So tired...

I am just plain tired...tired of Tate not sleeping, tired of driving kids around and around, tired of my head hurting (although it is better than it used to be!), tired of fighting with 2-year-old temper tantrums and displays of "attitude".

But most of all? I am tired of wearing these: http://www.zappos.com/ugg-classic-cardy-charcoal-silver-knit

I just want to put on a pair of flip-flops--and not freeze my toes off! Can I get an Amen?

I am ready for some sunshine. And ready for my baby to be back to his smiley little healthy self. Come on, Spring!

At 5:00 PM...

By 5pm each day, this mama is getting a little desperate for things to occupy her hungry kiddos while dinner is getting made. This crazy thing entertained the 2 little monkeys for a good 30 minutes...who would have thought?

Stirring lemonade and feeding it to each other like soup...

That batch of lemonade had to go down the drain but let me tell you, it was worth it! Have a great Thursday!

Our weekend

Buck and I had to get a little fancied up on Friday night and head downtown for a little gathering...I was not SUPER excited to go (sweatpants and a DVD are my ideas of a fun Friday night!) but we had a great time with our friends. Don't I look just plain tired in that picture?? That's because that's how I felt.Yikes. Tate needs to start sleeping!! Now!!

We know that Zoe won't always be saying "Daddy, can I be your date?" :) Buck is loving those moments for as long as they will last.

So after the fun Friday night, we had a pretty quiet weekend. Max had his first basketball game and me oh my...let me just say that by the second quarter Buck and I were praying that their team would score at least one basket. :) They lost by 20 points but at least they scored! And they had a lot of fun, which is absolutely the most important thing. Max was very fired up and put in an awesome effort!

We had a bit of a movie-thon, with me knowing the Golden Globes were on Sunday night. I love movie awards shows. Probably because my mom and my husband DESPISE them. :) I wanted to see "The Social Network" when it was out in theaters but never got around to it, and I think this was the first weekend it was out on DVD. So I got that one and watched it Friday night after the party--yes I think I was up until about 2 AM (I know, no wonder I look tired all the time!) But let me tell you , "The Social Network" was absolutely fascinating. Love it or hate it, Facebook is here to stay. 500 million members and counting. My grandmother is on Facebook! It was seriously intriguing to know why Facebook started (in a nutshell--because Mark Zuckerberg got dumped and needed something to take his mind off the girl that broke his heart) and how (a Harvard dorm room and an algorithm written on a window). Crazy! I had no idea. And the irony of it all is incredible. Anyone who is on Facebook--and let's face it, that's almost all of us!--should see it.

Sunday afternoon after naps I stole a few hours and went to see "The King's Speech". I looooove Colin Firth. Have you seen the BBC version of "Pride and Prejudice"? Yes, he will always be Mr. Darcy to me. :) And funny enough, I read somewhere that when Helen Fielding was writing "Bridget Jones's Diary" and was imagining Bridget's true love, she imagined Colin Firth--because of the BBC's "Pride and Prejudice"--and so she named him Mark Darcy. Then who plays Mark Darcy in the movie? Colin Firth. Following me?? I digress...

"The King's Speech" was wonderful. There are a few curse words so it is not for young ears (I was surprised it was rated R, and I'm pretty conservative about that kind of stuff) but otherwise it really was just about the story between King George VI and his speech therapist--connected because of the king's stutter. My man Colin won the Golden Globe for best actor and it was definitely deserved. Having known several people in real life that stutter (and my own little Charlie man had, and still has occasionally, a little stutter) he portrayed it perfectly. It is sometimes painful to watch someone struggle to get those words out--you want to speak out loud for them. I would highly recommend this movie, across the board.

We got in an awesome Sunday morning worship service and got a little laundry done in there, as well as a winter baseball clinic for the boys. Zoe boycotted naps this weekend and I'm afraid I may have pushed it as far as I could for her with naps--she is almost 5--that's amazing, right?? I need to count my blessings that she napped for this long. :)

It was a wonderful, restful weekend with our family. Hoping the same was true for you!

Go Boat!

For some reason, the kids got on a kick this weekend asking about Spring Break. Not that I blame them. But Spring Break is a really long way away. They keep asking to go to Uncle Jeffery's Lake (gorgeous Beaver Lake in northern Arkansas--yes he lives right on the lake). Well, since that's not happening with you know, the SNOW and all, we got a little reminder of our favorite place from Papa at Christmas. I think the Olsen family saying is officially now "Go Boat". That's what we say when someone is ready to ski behind the boat. And it was Tate's very first 2-word combination this summer. :) So Papa made shirts for all of us that say:

And here is Papa with the boat's biggest fan, wearing Nama's shirt for some strange reason: (we kept asking but Tate would NOT take his finger out of his nose. Such is life.)

We're ready for a little sunshine around here. How about you?

The view from here

Snow snow snow! After 6-8 inches of the gorgeous white stuff I thought for sure I would get a jammie day at home with the kids. But no--we are a hardy bunch here in Iowa! A little snow doesn't stop us from a day of learning. :) Off to school they all went--with about 20 pounds of snow gear apiece! Pretty, though, isn't it?

The little guy on Max's back is sure cute--but he's not so cute at 2 AM! Ever since his procedure last week, the boy has not slept longer than 2 consecutive hours at night. Lord help us all. Talked to the ENT and were reassured that this is normal for this time in the recovery process. Not sure how "normal" I'll be after much longer of this sleep deprivation. It is a very effective torture method you know. :)

And there are a few remnants of Christmas still hanging around. I love the mistletoe over the bathroom door. Why the bathroom door, you ask? Because it's where I put it, that's why. Every once and awhile I will get a sneak smooch.

I told you all I leave all the beautiful cards we receive up much longer than I should. If anyone has any New Year or Valentine's cards you want to send our way, I will gladly accept! Love looking at all these beautiful smiling faces. Makes me happy.

Also, a very Happy Birthday to my beautiful 89-years-young grandma yesterday! She is an inspiration to all of us...still going strong with the love of her life...livin' it up in sunny Florida. Can't wait to see her when it's warm and sunny at the Lake! :) Happy Tuesday, friends.

Tate Update

Wanted to give a quick update on our sweet Tater Bug. He came through the surgery with flying colors. As any mom who has been through a surgery with a child knows, the absolute worst part is handing your child over to a doctor and walking away. There were lots of tears, but prayers from our faithful friends and family were answered in abundance. Tate woke up from anesthesia very peaceful...amazing. Then we got to hold him and cuddle him and he figured out he had an IV in his foot and he was MAD. But those good cries were good for his little lungs and it was OK. We were home at a good time and had an incredibly peaceful day. Thank you, Lord! The doctor did say his adenoids were very large and definitely needed to come out. So we are thankful to have this behind us, thankful that he did so well, thankful that God has been so faithful to us in hearing our prayers! Thank you, friends.

Some pics

As promised, some Christmas pictures. Christmas morning was a little crazy around our house! But so much fun to see Christmas through the eyes of a child (or 4...you know what I mean!) Our house was truly full of joy this morning...

Tate loved this toy until he figured out it had a motor--then he was scared to death! :) We would have thought is would have been the other way around. But it's all good now.

Charlie has been asking for a snowboard since last winter when a snowboard would have come in handy for transportation around this winter wonderland. It did get some good use on Christmas day--we were thankful for a beautiful white Christmas!

The much-awaited DS for Max. He slipped the other day and said "Thank you so much for the DS. It is my favorite present!" I said, "Max, Santa brought you the DS, remember?" and he blushed a little bit--so cute...I am thinking this 8-year-old is on to something. :)

The little Miss and her much-loved dolls. Soooo happy!

As you can see, I am still in catch-up mode with pictures and such. I am hoping to print out a hard copy of my blog posts/pictures here soon. I am excited to go back and look through all of our happy memories of 2010--and even more excited for what 2011 will bring! Also, we would love it if you would pray for our little man Tate tomorrow morning--round 2 of ear tubes plus an adenoid removal is on the books. Here's hoping to a healthy 2011. Happy Thursday, friends!

2011 Goals!

I am a sucker for the New Year's resolution. I always like having a starting point...like ready, set, go! So one way for me to be a little bit accountable is to write my goals down. So here we go:

1.Get a regular amount of sleep every night.
Much as I want to, my late nights of staying up and reading or watching mindless TV are not good for me or my family. So this past Sunday night, I was bound and determined to get a good 7-8 hours of sleep. I got all my before-school-starts-again chores done and headed to bed, really headed to bed, at like 10:30. I was asleep by 11:15 I think, and wouldn't you know at 1 AM, the first kid came in--Zoe having a bad dream. Crazy because that NEVER happens. Oh, well. Back to sleep again--1:30, Tate is up. He is getting over an ear infection so we are trying to be responsive to his cries in the night. So I woke Buck up to go comfort Tate (if I go in, it is automatic that Tate wants to come in to bed with us--not so much with Buck--ha!). Finally, back to sleep again!! At about 2:15, a very upset Charlie comes in crying uncontrollably...for some reason I thought he was saying "my eye hurts!" and I was saying "what's wrong with your eye?" when all of a sudden, there was vomit everywhere in my bed. Guess it wasn't his eye! Dear me. So that's how my first night of getting a good night's sleep went. :) It can only go up from here.

2. Stay on top of the laundry. Enough said. So far, so good with this one! 2 days into it and with the middle of the night sheet changing, I think I have done 6 loads of laundry so far. Whew!

3. Read to the kids MORE.I have gotten lots of input from other moms as to how to incorporate more reading into our daily routine. It is a little challenging when we have 2 who LOVE books, anywhere anytime (Max and Tate) and 2 who need to be bribed to read half the time (Charlie and Zoe). We are reading a great book before bedtime right now--"The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane". Max is helping me read the chapters out loud to the other kids and it has been a great all-family wind-down time. Trying to keep it up!

4. Read through the Bible! A lofty goal for sure, but I have had my Daily Message Bible for 2 years now and this is the first time that I am actually doing the readings on the correct date. Doing a little each day is totally do-able.

So there are my big ones. I will do my best to keep you posted--however my goals go, one way or another. But I am optimistic! Here's to a wonderful 2011 for all of us!

Projects!

First of all, Happy New Year!! 2010 was a year full of blessings and joy--praying that 2011 brings the same to you and yours. I always love the hope that surrounds a new year coming. Excited to see what 2011 brings.

As for the end of 2010, Buck and I both had biggish projects we wanted to get done--big as in time-consuming. And when there are 8 little feet underfoot, so to speak, sometimes those projects are hard to do. But with a little teamwork, we both got 'em done! My project was Zoe's hair. I love doing her hair, but like I said, it is time-consuming. She is such a little trooper, even from the time she was really little, to sit and get her hair done. But everyone has their limits. So because this was a new style for us, preparing took a long time--watched several YouTube videos on how to do it, and picked the way that I thought would work best. I learned a lot and there are a few things I will do differently next time, but for now, this will do! Here is the little lady LOVING her new yarn braids (aka genie locs). This took about 3 days--2 hours each day--about 6 hours total. That was all Z could take, and all my back could take--I did most of it standing up with her sitting at the kitchen table watching my iPad. :) I am not a very fast braid-er, but got much better the further we got. It is a style that I am hoping will last about a month, but even a couple weeks will make both of us very happy!!

Pretty, huh?? This girl is gorgeous no matter what--I just love to see her loving the fuss we were making over her. :)

And drumroll....Buck's big project...

We have a VERY generous Papa who is WAY into trains...every single piece was purchased by him for our fun train room. We try to take it down in the warm months just for something different, so it is time to put it back up--which as you can see is no small feat. The kids are very excited to run the trains--Tate and Zoe especially. It is fun to have our train room up and running again! Thank you, Buck!!

Come on over and play anytime!! :) Happy New Year, friends!