Can you believe? TWO THOUSAND-EIGHT!!!! WOWZERS! GOOD GOOGALY MOOGALY! :0)

I hope everyone has a wonderful new year day! How was your new year's eve? I am currently hangin' out typing on my laptop, in the living room with my hubby who is watching some football! How cool is that! Laptop on my lapdesk...chillin'. Love it! We're gonna just chill. Watch some tv, maybe a movie. Then at midnight we'll go on the backporch and watch everyone else's fireworks. Works for me!

Ok, so my house isn't coming along much. We had Christmas all over again yesterday with Carol so my house got pretty destroyed again and my kids got tons of stuff. So now I'll start over with cleaning, organizing, etc. BUT then my aunt Beth and uncle Marion come on Wed...hmmm...it may all have to wait until Friday or the weekend. Goodness....I love the company, I love the holiday, but I'm ready for some normalcy. Ready for Caleb to go back to PreK and me have some time to clean! My kids are getting used to too many sweets, treats, and presents.

Hmmm...anything funny today....can't think of anything off the top of my head....we really just hung out today. Played in the backyard, went to the park/playground this evening, played Hullabaloo (my kids' favorite new game..thanks Sis!). That sort of thing. I can't come up with anything right now but I'll give it some thought....later.

gonna go watch some guy try to set a new world record for long distance jumping (he's doing it on a dirtbike). CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY! He'll hit a height of more than a six story building, and has to go over 310 feet (longer than the complete length of a football field).
We'll see how it goes!

:0)
~robin

Every year at this time I want to do some serious cleaning, organizing, and de-cluttering. You know how it is, your house gets destroyed from the holidays, your house fills with new stuff, and that means...well, it's a mess and you just don't have enough room for everything anymore. That's how it is here at least. Even if I received just one present I think I would feel this way. A complete overhaul of my house needs to take place and I'm just the woman to do it!?! I started so far with the kids' rooms. Georgia's room is cleaned, reorganized, and closet is cleaned out. Caleb's room is... well, reorganized a bit with a new under-bed train table...closet is still a disaster. It just diminishes from there. My house is plenty picked up, but the deep cleaning still has to happen. Seems like when I take the time though to do some extra cleaning, some deep cleaning, then the little things pile up. Lord just give me one extra day. An extra 24 hours, KID FREE, that I could devote to cleaning WITHOUT little ones behind me making more messes. I'm gonna work on it though. I need some new shelves in the play room closet, some way to organize the games and rotation toys. I still need to figure out some sort of organization for my bedroom and my closet...well, that's the scariest area of the house! (aside from the garage but that doesn't count right?) But one room at a time. One extra cleaning chore a day on top of the regular cleaning...and by May I may be finished! :0)

New Year's resolutions...are you making any? I always seem to make A LOT! You know the standards: exercise more, eat less junk, devote more time to Bible study and prayer, have a more structured and productive day with the kids, learn something new (this year mine is how to better utilize my camera and it's features, plus Photoshop), save a lot more and spend A LOT less....just overhaul myself! Hmmm... doesn't sound like too much right? I'm all for the thought of having a lot of goals so maybe I'll hit at least one or two of them! Right now I have huge expectations, I can do it all! :0) (it would help GREATLY though if God would at least add maybe 3 hours to each day!)

Hmmm....anything funny happen today? I want to try to take the time to remember/jot down little things when I post. Those little things that could go by unnoticed. (sounds like ANOTHER resolution doesn't it?) Honestly though, not sure if there was anything today...Georgia is talking more and more and still screaming "MOMMA!" at me...not my favorite thing. If you've been around her, you've probably witnessed this...it's not pretty. We're working on it but she's a bit head-strong (must get that from her father I'm sure!). Oh...I know something worth noting . I saw God's wonderful hands at work today. I saw Him cradle my daughter, protect her. Georgia was on the third step on our back porch...third CONCRETE step. She was coming up the steps but Eli was going down. He barely bumped her but he did, just enough for her to lose her balance. Those steps are always my greatest fear as they are rough concrete and lead down to more rough concrete. Georgia fell backwards, down one step onto her rump and down the next on her head and onto the porch turned to her face. On the corner even! It was one of the scariest moments I have had in a while. I was only a few steps away, but enough to be out of arm's reach and helpless as she tumbled. Just like that, 3 seconds of time but scary and possibly very damaging. I was terrified and quickly scooped her up to survey the damage. NONE. Not a single scratch or mark. Not a bump, a bruise, or a bo-bo of any kind. She was scared (although not half as much as me) but stopped crying within 10 seconds. I myself took much longer to compose myself and in that time, I thanked Him for protecting her. For being where I wasn't, doing what I couldn't. Gotta love that about Him. :0)

all for now!
see ya soon!
:0)
~robin

Merry Christmas everyone! We had a fabulous day today. I'm BEYOND exhausted and trying my best to stay up later than my Pops...gotta say though, it's gonna be tough. I hope to make it another 30 minutes max.
Got up around 7:20 with Caleb running into our bedroom hollering "SANTA BWOUGHT ME MY WAVA WAMP!" (lava lamp in Calebennese) He was so stinkin' excited. We were lacking the energy that Caleb obviously had and stumbled into the living room a bit blurry eyed. Pops was there waiting and grinning. Caleb then went through all of his Santa loot and loved it all. His stocking was filled with great goodies, his favorite probably being his candy canes (which lasted approx. 45 seconds), his monster trucks, and his own scissors. We each did our stockings before waking up the princess of the house. She too didn't look so thrilled at being woken up although she at least got to sleep until after 8. Eyebrows furrowed and lips puckered, she slowly took in what was going on around her. Then she started to enjoy it all...but only slightly, making Daddy empty her stocking for her as she sat on his lap. She loved the wind up toys and her miniature Little Einstein figures. (I think she carried those around for most of the day!). Then the kids watched a Christmas cartoon while I prepared and made sausage balls. Kids ate breakfast... when sausage balls were complete and kids finished eating we got to go into the front room for opening gifts. Everyone had a blast. I think Caleb's favorites were his moon sand, the big/HUGE stack of paper from Dadaw, etc...it's hard to tell with Caleb, he truly seemed to enjoy it all and actually played with EVERYTHING at some point today. Georgia was easy to tell.. definitely her "My First Dollhoouse"...she LOVED it. Now, baby girl is pretty ill...fighting a really bad cold or possible sinus infection so her enjoying ANYTHING today was rare. She did a lot of crying and took two long naps (and still in bed for the night by 8). So really the only thing that got and held her attention was the dollhouse. Super cute though.

How was your Christmas? Drop me an email and let me know! It's kind odd..wondering who reads this and not knowing...
Whoever you are, I hope you had a WONDERFUL time with family and friends. Some time to also reflect and KNOW why this day is celebrated, why we have always had the most amazing Christmas present ever...it can never be topped...Christ. When you take the time to ponder that, there really is no gift that can ever be better.

huge hugs to "you"
:0)
~robin

The performance went WONDERFULLY! He did a perfect job and I loved the show. I will post more later, just wanted to get the photos up...hopefully a video will be up soon..if I can figure it out!
more later friends (isn't he the CUTEST COW you've ever seen??) Oh...and in his classroom party, I walked in to see someone being wrapped in toilet paper, it was Caleb! He was being turned into a snowman! tooooo cute and funny!)
~me

As a SAHM, we have the joys of doing all those "cute" activities that children often do at schools and/or daycares, here at home! You know what I'm talking about right? This time of year...all of the cute little Christmas things that kids make. Be it ornaments with glitter, a Santa of construction paper, or the handprint wreath....they make SOMETHING for you to hang up and grin over. So...as a SAHM and childcare provider of another little one..I look forward to embarking upon this time honored tradition myself. This year I decided to go with a footprint/handprint Rudolph composed of the prints "stamped" with paint. Seemed like a good idea...earlier today. I gleefully got out the papers, made some brown paint, stripped the girls down to diapers, and prepared for the "fun" craft. Well...I was NOT prepared for or even considerate of how my baby girl would react to this. I was preparing myself for a possible mess from the girls wanting to have fun with the paint, wanting to play in it...smear it....that sort of thing. In my mind I was steering myself to keep it business and not let the girls get into the paint. Hmmm....I'm obviously new to doing this with little girls and was basing my view on how my son always reacted to paint (or anything somewhat/entirely messy)...the girls...did NOT react the same. As I picked Georgia up and walked towards the TINY container of brown paint (I actually found one that was almost the exact size of their feet...as not to have too much slip-sliding room), she got HYSTERICAL! She obviously knew what I intended to do with her foot and she was appalled at the idea! She started SCREAMING HYSTERICALLY (with huge crocodile tears even!) "NOOOOOOO MOMMA! YUUUUUCKY! YUUUUUCKY!" She wanted NOTHING to do with this slime in which I intended to submerse her foot. Now, as you are picturing what this probably looked like..let me let you in on the saving grace of this project...while Georgia was indeed screaming hysterically, she did NOT thrash about. So THANKFULLY, she was just loud, VERY loud. I continued with the matter at hand, dunked her foot and stamped it onto two different pieces of paper. Then I cleaned her off, dried her, and let her down where she very quickly dashed from the room and my evil grip. Gab was much easier and although she whimpered while I put her through the same torture, whimper and whine was all she did. After all of that I then got the supplies for the next project...a marker and cardstock to simply trace the girls' hands so I can then trace them on green paper and make wreaths. Gabriella was fine with this idea and let me trace her hands without a care in the world. As I approached Georgia though she jumped from the sofa and ran away, again crying hysterically "NOOOOOO MOMMA!". So, that will be worked on later. Wish me luck.
I will say....Caleb was MUCH easier. He got home from preK, I showed him what I wanted to do. He sat down and let me do what I needed done. That was it.

Later I shall attempt to do all of the kids' hands in black paint for the "antlers" of our footprint Rudolphs.

hmmmm....wanna' come over and help?

:0)
~robin

This looks like it's gonna be a great weekend. Yesterday I went and surprised my family in Kerrville and showed up for the day. First we went to Mimi/PapaL's house where we just visited, ate lunch, and watched the kids run around crazy with PapaL. At one point C was "swimming" across the floor chasing PapaL hollering "the fish is going to eat the shark! I GOT YA!" They had a grand time and I think that man has more energy than I do! He just plays with them nonstop and I LOVE seeing the kids have such a great time...NO TOYS involved! All it takes is PapaL!
Then we headed over to my sis's house where we COMPLETELY surprised her. I was even on the phone with her while in her house, her not knowing that I was standing across the room. It was fabulous to see her reaction. :0) I needed the day of hangin' with my sis...just visiting. We haven't gotten to do that in a while. It was needed and cherished. She even got me off my bum to do her walk with her she is doing each day. I think it's a horrible reflection of my laziness lately that my sis, a mom of 5, preggers with number 6, exercises each day yet I haven't done that in ... well...way too long to calculate. So...it was nice. We stayed the remainder of the day, had dinner, and then headed back home. It was a perfect day.
Now today is here. About to get everyone up and ready for church. Then we'll probably get lunch, run some errands..that sort of thing. I hope to hit Old Navy and Barnes and Noble where I'll pick up my Christmas presents from my Mom/PapaL. :0) then we'll come spend some time at home..and then... my hubby and I get to go on a date! My friend S is going to babysit so we can go on a long date...well...not all day or anything (although that would be nice sometime) but at least dinner and a movie without us paying $40 at the child drop in center. We're probably going to do an early dinner and then go see "I Am Legend". My hubby bubby really wants to see that movie. I'm not as thrilled with the idea. It looks good but I don't really like movies with mutated people and dogs and such. Just kinda' creepy. But I am a Will Smith fan and there are definitely parts of the movie that look good....no other movie is jumping out at me....so that's probably what we'll see. (on a side note..I saw in one of the previews a clip that shows Will on a treadmill and his German Shepherd next to him also on a treadmill..I'm seriously considering this form of exercise for Eli..what a great idea!)
All in all...it's turning out to be a fabulous weekend! It's gorgeous weather too. It's pretty chilly.. today's high is 56 BUT it's sunny and beautiful! LOOOOOVE it!

alright, better hop in the shower. I'm gonna give B a call too and see if she and Gab want to come to church with us as well!
:0)
~me

Ok, I am officially finished shopping for Christmas! Now, I was finished with almost everyone MONTHS ago, everyone outside of my own home...but now...I am totally finished! Tonight we hit Target and got the remainder of our stocking stuffers including what I needed for Pops'...YEA! Today during nap I even wrapped all presents for all nieces and nephews and FINISHED our cards. They are all sealed and ready for the mail tomorrow. Tonight we finished our outside lights too....that's it! All I have to do now is more wrapping! I love being done early because I can sit back, watch Christmas movies, and relax. Ahhhhh....love it. I can't wait to give the gifts now and I hope that everyone likes what I got them. I honestly didn't put tons of thought into the adult gifts this year...we had the opportunity to buy everything so long ago that I had to get most adults gift cards but I really like what I got for all the kiddos. I look forward to seeing if they like them too.

Let's see...what else has been going on you ask? Well, Brandon had a minor "procedure" this past Monday and it went well. His recovery has been fabulous and we have loved having him home for FOUR DAYS! It has gone super, super well. We will all miss him going back to work tomorrow. Georgia will probably go all day in the same diaper and pjs because she only lets Daddy change her lately and I'm complete "chopped liver" in her eyes. Maybe I won't appear so useless when Daddy's not here. :0)

I find myself in a new position that will be the first of probably many...Caleb has an upcoming Christmas performance at his preschool. It's his first performance and I am very unsure of how he'll do. He LOVES to sing and often loves to sing for others...BUT....catch him at a bad time and he will refuse and ....well...it's not pretty. He is a cow for the performance too and hasn't been overly excited about that so far. He has shared with me that he doesn't want to be the cow, he wants to be the dog. We will see if this causes a problem or not. Right now I've resorted to mild bribery and guilt...sharing with him how much "I LOOOOVE cows! I hope you'll be a great cow for Momma. I bet if you do a good job at the Christmas show then we can go get a treat!" (that's not TOO bad of bribery is it?) Tonight was the first time he shared with me some of the songs they'll be singing. I didn't really understand all of what he was trying to tell me but I definitely got "We wish you a merry Christmas" (complete with arm pumping on "wish"), something like "Twinkle twinkle little star" but with "Christmas star" instead, and then he started singing some sort of song that mentioned all of the animals and each of their sounds...then he threw up his arms while exclaiming "How can the baby sleep? Oh how can the baby sleep with that?" (obviously part of the song). I started laughing out loud! It sounds adorable! I have no clue how the song truly is sung or the exact words BUT what I could catch was hysterical! I SOOO hope that Caleb really sings at the performance but as all parents know...it's anyone's guess...there's just no way to know. Caleb's first opportunity to perform...I wonder if it will be a performance of what the teachers are looking for and have practiced or a performance "all Caleb"... wish us the best! (performance is next Thursday)

Some other new things from Caleb...when I was decorating some more in the house the other day I went into his room where he was quietly playing (which can often be alarming). He was stringing beads onto laces...a long time favorite toy of his. When he saw me watching him he said "Look Momma! I'm making decorations too!" He then ran out to find a place in which to hang this beautiful (?) strand of beads. He didn't have much luck on the tree (the beads are WAY too heavy) or really anywhere else he tried. I tied the ends together for him though and then he ran to hang them on his bedroom door. He happily said "Look Momma...these are for Santa to see! I'll hang them for Santa. Aren't they BEEEUTIFUL?" it was super cute.

One more thing....while watching Little Einsteins the other day he turned to me and said "I like June" (one of the girls in the show). I said "Really?" He said "yep!" I said "Ok. Why do you like June?" He said "because she's a girl." I said "Hmm...well, Annie is a girl too. Do you like Annie too?" He said "Nope, just June" I asked "Why June and not Annie?" He turned to me with a very serious look on his face, eyebrows furrowed...and said "Momma, June dances. I like that."
So...there ya' have it. :0)

ok, enough for now. As my husband just commented "What? Are you writing a book???"

I hope all of you are having fabulous evenings!
~robin

Christmas music is currently playing on the boom box next to me (a bit too loud I must say), the kiddos are eating lunch, the house is on its way to being a bit cleaner. For every mess I clean, another gets made. This is a lesson all Moms know (and ok...SOME Dads) and it's downright annoying. I cleaned the playroom and then moved on to hanging lights in the kids' rooms...only to find that they had then made a pretty sizable mess in the playroom. Ughh. The light is at the end of the tunnel though...NAP TIME is approaching! So...the girls will nap, Caleb will do quiet time, and MAYBE I'll be able to get some cleaning done. My goal: the MOUNTAIN of clean clothes in the hallway...get them folded AND put away. When that is done I dare say that I hope to also vacuum and empty/fill the dishwasher. May as well reach for the stars right? ;0)
As this season is full upon us now..and I am FINALLY actually feeling like it is the Christmas season, I reflect on what an AMAZING thing God did. Have his son sent HERE to Earth...knowing what would come. Do all of us that have kids not count the days during our pregnancies, relishing in our baby's growth, loving the wonderful thing inside of us before even meeting him/her. Then when our baby is born we can't help but to think of all of the wonderful things to come. The milestones, the memories. How would those be overshadowed if we knew exactly how and when (and quite horribly) our little one would die? Yet He did it. He did it for us. It truly gives me goosebumps each time I think of it. He loves us so much that he had his son born for us, to die for us. I don't think I could see my son skin a knee for someone else...at my hand...much less the horrible death Christ was put through.
What an AWESOME God. How very unworthy I feel yet how overpowered I am by His love, grace, and forgiveness.
Thank you Lord.

I shall return later...hopefully in victory over my goals!
:0)
~robin

Ok..so I created a blog today at blogspot and was upset that some of my more direct blogger names wouldn't work. I found a new one and really liked it..it was livingpsalm3. Psalm 3:5-6 is my all time favorite Bible verse, one that I remind myself of daily and try whole heartedly to live by. Well, as I was working on that blog I saw that I had another blog...this one! I must have set this up at least a year ago as the photo of Georgia was when she was less than a year old. Don't know why I set this blog up initially and think it's funny that I thought "cajunal01" was taken already..well, it was..but by me. Ya know, the same exact thing happened to my sis! Only, I had remembered my password and had actually set up 2 blogs under one account (I didn't know that could be done!)
alas, for now..I bid you farewell so I can get my kiddos out of the tub and start the process of bedtime.
I'll be back later!
:0)
~robin