Quick pics

Oh dude, you are so cute. I would rather hold you than blog anyday, especially when Blogger takes 20 damn minutes to upload one picture. If you didn't nap I'd never accomplish anything because I would rather be holding you instead. Keep on smiling at me dude, I'll give you whatever you want.

I'm on Christmas break

Instead of blogging and taking pictures with my fancy camera, I have spent the weekend and today cooking and being lazy. I guess all the cooking wasn't lazy (I made 4 dozen rolls, 2 batches each of caramel and m&m s'mores bars, rice Krispy treats, sugar cookies, and time consuming jello-yogurt stuff). And caramel popcorn. I'm an insane person.

Watching Christmas movies and doing excessive amounts of baking are what makes it feel like Christmas to me. So I'm going to resume doing that and get back here after Christmas. Hope everyone has a good holiday! I'm going to hold my dude every second of his first Christmas, I don't want to miss any of it.

***This was supposed to publish on Monday but for some reason did not. So I'm sending it now and hoping for the best.

Because I'm lame and tired

Today was Alana's first field trip ever. I chaperoned and now barely have enough energy to keep my eyes open. I have pictures but posting them today requires mouse clicking and reading and stuff. Stuff I can't do, cause of the tiredness.

My dude got 3 shots yesterday and so he was sad and cried and that added to my state of tiredness. Also: Ava cried herself to sleep last night because she couldn't go with Alana and me on today's field trip.

Now I think I will sleep even though its not even 9 pm. Then my dude will wake up right after I go to sleep cause that's how he rolls. What can I say, he likes to party.

Self Reliance

At some point, when I wasn't looking, Alana learned to swing without me pushing her. Part of me is happy, cause I hate pushing swings, but another small part of me is kind of sad cause that's one more thing she doesn't need me to do for her.

A Time and a Place

Stuffed animal claw machines aren't really an appropriate setting for politics. But at least this one is bipartisan.

Sleepytime

I have 2 blog posts that I started and never finished today. I meant to do them. I wanted to do them. But today passed and I never did them. Instead I cleaned my house and held my baby and now I'm watching garbage tv while my dude sleeps next to me. Another day blogging, another day.

Third times a charm

This is the 3rd onesie I've put on him today. Curse you leaky diapers and kind of large amounts of poop. Combined they equal lots of laundry.

I think I need a bigger fridge

Mine can barely contain all of these kindergarten masterpieces.

I missed my calling

I should've been a professional wrapper of oddly shaped presents. It's like I have a gift for it or something.

Bad hair day

Witten is awake everyday at 6:30 am. That happens to coincide with when Alana gets up to get ready for school. Since I don't want to send her to school looking like a homeless person I must brush her hair daily. Witten objects to this. So he cries until someone picks him up. He doesn't like fancy hairdos. But Alana does. Sorry dude, but I'll pick you up when I finish Alana's fancy hairdo.

You can't make me

It's still hot in my house. I dread turning on the oven but I want cookies. It's a regular catch 22. We've decided to just go for it and put a window ac in the living room to cool it off in there cause the swamp cooler is just not getting the job done. It will increase the electric bill but I cannot take it anymore. I can't spend my whole day in the bedroom where the ac is. It was enough to almost make me break my blogging streak. I've been going string trying to blog everyday since I brought Witten home from the hospital. I haven't missed a day since July and some stupid broken part in our cooler isn't gonna make me stop blogging. Just stop cooking dinner.

Overheated.

My cooler has died. The fact that it chose August to leave this world is just my luck. It's hot enough that I've put my hair into a ponytail which I NEVER do. I may die of heat exhaustion before I get a chance to blog again. If so then remember me fondly. And with my hair down. Ponytails are so unflattering on me.

Why I don't live in Tucson. Besides the traffic

Flowers in her hair

Alana is the cutest flower girl ever. The end. It's a tiring job though. Downright exhausting.

My Forgotten Middle Child

Poor Ava. She's not the baby anymore. And she's not going to kindergarten. She's stuck somewhere in the middle. Lucky for her she has a birthday coming up in just two weeks, so she's sure to get some attention then. And some presents. Can't forget the presents.

A Love Story

There is no food on the planet that I love more than soft serve ice cream. It's delicious, refreshing, and creamy. Due to my lack of daily access to Dairy Queen (which is probably for the best) I must settle for an occasional McDonalds ice cream. Luckily it's an acceptable substitute, especially since they now have chocolate dipped cones.

Like I needed an excuse to take more pictures

I have taken at least 500 pictures in the last almost month since Witten was born. Mostly on my camera, which I have fallen back in love with and am so glad I invested in. But sometimes, okay a lot of times, in a pinch, I just use my phone. I know some people don't care much for their camera phone, but with an iPhone it's not too shabby. It's no dslr, but it's 8 megapixels and I don't have to use a flash, so it's better than my first digital camera.

Now, due to my efforts to stay awake at 4 am and lack of quality TV programming, I have started to use instagram. No one is really following me, but I put my some of my pics on Facebook so at least a few people are seeing them.

At this rate I will have at least another 500 pictures in the next month.

***I added an instagram link on the sidebar in case anyone is interested in looking at the insane amount of pictures that I take.

Having 3 Kids

Witten has been home for over two weeks now, which means reality has set in. I have 3 kids. I've never been someone who was easily overwhelmed, so I've mostly dealt with it okay. My older two kids are both potty trained and can feed and take care of themselves, so its not like I'm caring for 3 babies. I've even taken them to the grocery store by myself numerous times without incident, it wasn't too bad. Witten sleeps the whole time every time, so its just like it was before, only with less space in the cart for other kids to ride.

There are some things about life that are different now. I spend half of the night on the couch, half asleep, because I doze off sitting up. There is more laundry, because boys pee on stuff. His clothes are little though, so they don't take up a ton of space in the washer. I have less patience, mostly because I spend part of my day being a referee to my girls who fight over the dumbest crap possible. That will probably be less of a problem when Alana goes to school next week. I don't think it will solve the problem, but you can't fight with someone who isn't there.

Another major thing I've noticed: it takes way more time to get ready to go somewhere. This is partly because babies take more time, then you have to feed them before you leave otherwise they'll be all mad and crying in the car. But getting myself and 3 kids ready to go seems to take forever. Thank goodness at least one of them is a boy so I don't have to comb anymore hair than I already had to comb. That part alone is really time consuming.

Getting in and out of the car is a little more complicated. When you cram 3 seats into the backseat of a midsize car it gets a little crowded. Especially since the sides of the backseat tilt at a stupid angle which makes the girls' booster seats slant towards the base of the infant seat. So buckling their seatbelts, which was previously a task that at least Alana could do herself, has now become something that I get to do. I have to put the infant seat into the middle of the car, then shove my hand in between the seats to buckle both girls. I think I need to invest in some seatbelt extenders just to make my life a little easier. They're cheaper than a minivan at least.

Overall life is fuller and the days seem both longer and shorter at the same time. I wouldn't trade it for the less complicated life with just one or two kids though, its almost hard to remember when it was just me and Alana. Or when Ava was just born and Alana still napped, so there were times during the day when I actually sat on the couch and watched the TV program of my choice. That's a distant memory for sure. Now my reality is three kids, only one of them naps, one of them wants to eat nothing but chips and Otter Pops all day and the other one is going to kindergarten in 8 days. That's another big change that I'm not ready to deal with. I'm pushing it to the back of my mind right now.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

Clearly the world needed more shark oven mitts. There was a void in the market that is now filled. America should be grateful.

Everything is Better with M&Ms on it

I shared this picture on Facebook so now I must share the recipe. It would be rude of me not to, because these are so good. Its one part saltiness, one part marshmallow, and of course what dessert is not improved by adding mini M&Ms. If I could I'd share the actual cookies with people because at this point I've eaten way too many. I'm not especially concerned with the weight gain because I'm having a baby next week so what damage could I do at this point. So make these. You won't even dirty a bowl. And they're worth it.

M&M S'mores Bars

12 graham crackers

3/4 cup butter (real butter, don't use margarine, yuck)

3/4 cup brown sugar

4 (ish) cups of mini marshmallows

1 1/2 cups (approximately) of M&Ms or mini M&Ms

Preheat oven to 350. Line 15x10 pan with foil and spray with nonstick spray. Line your graham crackers up on your cookie sheet with the sides touching. Melt the butter and brown sugar till smooth and just boiling, stirring constantly. Pour over the crackers and spread out evenly. Bake for 5-6 minutes. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle with marshmallows. I usually don't measure them, I just sprinkle them where I need them in a single layer and try not to leave any gaps. I don't know if this is more or less than the 4 cups in the recipe, but its not the whole bag. Bake for 2-3 more minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle with the M&Ms. Again I don't measure, because you can put as many or as few on there as you want. And I like to use mini M&Ms because they cover a bigger surface area and you don't use as many. Plus I like the mini ones better. Let the bars cool and eat them.

Recipe originally from Betty Crocker