The Sin of the Selective Prayer

I was with Maddie tonight saying her bedtime prayers.  She usually likes to bless everyone and I often prompt her on who to bless next.  Here's how our conversation went.

Maddie:  "God bless Kendall"

Me:  "Daddy"

Maddie:  "God bless Daddy"

Me:  "Nana"

Maddie: "God bless Nana"

Me:  "Gramps"

Maddie "No!!"

Me:  "God bless Gramps Maddie"

Maddie "No way Jose!" (with a big sneaky grin)

Me:  "God bless Chloe"

Maddie:  "God bless Chloe"

Sorry Gramps.  You've always been blessed before but the dog pulled rank on you tonight.  Ouch!!

I know I'm bias, but I have the cutest kids on the planet.  Here are Grace and Madison singing the ABC Rock.  They are looking to the right because the letters pop up on the computer screen when you play it and they couldn't tear themselves away from it.  You'll need to pause the music on the right hand side before you begin.

Bedtime at the Hall House

 Kendall just walked in here, mumbled something incoherent, laid down on my bed and promptly went back to sleep.  I went back to putting away clothes and within a few minutes she woke up.  I said I'd walk her back to bed and she climbed up to the top bunk and cuddled up.  Kendall is an avid sleepwalker.  It's no surprise.  My great grandfather and uncle sleepwalk.  Plus Byron and his dad sleep-talk.  In fact Byron will shout and laugh so loud in his sleep that it's all I can do to not jump up and hit the ceiling.  The funny thing is her sleepwalking consistency.  She always sleepwalks 45 minutes to an hour after she goes to bed.  I can never understand what she says when she gets up.  She always spends a minute or two staring at us then either lays down on our bed or goes back to her own.  She never remembers it in the morning, ever.  If the other two start sleepwalking too, it's going to start being some busy nights around here.

Climb Every Mountain

Not a 1/2 mile away our house is an indoor family fun center.   These things are great ideas and I wish I owned one so I could make tons of money.  This one is inside an athletic club.  It has a good 3 stories worth of climbing equipment and an arcade.  I took the girls this morning for  some much needed run around time.  We've had snow on the ground for over a week and it's cold!!!  As usual the little ones wanted to climb up a big rope ladder with Kendall.  At first I told them no because it was a long ladder and it was made to look like hills so you had to climb up and down the ropes to get to the top.  They insisted and I kept watching this other mother carry her kids up the ladder.  Well I thought if she could do it I could!  We moved at a snails pace and got to the top.
Then the little ones freaked out!   When you get to the top you can see all the way to the bottom and I guess they got scared.  You have to cross a swinging bridge at the top and they were not doing that.  I tried to cross while carrying Grace but it's the type you really need to go across on your knees!  The only way down was to go back down the rope ladder!  The girls are screaming and I'm trying to get them to go down the ladder.  I was literally moving one of them two feet at a time, having Kendall stay with that one, and then going back to get the other one to move 2 feet.  Thankfully, another mother saw my problem and sent her 11 year old daughter to come help me.  Truly a little helper from God because we wouldn't have got down without her!  We finally got to the bottom and within five minutes everyone was fine.  I came home and marked that little adventure down as my work out for the day!

Labor of Love (and Stupidity)

I said a few days ago on the blog that Madison was staying a few days with my in-laws.  It was supposed to be a really simple thing of them putting Maddie in their car and driving away.  Then I would drive up half-way in a few days to pick her up.  Well I guess my brain is finally dissolving away because it turned out to be quite the chore on both ends.  First I packed her bag and forgot to send her hairbrush, house shoes, doll, potty seat, gloves, and hat.  (In my defense, I did not know we were in store for ANOTHER freak snow over the weekend.)  Then my in-laws drove off and left their coat, a shirt, a vest, a pair of pajamas, and Madison's blanket.  I discovered the blanket (which Maddie could not do without) a few minutes after they left but I couldn't find my father in law's cell phone number!  I go tearing upstairs to my bedridden husband to tell him to get his dad on the phone now!  So they had to come back to get the blanket after probably getting all the way to edge of town.  Then when I go to pick her up no one noticed that Maddie's suitcase didn't get moved over to the van.  So we both had to turn around and meet up again to get the bag.  Then I get home and my mother in law has emailed to say she found some of Maddie's clothes in the washing machine when she got home.  Ha!!  All this, and DHS still hasn't come to take the kids away.  I don't think I'll be winning mother of the year or daughter in law of the year anytime soon.

Our Trip to the Explorium

Byron had some minor surgery earlier in the week.  His parents came down to care for the kiddos while I tended to Byron for a day.  The took the little Maddie booger back with them for a few days to lighten my load while I finished up school for the week and helped Byron.  The older ones and I headed out to the children's museum this morning and we had the best time.  I forget how quickly they are growing up!  We did the whole museum and ate lunch without a single meltdown.  I didn't even take a diaper bag, drinks, or snacks with me!  No stroller, no one needed to be carried, and we took the steps and not the elevator.  This was a big mommy moment for me.  My brain is spinning with the things we will be able to do in 6-12 months.  Can't wait!

Our New Addition....Chloe

I have been promising the girls we will get a dog for about ummm.....at least a year.  Like any good mother I have come up with a hundred excuses to not get a dog.  My final (and best) holdout was that I didn't want to get a dog and then uproot the dog to move to KY.  That excuse went out the window a couple months ago.  Then I read this super sad article about how shelters are so full they are putting down more dogs than usual.  Well that was so stinking sad to hear.  Then I see there is a little dachshund mix at the local shelter that only had a few days left before being put down.  Now I would say I am not one to make decisions on emotion.  But this little doggie was the sweetest thing to cross my path in a while.  I talked to the volunteers about her temperament and she seemed like a good fit for us.  We've had her a couple of weeks and she is well loved by everyone.  She's almost housebroken already and does a good job of minding.  The only problem is the kids keep her awake all day playing and she's exhausted by the time they go to bed.  Good for me though because she's slept through the night since day one.  I never had that much luck when I brought my kids home!