Uh-Oh!- Made a Messh

This is Ally's favorite saying, and believe me she says it A Lot! We like to call her the destroyer because she loves to string up the entire house all day long. I've never seen anything like it. She's so quiet that you don't realize it until you stand back and survey the damage. Kristen watched her for me the other day so I could go to the doc. and when I picked her up Kristen said, "I just didn't realize how much they got into at that age." It's just her. Most kids aren't this "busy".

This is her naked on Christmas Eve because she made a messh all over her clothes.

How about this? I know you want to babysit her for a day just so you can have her teach your kids table manners.

You can tell she's all tore up about the messh she's made for her poor mama to clean up.

This was my most recent favorite. I was mopping the whole downstairs one night and Neal was "watching" the kids for me. Isn't he sweet. But this little stinker had somehow gotten away from him and decided that she wanted some more dinner. Can you tell we had spaghetti for dinner? Please pay no attention to the dirty dishes, I was getting to that next. And yes, I had already mopped this floor.

But at the end of the day it's all worth it when she snuggles up and looks like this-

It's hard work being adorable all day long.

A Stressful Week

Last week was a little stressful to say the least. It all started Monday night before bed and Charles-Allen started throwing up. He never gets sick, but before Tuesday morning came he had thrown up 11 more times. We got no sleep all night because I was so paranoid he was going to throw up in the bed. He's not so good about throwing up in a bowl so I was constantly jumping up everytime he moaned or turned. The next day was much of the same and by nightfall Ally started throwing up. By Wednesday I had two very sick little kids but they were finally sleeping more than vomiting so it was a little better for me. Then Wednesday night Emmy, my always sick, catch everything child, began throwing up. She and Ally decided they would throw up all night and by Thursday morning Neal and I were exhausted. Unfortunately, Thursday I was home all day with three kids throwing up everywhere. On me, on the floor, on the bed, on the chair. I don't think I have ever washed so many sheets, towels, and clothes in one week. I was exhausted not to mention the fact that I'm over 7 months pregnant. Charles-Allen stopped being sick on Saturday, Ally on Sunday, and Emmy was still sick all day yesterday. Unfortunately, I realized in the middle of the night last night that her eardrum had busted. She was up and in a lot of pain so we gave her so medicine and Neal gave her a blessing and she was finally able to fall back to sleep. So off to the doctor we go to find out that Emmy has a busted eardrum in her right ear, a clogged and non functioning tube in her left ear, a double ear infection, and her personal favorite strep throat. The doctor also suggest that we bring Ally in since she hasn't been eating well and she has an ear infection. I think I'm about done in. But on the bright side Neal and I haven't gotten sick, yet and we were able to take care of our babies. One thing is for sure, this week has to be better!

Welcome Charles Braxton Smith

Neal's sweet baby sister had a sweet baby boy last week and I just had to post some pics. He is so cute, but the little guy has phneumonia already. Isn't that weird? Anyway, enjoy-and yes he smells as good as he looks.

Are You As Clean As You Think?

This morning was going so well. It was early, before 8, and I had gotten the first shower of the day, which never happens, and had Emmy ready for school. Charles-Allen and Neal were getting ready. Everything was going so smoothly which is not normally the case. We (or I should say I) always give the kids baths in the morning. And this is a Big job. Getting myself and three kids bathed, dressed, teeth and hair brushed, is an effort. So this morning was going so well, especially since I had conned Neal into giving Charles-Allen a shower. So when I hear Neal exclaim, "what do you mean it has pee in it?" I knew everything was about to go off track. Apparently, when he was getting ready to wash Charles-Allen's hair Charles-Allen thought to let his daddy know that he didn't want our shampoo because it has pee in it and that's nasty, he wanted the kids shampoo to wash his hair with. After a few more questions and moments of unbelief on Neal's part, he was able to find out that yesterday while Charles-Allen was taking a shower by himself he decided it would be fun to pee in the shampoo bottle. The same shampoo bottle that we had both already washed our hair with. I mean who, but a boy, would ever think to pee in a shampoo bottle? I believe there has never been in the history of human life that a female looked at something and thought, "I bet I can pee in that." And then went and actually did it. Boys, what are they thinking?
So if any of you have any pee pee stories that you can share with me I would really appreciate it. That way if I see anything that looks suspect I'll be sure to check it out before proceeding any further.

What's In A Name?

I have certain strict guidelines that I believe must be followed when selecting a name. The first is that either the first or middle name has to be a family name. Someone that Neal or I have known and love. That has been pretty easy so far. Emmy's middle name belongs to both my mom and me. Charles-Allen has both my dad's and Neal's dad's name and Ally has my grandmother's middle name. The second guideline is that we must actually like the name they go by. I mean we can't use the name Cleo even though it belongs to Neal's mom and we both love her. Our kid would never forgive us and I can't blame her. And finally, we both have to agree. That is the tricky part, and honestly I did cheat on this when we had Ally. Neal loves the name Ally. He has had it pick out for many years and wanted to use it if Charles-Allen was a girl. I like the name a lot, but there are lots of names I like a lot. That's why I have to have these guidelines. I don't know how people just narrow down two names that they like. When we found out Ally was a girl Neal was set on the name. Me not so much. I wanted her given name to be different than what we called her, like Emmy's. Emmy's given name is Emily, and since I'm a sucker for nick names I wanted Ally to have a given name and a nick name as well. However, I didn't think Neal would agree and I didn't want to discuss it for several months and get everyone's imput so I just settled on a name and when the nurse said they would be back with the birth certificate I informed Neal of what I baby girl would be named. Funny thing is he totally loved the name Alexa and I worried for nothing. But now we can't agree. There are too many options that we like and we can't settle on one thing. It's so frustrating because when we talk about the baby we can't call her by her name. It's just the baby. I don't like it. So you must help me settle on a name. We're going to use the name Ellas Parker. I know they both are traditionally boy names and in a way that's why I like them. They are also both family names. Parker is my mom's maiden name (hey I from the south, what can I say) and Ella is part of Neal's grandmother's name. The problem is we can't agree on what to call her. I really want to call her Parker. But since I've given our other girls nick names I feel like I have to give this one a nick name too. Neal likes Elly, but that reminds me of Ellie Mae and I think it would be difficult to say Emmy, Ally, and Elly. But I think they go together quite nicely and I like the cohesiveness of the way they sound together. And then there is Ella, which fits perfectly with our theme of a given name shortened into a nick name. So do you see how big my problem is and do you think you can help? If you're not busy during this holiday season maybe you could help us pick out the name of our fourth and final child. Chances are I'll do what I want regardless like I did with Ally, but I hoping someone will give me some sort of inspiration. And I am desperate. I'm almost six months pregnant and we haven't settled on a name. That is so not like me, I mean I've had Emily Carole picked out since I was 8, I even named my first Cabbage Patch kid Emily Carole. I must have a name.

It's A......

Okay, so Neal and I went to the doctor yesterday so excited to find out what our 4th child will be. After nearly 5 months of Charles-Allen telling everyone, "My mommy's pregnant for a boy" we thought we would be able to share his excitement because he just knows his baby is a boy. As soon as the tech puts the picture up we both can tell exactly what it is and it's not a boy. It's a girl!!!! I'm so excited. I've always wanted a bunch of girls. I think because there were so few in my big family growing up. But I'm sad for Charles-Allen, when we told him I thought he was going to break out crying. It was pitiful. I know he will get use to the idea and eventually get excited, but for now he's a little bitter. Last night while we were eating dinner he said, "that's Emmy's baby, not my baby." Maybe it'll take a little longer for him to get use to the idea than I thought.

I've Been Tagged by...My wonderful Sister-In-Law Kristen

8 Favorite TV Shows:
1.The Closer
2.Women's Murder Myster Club
3. Medium
4.CSI
5.The Unit
6.The Amazing Race
7.Bones
8.Criminal Minds

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1. Tried to Take the Kids Ice Skating
2.Scored Some Great Halloween Decor @ Cracker Barrell for 70% off
3.Got Birthday Donughts for Charles-Allen
4.Went to A Christmas Open House
5.Cleaned my House
6.Wrapped Christmas Presents
7.Got out Christmas Decorations
8.Ate lunch with Neal and the Kids at the Park (again)

8 Things I look forward To:
1.Early Morning when the Kids Are Safely Asleep
2.Holidays
3.A Clean House
4.Hearing"Mommy I luzs you"
5.Shopping
6.Going to Deep Bottom
7.Emmy Tracking Out
8.The Pregnancy Sickness to Be Over

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1.Cracker Barrell
2.Applebee's
3.The Country Squire
4.Logan's
5.Smithfield's
6.The Melting Pot
7.La Rancharitas
8.El Rodeo

8 Things on My Wishlist:
1.New Counter Tops (please Neal, please)
2.A Clean House
3.Easy Pregnancy
4.Healthy Baby
5.My Children to Grow up and Know How Important the Church is
6.Loose Weight
7.Never to Have Dental Problems
8.Always Have Neal

8 People to Tag
I think everyone I would tag has already been tagged. But if not anyone who would like to.