Post pics please!!!

Try to look at this pic and not say "Ahhhh" go ahead I dare ya.  :0)

OK now try to look at this one and not smile.  I can hear her squeal when I look at this one. 

Addison "helped" Papaw play pool while Anthony was at the hospital.

My brave boy heading into surgery. I adore this pic. He was a hit in surgery prep.

Showing off his name on the board. (Bottom in blue)

Anthony and his monkey Grandma got for him. The sweet nurse put an armboard on the monkey like Anthony had to make him less nervous about it. 

Anthony felt so safe with his Superman cape above him and Ironman below to protect him from unwanted guests in the room.

It was all worth it!  Papaw Gee got me a Buzz lightyear!!!  To infinity and BEYOND!

Addison enjoyed having Grandma show her how to dress up and perform.  She is singing into a plastic shelf leg.

The Addison and Victoria show!!  No applause just throw money!

Anthony finally got a Superman.  It helps to have a Grandma that is personal friends with the man that owns Horner Novelty.  Check out that face.  "I can't believe it! Superman in the flesh, well plastic"

Something else you can do with an Easter egg after Easter.

I don't care who you are that's funny!

Here are some funny things that have been mentioned in the past week or so to make you smile. 

-Addison wanted to go potty and the neat little toilet seat I blogged about earlier with the adult seat and toddler seat didn't have the toddler seat sat down.  I placed Addison on the toilet and her butt went down and her legs went up.  She looked at me and said "TOO BIG MOMMY!! IM FREAKING OUT!"

-Anthony wanted to snuggle after his nap today.  I was in the process of making dinner (which by the way I am running out of ideas on soft food for Anthony, any ideas?) and he and Addison were hanging out on the couch.  They hugged and gave each other a kiss and were holding hands for a bit.  I turned to Addison and asked her "You want to snuggle Anthony for mommy?"  She turned to me in the kitchen, flipped her bangs out of her face and said "We don't snuggle." 

-Anthony loves his guitar.  He has to have on his sunglasses and sing as loud as he can "Wiggle Party"
I apologize you will have that song stuck in your head for DAYS!!  It is Anthony's favorite.  Anyway back to my point my mother found a ukulele that my dad is going to put strings on so that Anthony can have a "tar" (guitar) like "Papaw Gee" (Papaw Jerry) He will be beside himself!

Back to normal but better

Ok things have started to slow down a bit.  Anthony sailed through his surgery.  They know how to make a mom nervous by giving you all of the "just in case" info before taking him in.  They told me not to be alarmed if they take him to ICU and has oxygen.  They said that he is high risk going into surgery due to his history of colic, sleep apnea, and size of his tonsils.  I was doing some hard praying.  He did amazing!  He was admitted just so that he could be under observation but he didn't even need a tube in his ear.  I will post pics on here tomorrow hopefully.  I just wanted to let everyone know that we are home and he is doing well.  I actually leaned over his bed last night because I was alarmed I couldn't hear him breathe.  Usually you could hear him at the other end of the house like he was right next to you.  His snoring due to his airway being blocked was horrible now he is such a sound sleeper.  He is more rested and hasn't complained about eating soft food yet.  The kid likes his popsicles.  :)

The job is a no go.  The HR called and was as sweet as could be and they told me that they would like to keep me in mind for future positions that may come up.  I am totally fine with it.  I went into it with the resolve to do the best that I could and be fine either way.  Something else down the road might have my name on it, but for right now I am suppose to be home.  Thanks for the prayers this week.  Glad to have everyone home safe and healthy.

She works hard for the money?

Today I had my first interview that I have had in about 6 years.  A job opening came up at church for the Paid Childcare Coordinator.  Responsibilities would be to handle all things that come with childcare for special events in the church outside of regular service times (i.e. bible study, support groups, conferences).  I did my best at the interview and hope for the best.  More to follow.  They hope to reach a decision by the end of the week.

Spiritual gifts

In our last team leader meeting we took a test to see what our spiritual gifts were.   Creative Communications, Craftsmanship, Hospitality, and Faith.  Looks like I am serving in the right place.  I didn't think that I would discover one of my children's spiritual gifts at 2 1/2.  James has been complaining of a headache all day today.  While at the dinner table eating our Taco Bell taco bar, or the "here make it yourself" bar as we call it at our house, James said something about it again.  Addison stopped eating.  Put her hands together and bowed her head (prayed) for a second real quiet and looked up at James and said "Daddy you be better!"  Spiritual gift of prayer maybe??

Tantrums

Oh how my youngest daughter has perfected her art.  The last few days with Miss Addison Marie have been quite a challenge.  She goes from sweet smiling to full blown fist swinging, leg kicking tantrum in .8 seconds.  Tuesday mom came over to eat with us and she started in.  I ended up putting her to bed and she removed her diaper.  I put diaper back on with the assistance of a little duck tape. She removed duck tape and wrapped it very tightly around the rail of her bed and was dancing around naked with two halves of a plastic Easter eggs strategically placed over her nipples.  Oh how cute! (please don't forget the sarcastic tone)  I then tapped her little bottom, put yet another diaper on her, duck taped it, and placed her in a zip up sleeper with arms and legs cut out backwards so she couldn't get out.  Boy this really ticked her off!  She screamed for an hour and a half solid.  Mom and I took the other kids outside and played a bit and let her scream it out (or I was going to myself).  Any advice here?  This is happening daily now.

Oh...my....gotsh.....

Huge milestone in the Craig home today.  Late Mother's day present maybe?  Bath water was ready and I was corralling children for bath time.  I asked Addison if she would like to pee on the potty before bath time.  She said yes and headed over bare butt to the toilet.  (Side note:  Walmart has a toilet seat with two seats, one adult one toddler.  Worth the money)  She hiked her little bootie up on the stool and waited.  Ok forgive the details but I saw it coming and I held my breath in anticipation, I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  Yes she was doing a #2!  (Insert tiny little splash)  Addison says looking down into the toilet, "Oh....my.....gotch......I JUST POOP IN POTTY!!!"  She was so proud of herself!  She danced and pranced and we immediately called Daddy.  "Daddy I poop in potty" and then peed all over the towel she was sitting on.  Many "Poop in potty" calls were made today.  Very proud of my girl. We have tried panties twice today, both ended up wet.  But we are still trying.  She got her stickers, her poop in potty crown that Victoria loaned her from her room and got a piece of celebratory peanut butter pie. 

First hosted dinner a huge success!

What an incredible day.  I will leave out the part that Anthony threw up on my within 20 minutes of me waking up this morn, wait I guess I didn't leave that out did I?  Happy Mother's Day to me. :)  Got up and started on the prep for the dinner, lots to do.  James was such a big help in the kitchen.  I probably couldn't have pulled it off without him.  We had quite a spread of food and a card table set up in the living room for the "kid table".  Ten total in my house eating.  I thought someone would end up eating in the bathtub.  It was comfortably snug but we all fit.

Everyone enjoyed the food and I believe mom wanted to check me for a temp because of how good everything tasted.  ("Is this my daughter?") I tried my hand at homemade stuffing for my turkey.  OH MY GOODNESS!  I didn't think I could top my sister's stuffing.  I would have to say that hers is some of the best stuffing I have had but I did pretty darn good for a first try.   I was a bit disappointed in my peanut butter pie. The recipe called for over night in the fridge but it still hadn't set up.  Good thing I had a coconut backup.  It was gone in 60 seconds!  We had a great time and I was surprised by the girls with roses from Papaw's rose bush.  Check these out! 

Aren't they amazing?

James also brought me a Guzmania that is beautiful too just haven't gotten a pic yet.  I do have to say my FAVORITE gift he gave me on Mother's Day is....

Love you honey!  I know you would rather buy a stove or flowers than do dishes.  I appreciate the sacrifice along with the gifts.  ;)

The night ended with an episode of Bill Cosby with my little ones attacking me with snuggles on the couch.  What an incredible day!  I loved my first "official Mother's day" but I have to say that getting to hear your kids say "Hap Moder's Ay!"  grinning from ear to ear is a pretty amazing feeling, even if they just threw up on you in your bed. :) Forgot to mention that part didn't I?

Mother's Day Preparation

Everyone in the house is asleep and I am just not ready for bed.  So many thoughts running through my head about how blessed I am.  How is it that a young girl that has lived such a life as I have could be sitting in a house with a loving husband snoring away in the bedroom, a curly head little girl that adores me sleeping away (probably snoring too) and two little ones in bed (one sucking his thumb and one passed with arms and legs spread across the bed that think I hung the moon?  One word...God.  Just so humbled.  I don't deserve any of this, yet he chose to bless me in this way.  How could I be loved this much? Things aren't always perfect, some days I want to crawl in a hole but that is part of being a mom.  Picking ourselves up and brushing the dust off and giving it one more try over and over and over.

Friday was the Kindergarten Mother's Day Tea.  Victoria had been driving me nuts with it for about a month.  She was so wound up and worried about what she was going to wear, the "surprises" that they were going to give us, and just generally looked like she was going to spontaneously combust at any given moment.  Well it finally came.  Things worked out great and my sister was driving the bus for a field trip to the zoo and mom wanted to take the kids.  Mom picked up A&A in the morning and I took off down the hill to Victoria's school.  Victoria's class was lined up along the hallway waiting for us mom's to be let into the hallway.  They were all grinning from ear to ear.  All in nice church clothes, some of the boys were even wearing ties.  They handed each of us a rose and led us by the hand to the classroom where they had the room decorated.  One large table with punch and cookies and the round tables that they use for desks were covered in their art projects.  This included handmade cards, placemat, colored pictures, chore flower, and sweet poems.  I was a near sobbing before the program even started.  Mrs. O the teachers assistant had to bring me a Kleenex.  All of the kids were so well behaved.  They sat in their chairs in the front of the room.  They sang "I'm a little teapot" recited poems and sang some songs about mom's that had all of us teary eyed.  Victoria was on her best behavior and told me that she was going to get my cookies first.  She came back with a plate with two cookies on it and then went back to get her three cookies.  :)  She presented me with my potted flower that I will post pics of soon.  There is an insert in the pot where she colored a picture.  I told her that I loved her coloring but asked what it was.  (Keep in mind that I had just dried up my tears)  She told me that they were hot air balloons.  "Mom remember when just you and me went to see the hot air balloons go up in the air?"  She was talking about the date that we went on at IUS for Harvest Homecoming.  Made me tear up all over again.  I had forgotten about that day, her little sweetheart hadn't.  Darn, I love that kid!

After the program I high tailed it to the zoo.  I met up with my crew and we had a ball at the zoo.  We got to see the "turdies" swimming in the pond with the ducks.  "Turdies", you know that green things with the shell?  Yep that is what Anthony calls turdies.  We stopped in the gift shop on the way out.  We battled about 20 buses of school age kids getting their last minutes souvenirs and headed out.  We left the gate and I looked down at Anthony to see him playing with a decent sized stuffed gorilla.......that we didn't pay for.  "Oh my goodness Anthony you can't take that!"  I ran back to the gift store and gave the gorilla back to the laughing cashier and headed back to the car.  Oh my sticky fingered son.  He tells me all of the time "My hands are gicky!" so that I will pull the chair up to the sink and let him wash his hands.  I guess his hands are a bit "gickier" than I thought.  :)

New "nove", cancelled appointment, and dinosaurs

A bit disappointed that I missed Bible study again today but Best Buy called at 7:30 this morning to tell me that they would be delivering my stove today.  It was right in the middle of the morning so looked like I would be staying home.  I popped a bagel in the toaster for my hungry little ones and there was knock at the door.  My stove was here.  There is much excitement around her during  garbage truck day (tomorrow) but this was WAY more exciting.  A big truck pulled up to our house and immediately got Anthony's attention.  The two men walked in the door and had on Best Buy shirts (Anthony is well aware that this is Daddy's fav store) and drug off our old stove right in front of Anthony and Addison (still waiting on their bagel).  Anthony kept yelling "Our nove!  Our nove!"  Addison just looked over her shoulder as they were walking out calm and dry as she can said "Our stove went bye bye".  Then it happened, they walked back in our house with a brand new "Back (black) nove! Oh Man!" Anthony said while shaking his head yes in complete approval.  The two men got a real kick out of it.

Our day today was suppose to be Bible study then off to meet up with Maw maw so that I could meet James to meet up with our lawyer a meeting. (wish I could fit the word meet in there one more time) James was stuck at Ford at the dock and couldn't make it, but mom came anyway.  It had been a while since we had just hung out with no big plans.  My schedule is crazy these days with appointments for church, supervised visits, counseling I haven't had much time to just enjoy a day without some thing that I HAD to do.  We hung out around the house and cooked on my new stove.  Actually we heated up on my new stove mom's leftover Bunco food from the night before.  Very exciting and odd to be so excited about appliances.  I must be getting old.

I got mom hooked on Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook.  She sat for about an hour and a half playing while we waited for Victoria to get off of the bus.  We rushed Victoria to the house to change her clothes.  I told her to put on the pink shorts that I laid out on her bed.  Well I had totally forgot that mom had brought a princess dress that my sister found at a yard sale over and we laid it out on her bed too.  Victoria half listened to me as I said "Go in the house and put on your pink......(officially tuned me out)"  Yep we all waited in the car Anthony and Addison strapped in the their car seats, mom and I in the front seat waiting and waiting and waiting.  Then yep you guessed it she walked out on my steps with her princess dress and tennis shoes.  She looked so darn funny.  She was grinning from ear to ear like we were about to take her to Cinderella's castle.  We were really going to the zoo.  After a bit of assistance we were properly dressed and in the car. 

Victoria and I took in the Dinosaur exhibit.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Victoria was surprisingly a bit nervous.  She made sure that I was standing between the dino and her.  She did enjoy it and warmed up to the dinos when she saw them on the way back through.

We headed back home starving and heated the leftovers back up.  Addison finished the meal off by scooting the pan of baked beans over to her using the serving spoon as her own.  Mom and I were in such deep conversation that we didn't notice that she had pushed her plate away and helped herself to what was left of the beans.  We cracked up at her and Anthony decided that he could top that by grabbing the Tupperware of fried potatoes and the big serving spoon about the length of his arm and chow down. 

We had a blast today.  It was long overdue!  So long since I just kicked back and enjoyed life a bit and not worried about my messy closet, dishes on the table and came home to my new stove and 3 adorable kids.  Can I wake up to this day again tomorrow?  Please?