Happy Holiday - The Day After Christmas

Well it's the day after and we're still alive! I'm so glad it's all over. Now I'm interested in cleaning up the messes and looking at my clean house. You'd never know that the housekeepers were here on Christmas Eve Day.

Christmas Eve Day was rushing around to get the house clean for the housekeepers and then out to get the holiday dinner that we ordered since we wouldn't have enough time to make everything with the housekeepers here. This is when the fun began. We got to the Honey Baked Ham store only to find that the side dishes we reserved weren't reserved at all. :( Milenko rushed to the grocery store to get the fixin's for the new stuff we had to make while I went home to feed Brayden & put Lauren to bed. Lauren had been sick all night long and running a fever.

Fortunately, it was gone by the afternoon and didn't last into the night at all.

Grammy got here around 4:30 with Dan arriving shortly after. Dave, Michelle & the boys arrived around 5pm and we all had a great time. We had 1/4 ham, 1/2 turkey, mashed potatoes, garlic sauteed green beans, salad, lightly grilled pugliese bread with drizzled olive oil and a splash of garlish & candied yams. Even the kids ate a decent amount. We had the kids sit in the kitchen at the smaller table while all the adults sat at the formal dining room table. It was such a nice change to NOT have to get up and deal with rioting kids.

The tree was completely filled with presents. It looked like we had a few dozen people getting gifts.

After Dave's family went home, it was time to write letters to Santa. Daddy helped Bella write her letter all by herself while Lexie dictated to me. We took the letters and put them next to the cookies (made with Teta Sherry) and hot cocoa (because it's warm & yummy and Santa likes it better). Oh yeah, we had to ad a napkin in case Santa got his beard dirty.

Uncle Momo (my brother Dan) & Grammy spent the night. While Milenko passed out, Elf Dan put together the Barbie Escalade from Santa. By 1am, we were exhausted and put the wagon (still inside its box) on a footstool with a name tag.

I was so tired come 7:30 that I didn't get to capture their look on camera when they saw what Santa brought. However, I think the excitement lasted all day. The Escalade has a real working radio & cup holders. We haven't put the battery in yet since it has to charge for 18 hours. I'm wondering if the battery is even needed as they find that thing so much fun without it.

At 10am, our neighbor Meena joined us for homemade waffles and mimosas, courtesy Chef Milenko.

At 2pm we headed to Kum & Kuma's (Milenko's godparents) house for dinner. We had the best homemade soup ever. I can't remember the Croatian name for it (let alone spell it), but it was so good! Follow that up with bread, green beans, potatoes, roasted pig, sauerkraut, salad, cauliflower, stuffing and turkey with gravy. That was dinner. Dessert was even more food than dinner. We brought an apple pie to add to the strudel, 3 plates of Croatian cookies, chocolate/raspberry cake, fresh strawberries with cream and a Croatian dessert break that Kum always makes. WOW! There was so much food that I think I've personally eaten for the week. (That's not including the appetizers before dinner of shrimp, proscuitto, crackers, cheese, olives, dips and some spicy sausage that I'm clueless about.) If ever you want a good meal, Kuma will certainly do you justice is preparing a wonderful spread!

The best part was when Kum pulled out the guitar and accordion. Lexie loves music and after she finished her dessert, she delighted us by singing We Wish You A Merry Christmas, You Are My Sunshine and her ABC's. She became disinterested when Kum couldn't play any of the "Anna Montanana" (Hannah Montana) songs.

Had to throw in a quick picture of Brayden as he dressed up for Christmas dinner!

We all went to bed around 8pm. Lauren was still a little under the weather, Brayden has developed a very bad cough and I can't swallow anything. (Wouldn't that have come in handy while the desserts were flowing this season?!) :-)

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A Mother's Story - The Real Truth....Warning: Not for the Faint

I'll even put in some cute pictures of the kids to make it look like we're all doing WONDERFUL!

Okay, this blog is for all the mom's to read as they know the truth about parenting and just let everyone else believe they're perfect. You know how you want to tell everyone to take a flying leap when they tell you how "great" of a super mom you are? Well this would be that day!

I'm sitting her at 5:04 in the afternoon writing this blog. No, dinner isn't ready. Do I have it even planned? Sorta. I'm hoping to call Milenko after I type this and tell him to pick something up from a fast food place or I'll order pizza. I tend to do this often since I'm just to tired, frustrated, busy and lazy to make a real dinner. Oh yeah, that would explain the size of my hips and my hubby's belly.

I've sent Bella to her room for a time-out until Daddy comes home. She was using the DVD's as ice skates on the hardwood floors. That's always a fun one. She's been there since around 4:15 and I don't expect her to come out for another 1/2 hour or so. When Milenko comes in the door she'll run downstairs to tell him that she was bad and wait for him to say "tisk tisk" and then cuddle up to her and act as if nothing happened. I'm the bad guy and Daddy's the knight in shining armor.

My voice is currently raw from yelling at Lauren for ripping Bella's homework in 1/2 and then ripping all the Christmas cards off the closet door. On top of that she thinks it's Christmas morning and it already opening presents. No, I'm not ignoring my kids. I was upstairs changing Brayden. Why would it take me that long upstairs for her to do all this much damage? Well let me tell you! Brayden took a shit on my lap and the poop went out the back of his diaper, all over his clothes, all over my white new shirt and all over the couch. The good news is the couch is leather and can easily be cleaned. The bad news is that he gets to take another bath to clean the crap off of him. 3 changes of clothes already and the day isn't through....

Lexie has decided to take the Donkey Kong Bongo game that we have and tie the cords to the bongos in knots around their computer table. When I came downstairs and tried to gently move the bongos to the side so I didn't fall on my face, the bongos were stuck and so I tripped anyways. Of course I'm in a perfect mood so I don't yell or anything. NOT! I screamed at the top of my lungs at her to pick up all of the blocks that are in 100 pieces all over the floor, the ripped up homework courtesy of Lauren and the stupid Happy Meal toy that I'm sure will be broken by the end of the night

Not to mention the cell phone incident. We've been having a glitch with our phones and while on the phone with Milenko, the phone hangs up. While I try to dial him back, the phone locks up on me. After another 20 seconds of nothing and then the phone reboots, I get so frustrated that I take the damn phone and slam it into the dashboard of the car. The car is fine. I didn't use all my anger to pound the thing into the dash. I went to call Milenko about 2 minutes and 4 deep breaths later and the screen in broken. The crack in the digital screen means that I can't use the phone now. What do I tell hubby? "it was working one minute and then the screen died and did this..." Yes, I lied to Milenko. However, I did tell him the truth after he went to the phone store and got it replaced for free. He understands since it makes it more believable and he isn't lying to the guy at the store - I'm just not giving him all the information he needs.
Why doesn't a mom tell someone they're on Zoloft? Because when they forget to take it for a week, everyone KNOWS!!! Besides, trying to present yourself as the pretty, nicely dress, clean smelling, happy mom is much nicer than the one in sweats with their hair in a clip with no make-up, zits, un-brushed teeth and baby shit on their pants.

Well I better run now. Milenko will be home any minute and will be completely pissed off because I didn't make anything for dinner. Brayden should wake up and want to either be changed again or want me to hold him for another 2 hours straight. Lauren's sitting on the stairs saying "Nah, ca-ca, pooh-pooh" which means I'll be in shit up to my elbows in a few minutes. Oh yeah, I have to help Bella do her homework that's due tomorrow and go to the store to get healthy snacks and fruit for her class party tomorrow.

Here are some pictures I uploaded a while ago - just to show you that in my insanity, I do have some cute kids. :)

SIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lauren has a new place to watch her show - Teletubbies. Every single morning she comes into my room with the channel changer and says "Dubby Dubby Mommy." Translation: "Get your butt downstairs and put Teletubbies on."

Bella has now surpassed the oldest gamers in the house (Milenko & I). She is now almost to the PRO level in Wii Boxing. Who ever thought that during the cold, rainy months that video games were a way to get exercise. I kid you not, Donna & I tried the Wii Boxing and our arms were so sore the next day. Talk about a great workout. Just wait until Dance, Dance Revolution comes out - we might have a decent looking body after all. (okay, maybe not - wishful thinking though!)

We may subject ourselves to this crap everyday but at the end of the day and first thing in the morning, our children are the greatest things in our lives - we just aren't thinking that way right now!

Ho Ho Ho! (Hack Hack)

Happy Holidays - if you're not under the weather like a few of us in our household. :) This time of year is always fun. We decorate the house inside and out, get to shop a lot and get to pull out the winter clothes. This year we had the tree up 2 weeks before Thanksgiving. (Hey, it was never put away from the last time we took it out so there was a purpose to finally get it out of the garage!)

We did our family Christmas pictures just before Thanksgiving and even had Brayden's birth announcements done. Although everything was ready to go, we didn't get out cards until the 5th of December. Boy, it sure does take a lot of time to do these things when you have a large family. In case I forgot to send you a card, please don't take it personal. I can't remember if I kissed my husband good-bye this morning for work, I don't remember if I even used the bathroom today. I think I may have remembered breakfast this morning and I'm sure that I called Lauren by Lexie's name, Bella by Lauren's name and possibly Lexie by Brayden's name. My brain is fried and I haven't ever touched a drug before! How do the people with 10 kids do it??

We chose this picture above because all eyes were open and Lauren looked so cute. Lexie could have used a bigger smile but she makes up for it in the picture below.

Now you tell me.... How often can you get 4 kids to look at the camera? Well, at least 3 of them anyways. We were just so excited that they all smiled. We'll give Brayden another year before he's required to show us any teeth. He's getting away with it this year since he doesn't have any teeth yet. ;-)

For Bella's birthday, Donna & Alyssa got her a scooter. She has been practicing outside on the semi-warm days. She loves the thing so much. She'll be ready for a real one by the time the weather gets warmer again. The one she has right now is just a training scooter.

Lexie is also enjoying her outdoor play. She's such a ham. When I tell her to smile for the camera she cocks her head to the side and puts her hand on her face. What a total shmoozer!

Lauren is the biggest outdoor kid of all our children. It doesn't matter if she has shoes & socks on, if she's in pj's or if she's in a diaper. She'll go outside as much as possible if the door is open.

When I get a free chance, I'll scan in Bella & Lexie's school photos and post those. They both turned out so good. I'm hoping to do that before the school year end at the rate I'm accomplishing things. hahahaha

What's going on with us in December? Well, Milenko is healing from his vasectomy. It's taking a little longer than normal since diabetics have a longer recovery time. He's "hanging" in there though. (pun intended) Good news - no more ooops! for us. hee hee

We have a few get-togethers with friends for the holidays but mostly staying at home. As always, we'll have Christmas Eve with the Gardner side of the family and all the cousins, etc. here at our place. We've been doing that for 8 years now. It's always so much fun. For Christmas, we're headed to Dan & Anita's (Kum & Kuma), Milenko's godparents, for dinner. We'll stop by his parents (who live 3 doors down) for a little while before heading over there and will hopefully be home early and off the roads before the Holiday drivers come out.

We had to throw in the photo of Biscuit with Brayden. I had just come home from the store and was unloading all the groceries in the house. I left Brayden outside since he was asleep and it was nice and warm in the sun. While I was busy putting things away, Biscuit went up to Brayden's car seat and started "making biscuits" on the end of the fleece blanket on his feet. She grabs the corner of the blanket and sucks on it and kneeds the blanket like

October & November Updates - Better late than never!

OCTOBER

Guess we're a little late in getting everything posted online. Must be the fact that raising 4 kids isn't quite as easy as it looks. What's hilarious is all the people who don't know me that well that say "Wow, you're a super Mom!" This is when they see me at 8am in the morning dropping off the kids on a day that I have to go somewhere and have the make-up and hair done. It's the other days that they never comment because I look like a train just ran me over. It must also be a day that I'm not yelling at Lauren to sit down, Lexie to buckle her seatbeat and Brayden must have dozed off in the back seat. If they only knew....

Here was one of Lauren's last days of enjoying the great summer weather back in October. We had a pretty warm October - definitely a "California" summer.Lauren is just testing out the water in the bathroom. She loves the fact that her sisters do it and she tries to mimic everything. She has the flushing toilets down as well as a pretty good handle on the toilet paper. In fact, her handle is a little more than we'd like as we've had a few clogged toilets recently.

In October, we headed to the pumpkin patch. The kids and I went with Donna and her kids. We needed some festive photos for the scrapbook albums. We didn't feel like heading out to Joan Farm so we went locally to one of the pumpkin patches in Pleasanton. This particular patch had pony rides and of course....that's where all the girls went....straight to the ponies.

Bella puts on the riding helmet and takes the pony for a ride.

Here is Lexie having a riot on this pony. You can click on the photo to enlarge it and see how big that smile really is.
Here's a cute one of Alyssa on the pony too. It was fun to get Bella, Lexie & Alyssa on the ponies at the same time but hard to focus on just one child as their smiles were all so big!
IAs you can see, Ryan is growing by leaps and bounds. Alyssa holds her 3 month old brother in this photo. He sure is an angel.
Here's a candid shot of Bella that I snuck in while I was trying to get a good photo of Brayden. It looks posed but it's really a candid shot.
This one isn't as candid. Bella and Lexie however choose this pose on their own.

Bella's loving every minute of Kindergarten. She was one of the Princesses from Shrek for Halloween. It was the only costume I could find with long sleeves for the cold Halloween parade at school.

Our very dainty princess.
Lexie dressed up too. She was (in her words) a Hello Kitty Blue Butterfly Fairy.
For Halloween, Lauren was a cow. Ironic that she's stuck with cows milk in her mouth just before going out trick or treating. haha
Here are Lexie and Bella trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.
We always walk down to my friend Laura's house. We were fortunate to run into them and get a photo with all the kids.
(L to R:) Bella, Jordyn, Lauren, Lauren, Adam, Lexie & Zachary.
Since it was a little cold, Lauren and I headed home with Brayden. While I was getting him out of the stroller, Lauren snuck into her candy bag filled with chocolate.

NEED I SAY MORE.....?

At the end of October (25, 26, 27. 28th), I co-hosted a Scrapbooking Retreat at Camp Hammer with my friend Cindy Bryson. It was a blast. Camp Hammer is a Christian retreat camp up in the Santa Cruz mountains. We had 100 participants this year and we did our scrapbooking for 4 days straight. I actually completed 43 scrapbook pages over the weekend. Pretty good for a mom with a 6 week old. Donna and I brought the babies with us and stayed up at the front with them and with our friends Laura & Kris. I have another blog that I created just for Camp Hammer attendees... here are the photos and all the details about our great weekend: http://croptoberfest.blogspot.com

NOVEMBER

Well our little girl is growing up so fast. Bella turned 5 on the 4th of November. On her actual birthday (below), our family went to Hana Japan (like Benny Hanas) with Donna & her family, Grammy Charlotte, Bake & Deda, and Kum & Kuma. After dinner at the restaurant that make dinner at your table, we went home for cake and presents. It was a quite little party at home but a lot of fun for Bella.

(L to R:) Lauren, Bella, Alyssa & Lexie

For Bella's actual birthday we had a big party. 17 of her friends showed up to help celebrate by jumping their hearts out in the jump house, decorating their own cupcake/birthdays cakes and eating as much pizza as they could. The party started at 11am and we found ourselves bringing the kids in at 5pm from playing all day. (What a tantrum that caused....) Bella had a bunch of friends from Kindergarten, her old pre-school and her everyday friends that she's know for years.

Yes, the queen of photographing her children is lacking in her duties. I take very little pictures these days. Hmmm? I wonder why?? I have a ton of photos on my cell phone but they look like crap. I'll have to upload them one of these days. :) haha

Here's a cute photo of Brayden in the beginning of November. He's starting to smile and he's getting such a great personality. Not only is he still a very mellow baby, he wakes up smiling and giggles mostly at Lexie when she plays with him. If all the kids were like this - and most importantly - stayed like this.... we'd still be having more children.