Nutcracker

My sweet Alexis tried out for the Nutcracker this year with the dance company that is associated with her dance studio. She was given the part of an Arabian parrot in the Arabian scene. She practiced so hard for the last two months. She takes it so seriously that it is so cute. She is absolutely smitten with ballet and with her ballet teacher. Ben actually has to yell at her every night to stay seated during dinner instead of bite, plie, bite pirouette, bite, arabesque, bite, releve, bite, jete, etc. Usually Alexis ends up out of her chair using our hard wood floors as her stage. And when she isn't doing the above, she is cartwheeling, head standing, and acrobat-ing around the rest of the house. I love how much she loves it. It seems like this is going to be her "thing". She had her dress rehearsal last Monday night which is our only opportunity to take photos or video. So here is my little parrot all dressed up.

Beginning on Wednesday through Sunday, she had five performances. I thought she would get tired of it, but nope! And here are the action shots. She is leading the parrots in the front:

In the next photo, she is head on in the back of the circle. She is the smallest one so she is easy to pick out. Not the best lighting, but she is the front of the flapping line!

Here she is after her final performance. She was so sad it was over and is already talking about what part she wants to be next year. I tried to upload a video but it was too big. I'll try again later.

Things I'm Thankful For

Beginning on this thanksgiving eve and continuing through thanksgiving day, I will make a list of all the things I'm thankful for as a conscious way to appreciate this day of thanks. It is always easy to recall the things we wish didn't happen or happened differently but it is much much harder to recall every little thing we are thankful for.
1. I found my soulmate at age 18 and we have been happily ever after ever since. Fairy tales do come true.
2. Ben's quirky sense of humor that has helped to loosen me up a little.
3. The most amazing parents and childhood that I hope I am replicating for my children.
4. Although not nearly enough, 27 years with the best dad a girl could hope for. I always knew I'd be lucky if I married someone who would be half the dad my dad was. Somehow I ended up married to someone who is just as amazing.
5. 4 living grandparents until was 20.
6. A mom who is also my best friend.
7. A best friend who although she lives across the country is the best friend in the whole world.
8. So many wonderful friends that we fill our home (or my mom's home!) with during major life cycle events.
9. Maizy's belly laugh.
10. The way Alexis takes care of her little sister. So much so that when we have a babysitter, Maizy will only let Alexis carry her around and do things for her and cries when she so much as walks a step away.
11. The way Max smiles when he knows he is trying to be super cute to avoid trouble.
12. Max is EXACTLY like my dad even though he never really knew him in person.
13. Maizy's beautiful blue eyes.
14. A job with flexible hours so I can be with my children to raise then my way and not miss a moment of that precious time.
15. A great boss :)
16. How happy Alexis is when she is dancing.
17. How sensitive Max is and he always knows when you need a hug.
18. The blissful sounds of Alexis and Max playing kindly and sweetly together.
19. My college friends and sorority sisters who no matter what will always be there.
20. Girls night dinners
21. Night time reading in Alexis's bed.
22. Maizy's attempts to copy EVERYTHING her siblings do.
23. So many cousins for my children to grow up with.
24. A large and presently still growing immediate family. My family together is now 11 and Ben's family together any moment will become 15.
25. Our "gang" of extended family that is there for thick and thin.
26. Small holiday gatherings of 30-40 people all of whom I consider family.
27. Beach vacations
28. Co-workers that are all really friends (or family!)
29. Alexis's love for drawing (and she is actually pretty good at it).
30. Minivans with doors that open with a button push :)
31. Hand me down clothes!
32. A house where everyone has their own room.
33. Ben's devotion to our family with his four jobs.
34. Max doesn't really pass out anymore.
35. Maizy's cute little voice as she is learning to talk.
36. Alexis's teachers---a happy Alexis is a happy home.
37. Minor illnesses that may keep us home from school for a couple days but we get to bounce right back from instead of anything serious.
38. Ben's tolerance of my type A neatness!
39. My type A neatness
40. Max's sense of humor
41. Our adopted soldier who now has 12 boxes ready and waiting in our living room to send once a month thanks to our amazing friends and family (and now our living room serves a purpose!)
42. All the soldiers who make all of this list possible
43. My parents supported me through grad school even though I was married so I didn't have to have any student loans.
44. Ben's devotion to ALL of his jobs. When he does something, it's 100%. (except cleaning but that doesn't really belong on this list then, does it?)
45. How good Riley is when small people sit on her, pull her, put tiny fingers in her mouth. So what if she eats dirty diapers and pees when she is mad at us.
46. Almost always having extremely trustworthy and loving and free babysitters! Thanks mom, Karen, and Hank.
47. Ben's AP students who make excellent babysitters when we must pay someone.
48. When Max asks me to "come lay with me" in his bed and snuggles up close.
49. Going to UGA football games with fiends and making memories.
50. Babying all my babies because they won't let me do it forever.

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Many Small Children

If you have at least three children all of which are under the age of.......let's say 10, you are allowed to laugh at the following. If you don't, ha ha ha just you wait until you do. Then we will see who is laughing.

You know you are the mother of many small children if......
1. You find crumbs of who knows what in the car and don't have a problem with one of the kids finding said crumb and proceeding to eat it. Like I mean don't even bat an eyelash and are a little but grateful it's one less piece of food you'll have to clean up later.
2. You have pulled over, yanked a child out of the car, and seriously thought about if you drive away would you be arrested.
3. You say things like "get your hands out of your butt", "stop putting your sock in your sister's mouth", "if you don't come here and let me cut your toenails....", "karma train is gonna hit you hard if you don't start listening", and "stop splashing in the toilet water" without even missing a beat.
4. You are a chef, housekeeper, chauffeur, teacher, nurse, doctor, pharmacist, hair dresser, nail technician, bouncer, bar tender (mixed drinks of smoothies, juice, and water on the rocks included), butt wiper, face cleaner, hand de-gunker, lunch packer, nose picker, busted lip fixer, rectal temperature taker, and should make at least seven figures but actually make $0.
5. You get more excited for a minivan than you did for your little sports car when you turned sixteen. And by more excited I mean more excited to drive through carpool line than to cart your friends to the hottest party or the mall. I mean excited that your kids can be far enough apart that your entire car ride is no longer spent at a decibel level of 90. Excited enough to have doors that open and close practically by themselves so you can carry two kids, four bags of groceries, and three toys that shouldn't have been brought into the store in the first place.
6. Your glove box is filled with diapers, the seat pockets are filled with extra sets of clothes, the trunk is filled with one of the 14 strollers that you own, the cup holders next to the children are filled with something brown and sticky even though they have never eaten anything brown and sticky in the car, the floor is filled with cheerios that have been stepped on, and under the seats....well, there is just no telling.
7. You have given up on floppy seat covers, drinking from separate cups, hand sanitizer every five minutes at the playground, heck even washing hands. And you start believing that exposure to germs will in some way boost their immune system.
8. You will pretty much let them do whatever they want if they are not fighting, they are quiet, and no one is dying.
9. You don't even know what it is like to go to the bathroom alone so on the rare occasion you have to go to the bathroom when no one is around, you grab a stuffed animal to take with you so you don't feel like you are so alone. Actually you have become quite adept at peeing while nursing, while a baby is grabbing at your knees and pants around your ankles, while children are screaming from the other side of the door or the same side of the door, while refereeing, while....really it isn't even worth peeing anymore.
10. You have ever loved someone so much you could keel over, you have ever laughed so hard you didn't need that bathroom time because you already peed your pants, you have ever been so proud of someone that you could actually feel your heart bursting, you have ever loved how much two other people loved each other, you have felt so happy and lucky to have amazing little bodies that say I love you, you have ever cried because you love someone so much you can't even put words to it, and you can look into someone else's eyes and see hope.

If all these apply to you congratulations. You must also have many small children.

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Or Lack There Of

Apparently my blog decided to stop saving and putting my titles on my posts. Please excuse that problem while I try to figure out how to fix it.


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Welcome to My World

As the first official day of thanksgiving break, we spent most of it at home since Max has had a fever ranging from 101-104 for the last four days. Yipee! But an effect of us being home proved in my favor. Ben got to experience what it is like to walk a day in my shoes. Usually when he is home or takes a day off it's to do something fun or be out and about. Being home with kids who randomly throughout the day morph into whiners, brats, stompers, criers, or "I need"ers is not usually on his plate. At one point he was about to lose it and by it I mean his sanity. He started screaming and then looked at me and asked why I was unfazed by all the ruckus. Well honey, welcome to my world. You know how sometimes I'm in a bad mood, get a little snappy over ridiculous things, or just seem frustrated???? Well it's because inevitably some of my day looks like this. Sometimes it only looks like this for a few tolerable fleeting moments. Other days it is all freakin' day long. So are you gonna cut me some slack now?


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Location:A Day in the Life

Tired Eyes

Every day I wonder why am I so tired. I seriously think that there is never s moment from the time I wake up in the morning until I go to sleep at night (assuming I am able to stay asleep.....keep reading!) that I am not tired. Obviously have three children under the age of six is tiring. If they would all perhaps sleep through the same night at the same time from the moment I put their little bodies into bed until at least seven AM that would help. Really is 7:00 asking too much????

Let me relay my night about two nights ago. Ben was out tutoring (which usually happens at least two nights a week plus the night he teaches so we are usually looking at at least three nights a week that I do bedtime alone) so we do the whole bath time routine for Max and Maizy, then a shower for Alexis, reading, stories, prayers, and into bed. Ahhhh.....time to relax. No, actually I never have time to relax because I'm so freaking tired that as soon as I sit down to enjoy that quiet time I fall asleep. So I don't even bask in that evening glory. After making lunches and cleaning up some, I sit down on the couch. Like I said didn't last long and I was asleep. Finally cam upstairs around 11:00. Ben came home at some point, don't remember it, but he was on the couch asleep too! At midnight I am awoken by screaming and running footsteps into my room. Alexis- there is a bug in my room. Okay, since ben wasn't in bed, I tell her to hop in. Ain't no way I was going to see if there was a bug. A lot of times when she has bad dreams they are about bugs so I wasn't sure if there was actually a bug. Well, her screaming must have woke up Ben because he came up. I ask him to check her room. He comes back and says it's fine.
She goes back. And comes back screaming again that it's still there. Then Ben confesses he didn't actually check but just figured it was a dream. Sure enough a huge roach was on her wall. Then she doesn't want to sleep alone so Ben lays in her room with her. Ahhhh....back to sleep. Startled awake again around 2:00 by Max- "mom, can you put my scooby books back on my shelf". What the hell it's 2am I don't give a crap where your scooby books are. "Max, just put them wherever". Nooooooooo......"okay just be quiet and get in my bed". Since Ben was still in lexi's room there was plenty of space. About 3am, Ben comes back and sees Max. "Just put him back", I say. Fine. Back to sleep.....but not for looonnnnnggggg. At 4am, Alexis is back. Honestly I have no idea what she said but I told her to get in my bed. 4:30
I bear Maizy making whimpers on the monitor. Right as I was about to shoot myself, she mist have found her pacifier and got quiet. At 5:50, Ben's alarm goes off. Of course I hear it vibrating but does he? Nope! So I nudge him awake and he gets in the shower. Of course he also pressed snooze on his alarm (on his phone) so while he is in the shower it keeps going off and I can't even find the damn thing. I resorted to just getting up at that point.

Luckily, the next night was uneventful but I was strangely more tired the day after an actual night's sleep than the day before. Of course, it is 6am and I've already seen Max a few times since putting him into a slumbery state. But it's not like I'll be any more tired than I already was....I'm good at silver linings.

I also probably failed to mention that last week Maizy had several days of temperature ranging from 102-105. Those days didn't make for blissful nights either......sigh. Can't we all just do this:



And this:




And this:



All in our own beds!

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