a passage into manhood

yesterday was an odd day.  i was super forgetful--which isn't totally out of the norm, but if my head wasn't attached, i'm sure that would still be missing today.   i went to my sissy's house with david.  i forgot extra clothes, juice, his sippie cup, and my cell phone!  and to top it all off, we got our first taste of snow and sleet all day long. 

when david and i got home, i still couldn't find his sippie cup.  no biggie, it was nap time anyway.   my good napper turned into a one hour quickie and woke up right before i had to get emily off of the bus.  crap.  instead of bundling him up i thought i would gate him in the living room.  the pink panther was on, he lvoes the pink panther.  he loves mommy more because he was glued to the window the entire time.  so i waved.  i knew he saw me wave, because then he got emily's pony flashlight and started waving it at me.

i guess he was trying to communicate with the light!  the next thing i see is him banging on the glass, with the pony light.  in my head, i knew he was yelling while banging.  i gave him the "NO" finger wave from the car...he stopped.  "that worked?", i thought..."sweet!"  i can scold him with my thoughts...i AM super mom!  until i saw him reach through the pain of glass.  "SHIT!"  i through the car in reverse, flew into the house to see the glass smashed in.  then i looked for the blood.  there was none!  thank GOD!  i snatched him up, through him in his car seat, and continued to wait for emily...checking for cuts the whole time.  because of the weather, emily's bus was a little late...good thing.  i checked again for any cuts when he had his bath.  i don't know how he made it through with NOTHING!  if that was me, i'd be a bloody mess @ the hospital--crying, no doubt.

so the sippie cup is gone.  i have no idea where it is. david has transitioned to a big boy cup...with a straw.  so the breaking of the window has lead to a new big boy stage.  i'm hoping today is just a regular normal day...broken glass-free!  i can only take one life altering moment at a time!

happy belated halloween!

it dawned on me that i never posted pics from halloween!  the kids were awesome!  david held it together despite not having his nap.  emily was so fun to watch this year!  she walked almost the whole time and even held her own bag!  

 i am now in the process of trying to come down from the sugar high.  not an easy task when there is a giant bowl of nummies calling my name!!

apples and pudding on the kitchen rug

that was our theme song last night!!  it made david dance and emily smile.  i make up silly songs when i'm in a stressful situation...try it, it helps!

last night, dinner started off a little rough.  well, kind of...ALOT rough!  emily was screaming like she was being beaten, she was throwing herself on the floor--scary stuff!  contrary to her screams, she was NOT being beaten...she was mad because david was playing with his trucks.  so i decided to whisk the two of them up for a bath.  it worked.  no, the tub was not filled with holy water to excercise her demons...but apparently it did wash away her crankies!  it was a nice night after that.  we went down to the kitchen where we all sat on our little kitchen rug and, you guessed it, ate apples and pudding!  hey, whatever works @ this point!!  we played, watched cartoons, and the two of them even sat with me at one point for a snuggle--at the same time!  good stuff.
this morning, emily was happy as a clam!

progress

 so things have been getting better with emily.  we had a really great weekend.  i'm not sure who was watching over us, but for two hours we all played nice until david went down for his nap.  it was amazing. 

on sunday night, hubs gutted pumpkins.  at that point the weekend of being alone with the kids was swiftly catching up with me.  i wanted no part in the pumpkin carving.  so after the kids went to bed, and while i was pouting by myself, hubs carved both pumpkins. 

yesterday my mom took david for the afternoon...it was awesome.  when emily got home from school i took her down to my parents' house for dinner.  she didn't have her nap, and she was totally happy.  it was really a great night.

tonight i'll be on my own with the kiddos.  i'm going to throw some chicken in the crock pot, and keep my fingers crossed that tonight will go smoothly!  with the way things have been going, i'm confident.

so, this is about the only "scooping" that david did:

just a reminder, things are getting underway over at The Clumsy Spider!!  check it out!!

i smell cake

last night i made dinner and brought it over to my parents' house.  my dad is a hunter, and he got his first deer last week(his first one in a looong time! lol)  *please, no hunting haters!  anyhoo, i'm a big stew lover, so i made it with venison!  so yummy!  besides the stew, we had to have dessert, right?  right!  i have been eyeballing a recipe from my favorite site, allrecipes.com.  its the "too much chocolate cake", however, i was missing the chocolate pudding.  dang, i really wanted chocolate too!  ok, time to improvise.  i had strawberry cake mix and white chocolate instant pudding.  seriously, it is a winning combination.  while i didn't get the white chocolate flavor per say, the cake was so moist and delicious...and the smell, holy strawberries, did this smell good!! 
you'll need:
1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix
1 (5.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
1/2 cup warm water
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
*keep in  mind, you can use any flavor combination you like!!) 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 
In a large bowl, mix together the cake and pudding mixes, sour cream, oil, beaten eggs and water. Stir in the chocolate chips and pour batter into a well greased 12 cup bundt pan. 
Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until top is springy to the touch and a wooden toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool cake thoroughly in pan at least an hour and a half before inverting onto a plate If desired, dust the cake with powdered sugar. 

i know that i've been on a healthy kick, but really, when you need a treat, this is worth it!  i did opt to use light sour cream and sugar free pudding--because that's what i had!!    i can't wait to try more flavors!!! 

pumpkin picking

ok, so even though our family photo didn't turn out how i would have hoped(again), we did have a nice time at the pumpkin patch.  emily only cried when we got there because the hay ride(with no hay) was coming around.   david loved running from pumpkin to pumpkin and helping his grandpa put the winners in the wagon!

the pumpkin patch

we took the kids pumpkin picking with my parents yesterday.  its always an adventure!  emily always cries as soon as we get there.  david has to touch every.single.pumpkin he sees!  every year we try to get a family photo...every year, we fail!  hahaha 

the proof:

2006

we don't even have a "family" shot with emily because she only wanted grandma, and cried for just about the entire time!

2007

i'm about one month pregnant with david(although i look like i'm already 6 months!), my jeans are too tight, i had a growth on my chin, and emily hated it this year too!

2008

david was clueless, the sun was too much for emily and hubs, and i looked like i was trying to smuggle some pumpkins in my shirt(and my jeans were still too tight!)

2009

holy sun!  we were all blind! 

2010

this year was no different...except we had a screamer!  david just wanted to run around the pumpkins, and try to fit as many in the wagon as he could!  emily was the best she's ever been though!  this may be a contender for the christmas card... 

maybe next year we'll have a winner!