Caught in the act. Making a complete mess of her big sister's room and loving every minute of it.

It's awfully quiet around here

That's because I only have one child this afternoon. I don't know why I ever thought having one kid was tough, it's a piece of cake. :)
Lindsey has gone out to lunch with Dad and Grampy and then she and Daddy are going to go ice skating!!! He has been wanting to teach her to skate since the day she was born but I managed to hold him back until this year. I think 3 is the absolute youngest acceptable age to wear a pair of ice skates. So this afternoon after lunch they are heading to the rink up the street. She's very excited and has been talking about it non stop. I wonder how she'll like it? Learning to skate can be frustrating with all the falling down and all. Well at least it's some Daddy and Lindsey time, which is much needed for both of them.
Zoey on the other hand is in heaven. She is playing in Lindsey's room right now with all of Lindsey's beloved treasures that Zoey normally can't get her paws on with that pesky big sister around.

I took this dumb "which desperate housewife are you" quiz. Well apparently I'm very shallow and am filthy rich and I didn't even know it, not too mention really gorgeous because it said I was Gabriella. Who knew.

Time on my own

On Thursday afternoons my MIL comes to my house to watch the kids. This is my time to run errands, do laundry, putz around on the computer or dare I say NAP!
Well today I did one of my all time favorite things to do on my own. I went to the bookstore. Scott gave me a $100 gift card to Borders so off I went. I love getting a really strong cup o' joe from their cafe and then I peruse the books. I only bought 4 books today because I look forward to returning in a month or so and spending the rest of the $ on more. I am a book junky. I HAVE to read before bed every night, which really thrills Scott (dripping with sarcasm). I could spend hours upon hours loping around a really good bookstore. Ahhhh, it was nice and I managed to only buy one kids item. That is usually really tough for me. I can almost never spend money on only myself and not the kids. So one stinkin book for Lindsey and four for me is quite a feat. Now I can hardly wait for the kids to go to bed so I can start on one of my new books. Of course Scott is going to want some of my attention, sigh.... the poor sap.

Sunita tagged me on this one so here goes....

Seven Things to do before I die
1. spoil my grandchildren
2.live without any financial debt
3. be one of those moms that my kids always want to spend time with
4. tour Europe
5. go to Hawaii with Scott and my kiddos
6. get a book published
7. see all my children find happiness and success

Seven Things I can't do
1. sing
2. math beyond a sixth grade level
3. sew
4. fly a plane
5. speak a foreign language fluently
6. stand my mother for more than an hour at a time (and that's being generous)
7. play pool

Seven things that attract me to my spouse (SO, or best friend)
1. his muscular build
2. his goatee (which he no longer has)
3. his sense of humor
4. the way he plays with his two little girls
5.he's a hardworker and will do whatever it takes to provide for us
6. his love for me and our children
7. he often goes out of his way to do something extra nice for me

Seven things I write/say the most often
1. NO!
2. Use your listening ears
3. whatever
4. I'm tired
5. for fucks sake
6. be gentle (when talking to children, not hubby LOL)
7. LOL

Seven books or series I love
1. The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan
2. any book by Sue Miller
3. The Catcher in the Rye
4. Girl in Hyacyinth Blue by Susan Vreeland
5. More Than You Know by Beth Gutcheon
6. Good Grief by Lolly Winston
7.The Three Junes by Julia Glass

Seven Movies I could watch over and over again
1. When Harry Met Sally
2. It's a Wonderful Life
3. A Christmas Story
4. Good Fellas
5. Airplane
6. Naked Gun
7. Anchorman

I have no one to tag, I think everyone I know who blogs has already done this one. Maybe Konny? I don't know if she's done this one yet, though I doubt she has the time to do it either. LOL

Lindsey discovered that shaking out her stocking contents was a much more efficient method.

You can't PROVE that I ate the chocolate!

Zoey and her new Elmo phone. Note the chocolate mustache. What kind of a parent lets their baby eat chocolate at 8am?

Lindsey and her most beloved gift, her Ariel doll ( the little mermaid)

My little ladies in their coordinating gingerbread man outfits.

Christmas festivities at our house?

Christmas Eve after Santa visited.
Ever since we've had our own house we've always hosted Christmas at our house because we thought it was easier. But is it really easier? I'm not so sure anymore. Sure we don't have to load all of the crap, I mean, presents from the grandparents to our children into our car at the end of the day. Really we'd need to rent a U Haul to make it all fit. And it's nice to be able to relax in our own home for the day BUT... I did spend the majority of Christmas Eve Day and Christmas day cleaning and cooking. Maybe next year we'll let someone else do all that crap and we'll just sit like lumps on someone else's couch for a change.

I just made fudge for the first time and I don't think it came out right. I haven't tried it yet, it's still setting. What the hell does "beat vigorously until it looses its sheen " supposed to mean? No matter how hard I beat it there was still a bit of a sheen, ugh!
I don't know why I keep taking recipes out of this cook book. They almost always suck.

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas eve day and well, it's kind of depressing and stressful all rolled into one. Scott is at work from 7:30 this morning until about 8:30 tomorrow morning. Unfortunately there is the possibility that he will get held over tomorrow until 5:30, but I don't even want to think about that right now. (that is the depressing part)
The plan is tomorrow afternoon the family is coming over (mil, fil, great aunt, my parents and brother) and we'll do gifts and dinner. So here is the stressed part. The house is a mess and I have to clean it by myself (obviously no help from Scott since he's at work) with two little kids running amuck (sp?). I also have to finish baking and tomorrow I have to cook a damn 20 lb turkey. I'm stressed about how long it's going to take to cook such a mammoth bird. UGH! I'm also stressed because in the morning I can't let the kids downstairs until Scott gets home. I can not let them see the loot under the tree with out Daddy in attendance. Let's just hope they at least sleep until 6:30 and we don't have one of those 5:30 am days.
I was thinking tonight after the kids are in bed it would be nice to relax by the fire with a glass of wine, but alas we are plum out of wine and I'm plum out of money. Sigh.
I'm such a brat. There are people with no home to clean, no job to work overtime hours, no turkey to cook and no family to celebrate with and here I am complaining. But, it feels good to bitch sometimes.

Lindsey about to enjoy her masterpiece and Zoey inhaling one of said masterpieces.

Zoey hamming it up for the camera. I think she was trying to look extra cute so that I would give her a cookie.

Lindsey and I baked sugar cookies today with red and green sprinkles. She got a little carried away with the sprinkles but she had fun. Here she is busy at work.

Here is what a happy three year old looks like after having diarrhea and the pukes for five days. She woke up this morning and was back to her old self and said "mommy take my picture NOW"

Lindsey and Zoey set up camp in the hallway and were reading Dora books together.

Pukey Pants

This is what a beautiful yet sad three year old looks like after five pathetic days of puking and pooping up a storm. Poor little baby.

Regarding my previous post

Let's just say I spoke to soon.

Fingers crossed

Happy to report, no diarrhea or puke in our house for 24 hours!!!
I'm sure I just jinxed (sp?) myself.

I've been regifted!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday we went to my SIL's house for an early xmas since we won't see her on the 25th. Hubby's aunt was there and we usually exchange small gifts with her. I didn't know ahead of time that she was going to be there so I didn't bring her a gift and was feeling rather bad about that until I opened her gift to us. She gave us a snowman mug stuffed with an ornament and two snowman kitchen towels. Ummm,, we gave her the snowman mug two years ago and we gave her the ornament and towels last year. What the fuck!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't even know what to do. I couldn't even fake thankfulness for the gift because I was so shocked. WOW! Let's just say she's not getting any gifts from us anymore because it's likely they are regifted to someone at some point. Happy stinking holidays.
Okay, it's funny and I'm not really upset about it, just a wee bit insulted.

Lazy morning

Lindsey still has a bit of an upset tummy. She and Daddy are snuggled up on the couch together watching Cinderella for the umpteenth time. They are so damn cute. I can assure you my father never snuggled up on the couch and watched Disney movies with me. She's a lucky girl.

Zoey's game

Here are the props, a shoe box, a sippy cup of water and of course Zoey.
She takes the top off the shoe box and puts her cup inside then puts the lid back on the box.
Then she says, "Uh Oh, where's wawa?"
Then she opens the box and exclaims with pure glee "Wawa!" and takes a swig.
Repeat five million more times.
When she can't get the shoe box cover on correctly she gets frustrated and screams "ow ow ow". For some reason she thinks you scream "OW" whenever you're frustrated, maybe she gets it from Lindsey. I must confess Lindsey once said "fucking Christ" when she was frustrated. You can thank her Dad for that wonderful phrase entering her vocabulary. I can't wait to get a call from preschool about that !!!!

I took a page out of Jen's book today

Zoey and Lindsey both stayed in their pj's all day. So enquiring minds want to know, did Hunter get dressed today? I'll have to ask on BIO.
Well unfortunately Lindsey went through FOUR pairs of pj's because she kept throwing up on herself. She hasn't mastered the art of throwing up in the toilet yet.

What to do what to do

Well we had a great day planned that has now gone out the window. Lindsey's little friend from preschool was coming over with her baby sister who is just a little older than Zoey and her mom who I really like, but now we are stuck stuck stuck in the house all day. Why you ask? Well I went upstairs to put Zoey down for her morning nap and when I returned downstairs Lindsey said "my orange juice fell out of my mouth" I thought she had spilled, but nope the poor little kiddo had puked up about 4 gallons of oj. So needless to say I called and cancelled the playdate. Now we will be stuck in the house on the cold slushy raining day. Don't get me wrong I feel very bad for my little Lindsey and I hope she is better very very soon.
On the bright side, at least my house got cleaned. You know, the clean up before the playdate where I naively think I'm fooling my guests into believing my house is always this immaculate.

Sigh,,so cute my heart could burst

Snow flags. That's what Lindsey calls snowflakes. I don't have the heart to correct her. It's just too damn cute to hear her saying it all the time. "Look at the snowflags on the window mommy". I will be sad the day she says snowflake instead.
She also thinks the elevator is called the alligator. Now that I just love!

Am I Crazy?

Hubby and I were talking last night and we've come to the decision (though I have the right to change my mind at any time, like daily) to start ttc next summer. We really want to go away just the two of us for our 5 year anniversary in June and then get down to business if you kwim. Hmmm, will I be ready? Am I crazy to think I'm one of those moms who can handle three little kids?

Huh?

I saw this bumper sticker yesterday that said "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter". Okay I get that it's referring to Jesus but WTF does that mean? Was this sincere, meaning his boss is Jesus or was it meant to be offensive?
I usually get humor but this one kind of boggled me. I didn't know to laugh or not, ultimately I determined the person driving the car was a moron.

This picture doesn't really do it justice

It looks better IRL in my opinion. It's cute, short and fat. Of course there are no decorations within about 2 ft from the ground in order to prevent Zoey from ripping them off the tree. So far we've only broken two of them. I'm sure we'll have broken about 2 dozen before Christmas.

Yuck!

I encountered the GROSSEST of all the diapers in my 3.5 years of being a parent this morning. Let's just leave it at that, no details necessary(and yes, I gagged and then gagged and gagged some more). Poor little Zoey is sleeping again and it's not even 9am yet. She can hardly even hold her head up today.

Snowman

While Zoey napped this afternoon and I putzed around in the house Daddy and Lindsey made a kickass snowman in the backyard. They even used apples for ears and grapes for eyes, and of course a carrot for the nose. Ahhh it warms the heart, what a great dad he is!!!!

4 AM

That's what time we woke up today, well by me I mean me and Zoey. She took her first nap of the day at 7:30am while I dozed on the couch snuggled up with Lindsey watching Blues Clues.
It is our first official day of not bf'ing in the early morning. I'm a little sad that this chapter is over but I'm very much ready for it too. These early mornings are going to be less than pleasant but soon she hopefully will sleep until at least the more reasonable hour of 5 am ( I hope).
And to add to my misery I was out of coffee filters this morning, aaahhhhhh! Must go to store and stock up today!!!!!

Cutting down a tree

I'm not sure if I'd recommend this but we did it today. We went to the Christmas Tree Farm today with our 3 year old and our 14 month old to cut down a tree. The 15 inches of new fallen snow on the ground was much fun for Lindsey but a bit of a challenge for little Zoey. We brought sleds for both of them so Zoey was pulled around in grand fashion.

Hmmm, she still doesn't look all that thrilled in this pic but note the adorable bunny hat she's sporting. I just noticed both girls have the exact same expression on their faces, like "just take the freakin picture mom."

All in all fun was had, especially by Lindsey and Daddy who enjoyed a few snowball fights. Well Lindsey can't really make a snowball so she just comes right up to you and throws a handful of snow in your face.

So I Gave In

I gave in and started a blog. I have always kept a journal but frankly who has the time at the end of the day to write with a pen. I'm on the computer throughout the day anyway so why not just write down my crazy thoughts here for the entire universe to read. Sounds like a logical idea.
So now you (the world) get to hear all about my two beautiful girls and my daily ups and downs with them. Sometimes quite funny other times, not so much.