Thanks!

Thanks to everyone for their prayers the last couple days!! The surgery went well, and I was able to pump once then nurse Callie around bed time, so she was fine also. I think the surgery will greatly help my weaning her, she is down to three times a day nursing, almost two. She's taking a cup really well. It is a little crazy around here, the kids all have head colds and the doctor confirmed this morning that Tate has strep throat, so he's on medicine for that now. We had the people come for a second bid this morning, and I'm sure they thought we were crazy b/c of all that was going on and how terrible I looked. I'm in pain, it feels best just to lie flat, so that's what I'm going to do for as long as I can. I haven't figured out a pain free way to sit up yet, so I hope I can figure that out soon. Pray that I heal QUICKLY!

EEEK!

So, I'm just a little bit stressed right now. I'm going to go have some chocolate after I type this. Here's whats going on:

-we decided on doors, windows, side panel, siding colors and styles, the way we want our addition to go, what kind of insulation we will use.

-we have contractor number 2 coming Friday morning. This is good b/c we HAVE to have at least two bids, so we will and it won't hold anything up! The date the bids need to go in is Feb 9.

-we might get to start as early as a week after we accept the bid, which could mean late next month!!!

-my parents are on their way up. I will be GLAD to see them!!!

-Tate has a fever and looks absolutely miserable. Brent has a cold and Callie has one, too. She was up in the middle of the night crying, but luckily I got her back to sleep WITHOUT nursing her.

-I've been taking vitamin C and eating clementines like they're going out of style to prevent myself from getting sick...recovering from hernia surgery and sneezing don't sound like a good mix to me!

-I am so incredible stressed that the people in my family are getting sick. I am going to need to rely a lot on Brent for a couple days, and Callie is clingy, fussy and wants to nurse more when she is sick, so this is not great timing!

-I can't eat anything past midnight, so I'm looking to have a giant 11 o'clock snack; ;)

-I asked Hunter to go clean his toy room b/c that is where my dad likes to sleep, and he did a fantastic job, it was very cute to see everything lined up and organized.

-I have everything but two things done on my list of things to do before tomorrow, so I'm right on track.

Pray that everything goes well tomorrow!

Third generation Chocolate lovers

My inspiring, former teacher friend, Erin and I were talking about ideas for things I could do with Hunter after his quiet time. I want to work with him and teach him, but I find that I have been extremely worn out lately. I don't know if it is the fact that the temp has been so frigid, or the fact that Callie has been waking me up in the night since she is teething.(A side note: last night at 2 am I got her to go back to sleep WITHOUT nursing her!!! THIS IS HUGE! I might end up not having to nurse her till she's four after all.) Anyway, Erin told me about this blog "The Crafty Crow" and it is AWESOME! She has craft ideas daily for kids just my age. I am really excited to try some of the crafts I've seen on there. So this morning the boys and I made chocolate play dough as featured on the site. It smells heavenly. Hunter just sat smelling it for awhile. They made chocolate men, popsicles, cookies and other sorts of pretend treats.
Tate blowing out his candles on his birthday cake


They had both had a later breakfast, so I knew lunch would be hard to get into them, so we made some delicious chocolate chip peanut butter cookies and had them. I want to try this idea featured of crafty crow with Hunter after his quiet time today.

The day did not start out so great for me today. I had to be at the chiropractor's office at 8:30 for my ultrasound treatment and I left the car running while I was there(which everyone does here). I locked it b/c I'm not trusting, and then I went to the grocery store to pick up some sale items and locked the door and left it running again. Except as I was going inside I felt in my pocket that I did not have the other set of keys, I had forgotten to put them in my pocket after unlocking it at the chiro. So...called Brent on my cell phone(thanks AGAIN Laci) and he called the car guys who came and thirty five dollars later unlocked my door. It is in the teens below zero here, and I got so very cold standing outside, not to mention the poor guy who had to bail me out. I was SO frustrated with myself. I work so hard at saving us money and Brent works so hard at making us money that spending $35 on my mistake was very hard for me to forgive myself for. Luckily I was where I was, had my cell phone and did NOT have the kids...that would have been horrible! Brent was very understanding and sweet when I came back from the store bawling my eyes out. I have a rough time in the winter and has been hard for me to function in this cold. I really hope for a warm up soon, but I am really thankful for my sweet husband and my great friends who care and are willing to give me things to look forward to and ideas to make life easier!

Christmas Eve at the ER

I remember as a kid every year at Christmas at least one of my family members would be sick over the break, and I think we're going to follow that in our family. Hunter had that fever on Tuesday, but seemed to be feeling better yesterday. He was really whiny, but I just thought he was still a little tired, and he didn't have the fever any more. We went along with our Christmas Eve plans as normal, although we stayed later than I had anticipated. When we came home around 9:30 and were getting the kids ready for bed we noticed that Hunter had a rash all over his body! I was worried about it and called the insurance 24 hour nurse line and after talking with her she said to have him checked out within the hour. This meant driving 45 mins one way at 10 pm on Christmas eve. Brent called and my nice sister-in-law, Anna, agreed to come with Hunter and I, so we took Hunter to the emergency room. It was pretty deserted, so we were able to get right in thankfully. They did a strep test which came back positive, and the rash was part of the strep. So...he's on some antibiotics and to his delight is recommended by the doctor to have ice cream and popsicles. We don't have any ice cream, but I made some juice popsiciles. We got home around 1:15. A business had dropped off some presents at the hospital for kids who had to come to the ER on Christmas Eve or Christmas day, so Hunter got a present and that perked him up some. The boys slept in till 9 this morning, and Callie got up at 8. I'm very very very tired and am really looking forward to sleeping tonight. I don't think it put much of a damper on our Christmas morning. The kids were excited to open presents and greeted us with a "Merry Christmas" this morning. They've been playing with all their gifts today, which has made it a little easier on the tired parents. Here are some pictures from last night and this morning:








I think I'm going to go spend some time with my sweetie now. Merry Christmas!

Time

Warning: Negative post ahead...not all days are good. You don't have to read this.

It's been a bad day at our house today. I think we're all a little tired from the weekend, and things are not fun today. I'm working on potty training Tate, who is doing really well, but potty training is still a LOT OF WORK. So, here is a little estimation of how I've spent my day today:
-the amount of time I've spent in the bathroom with Tate:2 hours
-the amount of time between said potty training "bathroom breaks":15 minutes
-the amount of underwear and outfits Tate's gone through this morning(and yes, he IS doing good):6
-the amount of times I've answered the question "Why?": four hundred million times
-the amount of time Callie slept for her morning nap:0 hours,0 minutes, 0 seconds
-the amount of laundry I have to do b/c of said accidents:3 loads
-the amount of times I've thought this job is too hard for me today:5
-the amount of times I've cried of had to apologize for crabbiness:lots

I'm tired.

Thursday, Bloody Thursday

Well, its been quite an evening around here. I'm not feeling very well right now, I've got a headache and my stomach isn't feeling well. It just hit me around 4 this afternoon, so I called Brent to see when he'd be home. He was on his way, so I was relieved. However, not a minute later Tate pushed Callie down while she was standing and she fell and hit her mouth. She cut that thing that hangs from your top gums to your lip pretty bad. It bled A LOT. She cried hysterically for 10 minutes straight, poor thing. I felt even worse after that b/c I don't like the sight of blood. She is doing fine now, thankfully. The blood did not end there, however. Tate and Hunter pulled out all the pillows, blankets and any other covering they could find and placed it on me while I was laying on the couch. Later, after I took them off me, they started jumping from the couch to the pile of blankets/pillows on the floor. Hunter got carried away and drug/pushed Tate down on the floor. Tate hit his head REALLY HARD on the record cabinet and it started bleeding badly. Brent took care of that one. I am a little nervous b/c he hit his head so hard, but he seems to be acting normal. I sat him on my lap with an ice pack for as long as he would allow. I was looking at the poor guy while icing his head. He's got a scar from when he cut his eyebrow open, a chipped front tooth from when he fell on the tile, and currently he has a scratch mark and bruise on his cheek. He really is quiet the "bruiser". Much like his dad was I imagine. I sure hope he grows out of this accident prone trend. I think I would surely pass out if he ever breaks a bone.

In completely unrelated news, Hunter now has a new name for our Balmex. He was bringing it to Brent tonight as he was changing Tate's diaper and he called it "penis cream". We good a chuckle out of that. I hope he calls it the right name if we are in public;)

Call me Mrs Crabby

Ooi! I am having one of those days today. I can feel my hormones racing through my tired body. Tate and Callie have come down with a cold. Callie had a small fever last night. I think she's teething, but I don't think she got the cold b/c of that. Tate tends to be on the drooly side normally, so add in a cold and you've got one big snotty, drooly mess on your hands. I've been following him around with tissues today, as well as Callie.

Why can't I just do ONE THING at a time??????? Why do I always have to be doing a bizillion things at once. Its so easy for me to get forty things going at once and then get really stressed about it. This morning was no exception as I started making a batch of pizza dough(for a play date that may or may not take place tomorrow...I've got to warn the mommies of the cold my kids have first) AND the boys and I were making oatmeal raisin cookies(also for the play date). When I needed to knead the dough I gave the boys a couple crackers and they managed to crush them all over my clean floors. Can I just say HOW TIRED I am of sweeping my floor?!? I can't have one crumb on the floor b/c Callie loves to crawl under the table and I don't want her eating anything she finds. So, when I tried to sweep the cracker crumbs up Callie was right under my feet, trying as hard as she could to help herself to what I was sweeping up. This happens quiet often. Mostly I just put her in her Johny or excersuacer, but she wasn't happy with that today. Thankfully, Hunter is big enough to pick her up and after I asked him to come get her, he kept her company so I could finish the floor. And then there is the laundry that will not only quit, I'm pretty sure it multiplies while it is waiting to go in. I've done three loads so far today and I've got one more waiting to be put in. And its not like I wait till there is a lot there, no, I do laundry every day! The boys broke a stand up mirror I had for them in their playroom this morning, so I had to get out my trusty broom for that mess, also. Then, when dropping Hunter off at school, Tate got so upset that he couldn't stay that I had to carry him(while he was screaming) and Callie to the van. It was quiet a spectacle. Basically, I'm just having one of those, "all I do is pick up messes and wipe things" days. Sigh.

It's so hard to find that balance between keeping your house clean and tidy(an almost impossible task if you ask me) and making sure you spend enough time with your kids, reading and playing and interacting with them. I don't know how to figure out the balance. I'm sure I could let a few things go with the house, but it does need to be cleaned....but the kids need to be given attention to also. I try to read to them at least 30 mins each day, I try to get on the floor and play with them, we bake together, sometimes clean together and we pretend together. I just feel like its still not enough. And I feel like the house is not getting cleaned enough. What to do! And don't even get me started on one on one time....

At least Auntie Anna is up to save the day by watching the kids while I go to get my hair cut!

I'm going to go try to get out of my funk.

Sarah and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very bad day!

It should have been a great, relaxing day. Today I decided to do something I very rarely do. I thought it would be fun to take the kids to town and get pumpkins and do a little shopping research that I've been wanting to do for ages. I've wanted to go to three different grocery stores and price compare to see if I'm getting the best deal on things or not. I'm all about saving money(to pay for car repairs, read on...). Anyway, I thought today would be good....we've been home all week except for MAC yesterday and story time on Tuesday. The laundry is caught up and supper isn't too hard tonight(thank goodness). So, we left at 10:30. I had planned on going to the first grocery store, then to the next, then to McDonalds for lunch for the kids and then to the last store. We got to town about 11:00 or so and we got one of those fun car carts, so the boys were happy and Callie was happy. We left the grocery store about 11:40 and as I was leaving the parking lot I noticed the van was shaking pretty bad. It didn't stop as I accelerated so I made the decision to just head back home and not go anywhere else. That went over GREAT with the kids!! I got to the outskirts of the big town and the lights all came on in the van so I pulled off the highway, thankfully, just as it died. So, I call Brent but can't get ahold of him. I proceed to try for quite a while to get ahold of various people. I called six different people before I finally got ahold of someone who could get me the number of Brent's uncle who could give me his cousin's number who was with him. They were just finishing up a job about 15 mins from where I was so I waited about 25 mins for them(with two boys asking a LOT of questions....really fun!) Brent and Ben came and tampered with the van for awhile, decided we'd try to drive it home little by little. It took THREE AND A HALF HOURS to get home. That is a long time, especially when you have to listen to two boys asking question after question after question. Boy was it not fun. I have never been so happy to see my house. We had to stop SO many times to let the van cool off. Brent thinks it is either this very inexpensive problem or this very bad, very expensive problem. I'm hoping for the inexpensive problem. I can't handle any more car problems, and I know Brent is weary of them as well. It was not fun. The boys didn't take naps, so early to bed for them!

I'm going to go take whatever headache medicine is allowed nursing moms and hope this day is over soon.

Fat Lip Numero Dos

Yes, I look like I've had a bad botox job right now. As Tate was sitting down in my lap so I could put his shoes on he accidentally headbutted me and now I have another fat lip. This one hurt quite a bit, I envisioned those star things swirling above my head like they have in cartoons. It is not even 1 yet and the kids are all down for naps. I'd be pretty surprised if Hunter didn't take a nap today. The reason: we had our first ECFE class today. Hunter was SO excited to go to "school". It was a really fun time actually. I was dreading having Callie there, b/c as it turns out there wasn't sibling care, but it went alright. She likes noise. The kids checked out every square inch of the classroom, looking at every toy before deciding on what to play with first. They chose the animals and had a whole table FULL of giraffes, lions, bears, horses, cows and pigs. They have a great variety of toys to play with. After they were playing for awhile the moms went out and had a time to talk and get to know each other. We'll be doing this every time and I think I'm really going to like this part. What I know I'll miss about MOPS is the feeling of being totally normal in all this mothering business, and I felt right at home with all the other moms, so that was great! After that we came back in the classroom and had a circle singing time, story time and then we had little stations of activities for the kids. The theme for today was polar bears, so all the activities were about bears. There was a matching game, a craft decorating the bears, a water table where you could scoop out little bears and big containers with ice in them that you could walk little polar bears around on. There was also painting and snacks. It was very stimulating for the boys. At the end they go in a room and are allowed to check out one toy and one book for the week. Hunter chose a grader(of course) and Tate chose a tractor with lots of animals on it. Hunter is pretty excited about that grader. It was fun, however coming home was not. They were pretty worn out and Hunter made mention a couple times of just going to bed. That was fine with me, so we ate lunch and went down for early naps. The class lasted an hour and a half, and Hunter goes tomorrow for his kid only class which lasts for THREE hours(during what is normally nap/quiet time) so I am SURE we'll be putting him to bed shortly after supper. I think he'll have a great time, though. His pal Ryan is going, so I'm glad he'll have a familiar face.

Callie is teething again. She's working on some bottom ones now. Its going super rough for her this time. I'm growing increasingly tired and frustrated. I just don't know what to do to help her. Yesterday she kept spitting up at church and I had to finally bring her home during Sunday school and change her outfit. She was chewing on her hands and whining the whole time. She's been waking up at least once in the night and I am getting so tired from that. I can hardly function. She stopped waking up in the night once she popped her last bunch of teeth, so I'm hoping she does that again. I've been giving her Tylenol, but I don't think its helping at all. I'll be so happy when teething is over.

A couple funny Hunter sayings:
-yesterday we were talking about his age and he said, "Four is really old. So is seven."
-Tate was bugging him while Brent had them on the bike in the trailer and he heard Hunter tell Tate, "Tomorrow, I'm not talking to you all day." (Of course they've been chatting it up all day)
-I got out Hunter's new church shoes yesterday and showed them to him and he said, (in the cutest excited voice) "OHHH! Those are awesome! They're so cool!!"

Well, I'm going to go cash in on this time of ALL the kids sleeping at once. It's like winning the lottery!

This hour has been a doozy.

The last hour at the Norman residence has been quiet exhausting. I'm now ready for bed. Here's what the last hour has looked like for me:

-came home from a day at camp with my friend, the kids had no naps and lots of fresh air.

-was wrestling around with the boys while waiting for Brent to come home(briefly b/c he had to leave again for another job) and Hunter playfully said he was going to punch me in the face. I said, "Oh no you're not!" just as he cocked back and punched me RATHER HARD in the face. I now have a swollen bleeding sore bottom lip. My three year old gave me a fat lip. He was very sorry and will not be doing that again. Brent walked in within 30 seconds of this happening and took care of Hunter while I tried to stop it from bleeding and put an ice pack on it. I can't talk very well right now.


-then Hunter starts having diarrhea(again, he also had it yesterday at the park. It wasn't pretty then either and I have some mental images that will never be forgotten;) He makes it to the toilet all the times, but manages to get it on his legs, the rug, me.

-Then Tate has his third(and I must say nastiest) poop of the day. Something must be going on here, b/c these boys do not do this normally.

-While making waffles(yes, I don't cook exciting things when Brent is going to be gone for supper) Tate gets into the egg shells.

-cut up waffles for the boys, get a new batch going and talk to my mom on the phone, all the while nursing Callie.

-Give boys bananas after the waffles and Tate immediately smashes his ALL over.

-Give up and decide that its movie time. Can't find the movie they want to watch ANYWHERE! I seriously looked everywhere. Finally decide on one and put it in, only to have to go downstairs while typing this to see why Tate is crying. Turns out Hunter punched him b/c he got ahold of the remote and shut the movie off. So...Hunter is now in his room for the rest of the movie after being punished again.

I was going to give them hair cuts tonight. Methinks that would put me over the edge, I think we'll be waiting till tomorrow.

I am so ready for bed.

Another glimpse into my day...

Wow its been a difficult week with the little ones. I sure do love them, but I'm heading to check for some gray hair after I get done typing this. A friend came and watched the kids for an hour and a half or so today(she wanted to do something nice for me and it was MUCH appreciated). I got up and did some vacuuming and other various clean up tasks to get the house looking nice so I could relax while she watched them. I washed and dried and put the kids sheets on their beds also. I really wanted to exercise before she came over, so even though I didn't have much time I decided that it was going to happen anyway, so I started my Pilates. Callie was in her excersaucer watching me, but started to get fussy and I took her out and put her on the floor with me. I smelled that familiar poop smell, so I checked her and she had blown out the back and now there was poop on the floor. I got her cleaned up, the floor cleaned up and began exercising again. The boys were jumping all over me while I was trying to exercise, and I was getting a little frustrated but I was very determined to get to the end of the workout(it is 36 mins long). Callie still was fussy so I went upstairs to lay her in her room for a nap. As I was doing that I heard a loud banging/shattering sound. I bolted downstairs and found that the boys had shattered the glass portion of our coffee table. We for the longest time had the glass out, but the boys never play on it and we thought it'd be ok and had put it back in awhile ago. Thankfully neither of them was hurt, but they wouldn't tell me how they did it. I sent them upstairs to sit on the couch while I cleaned up the mess. I sobbed the entire time I cleaned the glass up b/c I am SO sick of cleaning up messes! I couldn't handle it very well today I guess. So...after the glass was cleaned up I decided that exercising just wasn't going to happen after all and went to shower. I told the boys to please be nice to each other while I shower and took a really quick one. As soon as I got out I peeked my head out and called for them, and they were upstairs(they aren't allowed upstairs b/c of the computer, my scrapbook stuff, the books, etc..) I went up and found that they had taken my king sized sheets off the bed. They were certainly busy beavers today! So, now I'm washing MY sheets and am hoping that there aren't any more messes for the day. I did get up to the bank while my friend was here watching the kids, so that is something I don't have to do with them tomorrow. I'm already excited for bedtime! I want to be clear that I have a lot to be thankful for, I'm just having one of those weeks.

Here is a picture I took at the end of our bike ride last night. Hunter hasn't been taking naps, but still needs them, so he fell asleep on our ride:

One of Callie trying to crawl:

And silly Taters:

This and that

I'm so ready for our house remodel to start. I type that as I'm sitting upstairs in my stifling hot office. Ugg.

I decided to go grocery shopping yesterday instead of today. Here's how it went:

-Supposed to be at my friend's house at 9:45, was there instead at 10:07 b/c Callie had to nurse right when I wanted to leave.

-Went first to JC Pennys since I had a free $10 to spend. Wanted a new swimsuit but they did not carry ONE swimsuit in that whole building. Kids running around everywhere, tried to find something really quick that would be nice for myself, Callie screaming the whole time. Finally grabbed something and left(only to return it an hour later b/c it didn't fit right when I tried it on in the car, got a shirt for Brent instead)

-Thought Callie would be able to hang on for the 5 minute drive to the park where my friend was. Was wrong and had to pull over and nurse her a few blocks from the park or else my ears would have exploded.

-Ate lunch at the park and walked around a little on a pretty path around a pond. Hunter was tired and fell on the trail, getting the smallest scrape ever but making the biggest deal ever. Had to carry him(while he cried loudly in my ear) while pushing Callie in her stroller.

-Kids fell asleep on the way to Target, I ran in and used my coupons while my friend stayed in the van with the sleeping children. That was nice and took half the time it would have had we had to unload everyone.

-Ran into Penny's to exchange my purchase.

-Went to Wal-Mart next. Got a cart that has the two seats attached to the front of the cart, so the boys where in that part and Callie was in her car seat on the cart. Got toiletries first and headed to the kids section for diapers(after walking down the toy isle checking out the graders) Callie starts to fuss(even though I JUST nursed her before we left the park) Get diapers(although forget swimmers and have to go back for them) and head to grocery section. Get down 2 aisles and Callie starts screaming her lungs out. My friend could hear her three isles down. Finally have enough and take her out of her car seat. I'm now pushing a beast of a cart (one handed) with two boys hitting one another while Callie cries in my ear. She calms down shortly after I pick her up, but I still have to hold her, push the cart and look for my months worth of groceries. People were staring, mouths were dropping and other moms were looking at me with sheer pity. "Wow, you really have your hands full," and "That doesn't look like fun," were the most popular comments. I did have a couple people ask if the boys were twins(!)

-Got to register and Hunter helped me unload the cart. He did a very nice job helping.

-Made it to the van, unloaded our one million bags of groceries and nursed Callie in the parking lot, after changing Tate and Callie's diapers in the front seat of the van.

-Did find a new tankini swimsuit at Wal-Mart on clearance and was charged for only one piece(found that out in the van while nursing and wasn't going back in to wait in line at customer service for 10 mins over someone elses mistake) so I picked up a new swimsuit for a whopping $9.00!

-Made it home around 3:45 exhausted. Gave the boys marshmallow cereal for supper with ice cream for dessert and ate half a row of double stuff Oreos myself.

I realize I'm nuts for even trying to take the kids on this kind of excursion, but what else am I supposed to do? Hire a sitter? Go at night? I don't have money for a sitter, and I don't want to take up a night spent with Brent at home to go do this, so I'm left with one option. At least I'm done till next month...

Anyway, while I was at Wal-Mart I picked up some rice cereal for Callie. Last night she had it for the first time and she really liked it. She ate it right up! I also got some frozen peas and green beans to make her some baby food, so we'll be starting that in a few more weeks.

Another first for her was that she slept down in her room in the crib last night. I've kept her in the bassinet till last night, and she has definitely outgrown it. For some reason it was hard to not have her next to us, but the monitor let me know when she was awake.

She is getting closer to crawling. In fact she was up on her knees and hands and took one crawl and then plopped down, so I'm sure it won't be long before she crawls. I'm going to have to look into a baby gate I think. She scoots herself backwards, and we are practicing sitting up with the boppy pillow, so I think she'll be able to do that without support soon. She's growing so fast...

The One where we blow a tire...

I would consider myself an outdoorsy kind of girl. I love to be outside, I like trees and camping and lakes. (I also really like clothes and other girl stuff, too, but I DO love the outdoors.) In our whole geocaching excitement Brent thought of a place he used to go as a kid on his four wheeler. At its end point there is a beautiful lake with no houses. He's been talking about trying to go back there for awhile now, and yesterday we went to the entrance of this low maintenance one lane rock road that takes you there. We only went a very tiny way in and turned around, b/c our old van isn't exactly the type of vehicle you take in there(which we knew). So this afternoon he asked his dad to borrow his truck and we left the kids(thankfully....you'll see why in a minute) and went back there. It got a little crazy. By little I mean a lot. The "puddles" started getting bigger and bigger until they were full on swamps. We pressed our luck in my opinion, and at one of the swamps we came out with a completely flat tire. And no spare. That presented a bit of a problem for us, as we were in the middle of NOWHERE! Luckily(thank you Jesus or we'd still be there) Brent's cell phone had a signal and we were able to call for help. Also awesome was the fact that his uncle was home and let Brent's dad use HIS truck to bail us out. Brent and I didn't know what was coming for us, so we started on foot back towards the main road. We had to walk through tall grass to avoid the swamps that we still had to wade in at some points(it took me back to the day when I fell waistdeep into manure) Anyway, we saw all sorts of animal poo and huge animal tracks. I picked up a couple big rocks and walked a long way with them, just to be prepared in case a big bear came out at us. I ended up throwing one of them into the woods after I fell in the swamp. It let out a little frustration. Steve came, we changed the tire and those crazy guys wanted to go the rest of the way to the lake! There was testostrone flowing freely and it won out, so we treked the rest of the way to the lake. It was mighty pretty I have to say and it felt good to wash the gross mud/sludge off my feet. It took us about 45 mins or so to get back to the road(going back through all those crazy swamps, this time I closed my eyes) By the end of it I felt pretty car sick. I was glad that we were able to be bailed out fairly easy. Now we owe Steve a new tire, some gas, and a carwash for him and one for his uncle. But...it was still fun. Next adventure... doing my montly grocery shopping trip with the kids on Wednesday. Wish me luck!

Why its good being married to a carpet cleaner and other fun stories...

We've had some not so dull moments around here the last few days. Right now Callie is in her serious teething mode, so I just gave her some Tylenol and am hoping she'll stay asleep for awhile. I'm on concussion patrol with Tate(more on that later) and I'm feeling a little under the weather.

A couple nights ago we were all sitting in the living room after supper and Callie was in her excersaucer. She started to fuss so I brought her out and put her on my knees and checked her diaper. She was poopy, so I took her in her room and changed her diaper. As I was still doing that I heard Hunter saying, "Oh gross, poop!" and Tate was saying "Yuck!" and poking something on the floor with his sword. After some investigation we found it was Callie's poop! Three spots of it on the floor going into her room! We were both very perplexed b/c she didn't have ANY on her outfit. Then I happened to look down at my capris and they were COVERED with poop! It was on my shirt and all over the capris. I checked on her dresser b/c I was leaned against that and sure enough it was covered in poop as well! Brent and I were so confused, but we think that when I checked her to see if she was poopy it somehow came out the back of her diaper, missing her outfit entirely and landing on me and then on the floor. Brent, being the super carpet cleaning guy, just hooked up his hoses to his van and cleaned it all up(along with a couple juice stains). It pays to be married to a handy man like that!

We were all playing around later and Brent did something to me(I don't remember what) and I whispered in Hunter's ear to go pinch daddy's nose(he was holding Callie). So Hunter went and tried to pinch his nose, but Brent stopped him immediately. About five minutes went by and Hunter approached Brent with a toy and handed it to Callie telling him it was for her. He then pinched Brent on the nose, totally catching him off guard! What a little trickster!! I can just see the wheels turning in Hunter's head coming up with that one.

The van has been in the shop since Monday morning and we are anticipating getting it back today. Its been a LONG three days knowing I can't go anywhere, but my friend came over yesterday and we went to the park here in town. I was nursing Callie when Hunter had to go potty, so he went over by a tree and started going. It was, however, very VERY windy yesterday and as he was done going potty I noticed he was crying. The poor guy got pee all over himself from the wind blowing it back at him! Moral of the story, Don't pee in the wind!

I feel like I've become a full time referee with the boys. They've been picking on each other and fighting like crazy. It's kind of exhausting. I had Hunter taking a break on the couch this morning and allowed him to get off, only to have him not two minutes later push Tate down and into one of the doorways. Tate got up and his face was covered in blood. Covered. I am not good at handling situations like this. I can't stand seeing blood on my babies and they better never break a bone b/c I'll faint for sure. Anyway, I wiped his face several times before I saw where the cut was, b/c it was bleeding so heavily. He cut open his eyebrow and got a fat upper lip. I had been planning on going to a friend's house this morning who also happens to be a nurse, so she came over to check on him to see if he'd need stitches, but she thought he'd be OK. He was laying around on the couch after that looking sleepy, so that's why I'm on concussion patrol. That poor kid. He has hit his head more times than I have in my whole life probably. He's sporting a Nemo band aid/eye patch for now.

Never a dull moment I say.