Christmas Tornado

So last night we had a bit of a weather issue. Apparently mother nature has her seasons confused because it was 70+ degrees, 4 days before Christmas, and it was rainy, and perfect conditions for a tornado which is exactly what happened. Blah. Luckily the tornado was a few miles from my house so we didn't take the direct hit that we were expecting but I did wake up to branches on my roof, trash and debris blown all around my yard, a random girls bike on my lawn, and my siding and roof a bit damaged. This is where I take a deep breath and say a little prayer of thanks for home owners insurance. 

Since the ground is a soggy, disgusting hazard we spent the day inside. The little kids did some coloring, and playdoh-ing, and Thomas the Train watching, while I deep cleaned the kitchen and reorganized the cabinets and did some cooking. I even found a little time to dye my hair, whoo hoo! 

Also, because I'm completely random and ridiculous, we also spent the day in elf hats. Gotta find that Christmas cheer somehow right?!

Learning to adapt

It will not come as a shock to anyone who knows me "in real life" that I have a hard time dealing with squalor. Unfortunately, life with three kids is a pretty squalor filled experience and I would be lying if I didn't say I positively come unglued from time to time. I read blogs filled win pictures of beautifully decorated homes that are spotless and I think...how do these people have children...and pets! Ive finally decided that one of my New Years resolutions is to just calm down already about the messes the kids make and comparing my life to that of people who blog for a living. One day I'll have nice things, but until I can be giving a shred of security that none of my children will pee, poop, throw up, dump sippy cups, smash cheerios, etc all over my furniture/floors/house in general...I'm not investing in a single upgrade that isn't attached to the house itself. Paint, carpet replacement, etc...yes. Furniture? No way. I think I will lower my stress level considerably knowing that everything I own is kid friendly, and while they're growing up a bit I plan on saving my pennies, because when the time comes where I can buy nice things with confidence, I plan on going on a serious shopping spree! (Just don't tell my hubby...) 

I'll leave with some photos I took 3 minutes before starting this post. My plan was to clean my living room, their plan was to dump bins of toys everywhere. *sigh* 

This is the day that never ends....

Today has been...exhausting. I started off by rounding up the littles and getting them dressed and ready to go run errands. We don't get out much during the week since Dave and I share a car and he's pretty much living at work right now because of the holidays so we like to tag along with him when he pays bills or drag him with us when we go grocery shopping. Yes, my life is boring but I like it that way. :) So we did some running around, we picked up the last few things for the kids stockings, paid some bills, grabbed some lunch and headed home. The little kids completely missed their naps and after 3 hours of whining, crying, fighting, due to missing their naps, they both gave up and were in bed by 7pm. I (almost) finished wrapping presents, make a huge mess with scraps of wrapping paper everywhere, and I'm currently avoiding that mess by blogging! Dylan and I ordered pizza and watched Billy Madison and had some nice "me and him" time. He's pretty much the most awesome kid ever to hang out with. :) So, now it's 10pm, and I have gobs of housework to do before I can call it a night. The life of a stay at home mommy isn't that interesting, but it's pretty awesome anyway. <3

Why hello there neglected blog

Sooo...this is awkward! I had big plans to start a new blog that documented life after adoption...but then I got smacked in the head with the realization that life after adoption was the exact same thing as life as a mother of three! For those of you with fewer kids (or better time management skills) maybe you won't understand how incredibly CRAZY life can get with my oh so adorable monsters!  There wasn't a lot of time for blogging, and we've had a wild year but things have settled down considerably so I'm going to once again try my luck at a 30 day blog challenge! For anyone keeping score at home, I failed miserably last time, but I'm going to do my best. :)

So let's see if I can sum up what's been going on since the last time I posted back in April...

* My hubby finished school! He's the proud owner of an MBA now! Whoo hoo!

* We almost sold our house! It was listed and we had a buyer but her funding fell through right before closing so we're staying put for the time being.

* My sweet little girl learned how to walk!!! That was an exciting milestone for us, so proud of you, beautiful!

* I turned the big 3-0 

* McKenzie celebrated one year home! She's changed so much in such a short time. I'll attach some pics of her celebrating with her one year home presents.

*  Jack just turned four years old today! He had a little party a week ago but today is his actual birthday. :)

That's all the big stuff. There were some other little things, special family memories made, bumps along the road of life but overall I couldn't have asked or a better year. I have the love of my life, three incredible kids, and I'm just...happy. :) I hope everyone else has had a great 2013 too!

Long overdue update

I had originally planned to end this blog and create a new one where I chronicled what life was like once Kenzi came home, I actually started a new blog, and I even wrote one whole post....but then I realized that life with 3 kids was not going to allow much time for blogging so I used that knowledge as an excuse to abandon blogging altogether. Now that Kenzi has been home for nearly 5 months (what?!) we are establishing a semi-routine....ok that's a lie, my life is extremely chaotic but we are *coping* with the chaos now, at least so I am going to give this blogging thing a try again.

I will post an update that covers Kenzi's homecoming, her heart surgery, her first ever birthday party, etc to get everyone caught up but I'm currently on my iPad so access to photos is limited and I also need to edit all the fundraising stuff off of the blog as soon as I can find time to get on a "real" computer.

I need to address one thing very quickly. I have gotten messages regarding Facebook, Kenzi's prayer page, and my craft page. I deleted my Facebook account. There are/were several things going on in our family life and while there were several factors contributing to those issues, a big factor was Facebook, and certain people specifically. I learned in the past that deleting people from Facebook can cause a lot of issues, and because I prefer to run away from conflict, I made the decision to just start fresh with a new page. I'm still in the process of adding friends (it's not as easy as you would think to find friends using Facebook search!) so that's that!

As far as my craft page, it was deleted when my page was deleted, and on Prayers for McKenzie my husband is the admin (which would explain the lack of posts, ha!). I'm taking a break from the hair bows because I'm burned out on it and I need to focus my attention on some household projects right now. Its late and im falling asleep but more soon, i promise! :)

But for now....enjoy these pics of a happy, thriving. Kenzi <3