A day in the life.

Sooooo.... my memory is failing me. Its sad. Really, really sad.... and life is quickly flying by.. and more and more I find myself not remembering things when my girls were little... ya... like 2 years ago.

I hate it, as I'm a major remember-er.

Like I don't ever forget anything! When I was younger, my mom would rely on my memory for tons of things.

Obviously, as any woman that has been pregnant can attest, I've lost a little more "brain" with each pregnancy, and I think some of it has to do with life right now. Going constantly. My mind always on my 3 kids and life going a bazillion miles an hour it truly is "just a fog" as my mom once told me. Therefore, I'm EXTREMELY thankful for this blog and that I can (and do... very often) look back and am able to remember things!

Any time I step foot out the front door, I feel like I could write a book about my experience. I don't know if I'm the only one who feels like "the crazy lady" in public....

So... I feel the need to remember my crazy experiences of outings alone with my kids.

Ahem.

Well, on the agenda for the day is to:

Leave the house by 9:30 to get to Payton's 2 year check up @ 10:15

Grocery store after appt.

Sounds simple right???

Ya, thats what I thought to.

-So, as usual, I overslept (I'm tttiiirrreeedddd!!!!) and woke up @ 8:30 in a frenzy. Don't you hate waking up like that?!? Check the mirror, decide that I was half way ok not to take a shower since I didn't have time. Threw my hair up in a pony tail. Put on some make-up.

-Start waking kids.

-Girls are up, eating breakfast.

-get their clothes, hair stuff and bows ready.

-Move all 3 carseats from Nat's work truck over to my suburban.

-walk the trash can to its usual location cuz my dear husband brought it up from the front of the property, and left it right behind my suburban.

-Get girls ready

-feed the dogs

-oh wait, don't I have another kid?!?!

-Wake Stetson up and get him breakfast.

-Get Stetson dressed.

-Put dogs in their cage.

-Pack the diaper bag.

-Grab the grocery list.

- and were off!! @ 9:40. WOO HOO!! Success.

-Get 12 miles away from home, realize I walked out the door without Paytons shot record.

-Call Dr. office tell them we'll be late. turn around and go back home for shot records.

-Get home, run in and go potty... get in the car. Oops. No shot records. DUH!

-Finally arrive at the Dr. office... Paytons had an accident in her car seat (YAY!)

-Devour the car only to find that I have nothing to put on her.. in we go with pee pants.

-Get Stetson in the stroller (so I can at least contain 1 if need be)

- in we go! 35 minutes late.

- we stumble in the door, and the kind ladies at the front desk who already know us Roses know just why were here.

- Get the papers I need to fill out and right as I sit down and get the kids situated......

POTTY!

Always, always, always in the potty with these girls.

-get everything loaded back up and go to the bathroom.

- Get back out and start filling out the papers...

-Payton dumps the crayons.

- stop and pick up crayons.

- Secretary lady needs co-pay. Go pay it.

-Payton dumps crayons again. (not sure whats into her.. she NEVER acts like this)

- Finish filling out papers as the girls take a bath in the water fountain.

- Finally called back, get all her measurements which was relatively smooth (10th% onweight. 60th on height and head)

-Get back to a room and Payton goes into freak out mode... (once again not sure why she was acting the way she did.)

-Stetson starts his -I'm gonna throw a royal fit until I get outta this stroller- business (in which he doesn't stop the WHOLE appt.)

-Nice (new) Dr lady comes in and I immediately apologize for the chaos and tell her my husband was out working all night, therefore I had no one to watch my other kids. She's very kind and understanding... and I wanna hug her as she very normally yells over the fussy little boy, the 2 year old who freaks out at anyone she doesn't know, and the oldest girl who wants to be all up in everybody's business and wants to ask 143 questions about the situation.

-time for vaccines. The nurse comes in and says 2 things every mom doesn't wanna hear knowing her baby is fixin to get long needles jabbed into their legs. Uhhhh... her little legs are so skinny... this is gonna hurt. Uhhh-- thanks for the info???!!!???

-2 shots in those skinny little legs and my baby girl is MAD! suckers make everything better.

-Finally get outta there and head to the grocery store.

-Load the kids up in 1 basket. Grab another to pull for all the groceries.

-Stop and get some popcorn chicken (shout out to the deli for the popcorn chicken cups!!)

-On top of it being Stetson's nap time, you can't scarf food in the kids mouth fast enough which involves lots of yelling.

-Just as soon as I think im getting lucky cuz the word hasn't come up...

POTTY!

-Park the food basket, get the kid basket into the bathroom which just so happens to have 3 gallons of milk in it cuz it couldn't fit in the other basket. WM employee walking outta the bathroom notices the 3 gallons of milk and mentions to the WM employee following me in that I have merchandise in my basket. They all follow me in like I'm fixen to steal all that milk. Stand there and watch me as a feeling of shock comes over me that they're indeed watching to make sure I don't steal anything. They leave, and the remainder of the 10 minutes I'm in the restroom there is a WM employee in there with me... like they took shifts to be in there or something?!?!

-walk out a tad disheveled, I forget I still have not gotten frozen stuff, grab the dog food and leave.

-As usual. There are 2 lines open and about 4 people in front of me with baskets full of food.

-This is usually when the kids start going bizerko cuz they've already had enough... I have too and kinda wanna sit on the ground and cry with them.

-WooHoo.. someone left a toy (they didn't want) by the check out. Entertainment for the time remaining.

-Mrs. Bossy tried to take control and in the mean time whacks her brother AND her sister with is and makes them both cry.

-Hold Stetson till its our turn in line (and oh look, his diaper leaked)

- Start putting groceries up so Stetson goes down in the basket. Let the screaming continue. (its Waaaayyyy past his nap time)

-All the nice people behind me try to entertain him which halfway works.

-Load up the groceries, pick Stetson up.

-Manage to start pushing the basket of kids, pull the basket of groceries and hold my son and a sweet angel sent from heaven comes up behind me and offers to help me

-OF COURSE YOU CAN!!!

-Get out to the suburban, change Stetson, load the kids up.

-Start putting the groceries in and another sweet angel sent from heaven gets outta her car and offers to help me load the groceries up.

-OF COURSE YOU CAN!!!

- Were all in the car ready to go home. Stetson's already asleep and its 2:30

5 hours it took me to go to a quick doctors appt and get a groceries.

One day when all 3 kids are on their own, and I can go grocery shopping all on my own I'll look back at this and laugh... I just know it!

Rodeo and Fair.

I was pretty bummed back in February, when we had already left TX and weren't gonna be able to go to the Rodeo........ then some little birdy told me that Lovington has their own (rockin') Rodeo and fair! ... and best of all, it was (is) in August... so we weren't gonna be missin a rodeo after all!! Its a pretty darn big deal around here, too. Like quite possibly bigger than the rodeo in San Angelo!! People come from all around to this thing and it is packed! Apart from it just being plain 'ol FUN!!! Its $5 admission for anything and everything. They have some pretty big bands that perform each night... which is all included in your $5 ticket!!

travelin' in style.

First we had to stop and pay our fingers and toes to get a few tickets to ride a few rides.

watch out ere'body.

"hi, i'm really, really cute, and i'm not tall enough to ride anything so I sit here and look all cute"

My personal favorite thing is the Rodeo... but the kids were NOT cooperating so we were only able to watch for 10 minutes or so. Next year, we'll definitely get a sitter one night so we can enjoy the Rodeo more... oh, and the concerts. I love my kids to death... and I would do anything for them, but really, sometimes the parents need to get out an have a little fun....

and pretending to be monsters:

and climbing in huge tires:

and being silly:

......while waiting patiently for a concert you both really wanna watch... when its already and hour and half past bedtime, falls under one of those times where you just dont drag the kids along.

But we did, and we waited and waited and waited for The Eli Young Band to come out... listened to a couple songs.. snapped a (far away) photo to prove that we did indeed see the concert... then left. With 3 tired, grouchy kids in tow,

Answered prayers.

Welp, as I've stated before, were leaving for 8 days to go on a cruise all alone! I am so, so, so, so, SO excited to spend A LOT of alone time with my honey. But.... at the same time I'll be leaving behind 3 pretty large chunks of my heart and soul, and although its a much needed/wanted/welcomed break for the both of us, I've still had to come to some pretty serious terms about leaving them for more than a week.... while we go out of the country. So I've turned to the only One who will give me the strength to do such a thing.... and as silly as this may sound, I feel like He threw a pretty hard week at us so we would be more than ready to go.

So, obviously, its been a bad week....... and strangely, I'm a bit thankful cuz I feel like I'm more than ready to head out for some mama and daddy time.

Nat's still goin hard at working sun up to sun down... and then some. The girls have been fighting constantly and have just been so unpleasant to be around. We've had a nasty yucky 24 hour virus hit us x4... and I think were finally over it. I feel like we haven't had one ounce of joy or happiness in our home this week!

.... I'd say the most exciting thing about our week would be the little somethin somethin that showed up in our back yard today.... The dogs were going BIZERK-O outside, I mean CRAZY!... they'll bark if a car drives up, or if they see a little something... but this was a deep down nasty growly bark that I heard all the way in the living room. I immediately knew something was out there that absolutely shouldn't be!! My first thought was a rattlesnake... then they kept going nuts so then I thought coyote! I was out there trying to see what they were barking at, staying close to the back door just in case it was something that might wanna eat me.... and then out walks a big white COW!

We saw a couple days ago that the cows had trampled the fence over and had come over to our pasture, which we didn't mind, except for the fact that there's no cattle guard or gate to stop them from going out our front entrance, down to the highway... but they're not our cows... so, whadya do?? This 1 little white cow has always steered closer to our house... and today she made the leap to our front yard and found Nat's lush green grass.... luckily Nat was close to the house so I called him to come home and, being the Hero that he is for me all the time, he got bessy back to her other cow buddies.

...and 4 seconds after she was re-united with her cow buddies (which was really sweet BTW... she moo-ed, they moo-ed... she moo-ed, they moo-ed, they all ran to her and had this sweet little reunion) she was back in our front yard eating the grass again... and my hero was gone back to work so I rounded up my 3 lil buckeroo's and we hopped in the suburban and ran her back over to her home... then it got dark and I haven't been out to see if she came back or not.

The End.

Looky, looky.

Blogging twice today! Here I was hurriedly trying to finish up the post about Stetson cuz I didn't know when I would have the time to sit down again...

...and....

Nat's out working, I'm finished with my stuff I needed to finish up for the Birthday boy and I gotta tell you all about our new obsession.

Well.... mine and Madelynn's anyway.

Nat and I have talked and talked and talked about getting a pool and we decided we would wait and see if we could get one on sale after summers over.... but we just couldn't resist!!!

and I'm oh so glad!! I just LOVE to swim. I would probably stay in a pool all day if I could!

Stetson is not a huge fan as if yet.... BUT all the times we've tried to let him swim, its been nap time. So I'm thinking he'll love it when he's not tired.

and Payton... well she HATES it! She is extremely unsure and panicky... If something's not sturdy, and she has no control over it she goes into freak out mode. I think it will be a lot easier when Nat and I can get in with her and 1 of us can focus solely on her.

Miss Priss is a WATER BUG if I ever seen one! She could seriously stay in the pool all day with me! She does fantastic with her floaties on.... but she is still so so without them on.

Sweet summertime.

Hello?!?! Can it just be summer for-e-ver??? My whole entire family with nothing to do all summer.... I'll take it! My sisters came and stayed with us for 8 days.... this was after my parents came and visited for a few days. I'm gonna have a big 'ol reality check when August rolls around. Me and the kids headed to TX for Jedd's 2nd birthday and we had a really good time!

Although I really missed the man in my life.

Its always nice to escape reality and have some of moms good cooking and have help everywhere I turn. The girls stayed back with their nana and papa for a couple days and I know they're having a blast! They really didn't care that I was walking out the door and gonna drive 4 hours away from them. Me, on the other hand... well lets just say i've gotten used to living 4 hours away from help and grandparents... so I've gotten used to having my babies around me 24/7... so I'm not used to leaving them for any amount of time.

Oh well, good practice for the cruise.... when I'll leave them for 8 days...... 16 days till I walk out the door and leave them for 8 days.

I can do this.

I can do this.

I can do this.

I'm sure everyone is sick of me talking about leaving my kids for 8 days... and I'm sure my poor in-laws will get sick of me talking about missing my kids those 8 days.

I just love them so dearly.

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July!! I got the privilege of trying to watch fireworks while I drove home. Ever tried to watch fireworks while you drive??? I wouldn't advise it.

I created something.

... and it could be good, or it could be bad! We have a second living area that was built onto the house at one point in time... and its now used as the guest room/office area. not really offic-ey, but rather there's a desk in there that holds all the junk that I need to file and a few other deskey type things. So basically, unnecessary and wasted space.

I've had an itch lately. A crafty itch. Right before we moved out of our house in Angelo, and into my parents house I got all crafty and got to know my sewing machine and junk.... and I've always LOVED scrapbooking so, making things with paper and stuff like that also......

So...

I....

Used the space for ALL my craft stuff.

mmm love that crafty mess!!

I know its not ideal, using a computer desk and all... but we got plans... BIG plans. My honey is gonna build me this magnificent craft room in the future. Waaay future. Poor guy's got a looong list of "honey do's" :)

and my heart bubbles just thinking about it. I've always had everything kept up in my closet, and lets face it, when you have to pull everything out, and then clean and put everything up every single day after naptime... lets just say I'd rather just leave it all in my closet. For Mother's day I got my stuff out to make cards for my moms and its been sitting beside the couch since then... just looking... and staring.... and BEGGING me to do something with it.

Me, being the over-achiever, planner, perfectionist that I am.... I started looking around at a few crafty blogs I like to read... and I started looking at Birthday Party stuff. I know, I know my kids birthdays are 1-2 months away. But I couldn't help it!!!!

So my heart started racing, and my palms got sweaty... and my brain started running a million miles an hour with ideas... then the whole craft room thing.... and I went wild! Actually, before I went wild I made this loooong list of things and ideas I had and needed to go to Hobby Lobby ASAP to put it all into action. (I'm just the type of person that has an idea in my head and I have to do something about it or it will never leave me alone) Then I was like --What the heck... I have hundreds of dollars worth of craft stuff right in my closet-- So I started going through everything I had... and my heart bubbled some more, and my mind went even faster and I've created everything with stuff I've had, and stuff I've found laying around outside. Its been pretty awesome to use my imagination with stuff that I have to create a (i think) pretty awesome party for my babies.

A few things:

(just cuz he's cute.... and isn't he looking more "boyish" and not so much like a baby...)

Nap for mama...

= blog time for mama.... cuz I can't sleep! I have always had a love/hate relationship with naps (unless I'm pregnant.... then its a love/love relationship!!)

I was just telling Nat that I feel so behind on "catching up" with all these things I have floating around in my head.

Sooo.. I guess I'll start out with the most obvious...

Father's Day!

Woo Hoo!! Ya'll know me, I'm a holiday FREAK! I love 'em. I want to go all out and make it a special memory.

For me, the day started out normal: 1 finds a mountain dew from the night before and chugs it... followed by the 2 oldest pouring out a 2 lb bag of shredded cheese and eating it for breakfast... ya know, just the norm. ;)

and yes, I took pictures of it...

... and through all this I just wanted to get the little hooligans to surprise daddy with their Fathers day shirts. (Yes, I'm the cheesy mom who buys those $4 shirts at Wal Mart for holidays.)

In case ya'll didn't know, I love, love, love my honey! I never ever want him to doubt my love and appreciation for him. I feel so honored that he sees me fit to stay home and not bring a dime to the table while I stay home and take care of his kids. My heart just swells with the way I get to live my life. So I'm always pretty excited to get to honor him and all he does for us on Father's day.

Nat's a pretty hard guy to buy for cuz honestly, nothing is special to him.. he doesn't have a "favorite" anything... So when he says little things that he likes, or wants, I hear them.. and I remember them, and I think I've gotten pretty good at hitting his buttons, so to speak.

So... he ha(d) this favorite glass cup. Just a huge cup that he love(d) and dr(a)nk everything out of. It (was) Daddy's cup. Notice I'm using passed tense when talking about this cup. The other day I had just got this glass outta the dishwasher and it was still a bit warm, and as I filled it with ice and got him a DP outta the fridge... I walked over to the table, started pouring the DP and as I was pouring I verbalized what had been going through my mind since I pulled the cup outta the dishwasher. "I wonder of this cup is too hot to be pouring this ice cold DP into..." and before I finished my sentence.... CcccCrrrrRRRaaaaAAaaccccCCkkkkK! sure nuff... Dr. Pepper starts pouring out of the side of the cup. Nat was kinda upset. So I made up for it and got him 2 even BIGGER cups. He was pretty excited about them.

I also bought this ring for him. A long time ago I was looking at some kinda similar to this and he said how much he would love to have one.

My whole world.

Mmmm I just love all of them.

I also made this video for him... and I can't get it to upload here, so you can watch it here. It was a pretty big success. I think we both bawled our eyes out. I made it and watched it over and over, but seeing it on the big TV with the music up loud.... uhhh it just got me!

I just see the look on his face in every single picture and Its pure love, joy and perfection in his eyes... and how could a mama ask for more for her babies?!? Such a blessing to have a daddy who adores his children like Nat does.

.....and we all know I wouldn't be here if it weren't for another pretty awesome man in my life. Once again, not being able to be with my dad on Father's Day was pretty sad. But I'm extremely thankful for him, who he is to his kids and the great example of what a man should be. I feel pretty blessed to have been raised by my dad... who truly is the greatest dad EVER!!!

A few tips.

From one mom's heart to another:

- Mothering (mothering meaning: disciplining, loving, nurturing, feeding, handing sippy cups, being the referee of fights... and so on and so on.) while driving is worse than texting and driving so DON'T DO EITHER! Just embrace the chaos as you drive! WOO HOOO!!!!!

-Giving in to the "sample lady" who's sampling ice cream at the grocery store, when your son is a crazy ravenous beast when it comes to food will result in a V E R Y loud and long remainder of your time at the grocery store so think twice. It will also result in your children being covered from head to toe in chocolate ice cream..... and lastly it will result in taking 30 minutes to walk down 1 aisle as you assist each child with their ice cream.... oh, and everyone will stop and stare at you. so.... JUST KEEP WALKING!

-Don't run out of formula.... and if you do and plan to stop at the store to get some, don't forget to pack a few bottles.

- Don't, under any circumstances, make fun of that crazy lady in Wal Mart.... cuz that's ME!!!!! The one who's kids are dirty (from the ice cream, of course) mis-matching (cuz the diaper leaked and the only extra clothes in the diaper bag were totally mis matched) and screaming (cuz 1. the ice cream ended way to soon. and 2.They were all 3 woken up to be somewhere and were all ready for a nap).... So, there is an excuse for that crazy lady, with the crazy kids.

-Gummy worms are not called gummy worms... they're called Rattlesnake gummies.....

We've succeeded in pounding into our daugter's head the horribleness of rattlesnakes!

Yay for successful parenting.

- and lastly... enjoy the time while you can cuz I just bought my LAST can of formula, and I just bought my almost 3 year old a size 3t shirt cuz she pretty much can't fit into 2t any more. :(