Internet I have been busy! I know that you have too so we will make this quick…

First of all, Christmas was great. A while back I promised you a slide show of what I like to call the “Great Toddler Nativity Scene Re-enactment of 2008.” As I mentioned before, I had the pleasure of watching 30 toddlers act out the Nativity scene which was, by far, one of the highlights of the season.

Isaac took his role of king very seriously, focusing on the baby Jesus intently. So intently, that while the others faced the audience to sing their songs of adoration, my eldest son sang directly to the plastic baby in the wooden crib. He is very spiritual.

While the king was praising the plastic baby Jesus, Joshua the “angel” was busy wandering around the stage, rubbing his eyes and looking for Mommy.  

Below are a few pictures from the event, I hope you enjoy. Please ignore Isaac’s hair in the last picture - let’s just say the crown wreaked some havoc. Give a kid a break, okay?

On to Christmas. Well, we packed up our car with a ridiculous amount of presents and junk and headed to my mom’s house for 5 days. There really is nothing better than traveling with toddlers - toddlers who are aware their presents are behind them in the car(not the ones from Santa of course) and they can’t open them for 24 more hours. Oh the Joy! And did I mention that everyone (besides mom) developed a sinus infection on the 23rd? We ended up in the doctor’s office on Christmas Eve and were loaded up on antibiotics by noon that day.

Aside from the snot and the complaining (Kevin!) we managed to have a lovely Christmas Eve with my parents, Grandpa and almost all of my sisters. The kids got to play with their cousins a lot and it was great to see how Morgan, our token girl in the family, did with the big boys. Christmas Eve we got all of the little ones in the bathtub together, which was awesome, and by “awesome” I mean there were lots of pictures taken that will embarrass the crap out of the kids for years to come.

Overall, Christmas was great. I got a lovely pair of hand carved jade earrings, Kevin got a guitar, Isaac got a Leapfrog Leapster and Joshua also got a guitar (aka his “la la”). Since Christmas, we have only had to go to Target once to return the defective Leapster and there has been less than 10 meltdowns/tantrums over sharing new toys - we measure success in small steps. Below are some pictures of the Christmas festivities.

Tomorrow I turn 32 and well, yeah that sucks. My birthday kinda makes me sad so I have resolved to write a post tomorrow about what makes me happy: beauty products. Stay tuned for reviews and suggestions for favorite products.

I also mentioned in an earlier post that I started Weight Watchers and I will be offering a review of that on Tuesday, after I complete my first week. I will give you a hint though - I have already lost 1 pound!

This weekend I made 100 sugar cookies. I am broken and tired but they are finished. Every year I make the same cookies and every year I swear I won’t do it again because they are so much work. However, sometime around the 20th of December I find myself knee deep in flour and sugar and home made icing.

The recipe I use is from Mrs. Fields cookie cook book, and it is very simple. I just quadruple the ingredients and then add some powdered sugar frosting. This year I used powdered sugar to roll the dough out, which was a GREAT new trick because the dough doesn’t get hard with added flour and the cookies are a little sweeter! Below is what they look like before frosting:

And here is the final product:

I bought Christmas themed Chinese food boxes and put about 6-8 cookies in each box and attached a bow. I then delivered my little goodies to my fellow employees. Yeah me!

Tomorrow I will post pictures of the boys Christmas pageant, whereby about 35 toddlers re-enact the nativity scene, complete with a fake baby Jesus. It was more hilarious than words can describe but the pictures will give you some idea of the fun had by all.

On the way to school the morning of the pageant, as Isaac was preparing for his role as one of the 3 Kings, he was more pensive than usual. I could tell he was really thinking about something so I asked him what was going on in his little noggin that had him so serious. He said he was thinking about babies. It took me a while but I realized that the whole nativity scene thing had him rather focused on baby Jesus, thus he was “thinking about babies.”

The following conversation ensued:

Me: What babies are you thinking about?
Isaac: I was thinking about where babies come from.
Me:Hmmm. (in my head, HOLY CRAP COME UP WITH SOMETHING CLEVER NOW!!!)
Isaac: Where do Mommies come from?
Me: Girls become mommies when they have babies.
Isaac: But how do they get the babies?
Me: They are in their bellies and then they come out.
Isaac: Oh I know what happens!
Me: (oh crap, here we go)
Isaac: The babies are in space and God catches them up and then throws them to earth and into the mommies bellies. Yeah! That’s it, that is how it happens.
Me: Wow Isaac, you are so smart because that is EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS!

Clearly this kid is going to outwit me very soon…actually who am I kidding? I think he is smarter than me now. I’ve decided he should have been delivered with an instruction manual and education requirements. His brother however, just needed a helmet and some boxing gloves.

Well, as my last post indicated, we got our tree last night. It wasn’t without a bit of stress and the usual family calamity that I’ve grown so accustomed to. You see, when we moved last June, a good portion of our stuff went in to storage. Well the Christmas stuff, the stuff I spent years collecting and hundreds of dollars amassing, is at the very back of the storage unit. Basically it is unreachable.

So, I had to head to Target to pick up a few decorations and some lights so that we may have some semblance of Christmas this year. By the time I got to Target and saw all of the people, I was much more “Bah Humbug” than I was “Jingle Bells!” In fact, I really just wanted to cancel Christmas this year.

Luckily, by the time we got to the tree lot, my mood had changed and we managed to have some fun. Isaac was so excited to pick a tree and Joshua was just excited to be on an adventure so their collective merriment made up for my utter lack of holiday cheer. We managed to snap a few cute pictures of the event for your viewing.

In the end, the tree was decorated, the lights were hung and Mariah Carey’s Christmas album was ringing throughout the halls. Happy Holidays!

If I had any guts at all, this would be our family Christmas card this year. However, pretty sure Kevin’s very conservative grandfather would have a heartattack if he opened the mail and saw this:

Kids grow up fast. Too fast. In the middle of a sleepless night with a crying baby, it is easy to think that the phase will never pass. However, in truth, it is just a moment in time that your children are young. I did a list like the one below with Isaac at the about the same age and I recently re-read it. I almost can’t remember Isaac at that age, which makes me feel very melancholy. These are precious times and I don’t want to forget any of it. Joshua has been growing and changing at an alarming speed lately. He has taken up talking on a full time basis and his wild personality is center stage in our house. He fits so perfectly into our lives, I just can’t remember what it was like without him.

 Dearest Joshua,

• You love to put on and take off your shoes. You constantly grab a pair of shoes and run to my lap, sit down and say “shoes”.

• Your affinity for your brother is hilarious. He is the first person you ask for the in morning and the last person you play with at night. When he is sleeping and you are not, we literally have to barricade the door so you don’t wake him up.

• You are happiest when we are on an adventure. You will be in the midst of throwing a fit and all I have to do is say “Do you want to go bye-bye?” and you instantly stop crying and head for the door.

• You have recently taken to growling. Not sure what it is all about but maybe Halloween is the culprit. You will growl at Isaac, then start laughing and chase him down the hall. Your ability to take down a 41 pound 4 year old is shocking. You are quite the scrapper.

• You call food “num nums.” I am not sure where you got this but now everyone in the house says “I want num nums” when they are hungry.

• When you are really tired, you try to put yourself to bed. You start in the kitchen, somehow lugging out the milk and trying to put it in your bottle. You then say, “night night Mommy!”

• You love the water. When we head to the beach you instantly start yelling “Wa wa wa wa!” You will hurl yourself face first into any body of water – which worries me sick. I am hoping you will take up swimming soon, for your own safety.

• You have an affinity for fruit that is unparalleled. You call strawberries, “strawbabies” and it makes me laugh every time. One time I seriously thought you had overdosed on bananas.  You didn’t poop for a week.

I love you so much Joshua, I can’t wait to see the man you will become but in the meantime, I love the little boy that you are.

For those that come here just for the pictures, this post is for you. Below are pic’s from Halloween and the “pet parade” we went to last week in honor of Halloween. People really like their dogs around here. Enjoy!

Dear Joshua,

I thought I should take a minute to have a mother to son talk with you. However, given that you are 18 months old and have the attention span of a puppy with ADHD, it seemed best to put it in writing.

First off, you are very cute. I think it is possible that you already comprehend this fact and have begun the lifelong process of using this to your advantage. As a former lobbyist and long time professional arguer - my hatt is off to you for figuring out your “ace card” so quickly. However, cute will not get you out of everything.

I present Exhibit A.

What you see here is a picture of yourself, locked in the master bathroom. The photographer is none other than your good ol’ Mom who couldn’t believe you had managed to lock the door all by yourself, considering your 4 year old brother has yet to figure this out. No amount of convincing could get you to try to undo what you had just done, leaving me no option but to treck around the side of the house in hopes the window was open. Lucky for you it was.

On to Exhibit B.

What we have here, my darling youngest child is your older brother saving your butt. No way Mommy was fitting through that window and someone had to save you. When I told Isaac what the task was, his response was poetic: “That kid is so crazy, what are we going to do with him?” Upon approaching the window and the treacherous climb in to save you, he began whining about the possibility of falling. I had no time to reason with him however, because I was busy telling you to stop putting Mama’s make-up in the toilet. However, you just went on and on until everything from my lip gloss to my eyelash curler had taken a dunk in cold waters of our porcelain thrown. I think maybe you locked the door just so you could engage in that delicious pasttime of yours, toilet dunking. Keeping with the puppy theme, you also enjoy drinking from the toilet upon occasion. Oh yes, you heard me right.

As a side note, do you know how many lollipops I had to promise your brother in order to convince him to undertake this “dangerous” task? You can pay the dental bills next year Pumpkin.

Joshua, if you and I are going to co-exist you are going to have to start LISTENING TO MOMMY’S WORDS. When I say things like GET OFF THE TABLE, IT ISN’T SAFE TO STAND THERE, you must learn to do something other than cackle like a wild animal at me.

That brings me to Exhibit C:

This is evidence of A). Your cuteness and B). YOU STANDING ON THE TABLE AGAIN.

Joshie, Mommy loves you dearly and will support you should you desire to be an X Games athlete, but until you are old enough to actually talk to me with real words, we need to find a compromise. Because honestly, I don’t think Isaac can handle any more rescue attempts and Mommy can only stretch so far.

With Love,

Mama

Okay so a while back I asked y’all about your thoughts on the full Adobe Photoshop suite vs. Photoshop Elements. Due to OVERWHELMING feedback, or NONE AT ALL!!!!! I went with Elements. Here is a pic of my hubby’s tatoo that I played with…

Cool, eh? There is so much to learn and I am just getting started but it sure is fun! Here are a few silly shots of the hooligans tonight at bathtime also…

I really love taking pictures, I just wish my subjects would sit still long enough to get a decent shot!

10:30PM - Joshua is crying

11:00PM - Joshua is quiet, back to sleep

1:00AM - wake up due to major coughing jag, lovely

2:00AM - Isaac is staring at me. I come slowly to a state of awareness, he tells me that he wet the bed but “just a little bit.”

2:30 AM - back to bed, laundry is going and something is clicking in there. ARG!

3:00AM - Joshua is crying, my head hurts.

4:40AM - Joshua is really crying, he means business this time. I make him a bottle and change his diaper.

6:00AM - alarm goes off, damn.

6:20AM - alarm still going off and I am oblivious to it. The toddler that crept into my bed at some point is now saying, “Mommy the music is on, I think you should wake up!”

6:30AM - I drag myself to the shower and contemplate the joys and wonders of motherhood…

 On March 8, 2007 at 5:35pm Joshua Kenneth Stone came into this world. He weighed 7lbs 7 oz and was hungry immediately post partum. (Little did I know, this baby would prefer to be on my chest, not just post partum, but 24-7 for the next 4 months) I arrived at the hospital at 7 a.m. that morning, received an epidural that worked and 9 hours later he arrived with only 3 pushes. His birth was much easier however; my pregnancy with him was where I paid my dues. I had to give myself Lovenox shots twice a day from week 7 to week 36. After that I switched to Heparin, which was comprised of 4 shots a day until week 38, when he was delivered. I took the shots to combat a genetic mutation called MTHFR. While I only have a single mutation, not a double, it was determined that the MTHFR was causing clotting in the placenta and was the reason for my previous miscarriages. At week 7 we thought we were going to loose Joshua’s pregnancy, however the Lovenox shots kicked in just in time to fight the over coagulation my body was demonstrating.

The above picture was from the night before I had Joshua. Note the bruises on my belly from the shots and the cankles. Gotta love the 3rd trimester!!!

After my third miscarriage and my diagnosis with a genetic disorder, I had a breakdown. I assumed that I would never have another child. Not because I couldn’t but because I didn’t think my heart could take another possible loss. As I sat there that day after my doctor’s appointment I opened up my Bible and asked God to tell me something, anything, that would bring me comfort. This is what He said:

“But this precious treasure, this light and power that shines within us is held in perishable containers, that is, in our weak bodies. So everyone can see that our glorious power is from God and not ourselves.” 2 Corinthians 4:7

It may not seem like much but I could hear Him saying that although my body was weak, He would deliver a child through me so that He could have the glory. He is a keeper of promises, even when circumstances seem grim.

Joshua’s name is also from an Old Testament story. His name means, the Lord is God. Essentially it is the declaration that God is Almighty and He is the only One. In the midst of my personal anguish over miscarriage, God was and still is, sovereign. Joshua is representative of that sovereignty.

Joshie was an easy baby for the first few weeks. He slept well, he ate like a champ, and he smiled a lot right at 4 weeks. After that however, things got a little tough. He decided at some point that sleep was unnecessary and by about 10 weeks old, could go most of the day without a nap. He has been slower to reach all of the “milestones” but his temperament has developed into a sanguine, affable, joy of a child. He is usually ready for anything and his favorite thing is to get in the car and go someplace.

As of his 1^st birthday, Joshie still isn’t walking but he is very close. He can crawl amazingly fast and he prefers that mode of transportation at this point. Joshua is infatuated with his older brother and will do anything to get close to him. I hope that this continues, as it is my deepest desire that my children have a close relationship.

I know, mostly, what this next year will hold for Joshua, first steps, words and lots of learning. What I don’t know is how I am going to handle my baby turning into a little boy. The second time around it is so much more difficult to let them grow and be independent.