Oops, sorry about your kid's head!

I probably won't be winning Mother of the Year this year. Maddie probably won't be winning Child of the Year this year. We were down at the greenbelt in the neighborhood today, and I was the only parent watching about 10 kids. I heard a blood-curdling scream and turned around to see a 6 year old neighbor boy bleeding profusely from his head. I asked what happened, even though I really didn't want to know....cuz I had a hunch. Everyone started yelling "She threw a rock at his head!" pointing to Maddie. So...I loaded up my 3 kids, and the bloody boy and went down to take him home. When his parents answered the door (by this time, blood is covering his head, dripping down his face, onto his shirt), he yelled "She threw a rock at me!" Of course they were panicked "Who threw a rock?!?!" Yup....my kid. You know, they didn't know me, and they didn't know Maddie AND...she doesn't look like me, so I should have said "this little girl did it, I'm going to look for her parents right now!" But it's likely that would have caught up with me eventually.

So I took my kids home and returned about an hour later to have Maddie apologize. Despite our practice "Sorry Taylor" while batting eye-lashes and sticking out the bottom lip, they answered the door and Maddie proudly yelled "I threw a rock at Taylor's head, I threw it hard!" Great. They said they had a nurse friend look at it and she said that if they could get Sani-strips to stick, he wouldn't need stitches. So far they wouldn't stick. Of course.

So now we just wait, and hope that he didn't need stitches, and hope that they have insurance, and hope that there is something good on Lifetime TV tonight....cuz mama needs a break!

The monsters are gone!

You may not know it from looking at our quite house, in our quite suburban neighborhood, but we have had a huge monster problem! There was a "monter face" under Maddie's toddler bed that was keeping her from sleeping every night. The final straw was when she was so terrified to sleep in her own room that she was shaking and screaming. So, after reading an article that compared a child's fear of monsters to an adults fear of walking alone down a dark ally behind a scary neighborhood (the fear is very real, and saying "you shouldn't be afraid won't help), we enlisted some help. We were busy with heading down to Tucson for Chrismas Eve, so I called my parents to mix up some "monster spray." On Christmas day, Maddie opened the package that contained a flashlight and the spray (body spray, with the Monsters Inc... monster pictures taped around the outside). We came home and Maddie and Daddy shined the flashlight around the room, spraying the magical spray and yelling "Get out, go away!" And it worked! Here is a picture of a very satisfied customer of monster spray!

The things moms have to say...

So you know how you have those days when your kids just seem like angels and you think "wow, we're doing something right!" Then there are those other days......feels like we've had a few of those, as everyone seems to get ants in their pants as we get closer to Christmas. Here are some of the things I have actually had to say recently:

"We do NOT poop in the bathtub!" (that was a nasty one!)
"We do not pee on the stairs!" (that was pretty icky too!)
"Please get the worm out of the kitchen, they have germs"
"When you knocked the barstool over on the baby, you could have killed her!"
"Do not feed your boogers to the baby" then....."I don't care that she liked it, we don't do that!"
"Where did you learn to hold your middle finger up to people?"
"No, mommy is not a monster"
And finally, what they have driven me to say..."If I go crazy and have to join the circus, who is going to make your dinner?" Luckily Rylee is sarcastic enough to just respond "I don't know, but we'll figure it out."
Lovely!

Random Holiday events

This time of year it seems like every weekend is packed full of activities. Here are a few things we've been up to recently. I wish I could post a picture of when we saw Santa, but only Rylee would sit on his lap, and Maddie continuously screamed while I was holding her, asking me (well, yelling at me) to back away from him, so even the picture of Rylee didn't turn out very good.
I just had to throw this one in. Kenzie doesn't get out very often but is perfectly content sitting in her little bouncy chair at home.

This pic of Maddie and the one of Rylee with her below were taken after we saw Santa. Only in Phoenix do people pay 4$ to go stand in line and play in the snow for 10 minutes!

Rylee and I went to the Christmas Pageant at Phoenix First Assembly, it was awesome! Outside they have alot of Christmas scenes so that you can take pictures of your kids. This was my favorite, turned out much better than the numerous ones she had me take of her with the stuffed animal reindeer!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving. I ran a 10k in the morning. It seems like every time you run in a race people ask "what's your goal?" Mine is always the same a) don't die b) lose some butt. It was nice to get up and exercise before eating our weight in food for the next 3 days. Todd and I made our first Thanksgiving meal together. Yes, after 9 1/2 years of marriage, we actually made a turkey! My parents and brother came over to eat, then we headed out to my aunt and uncle's house to play some games. We won a turkey balloon and a turkey squeeky toy - so there! It was lots of fun. Friday we drove up to my parents cabin, the kids had a great time running around outside. I have to say, if I lived where it is really cold, I think I would be a recluse and would do alot of online shopping at Old Navy. We headed back on Sunday and put up our Christmas decorations. MANY broken glass bulbs later, the house looks great!

Emily (our niece), Michael (my brother), Nana (my mom), Maddie,

Papa (my dad), Todd, Rylee, Kennedie, me.

After the race, Megan, my dad, Rachel, Bruce, me

That is one proud Turkey cooker!!!!!