Stroke of Genius

Stacy and I had planned our kids' Christmas Photos for a few weeks, and on the day of the big event, we set up the "studio" in my dining room, and I picked up some Little Caesar's hot and ready for us all to have after the photo shoot. Well, unfortunately, the pizzas were not hot and ready, and we had to wait for a few minutes.  We decided to take that time to pick out a couple of 2 liter drinks to have.  I got one Mountain Dew because Junior, Stacy, and Michael all love it.  I let the kids choose the other.  Of course they wanted different things.  Olivia wanted Orange Crush, and Tyler wanted Sierra Mist. In a stroke of genius, I decided that the kids should "Rock Paper Scissors" for it.

It ended up being a great idea. Tyler won, and Olivia didn't even whine about it, or ask why he got what he wanted and she didn't because it was very obvious that he won, fair and square! As we went to sit and wait for our pizzas to finish, the lady that was already sitting and waiting looks at me, grinning from ear to ear, and says, "I have 4 kids. I think you just saved my life." HA Totally made my day!! :)

Say "Christmas"

As the kids prepared for their Christmas Pictures :) Thank you Stacy Roberts!!

Tis the season to get crafty

I think I've mentioned this before, but I joined a website called pinterest.com where people share ideas and things they like.  I have used several recipes, a decoration idea, and lots of fun ideas for things to do with the kids from the site.  There are a lot of fun ideas for Christmas, and since I've decided that the kids and I are going to MAKE all of our decorations this year. (Yeah, I've decided that I'm not going into the attic to drag down my beautiful tree and all my beautiful ornaments this year.)  I now plan to take the family to a tree farm to chop down our own tree, wrestle it into our house, try to get it to stand up straight, and MAKE all of the decorations. (You'll hear more about that later, I'm sure)  So far, we've picked out some pine cones to spray paint, and make a couple of things, but tonight, we made some clay with a recipe from pinterest, and cut them out with Christmas cookie cutters, and poked a hole in them with a straw.  They should dry over the next couple of days, and when the kids get back home from spending the weekend with their mother, we will paint them.

The other idea that we used yesterday was the tomato cage Christmas tree.  We just went and got one of our tomato cages from under the back deck, wiped it off, and wrapped it in Christmas lights, and voila!!

Free and Fun

...2 of my favorite things :)

Which is one of the many reasons the kids and I love going to the park.  A few weeks ago, when I picked them up from after school care, we needed to go to the mall, and passed by Laurel Park on the way.  There is a FANTASTIC new playground there.  I told the kids next time I picked them up, I'd take them, but I haven't picked them up in a while because Junior can get there faster. Well, I picked them up the other day, and just as I promised, I took them to the park!! They didn't even remember, but they sure were excited when I reminded them :). I showed up to get them with some BK kids meals which already excited them.  They had it scarfed down before we even got over to the park.  They eat lunch so early. But it gave them plenty of extra energy to play and wear themselves out for bed time.

Blue Jellyfish???

O: Jessica, what's that big blue jellyfish for?
Me: Huh??
O: That blue jellyfish
Me: What blue Jellyfish?
O: That blue jellyfish right in front of you

Me: (after a few seconds of trying to figure out what the heck she was talking about) Oh, that's not a jellyfish, that's a bright light.  See, watch the road when I turn it off and on.
Tyler: Yeah, but if you turn it upside up, its a jellyfish
Me: Oh yeah, you're right! (smiling inside)

Definitely NOT Benedryl!!!

Here's the short version:

I washed my hands with clear liquid handsoap.

Olivia got stung earlier, and was complaining about it hurting when she laid on the pillow so I gave her benedryl (also a clear liquid).

I went into the bathroom to rinse their toothpaste down the sink and clean up the aftermath of their bedtime routine and noticed a drop of clear liquid running down the front of my shirt.

(You probably know where I'm going with this by now, but I'll continue anyway)

Olivia made a big fuss about how yuck the medicine was, but I didn't think it was that bad, and I took the drop on my shirt as the opportunity to find out.  I stuck my finger in the clear sticky liquid, and placed it promptly on my tongue.

You guessed it!!!!!!! NOT Benedryl!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving

The past 2 years, we've had Thanksgiving Breakfast with my family so that we could have Lunch at Junior's Mom's. This year, Lindsey and Matt had plans at 10 with Matt's Mom, so I invited them to our house for breakfast so Lindsey would be able to see them before they left.  Tyler was up when I got up to start getting ready, and he wanted to watch TV on the couch while I was unloading the dishwasher, and setting the table, but he made sure that I knew, severall times, that he was going to help me when I started cooking.  He was so cute, he kept looking up over the back of the couch asking if I was ready for him to come help me yet :).

They did all the pigs and blanksts all by themselves (after I cut the dough for them :)).

Junior's mom is a great cook, so lunch there was delicious, and then we had dinner with Kenny and Carolyn, and headed to the auction for the Special Thanksgiving Auction, and after that, we hit up Wal-Mart for their midnight special :)

What a fun and blessing-filled day!  We truly have so much to be thankful for!