I want to apologize if I ever wasn’t patient enough when you had ear infections. I had no idea of how excruciatingly painful the pressure of an ear infection is. I now understand fully why you would cry for hours on end.

Love,
Your Mother

I have been sick for over a week now. What started as a cold is now a severe ear infection with a bulging eardrum that is terribly painful. I just want to feel better. I want to be able to hold my head up straight. I want to let my children know that I am sorry for the pain they experienced.

Annie got her rollerblades on in record time and kept them on practically all day!

Paul opened his skateboard and got right to skating around!

The kids took turns opening up all the other presents. Grammy and Aunt Steph stopped by in the middle of our present opening.

We had a wonderful breakfast after opening the gifts and enjoyed each others company.

Kimberly spent a lot of her day relaxing on her new HUGE pillow pet from Grammy playing her new DS.

Paul even found a way to enjoy his new DS games and his skateboard!

We had a nice family dinner and hung out together. It was a very nice and laid back kind of Christmas.

Christmas Eve began with Candlelight service. Such a wonderful way to start things off. The Girls were again in such awe of the candle and the light that was generate when everyone lit their candles. I took photos of them where their faces were illuminated from the candle light only. I love them!

We went to Grammy’s house for Christmas dinner and to open presents with the cousins. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time and the meal was wonderful.

We got home late, put out the reindeer food, milk and cookies for Santa and the kids feel fast asleep. While they were sleeping Santa came to visit.

Paul’s is the mitten and aside from the idea of it I pretty much made it for him. The Girls sketched out their ideas. I helped them cut them out but they glued everything down and created them.

Kimberly made the present and Santa hat. Annie made the candy cane and snowflake. Madeline created the wreath and bell.

They are so sweet and adorable.

Did you notice it???

Madeline somehow missed it when I was telling all the girls to get black dress shoes on! All I can say is, “kids . . . gotta love ‘em”

For the first couple of nights she slept at the top of the stairs on the carpet but then she started trying new spots. One night Bill went up to make sure the kids were covered and turn off their night lights and he found Lucy on Annie’s bed.

It was just so cute.

She has since moved to starting the night out sleeping in our bathroom on the rug, but still moves around during the night.

I wonder where she will eventually decide.

This year we are adding opening our Christmas cards at dinner each night and elfing.

Yesterday we received our first Christmas card and one of the kids opened it and we read it and talked about the person who gave us the card. It was so nice to spend time talking about the person who took the time to send us a card. Christmas cards seem to be something that people find to be expendable in this day and age. I personally love to give and receive them. I think this fun family tradition will be a keeper.

Today we baked some homemade goodies and set out to elf our neighbors and a couple of friends. We made molasses crinkles, oreo truffles shaped like green Christmas trees, pumpkin bread, pretzels dipped in white chocolate with candy canes, and 7 layer cookies. We had gathered some Christmas ornaments and various other treats and filled bags for our friends and neighbors. We used this printable to include with our packages.

I taught the kids how to ring the door bell twice, drop the bag and run. (Otherwise known as doorbell ditching.) We had such fun, so much that even grinch Bill was smiling and laughing. We already have plans to elf several more friends tomorrow. Imagine the holiday cheer we can spread if each person we elf in turn elfs two more.

Cheers for new traditions!

Annie and Kimberly are celebrating their 9th Christmases!!!!

Just a flash ago they were tiny babies celebrating their first Christmas with us.

And a short time later we added Madeline to the bunch. Paul came a bit later and the fact that he is only celebrating his 4th Christmas with us when it seems he has been here all along, is just as daunting of a thought.

The years certainly fly by and it gives me great reason to stop and take the time every single day to capture all the time I can with them.

Kimberly:
1st Christmas: Elephant cookie and baby bib with picture
2nd Christmas: Gingerbread house with crayons on it
3rd Christmas: polar bear with the ice cream
4th Christmas: reindeer that says Daughter
5th Christmas: Rose Fairy (which is perfect because she loves her middle name)
6th Christmas: Rudolph and elf
7th Christmas: Cookies on a cookie sheet
8th Christmas: Masterpiece ornament
9th Christmas: Baking sheet with gingerbread house on it

Annie:
1st Christmas: Giraffe cookie and baby bib with picture
2nd Christmas: Curious George
3rd Christmas: Red bird
4th Christmas: horse with teddy bear
5th Christmas: White cat
6th Christmas: Animals in the house
7th Christmas: Barbie 3 Musketeer
8th Christmas: Cat on Santa hat
9th Christmas: Rudolph

Mimi:
1st Christmas: Snowbaby in envelope and mobile with picture
2nd Christmas: teddy in the box
3rd Christmas: Santa in a car
4th Christmas: Hippopotamus for Christmas
5th Christmas: Christmas Tree Bear
6th Christmas: Santa riding on a Reindeer
7th Christmas: Countdown to Christmas

Paul:
1st Christmas: Number one cookie with bear
2nd Christmas: Train
3rd Christmas: Mickey Mouse driving a train
4th Christmas: Number 4 with bear

Last weekend, Annie and Kimberly attended a birthday party at Castles ‘n’ Coasters and they went together on the log ride. I stood on some stairs so I could get a good view and cheer them on. Unfortunately, the first time I saw them they were both wailing and freaking out—even screaming “Get us off this!” After going through the two drops, they were still crying and warned the other Browns about their experience as soon as they got home.

Tonight, we were watching Once Upon a Christmas—a super cheesy Christmas movie—and we got to the scene where the father got knocked unconscious in a burning cabin. Everyone except Madeline started rocking and crying with worry. We reassured them that it was a Christmas movie and would have a happy ending. Once they calmed down, we explained to them about drama and tension. Madeline helpfully chimed in that it even happened on Dora the Explorer.

I think we’ve done a capable job of raising independent, curious children. Usually, I think their innocence and naivety works towards that goal because they want to understand the wonder of our world. Sandi was fairly sheltered as a child and I found this aspect of her refreshing when we were dating. (I was, to put it mildly and without elaboration, very aware of the world and its darker areas from a very early age.)

But sometimes I worry that we’re doing them a disservice. Kids can be cruel, innocence can lead to gullibility, and entertainment isn’t always pleasant. I don’t want them to become real-life versions of Rod and Todd Flanders—subject to the torments of people like Bart Simpson and incapable of being exposed to bad things.

Personally, I hope it’s just their ages and that they’ll loosen up over time. If anyone reading this has faced a similar situation, we’d love to hear your experiences.

We had the staircase painted so that we can finally begin to work on our gallery wall. I have been dreaming of this wall transformation since we bought this house so to now be this close is awesome. I will also be able to hang my Father’s painting once I get it framed.

Today the Girls and I planted some yellow and orange mums to replace the ones that didn’t make it through the 120 degree summer. It was drizzly out but we got them done quickly and they look great.

So many more projects to get done around here. Not sure we will ever have the time, but we will work on them little by little as we can.

When I was a teacher I knew that my children, (the ones I dreamed about at the time), would NEVER behave like some of the kids in my class. Thankfully this dream came true. I couldn’t imagine being a parent to some of the children I just spent two days with.

I know every generation wonders how the next will ever carry on. The youth of today seems so indulged, so apathetic and so lazy that sometimes I catch myself worrying over what the future will be like for my children. But then I am reminded of how the weak from my childhood are not those creating the future, the strong are. There definitely were those strong individuals who still worked hard and did their best even though there were huge obstacles to overcome.

So for now I will be here relishing in the perfect children I have, thankful that my dream of well behaved children came true!

I have loved the past 8 years raising and hanging out with the kids day in and day out but I have missed teaching in a classroom. I relished the days that I was volunteering and always knew that I would come back to teaching in some fashion. Right now substitute teaching fulfills me, it gives me what I need for me. Many have asked if I will return back to full time teaching and my response is that I have no plans to do so, but you never know what the future holds.

I am happy to have this opportunity to be in a classroom on a small level. It was a great day and I look forward to the next day I can help out.

We spent the years enjoying her.

We certainly will miss her.

This was the first year we were there early enough to park our car in the lot and decorate. The kids loved it.

And it proved to be a wonderful place later in the night to stow the kids away.

The Girls got their faces painted.

Had their fortunes read.

We also went in the haunted house, jumped in the bouncy houses and ate hot dogs in the parking lot.

Always such a great thing to fit into the busy Halloween weekend.

I will get pictures of the kids with the pumpkins tonight at trick or treating. Since it was daylight I opted to wait and get the finished pictures later.

This year we changed our tradition a tiny it to work Annie’s birthday better into the extremely busy schedule of Halloween weekend. We had her birthday dinner on “labor day.”

She requested salisbury steak (which she calls big meatballs), mashed potato and canned peas. Grammy made her pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese icing. They were super tasty and Annie loved the relighting candle.

Since the next morning would be busy with party prep we had her open her presents that night. She liked the DS Mommy and Daddy bought her, along with the Webkinz her sisters gave her, and Littlest Pet Shop Paul gave her. The gift that got her most excited for her birthday was the HUGE cat pillow pet Grammy gave her!

When she woke up she came to see me in the morning. I wished her a Happy Birthday and she said “Thanks Mom. I always like for you to be the first one to wish me happy birthday.” Such a sweet and gentle lady.

The afternoon of her birthday she wanted to go to Pita Jungle for hummus and pita bread.

Happy Birthday Annie Girl. I love you lots!

We went this past Saturday and the kids had fun. It was far more busy than usual. I am thinking that they must have done a lot more marketing to make sure plenty came and made it worth them budgeting it in.

They have tons of carnival games for the kids to play and even bounce houses. This year the girls weren’t afraid to get in the balloon and have their picture taken.

My Great Grandmother was amazing at a lot of things but cooking wasn’t one of them. I can recall her burning toast when I slept over at her house and we always had really simple meals.

When Great Grandma would babysit my mother would let us pick out frozen dinners for her to cook for us. We each were able to choose different things and because we rarely had them they were a huge treat.

Just last week the kids and I had gone out to a late lunch and then shopping at Walmart. They were getting hungry for dinner and I wasn’t so I strolled down the frozen meal isle thinking about picking up a frozen pizza or some chicken nuggets when I remembered this fond memory.

I let each child choose their own frozen meal. They were just as excited as I was when I was little! To top it off each of them got to cook the meal in the microwave thereby making this a meal that they not only chose but a meal they prepared for themselves.

So glad I thought to share the magic of having a frozen meal for dinner with them. Going to have to remember to do that once or twice a year!