oh, did you notice??

Matthews tidy whiteys that he has on in the other post!! can we say FINALLY!!!!! flippin finally potty trained. My whole "not so gentle shove" into potty training totally didnt work a couple months back so i said forget it. Let me remind you that the day before he turned 3 i had him happily in underwear. Then i went to my moms for a week and Ben put him back in diapers. Well M didnt do so well that i left and he stuck to diapers like you wouldnt believe. It was very emotional and stressful to him. I think he associated no diaper to me leaving and as long as he had diapies i wasnt leaving. Poor fella :(. soo fast forward to now. When your almost 3 1/2 y/o is adjusting his own diaper to loosen or tighten for comfort, its time to ditch the diapers!LOL. so the big day was 12/26 and we gave him 2 days warning. Then on Christmas we told him that tomorrow there wont be any more diapers. So that morning he did AWESOME for about 2 hours and then had the tantrum of all tantrums. He screamed for some 30/40 minutes straight. non stop. at one point Ben was like, i should have never put the diapers back on him....... well, duh!!. so with the promise of some frosting and hiding the diapers in the car he finally asked for his underwear. :) - yes, he was naked while throwing this fit, lol. Plus side to the whole thing was there really was no training to it. He knew all the ins and outs. No accidents or anything. He does have to wear a diaper at night, but thats ok.

this and that

I cut Kaitlens hair today. I am sooooooo tired of waiting for her bangs to grow out. they grow like micro slooooooow. So i cut the back as short as i could (or was willing to go) to try and catch it up that way.

Matthew doing an one arm push-up. we were in the kitchen making dinner and he totally did one so i thought i HAVE got to get a pic. So i asked him to do one on the carpet but he really had no idea what i was talking about. I guess he was goofing off in the kitchen when he did that. Here his booty is up in the air.

Mom update

Our mom just got back from visiting over the holiday with our brother in NC. Her first night back she had horrible pain in her shoulder. Enough to call her onchologist at 3am. So she went in for an appt and they are going to start Chemo again. They will use a different chemo med this time and she shouldnt be so sick like last time and she might go everyother week instead of weekly. She had 4 months of chemo the first time around, weekly. then when the cancer came back she had 2 weeks of radiation, she just finished that up on 12/18 and now chemo again. I dont know how long she'll be doing this chemo. She sounded good on the phone. I was worried on Christmas because she didnt sound that great, but she had just woke up and later on that day when i talked to my brother, he was talking kinda worried too. so its really hard to tell how she is doing so far away. though i am irked at her Dr still. He told her he wants to wipe out all the cancer........ so in my moms mind he'll be wiping the cancer out. that just doesnt happen with this cancer or else after flippin 4 months of aggressive chemo it wouldnt have appeard back with tumors on the bones and brain with in 3 months, actually it was less than that but we didnt know until she had the scan but it was probably only 2 months later. yes, i want the dr to be hopeful but i dont like him lying.
My moms 60th birthday is on 2/1. She has some really great TRUE friends and i hope they give her a wonderful birthday.
ok, thats all for now

National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund

Officer Fatalities as of December 27, 2007

2007: 186 (preliminary)
2006: 145
Percent change: +28%

We get email updates from them and i just got this tonight. It is preliminary as we have a couple days left in '07.

christmas

making cookies for santa
can you see my little helper behind kaitlens disney nursery?

there she is. She did not want to go to sleep!!!!
here she is laying on her presents

feeding the baby her bottle

Abbies pigtails

Awwwwwww, i was going to do it on Christmas day but she was a bit of a grump, so i didnt dare touch her hair.

3rd anniversary

Of the tsunami. Around 230,000 people died that day. i remember we were at Betty's house and saw it on the news. It was unbelievable. So sad. i remember watching subsequent shows about the animals fleeing away from the shore. The knew what was going on while some humans were walking out to were there use to be water. Animals are amazing.

interesting and cool

Nano technology maybe Mimzy is right around the corner, huh?

Its Christmas Eve

Yea!!! I hope everyone has a great day today!!

Jessica Lundsford

She is the girl in the banner above. She was abducted from her home in Fl and horrible things done to her and eventually murdered... i believe buried alive. This young man will be running from coast to coast for Jessica and all children of abuse. This is a site worth looking at. I look forward to following him on his journey.

pulling Christmas stuff out

I was getting other stuff out for the tree (see im trying Alisha, LOL) and i came across two cloth christmas bags. I of course couldnt recycle them they were to cute and from Nana. This one was to Kaitlen. Only Betty called her Matilda (sometimes Emily her cousin did too) but now no one calls her Matilda. Kaitlens name is Kaitlen Marie-Matilda. Bill, Bens dad named her Matilda when i was pg with her and in the hospital we added it to her middle name. Bill had tumors in his brain and we found that out when i was 34 weeks pg with K. He lived till she was 2 weeks old. There werent to many words that he could actually speak but Matilda was one of them.

Happy Birthday Betty

We miss you so much. Ben has 10 days off and know doubt we would have spent them all with you. Ben would have made you your birthday dinner and we would of had Christmas together. Cody misses you terribly. The day you were killed changed my little boys life. He shouldnt of had to feel that pain.

New recipe

Go check it out.

santa pic

Here is the Santa pic.

( poor code and K were a little confused with us and the photographer going back and forth about take the pic... but shes not looking, so C and K are a little bit deer in the headlights.

I forgot to take pics of the girls dresses before they wore them. Abbie got candy cane on hers. I went with a present on the shirt instead of trying to make a candy cane. thankfully i know my limits. Im glad i went with the white shirt. I think it would have been to much green. i was going to do cream and gold, but then i started thinking how would i dress the boys. I was going to make a vest for Matthew but thankfully Ben couldnt find were he put it. It came when i was at my moms. Making the dresses was as much of a pain in the butt as it was a joy. They love them, i love them and people thought it was cute. The shirts were longer than they should have been so they will probably fit in them next yr, LOL. except for maybe the sleeves on there shirts but nothing a little trim couldnt cover.

Santa Claus

Codys class Christmas party today.Abbie was not a happy girl today. We had a busy day and it seems when ever she feel asleep we had to wake her.
The girl taking the santa pic was ticking me. Abbie was screaming and she wasnt taking the pic. Ben said just take the pic. She said but shes not looking. WTH?!?!?!?!?!? come on lady, do you think she is going to smile for the camera? This was the pic i took, i'll scan the one she took. Matthew decided to sit this on out. Weird, but thats ok. Oh and Santa knew Codys name and that he was in second grade. :) all is good with that.

Yea, for candy canes, but now her dress is dirty.

I might have been a bit bitchy

but geez.
We were at walmart the other night and it was crowded. We had to finish up gifts and i needed some things for the girls dresses. We'll i was enjoying myself. It was fun deciding who got what and should we get this or that. It seemed every corner we turned there was a grumpy gus. some isles were crowded that you had to go around to the other side and stuff like that. Well we went over to find a gift for Codys teacher and we had two shopping carts and i was moving to get closer to bens cart and a lady coming our way decide she was irritated to have to wait the nano second it took me to get to ben. So when i looked up to smile and let her know i knew she was there she had started to turn and had a nasty look on her face so i said loud enough for her to hear that if people could be more rude I dont know what i do. Just venting out loud. Well, she ended up turning back around and going passed us and petted one of the kids on the head. Ben said i made her feel bad. I think she needed it, dang. (not her feelings hurt, but to snap out of her grumpies) The trip ended with the most happiest cashier ever, LOL. We are pretty sure he was a guy, but he could have been a girl. But he was kind, joyful and sincere.

Abigail and kaitlen

On the way to pick up Thomas from the airport we stopped at a chinese place for dinner (it was gross. dont eat at the one in Siloam) Kaitlen decided to feed Abbie a noodle the fun way.

December 19th

Remember my whole "19th" thing. Well, I get a call today that mom put down Toby her Shitzu of 13 yrs. he'll be 14 in January. i think on the 6th. Abigail just loved him. He did need to be put down (a while ago) mom is doing fairly well about it.

Our 10 yr anniversay

Is in January!! hmmmm, how about a 1/2 karat princess cut anniversary band. uh-huh!!

ETA: I showed Ben the ring

Ben: but its not even our 10 yr anniversary

Me: yes it is

Ben: our 10 yr wedding anniversary?

Me: yes, 10 yrs.

Me: we've been together almost 11 yrs. Its our 10 yr anniversary.

Ben: it doesnt seem like its been 10 yrs.

poor fella, he was a little confused.

Merry Christmas

ok, when i try to post the jibjab thing itself it closes my internet exploreer. SO here is the link to watch it instead. Maybe in the AM it'll play nice for me.

Wedding

Me putting Tinas garter on before he wedding. Tina is that Nicole in the back??

Fishing

Me, Tina and Dad at Irvine Lake. Like my pink Converse :o)

Christmas play

The kids had their Christmas program at church tonight. It was good. Actually every yr is good. Like kids can do anything wrong. They are just to cute.

Here is abbie before we went up. Ben was in a horrible spot so he didnt get a pic of me, Matthew and Abbie on stage.

Kailten and Ethan. Its so cute. they have known each other since they were babies and they'll start school together and everything. So you'll see pics of Ethan through out Kaitlens life.

Cody V
awww, my little girl.

Matthew was so quit on Santas lap, he just couldnt wait to get his bag of candy.

Ok, Cody is on a quest. No to prove that there is no Santa, but to believe there is a Santa. He has informed us that the Santa at Daddies Christmas Party was fake because he could see the elastic holding on the beard and that he asked Cody what his name is.......... whoops, Santa knows your name, or is supose to, LOL. So i told him we'll tell Santa that his "Helpers" are not doing a good job. So tonight he had a plan i didnt know about. He ASKED Santa if he knew his name. So Santa 2 failed the test. So mall Santa, the real Santa, the one with the real beard will know Codys name :) and will pass the test.

For Ashley

You jinxed it. You asked Matthew if he gotten a hold of anymore scissors the other night....... wellllllll, yesterday he got a hold of kaitlens safety scissors and cut his hair. See the bald spot. It looks worse in the picture than in real life.

Can't believe i forgot

to write about Matthew getting all giddy over daddy's gun. ( Matthew loves guns, I know, what a shock. You would never have thought it with that child ;) )When we got to the Christmas party Matthew was on Ben's right side and being 3 his eyes are the perfect height to see it. Matthew says."YOU GOT A GUUUUUNNNNNNNNNN" (the look on his face and the tone in his voice was priceless) and went on and on from there. I swear he was going to try and grab it from Daddy's holster. Thankfully it became a distant memory once he got his Hot wheel from Santa. Boys and there toys.

My nephews

Alex(with Diva) Brandon(with Diesel)

Im confused

I thought hormones came when you are a teen, you know the whole puberty thing. Tell me why my 5 y/o is on an emotional roller coaster like she is PMSing. I swear you say something to her and she starts bawling!!! Lord help me when it's the real thing.

ummmmmmm

There is only 10 days left until Christmas!!!!

I don't have a lot left to do, but at the same time it feels like I have a ton of stuff to do.

oh, hey!

Ben is testing for a Lt position that is open at the PD. I think 5 people are testing. It'll be interesting how it plays out. Wish him luck!!

i had a little bit of Deja vu on this post, LOL. i only think one person will know what i mean.

Christmas party/ award ceremony

Ben had to work so he was in uniform. We meet him there. The kids cleaned up nicely and were well behaved.

Ben going up to receive his award from the Director. It was Meritorious Service award for preventing a hostage situation with a suicidal person.

My handsome hunk of a hot husband :o)

Oh, Abbie was very unsure of her Daddy in his uniform. Any other time she has seen him has been when we drive up and he gives them kisses in the car. So she never got the full look at him in uniform. Hmmm, a girl who doesnt like a man in uniform.

more pics

i could be repeating some, not sure

Abbie in matthews old baby carseat to make my life easier when we traveled.

The Abinator

ok, poor Abbie. The only gifts of hers that we have actually gotten for her are the Mimzy and Legos. I hope the pink stuff isnt hard to find.

Matthews gifts

He is done except SS'ers

Kaitlen christmas gifts

just need stocking suffers and a helmet here too.

Codys xmas gifts

We need to get Code a new helmet. He has such a large head that he wears an adult size. Plus stocking stuffers then done with him

Thomas Christmas Gifts

we just need to get the ipod speakers and stocking stuffers for him. I dont know what the facination is but he likes the James Frey books so he got both of them. He will read books over and over and over again