judd is currently loving the song "head shoulders knees and toes" and I have to sing it a hundred times a day, especially when I am rocking him to sleep.... our new favorite routine. Last night he sang along to the Richard Scarry ABC learning song with me and it was precious.
Yesterday we made Noah turn off his computer, because his time was up and he was crying and whining about it while sitting in my lap. He said "My heart..." and I said "what's wrong with your heart?" and he said, "It's broken." and continued crying over his computer games.
Well, I didn't get to post this Monday, it's now Tuesday morning. Our routine started off well and Noah was all smiles about school-- which was surprising and wonderful. Yesterday was super hectic with school, gym, therapy, a trip to Lowes, home to meet the electrician, back to lowe's for different stuff, came home with the wrong stuff after an hour, Josh had to pick us up pizza for dinner, showers, and to bed... that's why I didn't get to post this yesterday! Today should be much calmer, although Judd messed up my new workout routine because he got sick and threw up in the gym childcare today and we had to leave. I tried to work out at home, but you know how that goes, with 2 toddlers climbing all over-- not so good... Anyways, here are some pics from the past couple of weeks... You'll notice Noah got a haircut and he'll remember it or think about it and cry "my beautiful hair gone" and we have to reassure him that it's still beautiful and will grow back.