Visit

We went and paid a visit to S at the fire house today. The kids had fun seeing the trucks, and where their dad gets to sleep when he is away. They tried on his hat, and coat, and sat in the engine too.

Tonight me and the kids are going to have a mini New Years party. Just let them play stay up..a little and eat some fun foods.
Maybe I will have them make a resolution..or at least something positive to work on this coming year.

We survived Christmas..

Hoodie, originally uploaded by pics of us.

Barely! We are so lucky to have so much friends and family to share Christmas with. My kids really got too many gifts when you add them all up from everyone.
Now Im exhausted! We had 5 different Christmas get together in 3 days! Pretty amazing. I was happy to be with family though..there is nothing like it.

One of those days..

When your kids are just crazy. They are so emotional and needy! It doesn't really stress me out as much as surprises me of how much ENERGY they require to keep happy today. I think they have all had at least 3 break downs. I'm pretty sure its because I let them stay up to watch yet another holiday show last night..So part of it feels like my fault.

The best part was during V's 3rd fit. She comes screaming, running towards me from upstairs. Crying like she has been beaten up by a linebacker.
V-" R hit meeeeeee SO HARD" sob sob sob "It hurtsssssss"
So I begin to look on her body for marks or whatever
Me- "Where did she hit you?"
V- "I don't know mom, ( sniff-sniff) I wasn't looking! "
HA HA HA HA

Holiday TV

I love this time of year. All the weird holiday shows are on that I watched as a kid. I have been recording them for my kids to watch. The family channel has then on every night this month. I try to fast forward commercials, even though its the family channel it can advertise some not really "kid " shows... So they had this new show this season they kept advertising about a youngish ( my age ha ha) couple who are very different and fall in love during Christmas season.. So after the commercial I failed to fast forward, V goes "Mom who is Mario Love pants" ha ha ha I was like what?? And she goes, "That show, it stars Mario Love Pants.." OHH you mean Mario LOPEZ? Me and R started cracking up and V goes "I guess so?" I just had to tell her that he was a actor in a show.. Funny girl. Gave me a good laugh!

Snow?

Surprise! We woke up to snow today! Not a lot, in fact just a dusting, but that didn't stop the kids from being super excited.

V and A decided to get dressed and go out and play in it. R decided to make snacks instead. This consisted of stale chocolate grahams dipped in melted chocolate and marshmallows. They were a hit with kids of course. My kitchen is a gooey chocolate mess though.


So yesterday I went to the tattoo parlor to get yet another tattoo. I have a bunch..or a few depending on who you are comparing me to, ha ha. So I'm in a rush to get there..traffic..running late. I HATE being late. I suppose I was a bit worked up. Anyway I get in the seat and my very kind artist starts to do the tattoo. Now know that I have sat through a 4 hour tattoo once. It wasn't fun, but I survived. So when 2 minutes in to this tattoo I feel a little weird, it was surprising. I asked if I could recline the chair and that is the last thing I remember until I begin to wake up. Anyone who has passed out knows how horrible it is. Your very disoriented waking up, and very sweaty and confused. So I open my eyes and she is holding my legs in the air, asking me if I'm o.k I say yes and she asks if I ate any food today. HMMM not enough I guess. I felt really bad for fainting and she kept saying it was o.k and was really nice. She even got me a sucker :) I felt better five minutes later and she finished in a little over a hour. I did feel weird all day though. YUCK So note to self: eat a HUGE meal before going under the needle. I never want that to happen again. I admit too, I'm a teeny big "gun shy" now of going back in a few months to get it finished.. I'm sure I will though.

Here is a picture of the peacock. Its going to be the bottom border of my 3/4 "sleeve" ( there is a bit of ink and blood on it still)

Splish Splash!

Oh my we have had some rain...and snow. Basements are flooding, roads are flooding. Pretty crazy weather here. Luckily we have no basement so we were spared that. All the kids had fun splashing in HUGE puddles. Something about jumping in dirty water puts a smile on my kids faces.
BTW, I think my little guy can pull of Ladybug hand me down rain boots handsomely!

CUTE!

My nephew is the cutest thing. AHH I'm so lucky I get to kiss and hold him all I want. Today on the way to drop V off at school she begins to tell me a story. "Once a butta time" HA HA. It was so funny. She had a serious look on her face too.
I miss running. You would think I could just go outside and do it. Unfortunately that would require me to be o.k with the weather. I am not. I really hate the bitter cold..and anything under 40 is bitter cold to me. I really don't mind the snow though. It's pretty and can be fun in short spurts. It's the wet, really cold crap that we have in the northwest that I cant stand anymore. I love every other season here except the long drawn out cold wet winter. The only time I enjoy it is the 3 days of snow we get. Even then I get sick of it if it stops me from leaving the house for more than 2 days.
O.K on a positive note, I had a really yummy apple cider this evening and tomorrow I get to get my hair done. Somewhere new...cheaper(GC!) so I am a bit nervous, but am hoping for fabulous results WOOHOO!

Family

I got to visit with my dad, sister, aunt, and grandma today. My grandmothers name is Janice, I love her name. She is my dads mom. Whenever I'm around my grandma from either side, I have the urge to hug them a lot and hear stories from when they were young. Either about their life or my parents lives. I wish they would write a book. Its great to learn history from family. Unfortunately I rarely get to asking those questions. I know I will regret it later.
It felt good to have family over today. Tis the season. We all took turns holding the new baby. I even swayed him to sleep. Ahh nothing like a tiny warm newborn in your arms. I hope everyone has a safe and loving weekend.

Happy Turkey Day...

Or as Sebastian calls it tome "Mashed Potato Day" Since I don't eat turkey. Me and my sister had decided to have our own Thanksgiving every year. That way we all would get enough food to eat and not have another holiday to travel to our parent's house. This year though, it seemed we were both not wanting to cook, and thought maybe doing the traditional thing would be fun. It was a nice time. I was loving the pumpkin pie. All the kids playing..my moms house very festive and had a lot of yummy appetizers ( yes I finally made mine the last night ! )
While there, my mom asked my son how he liked going to school with his older sister. See he has gone to do a few trial run visits to V's school. He has LOVED it and is so worn out and delirious when I pick him up. It's like he has been to Disneyland all day; All strung out on play and fun.
Anyway my mom asked him what he does at school. He said "Tiss Yinda" Linda is the teacher ha ha. I said, "you kiss Linda?" and he goes " Yes, yike dis" and then kissed the top of his hand. So then Sebastian asked if he loved Linda and he said " Yes Yuv Yinda" It was so cute.

Beautiful boy.

Curly Top, originally uploaded by pics of us.

Can you believe his hair? I mean the curls are out of this world!
As we speak I'm watching horrible TV and going through the few photos I took today. Taking pictures drives me. I'm always striving to learn more. I know there is so much editing I need to learn still. I just look at other people photography and I'm inspired and frustrated at the same time!
Pretty much what I'm doing is putting off preparing appetizers for dinner tomorrow. I'm supposed to bring two. ( To my mom's place) The thing is, if I go do this chore, I also have to clean the kitchen.. I hate cleaning the kitchen. More so since the handle broke off our dishwasher yesterday. Now not only can I not use the dishwasher ( cause I cant figure out how to get it open despite Sebastian's directions) Its holding half my dishes hostage! ACK I have done 2 sink fulls of hand washed dishes today. A record for me! I keep giving myself a time when I will move away from the computer and do what needs to be done..8 30.. has come and gone, 9, then 9 15. Now its 9 26 so my new time is 9 45. IT MUST get done! Ahh procrastination is one of my closest friends..just ask my mom!

Everyone is a comedian..

Especially my R. OH my goodness she was cracking me up the other morning. She has this new thing where she makes up jokes. They're like straight out of Laughy-Taffy wrappers. Here are a few I managed to jot down before I forgot.
"What do you eat while drawing on the chalk board?...CHOCOLATE! get it?"
"What does George Washington like to wash?.......TIN, get it Washing-TIN"
The jokes were so silly I had to laugh. And the fact that she said "Get it" after each joke and kind of explained it to us. Ahh I'm smiling just thinking about it.

Last night I took V to Disney on Ice IT was a surprise for her. She was so happy when we got there. Just jumping out of our ROW 7!! seats. The skating was really cool. The costumes pretty elaborate too. V just loved the songs and seeing all the princesses up close. The props were pretty amazing as well.
One thing that was crazy was the vendors. HOLY COW they were on every corner in the arena. Selling Disney and princess memorabilia for TONS OF CASH. wow. Luckily I was able to buy her some Starbursts and she was happy with that. I would say 90% of the kids there were dressed in fancy princess attire. That was pretty cute to see. Of course after 2 hours I had to come home and have a adult beverage( cold beer)..I was a little kidded out by then :) !

In one week I have sent out emails to old friends and family that I have not seen or talked to in years. I have also had 2 people pass away, both very suddenly and tragically. I think that those deaths have prompted me to take a look at who I want in my life and how I want to live it. Why does it take loss for some of us to realize this? I don't know. I just want to live a life I can be proud of. Be productive, kind and also have fun. I have to realize ALL relationships take work. Whether it be a friend, husband or even a child. Because if the relationship is a keeper, all that work will grant me an even greater return. I'm talking love, friendship and security.
I just don't want any regrets,I know that there will be some. Its almost inevitable. I just want no big ones I guess. I want to know that I did my best in the most important situations. I want to not let the small things drive me crazy and look at the big picture more. Blah blah blah..ok enough of my babble.
peace my lovelies.

Sweets

Seriously I have a addiction to sugar. I need it after every meal. This used to be no big deal until I had children. I'm supposed to be setting a good healthy example for them right? I like food but I LOVE sweets. I swear some days I get most my calorie intake in sugar or baked goods. THIS MUST STOP. I made brownies last night, the night before I bought a yummy sour cream raspberry cake, the day before that I had rice crispy treats..this list goes on and on and on...
I really don't want to be a hypocrite to my kids about sweets..I mean its o.k for me to have cookies for breakfast ( with a protein shake of course ha ha) but not my kids???
I DO let then have sweets, in moderation.. My one daughter really shows signs of sugar love too. Poor poor child of mine.



So I finally purchased a dress up for my son. All these Halloween outfits are on super sale so I bought him a pirate outfit. He loves it! Usually he will play dress up with his sister's pile of dress up clothes. This includes princesses, fairies, mermaids, a ballerina tutu ..you get the idea. We would laugh and he would have a ball. Then if he was feeling more..manly he would wear a few of his jammies, he has superman and a skeleton which was also one of his Halloween costumes. So now he has a little more to choose from. He wore that outfit to bed! Cried when I took it off him for a bath too. He kept walking around the house saying "Arrg Matey"

Sad

My moms best friend passed away very unexpectedly yesterday. I feel for her family, and for my mom. Why is it we take our time here for granted? We think there will always be another time to call that person back, to say thank you, to say I forgive you...
It's really hard to accept, that you will never see that person again..at least here on earth. Anyway hug your family, and call your friends. Life can possibly be shorter than you think.

Happy Halloween!

Woohoo. Love this holiday. I loved dressing up and getting candy as a kid! As a adult I love dressing up my kids...and eating their candy. YUMMERS. I know I will have a bunch of photos later to post as well.
So far today I have dressed up a Ladybug, a Bumble Bee, and sent my oldest to school with a Rock Star Costume. She was so excited. Both girls have parties going on at school. FUN!