Coming Soon....

I got video of Caleb dancing to Michael Jackson's Thriller. They have been learning it in PE lately. There is a video (actually 40 videoclips) that teaches the steps. I had the final video on the big tv tonight and he danced it.

It was so bad it was HILARIOUS! I will try to get it on tomorrow.

Thanksgiving??? Already?

I was printing out the boys lunch menu this morning (I print it out the beginning of the month and we mark who is taking/buying when) and realized that Thanksgiving is in 2 1/2 weeks. WHERE HAS THE YEAR GONE??

Caleb has a birthday in nine days :(

What a sad early morning realization!

Well, Mady is officially teething.

This is NOT a good thing!

She appears to have ONE tooth coming in, and she is MUCH more dramatic than ANY of the boys ever were. The boys usually had 2 - 4 teeth come in at a time.

I am sure you are laughing....saying "you wanted this!"

Laugh it up! Although I have listened to her scream ALL morning, dealt with her clinginess and grumpiness and held her while she THRASHED around, I am still so happy to have another HER in this house.

She is wearing her Drama Queen shirt today. It is only fitting!

I have done tylenol, orajel and cold teethers. The only thing that has even attempted to help is a pacifier, that she is chewing/sucking.

What are the odds that the tooth will come through and she will sleep tonight?

Strange Feeling

I was talking to a teenage girl from across the street night before last. Just a normal conversation. She was talking about where she had been (I had not seen her in a while), school, what she had been up too, etc. She was also telling me about what she did for Halloween. She had gone trick-or-treating in the neighborhood of my next door neighbors boyfriend.

I know....so what.

For some reason this statement made my heart ache. I have heard MANY girls talk about their boyfriends and their friends boyfriends and I have never given it a secong thought. But, this time it devestated me. I have these thoughts going through my head that this teenage girl is too young to be trick or treating in her BOYFRIENDS neighborhood. She is too young to HAVE a boyfriend.

Yes, the thought of boyfriends already gets to me. I am not exactly ready to begin thinking of the boys girlfriends either, but I don't get the same feeling of doom with them that I get with the word boyfriend now.

Guess I should start getting used to the idea now. Someone is going to have to stand up for her against her brothers and Daddy when it comes to her and boys. Guess that falls on me!

I Tried To Tell Them

I tried to tell "them" that we had JUST gotten Madeleine on a good, regular SLEEPING sleeping pattern.

I tried to tell "them" it was not in her (or my) best interest to change the time back an hour.

I tried to tell "them"!

"They" obviously did not care.

Mady was going to bed around 7 and getting up anywhere between 5-7 in the morning. We did have one AWESOME night the other night where she slept a SOLID 13 1/2 hours! I had to go check on her, it was so abnormal.

Saturday night she went to bed around 6:30....she just could not stay awake. Sunday morning she woke up at 5, ready to eat and play. Not at all interested in going to back to sleep.

Last night, she fell asleep before 6. We could not wake her up. She was up at FOUR this morning, again ready to play and eat! She is still on HER schedule. She does not understand or care about some stupid time change. I do not get to go to bed an hour earlier to make up for her lack of time change.

I tried to tell "them"! I even PLEADED with "them"!

Now here we go again trying to get her BACK on a good schedule. I forsee this happening....oh, about the time "they" change the time again!

If only "they" would listen!

Meow

Earlier today Andrew was jumping around on me and making noises and then he suddenly tried licking my face over and over. I started laughing and told him to stop and he made the noise again. Only this time I recognized the noise as a "meow."

"I cat Momma, meow." he said proudly as he jumped and tried to lick my face again.

Our cat was NEVER a licker. I don't know where he put those two together.

Halloween 2009

Our city had a set trick or treating time (as most areas here do) from 6-8. It is great living in a neighborhood like ours because it is so kid friendly and safe. Cars are not flying around, the roads are full of people, four wheelers and golf carts.

The kids did great. Especially Monkey! He held Daddy's hand while going from house to house. Then he would go to the house and say "trick or treat" and then "thank you." It was funny though, most of the houses the people were sitting outside on their porches or driveways to hand out candy. AJ would go to EVERY person standing outside and say trick or treat. He also would get his candy, walk back to us a couple of steps and then turn around and go back and say "trick or treat" again. Everyone thought he was so cute he ended up with LOTS of candy doing these "tricks."

I carried Mady in the front carrier. She got SO much attention and comments. She wore her hat the WHOLE time. I didn't think she would last long with it. She kicked and waved her hands and jabbered the whole time.

The other kids just did their typical racing from house to house and trying to get the most candy. Almost half way through the neighborhood we ran into our neighbors. His dad needed to go home and was going to take their little boy (Bryce's friend) and I offered to let him finish the neighborhood with us. There were lots of headcounts going on (especially since it was dark)!

We got home about 7:15 and handed out candy to those kids still going around. We get lots of kids that don't live here that come to trick or treat here. The kids sat on the porch eating their candy. Then we came in and the sorting, comparing, and trading began. I gave them a while to eat all the candy they could stuff in their mouths and then called it a night!

The oldest three are zombies watching tv, Mads is alseep and AJ....well, his leg has a continual "tic" and he is sucking his thumb and beating that hand with his other hand. I think someone is on a sugar high right now! He isn't used to this yet!

A Playground or Bed?

I spent the day emptying Bryce and Andrew's closet, drawers, bookshelves, under beds, etc etc... The room stinks and needed a clean out and THEIR idea of a clean out and MY idea are SOOOOOOO different!

The room was almost done when Bryce got home. He helped me finish it and said (as he ALWAYS does after I clean his room) "I am going to keep it like this FOREVER!" (should I mention now that he had it a mess within 15 minutes of me finishing or should I wait til later? He was excited because he could find all his toys....go figure!)

I just got Andrew's big blanket out of the dryer and went to cover him up. He was asleep, but in his bed I found a tub of legos, a tub of dinosaurs and seven shake and go cars. I covered him and tried to quietly remove all the toys from around him. Shake and go cars and just that....you shake them and they make a revving sound and start going. So EVERY car I picked started loudly revving.....right next to his head, of course!

What was the funniest thing...the tubs of toys were not even open.

These Are a Few of HER Favorite Things....

There are a couple of things that Madeleine loves right now and I just have to laugh. Other than her favorite game of peek a boo, she is obsessed with my hair and diamonds!

She loves playing with my hair. She likes pulling it, eating it, wrapping it around her hand, etc. Anything to get her hands on it!

And diamonds....well come on - they ARE a girls best friend, right? I am always wearing the earrings, necklace and ring Paul got me. She holds them and stares at them. It is like they hynotize her every time she sees them. She has not tried to take them yet, but I am sure I need to start hiding them the rare occasions they are not on me!

Rare Appearance

We actually took pictures of US with Mady. The boys were too busy to be bothered with us and a camera...but Mady wasn't! :)
Look at that smile as she holds her Daddy

Grand Isle La

We took a road trip today and went to Grand Isle, Louisiana. There is not much there. When Gustav and Ike hit last year it about wiped it off the map. They have built a lot back, but you can see remenants of the storm still. We stopped at a public beach and let the kids run around for a bit. Andrew enjoyed the beach much more this time than on our vacation. I think it is because the sand was not "sandy" like the other beach. It was very packed down. And, the waves were much calmer today.

Why I Don't Try Pics of Kids Together...

Here is a photo series as to why I don't try to take pictures of all of the kids at once. I told them they could not play on the beach anymore until they allowed me to take some GOOD pictures. Too bad the two year old doesn't understand that! I have to give Caleb credit. He held that "smile" even when others were not cooperating!

Sleepy Girl

She likes her head covered and belly out for sleeping. :)

Coraline

Have you seen this movie yet? This part made for some GIGGLY boys! We did not preview the movie before letting the kids watch it. Maybe we should have!

Bryce's conduct is not that great this week. In fact, it is horrible! He had a C yesterday and a D today. That would be FOUR checks yesterday and SIX today (one of yesterdays was no homework, all the other checks for the past two days were for TALKING...big surprise).

Today, he hid his conduct as soon as he walked in the door. I told him to get it. This is not the first time he has hidden the conduct page and it is always when his conduct is bad (cuz why would he hide GOOD conduct?).

He brought it to me and quickly walked off. Before I even had a chance to comment on the wadded up sheet of paper with the D he came back and says "Oh, did the name have an "son" on the end of it?" I looked and said yes. "Oh, well then that is not my page. My name is Bryce, not Bryson."

Good try, but my initials were on the page for his conduct Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

The LAST Thing I Need....

Paul had a sinus infection for a long time. I kept telling him to go to the dr, but he kept saying he didn't have time. Even when I told him I would make the appt, he would keep saying he didn't have time.

The nurse at the office made an appt for him. She didn't ask, she just did it and told him he had an appt set (Yeah, I am a little annoyed that he let someone else make an appt...but whatever, he went).

He had a sinus infection. He was given antibiotics and they helped some, but did not get rid of it all the way.

Fast forward to this past weekend. Sunday his head started hurting. Not like a headache, like his scalp hurt. He went and looked and his head was covered in blisters.

He went to the dr yesterday. He has a staph infection. The antibiotics he was on wiped out all his good bacteria and at some point he came in contact with staph. Of course, he was playing with the kids, holding Mady, cooking, etc....life as normal.

So, we are hoping hoping hoping that this does not make it rounds through the family. I cannot even imagine.....

Mady's 6 Month Appt

Mads had her 6 month appt yesterday. She got up at 4:45 yesterday morning and was CRANKY!! While I was finishing up getting stuff ready to go I laid her on the floor (while throwing a fit). This is what she looked like as we were leaving:


She was 13 pounds 13 ounces and 25 3/4 inches long. She is a long "skinny minnie" as the dr put it. She is perfect.

The dr asked what my feelings were about the H1N1 vaccine. I told him we were passing on it, but getting the regular flu vaccine, but that I did want him to discuss with me the details of the vaccine. He did great at not judging my choice and told me his stand on it.

She got three shots and an oral vaccine. She does not do well with shots. She runs fever and is cranky. This time was no acception. She has been running a fever and was cranky yesterday. Today she has a huge knot on her leg where she got the shots (this is normal for her too).

She finally moved to a size 2 diaper last week. They are kinda big, but the size one is too short for her. She is wearing 3-6 month clothes still and a size 3 shoe (she has long but very skinny feet....hard to shop for).