This is why we don't have a dog. Instead, we had a third child, who is probably worse than a dog is some ways. But we still love him.






I'm not sure if it's the fact that Santa is coming soon or if it's a result of kids suddenly deciding that sleeping in might actually be a good thing, but behavior has been pretty much on the up and up lately. Which makes mommy and Santa very happy. Look we even look like we like each other here.




Here's a few pictures I took in addition to taking our Christmas card picture. I absolutely love them.

A Month Later

Almost a month since I've posted last. That's pretty bad and it makes me a little sad to think about all of the cute moments that I didn't post an probably will/ have forgotten.

The kids are finally starting to adjust to being inside more. We have fewer fights and breakdowns, which I am so thankful for. It's not perfect, but they're 2 and 3, what do you expect? I felt a little guilty today when I realized that Sweet and Sugar are cutting molars again. Maybe that's been part of the reason for all of the fits, drama, and attitude. Maybe they're grumpy because their mouths hurt, not just because they're three and trying to rule the world. They never mentioned it, I only noticed it because Sugar's gums bled when he brushed his teeth tonight.

We had Sugar's nose cauterized a couple of weeks ago. The poor kid just couldn't stop getting nose bleeds and they lasted forever. They usually ran 30 minutes +. And once he got one, he would get them at night so when I went in to get him in the morning everything was covered in blood. Plus every time that he got upset, he would start again, so enough was enough. He did much better than I expected. He didn't cry at all on the first side. He cried as the Dr was finishing up the second side. He was handsomely rewarded with french fries (something my kids rarely get) and then we went to a pottery place to decorate Christmas ornaments. The only problem was that the stuff that they used had dripped when he cried so this is how he looked for a few days. He had a few mild nosebleeds in the days after wards, but nothing since.

We had a wonderful thanksgiving. We spent the first part of the day at my parent's house and then went to Chuck's grandparent's house for the second part, before going back to my parent's house again. There was no way that I was going to take the kids home before bed time when they had a busy day and didn't get naps. Chuck's sister and her family were in from out of state, so it was nice to get to spend some time with them.



I was one of those crazy shoppers that was up and shopping way before anyone should be on black Friday. Mostly I went out to be with the other women in my family. I didn't buy much for Christmas, most of the stuff I bought was for the kids for next year pjs, etc. It was however eventful when I locked the keys in the trunk and had to call a tow truck to open the car, but they couldn't open the trunk. So two truck #2 eventually came and took it into the shop where it took over 4 hours to make a new key. Needless to say, it wasn't quite what I had planned for the day.

We have our tree up. Actually I put the tree up the day before thanksgiving. Chuck put garland on it the day after thanksgiving and we (kids and I) decorated it two days ago. I decided to do it in stages this year to hopefully acclimatize them to it. I think it has helped some. They didn't bother it at all until it was fully decorated and really it hasn't been that much. Bam did however love the tree skirt and decided that it was a perfect place to lay. They got to help decorate and absolutely loved it. It was a little over decorated at the bottom with all of the ornaments hanging below the tree, so I did go back through later and relocate some before the cat did.


We did a trial run of Santa pictures the other day. We had to go to the store and there just happened to be a very bored Santa there so we did pictures even though the kids were not dressed up. We will probably do more pictures in nicer clothes since theses went so well. When we asked if they wanted to do it, Sweet and Bam weren't so sure, but Sugar announced that he wasn't' afraid of Santa and walked right up, which gave the other two courage or maybe that was the candy cane incentive.



We've had our first round of colds of the season. Bam got it first and hardest. Sweet and Sugar really only had it for a day. Bam's still got it, but getting better. Sweet and Sugar finally get flu shots tomorrow. I had apts scheduled for them a while ago, but the Dr ran out so we've been waiting. We're not doing the h1n1 shots. Something so new makes me a little nervous, even if it is made the same way. I think we'll just practice flu prevention instead.

Blah!

Sometimes I don't like where we live. I love snow at Christmas, but I don't like that it's harder to get the kids out when it's cold. I don't like how grumpy my kids get when we're cooped up because it's cold and we're not going outside much or to as many indoor public spots anymore (due to my fears of the dreadful flu). Nor do I like how much meaner my older two have turned now that they are 3 compared to a few short months ago when my beloved Sweet rarely gave me any problems. I really hope everyone adjusts to the cold weather/more indoor playtime soon.

Happy Halloween and Then Some

Happy Halloween! Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I love haunted houses and scary movies. I loved getting to dress up as a kid. You can be anything you want to be, even if it's just for one night.



Two out of three of the kids love the Halloween stuff. One likes most of it, but is a little more skittish about masks and loud animated decorations. We've been trick or treating twice so far, once at a local grocery store and once at an outlet mall. The grocery store was a quick little fun thing for them. The outlet mall was very crowded and a good intro for the Sugar to get used to masks and scary costumes at night. They didn't get many goodies since the lines were really long but they did get to ride the train again.

Tonight is trick or treating with family and friends. We always meet up at a family members house for dinner, trick or treating, and handing out some candy too. Trick or Treating is definitely more scary now that I have a little one with food allergies. He can't have most of the candy that he'll probably receive tonight. I bought a bad of stuff that he can have so that I can trade him.



We carved pumpkins the other night. Sweet is still the only one who enjoys it. The boys wanted nothing to do with cleaning out the pumpkin. Sweet on the other hand didn't want any help. Bam is a huge fan of the toasted pumpkin seeds. Sugar loves to look at his pumpkin at night.



We've been busy this month trying to get things ready for winter. I got the basement cleaned so that the kids can start using it as extra play space again. I got some of the smaller gym set and some of the outdoor toys cleaned up and brought them in. We've also had quite a few family(extended) illnesses or surgeries. I hope everyone recovers soon.

We had a dry spell long enough for us to get some of the leaves in a pile. Sweet loves to be burried in them. Sugar enjoys playing in them and running through them. Bam would rather use the rake.

A Little of Vacation

We were on vacation last week. We enjoyed a week of beautiful weather at Surfside Beach. This was our house. It is rather large. We went with other family. The whole idea of the first vacation with three toddlers is a little intimidating so we jumped at the opportunity to have some back up.



We left at 2am and arrived at 4:30pm. It was a long drive that involved lots of potty breaks (made me wonder why I potty trained them early) and a stop that lasted over an hour to clean up from a car sick little boy. The directions that we got from AAA were awful. They sent us through a bunch of little towns and through an area that I definitely didn't want to break down in for fear of having to hike 20 miles before finding another human. Thus we got internet directions for the way home and will probably get a GPS for the next trip.

Sweet slept great the while time, but they boys were a different story. This was Bam's first time out of a crib. We tried putting him on a mattress on the floor next to Sugar's bed but that was a no go. The boys ended up sleeping (if you want to call it that) together. I think they discussed whose turn it was to keep mom up that night. I think I got more sleep the first 2 nights home than I did the entire week. Thankfully they fell right back into their regular sleep paterns the first night home. The only sad thing is that Sugar stayed dry all night there and hasn't been able to keep it up here.

The kids absolutely loved the beach. Sweet and Bam had no fear of the water. Sugar was a little more cautious, but loved the little pools of water farther in on the beach. They had a great time playing in the sand and water, chasing the birds, running on the beach, looking for shells, and playing in the pool under the house (who puts a pool where it doesn't ever get sun, only the breese from the beach?).


The trip home went pretty well. I got some meds to keep Sugar healthy, but gave them to all of the kids after the other 2 started puking about an hour into the trip. Thankfully they hadn't eaten yet so it didn't take an hour to clean up. I also had a bucket in reach for such things on the way home. They were awake most of the trip and actually pretty content most of it. They traveled much beter than I thought they would. It was definately easy to tell when we needed to take a break to let them get out and run, but who doesn't want a break after awhile.

I'm sure that I'll post more stories in the next couple of days.

Cakes are Finally Done

Well it's been awhile since I've done a cake, but I think they turned out ok. I thought barbie would be the easiest, boy was I wrong. First off, barbie is way too tall for the skirt so I had to bake brownies and put the skirt on it. She's still too tall so I just built up icing around her to cover her. Plus by the end the icing was too soft. I think if it's too hot tomorrow the barbie cake may be a little obscene. I hope they like them.

Harvest Time

I've been very busy lately harvesting from my garden and my mom's garden and pear tree. I had not had a garden since we had kids and then it wasn't the best garden. We decided to give it a try again this year now that I'm a SAHM. It has been great. I have approximately 100 bags of tomatoes frozen, a little over 20 bags of zucchini and yellow squash, around 10 (so far) of shredded squash (I add it to recipes to increase the veggie content), 8 jars of salsa, 4 bags of acorn squash (so far), 3 jars of pear jelly, 22 bowls of pear sauce (like apple sauce), plus pear juice. This week I plan to start making some tomato sauce. Next year I plan on increasing the size of my garden and growing a few more varieties of squash and some cauliflower and broccoli. I would also like to get a few more fruit trees (we have two apple, but one is dying) and some berry plants. I have already let my family know that I would love some fruit trees and berry plants for my birthday next year. The only problem is that I think my excitement over being able to cut some of our grocery costs is going to be more than our freezers can handle. I'll have to learn to can, it's just so much more work than freezing. It's also done wonders for the kids eating too. Sweet and Sugar do pretty good with most veggies, but have never liked beans of any kind. Now that they've had fresh green beans they love them, even out of the can. Bam ate an entire can of green beans by himself with dinner the other night. Sweet is not a huge fan of tomatoes. She tolerates them, but certainly won't go out her way for them, that is unless they're fresh from mom's garden. They're excited to see what we're growing and want to eat it.

Other than that, we've had a good birthday week. The kids have to love this week because they rarely get sweets, but everyone gets a special sweet made in honor of their day so I've already baked a cake, hot fudge cake, and iced brownines this week. Plus we have a birthday party with family on monday in which they will each get their own cake. One cake would probably cut it and that's what we've done in the past, but every other kid gets their own cake. I want them to like their birthday and not feel as if they get short changed because their birthdays are so close together. So tonight I baked Sweet's cake, which will be a princess. Tomorrow I will bake the boys cakes; a tractor and a dinosaur. I would say which is which, but Sugar can't make up his mind which one is for him. I'll have to decorate all of them tomorrow too. It's been a long time since I've done much cake decorating so we'll se how it goes. I hope they atleast come out presentable.

I am also looking forward to some time with my hubby. He has some time off of work coming up and I look forward to having him around more. It's so much easier when it's two on three rather than one on three. It's so much easier to get things done when he can take them out to play while I work on something rather than me having to get things done during nap time and after bed time or with kids under my feet. I also know how much the kids enjoy spending time with their dad. He took them out to play this morning while I finished up the pearsauce and cleaning so tonight when I asked Sweet what her favorite part of the day was, her responce was playing outside with daddy. That makes my heart melt.

I also got to go to a presentation earlier this week on food alergies. It was very well put together. It was aimed more at awareness for those who don't know anyone with an allergy. The woman who presented has worked with several of the school districts in our area to put food allergy plans in place. I was very disapointed that the school system that my kids will be going to does not currently have one, but I was relieved when I takled to her afterwards and she said that she's working with the school nurse to put one in place. It's funny that a couple of years ago I was one of those that kind of scoffed at having to make special arangements for just one or two kids and now I've learned how truely important it is. I am very selective about who watches our kids and who they are around with food for fear that Bam may come into contact with something he's not supposed to have. People don't think to read every single label (we had an incident at Easter with a jelly bean that was processed on equipment with peanuts). Just 1/1000 of a peanut can cause a serious, deadly reaction. Food allergies are a big deal. They can kill.

Now on a lighter note. Bam doesn't like vegetables. He never has, other than a select few. He has grown to tolerate most of them now. He ususally needs some encouragement and or help to eat them but no longer screams and cries about it. But for the mear mention of cake, he will eat them without any help or need of encouragement. It may not be pretty (note picture). He may gag on every bite, but he will put bite after bite in until they are all gone to get his beloved treat. Did I mention that my kids love birthday week?