Getting a Family Photo Can Be a Bit of Work

Rounding the kids up...

Wrangling them into place...

Getting everyone to look...

And to stop sucking their thumbs... As good as it gets.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I'm the Weiner!

Christy thinks my blog is great, so she gave me an award! Thanks for the compliment, Christy.

I think Kristin's blog is great, too. She is always inspiring me to try crafty and different things with my boys. Her honest view on all things "motherhood" are fun, encouraging and very beautiful. Thanks for sharing your life, Kristin! Your turn!

Here are your instructions:

A. Put this logo on your blog.

B. Add a link to the person who awarded this to you.

C. Nominate a blog; add a link to this blog; and leave a message for your nominee on their blog.

There, that wasn't so hard.

A Day at the Beach

We played hooky from church yesterday and spent the whole day at the beach. It was a really fun day. The boys were so sweet (Luke even without a nap) and we enjoyed the beautiful weather. We're back to jeans and sweaters again today, but yesterday's weather was perfect. The whole day was just perfect.

Fishing was fun, in spite of the fact that Luke kept swinging the pole around and I was terrified he was going to hook someone. I was, admittedly, a bit of a nag at that point.

My Little Girls Will Be So Pretty

A Little Roadside Assistance, Please

We were heading back home from meeting Kris at a park for lunch today when Luke said, "Mama, look what I did." I don't know about you, but that little phrase almost always strikes terror into my heart.

I turned around (We were at a stop light, thank God!) to see that he had a blue bead shoved neatly into each nostril. His nose was completely blocked, and he was trying to decide whether or not to stick his finger in there to dig them out. After hollering, "Don't touch!!", I wheeled the car to the side of the road, flung the car door open to assess the damage and come up with a rescue plan. I tried to just squeeze them out, but that wasn't quite enough. Thankfully, I had not cut my fingernails as planned and was able to use them to dig the beads out while squeezing the bridge of his nose to keep them from going further in. He alternated between giggling nervously and tearily saying, "No, no, Mama. Don't do that!" But I think he understood that letting me do surgery was better than the alternative.

All in all it was a good experience. The ER trip was averted and we gave a lovely roadside show. And Mama learned her lesson about beads.

The Things We Do

Luke got a new bed two weeks ago. It was a nice bunk bed set from Rooms to Go that someone was getting rid of for a great price. Here's a picture:

About that same time is when Luke kicked the passy habit. It was also when Luke had a nasty cold. Sooo, the fact that naps have not been going well is not a big surprise. The question is, "Is it the new bed? No passy? Not being able to breath because of the cold?"

After a week of nap time battles, I have decided it's the bed. Too much freedom.

He's not roaming the house. He's simply getting out of the bed to look out the window, stretching as far as he can across the room with his toes still touching the bed (so he's not technically out of the bed), laying over the edge of the end of the bed, etc, etc, etc. The other day, he laid in bed from 1:30 until I finally got him up at 4:00. I have threatened, punished, laid with him, let him stay up later, begged, and nothing has worked.

Today, I prayed, "GOD!!! HELP!!! This child needs a nap!" And I thought, what if I put him on the top bunk and take the ladder away? The bottom bunk if a full bed, but the top is a twin with rails all the way around. Kind of like a crib.

Ya'll. He fell asleep in five minutes.

Maybe I'm a terrible mother for letting my just barely three year old sleep on the top bunk (Kris will probably crap a brick when he finds out), but I am a terrible mother who is so grateful for God's inspiration.

Eli's Future Job

I told Eli to sit on the couch so I could take some pictures of him, so he posed for me. Apparently, he thought I was taking pictures for the Sports Illustrated, Swimsuit Edition.

The fact that I have WAY more pictures of Eli than Luke says nothing about favoritism and everything about the fact that Eli is a ham. Case in Point:

Psalm 73

Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will take me into glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.

Eli's Newest Trick

Belly (I know, it's his chest, but it's in the vicinity:)

Hair

Feet

Hands

Teeth

Tongue

Nose

Eyes

Ears

Because I'm a Genius, That's Why.

You know that part in the movie The Wedding Planner where Matthew Mcconaughey and Jennifer Lopez knock a nude statue over and the statue's *ahem* falls off and they have to super glue it back on? Remember how Mcconaughey's hand gets super glued to the unmentionable and JLo has to use fingernail polish remover to remove it? Well, I always thought that was just theatrics, that your hand could never really get superglued to something so completely that you couldn't just pull away.

Definitely not theatrics.

And you want to hear the best part? It wasn't just one hand. I glued BOTH of my thumbs to a picture frame that I was fixing. I thought I was going to have to dial the phone with my tongue to get help. However, I am way better without thumbs than I would have ever thought. I managed to get my manicure box from the top shelf of my closet, fish out the fingernail polish remover, open it (I did have to use my teeth for that), pour a little into the cap and (here comes the tricky part) use Q-tips to detatch myself from the picture frame. That too required my teeth. Thankfully, one of my thumbs was not completely glued down so it didn't take very long to get it unstuck. The other one took some work.

I believe I still have all my DNA intact. And my pride only suffered slightly since I didn't actually have to walk over to my neighbor's house with a picture frame attached to my thumbs.

For the LOVE!!!!!

Make that seven colds in the last three weeks. Eli and I both have colds number 2. The bright side is that I am so used to being congested, having never fully recovered from the original cold, that it's really not bugging me all that much. Eli and Luke's booger noses are just par for the course as well. Sigh.

A side note: the final passy died, so Luke is passy free forever!

"I Will Survive"

I've been thinking that I need to update, but honestly, I don't have much exciting to say. In the past three weeks, between the four of us, we've had:

1 stomach bug (Kris)
5 colds (Luke is on #2)
4 ear infections (Yes, all four of us)
1 sinus infection (me)
and 1 trip to the emergency room.

We ended up in the ER when we were in Camilla because Kris and I had both developed ear infections and me a sinus infection and Eli's ear had not cleared up with the first round of antibiotics. It wasn't a "real" emergency (except that Eli's whining was making me feel homicidal), but there weren't any quick care clinics in town. I felt silly going in, but when the doctor look at our ears and said, "Ooh!", I felt a little better.

So, aside from the leftover coughing and nose blowing, we're much better. Eli even played beside me today instead of climbing on my back like a monkey all day. Seriously, Tuesday was so bad I went to the bathroom with him in my lap. At the end of the day I had claw marks on my neck from his death grip. Silly me for thinking he was going to let me put him down.

Thanksgiving was a blur, and we are definitely ready to head back to Camilla at Christmas and have fun. We're just so glad to be almost totally better!