Work, work, work and more work!

Curtis and I have been getting the boys room put together so that they can sleep in there every night. It has taken us two days to get it all done as it had become a storage room since neither boy wanted to stay in there. We moved our television in there so they could watch movies and pulled all the extra clothing and shoes out. We went through all the clothes and I ended up with two hampers full of clothes that Ryan, Katie and Logan can wear. This just made more work for me for after I get the laundry folded. I will need to go through their drawers and pull all the too small clothing out. In Logan's case I can box that up to save for Ryan but with Ryan and Katie I will be putting it all in bags for the goodwill or anyone I can find with little ones.

Curtis hurt his back this week so we still haven't cleaned the carpets and I was able to talk him into waiting until after we pull the Christmas tree and decorations down. I need to go through that area one more time so I can start that project on Saturday. Marie has been chomping at the bit to get everything up and take pictures. The neighbors have some of their outdoor decorations out already so every day I get a reminder to get my stuff in gear. It will take us (me) all day Saturday to get everything put up so I'm declaring Sunday my FREE day to relax and rest my arms, legs and everything else. Daddy can help me change diapers and cook on that day. I think he needs a break too; I've run him ragged this week with all the housework.

Katie

Katie after Thanksgiving dinner. No, she didn't have any turkey but she was very tired from waking up early and refusing to take a nap.

After Thanksgiving

Normally, I would have had all my inside Christmas decorations/tree up and the boxes put back into the attic by Saturday late evening. This year it didn't happen that way. We discussed cleaning the carpets first as we've been meaning to do this area for months now. I'm glad that we agreed to do that. I cleaned up the area where the tree goes so we can move one side of the room into that spot, clean, then move everything back to the other side and clean. I should be able to put up the decorations and tree by this next Saturday.

Marie was very disappointed because she loves to help with the decorating. She has been sick since Thanksgiving with a sore throat and swollen glands. Poor baby got that kind of stuff from me. Growing up; whenever I got a cold I also had swollen glands. Back then (okay, WAYYY back then) the doctors told my mother that I needed to get my tonsils out. (Dave and I had it done at the same time; the hospital never was the same again! I remember him riding a Big Wheel up and down the hallways and running/shouting at the top of his lungs before surgery. His tonsils were supposedly worse then mine but that didn't stop him; he wanted potato chips and pickles when we got home from the hospital. I was smart and stuck with the ice cream.) It would stop all the sore throats and swollen glands. Yeah Right! I still get them. A lot of good that did and I believe now a days they don't take them out unless it's absolutely necessary.

The rest of the children have been sickness free for the most part. I am trying my best to keep it that way. Today, Marie is reading for her November book report project which is due Friday. Gee, she is a procrastinator.... I wonder where she got that from?!?! The rest of the kids are watching..... you guessed it a Christmas movie and playing with their toys. It's a pretty quiet afternoon (as quiet as it can be with this group) so I'm going to sit down with a nice cup of tea and relax for a minute or two.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pictures from this week

Logan and his "chippies"

Ryan watching Polar Express

Marie showing off her coloring - great job Ree Ree!

Katie in time out.....hmmmm don't think we're getting the point across

Best buddies - Ryan and Katie

Saturday Date Night

Curtis and I were able to celebrate our 6th anniversary (a week late) on Saturday night. We had Ann and Charlie come to watch the kids. We are so very thankful to have them in our lives. Not only does Ann take really good care of Logan at school, but she and Charlie volunteer to watch all of the kids so we can go out. When the doorbell rang, I opened the door and before I could say hello, Katie screamed, "Gamma!". Marie had put the gate up near the kitchen to keep all of them on the playroom side so Katie decided to stand on a box and about crawl over the gate to get to Ann and Charlie. Logan was screaming "Charlie, out" meaning he wanted to be let out so he could jump up on Charlie and Ann.

We had a nice dinner at Stonewood Grill and had time to run for a cup of coffee before heading home. We still were home by 8:30 even after stopping in at the grocery store for a few things. When we arrived back home, the kids were all settling down until we walked in the door. Katie was so tired she said she wanted to go to bed. Logan was whiney so we put his favorite night night movie on, turned off the light and he was out within 15 minutes. Ryan was fussy but finally settled down after about 45 minutes so we could go to bed. Pretty sad for a Saturday night but we were all in bed by 10:00. Give me a Saturday night like this anytime!!!

A little bit of everything

Logan has decided he likes the play telephone. He picked it up the other day and it really looked like he was talking to someone. I grabbed the camera and told him to say Hello and Bye Bye.

Katie wanted to get in on the fun. If you have a camera in your hand you will have Katie right next to you. Mommy's little cutie pie.

You know Ryan with his Elmo. He won't go to sleep if he doesn't have his Elmo in the crib with him. Elmo is bigger than he is but he doesn't seem to notice. He will drag him all over if you let him. I tried to get a picture of him with his head down just laying on Elmo but he saw the camera.

Marie had her friends over again on Monday. They spent a good part of the day outside playing in the back yard. When it was time to come in to get ready for the girls to go home, I told them to put the stuff away and come inside to cool down and relax. Marie was covered from head to toe in dirt. Jordan was fine with a little dirt on her feet from where she had taken off her shoes. When I asked Marie if she had been rolling around in the dirt, and why Jordan wasn't nearly as dirty as she was; Jordan replied, "I didn't dig in the dirt at all but Marie...." Once the girls left I had Marie get into the shower. She wanted to take a bath but I said No Way! Imagine what the tub would have looked like. As it was, she took two showers. Yes two, I had to make her get back in and wash her hair and body one more time.

Jenna asked if she could get another cross stitch project to work on so we went hunting in my stash. She picked out a very pretty and hard pattern of a horse. I did the other horse pattern for my dad at least ten years ago. I hope Mom still has it so I can snag a picture of it. I can't wait to see how Jenna does. I was able to lend her all the supplies she needed so I told her that all I ask is either show it to me when she's done or take a picture for me.

Ryan and Katie have been playing hard together lately. They have been chasing each other up and down the hallway. Today, when Katie was on the floor Ryan gave her a taste of her own medicine. He lay down on top of her and wouldn't move. (Exactly what she does me when I get down on the floor for whatever reason) He also wants to play ring around the Mommy a lot more too. He tends to try to do that when I'm changing diapers. I have to either go in the bedroom and change diapers on the changing table or back myself up against the couch so he can't get near me.) Between Katie and Ryan; they both head right for me when I'm changing a poopy diaper. Katie will ask me over and over (and over) "did he poop Mommy?"

Tuesday morning

Tuesdays are therapy days for Logan. Usually, I have to get their lunches packed the night before so we can get up, dressed and out of the house by 7:55. Occupational Therapy starts at 8:15 so we have to have time to drive there, get everyone/everything out of the van and get into the hospital. This week Ms. Corey was out (finally got to take her trip to Hawaii to visit with the hubby) so we had extra time this morning.

I went ahead and prepared 90% of the lunches last night while baking Logan his regular and banana bread. I was already in the kitchen waiting for the banana bread to bake so why not get lunches done. This gives me a little more time in the morning to either sleep in or have a chance at a cup of coffee (Neither of those happened this morning) I set the alarm for the normal 6:24 wake up and hit snooze for 10 minutes thinking I could take that extra time to wake up slowly. Maybe 3 seconds after I got back into bed, Logan came in and jumped into bed with all of his blankets. A few minutes after that Katie was climbing into bed with me. Curtis had already brought Ryan to me as he was fussing around 5:00 so I now had 3 little ones and myself in the bed. So much for waking up nice and slowly :) It was nice; Logan next to me jibber jabbering, Ryan on the other side and Katie next to him. Katie would talk to Ryan and then give him kisses. He woke up in the best mood; I'm sure the kisses from Katie helped.

Too bad I can't wake up like this all the time; the only way it could have been better is if Marie had come in and joined us. She was still sleeping as she stayed up late watching Santa Clause Is Coming to Town with Katie last night. (Katie fell out really quick; when I went back to check on them at 9:30 Marie was still awake)

Before and After

Ryan before the bottle....

after the bottle AND trick or treating!

Halloween

I tried to get all four in one picture but Ryan wasn't a happy camper.

Here is Mr. Logan a/k/a Superman (note Katie talking to herself in the mirror)

My Hello Kitty Witch (she liked her outfit from last year so much she insisted on wearing it again!)

I tried to get a picture of Logan by himself but this was as good as it got.

Here's Mommy's little "piglet"; she loved trying to catch her tail. Yes, it was like watching a dog trying to catch it's tail.

Daddy's little Darth Vader; hated that hat (and didn't think too much of the rest of the costume until AFTER he had his bottle)

Updates

I've just spent my morning getting everything scheduled for Ryan's next MRI and rescheduling the follow up visit with his neurologist. (Spent most of the time on hold between the insurance and the hospital doing the MRI) He is scheduled for the 6th of December so we have some "down" time for a little bit. Yeah - no doctor's visits; at least not in Orlando anyway. I have to wait a little bit to schedule with the neurosurgen. It's almost lunch time so I have to wait until sometime after 1:00 to call to schedule that. Whew! what a morning! Between the torrential rain we've been having, we had to stand on the front porch WITH the umbrella this morning waiting on the school bus, and all the phone calls I feel like I've run a marathon and it's only 11:42 a.m.!!!!

Ryan and Katie are happily playing together while watching some Barney. I get some kisses in between all of that when they feel like visiting with me. Ryan was watching Sesame Street and at the end they always show Oscar and his pet worm. Today they had several pet worms and they were in sleeping bags going Nighty Night. Ryan said, "Night Night!" At first I thought he wanted to go for a nap but then realized he was just commenting on the end of the show. He's very much aware of things; so much more than Logan was at that age!

Fun Friday

We had another Friday of no school this week; last week they were off on Friday too. This week we had Marie's friend and her sister come for the day. Most people think I'm nuts when I ask to borrow their child(ren) but the additions keep my kids calm. If there are no other people around Marie gets bored and irritates the others. Yesterday was a good day! The girls played games and hung out in Marie's room. If they got tired of each other's company we would hang out in the living room and watch a movie.

They were able to go outside and play in the driveway and back yard for a while as long as they stayed where I could see them. This helped take the edge off for the others and enabled me to get Ryan and Katie to nap, AT THE SAME TIME! I made popcorn the old fashioned way and it was so good. I melted butter in one pan while I threw the popcorn and oil in our old fashioned popper on another burner. Butter, salt and popcorn; Yum Yum! The girls loved it and even asked if it was "homemade" a/k/a not microwaved. Since we don't use the microwave anymore this is the only way to make popcorn. I have to say, I enjoy this popcorn a whole lot more.

We played operation; what a hoot! I couldn't get anything out without the stupid buzzer going off to save my life. Hard to believe when I was their age I was good at that game. They attempted to play Monopoly but I think it was a little hard for the younger girls (Marie) so they got aggravated and quit. They did enjoy playing Battleship and operation so the games weren't a total loss. It brought back memories of when we would play games during the summer whenever it rained. (the fighting really made me laugh)

Remember when..... Aunt June and Stephanie were visiting and we all were either playing Monopoly or a card game and were fighting just a little too much? Aunt June had enough finally and told us to stop fighting. I believe she used a "soft" cuss word which totally shocked us as we never EVER heard her cuss. Needless to say, we stopped fighting and found something else to occupy our time. Do you remember the other time that Steph was down by herself and Dave shut the screen door and the sliding glass door and Steph opened the screen door and ran smack into the glass door???

Another story of stupidity

I'm having issues with lights this week. It was a dreary morning with a little bit of rain during the drive to Orlando for Ryan's Genetic Testing consultation. I had turned my lights on in town and it stopped raining so I turned them off. I had to turn them back on as it started to rain a little more as I got closer to Orlando. By the time we got to our destination it had stopped raining but I had forgot that I turned them on. We were about 40 minutes early so I parked and rolled down the windows and turned off the car. We sat like that for about 20 minutes then I decided it was okay to head into the office. I heard the extra warning sound when I opened the door but just thought it was the normal "you've opened your door" ding and kept right on going.

Over two hours later when we came back out to leave, I couldn't get the doors to open with the automatic opener. As I looked in I noticed that the headlight switch was still pulled out. CRAP! I'm about an hour and a half away from home; don't know a single person and can't get into the car. I, of course, panicked and called Curtis to say go get the kids and come get us!!! He was very calm and proceeded to tell me to go to the driver's side and use the key to open the door. DUH! Open the trunk and get the jumper cables out and see if someone will help and give the car a jump. The second person I asked wasn't happy but must have felt sorry for me and agreed to do it.

Thankfully it jumped right off the bat and we were able to head out. I was so afraid that I would stall it (driving the mustang) that I of course was more nervous than normal and really stressed out. The entrance ramp was closed so I had to take a detour through town to get back on the highway. I hadn't eaten since breakfast; was figuring on stopping on the way home but since my stupidity with the lights I wasn't taking any chances. I drove straight home, grabbed everything headed inside and grabbed a quick bite before heading out to Logan's parent/teacher conference. (I drove the van to the conference; didn't feel like dealing with the battery in the mustang)

You got it, the moral of THIS story is: TURN THE LIGHTS OFF STUPID!

Sunday

I was able to spend a lot of Sunday with my Mom unpacking from her move. When we get together we always have something to laugh at so I will share our story about the bed. Dave and Don did the moving of all of her things. The poor guys were exhausted and left me a few things to do when I got over there Sunday morning. I was hoping that they would leave me some stuff to do. I wasn't able to get over there on Saturday when they did the actual move because Curtis has to work on Saturdays. I'm not being a smarty pants, I'm really glad that they left me some things to do to help out. (They live closer so they help 100% of the time and I only get to help out some. I feel guilty but there isn't much I can do so when I can help out I'm thankful!!)

Now about the bed..... Mom doesn't have very many tools which made putting her extra bed together an adventure. I thought, how hard could it be? It looked really simple so I jumped right in to the task. Mom had to use her broom handle to measure so I could tell where the bed frame had to be in order for the boxspring not to fall right through to the floor. Once we figured that out, it was time to turn the little clamps to tighten the frame. I couldn't twist the little clamp to tighten as much as I wanted and I had visions of a visitor falling through to the floor in the middle of the night. Mom went hunting for some plyers; nope none of those. She suggested scissors but you know how clumsy I am so I had to veto those. As most of you know, Mom used to be a nurse. She happened to have a pair of hemostats left over from her nursing days so we made do with those. I thought I had tightened by hand a lot and would only need the hemostats to do one crank. HA! I believe I was able to turn them around at least three full times. Boy am I glad she had those stupid things. (Dave, when you go to put up her curtains you MIGHT want to bring a pair of plyers and check my work)

Oh - one more funny story and then I will let it be. The a/c wasn't working when I got there. I checked the fuse box (or so I thought) and then checked the controls. Mom had turned it off and on to see if that might be the problem. After I checked the fuse box, I turned the a/c down to 60 to see if that would crank it on. Nothing worked so I told her that I couldnt' work in the heat and we needed to get someone out right away. Ten minutes later, after finding all the info on her apartment complex, I made the call and left the pertinent information. The tech called us back right away and tried to tell us about a reset button. No such button on there; so he started saying he was 2 hours away and would be here in about 2 1/2. I (thank goodness) took the phone back over to the fuse box to ask him about it. Only this time the kitchen light WAS ON. I started to tell him that everything was on and had to say "Uh no actually it isn't." He had me flip them on and of course the a/c started right away. He was very nice and just said that if for some reason it shut off again to call him and he'd come and take a look at it. The moral of the story is: Turn the light on STUPID.

Play time Thursday

Ryan had his MRI yesterday and we were able to make it home by 1:00 p.m. Once I had relaxed and got enough coffee in me to kill the tension headache, we cuddled a little bit. Surprisingly, Katie wanted the most cuddling. Ryan was wanting to play with the toys but would come over to us for a kiss every so often. Katie must have missed me since Daddy got everyone up and ready in the morning. She is used to Mommy being home all the time so it was a different morning for her. I have to admit, it made me feel good that she missed me because when Daddy gets home they ALL want to be with Daddy and don't even know I exist. (Most times that is fine with me; I need a break too :)

Logan and Marie were home by 4:20 and since Friday is no school there was no fighting to get homework done. Everyone did their normal afternoon routine; screaming for juice and a snack while running around and fighting with each other. I think they truly miss one another during school time but they don't want Mommy to know so they fight when they get to see each other every afternoon.

Once everyone was settled for the evening we played and cuddled in the playroom. Logan wanted me to lay down next to him on the floor while he watched a movie. Katie likes to jump on me whenever I get down on the floor and Ryan was playing "Ring around the Mommy" and coming in for kisses the whole time he was giggling. Marie was right in there with the rest of them. She'd play with Ryan then come in for a cuddle with the others. She got down on the floor at one point and Katie decided she was fair game. She jumped on her and proceeded to sit on her so she couldn't get up.

This was the most fun and relaxing time. I really needed it after the day we had and I think the kids knew that. They are Mommy's little angels; Daddy was able to enjoy the baseball game for a little while at least. :)

Dinner at downtown Disney

After SeaWorld we hit downtown Disney's Fulton's Crab House for an early dinner. The food was scrumptious and the view was something else. It's a building that looks just like a big ferry boat. The kids had a good time as it was so noisy and packed with other families you couldn't hear our kids at all. It was nice to get out for a nice dinner where everyone could relax and enjoy themselves.

Katie was using a fork and spoon to eat. When she had the french fry almost in her mouth with the fork she'd grab it with her fingers and shove it in. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it. Spoon in one hand, fork in the other while shoving a french fry the size of her fork into her mouth. Logan practiced the gravity test but into his bowl thankfully. Marie and Alex had a blast drawing on the tablecloth and eating burgers and fries. Can't get kids to try something new at all....Ryan was wanting both Mommy and Daddy so we shared him throughout the meal. Daddy was able to eat most of his meal before it was his turn to take over. The bottle of Next Step only last so long and then he wanted to play.

By the end of the meal Logan was getting bored; he'd been so good all day but didn't get to run around much so by the end of the meal he was ready. They brought us our moist towels and he proceeded to throw mine at the lady sitting behind me. She was great (You can tell when they have children of their own) and said "No problem; as long as it's not a fork I'm good!" We headed out shortly after that and thought the little ones would nap all the way home. Katie fell asleep about 10 minutes away from the house but we were able to get her in the bed where she slept the entire night! Yeah!! Ryan had other ideas....... It was a great day, relaxing and lots of fun with friends we don't get to spend enough time with but we plan to fix that soon!

Sea World - take 2

It was a nice breezy day at the park.

I couldn't get much closer; right after I took this shot several dolphins came right up and splashed the people standing next to me.

My sweet Marie and my little buddy Alex.

Alex and Marie wanted me to get a shot of the turtle but it wouldn't cooperate so this was as good as it got.

Daddy, Katie, Logan, Marie, Alex and Karen deciding where to go next.

Alex, Marie and Karen checking out the pretty birds. Marie and Alex were expert at making the same sound as the bird.

Comments anyone?

I have fixed the comments section so that anyone who wants to leave a comment can. For some reason I had left it to where only those people who have a blog can comment. Brain dead that day obviously!

Thanks for visiting!

I love you - both boys

Repetition

Ryan loves Barney and it's starting to pay off. He is saying "I la You" if we say I love you he will repeat it back to us. He just started doing it this evening right before Daddy got home. He is currently sitting with Daddy watching the baseball game and saying it everytime he hears one of us say it. (Now that I've typed this the little cutie pie just said it out of the blue with no prompting!) I will try to get him on the video tonight or tomorrow so you can see and hear him in action.