Just hum a happy tune...

So yesterday afternoon the house was maybe a half of a degree cooler then the day before so I decided I needed to catch up on some (understatement!) laundry. I had been putting it off in all the heat, but the clothes keep multiplying as they always do. I walk into the dinning room from the laundry room dripping sweat with my arms full of clean clothes to fold and what do my tired eyes see...

...they see a little naked redhead standing on the open dish washer door, peeing into my fully loaded dishwasher of clean and ready to put away dishes.

Top that.

P.S. Don't worry I didn't put them away with out running them through a Full Cycle Again with extra cleaner. Nothing makes a pregnant mommy happier then extra repetitive chores on a hot miserable day. In fact I was so cheerful I sang "whistle while you work" through the whole thing...then again, maybe not.

Hello, can you hear me now?

This is the second time my hubby has had to take apart the toilet in our second bathroom.
This time it was to remove... drum roll please...

A TOY CELL PHONE. Last time it was a block of wood. Both times hubby was very unhappy.

So glad he knows how to pull apart a toilet and put it back again, because if I was faced with that I don't know if it would ever get done. I think I would just put a Hazard sign on the seat and right it off as a loss. It's not that I couldn't figure it out, it's just that I wouldn't want to. He really comes in handy when it comes to the big dirty jobs! Little poopy diapers...not so much. You win some, you lose some. :)

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Oh and if you are wondering why my hubby is home in the middle of the day during the week, well he got laid of again. After finally getting a call from the hall, we were so excited, but it ended up being only two partial weeks of work. Enough that he couldn't claim unemployment, and since he worked barely over 40 hours they have bumped him back to the end of the union list, which by the way is a mile long right now, and he's already been on it twice! He barely made more then if he had just stayed on unemployment, and he missed out on a deck building job he was going to do with a friend, where he would have made A Lot More. To say we are frustrated is an extreme understatement.

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I am trying to stay thankful, so today I am thankful that he was here to fix the stinky clogged up toilet. I will attempt to take it one day at a time, and be thankful, oh so thankful for my beautiful, healthy family. Living in the moment.

Heat Wave

So you don't think I'm just being a whiney pregnant lady, check this out . It's hot. We are not use to this sort of thing in the Pacific North West. Not many of us have air conditioning over here in our homes. We don't even think about it. Because it's usually raining. My house yesterday...miserable. Even with every ceiling fan on and three other fans plugged in, they just blew the hot air around. Today, because my husband picked up a FREE (thanks to Craigslist and an awesome friend keeping an eye on things for me) old air conditioning unit last night, the kind that goes in the window, our playroom is a bit cooler. It doesn't reach far, but if you stand right in front of it... wonderful. So we are trying to huddle around that. The rest of my house is still too warm, but it's like ten degrees hotter outside today too so I am thankful for the cooler playroom (even though I am still sweating buckets). We can't even go outside this afternoon to play in the water because it's just plain WAY too hot out, the kids are watching a movie as I type, something we normally don't do at this time of day. My garden is pathetic, my yard scorced, my plants dying...so sad.

If I could pay my water and electric bills for this month with out looking I would. I want the rain back... ;)

One Hot Momma

...and not in the ooh-la-la way...more like the, if you look at me wrong I might punch you in the face way...well not if you're a kid, that would be just wrong, I was thinking more in terms of my husband. Help me I'm melting...and get that *bleeping* camera out of my face! I'm not kidding peoples it is stinkin' hot around here, me no likey any more...

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Signing off as one grumpy momma. If I am not a puddle by tomorrow I may live to blog again.

A little conversation...

...with my wise and protective first born son.



Watching me make tea at the stove with hot boiling water.

(Just so you know I've burnt myself many times cooking in the kitchen...I get going a little to fast and before I know it I've done it again. I just recently got a super bad burn on my finger that had the whole family a bit grossed out.)



Bubu- "Careful, don't burn yourself Riah."



Me- "That's right Bubu I'll be careful, Safety first."



Bubu- "Yeah"



PAUSE



Bubu- "You're pretty brave Riah."



Me- "Thank you sweetheart."



ANOTHER PAUSE



Bubu- "I want you to be safe and brave," hand gesturing back and forth, "safe...and brave" he emphasized.



Me- "Yes that's a smart combination huh, you're right, safe and brave."



Bubu- Looking right at me with a serious expression "Yes safe and brave."



Oh my sweetest, you are so wise. Always the loving son, how did I end up with such a wondrous you?

invites

So here they are, cards on a budget. I printed out strawberry and strawberry shortcake pictures from the Internet. Then we cut the green card stock the shape of a legal size envelope (because that's what I had on hand). We carefully planned to make sure we got the most out of each sheet of paper. Then I cut a double flap of the pink paper and glued it to the front. When you lift the flap there is a pink background and all the info is listed there on the inside. I glued red checkered ribbon that I had on hand to the front and then used my sewing machine to stitch a line down the middle of each ribbon to make sure it stayed on...and because it looked cute. I also stitched around the picture that I glued on the front. Then my dear friend who was helping me hand wrote "my little strawberry" on the front of all the cards (Because she has beautiful handwriting and mine is juvenile chicken scratch in comparison!) and ta-da, all done. The kids helped glue the extra pictures I had printed off onto the envelopes.
My friend paid for the card stock as a gift, we used a small amount and she took the rest home for other projects so I not sure how to figure out the cost on that, but for everything else we spent not a dime. Each individual card basically cost me the price of a stamp. Even that I skimped on because if the person lived close enough and was someone I see on a regular basis I just hand delivered theirs! So I say we are onto a good start for a budget friendly baby shower in these hard economic times. We will see how I fare with the remainder of the shower preparation. The food is always what gets me. Mostly because we try to eat an all natural organic diet as much as possible and that is just hard to do on a budget. I reminded people on the inside of the card that gently used baby girl clothing is A okay in my book and in fact all that this mommy of boys needs! I can't wait to get together with all my girlfriends and celebrate the life of this baby girl!!!
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My next dilemma is that I can't make up my mind on the fabric for Strawberry's quilt. So I am going to take my camera next time I go the the fabric store and take a bunch of pictures and then I am going to try and get you guys to help me pick. There are just so many cute patterns and colors to pick from I can't make up my mind! I decided on Quilt C, from the three quilts I showed you all before, so I only have to pick a few fabrics but still...

The newest and coolest

Atty started it. It's the newest thing. Sleeping in your chair is the latest fad around her. All the cool kids do it. The little girl on the bottom left is actually faking so that I will carry her to her mat...anyone who knows anything about anything knows that it's so much more awesome to be carried to bed instead of walking on your own two feet.*
Is it bad to say that nap time is my favorite time of day? It is my Only break of the day, and I treasure every moment of it! Plus they look so peaceful and sweet it reminds me of how absolutely precious they are...a much needed reminder on some days I must admit.

No more suffering

My husband's mother passed away this weekend on Saturday after a battle with cancer. He was there, and is thankful for that. His sister and brother were coming up to visit her because it did look like she wasn't going to make it much longer, but we all didn't realize how little time was left. They didn't make it. I got back from picking up Bubu at the same time that his sister and J got to our house. My hubby was home and I assumed he came to meet them and take them to their mom. We all went inside and were chatting to each other and then my husband asked the little ones to go outside and play because he needed to talk to us, and my heart sank. He just came right out and told us that their mom had passed away that morning, and poor J just said "no" and went stone cold. Frozen and unresponsive, wouldn't say another word. We all sat and listened to hubby and then talked some and we all took turns telling J how much we loved him and such. I'm so worried about him. My husband is broken up but he knows that she is in a better place now and no longer suffering, plus he is an adult. J is only fourteen. He now has no father that he knows of and no mother. He never had much of a relationship with her in the first place, and he had just moved back in with her, after almost seven years of living with us, when she got sick. After my hubby left to go back to the nursing home and take care of things, his sister and J stayed behind. J started talking again, about other things and eventually you wouldn't even have been able to tell that anything had happened. I went along with it because I know him and I knew not to push anything. His sister left later and he is staying with us until the memorial. He remain unemotional the rest of that night and yesterday. Then last night, late, late into the night I heard him crying. Hard. Although it saddened me to hear his hurt I also felt relieved. He needed to let it out. I let it go for a while, because I knew he would go back into himself if we went in there, but I also didn't want him to feel alone. So when he started to sound more angry and repetitive I told my hubby to go in there and comfort him. I am so worried for my boys. My hubby and my first baby. They are both so sensitive although they try so hard to hide it. I truly don't know how to comfort them, I feel unsure of the right words. I just desperately want to be able to support them through this, I hope that J can feel that I will always be there for him and although I am not his mom, he is my baby. Always and forever.

I just need to break out mom!

My oldest went on his first sleep over at a friends house Friday night. He was over the moon excited, and as for me? Well I'm an overly zealous stay at home mom who gets a little freaked out when her kids go anywhere with out her...but I've survived so far. After he left I only called over there twice, even though I thought about it about a million times. I know I'm annoying... My son let me know with out a doubt that he was ready, he needed a break. I asked him a few days prior if he was interested in going over to his friends house and staying the night and boy was he! Trying to tell an almost four year old super excited little man how many more days he has to wait...not fun. We were talking about it and he kept saying "just me mom, not my brothers". So I asked him if he needed a break from his brothers and he said that indeed he did. So we started talking about that and how even mommy needs breaks sometimes, but that when he saw his brothers again he would be so happy to see them and he would realize how much he missed them and such. After I was done babbling he looked at me with this thoughtful expression and said "Yeah, but I just need to break out mom". That was his catch phrase for the next few days. Every time we would talk about the sleep over he would say "I just need to break out!" Pretty cute.
So the big day arrived and he was ready right when he woke up, except he had to wait until the afternoon and I'm pretty sure that was like a life time for him. Then around noon his daddy had to leave so he gave Bubu a kiss and told him to enjoy his sleep over and all of the sudden Bubu looked all unsure of himself, his voice got all wobbly and he asked his daddy if he was going with him (to the sleep over). It total caught me off guard because he had been so excited for days. My hubby told him no and gave me a look. Then Bubu looked at me and asked me if I was going with him and I reminded him it was just him and that he would have lots of fun and changed the subject. He never did cry about it and he seemed to go back to being excited but now I was worried. Was I pushing him into something he wasn't ready for? My husband hadn't been so keen on the idea, and I didn't want to be wrong, but it really did feel like he was ready for a sleep over.
Well it turns out I was right because as soon as they pulled into the driveway and my friend stepped out of her car he was shouting out the window "remember I'm going to your house". Over and over again. He was out of there. He didn't even kiss me goodbye as he ran out the door. He made it all the way to the car before finally hearing the reminder for a kiss from me. Then he ran back, and gave me a kiss while keeping his eyes on the car and his friend. He half heartily hugged his brothers and made another dash for the car. Gone. Not a tear, not a worry, gone. He was ready.
I'm not going to lie to you, I almost cried. Almost. I've tried so hard to raise him with confidence and to see that confidence in action was overwhelming. To see him so grown, ready to leave his mother behind and survive on his own, to feel so self assured. He had never even been over to this friends house before, so it was something extremely brand new for him. I can't wait to pick him up today and hear all about it. To see his excited face. It's funny how as a parent you can feel so proud of all the little things. The firsts.

FYI

I just sneezed...and wet myself. As in I need a diaper. I love being pregnant.

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Oh, we're not that good of friends yet, too much information, yeah...

Colors in the rain.

Rainy day fun...sporting just raincoats and armed with chalk, my boys had a blast!*
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Cute, silly boys. I just love them and their curious adventurous personality's.

Mommy B's for everyone!

I finally finished it. Over two years later that is! Look how happy he is to finally have his mommy b. I've been promising to finish it for quite some time now. I almost had it done a few months ago, everything but the binding. I hate putting on the binding...but enough excuses...the kid needs his baby blanket! I feel so bad, Bubu's was done before he was born and so was Atty's. All I can say is life was really hectic when I had three, two and under...what am I saying it's still hectic.

I was working with crazy mismatched fabric. For Spikes baby shower I asked the guest to bring fabric in place of any baby gifts. So each piece I got I wanted to get into the quilt some how. It makes for a busy blanket, but I like that the fabric has so much meaning.

Monkeys, ladybugs, frogs, baby prints, footballs...there's a lot going on here.

I was so determined to finish this blanket today that I spent every spare moment working on it. Early in the morning I sewed the front of the binding on and the rest of the day was spent hand sewing the back of the binding to the back of the quilt, that's the part I really don't like. My hands are aching, the finger I used to push the needle through the fabric is so sore, I had to put a band aid on it toward the end just to keep going. I didn't put binding on the first few blankets I made, and it was so much easier, but it does look nicer with the binding.

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So now that I am done with his blanket, I need to start on the newest bundles blanket so that maybe it will be done before she is a teenager. I am excited to use girly fabrics! I really am hoping to get it done before she is born, I think I learned my lesson about waiting. It seems easier and easier to put it off after they are born for some reason. I narrowed the choices on pattern down to three. Take a look below and tell me which one you like. Help me make up my mind, so I can start looking at fabric.

Exhibit A. Framed One Patch, not the fabric just the pattern. Really simple, and cute.

Exhibit B. Friendship Star. Again just the pattern, this would be more ambitious for me, I've never attempted anything quite like it.

Exhibit C. One Patch, just the pattern. This one would be super simple so I might actually get it done on time...maybe.

So what do you think?

Medical mystery

Have you ever... had your kid spike a high fever and look miserable, so after 24 hours of this and a call to a nurse (were he told you to wait 48 hours because your child didn't have any other symptoms) you come home from grocery shopping to have said lethargic child shoved into your arms by a frantic husband who is sure something is terribly wrong because he took his temperature again and it's really high. You repeat to your husband once more what the nurse said and calmly give your child some medicine to bring down the fever and the poor babies hand starts shaking when he is drinking out of the medicine cup so now instead of being annoyed by your hypochondriac husband you too are scared as you start thinking of worse case scenarios. So even though you have a small get together planned for later that day at your house and you have lots to do you rush off to the walk in clinic (with out waiting the 48 hours that the on call nurse told you to wait.) and are met by a packed waiting room. You fill out papers, and take a seat, the lady at the counter looks at the papers and says "His temperature is that high right now?" You say yes and she responds by tell you a nurse will be coming out Immediately. That doesn't sound good. Everyone is now staring at you and some kind young lady with a little girl sitting by you tells you that he sure doesn't look like he is feeling well. That's when tears start to fall into you lethargic child's hair as he clings to your body not responding or moving. You now fear the worse and are sure something must be horribly wrong. The nurse comes out asks a few questions, and when she finds out that you've already dosed your child she leaves you to wait with a cool cloth in your hand. A sort while later you child starts to stir, then talk, then play with the rocks he had apparently been clutching in his hand the whole way to the clinic. He sits up, and you play counting games with the rocks, he starts moving around more, talking more. He starts to feel less and less hot. He starts to look perky. Yes perky. So at the hour mark you call hubby, but decide together to wait it out and see the doctor since you are already there. An hour after that you have made it into the room but still no doctor, the nurse took his temp again and it is almost normal range and he is bouncing off the walls. She agrees that the medicine you gave him earlier would not take his temperature down that much from where it was. What in the world? So by two hours you have a child that seems in no way sick, and you are getting more and more frustrated as the seconds tick by because there is so much still left to get done at home before people start showing up. You ask if you will be charged if you leave, to be told no right as the doctor walks in. That doctor tell you nothing, but does get your child screaming at the top of his lungs, because he doesn't like the thingy that she uses to look in his ears and he doesn't like the tongue depressor and he's well just not liking any of it. So after a two hour wait, the doctor has nothing different to tell you then the on call nurse did, she didn't find anything glaringly wrong with your now angry child, and you just paid...for nothing. All you managed to do was add a lot of stress to your day. When you finally get home that said child is seemingly fine and playing and hasn't spiked a fever since.

Have you ever...?

How do you spell me?

Repeat after me... B. I. G. What does that spell? ME! Does it get bigger? Yes, yes it does...three more months to grow.

My hubby's idea of a nice artistic shot, except you can't really tell I'm pregnant, just round.

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Oh and it was stinkin' hot out today, wow! Probably why I didn't much feel like smiling in the first picture. I melted and then melted again, I am a shell of my former self right now, and I can tell sleep will allude me, because I can't sleep when I am laying in a puddle of sweat. Yuck!

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You would think I would have learned the first time that being pregnant in the summer is no fun, but no, all three it's the same old story. Good grief.

Letting them grow means being okay with strips and polk-a-dots, or something like that...

So I'm one for encouraging my children to do for themselves by teaching them self helping skill. I think it boosts their self esteem and helps with power struggles and such. Banden has been dressing himself for quite some time, mostly from his PJ drawer, but that works for me on most days. That being said I haven't really got around to encouraging the babies to dress themselves and some how they turned two and then some and I was still dressing them. It's just easier in a lot of ways, and there is always so much to do that I just got in the habit of dressing them and moving on to the next thing. I realized what I was doing last week when Spike made it blatantly obvious he was tired of my dressing him, actually he's been doing this for a while, but last week it got pretty bad. I was getting frustrated with him and scolding him and soon enough we had a power struggle on our hands. Then the light bulb went on and I realized I was short changing him so I have been making an effort to let him do it on his own for the most part. Atty on the other hand is older then Spike (by four months) but shows no interest in dressing himself, or being dressed for that matter. He is so frustrating to dress because he will be looking everywhere but at you, and trying to reach for other stuff and wiggle away, it's like trying to dress a big really strong infant. He doesn't care though because I am doing it for him, so I am hoping that him having to do it for himself will help. So that brings us to yesterday, I was washing the dishes and they got the playroom cleaned up before I was done, so I absent mindedly told them to get themselves ready to go outside. I wasn't expecting much mostly just hoping for a distraction until I was done. Bubu found his own shirt and got dressed right away, no surprises there. Then Spike found his own clothes and completely dressed himself...a bit of a surprise. PJ's just like his brother of course. Atty on the other hand...he looked for clothes, sort of, but well he still needs some encouragement. I was pleasantly surprised though, they are all getting so big! Bubu's signature PJ's look, usually he is a freak about matching but today he went the unconventional route. Good thing we aren't going anywhere!

Atty needed some help, but he managed the pants on his own for the most part. He's learning, I'm thinking pretty soon he will have it down.

Spike got dressed completely on his own, picked it all out and put it all on. First time ever. Shirt is inside out and backwards, but he did it and that was all that mattered.

The funny part was the boots, when we went outside they put their own boots on, oh my goodness! Here is Bubu's styling his new look.

...and Atty....

...and Spike...silly kids!

I don't know about you but it's hard for me to watch them grow sometimes and let go of the control. I know it's good for them and necessary, but it's still hard. It just means they are rapidly getting bigger. I still can't let them choose their own clothes when we are going places, because well PJ's at church just doesn't work for me, but I guess at home it's good practice right?

Our little strawberry

My little strawberry

I can't wait to meet you!

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Starting to plan the celebration of new life, this babies shower.

Planning a get together on a budget is always a challenge but I also find it kind of fun. I guess I like a good challenge. Must be why after going so long with no kids, I now have so many so close in age and run a daycare to boot! Anyway I am doing a strawberry theme, red has been in my head for this baby, almost all the clothes I look at or purchase for this baby have some red... strawberries, cherries, ladybugs, red strips, red polk-a-dots, plain red...maybe a little pink or green, but mostly red. I didn't do this with my other two pregnancies. My friend, the one who is always helping me with everything, is coming over tomorrow and we are going to try and whip out some handmade invites. It's last minute and like I said on a budget so we'll just have to get super creative, which I hope I have in me at this point. I'm pretty tired, not sleeping well at night with the combination of Atty's non stop night waking, heartburn so bad it makes me cough, peeing every two hours all night long, being too hot, having a hard time even falling asleep in the first place, oh I could go on and on.

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So I am planning the food around strawberries, going to have red and pink decorations with a little green, the invites are going to have a picture of a strawberry on them, what else... anyone have any good ideas on other ways to incorporate strawberries into the party theme? I'm also encouraging guest to reuse, reduce, recycle by suggesting that any clothing or blankets (being as this is my third I really don't need anything else) they bring for the baby be gently loved (hand me downs, thrift, garage sale, etc...) as well as encouraging them to either not wrap the gift or reuse wrapping items. If they bring a gift at all which is not necessary, although I didn't suggest this like I usually do because I already know that all of my girlfriend are itching to get me something girly for this newest one. They all know I don't really like pink or purple (I'm not much of a girly girl) so that's probably all I will get. Ha ha! I am also going to wrap the game prizes in little brown paper bags that I already have, tie them with all natural garden twin add a little pink tag with a red strawberry or cherry on it and some sort of cute quote. The gift itself will be all natural in nature like soy candles or Burt's Bees products, maybe some nice natural handmade soaps, I have a few different ideas. I want to combine the strawberry theme with a "going green" baby shower. Want it to be girly as well as environmentally friendly. We try to live this way, so I wanted my baby shower to reflect that too.

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I'm a bit consumed by planning the baby shower, (yes I plan my own, I think by now you might be able to tell I am a bit of a control freak! Actually I just feel really uncomfortable having other people do my work for me, or something like that.) thinking about baby girl, planning for the home birth, getting the cloth diapers in order, finding a cheap dresser so I can start folding and putting away the clothes that are sitting in bags, decluttering, and on and on and on. Mostly I'm just thinking about it and writing lists because like I said, I'm awfully tired!

If you guys have any great (cheap, or should I say homemade with items likely to be found lying around the house...) shower ideas send them my way!

The fourth of July and all that went with it.

So my fourth of July started out an uneventful day which is always nice around here. While looking for bug spray to pack for that nights festivities (because I know now that mosquitoes wait for July 4th and then come out in swarms.) I ran across my old bag of fingernail polished. I haven't painted my nails in probably about 3 years and I notice that there was some red nail polish in there so I thought, oh what the heck. First mistake. I should know better then to try to be girly at this point. So I painted my nails and toe nails bright red and they looked great if I do say so myself, the boys wanted in on all the fun so I painted their toenails too, why not being as it was a patriotic color and all. Then I went and watered my garden and kept my nails intact which I was feeling pretty proud of. I cleaned house, packed for the evening fun, gave the boys a bath, dressed them in super cute matching t-shirts (I know I'm bad) and did their hair, put on a dress (!) and make up (!), made a patriotic red, white and blue fruit salad (which was super yummy and a big hit I might add) and when my husband got home I was frantically running around trying to make sure I had everything and wanting to get out the door on time because I HATE being late. I asked him to map the directions and went to get hoodies for the boys to hide in when the mosquitoes came for dinner. This is when it all went wrong. I came back down the hall, walked around the corner with my hands full of hoodies, and my jaw dropped to the floor. There before me was my red head crouched down and elbow deep in RED NAIL POLISH WITH RED NAIL POLISH SPREAD FINGER PAINT STYLE ACROSS MY TILE FLOOR WITH A GUILTY LOOKING SPIKE ALSO STARING UP AT ME WITH RED POLISH COVERING HIS HANDS!!! I screamed people, I hyperventilated I'll admit it. I freaked the funk out. I didn't know which one to grab first. I desperately grabbed for both while screaming at them to not wipe there hands on their brand new not even worn out of the house yet shirts. Which is what Spike had already started to do, you know to hide the evidence. So now I am marching Atty down the hall holding his hands and freaking out when I hear "he has it on his shoes" and I look back to red prints following us down the hallway. I think at that point my head popped off, and went rolling away, I know I lost my head and went crazy for a moment. After frantically scrubbing my floor with fingernail polish remover and scrubbing the boy's hands with the same, calling my friend who had invited us to the party and through tears telling here we would most definitely be late, I looked at the shirts I had just got them and broke down. I went into my room and bawled like a baby. I know it sounds stupid to cry over something like this, but I had just had enough. Everything always seems too hectic around here, and I had just wanted to have a nice night with my boys and get to where we were going in one piece with out smelling like finger nail polish remover and having stained up t-shirts on. Plus I ruined my nails and had already cried off all my make up so what was the point really? If I had never got that stupid red nail polish out none of this would have ever happened, I knew there was a reason I never get very girly. Oh it went on and on and on and honestly if Bubu hadn't been such an angel through it all and hadn't been looking forward to the night so much I wouldn't have left my room. But I'm glad I did. I left the shirts on the boys red stains and all, grabbed some sunglasses and marched out that door. The fresh air was good because at that moment my house smelled like a beauty parlor. Stinky!

You can't tell that there shirts are stained in this picture, thank goodness, in fact they all just look like sweet young boys (who happen to have fro-hawks) in fact in this picture you might not even be able to tell that the two youngest just caused there mother to have an emotional melt down. If it wasn't for the evidence left on there shirts no one would ever know.

chowing down on the good stuff waiting for the fire works.
The culprit wasn't so keen on the fireworks again this year, he kept saying "go away fire" and "nigh-nigh" I don't think he has ever asked to go to bed...that is by far not normal. He clung to me, snuggled into my sweat shirt, squeezed his eyes shut and ended up falling asleep. Which was better then the non stop screaming and crying of last year. He wouldn't look at a single fire work, flat out doesn't like them. It's just to over whelming for him.

The other culprit was unsure but he did watch out of the corner of his eye from the safety of his daddy's lap. Bubu was so brave this year, he jumped when the first set when off, but he sat in awe in his own chair squeezing daddy's hand for the rest of them. He had been looking forward to fireworks all day and he kept saying "This is so cool", he is really such a doll. We had the best spot to watch the show. We were practically right under them in some ones backyard. Their yard was right next to the field that the city shoots the show off at, so instead of having to fight for a sort of good spot at the park, we got super seats up front and center. It was the coolest fire works show I have ever seen.

Ohhhhh, ahhhhhh, wow...they went on and on, so much fun I almost forgot about the red fingernail polish catastrophe. Almost.

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The following day I became determined to remove the polish from the boys shirts, so I did what I always do when looking for ideas, I googled it. Ha ha...seriously I did. There were all sorts of ideas on there, so I wrote some of them down, and started in. First I tried hydrogen peroxide but since the stain was already dried it didn't do a thing. Then I moved on to scrubbing at the stain with baking soda, still no such luck. So now I am getting frustrated, the tears are springing back into my eyes. Blame it on the pregnancy hormones or the fact that things are already so stressful enough right now that I am falling apart if you look at me wrong. Either way I'm back to crying when hubby walks out of our bedroom that he is painting. He was on his way to the store and stopped to check on me. He asked me if there was anything else to try and I told him all the other stuff sounded stupid and I didn't feel like trying them. Then he saw something on my list of things to try that you could get from the store and he said he would look for that for me and headed out the door. Before he left he told me I really shouldn't be at the dinning room table and I crossly replied that I had a bunch of towel under the t-shirt, I wasn't an idiot. I then moved on to try fingernail polish remover another idea that had mixed reviews on whether it worked or not. Yeah it doesn't work with dried on red nail polish. In the mean time Bubu got stung by a bee on his foot for the first time and started crying really hard from the back yard so I went flying out the door to see what the matter was. I brought him in, made a paste out of baking soda and water and gave him a snack to distract him (of course all of them got a snack, you can't feed just one). Then I picked up the t-shirt to move it off the table so they could eat and my heart sank. You guessed it I'm sure, I am an idiot and I screwed up our brand new dinning room table. Part of the table stain was now on the t-shirt that I was still trying to get red polish out of. I don't know which was worse that I am an idiot or that he was right. So if you don't have me figured out by now, I lost it again and turned into a blubbery mess. I seriously cried for a freaking long time and I couldn't hide in my room because there was no one else to watch the boys, and I couldn't stop and I just laid on the couch with my head buried in a pillow and cried and cried and cried. Until my eyes were swollen. My poor boys, although you couldn't really tell if it phased them or not because they just kept eating their snack and then got down to play...except Bubu he's pretty sensitive. Any who to make an incredibly long story shorter my hubby finally came home with the bottle of spray and I had by that point sort of got myself under control so I set back in on the stain, because it had become personal at this point. The grout in my tile is hot pink, the table is ruined, I've already removed the red polish from my ruined nails... I am going to get those stinkin' stain out! So I grab the bottle and start spraying, and I couldn't believe my eyes the stuff actually worked. I kid you not...It took lots of spraying and rubbing and flipping the shirts inside and out to treat both sides but the polish came out! The stuff is called Motsenbocker's Lift Off 3, I guess there are different types for different stains, but this is the one that works for fingernail polish as well as a bunch of other stuff listed on the bottle. So seriously if you've ever had a run in of any sort with finger nail polish, especially when it's already dried on, use this stuff. I've now run the shirts through the wash twice, once with Oxiclean and once just to rinse them one last time and they look great, I am going to try it on my hot pink grout next and I am hoping it will work a miracle there too.

So that was my weekend. Melt downs, fun times, more melt downs and now back to our normal. A normal that borders on crazy. My life with boys.

Wow what a day!

Atty's Happy Day! So handsome...and beautiful. Headed to the courthouse. We shouted "Atty's Happy Day" all the way in, Atty was so cute, he'd laugh almost every time he said it. We were all super excited.

Ha, ha look at Spike...who does he remind you of?

Atty and Daddy. I really love this picture, my hubby had to entertain Atty away from the crowds while we were waiting because he was getting overwhelmed. He has a really hard time with crowds and loud noises.

Their favorite girl in the world..well besides their mother. ;)

More Atty and Daddy.

Atty and I waiting in the hallway. Doesn't he have the nicest smile.

Bubu just loves his Uncle B...they were having a serious conversation.

Ira decided it was time for a cat nap, silly boy.

Auntie L and my mom waiting in the hallway. The caseworker is in the back talking to Bubu, she was so sweet, such a nice lady.

My dearest friend and her newest baby girl, hubby and the boys sitting with their favorite girl. Getting to the courthouse on time and with all these little kids, priceless.

A picture with all of us and the judge (who happened to have the same name as Spike). There was NO way of getting a picture of everyone looking at the camera, so I just went with the one were Atty was actually (sort of) looking...that was not easy.

We went to a park afterwards to have a picnic and celebrate. I was so excited that my baby sister got to take her lunch break with us at the park! Isn't she a doll! I waited 10 years for a sister, she's my baby girl, no matter how old she gets.

Atty decided this tree needed to be climbed.

I made a bunch of posters of Atty over the last 2 1/2 years and put them up around this tree, the kids loved looking at them, it was really cute listening to the things they were saying.

Checking out the pictures.

A picture of me and my lifeline, this girl has been there for me through so much, I can't even imagine my life with out her. She is amazing. She was there the day Atty was placed with us, and she made sure she was there the day he became a permanent part of our family. Even though she has a six week old baby and a four year old daughter, had to drive for an hour and a half with a screaming baby and leave her house at the crack of dawn, and do it all on her own. She even brought food for the picnic. Seriously she's amazing.

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It was a wonderful, exciting, emotional day. It was weird though how fast the actually adoption went, it took all of about 10 minutes in the judges chambers, a few questions and then he was signing the papers and all was done. After so much paperwork, interviews, caseworkers every months and on and on and on is seemed strange to have it all over and done with so fast. It was like the day he came to our home. Two caseworkers came, looked over the house, asked a few questions and left in less then an hour and there I was standing in my living room with a six day old baby in my arms. Surreal. I am glad I got to experience this though no matter how stressful it has been, and we can't imagine our lives with out him now, he makes our family complete. So there will be four, which to me seems like the perfect number of kids for our family. Couldn't have planned it better myself. It never stops to amaze me that God always has a better plan than me, I don't even know why I bother to continue to be a planner...my plans are so juvenile in comparison to his. He sees the bigger picture, and what a beautiful picture it is.

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Oh and we finished the day off with an ultrasound, check out my last post...we are super excited around here!