Parenting - this is tough!

My sweet baby girl, you know the one, the one that slept through the night at 6 weeks old! The one who has a smile that can melt your heart, sparkling eyes to warm you through and through - yes little baby A!
She is giving me a run for my money. Since going back to school she has decided that her Mommy time should be taken at night. Needless to say we are not in agreement about this. SO - back to parenting class - this time I call it Tough Love 301: Mommy won't get up (even if you toss your cookies).
Last night was the first night - 12:45am
"Mommy I want tiny bear." Repeated 15 times (times are approximate as it was 12:45 am and who can track these things at that time?)
"Mommy I want..." 20 times
"Mommy I want a book" 10 times
"Mommy I want..." 25 times
"Mommy cover me up!" 14 times
"I want Mommy!" 100 times!
Lots of crying at this point - reminded that if she threw up on her Cinderella jammies I wasn't washing them. At this time A begins her deep breathing exercises to calm down... sleep resumes 1:15am. I laid wages that we'd make it until 2am.
YEP!
2am
"Mommy I want breakfast!" 16 times
"Mommy I want..." 34 times
Calm breathing - sleep resumes at about 2:10am.

I love that little girl so much and this is very hard. Little A - when you read this some day I want you to know that laying there listening to you cry was one of the hardest things that I have ever done! All I want to do is pick you up and hold you but I know that isn't going to help anyone, not in the long run.

Too funny

I stayed home today - lost my voice Monday and it still isn't back completely. A stayed with me and we've been watching princess movies all morning. Right now we are watching Cinderella and the stepsisters just tore Cinderella's dress. A said, "Aw it's broke! Fix it! Tape on it, fix it!"
I love that tape fixes everything in a two year old's mind. ha ha!

Chocolate, snow and relatives... oh my!

Yesterday Jason's Clan went to Hershey's Chocolate World - yum. It was fun, lots of opportunities to spend money... ha ha!

We left there and headed for Aunt Erin and Uncle Alex's house in New Ashford, MA (don't try to find the weather on weatherchannel.com - it's too small). Suffice to say it is COLD and they have a sheet of icy snow on the ground, which of course we had to go "play" in this morning. Basically we spent the morning sliding down on our rear ends in frozen snow. Woo hoo! The kids had a lot of fun (as did Jason & I) - this was A's first time in the snow. She reminded us of the little boy in Christmas Story - she was so bundled up, she couldn't sit down without needing help standing up! Pictures to follow soon.

Today Jason is heading to the airport to pick up Bonnie, John & Andy at the airport. I can't wait for them to see all the grandkids playing so well with each other. They will love it!

Finally - tonight it looks like we will be having my favorite food - FUNdue (that's fondue for all of you out there that haven't been listening... ha ha!) - Erin's house is a blast!! Fun times!

TX to MA

This weekend we set out on what B likes to call the Great American Road Trip. We discovered that before we return to our home we will have traveled through 14 American states. Today we went through several: Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virgina and Pennsylvania... the funny story there was that we were only in West Virginia for about 20 minutes and most of that was spent at Sheetz where Z had to take a .... restroom break! HA! They had some fun sensory potties that flushed on Z twice both times making him look up at me with confusion and not just a little anxiety that soon he would be disposed of if he didn't get off the pot! Very funny... (a little potty humor for my dear father-in-law).
Fun new game for road trips - take normal acronyms and make them more fun.
FBI - freaky button injuries
AMD - absolute melt down or angry mother dissertations
fun, fun, fun! Gave us at least an hour of humor on a day full of driving monotony!

Yesterday & today my children were troopers! They traveled 11+ hours yesterday & 13+ hours today! We stopped only a handful of times each day. I thought they did an exceptional job and best of all when we got to the hotels they went quietly to bed. As I am going to do ... right now!

"Princess-rrreeeAAA"

We aren't really sure what this quote means but it is just one of the many reasons that A keeps us all smiling. She says this all the time when talking about princesses... if you can figure it out let us know - we know what it SOUNDS like! Check out the pictures below to see more really great reasons:

"Smile!"

She likes to help dress herself.

Sometimes she just stops and pouts.
No one knows exactly why - I suspect she's not getting her way
(and that makes the boss angry)!
Other times she is so sweet and cute you could eat her up!

Yes - I actually paid somebody to do this to my poor, sweet, innocent child!

BK&Z make me smile and laugh a lot too but their not quite as expressive in front of the camera anymore (well - Z still is... he'll be my next victim, I mean focus)

Because you have been so patient!

We had a wonderful time in Arkansas for Thanksgiving. The big kids, Jason & I walked (B - did some running with Cousin Justin) the 1st Annual Pinnacle Turkey Trot & Strut - this was our second year going out and getting active as a family before we got down to the business of devouring turkey and the fixin's - YUM! It was great and I hope that it will be a family tradition.

Here are some pictures of the fun that was had - spending time with family, rock band, karaoke, eating, perusing the sales ads and don't forget playing!

Uncle Mark giving Z a little love, Uncle Mark style

The bookends - they are so enamored with each other!!

Kess with G'pa Jess, he thinks she's pretty special!

K with Aunt Cheryl

Mark & Deb

B - the Rock Star!

Big Cousins acting like goofs

Our Debbie trying to get Z more comfortable with G'pa Jess
(since we all know that Z is much more comfortable UPSIDE DOWN!)

Uncle Marky Sparky Superman & the lovely Aunt Cheryl

I have a really talented friend!

I can't even imagine how hard it is to get a good picture of all 6 of us smiling and looking in the right direction, but my brilliant friend did it a few times. Of course you will see the best one on your Christmas cards but here's some good ones and some fun ones to hold you over.