Christmas 2010

I thought I should put a few Christmas pictures up of the kiddos before we get too far into the new year. Aida worked hard making 3 D cards for everyone. They were framed like a book and when you opened them she has a different quote for everyone. It was fun to share them around and hear what everyone had on their card . Ed's read "smile". Mark's was "Be happy, happiness is valuable. Don't be sad, sadness is worthless." I can't remember the rest off the top of my head those are just the ones I have sitting on my desk right now.
As a child I never believed my parents when they told us they loved the homemade stuff the most. Now as a parent, I really do enjoy seeing what they come up with and seeing how they can appreciate and love the effort put into it all.

Christmas Eve reading while Eddie waits to open his eve present.

What Aida has always wanted.

He didn't really know what to do with this until we got home but he loves it.

Aida's homemade doll for Maya.

I love how these girls make things for each other.

Maya's American Girl Doll FINALLY.

The most patient one in our family. .

I hope Tess enjoys it while it lasts.

Lucy was most excited to give Tess goodies on Christmas Day.

The Walking (Ginger)bread

Mark and I spent last week watching The Walking Dead. I didn't realize the impact this zombie laden show would have on my life. I could go on and on but I will just focus on a couple of things. The first is that I was glad that Mark and I watched it when I was able to hop onto the road to recovery because otherwise I think he would have been tempted to "put me down" when I had a fever that "burned hot like a furnace". I wouldn't have blamed him though because when you watch back-to-back zombies you do get a little paranoid and I would have done the same.

The other thing I would like to mention is how during one of my now routine zombie checks I thought I had found a live one in the middle of my living room floor. Maya had managed to rip her gingerbread house off of the foundation and was hovering over it scarfing it down. At the time it really reminded me of a zombie feeding frenzy-crazy eyes and all.

Okay fine my last zombie hot tip is to get a cross bow-SUPER handy weapon to have when the zombies take over.

Warm Fuzzy Sick

I have been sick since Sunday. Monday night and Tuesday I had such a high fever I could barely move which is something since I have birthed at home, recovered from strep throat, run on a lightly sprained ankle for miles all without any medical attention. Serves me right because I am the first to call a sick person a baby.
I feel better now-in that I can function as a mom. I learned that when I am sick my kids can do many things on their own. Normally when I am sick I can call upon my inner mom to take care of what needs to be done for the kids. The inner mom this time was weak, very very weak.
Lucy brought me salt water for my sore throat that I managed to gargle after several doses of motrin, get the littlies ready for school and all the kids packed their own lunches. They got their shoes on after my first raspy request instead of having me shout it out 10 million times. They cleaned and they took care of each other and there was a temporary truce on all fights so that I wouldn't have to hear the fighting during my in and outs of consciousness. Aida covered me in blankets when she saw me shivering and took them away when she read not to over bundle a fever. Then there is my lovely Mark that I knew I could count on for everything even though he as so much to do already. I literally did not know what day it was until yesterday.
Lucky for me before I went down I gave my last energy into finishing our gingerbread houses which provided them with sustenance until mark could get home.
Ed would find me from time to time and with a furrowed brow he would tell me that he would make me a love heart so I would feel better. I woke up to find a stack next to me several times. The little guy would draw me one and if I wasn't better he thought more was better so he would keep drawing them faithfully everyday, every hour. I would tell him I felt better but eventually he would figure it out I wasn't and a new pile of lovehearts would appear. He was doing what he could and he didn't give up hope that it would work.
Here is to my wonderful family for not giving up on their wimpy mom. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

I leave you with a poem by Maya. I really like the ending. Happy Thanksgiving y'all. :)

Children's Court

Run for the children by the children presided by Judge Aida. We never really know what we wake up from a Sunday nap. Sometimes it is fine, other times it is scary, or messy, this was one of those times that surprised and impressed. Aida seems to have taken on the style of a British Judge with the white haired wig (do they even still wear them?). I am sure Aida was fair in her sentencing to Edward because he seems to be taking it well. :)

Tell Me

Here is a picture of young Mark.  Does anyone else see a resemblance to him and Maya(if Maya had Ed's hair)?

Halloween Crafting

This past weekend Janae came for a visit and we made some Halloween garland, caramel apples, and decorated cupcakes.  I switched out some pictures for some more spooky ones-just to creep the kids out.  I am proud of my bug ones-I think they came out nice.  I layered backgrounds and bug illustrations that I found online and  layered them with vellum.  Thanks to Janae for donating some Halloween paper for our garlands and Aida for making a wonderful Fall tree.  Aida says the sign is removable and she plans on making the tree change with the seasons.  I thought it was pretty clever.  Things have cooled off a little bit here but then we will have a couple of warm days too so the leaves are still pretty green.   It was hot when we took the Madsens to the Ocean City Block Party.  We mostly found a place to park, looked for food to feed the kids and then went home.  The kids made it a little hard to cover a lot of ground but it was a little too crowded for me anyway.  I guess I always like to check these things out.  Maya did enjoy getting her face painted though and Aida thought the chocolate covered bacon was pretty tasty. :)

Gillians Playland

A couple of weeks ago we took the girls to Gillians in Ocean City. In the spring they sell tickets to the locals at half price and we bought a few tickets. I hate crowds so we waited until all the shoobies (what we jersites call tourists-even though I often feel like one) left but before the city closed down for the off months. It was a fun family day for sure and I think Lucy is warming up to the fast rides. Tomorrow we are hoping to drag the Madsens to the block party. Thousands are supposed to be there but we will be brave because the greek, seafood, italian and bakery stands are calling us to them. We will just look...

Aren't the creepy bears perfect?

A couple of weeks ago we took the girls to Gillians in Ocean City.  In the spring they sell tickets to the locals at half price and we bought a few tickets.  I hate crowds so we waited until all the shoobies (what we jersites call tourists-even though I often feel like one) left but before the city closed down for the off months.  It was a fun family day for sure and I think Lucy is warming up to the fast rides.  I have more pictures from my "real camera" but I thought I would share the ones from my phone. :) Tomorrow we are hoping to drag the Madsens to the block party.  Thousands are supposed to be there but we will be brave because the greek, seafood, italian and bakery stands are calling us to them.  We will just look...