Ice Skating

Every winter, our town allows a part of the Town Green to flood. When it's really cold out, the pond that the flooding creates freezes. It's perfect for ice skating! A lot of locals skate there.

Gordon recently bought new skates for himself and both big girls. Every night since, they've been begging him to take them skating. This morning they all finally went. (Will, Nora, and I stayed home where we were close to Nora's potty chair -- potty training is going real well!)

Below is a video clip that Gordon shot with his Blackberry phone while skating with the girls. Click on it to see the girls in action!

(FYI: Grace is the skater wearing the teal blue winter coat and Dianna is the one playing with the hockey stick and puck)

Adventures in Potty Training

Yesterday Eleanor wore panties.

All day long.

We had a couple of successes.

We had a few accidents.

Today we hope to have more successes and one or two less accidents.

Can you tell I'm anxious to be done with diapers for the rest of my child-rearing life?

Chili -- It's "What's for Dinner"!

Yes. It IS only 11:00. In the morning.

No. I'm not fixing to eat a bowl of chili. Well, maybe later on this afternoon I might have to try it. Not right now though. I promise.

Everyone knows that the longer chili simmers, the better it tastes, right?

I wish I had a smell-o-meter for you. The kitchen smells spicy and delicious. I'm salivating, counting down the hours till it IS time to sit down for dinner.


Isn't my new Dutch Oven beautiful? Can you believe Gordon worried that I might not like it? He was worried that I wouldn't want it simply because it is red. (ummm.....NO!)

I'm contemplating taking him to have his head examined. I'm mean, really? I can't believe he worried that I might not like it. He'll learn one day that I could never NOT love a piece of cookware, right?

Potty Training Cinderella

This evening, as I was chatting on the phone with my friend Susan, Nora came to me saying something that sounded like, 'Need emma emmmms for Cinnrella'

Not fully understanding what she was talking about, I just kind of shooed her towards Gordon and continued my conversation.

Five minutes later, after bidding Susan a goodnight and goodbye, I noticed Nora standing in the downstairs bathroom. Thinking that she must be up to no good, I went over to the doorway to investigate. This is what I found:

I asked Nora if Cinderella was using her 'Potty Powers'. She got all excited and told me "YES! Cinnrella have emma emms; use potty powahs!"

Ah-haaaaah! NOW I get it!

I've been talking up potty training with Eleanor for weeks now. She knows she'll get to have M&Ms each time she has a successful potty trip. She's even seen the giant bag of M&Ms sitting high in the cabinet.

Our clever little girl figured that if Cinderella went potties, then CINDERELLA could have M&Ms!!

Too bad I'm a mean mommy. I told the disappointed Eleanor that only little girls get to have such a treat for working at learning to be big. Dollies don't have teeth to eat M&Ms.

Pictures from our Christmas

I love how Grace is assisting Eleanor in opening her present. The big girls were so helpful the entire morning, handing gifts to everyone and sharing in the joyous-ness of the day!

Eleanor wasted almost no time in getting into the candy from her stocking. Luckily Santa was smart enough to only leave her two Peanut Butter Cups, one crisp chocolate shaped like a Santa, and one individual package of Lifesavers Gummies! (She didn't even bother with the Gummies till today, but that kid is going to have a mouth full of cavities if I'm not careful!!)
Grace telling me what she'd just opened -- a new mp3 player!

I don't know who enjoyed Will's new toys more -- him or Daddy! Gordon REALLY enjoyed showing William how to use the snap circuit set Santa brought. The two of them must have played with that for at least a couple of hours.

And, finally, a picture of our songstress. Dianna asked Santa for (and received!) a pink guitar. She has been practicing regularly since Christmas morning. She has already taught herself a couple of simple songs -- just by playing them by ear!

Merry Christmas

May you be celebrating with family and/or friends today. May you have a joyous time celebrating, while you're at it!!

Today has been an experience, that's for sure.

The girls all were awake by 5:30am. Luckily they heeded their parents' advice and didn't attempt to try to sneak downstairs right away. At least as far as we know, they didn't.

Right after 6am Nora had had enough of playing in the bedroom. She knew Santa had visited and wanted to get downstairs RIGHT NOW to see what loot he'd left her. Her crying and screaming at her sisters is what woke Gordon and I. We convinced her to cuddle with us for just a little while longer in our bed, watching her newest favorite tv show (Team Umizoomi) on our bedroom television.

Nora held out as long as she possibly could, but 6:30am was as far as she was willing to wait. Luckily for Gordon and I, that was the time we'd agreed upon yesterday. We allowed the girls to head downstairs to check out their stockings then.

William was still sleeping. Not for much longer, mind you. It was just a few minutes later that he finally joined us in the livingroom.

(I'm thinking that opening his bedroom door so he could hear the shrieks of delight might have had something to do with him finally waking and coming downstairs when he did.)

The children were all suprised and thrilled to find the gifts that Santa had left for them in their stockings and under the tree. They made short work of checking out their stockings. Right after, they were ready to open their presents.

Both of the big girls had made gifts for the family, both in school and here at home. My favorite would be the clay snowman Grace made in art class. The other gifts were just as creative, and great examples of the 're-use' part of the "reduce, re-use, recycle" campaign. Most of them helped make my cardboard pile not so big!

Gordon and I also exchanged gifts with one another. I was happy to find that one of my gifts was an enamel coated cast iron dutch oven! Gordon was surprised by the digital video camera I'd picked out for him.

All in all, it was a great day here in the Crazy House.

And yet I'm sitting here, feeling like something is wrong. Something isn't right. Something is missing.

What's wrong with me?!? I've got a healthy, happy family. We have spent an easygoing day together, enjoying our new things. And yet I've been mopey off and on today. One moment I'm having a great time playing Othello with Grace or Dianna (a family gift from Santa -- my favorite board game from childhood!), the next I'm laying down watching television and wishing I could just jump in the car and drive somewhere.

Teacher's Gifts

Ooops! I forgot to take pictures of the gift bags the kids and I put together for their teachers and bus drivers. Sorry!

I'll try my best to describe them to you. They're really easy-peasy to make. I hope the teachers love them as much as I'm expecting!

I bought a bag of Hershey's brand Nuggets and cellophane bags (the kind you find in craft stores, I bought some made by Wilton). The Nuggets are little chocolates that are shaped kind of like a treasure chest.

Using a sheet(s) of standard address labels, I planned on stamping an image onto the center of each label. After one sheet, I was pretty bored with the three stamps I had to use, so I decided to use my clipart and print images onto the rest of the labels.

Then the kids and I wrapped one label around each chocolate candy wrapper. The labels fit perfectly!

We put a handful of chocolates in each cellophane bag. I stamped a "To:, From:" onto tags made out of green cardstock and had the children address a tag for each teacher. We attached the tags to the bags by using the twist ties that came with the bags.

Voila!

Project done. Simple, inexpensive gift accomplished. And the kids helped!

Sorry for the lack of pictures!

Lunar Eclipse pics

Grace has been excited about the lunar eclipse for a few days now. She wanted very badly to see it. Before bed last night, I warned her that I wasn't sure we'd be able to see it -- the sky was quite overcast.

Grace came into the master bedroom to wake us around 2am this morning. She could see the lunar eclipse from her bedroom window!! Gordon and I both got up to check it out ourselves.

I grabbed my camera to try to take some shots of it. Here are a couple of the photos I took:

I would have liked to see the full eclipse, but I knew morning would arrive before long. I didn't want to be too grumpy today, so I went back to bed after some time, resigning myself to missing the full eclipse. Grace tells me she remained awake in her bed and saw it. She was disappointed that she didn't see the amber coloring she'd expected -- the clouds must have been too thick at that point.

"Crafty" Teacher Gift Teaser

I am working on creating little gift bags for the kids' teachers for Christmas. They're super easy and pack a decent "WOW" factor. When I'm done, I'll be sure to come back and post pictures and instructions. Be sure to check back to see them!

Disconnected

Our home phone line is down. I discovered it when I went to make a phone call yesterday evening. Lord knows how long it's been down -- the phone was quiet all afternoon yesterday!

Trying to figure out how to contact AT&T without a landline was a bit of a hassle. Gordon finally ended up doing some 'troubleshooting' through AT&T's website. When all was said and done, a work claim was placed. According to the confirmation e-mails Gordon received, our phone should be back to working order by next Tuesday, the 21st.

Yep. You read that right. They've given themselves a WHOLE WEEK to finding time to get around to fixing our phone line!

Good thing our DSL is still working. Can you imagine me being totally disconnected from the real world for that long?!? I think I would go insane.

Sweet Compliments

There's a little bit of a back story here, which could turn into a long diatribe. The condensed version is two fold. (1) In an effort to cut back on the amount of pre-packaged foods and preservatives we consume, I started making daily breakfasts for the family two weeks again. (2) We had a package of bulk sausage in the fridge. I had no plans for it, but didn't want the meat to go to waste. I decided to cook up the sausage and make gravy and biscuits to go with it for breakfast this morning.

After taking his first bite of the biscuits and sausage gravy, Gordon looked at me and declared that he could easily "get fat" by eating breakfasts like this!

Ahh. The sounds of a content hubby. Love that!

On a sidenote, I wanted to shoutout to Pauline. Whenever I think of biscuits and gravy, I think of you. Biscuits and gravy is one of my FAVORITE memories that I take away from our trips to Kentucky. I can picture us sitting around your table right now. We love and miss you all. I do especially this morning as I smell the sausage gravy in the air. XOXOXO

The Vaccuum Repairman

Yet another example of William taking after Daddy.... Yep. He was "fixing" my vaccuum.

Still here...

Before I get the e-mails, calls, and passed along messages, I wanted to make sure I posted an entry here.

We're here!

I know, I know. I'm slacking. Big time. I haven't been posting regularly. I'm leaving all of you, my loyal readers (Pauline & Mom!), wondering if we're ok. We are.

Everyone's good.

Really.

I could blame the lack of posting on being busy, which we have been. To be totally honest, however, it's not just that we're busy. I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm feeling stuck. I'm in a funk.

My house is a mess. I don't want to cook, much less eat, anything healthy. (case in point -- we ate chips and salsa and cheese dip for dinner on Sunday night!) I have a BAJILLION things I want/need/should do for the holidays and no energy or motivation to do any of it. I'm allowing myself to stand frozen in fear, not sure where to begin or what to do.

Seriously.

I don't know what will actually pull me out of this funk, but I've decided it's time to try something. I can't stand wallowing like this any more. I think I'm ready to have a purposeful day again.

Five Years Ago...

Five years ago today we welcomed William into our Crazy Family. His arrival was very much anticipated. He was none too anxious to join us -- he was my latest baby, born four days past my estimated due date.

HOW can he have grown from THAT

to THIS?? What happened to my Baby Boy?!?

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Nora Does Laundry!

Last night, after dinner, I tasked the older girls with doing the dishes. William was told to wash and dry the table. Eleanor was eager to have a chore too. Not wanting to discourage her enthusiasm, I opened the dryer and told her to pull all of the clean clothes out and put them in the basket on the floor. She was THRILLED to get to do a chore!

A few minutes later, I checked on her to see how she was doing. This is what I saw: Apparently she'd gotten all that she could reach, but not everything. The ingenious little girl had retrieved her footstool from the bathroom to help her reach the rest of the clothes!

Kaytee's Photoshoot

I recently had the pleasure of taking some more portraits for a family friend. Here are just a few of my favorite shots of Kaytee.....

Look at the pregnant belly!! I can't wait to get to do some infant portraits of her beautiful baby girl after she arrives!

LOOK at those gorgeous eyes!!! Stunning, no?