HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it is safe to say we are over the crud. Wow, what a long week! I hope everyone is having a happy valentine's day. Troy and the kids surprised me with a necklace with four charms (kids names and then my favorite bible verse Prov. 3:5-6). I love it! We are going to just hang out here and probably let the kids have too much candy. Have a good one!

Puke, Puke & More Puke...............

I know - it sounds gross - but it's the reality of what's been going on in our house for a week now. Monday night, Maci wakes up puking, so I get up, get all the stuff out of her crib and wash it, change her clothes and get her back to bed. Next day, she feels better, Kole pukes all over the floor. It doesn't seem to phase him, because about ten minutes after he pukes he is running around playing and screaming "Eat, Eat." All this time I, who am not normally worried about germs, am lysoling everything I see, washing my hands every time I touch Kole or Maci, washing sheets and pillowcases everytime someone lays on them for more than an hour, just praying I won't get sick. I kept Koby out of school Tuesday, just in case he was contagious and then waited to see who was next. Wednesday, Kole had the runs all day, but there was no puke. So Thursday, since Koby hasn't caught it yet, I assume he's not going to and send him to school. Thursday afternoon, I pick him up from school, he comes in and takes a nap and you've probably guessed it by now, he wakes up PUKING! In case you didn't know, a five-year-old's puke is much worse than a 1 or 2 year old's puke. It was disgusting. I saw chunks of stuff and asked him what he ate for snack time at school - batman gummies. Yeh, they came back up. Okay, so I mopped the floor, washed the sheets, changed his clothes and an hour later, he pukes again. So I go through the same routine again and an hour later, here it comes again. Same routine, mop, wash, change clothes. Oh, and don't forget lysol, except by now I am out because I have used a whole can in two days. I pile all the kids in the car and go to the dollar store because I've got to get sprite, saltines and a jumbo can of lysol. Sidenote - Troy has had an extremely busy work week so I've mostly been on my own, so yes, I had to take the sick kids to the store with me. Besides, it's hard to get anyone to come babysit puking kids - they don't want to get sick either. Okay, so Friday, there is no puke, just the runs with Kole. Saturday at 6 am, Kole is crying. I'm thinking, "he can just cry because I am not getting out of bed this early, I am exhausted." Well, he doesn't stop after 30 minutes, which is unusual, so I go check on him. I open the door, and the overwhelming smell of puke comes over me. He has thrown up all in his crib. So I go through the routine again, he acts like he's okay all day and then Sunday morning, I wake up to him crying at 6 am again and that's right, he's puked everywhere again. Go through the routine, he seems to be fine yet again. Troy wakes up with the runs and chills and so I put him on the couch with soup, saltines, advil, and berry blue kool-aid. In the midst of all this, Saturday, my dryer breaks, so at this point, I'm tossing the puky sheets on my back deck so I don't have to smell them. Sunday, I borrowed my neighbor's dryer until Troy feels well enough to fix ours. As a final note, one night I was feeling sorry for myself and I thought to myself, "a caramel sunday from McDonalds would just make everything better and let's face it, I deserve it after this horrible week." So I head to McDonalds, wait in line for the drive-thru and when I finally get up there, there's a sign on the speaker that says the ice cream machine is broken! I decided at that point to just accept the fact that sometimes nothing goes right and I should just be thankful we're all alive. Well, that's what's going on in Arkansas - sorry for the gross blog - if you've made it to the end of this, you must be bored. I just thank the Lord I haven't gotten it................................yet.

Playing in the warm weather

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We couldn't resist the opportunity to play out in the warm weather today - there was no sun, but at least we could be out in short sleeves! Yea!

Back to Birmingham.......

We had a fun week in Birmingham. DeeDee took us to the circus and the Parker/Fuqua/White crew joined us. Then on Saturday Gran threw Koby a second 5th birthday party and we had a blast. Tanya and Anna Kate Hindman came to celebrate with us. This time the theme was Mario Brothers. Gran gave Koby a nintendo gameboy which he was very excited about and DeeDee gave him a candy machine with the claw like you play in Wal-Mart. So now they think they can eat candy all the time when they win it. We visited with Grandmother Nicholson and Grandmother and Grandaddy Russell while we were in town. I also ran into Susan (Steph Swindle's mom) and Mr. Timmons in the same restaurant one night, so it was good to see everyone and catch up. Now I've got to unpack and get our lives back in order again. So I may not be blogging for a few days. Have a happy week!

Happy 5th Birthday Koby!!!!!

I can't believe Koby is already five - time flies! Koby wanted me to make him a ninja turtle cake for his birthday and so I gave it my best shot. I decided to make it out of cupcakes, not taking into consideration that the edges would be lumpy instead of a smooth circle. SO...it ended up looking like a ninja frog instead. But he still loved it and it tasted good so that's all that matters. The picture of Maci and Kole was taken while everyone else was focused on Koby opening his presents - I looked over and they had gotten hold of a plate of cake and ice cream that someone had left sitting in their reach. They hit the jackpot! We were also supposed to take Koby bowling for his birthday, but when we got there, the power was out and not expected to come back on for a while. Bummer!

Other than Koby's party, nothing much else is going on. Troy got in around 11:00 last night after being in Dallas for a week. We were glad to have him home. This was the first time I had all three kids for a week by myself - they should have put us on TV and called it "Survivor". hehe They were actually pretty good - Troy prayed before he left that they would be - he was probably afraid I might do something bad - but anyway, it was definitely a prayer answered.

The jeep is up and running and hopefully the Suburban will be soon. The kids and I will be heading to Bham in a couple of weeks. DeeDee is taking Koby and Maci to the circus. So until next time.....................

We've never been friends before....but we are now!

I wasn't going to make another post until after Christmas, but after this morning I had to. Koby must really be in the xmas spirit because he was being very friendly to Kole this morning, which is not the usual. I made pancakes and Koby invited Kole to sit beside him and share pancakes with him. He even asked me for two straws for his drink so that they could share it. Kole was eating the attention up. The best part was when Koby said, "Mom, we've never been friends before, but we are now!" Of course, the meal ended with sticky drink being spilled all over my kitchen floor. hehe





Making xmas cookies. Yummm!



The classic family Christmas picture. We got it in one take which is a Christmas miracle in of itself!

Merry Christmas!!!!!

I have no new pics to post. I will have tons after next week. We have been really busy with xmas parties and church stuff. Also, we have two non-working cars. Our suburban died Saturday and needs a new engine. I can't imagine why since it is a 1996 with 250000 miles on it. The jeep is always in and out - right now it needs a new starter. So anyways, other than that we are all doing great! Koby is excited about Santa Claus and Kole and Maci are keeping me busy around the house. They are like twins and get in lots of trouble together. It's not uncommon for me to find them unrolling all the toilet paper and dipping it in the toilet and then dragging it through the house. The other night, I got them out of the bath and got Kole's diaper on. While I was putting Maci's pj's on, Koby screams at me that Kole has fallen back in the bath tub water. Just when I thought I had it all together, I almost chopped Noah to death (the toy one) in the garbage disposal. I rescued him though! Never a dull moment! I am thankful for all of it! We will spend xmas here and then go to Bham the day after xmas. We wish all of you Happy Holidays!