God's Handiwork

I stumbled across this interesting information about the Surinam Toad last night. I know I just posted today about Christmas...but I couldn't wait to share this with you. I am amazed and think you will be too.


First the male toad helps the female toad put all the eggs on her back:




Then the skin on the "mommy" toad's back grows around the eggs to conceal and protect them. They go through the tadpole stage UNDER her skin.

Then once they have become baby toads, they emerge from the holes on her back.


This awesome youtube video captures it best:


(I found these pics/video at a blog called origami 'n stuff 4 kids by Tammy Lee)

The Twelve Days of Christmas

On days 4 through 12, we were REALLY busy! Here are the best pics of Christmas '09 in our house:






























And it went something like this:

12 kid movies rented (to let me get my Christmas prep done)

11 cups of birdseed (to make pinecone bird feeders)

10 loads of laundry (sitting in my closet all week)

9 NEW gray hairs

8 broken ornaments

7 cousins to buy for and LOVE ON!

6 Family Christmas Parties

5 lbs gained
4 lost presents (gone forever!)

3 kid music programs

2 Tired parents

and

1 VERY DEAD Christmas Tree

(and peace and blessings to you and yours)

The Twelve Days of Christmas

On the third day of Christmas, I will do a little "show and tell".

Last night (after my long day) I stole away to Ross Dress for Less in town. I found this sweet nightgown for one of Ruby's gifts from us this year.



And they have more people - $6.99 and a few different sizes!!! I think it doubles as a dress-up dress too!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

On the second day of Christmas, I was going to give you the following advice - but my day was TOO busy, and I never got to it.

SOOOO, catching up here:

During this crazy busy time of year - please remember "That everything will turn out okay in the end".

Anyways, it did for me yesterday. You see, Ruby swallowed Daphne's pearl ring (cheapy version) on last Saturday. She choked on it, swallowed it whole and then threw up some afterward....no ring though. The on-call doc said not to worry too much, but to call on Monday am and make an X-Ray appointment. I did worry a bit all weekend, and drug all three kids into the pediatrician's after school on Monday. After reviewing the picture:), the very jovial doctor told me that it looked clear, so either she already "passed it" or will. He said I probably wouldn't notice it and don't go "a-diggin" either.

He also told me some crazy stories about these sort of things. The worst one was a child swallowing and "passing" a pocket knife!!! And the funniest one was how he slowly pulled a brontosaurus sponge out of a toddler's nose. He had stuck one of those disolvable tablets up his nose and the dino sponge grew way up there...Yuck!

Best part of the day was actually seeing the pearl ring in Ruby's diaper later that day. It actually was a relief.

Point and gift from me to you - No matter how busy we are...our little ones are going to keep us on our toes...Take a deep breath (my own counsel here), pay the x-ray fees and co-pay...kiss your child and move on with your day! And most likely....everything will turn out in the end - ha!

The 12 Days of Christmas

On the First Day of Christmas (Dec. 12)

I give my blog readers a great holiday movie recommendation:

I give my blog viewers a great holiday movie recommendation:

You won't be sorry!

Enjoy:)

Cuttin' Down the Tree

This year was the first year in many that we did not go to a Christmas tree lot in town. The last year that we drove out into the country to cut one at a tree farm, involved Mike carrying a tree, an axe and Daphne all at once. That's the story anyway, and I can't remember where I was...maybe I had a newborn in a bjorn...who knows. So, this year, we didn't set out for a Clark Griswald adventure or anything, but there was an axe involved. And I wanted the girls to pick our tree.

It was a beautiful day! I got some great pictures. The girls even picked out a little wee one for their loft upstairs.

The part of this story though, that I must record, because it so sums up my life right now is that it sat in our living room, in tree stand and all, BARE for NINE sad days. Every day I would say, tonight is the night. The problem was that I envisioned kids in bed, Mike in the office maybe, and me watching White Christmas, hopefully with some sort of warm winter drink and lots of energy. The last part happens rarely lately, so it just got put off.

It finally got "decked" the other night, after I peeled myself off the couch around 9ish. It wasn't a dream like moment, but I did get a second wind and it turned out pretty. I ended up watching The Rookie...go figure.

I should have taken a picture of my red gingham/stripes/polka-dotted theme tree...but that too, takes some energy. Another post...