Alliya

Word's to Manoucheca's original song "I am noucheca, I am noucheca, daddy says I'm Bubba"

Caden

I'm just so happy Caden isn't too cool to sing. He had a hard time choosing between "We will rock you" or "I am Ironman". Ozzy and Queen??? What happened to Elmo and Dora???

Feb 5, 2009...one of the greatest days of my life!!!!

It's offical...as of Feb 5, our household is diaper free!!!! With the rare exception of a night away while Grandma watched the kids, I have changed the diapers of at least one kid (there where overlaps where I was changing 2 at a time) for the last 7 years 78 days. That is an estimated total of 16,320 diapers and 4.5 billion wet wipes. On Feb 5 (to be known from now on as the The Great Thursday), Manoucheca said bye bye biapers and I carried the diapers out to the trash. The first day was one wet accident and two of the dreaded accidents and no accidents to report from then on!!!! For all of you that have me up on a pedestal, as the greatest mom ever...you may want to quit reading now...for the rest of you...I will openly admit that I am the worst potty trainer in the history of indoor plumbing. This isn't the first attempt at deliverance from diapers. Manoucheca was very willing at first until I freaked out over the first runny mess. After that, she was content to just let me give-up and put her back in diapers. It wasn't until I got rid of my crutch and the diapers were gone that Manoucheca realized there was no going back and decided that she could do this. I don't even have to reminder her to try...she always comes to me when she needs to go. We are so proud of our big girl!!!

The things mommies will blog about! :)

A Tribute to Mother-In-Laws

So often, mother-in-laws get a bad rap so I thought I'd counter that with a tribute to the two wonderful mother-in-laws in our lives, my mother-in-law and Justin's mother-in-law (i.e. my mom). Justin also has a fabulous father-in-law but they don't get a whole lot of bad press. I have started working again and the first month of training I had to work 3pm-10pm which didn't work with Justin's schedule so thankfully Erika was there to fill in the gaps along with a group of wonderful friends. By week three, the kids and I were exausted from all the running around so my mom and dad came down and stayed a week. They both helped out so much and it was so nice to have them here. My dad now knows every children's book by heart I think he read to at least one kid from sunup to sundown. Mom cooked, cleaned, and made sure each kid got their fair share of hugs and kisses (with the exception of Caden who only received one kiss before Grandma was informed that he's getting too big for kisses...hugs only!!!) By the end of the week I'd forgotten how to do a batch of laundry and Ethan said he couldn't bare to be away from Grandma for one minute (did I mention that Grandma and Grandpa tend to spoil the kids and Justin and I too?). I think the kids would have packed their bags and followed them home if it weren't for the fact that Grandma Freeman came the next week. Not only did she keep up with my 4 kids from 3 to bedtime (Justin was out of town, so she didn't get a break when he got home) she also watched Justin's 2yr old niece as well. For those of you without a calculator handy...that's 5 kids under the age of 7 during the pleasant hours of dinnertime to bedtime when perfect angels can turn into little stinkers. And if that weren't enough, it was all done with a smile and not one complaint. If there was a Congretional Medal of Honor for Grandparenting, I know I'd have some nominations. I'm sure all parties involved had to sleep most of the next week to recover. Thanks Mom, Dad and Lanta. We all love you and appreciate everything you do for us.

Caden's Brush with the Law

Generally speaking, it's not a good thing when your son comes home from school and tells you that he had to go to the principal's office. What's worse is when he says he had to go there to meet with a police officer. This is exactly what happened several months ago (surprise...I'm just now posting). But before you all start coming up with bail money, Caden was selected to eat lunch with an officer because he is such a good citizen. Hopefully, this will be the only reason he need a police officer. He generally says the number you call in an emergency is 9-9-1.

Behind still yet improving...Christmas Updat

So it still takes me a little while to post but...I'm down to weeks instead of months. Christmas was so fun this year. All of the kids are at a magical Christmas age that makes it that much more enjoyable. The kids have decided that they like to decorate cookies which is great because it seemed like we baked a lot more than usual this year. A really kind neighbor brought a gingerbread tree for the kids to decorate (they loved making it) Aunt Jette and Jenny made Gingerbread boys and girls for all the cousins to decorate (lots of fun) and when I asked the kids what kind of cookies they wanted to make Santa, they all wanted to make Gingerbread (Santa was hoping for the easier and tastier chocolate chip break and bakes) We had a lot of fun making them. I had bought a jumbo size package of Christmas cookie cutters and of course, we HAD to try each shape. I tried my hand at making adorable snowflake ginger cookies just like the picture in the book. Since baking success doesn't come naturally for me, I'm going to take a minute and pat my own back....They turned out so cute (See the picture in the slide show below). "Is that silver sanding sugar sprinkled on top?" you say...Why, yes it is. Thanks for noticing. I didn't know such a thing existed until I took 3 out of 4 kids to the specialty kitchen store (an adventure to say the least but they did really well). Christmas day was so nice and we all just had fun being together. It was so nice for the rush to be over and to just enjoy the day. The lesson of this season learned from Caden and Ethan...Daddy can't be Santa Claus because he has been known to pass gas without saying "Excuse me" A little known fact outside the North Pole.

Christmas in Review