Look Ma I got a Loose Tooth

Moose has been so excited to loose some teeth. He is wiggling this one away. I am not sure why he is so excited. The tooth fairy does not give a ton of money for those teeth.

He starting seeing the dentist last year. Unfortunately, 4 cavities later he still loves his dentist. Dr. Carter is awesome. With all his dental work, he has never complained once about going to see him.

I have taken care of plenty of kids after a dental procedure. (If you didn't know, I am a RN in a recovery unit (after minor and major surgery) at the Children's hospital). Kids, months old to teenagers, all needing a hospital and anesthesia to get dental work done. So when my eldest had to have the fillings done at the dentist's office, I was blown away.

We see the same dentist that I went to as a kid. I love it there. We pay out of network just to see them. My middle child is still on the fence if he likes the dentist. I personally like going to the dentist. I am so relaxed after my visit. Which is surprising, with all the work that I have had done. Too many fillings and root canals to count.




Happy Birthday to Gram!!!!

Happy Birthday Papa

Today is Papa's Birthday.......




We celebrated a day early because I work late tomorrow. We got to eat some yummy BBQ and have chocolate cake.

Oh Chrstmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Since my brother passed away 16 years ago, Christmas has been hard. After he passed away, my parents and I would go to Mexico during the Holiday to just "be together". No hassle with finding the right gift for someone, no cleaning, no cooking; just enjoying each other.

When I got married, I tried really hard to embrace the holiday spirit, but it was still lost. I went through the motions. Wishing that everyone would just "be together". Having visions of everyone at a ski resort or on the beach laughing and hanging out for a few days. No cleaning the house or dishes to be washed. I enjoy the food and company, but the gift giving is so hard.

I am lucky that all holidays are spent with both parents at ONE event. We do not have to eat 3 meals at 3 houses. Commander's family is all in the state and my parents are always involved. I am sad that I never see my parents side of the family- but the distance makes it harder to celebrate with them.

Having my own children has really helped me to see the brightness that I once felt at this time of year. The build up of the BIG day. My kids are now old enough to remember how to sing the Christmas songs. We sing a funny version of Jingle Bells.

Jingle Bells,
Batman smells,
Robin laid an egg,
Bat mobile lost a wheel
and Joker got away
Hay

Jingle Bells,
Daddy smells,
Momma laid an egg,
The van lost a wheel
and the **** (our last name) boys got away
Hay


**** Moose came up with second versus on his own. We were all driving home and he sung that. Commander and I started laughing so hard.



I thought this was a funny picture. It looks like a three headed monster.

So far this holiday season, one of my favorite things is watching Bear turning on the tree lights every morning. It's his thing. I never asked him to do it, but it's the first thing he does when he comes down the stairs. It took me a couple of mornings to realize who was turning on the lights. I often find him sitting on the chair next to the tree just looking at it. Wow, how great is that.

I still have visions of all the whole family (15+) of us getting away for a few days. But now it includes sending a letter to Santa to have him bring the kids gifts to our get away.

Gearing up for a Super Busy Weekend

Thank You for all your kinds words and hope for brighter days.

Here is a look at how we spent one our mornings during the chaos.

ZIP- Line.....

My kids love to have all the super heroes and Star Wars guys slide down a Zip line. We use various materiel for the zip line: floss, string, and stretch string fabric (very technical- I know). All characters are desired to have the ability to zip line. Some do it better than others.






It was strongly encouraged that EVERYONE get naps for the day. You would think that I would try to rest too, at least lay on the couch and veg. NOPE..... I surfed the interwebs (as Commander and I call it). I wanted to do a self portrait. Started inspired, but I quickly realized how hard it was.





Since we are all doing well; we are gearing up for a super busy weekend. Final Christmas shopping. Small gifts, but none the less, out with the masses. MAJOR grocery shopping, wrapping presents, laundry, and celebrating Papa's Birthday.

Wishing there was a pill

I think that there should be a rule about children getting sick between the hours of 10pm-6am. Not sure how it would be enforced. But I definitely have a strong opinion about this. Maybe science could help to invent a pill to take while pregnant to prevent children form getting sick in the middle of the night.

It has been a LONG couple of days. Shaggy (Sharkbait's new nickname) started vomiting about 10pm, and didn't stop until 4:30am or so. The next day he was a bit whiny, but not bad. Than Moose had a belly ache right before dinner. He started to vomit from about 6pm- 2:30am.

Sleep has been sparse. Laundry has been overwhelming.

It is amazing that a 25lb child can produce about 6 loads of laundry.
16 towels, 11 wash clothes
3 large blankets, 2 crib sheets
3 PJ's, 3 larger Baby blankets

And that a 50 lb child can produce 2 loads of laundry.
2 large blankets, 3 towels
1 set of sheets

But the trade off in laundry is that the older child is definitely more verbal about how rotten he feels. When I come up from my sleep deprivation, I need to write a letter to someone letting them know they need to invent this pill for the next generation.

Tonight is the test to see if the third will be up all night. I really hope that he is somehow safe from all the misery. My hands are raw from washing them so much.

It's how cold outside?

It was a lovely weekend morning when the kids asked to go outside to shovel and have a snow ball fight. It had snowed that night and fresh snow is the best. Having nothing better to do, I said why not.

20 minutes later, after finding all the gear and getting everyone bundled up, we headed out. While we were getting ready, our neighbor surprised us by snow blowing our drive way off. (I was so thankful, we hand shoveled his and our driveway last week at 5am when he was out of town). That was one less thing to do, now we could just go out and have fun.

This is Bear doing a snow angle and asking me to pick him up after wards.



Moose desperately wants to have a snowball fight. But the snow is not wet enough to pack into a ball.




After about 5 minutes, maybe 10, the tears started. "I wanna go inside", "it's too cold". Don't get me wrong, I did not insist that Bear stay outside. We said that he could go inside, but no, he refused to go inside without us. The others wanted to stay outside, so that's where we were gonna stay. Than more tears and whining.

It was contagious. Everyone started to whine about the cold. Yeah, it was cold, and when the majority said let's go inside, we herded everyone in.



Once inside we looked at the thermometer to see -4 degrees. I let my babies go outside to play in the snow when it was -4 degrees. What in the .......

Fun for $9.99

Now really, how much fun can a family of five have for $9.99.

My girlfriend said that Costco/Sam's has a great Gingerbread house kit for $9.99. She said it was easy and fun. The kit comes with everything for this price, pre-made walls, icing in a pouch, candy and cardboard matte.

We happened to shopping and I saw the little jewel. I knew it was gonna snow and it would be great to have something fun to do. It was cool to see how excited everyone was to get started.



The only issue we had was all the little hands wanting to TASTE the icing. But really, who can resist eating a little icing while you work. I think it turned out well for my family's first Gingerbread House.

Shopping Trip

So my three monsters and I venture to the mall for some shopping and to meet friends for lunch. While at one stores I got a lot of looks. Some of them were of negative nature. I tried to Shhh them and ask of them to act proper. But really, I am out numbered. Really though, they act alright, they are just LOUD.

So while I was standing in line, Bear was hugging (well laying on) Shag in the stroller. I thought that they looked cute and snapped a couple of quick pictures. Not the best but I am happy that they want to hug and laugh with each other.

After I paid and was trying to weave the stroller and 2 kids out the store. Someone stopped me and said that my boys were all so cute. What a nice thing to say to a woman with 3 boys. I hear of people saying that to babies and all little girls, but never three LOUD boys.

It made my day brighter......

Guy Guy Guy..... Guy Guy Guy...

Sharkabit comes running around the corner and is screaming Guy Guy Guy.... He has a look of panic. I am kind of laughing at him and realize that he wants me to follow him.

Anyways I follow him around the corner, he kneels down and starts saying Guy Guy Guy again. This time pointing.



You have to look really close to see the headless Lego down in there.



He keeps looking between me and the vent. He wants me to get into the vent and fish out this guy. (Gross~ look how dirty it is down there) I realize that the vent in the kitchen dining area is disgusting. Maybe I should take this opportunity to clean it.

At only 20 months old you think I would be concerned that he is playing with Legos and that I am not watching him like a hawk. But he has been playing with them for months. I know it will only takes one to choke on.

After I fished it out of the vent and cleaned it. He seemed to happy to have the headless Lego guy back.

Send Reinforcements

It's one thing for me to be up all night because I had insomnia. But it's is another to be up all night with a sick child. Yesterday Bear screamed for an hour about a sour ear. Took him to the doctor = ear infection. Scream for another hour or so after we got home. Screamed enough that Sharkbait was crying too, I think either sympathy crying or scared that Bear was crying so much.

We medicated Bear to go to sleep- Tylenol and ear drops for pain. All is well for a couple hours. Than right after our heads hit the pillow around 11pm, the screams began. Bear has a history of night terror. Just random screaming in the night, and unsure of what he needs or the ability to tell us. But these were screams of pain. Oh, it went on for so long. Finally bringing him back to our bed, so we all could get some sleep.

You would think on a KING size bed that two adults and a 30lb child could sleep just fine. Well as it turns out the person that weighs the least took up 50% of the bed. Finally at 5am I took him back to his own bed. Only to be awoken by my eldest at 6am that he was ready to get up.

The picture is from a Halloween flash light. Not a bad toy for .50 cents. Too bad it only lasted for a couple of weeks.

Theme Thursday: Togetherness

I had imaged a sweet picture of my husband and I~ but than quickly realized that from the holiday there is not a single family picture or picture of us. Maybe next time.

This was the first snow and the boys were so excited to shovel. I wonder how many years this excitement will last. I know in a few years that they will not be so excited when I saw you need to go shovel the driveway and sidewalk. They will probably be asking for money to complete the job.

Togetherness in the SNOW.......



It was kind f fun outside with them. It was still warm enough to be outside for a awhile. We had a small snowball fight and talked with some neighbors. Bear figured out how the make a snowball on his own. Moose is still learning. Sharkbait was so cute just walking around. He reminded me of the little boy in the movie Christmas Story all bundled up with his arms sticking straight out.

Stacy has some really great things to say about a special visitor.