Here's wishing each and every one of you a happy and blessed New Year. Welcome 2007!

Here are my kid this morning. Soooo beautiful.

A fellow blogger, Karrie , had one of those days yesterday. you know the kind where the child will not stop. As in will. not. STOP. To show her she is not alone, I give you a photo collage of what my kids can do. In this collage you will see multiple images of Davis' face after eating many a marker. You will see Oreo cookie mess. You will see what giving a small child paint to paint can do. You will see what Davis can do with a cup of milk (and then lick it up off the floor). You will see what one little bottle of baby powder can do in the hands of children. Yes people, these are my kids. SO much fun. But I do love them to bits! Messes and all....

I am trying to find something to write about. I am trying to get the thoughts in my head out and on the screen. But nothing is working. Maybe I have finally gotten to a point where I do not let things bother me as much anymore. Maybe I have finally reached a place of complete and utter contentment. Mark got me a beautiful new Bible for Christmas. It is a French Moroccan leather, wide margin Bible. It is absolutely gorgeous. My mother in law got me special pens to I can mark in it and I wondered if I would ever be able to write in this particular Bible. This is going to be my special Bible and one that will mean more to me than any other Bible I have ever owned. Some may think what a strange gift. Or, why did you want a Bible when you already have a few others? Or, all you got was a Bible? (Which is not the case, I also got some great new baking supplies that I desperately needed and wanted. And this Bible is not just any Bible, it is a wonderful and pricey Bible as well.) But I am not ...

Since this is the time of year for reflection, I give you the kids through the years. It begins with Davis' first Christmas because that is when we first had the digital camera. We have a scanner but for some reason it does not work. So I can not put pictures of Emma's first Christmas's on here. Besides, seeing Emma on her first Christmas might cause me to fall into a depression. Here they are: Davis on his first Christmas. ~2004~ (sniff, sniff, where did my baby go???) Davis on his second Christmas. ~2005~ Davis on his third Christmas. ~2006~ Emma on her fifth Christmas. ~2004~ Emma on her sixth Christmas. ~2005~ Emma on her seventh Christmas. ~2006~ Davis obviously looks very different from each year. Emma you can see, looks almost the same from 2004 to 2005. But then from last year to this year.....she looks older. Both of the kids look a lot bigger and older this year than last year. My kids are growing up. And no one asked me if it was okay.

After Christmas I always suffer from a bit of aftermath. I also spend time reflecting a lot. It makes me crazy. Right now, I feel tapped out. Maybe it is so many days of posting in a row on this blog. Maybe it is all the hubbub of the holidays catching up. Maybe it is all of the reflecting and thinking on the last year. Whatever the reason, it seems that there are a lot of different thoughts floating around in my head, but I can not get one of them to actually make any sense or come out of my head. I figure after a couple of days maybe something will make a bit more sense to the rest of the world. Right now though I seem to be lost in my own thoughts and I do not seem able to share them. All I can seem to come up with right now, it that this was the best Christmas ever. My life is finally becoming what I had dreamed it would be. Through all the turmoil and chaos, the big picture is making more and more sense and all that I had hoped for is becoming reality. It is surreal. So today, all...

Every year my kids have some sort of Christmas jammies. I try to get them matching ones. This years took the cake though. They were the best ones ever. Davis in his footie jammies, passed out on Christmas Eve. Emma in her long nightgown, also passed out on Christmas Eve. So sweet.......

Merry Christmas, Seasons Greetings, Happy Holidays, Feliz Navidad... Whatever you celebrate or celebrated, I hope it was great!

Mark's family gathered yesterday to make tamales. In case I have not mentioned it, Mark is Costa Rican . This year they decided to make the traditional Costa Rican Christmas food, tamales. Luckily, my mother in law works at a place that has a huge commercial kitchen that we were able to use for our tamale making festival. It was a lot of fun and even the kids got to help some. Tonight we will feast on the tamales. Here are some pictures from yesterday. This is my cousin. He is a giant. (He is Mark's cousin actually.) Notice he is the same height as I am, ON HIS KNEES. The Kinch /Castro family. Emmaline adding olives to the tamales. Emma wrapping the tamale in the banana leaves. The tamales laid out and ready for wrapping then steaming in the big pot. The finished product. It was a lot of fun. I am so thankful my kids get to know this part of who they are. It was a wonderful memory we all made together. Thank you all for sharing in the day and helping make it so very special ...

Yes this post counts as my post for Saturday. The time is after midnight, so it is December 23. Today is a day full of crazy. I will be up and out early doing last minute prep for Christmas food. I also still have some food to make myself and a few (this means ALL of the kids gifts) gifts to wrap. And for anyone who is wondering....no I did not find Cars Christmas paper. I do have red paper and Cars stickers ready to go though. It will have to do. I have a few short hours to rest and then I will hit the ground running. P.S.~ Judy if you are reading, I am a flake. In town? Have time? Send me an e-mail or something and let me know. Christmas crept up on me and now it is biting me in the butt. But what else is new.....something is usually biting me in the butt anyhow.

Crazy few days coming up. Here are some photos of the family this morning. Emma and Davis making mac and cheese. Davis is the mac, Emma is the cheese. Mommy and Davis.... Davis and Daddy eating lunch and watching what else....Cars.

This is the boy yesterday. He needs a haircut so he is waking up with bed head. And he had some chocolate ice cream. He was getting ready to take a bath. So, he was nekkid, bed head, and chocolate faced. Perfect photo op, right? *And for those who are wondering, yes this was posted at 5:40 ish today. We have been up since four, thankyouvermuch. *

This is the post for today. No pictures, no stories, nothing. I have either eaten something my body is heavily rejecting (diarrhea) or I have some sort of stomach virus (more diarrhea). I also have nice, painful stomach cramps. (and more diarrhea) I will be alternating my time today between the couch and the toilet. I do not know yet if I will do much of anything else. I will give it another hour or so and then I will consult the Pepto. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.......

After making about twelve dozen sugar cookies over the last week, my mom sent me this cookie recipe. I think I will try it next. My favorite Christmas cookie recipe In case you need to make Christmas Cookies: * 1 cup of water * 1 tsp baking soda * 1 cup of sugar * 1 tsp salt * 1 cup of brown sugar * 1/4 cup lemon juice * 4 large eggs * 1 cup nuts * 2 cups of dried fruit * 1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila Sample the Cuervo to check quality. Take a large bowl, check the Cuervo again to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink. Turn on the electric mixer...Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add one teaspoon of sugar...Beat again. At this point it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still OK, try another cup. Just in case. Turn off the mixerer thingy. Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit. Pick the frigging fruit off floor... Mix on the turner. If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscr...

My son, is well, different. I will let these two photos speak for themselves. This is Davis the other day. He asked for dog treats and as usual he went in and shared them with the dog. If you look closely you will see that he has a red thing in his mouth. That is a dog treat. As in a treat for real dogs. Davis eats them. The treats, not the dogs. This is Davis today. He refuses to use the potty. Yet he wants his diaper changed immediately or changes it himself. Or he sticks his hand in the poop in his diaper and pulls his finger out letting you know that he does indeed have poop in there. I bought him Cars underwear hoping that maybe he would be persuaded to use the potty. Davis had a different idea of where underwear go..... Oh that boy.....

So, only one week left before Santa descends upon houses across the globe. How many of you are ready? And how many of you still have a few things left on your list like me? Nothing screams Christmas like running around on the few remaining days before Christmas like a chicken with your head cut off, scrambling to get those last few things on your almighty list. Ahh, everyone sing with me now.... Joy to the world.......

Today I ventured out with the masses again. We are having nice weather here and I was on a mission. One that I do not think I will complete. I get myself all worked up. Once my kids get into something I become obsessed with it. Right now with Emma is it Littlest Pet Shops. Or Hello Kitty. Nothing too hard to find and this year I did a good job finding a bunch of it. Even the Target only tin with all the different pets, including the beloved ferret that she has been asking for for two years. Davis is very into Cars right now. And seeing as to how I am super obsessed with these things and totally give into the marketing, I have been searching and finding various Cars related things for him for Christmas. The cool thing is he is getting a fleece blanket and a little suitcase both of which he can actually use. My issue has been finding Cars wrapping paper. I think I will not find it. Which is okay. I have plain red paper and I got some stickers. So I can make my own paper. Y...

I am stepping outside of my comfort zone today. Last night I went to my sister's (in-law) Christmas party. She works at our church and they took everyone to The New Theater Restaurant for the party. My mother (in-law) could not go because she had a prior engagement that she could not get out of. So I got to be her date for the night. The food was great and the play was cute. It was nice to be out with adults and NO KIDS. Besides, I love to spend time with my sister (in-law) and it has been a long time since we have gotten an opportunity like that. I dressed up all nice and got all dolled up. My bravery comes today from actually posting the picture I had Emmaline take of me before we left last night. I am not very photogenic. I lack that gene. Without any further ado, I give you, The Face of Thirty.

I feel like I have a lot running around in my mind but for some reason I can not get it out. Writer's block? Though I am not really a writer. My posts lately have been very simple. Pictures of things and not much depth. I try not to get too personal on here because I am not sure who all may be reading this. Plus, I have finally reached a point where I really do not want to air my dirty laundry for all the world to view. Not that I am ashamed or embarrassed by my life nor that I am afraid to share. Just that it does not always seem appropriate. This time of the year has always caused me to reflect on my life. Not just what the last year brought but my whole life. From all the way back in high school when my journal was in a notebook, I would take a few pages at the end of the year and review my year. I am not sure why I did this, but I did. It was always a way to reflect and see what had happened over the year and how I had changed. It involved my feelings on all sorts of matters an...

This is what happens when the kids dad goes out of town and their mom is lonely. Or maybe it is that mom lacks the ability to be strong and put the kids to bed. Somehow, mom is the loser here. Emma went first. As usual, Davis went second.

I love to bake. It began in high school. I can cook but I do not enjoy it like I do baking. I discovered a little over a year ago that Mark loved the sugar cookies you buy at the store. The ones that are super think and have just as much icing as there is cookie? Those ones. The funny part was Mark usually does not like sweet things. And these are not only sweet but store bought? Around Halloween of last year I decided to take on trying to make sugar cookies. I also love to ice things. With those pastry bags and the star tips and you make little stars all over the cake? Yea, I am sick. So icing the cookies was not my concern. It was rolling the dough, cutting them and baking them just right. My first attempt was not bad. I continued to hone my skill, so to say. And before long, I had family asking me to bring my cookies to almost any event. Mark had people at work asking for them. It was fun, sort of. Every year we do a girl's Christmas Party. At this party we do a cookie exchange....

If you click on the box in the side bar or the one below, it will take you to Popular Front. There you can make a snowflake and the more snowflakes made the more they will donate to the Savation Army. Go make a flake!

Davis likes to play the drums. I love the mess and the noise. Really, I do.

We went to Steak and Shake today for lunch. The kids were at my mom's, so it was just Mark and I. We were waiting for our food and a server walked by with some shakes. Mark said they looked so good but he wondered what kind they were since they were yellow. I offered banana. He then looked at me, smiled, and said, "Do you like banana shakes?" To which I replied, "Only with chocolate." And Mark came back with an even better reply, "So, you like chocolate banana cream shakes?" I decided that is the worst pick up line I have ever heard.

Yet I have nothing mindless to report. Which is funny because I feel like I am missing my mind anyway. How ironic. Today I have to go out with the masses. I have to get to Target or Wal-Mart for some things. And you should see my roots! Yikes. I have GOT to color my hair. I went lighter this last time and so my very dark brown roots show much faster than they usually do. Oh well. Speaking of hair color, do you know how hard it is to find the color you want? Now, technically the color I would like I should probably go to a professional for. When I was very young ( and we all know I am not anymore) I had hair the color of caramel or honey. I want that color again. But when you look at the boxes not one is called Caramel or Honey. My hair takes to red and it can go orange really easily, so I try to be mindful of that when choosing. I have found the Garnier makes the best one. A little more expensive, but it treally runs about middle of the road in pricing. I like it becaus...

My dog is nuts. I seriously do not think she knows she is a dog. I am not going to tell her either because I do not think she would listen to me. No one in this house listens to me! And most certainly not Isabelle. She claims to be a watch dog. I think she is just daydreaming of chasing squirrels. Once again, looks to me like she is napping here. Oh my Izzy. Crazy pooch.

Have you ever waited for something for so long that even though it may be closer to your reach, you just can not wait any longer? Have you ever dealt with something that was so difficult it has forever jaded you? Both of these things were brought to mind over the last couple of days. I have wanted a third child since Davis was six months old. He turns three in a month. I have waited for Mark to be on board with this for those years. And while he is not on board completely, he is closer to it. But I have already waited for two and a half years. And I do not know how much longer the wait may be. I turned thirty this week. My kids are going to be seven and three. I just do not know if I can wait another year or longer. And Mark has no idea if or when the time will feel right. I view it this way. It is as if it we started to read the same book. Only I read to Chapter 8 and Mark was still in Chapter 1. Meanwhile, this was over the course of three years. I began to read a little slower...

I spent my thirtieth birthday with my family. For a couple of years Mark and I have taken the kids to Crown Center around the holidays. They decorate for the holidays and Union Station is near by with the Link so you do not have to go outside to walk from Crown Center to Union Station. So we headed down there for the afternoon. Our first stop was Fritz's . Now, if you have never been here you are missing out. They serve burgers, fries and that sort of food. But they deliver it by train. No kidding. The train drives around the top of the restaurant and drops your food off at your table. It is great. And if you have a child, like my boy, that is in love with trains, it is a dream come true. The kids ate well and had alot of fun at the same time. Davis watching the train in the window. Emma wearing her train conductor hat. Davis deciding what to eat. Emma posing for a picture outside of Fritz's. Next, we went down to Santa's Crayola® Christmas Land . Neither of the kids wante...

Today is doomsday. At 9:05 a.m on this very day thirty years ago my mother gave birth to me. I have done the "Holy crap, where did the years go?" I have done the "When did *I* get so freaking old?" I have cried and been mad and upset. I have looked at my life and realized it was NOT what I thought it would be at thirty. In both good and bad ways. I have run the gamut, so to speak and frankly now I am worn completely out. I am done. I went through getting old sucks . I spent time reminiscing about Swatch watches from back in the day. I have shed tears over my babies not being babies anymore . I tired to stop thirty from coming and realized that it was inevitable. I even got my friends to realize that we are indeed getting old. So today, as I move on in life and have to start checking a new box on forms, I still stand by my very first post on getting older. I think Tim McGraw has it right. My Next Thirty Years I think I'll take a moment, celebrate my age The en...

So funny. I did NaBloPoMo and while I did not win any of the randomly selected prizes, ask me if I care? I find the button over in the side bar to be funny though. I posted every day for a month. I enjoyed it so now I am doing Holidailes . Maybe I will find something else to do next. Make up my own challenge. I love to write. I may not be good at and I may not have much of anything to say. But I love it all the same. Would I do it all again knowing I would not win a prize? Yep.

I have heard many parents say they do not want to force their beliefs on their kids. I have news.....we all do it. No matter what our beliefs are,we can not help but influence our kids with them. I mostly hear it from people who do not believe in God or attend a church. They say they do not do that because they want their kids to choose for themselves. While I understand that and agree to some extent, we still are going to influence our children's beliefs. The parent who does not believe in God is going to instill in their kids that God does not exist. There is a good chance that child will never believe. The parents that go to church every Sunday and take their kids, are going to instill in their kids that God is real and true. No matter which way you go, you are going to instill your beliefs in your kids. How could you not? I have also noticed that we give our kids things we wish we would have had when we were kids. This is not necessarily things like more love and attention eith...

Yesterday Emma came into the bathroom to get her hair done. I asked if she wanted anything in her hair and she said only if I was going to. I said I was going to pull mine back and she decided she wanted a head band. She got down the basket that holds our hair things. She pulled out three choices and picked one. She put it in her hair and asked, "How does this look mom?" I said it was fine and smoothed a few pieces of her hair. She looked at me and said, "I think this will look pretty for church." I try to make her realize that it is not about how you look or what you wear that makes you pretty. I also tell her often that she looks pretty no matter what she has on or how her hair looks or any such things. So once again yesterday, I looked at her and said, "Emma, you looked pretty when you got out of bed. You ALWAYS look pretty." And before I could continue on with my lecture Emma said, "Mom, it is not about the clothes I wear. That is not what make...

Davis has managed to knock over the Christmas tree four times in the last week. He was trying, and succeeded, to take the Santa tree topper off the top of the tree. He is relentless. My mom suggested I get a different tree topper but my gut tells me he will try to remove anything form on top of the tree. My mom did not have any boys. Here are a couple pictures of the kids decorating the tree last week. It is hard work decorating the tree. You have to find just the right spot.

We got a good amount of snow this week. For today I will post some pictures of the first snow storm of this season. Taken Friday morning shortly after all the snow stopped falling. Snow covered bush in our yard. It just looked pretty. Pink sunrise this morning with the snow still on the ground. Hunk of snow frozen onto our garage. Today we will venture out after being home bound this last week. I hope we do not freeze our bahonkies off. Winter is here.

Notice my *new* button to the right? Yes folks, yesterday marked the end of NaBloPoMo . And yes I posted every day for the month of November. I actually logged 35 posts so I posted a few "extra" times as well. Some were only pictures and some were really short, but every single day I got on here and posted something. I almost did not sign up to do it. I thought "Post EVERY day?!?!" I figured I would surely miss a day or not have anything to post about. But I jumped on the band wagon and decided to give it the old college try. And unlike college, I actually finished! I am sad that it is over. I may continue to post daily because I have found that *I* enjoy it. I do not care if anyone reads it or if anyone is tired of reading what I write. I found that even though this was a contest of sorts as days went by, I was posting for me. Because there was something I wanted to share. No matter how insignificant or how silly it was. There was always something on my m...

Mark informed me yesterday that the Yellow Wiggle, Greg Page, was sick and may have to stop being a member of the Wiggles. I waited until I got more official news of the situation before I posted about it. It saddens me deeply to discover today that Greg is leaving the Wiggles . We have been Wiggle fans since Emma was about two. Attending a concert in August of 2003 in St. Louis and also one in May of this year here in Kansas City. Greg has a health condition that while not life threatening causes him to be unable to dance and sing. He will be leaving the Wiggles and handing over Yellow Wiggle duty to Sam Moran who has been his understudy. You can watch Greg's announcement on video . From us to you Greg, we hope you get better and we have loved seeing you with the Wiggles. Take care of yourself.

Okay y'all, I am freezing my arse off today. Holy night. Our computer room is in the back room of the house and it sits between two windows. Two 100+ old windows. Can you say drafty? Maybe I should get a lap top and have wireless net. I do not think Santa will be bringing that my way this year. Anyway, quick post as my arse is half frozen now. And with as big as it is, I am not sure how long it will take to thaw back out. Tonight, my friends, marks a special occasion. Scrubs is back for Season Six. I LOVE me some Scrubs. It is the only t.v show that I own the first two seasons on DVD. I can catch reruns now on a couple different channels too. I simply love this show. Tonight J.D. tries to come to grips with being a father. Blue Man Group guests as well. So for today's Love Thursday I am giving my love to Scrubs. Now that it is on Thursday nights, it gives a whole new meaning to Love Thursday. The Office is also on tonight. Must see t.v is back y'all. Happy Love Thursday. ...

As we are planning our annual Girl's Night Out Christmas Shindig, one of the girls will not be able to make it. She lives a couple hours away and it is obviously not always easy to run up here. Plus, she has a baby. Anyway, through our e-mail correspondents yesterday, figuring out what to do and what to bring and all of that, Katie mentioned she would have an editorial in the paper she works for about turning 30 and having girlfriends. Back in August, Denise and I took Katie out for dinner. While at dinner, both Denise (who turns 30 in January. The 15 to be exact.) and I lamented about how awful it was to have that looming in our very near future. Katie, who had just turned 29 in July, was not on board. What was the big deal about turning 30, she wondered. Ah, my friend who has JUST turned 29 had not been hit yet. Sure, in lots of ways, we are still young. I know that. We can still get up off the floor. We can still have a couple drinks with the girls. Some of us, it seems, can st...

Yesterday as I was bringing up the Christmas decor, I noticed that the highchair was still out. I noticed it because it was sitting near the door to the basement and I was carrying up box after box of Christmas stuff and the highchair was taking up a lot of space. Space I needed. After my fourth trip up and down and staring at the highchair, glaring at the space it was using, I realized something. We have not used that for many months. Maybe even a year now. It is the same one we bought when Emma was only a few months old. We invested in a Peg Perego one, blue and yellow checked cover. I really liked that chair. I cleaned it up when it was time for Davis to use it. With four years between them, it had been stored for a while before it was needed again. Yesterday, I looked at that chair and realized something. It was time to put it away. I moved the seat down, folded up the tray and then folded the entire highchair up. I picked it up and carried it to the basement to store w...

The Holidays are officially here. I decorated the house for Christmas today. Only the inside. I need Mark to help me rig up the lights for outside. The kids helped decorate the tree. It looks a little whoopy , but they had fun doing it themselves so I let them go at it. I hung all my lights around my windows in the living room too. I even threw out an entire box of old decorations and things that were broken. I did really well this year. Emma's tree is up and the lights are going on it in her room. My little tree is up and going in the dining room. Davis's poor tree needs new lights. I will get them soon for his tree. Christmas photos have been taken and ordered. Most of the shopping is complete. Not too much longer and it will be Christmas.

My Emmaline.....

Back in January, for Davis's second birthday my sister redid his room. From baby to big boy. My sister, Kiki, has an eye for doing these sorts of things. To see the results of her work on Davis's room you can click here to view them. I had wanted to redo Emma's room for her birthday as well, back in March. We thought about finishing off the other half of our attic and moving the kids upstairs, so I waited. Then we thought about moving, so I put it off once again. I finally decided that it was time to fix it up some. I started looking for new window coverings. And lo and behold a few weeks ago I found some Hello Kitty shower curtains (fabric) on sale at Target. They had the matching shower hooks on sale as well and we were off for a new look for Emma's room. I put in a call to my decorator, the one and only Kiki and the pieces came together. Today, Kiki and Uncle Patrick descended on Emma's room and worked their magic. After a few weeks of preparation and a few hou...