$8 haircut

After Eli's tooth incident - I had an especially irritable day and decided to take the plunge and take advantage of the GreatClips haircut sale.  $7.99 for a haircut, cant beat that!  I called them to make sure it included womens cuts too - no matter the original length because I planned on going pretty short. I needed a change - badly. All these babies have really left their mark on my hair! What used to be thick super curly long hair is now whispy, thinning, frizzy, not curly at all hair...so off it goes.

I was terrified to go to GreatClips to be perfectly honest. Like I said, I called before hand and asked if there was anyone there who had a lot of experience cutting short hair for women - I was assured there was a manager on duty who knew her stuff.

rrriiiiight...

Well I show up and get seated almost right away with an asian woman who seemed really nice - really she was very nice, I couldnt understand a word she was saying but she was all smiles! As soon as I have about 5 inches cut off my left side she starts to get a little crazy and nervous about how many people just walked in the door after me. At this point she's just wacking away at my poor hair and loading on some gloppy stuff to show me how to style my hair by teasing, blowdrying the hair up and then spraying with hairspray - and then she said she was done and I looked beautiful and that I should tell my husband that I was going out for the day to show off my hair! I even tried to tell her that it wasnt what I was expecting and that I wanted more cut from the sides - she looked annoyed, looked into the waiting room, and I could almost hear her saying "YOU $8 HAIRCUT OVUH NOW, YOU GO HOME! NEXT!!!" My hair was clearly 2 inches longer on my right side....I looked like a chicken dipped in grease and then electricuted. I wish I were joking....but im not. I could hardly get out of there fast enough - I didnt care if people were looking at me like I was a crazy person to pay for that kind of service - but I was in flight mode...

I went straight to another GreatClips to have some else fix my hair - and now Im in love. His name is Brandon and he is David Copperfield with Sciccors. My hair still isnt what I had in mind - but Im completely ok with it - I love it actually. And I will definately be going back to BRANDON again!

Here's the reveal - its a phone picture so sorry its a crappy one..

I asked Noah if he liked my new hair - he said no. (love the honesty though) He said that I should go back to the store and get my ponytail back.

Mommies are supposed to have LONG hair mommy....

crazy kid

No Tooth fairy for Eli

So far so good with Eli's tooth! He fell in the bathtub and chipped his front tooth pretty badly. It bled, bruised, was loose, and got all swollen for more than a week. But then all of a sudden it got better - it actually turned a little gray looking but other than it seems to be just fine.

PRAISE JESUS!!!!!  I was so afraid he would have to have it pulled or it would fall out and I would have to look at his adorable face with a big gaping HOLE in is mouth....for YEARS before his adult tooth came in! An everyday reminder of not being the perfect mom. lol

Speaking of teeth - Jonah has TWO bottom teeth now. I think that is why he is currently crying in his crib - so I better cut this short!

More on the crazy life later! :0)

Last week - Noah started school...LOVES IT. In fact, he didnt want to come home last Friday. "Well, FINE then!! I secretly said to myself.....

SO of course, he got sick. Fever, snotty, snotty nose too, horrible cough and all around just a really uncomfortable little guy. Couldnt breath, couldnt sleep, didnt want to eat - all that stuff. Which means that I got NO sleep for almost 2 nights in a row and my poor kids watched an alarming amount of TV while I was a zombie on the couch....

Its bad when you know what time it is through out the day by what show is on TV.....

Yeah - Im THAT mom.

Horrible I know....but now Eli and Jonah are both sick so I continue to get no sleep and the hours of TV watching are building at a shameful rate and I find myself in this LAZY couch dozing rut....

Enter: 5 Hour Energy drinks

Now, Im pretty much still a vegetable until around Super Why aka 10am - some mornings I dont even have enough energy to finish my coffee for crying out loud - and I do...I cry! But after Word World aka naptime, I down one of these saviors in a bottle and I soon find myself able to cook dinner and even clean a bathroom or two.

Case in point - I just realized its 11:30 and Im not in bed yet.....not good.

 Maybe I will wake up and feel like this....unlikely

Im having an affair...

It must be love - what else could it be?  Im staying up late - pining for those secret moments when we can be together.  Daydreaming about the possibilities.  So focused on the moment that I cant hear the chaos around me. Theres guilt, passion, and infatuation along with the little white lies about exactly how much time we are spending together....

I want to shout out my love from the top of someplace very high - I LOVE YOU! I LOVE YOU, ADOBE LIGHTROOM 2.0!!!!!

I have spent my time rummaging through my old digital photos from the past 6 or so years and pulled out my favorites - some from pre-children days, some recent ones too. I have been so hooked on this photo shop program that I even started editing Kevins collection of AIR SHOW photo's...now thats saying something!

Before I show you my very amature results let me just remind everyone that I am an absolute beginner - both at taking a photo and properly editing it. I really have no idea what I am doing - I point and shoot and hope for the best! So far, I chalk it up to luck. :0)

Before Lightroom:

After Lightroom:

This picture of Eli was my very first Lightroom project - not perfect...but better than the original.

Before Lightroom:

There are SO many problems with this picture, I know. But for some reason I absolutely love it - I love the luck involved that made his face even a little bit in focus, and I love the fuzziness showing the action...and of course that great big smile.. I love it!

After Lightroom - even better!

I wish I had the worlds biggest wall to frame every favorite picture I have.....

Before Lightroom:

From our trip to Big Bear Lake back in 2004

After Lightroom

Before Lightroom

After Lightroom

This was my shout out to Kevin - for allowing me to spend a few hours on the computer and leaving him in charge of the kiddos!  THANKS BEBE!

Anyway - I KNOW these are NOT perfect pictures...but they are definately impoved! It makes me want to take pictures of everything!

yikes - I better go....that sounded like something breaking....

We are still alive!

Hey everyone - yes, are still alive. FOUR MONTHS since my last post...that is just terrible. I should be ashamed of myself.

But even now, as I force myself to just pop online for a quick little post - its already 10 pm and the baby is about to wake up to be fed AGAIN so I have to make this short and sweet.....

We had family pictures taken and I adore them. Especially now since we captured Eli's beautiful smile BEFORE he fell in the bathrub and chipped his front tooth - on a friday night no less so now I have to wait through the weekend praying he doesnt lose his tooth completely and swallow the stupid thing....

ANYWAY - back to the pictures - They are great. THANKS TO OUR FRIENDS AT SHUFF PHOTOGRAPHY for such a great time at the park despite the toddler meltdowns!  This was Noah "NO!! I DONT WANT TO DO IT!! I DONT WANT TO SIT!! I DONT WANT TO SMILE!!!!"

But you would never know it from the photos....lol

They turned out great guys - thanks!

Here are a feew of the kids - and let me know if any of you want any copies! I will mail some out hopefully before next Christmas....HA!

My dream.......

I think in my former life I must have been a decorator....not because Im any good at it - but only because thats all I seem to think about lately. Well, between feeding the boys, cleaning up poop, wiping off spit up, saving one of their lives, cleaning up thrown food, cleaning up toys and then feeding the boys again...between all that I sit back and think about all the things I would do in terms of decorating....ya know..in my free time. HA! I have been CRAZY with DIY ideas - I never thought about it before, but maybe thats my "happy place" - just go off to lala land where the walls are neutral, finishes are dark, and the fabric and light, fresh and geometric....a Candace Olson Oasis...(sigh).

Oh, where was I? Anyway, I found this inspiration room. It has the same bones that my bedroom does so Im gonna go with it - and its beautiful too. Of course, THIS room probably has about a $20,000 dumbed into it......and Im going to try to copy it for a fraction of the cost. And when I say Fraction - I mean like less than $700 when its all said and done (insert sarcastic laughter here!). Im thinking lots of DIY and craigslist finds.  But, from what I have found so far (nesting tables and workable dressers on CL , all for less than $300 so far) - I think I can HACK it! The biggest DIY's will be the headboard and the dressers - I found these lovely mirrored dresser look-alikes here and/or here (have you seen the prices of the real things!!! CRIMINAL!). And the headboard - well I have a plan for that too....coming soon!! baby crying....gotta go!

**Thanks to a few of my favorite blogs: Pearl Street Interiors and Blissfully Domestic for the very clever DIY's!

Bigfoot, Soccer and Slides OH MY!

Noah has discovered Monster Trucks - he loves them....even sleeps with them. He gets to pick a new Monster Truck out of his Treasure Chest (when he fills his good behavior sticker chart) and for the next several weeks - thats all the wants to play with! It goes to the store with us, it takes a bath, it sleeps with him, it goes on play dates, it - goes - everywhere with us! Our church recently had a grand opening event and there was a monster truck RIDE there. Kevin took Noah to ride in the back of a REAL Monster Truck - he LOVED IT!!!! I thought he would be too scared, but no.......oh no.....he talks about it STILL and asks where the truck is every time we go to church now!

They also had horses playing soccer - WHO KNEW?!??!?!

Also, we fell in love with great big blow up slides this summer. There is a place we can take our kids ($7 per child) and jump for about 2 hours on different kids of slides and mazes and trampolines. Its called PUMP IT UP - and its almost like Heaven according to Noah. Its pretty much a room with padded walls and fun things where you can let your kid go wild without too much worry. So its almost like Heaven according to ME too! EXCEPT when your child climbs all the way to the top of the tallest slide and then gets too scared to slide down - and you have to climb up there and rescue him but then realize that the only way down is ....down the very large steep slide with all your adult friends waiting down at the bottom watching ....and waiting...and waiting some more. I might have heard crickets....Well, its not so graceful looking as an adult, let me tell you. We went so fast (I had both boys on my lap) that we went OFF the slide OVER the emergency brake bumper and landed flat on our tooshies on the padded mat on the floor...people laughed. After that - Noah looked at me and said "LETS DO THAT AGAIN MOMMY!!!!!!" and he was a blur of motion and crazy happiness after that. - its the best $7 I ever spent...the both slept like ROCKS!!!

The down side - Every family we went with got sick with a stomach bug for the entire rest of the week. But, it must have been worth it because we are all going again this month!

two favorite things all at once - eating & sleeping!

I didnt bring my good camera however...but I will next time!  In the meantime, here are some pictures I have been taking of the three little beasts...

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Noah loves this thing!

Jonah just being adorable!

Eli Eli oh!

Eli right after a hair cut from Meme

Eli - what a character! He loves anyone with food. This child will eat his college savings. I will have to get another job just to pay his grocery bill!  He has started to say his first words - is actual first being cracker - no surprise there! But he says, DADDY, JACKS, BYE BYE, JUICE, BALL, MAMA (rarely), UP, BALL, Bath.......most of which just sound like BAH. But we understand.....its mommy magic. He loves to copy people, sounds, movements, and he will ask "WHAS AH?" (whats that?) and he will say "GAJAH" (good job!) when he is proud of himself. He likes to sing and tried to join in once he learns the word and sound pattern - his current favorite is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Eli is definately our climber. I catch him trying to climb the strangest things - I had to pull him out of a basketball hoop just the other day - he got stuck. He is relentless - STUBBORN - OBSESSED with pushing buttons. (actual TV buttons...not my buttons!) And damn the consequences! He will put up with a hand smack just to push those buttons - they are TOO tempting! But, when things get serious and he gets angry - his fits amaze me. I just stand back and watch in awe - Wow...how can something so NEW to this earth feel such hurt and anger? Kicking and screaming on the floor with big fat tears pouring off his red puffy cheeks. Its quite a show! I almost want to give him a high - five when its all over!  The terrible twos are going to be F.U.N with this one.

Favorite way to watch TV #1

Favorite way to watch TV #2

Learning to use a spoon

But 90% of the time, Eli is a pretty cool cat. He is very independent, quick to temper but easy to please,  and just goes with the flow. He rocks....

Jonah - well he just sleeps all the time still so he's easy!

Bringing Jonah Home

We got to be together at home as a family for a whole two weeks before Jonah got sick.  I picked him up one morning and thought to myself that he maybe felt a tiny bit warm. So I took his temp - 100.7 - I called his Dr and he told me to take him to the ER right away. Thats not an easy thing to swallow. Because my first thought was "Really, for a temp of only 100.7??  Cant we just give him tylenol?"  Buuuuttt - apparently not. We ended up spending 14 days in the hospital. Turns out, Jonah drew the lucky number (again) - 1 out of every 1 billion infant boys get a UTI - Jonah was the 1.  AND he became SEPTIC to top it all off. (I really dont remember the stats - but I do remember it being pretty rare).  The poor little guy had to have all sorts of ugly tests run - x-rays, blood work, spinal taps, cathiters (7 total - ouch!), picc line......

Jonah in hospital - feeling MUCH better!

This was were I lived for 2 weeks

BUT, all the while, I was thankful - it could have been much much worse.  We came very close to losing him as it was and we felt very blessed that it didnt get any more serious. I know a few mothers who lost their babies this summer - one to SIDS, and more than one to miscarriages....so needless to say, there was a very real fear of losing our tiny baby, but we were blessed indeed.

My heart breaks in a whole new way for each of my dear mommy friends who still hurt from their losses - Im still praying for each of you!!!

We are all home and healthy now.......the real fun begins!

All the boys together (43 pictures and only ONE turns out a tiny bit decent!)

We had some issues with Noah at first, but we worked through them and things are back to normal. He is such a good big brother - really he is. He has such a big tender heart and loves to play with his brothers. It could be playing chase with Eli or kissing Jonahs head, hands or feet - he adores his brothers. I wonder how long that will last??? Eli will be bigger than Noah - there is no doubt - and he will get his revenge!    

Stuck in a stepstool - started out funny....didnt end that way

Summer Summary

Here is a (not so short as it turns out) Summary of our 2010 Summer - so far....Eli turned 1 year old, we  survived another season of toddler teething, Noah turned 3 years old, we built our first wood working project - a train table for the kiddos (love it!). Then a week later we were surprised by the early arrival of our new little man - Jonah Robin Davis born 6-26-2010 weighing 5 lbs 12oz.

And what a dramatic arrival it was! whew! Thankfully we didnt have any MAJOR complications - just a bunch of small annoying ones.....Breech, version procedure (Not fun......at all.) Then Dr induced me and my epidural did freaky things to the upper half of my body instead of putting my lower half asleep.  And when they were trying to fix that I suppose I blacked out cause I woke up with a ton of panicking nurses around me.  One of which was holding the sick pan up to my mouth (which I was using very well I might add) - and I will never forget that part because she must have been eating a burger cause all I could smell was onions on her hands! And that did NOT help me in the throwing up department....

Apparently my blood pressure dropped really low - Dr called it a reaction to the epidural - They said it was rare I must have drawn the lucky number. SO - as my labor progressed ...my epidural didnt....and I got the pleasure of having a semi natural child birthing experience. I did a lot of praying and promising the good lord above that I will do ANYTHING He wants for the rest of my life as long He made the pain stop coming.....I owe Him a lot of favors these days.  The Dr had to threaten me with emergency C-section because I couldnt push the right way - he busted out the suctions and like magic - Jonah arrived. He was tiny but healthy and thats all we asked for! Praise Jesus! (lol)

All in all - it was the hardest and scariest delivery for me so far - but the easiest to recover from!

On our way to the hospital! yikes

Here are some pictures:

Jonah - day one

Jonah and tired Mommy

Angry.....ggrrrr

This is my driveway - my brand new driveway. Not that I was really sentimental about my driveway like a wacko - but once it was covered in TAR tire marks - I was sad and really missed my nice clean driveway. The city decided to RETAR our street - without so much as a warning or a headsup to anyone who lives on this street. I turned our corner and suddenly found myself on very fresh TAR. And with the kids in the car I couldnt see any way around NOT pulling into my driveway so I could get them in the house and out of the 111 degree heat. WHO PUTS TAR DOWN IN 111 DEGREES ANYWAY?!?!?!

SO - this happened 9 days ago...and I have been staring at it for 9 days with my anger growing everyday. So finally - today was only 95 so I gave it try to clean it up on my own. Supplies: Mineral Spiritys, scrub brush, scraper, sand, and a pressure washer from a neighbor who saw me scrubbing and felt sorry for me. TWO HOURS later I had about a 5 foot section SOMEWHAT cleaned up.

So I decided to give it a rest and sent a very unfriendly email to the city for some help. Im not a big complainer - but with THREE little ones I will NEVER find enough time to clean all this up on our own and the whole situation could have been avoide if the city had been courteous enough to give us SOME KIND of warning!

Sigh...Im calming down.

What a waste of time!!!

Here is where I have been wasting most of my time lately - blogs.....lots of blogs...Im blog crazy lately. THATS BLOGGING CRAZY! yep - thats me....but here are my favorite new heros.

http://www.knock-offwood.com/

she needs a cape and screw gun because I'm her #1 fan!

http://www.designspongeonline.com/

LOVE LOVE LOVE the DIY section - super huge waste of time......

Well - my eldest child is freaking out because my youngest woke up before him (the NERVE!) so I better go for now....duty calls. Where's MY cape????

Oh yeah, and another quicky favorite - my future theme song!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4
Noah actually ASKS to listen to and watch this video - he loves it.....HA!

Its me again....

HALLOWEEN?!?!?!? You gotta be kidding me! I could have sworn my last post was just last week...kidding - its been a while...a long while...I am ashamed. Well - as you all know I've been a bit busy, so there! We've had a few holidays, a trip to Texas, a soon to be three year old (I cant believe that!) and now a walking toddler, unexplained rashes, fevers, some puke here and there, pink eye, and a soon to be newborn in the house.

And here I am 8 months pregnant looking for projects to get done before BB3 gets here - no we do not have a name...so he is called BB3 - Baby Boy #3.

I find myself spending all my time planning these HUGE projects and leave myself too tired to actually get them done. I suppose I had forgotten just how tired the third trimester can leave you - I am seriously ready for bed by 8pm. Screw Silence - Naptime Is Golden in this house!!

Im driving poor Kevin crazy with all my ideas - sewing curtains, beginning woodworking projects, painting fountains, refinished dressers...yes, Im a little DIY crazy lately. BB3 just around the corner is leaving me a little panicky about my ME time - so I suppose Im just trying to squeeze it all in in a matter of weeks before I am unable to do anything but take care of preschoolers, toddlers and infants OH MY!

my motto will be "There's no place like Home Depot"

Eli is up and walking - actually he cracks me up - he is a bottomless pit that eats twice what you think is humanly possible - and as I type this he is standing at the cabinet door putting the door pull in and out of his mouth....and laughing about it. Kids are special....lol

Anyway - I just wanted to let everyone know that we are still alive - and sorry its been a while since we posted last....hope you can forgive me! Who knows when I will be back though - Enjoy some pictures while you can! lol

Halloween Happenings...or not happenings.

Halloween .....hmmm.... How does a person explain Halloween to a two year old? I mean, seriuosly, if I were pint sized and most everything is new and huge to me than I suppose I would be terrified too. So I dont blame Noah for absolutely refusing to wear his halloween costume that I spent a few days....DAYS...... making and then REmaking. I blame myself for expecting him to wear it happily and pose perfectly for precious keepsake pictures. It was definately one of those times when you ask yourself - What was I thinking?

I guess I should have known how it would all play out after the way he flipped out over ME wearing the fireman uniform. And when he woke up from his nap on the afternoon of Halloween and saw my face painted up like a butterfly - he screamed "NO MOMMY - I DONT LIKE BUTTERFLY - TAKE IT OFF - TAKE IT OFF NOW MOMMY!!!" Maybe that should have been my second clue to just give up....but no, I stood strong. I knew my child could be brave and obedient and carry out the task of being the cutest darn caterpillar the world has ever seen....

So after I called in the services of DADDY to hold his screaming crying self down while I shoved and tugged and struggled to get this costume over his wiggling squirming body for a good 15 minutes - we were still unsuccessful. Toddler - 1, Mommy - 0 ....again.

By this time I was half an hour late to the party that I was supposed to provide games and activities for - and of course Kevin recieved an important business call right at the time he could have been helping me load up a still crying half dressed caterpillar and a hungry infant; along with the camera, stoller, picnic basket full of halloween goodies and of course the diaper bag. So Im sweating off my face paint and really hating my 'brillant' ideas and wondering WHY I even try so hard in the first place....

However - the kids still had a great time at the park and wore themselves out - so when we got home I pretty much hog tied Noah to the floor (easier to do now that he has lost some off his energy!) and forced on the rest of The Very Hungry Caterpiller costume and Kevin was able to snap a few not so perfect pictures - but still...at this point, all I wanted was a picture - any picture - and then a large glass of wine.

Its hard to look pissed off with a butterfly painted on your face - but I think I pulled it off nicely. (I was tired from my death grip around his ribs trying to keep him still for this picture!)

Firehouse Tour

We took a tour of a local Firehouse today with the MOMS Club we belong to. Its very close to our friends Laura's and Emory's house so we just walked over from there. And as soon as we walked in front of the station Noah hid behind my legs and planted his face into my behind! I should have known then that this was going to be ugly......

This is me looking like Im doing the ROBOT dance in fireman suit (dork) but there is Noah crying very heavily asking me to take it off RIGHT NOW

This doesnt look like the face of a little boy having a good time....

Actually - all of the little kids were a bit nervous about all the new things going on, but Noah takes the cake for biggest flip out of the day. Thats ok - we still love him! :0)

The crew of 11 were SO nice and patient with all of our kids running all over the place and I know deep down Noah had a really great time - he talked about it all day long and even asked if we could go back tomorrow. Crazy kid.....

Eli just chilled out with Miss Laura or myself being content and sleepy - he didnt care. :0)

LET THERE BE PICTURES!!!!!!

Its not much - but Eli is 5 months old now and that realization made me break out the camera for a few snap shots!