snacks

tonight, all the babies were in bed and bill and i were wanting a snack. i popped some popcorn and added some yummy parmesan cheese on top, and bill settled on some chips and dip. it never fails, though, ella kate can smell popcorn from a mile away! so, sure enough she started knocking on her bedroom door to let us know that she smelled popcorn. she followed bill back into the kitchen and asked him what he was doing. he told her that he was making himself a little snack and she responded with, "well daddy, i would love for you to come and sit on my bed with your little snack!" she is so funny, and although bill didn't go and sit on her bed with her, he did share a few chips with her and sent her back to dream land:) i love my family!

more bath time fun!

so.. while bathing the babies today, i see two brown pebble looking things at the bottom of the tub! miley hasn't pooped in the bath tub in a while.. after all, she is 14 months old now!! i turn to get a cup to scoop them out, but when i turn back around i see that miley has one in her mouth! nasty!! maybe she had mistaken it for a tootsie roll?!?! i am bound to win mother of the year for that one!

also, while in the tub josiah somehow managed to get a big scratch on his cheek. i asked ella kate what happened to him and she said in a funny voice, "i didn't hit my brother! i don't know what happened to him... bless his little heart!"

more pics from christmas..

this picture cracks me up! you see, i cut a chunk of my finger on the broken glass of a picture frame on christmas eve. i probably should have gone to get stitches, but the ER is the last place i wanted to be on christmas. so my dad and sister lauren took good care of me by cleaning it, putting medicine on it and packing it. but eveytime they would change the gauze, i would get real dizzy and light-headed and would want to faint, so my dad would make me go lie down on his bed so he could change it. ha! when he and lauren were done, the 3 of us snuggled up together to take a quick nap while no one else knew! a few minutes later, my sister erin opened the door and saw us all laying there and decided to hop in and join us. a few minutes after that, ella kate was looking for me, so we pulled her up in the bed with us. THEN, a few minutes after that... bill was looking for everyone and opened the door and saw us all in there and took this pic:) and just in case you wondered, no nap was ever taken! ((yawn!))

these next ones were taken the day after christmas at my uncles lake house...

my dad and ella kate

miley lovin' on my grandma, baba!

some one was wanting to play peek-a-boo on the way home:)

christmas!!

we are beyond blessed!! our christmas was perfect! the babies got WAY too many presents, and we all ate WAY too much yummy food! bill's family does their christmas on christmas eve, so we all went to his mom's house to eat and open presents, then after we were done, bill and i took the babies to my parents house where my sisters were and we all spent the night. it was so much fun! the babies don't sleep near as good as they do when they are home and in their own beds, but we stuck it through and made some great memories:) ella kate was so excited about all of her presents.. she took the wrapping paper off of one of her presents and just saw a plain cardboard box and said, "oh! this is what i always wanted!!" she didn't even know what was inside yet.. sweet girl:) and josiah was so excited to get his "buzz year" (buzz lightyear), some puzzles, and trains. miley got some real cute things too, but she is too little to express all of her excitement just yet:) although, she is VERY fond of all of ella kate's baby dolls and a puppy dog purse that bill's mom gave her... she keeps trying to sneak it away from ella kate, but is not quite fast enough:)

how cute is he?

look at my sweet josiah! he is getting so big:) i love him...

bill took jos and ella kate to see"lights of the south" with his parents, sister and her kids. i stayed home with miley b/c she has had a fever all week and been extremely fussy:(

bill said that the babies LOVED the christmas lights and had the absolute best time. josiah even sat on santa's lap. ella kate, on the other hand, is completely terrified of santa! she will talk about him and loves reading stories and singing songs about him...but wants nothing to do with him in real life. she sees him from a distance at the mall and the fear sets in! she is also like that with chuck e cheese, but she calls him "pbs kids":) no matter what his name is though... she will not get close to him. although bribery works for ek, and she managed to give santa a quick hug for a small candy cane:)

i got a starbucks giftcard in the mail yesterday, so i decided to load the babies up in the car and get a frappuccino. we pulled into the drive thru and josiah said, "momma get drink at stah-bux?" :)

tonight while the kids were in the bath tub, bill was acting silly. ella kate smiled up at him and said., "daddy, you done lost yo' mind!":)

also... at my mom's house this week, she had gotten the babies cute little toy lanterns. they were red in the shape of santa claus. ella kate liked hers, but said "i really wish i had a pink one!" my mom told her that the only lanterns the store had, were these red santa ones. ek's response then was, "well santa can make anything, so im'a get him to make me a pink one!" even though we dont play up santa, she still believes:)

funnies..

my parents had a cat, oscar, and recently had to get rid of him. the babies would talk about him, but weren't really attached to him, seeing as though he was completely psycho and skiddish and would attack them at any given moment! but he was a sweet cat... really, he was! anyways.. back to the story! so, they gave him away and one afternoon ella kate and i were going to their house to bake with my mom and yaya. ella kate in the back seat says, "i can't wait to see mimi, poppa and kitty cat oscar!" ((oh! i just remembered when ella kate was younger she would say titty tat oscar! haha!))anyways.. i told her that oscar wasn't with mimi anymore, and that he had to go to a new house and he has a new mom and dad! she sat there for a minute and said, "do they have a dog?" me: "no! they dont want a pet anymore." ek:"wait a minute! mimi and poppa only has people?? maybe santa will bring them a baby or child?"

josiah was having a difficult time obeying me one afternoon, so ella kate took it upon herself to handle the situation. she walks up to him with her hands on her hips and says, "that's it 'siah! you're on the naughty list!"

on the way to mother's day out one morning, i asked the babies "who wants to go to school?" ella kate and josiah both raised their hands and said, "ME!!!!" seconds later, miley raised her chubby hand and said, "MEEEE!" too cute!

gingerbread houses and more..

bill LOVES the christmas season and everything that goes with it! last year, he made gingerbread houses with ella kate and josiah and he couldn't wait to make another one this year!
bill knew that he and ella kate could make THE perfect gingerbread house, but was worried that josiah would mess it up and make it tacky! how rude:) so he made josiah his own house made out of graham crackers and he and ella kate had the cute store brand house to decorate!miley enjoying some candy:)

ta-da! they were so proud:)

notice the "polar bears" (teddy grahams)... those were ella kate's great idea:)

also... when we finished, ella kate said, "i can't wait to show mimi my gingerbread house! oh, and i'ma need to call nonny and tell her, too! her LUBS(loves) gingerbread houses!!"

i'm tired and it is only 2pm!!

this has been a pretty eventful day for us so far! we woke up early (well, it was 7am... but that is early to us! )to a LOUD, explosive boom outside our house. our whole house shook and the power went out. it was still dark out, but all 3 of our babies sleep with box fans in their rooms to help drown out any other noise, and with our power out and the LOUD boom, they all woke up SCREAMING! i jumped out of bed and looked out our window and saw the electric pole across the street was shooting sparks and popping pretty bad, then a little ways down i could see where the pole had snapped in half and was dangling in our neighbors yard. ella kate kept asking us if our house was going to die. where did she think of that? bill had already left for work, so the 4 of us huddled in front of a window and watched the "fire works" until the fire truck came.

when josiah first saw miley this morning he cupped her face in his hands and said, "d'shoo go ni-night bay my? i so prow you!" (did you go night night baby miley, i'm so proud of you!) he can be such a sweet boy... but it was way too early for miley so she hollered at him and swatted his hands off her face:)

with our power and cable cut off, we loaded up and drove to pick up baby eve, then headed to my mom's house to play. while in the car, ella kate points out every christmas decoration she sees! her favorites are the manger scenes! "hey look momma! a baby jesus burse! (birth)" we must have seen a billion "baby jesus burse" from our house to mimi's! when we got to mimi's ella kate and josiah were so excited to see all of her decorations. we just saw them a couple of days ago, but every time we come back over it is like they are all new again. however, ella kate is not very fond of mimi and poppa's tree. she tells them, "it isn't a christmas tree, it's a santa tree! christmas trees supposed to have stars on top!" and my parents have a cute santa topping theirs.. oh well!

josiah spots a reindeer and gets so excited saying, "hey wook! a caribou!!" i guess kids learn more from baby einstein videos then we think:) after the excitement of all the christmas decorations died down some, all 4 of the babies made their way upstairs to mimi's play room. ella kate doesn't like being up there by herself when all the grown ups are still downstairs. however, the other 3 babies could care less if they are being supervised. but ella kate is a persistent little booger, so she stood at the top of the stairs and calls out, "hey mimi! you need to come up here wiff us! there are no big mommas or mimis up here wiff all these children!" she cracks me up:) sure enough.. she got her way and my mom and i will have to catch up on adult conversation another day!

so now, we are back home and i laid all 4 of the babies down for a nap. i am going to take advantage of the quiet-ness and the fact that our power is back on, and curl up on the couch with my yummy frappuccino:)

random bits and pieces..

did i mention that a certain curly-headed little girl recently went to school with straight hair? she looks like a completely different kid!

also, this same little girl stared at our cashier lady at wal-mart and said, "your hair is all in your face... i don't like it!"

and note to self: if you have firewood outside, keep it out of aim from your male basset hound who likes marking his territory! we lit a warm, toasty fire last night with some of the logs on the bottom of our pile and now a day later, our whole house STILL smells like dog pee!

what is it with my kids having "hard days". ella kate woke up in the middle of the night crying and said, "daddy, i'm just really having a hard day!" we think that she means she had a bad dream... but who knows! also, when i got onto josiah about him misbehaving, he poked out his bottom lip and said, "i hard day, momma!" so, apparently my kids have it rough:)

we love big piles of leaves!

every thanksgiving growing up, my sisters and i would jump in piles of leaves at my sweet grandma's house. we did this every year up until recently:)

now ella kate, josiah and miley will get to carry on this tradition... which they LOVE! bill made a huge pile by our house and all 4 of them had the best time playing:)

interview with a 3 yr old..

ella kate is growing sooooo fast! well, actually.... they all are! it makes me so sad:(

tonight, ella kate got the bathtub all to herself! hooray for her! the little 2 were napping, so i took this opportunity to spend some one on one with my big girl! we talked and laughed... it was so much fun! i asked her some questions like this:

me: ella kate, what is your favorite color these days? (like i really needed to ask:) )

ek: pink and purple

me: what is your favorite food?

ek: NOODLES!! oh, and cookies! i really like to eat cookies!

me: who is your bestest friend?

ek: MOMMY!

me: what is your favorite toy to play with?

ek: mermaids and barbies

me: where is your favorite place to go?

ek: i like to go on the paff (path) where snow cones live, wiff (with) yaya! (we haven't had snow cones since july! but lauren was always to one who took us!)

me: who is your favorite person to play with at school?

ek: mrs. hope! (her sweet teacher!)

me: who is your favorite princess?

ek: mermaid and sleeping beauty! (this is so funny to me, because we dont have any of the princess movies, but she knows who they all are! we do have tinkerbell which i LOVE, but princesses are still her favorite!)

me: what do you want for christmas?

ek: a mermaid girl that gets in the baff tub, and a mermaid umbrella!

big boy bed!

well, folks... we are down to only ONE crib!! hooray!! josiah has been in his big boy bed for a couple of weeks now, and has transitioned PERFECTLY!! sweet boy:) he has not once gotten out of his bed or woken up in the middle of the night! he has always been our best sleeper, and i was so afraid that this "new found freedom" with a big boy bed would totally ruin his sleeping habits... but i was wrong! he has yet to get out of his bed and play with his toys... praise the lord! we tuck him in at night with a few books and special pillow, and he basically is in the same position when we get him in the morning:) i remember when we transtioned ella kate, she would climb at her window and look at everyone driving by, or she would pull out ALL of her toys and baby dolls, and one time i caught her riding her big wheel around in her room! crazy girl...

i am sure that josiah will eventually learn that he can get down, but for now... he is still our angel boy sleeper!

more decorations..

while josiah and miley were napping this afternoon, ella kate got to help bill put up the inflatable decorations outside that we borrowed from his mom. ella kate thought that she was hot stuff having such "cool" things in her yard. she kept saying, "wow daddy! i just can't believe it!" i can't wait to see josiah's face when he wakes up and sees them. he LOVES "mickey nouse"!

get in my belly

tonight bill, my sister lauren (yaya) and i took the babies to target to get a few things. ella kate loves yaya and loves target, so she was a happy girl. on the way home, after yaya had gotten into her car, ella kate starts saying, "i love you, yaya! i love you!" i told her that yaya was in her car now, and couldn't hear her anymore. but she looked at me and said, "momma, i am talking to yaya in my belly." i looked back at her and said, "what?" and she smiled and said, "yaya is in my belly and god is in my heart" :)

pink flamingo

josiah is so cute!

today in the car, josiah was talking about pink flamingos. the way he says it is hilarious, and everyone always laughs. i will have to get a clip of him saying it soon and share it with you. he is napping right now, but maybe when he wakes up.... anywho! after we all laughed in the car at josiah, ella kate says, "hey momma! 'siah is so cute! maybe we can tell dr. nafan (dr. nathan, our pediatrician) that 'siah is so cute, and dr. nafan can take 'siah home to his house! isn't that a great idea??"

i don't know how she thinks of this stuff!? i know she really does love him, and they had a really good day together today, too! no arguing or fighting at all! but in the back of her mind, she is brainstorming a way to get rid of him! don't worry though, josiah is staying with us:)

decorating the tree

the babies had a blast decorating the christmas trees this year. we have a normal tree, then the babies have a little tree that they can enjoy! it was so cute hearing ella kate and josiah talking to each other about it. i plugged the babies tree in and ella kate said, "whoa! that's amazing!" i wish they were dressed a little cuter for the pics, but hey... we were lounging that day, josiah was sporting his turkey hat and ella kate was loving her hot pink chap stick!when we decorated the big tree, we put miley in bed and let josiah and ella kate stay up and help us. they thought they were big stuff... getting to stay up late and eat cookies! they were hilarious! ella kate only wanted the pink ornaments and put them all in the same spot. josiah didn't care which ones he had but he also put them on the same branch. then, i asked if he could be the helper boy and pass the ornaments to daddy to hang up high and he said, "sure!" he would get the ornaments and give them to bill saying, "here's ah' one for yoooouuu! and here's ah' one for yoooouuu!" too cute! then bill asked ella kate if she wanted to put the star on top and when he lifted her up, josiah ran away saying, "i be wight back!" he came back with the little star topper from their tree:) he wanted to be apart of the star topping experience..cute boy!

the holidays begin..

trying not to sound too much like scrooge over here, but if i am honest with you, i am ready for the holidays to be over! they remind me too much of my sweet nonny who passed away in august, and it is too much and too hard right now. every year, my family would spend thanksgiving and christmas at my grandma's house, and now that she is gone, it just doesn't feel the same. however, we ended up going to her house for thanksgiving this week but it was hard. really hard. my aunt still lives there, so we wanted to see her and spend time with our family. i hadn't been to the cemetery since her funeral, so since we were in town, we swung by there on our way to her house. i know she is gone and i see her name on the stone, but it still doesn't seem real. i honestly thought that she would live forever.. i needed her to live forever. these past couple of months have been so hard. i didn't realize how much i needed her in my life. i needed her encouragement, her advice, her love, her jokes, her laughter, her voice... i just needed her! there are people in our lives who can impact and change us in ways we never thought possible, and my nonny was that for me. she loved me and cared for me more than anyone else ever has! she has been the biggest cheerleader and support system for me and bill and was rooting for us when we felt all alone. she was so proud of ella kate, josiah and miley and she loved them all equally! no one got extra special attention, they were all her pride and joy:) when we pulled up to her house, i took a deep breath and braced myself. i knew it was going to be hard. ella kate knew where we were and started squealing in the back seat. she immediately asked where nonny was. nonny was ALWAYS on the front porch waiting for us with her apron on. man, i miss her! i absolutely love her house, though. it reminds me of a fairytale cottage, tucked away in the woods.... lots of trees and flowers, lots of birdhouses, lots of finishing touches of nonny! my dad built it for her right after my grandad passed away 30 years ago, and my sisters and i have always loved it. growing up, we would spend weeks at a time with her at her house. it was always so special. but not anymore. as soon as i walked into her front door, i had to walk back out. it wasn't right. it wasn't nonny's, anymore. now, don't get me wrong... i absolutely love my aunt and love spending time with her and my cousins, but i wanted to go home. while we were there, i got something so bittersweet. nonny was sewing us all patchwork style christmas tree skirts as a surprise christmas and finished them all before she passed away. my aunt had found them and gave me mine and i LOVE it! it is my absolute favorite! it doesn't exactly match my decor or would have been something that i would buy, but it came from nonny... and it was something that she made for me! and for that reason it is the best present i have ever gotten and i will keep it and use it forever!so, back to thanksgiving... i have been so blessed and have so much to be thankful for! i am thankful for my salvation and for the salvation of my family! i am thankful for bill and how he completes me in every way! i am thankful that we have 3 beautiful, healthy babies... that we have not tried to have:) i have so many friends who have struggled with infertility, and i am thankful that i am a fertile myrtle and do not know what it feels like to "want" a baby... because bill basically sneezes on me and we get pregnant:) i am thankful that my family is healthy. i am thankful that my parents are believers and love the lord and love each other, i am thankful that my sisters are my best friends, i am thankful that the lord blessed me with giving me nonny for 25 years. she has changed my life and i will forever miss her!

blah..

why can i not be consistent with this blog?? it's not like there aren't hilarious and crazy things happening in our house everyday that i would want to share with everyone... it is just that i can't find the time to write, or if i have the time to write.. i usually end up doing laundry or showering or catching up on facebook....you know the important stuff:) so, i'm sorry! i really want to get back into the groove of this blog thing!

but i will leave you with this:

tonight in the bath tub, ella kate was wanting to rinse her hair under water but couldn't stretch out because miley and josiah were in her way. so she huffs and puffs and says, "momma, i need to go under but there are too many children in here!"

have you seen a cuter baby?

look at this sweet face! our smiley miley is so sweet and so much fun! i know that i always say it, but she really has been the best little booger:) she is 13 months old now, and her personality is starting to bloom more and more! she now looks at things that are off limits to her chubby little hands, and says "no!" for instance, she will get right next to a bath and body works wall flower plug-in and point at it saying, "no, no, no!" and she is starting to use her manners, with a sweet little, "tay-tu" (thank you) when we hand her something that she wants. she also likes to "hi" and "bye" to people we pass.. she is just so fun! when we pick up ella kate and josiah from mother's day out, she starts squealing and kicking her legs with excitement! i love it, because ella kate and josiah are both just as excited to see her and baby eve after school! josiah likes to kiss them both, and ella kate always tells them how much she missed them! these are some sweet times... crazy times for sure.... but sweet just the same:)here are is another pic of the babies tonight while waiting on bill to come home from work. they look so big, miley is walking (not constantly, but she can), and josiah is pulling ek in the blocks wagon. ella kate wanted me to take her picture tonight by herself... look at how long her hair is!! i tried to take josiah's picture so he wouldn't be left out, but he would have none of it! so.. i will have to try and get a cute one of him next time!