Finally winter weather

So the weather is finally cooling off and acting more like winter. We have to grab jackets or light coats before leaving the house, Annabel isn't sleeping with her big fan on anymore, I am craving baking (finally) and the flip flops have been put back in the closet. Unfortunately along with the cooler weather temperatures comes the sickies.

Saturday my grandma and mom went with me and the kids to Petit Jean Mountain to do some light hiking and get some great fall photos. So we spend a good hour or so on the mountain, then head home. Late that night Annabel wakes up sick. Sunday morning however after only 4 hours of sleep she seemed fine, very little appetite but running and playing with energy. So off to have family pictures we go. I don't know if she didn't still feel well, needed more sleep or was just not in the mood... but Annabel refused to coorporate. Boo I was really looking forward to some cute family pictures. (Hopefully still got something I can work with LOL)

Fast forward to Tuesday when her daddy comes down with her stomach bug. Yuck! He spent his entire day off in bed or in the restroom. I am praying all the other kids skip out on this fall time stomach ritual.

Now today, exactly one week before Thanksgiving, Annabel is clingy and laying around unless playing with her puppy, Baby. Daddy still feels yucky too and momma is trying like crazy to clean the germs out of the house.

Here's hoping next week everyone feels 100% and we have a wonderful family Thanksgiving! Also a healthy, happy Thanksgiving to all my family and friends reading this blog ;)

Preparing our family Christmas cards...

With the help of shutterfly.com I am preparing to order our families Christmas cards. This year I will be sending cards with beautiful photos of my wonderful family to 30 some family members, 35 plus or minus march mommies and various other close family friends. Our friend Kellie Snellings is taking family photos of us and we will use one of those amazing pictures to share the holiday joy this year. We are planning to use shutterfly.com because they have a wonderful variety of cards from the cheerfully joyous holiday cards to the beautifully religious Christmas wishes.

So far my favorite is a beautiful folded card with a bit of holly framing our family photograph. I will post the sample picture at the end of my blog. I believe this will allow our family to become the center of the card while reminding the receiver that we want to wish them a wonderful Christmas, full of joy and cheer.

You should all take a look at their website and see if you can find a great customizable Christmas card for you and your families. Their prices are reasonable and the product quality. http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery

If you are looking for something a little more involved instead of just saying Merry Christmas... you can send a holiday story card. This is a neat little card offered by shutterfly.com now also. http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/holiday-story-cards

Another great item they offer are customized calendars. I love to make these for grandparents as gifts because I can feature great photos of my children each month, keeping them close to their grandparents hearts. http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

Hey another cool reason to check out shutterfly.com is that bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly. Learn more for yourself!!!! : http://bit.ly/sfly2010

Check them out and have a wonderful Christmas card designing season. LOL

Wow it's been a long time!!!!

The past few weeks have been crazy around here! The boys finished up their football season and we immediately had to wash and turn in their gear. My dryer was on the fritz so we ended up renting one for a few weeks while the part came in on ours. Katie's band finally finsihed up all their weekend competitions but she still has one more away game this Friday. Our Nanny went into the hospital and passed away ... we had a bunch of family visiting during that time. Althought it was a deeply sad occassion we did enjoy seeing everyone.

Now in honor of Nanny and her love for her family... we are trudging ahead with the holidays.
Speaking of holidays.... I am looking forward to getting all the awesome Christmas cards in the mail and sending out ours too!!!

Shutterfly has the cutest stuff you can upload a picture of your own family right onto their cards... I specifically like this one:


You should check them out and get your own... right now they are giving away 50 free cards to bloggers!!!!
www.blog.shutterfly.com

Completing our potty training weekend...

So days 2 and 3 went respectfully well. On day 2 we had friends over and the distraction did cause Miss Thing to have an accident... but only 1 which isn't bad. Day 3 we broke all the rules and went to the mall as a family and then had a late lunch in town. Annabel easily went to the potty at the mall and the restaurant, fell asleep in the car and woke up in a really bad mood. She refused to go to the potty for me once we returned home and had yet another accident... still after being out and about for a good 5 hours... I think that's not too bad!

If you are following my life on facebook.... lol, then I am sure you know we recently purchased our 15 year old a car. She will be 16 in February and the perfect car graced us with its presences this week. She absolutely loves the car and coincidentally us right now. haha So Sunday morning most of the family washed her already clean car with her, she went over some rules with dad and learned the "lay of the land" so to speak. Needless to say she figured out the radio very well and even got to drive the car out of the driveway and back it into the garage. Today it was taken back to the dealership to have its oil changed, tires balanced... blah blah blah stuff momma was wanting to make sure was done correctly. Then have it's windows tinted. We also purchased her a cute little personalized tag for the front with her nickname on it.

(It says Gummiebear)

In other news the boys have been slaving away on some school projects and preparing for this week's football games. The boys play out of town both Tuesday and Thursday but the High School has their homecoming game Friday ... so we will all be there for that. After surviving Jerry's vacation, the refinance of our home and getting Annabel 95% potty trained... I think we will begin back on a preschool work this week too.

You know... it's always busy in the Odom household. haha

3 day potty training weekend... day 1

       Day 1 of potty training a diva actually didn't go badly. We woke up just like normal, took our showers and then had THE TALK... LOL  We "tossed" the pull ups, diaper wipes and put the diaper genie out in the garage, Annabel is a big girl now. We then picked out her favorite pair of Dora panties and talked about how we wanted to keep the panties dry. Then the fun began. She drank an entire bottle of green Gatorade, a bottle of green tea, 2 glasses of water and was still dry. Still dry but did not pee in the potty.

      I know you are supposed to stay home but being the mother of 4... I did have to leave and pick up some kids from school. Annabel finally went pee in her potty about 20 minutes before we had to leave and while I was folding towels!!! Yay I was sooo excited that I made a huge deal of it... picked her up and gave her a giant kiss, squealed with happiness and told her what a big girl she was. Then we had to get dressed... pants and shoes were on, I went to grab my purse and "Mommy I peed..." Our 1st accident.

      Well to be completely honest I wanted to drag the pull ups out of hiding and put one on... just for the car ride, but I refrained. Instead I put a plastic bag in her car seat and covered it with a towel (you know just in case). Then we drove to the school, picked up one of 3 school age children, checked on my teenage daughter whom was headed to an out of town football game and headed home. On our way home my son announced that he needed some materials for a school project and his brother would be needing the same stuff... thinking well we are already out... I drove to Target. Annabel was still dry and kept talking about it during the car ride and while we were shopping at Target. We quickly bought supplies for the school projects and loaded back into the car. By the time we arrived home I needed to leave to get the last child still at school. Stupidly all I did was tell Annabel to keep her panties dry and load her back into the car. We were almost home and no where near a bathroom when she started saying she needed to pee pee!!! Nope we did not make it... accident number 2. (definitely mommy's fault too)

       Finally home for the rest of the night, I cleaned Annabel up and gave her some new panties. She set on the potty for a second and told me she didn't need to pee pee... duh! We played, colored, watched some Dora all while I kept asking if she was dry and please tell mommy if you need to pee pee. She was acting sleepy so we set down on her bed and watched a cartoon, she suddenly got up to get a toy and peed on the floor. Ugh Accident #3!!!

       After a bath, some new panties and a giant bowl of cereal... Annabel danced and sang in the kitchen while I made dinner for the rest of the family and helped her older brother with his project. Daddy called and said he was pulling up in Sissy's new car (which was a surprise for her) so we went out and looked at the car again, went for a short ride and came back home. Just inside the house Annabel grabbed my hand and told me she needed to pee pee. She was sooo excited that she peed in the potty this time... we told daddy and got kisses, then told bubba and got a high five. She even got to put another sticker in her potty book. Yay some success!!!

      Fast forward to 10:45 at night. Sissy needs to be picked up from the game and we are going to surprise her with her very own car... So Annabel goes pee pee in the potty again and we load up in the car. She falls asleep in the car... it was super late, but she is dry when we arrive home. She stays awake and talks to me while I wash my face and change into pj's. Then she agrees to go pee pee one more time before going back to bed. This morning I wake her up a little after 8a.m. She pees in the potty, gets another sticker and hugs and good jobs from everyone awake. Then proceeds to take every favorite toy to the potty... it's good to get everyone potty trained at the same time. haha

      Soooo now it's day 2... she's dry and had breakfast and already started on another bottle of Gatorade. LOL Wish us luck!!!

Crazy Football Season!!!!

First and foremost... I am trying to win Annabel the cutest toybox ever!!!  Checkout April's giveaways4mommy.com website!!! <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.blenza.com/linkies/autolink.php?owner=asexton&postid

(Not really sure I did that right... hope so!)

Sooo last week I went to 3 separate football games!!! Tuesday night the boys played their hearts out... I took over 300 pictures and my parents and grandma even made it to the game! They ended up losing but only because the other team made 2 of those extra points after the touchdown. Boogers!!!  Still sooo proud of my boys!!! Blake caught the ball and Billy made 2 tackles!!!

Thursday night the boys had ANOTHER game! This time they won but for some reason the game was not near as exciting! Oh yeah... the coach didn't play my boys much!!! Booo coach. haha

Friday night was the High School game. I chased my 2 year old nearly everywhere because by the 3rd game of the week she wasn't about to sit still. Then I watched the best color guard team do their routines during half time! They were awesome!!!

Between bouncing around during football games, picking kids up from random practices, cleaning the house, keeping everyone fed, homework checked and done, errands ran.... Annabel and I worked on her 4th week of preschool. During this week she learned about the letter D and the color Purple. We found things around the house that begin with D, then she got really into it and would remind me of things. Dancing is a D, Dog is a D and Door is a D. I think she definitely got it this week!!! Purple was easy too... she loves purple and had a great week of coloring me purple pictures.

My week finished off with a date day with my hubby!!!! We haven't had one in awhile... a long while!!! Sooo with the teenagers watching Annabel, we had several hours of totally kid free, adult time. Went to the gun show and bought some stuff for him, then had an awesome late lunch/early dinner at Cozymels along with some yummy margaritas!!!

All in all... a good week!!!!!

Week 3 of Playing Preschool... The letter C and the color Orange

To learn the letter C and the color Orange we started out with finding things in magazines which begin with the letter C.  We also wrote some words which begin with the letter C but we didn't have a picture for... She found a chair, a cat, a car and a clock!

She also colored a really interesting orange piece of artwork...

Day 2 led us to do some match up... we matched up items from around the house with each letter we have learned so far... A... apple, B... ball and C... Car.  She did really great without any help from me!!!

She also played some alphebet games on the computer... C Computer!

By day 3 she practiced writing her letter C... sometimes she writes it backward. haha She also colored an awesome picture with her hand prints on it...

Just for fun on day 4 we played with curlers... C for Curler!!! Then she did some artwork with shaving cream (C for Cream) and orange paint... but she kept telling me it was nasty!!! haha

Now we are getting ready to go CHEER for our sissy while she does her COLOR guard routine!!! haha

Seems like a successful week!!! Can't wait to see what the letter D and the color PURPLE brings to us next week!!!

What a busy weekend

Wow what a busy weekend we've had!!! Beginning with the High School Saltbowl on Friday night. Although Benton lost to Bryant again this year... the Panther Color Guard and Band did awesome!!!!

The next morning the boys, Annabel and I got up at 4am and drove to Louisiana with my mother n law to visit family! The kids slept the first half of the drive, I got a speeding ticket, we saw 4 dinning room chairs fly out of some guy's truck, skipped the exit we were supposed to take and then eventually ended up at Sissy and Chris' house... safe and sound!!!

After arriving we were treated to yummy burgers and hot dogs grilled by Uncle Chris and then went out for beignets at Cafe Du Monde. (Turns out no matter how full the boys are with hamburgers and hot dogs... they can still eat their weight in beignets!!! haha)

The rest of the weekend was a blur of sight seeing, visiting family and eating yummy stuff!!! We didn't find an alligator but other than that I think everyone had an awesome visit! However all great things must come to an end... so we spent the greatest part of Monday (Labor Day) driving home.  No speeding tickets or flying chairs this time... just arrived home tired with a sticky chocolate covered baby. haha

Katie's Baptism

There is nothing like the feeling of your fifteen year old, boy crazy teenager coming to you and saying "I am getting baptized".  Proud could begin to define that emmotion... but it was sooo much more!!! Finding out she was doing it because she wanted to, not because a friend, boyfriend or potential boyfriend was doing it... made me all the more proud.

Sunday August 29th the church Katie attends because thats where she likes to go... held a group baptism at Lake Nixon in Little Rock. 33 people got baptized that night, counting my girl. They grilled burgers and hot dogs, had chips and watermelon, fun in the water, paddle boats and prayers. My baby girl grinned from ear to ear after her baptism was completed and made a couple new friends in he process.

Sometimes being a momma is the best feeling....

Playing Preschool. Week 1

So week one we tried to learn to write and recognize the letter A, learned words that begin with the letter A, learned the color RED and how to count 1 item. Annabel got a cold part way into the week but we just bustled on through. She can write the capital A however I am not sure she recognizes in word form... but she is only 2 right?! We did a scavenger hunt around the house to find RED things... that was fun. She was really good at it and it turns out we have tons of things colored RED in our home. Then we counted each red item as single items. We practiced drawing 1 of several things, colored lots of RED pictures, practiced doing puzzles and ate apples for our midday snack. As a treat we colored a Woody (from Toy Story) tshirt too.

Saturday my mom came over and we did a mini review of what we had learned. I was surprised at what she could tell my mom. Yay Annabel for a great first week!!!

Next week is the letter B, counting 2 items and the color Blue. We will probably review on Monday from last week and then move on.

LMAO ... I'm signing up for juggling classes

I'm starting to think as a teenager I should have taken a juggling class. My schedule looks like someone colored all the blocks in to be funny... yet in reality they are all filled with things to remember. One of which was the Jr. High Jamboree last night. While attempting to watch my boys kick butt during another football scrimmage; I also attempted to take pictures, keep up with a 2 year old that believes she is a teenager, chat friendly with my son Blake's bio mom and console my sweet teenager daughter whom chose the game to break up with her boyfriend.  

The boys did great!!! I got some good pictures. Somehow the 2 year old is still living and made it home safe and sound, albeit sticky, sweaty and covered in dirt smudges. The broken hearted teen "doesn't want to talk about it" although her facebook says her eyes are swollen from crying and life is never going to be the same.

Yep... this is my life.

Beginning of 2010-2011 school year

As any other mother of school aged kids will tell you the month leading up to school starting is crazy busy. I loaded up all 4 of my kids, drove into Little Rock and spent a good portion of our day buying school supplies, keeping up with a fussy 2 year old and picking out backpacks. After which we ate lunch and went home. This is just 1 day of stress, heat exhaustion and complete frustration in the back to school process. We also had to buy clothes, get hair cuts, get new shoes, get school schedules, find everyone's classes on their schedules, find and open lockers a zillion times so we are prepared for that first day of school and then sitting through 2 hours of unairconditioned lectures for what is called "Open House" at the High School ... all while dragging around my princess toddler in the 100 + degree heat.

So now the first couple days of school have passed, we endured crowds and heat for the boys' first football scrimmage of the season and enjoyed a relaxing first weekend afterwards. (of which I must mention my boys were amazing!!!)

Now home with just the toddler all day I have decided to start preschooling her. We spent 1 hour of our first day writing the letter A, counting things that we have 1 of and learning the color red. Annabel then insisted on an icy pop and watching Toy Story 2 for the zillionth time. Now everything in her room which happens to be red has been pointed out to me and I am desperately attempting to get the laundry caught up before I have to run and pick up sweaty football players from their after school practice.