The Merry Christmas Hurricane

Wow!!! Christmas 2010 was the best Christmas EVER!!!! Both kids had such a great time!!! Both at an age where Christmas is meaning something very special. They were spoiled in every way possible from Mommy, Daddy, Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.....and they enjoyed every second.

Our house looks like Toys 'R' Us threw up. I am exhausted!!!

Here are a few shots from the past several days.....

The MOST important gift of the season...... a dollhouse. Jillian did not speak to us ALL morning she was soooooo focused on putting all of the furniture in the "right" place.

Rocco roared when he saw Santa brought dinosaurs!!!! Those are also his "claws."

Santa brought scooters!!!

Santa brought tents too!!!!

The all-important princess wear!!!

Cousin Gavin got a fancy new truck and took his cousins for a ride.....and again and again and again!!!!

I could post 1,000 pictures. They all look the same - both kids with these huge grins on their faces. They really enjoyed the day and it was so special that we got to celebrate with all of our family!!!!

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Have I ever mentioned how competitive Bryan is?? Yes, I think I have once, maybe twice (no more like 10,000 times). It really does not matter what it is.....soccer, fantasy football, nice-looking lawn, etc. The man can be obsessed with being the "best."

Well, in late November, when Bryan discovered that our new neighborhood had a Christmas light contest, he started going bananas. Yes, B-A-N-A-N-A-S!!!!! He put up our lights immediately and of course, that was not enough.

Then he found out that the Christmas light contest had a "prize" and he went into overdrive. He borrowed lights and a music machine from his brother. He borrowed more lights and blow-up thingies from his brother-in-law. The man was OUT OF CONTROL.

BUT I will have to say that after all of this mess was up on our house, trees, shrubs, the lawn, etc., I did notice that people began to start driving by and stopping at night. Our neighbors were encouraging this nonsense!!!! Bryan was beaming from ear to ear.

Last night was the contest. Bryan kept looking out the window every five minutes. He was becoming VERY aggitated. Finally, about 8:30 p.m., Bryan announced he and Jillian were going to "drive around and check out the competition."

When they got back, this is what they found in our front lawn!!!!!!

He won a $100 gift card to Home Depot. Isn't that crazy???? He says he is going to spend it all on lights so he can win again next year.

How can I stop the madness???

I can probably just hope to contain it.

Hee hee!!!!

Not Your Typical Last Day

I teach in Cibolo, Texas. Population 16,000.



My school feeds into Byron Steele High School AND Steele is headed for Dallas for the State Championship Football Game.



IN TEXAS, THIS IS BIG!!!!!!!! AND IN SMALL TOWN TEXAS, WE CELEBRATE EVERYTHING WITH A PARADE!!!!!



Even though it was freezing, the entire school took out our signs and pom-poms and cheered on the parade!!!!


My kids were ready!!!


Every cop car, fire engire, emergency vehicle in the city of Cibolo (OK, that is only like 5, but still exciting) had their lights flashing and horns honking to start the parade!!!



Malcolm Brown (who is headed to Texas by the way) and the rest of the football team were honking the loudest!!!!


My class made all of our signs with glitter of course (funny story - after I made the signs, I tripped on our class carpet and spilled the ENTIRE canister of glitter all over my classroom)

I hope Steele can bring home a victory!!!!!!!! AND I am officially done for 2010!!!!!!!!!

Ahhhhhhh, Freak Out!!!

OK, so is anyone else freaking out that the ticker is telling me I have 69 days left??? OK, good - it is just me. BUT I am pretty much freaking out that in probably 8 weeks, I will have a 4 y.o., 2 y.o. and a newborn.



I am in a nesting mode which for me means organizing clothes. I have pulled out the bin of newborn/0-3 mos girl clothes and going through them. It is a little difficult b/c Jillian likes to take them and shove anything (doll, stuffed animal) into the clothes. BUT I am wondering is B3 going to be like Jillian or like Rocco? Jillian wore 0-3 mos for like 5 mos. while Rocco wore 0-3 mos. for like 3 weeks. Hmmmmm......



We do have a name for B3 but I think I am not going to tell ya'll. Mwahhhh....that is my evil laugh. Unless you guess it. But I don't think you will. While the name is not weird, it can be found in baby books, it is definitely not in the top 100 names of 2010. I picked the first name and Bryan picked the middle with my 100% veto power. Sooo essentially I picked the first name.....and the middle name!! But we do both like it!! I will tell you that Jillian calls the baby Ila and she has NOT let it go. If anyone asks, Jillian says the baby is Ila. Such a strange child??



I am feeling a lot of guilt over my poor baby Rocco. I did not feel this (or I do not remember) for Jillian. She was so mature for turning 2. We were having entire conversations about how to save the world. BUT my Roc, he is a different story. He is still so much my baby. He is a cuddler, a hugger, a kisser. I rock him to sleep. We have conversations but most of the time I am interpreting for others his words. I feel like I am cheating him out of his babiness. Does that make sense??



So I took a picture for 30 weeks before we went to church yesterday morning. Please ignore the AWFUL haircut I received 2 weeks ago. I am still crying over it. BUT I can only just wait and let it grow.

Back at school this morning, trying not to keep freaking out!! I have 4 days left of school and then I will have plenty of time to FREAK OUT!!!!

I Forgot!!!

I forgot to show you the cutest part of Jillian's outfit. My mom bought Jillian the outfit and the tights were wrapped up in the paper holder so we did not even notice it at first. BUT when Jillian put it on, look what's on her bobo. Isn't that adorable??

Look at Rocco's face. Ha ha!!! He wasn't expecting his sister to flash her pink elephant underpants!!! Can't wait to see Jillian and B3 in this cute outfit!!!

Ups and Downs

Before I begin my post, I want to give you a cute pic of my kids going to school this morning!! They insisted on wearing the hats!!!
This week has been full of ups and downs. I feel lately like several people have given me a back-handed compliment by asking me “How do I do it all?” Quite frankly, I don’t.

Let me give you a play by play of my Monday.

5:00 a.m. Wake up, shower, dress

5:30 a.m. Prepare roast and vegetables for crock pot, do a load of laundry, start the dishwasher and eat breakfast.

6:00 a.m. Prepare breakfast for kids which consisted of waffles and fruit – strawberries for J and pineapple for R

6:30 a.m. Wake up Rocco, change diaper and get him dressed with shoes

6:40 a.m. Wake up Jillian, restroom, she gets dressed with shoes

6:50 a.m. Administer meds to J and R

6:55 a.m. Load up in car

7:00 a.m. Leave house

7:10 a.m. Arrive at school, take kids inside to classes, open breakfast, give kisses

7:20 a.m. Leave kids’ school

7:45 a.m. (seriously are you tired yet?? I am tired just writing this! AND HOW AM I GONNA DO THIS WITH 3??? THAT IS THE QUESTION!) Arrive at work

First day without student teacher!!!!! Return to reality. Oh yea! Dealing with 20 5 year olds BY YOURSELF is really hard!!!!

3:30 p.m. Finish after school duty.

4:15 p.m. Leave school.

4:35 p.m. Deal with traffic on IH35 and pick up kids

5:00 p.m. Arrive home

5:15 p.m. Roast smells DELICIOUS!!! Fix potatoes and green beans for kids and salad for me and we eat.

6:00 a.m. Administer meds to J and R. No baths b/c I am exhausted.

6: 30 p.m. Bryan home. Fix his dinner.

7:00 p.m. Rocco to bed

8:00 – 9:30 p.m. Wrestle with J to get her to bed. She giggles, plays, cries, screams, yells she is scared of the dark to avoid going to bed. Bryan finally wins by threatening her with bodily harm.

9:30 p.m. Sleep for me.

It sounds complicated BUT this was actually a really good day for us!! The kids are feeling better with the meds. No tantrums over clothes. The kids played together. Everybody loved my homemade dinner!

Tuesday

Bryan is off so he has kid duty in the morning.

BUT Tuesday was very rough at school. The kids were WILD and their minds already on Christmas break. SOOOOOO Tuesday night for me was a struggle. Exhausted doesn’t quite describe what I was feeling.

The original question was “How do I do it all?” I will admit that I do a lot but I did not mention that the kids’ toys needs to be picked up (constant on-going battle). I always wash clothes and fold but then they sit for several days before I can put them in the proper closets. There are dirty dishes in the sink that need washing. AND I have a stack of papers in my kitchen that need filing.

Lesson of the day: Never be fooled!! I don’t really think that anybody can do it all!! Not well anyways. Especially not me!!!

Nick Jr. - Another Opinion

Ever since Shanna did a post on Nick Jr., I wanted to share my opinions about Nick Jr. because I have a lot!!!


BUT things have been soooooo busy lately with work, home, church, the Holidays, etc. AND the kids are sick with double ear infections and pink eye, soooooooo I have not had time to post my hilarious opinions about Nick Jr.




First of all, let's just say I came to appreciate Nick Jr. this summer. When we moved and lived with my parents for a month (or was it two), my children did not adjust well. They both woke up every morning around 5:00 a.m. Mama does NOT parent well at 5:00 a.m. SOOOOO Nick Jr. to the rescue!!!!!!

If you want to know what is on at 5:00 a.m., it is our good friends, Max and Ruby!! I love Max and Ruby because it reminds me of Jillian and Rocco. Jillian is the bossy big sis just like Ruby and Roc is the silent, obediant little brother!! Ha ha!!

Jillian's and Rocco's favorite show is Olivia. BUT the prob is - it comes on super late so of course, I do not let them watch it. But there has been times on the weekend that Olivia comes on and both of them are spellbound. They think Olivia and her brothers are so funny!! The episode of Olivia wearing a tutu makes Jillian very, very happy!

Jillian's "other" favorite show is the Wonder Pets!! It is a totally mindless show about animal rescue but slightly addicting. My favorite character is Ming-Ming the duck! In his wittle-bitty baby voice, when he says "This is serious," Jillian and I just crack up.

My favorite show is the Fresh Beat Band. What other show on TV is teaching kids how to do the "Freeze Dance??" Jillian and I will dance around for the entire 30 minutes it is on and we have even gotten Rocco to put his hands on his hips and shake 'em.

Oddly, Rocco's fav show is Dora. I didn't like Dora in the beginning but she has grown on me. It totally amazes me that Jillian can count to ten in Spanish and say small words like hola, gracias, abre (open). Trust me, she is not learning it from me!! (Remember my ridiculous years of taking French in school???)

There are two other good shows - Blues Clues and Backyardigans that are good but come on late so they only get to watch every once in a while. BUT even my kindergartens LOVE watching Blue's Clues. What is it about those two androgenous men that kids like??? Wearing those goofy striped sweaters and khakis?? I don't get it but kids like it.

Finally let's get to the bad!!!! I do NOT like Go Diego Go. Not much reason other than it is EXACTLY like Dora except boy-style and it is just annoying.

I HATE, CANNOT STAND, DESPISE THIS SHOW!!!!!

IT IS WEIRD, BIZARRE. THE SONGS ARE BIZARRE AND HAVE WEIRD RHYTHMS, ETC. I HAVE NO LOVE FOR STRANGE CREATURES. I have taught Jillian that this show is inappropriate and "bad" and little kids are not allowed to watch. (Pretty smart, huh??)

Overall, I love Nick Jr. It has no commercials so Jillian is not saying every 5 seconds, "I want that! I want that!" It has wholesome shows totally appropriate for the under age 5 crowd.

The end!!!!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like....

Christmas!!!! You know what time it is!!!! Our house has happily gotten into the spirit of the season and it is not even December yet!!! Minor details, people!!!

This year, Jillian helped Daddy set up the tree! We've got allergies people!! No real trees here!!

Then she helped Mommy decorate the tree!! She did a GREAT job!!

This year, I finally have a place to hang the stockings!!!

Jillian even stumbled upon the bag where I had their Christmas jammies, so we are already wearing our Christmas jammies in November.

Notice in the pictures that Rocco has discovered the joys of slippers. However, in my denial of having a rough and tumble boy son, we do not have any "boy" slippers in the house. So Rocco has had great fun wearing the pink reindeer slippers that Jillian is letting him borrow. We'll see if Santa can bring the boy some "manly" slippers.

A Sign of the Apocolypse

Have you seen the new cover of Shape magazine???

How did this happen???

I have GOT to get my act together. This cover is going to go up on my fridge so that every time I go for more cookie dough, I will STOP!!!!

If Kelly can do it, I can do it!!! (This is all after B3 arrives.) Well, I really should stop eating the cookie dough now so I can pass that 3 hr test but that seems a little too "cold turkey" don't ya think??

She probably works out, right?? I am going to do that too.

I think I can...I think I can...I think I can!!!!

Oh, gotta go - the PTC is delivering my faculty Thanksgiving present. What is it?? Brownies!!! YUM!!!!!

I CANNOT help myself!!!!

So let's get down to it. We all know my weakness.....I cannot resist cute kids' clothes (the story is getting old, I know, I know). I like my kids to match. I am not going to make apologies for wanting my kids to look totally adorable.

I have done well lately to contain myself. Winter clothes are not my favorite. I am a summer lover with the stylish clothes for the family to go with the attitude!!

However, when my Mom found this ADORABLE dress and leggings for Jillian, I had just HAD to have it for B3. HAD TO!!!!! It looks sooooo cute in the catalog and when I saw it came in newborn sizes too, I just lost control. I bought it immediately. They are going to look fantastic!!!!

The problem is that the dress/leggings sets come in lots of different colors and patterns. So far, I have done a GREAT job resisting the temptation of buying more. We'll see how well I can do??

In other weakness news, I failed the 1 hour glucose test AGAIN...... On to the 3 hr. test. The problem is that I just don't have time to take the test. We leave on vacation tomorrow and get back Tuesday. Hopefully, I can squeeze it in on Wednesday before Turkey Day. I have to somehow control my desire for sweets until after Wednesday..........yea, I'm with you....it's never gonna happen!!!!!

C'est la vie!!!

Random Projects

This is the last week before our Thanksgiving vacation and to say things are crazy is a vast understatement.

I have been working on several projects in our house lately and things are finally coming together.

First, the kids' bathroom.....I love it!!! I did a surfboard/beach theme. My favorite is the surfboard bath mats!!!!

The towels from Pottery B@arn are perfect!!!

This summer in Port A I bought of lot of knick-knacky beach stuff for my shelves.

Finally, this was my Mom's idea and I think it turned out pretty cute. We hung some wind chimes that we found from the ceiling to add some more color to the room. Again, I like it!!!

Next, I have also been working on the kids' playroom. I got a hand-me-down TV stand from Bryan's sister. I thought it would be perfect for this room but it was a very light beige color sooooo I have been painting it forever. It turned out pretty cute with stripes on the front and polka dots on the top and inside the door. I thought the whole TV stand/shelving unit turned out pretty cute.

Next, I need to put stuff up on the walls. Why is this taking me forever?? Oh yea, because I have two kids under 4, one on the way, one husband and one demanding job. How am I ever going to finish??

Football Slump

In Texas, where football is king, losing in not acceptable. But everywhere we go lately, losing is happening. My family does not seem to be a good luck charm. What is up with that???

Yesterday afternoon, I took the kiddos to see their favorite offensive lineman for his last regular season game as a senior. There he is ready for action (#74).

No matter how hard our three little cheerleaders cheered and shook their pom-poms for their favorite football cousin, his team did not seem to hear our cries!! (with Katie)

Even with some serious yelling from his worried parents, Brandon's high school football career came to an end. (This will be Bryan and I in 10-12 years cheering for Rocco to slam somebody's head into the ground!!!)

Jillian got in one last high five with the mascot!!!

Even though his team lost, his senior football season over, this sweetheart marched right over, swung the kids over the fence (like they weighed 10 pounds and not the 60+ pounds they do weigh) and gave me a great big smile. That's why we love our Brandon!

A sonogram with an attitude!

We had our follow-up sonogram today and all I can say is, B3 takes after Bryan!!! Only 24 weeks, 4 days, this little one already has enough sass to match my other two.

The tech started the sono looking at all different things on her checklist and so forth and then said, "Oh my goodness, the baby is flicking us off." I was appalled!!! Why would she say that?

Because sure enough, when she zoomed in, it was quite apparent that B3 was giving us the bird. Can you believe that?? She quickly caught it in a picture for a "wonderful" momento in the baby book.

Next, she confirmed for us that B3 is indeed a girl.

Finally, she tried super hard to get a great picture of her face. For most of the sonogram, B3 had her hands over her face. As we watched and waited for a good picture, it was VERY clear that B3 was sticking her tongue out at us!!!! The tech was cracking up laughing!!!

I am throwing my hands to the Lord!!! How, oh how, am I going to handle 3 sassy, head-strong children???