A Very Busy Weekend...

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.  I'm still trying to peel my boys off the wall :)

Here's a run down of how my weekend started...

I get home wednesday to find Carson ill as a hornet.  He was fussy, coughing and pulling at his ears, snot was pouring out of his little nose, his eyes were all red and swollen so needless to say we made a trip to the Urgent Care that night.  We officially have our first ear infection, which I think is pretty good since he's 8 months old.  Landon already had tubes in his ears by this time.  They gave him a antibiotic and cough medicine and sent us on our way.  We decided to stay home the next day even though we were suppose to go to my Granny's and have her AWESOME breakfast (I'm still bummed about that might I add)

On Christmas morning Eugene and I get up and wake the boys up so they can see what Santa brought.  Eugene picks Landon up out of bed and sets him on the floor in the hallway and he immediately starts crying "My leg hurts, my leg hurts".  I thought maybe he had slept on it wrong or that his foot was asleep or something, but the more I watched him the more concerned I became.  He began to limp and as the day went on it became worse.  I was trying to think of something that he had done to have maybe injured it but nothing came to mind.  Around 6:15 that night he could hardly walk and my mom said that his leg looked twisted from the knee down.  She met me at the ER and they did x-rays and took some blood, both came back fine except for his sedimentation rate, which I think has to do with inflammation or something like that.  It was pretty elevated.  The doctor asked me if he had been sick recently and I told him that he has been fighting a cold for several weeks now.  He checks him out and he has bilateral ear infections and sinus infection.  He then proceeds to tell me that he has a viral infection in his hip joint due to the infection in his head.  Wierd I know.  Apparently he has had this infection for some time and it never became anything more to me than a runny nose and slight cough, nothing a little OTC medicine could fix, right?  WRONG!  The ER doctor referred me to an orthopedic doctor for a follow up. 

So today I consult Dr. Dueland about the whole situation and he tells me that it should fix itself within 7-10 days and if it gets any worse or starts to recur when he's sick to call him.

Thankfully both Landon and Carson are back to their normal selves and we can ring in the New Year with Healthy babies :)

Wow!  I've been MIA for quite some time haven't I.  Sorry about that, things have been kinda of crazy with all the holiday gatherings we have to attend.  The boys are getting SOOOOO excited about Santa coming. They ask me or Eugene everyday..."How many more days til Santa gets here?"  It's so sweet to see how excited they get this time of year. 

Eugene and I were talking and reminiscing about our favorite childhood memories of Christmas and we both agreed that it's kind of sad that since we are older that we don't have that excitement anymore.  I mean don't get me wrong we absolutely LOVE to see the look on our boys faces when they wake up on Christmas morning to see what Santa has brought and being with our wonderful families but the hussle and bussle of the holiday season takes it toll on both of us.  Between worrying about where we are going to go and what time we have to be there and what day we're going to have it and not to mention the financial burdens that goes along with it makes me dread this holiday most of all and that really upsets me because it's not about who got this present or how much it cost, it's about a tiny little baby who came into this world and unselfishly gave his life for all of us.  The thought of that simply amazes me! So as you're spending time with your loved ones and enjoying all the gifts your received and seeing the excitement on your children's faces please take a moment to remember the greatest gift of all...Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour

I truly love you all and hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!!!!!

i'm just sayin'

Ok, so to be quite honest I didn't expect the Tide to wash out the Gators as easily as they did but boy am I glad they did!  They played their hearts out and I'm so proud of them.  Pasadena here we come!!!!!

Now as for Tebow...I have never been a fan of yours.  But honestly, I wasn't prepared to watched you cry your eyes out on national television.  At first I kinda felt sorry for you (just a tincy wincy bit)

I mean I know it is your Senior year and all but really, sobbing your eyes out in front of the entire country was a bit much don't cha think?

It's not like you're never going to play football again.  We all know you're going to play in the NFL and will be making ridiculous amounts of money so let's dry up the tears ok.

Here are a few of my favorite from when Rachel took the boys pictures

I feel like Carson and Hayden are saying to Landon "Um don't you know we're suppose to be sitting still taking pictures?"

Ricko Suave'

This is how they are 99.9% of the time at home

handsome little man

Trouble with a capital T

It was VERY Sunny that day, can you tell?

Pure Joy!

Here are a few pictures from this weekend that I thought I'd share.  As I was feeding Carson, the meatloaf I was cooking was letting me know it was ready to come out of the oven so Landon decided to take over the mommy role for me.

Here's Carson looking at me as if he is saying "Are you sure he's qualified to do this?"

"Ok if you say so mommy, here goes nothing!"

"I can't look, is it in my mouth or not?"

Just so you know he survived the 5 minutes of "torture" given to him by his brother and lucky for me I've found a new "mommy stand-in" if the need ever arises again.

Sick little ones...

With all the crazy change in weather we've been having lately my 3 little men aren't feeling so well.  Nothing serious just the usual runny nose, cough and puffy eyes.  I had already made Landon an appointment to see his ENT doc to have his ears cleaned out (did I mention my children have some MAJOR wax issues, it's a problem, really)  We usuaslly have to go every 6 months to have Landon's ear done.  I'll spare you the details of what all comes out of those tiny little ears.  It could make Stephen King shiver.

Anyway, we get the ears all squeeky clean and being the nice doctor that she is she asked if anyone else in the family is sick and when I told her yes she graciously gives me samples out the whazoo and a script to go along with it, not to mention and discount card for the Allegra that will save me up to $240 a year!!! 

When it came time for the med this morning Hayden and Carson took it without complaint but Landon was a different story.  The medicine is a little white chewable tablet that "dissolves" in your mouth and is suppose to taste like "orange cream".  Now I've never seen an orange that had cream in it so I'm guessing it takes like a dreamcicle popcicle, which I've never been a fan of so I was a little more understanding that he didn't want to take it.  I decided that since it is suppose to "dissolve" in your mouth that I would put it in some apple juice and get him to drink it that way.  WRONG!  He took one sip and said  "UGH mama this has medicine in it!" and began to cry. My attempt had failed so I chalked it up to another loss and decided to give him another OTC med that I had in the cabinet.  By the time I get back into the living room I hear Hayden talking to Landon...

Hayden:  Hey buddy, it's ok.  Your juice doesn't have medicine in it.  Just try another sip ok.

Landon takes another sip...

Landon:  Mmmm, you're right it's good.  It don't got no medicine in it.

Hayden:  See I told you, now drink it all gone ok buddy.

And that he did, to the very last drop. 

It's sweet really if you think about it, the bond that brothers have, but why do they insist on driving their mother crazy first before they decide to do what was asked of them in the beginning? 

UGH!  I need a Zanax! ; )

My first crafty creation...

As we all know Christmas is just around the corner and I love decorating my house for Christmas and seeing the boys faces when they come in and see the tree for the first time each year.  It makes me excited just seeing how excited they are this time of year. 

Since our family is growing by leaps and bounds I decided to make some ornaments for Christmas presents and this is what I came up with...

for my AU fans out there.

It's kinda hard to tell by this picture but there are tiny little orange polka dots all over it as well along with the recipient's name on the other side.

I think it needs a little oomph so I'm thinking about adding some orange polka dot ribbon along with the blue gingham ribbon to give it a little more pizzaz.

This one is my favorite of course ROLL TIDE!

I think the houndstooth ribbon makes the whole thing even better.

and these are for all those sweet little princesses out there.  I can't show too much since they are gifts but I hope you enjoy.  They are SUPER easy to make and very reasonably priced.  All the Christmas items including the ribbon was 50% off at Hobby Lobby so I got 2 12 count glass ornaments, 4 spools of ribbon and paint for around $10.  SCORE!!!!!!!!!

Halloween pics 3 weeks late

I know I know I'm a terrible mother for not posting Halloween pictures until nearly Thanksgiving but let's face it I'm a mom of three who rarely has time to breath much less keep up with my blog in a timely manner so I apologize for the delay but I hope you enjoy anyway.

This year we only went to grandparents houses and the Trunk or Treat at church, cause you know I'm all about one stop shopping when it comes to three rowdy boys.  It's easier to just get them out once instead of having to load in and out every 5 minutes especially when you have awkward costumes that don't necessarily "fit" into a car seat.

Here are my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a Monkey

(they didn't go trick or treating barefoot by the way)

Sweet Sweet Rachel

Saturday I had asked my cousin Rachel to take some pictures of the boys for my christmas cards.  She does AMAZING work and I was so excited about the shoot.  We went to her mother-in-laws house which has the most beautiful yard and she had piled up a bunch of leaves for the boys to sit in.  As soon as they saw the pile of leaves it was over...they start running and jumping through the leaves like little heathens.  Their nicely ironed shirts and pants were now untucked and covered in dirt.  My eye was beginning to twitch a bit.  I think she got some good shots of Hayden and Carson but Landon was a different story.  The child would NOT sit still for anything in the world, not even a sucker that Rachel bribed him with.  If he ever did sit still for a split second he never would look directly at her.  I was so embarrassed!  But even with all the chaos going on Rach was very calm and professional, at least on the outside, she may have been screaming on the inside like I was. : )  Thank you Rachel for your hard work, I can't wait to see the results!

Just a picture of my Bama Boys from this past weekend.

ROLL TIDE ROLL!!!!!!

Butterbeans....

So last night I had planned on cooking some BBQ pork chops and asked the boys what they would like to have with it.  Here's the conversation I had with Hayden...

Me:  Hayden I'm cooking BBQ pork chops for supper, what do want to go with it?
Hayden:  Umm...do you have any macaroni and cheese?
Me: Yes
Hayden:  Ok, I want macaroni and cheese and (long pause)....green beans.
Me: Ok, macaroni and cheese and green beans it is!

Hayden:  No, wait a minute, I don't want green beans, I want brown beans.
Me:  Brown beans?  Like baked beans or pinto beans?  (I showed him what I meant by showing him the can)

He looks at the cans closely and says...

Hayden:  No, I don't want little brown beans I want the big brown beans, you know the ones that taste like butter.

Of course!  I knew exactly what you meant son ; )

So after all that how could I not make my baby some butterbeans.

No wonder boys have cooties!

I have said this once and I will say it as long as I live.....Boys are a breed all their own!!!!  On the way to Me-Maw's this morning Landon noticed something in Carson's ear (ear wax, poor thing has a serious problem with some waxy ears).  Anyway this is the conversation that takes place in the car

Landon: EEEEWWW!!!! Carson has doo doo in his ear!
Me: It's not doo doo Landon it's ear wax.
Landon: No it's doo doo mama.
Me: No it's not Landon, it's ear wax.  I'll clean it out as soon as we get to me-maw's

Now where this next statement came from I'll never know...

Landon: We don't eat doo doo mama
Me: That's right Landon, we don't eat doo doo
Hayden: We don't eat boogers either do we Landon (I guess implying that Landon has eaten his boogers)
Me: Landon do you eat boogers?
Landon:  Yep!

I was trying to control the gag reflex...

Me: Landon we don't eat boogers, that's disgusting and nasty and germy!
Landon: Nu Uh, it's good!

I was speechless.

Love to all!

Have you ever had one of those days?

Have you ever had one of those days where God reminds you of who is in charge? That happened to me this morning. Life with 3 little boys is hectic in itself without me adding to the mix. It was a struggle getting up this morning knowing how cold it was outside. I just wanted to stay snuggled in my bed all day so needless to say I hit the snooze a couple of time and got up about 20 minutes later than I normally do. Bad mistake. I get my shower and get ready for work, wake up Hayden and fix him breakfast (an egg and cheese biscuit, his favorite). He's sitting on the couch eating and watching cartoons and I notice he's barely touched his biscuit. I asked what was wrong and he all but has a meltdown "I don't like it when the cheese is melted, it tastes nasty." Are you kidding me? Although, I don't know why I was suprised by this comment, this is a child who doesn't like cool whip (weird I know, I wonder sometimes if he's actually my child). I said ok then you're getting cereal. Once he finished he got dressed, I changed Carson and put them in the car. Now, if any of you out there have been around my middle child long enough you know that his mood can change at the drop of a hat. I like to call him Sybil and Papa calls him Oscar for Oscar the Grouch. My plan is to get him out of the bed wrap him up in a blanket and take him to the car in his jammies since I'm already running late (and yes I'm aware that it's my fault I'm running late). So I get Oscar out of bed and whisper in his ear that he can wear his spiderman jammies to memaws and then it happens...the whaling begins "no, I want to wear clothes to memaws!" and blah blah blah the story goes on. We FINALLY get to my mother-in-laws house and I take Oscar inside, by this time he's fine and forgotten all about wanting to wear "clothes", I go back to the car to get Carson out and as I'm getting him out I set his diaper bag on the trunk of my car. All of a sudden I hear the sound of glass breaking and I thought to myself "what the heck was that?" I look back and the diaper bag has fallen off the trunk of my car and Carson's milk which was in a glass container (don't ask me why I put in a glass container) has busted all over the driveway. At this point my eye has began to twitch and I'm about to cry. I take a deep breath, clean up my mess and tell my MIL that I'll be right back. I go BACK home, pack another bag and take it back to my MIL's house. It is now 7:42. The school bell rings at 7:35 and Hayden has begun to panic a little because he knows that the bell has already rang. As I'm trying to hurry and get him there on time he says to me "oh know, I left my snack bag at home" Really? So then we have to make another pit stop and get him a snack. We made it to the school at 7:54. After he got out of the car I breathed a sigh of relief. So as I'm driving to work I realized that God IS in control of our lives and we need to let Him be in control. When life makes you frazzled and you want to pull your hair out go to Him and He will make it ok.

You win some you lose some...

Well the Cullman Cyclone Fireplug football team had a losing season to say the least. Bless their hearts they didn't win a single game except for their Jamboree game. No matter how hard they played they came up short every single time. But the ironic thing is that no matter how bad they got beat every single player came off that field with a smile on their face knowing they did the best they could do and that they had a blast doing it. As parents we want our children to succeed and know the feeling of succeeding and to be a good sportsman about it, but children have a funny way of teaching adults a life leasson in that it does not matter if you win or lose it's how you played the game and knowing that you did the best you could do. There wasn't a single game where Hayden came to me with a frown on his face saying "we lost mom", it was always "did you see me snap the ball?" or "did you see me tackle that guy?". He's winner in his own eyes and in ours for knowing he did the very best he could do. I'm so proud of you Hayden!

Happy Birthday Hayden!

As I sit here this morning I'm wondering where the time goes. I can vividly remember bringing my first born home from the hospital and it literally seems like yesterday. I recall the events of that day, the anxiety, the nervousness, the excitement of meeting this little miracle that has grown inside of me for 9 months and the selfishness that I had knowing that I would soon have to share him with everyone else :) The day was long, Eugene and I arrived at the hospital at 11:00 p.m. the night before and our sweet little boy was born at 8:02 p.m. the next night by an emergency c-section. Now when I say emergency I mean emergency. The nurses wheeled me out of my L&D room at 7:53 and he arrived 7 minutes later. I was to say the least overwhelmed by everything that was going on. Nurses and O.R. techs are running around like chickens with their heads cut off (I've always hated that saying but that's exactly what they looked like) and I'm starting to freak a bit. I think they may have forgot about Eugene because when they finally asked him to come in he comes and stands by by head and says "Your stomach is ripped wide open". Gee thanks hon, how sweet of you to tell me that. A few minutes later Hayden Eugene Stancil arrived into the world weighing in at 7 lbs. 11 oz. and 21 inches long. There is NOTHING in this world like hearing your baby's first cry. I immediately started to cry myself and as I look at my husband with tears rolling down his cheeks he says to me "I love you, thank you for giving us this miracle baby." How sweet! Happy 6th Birthday Hayden! You are loved far beyond your imagination.

The No Name Saint...

Have you ever had one of those days where if it weren't for guardian angels watching over you you would surely lose your mind? Yesterday was one of those days for me. We get home and Hayden and I get out of the truck and I go around to get Landon out. Hayden closes his door and I close Landons door and walk around to the other side of the vehicle to get Carson out........the doors locked! I didn't panic at first, I calmly tried to open my door and it's locked as well. By this point I'm feeling a little sick at my stomach so I walk to the other side and try those doors, all locked. No worries I'll just call the locksmith and see if he can come unlock the door...oh yea that's right my purse is locked inside the truck along with my house keys and my phone, great! Now I'm panicking. Luckily my sister-in-law lives nearby and I had Hayden go to her house bring me her phone. I call the locksmith and explain that I've locked my 5 month old baby in the car and he arrives in record time (less than 5 minutes). By the time he gets there it is coming a torential down pour. The sweet guy parks his van gets out and has the door open in about 30 seconds. I get Carson out of the truck and he has been asleep the entire time, which was good cause if he had been crying wanting out I would have probably broken out a window or something. So I get the boys in the house and grab my purse to pay this sweet man who came to the rescue of one freaked out mama and as I head back outside he waves and says "have a nice evening" as he runs back to his van in the pouring rain. I said "but wait, what do I owe you?" he looks back and smiles and says "you don't owe me anything ma'am". AHH, What a nice guy. There's a special place in heaven for that man I'm sure of it. But don't think I'm not going to repay him. I've got a special goodie basket in store for him with his name on it, if only I knew what his name is. I guess I'll be making a special delivery to Cullman Locksmith this afternoon. ;)

The flu, haircuts and indescent exposure

Well, I finally went to the doctor Tuesday after having a fever and body aches for 3 days and I found out I had the flu! He told me I was only the 3rd person he had seen that had the symptoms and actually tested positive for it. Great! I feel so special! If any of you have never been tested for the flu let me just fair warn you...it's not fun. I should have known something was up when the nurse said "You're not going to like me after I do this test". He explained to me that he would have to swab up inside my nose in order to do the test. So I jokingly say "So if I gag and squirm around like a child you won't think anything of it will you?" and he replies with a grin on his face "That's how I know I'm in the right spot"....did he really just say that? Sure enough he pokes this flexible q-tip thing up my nose and I swear there was brain matter on the end of that thing when he pulled it out! My eyes watered for what seemed like hours. The important thing is that I'm better now, Thank the Lord! Hayden and Landon were in desparate need of haircuts so Eugene takes them to a different place than he normally does (why I don't know) and they both come back looking like G.I. Joe I kid you not. They won't need a haircut for a WHILE! Poor Hayden gets up this morning and cries because he wants to wear a hat to school today and I explain to him that he can't wear caps at school and he looks at me with those big brown eyes and rubs the back of his hair or what's left of it and says "But mom, I can't go to school with my hair like this" I felt so sorry for him although he didn't mind it looking like that all during the weekend. Go Figure! As far as the indescent exposure story goes I was completely and utterly embarrassed! Hayden's football game was at Fairview Saturday so we all trucked it over to Aggie Land. I had taken Carson to moms because it was just too hot to take him out there to the game. So anyway, Eugene is sitting at the top bleacher so he can video the game and I was sitting a few rows down and Landon is climbing up back and forth all over the place. Obviously neither of us are paying any attention to him because I see this lady sitting down from me and she's turned around looking back at where Eugene and Landon are and she is busting a gut laughing so hard so I turn around and what do I find....my 3 year old son with his shorts and underwear down by his ankles peeing in the bushes behind him! Luckily all you could see was his white butt. I have never wanted to crawl under a rock more than at that very moment. Thankfully everyone around thought it was hilarious and we didn't get thrown out of the game ;) Boys will be Boys.

Sick Mama...

Well as most of you know Landon was sick all last week but thankfully he is much better now, he did however decide to his mama a gift...his crud! Isn't that sweet of him? I thought it was. Granted I would much rather be sick than any of my babies be sick but seriously I haven't been this sick in a LONG time. I didn't even make it out of the bed on Sunday. Luckily I have an amazing husband who took excellent care of me. Hayden and Landon went to stay the night at Papa and Nana's so Eugene doped me up on chicken noodle soup, orange juice, cough drops and Robitussin. What a guy huh? Although the body aches have subsided I still feel like I've been hit by a Mack truck. Going to the doctor today to see if we can nip this stuff in the bud. Love to all!

What have I done?

As you can see I have NO idea what I'm doing. I tried to the cute little Lilypie things and never could get all three to come up on the side so I though I would "post" them to see if that would work and this is what has happened. UGH!

Lilypie - Kids Birthday ticker code selection

Lilypie - Fourth Birthday ticker code selection

Lilypie - Fourth Birthday ticker code selection: ""

Lilypie - First Birthday ticker code selection

Lilypie - First Birthday ticker code selection: ""

Sick Little Guy

So Landon has been sick now for the past 3 weeks and none of the OTC meds were helping so I took him to the dr. yesterday and found out he has asthmatic bronchitis, which seems kinda weird since he's never been diagnosed with asthma, but whatever. He sent us home with 3 different prescriptions...a decongestant, an antibiotic, and a steroid. He told me to go ahead and give him a dose of everything as soon as I could so we left the dr's office about 1230, got the meds filled and were on our way home. Poor little guy fell asleep and didn't wake up till 3:30. So I go ahead and give him his medicine and after he takes it I realize that the steroid instructions say " Take 1 teaspoon by mouth every MORNING for 4 days". By this time it's 4:00 in the afternoon. This child was WIRED and bouncing off the walls literally for the rest of the night. It was 11:00 before he went to sleep. Note to self: there's a reason why you should ALWAYS read the instructions before administering drugs to your children no matter what your dr. tells you.

I have entered the blogger world!!!!

I have been wanting to do a blog for a while now but never really thought I had the time or the patientce to do one, but after much thought and persuation from fellow bloggers I am going to attempt it. YIKES! Be patient as I will be learning as I go. Hopefully soon I'll learn how to download pictures of the boys for you all to see.