What's a mama to do with 3 angels and hubbie when we're all snow bound, I mean ice bound?? For starters, be thankful that we are all HOME!!!

You see the week started out as a typical travel week for Brian. However, this time he headed to Indianapolis and encountered the first of three winter storms for the week. I think he saw more snow than he ever cares to see again! You can see a pic of his adventure here. After working all night Wednesday night, Brian received a call on Thursday from his boss Jeff telling him that he needed to get home if he was going to get here. Of course, we had discussed the possibility of Brian catching a flight a day early (he was scheduled to arrive back in LR on a flight Friday afternoon). However, there was a charge for this, and we weren't quite up for the added expense. Long story short, Brian was able to book a flight home on Thursday night. He got here about 3 or 4 hours before the freezing rain began.

The storm began as freezing rain before turning to sleet. I have to admit I have never seen that much sleet all at one time. My stars! It looked at like heavy, heavy rain; but it was anything but rain. We stayed in all day Friday. My only adventure out of the house was to toss recycling into the bin in the garage. To keep the angels from losing their halos, I baked some sugar cookies for them to decorate. I cut out heart shapes, and the girls added the sprinkles. What fun!

Mollie & Ellie show off their creations.

Annie is one of the happiest babies I have EVER seen, and I'm not just saying that because I'm her mama! I have people ask me all the time if she is this happy all the time. I always answer, "Why yes she is!" :) No sarcasm at all. ha! I am constantly finding her like this:
She puts a toy of some kind, sock, burp cloth, etc. in her mouth and just sits there. Often it is the foot of a baby doll. It is hilarious!! We had fun watching her at church Wednesday night. I think we were a little tired by this point. ha!

If you have the privilege of knowing my hubbie, you know that he HATES winter. I mean, he doesn't just dislike it, he detests it. He cannot stand to be cold (although he loves, loves, loves to wear his North Face jacket). He would much prefer to be at the beach. Keep in mind that he is from LA - Lower Alabama. He grew up 3 hours from the beach and far away from Northern winters. Well since his job is notorious for taking him all over especially to his territory, he is in Indianapolis until tomorrow and Chicago until Friday. A lot of the time, trips like this one mean that he is working all night long (11 pm to 5 am). Bless his heart! He had to drive in the snow and sleet to work last night and back to work this morning in the snow. The weather in Chicago should be a little better. However, we have a chance of snow/ice Thursday night into Friday. We are praying B can get home. I'm a little out numbered. :)

Brian's hotel in Indianapolis

Tonight as I tiredly headed to bed, I realized it had not been a good "Mommy Day." This is the first day in several weeks that I worked all day (all day being until 2:30 when I got in car line to get E). I have to admit I was excited to be back in the swing of things and working at my dad's office. He was on his way to Osceola, so it was just me. I don't often get to be alone in a quiet place. I listened to and sang along to Air 1. It was great. As I left the office, I made mental notes about what I need to do first when I get back in the office.

It was after I picked up the little girls (i.e. Mollie and Annie) from Britt and Ellie from school that our day began to go shall we say a little south. While I was baking chocolate chip cookies, Mollie pooped in the potty! Yes, there was much rejoicing! As a reward, I brought in "The Dollhouse." Mollie has been waiting and waiting to get to bring in the dollhouse. Our excitement was short-lived. While, E and M were checking out the new house, Mollie pooped her pull up. Really? I mean honestly! Not 2 minutes ago, I had said "Thank you Lord for reminding me all I had to do was to give this (our need to potty train completely) to you!" So, off to bed Mollie went for a nap. After she slept for a bit and Annie had had her dinner, we ran an errand and came home to make dinner and bathe the angels.

At this point, things were under control. Then, American Idol came on. I could slowly feel things beginning to digress...So, E was dancing around "twirling" a baton. M was bouncing around. Fortunately, A was in bed - PRAISE GOD! It wasn't that they did anything really bad. It was just that no one could seem to obey. If I said stop, they got louder or faster. I finally got the girls into bed when E started her new "thing." She has this little prissy attitude that just crawls all over me. My sweet little, helpful girl is turning into this big girl. ARGH!! After being really firm with her and telling her goodnight, I had the sense that the Lord wanted me to go back into Ellie's room and explain to her why I had fussed at her. As I sat on her bed explaining that God can't look at our sin, Ellie was response was, "You've told me that two times now."

REALLY??? Oh, it was all I could do to sit there. I couldn't make her understand the importance of respect and obedience. I'm praying that God will make me consistent and make me a better mommy so that I can teach Ellie and Mollie and Annie the way that they should go.

I have to be careful when I get frustrated with the kids. My fuse tends to be short, and I get really upset about even the smallest thing that isn't that big of a deal. I lose sight of "Is this childish behavior or rebellion." Things have been like for the last 18 months or so. I didn't think too much about it until about a year ago. I was officially diagnosed with anemia due to pregnancy. I had an iron infusion on Feb. 11, 2009 (my BF and I were in the hospital at the same time although she was delivering her baby James). It was either get the iron infusion or a blood transfusion. I felt like the iron infusion was the better choice. Since then, I have had several follow-up appointments with my hematologist Dr. Baltz. He originally thought that everything would be much better after Annie arrived. Unfortunately, it hasn't been better. About 3 weeks ago, I found out that my body is not making and storing the blood that it needs (aka iron). He put me on an iron supplement. I have no idea if it's working to solve the problem, but I do know that it has been enough to make me feel a little bit like me again. I can take on several tasks and actually get them accomplished. I don't feel like I'm going to loose it or that if I don't lay down I'm toast. I seem to be handling life a little better. The comment has been made that I don't seem to be able to get anything done. It's been hard to accomplishment tasks, to stay on-task and to just get done what needs to be done.

I'm praying that things will continue to improve and praying that tomorrow will be a better "Mommy Day."

Look at these faces! How could I not want to be a better mom?

If you read my blog on a regular basis, you know that I have been trying desperately to get caught up on my posts. This is the final post about our Christmas. (I know everyone is thrilled)All in all, we had 4 Christmas celebrations. It's kind of amazing now to think that we got to have Christmas 4 times! No wonder, my kids were bouncing off the walls. ha!!

Our final Christmas was delayed due to illness, but God was gracious and allowed us to celebrate over New Year's weekend. For the past few years, we have celebrated with the Luttrells and the Segars. Karen, Tammy and I are very close. I am so thankful for the ladies. They are amazing friends. I don't know what I would do without them! I hate that Karen is living in Tyler, but I am so thankful that she is only 4 1/2 hours away.

Karen, Tammy and I on New Year's Eve.

We celebrated on New Year's night. What fun!! Jeff grilled chicken for us - yummy!! We had a blast visiting and laughing and watching the kids have a great time.

Annie's first "snow" was on Monday, January 4th. Much to Ellie's chagrin there was not enough snow to cancel school although there were a few icy spots on the road. By the time we got home from work, the snow had stopped and was slowly melting off the grass. So much for Ellie's hope of making a snow angel! I didn't want Annie to miss out on the excitement of winter weather so we headed out to take a quick picture.

When Brian is out of town, I typically get the opportunity to get caught up on my blog. I guess it's times when I don't feel guilty about the house being a little wild or not perfectly tidy that I can focus on the blog and write! I love the blog and getting to share about our family and our lives. I love being able to share our successes and our struggles. Hopefully it will be an encouragement to someone.

Sunday morning, Bro. Jim focused on the verse from Jeremiah that we have all heard. It's Jeremiah 29:11....For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord.....His plans are to give us a future and a hope. As I sat there Sunday morning and listend to Bro. Jim's sermon and as I looked at the verse again on Monday, it was the portion of the verse that says HE wants to give us a future and a hope. He wants us to have hope. That is so amazing to me!

There is hope for my sweet friend Nadyne who is battling cancer. There is hope for my friend DeeDee who lost her mom and her brother. There is hope for our friend Craig who has been out of work since September. There is Hope. HE is our Hope! He is our future!

Just had to share....

After sprinking reindeer food out on Mimi and Papa Jim's front yard, Ellie and Mollie quickly scampered up the stairs and slid into their sleeping bags and drifted off to sleep after a little coaxing and a few reminders of what was to come if they would just go to sleep. The girls were asleep much faster than I ever anticipated. Annie took a little longer to drift off to dreamland and was up off and on all night. However, Santa still came and left lots of fun new toys for the Bennett Ladies. Ellie was the first to wake up, but Mollie had to be convinced to get out of the bed.

Ellie was just a bit more excited about everything than Mollie appeared to be. However, it didn't take too long to get everyone going. :) By the way, our tradition is for the kids to wait at the top of the stairs until the adults have confirmed that Santa did visit and until the adults are in place and have all cameras ready. It is pure torture.

Ellie shot down the stairs like a lightening bolt! Soon after we got the girls down to the den to check out their gifts, Kelsey joined us. Noah, Mandy, Josh, Mom and Papa weren't far behind. This was not Caleb & Stephanie's year to be with us, but they were greatly missed!

Christmas at Nannie & Pawpaw's on Christmas Eve is a relatively new tradition for us. We started this a couple of years ago, and now it is something we do each year. Rather than travel to Fayette to see Brian's Mamaw, Mamaw comes here to see us. We spend part of Christmas Eve afternoon with Brian's parents, enjoy a great Christmas meal (typically a non-traditional meal) and open gifts. The kids just about didn't make it until present time. They were just way too excited!

Mollie opening her Hannah Montana Tour Bus - she was very excited!

Noah welcomes Annie to her first Christmas cookie event.