I've actually been kinda busy.

"Wanna smell my breath?"

Ally "going" down the court.

Hayden breaking free.

Bringing the ball down

Working on the cycle with doctor instruments.

So funny!

Well, I got scolded tonight.  I haven't updated the blog in quite some time.  I have no idea why.  Now that the holidays are over, we are getting back into our routine.  Basketball is in full swing with both teams undefeated.  Ally is very entertaining on the court.  She does not brush her teeth before games.  It is part of her defensive strategy.  This weekend she started the game by giving her opponent a quick smell to let her "see" what she was up against.  Ben may need to work on a new strategy since she didn't touch the ball once.  She did however receive 2 stars, although she had no idea what they were for.  I think one was for stinkiest breath and the other for the best run down the court . . . if you want to call it a run.  More like a skippy, hoppy, gallop, but always with a smile.  Hayden is a good level-headed player.  She is a good dribbler and passer.  Her games get a little intense.  Everybody is out to beat them and will do just about anything to try to win.  I was happy to see her team continue to use good basketball skills to prevail over fight-cat, round-top ball this weekend.  Talk about some uptight parents and coaches.  Ally has also started play practice.  She has 2 lines to say and is really taking it serious about listening and paying attention.  This just might be her thing.  Hayden has just about completed a month of piano lessons.  I think she still enjoys it since I hear her practice more than is required.  The boys are becoming more and more conversational.  They talk in phrases using sounds, gestures and words to get their point across.  They are loving  all their toys from Christmas.  They especially like to saw on whoever is sitting in the playroom.  Sadie doesn't come upstairs much anymore.  She's a smart dog!  Ben is still trying to figure out who does what on which night.  And I'm just here . . . getting in trouble for not updating the blog.  

I smell a blog!

We've really tried to spend a lot of good quality time together this Christmas.  We've had to struggle over the past year to find time together with school, kid's activities and having twin 2 year olds.  One night we took the kids to see a light display set to music at a friend's house.  He has put up the display for a couple of years and adds something new each year.  It lasts about 20 minutes long and is really neat.  We decide to stop by Starbucks and get refreshment for everyone.  Hot cocoa for the kids, a Caramel Apple Spice for me and of course, coffee for Ben.  Off we go.  You really need a spot in front of the house to get the "whole" show, but because of other "bonding families" we had to settle for around the side.  I can sense that the kids aren't really getting into it.  Ben is able to move around to the front and we let the kids out of their seats.  About 30 minutes later, after the girls have continuously argued over 2 inches of additional window space and one of the boys has tinkled from the front seat into the neighbors yard, we decide we can successfully mark this off the list of family bonding ideas.  The next morning we have the bright idea to go shopping as a family.  Thankfully, the mall wasn't crowded.  We enter, pay for a rental stroller, which by the way, if you haven't been to the mall lately, only seats one child in the "fun" car part and one up in the front of the cart.  Ally keys in on Santa.  I know Hayden isn't really interested, Ben is certainly not interested and the boys are most definitely not interested.  But in fairness to Ally, we get in line to see Santa.  I'm not really hearing anybody complain or cry so I'm thinking we might get everybody under 10 to sit with Santa.  Not so.  It's a family event.  Yep, Santa wanted me right on his knee.  You asked for it buddy, take Ben too.  We are able to successfully navigate the mall and walk away unscathed and our purchases made.  Especially good for Hayden who has been very adamant about getting her shopping done.  We tried to be very low key Christmas eve.  Christmas day was exciting.  The kids really liked what Santa brought them and even liked most of the clothes we picked out for them.  Yeah!!  We spent the afternoon at Nina's house opening presents from Pop pop, Nina and Nanny.  Robin's family was there too.  With eight kids ripping through presents it was a wild afternoon.  The kids also did a performance of the birth of Jesus.  Poor Caleb was so disappointed to find out the shepherds didn't wear Mardi Gras beads to visit Jesus . . . at least I don't think they did????  We celebrated Christmas with Ben's family on Friday.  We pretty much trashed GG's house by the end of the day.  I was sorry I didn't prepare the French Silk pie, it being her birthday and all.  If she would release that recipe, I would gladly give it my best effort!!  Saturday we washed and washed and washed and washed and packed to go to Kentucky.  We aimed for leaving around 9 and needless to say didn't make it.  We did get to our hotel and change clothes in 42 minutes from check-in to leaving for Ronnie and Lenore's house.  What a record for us!  Sunday we went to Rod and Terry's house and visited for a couple of hours.  Nothing like eating lunch with a cat also eating his fresh kill lunch.  Thank you Hayden for the continuous updates on his progress.  We headed out and after a 45 minute stop for Ally to potty and pick out a snack, we were able to make our way home.  We stopped in Nashville to eat dinner at a little pizza place that was really kid oriented but the pizza wasn't all that great.  We did get to see some kids act worse than ours though.  We've been hanging out at the house for the past 2 days.  We spent yesterday morning getting the upstairs organized.  I think we were so stunned at our progress that we haven't really tackled any other areas.  Hopefully, we can get the decorations put up before Ben starts back to school this weekend.  It has been a good Christmas, a little wild at times, but filled with lots of together time.  Hayden continues to show a greater desire to give than receive,  Ally makes note of how Jesus would feel about different actions she has seen others display and the boys are making great strides in saying Baby Jesus.  We are truly blessed.  

A star is born.

They couldn't do it without her. They need her. They are begging for her. Please Ally, please be in our play. We goofed, we meant to call your name. We were so distracted by your wonderful performance. Ladies and gentlemen, Ally will be making her debut performance in The Miracle Worker as a blind student at Perkins Institute for the Blind in the Spring of 2009. We can't wait to tell her when she wakes up tomorrow!

And Happy Birthday to the newest member of our family's 60 and above group - We love you Pop Pop Ralph.

Ally's "Crikemis" or Crismice" list

Ally is a middle child in a big way.  Stuck between a pre-puberty older sister and terrible-two twin brothers she has to fight for attention.  Don't feel too bad for her, she knows how to get my attention(she can really send Ben into orbit!) and yet she is quite clever at laying low and doing her own thing.  I give you all this information about her so that when I tell you she came home with all 100's, not just A's, no red marks anywhere, no backward letters or numbers, straight 100's, you will understand.  I don't work with her on her spelling or her math.  She reads to me her circle 7 and books for her web log.  That's it.  Yesterday was "bring home graded papers day" and there they were, all 100's, again.  So as I was looking through the rest of her folder, I came across a Santa letter she wrote in class.  I am going to write it exactly as she had it:

Dear Santa.  fer Crikemis I wunt Hiscoolmuscal Bobeblols Becus my Sicedr has thum.  and i wunt fer Crismice a Big tedeber to slepe with.  and i wut a Lab Dog webcis so I can log it in to webkis.  Love Ally

My interpretation:

Dear Santa, For Christmas I want High school musical barbie dolls because my sister has them.  I want for Christmas a big teddy bear to sleep with.  And I want a Lab dog webkins so I can log it into webkins.

love, Ally

I don't know why I found it so funny, but I did.  I hope you see the humor as well.  By the way,  I have it from a good source that the elves have only made 1 of the 3 items for Ally so far.  They better get their act together.  Let's just hope she doesn't come home with a different list today.  Also, Ally has shown interest in drama.  Ok, we've noticed she is very good at acting so we are pursuing it.  There were auditions for The Miracle Worker Monday night.  She and I went.  I had no idea what to expect.  We went into a big "practice" room with bleachers with people from Ally's age up to early 50's maybe.  You fill out an audition form and select the character(s) you are trying out for.  I put "blind girls".  Let's start small.  They called up the only other girl near Ally's age (she was 8) and let her try to be Helen.  The lady in charge told her what to do and the girl acted it out.  They called Ally's name next.  They wanted to know if she wanted to try for Helen.  I told her we were starting small since this was our first time.  They asked Ally, "do you want to try out for Helen?"  Yes, I do.  So she went out in front of all these people and acted out the scene the lady gave her.  No hesitation, no fear.  She did great.  I thought she did just a good as the other girl.  They moved on to some other scenes and then asked if the girls would take turns being Helen and let those trying out for Anne Sullivan work with them.  So Ally and Marley took turns.  Again, I think she did great.  So they announced 2 of the characters and some of the blind students.  The lady in charge let all the "children" those aged 10-15 go.  To end a long story (and late night) we were there until 9:30.  They used Ally and Marley in a couple of other scenes and them announced the cast.  Marley was given the part of the littlest blind student and a girl from the previous night was given the part of Helen.  Ally's name was not called.  She was a little disappointed, as was I, but once she realized we could go see the play, she was once again the happy go lucky Ally we all know and love.  

Black Friday

I love to go out into the madness on Black Friday.  I'm not typically "after" anything in particular, I just like the craziness of finding stuff.  Plus, since Ben has absolutely NO desire to have anything to do with it, he is willing to stay home with the kids while I save us money.  My sister Robin(whom I've written about several times cause she is so news worthy!) invited Mom and Dad to join us for breakfast. We never thought Dad would show up.  However, he was there, Mom, being an early bird, was there, and of course, Robin and I were late.  I was just late.  Robin had already been shopping and was held up waiting in line.  After a little nourishment, Mom headed for Nashville(she's already been through Huntsville, she was on to new territory!)  and we headed to Game Stop.  After being in the very small store for an hour, we all walked away with a purchase.  We put our packages in the car and headed for Dick's and Target.  Again, success in both stores.  We returned to our cars and set out for Toys R Us.  A little side note: My Father is very particular in what he eats.  Fast food is almost always out of the question, unless he gets a wild hair.  Another side note:  Robin and I cherish any free time to shop without little helpers.  Back to the story.  We were headed to Toys R Us with Dad driving.  The Target shopping area is a zoo.  I suggested he drive around behind the stores and out through Research Park.  He eyes Burger King.  Hey, how about a drink?  Sure, I'm a little parched.  He pulls in and parks.  Wait a minute, what's wrong with the drive-thru?  Of course, I question what's going on.  He explains and I verify, "You want to go in and sit down to drink a coke?"  Hmmm.  Does he realize we are losing valuable shopping time?  Once inside, he decides a whopper sounds good.  Who are you and what did you do with my Father?  Not only are we at Burger King, it is only 10:45.  I'm guessing the looks on our faces pretty much showed our disapproval and he settled for a coke.  SEVERAL minutes later, we move on .  Toys R Us is a mess.  People with small children and carts everywhere.  Again, we are able to find stuff to buy.  We head out to K-mart.  As we are entering the store, this very scary, but short man and child push their way in front of us.  Dad makes a comment about him and his general rudeness in a louder than I would like tone.  I don't think he realizes that if this guy turns to fight, I'm out of there.  I'm a "flight" kind of person in these situations.  We again make some purchases and leave.  Dad is officially hungry.  We head down to Surin and have lunch.  We return to our cars and our families.  Another successful Black Friday Shopping day.  Next year maybe Mom and Jackie will join us after reading about all our fun!  Besides, we could use some backup if Dad is going to continue to voice his opinion about other shoppers.  

Turkey Trot

We made it!!!  Hayden and I ran the Turkey Trot 5K.  Yep, over 3 miles of Mother, Daughter bonding.  Our goal was to finish in 1 hour.  We made it in a little over 46 minutes.  Of course, I have a funny.  The run took place at UAH, our old stomping grounds.  The course was up around the school and down past the duck pond , turn around and go back the way you came.  There is a small incline at the start and then a hill at about mile 1.  We ran off and on without much "discussion" until the return trip about mile 2.5.  Many of the speed walkers were starting to catch us and being the competitive person I tend to be in certain situations, I just couldn't let that happen.  And there was another Mother, Daughter team that was doing about the same as us, but maybe not the seasoned athletes I thought we should be.  I could sense a little resistance and was trying to motivate my partner to keep it going we were almost finished.  Perhaps, I was "motivating" a little to aggressively.  So a nice old lady was speed walking past me, Hayden was about 10 steps behind me and I'm walking backwards so I can make sure she hears me encouraging her.  The lady says(in a very defensive tone), "Has she ever done 3 miles before".  My reply, "Nope.  But she is today."  No further discussion.  I was very proud of Hayden's big sprint to the finish.  If you recall from previous blogs this is how I like to finish and unlike my previous running partner, I did discuss how we should finish this race.  Hayden even beat me to the finish and has won a free room cleaning and clothes washing!  I'll be signing us(some combination of me, Hayden and Ally) up for the Rudolph run in December.  Anybody else want to join in?

Mommy's Birthday

Today was my b-day.  I am older than my husband, once again, for the next 8 months.  I see it as a positive.  The day started with a birthday breakfast at Burger King.  Then we headed downtown to the Veteran's Day parade . . . Hayden was in the parade.  Her K-kids group at school raised over $6500 for the Veteran's so they were asked to be in the parade.  Parents were asked to walk with the group as chaperones, so for my Birthday present from Hayden, I was to march in the parade.  However, due to the tremendous turnout of parent volunteers, we were all booted from the parade.  So, Hayden went with her group and we found a nice spot to watch the festivities.  We had to be there 1 hour early for Hayden, so needless to say the boys got restless fast.  Ben took them walking and Ally and I bonded.  Part of bonding included getting yelled at.  We had been given 3 little flags to wave and some candy.  I had put the flags down so I could assist Ally in opening the candy.  A man walked up behind me and demanded I pick up the flags from the ground.  Ok, buddy, I'll pick up the flags.  Wanna guess where those flags are right now?  Yep, in the floor of my van, trampled by 8 little feet.  They were safer on the ground!!  So the parade finally gets started and thank goodness Hayden's group is #4.  They pass us and we get her attention for a great photo.  Right behind her group is the A & M Band, including dance team and flag twirlers.  I noticed a certain 6 year old very attentive at this point.  Here is my interpretation of parade entry #5:  The dance team is wearing silver heels, nude tights, white bloomers and a white over one shoulder halter.  They walk with a shake that I'm pretty sure Ally will at some point add to her own walk.  The band itself is great, loud drums and peppy moves.  The flag twirlers are in the back, wearing pretty much the same getup as the dance team, except covered in sequins.  You need to have a good mental picture of this for later. 

 We make it through more of the parade to include a million corvettes and motorcycles.  We decide I need to head over to the ending area to get Hayden.  I call Ben to let him know that I think they are coming and he has decided to gather everybody up and head my way.  We all meet up in the gravel parking lot designated the "ending" zone for parade entries.  While we are waiting to get Hayden, Ally notices the A & M band.  "Mommy, Mommy, can I go tell those girls they did a good job?"  "Uh, yea, I guess" At this point Ben has spotted the car and is making a bee line. . . until he hears our conversation.  "What did she say?"  "She wants to tell the twirlers they did a good job"  Silence.  He is however making a face that I will show you if you ask.  "Ok, honey, we'll go this way and you and Hayden and the boys head to the car".  We walk over to the twirler girls and Ally runs over to them and gives them her complement.  They smile and say thank you.  Ok, let's head to the car.  Oh, no, we didn't tell the dance team how good they did.  So, to the front we go and Ally runs over and tells them.  They again say Thanks and smile.  When we get to the car, our curious 9 year old must now what Ally did.  I explain that she wanted to let the dancers and twirlers know they did a good job.  "Well, they didn't have much clothing on."  Really, I don't think Daddy and I noticed.   I think that was the fastest Ben has ever loaded the kids, the stroller and himself in the car.  

We went back home to recover and get Ally ready for gymnastics.  She left and I got to take a 30 minute nap while Hayden and Ben did homework.  I did notice the paddle was out when I woke up.  Yep, and that was only math.  Ally returned and we headed out for dinner at Red Robin burgers.  We had a good time, even if there were more kids than adults, and we returned home for bath time and bed time.

I had a great b-day but I must admit it ended abruptly with 4 cranky, snotty, coughing kids this morning!!