December Haze

The month is almost over and we are about to ring in a new year and it feels like it has a been a blur. Between the whole family being struck with some terrible cold, baking, decorating and preparing for Christmas it seems to have taken forever and pass in a flash all at once!

Fortunately all the hard work paid off because everyone was healthy again before Christmas and as far as I’m concerned our Christmas was perfect! The boys of course were swept up in the magic and fun of it all, and Zippercow and I let ourselves relax enough that we were swept up as well. The boys got a lot of nice things (but not too much) and most importantly we enjoyed special time with family! What great memories were made, but wait! I have a photo bomb for you too!

We got a box. Well more specifically we had to buy a new range, but for the children it was just really expensive cardboard.

Someone farted. Bwahahaha!

Cookin’ up something tasty for Christmas. The only “cooking” that took place on Christmas!

Life is a hoot when you have a crafty Mommy!

 

And a very patient Daddy! First completed big kid Lego kit. His pride is palpable.

And now it is time to get Zippercow ready to turn 30!!!

He’s really just a big kid.

Be Inspired By What Inspires You

What inspires and motivates  you? Is it cute kittens? Motivational Posters with catchy slogans? Sappy quotes? Yeah, most of those things make me go blech. Sure they are great for some but me, I like sarcasm. The more it drips the better. So in honor of that I would like to share some of my favorite blogs. These blogs make my day, make me laugh and remind me that there are LOTS of regular ordinary people that share the same smart ass sense of humor.

The first two are great sarcastic mom sites, because let’s face it, sarcastic humor is the best parenting humor.

Suburban Snapshots

 

The next two are comics, and sarcasm is at its best when it is drawn with bright colorful images!

Warning: These sites may cause laughter, tears and if you are unfit, abdominal pain from raucous laughter.

 

I wish I could write more like these hilarious people. They are my sarcaspiration!

Oh, and I can’t forget

Not quite as sarcastic in nature, but you can find some great jewels like these

I Want to Be a Dad!

The other day Zippercow says to me “ It is too bad you can’t  be a Dad with a baby”. I of course look at him funny because I’m not sure where this story is leading but he continues on to explain that whenever he is alone at a store with the boys (or just Littlest Moo) people are SO nice to him. They open doors for him, talk nice to him and the children, offer to help him and sometimes people offer to let him go first in line. I have noticed this phenomenon as well and all I have to say is…

WTF!?!

If I am a couple feet away looking at something and Zippercow is with the kids at the cart or people can’t  see me they get all kinds of smiles and friendly head nods. Even Zippercow admits that people are not ever that nice to him in public if he does not have the children but you ad kids into the equation then you get lots of people being nice. The equation goes something like this

 Dad+child+toddler= He must be the nicest man ever and how sweet that he has the children so we MUST be extra nice and helpful!

Don’t get me wrong, I love that people treat my husband and children kindly when they go out, I mean look at them they are pretty darn adorable. My question is why do moms out with children not get the same in return????  I can recall multiple occasions when I had Little Moo, barely walking Niecey-Poo and infant Littlest Moo out and we struggled to get through doors with the big double stroller or worse they were not in the stroller which meant I had the carrier, toddler on one hip and Little Moo who still couldn’t get the door open trying to get through a door  and people would watch (it wasn’t that they didn’t notice, they watched like it was a sport! “That’s right Bill she had her opening and was about to score but she fumbled the baby  and dropped the toddler and it was all downhill from there, WHAT. A. SHAME” ) or instead of offering to help hold the door they would use the other set of doors or even worse, stand behind me and give a loud exasperated sigh because I was holding them up. Then while in the store if a child starts crying you get dirty looks as if you are the worst parent in the world. Guess what, sometimes you still have to buy groceries, even if the kids don’t want to. But when Zippercow does it he gets sympathetic looks and offers of assistance or stickers for the kids.  It isn’t I don’t encounter nice people, because there certainly are, but I have heard stories from Zippercow about how people fall all over themselves to be nice and helpful when he has the kids. Even he seems perplexed by it. I know there are plenty of Moms who experience the same things I do and some who do it with far more children but I’m curious what makes Dads so much different?

So now when Little Moo says he wants to be a daddy when he gets older I tell him, “Me too!”.

Better Late Than Never?

I wanted to post something sappy about Thanksgiving and about all the things I am thankful for ON Thanksgiving  but I was too busy getting ready to host Thanksgiving Dinner for thirteen that I was unable to tear myself from Pinterest the kitchen to write a post. The truth is I have a lot to be thankful for. Wonderful husband, kids, extended family, friends and….well I can go on and on but I mentioned the most important things.  Sadly I did not get any pictures of our wonderful Thanksgiving feast and the wonderful family that joined us. It does get difficult to cook and take pictures at the same time. I did get some pictures of my helpers the day before.

Handy little helper.

Handsy helper.

This year we tried a couple things to make this year’s dinner a little less stressful and share more with family.

First, we made a separate turkey the evening before so that I could package it up and have leftovers ready to go for all of our guests. I even labeled everyone’s bag with their name. Really wishing I took pictures.

Second I made mashed potatoes ahead of time. They were fabulous! You make them the night before and put them in a crock-pot (thank you Pinterest!) the day of. It allows them to stay warm during serving AND our entire house kitchen didn’t get all steamed up while company was over, SCORE!

Overall our dinner was wonderful and it was great to have everyone over. After all the hard work I had this to look forward to

Decadent Peanut Butter Pie, it is deliriously good (supposing you like peanut butter) and worth not busting into it the night before. It is making me drool just thinking about it.

We have so much to be thankful for but the best things are the little things, like leftover olives on your fingers! Oh, and the kids attached to them!

 

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving with loved ones! Christmas here we come!!!!

If You Could Turn Back the Hands of Time…

You’d get no sleep. One week into daylight savings and we are all a little cranky.  Such a difference an hour can make. I remember that once upon a time (pre children) Zippercow and I would relish the extra hour of sleep (and then some) on Sunday when we’d “fall back”. It was fabulous! Even now we are foolish and think with a little excitement “yay, and extra hour of sleep!” and we (again foolishly) assume the children will be peaceful in slumber because they too would want to enjoy some glorious extra sleep (see, I said foolish).

 

Instead the scene looks a little more like this

 

 

5:30 am and our whole house is awake. And lets be honest, not horribly happy about it. We even kept them up a later the night before assuming they might have issue with the time adjustment. Keeping them up later is a little trick we do because we hate ourselves. You see we think “smart parents, we don’t want to wake up at 7:00am on a Saturday morning so we’ll just keep them up 45 minutes to an hour later and they will sleep later!!!”

Never in the history of our children has this worked.

In fact in those cases they often go to bed later, wake up a half hour earlier than usual then are uber cranky the next day. Nailed it!

Sadly though this continued on through the week. We tried to adjust their bedtimes to get them back on schedule, but man they are persistent.  No sleep makes us cranky, them cranky and we count the minutes until bedtime so we can do it again tomorrow. We have hope that this week will be better. You see, despite our sarcastic, jaded, pessimistic attitudes, when it comes to our children we are hopeful and optimistic…

that they’ll sleep.

*even as I write this I am making some terrible spelling and grammatical errors (more than usual)  due to sleep deprivation. I’m sure there are still some there, but if you could only see what I fixed! I’m just as eloquent in person these days!

Fabulous Fall!

 

Green Bluff

Pumpkins of the orange variety and small child variety

We love fall and hope you are enjoying yours!

*So I was totally feeling guilty about not posting recently. I have multiple unfinished posts but I mostly wanted to share that we are keeping busy with wonderful fall traditions!*

Happy Fall!

Must Clean All the Things!!!

Alright, so maybe not ALL the things. Some of the things? Instead of going to Green Bluff and frolicking through pumpkins I convinced myself (and Zippercow)  that there were more important things we needed to do here.  I may have been right, but kind of wish I wasn’t. So after cleaning the house, garage and doing some fall planting I decided to tackle the puzzle cupboard.

Ugh.

The puzzle cupboard is a a small cupboard in our entertainment stand that has all of Little Moo’s puzzles. In all I think he has more than ten puzzles and I believe almost all the pieces (of the 25 piece puzzles) were in a giant pile mixed on the bottom shelf.  Just thinking about it makes me itch and he wasn’t ever putting any of them together because I think he too was overwhelmed by the chaos of it all. To top it off any time the cupboard was opened most of its contents would  spill onto the floor, much to Littlest Moos delight. So I decided to remedy that.

Thanks to one of my favorite blogs Thrifty Decor Chick  I think I have a great way to keep all the pieces off the floor and organized enough that Little Moo will actually find them useful.

I started with cutting out the picture from the front of the box.

Then I wrote the name of the puzzle, how many pieces it had (because on some of them the piece count got cut off) and then numbered it.

Then I put that number on all the pieces that belonged to that puzzle.

Lastly I put each puzzle with the front of its box  in its own quart size Ziploc and put them all in a plastic shoe box bin.

Tada!!!! No more hives for Mommy! The best part? Little Moo has already used the puzzles more in the last three days than he has in the last 6 months! Success!

I love the occasional productive day!

La LA la!

Little Moo asked me to put on some music, so I tore myself away from America’s Next Top Model (a very embarrassing addiction) and turned on some awesome 90’s music tunes. While the kids were eating lunch I was putting away the dishes and busting out in song. About a minute later Little Moo interrupted my dream of being a moody pop star with

“Mom, I don’t want you to sing”

everyone’s a critic.

I personally think I have a unique voice like Melanie Safka. You know, delightfully terrible! Sorry kiddos, that is a direct consequence of listening to music in our home, and I can promise it will only get worse as you get older. I learned from the best (your grandpa) and plan on carrying on the tradition of getting into the music and embarrassing  you to your very core. Good luck! We’ll laugh about it on the other side. Promise.

Winning!!!!

How do you measure success day-to-day? It is different each day. Some days getting everyone dressed and out the door is all I need, others having the house clean, pleasant children, folded laundry and dinner ready when my husband gets home is a successful day. Those days are pretty rare…okay so mostly nonexistent. My bar is pretty low actually, I will settle for children still alive.

 

Today I measured success in brushing the teeth of 15 rambunctious children 4 and under in less than 20 minutes at work then later in the evening (despite being hella tired) playing Candy Land with Little Moo.

Oh, then I brushed the teeth of Littlest Moo!

Cast of Characters

So it has been some time and to my followers (should I have any left) I appreciate you sticking with me! I know that for many who know me personally you certainly don’t need to be introduced to everyone but I thought it would be a good idea to put a faces to online aliases. What’s with the aliases you ask? Well since the blog is public I just want to do the best I can to protect my family. Sure my name might be somewhere else but I certainly am not going to make it easy for those up to no good! So lets begin!

Zippercow: So his alias is totally strange I know, but it is a name he is known by online and is our family domain, so I think we should stay true to that. Ask me about the story behind the name sometime and maybe I’ll tell you!  He is a fabulous Daddy and Husband. There are SOOOO many pictures of him with the kids so there are many to choose from. But he can be pretty kooky too, which the kids will totally be embarrassed by someday. He works hard for our family and is absolutely sarcastic (and hillarious!).

Mama Moo: There are very few pictures of me. And most of the ones I have are pretty terrible. Mostly because Zippercow just snaps the shot without saying, “Uh Hun, your muffin top spilleth out” or “your fourth chin is showing”. I suppose I know why, but seriously!

Yes please!!!  I need all the caffeine I can get to take care of the children, take care of the house and in my spare minutes learn more about photography.

Little Moo: Our spunky and delightful (most days) oldest son. He challenges us daily but we will persevere and so will he!

Have I mentioned that we love Phineas and Ferb in this house? Maybe? Once? Twice? Well it is still a current favorite around here! He’s a smart boy who continues to make us proud (even through the challenges!).

Littlest Moo: Our youngest of the herd. He is smiley and friendly and definitely his own little character! He is walking now, which he thinks is the absolute coolest thing ever! Who wouldn’t enjoy a new way to wreak havoc?!?!

Niecey-poo: Can’t forget her! She is our niece who spends lots of time with us so she frequently makes appearances on our blog. She definitely adds even more dynamic to our day. Both the boys love playing with her, you know as long as any two related children play nicely together!

Such cutie patooties, all three of them!

Look Out World, Here He Comes!

For about a week now we knew that Littlest Moo was on the brink of walking. We could just see it. He would psych himself up like he was going to walk away from the couch then bend at the waist and crumple to a crawling position. We noticed he was ready for bigger and better things when he started doing this

 

 

For a couple months we have been using this bench to keep Littlest Moo out of Little Moo’s bedroom while still allowing the bigger kids to easily get back and forth. Sad day. This no longer works. So baby boy isn’t walking, but will climb over things? Sweet.

Then this weekend he did it! He took a couple steps between Zippercow and I and then by the end of the weekend he was walking short distances!

We are noticing he seems to like to have confidence in what he is doing before embarking on something new so while we can see that he has the skills needed to reach a milestone he waits just a little bit longer and clearly chooses the mode of transportation that is the fastest. But I suppose I do too, hence why I walk instead of G.I. crawl.

It is so fun to get to know your little one and  begin to learn their personality as it blooms. Littlest Moo is a VERY happy little boy always smiling, waving or laughing. But every now and then we see little snippets of what we are sure the toddler years will hold for us. While Little Moo waited until about three years old before getting into full on tantrums Littlest Moo has given us a preview of what we should expect. I think when he’s happy (which is most of the time) he’s very happy but when he’s not, watch out!!!

Dun Dun Dun!!! Be Sceered. Very sceered.

Modest Mom

I wish! Since I can remember I’ve always been fairly modest when it comes to clothing. Not neck to ankle garb but I prefer to cover things up. Even as a teenager ( to my mom’s disappointment I think) I cared little about being trendy and just preferred a cute t-shirt and jeans. Sadly I didn’t take advantage of a fit body as a teen and now that I REALLY want to cover it up I find it next to impossible. Little did I know that becoming a mom I’d have to let go of some of my modesty.

It starts those couple hours prior to giving birth I think. There comes a point were you don’t care who sees what, you just want that baby out! They put you in one of those stupid gowns that don’t fit anyone right and despite all the snaps there still seems to be stuff a hanging out. Then you move on to nursing.

Nursing was a nightmare for me. I tried so hard but it went so poorly that I pretty much just sat with no top on because I was having to try that frequently, so while I would usually be mortified there were people (my Dad included) who saw me topless, I didn’t care. I just wanted to feed my baby. In the end it didn’t work out for either of my boys so I quickly was able to return to my modest ways, or so I thought.

Now I have a little boy who at every opportunity pulls my shirt down. When I’m carrying him he finds it most useful to grab onto the front of my shirt like his life depends on it and pull down.  I don’t think a day goes by that I’m not flashing someone. Hi bus driver! Hi doctor! Hi neighbor! Hi stranger….you get the idea. It doesn’t matter if I have a tank top on underneath to keep from flashing people. I could be wearing a turtle neck and he’d still manage to stretch the neck that far down. Okay, as I’m re-reading this I should clear up that fortunately for me and most of the general public he doesn’t pull down my bra, just my shirt. I’m sure I’m not alone in this, but I don’t see other mom’s bras everyday. Or maybe I’m just too busy trying to cover mine up to see theirs.

One Saturday Morning…

Zippercow and I have often joked about how nice it will be when our children are old enough to get themselves some breakfast and watch cartoons on Saturday morning all while letting us sleep. We know this is a delusion of course because even if they don’t come wake us there are is always the children fighting over what they watch and who is on what couch that is sure to be loud enough to wake us. However this last Saturday Little Moo woke a little too early for this Mom, especially on the only day I don’t have to wake to an alarm clock. So, I stumbled to the living room with my eyes mostly closed and turned on some Phineas and Ferb (isn’t that what everyone watches at 6am on Saturday???) and crawled back to bed only to have him “sneak” on me (that’s how he says it) 3 and half minutes later to insist that he needed to eat that very second. Who eats less than 5 minutes within waking!?!?!? I mumbled something about getting some cereal himself. He was uncertain but I assured him he could  do it. I was certain this would mean half the box would be on the floor and I’d have a heck of a mess to clean up but I didn’t care it was six. oh. clock. Strangely enough Littlest Moo didn’t wake until almost 9am (unheard of for this little man) and we came out to the living room to this

Phineas and Ferb trance.

Before I even made it to the kitchen I noticed he had milk in his cup which terrified me slightly, how on earth did he poor out of the huge gallon jug and not make a horrific mess? So from here I make my way through the dining and kitchen to assess the damage.

Chair pulled up to the pantry to reach the cereal. You’ll notice he left a path of his morning accomplishments.

He tore the tops off the box??? I still don’t understand why that was necessary but as you can see there is no cereal on the table (or the floor below) so I don’t mind the torn boxes at all.

A different chair pulled up to get into the cupboard for a cup. He left every cupboard and door he got into open.

Much to my relief the milk was almost gone so there was just enough for a cup and he poured it without spilling a drop. So all-in-all we got to sleep longer allowing us to be rested enough do deal with his I-woke-up-too-early-now-I’m-going-to-make-you-pay pleasantness AND he  discovered he can fend for himself.

Score!