Introducing... My Much Cooler Friends!

I need to start off this post by saying that I am very content. (just put aside the Extreme Home Jealousy Issue of 2011) I have my little family in my little house with my nice family all around me. I go to my nice church and my nice job. I have very minimal drama. Now with that being said....I also have minimal excitement, minimal adventure and minimal, as stated before, minimal drama (a little drama can be a good thing). Thanks to Facebook and Myspace I can now live vicariously through my much cooler friends who are living much more exciting lives than me! I am going to introduce you to a few (just because I think it makes me seem so much cooler that I know these people)

First of all let me bring you back to my senior year in high school...there was this kid, who was younger than I was...called himself Patooty for some reason. Always hyper...always talking. He was that annoying kid that was endearing and you couldn't help but like him. Well Patooty grew up and found a passion in helping orphans. His website tells the story much more beautifully than I could AND they sell some gorgeous jewelry that helps orphans like this...

Go check it out! You will feel inspired and see some awesome jewelry to boot. (and don't you think I am so much cooler by knowing a person who is passionate about orphans and making the world a better place? It's like my own Brad and Angelina)

I also have a super cool friend who loves me even though I am not super cool like her! Jil has a Production Company (Bella Vita Creative Inc, even the name is cool) on 32nd street between Madison Ave and 5th Ave. (I am a much cooler person just knowing where that is) I love looking at her website and seeing the words executive producer by her name! I also like to watch the videos and try to spot the things that I have seen on TV. Go check it out because it is very cool...just like her (and me). Here is a picture of the flowers she sent me for my birthday...

Now compare that picture of my office to a picture of her office...

Can you spot the difference?

And speaking of Jil...even though I am not technically "friends" with this guy anymore (we will always have myspace) and I don't really know how I feel about the whole invasion of privacy issues and etc of his chosen livelihood at this point...Brett will always be the only marine with highlights I will ever know. I will never forget hanging out with Jil and heading over to Hilton Head and leaving him $100.00 tip. Good times, Good times. And lets face it...this has got to be my seven degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon so I cannot count it out on my living vicariously list...

I mean come on...look at the size of that lens! Brett if ya ever read this- don't speed down I95. You never know who is going to pull you over! LOL! If anybody else reading this (and why you are at this point is beyond me) wants details just ask. I'll tell you!



I also have this friend named Chris, who I knew would have a much cooler life than me even when we were in high school. Check out what he and his friends did in HIGH SCHOOL...http://www.tremann.com/21cow/ Excuse me did I even know what the internet was in high school? Um no. I knew what the paint program was. Anyway my friend Chris does something or other with some kind of agency and he gets to travel all over the world and live all over the world (and by the way I have been out of the country exactly one time and that was for an hour and I went to Canada to eat a hot dog, french fries and cheese curds) and do things like snorkel and go in hot air balloons and go to the Olympics and presidential inaugurations. He speaks about 182 (or 12) languages, including Mandarin and takes pictures like this just any old day of the week...

So all in all I feel pretty unworldly compared to him. What can I say...those cheese curds made me a world traveler. I truly live vicariously through this guy.

Now I have TONS of other cool friends. I could post all day about them cause I love love love them all but who really wants to read a post that long? I will do a second edition cool friends list soon.

I would love to hear all about your super cool friends too! (or your seven degree separation from Kevin Bacon)

 

The Sock...I Mean Birthday Party!

Is has been a whirlwind of Birthday parties around here! And I tell you what Gabey Baby has been loving his birthday week! Yes a whole week. Aunt Anne and Baby D were going to be out of town for the actual big day but since Aunt Anne is my own personal baker we celebrated the birth of the youngest Squires a week early. And please check out this cute cake!

 

 And how about this motley crew...

 Well after a week the real birthday rolled around and we felt we need to acknowledge that so...we had another party.

And if we could just talk for a minute about his birthday baboom balloon. He felt he needed to bring it to school with him the next day.

The whole affair took on a new meaning when Amy said "Hey do you have any of Jake's socks because we are really low".  To which I replied..."You are welcome to have any socks you want if you will match my socks for me." AND being my dear sister she replied sweetly..."Of course". And then I brought out the big guns...

Yes people! That is THREE laundry baskets full of socks! Black ones and blue ones! Small ones and Charles ones (meaning large)! Don't you all wish you had a sister like mine?

This is the story of how we celebrated my sweet baby's 2nd birthday...twice. Now if I can bother you to watch this same sweet baby near the time when he was actually born. We worship an AWESOME God!

A Letter To Myself

Dear Self,
  
      You may not know this but you are slacking off. Friends are telling you that you are slacking off, strangers are telling you that you are slacking off, and now you are going to let you know you are slacking off. Most people are meaning this blog...you have just not been doing a very good job at keeping up a day to day post. Yes I KNOW that nothing has been going on to blog about. I KNOW that the children have not said any off the wall things. I KNOW that you can only post about the laundry so many times before the topic just becomes mundane. Where is your creativity? Where is your vision? Where is your UMPH? You are better than this. Do you have a block? Are you bored with blogging? Have you lost your UMPH? Well pick yourself up! Dust yourself off. Get on with it!
     Now the Blog is one thing but we need to have a serious chat about some other areas where some slacking MAY be taking place. Could be the Kindle or maybe the Crackberry Blackberry but you need to get a grip. There is going to be a list...a list of observations made over this past year that you may want to pay a little more attention to in 2011.

1. You need to make cleaning under the stove more than a Bi-Annual event. It really would, in the long run, make your life much easier. 
2. On that same note...when you clean under the stove-go ahead and pull out the fridge and clean under that as well. You are already dirty. You are already grossed out. It's ok.
3. When you get the laundry completely done (THIS WEEKEND-no stress) do a load a night so it never gets that bad again. 
4. Invent disposable clothes.
5. When your son brings home a list of all the projects he will have to do in a school year, along with due dates and ideas-how about keep that list. Put it on the fridge. Use a highlighter. Get a calendar. Something! Anything to keep you from doing projects the night before they are due. 
6. Learn a little more in depth sign language. Your son is a teenager now. You may need some bigger words.
7. Get up a few minutes earlier if you are going to take your Kindle in the bathtub with you. You run late when you try to finish "just one more chapter".
8. Your car does not need to turn into a fast-food restaurant every night before going home. 
9. Every night your car does not turn into a fast food restaurant does not have to be FFY when you get home. (FFY-Fin For Yourself...my poor children and husband)
10. Make your children finish all of their antibiotics. You are the boss-not them. There is a reason they tell you how much to take and yes one less dose may hurt them.
11. If you want your husband to not complain when he gets home...make sure the car is cleaned out and the floor is vacuumed. That is really all he cares about. The children can do it...you just have to make sure it is done. 
12. Stop being jealous of all the stuff that the very nice extreme home makeover family got. You had no chance of winning since you didn't enter.

Twelve seems like a nice number to stop on. Rachel....get it together. Glee will be starting. Your Gabey Baby is turning Two. Wil is going to the Leggo and Robotics competition. Noah is 13. Your blog is lacking. Time to step up to the plate. Grab the bull by the horns. Go for the gusto. (insert more corny phrases here) People are counting on you for mindless entertainment.

Love,

Me

If Nothing Else Facebook Is Good For...

...your self esteem! It was my birthday this week and I got so many Happy Birthdays! Probably more than I have in my whole 30 some odd years of living! I am so thankful for all of my friends and all of the well wishes. I loved the article that said children born in 2011 will never know about long lost friends! What a cool concept!

I have been busy spinning wheels this week. I don't feel like I have accomplished anything. Charles would tell you that I accomplished keeping my nose in my book Kindle and paying no attention to my family.

My name in Rachel and I am a Kindleholic.

It is an exciting week in my hometown. Extreme Makeover Home Edition is filming and boy oh boy are the cynics out! The local blogs are having a field day! "Oh ABC could have found a needier family" "It is a military family...they could live on base" "These people don't have cancer or anything?". I think we have become hard to the plights of others. We think only people who are in death beds deserve to have wonderful things happen to them. Well here is how I feel about the situation (because I know you are dying to know just how I feel)...

I am jealous and I wish I had sent in a dern tape.

Oh yeah....and I am really happy for the family.

With all of the birthday wishes and MLK day coming up I thought I would share a few of my wishes and dreams...

(it's a random post sorry)

I have a dream-
                         that one day I will live in a house with solid doors (not these fiber fill cruddy doors that just kinda bounce around when you slam them. They are really bad for my dramatic effects) a fireplace and a few stairs.

I have a dream-
                        that there will come a day when I can go to my freezer and my brain will not automatically make my hand grab three double stuff oreos.

I have a dream-
                        that one day I will be able to leave my children in a room by themselves and not have to worry about which one will be bleeding when I return.

Oh a girl can dream!
I will leave you with a a picture of a cutie.

If you can't tell what the heck that is...it is a three pacis. AND please note the pink one in the front. It is now his favorite!

Happy Long Weekend! (I will be doing laundry if you couldn't guess)

                     

Feels Like HOME!

I am a lucky girl. I live in the town I grew up in. The town my father grew up in. The town my grandmother was born in. I have my family here. My sister and my brother, my mother and mother-in-law, my grandmother, my nephews (and please notice that I did not say nieces and nephews because as you know THERE ARE NO GIRLS), my aunts and uncles and loads of cousins surround me. Not everyone can say this. I can still go to my mother's house and sit in my old bedroom. I can drive by my elementary school. I can eat at the same Burger King where I had my 10th birthday party. When I think back on my life and my town, there is one place that stands out above all others as home.

 

Is it just the building? Is it just the people? Is it just the memories?

It is where I was spoiled...

And where I became famous....

It is how I traveled....

And where I traveled to...

It is how my family took our family vacations...

 

And where I went to camp...

It is where I went to Sunday School...

 And where I worshiped...

 

Where I made life-long friendships...

It is where I got married...

 

And where we became a family...

It is where we dedicated our children...

 

And where they now play...

 It is where we were baptized...

And where I learned to be a leader...

It is where I have a minister who has walked in my shoes and knows how I feel....

 

 

It is where I feel safe...

 

 

 

It  is like a beacon in the night...

 

 

It is...home.

The Good News and The Bad News

2011.

Can you believe it? Noah was watching the Discovery channel the other day and I sat down to watch it with him and what he was watching made me want to get out the Oil of Olay and hit the 4:30 early bird dinner buffet up at the Holiday Inn. He was tuning in to learn all about "Technology of the 1990's". Now I know I am getting older. Two of my children never even saw "The 1900's" as Wil calls it. (Example- "Mom! Look! There are two Corvettes! One is a 2008 and the other one is from the 1900's" It was a '98.) But I tell you this show made me feel OLD! It had everything from the first digital camera to the first shoot 'em up video games to the Global Positioning System and everything in between. Did I know I was that old? Did I know my children have never experienced the world without these things? Did I know that a DVD worked differently than a video tape? (Yes I think I did on that last one) During that one show I came to the conclusion that although it is nice to look back I wouldn't want to go back. I also came up with this...Good News! The world is changing and technology is making life easier and easier! Bad News! I am getting old!

So here goes my Good News/Bad News list for 2011!

Good News! It's a new year...a clean slate!
Bad News! Started the new year with a broken pipe and no water (so even if the slate was dirty I couldn't have washed it) and a little PMS mixed in for good measure!

Bad News! Broken pipe leaked all into the living room.
Good News! Water logged living room made me get off my butt and take down the Christmas tree.

Good News! Christmas is over and we managed to buy gifts without racking up huge credit card bills!
Bad News! Christmas is over and we are now broke with 5 birthdays in our immediate family in the next three weeks (not to mention 4 cousins).

Bad News! Noah's good friend moved back to Mexico on Christmas Eve.
Good News! Haven't gotten that far yet. Maybe that we know somebody in Mexico now?

Good News! School is in session and we have made it on time for three days in a row!
Bad News! Almost 100 more to go!

Would love to hear some of your news- good or bad! Happy 2011!

Rachel's Christmas Top Ten List

My oh my! I can't believe I am just now posting about Christmas. It is almost New Years! I am behind this year...Maybe I can catch up in 2011 even if it's not a leap year. I decided to do a Top Ten List because if I tried to post about Christmas as a regular post it would be a million words long and who really wants to read that much about me? So here it goes... (and please imagine this in my best Dave Letterman impression)



      Number Ten: Going for a once a year doctor's appointment the day before Christmas Eve. (The OBGYN is always a much more pleasant experience when the office is decorated for a holiday. Just takes your mind right off the fact that you must get naked in front of people you really don't know all that well)


     Number Nine: Saving ALL Christmas shopping for the 23rd. The mall is such a wonderful, festive place to be that close to Christmas. Also to make it an even nicer experience, drag children that you are having to shop for with you. Things like this are bound to happen...



     Number Eight:  Having a sister who will stay up until 2:00 in the morning to wrap all of your presents.

     Number Seven: Putting up a tree the week of Christmas. That way when I leave it up through Epiphany I can honestly say...It's only been up for like three weeks. Who cares if it has turned brown and could possibly burn down my house?

     Number Six: Not having to teach Sunday School the day after Christmas. I love my Sunday School Kids and I love my co teacher BUT what a nice break!

     Number Five: An Awesome Christmas message. Speaking of the Sunday after Christmas...if you could have been in our joint worship service to witness the MOST awesome program. Our pastor did a pantomime (excuse me if that is not the right term) about Santa Claus giving his heart to Jesus and I can't even begin to tell you about it because my words would just NOT do it justice and I am rambling because I am still giddy just thinking about it! I give it a big two thumbs up!

     Number Four: Dinner on Christmas Eve at Chez Trezevant (AKA Anne and Daniel's) YUMMY. Enough said!

     Number Three: Our Children's 4:30 Christmas Eve Service. Let me just say.... The Arts With Patsy and Rachel was a huge success! It was a wonderful service with wonderful kids and wonderful parents and wonderful camels and I think it goes without saying wonderful teachers!

     Number Two: Watching my kids on Christmas morning. Gabe Baby's favorite part? Playing Santa. That boy loves to give out presents!

     Number One (number one-I have two Number Ones. Sue me): Taking all FIVE Squires' boys to see Nana in Newberry. I got so many "Look...that poor women has FIVE boys" looks on this trip that I quit telling people they weren't all mine and just enjoyed the sympathy.

     Number One (number two): Having the Squires boys get to see their 2 Grandmothers and their 2 Great Grandmothers and their aunts and their uncles and their cousins and their 2nd cousins and their ninth cousins once removed. We are so lucky and blessed!

Please note these photos are taken at Amy's with the stockings nicely hung and a fire crackling in the fireplace and a cocker spaniel curled up on the rug. Too bad that picture is crooked in the background.

We almost got all of the boys looking the same direction with GG! 

That sweet girl is Charles' cousin's little girl Aryn and her big brother Alex. It was so good to see them when we went to see Nana (Charles' grandmother) 

 I love this picture! Grannie Annie and her boys!

From my family to yours...Merry Christmas (a week late)

So Much To Post...So Little Time!

I need to sit down and post about...well everything-shopping the day before Christmas Eve, getting lights on the tree (finally), doing laundry, THE Christmas Eve service but I got a Kindle for Christmas and I have been spending too much time doing that (in between the laundry). I will get to a juicy post soon but for now I will leave you a sneak peek at THE Christmas Eve service with the star Rostan!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMP8pnD7LYk

She is so AWESOME... just like her momma! Much love Susanne!

Does This Count?

We have a tree.
It is in the house.
We are moving in the right direction.
Laundry is still not done.

Good night.

P.S. I know that there are no lights. Or ornaments. Or garland. Or a cocker spaniel curled up on a braided rug in front of a roaring fire. At least there is no antelope trying to eat it.

Lessons in "Little" Little Boys

A few months ago I gave you my Lessons in Little Boys, which I am sure you all found so very enlightening. It seems that in having children so far apart there are things that I have forgotten. Important things. AND I spent today relearning lessons in "little" little boys. And because I AM a giver by nature, I am going to share them!

• When cleaning the house, make sure you put the blue crayons WAY up on a shelf...or else...



I have found blue crayon on the dishwasher, the refrigerator, the wall and the floor. Actually I didn't really find them...Gabe grabbed my hand an said "Color color color" and showed off his version of impressionism. I myself have always been partial to Romanticism on canvas. Just Sayin.

• Speaking of cleaning the house...please make sure you either put the Oreo's WAY up on the shelf or move the stool... or else...



Oh a boy after my own heart!

• If you choose to give an (almost) two year old boy leggos make sure they are the big ones...because when an (almost) two year boy old dumps out those little tiny leggos it really hurts when you step on them.
• If you give the box of baby wipes to your "little" little boy to let him clean a mess...do not expect there to be any wipes left the next time you need to change a yucky diaper or wipe a runny nose!
• If you let your precious little baby boy play with your cell phone please expect them to place a call on said cell phone at a very inconvenient time.
• Just like little boys, "little" little boys will play in the rain if you let them. Remember if you don't say NO! it means YES!



You are more than welcome to comment on how precious this is. I love how he is full on running!

• If you allow your child to know what a Coca-Cola tastes like then that child will want some of your Coca-Cola every single time you have one. Join the war on drugs coke and Just Say No!
• If you take your "little" little boy to Walmart you must keep him entertained! He is not like a little boy who can help you unload the cart or carry the groceries into the house. No, he is a ball full of Walmart fit throwing potential that must be handled with extreme caution.  

• Count every minute you have with your "little" little boy because this...

turns into this...

and then turns into this...

I do hope this list comes in handy!

Now for an update...
      We still do not have a Christmas tree. That's all I have to say about that.

Lastly- please say a prayer for my Noah. He is having a very difficult time right now. He is so insecure and is having just an awful time dealing with fears and what I can only call "quirks". Thirteen is a tough age and middle school stinks so add some difficulties on top of it and you can start to imagine what we are dealing with. Please pray specifically for him to realize how much we love him and that he is not alone.

The Cold Side of the Pillow

     This has been a pretty unpostable week. I am just going to spend this post filling you in on some details that no one really needs to know about but I am going to blog about anyway.  I took two days off last week but still managed to accomplish nothing. The laundry is still piled to the ceiling (no exaggeration there) and not one Christmas decoration has been put up in my house (the outside has successfully become white trash Christmasfied). I am really on the ball this year!
     There has been a huge change (for the not good) in our house in the last month. It involves Gabey Baby, an owl, his crib and a very bad habit! You see my perfect child USED to get sleepy, run to his room get in his crib and fall asleep. Please note the use of the verb in the past tense not the more desired present tense. A while ago, Gabey Baby spent the night at Amy's house (aka May May) and was kept awake by a pesky owl that had parked itself right outside May May's window. With every whowhowho Gabey would break out in a NO NO NO chorus and the entire house was sleepless...that is until May May, out of desperation, got Gabe out of the pack-n-play and put him slap dab in the bed with her. Now Gabey Baby takes after his father in the sense that he likes to snuggle and being in the bed with his favorite people on earth is much more preferable to sleeping in a crib in his own room. The snuggling coupled with the guilt of Charles' "he's your last baby and he is only going to want to snuggle like this for a little while" has caused me to give in and let Gabe sleep in the bed with me. (I know, I know...bad habit, bad choice, shame, shame,shame) Being the perfect child that he is, he usually snuggles down into his pillow and doesn't move for the rest of the night. I, on the other hand flip and flop and turn my pillow to the cold side approximately 5,687 times a night. Needless to say I am not sure how he rests so peacefully with me in the bed. Wednesday night however, my restlessness must have rubbed off on him and he somehow rolled off the bed and hit the dresser...hard. His little nose is so banged up. It is skinned underneath and the blood mixed with a runny nose has made for a weekend of wonder! Nothing like dried blood mixed with dried snot! (TMI I know)
     I went to a lovely Children's Committee Christmas party last night and it was so good to get away! We all laughed and joked how the husbands were home watching the kiddos, giving us all a well deserved break for some adult conversation. Then my friend S's phone alerted that she had a text....at 8:00 pm on a school night mind you. It was from her husband and it said..."pick up some burgers on your way home...the kids are hungry". Yes, he had not fed them dinner AND this was S's fault (according to her hubs) because she had not let it be known that she would not be home in time for dinner and if he had fed them and then she came home to feed them then he would have been wrong to feed them. Make sense? FYI for all you men out there...when in doubt feed your kids. It can't hurt them...unless you feed them raw hamburger or something. Well I chuckled to myself and counted how lucky I was to get away with no complaints from the homefront for my 2.5 hour Christmas party because let it be known that everyone in the Squires' family is a huge complainer (including me). I was feeling pretty pretty good about this....until I got to my car (which I had parked at Lowes so I could ride with a friend) and saw this....

 

Oh, doesn't my husband have a wonderful sense of humor? A little passive aggressive don't you think?  I did not take a picture of the other side which said "abusing help". So, I enjoyed the Christmas party and I bet it is the last one I go to this year!

A Little Holiday Confusion

I was leaving the house this morning and saw what can only be described as slack. I will let you decide...

Now, I know it is time to decorate for Christmas. We have gone over this and we have established that I am dragging my feet. What I did not realize until this morning is that I have been dragging my feet since approximately Valentines Day....which was when I put up that adorable little basket on the front door. And how do you like the welcome spring sign under the light or the nod to the 4th of July that my "little boy" in the pot of weeds is holding. It gets really exciting with the Halloween pumpkin and Thanksgiving turkey. 

I think this calls for an intervention.

What a Difference a Girl Makes

Yesterday my dear friend Shelley let me borrow her three lovely girls for a few hours. She thinks I was doing here a favor but in reality I was totally in it for the thrill of having some pink in my car. And these girls did not disappoint! Within the first few minutes of the ride over to Amy's house we had discussed the ever so important details of an upcoming birthday party (which boys could care less about), the fact that all three had matching boots, even though they did not have them all on (boys would not notice if they had matching boots or shirts or underwear but if they had the same fishing rod...look out) and who was in their class at school and which one of those girls was the most bossy (sometimes I am not sure my boys notice that there are other people in the class since they think the world revolves around them). I decided to make a list of the differences I noticed between the boys and girls last night because not only were the Squires boys there but also our friend's twin boys (just a side note that her name is also Shelley...please note that they are both spelled with an ey on the end) had come over to hang out and watch the Gamecocks. So hang on to your tights or mud boots (depending if you are a boy family or a girl family) because it was a wild and crazy night!

1. When riding in the car, the girls were able to sit right next to each other without a single "She's touching me" or "Can you tell her that I get to ride next to the window next time". When I had only two children I had to buy a car with three rows of seats because the boys could not sit on the same row much less next to each other. You wonder why so many people drive those big cars? I know it's so the kids can be separated.
2. When walking into Amy's house the girls took off their jackets and handed them to an adult to be hung up. When my boys walk into a house there is a trail of clothes that starts at the door, goes to the refrigerator, then straight to the bathroom, then to the tv and then back to the refrigerator. It is just one big long line of dirty socks, jackets, shoes, shirts and believe it or not sometimes underwear, which is odd not in the underwear themselves but in the fact that most of the time the pants are still on the body of whichever boy is stripping at the time. It is a great boy mystery.
3. When Clara took the 10 cent rubber band out of her hair, she asked me to please hold on to it so she would not loose it. When we could not find it later she asked me to look for it and if I found it could I please return it to her.When Noah takes off his $10,000.00 cochlear implant processor, he puts it on the back of a truck and when it gets run over because it fell off the back of that truck, he gets mad at me.
4. When the girls sat down to eat dinner they sat down to eat dinner. They did not get up and down 8 times to get water and a napkin and a bag of chips and another napkin and the Parmesan cheese and another piece of pizza and another napkin and more water.
5. When the girls finished dinner they sat and talked to us. Really talked. They talked about their day. They talked about their family. They talked about each other. It was lovely, like a tea party. The boys in the meantime have eaten standing up in the kitchen and have gone back to watching football.

****Editors note...I forgot to mention that when those sweet Kolb girls played with Gabe's nativity NOT once did cheesus Jesus go flying through the air. The wise men did not arrive by matchbox car and the Shepard's did not have a mixed martial arts extreme fight match.

Now there were a few more differences but the more I list the more it looks like I am a terrible mother so I think I will end it there and get on with the things that I noticed were very similar in the girls and boys.

1. These sweet children all have very good manners. They all pretty much said yes m'am and no sir, please and thank you and excuse me (cause boys and girls both burp a lot...and please do not think that Carter is "just burping because she is hanging around the boys...she is a tomboy and that's what tomboys do"). I love living in the deep south.
2. If there is a queen size mattress in the floor of the living room boys and girls will both jump and roll and wrestle and giggle and scream just for the fun of it.
3. If there is a rope hanging from a tree boys and girls will both want to swing on it. (However just a note, if in that same yard there is a ramp by a little pool of water and it is 52 degrees outside girls will not try to jump it-on foot , or on a bike, or on a scooter...and I can only say thank you for that)
4. A flashlight, a football, a place to run and the dark will keep boys or girls occupied for a good 30 minutes at least.
5. A good fishing hole and good friends can overcome gnats and heartache most of the time for girls or boys!



We had a good time and I can't wait to get my hands on their heads and do some french braiding and bow placing but I didn't want to press my luck.Next time girls...next time. Just wait until I get out the poodle skirt and have a fashion show! Godd times good times!

We went to the Christmas parade today and I took this really cute shot of Gabey Baby. I'm a proud momma so of course I put it on my facebook and I am going to put it here. Feel free to comment how precious he is!

And speaking of parades...whatever happened to floats? Since when does a boat being pulled by a tow truck constitute an entry into a parade? Most of the parade I couldn't tell who was on the trailer being pulled by a truck  float until it had passed. I'm a little bitter with nostalgia when it comes to the floats but I had better keep my mouth shut or next year I'll be asked to make a float and I will throw a couple of hay bales onto a trailer and call it a float and then this rant certainly come back to bite me.

No, NO! We DO NOT throw Baby Jesus!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...well not really but it is only 40 degrees outside today instead of Monday's 80. So at least it feels a little more like Christmas. The Squires are getting into the spirit by trying to clean up the house enough to pull the Christmas decorations down from the attic. The laundry I tell you...the laundry! It is taking over the house. My sister has her entire house decorated already...so beautiful. Candles glowing and lending that Christmas smell to the air. A little tree in every room. Beautiful nativities and the stockings hung. A fire lit in the fireplace (well I am embellishing a tad there because after all Monday it was 80 degrees) and when you walk in you know that Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat.

Now I can already tell how this Christmas is going to go with Gabey Baby being almost two years old. See my mother got him the most precious Little People Nativity set to get him in the holiday spirit and boy oh boy does he love it! He comes in the room and says "Jesus" (which really sounds like cheesus which reminds me of Glee and that my friends is a whole 'nother post all together) and proceeds to throw the pieces of said nativity across the room. Now, that nativity is the only bit of Christmas decorating that I have gotten done up until this point. With the disaster, I mean success of this I am really looking forward to putting up my Christmas tree and decorating it (589,672 times since I am sure that Gabe will find the ornaments irresistible). I may take a hint from my aunt who put her tree in a playpen. Of course this same aunt's children proceeded to open all of the presents under said tree another year. Not hard to believe that these children are kin to the Squires' boys!

Every year since Charles and I have been married we have gotten a tree and put it up the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Last year that went down the tubes and we ended up with a tree the week before Christmas. I hope we do not fall prey to this habit again this year. Amy says it is not fair to my children. I agree (but to be honest is this laundry fair to me...I think not) and I am really going to make an effort to get a move on. So all you wonderful folks who have their tree up and the stockings hung, to the ones of you who have holly strung on your banisters, for all of you who have a fire crackling in the fireplace and a Cocker Spaniel resting in front of the hearth...good for you (and by that I mean BAH HUMBUG!)