goodbye January!

We're finishing the month off with another big snow! No ice, thankfully, and i was already scheduled off...so YAY! We're entertaining ourselves with movies, cooking, and the neverending game of baseball!



Yes, it's a carrot bat (from last year's Easter) and yes, she taps her shoes with it before she hits...like Albert. Too much sports TV in this house FOR SURE!! (those are the boots she put on when she THOUGHT she was going to play in the snow..she's HACKED!)



Miss Molly, by edict of Big Daddy, is banned from playing outside...She has been home all week with a sinus infection, and even though we've been on the Zithro...she doesn't seem a whole lot better....if anything her symptoms are worse! All that stuff lodged up in her head is making the big escape.

The puppies seem to be LOVING the new snow! Wayyyy to cold for us to play in it!



My little Memory Garden Angel is 12 inches tall:



If you look closely...you can see molly, boo-hooing in the window..she wants to come and play!!



Even "city-kitty" got into the action



Heard my little JoJo, and her mom (pregnant-due in April) ALSO are down with a bug.. a stomach bug!! bummer...REALLY a bummer as TODAY IS ALLYSON'S BIRTHDAY!! Happy Bday, Ally...feel better soon. She is SO beautiful, inside and out..and we feel SO blessed to have her in our family! Your birthday present (was Christmas present) will get to you soon, as soon as the snow melts! Sorry we couldn't be there today!



Miss Aubrey JoJo came for a visit last sunday, with Uncle Bill, Ang, and her daddy....always a party




the boys came to (play x-box) set up my surround sound, and Ang came to do homework. She's putting herself through college and I'm SOOOOOO proud of her!!

Shauna is Prepping for the Boston Marathon, and this storm hit DC this morning, right in the middle of an 18 mile run...she had to knock off early as she didn't have goggles on...HAVE FUN WITH OUR SNOW!!

Jo Jo is getting to be a big girl...besides being in the "always in trouble" monkeybutt stage:





she is attempting to dress herself!







SHE REMAINS TOO CUTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! She also hid one of the Sarge's slippers, which for the life of us we cannot find!! LMAO!

Gabe was happy to drive in the snow to get her stuff...he's doing it in a new CAR!! (great Bday present if you ask me) Their first big purchase together that was made all on their own! Makes a mommy proud.(Hyundai Tuscon)




I stay humbled by the blessings that are my family.

grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Saturday and it's weekly shopping/chore day. My mom likes to get away, and we always take molly and practice our 'big girlness' in public. All in all it was a good trip. We grabbed a happy meal, ran into some friends and went to "not my" store....(Sorry big W, but the last thing a retailer wants to do on a day off is shop, and worse than that? Go to work to do it.....my bad.)

Molly has taken over gramma's cart and is pushing it well, and only adding things to it she thinks we need (oreos, cheetos and a mylar balloon) and all is good that is, until we get to the check out. I have one cart unloading it, and she is right behind me with her cart, when she starts screaming, and not a frustrated scream...a real one...i look, and sure enough, she has managed to get her arm stuck in a gap of the cart, AND IT HURTS!! (enough to cause spontaneous bladder explosion)

So im rushing to her, and just as i make it, she dislodges herself, rips her coat off, throws it, and really starts crying while rubbing the back of her arm.

No one....i mean NOT ONE SINGLE PERSON came to our aid. Pretty uncommon in these parts...pretty uncommon for store management....oh, don't get me wrong, everyone GAWKED at her...but no one came to help.

She, after all, looks different. She was probably screaming, because she has Down Syndrome.



*sigh*

and i keep waiting for this rainy stinkin' week to get better.

Is it really wrong to drink in the morning?

OMG

I could NOT find the cheese pretzels this morning...BLASPHEME!!

The sarge put some regular ones in her bowl (yes, she has a bowl, and it better be the one with the lips on the side, because the plain round one WILL NOT DO!) and said, "come on, we're gonna be late for school"

She just throws the bowl. (Translation? She wants the cheese ones)

Well, lemme tell ya, YESTERDAY I had cheese pretzels in the cupboard, but TODAY?? THEY'RE MISSING! and we all know who TOOK the cheese pretzels, but do you think that pretzel-nabbing-skunk can remember where she put them??? OHHHHHH NOOOOOO!! (and trust me, when they're hidden, they are gone for life)

So, she sits her pretty little monkey butt in the rocking chair, folds her arms across her chest, AND REFUSES TO MOVE!

Now, those of you with typical children know that you can reason, or at worst, jerk them up and throw them screaming into the car....but that doesn't work for us. Picking up a temper-throwing child with DS??? It's like trying to maneuver around a 85 pound water balloon!

So, after dodging shoes, having her remove her clothes, and scream at the dog (who has inserted herself into the situation because she knows molly is upset...Add 90 pounds of hair) I finally find a 1/2 bag of Cheetos, stuffed in her drawer.

"Will these yellows do?" as I pour them into afore mentioned Tupperware bowl.

She examines the contents and looks up at me and says..."more"

And I'm thrilled she used her words.

Daddy, on the other hand, is not thrilled at ALL, but both of them are on their way to school, and I have cheese pretzels at the top of the shopping list.

Oh BTW, she threw her blue "has to be back on Monday" folder during this fit and I ran it out to the car, when the dutiful German Shep escaped behind me. Mizzy had decided that SHE was going to attend school with the upset child, even if it meant running behind the Tahoe all the way to school.....so my apologies to the neighbors who had the misfortune of witnessing the Kramer-haired woman, with a hair brush, in her (no-bra)jammies, chasing a dog around a vehicle. I'm sure it was a scary sight!

And how was YOUR morning???

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HAPPY LEAP YEAR 2010

Well, it was ALMOST over! Ha! I didn't think our new year's celebration was going to amount to much, but it turned out WONDERFUL!!

Not big party-people anymore, we did get hats and horns and champagne...The sarge was due to take off for KC in the morning early to get Kelsi Shae for a visit, so him and molly retired at the usual bedtime, but gramma & grampa & the dogs and I stayed up, vowing to AT LEAST make it to 11pm, when we could celebrate with the New Yorkers, Anderson Cooper, and my fav girl, miss potty mouth, Kathy Griffin!





and a kiss to start it off!!



I had to work New Years Morning, so after the festivities headed right for bed, only to start fielding phone calls when the REAL New Year happened from all my kiddos (except the new parents, who also were snoozing) and STILL got up feeling like I'd partied all night! UGH!

Since i had to work, the sarge took Molly Kate to see Aubrey Jo in Springfield. That's her favorite trip for sure...still i was surprised when waking her (she's a heavy sleeper and despises having to get up for school) that all i had to do was whisper in her ear...."molly? do you want to go see aubrey jo this morning?"

She was up, dressed, and handing Larry his coat in about 5 minutes!! "Huuuuuuweeeeeeeee!"

On the way home? He brought me the best present! Not only was he packing Kelsi and Molly...but grabbed "Jo Jo" too! I had a long weekend coming (school doesn't resume here till Tuesday) so baby came and played with us!!








Jo Jo is VERY verbal (19 months old now), and the funniest little skunk you've ever seen! She's into everything so i had to implement some emergency tacktics to keep her out of my "cleaning" cupboards





Gabe even showed up for a biscuit and gravy Sunday Breakfast! He commented on molly's weight gain by yelling.."Who has a fat belly???!!" Immediately Jo Jo ran over and lifted up Larry's shirt!! HAHAHAHAHAHAAH poor larry!

And trust me, Big Gabe and Little Bill are the only men in my family that can clean and jerk this load!






And he whipped up some snow ice cream for us! Breakfast dessert!





Everyone is on their way home now, at home, and it's quiet around here. I'm cleaning up and getting ready for the work/school rush tomorrow, which is going to be slow-going...they forcasted a 'dusting' of snow as a possiblilty for the new year, but we ended up with about 4 inches! Not much to my yankee neighbors, but we have NO SNOW REMOVAL EQUIPMENT!! Down here? it doesn't happen enough to warrent it...so you just wait for it to melt.



but im not complaining...Molly LOVES the snow!! Good thing..just got the news that now TUESDAY school is called off!!





I get to fly around and do all sorts of fun stuff....but having a load of girls together for some weekend fun seems to top the list! Not that we don't have our moments...Jo Jo was pickin' on Aunt Molly, grabbed her beloved bag of cheeze pretzels, and just showered the room with them! Course "mom-mom" doesn't really get excited about stuff like that, but daddy thought it needed to be addressed....this is aubrey telling me "sowwy" and Aunt Molly, unphased, running thru with a new bag! No harm, No foul! (she has THE sweetest little voice!)




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wow, is it over?

It's over...i can tell by the load of laundry on my bed waiting to be put away.....It seems all fun ends with my laundry...which is why it's almost always in baskets! UGH!

We got shauna home...and she remains precious! Molly was thrilled, as were all of us, and she brought a new cooking technique to us from a french girlfriend, which also was embraced and to become a part of our traditions...the pumpkin soup poured over roasted nuts, and mulled wine were both delicious & health conscience. For the first time in forever?? My time was not all spent in the kitchen...she LIVED in there! YAY! Hattin the Cat...who moved back to the ozarks after being too pent up in a studio apt..was more than thrilled to have her home!



Christmas morning was full of molly presents and fun....Molly just doesn't rip thru paper, she wants to play with or try on each gift as it is given....she opened her new coat first, and it remained on for most of the morning!




As well it should, given the fact that we actually had a white Christmas!! This is also something very uncommon in these parts (missouri) but more than welcome! Grandpa and Sarge couldn't wait to get at it!



We usually just get gifts for the kids, but Grandma & Pa surprised us with something I've been looking at all season, but just couldn't justify spending the money on....what a surprise that it was a gift for grandpas best buddies, Hattin and Lucifer! A cat tower!!Shoulda figured!!


Or maybe he just got it for them, to get them off of their favorite place to stay...on HIS BED!!




Then, we travelled back to Spg, to see the boys albeit too short of time, as we had to hustle girl-child back to the airport.....I did get the rare opportunity to have them all in the same room at the same time. Merry Christmas, Mommy!!






The hardest part to my "little angel" was letting go of all her siblings. Molly keeps pretty good control of herself, and really tries hard to act appropriately....but there were no holds barred when we had to say goodbye. She screamed all the way from gabes to the airport...finally stopping with the vocals, but still shaking her hands...and then it started all over when she saw shauna gathering her bags to run into the airport. Daddy had to make an emergency McDonald's stop...as nothing soothes the tortured soul in Molly's eyes, then some Mickey D's French Fries!! *whew* It's ok Molly...momma feels the same way!

I'll leave yall with 'dare-devil' baby...Aubrey is at her Peak in the getting-into-trouble phase! Hope Your Christmas was as good as mine, and that you have less laundry to put away!!

LMAO!!

Guys...we're doing a mid-week update, because my kid is SUCH a HOOT!

Last night was the Christmas Pageant...grades 2 and 3. Very well put together, and adorable! I dropped Molly off at her room, and asked the teach (after seeing no aides were around) if i needed to stay? or go get a seat.....Teach takes me out to the hall....just giggling. She says "nope, the only trouble we've been having with her is she keeps grabbing the mike, and saying this longggggggg story!" She told me it was too cute....but other than that, she's good with the group, knows where she needs to be, and knows all the songs! YAY!

So, she's up on stage singing her songs..and there are 3 mike stands at the front. 4 kids each line up behind each mike stand, and say their parts of a little play. Then we see it. Behind the middle mike...Molly has assumed a position at the end of the line of kids.

(this is their adorable little costumes...and the infamous microphone. Molly is just behind the little boy in green sonic shirt, in the middle)



The last kid says his part...and then molly steps up......(at this point I'm thinking God Bless Music Teachers Everywhere!!!) She motions to molly the "Hurry Up" sign language, and starting with a wee voice, and then clearing her throat...my non-verbal daughter reaches her mouth up to the mike and says....

"bub bub.....bub bub bub"

And then turns around to take her spot on the riser.

HILLARIOUS!!!! and everyone enjoyed her ending remarks!! The sarge almost pooped em and I was rolling.

Just cuz you're not a big conversationalist...doesn't mean you can't be the star of the show!


:-)

(this is her...her costume now on the floor in front of her....standing next to "Bobert" who continues to be the main man in her life at school)