What did she say???

Just a few things Puddin has said recently that I had to get written down. This girl is something! I never know what she is going to come up with next.



"You drop that toy right now, mister!"


"My stwaw doesn't wuck anymoe!""


"I wuv pickin flowlers!"



"We fogive each udder cus dats what you do when you wuv each udder."

"what kind of pwincess are you?"

"I'm tinking about dat one."

"Mommy, I wuv you soo much!"



"You're the best cooker, Mommy!"


"Daddy is soo silly!"

"Ok Daddy, now you be the beast and we'll have a tea party!"

I'm telling you what Monkey Do, I have no idea 'bout what you are sayin man!"

"I do not wike dat good idea!"

I weally, weally need dat baby pig fo my burthday Momma! If you don't buy it NOW some udder wittle grirl is gonna wuv him and her mommy will buy it fo her and then he'll be GONE!!!

"Momma, you know, I sure do love my baby brother and my baby sister!"

"BOYS!!! It's time to play we pwayed for a baby and God gave us twins!" (yes, she seriously said that!)

"Well, actually, I changed my mind!"

10 years

Wow- I can't believe it's been 10 years.

Today is the day my sweet nephew was born into this world weigh 3 lbs, 4 oz.

He was precious, and still is.

I love him so, so much!

He is a great cousin to all of my little people. He entertains them and plays with them, even if he would rather be doing something else!

Oh, how I wish I had a working scanner since I didn't have a digital camera 10 years ago.

I have some really great pictures I would love to share but these will have to do.

I love you Willie! Happy, happy birthday sweet boy!

Best laid plans....

Well, I think I may have used that blog title before but, oh well.
I guess this is what I get for making plans... they rarely turn out how I expect them too.

As I type this I am listening to the sounds of a sweet, sensitive 2 year old boy scream his ever loving head off in his crib. Aaaand, we are going on 2 hours of this....and the 4th night of it. Makes me want to scream too.

You may remember how we explained that once "mi-mi" was broken or lost we wouldn't have one anymore or remember my "boot camp" plan.... yeah, the one where I laid out my timeline for getting rid of the beloved "mi-mi"? Remember when I missed my "opportunity" to get rid of "mi-mi" in the 1st place?

Well, the inevitable happened... "mi-mi" is broken. And the timing (in my humble opinion) couldn't be worse.

Saturday night monkey See came down with a fever. He had a very hard time resting and was tossing and turning. He would cry and was just all together miserable. Little did any of us know, it was about to get worse. We think he may have bit into his mi-mi as it was being pulled out of his mouth for medicine, not exactly sure how it happened. All we know is mi-mi now has a hole in it.

Slow to catch on Momma kept trying to make him take the broken mi-mi and go to sleep. I was sitting with him rocking and snuggling and kept giving it back to him until he finally threw it on the floor. Once I picked it up I looked at it and realized we had a problem, a serious problem.

Needless to say, it was on into Sunday morning before my little monkey finally fell asleep.

And, this has been our pattern since... lots of crying and screaming...
"I nee ma mi-mi! AGHHHHHHH!!!!" Followed by a cranky, moody, whiney, overly emotional toddler the following day.
Pleasant, isn't it?

It really makes me want to high tail it to CVS and get a brand spankin new one for my sweet little monkey! Poor thing is miserable and going through withdrawls on top of it! You see, Monkey See has been through a lot in 2 short years. His first 2 weeks were more than any child, parent, or family should have to experience. We are grateful to God to have a healthy child today with no problems or ill side affects from his experience. God placed the right people at the right time in front of me and my child and because of them and an army of people praying for my son and Gods unending grace, I have my Monkey See.

(I have intended to blog about it for, well, since I started this blog, but for some reason.... I just havn't had the time or the energy needed to tell his story. But considering I ran into his very wonderfully, proactive, sweet, best nurse on the planet NICU nurse tonight, who I haven't seen in 2 years, it makes me think, hmmmmm, I might need to make some time to tell this sweet boys story. I definitly want to have it documented so I don't forget any of it. Not that I think I could ever forget it but you know mommynesia hits pretty hard sometimes.)

But, becuase I apparently, am a slow learner, I guess this was the only way to do get rid of the mi-mi. Even hubby made a comment about how he would be packing it to go with him when he went off to college if we didn't do something about it quick. It was going to take a God sized plan to get that sweet boy off the paci and that's exactly what we got. So, here we are, 4 and a half days later, still crying, but finally fever free! Woo-hoo, praise God! And no one else has a fever yet, kind of weird, I know. Every night, the crying, while intense, is stopping a little earlier than the night before. Maybe by Saturday he will through withdrawls and be back to his normal, happy, sweet self. I'll keep you posted.

Oh, and as for the rest of baby boot camp, well, I guess we'll have to see what the future holds!

Pretty Maids all in a Row

Basic Training

So, we are gearing for for baby boot camp around here in the next few weeks... translation= getting Daisy to sleep through the night, potty training the Monkeys and preparing Monkey See for the loss of his beloved mi-mi. Not necessarily in that order.
I've had some really great suggestions on how to say bye-bye to the binky. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.
Boot camp #1 is to get Daisy to sleep through the night. Please, dear Lord, make that happen. I will give her a little credit though- she has managed to squeak out an extra hour every now and then so she will sometimes sleep for 4 hours before needing wanting a bottle. I really, really don't want to just let her cry but somethings gotta give. I keep praying she will just realize the doesn't need a bottle, or me, or daddy and just sleep. Our goal to have this completed... immediately!

Boot camp goal #2... Saying goodbye to Monkey See's mi-mi. If it's nearly as traumatic as it was last week, I might just loose my mind! Since the episode last week he has been very, very clingy to his dear mi-mi. Even sneaking upstairs for a little alone time with it. He has even been to brazen as to wander downstairs with it a couple of times in his mouth. When I take it away and remind him we only use a mi-mi at bedtime he falls apart in tears. (Just so you know, I don't give it back until bedtime. I'm pretty firm on that). So, I know what your thinking, I made all of this harder on myself. I should have just thrown it out when I had the chance, right? Yes, I guess I am a glutton for punishment. We hope to have this done by Christmas, Thanksgiving (or sooner, according to my hubby).

Boot camp goal #3...Potty training the Monkeys. Oh.my.word. If it's even remotely as hard as it was the last time I tried, I can guarantee I will loose my mind, or what's left of it! I don't think I even blogged about that horrendous day because, well, it was horrendous! I'm desperately trying to erase it from my mind. Needless to say, it will be the last step on baby boot camp '09 (and may actually not be accomplished until BBC '10. We'll see.

So I leave you with a little boot camp photo fun! Puddin and the Monkeys went through a little basic training the other day on how to sew... that's right, Momma needs a couple of sewing assistants around here and it's time they earn their keep! (yeah, right!)
Here they are, deep in concentration, working on their sewing cards. Surprisingly enough, Monkey Do was really, really good at this! If you know him you would think he wouldn't have the patience for it, but he was great at it! Actually, they all 3 did really well so there might be something to this "sewing assistant" thing after all!

So, if you've been reading blog for any length of time then you know that I haven't been able to find a blog design that I really like. I've tried several different looks.... but nothing seems to fit.
So I did some browsing and found the perfect design to day. I was so happy!!! YAY!!
Until, I found that I don't know how to "unzip" files! UGH! So now I'm stuck and thinking I may just have to keep looking! If I had more than 5-10 minute intervals to work with I might actually get something done!

Speaking of getting something done... I should have 3 new babies to reveal tomorrow! They are turning out to be cutie-pies!

Help...part 2

Well, here's my decision.
He's sleeping soundly after a hard, hard day.


I just couldn't take it away from him that way. The poor thing really seemed very traumatized by it all.
After church I made his sister explain what had happened and made her apologize for not being honest about the mi-mi. She felt pretty badly, I think.
Anyway, my sweet little Monkey was thrilled to see his mi-mi and probably could have floated all the way up to his bed!
We'll deal with how to get rid of it in the next couple of months- hopefully in a less traumatizing way! I'll keep you posted!
Thanks to everyone for the encouraging emails and suggestions! I really appreciate your help!

Help!!!

I'm asking for help in this post because, seriously, I'm faced with a dilemma and I just don't know what to do.
OK- here's the back story... as of their birthday the Monkey's still had their pacifiers, aka, mi-mi's.
Hubby and I decided that we should probably work on taking them away.
Puddin's was easy to get rid of- in fact the day we returned from her dental appointment it was NO-MORE! You see, the dentist asked, "does she still have a pacifier?" and I responded, "yes" and got a "hmmm" back as a reply, much to my humiliation. She was only two and a half but we ditched it that day. I just moved her out of her crib to a big girl bed and told her mi-mi's couldn't go in big girl beds and she was ok with that.

Now, back to the Monkeys...

Monkey Do has been easy to break of his mi-mi. Shortly after hubby and I had the "discussion" we started finding mi-mi's with holes chewed in them. If given to the boys, they would promptly throw them back at us in disgust- not kidding. So the boys widdled 15+ mi-mi's down to just 2 in a matter of 2 weeks. Now, each boy had only 1, they were only allowed to have them in their cribs, we never let them roam around the house with them all of the time. Mi-mi's were strictly for bed time. So one night Monkey Do threw his mi-mi out and refused to take it. Quickly I noted that it had a hole in it so I explained again that we had to throw it away because it was broken and we weren't going to buy anymore. Monkey Do was a big boy now and no longer needed a mi-mi. That was that. With the exception of a night or two when I was out and he tormented hubby with the screams of "MI-MI!!" from his crib. But, all in all, he was pretty easy.

Not the same for his brother. See, Monkey See was not the Monkey chewing the holes... that was all Monkey Do. So he was very careful and purposeful with
his mi-mi. He would keep it in his crib, for the most part. He would tell it bye-bye when it was time to get out and was oh, so happy to see it again at bed time. He knew that when it was broken it would be gone and we would not be buying more mi-mi's. I should also say, he is my sensitive child. He can be very emotional and attached to things.
So today he went to get into his crib at bedtime and all he could say was "Wook, Momma!!! Where Mi-Mi? Wook MOMMA!!!" He was upset! I looked, and I looked and I looked. I never did find that thing. So, nap time was miserable. Poor thing cried forever it seemed and when he finally did sleep he woke up 30 minutes later, devastated! He was sobbing, "mi-mi, mi-mi, mi-mi!!!!" Oh, I'm telling you, it was horrible! When he cries he also breaks out in hives so by the time I got to him.... eewwwww... it was bad! He just looked terrible! Hives, snot and tears are not a good thing! He was simply heart broken and grieving for his poor mi-mi! So, I help him for about an hour while I tried to get him calmed down as I fed the babies and got the other children up and dressed. I have no idea how I did it. Apparently, I am part octopus.

Finally, once I could wrangle free I started folding some diapers and remembered a moment this afternoon, shortly before naptime. Puddin was standing at the top of the staircase looking down at us and calling Monkey See to come play. Suddenly, something slipped from her hands and fell to the floor below. I asked her what she dropped and she replied, "a dinosaur".. I assumed she was being honest....(whole other post!). Suddenly, it dawned on me the flying object I saw her drop was too small to be a dinosaur so I started looked under the couch (among the dust bunnies that happily live there) and guess what I found????
Yep, Mi-mi!
So now, what do I do??
Should I give my sweet baby boy his mi-mi back? After all, he didn't do anything wrong. He followed the rules we had set and took care of it. His sneaky sister is at fault for this one.
Or, should I just be done with the whole mi-mi thing and consider myself fortunate that this happened? I mean, after all, he is the type that could "take care" of his mi-mi and follow the rules until he is 12 years old! And I certainly don't want to face the dentist again with a meek little "yes".
I just keep seeing this face.....


So, what should I do?? Help!

Baby MeiMei

A friend of mine is in China right now with her sweet new baby girl, Mei Mei.
I am so thrilled for her and her sweet family. What a journey of faith this has been for them! To read about their story visit The Womble Times . They are asking for prayer for a smooth transition as their new baby girl adapts to them and they all adapt to life as a family of 5!!
They have a wonderful story and a beautiful family!
Congrats on the newest addition!

Now- my babies are m.a.d. that I left them so I better go before they wake up the whole house!!!

Pettiskirt Junction

About a year ago I saw an adorable pettiskirt on the web. It came with a not so adorable price. So, I decided to shop around. Surely, these precious little things couldn't be that expensive, I thought! So I waited and waited and waited while I window shopped for the perfect skirt with the perfect price. Sadly, it never came. So, what a momma to do?? Well, if your this momma- you make your own!

I ventured out into the big wide world of fabric and found what I thought would be just perfect, especially since it was marked down 75%!! Woo-hoo! Jackpot! It was the prettiest polyester chiffon... not normally a material I work with but light and fluffy so it looked perfect!

After a bit of trial and effort this little darling was complete and Puddin was a happy, happy girl!

She wanted to wear it everywhere but I kept insisting she take it off to wear it to just the right occasion. Finally, she had her opportunity this weekend! She was invited to a special little friends 5th birthday party. Little Miss I was having a butterfly tea party and Puddin's pettiskirt would match her butterfly wings perfectly!

As I watched Puddin playing at the party, having a grand time with her little friends, I noticed some wispy-ness going on at the bottom of this sweet little skirt. the harder she played

the wisp-ier the skirt became. Not exactly the look I was going for. Hmmm.

This is her mermaidbarbieprincess look that she has put together and LOVES to wear!!
notice the "fray"

After a little research that afternoon, I quickly learned that those pricey pettiskirts I didn't want to buy were made from nylon chiffon, not polyester chiffon. Yes, there is a difference. You see, nylon chiffon DOES NOT fray as does it's crazy, less reliable sister Polyester!

So I then headed off to find some of the Nylon chiffon to correct the ruffle at the bottom of the skirt. Once again, the selection of fabric in Murfreesboro was a HUGE let down. I could not find any nylon chiffon in Murfreesboro- anywhere. So, I got creative and bought some knit costume lining in the perfect shade of pink, cut off the bottom ruffle of the precious pettiskirt as Puddin cried, "Momma's tearing up my favorite skirt!", made a new ruffle from the lining and attached it. Finally, no fray!!!

The pettiskirt is complete and perfectly, perfect for Puddin... and at a fraction of the cost!

Please excuse my kitchen mess and counter clutter! ugh!

(Although I do now realize why they charge so much for these skirts. Not only are the beautiful but they really do take a lot of work. All of the cutting and attaching really takes a lot of time!)

Puddin and the Gang!

This was taken on the 1st day of dance class this season.

These little darlings are sooo cute! This year will be the 3rd year Puddin and some of the girls have danced together. It's so fun to watch them grow!! They are all so sweet and the picture was too cute not to share! Thanks for sharing it with me Alyson!

BTW- I'm sure Puddin had her back turned because she was being "shy". It's her new thing!

6 Months

Happy 1/2 birthday to sweet baby Daisy and baby Bud!!
Yes, my sweet little newborns are 6 months old today!
It's hard to believe! We celebrated their 1/2 birthday with a 1/2 birthday cake tonight. The big kids enjoyed it while the babies ate sweet potatoes! They were fine with that.

And in honor of the event sweet and sassy Daisy finally decided to sleep through the night last night! Yes, finally! She actually went 5 hours and 50 minutes before she insisted on needed a bottle! Can I get a woot-woot!!

I'm telling you- it was an answer to prayer! 6 months of feeding that girl every 3 hours was nearly wearing me out! The cutest thing about it though is that even when she wakes up to eat in the middle of the night she puts the biggest, cheesiest grin on her face like she is sooooo happy to see me!
It really is very sweet!
But I am so, so thankful I didn't have to see that sweet little face last night!
I hope that doesn't offend anyone!

I don't have their 6 months stats yet. They won't be going in for the well check until they are 7 1/2 months. I didn't want to make an "extra" trip to the cesspool of infection...aka, the pediatricians office, so I scheduled their well check along with Puddin's 4 year well check on the same day.
Yes, apparently I am a glutton for punishment.
It will be a hard, yucky, tear filled, screaming, temper tantrum filled kind of day, all packed into an hour or so in a tiny 8X8 room.
But, it will be over in 1 trip and won't have to be repeated again for several months! Plus it's one less trip we have to make and that equals one less opportunity for my kids to come home with some sort infection!
So, since I don't have their stats I can share their 4 month stats... Bud was 17.9 lbs and Daisy was 15.5 lbs, I can't remember their length and I don't want to go look it up! Sorry!
Anyway, I can say with confidence that they do weigh even more now and Bud is still heavier and bigger! Daisy also has 2 teeth and Bud has none. They are eating cereal and sweet potatoes so far and guzzling milk by the bottles full! They are both rolling from back to belly but not belly to back (Mommy hasn't allowed for much tummy time with 3 wild ones running around the house... makes me a bit nervous!) They are "talking", "talking", "talking" up a storm! They are also reaching and grabbing for toys, chewing on everything, doing crunches when they lay on their backs and dare I say....whisper... think... sleeping through the night! Oh, I pray last night wasn't a fluke!

Here is a picture snapped tonight just before bedtime....

They are so yummy, sweet! Seriously, always smiling and happy, even when they don't feel well!

And here is one of the whole crew. The first 1 was taken 5 months ago and used in the birth announcement and the second one was taken tonight just before their bath!

All of my babies! My heart hurts sometimes I love them so much!

Sweeet!

Check out this little luvie with her Puddin! Isn't she precious?!

This is little Miss A and her Puddin Pop kid off on a bike ride with Mom and her "puppy" Bernard!

I love it!

Melissa and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Remember I told you once about all of the children's books I have? Well, one of them is called, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Basically it's about Alexander and his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

I recently had one of those.

Wednesday Daisy came down with a tummy virus and I found out my computer was indeed, dead. Both of these things happened within 20 minutes of each other.

So, while cleaning baby vomit off of myself and the high chair, and keeping the other 4 away from Daisy, I got a call that the computer hard drive was officially gone. Ohhh, it was not a pretty site at my house! You see, I was pretty devastated because all of those pictures from our recent trip to Mississippi were just loaded onto the computer. Now, they are gone. And I am sad.

I had some great pictures and a few I was looking forward to framing. (not that I am a super photographer, but because they captured special moments.

I would have shared pictures of
my Nanny with all of my babies,
Nanny and "Bud" having a heart to hear talk,
Aunt Judy being dancing with Puddin and the Monkeys,
Aunt Judy being overtaken by Puddin and the Monkeys,
Aunt Sherry with all of my babies after lunch one afternoon,
my dad seeing Bud and Daisy for the first time,
My dad with my kiddos and my 2 nephews,
My Uncle Jeff playing the guitar as Puddin and the Monkey's watched in amazement,
My kiddos jumping on the hotel bed and having a ball,
Puddin and the Monkey's crashed in the bed all snuggled up and sleeping,
Puddin and the Monkeys filthy and asleep in the back of the van after another fun day running around Mississippi.

I had lots to share and now I can't. If I could throw a fit right now I would. It probably doesn't sound like a big deal for a lot of people, but it was for me.
Thankfully, Hubby bought a backup hard drive and is planning to install it tonight so this won't happen again!!

I'm working through this, can you tell?

On another note... Bud got the bug too but he and Daisy are better now. Thankfully it was just a 24 hour thing. So, things are starting to get back to "normal" around here, I guess.

Today we are turning over a new leaf or closing the book on this horrible, no good, very bad, rotten day and looking forward to a great, perfect, very good, happy day!
Wishing you the same too! We're off to Puddin's dance class! See ya!

Camping- Flowers' Style Mississippi Bound

We decided to add a mini vacation to our summer fun. We really wanted to go see my Nanny who has recently moved back to Mississippi and I was missing her pretty bad. Not only is my Nanny in Mississippi but my dad, step mom, sister, lots of aunts, uncles and cousins too. In fact, nearly all of my family lives there. So we bit the bullet and decided to give it a whirl.

Now, I don't camp. I've only had 1 prior experience with camping and lets just say- it wasn't fun. So for me camping it equals the Comfort Inn Suites, and late one afternoon, I booked us a room. I did make sure it had 2 beds and this one came with a "sitting area". I also had to make sure it had a microwave and refrigerator because I had to feed my children. Last I checked, Nestle Goodstart Soy based formula did not come from room service.

Anyway, Next on the list... packing. Oh my!! What a job. Remember that little day trip I took to Pulaski?? Well, here's what my van looked like after a day of packing everything for this trip.

Because of my superior packing skills and the sheer fact that I have had TONS of practice, not only did I fit 5 children, 2 adults, a cooler for drinks, a bag of snack, a bag of toys for each child, clothing for 3-4 days, and diapers but I also included a bumbo seat, bathing suits, a travel swing, video camera, humidifier, portable cd player, sound machine, and a high chair as well as a table and 3 chairs, a laptop and a few other things. Ya'll, it.was.packed.

After we finished getting everything in the van and everyone finally out of the door to our home, we were only running an hour late. But- we were in need of an oil change and I insisted we do that before we hit the road. So after that we finally began our journey.

Surprisingly, we made really good time and the kids did fantastic driving down there. Hubby and I were pleasantly surprised! Once we made it to Mississippi we checked in our room and set up shop... unpacked. I'm sure we looked like were piling out of a clown car!!!

We let the babies stretch out

fed the kids lunch

put a few things away and explored our new environment

did a dance number or two and changed clothes,


and headed to see Nanny...

More on that tomorrow!