It's Better With Butter.

Sometimes when I'm in the middle of cooking dinner and I need the baby to stay off my leg, I give her food. Yesterday that food was a dinner roll and lots of butter. As I was stirring my minestrone, I looked to the right and saw this: Juliet had dropped the butter on the ground and since her hands were full of dinner roll, she just sucked it up with her mouth. The great thing about having lots of kids is that by the time you have a third, you don't care as much about stuff like this:
You consider it good even. It's immunity building. And sometimes you have to lie down and have a moment with your food:
Happy Monday!

Raw Quinoa.

I made the mistake of vacuuming at the kids' bedtime last night and when I walked into the kitchen after my chore was completed, I found this face:
And it's hard to see here, but Juliet had gotten into the pantry racks (you'd think we would get rid of these by now, considering how much time I spend cleaning up all the things that mysteriously appear all over the kitchen floor every day) and poured the bag of quinoa all over herself and started to snack on it.
She also swam around in it a bit.
Off to another week of homeschooling and general chaos.

Think This is Dangerous?

No? Not dangerous? How about this?

Now I know why that high chair has shoulder straps on it. I even put the tray locked in the closest position to her possible and she still wriggles out, turns around and stands up.

I have to laugh at this because: 1) I have been alone with the kids since 6:30 this morning, I have 14 more hours to go (and possibly another 24 after that), and would cry if I didn't laugh; 2) 2/3 of my children have been crying all day and they are currently crawling all over me, 3) I was insane enough to take the kids by myself to the 8 a.m. church service, where I had the opportunity to hold my crying, clingy 1 year old the entire time (during which I was wondering how much I actually got out of the service); and 4) I'm just happy, after having fed, cleaned and disciplined and baked for three kids, that they are all alive and in one piece.

No one told me how hard it would be to have three small children, it has been a hard year and I really need to look back on this post when I get those crazy fleeting moments of wanting another child. So I will label this post "Don't you dare have another baby. Ever" so it will be easily retrieved.

I have tried a new tactic when I get overwhelmed by the twelfth "Mama! Jude took my toy!". I just say "I'm not taking complaints right now" and it confuses Samuel enough to walk away and forget his woes.

To end on a good note: I dropped Samuel off at the kindergarten classroom. Kindergarten. I have a five year old! What an amazing journey this has been (all kidding aside, I truly love my life and feel incredibly blessed).

Another cool thing about today? It's our twelfth anniversary!! We married when I was 18 and he was 20.

Fighting Commercialism

Just some cute pictures of the kids. And here's Juliet - she helping me unload the dishwasher. By scattering the utensils all over the floor -

I've fought. I've lost. And it was evident last night with Samuel's words.

"Mama? What day is it?"

"Wednesday."

"Wednesday?! That means I get all the stuff I want in two days!!"

"And more importantly, Samuel?"

"Oh, yeah. It's Jesus' birthday."

How do you instill in children the importance of Christmas when all they can think about is new toys? How do I focus on Christmas when I have to buy 50 presents? I realize that I have fleeting moments (too few, I might add) during this season of sitting and picturing Jesus in a manger, coming down to earth for me. And he would do it again for only me. Sadly, it's not until I sit in church, the hustle and bustle and responsibilities and the shopping almost completely behind me that I meditate on the wonderful reason for celebrating this day. I listen to the words in "What Child is This?" or "Away in a Manger" and realize that if stores and debit cards weren't a part of this season, I would probably be dwelling on it a lot more. Don't get me wrong - I love showering people with fun stuff. But more so on thier birthday or other random times, when I'm not taking away from the true meaning of the day.

I'm Still Laughing. Out Loud.

You know just when you do something that you start to get a bit haughty about, life really throws you a humbling curve ball. Remember those oh-so-healthy cupcakes that I made for Juliet's birthday? Well, I have to admit I was really proud of myself for not serving her dairy or sugar or GASP! chocolate. Well, as I hastily dressed myself after my shower this morning (ok, let's be honest - it was this afternoon), I realized the baby was being awful quiet. As I walk downstairs, here's what I found: Yep, that's a chocolate bar she dug up from the pantry racks. And instead of grabbing that evil chocolate away from her like a good mom should have, I grabbed my camera. Because really, I want to remember the chaos of my life ten years from now, right?

Yep - I didn't even Photoshop the snot out. She is super sick as well. Do you think chocolate has an anti-viral properties?

Fat and happy.

But wait. All good things must come to an end.

I didn't let her have the whole chocolate bar - that would have just been abusive.

Things I'm Loving This Week

I've hidden myself in the office while my children burn off their ultra-caloric dinner of Chunky Potato Soup and biscuits. I realized that I haven't taken many moments to blog in the last week as I decompress from hosting twenty some-odd people for Thanksgiving. Saturday night, I even snuck out to a movie by myself. A few years ago, I would have been horrified to sit in a romantic movie (yep, I said romantic) by myself, without a friend in sight. That's the cool thing about being thirty. You just don't care what others think. Especially when those others are teenagers (yep, it was a teenage romantic movie). I actually loved being out and about alone on a Saturday night.

The other things I'm loving this week? Jude's uncanny ability to be creative. He shoved every toy in sight into my microwave and I was too darned amused with the whole charade to tell him to stop. Do you see his big guilty eyes through the microwave door here?

On a different note:

-Samuel learned to ride his bike with no training wheels a couple of weeks ago. Really? When did he get so old?!

- Juliet did her first sign tonight - she signed "all done" after she was finished eating. She also tries to put her own shoes on. Now to transfer all these little accomplishments into her baby book!

- I am itching to get on the Christmas crafts - cards, sewing gifts, etc. On the other hand, I am also enjoying my craft stuff being completely hidden away for the moment - clutter free rooms really have the Feng shui thing going.

-As I spotted a lawyer walking with large files toward the Clackamas County Courthouse this morning, I had a flash of memories surrounding my dream to go to law school someday. I'm still not sure what box to file those dreams in. But then I realized that I truly am where I should be right now.

What Have We Been Up To?

We have been crazy busy with construction, Thanksgiving prep (it's at our house this year!) and just child rearing (oh, and going to see "New Moon" last night, which I am not mad about!).
Well, this is just a picture of Juliet - because who doesn't love a baby with spinach on her nose?This child always has something in her mouth. After this picture was taken, she left an incredible sea of thread in her wake.

I made this tutu - time consuming, but not very hard.

I took my niece, Eden's, pictures. So sweet.

Colin is remodeling our "construction room" and turning it into our bedroom. We chose this steel grey color and I love it.

Hardwood floors were added as well.

Also, we had our family photos taken. It took me about a year and a half to convince Colin we needed to have them done and the waiting paid off! I love how they turned out! See them here

Happy Thanksgiving!!