Why is it that five-day weeks feel so…long, at least after the holidays when we had multiple 3-4 day weeks in a row.  This is the second full week of work (for Eric, I mean), and it just about kicked my butt!  Yesterday morning, I was sure the week was never going to end!

But, now it’s Friday afternoon.  I am packing us up to head to the farm for the weekend.  Of course, Erin has been pretty needy today (I don’t think she feels good), Megan has been off, and poor Alex has been getting in to stuff because his playmate hasn’t wanted to play with him all morning.  And that has made for a slightly stressful morning for Mommy.  But, as the twins are napping and Megan is falling asleep as we speak, hopefully our afternoon will be much better.

I mentioned before that I’m working on another writing project.  Eric asked me what I wanted to spend my earnings from it on the other day.  Nothing really came to mind.  Then, this morning, my mom mentioned the idea of a new kitchen table/chairs.  And I am suddenly very excited about that thought.  Our current table/chairs are hand-me-downs and don’t actually go together.  And the table is small, there are only 4 chairs, and one of these days, we’ll have to figure out how to fit Megan at the table, too.  So…maybe now is a great time to get a new table.  

Of course, that brings me to the question of what type of table to get.  Any suggestions?  Do you have a dream table?  Do you love/hate the one you have?  What would make the perfect set for your house?  

We are switching cable/internet companies at the beginning of next month.  So I am finally ‘graduating’ to a gmail account.  I have a yahoo account, but it’s totally my junk account.  So for years, I’ve just used my Wowway account as my primary address.  But no more.  So…on to gmail!  (PS – if you have my email address…feel free to update to the new address: shannahhogue@gmail.com)

And now, I must get back to the non-blogging parts of my day.  Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

These are the things I’d probably tell you if I could chat with you in person…

This weekend, Eric’s baking has resulted in chiabatta bread, homemade pizza, the kitchen being cleaned twice in one day (maybe even 3x now that I think of it), and my oven being cleaned up.  I’m liking this hobby more and more all the time!

Karen’s clan and my parents came up last night and helped us eat the pizza Eric made.  It was good food and good times.  The children loved hanging with their grandparents, and we took some pics of McKenna in our little studio.  We took 185 shots (or something like that)…hopefully we got one or two good ones!

Megan’s poop has been green recently.  Maybe it’s the broccoli I’m eating a ton of these days.  Could be that she’s getting too much foremilk (that one came off the internet).  And given that I make a LOT of milk…it probably wouldn’t surprise me that she’s not getting to the back of the milk supply.  Maybe I should switch to one side per feeding and see if her poop changes back to yellow.  And hey, maybe that would eliminate a bunch of the spitting up that she’s doing, too.  Who knows?

I’ve also decided to stop pumping extra.  I have a lovely stockpile in my chest freezer (haha…look, a pun!) in the basement.  And anyway…even if I do feed her a bottle of the stored stuff, I’ll have to pump for that feeding anyway.  So I think I’ll just let my supply drop to only what she’s eating when she’s eating from me.  

I got new glasses and a haircut this weekend.  The glasses are just enough differently sized/shaped that it’s taking a little bit of adjustment.  But they are a bit sturdier, I think, that my previous pair. Maybe they’ll stand up to toddlers a little better than the previous ones.  Oh…and the haircut made me happy.  Time away…a trim to make my hair work with me again…a short head massage while she washed my hair…and I like the results.  Nice!

I took the twins to the mall playplace for the first time ever on Friday.  They LOVED it.  It was a bit busy, and the bigger kids at places like that do not pay attention to the little kids like they should.  But they had a blast.  It was a bit hard to keep an eye on them and an eye on Megan.  I carried her for a bit, but then I didn’t have a hand to help them climb on stuff.  But when I put her down, I worried to leave her in her car seat.  So apparently, I need a third eye, a third hand, or someone to meet me there and help me watch them all.  

I’m in the mood to start yarn crafts again.  I have really wanted to for about 2 months.  But I can’t figure out a) when to do it or b) how to keep yarn and needles out of the hands of my toddlers.  But I really think it’s time to start doing stuff like that again.  

And to end…some cute kid stories:

Two weeks ago, Erin’s affirmative response was “yah.”  Last week it was “yep.”  Recently, it’s morphed into “yeth” or “yesh”.  It sounds distinctly like Leon the Ladies Man…

Erin also gave herself a black eye yesterday.  Fell and donked her cheekbone on a chair in the basement.  She’s my bruiser!

Alex is such a snuggle-buddy.  Especially in the morning while we watch a little TV.  He just piles all his stuffed animals around himself and snuggles up next to me.  Love it!

My MIL got them number, color and alphabet puzzles for Christmas.  Erin does them all the time (and can do them all by herself, too).  Alex surprised me the other day when I realized that he, too, knew all his numbers.  I had no idea!  And in the alphabet puzzle, each of the letters has a picture underneath (F has a fish, for example).  “H” is a house.  Except that “H” has always been for “Holly” – my niece.  So now, when we do the puzzle with Erin…”H” is for “Holly’s House.”

I think that’s about all for now, though…so I hope everyone has a marvelous week!  Happy Sunday!

Ours went off at 5:50 this morning.  

Thankfully, it wasn’t a big deal (some food on a burner smoked a bit when Eric put on the water for his tea), but man is that NOT a good sound to wake up to.

And it turns out the the alarm in Megan’s room is right over her bed.  She FREAKED out when it went off…poor baby.

At least our normal morning routine starts about 6:00, so we weren’t too far off.

But still…I don’t intend to do that again anytime soon!

So I could tell you about my very good weekend (which involved homemade cinnamon rolls and a visit with my parents).  Or I could tell you about the writing project I’m doing.  Or even about my day last week that ranked in my “Ten Worst Mom Days of All Time”…so far anyway.

But it’s late, and I don’t feel like writing any of those stories out tonight.  So instead…here’s some photos from recent weeks.  

1. From our last visit to the farm

This is their favorite toy at Grandma’s house.  It’s a singing Hallmark seasonal thing.  They LOVE it.

At Aunt Lori’s house…gives new meaning to the phrase “getting into the cupboards”

This is what happened when we tried to take a Christmas picture.  

Then we got to play outside.  Daddy pulled them on their “sled” around and around the yard. 

She got a crown for Christmas…

2. Everyday life at home

Reading with Mommy

How she sleeps with all the craziness going on…I have no idea!

Alex in our basement “playroom.”  His new love…hand weights.  Go figure!

Fun random shots

And finally…

3. Megan’s Three-month Pictures

It’s already four days into 2011.  So I guess this is my “Happy New Year” post.  Sorry it’s a little late!

I hope you all had a marvelous holiday and New Year celebration.  Our weekend was pretty much…um…uneventful.  We did not stay up until midnight.  We did not spend New Years with anyone but our little family.  We had no plans or big dinners or parties or anything.  

And it was really relaxing, for the most part.  Eric worked on his new hobby: baking.  He made three kinds of bread and tried making crackers over the weekend.  I guess it’s not a bad thing that he went back to work today…we’d have to start a bakery and sell what he made if he was home much longer!  As for the rest of us, the kids played and generally enjoyed our attention.  I have started on a new writing project and did laundry and caught up some of my chores.  I got to go grocery shopping all by myself on Saturday.  And we enjoyed a more relaxed Sunday morning because our church did a single 10 am service instead of two morning services.  So, overall, it was a really nice weekend.

As for things like resolutions…I don’t really make them.  But I have started my pen-n-paper journal again which I do at bedtime.  I realized how much I missed doing that because it lets me decompress and pour out my day before I go to bed, thus helping me sleep better (usually).  And while it often does overlap with this blog or my FB updates, I think it’s just good to empty my head of all my crap at least once a day.  It makes for a less stressed Shannah…and that is always a good thing. 

I’m also trying to just focus more on the Good News.  My MIL’s pastor made a point the day after Christmas that has really stuck with me.  If I don’t tell people about Jesus…it’s most likely because I’ve stopped seeing Him and the gospel as “GOOD NEWS” – it’s become an agenda, a checklist, an academic exercise.  But it isn’t good news anymore.  So this year, I want to regain the sense of just how good that good news is…for myself…every day.  And then, I’m hoping God uses that to inspire me to be more eager to share that good news with those around me – Christian and not.  So that’s my sense for where the year is starting out.  We’ll see how it goes.  

And, since it’s been been a few days since I blogged, I thought I’d include a “normal life” update as well… 

Megan is really moving forward these days.  She’s added laughing and grabbing to her repertoire recently.  She was actually pulling the loop that makes the music play when she was in her bouncy seat yesterday.  It took me a minute to realize that Erin wasn’t doing it for her!  And we did get her on video laughing.  Maybe I’ll try to post that…since baby laughter is one of the best things in the entire world!

So Alex was up again last night.  I realize that is not necessarily unusual.  But this time…he was laughing and playing and bouncing in his crib like he was waking up from a nap, not awake in the middle of the night.  In fact, when I heard him, I thought it must be like 5 in the morning.  Nope…midnight.  Thankfully, they both laid right back down when I told them to (he’d gotten Erin up by that time), and I covered them with their blankets and went back to bed.  I didn’t hear much else.  But still…it was little weird to be woken up by laughing, not crying!

I got $75 in gift cards for Christmas.  I think I’m going to spend them on clothes.  Now if I can just get to a store sans children…

We went to Home Depot yesterday.  You know…I can remember being dragged to stores like that by my parents when I was a kid and HATING it.  But now…I get surprisingly excited about buying a new garbage can (for taking to the curb) and lightbulbs for our halogen stand lights.  I guess I’ve officially become an adult!

And on one final note…as much as I love having Eric home (and I do), I am very much looking forward to getting back to a normal routine.  So, on that note, I think I’ll get my day started and see where it goes!  Happy Tuesday!

So, we did have a marvelous Christmas, all things considered.

I spent most of last Thursday doing laundry, organizing and packing.  We headed to my Mom’s house that night to spend the night and have our family Christmas on Christmas Eve.  At least…we eventually headed out.  Earlier that morning, I’d come into the kitchen to find the twins playing with my keys, which they had gotten out of my purse on the counter.  (They pulled over chairs to get it, which they aren’t allowed to do.)  Anyway, I took the keys and thought nothing of it.  Until hours later when I went into the garage and realized they had opened one side-door of the van.  Long story short, after we had loaded up all our stuff, all our kids, and ourselves…we realized the battery was dead.  Totally dead.  It took 30 minutes of charging from the Jeep to get it started.  Eric tried a number of different things.  I spent that time pleading with God that it would start so I didn’t have to unload my kids and find them dinner!  Thankfully, it did finally start and we made it to my mom’s without further incident!

Friday was Christmas Eve.  My family was all at my mom’s to celebrate.  It was, um, chaotic…to say the least! With 7 grandkids (8, 5, 2 (almost 3), 2 (barely), 2 (barely), 18 months, 2 months), there was lots of craziness while gifts were opened.  We let the kids go through all of theirs first, and they had a great time pulling off paper and opening boxes.  Then we sent them to play, nap or just hang out in the other room while the adults opened their gifts.  Really, we had a great time laughing and being together.  

After presents, we hung out for the day and had a Christmas dinner together before heading to our respective homes for the night.  We got home in time to put the kids to bed, and then I emptied and repacked our bags before heading to bed.  

Christmas morning, we had our first kid-oriented family Christmas.  It was so much fun to see the twins’ eyes light up when they saw the presents.  And they had a great time opening theirs and handing us ours.  Then was a mad rush to get us all ready and out the door.  But our goal was to be out by 9:00 a.m., and the van clock read 9:01 when we pulled out.  Woohoo!

We headed to the farm for the rest of the Christmas weekend.  We had a Hogue family Christmas first, then an extended Hogue gathering at midday, and another family gathering in the evening.  And the twins did not nap.  Thankfully, they were super-good the entire time.  We had no major meltdowns and they loved the presents at every turn.  And then we all collapsed into bed as soon as we could.

Sadly, the over-tired Alex didn’t sleep well that night…so Mommy and Daddy didn’t sleep well that night either.  And we definitely were starting to see some meltdowns on Sunday.  So naps were a huge priority.  And for the most part, they did really well even on Sunday.  

Sunday did have a few other little quirks.  The twins took my glasses off the dresser and I couldn’t find them.  We ended up having to leave for church without them (the glasses, not the twins ), though I did finally find them in the afternoon.  (They were on the floor.  I stepped on them.  They weren’t totally broken, but were definitely damaged since this was the second glasses-theft in as many weeks.  Poor little frames!)  We also had a marvelous time playing with all the toys that Grandma got them.  And after Grandpa and Alan came in from milking, we had supper, put on the twins’ jammies and headed home.

Thankfully, Eric took Monday off, so we had a day of recovery.  But the piles of stuff from 4 days of traveling, plus all the new Christmas “loot,” were totally overwhelming to me.  It took me three days, but I slowly started to get my house back.  And Wednesday, after having to put Alex in timeout multiple times for multiple days in a row because he just couldn’t keep his hands off the ornaments, the Christmas decorations all came down.

‘Cause you know what?  As much as I love Christmas stuff (and I do), it is so nice to have the house back to normal, too. And now that the huge pile of recyclable material has gone to the dumpsters (thanks, Eric!), we can call Christmas officially over.  And that means we are ready for the New Year!

And on that note…happy New Year to you all!

Today, I am digging out of the heaps of leftover Christmas that was piled in my kitchen when I got up today.  I will do a recap of our holiday adventures in the near future, but today, I only have the mental capacity to say that our 4-day Christmas just about pushed me beyond what I could handle, but it was happy and full of family and friends and faith and fun.  So, despite my near-exhaustion, I’d say it was a total success!

As for my family…

The twins figured out the whole present thing really fast. Go figure! And they were fantastic all weekend, despite the lack of good sleep and normal routine.

Alex has started to pretend to sleep.  He’s got a great fake snore.  It’s really funny!

Megan is starting to reach for things and try to grab them.  So far, she’s been enamored of the toys dangling on her bouncy-seat bar and the bright yellow chocolate chip bag.  Thankfully, she doesn’t know about the stuff inside that yellow bag yet!

Erin’s talking has moved forward by leaps and bounds.  A few weeks ago, I mentioned that it wouldn’t be more than a month or two before she was using more words than jibberish.  And we are totally there.  She says “Come on, Mommy” (with a finger wiggle) all the time.  She said “I’ll be righ’ bah'” for the first time at my parents’ house this weekend.  And she has totally started to start conversations instead of just responding to you.  Oh, and she has started to answer the characters on the TV shows that we watch (mostly Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) which is very funny.  

Okay, those are the things I really wanted to write down, I think.  I need to get the twins up from their naps now, so I’ll fill you in on the Christmas activities in a day or so.  Have a lovely Tuesday.

My father-in-law’s heart went back into rhythm mid-afternoon on Tuesday, and he was released on Wednesday afternoon.  All seems to be fine.  As his heart doctor said at the appointment he had last week (at which everything looked fine), this type of thing is really unpredictable and may or may not never happen again.  Anyway, thanks so much for praying for him.

Have a very merry Christmas!

Okay, so it’s officially the week of Christmas and it’s unlikely Xanga will see much traffic for a few days.  So I thought I’d make sure I got at least one post for this week done.  Maybe I’ll get another one in, but we shall see…

This morning, the twins and I made cut-out sugar cookies together.  I wasn’t sure it would go so well, but they did a surprisingly good job.  Alex was totally into the making of the dough (don’t worry…I did that part myself).  And then I rolled it out so we could cut the shapes out.  They thought that was so much fun.  We had to take turns (Erin kept track for me): Alex, Erin, Mommy, Alex, Erin, Mommy.  I made sure I got a turn so at least some of the cookies turned out right!  And then our snack was one of our freshly baked cookies.  Good times!

I’m not sure I’m brave enough to let them “help” with the icing, though…

We have new neighbors who moved in the first weekend of December.  I still haven’t been over to greet them.  I must do that soon.  It’s annoying me that I haven’t done it yet…but maybe I can take them some cookies.  The ones I cut out, of course!

Alex and Erin are quite the little Yin/Yang pair.  It’s been very funny to watch them this week.  Erin is my ‘destroyer,’ meaning that disarray tends to follow in her wake.  Alex, on the other hand, tends to need his little world in order.  He’s spent the week lining toy cars and wooden spoons up, all in a row.  And I did see him take a toy from Erin recently because she wasn’t playing with it ‘right.’  I guess I should just be thankful that they balance each other out…one makes the mess, the other can clean it up!

Megan loves to be naked.  Have I ever told you that?  Seriously, I may have a little exhibitionist on my hands…who know how hard it will be to keep her clothed when she has a choice in the matter!

I have about half of my wrapping done.  I think Karen will be proud of my bows.  Thankfully, I think I’m done shopping, so at least my pile of “to-wrap” shouldn’t get much bigger!

On a less happy note, my MIL called to say that Eric’s dad was admitted to the hospital last night.  Last year, just after Thanksgiving, he had an episode where his heart lost its normal rhythm.  He ended up in the hospital then, too.  But once they got it reset, things seemed fine.  It hasn’t happened again since then, until last night.  So, hopefully, they can get that taken care of soon.  

And that is about all I have for today.  I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Alex succumbed on Monday night (all between midnight and 6 a.m.).  Erin went down on Wednesday morning (starting at 6 a.m.).  Then it hit me around 8 in the morning.  By late afternoon, Eric was a goner, too.  

The stomach flu.  So.not.fun.

And that means that I’ve spent the week cleaning up sheets and towels and clothes and floors.  And man, was my mom right…it is so not fun to be the mom when you’re sick, too!

But, after Eric’s “events” subsided about 9:30 last night, we seem to have passed the worst of it.  And Megan hasn’t gotten it.  For both of these things…I am truly thankful!

And other than that…well, my life hasn’t involved much other than that for a few days.  But I will leave you with a couple of lighter things…

• Megan has started smiling and laughing when I come to get her in the morning from her crib.  LOVE that!
• Erin has somewhere learned to stick up her index finger and say “I know!” when you ask her a question.  Then she answers or does what you ask.  Too cute!
• And Alex has added a new toy to his list of favorites: cars, push-toys, and a small blue metal bucket.  I have no idea what the appeal is, but it gets played with a lot these days.  

Happy Thursday!