Giving Thanks

We had a great Thanksgiving Day.


It was at our house again this year, and as usual there was an insane amount of food to eat.


There was a lot of family with us and this year we invited some friends over too.


We all had a good time with lots of chatting and laughing. One of the high lights of the day was when I asked Dax to see if he could get the chocolate fountain going. I had already poured chocolate in there but it wouldn't move it to the top. So he pulled the cover off to see if he could get the mechanism spinning. Well, he did get it spinning if only long enough to splatter everything in the vicinity with chocolate. It was like something out of the movies with the chocolate getting slung everywhere.


Aaahhh, good times. Good times.



Unfortunatel I didn't think to take pictures!!


Hope yours was a joy too.

11th Birthday

Okay, so now you know the story of the day they were born. So here's some pictures from their party this year.


We just had a party at home with family this time. I thought it would be easier that way, but I don't really think it was.

Some of the enthusiastic party goers.

Even the paparazzi were there.

All in all it was a good day and I think everyone had a good time.

11 years ago today

I woke up in the morning not feeling well. I had been up several times during the night to give myself another bolus from the terbutalene pump.

I had been going over my allowed four contractions per hour for much of the night.


To make matters worse, every square inch of my body was itchy. And it wasn't an itch that I could scratch and make it feel better. It's like I itched on the inside where I couldn't get to it.


But, it was a Saturday and there were errands that needed to be taken care of so I sent Dax (although he was reluctant) off to take care of them. (I had been confined to bed in the hospital for seven weeks at this point.)


Anyway, Dax left and took care of the must-do errands and got back to the hospital as quickly as he could. I still didn't feel well, though.


Sometime after lunch my parents dropped by the hospital to visit. As they did more days than not.


Then a short time later my brother and sister-in-law stopped by to visit too. My parents were still there.


Dax was starting to get a little upset because people were showing up to visit and I still wasn't feeling well.


Then, to upset him even further, my in-laws stopped by with my sister-in-laws boyfriend in tow.


Dax was about to lose his mind by then.


I still didn't feel well. All of the medications had been unable to get my contractions back in line. They had put in a catheter because my bladder was full, causing more contractions, and I couldn't get it empty on my own.


They finally made the decision to move me up to labor and delivery with the assurances that they would get the contractions stopped and get me back down to my regular room.


When they got me to labor and delivery the nurse gave me a shot of Demerol.


Then the doctor on call came in to check on me and again assured us that everything would be fine. They'd get things under control and back to my room in not time at all. She said that we would probably go through this whole process several times before we actually made it to delivery.


Then she actually checked my cervix.


That's when things really felt like they got crazy!!


I was already feeling the effects of the Demerol and then she told us that I was dilated to 8 cm already and that the babies were coming. And sooner rather than later.


They called my regular doctor (she wanted to do the delivery), whisked me off to the operating room, and gave Dax some scrubs to change into.


When my doctor arrived I had already gotten the epidural so that she could come right in and get the job taken care of.


(I thought it was pretty funny that because I had been in bed so long and because one of the babies was being pushed so far down into the birth canal that my legs wouldn't both stay on the operating table. Every time they put one leg on the table, the other leg fell off of it. They finally tied them together with towels. lol)


The babies were delivered at 9:30, 9:31, 9:31, and 9:32 p.m. The nurses showed them to me as they whisked them away to the NICU.


Everyone was healthy and it was kismet that everyone had shown up at the hospital when they did. When we found out that they were coming, nobody would have been able to get to the hospital before they were born. God works in mysterious ways.

Cupcakes for school

The girls wanted cupcakes to take to their classes at school to celebrate their birthday.


Wyatt has decided that he's too cool for just about everything these days. (eye roll here)


Abigail took these. They're supposed to be like dreamsicles.




Kirstens have star shaped sugar cookies on top of cupcakes.




Addison's looked like little hamburgers. I'll have to find a picture of them.


Now I just have to make some for their party. Don't think they'll be all cute, though. I'm tired. :0)

Curls

How is it that I have such curly hair and none of my children do?


Abigail has tragically straight hair and she longs for curls.



This is the only way to get curl into her hair.




While her hair is wet I take little strips of fabric and roll the hair around it and tie it up.


Then, in the morning when I take it out her hair will be curly.


Unfortunately, by the time she gets home from school it will be almost completely gone again.

That's Officer Verleye to you.

Dax has been attending the Sheriff's Citizens Academy classes.


Last night was his ride along with one of the officers.


He took his own badge with him.





(it's the Marshall's badge that the kids got when we went to Dodge City)


I'm sure the officer thought Dax was nuts. When he got in the car Dax asked him when he would get to drive, what kind of gun he would be issued, if he should go ahead and put his badge on, etc.


He had a great time and was like a kid at Christmas. He was still so geeked up about it when he got home that he had trouble going to sleep even though he had been up all night.

Thankfulness

Is that even a word?


Guess it is now.




To celebrate Thanksgiving this year I put up a paper tree in our entryway.







Each night (in theory it's each night) we each add a new leaf with something we are thankful for.


Here's my first leaf.




In case you can't read it, it says 'I'm thankful to be married to a stud like Dax.'


Now stop laughing.


That's been what I've been thankful for since we got married. Before then I was thankful to be with a stud like Dax.


There's a story behind it.


The firm he worked for way back then did a lot of medical practice management. After Dax had been out to one of the doctor's offices several of the women working there asked their boss to enquire as to his relationship status.


Of course when his boss told him about it, Dax couldn't wait to get home to tell me just how lucky I was to be the one with him.


It was close to Thanksgiving when it happened so since then I've always said that I was so thankful to be with a stud like him. (use sarcastic tone here)

Bodies in the trash

The dogs got into a box that was sitting out by the trash cans waiting for garbage day. I asked (what other people may refer to as 'told') the kids to pick up the mess and put it in the trash cans.



Wonder of wonder, they actually did it. And without thirty minutes of them whining and me yelling.




But then, the next morning when we headed out to the car to leave I saw this....




Hmmmm.....


I asked the kids, 'Did you find any bodies in the yard that you forgot to tell me about?'



They, of course, all thought I was nuts.



When I pointed to the reason for my question more than one child may have told me that yes they did.


After further investigation it turns out it was just a doll.


Whew!

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On another note I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of those that have and do serve in the military to protect us and our country. We appreciate you more than you'll ever know.


I especially thank (and love) my two favorite veterans.

Introduction

One day a couple of weeks ago Dax had only one thing to handle for the day. (See here.)


Well, he decided to leave the house with the kids and forgot to take his brain with him. I'm certain that he had lost his mind, that's the only explanation there is.



When I got home from the office Kirsten and Abigail were climbing the fence out front so they could be the first to tell me.




'Dad got a dog! Dad got a dog!'




Huh? They can't be serious!!




Oh......they were.




Meet Kuddles. I wanted to take a picture of her to post here and she cooperated beautifully so I thought I would post them all.











Wonderful, aren't they?


If you look closely you can see that I even had to chase her around the house.


I looked at all of her paperwork from the shelter and it all has 'FOSTER' written across the top of it. What I find really interesting about that is that they collected the adoption fee when Dax decided to 'foster' her. And, nobody has called at all to check on her or to say that they found a home. Oh, and her picture disappeared from their website right away.



Yeah, foster. Whatever!!



Actually, she's been a pretty good dog so far. She's still too skinny though.

For you Mom!

Just in case you wonder how we can get places so much more quickly than you and Dad, here's the reason.




I appologize that it's so blurry. It's just really hard to take a picture and still drive at this speed.


Talking on my cell phone and putting on my make-up during the photo shoot only complicated matters. And man, I guess I should have fastened my seat belt. I hate to be unsafe!



But hey, we still get there in a hurry.















Just so nobody thinks I'm crazy, the speedometer flipped out and burried itself down there. This picture was really taken sitting in the driveway at home. :0)


Really, if you look again you can see the car is in park.

I see the light

I got a special delivery today and I'm thrilled.



Here are my new babies:


(See all those papers on top of the dryer? Those are the directions on how to use the washer. With any luck I'll have it all figured out within the week.)



I bought the largest capacity washer that they had at Lowe's. (Insert happy dance here.)I mean, washers and dryers should be replaced every 15 years or so, don't you think? Well, actually, the tub was rusting out on the old washer. Even then, I still didn't want to go spend the money on a new set but Dax made me do it!!




The washer holds so many more clothes than the old one did that I feel like I can actually see the light at the end of the tunnel.



Seriously, I think I may stand a chance at getting caught up on the laundry.



I don't even know how to act.

A day at the fair

We got up early this morning and headed off to the Rennaisance Festival with some friends.


The kids love it and were upset last year when there just wasn't a free weekend to go.


It's a long drive but we had a good time.


There are all kinds of people there in all kinds of costumes. (Unfortunately many of the costumes are not fit to be posted to a family kind of blog.)






I thought this one was pretty neat.




The girls found a place to make stuffed animals.




The kids love the jousting the best. This was the final tournament. A fight to the death. Our knight won. We were Spain.





(See the bodies strewn around?)

Maybe the Pioneers Had it Right

This will be my closest ally today.



Ugh!!




Between the kids and the pets the carpets in their rooms have had it!!




I always refer to their carpeting as 'starter carpet' because it goes through so much.




Since so much of the flooring in our house is stained concrete I tried last night to just talk Dax into pulling up their carpet and staining the concrete. He said no....




I'm thinking that the pilgrims had it right.....dirt floors are the way to go. Then, all this stuff on their carpet would just look like their floors.



See, you're starting to think it's a pretty good idea too, aren't you?

Jumping In

Okay, I've decided to commit to this challenge and post every day in the month of November.


I've gotten a little lazy about blogging so this is probably the kick in the pants that I need.


I am a little nervous about it though because November is an insanely busy month for us. It seems that ALL of our activities happen from Halloween to Christmas. What's up with the rest of the year?



Oh, and yes, I realize that I'm already behind but I just found out about it today.

Halloween 2009

Our Halloween tradition is to first go trick-or-treating in town at the square. Many of the shop owners close early to hand candy out to the kids. (Many just close early and leave - party poopers.)


Here's how we started the trick-or-treating out:

Abigail was one of 'my people' (an Indian- oops, I mean Native American)



Kirsten was a candy corn witch. She kept getting mad because everyone thought she was just a candy corn. lol



Addison was a Spanish princess.




Wyatt said he was too cool for Halloween.

I don't think that we agree on that.



What?



I'm just sayin'.




Each year our little town has a scare crow making contest. I have no idea who won but this one was my favorite.




After we finished visiting with our friends on the square we headed back to the house for hot dogs (also part of the tradition.)



While we were at the house Addison decided that she wasn't going to keep trick-or-treating.



Kirsten spent about an hour going back and forth about whether or not she should continue. She kept asking Dax and I what we thought, asking Abigail, and on and on. Finally Abigail realized what she wanted and suggested that she could wear Addison's costume.



I asked her if that's what all of the hem-hawing was about and she said yes. Ugh! She could have just come out and said so and saved us all the drama (look out future boyfriends!!)


So Kirsten got changed and we headed out to do some more trick-or-treating.


We spent a little over an hour in the neighborhood that we go to (we don't live in a neighborhood.) Abigail was still mad when we left. She still didn't feel like she had enough candy. Never mind the fact that when I gave them their Halloween bags they were full of candy already. They filled them up again when we were on the square, and then again out in the neighborhood.



I guess she's over it now though. She was eating candy when I went to bed last night and was having candy for breakfast when I left the house this morning. Good thing this only comes around once a year.



For me the bad part about it is that they're getting old enough to stay up later than I do and they get up before me on the weekends. When am I supposed to have the time to dig through their bags and pull out the stuff I like without them knowing? Sheesh!