Random thoughts of the day;

*I told my 3 yr old he'd get a certain special toy if he was successful using the bathroom...he was doing great and I was happy so I gave him the toy early as it was Christmas and all. BIG mistake, we're losing ground now. UGH!

*I took down the Christmas tree today, alone. Why is putting up the tree so much more exciting?

*I really like the movie Sweet Home Alabama. I've probably seen it a hundred times and I still watch it again. Not really sure why.

*I love pizza so much that for Christmas my DH got me a gift certificate to Dominos. (which says something as he doesn't really like pizza)
We have gotten completely out of any routine since way before we moved...we need it again desperately!

*Lately we have been playing a lot of dice and card games I played as a kid, it's bringing back fun memories. (and improving my kids' counting, number recognition and addition skills...BONUS!)

*I started using cloth diapers about a month ago. It's alright and seems like the right thing for now. Though it just seems like one more step we've taken towards "extreme freaky".

*I don't feel "extreme" I just feel normal.

*I ordered new glasses (finally) can't wait to get them next week!

*My camera is broken, after a year and a half. Not a long life. My dh thinks we should not buy anything electronic as it always gets broken. He may be right.

*It's sunny and 19* here, my kids are bundled up and outside playing frisbee.

'Til next year...

Here's where I'm going to brag about my husband...

When we moved here we only brought one vehicle with us. We prayed the whole way here that it would actually make it and we wouldn't be left stranded. It did make it, but about two weeks ago it died. (My hubs thinks it's fixable but will take some tinkering). Anyway, about 3 days before that van died we had purchased a second van that Ian was going to use to drive to work. It's a conversion van and has seats for a driver, front passenger, two bucket seats and a bench in the rear that seats 3. Basically, it'll fit him & I and 5 kids. Not quite enough room for all of us. So what does my super duper handy guy do??? He moved the bench forward and added a bench from the other van. Now it seats him, me and 9 kids :)



The added seat faces the back of the van as seen here:



In this picture you can kinda see the two bucket seats and one forward facing bench, the rear facing one is directly behind it.

Now we once again have a van that will hold us all. Thanks Ian, you are awesome!!

Random shots

I wonder how many completely random pictures would still be considered interesting?

Let's start off with this:
This yummy snack is quite addictive! Pretzels, popcorn, and Fritos covered in white chocolate.


Then there's this picture of the side of the house. I'm not sure if you can tell but that's about 1/2 and inch of ice. Not on the ground, but stuck to the side of the house. Thanks to lots of freezing rain and high winds.

This is how I am most days. No shoes just socks walking around the house. The other day it wasn't until dinner time that I realized my sock was inside out.

This is my daughter, I think she's pretty great!

This is Josiah, he's about to turn two and well, this sad face is what he's been like a lot lately. Poor guy's got a cold :(

Here is our tree.

Kids playing in the snow....

And all the kids in front of the tree. Too bad they never all look at the same time. ;P

And the winner is....

Thank you all for commenting and entering in my little contest. It was fun to read all the family traditions you have!

I put all the names on little pieces of paper and my daughter reached in and picked out:

Michelle from My Five Little Ducks

Congrats!!

Now, I'm off to do some laundry before the pile gets too out of control :P

My 100th post on Blogspot & a Contest!!

Today I'm typing out the 100th post since moving over here to blogspot!

I thought I could give you 100 pictures to enjoy, but that would just be LONG and probably pretty annoying.

I thought I could give away 100 mismatched socks, (because I know I do have those!) but everyone probably already has their own pile.

I thought I could give you 100 random things about me, but I'm just not that interesting.

Then I thought, hey I have this $30 gift card to Old Navy...why not have a contest?

So if you want to celebrate with me, leave me a comment and tell me about a favorite Christmas tradition you have...

Then Saturday night (Dec. 20th) I'll put all the names in a bowl and have one of my kids pick one out.

If you'd like to be entered twice you could link from your blog too! :)

Sick week

The past week has been spent dealing with sickness. Two of our kids had the flu and one a fever and an earache. Mild sickness and one child at a time, I do have that to be thankful for. It breaks my heart though to see my kids sick. Yesterday my 3 year old ball of fire wanted to do nothing but sleep and lay around. He'd be up for a bit, cuddle on my lap and then say, "I think I need to sleep now." and he'd walk off to bed. It made me want to cry, the poor guy. Daddy got to be the hero though, he stopped and got Tylenol on his way home from work. In about 30 minutes the little guy was up playing tag with the rest of them. :)

It's amazing what a little bit of medicine will do.

I do like the cuddles though. I just wish he'd sit still like that when he's not feeling icky.

We've yet to see if it's going to go around the whole household, hopefully it won't.

On another note, I'm supposed to be going to this cookie exchange thing later this week. It's going to be my first introduction to a bunch of other home school moms here...anyone have a great cookie recipe that would just make me look impressive??

This and That

My son brought me this picture earlier today and said, "Look Mom, it's Larryboy's new arch enemy!" I thought it was pretty clever....

Any thoughts on what to name him? We were thinking something along the lines of The Trouble Corn only in spanish like Le Maiz Problema or something.

And on a completely different note...look who's 7 months old and finally sitting up on his own!

The things you find...

The house we moved into didn't come with a washer and dryer set, so first thing after we moved in we bought a used pair. The thing about buying used is that it's always a bit of a risk as to whether the things will actually work or not. They got put into the laundry room and hooked up and I threw in the first load. I stayed around and watched the washer....seemed to work just fine. Phew! Then I transferred the clothes to the dryer. I waited a bit then opened it and the clothes seemed warm so I turned it on for longer and walked away. I checked about an hour later. What did I find? Hot wet clothes. I thought well, I'll give it more time. Another hour and still the same. Bummer. We tossed around ideas as to what the problem could be. I even called a repair guy to ask questions. He said to check the vent, maybe it's clogged. Alrighty, I can do that.

I removed the foil hose thing and looked into the wall side of the vent. It looked like a big lump of lint. Yeah! I found the problem. So I went and got out the vacuum and stuck the hose down and the lint thing stuck to the end. I pulled it out and ....


it wasn't a lint ball....

it was a dead bird!

Ewww!!!

So, I put that in the trash and stuck the hose down the vent again. (Yep, I'm crazy I know)

I proceeded to find THREE more dead birds.

At this point I was officially freaked and grossed out so I called the landlord. They called a repair guy and he came out. He used a big long wand thing and cleaned out the whole vent. He found one MORE dead bird! Now at least I know it's clean and clear.

But can you believe there were 5??? Any guesses how that happened?

I am happy now as the clothes are drying properly :)