MAY!

Wow, it's may already... that's kind of scary.

Where have I been?
Well, I've been here... just busy. Days blend into weeks that blend into months.
Just yesterday it was February. And now it's MAY!

I don't know how anyone has time to do this... I can't get a moment to myself and when I do, the last thing I'm even thinking about doing is updating this site.
I guess that's why I'm a few months behind.

Anyway... The girls are busy -

The twins are into EVERYTHING. They'll be 10 months old on the 14th and they are standing, cruising... and basically keeping me on my toes all day.

Charlee is a typical almost 3 year old... she questions everything. EVERYTHING.

"Charlee, don't walk in the middle of the street"
"Why?"
"Because I don't want you to get hit by a car"
"Why?"
UGH!!!!!!
She is quite challenging... she has an opinion and feels the need to voice it -- some days at the top of her lungs. I'm glad I'm raising a strong willed child. I just wish she wouldn't be so strong willed with me. I choose my battles.

New photos of the girls --

Charlee on the slide at the park...and sporting some rockin' sunglasses(Crooked, of course)

Rylan and Kenna

Kenna and Charlee

FEBRUARY????

Oh my goodness, seriously, what happened to January?
I have no idea where the time goes or what I'm doing with all my time. Certainly not sleeping, that's for sure.

This morning I was up at 6 - not because of the twins...but Charlee was calling me.
I stumbled into her room and told her that it was still night time and it was dark out and not time to get up.

Did she buy it? Certainly not.
She looked at me and said, 'Mom, I'd like to watch a show"
So into the living room we went and I turned on Mickey Mouse on the DVR. And my question is.. why can't those darn shows be longer? 22 minutes later she was shouting to me... "MOM! MY SHOW IS OVER!"
UGH! Are you kidding me right now?

So I got up...and up I've been, cleaning, doing laundry, feeding, changing babies... It's nonstop.

The twins are getting so big. And starting to get mobile. They don't sit up yet, but they do inch across the floor and roll to get things they want. I'll put them in one spot on the floor and come back into the room a few minutes later and they are both in different spots ACROSS THE ROOM.
I'm getting scared for when they really start moving and I have to baby proof my house again.

WE'RE TIRED!

December 27th.... and ...well, we're exhausted!

I feel like the past few weeks have been a marathon.
We had the Dwyer family up to our house on the 23rd to celebrate Christmas... We spent Christmas Eve at the Cain's house down the street and Christmas day we spent with just us in our jammies all day long. It was so nice to not have to go anywhere or do anything, but it was really lonely not having our family with us to enjoy the day with.
NEXT YEAR WILL BE BETTER!

The voicemail I got from my mom on Christmas Eve put it ever so nicely, "Christmas without you SUCKS.. plain and simple"
And it did suck.
And I'll say it once again... CANCER SUCKS... that's what kept us up here and them down there.

Anyhoo... if all goes well and Charles' counts go back up tomorrow, he'll be out of the hospital and the entire family will be heading up here on Saturday for a fun, old fashioned, family Christmas!!!!! Just like the Griswolds!!!! WOOHOO!
I can't wait to see everyone and spend time just hanging out -- I miss my family!~

I'll post a few photos from Christmas. Charlee was a hoot! She opened presents ever so slowly... she would open a gift, play with it for about an hour, then open another one...
So the presents really lasted all day. That was nice... we got to really appreciate our gifts and the time with each other instead of rushing through things to get to some place we were supposed to be, etc.

I made lots of food that day and we ate and drank all day and of course, I fell asleep on the couch at about 9pm. We were watching Love Actually(one of my favorite movies) and I fell asleep. That IRish Coffee will do it to ya every time!

Anyway.... off to go throw in some more laundry and get things done while the kids are all asleep.

My three elves, Rylan(with the upset face), Kenna and Charlee

Rylan and Kenna -- holdin' hands

Rylan and Kenna(yep, that's puke on the floor...gotta love it)

Christmas Time

So... Charlee is officially into the Christmas thing --
She loves the lights, the trees, Santa Claus, presents, the whole she-bang.
She does get a little confused, though --
She said the other night as I was putting our traditional candles in the windows at our house...
"Mommy, let's put out more decorations and on our tree with the lights... and candles...and then we'll sing Happy Birthday"
Um. Ok.
Then she asked me if we could keep putting out more Halloween decorations.
She's just a wee bit confused, don't you think?

Last night I sang the 12 days of Christmas about 800 times while she happily jumped around the room. The only verse she joined in on was the 5 golden rings... which, coming from her, sounded a little like, 'Five Gaaaadaaaa... Weeeeeee' She doesn't really know the words, but I guess that is her favorite part of the song.

But if you think about it... that song is really weird. How is a kid supposed to learn the words when half of the things in the song... I don't even know what they are!
First, who even really knows what a partridge in a pear tree is? How do you explain that to a two year old? 10 lords a leaping... 8 maids a milkin... 4 calling birds... 2 turtle doves...

I mean, why can't we sing about things that kids know about?
12 dress up dresses
11 berenstain bear books
10 juice boxes
9 bags of goldfish
8 puzzle pieces
7 dolls in strollers
6 flintstone vitamins
5 coloring books
4 aquadoodles
3 Doodlebops
2 teddy bears
and
1 Rose Petal Cottage

Seriously.

Really? Who has time for this????

Ok... so I really don't have time to be doing this, but since Charles is in the hospital, I figured I would try to keep this up to date, so he would have something to read online and not be TOO bored waiting for his blood cell counts to go back up. Hi Big Charles.
See? I'm such a good sister! FEEL BETTER - get those counts back up so you can get out of that place!!!!!!!!!

Anyway... What's new? Not too much.
December is flying by -- can't believe Christmas is just around the corner. I'm not even close to being done with my shopping. I've done most of it online as it is virtually impossible to get out with all three girls and actually get anything accomplished.
We also haven't had much free time since before Thanksgiving...seems every weekend is filled with traveling. Last weekend was the twins baptism in NJ --
It was a nice private ceremony and good thing too, Charlee, James and Peyton were running around like little crazies... and running ONTO the alter at church. Oops! Sorry about that.
Charlee kept telling Peyton to "Shhhhh" and then she'd shout, "We have to be quiet! We're in church!"

Here are some photos from the baptism

Charlee and Peyty -- sitting "quietly"

Aunt Ali and Big Charles, the proud God Parents of Rylan

Karen and Cap, the proud God parents of Kenna

Rylan and Kenna!

Sick... Sick...Sick

So, all three of the kids are sick. It's been a fun day(week, really).
Rylan is the worst of the three - coughing and crying on and off all day. It's been exhausting.

Charlee isn't really sick, but she isn't "right" either. She was misbehaving all day -- but she DID manage to take a 2 1/2 hour nap today, which is great. But then as soon as she got up from her nap, it was whining and crying FOR NO REASON AT ALL.

Kenna is whiny and cranky -- and I think a little spoiled. I think? She is spoiled.
She won't sleep unless you rock her. Well, I'm going to kick that habit. I just put her in her crib and she cried it out for a while. Yes, they are old enough to cry a little bit at this point. So I'm going to let them. I only have two arms and can't cater to everyone's needs...so they'll cry!

This daylight savings crap is awful. It's dark already. What's that all about??? The only good thing about it is that we can trick Charlee into thinking it is much later than it really is...so she goes to bed so much earlier than she did a few weeks ago. That's pretty sweet.

We had family pictures taken a few weeks ago at my parents house... here are a few of the photos. It was hard to get Charlee's picture since she wasn't being very cooperative..the little rat.

Nursery Rhymes and Songs gone wrong...

Well, if you know me... you know I like to sing. I sing all day long -- to myself, to my kids.
I make up songs, I sing songs that I learned in 3rd grade chorus(yes, I have a sick memory), I sing anything that comes to the top of my head.
Well, Charlee was in the tub last night and like most nights I sat there with the two babies and kept her company while she played.

So we started through our set list of songs...

I started singing the nursery rhyme, "Jack and Jill" and Charlee promptly joined in.
We got to the line, "Jack fell down and broke his..." and Charlee said "BACK"

Jack broke his back... who knew???

Other lyrics that Charlee has made up include:
1. John Jacob Jingleheimer "shemp"

2. One for my master, one for my "babe", one for the little boy who lives down the lane... Baa Baa Blacksheep have you any "Wood".

She is a character, that is for sure.