It has been a long Christmas break....

and there is still a whole week to go. Help me Lord.

The beginning of Christmas break started off with a bang. Ava returned home from her last day of school very excited after all of the Christmas fesivities she partook in. She anxiously took off all of her winter gear, ready to fill me in on all the details of her day full of candy, games and partying. As we sat on the floor in the playroom, her recounting her day for me, I noticed something strange in her hair. It was a gooey substance, dark brown and light brown in color, almost looking like (ahem) poo. As I got closer to her head I was able to figure out what it was 1. by looking closer, and 2 by smelling it. It was a reese's peanut butter cup - hmmmm. How in the world would a Reese's peanut butter cup end up melted to the top of her head like that?

This is where the investigating started.

Mom: "Ava, what is that in your hair?"

Ava: "What?"

Mom: "There is something in your hair."

Ava goes to feel the top of her head, I quickly pull her hand away so as not to get the melted substance all over the place. This, in turn, made her start to cry.

Mom: "It is alright Ava, there is no need to cry. You have Reese's peanut butter cups in your hair. We need to take a shower to get it out."

To which she began crying even harder. I again asked her what happened. No answer. I took her up to the shower, helped her get her clothes off over the goopy mess in her hair, and got her into the shower. All the while she was STILL crying. I got her out of the shower, dressed, hair dryed, and Reese's peanut butter cup free. She then finally stopped crying. Alleluia.

After getting everyone settled and on their couches for quiet time, a lightbulb went off (sometimes it takes me a while). I went over to her winter hat and took a look inside. Sure enough, there was melted Reese's peanut butter cup in the hat. SO, she must have somehow dropped a Reese's peanut butter cup into her hat, and put the hat on without it falling out. Amazing feat in itself, huh? On the bus ride home it must have slowly melted so that when she arrived home and took the hat off it was a big goopy mess.

Voila! Look at me, a regular Inspector Kluso!

This is just one of many eventful (well, eventful to my stay at home mom self) things that have happened thus far on this wonderful, hectic Christmas break.

January 5th can't come soon enough.

Do they really have to grow up??

I am not sure if it is because Olivia is our last baby or what, but I feel like I have to drink in every little moment of her "babyhood" (is that even a word??). Don't get me wrong, I loved all of my kids as little babies, when they just smiled, pooped, cried and slept - oh the joy. I much prefer this stage over the sassy, talk back, tantrum stage.

Anyway, I am sure that it is because I am not wanting her to grow up that she seems to be growing up way to fast! I just gave her a bath today and realized that she is getting too big for the baby bath. I had to put her in the bottom part of the bath, where she sat splashing and playing making a huge mess out of my kitchen counter and floors. But I did not care as this was probably the last time she would be using this bath. Who would have thought I would have found her last bath in this "hard to bathe a baby in tub" to be so sentimental? I guess it goes back to the whole last baby thing.

After her bath I put her on her changing table to get her dried off and dressed. It seems as if she is getting big for her changing table! She sat up on that and played around for a while as well. This is sort of (well very) off the point here, but I am noticing as I am looking at these pictures that my Olivia Grace may have big ears.... Hopefully she will grow into them, right?

There is certainly nothing I can do about this thing they do called growing up, so I guess I will have to admit defeat and spend my time savoring every moment of her "babyhood" since this is our last baby.... or is it?

Anthony and is (ahem) ornament

I know, most of the writing I have been doing lately seems to be about Anthony... for those of you who know him this probably makes sense. Anthony is my "wild child", my "spirited child", oh there are so many different ways to describe him. He is always into something, or has something interesting going on, therefore, I find myself writing about him a lot. Plus, my Ava and Lucas are pretty much at school all day so that leaves them less time for them to do things for me to write about.

Anyway, the reason for this post.... I was sitting here at my computer returning an email when Anthony shouted "look Mommy, look!!" I turned to find Anthony, pictured below, (he is naked as we are in the process of potty training and it is the only way I can get him to go on the toilet and not in his pants). Standing a few feet away from me with his favorite ornament hanging from his, well, you get the idea....

He seemed very proud of himself, as he had found such a unique place to hang his very favorite ornament.

He left it there until it proceeded to fall off (when he decided to try and walk around the house with it on). He simply picked up his ornament and placed it back on the tree.

Where it belonged.

Oh the holiday parties...peppered with lots and lots of pictures for your enjoyment

This weekend was a busy one. We had holiday parties on Saturday and Sunday, both were very fun. The first was at Pete and Deb's - our annual Mullins/Shelton party, always a hit. It was especially fun this year as we had two new additions to the festivities - Lucia and Olivia. They really do love playing with eachother and checking eachother out.

After dinner, we decided to open gifts,which was good as the kids were starting to get a bit tired. Lucia helped Carlotta open her gift.

I opened one for Brian and I from Carlotta and John - a lovely bottle of wine which Anthony was quite interested in.... looks like he loves the wine just as much as his mommy!

Ron opened his gift next, which both him and Diane were excited about - wine. Not just any wine, but sulfate/sulfite?? free wine. Not sure which one is correct - I know there was some argument about this at the party. :) No big deal either way, I just think Ron was happy to get a bottle of wine he could enjoy.

Pete's gift from Ron and Diane was a nice one - a bottle of Margarita mix which Diane explained was for making Margarita bars. Pete asked if he could just make drinks with it which Diane said would be alright. :)

Many other gifts were exchanged, but I did not get a picture of all of them.... I am a bit dissapointed I do not have a picture of Deb's lovely snowman she received from Ron and Diane. I learned something new about my friend Deb - she loves snowmen. I guess I never knew this about her until I noticed her many shelves in her basement filled with snowmen, lots and lots of snowmen. :)

It was a fun evening and we would have loved to stay longer, but the kids were beginning to melt down. We also needed to get home and get some sleep as we had a long day ahead of us with our family holiday party over here the next day.

Party #2.....

I was a little apprehensive about this party as I was not sure how it would go seeing that my whole family had not been together for over 7 years. Let's just say we all have not gotten along well over the years (not sure why exactly), but we haven't. Because of this, everyone has pretty much steered clear of eachother. Well, I decided that 7 years was way too long, and this family "feud" was getting ridiculous, so I decided to organize this family get together. It seemed like such a good idea from the get go, but as the party time approached yesterday I found myself getting a bit nervous. I was hoping nothing "Jerry Springerish" would go down. You never know if someone would start something, bring up old arguments, etc. If this happened a fight could break out. No, not a fist fight, but a verbal, yelling type fight. Alright, I have a very active imagination, I know the chances of that happening were slim to none, but still, it was a thought that was in the back of my mind.

Anyway, my worries were all for nothing as the party was a great success. Everyone caught up on eachothers lives....

Had some cocktails, which made conversation flow a bit better.... (always amazing how that works)


The kids played really well together - they were loving the video games which my sister loved (anti -t.v., video game woman) gotta love her. But who could complain as they were kept busy, which was really nice as it made it easy for us adults to catch up...

Anthony was shy at first, but quickly warmed up when my cousin Pat started rough housing with him. Oh how Anthony loves this....

I don't think Pat knew what he got himself into, as once he started playing with Anthony, Anthony would not leave him alone!!

What a great weekend full of great Holiday parties, spent with great family and friends who I love so very, very much. Times like these remind my of how truly blessed I am to have all of these people in my life.

Daily prayer helps

Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference..... I think that is how it goes? I am not the most religious person per say, alright I am really not religious at all (sorry mom,) but I find myself repeating this little prayer to myself when times seem to get rough around here with the kids, and it seems to help. Like earlier tonight for instance!

Anthony was sitting behind me on my chair while I was trying to get some things done on my computer, (you know important things, like "facebooking")crying and repeating over and over again "I want to play Noggin, I want to play Noggin!!" For those of you who do not know, Noggin is a website geared towards little kids that is filled with computer games, etc. Games Anthony is not quite old enough to figure out, but likes to try to play. Not the best thing to get into when he is already tired.

I said "I am sorry, mommy is busy on the computer, not right now." But that did not stop him, he is a persistent little guy.....

Anthony: "I want to play Noggin"
Mom: "No, I am busy, sorry. I think it is time for you to go to bed."
Anthony: "NOOOOOO!!!"

Anthony: " I WANT TO PLAY NOGGIN!"
Mommy: "I said NO!"

Yes, this was the dialogue between my two year old and myself tonight - believe it or not. He ended up not getting to play Noggin even though he was quite persistent. This whole ordeal tuckered him out so I put him to bed, which was much needed. He is now sleeping soundly... hopefully he will feel refreshed in the morning.

Sweet Dreams my Anthony Thomas....

You take the good, you take the bad...

.....You take them both and there you have the facts of life. For some very odd reason, this song popped into my head last night as I was making dinner - not sure why in God's name it did, as I have not seen the show The Facts of Life for years and years, but I thought these lyrics seemed to explain the day to day living here in the Shelton household. We have good moments, and we have bad moments (sometimes the bad unfortuntely outweigh the good), but this is just a fact of life. Here is how are day has been so far....

Bad: Anthony woke up at 5am, yes I did say 5am, and stood in his doorway screaming " I can't sweep (sleep) anymore, I want to watch a toony (cartoon)!!!" He proceeded to scream this until I finally gave in at 6am, brought him down, turned on his tooney's and went back to bed. All the while Brian snored away - not even a stir with all the commotion going on. I only wish I could sleep through things like that. (sigh) Since he decided to wake up at this ungodly time, his behavior has been rather horrible. See below.... So this is "the Bad."

Good: Olivia just started eating solid foods, peas of all things, and she just loves them. This is amazing to me as none of my other kids would even touch peas. I am pretty sure it is because I made the mistake of starting them on the good stuff - you know, bananas, peaches, pears, etc. So when it came time to introduce them to the green beans, peas and other veggies they would spit them out over and over again. Well "Duh"...why did I not start out with the yucky stuff first, then they would not any different?? I guess sometimes it takes a while to figure stuff like this out, 4 kids later, I have finally figured it out! "Good thing."

I guess I unexpectedly took something away from watching all of those episodes of The Fact's of life in the 80's - "you take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of life."

Breakfast with Santa

Today was a good day, a crazy day, but a good day. I say that quite often, don't I? It seems most days are crazy days for me.

Anyway...today we went to have breakfast with Santa. My mom does this each year with the grandkids, it is a tradition of sorts which the kids love.

We started the morning by picking Nonna up, and dropping Daddy off (he was hanging with Papa Scotty, watching football and drinking bloody Mary's) and drove out to the Pool and Yacht Club where we started the festivities by listening to the Teddy Bear Band. After listening to music for a while, we headed in to see Santa, and had the kids sit on his lap to tell him everything they want for Christmas. Daddy had rehearsed their answers with them this morning so they were all set. He also made sure to ask them to tell Santa Daddy wanted a Porsche for Christmas, which they promised to fill him in on. Here is what they asked for....

Ava wants ice skates, and an American Girl doll. I should say that she wants the American Girl doll sooooo baaaddd. She speaks of it every day, asking if I think she will get Julie (name of the doll she is yearning for), asking if she will get her purse and hat, and books, etc. Oh how she wants this doll....

Lucas wants ice skates, and a skateboard (the skateborad is not happening.... I simply told him Santa does not make them. Ahem.) Is this terrible of me?? I have not had one single trip to the emergency room yet and I have a feeling if Santa brought one of these, we would have our first trip.

Anthony told Santa he wants a Star Wars book and an Elmo book. This I found odd as at home he proceeds to sit on the couch and yell "I want that from Santa" to every single toy commercial that comes on the television - no joke. I think it may have had to do with how painfully shy he was acting.

After finishing up with Santa, we headed upstairs to be seated for brunch. This is when the craziness ensued. Imagine boatloads of hungry kids, grandparents, moms, dads, etc. all squished in a small corridor, waiting to be seated to eat. Now this sounds bad enough on it's own, right? Add to it we were supposed to be seated promptly at 11am, and actually did not get seated until 11:30am. I managed to get my three lovely children seated, and headed right to the buffet line as I knew how hungry the kids were and I was not in the mood for a melt down. Unfortunately, I proceeded to wait in line for 30 minutes just to get food for the kids. As I was walking back to the table with food in hand, a part of me was frightened of what I was going to see when I returned. Sure enough,there was Anthony on the floor next to the table laying on his blankey. He was quiet, but I was not fooled.... I knew this was a precursor to what was to come - a melt down. Sure enough, it came and continued on and off for the rest of the meal, out to the car and about half way home until he finally passed out in his car seat. Boy, that was a loooong morning.

Ava and Lucas are at a great age for things like this, but for a week prior to this Breakfast with Santa, I was debating whether or not I should bring Anthony this year.... I was thinking maybe I should wait one more year until he was a bit older and could handle himself a bit better. Looks like I made the wrong decision - oops. But he got to see Santa for the first time, sit on his lap, and tell him what he wanted for Christmas so it was all worth it.

To end, it was a long, crazy whirlwind of a day. But the kids had a fabulous time which made it all worth it - for everyone but Daddy.... The kids forgot to ask Santa to bring him a Porsche.

A day late..

So it is the day after Thanksgiving and here I am writing what I wanted to write, and post yesterday on the actual day of Thanksgiving - Yesterday was just too crazy of a day to get it accomplished. As I am sitting her typing this I am finding today may just be too crazy of a day as well. Anthony is laying on the couch yelling "Mommy, I want that!!" to every toy commercial that comes on. Ava and Lucas are wrestling each other on the carpet (just waiting for someone to get hurt), and Olivia is crying in her carseat as she is waaay over tired. Days like this are pretty normal around the Shelton household, so I guess I should succumb to the fact that this is just how it is going to be for the next 15 years. Wow, that sounds a bit overwhelming to say the least -- 15 years of all of "this"?? It guess it is all worth it though..... Alright, I am rambling and getting off course here - that seems to happen a lot with me.

Now, back to the point of this whole post. Thanksgiving. Oh it was a wonderful day. A day filled with turkey, potatoes, stuffing, loafing around on the couch, pie, more turkey, etc. In a nut shell - over eating. I love it though, and it seems like for some reason everyone gets a free pass on Thanksgiving to stuff themselves silly without having to feel bad about it.

The kids had a great time playing at grandma and papa's house, and hanging out with their new cousin Lucia (pictured above). I was sort of amazed at how interested Anthony and Lucas were in her - like they had never seen a baby before, or at least not for a long time. This is funny as they have a baby sister that is only two months younger than Lucia. Hmmm... Anyway, they had a great time and were kept occupied the whole day which was very nice for Brian and I as it gave us all the time in the world to lay around, eat, and do nothing. Here I am rambling again... So to sum it up, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving, filled with wonderful food, and spent with wonderful family.

Anywhoo, I thought it only appropriate seeing it is (was - a day late - oops) Thanksgiving to count all my blessings and think about all I am thankful for.

1. I am thankful for my wonderful husband

2. I am thankful for my 4 beautiful children

3. I am thankful that Brian loves, and is incredibly passionate about running the family business. Without his passion the business would not be where it is today

4. I am thankful that Brian works as hard as he does ( I know, sometimes - O.K. a lot of times I complain he is gone waaaay too much) so that I am able to stay at home with our kids

5. I am thankful that we are all healthy

6. I am thankful for Grandma Diane and Papa Ron for taking my kids every Tuesday so that I can have a day for "me". The best thing ever!!!

7. I am thankful for my mom - for raising me in a home filled with warmth and love. I only hope I can raise my children half as well as she did

The list is really endless. I am just so very, very, very thankful to have all that I have.

Now that I have listed all the many things I am thankful for, I thought it only fit to list what the kids are thankful for this Thanksgiving....

Ava: "the tree's." Simple, but nice.

Lucas: "my booty" hmmm...always has to be silly. I asked him for a better answer (as I felt his butt was not something to be all that thankful for.) To which he responded, " I am thankful for my family mommy." Much better.

Anthony: "I am thankful for pizza." - which does not surprise me one little bit as it is his favorite food of all time.

What a great Thanksgiving this was....but there is no more time to reflect as it is now time to gear up for Christmas!! Decorating, Christmas shopping, parties.....

These little wonders

I was getting myself dressed after my shower today while having the pleasure of listening to my baby Olivia Grace coohing and laughing, (which is so much better than any music or T.V in the background.) I was happy that she was content in her bouncy chair and that her brother was engrossed in wathing Maggie and the Ferocious Beast (his favorite show of all time) on my bed so that I was able to finish up with the necessities - putting on deoderant, lotion, drying my hair, etc. You know, all the little things you take for granted being able to do in your pre-child days.:) After I finished, I went to grab Olivia from her bouncy chair when she suddenly turned to look at me and gave me a HUGE smile,and made a loud squeal - I love, love, love moments like this. Times like this make me smile and get teary eyed all at the same time. After reveling in the moment for a few minutes, I finally bent down to pick her up and whispered in her ear something I have said to all of my babies a gazillion times over "I love you soooo much Livi Grace, your mommy would do anything in this world for you."

Little things like this often have this type of affect on me, this sudden wave of emotion... this feeling of overwhelming love and affection for these little beings that I had a part in creating -that lived inside my belly for 9 whole months before entering this world. What wonderous little beings. This feeling is truly amazing.... it actually brings to mind something my mom always said to me when I was young. She would tell me everytime I came home late, or did not call, (or any other things a typical teenager will do without thinking twice) "Maria, do you have any idea how worried I was?" To which I would reply, eye roll and all "Oh mom, I was fine, geeze!" You could always here the quiver in her voice, and see the tears in her eyes as we had this conversation. I thought nothing of it at the time.... She would always end by telling me I would never understand the worry and the inexplicable amount of love that goes with having children until I had children of my own. As I walked away I could always here a great sigh of relief coming from her - knowing that I was home safe and sound. Now that I have four children of my own I can say - was she ever right!! I do still have a long ways to go before the teenage years, where most of the worrying comes into play, which I am thankful for as I do need some time to prepare. :) I pray that I am strong enough to deal with it all. Lord knows if my kids are anything like I was as a teenager I am in for a bit of trouble! But then isn't every teenager a bit "rebellious"? Looking back, I do have to say - My mom was a saint!!

Anyway, with the bulk of the worry aside for the time being, I can say that I know a ton about the love part. The love I feel for Ava, Lucas, Anthony and Olivia is a crazy out of this world type of love (frankly, is there any other kind??) Sure, there are difficult times - tantrums, whining, fighting, etc. It is certainly not always paradise around the Shelton household, but these acts of rebellion are easily forgotten when you witness all the sweet little things....oh,the sweetest things....

1. The little conversations they have between one another when they think I am not listening

2. The way they snuggle with me in the morning when they have just woken up

3.The way I can make an owey better by simply kissing it

4.Putting them to bed at night and saying "where does mommy love you to?" and having them respond without even thinking "to the moon!"

5.Going into their room at night and watching them sleep.... oh so peaceful

I could go on and on. These"little wonders".....my four beautiful babes. So can you see what I mean by all that other stuff being easily forgotten??

Worry is my middle name

You are probably wondering why in the heck I posted a picture of a carbon monoxide detector. Well, let me tell you... We had a guy come over this morning to do some duct work in the basement for us, as he was finishing up, he asked me to come down to the basement so he could show me something that needed fixing. He brought me to the back utility room and showed me a large pipe or duct or something of the sort without a cover over the bottom of it. (bear with me here, I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to this sort of stuff.) He proceeded to tell me that this was very dangerous as it was most likely causing carbon monoxide to enter into our house. He told me it was very important that Brian get to the store and buy a "5 inch end cap" and get it closed up. Needless to say, after hearing all this, panic ensued.....

I hate to admit this, but I am a self professed hypocondriac. Tell me the symptoms of some disease, ailment, etc and the next day I will have it - guaranteed. So you can only imagine my reaction to hearing this... After the "duct guy" left, I hopped on my laptop and looked up the

symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning (which my ever patient doctor told me to never do), and realized I had been exhibiting some of the tell tale signs of carbon monoxide poisoning (of course.) I immediately grabbed the kids, packed them in the car and left the house. Not sure where to go, I drove a few blocks down the road to the Pizza Hut parking lot, all the while calling Brian on his cell and getting no answer. After I grabbed a parking spot I started calling everyone in my family to relay my state of panic to them - my mom was not answering, my sister was not answering, no one was answering!! I finally got through to my wonderful step dad who talked me down off of the "ledge" I was on after convincing myself I was dying of carbon monoxide poisoning. As I finished my phone call with him, Brian finally called back, I relayed the story to him, tears and all - he sighed, told me I was not dying, and that he would be home within the hour to figure it all out.

This whole time my Anthony Thomas and Olivia Grace were sitting patiently in the back seat - my poor kids... at least they are not quite old enough to know just how crazy their mommy is!! After I got myself together, I left the Pizza Hut parking lot and drove aimlessly around waiting to get the "O.K" to go back into my house. Brian phoned soon after and told me he successfully plugged in the Carbon Monoxide detector he just purchased (I was convinced the one we already had at home was not working correctly) and that there was no trace of any in our house - phew. He was then given the O.K. by me to run back off to the work that I interrupted with my state of emergency. Gosh I love him.... always there when I need him, even in my irrational, crazed states... My husband, my knight in shining armor.

Dad

My heart is sad today... I spoke to my Dad today. I have not spoken to him in a very long time - I would say it has been about a year. The sad truth is that the time span in between phone calls seems to get longer and longer after each time we do talk.

As I was laying on my bed nursing my beautiful daughter Olivia Grace, it came to mind that he has yet to meet her, in fact, I believe he has only met Ava, Lucas and Anthony a few times - sad. The picture above is from the day Lucas was born, one of the two times he has met my little Lucas. I have been thinking about calling him for months and have not actually gone through with it as it seems the conversation is always so strained and hard to keep going. But today I decided to pick up the phone and call him. He answered - I said "Hi Dad" silence on the other end of the line. I said "It's Maria". He said, "Oh...Maria, Hi." I proceeded to talk about how long it has been since we have talked or seen eachother, and he agreed. He said to me "I am so sorry honey, it is all my fault." I have never heard him take on any responsibilty for the disolution of our relationship, so this really shocked me - I did not know what to say... I just mentioned that it was both of our faults and that we need to work on getting things on track. I asked how work was, how Tracey was, and a few other odds and ends but was getting one word responses from him. I am sure this was due to the fact that he was extremely intoxicated, trying his best to put coherent sentences together to carry on a conversation with me. I thought it would be a good time to end the conversation, so I told him to call me soon so we could get together. He agreed - I told him I loved him and would talk soon. As I hung up the phone I cried as I was sure I would not hear from him - either because he would not remember the conversation, or he would be too ashamed to make the call after speaking to me being so intoxicated.

This all made me sad for him, and for me.... Sad that his drinking was the catalyst to all of this- my mother leaving him, and his inability to spend time with us when we were young children, which in turn got us to where we are today, not a part of eachothers lives. He has missed so much... the births of my four beautiful children, baptims, birthday parties - all of the wonderful little moments that should be enjoyed by grandparents. They do not know their own grandpa, and sadly I do not believe they ever really will.

I am in awe that after all of this, all the sadness, pain, and heartache, that he is not able to quit drinking, or try to quit drinking. I am not angry though, I forgive him for everything - all he has done and not done throught my lifetime as my Dad. I have learned that it is of no value to hang on to anger, it only festers and builds and makes you into someone you would rather not be. I have learned to accept my Dad for who he is, an alchohlic who does the best he knows how to. I love him, and always will.

It was a momentous occasion

For the past few days Ava has been obsessed with the fact that she has a loose tooth. Every day this week she comes home from school telling me all the tales of the other kids in her Kindergarten class that have lost their teeth. One of her friends, Emily, lost - get this, 2 teeth already! Ava was just baffled by this. :) Anyway, she came home from school yesterday asking me to please pull her tooth out while she was sleeping as that is what Emily had her mom do. I told her I wanted to see how loose it was before I did that and asked her to open up her mouth so I could "wiggle" it... she obliged, and within a few seconds I had her tooth in my hand.

After the excitement of actually losing the tooth wore off she started to ask questions about how much money the tooth fairy was going to leave her. Just the other day our neighbor Tyler (who is 6) came running outside yelling "I got $5 whole dollars from the tooth fairy!!" I looked at his mom and proceeded to ask if the tooth fairy had gotten a pay raise or something - geeze, $5??? Or am I just cheap?? I remember when the tooth fairy came to my house she left a few quarters, I know it was a long time ago, but has the price per tooth really gone up that much or was my mom just cheap too?

Anyway, she went to sleep last night with her tooth under her pillow and so full of excitement I was not sure if she would actually go to sleep. Early this morning - way to early this morning - 4:45am to be exact, Ava came running into my room yelling, "mommy, mommy, guess how much money's the tooth fairy left me.... 5 dollars!!" Too cute. :)

Just one more piece..

So we went trick or treating at Boutwell's Landing last night. For those of you that do not know, this is an "old folks" home that does an annual trick or treating night where the people who live there hand treats out to the kids. The kids love it as it is another chance for them to dress up in their costumes and fill up their treat bags with junk food. I don't like it as much as it is just more candy in the house that has to slowly "disappear"when the kids are sleeping. If I don't do this it would all be in their tummies in a matter of days, which in turn makes for bad poops, and even possibly vomit - ugh (this has been the case in past Halloweens.)

Anyway, Anthony was apparently on to my plan early this morning (7:30am) as I came downstairs to find him on his couch with his whole bag of candy dumped out around him. When he saw me he said with a smile, "just one more piece mommy." I proceeded to let him as I figured it was already too late to save him from a tummy ache - the picture above does not tell all - you should have seen all the empty candywrappers on the carpet. Got to love my Anthony Thomas!

Here goes!!

I have heard all about this blogging thing and never really thought about starting up my own until recently. I was actually inspired to get off of my duff and get going on this after months of following Stephanie Nielsen and her sister Courtney's blogs.

I began reading their blogs after I heard about the terrible plane crash that Stephanie and her husband Christian were in. (their blogs are posted on the left hand side of my page if you have not heard their story and would like to - nie -nie and cjanerun). I don't even know these people but found myself immediately drawn to the story of their lives - what amazing people.

I loved how Stephanie created this blog as a place to write about her marriage, family, and day to day life for her children to someday read. I loved it so much that I decided it was time for me to do the very same thing, and start my own. A perfect place for me to recount my daily adventures as a stay at home mom. I figure I will have plenty to write about as we have four kids ALL under the age of 6!

Anyway, I am very excited to start this online diary of sorts - it really is a perfect place to store all of these memories (as I tend to be forgetful), so that one day my kids can look back and read all about their childhood.

Ava, Lucas, Anthony and Olivia - this is all for you!!

Mommy loves....