Summer is over!!

Once again the school year has started. I can't believe that the summers keep going by faster and faster every year.

This fall is bringing some new adjustments for our kiddos. Reagan was added to the 'school aged' bunch this year. She trotted off to kindergarten with a huge smile on her face-so ready to be a big kid!!

Rinnah will also make the big jump into preschool starting next week. This will be the hardest adjustment-at least for the Mama:) She will be going to a special education classroom, which will give her tons of new learning experiences. Mommy is just worried about sending her 'baby' off to school! I probably need to concentrate more on how I will spend my new free time:)

Well, that's a short update for now!

Hope you are all adjusting to the chilly weather and orange school buses!!

Parenting Update...

Well, Reagan is indeed a very smart girl. It only took one more night on the floor to figure out that a nice soft bed is worth a few less tantrums. We are ever so proud of Reagan as she keeps smiles on our faces with her "nice girl" attitude.

Oh the joys of parenthood...I can't wait until Reagan is a teenager;)

A Bed is a Privilege...???

I'm going to skip the polka-dotted girls post for now, due to the distress of our most recent parenting battle.

Our darling little Reagan has suddenly come into the need for many nights of battling the bedtime rage. She seems to be such a sweet pixie of a girl until the sun goes down and bedtime nears. Then she becomes something out of a nasty horror film. The screams, kicking, hitting, silent growling stares...I could go on and on. I really have never seen anything like it. Her energy for these bedtime fits is quite impressive. We keep thinking that she will just tire herself out and fall asleep-but it never happens. The girl has some major talent!

So what do we do? We asked ourselves this question each time we reached what we deemed to be the end of the line. And finally it dawned on me that having a soft bed to sleep on is a privilege. When we had finally taken away the last tangible object, we were left with the bed.

Can we really do this? Is it even legal? Why, yes we can!

And yes we did!

I really can't believe it! It was one of the worst nights of parenting I can remember. Telling this cherub faced preschooler that she lost the privilege of owning a bed. She would now be sleeping on a blanket in the bathroom(room choice for obvious reasons after 100 requests to go to the bathroom in order to leave her bed)

Just one night is all it took to earn back her lovies and water bottle. Last night at bedtime she said "Since I was good today do I own a water bottle now?" What a smart little cookie:)

Tonight we are setting the stage for a trip back to her actual bed. But, remember, it is a privilege-most easily stripped away again.

I can't believe this is happening in my house!!!

I Haven't Forgotten

Don't Worry! I haven't forgotten you little blog. Just busy busy busy these days:) I am working on a great post about my polk-a-dotted girls...just guess what that means?????

Later Gator.....

'R' Kids

I have spent the day reflecting on how lucky Jared and I are to have these beautiful kids in our lives. In the past two days Rinnah has made my heart skip a few beats with another new symptom to add to our never-ending list of medical questions and this morning she took a fast trip down the stairs onto her precious little head. It really makes me think about how thankful I am for these crazy beasts:)





I love the picture (above) because it captures the kids at their best. Just having fun and enjoying being kids on Christmas Eve. They were sooo excited to put out cookies and milk for Santa! I'm not sure those smiles could get any bigger.





Now I'm off to make sure these precious little blessings are staying in their beds(wish me luck!) and hopefully get Rinnah to stop sticking this blasted Dora sticker on my face. I'm trying to blog here child...OMG she just said 'MA'! Another little blessing!!!





I wasn't even done typing and Reagan is already down here asking Rinnah to "keep and eye on my puppy". You would think we had an actual dog. To bed with you....NOW!

New Year....New Look....New Ideas!

Update:
I'm getting the kinks worked out with backgrounds and color. I'll have to make it fancy another day;) Off to work! More later...


Another year has passed me by, and still I am pondering how I can fit blogging into my life. I'm going to try a new approach in the hopes that I will stick with it. Instead of keeping this blog fairly anonymous, I have decided to open up and "be real". And by that, I mean using our real names, places, etc. I think part of me just couldn't keep writing about these imaginary names. I also want to be more real about the issues we deal with as a family every day. This way I can keep family and friends up to date on all of our happenings.

Who knows if I will succeed? Wish me luck!

Welcome to my new and improved blog...

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day to all you great daddy's out there. I'm hoping that Jay and I can take the kids to the lake today, but I guess it's supposed to rain:( We'll just have to think of another way to celebrate.

I woke up this morning to find the kids happily wrapping Father's Day gifts in Christmas paper. Ooh so proud of their little homemade gifts! Now they have to try to wake Jay up!!!

Just a few other things...One of the blogs I have a link to ended up being a big hoax. What a bummer!! I hope that in the future I can be more aware of things like that.

But I would like to you to keep praying for a family that is very close to my heart. They are friends of ours from college days and have a sweet little daughter Lucy who is going through a lot right now. The link is on my profile page-All the Marletts.

Hope you all have a great day!

Sweet New Phone!!!

Hello again! I took a little Twitter break while friends and I had a garage sale. But now I'm back and I've got a sweet new phone. Just stopped in to the Sprint store to see what kind of upgrade I could get. I left 20 minutes later with a great purple Rant. Better keyboard and camera than the one I had. Now the kids are happy because the home phone is now my 'old' Rumor. They will probably be texting all the time now too!

Only four days of school left for the big kids. Hope got done with preK last week. I'm not sure that this mommy is ready for summer! I will be very busy with Faith and Lola toddling around. Just thinking about all the meals, snacks, entertainment, swim lessons, camps....makes me a little sick to my stomach.

Off to work I go. Hope Jay and the kids have a wonderful evening:)

A New Day

Thought it was about time to do some spring cleaning over here at my blog. Or maybe it is just my way of procrastinating any cleaning I may or may not be doing at my house.

When I started this blog I intended to write a diary of sorts to help me work thru the frustrations of having four kids-two with special needs. I have come to find out that my intentions were good, but my blogging abilities have something to be desired.

Now I have landed in the reality of loving to read other peoples blogs and yet not having the time to update my own very often. I also tried Twittering and I am having a lot of fun with that. Facebook is another great time sucker that I just can't stay connected with. I don't know why...all my friends are doing it?!

So if you are reading this-I applaud you for sticking with me. Leave a note and let me know you were here.

For now I will leave a few prayer requests for you religious types:

Lola is having an MRI and some other testing tomorrow. She is such a little sweetie and I hate the thought of her being sad. Please pray for her and that the tests will bring long awaited answers.

I have been following two blogs with little ones who need prayer. Stellan could use prayer for his heart and April Rose could use prayer as she enters this world soon with Trisomy 18.

Also little Lucy is having many tests and appts this week. Pray for answers!

And for the Lockwood family as they travel back Mexico with their 12 little ones.

HAVE A GREAT THURSDAY!

Dangers at McDonalds!

So here is the story-

I went to McD's at Hope's request. Pulled into the drive-thru and started to order. Waited patiently for a response from the speaker that my order had been heard....nothing..."Hello?"...nothing....I am waaaaay too patient..."Hello?"...nothing...finally I give up. I circle the restaurant and reenter the drive-thru. Decide too late that I should switch to the other drive-thru lane, so I stop and reverse (there was nobody behind me).

Here comes the bad part...

I shift the truck into drive and swerve around their little cement median thingy (or at least I thought there was enough room to go around it). Next thing I hear is a horrible BUMP...CRUNCH...SCREECH from the underside of my truck. Everyone around McD's was looking at me-this I totally hate!!! I now can see the HUGE rock (that just destroyed part of my truck) in the median, possibly meant to ward away lane changers such as myself.

I make a quick decision to abort the mission at this McD's location and make a hasty exit while trying not to make eye contact with anyone who saw my mishap.

Just down the road is another McDonald's...
and my wonderful husband.
He took just one look at the damage and shook his head in dismay-without a single word about woman drivers.

Tweet Tweet

So as you may have noticed, I gave up on blogging around Christmas. I'm not really sure why, just didn't have the energy. So I thought I might try my hand at another great mode of communication-Twitter.

I'm stuck home sick right now, so what better to do than spend my time getting set up with Twitter and then blogging about it. ( What in the world did my own mother do when she was sick? ) Hopefully this will also inspire me to pick up blogging again.

I would love to hear from all of you out there. Motherhood is definitely a journey that can't be faced alone.

Hope to tweet you soon!

Merry Christmas!!

From our home to yours....

Have a blessed holiday season!!!

Way too long!

Well, it's been way too long since my last post. I have been struggling a bit with my typical winter blues, but it seems to have crept up on me early this year. It just makes every little thing just a bit harder to handle! So good 'ole Dr. B adjusted my dose ;) and now I seem to be back on track.

As always life just keeps flying by! The pic is from Thanksgiving. Aren't we just a happy little family:) The kids are now knee deep in their Christmas lists and counting the days. I was just on the upswing with cleaning and laundry after the whole lice fiasco when we all got the puking flu!!!! Can you even imagine the horror?! Five of the six people in this family were sick at the same time. Somehow Grace escaped-I swear she has an immune system made of steel!

I haven't finished Christmas shopping yet. I did get some Christmas cards/photos printed at Target. I have even delivered a few. That makes me feel good. Tonight I spent a lovely evening out to dinner with my favorite friends from work:) Our supervisor/friend treated us to a dinner without husbands and children-what a dream!! It was her Christmas gift to us. She is seriously the sweetest woman I know! I'm very lucky...

On a serious note, I have a few prayer requests for all of you religious types. My dear little Lola has been having some health issues. She has spent some days in the hospital and had many, many tests done. She will have more testing tomorrow. I just ask that you pray for answers and peace for her parents. She is a trooper and is still remaining very happy through this rough time.

And also prayers for a few more people I love who are experiencing health issues right now: my dad, my cousin, and baby Lucy. Thank you!

Introducing Lola!!!!!

This little darling is the latest addition to our clan. I started doing daycare for Lola at the beginning of September. It turned out to be such a blessing for all of us! She fits in with our family sooooo well. We miss her when she's not here!

Lola is the sweetest girl ever! She is always giving hugs and kisses to everyone. Her favorite things are her baby doll and balls. She is not even a year old and is already walking and saying many little words.

Faith and Lola are great friends already. They have huge smiles when Lola arrives in the morning and sometimes tears when she leaves. Her mommy and daddy miss her soooo much when they are at work, but we love having her as part of our family during that time.

The girls love playing the piano during the day. Here Hope is trying her best to "teach" them a song:)

This is what my days are all about. Two babies, two bottles, two nuks, lots of diaper and wipes!!! I have to say that it really is a joy. I did the two baby thing 9 years ago with RJ and Andy. It's amazing how much I missed it!

Welcome to the clan Lola!!!!

We love you!

Nit Picking!

I have a whole new appreciation for that phrase! Since Thursday morning I have been nit picking, hair washing, doing mountains of laundry, vacuuming, vacuuming, vacuuming and officially going crazy!!!!

I found lice in Hope's hair just before school on Thursday. I immediately went and picked up RJ and Grace from school. My worst fear has finally come true-all my kids have lice!!

OK, things could definitely be worse, but for someone who is constantly on the brink of OCD/anxiety overload this has got to be one of the worst things to happen. Even though Jay swears that there is nothing in my hair, I feel like Pigpen from the Charlie Brown cartoons-like there must be a cloud of flying bugs wafting around my head.

The worst part so far is that I have used the high powered shampoo twice on each of my kids and we are still finding live ones. I sure hope this is the very last time we do this!!!

Oh and just a side note, Jay had plans to go up to the family hunting cabin this weekend so I have been home alone with my creepy crawly children. This does not generally leave mommy in a very good mood!

I hope and pray that none of you ever have to do this!!!

And lastly, I stayed up late last night hoping that Tina Fey would brighten my weekend with yet another dead on impersonation of Sarah Palin. Well I got a rerun!! Not good enough!!!

MONDAY...

I know life is not always going to go as planned, but sometimes I just need a break! Last night I went to bed smiling after spending a wonderful weekend with my family. On Saturday Grace and I spent the day with friends at the MOA. It was a blissful day of all things pink and pretty. Two 7 yr olds with great new hairstyles and happy faces from lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Then on Sunday we spent the morning at our new church and the afternoon doing an all-family cleaning of the house. It was such a relief to have things tidied up!

So monday dawned early with crabby kids and a baby full of boogers. By just after breakfast I had Grace back in bed after she refused to get on the school bus. Faith was in the bathroom with Daddy trying to cough up one of her lungs and Hope was being her usually sassy self. Soon I had a Dr appt. made for Faith and I had pleaded several times with Grace to let me take her to school-but no, she still had a "tummy ache"!

It's now late afternoon. I just spent the last hour on the toilet-something about lunch was not appealing to my bowels(TMI). Grace finally went to school and is now home again:) Faith is fine, lungs are clear and she has coughed and puked up all of last nights phlegm. Hope is still sassy and is currently running aro-update:I was just informed that Hope just peed on the counter again!!!

Gotta Go!
Happy Monday!

A most wonderful day...

I can't even begin to explain what an incredible day I just had! I met my best friend Krissy at the MOA for some food and shopping. It had been a long time since we had been together without kids in tow. We traveled from baby store to baby store searching for the perfect outfit for Krissy's little princess due in December.



Needless to say we found many other things as well. I scored new PJ's at Old Navy!!! And a few too many things for my little princess's. I didn't find anything for RJ, which I feel a little guilty about. I think I need to take him on a shopping trip sometime soon. Nine yr old boys are really hard to shop for!!



Now for the excellent ending to my day, A trip to the airport to serve as an "Adoption Doula" for my friend Mama Sweetpea. Although I've witnessed the 'birth' of many families, this was a whole new experience. To see the joy in the eyes of three sweet brothers as they welcomed their long awaited sister was just about all I could handle! Mama Sweetpea and her hubby E had traveled to Ethiopia to bring back their little princess Sunshine. She greeted everyone with smiles and curiously touched her brother's faces. It was a very magical time for everyone!



If you want to read more about Mama Sweatpea's adoption journey visit her blog.

So now I am emotionally drained. It's time for bed and I can't wait to get into my new PJ's!

It's been a while....

I just can't find the time for this blog these days! The end of summer and the beginning of school has just wiped us out here at the Davis house.

The big kids are (un)happily settled into their school night routine. I'm havin' some fun during the day without so many kids to tend to.

I also started doing day care for my friend's daughter. She is just the sweetest little thing ever! She's 10 mo. old, so it's challenging with two babies. But we have not let that keep us down.

We have already spent a few mornings at the mall and Target:) And this week I'm having a garage sale with a few mommy friends. Maybe I'll make you guess how much I made?! It's less than Marie Green made, but enough to make me super happy!!!

Here are a few vacation pics I promised a while back. I still don't have a pic of my new ride:( so sad!!!

I'm off to watch a little TMNT with RJ. Wish me luck!!

SUMMERTIME!

OK, those that know me will not be floored by this- but otherwise hold on to your 90's mall bangs!

I saw the New Kids on the Block at the Mall of America last week:)

On a whim, Grace and I went to see the NKOTB perform and have "just girl time" at the MOA. It was soooooo fun!!! I was such a Blockhead back in the day. I think everyone should relive a little fun from their teen years now and then. What made it even more special was sharing the experience with Grace. She is just 7, so we haven't quite hit the boy crazy stage yet. But I know that in just a few years I may be driving her to a Jonas Bros. concert or whatever other hot group of teen boys is the latest craze by then. I can't wait!!



Here are a few pics, just in case there are a few closeted Blockheads out there somewhere:) ENJOY!!!

ps

We just got back from our summer vaca. After the next few days of reentry I will post some great pics of the kiddos!

Mama's got a new ride...

Hey guys!!! I'm sooo excited! After many years of driving my dear old friend "Superstar" aka-ugly green ford windstar, I am now sporting a sweet Ford Expedition! Now before you go all green on me- I know what kind of gas mileage I'm gonna get- HORRIBLE! But on the upside, I can transport my children and several friends safely...this is Very important to me. I have been a car seat technician for several years now and it has been driving me crazy that I can't get anywhere these days without putting some little innocent lives in danger. Now-problem solved...and mama's got power seats, cd changer, and auto start too!!!!

OK, enough about that, the summer continues to scoot by. We are anticipating a wonderful one week vaca starting this weekend. Nothing fancy, just laying around by the lake/pool for eight days!!! I even picked out a book today. It will be the first actual book I've read for enjoyment since Faith was born. It's so silly how excited I get about the simple things in life-like reading:)

Hope seems to have taken a step back and is now putting diapers on. I told her I was done changing diapers, so she puts them on herself! I hope that doesn't sound too mean, but the girl didn't have a single accident in over two weeks-and now she WANTS to wear diapers again. What a stinker!

Grace and RJ never want to go back to school. I have to admit that it's been great having them home, but they need to go back now:) I can only handle four kids 24/7 for a certain amount of time-three months is too long. Again, hopefully I don't sound like a horrible mother. I'm just the type that needs a little personal space once in a while to stay sane-and maybe a little Paxil!

Little Faith is still little! She is weighing in at a whopping 16# 12oz. The great news is that she is always making great progress in therapy. She's eating more solids and starting to make more sounds. She is signing for "more" and "bye bye" consistently. And just this week she started pulling herself up to standing~WooHoo~

I'll try to get a pic of my ride up soon...
Have a great week!