Andee's Birthday

December 1 was Andee's 3rd birthday.  The second she woke up, she asked me "is today my birthday?" She was so excited when I told her yes!  Damon was just as excited, he was running around the house yelling, "it's Andee's birthday, it's Andee's birthday".  Just a normal day, until evening after dinner.  We waited as long as possible for Tyler to get home, but ended up partying without him :(  Our birthday song sounds so pathetic, it makes me laugh every time I watch it.  

I bought this Jessie doll about a year ago for really cheap on some kind of Kohl's sweet deals.  I have been saving it in my "secret hiding place" for a whole year now and was grateful to finally give it to her.  

Damon was so excited to get his Woody out and play with her.  Love those guys!

Damon is also very into "writing notes" and he wrote this for Andee.  He knows that exclamation points are for when you are excited, he uses them a lot in his "notes".  As you can see he was really excited for Andee's birthday.  We ran to KMart that night, while the cake was cooking (it's seriously right around the corner from us) to get some frosting and I let Andee pick out some paper plates.  I thought for sure she would pick Tinkerbell or the Princess plates, but to my surprise she picked Little Pony plates.  What a fantastic night.  No more birthday's Andee, please stay 3 forever!

Race #3

This weekend was my half marathon out in Amish country.  Tyler wasn't on call this weekend, he even took extra days off so we could make a little weekend trip out of it.  We drove up to Lancaster, PA which is only about an hour away and stayed for the weekend.  The race was in the gorgeous Amish country, and the Amish children were handing out cups of water and gatorade at all the water stations along the way.  It was so fun to see them and interact with them.  

I didn't beat my last time which I really wanted to do.  But for some reason this race was really hard for me.  Maybe cuz it was my 3rd and I just wasn't that excited about it.  Maybe because I was dehydrated and tired from mile 2.  Or maybe it was the massive, crippling sideache I got at mile 3 that didn't go away and still hasn't gone away(and it's almost 2 days after).  Or possibly all the hills, or my knees hurting, or all these excuses I'm trying to come up with to make myself feel better. My first race I ran in 2 hours and 10 minutes, my 2nd race was 1 hour and 59 minutes, and this one was 2 hours 5 minutes. And that can only mean one thing:  I have to run another one so that I can beat my fastest time.  Only this time I am going to wait a little longer to run my next one.  

We tried getting pictures of the horse and buggy's as we were passing them.

Damon waiting for me at the finish line.

Katelynn so patiently waiting.

And Andee, crying.  It was freezing cold and for some reason Tyler didn't get her coat on her.  She ended up wating in the van watching a movie.

Can you see me?  In the red and black really far away.

Can you see me yet?  I'm getting there, just slowly.

Ah, finished at last.  I just wanted to lay down and be carried to the hotel.  Somebody was handing out bottles of gatorade at the finish line, I grabbed one and chugged like I've never chugged before.

A random picture Tyler took.

Amish farms.

More Amish farms.

Trying to get a good picture of the horse and buggy's.  These people are amazing.  They have no electricity, they use candles to light their homes at night. They make their own clothing, food.  If the world came to an end, it would not affect them at all.  What a simple, wonderful life.  Tyler and I both want to join the Amish community at this point in our lives.  Change our names so that we can hide from the government and the student loans we owe. LOL!

Halloween 2010

I'm lazy with blogging lately...I'm still going to be lazy and just post pictures of our halloween this year:

Damon is going to hate these pictures when he gets older.  Notice the legs all bunched up because of the sweats underneath.  hahaha.  

One of those days...

Today was one of those days where nothing goes right, everyone is cranky and tired and everything happens at the exact wrong time.  I finally broke down into tears tonight at dinner (while Katelynn was rubbing her dinner in her hair, throwing her food everywhere and Andee just peed her pants all over the chair and rug) and of course Damon was really the only one to notice (Tyler wasn't home).  He looked at me and said, "What's wrong Mommy, don't cry.  Do you miss your mommy and daddy?  Do you want to call your mommy and daddy?" That totally wasn't the problem (even though I do miss you dad and mom), so I was trying to think of a way to answer, to appease to him I just said, ya I miss my mommy and daddy.  He said, "You meed to call them (that was not a typo, that's how he says need), here, I'll find your phone and you can call your mommy.  Do you want to go see them over at the desert? (that's what he calls the west) Let's fly in the airplane and go see your mommy and daddy."  Talk about turning the whole night around with a sweet innocent boy who is so worried about his mom.  I no longer felt awful but wanted to hug all my kids and tell them how much I love them.  That moment was worth "one of those days".

Killin time at the zoo

Wherever you live with young kids you have to become a member of the zoo, right?  I mean isn't that just a rule of motherhood?  Today Tyler was on call (which means he is at the hospital all day and all night) and that makes for a very long Saturday.  Also the weather has finally cooled down enough that we can actually enjoy walking around the zoo for more than 45 minutes.  At the zoo here in Philly they have a little play land that the kids absolutely love, plus it's air conditioned.  I'm all about spending as much time in there as possible.  I went a little camera crazy, probably making up for all the pictures I haven't taken this summer.  I was really worried about Damon getting hurt because he wasn't wearing his sling.  (I think I forgot to mention he broke his collar bone about 3 weeks ago) He's healed enough to the point that it doesn't hurt, but there is still a huge space in the collar bone where he broke it, so I try and keep the sling on him to remind him to be careful.  Oh well.

Yes, that is a huge, huge, huge bee!

Can I just say how hard it is to try and take pictures and keep track of all 3 kids!

And finally,  the story of the day...we were in the primate house watching all the apes, gorilla's and orangutans (my personal favorite because you always get action there).  So you know those wooden things with animals painted on them and a hole cut out to put your face in to get a picture?  Well, some girl (probably 9 years old) was putting her face in while her mom was taking a picture and her dad was standing next to her.  Damon walks up to her wondering what the heck she is doing, puts his finger up to her nose (doesn't even touch her) and this dad grabs his arm right in front of me!!!  I was so mad, I said  "Let go, I'm his mother I can handle it."  He says, "Then you better control him."  I said, "I have 3 kids here by myself, and beside that he wasn't doing anything I needed to take control of."  He said, "you shouldn't have so many kids if you can't control them, then."  I was so mad (let my temper get the best of me) and called him a naughty word and walked off.  As we were walking off, Damon said, "mommy, what's a !@#!@^*"  Hee hee hee.  I love that kid.

Andee's haircut

I cut Andee's hair this morning while her and Damon were watching Wall-E.  I dare say, I did a pretty good job!