Keep Your Thoughts To Yourself, Joe!

A post to share with Joe when he is a teenager and thinks I exist only to irritate him...perhaps it is payback. Christmas morning I was taking a shower and Joe asked if he could join me. I said sure, come on in. The following conversation took place: Joe: That sure is a big belly you have, Mommy! Me: Yep, it sure is. Thanks, Joe! Joe: You sure do have a big body, Mommy. Me: Yes, Joey. My body is a lot bigger than yours, isn't it? Joe: Yep, but I have a big belly...just like you!

Merry, Merry, Merry Christmas...Whew, That Was a LOT of Merry!

We had a wonderful, whirlwind weekend of Christmas festivities as always. It is a chaotic few days, to be sure, but I wouldn't change a thing...but I may tweak a few things next year!

Christmas Eve I was anxious to get to my parents house to bake and decorate cookies with Nana and Aunt Mal-Mal. We had a great time as predicted...but a 9+ hour day at Nanas on Christmas Eve may be a bit much. It was a looooong day and the boys were really well behaved but were just exhausted by the end of the evening so we may go over to Nana's a bit later next year...noon sounds good :)

The rest of the gang arrived late afternoon and we had a wonderful time eating, drinking, and watching the kids run around like maniacs.

We got the kids changed into their matching PJs (a surprise for Nana) and they all settled onto the couch to listen to Bampaw read The Night Before Christmas. The kids were much more attentive this year than last (minus Joey who sat at the far end of the couch looking out the window at the falling snow the entire time) but I think Dad still read as fast as he could!

And finally the time for presents arrived. The kids all took turns opening, oldest to youngest, as we all watched and ooed and aahed. Abby's dad, Kurt, joined us for Christmas Eve this year and it was so cute to watch Joey take each gift opened and run over to Kurt to show him what he got. "See Kurt?" Love my Joe-Bug, he always wants to make sure everyone is included in the fun!

Brookie Marie was a big fan of the Mickey Mouse couch we got her. She allowed Joey to join her for a little relaxation but FREAKED OUT when Uncle Craig dared to lay Landon on it for a second. Sibling rivalry, perhaps?

We made it home in time to put cookies out for Santa (and Joey insisted on carrots for Rudolph), chocolate milk for Santa, and Sunny D for Rudolph (Joe again). The boys then went to bed relatively easily and Dean and I were not too terribly far behind them.

Christmas Day

I really think Ben broke a record for most times up during the night Christmas Eve. He must have gotten up 4-5 times between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. Dean finally climbed into bed with him and when Joey started calling for me around 6 I went ahead and got him up and let him go wake up Benny and Daddy. The boys were thrilled to hear Santa's sleigh bells and Ben swore he could see Rudolph's red nose light up in the sky outside our bedroom window. Joey couldn't wait to see if Rudolph had eaten his carrots and was so excited to see that he had!

Gift opening was fast and furious as always but we had so much fun watching the boys. Benny got a ton of Legos and Joey was excited to receive all his gifts, especially his new baby doll (whom he named Baby Benny...Ben was not amused), but really just couldn't wait to play with his play doh kitchen that he got from Sissy the night before and watch How To Train Your Dragon (also from Sissy...well done!)

The morning went quickly as we headed to Oma's house around 10:45 a.m. There was a lot of present opening and food eating there as well. The boys loved wrestling with their cousins.

We headed home around 2 p.m. Joey napped while Benny and Dean worked on his Legos and I put the turkey in the oven and did some cooking. Nana, Bampaw, and Aunt Mal-Mal came over around 5 p.m. and had fun watching the boys show off their loot and we enjoyed a nice Christmas Dinner.

I love seeing so many of our loved ones and sharing in the boy's excitement. Christmas is such a magical time and it is always a little sad to see it end...but this year I have to say that I am a little ready to get back into our normal routine. I am a schedule-loving girl and between the sickness and holidays this past month, I am losing my mind and am ready to return to normalcy...or at least as normal as we can get

Merry, Merry

I am so pleased to report that it is just before 7 am on Christmas Eve morning and I feel completely at peace and excited for the day(s) ahead. Yay! I am normally a stress case and worried about making everything "perfect." For some reason I just feel a desire to enjoy my friends and family and am not worried about anything else.

Perhaps the fact that we were house-bound for nearly a week while recovering from the flu and have just now been able to get out and about and see friends is the reason for my new good mood. The fun commenced on Tuesday when the boys and I had an impromptu snowball fight. I was definitely under attack but it was great fun on super cold day!

Our germs made us miss out on some activities we really wanted to do and people we really wanted to see; however, we have definitely made up for lost time in just the past two days as we squeezed in visits with some of our very favorite people.

Suz, Georgia, and Cooper came to play on Wednesday. We had so much fun catching up with them (they live in Texas now and were in town for the holidays). Ben was a BIG fan of Georgia :) He evidently was not to smooth about his feeling, however, as G called him out twice "I know why Ben moved his chair. He wanted to sit by me....Ben kind of wants me!!!"

Thursday our other Texas favorites, Ethan, CL, CJB, and Ainsley Grace stopped by for a visit. It was wonderful to see my girls and watch them play with my crazy boys.

I know how crazy it is for my Texas friends when they come home to visit and it means a lot to me that they made time in their schedules to visit with my family. I love them and spending time with Suz and her kids and Cherrylynn and her family was definitely a highlight of my Christmas this year!!

About 10 minutes after our guests left yesterday our dear friend Jarin stopped in but I cooerced her into staying and chatting for a few hours!! Right after Jarin left it was time for our Christmas with the Chaplins. We are so lucky to have some of our very best friends right down the street and we were all happy to spend some time with them.

So it has been a GOOD week and I have to say, as much as I enjoyed our visitors over the past 48 hours, the BEST part was last night when Dean and I finished wrapping gifts and we laid down (collapsed?) on the floor in the basement and watched the last 20 minutes of Love Actually (one of my favorite movies) together. It was wonderful to just relax in the arms of the man I love and not worry about anything else for a few minutes!

So yay for today and tomorrow. So excited to celebrate and hope to maintain this peaceful mood I am in! Merry Christmas!

These Are Days

Two sweet Joe musings from the day that I do not want to forget. 1. While giving Joey a bath I said to him "my goodness, Joey. You have gotten so big! How did that happen?" And he saidvery matter of factly "Because you love me." 2. After being in bed for about an hour, Joey woke up crying with a stomach ache...he had the stomach flu yesterday and we spent the day at home today recovering. I rubbed his belly and watched him writhe around in the bed trying to get comfortable. I asked him if his tummy hurt and he said "yes" and I asked if he wanted me to hold him. Now, normally I am anti talking in the middle of the night and Dean is the softie who gets the boys up and nurtures them back to sleep. I usually play the roll of tough guy who sends them back to bed. But tonight I was home alone with Joe; Ben was at a sleepover, Dean was at work, and I was feeling generous! I picked up my little man and carried him into the family room where I sat in Dean's big comfy chair and slowly rocked him back and forth, back and forth. Jack came and lay at the foot of the chair and he and I watched the snow fall outside and listended as Joey's breaths slowed down and became deeper and deeper. It was so peaceful and so sweet. We sat for quite awhile and when I went to put Joey back in his bed, he stirred just a little and gave me a smile and said "Thank you mommy. Thank you for making me feel better. Thank you for holding me. I love you." Good grief I love that child. The days have been long the past week, I'm not going to lie. Nursing children back to health (or really trying to manage the healthy child while comforting the sick child) is not the easiest job in the world and my patience has been running thin. But truly loving my children is the easiest job in the world; it is so very, very, very easy to fall head over heels in love with these little people each and every day. Even the interminably long, screaming, fit-throwing, fighting, vomit filled days. I love them so much and am so lucky to be their mom.

I Am Surrounded By Goofballs

I sent the below email to my family today and decided to share it on the blog as well for posterity purposes. Never want to forget what a great imagination my Joe Bug has! I love that strange little boy :) So we have evidently moved on from imaginary friends and are using pieces of construction paper to represent people. For example, today the role of Bampaw is being played by a piece of brown construction paper. I heard Joey talking and laughing and walked into the family room to see him sitting on the couch with play doh on a TV tray and a piece of brown construction paper with play doh sitting on it next to him on the couch. I sat down on the couch by him (them?) and Joe said "Do you want to sit by Bampaw?" I looked confused and he said "that is bampaw. I playing play doh with he." O.K. Joe then said later "do you not like Bampaw?" "Yes, I like Bampaw" I said. "Well, why you not talking to he?" So I said hi. To a brown piece of paper. That represented my father.Weird. In case you are wondering, Joey and Bampaw have had a lovely day playing play doh and cutting, though Bampaw does look a little twitchy everytime Joey comes near him with the scissors.

A Christmas Show We Will Never Forget

I honestly don't even know where to begin. I suppose I could start with Tuesday morning when Benny woke up at 5 a.m. puking. He obviously stayed home from school and though he only threw up twice, he was clearly lethargic and not his normal self. After spiking a fever Tuesday afternoon and evening we decided to keep him home Wednesday. I took him to the doctor, where a rapid strep test came back negative, and we were sent home with a diagnosis of viral infection. Today, Thursday, Ben awoke looking pale and still not having an appetite, but insisted he felt okay and wanted to go to school. I was thrilled as his holiday program was this evening and I couldn't wait to see him sing Jingle Bills with the rest of his class.

We arrived at school just after 5 p.m. and Ben eagerly showed us his classroom and posed for pictures with some of his best buddies: Kirin, Alex, Addy, and Andrew.

We settled into our seats with the rest of Ben's fan club, Oma, Nana, Bampaw, Uncle Craig, and Abby. It was just about 6:05 p.m., as the principal was apologizing for the delay due to a "minor mishap," that our neighbor came and tapped Dean on the shoulder, whispering "your kid just puked all over my kid!" Dean, Joey, and I took off to look for Ben and were told that he was on stage singing. We watched as he delivered a half-hearted version of Jingle Bells with the rest of his class. Ben then sat in the hallway with us and told us the whole, gruesome story.

He said he felt the vomit coming up right after they got into place on the risers and told his teacher he had to go to the bathroom. She said it was too late and he needed to wait. It was then that he "threw up like an ocean explosion" all over the HEAD of his friend (and our next door neighbor) Mason, who had the unfortunate luck of standing right in front of Ben, as well as Rommell, another little boy in his class, the riser, the curtain, and his teacher's pants. By the way, his teacher is 21 weeks pregnant and had just arrived at school after having her ultrasound determining that she was carrying a boy. Maybe she will name him Ben. Probably not.

It should be mentioned that the entire time Ben was telling Dean and I (and the laughing SPT parents working the bake sale in the hallway and listening to us) what happened, Joey was running around in circles asking if we could go to "El Rodeo" (our neighborhood mexican restaurant) for dinner. Um, no.

I was: A. Worried about my boy and B. Mortified. I am ashamed to admit that I was probably more embarrased than anything else. I bought the janitor who mopped up the vomit a $7 cookie tray from the bake sale and we took off as fast as we could.

Poor Ben. All I could picture was that scene from Stand By Me when the kid pukes on stage during the pie eating contest and it causes everyone else to start throwing up. Thank God there was no chain reaction caused by Ben.

Let's just hope this is not an indication of how the remainder of our holiday festivities will play out.

Tis The Season (Part II)

Picking up where we left off...following Breakfast With Santa we headed to watch Ben (#9) and Coach Dean in their last basketball game of the season. Ben was pumped to help hold the flag during the singing of the National Anthem to start the game and also was happy to spend time with his best friend, Nathan.

The "little brothers" club featuring Joey, Drew, and Camden enjoyed playing on the bleachers when they were not cheering on their brothers on the court! Saturday afternoon Ben, Mal-Mal, Nana and I joined the Peyton's Pals to watch A Christmas Carol at IRT. It was wonderful and maybe even will become a holiday tradition! Ben and Mallory liked the elf and reindeer that were outside the theatre! Ben liked the show a lot (though thought it was "a little scary") and it was awesome watching his face when the actors first walked out on stage and began speaking. Sunday morning came with lots of snow and freezing temperatures. Dean and I enjoyed watching Ben sing with the children's choir at church and then I headed north to Lafayette with Nana, Bampaw, and Mal-Mal to celebrate baby Landon's baptism. I was proud to be named his Godmother and join Clint's brother Justin (the Godfather) in pledging our love and devotion to Landon and our desire to encourage him to lead a Christian life.

After a slow and slippery ride home, we joined Dean and Joey back at church to watch Ben perform in the Christmas Pagent followed by a chili super hosted by my youth group. A busy, busy, busy weekend to say the least!

Tis the Season (Part I)

Tis the Season....for overbooked schedules, cookies to bake, presents to buy, songs to sing, parties to attend, stories to tell, memories to make and unfortunately in our house so far this year...vomit to clean up, laundry to wash, and bathrooms, doorknobs, and light fixtures to disinfect. Yuck. Poor Benny has had the dreaded "stomach bug" TWICE in the past two weeks. Poor baby. He will be staying home with me again today for the third day in two weeks. I feel bad for him...and selfishly a little bad for me as this was my last "day off" before the kids are on Christmas Break for two weeks, which for Joe Bug starts today at 2:30 p.m. Oh well.

I am trying (really, really trying) to remember that I will look back on these days one day (even the vomit covered days) with a heart-breaking fondness and will miss the days when my boys needed me and wanted nothing more than my time and attention. I am failing miserably, by the way, in remembering this during the day and have been going to bed lately with a heavy heart, realizing how, in my haste to cross items off my ever-growing To-Do List, I blew it. I wasted precious time that could and should have been spent with my boys. Laundry can wait, but my boys just keep growing and changing and I fear that I am missing it. The good news is that God is good and gives me a chance to get up every day and try to be better. Maybe today is the day that I get my mommy gold star. We'll see...

Anyway, it has been a nutty two weeks for sure. Here is a quick review of the fun stuff we have been up to:

PACERS GAME

We went to the Pacers game last Friday night with Nana, Bampaw, and Aunt Mal-Mal. Ben and Joey loved the popcorn and cotton candy (as always) and Ben was excited that an "Indiana Hero" honored during the game was sitting right behind us and let him wear his medal.

BREAKFAST WITH SANTA

The morning after the Pacers game we got up bright and early to go to church for the annual Breakfast with Santa. Much to our surprise (after being told all month by Joey that he is not a fan of Santa "I don't like he.") Joey immediately jumped up on Santa's lap and told him he wanted a train and a boat. He then settled in and had to be moved along by his brother!! Ben told Santa that he couldn't really think of anything he wanted...actually it was a lot like that moment from A Christmas Story when Ralphie panics and can't remember what he wanted to ask Santa for. With a little prompting, Ben said he would take some Legos!

I was just informed by my husband that I am not getting a book made this year if I include everything in one post as it is hard for him to format...so I will pause and continue the chaos on the next post....