Child for sale....

....to a good home and at a low, low price! Sometimes this kid can drive me to the edge of sanity which probably explains a lot of my current mental state. Today at lunch, it was the typical day. Ten minutes before we eat,

"Mom, I'm hungry when are we going to eat? I'm starving!!!".

"I'm hurrying as fast as I can."

We sit down, he takes two bites and says, "I'm done."

"Ummm....no you're not. You need to finish it or I will take your plate and you will NOT get anything else. You'll just go to your room"

"That's fine. I wanted to go in there and watch cartoons anyway. While you're in the living room, I'll just creep around into the kitchen and eat what I want to eat."

I look up at Darrin with a look of 'Where in the ---- did this child come from???' and of course, Darrin starts shaking with laughter at this moment. And I wonder where in the ---- this child came from?????.....hmmmmm.....

Needless to say, I wasn't laughing and Tucker DID finish everything on his plate.

A while later, I was on the computer [stupid thing gets me in trouble everytime] and I thought I better go check on #1 and #2. I knew they had gone outside.

Can you tell their mom is a musician????

No, I did NOT stage this. Sawyer found the toy guitar in a Goodwill box in the garage and Tucker found my grandfather's harmonica (which was abruptly taken away!).

Yes, Sawyer is wearing her panties and two mismatched crocs.

They get their musical skills from me and their fashion sense from their father:-)

I'm sure the neighbors LOVE us. Thank heavens for privacy fences.

So, two for the price of one:-)...anyone, anyone???

But this one's not for sale. At least not for another few months....

Branson 2009...this is the way we roll....

We got home last night from our annual trip to Branson. My parents have a time share...actually two time shares....in Branson. The first is at Big Cedar Lodge. It's absolutely beautiful. It's in a very woodsy area and is full of fun things to do. There must be at least 6 different swimming pools, several restaurants, horseback and carriage rides, miniature golf, and many, many other things. It's located right on Table Rock Lake so there is also a marina where you can bring your boat or rent one for the day. This is pretty much the only vacation our family takes so we are so so grateful to my parents that they have this and invite our crazy brew along with my sister's bunch to all get together and enjoy spending time together. Last year Mom and Dad also bought into Stormy Point. It's a new area with a very "Cape Cod" feel. My aunt Candy and her husband Rich joined us all this year. And we are soooo glad they did. For one, Candy is a complete and total 'kid magnet'. When we were growing up, all the cousins LOVED spending time with her. She was always just so much fun. She took us roller skating, swimming, camping, bike riding. There was nothing she didn't do with us and I'm pretty sure our parents were thrilled to have her around...I understand this now as a parent myself. She entertained my kids and BOY WAS THAT NICE:-) She's still got it :-) Anyway, back to Stormy Point....my parents and Candy and Rich decided to stay there and my and my sister's family stayed at Big Cedar. Stormy Point is, how do I put it into words,....ADORABLE!!!! All the little houses are lined up with cute little yards, white picket fences, and are all painted different colors. It's so beachy.

We spent lots of time swimming.....

Yes, this is proof that I actually did get into the pool. I have three kids now. All self-conscious, swimsuit hating, bare arm loathing feelings MUST be thrown out the window. Spending time with my three little monkeys is way more important:-)

We took the kids to the Fish Hatchery. I've never seen so many fish in all my life. The kids loved it. Of course, they thought they could bring their fishing poles but that wasn't quite the way it works there. But boy, would they have caught a few.....

They also had an indoor exhibit of snakes and turtles. The kids got to touch this snake. Tucker was in hog heaven. This was definitely his kind of thing...

We rode the "Ducks" on Saturday. If you're not familiar with Branson, you probably don't have a clue as to what I'm talking about. If you ever go, you will see lots of 'amphibious' vehicles riding around....shuttle on land....boat on water. We were all given "quackers" upon boarding. Wow did the kids have a good time with these....my ears are still buzzing. It took us on a tour up in the hills of Branson then we went right into the lake...literally:-)

Since Porter couldn't enjoy his "quacker", he got a Sailor's hat.

My little Popeye:-) Isn't that hat just perfect for that face????:-)

That evening, we decided to get rid of all the leftover bread that would be thrown out the next day because we would all be leaving. We heard about a pond at Big Cedar that was FULL of turtles. We decided to take our bread and our brew of kids to the pond to feed the turtles. I just hope there weren't any casualties floating belly up the next day. That was A LOT of bread....

So....we are back in the world of reality in Wichita, Kansas. We got home yesterday afternoon with tons upon tons of things to unpack. I decided to wait until today to dive into any of it. And yes, reality it was. I had my back turned, unpacking a suitcase and when I turned around this is what I saw....

OK, big deal. It's a picture of cute little (well..big) naked Porter. But there's something about this picture that makes it so special.......HE'S ON HIS BELLY AND I IN NO WAY HELPED HIM GET THERE!!!!! Now he really is a Roly Poly!!!! He rolled over, he actually rolled over...at 7 and a half months old he finally rolled over!!!! My mom would argue that he actually did it in Branson. Yes, he did get fully over at Big Cedar but only used one arm to hold himself up as the other one was trapped somewhere beneath the chunkiness muscle.

And then I turned the other direction and this is what I saw.....

Yes, a picture of Sawyer and yes, pink marker all over the forehead....this is MY reality. I have no idea what Tucker was doing and I don't think I want to know.....

The Girl is 3 TODAY!!!!!

Happy Birthday Miss Sawyer Da Ross!!!! In typical Ross fashion, we've been celebrating since Friday....and....it's Monday:-) Because I'm a stickler for tradition, we started out with making sure that our Birthday Tablecloth had our new set of handprints....(this is my favorite tradition)

Saturday, we went out to Grandma and Grandpa Willey's house for the big party.

She put the candles on the cake....

...and 'practiced' blowing out the candles. Good thing we had the practice session because it took quite a while to get them all out...all 3 of them:-)

Then she got to open one present. She got a new pair of scissors from Grandma. They sort of got 'left' at Grandma's house...

Then we went outside for a waterballoon fight...ahhh...summer birthdays....:-)

We went back inside to open the rest of the presents -- notice the change of clothes...the water balloon fight got a little out of hand. The 'big impact' presents were the camera (notice my new fancy profile picture...yes, taken by my beautiful 3 year-old with her new camera) and the brand new PINK FISHING POLE that she has been asking for for a long, long, looooonnngggg time which incidently, Darrin took the two of them fishing yesterday and she caught 2, yes, 2 fish with that PINK FISHING POLE!!

Then it was time to blow out the candles (for real this time....and she did much, much better)

We cooked s'mores outside...

And of course, it wouldn't be a party without a little meltdown....

We were suppose to smack a pony pinata but we just ran out of time. You'll get to see pictures of that in the Branson post. We're takin' it with us:-)

AND, we finally get to today...her ACTUAL birthday. The kids each have their own special birthday plate that ONLY gets used for special Happy Birthday Smiley Pancakes (made by Daddy) on the morning of the birthday. You can't see it, but under the 'Happy' pancake is a picture of a little girl holding a flower. We had to wake Sawyer up ... still a little sleepy...

Daddy got a little 'creative' this year and decided to use food color on top of the chocolate chips. I guess he thought it would make the face a little more realistic....hmmm... This is Sawyer after the first bite because the happy pancake had 'blue' eyes....

And the last tradition of a Ross kid's birthday? We planted a tree for each child on his/her first birthday. Every year they get their picture taken with their tree. I would have posted tree pics of each year but my children have now destroyed the house because of how long it has taken me to post all of the existing pictures...maybe later...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

SWEETIE PIE (papa's nickname for her)

aka HONEY BUNNY (daddy's nickname for her)

We LOVE You!!!!

Allergic Reaction????

So, in my last post I commented that Porter was having a terrible time teething. I never noticed teething as being such an ordeal with my other 2 kids. I came to the conclusion that maybe it has to do with the fact that both Tucker and Sawyer were a year old and were able to chew on certain foods..i.e. cheerios, teething bisquits. Maybe their teeth didn't bother them so much because of this. Of course at the time, I couldn't believe how mom's would 'gripe and moan' about how awwwfulll teething was on both the baby and them. "What a bunch of whiners," I thought to myself. Yeah, well, I will never criticize AGAIN!!! So, in my quest to find some sort of relief for my big, blue-eyed babe, I always (and WILL always) turn to my girlfriends. My friend Trasie told me about the miracle, all natural, homeopathic, drug called TEETHING TABLETS. I ran right out to Walgreens and bought them out grabbed a bottle. And let me tell you -- THEY ARE AMAAAZZZINNNGGG! I'm not even joking -- instant relief! Wow! In celebration, I let me big, blue-eyed babe have Peach Cobber (baby food style, of course) with his supper. Can you say HAPPY BABY???!!! He of course love, love, loved it.

Well, the next day (yesterday) all was well. Porter laid down for his morning nap and when he woke up I saw red spots all over his right leg and right arm. I quickly went through the blankets thinking it just had to be some sort of bug bite and since we hadn't been outside, I was terrified that it was running rabid through his bedding. I let a little time go and later checked him again and it was spreading horribly. I called the dr. and was able to get in at 4:30. Three doctors later and me remembering that I had given him the "miracle drug" for teething AND peach cobbler all in one day, the dr.'s (plural) concluded that he's either allergic to the chamomile in the tablets OR any number of ingredients in the cobbler. What a total drag...NO miracle drug OR cobbler until we figure out this allergy.

I just hope it IS an allergy. The dr.'s said that things would get worse before they get better...meaning lots more spreading of the dots and eventually itchiness...(poor baby).

The first 2 pictures are from yesterday, the last 2 are from today....

8 Years....

Yes, I'm a day late...but that's pretty much the story of my life this week. Yesterday, June 9, 2009 was Darrin and my 8 Year Wedding Anniversary. Some days it seems like it's been 20 years :-) but most days it seems like yesterday that he and I started this thing called 'married life'.

If you would have asked me 12 years ago (which is when I graduated from college) where and what I'd be doing in 2009...

I would not be married

I would not be living in Wichita, KS

I would not have 3 children ages 4 and under

I would not be a stay at home mom

I would not spend my days picking up the same thing off the floor 257 times

I would NOT be driving a mini-van

I would not think that trips to the zoo would be fun

I would not think that every store in the country should have a drive-thru...including the grocery store when all you need is a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread

It would not take me 45 minutes just to put my shoes on and get out the door

I would not be shopping at Sam's once a month buying 6 containers of Similac and a box of 152 diapers

I would not think that popsicles could cure ANY illness

And I most certainly would not be blogging because what on earth would I blog about????

Thank the Good Lord above that I met Darrin and he convinced me to marry him 8 years ago. (yes, it did take some convincing...:-)...just kidding Big D:-)...I love you) My life would have been TERRIBLY boring had I not said 'YES'. I would never give up this oh soooo good life.:-)
(.....although it wouldn't bother me to give up picking up the same toy 257 times a day....)


On another note, my poor baby boy is teething and I just couldn't resist posting this picture of him holding onto a bottle of baby Tylenol. It's as if he's saying, "You take it away, you die!"