Wordful Wednesday- The work of Mr. Momma

A few weeks ago the boys were in their school holiday concert. Of course I took both the video camera and the still camera but because I couldnt do both at once (although I have tried many times), my hubby's job was to take still pictures.


Here are some......








I love that he was trying to capture some moments leading up to our children's arrival onstage, but I am just not sure what moments they were.

Here are my guesses.

*Child laying on floor.........not our child. Our children would never behave like that in a public place. Child is so excited to see the performance that he needs to take a little breather before it begins to hold back his excitement.

*The stage. The place that will ignite our children's acting/singing careers. When they grow up and become wealthy, well known celebrities, we will have this picture to sell to all of the magazines to show the world where it all began.

*Scary man. To give to America's Most Wanted if needed.

Oh yeah, Mr. Momma did capture some great moments of OUR children too. Thank goodness.

Go here for more Wordful Wednesday folks

Now what?

Christmas is over.

All of the hustle and bustle is gone.

The presents have been opened and most put away into their special little spots throughout the messy house.

Alot of food has been eaten and if I eat any more turkey or spinach dip, I might just blow up or turn into Popeye.

Turning into Popeye wouldnt be so bad because he is in shape....has alot of muscles and very little body fat. Right now I have alot of fat and not much muscle.

Now what?

Clean up.......take Christmas stuff down......go back to the gym after taking a two month holiday because "life is just too busy". My excuses are gone.

No wonder this time of year is so depressing....................................

Joy

Joy is......

Making food for Santa's reindeer




Watching Princess open her first gift....even though she was more interested in her sock.

Getting all of the kidlets together for a group picture....and almost being successful.

Making a huge mess baking...and having fun while doing it.

Walking into Princess' room and being greeted like this.

Seeing my children concentrate for more than 5 seconds.

Cousins kissing.

Candy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Being greeted by a boy who raided mom and dad's drawers!!!!!!!



I wish you joy.....peace and lots of love this holiday season.

Isn't life wonderful?

Momma
xo

Photostory Friday-Imposter Husband

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Last weekend was the first of two baking weekends. Since we moved into our new house with our dream kitchen, it is our favourite place. Aside from the fact that it holds our favourite thing...food.....we love to be in this room. Eating is our favourite thing to do. Baking + eating is why Momma hasnt lost the 20lbs she wants to lose.

Anyways, someone stole my husband and sent back a husband who looks exactly like my old one and talks like my old one but the new one likes to make pies.

MY HUSBAND LIKES TO BAKE PIES.

I never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth.

I have proof. Looky here my friends.

Man hands. Holding bag of flour. Standing next to mixing bowl.

The finished un-baked pie. Prepared by my imposter husband. Imposter husband even carved out our initial as his "signature" to his masterpiece.

I wonder if my "new" husband likes bluegrass music. If he doesnt, I just might keep him.

Letters to Santa

Dear Santa,

For Fristmas I want a mote contol monster truck, a mote contol dinosaur and a mote contol car. Oh yeah, and some gum, and some candy. I eat alot of it and when mommy says "no more" I wait until she is in a different room and then climb up to get some. She doesnt even notice when I have about six pieces in my mouth or look like a chipmunk because my mouth is full of candy. It would also be nice if you made my big brother disappear. He is a friggin dammit head. That's all.

Rowdy

Dear Santa,

For Christmas I would like 6 Webkinz. Not one or even two but 6 please. I wont be happy unless I have 6. I would also like it if you brought me a new mommy because my mom is mean and doesnt let me do all of the things I would like to do. So what if I want to eat peanut butter out of the jar or butter by the spoonful. There is nothing wrong with that. Oh yeah, I would also like it if you made my little brother disappear. He is a stupid moron.

Messy

Dear Santa,

For Christmas I would like my teeth that have been keeping me (and mommy) up at night to pop through and cause no more pain. I would also like it if Mommy would stop talking in that high pitched squeaky voice when she talks to me. I dont understand why mommies think that that is the way babies should be spoken to. Like, really. I would also like it if you could bring me alot of paper and boxes because I love to play with (and eat) them. It is so much fun. And could you please tell my mom to stop pulling the pieces out of my mouth and ruining all of my enjoyment? She wants me to learn how to chew but wont let me practice with paper in my mouth. One more thing. Could you please find a way to make my brothers be quiet because they are loud and always fight and call eachother bad names? My house would be alot more peaceful without them running around and yelling all of the time. If you cant do that, maybe you can just write them a note and tell them you wont come back next year if they behave like they have been this year. Thanks muchly.

Princess

Dear Santa,

Hi buddy. Just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know what I want for Christmas this year. I would like any meat or cheese product because I eat alot of the stuff. Any kind of red meat is preferred. I would also like any item that is sold at Bass Pro Shop. I dont hunt and rarely fish. Heck, I dont even own a boat but the fish sculptures and wilderness artwork is right up my alley. My wife wouldnt mind one bit if we had a fish sculpture hanging over our couch. She thinks it would look cool. Thanks a million

Busy aka Mr. Momma

Dear Santa,

Hi big guy. Momma here. I will keep this short and sweet. For Christmas can you make me look like Angelina Jolie? Much appreciated.

Momma


Writing assignment complete. Go here for other student's completed assignments.

Wordful Wednesday-Wishful Thinking

It was the night of the boy's annual Christmas concert at school. They were all dressed in nice clothes (Definition of "nice clothes"- clean, no holes, stain-free.), and we were ready to go.



Wait!


I want a picture in front of the tree.


Wishful thinking.


This was the best one from the bunch.

I guess it is pretty good considering we had two very excited boys and one tired baby.

Happy Wordful Wednesday! Go here for more fantabulous posts!

Person of the Week

Princess. Girl child. Third born. Baby.

Age: 8 months on December 20

Weight: 20+ pounds.

Favourite Things: Jolly Jumper, baba (bottle), mobile, boxes, paper, anything her older brothers are playing with

Personality: Easygoing. Good thing because she does have two older brothers who require alot of mommy's attention

Recent Milestones: Sitting up. Crawling (yikes). 6 teeth. Almost pulling herself up.

Accomplishments: Recently discovered that there is a world outside of the living room on her play mat with her toys. In other words........ All hell has broken loose.

Princess enjoys paper.

8 month old + crawling + paper=TROUBLE

Oh yeah...and she has discovered my beloved plants.

8 month old + crawling + paper + plants= a busy mommy child- proofing her house this week.

8 month old + crawling + paper + plants + busy mommy = Christmas wrapping not getting finished anytime soon.

Good thing she is darn cute.

Belly Laughs

I found this little piece of humour in one of our many local magazines and have to share. There is no author or reference of any kind to the person who wrote this funny piece so I can't give them kudos, but maybe it will give you a good laugh as it did to me.

Maintain a Healthy Level of Insanity

1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars.

2. Page yourself over the intercom. Do not disguise your voice.

3. Everytime someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.

4. Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their coffee addiction, switch to espresso.

5. In the memo field of all your cheques, write "for marijuana".

6. Skip down the hall rather than walk and see how many looks you get.

7. Order a diet water whenever you go out to eat, with a serious face.

8. Specify that your drive-through order is "to go".

9. Sing along at the opera.

10. Five days in advance, tell your friends that you can't attend their party because you have a headache.

11. When the money comes out of the ATM, scream "I won! I won!".

12. When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling "Run for your lives! They're loose!".

13. Tell your children over dinner "Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go."

14. (For men) Pick up a box of condoms at the pharmacy, go to the counter and ask where the fitting room is.

Admit it....it is friggin funny.

Happy Monday!

Photostory Friday- Thankful

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Child #1....oldest boy.....first born is addicted to crafts.

He is happiest with some paper, glue, scissors and glitter. But, he has a hard time coming up with ideas. I have found MANY ideas on the wonderful Net, bought endless books, signed some out at the library and even got creative and thought of my own stuff.

But the time has come.

My brain is fried.

It is full of the stuff I have to get done in the next few weeks. The little space on the left side of my brain has run out of room to store craft ideas and firstborn is very upset.

"That's a dumb idea"

"I don't like that one"

"Can you look for something on the computer?"

"I'm bored"

If I hear any of the above sentences one more time in the next 24 hours I just might run away from home and not come back.

Anyways, on to my story.

When my brain was full of wonderful ideas, I came up with this one.




It is our "Thankful Christmas Tree". *bows* I know. I know. I should be on Martha Stewart with my unique, fabulous, wonderful ideas, but she hasnt received my letter yet.

Basically, what we did was draw a tree. For me, anything that involves drawing more than a stick person is a real task but I did it and patted myself on the back for it because it looks darn good.

Boy child painted it green.

I asked everyone in the house what they are thankful for and as you can see, received some interesting answers.



Middle child is thankful for celery. I mean, I like celery too but I would have thought he would have said candy or Pop Tarts......



All of the boys in the house are thankful for tractors. Considering one has a John Deere bedroom and the other one loves to write stories about them, I am not surprised.

Maybe I should have put clothes....shoes....chocolate.....gossip magazines..........

But really, I am thankful for


and.....




And, I will be even more thankful when Princess gets over this awful cold and those darn teeth pop through....

Wordful Wednesday- Family History

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a big memory junkie. I have countless albums on the go. Baby albums made for each of my kids. School albums started. Even an album dedicated to my dog.

Preserving memories is my passion. When I am gone, I want my family to know what our life was like. I want my family to have the memories that I hold so dear to my heart. What is a photo without a story to go with it? What is a box of pictures without dates, names and a story? It means nothing to those who werent there or can't remember what exactly happened. To me that is tragic.

I love it when others look at my albums and don't have to ask questions for every page of pictures because I have it all written down. The people in the pictures. The reason why I took those pictures............

I received these pictures from my great aunt.

They are pictures of pages in a hand written recipe book. Written by my great grandmother. I never knew her but having these pictures means the world to me. I see similarities in our handwriting. I am fascinated by her attention to details. I love that she has everything so neatly written.

In some weird way I feel like I know a little bit about her. Sure I have seen pictures, but there hasnt been any story to go with those pictures so I dont really know much.

I love, love, love these and have them framed in my kitchen. Maybe one day I will try the recipe for War Cake.

Yay for preserving memories!!!

Are you a memory junkie? What sort of things do you treasure?

For more Wordful Wednesday posts, go here

"L"ist of my favourite things

One Crafty Mama was playing a little game and being the copycat that I am I wanted in on it. Basically you are given a letter of the alphabet and then have to make a list of your favourite things that begin with that letter.

My letter is L.

I am having a hard time coming up with things so bear with me if my list is lame.

1. I will start with the breed of dog that I love. Labrador Retrievers. If it was only my decision on the type of dog we have forever, this would be my breed of choice. Studley is a black Lab and although he isnt the smartest, he is the perfect family dog and has never caused any concern being around three young children who pull, push and climb all over him.





2. Licorice. I love licorice. Aside from chocolate it is my favourite junk food. Actually I prefer Nibs but give me any kind of red licorice and I am a happy Momma. Not black though. Eww.

3. Laughter. Is there anything better than a good belly laugh? A laugh so powerful that you have tears in your eyes, a sore mouth from smiling so much and having to hold your pee in. Ok, feeling like you are going to pee yourself isnt the greatest feeling but it doesnt matter because what made you laugh in the first place far outweighs the feeling that youre going to dribble in your pants.

4. Love. I love being loved. I love loving others. Enough said.

5. Lily. My favourite flower. One of my bestest friend's father has a lily garden. Hundreds of lilies growing in his backyard. He has even developed his own. My dream is to have something like that.....eventually.




6. Ladybugs. I dont enjoy bugs but if I see a lil' red ladybug scooting around I don't mind at all. I like them. Something about them makes me feel good and makes me forget for just a few minutes that mosquitoes and bees exist outdoors too.

7. Lake. All lakes are nice but my favourite place in the whole entire world is my grandparents lakefront property. There is nothing better than sitting at the lake with the people I love (including my black Lab), enjoying the ladybugs and eating some licorice!

8. Las Vegas. Hubby and I went there almost 2 years ago and I fell in love with the city. If I could live there I would. Not sure what I like so much about it because I am not a city girl at all but I enjoyed the craziness and the "out of this world" buildings and tourist attractions. And they had a multi floor M&M's store. Heaven.




9. Lost...the TV show. I have no idea what is going on in the show but I am hooked. I am secretly hoping that one episode will have ALL of the answers to my questions. Wishful thinking I am sure.

10. Lego. My children enjoy it. Who knew that I would like it just as much? Maybe one day when they are no longer interested I can swipe their collection and keep it in my room to play with. I would have to add some pink pieces to the collection though.

So there you have it my friends. My brain is empty.

Sweet!!

I like chocolate....let me change that.

I FRIGGIN LOVE CHOCOLATE!

If I had one last meal to eat, it would be my mom's chicken parmesan with mashed potatoes and carrots, a big glass of cold milk and for dessert it would be a chocolate bar...a big honkin chocolate bar with another big glass of cold milk. Yum.
A few weeks ago hubby and I went grocery shopping. I remember this because he NEVER does groceries with me and this day for some reason he wanted to go. I think because I never buy his kind of dill pickles or his kind of treats, but anyways...on to my story.
As we left with our mountain full of groceries including expensive dill pickles, pickled eggs and pickled herring (Yeah.....now I know why I go by myself), I asked hubby if there was still such a thing as a mint Aero chocolate bar and commented on how much I love them. Neither of us really knew.


Until today.


I went to the grocery store with middle child and baby and as I was unloading the cart, I saw this. (insert dramatic instrumental music here)

Can you believe it?

It is some sort of sign, I am sure of it. Someone wanted me to have one. Someone wanted me to know that they still exist. It was crying out to me. "Take me home"

As middle child held it up, asked for it and I replied with a "no", I put it back on the shelf.

Until he walked ahead of me.

Momma picked it up. Placed it in the middle of her celery and oranges and then paid for it.

Without middle child seeing.

It is sitting on my counter now waiting for me to enjoy every last crumb. With a big glass of cold milk of course.

Photostory Friday- The search

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

A new tradition. Some time together as a family. Some time to enjoy the outdoors. A great picture taking opportunity.

This was our plan as we took the kids to the Christmas tree farm to cut down our first real tree ever. Hubby and I grew up with fake trees and wanted to try something new. Everyone we know gets the real thing and would never, not ever stoop down to the low-class fake kind. We were determined to see if all the hype was really true or if sticking with the fake (easy, less messy) kind was what we should continue.

So off we went.

"It's going to be so much fun kids. We get to go on a wagon that takes us out so we can find the perfect tree. They give us a saw and we get to cut it down all by ourselves."




"But there are trees right at the front door already cut down and wrapped up."

"That's no fun. It is more fun to go out in the cold, march through 2 feet of snow for an hour trying to find OUR tree and then spend however long it takes to cut it down."

The nice man took us out to the LARGE area with thousands of trees and then left us.


There were soooooooooooooooo many trees.... we thought we would be in and out of there in no time.

We walked...through two feet of snow.

With a baby in a sleigh.


We walked some more. Seeing alot of trees, but none that matched our description of "The Perfect Tree".




Rowdy whined. "I am tired." "The snow is too deep."

Rowdy cried...and cried....and cried. And then he sat.


Messy constantly told us that he was having the worst time of his life and that he never wanted to come back to "this stupid place". Being the fabulous mother that I am, I took pictures. After all, this WAS a new family tradition we were starting and a wonderful picture-taking opportunity. *click click*

Don't they look thrilled??


After an hour....yes an hour.....of searching....listening to whining and crying......hearing the words "stupid" and "hate" approximately 2007 times...tipping the baby sleigh over in the deep snow about 8 times and STILL not finding our PERFECT tree, we had a brilliant idea.

There were trees at the entrance. Already cut and wrapped. For the same price as cutting down your own. Guess what we did??



That sure was fun. Our new family tradition has begun.

Writing Assignment

I know I know. I am taking the easy way out ALL of the time rather than coming up with my own posts but to be completely honest, I am too lazy and busy to think up my own stuff right now. I was always a fairly good student and in some weird way I feel like I am more successful following other blogger's prompts rather than coming up with my own stuff. So here goes the assignment, assigned by Mama Kat.



Tag! Post and write about the 6th picture from the 6th folder of your Flickr (or similar) account and then do the same for the 6th picture of the 6th folder on your computer.



Awwww......this was taken Halloween 2005. Messy was 3 and Rowdy was 1. Seems like so long ago.

Next picture.......




Hahahahahahaha. LOVE this one muchly. Messy's preschool trip to a small local zoo. We were able to get up very close to the giraffes and were even allowed to feed them bananas. This was as far as my cautious boy would go.

Wordful Wednesday- Moments

I will remember these moments. And if I don't, I have the picture and story to go with it so when my kids get married, there will be alot of stuff I can tell their wives.
But mostly I just want to remember how darn cute...and smart they were.
For some reason Mother Nature always starts her thunderstorms just as we get the kids tucked into bed. We read bedtime stories. We do our hugs and kisses. Mommy gets them snug in their beds. There isnt anything better than being tucked into bed by mom is there? Anyways, I digress.
Just as I tell them I love them and turn the lights off, the thunder starts.
My kids do not enjoy thunder.
I have explained many times that thunder is just a noise. That the angels are bowling. But it doesnt make them feel any better.
I turned some music on to drown out the rumbles.
When I went up to check on them, this is what I found.




Go here for more Wordful Wednesday posts.

It's the most wonderful time of the year......

That song has been stuck in my head for weeks.

When I spend loads of money buying gifts for my already- spoiled munchkins I sing the song.

When I brave the stores to find that perfect gift with the stroller, diaper bag, baby and my purse, I sing that song.

When we went to find the perfect REAL Christmas tree (our first real one ever) in the cold, marching through deep snow with the baby on a sleigh (which we tipped many times) and two boys whining and crying as they spit out the words "this is the worst time we have ever had", I sang that song.

While we put up our two beautiful trees refereeing arguments and fights because they both wanted to put up the same ornaments, I sang that song.

AND, as the boys sing

Some people think it's gross
But it' really good on toast
diarrhea, diarrhea
(followed by fart sounds)
...I sing that song.

AND, (that's not all folks), as the boys also sing

Jingle bells
Batman smells
Robin laid an egg
Batmobile, lost a wheel
the Joker got away
(followed by fart sounds)
...I sing that song.

I am really excited for Christmas this year. Really.

Most of the gifts have been bought.

My mall trips won't be as late into the season this year.

We have two beautiful trees, even though we went through hell to get one of them.

We have three wonderful children who are sooooooo excited to get a visit from Santa.

I just hope the fart sounds stop before then.