hot pink string

#3 loves strings. She LOVES strings. She fiddles with different strings to help her hands stay busy and then her mind can stay focused. Well today at Publix she tied a special string (hot pink shoe lace) to the buggy. I forgot it was there and so did she until we were pulling up to the next stop at Kroger. I hear, “Mommy!!!! Did you get my string off the buggy???” She then panics and begins to tear up. “Mommy we have to go back. We HAVE to.” I don’t have my cooler bags and it’s like 100 degrees out. My cold stuff from Publix is already in jeopardy and I still have one more grocery store to shop. I am not about to drive back over to Publix for a string. She begins to sob. I mean sob. #2 tries to console her but she is beyond being rational. I don’t fuss, argue or get irritated. I just get out of the car and enter Kroger with a crying 6 year old. She decides she is too upset to walk. She needs to sit in the big (not baby) part of the buggy. We pass the bakery. She rejects the free cookie. We approach the produce section and I notice she is pinching her arm over and over. I am shocked! Why would she hurt herself? She explained it to me with big tears rolling down her cheeks, “Landon says if you pinch yourself and you can feel it, you aren’t dreaming.” I reply, “Honey, are you that upset about your string that you wish you were dreaming so you wouldn’t have really lost it?” She just silently cried and nodded yes. My heart was broken. Immediately I knew what I had to do. I headed down the sewing baking, school supply, hosiery aisle and thank goodness that smack dab in the center of all that random junk, Kroger had shoe strings for sale. She didn’t notice me grabbing 3 laces off the shelf. I held them out and said. “Sweet girl, you may pick one.” Instantly A HUGE grin spread across her face. She picked out the laces with rainbow colored stars. Five minutes later she was out of the buggy playing with her siblings. Everything in her little world was at peace and so was mine.

my best friends

I love these two. I don’t know what I would do without them.

It’s so fun having girls. I love the way way they depend on each other. I love the way they play together. I love how they lay in a single twin bed some nights and read to one another. I even love reflecting back on some of their biggest fights. They can get so aggravated at each other and then it amazes me how fast they make up.

My favorite thing #2 has ever said about her younger sister was one night after they had a huge disagreement/shouting match. I had them both on the couch talking through how I wanted them to love one another. #2 started to cry. She said, “Mommy, it’s so sad you don’t have a sister. I need Sydney mommy, I really need her.” She was so sincere and her tears were so big, it just melted me that she felt such a strong connection to her sibling.

We were finishing up our science lesson outside when the girls climbed on the big pot and started to play. They were so super cute. I had to go and grab my camera. I love catching candid moments of my kids.

things got a little loud

I’d love to sit here and say, “I can always discipline my children very effectively without raising my voice.” Well I can’t. No, I am not an everyday screamer but on occasion when the tension builds my words can get magnified to yucky levels. So that is what happened tonight.

I’ve been trying to clean the house all day. The honey is coming home tonight and it was my goal to have it completed before we had to leave to pick him up. Well the kid’s room was a DISASTER. Seriously you could not take one single step with out crunching down on some lego, polly pocket, book, you name it – everything was on the floor. We’d had a lot of kid company (I don’t clean the kids room if we are having kids over. What is the point) over the past week so it was understandable that it had gotten to that level. I had planned on helping them once they showed they had made and effort to get things going in the right direction. Well that never seemed to happen. SO … I go down to gently motivate AGAIN and I see things aren’t done that they said were done and basically they were, the girls, just sitting around laughing and #3 was trying to jump off the foot board of her bed. (#1 was done. He was doing school work in his corner of the room) Well, I lost it. Monster Mama voice was in full effect. Anyways, I threatened if things were not finished in 30 minutes, I would pick some things to throw away – yes I stooped that low. In 30 minutes I called them up to dinner. While they ate I went and inspected. I was pleased AND big brother was a hero and helped them get the job done. So I am upstairs and the girls and I are hugging and saying our apologies. I look over and #1 has tears in his eyes. So we hug him too. He looks deep in thought for a few minutes and then says VERY respectfully, “Mommy, I think I know why kids don’t like it when their parent’s yell at them like that. Because in that moment the kids probably feel terrible like the person who loves them the most in against them.” He really amazes me at how he can express his feelings. Another touching moment was when I was hugging the girls they said, “You’re the best mommy in the whole wide world.” I replied, “No baby, I mess up a bunch and I am sorry.” #2 says,”It’s ok mommy. Everybody makes mistakes.” She’s right. I love my kids.

OH ,and Ruby laid an EGG!!!!

blog slacker

I just can’t seem to make myself sit and blog lately. It’s something I need to do. The kids and I love looking through my archives to see what life was like for us two an three years ago. It’s amazing how many little details you forget and how wonderful it is to rediscover them by reading an old post.

This is what we’ve been up to:
We put our house up for sale. We’re not anxious to sell. We just want to see what will happen since the interest rates are super low. Our little town’s home values have not lowered during the recession so – we’ll see what happens. We need to start making plans by having another bedroom since we will be adding another kid- though it’s still probably two years away. (Don’t even ask! I know – it’s taking forever) I love my house being clean all the time BUT I am not loving keeping it clean all the time.

I had three photography jobs this weekend. It felt so good to shoot again. I am so not inspired during the winter. Ugly trees, my kids are pale, brown grass – I always feel more creative when it’s warm and sunny and I can shoot outside. I wish I had a basement where I could set up a little studio.

Let’s see, what else. OH, we’ve been studying ancient Egypt. While I was doing some research online I came across a site that gave directions on how to mummify a chicken. So, we bought a chicken at the grocery store, removed it’s innards, and packed in all down in ziplock bags filled with a mixture of baking soda and salt. This whole process will take at lest 60 to 72 days to complete. As we were scrubbing the chicken down and packing it full of salt, I began to think – WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS I THINKING. I have to change of the dry mixture every 5 days for the first two weeks and then every 10 days toward the end. I am such a germ freak – I keep thinking every thing was contaminated and I was sliding all the stuff in bags and the kids wanted to touch, see, hold and sniff things. It’s a stresser knowing I have to repeat that process so often over the next two months. The kids are really excited about it though and the whole thing gives application to what they have been learning – SO – I will deal with it.

Other than that – nothing much has been going on. The kids are so into each other it’s just so beautiful to me how they love one another. Two days ago my middle child said this to me, “Mommy, it’s sad that you don’t have any brothers and sisters.” I replied, “Why?” She answered, “Because I really love my sister and brother. I love having them to play with.” What a blessing. That is always want I desired for my kids. Since I wasn’t able to have siblings, I wanted my children to be best friends. They are and I am so thankful for that.

I am still weeding through all my photos from this past weekend, but I will post this one. She’s a joy and I loved photographing her!

the moon

My youngest came up to me tonight and whispered this in my ear ….

Mommy … do you want to know the secret of how dust gets on the moon? You take a rock and put it in a sling shot. Then you shoot it to the moon and then when it gets there it leaves dust on the moon. That is how dust gets on the moon.

This is her homemade slingshot built especially for her by my oldest. She loves to shoot it. Her tongue sticks out as she carefully takes aim … but as hard as she tries, the rocks never go very far.

made up Mexican

#3 keeps asking me how to say certain things in “Mexican”. She asks, “Mommy, how do you say – yes I like it – in Mexican.” All I know to say is “si”. The tiny bits of Spanish I know are the few words I have picked up from over hearing Dora on our TV. So, when I can’t give her a translation, she replies, “Well, this is how I think they say it.” Then she does some sort of Span-english. Like for No, she says that in her language it is “No-WHAH”. So she is going around wearing a prideful grin telling everybody “No-WHAH”.

I think it’s time we all learned some real Spanish.

they melt me

As I was kissing the girls goodnight and laying beside them in their beds, tears just flooded my eyes. I just became completely overwhelmed with love for them. I am just SO blessed. My kids are such an amazing reward.

As I went to pull away from #2, she said, “Please don’t go, I still haven’t gotten enough of you yet.” I just melted into a puddle. After spending 24/7 with her, I hadn’t gotten enough of her either.

a little fish story

Today was park day. It was a bit different because my boy has gone to his MeMe’s for a few days, so I am down to only two kids. The girls cried as they watched him drive away -real tears streaming down their cheeks as they held on to me and waved goodbye. Well, they managed to have fun without him at the park. They spent a lot of time playing on the creek bank with some friends. As we were walking to the car to leave my youngest begins to tell me a story …

“Mommy, today I was catching fish in the water and I caught this little fish but then he got dead … so I buried him in the sand. Then later I went back to un-bury it, and guess what? He wasn’t there, he had already gone up to heaven!”

After we were home and the girls had scrubbed all the nastiness off of them – they totally took advantage of their brother not being around by running around the entire house several times squealing with glee – completely naked.

On the way home tonight from being out with some friends, the girls got excited thinking about being able to have a mini slumber party together by sleeping on a big bed of blankets in the middle of their room. We pulled in the drive way and #2 said, “Mommy I like sleeping with Sydney, but sometimes she just keeps talking and talking and talking. Then when I am almost asleep she leans over and whispers “Kaley Grace are you asleep?” and I just want her to stop talking.”
Sydney replied, “I just don’t want to be the only one not sleeping!”

One more thing …
Tonight I laid between them on the floor to give them kisses. They asked me to read a Dora book. I felt really tired but I picked it up and began to read. After the first page #3 interrupted me and said, “Mommy, start over and please use your Dora voice.”

it's mine!

I got an iphone … I got an iphone. (Yes, that was typed in a bratty tone — sorry I just couldn’t help myself!) OK, ever since my man got his, I have been envious. I never crave gadgets … like seriously never, but the iphone has been something I really wanted. The new phone was just released and no I didn’t get a brand spankin’ new one, I got a hand-me-down one from my man. I don’t care that it’s about a year old, I love it.

Now, let’s just pray I don’t drop it like every other day like I did my old cheap cell phone.

Hey you, I know you’re excited for me!

the birds and the bees

So … let’s see … when our kids have asked the typical “where does a baby come from,” question we’ve explained it as …

God takes a piece of the mommy and a piece of the daddy and puts it together in a special place within a mommy’s tummy where a miracle happens and a baby begins to grow.

So far … it’s worked. Oh, and I had 3 c-sections, so the answer to how the babies come out has been “the doctors cut the baby out.”

Well, as a family we were watching Dirty Jobs just the other night. The episode was all about dairy cows. How they milk them, what they do with their poo, how they “get them pregnant” and how the vets help deliver the babies.

My man and I hesitated for a second about watching it, but we decided to continue on. As the show threw out teasers for what was to come, #1 asked, “Is a cow one of those animals that poops their babies out.” It took me a minute to be able to speak with out just busting out laughing. I just said. “No, there is a special mommy hole that the babies come out of. It’s near their bottom, but it’s a hole God made for the babies.”

After the milking and the pooing the show went on to explain artificial insemination and they kept using the words bull semen. So, #1 asks “what is bull semen?” I explain, “It’s the daddy part that combines with the mommy part that God uses to make a baby.” Hoping that would be enough he goes on to ask, “Well, what part of the daddy to they put in there? Like part of it’s hoof or a piece of it’s heart?” Trying so so SO hard to keep a straight face all I could say was, “See there’s a special place from inside the daddy that they get it.” Then he’s quick with this next one, “So how do humans do it?” Hummmmmm, I am not ready for to fully explain that one, “How about I explain that part maybe next year.” Thankfully he was completely satisfied with that answer.

Whew.