I want to tell you all about Christmas, but really I don't. So, instead, I'll just do a few of the highlights that I enjoyed the most:

On Christmas Eve we went to Grandma's house, as we do every year. Taryn's first present was a Stacey and Kelly doll set (Barbie's cousin and little sis) that I honestly didn't think she'd care much for, as I thought she was still too young for them. Upon FINALLY getting them out of the package (all those STUPID twist ties and tape!), I found that A: Taryn was in fact old enough to carry them around with a tight grip on them the ENTIRE time we were there, and B: Taryn could have cared less about any of her other gifts! So, I was forced to open the rest of her gifts and pretend to be surprised for Taryn. (Note the doll in her hand)


TJ got a Hullabaloo game, and we played it at Grandma's house with my brother's g/f's 4 year old son. We had SO much fun! I can't wait to play it again.


TJ woke up on Christmas morning, and Trey asked him if Santa had come. There were clearly presents out where he could see them in the living room, in front of the tree. He perused the living room quickly, then came back and said, "No," then crawled right back into bed. Trey told him to look again, and his reply was, "Santa Claus won't come unless it snows." Uhh, yeah kid, you might wanna rethink that theory. If that's the case, Santa ain't EVER coming! We don't get snow here!

While he was opening his presents Christmas morning, he said,
"Wow, Mommy, we're getting a LOT of presents!"
"Yep, we sure are, TJ."
"Why? Do we need all these presents?"
"No, not necessarily. Do you want me to take them back?"
"NO!"
You just had to be there, it was funny.

Taryn got a talking Chou Chou doll at her Nana's house. I put its bib on it, and it started saying it was hungry. So I fed it. Then it said it was hungry again. I fed it again. It proceeded to tell me it was hungry about a thousand times, and I was starting to get pissed. So I put it far away from me so it couldn't beg me for food anymore. Later, I learned that the stuff for the doll comes with little chips in them that make the doll say certain things when you put them near it. Had I just taken off the bib, she would have just told me she loved me over and over again!


Later, Trey's dad was playing with the doll and shaking it around by its arms. At the same time I looked over and saw him doing that, Cole started crying. It didn't hit me that he was playing with the doll, and I thought he was swinging Cole around!

My neice got a cell phone and an Ipod. She's not even 13 yet! This scares me!


My neice, KK, is SOOOOOO cute!



TJ loves his new digital camera, and his pictures could be considered, well...art.


TJ does not like getting clothes for Christmas presents, which was illustrated by the fact that everytime he got any, he'd launch them at my head from across the room!

Someone obviously messed up on Trey's size. I don't think those are quite gonna fit!



Even a new diamond necklace can't make everyone happy. At least she looks nice, though!


Todd, Trey's brother, really loves his baby girl!


Oh, and the final great gift of this Christmas: my kids are at their Nana's house till next Monday! Well, TJ and Taryn are. It's been SO quiet around here. Cole is getting spoiled by lots and lots of attention from his Mommy and Daddy, and Taryn and TJ are getting spoiled by lots of attention from their Nana and getting to play with their cousins. I'm getting spoiled by getting to take naps during the day! It's win-win for everyone!

Karla had her baby today!!! Probably most of you have no idea why this is such exciting news, but trust me, it's AWESOME! Little Nate Cadeau has come into the world! I can hardly wait to see pics. I'm so happy for Mark and Karla.

Speaking of new additions, did I happen to mention we got two new family members this past week?


Introducing, Butch and Tippy. They are TJ and Taryn's new kittens. I can now add "Crazy Pizza Lady" to my list of appropriate nicknames. Last weekend I was working, and at one house they had the cutest little kitten. Taryn's obsessed with cats, so I've been thinking about getting her one. However, since Trey is allergic, we'd have to get a kitten so it could start taking baths young. Plus, since our kids are so little, it would have to be young enough to not be set in its ways and be able to handle kids (these kittens LOVE my kids!). So, not able to get the cute kitten out of my mind, I went back later and asked them where they got it, to see if there were more that I could get one of. That was the only kitten their cat had had, but they had a friend down the street trying to get rid of some. My intention was to only get one, but they really didn't want to separate them if they didn't have to, and dammit, they were SO cute! TJ and Taryn named them themselves. TJ originally wanted to name his TJ, but I explained that would be too confusing, so he picked Butch (?). I asked Taryn what she wanted to name hers, and she said, "Tippy," which I had never heard her say before. So, that was that. For now, they are living in the playroom upstairs until I can start washing them and get them declawed (we have leather furniture). The kids spend so much more time in the playroom now, too, so I won on both fronts. I'd forgotten how catty cats smell, and I must say that you can really smell them, and I'm not even talking about the litter.

Last but not least, we made a gingerbread house the other day. Trey and I kind of took over b/c TJ and Taryn were much more interested in eating all the candy. I did, however, get a couple of cute pics of them while we were working on it.





I hope you have a great day, and a MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Ahhhh, sickness has left our family, and we are on our way to an attempt at being normal again. Trey found out that he tore three tendons and has a cyst, but in about a week or so it should be alright. Thank goodness! I was worried I'd have to go out and get one of those "breadwinner" jobs or something! I was trying to imagine Trey raising the kids while I went to work, and, well, it ain't happenin'! I've been working two jobs this week (I think I may be subbing for newspaper carriers soon, if I do a good job this week on the route I'm doing), and it's killing me. Well, I should say three, if you call keeping the kids all day a job (and I surely do!).

So, only five more days left till Christmas. Yes, I count Christmas Eve b/c we go to Grandma's and open presents then. I'm completely done w/my shopping, and I couldn't be more excited to see if everyone likes what they get. I played w/TJ's telescope that finally came in today, and I know he'll love it. Is it wrong that I'm probably more excited about what the kids are getting than they are? Now comes the fun of wrapping everything. What's so wrong with giving gifts to people w/just a little bow on them? If only...

Oh, and I finally got the camera I ordered off eBay, too. I got it used for $50. My old one was about shot. It kept cutting off, half the time when you had just put in new batteries and turned it on. This one is Kodak, which I think are the BOMB! It even came with the memory card and a set of rechargeable batteries. I took some pics of the kids sleeping last night, and now, along with you, we shall see how good they came out.




These were all done on Auto setting. I was just playing with some of the different ones, and I can make them look much better with some indoor and darkness ones instead of the auto setting. I think this camera and I are in for fun!

I just read Julia's blog post telling all the stuff they've been working on lately. I'm impressed. I, on the other hand, will be telling you all the stuff we've NOT been working on...well, rather, why we haven't gotten anything accomplished lately...

So, Casa de Pitchford is not a place you want to be lately. It all started a couple weeks ago when everyone managed to get a cold. Seems harmless enough, and it was for the most part, except for the constant flow of snot from Taryn's nose, and the constant congestion in Cole's. It was booger heaven here...or maybe hell.

Then, two Saturdays ago, Trey was running through the street in the middle of the night (don't ask) and stepped in a hole. When I saw him he was lying on the ground in front of our neighbor's house, and I thought he was trying to be seductive or something (he is strange like that). Nope, he had sprained his ankle. Within minutes it was swollen to the size of a grapefruit and bruised. We suffered through the weekend, and took him to the dr. on Monday. He was told to keep off of it for a couple of days and he'd be fine, or so we thought...

Jump to this week. Cole is still congested, although Taryn is not a snot faucet anymore, thankfully. Trey, however, is still swollen and bruised, with the bruising moving up his leg and down to his toes. Not supposed to happen. He went back to the dr. Monday, and is now scheduled for an MRI tomorrow, and has a splint on his leg. He is in constant pain, and can do very little that involves any movement. Oh, and I forgot to mention that it seems that little Cole managed to find himself a stomach virus last week which thus made him not eat and spit up/puke all the time, mixed with a variety of new cries we hadn't heard before. When I work, which is every night but Saturday this week, I have to find somewhere to send Cole, b/c Trey can't handle all three of them since he can't walk.

So, yesterday, Cole finally started to eat again, and boy was he hungry! He's sucked down every bottle he's gotten, and always seems like he wants more (till you make more, that is...). Naturally, then, I would go to work comfortable in the fact that my baby was not sick and Trey could handle the two kids he had. When I got the call that Taryn was puking her brains out, I was completely unprepared, and definitely not up for the task. She proceeded to puke about five times last night, all on Trey's watch, and once again this morning (so far) all over me. Trey was also so kind as to call and let me know that he will be coming home from work soon (his first day back since his last attempt last Friday that wasn't so successful), as he has been puking since he woke up this morning. Thankfully, though, we're all done with the colds...

That, my friend, is why I haven't taught my kids anything in a while. Nor have I worked on home economics such as laundry, dishes, etc. As much as I'd love to see you, please don't come over, as I think it'd be harmful to your health. I pray that DSS doesn't come to visit (why would they, but you never know!), b/c they will find a sick, dirty house. Alright, it's really not that bad, but...

So I hope you're having a wonderful week, and I will be back when I find another spare second.

PS-Did I mention that leather couches are the BEST? I'll let you figure that one out...

So I was very sure that my kids HAD to see Santa Claus this year. Last year we didn't get around to it, but TJ wasn't quite sure who he was yet, and Taryn was just plain little. However, TJ is very sure who he is now, and had a whole little speech prepared to let him know what he wants for Christmas:

"I want a telescope, a real camera, and a milkshake."

I found a website that said they had Santa in downtown Summerville on Saturday mornings, and you could take your own picture. How perfect is that? I hate going to the mall and standing in line for four hours to spend $50 for one stupid picture! So off we went. Fortune of all fortunes, Julia had also decided to go at the same time with her kids! We found the door to the Santa place, and were quickly met with much more than we had bargained for.

I figured it would be a few people coming and going and you could just kinda casually go up to see Santa while shopping. I did not figure we would be in line for over an hour waiting in a hot building. Thank goodness my mom and Julia were there, b/c I couldn't have done it w/o them! Andrew is AWESOME, too, as he kept an eye on Taryn for me. Once we got near the front, Taryn got really excited about being there, and kept trying to push her way in to get to Santa. Then we got to the front and our turn, and she freaked out and wouldn't go up to him! Kids are so funny! TJ went right up and sat on his lap and told him his prepared speech. Sadly, Santa wasn't listening at the moment, and five minutes later asked TJ what he wanted for Christmas....Of course, now TJ wasn't listening, so all was well.


After we survived that, and I do mean survived, we went home to rest before we were off again to my Aunt Barbara's church to see their "Gospel of Scrooge" play. It was pretty good, but VERY long. It started at six and we didn't get out until almost NINE! I kept thinking, "Hmmm, I don't remember this much about God being in Scrooge." Then I remembered I was in a church! DUH!

So, it's been a long day, and I'm pooped. I'll see you later. Have a great day!

Taryn getting ready to go. She promptly took the pigtails out...

I finally got off my big fat butt and dragged the kids to church today. I can't use that "I'm pregnant" excuse anymore. I had been going to my old church when we first moved here, but they didn't have quite what I was looking for as far as what I want for the kids. So I've been planning to go to the Methodist church across the street since I decided not to go there anymore, b/c I know they have an awesome kids program there (my friend goes there, and sends her kids to preschool there). I had no idea how UTTERLY HUGE the church actually is! I think she told me they have over 3000 members there! It took me half an hour to go pick up all three kids after church today. Everyone of them was on a different hall, and all three halls were a maze away from the sanctuary. I miss my pastor in Columbia, though. I loved the service, and the choir was awesome. The people were all very, very nice. However, the pastor was, well, just a little more "passionate" than I like. He was more about the "what have you done" kinda sermon instead of the way Pastor Jones was, where he would tell a story and something funny and we'd all get it. I loved that about him. He was such a great guy. Anyway, though, I suppose I'll get used to it.

Needless to say, everyone was so helpful, which I needed since the church was so big and easy to get lost in. Cole's room was brand new, and being one of only a small few newborns, he got one-on-one attention, which I'm 100% sure he loved. Taryn went to the walker room, and was just very barely old enough to be there. She must have loved it, though, b/c when I went to get her, everytime I'd try to leave she'd run back. I ended up having to carry her out in one arm, and Cole's carrier and everything else in my other hand! She didn't like that too much!

The highlight, however, was my baby TJ. He came to the service w/me, and a little ways in left w/all the other 3-5 year olds to go to Children's Church. I really didn't think he'd be too keen on the idea of just going off w/a big group of people and not me, but he was fine w/it (which, of course, was a tiny bit upsetting...don't you need your Mommy, TJ?). They had Communion later, and, lo and behold, at the end they walked in all the kids from Children's Church! There was TJ, walking ever so maturely in line w/all the other children. Then he went up to the front of the church and took Communion all by himself (you know, w/all the other kids, of course!). I'm not going to deny that I got very teary-eyed. My baby just took his first Communion! He's getting so big! He bashfully smiled at me and went back to his class. I thought for sure he would come talk to me or something...When did he get so big? Look at me, I'm getting all teary-eyed again. What is wrong with me!? He had fun, though, and even drew a pic of a space ship (which looks eerily like a big, orange scribble to me, but...). When I went to pick him up, I asked him what he did in class, and he said, "We went to the bathroom before we left." Well, I'm glad to see he enjoyed some aspect of it!

The rest of the day was inconsequential. I've been so wrapped up in TJ's growing up that I can think of nothing else. Sure, it seems small, really, but it's also such a BIG thing! What next? College? Children? I can't take it! I think now I'm just going to go look at Cole some more and remember how small he still is!

I hope you have a great day, and I'll see you soon!