Return from the dessert

MAN, I miss blogging!

There's something about putting thoughts down, with an occasional cute picture, that is very cathartic for me.

And I've missed it, TERRIBLY.

So, tonight, my wonderful husband encouraged me to blog.  Ooooh, thank you honey.

Just one tiny problem.  I haven't uploaded or edited pictures or videos from my 2 cameras in over 2 months.  Which translates into, major prep time before blogging.

So that's just what I did tonight.  I even started a list of topics I'm dying to write about.

I'd like to write about our new car, show pictures of Brandon's room, tell stories about our trips to Epcot, Hollywood Studios and The Florida Aquarium, chat about potty training success in a sweet 3-year-old boy that I'm sooooooo stinking proud of and a 10-month old that decided to bypass being a baby and fast-track the crawling, pulling up, cruising, waving and new teeth arena.  I'm excited and a bit scared of a Triathlon I'll be participating in (yes you heard me right) and I hope to write about my quirky new friend, Patty.  And I almost forgot the Christmas Pageant, more daddy-and-kids dancing, a great Monster Truck rally in our playroom, the Father-Daughter Dance, no room in our bed and numerous videos of kids being cute.


Everything is pretty much the same here.  Brandon's hair still sticks up, Nathan is fine-tuning his comedic skills and Katherine still loves ballet.  I did figure out during this hiatus that when the laundry pile makes it to the embarrassing number of 15 loads, something's gotta give.  Exercising on a regular basis also makes me tired and has forced me to be on a more regular sleep schedule.  All of those equal Yeah for basic house duties and good health; bad for blogging time which usually happens when everyone else is asleep.

I hope to get back to it all soon.  There's too much to skip out on.  Guess laundry will fall behind once more.  :)

I don't like leaving a post without any pictures, so here's the latest on the kiddos.

Blogging Haiku

Blogging frees the mind

Expression on E-paper

Writing time longed for

Maybe one day...

Birthday highlight

Today was a great day for a birthday.  Beautiful weather, well-behaved kids, fun-time reclaiming back the living room from Christmas decorations and envisioning what I'd like to do in that room next when the budget fairy sprinkles her money dust my way (my husband is scared, very scared), and my son's end-of-the-day comment.

After enjoying supper at my favorite restaurant with our parents, I was summoned to the bathroom while in the middle of cleaning/straightening up (my usual pre-bedtime ritual), and I reluctantly went.  As I peaked my head around the door jam, my wide-eyed, adorable, blonde-haired boy was slouched on the potty, looking as if he was almost ready to fall in.  He very innocently looked up at me and said,

"I onwee poopoo for you mama.  HAPPY BIRFDAY!"

Followed by a huge sweet boy grin.  Then he said,

"Now can you hep me wipe?"

What a way to end the day. :)

Technologically-challenged

Jim's big gift this year for Christmas was money to buy a new TV.  We made the trek Sunday night to go pick one out and braved staying up past putting kids to bed to put it all together.  It's been 24 hours since bringing it home and here's the email I just sent out to our neighbor Mrs. P.....

It’s official.  We are old. 

Jim and I have thrown in the towel, used some choice words, and have officially given up on trying to hook up our TV/Cable box/DVD/Sound system.  We have beautiful, crystal clear picture on the TV with no sound.  We have booming, theater-grade sound on the DVD player with no picture.  We’re flaming idiots.  It’s been a full 24 hours of having the gorgeous, shiny, black hole in our living room and the children have said approximately 79 times, “Mama, I sure wish dat TV was wooking” or “Maybe you don’t have the wight wemote.”

Do you happen to know of any young, vibrant, eager, techno-educated young people that would be able to help the old couple across the street from you all?  Possibly a grand child?  Someone that won’t make it worse?

The worst part is that we stayed up until 1:30 last night putting it all together and today there was mutiny because we just didn’t have the energy to be good parents.  It’s 9:20 and Jim is passed out on the couch, surrounded by ripped open plastic bags and approximately 53 cable wires.  Some cable wires dating back to his college days and some that cost $60 each.

If you are able to provide this destitute couple with a sliver of hope, we’d appreciate it.

Thanks,

Off to bed,

~Kelle

Game Time

I've got a game you all can play!

It's called, Guess What the Picture Is?

Here's how you play.

1. You view the close-up pictures I post
2. I slowly zoom out
3. You try to guess what in the world they are

Simple, really.  Here goes.

Close-up #1.

Close-up #2.  Guess it yet?

Close-up #3.

 

The real deal!

 

This would be the LARGEST pile of laundry EVER seen in our house!

 

This was 15 loads of clean laundry, waiting to be folded and put away.  I've never been this far behind on laundry before.  A true sign of motherhood to 3, I guess.

Sleepy Head

Christmas 2011

This was the best Christmas, by far.  Ever.

Not because of what I received, but because of how excited I was to give gifts to my family.  Months were spent planning out who would like what, budgeting, setting up childcare to get the shopping done, hiding presents, wrapping them all and watching little eyes light up when they were ready to pick out gifts for others.  I even happily encouraged my husband to spend some of his time off helping with our church's nativity.  So much so, I think he even thought I was trying to get rid of him.  I wasn't.  Just trying to encourage him to do the stuff he considers fun.

Last year was a really tough Christmas.  Pregnant, hormonal, broke and being overwhelmed made for a toxic pre-Christmas combination.  Both Jim and I were determined to not have a meltdown like occurred last year.  And thankfully, it was avoided.

Lesson learned.  File that one away in the never-do-that-again drawer.

Our Christmas lasted 2 days.  Christmas Eve we had our massive breakfast here with my side of the family.  All of my side showed, including Aunt N and the grandparents.  What a treat!

There were insane amounts of food and we even got to have a family cooking day preparing for it the day before the crew showed up. The kids got to help me pick oranges for the ambrosia.  K helped me roll the sausage cheese biscuits into balls.  N helped stir the cracked eggs for the casserole and both of them helped Daddy with the Monkey bread.

These pictures are precious to me.  Grandpa is 89 years old, less than 3 months away from his 90th, and Brandon is 7 months old.  Brandon has more of a crotchety old man face than the almost-90-year-old.  Two generations are sandwiched between these two men.  Boy the changes that have happened in this world in that time span.  sigh

We even had time to make it to Cousin N's house for her annual Christmas Eve supper before heading off to the Candlelight Service.

So here's my story about the Candlelight Service:  Our boys were in the nursery for the majority of the sermon.  Towards the end, I got them out and brought them into the service.  I love watching the warm glow of the candlelight on their faces while singing Christmas hymns and soaking in all that Christmas is and means.  Tears me up every time.  This year was no exception.  Except this time, we as parents were out-numbered, and none of them are old enough to hold a candle correctly.

So as we're singing Silent Night, I'm watching our children's faces stare at the candle's small flicker of light, smelling the tops of their heads, feeling their warmth, and I manage to hold back the embarrassing sob-fest it could easily turn into and squeak out a couple of tiny tears.  Not even enough to need a hanky (although I'm sure Jim was prepared).  I'm successfully holding back the tide of emotion by swallowing the lumps in my throat and willing it away.  Our sweet little family of 5 is sitting in a half huddle, just enjoying the moment and then I hear Jim say quite loudly, "Ouch hold the candle up straight, that hurts!  It's burning me, hold it up straight.  Don't tip it, Nathan!"

It was loud enough for people in the next 2 aisles to turn around and snicker.  In Nathan's defense, he has no idea how fire or hot wax behaves because WE DO NOT LET HIM PLAY WITH FIRE!  So he kept dripping it on Jim through the low-grade screaming.  Jim couldn't protect himself because he was holding his own candle, was steering Katherine's candle in the right direction and helping Nathan hold his.  He was stuck, unable to protect his own body.  It took me a while to assist him because my tears quickly turned to laughter and my hands were full anyway holding a candle and a baby who wanted to constantly reach for the beautiful flame.  Finally, Uncle R stepped in and rescued the waywardly tilted candle from leaving anymore Christmas marks on Jim's hands.

A fun time was had by all.  That's how I measure a good time: tears to laughter in a split second.

 

When we got home that night, we scattered some reindeer food on the sidewalk and left some cookies and eggnog for Santa.

This year was a neat milestone: Katherine wrote her own note to Santa.
It says: To Satu I love you

She's learning how to sound out and spell new words and no way was I going to correct her.  You go girl for trying.  Santa knew what you were saying.

Christmas day arrived and Brandon woke me up at 6.  I patiently waited around until 6:45 when the rest of the crew got up and the excitement began.  They were so excited, surprised, thankful and interested in every single one of their presents.  It was so much fun.  I loved every second of it.  They are at such a sweet age for Christmas.  The entire time, I kept chanting in my mind, "Remember this.  Remember this.  Remember this."  Kind of like, "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." Luke 2:19.

Here are our Christmas morning pictures.

 

 

And here are the few I took prepping for the family placement and testing the self-timer function.  They were too cute to delete.

 

Sister love with the dollhouse bigger than her.

Ultimately, this Christmas will be hard to beat.  I've learned a very important lesson though: my sanity is directly proportional to the amount of preparation I put into it.  A friend of ours refers to Christmas as the Mother-Killer and I can see why.  Thankfully this year was a beautiful, quiet and precious time to reflect on our most beloved and valuable gift.

Sweet Siblings

These two make my heart melt.

When they play together, they're both so happy and genuinely excited to see each other.

Sometimes, I ask her to play with him so I can have just 5 minutes to finish up something I'm doing, and she is AWESOME.

She's figured out that he likes to watch her do cartwheels and handstands.  So she does them over and over again, and he giggles and giggles.

I hope and pray their relationship stays so precious.

   

They've got a good track record in the sweet sibling department.

Christmas lights

Thought I'd share the hard work I spent on our Christmas lights this year... :)

Boys and eating - Chapter 2

Somebody is liking him some solid foods.

Jim seems to think he's the best eater out of the three.

 

I KNOW he's the best sleeper out of the three.