It's been forever!

Hi Everyone! I am sorry it's been so long since I've posted! Things have definitely been crazy here. Three kids are a lot more work than two and they keep me busy all day long.

Michael is doing GREAT in school! We got his report card and he is really on track and proving to be an excellent student so far. We are so proud of him. He's really growing so fast and loosing teeth too! He's about to loose his second top front tooth any day now. This will be his fourth tooth to date! I know it will feel like a second and I'll look at him one day and he'll have grown into a man. It seems like just yesterday he was a little baby!

Hayden... well, he's still up to his normal antics. Last week we had a big scare when he decided to build a bridge from the couch to the coffee table using pillows... (I guess engineering is not in his future. Well, surprisingly the bridge did not hold him and he came crashing down and tore the lower part of his nose from his lip. It took a plastic surgeon an hour under general anesthesia to fix it. He took it like a trooper though and bounced right back. Now not even two weeks later you can hardly tell anything happened.


We also recently moved Allie into the crib like a "big baby". That meant moving furniture all around. Now Michael and Hayden share a room and Hayden is in a big boy bed. He has adjusted really well to his new room so far. Allie is still adjusting to the crib but she's getting used to it and sleeping longer each night. I will be so happy when she is able to sleep all the way through. At this point she still wakes up two or three times a night and it's really starting to take it's toll on me. There is light at the end of the tunnel and I know it will only last another couple of months.

Moving the kids rooms around also meant all the clothes had to be moved. Michael's dresser became Hayden's... Hayden's became Michael's, and Michael's clothes moved into a spare dresser that was full of clothes not being used at the moment. Since I was doing that I also had to reorganize all the closets and decided to even clean mine out since I was at it. My next project is going to be reorganizing the linen closet. I guess I'm feeling a bit of spring fever right now.

Now that Hayden is sleeping in a "big boy bed" that means no naps. I don't know how well that is working for either of us. Today he just fell asleep on the kitchen floor while I was making dinner. We took the crib tent off the crib since Allie hasn't started climbing.. yet. There would be a better chance of Hell freezing over rather than Hayden sleeping in the bed for a nap so we thought this would be the end of naps for him. Now, realizing he really needs one and honestly I need him to need one.. we have decided to get a tent for the pack and play and we'll put him down for his nap in that. Thank God for tents!

Mike is doing really well too. Luckily he still has a job although the economy is really taking it's toll on his company. They depend on bank loans to meet their pay roll so it's been touch and go for a while but as for now it looks like they may survive the storm. It's really been stressful on our family but I know we'll get through it and I know a lot of people out there have it a lot worse than we do.

Hayden's Great Escape!

Allie 8 weeks

Christmas 2008

Hi All! We had a great Christmas this year! We started the holiday with a brunch at our house with Mike's Mom and Dad. It was great! I made a baked french toast and a cheesy ham and potato casserole that was soooo delicious we all loved itI will definitely make that again! After we ate we let the kids open their gifts and all in all it was a very nice visit.
The week continued with a lot of baking, cooking, wrapping, and planning. Well, for me at least. Mike did help wrap the gifts which was a huge help but I'm afraid I was on my own for the rest. This year I made homemade iced sugar cookies... they were beautiful! They were shaped like snowflakes and dipped in blue icing with white snowflake decoration on them. They were yummy! I also made peppermint bark, toffee, and peanut butter balls. I love all the holiday baking and candy making. I didn't get a picture of all the goodies but I will say I had to make two batches of toffee and about 4 batches of peppermint bark because it kept disappearing faster than I could make it! No worry though because I think I burned all the calories I ate making it!


On Christmas Eve Grandpa and Grandma Kathy came over for dinner. I made homemade Lasagna which was really good however this time I followed the recipe exactly and it called for ground beef. Usually I make it with sausage and I have to say sausage is better... but it was good anyway and we ate it up! I also made bruschetta which was FANTASTIC and so easy! Michael couldn't get enough of it! After dinner we opened presents and had a great time with Grandpa and Grandma. We also had a surprise phone call from Santa himself! Michael took the call and was taken a bit off guard. Our usual talkative young boy was stunned to silence and was for the first time since I've known him... SPEECHLESS! he did manage to let Santa know he was a good boy this year and that we had three kids in the house so Santa was prepared.

Grandpa spent the night with us and was there Christmas morning for presents and breakfast. The kids woke up and their eyes were bright when they saw all the goodies Santa left for them. We had a great time watching them open their presents. Michael was really happy because he got exactly what he wanted this year. A Nintendo DS. He has been asking for it for months now and he really earned it this year. I will say now that he is getting older Christmas is getting more expensive... we'll have to win the lottery by the time Allie turns 6 because I don't know how we'll pay for it all!


After breakfast Grandpa went back to his house and we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Howard's for dinner and more presents. It was tons of fun with Gramma, Joe, Aunt Lisa and Uncle David, and Aunt Linda. Grandpa Howard's mom Judy was also with us... she's a riot and I love conversation with her. We had beef tenderloin for dinner and I have to say it's getting better each year! Michael and Hayden got tons of gifts including a guitar which is so loud!!!(Why do they have to make toys so loud? Who ever designs them must not be a parent...) and they got a really cool tent/tunnel set which also came with balls and a golf club to play games in it... again... golf clubs and kids... I will say that golf club made a spectacular sound as it hit Michael's head care of Hayden. So, the golf club is in the closet with the other weapon like toys and the guitar is banished to the play room with the threat of abduction if it leaves the room.

Now that Christmas is over we are busy not being busy. We have been working on getting the house back in order and playing with all the new toys. In fact while I type this Mike is hanging a solar system in Michael's room. We have magic rocks, race tracks, cars, books, popcorn makers, and all sorts of fun stuff to play with!

I hope you all had a Merry Holiday like we did. Even though the economy did affect how much we spent this year we had a great time and Christmas was awesome! Thank you to all of our friends and family who helped make our Chirstmas special!

Song of the day!

Duck, Duck, GOOSE!!!

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