Cookie Time!

Angie and I (with Daphne and Olivia) went up to Salem to hang out with Tara and her girls and make cookies. We had so much fun! Even the girls got into it. They were unsupervised when we let them do some decorating. Big mistake! The sprinkles were a 1/2 inch thick on each cookie and about that thick on the floor too! Tara was such a good sport though, saying enthusiastically "Oh, that's fine! Just as long as there is a little left." That was about all that was left from the 2 bottles. Then the girls all "skated" on the sprinkles until their feet were all dyed dark red and green!

Then poor Angie, who was rolling out the cookies on the counter, kept bumping her head on the corner of the cabinet. Ouch!

But no matter what, whenever the three of us get together we always have lots of silly fun!

Birthday-palooza!

Both Savannah and Daphne had birthday's in November. They both had lots of fun!

Shopping Shenanigans

Okay, first of all it's officially the Christmas season!!!! So now I can listen to Christmas music (music that I have been listening to for about 6 weeks already) without feeling guilty that it's not close enough yet. Yea!!
So I went shopping today, on Black Friday, for the first time that I can remember. Not very fun. I LOVE getting good deals, but not at the expence of my sanity. Hence the reason I don't do Black Friday. But my mom and my and sister-in-law wanted to do a little shopping, so I thought sure why not? But they wanted to go to JoAnn Fabrics. The only place worse, I'm convinced, is Walmart (where it's possible to actually die shopping). Okay, the people were all actually very nice, but the line for getting your fabric cut was about and hour long. So not fun! And not worth it for me since I wasn't getting that much. My mom and Shellie on the other hand were like those crazy ladies that can't get enough! Their shopping cart had, and I'm not exaggerating, at least 60-70 bolts of fabric in it! It took the poor lady who was cutting the fabric over and hour just to cut theirs!!!!!! I left.... I wasn't about to stand around some more. ;) So I went to the mall for more torture.
The mall was busy and crazy and hectic, but it was at least a better use of my precious shopping time, i.e. my time sans kids.
Never again JoAnn's! Never again will I waste that much time STANDING in line!

Why I love autumn...

There's bumpy hayrides,

field trips to apple orchards,

and carving scary jack-o-lanterns.

I love colorful leaves with happy babies,

and family time with big fat pumpkins!

We all love to dress up for Halloween,

and jump in huge, wet piles of leaves!

WE ALL LOVE FALL!!!!!!

An Act of Violation

I'm feeling so violated! My van was broken into last night at Monroe Middle School. I was with Savannah at her volleyball practice last night between 6:30 and 8pm and when I came out the back side window was smashed in and my purse was gone. I had hidden my purse, as usual, but they found it and went straight to Macy's and spent $300. I'm not liable for that, but that doesn't mean this event isn't headache free. Dan and I were on the phone canceling cards and finding out about fraud protection for 3 hours, then I did have a headache. Now we get to take our van in to get the window fixed too. Meanwhile I have to drive it around with none other than a plastic garbage bag and duct tape adornment. Very ghetto-chic!

H1N1 has left the building...I hope.

Well after Daphne and Dan both getting the full swine flu and being sick for about 2 weeks, they seem to be doing better. Seems like Olivia and I got something too, but maybe not H1N1. I hope we all keep getting better and no one else gets it!

The Shrine to Urine

Ok, I'm finally getting around to our trip to New York City. It was a blast! Wicked was AMAZING, Central Park was awesome, the view from the top of the Empire State Building was astounding, the Statue of Liberty was all I ever hoped it would be. It was a very fun trip. One thing I want to make note of is the BATHROOMS. Wow! I have never seen more disgusting nor more beautiful bathrooms in my life. There was this one in a delicious little pizza place that I was afraid to go in. I mean I was really scared. It was a unisex bathroom and this guy came out right before me and he was in there for like 10 seconds. Enough time to pee on the seat and walk out. I just about threw up at the state of the bathroom. I didn't touch anything with my bare hands...at least there was toilet paper. Ok, then there was this incredible bathroom in this little underground italian restaurant. It had 2 fountains, candles everywhere, rose petals strewn all over and in the marble sink. I wanted to stay in there all night and dedicate my "deposit" to the Urine Goddess who created this immaculate bathroom!

Behold the Baby!

This statement might not mean much to you, but in the Bustos home we say it a lot. When all of our kids are babies we lift them up above our heads in the air and say,"behold the baby!" The older kids love it and think it's funny, so we do it all the time. This is our way of drawing attention to the baby. So at this time I would like to draw attention to Daphne and tell you all that she is finally crawling!!!! Yeah! Good job Daphne! She finally got tired of sitting there and decided to to something about it. Behold the baby!

Back to School aka Back to Sanity

Hooray! School has started! And although it promises new challenges in the form of crazy schedules, it also promises me a few hours every day of not having to break up fights.

Olivia started kindergarten this year. She loves it. Her teacher, Mr. Callahan, is awesome! But she was pretty confused last night when she asked if she had school tomorrow and I said, "No, it's Saturday. " She said, "So I'm done with kindergarten?" Then I had to explain that there is no school on the weekend. She told me that Mr. C have her a goodbye hug, so she thought that she was done with kindergarten. She was pretty sad until I told her she would go back to school on Monday! What a silly and sweet girl!

Silliness in Sunriver

We went to Sunriver last week with the Lenox Family. It was so much fun! We rode bikes, played tennis, went swimming and played games. The funnest part was playing Imaginiff. It was late at night and so we were loopy from exhaustion. The question was about Dan: If Dan were a cartoon character which would he be: 1-Minnie Mouse 2-Velma 3-Power Puff Girl 4-Tinkerbell 5-Cinderella. We all just died laughing. There were no male choices. So we sat there and imagined Dan as Tinkerbell. His tiny wings flapping wildly to keep him off the ground. Super tight tights and a goatee with stubble and of course a tight little skirt. He was a very hairy fairy with chest hair spilling out the top of his leotard! We couldn't stop laughing! So then we had to choose one for Tom. He was Cinderella. He had a blue flowing ball gown that didn't quite fit with his broad chest splitting the seams, glass slippers that didn't just fall off, but crushed under his weight, a headband with a fancy do underneath and a black choker necklace that broke as soon as he spoke in a deep voice. We were practically rolling on the floor by the time our descriptions were done. We decided we should get a graphic designer to draw them, so we could never lose those precious, yet sickening images. Thanks for being good sports Dan and Tom!

Hand Replica Project Aborted

Well folks, it's official! I am now aborting my human hand replica search. Let me explain. It all stems from this one simple fact: Daphne has slept through the night for 3 nights in a row!!! You see, we were getting desperate and desperate times call for desperate measures!

Daphne has not been sleeping through the night for some time now and the only way we could get her to fall asleep during this last month was to stand at the side of her bed and put our hand on top of her face; she would hold on to the thumb and pinkie and slowly fall asleep. Well this gets old a 3 o'clock in the morning! So we devised a plan: buy some kind of hand replica for her to snuggle up to so we could get our beauty sleep. That sounds sick and wrong you say? I say: not so! On the first night that she slept through the night I was searching for something with the same weight and appendages as a hand and I found a little snake filled with sand. I layed it across her face; she grabbed both ends of the snake and within minutes...sleep! Eureka!

So I guess I will not go forward with the hand replica search. She even fell asleep without the snake. Hopefully we are home free.

Chaos Personified

My life is choas! True to form I have not blogged in 3 months. I would say that I am going to change my ways, but that would most likely be a lie. I keep telling myself that I am going to simplify my life, but I am always in angst about what to cut out. Let me see... Getting up with Daphne in the middle of the night, wouldn't mind cutting that one out, ...laundry, it takes way too long with 6 people to wash for, ...grocery shopping, who needs food? ...if I'm going to cut out shopping I can cut out cooking and dishes too (yes!!!) I think I hit paydirt with that one. ...Swimming lessons, Do they really need to learn how to swim? ...Play dates. Now this is a tricky one. On one hand it gets them out of your hair for a little while, but then, inevitably, someone's feelings get hurt and you have to sort it all out. ...Soccer, volleyball, baseball, tennis, gymnastics. I'm left in a quandry. But there are things I will never give up doing: reading books to the kids (and to myself), going for walks, playing at the park, picnics, singing, and dancing like no one is watching. These are the things you think of when you decide to become a mom. These are the times I think my children will remember. These are the moments that life slows down and you realize it's all worth it. So if I can do at least one of those good things a day I will smile and know I did something worthwhile today.

Daphne-Doodle

Daphne is my miracle. We had a hard time getting her here. After trying for a year and a half and 2 miscarriages we found out that we were going to have a baby girl. The pregnancy was awful. I was sick for the first half and by the time the morning sickness went away I was very anemic. But I wasn't diagnosed with the anemia until much later and so I spent the whole summer in exhaustion and agony. Needless to say it was avery hard pregnancy.
She was growing fast and I was getting big. We decided to schedule a C-section, because I had Olivia via C-section and Dr. Betterton feared my uterus would rupture if I waited to go into labor and deliver naturally. So she came 6 days before her due date on November 17 weighing 8 lbs 8 oz. We were so elated to have another healthy baby girl! We wanted her to have the same initials as her daddy so we named her Daphne Elizabeth Bustos. When the doctor pulled her our she said "Would you look at all the hair she has!" Her hair was dark brown and very long! Probably about an inch! She had such a loud cry too. Daddy spent the first hour by himself bonding with her and firgured out that all she wanted was to suck. So he stuck his pinkie finger in her mouth and then she was happy as a clam.
She is 6 months now! Oh how the time has flown! Life is cruel in that way. It goes so fast when you want it to slow and it speeds up when you want to to slow down. She just started sitting up about 2 weeks ago and she is starting tosleep through the night. She is very happy with all of the attention she gets from her brother and sisters! They are always willing to help her and hold her. Liam was so sad when we found out she was a girl, but now he comes home from school and run up to her to smell her and kiss her and make her smile.
We also get A LOT of attention from strangers! Everyone comments on her hair and how beautiful and long it is. (I even put it in pony tails the other day!) They also comment on how beautiful her blue eyes are. She loves the attention, but the other day she was playing shy and hid her face in her carseat when someone was cooing at her. It was really funny. It's like she was getting tired of all of the comments and decided enough was enough! Occasionally I get a little frustrated too if I'm in a hurry. I usually get stopped 5-8 times in the grocery store. So if I have more than one place to go in a day I get stopped that many times at each place I go. It's pretty funny sometimes. I should keep a tally one of these days!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I like my birthdays every one! Each brings a greater joy to me! (To quote a primary song.) I never seem to tire of getting older. I'm 35 today and I still love my birthday! My kids all made me a picture, coupon or book. Savannah wrote a book for me complete with illustrations and I want to share it.
The title is: "Here's to You and our Family". We've been together since... First steps...Princess Fanticies... Rainy baseball games...And school plays. Our family is very special. And you play a very important part in it. Remember, that with all we go through you'll always be our Mommy and we'll always be your Baby.
Thanks Savannah! She should write greeting cards or something. I was crying by the time I got to the end!
My hubby got me an emerald ring (that I got to pick out!). I love emeralds, it's my birthstone. He is going to get off work a little early so we can start celebrating, then we're going out to Marche tonight and to a movie.
I also got to get a mani/pedicure with my friend Angie and go out to lunch. Daphne even gave me a gift. She didn't cry the whole time I was getting ready this morning (like she usually does!) and she slept through my pedicure. Very nice!
Birthdays are great!

Northwest Souther Girl

I call myself this because I grew up here in the great Northwest and then lived in the South for 10 years and came back. So some people notice that I occaisonally throw in a "ya'll" in casual speaking. On a dialect quiz I took I came out half northern, half southern. What can I say, I guess I'm some kind of half -breed. Pros: I've met lots of wonderful people, eaten lots of amazing food, held season passes for Sea World and Six Flags, seen the Grand Ole Opry, lived near a Civil War battleground and Andrew Jackson's Hermitage Home as well a several other plantation/historic homes. Cons: I miss all of the friends I've made along the way and all of the restaurants in Texas, the best place to eat and get fat .

Computer Idiot

I really don't know if I'm cut out for blogging. I mean, I'm really no computer genius. In fact, my husband runs all the computer stuff under our roof, and he's never blogged before either. I'm basically on my own with this one. So here goes nothing!