Happy Halloween Y'all

Halloween is definitely not glorified at our house. BUT, we do think it's fun to dress up...halloween or not.

This is how my husband left the house this morning.




AND he's wearing eyeliner!! Gotta love it. Oh, there still a little accountant in there. He has a calculator sticking out of his coat pocket. And I don't think he put it there as part of the outfit...he really needs it at work today.

And one more thing, those are MY faux leather pants that I seriously wore in high school with a brown zebra jacket. And I was cute too. :-) To find his outfit, he went through a box that I like to call "dress up clothes for Olivia one day" - but it's really because I couldn't bear throwing out all my pleather and animal print clothes (velvet zebra skirt, leapard pants, teal pleather pants, real leather pants, etc). Not to mention my snakeskin knee high boots. Not making any of this up either.

What's everyone else dressing up as???

Dentist = Chick fil A

Olivia had to go to the dentist yesterday for some unexpected issues, but came away with a coupon for free ice cream. What gets me the most, is that she bargained 2 more coupons out of the dentist for her Landon and Lillian! What a sweet sister!

So we headed to Chick fil A after nap yesterday to redeem the coupons.

We had a little fun in the playground...with the fun mirror.



Thanks Olivia!!!



Btw, Chick fil A's ice cream is really good. I snuck a few bites off Lillian! :-)

My New Theory

So.....I'm giving some seriously hardcore effort to this cleaning thing. That means I have to focus really hard at thinking about what I need/want to clean out/organize, and even harder at the best way to do it.

My theory is that the more organized I am, the easier it is going to be to keep clean. I'll let ya know how it turns out soon...but my guess is a big fat YES.

Also, I think the reason I never really got organized to begin with in this house, was that I was pregnant when we moved and then got too fat to organize and clean a lot, THEN I had a newborn. So now that life's a little calmer now (yeah...right), I have the time and desire to get organized.

I started with my closet and armoir. Boy was that fun. Let's just say I have a HUGE bag of stuff to give to Hannah Home when they call...they might not actually hang up on me this time since I'll be saying "Yes!". If I hadn't worn an item in the past 2 +/- years, it went in the bag. It felt so good, not to mention freed up a ton of storage space AND space in our closet and my armoir!!

Then last week, I headed to the kitchen. I pulled everything out of my kitchen cabinets and china cabinet. What surprised me the most about reorganizing was how much space I created when putting things back in a better space! I actually have an empty cabinet over my fridge now that wasn't there before! Even more space in our china cabinet, AND nothing crammed on top of the fridge or cabinets by the ceiling!! Amazing. Hannah Home is also getting a wedding present waffle maker (and a few odd and end things) that I think we've only used one time in our marriage!

So now I have a spice cabinet that has never looked so good...at least to me.



And my silverware drawer...pretty darn organized, if I don't say so myself.



BUT.....I will always have one of these.


A junk drawer. I mean, sometimes, things just don't have a perfect spot.

The other hard thing for me was being creative on what to store things in. I've read great organization articles that have amazing ideas, but they spent a fortune on pretty wicker baskets, or other organizing items. I didn't want to have to go buy anything.

I also got to tackle the kids closets....pulling out clothes that were too small, reorganizing closets and drawers. Not my favorite thing to do but it's got to be done and it feels so good afterwards.


I know some of you people are like, "hello, how can you NOT live organized" or "why the heck is it so hard for her?".
Well, it just is. BUT, I'm workin' on it. It's hard..but I'm workin' on it.

Now, on to getting better about the actual cleaning part......

Weekend Recap

What a nice weekend. With Robert's awesome new job, he works some pretty insane hours during the week. He works so hard and is a great provider, but we're pretty excited to have him to ourselves when the weekends roll around. And last weekend he went to the Ole Miss vs. Alabama game, so we felt like it had been a while since we'd seen him!!


It started off with a huge family reunion dinner. Our cousins from all of the world were all home! So we had to get a pic with all the great-grandchildren (#8 will be here in 2 weeks!).


Saturday we finally got around to finishing out some hardwoods in the closets in the house. Nothing like waiting over 2 years. We were so tired of working on our house 2 years ago and just wanted to get in it. We said we'd do them right when we moved in. Yeah, right. But it sure is nice to finally have done. Now, if we could only find time to paint the other 2 sides of the house..... It's never ending, isn't it.




Olivia learned how to play checkers! So fun!!! Of course, Robert made me come and "play a quick game...lemme show you who your daddy is..." And of course, I whipped him. :-)


You know how much we love our plasma cars. We're always finding new places to ride them.

Oh, and Lillian sat out that ride. I'm not that crazy. :-)


Last but not least!! Robert pulled Olivia's tooth out!!!!!


And the tooth fairy brought her a $1.00!!! :-)


Oh, one more thing. If ya can't tell, I totally changed my blog. Hope you like...just needed a change..plus it's really, really, really fun. I wish I could save all the looks it's had...but I guess you just move on!

Impressive

Olivia has always impressed me with how easily she learns since she was very little. She's been memorizing (more than the normal ABC's/123's) since before she was 2.

Now that she is in school, learning is even more exciting for her!! I hope this enthusiasm doesn't wear off any time soon. :-)

One of her latest memorizations (not including the weekly bible verses) is all of Psalm 100. She learned this in no time! After I videoed her today and was thinking about all the things she has memorized, I realized that she knows TONS of scripture. Ephesians 6:1, Act 16:3, Psalm 34.14, just to name a few.

She doesn't miss a word either. I was very impressed with my baby!







No, getting Landon to memorize is a completely different story. He's probably going to learn best while dribbling a ball...just like my brother!

"BIG Job"

Everyday when Olivia gets home from school we unpack her backpack. I look to make sure no notes were sent home. I also get to see all the hard work she is doing.

So today, her "assignment" really caught my eye.

First, this is what Olivia drew.



I got her to explain it to me and it went like this.

Me: (reading the directions and holding the picture out to her) Draw a picture of your father or mother working.

Olivia: That's YOU! (smiling)

Me: (pointing at the obvious) What's that?

Olivia: That's your baby. You're rocking the baby. I told them that you work right here at home. And it's a BIG JOB!



Awe! My sweet baby appreciates me!

Now onto the baby in the arms....apparently my at my "work", I have a baby in my arms a lot. Well, I guess that kinda makes sense from her perspective.

Serious Question

This may come as a shock to some, but it's old new around here. I'm am a horribly unorganized, not-good-at-cleaning person. It's very hard for me to keep our home up and take care of 3 kids.

So, I have some questions for you organized people out there.

Do you make a weekly cleaning schedule?? Do you know the day before what you plan on cleaning? Like do you know you'll be on your hands and knees cleaning baseboards every Tuesday morning no matter what life brings ya'? Or do you clean as necessary? How efficient are you with your cleaning?

Do you have help from either your husband or a weekly/bi-weekly helper? Do you make a list and divide chores?

Is is truly possible to have a perfectly clean house AND raise kids in a loving environment? Yeah, I guess I could clean all...day...long...everyday and never look my kids in the eye or have any friends but is it worth it?


I'm being dead serious! I'd love to know what goes on in your household! I mean, isn't 3 kids a full time job as it is? I'm I crazy to have a hard time juggling this!? Sometimes I wanna pull my hair out! :-)


It's not that I don't desire a perfectly clean and organized house, it's just that my brain doesn't compute that way naturally.

I need some serious tips or suggestions! :-)

I'll Make It Up To Ya'...

...with a really long post with lots of pictures.

Well, I'm glad to hear you people like reading my blog! I've had numerous comments/emails on my lack of frequent blogging. So we'll get a little listy and catch up over the past few weeks.

#1 I did have some personal things happen on over the past few weeks that kept me from blogging. I do not plan on blogging about it since I'm pretty sure I don't personally know all my blogging readers. I am coming around to being open to talking about it, BUT would rather talk about it to a pretty face! :-)

#2 Olivia has her first loose tooth!! It freaked her out when she first realized it. We were eating Chick-fil-a and she wouldn't eat another bite because she was so worried about "hurting it". The only thing is, the new tooth is already starting to grow in!!! Thank goodness we have a dentist appointment next week and I can ask him about it.

#3 We did some serious garage saling 2 Saturdays ago and came home with some sweet bargains. My Apple keyboard recently had coffee poured down in it (achhem...Lillian) and broke. Robert swore he wouldn't buy me another one!!! (They're like $50+!!) Well, I happened to find a wireless one for $5. Score! Robert also got a brand new $170 weedeater for $20. Score again! The kids also got some little happys with their dollar! We'll have to do it again soon!

#4 Lillian is getting so fun!!! She's all about running around in her panties and giving kisses. HA! That was funny to type. At least for now that's acceptable!! She also thinks she is just as big as everyone else. She already likes to color and draw. Definitely a girl thing. She is also finally talking. I was getting worried there for a while. Because Olivia could carry on a conversation with me at 15 months. She repeats and tries to say most any word we say to her. She still won't say please but does sign it (by patting her chest).


#5 It's Robert vs. The Fall Leaves at our house now. This battle last all..fall..and winter...LONG! BUT, we did find some perfect leave picker uppers! She's holding the bag around the outside of her ankles and scrapping the leaves in while Landon holds the bag. Daddy is a good teacher!


#6 We have been enjoying this WONDERFUL fall weather. I think it's so neat how right before every season starts to roll around your body starts to crave it. We've enjoyed parks and picnics galore!


#7 Lillian actually grasps the concept of t-ball. Pretty amazing I think. She is so observant when the others are playing! The other afternoon, she grabbed her bat, set up her ball and went to town knockin' it off all by herself!!! I tried to turn the bat around for her so she could hit with the right end, but she was adamant about hitting with the handle end.

Seriously, no help from me. And she would run and go get her own ball!! :-)

#8 Last but not least, Landon wrecked Robert's truck. Let me preface the rest of the story by saying THIS IS NOT FUNNY...BUT NO ONE WAS SERIOUSLY HURT.

Yep. I guess we didn't learn our lesson from this time or even this time, but our 3 year old little boy (smart one he is) crashed Robert's truck into the tree at the end of our driveway. I was sick and Robert stayed home one day to help out. He had run inside to bring me Lillian and was going to leave with Landon to go and get gas in his truck. When Robert walked in, Landon started honking in the car. I immediately began to say, "Robert, you can't leave him out there alone...one time when I was a little girl, I took a car out of gear and almost crashed it into my parent's brick wall!"

About 10 seconds later, we hear a big crash. I've never seen Robert move so fast. That God that no one was out there and no one got hurt. It scared Landon to death but he was okay.

Anyway, it definitely shook up our day. And now the grill of Robert's truck is all messed up.

Funny a mother's intuition. It's like I knew...and crazy how I said it right before it happened.


Anyway, that pretty much wraps up the past few weeks for us!!!

Hopefully, there will be more adventures to share in the coming weeks!!!! Maybe I'll actually sneak into a photograph one of these days. I feel like I don't exist...at least in photographic evidence that is.

I Can Be Fun Too!

The other morning I left the house before anyone was up. That meant that Robert had the wonderful task of getting 4 people up and out the door for school....AND drive carpool!!

I was a little curious to see how it would all go down. I mean, I've got it down to a science now. But Robert's not quite as used to it as I am and would have no help from me!

I called a little before he was supposed to leave to pick up carpool and low and behold, he had taken the kids to McDonald's for breakfast!! On a school morning. By himself. With time to spare before carpool.

So I'm officially the "un-fun" parent. I mean, he set the bar high! I think he just didn't want to cook and clean up the kitchen after breakfast!!! :-) At least that's what I telling myself.

But I can be fun too!!! :-)

I let the kids go to town painting pumpkins and decorating cupcakes and cookies!!

It was so much fun. And I promise, we did not eat them all for dinner. And nothing else. :-)
I would never be that mom!


Lillian had fun painting herself!


MMmmmm...nothing like a cupcake for dinner...and then maybe breakfast the next day. :-)

Sorry Guys....

Not feeling to wordy lately. Have other things on my mind. I'm sure once I snap back to it, I'll have plenty of stories and pictures to share.

Stay tuned........... :-)

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far

Someone found a little tube of red lipstick.



I don't know who she got that idea from.