Hmmm, what's missing here?

Buried at PhotoCasket.com

Yes, it definately needs more cowbell...



Buried at PhotoCasket.com

Now it's perfect

New Member

This is Luther, after Martin Luther, father of the Protestant Reformation. He's a 3 month old rottie/boxer mix. We got him from a dog rescue. He's very sweet :)

Stay tuned....

Two too fast

My little Princess turned two! I have to admit, it was really hard for me when her birthday started creeping up. I’m very thankful to have a healthy, happy little girl who’s growing and thriving, but every year that goes by is another step she takes away from me, and being my little girl. Now I know, she’s still little and all, but it made me weep to see her turn two. I can’t even imagine what it will be like (Lord willing) to see her turn 16, or 18, or 21. To watch her go away to college, or dare I say….to get married…UGH! The thought makes me nuts! I’m not really sure why it hits me so hard with this one, but it really does. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not dying to watch my boys grow up either, but something about Libby just gets to me.

Anyways, she’s two now and life goes on. But part of me really misses one.

Just What I Needed

This week I've been volunteering at my church's VBS. I got put incharge of the crafts. This means that I had to plan a craft for 3 different age groups each day for 4 days. I haven't been doing anything really "crafty" for a long while now. So even though I was excited, I was little worried about the task I had before me. This week has been going really great. I think the kids have been having a good time, and even though I've been too busy for words, I have been having fun too. In fact, it seems that this has reopened the door to the creative part of my brain. I'm all excited about being creative, and have TONS of ideas that I can't wait to get started on. Now I am a realist, and I know that I have 4 kids, so time will be hard to find, but just the desire to want to do these kinds of things again has been all the encouragement I need to manage my time better so that I can get some craft time in on a regular basis.

Today I started the first of many things I hope to do in the near future...stay tuned for more!


















Libby's little house

Thumb, pinky, ring, middle, windex?

My son Ethan likes to know all the unimportant things in life that most kids could care less about. He ponders things like, “Can birds fart?”, or “How do flies sniff?”. Last week, we had a little talk about “Do our fingers have names?” We got through thumb, and pinky, and how Mommy doesn’t know why they’re called that. Then the ring finger because it’s the one for your rings, and the middle finger cause it’s in the middle. Then we got to the “windex finger”. That’s right, the windex finger. And it’s not called the windex finger cause that’s what Mommy sprays windex with. That would be silly he says. It's cause that’s “what you pick your nose with”

Makes perfect sense….?

He’s the one who always fell off the bed when he was a baby….

Never Thought Id' See The Day

I never thought I'd see the day when my football lovin' husband couldn't throw the ball with his boys, cause he was busy having a pretend tea party...

You gotta love that!

Night and Day

The difference between my boys and girls is night and day. When my boys do something wrong, they run. When I get them, usually some yelling is involved, and possibly a spank. They get mad, they cry, and then life goes on like it never happened. It seems as if they're not capable of being corrected by a gentle word of encouragemment to behave. In fact they down right laugh at you if you dare approach it that way. They're boys, full of testosterone, and definately in need of being ruled with a wooden paddle, and a stern, loud voice.
My daighter just graduated to a "Big Girl Bed" as she affactionately calls it. She loves her new bed. She has also discovered that she can get out of said big girl bed. She has gotten in the habit of coming out of her bed, creeping down the stairs, and watching tv from the foyer. We dicided that we had to put a stop to this. The first night, Daddy discovered her and said loudly "NO NO", and she lost it. We're used to talking that way, so this fragile little girl has proven to be quite a challenge. The next night, I discovered her, and said in a more quiet, soft voice, "no no, that's bad", again, she lost it. The third night, we heard her door squeak, and knew she had come out. I quietly walked upstairs, and found her hiding, behind her door, waiting for me. When she looked up and saw me, I inhaled in order to speak, and ....you guessed it, she lost it.
This is all so foreign to us. Our boys NEVER got upset just by a look. The don't even get upset by a yell sometimes. The boys are all business, and my little girl is ALL emotion. It's a strange, strange little world on her planet, and I wonder if we'll ever get it right.

Naked Soccer

For those familiar with my blog, you can probably recall several posts that contain the words "Why is it always him?", referring to my youngest son. Well, here's another one that fits the very question.

Last night after dinner, I was trying to get the kids cleaned up and directed to their baths/showers. Ethan's clothes were muddy, and like so many times before, I told him to take them off and put them by the washer(located off of the kitchen). He usually will take everything off but his underwear, and socks. But last night, I guess he was feeling wild. Now if you know Ethan, than you know that he's wild, unafraid, full of energy, and chocked full of testosterone. So it's perfectly fitting that when we couldn't find him for his bath, it's because he was outside...playing soccer in the yard...naked...and completely unashamed.

A small glimpse of the Garden in the beginning perhaps...or maybe just the blessing of a good chuckle to lighten the mood from a long day.

Either way, I know I'm growing, because it made me laugh out loud. Thanks to Doc for one of the greatest pieces of wisdom I've ever been blessed to hear...I miss you

Sweet Humor

This man is my hero...


http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/togo/togoindex.html#
(Check out the "To Go" video at the bottom of the webpage)


P.S. That T-shirt would be a great Mother's Day gift....hint hint

Finger Painting??

A few weeks back we made the decision to move our 3 year old from the bath tub, to the shower. He's getting to the age now where it's probably not good for him to be in the tub with our 20 month old daughter. Since his older brother takes a shower too, we thought it would be good to throw Ethan into the shower with Chris every night. The first few nights went well. We taught him how to wash his hair, and body, and he liked getting to be a big boy like Chris. After about a week, we figured they had it down and left them alone. Things seemed like they were going well.
The other night, after dinner, I told them to go up and get in the shower for bed. My 8 yearl old got all annoyed and said "Why does he have to take a shower with me now?" This confused me since we were under the impression that things were okay.

I said "Why are you so annoyed all of a sudden?"

He said "I hate taking showers with him!"

"Why?" I asked, "What's the big deal?"

"He sticks his finger in his butt, and smears it on the wall in the shower!!" He said, "And he thinks it's funny when I get mad about it!"

"Are you kidding me?!?!?" I said, "You can't be serious?"

"Yeah, and it stinks too" he replied.

"Ummm, you smelled it???"

"Yeah" he said all matter of fact like, "I wanted to see what it smelled like"

So Ethan takes a bath now again, and there's no more finger painting on the walls...

I'm so thankful that our last 2 have been girls!

I'll Never Understand

There's lots of things in life that are a mystery to me. Like why it always seems to rain when I wash my car, or how no one ever knows "who did it" when something gets broken or spilled.

The biggest mystery of all to me is my boys fascination with their...well...their wee wees. I mean, since they were old enough to realize it was there, they have spent much of their time twisting it, pulling it, flashing it, adjusting it, giggling about it, talking about it, etc. It's the first thing they reach for in the morning when I wake them up, as if to check to make sure it's still there. And once they got potty trained, the fascination with the wee wee moved into a fascination with what came out of it. They seem to find great joy in peeing. The make pictures in the toilet, spell things out, see who can make the funniest pee noise, and it goes on. My eight year old even peed in the bathroom trashcan (not now, when he was 6) to see if he could fill it up. When he didn't fill it up, he did what any 6 year old would do, he left it there for me to find later.

But my 3 year old takes the cake. Last week, I was quietly checking my e mail when I was interrupted by a bunch of screaming kids running through my house yelling "Aunt Tammy" "Mooooom" "Mrs. Mangum" "Come quick!". It seemed that my 3 year old thought that is would be a riot to drop his pants and pee in the driveway. Then to top it off, he danced in his little yellow stream and made pee pee foot prints....

Now I was furious, but it seems that my husband, who also has a wee wee, wasn't. He chalks it up to "what little boys do". I guess he would know better than me since he was one (I like to argue, still is).

Like I said, there are just some things I guess I will never understand...

Kid-isms

My kids never cease to amuse me. And lots of times it's right after they've embarassed me. I always think to myself that "I have got to tell so and so this, they would love it!". But usually I forget and never do. So I decided to start a section called Kid-Isms. That way I can write all the lovely things that my kids do to me, and you the reader, can me amused and even more so, be happy it wasn't you...

I'll add on from time to time, so check abck to see what's new


-A conversation with my 3 year old the other day

"Mommy, can I feed Abby? (our infant daughter)

"No, Ethan, I'm sorry, you can't"

"Because I don't have big boobies and mine are smashed in?"

I had no reply to this one...


-At my niece's 6th Birthday Party

As she was opening up a Barbie Doll, my 3 year old son stood up in the chair and screamed "Holy shit!"

Like I said, happy it wasn't you...


-At the grocery store with my 8 year old

We were in line behind an older man with some kid of disease. He has lots of tumor like things covering his whole head, face, and what we could see of his arms. He was smiling and happy, talking to the kids, and making silly faces at Libby. I continued in a conversation with him, all the while trying to ignore the bumps and the curiosity that I had about them. As soon as our converstaion was done he turned around to pay the cashier for his groceries. My eight year old turns to me and says " Geez, it's a good thing that Ethan isn't here. Who knows what he's be saying about that man's face!"

Um yes, he was still within ear shot of us and I'm quite sure he heard...

He was blogging while I was in labor...

Well, we did it again!

We welcomed Abigail Faith into the world on January 18th (my due date) at about 11:13 pm.

I did it O Natural, and it was great! Yes, it hurt, but still the feeling of doing it God's intended way, was indeed a wonderful experience.

I walked into the hospital 8cm dilated, and not sure if I was really inlabor or not. Yes, God had mercy on me. A few short hours later, our 2nd baby girl was here. She came so fast the doctor and nurses didn't even have time to prepare. Did I mention how God had mercy on me?

Long story short, during the not so painful contractions, there sat my labor coach, close by me...

...blogging











I still love him though, and I love even more the humerous distraction his blogging gave me.

Check it out for yourself

http://www.chrismangum.blogspot.com