Our Christmas Card

Once again I wasn't prepared completely for Christmas and didn't send out any Christmas cards. I wanted to send them out with a letter enclosed like most people do, but time got away from me and it never got done! So, I figured I would just put it all on here. Here goes our 2008 family recap:
New Year's 2008 was interesting. I was pregnant with Ashton and I had the flu along with Pyper and Jordan. It was not fun to be stuck at home, feeling miserable, missing work. It took about a week but we all got better. Then some other yucky virus came through the house like a week or two later and I was sick AGAIN, missing even more work! I finally got over all of that, went back to work and thought that things would move along as usual....NOT! On Feb. 10th, I was on my way to bed when I noticed police cars and a fire truck pulling into our apartment complex and I could hear a lot of people outside being a bit loud(not unusual for where we live) and I almost ignored it but I decided to check out what was going on instead. Well, our building was on fire. It was my worst nightmare come true....home alone with the kids and no way out except for one long drop to the ground from our third floor apartment. Obviously, we all made it out alive but very shaken up. It took a few days before I could go back to work. I was only back at work for 2 days when they announced that the project I had been working on was going away and we were only going to have jobs until the end of April. At this point, I was having issues with my pregnancy, I was having anxiety attacks at night due to the fire and couldn't sleep, Pyper and Jordan were having nightmares because of the fire, ect. I talked it over with Spencer and we decided that it would be okay if I left work to stay at home until Ashton was born. A good idea considering my doctor was concerned about the problems I was having with the pregnancy. I have to say that after being at home and on "bed rest" is not something I ever want to do again! I love my kids to death, but I don't think I could ever be a full time stay at home mom....I would go insane! I had a couple of overnight stays in the hospital durring my pregnancy which only hightened my anxiety. I was having contractions at 6 months and always really tired which I didn't experience with Pyper and Jordan. Despite my best efforts to carry Ashton to full term he came 3 1/2 weeks early. He was born on July 4th! We were happy to have him at home with us and very happy that he was pretty healthy considering how early he was and how small he was! I finally got back to work on September 2nd and I started training to be a technical support representative for Dell computers. I got all the way through 8 weeks of training, and A+ Certification just to be told that I was going to be laid off for two weeks and then I would start training for the new Verizon FiOS account that was coming. Dell's stocks had taken a turn for the worse so they downsized the project significantly. Spencer had been working the graveyard shift for Dell for just over a year and he was lucky enough to be one of the 60 people that they kept on the project. But because I was new I got booted over to Verizon and I had no other choice. The good part of the move to Verizon was that after completing training we would be given a $400 bonus for staying with the company through such tuff times. I was excited for that because it was going to be on the pay check two days before Christmas! I went through training and was getting more and more anxious for that bonus so that I could get Spencer his Christmas gifts. They were expensive so I had to wait for the bonus. Well, Spencer let his brother Joe borrow our car and he slid on some ice and hit a crub. I went to have the car aligned but was told at two different places that I needed to take it to a body shop. I went to the body shop and they told me that it would cost $490.02 to fix all the damage and that it wasn't safe to be driving my car. I got my bonus on Tuesday the 23rd and it was all gone and then some by Friday the 26th! On a good note, at least I can drive my car now without being scared that the wheel will come off or that I'll drop my engine in the middle of State Street! Christmas was....well...read my previous blog titled "Freakin' DRAMA" to hear about that day. The kids are all doing well and Spencer is happy that he still works for Dell. We hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year. We also pray that 2009 will be better for us than 2008....fingers crossed!!!

Freakin' DRAMA!!!

Christmas day was going quite well at our house until about 2:00pm. That is when I got a call from my mother in-law, crying, and asking me to go over to my brother in-law's house and ask if Christmas dinner was cancelled. I was a bit nervous about what I might walk into, but I went over to his house and knocked on the door. When he answered the door I asked him about Christmas dinner being cancelled and he said that it wasn't cancelled but asked if we could come at 5:00 instead of 4:00. I said sure and began to walk back home. As I was approaching my apartment I called my mother in-law to let her know that dinner wasn't cancelled and to show up at 5 instead of 4. Spencer's sister answered the phone and said that her mom had left in a hurry and was pissed as hell. It was then that I happen to look at the parking lot to see my mother in-laws car parked right in front of me. I went upstairs to find my mother in-law in tears and very upset. Spencer and I let her vent her frustrations for a while and then she went back home for a while until the Christmas dinner. After all of that I really didn't want to go have a Christmas dinner with a group of people that were all emotionally out of sorts, but we did anyway. I have to admit that it was pretty uncomfortable....to me at least. I do love my in-laws but I hate the drama. It was nice to let the kids play with their cousins for a little while and watch them open their presents from Grandma and Grandpa, but I was relieved when it was time to go home and put an end to one dramatic day! When I was growing up I always thought that my family was weird, nuts, insane, ect. but now that I'm married into another family I have realized that my family isn't as bad as I use to think they were! I miss them so much and I wish that I could have sent Christmas with them....less drama....actually, no drama AT ALL! That would've been nice! Anywho, Christmas is over until next year and then I guess the whole dang thing will start all over again, but I look forward to enjoying the break from it all for a while!!

It's Christmas at the Faulring's

On Christmas Eve, Spencer and I got the kids to bed early and made sure they were sound asleep before digging out all the presents that were hidden in our closet. I love playing Santa....so much fun! We didn't get to bed until after midnight, but that was okay because the kids actually slept in on Christmas day until about 8:00am. We watched the kids open their gifts...actually, Spencer got to watch them open things and help them with it while I had the camcorder in one hand and the digital camera in the other! I learned to multitask quite well. I was lucky this year because Spencer bought my Christmas present about a month ago(before the car issue), but Spencer wasn't so lucky. I got my bonus from work on Dec.23rd but it had to go to fix the car instead of getting the Nintendo Wii and the God of War red PSP set that I wanted to get for Spencer. Spencer gave me a beautiful journey necklace and a necklace and earring set that matched one he got for Pyper too! I have to say that I am glad that Christmas is done with until next year and I have won my closet space back for the time being!!!

CRAP!!!!!

So, I took the car in to get an estimate done. $490.02 worth of repairs need to be done. The rim on the front passenger tire is cracked and is very dangerous to drive on because it's about to come off! I need a new control arm and the ball joint and have the car aligned after that. The mechanic said that once all that stuff is in there and they align the car that it should adjust the sub frame(it holds the engine) back into place because that was also moved about 1/2 an inch out of place. If the repairs don't help the sub frame then they'll need to do more work. They ordered the parts today and will hopefully have them all on Friday so that I can take it in. I only have Tuesday and Friday off so there go my days off to get house work done! My house officially looks like a freakin' pig pin today and is probably just going to get worse. On a good note, I FINALLY got to meet Adelyn yesterday. Everything has been so crazy that I hadn't even had a chance to go see her. She's so adorable and a really good baby....she sleeps through all the noise that the other 4 kids were making(wish I could do that)! Anywho, my theme song for today is, "Bad Day" because it just fits!

Christmas Woes

So, Christmas isn't going to be as good as I had hoped. Spencer let his brother Joe borrow our car last week and Joe slid out on some black ice. Spencer didn't tell me about it, so when I got in the car last Sunday I noticed that the alignment was WAY off and I asked him about it. At first, he denied any knowledge of it. He later said that he wanted to see how mad I was before he told me what happened to it. I began to think that maybe someone hit our car in our parking lot because it's horrible to drive on when it's icy. Later, Spencer told me what had happened. He said that Joe promised to pay for any repairs and a new tire if we needed one. So, I took the car to Les Schwab to get it aligned and they said that they could do it because the sub frame was bent and so was the control arm. They referred me to a body shop. Joe showed up at Les Schwab when we were leaving and he was apoligizing and promising to pay us back for the repairs. I called two body shops in our area to see about how much it would cost to get it fixed and to set an appointment. One guy I called said that he had just done a car earlier that day with the same issues and it came out to be almost $500.00 and the other guy I called set up an appointment for me to bring the car in on Tuesday to get an estimate. I am just so pissed off becuase I was looking forward to using a $400.00 bonus that I get on Tuesday for some nice gifts for our family and a really nice one for Spencer and now that's probably not going to happen. I am just so freakin' upset right now I just needed to vent so.....there it is!!!

The Chirstmas Tree

So, last year we put a little 3 ft. tree on Christmas Eve and took it down the day after Christmas. The kids wouldn't leave it alone and so I thought that it would be nice to just put it up, put the presents under it, and then take it down. That worked out great. This year, Pyper started bugging me about putting up the tree on Thanksgiving day and I kept telling her to wait until we could all do it together. Spencer started telling her that we would put it up this weekend so we had to make good on his promise. We put the Christmas tree up pretty easily but then Jordan decided that he wanted to just eat all the candy canes off the tree. I think he had like 3 of them! Spencer handed him a candy cane to put on the tree but Jordan didn't understand so he just started tearing it open and eating it! It was so cute! Pyper was really happy to get all the ornaments on there and once it was turned on it looked alright. However, it has only been up for about 2 hours and Jordan has already tried eating one of the glass balls and then decided to keep taking the big red ones off....he thinks they're apples! I hope that Christmas comes quickly so that I can get this thing out of the living room and put away. Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, I just hate being the tree watcher! Pyper decided to go exploring in our bedroom and found one of Jordan's Christmas presents that we had left unwrapped and she saw the one that are already wrapped and wanted to know what they were. I told her that the wrapped boxes were just decoration boxes and that the Cars chair she saw was actually for Gage and Uncle Jon just wanted us to keep it here until Christmas! She's usually a good kid but she has become a bit curious lately which is driving me nuts!

Kaitlyn Practices Being A Big Sister

Jon dropped off Kaitlyn, Kaisa, and Gage while he went to pick up Bri and Adelyn from the hospital. Kaitlyn always wants to just hold Ashton so I let her hold him for a bit and he just sat there perfectly content and almost fell asleep! When Pyper holds him he screams, but he seemed to be at ease with Kaitlyn. She kept asking me when her dad was going to come back and take them home to be with mommy and the baby...she was so anxious to get home to her new little baby sister. When Jon came to pick the kids up they did their usualy hugs and kisses good bye. They see eachother frequently but they always give hugs and kisses. It was so cute that I thought I'd post some pictures that I took.

A New Faulring

On Wednesday night I couldn't get to bed until Spencer came home from work because Ashton wouldn't go to sleep. Spencer finally came home at about 12:30AM so I gave Ashton to him and went right to sleep. Then my phone started ringing at 2:30AM and it was my sister in-law, Bri. She called to say that her water broke and she wanted me to come over and sleep at her house with her 3 kids. I got up and told Spencer what was going on and left on my long journey to the other side of our apartment complex! I was a bit suprised how happy and perky Bri was considering she was probably in a bit of pain at this point. Jon and Bri left for the hospital after making sure that Barb, my mother in-law, could come over at about 6AM so that I could go to work. I finally fell asleep by like 3:30 or 4:00 on their couch. I woke up about three seconds before Barb came knocking on the door. I left there, went home, got dressed very quickly, put my contacts in, brushed hair and teeth, and went out the door to work! I was soooooooo tired today but I made it through work without falling asleep, amazingly! I got a text message from Barb at the end of my lunch break saying that Bri finally had the baby. Her name is Adelyn Grayce. She weighs 7lbs 1oz and was 20 1/2 inches long and born at 11:30AM. She had the cord around her neck three times but she was okay. I am very tired right now but I am going to watch Kaitlyn, Kaisa, and Gage tonight until bed time so that Jon can go back to the hospital with Bri. A pretty eventful day to say the least! Jordan was awake when I left my house at 2:30AM and was still awake when I came home at 6:00AM so poor Spencer didn't get any sleep either. WOW...what a freakin' day!

Picture Tag

Spencer's Cousin tagged me, but I didn't know it! The way it works: take the fourth picture from your fourth folder and post it and then tag four people to do the same and let them know that they've been tagged by posting a comment on their blog. This picture is from September. Pyper was in time out for some reason and making the most horrible face so I(being the kind mother that I am) decided to take a picture of it to use for "blackmail" when she starts dating. So, here it is. I tag Barbie, Lori, Amber, and Bri.

The Terrible Two's Totally Suck!

Spencer and I were woke up at 5:30AM by our door bell being rang. Spencer went to the door to find one of our neighbors standing at our door with Jordan. Apparently, Jordan got up and decided to go wondering around outside for fun. Our neighbor just happen to see him and knew which apartment we lived in and brought him home. That was so scarry and annoying at the same time, because I keep telling him that when he wakes up he needs to come get in my bed or wake me up and he just always shakes his head yes. So, with that drama over with I went to work. At about 10:15AM Spencer text messages me and says that Jordan drank baby Tylenol and to come home asap. So, I called Spencer from work to see if he thought that Jordan was okay, because I knew that there wasn't hardly any Tylenol left in the bottle. Spencer said that a lot of it was on the kitchen chair and a little bit on his pajamas. So, I went home on my lunch break to make sure that he was okay. He didn't even swallow enough to make him sleepy, his pupils weren't dialated, and his pulse was just fine. Now, I'm shopping online for a pet gate to put across our hallway because they lock into place and that way he can't get out anymore! I'm also going to the store today to buy some safety locks for our cabnets that he can reach with a chair....including the pantry! I love him to death but right now I don't know whether to be happy that he's alright or mad at him for what he's done...I'm kinda torn on that. Anywho, I'm thanking God right now that he's okay.

First time at Chuck E. Cheese

My neice Kaisa turned 3 on the 28th and my mother in-law turned 50. Since Barb isn't really into celebrating her own birthday we just had fun with Kaisa. Kaisa's birthday party was at Chuck E. Cheese's. I had never been there before and neither had the kids. I was so much fun to watch them play games with eachother and their cousins for a little bit. Pyper was too scared to go on the ride where you sit in a chair with a seat belt and go around in a circle until Jordan did it! Jordan has no fear and Pyper is scared of everything! Jordan freaked out when I put him in the red truck ride and it started to move back and forth and up and down. He almost jumped out of the thing. Luckily, I was standing right there to hold his hand for all of 5 seconds until he caught on to the fact that it was fun and safe! We got TONS of tickets while we were there and just had soooooooo much fun!

Thanksgiving with the Adams Family...OOPS! I mean the Faulring Family!

Thanksgiving with the in-laws is always very interesting. It's usually at Spencer's Aunt's house but they couldn't do it this year. I have to admit that I wasn't upset at all about that because I hate driving all the way up to her house and then have to chase the kids around all night to keep them out of things and keep them away from all the bigger kids so they don't get hurt. This year, Thanksgiving was a bit quieter than usual because there were only 8 people at my mother in-law's house as opposed to the 30-40 people that are usually crammed into Sandy's for Thanksgiving! Spencer's sister Tiffany and her daughter Kaydance were up here visiting from Arizona for the weekend, so Pyper and Jordan got to play with their misplaced cousin and Tiffany got to hold Ashton for the first time! It was fun.

Oh, how the time flies!

November has been a bit of a blur for me. I feel like Halloween was just a couple of days ago and then suddenly it was time for Thanksgiving and Christmas shopping! Pyper, my little helper, was giving me a break by vacuuming the floor. She also decided to make Daddy "prettier" by giving his face some color! Jordan even sat still for like two seconds so that I could catch a picture of him with his look alike Daddy!

Happy Halloween!

Apparently, I'm a party pooper! I didn't get a costume for Halloween so I just went as myself. Isn't that scary enough?! Anyway, I did get to go around the neighborhood with Freddy Krueger, a black cat, and Blue's Clues! It was fun for about an hour but the kids started just whinning and crying and getting on our nerves so we stopped after an hour of trick or treating. They still got a lot of candy even though we only went for an hour. I love these pictures!

My first attempt at carving!!!

So, I've never carved a pumpkin before and it shows! The poor pumpkin even lost a tooth because I so totally suck at this! I also learned that I can't draw free hand on ANYTHING! Next time we'll use stencils and I'll let Spencer do this!! But it was fun.

Pyper and Jordan Gut the Pumpkin!

So, we've never had a pumpkin before....EVER! This year we got a pumpkin because Pyper wanted to carve one. I told her that she could clean it out and I would attempt to carve it. I say attempt because I've never carved a pumpkin before this! The kids had a blast getting all the yucky guts out and we roasted the seeds later for a treat! Ashton just got to chill out on the floor while we made a mess!

School Pictures!

Pyper just got her pictures back and I just love them! She looks like she's just been caught doing something that she wasn't suppose to!

Pyper says, "No" to drugs!

So it was drug free week at school. Pyper came home and began telling me how bad drugs are and that she'll never do them(fingers crossed)! Pyper is loving school.

Jordan's black eye!

So instead of going to bed the other night, Jordan and Pyper decided that it was time to play instead. So Jordan fell onto a stool that was laying upside down in their room and scratched his face on it and gave himself a black eye. You can't see it very well in the picture but it looks horrible! You'd think that he'd learn to listen after that, but NO....they're in there playing again instead of going to sleep. Go figure!

Angry Ashton!

Ashton has developed this aweful habit lately of just crying almost the whole time he's awake. He wants to be held 24/7 so I have to just let him cry sometimes so that he doesn't get use to just being picked up all the time. He turns "apple red".

It's been a long month!

September has been a crazy month around here. I went back to work and I have to be there at 6:00 am so that really sucks! Pyper has been moved from a small group kindergarten to regular kindergarten so she has a ton of homework to get done. Jordan is doing the most work though. We removed the sliding rail from the crib to get him use to being in a bed without it. Now, he just gets out of bed like 50 times at night instead of just going to sleep. Also, he's been trying to potty train. I decided to finally buckle down on that b/c he pooped on my couch today! We alos replaced our dying television with a really nice one! I love it. Other than all of that.....we are doing just fine and feeling perfectly "sane"! LOL!!!

My baby is getting so big!

Wow! It's amazing how quickly these kids grow. Ashton is getting bigger and bigger every day. He's very alert and friendly. He's a really good baby.....thank heaven!

Pyper's Fall Fashion

Our baby starts kindergarden on August 25th! We did some back to school shopping and got her a whole bunch of new clothes to go with her new hair cut.

Pyper's photos

Pyper decided that she wanted to take a couple of pictures. First, she wrapped Spencer up like a mummy. That was quite entertaining! She wanted to take a picture of Mommy and Daddy together and she didn't do too bad of a job.

Adapting to having three children!

At 1:00 a.m. today I woke up to feed Ashton, like normal, but quickly found that it wouldn't prove to be as easy as usual. I made a bottle for Ashton and then I heard Jordan screaming in his room. So, I went in and tried to get him to go back to sleep. I left his room and he started screaming again, so I took him out of his crib and put him in my bed and told him to go to sleep. He was wide awake and wanted to play with the baby since Ashton was wide awake as well. They both seem to calm down a bit so I left the room to put Ashton's bottle in the sink when Pyper comes into the kitchen complaining of a headache! Then I ended up with ALL THREE in my bed and WIDE AWAKE! Spencer had the night off so I told him to go spend some time with his friends (they're all grave yard workers like him) so he was gone. I just love Pyper's headache picture....she looks horrible!

Took me long enough!

I finally learned how to get pictures from my phone to my computer! These are a couple of my favorite pictures that I had on my phone. The one of him in the car seat was taken while I was waiting for Spencer to pick us up from the hospital to go home. The other picture was taken when he was five days old.