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!

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! :)

It's Snowing!

It's not the first time it's snowed this winter, but it's coming down a lot faster than last time. Maybe it will be enough to cancel today's Girl Scout Ceremonies, I don't feel like going and being social. And of course both girls have ceremonies the same day and time, so that is wonderful. My aunt is taking Lilly for me, so at least I don't have to feel the guilt of "No one is going to my ceremony!" Although Aidan maybe upset that I am going to hers instead of Patience, we will see. I also have to go get a dessert to bring with us. And I have to go to the post office to return the wool dress coat I bought and didn't notice the sizing was junior's sizing. Needless to say it did not fit. I ordered a new one in the appropriate size already.

Some pictures of recent acquisitions:

Kale's New "Top Coat" for Dressier Outings

My New Dress Coat

My Dress for Our Family Pictures

K made two of these dresses out of fabric I bought this past fall. One for Sophia and one for her "friend Abby".

Here's Abby modeling the dress. I would post one of Sophia modeling hers but it was just mailed out yesterday.

After Judy decided she wanted a family picture also, I decided for my side of the family's picture we would all wear brown and pink or black. I couldn't find anything I liked for Lilly so Keisha offered to make me one. I just had to pick a pattern and she found the fabric. She is my hero, she made the entire dress in less than 12hrs. Impressive to me as I have little to no sewing experience. I also don't have a picture of her modeling it as it was also mailed out yesterday.

I have also recently bought Aidan and Delilah wool dress coats, Sophia's my mom bought a couple of years ago at a yard sale for only $3. It's in perfect condition and only needed to be dry cleaned. I bought Lilly's last year in an after Christmas sale. I almost always buy coats a little big so they last longer than one season. We will be a well dressed family this winter. :)

12 Days and Counting.....

Very, very soon Kale will be back, the 16th to be exact. He gets in at 11pm that night and I am picking him up myself. Green has volunteered to come over and sit with the sleeping children. The girls don't know exactly when he is arriving, just that it's soon and before Christmas. Lilly will be very excited he will be able to attend her Christmas musical on the 17th.

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Black Friday

As is the tradition for the women in my family we went shopping on Black Friday. Green was kind enough to spend the night on my couch and "take care of" (be the adult in the house just in case) the older three girls. Rosy insisted I leave Delilah with Jason and Alan, I wasn't going to argue. I am just glad for my brother that she went straight back to sleep after I dropped her off at 4:40am. As always I have to be the first one up that morning because I am the driver and I have to pick everyone up. I picked Rosy up, dropped Delilah off, and picked Patience up. It's really not bad, I live 10mins from Rosy, Patience lives across the street from Rosy, and then it's 5mins to my mom's from there.

We went to Walmart first, arriving just before the doors opened. There was a line formed all the way around the outside of the store. We joined at the very end and it took us about 15mins to get inside. It was very cold that morning, only 20 degrees. Rosy was not ready for that, this was her first time getting up at the crack of dawn to join us. She went the years before, but after 8am usually. My mom bought her 50" Plasma TV my dad wanted, Rosy bought a trampoline, Meme picked up some gifts for the girls, Stella bought shampoo and nail polish remover (we teased her about this), Patience bought toys for her grandson Matthew, and I bought pj's and toys for the girls. My mom got right through the line and took the tv home while we shopped and stood in line. Patience and I didn't take too long in our line. We had a nice older lady in front of us and she was not letting a line jumper in our line. It was very funny to watch her tell him no he couldn't "squeeze in". Other than that we didn't see any arguments. After I got through the line I went to keep Rosy company, it took her awhile to get into line since they had to find a flatbed cart for her trampoline, that sucker was heavy. I couldn't even lift one end. It took us and hour to get through her line to pay. Then the worker loaded it in the van and we had to take it to her house or nothing else would fit.

We didn't get out of town (out of walmart) until 7:30am, then we headed to north KC. We spent another hour at Toys R Us. Then Kohl's, Target, lunch at Applebee's, and Old Navy. We were home about 3:30pm. I found Green as I left him, sleeping on my couch. The girls were dressed and had been fed, he woke up long enough to handle that much. It's a good thing Lilly is older and can take care of things. Delilah gave Jason a run for his money, she and Alan like to fight. There was an incident with Alan's poopy diaper and her grabbing it and flinging the poop everywhere. We laughed our butt's off at that one when he called to share. All and all it was a fun day, I wasn't sure I would be able to go this year and I am thankful my family stepped up to the plate to help out.

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The Days Ahead

We have a ton planned for when Kale is here. It's going to be a whirlwind visit, I think our heads will be spinning by then end of the trip.

17th: Trim the Tree, Family Picture (ENTIRE Family, all 14 of us), Lilly's Musical
18th: Delilah and I have doctors appointments at 1pm
19th: My parents are watching the girls and we are going out to dinner ALONE/Jason, Rosy, and Alan leave for Mexico and won't return until the 5th of Jan.
20th: Kale is taking the older three to see Bolt
21st: Kale's b-day dinner (his b-day was 11/22) at Famous Dave's with our extended family
22nd: Painting Sophia's room white again and switching her room and Delilah's
23rd: Kale's parents and Nanny arrive/We will go out alone again
24th: Christmas at my parents with everyone
25th: Christmas of course/plus Kale and his dad are taking the older three to Tale of Despereaux/Judy and I are making dinner/My mom and the teens are coming over for dinner
26th: Probably family pictures with Kale's family (since Judy all of the sudden after 5 years decided she wants to get it done professionally again, AFTER she has said numerous times that regular snapshots are good enough)/My parents and the teens leave for Chicago
27th: His family leaves
28th: Not sure yet
29th: He leaves at 6pm :(

The only positive thing about Jason, Rosy, and Alan being in Mexico for Christmas is that they are letting Kale's family stay at their house. That way we aren't cramped here and they don't have to spend money on a hotel. Otherwise it sucks, we will miss them like we do every year.

I may be hit and miss again during all of this. I have been very lazy, bored, and tired lately.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

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.

More Christmas Ideas: I start early I know...

I ordered blocks for every one's rooms from another seller on Etsy. These are what she came up with for the kids:

I picked these out for Lilly out of some she already had displayed. They match her new bedding set perfectly.

For Sophia I asked if she could find penguins and as you can see she delivered just that.

Alan's were another set I picked from ones she had displayed. My brother played soccer since he was 4 all the way up through college and still plays occasionally now.

And for Delilah...

She is still working on horses for Aidan, but says she will be done soon. I am happy for the way they all turned out so far and her prices are very reasonable.

Delilah had Sophia's sickness this weekend, lucky me. She didn't have it nearly as long though. I think because she doesn't equate eating with pooping yet. We had a pretty quiet weekend. Did a little shopping with my mom & the teens and had dinner at my parents house. Jason even stayed since Rosy and Alan are out of town for her cousin's wedding. The older three girls spent the night with my parents and Delilah even let me sleep in until 9am this morning!

Hope everyone else had a great weekend.

I Escaped!

We actually got to leave our house today! It wasn't so bad either. I thought Sophia was going to be horrible, but after a few scoldings she was good to go. We went to The Legends, an outdoor shopping outlet not to far from here. First order of business was to get Delilah a pair of shoes. She started walking last week and is pretty much walking everywhere now. I don't buy shoes for babies until they can walk, there really isn't a point for them before then. At least in my opinion. I bought her these:
They are Stride Rite and so very cute. And since I bought them at the outlet they didn't cost me an arm and a leg. While we were out we had lunch at Panera Bread and I threw some money at Carter's (damn their $10 off $50 coupons!). I also went to Target, got Alan's Christmas present, another present off Lilly's list, and a sleeping bag for Aidan. They are going camping with the girl scouts next weekend and Lilly has a sleeping bag, but Aidan didn't. I also got her a dunk bag for her mess kit. I still have to find her a mess kit. I don't have time to order her the girl scout one like Lilly has, so I have to make my own. I may call to see if any places are carrying the girl scout one in the area, it would be much easier and less expensive than doing it myself.

That's what we did today. Lilly and Aidan get to go to a magic show after school because Kale is deployed, so I don't have to pick them up until 4:30pm. I think we will walk since Sophia is feeling better now...

Wordless Wednesday: I have been busy shopping edition

I have been very busy scouring the web for interesting, unique, and unusual gifts. I gave away so many standard toys, barbies, my little ponies, and such that I don't want to simply replace them with new standard toys.

I ordered a kit from Etsy to make Delilah a baby proof scrapbook

Our presents to the older three is new bedding.

This is Lilly's, I hate it but she has been begging for animal print bedding.

I bought Aidan's this summer when it was on sale.

I have commissioned a woman on Etsy to make a toddler bedding set out of this fabric. It was tough to find cutsie penguin fabric.

Lilly is getting this necklace obviously with her name on it.

Aidan's...

The rest of this stuff is for Sophia. Basically this is nearly all she will get from Santa.

It's the Dream Town Cherry Blossom Market and Accessories. She already has the Dream Town Cottage.