Talking to a 6yr old is always an adventure.  My 6yr old, Ryan, got home from school and was in a very chipper mood.  He told me his teacher was sick and one of his best friends is now on Club Penguin.  For some reason these things made him very happy. Here comes the question I was expecting..."Can I have a cookie?"  Followed by a statement I wasn't expecting at all..."I didn't eat any boogers today."  Wow!  Didn't see that one coming!

Part of the reason I feel I am done having babies is the broken sleep.  It really takes its toll after a couple of months.  If I get a couple of 3hr+ stretches, I'm fine functionally but it is still nothing like getting 6hrs or more of straight sleep. Anyone who has the urge to tell me how to train my baby to sleep through the night or brag about how theirs slept through the night at 3wks, please don't.  We have chosen our method of sleep adjustment with our babies and it worke...

Well, it was time to do the annual "deocrate a bzillion Christmas cookies".  My mom made about 2/3 bzillion and I made the rest with the help of the boys and they and my niece frosted and sprinkled for about an hour straight while Ashley looked on from her high chair.

Here's our darling 4 month old, Ashley Grace, sitting on Santa's lap for the first time.  Big brother Alex helped coax the laugh.

Here is the beautiful birth announcement my sister did for me.

Today turned out to be a bit more stressful than I had hoped.  I simply planned to take my baby for a picture with Santa at the mall and then mail a Christmas package at the post office.  So I had the baby all dressed up and ready to go and got a call to pick my son up from school because he wasn't feeling well...here we go. At least I got an appointment with the pediatrician right away but they didn't have anything informative to tell.  They said he is probably coming down wit...

Many of you have requested to see a more recent picture of our baby girl.  This is my first time attempting to post a picture.  Usually I rely on Brad for this sort of thing but he has been very busy lately.   

I think we are all guilty at one time or another of claiming we don't have time for something.  Sometimes there literally is no time if it is a task that has a deadline.  But in general, there are things in life that we always claim we don't have time for that, let's face it, we just haven't made a priority.  Now I'm not saying these things that we don't prioritize aren't things that we would like to do.  I'm sure we would all like to exercise, call our friends, scrapboo...

My baby girl has been keeping me up during some very low times lately.  No matter how sad I'm feeling, one look at her smile and it warms me back up.  She reminds me that there can always be happiness even when it doesn't seem possible. She reminds me that I am needed and important.  She needs me to feed her, change her, comfort her and sometimes just smile at her.  She reminds me that dreams really can come true and that we need to be thankful when they do. Don't get m...

After school today I had to take my son to the store to get a birthday present for a friend's party he will attend this weekend.  When we pulled into the parking lot we saw a bunch of tents set up by the entrance of the Target store and we wondered what it was all about.  When we approached the store we were able to read a sign that read "PS3 on sale tomorrow.  Line starts here". Apparently each store only gets 12 game machines and people have been camping out since Wednesday m...

I grew up just South of the U.P. of MI.  I saw a lot of snow and crazy ice storms growing up.  Last weekend I experienced something that not only I but my parents had never seen in all their years, Thunder Snow. We were right by Lake Michigan and kept hearing forecasts of 5-9 inches of snow for that evening.  That really wasn't a surprise since we were used to getting snow storms at any time especially this time of year.  That night got really weird though. I was at the...

Even though the small town rumor mill says so, my friend fighting cancer has not been given a death sentence.  The talk about town is that she was told to "get her affairs in order".  I do, however, know many people who have been given that time frame for life. So my question is, would you want to know?  If so, what would you do with that knowledge? I wouldn't want to know.  I have always lived my life in a way that those I love know it.  I don't strive to jump out...

Thursday 11/2 I got news that has changed my world.  My best friend since the 4th grade found out she has colon cancer and that it has already spread to her liver.  I was in total shock and disbelief when she told me. She is my age, her children are my childrens' ages; she can't have a life threatening disease!  I can't lose a friend that has been there pretty much my entire life.  She is such a big part of who I am today.  This can't be happening to her! Of course...

Has anyone else out there been plagued with itty bitty fruit flies?  If so, how do you get rid of them?  They are everywhere in my house and are annoying the heck out of me! I don't know if they came in with my apples, bananas or tomatos.  It doesn't matter now.  I realized the were attracted to and drowning in a glass of wine that had been left out so I have placed it away from the kitchen hoping to kill a bunch of them.  It's a start.  They seem to be everywher...

Hi All!  Just so you know, I'm still around.  I just rarely have both hands free long enough to do anything other than the absolutely neccessary stuff like cooking, cleaning, etc. Our baby girl is 7 weeks old now.  She is growing like crazy and is starting to goo and gah and smile.  Her nighttime sleep habits are still pretty random.  She is alert more during the day now so I'm hoping that will translate to more sleep at night. The start of the new school year alon...