Merry Christmas!

We went this past weekend to get pictures taken with Santa. Noah wanted to dress like Santa. Esther originally wanted to wear her full Tinkerbell costume, but substituted in the reindeer pajama shirt that she found. I love their creativity and independence. I think it tends to make our job as parents a little more difficult at times, but I think life any other way would almost be boring. Merry Christmas!

Pride comes before the fall...

I have always prided myself on my children not ever having cut their hair. I mean how hard is it anyway? Just keep the scissors out of their reach people. It's not that difficult. God must have decided I needed some humbling because today I definitely had to eat my words.
I have been meaning to cut Noah's hair for a while now and just haven't made the time for it. He has a Christmas program at school tomorrow so I decided I should finally get around to it. I set the kit on the table, pulled out the clippers, and began. Things were going really well (he is not the easiest haircut in the world), and then from behind I heard the scissors snip. I jerked around only to see that Esther had cut a huge chunk of hair off the back of her head. I screamed and almost started crying which I think may have scared her because she immediately started cleaning all the hair up (as if that was what I was upset about). She had been mad at me for not cutting her hair and I guess she just decided to take matters into her own hands. Noah asked her why she cut her hair, and she very proudly said, "I was taking my haircut!"
People have told me this morning that it will grow back, which it will, but it has taken three years to get where it is now. So maybe by the time she is halfway through kindergarten, it will be back to normal. Awesome. I pray that someday her strongwilledness and determination will be used for good and that all the struggles she puts us through will be worth it. And I truly pity the man who falls for her. He is in for a ride. Haha! :)

A good day

Today was a good day. It had some fun and funny moments. We started the day going to the store to pick put a little tree for the kids' room.
After that we ate a quick lunch and then went to drop Noah off to go see Beauty and the Beast with a friend. Shortly after we got back home, Esther stripped down to her panties (surprise). When I asked her why she took her clothes off she said, "Because I was cold and I needed to wrap up in this blanket." Duh Mom! :) Then they took naps while I folded laundry (fun!).
Tonight I attempted to make a turkey pot pie with dressing crust with all the Thanksgiving leftovers. It smells good. Hopefully it tastes as good as it looks and smells. While I was cooking Thomas managed to get a box of cereal out of the cabinet and dump it all out on the floor. Why do I even attempt to try to make dinner?

Two months

She's actually two and a half months now, and I finally feel like life with Eve is starting to become more of a routine. For the first two months she would cry and we had no idea why. Hungry? No. Dirty? No. Tired? No. Not sure about your new family? Understandable, but nothing we can do to change that. :) We just felt helpless the whole time not knowing what to do and feeling like by the fourth kid we should know what to do. And then something happened around two and a half months. She stopped crying. She is sleeping better (goes down around, wakes up once during the night around 3-5, and then goes back to sleep until around 8), eating better (takes four ounces 6 times a day), and not crying unless she is dirty or hungry for the most part. She has her moments where the crying confuse your parents Eve comes out, but for the most part she is doing great. She smiles a lot and is trying to become a thumb sucker. I have tried to stop it, but I think it may be inevitable. She is constantly working on getting that thumb in her mouth. The kids love her and now it's as if she was always there. We love you baby and can't wait to watch you grow!

Matching dresses

Thanks Nora and Elyn! :)

Fall

One of the down sides of having a giant oak tree covering your deck. The kids raked all the leaves onto the stairs and them slid down the stairs over and over again. Endless entertainment. The last picture was a few days ago. A lot more leaves have fallen since then.

Two funny stories

#1 Noah:
Today Noah found a can that we collect change for the Children's Home in and brought it to me.
Noah: Mommy what is this for?
Me: It's to collect money for the kids at The Children's Home
Noah (very seriously): Well they can have some of my money. I was saving it up to buy a velociraptor, but I think I have enough now so they can have some.
Way to be generous! And perhaps we should have a talk about dinosaur extinction.

#2 Esther:
This afternoon Eve was in bed and Thomas and Noah were in the kitchen with me, but Esther wasn't there. I looked in the playroom and she was sitting in the middle of the floor by herself playing with a sticker book.
Me: Esther, what are you doing?
Esther (very adamantly): I'm sitting in here by myself playing with my stickers so that no one will take my stickers and everyone will leave me alone.
Sorry we ruined your life by giving you siblings. :)

The definition of bravery...

Taking four kids four and under to the dentist, three of them to be seen , by myself. Noah loves going to the dentist. Last week, he randomly says to me, "Mommy it has been a really long time since we went to the dentist. We need to go!" He has such a way with making me feel like mother of the year. So I called right then and there to schedule an appointment.
They all did AMAZING! Noah of course did great. Like I said, he loves it. I was worried that Esther would not fair so well. The last time we were there, she screamed the whole time they tried to examine her...and they were just looking at her teeth and counting them. Yesterday she was a new woman. :) She climbed in the chair all by herself, let them brush and floss her teeth. I was so proud of her. Thomas just sat in my lap in the chair and chewed on a tooth brush while they looked at his teeth.
After the dentist we went to chick fil a for Ice cream for a special treat. Just got your teeth cleaned? What could be better than eating a bunch of sugar! :) here are some pictures from our adventure.

Yep, that's a baby doll up her shirt. :)

Just another day in paradise...

Thought I would give a recap of the day thus far so years from now when my sanity is in question everyone can look back on this and know why...
It started like every other day, with Esther standing by the bed waking me up at the crack of dawn to tell me she had wet the bed. Me clumsily climbing up the stairs, feeling that her bed was not too wet, throwing down a towel over it, and telling her to get back in bed. Then I walked back down the stairs to try to go back to sleep only to hear Thomas crying over the monitor. Did I jump out of bed and race back up the stairs to retrieve him? Of course not. I turned off the monitor so his screaming would not wake up Eve and closed my eyes for a few minutes longer. Eventually guilt overcame me and I got up to rescue him.
The rest of the morning went along fairly smoothly. The kids were playing upstairs while I was attempting to change out Thomas's clothes when the door bell rang. Not expecting anyone, I was slightly alarmed, but figured it was probably the man who is supposed to be grinding up a stump for us in the next couple days. I rushed down the stairs while yelling at the kids to not open the door and giving them a lesson in strangers after being asked why they shouldn't open said door. I threw on a bra and ran to the door. As I eluded to above, I get rather anxious when strange people come to the door. I just imagine someone throwing open the door and leaving me defenseless with four small children to protect. I have been known to hide and not open the door and then frantically throw the door open and chase down the florist when Brian sent me flowers. All this to say, ordinarily I probably would not have opened the door but assuming it was the stump guy, I did. Imagine my fears, when standing in front of me was a man with long gray hair who appeared as though he had not bathed in quite some time wearing ragged clothes that were duct taped together. I almost slammed the door on him when he said, "Mrs. Hughes? I'm here to weathering your sprinkler system." Apparently one of Brian's patients had sent him over to help us out. Brian did not know he was coming and therefore had not given me his usual strangers are coming by so please answer the door warning call. He was super nice and made me feel a little bad for being scared of him, but honestly, he could have been completely manicured and wearing a three piece suit and I still would have slammed the door in his face in fear.
Things settled down again after the doorbell excitement until I thought it would be a good idea to go to the grocery store. Never a good idea with four kids, especially at noon. Finally after telling Esther to get dressed and get her shoes on fifteen hundred times and her walking out with two pairs of pants on , a shortsleeved shirt (despite it being 40 degrees outside), Eve's socks on her hands (her 'Gloves') and Elmo house shoes, we were off. The trip actually went really smoothly other than Thomas somehow getting a black eye unbeknownst to me while sitting in the car on the front of the basket. We leave the store and load into the car. Thirty invites later when we are still in the parking lot a lady comes running after us carrying more of our groceries that we had left behind.
We finally drive home, unload, and I start making lunch. While trying to make lunch, Noah starts yelling at me that Esther had diarrhea and he needs so e help wiping her (no, he is not allowed to wipe his sister). I get her taken care of and then rush upstairs with Thomas to change maybe the foulest smelling diaper ever. When I come back down, I look at Esther and question why her hair is now soaking wet. Noah ever so matter of factly says , " I sprayed her." It was then I noticed the can of air freshener in his hand and smelled the overwhelming scent of pumpkin spice. Awesome.
The kids do all ate lunch. We battled it out over taking naps, and then I came down the stairs and treated myself to a now black banana despite having been purchased just an hour before (pretty sure it had been dropped multiple times) and some chocolate milk. And that is where I now still sitting in the same chair, thinking about all the things I should be doing right now, but unable to remove myself from the chair. To quote Brian when he is trying to make me feel guilty about not wanting to do something with the kids, "These are the moments!"