Gobble Fest

Gobble Fest 2011

Included:

1 turkey

3 bottles of wine

mashed potatoes

gravy

sweet potato praline swirl

cranberry relish

potato rolls

green bean mix

pistachio salad

pumpkin pie

apple pie

1 grandma

1 pop pop

2 mommies

1 auntie Michon

1 daddy

6 cousins

Notice anything missing?

Ding ding! 

We were missing a daddy.

He was here:

Don't rush to judgement. 

He had the blessing of all 4 females in his house.

It was a rare opportunity to spend a holiday with his BFF and go see his most beloved Huskers beat Iowa.

In the land of "Joe" it doesn't get much better than a Husker home game.

Back in the Lone Star State....

 Eva assisted Pierce on the tricycle

 Baby Iris loved up anyone that had empty arms.

 Baby Iris got bigger and cuter.

Pierce and Eva spontaneously morphed into a caterpillar and a frog, respectively.

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN??

Let me begin with a brief breakdown of my weekly time requirements:

Work:  24 hours/week.
Clinical: 20 hours/week.
Class: 10 hours/week.
Children:  Unknown (but it's a lot cause there's 3 of 'em) hours/week.
Sleep: 50 hours/week.
Conversing with spouse: probably not enough hours/week.
Housework:  definitely not enough  hours/week.

Whoa, it's getting crazy friends!  This Mommy will always have crazy work hours, but it will be nice to put the deadlines and stressors of school behind me.  Needless to say, this is the reason for my absence.  I'm just not motivated to sit back down at the computer - I can't bear to tune out my trio of attention-seeking-little-mommy-lovers.   But then the emails start coming in from the grandparents and the aunties and the cousins and they all want to know "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?"  and I'm always surprised that you're still out there waiting for the latest pictures and funny stories!

So, we'll strike an agreement.  My postings are likely to be sparse and greatly spaced, but I will try to post updates and hit the highlights from time to time.

I came  back from KY and had way too much fun buying the perfect lab coat.  Look out clinical, here I come!

The big girls began a 12 week session of swimming lessons.  On a scholarship from Grandma and Grandpa N.  They love it almost as much as they love soccer.  They both said that in the future, they will choose swimming lessons over "boring old ballet".  What??

Halloween came and went.  We had a cowgirl, a cowdad, Little Red Riding Hood and a ... um, fairy princess cowgirl?  Eva loved handing out the candy so much that when our candy supply ran out, she began giving out her own trick or treats!  God loves a giving soul!

And last night, big girl Eva got her first hair cut.  More like a little trim of the random long strands...  She sat so still and cracked us up by sharing her thoughts.  "I so pretty Mommy?  I have long hair.  Mommy have long hair?  I have sparkle too?  This a big seat!  I very high!  We have happy meal?"  It always comes back to food with Eva.  I love her.

Squeek of the Morning

I love my big girl.  That's her, #7.  She is strong, smart, confident, compassionate, funny and beautiful.  She gives everything she attempts her best effort.  She's our guinea pig; I admit that we are learning as we go with our oldest daughter! I don't know what we did to deserve her, but God blessed us infinitely when he chose us to be her parents!

So enough gushing.

This morning I woke up too early to the sounds of a clumsy man crashing and shuffling into the bathroom and making all sorts of unnecessary noise.  So I went and snuggled next to big sis for a while and when she got up, since we were running ahead of schedule, I sat on her bed and french braided her hair for school while she talked.  And talked.  And talked.

Here's what was on her mind this morning.  "Claudia has this idea for a dance party.  She wants to make costumes and buy shoes.  Claudia's mom is a good sew-er (like seamstress, but she said "sower" and spelled out it looked like "sewer" which is entirely different) but she asks for help if she gets stuck because she has a friend who sews too.  And I would be in charge of making the signs for the dance party and getting a table. And the party would be here in our neighborhood.  Where would be a good place mom?  We were thinking on the grass in the backyard by those trees (greenbelt).  And we would have to ask (the neighborhood association) for permission I guess, although you don't have to ask for permission to have a lemonaide stand.  That doesn't seem fair, does it mom?  Do you think we could get some of those big pieces of paper for the signs?  Like at Hobby Lobby or something?  Would you make some snacks?  And Claudia wants to have it at sunset because it's so pretty but I don't think that's a good idea because we wouldn't have enough time.  Because it would take all our time just to set it up and then it would be bedtime!  So I think we should have it, like, at dinner time and then everyone can dance at sunset.  Do you think that's a good idea mom?  And I was thinking we should have lots of balloons and let them go right when our party is starting and then everyone would say "Wow!  Look at those beautiful balloons!" and they would know we were having a party because of the balloons and they would walk over to the grass because everyone is out in the evening playing and going for walks and stuff.  Do you think it's a good idea mom?"

"I certainly think you've put a lot of thought into it."

Lamaze International

I got to attend the annual Lamaze International Conference this year as an exhibitor for FNU.

I looked forward to it all week and it was lots of fun!

Nurses and childbirth people are so dang nice. 

The best part, besides the free food,

were all the entrepreneurial displays...

These dolls were so cute!  I want one for my future office!

And I met the creators of iBirth -

a birth app for the iPhone!! 

You know I'm buying it.  

The app has short videos to demonstrate different labor positions 

and how they benefit mom and baby; it has nutrition information

 and even examples of good sources of different nutrients!

  Forehead slap!  Why didn't I think of that??

I came up on a free bottle of Bio-Oil.

Originally designed for burn victims, 

they now market it for scars, stretch marks and just general skin wellness.

Preliminary results obtained from the warm bath I just exited indicate that this may be a winning product!

  I'll let you know after repeated uses.

  I'm going to use it on Mia and Eva's itchy, sensitive skin too.

And the totally awesomest thing was that I met the founder of 

Dancing For Birth!

I missed the class series that was offered here last month, 

but after meeting Stephanie, I have decided to attend her training workshop.

I hope it doesn't matter that I can't dance...

Just wanted to share the goodness!

Love to my peeps,

Katie

Ponytail!

This is a follow-up to my last post... Observe:

Ponytail!  

(Eva was feeling cooperative for about 20 seconds this morning!)

But I have to tell ya,

 nobaby rocks the Pebbles Flintstone ponytail quite like baby Ali did 6 years ago....

I meant to scan a photo of baby Ali, but scanner is not being as cooperative as Eva,

so here is a substitute pic of my sports fans:

GBR!!

Where Did All The Hair Ties Go?

It seems that I buy those thick elastic hair rubber bands every time I go to Target and yet, 

we still struggle to find enough of them to contain our ponytails every morning. 

 What is up with that?  

This afternoon the mystery was solved.  It's sort of a long story... 

Exhibit A.  

Athletic big sister requires 1 -2 hair ties for soccer and swimming lessons.

Ponytails independently.

Claims she wants to let hair grow 2 feet.

Exhibit B.

 Spirited baby sister.

Not enough hair for a ponytail, although Mom tries frequently.

Continuously flaps arms and exclaims "I fly!  I fly!"

Alternately claims to be a princess or a butterfly.

Occasionally identifies as "Superbunny."

Exhibit C.

Imaginative medium sister.

Previously obsessed with cheetahs and all things feline.

Now associates with her cold-blooded amphibian side.

Spends excessive time in the bathtub.

Hair is usually too wet to be ponytailed. 

Exhibit D.

Devin.

No, the frog is Devin.  She's not real.

She is more frequently lost than found.  

It was during one of her lost episodes that the mystery was solved.

Exhibit E.

Mischievous Mouder-Tat.

Way too affectionate and curious. 

No manners.

Has deep undying love for... hair ties.

When the most recent quest for Devin resulted in the rearrangement of furniture

20 elastic hair ties were discovered beneath the couch.  Along with 5 pens.

Apparently Mouder likes those too.

And the mystery is solved!

Preschool

I didn't get a "before" picture....  but here's the "after" picture:

I'd say it was a busy-fun kind of first day of preschool.

It's okay baby, sleep it off.  

Jammin' Baby Moose

Moosey and I are chillin' this morning with Will. i. am.  My sister said something that made me laugh this morning after I told her about Eva and an altercation with our cat.. "you mess with the Moose, you get the horns."  Funny, no?  

School Rules!

It's back to business for the Texas Cuties

 This year we have a third grader and a very excited kindergartener.  Although you can't really see "excited" in these photos.  That's just Miss. Mia.  It takes some serious work to photograph a smile on that little face.

 Ali is very ready to be back in school.  As soon as we hit the front doors it was, "Ali!" "Ali!" "Look, it's Ali!".  And she takes being a big sister very seriously.  She insisted on taking Mia to kindergarten before going to her own class.

 They worked hard this summer planning their first day of school outfits.  The result was two very hip and cool students with sequined tops and "twinkle toe" shoes.  "Second day of school outfits" are already laid out and ready to go.  I love these girls.

 Just by luck of the draw, Mia has the same teacher Ali had.  We couldn't be happier!  Kindergarten is going to be great!

Once the girls were situated, we joined the other kindergarten moms and dads for a "Tears and Cheers" breakfast.  Eva seated herself with a donut and juice and said, "uh oh!  Where Ali?  Mimi have donut too?" Of course we explained that the girls were in school now and it was just going to be us for a while.  She took a long drink of OJ (I think she was actually toasting their absence!) and then smiled sweetly and said, "okay, we go park now?"  

Eve of Destruction

What happened to my sweet baby??  I would say that the "terrible twos" have arrived with reinforcements, but I have a problem with "terrible".  I prefer "delightfully naughty".  Because even at her worst, I think she's delightful.  But boy is she a lot of work.  Among her favorite new phrases is "You like a baby!" which in our house full of big, independent girls is the biggest slam and insult imaginable.  The classic "No!" is used frequently and usually paired with "I won't!" or "thank you!".  That's right.  "NO THANK YOU!".  At least she is naughty, defiant AND polite.  =-)

This morning she nicely asked if I would paint her nails.  So I did while emphasizing that "big girl princesses with painted nails go potty in the potty chair" and she seemed to agree.  We put on some Oomie Zoomie while her polish dried.  I answered a phone call.  I checked my email.  I noticed Eva was not where I left her.  I found her in the bathroom painting her whole princess with pink nail polish.

Yesterday she conned me into letting her out of the stroller at JCPenny and then she took off at a dead toddler sprint across the store.  I lost sight of her while trying to give chase with the stroller and a bunch of clothes and shopping bags.  When I located her, crouched beneath the girl's plus size dresses at the other end of the store, I gave her the big "YOU DON'T RUN AWAY FROM MOMMY", buckled her into the stroller and had to listen to her scream, "I want my DADDEEEEE!" all the way through the checkout.

Want more?  She ate a tube of toothpaste before one of the sister's caught her.  She said those three little words every mom loathes;  "I poopoo floor."  She dumped half a bag of cat food in the general area of the cat's food dish.  She stuck an opened peanut butter and jelly sandwich to the wall.  She's a boomerang at bedtime.  She screams anytime you approach a TV with a remote when she's watching Dora.  She pushes her cousin Iris down, just to watch her fall.  She bucks and arches whenever you attempt to buckle her into her carseat.  She could qualify for the Olympics in the 5 meter run-from-mommy dash.  She yells, "I mad!" and throws things.

And she wakes me up every morning by perching at the foot of the bed as silently as she can muster, with a big grin on her face.  She says "Oh, I so happy!" and "Howdy!".  She calls me "Pincess Mommy".  She is feisty and busy, naughty and nice, and I love her from her runny nose down to her overly painted toes!

Laughed so hard...

Hello friends!  I've been enjoying all the great info out there this National Breastfeeding Week.  I have found some funny posts too!  And all that breastfeeding made me think about childbirth, which is one of my most favorite things to think about/talk about/study about.  And then today I came across a post about milk sharing that I thought was great!  I loved it so much I decided I was going to tell y'all about it and then I found another post by my new favorite blogger (and imaginary BFF) and decided that YOU HAD to read it.  I know I'm over-tired and pretty giggly anyway, but if this doesn't make you almost wet your pants (consider this ample warning ladies like me with 3+ babies), than I don't know what will.

I also spent about 3 hours watching homemade videos and slideshows of home waterbirths on youtube that had me bawling my eyes out and my husband wondering how I am going to be an effective professional midwife if I'm in the corner of the room sharing kleenex with the grandmas.  I promised him I'd only cry after the birth when mom and baby are doing great and I'm on my way home.

So if you haven't stumbled upon BecomingSarah already, I hope you'll enjoy her blog as much as I did.  And maybe share your favorite horror story with me?!

2, 4, 6, 8...

In the hospital I did wait,

For my baby, she was great! 

Princess Milk-Face, Squeeker Bug,

Bitty Fizzle and lots of hugs,

Slumber party and eight years old,

Not too big for Mom to hold!

Happy Birthday to the girl who made me a mommy! 

(Slumber party pictures to follow tomorrow)

C'mon PopPop!

What do you do when your Dad only takes his ski boat out on the weekends, and you work weekends?!!  And love to ski?!  I'll tell you - you shamelessly play his granddaughters against his big ole PopPop heart.  How do you do that?  I'll tell you - you make a music video for him and post it to his facebook profile so all his grandma and grandpa friends can see it and tell him how adorable his grandkids are, how lucky he is, etc. and guilt him into taking his boat out on a MONDAY afternoon!  Muahahahahaha!

Mother Ali

I was so tired this morning.  Ever since our trip to Arizona and the subsequent time change, we have been keeping late hours.  I couldn't get my old self out of bed and it sounded so quiet in the house, I tricked myself into believing that maybe the girls were still asleep...

Oh, they were not.

Mother Ali had a full scale breakfast in the works in the kitchen.  I walked in to a toddler who had used the restroom with the assistance of 2 big sisters and was now in fresh clothes seated at the table eating yogurt, toast with jam, toast with peanut butter and toast with cinnamon.  My coffee cup was presented  to me (empty, thank goodness) and I was instructed to fill it and make myself "at home".

"Don't worry Mom, I'm going to clean this all up."

Um, yeah!  I'm going to sleep in more often.

Knock, knock...

Lots of great senses of humor in this house.

Last night Joe and I couldn't sleep because we were cracking each other up retelling the girls' favorite jokes from the day before.

To my kids, anything is a joke if you begin with "knock, knock".

Ali:  "Knock, knock!"
Me: "Who's there?"
Ali:  "Banana!"
Me:  "Banana who?"
Ali:  "Banana rama hanna fanna!"
Me:  "(obligatory) hahahaha!"

Mia:  "Knock, knock!"
Joe:  "Who's there?"
Mia:  "Peanut!"
Joe:  "Peanut who?"
Mia: "Peanut butter - you want some for lunch?!"
Joe:  "ahahahahaha..!"

Eva: "Knock, knock!"
Me:  "Who's there?"
Eva:  Grins..
Me:  "hahahahah!"

An American Mermaid in Arizona

I am determined this morning!  And armed with a nice, hot cup of coffee and several Dora the Explorer videos.  I am going to blog!

Summer is supposed to be a time of long, relaxing days.  Lemonade, fireflies, that sort of thing.  Days that start to look like this...

Well, we started our summer off with exams (Mom and Dad) and then a 16 hour drive to Cottonwood, AZ.  The drive was horrendous; west Texas is bleak and endless (and that's putting it nicely) and there aren't enough snacks and movies in the world to placate 3 small girls for that length of time.  But once we reached northern New Mexico, things started to look up.  And then we fell in love.  With Flagstaff.  Again.  Joe kept teasing me with comments like, "when we move to Arizona..."  Rotten man.  He knows how much I love it there.  After a day of visiting Northern Arizona University where my very talented sister-in-law will be attending and some reminiscing (I lived there with my family for a short time) we headed south through Oak Creek Canyon and Sedona to our little cabin at Dead Horse Ranch State Park.

This was our camp where we happily stayed for 6 nights while reuniting with about 50 of Joe's aunts, uncles, cousins and second cousins.  When it comes to who has the best extended family, I thought I had it in the bag, but clearly it's a tie.

The girls made best friends only to learn that they were actually "best cousins".  I mean, is there anything better than learning that you are RELATED to your BFF?!

We spent lots of quality time with the Great Grandparents and Mia spent more time in the camping trailer with her Grandma and Grandpa than she did in the cabin with her parents!  One of the  highlights for me was plodding through the icy clear waters of Oak Creek with my girls.  I spent so much time there during college and never imagined that I'd have three little girls to share that special place with some day!

Eventually our supplies ran out, Grandpa's holding tank in the camping trailer filled to overflowing and we were forced to say goodbye to Grandma, Grandpa, Great Aunt Cindy, Great Uncle Dave, Auntie Nessy and "Uncle" Jason (goodbye only for a while...) and head home.

Back in Texas, our little James, Pierce and Iris were missing their cousins!  We wasted no time getting the party started for the 4th of July!  We saw some fireworks, we grilled, we swam.  We talked about what it means to be an American and how lucky we are.  My favorite conversation went like this:

Ali:  "Eva?  Eva, are you an American?"
Eva:  "No.  I not a Merican.  I mermaid."

Which, of course, tickled our funny bones and brought a new nickname upon little Eva; "Mermoose".

And now we are back to the rigors of finishing school for Mom and Dad, work for Mom, classroom observation and summer school for Dad, soccer practices and games for Dad, Ali and Mia, ballet classes for Ali and Mia, more dental work and appointments for Ali and Mia, swimming lessons for Eva, and birthday party planning for Ali.

Perhaps it's a far cry from lazy days, lemonade and porch swings, but I expect we'll still have plenty of time for long afternoons languishing by the pool and visiting family and friends (and new summer babies).

Another Reason

Another reason why I love having daughters.






"You sure like playing Spa, huh Mommy?"


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I have a 3rd grader!

Here we are- the last day of school. Natalie's teacher invited all the parents to come for her end of the year awards ceremony. Her teacher recognized all her students' achievements for the year.

The Creative Writing Award really tickled me because I was recognized as a creative writer in 2nd grade also! And here I am, creatively writing this blog! Maybe Natalie will become the journalist I thought I wanted to be...


I know one thing for sure. Natalie makes me proud everyday and it's not because she had the top math or social studies grade or because she writes amazing stories (although that's all wonderful) it's because she is a gracious, loving and kind young lady who thinks about others before herself, and always gives her best effort.

Here's to a sa-weeeet summer!!

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Princess Eva

What do you do when your little one needs a crown like Princess Dora?






Stop what you're doing and make the girl a crown, of course!


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First Communion

May Jesus always be bread to feed you, a friend to heal you, a light to lead you.