To Aunt Wendy:

Happy Birthday Aunt Wendy! I hope Uncle Kevin takes you out for a fabulous dinner and you have a great day... You deserve to be Queen of the Day! I love you!

I love my Dyson!

So, I bought a Dyson a few months ago because woot.com had one for half off. Best purchase I ever made!! It's really gross when you vacuum and you see how much stuff comes into that canister, but then you're glad it's in there and not in the carpet anymore. (I don't have a dirty house- in fact I am kinda a germ-a-phobe. I just have 3 kids, 2 cats and a dog whose sole purpose in life is to see how big of a mess they can make in the waking hours.) No, I am not getting paid for this little advertisement, I am just passing on the joy of my life which sadly, includes vacuum cleaners. I so need to get a life!

Happy Birthday Aunt Paula! You have a beautiful, kind soul and I wish for you the best year yet!

My baby is 1!

I was sitting here looking at pictures of Tierney from her first birthday and I just can't believe how fast this year has gone by! It's fun watching my children grow but I will always miss holding that little newborn! So here's my girl enjoying her very first piece of cake....she liked it!

Ad in the spirit of birthdays, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANNY! You should eat your cake just like Tierney did!

Hot Hot Hot, Hot Chocolate!

After watching The Polar Express last night, the boys woke up this morning (it is 37 degrees and rainy) wanting hot chocolate. I made them mint hot chocolate and they drank it in their special Christmas Starbucks cups that Aunt Sheila gave them last year!

My Poor Baby

It's been a long few days. Poor Brannon was very very sick. On Wednesday, our pediatrician had us take him to the hospital. After using the full body straight jacket (more painful for me I think than him) he had an IV for about 5 hours. He had some anti-nausea meds and 2 bags of fluids. 2 bags of fluids and he still didn't have a wet diaper! He has lost so much weight - all his bones are sticking out! Today is Sunday and this the first morning he woke up and we had our Brannon back!!! After 9 days of severe gastroenteritis, he finally ate some breakfast (a piece of french toast with homemade berry syrup!) I am going to try to plump him up again, hopefully it won't take long!

On a better note, Gig 'Em Aggies! That was an awesome game and a great win over the longhorns!

I hate vomit!

My poor babies! Brannon and Tierney have a had a stomach virus now for the past 10 days. Actually, Bran had it first and it lasted about 5 days. Then, Tierney got it and it lasted about 5 days. Bran was over his for about 5 days and now he has another one! This one is worse. He threw up 2 nights ago in his sleep, only Ben and I never knew it. We found him the next morning covered in it. I will spare you the disgusting details, the key word being disgusting! For 2 days now he has run about 102-103 fever and something in constantly coming out of some orifice- at least once an hour. As a mom, this is just heartbreaking! Tierney and Wes are fine, for now but it is quite a challenge keeping them away from Brannon. (Of course Ben had since left again!) I just went to check on Brannon tonight and he had a 103.5 degree fever. I woke him, gave him some Motrin and then rocked him as he whimpered himself back to sleep. I am now killing time on the computer cause I want to go check on him again in about 20 minutes to make sure the Motrin is going to stay down. The pediatrician said to just make sure and keep him hydrated. How does a person stay hydrated when they can't stop throwing up? I hate it when my babies are sick. I feel so helpless to make him better. I just have to wait for his little body to figure out how to kick some serious virus butt. And then hope the other 2 (and myself) don't get sick!

HELP! I've fallen and I can't get up!!

What could I be talking about here? I literally haven't fallen (lately anyway)...nor am I talking about my toddler.... nor I am I talking about the temps here in Texas. Hormones people, hormones! Since Tierney turned one, I quit nursing last week. For the first time in 3 1/2 years, I am not nursing or pregnant. Which means the estrogen is on the free fall! It's been so long, they don't even know what bottom is. So, as you can imagine, I am quite the pleasant person now. Mostly though, it's the migraines. I have gotten an ocular migraine (where I lose my vision for 30 minutes) every day since last Saturday. With Ben gone, I am single mommy during the week (with having to keep the house in sales mode at all times- ugh stress!) It's quite scary to go blind with the little ones running around. But, the good news my neurologist says, is when my hormones bottom out and level off, this should stop. Again, it's been so long, they're just in a free fall! And where they'll stop, nobody knows......

Who knew.....

....Santa's elves are so scary! So the other night the kids were being ornery so I pulled the tried and true trick my parents always used on us as kids: "Oh, look there's an elf in the window!" Now, this simple little one liner can snap the brattiest of kids in line (just ask my brother!) No child wants Santa hear from a scouter elf that little boys and girls are not being their best. So, of course this immediately causes Wes to cease fighting over the toy with Brannon and become the model 7 year old. Brannon on the other hand starts crying- hysterically..for 30 minutes! (Of course this picture was not taken during this time, but I just wanted you to see "the cry face.") Now, if you only could have heard the chaos at this point...Wes saying as sternly as possible for Brannon to stop crying because he might scare the elves away, Tierney is now fake crying (she cries whenever the other 2 cry) and Brannon sobbing, sniffling, screaming. Oh, and the dog is barking because Wes ran to the back windows and is telling her elves are in the back yard. When I get Brannon calmed down, I learn that his primary worry is that the elf is going to eat him!!! Hmmmm.... note to self, elf trick doesn't work on Brannon.

Yeah, I finally did it!

Ok, I have been meaning to start blogging for months now. I could just never seem to find the time to get the page started. It was easier than I thought and I can now see how it would become quite addicting. Ben is traveling so much now with his new job (Healthcare Services Account Manger with GE Healthcare) that now, after the kids are in the bed in the evenings, I have some "me" time. Which means I finally have time to run this little blog site! I gave the site this title because I do feel most days like I live in a zoo, and it's sort of a take-off of one of my favorite children's books: Where the Wild Things Are. For the most part, I will be the one making most entries because I am the one with the time to do it! But, if Ben ever posts a blog, he'll be sure to sign his name so you'll always know the author. Over the next couple of days I will figure out how to add pictures. Please check back often, I am so excited to be able to update our family and friends on what is going on with us on a daily basis! Please add your comments too- I would love to know your thoughts as well and to see who is checking in.

Everyone is asking when we are moving. Here is our latest news: Ben started with GE about 4 weeks ago (and LOVES it.) He is trainging until Christmas which basically means he is traveling all over God's green earth every weekday until Christmas. Somehow, we have managed to find time to go house hunting and we decided to build a house in the Crystal Falls neighborhood of Cedar Park (nothwest suburb of Austin.) We are so excited to get the house we want (and a kitchen I LOVE) yet it's going to be June before our house is done. Which, with the current housing market, will probably be ok since it may take that long for our current house to sell! If our current house sells before our new house is ready, well...we will cross that bridge if/when we get there. If you want to peruse the Crystal Falls website (link at sidebar) then we are building with Drees and it's the Essex floorplan, elevation B (but we've changed a lot of it so it doesn't exactly look like the one shown.)

Ok, that's all for tonight. I need to work on how to post pictures and video.