Literally

i just wanted to remember some of Mackenzie's Magical Childhood Moments...

I asked her to put the sunscreen away under the sink in the bathroom

when she was about 2 years old...

... and so she did :)

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I had just bought a new birdbath for the garden in March of this year.

As i was bringing in groceries one morning i realized the birdbath was empty. i asked mackenzie to get a cup from the kitchen and fill it up a few times to replenish the birdbath.

As i came around the corner i saw this:

when i inquired about the soap bubbles in the birdbath, mackenzie explained,

"the birds need soap when taking a bath!" :)

In case you were wondering...

Outside my window...
i can see other houses and blue skies... it is too hot for october and the likes of fall

From the kitchen...
i will create yet again! i have been on such a roll lately: homemade chicken pot pie, Salisbury steak, chocolate chip pumpkin cookies, Shepard's pie, Parmesan chicken, Beef stew...

I am wearing...
green shorts, a green shirt, and a CLU sweatshirt (haven't taken off from this morning yet)

I am creating...
so many things that i decided i needed a whiteboard to jot everything down: 2 halloween costumes, goodie bags for the birthday party tomorrow, halloween game for tonight, late birthday packages to family out of state, the menu for dinner tonight, a quilt for our bed, organization in the house, thanksgiving invitations, ways for the kids and i to make gifts, a space for a new kitten next week, blankets for the homeless

I am going...
to need some more iced coffee in a few minutes.

I am hoping...
that the fall pictures i take tomorrow at the birthday party will meet my photographic expectation. I also hope the weather will cool down!

I am hearing...
not much. The house is unusually quiet with the older ones at school and kiera napping... really i just hearing the keyboard and the hum of my computer...

Around the house...
there are remnants that a very busy family lives here :)

One of my favorite things...
warm pumpkin cookies, the smell of a wood fire and the smell of amber, fuzzy jammies, my kids giggles, family nights, small reasons to create huge celebrations, football, feeling secure and loved

A Few Plans for the Rest of the Week:
Family Night Tonight! I have a Halloween game and then i bought the Charlie Brown holiday series and Garfield Holiday movie also. Thought the kids good sleep in their sleeping bags downstairs tonight after our game and movie and popcorn. Birthday Party tomorrow at the pumpkin patch. Football Sunday! Picking up new kitten. Kyle's softball game. Halloween!!!

Orangeness

Happy Birthdaysssssssssssssss!!!

There have been so many birthdays these past couple months :)

Happy Birthday to Marlene!

Happy Birthday to Mary Lou!

Happy Birthday to my Great Aunt Bunny!

Happy Birthday to Patrick!

Happy Birthday to my Mom! I had to add a

2nd picture cuz this is her THIS YEAR blowing out her candle :)

Halloween Mystery Boxes/Family Night

So this blog started as a "Halloween Family Night blog" and then it turned into a "Laughing Out Loud at our Halloween Costumes" blog! HAHA! I've added pictures throughout the blog of me and my brothers and mom and dad over the years :) HOW FUN! My favorite memory growing up is halloween. i remember my mom would turn the light on over the dining room table (usually it was only turned on for special events) and out would come the costume box from the attic. Of course the attic had a smell to it. But a smell that reminds me of certain times of the year. Once my mom sewed me a Tweedy Bird costume (now you know where i get my inspiration!) Good memories for me!

(YES THIS IS MY DAD AND MY MOM PREGO WITH JAMEEL!)

Did you ever do those as a kid... Halloween Mystery Boxes? I remember walking through Parish Hall at my elementary school and there were boxes lined up with creepy, icky halloween surprises... i remember being a bit freaked out cuz i knew they really weren't "eyeballs" but they FELT SO REAL!

So i am on a new mission to make friday nights "Family Nights". I just want to do a small activity together before bed. Initially, i will come up with the ideas and then after a few months i'm hoping everyone can take turns and plan their Friday Night Family Event. So this Friday i want to do Halloween Mystery Boxes. i thought i would share some ideas.

*Box #1: Spaghetti with oil & red food coloring = Veins
*Box #2: Olives = Eyeballs
*Box #3: Vienna Sausages = Fingers
* Box #4: Dried Apricots = Ears
* Box #5: Carrots = Bones
* Box #6: Popcorn Kernels = Teeth
* Box #7: Scrambled Eggs = Brains
(where am i gunna get all these boxes?)



ohh, i just found this idea which eliminates all those boxes :) i don't know this child...

(ME AND MATTY AND OUR NEIGHBOR)

and then how fun is this recipe!
Need:
1 Cat litter pan
1 Cat litter scoop
1 large box Grape Nuts
1 large sack Tootsie Rolls (unwrapped)
Box powdered sugar

Mix the Grapenuts with the powdered sugar. Pour into litter box and add Tootsie rolls, stir in. Set scoop in box. Let guests help themselves or offer while you sample.

HAHAHAHA! That one is gross and funny... i may or may not add this in for friday night desert :)

i like this also to go with dinner:
Freeze gummy worms in ice cubes and add them to drinks.
Cut gummy worms in half if needed.

(JAMEEL AS ZSA-ZSA IN JAIL!!!! LOL!)


GAME: TRICK OR TREAT....(modified game)

For this trick or treat game- kids don't go door to door. They sit on your floor in a circle and take turns pulling cards out of a pumpkin. (plastic trick or treat pumpkin). Some of the papers say TRICK- and have a silly thing they have to do like, "make a silly face" , "howl at the moon", etc.. some papers say TREAT. Papers that say TREAT- have a number on them too. (Take one, two , three treats... ) Some papers say SHARE a treat and they have to choose someone in the circle to give a treat to...This game is about sharing, taking turns, being silly and getting treats! Play and make sure everyone has a handful of treats to take home with them.

And then i found these cool Fake Body Parts Recipes:

Face Paint
1 teaspoon corn starch1/2 teaspoon water1/2 teaspoon cold cream Food coloring
Mix all ingredients together in an old muffin pan and you are ready to paint. This amount makes one color.

Fake Wound
1 tablespoon Vaseline Tissue Cocoa powder 2-3 drops red food coloring
Place Vaseline in a bowl. Add food coloring. Blend with a toothpick. Stir in a pinch of cocoa to make a darker blood color. Separate tissue. Using one layer, tear a 2-by-3-inch piece and place at wound site. Cover with petroleum jelly and mold into the shape of a wound. The center should be lower than the sides. Fill the center with the red petroleum jelly mixture. Sprinkle center with some cocoa. Sprinkle a little around the edges of the wound to make darker.

FakeBlood 2/3 cup white corn syrup, 1 teaspoon red food coloring 2 to 3 drops blue food coloring 1 squirt liquid dish soap Mix the white corn syrup, red food coloring and 2 to 3 drops blue food coloring to darken. Add one squirt dish soap (helps blood to run well).
Abrasions Dab brown, red and black eye shadow on area. Apply blood over area with cotton balls. Use comb to gently scratch area in one direction. Apply cocoa or dirt over wound with cotton balls.

BlackEye Apply red and blue eye shadow to depressions around eyes.
Bruises Rub red and blue shadow over bony area to simulate recent bruises. Use blue and yellow eye shadow to create older bruises.
Look Old Cover face with baby powder. Draw dark lines on your skin for wrinkles, and smooth edges to blend. Cover again with baby powder. Add baby powder to your hair to create gray hair.

HALLOWEEN BACK IN THE DAY :)

We were 3 hobos & the broken arm was not part of the costume

(JAMEEL HAS THE BLACK WIG ON AND MATTY WAS A PUNK ROCKER)

Surrounded by AMAZING People

So the ear tube surgery went GREAT! It was quick and pretty much painless. The nurses and doctors were amazed how she NEVER cried once, not even when daddy left the room before surgery. They were also surprised how she woke up immediately after the procedure. They kept saying that it didn't even seem like she had surgery. I am very happy that she will be able to endure winter EAR PAIN FREE! I also feel relieved that her body will not have to ingest all of those antibiotics for such a long period of time. And, the BEST part is her world won't sound so muffled anymore! So my Mackenzie is amazing for her COURAGE and BRAVERY!!! She's already dressing up like a princess after her special chocolate shake :)

Kiera's had her 1 year well check last week. I was encouraged by her pediatrician to really get her to cry herself back to sleep during the night as she STILL WAKES UP EVERY 3 HOURS!!!!!!! She really only nurses once a night, but other than that she just wakes up to wake up. It doesn't bother me so much as i have been doing for 13 months and my body is just used to the schedule. But i decided to follow her advice. Last night at bedtime i stood by her crib as she screamed and cried and cried and screamed because i was not rocking her to sleep. i thought i was giving some awesome moral support as i hadn't left the bedroom yet. BUT, after 30 minutes of her screaming and crying and crying and screaming i decided to walk out of her bedroom for 5 minutes and return to encourage her to lay down in the crib again. She wasn't having it.... continued to scream and cry and cry and scream. So i walked out again giving her a chance to lay down on her own.... oh no.... she wanted her mommy. as i waited in the other room i suddenly heard a loud THUD!!! Simultaneously, kyle was installing a new shower head so i thought he had dropped his tool bag or something.... WRONG!!!! Little miss kiera, 13 month old little miss kiera, CLIMBED OUT OF HER CRIB AND LANDED ON THE WOOD FLOOR!!!! She walked out of her bedroom still crying insisting that i rock her to sleep. SHE WON! I felt sooo bad that i had rushed the process weaning her at bedtime and maybe my little baby still needs her mommy to rock her to sleep :) so i will! My Kiera June is amazing for her PASSION AND DETERMINATION!!!!

Kienan is doing SUPER in school. He was the first one in his class to start the reading program with BOB books. He is already on his 3rd book and keeps saying, "These are so easy i can read it with my eyes closed." As a teacher THIS IS AWESOME! As a mother I AM VERY PROUD! But as a lover of books I AM EXCITED as what the love of reading will bring to his world and hopefully enhance his life. So the other night i caught him under his sheet with a flashlight and a book. CLASSIC! My son is amazing for his INTELLIGENCE and CURIOSITY about the world!!!!!!

Josh has done it AGAIN! His video assignment was to create a music video. He produced and filmed it. There is some trick stuff in there plus he drew that picture of the singer BY HAND! That is his best friend, Kyle, singing who has a real band. But they lip-synced this song. I am amazed by josh's CREATIVITY and MATURITY that i have seen in the past couple of months!! Check it out!!!! : www.vimeo.com/1989993

I don't post much about my dear husband and i guess that is because he is not growing and developing quite like the littler people of the house... but he has been AMAZING lately. First, i want to acknowledge that we have now BEEN IN BUSINESS FOR 2 YEARS AS OF OCTOBER 1ST! What an experience to work as partners for these past couple of years! Our marriage has benefited by using this opportunity to get to know each other on a completely different level. The biggest struggle and challenge has been separating work from home life; being "Business Partners" one minute, "Parents" another minute and "Husband/Wife" even another minute. But here we are still moving forward. his PERSISTENCE is amazing! Second, he treated me to a saturday of sleeping in, a 1 hour facial and a 1 hour massage!!!!! WOW!!! That's a first and i loved it! So he is amazing for his THOUGHTFULNESS! And thirdly, he has been helping with the cooking, cleaning the house (bathrooms!) and taking on more of the parenting duties. For this i really appreciate his efforts. I am amazed at his role as a DEDICATED FATHER and THOUGHTFUL HUSBAND!!!!! Oh ya and i'm glad he's tapping into his INNER CHILD a bit more! :) i love you.

Surgery

Mackenzie is having minor surgery tomorrow to get tubes put in both ears. She has suffered chronic ear infections for the past 2 years so this should alleviate the pain and constant need for antibiotics. The actual surgery is super short, it's the anesthetics that are more risky and take longer. We should be able to leave the hospital by noon. We'll let you know how everything goes. In the meantime, please keep kenzie in your good thoughts! :)

The Cost Of Raising My Children

Something absolutely positive for a change. I have repeatedly seen the breakdown of the cost of raising a child, but this is the first time I have seen the rewards listed this way.

The government recently calculated the cost of raising a child from birth to 18 and came up with $160,140 for a middle income family. Talk about sticker shock! That doesn't even touch college tuition. But $160,140 isn't so bad if you break it down.It translates into:$8,896.66 a year,$741.38 a month, or $171.08 a week. That's a mere $24.24 a day! Just over a dollar an hour. Still, you might think the best financial advice is don't havechildren if you want to be "rich." Actually, it is just the opposite.What do you get for your $160,140?

* Naming rights. First, middle, and last!

* Glimpses of God every day.

* Giggles under the covers every night.

* More love than your heart can hold.

* Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs.

* Endless wonder over rocks, ants, clouds, and warm cookies.

* A hand to hold, usually covered with jelly or chocolate.

* A partner for blowing bubbles, flying kites, building sand castles, and skipping down the sidewalk in the pouring rain.

* Someone to laugh yourself silly with.

For $160,140, you never have to grow up.

You get to:* finger-paint* carve pumpkins* play hide-and-seek* catch lightning bugs, and* never stop believing in the tooth fairy.
You have an excuse to:* keep reading the Adventures of Piglet and Pooh* watch Saturday morning cartoons* go to Disney movies, and* wish on stars.

You get to frame rainbows, hearts, and flowers under refrigerator magnets and collect hand prints set in clay for Mother's Day, and cards with backward letters for Father's Day.

For $160,140, there is no greater bang for your buck.

You get to be a hero just for:* retrieving a Frisbee off the garage roof,* taking the training wheels off a bike,* removing a splinter,* filling a wading pool,* coaxing a wad of gum out of bangs, and* coaching a baseball team that never wins but always gets treated to ice cream regardless.

You get a front row seat to history to witness the first step, firstword, first bra, first date, and first time behind the wheel. You get to be immortal.

You get another branch added to your family tree and if you're lucky, a long list of limbs in your obituary called grandchildren and great grandchildren.
You get an education in psychology, nursing, criminal justice,communications, and human sexuality that no college can match.

In the eyes of a child, you rank right up there under God. You have all the power to heal a boo-boo, scare away the monsters under the bed, patch a broken heart, police a slumber party, ground them forever, and love them without limits.

So that one day they, like you, will love without counting the cost.
That is quite a deal for the price!

I'm the lucky one

I'M SERIOUSLY SO BLESSED.

I LOVE YOOU GUYS!!!

XOXOXOXOXOX

Kienan Lost His FIRST Tooth!

What a very exciting day in our house yesterday! Kienan has been wiggling his bottom, front tooth everyday hoping that THIS was the day. Finally, today he said i could tie a string to his tooth and attach the other end to the front door. Now, i've never used this method before... at least i don't remember if i did... but he said he felt brave so i tied one end to the front door handle and looped the other end around his dangling, front tooth. Mackenzie was nominated to perform the honors of closing the front door. Luckily, she wasn't upset with him about anything. We counted... ONE, TWO, THREE! I think we may have all cringed for just a split second as the door slammed shut. I was agonizing over the pain he had NO CLUE he might feel... BUT... the looped end on his tooth slipped off and there the tooth remained dangling... so i re-looped the thread and pulled a bit tighter on the tooth so it didn't slip off again. As i gave the thread that extra pull out came the tooth!!! i stood there holding his little itty bitty baby tooth now dangling from a green thread. He had no idea what had just happened. As i showed him his tooth he stuck his finger and then his tongue in the new hole. "IT WORKED! MY TOOTH IS OUT!!!! LOOK MACKENZIE!!!!" "ewwwww" replied his little sister.

We finally read our new Tooth Fairy Book and let me tell you, i rate that book a 10 out of 10! So flippin cute and perfect for the event. Kienan ended up writing a short letter to the tooth fairy inspired by Holly, the character in the book. Hopefully if you double click on the picture it will get big enough to see what he wrote. He also drew the tooth fairy and next to her is his tooth with roots as he explained to us. He also stated that he was "concerned." When i asked why he said, "it's about the money. I hope i don't get a penny. I hope it's a dollar."We put his super, cute, baby tooth in the Tooth Pillow his mommy made last week :)

The tooth fairy took his letter and wrote a note back to him. She said his tooth was very clean. She also left him a rare $2.00 bill :) The best part was the gold fairy dust all over his pillow.I was hanging onto the moment wondering if that specific tooth was HIS VERY FIRST TOOTH! Oh i really don't want him to grow up just yet...

Pumpkin Smoothie

YUM! The kids and I made these Pumpkin Smoothies this morning and they were a HIT! (They didn't look as pretty as that picture right over there, but still tasted yum). I'm sure there are some cancer fighting antioxidants and some beta-carotene and other yummy necessary vitamins in this deee-lish drink that your kids won't argue about :) Found it in my Family Fun Boredom Busters Book.

In a blender combine:

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 1/2 cup milk or vanilla yogurt

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/4 tsp. nutmeg

4 tsp. brown sugar

8 ice cubes

(we added chocolate chips and fall sprinkles for the FUN OF IT!)

Pour and enjoy on a windy autumn day or with a pumpkin scented candle burning or while wearing your favorite flannel pajama bottoms :)

Master Bedroom Facelift (so excited!)

Rustic, Romantic Master Bedroom Getaway for Mommy & Daddy

xoxo

New Paint: $200

New Bedding: $100

New Curtains & Rods: $150

New candle to match & set the mood: $10

Waking up in the middle of the night

with our 3 kids between us: PRICELESS!

Nightmares

Just wanted to share a few tricks if your kiddos are having a difficult time falling asleep or waking up with nightmares.

Moonpowder by John Rocco is FANTASTIC! The illustrations, especially of the moon, are so great and the story is one to warm the heart right before bed. :) Good story about self-esteem and how to have good dreams.

I have also used Linen Spray from Bath & Body Works. I told the kids it was "Nightmare Spray." I winked at the store clerk at BBW and asked her if this was the "Nightmare Spray for kids." She told Kienan yes and that it worked very well. :) So if you spray it on their pillows then the nightmares stay away . Sometimes the kids like me to spray it on their pillows just cuz it smells so nice.

Anyways, both have worked for us!

~SWEET DREAMS~

One of my favorites...

On Being MoM

by Anna Quindlen, Newsweek Columnist and Author

If not for the photographs, I might have a hard time believing they ever existed. The pensive infant with the swipe of dark bangs and the black button eyes of a Raggedy Andy doll. The placid baby with the yellow ringlets and the high piping voice. The sturdy toddler with the lower lip that curled into an apostrophe above her chin.

All my babies are gone now. I say this not in sorrow but in disbelief. I take great satisfaction in what I have today: three almost-adults, two taller than I am, one closing in fast. Three people who read the same books I do and have learned not to be afraid of disagreeing with me in their opinion of them, who sometimes tell vulgar jokes that make me laugh until I choke and cry, who need razor blades and shower gel and privacy, who want to keep their doors closed more than I like. Who, miraculously, go to the bathroom, zip up their jackets and move food from plate to mouth all by themselves. Like the trick soap I bought for the bathroom with a rubber ducky at its center, the baby is buried deep within each, barely discernible except through the unreliable haze of the past.

Everything in all the books I once pored over is finished for me now. Penelope Leach., T. Berry Brazelton., Dr. Spock. The ones on sibling rivalry and sleeping through the night and early-childhood education, all grown obsolete. Along with Goodnight Moon and Where the Wild Things Are, they are battered, spotted, well used. But I suspect that if you flipped the pages dust would rise like memories.

What those books taught me, finally, and what the women on the playground taught me, and the well-meaning relations -what they taught me, was that they couldn't really teach me very much at all. Raising children is presented at first as a true-false test, then becomes multiple choice, until finally, far along, you realize that it is an endless essay. No one knows anything. One child responds well to positive reinforcement, another can be managed only with a stern voice and a timeout. One child is toilet trained at 3, his sibling at 2. When my first child was born, parents were told to put baby to bed on his belly so that he would not choke on his own spit-up. By the time my last arrived, babies were put down on their backs because of research on sudden infant death syndrome. To a new parent this ever-shifting certainty is terrifying, and then soothing. Eventually you must learn to trust yourself. Eventually the research will follow.

I remember 15 years ago poring over one of Dr. Brazelton's wonderful books on child development, in which he describes three different sorts of infants: average, quiet, and active. I was looking for a sub-quiet codicil for an 18-month old who did not walk. Was there something wrong with his fat little legs? Was there something wrong with his tiny little mind? Was he developmentally delayed, physically challenged? Was I insane? Last year he went to China. Next year he goes to college. He can talk just fine. He can walk, too.

Every part of raising children is humbling, too. Believe me, mistakes were made. They have all been enshrined in the, "Remember-When-Mom-Did Hall of Fame." The outbursts, the temper tantrums, the bad language, mine, not theirs. The times the baby fell off the bed. The times I arrived late for preschool pickup. The nightmare sleep over. The horrible summer camp. The day when the youngest came barreling out of the classroom with a 98 on her geography test, and I responded, What did you get wrong? (She insisted I include that.) The time I ordered food at the McDonald's drive-through speaker and then drove away without picking it up from the window. (They all insisted I include that.) I did not allow them to watch the Simpsons for the first two seasons. What was I thinking?

But the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three of them, sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4 and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.

Even today I'm not sure what worked and what didn't, what was me and what was simply life. When they were very small, I suppose I thought someday they would become who they were because of what I'd done. Now I suspect they simply grew into their true selves because they demanded in a thousand ways that I back off and let them be.

The books said to be relaxed and I was often tense, matter-of-fact and I was sometimes over the top. And look how it all turned out. I wound up with the three people I like best in the world, who have done more than anyone to excavate my essential humanity. That's what the books never told me. I was bound and determined to learn from the experts. It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were...

Tooth Fairy

Kienan has his FIRST LOOSE TOOTH! It's the front bottom tooth :) Funny to watch him eat everything on the left side of his mouth.

I found a super cute idea for a Tooth Fairy Pillow which I will now tackle this week. I already have a whole bunch of denim pockets i have saved from Daddy's old jeans. I just need to find a little pocket to sew on the front. I also already have fabric paints so i can make it super cute :)

Of course I need to link everything to reading :) I ordered this book from Amazon.

We will be posting before and after pictures!