Random Thoughts...

Things haven't been easy recently.

I've been worried.

That's what mom's do, right???

I'm working on "giving it to God"... (it's a lot easier said then done huh?). I find it terrifying and amazingly beautiful that my children elicit such powerful emotions and actions within me without consciously doing a single thing. I love being a mother. I love it more then I'll ever be able to express... and it scares the heck out of me!

...So blogging has been low on my "To Do List". (We're all going to be fine... but if you want to say a little prayer for my loves I'll say thank you :)

I also had the worst stomach flu I've ever had and was the sickest I've been in my adult life last week... in case the 'worried mom' bit doesn't justify my lack of devotion to this blog!

I also have a very strange sense of obligation to this little blog. I've been so inspired by so many of my friends who blog and document their lives and memories. My plan is to (someday) have this blog published into annual blog books to serve as my scrapbooks. This gives me a very strange sense of obligation that I shouldn't "skip" ahead or leave out events that I would want highlighted in the "big picture" book. So, if I don't get to edit a set of photos (because I'm worried...or throwing up ;) I tend to not let myself "move on". I'm only writing this because I want to give myself permission to skip stuff. I've decided to just go back and add the few events that I skip (when I feel lazy) whenever I feel like it... but I'm moving on! (So eventually I'll add Christmas pictures... but it may not be until July :)

...There is something else too. It's weird.

I have friends that have great blogs and hundreds of readers.
This is not one of those blogs (duh... there are probably only 3 of you reading this.)
That's why I never thought I needed to protect my images or my children.
Apparently I do.

Someone has stolen pictures of one of my children (from this blog) and other children and has created a fake blog about her "family".
It is creepy.
Really, really creepy.

I'm not sure what this means for us yet. At the very least it means I'm adding software to make copying my images very, very difficult. I don't know if watermarks and "right click disables" are enough yet. I guess we'll see...

I don't really want to make this blog private (but I might).
I love reading blogs of other mothers that I have "found" online.
I love learning from other moms and sharing the story of my family.
I love that I have several hits each day from people who google My Best Friend Has Cancer. (Mine does and she's awesome... update soon).
I love that I've had several people go through quite a bit of effort to "find" me and make me aware of the creepy situation, offer advice, and instructions on how to deal with this all.
People I've never met.
People who are moms... and know this isn't right.
Thank you.
I really love all the good things about blogs.

...And I really don't love the creepy stuff.
So, if this blog suddenly goes private and you still want to read it PLEASE email me!! If I take that route it is only to block creepy people who are trying to pretend my children are theirs... not regular people who just want to read about my precious, adorable little loves.

Christmas Eve - The After Party

On Chirstmas Eve we packed up the kids, my nephew, my sister, and parents and went out to a late lunch (at a restarant... aren't we brave!) before mass. After mass everyone came back to our house for the Ward/Taylor/Kirby Christmas party. We had lots of fun with our very over-stimulated little ones.

We started the night singing 'Happy Birthday' to Baby Jesus and enjoying the cupcakes that Kirsten made.


Then the children thoughly enjoyed opening all the gifts!

There was lots of robot making...



... and paper tearing (Luke got the hang of this very quickly :)


Silly Mimi was worried that the boys would not be excited about all the outfits and pj's she bought them. She was wrong.

Wardrobe change #1

Somehow I didn't get a picture of wardrobe change #2 (when Danny immediately stripped off his clothes to sport his new Batman pjs) or of wardrobe change #4 (into new Elmo pjs for the night). BUT wardrobe change #3 was really the highlight!

Both Matt and Danny were very excited about the new undies they received. So excited, that they each immediately put them on. All of them. (They each got a 4-pack.) ...And there was no reason to waste any time undressing...



Kirsten was simply thrilled with her new Hannah Montana bike!


The night ended with setting out a snack for the "Big Guy" and somehow, the kiddos eventually fell asleep (wish I could say the same for the parents!)