The Chicken vs. The Egg...what came first?

So I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I will share pics and stories of our great day later. Unfortunately for me, that great feeling seems to be all too far gone.

I'm in a bad mood. Our "winter break" is not turning out like I thought it would. I pictured days of waking up late, only getting dressed when we felt like it and having fun family filled days of going to lunch or movies or shopping and just hanging out AS A FAMILY.

K has been pretty much MIA and that is bringing me down. The kids are fighting constantly over their new presents and it starts as soon as they wake up and keeps going pretty much until they go to bed. Little T is just walking around amongst the chaos crying.

I know as a mother I can have a big effect on the general feeling in our home. As the saying goes, if mama ain't happy...no one is happy.

But what I'm trying to figure out is this...what came first? My bad mood so my kids are just following my example or did they start fighting and now I'm in a bad mood after days of listening to them.

We could leave the house. I have several items to go and exchange at stores around town. But does standing in return lines at stores with four kids sound like fun to anyone? Or does going to lunch or a movie with four kids by myself sound like fun???

And that is why we are still here. This is why I'm slipping farther and farther into the bad place. I'm losing any desire to do anything and be with anyone. When my husband actually does come home, I'm thinking he might just run for the door again!

Happy. New. Year.

Brown Family Christmas Weekend

We had my husband's family over this past weekend. It was our turn to host and so we all gathered here this year. Family started to arrive Friday night and the last of them left Monday morning. We had great grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma and grandpa. We finally had a real family portrait taken (it's been almost 10 years!) We decorated cookies, we ate and ate some more, we did a live nativity with every blanket and sheet we could find in the house, we had our town Santa show up to our driveway with candy on a fire truck (that one I can't take credit for...just good timing!) We exchanged gifts and had a Mexican fiesta for dinner. We had two fires going, two trees decorated...it was all very magical. When the photographer walked around our house that day, she said it looked like a hallmark card. It was. Thanks for making it great Brown family! It was wonderful to have you all! Hope this weekend is wonderful for everyone!


P.S. About this coming weekend...because we did so much to prepare for this last weekend, I was thinking that this weekend of actual Christmas would be a piece of cake. But here it is the Tuesday before Christmas, and I have ALL our presents to wrap, food to make, house to clean, errands to run, and really...I should have this all done today. Why you ask? Cause they are coming...yep...the children are coming tomorrow. School is out as of 3:30pm today until January 3rd. (C will be so happy!) But it makes it MUCH more difficult to get anything done around here and especially the sneaky Christmas stuff! And unfortunately I don't have it in me today. I'm just in a tired blah non Christmasy mood and my cute little T won't stop saying "Mom!" today and I'm losing my mind........ so dear Christmas..if we could perhaps put you on hold until I can take a nap and catch my breath I would appreciate it....thanks!

C is done....

So my five year old has determined that he is done with school. Yep..just done with doing the work, getting up so early...done done done. Yesterday he came home and only had 2 spots on his ladybug. Basically that means he was misbehaving cause he should have 3 spots at the end of every day. When I asked him what happened he said his friend had a big puffy coat on and C wanted to see if his friend would be able to feel a punch through the big puffy coat. Um..apparently his friend felt the punch and told the teacher. Awesome.

C was sent to his room yesterday for a good long while and had to explain to his dad what he did. They had a nice little chat and I thought we were good for awhile. He kept saying that he didn't want to go back to school though. When I asked him if anything bad happened he said no but that he was tired of doing all the work. Um yea kid...aren't we all!

I tried to give him hope as I told him that he had a long Christmas break coming up next week. He didn't seem too encouraged by this though.

Today, C came home and once again had lost his spot. When I asked him what happened this time, he said " I told you I didn't want to go back to school anymore". Oh brother it's gonna be a long year. Apparently he and some of his friends were playing when they should have been doing their work and all lost their spots.

The hard thing is...I don't blame him. He is five and leaves every morning at 7:45a and doesn't get home until 4pm and then has homework. It's a bit much.

And now just as I'm writing this post he came in my room and said " Um, mom I just want a couple of fairies that would let me do whatever I wanted."

Well C...I think we all do...yep we all want some fairies....

Our real tree

I know my family bought real trees at some point in my life but I don't think I have had a real tree since I was at least six years old or more. For a long time I didn't really get why people wanted real ones. Seemed like a serious hassle when a perfectly fake one did the trick.

For some reason this year is different. We put our fake one up like always. Looks nice and little T shouts "look..Christmas!" every time she sees it..or any decoration for that matter. But we are hosting the Brown family Christmas weekend this year so we wanted to make it more special.

This past Monday, we got in the car and headed to one of the several Christmas Tree Farms by our house. I don't know why but I was like a kid in a candy store. I felt like I was living out a Christmas Hallmark special. We ran from isle to isle filled the the scent of evergreens in our noses. T kept yelling "Candy cans" because all the rows of trees were lined with big things in the shaped of candy cans. It was all very festive.

I have always seen cars with trees on the top of them. Always wondered if those people in the car were all excited to take their perfectly picked tree home.
I honestly couldn't believe I was finally going to be one of those cars. I think my oldest thought my excitement was a little ridiculous but I seriously was so excited.

We got it home, put lights and homemade ornaments on it just in time for the Charlie Brown Christmas Special. It was a great night and I don't think we can just have one tree ever again.

My husband asked me the other night why things always seemed harder around the holidays. And keep in mind, he has had a crazy amount of things on his plate and is driving to upstate New York as we speak for his grandma's funeral so I can totally understand where he is coming from. I told him that we do have more things scheduled this time of year but we also set our expectations ridiculously high this time of year. We want everything to be perfect. We don't think anything bad should happen from Thanksgiving to New Years and unfortunately that doesn't end up being realistic.

So I think that is why our family home evening night to get the tree felt so great. It was simple. It was just our little family. It wasn't perfect...the trees we really wanted were sold out, but it was okay and we had fun and it felt magical just for a moment.









































And can you tell my boys need new coats cause all their shirts are hanging outside of the coat arms! Good thing Christmas is around the corner, eh?

This is how I found her...

Yep..little T decided that since her mommy was busy for a moment, that now would be a fantastic time to try out all that junk mom is always putting on her face. I took a five minute shower and came out to find T covered in mascara. She was using the mascara brush like a paint brush across her forehead. Hopefully all the scrubbing it took to get it off, might keep her from trying again.

Mirrors at the Gym...ugh!

So I used to dance...like all the time. I was in a dance company and had dance practice 2 or 3 times a week for hours at a time. We performed all over the area. I loved it. My body felt strong then. It flowed. Granted I was young.

Fast forward twenty years....(maybe that twenty years is the problem)

I'm going to a regular zumba class. I don't know how they work in different gyms but ours has some Latin influence in their steps but has a lot of jazz and hip hop too which is what I used to do in dance. I can actually feel the muscle memory as my body does the steps. It remembers. It feels comfortable. It's fun because steps that could seem quite complicated for a beginner are ones that I have done for so many years, that I don't even have to think about it. I watch the instructor and I'm right in line with what she is doing.

AND THEN I LOOK IN THE MIRROR!!!!!!!

Who is that elephant in the mirror?? Surely that isn't me! I am young! I am a sixteen year old dancer! I am strong! I am smooth! I have moves! I am not a 37 year old out of shape mother of four!!

I hate the mirrors! I hate that those stupid mirrors are ruining dancing for me. Without the mirrors I feel great and young and my body feels good doing those dance steps again. And then I catch a glimpse of the dancing fool in the mirror and I get embarrassed and wonder why in the world I am here.

So dear gym of mine...can't you please take down the mirrors? I will keep coming. I like going to the gym and am feeling stronger all the time but don't you think you could ease the pain and humiliation just a tad?

Now I know why people run outside...no mirrors!

Fall Catchup

We have picked apples. We have had some birthdays. We have dressed up in costumes and gotten some candy. We have had family in town for two weeks. We have danced our hearts out at a school dance party. We have had a our eldest recieve his Arrow of Light (which is a super cool deal!) We have gone to a fun pumpkin farm with family. We have gone to see awesome caverns too. We have had fun and "we" are tired now:)

It's the beginning of the holiday rush. November is almost half over and I'm getting the itch to put in some Christmas music....my only wish is to actually ENJOY the season and not just walk around with a check off list of things to get done. I'll keep you posted:)

I changed my mind

I have more pictures from T's birthday. I have pictures from apple picking and things that have been going on around here. I even have a picture of a picture collage I finished with my hubby last night at 10pm. But that isn't what's on my mind.

So we watched conference on Sunday and had my mom, dad and uncle over for dessert after it. It was all lovely and they even played games too. After everyone left, I went up to get the kids to bed and since the tv was already on byutv, my husband got sucked into watching some shows. One in particular has now been watched at least three times in our house this week. It's called The 5000 Days Project. It's a documentary where this guy films the lives of these two brothers from about ages 8 and 10 until they are 19 and 21. He interviews them and asks them questions about what they want to be when they grow up and if they like each other. If you have boys in your family....watch it. If you ever wonder if your sons will ever stop fighting and will they really become best friends some day...watch it. K watched and cried. Then we watched it together and cried. And then we watched it for FHE. We then took the video camera and had privately taped interviews with each of our kids. We asked them all sorts of questions about their lives right now and about how they feel, what they like, what they like about our family and what they wished we did different. We even asked them how they thought we were doing as parents and what we could do better. Just like the documentary, we plan to keep doing this as the kids grow up.

Now the reason I changed my mind....

All this week since big T has turned 11, we have kept saying how awesome it is that next year he will turn 12 and become a Deacon and go into YM, get the priesthood and get to go with dad to conference. After watching the film and literally seeing these boys grow up, I realize I don't want T to grow up. I'm terrified for him to go into YM. I like him being the older, wiser kid in primary and not the easily swayed 12 year old with the 17 year olds. As his mom, I'M NOT READY!!!

So when he got home from school, I told him to stop growing up...he is pretty obedient. I think he will do it. Phew...that was a close one!!

Our Big Guy is 11 !

T, it's been a year since we sat in that restaurant and you wrote down what you wanted to happen during your 10th year. I hope we accomplished some of them and that your 11th year is even better. You are so fun to have in our family and I know I rely a lot on your help! I have loved being able to have you watch your siblings and being able to trust in how responsible you are. I love so many things about you but here are 11 since you are 11 today!

1) I have always loved your smile and eyes. Even when you were really little someone at church commented on how your smile reaches your eyes. It does...you can light up a room when you are happy!

2) You will try new things. Even if it doesn't turn out to be your favorite...you always try.

3) You like to learn new things. I think that is why you enjoy school so much and do so well.

4) I love how excited you get about what you are reading and want to share it with me.

5) Last year I got to be your Webelos leader for awhile. It was so fun getting to see you with your friends and watching you be a leader with them. I'm so proud that you have earned your Arrow of Light!

6) You are a great babysitter! We have loved slowly allowing you to watch your siblings a little more each time. It's gone great and you take the job seriously and allow us to get a break once in a while!

7) You were on a hard basketball team last year. The kids were all older, all taller, and had played ball much longer than you. It wasn't a fair or fun situation. I know you didn't want to go. I'm proud that you stuck it out and realized you can do hard things.

8) You have a great sense of humor and are always trying to get others to laugh!

9) You are a great friend! You seem to be the kid everyone gets a long with and everyone wants to be by and that can be tiring sometimes but you even handle that well.

10) Once a couple of years ago, one of your primary teachers came up to me. She was getting ready to move out of the area and wouldn't be your teacher anymore. She got all teary eyed as she expressed how much she would miss getting to teach you. Both church and school teachers have all had the same opinion. In their eyes, you stand out as someone who is responsible, kind to others, easy to please, happy to learn, and a joy to be around. Your teacher this year asked if we could clone you.

I like that idea. I think everyone's family could benefit from having a "T" in their family.

Well...I know I could be just a little bit biased. :) Happy Birthday T! We love you soooo much!!

Love, Dad, Mom, and crew!

Gym Class

So I have some friends and they all belong to this particular gym. I belonged to a gym years ago but it's been awhile to say the least. They told me it was a great gym and that I should join. I decided to go check it out and found out they have free kid care....as in FREE! One of the biggest reasons I haven't gone in years past is I hate the idea of trying to get to a gym by 5am or going at 9pm but this way I can take little T and she is watched by other work out moms and she LOVES it! I can even work in the kid care for two hours a week and my membership is then FREE too!! Such a deal! I also love the classes. I have been trying a bunch of them and usually with other friends and it has been hilarious!

First I did a weight lifting class done to music for an hour and I couldn't move the next three days after. Awesome. I took the class again and it wasn't nearly as bad. Progress.

Second one I took was a spin class. I should have worn a helmet. That thing is dangerous! Well...not really but my shoe kept coming out of the harness and my legs were so shaky when we were going up hill that I would just start to fall off the bike. Again...awesome. Again I was with a friend and we couldn't stop laughing or crying..a mixture of both. After that one I couldn't sit down for days. Awesome. Haven't been back to that one. Still can't sit down.

Next one was a Zumba class. Two friends showed up to that and we danced our little Latin hearts out. We may not have stayed with the rest of the group but hey we had fun and I will definitely be hitting that one again! No pain either after that one. Me likey!

Last one I took was today. It was supposed to be a 30 minute power step class. It was a 45 minute spinning, step, disaster!! I talked my friend into joining me. We both joined the gym recently so it was new to both of us. Thirty minutes..how hard could it be, right? Um...let's just say that the teacher was sooo fast and all over the place that we literally were going the opposite direction than the entire class almost the entire time! I was getting dizzy. I was tripping over the step. I was laughing SOOOO hard that my stomach hurt watching my friend do the same thing with her big eyes staring at me, mouthing "what in the heck are we doing here!!???" Awesome. The teacher actually came over to us after class to let us know there was an easier step class on Thursday nights. Um..we were we just told to not come back because we sucked? Um..yep. Awesome!

I will say with all the pain and not knowing how to do all the steps, I still love it. I love having a place to go that I don't have to spend out of pocket money each day, a place where I can have some kid free time and a place that is making me healthier....one painful class at a time.

Goal.....Be healthy skinny by summer 2012 twenty high school reunion or bust!

The Help

I just finished the book on Thursday. I loved it! I had heard it was good and I had some friends going to see the movie that night and I wanted to make sure I was done. I loved the movie too! The actors they got to play each character was exactly how I pictured them! I made fried chicken while I read it. I thought about getting Crisco out and using it to clean some things. I had this sense of wanting to hang out with the help the whole time I was reading it. I like order. I like having a day to do things. "It's sheets washing day". I have made job calendars and tried to follow them and usually I keep to them for about a month but then life gets in the way and it doesn't happen anymore. I want to read the Ms. Myrna column. I would love to know all their cool tricks to domestic cleaning.

What's interesting is to read the back of the book where the author tells of her own life experiences. Where she grew up with a maid and loved her like a mother and never really knew how the maid felt about everything because she never thought to ask her. I don't know why, but looking at the picture I was shocked to realize she close to my age. I suppose that could have been me had I been born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi (and yes I just did the elementary school trick to spell out that dang state!) Why do I feel like this time period in our history was soooo long ago when it was my generation if you lived in the deep south.

I didn't however live in the deep south. I was born in Utah. I don't remember seeing anyone of any other race than white until I moved to the east when I was six. In 1981,we moved to a suburb of D.C. and my world changed. Not only was this area known for having a lot of African Americans, but it was international. Any country you could think of was represented almost in this area. Or at least it seemed to me. We would rudely point out the different color of people in the grocery store much to the dismay of my parents. Picture it, five white little girls following their mother around the grocery store pointing to this person and that person "mom, why does she look like that?" "mom, she is so dark!" "why does that man have a turban on his head?" Awesome, I'm sure my mom loved it.

I started having friends in the neighborhood and at school that were from lots of different places. I think it changed me and my sisters. I think it broadened our horizons and experiences. I don't think my parents ever planned to stay there. It was a four year assignment and yet my parents still live there today. I do however think it surprised my parents just how much it would change their daughters, their outlooks on society and who they would hang out with.

Well anyway...those were some of my thoughts after I read the book. When I was walking out of the movie theater, I was right behind a black woman. I immediately thought," I wonder what she thought of the movie?" Does she look at me as a white woman and think I'm more like Skeeter and can see all the injustice or does she look at me and think I'm more like Hilly. I chatted with some of my friends that I rode with about it. They all seemed to think that of course she would have known that we hated all the injustice just like she did.

I guess my experiences has taught me that maybe things aren't always so black and white.

What did you all think?

Babies and Growing Up

I love this picture with K and a baby on his chest. This is how all our babies slept when they were newborns. K would come home from work and plop those babies on his chest and they would just melt and sleep there for hours.














This baby however is not mine. This is the newest addition to K's family. His younger sister just had her first and she is adorable. We love that they don't live too far away and she is only 10 days old and we have seen her twice.











What I can't help but notice in this picture with little T and her newest cousin is that little T isn't so little anymore. She is getting to be quite a big girl. She decided to prove it to me this week. A couple of days ago I was in my room which is next to her room. I could hear that she was awake so I went in to get her out of her crib. The crib that has a tent over it so she can't get out. When I walk in, she not only isn't in her crib, but she is calmly sitting in her rocking chair looking at a book and says "Good Morning Mama!" She had figured out how to unzip the tent with her little finger, climbed out of her crib without any noise, and climbed into the rocking chair to look at a book.

I couldn't believe it! But I guess when you are ready...you are ready! It was trash day and they would be here in a couple of hours. I called my husband to ask if he could think of any reason why I shouldn't take the crib out to the curb. I think this shocked him. We have had that crib up in our house for ELEVEN years! It has cradled all of our four kids. My in-laws bought it exactly 11 years ago for 50$ and that included a matching changing table! It had been owned by some grandparents that had decided to sell it because it never got used by their grand kids so it was basically new.

We didn't feel like we could give the crib to anyone without feeling liable if anything went wrong...it was an old crib. Still it was weird to see the trash truck eat it up when my baby was just sleeping in there and hour ago! But alas....she wants to be a big girl and her bed was already in the room waiting so we took the plunge.

So far so good! If you put her in her bed, she doesn't get out. Very weird since I have had boys immediately climb out and walk out the door. If you put her in her rocking chair to look at books, she doesn't climb out of that either. She will fall asleep in the chair. The first night I put her in the bed, she just went to sleep and stayed in the same position for 12 hours. Last night was a little more normal with her moving around (yes I check on her much more now...I guess I'm afraid she will fall out) but she still slept like a dream and even took a 2 1/2 hr nap yesterday in her bed. I'm starting to wonder why we didn't do this sooner!

Since she is determined to be such a big girl, at least I can go hold my cute little niece to get my baby fill!

Next on to potty training!....yikes!

First Day of School, Second Day Earthquake, Third Day Cancelled

It's that time of year again. This county sends kids to school way too early. August 22nd...really? People are still on vacation, summer is still going, pool fun is still meant to be had! Either way, they started so we sent the kids.

This time it involved C! He is a big five year old and so ready to go to kindergarten. I do feel bad for the kid cause I have been told that kindergarten work can be done in about an hour at home and he is gone from 8am-4pm! He's five not 15!

We woke up bright and early, had everything laid out the night before (or so I thought). Planned on making the kids a nice breakfast to start them out right. Then we realized that we couldn't find C's brand new school shoes. Nope not anywhere. He could wear his old ones (i think) but he was so excited to wear his new ones. Still couldn't find them anywhere after 25 minutes of searching. Finally K found them still in the box next to the garage. Ahh...first day of school is fun. They ate cereal and I took them to school. C made me promise I would let his dad know that he would miss him during the day. Ahh...too cute.

Several hours later K picked the kids up from the bus stop and they all seemed to have positive things to report. No one cried, or got lost or lonely. C said something about how school was the best thing ever since he only played, took a nap on his towel, and listened to stories. Sounds good to me too.

Later that night when I asked C to help me start making the lunches for the next day.

This is our conversation:

Me: Hey C, can you help me get the lunches made for tomorrow.
C: What?!! Why? Do we have to go back?
Me: Um yea. What did you think? We got all that stuff for one day?
C: Well, how many more days do I have to go until I'm in first grade?
Me: oh boy...it's gonna be a long year!

When I tucked him into bed, he told me he didn't want to go back to school. I said that's fine, you can clean toilets tomorrow. I said I would let him think about cleaning toilets or going to school and to let me know in the morning his decision. I told my husband about the conversation, and he said" if the kid was smart he would realize the toilets would be done in 10 minutes and choose that!

Day 2

Everyone went to school as planned. All had shoes, no one chose to clean toilets and no one even mentioned being sad about going. Around 2pm I'm putting little T down for a nap. I turn on her white noise machine and then start to hear and feel a really loud pounding noise. I immediately think my washer has completely gone mad. I leave my two year old in her room and run as fast as I can downstairs to turn off the mad machine and realize it's not the one making the motion and noise. That's when I hear T screaming and things starting to fall off the walls. I had left her alone with things falling in her room. I really did think I was leaving her in a safer place and it turned out to be probably the worst place. I then knew it was an earthquake although I somehow thought that maybe it was only in my house or something. When I could finally text my sister since I couldn't call my husband, she did confirm others in Va were saying stuff on Facebook about it. Whew...I'm not totally crazy...and it wasn't only my house! It was frustrating that cell lines were down for quite sometime and I couldn't reach my husband to let him know we were okay. Same with the kids...couldn't get through to the school.

Luckily everyone was fine. No major damage and the kids got home just a little late. They came running off the bus telling me their was an earthquake at their school but didn't seem too upset by it. C just seemed annoyed that it meant he didn't get P.E. this week. Little T was must more clingy after her nap and kept saying..."it's skary...it's skary" My older boys thought it was hilarious to make things shake in the house to freak me out. We felt a tiny aftershock around 8pm. I for one wanted the house quiet cause you can hear them coming better. Freaky!!!


Day 3

School is canceled until they can evaluate all the school buildings and their safety.
We go to the pool and I'm pretty sure C thinks he is in 1st grade now. Quickest kindergarten year ever!!

Today's Accomplishment

We went on a trip.
As soon as we got back, I woke up sick.
Still sick.
Today I realized I wasn't sure when my kids took their last bath.
Hmm...at least I have documented that we accomplished something today!

Summertime Slaves

I think that is what my boys would call themselves. They are afraid that since they are home during the day, that all I want them to do is clean, clean, clean. Problem is, BECAUSE they are home all day, the house is a mess mess mess!! I feel like I have the summertime blues because I hate walking by my boys' rooms. Sometimes I just close the door because I don't have it in me to complain about it, but I still don't want to see it all the same!

One morning last week, I had an idea. I decided to have a competition between the three boys. Each was to clean their rooms to the best of the abilities (since I generally know what they are capable of in this area, I could judge accordingly). It wasn't a timed race. They could take the time they needed to clean and organize their rooms but when I came to inspect their work, I expected to see a real difference. The winner of the competition got to pick going out to get a treat with either mom or dad all by themselves. The boys seemed excited. I felt like I was in a better mood too because I felt like there would be progress. I felt like maybe today I wouldn't have to go close their rooms.

As the day progresses, my hopes and dreams started to melt away. The oldest and most obedient one cleaned his room, tried to somewhat organize his closet and folded all the clothes in his drawers..progress. However, son number 2 did his usual quick hide everything in a drawer or closet and make it look like he did something. Son number 3 usually follows this example of son number 2. However on this day, he didn't even do that. He did NOTHING! His clothes were all over the floor all day long. He didn't pick up a single bit of trash, a single bit of toys. When I walked into his room and asked him what in the world he was doing (in my ever so soft mommy voice....heee) he just looked at me like I was from mars. I think by the end of a very long day, he finally put his clothes away and that was only to earn some dinner.

Obviously, the oldest got the treat. I didn't really go into it thinking he would get it for sure though. He can have a pretty messy room too and sometimes he just doesn't get the whole "clean your room" idea either. The thing is, it ruined my day.
Having already felt like the summertime mess in the house was bringing me down, this brought me down to new lows.

So I'm asking....any ideas out there? We have tried job charts, we have tried listing the things they need to clean up every day on a piece of paper and taping it to their doors (worked for 2 or 3 days...then nothing) and we have tried the rewards ideas too. We were having a discussion in Relief Society a couple of weeks ago and one lady said that her kid's rooms were their space. As long as they kept every where else in the house clean and picked up from their stuff, they could have their rooms however they liked them. She even mentioned them painting their rooms and carving their names in the furniture.

Am I crazy? I just don't agree with that one. I feel like they won't sleep well if they can't even walk to their beds because there is too much stuff. I feel like it is still part of our home and should be taken care of. Are my expectations too high? Does anyone have anything that has worked besides hiring a maid?

Happy 4th of July!!

I am always excited for this holiday! I love all the friends and family get togethers, good food, fireworks while listening to my favorite patriotic song "..and I'm proud to be an american, where at least I know I'm free..." Ah brings a tear to the eye, I tell ya!

This year was a little different though. We had plans. We started off the weekend with some good swimming at the pool, some yard work done, and even a fun night out for K and I. We spent some time with K's cousin who is moving here on Sunday and were expecting a great 4th to follow. Then I felt little T's head. It was warm...no it was hot. Dang! I took her temp and it was 104. Problem is when she gets a temp it means a little more then put her to bed with some Motrin.

Little t has kidney reflux so a temp means she needs to have a UTI test done. She just turned two and isnt' potty trained yet so it means getting a catheter done. Not pretty. Since it was Sunday night and the next day was the 4th I knew I would have to take her into the emergency room. Again not pretty. I drove in a horrible rain storm with a sick little girl to the ER. Then the waiting started. It took them 7 hours to take care of us. It took about 2 hrs for us to been seen. And oh joy she threw up all over herself and me in the waiting room. They brought us stuff to clean up, a hospital gown for her and then we proceeded to wait some more. Ugh...luckily it didn't smell bad..which was weird. When we got her back there they wanted to also do blood work and hydrate her so she got a catheter and an iv. Poor little girl. She did amazingly well and hardly cried at all...I think she was just so tired cause she was hardly talking either. And she normally talks a lot.
Luckily when it was all said and done, she was okay and just fighting a virus. We have to go through this until she is three. Then they will determine if she has outgrown the kidney reflux or if she needs surgery. Another year to go...ugh! At least I will potty train her soon so hopefully all this testing will get easier on her.

We ended up still celebrating the 4th. Even though H came down with a fever too...ugh! My parents and sister decided to chance it and not give as many hugs. We had a delicious barbecue and then those who were well went to Great Meadows for some fun and fireworks. K was nice enough to stay home with H and little T so I could go enjoy some time with my family. For a night that seemed like it would thunderstorm for sure, it was beautiful. No rain, no thunder and not even that hot. It was a 4th of July miracle!! The kids would even pose for a cute picture in festive clothes...motrin works wonders..hee hee!

Little T is Two Today!!

I think it speaks volumes that your brothers could hardly wait until you woke up today. They made you a breakfast of eggs, toast and chocolate milk all by themselves. They drew you cards with love. They are calling you the princess and letting you do whatever you want today and will not let you out of their sight! You keep saying “Happy Day Birth” and know it all has something to do with cake. You my dear baby girl are the joy of your family. We love to make you giggle and love to see what you will do next! You are so stinkin cute with that head of hair you have that we can’t get enough of you. You dance and sing and give kisses and hugs like a champ! We love you soooo much! Happy 2nd Birthday little T!!

My favorite 10 things about her:

1) I love that you are still light enough to carry

2) I love your hair and that it has the curls that I never had!

3) I love that you wake up and say “Bow?” cause you immediately want your hair done. Next is socks and shoes on your list!

4) I love that you will sing with me at night when I’m rocking you.

5) I love that you already know how to pray

6) No body can light up your daddy’s face after a long day like you running towards him with open arms

7) I love when you grab my face to hold me close and get my attention and then you say “um mom”..and go on with some important phrase like last night you said “um mom…cute pants.”

8) To add to number 7 I love that you walk around and so unexpectedly say “oh cute!” when you see something you like!

9) You are my little shadow. When I’m yelling for C, you are right there yelling for him too. When I’m putting on makeup, you need a makeup brush for you. When I’m sweeping, you need to help too.

10) I love how good natured you are. You go into nursery with a smile. You don’t take too long to warm up to just about anyone. You will share with other little friends and you love to make people laugh.

Love you cutie pa tootie!!