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!