Dear Santa

This is cute (from another blog):

Dear Santa,
I’ve been a good mom all year. I’ve fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor’s office more than my share, and sold sixty- two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground.
I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son’s red crayon, on the back of a receipt, in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I’ll find any more free time in the next 18 years.
Here are my Christmas wishes: I’d like a pair of legs that don’t ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have). And arms that don’t hurt or flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store. I’d also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.
If you’re hauling big ticket items this year I’d like finger print resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music.A television that doesn’t broadcast any programs containing talking animals.A refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.
On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, “Yes,Mommy” to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don’t fight. Three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting “Don’t eat in the living room” and “Take your hands off your brother,” because my voice seems to be just out of my children’s hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.
If it’s too late to find any of these products, I’d settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning.Or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.
If you don’t mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season: Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.
Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is ringing and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don’t catch cold. Help yourself to cookies on the table but don’t eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.
Yours Always,MOM
P.S. One more thing…you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa.

Sent From Heaven

Have I mentioned before that I think my mother is truly an angel? It sounds corny and I honestly don’t mean it to. She’s amazing. Thanks for everything, Mom, from helping out with the boys to doing our family laundry these past couple of weeks since we don’t have a washer. Seriously, the laundry is above and beyond!
I hope people can say “wow, she’s so much like her mom” someday. That would be the highest compliment.

We Saw Santa!





I think the family pictures says it all….MAMAS ARE TIRED! Seeing Santa is tough work with three little boys. We got to go to the neatest holiday thing at Kiana Lodge today, and the boys got really cool presents and stockings, we had a great meal, a family portrait and they all got to get a picture taken with Santa. Levi and Trey loved it, Carlos fought the big guy. Typical! Anyhow, we’re beat and the kids are busy playing with their new toys. Time to get a PB&J into them and think about bedtime.

And They're Off

The Christmas cards are done, whew, what a job. So check your mailboxes. Got the kids to help on the final touches, they do my least favorite part and lick all the envelopes. That’s why we have them, right? To do the jobs we don’t like? Carlos loved it, any excuse to stick his tongue out and not get in trouble for it.
We are suffering the after shocks of yesterday’s super packed fun day. Gotta love that, but we knew it was going to happen. Lots of meltdowns and drama but early bedtime tonight will help. It’s family dinner with Mary and Alice and Dee’s making her signature dish of Chicken Alfredo. I can’t wait, it’s the first dinner that Dee ever cooked for me, almost 8 years ago if you can believe that one.

Holy Cow!

What a day….started with getting the big boys off to school, then Trey, Dee and I met Godma Ann for coffee and some nice down time chatting with her.
I picked up the boys from school and we headed toward Silverdale, stopped in for a bite to eat with the foster parent crew (Terry, Mary Jones and Carolyn) and ran into an ex boyfriend. Interesting.
We next ran to speech, Carlos is working on his “g” sounds and has pretty much nailed the “k” sounds at this point. If only we could get him to say “because” instead of “peecaw” I’d be happy. I know it’s being worked on, he just says peecaw a LOT. Anyhow, I was shocked to find out that the Holiday party sponsored by Harrison Pediatric Rehab (nice visual, huh? Babies in rehab! but it’s really the speech place) was today. Holy cow. The night I’ve been looking forward to for weeks, and I didn’t even get to really get super psyched for it because I was a week off in my mind.
After speech, the boys were done. I was going to run some errands but figured we needed to slow down. We took a break and I parked the car at the waterfront park so that I could read while the boys took a nap, and they fell right asleep.
It’s Alice’s birthday today! Can’t believe our girl is 5 years old. She celebrated at Chuck E. Cheese. The perfect place for a bunch of 4-5 year olds to run around and play games. It was a small crowd there, too so the kids had a ball and didn’t have to wait for games. They stopped for about 2 bites of pizza before they jumped back up to play. We hated to leave early, but had already signed up for the Harrison thing and they had bought gifts and all for the boys.
The Harrison Christmas party was sweet. We dropped the boys off and then got a chance to go to the Santa Shop and pick out two presents for each boy. While we got a 3 hour break the boys got to make gingerbread houses and go to the Santa Shop and pick out things for eachother. Dee and I got to have a bite to eat, uninterrupted, and do a little shopping without distraction and even had a chance to look at washing machines. Exciting, I know, we know how to have a good time. That hasn’t happened in ages. We picked up the candy-filled and exhausted boys, the wrapped presents and headed home.
You would think that was nearing the end of our day. Not so much. I heard muffled crying from the backseat, and immediately thought that Levi was just so tired he couldn’t function. I asked him what was wrong, he said “well, there’s a rock in my nose and I can’t get it out” A rock? In your nose? What the hell!??!?! Yeah, I pulled over, and there certainly was a rock in his nose that I couldn’t see how we were going to get out. Looked like we’d be heading back to the ER. Here I’m thinking, first off WHY…secondly, we were just at the hospital for the party, why couldn’t you have put the rock in your nose while we were there? Got everyone home and unloaded, I was just about to take Levi over to our saviour Margaret’s to see if she could help, when he said it was out. Good news, it just came out. He couldn’t produce the rock, so I’m wondering…guess time will tell.
Tomorrow’s another day, mellow, no plans, and I’m great with that.

Check These Out

Here’s what I read at naptime when the house is quiet and I have a few minutes without interruption….MAMA BLOGS…funny stuff, give them a visit!

House of Dedons (our friends Robb and Rebecca’s blog)
http://www.littleboysarework.blogspot.com/

Life As A Momma
http://ummmhello-lifeasamomma.blogspot.com/

Boobs, Injuries and Dr.Pepper
http://www.boobsinjuriesanddrpepper.blogspot.com/

Because I Said So
http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/

Gremlin Wrangler
http://gremlinwrangler.blogspot.com/

Christmas Pageant




The boys spent some time with Nana and Papa, helping them decorate their tree and putting candy on the gingerbread house. I think they ate more than ever got near the house but they had a great time. Levi was a big help with the decorating, too, although a lot of ornaments were clustered at the bottom of the tree due to his lack of height!
Spent Saturday night at the laundromat (yeah) while Levi was at pageant rehersal. Sunday was the annual Christmas pageant at the church and it was hilarious. The older kids in the church write their version of the Christmas story, and then all the kids act it out. This one was funny, with the angels talking on blutooth headsets to eachother and asking for lattes. There were the wise men, shepards (which Levi and Trey were last year), angels and a variety of random animals. Levi was the mouse. It’s a non speaking role, but important for sure. Here are a couple of pictures of the big production.
Baby “X” (which now all foster babies written about on this blog will have to be referred to as) went back to his foster family today. He was great to have around, so fun to see them grow up. He’s really become giggly and fun in the last two months. We’ll see him again on the 26th for another bout of respite care.
Nana and Papa have done us a HUGE favor by taking our laundry to their place to wash. In just these last couple of days we already have a huge basket full to do. It’ll be nice to have that amount less to do next weekend at the laundromat. The hassle on top of the $25 a week is old already.
The week is fairly mellow, with the addition of Alice’s 5th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese on Wednesday after speech. The boys are super hyped up in general about Christmas, though, so even no plans isn’t mellow at our place.