I WIN...kind of

the battle is over...the war is won! Since I'm the one typing this blog you may be able to deduce that I am the victor of the Christmas tree battle. After I spend a solid week sitting for hours changing hundreds and hundreds of light bulbs (we are talking removing the glass bulb and re threading it into the old green sockets for the tree...uber time consuming), the tree has been lit and decorated...and now two strands of lights are out....but I don't care I can't put anything else into that tree and retain my sanity, so I guess we'll call it a draw! I did appreciate David's dance off comments regarding the tree...I think I was more amazed at how many "dance terms" he knew! There are so many thing to do this season and I hope I don't put everything off till the last minute. There are cookies, and pretzels to make, Christmas letters to write, gifts to make, presents to wrap, lights to hang, Christmas parties to plan and to attend... there are kids to watch every possible Christmas movie with..see we are so busy. So I'd like to contribute something worthwhile this beautiful season...something uplifting...gifts that I feel I have been blessed with over the past 31yrs. My kids...My wonderful children (David included). I don't think David and I had any clue what we were getting ourselves into, I guess we assumed that we would have kids and that we would grow as a family as simple as 1-2-3. Instead we were sent two huge personalities, and trials, good times, bad times, laughter and tears....I couldn't fathom how empty our life would be with out our boys. Our Quinten who is so impossibly 9, ...and our OCD 3yr old. they are my greatest joy....from reading books to them, to being annoyed that I'm the only one who can wipe Walkers rear...taking naps with the boys, or tickling them till they cry...life is good. I'm so blessed that our Father in Heaven choose me to take care of these AMAZING children...what a wonderful plan he has for us to be with and stay with our families for eternity.

I haven't been on here in a while and I'm dropping a quick note to let you know it may be awhile. You see I'm engaged in an Epic Battle right now...just me and our Christmas tree...like nature intended. Right now the tree is winning, but the tide may turn my friends. I will post more later...if I live!

Halloween

I should blog about Halloween and such but I'm just to busy ...or lazy, either one

Dr. Teeth

First I'd like to state that I'm posting because I find it somewhat disturbing to log onto my blog and the first thing I'm assaulted with is MY FACE! Trust me I see it enough every day. Second...Dr. Teeth is one of the cooler Muppets, and yes I love the Muppets! Okay, so I"m gonna blog about my son Quinten whom I adore...but that child can drive up a wall so fast and is, Walker can drive David up a wall just as quickly...So as long as we are balanced I guess we are okay! Anyway, Quinten is in the Third grade and has only lost 5 teeth..and each tooth that has come out has been a Broadway production. I think that I pulled the first one and it was like 2-3 hours to get him to let me touch it...it was a dangler and it was time to come out...but he just couldn't let us touch it. We are talking screaming... and crying...and at this point that was us just trying to touch it...by the time I got to wiggle it he, and I'm NOT kidding, spidermaned up the corner of the shower in an attempt to get away. It was unreal....! After a while i think I threatened his life, or the life of a toy and he let me put my two fingers in his mouth, and before he could jerk away I popped it out. He instantly froze and was like "That's it ...that didn't hurt!" Then he was so proud that he went to check it out in the mirror, and when he saw the blood he went straight back to flip-out town. Which leads us into tooth #2, he was so over the top and adamant that we not touch it that he ended up accidentally swallowing it. Tooth #3 was just as wiggly but Quinten had a firm policy....Mom and Dad ="NO TOUCHY!" So what happened, it got kicked out at Karate. (mom was VERY happy about this, because it was his other front tooth...first front tooth was swallowed...and it had become this hideous snaggle tooth right in the middle of his mouth) At this point Quinten decided to rethink his no touch policy, and let me pull tooth #4...but I had to spend an hour talking him into it and talking him down from hysterics.... It just drives me crazy, with his teeth it gets to a point where he can't even eat because the tooth is so loose and he doesn't want to swallow it but he doesn't want it pulled, EVEN thought every time after it's pulled he is like instantly okay and like phew glad that's done. Anyway tooth #5 Drama... I had told Quinten a week ago that his top side tooth was wiggly and he would most likely loose it in about 2-3 weeks (trying to give him some time to mentally get ready for it). Well 2 days later he bit an apple and it just gave way, but Q didn't tell me this so I checked his teeth a day or two later and imagine my surprise when his tooth almost came out. I said "Quinten that tooth is ready " and Quinten's reply "You said 2 weeks mom, not before two weeks!" I said, "Um that was before you bit the apple, and I don't remember signing a contract with you about it NOT coming out before the two weeks." So wanting to avoid any meltdowns, I let it go for two more days, and in those two days he kept biting things that would make to more loose. So Friday morning after Quinten declared that he couldn't eat breakfast because of his tooth, I called him back to the bathroom and looked him in the eye and said, "That tooth is coming out!" he immediately lost all bone structure and went limp, he began to flail around, and cry...(Reader please keep in mind that I HAD NOT touched the tooth)...after about 5 min he stood back up and after 2 tries (he kept jerking) we had it out and he got his shoes and socks on and skipped off to school. Then to add insult to injury the Tooth Fairy didn't show up for two days. I told Quinten that the Tooth Fairy is a jerk...of maybe she forgot...or maybe shes on vacation... WE decided that it must be Vacation because she was back and gave him some moo-la last night. WHEW!!!! Now I view Quintens mouth with a bit of horror...on one hand I see all the rest of his baby teeth as future meltdowns and I see the havoc that his adult teeth are wreaking and I can see braces and huge dental bills....Did I mention how much I love Quinten! If this is how it's gonna go down I'm just take walker in and have them remove all of his teeth in one swoop, then let him just "gum" everything until the adult teeth are in! 'Till next time intrepid reader....

This one's for Kristi!

okay this is for kristi...this is what my hair cut looks like....for those of you wondering why these are here, I promised my sister that I would post pictures of my hair cut and when I say "my" haircut I mean that I cut it myself. and I posted it here because, honestly, there are fewer people who read this, and if it's a bad hair cut fewer people will know it was me who did it....but if I can do and it looks okay then thats about $30 that I saved!!!....Do you like my bug eyed poses...I'm tres vouge!

these are pictures from about August of '08 to about mid Sept of '08...then I "misplaced" my camera for a bit...but this was Quinten coming home from the first day of school...man did Walks miss him!!!!

Walks and I built a fort...I felt it high time that I teach him this skill...and he was rather impressed with my for about 4 minutes...the neat thing is that we grabbed the closest blanket we could find and it happened to be a beautifully colored quilt that David's VERY talented mother did BY HAND!!! Anyway when I got under it with all the sunlight in the room it made this very nice, almost stained-glass fort roof. I had to take, honestly, like 15-20 pictures before I got the right lighting so that I could show other how cool it was...(picture below...see how cool it was)

This, like the picture below, make me laugh. Not only are is it cute to see my boys "chillin'" on the couch...but i love the ears on Walks...when I pulled out the cat ears for Halloween Walks got SO flippin' excited that they were tigger ears...so he would wear them so he and tigger could match...that's how devoted he is to "tiggs"

Walker...didn't get what he wanted......

Okay this is what Quinten wanted for his (9th) Birthday cake....It's one of the Fett's, Jango or Boba?

This is a rare sight...it happened after a long day of .... something very tiring. The great part was Walker thought it was SO funny that Q fell asleep like that, so he got tigger to "pretend" to sleep and by the time I got the camera to get a picture he was out too....

cleaning pretty much stinks

There is a saying that goes something like this " God is in the details"....but I would like to tell you that after Friday I believe that "satan is in the details". Please let me explain, so Friday I thought ohhh we have someone coming over this evening so I'd better tidy up the kitchen and the living room. So i walk into the kitchen and because my kitchen is like a hallway with appliances. If you eat a bowl of cereal the kitchen looks trashed...well I walk in and I say hmmm my kitchen is cluttered...I'll load the dishwasher, after this was done I began to clear off the counters and realized the fridge was dirty so I cleaned the fridge and I noticed the outside was dirty and the magnets were disorganized...after that was done I noticed that the dishwasher had finished so as I was putting the utensils away I thought this needs to be cleaned up...which led to the cabinets, and then to the wall where I keep my post-it notes full of random numbers, which led to back to the bedroom, which led to the bathroom, which led to the....realization that althought this was great cleaning I now had an hour to shower and STILL clean the living room. I got so wrapped up in the little thing I failed to get to the big things...curse you O.C.D. tendencies! Now I wanted to post this on my facebook page but I ran out of room, seriously facebook sent a message saying " Seriously Caryn quit typing" can you believe it? So leave it to me to spend hours in my house on the "details" and forget the big picture...which of course was to clean just enough of my house to make it look like it was all clean! For my next feat I will attempt to publish a few picture....please DO NOT hold your breath!