Decem-Blur!

Hello.
The family from the Peanut Gallery is alive and well and crawling out from under the "Blur" that was December.
A lovely blur...but still a blur.
Many people ask us if we "planned" on having three December births on account of D-man being born in December.


Seriously?


Who in their right mind would "plan" such a thing?


All that being said, it was a lovely season.
We had delightful family time with relatives from near and far.
I have a quadrillion pictures and was having great difficulty choosing which ones to share.


So I thought I'd give the birthday boys the honor they deserve.


So..without further ado.
I present you the December Birthday Boys in order of their birthdays.


C-boy celebrated his day at Chuck E. Cheese...planned the night before the big event!


L-boy enjoyed his second birthday immensely. The Bakerella's reindeer cake pops were a huge hit!
However, you will never find me slaving over another cake pop in this lifetime.
More on that later.
Oh yes, much more.


The Reason for the Season!


The man who, with the exception of baby Jesus, made all of these other births possible!
I love this man.
Yes I do.
He's one of the GOOD ones!


And last...but never least..our New Year's Eve baby.
Our tax deduction.
Who is not a baby anymore. Boo Hoo.
But I LOVE the boy that he has become!
Including his "bedhead"!


And that is all for today.
I hope that your Christmas Holiday was as "blur-rific" as ours!!

Oh yes..and Happy New Year.

Wordless Wednesday...Books

Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.

~Henry Ward Beecher

The king is on his throne...

Surrounded by his royal subjects.
They loyally support him in all of his "grand endeavors".




At your service your royal highness!
Such devotion is vital if a king is to carry out his "kingly duties".

I'm also linking up with Alicia at A Beautiful Mess for Wordless Wednesday.

You Know you're a mom when....

Arizona Mamma, over at

Our Daze in The Desert

hosts this fun little meme.

In her words, she writes, "As parents, we constantly find ourselves saying things that we just can't quite believe came out of our mouths, or misting up over a few scribbles on a page, or finding ourselves in situations that could only be the result of having offspring.

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I just wanted to take one single minute to thank each one of you for your sweet comments on this weeks Mom n' Me post. 
I actually did get a bit choked up as I looked at that picture throughout the day.
Not only does it capture exactly how I feel about my children...
But it was taken by my nine year old son.
My son, who hasn't always had an easy road.
My son, who doesn't always "fit in" socially.
Sometimes I wonder if his mind will ever just be at rest.
He always has a plan, and usually finds it difficult to be at rest until that plan is in motion.
He often wonders why everyone can't just "fit in" with his plan.
I loved that picture because C-boy captured it. 
He zoomed right in. 
After viewing the final result on the screen, he oozed, "Mom, you're gonna LOVE this one!"
He read every one of your sweet comments.
He beamed with pride.
"Really?", he said sheepishly.
Really, I said!
So today, I'm sharing a few more. 
These were all taken the first day he had his camera.
We had great fun playing with them in photshop.
What I love about these, is that I didn't crop any of them. (with the exception of one, for modesty's sake!)
These are simply the angles he captured.

You know your a Mom when you take such delight in your child's new found interest.

And when you shamelessly post his photos as if they are works of art!

So without further ado, I present to you C-boys creations!

I love his little boy perspective.

He painstakingly set up these little scenes.

 He was proud as punch about framing this one with a shadow!

 Who wouldn't want a picture of a little boy peeping through a nut?

I didn't even see this one until that evening.  I asked him if L-boy's shoes had been there and he said, "No, mom, I put them there because I thought it would be so cute!"

This one of the cat had a little toy in the background...he was really perturbed by it.  I showed him the magic of photoshop!

I just think he's a really cool kid.

His vintage gameboys are totally picture worthy.

I agree wholeheartedly.

He's hoping this little brother will be a boy after his own heart!
Have I mentioned before that he loves this little guy with all of his heart?

 Of course, I gave him total creative license to play....

And when you're a nine year old boy...you take that creative license...

And run with it!!!

He named this one Princess J-boy.

And when you give a nine year old a camera, you musn't be surprised when you stumble across captures like this. When questioned about it, he simply responded, "The bubbles looked cool!"

Yep, I'm the Mom of this kid....and proud of it!

We are hitting the road, Jack.

Wind in our hair.

Nothing but blue skies and open road in front of us!

The Grand Canyon, and Bryce Canyon are calling our names.

I am hoping to be able to share our adventure with you.

Depending on the health of our computer and the connectivity of our wireless mobile internet.

Isn't this what you've always wanted?

To go on vacation with the Peanut Gallery?

So, be on the look out...if you happen to see "her" on the road..

Give a little honk.

It would make D-man's day!!

I on the other hand would like to remain anonymous.

She ain't purdy.

Not in the least!

p.s. I may just install the twitter widget to my blog.  Real time updates at the tip our your fingertips.

Mom n' Me Monday

Mom n' Me Monday was created in an attempt to make myself get in the picture with my kiddos. When my kids are grown, I don't want to look through my photos only to find that I am not in any of them! So, I'm on a mission to "capture" these memories.
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Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be; a son who will know Thee….Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail.

Build me a son whose heart will be clean, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past.

And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength.

~General Douglas MacArthur

C-boy captured the above photo!!

He has showed quite an interest in my camera lately.

I decided it was time to give him the very first point and shoot digital camera that I owned.

All 2.3 megapixels of it!!

Wow...you should have seen him go.

Of course, he wants me to "blog" his pictures.

Inspite of the brightness of the sun and the darkness of the shadows,

and noise galore,

I love this picture.

Captured by my C-boy.

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I can't wait to see your pictures. You can grab the code under the button below and paste it into the body of your post. Then add your link into Linky tools below.

To use Linky tools, be sure to link your Mom n' Me Monday post, not your main blog url.

To do this, go to your blog. Click on the title of your Mom n' Me Monday post. The url in your browser window will become a direct link to that post. Copy that url and paste it into the Linky tools window, along with your name, or your blog's name.

If you don't want to grab the Mom n' Me button, just link back to the Peanut Gallery so other's can join in if that's what their little heart's desire :)!












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You Know you're a mom when....

The lovely Arizona Mamma over at Daze in the Desert came up with this great idea for a blog hop. It's called...

You Know You're a Mom When-sDaze.

In her words she writes, "As parents, we constantly find ourselves saying things that we just can't quite believe came out of our mouths, or misting up over a few scribbles on a page, or finding ourselves in situations that could only be the result of having offspring. So today I present "You know you're a mom (or dad) When-sDAZE."
I thought it was such a great idea and couldn't wait to join.
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I think the following photos should be preceded with a disclaimer.

Due to their nature, I hesitated whether it was wise to post them at all.

These are not for the faint of heart.
Or the "queasy of stomach"!

Of course, I am only thinking of prospective parents.

I have your best interest at heart.

I in NO way want to be the deterrent to being fruitful and multiplying.

Let it not be so.

This unfortunate event happened back in 2006.

The shock and horror of it has faded some.

I feel as if I am finally ready to talk about it.

You Know You're A Mom WHEN..........................................

You have the unfortunate mishap of stumbling upon THIS in your bathroom.

No matter how hard you try, you are unable to make sense of the situation.

Nothing you have experienced in your life could've prepared you for this moment.

Due to the sheer magnitude of the situation,

You desperately search for an explanation.

And then reality strikes.

There is absolutely NO way to explain what your eyes have witnessed.

And so your shoulders sag.

You search for a clean piece of floor to lie down on.

And then you assume the fetal position. 

You are quite sure that there is a real possiblilty that you may not ever recover from this. 

And if you do, you will never be the same.

And would you believe, that all of that chaos and destruction was executed by this little cherub?

You better believe it!!!

Yep...and that was how I knew I was a mom, on that particular day in history.

It is my fervent prayer that I never have to re-live that bit of history again.

For the sake of my dear son, I feel I must give a small explanation.  Contrary to my initial belief, this was not contrived or purposefully done.  Apparently, a little "toot" gave C-boy a lot more than he had bargained for.  However, he was unaware of the sheer magnitude of the situation until he entered the bathroom. Well, the shock of the "pile" in his drawers sent him into a bit of a panic.  In order to be free of the stinky dilemma he tried to kick off his underwear. He didn't want to get his hands anywhere near the situation. That made sense to his 4 year old mind. However, his britches did not become free instantaneously.  So he continued to kick (and possibly flail) until he was free of them.  To this day, I am still unable to wrap my mind around the amount of flailing that must have taken place.  But to find "residual" on the top of the door frame in the closet next to the bathroom, leads me to believe there was some serious thrashing that took place.  If only I could have been a fly on the wall! On second thought, I'm thankful that I wasn't.  Considering what I found on the wall!

Pop on over to Our Daze in the Desert for more....if you dare!

Mom n' Me Monday

Mom n' Me Monday was created in an attempt to make myself get in the picture with my kiddos. When my kids are grown, I don't want to look through my photos only to find that I am not in any of them! So, I'm on a mission to "capture" these memories.


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This is C-boy.
He is 9 years old.
The day that C-boy was born, was one of the most momentous days in our lives.
After much waiting and heartache, we became parents.
We were even more ecstatic that God had kept him in the “oven” for 38 weeks.
This was something that was never expected.
After going into pre-term labor at 23 weeks, it was our goal and the doctors goal to keep him in for as long as possible.
However, things had progressed- without sharing too much information- and it seemed highly unlikely that he would stay in too much longer.
But God is not about statistics.
God is about miracles.
And so, C-boy stayed inside, baking until he was good and ready.
And so were we!
14 weeks of strict bed rest has a way of messing with your mind!

Words that describe this boy are:
Active, creative, and inventive.
Smart, silly, funny and sweet.
Smiley , cheerful, and stubborn.
He has had his share of obstacles to overcome.
But has always had faith that “Jesus would help him”.
Because of this, our faith has grown, too.
I love this kid.

Because of him, I have read almost every parenting book there is to read!


Because of him, we have learned patience.


Because of him, our days are full of action and delight!


Because of him, we laugh a lot and life is always an adventure.
Because of him, I can truly say...

I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.
1 Samuel 1:27


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I can't wait to see your pictures. You can grab the code under the button below and paste it into the body of your post. Then add your link into Mr. McKlinky below.

To use Mr. McKlinky, be sure to link your Mom n' Me Monday post, not your main blog url.

To do this, go to your blog. Click on the title of your Mom n' Me Monday post. The url in your browser window will become a direct link to that post. Copy that url and paste it into the Mr. McKlinky window, along with your name, or your blog's name.

If you don't want to grab the Mom n' Me button, just link back to the Peanut Gallery so other's can join in if that's what their little heart's desire :)!





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Sick day...

Today is one of THOSE days.

I have no energy for a cute, pithy post.
An ear ache snuck up and attacked J-boy...last night.
These are the types of things that can never happen during the day.
That would be much too convenient.
He's at the doctor's right now.


Furthermore, L-boy has hardly eaten a thing in 2 days. I was chalking it up to teething.
You may want to look away, but I find this next picture quite amusing.



Upon further investigation, I'm thinking a boat load of mucous has taken up residence in my little man's chest. This is technically his first chest cold. He's had lots of stuffy noses...but never a cough. We have been blessed. Did I mention he has the "trots" too. Lovely.
Isn't he pathetic looking.


On second thought, I feel like doing this quite often.
Does that make me pathetic?


Oh, to be a child again...
To just fall to the ground when we don't feel good.


And look, he even mustered the energy to sit up and look at me.
Things aren't as bad as they seem.


On a side note, I'm trying to teach C-boy that good posture and good learning are directly correlated.


How?? Not really sure! But, that's what ALL teachers say.
Right?!


Mother dearest, put the camera down already!


So what is a good mommy to do?
Give him the phone, of course!
That'll keep him busy for a few moments.
Right up until 911 arrives! (not really!)

But in all seriousness, I am extremely thankful for even these moments.
I am thankful that my child is suffering from nothing more than a toothache and a cold.
I am so grateful that we are feeling the effects of a lack of sleep, due to something as small as an earache.
I am so blessed to have healthy children who can run, play, sing, and laugh.
May I never take these treasures for granted.
May I scoop my little one up, when he cries and hangs on my leg.
May I hold him just a little tighter.
Shame on me for taking even ONE day for granted.
I owe this to my children.
I owe this to Layla Grace's mom.

We have been given the gift of health for this moment.

And I am choosing to treasure EACH.AND.EVERY.ONE!

James 4:14
How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone.

If you haven't yet, please click on the link above and read. If you are having one of THOSE days. It will change your outlook. I promise.

To follow Layla Grace on Twitter click here.
She is still hanging on.

We are praying for...
Peace and no pain for little Layla.
Strength for each day.
Comfort for each heart.
And the grace to endure each moment.

But mostly, we are praying for a miracle.