Reading Buddies

AHHH, I'm so glad it's Sunday, one of my favorite days of the week. We are finally towards the end of this nasty virus we've all had. Shane, the kids, and I have never had colds that have lasted this long. This may sound strange, but one thing I've missed the most is not being able to smell my kids--okay some of you are reading this right now and thinking, what the heck is she talking about? Those of you who know me well, understand me completely. I love the way my kids smell, especially little Nolan's sweet breath. I'm one of those strange moms who talks about wanting to eat my kids up, or nibble on them. I can't help it, they're delicious! Anyways, since I've been sick all my senses are off. Isn't that an awful feeling?

It seems like there are never enough hours in a day. Life is busy, and I so often feel like I'm trying to catch up on "things." When Liv comes up to me and asks me to read, it typically forces me to slow down. Sometimes it's not the best timing for me, but I have to put my selfishness aside for a few minutes(joking...I don't think we ever get to be selfish as parents.) Reading with my kids is one of my favorite things to do. I love cuddling with them, laughing, making silly sounds, and mostly, watching the expressions on their little faces as the story begins and ends. Nolan has started to do one of the cutest things ever--he'll grab a book and then I'll say, "do you want me to read you a book buddy?" and then he walks over to me, turns around and sits down on my lap. I LOVE IT! He's started to do this with Olivia, and it's super cute. Plus, it makes her feel like an important big sis, and she loves to read stories to her little B. It's really sweet! Personally, it's just a reminder for me to SLOW DOWN, and enjoy the moment.

Trick 'r Treat

My little LionGammy the Carrot

This is Olivia's Dentist, funny right!

NJP and his little buddy Landon, both Lions.
Pinkalicious Fairy & Tinkerbell
This is about as good as our group shot could get, so cute though! As you can see, all the kidlets were distracted.


CLASSIC! Poor Nolan, he's probably thinking, "what's the deal here, can you please get this hot costume off of me?"

We are so blessed to live on a little cul-de-sac, it makes trick or treating with kids easy, and safe. We took our kids(along with our friends, and grandparents,) around the horseshoe and called it good. Most of the kids had a great time. Then there was my Livvy, she was totally freaked out by a lot of costumes. I can't blame her, some of it creeps me out too! She shed quite a few tears. I was the same way when I was little, I hated going to places like Chuck E Cheese, and also got scared of masks and weird costumes, poor Liv--she's inherited those fears from me. We had a delish chili feed, beer bread, and enough sweets to feed an army. On the downer, Olivia woke up in the middle of the night Fri burning up with a fever. She's been fighting a nasty upper respiratory virus all weekend. 'Tis the season!!! almost every mom that I've talked to this weekend has a sick child :( Is it already that time of year? At the same time, it seems like there's been junk going around for months, and it doesn't seem to ever stop. Praying that all our kids get better, and that we can all stay healthy. It breaks my heart when my kids aren't feeling well, I feel so helpless. Hope you're in GOOD HEALTH, and if you're fighting the "bugs" praying that you will get better soon!

Happy Halloween!

I haven't been the best blogger lately, I've typically tried to update once a week, but that hasn't been happening. Bare with me, I'll get back in to the swing of things soon.

We had a fun day getting ready for halloween tomorrow. Liv and I had a nice little mother/daughter time. We made sugar cookies, & carved pumpkins. Olivia is super "girly" she insisted on making pink, purple, yellow, and lt blue frosting for the cookies. Definitely not the traditional colors for Halloween. AND she wanted to carve out a heart on her pumpkin. That's okay though, I like our little purple cats, blue moons, and pink pumpkins--we must be reading a little too much pinkalicious around here.

As for me, I'm feeling like I'm in a little valley at the moment. I've been working a ton over this last month, way more than I'd like to be. I have learned a lot since I've started working, mainly, how much I LIKE being home with my kids, and providing a loving home. I realize how much I could actually get done, though at the time it didn't feel that way. Now I feel like I'm constantly juggling work, and my life as a mom and wife. I have a different perception on working moms now, and I tip my hat to those of you who choose to do both. I'm still not sure if I'm cut out to be away from my family, and will give it a little more time before I decide. I was ready for a balance, and break from mommyville, but not desiring it as much now. Time will tell, I'm waiting on the Lords answer for this one. It would be a no brainer if I didn't like my job, but I'm really having a lot of fun, and meeting some pretty amazing folks along the way.

Can't believe we only have a couple more days left in October!
Happy Halloween, BE SAFE!

"Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children." Charles R. Swindoll

This was the first Friday I've had off in over a month. Shane was able to take a half day today so that we could get out of the house and go enjoy a "family day." We had a blast picking out our pumpkins(Liv had about 15 in our cart,) playing in the trees & leaves, picking a few apples, and enjoying a quiet lunch. The first farm we went to was packed out, so we drove around and found a little quaint place and the kids had the entire pumpkin patch and orchard to themselves up until the end. It was so nice! Of course Nolan thought every pumpkin was a "ball" and was trying to eat everything around him. Liv was so docile at his age, and didn't stick everything in her mouth like her little B. He's a stinker, and typical 1 year old I'm sure. We wanted to hit one last place on our way out. It has a huge glass case which is full of honey bees and I thought it would be fun to search out the queen bee. Olivia and I did this a couple weeks ago. Liv got a rather worried look on her face and said-
"No mom, I don't want to go there, I don't want to see the queen bee with the big red back." What I think she meant was the red dot? And then I explained why the queen has the red dot. Next she says-"that poor lady bee has a big red dot on her back from the sun, the sun burned her back and she's sun burned." Oh the mouths of babes!

I have missed hanging out with my little tribe, all of us together. My husband is doing a stellar job at picking up were I leave off when I head to work, thank you babe! The kids love spending time with their daddy too, Olivia got sad on Monday when it was Shane's turn to go back to work. Our schedules have been like a 3-ring circus over the last month, but things are FINALLY smoothing out, and I feel like I can breathe again. But most importantly spend more time with the people I LOVE SO MUCH!

Happy Fall Everyone! Hugs~

Afternoon Delight

Feeling a little "mother guilt"

I was just looking at my picture files from the first week of October 07. That's right, a year ago, October 2007--I'm at least one year behind on both my kids pictures, albums, etc, and I haven't rotated pictures in my house since last fall--It's sad, I know. I used to be so prompt with picture stuff, but unfortunately, that's changed. I'm unorganized in this area of my life for the time being. Maybe the upcoming cold, Fall weather will give me some inspiration to get inside projects done. AT LEAST that's what I'm hoping for. Anyhow, just wanted to post a few dusty pictures(which at this rate are on their way to being archived,) from last October, during this same week. Not a lot of exciting things going on in our world right now. Just a sick little munchkin :-( and babysitting our neighbors goldfish(Dorothy--who Olivia insists on checking every 5 minutes.) Hope this note finds everyone well! Xoxo

I can't believe how dark Nolan's hair was--he's such a Blondie now!

We're still working on the thumb sucking, but it's at a bare minimum now--crossing our fingers she'll be over it soon!

Daddy & NJP

The good ole' days when your baby would sleep right on your chest-oh how I MISS that!

Nolan & Sis, he's looking at her with blank stares :)

Surgery Day

First off, I want to thank everybody for their prayers for Nolan and his eye surgery. All I have to say is thank God Monday is over! The surgery went as perfect as I hoped & prayed it would. I hope I never have to revisit a day of surgery for either of my children ever again. I seriously feel like I've aged 10 years in the last couple of weeks. The procedure for the actually surgery, and getting the cyst(which was around 8 mm) out never really bothered me. It was the anesthesia, and knowing that he'd be fully sedated that scared the heck out of me. Most everybody that knows me, is fully aware of how anti-drug I am unless it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. I don't even like giving my kids Tylenol, and have yet to try Motrin on either of them. So, the thought of anesthesia for Nolan gave me quite a few new grey hairs.

The hardest part(s) of the morning were handing my baby over to a nurse(who I did not know until that morning,) and watching them walk down towards the OR, and then watching Nolan come out of the anesthesia. At the same time, it was amazing how fast he came out of it, and more interesting, how quickly he seemed back to normal in personality/behavior. He looked up at the nurse that was with him in recovery and said "HI," and then started pointing to everything around him saying "that" It made me happy because he was acting like Nolan again. When we got home he was still a bit groggy and kept saying "down" because he wanted to play. He napped a lot that day, and slept pretty darn good that night. He's definitely back to normal now, except for a swollen, & bruised eye. Poor little buddy!