Snow

It snowed. It snowed a lot. Way more than it usually does and way earlier. My friend Brooke and I predicted this. We have been saying since November that it just smells and looks like snow. It's gonna be a cold snowy winter.

I have a love/hate relationship with the stuff. I like it falling down. I like the idea that we should stop and cancel everything because our area tends to do that. We got about 2 feet of snow and counties around here just canceled school until January. Our county is still withholding it's decision for cancellation and frankly I'm on the fence too. I need to get out of the house and go finish shopping for Christmas...mostly food but important! I need to wrap gifts big time and it's trickier with the two older kids around so having school would be good. On the other hand, I live at the end of a pipe stem and I'm not sure I can even get my car out to take them to school.

Snow used to feel so magical to me and still does sometimes....well until the shoveling needs to be done(my body hurts!!!) and until I spend all day long getting kids ready to go out in the snow to then have them pounding on doors 3 minutes later to complain that a glove fell off, or it's cold or they are getting wet. Seriously? What did they expect standing and climbing in 2 feet of frozen water? Then the mess of taking all the cold wet things off to dry are always followed by the instant need for hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows. This whole circus happened in a total of 20 minutes today. Well, at least for the 3 year old. I don't think he was really up for the cold today cause he spent most of that 20 minutes crying about something. He is down for a nap now...it's only 11am! Man I wish I could join him!!

I am tired today. I spent almost the entire night awake with the baby who threw up on me 3 times and then mostly just cried the rest of the night. I don't think she has a stomach bug, I actually think she was choking of mucus and it made her throw up...lovely eh? Poor little baby girl!

I must be really tired though because I just yelled out to my two older boys that are JUMPING from the deck into 2 feet of snow that they should be careful. I said "Be careful guys...I love you...I may be grumpy today but I still want you to live."..and then I shut the door. hmm...maybe I should tell them to stop jumping off the deck but for once they are smiling and not crying about being cold or fighting over something. hmm...I will go check on them soon..promise.

gotta love snow. White Christmas after all!

T's World and Believing....

So my oldest comes home from school yesterday with two pieces of paper. He tells me he had extra time at school so he started working on some projects of his own. One was to write his own resume. The other was to draw a picture of our family crest.

This is his resume:

Objective:
Needs a non-surgery, and non gross job in Virginia

Education:

Elementary school. Good at animals and science.

Work Experience:

Morning babysitter at home
Sweeping
Shoveling snow
Duster
Cleans basement

He wants me to tell you all that he is seriously looking for a job so if anyone is looking to hire. Please let us know. :)



Then he showed me the Family Crest. He drew a shield and then drew pictures of what he thought was the most important thing to all of us.

K (my husband): The tv
M (me): Laundry and a candle for romance
T: Books
H (6 year old): a ball
C (3 year old): his blanket and stuffed animal
t: (5 months old): a ballerina

All I can say is this is how T sees it. Apparently all my husband does is watch tv which is pretty funny because he is never home. Then there is me. Seriously LAUNDRY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO ME????!!!! I am so going to go get a life and stop doing his laundry and then maybe it will become important to him! I'm not sure why he threw in a candle for romance. That one is just weird...maybe cause he knows I like romantic comedies. The next two are pretty accurate but a ballerina for the baby....she has never even seen one. Weird...just plain weird.


On a more holiday note. I purchased some wooden letters that spell out the word BELIEVE and it sits on the mantel over our fire place. I have been thinking about this word for months and how I want my children to know that I believe the Savior when he says He loves us, that He suffered for our sins, that He and He alone can help us home. I don't just want them to think I believe in Him. I want them to know that I believe Him. I saw that word distinction in a book once and loved it.

When we talked about the word as a family one night, I asked them what they thought it meant and why I put it there. My six year old said "so that when Santa comes out of the fireplace, he will see the sign BELIEVE and know that we believe in Santa and he can leave gifts there. That's when we decided to start a new family tradition. We talked a lot about the Savior that night and how we are waiting for Him not Santa during this Christmas time. Starting December 1st, we have read scriptures every night all pertaining to Christ and what he did for us and it's been great...not quiet...but great.

Thankfulness

Okay I have to write a quick post so I can get that awful picture of someone getting a shot off the top of my blog. While I'm THANKFUL for shots and that we have ways to protect ourselves against disease, it's still an ugly picture.

So what are you THANKFUL for this Thanksgiving? I think it's an interesting concept. Just trying to come up what we are THANKFUL for tends to help us recognize our blessings more.

We visited a family several years ago. I adore this family. They are so nice to everyone, so fun and so genuine that they are a blast to be around. They always seem to teach me something without even trying to. We were there for a Christmas gathering. Thanksgiving had long gone and yet by their front door was a "We are THANKFUL" list.

They had sat down on Thanksgiving day to each take turns writing down the blessings in their lives that they were THANKFUL for. The neat thing was though, they didn't stop there. They kept adding to the list throughout the season. They kept it by the door so that every time they left or entered their home, they would be reminded of all their blessings. In turn I think they spread that attitude of gratitude with everyone they came in contact with. We have tried to follow their example in this tradition. I highly recommend it too...seems to get the season off to the right start.

me...I'm extremely THANKFUL for these guys!

Shots and Personalities

Every year I usually go and take my boys to get flu shots. I didn't do this growing up (not sure there was such a thing) but the boys have all dealt with some variation of asthma and wheezing so the doctor thought it would be a good idea. This year with all the hype about the flu, vaccinations were used up before I could even get them in for an appointment. Last week we were in the doctor for a well check up, and he mentioned that they ended up getting in another shipment. We scheduled an appointment for last night.

I wasn't super excited to go alone with four kids at 7pm but I was glad to have the vaccination at all by this point. My kids have never had any kind of reaction and usually do a pretty good job of getting the shot with out too much drama.

The boys seemed fine when we got to the doctor's office. A little nervous but nothing major. I decided we would do it in birth order so the older boys could be tough for the younger one. T went first and had a look on his face like he was a little worried. He had me hold his hand but it was over before he could even shed a tear. What happened next is what surprised me. While T was getting his shot, H started to cry and have some kind of a panic attack. He started to hide under the table, while crying and yelling that he didn't want to do it. This is the kid who hardly cried at all getting his horrible 5 year old shots.

I was in the middle of trying to figure out what I was going to do with him, when C my 3 year old said "I'll go next!" and hopped up on the table. He then got his shot, didn't cry, and hopped back down like nothing had happened. The whole time C was getting his shot, H was hiding and still crying. The poor guy was trembling he was so scared. I actually had to hold the baby and him while holding his arms down so she could give him the shot. He cried the whole way home and kept saying he couldn't do anything because his arm hurt so much.

Honestly the whole ordeal was somewhat unexpected on my part because of how well H had done at his 5 year old shots. I think he was just in an anxious mood more then anything. He hasn't even mentioned it today.

I thought about it a lot today and realized something. I think maybe there is more of a pattern of this behavior then I realized. T will try most anything but you know he has thought a lot about it first and planned it out in his mind. H takes a little longer to come around to things that scare him (which isn't all bad in my mind) and may or may not do it depending on the mood he is in. If you force him to do it...it can get really ugly. Then there is C. He is pretty fearless. He should probably be a little more afraid of some things.

Here is another example of this. We were at Busch Garden's this past summer. There is a water ride there. T wanted to go and went with me while K stayed back with the younger ones. There was no line so when we returned I said they should all go...it isn't scary at all. C jumped on it. H refused and stayed behind with me and the baby. While they were gone, the wheels in H's head began to turn. He asked questions about the ride. Detailed questions about where the turns and hills were until he felt like he could maybe handle it. H finally decided he wanted to go too so when the rest of them returned, (C being so proud of himself!) K took the two older boys and went down the water ride again. I was nervous for a minute thinking, "what if H gets scared?", what if he ends up panicking in the middle of the ride?" It could be very very bad. He can get pretty worked up, pretty fast. When I saw them come off the ride though, I saw his face. It was pure joy! He loved the ride and he loved that he over came his fear. I had tears in my eyes as he ran towards me and jumped in my arms yelling "I did it Mom!"




Unfortunately I couldn't talk him into the joys of the shots. I did mention how many people were seriously hurt or even died without the shots they have today....didn't help though.

oh well...it works on water rides!

It finally happened.....

For years I have bragged that somehow I must be immune to it. Everyone I know has had this happened to them but knock on wood...not me. There were times when I swear it was a close one. Times when it should have happened because as my husband put it.."you drive like a bat at a you know where so you are long long over due!"

Yesterday was the day. I was driving in this neighboring town going to my friend's house. The baby was screaming...the three year old saying "go faster mom!" and even though I wasn't taking his advice I must have been driving too fast because the cop nailed me. Yep it finally happened...I got a ticket!

I have no idea how I have avoided it for this many years. I was a bit stunned so I didn't even get around to trying to talk myself out of the ticket. I just kept thinking..."I can't believe this is finally happening to me...this is so weird....I'm the loser on the side of the road with people driving by staring at me...this is so weird!"

Since then I have thought of a lot I could have said. Come on...1st time offender can't you give me a warning?...the speed limit just turned to 25 and it's a new road so I wasn't aware of the new speed limit?...baby was screaming and I was afraid that something was really wrong so I was hurrying to get to my friend's house to make sure she was okay....any of these doing it for ya?

Well...here is where I don't know what to do. The ticket is for 140$. I'm wondering if there is really a chance I could get out of it if I go to court or if it's even worth it. Any advice for this criminal?

Happy Halloween 2009

We haven't seen K for a couple of days...feels longer knowing he was 30 minutes away working on a project for two days straight. He needed to take a little break today to sleep and recuperate so we decided to take it easy as a family and enjoy some time at home together for Halloween. If you look at the pumpkin K carved it's a freaky guy holding his own eye! Our 9 year old picked out that pattern for dad! Here's the pictures! Happy Halloween everyone!

Happy Birthdays, Pies and Harris Teeter

It's someone's birthday today. Poor guy is in the middle of a project at work and may or may not make it home tonight to actually celebrate his birthday. With that in mind, I decided I had to make sure I got his Birthday Pumpkin Pie made yesterday so that we could have it ready in case he wanted to take some in to eat during work. He decided he didn't really want to take it in to work but that the whole family could have pumpkin pie for breakfast in honor of his big day. We had him sit down on his present to eat his pie. His present from us was a rocking chair that he had his eye one a while back. I finally got out to the store to buy it and hopefully it will help with his bad back.....hm....rocking chair...bad back....how old is he??? (Actually he is four months younger than me so I can tease him) He is the greatest and we really hope he has a good day. We will have to celebrate this weekend babe!!

On a side note. I have to tell you how I got my pie ingredients to my kitchen. Last week I did some grocery shopping but figured I would buy his pie stuff this week when I dropped my preschooler off at school. Well Friday evening hit and I had two sick kids and they have been that way ever since. We really haven't gone anywhere and I didn't want to take them outside yesterday either especially since it was so cold, gloomy and rainy. I started to rationalize in my head that of course my husband would understand why we didn't make his pie for him....heck he would be at work for probably 16 hours that day so maybe he wouldn't even notice. But then that just sounded so depressing so I kicked it into gear to figure out how I was gonna make this happen.

I remembered a friend of mine mentioning that one of our local stores will let you order all your groceries on line and four hours later you can go through their drive thru and pick up your groceries. They don't even charge the first time you do it and charge only 5$ anytime after that. They give the kids a little bag of sugar cookies each time from their bakery for free. If they make a mistake, they will come to your house and bring you the item for free. I had a lady call me as she was shopping for my groceries to see if I really wanted a particular cookie item because the box said "best if used by Oct 30, 09". I told her never mind but couldn't help but think I probably wouldn't have even looked on the box to make sure they weren't expiring soon.

I have to say I loved the whole experience. I had to go pick up my boys from school and just stopped by the grocery store to pick up the groceries right after. It was beautiful!! I won't do it all the time but I have to say during this lovely flu season it is an amazing alternative to mothers with little ones. Bless you Harris Teeter...bless you!!

Group therapy and laundry

When I was in college I had some really good friends. We loved to chat and catch up on each other's lives. We would go to Hogi Yogi (ah ..I miss that place!) and have our chats where we would sit down and talk about guys, roommate problems, and any issues we needed to get off our chest. Somehow this chat time came to be called group therapy and it truly was for all. We always felt better having used our sounding board to work out our problems. I am still in touch with several of these girls today and miss having that group therapy time.

I realized the other day though, that I somewhat use this blog as a group therapy. I share the good, the bad, and sometimes even the ugly if it means I work through something easier or get all of your sage advice. Thank you thank you thank you!

Here's my next question....laundry. I think my family has laundryitis. It is a condition when no matter what I do, laundry is never never finished. My laundry baskets are always swelling and oozing with clothes of all colors and sizes.

I know that laundry by definition is never finished because unless you are walking around in the nude...you are wearing dirty laundry for tomorrow. But I would be okay if there was just six outfits waiting for me on a given day.

This however is never the case. For example, on Sundays, my kids take off pjs and put in laundry. Then they put on play clothes cause we have 1pm church. Then they put on church outfit. Then they put on play clothes again but sometimes will try and put on a whole new play clothes outfit until I yell loud enough and then they put on a whole new set of pjs at the end of the day. Times all that by six family members and you have 12 pj bottoms, 12 pj tops, 12 pairs of underwear, 12 pairs of socks, 12 pairs of pants, and 12 shirts. Now throw in some sheets and towels that get thrown in every day and all of that is waiting for me Monday morning ...and that is only if I had no laundry from any day before and no one spilled on any of those outfits!

I have heard some of you say you only do laundry once a week.......HOW?? A. My laundry room would not hold all the laundry for one week. B. I don't think my kids have enough pants for seven days straight. C. I would never be able to get it done in one day.

But....I like the idea of laundry day and then a big break so I'm willing to learn how. If you have any laundry tricks..please send them my way and hopefully I can dig myself out of the mountain of laundry I have to come check my blog...it is Monday you know!

Winds of change

There weather is colder today. No sun. The high for the next couple of days is supposed to be something crazy like 40 degrees. Have I mentioned I like 75 degrees!!

Other changes are coming too. We are moving. Not today. Not tomorrow. But we are moving somewhere to some place before next June when our lease is up and the owners move back to the states. I can't believe it's almost been three years in this house. I never imagined being here that long. We don't know where we will go. A change would be nice. We have liked it here though...the boys have done so well in school and love all their friends. We do too. Hmm...change is a coming. I will keep you posted on that front.

I have been grumpy of late. Thinking about the holidays has made it worse. It is totally stressing me out. My hair is falling out!!! (okay does that happen to anyone else after having a baby???) I thought that maybe it was all the stress that can come around the holiday season (Halloween-New Years). But I realized that because I know we will need to pack up and move in the near future that I have become Mrs. Scrooge about the holidays. Both sides of our family have drawn names for Christmas. Everyone is trying to get their shopping done early to avoid those lines at the stores and post offices. I don't blame them one bit. I just keep thinking that we don't want to add one single item to the stuff we have to move! I keep chanting to myself "Save money, downsize, have a yard sale, take things to goodwill, save money, downsize!" So when people ask me what do we want, what toys should they get my kids, I think "absolutely nothing!" I know my kids would be mortified to know I have absolutely no desire to buy them one thing for Christmas. I have seen our basement...the place where toys go to die..and I can't imagine they need anything!

Here is the other reason I get grumpy about these things. If you ask kids today what they want for Christmas, half the time it is stuff their friends have and it ain't cheap!! We asked our 9 year old and I think the first three items cost around 200$ a piece. Now maybe I'm cheap but I don't think kids should even have things that cost that much little lone several items that cost that much! So I just end up buying a bunch of smaller items to make up for the fact that I'm not buying them anything on their expensive list....and then my house is filled with things no one wants. Lovely!

Every year I promise myself we are gonna do it different this year. People over things I say. We will spend the time with loved ones making memories and save the money on the junk. Problem is when you are 9, 6,and 3 years old you want all that stuff under the tree. It's magical to see it all piled up and wonder what is in there for you. I know it's magical and so every year we do it all over again. And I start to hyperventilate approximately one hour after everything is opened and starting to spread all over the house

Anyone out there like me?...am I alone?...is there such thing as a holiday therapist?
help!!

Yummy Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

A couple of people asked me to post this recipe. Just finished eating some of these ...so yummy!

2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 15oz. can pumpkin
1 2/3 cups sugar
1 cup cooking oil

Mix all ingredients together. Spread batter in an ungreased 15x10x1 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Cool and then frost with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 3oz package of cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups sifted powder sugar

beat till smooth and then spread over bars.


Oh and sorry there isn't a picture of them....they are gone..oops!

Gotta love this girl!!!

Apple Picking, Corn Mazes, and Slides oh my!!

We love Fall around here. My husband's relatives had their own apple orchard so apple picking and pie making are close to his heart. I like apple picking..but I love love love apple pie eating!! Yummy! This past Thursday C took his first preschool field trip to a little corn maze and he loved it. He felt so grown up. It was perfect because it was all just his size so I could relax and let him go play. He went up and down the slides over and over again. The funny thing was we didn't realize that it wasn't open until the weekend. We were all sitting at the front gate when they came out to tell us they aren't open on Thursdays. The guys was so nice though and let us come in anyway since we had a whole group. It ended up perfect because we had the whole place to ourselves!!

The Big Nine!

Our eldest son turned nine on Saturday. Hard to believe it was nine years ago that I held him in my arms for the first time. He was perfect then and he's perfect now. I have had pretty much every single teacher (church and school) come up to me and tell me two things about him. 1) What a joy he is to have in class because he is nice to everyone and he is so enthusiastic about learning. and 2) He seems to have quite a following of admirers.

As his family...I would have to agree. More often than not he is really great with his siblings and tries so hard to do what we ask as parents. He is a great "first" kid to be an example to his younger siblings. I couldn't have asked for a better one! And as for the admirers....he is clueless!

For his birthday this year he decided on an ice cream cake in the shape of a crazy shark. I thought this was a great idea. My husband however remembered how hard it was to actually decorate an ice cream cake without the ice cream inside melting before you were done. Somehow we still talked K into doing it and now I remember how hard it really is. We won't be doing it again. But after hours of working on it and putting it back in the freezer to chill and then back out to frost again....it was done and looked awesome. He even made blue jello with Swedish fish for the shark to swim in. T loved it!! Here's the proof!...oh and of course little T for a cute pose!

Updates

Summer is over. School has started. This means I'm in the car a lot of the time and my poor little baby girl gets dragged around in her car seat. I drop off and pick up my kids from school because the bus stop is three long streets away and the actually stop is on a very busy corner in our neighborhood. I wouldn't feel good about them walking up there by themselves so I would end up driving them most of the time to the bus stop and if I'm gonna do that, might as well drive them to the school, right? Anyway, it has worked out the best for us this way but it does mean waking up perfectly sleeping children at least 2 times a day. Ugh!!!

C started preschool twice a week this year. He loves loves loves it!! He actually cries to go everyday but since I'm doing a co-op with 4 other mothers, I don't think any of us could handle doing preschool every day. Even though he fights with his brothers when they are here....he sure does miss them when they are gone to school all day.My camera broke so I didn't get the cute first day of school pictures that I love to take of the boys. I will get some pictures of them next week and post them then.

We were in a rush to get a new camera because K's sister was getting married last weekend and we wanted to have a camera for that. It was down in North Carolina at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. Luckily the weather was beautiful (considering it is hurricane season!) and at the end of the day everything fell into place and looked amazing. I told the bride that she should really go into wedding planning because she really does have an eye for it and every little detail was so cool and beautiful. There is a catch with that though...she was so involved in every little detail that I don't think she was able to really relax and enjoy her time down there before the wedding. I just hope the new couple are relaxing and enjoying themselves on their honeymoon!!

It was ironic because there was one of those word decorations in our bedroom at the beach house. It said RELAX. Unfortunately I don't think anyone did that the entire weekend. Too much to do....too many emotions...too stressful to really be able to just take a breath and relax. At one point, my nine year old asked me if this was supposed to be a vacation because we were at the beach. It was funny that even he recognized that we were in a beautiful vacation spot but with all the wedding plans and list of to dos, no one really had any time to relax. We will all have to make a plan to go down there again when we can breath a little easier. It really was beautiful down there!!

I have to laugh because I was sooo worried about having a camera to take pictures of the weekend and when it came right down to it, I hardly took any pictures at all. More pictures will come later when I get a hold of some from the photographer. Here is what I got....

Summer Time Fun!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I hope you dance.....

This is the season for weddings. It seems this time of year starting in May and going right through till October, we always have weddings to go to. They are a fun reason to get dressed up and celebrate love. I can't help but seem to reflect on my own wedding day and wonder in awe at how time flies.

We had the pleasure of attending a wedding this past Saturday. It was kind of funny because we didn't even know the bride or the groom but we knew both their parents so we got invited. I have to say I loved so many things they did at their reception that it made me want to have a redo of my own reception. Am I the only one who does this? Does anyone else go to weddings and think "oh I wish I had done my hair that way!...or "oh I love the way they did this...wish we had done something like that?" Is anyone else planning a 50th wedding anniversary party so they can put all these great new ideas to use?

You see...I grew up with a family of all girls but we were raised to be pretty practical and there wasn't any sitting around staring at brides magazines planning our big day. To be honest, I had not even attended that many receptions before I had to plan my own. I had no idea what I wanted really except that there was no way it was going to become a financial burden on anyone. Keep it simple and get friends to help to cut costs. We had the reception at the church, our Bishop's wife made our cake (it was gorgeous and sooo tasty!!), a friend did my bouquet, and I rented my dress.(I told you I was practical!!)

Don't get me wrong...our reception was perfectly beautiful and we were absolutely surrounded by so many friends and family that we couldn't help but fill loved. It became a reunion of two stakes, and family reunions on both sides. To this day, we are still amazed at how many people traveled to be there.

There were a lot of differences between our wedding reception and theirs but I think the biggest one was the dancing and music. Oh if I could go back in time I would have replicated everything they did with it.

At this wedding reception we went to, the bride and her father danced to an amazing song about dads and their daughters through the years. Half way through the song, the dj says "any dads with their daughters are welcome to join in". I have to say that watching little girls get out there with their dads and then looking at the bride with her dad made me tear up just a bit. The same thing happened with the groom and his mom. Watching the people during those dances was like watching the circle of life right before your very eyes. Then later in the night, the entire wedding party was dancing their hearts out. No one held back or worried what people would think of them. You could tell that they were having fun and truly celebrating and it made everyone want to get out there and dance.

Now I must give a side note here. I'm a dancer. I love to dance and I probably spent the biggest chunk of my time growing up dancing. Maybe that is why I love to see people of all ages getting out there and dancing. I don't know why more people don't do it.

Maybe this is why I tear up every time I hear the country song by Lee Ann Womack called "I Hope You Dance". So...next time you are at a wedding, and you get the choice to sit it out or dance...I hope you dance!

Here are some of the lyrics:

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
God forbid love ever leave you empty handed,
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that youll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance....i hope you dance.

Those Eyes

I like having the baby sleep downstairs with us sometimes. It seems like if I can just lay her down all cozy in the corner of a chair that she will sleep for hours but if I take her all the way upstairs to her bed, she wakes up in the process.

This is what she looks like when she is asleep in the chair....





















One day I was doing something in the kitchen when I happened to look over to check on her and this is what I saw....





I about died. I wasn't even very close to her but I could those eyes and they were watching me. She wasn't making a sound. Nope not a peep. She was just watching me with those eyes.







I had to take a closer look and of course get a picture.

Baby Blessing

We had a wonderful weekend with family and friends as we blessed our sweet baby girl. She did great and kept her white dress white and didn't cry at all. I was a little nervous because she was not asleep during the blessing so I was afraid she would cry through the whole thing. Instead she just seemed like she wanted to be awake because she didn't want to miss this important day in her life.

To Join or Not to join

So I have a question for the masses....

It's about that time of year when I start trying to figure out if I will sign my boys up for fall sports. Part of me wishes that my boys would just love one sport or activity and then I would know I just sign them up each year. We could really get in a groove and get to know the other "soccer families or baseball families". I think focusing on one thing could be beneficial and then they could really have a chance at getting good. But it hasn't really been that way. At the end of the seasons they don't seem to really care if I sign them up for another season and I'm exhausted from running them around so I don't sign them up. Maybe they are still too young and they need time to figure out what they like. I know there are plenty of people out there that sign their kids up for tons of different things and they run them to activities all week long. I also have a friend who doesn't put her kids in anything during the school year but come summer their family is totally into the swim team and every kid in the family participates. I have tried just having my kids take different classes at the local recreation center and they liked that but they don't get any sense of a team and I swear it's the same girl who teaches every class.

I guess what I need your help on is how do you decide what to sign your kids up for?

What dictates your decision....money? time? their desires? your desires for them?

My son has been taking piano for the last year. He liked it and seemed to do well with it but he hasn't asked all summer long about it either...and I wonder if that is me wanting him to play more than him wanting to play. His brother just got drums. ..(yea for me!) so now I'm wondering if they are gonna want to take drum lessons instead.

It's funny cause when I don't have the boys in something, my husband sees them running all over the house and says "we have got to get them into something...they are going crazy!"

My question is WHAT??? I feel like once I sign them up for something there is so much money and time involved that they should just love it and want to do it forever because now we have invested something in it....ie purchasing uniforms and gear that would fit them for years if they actually loved it for years.

I had to laugh because I was watching a rerun of the Cosby show. (Hands down best show of the 80s!) My boys actually love watching it with me. Claire and Cliff were commenting on all the activities their kids HAD to do only to quit them after two weeks because they got bored. I don't want to do that...I don't have the patience or the money to do that...

so...help...I don't like the idea of having my kids so over scheduled that they crave just being home to do nothing. I don't want them to miss out on talents they could have developed either.

Maybe I should just tell them they are going to take up ping pong for the rest of their lives and that is that!

A Little Change in Scenery

We had no plans to go anywhere this summer. Get used to having a new baby...that was the plan. After a couple of weeks of my boys losing their minds of boredom I realized my plan may not be the best idea. They had gone from being scheduled every minute of the day at school to nothing but a cranky mom and a very cute baby sister but not too much in the entertainment department. Cut her some slack though...she is only six weeks today!

K's grandma sent an invite to the family to come up to Lake Oneida in upstate New York. We had never been and heard that it should be pretty quiet up there so we decided to give it a try. K was able to take the week off (due to some work projects on hold) so with hardly any planning at all, we hopped in the car and started driving north.

We got to Palmyra, New York on Saturday around 5pm just in time to check into our hotel, grab some food and head out to the Hill Cumorah Pageant. It was it's last night for the season and we thought the kids would love it. They did like it and I'm sure we will go back again. It was a bit chilly though. Actually it was freezing...for July anyway and we basically wrapped ourselves in jackets and beach towels to stay warm. I will say I was a bit surprised by the protesters outside the gates but oh what a sweet spirit there was once you got out of the parking lot and entered into the grounds. I loved it!

The next day we headed east to Lake Oneida. It was beautiful and very peaceful. K's family has a wonderful property on the lake with a huge backyard for the kids to play in. They loved all kinds of activities by the lake and it was great to have a change of scenery and spend time with family.

We left the lake late Wednesday night to head west to K's aunt's house. The kids loved being there. Cousin Alan was amazing at entertaining the boys so that the adults could actually spend time relaxing. We wished we could have spent more time there!! We then headed to Great grandma's house. This is home to my husband. As a child he moved around a lot but he always thought of his grandpa's farm and apple orchard as home. Even to this day, he still thinks of it as a home to go back to. The weather was lovely and we enjoyed visiting with his grandma.

We decided we better start heading back south so we started the long drive only to run right into a horrible rain storm. It made driving in the mountains with 18 wheelers and construction and nightmare. We finally made it to Harrisburg, PA about 11:30pm where there was a non smoking room available for us. We had tried a couple hotels in the towns before that and they only had smoking rooms. No way we were gonna do that with this newborn!! We were exhausted but happy to have made it through the storm.

We got up the next morning, went through a tour at Snyder's pretzel factory and then hit the Gettysburg Civil War Museum on our way home. We realized we were pretty close to Aunt Mallory and Uncle Chris' house so we ended our trip there with an amazing dinner.

All and all it was a great trip. Not Disney World or the Bahamas but it was a change in scenery, some time with family, and down time to relax.....it was just what the doctor ordered! And now my boys can stop asking when are WE going on summer vacation!!

PS. Yes we did take our baby girl...she just slept through the trip! Yea for the great traveler! (Actually that is one of the reasons why we decided to take the trip. She actually sleeps the best in the car so we thought we might as well be going some place fun if she is gonna sleep that much!)

We are alive....here's the proof!