Funny Phone!

So today we had a pretty relaxing afternoon. The kids and I were all snuggled together in the big chair getting ready to watch Arthur on PBS. We were just getting the blankets situated, when the phone rang. Maggie jumped up to grab the phone (she’s such a good little helper) and handed it to me. As she was handing the phone to me, she looked at the caller id and said “I don’t know this number, maybe you do!” Then as the phone is still ringing she says “Mom, can you please try to keep it down, so that I can watch this show?!?” Do you think maybe I’ve said that a few to many times? Do you see how I can sometimes forget that the girl is only 4 years old!

By the way, the phone call was a telemarketer! I didn’t know the phone number either!

My 4-H

Helpers!

Maggie is all geared up ready to help Daddy finish a new "toy storage" project!

Healthy Kids!

Sharing an "after bath" Hug

Home!

3 of my 4 kids (Andy counts as 1)
Charlie is the really hairy one!

Happiness!

My healthy, happy family!

Early Snowy Morning!

This is the beautiful picture we woke up to today! It is GORGEOUS!

I believe it is also the cause of the early morning in our house. The normal rule around here is that the little people need to stay in their rooms till 7:00 am. Now normally this works pretty well. Maggie and Max both have a digital clock in their room and Maggie has hers right next to her bed. If she wakes up before 7, she will get a book or play with Barbie dolls till it’s time. She will then come into our room and inform me of the time. She’ll say in her soft whispering voice “Mom, my clock says seven zero four (7:04) can I go downstairs?” Then off she goes…she’ll quietly go down and turn on the TV. Of course, she knows what show is on what channel and she will bring her blanket down and get her spot on the couch. A few minutes later, I will hear more little foot steps coming into our room and in his soft whispering voice Max will say, “Mama, my clock says seven eight nine (7:89) can I go downstairs too! I love it! It totally makes me smile and gets my day off to the right start.

Today however, did NOT go like that. Andy needed to get up early due to the snow and having a 7:15 meeting. He tries to be quite, although his quite and my quite are two totally different things. Anyway, I think both kids heard Daddy and saw the reflection of the bright snow through their windows, which makes it look like 3:00 in the afternoon and just knew they had to get up. They both came into our bed with me and we snuggled for a few minutes before they both began to talk non-stop….planning their day. Here is their plan:

• Playing restaurant for breakfast (they are the customers and I am the waitress)
• Shoveling the snow!
• Playing in the snow!
• As always, playing Zingo!

This was all at 6:15 this morning. I am a morning person, but even that is early for me!

I sent them both downstairs, laid there in bed for a few minutes and then got up to start this wonderful day I have been given.

The plan today is to enjoy this weather, since I hope this is the last of it, and do all the things the kids planned for today!

It’s going to be a “several cups of coffee morning” (I’m already on #2) and a WONDERFUL day!

He's All Mine Girls!

A man who loves to clean...He's every girls dream!

Update on Max in church!

Just a quick update on Max sitting in church. It didn't go very well today due to the fact that from the moment the boy was out of bed, he had some extra energy. I don't think the Pez candy from the heart Pez dispenser helped matters. (We still love our secret Valentine very much!) Needless to say, he was in the church nursery today! I haven't given up hope, we'll try again next week.

Gone Goofy for Grommets!

Now I wouldn’t normally call myself crafty, but occasionally I get a vision in my head and sometimes it turns out okay. In the past few weeks, I‘ve gone goofy for GROMMETS. It all started with trying to make Maggie a new valance for her bedroom. She got new bedding for Christmas (purchased on eBay of course) and I wanted to buy her the matching curtain panels…after doing some research the curtain panels were WAY to expensive for my liking. So I ended up buying a crib skirt that matched her bedding (also purchased on eBay and cost $10 plus shipping vs. $80 plus shipping) I wasn’t sure how I would make it work but had to give it a try. Ended up, one full side of the crib skirt was the width of her window. I decided to make it a straight valance instead of a ruffle one and I used GROMMETS to pull ribbon thru and then tied the ribbon to the curtain rod. They turned out cute!

So next I put 12 GROMMETS in the holes in my shower curtain! It looks more finished.

Then I bought a $5 canvas bag at Hobby Lobby. I know, I know, do I really need another bag? (I love bags, any kind of bag, and I can always use more bags) Anyway, I thought it would be cute to add some ribbon and more GROMMETS! I think it turned out cute too….so if you think you want to try out this GROMMET thing…I have the tool, give me a call and we can work on your vision.

He's Home!

As most of you know, I am an organized person, I LOVE lists, and I always try to have a plan. For some reason I have a hard time when the plan gets out of whack.

That said, the plan for Andy’s arrival home didn’t go as planned. His original ETA was to get into P-town at about 5:48, so my plan was to give a kids a late snack (so we could all eat dinner together later) get them ready and head to the airport about 5:20ish. Andy called about 4:50 and said they were running late and not to leave yet…he didn’t think they were going to make the flight to P-town.

Here’s the entire scoop:

They made in a little early to Chicago, so they thought they were in good shape, but then the plane started to circle in air. That is where the problem started. They ended up circling for quite some time. Finally they landed and then had to go thru baggage claim, customs and security again. The outcome was that they only ended up with 30 minutes to get from one end of the airport to the other….it was NOT enough time.

So he calls to say that they missed the flight and the next one doesn’t leave till 9:40. He decided that that was not an option. They rented a car and drove the 3 plus hours home. Please keep in mind that they had been up almost 24 hours already, I was a little nervous about them driving. He called several times, since he knows how I like to be kept in the know. Thankfully the roads weren’t bad (weather wise) from Chicago to us and the officer who pulled him over for doing 74 in a 65 was very understanding. He just got off with a warning. I think that all these things were a part of the BIGGER plan (not my plan) of getting him home safely. Thanks for your prayers! We are off this morning to take the rental car back and pick up his luggage that didn’t make it here last night either!

Positives & Negatives of Andy being gone!

Positive – Less laundry, less dishes, less random stuff being left on the kitchen counter!

Negative – There is still laundry, still dishes and just a few random things on the kitchen counter!

Positive – The entire bed to myself!

Negative – Being in bed all by myself – I really miss my automatic heater!

Positive – House stays picked up!

Negative – What am I talking about….we have 2 little people!

Positive – Not having to fix dinner every night!

Negative – Missing the “family dinner” every night!

Positive – Not having to answer to anyone (not that I really have to)

Negative – Not having him here to talk to. Something about the delay in our phone calls makes communication a little hard (ex. Are you there?? Hello??? Still there???)

If you can’t tell, I’m ready for Andy to get home. It’s been a good week and thankfully it has gone by fast. Thanks to my family and friends for keeping us busy and checking in to make sure we are doing okay….Lisa, that is you! Please pray for safe travel and good weather to get him home to us.

God has blessed me with this wonderful man and I know I don’t tell him enough….

I love you, and I can’t wait for you to get home!

The Lord’s Prayer

Since my challenge at church on Sunday with keeping Max in the service, I’ve been thinking about teaching him the Lord’s Prayer. It might be a crazy thought, but I think he can do it. You should see the boy belt out the Doxology; he makes everyone around us smile. Seeing the joy in his face as he sings is AWESOME. Only I know the true reason for his excitement…..he gets to have his sucker when we are done!

Here is a little background story:

Last year for Father’s Day, I thought a wonderful gift for Andy would be for Maggie to recite the Lord’s Prayer. Of course I didn’t think of this brilliant idea until about 2 weeks before the big day…so, I would sneak into Maggie’s room after Andy did the bedtime routine and I would break the prayer into sections and we would say it together. After about 5 times of us saying it together, she knew the entire prayer! Her mind is AMAZING! We practiced every night and I couldn’t wait for the day to come. Daddy was going to be so surprised! The day arrived and I could barely hold in my excitement….we all were dressed and ready to go to church and I asked her to tell Daddy her surprise. She got all nervous, just stood there giggling and would not say any part of the prayer. My dream was crushed! For several weeks later, she still wouldn’t say it. She would only do it in her room with me at night in the dark. One night I asked Andy to listen from the hall; he heard the entire prayer and really couldn’t believe that she could say it all. It wasn’t how I had planned it in my head, but it all worked out okay.

So, since Andy has been gone this week, the kids and I have been doing our bedtime prayers together. (Usually, Andy does one kid and I do the other) We have been saying our usual prayers, but then Maggie and I have been saying the Lord’s Prayer together when we are done. Max seems eager to learn what we are saying, but for right now just looks at us like we are speaking in a foreign language to him. I’ll keep you posted on how he does with this, as well as sitting in church.

Missing Daddy!

Top of the mornin’ to ya! I say that in my lovely Irish accent. Can’t you just hear it!

This weekend I put away all my Valentine’s Day décor (I say that like I have a ton of items…It’s only about 10 things) and got out my few St. Patrick’s Day things. I didn’t use to decorate for St. Patty’s Day, however since I married into the Sullivan family, I thought I better start. So as I’m getting this stuff out of the Rubbermaid tub, Maggie asked “Do I have to wear green today?” I said “Oh, not today…we have a few weeks before St. Patrick’s Day” She said “Then why are you getting all this stuff out NOW?”

Good question….Why am I!!!!

As some of you know, Andy is in England for work this week. I’ve asked some friends to pray for me, because it’s going to be a long week without him. I don’t know how single parents do this. Most, probably go to a job during the day and then come home to the kids. However as you know THIS is my job. Not too much getting away this week. To top it off, there is no school on Monday & Wednesday. I have great family who is here to help and we are going to keep really busy! The kids both ask me several times a day, when Daddy’s coming home. Maggie had tears in her eyes when we got to the van after we dropped him off. She said “Mom, I already miss Dad”….I gave her a Sour Thing and she was all better. By the way, we love these things...I keep one in the van and they always make our "problems" better...plus they are sugar free! Gotta love that!

Yesterday (Sunday) was a bit of a challenge to get to church on time. I usually have some help on Sunday morning to help get us out the door at 8:00 am. (Yes, church starts at 8:15) So, as the organized person I am, I thought I better get their clothes put out Saturday night, got the “church goodie bag” ready, got the coffee pot set and tried to figure out what I was going to wear (that’s the biggest challenge of all!) Everything went pretty smoothly…even got all the beds made before we left and talked to Andy for a few minutes.

Since the “getting ready” part of the morning went pretty well, I thought I was up for another challenge. Max always comes to church service with us until after children’s moment and then he goes to the nursery so that we can actually hear the message. But yesterday, I decided to try to keep in the sanctuary the entire time….since his days in the nursery are limited. (the ages for nursery care is infant thru 3 years…he is pushing 3 ½)

He did a lot better than I thought. During the prayer, they dim the lights….he was sitting on my lap and said “why is the lights off?” I said “we are praying”, so he folded his hands to pray. A few minutes later, he whispers “When is God going to say amen?” as he points to our pastor. It was hard not to laugh. What a sweet boy! I’ll let you know if we try it again next week.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

LOVE is in the air – Oh wait, that is just these darn snow flurries we keep having….Have I told you yet how ready we are for spring!

Anyway, Maggie had her Valentine party at school yesterday (she attends preschool on MWF). She brought a backpack full of goodies home; it truly looked more like Halloween than Valentine’s Day. Anyway, she had fun writing all the kids names on their treat bags that we made up. As for today, we spent our AM at church….the kids both LOVE to go, so that makes it easier for me to LOVE to go also. Andy is playing soccer tonight, so we will attend his game and then head to La Fiesta with friends for dinner – Doesn’t that sounds so romantic!

So on this holiday of LOVE, of course we have to wear the appropriate attire….with that in mind and knowing my frugal nature (on some things), we started wearing our “Valentine shirts” Last Week! Maggie has a cute pink top with sequins and beads, (it’s very cute on her) and then there is MAX.

His shirt is red with a big #14 on it along with the word Heartbreaker (which totally fits him) When we put his shirt on last week, I started singing the lovely Pat Benatar tune from my teenage years. “Heartbreaker, dream maker, love taker, don’t you mess around with me” You know you know it, so come on sing with me! You’re a heartbreaker, dream maker, lover taker, don’t you mess around with me. Okay, Okay….that’s enough…so back to my flashback, (Lani, do you remember???) We were standing on a couch, singing at the top of our lungs, ALL the Pat Benatar songs. I believe there was a bottle of Boones Farm nearby…but we won’t go there. Anyway, got me thinking about my kids at that age and I think maybe we will stick to our more Christian-like songs. Please don’t take it personal Pat…LOVE your tunes and always will!

Here are a few pictures of the kids modeling their “LOVE” shirts!

Have a Happy Valentines Day everyone! We love you!

Snow Castle

Here are a few pictures of the kids in their "Snow Castle"

BIG BOY BLUES!

It's official! There are no more babies in my house...No diapers, no pacifiers, no bottles, no cribs (no naps?!?!) ..no signs of anything remotely babyish. It's all gone. Max is a big boy now and I'm feeling a little blue.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm excited about the new phase we are starting...and I have known for some time that I'm not having any more children, but it kinda weird how it has suddenly HIT me that my babies are growing up and growing up FAST! I am trying to keep positive and think of all the things we can do now now that we don't have to be home to do an afternoon nap. Long afternoon walks in the neighborhood, trips to the library when all the toddlers aren't there, a swimming pool pass this summer.
It all sounds so wonderful....and I'm sure it will be, but I will be doing all those wonderful things with my big kids, not my babies. I'm sure everyone goes through this and I know my mother-in-law is telling me (from heaven) "This too shall pass" but the real question is Do I really want it too???