The "new me"

...8 inches shorter, darker but I am loving the "new me"

The real reason I do laundry

As you can see I get a ton of help when I am doing laundry.
Actually, I think I still had clothes in the bottom of the dryer that I was trying to fold and put in the basket but my monkeys wouldn't let me!

Playing with Giggles

I swear Abby is as fascinated with the camera...okay okay!!
I will fess up...I'm the snap happy one!
I just wish that I could instantly print them off so they wouldn't be digitally stored forever and ever amen in the computer!
But, truth be told...She really does loves to climb up onto my lap when I am on the computer so I snapped a few for fun :)

...day two

I guess yesterday's picture didn't look so bad after all!!
Oouchie baby!!
Her fever is back..this morning it was 103 and I was lucky enough to wear some blue tylenol after I had given it to Giggles.
A 3 1/2 hour nap later and she is so happy!!
Yeah!!

the day after...

My poor baby!!
She still has a fever so we took her to the doctors and she has an ear infection in both ears.
No wonder she can't seem to stay solid on those cute little toes of hers!!

Abby and The terrible, horrible, very bad... no good day.

To put it mildly..
When my little Abby woke up this morning with a fever of 101.3 F that could have been a clue that they day we were about to take part in might not be the best but I had to give the day a chance...right?
She spent the morning with daddy and was supposed to be playing but instead she poured her milk bottle down the inside of the computer and knocked the tower over. Apparently, it's broken...keyboard and the tower are no longer on speaking terms. Monitor...ignoring both of them and refuses to change from it's black screen. Make that Strike two...
After her nap she was toasty warm again...101.8 so I gave her some medicine and took her with me on the car ride to go and get big sister from school.
When we got home from school, before she even had her coat taken off she pulled the side table on herself and now is sporting a nice cut above her puffy almost black and blue eye. Strkie three... She's OUT!!
At least...one would have thought that way but not my girl!!
Still smiling :O)

Miss Giggles loves FROZEN eggo's!!

A good friend of ours told us that frozen eggo's would help with teething.
It helps numb the gums and has it's own built in drool cups...eww!!
Actually, Abby and Noah both LOVE them!!
Go figure...

Abby's 1st Thanksgiving

Really...I invisioned being the mother who takes pictures of the turkey and the family gathered around it.
To remember the laughter and the all those wonderful aromas but what do I take a picture of?!?
Abby eating a bun... **shakes head**
She enjoyed turkey, potatoes and stuffing...mmmm stuffing!!
But Noah...wouldn't touch anything!!

Boxer Baby

Last night Barry and I went for a ride on the motorcycle (cold but wonderful) and no sooner had I walked into the house and the phone is ringing. It was my oldest Jennifer calling from my in-laws house to tell me that we needed to go to the Children's hospital right away as Abby touched the hot glass on the fireplace and had burned her both of her hands. Honestly, when you get that kind of call your brain doesn't really comprehend what you are being told. It was horrible!!
We raced to the hospital and as soon as I walked in the room Abby settled right down. It broke my heart to see her little hands! She has huge blisters on her fingertips of her right hand and a huge blister across the fleshy part of her hand and on the left hand she has a huge blister running down her thumb. We saw a and a plastic surgeon (apparently when it involves mobility we have to see the plastic surgeon). She has 2nd degree burns to both hands but the right is worse than the left. I have to take her to the burn unit at the hospital to get her hands reassessed and her bandages changed. It's pretty hard getting her fed without cereal on her bandages.
Plus she is chewing on them so they look pretty nasty. All they have given her for pain is Tylenol. So far she is doing really well. She's crabby that she can't pick up her toys the way she normally could but all in all considering what she has gone thru I have one tough kid!!

Playing in the van

We are in the van ALOT.
It seems like we are always dashing someplace or another so to make the transition from the house to the van easier on the kids I put in a mini toy box with books, cars, a few fisherprice toys so Abby and Noah can find something to amuse themselves.
The funniest things amuse Abby.
She refused to play with any of her toys but she sure did enjoy Gua's dip net!!

4 generations

4 generations...of the Lawrence Family.
Starting with Si Lawrence (Pop)
Sam Lawrence (Gua)
Sitting on Gua is Noah Lawrence and beside him my husband Barry.

What a blessing to be able to snap this one!

Jennifer's first day in Grade 7

Already?!?
I remember the first day of kindergarten and now here we are at the first day of Junior High!!
**sob** k, breathe in..breathe out..
We are okay...
for now!!

Our adventures thru the corn maze...

The night before the kids have to go back to school and we thought an "unique outdoor adventure" was in order...

The Maze...

There are over 5 km of trails in the maze. (I'm sure we did 6 with all the wrong turns!!)
The maze covers 15 acres.
The average time spent in the maze - 1+ hours.
The quickest the maze can be completed (honestly) - 20 minutes.
The maze is divided into 2 smaller mazes called Phases.
There are 2 bridge lookouts located in the maze to help you gather your bearings.



Our adventure begins...

Noah before he went in...
Notice the "leash"..a newly aquired purchase to keep busy toddlers like him with safe!!


She LOVED the maze!

Barry and myself...

We found 7 more times than any of us care to admit!!

FINALLY!!
Better watch out for the...
Corn Cops!!

new hiding spot for the cars....

Mama Merit Badges

I will admit..I have a slightly competitive side to me.
I hide it pretty well, but it's there...
Just ask Heather Steele (where ever she is..) and she will tell you about the summer we read until our eyes nearly popped out of our heads or the years we had in Girl Guides competing for badges. We both "pretended" that we were in competition with each other..but we all know the truth. I wanted my badge scarf to be fuller than her' s just as badly as she did...but we would never have admitted that to anyone let alone ourselves!!

So when a friend of mine on sheknows.com showed me this link: http://www.mamameritbadges.com/shop/ I mentally went down the list looking at each brightly colored patch murmuring “got that” “got that” all the way down the list. My Mama merit badge scarf would look something like this:
Breastfeeding


I nursed all of my children.
My first was only for 3 months...my second for 22 months and my third for 6 months.
I have nursed in public with and without a blanket...I watch you eat, if you have a problem with it don't watch my baby eat!!
I have also nursed while pregnant...nursing is hard work and not as "natural" as one may think...


Shopping


I spent money with babies hanging off of me, climbing in and out of the cart or running away from me because they had to have "real high heels NOW," I have shopped while hearing "mom..can I have?!?" "whine, whine, whine!!" and suffering thru others saying "Are these all yours?!?" all the while pretendng to be a sane adult who only came to the store to buy milk and bread but left with $100.00 of other stuff that I didn't need nor want.


Birthday


for making Character cakes from scratch..for using so much red food coloring that my 2 year olds hands, face and lips were stained Elmo red for a week. Hmm..wonder what I will make him for his 3rd birthday? We did Cookie Monster for his first...Elmo for his second..he really likes Lightening McQueen..should I do that?


Diaper


I have been pooped & peed on, chased poop around the bathtub and have preformed gymnastics to keep Abby from getting into her brothers poopy diaper. I have had to clean babies that had poop all the up there back all the while curious as to how said poop got that high...


Medical


I have taken kids to the hospital..force fed them milk/juice by 5ml at a time desperatly trying to get them rehydrated. I have held kids down to make them take their medicine even thought I was told that it "tastes good" but my kids think it's gross. I have taken Noah on numerous visits to attempt to get foreign objects pulled from noses only to be told that they will come out on their own. The worst was apple..thanks Noah!!
I have also had to deal with needles with all three of my kids and the fun ain't over yet!!


Travel


I have been stuck in a grayhound bus depo for hours with a 2 year old who had to use each and every potty in the ladies bathroom...even though she did not have to pee. I had to sit with her on my lap the entire trip (8 hours) because the mean ol' busdriver wouldn't let me use the seat without paying for it.


Sleeping


I have slept with my 2 year old in my bed..fighting me for the top of the bed..why heads are supposed to go on pillows is beyond him. I have slept on the floor trying to teach him that he can sleep in his room, all by himself...the baby can and she's only 8 months!! But, I just want my 2 year old to feel safe and secure.


Reading


I read Jennifer "grandma's cat" and Noah "If you give a pig a pancake" enough times that I have memorized the text, the images and even can tell you it in my sleep. I wonder what book will be Abby's favourite?


Eating Out


I have had to created games to keep children entertained while wating for the food to come..had to chase a laughing 2 year old around a restaurant and draw "trucks" over and over again with busted crayons and had to color trees with yellow because that was the only color we were offered.


Tantrum


I have had to walk away from screaming children while they kicked and screamed on the floor in a busy supermarket because mommy wouldn't buy the box of cookies while dodging dirty looks from those around me. I have dealt with my 10 year old throwing stuff and slamming doors while yelling "I HATE you" without doing any harm to the youngster who said it to me...


What would yours look like?

cute lil' chompers!

When Abby first started drooling and putting her fingers and everything else she could get her grubby little hands on in her mouth we thought she was teething...we were wrong. She was just exploring her enviromnent..tasting the toys to see what she thought of them. So when she started cutting them we weren't even aware that it was happening. She is the best teether I have seen..no drooling fussy baby here!! She is happy as a clam but look out for those chompers!! She cut the bottom 2 first and now is cutting the top 4. This so far is the best picture we have of those cute little chompers!!

Eating..

Believe it or not..this bib used to be Jenn's and the second I put it on Abby she started pulling at it the same way Jenn use to.
I am quite fond of this bib to be honest with you..the food falls into the bottom and then she can scoop it out when she discovers it. I can toss it in the dishwasher so I don't have to scrub it...who ever made this bib needs to be kissed!!
YuMmY!! Cold pizza!! I figured that since she is teething this would feel nice on her gums. 6 teeth in under 3 weeks and the stinker stil won't let me take a picture!
Fruity Cheerios..umm..at least Abby loves them!

Daddy and the two little ones

I guess when "your the one taking the pictures" you don't get much time "in the pictures" so here is one with Daddy, Noah and Abby.

Abby and her big girl bed

Abby spent the first 7 1/2 months of her life sleeping in her bassinette until she learned how to escape!! The first time was at my moms..she had a little help from Noah and thankfully the Angel Care monitor was on so it "ratted" the two of them out before he had a chance to carry her down their flight of staires. The second time was the morning we set up her crib...the alarm went off around 5:30 a.m. and the insane thing was I didn't think she was hurt but I was curious to see where she had gone to in that length of time. Apparently, the lighting was just enough so she could play with some toys so...she did!!
So, I decided that it was time and I moved her into her big girl bed!! If you look closely you can see that she has pushed her mattress to the side so she could stand up and push herself out. Thankfully we had her bassinette on the floor so she didn't have far to go!!


Ahh!! The "big girl bed". Two nights down and so far...it's been quiet!

Hilary Duff, toy recalls and trips to the doctor..

The ringing still hasn't left my ears 12 hours later from the shrill screams of thousands of excited little girls.
I expected the Hilary Duff concert to be busy...I didn't expect the average age to be 9 so I was surprised to see that they were serving booze at the concert...I guess that's a treat for all the parents..a way to numb the pain in your ears and a way to forget that you are attending Hilary Duff and not at Nickelback. Just teasing!! The concert was actually quite fun...after you got past waiting for an HOUR and a Half for her to grace the stage with her presence. Hey Hilary..ever heard of the word "SORRY?!?" Just a thought..your fans sat for how long and you didn't say anything!! Oh well,we had excitement all of our own. One wiggle of Jenn's back tooth and "POP" out it comes erupting in blood. Not exactly what I expected at the Hilary Duff concert but then what can you expect at a concert? Oh!! Jenn paid $5.00 for the picture and that white thing..is her tooth!! EWW!!


So, we were home late...much later than I wanted to be so we tucked Noah into our bed with us.
I love snuggling my boy..I love it when he reaches out to me in the dark and gently touches my face and say's "momma..a kiss" then he plants a big kiss on my nose. After he fell asleep I moved him to the blanket bed since the boy is like a windmill in the middle of the night but I tossed and turned and couldn't for the life of me get to sleep!! I know why now...first Abby had me up. She needed her bottle topped up, a kiss and her blanket tucked around her.. then Noah had me up with a fever of 38.7 so after a drink, some medicine we chatted...about rocket, the moon..until finally we turned off the light. Then the conversation turned to "a momma, a light" " No, Noah..bed time" " A momma, a light" "No, noah...time to go to sleep" and we finally did. Until, the phone rang...Mom calling to tell me about a Toy Recall. "just great"
"A Toy Recall...because my day just wasn't going to be exciting enough!!"
A complete list of the toys can be found here: http://service.mattel.com/us/recall.asp
We have 2 of the toys that are in question but thankfully they weren't manufactured with the Lead paint so I think we will keep them...at least until I talk to Barry..they might be getting the heave ho!!

**sigh**

So, Noah still has a fever at 9:30 this morning so I topped him up and took him to the doctor's.
All good but told that if the fever lasts another 3 days to bring him back. **sigh** what fun!!

But now...he is busy playing and my sweet giggles called me "Momma" today!!
So, it ain't all bad!!