Ode to Love

Wow, where did the week go last week?  Let's see, this is week 2.5 of flying solo for me.  You see, we are in the midst of meeting cycle....oh joy.  Clayton was in Indianapolis for half a week, in Phoenix last week and flew out for Orlando before the sun came up this morning.  He came home from Phoenix with a flu-like virus and was literally in bed all weekend.  Of course, all the kids have been sick this week as well.  I thought they got the flu but luckily everybody is fine...snotty but fine.  Of course who isn't snotty right now?  It's like 50 something in the morning, high 70s in the afternoon and humid humid humid.....a recipe for sinus disaster if I ever heard one.  And it does not look to be letting up anytime soon.  This week promises to be more of the same.  I know people think I am insane but I could live in the middle of summer year-round I think.  Give me 90 degrees a pair of shorts, a tank top and a pair of flops any day! 

Anyway, I digress.  The point I was making is things have been hairy around these neck of the woods.  Getting five kids up and out the door every morning by 7:40 is no easy task....gives me a whole new appreciation for single moms......really don't know how they do it.  I guess they have jobs, which gives them adult interaction, which is a total must if you want to stay sane, ha!  But alas, my parents are coming to my rescue this week!!!  They should be on their way as I type (I should probably call and check to make sure!).  And when Clayton gets home we are flying to Steamboat to go skiing with our friends Melanie and L.E. minus kids!  I am so pumped!  This is going to be a much needed break for yours truly and I am sooooo looking forward to it.  Now, I may be dying when I get home considering I can't remember the last time I actually exercised and I'm going to attempt to ski for three days in a row, but it will all be worth it! 

Oh, and Valentines Day was a week ago (I'm so punctual) which is why I was writing this post.  It was just me and the kids as Daddy was away but we made sure to eat plenty of chocolate in his absence.  I didn't think you were suppossed to be alone on v-day after you got married, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, darn meeting cycle!  Clayton bought each of the kids a heart filled with assorted chocolates, not the little ones, the BIG ones.  They ate lots of chocolate, which is probably why I had such a hairy week last week.  Meme and Pop also sent each of them a chocolate marshmellow heart and some clothes.  Here are some pics of them digging in:

They ate chocolate all week and I cleaned chocolate all week.  That chocolate, it is messy.  Maybe next year I'll tell Clayton he needs to stick with conversation hearts, ha!  And that's pretty much all I can tell you we did last week.  All I know is I was ready to crash every night when I put them little boogers to bed!  I can tell you what I did not do last week and that is clean my house or do a single load of laundry.  Needless to say, the laundry piles are so huge in my laundry room they could aquire their own zip code and my house has seen its better day.  I did wash everybody's sheets upstairs and changed them on Saturday and cleaned all the upstairs bathrooms while Clayton was laid out in the bed with the funk.  But that's about it.  I've got A LOT to get accomplished today before Nana and Pa show up.  Although, they did live with me for 18 years and if they remember what my room looked like 90% of the time they wouldn't be very surprised if they walked in right now.  But that was then and this is now.  Is anybody else like that?  You were a total slob growing up but had a change of heart and try to keep things a little cleaner now that you're all grown up?  I don't know, maybe it's just me!

Hi Ho the Dairy-O, a Sledding we will go!

My text is lining up all crazy AGAIN!  Got to figure something out.  Anyway, Friday we woke up to everything covered in snow and the snow coming down.  School was out and as soon as the snow stopped falling we headed for the hill across the bridge from the lake (b/c it's much bigger than the one on the side of our house) and sledded our little hearts out.  We didn't even bother making a snowman this time, partly b/c the high was barely in the 20s and that's just a little too cold for mama to be out rolling snowballs for a snowman that will melt the next day b/c the forecast called for highs in the 50s on Saturday......gotta love Texas weather.  Anyway, here are a few pics from our snow day. 

Here's MC....looks like she's giving me a thumbs up, ha!

 MA ready to hit the hill:

 Charlie needs to readjust his hat for optimal visibility:

 William sledding:

 Our friends the Seibs brought one of their tubey things (but it's not a tube) that they use on the lake and it was a BIG hit.  Here's William and the girls:

 Here we go!!!!!

 WEEEEEE!

 Daddy even got in on the action:

 those smiles....priceless!

 Henry wins the prize for most photogenic and cooperative on this particular day.....cutie pie!

 You can't have a snow day without tasting a little snow......just make sure it's not yellow snow, ha!

 Here's Charlie going full speed ahead:

 And the crash into the brush afterwards:

 Look at these cuties....Avery and Henry.  They're hugging above. (it wouldn't let me write above that pic)  They are two peas in a pod!

 Charlie and Blake heading down....

 Margaret Ann flying solo:

 Want a taste, Mom?

 My sweet William man:

The snow didn't hang around long.  It was all melted away by Saturday afternoon.  The kids sure were glad school was out on Friday and they had a blast sledding.  Two snow days in one year.....the kids better not get too used to it.  I don't think it snows very often around here, but we'll take it!  If only they wouldn't have to make up the day at school it would be perfect!  So long Good Friday we'll be in school I'm sure.....

Technically Overdue

Hello Blog.  I know you've been neglected lately.  I apologize in advance for the looks of this post.  I have tried and tried to get things back to normal and have no idea how to do such...and quite frankly I'm tired of trying.  So, if you don't already know my computer is a DINOSAUR.  It's about 10 years old and is still the same as it was way back when only it keeps telling me I have no memory left and it runs at turtle speed.  Well, my sweet hubby got me an ipad for Christmas.  I just took it out of the box yesterday (I know, I'm crazy!)  And I just can't figure out how to blog on the stupid thing.  I can put pictures on the ipad but I can't figure out how to get them on the blog on that little thing.  Anyway, I'm back on the dino and it's taken me all day long to get this post going.  Now, I don't know how I did it but the text is centered and doesn't want to go to the left like it's supposed to and every time I try to make it do so it goes back to the center.  So you're getting to read centered words today...you're welcome.  Also all the pictures are in reverse order but as long as it took for me to get them on here in general you're just going to have to deal with that kink.  If anyone knows a good tutorial on how to blog from the ipad please pass that along. 

Ok, here's what's been going on in our world since the beaver attacked our trees.  By the way, the beaver is still around.  He has gotten braver and has taken half a bush about ten feet from my back porch.  He's also eaten several trees from the neighbors yards.  I think we're going to get some trappers to get em!  Anyway, we just celebrated Henry's 4th birthday!  He wanted a bowling party so we bowled it up this past Saturday.  My pictures are limited b/c my card is full and I didn't empty it b/c I'm real prepared like that.  Anyway, here he is mad at William for blowing his candles out with that party favor blower thingy:

And here are some pics of the kids bowling.  We rented these dino ramp things that the kids put their balls on and pushed them off of.  And of course we had the bumpers up.  They had a ball.

Hey, what do you know, my text moved over where it's supposed to.  (the dino must be possessed or just plain stubborn, take your pick)
Here is what the girls did a lot until MA's finger got in the ball's way. 

My inlaws came for the par-tay and my parents came for Henry's actual birthday and we chuck e. cheesed it up.  I have no pictures as usual b/c I'm so prepared that I forgot to take the camera to CEC.  Here is a sweet one of the girls and Pa sound asleep on the couch.

Back in January (the 9th I think) we got some snow.  It wasn't a ton but we made the most of it.  My friend Heather and I spend a lot of time together and we just happened upon some sleds at Marshalls a few days before.  So when the snow started falling to Marshalls we went a calling and picked up a few and sledded down the hill on the side of our house.  Here are the girls going together:

She crashed and burned and jumped right back up and said, "I want to go again!"  They loved it!

Don't ask me which girl is which b/c I have no idea.  And Henry man:

Here is Heather and Hudson (her youngest) going down together:

Keep in mind all the pics are backwards so if you want to see the true descent down the hill look at the from the bottom up.  Here is my MA sweetie pie:

My honey made a snowman with the kids.  He fell over pretty quick.  I think he was a little top heavy personally.

Sweet Mary Collins:

Charlie man:

Henry:

William:

MC:

rolling rolling rolling...keep that snowball rolling:

We kept busy getting ready for Christmas by playing hunter a lot:

Here are the kids at our last and final attempt at a Christmas card pic.  We had pink eye for what seemed like the second half of the month so I finally decided just to stick them in their pjs and throw them in front of the tree.....only when I decided that it was almost 80 degrees and just too plain hot to sport their Christmas pjs so you get this instead:

We had school parties.  And here is a shot of Charlie and his little "girlfriend".  They are smitten with each other.  We had spirit night at Chick-Fil-A the other night and she tackled him when she saw him.  I guess that's affectionate for 1st graders, ha!

Here are some early attempts at Christmas card pics.  These would have work, only I think we had almost 30 mph winds this day and the kids almost got blown away!

My sister-in-law bought these Kelly Kids outfits for the girls and gave them to them for their FIRST Christmas.  We finally fit into them this year and I thought they looked so cute on them:

My three youngins love to play kitchen/tea party/restaurant while the older boys are in school.  I walked in on them on day and found this:

Remember way back when when I said we were hosting a Christmas party for Clayton's reps?  Well, we did.  And it turned out pretty good.  The getting ready part was stressful and busy but we got it done, with A LOT of help from my in-laws!  I tell ya, Meme and Pop are saints!  Here are some pictures of the house decorated for Christmas.  Our tree:

The living room mantle:  You can't see good but those cards are the 12 days of Christmas with the meaning of each day and the story of how Christians came up with the song to instill their faith in their families.  I came across them at Mistletoe & Magic (Christmas craft fair type thing that junior league does here) and I just had to have them.  They string up by a plaid ribbon.

Can't figure out why but I can't write above the above pic.  It's our front door.  And below is my dining room mantle.

Our kitchen table:

And that's it for my Christmas pics.  Unfortunately I have none from Christmas day b/c (since I'm so prepared and all) I waited until the kids went to bed Christmas Eve to wrap ANYTHING so I finally woke Clayton up (who was sick with the stomach bug) at 4:30 and decided we had better assemble some things in case the kids woke up early.  So we assembled until 6:15 and crawled in the bed.  I think the kids made it until 8 maybe....really can't remember...things are kinda hazy from lack of sleep.  Anyway, we had a great Christmas and went over to our friends the Seibs house for supper that night and had a big time.  Then I stayed up all night wrapping again the presents we had to take to our parents' houses and we loaded up and hit the road the day after and hit both sets of parents in a week. 

This year was Thanksgiving in Tupelo and we played in the leaves waiting on my sister-in-law and her fam to get in town for supper.  The kids had a blast....and the pics were pretty cute too!

And they did a lot of riding on the "Yerf Dog" too.  Here they are all piled up with Daddy:

And here's a random pic of Henry sledding that moves over when I type.  Don't know how to move it or how it got where it is.  I'll try to do better next time.  Hopefully I'll have figured the ipad out by then and have my camera card emptied so I can take some new pics.  Maybe if I make a flickr account or something like that I can get pics on there that way......