Thanksgiving in Central Oregon!

We had a great time spending Thanksgiving with Dave's brothers and families! Thanks Mark and Thuy for hosting all of us! The cousins all had an awesome time playing together, lots of food, and the weather was great... I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too!

Driving over Mt. hood was like a winter wonderland...kiddos were SO excited to see snow!

                                             We had to stop and throw a couple snowballs

The Bros- Mark, Dave, Brian, Adam

                        Kids table! As you can see, 2 of my kids did not want their pics taken..

              Brady and Ben- the stick collectors. These two could have been outside the whole time. if it hadn't                                                            been so cold we would have pitched them a tent!

                                             The guys hanging out at the Old Mill in Bend

        The girls doing some shopping- obviously Katie wasn't too happy about the picture taking thing again.

                               Hughes cousins (Brady was taking a nap)! Happy Thanksgiving!

                     And I sorta like this one A LOT :) She is very happy when she's with her daddy!

A good day

You know those moments you just wish would last forever? It's hard sometimes as a mom with 3 busy energetic kids to slow down and enjoy these moments. But I really try. Because I know that they pass quickly. I know I won't ever get them back. I only have this one chance to experience life with my kids. And on a beautiful fall day, there's nothing more I'd rather do than take a walk with my baby girl. We looked at every beautiful leaf, fuzzy caterpillar, and stray rock. We watched geese fly over our heads. She laughed at the way they "honked" across the sky. She twirled down the sidewalk like a ballerina, and talked about how much she liked chocolate milk. We had so much fun. It was a good day.

Wish list

   Usually I avoid the toy aisles at all cost. It’s just not worth the drama that inevitably comes from strolling through them with 3 kids. But today, I thought it might be fun to do a walk-through and get an idea of what the kids might want for Christmas.
   And surprisingly, they totally got into it without any temper tantrums. All 3 thought it was a blast to point out what they wanted on their Christmas list. (Quick DISCLAIMER: Don’t go out and do this just because I said it worked. Believe me, it could have been the biggest mistake of my life.)
   We had gone through the boy aisles, and were now smack dab in the middle of  Barbie and Littlest Pet Shoppe Heaven. Every few seconds I would hear a loud GASP, a muffled scream, a high pitched squeak with stomping of the feet. Emma was seriously dancing in the aisle as she pointed to everything she wanted to put on her list.
   “Oh my gosh mom this is THE Barbie jetboat I saw on commercial!”, “Oh man look at this SUPER cool Barbie that takes pictures! “Oh my word, seriously! I’ve wanted this my whole life!.” You get the picture. This went on and on.
   I stood there as she pointed to one thing after the other.
   “I know I’m not gonna get all this stuff, but I want to have lots of options,” she said seriously. I agreed that was probably a good idea. Then she let out another squeal, “A Barbie pool! I LOVE IT!” Then she turned to me and said, “Mom, I’m thinking that I’ll just put aisle E9 at Target on my list. That would be so much easier!”
   Now THAT’S thinking outside the box people….

Practice Shower

   The night before my sister Crystal’s baby shower, I was trying to explain to Ben why he couldn’t stay for the party.
“There’s gonna be LOTS of women there at the shower, and absolutely NO boys. You wouldn’t like it at all. That’s why Uncle JD is coming to get you so you can hang out with the guys.” I explained.
There was a few seconds of silence. Then, from the backseat he says in a serious voice, “So, are you all gonna see each other’s butts?”
Another second of silence as I try to process this juicy bit of info.
I said, “Excuse me? What did you just say?“ My sister Alicia is cracking up now in the passenger seat.
“You know, when you’re all in the shower. Will you see each other’s butts?” he said.
Now I’m trying not to laugh. “Buddy, this isn’t a REAL shower!”
“Oh, so it’s just a practice shower?” He was obviously perplexed.
Hmmmm… “No, it just means that we’re showering Auntie Crystal with presents- not taking a real shower!”
“Oh, I get it now!” He seemed relieved and quickly moved on to talking about something else.
Poor kid. I’m a tad concerned that he’s spent the last 2 weeks thinking that 30 women were going to be taking a shower together at this party. And come to think of it, a tad concerned that he wanted to come in the first place…

Pilgrims and Indians

The kids had their Thanksgiving feast at church the other night. They had so much fun dressing up and eating with the Primetimer class! Emma's best friends Preslie and Paige go with us to Odyssey every wedneday night, and they dressed as cute little pilgrims. My kiddos were Indians. So much fun :)

Curious George and Smarties

   I was putting Katie down for a nap yesterday, and she was NOT happy. The tears were flowing, and I could see a temper tantrum in my future. I sat her on the edge of the bed and said, “Do you see how tired you are? That’s why you need to sleep.”
   She shook her head and cried, “I don’t want to sleep! I want to watch Curious George and eat Smarties!”      She threw herself down on the bed.
   Oh, geez…Like THAT was gonna happen.
  “You can watch curious George when you wake up. But no smarties.” I said.
   She sat up and rubbed my face. “Please mommy, one pack of smarties.” The eyes are killing me. Had to make my exit fast. I laid her down and covered her with blankets.
   “Go to sleep, we have a big day ahead of us,” I said.
   She struggled to sit up again and pleaded, “But mommy, I only have a little day ahead for me.” Then she stuck her lip out.
I    made it to the hallway before I busted up laughing. I swear, kids are too smart for their own good sometimes.

3rd grade plant project

Emma is really loving 3rd grade. Well, most of it anyway. There is a lot more homework, which she's not thrilled about, but she loves being one of the older kids at her school. The third graders get to do a lot more big projects, and she's having fun with that. One of the 1st semester projects was completing a 3-dimensional plant model. Hers turned out great and she even got to use her label maker! good job Em!

Mystery in the bathroom

I’m very confused. While giving Katie a bath tonight I saw something strange behind the toilet. Upon closer inspection I found about 10 squiggly crusty ramen noodles.  I have no words. When did we eat ramen noodles last? Was someone eating them AND going to the bathroom? Why are they behind the toilet? Who would have ramen noodles in the bathroom? Sooo many questions. I may never know the answer to this one…

Boy Logic

Me: “Ben, are you and Elijah still hanging out at recess?”
Ben: “No, we’re not friends anymore.”
Me: (eyes wide with shock) “What? Why? What happened?”
Ben: (shrugging his shoulders) “Nothing. I think we just forgot about each other.     It happens a lot, you know.”
Me: “Ok, but nothing bad happened, right?”
Ben: “Don’t worry, We’ll become friends again someday when we remember about each other.”

Back in time:Halloween

I'm totally blaming it on the flu, but I'm way behind with posts on here. I never posted Halloween pictures of the kids. This year, we had a Supergirl, a Knight and a princess clown. The kids had a blast. Katie wasn't sure what was going on, but dutifully followed her brother and sister up to doors and was very happy to receive candy :) About halfway through trick-r-treating, they were walking back to the sidewalk when a little boy passed her wearing some kind of freaky mask. She yelled and took off running full speed screaming, "Daddy, daddy, Daddy" at the top of her lungs. Luckily Dave was there to scoop her up. I think it took her a good 10 minutes to calm down. When confronted with a "monster", it's good to know your daddy will be there to protect you. Hope you all had a good Halloween!

The poor house

     The kids and I were playing the game Headbands. It’s basically like 20 questions but in reverse. You have an animal, food or object card strapped to your head so everyone else can see it but you. Then you ask yes or no questions to everyone else playing and see if you can guess what’s on your card. They LOVE this game, probably because of the bright blue headbands we all have to wear.
    So, it was my turn and I knew it was an object, but I was stumped.
    “Is it big?” I asked.
    “NO!” they all giggled.
    “Is it something people use?” I asked.
   “Oh yeah..all the time!!” they all said.
   This went on and on for some time. Right before my time was up I said, “Do mommy and daddy have it?”
    “NO!” They all shook their heads. Hmmmm…
   “Do we have any in the house?”
   “No way-hardly ever,” was their response. Time was up.
    I reached up and grabbed the card off my forehead and turned it over. It was a picture of money. Cold hard cash.
Interesting. I guess they’ve heard me say, “We don’t have any money to buy that” one too many times….

The flu part 1

First of all, I want to say thank you SO MUCH for all the birthday wishes! I am very blessed to have such amazing family and friends!
The good news about my birthday was this: I was with my favorite 4 people, Dave made chocolate chip mint pie, and he surprised me with a really cool present (more on that later).
Bad news: About 1pm on Halloween I was blindsided by the flu. Every. Single. Part. of my body hurts. Even my eyelids. I barely made it through trick or treating, and have been down for the count 4 days now. Luckily Dave has stepped up to the plate- what a guy..
I encourage you to try these scenarios the next time you have the flu:
*1- Let a 2 year old crawl all over you while you’re trying to sleep, patting your face hard and saying, “It’s OK, sleep mommy, sleep” over and over again. It’s VERY relaxing.
*2- Cleaning poop up off the floor while your head is pounding and your husband is gagging. It’s kinda like a scene from a low budget horror film.
*3- Contract the flu the DAY AFTER Halloween. It helps teach survival skills when you have to try and relax in a house that just got 3 huge buckets of candy the day before. It’s not loud AT ALL…I think it should be the next episode of Man vs. Wild.
*4-have Bubble Guppies playing in the background for hours on end- it’s soothing to the aching body and tired mind.
Start with that- if I can survive this, so can you..
Oh, and side note. While I was writing this, Ben came up to me and said, “Accidents happen, right mommy?” I don’t even want to know. He says it will probably make me mad, so I’m going to curl back up in my blanket and not care right now. That’s the good things about the flu- it dulls your senses..

The flu part 2

I actually left the house today. I know, I know- that doesn’t seem like a big deal. But after 3 days of using all my energy just to walk through the house, this was a big accomplishment. It took 2 hours just to convince my body to cooperate, and I only really did it because I had 3 kids going CRAZY out of boredom. This flu has kicked my booty pretty bad.
So off we went. I want to clarify that I had absolutely NO INTENTION of getting out of the car. You’ll understand why I’m clearing that up right away. My intent was to get myself and kids in the car, and then drive around running errands- dropping books off in the library drop box, depositing a check, mailing my ballot, and getting us all a treat from the coffee shop drive-thru. All things I could handle from the comfort of the warm car.
Because I had no intention of actually interacting with people, I didn’t spend too much time getting ready. Have you ever seen someone who’s had the flu for 3 or 4 days? There’s absolutely no way to make that face look pretty. I didn’t even try. I had thrown on rubber boots over my sweats, a tank top and hoodie, and no makeup had touched my face in days…maybe a week if I’m honest. Come to think of it, I’m surprised my kids even set foot outside with me. Hmmm..
Anyway, after the last errand had been done, I suddenly remembered that we were out of milk and laundry soap- two things we needed really bad. And here’s the strange part- It didn’t register to me as I pulled into Fred Meyer what I looked like. I guess I’ll blame it on the chills, or the cold medicine, or the 3 loud children in the backseat.
 People, I proceeded to walk right into Fred Meyer looking like that. It wasn’t until Ben proceeded to spray hot chocolate all over the glass doughnut cases that something registered deep from my subconscious. Maybe it was the stares from other customers, or the look of pity from the bakery manager as he wiped up the hot chocolate. Whatever it was, I suddenly had a flashback to this morning. I remembered sitting on the floor letting Emma and Katie do my hair, and Ben paint my nails. Gasp!
My hands reached up to feel my hair, and sure enough….I had never taken it out! My hair was in 3 different braids, going out in 3 different directions. I had one scrunchie high up, and 2 barrettes holding loose strands in place. I felt panic setting in as I looked down at my sweats and rubber boots combo.
I sucked in a deep breath and tried not to panic. I still had to go through the checkout line… I whispered fiercely to the kids, “We have to get out of here fast- I look horrible!” Katie just smiled and touched my face, “But you look beautiful mommy!”
And that’s why I keep them around…they are confidence boosters.
I feel like I should send apology letters to all I came in contact with today and had to see my wild hair, pale face, dirty hoodie and wild children. Sorry coffee shop lady. Sorry teenage checker at Fred Meyer. Sorry library patrons.
My advice? Don’t leave the house when you have the flu- there’s just no good outcome to that at all….

Cravings

A few nights ago around 10pm Katie was still up and not looking at all tired. So, I asked her what I could make her for a snack.
Me: What do you want?
Katie: Mmmmm...a sandwich!
Me: What kind of sandwich?
Katie: Just one that's delicious.
Here's hoping it will meet her high expectations...

And yesterday she came running in the room crying and said this :
“Ben won’t let me love him today. I just want to love him.”
She and Ben definitely have a love/hate relationship these days..