Carole is Sick

My poor little girl woke up sick this morning. She has croup and she sounds awful. At first she was doing okay. When Andrew got home from school, he took a toy from her and she started crying. The crying made the croup worse and then she struggled to breath. She was gasping for air! It scared the daylights out of me. Since she had croup last winter as well, I knew what I had to do. I quickly ran her outside in the 15 degree air. Within 30 seconds her breathing returned back to normal. So now we just need to keep the siblings away from each other so that Carole doesn't cry again. Good luck with that, right?? ;o) LOL!

Here is a video clip of Carole singing "Jesus Loves Me" with her poor, little raspy voice. She remains cheerful in spite of it all.

Pictures

Lately, it has been next to impossible to get good pictures of our kids. They will not stand still for a second to let me get a good shot. Last night as they were playing in the bath tub, I had an idea. If they are in the tub and not supposed to get out, then maybe, just maybe I could get some good shots.

Wrong.

Carole refused to look at the camera keeping her head as low as possible. Andrew was being a cheese and trying weird poses. Finally after yelling at the top of my lungs, "Just look at the camera and smile nice!!!" they finally cooperated. Well, mostly. I did promise to let them watch a movie before bedtime. Usually bribes work. ;-)




Carole was getting silly towards the end and she stuck her face in the bubbles. She said, "Mommy! Look at my stash. Just like daddy's."

Wild Rose

Here is today's card. Stampin' Up's Definitely Decorative Wild Rose set is one of my all time favorites!

Stamps: SU Definitely Decorative Wild Rose, My Sentiments Exactly "Birthday Sentiments"
Paper: SU Wild Wasabi, SU Blue Bayou, SU Designers Series Porcelain Prints, and Off White
Accessories: Pop dots, SU Hodge Podge Hardware, SU Scallop Punch, Nestabilities Die Template, Green Ribbon

Andrew's Loud Mouth and Snakes

Loud Mouth
Last night I was in the kitchen fixing supper and I had a question for Phil. Thinking he was just in the next room, I raised my voice some and asked the question. No answer. I didn't know it, but he was actually in his study. Not wanting to look up from what I was doing I said, "Umm... hello?" No answer. Andrew, who was sitting at the dining room table watching me, shouted at the top of his lungs, "DADDY! MOMMY IS TALKING TO YOU!" I then turned around and realized Phil wasn't even in the room. After hearing Andrew yelling, Phil came to see what I needed. I asked the question, Phil answered, incident over, right?

Wrong.

When Phil left the room again, Andrew spoke up. He said, "Mom, you have a quiet voice and I have a loud one. My mouth is really, REALLY loud. So if you ever need anything you tell me. Everyone can hear my loud mouth. It's really, REALLY loud."

Snakes
A few days ago Andrew was having spaghetti for lunch. Suddenly he thoughtfully looked up and said, "Snakes, when they die, they go to the factory and are turned into noodles."

You Rock My World

I was very productive today. I wanted to get my husbands Valentine's Day card made and I needed to make a card for a little boy in our church who is turning 7 this weekend. I was able to get both done before the kids woke up! Miracle, huh?

My husband totally rocks my world! He is so special to me! It is so hard to believe we have been married 8.5 years. Where has the time gone? Phil is a huge Elvis fan. One day last fall when I was catching up with my friend's blogs I noticed my friend Sarah (SCS Sairabee) had an awesome Elvis card. I emailed her to see if she could send me some images. She did! She is so awesome! (Check out her blog sometime. She makes really incredible cards!) Well, then we moved and the images were lost in my stamping mess. I was able to locate them and come up with this card today.



Paper: SU Real Red, Black, White
Stamps: Elvis (no clue where it is from), Textured Eighth Note from Hobby Lobby, SU Merry Minis little music notes, Hero Arts Playful Alphabet
Accessories: Music Notes Ribbon from Hobby Lobby


This next card really isn't anything special. I just needed to whip up a quickie.


Paper: SU Wild Wasabi, White, Blue from Hobby Lobby
Stamps: Jeep foam stamp I found on clearance at Ben Franklins a very long time ago, SU Wonderful Words
Accessories: Blue and Green Gingham ribbon from Wal-Mart, Cuttlebug Happy Birthday embossing folder

My Hobby

I hope my readers won't mind, but I think I may begin to make this blog not only my family blog, but my stamping blog too. I love creating cards and I just want to share my creativeness!

I do most of my stamping while the kids are taking their naps. So I only have a few hours to complete a project. Here was today's card.

My fellow stampers, if you don't already have the 3 step Hearts & Roses by Kitchen Sink Stamps, I highly encourage you to get it. It is one of my favorite sets to play with! Here is a link to their gallery for this set. Lots of fun ideas!

In this card...
Stamps: Kitchen Sink 3 Step Hearts & Roses, SU So Many Sayings
Paper: The Paper Studio Rose Garden, SU Garden Green Cardstock, SU Certain Celery Cardstock, White Cardstock
Ink: SU Certain Celery (stamped off), SU Garden Green, SU Mauve Mist, SU Pixie Pink
Accessories: SU Hodge Podge Hardware, Finishing Accents Rhinestones, 3/8" Pink Ribbon

Thanks for looking!

Time Flies When You Have Busy Children

Can you believe it has been three weeks since my last post?! We are still alive, I promise. The kids are constantly keeping us on our toes.

Andrew is amazing us. As of late he has matured greatly. He is always thinking. Last week he asked if anyone had moved into our old house in SD. I told him no, they were still waiting for God to send a pastor to do what daddy used to do. You could just see his mind working as he tried to process that answer. Later that night at supper he asked if he could pray. His prayer was so precious! He asked God to hurry up and send someone to do daddy's job at his old house and church because they need somebody.

Carole is still Carole. She is FINALLY completely potty trained and for that we are thankful! She is our high maintenance child. If the house all of a sudden gets really quiet, we know Carole is doing something she shouldn't be doing. Just last night I caught her with another crayon! As for where in the world that thing came from, I have no clue. ;) Carole may be our trouble child, but she sure makes my day when she wraps her chubby little arms around my neck and whispers in my ear, "I yuv you so much, Mommy." Then she looks up at me with those big blue eyes and I know I would not EVER trade my trouble child for anything!! She is a gift from God. God is using her life to make me into a better person. Apparently He thinks I still have a long way to go in the area of patience. LOL!

Phil has been busy here. He joined our local volunteer fire department and has begun taking Firefighter 1 classes. He is gone two nights a week for nearly 3.5 hours. So between balancing his church responsibilities, fire training, and his family, he is a very busy man!

As for me, I have finally gotten back into my hobby. I spend most of naptime creating greeting cards with my rubber stamps. Here are some of my latest. (If you click on the picture, you can see them bigger.)
Andrew is into Batman so much lately. He has never seen the movies (except the old 1960 something version). He bought a "Batcave" with his Christmas money. He thinks he is Batman! He says, "I'm Batman!" Carole replies, "I'm kitty princess!" When I was shopping last week I found this mask at Claires in the mall. I had to get it. Now she is a true Kitty Princess!
















Cute story... Phil had the kids yesterday as I had a doctor's appointment and a whole day to myself to go shopping! It was a much needed break for me!! Phil took Carole with him to visit a couple in our church. Apparently they had some good toys! Phil then picked up Andrew from school and the 3 of them went to McDonalds. What a fun day for the kids!

Last night we sat down for supper and both kids wanted to pray. Phil ended up going first and then he whispered for Carole to go next. This was her prayer... "Dear Jesus, tank you for today. Tanks for wetting me go to McDonalds today. And fanks for going to the missus house to pay toys. I yuv you. Amen!"

At this point, Andrew was crying because he had to go last. He cried during his whole prayer. So this was his prayer... "Dear Jesus. Thank you for the food. Pease help me to stop crying. Amen."

Here is an extremely rare happening at our house. The kids usually are constantly fighting with each other over EVERYTHING! One day they played nicely together with Andrew's Batcave for almost an hour. I almost fainted! *wink* My babies are growing up.

Our Crazy Girl

So...
what do you suppose Carole was doing while I was writing that long post about the crayons??


Check out these pictures.






























While she was taking her bath I went to get her some clean clothes in her room. I opened her underwear drawer and found none. She owns 10 pair. I then remembered that I had hidden them all somewhere. Why? Well, she is a girl. We all know that some girls like to change their clothes a million times a day. Carole is one of them. She liked her Dora and Princess panties so much that she was starting to pee in them on purpose just so she could put on a different pair. So I hid them in her closet. She stayed dry all day today too. ;o)

While she was in the tub I got into her closet to get into her secret stash of panties. They were gone! I was thoroughly confused. So then I thought maybe I had hidden them somewhere else and just forgot where I put them. I spent next 10 minutes looking in spots where I, personally, would have hidden them. After no such luck, I then knew something was amiss. Carole must have found them. I then began to look in her toy kitchen things.

Do you see them in this picture? No???













How about now?












Yep, all 9 of her panties were stuffed into this anti-bacterial wipe container. ;o) She had raided the recycling pile again.

Aaahhh! Life with Carole. Never a dull moment.

The Colorful World of Crayola Crayons

Crayons, crayons, crayons.
Crayons over here, crayons over there.
Crayons in the day
Crayons in the night.
Oh, when did crayons become such a fight!
Everywhere I look there is one peaking out
Under the bed and under the couch.
Just when I think the crayons are no more
In comes some more like they are walking through the door.
Crayons, crayons everywhere!



Okay, so I am not a poet. ;o) But seriously, I have had quite a time with those lovely little things called crayons.

A few days ago I gathered all of the kid's clothes to do their laundry. (Can you already tell where this is going?) I have always washed their clothes separate from mine and Phil's because it is easier to sort them that way. Anyway, I washed and dried the first load. As I was taking them out of the dryer to fold I noticed the first item of clothing. It was a pair of Andrew's pants and they had some lovely blue green streaks all over them. I examined them closer only to discover that it was crayon. I turned the pair of pants over to discover more streaks up and down the legs. My mind was going a million miles an hour. Where did the crayon come from? Which kid did it? Will it be on all the clothes? What am I going to do if it is on all the clothes? At this point and time my heart was beginning to hammer in my chest. I slowly reached into the dryer and began to pull out another item of clothing. Yep. Crayoned. And another. Yep, that one too. EVERY SINGLE ITEM OF CLOTHING IN THAT DRYER HAD SEAGREEN CRAYON MELTED ON IT! I was livid.

The kids were in bed for the night, so that was good. ;o) Poor Phil came downstairs looking for me. He found a mad woman flinging toddler clothes all over the laundry room floor. I looked up, saw him and said, "Look at what your monsters did to all of their clothes! Ruined! Millions of dollars worth of kid's clothes!" (Not really, but it sure sounded better to say it that way.) He just stood there stunned for a few minutes. When he "came to" he turned around and went right back upstairs. Good man. He knew there was no point in saying anything. I probably had smoke coming out of my ears.

It took me awhile to calm down. Scrubbing a whole load of clothes with stain out can be VERY therapeutic. Once they were all treated, I threw them in the washer to be washed again and went upstairs to go to bed. Then the thought hit me. GET RID OF ALL THE CRAYONS! So instead of going to bed, I ransacked the house for all of those wonderful colors. I had decided, that if the kids wanted to color they will have to ask first. Then they will be allowed only a few crayons and they will have to stay buckled into their booster seats at the table. Satisfied with my new plan, I went to bed.

The next morning I was pleased to find out that most of the clothes came completely clean. There were a few items of clothing that just wouldn't come clean. I spent the morning calling my mom, my mother in-law, surfing the internet, and asking my SCS friends for ideas. By noon every item of clothing was clean and I am now an expert at crayon stain removal.

But would the crayon madness end there??? Nope! Phil sent Carole to her room that day for a time out because she was being disrespectful. When I went in to get her I had discovered that a crayon magically reappeared. She had colored her door, her walls, her window, her toy kitchen, just about anything that had a smooth surface in her bedroom. It was all the same color, meaning it was just one crayon. Apparently one crayon escaped my grasp. I made her scrub her things clean with Mr. Clean's Magic Eraser. She thought it was fun. I thought this incident was isolated and I for sure had all the crayons now.

Boy was I ever wrong. These kids must have had a secret stash of them somewhere! Yesterday morning I went down the basement to get something and I discovered the playroom floor and been scribbled on. I figured it was Carole due to her artwork in her bedroom the day before. I didn't think much of it because I was going to make her clean it up. She likes scrubbing things anyway. Before I came upstairs, Andrew came down looking for me. I asked him if Carole colored the floor. He hung his head and said no. He then looked up at me with his big, sad brown eyes and said, "I did it, Mom." I have to hand it to him. He finally told the truth! I couldn't get mad at him because I knew how hard it must have been for him to admit that he had done it. Normally he pins EVERYTHING on Carole. I calmly told him he had to clean it all up. I brought down a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and told him to get to work. He scrubbed for nearly an hour and was only halfway done. I snuck downstairs to get him for lunch and this is what I heard.

*scrub, scrub, sob*
I can't do this.
*scrub*
I need help.
*scrub, scrub, sob, sob*
Why did I do this?
*scrub, scrub*
What was I thinking?
*scrub, scrub, sob, sob*

I then poked my head around the corner and told him to go get washed for lunch. He came running with tears streaming down his face. "Mommy, I am so sorry for coloring the floor. I forgot crayons go on paper. I'll never do it again." Break my heart!!! I am sure he will never do it again. I think he learned his lesson the hard way.

With only half of the floor scrubbed, Mr. Clean bit the dust. I told him that he would have to wait to finish the rest until we got more Mr. Clean Magic Erasers. I made it clear that his work was not done. So today I made him go with me to town to buy more cleaner pads. We came home and he went right to work. He was in good spirits and his sister even joined in on the fun. After all she loves to scrub! And no, the floor is still not clean. He will be made to work at it a little everyday. ;o)






And what did Mommy learn from all of this??

1. Check the pockets of EVERYONE'S clothes before washing them. Not just Phil's. ;o)
2. I will never have ALL of the crayons in my grasp, but I sure aim to try!
3. Kids sure are a lot of fun when you aren't mad at them. LOL!

The Purpose of This Blog

I received an interesting email today. This is a quote from it. "Young people have the propensity of 'me, me, me' as evident in your 'blog'." Apparently this person has COMPLETELY missed the point of this blog. My dear friends and family, as you are well aware I started this blog over a year ago for the sole purpose of keeping you up to date with our growing family. We live so far away from our dear families and only get to see them once or twice a year. We hope that can change since we have moved further east. That being said, this blog was my way of allowing our family members to stay connected with us visually with pictures, occasional videos and of course funny stories about the kids. This blog IS about our family and that is what is was created to be. The kid's great grandparents (whom they see once a year) consider themselves blessed to stay connected with their grandkids.

So if you are frequenting this blog in hopes of getting ministry updates, that is not what it was created for. Our ministry updates come in a form of a prayer letter. If you are interested in receiving this letter, please leave a comment.

Thanks for visiting our blog! Our children are VERY special to us and are a COMPLETE GIFT FROM GOD. If you know our story, you know that is true. God has blessed us greatly!!!