Our "Quiet" Sunday Afternoon

Or for those that prefer the shorter version, here are the photos.

Ode to the Mighty Electrolux

Oh vacuum divine
oh vacuum delight..
you're ever so handy, ever so light.

From vacuum frustration
you rose to the occasion!

The devil of dirt is no more.

- end -


I did so much research on this new vacuum. When you spend a bit of money on a cleaning appliance, you want it to do the job RIGHT. Especially when your husband says something to the effect of: "Now... you be CAREFUL with this vacuum because I'm NOT buying another one!"

So I've been a bit timid with the new electrolux, knowing how *sensitive* and *fragile* the awful dirt devil was previously.

This evening while vacuuming the TV room, it's powerful suction grabbed hold of Madison's princess chair skirt. In a panic, I switched off the machine and pulled all the bits o' fabric out.

When switching the machine back on however, the suction was there, but the power to the roller was not.

I thought it was ruined.

Brian got the screwdriver and took the thing apart. It still wouldn't work.

A good 10 minutes later, and while on the phone finding out how late the electrolux repair shop is open, Brian found a part of the instruction manual that talks about the "reset button" for instances just like this.

Praise be the reset button! The vacuum is so smart it shuts off on it's own so not to ruin the vacuum belt. HOORAY!

The vacuum works just fine, and I shall most likely sing the praises of the Mighty Electrolux from this point forward!

The invites have been sent

Invites we made up for Madison's upcoming birthday party! Since BOYS will be at the party, we decided to not have the "barbie party". It was tough giving it up, but a "flowers and bugs" party sounded interesting, so she's giving it a shot.

I think they turned out alright.

I can't believe she'll be FOUR next week! eeks!

He's so forgiving when I fly off the handle

I'm sorry, little buddy.

:)

"P" is for...

"P"ink and "P"ajama.

Both of which were required for "P"reschool today!




Madison was so excited that I had made her pink PJ's. It was horrible to have to tell her Mommy didn't make them, Auntie Stacie did. I mean, I can't take credit just hemming a putting the elastic in! So props to Stacie who saved the day with a pair of half finished pink PJ's!!!

Reagan

She's turning into quite the little "girl"... What happened to my "baby"???

Madison and Dad

Madison is Brian's little buddy... especially in the kitchen!

She always wants to help "cook". (She likes to BAKE things with her Dad, not really cook with Mom...)

So Madison went to a fun birthday party on Saturday where they decorated chef aprons and had chef hats. When Brian decided to make cookies, Madison needed her chef gear on to help.

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Such fun things to remember!

Can you read this?

Brian was having a hard time today reading my blog. I'm just wondering if it's just "him", or if there are other readers out there with "issues".

My Valentine

I received one lonely little Valentine in the mail today.




I love it.

The Valentine Box

Taylor was "supposed" to take a shoe box in to school on Tuesday to decorate for Valentines day. Am I the only person who doesn't have random shoe boxes hanging around the house? I must be. I have plenty of other junk around here, but no shoe boxes.

Taylors solution to this problem? "Mom, just go buy yourself a new pair of shoes!"

RIGHT.

So instead of taking a shoe box to school and decorating it with all his classmates around, we made one here.

And when I say "we", I don't mean Taylor.

Brian did the basic construction, I did the painting. When I was ready to add it's "nifty extra features", Taylor protested saying "It's VALENTINES DAY!!! It needs HEARTS on it!"

Ugh.

So, realism is out the window at this point, but his Valentine box turned out cute just the same.


It's like it's saying: "Hello. I'm a mailbox. Please feed me all of Taylor's sweet Valentines".




"I've opened WIDE... go ahead. Put some yummy treats in."




"Do I look FAT from this side?"




"Those kids at school are going to destroy me, I can feel it."



"Happy Valentines Day.... *burp*"

I can't stand these

I never take part in these - Stacie knows that... but she tagged me anyway! ;)

How long have you been together? Gosh... we've been friends since my jr. year of high school... so we've known each other for 17 years (if my math is correct.) We started "dating" just before my high school boyfriend left on his mission... so... 15 years ago. We've been married 13 years this March.

How old is he? 33 (for a few more weeks)

How old are you? 32

Who eats more? A few months ago it would have been me, but I've been a "good girl", so I'd say Brian, but only by just a bit.

Who said "I love you" first? I did. *blush*

Who is taller? Brian

Who sings better? I do.

Who is smarter? Brian, totally.

Who does the laundry? For the most part it's me, but on occasion he'll throw a load in.

Who does the dishes? Brian does them a lot actually... I say it averages out.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do... no Reagan does... no I do... now Reagan again...

Who pays the bills? I "pay" them, he makes all the money.

Who mows the lawn? Brian until he fakes a low blood sugar. *winks*

Who cooks dinner? I do mostly, but Brian doesn't mind either. He does all the yummy treats.

Who is more stubborn? I refuse to answer. *winks*

Who kissed who first? I'm pretty sure it was him...

Who asked who out? Neither of us. We were best friends and our relationship just sort of evolved.

Who proposed? He did.

Who is more sensitive? Oh, I am.

Who has more friends? IRL friends? Him. Online friends? Me.

Who has more siblings? He does: 3 brothers, 1 sassy little sister. (just seeing if you're actually reading this, Stacie. ;) ) I only have 1 sister.

Who wears the pants in the relationship? We're pretty equal... just had this discussion the other day.

Who are you tagging? Whoever wants to play - also Jeanna and Eric because it's always fun to learn more about family. ;)

Thanks Stacie... I'll get even with you later.

For your enjoyment

I took the easy route.

To avoid the chaos of last years valentines, (if you dare you can look HERE) I totally store bought them this year.

This created 2 totally different outcomes then last years experience.

1) Red glitter will not be hanging around my kitchen, living room and youngest daughters ears for months to come

2) The valentines are actually done EARLY, which in of itself is somewhat of a major shocker


Things that stayed the same are:

1) My kitchen table is a wreck

2) Reagan was into everything the entire time.


All of the little chocolate candy wrappers in the middle of the table are Reagans. She unwrapped and ate as I was busy assisting children in name writing and twist tying.

Maybe she'll sleep in a sound chocolate slumber tonight!!!

It's MONDAY...

...and the winner of the GIVEAWAY is:

LENA!!!

Shoot me your info *dah-ling* (you know how to get me, right? *winks*)

New additions to the bow obsession family

What do you think?

I can't make up my mind...

Who is it now?!?!?!

This morning Madison woke up complaining that her leg hurt. I didn't think much of it as she fell down the stairs last night before bed - and she was walking on it just fine.

A few moments later, she was complaining that her arm hurt. And that she wanted juice. And a candy bar. And the t.v. on. And not "this" show, a different one!

I just figured she was grumpy.

A few minutes later she says "I think you need to come here for a minute".

She had PUKED all over my couch!!!

She has a fever, and only what I can guess to be the flu. Where she picked it up from I don't know.

Between her requests today, Reagan being grumpy, and trying ever so hard to clean up after spending days on useless projects that I wanted badly to do, things have turned hectic.

So as Madison is leaning over a bowl to vomit and Reagan has just taken off her diaper AGAIN... MY DOORBELL RINGS.

OH NO! Who could it be? And who is now going to see my filthy living room when I open the door?

I grab a blanket to throw around a naked Reagan, and quickly tie Madison's hair back so she doesn't puke all over it. The dog is let outside so she doesn't bark her head off at the visitor, and I dash to the door taking deep breaths. I'm totally stressed out!!!

I open the door and see this:





My cute little Jordan, home from school in a penguin mask. He rang the doorbell and waited for me to let a cold little penguin in the house from a short day at school.

Thanks for putting a smile on Mom's face, Jordan! I needed it today!

I love that little guy...

GIVEAWAY!

Post a comment by Monday morning! Random drawing for THIS:


(Is that going to get some of you lurkers out there to comment???) *winks*

I think he found my camera...

Flattering.

It's my blog and I'll brag if I want to

Again, I neglected my kitchen today in favor of doing another project.

When I spoke with my mom this morning, she asked if I would do a quilt for a baby boy in her neighborhood. So, I made one!

My housework may never get done!

And it's all thanks to Stacie, who showed me how to make korker bows this morning.

Here's what I've been up to all afternoon!





It started simple with these bows for my nieces, and now it's gotten way out of hand!

I'll be back to blogging when I run out of ribbon. ;)

Jordan celebrates 100 days of Kindergarten!

The kids were all asked to make a poster with 100 things on it for the 100 days of kindergarten celebration.

Jordan and I looked around for something "creative"... we wanted something that nobody else was doing.

Not only did they need to have 100 items on the poster, they needed to be grouped by 10's.

We found a bunch of different plastic eggs, and 10 cute little chicks. We decided to do each size/color in a group, and at the very end have the 10 little chicks like they had "hatched".

Once we were able to sit down and start last night, we discovered that one of the little chicks had gone missing! And with no spare chicks laying around, I needed to come up with a quick fix!

So, Jordan told his teacher today that he had 10 chicks, but one of them ran away only leaving a feather. (The last yellow feather I had in my box too! *phew*!!)

Baby Quilt

I found out on Sunday that a lady in our neighborhood is expecting a little girl at the end of the month. (I didn't even know she was pregnant!!!) My neighbor is having a baby shower for her on Saturday, so I decided to make a quilt similar to the one I made my sister in law in November.

I got all the squares ready to go, and took them with me over to the super bowl party at the in-laws. Stacie helped me lay out the squares, and while the kids were entertained, I made the quilt. (Thanks Stacie for helping! And thanks Linda for keeping the kids busy enough to know I wasn't around!!! The food was great too, by the way.)

Finished product!



Back of Quilt:


All ready for a new little princess!

It's nice and quiet...

Everyone is still in bed this morning. Sometimes it's nice to wake up before everyone and just be alone in the house!

We are still having really rough nights here. Reagan was doing a bit better at sleeping about a month ago, but she is back into her normal routine of getting up all night long, recently about 6 times a night. It's exhausting!

Having Brian sleep with her in her own bed proved to be difficult, and the results were less than fabulous. Especially with his early morning work schedule and then school at night.

Nursing her ALL THE TIME has really been weighing on me the last week or so. It crossed my mind to try and stop cold turkey. (Hey! I need some sleep!!!) But then I read THIS post over on my friend Kerry's blog, and realized that our time is really short. Since she's the last baby in our family, I'll never have this opportunity again. Besides... Jordan and Madison stopped nursing around 20 months, and that's just 4 months away!

So, I'm looking at it all differently now. I'm really going to cherish every little moment I have with her that she WANTS to be with me! I'm going to gaze in her big blue eyes, stroke her bushy hair and play with her chubby little toes. All too soon, she'll gain her independence, and I'll be a thing of the past! She'll realize (like everyone else in this family) that DAD is the cool one to be around! :)

McClinton - that's the ticket...

I've wanted to remain neutral. I've tried to keep my political thoughts OFF of my blog. I've tried! Really!!!

But I've just got to say right now...

MCCAIN?!?!?! John McCain?!?!?!?

What the HECK are these "conservatives" thinking?!?!?

I've got to go poke my eyes out.

What's on your Cranium?

A couple of years ago, we bought the kids "cranium giggle gear" for Christmas. Silly little masks you can change with weird eyes, nose and mouth. It even has a voice changer. The kids love them - although the batteries die way to quickly.

We added the "crazy cap" to our collection this year.


Sometimes Madison doesn't put all the fun eyes and stuff on hers. She puts them on like goggles and pretends that she's swimming.


Reagan would be content to walk around with her alien gear on most all day.


And Taylor? Well, he likes to be the wizard of the family, dressed in the cranium wizard gear.


Do I sound like a commercial?

We LOVE anything Cranium. Game nights are so much fun with the clever games they have.

On another note: I should be getting my new vacuum in the mail tomorrow! The kids are tired of picking up all the little pieces of "stuff" in the carpet! Ours broke SEVERAL WEEKS AGO, and it was a pain staking process trying to decide what new one I wanted. Hooray for Amazon and their cheap prices because I'm getting a vacuum that I can't afford regularly!

I'll be vacuuming like a mad woman tomorrow... and I'm so excited! (Something is so wrong with that statement!)

Never Fear!

We're alive and well... (thanks to the few people that actually read the blog for sending "where the heck are you?!?!?!" emails! I feel so loved!!! ;) )

We had an interesting few weeks of sickness - everyone took turns getting ill. I'm so proud of my family for sharing so nicely!!! *winks*

Just playing "catch up" around the house now, and I'm sure some great stories will be posted here in the near future. I can see you all holding your breath in anticipation!!!

This is how much she likes her new bed:

So. Reagan has never been a good sleeper.

The ONLY time she has slept through the night was when she was like 4 days old. Then, she decided to loose a bunch of weight and I had to start waking her up to feed her every 2 hours. She got into a bad habit... and at now 15 months old, she still wakes up between 4-7 times at night.

I've been getting a little grouchy. I really can't get everything I need done on only 4 scattered hours of sleep at night. So... we decided that the best thing to do would be to get her into her own bed and not so dependant on nursing, and on me.

She does pretty well with Brian in the room with her. (And I'm not complaining about having the king size bed all to myself! ;) ) She's doing better each night.

I've started putting her up in her bed for nap time. She doesn't like waking up with nobody beside her.


In order to get her a bed, we had to switch the boys and girls rooms. The boys have bunk beds, so they would fit in the smaller girl room. Two twin size beds would just not fit in Madison's little room.



The boys are *okay* being in a yellow and purple room. They made me take down the flowers and butterflies, and can live with the purple until our Master Bedroom is complete and we switch rooms around yet again. Madison still thinks it's weird that she's sleeping in "the boys room". She doesn't get that it's HER room now... but I'm not worried about correcting her since she'll be moving rooms yet again when the master is done. ;)

And hey... here's a picture of Madison for you all:

This is what she wears when I vacuum. It's too noisy for her. So instead of tears and hiding in the corner of her room, she opts for the "muffs". Time for a new, quiet vacuum....

Before I forget

Mornings seem to be okay around here despite the fact that Brian leaves at o'dark thirty in the morning. It was really nice back in the day when he was here to help make sure everyone was on task and getting ready for school. I was worried with his new schedule that things would go crazy around here, but we're doing great!

Jordan had a bit of a melt down this morning because I wouldn't let him wear his monkey shirt to school. (We have a family rule that we wear shirts with collars/buttons, not tee-shirts and especially not shirts that are "printed"... we want the kids to look nice for school - look and be respectful. It's been our rule since Taylor was in kindergarten.) Jordan knows the rules, but he is questioning them. Taylor never has - he just follows the rules. Jordan wants to know why it's so bad to wear a monkey shirt to school. I told him if he wore the monkey shirt, he might ACT like a monkey, and we need to have good behavior at school. The tears continued to flow all through breakfast, but we finally compromised and he'll be able to wear the monkey shirt for "field day" at the end of the school year. Hey... if that's as much stress as I'm going to have in the morning though, I'll take it!

Now that the boys were happy and on the way to their bus stop, Madison decided to look at her preschool class photo. She started naming everyone who is "mean" in her class. I told her that they didn't try to be mean, they were just learning.

"Well, they're still mean" says she. "And Jayden calls me a GIRL".
"Well.... you ARE a girl" I say.
"But I'm not ONLY a Girl... I'm MADISON"

You go girl....er, Madison. That's the spirit! You're NOT "only a girl"... you have a very strong identity and personality. We know. We live with it every day. And wouldn't have it any other way. :)

Photos later when I actually find the camera!