Moving Sucks.

That wasn't a very positive title was it?

Well it's true folks. Nothing about moving is fun except for the fact that you are hopefully gaining more or better space.

Even that doesn't make all this work seem like it's worth it. It really is the epitome of suck.

Alas, we are busting out of the seams of our current house. Yes. Busting out, I say. Just picture a house bulging out and being held together by a single nail with a little bead of sweat coming down it's head from all the pressure building. That makes me giggle. We really do just have entirely too much junk: toys, paper, holiday decorations, nick-knacks, children's books, fat and skinny clothes, just STUFF.

I should just throw it all away....but alas my hoardish / cheap ways come into full swing because most of that stuff we just "might NEED" someday.

Whatever. It's totally true. Then I will laugh crazily as I make my Belgian waffles and stare at my 50 or so empty picture frames that have yet to be hung 5 years later...since that requires I actually print pictures every few years.

Anyways, we have found our dream house. It's gorgeous. It's big. More importantly, it's perfectly painted so that I will never have to paint again. Now that they've accepted the offer (and on the off chance they read this award-winning multi-reader blog) I can tell you how much we adore it.

We adore it. Alot.

That means the most horrific awful absolutely dreadful thing must happen....we have to put our current house on the market. Yuck. I do adore my quaint little house. It's actually not that small but it sure does seem like it when you add a bossy little two year old and every one of her purses. So, we got a realtor who we really like....and we agreed to a price (that should be spot on since the other real Realtors we interviewed and one skeezeball of a realtor all said the same). After that, they gave us a few tips, and we spent the next 48 hours going non-stop cleaning, decluttering, painting, fixing, repairing, mowing, more decluttering, even more cleaning, and more painting.

First of all, can I just apologize to every person who has ever been to my house in the last three years? I have never realized how horrifying it was...I mean I never even realized how disgusting it was!? I guess you just never realize how filthy your house is until you take a magnifying glass to it. Yeck. We did though...we cleaned a LOT and then we decluttered and moved all the "extra" to the garage. It's pitiful to see that this is just our extra and we can barely fit it in the garage. We then went on to paint walls, baseboards, and doors and repair anything that needs it. Then we had to repaint everything after we stupidly told the kids not to touch the walls...which led to every single one of them touching the walls. Psh. Rookie mistake.

****Of course if you are reading this and would like to buy our beautiful house let me tell you I exaggerate so much, I mean really this house is gorgeous and smells like a rainbow after rain...with a touch of unicorn and poppy to it. I am in awe of how absolutely perfect this house is and really you should buy it. Now. Today preferably.****

Because if I have to tell six little grubby hands to keep off the walls one more time I might just lose it people. Keeping a show in home condition with a 2, 4, and 6 year old is probably the worst job in the entire universe. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that I want it perfect...because I want that sucker gone. I mean it can't get any worse, that's for sure. I even have to make my bed. No, like every single day! What!?

I'm already over the whole silly thing. We need to sell this thing tomorrow because I can only smash a days worth of laundry in our hamper...which that means I have to do laundry, like every single day.

Luckily our new almost-home is just about 4 blocks away so when we do finally sell our current home, we can just have the kids move all our junk on their bikes. Yay for having three kids to do your heavy lifting!

God is good all the time.

As I said we have been behind on all the going-on's that have taken place these past few months.

I sort of feel like we have been hibernating in our hole for three months and are just now peeking our head out into the sunlight again.

Oh, hello world. You kept spinning? That was rather unthoughtful of you.

Well during that time in our little hidey-hole we have had an unexpectedly early Adoption Finalization, a great quiet Christmas, Lil'Dude's birthday, Lil'Miss got baptized, and I have gained back 10 pounds.

I will try to go through each fantastic happening in as few words as possible (oh stop laughing you bunch of smartelics loyal readers).

First off - we had family pictures done! They turned out gorgeous despite 4 out of 5 of us being very very crabby that day. Next time I will not schedule so much the weekend of family photos. It was just shy of torture and we all left mad at each other. Poor photographer. She worked her magic though because there were some great ones. Amazing with five people, three of which are 5 and under. I really really adore the tea set one. Come on, how awesome is my kid? Thank you Christine Atkins Photography!

 Finalization was...Amazing, Emotional, a Circus.....we got a call that we could finalize by the end of 2012 in order to help some families receive the adoption tax credit (it was set to expire and no guarantee that it would be extended, which we now know it was). We went to the courthouse, waited a long while, then finalized along with about 10 other families. It was awesome, the boys got to hit the gavel, and each got their own teddy bear. The judge then asked if they wanted a sister and they both whispered yes...when asked if they would share their toys there was silence. Then two begrudging..."okays" could be heard. Quite hilarious!

On the way out, Lil'Guy had already left so Lil'Dude grabbed two teddies, then Lil'Guy turned around and saw Lil'Dude's TWO teddies so he went and grabbed two teddies. I grabbed one teddy from Lil'Dude, who screamed because he wanted the other teddy, then did the same with Lil'Guy, who also cried because he thought Lil'Dude got two. Whew. Yes....it was like I was going around and around with two little heathens while the entire courthouse roared in laughter as it was much like a circus full of tiny clowns. Never a dull moment folks.

Lil'Dude was enamored with the judge.

Lil'Dude banging the gavel.

Lil'Guy banging the gavel.

 Christmas was great...it was quiet, we didn't go back to KS this year, but the grandparents came to our house to spoil the kids completely. We were going through some tough transition phases at that point so we kept close to the house. It was a wonderful, and a little hard, but I'm so glad we decided to do that. For us, staying quiet and at home and getting a good routine has been huge on our ability to attach properly. It has made a huge difference and we still try to keep it quiet when we feel ourselves becoming overwhelmed. Oh. OH! It snowed!!! Can you believe it? Snow in Texas on Christmas?! Crazy! Lil'Dude even predicted it the week before. The kids adored it...well...so Lil'Miss not so much with the cold wet stuff, but she did love drinking the hot chocolate.

They also got to meet Santa earlier in the month. Yay for us it was a creepy Santa that obviously couldn't close his legs and lost his hair. Lil'Dude was NOT happy that the jerk kept holding his hands down too. Come on dude, the kid isn't 6 months old.


Crappiest $20 photo ever.



Lil'Dude turned 6 in January and the same weekend we went to KS for Ella's baptism! It was a crazy busy weekend and Lil'Dude got to go bowling and ride go karts. The next day, we had a big party with tons of chili and Ninjago Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cakes surrounded by all our family in Kansas that it had been so long since we had seen. Sorry, I heart run-on sentences apparently. I can't believe my little big man is 6. Two hands to show your age people. TWO HANDS!!

Best Ice Cream Cake ever. Love my hometown DQ.

Look! I need two hands!

 

Lil'Dude on the Go Karts

 

 Ella was baptized on the same gorgeous day as Lil'Dude's party. She thought that was the coolest thing ever only because she got to where her a pretty dress and twirl around like a princess. We did a double baptism with my adorable nephew (and Brewerman's Godson), Bestbabyever since we were all each other's Godparents. Bestbabyever's dad was Ella's Godfather, my sis-in-law Danananner was both child's Godmother, and Brewerman was my nephew's Godfather. Whew. Did you get all that? 

Lil'Miss was gorgeous, and giggly, and she did amazing baptism and at the party after. She wasn't nervous or anxious. It was the first time she really came out of her shell for strangers and it made my heart soar. Christmas at home and not visiting KS was hard, but it was so great knowing our hard work paid off and she was able to enjoy herself. She was beaming most of the day....seriously folks God is so real and shining through her. I don't like to get really emotional or too corny on here but man there are times I look at her and it amazes me how God works. I imagine a little party in heaven was had that day as Jesus welcomed her into his church. This day was really really special for me, and meant so much to me that people came to celebrate with us.

The whole gang.



In her "Pretty Dress" that she refused to take off.



Gorgeous? Yes.



  

My heart.

  

God is so good.



 

Five hungry people squeezing in to church clothes = this.



Lil'Guy & the Ultimate TMNT Obsession

This blog isn't for you.

I know.

Rude.

Sorry about that (kind of).

This blog is for me. Well, really it's for future can't-remember-sh...er...anything me. It's for the day that my youngest son is finally taller than I am. It's for the first time (yes I'm assuming there will be more than one) I get a call from school about my youngest smart mouth son and some sort of fight happening. It's for when he stays out too late and finds me waiting up for him, ready to lay into him. It's also for that time when he walks off for that first date with the girl that just isn't ever going to be good enough for him.

This blog is about my favorite 4 year old in the universe right now...Lil'Guy...or should I say Teenage Mutant Ninja Lil'Guy.

This dude is obsessed you guys. For real. No, seriously. He is totally off the wall with Ninja Turtles. Have I dated myself enough with these references born in 2002? No? Well my Lil'Guy seriously thinks Ninja Turtles are all that and a bag of chips. They are, in his eyes, da bomb diggity.

I love it.

He has every toy (literally) made this year. He has paraphernalia everywhere. He has a TMNT lava lamp. He carries a weapon from one of them every second that he isn't at school or church. He wears a mask every chance he gets. He would watch the movies 24 / 7 if he didn't have an older brother that is so over TMNT.



Leonardo with his Leonardo Go Kart riding for big brothers birthday.
Yes he did coordinate that car with his mask.



He bawled his eyes out when I suggested turning one of his cheaper / crappier Ninja Turtle action figure toys into a Christmas ornament (after not finding any that year in any stores).

Oh the horror.

He then bawled his eyes out again when his new $20 ornament (that I special ordered from Amazon thankyouverymuch) came in and he had to put it on the tree instead of hoarding it with his others in his TMNT laundry bag.

Sorry Lil'Guy. Not feeling sorry for you at all.
I paid $7 in shipping alone. The ornament stays on the tree. Forever. 

Every week he tries to find a reference for that week's letter to TMNT so he can bring his TMNT toys to show and tell. This week was "I", finally feeling sorry for him I gave him the suggestions of "intelligent" for Donatello. Then we figured out Iron Man and thought it was more appropriate so he sulkily agreed to take that instead (he had brought Donatello 40 times already for show and tell...don't feel too sorry for him). Speaking of figures...he always artfully takes the four ninja turtles and arranges them each day where they are together in a pack. Most days we find them on the coffee table like this:

TMNT Kumbaya.

Which, yes, means most days Lil'Dude's greatest joy in life is when he knocks them all down and hears his brother whine and cry then they usually end in some kind of tumble. Usually it's this time that Lil'Miss gleefully picks up said figures and finally gets to play with them while Lil'Guy is otherwise engaged. Our house is like the best circus show ever. Brewerman and I just sit on the couch with popcorn and pop in whenever there is a high probability of blood.

Back to turtles:

Lil'Guy calls his red bike his Raphael bike. Yes, we normally force the child to wear a helmet, but he snuck off this time without us noticing until halfway through the bike ride. Come on. We have like 4,000 kids now, give us a break.

It's a bird! It's a plane!
No! It's...Michelangelo on Raphael's bike?

He calls the blue cups in our house Leonardo cups. Much to the delight of his K-State obsessed Aunt and Uncle he loves K-State because of Donatello. It's the Donatello Football Team.

Leonardo Santa ready to pass out gifts.

My Lil'Guy would probably pass out if he ever actually met the Ninja Turtles. He gets upset when there isn't a new cartoon out that week. In order to watch the cartoons, he has to pause it so he can go get his weapons and mask on. He would put the whole costume but it's getting a little tight so luckily Nana got him a jacket he can wear instead. After the cartoon is over, during the theme song, he is bouncing around the living room doing some kicking ninja moves.

When new friends come over, if he really likes you, you will get assigned as a Ninja Turtle. Much to my good friends daughter, Myamsoawesome chagrin, if you are a girl, you do not get to be assigned to one. Sorry folks but there are no girl ninja turtles. This is not negotiable people. If you are assigned a ninja turtle for the day, you will get a mask and weapon...unless he happens to want both weapons which in case you get a crappy version of that weapon while he keeps the real one.

No as a matter of fact, he WASN'T happy to be wearing the wrong colored mask / weapon combo.
We were running late, there were threats. We settled on Michelangelo.

A word of caution: if you are assigned a ninja turtle...and you take off that mask and do not want to be one any more. You will then become mortal enemies. Poor little Jo-ulk. Luckily he's too busy quieting his inner-really-really-angry person to care too much about what Lil'Dude thinks. They WILL be BFF's one day though. Vanerellian and I will see to that.

I have never seen this child-like obsession from a child of mine. Lil'Dude gets "into" things, but not like this. Not anywhere near this. Lil'Guy is so obsessed with TMNT it's hilarious.

Most of all, what is the most hilarious, is that when my Brewerman wanted babies he wanted two things: a kid who likes baseball (Lil'Dude), and a kid who liked TMNT (Lil'Guy). God delivered.

What? It's 70 degrees? Who cares.
Go ahead...ask me to take it off.

Pretty freaking awesome people.

One day we will have to retire those masks and action figures. Like Brewerman's mom did when he was 17 and it was getting awkward. I will put away those TMNT action figures in a box once he finally stops playing with them in high school and remember them forever as a piece of my son's childhood. Then he will pry them from my cold hands if he EVER thinks I'm giving them back to him, even as an adult. Unless my grand babies like them. Oy vey. Grand babies.

Did I mention I'm going to be 30 this year? Yech.