I love my kids

I love taking pictures of my kids, and I love having great pictures taken of them. Today we went to Sears, and had Christmas pictures taken (for the 2nd time). They turned out so great!!!! It was work, and the photographer was very patient and great with the kids. So, since they came out so good, I thought I would share with all of you.

Jeremy

Samantha

Christian

Paige

(L to R) Jeremy, Samantha, Christian, Paige (on the bottom)




(L to R) Christian, Samantha, Jeremy, Paige

(L to R) Samantha, Jeremy, Paige, Christian

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was great. I got to sleep in a bit, and then cook and then eat! Wonderful!! The kids decided that Turkey is the most vile thing in the world, but they got over it. Friday I was going to go Black Friday shopping, but I couldn't be bothered to get up.... 6am is REALLY EARLY. Greg and Nicole came to visit (along with their kids of course!!) and they stayed until after dinner. It was so much fun. It was nice to visit with Greg and Nicole and play with the kids. Our kids had a great time, and can't wait for them to come back.

We are gearing up for their 5th birthday party. I can't believe that they are going to be 5 in less than 2 weeks!! Where did the time go? It seems just like yesterday that I was in the hospital still pregnant with them. Wanting everyday to give birth to them. Wanting them out so I could meet them, and now... I would give everything I have to be able to put them back in. I want to keep them small forever. I don't want them to grow up. Where did my babies go? They ride bikes now, and they write and are trying to learn to read, I think they are ready to go to college already. Then there are moments when I can't wait for them to go to school. I think they are going to love it, although Christian told me that "learning is boring" today. Samantha is going to think school is the best thing. I really think she will love it. Jeremy will probably have so much fun and Paige is going to have a hard lesson to learn about listening to the teachers and letting go of her stubborn streak. I think once she learns that she will love being in school. Christian, on the other hand, I am not sure where that is going to go. I think he will love recess, other than that.... I have no idea! But that's okay. It's going to be fun. I can't wait to be the volunteer mom... bringing things in, going on field trips all that fun stuff.

Okay, I have rambled on long enough. That is about all I have to say for tonight.

Things I am thankful for...

I love my kids. They are definitely the best thing that has ever happened to me. I look at them and it makes me smile. I remember why I was put on this earth. I am so grateful for them, and some days, my love for them overwhelms me. Today is one of those days. It seems like it is the simple things in life that make me the happiest.

When they are at Karate, they all strive to be the best behaved so they can be the kid to ring the gong. Samantha has been chosen 3 times, and she lets everyone know it! Jeremy, Paige and Christian talk about it on the way to class. Every day they tell me that they are going to be the one to ring the gong. Christian is the one who talks about it the most. He loves his Sensei, and he wants to please her. He wants to be the one she picks, because that means that he is being singled out, that he is special. Well, today Christian got to be that kid. He was SO excited. He was in the dojo, and called to me "Mommy, I got to ring the gong!!!" He had such a smile on his face, and I almost cried! I was so proud of him. I love it when they get to feel the pride that I feel for them when they are being the great kids I know they can be! He was so excited to come home and tell Daddy, and I was really excited for him.

Even Paige, who often has trouble with her focus at class, did a really good job. She had trouble when she ran herself into a wall, and then she just fell apart for the rest of the class. I am sure she will be able to handle it better next week.

I went to Church yesterday, and it was nice. It was very different from what I am used to, but I liked it. I will be going back for a few weeks and see how things go. One of the things the pastor said was that we need to think about 3 things we are grateful for. Three separate things to be thankful for every day. I am going to try and do that. So here goes. I am thankful for my husband, first and foremost. I am thankful that God chose to make me a mother to 4 wonderful Children. I am thankful that I have a nice home to raise my family in.

Wow, that was easy. I wonder if it will be easy tomorrow. We'll see. :) Okay, well that is it for me. Off to bed!

Visitors

I love the holidays!!! Simply because someone comes to visit us and the kids love to see that person. They are happy, fight less, whine less and are just all around happier kids. So right now my sister-in-law is visiting for the week from college. She is a great girl and I just love having her around. She was here for the summer after the kids were born and was just the best help I could have had. When ever she comes to visit the kids get so happy, and they just love her. They are excited to take her to karate on Monday, and she is going to go to a new church with us tomorrow. I have wanted to find a church for a while, but I am nervous about going to one. One of the students at the kids karate class was telling me about his church, so I thought I would give it a try. We'll see what happens with that. I miss going to church. I really never thought I would, but I miss the worship and just the feeling I have during worship. The last few months at my old church were so stressful for me because of the senior pastor, that I really stopped enjoying it, and I didn't think I was going to want to go to another church. We'll see.... more on that tomorrow.

Nothing in Life is free...

I got a call yesterday from someone letting me know that we had "won" a free 1 room carpet cleaning, and did I want to go ahead and schedule that right now? I politely tell her I don't have carpet in my house. She then tells me that if I have hard wood floors, they will be happy to buff polish one of the floors. I say, well, what is the catch? She says there is no catch, we just have to listen to the demo about the Kirby Vacuum. So we talk, and I finally tell her that I believe that nothing in life is truely free... and she assures me that all I have to do is listen to the demo, they will buff my floor, and then leave if I don't want to buy the product. Sure I say... I have time for a demo.

The kid shows up,(I don't think he was 25 which recently feels really young to me). He procedes to show me how wonderful this product is, and I am completely sold. I LOVE the Kirby Vacuum cleaner. I want to buy 6 of them, just because they are so wonderful. But then.... he tells me the price, and I almost fall over.... $1,749.00 (with $199 down that is only 40ish dollars a month for the next 24 months). I looked at him and said, are you serious? It's just a vacuum!! That made him mad. Then he called his office, and they brought it down to $900. And I say it's still just a vacuum. Granted it is a really cool vacuum. Well, I tell him no... that's still too much money. So he calls his office again, and they tell me they can give me a "previously enjoyed" older model for just $650. Um... that is still more than I am going to pay for a vacuum. SO I politely tell him no thank you, and he finally gives up, but he is not happy. You can tell by the way he is cleaning up and puting things away. He has stopped talking and when he does, it's in short clipped sentences.

So he cleans up and leaves and I got my dining room floor buffed and polished for free right??? NO!!! Today I am living with the guilt of having the guy come here knowing I was not going to buy the product he was selling, and he spent 4 hours here showing it to me. I feel bad that he was really excited to see that I liked the product so much and then he was very annoyed with me because I did not buy it. I feel bad... and once again I have confirmed to myself that nothing in live is free!!!!

One of those days

Ever have one of those days... you know, you just shouldn't have gotten out of bed, wish everyone you came in contact with had stayed in bed. I had one of those days today. We had to go over to my mothers summer place to clean out the pantry and try to find some stuff we were looking for. The kids were making me crazy with the whining and not listening. The more I yelled and lost my patience, the worse they were acting. Then we went into a store and again they were just driving me crazy. My mom stayed with them at the register while I went back and got something. When I got back to the register, they were talking to the cashier, being great kids, too cute, just totally engaging. Then I remembered why I love being a mom. I love that they can make me totally crazy one minute, and then fill my heart with love and pride the next minute. I love that they can be so helpful at times and then turn right around and make the biggest mess ever seen. I love that they try to help me clean, but never finish the job, but think they do such a great job. Most of all, I love that even when I turn into crazy, mean mommy, they still love me and they forgive me for my shortfalls.

The First Year.... Continued

So I was thinking about their first year today, and how much they have changed. Sometimes I am sad, and other times I am so excited for the new phases of their lives. Sometimes in the first year I would watch them and just be so sad for them. Sad because their lives were an assembly line, sad because there were times when all of them needed to be held, and I only have 2 arms. Sad because I was never the mom that could rock her baby to sleep, sad because I couldn't breast feed. Then there are times like today, when I look at them and I see little kids, not babies and then I am so happy. I think back fondly of their infancy and toddler hood, and I look forward to the times to come.

So anyway, I was looking at pictures of them today and I was so happy. They were so small, and so happy (for the most part)...LOL

I saw the picture of Jeremy the night before he had his surgery. Jeremy had to have his umbilical hernia repaired at 10 months, it was huge... I had forgotten how big it was....

He used to play with it and I was actually worried that he would miss it... Okay... so I am not the most sane woman in the world. It was actually funny... he was clearly excited to be with just mommy and daddy, and then they gave him some kind of medication that made him giggle. He sat there for about 10 minutes giggling...

This is Jeremy with his little hospital gown on right before they gave him his giggle medicine.

Halloween was so fun. Paige got so mad at me because of the costume I chose, it was really very funny. When I bought her costume, she wasn't crawling, but by the time Halloween came around she was the crawling queen!! I have a great picture of how mad she was....

Can you say..."Mommy...I am soooo going to get you back for this when I am a teenager"

Here is the picture of all 4 of them... they didn't all hate their costumes...

We went to the Harvest Party at church and they went on their first hay ride. It was really cute, and I think they really liked the hay, they all kept pulling it and trying to eat it!

We went to a friend's house for Thanksgiving and it was alot of fun. The kids ate Turkey and squash and green beans... and it was alot of fun for them.

Christmas was a big deal. We went to Dan's parents house and got to spend their first Christmas at home with Grammie and Grampie. Very Cool!!! There were so many presents under the tree, and they had put a gate around the tree so that the kids couldn't get into the presents before they were supposed to....

Christmas dinner was an adventure...I think there was a contest to see who could get the messiest... and Samantha won.