Trying Not to Turn This Into a Sewing Blog....

Friday night was pretty uneventful for us, we stayed home all night. I ended up staying up until 1am working on Delilah's Valentine's dress however. Which really kicked my butt when I had to be up and out of the house Sat. morning in time to pick my mom up at 9am. We went shopping for the whole day.

I had things to return and pictures to pick up at Walmart. She had a fax to send at her school. Then I had to pick up a few things at Target and she had to exchange a sweater at Kohl's. Then we spent a bit of time in Hobby Lobby. They had Simplicity patterns on sale for 99cents each and even though I had gone the day before and bought my limit of 10, I still had more I wanted. I ended up buying 6 more. Then I had to get the trim for Sophia's Valentine's shirt, the bias tape to finish Delilah's dress, and the elastic for Sophia's shirt. I looked at fabric, but the kids were way too wild to stay long. My mom had given them candy before we left town, never a good move. We ate lunch at Panera Bread, our favorite, and then headed out to pick up our family pictures from Sears. After that we dropped my mom's jewelry off to be inspected at Zale's while we waited the kids used their Border's gift cards they received from Kyla. After we picked up the jewelry we headed home.

I wasn't at my parents house for more than 15mins before I left with Jason and Rosy. They were going to look at vans. We left all the kids with my parents and headed out. Not long after we left Sophia and Aidan were picked up by Patience. It was their turn to spend the night, Lilly and her friend had spent one night the week before. Patience took them and Meme to Chuck E Cheese, they had a blast. But they stayed up until after 11pm, which I don't really mind, because I wasn't in charge. I just made them nap the next day.

Jason, Rosy, and I looked at a van, then they took me to Hancock Fabric to get more patterns. They had Butterick on sale for $1.99 and I had picked out Lilly and Aidan's Valentine's shirts online in their patterns. I also got a large cardboard cutting board, so I can stop putting pin marks in my table top. Then we drove around looking for more vans, but the one place they saw one they liked was closed by the time we arrived. We then attempted to eat out at a sit down place, no such luck at 6:30 on a Sat. We ended up eating at KFC, it was alright but gave me a tummy ache.

Sat. night I stayed up way too late again finishing Delilah's dress. It wasn't that hard, the only thing is it's a bit too long. I need to hem it more.

Sunday I had to pick Sophia and Aidan up by 10am, at 9:30 my aunt called to make sure I was coming. :P They must have driven her nuts. Then we went to my mom's to pick Lilly up and hang out for a little while. We came home, Sophia, Aidan, and Delilah napped, Lilly and I cleaned and then I napped for a couple hours. Last night I stayed up again way too late cutting out Lilly, Aidan, and Sophia's shirts. That took forever even though there aren't that many pieces per shirt.

Today I napped for a couple hours then went to Walmart to get the elastic I needed for Lilly's shirt. Then we stopped by Rosy and Jason's to see the progress on their kitchen and to have cookies, yum. Went to pick up the girls from school and then went to the grocery store. I am exhausted and my children are driving me crazy. Pretty normal day. :P

The Day I Took a THREE HOUR NAP!!!

You didn't read the title wrong, I actually was allowed a three hour nap today. It was wonderful, I feel refreshed. I have been staying up late every night and of course I have to get up at 7 every morning so there is no sleeping in. I was chatting with Kale online today and could barely keep my eyes open. I decided I'd take my shower then lay down while Delilah napped. I can't believe she slept that long and that Sophia didn't try and wake us up. I put the gate up at the top of the stairs and let her roam between her room and the older girls room. When I came out I asked "Are you playing?" and she told me "No, playing is boring. You slept to long!"

After my extremely long nap we went to the grocery store and BK for lunch (late lunch at 2:30). We ate our lunch while we waited for the girls at the school. I usually get to the school at 2:45 so I am first in the pick up line. But they don't get out until 3:15. I also used the time to clean out the van, it was full of trash. A shopping bag full of trash to be exact. Mostly papers from my mail. I open it in the pick up line at the school. I rarely get anything important so most of it's trash/recycling.

I spent all day yesterday working on Aidan's dress which has now become a shirt. I tried to put the ruffle on the bottom of the shirt but after it was on it looked weird. So I spent and hour or two taking it off stitch by stitch. I thought it was going to be too big on her, but it fits pretty well. Looks pretty good also. My mom is going to help me put the ruffle on it this weekend, we will see if I like it better with out it.

I plan on going shopping this weekend for more supplies. Hobby Lobby and Hancock Fabric are both having pattern sales. I will stock up on the brands that are on sale. I wrote down the numbers of 7 I liked in Simplicity and 9 in Butterick. I am not sure I will get them all this weekend, but for 99cents and 1.99 each you can't go too wrong.

Here's Aidan's shirt. I didn't let her wear it today in case I want to add the ruffle.

Even though she looks angry she really wasn't. She is just weird right now about smiling.

Yesterday was a Productive Day, Today? Not So Much.

Yesterday I had Lilly clean the "art room" (their tv room, computer room, and where their art table is) and sent Aidan up to clean their room. This was at 10am. At 11am Lilly was done with the art room and was sent to help Aidan. I went to check their progress at 11:30am and they hadn't gotten very far. At noon they came down for lunch then were sent back up to clean again. I went to check on them at 12:30pm, this is when I realized their idea of "cleaning" was to throw everything into the closet. I know this is completely normal, but not acceptable. I had them pull everything out of their closet and start over. At 1:30 I checked on them again, they had everything out of the closet but hadn't made much progress beyond that. So I realized I had to supervise this endeavor.

They finally finished the room around 3pm, I had been helping Sophia clean her room up and then we had a tea party. Then I decided to move their bookcases and reorganize them (AGAIN). That took me about an hour. I put all the "big" kid books on one case and all the "little" kid books on the second case. They are both nearly full and I still have a box of books in the garage. It's not a small box either.

I like books, I like that my kids enjoy reading. I used to. If I enjoy a book I have to finish it, right away. I took three literature classes my senior year and loved every book we were assigned to read. Even Shakespeare, which I took one class that was strictly Shakespeare. I don't read much anymore, I am too scatterbrained anymore. My mind swirls all the time and I have a hard time concentrating anymore. The last book I read was The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood. Now my mom is pressuring me to read the Twilight series. She gave me her book and asks me all the time if I have started it yet. Nope and I don't plan on it either. Vampires don't interest me one little bit. Plus part of me is afraid my mother will be right, and I hate that. :P

I will leave you with a few pictures from yesterday's productivity.

Sophia and I having our tea party.

Delilah saying "cheese" when I whip out the camera. What they don't learn from their older siblings.

Little Kid bookcase. A little room left, but not a whole lot.

Big Kid bookcase. Also a little room left, but not a lot. I am proud to mention Lilly has read all but a few (very few) of these books.

Lilly's bed. It was made when we cleaned, but I took these today.

Picture this closet 3ft deep with toys.

Much improved.

Aidan's bed. Messy but better than before.

This bottle was full the 24th of December. Aidan decided her bed stank and sprayed half the bottle all over her bed. Their room stank for days.

He's Gone, Again....

It's harder this time around. I am alone with the girls this time around. My entire family is out of town right now, parents in Chicago, brother in Mexico. It's just harder this time. Before I had Judy here to keep my mind busy and the first two months I went non-stop from activity to activity. It also doesn't help that it's winter right now and I haven't been going out as much before he arrived.

His visit was wonderful, but far too short and went by far too fast. We had barely a day to sit and do nothing. We had two family portrait sessions in two weeks. Three family dinners in two weeks. One dinner out alone,a dinner out with my family, and a dinner out with just his family. We also had Christmas Eve dinner at my parents house and Christmas dinner here at our house. Both dinners were delicious. The girls received way too many presents from everyone. We had Lilly's play to go to and Kale spent a day volunteering at the school. We had a morning of baking with the kids, Meme, and Judy. The women went out shopping the morning after Christmas. Kale took the girls to the movies twice they saw Bolt and The Tale of Despereaux. It was a busy busy two weeks but it was a happy two weeks.

Thankfully Delilah and Sophia are better. Delilah hated her meds and they had to be force fed to her or hidden in food. FUN! She has also not regained her appetite as of yet. Hopefully she will get it back soon.


I leave you with our second family photo shoot:

Kale, David, and Judy

In-Laws David and Judy

Delilah didn't want to hold still but sat still when we sat her on the sled.

Sophia and her silly smile.

Aidan's sillier smile.

Lilly

This isn't the best one of the four of them, but it's the funniest.

Four generations of Kale's family. His Dad David and his grandma Margaret aka Nanny.

Alone Tonight!

Kale and I are getting to go out to dinner alone tonight, thanks to my mom offering to watch all the girls for us. I think she may even keep all four over night for once. Not that I really care, usually once Delilah is in bed she is there for the night.

Kale had lunch with Aidan today and read her class a story or two. He even took Sophia with him, which was nice. I got to be alone for awhile as Delilah went down for a nap and is still down. She doesn't feel well and had her immunizations given to her yesterday. I was surprised they let her get them as she was coming down with a cold. I think she is moving on to ear infection now. FUN!

Kale and Sophia are going back to the school here in a little while for Lilly's holiday party. Then after school we are dropping the four of them at my mom's house for the rest of the evening. He finally decided he wants to eat at Olive Garden and have dessert at Cheesecake Factory. Fine by me.

Tomorrow the six of us are going to see Bolt and having lunch at Panera Bread, after the girls clean their rooms. And we have to put our tree up still. :S This is the first time since I have been an adult that my tree has not gone up the day after Thanksgiving. I just couldn't lift it by myself and we have been so busy the last two days.

We were lucky Kale was able to get on the very first flight out of Jacksonville on Wed. I was worried we were going to miss our family picture appointment. That was a whirlwind day. We picked Kale up, went to Walmart, came home, got ourselves and the younger two ready, went and surprised the girls at the school, came home, got them ready, met Jason & Rosy so they could follow us, got our pictures done, high tailed it to the school just in the nick of time for Lilly's play, watched the play, and came home where everyone (my parents and the teens also) had pizza for dinner. It was tiring, but a good day.

All of our days, I think, will be tiring but good. Kale just caught Sophia painting her finger and toe nails. One of my aunts bought Aidan make-up, AGAIN, this year. They never think of me when they buy such things. Last year Aidan painted the walls and her toys with the nail polish. It's not peel off nail polish either, GRRR!

Hope everyone has a fun weekend!

Family Pictures!

Getting Delilah to stand still was no easy task!

Lilly's the only one that looked weird in this picture, but all the rest of the pictures of the six of us my dress had lowered in the front and looked funky.

We are all looking and most of us are smiling, success! :P
The woman was wonderful, she took 82 pictures of us and didn't delete any of them.

We had left to go to Lilly's play so I didn't see these until I talked Green into bringing me the disks.

Mom and Dad

Alan wasn't real cooperative either, he wanted down. Jason paid Sophia to make him smile and laugh. It didn't work as well in their family picture as it did on his pictures alone.

Her natural smile, nice to see it usually she has a fake one planted on her face.

Aidan had fallen and bumped her mouth just before it was her turn. You can tell she had been crying.

Love it!

He's too cute!

She's hard to capture on film! But the woman managed it.

COLD!

It's gone from 5 degrees to 2 degrees in the last hour. It's cold. We don't normally get this kind of cold in KS, it's more like the cold we dealt with the three years we spent in MA. The windchill today is -14 degrees. Kale is going to freeze his a** off tomorrow night and probably every day he is here. Cuba is nice and toasty warm, but I don't feel a bit sorry for him having to come here to freezing temps.

I spoke with my mother about the situation with Lilly's teacher. My mom is a principal and has been for 12+ years so I often go to her for guidance. I like to run things by her first to make sure I am not worrying for nothing or going overboard. She thinks I am completely justified feeling the way I do. She mirrored my opinion that the teacher just doesn't want to do her JOB. So I took her advice and I asked for a meeting with the principal. Kale and I will be going together, when it comes to my kids I tend to get overly emotional and feel like I am being attacked, even if I really am not. So I need someone to be there to calm me. I wish my mom could go with me, but she hasn't the time and she likes to make me handle things myself. If it goes further though, I think she will step in and help out.

Aidan is getting sassier and sassier. I wanted to smack her yesterday. We had our Christmas with Jason, Rosy, and Alan since they are leaving next Friday. And Aidan had two gifts to open, one from them and one from my Aunt Mel. The only reason she had the second gift was because my uncle decided they needed to open more than one and brought the gifts from her over. After Aidan opened her two gifts, loving both of them, expressing thanks, all that good stuff, then came the water works and the "I don't have any more presents to open!" Then the screams "I WANT MORE PRESENTS TO OPEN!" I cut her off quickly, which is how you have to deal with Aidan so it doesn't escalate quickly. Usually when I am with my family my dad steps in and starts yelling and arguing with her, it just makes it worse. They usually end up in a screaming match, really they are like the same person. The louder someone yells at them, the louder they yell. It's lovely when they get into it with each other. I was able to get her to go to sit by herself and calm down rather quickly. I am not sure, but I think this behavior is going to take something drastic to get it to stop. Like taking away a present or something the next time she does it. Selfishness is not something I take very well, it drives me NUTS! And she is the only child that acts that way, the others are happy with what they get. Not her, she always wants MORE.

I guess if she does it again I will be taking her to donate a toy or two to Toy's for Tots, out of her own Christmas presents. She needs to learn selflessness. I am just not sure how to teach it, I will figure it out though, I know it.

Tomorrow! He will be here tomorrow night! :)

MIA

I have not been up to blogging or reading this past week, I will catch up soon. I have been dealing with Delilah's constipation issues. We dealt with the same issues with Aidan when she was this age. We battled severe constipation for 3 years before we finally got a handle on it. With Aidan we found out it was milk, put her on Lacatid (lactose free) and she has been fine unless she has lots of dairy. I don't know what Delilah's issue is, she is already on Lactaid. I thought maybe it was goldfish snacks, but I cut those out of her diet and she is still having trouble. It came out of nowhere, so I am not sure what to do with her. So my life has been full of suppositories, probotic yogurt, fruit, and veggies. I am trying aloe vera juice now, but she doesn't like it. I tried hiding it in strawberry milk, but no luck she doesn't like it. I tried tea and juice, she doesn't like either. I tried pushing liquids, K thought she might not be drinking enough since it's cold. No luck there either. It's not an everyday fight, yet, but I know how quickly it can become one and I don't want to go there again. Aidan was miserable and so was I for years, I can't and won't go through this again.

Other than that, I haven't been very busy lately. I am nearly done with the kids Christmas shopping, Delilah is the only one who needs anything more. I am just having a hard time finding things for her. I have found her a few things that are not toys, a personalized hooded towel and a personalized pillowcase. But that's really all I have been able to come up with. I still have most of the adults in my family to buy for yet, but I will work on them closer to Christmas. I am ready to shop on black Friday, we are hoping Green will keep the girls as we usually head out at 4am. At least the older three, I may take Delilah with us. We haven't hashed out all the details yet. I am hoping to find an MP3 player for Lilly, we bought her one last year but it's not compatible with our Napster program. Plus we can't figure out how to get any music on it period, even had my brother try. I know what brand to buy this time, so I will get her one that will work.

It's now less than one month until Kale arrives. It's getting closer to the time when I will be able to relax. :P At least Delilah has started sleeping through the night, finally! So I am getting more continuous sleep, it really helps. She also has a new word "Uh-Oh" it's very cute to hear her say it. She likes to drop things then say it. She also says a bunch of words that sound like "It fell down", but not clearly. Sophia is still in the horrible threes, some days are unbearable. She seems to have gotten louder, I never thought it was possible. I really screwed myself, we made a deal when she was inutero that since she was the hardest pregnancy to that point she had better be my best baby. And she was a dream baby, until she turned two. I should have asked her to be the best child and teen also. :P

I will post some pictures and links of the stuff I have found for the girls tomorrow and Friday. I will also catch up with everyone then too.

Wordless Wednesday

Her eyes very so very blue yesterday, I tried to capture it on film, but she didn't cooperate very well.

She put the tiara on all by herself, she looked cute wearing it the wrong way.
Today she threw up, I am hoping it was a one time deal.



Aidan cut her own hair yesterday in school. Her teacher brought to the car, which is never a good sign, and handed me a baggie full of Aidan's hair. I stupidly forgot to take a before picture. This is after the stylist fixed it.

She cut it very close to the scalp right in the middle, I have to put a clip in it to hold it in the right place so it doesn't look ridiculous.

This was when Lilly cut her own hair, same age (well six mths younger than Aidan but still 6) and same time of year, November. I guess I better keep a good eye on Sophia and Delilah at this point in their lives. :P Lilly did hers at home though, this picture is before we had it fixed.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Trick or Treating at Aunt Patience and Uncle Guy's house

Uncle Guy is always excited to see the girls

Looking at all their goodies in the bags Aunt Patience put together for them

Uncle Guy taking a look at the ruby slippers and toto

No more candy Sophia!

Giving hugs goodbye

Delilah was out, she hadn't slept all day

Meme carving her pumpkin

Stella carving hers

An unhappy lamb

Sacagewea

Getting ready to hit the neighborhood

Yes I am back dating this. :P

I have a pitbull/neighbor update for Monday.