Why oh why!!!

I found this picture by Jill Greenberg searching the web for the perfect crying child picture that might somehow depict my week so far...yes I know its only Wednesday! I know every mother in the world has gone through a week like mine but I want to write about it so I remember how great "normal" days are. It started Sunday with Ashlyn telling us about her "chooters", that's her way of explaining the crackling noises in her ears. Well its typical for her to tell us about it, fast forward to Monday, she was fine all day and then the evening fell and as you all know how the saying goes; all "heck" broke loose. Sure lets have a raging ear infection that no numbing drops or Tylenol will solve at 11:30 at night. Ok so we worked with her until about 2:30. Back to Monday morning. Ryleigh's eye was goopy and a little swollen, so I called the doctor, the answer? Oh she probably just has allergies. Watch it and give us a call if she needs anything. Ok here we are again fast forwarding to Monday night. In between putting Ashlyn down we were helping a crying Ryeligh. Her eye now swollen shut and goop in both eyes at 1:00am. Fine we can handle 2 kids no problem. Wait whats this a screaming 3 month old, inconsolable, this isn't like Christian, something must be wrong! Fine! Lets try this, Tylenol, warm rice bag on tummy, gas drops and finally teething gel. YES!!! We finally lay down to sleep and have all three kids in bed with us one after the other. 3:30am sleep! Hallelujah...6:00am already we just closed our eyes. Well at least we can get to the doctor! Diagnosis, Ashlyn: Throat infection & Ear Infection, Ryleigh: a scratched eye turned into bacteria infection (we were told if it got anymore swollen we would have to go to the ER to have her on an iv or else she might loose sight in her eye...ahhhh WHAT!) Christian: Teething & Cutting in...his eye teeth...WHAT!!!! With prescriptions in hand, at least we can sleep tonight. Nope we pulled an all nighter again! Mad screaming in pain crying children. So I am tallying my hours of sleep 5 Total in 2 nights. I love my babies! With Stewart gone from 6:00am - 10:00pm he needs his rest, but i need my hair. I think i have just about pulled it all out!

When Life Hands You Skittles

So today Stewy starts school again to finish up before applying to Physical Therapy School this year end. As I'm sure many of you can sympathize, he was a little anxious to go back. Ashlyn had come in as we were talking about it and I asked her if she was scared on her first day of school. She said yes I was scared, so I asked her if she could tell Daddy what made her feel better and what he could do to help himself not be nervous. She said:

1. Raise your Hand!

2. Cross your legs like this!

(her preschool sits Indian-style for the morning song and hellos for the day)

3. Do your Homework and you will get a skittle!

Its okay!

Her excitement for Daddy to go to school and her innocence I think gave him a little boost of confidence. I thought it was so sweet how she bravely told him her fears and how she overcame them.

Heels

Pearls and boas, dressed to the nines,

Lipstick on pursed lips, trying hard to stay in the lines,

Big wobbly high heels on tiny, precious feet,

Little girls playing dress up - aren't they sweet!

-laura taylor mark

I love when my girls run around the house in my heels. One of the sweetest sounds are the giggles that accompany the click, click, click on the tile floor. Ryleigh is a seasoned pro in them and Ashlyn thinks she's big! I feel so honored to have my girls want to be in "my shoes"!

Jschomaker Photography Giveaway

Ok as almost everyone knows, I have a super close friend who is an amazing photographer. She has a prize up for grabs on her blog that I want! So, Please help me out and check out her blog: http://jschomaker.blogspot.com/ and please comment on the january 5th post. I know its selfish but trust me if you keep up to date on her site it will be worth the trip over to her blog. I am so grateful for her friendship, spunk, talent and the list goes on...She took this picture of our little Ashy, which of course I love. Jenny has made quite a few covers of magazines with her Photographs of the Kiaya Eve petti skirt. SO, of course I am selfishly asking for some traffic on her blog. So, basically if you are taking apeek at this blog because you are a friend, family member, or someone who is just blog hopping, check it out and tell her I sent you! I also have a link on my blog that will take you directly to her site where you can view all her work and a link to her blog. Enjoy! http://jschomaker.com/

New Years

We had a great time New Years Eve! We went to dinner at the new Laredo Cantina at the San Tan Village shops with our good friends Chris & Jenny Schomaker. The kids all have such a good time together and I'm not just talking about the little ones...hehe! It was freezing, but after dinner we decided to help the kids with their wiggles so we went over to the play area. It was great! It was just our families and we had a blast, we danced and sang and took countless pictures. Jenny sorry for the unfortunate picture taking by yours truly, I am afraid I have done no justice. But, besides that we had a great time laughing! Thanks for a great night guys! We hope this New Year will be the best yet!








The Next day we woke up for Breakfast at IHOP...the breakfast of champions! Then we took the little ladies to the Movie Theater for the show enchanted. It was so cute and the girls loved it. My brother Reed & his wife Kamarie invited us over to their place for the final resting stop of the new year, where we had a great dinner with mood lighting, thanks to their new homes quirks! All in all it was a great time. I look forward to all the fun we will have over the next months until our time has come to celebrate another year!

This & That

With all the chaos this holiday season has brought I am just now taking a second to post. I had this great idea of a slide show with all the events but, thanks to my tag item number 2 in the post below, I forgot my camera charger at my mother-in-laws house and I was only able to capture a few pictures without them being fuzzy. Having said that, Christmas was really great this year. Uncle Tommy came home from his 2 year Mission in Milwaukee, WI ( I guess the natives call it M'waky...who knew! ) Anyhow, that started it off great, with seeing extended family. Then we went to the Crosser Family Christmas Eve party which is always an adventure! We participated in a "white elephant gift exchange" where we inherited Princess our "Kermit Crab" as the girls call "him". POOR Guy!

After that we had a great Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa Peterson and the Aunts and Uncles. It was very exciting to see how the little girls eyes lit up when they would open a gift.

Of course then it was off to Winslow for Tommy's Homecoming talk and again another great dinner with the family.

Then a quick surprise to Grandma & Grandpa Smiths house where we were all very educated. We took care of our body's inner chi and a little extra that I will only show you a picture of...the rest is up to your imagination!

Finally home again and ready to celebrate the new year! What a wild ride the past few weeks have been!