The Dream is a Reality

Doesn't look like we'll be dreaming of a white Christmas this year. We'll be living the reality of one! It's been snowing all day (about five hours as of now). We're talking blizzard. It's like white out condition outside. I cannot show you a picture now b/c my camera battery is charging from where it died on me yesterday when we were ice skating. When it completes its charge I'll snap some pics for you and enlighten you on how to take five kids ice skating! I know I should be excited as I look out my window and see all that snow blowing around with the 30 mph wind gusts. But honestly, all I can think about is how yesterday it was 70 degrees and sunny and today it's snowing, blizzard with WIND which means it's FREEZING OUT THERE and I've got to assemble a trampoline in the dark. How did I ever get so lucky?

My Life is Now Forever Changed

Want to know how to get Sharpie out of your kids' clothes? Well, I'm about to tell you.

We're still having the stomach bug going on around here and in the few minutes that I'm not changing someone's diaper or helping someone else in the bathroom I've been trying to get some things that needed doing MONTHS ago done around here. For instance, Henry's closet (until yesterday) had a bunch of clothes hanging in it that were a size too small. I've been preoccupied lately. So I decided to tackle it yesterday while the kids watched a Thomas movie. I did so good. I got all the 2t stuff packed up for consignment and donated all the stuff that couldn't be consigned. Then I unpacked all the 3t stuff and hung it and organized it. Then I put the closet back together.

It took me a little longer than the Thomas movie but the kids came in to help me when the movie was over. Kids meaning Henry and the girls. The older boys were still in school. They took all the ornaments off of Henry's tree and vamoosed. When I finished putting the closet back together I walked out and rounded the corner into the play room. In just split seconds, I kid you not, those little boogers had tattooed themselves, especially their hands and feet, the couch, the table and chair set, and they had also managed to dye their hair BLUE. I'm not talking little fine point sharpie here. I'm talking about the biggest sharpie they make, with a chiseled edge in BLUE. What can you do? I started to tear up. Then Mary Collins came over to me and looked at me with her spunky self and smiled this big ole grin, so proud of what she had done. When she put on that big ole grin her teeth were coral with the newest makeup made out of crayon. It's true, if you chew those crayons up fine enough they make a paste and it works well for makeup.....just ask my girls. They had it all over their mouths, face, clothes, etc.

I cleaned them all up and laid all three of them straight down for their naps.....it was clearly way PAST naptime! Then I had the chore of cleaning up their brand new Santa pjs that I paid close to $10 a pair for. I was not losing those babies. They'd only gotten two wears out of them. So what did I do? I called my mom of course. Now, my mom, she is a miracle worker when it comes to getting out stains. If you live close to Dothan and get something on your clothes give her a call. She can get ANYTHING out! Even if you've washed it already and set the stain and you think it's out with the day's trash she can get it out. She told me to use hairspray. For real, hairspray? Yep.

Here's what you do......if your child gets super crafty with your Sharpie that you have put away and hidden from them but they managed to find and tattoo themselves with anyway, you should try to treat the stain as soon as possible. DO NOT WET IT FIRST. Get you an ARESOLE can of hairspray. My mom says it has to be ARESOLE (I don't know why). Liberally spray the marker stain. Let it sit there a few seconds. Then rub it pretty hard with your finger/fingernail. Rub it for a while. You'll see the marker starting to bleed. If the stain is not that big it will magically disappear before your eyes. If the stain is as big as mine were you'll need to keep rubbing. Then you'll need to rinse it under warm water and repeat the hairspray steps until the stain is gone. My mom also said that rubbing alcohol works too. I was out of alcohol so I used the hairspray. It worked and my girls' pjs are saved! SCORE! Oh, and also, put you hand up inside the clothes under the stain. Does that make sense? So there's a barrier between the stain. For instance, if you're working with a shirt put your hand in shirt and hold under stain so the stained fabric is not touching the back of the shirt fabric.

Gotta love mamas! They know everything! Thanks mom and I love ya!

Just so you know, I don't know if the hairspray works for when your child uses Sharpie to dye their hair blue. I didn't try it. I can tell you that Sharpie for hair dye is a semi-permanent color. It does not rinse out with one shampoo. It takes more like three and LOTS of scrubbing, especially if they put too much color directly onto the scalp!

Never a dull moment at my house.

Christmas Home Tour

I missed the Tour of Homes over at the Nester. (surprise surprise) But I decided to show you my Christmas decor anyway. I didn't really do very much this year. Quite frankly, I'm lazy this year. Plus, who wants to waste all their time and energy on something that will only last about five minutes in my house anyway. The kids, they're like a demolition team, times five. So let's get started. Here's my front door:
You can't tell but that little skinny tree has lights on it. It's an Italian Cypress and I LOVE it. It will grow real big and look like the giant ones at all the wineries in California. I have wreaths to hang on all my windows but they're still sitting upstairs waiting to be hung. And at this point they'll be waiting until next year.

Come on in. Here's what you see when you walk in the door:

That's my tree. She's a beauty. She's 10 1/2 feet not in the stand. I'd guess more like 11 1/2 with stand and all. We got a Douglas Fir this year instead of a Frasier and while the limbs aren't as sturdy the needles are SOOOOO much softer and you don't get an acupuncture treatment when you go to plug in the lights. Here's an up close view:

And another:

Can you tell I like the tree?

I don't do a themed tree. We have ornaments from everywhere. Except that two years ago our tree fell over THREE times and shattered a TON of my ornaments. I tried to get some pictures but most of my favorites are up high (for obvious reasons) and I didn't feel like getting the ladder out to photograph them. But here's some I could reach. I have a lot of dough ornaments from a company out of Chesterfield, MO. My lil sis Megan got me one in college and I've been collecting them ever since.

Here's an angel from Midnite Pottery:

And here's my new ornament from the Gaylord Texan this year:

And the back of it:

Here's some scented pine cones in a too small hurricane in the kitchen. They smell great. Sad thing is the thing that they're supposed to be in is up in the attic and I'm too lazy to go get it down so they're staying in here. I'm so festive, I know.

Here's my mantle:

And a closer look at my Willow Tree Nativity. I love this set! My mom got

it for me for Christmas one year.
Here's a snowman that is really not all that cute but he plays music, lights up and dances. My kids think he's wonderful. If I hear Walking in a Winter Wonderland one more time today I may scream.

Here's a baby Jesus that William made at
school this year:

Here's my second favorite Nativity:

I bought this for myself the first year I went to Subsidium in Memphis for like 30 bucks I think. I could tell you who the artist is but I'm to lazy to walk upstairs and find the box. I LOVE it though!

Up close:

This is the boys' tree:

I let William pick it out b/c Henry adopted their old smaller tree for his room. When he picked it out I thought, gee........I tried to talk him into a nice green tree but he wasn't going to budge. The more I look at it the more I like it. I got some bright shatterproof balls to go on it.

And here's their nightlight my mom got them a few years ago. They LOVE it! When it gets warm it snows in the globe.

And here's Henry's tree in his room. It gets some leftover small balls on it this year b/c they're not going to stay on there anyway. Oh, wait! I just erased it. Oh well, it's a little 4 1/2 foot green tree. Picture it in your mind.

Then I picked up this pink tree for the girls. I don't know why. It's been so mangled ever since I set it up it won't last long.

The decorations are bare b/c I don't like redecorating every day.

And this poor little bird has already lost its beak:

Here's some sequined balls. I've had to reglue the sequins once already.

I really don't know why I got them a tree. I just thought the pink was so cute and was scared they wouldn't have them next year. If I were smart I would have left it in the box until next year. But I'm not really that smart. See, it's four minutes until midnight and I'm up baking chocolate chip cookies from scratch to send to school for a PTO teacher cookie swap. They are oh so good though. I'll share the recipe when I don't need to hold my eyes open with toothpicks! Merry Christmas everyone!

Our Week End Wrap Up (a few days late, as usual)

Clayton and I have these great ideas from time to time. This Saturday was one of those times. We had the great idea to take the kids to see ICE at the Gaylord Texan. ICE is something they do every year. It's in a giant tent and it's ice sculptures. This year they were doing How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. They also have a giant Nativity made out of ice. Sounds great, doesn't it? And since my big sis Melanie called to tell me it was something I had to take the kids to see it was a no brainer; right? Wrong.



Don't get me wrong.....ICE is TOTALLY worth paying to go see if you're in the Dallas area. In fact it's just flat out AWESOME! Especially the life size Nativity made solely out of ice. It took I forget how many artists an entire month of 12-hour shifts to complete the masterpiece. I'm sure you can read about it at the Gaylor Texan website, which I can't remember at the moment but if you're that interested you can Google it I'm sure.



Now my friend Melanie is pregnant with her third bebe. She is a planner. She has a 3 year gap between her first two. So when she said we should take the kids to see it I should have been smart and realized it would have been great for the oldest two and possibly Henry, but the girls, uh, no. Actually it wouldn't have been bad at all if we had had at least two more adults with us. (Where are Nana and Pa when you need them?) But let's face it, with the stroller anything is doable (is that even a word?). Funny thing is, they don't let strollers into the ICE exhibit. Still I'm thinking we're okay. I mean there are two of us and two babies. And if all else fails I can hold both girls and Clayton can take Henry or visa versa.



They tell you it's 9 degrees in the tent so dress accordingly. No, I'm not kidding...it's actually a chilly 9 degrees in there. That's why they equip you with parkas as you enter the tent. These are no ordinary parkas. You are suited up to brave the Arctic. They are thick, they are bulky and there are only sizes so small. So Henry and the girls resembled that kid from a Christmas Story all bundled up yelling, Hey guys wait for me! And see, trying to hold babies that have on layers plus winter coat plus thick blanket for legs plus Arctic parka that's at least 5 sizes too big = you're gonna need a lot of sleep later on that night. Add that to a whiny Henry who hasn't had a nap and is coming down with a TERRIBLE stomach virus (only you don't find that out until the next morning when you're gonna get ready to go to church and you walk in his room and are knocked down by the smell of puke and it's ALL OVER EVERYTHING: bed, sheets, floor, him, hair, pillow, pj's, comforter, sheets.....GROSS!!!! Like soaked through to the plastic cover on the mattress kinda gross) and you've got a good time let me just tell ya!



Despite all of that the older boys LOVED it and mama loved the Nativity so much I could have stood there in the 9 degrees for an hour or so just gazing. I have a thing for Nativity scenes. After all, Jesus IS the reason for the season! I would definitely do it again, just not with or five kids and only two adults. The best part for the kids was the giant ice slide. Even little Henry exclaimed as he was coming down, "I want to go again!" But one time was enough for us. We exited the ICE tent, turned in our parkas and headed in to the gift shop where I got an adorable ornament. It's a ball with the three wise men painted on it. I heart it!

The Gaylord Texan is all decked out for Christmas. They have awesome decorations and a life size gingerbread house, Santa is there of course, and an array of elves doing balloons, juggling, you name it. They even have people dressed like Dickens Christmas Carol singing carols all around the hotel. We took it all in. It was a jam packed day to say the least. We headed to Cracker Barrel for an early supper and I kid you not, I almost fell asleep at the table. We were seated right in front of the fireplace and that fire felt soooo good. We headed home and got the kids down with every intention of finishing up the tree and cleaning house but that never happened. We crashed as soon as we could.

Sunday we woke up to aforementioned stomach virus. I hope no one else gets it. It is a nasty one. Let's just say that today was day number 3 of me completely stripping his bed and washing everything on the sanitary cycle (not b/c I'm a germ freak but b/c it HAD to be done). Anyway, I'm hoping that tomorrow those nice clean sheets will still be nice and clean. I'm keeping my fingers crossed at least.

Oh, also on Sunday I finished lighting up the tree. Henry was not feeling up to par and was laying around most of the day. Clayton had made a Walmart run so we'd have stuff to feed our kids for lunch and I was busy as a bee with the tree. I had help off and on by all kinds of little helpers. William resorted to my room for some tv time and I could have sworn Henry followed suite. I started supper and was almost done when William emerged and I asked, "where's Henry?" He said, "I don't know." And I said, "I thought he was watching tv with you." William said, "no, I haven't seen him." Clayton was home by this point. So I run upstairs and through the house calling for him with no answer. I told Clayton he wasn't here and ran outside and through the neighborhood screaming his name like the psycho that I am. About 10 or so of our neighbors ran out to help look while I told Clayton to call 9-1-1. I ran to the park and down in a creek looking for something floating when I heard our neighbor yelling we found him. I ran back to the house where he was found ASLEEP ON OUR COUCH under a pile of his newly washed sheets that hadn't made it back on the bed yet. Just call me mother of the year. After I had a complete meltdown and finished hyperventilating we finished up supper and called it the end to the weekend. I hope to never have another moment like that again. Who cares if that stupid tree gets decorated? But just so you know I did finish up the tree today. It only took me 15 days to do it, ha! I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Oh, and in typical April fashion I forgot to take my camera to ICE so I cannot share our insanity or the beautiful baby Jesus carved out of ice. It's probably a good thing too b/c I'm not sure I could have carried one more thing with all those Arctic parkas. Oh well, maybe next year!

The Longest Post Ever: A Recap

Hello Blog! Oh how I've missed you.......

My computer came down with this nasty virus that scared the living daylights out of me and it all turned out to be a hoax! It kept telling me someone/thing was trying to steal my credit card information, yikes! I even called the bank and canceled my card and got issued another one and had to do without the swippy for 10 whole days. Back when I was in highschool this would not have been a problem. You basically wrote checks for everything. But nowadays, I mean people don't even take checks anymore, it's absurd! Anyway, Clayton lent me his for a while and my dear wonderful friends Chris and Meredith fixed my virus, thank you thank you and thank you some more.

See the thing is I'm kinda dependent on my computer. It's like my friend....sad, I know. My other BFF is my dog. Could I be anymore pathetic?

Anyway, here's a recap of our Thanksgiving holiday. Get ready, it's a long one.

William had a feast at school where they did a little skit, so cute, and all the families brought a dish and we feasted! The food was GOOD let me just tell ya! Here are the only pictures I got b/c I was busy chasing kids and trying to feed two girls in a stroller, not the easiest of tasks.

And Charlie had a feast as well. We all brought dishes but didn't get to eat. Only the kids did. Now, that's just wrong. Anyway, we had to bring the turkey and had some left over so I got a sandwich before we hit the road. Here's Charlie the Indian:

After the feast we loaded up and headed to my in-laws. We got there late late Friday. I even laid the kids down without a bath and I can count on one had and only use three fingers how many times I've ever done that in their lifetime. I believe in baths. You should take one a day. It makes everyone feel better including the people you come in contact with everyday.

On Saturday I got up at the crack of dawn, showered and headed to Oxford for the LSU game. I met Melanie and we headed up to Memphis for the Helen Brett show and did a little shopping and headed back to Oxford just in time for kick off. Clayton met me there. The game was awesome and we got to visit with some great friends. Man I miss Oxford! We ate at Volta which is kinda like Kalos and it did not disappoint. We got back late and crashed. Then on Sunday my mother-in-law cooked a big spread and we had Thanksgiving with the McCoys.

Then we loaded up bright and early Monday and headed to Dothan. I had not seen my parents in four months and my extended family in about six so that Dothan city limit sign was a sight for sore eyes to say the least! We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving. All my cousins on my mom's side got together the night before Thanksgiving and we grilled and visited. It was something I hope we do at least once a year, just the cousins. My mom is from a family of six and they all had two children each and we've all had kids except three of us. So with spouses we are quite a crowd.

I have no pictures from Thanksgiving b/c I can never seem to bring my camera to important events. My cousin Deborah sent me this one. Here is how my girls took their afternoon nap. Can you say precious? This is my Grandmother, one of my favorite people on earth. She'll be 84 on Wednesday.

And we all know what I did on Friday.........shop you say? Well, actually, no. See there's this thing in Alabama called the IRON BOWL and it was played on Friday. I know myself well enough to know that I have no concept of time when it comes to shopping so I didn't even attempt to make a go of it. The game is THAT important. We all know we won and went on to beat Florida in the SEC championship and we're headed to the BCS title game in Pasadena. All I have to say is ROLL TIDE ROLL!

My kids, they don't have the appreciation of Alabama football yet. See, when I was a little girl when Alabama was playing football you watched it. There was no other choice. My kids are lucky their daddy loves me and let me watch the game while he watched kids outside. I took a turn during commercials and halftime. Here's how my kids watched the game:

Oh, wait! What's that?

Margaret Ann and William:

Mary Collins and Charlie:

We headed home Saturday morning and it took us 15 1/2 hours to get home. To say we were tired is the understatement of the year! My computer got infected the next day and that's why you're just hearing about our Thanksgiving.

I got us tickets to ride the North Pole Express last Friday night. It's supposed to be like the Polar Express and all the kids wear their pajamas. I must say it was kinda a let down. I was under the impression that we would stop and get off the train to go see Santa but I was wrong. Santa just walked through the train while we stopped and then we rode back to the depot. I think the kids were a little disappointed as well. They still said they loved it though.

It was a nice 23 degrees outside. We enjoyed corndogs and grilled cheeses and a musical show thingy before getting on the train. Here are some pics:

Margaret Ann: Can you tell she's sleepy? That eye is drrrooooppppy.

My man William:

Our family of seven:

Henry was the only one that would go up on stage and sing:

All five on the train:
Daddy, MC, and William:

Charlie, me, MA, and Henry:

The jolly man himself:

Our family of seven again getting off the train:

Okay....that's all I've got for now.

Since we've been home we've gotten our tree (we get a real one every year). It's a lovely tree, all ten and a half feet of it. It's more like 11 1/2 with the stand and all. It's so purty. It's nice and green....still........yes, I've had my tree for two weeks and it's still nice and green. And that's all it is. I am attempting to light her up after this post. Clayton has been busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest with work and he usually does the lights but I'm taking over this year. Maybe I'll get it done before Christmas. Pics to come after I'm finished.

Wordless Wednesday

Artist Reception

We got a letter a few weeks back that a piece of Charlie's artwork had been chosen to be showcased this month at the MISD Central Office. They had a reception for the featured artists tonight. At first Charlie just thought we were going to school for a school thing but when I told him that this was an honor and not everyone's art got picked, just a few, he just beamed with pride. We are so proud of our little budding artist!
I just love his piece. I can't wait to get it home at the end of the month so I can frame it and adorn my bare walls with it!

Henry had to get in on the action of the camera as well. Just look at that face!

I forget the name of the artist they studied when doing these pieces.....it was someone I've never heard of (which isn't that unusual; I'm not an art buff by any means). We really enjoyed walking around and looking at everyone's art. They had some amazing stuff there from some of the high schools too that were really good. But I have to say my favorite was my Charlie's piece! (I'm not at all biased here!)