The Yarbrough 5

MATCHERS!

2011-01-25T17:06:00.001-06:00

Luke wore a plaid, button down shirt the other day. So did I.
And leave it to Morgan Jane to point out we were "Matchers!!!" (ala Diary Of A Wimpy Kid)

We had taken this pic of Jas and Bubs the other day as we were headed out to take him to school- they looked so cute! And I guess Morgan Jane thought it was hilarious. Mostly because we kept yelling "Matchers" every 5 seconds.

So I was sitting here on the computer with Luke in my lap, and she came up to me and said, "Mommy and Luke matchers. You take a picture and say 'matchers' okay?" Okay, I said and took out the camera to snap a quick shot of Luke and I by myself.

"No, no,no... I do it." Uh-oh.

But she was acting like such a big girl, so proud of herself for noticing and thinking that our shirts were worthy of "matchers"-ness, so I let her.

"MATCHERS!"

Best Dramatic Actress

2011-01-23T15:59:00.001-06:00

Morgan Jane is always super happy to go to school. She just goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and gets so excited on the mornings when she sees me pull out her Dora lunchbox and her nap mat on those mornings, as she then knows its her day to go. She goes to the same school as Luke, and its the most precious, fabulous school. Ever.

But what has baffled us to no end is the fact that while she may run up the stairs and then skip down the hall, the minute she steps foot in the door she gets all weepy-introvert-y and head straight for the teacher. Sweet Ms. A always scoops her up and hugs on her as I hang up her bag and tell her "bye". I knew she wanted to go, I know she loves her teacher and her "fwends", so this never made any sense to us! Then it was around October when we found out that she doesn't talk at school. Not one. single. word. This kid talks ALL DAY- and she is hilarious with her expressions and seriousness sometimes! So again, we are baffled. What in the world!?! I would notice over the next few months that Morgan would tell me that she had cried at lunch, and that she sat with her teachers, but thought nothing of it really.

Well. This week I picked her up and the substitute teacher was hugging her, snuggling her- she said she was crying when she woke up and so she had been holding her. On the way home, I asked Morgan Jane what was up with all the crying?!!?

"We don't cry at school. You love school. You love Ms. A and all of your friends. Big girls don't cry at school all day," I told her.
"When I cry, they hold me," she said back, so nonchalantly.
Oh really....

I told Jas what she had said and we both were like, "Wait a second, you don't thinks she..?" And we went to hunt her down. I asked her in front of him, "Morgan Jane, what happens when you cry at school?" And she just looked up at him and said, "Ms. A hold me. I cry like this, 'whawawah' and Ms. A hold me." Are. YOU. SERIOUS!??! This kid figured out really quick that she could get these women to hold her at drop-off, circle time, lunch time, nap time and dismissal if she just busted out crying every now and then. And I think she did it so systematically that they never really caught on to what she was doing. Un.believable.

So next Tuesday, we have the honor of letting her sweet teachers know: They have been played. Morgan Jane strikes again.

Royal Flush

2011-01-22T17:02:00.001-06:00

Its that time again. The time I dread.
Potty-training time.
(boooooooooooooooooooooooooo)
I started last November and then gave up.

I hate potty training. HATE. IT. It tests my patience to no end and makes me grouchy. I remind myself that I will get through it, and that no one goes to college in a diaper, but I haaaaaate it.

And it doesn't help that Morgan Jane is a toot and has NO desire to participate in this activity. When presented with the choice of Mickey Mouse diapers or the chance to wear Princess Pull-Ups if she sits on the potty, she is seriously tempted- but in the end goes for Mickey everytime.

So I got tough. And made her sit on there, only to realize that we potty we had was NOT comfy. At all. I wouldn't want to sit there for hours on end (Just kidding- I give up after about 5 minutes!) either.

So guess what Bubs and I saw the last time we were at the 'Mart??? I stinkin' Princess Potty: complete with coushy seat!!! After much convincing- Jas went and got it for her!!

Look at the joy! Look at the excitment!

She checkout out the soft pink seat!

She tried out the beautiful twinkling flushing sound!

She even tried it out!!

So, out of respect for Fan Target, who threatened to quit reading my blog if I wrote one more post about Luke pottytraining, this will be the end of this topic.

Wish us

luck!

I'm A Loser

2011-01-20T17:00:00.000-06:00

...and that's a good thing! Some friends and I have come up a weight-loss challenge to kick off the New Year, and our first milestone weigh-in is in about 2 weeks! I saw on the Yahoo main page that people who blogged about, or wrote down what they ate and their struggles, lost two times as much weight as those who didn't: sooooo, I'm all for giving it a try! I would like to loose 15 pounds- which according to every health-nut-weight-loss-motivating site is totally doable by March 31st. And by loosing those said 15 pounds, I would possibly gain $600!! Motivation, baby! Motivation!

My official putting it all out there goals:

FEBRUARY 5th: Milestone Weigh In - Down 5 pounds (already lost 4! whatwhat!!!)
FEBRUARY 16th: My 32nd Birthday (whaaaaa!) - Down 2 more pounds
MARCH 17th: Two Weeks Til Official Weigh In - Down 5 more pounds
MARCH 31st: Final Weigh In - Down 3 more pounds

Over the past two weeks, I have become so conscience of what I used to eat and how much of it- and realized I was running on sugar-highs rather than protein. I had to do a mini-sugar withdrawl- only allowing a tiny bit in my coffee and whatever was in my FiberOne bar. Then that was it for the day. KIL-LER. I really felt ill and miserable for about 3 days. But once I got through it, I have been able to really tame that sweet-tooth. If it really gets to me I'll eat a tiny box of raisins, but that is just so sad and NO fun, so I usually just get over it.

One of my competitors and GF Andrea and I are also doing the "Eat Half" method- although that was NOT happening last night at Girl's Dinner! (Too much wine and too many carbs!!) BUT we are also adhering to the "90% on/ 10% off" rule which give us wiggle room to cheat once a week. I have invested in about a billion Lean Cuisine freezer meals (NO PRESERVATIVES!) to help with my eating choices and portion control. So far so good! I know that eating my kids leftovers and not being prepared and running through the nearest drive-through have been one of my major eating flaws, but they have been noted and ammended.

Bring it on, baby! That $600 will be mine! Oh yes! It will be mine!

Cowboys and Cowgirls!

2011-01-17T17:00:00.003-06:00

My New Year's Resolutions this year: sew more, play more and work out more. Its day 17, and I am successfully on the right track.

My first sewing project of the year on the new machine: I decided to bite the bullet and make a decision about the bedding/ decor in Luke and Morgan Jane's rooms.

Jas and I put up molding and painted their room back in October ala Thrifty Decor Chicks color scheme. LOVED the crisp white and the great dark blue. I thought it lent itself to a nice Americana kind of feel, but them went back and worth about maybe an ABC theme:

... Couldn't make up my mind. Its pretty tricky to design a shared room: who do you lean more towards? Girly or Boyish??? Well, I have always loved this cute cowboy print by Michael Miller.

I've used it a bunch on gifts I've made, and when I ran across the GIRL version

I knew I had to have it!!!

I had already made them matching red duvets (thank you WalMart for your $6.00 twin sheets! $24 for both covers? SCORE! )And I had snagged some great solid sheet sets from Target right after Christmas. Luke has a favorite PBK red gingham pillow case, and the color scheme was already working for the cowboy prints. I had a red gingham PBK crib sheet that I had held on to for days just like this, which quickly became a matching pillow case for Morgan Jane. I decided to make them both king-sized pillow shams out of the cowboy print. Luke's sham needed to be piped, and Morgan's needed ruffles- and then remembered I had bought a random roll of chambry pre-made ruffles, so I knew I could incorporate those in her throw pillows too. I am a serious throw-pillow-form hoarder, and had two matching sizes that just so happened to be the exact size of a bandana!!! Seriously!! So I bought four chambry bandanas from my bff Hobby Lobby and stiched those up in about 5 seconds. I monogrammed both of their pillows with their names and then made MJ a little girl-y ruffly pillow out of the pre-made ruffles. It was a TOTAL pain in the tush, and I am not in love with it, but it sort of reminded me of a ruffled western skirt, so its staying for now.

The kids have three windows in their room that go almost all the way to the floor, but since MJ's bed runs in front of one and a half of them, roman-shade-ish window treatments look best. When I bought the cowboy print I also picked up some basic blue chambry and some additional red and white gingham. I thought it looked a little cheap, but one I washed it it plumped up a bit. I made piping with the gingham, and sewed the chambry doubled up, since I knew I would be rolling it up and wanted a clean look on both side. I made the ties (all 12 of them-ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!) our of the gingham and voila! Cute roll-up shades. They are hung on the tension rods tucked up under the window casing.

(don't worry, I untwisted the tie on the right)

I am now on the hunt for some great accessories: I have plan to have a large poster made from this print

and will work on getting some vintage-y toys to put up on thier shelves. Think more this:

than this:

I want cute, bright and little funky...

I'll update the progress as it occurs, until I'm off to

Say Hello To My Little Friend

2011-01-16T17:01:00.000-06:00

My mom is the best. After letting me borrow her sewing machine for weeks on end because mine had finally started to poop out, she gifted me this guy for Christmas:

That's right: Its a Brother SE-400!

Holy Moly! I read the entire user's manual from cover to cover. Three times. It totally spoils me: Threads itself, cuts its own tread- and tells me if my bobbin is running low!, has programmable back-stitches, I can control stitch types and their widths with a push of a button!!

And speaking of buttons: the thing can sew by itself!

(I have tried this feature, but it made me nervous: kinda tricky to reach up and punch the stop button when you are using both hands to feed the fabric. I think I am just an old-school pedal kinda gal...)

And the best part of this machine? My new addiction???? EMBROIDERY!!! Yes. I'm not kidding. This things can embroider, and not only does it have a bunch of images and fonts already store on there, I can download them from my computer to my machine and go to town! Check out this cute Valentine heart and monogram set I bought off Etsy! I was able to embroider a cute top for Morgan Jane and one is in the works for our sweet friend, Hannie-girl....

WooHoo!! If its fabric, and not attached to something, I have pretty much put a name or monogram on it within the past week! Its just TOO EASY!!!

I am in l.o.v.e.

Princess Business

2011-01-10T09:47:00.000-06:00

Luke and I have become faithful players of the card game "War", playing about 4 rounds a day. It has actually really helped him with math- recognizing which numbers are larger (or smaller) than others. And it goes pretty quickly. (Makers of Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders take note.)

So the other day Luke and I are playing, and Morgan Jane decided she needed in on the action, and shows up with this HUGE stack of Disney Princess cards that she found in the toy closet. She started looking through them and getting so excited when her favorites came up (Snow White! Cinderella! Sweepin'Booty!) Luke and I finished our game, and went on to do other things, but when I walked back through about an hour later, I found this!

I'm not sure the rhyme or reason to it, but she had them systemically sorted out and grouped. When I asked her what she was doing, I got the now standard MJ response,"Nup-in!" But she would move them, sort them and stack them over and over, the whole time I'm wondering what is the method to her madness: Brunettes together? Cinderella next to Fairy Godmother? Movies she likes vs. Movies she doesn't care for????

Then she looked them over for a bit and started pulling some off the ottoman, and onto the floor. Not sure if they were VIPs or were being banished!

It was only a matter of time before the Disney Princesses took over our home. (Note her footwear!) Morgan Jane LOVES THEM. Knows them all by name, and what color they wear. Who their friends are, and who is mean to them. I just have to make sure, like we always emphasized with O that: You must be beautiful on the inside to be truly beautiful on the outside. Don't need any wanna-be-diva-princesses on my hands. Yikes! She was a fabulous Snow White for Halloween.

One of the sweetest Princess-y things she does is twirl and sing what we affectionately call the "Princess Song" (which is basically her just singing a bunch of "La da daaaaaa"- its soooooooo great because she gets so serious!) I will try my best to capture her performing it as well as her and Jas doing their "Princess Dance" too. Priceless.

I'm Baaaacck!

2011-01-01T00:30:00.001-06:00

Whoa, Nelly! Does this feel weird!?!?
Its been almost a year since I've typed in here, and what a year its been!
We have been so blessed with so many great memories and successes, and part of me is sad that I have to rely on myself to remember those great times, rather than be able to look back on here, like I was able to do for a few years.

And I have missed blogging. I have missed taking the time to put those memories down and share them with those that aren't with me everyday. So I made the decision to come back, pick up a year later and fill myself in on the way. Here's a photo look at our 2010:

.....and here's to 2011!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!

With A Heavy Heart...

2010-01-27T08:00:00.006-06:00

I have been mulling this over for awhile now. And after sitting on it for a few more days, and talking it out with someone who feels the way I do... I have decided to say "So Long, Farewell" to The Yarbrough 5.

As any blogging mommy knows, you can't just sit down, write a post, put in cute pictures and be done in 5 minutes. It takes a. long. time. It was easier when Morgan Jane was younger, but now everytime I sit down, she is climbing on the dining table, or dumping out the bucket of 500 sippy cups all over the kitchen. Luke is doing so well not playing the Wii, but he is needing a lot more of my one-on-one time to help him focus on playing other things. Olivia has so many new activities and projects, that I need more time to get other little things out of the way so I can be there 100% for her when those things come up. And then there is that handsome man who gives me sad looks from the living room when he is sitting watching a movie all alone while I type away in the evenings...

Oh! And lets not forget about little ol' me. I have made a commitment to myself to be the best "me" I can be. I haven't felt totally put together in a long time, and its something I am working on regaining a little everyday. I just feel that at this stage of things, if I have an hour to sit down and write a post, I could devote that hour to exercising, or preparing a healthy dinner, or just sitting on my tush and reading the latest People magazine (pure joy in my book!) While I love writing, I am also really growing to love the rush after a great work-out, the thrill of seeing Olivia perfect her kart-wheel or watching Luke re-inact a show he's watched with his little Mario figures. Morgan Jane is the last little baby I will ever have, and she is getting bigger everyday. While I have loved keeping track of everyone growing up on here, I think I'll have more time to really live it when I'm not spending the whole time thinking "What am I going to write about this?" or praying that I got good pictures of whatever shenanigans they have gotten into!

So thanks to everyone for reading! Thanks for everyone's kind words and emails through the past two year's ups and downs! I have learned so much, "met" so many neat people... and of course, I will still be reading about everyone else! ...That is when I'm not snuggling Jas and watching "our stories", playing games with Luke, selling Tag-A-Longs with Olivia or telling Morgan Jane to "Get down!" from whatever it is she has climbed on/ under/ into...

So long farewell, auf weidersehen good-bye

I hate to go and leave this pretty sight

So long farewell, auf weidersehen adieu

Adieu, adieu, to you and you and you

So long farewell, auf weidersehen goodnight

I leave and heave a sigh and say good bye -

goodbyyyyyyeeeee!

MU-AH

{HUGS}

Flashback Friday 1996: Wigging Out

2010-01-22T08:21:00.000-06:00

I love pictures that make you laugh, even when you've seen them a hundred times. Thats how I feel about this picture:

My high school friend and college roommate, Stacy and I were on one of the many trips we took to Austin together before we started school down there. We always stayed in my grandpartents guest house, and once we discovered that some of my grandmother's old wigs were in the closet in there- it was all over! I think anytime we went down there, we had to take a wig pic. I found this one with Alyshia getting in on the fun, too! Ha! Good times...

Wish List....

2010-01-21T08:30:00.002-06:00

So... my birthday is in a few weeks... Just in case you are wondering what to get me, I'll love one of these:

Maybe one of theses:

And, if you get in a hurry last minute: This entire room would be fine, really....

Oh, Pottery Barn. You are killing me. Kill-ing me...

Green Treat

2010-01-20T08:31:00.000-06:00

Have I mentioned that Morgan Jane is the quirkiest kid I've ever seen?... You never know what you are going to get with her! Which is what totally cracked me up about dinner last night. Usually I feed her first and she goes to bed when we eat. But, we've been keeping her up, trying to get her and Luke to go down at the same time- so she's started joining us for dinner. She finished first and insisted on getting down from her high chair. She wondered around the table, and kept stalking Luke while we were eating. When he finished and was excused from the table she RAN and jumped in his chair and yelled, "TReeeeeAT!"

And started to eat his green beans.

Well, okay....

I hope she stays this way.

Get Her Outta Here!

2010-01-16T20:52:00.004-06:00

I'm sure many of you have seen this commercial:

I've put it on here for Fan Target who has no TV. I tried to explain it to her, but I don't think I did it justice.

I have always had a fear of dolls. Especially clown dolls. So much so that I risked being fired for looking like a looney-tune when I asked the mom of the family I nannied for if they minded getting rid of the child-sized Gymboree clown doll they owned. Just knowing that it was in the nursery closet freaked me out too much. I would sit in the rocking chair facing the closet, rocking Max at night, just waiting for that evil clown to open the door and get me... (Dina kindly obliged and let me keep my job! ha!) I've had a tough time with all of the dolls Olivia has accumulated over the years- but for some reason, I've been able to tolerate baby babydolls way more so than dolls that look like older kids (A'la' Chucky...) UNTIL NOW.

The way the USPS commerical family felt aboout their clown, we feel about the crawling baby Morgan Jane got for Christmas!

There she is freaking out for Uncle Trav to get it out of the box...

Here she is trying to grab it out of his hands as soon as the doll has been freed...

Here she is admiring its crawling skills....

Here she is bowing to her- Ahhhh- she's under the doll's spell already!!!!

The thing moves on its own, and we haven't quite figured out what makes it go, which is creepy in and of itself.
Is it motion censored...?
On an internal timer...?
Possessed by the DEVIL???
Here she is trying to attack Miss O, whose just sitting on the step, minding her own business...

Don't let that cheery laugh and that baby babbling fool you! We think she's up to something sinister, we just have to figure out what it is!!!

All I know if that the other night Jas and I were watching TV in bed and I got up and there she was trying to crawl in our room! I swear on everything holy, that she was in the living room the last time I saw her! Our sunken living room... You wanna tell me how she got up that step??? Thank God for the wooden floor return at our door or she would have crawled in and got us in our sleep, I just know it!

We hate this thing:

Morgan loves her... and will cry if we turn heroff.

She's smart.

She knows we have the power to make her work....Damn.
I hate to do it, but I really think this precious doll might have to move on to ~~seriously creep out~~ bring joy and laughter to another family...

Flashback Friday

2010-01-15T10:46:00.000-06:00

I love this picture of my parents at their wedding reception

I love how my mom is checking out her new wedding band.

I love that luckily someone just happened to candidly catch such a sweet moment.

Happy Friday To All The Lovebirds Out There! :0)

DIY Does NOT Apply...

2010-01-13T20:03:00.000-06:00

Jas has deemed this the "Year Of Just Living" - which was told to me when I told him of the grand painting plans I had for our master bedroom. Nope. He said he is out. He doesn't want to do anything this year. WHAT?!?!? Just when he was becoming my decorating/ crafty-project P.I.C.! Ugh. You would think after knowing him for almost half my life, I would know when he's not bluffing. But, nooooooo, I figured I could woo him, guilt him, or cry if it came to it! Or not.

I have a medium-sized barn star over our TV in the living room. I love tin stars, have in them in almost every room. But it has always bugged me a little that it was smaller than I really would like. It looked a little dinky up there to me. So I went in search of a larger star...but I found something even better at (guess where? where else?!) Hob Lob. Metal scroll-y pieces. I'm telling you! They sometime put the best treasures closest to the floor! They were small, like 10 inches long and they had them in reverse of each other and a little alarm went off: hello! hang them on either side of the star! Loved the idea and stalked them until they were 50% off.

I brought them home, painted them, sanded and distressed them and was fired up to get them on the wall. So, like I normally would do, I asked Jas to come help me. And you know what he said?? "No."

WHAT!?!? He couldn't be serious!

He was. So I got the leaning ladder out of the garage, and leaned it up againt the wall in the living room to show that I was serious, these guys where going to be hung up.

Nothing. So I leaned the ladder on the right side of the TV careful not to bump anything. I shook it a few times to make sure it wasn't going anywhere, climbed up and then called Jas. Got him! He came in the room and I asked him to tell me when it was straight. He was mad he got dooped, but helped me. Then he left. So I moved to the other side of the fireplace, and as I was climbing the ladder I had one of those moments where I thought, Damn, it sure would be a nightmare if I fell. And I started to do a quick inventory of all of the awful things I would hit: the TV on the wall, the big wooden mantle, the tile hearth, the large media cabinet... I got up there and called him back, begging him to just stand there and tell me up, down, left or right. He did it, but with very little enthusiam, and sure enough when I got down the left scroll was too close to the star. Now, I am sure I am the only person on the planet that would be bothered by the 1/2 inch discrepency, but it had to be remedied.

Jas told me to leave it. It was fine.

He walked out.

(This is the part of the story where my mom would say, "Alright, hard head." Yeah.)

I climbed back up the ladder, and I guess I went one rung too high, because as I hooked the back of the hammer around the nail I wanted to remove I heard the most awful metal clink sound and down I went. The rubber bottom of the ladder is on a hinge and had flipped up, and on our slick floors, the whole ladder started sliding down and backwards. And in that moment I ran through that laundry list of what I was going to hit in those 2 split seconds. Then WHAM! the ladder slammed into the mantle, it flipped over and I was able to roll off, but not before I hit my ankle, my shoulder and worst of all, the inside of my leg.

(thank you mantle for breaking my fall. {hugs})

When the ladder hit and flipped it wasn't a pretty sound, and luckily Jas came running. I just sat on the ottoman- in shock, but thanking God that I wasn't more seriously injured and embarrassed that I had acted like such a toot. And in true Anne fashion, I had one of those laugh-like-a-psycho-then-burst-into-tears moment.

So, maybe he has a point. Maybe decorating has become too dangerous. Better to live...

(Then again, maybe I can bribe a certain someone who understands how much looking at that 1/2 inch-too-close-scroll will make me slowly go insane until it is moved to come help a sista' out!)

I Got Nuthin'

2010-01-10T22:20:00.001-06:00

So... We've all been sick and there hasn't been anything worth anything going on around here... I've been getting to do ALOT ot TV watching though, so I thought I'd give a shout out to my new favorite shows (just in case you don't have enough to do that you need to add a few more TV watching hours to your day!)

I've also added a "Husband Watching Rating (HWR) based on how many times during the show does Jas asks me when its going to be over! ha!

My Fair Wedding With David Tutera

(Style Network)

OMG. I want this guy to be my best friend. He is a doll, and is so kind and sweet to these clueless women! You will die at some of the themes these women come up with. One girls wanted "Country Bling" and had hot-glued colored rhinestones to those brown paper-mache pigs you can buy at the Hob Lob! I would not lie to you. Sometimes his decor is a little over the top (and do all brides really need to change into "party dresses" for their receptions???) but I love him. LOVE. HIM. I would make up a crazy wedding and buy hideous gowns and make bouquets out of candy (yes, someone did that, too!) just so I could meet David!
HWR: 2 (and I think only because its an hour long and it is about weddings!)

The Good Wife

(CBS)

Every episode of this show gets better (and I missed the first two, which I'm sure explained alot more about her husband's scandal) but Julianna Margulies is so likable, and the cases are great! I LOVE LOVE Kalinda (the in-house investigator). She is such a bad ass. Watch it. Seriously. (You can get it On Demand too...)
HWR: 0 (He loooooooves it too- always gets mad if I turn it on when he's ready to lay down because he knows he has to watch it! heehee)

Guilana And Bill

(E! and Style Network)

I hate to admit this, but I think this is one of the cutest reality shows ever. They are such a cute couple: I love how she's wacky (not to mention her assistant, Matthew "Jacobi"- hilarious!!!) and he is so straight-on and serious. I love how he puts up with her and humors her. They are precious. Seriously mindless fun. There are always marathons on the weekend, so make a pot of coffee, stay in your jammies and catch one. Promise, you'll love them.
HWR: 1 (He thinks she is ridiculous - in a silly way- but watched 2 hours of this 30 minute show with me this weekend while the kids were napping. So there.)

Clean House

Style Network
(I promise you, I never watched this channel until we all got sick!)

We only like the ones when Nicey is the host. She is so funny- and the team is equally cute (although I can't stand the colors that Mark paints the rooms- tacky, tacky.) We really started watching this in the hotel when we were in Austin at Thanksgiving. It was the Messiest House In America winners episode which was 2 hours long and had come on at like, 11pm! We were holding our eyes open to watch the end!!! This woman and her daughter were 10 kinds of crazy. They had so much stuff in their house that the team had to rent out a WAREHOUSE! for the "Yard Sale" and it was set up like a department store. They made over $17,000. $17,000!!!! And then at the reveal, the mom takes one look in her new, cleaned out and organized closet and went psycho screaming that they had stolen her purses and stormed out of the house. It was CRAZY!!!!! Jas was hooked. He's in our room watching it right now.
HWR: big fat-daddy 0!!! He loves it!

Community

(NBC)

I have loved Joel McHale for years thanks to The Soup. I think he is hilarious, so when I found out he was going to be on a sitcom, I was first in line.. on my couch. I was a little scared because I had high hopes for Parks and Recreation and I couldn't handle it. Made me twitch. Scared they were going to be the same odd slow pace. But OH MY GOSH! Community is so funny there are simply no words. Every character is greatness. The story lines are so silly and over the top. And did I mention it SO funny???? We look forward to Community night each week. Be careful: If you TiVo it, make sure you tell it to record 2 minutes after the ending time so you don't miss Troy and Abed's shinanigans.

HWR: 0!!!! He asks me every weeknight if its going to be on!

Now, add these to Big Love, The Biggest Loser, The Bachelor, Keeping Up The Kardashians and House and I have plen-ty to keep me occupied while I fold laundry.
;0P

The Couple On The Bus

2010-01-08T12:00:00.001-06:00

Ah! I totally forgot to tell the tale of the Couple On The Bus! This was one of the funniest, best ways to end our trip- something I know Jas and I will be joking with each other until we are 80! While it has NOTHING to do with our trip, it was one of the highlights...

So we are finally headed home. Vacation is done. We had had what started off as an awful, stressful day turn out to be a fun, eventfull afternoon, and we had pretty much spent the afternoon filling time until our bus arrived. The Disney Express is a big charter bus that takes guests to the airport. We had spent the last official 10 minutes of our Animal Kingdom lodge stay hanging around outside on the benches, playing a million games of "Paper, Rock, Scissors" and listening to Luke sing the entire theme song to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse with scary perfection. It was so nice- we were relaxed and ready to head home.

We boarded the bus, and Morgan Jane had just fallen asleep, so I put her in my lap and Miss O took her seat next to me. Jas took the aisle seat across the row from us and Bubs took the window seat by him. The bus we were on made a few extra stops to pick up other travelers on the way to the airport. So, at this one particular stop, two boys come jumping on- I'd say they were about 8 and 10. They are talking loudly, bouncing around- just being boys- and chose to take the the seats behind O and I. They are still goofing off when their dad catches up to them, and says to them in a loud booming voice (read in your best Tony Soprano impression):

"I know yous two aren't being loud right behind that sleepin' bay-bee!"

Thanks, Tony for your concern... He was cracking me up already... He then sat down behind Jas for about 2 second when...da,da,dum: His wife made her entrance.

Bless her heart, here she comes up the steep steps of this huge bus shlepping like, 5 huge shopping bags and she yells to him from the top step, like there aren't 20 other people on the bus, (read in your best New Jersey Yenta "Coffee-Talk" voice):

"Hey! Ha-llo! A little help here-a!"

"Whaaaa? What?" he says, shrugging, kind of joking with her.

She does not find this humorous.

She gets fired up!

"Look at you! Look at you-a! Ya hands are hemp-ty! You got nu-thin! Nu-thin!" She is so mad, and at this point, I am so ~~entertained~~ shocked at the shinanigan of this couple that I am looking out the window, biting the inside of my cheeks, full-on body shaking trying not to bust out laughing. Then I make the mistake of looking over at Jas, who looks at me and mouths, "You got nuth-in!" throwing his hands up in pretend disgust and I loose it. I make that horrible half choke-half snarf- sound and then seriously have to look out the window and think terrible thought to stop myself from laughing my tush off. Turns out while I was blocking all this out, as she was walking to her seat, she also informed him (and the whole bus) that he was giving her a hernia. I love this woman.

So at this point, the guy has helped his poor wife with the bags to the row behind where he had originally sat down. He then took his spot back behind Jas. She says to him:

"Wha? Ya not gonna sit with me?"

To which he priceless-ly replies, "I don't know- are ya gonna yell at me the whole time?"

She tells him to get over there, and sure enough as soon as he moves to sit down with her they are snuggled up, enjoying the ride, chatting about their trip. Like nothing had happened.

Oh. My. Goddness. It was greatness. It reminded me of the couple I nannied for. It reminded me of my mom's parents. I reminded me that Jas and I are just like so many other couple out there: All the silly, stressful fights that have no real malice behind them. Getting teased not to be mean, but to lighten the mood. The feeling that you will snack them if they do x, y, or z ever again but in the end there is still no one else on the planet that you would rather be having that silly arguement with... That couple was priceless.

Love you babe!

("Ya got nuthin'!")

Game Over

2010-01-06T08:00:00.002-06:00

We had to have an intervention at the Yarbrough house.

Seems as though one of our family members was suffering from a serious addiction.

It was interferring with their life.

They were no longer enjoying everyday activities.

They were obsessed with getting their next "fix".

They were angry and ugly when they couldn't have this one thing they wanted.

So in the end we had to pull the plug and start the detox cold turkey....

We had to take away the Wii and ask Mario and Luigi to skip on outta here for a while...

We needed our Luke back.

Our poor Bubs suffers from a slight case of OCD. Once he has his mind set to something he wants to do, it is next to impossible to get him out of that mind-set until its been full-filled. He turns into a little Rain Man. I used to just chalk it up to being a preschooler, and wanting things to be "just so"... but we are starting to think he has a bit of an issue. And playing Mario Bros. had become a serious addiction. I know he's just three, but I'm being serious here. Serious. Addiction.

He would go to bed asking that we set up the Wii so he could play it right when he got up, and if we didn't he would spent the entire day asking us when he could play. If we didn't let him play, he would literally get pale and shake and be a moody-mess. Like a junkie. It wasn't pretty.

Because I know how much he enjoys playing Mario Bros. I did everything in my Mommy-Power to find ways to let him play in a very controlled manner: having to earn minutes by playing with toys, setting an egg timer, taking away the remotes after each time he played until there were none left... Nothing really sunk in with him, and I couldn't stand that once the egg timer went off, he would save his game and get off, but he would then spend the next 5 hours asking me every 2 minutes when he could play again. Junk-ie.

He was freaking me out. I couldn't take the crying and shaking and arguing it was causing. The only solution Jas and I could agree on was to simply take it out of the house. (Well, its actually hooked up and hiding behind the TV in our room, but not even Miss O knows that!) He came home from school yesterday and asked here it was. We simply told him it was gone, and amazingly enough- he didn't ask where or when it was coming back. But is hasn't been 24 hours yet, so we'll see how the withdrawl goes... Lets hope its not too painful...

Taxi Ride From Hell

2010-01-05T14:00:00.001-06:00

...When we were discharged from the ER, I texted Jas to send for another cab and I headed outside to get some fresh air and to wait. One pulled up two mintes later and as I tried to get in, another couple came out and it turned out that one was for them. No sooner had I sat back down than a shady tan min-van with a "For Hire" light-up sign on the dashboard pulled up. An older man got out, and asked if I was Anne. I was a little taken aback seeing as how Jas said he was going to call the same company. I said yes, and just to check- I asked him if he took credit cards as we were getting in. Yes, yes- he told me. I laid my now sleeping baby down on the seat and told him that I needed him to take me to the Animal Kingdom lodge. He started driving and then starts to tell me that he needs $14 to get in the gate? Huh? He didn't speak English every well and we were clearly having a miscommunication problem. Finally, after much discussing, he understood that I wanted the resort, not the park.

I texted Jas right away: "where did you find this guy? super shady."

He wrote back: "called the same number. what's wrong?"

I texted him back that this guy was in an unmarked mini-van, wasn't understanding me very well, that I wanted him outside the hotel when I got there... I asked the cab driver how long it would take us to get back to the hotel so I could call my husband and let him know. 15 minutes he said, so I called Jas to tell him, blaming my wanting him outside so he could help me with Morgan Jane, not because I thought anything was wrong. The driver got kind of snippy and kept saying, I'll get you there quickly. I'll take you right there. I assured him that I understood, that I just needed my husband's help. I knew in the pit of my stomach that something was off. His car was a mess, he was kind of a mess... there was half eaten melons sitting on the floorboard of the van...

Then I get a text from Jas about a minute later: "where are you? tell me everything about this guy. his car. everything."

That's when the fear set it.

"whats going on?!?!" I texted him back.

He called me and told me that my cab driver had just called from outside the ER, wanting to know where I was. Jas asked them what they were talking about- that I had aleady been picked up. He told me he didn't know who had picked me up, and that he wanted me to hang up and text him with every detail about this guy. That he was about to call the police. I felt like I was in that scene in "Taken" right before the daughter gets kidnapped. I started to FREAK OUT.

And it was at this exact moment that the cab driver starts telling me he was going to take me to the ATM so I could get money. I told him I didn't need to get money and he kept insisting that he would take me and I could get some. Please let me tell you, that I had one of those "This can't be happening to me!" moments. There is no way that I went on vacation, ended up taking my sweet baby to the ER, and got kidnapped and mugged by a crazed cab driver. No. way.

Jas kept texting me every 5 seconds. Turns out he was at breakfast with everyone when he got the call from the cab company and had been pacing outside- his phone set to the Orlando PD if I didn't show up in the next 5 minutes. While we were flying down the highway he gave me his card (which was covered with random numbers and foreign writing on the back. Scary.) and I really realized that this guy did not work for Yellow Checker Cab, and that something went wrong somethere along the line. I just wanted to get to Jas as fast as possible...

I will say my driver got us back pretty quickly and I have never been so happy to see the gate at our resort. When we pulled up, I pretty much threw Morgan Jane out of the car at Jas and lept out. He guy smoozed Jas, giving him a song and dance about taking us wherever we wanted to go. It was so bizarre. We walked back downstairs to where everyone was having breakfast and I sat down and lost it. WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED??, was all I could think. Why did my baby get hurt, how did that driver know my name??? Was I really in danger?? It was too much for one day. Sometimes you just need a good cry. And a strong cup of coffee. All we can figure now that we look back is he must have tapped into the cab company's scanner and goes around scooping up other people's fares. Shady. Shady. Sha-dy!

Luckily, everyone had just planned on hanging out at the hotel until we needed to leave for the airport, and it ended up being one of the most relaxed and enjoyable days we spent together.

The kids and B on the hotel playground...

Luke and O dontaed to the Disney Animal Conservation fund and got to make Chirstmas ornaments out of dies Ostrich egg. They turned out really nice- who knew?

Right was the kids were finishing their crafts, we heard some fabulous drumming coming from the library. We walked over, mostly because I wanted to see if Morgan would rock out- she's stared dancing so cute lately. When we got there, there were several hotel staff members playing, and they invited my kids to join them. Soon the whole library was filled and everyone was having the best time! The instructors stopped and taught a little geography and science lesson.

Here's Bubs telling these men from South Africa and Uganda "where Texas is"!

They thought he was hilarious!

We headed out to catch the bus soon after this....

No vacation is complete without...

2010-01-04T09:16:00.000-06:00

a trip to the ER. Seriously.

Sometimes I have to stop and thank God or my guardian angel, whoever it is that mysteriously guides our actions at times. I woke up on the last day of our trip kind of early, not knowing if we were going to try to hit up one more park since we had an 8pm flight. I got dressed in the clothes I had laid out the night before, ran a brush through my hair, put make-up on and when Luke woke up, I started to get him ready too... As I walked back into the area where the beds were to grab his clothes, I picked up Morgan's nite-nite blanket off the floor, and as I was going to set it up on the bed, she walked and reached for it all at the same time, tripped and WHAM!

She nailed her head on the corner of the wooden platform of the bed. Luckily, I was standing right there, and scooped her up and oh, sweet Jesus, I had a flashback to this! HUGE, HUGE, HUGE and growing by the minute, and the only thing we had to stick on her head was a can of cherry Coke in the mini-fridge that I randomly asked for when I had placed the second room service order when Luke decided he wanted something to eat arfterall. See... I ordered it and never drank it. Didn't want it once it arrived. And now it was the only thing keeping our babies head from swelling anymore that it already was.

In a panic I called down to the front desk asking if there was a doctor on staff. There wasn't. So she offered to call me a cab to take me to the nearest walk-on medical care center. I jumped in, headed there and as soon as I walked up to the front desk, the receptionist told me to call another cab to take me to the ER- that the doctors were going to send me there when they saw her. UGH. Now, at this point I am out of cash because the clinic was much farther away than I had anticipated- so I had Jas call me a cab that took credit cards, because I had NO idea how far away the hospital was. I was freaking out. This sweet cab driver told me he was going to take some back roads to get me there as quickly as possible- and he did. The ER staff was really nice, but poor Morgan was starting to fall asleep- which was a HUGE no-no after a head bump, so I had to keep her awake until her CAT scan. Not a fun or easy task- not to mention neither of us had had breakfast (or coffee in my case). Finally they did her scan and came back quickly with her results: Everything on the inside looked fine. Thank God in heaven. The outside, not so much. It was time to head home. And then something else scary happened...Bless her little heart...

Looking better...Or so we think...

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!

Needless to say, we aren't taking her in public anytime soon...

Disney Downfall...

2010-01-03T08:30:00.008-06:00

On our last park day, we headed to Animal Kingdom. After a late night the night before, we decided to sleep in and take our time getting up and at 'em. Yea... not such a good idea. When we got there, I have never seen so many people in such a small space. It was completely overwhelming. And instantly Luke started asking to go home. Over and over. We told him to just sit in the stroller and hang in there. We knew we wanted to do the safari, so we ~~pushed and shoved~~ quickly walked to Africa to grab our fast pases. Then we zipped over to the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, and hoped the calm pace would pacify Luke.

(Notice his security blanket, a.k.a. "bunny", is premanently strapped to his body at this point)

He enjoyed taking pictures of ~~people's feet and tushies~~ the animals, and Jas was able to carry him around when he needed it. But, again, once we got out of the trail, he melted down again. It was too much for him, so we headed out of Africa and by the time we got close to the front again, he had buried his head in his blanket and looked like he was going to pass out. It was enough. We decided he needed to get out of there. Again, sweet Granna took him home- she didn't like the crowds anymore than Luke did. Olivia and I had decided early on that we wanted to check out the Lion King show, so we headed that way so we could catch a performance before our safari time. Jas and Morgan Jane joined us and it was so great! Everyone loved it- we had no idea what to expect and it blew us away!

Again with the giraffes!... :0)

Simba!!!

When it was over, we met up with Jon, Jen and B and boarded the safari bus. It was so great- we really felt like we were out in the savannah! Jas was our National Geographic photographer, while I kept Morgan from leaping out of the bus!

oh. my. gosh... my skin was craw-ling...blahahaa

But poor Miss O, she didn't realize that the recorded converstation with our driver and the pretend dispatcher wasn't real! She started to get a little freaked out when we headed out to chase the "poachers". She was a little frazzled when we got off, bless her heart. After the sarafi, we headed home because we were all supposed to meet up with Jas' aunt, uncle and cousins for dinner. We stopped by the Tree Of Life first, just to have a quiet minute with Miss O, seeing how many animals we could pick out. It was a nice way to end the day.

When we got home, we found out Luke was still asleep. He had slept all day. Not knowing if he was sick, or worn-out, or broken... I decided to stay at the hotel with him, while they went to eat. And sure enough, he didn't budge from the bed. He watched a movie, had some room service (all while wearing his ears mind you!) and went to bed around 9pm.

Here's Bubs checking out the bill for his $10! PB&J...

I wasn't sure of our plans for the next day, so I spent the evening sorting dirty clothes, repacking suitcases, laying out clothes and packing our park bag for the next day, just in case.... Thank goodness I did, because we had not idea what drama was waiting for us the next morning...

Magic Kingdom!

2010-01-02T08:00:00.003-06:00

So! The second park day, we all decided to get up extra early to take advantage of the early hours the park has for resort guests. We got there right as it opened at 8am and made our way back to Fantasy Land, but not before a little meet and greet with Daisy. Morgan was so excited that we let her out of the stroller for this one.

And of course, we had to take some ceremonal pics in front of the castle.

Morgan is sooooooo mad we made her get back in the stroller!

I took the little kids played in Minnie's House. I loved that Luke knew that this was her sewing machine (her craft room rocked, by the way!) and he then sat right down and pretended to sew! He's so cute!

While we were in there, my dare-devil Miss O rode the Goofy coaster- I was so impressed with her sudden burst of bravery! We spent most of the morning just riding any and everything the kids wanted to.

We ran into Alice and the White Rabbit, and again- guess who went nutso? Yup! This time she was so excited, that she just sat down on the ground and did that arms-and-legs-tense-up-with-joy-kinda-thing. They thought she was so silly.

When it was lunch time, we were headed for Liberty Square and got caught in the road cut-off for the Christmas parade- and I'm so glad we did! We had an awesome view of the entire parade from beginning to end and the kids LOVED it. Morgan Jane, as always, kept yelling, "Look, look!" and clapping. It was awesome. We had lunch and everyone promply fell apart: Tear City. Luke kept asking to go home, to go to the hotel, to go anywhere that wasn't there. It was time to head home.

We came back later that night- and it was like a whole new park!

We grabed the train to Frontier Land and Jas and Miss O rode Splash Mountian. I sat waiting for them to come out of the ride, fully expecting to find a soaking wet, sobbing, scared Miss O. I was worried that ride was going to be a little much for her, but she was so excited (and dry, shockingly) when they came off. I am so proud of her for adding a little adventure in her life! We then checked out the Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean. Luke screamed and cried as we waited in line and boarded for each of them. He was having the worst time. He sat and waited with Granna while Jas, O and I rode Aladin's Magic Carpets, and I was once again reminded of what an absolute "L7 Weeeee-nie", I am. Olivia kept making the ride go up and down and up and down and up and down... I thought I was going to die. Jas keeps making fun of me, for yelling at her: "As your mother, I am telling you to STOP. DOING. THAT!" Oh, I was sooooo miserable. I prefer to be on the ground, thankyouverymuch. "E" for effort, right?...

We headed back for one last round of Fantasy Land fun, and the kids rode the coaster some more, checked out Mickey's house and we caught the castle fire-work show. Then, as a grand finale of the night, we woke up Morgan and we all rode "Its A Small World." Morgan freaked out! She kept yelling, "Babies, babies!!!" and trying to reach out and grab all the robots. She would hold up her hands like she wanted to hold them. It was so cute! Everyone loved it, and I loved that this classic ride was the one that all nine of us experienced together. It was a great way to end the day.

more giraffes... there were EVERYWHERE....ahhh.... :0)

Park It

2010-01-01T09:00:00.001-06:00

First Day: Hollywood Studios

Dear Lord in Heaven- we were not prepared. Prepared for the cold. Prepared for the lines. Prepared for the whining...

It was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much colder and windy-er than we had thought (Note To Self: Step outside to check the weather before leaving for the day!) But once we got in there and got everyone Disney jackets and hats, the fun began.

Morgan Jane modeling her Minnie hat and gloves, Zoolander style...

We ran into Donald first thing, and decided to jump in the line and have our first character Meet and Greet. And as I thought she would, Morgan Jane geeked. out. We kept her in the stroller because we had just got there, but she kept quacking really loudly at him, and of course, clapping.

My nephew B and Miss O

See this:

This is yet another preview of what's to come...

Luke refused to do anything until he played on the "Honey, I Shrunk The Kids" play ground. He was like a little broken record Rain Man, so I just gave up and rushed him there. And he had the BEST TIME. O, Jas and Morgan joined us a few minutes later and all got in on the fun.

After the playground we moved around and took in a Playhouse Disney show:

(Miss O has sworn us to secrecy that we would never tell anyone that she enjoyed it!) You can tell by the pictures below that Morgan Jane was in shock, and that Jas was riveted.

Right after, Miss O and I were first in line (if you can believe it!) for the Little Mermaid show, which was really fun, but made me wonder as I did several times after: How can these performers sing the same songs every 30 minutes day after day and not want to run, or in Ariel's case- swim- out of the park screaming??? Any way... It was cool and something that she and and I were able to do together, just the two of us!

We then met up with the rest of the fam and stood in line for the Star Wars ride!

Look here I am at the same spot 10 years ago!

The ride was just as fun as I remembered! Jas and O loved it. Luke hated. it. He had had enough of all of this theme park stuff...So we moved on...

Morgan Jane navigated our afternoon activites...

They checked out the Cars...

We caught a parade and Miss O caught a ball!

And Luke continued to loose it. See how freaked out and stressed he is... It gets worse...

We came back out to this park after dinner when sweet Granna offered to keep Luke and Morgan, so we could check out the Osborne family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. And Oh. My. Gosh- and am I ever glad we did! I've never seen anything more fabulous in my life! It was just another confirmation of what we were quickly discovering: Disney doesn't fool around. Every building along the street was COVERED in lights that all flashed to whatever music was playing! I think this was one of my most favorite parts of the trip!

Tomorrow...MAGIC KINGDOM!

From Here To There And Back Again...PART 1

2009-12-31T08:32:00.000-06:00

Disney World Trip '09! We did it and have lived to tell the tale! What a trip full of twists and turns and truths! We arrived in Orlando mid afternoon on Christmas day, and the flight was fine: the kids behaved, the flight crew humored us, and Jas survived flying without being drugged. (He has since said he's not flying for another 20 years- bless his heart.)

I think this is the moment that Morgan Jane realized that we were at Disney World!

Can I please just tell you how AMAZING our hotel was???

We stayed at the Animal Kingdom's Jambo House and Oh. My. Gosh. Gorg-eous! Seriously. Everywhere you looked there was something beautiful to see. Every door knob, every tile... it was so perfect and authentic. Because I am a loser, and watched an entire special on our hotel, I found out this fun fact to know and tell: It contains the largest African art collection in North America.

View from the 5th floor down into the lobby

Fire pit in the lobby...

Oh, how I wished I could have curled up with a glass of wine and a good book over here...

Fun, huge ostrich egg lamps!

Out back, looking from the outside in...

Everything was decked out in christmas decor with an African twist. This tree had to be at least 40 feet tall and was covered with animal print ball ornaments, huge woven baskets and african folk art. It was so pretty!

From above...

Tree view from the floor...

The thing that amazed me was how different the lobby looked throughout the day. We arrived at dusk, so it was dark and moody and then when we came down the next morning I was amazed at all of the details I missed the night before!

Lobby light fixtures....

Here is my fancy-spancy image stitched panoramic view of the lobby...

When we arrived in our room, we were greeted by this:

and this:

and this!:

We had zebras, giraffes and ankole cattle (these guys:)

...outside our room everyday. Morgan loved watching them from the balcony and would cry and cry when we made her come in. Our room was so fun and festive: everything from mosquito nets over the beds to African land wallpaper in the bathroom!

Please take a moment to notice the carved wooden bed platforms. They will play a big roll in the Disney story later on...

We got settled, grabbed a bite to eat and then geared up for our next day: Hollywood Studios!

Recouping...

2009-12-30T11:41:00.000-06:00

Got home last night. Still in my jammies... Needing a day to recoup and then I'll tell you EVERYTHING about our Disney trip! Here's some out-takes to tide you over... :0)

Jas during take-off without having a Xanex. Poor guy. He's trying not to puke on Morgan Jane...

View from our room. Seriously...

ER visit attempt # 182: Morgan Jane jumping out of the light fixtures in the lobby...

Everyone's excited to be here... sort of...

Jas was really into the Playhouse Disney show...

ER visit attempt #324: Jumping from rock to rock while waiting to ride the StarWars ride...

Holding up the GIGANTIC play-doh...

O and B having so much fun at the hotel playground...

I love this: Luke sat down and started to pretend sewing at Minnie's house...

More tomorrow. I promise.

Santa Love And Some Cheese

2009-12-21T22:23:00.002-06:00

We saw Santa today!!!!!!! The kids were troopers getting ready and getting out the door so we could get there nice and early to score an early place in line! Once we got there, we had about 20 minutes before Santa was going to arrive. Check out Luke's impatience after being in line for about 2 minutes:

So Jas took the kids to the play area and Mimi and I held our spot. It seriously cut down on the stress of keeping them occupied, but I was sad that they missed the Big Guy's big entrance!

Once the line started moving, I texted Jas and they came right back and we began our little journey through the Polar Express train. Before we begin the fun, can you please take a moment and notice this new face of Luke's:

(What is up with this?)

Okay: On with the fun! This mall has really cute snowglobes filled with scenes from the Polar Express, not to mention really beautiful trees and decorations. It really helps that the kids have things to do and look at while they waited...

Really? Again with the face?!?!

Trying to get a cute shot by the bea-u-ti-ful tree:

Morgan Jane checking out the "snow"...

She just kept laughing and pointing at it! This is her new thing- the pointing and making the "Hey! Get a load of this!"-face. So cute.

Inside the train...

Almost there...LUKE! Ugh! That face!

Luke asking if he can throw the snow- such a boy!

Luke begging to throw the snow...

So then it was our turn! I love that this group comes and writes down your kids' names on your photo order form way before you get up there, which you then hand to the photo guy once its your turn, who excitedly welcomes your kids by name, therefore telling Santa their names. Genius. I'm telling you: these people are the Porches of Santa photo-takers.

Sweet Morgan Jane walked right up to Santa and started clapping, saying, "Tanta! Tanta!"- we had no idea she knew who he was! She practically climbed in his lap on her own- which was a nice suprise considering the kids that went before us were a crying mess. Miss O took her rightful place next to him and they started chatting. But, poor, poor Bubs. He has been having some stress about the "Naughty" list, and wouldn't sit next to Santa until we got confirmation from the Big Guy that yes, indeed, he had made the "Nice" list. By this time, Morgan Jane was sitting on Santa's knee and kept pointing up at him and then looking at Jas and I with her mouth open, like she was saying, "Ha! Do you see this guy!?!" And of course, there was more clapping.

We asked him if there was ANY way he could come a little early on the 24th since we won't have time to open our presents on Christmas morning. He asked me why and I told him that we would be leaving for Disney World, to which he replied, "Well, how horrible for you!" and winked. Ha! He said that his only concern was that the kids had to be sleeping for him to come, so we struck a deal that we would be out of the house- which works perfect since we are having dinner at my parents' so one of my sweet siblings can sneak out and play elf sometime before we actually eat! WHOO-HOO! Mission accomplished.

Then the issue of the Zhu Zhus came up. Olivia asked him for some- telling him that we had told her that they were no more in the stores. Now here comes Awesome Santa Moment #158: He looked at me while saying to her, "You know there aren't very many left..." (Then I winked at him) and he quickly said, "but if I can muster up anymore, they are going straight to you because you have been such a great girl this year." LOVE. HIM. Bubs asked in for a "Fix-It Thomas" which, after we dropped the kids off with Mimi and went searching for, we found out retails for over $100. Yea. Never going to happen- especially since he doesn't even play with toys. So we found him a FANTASTIC Black and Decker plastic tool set, to go in his new toolbox thanks to the fabulous Cokers. We'll just tell him that Santa must of thought he had said, "fix-it toools..." He's 3. He'll buy it.

We all left in a fabulous Christmas mood- and Jas and I finished up all of our shopping! Yea! All I have to do now is finish wrapping all of our gifts, make our stockings, get the Christmas cards in the mail, wash every stitch of clothing we own.... Oh, and maybe clean the house, And make preparations for the dog. And check on our flights. And....

Mario Time

2009-12-20T21:37:00.002-06:00

It had to be done. We had to cut Luke off. He has moved his Mario Kart addiction to the new Super Mario Bros.... and it was getting out of hand. We told him the Wii needed a nap for a few day to charge its batteries, and luckily he bought it.

So what is a little boys, jonesing for a little Mario action to do? He convinces his sister to play with him, and they create their own Mario world. It was so cute. I was so proud of their creativity. It kept them busy for hours- making up different stories, changing the course to make it a new world (sometimes involving poor Mo), making me, their poor mother, be Bowser and battle them so they could get their (Polly Pocket) Princess back. It was so fun!

Morgan Jane had some Baby Godzilla moments...

Hey Luke...Who's better: Mario or Luigi??

Duh! Silly question!

But!: Mario is always the 1st player... "Eetsa go!"

Luigi's turn....

Oh, no! Don't fall!

Lost a life...

Our Moey- such a trooper!

Two Player Mode:

He cleared the course and jumped on the flag pole! "Ogh ya! Mario time!"

Luigi is doing a Victory Dance...

And while all this fun was going on ... guess who played with -gasp!- cars???

She had the best time, too...

Theme Trees

2009-12-20T11:02:00.000-06:00

When I was up at the school helping Olivia's class do a project during their Holiday party, I had a moment there I saw "What Could Have Been". The kids were filling the inside of glass ball ornaments with acrylic paints and rolling them or shaking them to make pretty marbled designs. They were allowed to choose two colors, but when I made the rounds a little girl in her class insisted on only using white. I asked her a couple time if she was sure she didn't want to add another color, and she insisted that she only. wanted. white. Okay. Who am I to mess with someone's artistic vision, right? So once the ornaments were complete, I went around with some glitter paint pens and wrote each child's name on their beautiful keepsakes. When I got around to this little girl, I asked her if she would like red, gold or silver paint for her name. Without blinking, she said, "silver." I asked if she was sure, because silver on white might not show up every well, and wouldn't she prefer one of the other colors. She told me no, that she HAD to have silver. "What do you mean you have to have silver?", I asked her and she turned to me and said, "My mom only allows white or silver ornaments on our tree. If I want to hang it up it has to be white and silver." Oh. My. Gosh. It broke my heart. I had a moment where I wondered how many ornaments and things had she brought home that didn't make the cut? Was 2nd grade the year when she wasn't going to let it happen again? And the thing was: there was serious potential that that could have been my kid.

When I was in my early 20, and before I had children, I had great visions of what my own personal Christmas trees would look like. When I lived with Alyshia, we did "A Few Of My Favorite Things" tree, compelte with hot chocolate packet and concert ticket ornaments. The next year, my girlfriends and I did an "Everything Shiny" tree with tons of Mexican tin ornaments (it helped that they were about $1 a piece at the fabulous folk art store down the street) and anything else we could find that fit our college kids budget. We made ornaments out of our favorite pictures of us and with our neighbors, who we shared the holiday with. The decor was always really reflective of where I was in my life, and what I loved...

Before I was married, (and my mom loves to remind me) I proudly proclaimed that one day, I would have a beautiful theme tree done up just how I wanted it. At that point my mom pointed out that one day I would be faced with a bunch of green painted popcicle-stick christmas trees and hand-print reindeer ornaments. What would I say then to my child hoping to hang their hand-made creations on my "theme" tree? she teased. My heart-less-child-less-at-the-time-response: "This tree has a theme and theme is not crap." Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- what a mean non-Mommy I was!!! So of course, when Miss O brought home her first little tiny precious face in the middle of a finger-painted ceramic present ornament, I melted and couldn't hang it on the tree fast enough.

People always say, "Just wait til you have children!" and you can never really understand what they are telling you until you do. You would do anything for them: You will gag while you peel the cover off of those tiny Vienna sausages because that's all they will eat for two weeks straight- but they don't like the skin. You will sleep on the floor and hold their little hand for nights on end while they get used to sleeping in a Big Kid bed even though you can hardly stand up straight the next day. You'll let them breath their toxic germs on you when they have the stomach flu and the only way you can get them to sleep is in your bed next to you. You'll drive 30 minutes back to their preschool and bribe the janitor to let you in after you've just arrived home after a long days' work only to discover that you have left their favorite blanket there. You will drive to every store on the planet to buy a silly toy because it keeps a dream alive. And you will most certainly hang their ornaments on your tree.

A Yarbrough Tradition

2009-12-18T08:51:00.002-06:00

I have never in my life been afraid to get up in front of people and talk, or dance, or talk and dance (which I'm not sure ever really came in handy...) So why is it that my children, my precious off-spring that do have some of my DNA refuse to perform in from of people???

We went to Luke's preschool Christmas program yesterday- so excited to see the precious little costumes and hear the adorable little songs. Well, we got there, got settled and in they came....

SO CUTE! He had told us he wa singing a song about candy- but I just thought he was being a toot. Turns out he was telling the truth. They were dressed up like Hershey kisses and peppermints- complete with little headbands! So he is all smiles, and then turns and looks out at the audience. And his eyes got huge. They start the show with all of the classses singing together.

We waved at him and blew him kisses, smiled and give him thumbs up- anything to break him out of his 100-people-looking-at-him-shock. No luck. Then its his class' turn to sing their special song. He turns and stares at his teacher- sending a silent SOS with his saucer-sized eyes. No luck. She just keeps smiling. The music starts, his class starts singing and he starts screaming crying. We are talking full on body-shaking, hands in the mouth, get me the hell outta here, crying. And his teacher keeps smiling and singing, hoping to snap him out of it. No luck.

(See that open spot- bottom row, left?? Yea.) So half-way through the song she walks him off the stage. He then proceeds to cry very loudly during the next classes' song. So at this point, as much as I hate to be "that mom", I go over to where he is sitting with his teacher. He looks in the the eye and between sobs says, "I. want. to. go. hooooooome!!!" Poor guy. He was totally traumatized. I was able to convince him to sit with us until the show was over. Look how sweet they all are! (Don't you just love that one kid that always yells the songs??)

Then we went to his classroom for cookies and juice, and he was instantly 10 kinds of bright and shiny: telling us he was so glad we came, asking us if we liked "his show", singing the songs he was supposed to have performed.

His sweet teacher just smiled and rolled her eyes, telling us, "See- he was really excited before he realize the whole world would be watching him!" Ahhhhh! At least we didn't ask any grandparents to fly 1,500 to watch this non-performance...

Teacher Gifts '09

2009-12-15T21:21:00.009-06:00

Its Teacher Gift time! Having worked in a school for numerous Christmas-es, I know what NOT to give: Bath and Body Works. Ha!

I always try to make something... and then I usually end up wanting to keep it. Last year I made coffee baskets. And it took everything I had not to brew up a pot while I was pouring each specialty flavor coffee into their precious labeled tins... KILLER.

So this year, I needed something that didn't have to do with my serious addiction, why do that to myself two years in a row. So I went the crafty-route. And made tassels.

I luv Nester. And I loved the tassels she made. And I stocked every picture trying to figure out how she made the darn things. There had to be something in the middle- but what? Alyshia and I spent several hours discussing what we could use: old thread spools... wooden circles... Well. Last month sweet Nester sold her secret and I bought it. And wouldn't you know... She just rolls the dang fringe. Could it get any easier than that??? So I read her "How To" ebook, waited til ornaments went on sale at the Hob Lob and got my tassel on. (Ooo... that sounds kinda bad. Sorry.)

Normally, the brightly colored toppers would not be my first choice, but my children loved them, and since they are for their teachers, I got over it. I made one for each of their teachers. Then I made two identical ones of the glittery Santa on his bag for O's principal and and Bub's director. 'Know who I love so much I could eat him? The chocolate Santa. He's for my Nanna. YUM.

I hope they go over well, and people don't look at them like, "What the heck is this thing??" I have been prepping my kiddos on what to say, "Its decoration..." "You can hang it on your doorknob..." Ha! We'll see! Careful though... they were so fun and easy to make... it might be the gift everyone gets from me from now on...

Cookie Party

2009-12-11T14:42:00.011-06:00

H and Lysh came over today so we ~~could gab about the other night's shinanigans!!~~ to bake some Christmas cookies! I love that the kids are old enough now to where we can do projects and they can really help. They helped us crack the eggs, add the sticks of butter and stir. So fun! And SO CUTE!

I LOVE these little chefs!

Artsy Fartsy

2009-12-11T08:13:00.011-06:00

So, last night Jas and I got dolled up and hit the town.My BFF was having a set of angel wings she made (these guys on steroids) at an art event called "Flight". She had been asked to join the event on a whim, and in the group of all of the artist featured- (and maybe I'm just biased) I thought that her piece was the most impressive.
There was obviously a whole "wings" theme- the concept was that these models wearing wings(which Alyshia also made) would carry the art down the stairs, have it float through the audience and then it was carried up to another level of the complex where it was displayed for proper viewing. The event organizer has a friend who composes music that expresses the feeling of the art pieces, and he was joined by a women who sang along. I know what you are thinking. And we felt the same way. (snicker) (The highlight of my night was looking over at Jas and seeing the faces he was making, and everytime I would catch his eye, he'd do the " 'sup'" head bob and then smirk. SO not his scene! Such a trooper!)

So once all of the art had been flown through and the music wrapped up, we went to the atrium and had a chance to really check out the pieces. Some were really amazing. There was an artist that had made several ceramic masks- which were incrediably detailed when you looked at them up close. Lysh said the funniest thing was the artist makes them and then takes them to the ceramic-painting- party place to have them fired! It cracked me up to think of these dark, abstract masks hardening next to a "Happy 1st Birthday" plate and a Winner The Pooh piggie bank! I guess you gotta do what ya gotta do!

It was nice to get out, to be a part of the underground art scene for a night, and I would have happily endured 2,000 hours of Artsy-fartsy-ness for my best friend. So many great things are happening for her, and I'm happy to get to share in some of the excitment!

Make It Work!

2009-12-08T16:31:00.012-06:00

Ah!!! Olivia got the BEST present ever from my brother and sister-in-law. And when I say best present ever, I mean "present that I want to steal!" Its the 600+ piece Project Runway set!!! Seriously people. If I wasn't a nice person, I would have shoved her, grabbed it and run! So many new little markers, so many brand new sharp colored pencils, so many little sketch books...

So.... what's a mom to do when her kid has something she wants? "Team Challenge!" You have to spin this spinner 4 times and it tells you some part of your challenge with each spin. So when it was all said and done we had to make a costume, with ruffles, from the 1980's in 1 hour. Well, 1 hour turned into a couple of days, seeing as how anytime we got settled down someone needed something. (And she did have to go to school...)

Miss O did this sketch.... and I got to sewing. This kit not only comes with a wooden modeling mannequin- it came with a precious little dress form!!!

My "Work Space"!End of Day 1 Please note: It is really hard to sew a) sequined fabric and b) little tiny clothes. I sewed, she continued to sketch a handbag, the accessories and make-up style wanted... I squinted and sewed. And then we had to have a meeting of the minds. I didn't think I could handle sewing two more layers of ruffles to that tiny little dress. So we compromised and I made one to go down the shoulder and then she decorated the overlay...

At this point, Jas came in and did his best Tim Gunn expression. He looked at it, paused, and then told us,(read in your silliest Tim voice:) "I see where you're going with this. Just make sure if doesn't look like something Miss Piggle-Wiggle would wear. Alright. Carry on." Then he turned to Olivia and told her to make sure that the style fit her aesthetic and to not let me, as the Team Leader, loose sight of who she is! Ha!!! He even had Luke come in and shout at us, "One hour til the run-a-way!"It was fabulous!!!

The front turned out super cute. The back? A big, hot mess!

I can only imagine what Nina would say!!

"The stiches are showing! The hemline is a mess! This looks like a 7 year old did it"O

Olivia thought this was hilarious! Congratulations, Miss O- You are the challenge winner!

Polar Express

2009-12-06T19:15:00.020-06:00

Granna's is in town!!! So we all had a little family time, threw on 3 layers of clothes and went to ride on the Polar Express. I don't think my kids have ever seen the movie,were just super excited to get to ride a real, honest-to-goodness, train!

Everyone rushing to catch the train...They had a little show, with singers and dancing, and then when we were deemed "full of Christmas spirit" by the conductor, we were able to walk through a Christmas tree-lined walk way- complete with a snow machine- to the train! Morgan HATED the "snow". Hated. It. She started screaming. loudly. Uh-oh.

But she was fine by the time we got in there. It was cute inside- they had hung garland from all of the luggage racks and there were ornaments everywhere. There was even a huge Christmas tree at the end of our car.

The ride started, there was music playing and then someone read Twas The Night Before Christmas over the loud speaker. We just enjoyed the ride and being on a real, honest-to-goodness, train! Then they started to play "Santa Claus is Coming To Town". Now, before this has started the lady on the loud speaker said something along the times of "Parents: Listen and you'll understand." Well, this went right over my head- Duh,duh, duh... I just about jumped when I looked up and guess who was there? The big guy in the flesh. We were in the back(? front?) of the train, so we were the first ones he greeted. He was SO NICE! He was super patient and took time to talk to everyone, young and old, on the train!

Saying "Hi" To Miss O!

Saying "Hi" To B!I always get the best pics of Miss O and Santa! I think its because she's such a believer!Morgan Jane and Luke didn't know what to think about this...Luke WOULD NOT make eye-contact with him!I love this picture of her. She gave him this face as he greeted the next aisle. Then she looked right at me and I held my breath, unsure if she was going to cry or laugh...

Thank goodness she liked him! She stood on Jason's lap facing backwards, watching him greet the rest of the passengers. When he made his way back up the row, she kept saying, "Wow!"and telling him "Hi!" This gives me great hope that maybe we can get another pretty good pic with Santa like last year.

All in all, even with the cold and rain, we had a fun time! This was the first day of Morgan's life that she hasn't had a nap. She was so good, such a trooper, even at lunch.But this was her at 5 o'clock:I know my mom says, "only drunks sleep in their clothes"... but so do exhausted 16 months old sometimes... Night!

Don't Forget

2009-12-03T14:27:00.012-06:00

(Okay, roll your eyes, but here come another Luke-Being-Luke post:)

Jas and I were feeling all HGTV awhile back, and decided to put a large chalkboard on the door that leads out to the garage. (High five, Babe! It turned out great!) So then for the next few days the novelty of being able to write on the door was so fun for ~~Jas~~ my kids. They drew pictures, made silly notes... But now that that has settled down, I use it practically everyday so I don't forget things as I'm walking out the door. Its been a lifesaver!

Well, thanks to "SuperWhy!", Bubs is OBSESSED with the alphabet ('Rainman' as we affectionately call him, can't walk past a sign without spelling it out and then wanting to know what it says and why.) He loves things with exclamation points, and any "No" sign (aka the circle with a line through it.) I can think of worst things to be obessessed with, so we indulge him.

So, Bubs had snack duty for preschool this week, so of course I wrote myself a note on the chalk board. Wednesday night at dinner, he noticed that his name was written up there and wanted to know why. I told him it was there so that I didn't want to forget his snack. Then he wanted to know why I had drawn a line under it. I told him when people underline things it kind of says, "Don't Forget!", it makes it important. Now, for the record, I answer this kid quickly and thoroughly anytime he asks me something. Short and sweet and I move on. He? He stores it away.

Then this morning, I came in and found him "writing" his name on the bottom of the chalkboard. I told him he was doing great, helped him write a lower case 'k' and 'e', and went about making coffee, packing O's lunch... I start to walk out of the kitchen and then he says, "Mommy, wait!" and he underlines his handi-work.

"What's up with that?" I asked him.

"So you don't forget me when we go to school."

Ho, Ho, ...Hamsters???

2009-12-02T11:26:00.007-06:00

These little cuties are making Jas and I INSANE!

We have been to 12 stores. No luck.

We have then re-visited theses stores at midnight and then again at 6 am. No luck.

I have batted my eyelashes, mustered up some fake tears, and have stopped just short of grabbing onto the leg of a poor Toys R Us employee and clinging on while he drags me back into the stock room so I can set up camp and wait for these little cuties to arrive.

Why, Santa?!?! Why??!??! Why is this the one year our oldest child decides to ask Santa for the ONE gift we cannot get (without paying $60 when it retails for $8)?!?! I would never be so looney over a toy except that I know Miss O's "I Believe In Santa" days are numbered and I want to do everything in my power to keep that special belief real for her. I've become "that mom"- the one who beats people up for Cabbage Patch kids, knocks over toddlers for Tickle Me Elmos... Oh, the shame...

So now it comes down to following every lead: Craigslist, eBay, CVS, Cracker Barrell, the caves of Afghanistan... We will comb the Earth in hope of finding these little cuties for our little cutie.

Tree Trimming

2009-11-29T18:12:00.015-06:00

Jas and Miss O put up the Christmas tree yesterday while I lay in bed, a big ball of head-cold misery watching all of the OnDemand episodes of The Good Wife (which rocks by the way- I am hooked.) So all day today Miss O has been ~~bugging us~~ sweetly enquiring about when we could put up the ornaments. So this evening we turned on the Chirstmas tunes, discussed how much nicer it would be if we had something festive to drink... and trimmed the tree! This was the first year that Luke really understood what we were doing. (I say that, and just this morning he wanted to know why there were no presents under the tree... Oh, well...) He LOVED putting the ornaments on the tree. Jas laid out the ones that he couldn't break and he went to town. We had to have a little lesson on the "One Ornament Per Branch" rule though! Growing up, we all had our own boxes filled with ornaments that had been given to us or we made over the years. I still have a glittered Christmas tree cut out of a recycled foam-tray with my little kindergarten picture glued to it. Alot of them my mom made, or my grandmother had tied to presents- each one a memory of something that had happened that year. Before my little sisters came along, my Nanna had given my brother a ceramic Kermit the Frog ornament and me, a Miss Piggy one. I am embarrassed to admit, that being a chubby kid, there were years that I deliberately didn't hang Miss Piggy up. Seriously. So dumb. Now I love her. She's such a classic- and not a chip on her after all these years. I always think of my brother when I hang her up- I hope he still has his Kermit. Since marrying Jas, my family has bombarded him with ornaments, trying to get his collection equal to mine. The first Christmas we shared together, I put a new ornament on almost every present I gave him! He has such a soft spot for Santa, so most of his have something to do with Santa..or Golf... or Santa playing golf. And Elvis, we can't forget his love of Elvis! My mom has even found little kid ones that say "Jake" which is his nickname from when he was young. Too cute. But check this one out that my mom gave him years ago: We just about die laughing everytime someone pulls him out of the box. We affectionately call him "Proctologist Santa" Looks like he's snapping on some gloves getting ready for an exam. BLAH!?!? So gross, but we love him just the same...

We had to put Morgan Jane in the porta-crib while we did the hanging. She has been caught trying to eat the lights off of the tree, so we knew that she couldn't be trusted during all of the hustle and bustle decking out the tree. We don't know what she thought we were doing, but she kept clapping and yelling "yea!" When I finally let her out, she just sat on the hearth and kept cheering. I guess we did a good job!

Miss O has always been in charge of putting the star on the top of the tree. Just let me say for the record: I will cry like a big ole baby the day she is too big to get on Jas shoulder to put it up there. I have pictures of them every year- and while the star has changed over the years- it is always the last thing we put on, and something special just for her.

And what is a Yarbrough event without a dance party at the end??? Rockin' out to Christmas tunes... even Romo joined in!

Ta-Da! Here she is in all her glory- A tree full of memories!

Now on to the rest of the house...

Something's Missing

2009-11-28T21:42:00.009-06:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving break- full of food, family and fun! We made it to Austin and back- and while I am now worn out and sick as can be- I am glad we went. Thanksgiving has always been the one holiday where we always make plans to head down to Austin to see my mom's side of the family. And they are all there: my mom's two brothers and their wives, and her sister. And all of my cousins, there are 10 total. And of course, my grandfather. And this year, I can't tell you why- but it really hit me hard that my grandmother wasn't there. And she hasn't been for over 4 years now. Maybe its all of the joy and loss we have experienced over the past year that has made me stop and take in all that I have to be thankful for- and I realized how lucky I was to have such an amazing woman not just be my grandmother, but a role-model for me, as well.

I think back about her and I have some of the sweetest, fondest memories. I remember how when Fan Target and I were small, just for fun, she bought us little fur coats. And if I remember correctly- it was in the summer! There was a little hallway from the garage to the kitchen, and she made us wait while she introduced us like little princesses to whoever was visiting in the kitchen, and we walked in all fancy, showing our new coats off. I can remember how those coats smelled: like gigantic rabbits' feet. But I loved it. Loved the silliness of it all. I will always remember how pulled together and beautiful she always looked. Always. I remember how she always smiled and genuinely complimented me on something every time she saw me. I remember how her hands looks and how she always gave me sideways hug and then stood there holding on to me, her hands around me shoulder. She always remembered all of my friends names and asked how they were whenever we came to visit. She always wanted to hear about who I was dating, and I can remember how she said Jas looked like "movie star" when she phoned to tell me she had gotten the prom pictures I had sent her. I will never forget showing up to the Zeta house on Pref Night only to find her dressed to the nines waiting in the greeting line, all of the sisters and alums giddy with excitement that she had "just stopped by"! They all thought it was just the sweetest thing- a grandmother passing on her Zeta legacy, while my grandmother, seeing my shocked face just gave a little grin and winked at me. She had sealed the deal for me. And she had plotted it all along. She would have done anything for us grand kids- and she did. Spoiling us like crazy, but at the same time expecting proper manners, grammar and respect from us all. And she got it. She deserved it. I often think about how Olivia came when she did for not just Jas and I, but for other members of our family, too. Gary was able to watch her grow up some and have one of his grandchildren really know and remember him. And she made my grandmother a great-grandmother, even if was only for a few years. She got to see Olivia was she was a teensy baby. Got to bathe her, which was one of her favorite things to do- "Hydro-therapy" she called it. She got to see her as a little toddler and hear her say her name. I love that my grandfather always wants to have his picture made with my kids when we come to visit- he loves that he has great-grand kids and thinks that are "a hoot!" But I wish my grandmother was here to feel the same way. She always had a special place in her heart for little boys, and I know she would have been crazy about Luke. It was nice to have so many aunts and uncles come up to us this week and tell us how fun our kids are, that we are doing a good job of raising them... But I just wish she could have been here to see it. Something was definitely missing this Thanksgiving. A chair was empty. I missed my grandmother.

Its just one more thing that makes me grateful that my children have such great grandparents who love and adore them just as much as she did us. I feel in my heart that she does know our kids, does feel proud of us and that she watches over all of us from above. And I am thankful for that, too.

Mother Hen

2009-11-24T09:15:00.010-06:00

This is me.

A proud Momma Hen.

I could not be more proud of my precious best friend.

She has been given an amazing opportunity share her talents, to "Let It Shine!"

XOXO

(Psst... check out the Dallas Morning News next Saturday, the 5th- to see what she's been up to!)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I'm so excited!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Ladies Man

2009-11-19T10:10:00.006-06:00

Somtimes in your life things happen and you see your future: What is holds, whats to come... We had gone up to schol to eat a Thanksgiving Lunch with Miss O. As soon as we approached the tables, two of her precious little classmates were begging and asking "Luu-keeeeeey" to sit by them. Needless to say, he was a little intimidated. But as the lunch went on, he warmed up to all of the attention being paid, and agreed to go sit between them once he had finished eating.

And in that moment: I say his future. All of Miss O's friends treating him like a cute little pet for the rest of his life: "Luu-keeeeeey."

Ha! poor, poor Bubs. :0)

Check out my little Indian representing at his Thanksgiving Feast (According to Luke, the menu included grapes, bananas, marshmallows and cheese cubes! My kind of feast! heehee.) Have I mentioned how much he is loving preschool???

Priorities

2009-11-17T16:38:00.014-06:00

It seems that Morgan Jane's love of Kai-lan has gone south over the past few month. South of the Border that is.

Dora. Damn, Dora.

"Dita!" as Morgan affectionately screams out whenever she sees her- whether its on a pair of pajamas hanging on the rack at Target or her bizarre appearance on the chicken noodle Campbell soup can. (Of course I bought it. She hugged that can of soup the whole time we were in the grocery store- showing it to everyone who would look, screaming, "Deeeee-taaah!!!!" like she had a handful of diamonds or something!)

So the other day we had a garage sale to finally get rid of all of the things we have moved with us over the years that we just. don't. need. I opened the box of Miss O's million and one baby dolls and all of their accessories, that I had planned to save for Morgan. And I will admit: I pulled one out and set it aside to give to her later that day. Well! It turns out Jason had the same plans, because the next day he came in our room cracking up: Turns out, he had gone in Morgan's room to wake her up from nap with one of the baby dolls he had pulled out of the box for her, carrying it like a real baby. He said she FREAKED out, shaking and whispering, "baby, baby!" and then signing to tell him to "shoosh" (because that's what we always tell her when we see babies.) So needless to say, she was THRILLED to have a bunch of new babies to play with!

I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to document her joy of motherhood. She is a notorious "let-me-see-what-you-see-on-the-camera" kind of kid, so she won't sit in front of the camera very often. Luckily, I got a few good snip-ettes. She was being awfully cute: kissing the babies, ~~dragging them by their legs~~, showing them to everyone in the house, ~~throwing them on the floor~~, telling them to go "nigh-nigh"... You name. It was pretty adorable.

I am lov-ing that I am getting all of this on tape and then, whoooo do you guess comes along to ruin my footage? You guessed it. Damn Dora.

Priorities, I guess.

(At least she didn't leave her children unattended!)

Mario Kart King

2009-11-15T21:21:00.011-06:00

Its happened. Luke has figured out how to play MK on his own. After sitting along side us and watching us play for over a year- I guess it was bound to happen. He loves to watch the "pros" play the races we book mark for him on YouTube and he obviously studied from the maters, because he wins. Alot. He's scary good for a 3 year old.

He was really into a race this morning, so I thought I would document is serious love for this silly game in a tribute to his favorite track: Rainbow Road.

In case your wondering: Yea... he won.

Gratitude: Miss O

2009-11-12T08:32:00.024-06:00

I feel like I haven't written about Miss O in awhile- and the past couple of weeks have been kinda of hairy around here- being a parent is so tough sometimes. What an uphill battle! She and I are SO MUCH alike: perfectionists with tender hearts who feel things very deeply. Sometimes this is a lethal combo when conflicts arise. I am working on my end to be more patient, and look at things so that I can teach her from them- not just be on her case all the time. And something happened the other night that kinda of snapped me back into reality: We really do have one of the sweetest little girls on earth as our daughter.

I was sitting at the kitchen table the other night filling out the forms for Bub's new preschool (starts Monday- YEA!!!) And she came in with her box of (new, beautiful, 64-count.... Oh! sorry, I love art supplies..) crayons and a stack of construction paper. She told me we were going to do a project where we would trace our hands, decorate them and them make a heart with them together. ??? I did what she said- and I could totally tell she was making it up as went along, which was even more endearing! Then that project turned into a book. She said to write, "5 Things I Love About You" on the front and then fill it in. She gave me permission to add more if I felt like I needed to. (wink) So she worked feverishly on hers, and ~~I geeked out that I got to use all of those new, beautiful crayons~~ worked hard on mine and then we swapped.

She loves me because :

And I love her because:

I just of feel that I am walking around lately with "These Are The Days" playing on a loop in my head. Our kids are just so funny and so cute- I am grateful that I get to be their mom everyday.

These are days
These are the days you might fill
With laughter until you break
These days you might feel
A shaft of light
Make its way across your face
And when you do
Then you'll know how it was meant to be
See the signs and know their meaning
It's true
Then you'll know how it was meant to be
Hear the signs and know they're speaking
To you, to you

Nov. 8 Gratitude

2009-11-08T14:05:00.010-06:00

I am thankful for...

...my mother-in-law, Martha. I feel so blessed to be a member of the Yarbrough family. Her love and support means so much to me.

...my new camera- an early Christmas gift from Martha. LOVE IT. I felt like so many memories were slipping away when I wasn't able to document all of the funny moments of our lives!

...patience, and the ability to gain it back as quickly as it is lost. Case in point: Our 2009 Christmas Card Photo Attempt #1. Seriously!??!? How HARD is it to sit still for 2 seconds!! Here are some of the out-takes...(You'll notice there are NONE of Miss O. She's the only one around here who listens to me without having to be bribed with marshmallows!)

(my feelings exactly, Bubs...)

Nov. 7 Gratitude

2009-11-07T22:16:00.008-06:00

I am thankful for...

...my precious, sweet, darling, funny (and quite handsome, if I do say so myself!) husband. He is the light of my life. He makes me smile everyday. He keeps me from taking everything so seriously.

...Coffee. Coffee. Coffee. And that the above mentioned husband has recently begun to share this love, so we are NEVER out.

...getting to share the above mentioned coffee with my husband every. single. morning. I love that he is now able to be home so much more. I am so thankful that the words, "this weekend" can be spoken to him because what we have planned now actually applies to him too! It took over 8 years to get to this point, and I can only hope that we are blessed with continued success with our new business so we can keep things how they are for many years to come!

Nov. 6 Gratitude

2009-11-06T13:16:00.009-06:00

I am thankful for...

.... little piggies....
... and staying home....

and....roast beef...???

;0)

Welcome To The Dollhouse

2009-11-05T17:29:00.015-06:00

... because playing with her own toys is NOWHERE near as much fun as sneaking into Miss O's room and playing with hers....

Til the next break-in....

Nov. 5 Gratitude

2009-11-05T09:37:00.001-06:00

I am thankful for...

...spray paint...

...hot glue....

...and my best friend who understands and shares my need to constantly create...

Nov. 4 Gratitude

2009-11-04T09:26:00.000-06:00

I am thankful....

...that we have the technology today where I can call, email and send pictures to my little sister who is over 1,100 miles away. It makes missing her as much as I do not hurt so much...

...that my grandparents raised my parents to raise my brother, sisters and I with respect and manners that I am now teaching to my children. Nothing makes me more proud then hearing my children speak to others- especially adults- with nice manners without being reminded...

...that every night Morgan Jane sits in my lap in the bathroom while I wait for her bathtub to fill up and gives me the sweetest hugs-"snugs", as we call them. I sit, just the two of us, and remind myself to take it in and remember how blessed I am to have these sweet babies as my own...

Nov. 3 Gratitude

2009-11-02T18:23:00.000-06:00

I am thankful...

...That Halloween was on a Saturday this year, so I had plenty of time to get things ready and that my children had an incredibly fun night with their friends...

...That while I did not have a decent camera to take their picture on this, my favorite of all holidays , I was able to get a few along the way with my fancy new phone! (I still might re-dress them up and take some pretend ones, so just wait...)

...That my husbands and friends have been patient with me while I learn how to use said fancy new phone, and don't kill me when I send them 15 blank text messages a day. I'm workin' on it, I promise!...

So Now, Without Further Ado!: Yarbrough 5 HALLOWEEN 2009

Getting Ready For The School Carnival

(Footwear was an after-thought this year- SO not like me!)

Olivia and Morgan, Waiting For The Cake Walk

"Its Luigi Time!" (He was so angry about this mustache! The kid on the package was dressed as a magician and he thought that I was trying to pull one over on him! "This is not the right one!!! I am not a magician!!" Such a diva!)

Everyone liked Bub's costume so much, Morgan Jane decided to get in on the act!

Our Jack-o-Lanterns! I went out on a limb and tried to carve just the top layer to make the detailed Romo and Luigi ones. LOVE how they turned out- Don't think I'll ever go back to the traditional carved style! Check out Miss O's avant garde skeleton in the middle- So Artsy-Fartsy!

It wouldn't be Luigi Time without a mushroom trick-or-treat bag for extra speed and power while out collecting candy!! (God bless felt.)

Morgan Jane and Kane- You can't tell from the pic, but she was CRAZY excited when he showed up! So adorable together! He's checking out the tutu-extravaganza!

Jas decided last minute to be an old-school golfer. Thank God I can sew, and whipped up a pair of knickers for him 30 minutes before people started showing up! Here is Morgan Jane modeling his fabulous mustache at the end of the night!
(Why do we always do this to our poor baby???)

ThatsAllIGot-How'dYaLikeTha-at!

Nov. 2 Gratitude

2009-11-02T08:13:00.000-06:00

I am thankful:
1) for waking up every morning and having a roof over my head (and coffee brewing in the kitchen)...

2) that my babies are safe and healthy...
3) that we have family who live so close by that they can share in the little joys of life with us day by day...

The Word According To Luke: II

2009-10-27T08:32:00.000-05:00

Okay, I know I write about Luke a lot. And its not that I don't adore my other children, and that they aren't the cutest, sweetest, funniest children in the world- Its just that he's the only one here all day that can talk. And Oh my gosh- this kid and the things he says!

This morning: We have just discovered that Super Mario Bros. for the Wii is coming out late November. We NEVER should have mentioned this to Luke- (I had to bookmark a YouTube video of the three-minute preview of it just to appease his unwavering excitement.) Lately he has been asking us the order of the holidays and he counts them off on his hand. He must have really been listening to us about the SMB release date because this morning he says to me, "Mom! It goes like this!" and starts counting them off: "Halloween, SuperMarioBrosWii!, Thanksgiving and ChristmasDisney!" Only a 3 year old would make a video game release date a national holiday!?!

Yesterday: He has been helping me go around the house in the morning and make the beds. Yesterday as we are pulling up his comforter, he says, "You need to do it nice and tight." "Why?" I ask. "Because I'd like some com-for-cy when I'm sleeping, thank you!" (Ha! This sounds eerily similar to what I say as I'm shutting the bathroom door, mixed with the word "comfy"...so funny! Great word!)

Last week: Luke was following Jason around and then out of the blue says, "I don't want to be a boy any more. Its too hard. I want to be a girl." Oh, buddy... if you only knew! If you only knew...

Talent Show

2009-10-23T08:14:00.000-05:00

Its seem like lately, Luke has been pouring out the knowledge and random facts his little brain has been soaking in for the last 3 years. He knows all of his A, B, Cs and likes to spell out the names of the stores before we go in or the titles of the books we read at bed time. I don't remember Olivia being so obsesssed with letters, I just know that the Montessori teachers got them in her brain in the most fun and inventive ways. But the things that has all of us tickled is his new singing.

He will rock out a tune- and seems to know the "style" of the song so that is performance is genre apporpriate. The other day I had music playing in the house and "Three Little Birds" - the Bob Marley version came on- and he started singing. Every word and with great inflection. So of course everyone stopped what they were doing and had to join in. Such dorky fun.

And then last night we were coming home from dinner at my parents' house and "Im Yours" by Jason Mraz came on. And again- it was Luke who started belting it out, holding out the notes and even throwing in a little voice warbling when needed. We couldn't let him fly solo, so again- we all joined in and it was so fun. He was tickled and Morgan Jane thought it was hilarious! The Von Trapps have nothin' on us!

As I got him out of the car, I said, "Whoa, Bud! How do you know so many songs?" And he did the Luke shrug, and say, "Ahhhhhh, I don't know. Do you think I'm a good singer?" And I said, "Are you ever?! I love to hear you sing!" He walks into the house ahead of me and says to himself quietly, " I need to be in a talent show!"

HA! So in honor of his adorable thought- how in the world does he know what a talent show is???- I think we will be hosting the First Annual -well, maybe second- I think Olivia's concert counts since he helped! (Remember this flyer?) Yarbrough Family Talent Show this weekend. Stayed tuned for pictures... maybe even a little video. :0)

{Mu-Ah!}

2009-10-19T15:24:00.000-05:00

To My Husband On Our Anniversary:

Our Love Transcends All Time

"So darling, say that you care

Take this heart I give gladly

Surely you know, I need your love so badly

Here is my heart, my life and my all dear

Please be mine and stay here in my heart" - Al Martino

Here In My Heart, 1952

"Love me tender,

Love me sweet,

Never let me go.

You have made my life complete,

And I love you so."- Elvis Presley

Love Me Tender, 1958

"It's right that I should care about you

And try to make you happy when you're blue

It's right, it's right to feel the way I do

Because, because I love you"- Dave Clark Five

Because, 1962

"'Cause you know it's you babe

Whenever I get weary and I've had enough

I feel like giving up

You know it's you babe

Giving me the courage and the strength I need

Please believe that it's true, babe, I love you"- Styx

Babe, 1979

"Close your eyes and give me your hand
Do you feel my heart beating, do you understand?
Do you feel the same, am I only dreaming
Or is this burning an eternal flame?"- The Bangles
Eternal Flame, 1986

Thank you for making me feel like a Princess everyday!

"Oh, I love you more today than yesterday
But not as much as tomorrow
I love you more today than yesterday
But, darling, not as much as tomorrow"- Stevie Wonder

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY! XOXO

Time Machine

2009-10-18T17:05:00.000-05:00

Don't you love old friends?

The ones who loved you when wore Princess Leia buns and knee-highs with converse sneakers?

The ones who held your hand when you called that guy you had a crush on, and then smoothed your hair as you cried in her lap when he stood you up?

The one who you have a million pictures with when you two were in rare form?

The one who doesn't look at you like your nuts when you decided that you must, must! make personalized shirts to wear to the neighbor boys' soccer game?

The ones who would totally be up for going out dancing almost directly from the theater after you all caught the 10:30pm showing of "Save The Last Dance"?

Ah, good times made better by a good friend- those were the days!

My fabulouso girlfriend Karly came into town for TX/OU weekend and came over to see us before she headed back out of town. When we stopped and thought about it, we hadn't seen each other in almost 2 years! Not since Bubs was Morgan's age- which is just crazy. Never again. It was so incredible to catch up and made me realize, as always, what an amazing person she is and how much I love our friendship.

The other day when my mom was here, we had one of those random discussions when she was telling me where in time she would go back to if she had a Magic Time Machine- aside from the obvious (wedding, birth of children...) She would go back to the arm of her grandfather's leather chair and have him read her Dr. Squash, The Doll Doctor, just like he used to do when she was a little girl. Where would I go? I would go back to the porch of this little house I rented with Karly and our friend Stacy when I was 21. It had three steps and a black iron railing that curved to welcome you as you came up. The concrete was painted a dark burgundy and was chipped and cracked. It was where we spent so much of our time that year. If I could go anywhere, I would sit there and have an ice cold Dos Equis that we had picked up- along with a sad looking lime- at the little market on the corner of West Lynn and 1oth on the way home from work. It would be early Fall, where it was a little chilly, but nothing that a hoodie or a scarf couldn't fix. I would look across the street at the home of our hippie older neighbor who once lent us glue (I can't remember what for) and we realized his whole living room was filled with bongos. Fabulous. I would wave at the precious, hip couple who lived next door as she arrived home. I would sit with Karly and Stac, and we would talk about our day, and where we wanted to go out that weekend. If I could, I would breathe in the Austin air and hear the faint sound of Gomez or Big Head Todd being played on the stereo in the living room. And I would enjoy that moment of just being young. Because I know at the time, all I could think about was "growing up." I would just sit and soak it in and have that back for just a while.

I am so thankful for that year.

For my girlfriends.

For that porch.

I often think about how I am blessed with such amazing, unique women for friends. And how lucky I am that they all will always be a part of my past, my present and my furture.

Us At The TX/ OU Game -October 2000

Trashy Romance

2009-10-17T17:38:00.000-05:00

Morgan Jane is in love with the trash can from the office.

Maybe its because she's never really seen it empty until yesterday, and today she had her chance to lug it around, but its so random.

She snuggled it while watching TV.

She dragged it all around the house and set it down where she was playing.

She's so weird.

Name Game

2009-10-10T20:38:00.001-05:00

What do you do when the name you gave the tiny baby growing inside you- and you had no way of knowing their personality or "style" would be- doesn't really fit once they start to grow up?

I know this is ridiculous- but it is starting to bug me. Morgan just isn't a Morgan. When we were down to the wire and deciding on "Morgan", I felt that it was a little serendipitous that it just so happened to be monogrammed on a set of towels in the PBK catalog that month, and the name of a line of Ralph Lauren bedding- so I was pretty much convinced that it was a nice, classic name. Right? But Lord help us, Morgan is the furthest thing from nice and classic! She's so quirky and, dare I say, LOONEY- that it just doesn't suit her. She needs something different, something a little more unique. We do call her by her first and middle name most of the time- if only because she is usually up to no good- and that seems to make it a little better. We thought about just calling her Jane, but I knew an awful girl in high school by that name, so I just can't do it. Sometimes Jas calls her Janie, but that's a little too girlie for her I think. The worst thing about Morgan is that there are NO good nicknames! I thought about calling her "Emmie"- but the same thing- its just a little too cute. UGH.

I don't want to pull an Angelina Jolie- and be like "Oh, you've already been called something for the past 3 years? Well, I don't like it! So now your name will be...."- but I figure now would be the time to switch it before she does get so old that she just looks at us like we've lost our minds! Any suggestions? All reasonable offers will be considered. :0)

On a fun note: We used to tease my parents that they gave all of us old fashioned names, and just to prove the point: Both first and middle names of both of my sisters and myself, are found on the Top 100 names of 1940. Nice.

Hunger Strike

2009-10-09T08:06:00.000-05:00

Gandhi is living through Luke.
A hunger strike has started in our house.
And its enough to make me insane.

I am an experienced mother, I know that kids eat a ton and then don't eat at all. Sleep a ton and then don't sleep at all. Cry a ton and then don't cry at all. I should know this is not a big deal, but I am going nuts! I think it must be in our Mommy Instincts to make sure that our children eat, to get the good stuff they need to grow and develop into healthy people- so when all Luke wants to eat and drink is Starbursts and Bunny Whop- what is a Mommy to do??? He refuses to eat anything of substance, and obviously, I am not indulging in this 3 year old's Dream Diet, so he eats nothing. NOTHING.

I am channeling Super Nanny, as always, and her rule is: If you don't eat whats put in front of you, you don't eat. I am going to try to not loose it when I have "slaved over a hot stove" (shout out to my mom) and he just looks at what I made. He doesn't even flatter me by at least poking at it with his fork, or attempting to take a tiny bite. I would even take him having a bite and then spitting it out, because maybe some tiny morsel of nutrients will enter his body.

I'm hanging in there. We'll see how long this lasts. If only I knew what he was protesting against! His 7 pm bedtime? That "Super WHY" is not shown on Saturdays?...

Yes, Sir

2009-10-03T15:22:00.001-05:00

The other night I was talking to my girlfriend, D, and we got on the topic of boys. Mine and hers. Her little boy is two weeks older than Morgan Jane. He's s doll, with a capitol "D". Cute blonde hair, killer blue eyes. We have decided he needs to break some hearts before he can even look in Morgan's direction. Ha!

Anyway, it just so happens that she is reading Dr. James Dobson's book, "Bringing Up Boys"- and mentioned how much she loved it. We got on the topic of manners, character- and how we both wanted to make sure our boys grew up to be strong, responsibe gentlemen, not sissy-metro-men. Then it just so happens that my mom gave me the cutest book the other day, "How To Raise A Gentleman" by Kay West. I read it in about an hour- it was so funny and well-written, and the thing that I found so interesting is that other than the chapter called, "When Nature Calls: Bathrooms, Belching, Boogers, Gas, Spitting and Scratching" (nice.), the book covers behavior that should be expected of girls, too.

I liked that she, as a mother of boys, knows that they are not girls, and will behave accordingly- so its our job to understand them, and teach them the proper time and place for being a guy.

"Do not laugh at, nor appear too horrified by, your son's ability to belch "Happy Birthday," but impress upon him the rudeness of doing so in public."

If you have children, I highly recommend this book! It covers everything you can think of: how you should enter a row if you are late, or need to excuse yourself (tushy towards the row in front of you) to the appropriate response at a birthday if your child opens something he a)doesn't like b) already has or c) just opened. Its a million little things that we all just know, and sometimes forget need to be taught. Just the other day O asked another little girl why she wasn't at a birthday party she had attended over the weekend. It wasn't until then that I realized I had never taught her that she shouldn't talk about parties or play dates with children that weren't in attendance. I waited until that evening and talked to her about it- I love that she is so sensitive and realized right off the bat that it could make people upset and feel left out.

One lesson down, 1,000,000 to go!

Here are some of the ways you know you are raising a gentleman:
"He does not gloat over a win, or sulk over a loss.""He does not express anger, disappointment or frustration by throwing, kicking, punching or breaking something."

"He does not take the last helping without offering it to someone else.""He does not yell "MOM" directly into the receiver when the caller asked for his mother, nor does he chomp gum or food while on the phone.""[When a guest at a party] he does not assist in blowing out the candles unless it is requested, and he does not ask for the biggest slice of cake or the piece with the special decor."

So, Operation Proper Gentleman is in affect, and Miss O will be learning right along with him. Thank goodness for 3-year-old independence- he already loves to open the door and hold it! Now, if I could just get him to always remember to flush the potty...

The Best Of Friends

2009-10-02T14:37:00.000-05:00

Now that school is back in session, and we are living a more scheduled life, we have been making sure we spend Friday mornings with Lysh and H. And the nicest change has happened: Luke and H actually play together like big kids. These two have gotten SO BIG lately, and their friendship has grown, too.

She is his best friend. She is someone he asks me to call and see if she can come over to play every day. She is someone he relates almost anything we are doing to: "H goes to Hobby Lobby, too!" "H washes her hands, too!" And most importantly, she is someone who shares his deep love of "chickenfries" and PBS Kids.

They have always been really sensitive to each others' little quirks. They both have "lovies"- H's Woobie and Luke's Bunny. I've always thought it was so cute that even when they were very little, they would bring them to each other when they were upset, or made sure that they weren't forgotten when the play date was coming to a close. And they are also so funny about milk! They have created a silly name for it, combining each of their special nicknames together: "Minima" for H or "Bunnywhop" for Luke becomes "MiniWhop". I find this not only extremely endearing, but a little bit genius, considering they made this up on their own and only use it in the presence of each other.

They (for the most part!) play really sweetly together. They think up things like surprise birthday parties for their stuffed cats and cows, or imaginary shopping trips for batteries and hoagie rolls (Priorities, people!)

Its been so fun to see them grow up together this far, I can only imagine how much fun they'll have over the next few years!

The First Time They Met!

(ah!!! remember this???)L+H= BFF

Bring It!

2009-10-02T14:20:00.000-05:00

I just finished out monthly calendar that hangs in the kitchen and, Whoa!
October is going to be super busy, but super fun!
There's our anniversary, many a birthday to celebrate, and the kids start in a bunch of new activities!

And Halloween... did I mention HALLOWEEN!!
We are thinking of having a party since I've talked to a bunch of friends who want to get together and then trick-or-treat that night! May as well take advantage of the fact that its a Saturday night!
Here's another sneak peek for you.... Is it Luke? Is it Luigi???? You'll have to wait to find out...

Mommy Mix Tape Vol. 2

2009-09-26T10:36:00.001-05:00

So after a fun morning of stealing people's trash yesterday- Lysh and I got to talking (shocker!) about what else?: husbands, children, staying home, being crafty, needing an outlet... And we both came to agreement that thanks to our men's jobs that keep them at work til very late in the evening, we have come to look forward to that quiet time- whether its 10 minutes or 2 hours- after the kids are in bed, before they get home. I always pull my hair up, light some more candles, maybe pour a glass of wine and them put on some Mommy music. I might get on the computer, work on a project, make dinner for Jas or honestly, just sit there. Its a time where no one needs me but me. Its my way to clear my head before Jas gets home and be able to be all there for him when he does. So in honor of 7:30 to 9:00pm, I bring you:

Mommy Mix Vol. 2:
Sunrise by Norah Jones
All We Are by Matt Nathanson
The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelson
PDA (We Just Don't Care) by John Legend
Edge Of The Ocean by Ivy
Winter Song by Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles
Sunday Morning by Maroon 5
Tread Water by Sara Bareilles
Hometown Glory by Adele
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight by Bob Dylan and Norah Jones
Do You Remember by Jack Johnson
Can't Help Falling In Love by Ingrid Michaelson
Make You Feel My Love by Adele

2 Ft. Terror

2009-09-24T14:11:00.001-05:00

So this girl:

This Stinker Pot:has begun a serious rein of terror in my house. She is a monkey. A climber. A sneaky little curly haired ninja. Don't let the cute face fool ya! Over the past week she has learned how to climb on the coffee table, ....which then led her to figure out how to climb onto the couch. And because who really wants to sit on the couch?- she prefers to stand... And push things off the side table...
I see trips to the ER in my future.

She then learned how to open the doors in our house- that includes the backdoor, which we mistakenly believed we could leave unlocked! Ha! Nothing like finding your 14 month old wondering around on the patio. Sheesh.

And then there's the issue of Miss O's room: The room of 1 million teensy-tiny-swallow-in-a-heartbeat Barbie shoes, Pet Shop sunglasses, and Polly Pocket purses. Not to mention stuffed animals, birthday goodie bags and fabulous dress-up stuff.Great. She destroyed the room in 2.2 seconds flat. So as I am leading her out of Miss O's room and encouraging her to play in her own room, I come across this: Come on?? Why is this fun? It wasn't a week ago today that I hear her in her room having a grand ole' time at what should have been nap time. I finally go in there, and she has some how pulled the brand new package of 64 diapers off of the top of the dresser, opened it and pulled every single one of those diapers out. She was swimming in a sea of diapers in her crib and the whole floor was covered. And every mommy knows that once you open a diaper, it never goes flat again- so I had this huge ridiculous mound of diapers in her closet until just yesterday. Made me insane.

I would seriously consider busting out the playpen, but have visions of her swinging herself over the side and making a wobbly-toddler dash for it! She's under serious baby lock-down. I feel like I have to do that two-finger "I have my eyes on you" motion to her every few minutes. I have to stalk her like the paparazzi:I now have a deeper understanding for the moms who put tents over their children's cribs, make them wear back-packs with leashes and buy those hideous coffee table bumpers. Things are about to change around here...

Oh, Dora...

2009-09-22T16:43:00.000-05:00

My sister Sarah gave me this the other day and I think it is hilarious! We have such a love/hate relationship with Dora in our house. If I have to read just "Happy Birthday, Mami" - one of the 8 stories in the Dora Collection book- of which we have Vol. 1 and 2, mind you-at bedtime one more time, I might run out of the house screaming!!! I guess she's not all bad. She entertains my children long enough to let me bathe. And thanks to her, my 3 year old can count to 10 and can tell you how to say bee, frog, owl, rat, snake, bird and chicken (random! I know....) in Spanish. We loved seeing her in concert- but Swiper was the best part! I will never forget this post that Heidi over at Mommy Doesn't Live Here Anymore wrote about Dora- just about peed my pants!

Love her or hate her- here ya go!

Its Begun

2009-09-21T08:15:00.000-05:00

Countdown to Halloween: T-40 days....
Oh, really...?
That long...?
Okay, so maaaybe I've jumped the gun a little here...
Oh, well!
Whoo-hoo!
Let the fun begin!!!!

"Only Good Things"

2009-09-18T19:37:00.000-05:00

That's what Gary used to say when you asked him "What's Up?" And that is seriously how we are feeling today. So many good things are going on, and I just know that he is up there smiling down at Jas, giving him the thumbs up. I want to jump up and down and freak out about what happened today, but I hate to say them out loud in fear of jix-ing anything!

But I am so excited, so I will just whisper them to you (and then do the "hex" sign and spit on the floor and turn around two times): Jas signed up with another school today. That director cold-called another school in front of him to see if they want him to teach there too. She then gave him the number of her best friend who also runs a school and told him to name-drop her. So that could be 5 schools. And if those schools reach 10 kids a piece that would mean he would quit his current job. And then only have to work 2 hours a day. We've come up with a great clinic-type event that is being welcomed with open arms at a local driving range. Getting ready to promote that next month. We are freaking out over with how well this has taken off. We believe that things have gone so well because he is doing what he was meant to do: be a great teacher- To do what he loves and do it well.

I am just so stinkin' proud of him! So, in honor of this joyous event, I thought I would share the golf photo that was a part of ~~my psycho obsession with him~~ our courtship. Isn't he so cute?!?

Scenes From A WebCam

2009-09-16T12:51:00.001-05:00

Look at what I found, captured by my web-cam tucked away in a random computer folder! Their silly sweetness makes my heart so happy. (I try to remember these things when they have sassed me for the 100th time, or have drawn all over my computer with black paint pen...) I remember why we absolutely, without a doubt, love them all to pieces.

(Because nothing says "love" like a impromptu Post-It note banner. She is the best!)

Seal Of Approval

2009-09-15T23:04:00.000-05:00

Good Housekeeping. I only get this magazine because I bought 10 items that qualified me for a free subscription at the Krogers last fall- and who doesn't love magazines in the mail?? It always seemed a little "old" for me, like I was too young to be reading it- although Lord knows my Seventeen days are far behind me.

But can I tell you- that magazine reads my mind. I start reading it, flipping through it, and without fail- there will be something on every page that pertains to my life- Or someone close to me, so that I am able to share what I just read in there.

I was talking to Fan Target the other night, discussing things our men do that make us a little nutty. WHAM! I am reminded of this great relationships article that was in there about how to break the little petty fight cycle that couples can get stuck in. We laughed and laughed about those stupid little fights (Why won't he hang the toilet paper properly??), and then discussed the merit of this man's article-vowing to seek clarity in our relationships...
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/family/marriage-sex/how-to-stop-arguing

Speaking of Target and her man- look how cute they are!And theeeeeeeeen, one of my sweet friends texts me this morning in tears, trying to decide whether or not she can risk quitting her job that is making her insane to pursue another path. WHAM! I'm sitting this afternoon, flipping through the latest issue and find a article titled, and I'm not kidding you: "Is It Time To Switch Careers?"

And theeeeeeeeen, Jas and I have been discussing some of the struggles we are having with O lately and how hard it is to stick with the rules and outlines we have for raising her, and I find an article called. "Mom, I Hate You!" basically stating that if your child says this to you, you are on the right parenting track. Love it! Listen to these wise words:

"It can be a challenge, day to day, to make and enforce unpopular decisions. But you have to think long-term. Parenting isn't a sprint. It's a marathon. Some days are fun and games; others are discipline and chores. Respect has to the constant."

Amen.

And theeeeeeeeen, I accidently washed a tube of Chapstick with a load of laundry the other day. I found those little grease-y marks on everything. Um, guess what Heloise teaches this month?? How to remove houseplant stains from on top of a dresser, how to clean dusty nooks, how to de-gunk your cookies sheets, and Yup! you guessed it: how to remove lip balm stains!!!! At this point, I am hearing the Twilight Zones "doo-do-doo-do" song in my head.

This has happened to me every month since I started getting the magazine! Does this mean that I am old? That I am at a place in my life where I do need Good Housekeeping over InStyle?? Are my planets in alignment?? Either way, it has made me start reading it cover to cover to make sure I don't miss anything! If I find anything worth passing on, I'll be sure to let you know! (wink)

One Week To A Better Home: Potty Time!

2009-09-12T20:37:00.001-05:00

Its Potty Time, yall! This has always been one room where I had to come up with serious solutions, for small spaces. We rented many an apartment before we bought this house, and only one of those had double sinks, therefore doubling our counter and storage space. Jas and I usually only had the space under the sink, or if we were lucky- a drawer or two, to squeeze everything in! Here's what I came up with that has pretty much stayed the same the past few years.

MEDICINES:
Kids: I store all of the kids medicines in a large plastic bucket. They are divided by baggie into: Infant (just for Morgan), then Pain, First Aid, Cold & Allergy and Tummy Trouble. The bucket is stored up on a shelf in our laundry room since he doesn't lock.Grown-ups: I used to have a couple baskets that stayed up in either the top shelf of the pantry in the kitchen, or if we had drawers, in the bathroom. We'd pretty much throw all of the medicines together in there and hope that what we wanted was there when we needed it. This bugged me because we usually didn't. So, typical me, I took inventory of what we had and used often, and then categorized. I keep these plastic drawers in the cabinets (which have baby-locks). The four categories are:

Pain and Prescritions: Tylenol, Advil, IcyHot patches, Bengay... Then anything prescribed in a child-safey container goes in there, too.
Allergy and Cold: This is for Benedryl, cough drops, Nyquil in pill form, Zyrtec, eye drops, nose spray, etc...
First Aid Supplies: Band-Aids, Neosporin, guaze, tape, alchohol wipes, etc. I have also been meaning to add a "Tummy Trouble" label, too, because this drawer also holds Tums, Pepto in pill form, and any other meds associated with your gut.
Nail And Skin Care: This is for nail scissors, clippers, files, cotton balls, all of my nail polish and removers. I also keep lotions and razors in there, too.

Always make sure your medicines haven't expired! If you find a prescription that you have no idea what it was for, you can call the pharmacy and they will tell you. Flush them, don't throw them away.

MAKE-UP: I keep all of the make-up that I wear on a daily basis in a make-up bag that stays in my purse for the most part. I have a basket up in the cabinet above the potty, where I keep the make-up I use less often (dark eye shadow, different colored eye liners...) *Old make-up can take over your bathroom! If it was the wrong shade, just throw it away. Seriously. You're not going to return it and your skin color is not going to change to the right shade without some major work on your part. Make-up is cheap. Let it go. Same goes for anything that is half used and just sitting in a drawer or cabinet. THROW IT AWAY. Please. If you love the sample, then go buy the real stuff. If you do that, then throw away all of the other kinds you had.

HAIR STUFF:
This is so ghetto-fabulous- But it works like a dream and a half. I use a shower caddie to keep all of my hair irons, dryer and products in. It fits perfectly under the sink and holds EVERYTHING! I felt it was destiny, when my round brush and the hair dryer fit perfectly in the little holes in the middle. I just pull it out, use what I need, wrap up the cords and put it back. Couldn't be easier. See those two product bottles? They used to have MANY other room mates over there. I used to buy products all the time, because there where all over the place and I didn't really know what I had. (Shame, shame.) So, now all I need are theses two guys: one is a root-booster, the other is a straightener/protector. If I want big, straight hair, I mix them together. I realized I didn't really need more than that. Oh- and hair spray, but Olivia keeps that in her bathroom.DRAWERS:
If you have them, whoo-hoo! If not, I sure hope they were kind enough to give you a medicine cabinet! If you don't have either, or the medicine cabinet it not cutting it, never underestimate how much you can store on the counter- IF IT IS HIDDEN. No one want to see your deodorant, or contact solution sitting out there. There are TONS of cute baskets and boxes out here that will hide those things in a snap. No excuses.

If you do have drawers, the make sure you store things neatly. Here is where one of my favorite things ever invented comes in: the plastic drawer divider! I use one in my vanity drawer to hold anything that goes in my hair: Bibby pins, hair ties, clips, combs... Then I just store my deodorant, and the face products in there, too. We have a drawer closer to the sink that holds our face wash, moisturizer (Yes, Jas is a devoted Clean N Clear follower. I swear to you- I have used these two products for the past 12 years and my skin rocks. His, too once he started using it religiously.) Anyway...Then... there's Jas bathroom drawer. (Sigh) He doesn't believe in all of this organization- neatness- mumbo-gumbo. Seriously. So I just don't look in there. (Unless I am out of razors, and then I peek through my fingers as I dig around for one.)
KIDS BATH:
Oh, Pretty Land. With two young girls, we have hair-clips and hair-ties, not to mention bows by the dozen. Again, enter my friend, the plastic drawer organzier. There is one for hair-ties, clips and bobby pins. The one is the back holds elastic headbands and the puffy covers I use at the ends of braids. (God Forbid, a hair-tie EVER show!!!) Then the white one holds her comb and the Skinny Serum. If you have a kid, you need this stuff. Its Paul Mitchell. It smells like heaven. And it can detangle your hair just by you looking at it. Get some. It has saved us from any more teary, knot-yanking horrors. Please excuse the plastic tub in the drawer. It holds hair gel. That I bought in serious bulk. Because it was $1.99. Luke decided to drop the bottle and it cracked. Ugh. So my cheap-ass put it in a tupperware. What can I say.
The other drawer holds their toothbrushes, toothpaste (and a People magazine so can catch up on my gossip while they play in the tub. We Yarbroughs love our People.) All of Olivia's hairbows are hanging in her closet. Morgan Jane's are in the bottom basket of that guy: I am not crazy about him, but a) he has lots of storage and b) he is small enough to stand there and not look ridiculous. One day I'll jazz him up. But for now he holds in this order: the kids shampoo and body wash, rolls of toilet paper, nothing yet and then all of Morgan's "Pwet-tees."
One of the lower cabinets holds little bow sets (stored in a plastic bin), her curling iron and the hair spray. Luke's pull-ups are kept in the cabinet under the sink and then the cabinet closest to the tub holds all of the clean towel. When the kids are done, they hang them on their hooks. Towel rods are a messy, pain in the tush when it comes to kids. I just do a clean sweep of the hooks every two or three days and we rinse and repeat.

This is no original idea, but I like these cute glass jars to old bathroom things like cottonballs, Q-tips, I even kept all of my bead necklaces in a large one. They are very PB. BUT DON'T BUY THEM THERE. For heaven's sake- they are $3 - $10 at Ikea and only a smidge more at the 'mart. I had more. Wonder what happened to them...Maybe someone knocked one into the sink while getting ready one time.... Or was cleaning and thought she had set it back on the counter and totally missed...I don't know just a thought...

Well, that's all I've got. And on top of it, I have a screaming, teething baby that just woke up, so have to wrap this up.

TOMORROW: Random Things

One Week To A Better Home: "Clothes" Out Time

2009-09-11T09:46:00.001-05:00

Ooooooooooooo, do I love kids clothes. The Gap. Ralph Lauren and (sigh) God bless Gymboree. My kids have tons of clothes, but I am okay with this. Its my one indulgence, so I am super organized and know what they have and where it is, so I don't waste money buying more of the same. (And we all know I buy nothing unless it is at least 60% off or less and like, $6. I am cheaper than cheap.) I buy lots of things on sale the season before, and have storage systems set up, so that -gasp!- those clothes don't forget their place and try to mingle with the wrong season and sizes! But- if you have clothes out the wa-zoo with no place to call their own, this post if for you. Whats a mom to do when kid's clothes start to take over her house? Divide and Conquer, girl! Divide and Conquer.

GETTING STARTED:
1. You're going to need lots of plastic bins with lids. They will run you about $7 a pop at Wal-mart, but are worth every penny.
2. You need some way to label your bins. (Have I mentioned the love affair I have with my label maker? Seriously. LOVE.IT. They are kinda pricey-$20-ish at the 'mart, and you have to buy refills, but whats a few bucks when your sanity is at stake? If you are good at formatting labels on the computer, than do that. I'm not. Also, you could print sheets and tuck them on the inside of the tub if you want. Again, doesn't matter how you do it, just do it.)
3. You need large and small zip-lock bags.
4. You need a wide open floor space to set up organization central when it comes time to sort and store what you find.

Where I Store What:
DRAWERS:

I put all of my kids' jammies in one drawer of their dressers. I put socks and undies in another. O and L have about 10 pairs of undies (so if God forbid, something happen to me, at least they would have clean undies for a week) They all have about 5 sets of jammies. NO MORE. I do laundry enough to make this possible. Random novelty t-shirt and shorts try to creep into the official pajama drawer every now and then. This can quickly create too much laundry drawer over-load. I have to take a second and decide to either create a new jammie-set out of them, or donate them. (I have saved all of her old school shirts in her memory box though.)
For the little kids, I put only their shorts/ pants in drawers. I don't fold them, but rather lay them out , or fold them up the middle seam. This saves on ironing. (Yes, I iron all of my kids clothes. Its Jason's fault! He irons everything and it just became a habit!) I have everything else hanging up. Again, so there is limited ironing.

CLOSETS:

I hang all clothes in color order in each of these categories: Dresses, then skirts, then shorts, then capris, then pants. Shirts are hung tank tops, short sleeves, long sleeve. Then sweater vests, sweaters, then jackets. I hang the solids together and stripes and prints at the end of each color section.
ALWAYS hang sets together. Try to get the hangers that either have two parts connected, or the ones that have the shirt hanger and then a clip hanger that hangs over it. I know that Old Navy, Kohls and Target will give you the hangers. DO NOT buy the clips that attach to the kids plastic hangers- they slide all over the place and are a mess. Just say "No!" (I hang the sets on the bottom row, so O can grab an outfit, and I am guaranteed she won't look like she picked it out in the dark.)

I hang all of her bows in her closet too, so that we can just grab the one that matches and set it out with her clothes that are laid out the night before.
Coats go in the coat closet until needed, and then they are hung on our hall tree in the kitchen. I use an over the door towel rack in the coat closet to hand scarfs and hats.

LAUNDRY
Ah! We have so much laundry that I can never get ahead. I have tried 101 different systems, methods, schedules... And of course something happens and it always gets stacked up. So, lately, I have just made Sundays and Wednesdays official "Do Laundry All Damn Day"- Day. I put the first load in even before I start the coffee and keep it going all day.

I have one large laundry basket that always sits on top of the washer. That's where the kids throw their dirty clothes after bath time, and where dish towels or Morgan's clothes get tossed if she get filthy during the day. Jas and I have a large laundry basket hamper, and M and L have a small one in their room that pretty much only has jammies in it from being taken off in the morning to get dressed. I have found having fewer hampers makes it easier on me, so no one is left out accidentally and doesn't have clean clothes one day. BUT! Everyone in our house has a clean clothes basket. On my crazy laundry day, as the clothes come out of the dryer, they are sorted into each basket. Once the basket is full at the end of the day, I take 5 minutes each and fold and hang that child's laundry in their room. I think it goes so much easier and faster. Seriously. Try it. Grab all the hangers you think you'll need, set them on the bed next to the basket and go to town. I even open the dresser drawers, so I can literally fold and put them in there without setting them down. ZIP. ZAM. ZOOM! Done! Then I return the clean clothes baskets to on top of the dryer and wait for the next laundry day and do it again.

STORAGE
If you are like me and buy lots of clothes before their season, or save lots of clothes for friends or family, you must be prepared. You need to think both ahead and backwards. You need a tub for every size of clothes that are in your home. This is the time you need to go through each child's room and pull out anything that is outgrown or is too big. Make a note of how many sizes and seasons you need to store and that is how many buckets you'll need essentially. Make your labels so you know what you've got.Thinking backwards, I am saving Olivia's clothes for our friend Hannah, who in turns is lending Morgan Hannah's toddler clothes. I have to stay organized to make sure that they get back the clothes they lent us, and I have clearly organized the clothes I give them. I have a bucket for each size 6/7 through 10 for girls, and 24 months to size 4 for boys, in addition to keeping the boxes that the borrowed clothes came in. When I did our huge clean sweep before we moved, I just sorted them all out, bagged up and clearly labeled pairs of shoes, hair bows or tights that go with certain sets and put them in the correct tub. They are big and bulky, but the protect everything and provide space to add more if you need to. Just like the toys, you need a designated place to put clothing items you want to donate (same for you and yours) and take it once it gets filled up.Here are 3 of the 11 I have set up. I would prefer that ours go in the attic, but for now they are all lined up on a shelf high in our garage.

Now, thinking forward- I hang any new items I buy for the kids that are not in season yet, at the very back of their closet, but again- they are hung grouped by color in each category- so I don't buy 3 pink long sleeved shirts. As the weather starts to change, I'll take everything that I have already stored and go through it and hang it up to see if I need to buy anything else. I will put those buckets back and pull down the smaller sized buckets to keep up in their closets, so that as they quit wearing things due to the weather, the pieces will go up in that bucket. Just think of it as "Something out, something back in."

SHOES
I am so silly about shoes in the house, that when we were touring model homes back in the spring, Bubs would sit down in the entry way and take his house off at each one- I had brain-washed him. We have always kept a "shoe bucket" by the door we come in and out of the most, and recently purchased a hall tree with a bench that has storage underneath. That's were pretty much all of the shoes we are currently wearing live. Just another easy way to clean up- an organized mess, a community home for the shoes. Every once in awhile I will go through there and check to see if there are any squatter flip-flops hanging around when its November, but for the most part, we've pretty much stayed on top of really only having the shoes we wearing at the time in there. If they aren't in there, then I use the bottom drawer of each child's dresser as shoe storage.

GROWN UPS:
I follow the same rules. We each have a drawer for just our pajamas (or in Jas' case undershirts and basketball shorts or sweatpants), and a drawer for undies and socks. His sock drawer is also then organized by color. I bought those drawer dividers from Ikea and they work really well for this. If your husband is anything like mine, you'll need to secretly weed out his everyday t-shirt collection every 6 months or so, or they can take over the closet. I also just buy Jas 7 new white undershirts each month and throw out the old ones, because those can get funky and add up quickly, too.

I hang up all of our clothes though, and also hang them in the same color coded categories. (Which is so fun, because he has SO MANY golf shirts, it looks like a rainbow hanging up in there!) I keep our shoes in a shoe holder and I store my purses on the built in shelves in our closet. The rule of thumb for clothes should be: If you haven't worn it in 6 months or its out of style, its damaged or stained or just plain doesn't fit- let it go. In most cases it won't be coming back in style by next year, you probably won't get the stain out and it hasn't meant enough to you to have it repaired by now. If you are like me and BOUND AND DETERMINED to fit back into your pre-2nd-child clothes sometime this century, keep them. But go through them and donate anything that is out of fashion, but in good shape and then store them properly.

See, its not so hard! Just find a system that works for everyone, and then it will be easier to keep it up. It takes some effort to get sorted and ready, to go, but its so worth it in the end!

TOMORROW: Potty Time!