Oh boy. Christmas sure is hectic. I did get a few pictures the other day when it really was Christmas morning but I have yet to shrink them and the ones I took of Timothy turned out back lit and he was washed out in a shadow. :(
We had a get together last night and we have one yet today and then that should be all for Christmas. Then next wednesday we are going to my sister's house, I think, for New Years Eve.

I will post details and longer thoughts soon, along with pictures, as soon as we are home at a decent hour and I'm not falling over with exhaustion

snowed in

We are snowed in today. it has been just fine by me. it allowed me to sleep in late and I was able to have a quiet chat with my husband for a little bit. We made hot chocolate and popcorn. the day is still not over, even though it is the shortest day of the year, so we are going to watch a movie and then have supper.

We had some snow yesterday but it is blowing around a lot along with a windchill of way below zero. BRRRR!

this snow is from a couple of days ago. we had snow last Sunday night and a lot of wind then, too, but it wasn't as windy and bitter as it was yesterday and today. the snow on our little cottage had a little curly end and right before I took the picture the curl fell off. it made me sad.

the snow that we got was sticky and the wind blew it right into the house. I had put the old christmas tree in there a couple of weeks ago - when Tim was dealing with the water heater - but I got sick after that and didn't get any lights hung. The snow made it very pretty. the other day I had the kids hang the popcorn and cranberry garland that they made at grandma's house the other week.

Merry Christmas

chocolate covered sweety

I have no idea where he got the chocolate from.

gingerbread everywhere

I don't remember quite how long now, but at least 5 years now, my older sister makes gingerbread houses for all of her nieces and nephews. She makes royal icing and provides nearly a metric ton of candy to stick onto the houses. then she lets them loose. Since we've started the gingerbread party we have added five kids and houses to the party. The following pictures are only a tiny idea of the chaos that goes on there.






Tim managed to nap through all the noise.

Saturday at Grandma's house

We went over to grandma's house to frost christmas sugar cookies. the kids had fun, especially the girls. in fact, when it was time for supper, Emma was wanting to make more icing for the last few cookies that didn't get frosted.


Erica took a lot of time on each cookie. several years ago when we started frosting cookies at grandma's house, I sat down with the kids and helped them with a few cookies. I made pictures on the cookies with the icing and the sugar sprinkles and ever since Erica has done the same kind of thing. This year she made some really great cookies. it's almost a shame to eat them, they are so cute. I haven't gotten pictures of all of them yet and as she went they certainly got fancier and better. I will make a point to photograph them before they are eaten.

the (young) man of the hour ... (updated)

Timothy! 11 years ago today I was in the hospital, again.

Again I don't have any brand new baby Timothy pictures to post. :(

You get to see his first birthday picture of the day (in the rest the flash reflected badly in his glasses).

Good Morning Birthday Boy!

for some unknown reason my mind keeps trying to tell me that he is turning 12 this year. I'm a year fast. He still has little kid hands and I look at his hands and face and think it won't be long before he grows up in has the chiseled face of a man and big strong hands. He is growing up so quickly. I never feel prepared - how silly of me.


please forgive me for taking so long to post more pictures of Timothy's birthday. It has been such a hectic weekend. Oy!

This is the second time around for Timothy blowing out his candles. I had grabbed the camera and shot away and right after he blew out his candles I had discovered that I had forgotten to put the CS card in the camera. So we re-lit the candles and had him blow them out again. we didn't sing a second time, there's no reason to torture the poor boy.

Then we opened presents and he really likes the magic set he got from grandma and grandpa.


my nephew came over to play around with Tim on his birthday and he ended up staying the night. Tim and I could hear them in Tim's room laughing and whispering until after midnight.
They had a fun time.

Yummy

yesterday I called my little sister to come over and make treats with me.

We made Chocolate covered pretzels with the yummiest chocolate

isn't it pretty?

Birthday Girl

14 years ago today was a Sunday. and 14 years ago today I was in the hospital after 3 days of back labor.


I don't have any brand new baby Erica pictures (long story) to show how tiny she was and now how grown up she is. This morning I didn't even get a picture of her before she went to school. But I will be getting pictures of her when she gets home. I will be updating this post when that happens.

but until I can get those pictures and have more to write about her day ~

Happy Birthday Erica! I love you.

So now I'm back with pictures to share and captions to write.

Here she is! Now old enough to go to dances and only two years away from dating and driving a car. (maybe longer) ~ Erica comments " 'No way' says I".


Daddy had to work to night. He wasn't able to take the night off so we called him when Erica was ready to open her present. So in a small way Dad got to be a part of her day.

It looks like she likes her present.

Tonight Timothy had his music program at school and because of that and the fact that Dad was not home, Erica chose to wait on her cake until all can share. Instead, just to celebrate in some kind of traditional fashion she put a candle on a Little Debbie Star Crunch and we sang Happy Birthday to her. :)

my upcoming weeks

I've been feeling bad the last couple of days because it has been so long since I've posted anything on here and even longer since I uploaded any pictures.
I haven't taken any pictures for a while. I've been busy and lazy so it just hasn't happened.
plus there hasn't been much going on here to mention about.

December is always the busiest month for our family. we have two birthdays two days in a row (which are coming up next week) we have Christmas at home and with at least three other family groups, a gingerbread house party thrown by my sister, we have three different music programs to attend in the next two weeks ~ two of them being only three days apart next week; one of which is on Erica's birthday ~ and my sisters and I have a night out at the camper cabin. This is all happening from the 5th to the 25th. to most people that wouldn't seem like much, but I'm not a soccer mom ~I'm what you would call a homebody~ running here and there and coordinating everyone's schedule gets a bit overwhelming.

So Friday night is my sisters' annual camper cabin night. All of my sisters and our good friend who we all love as our sister started this up maybe five years ago, I think. Alice rents the cabin (which reminds me I need to find out how much my chip in is to pay her back)
we all show up out there in the evening as soon as we can. We all bring something yummy to eat, we stay up late laughing, then we go out to our moms' cemetery and sing Christmas carols and silly songs to our moms.
then we go to sleep for a few hours, have breakfast and then back to our normal lives.
Pictures of Friday night will probably not be posted because of the dorkish embarrassment to my sisters.

The kids are going to have a sleep over at gramma and grammpa's Friday night so today is being spent figuring out what all I want to take for a yummy snack or two and getting all the kids clothes laid out and cleaned so it can all be packed. I hope that Ronan does okay. it will be the first time he will have had to go through a whole night without a mommy.
aaaa, he'll be fine.

hooo?

tonight a few of the kids are sick with this terrible cold that has been going around. Emma, Connor, and Erica are all coughing away and woke me up (this was about 2:20 this morning). I got Emma a drink and was about to go back to sleep when I heard something that I haven't heard in years ~ an owl in our tree. I thought that maybe I had imagined it and listened hard and I heard it hooting again. Emma was still awake so I pointed it out to her. I realized that there was someone in the living room coughing too so I went out to see who it was. Erica had come out and was on the couch so I had her listen really closely. by then we could hear two owls. They were so cool to hear that I decided to wake up Timothy so he could hear them too. we listened to the owls in our trees for about 15 minutes.
I wish we could have seen them. We tried peeking carefully through the curtains but we could not make out any silhouettes in the dark. I think we may have spooked them because they stopped hooting.

I hope they come back often.

what I'm thankful for

with Thanksgiving only three days away I have been wondering what I'm thankful for.

Today this is it ~ Hot and running water.

over the weekend our water heater died. it had rusted through and was leaking steadily all over the basement. This was especially irritating because I had bought the water heater, brand new, only four years ago.
Tim and I heaved the new one downstairs yesterday and he worked and worked at that thing and the pipes didn't want to seal so by 10pm last night I emotionally fell apart and we called it quits. This morning, thinking in case of the worst case scenario, I called my sister and asked if they could come and help and so they did. Now the water is back and it's hot and I am indescribably overjoyed to be able to wash my hands.

learning a difficult lesson

Today Connor was supposed to go play with grandpa and grandma. He was all gung-ho about it about an hour before Grandpa got here right up until grandpa got here. He got mad at me because I was winterizing my bedroom window and wouldn't play a game on the computer for him. Grandpa got here and Connor was still mad and instead of going to have a fun time away from home he chose to stay and pout. I asked him a couple of times if he was sure that he wanted to stay home and he was sure. I tried to remind him that it's fun to go on outings but he was resolute in his choice to stay and be grumpy. I don't know what he thought was going to happen. Grandpa couldn't stay long and had to go shortly after arriving and I'm still terribly sorry that he had to drive all this way only to turn right around with no Connor.
3 minutes after Grandpa drove away Connor was sniffling away in my chair. "mom, you were right *sniff, sniff* I should have gone with grandpa."
I was right.... that happens sometimes

setting a goal

I was just looking in on the blog this morning and discovered that this month I have posted a grand total of 8 times. I should be doing better than that. So today I am (apart from posting this) going to post.
I will try to make it a point to take some pictures and get them up.

I have teacher conferences today to meet with Tim's and Emma's teachers. I have to write a list of questions for them because as soon as I get there I forget everything that I was wondering about.

Connor's blanket

I'm calling done.
a couple of months ago I wrote about how I had started making a blanket for Connor and it was very slow going.

every time I look at it, it looks like it is too small. I wanted it to be big enough for Connor to grow with and something he could have for a long time.
but I guess I did okay because I can cover up with it pretty well.


I really could have worked on it for a bit longer but my hands were hurting from keeping that big blanket on the knitting needles.
not to mention it was a challenge getting anything done on it at all since every time I got it out to work on Ronan would climb on me and make it impossible to work on.


Now I'm finished I will be wrapping it up soon and it will wait for Christmas for Connor to take ownership of it.

I have 5 or 6 more skeins of this yarn. Tim has mentioned how he likes the colors of this blanket and so maybe I will have to make a snuggley blanket for him too and then Connor and Daddy can sit together with their matching blankets.

just incase

So if you thought I was just pulling your leg about the gas tank... I took a picture of it with my phone while I was still standing at the pump.

prepare to be amazed

it's a gas

Today I put 15 gallons of gas in our van for under $30.
:)

weeee

our first day of accumulation. I had to go and take pictures quick before it melted. Timothy came out with me this morning. We just ran out fast ~in our pajamas~ and stayed on the sidewalk and driveway.

I was so thrilled for Emma since she's been asking me for weeks when it was going to snow. Well today is that day.
So I woke her up and showed her the snow, but a cruel twist of fate ~ she is sick today and can't play in it.
She came in my room in the middle of the night and said that her head hurt. This morning her head still hurt and when I asked her if she wanted to go to school or stay home she opted for staying home. Knowing how much she loves school, she must feel really crummy ~ and she looks like she feels really crummy.


but she has some good company to help her stay cheered up. they've been watching a TV show about crocodiles. it must have been pretty interesting if Ronan wanted to see that verses grinning for the camera.

Emma and I decided that the snow looks perfect for snow men. We have about a half inch out there and it's coming down some more right now.
later I will go outside and make a tiny snowman and sit him in the cottage. I'll replace the saggy pumpkins with crisp little snow people.
Yay for winter, it feels so Christmasy. but the glee of having snow won't last long. Come January we'll all be tired of it. but until then, hooray for snow!

greeted with a song and a smile

this morning my sister stopped by on her way to work to borrow a cup of duct tape for her headlight.


when I got back in Connor was playing some 'music' on a kazoo he found and Ronan was dancing around (it's his Irish blood ~ he just can't help it).

hit the wall

I need one dream

so free kids.
they are not house trained but not for lack of trying.

tell your friends

I need terrific ideas

I am doing some Christmas shopping online today. I have most of what I want to get for the girls but I am drawing a blank when it comes to the boys but Ronan in particular.

I have two big problems. I need at least one more thing to at least plan for Timothy and 3 more things for Ronan so my real problems are these:

What would be something good for an 11 year old boy who is a little obsessed with video games - hopefully something that will broaden his mind beyond blips and beeps?

and what would be something good for a near 2 year old who seems to only want to play with everything that he shouldn't have?

Christmas is still 53 days away and I'm feeling a bit frantic already. I have two birthdays to figure plan and pull out of a hat in 5 weeks and Timothy's school music program is on the night of Erica's birthday.


~Stress~

the whole gang

Tim was darth vader.
Emma was a sparkly fairy.
Connor was Iron Man.
Ronan was a lion without ears or a mane so daddy kept track of them.
Erica was a vampire without vampire teeth. (erica says tooth decay)

it was a lot of fun taking these guys around.
Erica made out pretty well for someone who wasn't really supposed to be trick or treating. She walked around with us and a lot of people offered her candy which she gladly accepted.

Timothy was the only jedi for miles around. Star Wars is loosing it's appeal. We did run into another Vader passing out candy right before we called it a night.
Timmer lead the chorus of 'trick-or-treat' because Emma and Connor kept forgetting or we too shy to say it.

Emma was so shiny. another little girl (probably about 3 yrs old) passed her and said 'pretty. you pretty.'
Emma had it all figured out and at the beginning of the night was pointing out the houses with lights on and making the plan of which houses to go to first.

Connor was the leader. as soon as we reached a new drive way or yard he took off running. Tim made the comment at one point that Connor was a man on a mission.
on our way home right before he fell asleep Connor mentioned that trick or treating was hard work.

it took one house for Ronan to realize what we were up to last night. most of the houses we went to let the kids choose what piece of candy they wanted. Tim carried Ronan most of the time and when the home owner would answer the door Ronan was leaning way over with arms stretched in front of him trying with all of his might to get to that candy dish. a couple of times he started running in the air.
gotta get that candy!
Now Ronan was a man on a mission if there ever was one.


Now I can focus real hard on Christmas.

glow sticks are fun

at long last

a picture.

the pumpkin on the top of the cottage is Emma's
inside is Connor's
(good job carving that one, honey)
on the porch is Erica's
on the ground is Tim's
Ronan's stayed at Grandma's house.

by the way, I really like my camera

I didn't forget

I'm still here. I haven't posted anything new on here for a while because I haven't had very much for interesting stuff to add. That and I haven't taken any good pictures for a while.
I'm sure all that will change with Halloween in two more days. the costumes are all planed out and a couple of them are waiting to be washed because Connor wears them all the time. If he's not wearing Spiderman he's wearing Iron Man and if you call him Connor he'll be sure to remind you that he is not Connor ~ "you mean Iron Man/Spiderman". "Oh, yes that's who I mean. Spiderman get ready for bed"


I'll be back soon with pictures. I need to take pictures of the Jack o Lanterns the kids made at gramma's house the other night. I'd better do that today

awwwww

I know that I'm biased when it comes to my kids, but you can't deny that they are the most adorable people you've ever seen.

originally Ronan was going to wear a little 'tigger' costume which looked more like a bear because it didn't have stripes (kind of a long story), but he didn't fit into it so I went to the store with my sister this morning and I got Ronan a costum that fit (kind of)
He kept the head on for about three minutes and then I had to struggle to keep it on him for some pictures.

he's saying "raaaah" being a scary lion.

Finally!

last year I made my oldest 4 kids reusable trick or treat bags. once I figured out how to make a reversible bag with tidy seams I made them very quickly.

So this year I needed to make 1 bag for Ronan since he is now old enough to trick or treat. 1... a single tiny bag. who would have ever thought it would take me an entire day to make?!
I'm so glad it's over and I'm so very glad that I will never have to make another one for the remainder of my days.

so was it worth all my woes? maybe... it is pretty cute and oh so 'green'. This bag will hold Halloween treats for the next 10 years.

I made this

last week we went to History Fest near our home. It runs for 3 or 4 days and is quite a lot of fun. My oldest sister works down there each year - this year she was baking bread in a clay oven that she built. She has a friend who also works there who does henna for people. this friend also is learning to make glass beads. this is something that I have wanted to learn for a while now so I summed up the courage to ask her a few questions. She ended up setting up her equipment and showed me how to make a bead. she then asked me if I would like to give it a try. I did.
This is what I made mostly by myself. she did help and it was fun and I would love to set up a little workshop for it in my garage some time soon.

I chose a deep blue color for my bead. It didn't turn out quite like I had hoped, but it is cute. the yellowish gray swirls on the bead are where I accidentally burned the glass. who knew you could burn glass.

that was close

when my little sister was about 4 she made a grand announcement (or confession). she said "when I was young I used to smoke".
it's good that at such a young age she was able to kick the habit. ;)



but who knew smoking was such a huge problem for 3 and 4 year old kids!
tonight at supper we were chatting a bit and Connor got Erica's attention and came clean with her.
he said "last night I tried to smoke"
Erica "you tried to smoke!?"
connor "I tried to smoke. but it didn't work for me"

I'm glad it didn't work out. hopefully now he has it out of his system.

:)

court update

I’m not going to go into detail because I could go on forever and I really want this blog to be a happy thing.

 

So I will say that we are staying with the last order of minimal visits and although that is terrible for Erica and Tim it’s good that the judge didn’t change custody or anything like that.  But then we did have a different judge and I think he tried to be decent and not a bitter old fart like the other judge.

 

 

But this is not over yet for the kids and it could get really ugly soon and I’m afraid for that day.  But for today we can breath easier for a bit.

 

ugh

court tomorrow morning. That's partly why I haven't done much for blogging for the last week.

Wish Erica and Timothy luck to gain their human rights to be happy and safe.

I'm scared that the judge is going to make things worse for them because he's a big jerk.

party hardy

last night was the celebration!
my sister stopped by with some fun things for Emma and the kids. they played with party blowers until they were all blown out. She gave Emma some bubble bath and some glow sticks for her birthday. they cracked all the glow sticks and stuck them together. after the party and it was time for bed, Emma took the glow sticks and made a chain and then stuck them up under Erica's bed so they would be over her head while she went to sleep. I wish they would stay glowing forever because she loved it and stayed in bed all night (which doesn't happen a lot)grandma lynn and grandpa george came over too and had some great things for Emma ~ a fairy barbie doll and a purse with make up in it. Emma loves being a girly girl.

the whole family was excited to help Emma have a great day. Connor helped light the candles. those lighters can be kind of tough. but he and daddy managed to get all six candles going.

then Emma had to endure the birthday song. I just now remembered that I never told her to make a wish.

and blow! they were not trick candles but she huffed and puffed and those candles did not want to go out. maybe they felt like they owed it to Connor for working so hard on lighting them. :)