January 2014

All the kids except Elijah stayed up until midnight. Then the 3 oldest piled into my room to "sleep" on the floor while I shared a full sized bed with Elijah. Jamie slept peacefully on a twin bed in his own room. Such is life.

The next day's trip back to NC was the WORST CAR RIDE EVER. I kid you not. It was so bad, that the kids lost access to all their Christmas toys. They can earn them back one day at a time with good behavior. This could take a while.

During arts and crafts, Caitlyn's word choice prompted my to post this status:

In an effort to celebrate MLK weekend, my children argued over the injustices of pancake division and whose turn it was to sit at the head of the table. I've got to read more of Jesus' teachings to them!

If you'd been at my house around the middle of January, you might have heard this conversation.

E: Hey what are you doing?
Me: I'm putting up the Christmas ornaments.
E: No! I like Kissmas ornaments.
Me: Honey, Christmas is over honey. I'm sorry
E: I want it not be over. I like Kisstmas. (unpacks some ornaments and hangs them back on the tree.) Here we go! On the tree. It Christmas now! I like Christmas.

At that point there's nothing to do but pull out the video camera and wait to make the tree disappear after bedtime. His sister can also bring out my chuckling eyeroll - like when I cut off her nails because they were dirty and she thought it would look better to cover her short nails with Transformers band-aids.

One night we realized that all the water on the floor was from a leaking washer. It flooded the hall, wash closet, the kitty's room, some of our bedroom, our bathroom, and our closet. At least it is forcing us to declutter. I also discovered C's career path as well as the fact that I am a sarcastic mom. (Well, we already knew that.)

We were pumped about the snow, even though it was very powdery and tough to play on. Daddy wanted to go sledding in the dark on a hill near C's gymnastics. I came along to document and be available to drive everyone to the hospital. But what do you know? I ended up going down once myself. See kids? Mommy is fun, too.

Click here to see more pics.

Click below for videos of:
The Happy New Year crowd
Elijah riding a horse at Chuck E Cheese
Elijah in a cowboy hat
Elijah redecorating the tree
Elijah trying to sled on the couch
Caitlyn sledding down the driveway
Mommy sledding down the driveway
Caitlyn sliding into the snow