So much for my blogging career.  A whole year has passed, a crazy, wonderful year has passed.  I was planning on writing about some of the major moments but at this point, it seems.....well, pointless.  So I am going to start afresh, make a new start, just jump on in!  I will post some pics from our Christmas card that never happened, I am admitting defeat there as well, no Christmas card pic for 2013, I am finally giving that up as well, on February 25, I am giving it up.  Oh, well, no more looking back, well, just one more look back, at my sweet babes;)

Confession is good for the soul....

Merry Christmas....

 

My Pittlets 2012
Claire, Samuel, Caroline, Lauren and Lily

 

I have realized that I am a liar, Christmas has made me a liar. I have lied about so many things. First off is Elfie, then there is the mall Santa, the north pole Santa, the tooth fairy that has failed to show for the second night in a row, then there are my favorites, the Christmas Present lies. "Yes, you are getting Barbies for Christmas" ("mom, you said I was getting barbies"..."I lied"), "You are not getting an Iphone" ("mommy, I love my Iphone"), "This is the first year where we didn't buy any video games!" ("cool, I was hoping I would get these!").

 

This morning came the "morning after" lies. These questions were asked in a sweet voice, kinda nervous as her belief system was in question. "Santa put the same socks in our stockings that you bought my friends" (darn $2 sale, I bought tons!) "I thought you said you bought Lauren and Lily the cow and lion Beanie Boos, but Santa put them in their stockings" (clearly, I talk to my kids too much) "Sam got an Itunes card in his stocking" (puzzled expression as she reads my texts all the time and saw where Ben told me to get one) "I have beef jerky in my stocking, strange" (Strange?! We are in the south! What if Mayans were right and the world ended and all you had was that stocking, that jerky is all that is between you and starvation...plus my kids are addicted to jerky, I buy it in quantity where ever I go;) "Did you put the candy canes out or did Santa bring those?" (I have a specific candy cane, they are the small vintage style that I buy every year) "Lauren got a Dora, Lily got a barbie castle, I got nothing" (yep, I caved, I made Ben go out at 11:30 last night and get the Barbie castle out of the car).

 

Now here comes the lies, "Santa and I made an agreement, I could add what I wanted to the stockings, you know I don't like for y'all to have a lot of sugar, so I put in the beanies, socks, jerky, itunes card"...."Santa stole the candy canes, he must have been out"...."the castle is for all three of you (how did I forget to get Caroline something?!!)"...so all is well, her belief is intact, the lies can stop, I can go to confession, back to normal. I go into my office to get the trash bag, underneath the bag is....CAROLINES SANTA PRESENT TYE-DYE PILLOW PET BEAR!!! Number 15 on her Christmas List!!! Because I am not a very good liar, I immediately tell Caroline to check to see if I turned the dryer on, I grabbed the bag, pulled out the pillow pet, tossed it onto the ceramic stools under the sofa table, run into the kitchen and pretended to load the dishwasher. Caroline walks through, shrieks and grabs the bear and her questions begin, how, what, why, where, when, did you do it? why did he put it there?....the circle of lies begins again, "someone must have come down last night when Santa was unloading the presents, trying to catch him. He had to hurry and leave, must have tossed the bear on his way out before he was caught!"....well it worked, a few minutes later Caroline yelled from upstairs, "IT WAS LILY!! SHE SAID SHE WENT DOWNSTAIRS AND SAW SANTA! THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED!!".....Merry Christmas to all, and isn't it indeed MERRY?!! No matter what is going on in your world, there is something to be merry about, Jesus was given to us on this day, the best gift of all! Merry Christmas from the Pittlets!!!

 

 Lauren, Claire and Lily

 

 

 

 

I can't eat peanuts, I'm allergic

Halloween for us, started like every other day, mad dash to get kids out to school, orders made and shipped, then the last possible minute, come up with costume ideas and put it all together. I would be lying if I didn't confess that I thought about cancelling and staying home, but I have two toddlers that have been living for this moment since Disney channel started running Halloween commercials...no turning back now;)

We headed out, an hour late, because someone didn't get the, "It's Halloween" memo, (ahem, Ben)...we stopped at Sonic and bought 30 corn dogs, our contribution to the party and proceeded to enter the biggest traffic jam ever!!! (another reason as to why you want to be on time)

We have never taken our kids out trick or treating, so this was a first for them....listening to them (Lauren and Lily) talk about what was going to happen, was hilarious. They had planned for this moment, "you ring the door bell and then you say 'trick or treat' and then you get candy!!".

As we went up to the first house, watching Lauren, knowing her personality, I could not help but laugh, she walked straight as a board, more like marching, towards the front door, ready to ring that bell and say her lines....problem was, the people were sitting in the yard. They called her over, she stopped and looked at them and turned back to continue on to the door....the place where you ring a bell and get candy...they called again, then I called to her to go to them, she was priceless!!! So innocent and sweet, just trying to do what she had planned over and over, ring the bell, say 'trick or treat', get the candy...simple, then some over eager grandparents had to screw it all up with lawn chairs;)

Because I put my customers first;), I worked up until the last possible moment, then scrambled to get costumes. I looked around the house and came up with Eloise at the Plaza for Lauren

 

 

 

Lily was Little Red Riding Hood, she was pretty adamant about who she wanted to dress up as, I have the cape hanging in my office, so once she saw it, there was no talking her out of it...the dress is really short because it is a 24 month and Lily wears a 4t...the dress was in my office, leftover stock from my old shop.

 

 

Caroline arrived home so late that this was the best we could come up with and put together in less than 5 minutes, a ghost and a bow head (hello, bow maker here!), so she was a "Boo-head"...

 

 

Samuel dressed himself, he doesn't like to dress up too much, hence the costume that he could wear any day of the week, a Louisiana Tech football player....GEAUX DAWGS!!!

 

 

My oldest child did not have time to come home after cheer practice, so I do not have any pics of her...she went the easy route, she bought a pirate costume...I mean, anyone can BUY a costume, right?...well anyone that has a job or can text, "how much do I have on my card I need to buy a costume" to their enabling mom;)

 

We had so much fun, as much fun as one can have when dealing with mayhem, but it was a good night.  Great friends, candy, kids....corn dogs, equals awesome.

 

Some of my favorite moments were listening to the girls talk, you would have thought we were at Disney with the way their faces shown with awe.  Eloise Lauren had many compliments on her costume, not sure they knew who she was as it seems no one knows who Eloise is! 

 

 

This pic cracks me up, she does look a bit...deranged in this shot...surely people didn't think I was going for this character....

 

 

 

Everyone loved Little Red, she kept that hood on all night....with a smile on her face...not.

 

 

Funniest moments, Lauren telling people, " I can't have peanuts, I am allergic, but I can eat that one, you can give the peanuts to Lily she is not allergic" and then to one woman, who couldn't quit laughing, "or you can give it to my mom, she likes nuts, she's not allergic".

 

 

I will end with last years costume photo, it was hard to top, I will try next year:



The Help

Miss Hilly, her mother and Skeeter

Matchey Match

I have five kids, they are spaced apart 5 years, 4, 3 then 15 months...yes, the last child was a surprise.  Lauren and Lily, they are not twins but I dress them alike.  This seems to be a problem for some people, complete strangers will ask me if they are twins and when I say no, they then proceed to ask why are they dressed alike or tell me that I should let them be individuals...I bite my tongue to keep from telling them to mind their own business, I am always amazed at the things people feel like they have the right to say to someone they even don't know....I will usually tell them, when they ask why they are dressed alike, "because I can". 

The thing is, I have found that if I dress them in different outfits, someone is not happy...just the other day, for tumbling, I put one in pink short and the other in black shorts...not good, not happy at all and later that evening, they were both in pink shorts.

Look how cute!  It would be a sin to not have fun and dress them alike...seriously, we were through at 4 kids, so why not have a bit of fun!

 

 

OK, so I will admit, when searching through my laptop for some pics of Lauren and Lily, I was a little surprised at how many pics there are and out of all of them, there are only TWO where they are dressed in different outfits! 

 

 

A few weeks ago I went online to order the girls a new BlaBla doll, because they work so darn hard and deserve a treat;) I figured they would pick out an animal. I let the girls look at the images with out sister watching, imagine my surprise when they both picked out the SAME DOLL!! Maybe they are twins....they are almost Irish twins, well not really...and we aren't Irish;)

Homecoming, Court, Tears...

Our oldest child, Claire, made homecoming court this year.  It has been an exciting, fun, crazy...draining...month....I wouldn't change a minute of it!  To get a chance to be a part of a child's life, to see the excitement through their eyes, is priceless...I hope she never forgets a minute of it!

Claire and Zach

love them

Brighton, Ellie, Caroline, Claire and Taylor

Caroline, Brigitte and Claire

Junior Court

Lauren, Caroline and Lily

Lily, Princess Brigitte and Lauren, all week I bribed them with the opportunity to meet a princess, Brigitte...I built it up a lot, because they asked everyone "where is Princess Brigitte?!"

Lily waiting for Princess Brigitte to arrive!

All of my Pittlets, Claire, Samuel, Caroline, Lauren and Lily

Claire, Anna, Lauren and Lily

Larkin and Caroline

I love you Claire Bear!!