Sarcasm At It's Best

Josh is a professional sarcastic charmer. If he sees someone with an obnoxious hot pink mowhawk, he will tell them how awesome they look. If someone cracks a joke that is totally lame, he will tell them how marvelously hilarious they are. I just heard him talking to our neighbor outside. I only heard his part of the conversation which went, "AWESOME! AWESOME! You are so smart. That's why you're in college." I was laughing to myself so hard that I had to share! Don't worry though. I have sarcastic charmer radar and can let you know if he's practicing it on me or you or not.

Spring Cleaning and Christmas Photo Shoot

I have family coming for Christmas, so the things that get neglected are being wiped clean. Today I cleaned out and wiped down the fridge. I love having a clean fridge. It only happens about once a year, I'll be honest. The oven and bathtubs are currently soaking in Easy Off, which is why I'm sitting here for a little rest. Next will be the kitchen cabinet doors and I need to reorganize the pantry and cabinets so everything won't fall out on top of my family when they snoop in my kitchen. Josh has been doing a bunch of honey do projects outside all on his own without my nagging. Right now he is hanging the Christmas lights and singing so loud with his MP3 player that I can hear him clearly. So, let me get to the point of this post.

My friend, Lindsay, took pictures of our family for our Christmas card mail outs/Afton's 18 month photos. I am very happy with them! She does a great job and has a Christmas deal going on if you haven't had your family photo done yet. Go HERE to view our photos. Now, off I go to spray down some cabinets (oh, AND I cleaned the oven vents. They were gross!)

Hello Dolly! (Open with caution, LAUREN!)

My friend, Lauren and I did a crafty swap. She crocheted some hats and flowers for me and Afton while I made some dresses for her daughter's little mermaid/human doll. It took a while with the MANY interruptions, but I am finally finished. This doll is VERY curvy. I'm not used to sewing for such a well endowed subject, so there was some trial and error. Here is the result...

Now I can cross that off my list and start on my next few projects...

Remember, Remember the End of November

Goodbye November. We're looking forward to a better month, PRETTY PLEASE!! Afton went to the hospital again from Turkey Eve to Black Friday at noon. Asthma again. We'll be going to a lung specialist to hopefully prevent this from happening again. We are busy. We are tired. We missed quality time with family from out of town. We need NORMALCY! Bring it on December. Oh wait, it's December. I have something written in on almost every day of my planner. At least December will be a fun kind of tiring experience. I like fun. Here are a few fun times we managed to have over the past couple of weeks:

Ayden taking a picture of himself. He always finds the camera and surprises me with his candid shots.

Getting messy with the tree.

Our family tree (before Josh trimmed it-hee hee!) for Ian's class.

It was Josh's idea to use the leftover Halloween candy for ornaments and presents under the tree.

Affie and Annie...Quite the duo.

Ian and his dump truck.

The indoor park during the school break when we thought we'd have a nice long relaxing week.

Little did we know.

School Visits

Every Friday at the end of the day, Ayden's class has "Fun Friday". In order to participate, the kids have to finish all of their work. This Friday was Ayden's turn to bring the snack. Along with the snack, he was the meeting leader. For the meeting, they discuss problems they had during the week and help each other solve them, share "AHA!" moments (something they learned that they didn't know before), ask each other questions, then the kids get 20 chances to guess what the snack is.

I searched online with Ayden to find a Thanksgiving themed snack and he chose this turkey:

The best way to transport her was in Afton's stroller. The kids thought this was hilarious. I think I scored some brownie points with his schoolmates ;) If you want to give it a go, here's the link.

The day before, Afton and I went to eat Thanksgiving lunch with the boys at school. The boys were so happy to have us eat with them. When Ian got home that afternoon, he told me he cried because he wanted me to be there. I saw other kids getting upset when their parents left. This special lunch time is a teaser for the poor kids! Now we are free from school for a week and daddy's off work too. WOO-HOO!!!!

*Off the subject: my serger is here and I bought lots of thread to get started!!*

The projects are lining up!

As soon as that serger comes in the mail, I'm going to figure it out as fast as I can and make this:

I also found a tutorial on making little girl leggings out of t-shirts. I love tutorials on the internet!

I'm going to be working a lot through Afton's naps and after the kids go to bed.

I might have to start a separate blog for my projects so I don't bore anyone who could care less about my crafts. Watch out female family members, you might all be getting one of these for Christmas!

An Early Christmas All For MEEEE!!!!!!!

A serger. Oh, yeah.

Roid and albuterol alert!

Here's a happy, IV free Afton after a rough couple of days.

Explanation: Thursday afternoon at 3:45pm Afton achieved a new milestone by climbing on the toilet, opening the wall cabinet, pulling out her hairbands, UNZIPPING the bag-that I thought was safely stowed away, and swallowing three of those tiny bright colored death traps. I heard her coughing and found them in a puddle of mucus. Immediately following this incident, she began coughing every minute and was struggling to breathe. As soon as the boys got home (about 5 minutes later) I packed them up, brought them to their Aunt Robin's-Josh was working that night-and raced to the ER. This one was not a pediatric ER, like the one I always go to when we have our routine ER visits, and was a big waste of time. They did a chest Xray, listened to her breathing, and sent us home saying she was fine. That night, she/we didn't sleep at all. She had severe labored breathing and Josh was concerned that she might have pneumonia. We made it until 8am, then went immediately to the pediatrician. I told them my concerns and we were sent to the hospital with the primary concern of rubberbands in her airways and a possibility of walking pneumonia. Oh, I almost forgot, she was also immediately vomiting everything she swallowed. The first and most scary thing that they did at the hospital-well, after the IV which took only two tries instead of six like when she got her tubes in her ears-was a bronchioscopy (little tube with a camera that goes down the throat and through the airways). They had to put her under for the procedure and we couldn't be in there, so we had to sit and try not to worry after they told us all of the worst case scenarios of the procedure. BTW: Josh was with us and was able to give her a father's blessing. The boys were at school. Sooo, they found no rubberbands, but DID find infection and her airways were swollen. They immediately started her on a steroid and antibiotics. Josh went home to get some rest before the boys got home from school. Up until this point she had been super lethargic and just whimpering. After some rest we had a visit from her daddy and brothers. She was given a breathing treatment and medicine for her fever. Once everything kicked in her system, she went into HYPER SPEED! I spent the night chasing behind her with the IV cart. It was tiring, but hilarious. Those roids had her ENERGIZED! She kept singing "E-I-E-I-O! Duck! Quack, quack!" and of course, she kept talking about Ian and Ayden. Around 9 or 10pm they suctioned out her nose with the super powered mucus vacuum, she got MAD, then passed out until 6am. WOO-HOO! She got some much needed sleep, but I did NOT. Her IV machine beeped at us all night, and the respiratory people kept coming in to give her breathing treatments. It was rough for me, but she snoozed through it all. Saturday morning, she had improved tremendously, so we were able to go home!! The first thing we did was BATHE! Then we got her prescriptions filled and we all took naps, except for Ayden. Late that night, my friend, Lindsay came over so Josh and I could go out to eat. We were SUPPOSED to go to a wedding that would have taken up most of the afternoon, but the short dinner date after the boys went to bed was a good enough break. On Sunday, I stayed home with all of the kids for Afton's obvious reasons and for the boys to have some quality time with their momma and sissy. Afton is like a crazed chimpanzee. She even sounds like one. She's driving us bonkers, but we're glad she's on the mend. She's still wheezing some, but hopefully that is on the mend. We'll have a follow up visit on Wednesday to know for sure. So there you have it. That's what we've been up to for the past few days and that is the life of Josh and Stacy with three asthmatic children. If you read through all of this, give yourself a pat on the back.

Daylight Savings Time

This morning I will have my yearly visit to the OBGYN. Good times. I got out of bed only 20 minutes after the alarm went off. I got myself almost completely ready for the day before the morning madness would begin when Josh came in and broke the news, "You do know it's only 6:00, right?" OF COURSE I DIDN'T KNOW THAT I WOKE UP AT 5AM BY MISTAKE!!!!! How did I manage to change all of the clocks except for the most important one: the clock that wakes me up in the morning. UGH! This might make my morning better, since I will have so much extra time. Probably not, since I didn't buy any Diet Dr. Pepper yesterday when I ran out because I want to quit. This is probably my sixth attempt. I usually last about one day. Lack of sleep+lack of my DDP=tired Stacy with big headache. Here we go...

Already Missed a Day

No post yesterday. Big game. LSU beat BAMA. Enough said.

Ian's First Field Trip

Today I went with Ian on his very first field trip while Josh kept Afton. We went to see the musical "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie" then played at the City Park. He LOVED riding the bus for the first time and kept saying, "I wuv this field twip." When we got back to school, I hung out for a while so Ayden could enjoy his hard earned "Fun Friday" that he has only been able to do three times now. *Being a first grader has been a difficult transition for him. We think/hope he's getting the hang of it.* Anyway, I read a fun turkey book to Ian's class and enjoyed watching him and all of his schoolmates (3-5 year olds) interact. Then I walked across the hallway and observed Ayden's class for about 30 minutes. It confirmed for me that we made a good choice putting our kids in the montessori program. The kids can do their work together and have no assigned seating, yet are still respectful and independent. I was a proud mom today after a very rough week of parenting. TGIF!!!

You Want A Daily Post? You Got It!

Please tell me I'm not the only person who will spend HOURS on finding the perfect something.

This morning I needed to make a chart for Ayden to keep track of his daily work he completes at school to get him more motivated. First, I went to Lowes. I wanted a magnetic chart and of course it had to look crafty, so I searched for galvanized steel and magnets. I ended up with $40 worth of magnetic paint, chalk paint, and heavy duty magnets. I purchased all of this with crazy plans of painting a wall somewhere in the house to create a work station for the boys. Something that would take so long, by the time I would finish, Ayden would be graduating high school. I decided to keep shopping and headed to Walmart. There I found a pre-made magnetic dry erase board, day of the week magnets, and magnetic paper with a self adhesive side. That meant I had to go BACK to Lowes and return my previous ridiculous purchase. I STILL had some hope of finding cool galvanized steel and stopped at a small hardware store with no luck. I forced myself to go home. When Afton went down for her nap, I got busy. I decided to try cutting the magnet paper with my cricut machine and IT WORKED! I was able to make perfect little circle magnets with different colored papers and even little festive turkey shapes. I'm proud of the finished product, even though I wasted my morning in the search. At least I have a good result, right?

Wish Me Luck!

I mailed off my first headshot/resume to apply to be an extra in "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn." We'll see what happens.... The one above is the one I sent in the mail. I also emailed two pictures late last week, because I'm not sure what this particular casting director prefers to have. The requirements said either one, so I did both to hopefully have a better chance of being chosen. I have no idea what the deadline is or when they will start making calls, so I jump fast every time the phone rings and I don't recognize the number. Now is a good time for telemarketers to get the best of me:)

The "No" Face

This kid has no problem expressing her feelings.

This is her "No!" face. I'm so happy I caught it on camera.

This face forms and lingers for about 2 full seconds after she says "NO!"

By the way, I'm posting something every day for the NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). Brace yourselves!

Halloween Weekend

Friday night. October 29th. Second official double date with the Mangums.

Location: the Myrtles Plantation.

Thanks to Aunt Odie for the hook ups and the eerie tour. She's the best tour guide BY FAR!

Robin was Asian, I was Emo, and Josh was Josh.

Mr. Mangum scared away all of the ghosts with his manliness.

Count the orbs. We were surrounded by the ghosts of the Myrtles (or maybe just some dust particles reflecting the light from the flash-you be the judge. OOOOOOOH!)

Saturday evening. October 30th. Location: Church parking lot. Trunk or treat party. I forgot my camera. Lame, I know. We had a blast. Our trunk won. Probably because we have an outlet converter and had orange lights strung around and I used a vampire dress and that lovely red wig pictured above and made a creepy floating ghost "OOOOOOOH!!" If I ever get pictures from other peeps that thought ahead enough to bring their cameras, I'll fill you in.

This was taken when we got home from the church party. Afton is very fast and efficient with removing the wrappers from DumDum suckers. She had 6 opened and was going for more.

Sunday night. October 31st. Trick or treating. Location: our street and connecting neighborhood.

Company: the Mangums, the neighbors, and the Voelkels.

Our annual picture with Frankenstein down the road.

The posse too lazy to walk.

At first Piglet was scared to go up to people's houses.

Once she realized that candy was involved, she cheered up.

Our neighbor friend down the street hooked us up!!

Doesn't he looked thrilled? He's saying, "Cheese" with his husky Eeyore tone.

Um, the wagon didn't move and inch.

Cuteness.

Daddy pulling his little girl, surrounded by spirit orbs or dust?

OOOOOOOH!

Happy Halloween 2010!!

Perk of being a parent of a child with nut allergies: free reign on all of the Snickers, Reece's, Butterfingers, M&Ms, etc...which I will partake of in 2.5 seconds!!

Want To Keep Your Kid Busy?

Get some Indian corn and tweezers. Have your child pull each kernel off one by one and put them in a cup. This builds the muscle strength needed for writing and keeps an energetic child like ours still for a LONG time. Woo-hoo! I would recommend this for ages 3 and up. Ayden's Pre-K teacher did this for his class (3-5 year olds) last year and they all loved it.

That's his serious, "Look how cool this is" face.

Ian wanted his picture taken too.

One more random picture: Daddy dressed his girl yesterday!

Life Lately

Life is good. The weather is great! I've been up to a lot lately volunteering at the boys' school, teaching a friend's ward how to make hairbows, teaching our Young Women how to make chiffon flowers, making myself a dress,

pampering myself with a motive,

(I'm applying with a few agencies to be an extra in movies being filmed in BR.

My friend, Lindsay, took my headshots. You can see more HERE. She did great! I bartered with her by making my delicious apple crisp for her to eat and NOT SHARE with anyone. Thanks again Lindz. )

having some Halloween fun,

(I took the kids to "Boo at the Zoo" by myself and survived. Ayden is Bumblebee but blends in like the Predator, Ian is Buzz (again) and Afton is the cutest little Piglet EVER!)

(The boys had fun with my Goldilocks wig and other costumes we took down from the attic.)

hosting the latest book club,

(I personally invited Stephenie Meyer to join us, but she was a no show.

At least I can say that I was stood up by her, right? AND we had the biggest turnout in book club history, and a great discussion on the "Hunger Games" trilogy.)

going on a road trip with some friends,

and that's all on top of the ole routine of being a momma (lunch packing, homework, housework, lah-dee-dah. Meanwhile, Ian has learned how to pedal his bike, Ayden has grown tremendously with his reading and math, Afton has become a busy little curious chatterbox and we can understand her jabber now.

While the boys are off at school, Josh and I really get a chance to focus our energy and love on our little bugaboo Afton .

Phew! How's that for catching up on the ole bloggity?

Rockabye-bye

Something sad happened today. The big garbage truck came and hauled off our glider that rocked all of my babies for 6 years. The other night I was rocking Afton and every time we went backwards, the back of the chair would crack and recline farther, and farther, until I was lying flat on my back and had to sit up before it went even farther. Oh what a hard piece of furniture to say goodbye to. She served us well.

Now another goodbye story. Over the summer, I would put our plastic pool under the swingset's slide and the boys would slide and splash for hours and create a massive mudbath. Toward the end of July I left the pool out for at least two weeks b/c of summer heat, rain and vacations. When I finally made my way out there to dump it out, I discovered dozens of tiny tadpoles. I couldn't bring myself to kill all of those froggy babies, so I decided to let them grow into frogs which the boys would love to witness. They started growing little legs and I noticed that we had tadpoles of different ages and stages. After about six weeks it was turning into a tadpole hatchery and I was tired of worrying about Afton falling in the pool, AND (yes this is a massive run-on sentence) I was hosting a playdate at my house with lots of toddlers the next day, so I captured every tadpole and transported them into a bucket. We made it a family event to bring the tadpoles to the ditch down at the dead end of our street. It turned out to be quite the adventure.

Look closely and you'll see them around the edges...

Here I am ready to pour the babies into the ditch/creek while watching out for live snakes because I was standing on a snake skin. GEW!

(I didn't know that Josh was taking pictures.)

During the playdate the following day, one of our little friends saw this tiny toad inside the top pole of our swingset. There are two of them in there, and I have no idea how they got up that high. I'm so happy that we have two little friends to hang out with after saying goodbye to the many many others. We said a little prayer that our babies will be safe and smart and hide from that snake or any other potential predators in their new home. I'm a little scared to go visit them though...We'll have to bring a weapon of some sort. Maybe a pitchfork?

Three kids looking in the same direction...MIRACLE!

My sweets.

Sweet 16....Months

Goodbye baby Afton and hello toddler terror! This little girl packs a big personality around with her. Her mood is never a mystery, that's for sure. She has discovered how to climb Ayden's ladder to the top bunk, and can climb from our dining room chairs to the table. The problem here is that this girl is not careful about it. She falls all of the time at ground level, so you can imagine how crazy she's making us with these new heights. Video footage of her SASS and climbing coming soon...

'Tis The Season

This week I was in a sewing frenzy.

I made three dresses and completed a fourth that I haven't taken a picture of yet.

You'll see it on Annie-the birthday girl-soon!

The bottom picture is the only one made from a pattern, the top two are Stacy originals.

For Afton (above)

For a friend

...and my favorite-which I would buy if I saw it in a store-for Afton.

This is for church with a slight hint of LSU fever. Each dress cost me about five dollars, bringing it to a grand total of $20 for four dresses and just in time for the start of the season!! I think it might be time for me to start looking into black and gold material.

**For all of you family members with girls older than Afton, I apologize in advance for not making dresses for you in the past. This is a new skill of mine, and I can make it up to you, if you wish and if your girls will still let you put a dress on them.**

***Yes, the dresses are hanging on a golf caddy. It's not like I'm trying to sell them or something.***