Hollidays 2010

These are probably not going to be in order. And there will probably be a Part II

Mom with Aunt Dana:The Dean "big" girls :)

The newest family: Christen, Gary, and their miracle Malory

The "baby" girls of the Dean family

Sweet Lilly was the only one of my kids that would pose for a pic!

Amelia enjoyed Jules party as much as anyone!

Wow, I didn't even realize I haven't posted since before Thanksgiving! So this will probably be long, but seeing as how I'm not a great writer...maybe not. We have got to get better about taking pics. It's hard to watch everything and take pics at the same time :)

Well, Thanksgiving is always small with my family. At our house, we wake up and watch the Thanksgiving Day parade! Then head over to my parents house with my brother and his wife to eat till our hearts are content. (all while the dog show is on, which for some reason everyone decided to complain about this year!) We also celebrated Zayna's birthday the day after. The kids got to decorate cookies and eat pizza.

The Dean family Christmas is greatly looked forward to every year. We've always gotten together, had wonderful food thanks to Grandpa Dean, and DON"T forget the peanut butter balls. Aunt Gayla started this tradition, and her wonderful daughter Christen has continued it...THANK YOU!

"It's too hard!"

We all had fun with Jules new scooter...Even Grandma.
Lilly did however, love her helmet.

To my children in the future, Part 1

Wild girls loving on their pawpaw

Paul brought me home a new computer a couple of weeks ago, which I love, But I can't seem to get my act together getting pictures down loaded. And I hate posting without pictures, because it's boring to look at. It's the holidays though and I don't want to forget too much, and seeing as how I'm using this as an excuse to not keep up with the baby books (three separate books is a bit difficult to continually keep up) I better get busy.

The girls are loving the holidays! We are a bit "strapped" for money right now, so we are spending a lot of time at home auggggg, which means we have to find other ways to entertain ourselves. I've been baking way too much, which results in eating the goods :) resulting in the holiday 5+ now. Amelia, unfortunately, has not grown tired of the tree. Jules and Lilly are "loving" each other more and more each day. The phrase for today has been: "don't look at me like that!" I guess this is what happens to siblings that are so close. And they've cut hours at the hospital, which means less and less mommy time away.

I started on this post Mon, and it is now Wed. On Tues I went to my lady's Sunday school meeting/Christmas party, so hoarse I could barely talk, and almost in tears the whole way there. I was hoarse from yelling at the kids all day, and in tears because I felt like such a crappy mother. How do the days end up like this! Me screaming all day, to children that don't listen worth a crap! Part of it I know is because I hardly spank. It wasn't working, I was just getting angry and taking it out on them, so now you have to do something pretty much life threatening to get a spanking in this house, ie running out into a busy street. But I'm not so sure that a screaming mother is much less harm. (Speed this up KYM)
So, I get there late, Paul was working. It was a smaller group this time. And my phone rings. Its Paul asking where the baby wipes are...really?! I guess my face must have said a lot, because everyone was staring and not really saying much. Well, it led to a lot of moms sitting around talking about their kids, (and husbands) for about 2 hours. It was so great to find out I'M NOT A BAD MOTHER! and Everyone has similar stories.
SO, to my kids, when you read this in the future, and try to blame me for your misfortunes, it's a no go. EVERY mother has yelled at some point, most mothers have spanked out of anger (at least this isn't happening anymore) and I had a room full of women that validated the feelings. It's NORMAL! You are sweet, wonderful kids that will learn not to back talk :) You are sweet wonderful kids that are driving me crazy! But I love you anyway, and wouldn't trade you for the world.

Tangled

We took the girls to their first movie out last night. We went to Tangled at Tinseltown. I hate that I didn't have my camera out and ready, because it was priceless! Tinseltown was a great introduction for them, because it is full of lights, BIG pictures, sort of old school glam. They held hands and just looked up at everything. We sat way up high, almost the very top, stuffed ourselves with popcorn and soda, and prayed Lilly didn't pee in her pants! (haha) Jules snuggled up with her daddy and watched the whole thing. Lilly...poor little Lilly, she really got into it, and cried at everything. She really let it roll when Rapunzel get her hair cut at the end, I tried to tell her she just got a hair cut, but I was laughing so hard, started to snort, and then everyone around us was looking and laughing. It was a great night and can't wait till the next one.

Three different girls

It amazes me at how different three kids are that are raised by the same parents. Jules is the sweet, girly girl. She likes to get up with the first break of day. It took her a while to take to the dirt, and she still does not like to get muddy! She likes to make people happy. And by golly, give her a laugh and she will be trying to get more all day. Lilly is not a morning person! She can wake up early, but give her some space to start moving. She likes to snuggle, does not like to be laughed at (even when she does something funny), and can play alone happily for long periods of time. Amelia, if she doesn't get to sleep 'till at least 7:30, she usually wakes up screaming. And leave it to #3 to be the toilet diver, trash tumping, lets get into the hot oven kind of kid. Every day, all day. She is full of life! Loves to play, and love to crawl into things...ie the cabinets.

Its getting more and more fun to watch them in public settings. Jules wants a crowd, Lilly run to be the only one dancing to the music, and Amelia has no fear in working a crowd to get what she wants. This next year is going to be a blast.

Are indangered trees a part of your home?

We have a serious problem in out home... the Christmas Tree is in DANGER!

The culprit, a 1 1/2 year old named Amelia James!

Caught red handed! ( and that is marker all over her face!)
And in the act again! At first the problem was the lights. She thought they were pretty enough to eat. I think she has figured out that they don't taste that great, so now she is on to removing (breaking) the ornaments. I thought I had played it safe. I laid out the "non-breakables" and let the kids put them on the tree. All the ornaments ended up mainly on one side, and all at one level, but it was...cute. Then, I put most of the breakable ones up high, securely tied to the tree. I left my most favorites in the box this year, afraid the tree may end up sideways.
BUT, Amelia (with help from big sister Lilly) has removed many ornaments, and found ways to break, even the plastic ones! Lilly showed her how to get them off, after I double looped them to the branches.

The trio, looking so cute and Innocent :)
Now I'm wondering how long it will be before they realize the stockings are within reach!

Thankful

Lillys pic of the day: her "blanklet"

I've been trying to get around to a Thanksgiving post all week. Time has just been sneaking past. Today we had a sweet little friend of Jules' over. Preschool is out, and her parents work, so she got to spend all day. We had so much fun making "play dough" cookies and icing the best sugar cookies that I have ever made. I finally learned how to make that pretty shiny icing. Tricks are, before chilling, roll your dough between parchment paper, this made it so much easier than fighting the stiff dough ball. And I left it thicker than in the past, just under 1/2 inch. Then took it out, did the cut outs, and placed it back in the fridge for about another hour. This kept the cookies from spreading so much during baking. As for the icing...I used a royal meringue base. The girls had a blast, and so did I. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving! The kick off to the holidays! Begin with the parade, then the dog show. Always has been, always will be. The girls have gotten a kick in the past at looking at all the funnier looking dogs.

Thankfuls: Each year seems to get better and better. I am married to a wonderful man that loves me more than I can fathom. I am so blessed with three beautiful, healthy little girls, that I love so much. They provide many laughing moments. I am thankful for my freedom to worship and our "little church" group. Blessed with family that is close by, loving, and willing to sacrifice. Thankful for being blessed.

Oldies but goodies

Paul purchased out first video camera just before Lilly was born, 3 years ago. We had problems with the computer, so we haven't uploaded any of the videos...until now. After 5hr last night, we now have 1/2 of our videos uploaded to our computer. Its been a lot of fun looking at all the old pics and videos. Here are a few for you. Ps, after doing the pics, blogger said there was a problem with the videos, so maybe I can do them later.

Recap and toes

Since the last post, we've been busy. Just after hitting Publish Post, on Smores, I went into the kitchen to discover two good pans had been used to cook on the grill. If you have ever done this you are aware of the layer of black sutt that covers the bottom. Said pans were then placed in the freshly scrubbed sink, which upon discovering led to me having a major top blowing. I think I hurt Pauls feelings, because he has been helping me so much around the house the last few days. Everyone has had and recovered from the stomach bug, two members of the house hold (not to be named) have been severely "backed up" resulting in a few doctors visits and xrays, and I injured my toe. When I say injured, that means a rouge pumpkin made its way into my path in the middle of the living room. When I didn't see it, I rammed my foot into it, wedging a chunk of pumpkin under my big toe nail, ripping it from the nail bed. ummm, great lunch time conversation. I realized later that night that I couldn't move it, so guessed it was broken. Best part is, after using the tweezers to pull out the pumpkin, with the girls watching wide eyed, I walked to the living room and said very calmly that "all pumpkins had to leave the house." Lilly and Jules responded my quickly rolling them out the front door, and Lilly ended it by shaking her finger and yelling at the pumpkin "no, no pumpkin. Bad pumpkin, you no hurt my momma!" I laughed so hard that I actually forgot about the pain for a minute. They melted my heart again the next day. I had been on my feet for a while, and taken the bandage off to let it breath. Inheriting the graceful Dean gene, I kicked the baby gate, and began crying like a baby. Amelia cried with me, Lilly looked like she would barf, and Jules started looking for the booboo cream. So sweet and caring.
We've begun decorating for Christmas, yay!

Smores

We made smores tonight! Paul cooked a great meal of grilled fish and veggies, and then built us a fire in the back yard to make smores. I say "us" meaning the girls, because my husband doesn't eat smores (i know, insane) so he helped with the fussy baby, that didn't want to be inside, or out. And he was so willing to give her a bath, during the Arkansas game, while we continued roasting marshmallows...smell my sarcasm :) Thankful for my family! Thankful that everyone in our house in well. Thankful that my girls were worn out and now sleeping soundly in bed, and thankful that it is now mommy/daddy time. Goodnight, hope you had a great weekend.

Holloween weekend and more.

Halloween weekend started off at GS Fest, which was a blast. Then we trick or treated our neighbor hood, via four wheeler hay ride on Saturday. We had a Frightful Finger foods party before heading out, that included: Regurgitated cheese dip, vampire repellent, and Dracula Spit just to name a few. I've gotten very lazy with picture taking, so I have none to show from the party.

My poor little Skunk did not like her costume.
And this picture says it all!
I didn't have a good picture of Jules, I mean Tinkerbell. She decided early on that it was going to be cold, so she wanted to put her costume on over what she was already playing in, which was camo pants and an orange shirt. Then she insisted I was not putting her hair in a bun, and that she looked fine just how she was. Guess I should be glad she has such confidence at such a young age.
Lilly, the cheerleader, with yellow sweats that she didn't want to take off, with Sheriff Cassidy.

And "boogie" came to terrify all the children, and was very successful.

We ended the weekend with the stomach bug. Positive, loose some water weight and not want to eat candy. JJ

Jules was the one barfing last night. Then when she couldn't go back to sleep at 2am, she wanted to have a full on conversation. Out of no where she ask "why are you mean to your mom?" Me, being a little shocked by that question, asked her what she meant.

She held her had up in the air in the "talk to the hand" fashion, and said "well, you always say, 'I will do it, I will do it!' when she tries to do something." Trying to hide a laugh, I said, "well, Grandma tries to do everything when she is at out house, and I don't want her to." Guess I really do need to start paying better attention.

What are your favorite Halloween memories?

Happy days!

It's the day before Halloween, and my kids are bursting with excitement. Jules has a school fall party, and then our church has a carnival with lots of rides. They have been talking it up all week at the preschool, so even though we were not planing on going, Jules has informed us that we are indeed going, "no exceptions!" My four year old just busted me with the "no exceptions" line! Lilly thankfully wanted to be a cheerleader, so free costume there, yeah. Jules wants to be Tinkerbell (freezing), and Amelia is a skunk.
It's always nice to come home after a vacation, you feel revived and refueled to conquer. A week with no yelling or fussing kids has led to at least 3 days of no yelling at home, except what Lilly has been doing.
Boot camp started back. It felt good to push my body after a nearly 2 week break. I was able to keep the cookies in too ;)
Everyday there is joy, if your not experiencing it's your own fault. I recently read where someone said "live it afraid" , what she was talking about was facing your fears, charging at them head on and not letting fear turn you away. So for now, I'm going to work on stepping out of that comfort zone and charging at somethings. I also will not be too busy for my kids. I will savor the moments where they make me laugh, and I will let the tears flow when they touch me so deeply I want to cry. These are the joys of life.

Jamacia Man!

Ahhhh, Jamaica...all inclusive, laid back, good music, and alone with my man!

These pictures are not in the right order, but we'll deal.

I discovered that I really enjoy running on the sky walks, and since Atlanta has lots of them, there were many opportunities. Unfortunately, people slow you down.
We chose Jamaica again this time, because the flights are so much shorter than going anywhere else. Although, the south shore is not a great beach, Nagrile was 10x prettier, it was still a blast. We flew into Montigo Bay, then took the much anticipated hour and 1/2 van ride to the resort. Much anticipated because it is through the mountains, and anyone that's been there knows how the roads (and drivers) are. Fortunately, we didn't start to get sick until we arrived, and we had a pretty conservative driver. We did however get stuck in the van with some very chatty, overly excited folks from Ohio. But that led to lots of questions, which made an informative tour.

The Peacock, that wanted my muffin. Sorry charlie, I'm here for the food. "Paul stop feeding the bird!"

The flame thrower at the beach party.

The view from our patio. Go ahead, be jealous. Fortunately, this was the hot tub of choice after dark.

Every afternoon, a storm blew in. The billiards were next to the main pool, so a lot of folks would run over, turn the music on, and have a pretty great party. This was my cheesy face getting ready to beat Paul. But what he won't tell you is that he got suckered by a guy named Otto, that showed him how the game was played.

(blurry, but he looked so cute)

Me, in the spot I rarely left.

And when I did leave, it was for this place, Cafe de Paris, a small cafe that had wonderful pastries and the best iced cappuccino ever. Discovered on the last day the secret was ice cream! I thought that was cheating.
The airconditoner in our original room leaked all over the floor, and in the closet (where my suitcase was). So we got an upgrade to a really nice suite.

Paul was pretty excited.

For more than one reason.

Here comes the rain.

We were so busy to busy having fun, that we didn't take a lot of picture. It was great to let loose and just relax. The island atmosphere does not take long to adapt to. We enjoyed it taking 45min to get dinner. By the way, take your own sunscreen, it cost $20 for a bottle of Australia Gold!

I've never had so many people comment on my accent, is it really that country? Have you ever read The Bernstein Bears book Stranger ? Well, just call me sister bear, because I spoke to every person that walked past, sat down by, swam past, and served. (Guess I've really been lacking in adult conversation around home) Just picture it, everyone is happy, enjoying themselves..Red stripe and rum flow freely..need I say more. People love to talk. So I started talking to the couple in the pool chairs next to us, and was going to offer him some sunscreen, he was so red I thought, "well, maybe he can't afford the $20 sunscreen, and he looks as though he could be in pain". He had on sunglasses, so when he didn't respond I just assumed he was asleep, and went my way. Latter that afternoon, Paul had gone somewhere, I was drying off at the chair, and the couple had woken up. So being the kind southerner that I am ;) I started taking to the guy (his chair was next to mine). After a minute, he looked at me and says, "me no understand" in a thick German accent. After I told Paul about this, it led to him saying to most things, "me no understand, me from Little Rock." Which is when I would laugh so hard I would cry.

Fair time and New foods

Dressed and ready for fun at the fair with Grandma and Pawpaw!

Showing off their goodies with Pawpaw. Jules chose a shark and Lilly chose a monkey, very fitting.
I've been trying to make new dishes, especially things to use left overs from the fridge. I've spent early mornings searching food and cooking blogs and websites. Since we cook an entire ham, I'm having to get creative to get every one to eat it. I was so excited to find this cheesy pasta and ham casserole from Joy In My Kitchen blog. It looked so good. We didn't have any penne so I used whole grain spaghetti. It also called for white whole wheat flour, and I only had regular whole wheat flour, so it was very "wheaty." I was so glad to wake up early Sunday morning and begin preparing this great after church lunch. And those of you that have small children, and a husband, to get ready for church...you know the hassles of Sunday morning. So I made this meal with love, and the dreaded left over ham. Rushed to prepare eggs at the same time. (I always fell productive and full of skills while cooking more that one meal at the same time.) Hurried to begin ironing clothes (too tired last night to do it), woke Paul up to feed Amelia, rewashed my hair...because it was way too bed headish to repair with a flat iron, get dressed, do makeup while in the car on the way to church. Ahhh, ok, we made it I think with everything. Only to walk in and they are already singing, what! Didn't even know we were late!

We arrive home, I'm so happy to have lunch prepared instead of the usual microwave something or other. Set it down in front of the girls, and Lilly responds

" ewww gross, POOP!"

It's hard to take picture of food. But even harder to cook for totts.