Step 1

Apparently step 1 is realizing I don't have nearly enough counter space for the groceries I just purchased. Step 2 is getting out the dishes I only use twice a year and hand washing them. Eventually we come to step 6,582 where we actually eat the dinner I spent 5 days preparing. It's always amazing to me that I spend a week preparing and my family can have it gone in less than an hour.

Tis the Season

Today I decided we should put up the Christmas tree. It's always such a chore to drag it up the stairs, assemble it and decorate it that I want it up as long as possible. Most years I end up taking down Christmas day or the day after because I'm totally over it by that point. This is the first year the kids have insisted on helping me put up the tree and I'd say it went fairly well. I know I'm in the minority here, but nobody touches my tree. Even my husband is only allowed to help carry it but isn't allowed to decorate it at all. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to the tree and everything has it's place. Everything also has to match. I know it's a bit neurotic but if even one thing is out of place it drives me crazy. But I survived the experience and it's done for another year.

*Just so you all don't think I'm a mean mommy I do let them each have their own little tree in their bedroom that they decorate. They just can't touch mommy's tree.

On another note, M now has her own computer. I'm not sure exactly how this happened (it happened on Sunday when I still wasn't in my right mind enough to object) but apparently my child actually knows how to work a computer. She has her own little desk set up with everything and she does little coloring games and stuff. It was her daddy's idea and I think there have been times this week when he has regretted his choice but I make him deal with her when she's using it. That means every five minutes I hear, "Daddy, come look at this! Come save it for me!" I laugh a little each time knowing he has to get up and go deal with it.

So there you have it. Another week behind us. Next week is total chaos!

A Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to 2 of the most wonderful girls I know! I'm so thankful to have you girls in my life and it was lots of fun helping you celebrate last night. Here's to another great year and I look forward to celebrating many more to come.

An Early Birthday Celebration

This week we started the celebration of M's 5th birthday! We had a combined birthday party with another friend who has a birthday close to M's and went to Pump it Up! The kids all had a great time and the girls share most of the same friends so it worked out really well. They played for a while...

Then we had pizza!

And cake!

We sang "happy birthday" to the birthday girls...

Opened up some presents...

And everyone went home full, tired and ready for bed. It was a perfect birthday party. Only 2 more to go!

Fall Photos

We took the kids Saturday night to do some fall pictures. Some of them turned out really well and some of them you can really see their personalities. Like this one of J. He's usually a happy child and is always willing to say "cheese" even if it ends up making this face.

Then we have M who poses for everything. She loves to have her picture taken and we always end up with way more of her than J just because she begs to keep going.
And again, she just sits so nicely and pretends to be so well behaved.
And again...

We got a few nice ones of them together.
And some more of just M...


And a few of J just being a boy.

A few more of them together.


J watching as some other kid got to ride their John Deere gator through the park while he had to sit and take pictures. Poor kid.
And of course this one is just perfect because I took it and my husband actually sucked up his pride and it made the final cut. :)
Poor J just got too tired to continue so we went out for pizza. He kept saying, "I'm tired dad!"

Do Real Firemen Do This?

Approximately every five seconds I have to answer the same question. My conversations with J pretty much go like this:

Mom: "Please brush your teeth."

J: "Do real firemen brush their teeth?"

Mom: "Yes, absolutely."

J: "Ok."

Mom: "You need to wear your helmet on your bike."

J: "Do real firemen wear helmets?"

Mom: "Yes, absolutely."

J: "Ok."

Mom: "You need to take a bath and wash your hair."

J: "Do real firemen take baths?"

Mom: "Yes, absolutely."

J: "Ok."

It's amazing to me that he gets so into things. Both of my kids have such strong personalities and while it usually makes me feel like pulling my hair out, I guess I'm glad that I have such independent and strong willed children. Although last night I put them to bed at 6:00 for being just a bit too strong willed. Tonight grandma is taking them and we get a date night. Yay for us!

Halloween

If you can't tell, we made a few trips to the pumpkin patch this year. We had 15 pumpkins on our porch. That's a new record for us!

These are the required pictures before trick-or-treating.


This is one of the whole group. Just once it would be nice to get one where they're looking at the camera but with this many kids we're usually doing good just to get them all sat down!
We had a great Halloween this year and now we're ready for Thanksgiving, a birthday and Christmas! Let the chaos begin!