Oh The Sweet Sound of Silence...Interrupted!!!!

The kids had a second spend the night at Joan's house last night. All was well when I dropped them off. No news was good news and I went to bed. The phone woke us up at 1 am. Caden woke up at midnight and started crying for Mommy. Joan gave him an hour and he couldn't calm down. I talked to him on the phone and his little voice was so sad as I asked if I needed to pick him up, "ye-e-e-e-s." My dad was nice enough to ride with me to make sure I didn't fall asleep on the drive. Caden went to sleep in the bed with me after a big cup of milk, but then he woke up at 6. It's been a long day.

12/30/2008 - Sugar, Sun, Sand, Sea Shells and Squeals

My parents and I took the kids to the beach! We normally avoid the beach in the summer but I love to go in the winter when it's empty. Yesterday was a beautiful day...70s and sunny skies. We started at Krispy Kreme (yes, again!!!) where the kids were totally enthralled by the conveyor belt.

Then we headed to Pensacola Beach. We had a great time playing. Allie, of course, managed to get a little wet. Everyone managed to get covered in sand. The kids all came home with a bag of sea shells. Allie says she is saving hers to give to her Daddy for his birthday.

Oh The Sweet Sound Of...

...Silence!!!! The kids had a slumber party at Joan's house last night. They spent a few hours with Joan in the day first while I drove to Malbis to shop and eat with my friend, Sarah. We've never gotten together without our 6 kiddos in tow. It was wonderful with just the two of us. We were able to follow one line of thought from beginning to end without being interrupted and then not being able to remember what we were talking about. The only interruption was at Olive Garden when 3 different pages started singing when they weren't supposed to. We finally found a seat near the hostess station to wait.

Anyway, I picked the kids up from Joan's on the way home, fed them dinner, gave them baths and put them in their pajamas before returning to drop them off. Caden has been assuring me he would be a big boy and spend the night. I gave his new puppy (Santa) many hugs and kisses to hold for Caden. When it was time for me to leave, the tears started flowing and he decided he wanted to stay with me. We took one slow drive around the block while he thought about what he wanted to do. He decided he wanted to go back so we tried again. I told him to run in and scream "fooled you" to make a game out of it. He did and was laughing when I snuck out the second time.

I did a little wandering around stores with my parents and then we went to Krispy Kreme for a late night treat. I know all my Northern friends love Dunkin Donuts, but they don't hold a candle to a fresh off the conveyor belt glazed Krispy Kreme donut - pure BLISS! (btw, I don't understand that candle expression...can anyone explain it to me?)

I went to bed about 9 and got to stay in my bed until almost 9 this morning. That's 12 hours, people! I normally am lucky to get 7-8 (if I go to bed on time). I'm rested and happy today. I'm actually supposed to be at Joan's right now instead of sitting here blogging. Oops. I'm sure she won't mind since she enjoys the blog.

Today's agenda includes a pit stop at Krispy Kreme for the kids after lunch, a trip to the beach, and dinner with Grandma Molly if everyone stays well today. So far only my mom and Caden have been sick, but Caden thought it was funny that his bottom was squirting (sorry, way too much TMI). His only lasted about 12 hours, thankfully so the 'fun' didn't wear off :p!

Figured Out What Jaelyn Needs...

...art lessons!!!! My parents bought Jaelyn a "Learn to Draw Horses" book. She is enjoying it this morning. I'm quite impressed.

12/27/2008 - Caden's Birthday Party

We had a small birthday party for Caden at Joan's house yesterday. With my mom still sick (but finally getting over it thankfully), it ended up being Dan's family. We had a beautiful warm day as you can see by Caden's sweaty hair, so the kids were able to play outside. Uncle Nathan kept everyone occupied with a game of beach ball baseball. Everyone was able to get hits.

We also opened up Nana's garage and got out the ton of bikes and scooters that Grandmother has collected for us to play with.

After everyone was hot and tired, we went inside for a slice of birthday cake (cookies and cream ice cream and chocolate cake - yum).
I can't believe my little man is almost 4. Where has the time gone???

12/26/2008 - Christmas With Dan's Family

Friday night, we had dinner with Dan's family and opened presents. It was a fun filled night. The kids have definitely gotten into present opening mode. They lined up on the floor and sat patiently waiting for the gifts to be passed out.Allie was over joyed with her beautiful new princess nightgown and magic wand. I don't have a picture of the evening's funniest moment, but Aunt Cathy says she captured it on video so hopefully I can share it with you soon. The girls got a new doll house and furniture for Christmas. While Grandmother was shopping for furniture, she found a doll set that included a little boy and a grandmother. When she mentioned it to me, I had a little "hmmm" moment in my head, but didn't say anything to her. Caden sure had a lot to say. He pulled the box of dolls out (to quote Joan) like a bad fish and held it from his fingertips. He did not want DOLLS. It was hilarious!!! At least grandmother redeemed herself with these super cool Star Wars "spy glasses." Think we have room in the van for all of this? Grandaddy and Caden Grandmother and Jaelyn

12/25/2008 - The Rest of the Day

I had a great time Christmas day. Unfortunately, my mom did not. She spent most of the day in her bedroom with a nasty stomach bug. As of today, she is still feeling really bad. Please pray the rest of us stay well.

My brother and his family came to lunch, which my dad and I did a great job of pulling together. Everything was yummy, if I do say so myself...exactly what I had been craving at Thanksgiving. We had lunch and the kids spent the afternoon playing after opening presents. My mom did a repeat of a gift she'd done for the "kids" for the grandkids. She tied $50 in 1s and 5s to Santa hats and wrapped them up. We lined the kids up and made them open them at the same time. Chad almost had a heart attack at the thought that Mom had done it to him again. He doesn't appreciate her creative gifts like I do.

Uncle Chad even got in on the play later in the afternoon. He was "Mount Chad" and let the kids climb on him. I bet he is sore today.

After all that hard play, it was time for a rest......even Zac agreed.

12/25/2008 - Christmas Morning

The kids woke me up around 6:30 on Christmas morning as they climbed into my bed. I think they forgot it was Christmas and that presents would be under the tree waiting for them. I actually had to remind them what day it was. It didn't take too much prodding to get them out of my bed and into the living room. There wasn't much excitment because the kids had already opened all of my and Dan's presents and my parents were making them wait until their cousins arrived for the rest of the presents.

Santa brought Caden a new Geo Trax train and more tracks.Jaelyn got a new Little Pet Shop clubhouse.

Allie got a new Go Anywhere Girls doll house.And Santa got a plate full of cookies. He left a note thanking us for his snack. The reindeer ate almost all of their oatmeal and carrots.

12/24/2008 - Getting Ready For Santa

We tracked Santa all day on Christmas Eve. Allie thought it was especially neat when the tracker stopped in Samara, Russia. She ran around saying that Santa was giving presents to her birthfamily.

We baked cookies and left them out on a platter with a note that a glass of milk was waiting in the frig. The kids also left a plate of oatmeal and carrots for Santa's reindeer.

Even the cats wanted to see Santa's arrival. Isn't that the sweetest picture?

Pictures From Iraq

I keep asking Dan to send me an email describing life for him these days. He has not complied, silly boy. I think I might have to fill you in on the things that have stayed in my tiny brain. And, sad as it may be, I can't remember if I've shared yet so I could very possibly be repeating myself. Dan's at Besmaya Range Complex. It's an Iraqi base with a small compound for the handful of US troops inside. Dan's orders said instructor, but he's more of a liaison person for the school. It sounds like he's doing ok and is settling in. From this picture, I'd say he's making himself right at home! His room...


According to Dan, rain and Iraqi sand make bad mud. This is the Captain who's about to leave, I think. Dan with some of the men he'll be working with.

I'm not sure what this picture is...looks like a wrestling ring behind Dan...I'll have to ask :p.

My Dorky husband...sorry, but it's true, Danny!

Tracking Santa

I read an article today about how NORAD started tracking Santa. They have a website encase you want to track Santa with your kids today... http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html

Merry Christmas!

12/23/2008 - I Escaped and It Was Unbelievably Wonderful

Yesterday was a glorious day. I dropped the kids off at Joan's at 9 and Jennifer and I were heading to Destin by 9:30. It's been kind of gray around here, but we actually saw patches of blue sky and sunshine over the beautiful white beaches. My grandma says it never rains at the beach. She's wrong because I've been rained on at the beach before, but the rain stayed away for us. Jen and I are creatures of habit and had lunch at McAllister's deli. We made it to the spa about noon, an hour before our appointment.

We decided to begin in the steam room which amazingly, we've never ventured into before. I liked it, especially once we figured out that we should put the cool cucumbers on our eyes. It took a few more minutes to figure out we should be lying down to keep the cucumbers in place instead of sitting up. I'm glad we were alone because we were laughing so hard at one point we almost rolled off the benches! The only thing I didn't like about the steam room was when the steam jets came on. It was scary....a loud pop followed by a whoosh of steam. And then it all stopped just as quickly as it started.

We scheduled something new for the day, a Coconut Créme Body Glow (Cleanse, polish and protect your skin. Pineapple extracts gently buff away dull skin cells and unclog pores while the hydrating body lotion rapidly hydrates your skin with fresh coconut milk.) It was unbelievably wonderful! I left thinking having a facial afterwards would have been perfect. Funny, Jen thought the same thing. We tried but there were no facial appointments available for the afternoon. We settled for our already scheduled 50 minute massages...Heaven! It was like relaxation bliss. I'll be able to close my eyes and go back to that feeling for months - I hope. It's working for today anyway!

We fooled around a bit longer spending time in the dry sauna and playing with the cucumbers a little more.

We did a little shopping at the outlets. I haven't shopped like that (SANS KIDS) in ages. I tried on and bought shoes, jeans, a nightgown and a shirt. Best of all, it was ALL on sale. We finished up our day with dinner at Carrabas...yummy!

Thank you Joan and my parents for watching my clowns and to Jen's parents and her husband for watching their children so we could escape for the day! I needed a girly day with a good friend who I can laugh and have fun with.

12/22/08 - Movie Review

We ran errands yesterday morning (car wash, the bank - exciting stuff) and then we went to the movies in the afternoon. We saw "Tales of Despereaux." Caden loved it. He sat on the edge of his seat. Allie liked it, but was scared through parts and sat on my lap. Jaelyn hated it and whined at Baba through most of the movie apparently. We had every end of the spectrum so I'm not sure I can recommend it. It took a bit for it to introduce the characters and different story lines and had some scary parts with the rats. It had a good message though about honor and doing what's right.

After the movie, we went to Moe's. "Welcome to Moe's!" I'm MISSED Moe's. Jaelyn chose cereal at home, but Allie loved her taco. My little Mikey now loves Mexican food. Whenever everyone else wants McDonalds, Allie always wants Taco Bell. Caden enjoyed his cheese quesadilla and ate it really well with the promise of a chocolate chip cookie when he finished. I LOVED my burrito with guacamole. Yum! I might have to sneak another meal at Moe's in before I leave.

Today is Escape Day! I'm dropping the kids off at Dan's parents house in about 30 minutes and then my friend Jennifer and I are heading to Destin to our (or at least my) favorite place...Serenity By the Sea.

12/21/08 - Our First Day of Visiting

We tried to visit all of the relatives' houses yesterday so they could see us (and we could see them ;-) ).

We started after lunch with Nana and Daddy Doe, Danny's grandparents. It's always wonderful to see them. Nana dotes on the kids, especially the baby of the family, Caden. 90 year old Daddy Doe was napping when we got there, but he got up to visit. He doesn't see very well, but he sure did enjoy listening to the kids play around him. They like to hide behind his chair and jumping out screaming "Boo."

After that visit, we headed next door to Dan's parents house. My nephew, Caleb, was there waiting to see his cousins! They had a good time playing and making crafts (Grandmother loves her crafts!).I would have to say that the highlight of the afternoon was a riveting game of Hungry, Hungry Hippo. Oh My! It's one of those games I've always thought would be fun to play, but didn't want to own because of the marbles. Now I know the reason I don't want to own it is the noise level that comes from playing such a crazy game.

For dinner, the plan was to take Grandma Molly out (my Grandma), but she was feeling a little light headed. We took dinner and visited at her house. She has about 5 Hallmark singing snowmen and the kids always enjoying playing them all at the same time. Oy! I must say though that the kids were really good and played charades nicely and kind of quietly. It was nice to see my Grandma and she seemed to feel better when we left.

Today's only plans involve getting our filthy car washed and going to a movie.

Allie's Letter

Just a month ago, it was impossible to read Allie's writing. She wasn't quite hearing all the sounds in words and she didn't get the whole spacing between words thing. She's made huge progress. I'm so impressed with a letter she wrote for Nana this morning...

Translation: I like my cousins and my Grandma and my Grandad and my mom and I love everybody in my family.

Made It To Florida

We left Maryland about 8 Friday morning and immediately hit traffic. Almost 3 hours later we were inching out from around DC and continuing to hit rain and traffic. It was a LONG day. We didn't hit blue skies and sunshine until North Carolina. Allie and Caden thankfully did a great job playing on their own with their toys and Jaelyn was happy to have mom entertain her. We made it to Anderson, SC about 9, I think. 13 hours to drive 550 miles. Insane. Dad's GPS said our average speed was 54 mpg. Lucky for Dad, he had most of the fast miles and most of mine were around 20. Yuck. Our second day was MUCH better. We left the hotel around 8 and were in Newnan having lunch with my Uncle Clifford by 10:45. We were in Pensacole about 4. We were all very glad to make it here, including the kitties who were not too happy with spending 2 days in cages.