I am so glad Christmas is over...

Is that I put away the singing toys.  I think I am the only one who is happy.  I actually think the singing toys are pretty cute.  My kids love them too.  The only problem I have is when the kids set them all to go off at the exact same time.  Even that is okay once.  But not the 25th time.  Good buy Christmas toys, until this time next year. 

Christmas 2013

1.      Christmas!

I love Christmas.  This Christmas was even more special because Matt has a new job and wasn’t working crazy hours.  We were together as a family.  The kids had a great time with their pictures and their Christmas pageant.  I couldn’t get enough!  My favorite Christmas present (besides the great jewelry Matt got me) was my smiley 1 year old, my sweet 4 year old, my feisty 6 year old, and my inquisitive 8 year old. 

My birthday...because i am so grown up

How do you celebrate the slow marching of time?  If you are me, you go shoot a gun for the first time and then go out with your great friends and end the night at a formal Christmas party. I enjoyed every minute of my 33rd birthday.  I rang in the new year by trying something new and spending time with great friends. Thanks for helping me feel young even though I know I am getting old. 

Shooting my first gun ever

Zombies were the targets

My friends "supporting" me on my birthday

The very formal party.

Preparing for Christmas with the kids

Christmas means decorations and prep work and goodies and fun.  Kids offer an added twist to getting ready for the holidays.  This year, I aimed to have fun instead of stress out.  Here is our Christmas tree.  Most of the decor on the lower part of the tree because that is where the kids can reach.  I decided this year not to re do it.  It look every once of self control not to "fix" the tree, but the kids enjoyed it. 

Here are my bigs "helping me" with the Christmas candies.  No one really cares if these things are ugly.  That is a good thing because the almost all are.  I hope we don't have a cold that we are transmitting with these yummy treats.  

Matt has told me more than once to "just calm down" but it is easier said than done.  I will use this pictures to remind myself again when I start losing it when the dishwasher is loaded wrong. 

Cecilia can walk now

1.       Look who is walking!

Darn C, could you get any cuter?  No, no you could not.  Wait, then you stood up and walked!!!  You got cuter!

Yes, I know that I have seen three other children stand up and tottle around on their fat Perryman legs.  Without fail, I cheer, clap and celebrate those first baby steps like it is a baby miracle.  I tell everyone at work who will listen. I take pictures. 

Each time it is so cool to be the one that those babies are reaching out to and walking towards.  Soon, too soon they are running away from me.  C, don’t walk  away too fast. 

Selfies

1.       Whenever I pick up my phone, I am not surprised to find multiple selfies on my phone.  

Abby and Harper and Will love to take pictures of each other with my phone.  The pictures are usually blurry and I have to scroll through them until I find one that is not of the tv, the couch or a favorite toy.

My favorite pictures that I find are the selfies.   Check out the great faces! 

Harper age 4

Happy Harper!

Abby, age 6

Abby's favorite

Why do they like taking selfies?  I know why.  It is plain fun.  As I scrolled through my phone looking at the pictures that the kids took, I found multiple selfies of me!   My excuse?  Mainly these are pictures of my kids right?

Right…..

A car trip recorded

1. We had a wonderful thanksgiving in Charlotte!  We got to travel for the first Thanksgiving in year thanks to Matt’s new job that allows him time off around the holidays.  We packed up the kids and all the things we needed to make it through a weekend away from the house and hit the road.   We went to my mom’s house in Charlotte and had an awesome time with my family.  We did the traditional thanksgiving activities of eating and shopping.  It was just what I wanted.  How many pictures did we take?  I took…one. 

And it wasn’t even at Thanksgiving!  It was in the car on the way there.  So this post will not be about Thanks giving.  It will be about the car trip.  The ONE picture is all of the kids sleeping in the car.  I call it a Thanksgiving miracle.

To compliment the one picture, Will took a sound recording.  Don’t look at the picture, it will make you batty, but listen to the words.  Can you hear the edge in my voice?  Yea, I am out of all patience (kind of ironic sense I am lecturing about it at the beginning).  I am sure I was talking to Abby. 

That’s why that picture was a miracle.  Because God knew I needed quiet.  

A bad thing with my credit card and DSW

It started when Matt was out of town for 10 straight days.  Yes, that is correct.  He decided to LEAVE me with all these crazy kids for 10 days.  

Okay, it really wasn’t all bad.  We ate a lot of easy meals and the kids are really good.  I also have a great sitter for the kids, great friends to keep me sane and a great football coach who would pick up and deliver my child home to me. 

Also, I bought boots.

My only message to Matt was a text that said: I did a bad thing with the credit card and DSW and I needed it. 

Worth it. 

Sisters

I have great aspirations for my girls to be great sisters.  Yes, they are related, but being sisters can be so much more...a friend, a secret keeper, a person who knows when you need help and when you need a kick in the butt.  Right now I am seeing mostly butt kicking.  And screaming.  I know that I have at least 10 years before they appreciate the sisters in their lives, but until then, I can appreciate these budding relationships for them. 

Before and after I took this picture, they were fighting over the ipad, clobbering C with their overly excited hugs and running around the sports practice like crazy people.  But for this one moment during this one picture, I can dream about these little girls calling each other on the phone, sharing their grown up lives and discussing their life plans.  I am sure they won’t ever complain about their crazy mom or the hard times they had growing up.

A how to guide to keep your sanity in a crazy mixed up world

From time to time, people look at me and shake their head when I tell them I have four kids.  Their head shake is a mix of pity and concern.  I don't mind, I kind of look forward to it.  I like it the best when one of my kids is screaming.  Sometimes it is followed up with the ever present "how do you do it" question.

I now have photographic evidence of how I do it.  Let me draw your attention to a few things.  This will help you, I am sure.

1. There is a small child hanging from my leg.
2. There is smaller child sitting on the floor staring at me.
3. This is not my house.  This is my good friend's house.  She is feeding me dinner.  She also feeding my children. Find friends. (this is an essential step)
4. The blurry child to my left is not mine, but she does entertain my children. (really this should be step 3b)
5. There is wine.  This helps (forget all steps except this one and number 3).
6. The most important thing to note is that it is fun.  The fun is what makes me dance.  Yes, this is my dance move.  It shows that this is actually fun for me.  My life is loud and sometimes overwhelming, but it is fun.

My Little Football Star

I know Will is amazing.  No one has to tell me.  I on the other hand, I have to tell EVERYONE.  He came home from his end of season football party with not one, but TWO trophies.  Yes, one was for participation, however the main was for being the team Sleeping Giant.  My boy!! The sleeping giant who awoke and played amazing football.  I could not have been more proud.

Halloween 2013

Every Halloween has similar themes that tie them together.  The kids have had their outfits picked out for weeks.  We are racing home from work to get everyone ready in time.  No one eats a healthy dinner.  My diet is gone.  Darn these are cute kids! 

This year kept the same themes as last year and the year before.  Every year is more and more fun because the kids are able to get into the fun.  For the most part, everyone understands how Halloween works and loves it.  C hung out in the wagon next to the adult beverages. Next year, she will be chasing after all the bigs as they run from house to house, looking back only to make sure Matt and I are not too far away.  

Kids, keep looking back.  We will be here, not too far away. 

Abby's acting class

Abby's class

This fall, Abby elected to take an intro to acting class instead of signing up for an organized sport (soccer was kind of um...a struggle...last season).  So here she is doing her thing in her class.  We got to attend their end of class share event where they sang and danced to ABBA's dancing queen.  If I ever figure out how to transfer video from my phone to my blog, I will add it here because you won't believe how awesome Abby is.  Even better, the next time you see Abby ask her to do some acting for you.  She is never shy and happy to take requests.

Oh Abby, your amazing confidence is awesome.  Don't ever loose it.

Front and Center, Ready to Act!

A Perryman Movie

Will had a hard night the other night.  It was late, he had to go to practice and he was tired from the day.  He sulked for almost an hour.  He finally got out of his funk and I took this little video.

Even when he is grumpy, he is always sweet to C.  He is a great big brother.

Harper’s version of musical chairs

I get tired and go to bed at a reasonable hour on weeknights.  When I head up to bed, I start my normal look for Harper.  I put her to bed in her room, but there is really no telling where I will find her.

 

Tonight Harper is sleeping in the office

This night was Will's room

My bed was her sleeping location of choice

This was in my room on the floor. 

Harper, my funny 4 year old.  Ah, isn’t that sweet.  It is actually pretty common to find Harper in random locations throughout my house bedded down.  All she really needs is a towel and a flat service.

Harper, what does this say about you?  You are flexible?  You like to try new things?  You like to mix things up?  I am not sure, but I am interested to see if this continues.

I love the fair

1.      The Fair!

I love the fair.  And so do my kids.  It is always lots of people, huge amounts of food and lots of rides.  Matt lets me get the unlimited ride wrist band so I can ride all the rides with the kids. I say it is for the kids, but it is really for me too. 

I realized this year that there are no nutritional foods at the fair, so I should stop trying to find things that “aren’t” that bad.  It is a lesson is letting go.  We all just ate fried Oreos, elephant ears and pizza for lunch.  Do you have to eat your pizza first at the fair?  No, it is not ACTUALLY better for you than the rest of the stuff we ate. 

Look at how happy all these faces are.