The BIG Christmas gifts of the Year

The BIG Christmas present of the year for the kids was a trip to Disney World. We are taking them to Disney for a week in January. YEAH!!! I do not know if Barret is more excited about the trip or getting to miss school but we should all have a really good time.
Along with the Wii, Mimi and PopPop got the grandchildren their first gas powered four wheeler! It was a huge hit......
Nana and Grandaddy brought down the house with a Guitar for Barrett, DS for Logan, an American Girl Doll for Cooper, and you guessed it, MORE Lightning MQueen stuff for the Park Man. The kids had a fabulous holiday and were so gracious and truly thankful for all of their presents. They certainly made Chad and I proud. Thank you to everyone, we love you!

CHristmas Photos 2.0

Okay, more pictures.....
Barrett and yes MORE Power RAngers, Cooper and her Polly Pockets, Parker and yes MORE cars, and Logan and her DS

Promise photos of Christmas Morning/ Santa

Here are pictures of Logan and her new boom box, Parker and his Lightning Mqueen, Barrett and his power rangers, and Cooper and her FABULOUUS booster seat.......

Time for a quick update

SO I did give a little post on Christmas day with an update but we have now had the Gill fam christmas celebration as well and the kiddos did indeed get the WIi. Funny story, we got home that evening and we made the kids go to bed after some very long nights. Then Chad and I proceeded to hook up the Wii and stay up until midnight playing it....NO LIE!!! It is really fun and I love watching the kids play on it. We have not gotten much into the games yet but the sports are awesome. I promise to post some holiday photos soon, after I load them into iphoto. Hope everyone is well and enjoying their holidays......

Merry Mery

merry merry merry merry christmas! I hope all had a wonderful day filled with lots of smiles, giggles, gifts, family, friends, good eats, and most of all love. I certainly did. I am ending my wonderful evening listening to my three older ones talk and play in bed with their new loot while enjoying a glass of wine in my new wine glasses and watching Chad try and figure out his new DVD player and universal remote....
too much fun!
love to all!
pictures to follow tomorrow......
PROMISE!

Let the Festivities begin

Christmas break has officially started! YEAH! The kids have made easy bake watched movies and built multiple forts and this is just day ONE. What do the next two weeks hold in store for me? Well one good piece of news is daddy is closing his office tomorrow at 5pm and not opening until Jan. 5th. That's right folks, almost two weeks home with my five favorite people in the world. Nothing could make for a better Christmas break....... HONESTLY!

17 minutes

......until the bus arrive and everyone is home for 16 days. I am torn between being really excited and not that enthused. I guess if they can all get along and behave it could be a really good break. Jammie mornings and movie nights, dinners out together and playdates with friends, peaceful afternoons with four children happily playing with their new loot from the big man in red....
Fingers crossed......

no nice voice

We all have it, our NOT SO NICE VOICE. It tends to come out of us mostly in tough times or times of turmoil. Well, mine came out this morning and I am sorry for that. I should not have let it slip but I get so frustrated sometimes. My friend was talking about someone and it gets my blood boiling when the topic comes up. I am ashamed to admit it but it is true. I try and try and try to think positive thoughts, but I just can't. I am sure we ALL have these people in our lives so do not think poorly of me but at least I am trying. Anyway, to my friend from this morning, I am so sorry I used my no nice voice. Please, forgive me and do not think less of me......love you!

can't sleep

can't sleep......
up too late.....
what to do.....
don't really know.....

the Big Man himself

So, we went to see old Saint Nick on Sunday at the Children's Museum and had a wonderful time. We went with my parents and the children were able to play in the museum while Daddy waited in line. Some might feel for sorry for the Daddy who had to stand in line for TWO HOURS to meet Santa but come on, look at the facts, he was allowed to stand in line ALONE for TWO HOURS surfing the net on his iphone and chatting it up with friends while my mom, dad, and I chased four crazy children around the Children's museum for TWO HOURS....I want to color, I want to dress up, I want to play with the boats, I want to climb the tree and this was ALL AT THE SAME TIME! But all, in all, we had a wonderful visit and all the children told him what they hoped would arrive in their stocking. Sadly, some are going to be disappointed. I am afraid because Santa is not bringing FOUR GUITARS with multi colored flames on them. I hope they will be happy wit what does arrive. I would tell you what they are going to get but then that would ruin the surprise when they happen to check my blog :):):):):):):) I would post a picture of the day but all I have is a vertical one and I have not figured out yet how to rotate pictures to post. sorry! Just close your eyes and imagine.......yep it was pretty darn cute!

All Wii want for Christmas......

I was reading on one of my favorite blogs....

http://www.largerfamilies.com/wordpress/ (check it out!)

about technology and parenting and it got me thinking. (also, she is having a contest and I always love a good contest) My children have been asking for a Wii for Christmas for sometime. They mentioned it last year and I shook it off as a craze and hoped they would forget about it. However, they have not. AND it has only gotten worse. My reasons for being against the system were simple. Why bring home a video game that will place the children in front of a screen when they still enjoy going out with us. Why have them bowl in the living room when they would love even more going to the bowling alley. I felt it would discourage our family time together and cause them to spend more time in front of the TV. My husband disagreed though and he had some good reasons. His main one was sure they like to go out with us, but do we take them? And, we find ourselves having a large bit of downtime on the weekends while the youngest is napping that we are forced to stay at the house that we could be playing with the kids. Good point but I was still not convinced. Well, my mother in law solved the problem. She has bought them a Wii for Christmas. I am so excited for the kids and I have come to peace with my reservations about the gaming system. In fact, having her buy it was the best case scenerio because I did not have to admit that I bought a system for my kids yet they still get one. I guess we all win. Now I just need to make sure the Wii has a place in our life but we do not let it consume all of our time.

Sleep

A good friend of mine over at lovebugandrolleypolley (see her blog in the side note) writes quite often about her family and their sleep issues. I read her posts and feel sorry for her and her sleep deprived self. Well, I am starting to feel her pain a bit. Parker is having some sleep troubles lately and I am not sure of what to do. He seems to be waking up every night sometime between 10:45 and 12:00am. This does not sound like a true problem because it is early on in the night but no fail it is right when I have drifted off to sleep. I could try and stay up and he still seems to wait until right after I fall asleep. Then it takes me quite a bit of time to fall back asleep. We have tried the crying it out method and the immediate response method. I have gone in there and Chad has gone in there. The problem is he is easily soothed and returns back to sleep every time but I am up for awhile and it occurs again the next night. I feel bad for letting him cry because I know this will not go on for ever but he is getting less and less of a sympathetic mommy each night. What it HAS done is reinforced YET AGAIN that I do not want any more children. I am DONE with the middle of the night waking. So, I have resorted to crossing my fingers each night that this will be the night he will sleep though and each night am sadly proven wrong. But maybe tonight???????? Keep your fingers crossed! (the picture was taken during naptime, when of course he sleeps very well! Why can't he look this peaceful in the middle of the night?)

What to do, what to do?????

So it is naptime in the Gill house but for the first time in I do not know how long, my two younger ones are playing happily and QUIETLY together on the kitchen floor. I want to take Parkman up for his nap but I hate to ruin the fun. What to do???????

Facebook

What is this new craze? I have joined Facebook and several of my friends have found me but NOW what do I do? I do not really understand it OR how to work it. It seems to me that they keep creating more and more ways to communicate with others online that pretty soon, we will no longer need to meet our friends for coffee or even call them on the phone. Who finds that a little sad??????? I mean there is something about seeing and talking with good friends face to face. I certainly enjoy it more. SO, I am destined to continue to check my Facebook home on a somewhat frequent basis but I refuse to give up the good old telephone and face to face meetings!

Mommy Sense

My children have what I like to cal Mommy Sense. It is just like Spiderman's spider sense but with my children. NO matter what time I get up, they are very quick to follow. They some how sense my being and want to be with me. They do not seem to be the same way with their father, unfortunately. He can get up and enjoy a nice cup of coffee in the peace and quiet of the house but not me. The minute my feet hit the floor, THEY SENSE IT!!!!!! So, I try to hide in my bed. I try to snuggle down under the covers and not let my feet hit the floor until they are already up. It makes for a more difficult transition in the mornings, but it is better then having to deal with "mommy mommy mommy mommy mommy...." at 7am. So, hopefully, they will outgrow this Mommy sense, but until they do, I take my quiet mornings moments when I can.