Wow.... it's been TWO years since my last blog...

A lot, and I mean A LOT has happened in the past two years. Let's see the last blog I posted was about the Christmas ball explosion in the kids room. Since then we've moved twice, had a dog, got rid of our dog, had another baby, Tori has started school, I've finished school and Matt became tenured at his school. Whew... what a whirlwind two years!

Life is still crazy and the kids still have quite the antics, but nothing as traumatic as a Christmas ball explosion. Most recently I'm dealing with "poop issues" with Zoe and getting her potty trained for good. She's been going in the potty, but if she gets to playing she'd much rather play than to have to hassle herself by getting up and going to the potty, so instead she'll just poop in her pants. Blech! Fortunately today she made a good choice and went in the potty. Woo hoo!!

Wow, my exciting days involve my 2 year old choosing to poop in the potty and not her pants. Wow has life changed. ;)

We had our 4th and last baby, Ezekiel "Zeke" Normand Dean, Nov 2nd 2009. He is now 4 months old and amazing. He's a happy baby and fairly easy. He does need more stimulation than Zoe did as a baby, but unless he's hungry or tired he's happy! It feels good to be "complete" as a family. Even right after Zoe was born, I always knew we'd have another baby. It just always felt like someone was missing, now it feels like "Yeah, this is the family I always knew we'd have". Being a mom is the most amazing, demanding, exhausting, frustrating, rewarding job I've ever and will ever have. I love my children more than anything.

Thanks for reading my blog... I hope to keep up with it more often!

Crazy antics....

Yes, the antics around our house NEVER end. And, in fact they always happen right when I sit down to nurse Zoe. I should, by now, be "onto them" and know that when it gets quiet that is never a good thing. The older two have gotten into something every week for the past 3 weeks, and you think by now I'd get a clue!!! Well, I haven't and yet again today they struck.

2 weeks ago I was nursing Zoe in the bedroom and getting ready to lay her down for her morning nap. During that time frame my older two children got into the kitchen and consumed 7 yoplait yogurts. That is right... SEVEN! Well I guess they actually consumed 6, the 7th one ended up being rubbed all over Trevor's body. When I say all over, I mean ALL over. Oh, and this was all done in Trevor's bedroom. So there was yogurt on the bed, yogurt on the bed rails, yogurt on the floor (carpet), and yogurt all over Trevor. Oh... I was so mad. I made the two of them clean up the mess and they are no longer allowed to get "snacks" without mommy there to help, and if they go behind my back they get in big trouble.

Last week was by far the worst of all their exploits. While I was in the kitchen making dinner and doing dishes Tori and Trevor asked if they could jump on Tori's bed. They wanted to take all the blankets and pillows off and pile them on the floor so they could jump into them. I was proud of them for asking before they wrecked her bed, and I said yes, but they had to clean up the mess when they were done. The bedroom Tori is in now is shared with a changing table for Zoe and the crib. Zoe is still sleeping in our bedroom so I've been using the crib as a storage container. All of our Christmas decorations were in these really beat up cardboard boxes. I decided at Christmas time to wait and get nice plastic bins to store the decorations in. Well I got the bins about a month or so ago, but have yet to actually put the decorations away, so they have still been sitting in the crib waiting to go out to storage. The room was clean before they went in, but that didn't last long. As I was cleaning the kitchen, I thought to myself, "Wow, I'm so glad they play so well together. It is such a blessing to hear them laughing and having fun." That's right, I could hear them laughing...gut laughing....and I enjoyed hearing it. Well that was until Tori came out with her finger covered in blood and fed me the line that Trevor bit her finger. Well, I freaked when I saw the blood and rushed her in the bathroom to clean it up. Now, anyone that knows Tori knows that she is the Queen Mother of all Drama Queen's. If Trevor had actually bit her finger she would be screaming bloody murder, but instead she was calm and almost acting a bit too ok. I knew something else had happened. I then said, "Tori, I know Trevor didn't bite you, so what really happened?" She proceeded to tell me that Trevor wanted to throw "those pretty Christmas balls".... OH MY ... what did she just say. My mind was spinning. I ran into the room and there was glass everywhere!!! I yelled at Trevor, "YOU GO TO YOUR ROOM AND DON'T COME OUT UNTIL I COME TO GET YOU." Then to Tori, "You sit on that chair and DO NOT get up until I am done cleaning this up." I then began to panic. I was thinking of all that could have happened - they could have been cut very, very severely, they could have gotten glass in their eyes, or worse. It made me thank God for his protection and for their guardian angels that had to have been looking out for them. Ok, at this point I am shaking, mad, angry, scared, and crying. I call my mom to tell her to come to the house to help me before I kill my children. She and my dad both came over. My dad came to hold Zoe - which was a huge help, and my mom came to help me clean up the carnage of what was the Christmas bulbs. The following pictures will show the mess they made, and the injuries they definitely avoided....


This is the entry way into the bedroom...
This is all over Tori's bed. Notice the sheets are covered in glass...

The center of the bedroom and location of the worst of it. This was all clean before...
Inside the container which all Zoe's clothes are in (waiting on another dresser)...


The scene of the crime...they climbed in the crib and proceeded to throw the balls against the opposite wall. Matt calls it "target practice"...



Then today, they decided to do some artwork. I called Tori to come out to the living room, where once again I was nursing Zoe. This is what I saw...




Some days I love being home with them and we have the best time ever, but then there are "those other days"....well we just won't go there.

Until our next antic.....

Sleep, precious sleep

So, Matt and I have come to the agreement that 5-6 hours of consecutive sleep is far better than 8 hours of broken up sleep. I think in the past 4 nights I've had less than 6 hours of sleep each night, and those 6 hours are broken up into 2-3 hour increments. I'm so tired, and am trying to remind myself that this is a phase and will soon come to an end. The kids all have a cold, so that is only compounding the bad sleep pattern we have going on. The night before last Trevor was up 3 times coughing and crying for mommy. Zoe was also up that night coughing, stuffy and had a fever. Well last night it was Tori's turn. Tori was up FIVE times crying for mommy and saying how her throat was 'itchy'. Trevor was up twice, and Zoe nursed every TWO hours! She's never nursed that often at night. I was up with Zoe at 12:30, 2:30, 4:30 and 6:30. Each time I nursed, changed her diaper, etc...it was almost an hour before I put her back down. So, not only was I up every 2 hours, but I was awake for almost an hour in between.

But, life must go on, right? Matt has a JV baseball game today at 11, so he left the house at 8am. He'll be home around 3ish. In the mean time I still have to feed my children, do some laundry, clean-up the kitchen ....... Although everything in me just wants to become a vegetable and lay around. Ahhhh....the life of a mom. It makes me think back to when all we had was Tori and how I would complain about being tired. Oh, how I wish I had those days back. The days of only one child to tend to! You can rest while they are napping, pack up and leave the house in less than 10 minutes, only buckle one carseat in the car.... BUT - with all that said, I wouldn't trade what I have now for anything. Sleep deprivation and all, I adore the three of them and the moments we spend are priceless and ones I know that I will never get back. Yesterday Trevor brought out the little guitar (toy electric) that we got him for Christmas and he put on a little show for me. It was hilarious. Right now they are in the living room putting a puzzle together. They are awesome.

So, if you are reading this and you got more than 6 hours of consecutive sleep, thank God for it!!!

What the blog???

That's right...I have decided to blog. I figured with as many people I talk to in a week that want to hear "How's is Matt?", "Did baseball start up yet?", "How are the kids?" etc.... I could kill quite a few birds with one stone by creating a family blog! This is my first blog, so enjoy....

Tori, my big girl is amazing us everyday. She is so smart and intuitive. Sometimes I swear she can read my mind. There are times I think she is still a baby - like today after nap time when she climbed on the couch with me and we snuggled. Then there are times when I swear she is 12 - like the other day in the car when she told me I was the best mommy the angels could ever give her. I thank God for who she is, and the little lady she is growing into. She also currently holds the title of "Assistant Mommy", and does a great job of gathering diapers and wipes, as well as bossing her little brother around. She is a huge help around the house, and loves to clean!

Trevor is now 2 1/2 and is a ball of energy. If I could just bottle up an ounce of his energy I'd be a millionaire! He is quite the sport nut, hmmm... wonder where he gets that! Now that football is done he has set his sights on baseball, and went to his first practice with daddy last Saturday. He had a blast playing catch with "those big baseball boys", and Matt and I were both pleasantly surprised with how well he did!

Zoe...mmmm my sweet, precious Zoe girl! Ahhh... I am so in love with her, I didn't think it could be this awesome the third time around. She is a mama's girl 100%, and I love it! She is so sweet and good natured that I can't believe we didn't have her sooner (joking!). She loves to be with the family. If I am in the kitchen, she is in the bouncy seat on the counter watching. She has just started to smile and coo, and is becoming so much fun.

Matt has just started baseball season so I've kissed him goodbye until late April (unless they make the playoffs, then early May). His first game is this coming Saturday, so we look forward to driving down to watch the team play. He is expecting me to stay for both JV and Varsity..hhmmmm... we'll see! 3 kids, an 1 1/2 hours in the car (round trip), snacks, 4ish hours of baseball.... not quite sure how that will work, but we'll see.

Well I hope to do this a few times a week to keep everyone up to date on our crazy antics. Enjoy!!

Oh, here are some pics we had taken of the kids last month....