Christmas is coming...

On the way to school...

Me: Look! Christmas lights! (sings) Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat.

Lily: Those aren't Christmas lights. They are for Halloween.

Drew: Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat! hahaha

Lily: NO!!

Drew sings: Christmas is coming and Lily's getting fat!

Me: Oh, Drew. That is not a nice thing to say. People don't like when you say they are getting fat. You will make Lily feel sad.

Drew: Oh, well, you can sing it about me. Christmas is coming, Drew is getting fat!

Lily: Christmas is coming, Drew is getting plump! (giggles)

e-mail updates

My blog has a new feature. You can now subscribe to my blog so that when I write a new post you'll get an e-mail.

I've never actually tried this feature but my sister says it works.

 Facebook has been weird about posting my blog. I know some of my usual readers are missing posts because of that.

Also, my brother-in-law David is frustrated with my sporadic posting lately. So, David, now you can rest assured that will not miss a post.

Thanks for reading!

yes, these are real conversations

Julianna (while going the the bathroom): When I grow up I will have a penis.

Me: No, that's highly unlikely. You are a girl so you will always have a vagina, just like me and Lily. Boys have a penis and girls have a vagina.

Julianna: Oh. I will have a vagina forever. I have a tiny bottom. It is growing up. When my tiny bottom grows up it will be a big bottom. My bottom is a boy.

Me: You're bottom is a boy, but you are a girl?

Julianna: Yes, I am a girl, but my bottom is a boy named Andrew.

*******************

Driving in the car.

Me: Daddy's birthday is in one week. That is only seven days. What are we going to do for Daddy on his birthday?

Drew: I don't know. But I want a tent for Christmas. A tent and a remote control Batman.

Me: Okay, but Daddy's birthday comes first.

Lily: For Christmas I want two twenty dollar bills, a ten dollar bill and ten quarters. Plus, some Littlest Pet Shop....and some art stuff.

Julianna: I want an airplane, some cars and a baby doll.

Lily: and some art stuff...and some....

Julianna: Actually, two baby dolls.

Drew: No, no, no! I want a laser gun and an electric guitar and a drum set.

*************
And driving again, same day.

Drew: I want to marry a boy. We aren't going to have any babies. We'll only be grandpas.

Lily: You don't get to decide who you're going to marry!! Someone else decides for you!

Me: That's not true. Drew can marry whomever he decides to marry...just like you can decide for yourself who you want to marry too.

Lily: No! Mimi told me that you can't decide who to marry. She didn't want to marry Papa.

Me: I don't think that's true. Mimi and Papa met, fell in love and decided to marry each other.

Lily: No!

Drew: Maybe Mimi didn't want to marry Papa because he eats all the food.

Me: Lily, I'm not going to argue. People get to marry whom ever they choose.

Drew: Yeah, Papa eats all the food we like.

friends forever

posing like our papaw

doing facial relaxation exercises to atempt a better picture.

a pretty damn good picture, if i do say so myself.

Christmas, 1982 Front to back: Austin, Sarah and me.

Adult sibling relationships are hard. They take work, acceptance, patience and forgiveness. It's amazing to me how three people born to the same parents, raised in the same house, can be so different from each other. But, alas, it is true. We experienced many of the same things growing up, but we were experiencing them from different perspectives, at different developmental stages and with different personalities.

In my opinion we all turned out pretty well. We don't always see things eye to eye, and we don't always say the correct most loving things to each other, but we are family. We are very lucky to be friends and enjoy spending time together. I am lucky to have a brother and a sister that always have my back and love me for who I am...even though they know my every fault, my every mistake and every bad judgment I've made. They know all of that and they are still here.

What I'm trying to say is that I'm pretty lucky to have grown up with these people and to still have them in my life today. Even if we are completely different from one another - we are friends in the truest sense of the word.

Much love to Sarah and Austin. <3

ta-da!

We are slowly getting out house put together. I have done some decorating in Lily's room and Drew's room too. But, as of last night, Tom and I finished the master bedroom project. So now we have one room in the house finished. I am pretty excited about how it turned out. I have one more picture to hang...but I only just spotted (and swiped) the painting in my mom's basement yesterday. I need to get it framed before I can hang it up.

I cannot take all of the credit for this room. My mom gave me some time with a decorator friend of hers for my birthday. She was helpful about giving me some direction and norrowing down my choices. She helped me find the bed, curtains and to select the colors for the walls. I owned the rest before she came, she just helped to see what would go together. Although, there isn't much color to the room, I love it. I like that it's calm and quiet. Plus, the painting I found yesterday will give the room just a bit of color and add something unique and unexpected.

What do you think?

I have less to write about these days. I keep wondering why writing a couple of years ago was so easy and why it's become more difficult to blog. I think I see now that it has to do with having older, busier children. I have much less time to sit and write about what we're doing because we're out doing something else. The only problem I see with not keeping up the blog more regularly is that I will have less to go back and read in 10 years when I'm missing my young children and the crazy days we're living now. I'm going to try and update more often...even if it's just the boring "only the grandparents would enjoy" posts. Because, if I'm being honest, the blog is for me and my kids to enjoy later. It's for my kids to read about themselves. It's my memory keeper. So, on with the updates...

Lily is so fun and amazing these days. I think it at least 10 times a day on the good days. She is full of information about herself, her world and always has more questions. Yesterday she came home with a homework project. She is supposed to make a poster titled "All About Me." I told her that it would be a good idea for her to get started on it last night since she has ballet tonight. I didn't have suggest it twice. She was all about this project. She worked on it for two straight hours after school. Then again after dinner. And again before school. I will have to post a picture of the finished product when she finishes it today.

This morning while she was getting ready for school, I sent her out to the van to get her lunch box. After a couple of minutes she came bursting into the house excited to take me back outside and show me the moon and stars. "They are so BEAUTIFUL MOMMY!!" I went with her and admired the bright, big moon and all the stars. She was right, it was beautiful...but mostly because she was sharing the moment with me. "There are so many stars. There have be, like, ONE HUNDRED of them!!"

Grandma (Tom's mom) loves to make Halloween costumes for the kids. (I love that she loves to make Halloween costumes for the kids.) She has made some wonderful costumes over the years. Lily's costume this year may be the best yet (although, I did love the year that Drew was a dinosaur!) Check this Repunzel dress out:



Drew is so grown up these days too. Tom says that Drew is so good at helping with home improvement projects that it will be a matter of a few months and Tom can leave a list of projects for Drew to complete while Tom goes to work. (ha ha) A few weeks ago Tom was working on painting our room. We have some lovely wood paneling that we (Tom) had to paint over. The wood paneling wall has a border of wood that Tom removed to paint in the garage. Drew really wanted to help, so Tom showed him how to remove the nails. Tom said that within 5 minutes Drew had removed all of the nails and was ready for the next chore. He is so willing to help and can do so much that it's hard to keep him busy when he's looking for a project. When that happens he does things like remove his training wheels from him bike for the thousandth time. He can't actually ride without the training wheels...he just likes removing them and putting them back on again.

Drew is still majorly into sports; however, this might be the last year for soccer. He is more a spectator than a player. He runs, smiles and watches his teammates play soccer. He rarely engages in the game and it wasn't until the last game of the season that he went after the ball with any sort of gusto. I think he likes basketball and baseball the best...but we'll see because he's counting down the days until he's old enough to take real drum lessons, as well as learn to play the electric guitar. If I had to guess, in about 10 years from this month, I will be in Independence, KS to watch Drew and the rest of the Hutchinson High School marching band compete in the annual Neewollah marching band competition...but that's just a guess.

Julianna is a sweetheart. She is testing her growing independence recently, though. She has discovered that if she stays quiet in her room during nap time, but doesn't go to sleep, then she avoids a nap altogether. Today she finally fell asleep...but she hadn't taken a nap the last two days. I am not sure what to do to force the nap. She stays in her room and quiet during her scheduled nap time...but doesn't go to sleep. She isn't even three yet. She's not supposed to give up for at least a few more months! The thing about sweet Julianna is that she doesn't really get too grumpy on the days she doesn't take a nap. It's not even until day three of no nap that she starts to be in a bad mood. In fact, this morning she threw a temper tantrum lasting about 12 minutes. It was the longest tantrum of her life...and the first tantrum from her in recent memory. I find it fascinating that Drew just stop napping regularly about a month ago and he's two years older.

So, this is kind of what's going on in our life right now. It's not witty or exciting, but it's fun and I love it. I loved when my kids were babies...but watching them grow up is just the best thing ever. They are now old enough and calm enough to sit down to dinner as a family (we have always sat down as a family. it's just before now, it was a crazy chaos of a meal...including spilled drinks and dropped food.) Tom and I get to eat and enjoy the meal with them without too much work. I get dinner on the table and our kids tell us about their day. They try to make each other laugh. And Tom and I get to soak  it all up. I can see in the very near future that my job will become less work and more fun. Or am I just kidding myself with that one? I'm not sure, but I do know that I look forward to everyday I get with my kids. I spend less time trying to make it to my next 'break' and more time just enjoying my time with my kids.

brother drew

At the breakfast table this morning:

Julianna: You are my brudder.

Drew: No, I am you BRUV-ER.

Julianna: Yes, BRUDDER.

Drew: No. Say "BRUV"

Julianna: BRUV

Drew: ERRRR

Julianna: ERRR

Drew: Now, "Bruv-er"

Julianna: Bruvver

Drew: Yeah! Good job! Mom, I just taught Julianna how to say bruvver correctly!

*****
Saturday I did all of the laundry in the whole house. Sunday Drew thanked me for folding and putting his clothes away for him. I think he's a keeper.

i promise...

...that I only forgot for a moment that it was our anniversary. I love you.

Sometimes it's a wonder I can function in the adult world. This morning this is how the conversation went:

Tom: Do you have something to tell me?

Taylor: *panic look*

Tom: Uhh...

Taylor: Ummm....I'm sorry?

Tom: Really?? That's it?

Taylor: Thank you?

Tom: Ok. So now you can never hold my forgetting against me!! What about 'happy anniversary'?!

Taylor: Oh yeah!! Duh!! HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Tom: Oh! It's too late!!!

Well, Tom, it only slipped my mind for a moment. I made this video for you a few months ago.

Mimi doesn't know about babies

Drew: What did you do while I was at school today?

Me: I made dinner and put it in the crock pot and then I went to help in Lily's classroom.

Drew: With Baby Ben?!

Me: No, Ben stayed with Mimi.

Drew: Mimi?! Mimi doesn't know anything about babies!

Me: She doesn't?

Drew: No, Mimi has never had a baby!

Me: Well, I'm not sure about that. I think I was a baby when I was born and she's my Mom.

Drew: Oh, yeah. I forgot about that.