...The same old lessons.

We spent an evening straight out of our new favorite show "Modern Family" tonight. There was some disgusting behavior that had taken place and I said, "OH GROSS! Who did this?" All of the girls insisted it was not them. Naturally, Richard had to take it to the next level and made them all sit in the bathroom until one would fess up. So...Rich and I ended up eating dinner all alone with Ethan. They sat in the bathroom arguing up a storm about who was the guilty party. We ate our delicious sandwiches and laughed our heads off. The did the whole - Sabrina, just say it was you...plan. Of course, that didn't stick. The best part about this whole thing is they weren't even in trouble - it was no big deal - and yet, they all went nuts. Kids.
It reminded me of the time when my siblings and I were all dead meat for eating the boy scout fund raiser chocolate covered almonds that were stored in our home. We sat forever until we finally talked poor Shan to take one for the team. I feel really guilty about that still. I guess that is why I still have it in my Alzheimer's brain. When I have brought it up, in our old age, everyone else - except maybe Shan - had enjoyed those nasty old waxy nuts. Perhaps now that I have blogged about it, I can fill that little spot in my brain with something actually useful...like my phone number+area code.

...Weeks that are too much to handle...

In my effort at "reality blogging" I will just say that this week began with a miserable birthday brought in being thrown up on. This week ended being thrown up on...and I mean ALL over on. Rich walked down the hall to do something with his new laptop and came back down 5 minutes later with me standing over the washing machine TOTALLY naked and Ethan crying for me to hurry and get his shirt off. (My poor husband can do nothing but shake his head...)In between the throw up sandwich I have cried at least twice the amount of time I have slept, my eyes feel like too full sponges. I have proven to myself one more time how little control I have over my life and what a horrible mom I can be. I have done so much laundry - I may as well live in the darn laundry room. (I am officially calling it a day early - I can't take any more this week)!!!!!
Cheesy blog moment: Tomorrow is a new day...perhaps the sun will shine its sunny face down on all of us miserables. Just a bonus: I am coloring this post the same color as...

EMMA

Emma turned 8 last week! Can we even believe our "little" Emma is already eight years old? I am totally amazed how fast our lives with her have flown by.
We had yet another marathon birthday party for Emma. The best part about it - for me at least - was just sitting on the steps listening to the complete mayhem coming from the pile of little girls giggling and being crazy in the basement. They had a ton of wild fun at her "pretend sleepover" and she absolutely gloried in all the attention. She just beamed the entire time as everyone hung all over her.
Emma is such a bright spot in our family! She is insanely sweet and loving. She is always there for hugs and kisses, and snuggling up anywhere soft. "Soft" is a huge part of Emma's life. She loves anything and everything that is soft. (This must be why she loves to cuddle up to her mom!)
She is such a smart kid! Every now and then she will come home and tell me how she knows something that a SIXTH GRADER(or third, fifth, whatever) knows. She will then perform her feats of knowledge - like double digit math, and spelling crazy words no one knows. She used to arrive at school every morning and tell her teacher an amazing math fact - like 20 times 10 equals 200. How could you not love being greeted with THAT adorableness every day?
Now then, we have a very firm(at least at one time it was) NO PET policy at our house. Emma loves animals - not the big kind - the soft furry kind. In fact, she loves soft, furry animals so much that Santa even had a temporary moment of insanity brought on by the christmas spirit and brought Emma a guinea pig. It is her favorite thing ever.
Another thing I love about Emma is that her sweet/kind/adoring personality also has a feisty little temper to go along with it. From the minute she was born the nurses proclaimed her a red head. And true to her very nature, she has strawberry blonde hair. Soft and sweet + a little fire.


I love Emma so much and we could never be without her in our home!

...Stunned by the sheer poundage...

So, Costco...Today I ran in to Costco to restock the fridge. I literally could not even push the darn cart by the time I was done. It is positively amazing how much food is consumed within these walls. A sampling of the stuff I bought today:
6 pounds of pears
3 pounds of bananas
5 pounds of pea pods
5 pounds of carrots
6 heads of lettuce
6 pounds of apples
5 pounds of onions - okay, not normal, but still.
3 pounds of broccoli
10 pounds of chicken
5 pounds of cheese
10 pounds of t.p. - okay, I don't know how much it weighs, but it counts.

I cannot even believe how heavy my cart was. I threw on a couple bags of salt, a bucket of food storage, and a pot for my tree and the ladies at the checkout were shaking their heads wondering how I stuffed it all in to only one cart - with a child to boot! Poor E was dying for a slice of pizza - but I just could not maneuver the thing through the maze of the food court! Richard will wonder what we will do with it all, and by next Wednesday, we will all be searching for a snack!

Blog cheese moment: I am really grateful I can buy this huge pile of food to feed my kids!

...A whole lot of orange peeling...

What is the deal with people that need EVERY bit of orange peel and white stuff off of their oranges? I have never understood it when Richard spends twenty minutes peeling one orange - when I could have peeled and EATEN 20 oranges in that amount of time...But NOW Ethan needs every single speck of the white off the darn thing before he will touch it. Mom, get that white string off my orange, mom get this white stuff away from my fruit, mom there is STILL more of this yucky stuff on my orange, mom...you get the idea. Of course I do it, because after all, I am still dealing with guilt from my baby bros pb&js and the whole "small triangle" incidences. I was going to put a cute little photo of an orange - perfectly peeled - but, seriously, who has the energy. (in an attempt to be an adorable blogger - I will add in a really cheesy voice- I just love my quirky guys)

...12 amazing years

I keep asking myself where the time has gone? How is it that she got to be this tall? How did she get to be so beautiful? Where does all of her goodness come from?
Delaney just turned twelve! She is almost a teenager. I am turning in to the mom of a teenager. She has Jr High registration in less than a month. Today was her First activity with the Young Women! Wow!
We had a marathon birthday party - SIX HOURS - on Saturday. It began with a movie...the new Percy Jackson. I was sitting at the end of a row of chatty girls and every time some "event" happened in the movie, there was a whole lot of chittering down the row. It was absolutely hysterical. When the movie ended they all went nuts critiquing the whole thing and how it was nothing like the book and just being so darn dramatic! I was just smiling, laughing my head off on the inside.
We all came back and had a pizza/cake/hanging out until I finally took them home so I could go get some stuff done at 9:00 P.M.

The stuff we love about Delaney:

She is a fantastic sister! I cannot think of a time she is not willing to play/read/share/be a
friend. They look up to her so much.
She is the most helpful daughter in the world. I just couldn't live without her!
She is absolutely gorgeous. I just know I am in trouble. See next:
She is "allergic" to boys. (Thank Heavens!)
She finishes far too many sentences with the word - "so...yeah".
She is very patient with my mothering - admittedly, I am such a geeky mom.
She loves food - just like me. She is totally willing to try anything new. I love that!
She is a shopper. She tortures me often, but it is really not that bad when I have her company.
Plus: She is great at finding super deals when she is spending her own money - and loves everything else when I am buying.
She is so determined. She has worked on her splits to get them perfect and is so proud of
herself!
She is obsessed with purple!
She is so crazy smart we don't know what to do with her. But she is too modest to admit it.
She tries to make everyone feel good about themselves with little compliments all the time. She
always notices any little difference in her sisters and they just beam.
She has an incredibly strong spirit and giving heart. She is such a great example of a follower of Christ. We love her insights and love of the gospel.

I am so proud of her. She is so full of goodness and purity and beauty I am constantly amazed.
Happy Birthday Delaney! We love you so much!

...a Mom with some needs...

I know I am addicted, but I have no will power, what can I say. Some day I will resist and be better, maybe. The sad thing is, I opened the package before I even got the darn quick photo taken! I am truly pathetic.

...Awesome Monday nights.

For the past several months, Ethan and I have had a standing date on Monday nights. As soon as Family Night is over, we ditch everyone and head for the tv, for Monday Night Football. Sometimes there is a favorite team to cheer for, but more times, it is just awesome to watch, so Ethan can yell TOUCHDOWN! and throw his arms up in the air like the ref. We had a great time! The best part was after about an hour of this, Ethan would tire out, and squirm down to lay on my lap, and eventually fall asleep right there in front of the tv. I love it when I get to snuggle them while they sleep. Ultimately, I would take him to his nice bed, but I enjoyed it while I could. Tuesday mornings always started with - "Did my orange guys win?" (or blue/white/red) How they hold on to these things in their sleep is a mystery.

We extended the season a bit, by watching the last playoff game last Monday with popcorn, which makes anything in Ethan's life a party. But alas, it is time to say goodbye to football. Monday night he was pretty devastated that we could not have our date. It made me happy that we've had the time together. Go Saints!

...Interesting anatomy lessons.

Having one little boy join our family has brought upon us MANY opportunities for discussions on anatomy at our house. We have been amused since day one by the curiosity this small, extra item has created. The latest in our self discovery:
Ethan is very in to washing his own self in the tub these days...He was explaining to Sabrina the situation of needing to clean his penis...She agreed heartily that it was a great idea. Ethan then told her that next he needed to wash his poo-ness. (Get it: pee-ness, poo-ness)

Naturally this lead to hysterics, which then led to more conversations about things:

Sabrina, who is most definitely our potty humor child had to (once again) discuss the specifics. We went through the whole sha-bang about what everything is, blah, blah, blah. Richard walks down the hall from his office and she informs him that Ethan has a penis and SHE has a "Gaveenus". (G as in giraffe.) I think we can all agree that poor little Emma stuck in the middle of all this is going to have some serious confusion when she actually stops to think on it.

...A new start!

Here's to my attempt at joining the blogging world! I have great ambitions to make my blog real. My life has crazy stuff, and fun stuff, and stuff you would not wish on anyone. I hope I can capture all the "stuff" so I can look back and try to remember the good...especially when dealing with the "wouldn't wish it on anyone".