Ireland's World

As most everyone knows, I do daycare and home-school. I know I am a bit insane too! So, most days it doesn't bother me that Ireland is running around with no pants and her hair a mess. She is almost 2 and in her own house so, is it really hurting anyone. I think not...until someone comes to the door. Yes, at this point I become a bit embarrassed at my parenting skills! This happened just the other day and in all my mortification(is that a word) the lady says:"oh my gosh, she is so cute." Are you kidding me? I mean I think she is beautiful, but right now, she is the epitomy of "white trash baby." lol Only another mother could look at her like this and still think she is cute!!


And no that is not her baby gym. I am watching a 3 month old baby and it is for her, but again Ireland is almost 2 and firmly believes everything is hers.

There are other days though when she is ever so cute and sweet. She LOVES our dogs and most of all Maggie! Maggie, I'm not so sure is convinced!





And finally she had her dad convinced she was going to start using the "potty!" It was pretty funny. She just sat there for about 15 minutes wiping and clapping! Btw...no potty happened!


We couldn't imagine life without her. She keeps us on our toes and is such an active little girl! She may be small, but she is mighty!

Exhaustion!

I am pretty sure that at least twice a week(ok, probably more) I say to my husband, "I am so exhausted, and I don't know why." And then today as if I had been hit with reality, it came to me. I most certainly know why. So, because I am tired and bored and the kiddos are napping I am going to share with you the reasons for my exhaustion!

1. I stay up way too late. Granted I am usually in bed by 8:30, but I stay up until at least 10 and some nights midnight. No matter how tired I am, I just can't go right to sleep.

2. After staying up so dang late, I wake up at 5am(ok, only once a week, and usually I get to go back to bed, but it is more than a disturbance)to welcome 2 of my daycare girls.

3. About once a week, Ireland decides she needs to wake up and just be cranky, this usually happens anywhere from 1-3am and sometimes from 1am to 3am! It's lovely, because she goes back to sleep finally, I get up, and she still gets to nap in the middle of the day! Seriously, we need to follow after the hispanic culture and all have a daily siesta!!! I would vote for sure on that one!

4. I have OCD. I don't know that I have ever fully admitted it out loud, but it is true. I want my house spotless, all the time. Did I mention I watch 6 kids and do homeschool everyday. I'm trying to let go of some of the OCD, but just can't. There is NO way I could ever go to sleep with dishes in the sink! It's dumb, I have no good reason for it, but I can't do it. Luckily, my husband shares in this annoyance or at least goes along with it, so I am not totally alone in my chores, but I am the one in the house all day so it bugs me all the time! And I feel like all the chores need to be done by the time Daddy gets home from work. Again, this is my own rule not anyone elses.

5. I homeschool are 6 year old daughter. Now, this is a decision we as parents made together and still strongly believe this is the best education we can offer her right now, but I also do daycare full time! So, there is much stress involved because there are obviously many interruptions. Lucky for me Jordyn is super smart and is doing great in school despite all the chaos.

6. Oh, yeah, I do daycare! I watch 6 kids, pretty much daily. Sometimes it's only 4 because 2 kids go to school, but when they are off track I have all of them all day! I have good daycare kids, but it is a lot of work. For those of you who think I am a babysitter, I've got news for you! If I could find a babysitter that does half as much as I do with the kids I would hire them for my own. By the way I do enjoy my jobs. I love little people. And the benefits far out weigh any I could get anywhere else.

I know I am not the only person in the world with the exhaustion disease, but I'm the only one blogging about it! So, until next time world!

Good Bye 2009, Hello 2010

Well, 2009 seemed to just fly right by. I really must be getting old, because there are days I can't seem to keep up! Here are the highlights of the last 2 weeks in December for the Colligan Clan.

*Jake arrived for Christmas break on the 26th. We celebrated by opening presents and having a prime rib dinner. He was able to stay until Jan 3rd and we all had so much fun. Mike took Jake and Jordyn snowboarding, we did a little shopping so the kids could spend there Christmas money of course, Jake, Mike, and Eric went to see Avatar in 3-D and we played games just about daily! Jake is so funny and we had so many laughs all together. I always sleep the best when all 3 of our kids are under one roof. It's like there is peace because I know where each one is and that they are safe. We can't wait to all be together again soon! We love u man!

*The Collom's finally made it to Utah! I know we can't believe it either! It was so refreshing to see them again. We have so much fun with them and truly feel blessed to share such a great friendship with their family. I of course won when we played Settler's, but that is no shock!!! heehee The next trip will be ours to visit them! love ya Collom Family.

*Mike and I were both on vacation from Christmas until today. It was so nice to just take some time out and focus on our family. Not very often do we all get to just be together to do whatever we want. The last vacation Mike had was last Christmas so he was long overdue. Now, we are back to the daily grind, but I think we all feel refreshed and can muddle through until the next vacation. Hopefully, we won't have to wait another year though.

*New Years Eve was kind of lame this year. Mike and I were in bed at 10pm which is pathetic, but it is what it is. The kids serenaded us in the dark with the most annoying songs they could come up with trying to keep us awake and it worked for about 30 minutes and they got bored and we crashed! So, nothing catastrophic happened to welcome in 2010 which was nice to wake up and find out. We were suppose to have plans, but things unfortunately fell through. Maybe next year it will go better. All in all 2009 was a pretty good year, but we are still hoping for a better one in 2010.

Here are just a few pics of the kids playing go fish and rummy!