It Won't Be Like This For Long

This phase is gonna fly by
So baby just hold on
‘Cause it won't be like this for long

(this is an excerpt from the song by Darius Rucker. If you haven't listened to it, do so because there are no truer words spoken about how quickly these are going by.)

Blessed

That is what I am feeling tonight. I am blessed. As the girls stand on chairs at the counter making home-made tortillas with their Dad and as Jack pulls on the power cord to the laptop I am at this very moment typing on. I am blessed.

The girls had ballet today, which is always a long day for me. As I was driving home, I was thinking of what I was going to put as my status update on Facebook, something funny the girls did today. But that will have to wait. Because when I logged on, I read that a friend from high school had passed away. The truth is I can't claim we were close in recent years because we weren't. We hadn't talked since she graduated high school, 2 years before I did, until we reconnected on Facebook when I joined. Good ol' Facebook. But she was one of those people that you never forget. That even though you may not talk, you wonder what is going on in her life. I joined choir my freshman year (yes, I'm proud to be a choir geek) and she was my section leader. She was so welcoming and warm and to a freshmen who was going through a quite a bit of life changes (on top of starting high school) it was great. I will forever be thankful to her for that.

I don't know the circumstances of her death right now. I don't know if it's something she knew might be coming or if it was a complete blind side. What I do know is that in addition to a lot of friends & family, she left behind an adorable little boy - only 4 years old. And that rips my heart out.

While heaven gained an angel, we lost one. A beautiful, vibrant woman with an infectious smile, a great voice and the ability to make even the most self conscious feel worthy. Desiree, where ever you are tonight, know that you are thought of and missed.

Tonight I know I am blessed. I just tucked my children into bed with giant kisses & I love you's. When I am done typing here, I will go spend some time with my husband. I will try to stop stressing about what I don't have and be grateful for what I do have. Yes, tonight I know I am blessed.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

What, you hadn't heard yet? Well apparently, the Christmas Season is free game any time after Halloween. Just ask the people that live near the girls' school who had their outside decorations up the Monday after Halloween. Or the stores who had stuff out way before Halloween. Regardless, it's here and I'm actually kind of excited about it.

Last Wednesday the girls' were out of school for Veterans Day (which Nacho informs me is now called something else, but for the life of me I can't remember what), so I took them to the movies. As we were leaving the mall to meet up with Nacho, Lexi saw Santa's house. And the next thing I knew she was in line, excited she was the first! Except there was one small problem. Santa wasn't actually there yet, so I told her she couldn't see him. She folded her arms across her chest, pouted to the door and muttered "I just can't handle this." I had to explain to her it's because he hadn't arrived yet, but I still think she believes I'm just that mean. She also couldn't figure out why his house was there if she wasn't. Unfortunately I don't have answers for many of her very logical questions.

We were back down by the mall yesterday so I agreed we could go see Santa, having read he had arrived last Thursday. And I have to say, they have it set up really cute. So we did the pictures, which are neither great nor horrible. But around here, we call that success. It was Jack's nap time, so I thought for sure combined with his stranger anxiety would result in a total meltdown. He wasn't happy, but he didn't cry. The girls tried to smile, but I think they were just biding their time until they got their candy canes. They may have told him what they wanted.





Everybody who has seen the 2nd one loves it and I'll admit there is a cuteness factor to it. However, as their mom I can tell the girls have their "are we done with this yet?" smiles plastered on and Jack's actually looking at Santa like "Dude, what are you looking at?".

They do have a really cute feature this year in that Santa's house produces snow (bubbles). So the girls took turns going up to the speaker thing (I know there is a real word for it, but I'm too lazy to look it up) with the instructions to whisper "I wish for snow" into it. Turn the crank and all of a sudden snow comes out. It was beautiful. And the kids loved it.





They were however slightly disappointed that they weren't giving out candy canes this year. Instead it was a book, which I was quite thrilled with. After all, I've still got Halloween candy I'm trying to get rid of!

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Ok, I do have to make my one Grinch-like comment. In the past they've allowed us to take pictures with our own camera as long as we're willing to buy something. Actually in the past I'm not even sure they've made us buy something, but I always feel like I should. And come on, even I know I can take better pictures than the high school kids they hire. So I ask the photographer if it's ok if I do it and he says yes. All of a sudden, Santa, who has my kids sitting all around him, completely breaks character and starts explaining that no I can't, it's the mall's policy and that I should have come the first night which was free picture day or something. YOU ARE SANTA! STAY SANTA! Seriously. Luckily the kids seemed oblivious to the whole exchange but it left a sour note in my mouth. And that makes me sad because this is the same Santa we've seen since Samantha was born! Oh, and when did the pictures get so freakin' expensive?

Oh one more since I'm on a roll - apparently we've gotten so politically correct, that on the bottom of the printed picture we got WITH SANTA it says "Season's Greetings 2009" instead of "Merry Christmas." WTH?

Picture Perfect

Most of the time if I want pictures done and I'm not taking them myself, I load the Team in the car and head to Sears. And overall I've been very happy with the job they've done. We've gotten very lucky sometimes and gotten somebody who wants to think out side the box and gets some really good shots. But more often than not, it's the standard poses with the same backgrounds and after 3 kids, they all start looking the same.

A mom at ballet is a budding photographer and very good if I do say so myself. So this time I decided to do something different. And it was perfect. It was so much fun - the kids laughed and played and ran around and really enjoyed themselves. She made them all feel so comfortable that by the end of our hour, the girls were climbing all over her and Jack was freely leaving my arms to go to her! We did some studio shots inside her house, but most of them were done outside in a park and I am so excited to see them. I know they'll turn out great!

See, I'm so confident in her work because she's actually has taken Jack's picture before - as a test shot outside the ballet studio. It turned out so well, it's now hanging in her studio and is on her promotional material. Not even a year old and already a model!

My Heartfelt Gratitude

I'd like to take a moment to thank my children, from the bottom of my heart, for all the little things they do to make my life just a tad bit easier.

So first - Samantha, thank you so much for using the last of the toilet paper in my bathroom this morning. And thank you for not telling me, allowing me to discover for myself when I actually had to go.

And speaking of the bathroom, Alexandra, my sweet Lu - thank you for waiting until I had your brother and sister loaded into the car this morning to inform me you had to use the bathroom. Despite the fact that we were already running late and that I had already asked you a half dozen times before we stepped foot into the garage.

Running late - that brings me to Jonathan. My baby. Thank you so much for choosing today to learn to pry the top off your sippy cup. And then proceeding to dump the entire cup of water on yourself. 30 seconds before we had to pick up Samantha from school.

Thank you to all my children for helping me out today. Because you know it's the little things. But hey, life sure would be boring without them, wouldn't it?

Monday Morning

I love Monday mornings. I know,that's odd right? But as a stay at home mom, it's my chance to regroup and get things back in order.

If you stopped by here on any given Sunday night, I probably wouldn't let you in my house. There are toys scattered all over the family room floor, dishes sit rinsed but not washed in the sink, laundry isn't done, beds may or may not be made. What you would find however is a family having fun and not worrying about the small stuff. And I wouldn't change any of that.

So I don't try anymore. I've realized that's what Mondays are for. Sure, we don't get to sleep in, but with kids I don't get to that any of the time. But the girls go off to school, Nacho goes off to work, Jack naps and I have time to put order back into my house. I don't deal well with clutter or mess and it can honestly cause me to feel overwhelmed. But with 3 small children and a husband who isn't bothered by it, I've got to figure out how to deal with it. And so I do.

So come Monday lunchtime, you'd be welcome into my house with open arms!

Moments Like This

I get asked more often than one would think how I do it all. And I never know how to answer it. I don't feel like what I'm doing is that hard. Maybe it's because each and every one of our children were planned, so we had already planned for the changes a new one would bring. Maybe it's because our children are just that easy. Maybe it's because I've found what I've always wanted to be - a mother to these beautiful children and wife to my life partner. Probably all of that combined.

But regardless of all of that, there are still days that are hard. That I question what I could have possibly been thinking. When I question my sanity in even considering the possibility of one more baby. When my children spend more time in time out then they do out of it. When the girls are fighting, the baby is crying and I have no idea what we're having for dinner even though it's 5pm.

And then that moment comes. That moment where it all falls into place and I'm reminded why I do this. Why it's all worth it. The moments that melt my heart over and over again. And it's even more amazing when it comes in a form you never expected. Which is exactly what happened last night.


When my 4 year old quietly walked up to me and whispered in my ear, asking if she could please feed the baby. And then snuggled him like there is no place she's rather be. It honestly brings tears to my eyes.

Here are some more of those moments....

A Day Late & A Dollar Short

I realized I promised to talk about what we did for Halloween, but frankly I just don't feel like it. Probably because I could barely get the kids in from trick-or-treating before being bombarded with Christmas stuff. I love Christmas, but even I find it to be a bit much. Driving home the other day, after school drop off, I saw a house with Christmas decorations on the front lawn. Seriously! And downtown is already putting it's wreaths & banners up. So anyways, Halloween is now a distant memory for me.

And now, I'll be an even more awesome blogger and do this post bullet point style. Because I aim to please.

* Halloween - fun! We took the kids to a Halloween festival at the local Baptist church. And no, we're not Baptist and I'll be honest, I was a bit nervous about that. But it was awesome. They put on a great day, complete with kids' carnival, candy apples, face painting, cake walk, hot dog dinner and the ultimate trunk-or-treat. 65 cars in 20 minutes and the kids' basket were over-runneth (like the word I just made up) with candy. We did take them trick-or-treating around here with our neighbors and my best friend and they had yet another bucket full of candy each. So my great plan to not buy chocolate to hand out has completely back fired because our neighbors buy awesome candy and I now have a houseful of Reese's cups I'm trying desperately not to eat.



Only downside to the night was when we got 4 teenage girl TOTs at 10pm AFTER our lights were off. I answered the door and let my old lady come out as I explained how rude it was of them and that we had babies asleep and didn't they realize our light was off. They all look up and say "oh". Really??

* Jack - So sweet. Just turned 11 months old yesterday, which means we're in the final countdown to his 1st birthday. I just can't believe it. He is pulling up to standing on everything and is starting to cruise. My guess is he'll walking around his birthday. He is as happy as ever!



*Lexi - loving being 4. However already counting down to when she turns 5. Has learned to spell & write her name. Really enjoying school & ballet. Sassy & testing my patience every day. But is starting to show an amazingly sweet side to her.



Sam - just started bringing home books from school to read to us. BECAUSE SHE CAN READ!! I am so proud of her. We butt heads the most, probably because our personalities are so much alike, but we also share a bond unlike any other. That isn't to say I love her more than the other two, but very, very differently. She is thriving in school...and ballet...and looking forward to whatever else I might be nice enough to sign her up for.




So that is what's going on with us. Gearing for the holidays and birthdays and anything else that might come our way.