Happy New Years!!!

Today we took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese. It was the boys first time. They had a blast! Then Michael took the 3 older kids and my 2 nieces (first time for them in the snow)... SlEdDiNg!!! They had SOOOO much fun! Olivia just wanted to keep going and going and going. Probably because she was able to ride back up the hill on the sled while everyone else had to walk.

So it is New Years Day tomorrow. Time for resolutions. I am only making ONE. It centers on Health. I will become HEALTHY this year. I have mapped out some plans on weight loss and financial health and spiritual health. We will DO this in 2008. So that is my resolution this year... to concentrate a lot more on ME and become healthy all around.

Happy New Years everyone!

One of the coolest parts of living in Iowa...

Michael and I were able to go to a Town Meeting for Hillary Clinton this morning. We sat about 20 feet from her, 3 rows back from the stage. It was one of the coolest moments of my life. Living in Iowa, we have the opportunity to "caucus" instead of "vote" in the primary elections like you do in other states. For the past several months, we have had opportunities to go to these town meetings for all the different candidates. It is an amazing experience to be able to be so close and hear them speak firsthand about the issues they want to address if they get elected.

the boys are crawling all over me and not making this easy to blog, but I do have some pictures I will post later.

Let it Snow....

One of my favorite quotes applies to both situations today... having kids home for winter break AND getting 7 1/2 inches of snow (and counting!) since this morning!

"Cleaning up when you have kids is llike shoveling snow while it is still falling."

Can I get an AMEN mamas'?

EDIT: Melissa... I did something to my blog and my background went away. AND msn is not working today so I cannot even get into my account except through internet explorer. I can read my email only (no addresses are showing up so I cannot email you), can you explain to me how to change the background to how it was??? PLeaSE????

3 down 2 to go....

Goodbye baby stage... goodbye Dr. Brown... we are s-l-o-w-l-y saying good-bye. Early for my children too. We are down to 2 bottles now. One at night before bed and one in the morning when they wake up. The boys will only drink water in their sippy cups. So I am still giving them 2 bottles a day to get the milk in. We offer them milk in the sippy cups at meals. They get water during the day and at night. Nicholas is sleeping through the night now. Thomas was getting a bottle in the middle of the night. Last night, Michael just put the pacifier back in his mouth and he went back to sleep :-) WOOHOO!! 18 more months of diapers and cribs and then BYE BYE BABYHOOD... the Cryer Circus is moving on to bigger and bigger kids! I am NOT a big fan of the baby stage. I have been changing diapers, had a child with bottles or pacifiers or at least one not sleeping through the night for 8 1/2 yrs straight now. I am ready for the break!

Treasure....

I decided to check the vents on the floor that the boys seem thrilled with. I found TrEaSuRe!!!

8 Pokemon cards
13 pencils and pens
4 crayons
keys
CD's
a shoe
a paintbrush
some Little People
diaper cream
a sandal
hair barettes

Wow... no wonder they were hollering when I was cleaning it out. They had racked up a mighty awesome treasure!!!

Yucky Christmas is more like it!!

Sunday Night I took the 3 older kids to the movies to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. It is a GREAT movie!! I highly recommend it! It was around 10 degrees, cold and wet. I already had the sniffles. Sunday night I was in bad shape. I stayed in bed till this morning only getting up long enough to make some cookies with the kids and open gifts yesterday morning. Michael did an amazing job taking care of the kids and the house while I was down. I still want to be in bed, but Michael had to go back to work today, so I am reluctantly up while the kids destroy all around me. I could care less! LOL The place can be cleaned when I am well.

The kids loved everything they received. I was really proud of them this year. They did not have the "I WANT!"'s. This was the first year we really focused on what this season is really about. With me in bed, I did not do a lot of the things I wanted to do. But they had fun and spent lots of time with dad, which is great.

And I took NO PICTURES :-(

Michael bought me 5 books that I LOVE. Thankfully I was able to spend plenty of time reading while in bed. Reading is a passion of mine. I love it!

I hope all of you had a great Christmas!!

My parents will be here on Friday. Emma turns 7 on Sunday. Life is moving so fast!

Merry Christmas Everyone.....

I am going to stay off the computer until the 26th to spend some time relaxing with my family. Michael is off work until then. We had another ice storm that was THE craziest thing I have ever been through. It started off as rain, then went to freezing rain, then sleet, then snow and now wind. Gusts up to 40 mph. It is CRAZY! All churches are cancelled. I am sure stores are open though since it is 2 days till Christmas!

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL holiday and remember the reason we celebrate it!!

Much love,
Debra and family!

Today....

Twins are sick AGAIN! WHY do I take them out when I KNOW this will happen? We went an entire week without a runny nose. That has been all since the beginning of October. i don't know if I should take them out and get them exposed to germs or keep them in to stay away from them. It is mostly Nicholas. Poor little guy just wants to stay in my arms.

So today we are BAKING. Yes, I have given in and become, a baker . Next to laundry, I think cooking is a waste of time (not to mention cleaning up from it!) You can get all the nutrients you need from a slice of bread, a chunk of cheese, and fruits and veggies. NO clean up needed! Or cereal. You can even get the ones with nuts in them for protein! LOL But I have given in since my kids have decided they love to bake. We have been baking our own rolls, bread bowls for soup, cookies, etc... So here are some fAbUlOuS recipes I have found on http://www.allrecipes.com/ this morning. Every one of them has cream cheese in it. Find out why here.

Peppermint Pie

Philadelphia Sugar Cookie Cutouts

Simply Sensational Truffles

Hmmm... I better go see what the twins are up to. One of them just brought me a candle (not lit, just for decorations, that I had on our formal dining room table! I know where the other one is now!

Square Peg in a Round Hole

Sometimes I feel like this... I just don't "fit" into society, my social world. Sometimes I feel SO far into my "own" world that I forget others do not think the way I do. We tend to surround ourselves with people like us. So when you venture out of that circle of friends (whether blogging or in real life), you feel so out of place.

Ie.. large families. Why do people look at me in amazement when they find out I have 5 kids? Do they think I am some kind of supermom? I am just like them, only more kids under my feet. I still have stress, I still don't get a shower daily, I struggle with parenting and how to teach my children.

Then there ARE the issues of having a larger family. Larger homes, larger vehicles, larger pots and pans, 2 hotel rooms when traveling, etc...

I guess I just need to stay in my "world". LOL! This is too much to think about with what little brain function I have left! LOL

Tooth has to come out....

Yep, I will have TWO children who have had their front tooth pulled because of falls. I feel like a bad mom now. Thomas's tooth has a 1 mm fracture in it. It comes out on the 9th of January.

I just started a blog....

on couponing and deleted my other one. I hope you check in often for new posts on the latest "finds". You should see what I "bought" today for FREE!

Crazy Coupon Mama

(also see link on sidebar)

For all you candle lovers out there....

Just got back from another successful Target shopping trip. Here is another great deal:

Glade Flameless Candle!

Target's sale is Buy one for $9.78 get a $5 gift card.

Use this coupon. It is a BOGO one. So here is the rundown:

$9.78 Candle
$9.78 Candle

-$9.78 BOGO coupon

You pay for one @ $10 with tax
get $10 in Gift cards back.

Do it again in a second transaction:

2 candles
1 BOGO coupon

use your gift card to pay the $10 amount
get $10 back in gift cards!!!

Also, the coupon above prints out with a $2 off a refill. Well Target has the refills on sale for $2.50 each right now... so the refills are .50!!! Use the $10 gift cards you have left from above and you will get 4 candles with 2 refills for $10!!!

You can only print 2 coupons. That is the usual limit. Look on the candles at Target. 2 of mine had coupons for free refills when you buy the candle. So you may be able to get more!

these would be great gifts for the Christmas Holidays!!

More info on Huggies coupons....

I have a couple more scenarios for you if you did not want to buy coupons off Ebay and just wanted to print out the Target Web one.

Buy one tub of Huggies $2.29 and one travel pack .97. You will end up paying about a quarter for both. If you cannot find the travel packs in the wipes section, look in the beauty aisle where they have travel size items.

Laura, the diaper deal I posted, it will be the same for the Huggies Pull ups. You just need to wait until they go on sale. I am pretty sure it will be before the coupon is up. It has been a few weeks since they have had one. They go in cycles.

I just printed out a BUNCH. It is a good thing I have 5 kids. This coupon IS one per transaction. So you will have to use one, take your stuff to the car and go back in to use another one. I just give my kids the items, the coupons and some cash. They each use one. And I go about two times a week to Target lately to get the free cheesesticks (going on 200 now!! LOL).

Just call me the crazy coupon lady! LOL

Sit down for this coupon tip.....

For all you mamas out there... this is better than my Huggies wipes I bought for .32 each!!!

Print out this Target coupon for Huggies products.

Then go to Ebay to purchase the other coupons you need.

This is the deal:

Huggies Wipes:
$2.29 times 2 = $4.58
-3.00 Target Web Coupon $3 off 2 Huggies products
-.75 off 1 Manufacturer wipe coupon
-.75 off 1 manufacturer wipe coupon

=.08 plus tax

YES... NO JOKE... Two boxes of wipes for less than a quarter

RUN.... you HAVE to do this deal. I plan on stocking up for as many as I can get! I bought 40 coupons so far. I bought 60 coupons in all for $5.95

This also works on the Bath products. You can get the coupons for these off ebay too.

Huggies bath Wash

$2.79 times 2 = $5.58
-$3 Target coupon
-$1 Huggies Bath and Body Coupon
-$1 Huggies Bath and Body Coupon

= .58 for BOTH plus tax.

I bought 20 of these coupons.

YIPPEE!!!

Target also runs really great diaper sales on the Jumbo package. This Target Huggies coupon CAN be used on them also. Since it does not expire till mid-January, wait for one of their sales. They are usually $7.50 for the jumbo or they will run a special buy 3 packages of Jumbo size for $8.50 each and get a $5 gift Card. Here is the example:

$7.50 times 2 = $15
-$3 Target Coupon
-$2 Huggies diapers coupon
-$2 Huggies diapers coupon

= $8 for 2 packages of Jumbo size diapers

Then submit the receipts to Caregivers and get $1 back per bag of jumbo diapers you purchase. They are really fast in mailing you your check.

HTH! I know it is going to help us!!!

10 Facts I've never shared before...

I was tagged by my newest blogging friend over at Crazymamaof6. I have to list 10 things about myself that have never listed before on my blog.

Here goes nothing:

1. I really do not like being a Stay At Home Mom. If I could make Michael's salary, I would switch places in a heartbeat. I am just not good at this "job". I do not have the patience to do it well. I used to. Maybe I am just burnt out and overwhelmed.

2. I've talked before about my Post-Partum Depression. I've talked about how bad it is, but never how it honestly was. When I was pregnant with the twins in the first trimester and off my meds, I would have to go with the kids to the mall or someplace where there were people so I would not harm myself. It was really bad. After I had the twins, we had to hire help because I could not be left alone for very long. My thinking wasn't right. I was on so many meds, a couple of them were anti-psychotic ones. I don't think Michael knew how bad it really was, because I never told anyone just how close I came to ending it all on so many occasions. I am off all but one now. I will probably be on that one forever.

3. Ok.. this will tell you all what a dork I am. When Michael and I were going to get married (it was a 3 hr drive to the Temple), we were on the FL Turnpike. We stopped at one of the service centers. He pulled up to this section where water would squirt on your windshield. I traveled that roads hundreds of thousands of times and never knew about it. So when we pulled up, I said, "well they honestly don't want you to park there!". Yes, I am a DORK! LOL

4. I am a native Floridian, 3rd generation. I guess it does not matter since I live in Iowa now though. LOL It is RARE to find a naive Floridian though. And even MORE rare to find a 3rd one. My boys are 4th generation natives. Extremely rare.

5. I yell... a LOT.

6. I really, really love to read.

7. When I start back at college, I would LOVE to get a PhD in psychology so that I can help women who suffer from Post Partum Depression. I would love to counsel, start support groups, etc... But I doubt this will ever happen because I am "supposed" to be home with my kids.

8. I am a very responsible person. To my own detriment sometimes.

9. My favorite color is lime green!

10. My first car was a Camaro with T-tops. I SO loved that car!!!

Ok.. so there it is. Some were painful, some were embarrassing! And all were very hard to come up with! LOL Now I get to tag some of you! What you have to do is list 10 things you have never confessed before on your blog and then come tell me so I can check them out!!

Here are the people I am tagging:

Arizona

Shannon

Melissa

Carrie

Stacy

Have fun ladies!

Happy Days....

Emma loves snow!!
Olivia my model!

This child LOVES containers. A child after my own heart.
Nicky... I love this photo. He has such a special spirit.
Thomas.. loves hats and scarves.
ONE chair is left out in this house and they find it!
Yes, the line inbetween the twins IS snot. Ewwww....

These are some of the pictures I have taken recently. No pictures of Joseph because he is ALWAYS at his friends lately. I miss him :-(

I have the cutest, most adorable, sweetest, lovable kids any mother could ask for!

I am glad ALL of them are MINE!!!

Also I want to add... I just started a blog about getting my family out of debt. I lay it all out on the line so be warned before going if you'd like to join us in the journey. I have seen a lot of people blogging about this journey and feel others can help build me up as I build them up. I put everything on there, including totals, so if you are not comfy with that, don't click on this link! LOL

EDITED to add: My new blog is not as bad as it sounds. I took the totals off and just am listing my debts and then writing which ones I am snowballing. We follow Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover. Except, it is a longer process with a large family. So I am blogging about the ups and downs.

Ponderings...

At church, Michael and I are in the Family Relations class during Sunday School. We have the BEST teacher and the BEST class members. I think it is going to take us longer to get through the manual because we all open up and discuss the topic so much we cover 1/2 - 3/4 of the lesson for the week. We have been learning SO much.

On Sunday, we were talking about Family Finances. Which of course includes tithing and debt among other topics. Right now this is a hard subject for me because of what happened with our house in FL and the situation it has put us in. Sometimes I feel like Michael and I are lacking faith. Do we just pay the tithing and then when we have no food in the house, let the Lord provide? How completely SCARY that would be to me. Not knowing that my children have food they can depend on. Do we pay tithing and only pay the debtors what we have and say that is all we can give you and ruin our credit? So we are either robbing God by not paying tithing or we lose our high credit rating if we do pay tithing. We either live the commandment by paying tithing or we pay the debt each month and sin.

Usually I do not like to lay out our financial troubles. But SOMEONE out there has had to go through something that can give me some wisdom. I REALLY REALLY REALLY hate not being able to go to the temple. I miss going there every month. I miss the rejuvenation it gives me. I miss the strength it gives me to make it through another day. It will be 4 yrs from this month before I will be able to go back there. It makes me cry just thinking about it. 4 more years of missing that closeness with my Savior that you cannot get anywhere else in that way.

I am not doubting the choice we made to move here anymore. It WAS and IS the right decision. It was the Lord's will for us. He could have made it easier for us, but this life is not supposed to be the easy life. I know that. This is something that just happened to us. It is not like I ran out and put tens of thousands of dollars on our credit cards on friviolous things. I had twins and had to sell a house in a bad market. I am working my bum off to spend money wisely and to cut costs to run this large household. I would SO love a family vacation, to buy a new coat for me, to get the kids what they really want for Christmas instead of what we can get by with, but I am working hard to get us out of this as fast as we can. Somehow I STILL feel like I am failing Heavenly Father. I feel like I am letting him down. I just do not feel close to Him anymore because of this. And I don't know how to get back to where I used to be with him.

Oh and we talked to our bishop. He said he has never been in that situation before and gave us a container of wheat. Hmmm....

Answers to Prayers...

I read a GREAT article yesterday in the December Ensign called "We Let Them Learn". I have been praying for an answer to my issues with the 2 older kids not being helpful and not setting proper examples in my home for our younger 3 children. Some key points in the article that were answers to prayers were:

1. Eventually, we learned that pushing them—“do your homework,” “clean your room,” “do the dishes,” “take out the garbage,” “mow the lawn,” and so on—generated feelings of resentment and resistance.

2. We needed to develop greater self-discipline.

3. We had already learned that the buds on our rose bushes would unfold into beautiful blossoms if we planted them in ample sunlight, kept them free from weeds, appropriately nourished them, and carefully trimmed them. So we began arranging situations for our children where they could unfold on their own. While this approach may not be equally successful with all children or in every situation, it proved to be effective in our family.

Somedays, I feel like a NAG! I have to remind each child to do the simpliest things such as hang up your coat, etc... It is ridiculous at times! Like I don't have enough to do. For the rest of the night and I today, I started noticing MY actions. I don't always hang my coat up on MY hook! Sometimes I put it over the couch if I am going to go out later. Sometimes its on the highchair. Oh MY! What an eye opener! Children really DO learn by example.

Michael keeps our room pretty much clean, but my counter where I keep my papers (and everyone in the family PILES things on there too!) is a MESS!! Piles and piles of papers and stuff. How can I expect the kids to keep their things tidy if I cannot keep that counter and the rest of the kitchen picked up? How can I expect them to respect my work on all the dirty laundry I clean and fold for them, if I leave dirty laundry laying around in piles everywhere in the office?

This has been an eye opener for me. If I cannot live by a routine, if I cannot pick up after myself during the day, how can I possibly expect a child to?

So, I am working on MYSELF right now. Getting into a routine. Picking up throughout the day. Showing them the value of work. This will be hard. I will have to reserve some computer time for after they are in bed. I will have to clean during the day and have the evenings to myself to scrapbook, have "my" playtime at night, instead of doing this stuff during the day and letting the house go till they are asleep. It will take some behavior change on my part. I need to become "Mom".

Here goes nothing!

Hot Coupon Wednesday....

First, I want thank everyone for wishing me a Happy Birthday! It is hard to believe I am in the mid-30's range! Yesterday, Michael took the day off (after much whining from me! LOL) because of the snow day, but mostly because it was my birthday. I was able to have a THREE HOUR NAP! It was heavenly. I slept on the couch from 10-1. I slept through everything. I must have been tired. I slightly remember the kids showing me drawings during my nap, but I do not know if I was dreaming or not. :-) Michael braved the elements to go out get Harry Potter 5. It was a great movie! I am so excited for the 2 to come out. Though, I do have to admit, the movies are not as great as the books. If they followed the books and tried to include everything, the movies would be 4-5 hrs long. Which would probably please a lot of fans, but I doubt they would do something like that.

The reason for my title today. Every Wednesday I will post some new couponing tips. They will be for this week or the following week. Everyone asks how I do, so I will babystep you through it. Your grocery and household bill will not change for a couple of months until your stock pile grows. I started in August. My bill finally lowered this month by $50 a week. Angie asked if I spend the money on myself. Though I'd LOVE to, I have been sending my money to my smallest debt. I am following Dave Ramsey's Total Money Make-over (TMMO) plan. We'll be able to pay the boys medical bills off this February because of this. I am so excited! We can then start working on the FL house bill. Before I started TMMO, our food bill each month was $1200. Yep! We ate out a LOT. Now it is $660 a month. Of course we no longer have infant twins. That makes a BIG difference. My eyes are actually able to remain open enough to cook. LOL

Enough rambling... here is the one hot tip for the week. Remember we are babystepping this! Target has coupons on their website. Scroll to the bottom of Target's main page and you will see Super Target Coupons. Most of the time, regular Target stores will let you use them at their store if they have the item. Until 12/22, you can use the .75/1 (means .75 off 1 item) on all Kraft cheese products. This includes the string cheese, Parmesan cheese, cream cheese, shredded cheese, etc.... So this is my game plan:

1. Individual string cheese is .27 each. The coupon will adjust down to .27 automatically at the register. so FREE string cheese. We go through 48 string cheeses a week in our home. The expiration date on the cheese is Feb. So I added how many weeks till Feb and multiplied it by 48. This is how many cheese sticks I will get getting. I do not get them all at once, I get them 40 at a time until I have reached the amount I want to buy.

2. Kraft Parmesan cheese. We go through one of these a week. Here is the trick. At my store, they are 2.75. You can COMBINE a Target Store coupon with a Manufacturer coupon!!! Double savings! I found on Ebay, $1 off 1 Kraft Parmesan cheese containers. So that will give me one can for $1 :-) These have an expiration date of 2009, so I am going to buy about 52 of them. This will give me a years supply of it (which in my church is the goal - a years supply of the food you eat). Yes, I am outlaying $52, BUT I will not have to spend almost $3 every week, so I am saving $ 104 this next year on Parmesan cheese.

3. Cream Cheese... on Ebay you can buy $1/4. Until 12/31, the Kraft Cream Cheese is 2 for $2. So the cream cheese will be FREE when you buy 4 of them and use 4 of Target's coupons.

I DO have the room to store all this food. My half finished basement is where I store everything. But you can get really creative on where to store things.

Also, target only keeps their coupons up for 2 weeks, even though the expiration date is farther out. So join Hot Coupon World. Go to Coupon Resources and click on Coupon Generator. It will take you to the Target Coupons that are still good.

HTH! Ask any questions you might have!

Happy Birthday to me.....

Today is the day! I am 34 yrs old.

WOW.

And to celebrate, my kids have a snow day! Crap! , I mean, YEAH, me and 5 kids stuck in the house all day with no chance of going outside to play with friends because of the huge ice storm still making its way across the Mid-West.

Somehow I need to make it out to do my CVS run. Yes, I am crazy. But it is special day. Harry Potter 5 is being released!!! WOOHOO! I am so excited. What makes me even MORE excited is I have worked my magic with coupons and will be getting 8 jumbo size packages of Huggies Supreme diapers AND the HP5 DVD for $26.34 out of pocket. Dang I am GOOD!

Anyone know how to get a rooster to sleep past 5am? Thomas is up again at the crack of dawn watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, again. He is obsessed with Mickey Mouse!

SO - NOT - FREAKIN - FAIR!!!!!!!!

Guess who is going on a business trip to Salt Lake next week. Not ME!!! Michael gets to go for a couple of days. Do *I* get to tag along? NOPE! I have 5 kids to take care of. WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He has nights off so he gets to go to Temple Square at Christmas time (SO not fair!!!), SCRAPBOOKING stores (SOOOO sending that man with a list) LDS bookstores (again... with a list!), and I could have met Laura!

SO not FAIR!

Yoda I am...

Star Wars Horoscope for Sagittarius

You are superbly wise and have been known to spread your wisdom widely. You are impatient and pushy when people take your teachings too lightly. And your philosophical side always peeks through. Star wars character you are most like: Yoda

What Is Your Star Wars Horoscope?

I got this fun thing from Arizona's blog. Well I have to admit, I am pushy and impatient with my kids because they just don't GET it! They leave their shoes on the floor in FRONT of the shoe containers I have for them. Their coats are always on the floor in FRONT of the hooks. So yes, I get impatient with them for not following through on those things.

150th post!

I have some spare time since Seek and Destroy got me up at 5 a.m. so I thought I'd get this post started on. I cannot come up with 150 things about myself, so I am dividing that by the number of kids I have and coming up with 30! LOL

1. I am a convert to my church. I joined when I was 16. A friend from school introduced me. She is now inactive.

2. Michael and I only met 2 weeks before he asked me to marry him.

3. I served a mission for my church to Idaho.

4. I've lived in 8 different states. Florida, Nevada, Maryland, Idaho, Utah, North Dakota, Iowa, and Colorado.

5. Twins do not run in my family (they will in a couple of months though!)

6. My feet went from a size 10 pre-pregnancy to a size 11 by the time I was done having kids.

7. My parents have 5 girls. One sister has 1 child, one sister has 2 children, one sister has 3 children, one sister has 4 children and I have 5 children.

8. I HATE laundry. I can deal with any other chore but that one.

9. I love to shop at Gymboree for my kids.

10. I love to journal.

11. I just started scrapbooking.

12. I miss living in FL.

13. I have Post-Partum Depression and the dr's say will probably be on meds the rest of my life because I kept having children when they said to stop so it has forever changed the chemical balance in my body.

14. I LOVE Star Wars movies. All of them are fabulous.

15. I am the Co-President in my local Twins Club.

16. I am also a Brownie Girl Scout Asst Leader.

17. I am also the Brownie Troop's Cookie Mom this year.

18. Yes, I have a death wish. LOL!!!!

Ok, I am pretty boring so I am going to start listing some of my favorite things!

19. I love my new pots and pans. That is just one of them.

20. Love, love this make-up. I use this, then this, add lipgloss and eyeliner and I am good to go. I LOVE this brush.

21. I have pretty frizzy, fly-away hair since moving to Iowa, so I tried Garnier Fructis leave in conditioner and wow! Love it. And I love it more since it was free at CVS!!

22. I am a serious coupon shopper. This summer I bought 80 jars of Ragu for .32 each, 40 Skippy peanut butter jars for .54 each, 20 deodrants for each Michael and I for FREE, 40 travel size bottles of Edge Shaving Cream which the store paid me .01 to take them, 30 bags of Cheetos for .50 a bag, 20 boxes of name brand toothpaste for FREE, plus more.

23. I will never pay for Health and Beauty (HBA) products again.

24. I am a CVS addict. I get 6 prescriptions filled there a month. I use a coupon for each of them and get $25 gift card for each script. This nets me $150 a month. Even if I subtract the amount the scripts cost me I am making $69 a month. This month I used that money to buy Gameboy Advance SP games for my big kids for Christmas. Just this simple things gets me all my HBA for free.

25. I am learning how to quilt.

26. I lived in the same house from the time I was born till the time I was 21 and went on my mission.

27. I LOVE to be organized. Now if I could just train my children to love it too, I would be all set!

28. I am an early morning person.

29. I love being with other twin moms, because they totally get it!

30. I LOVE Jane Austen's books.

Ok.. More facts about me! I hope you enjoyed it! Now I am off to change diapers and start the day. We will have a snow storm this afternoon. YEAH! I think I will make some bread and soup today. Nice and yummy for a cold day!

Just BLAH...

I cannot get myself pumped up for the Holidays this year for some reason. Shopping was BLAH, gift wrapping was BLAH, decorating was BLAH. I just cannot get my heart into it. I think the reason is that Tuesday I turn 34. Yes, I know it is not like a mid-life oh my heck I am turning 40 type of birthday. Yes, I know I am still "young". Thing is I had a LOT of goals in my head that I'd have done by my 35th birthday and I do not have any of them done :-( I wanted to finish my bachelors degree. That is not going to happen. I wanted to have our food storage stocked completely. I wanted to have read the Old and New Testament, The Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price. And the Book of Mormon another time through. And I wanted to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I just do not see how I could get all that done in one year with my life. I guess I am just having an early mid-life crisis. It does not help that my birthday is 2 weeks before Christmas. We also will not be going to visit my parents for Christmas. BAH - HUM- BUG!

I did do something to brighten my day. Through Angie, I found Melissa. She did this wonderful blog header and background and side bar tags for me. She is so talented! I love it. Thanks Melissa!

Tomorrow I will post some recent pictures of my cutie pies. I have some really cute ones of them wearing hats and being silly. Hopefully I will have my motivation back.

Fun with Dad...

Michael decided to take this video during folding time while I was away at a scrapbook class. They had a blast with him!!

Also, here is a bread recipe I wanted to share. You can make dinner rolls or bread bowls with it. I have an awesome Chicken and Corn Chowder recipe that goes well with this as bread bowls. I make this as a double Batch (recipe is a single though) 2 times a week for our dinner rolls (if they last that long). The first time I made these, this is all the kids wanted to eat for dinner. LOL

1. Scald 1 cup of milk, then add to: 1/4 c shortening, 1/4 c sugar and 1 tsp salt. Stir until shortening is melted. Let cool for a couple of minutes.

2. Add to above 2 cups flour, 1 TBSP yeast, 1 egg (already beaten). Mix well.

3. Use either a mixer with dough attachments or knead by hand. You may need to add up to 1 cup of flour.

4. Let rise for at least 1/2 hr. Punch down, shape and let rise again. Cook at 400 for 8-10 minutes for rolls and 12-15 minutes for bread bowls.

Enjoy!

Kids for sale!

Thomas
Nicholas
Olivia
Emma
Joseph

I have 5 kids for sale. Taking bids. They do not fold their clean socks, nor put their clothes away. They throw their coat on the floor in front of the hook it goes on. Their homework is left on the dining room table and forgotten the next day. Can't seem to remember their lunchboxes either. They come with lots of clothes that you will have to gather as the girls think their floor is a hamper. The twins are very helpful in getting items you need from high shelves. You will get a 5% reward back in the form of melt-downs and backtalk when you ask them clean their rooms and 1% reward back in the form of yelling and screaming on all other requests.



Please leave bid in comment section. I will mail them out right before Christmas, so be prepared with gifts.



I am just JOKING! Just had one of those "WHY ME?" days!

C.H.A.O.S.

This stands for Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. Even though Michael and I cleaned the house yesterday, this is what happens when I try to get the 5 kids up and dressed and to school and an early dr visit all by myself. The problem was, we were so busy last night that we did not do our evening routine to get the kids all ready for this morning. Usually we have everything they need to get ready for the next day and go to school in a container that each of them have. This morning we were searching for warm socks, gloves, hats, etc... In 90 minutes this is what can happen to your house when you are not prepared! Again, I wonder, just HOW did my mom stay sane with 5 kids!! Thankfully the dishes are actually done, just need to de-clutter the countertops and put away groceries.

This weekend was C-O-L-D! We are alternating going on errands because of the boys. Michael went shopping this weekend for my birthday (a week from tomorrow) and I took a really great scrapbooking class. I will post a picture of the frame I made. It turned out great.

Off to pick up the house. Thankfully upstairs is clean and free from floor clutter!

Fun Christmas List...

This is running around in the blogging world. I got this from Angie.

1. Favorite winter beverage? hot cider
2. Fave Christmas candy? peppermint bark by Dove
3. Fave candy cane flavor? color? I like Life Savers candy cane candy
4. Favorite christmas cookie? sugar cookies with lots of icing
5. Favorite Christmas song? to sing? to listen to? Away in A Manger
6. Fave Christmas movie? New one... by Liken the Scriptures
7. Fave christmas story? The Savior's Birth
8. Fave christmas colors? green
9. actual color scheme for your decor? I do not really have a color scheme. It is whatever decorations we have. Mostly it is just kids stuff.
10. Fave christmas tradition? as a kid? with your own family? As a child it was dinner and gifts at my grandma's. I miss her so much! Now it is ordering pizza on Christmas Eve. OPening one gift on Christmas Eve (everyone gets new PJ's) and watching Christmas movies. Usually on Christmas Day, we all go see the latest kids movie. But since the twins have been born, we hired a babysitter another day during that week and taken the older kids. This year we are going to see Enchanted. Also, Michael and I open our gifts to each other after we put the kids to bed on Christmas Eve. It is too crazy for us to do it the next morning.
11. Tree topper? star? Angel? other? Angel
12. Christmas lights display?your house? to drive by? small bulbs? large bulbs? white? multi colored? simple? Griswald? Since we have always moved, I have not really bought a lot of lights for the outside. Now we are settled, I bought white icicle lights, a couple of 6 ft and 2 ft white light spiral trees, and a huge Nativity set. I love it.
13. fave holiday icon collection?? Santa? nativity? snowmen? Nativity.. this year my favorite is the Little People Nativity Set, because it keeps my boys out of MY stuff.
13.5. Christmas card? letter? picture? Usually I do a picture, card and a letter! LOL This year, a card and a picture with my letter online. I just did not have the time to fold 100 pages to stuff them in an envelope.
14. what is more fun for you White Elephant? or Draw secret Santa names? Secret Santa
15. Holiday budget? extravagant or low budget? what do you wish it was? Pretty average I guess. Each child gets 3 gifts from mom and dad and one gift from Santa. (I do not want him getting all the credit! LOL) This year I had a lot of Disney Reward Dollars from our move; so I went overboard. The other day I went through them all and thought, I do not want to pick all this up plus our other stuff daily for the next year. So I picked 4 gifts per child and took the rest to Toys for Tots. My scrapbook store is having a drawing for a $100 gift card. One entry per present. I hope I win! Is that bad? (I did not know about the drawing when I dropped it off... I swear! LOL)
16. Tree? real or fake? prelit ? Green or flocked? Fake. :-( Michael's mom sent us the tree they used when he was growing up. It IS a beautiful tree, but I miss having a real one.
17. best gifts are? homemade? or store bought? Depends on who it is from and what it is. I do not want homemade cookies from my husband! LOL
18. which is better in your opinion? surprises galore? or being sneaky and peeking? Oh, Michael and I can never hold out. We always end up figuring out our gifts early! LOL
19. do you do thank you cards for christmas gifts? Yes. I am a stickler for this.

It's raining, it's pouring....

I sliced my thumb. I am such a dork! LOL Michael and I received a set of knives for our wedding; 10 yrs ago in May. They were needing to be replaced. This weekend I bought a set of Chicago Cutlery knives. I did not realize how dull my old set was until now!! I was cutting up an orange for the boys to try to overload them on Vitamin C. Not only did I slice my thumb open, but I got OJ in the cut! I was feeling very faint from the blood loss so I had the kids run up to get Michael out of the shower to come help me. Thankfully it was not a deep cut though. It sliced a couple layers of skin off, about the width of a quarter. Ouch! While I was cooking dinner tonight, I kept my kitchen glove on my hand to keep the bandage dry. Joseph called me Anakin Skywalker. My son has Star Wars on the brain!

We had an ice storm today. Even after living in North Dakota, I have never seen weather like we have here in The Quad Cities. Michael was even commenting on it today. It was snowing ice. It was very interesting! I guess they call it sleet. I took the girls to the Scrapbooking store for a class. When we came back out to the van, my entire van had a layer of solid ice 1/4 inch think all the way around. I had to use my key to cut our way around the door to open it. Then I realized that I had not put my ice scrapper in the van yet. I used a cassette tape to clean the windows off. We went home and I am staying in the rest of the weekend!

Today we found the twins in the air vents, again. We need to get ones that have holes for screws. Michael was laughing in disbelief. Not me! I am used to those munchkins tricks! I do see light at the end of the tunnel though. I have taught the boys to sit at their little table for snacks:

Sometimes they stand on the table while they eat. This was their first time they sat down for the entire snack though. When Thomas finished, he brought the bowl to me in the kitchen and grunted for more. I think I need to teach him to sign (in my spare time! LOL)

Anyone else ever feel like this?

I love this song that I posted above. We have a sick, sick household. Thankfully everyone is well, except the twins. I have NEVER had kids who have had this many sicknesses. Never. The dr's have always told me that kids get 8-10 colds a year. Not my kids. Between the 3 older kids I can count on one hand how many colds (including ear infections!) my kids had before the twinswere born. Now, the twins have had colds for the last 6 weeks. They have been on steriods, antibotics, Tylenol, Motrin, etc... for what seems like FOR-E-VER. (I just thought about the movie The Sandlot... for-e-ver! LOL... see how tired I am! ) The boys went to bed at their regular time last night. Then they woke up at 10, 12-2 am and then up for the day at 4:30. Michael and I are beat. Just so dang tired. I feel so bad for the little guys. I am usually a person who can handle a lot of stress that life just brings into our lives naturally. Since having the twins though (they are not the stress), it seems like I cannot get ahead. I feel like I am just bobbing in the ocean and coming up just long enough to get a quick breath only to go back under. Over and over, round and round. All the stress from the pregnancy and the past year, have knocked me flat on my back. I WANT to recover from that. I just do not know how. I feel like Elastigirl! I just wish I had her body! LOL

McSicky's...

We've decided to change our last name to McSicky. Winter has just started and we have had sickness off and on for the last 5 weeks. At this moment, Nicholas has an ear & sinus infections, Michael and I have sinus infections, Emma has a head cold, and Thomas woke up this morning with a 102.5 fever. After 4 hrs of having Motrin in his system his fever spiked to 103.5. I am tired, exhausted, and ready to go to bed. Unfortunately, with it being 1:15, that is not a possiblity. We are heading out the door to the Chiropractor and the Family Doc to try to help Thomas. Poor little Jedi. First his tooth and now this.

Please keep us in your prayers.

We start them young here...

The older kids were playing Play-Doh in the dining room when Michael and I walked in found Thomas standing up on a chair with Joseph cape on him trying to eat the play-doh. Are you surprised he has a loose tooth?

My Jedi Thomas! The boys are obsessed with Lightsabers. Santa will be bringing them their own so Joseph can have his back.

Happy Birthday My Precious Olivia...

Today is Olivia's 4th birthday. It is hard to believe that my baby girl is 4 already. I remember the day she was born. I had gone in on a Monday night for induction at 38 weeks because I was so sick during her entire pregnancy. It did not work. So they sent me home for the night. We went back the next morning at 7am to try again. I finally had her at 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday. She had a little trouble breathing, but she was taken great care of. Daddy gave her the first bath she ever had in the hospital. Here is a picture of me and Olivia in the hospital: (this is a picture of the picture.. had her before I had a digital camera)

This one below is one of my favorite! She is about 6 months old here. She was the happiest and easiest baby I have ever had.

This one is when she was about 6 months old. Joseph was 5 and Emma was 3.

This is Olivia at about 9 months.

This one is Olivia in January of this year during our move from Florida to Iowa.

She is a fashion diva now!

And this is her last week at gymnastics:

Livie, Happy Birthday Sweetie. I love you so much!!!! Huggie, Huggie my Goose!!!! You are such a sweet little girl, such a great helper for mommy and daddy. I know you had to grow up so fast these past 2 years with mommy being on bed-rest with the twins and then after they were born. Olivia you bring such joy to our family. With all the craziness of your older brother and sister's issues and your younger bubbies activity, you are the calm in the middle that helps me to get through the day. What a great example you set for all of your siblings!! I love you sweetie!

-Mom

Things I am thankful for 2007

This is the second post today... so please don't miss my mischievous twins in the post below.

I try very hard to count my blessings as much as possible. It keeps me humble :-) and helps me to remember how blessed I truly am. Here are some of the things I am grateful for this year (in no particular order) :

1. My husband - we have been through some great times and some very hard challenges. We have stuck by each other through the good, the bad and the ugly (which was me pregnant with twins at 34 weeks! LOL). We survived many moves, financial hardships, living away from extended family, the twins pregnancy and first year, etc.. We will celebrate 10 yrs in May. If we can make it through these last 2 yrs, we can survive ANYTHING! I love him. He will send me to bed with the kids because I cannot hold my eyes open any longer. I will wake up to a home that is completely clean! Even the kids rooms. He is amazing, he is my strength. I am so thankful for him.

2. My children - each one of them brings happiness into my life. Yes, it is difficult and tiring at times raising them, but I love each of them and cannot imagine a day without all 5 of them being in myy forever family. They are such great examples to me.


3. My home - I am thankful for a home that is so big to fit our large family in. I am thankful for the warmth it provides us. I did not realize how blessed I am until last winter when we were in short term housing. The house had NO weather proofing done on the windows and doors. You could put a tissue in front of the door jam and the wind from outside would come through the crack and move the tissue. It was so cold in that house even with the furnace at 80 degrees. I am so thankful for this new home we have.

4. Schools: They can teach my children so well that when they get home, I can have play time with them!

5. Heat: It snowed yesterday. It is cold here. I am not used to this weather anymore. I am thankful for my furnace!

6. Technology: My cell phone that lets me be on the go, yet available for emergencies. My Mp3 player, so I can listen to all my music when I am cleaning and driving. My digital camera, so that I can take 35 pictures of my children so I will be able to capture that one perfect picture... and know it right away. My laptop, so I can take it anywhere. The internet, to stay in touch with family and friends and to meet new people who I have so much in common with so we can be there for each other! Ebay - do I have to explain? hehe.. to make money and to buy things frugally. My blog, so I can get out of writing Christmas letters this year! LOL And so that I can keep everyone up to date on my family without having to write everyone individually. I used to be so good at letters and such, until I had so many kids!

7. My washer and dryer: KUDOS to our grandmothers who washed by hand. Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he kept me back for these times!

8. Hair straighteners: my hair has been doing some pretty funky things since I was pregnant with the twins. Really funky!

9. Mineral Make-up: The best invention next to sliced bread I tell ya! I LOVE this stuff. Emma says it makes me look pretty :-)

10. Gates: *If* I can get them to work, they really help me keep the twinados contained.

Well, there are many more things, but these are the Top 10 that are helping me on a daily basis and that I am very thankful for.

I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL and JOYFUL Thanksgiving Day.

Caught!

I could finally catch a picture of them on the table. Usually my camera is too far away from where they are climbing. This is a hourly activity of theirs. They are obsessed with climbing.





As I am typing this, they were able to figure out a way to get out of the gated area I put them in. No place is safe from Seek and Destroy. I can say this from experience... the second year of having twins is equal to or more difficult than the first year. I am so thankful that kids are so resilent. I wonder if I should get them bike helmets to wear every day to avoid head injuries? I have never had a climber before. So moms, help me out here. How do I tame these Twinados? I took a Superyard gate and made an area where I could put them when I need to go upstairs or use the bathroom. They both worked together and have 1) pushed it to where they want to go and 2) learned how to flip it over, even when they are in it, to escape.

Any suggestions would be welcome! They are too young to discipline. I use distraction a lot. But I am worried for their safety and my sanity!

About time!

I thought it was about time I put Halloween pictures up since Thanksgiving is 2 days away. All of the M.O.M. who have survived the 1 yr old stage can understand why it is late. BRB.. ok I am back. The boys found the vacuum cleaner, unwrapped the cord and wrapped it around themselves. No place in this home is safe from Seek and Destroy!!

Here is Trunk or Treat 2007: Michael took the kids all by himself as I was busy with the Twin Club's Rummage Sale. Unfortunately I did not get pictures ON Halloween night. We were able to get go trick or treating 3 different times. We had an insane amount of candy!! We had over 400 trick or treaters come by on Halloween. We ran out of what I bought, so we ended up using some of the kids.

Costumes this year:

Joseph : Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

this was at a friends house right before Trunk or Treat. She created a Haunted House in her basement. it was SO cool!

Emma: Corpse Dead Bride (from that movie with Johnny Depp),

but she would not wear make-up!

Olivia: Each time we went Trick or treating she had a new outfit. LOL Barbie Princess, cheerleader, and Snow White (We have a lot of dress up outfits)

Thomas and Nicholas were skeletons. I bought sweatsuits that had the skeleton outline on it.

We did not take the boys out on Halloween night. We put a gate up at our front door while we were handing out candy. They stood there everytime kids would come up. When they would say Trick or Treat, Thomas would say HIYA! It was so cute. We had a blast this year!

Must have skipped over that part of the story...

Today at Walmart, Olivia and I found this:

It is the Little People Nativity Set (It is $21.XX by the way... so cute!!) I was asking her who each of them were. We got to Joseph. I asked "And who is this?" Her answer... MOSES!! LOL I think I forgot to teach her about Joseph!! LOL At least she knows everyone else :-) I bought this... we will work on it this season. Next year she'll know!

BTW... thanks everyone for your comments to my previous post. Somedays it just seems like everything that can go wrong, does go wrong and it knocks me flat on my back. That was one of those days. I am definitely learning things in this trial. The twins bring a joy into our home that was not there before. They are constantly happy, even with poopy bums! They are great examples on how to be happy despite your circumstances. I will have to learn that from them. You can learn so much from your children!

Why was I chosen?

Let me preface this post by saying that my beliefs are that Heavenly Father has a plan for each one of us. Our job is to figure out what that is and fulfill that plan. Of course, we have our free agency and can choose to follow it or not. I try my best to find and follow the plan, even when it is a hard thing to do.

Lately, I have been contemplating what that plan is. I have been trying to figure it out. Have I followed the promptings of the Holy Ghost correctly? Have I misinterpreted the feelings I have as the right answers from Heavenly Father? Or was it *my* desires that overrode the true course I was to take. Sometimes it is so hard to know which one it is... me or the right answer. For instance...

Having the twins. Let me start by saying, I am SOOOO grateful for these happy, always smiling, mischievous boys of mine. They bring so much joy to our family. BUT my plate was so full already with Joseph and Emma's behavioral issues. Most days I feel overwhelmed by 8:30 AM when everyone is where they are taken where they need to be for the day. Honestly.. everyday is like that. Mornings before the kids meds start working are so hard to manage. It is like I have 5 kids under 4 yrs of age. I have to stand over them to eat, get dressed, and gather their things. Having to do this makes it so hard when you have 3 littler ones that you have to help with those things. With the twins being mobile now, I never get a break. I have them during the day. Ironically, I have to tell Joseph and Emma the same things I tell the twins... "don't touch that", "don't jump on the couch" (this was this morning!!), "don't run in the house", etc..

Blogger friends, am I expecting too much of my 8 and almost 7 yr old to not touch things (especially in the store and my figurines and things that are not theirs that are put up high), to not jump on the couch and to not to run in the house?????????????????? Shouldn't they have LEARNED these things already by now. I feel like they have never progressed past a 4 yr old!

Why did Heavenly Father make my plate more full? I could have handled this much better if I did not have Post Partum Depression on top of everything else. If I did not have this hormonal imbalance, I would be able to have a better outlook on these struggles and be better able to handle them. All of these situations have put a signficant strain on my marriage. I do not know how much more our marriage can take.

Then... Michael was offered his dream job. He applied 6 months before the twins were conceived. This was at a time when the housing market was awesome! We would have been able to sell our home in days for tens of thousands more than we paid the year before. He wanted to work for this company. They wanted him, but there was not an opening in the mid-west. We did not want to live in the DC area again, which was where the only job opening they had was. So we waited until a job opening came up. The job opening came a week after the twins came home from the hospital. The housing market bubble had busted by then. It was the middle of winter. So we moved without selling the house and in the middle of winter with 4 month old twins. Let's just say, the financial, emotional, and physical strain has taken a toll on me, Michael and our marriage. It took 6 months to sell the house $40K below what we needed to come out even. I was on my own a lot with the 5 kids in a new city I had never been to. It has been a rough year for us.

When I look back on this... was the decision to move correct? Michael had a great job where we were. He worked 12 hr days though. (here, he is home before 6 and is only 10 minutes from home) We are 1300 miles away from family. Olivia cries for my mom several days a week. The FL house debt is overwhelming to me on a daily basis. It will take us about 4 yrs to get it paid off. It is all so discouraging. We are back to alternating going to church with the older 3 kids while one of us is home with the twins. I really miss the chance to get "filled" at church every Sunday. It was always the one thing I could count on to get me through the week. I am so grateful when I get to go.

So I wonder, since Michael let me say yea or no to the move, did I follow the correct promptings? Or was it the desire to get Michael want he wanted. (and that is not a bad thing at all... as long as it is in line with the plan set for us). Would it have been ok to wait for another opening somewhere else at a later date? Would they have even considered him again? And if we did follow the correct promptings, why would Heavenly Father allow us to get into a financial position like this? We have done everything we could do to follow the Prophets advice on staying out of debt except for schooling and a home. Why are we in a financial position where we cannot even go to the Temple now? It is so discouraging when you are in the middle of the hardest trial you have ever gone through to not be able to go to the one place where you can get relief from the stresses of the world!!!!!

Anyways, I spilled my guts enough here! LOL Maybe someone can make sense of my ramblings and confusion. My kids need me to play with them, so I am going to go now. Thanks for reading if you reached this point. If you have any words or wisdom I would LOVE to hear them. I know I am not the only person who has had doubts and struggles in their lives. Compared to others experiences, what I am going through is so trivial. But it is what I am in the middle of right now. I am having trouble "holding on to the light".

The BEST toy organization I have ever come across!!

I have to admit. I was **so** close to just tossing all the kids toys. I did not care if they had "nothing to play with". They have an entire room full of toys, yet never had anything to play with anyway. I have tried sooooo many different ways of organizing them. When you have 5 kids there is always going to be TOO many toys and TOO much mess. Or so I thought!

So this week, I found this blog where the secret to making me sane was hidden. I googled playroom organization. I went right out that night and purchased what I needed. I was going to post a picture of what our playroom (was our formal living room) looks like now, but the twins decided it would be fun to dump several of the cubes out. Once I re-sort them, I will post a picture. Thank goodness we have a gate for this room. They are going to have to stay out unless and older sibling or parent is with them. We keep the twins toys in the family room or what we call our living room.

I hope this helps some of you! They are on sale right now at Target through Saturday!

Mornings...

Our Fall day in the yard. I had to take 35 pictures to get this one! It turned out SOOO great, I am thinking of using it in our Christmas letter! I usually send one out with Michael and I in the picture, but this one turned out SO great!! Everyone knows what *we* look like anyways! LOL

Mornings are driving me batty. Joseph and Emma are like having three 3 year olds in the house. Actually I take that back, Olivia LISTENS and OBEYS better than they do! She gets up and gets dressed all on her own. With Joseph and Emma, we have to remind them every 5 minutes what they should be doing since they get distracted easily. I was upstairs this morning just sitting and giving myself a pep talk to make it through the morning. Come on, a 7 and 8 yr old SHOULD be able to get themselves dressed in the morning without having to be reminded!!! Is that TOO much to ask? We get the clothes out the night before. I send one into the bathroom on the main floor at a time. Michael cooks breakfast and I get the twins dressed during this time. I know WHY they cannot do it. It still does not take the frustration away. Nor does it make things easier. I talked to Michael yesterday. We are going to have to put adopting on hold for a couple of years until Joseph and Emma grow up a little more. We are sad, but it is the best thing right now for our family and our sanity!

Life has come full circle....

I bought Emma a Tiger Beat magazine. She has put the posters up on her wall. Olivia is even getting into it. She needed her "Troy" poster over her bed, but not to high. She needed to be able to kiss him still. How did this start so early? One of Emma's posters said "How hard is your crush?" She does not even know what that means !!! (Thank goodness!!) I did not even know what Tiger Beat was at their age! Much less wanting posters of boys on my wall. I was into Strawberry Shortcake and Rainbow Bright! THEY were on my wall. Emma has the JoBros (that is the new name of the Jonas Brothers), Zanessa (Zac and Vanessa aka Troy and Gabriella) and Hannah Montana (aka Miley Cyrus). I need to get her to slow down a bit. I think that is the first and the last Tiger Beat for a while. She needs to slow down and enjoy the Littlest Pet Shop and Polly Pocket for a little while longer!!

Discouraged

I am so discouraged on my weight loss. I am SICK of the Walk Away the Pounds DVD's. I have about 15 of them. I know each of them by heart. I really want to join the Y or get a treadmill, but we just cannot financially until the twins medical bills and the FL house is paid off. Besides that, the boys are having separation anxiety right now. Not as bad as it was with the other kids, but I do not want to leave them in the gym's nursery right now. I want this baby weight off NOW. I am tired of it. I want to be skinny like I was when I met Michael. I still have the outfit I wore when I met him. (I am a sap! LOL) I am so discouraged. I did scale back the kids to one activity this winter. So we are home more. I am hoping to get more miles in.

I HAD to get the candy out of the house ASAP so I let the kids eat as much as they wanted over the weekend. Then we will be done with it. Emma could stand to put on several pounds anyways! Most of the good stuff is gone, so I am not tempted anymore.

I do not want to be the overweight mom anymore!! I want the twin skin and twin belly GONE. I just do not have the motivation right now.

I think we are going to have to go back to alternating going to church and staying home with the twins. Since RSV started October 1st, they have had 2 viruses, one which required steriods after 4 weeks of a cough that would not subside. I am ok taking them to the store. No one touches them or holds them. At church, they are getting passed around and there are SO many germs in the nursery where they will be in 3 1/2 months. I know they need to out there with the germs to build their immune system. I think that having a sister in preschool and a brother and sister in Elementary school brings enough home! After seeing them on ventilators, I just do not want to go through that again if they end up with RSV or anything else. It is so scary! And only other moms of preemies "get it".

Finally... Pics froom the Chicago Twin Mom Meet!

My Olivia on top of a HUGE haystack.
Thomas... he loves putting things on his head now.




We gave up on this picture pretty fast! LOL

Olivia riding the wooden horse
Joseph roping the bull



I have tried posting these pictures since the day we met! For some reason it would always give me an error message. So FINALLY they are here. It was such a wonderful day. I thoroughly enjoyed getting together with Arizona, Shannon and Claudia and all our little monkeys! I am looking forward to the next time!