My Halloween fright...

We got up early and got everyone dresses in their Halloween attire, Lindsey we sent off to school and the rest of us went to see my Grandma. My Grandma is living alone since my Grandpa's passing and I knew she would love to see the kids in costumes. She lives 40 mins away and Jacob starts school around noon so time is limited. While at my Grandma's the girls were learning all about trick or treating and receiving candy... and they were loving smarties. Pretty soon Jacob alerted us to the fact that the babies had some "other" candy. To my horror I discovered that the girls had found my grandma's pill box. My Grandma has atleast 25 pills a day, all seperated by morning, noon, evening, night and the days of the week. The pills were all mixed up and we were unsure what was missing (100's). So while I sat in fear with the girls, seeing no signs of trouble other than her spitting out a pill, my aunt counted every pill. This required reviewing her schedule and comparing each pill to the bottle (locked in a safe). Eventually we discovered that the only pills missing were half a vicadin, and a blood pressure med (we had the halfs). My Aunt counted very carefully. We knew they had those already because they spit them out in my hands. So.. even though we could see they had not really swallowed any of the pills (because half of them were still intact and the rest was spit in my hand and on the floors) we still called poison control. He said that they were fine and it was obvious they had not swallowed anything (because they were behaving fine). It was a horrible experience! I keep all our medicine in child proof containers locked away. It did not even occur to me to check my Grandma's and put it up. I have learned a very serious lesson now though. We thought they were getting toys out of the toy closet. They told me the candy was yucky! I think we have helped teach them a real lesson but I won't ever be finding out if they will obey. Every place/home we visit will be inspected. It's serious. Did you know more children OD on medicine at Grandma's than anywhere else? I can't stop beating myself up about letting this happen and I am still not over the stress etc... UGH! They are fine and we made it home for kindergarten carpool and then the halloween parade at the school.

For Sale...

Gone are my nights of total security, my nap times without worry. The girls are free and I fear life will never be the same for anyone! I know I know... we got more time in these cribs than any mother normally gets, I realize we were lucky. I realize they couldn't possibly be caged forever! Good-bye to our beloved traps ... I mean cribs. May we still have girls who go to sleep at night and nap on occasion and may my sanity not leave with you!


This is how I found Sydney several times last week...
and Hailey was like this one morning, and when I asked her what on earth she was doing she told me very plainly, she was climbing.
and one afternoon after an hour in bed "napping" I heard a lot of noise. I opened the door with force expecting to find them both out of bed, instead I found that Hailey had joined Sydney in her crib (oh the fun of being a twin).

There is no more sleeping a little later, while they play. Getting more done after a nap while they chatter upstairs.. safe from disasters and other mischief. All bets are are off!

The Flood...

Yesterday we had a busy day! The twinados struck again. I was downstairs and the twins were unattended for a moment. Lindsey came running down telling me the bathroom was flooded. I was expecting a small mess, but what I found was a real flood. Hailey was standing at the sink with Sydney right behind, she had clogged up the sink with toilet paper (which was also wet and flung all over the bathroom) and she was letting the water run. Run it did, it ran over the sink, down the cabinets, filled up the whole bathroom floors (2 inches of standing water) and into the hall carpets! Both girls were soaked and the water was still running! Providence would have it that we had a plumber at my house (working) so I ran to get help (Alan was not home). He brought in his industrial strength wet/dry vacuum and I began the clean up process. To make an impression both girls were dried and sent to their beds, both girls proceeded to climb out of those beds (4 times) during their punishment. I then said we were not going to the gym, which sent them into hysterics( they love the place so much). I don't think it made a huge impression though as later I found all of Rochelle's chocolates eaten (so it did not get mailed saturday) and other big messes! When Alan arrived home from his "guy" day I had quite a story to tell. It seems like the bathroom has dried out o.k and I will be locking it from now on.

Happy Fall

The night before we left on vacation we headed up to the mountains, for my birthday.
I love taking fall pictures. I love the fall colors. I did not grow up in a place that had much of a season change and we certainly never had any mountains with fall colors! I ordered no pictures be taken of me. I had been packing all day (for our trip) and was not looking very good.

Me time...

My days are busy and sometimes I just can't wait for nap time. For a little moment of quiet. With three little ones going going going all morning it gets hard. *If things go as planned the twins go down for a nap about an hour before school is out. I get one hour alone. On good days I give myself small gifts. I eat my lunch alone, at the table in silence and peace. No one asking for a drink every second or needing my help. No potty trips or crying. I also drink one can of Diet coke. Recently I bought limes so I could add that flavor I love in restaurants. Sometimes I even sit down and watch a show on tivo. I try to force myself not to use it to catch up my cleaning, laundry, or phone calls. No matter what I do that time is golden and very needed! It's only an hour. What do you do for yourself? I can't be the only Mom who needs alone time. I am big believer that we all need to recharge our batteries, we all need to refill our tanks. Sure we could spent every moment cleaning or working, but we would not be the creative happy people we want to be. I could not be the patient mother I hope to be. I also have a girls night out once a week, and Alan usually gets his guy time out too. With so much going on its hard to find the time, but its very needed. It helps us deal with all the craziness if we know we will get a break (at some point). I think too many of us try to do it all and be it all for everyone else. If you are not taking care of yourself, its hard to be that person for everyone else. If you don't find a way to do this, I challenge you to do this. Stay tuned for todays disaster... next post!


Side note: If you wonder why I do not just buy Diet coke w/lime... I do not like Diet Coke w/lime at all, it makes me sick (literally). It tasted artificial and strong. Some things just taste better in their natural form.

Acomplished something...

Last night Alan had meetings at church all night. I invited my sisters to come make cards. Rochelle and Diana (who was there), your cards are finally done and will be on your their way tomorrow. Enjoy!Holly cleaning up (at almost 2am)!

Rochelle's and Diana's prize

Removing the clutter...

We always have kept a toy shelf in our family room. I went to great lengths to make sure it was cute and functional because it would be seen by many. I have spent day after day cleaning toys up, staring at its clutter! Some days I clean the toys up 5 times before nap time! It has become the bain of my days (the toys). So now the girls are older and were only using the baskets to dump and makes messes I decided to take a page from Laurie's book (who recommends keeping all toys upstairs) and moved all the toys (except strollers and a few small items) to the twins room. In one day I reclaimed my family room, gone were the clutter, gone was the mess! Now I find the family room stays clean almost all the time. The twins room is in transition, waiting for me to move them to big girl beds, so the toy shelf sit next to Hailey's bed and...
She is making good use of it! I found her in the morning just like this. Her crib was stuffed to the brim with toys! I did not give all these toys to her the night before! Now the twins room is a mess (but its much better there). Now if only I could remove all the dishes from the kitchen, I guess that won't work.

Spinning...

My head is spinning. I cannot get caught up on anything or get anything completed latley. The laundry and cleaning need attention and I am never home to do it. I just finished a big thing for church (Daddy/Daughter dinner and pumpkin carving) now thats over I hope to get my head above water. I also had volunteering in Jacob's class. While I was at the school I peeked in to Lindsey's class to blow her a kiss. When school ended I waited for Lindsey and she brought two friends. They told me they had to meet me because they thought I was beautiful and looked like I was in my 20's. Lindsey quickly corrected them that I was not that young, I was in my 30's (thanks). Strange how compliments from sweet little 8 yr olds meant the world to me (I must be nuts). Anyway, I hate feeling like I am not finishing anything I start! To top it off the twins, who have known how to get out of their cribs for a while but were too scared to do it, are now getting out whenever they please. I think big girl beds are going to be put up soon (when I can get their room ready for them). My life will never be the same with them out (I swear). I still need to get my cards off to my blog winners, and share my cool birthday presents. Stay tuned, you will hear from me soon (if I do not drown).

Early start...

I had to get up at 3:30am this morning to take my in laws to the airport. After I was done I went the gym did my work out. The Gym was actually crowded at 4 in the morning, I even had to do my weight work out first because my cardio machine (there are only 2) were occupied! Then I went to the grocery store made french toast w/ bacon, folded laundry, cleaned the house etc... It's still early. Maybe sleep is over rated, maybe having all this extra time in a day would be worth feeling tired? I also got dressed and ready before the twins have even stirred, pretty cool. I did not sleep much last night, went to bed at 11pm (which IS early for me) and just lay awake most of the night worrying I would not wake up to drive them to the airport (silly). Anyway feeling pretty productive this morning and super glad to have my work out done for the day (along with everything else). Still so many things to do...

Jacobisms

Last week... we were doing some schoolwork and I told Jacob to add an R next to of his name for his last name (there are two Jacob's in his class) and he told me, " I think I would rather put a K instead Mom". Umm that won't work sweetie.

Today...
I lay out my kids clothes every night but last night I told Jacob not to get dressed in the morning because he needed a bath in the morning. So... this morning I wake up to a noise and get out of bed (7:30am) and I go to bathroom to find him in a full bath giving himself a bath! I could not believe my eyes. I am sure I would not want him bathing himself while I was sleeping, but it was so sweet that he was doing it for himself. He told me he can give his own baths now.. which will be great as long as I am awake and supervising it all.

Growing pains...

Sometimes I feel like I do not know what I am doing as a mother. I feel like I pretending to know, but totally lost. I haven't mentioned before what a challenge 3rd grade has been in our family. Lindsey's 3rd grade teacher is well known for being hard and giving a lot of homework. Lindsey was the kind of student who breezed thru school without studying and just brings home good grades, until now. This teacher does not let you get away with that. For example she pretests for spelling and if you pass the basic words you get challenge words (we get those every time). She give vocabulary tests that are killers, all my parent friends and I talk about how we as parents can't pass these. It's not a simple matching test, you have to write a sentence and the sentence has to meet specific criteria. We are learning. We have been working on homework hours every night, and her play time was becoming non existent! Since we could not have that I have had to arrange to get a jump and complete much of it on the weekends so that she can limit her homework to an hour or so and get to play. Anyway... as you know we were on vacation and because of that Lindsey missed some school. So her first day back she came home and had not filler in her vocab so I instructed her so do it the next day so we could begin creating or sentences. So the next day after school she admits she still has not done it, so I call her teacher to ask her how we can do it from home (books in class). She explains that Lindsey said it was home and completed. I was shocked, disapointed, embarassed etc... I just totally freaked out. My kid lied? So I was pretty harsh. She explained that she was scared of being in "think time" and figured she could just go home and finish the assignment later. I believe in natural consequences so she had to immediately had to go to the school and admit it wasn't done and get her book to do it, she was grounded for week and I lectured her endlessly. When Alan arrived home and Lindsey was tucked in bed asleep, he brought me down to earth and helped me realize how totally normal it would be to fib and say a homework assignment was forgotten and completed at home... especially when "think time" was feared in your mind. I had to laugh at my overeaction and remember she is just 8, just learning how to get through all this. This much homework and school has been an adjustment for us all, its a lot of responsibility for her. Lindsey and I did have a talk about the importance of telling the truth even when your scared and the difference of being in "think time" for 5 minutes at school or being a dishonest person and having a much worse fate. She really seemed to get it. Anyway she did complete her grounding etc... and I think she learned a lesson. I also learned that kids makes mistakes and its through those mistakes we all learn and grow. Lindsey was such a sweetheart last night when I was out with her and the twins. I know I am not perfect, I am always trying to improve and I certainly haven't got this parenting thing figured out yet... I have a lot to learn.

Have some fun..

O.k. maybe I am 12 again but we have been having tons of fun with this website. Enter in the info and a phone number and it will call your friend or family member you choose and give them your transformer message. This is especially fun for transforming loving boys and men alike (and silly people like me). LOL! It's fun to make the enemy someone they know.

Transformers message

Contest...

If you pop over to the quads blog 4tunate (click on the name) you can play their guessing game a maybe win a prize.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

This place is awesome! I grew up going here all the time and its just wonderful. All six of the kids just loved it all!Alan's brother, Mary (his wife) and my nephew Jimmy (who is the sweetest).

Vacation Post #1...

We had a great week in California. We went to Happy Hollow, the pumpkin patch, the beach several times (we stayed in a hotel overlooking the water), San Francisco, Monterey and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (Marine World). The girls all went shopping on Monday to the Gilroy outlets we left at 10am and did not return till the kids were in bed and just had a great time.The day we went to Marine world was a bust it poured the entire time till they closed the park and we had to get our money back. We were all soaked and had to change in a Chevy's restaurant before going to another hotel (2 hrs away). It was a great time! A great way to spend my birthday too.

Here are a few pictures from San Francisco, Happy hollow, and our shopping trip...

Ferry ride in SF








Our girls day out...


More to come...

The night before vacation...

Is it just me or does the night before all vacations go bad. I mean you spend the week before cleaning, doing laundry preparing for the packing, doing it all in advance, making lists etc... yet somehow you still never get to bed on time, somehow things are still forgotten and somehow things are always very stressful. Mind you packing 5 people (doing laundry for all 6) is not a small task. Packing for 8 days is a lot of stuff! My birthday was on Friday (10/5) and my mother wanted to take me out the night before out trip to celebrate... we all have to eat anyway right? So I packed all the kids things the night before (the night before) and in the morning. I felt relieved being so ahead. I get the kids in bed, dressed and ready for our 4am departure. I begin getting the odds and ends done. First I have to place my order with my Gymbucks (they would expire before return). I forgot to have it sent to my moms house which was a BIG mistake. It took two hours of phone calls to try and fix that error ( they still sent it to my house in error and made other errors too). Then I am realize one of the twins sets of leather boots are missing. I look non stop till past 2am, never to be found (inside, outside, in the car). I was very concerned because it was dark and if they were hiding outside they would be ruined. I had the swimming suits and cover ups (they have many) laid out for our week at the beach and they are gone too. I don't look long as if they are not where I left them they must be packed. So after many other mishaps and my list checked off I went to bed at 2:30am (to awake at 3:30am). We get the beach and we have one swimsuit (for two girls)! All the rest are not packed... oh well you can always fins swimming suits (not as cute) at the beach. After our week away and several unpacking and packing of all 8 of us we arrived home (with a ton in laundry). We had fun, we are tired! Oh and those leather boots... found outside, somehow they survived a week in rain and snow (who knows how). The swimsuits were kidnapped by the twins and stuffed in a bag behind stuff... I guess they did not want them to come along!

We have winners!!!

Arrived home late... we are tired but had a nice week at the beach!

I used a internet site to draw a random number and came up with #25 which is my sister Diana. My husband claims that this might seem fishy so we did an old fashioned drawing and got #15, which is Rochelle. So... in the interest of fair play both Diana and Rochelle will get a special gift. Rochelle email me your snail mail address and give me a week to catch my breath :) Thank you for every one who reads and comments, you make this a lot more fun. Comments are the best. Congrats Diana and Rochelle.

On the road...

We are leaving for a vacation. I will do the drawing when I return. Thank you so much for all your comments! You can still add your name if you have not already. Be back soon...