Laughing Gas and Snow??

Connor had his tooth pulled. He was a little spacey afterward so I clicked a video of him zoning, it's hilarious

Grammy came up yesterday from the mountains with a truck load full of snow. We haven't seen any of that stuff here yet so the kids had a super fun time throwing snow balls and making an itty bitty snow man.

Santa came to visit our neighborhood armed with a water cannon on a firetruck and lots of goodies for the kids.

We are currently confined to our house with a number of ailments. My poor hubby is the only healthy one and if it wasn't for him Christmas would not be happening this year at all.

Eden has some kind of virus companied by a 103 fever and double ear infections. Connor has allergies, fluid in his ear and croup. And I am battling a wicked case of walking pneumonia that is trying it's darnedest to turn into regular pneumonia.

'Tis the Season!

Happy Christmas Everyone!!!

Gigantic Family Funness

We were able to head home to visit the fam for Thanksgiving. Greg's Mom braved the trip with us (poor thing didn't know what she was getting into).

Before Turkey dinner, my Mom wanted a pic with the whole fam. Shawna and her family were here from Azerbaijan and Michael and Kendra came down from Indiana, so the whole fam had an opportunity to be together and we didn't want to miss the opportunity to get an updated family picture. We've added 2 babies since the infamous "Stair picture of 2008" (ignore my black hair and scroll to the bottom of the post). Anywhoo, we were a little more prepared for this one and got a bigger spot to do it. I'm pleasantly pleased seeing as how I greatly dislike flash photography (patooie) Do you have any idea how hard it is to coordinate that many people...that many children??I think I did alright though!

After pics we went back to the house for some Thanksgiving yumminess.

Holy-Moly is right!

While we were there I was able to take family pics for Shawna, Michael, and Kevan

(click their name to see their photo session).

So. Fun.

Now we are back to normal everyday life, and by normal I mean Connor is having a tooth pulled on Wednesday and Eden is quarantined to the house with Pink eye, but all the Christmas decorations are up so at least we have pretty things to look at while we're stuck here.

And with all my stuck at home time, I've decided to have a Christmas Contest for Mother Load.

Click HERE to find out how to win!

Out of the Mouth of... Parents?

I don't know if it's because it's cold and rainy outside or if it's a full moon or sugar withdrawal becuase their daily dose of Halloween candy has been depleted, but my children have been nutters today. The plethora of strange things I've said to my kids today I never dreamed would ever leave my lips. Such as...

Your sister is not a chair

Please take my shoe out of your mouth...

followed by

Please take my shoe off your ear

Please stop washing your hands (gasp, I know, but he had been in there for over 10 minutes with the water running)

Stop reading for 5 minutes and go watch cartoons (said to Connor when we were doing his homework ,reading of a chapter book, together and the doorbell rang so we had to pause)

This made me think over the years at the many strange things I've uttered and therefore highlight some of my finer moments in parenting.

You're not allowed to wash your hands anymore unless I say it's ok (apparently this is an ongoing fascination with my son. There are worse things, I know, but he will play in the sink for hours with the water running if I let him)

No, you may not take a bath (Said to Eden who takes an average of 6 baths a day)

Stop with the rules and go act your age (Said to Connor at Monkey Joes, when he was making up rules instead of just playing on the jumpies with the rest of us)

You can't have a glass of milk until you finish your hot chocolate (I have no explanation for this one,..only if they've asked for something I think they should finish it before they start to nag me for something else)

And my all time favorite,

Please take that off your penis (said to Connor when he was 18 months old, he had just got out of the bath and I was trying to find something for him to wear when he picked up a key chain ring and then tried to figure out where he could hang it.... then it went in the trash... why are boys so strange?) Did I mention I was on the phone when this one came out?

Plus the many many others that I've conveniently forgotten in case of an incriminating polygraph by my children later in life.

So now tell me, what are some of the things that have come out of your mouth that you never thought you'd hear yourself say?

"It's My Birthday Day"

We just celebrated Eden's 3rd birthday (tear)! She ran around the whole day telling everyone

"It's My Birthday Day!!"

Every year since she was 1 Eden has worn a little sweetheart crown. This year she was a little opinionated about her hair and crown but Aunt T got her to wear it.

Eden was super excited about taking pictures in her Party dress

And as you can see was inconsolable when we changed into "comfy" clothes

She did a great job controlling her enthusiasm about her presents

As did her Aunts and Uncles

Eden was VERY excited about her new bedazzled pretty princess bike. I was worried it was a little big when I saw her standing next to it, but she jumped right on and proceeded to ride it all over the family room knocking over aunts, uncles, cousins and brothers alike.

Eden started telling me about 4 months ago that she was going to have a pink Dora cake for her birthday. No idea where this came from since she didn't really watch Dora and as far as I know has never seen a Dora cake, but if my baby wants a Dora cake...a Dora cake she gets. Now this was a little hard since I was planning this party for being #1 not at my house and #2 out of town, but a lovely little bakery lady at Super Target provided us with a cute little dancing Dora and Boots and wrote on a darling pre-made cake in bright pink icing so my Eden was happy.

We also played the "Balloon Game". We didn't have a whole lot of...well...anything growing up. There definitely wasn't money for extravagant birthday parties so my parents made up the balloon game and we didn't need anything else we loved it so much. You just tie a balloon to everyone's ankle and run around trying to pop everyone else's balloon by only stomping or sitting on it (no hands). All the kids had a BLAST!

Yesterday was Eden's actual birthday so we had a tiny little party with 2 of our close neighbors and of course, another cake...but homemade this time. That's on top of the pinkalicious cupcakes she had at preschool that day. And if you are a true fan of the Kigginsanity you know she also had a little cake on halloween with Grammy to celebrate her birthday. We're a little cake'd out now and still buzzing from our sugar high.

Now to conquer the world one sidewalk at a time

ps- The whole fam joined in Raleigh this weekend to go to the temple and participate in the sealing of my dad to his parents. Congratulations Dad!

Raleigh NC Temple, and baby Eden being held by Gram the year before she died.

HOWL-O-Ween

The kids were so excited for Halloween this year! Connor wanted to be a vampire (again) but kind of ended up looking like Eddie Munster. The moment his costume was complete he was in full character. He would run up to a house and knock on the door then pull his cape up over arm to cover his face so all you could see was his eyes, then yell "rawr" when the person would answer the door.... for EVERY house!

Now Edy was a little less in character. She was an adorable little pink poodle named "Fi-Fi". She took off the jacket though right after we took these pictures, so she just trick-or-treated in the pants and a little white shirt. She ran and danced up to and away from every house singing "twick-o-teat, twick-o-teat" but the moment we got up to the door she would freeze. Then the people would answer and as I'd coax her to say "trick-or-treat" she would whimper and cower her face into my legs so I would have to say it and hold out her bucket. It worked in my favor for most houses because they would tell her she could pick whatever she wanted, and when she wouldn't, I got to pick what I wanted! Time to start hitting the gym hard again.

She also kept calling the pumpkin bucket her "punkin patch"... "mommy, dey put candy in my punkin patch" ADORABLE!!

Connor kept saying that he was going to trick-or-treat the WHOLE night. We did a lot of the neighborhood before Eden just kept sitting down in the middle of the sidewalk refusing to budge. Thankfully we brought the wagon. Connor was a little bummed we had to stop but once he was up on Greg's shoulders you could see he was exhausted! Eden laid down in the wagon with her feet over the side and just rambled on and on.

One hilarious rambling Eden moment...

"I'm a little sleepy...

...I don't wanna go home...

...Connor's too big to sit here...

...We're lost."

Grammy came up for Halloween and also to bring Eden her birthday present. We'll be in Raleigh for her birthday and it's a little far for Grammy to travel. So since she'll miss the big party, we had a little one on Saturday for her. Grammy brought a cute little cake and everything for her. Eden was sooooooooo excited! And we had so much fun with her!

Thanks GRAMMY!!