The Collings Family

I spend so much time on this blog doting on Eliza and tuckering about Tucker that I sometimes fail to mention my little angel Eden. We had a fantastic, very busy week together. Here's a little review: She finally lost her first front tooth. She tried so hard to keep it in her mouth to lose at school so that she could get the special "tooth necklace" from her teacher. It however came out in her mouth Monday morning while she was eating breakfast. Tuesday we had the 1st grade music concert. Have you ever seen so many 1st graders? She got to play the xylophone. Boy does that girl have rhythm! Tad isn't working anymore, so we pawned him off on Eden. We went with a group of friends to High School Musical. Similar to the movie~HOWEVER, they actually KISS in this one! Last but not least~One of Eden's favorite activities is playing hair salon while I read her a book. We finished Prince Caspian tonight which she topped off with a "grand finale" hairdo. Luke na...

Last night at 10:00 PM Tucker woke up, ran downstairs and was on his way out the door when I finally caught him. I asked what he was doing and he replied , "It's time to do my skating now mama." As you can see, Tuck has a new sport~skating naked. We were lucky to get the first shot with the diaper on. "I'm doing my skating now mama" I guess he rollerblades naked too. gotta love the pink blades!

One of the things I really wanted for Mother's Day this year was a picture of me with my children.OK, I really should have thought of something less stressful: "Come here Tucker" "There's a piece of candy on the chair" "Say, Thomas the train I love you" "Please come back..." "No more pictures for me" Thanks to Dave for his patience, we did get some decent shots. I must write for the record how grateful I am to be a mother. There is nothing on earth I would rather be doing right now. I honestly love them so much. Thank you NB, I just had to steal this from your blog: Somebody said it takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you’ve had a baby. That Somebody doesn’t know that once you’re a mother, “Normal,” is history. Somebody said you learn how to be a mother by instinct That Somebody never took a three-year-old shopping. Somebody said you don’t need an education to be a mother. That Somebody never helped a fourth ...

It is time this blog gets a facelift! I know it is not "in season" but I don't think I want to update my widgets for at least another year. Dave and I just got back from a weekend cruise with some friends on the NCL. We got a small taste of what a real cruise was like and that was all it took. We are already planning the next, much longer one. It might be 10 years before we do it, but it is fun to plan nontheless.

I just spent the last 4 days in Chicago and had the BEST time. I love my family dearly, but hello--I haven't been away by myself in 4 years. This is my third time in the city but first as an adult. It is such a beautiful city with so much history. The highlight of the trip was "Wicked"---it is a MUST see. The downer of the trip was "Oprah". I am going to boycott her FOR LIFE. You have no idea how hard it is to get into that show. We had eight people on the lines the day the ticket counter opened and tried for 3 DAYS to get through. When that failed, we sent 8 emails into last minute registration. When that failed we woke up at 5:00 am after only two hours of sleep to go and wait in an eternal line just to hear "they never take walk-ups" and to please call in or email. HELLO, we did all of the above plus some. They told us they liked our "moxie" and to come back for the second taping. So, we go back and wait for another hour or so in line with...

Tucker walked up to Dave last week and asked him about the 'R' on his pants. I said yeh right and dismissed it as a fluke--he's only two. However, this last week he's all of the sudden become obsessed with letters. I guess I should stop feeling so bad about Tad from "Letter Factory" putting Tucker to bed (read previous post)!

The fact that it is Tuesday and I am posting should be the first indication that there is a problem! My DH is out of town and boy did we have a night last night. Tell me if you've had similar: 11:00 I go to bed 11:30 Eden and Luke both wake up crying. I let them have a sleepover (sibling) in the bonus room. They insisted on sleeping together on the couch--OK, big mistake. One kicked the other in the face and that was the end of that. 12:00 Tucker wakes up. I put him in bed with me 12:30 Tucker hits me over the head with my scriptures saying, "read it mommy, read it" No, he did not know they were scriptures. He just wanted a story. 12:45 I put Tuck in his room and turn on Thomas the Train (portable DVD players-you gotta love them) 2:00 Liza wakes up---what the heck, she is 6 months! 3:00 Liza up again 6:00 Liza makes it into bed with me 7:00 Luke wakes up crying---his tonsils hurt So, I ask the question-am I really cut out for this? Thank heavens my husband only travels tw...