Am I the only one?

I started back to work last week after a couple months off due to several surgeries. I was absolutely excited to get back into the groove of things (truth be had I love my Job!) But I now find myself totally stressed out and grouchy. I do 12 hours shifts, four on and four off, two days and two nights, when I am on days off I find myself, cleaning like a mad women, doing 12 loads of laundry, organizing, paying bills, working on my husbands book work, grocery shopping, baking, cooking and the list really does go on. I am realising that I am not the person I want to be on my days off. I want to let myself not be so stressed out if there are crumbs on the carpet, or if the husband and kids didn't do the cleaning to my standards. I want to enjoy my family more, play some games, read to Peyton, catch up on the four days I missed. My goal is to be less selfish and really enjoy life! I am sure the laundry will not run away and the crumbs on the floor will not take up a life of their own. I am extremely blessed to have a healthy beautiful family, a roof over our head and a job I truly enjoy.

Christmas morning

I had 18 family members over for Christmas Eve. We had snacks, played some games, had a drink or two and chatted.

This was the first year that "Santa" was not up till 2am putting together toys made in China. It was nice to be in bed by midnight.

In previous years the kids would wake us up around 6 am Christmas morning but not this year. Everyone "slept in" till 7:30, even my mom was surprised when she called at 7:40 to see how our Christmas was going and I said " Well, I am just grabbing a cup of tea and then we will open our presents!" I actually had to go into Peyton's room and wake her up! Guess she was all played out from the previous night.

We finally got wood on the fire, a cup of tea and the video camera out and the chaos had begun!

It took nearly an hour to unwrap all the gifts and in the end we all got totally spoiled. It was only 8:30 and it felt like it was time to have a nap! So exhausting, but the day goes on...

Peyton turns 4

Well it happened. She had the party! She had invited 10 or so children for an afternoon of snacks, games, snowman cake and pure fun.

The time went by quickly and the children were all so well behaved- I could not believe it.

It was a busy day as the Christmas concert at the Elementary school was that evening. With the party came a ton of sweets and over stimulation, we were concerned about Peyton being able to sit through the concert. It turns out she didn't have the ants in her pants that I had anticipated.... she sat quietly with a friend of mine and watched the entire performance.

Snowman~

Our baby girl turned 4 years old on the 13th of December and we spent the day and the night in the city. We went shopping, visited Santa, went to the Theater to watch "Bolt" and even went swimming at our hotel room - What an exhausting day!

Because we were away for her "real" Birthday we decided to have a party with her friends later that week. I had asked Peyton "What kind of cake should we make?" At first she said she wanted a Dora cake , but then I reminded her that we made a Dora cake last year. We came up with a few other idea's until we settled on the Snowman. It turned out to be an all day project! I had to make 3 batches of icing!

Well the party is today and then the poor snowman will be hacked into little pieces to feed the small army we have invited! I better go and finish the party preparations!

Finding the love again!

I am back! I have re-discovered the love for scrap booking!
I LOVE to scrapbook and with numerous surgeries these past few months I had thought that I would have so much time to scrapbook.
It turns out I was either too sick, too tired or just not feeling creative enough to do a page.
But the other night it just hits~ I MUST scrapbook, so off I toddle into my scrapbook room and don't come out for 5 hours! I had a ball,I played Christmas music on my computer, kids interrupted only a few times and I was on a roll! Until I looked at the clock and it read 1:00 am! Time flew by!
I am so happy that I am doing the things that I once enjoyed, life is certainly getting back to normal.

Picasso strikes again.

I am at my wits end! My 4 year old daughter is really trying my patience.

As I have posted before, she likes to draw and not always on paper (remember the doll?) A few nights ago Trent went to tuck in the little angel and discovered that she had colored on her bookshelf and colored the eyes of Cinderella on her pillowcase! MY GOSH! I have already had the talk about "felt pens are for paper only" but yet again my parenting techniques have failed!

Just when I thought that she had finally understood that coloring on things other than paper was wrong and that punishment would be given....

I had some errands to do around town this afternoon, I had asked her if she could stay in her seat belt and listen to music while I snuck into the hospital to drop off my secret sister gift. She said she would if I let her out of the truck for the next stop.

We get to my mother-in laws so I could drop something off and get to her side of the truck and help undo the seat belt, I could tell something was not right...she kept hiding her hands! I took one look at her and KNEW by the look on her face that she had done something bad. Sure enough I looked at the inside of her door and she had colored almost the entire panel with a brown marker! Her hands were brown because she tried to wipe it off.Needless to say she did not get out of the truck. I really did not know what to say that I have not already said 100 times! I had told her that she disappointed me by coloring MY truck and sent her to her room till I could collect my thoughts. The felt pen did come off off the truck but that is the least of my worries... I have a child that refuses to listen and need a new plan!

"Perfect"

All that know me and know me well know that I am particular. I like things just so. Things have a place you know! Well this morning I was reading a fellow bloggers story and it really made me think...

I had decorated our tree while the older girls were in school, Trent was at work and the little one was downstairs playing, all because I did`t want them to make my tree tacky. I had a vision (ok- I lied- I saw the most perfect Tree in a Country sampler Magazine) I had purchased each and every ornament carefully and am quite happy with how it turned out. Although the girls said they liked the tree it felt like some thing was missing.
When I was young we would all go out together as a family and get our tree, haul it home and we piled gobs of tinsel and school made decorations on it and my dad would strap a string of lights to EVERY branch! It had 20 different color ornements hanging- sometimes 2-3 per bow! Looking back... they were beautiful tree's!

A few nights ago Maddy and Peyton spent hours in the office printing Christmas pictures off the Internet and coloring the pages and then cutting out the pictures and taping them to a long blue string. They did a beautiful job and were so proud of their creativity. But I thought to myself (Where can I hang them? But they will not go with the theme of the rest of the house!) So the string of beautiful drawings and the hard work of two little girls hung in the office.

UNTIL today! I decided to hang it front and center in the living room and it looks wonderful! I think I may even be brave enough to go get another tree (small) and let the girls decorate it any way they please, of course this year it will have to go downstairs!
Today is a good day! Peyton and Maddy will be proud as punch with their artwork hanging front and center (where it should have been all along) Carliegh will be happy to go get a "real" tree with us and decorate it with what ever she wants. I am going to try and not be so anal about where things are put and what goes with what and just enjoy my children's creativity.