A Long Short Trip Down Memory Lane

Yesterday we went to mom and dad's. When I was hauling Sofie to time-out I came across a photo album and got seriously distracted with a long trip (about 20 years) down memory lane. This is what I saw...
Maria pregnant with Jesse.
Jesse in his high chair apparently eating something he didn't like very much. ;o)
Gabe sitting on dad's lap and dad reading him a book.
Monika sitting on dad's lap looking very cute in a red dress with frilly baby bloomers.
Lucy in bed with her three LITTLE kids.
Dad reading a book to Redwing.
Michael and mom and dad sitting on a picnic table hugging.
Olivia and Dana at Maria and Paul's.
Julie playing ping-pong at Maria and Paul's with Raul in the background.
Ray with LITTLE Carlos and Lizzie.
The Brady bunch all together and all pre-marriage and kids!
Levi at the zoo with mom and dad.
Nicki with a huge smile at mom and dad's house.
Trino and Regina's wedding pictures.
Mom and dad's backyard blanketed under a layer of thick snow (which dad reminded me was in 1985 - the year he SAID I graduated - although I know I am MUCH younger than that).

And I could go on and on because this little photo doohickie held about a 1000 pictures - Sofie had long since finished her meltdown by the time I got through this thing. But...I was struck to the point of tears at how many pictures I saw of love, laughing, and hugging. It made me happy to be a part of our family. :o)

on the third day of christmas ed's family gave to us...

12 perfection pieces
11 fishing fishies
10 barbie pictures
9 scratching art pictures
8 piece baby puzzle
7 day shampoo and soap :o)
6 more days of playing with new toys!!!
5 year photo album
4 flavor popcorn yummies
3 piece winter hat set
2 coffee cups and 1 coffee thermos
THANK YOU!!! We had a great time. Enjoy the pictures. xoxoxo

Christmas in pictures!

Christmas Eve and Day pictures - enjoy!!!

Merry Christmas Eve and Day!

It was an awesome day! After watching Sofia and Malcolm in the church Christmas choir, we spent the evening last night with good friends eating tamales and Christmas cookies. Yummy. We've held that tradition for a few years and this year was no exception. Unfortunately we did not spend the day today with mom and dad. It's the first time in years we've not done that and it was a little strange and sad. But all went well despite that. :o) We spent the day playing with all the booty that Santa brought. Ed managed to put together Sofia's four foot dollhouse with no cursing and only one undo (as in unscrew and do again). ;o) That was a first. Malcolm played with his Lego land all day and Corina loved her baby doll. Once again our good friends came over for dinner. On the menu: ham, tamales, broccoli casserole, sweet potatoes a la me, mashed potatoes, and tummy yummies for dessert. Evening brought us a power outage. So much for getting the first good night's rest in DAZE. All the kids (after literally falling asleep in their chairs at 6:45) came running into our room scared. So...we ended up all asleep in one room - which inevitably leads to no one asleep in one room! ;o) Ah, well. It was a relaxing and delicious day. Maybe sleep will come tonight. Happy Birthday Jesus. :o)

Christmas fun!

The kids had a great time decorating the tree before celebrating Malcolm's birthday at Peter Piper Pizza, and they did an awesome job. Their wonderful Auntie O sent them gingerbread men kits and they had a great time doing that too. Today we spent the day at the Children's Museum after Lucky Ed won tickets for our family. Again, we had a great time. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera, so I have no pictures to share of that. ;o) Two days and counting...

Happy Birthday Malcolm!

Today was his actual birthday, but the celebrating started Sunday at Peter Piper Pizza. We let him pick a restaurant since he wasn't having a party. He had a great time with the sisters. Today he got to open his presents and take cupcakes to school for his classmates. It was with tears in my eyes that I told him yesterday, "Bubbie, this is the last day in your WHOLE LIFE that you will be six. ENJOY IT!" He, of course, did not understand the depth of that comment, and I think I understood it far too well. ;o) It makes me happy and sad that somewhere inside that big seven year old boy is the baby I had seven years ago.

It's not Mozart, but I like it.

Malcolm had his first piano performance. I was the only nervous one, and it was definitely a Proud Parent Day. It was yet another time I have marveled at my own amazing parents who remained enthusiastic and encouraging through their 10th child's (me!) achievements. All in all it was a memory filled day attended by his grandparents, his uncle, his aunt, and his very good friends.

If you've ever grumbled, "Practice makes perfect," you can appreciate that practice actually paying off. Malcolm did a great job on his four pieces... despite the fact that the performance was held at a mall... two weeks before Christmas, with really the only people caring in the slightest that a child was playing the piano were his relatives or friends! Thank you mom, dad, Ray, Lucy and the C's for being so patient and loving to be amazed and proud at a six year old plunking away at Christmas!!! ;o)

'Twas three weeks before Christmas...

Saturday we decided to overdose on Christmas activities with the kiddos beginning with breakfast with Santa. You will not see any pictures of the breakfast with Santa because it is difficult to get three children and one baby to all cooperate at the same time while trying not to break Santa's legs or tear his beard out. After consuming ten pancakes, three servings of sausage, two servings of bacon, four servings of eggs, three cups of hot chocolate, and two cups of coffee our family decided it was time to leave some food for the rest of the guests and we headed to our next activity - a life size gingerbread house themed after



The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Not fully knowing what to expect at the life size gingerbread house, I did not tell the kids much beforehand. They loved it, although Sofia was a little dismayed that she couldn't actually walk into Whoville and place the candy she'd brought onto the display. Yeah, I'm sure the pastry chefs who worked diligently for eight days would not have minded??? Corina wanted to eat it and Malcolm wanted to touch it.
It was really quite amazing and cool even for an adult who sometimes acts grinchy herself.
After Whoville we headed to Arts in the Parks which had art from the community and lots of Christmas art for the kids to do. The kids had a great time making Christmas cards and getting to use all sorts of glitter, ribbons, punches, and stamps. By the time we left Corina had ink and glitter all over her and they all had beautiful art to show for it. We ended our day out at Cheesy Janes. We had a great time celebrating and being with the kids. Aw! Well, this is still my family we are talking about...baby screamed all the way home from Cheesy Janes and after listening to her scream at home for an hour longer mommy had a melt-down and everyone was in bed by 7:00 p.m. ;o) Well, it couldn't all be perfect now could it? Then we would be the Cleavers.

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

December 2 (or is it the 3rd - who knows?)
TO DO LIST:

1. Make two fairly nutritious lunches.
2. Oops, finish yesterday's to do list.
3. Make breakfast.
4. Call a customer to figure out a decent mat.
5. Learn to say no when customers ask for outrageous mats.
6. Deliver prints.
7. Figure out where the hell I am delivering the prints.
8. Talk and play with Corina.
8. Oh, see I have two number 8s. That's no good.
10. Breastfeed Alaina.
11. Repeat 10 about 100 times throughout the day and be happy and joyous about it.
12. Talk to the other two kids I have given birth to.
13. Make lunch for remaining child.
14. Remember to load remaining child on the bus and greet her when she gets back home.
15. Make sure homework gets done.
16. Clean the cat litter so he does not go on the floor again (I am the only one that notices the cat poop on the floor, but still I feel he should not do this).
17. Clean the bathrooms, which have not been cleaned since before Thanksgiving.
18. Sweep the floor (see number 17 for time frame on the last time this was done) - although again no one but me seems to notice the food on the floor.
19. Prep for dinner, cook dinner, clean up after dinner.
20. Take Malcolm to piano and keep ALL the girls quiet during piano.
21. Bathe kids, read to them, say a prayer (either in thanksgiving or a prayer for more time tomorrow), and plop them into bed.
23. I know, I know. Stare at the half un-packed boxes of Christmas decorations on the landing.
24. Make the deposit from Monday.
25. Buy an advent wreath since we can't find the one we own.
22. Begin number 2.

Smile and say vomit!

Christmas cards with a beautiful photo of the well mannered children dressed in color coordinated outfits appears not to be in the cards for the DLCs. After two Starbucks cups of Hill Country brew coffee I was feeling pleasantly smug about actually having found four coordinating slightly Christmas (but not crazy) clean outfits for the kids, dressing them, and being fairly on time to church. Our plan was to attend Ed's church as a family for the first time in over nine months ( a whole other post entirely) and then take our Christmas photo. ("Plan" being the operative word there.) Corina vomited all over her red dress not two minutes from church. Ugh. It may be another year before we can pull off a stunt like coordinating clean clothes again - let alone attending church on time as a family. Ugh.

Thanksgiving

I am thankful for family, friends, and Honeybaked Hams. Hope everyone had a blessed holiday!

Close to my heart...

I would be remiss if I did not mention my dad since we celebrated Veteran's Day this week. I read on Pam Machu's Facebook wall that Eddie (her husband) is her favorite veteran. I liked that. My dad is hands down my favorite veteran. I remembered him and his service this past week. My dad is one of a select few living WWII veterans. His story along with his service makes me so proud of him (well, that and the fact that he's my dad!). He was born in 1916 in Aguas Calientes, Mexico. He crossed the border into this country when he was six. He grew up in Michigan, and he was drafted along with so many other men to serve his country in WWII. He was injured in the Battle of the Bulge and received a purple heart. He is an amazing person, as I am sure are many of the veterans. I love you, dad and I hope you had a great Veteran's Day.

Malcolm's star student week came to a close yesterday. It began and ended amazingly well with only one Dysfunctional Family Moment midway through - I put the "Favorite Song CD" (after Eddie frantically made the Favorite Song CD the night before with assistance from Jamie - we always seem to do everything with assistance from Jamie!) in Sofie's backpack instead of Malcolm's. When we went to double check the location of the Favorite Song CD on Favorite Song morning alas it was "missing." This caused our Star Student to wail down the driveway as I am pushing him, "I'M NOT GETTING ON THE BUS WITHOUT MY CD. WHERE IS IT? IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT MOMMY. THIS IS NOT FAIR. YOU ARE THE WORST MOMMY!" As I am screaming back, "GET ON THE BUS!!!" He most definitely did not look like a star student nor I a star mommy. ;o) The kids figured it out at school (along with their amazing teachers) and Malcolm had the CD back by 8:15 a.m. Gotta love those teachers. Which brings me to the end of Star Student Week.

I missed teaching for a fraction of a second when I went to Malcolm's classroom to be Star Student Guest Reader. I read If I Ran the Zoo by Dr. Suess. Which is decidedly not PC. Ah, well. Still a great read. All those bright, smiling faces made me remember why I became a teacher. I had a moment...but then quickly recovered.

Lastly, my dearest Sofie who was largely ignored this week of Malcolm - Star Student made another of her profound statements that make me love her from the deepest part of my heart. After sobbing through the extremely sad reading of I'll Always Love You (not to be confused with I'll Love You Forever) - a story about a boy whose dog dies - she said, "Mommy, I want our whole family to die together so we never have to be without each other." Okay, so once you get past the Jim Jones nature of this comment you gotta love her. I can see the wheels turning in that deep, deep thinking mind of hers and it makes me sad and happy.

So...(if you are still reading God bless ya and do something useful for God's sake) I say good-bye to Star Student Week with Malcolm, Sofie, and my dad having touched my heart and made me happy (and a little sad).

Malcolm, star student?

Those of you who know Malcolm know that he can be quite obtuse. No, really? Well, he was star student this past week and amazed me even though I've known him for six years. He did an awesome job on his work only once commenting, "Mom, being star student is hard work." Quickly followed by, "But a lot of fun." He did all of the work by himself (resulting in a lot of phonetic reading, but hey, if you can't do that, what can you do???), and did not complain once. Thanks to his dad's political pull he was able to meet and be photographed with our district 7 rep, a state representative and a former mayoral candidate. And he did all this without totally embarrassing his mom by like picking his nose while shaking hands or something. I am blogging this so that later (like when he gets home from school in a few short hours) when he is whining and complaining about, oh, any number of things I can read this blog and remember how happy I was with his behavior only hours before. I am going to try to post pictures of his adventures with Mikey - the star student bear who travels with the star student during their weekend being star student. Enjoy and try to remember these pictures when Malcolm is torturing your children at the park.

OMG I have a blog

Well, I have a blog. Not sure what all that means for the future of America, but this could be big. I am typing with one hand, feeding the baby and listening to Corina do God only knows what upstairs. Hmm. And I have time for this?