All better!

I'm ecstatic to announce that no one in my house (TRAILER) is sick right now! Everyone is eating breakfast, singing (not me, although I may dance a jig of happiness later), and being nice. No one ate dinner last night, and everyone went to bed early. That sounds nice until YOU are one of them... I'm just glad we all feel better. It's raining today and a sandy mess everywhere, so it looks like we'll stay inside. Ryan is supposed to have the YM/Scouts over for a camp out on our property. The good thing about the rain is that it was 44 degrees when we woke up, instead of 27 like last week. So those boys are either going to freeze or be soaking wet.

Short and NOT sweet

An update on the puking- it got worse. I cursed myself when I told my friend in an email "As long as no one pukes in the middle of the night..." I hate that. Kacy started yesterday at 4pm, I started at 8pm, and Will started at midnight. The positive thing is that they both were able to puke in a trash can 90% of the time. The negative side is that I think I got it the worst (fat pregnant doesn't help, I'm sure) and now I'm still in charge of the kids, even though I was up all night helping the puking kids and heaving myself. Fevers. Dry heaves because nothing would stay down. Lucky for me (SARCASM) I inherited my Dad's puking behavior- Kendra knows- it's violent. Now I'm sore. The kids seems great. A little TOO great for my liking. This will pass soon.

Puking, Pizza, and Speech

What is worse than waking up to have one of your kids vomiting in their bed? Having to tell the other two that the playgroup they have looking forward to is a no-go because of the puking child. Today's playgroup was at our all time favorite pizza place, The Pizza Barn, located in Kernville. The owner goes to playgroup and scheduled a tour and make your pizza day. I was looking forward to it! But this morning, Ed woke up sick. It's the kind of sick where he thinks he hungry, but 20 minutes in the middle of playing, it is all over the place. It's not been terrible, because he seems to feel fine. He cried for pizza (our lunch today) and I gave him a piece. He fell asleep in his chair while eating. Poor boy- I hope he feels better, and I also hope that if anyone else feels the need to get sick they do it soon so we can get it over with.

Today's lunch was pizza. I make a wicked whole wheat pizza crust- it doesn't take that long to make, you just have to give yourself the rising time. No last minute pizza making. The kids love salami and olives and lots of cheese. I make myself a different pizza. I use BBQ sauce instead of pizza sauce, a little bit of cheese, cooked chicken, and grilled onions. I have put olives on it, and pineapple, too. It's my new favorite, and I think it's fairly healthy because of the small amount of cheese I use. The closest pizza to us is at least 25 minutes away, so we do homemade.

One more thing for today, I have 90% decided to get Will tested for his speech/language after the first of the year. He'll be 3 1/2 at the end of Feb. (Wait a minute... that's when Jessie will be here... how am I going to work that out? I'll have to think about that.) Today he was trying to tell me something that he was really excited about (pretending with a helicopter made with 2 blocks of wood...) and he just couldn't find the words and said "mommy, mommy... uh uh mommy" A LOT. I have gone back and forth with him and speech because he has improved, but I am his mom and have learned to understand him. Others have a hard time. And, I'm not a speech expert, and I am not sure if there is an actual speech problem or if it's a language problem. (Two different things...) It's just so hard to tell, and since the county tests for free, I might as well rule anything out, or get him the help he needs. It might solve some of his crying problems too if he can express himself better. One thing I am working on is having him use a flannel board and stories to tell the stories- that seems like it should be helpful. Kacy talks over him a lot, and for him- ah, enough rambling.

Cartoons and Christmas

What our kids look like while watching cartoons. I call this a cartoon induced coma, and sometimes I am grateful for it. When it is cold in the mornings, they like to all sit together to keep warm. Kacy still sucks on her fingers and twirls a string on her blanket while watching TV. I wonder when this habit will end? I went through and programmed lots of Christmas cartoons to record for my kids. I love them. (The cartoons and the kids).

Christmas is fast approaching and that means my normally stressed personality will be positively mental until it's all over. I have to figure out what to get everyone, whether or not I should attempt a Christmas Card (and then, with or without a picture of the kids?), how much to spend on everyone, how crafty I want to get (found out that crafty doesn't always mean less expensive...) and then, where to store the gifts once they are here. Ryan thinks we need a tree this year (first time in seven years...) and our rule is it has to fit on the TV. On the plus side, December should fly right by, and then after that will be January, and when you are pregnant, any month that goes by fast is a great month. I look forward to meeting the baby who makes me sick with movement. I look forward to trying to get thin again. I hate maternity clothes. HATE THEM. And since this one is our last one, I semi-refuse to buy anything. But I might have to. I'm thinking a really decent pair of jeans that I can also wear for a couple months afterwards would be great. Biggest problem is that I am between sizes- Mediums are tight on my hips, and a large is just too big. Oh well, by the counter on the bottom of my blog, I have about 15 weeks left. Maybe I'll last.

Just an update...

Here is half of Ryan, all of Ed (standing in the footing that will support our fireplace), the backhoe, and the yellow thing is our septic tank. To us building Buntings, a septic tank is old news (Kacy and Will both know what it's for, what it's called, and how it works- poor things) but to those who have no idea where the waste water goes from their house- here is one example if you have septic. Ours is 1500 gallons. Yellow. Plastic. Double chambered. Kern County code says we need minimum of 1000, but we thought a little bigger with our growing family wouldn't hurt, and the prices have gone down since last year, so we paid the same price this year for a 1500 gallon as a 1000 gallon last year. The next thing "to do" on the house is still more digging- we have to dig and then put in the wiring and phone and water. Ryan can't wait until the house starts going UP instead of digging down.
Meet Lucy- we adopted a 9 month old labrador from a family who is moving to Kentucky and can't take her. She is a nice dog- we've had her for almost a full week now and today is her first day being let out all day, unsupervised. She accepted us right away, which makes us a litttle nervous that if any ol' person said "Come here puppy" in a nice voice she'd just go. So we keep a close eye on her for now. She isn't allowed in the house (TRAILER) because she is just so big. We keep her in a kennel at night and when we are gone, and she seems to enjoy life. She's good on a leash, and taking her for walks gets some of her energy out. She excellent with the kids, and has a lot of potential to become a really great dog.

Things to appreciate about your house

Here are a few things that I miss most about having a real house. The things that I will most appreciate when I have a house again...
-having a closet
-being able to close a door on the hideous mess in my kids room (we are constantly cleaning it up because I think it looks so bad!)
-having hot water on demand (realized this the other day when Ed had serious diaper problems and we had NO hot/warm water to bathe him)
-having a dining room table so we can eat together, at a table (or a bar)
-having a full size fridge and freezer (OKAY! having a kitchen!!!!)

Things that have surprised me that they DON'T bother me:
-having only a dresser drawer for each kids clothes (makes me be more choosy about clothes, and since they have less, I do laundry more often, but less of it)
-not having a dishwasher- I thought I would miss this more. I will surely appreciate having one again, but it's not so bad.
-having my kids share a small space for their "room"-as long as everyone takes a nap together, we are super duper good. This happens 99.9% of the time.

6 things

I was tagged, so here it goes. 6 things you don't know about me.
1)The smell and taste of a homegrown tomato makes me weepy. If I wasn't already married, I'd marry a homegrown tomato.
2)If I had to pick ONE CD to listen to forever, it would be Lynard Skynard's greatest hits.
3)I am even meaner when I'm pregnant. (Some of you already KNEW that.)
4)My favorite candy is dark chocolate, followed by candy corn.
5)I still hate pickles.
6)I am getting dumber with every kid I have. (Some of already knew THAT, too.)

Halloween

I can't get Ed to stand still to save my life- hence the pic of him running out of the shot. He didn't really have a costume- he and Will are supposed to be Greasers (50's style) and Kacy is a fairy princess. She won a prize at our ward's trunk or treat for her costume- I think the judges just think she's cute no matter what she wears. I love Halloween CHOCOLATE- I hate Halloween- pain in the neck for costumes and decorating.