Christmas time 2008

I think I have 1 billion pictures and stories to share from the last 4 days I've had off. I really need a computer at home to stay up on this better than trying to fit so much in everytime I blog....


I think I'll do it by time line:

Dec 24th; We decided we would make holiday cupcakes for Santa instead of cookies (o: As soon as I walked in the door from work the kids asked if they could open their Christmas Eve gift and I thought for sure they would be horribly disappointed in the "boring" tradition - but they weren't! They put their pj's on at 4:00 and were thrilled with it. We had so much fun baking and decorating the cupcakes. They didn't nap that day so I thought for sure it would be easy to get them down - it was for Jack but Kyla and Kade were so anxious for the next morning they didn't crash still until about 9:30.
The sugar filled cupcake frosting was even consumed at 5:30 only!

I think I was just as anxious as them because I seriously couldn't sleep myself! I was up almost every hour in anticipation for their day! I felt like a kid again, it was great!!

They made it until about 7:15 - actually the boys were up first so I had to wake up Kyla and I don't think I've ever seen her jump out of bed so fast!!!!!!

Kyla is just like her mom..... it took her a couple of hours to even open her presents because all she wanted to do was organize. We took her bookshelf / dollhouse into her room and she must have changed it around 12 times before I stepped in and finalized it! LOL

We decided that we would take naps before going to meme and papa's house and all 5 of us crashed out! Kade got the best spot in the house! ( minus the snoring! hahaha )

This is the kids all shoved in the back seat excited to go to meme & papa's to open more presents!!!



A whole bunch of pictures from the 2nd Christmas!

My mom decorates her tree with cut out felt first letters, names, and a theme for each of her grand-kids! They LOVE it and feel so special!!

I think my head is still spinning from Christmas - my kids did not slow down at all as the weekend went on. They went from one toy, activity to the next - NON stop! I was very very tired and unfortunately a bit grumpy by the end of the weekend. Perhaps though that had something to do with the fact that my football season ended in the lowest possible way I could have never even imagined at the beginning of the season. Robert and I have jumped on the Chargers bandwagon to support my dad until the end of this season. Anything to beat the Steelers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway - back to Christmas weekend.

Another thing that MIGHT have made me grumpy is the fact that Robert shaved Jack's head. I said to use a 3 or a 4 - but without going into a lot of detail, it didn't work out that way. I had a huge breakdown because he was crying, I was crying, and he didn't like it. The clippers we used didn't work so midway we had to go get my dad's clippers and I was so upset. I didn't want it as short as it ended up. As soon as he was done I grabbed him up and took him into the shower with me so I could hold him really close and calm down. He loves the shower and he needed to get all that hair off of him anyway. I could not stop crying. I wonder where Kyla gets her EXTREME emotions from??????? Any ideas????????

Kade then wanted his cut, and his turned out EXACTLY like I wanted Jack's to look. We decided to shave Jack's again because it's just so out of control unless it's wet and it does this weird point thing in the front which bugs me....... urrgghhh.

Here are my men and their sister giving each other kisses and making silly faces.

I'll end this very long post ( for memory purposes ) with some high-lights from the weekend:

Kade pulled a flower off of one of our bushes outside and I was watching him out of the kitchen window.... he screamed: MOM - look what I got you!!! While running into the house - he said; it's for you mom because you are so beautiful. AWWWHHHH

Kyla yesterday was asking Robert to show her pictures of when she was in my belly. He showed her our wedding picture on the wall, and she responded by saying: WOW, I made her boobs big too huh daddy?! HAHAHAHA - he said, yep you sure did, how did you know that? She sat on the floor and put her feet up in the air and said: Because I did this while I was in there! I love it!

Jack giving me unlimited kisses and hugs and saying: Again mom with his huge belly laugh.

Robert telling me that he had a dream last night about him and I being on a dirt road for different reason and running into each other and having lots of problems with getting down the dirt road - but remembering that we just kept making each other laugh the whole dream. He said that he vows to make me laugh more often now.

I had a very tiring weekend, and feel like I was pulled in 5 different directions - I barely sat and felt like I cleaned the whole time yet got nothing done. Even though I needed the break dropping off these sweet men ( and little girl not in the picture ) at my moms house still broke my heart!

How my Christmas Eve Started......... ( slightly gross )

I'm going to try to describe this to you guys in a way that will make you truly appreciate the joy that went along with all of these various, I'll call them adventures!

9:30 - lights out for the night, I was exhausted from sleeping bad the night before. We all crashed in our random spots which we do frequently..... Kyla and Jack with me in our bed and Kade and Robert cuddling on the couch. Jack would NOT fall asleep. He was trying to tell me something, but he wasn't clear what it was. I got frustrated and couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I let him wander around for a few minutes thinking he would be right back after realizing that Kade was with Daddy as I assumed that's what he wanted to know.

Well I fell asleep and about 15 minutes later I wake up to him sitting on my bed KICKING me to get me to wake up - calling out MOM! Up Mom Up! I actually though it was only a couple of seconds from when he got out of the bed earlier. I decided to acknowledge my son and I turn around to find a bottom half naked Jack with BROWN covering his hands. It was dark. I was scared. I then focused a little more to find a huge poop mark in 2 places on MY sheets. Also found some of this wonderful aroma on his legs. I freaked!!!!!!!!!!!! I started screaming - "are you kidding me!?"

I haven't had not 1 poop incident in 4.5 years that I have had children, and boy did this make up for it btw. I grabbed Jack - took off his shirt - turned on the shower, threw him in there and scrubbed the shit ( literally ) out of him. Got his pjs on, all the while I'm stopping him from sucking his thumb because now I'm paranoid I missed some - so I re-washed his hand 20 times. I said - "JACK, all you have to do is say the word POOP! next time!!!" His response, Yeah - gross mom!" NICE.

Kade was then transferred to his bed, Jack was given to Robert, and I started my search for "the diaper" All the while repeating: "are you KIDDING me?"

I found the diaper - it was dry, right next to my bed along with his pants and socks. This tells me that I slept through him getting naked right next to me!I knew there had to be poop somewhere - so I take Kyla in her bed and the smell, oh my god the smell. He had gone into her room, stood on her rocking chair to turn on and off the light switch which glows and proceeded to have some alone time and poop right there. Well he didn't just let it fall to the floor he had decided to finger paint up and down the wall and her dresser for some reason. I know my kids love art but this is really taking it to the extreme.

I got a glove, some hot water and bleach and got that cleaned up. Kyla asked: "What are you doing mom?" out of her sleeping daze - and I told her - she too rolled over and said: "Eeewhh, gross mom!" Ya, you think!?!?!

I ripped my sheets off, changed them - got Jack from Robert because I felt so bad for ignoring him and cuddled with him while I finally fell back to sleep. Fast forward to about 1:00 a.m. Kade comes in bed with me crying. Fine - at least it's sleeping. 3:00 a.m. - Kade starts crying. I'm pretty frustrated at this point. Well I quickly discover why he's crying. HE's PEED MY BED RIGHT NEXT TO ME. Yep. He has NEVER peed the bed as long as he's been potty trained and never even slept in pull ups at night.

I tell him in his sleeping stupor to take off his bottoms. I got get him new underwear and PJ bottoms - which are long. He freaks. He hates long pj bottoms. Yes, at 3:00 a.m. he's arguing about his bottoms. I was NOT happy. I found acceptable PJ's for him, and gave him to Robert because he asked for his Daddy again. I also move Jack into his own bed - I'm over feeling bad.Robert asked: What it is this time?????????? I decided to just roll up that side of the sheets and go back to sleep ON MY OWN on the other dry side.

4:30 a.m. Robert comes into bed and doesn't care that he's sleeping on just the mattress w/ no sheet.

5:30 a.m. Kade crys again - comes into our room saying: " I have blood mom" He gets frequent nose bleeds. It was all over his shirt, hands, face, etc... Robert gets a warm rag, I comfort, clean and we all 3 are back in our bed.

6:30 a.m. Kyla comes into my bathroom while I'm brushing my teeth crying saying: "MOM - you didn't stay with me ALL night like you said you would." It took everything in me to not say: "GET OUT."

* Happy Christmas Eve everyone! *

Mommy's little helper!

Jack loves to help me when I have "chores" to do. He is excellent at sorting and starting the laundry, wiping down the tables, and now more recently washing dishes. ( Not so excellent at the washing part, but it sure makes him happy, quiet and content! )

He's been so happy again lately. He gets this ADORABLE little smirk on his face and curls his tounge and squints his eyes - then giggles. I just want to eat him all up. He's just loving life again and I'm so glad. He's even peed on the toilet on his own a couple of times. We're going full blown after the holidays. I can't imagine the possibility of having 3 potty trained kids in a matter of months! WOW.

Ice - go away.

There was ice on my grass and roof today. I don't like being cold. A good standard 60-65 degrees would suit me just fine for the whole winter.

Christmas Parties

Thursday night Becky, Amber, Cheryl, Nicole and I all decided to change our monthly coffee night to dinner and we went to PF Changs. It was such a wonderful night and the food was phenomenal! I hadn't been there in at least 10 years. ( not to mention the night away from very loud hyper children! )


Saturday night was my family's annual Christmas Party - My Aunt Jill hosted this year. All of us first cousins had a great time visiting and watching the 2nd cousins all run around. The best part of the night by far though was Santa coming! I wish I could adequately describe the wonderful innocence and pure joy that Jack experienced seeing Santa. When Santa was calling out names, Jack kept jumping up even if it wasn't his name. Once he was done passing out presents he just wanted to say on his lap and talk to him. He got really upset when other people had to take pictures of him. He was enamoured. I hope some of these pictures help paint the picture of how extremely sweet he was. Everyone said he made their whole night.

Seriously - how sweet is this picture?

Aiden brought his whole list... it was so funny!

Kade wouldn't sit on his lap, but he did give him a high five so that was good enough for me!

This is Jack waiting for his name to be called

this is when Santa first sat down! You can see the seriousness on their faces

This wasn't Jack's present... he just couldn't wait!

She also had this great craft - there are cinderblocks that look like snowmen. She painted them white and the kids got to decorate them. SO cute!!!

This is Kyla's cousin Ava - they were so cute together!!


Kade loves to paint so much, he couldn't stop at just the arms!

this isn't all, but most of the great-grandkids....

The children singing was the 2nd best part of the night!