I am not really sure where to start with this one…. there are sooooo many things wrong with this picture!

1. I actually PAID money, yes PAID money for my kids to play in snow. $3 for 15min as a matter of fact.

2. The first bullet point on the sign says, “Don’t throw snowballs”. The third one says, “Do not aim above the head” Sooooo, which one is it? Huh?!

3. I was born in Iowa, grew up in Colorado and went to college in Idaho, and just PAID for my  children to play in snow!!

I am not even sure what to say….

Photo of the cutest red head by the best Photographer in the world.. Maureen Light!

My sweet little red head just walked up to me and asked,

“Have you ever been married?”

“Yes, honey I have!” I laughed.

“Who did you marry?” She asked.

“Your Dad silly!”

“MOM! You can’t marry someone in your family!” She yelled at me.

Hmmm, I never thought about it that way… 🙂

I did NOT take this picture, although it IS my truck.

This afternoon I went up to the mall to use my Bath and Body coupons! The kids wanted to all go so we piled in and headed up to the mall. Now, my mall I would say is pretty large. The parking lot was VERY full. It took a long time to find a spot.

As I drove up and down the aisles, the kids would yell when they would see an open spot. By the time I got around to it, it was always gone. Finally, I came up on a car backing out and went to back up a few feet to let them out. The woman in the car behind me pulled right up on my bumper and refused to back up a little so I could let the car out! She made it clear by her hand motions that she had no intention of moving AT ALL. Fine. Be that way.

I pulled forward and the car backed out and she pulled in my spot…

Sooooo I kept looking for another spot. The natives were getting restless in the truck. I came across another spot FINALLY, it looked a little narrow and so I swung way around to pull in, but the car in the spot next to it was parked on and over the line so I had really no room!

I ended up only being able to get in the spot if I parked on the curb. My kids were horrified! I assured them I was not going to get arrested and as I was starting to loose my patience I just ignored their worried glances.

We were in the mall for an hour when I get this text message from my sister with the picture above attached:

“Never bring up my handicap parkin’ job again… Curb Lady!”

Seriously, what are the chances someone I know recognizes my truck and calls me out on my bad parking job?!

Too funny, I had to laugh!

One of my sweet girls had a birthday this week!

I love this kid. She is so tremendously talented. Take a good luck because you are going to see her on T.V. someday with her own show. When she was 3, I was preparing for my sisters wedding, I sat her in front of a Disney movie with a roll of ribbon and a pair of scissors. Two hours later she had cut me 325 pieces of ribbon 4 1/2 inches long EXACTLY. With out wasting any. It was pretty impressive.

Its hard being a middle kid, and she does a great job. Gosh I love her! Happy Birthday!

Thanks to Peg B. for making my entire day better!

I have MOUNTAINS of laundry to do. HUGE day at work tomorrow. My house is TRASHED. Etc. Etc. Etc.

But for 1 hour tonight I plan on sitting on the couch and watching T.V. Two of favorite things in life will be colliding together at the same time! The Pioneer Woman will be on Throw Down with Bobby Flay!

See for those of you with a life, this is not that exciting for you. For me, who has no life, this is like the Superbowl!

It all started when I had one of my kids ( I can’t remember who, that happens to me!) and I was up all night nursing a baby and got hooked on Throw Down with Bobby Flay. It is a fun show, and I love to cook! Then I was nominated for a blogging award and I looked to see who the other 8 bloggers were… Oh and one was this little site called THE PIONEER WOMAN!

I got hooked reading her recipes. Then she put out a cookbook and came to Houston. We HAD to go see her! Thats my cookbook above! (Hint… they make GREAT Christmas Presents! )

This is my sister getting photographed by Pioneer Woman, Anna had drawn here a picture of PW husband. It was AWESOME!

And this picture is of my friend Suzanne who hates to have her picture taken and is going to kill me! Hi Suzanne! 🙂

Anyway, tonight on The Food Network, Bobby Flay is challenging The Pioneer Woman to a throw down. O.K. Really, just typing that out and reading it sounds like the dumbest thing ever… I really am that nerdy!

Am I alone in my excitement? Anyone? Someone help me, tell me I am not crazy!

You can read my post about the book signing HERE.

You have 1 1/2 reasons to buy the December issue of Redbook…

The first reason is that you will find this $5 gift card to any Hallmark store. The reason this is cool is because you only have to spend $5 to get $5 off! Making for some free things at Hallmark!

The 1/2 reason to buy, or steal from your Dr. office or snag from your neighbor’s mailbox is that you might recognize THIS cute little ( I mean “gigantic”) family! Yep, that would be us…

How fun is that?

Unfortunately, they did not give photo credit to my very favorite photographer in the world, Maureen Light! If you are in the Houston area and need any pictures done for ANYTHING she is your girl! Maureen even took birth pictures for me at one of my kids births and didn’t freak out, so I love her even more!

With 45min until my daughters softball game I thought it would be a good idea to run up to the mall and take advantage of the 40% off deal at The GAP. I needed some new jeans and only had my 4 little kids with me so I figured it was as good a time as any.

Apparently everyone else though it was a good time to go to the mall because I parked somewhere close to Dallas and hiked it in. The employees at my GAP clearly hate children, and people who bring children in their store, especially people with strollers and 4 children. The store is small and the displays close together, so maneuvering is tricky anyway. After trying on a few pairs of jeans in a dressing room with 4 kids, my patience was thin as it was. The baby was crying and the 2 year old needed a nap. I went to take the lid off the bottle and didn’t notice that it had completely leaked out and filled the lid with milk. As soon as I popped the lid off the bottle exploded milk all over the wood floor in the middle of the GAP.

Awesome.

I told the 6 year old to watch the baby, 2 year old and 4 year old. I grabbed the first employee I could find ( a Kourtney Kardashian look alike) and asked for some paper towels and pointed to the milk in a huge puddle on the floor.

Disgusted she told me, “we don’t keep paper towels here.”

I explained I really wanted to clean it up so no one slipped and asked if she had anything at all.

“I’ll go next door and see if I can find anything.” she complained.

The Kourtney look alike comes back and holding her nose tosses me the paper towels. I quickly clean up the mess and then start looking for a trash can. None in sight. So I find Kourtney again at the register and ask for the garbage. Refusing to make eye contact she motions over behind her around the counter. I walk around the counter and start to reach for the garbage can under the desk.

At the same time, Kourtney reaches for it also. I am thinking that she is just putting her hand on it not pulling it out, so I misjudge the distance needed to throw the paper towels in as she is pulling the trash can out…

I actually with the back of my hand SMACK HER ACROSS THE FACE!

HARD.

Oh. My. Gosh. As obnoxious as she was I felt HORRIBLE. I apologize profusely and she hates me even more. I quickly check out and drag my pathetic self and screaming children out of the store.

I think I am sticking to shopping at Target for a while. At least until the Kourtney look alike finds another job as I probably just ruined her modeling career with a fat nose!

People assume that with this many children, forgetting a child somewhere happens. It DOESN”T. We never have.

When I go places I am constantly counting and recounting the entire time in my head. I have a little system that I have worked out as far as how I keep them together, it also depends on the kids and their personalities. Some kids do good holding hands, some can be carried and some in crowded places HAVE to be buckled into a stroller. I am sure some you have some of THOSE kind of kids!

If are going to a very large and crowded place, such as the Zoo, rodeo, or concert type of thing I try and dress the kids in the same color, that way it is easier for me to spot them. My kids have always been very good at staying with us, they are not the kind that run off.  I have a child that is a little bit if a wanderer, also just easily distracted, but she is really slow so even when she was little she never got far 🙂

I drive my husband and myself crazy with my “safety” talks I give the kids.

“Now kids, if you get lost, this is where we will meet.”

“You will hold hands with you, and YOU will sit HERE, STAY TOGETHER!”

Last night we went to a Trunk or Treat at our church, this is where you decorate the “trunk” of your car and the kids walk through the parking lot getting candy. The weather was gorgeous, we were having a great time. It was time to go and we were some of the last there, the kids were all piling in the car. The oldest had already left and gone to a party…

This is another story!! My oldest went to a party at a girls house!! When did I get this old!!

I did a quick glance into the back and asked if everyone was there? Duh, everyone who WAS answered! I felt like something was wrong and looked again and asked if the 4 year old was there? She was so we left. Something just did not feel right, so about 6 blocks away I asked again, trying to look in the dark. My oldest wasn’t there so the kids were sitting in different spots than usual so I thought that was throwing me off. I still didn’t feel right so I started calling off names. My husband could tell I was getting a little worked up and turned off the radio, I called the 2 year olds name. He didn’t answer, I started yelling at the kids, “Where is ___!!!”

Before they could answer, my husband swerved into the ditch on the side of the road and started to do a U-Turn! We had friends following us home, they pulled up along side of us and asked what happened. My husband started to tell them we were missing the 2 year old when all the kids at once were trying to yell at us that he was in the friends car!!

Apparently, our friends had grabbed him, told our kids that they had him, assumed we saw they had him and took off after us. My kids were so involved in their candy they really weren’t paying attention to me when I was asking.

Thats it, my BIG story. But let me tell you, I have never been so sick to my stomach. I don’t ever want to feel that way again, it was horrible. The thing is that I knew something was wrong. It was the “women’s intuition” or Mom thing that just kept telling me to keep checking, I should have just done it in the parking lot before we left!

Have you ever left a kid before, or been left when you were little?

Look what I got in the mail Friday! My Drugstore.com order from earlier in the week! It was here really fast! My UPS guy is my best friend, he shakes his head and asks what I got every time he is at my door. I tell him aside from the flower delivery guy he has the best job!

This was a good excuse for me to try the Seventh Generation items, I have wanted to but needed a good deal to do it. ** On a side note because it is Saturday and I have been up since 5:30am… When I first posted this deal, my BIL texted my husband and asked if he knew that his wife (me) was posting deals about sex toys? The sex toy in mention was the Durex thing they were offering as a free sample with the Drugstore deal. My husband, concerned that I might offend someone asked me what I had posted? I laughed and showed him and we agreed it should not be offensive, but I was worried all day about my brother in law and worried that now I might have offended someone and that I didn’t have a family friendly site. I called my sister and asked her if my BIL was offended or anything? She had no idea what I was taking about so I dropped it.

Fast-forward to Thursday, my sister walks into my office at work and reminds me about the “sex toy” incident. Apparently, my BIL was worried that I had no idea what I had posted and that I didn’t know what it was…. My sister reminded him that we have 7 children and that I probably was aware. Really? I have nothing to say to that.

Moving on….

Have you ever noticed that sometimes people start to look like their pets?

How about little boy’s and their dogs?

They even have the same personalities~