An individuals need for comfort

Okay so each of my kids did or had something that brought them comfort. As a baby whitney used to pull on her hair or my hair for that matter and then she started to twist her hair-she doesn't do it much any more but on occasion i do see her toy with a strand or two. Amber has sucked her tongue since the moment she was born and still does this plus she still has her "blanket"-we're doing good since she used to have three. I really don't recall that I myself

had anything that I did to comfort myself-maybe excessive chatter was mine??? LOL

With that said, I felt lucky that I hadn't run into the old thumbsucking habit that alot of kids get into. And I guess my luck ran out because since Brooke has discovered her hands she has found her thumb a few times and this is what happens:

I know it's a precious picture but it does have me worried that she will continue this going into kindergarten or later-I knew a girl who still sucked her thumb at age 9. So i wanted to pose the question of how many of you had children that did this and when did they grow out of it--or if you have to break them of the habit, how long did it take and how old were they? Anyway I am probably being a little too paranoid-and no I don't take it out of her mouth just yet-I just let her suck to her hearts content-sooner or later it comes out...and she really only does it before falling asleep. My kids never took to paci's either so i'm thinking which is worse a tolddler that sucks her thumb or one who's got a pacifier in her mouth? And does it really affect her teeth??? I know it sounds rather vain of me but one thing that attracted me to my hubby was that he has straight teeth-like me without having had to wear braces.

Easter-not so fun

Well I think Easter is not Amber's holiday. Last year at church she fell down in nursery and hit her head on the window sill and had to get stitches. This year she has a cold, the stomach flu, and ear infections in both ears. We were able to go to a few easter egg hunts though-so Whitney got to enjoy it. I don't have pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses because Amber stayed home with daddy from church. Next week when Brooke gets blessed I will try to get some pictures of them then. With my mom around it will definitely happen. Now that Amber is on antibiotics the puking has stopped and her ears a feeling a bit better so I am having a lot better day than yesterday-which was really horrible. Amber had been up all Sunday night emptying her stomach. Right before we left to drop whitney off at the bus, Brooke threw up. So we had to quickly change her, then I realized I didn't have my keys. Where are they? SO i am franitically looking for them. I finally call Joe-he had them the night before said he left them out somewhere obvious. So after looking again in all the obvious places i finally search the laundry for the pants he wore the day before and yep found em. Ofcourse whitney was late so i had to drive her and cancel her parent/teacher conference. Got home and washed car seat cover and car seat-the cover was barely dry in time to go to the dr appt. Amber was screaming that her ears hurt all through that and while getting her prescription filled-then she spit up her medicine-i really hate forcing it down her-then she gags and throws it up. But I seriously had to about sit on the kid to get her eardrops in and her medicine down-so sad. I was about to cry when my mom called. It's funny how you completely lose it when you hear that voice. At least by the time joe got home i had two asleep. Then I went to the rescheduled conference with whitney's teacher where her praises were sung about what a smart kid she is..with that little break and positive news, I was feeling a bit of energy come back. It had seriously been a day where i wanted to just let someone else do my job. I am so glad today is different-at least so far. The joys of motherhood and i wouldn't have it any other way-it is such a great blessing to be one-even if every day was like yesterday.

March Madness

Sorry if you are totally bored by this post, I apologize in advance if you find yourself rolling your eyes- but hey, maybe you will find yourself watching bball the next few weeks when you sit and fold your laundry.
Okay so i am one of those that really love this competition. I have to start off with saying that i didn't always like it-or really even knew it existed until my roommate in college introduced me to her love of Duke basketball. I am competitive by nature and so i enjoy when a game goes into Overtime-which I think happens more frequently in this competition than others. I do have my favorite colleges that i root for every year if they are in: Gonzaga, Wakeforest, Villanova-which most times happen to be the underdogs- I like a good upset too, which happens alot too. YOU never know what will happen in this tournament-its so unpredictable sometimes. With that being said my final four picks are these teams: Texas, Duke, North Carolina, Kansas. with Kansas winning. I don't have any #3 #4 ranked teams in the final four-usually i have at least one but not this time-so we'll see how it goes. And no, I don't enter into any competition to see who does better but I do compare my bracket to joe's. He has won nearly every year we do this. But well see who comes out victorious this year. And I dedicate this post to angie-you aren't alone in posting about college basketball!!!

summer and issues with the economy.

Well I really feel like summer has hit my house-even though the weather would say otherwise. I guess I am just thinking that because we are already planning summer trips and whitney's birthday and hoping that we will get to do some house shopping soon. We have had showings on our house this last week-so I hope to hear good news soon-we've had one offer that was too low-we would have lost $15,000 on the house in taking it....no thankyou. I guess I am just really frustrated with not the market right now-but the people shopping in it....it's not like our house is a foreclosure and you can expect to clean house on us..literally. I am really tired of dropping interest rates-stimulus packages, sale prices are already low-c'mon people just buy a house. It's the people putting each other in debt these days-not the people in office. Ofcourse as country we are in debt to other countries. Lets just take care of our own and turn the economy back to what it once was-pay off your debt, save/invest your money and live within your means-and buy american made stuff. Lets build up america's economy-since when did we have to be reliant on other countries?? Okay I have officially stepped off my soap box. I am a much calmer person now that i have vented-all for the purpose of wanting to live in more than 900 sq. feet with my family of 5. And I am a total hypocrite because i own a a foreign vehicle and will probably purchase another when next i buy one.

Baby name tag

Well I got tagged to share how my kiddos received their names..

Whitney Mikaela: Joe and I couldn't agree on any names except for these two...and two weeks before she was born I found out that my friend Jennifer named one of her twins Whitney Kay-But I was still going to name her what I wanted to no matter how close it was to someone elses.-and I did have it picked out prior to finding out-just in case anyone was interested. We also each have cousins named whitney and mikaela- Her name means: White Island Like God.

Amber Joy: So again we couldn't decide on a name so when we got ready to go to the hospital I wrote down four names that I liked and handed it to joe telling him he could pick from them :
Megan, Amber, Heather, Bridgette(brett for short). She kind of named herself since she was born with Red hair we figured she had to be amber. Joy is my grandmother's maiden name and also Joe's sisters middle name too. Her name means : Jubilant (Red/Golden) Gem.

Brooke Naomi: We always had a list of "B" names that we liked-we made up the list when we were engaged thinking it would be fun to name all of our kids with the letter B-but obviously it never happened. When we found out we were having another girl-we immediately liked Brooke from that list (others were girls: Bridgette, Brett, Brienna (Brie) boys: Braxton, Braedon) After we decided on Brooke I went in search of a middle name that sounded good with it and when I came across Naomi-it just had a nice ring to it. Her names means Beautiful Stream.

Bragging time-

I just thought I would dedicate a blog bragging about my kids. Yes I am going to do it. And here are the main reasons: while I don't think my kids are smarter than say your kids-I still think they are smart and deserve praise now and then...plus they have been driving me crazy lately so I thought if not for anything else it would remind me exactly how special they are. So I thought I would write the top 3 things that come to mind about each;

Whitney:
1. Okay she really is smart, I can't help it. She can already read and is really good at math. She loves to learn and is always so inquisitive.
2. She gets dissapointed with herself when she does something wrong. She got her card turned in class the other day for talking out of turn and she about cried the rest of the day she felt so bad about what she did. It's really heartbreaking but I know she learned her lesson.
3. She is a great help at home and grabs those wipes for mommy when i need her to.

Amber
1. She is potty trained-yes you knew this already-but we've gone almost two weeks without pullups during bed time. No bed wetting accidents to date-and no more buying 2 sizes of diapers..yippee.. I am very proud of her.
2.She is always good for laugh-I mean she is a total showoff-loves to be in the spotlight and it's hysterical really how she acts around guests. The missionaries got a little red in the face when she asked them for kisses-as she loves giving them. And for some odd reason she calls all boys "MIKE"-all I can think of is that she has a boy cousin named michael and and uncle mike so she thinks the word for boy-is mike???
3.I know this one will sound very vain-but she really does have the most gorgeous hair..Its so thick-never tangles and the color is like a shiny penny when in the sunlight.

Brooke
1. She looks equally like both of her sisters so no matter which one we are with I don't have to worry about people asking me whether they are related to each other.
2. She is a very good nurser-which really saves us money from having to buy formula.
3. She almost sleeps through the night-just wakes up once.

IN the Motherhood

I was watching a few of these short episodes and thought how funny they were and wanted to share. In The Motherhood, where moms can share and discuss their experiences.
http://inthemotherhood.msn.com/

I love that they are all based on real stories from other moms- anyway I had a good laugh.

I am so thrilled

So really late tonight-my friend Rebecca from Meridian is going to be falling upon us with her family in tow. I am so excited-I've known here for almost five years now and we've kind of moved next to then away from each other these last few years. She is going to an opera up here that her voice teacher will be performing in. They will probably stay through sunday before heading back and so I hope the weather is warm enough for us to take the kiddos to the park while we catch up on things. I joke to my mom that she and i are similar to her and lynette when we get together. Our poor husbands won't know what to do with themselves-Rebecca and I can talk forever if given the opportunity to.

What marriage is all about....

I helped my mom set up her own blog over the weekend and she wanted to post this picture on her website...it is my parents' engagement picture...I know it's so cute to see your parents when they were that young. I was just thinking about what a handsome couple they are and that they've been married for over 30 years now. I am so glad that through all of the obstacles they have faced, they held fast to eachother where they could have easily been persuaded to go down the big D road. And if you do know my parents you know how stubborn both are in their own ways. But I think it's that determination to be loyal and faithful to one another that has kept them going through the years-especially when it wasn't easy. So thanks mom and dad for being a great example of a couple who works on their marriage. Because we all have to work to make it work.