72 Hour Kit???

Bernie, Mike, Charlie and Jane. They are in the beginnings of a great fort.

Mike shoveled two times last night. The last one was at midnight and this is what we woke up to in the driveway.

Kimber, Jane, Charlie & Maggie.
It is still snowing and we are barely approaching 24 hours. We've been dumped on and we are loving it. Mike wanted to buy a snow blower a few days ago. Of course I said no. Lame, we are considered one of the southern states. We have mild winters. (that's what we've been told.) Maybe I should have let him. One of our neighbors bought one because of the impending snow. Smart move, we've all used it.

Charlie

Here's our profile of Mike's car. We aren't going any where for a while.

Cheeks of Joy

This little girl is a lover and a fighter. She always wants to be snuggled and held. She is often dosing out hugs and loves, especially to Charlie and Jane. On the flip side she packs a mean punch. Not a hit, a full fist punch to the face, followed by really loud screaming. There seems to be no in-between with Maggie. Exhausting and delightful. I'm a sucker for the cheeks.

Mike's Birthday

The man is climbing up there in age, but he still has his sweet dance moves. He danced with the kids last night while I made dinner. Every one was in a good mood and it was a nice family night. I still happen to enjoy him and find him adorable.
Tonight we will celebrate by having a few friends over for dinner.
Mr. Damien doesn't know it (though he should), but he and I are in a bit of a fight.
And on that note.
Let's just take a poll here.
What kind of gift giver are you? Do you give what you want the other person to have or do you give something that the receiver would enjoy? Really, please answer this question.
There will be a post to follow, explaining both sides. Maybe I'll even let Mr. D write his own post, though I will certainly have to edit it.

Unraveling

There is a point with Maggie where if she gets mad, there can be no reasonable return. We've recorded it several times. While hectic and crazy, it's always a bit entertaining. On this particular day, I had asked her if she wanted to go downstairs with me. I can now assume that she wanted her answer to be a simple "no thank you". Although that isn't what came out of her mouth. Luckily the camera was nearby.

The binki calmed her long enough to get a shirt on her but then she started to get angry and run away. So of course, I followed.

Who doesn't love this? I totally do. If only a picture could display the dramatic fall.

Fortunately Dad was nearby.

Let Me Freak Your Freak

New Year's Eve was a special sort of night for the Crosland family.

Prepare yourself for total grossoutness. Make sure you haven't just eaten. Clear your nose and passage way so that your gag reflex won't take over.
This is a worm. This 8 inch worm was found in Maggie's diaper as I went to change her after her nap. It was still alive and wiggling.
I FREAKED OUT.

Lucky for us we have a Doctor in our Ward. I called up Dr. Evans and explained my dilemma. His voice displayed way too much enthusiasm about my ordeal. Here is what he said.....

"Was it all in one piece?" (yes)

"Was it still alive?" (yes)

"Do you still have it?" (yes)

"Can I come over and see it?"

His excitement did give me hope that Maggie wasn't about to be taken over by night crawlers. This is when I said, "we'll come to you". We all got our pajamas on and went over to his house bearing one special gift.

We are all on some five day deworming pill. I've requested a "no flush zone" in our home so that I can inspect every one's poop. Mike is not obeying this new law. So far we're all clear, even Maggie.

She likely ingested this as an egg over four months ago and it has been growing inside of her.

Sweet dreams dear friends. I wish you sweet dreams.

My Gum is Missing

Evidence.

Guilty look.

Denial.

Proof.
Over half of my pack is in there.
But what cute sticky hands.

New Years Resolutions Past and Present

(37-52)

This is me right now, typing about my non fifty two pictures of myself this year. I am sitting here in my red sweater searching for pictures of myself on this computer, that I didn't post this year. Wish me luck.

(38-52)

(39-52)

(40-52)

FAILED- FAILURE - Incompetent - PROCRASTINATOR - DISAPPOINTING - LOSER - WEAK SAUCE -
I did not make it to 52 pictures, I didn't even come close. So this was my last ditch effort to get some pictures of me in before the years end. Maybe I'll try it again next year but with a more achievable goal of 24 pictures. Two a month sounds do-able right?

On the other hand, I think that I was quite successful on my effort to "Lift Where You Stand". I made a conscious effort each week to help someone out in some little way. There were weeks that I would be able to help one or three or four mothers. I did a lot of babysitting and tried to help where I could. On that note, I'm a little burned out. I am trying to schedule nothing and do nothing for a while.
I have two new goals for this next year.
First is to stay sane. You might think this is a funny goal but I think it's entirely necessary. I'm slowly going crazy and so I'm going to slow things down a bit and try to sleep more and make sure that my husband sleeps more. (He's losing it too. ) I want to enjoy the moment more. My kids are at the most adorable ages and I plan on loving on them a little more this year.
Second I need to lose 20 more pounds.

Snow Fun

Here are some pictures from different days of our snow excitement. We didn't build a single snowman. It was all about sledding and building forts.

Maggie, Mr. Richard and Bernie

The neighbors built tunnels in their yard. We've been informed by Charlie that this is a must for next snow fall.

Charlie, Ben, Jane & Rachel

Mags, all geared up.

Christmas Catch Up

Mike and I played Mary and Joseph at the Ward Party. I had to sing the Lullaby, Out Loud. It wasn't good. I tried to get out of it by letting them know that I was certain that Mary and Joseph weren't chubby. They didn't care. I call it desperation.
This little orphan girl pretended to be Mary all month long. She always had something on her head and she was often found singing to her baby Jesus, which this day happened to be a pink dragonfly.

We had a great Christmas week. Life has been so busy and fun. We spent Christmas Eve with several families and then had a nice quiet Christmas Day with our little family. We were spoiled by Santa and family. We're still trying to recover from all of the excitement. Here are some pictures of our week.

Lindsey and Josh at the Jensens Christmas Eve party.
The Jensens were great hosts and I don't have a single picture of them but we had fun with all of the families.

Tami and Scott

Jane and Maggie

Richard and Sumer

Christmas Eve when we got home we opened up our pajamas. The girls had matching owl jammies. (35-52)

The boys and huge fluffy fleece polar bear pajamas. The fleece is Mike's worst sweating nightmare but he was a good sport.

Christmas morning after gift opening the boys spent most of the day like this.. new wii game.

Mags, Bernie and Kimber (36 -52)

Mags and her Santa gift. She was very aware that this was hers and she would scream if Charlie or Jane tried to take it for a ride.

Mike with his helicopter that broke later that day. Ha.

Jane got spoiled this Christmas, Grandma sent fluffy skirts, Cousin Amie sent a crazy pattern outfit that she put on that same day and Aunt Debi went hog wild making doll clothes for her new baby doll.

Jane and Moe

I missed a picture of Charlie because he was upstairs spiking his hair. So high maintenance.

Backfire

I totally made a wrong decision here.....

Mom: "Hey Charlie, sometime soon I'm going to take the wallpaper out of your bathroom and then we can paint it. What color would you like?"
Charlie: "Mmmm, I want pink."
Mom: (back pedalling) "Oh, how about blue or green?"
Charlie: "No, I want pink."
Mom: "Yellow? Yellow is a good color. I'll think about it, let's not decide yet. I'll get some color samples and then we can decide."
Charlie: " No, I already did decide, IT'S PINK!"

I was thinking that it would be nice and kind for me to include him and have him be a part of it. Yikes. What do I do now? Paint it pink?