Name that photo!

This is how I found G the other day....

Musings

Ok, so...since I posted on my facebook that I need more blog friends (followers), I have had 9 people start following :). This makes me happy..like twizzlers. We had a better day here in the Elwood house. I have been wrestling with feelings of guilt. Like all the time guilt. Guilt over having an annoyingly bad day with the kids and by the end...I sink into the couch to watch TV, thinking "why did I have a bad day? Would the woman who can't have children gladly take my day? Would others look at me and say, wow....she is crazy?" I don't know. I mean, I raised my voice to my son the other day because he threw his crayons all over the floor. What is the old adage :'don't cry over spilled milk'? Or should it be 'don't yell over crayons spewed amongst your kitchen floor'.....oh dear. I just had a baby..ok...like 6 months ago, but aren't hormones still changing? I mean, it wasn't long ago that I was pregnant and getting after my husband for NOT using a plate or a splatter guard to heat up a hotdog (I mean come on..who microwaves a hot dog with no plate or paper towel/plastic wrap on top?)......I did lose it...and I did get one H@#$ of a stare.. :) hahahhaa, looking back..funny, but during...NOT funny..

Anyway, I am off track. I think that living life in constant guilt is obviously not good. I also know that God gives grace and mercies anew EVERY morning...so, why do I often feel guilt. I feel guilty when I want to go running and I have to leave my husband to watch the kids or get them in the morning...I mean..come on..I need to lose this extra 10 that i have packed on to my waistline...how am I going to do that? Anyway, I know what the Bible says on all of these issues, yet I STILL have guilt. My friend says I need to give myself a break. I have 3, 3 and under...I am in the thick of it. My other girlfriend who has 8 kids says that this time was the hardest time for her too...it gets easier she says. WHEN??? The kids are really not bad..it's more me and my patience. How do you balance a laid back parenting style with rules? hahahaha, is that possible? Josh is soo much more patient with the kids. I don't know that I have ever heard him raise his voice to them, which is sooo admirable. Lack of sleep is playing a part in my attitude, but...when is enough sleep enough? Do I have to wait until they are 18? :( soo sad.

Anyway, my musings.

My friend Sarah is a NEW mama and has the most beautiful little baby boy. Her blog is here: http://www.kevandsar.blogspot.com/. Read her latest post. It is awesome! She is a very good friend who is serving far far away for the Lord. Such a sacrifice with a newborn for sure.

Ok, I digress....

Onto happy things! I am going to make cookies in a few minutes. I made homemade chocolate chip last week and ....they just didn't turn out as good as the pre-made batter. mmmmm. (there goes that extra 10 around my waist to 11) :) hahahaha.

Enjoy your evening readers!

Follow Me

Sooo, I just found this...is that lame? I have had this blog for almost 2 years and JUST found that I have friends following my blog and that I can put this nifty follow me tag on the side of my blog. :) hahahahahaha. FOLLOW ME!!! I LOVE seeing who is looking at my blog and it gives me a chance to go to YOUR blog :) SOOO awesome. The littlest things in life get me SOOO giddy :)

Not Me Monday

Well, I did not gently yell at my child for most of the morning thinking he woke up early and was having a nasty fussy morning only to find he had a fever higher than the empire state building. I didn't have to apologize for that till the cows came home either.

I did not make the most awesome tasting taquito (to me) last week only to have my husband say at dinner "maybe we should use the meat they called for in the recipe"...meaning...this doesn't taste like a taquito. :( poor me.

I also did not start a coconut challenge (where you substitute ALL the oils in your house for refined coconut oil for a month and use 4 tlb.s each day EVEN on your face) and apply some to my face last night hoping and dreaming for better skin this morning.......only to wake up not looking at my oil slathered face and saying "maybe my eyes don't look have AS dark of circles as they did yesterday". Not me..I would NEVER fill my head with such hope and nonsense....keep my fingers crossed all night....and be disappointed with my skin and total body survey.....3 kids......what have they done to my body. :).....have I got off track? whoops...

and finally, I did not sweep the floor this morning only to bend over to pick up the crumbs, in the process NOT knock over the milk that was strategically placed on the edge of the table and have that crashing to the floor. I did not go to clean up said milk and bend over once again to only bottom hit my kid in the face to send him to the floor.....we then proceeded to not laugh like hyenas and avoid tears altogether by me saying "mama's gotta lose some weight buddy huh?"...to his reply......."yes". :( Thanks buddy.

HAHAHAHAHHAA

HAPPY MONDAY!!!!

Before and after

Ok, I took some pics today of the kids, the woman behind the camera AND a before and after edit. which one looks better.??? The one of me is SUPER blurry, but.....I kind of like it a little. :) The others AGAIN I had to bribe with candy to get even THIS shot

I've decided

I want to pursue a life goal of mine...photography!!! yeah yeah, I know everyone and their mother takes photos...soooo, why can't I? I love taking them and have a nice camera to do so, but......I want to understand why my photos turn out good or bad. I want to take pictures of my kids and say.."dang, that's a good shot". Here are some pics I was taking this morning that I thought turned out pretty well. I KNOW I have some photographers with GREAT pictures and good eyes for good pictures following my blog. If you look at the photos I took this morning....is there anything "you" could suggest for improvement....??? or what you liked about the photo!!!!

ok, here you go.

Poor Monday

My little G is sick. He has strep throat. Poor guy (and mom) have been screaming all day long. His throat is soo red and spotty. Anyway, here he is resting in his daddy's arms. just wishing he were sleeping.

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created byMckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. I'll start...

This weekend I did not decide it was time to put my two toddlers in the same room to sleep at night and think "oh, this will be fine". They did not wake up on the hour every hour last night, screaming something about a pink blanket and a night light. I did not say to my husband that I was going to cry after getting up 4 x's at that time. I also did not go into their room and tell the oldest that she was going to get in "big" trouble if she screams again at 4 a.m. I had a lot of apologizing to her this morning. (I'm not sure what BIG trouble means, but I know that she doesn't like it)....is that fear?....is that not good? argh (tired mama)

I also did not spend a significant amount of time making irish soda bread yesterday only to tell my husband at dinner that we were having good, tasteless bread. (i hate when something you spent soo much time on doesn't turn out)

I did not feed my son said irish soda bread last night with HONEY and have it go all over the floor with the crumbs. Those stuck crumbs are also not still sitting on the floor.

I did not cut my sons hair and make him look like the girl in parent trap...the OLD one. (see picture on post below). I didn't cut his hair...no not me....even after I SWORE up and down I wouldn't come near him with a ten foot pole (ie. scissors). I also didn't promise a cookie if he sat still for me while I trimmed. not poor little ol' bribing queen me

That's all I've got for today...an uneventful weekend....except the no sleep and loss of temper a few times....... argh...the guilt feeling is settling just fine in our house today thank you.

I need to take a trip to McDonalds to let the kids run free (because this is the only "park" we can go to right now...too much snow still) and for me to eat a sundae.....or fries....I'm on a diet remember? hahahahahhaa

Happy Monday!!!

Hair cut

Well.....I did it. I cut G's hair....I wasn't going to, but my hair cost a little more than expected today and I didn't want to pay to get his cut. SOOOO....here it is. And I will post pics of my hair change when the hubs gets home to take a pic of my after. :)

Before and after.....or after and before...however way the pics show up.

Happy St. Patricks Day!!!

Today is GREEN day. We had cereal with green milk today. Kayla has had a blast trying to think of green things today. We were going to make green bread today.......green bread. hmm. MOLD came to mind after that. GROSS! so, we are avoiding the bread, but we are going to eat lots of broccoli and maybe some kale. hahahaha, kale!

Happy St. Patties Day

Brave

I just watched the 20/20 episode "After the Final Rose"....the bachelor. And....let me just say that the Producer......really freaked me out. He was nasty creepy. hahahha. I didn't like him and he is very different from what I expected for sure. Oh well....we all know that those shows NEVER end up the way they should. Like, Jake should have chosen Tenly for sure. But...my own opinion of course. Anyway, on to bigger and better things. I am stinking tired. I just took some pics of the kiddos and it has become a teeth pulling session. Guinness used to LOVE having his picture taken and now....he is just like his sister...needs to be bribed.

Checked out the Anthro sale today....eh..nothing to write home about, but speaking of HOME, they have GREAT home accents. Wonderful colored table cloths that are WAYYYY too expensive for something that my kids will destroy with ketchup or even worse (RANCH)... is anyone else's kid addicted to Ranch and will not eat veggies without it? Truth be told, I kind of don't care...the more broccoli the better.

I bravely took the kids to the store today and decided I am not going to bribe with Disney WOrld again....I am just going to ignore it. Almost from the second we went into the store till almost checkout time, all I heard from Kayla was..."ouch, my head" "Guinness, move over" "Can I hold something?"...only it wasn't as nicely sounding as the way you just read it....oh boy. It was sooo annoying. I didn't get mad...but instead I addressed it and then let them fuss it out. Fortunately I was there when not too many people were and I could go through some aisle's un-noticed, but still....argh. Once I handed them something, it was ok, but oh man.......3 kids in a small cart (because the car ones were gone) (and to be honest...a little of a pain to maneuver through the store). Some say crazy, I say...all in the name of some Fuji apples....and cereal for my sweetie!

Does anyone feel like this time change has been for the better? I DO!!! strangely enough, our kids have been sleeping in. The last 2 mornings we got up after 7...that is SOOO nice. Are we the only ones?

Not Me Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created byMckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. I'll start...

I didn't go to the grocery store the other day with 3 children in tow. And I didn't tell the kids that we would go to Disney World after the grocery store if they cooperated for me in the store and didn't cause a scene. (btw, we live in CO) :) hahahaha.

I also didn't go on and on about my trials with 3 kids under 3 to the grocery store clerk after he asked me how I was. And I certainly didn't almost cry when he said..."boy, you've got your hands full". I also didn't forget to wear a belt to the grocery store to hold up my ever expanding stretch jeans. I couldn't have bent over when checking out and flashed the older man behind me with my pink Victoria Secret Underwear. No not ME!! that would be tacky.

And finally, I did not teach my daughter the word stupid after maybe muttering it under my breath after getting off the phone with an incompetent furniture store customer service rep. And I didn't proceed to tell my daughter "we don't say stuff like that"..and she didn't reply with ...."but mom, you just...." and I didn't cut her off.

:)

Doesn't

This picture look like Edyn is saying "but..come on"

All of these pictures

could have their OWN title. I had a photo shoot today with the kids in my room. Kayla was being VERY un-cooperative...I bribed her with all sorts of things, but she would NOT smile. She said that Edyn's 13 pound body was too heavy for her and that she was hurting her. Kayla is DRAMATIC!!! oh my. Guinness just follows suit sometimes. Can be annoying. Anyway, here are some pics from today. 2 parts

Madd Scientist

Look at this shot of Guinness that I got outside today. He is LOVING playing outside these days. Which is funny, cuz this side of 2 months ago, he didn't want a THING to do with the cold weather. I can't drag him in now. Such a nice thing because he can play on the deck while I get some things done around the house. The other pictures are of course my lovely beauties. Edyn is sick right now, but she won't let that stop her from taking a good picture :) Kayla.....she is our SMARTWOOL representative. We are hoping she will be on the cover of Smartwool monthly.... just kidding...there is no such thing..but, I can dream. Kayla I realized is just going outside so she can come in and have hot chocolate. She gets all dressed up (well, i get her dressed up which takes 20 minutes) and then she stays out for 10 minutes and says "mommy, I want to come in and have hot chocolate".. I'm on to you sweetheart. So, I told her today there was no hot chocolate because we were too close to dinner and she stayed out for another 30 min. SUCCESS!!! :) Anyway, end of the week tomorrow!!! WAHOOO!!!

Not me Monday

It's monday again...and already Josh and I are feeling overwhelmed. He left the house saying he had to work an hour extra today AND had a meeting tonight at the church from 7-8. I have 2 extra kiddies coming over today for lunch and will have an extra hour with the kids due to Josh working and hour over today. ALready a long monday. Lets start off our Not Me Monday...shall we!

I did not put clips and pony tails in my sons hair this weekend and think it was soo cute and that he would make the cutest little girl. No, not me...I did not say that.

I also didn't look in the mirror this morning and think "hey, I think I lost some weight"....then realized it was Monday morning and that everyone looks thinner in the mornings. :( sad.

I went and saw the Valentine the other night with some girlfriends and afterwards had to go to the market at 10 PM. I did my shopping with all the other weirdos who shop at 10 PM on a Wednesday night, paid for my groceries and walked out to my car. I did not walk to the other side of my vehicle, put my groceries in and consider climbing to my side of the car through the passengers side. I thought the car next to me had some weird men in it.....(turns out, there was a guy in a bathrobe who was in the grocery store when I was....my friend was in there too....and he winked at her with a click click and a finger gun pose. YIKES) So, maybe I should have been weirded out.......ok, not a good Not Me Monday story. hahahahahahahahhaha

HAPPY MONDAY!!!!