I Will Never Understand the Sleeping Habits of Toddlers...

At least they take our rule of "do NOT leave that bedroom after being put to bed" somewhat seriously.

*and no, we still haven't fixed our hallway or bathroom floors after our flooding disaster last summer.  I think this is a record for me...I've never let a project go this long.  I must be losing it!

His Dad Says He's a Natural

Band aid Addict - May 2012

This little girl went from being a child terrified of band aides, to a child who has to add two or three band aids to her body a day.  This particular week she had added a few band aids to her arms, legs, and face.  When people asked her what happened, she told them she fell down the stairs.

Band aide addict AND straight faced liar.  Hmmmm.....

She's has even started doctoring all of Dallin's minor owies.

poor kid wasn't impressed.

We're Getting There - May 2012

Last Sunday I told Wyatt that it would be really nice if he could get himself ready for church.  I had set out his clothes and all he had to do was put them on.  Yes he is six, and yes, dressing himself  has been a problem for us. 

But...

He came upstairs SO PROUD that he had gotten dressed AND combed his hair...ALL BY HIMSELF!

Sometimes as a mother, you just have to go with it.

My Girly Girl

Amy loves "girly" things.  It's a little frustrating when she decides to play with my make-up, but I have no complaints when she wants to play with my hair.  I always look so lovely afterwards.



Random Picture for a Random Story

This picture has nothing to do with the story I have to tell, except for the few remaining scabs on Dallin's face.

But I like it because my boys are matching...

...and because they are DANG cute!

But, on to the story:

I'm not sure I ever blogged about our little stroller mishap a year ago.  It was last May at the end of the school year.  I was supposed to go on a field trip with Lydia's class which was a walk around town.  I was late and rushing to get to her class in time.  I had Dallin and Amy loaded up in my double jogger and was trying to catch the class at one of the back enterances of the school where I knew they would be leaving the building.  The 2nd grade hall is on a slight hill so I pushed my stroller up it and stopped to peek into the classroom window to make sure the students were still there.  Because of the glare on the window, I couldn't see very well so I let go of the stroller and peeked inside with my hands.  When I turned around, my stroller...and my children...were flying down the hill!  I've never sprinted so fast in my life.  I expected it to hit the parking lot at the bottom of the hill and coast to a stop on the lawn on the other side but when it hit the curb, the front wheel popped off and the stroller flipped.  It was bad!  There was blood.  There was crying.  There was also a lot of people that witnessed my awesome mothering mistake.  Luckily, Dallin and Amy came away with only scratches and bruises, but nothing too terrible considering what COULD have happened.

Fast forward to this year...

It's finally been nice enough to take the kids outside to run again.  A few weeks ago I loaded Amy and Dal up in the double jogger and took off to walk/jog the 4 miles around our house.  I was two mile into my intervals and feeling pretty good.  I decided to start running a little faster...and then decided to run even faster.  Apparently they call it a "jogging" stroller for a reason.  While running, the front wheel popped off, the stroller flipped, and before I knew what was happening, I found myself flying over the stroller and landing on the the other side. 

I'm obviously on a roll.

Again, we were so blessed that Amy walked away with just a few little scratches.  Dallin's face took quite a beating, but he stopped crying the second I got him out of the stroller and by the end of the week his scratches had all healed.  My legs still have some bruising (3 weeks later), and I was pretty sore for a few days, but it could have been so much worse.

My stroller didn't fare as well this time though.  The front wheel is pretty much ruined and the frame is bent pretty badly.  I guess it doesn't really matter though since Dallin and Amy have no interest in getting in another stroller any time soon.

Mother of the year award, right here!

Almost TOO Much Help! - March 2012

I'm backtracking a little here...that's what happens when you are a poor blogger

This boy is the BEST dish helper I've ever had.  Instead of running to hide when it's time to do dishes, he hears the click of the dishwasher door and comes RUNNING to help!  Dirty or clean, he doesn't care.  He will gladly pull out all the dishes and hand them to me to put away and is a little too much help when it comes to loading the dirty ones.  He is also much better at putting dishes in the sink...unlike his siblings and "ahem" father.  As a matter of fact, it doesn't even have to be a dirty dish.  He thinks anything  he finds laying around is supposed to go in the sink...obviously!  And sometimes he even likes to surprise me and do the dishes when I'm not around.  It's much harder when someone isn't there to help though....

Apparently just "rearranging" them is satisfaction enough!

Easter 2012

Fool Me Once...

THAT is the face of a boy who knows he's been caught!

When I found this lovely mess, I made sure to gather all the other children around to SHOW them exactly why it was SO IMPORTANT for them to lock the refrigerator when they were done with it (yes, we have a child proof lock on our refrigerator...it took 4 kids before I had the need for it.  Handy little thing when used properly).

After my little object lesson (and all three of them saying, "I didn't leave it unlocked"), I locked the door, cleaned up the mess, and hauled this little trouble-maker off to the tub.  After his bath he took off before I could even get him dressed.  I quickly cleaned up the tub and bathroom and went in search of my naked baby.  Instead I found this...

Yep!  Twice in about a 30 minute time period.  Apparently he swiped a toothbrush on his way out of the bathroom too.  It was turned on and vibrating through the eggs.  This time he was smart enough to make a break for it before I came in. 

 At least one of us is getting smarter.

I've done it again

Sometimes as a mother I'm not sure if I should be proud or worried when I've passed on another one of my traits to my children.

For example:   I'm kind of a planning freak.  Every night I have to sit down and write out a "to do" list and schedule for the next day.  I also have to check off things from my list every night (and write in the stuff I did that I didn't plan on just so I can check it off...yeah, I'm messed up!)  Greg has never understood why I do this.  He simply thinks about what he needs to do and goes to sleep (or just doesn't think about it at all ;).  Me?  I have to SEE it all written out in order to wrap my brain around everything.  I can't relax until I've done this. 

This is one of those traits I don't necessarily want to pass on to my kids but I figured if I did, it would most definitely be Wyatt since he's already a little OCD like me.  Imagine my surprise when I saw this well planned out list created by my eldest child:

Lydia's supposed to be just like her father.  He would NEVER make a list like this.  I have to admit...I'm a little proud! ;)

Over-Achiever

I've decided to call this little guy our "Over-Achiever".  It has become apparent that he doesn't like to do things the easy way.  For example, the kid preferred bum scooting over crawling.  Have you ever tried to bum scoot?  We've all given it a go around here and it's pretty dang hard! (however it could have just been hard for me since I have very little abdominal muscles and it requires a lot of those muscles to throw my thighs around like Dal did...)  But not for this boy.  Who cares if bum scooting is more difficult than crawling, he still chose the hard way for 10 months before learning to walk.  Over achiever!

Another example is the way he makes messes.  He doesn't just empty a drawer or shelf and move on to make more messes.  That would be too easy.  Instead, he empties a shelf/drawer, leaves a few things behind to clean-up (so that I know he's been there) and then moves everything else to a different location.  His favorite area right now is the book shelf at the bottom of our stairs and the storage room.  He LOVES to clean off one shelf in particular and move most of the books into the guest room.  He also loves to re-arrange the food on the storage shelves...apparently salt should be stored next to the cleaning supplies because that is where I always find all of my salt containers every time he's been in there.

He just finished with his favorite shelf and is moving on to the storage room. (keep in mind that there are about twice that many books already moved to the guest room behind him!)

At least he likes to "shop" for the same things I do...books and food!  What more could you want?!

Oh, and one more example...He doesn't like to call me mom.  "Mom", "Mama", "Ma"...the easiest words in the English language.  He can say them all, but because he's such an over-achiever, he prefers to call me "GAMMA". 

Yep, this boy cracks me up!

SLEEP! - January 22, 2012

Little miss Amy is giving us the run around on sleep again.  We were definitely spoiled with our two older children when it came to bedtime.  This one is making sure we appreciate a decent bedtime more fully.

This was her way of defying my "DO NOT LEAVE YOUR ROOM AGAIN" command.  After just barely crossing the forbidden line and screaming for 30 minutes, she finally gave in to exhaustion. 

Fortunately, Dallin can sleep through her screaming.  Unfortunately, he makes sure to pay her back around 5ish each morning when he's ready to wake up.

Combined Powers

Aimers...the queen of destruction at out house, and Dal...the up and coming (and possible champ I'm afraid) of mess making have been teaming up this past week.

Their combined efforts may just push me over the edge!

Sunday Pics - December 3, 2011

The problem with Pinterest...

Is that I spend so much time pinning ideas and not enough time DOING any of them!

But, this week I've managed to cross off not one, or two, but THREE of  my "Pinterest Inspired" ideas:

The first one was this great idea for a container of quick and easy snacks in the refrigerator:

idea found here

My kids are always raiding the refrigerator and pantry for snacks and I've been trying hard to get them (and myself) snacking on more fruits and veggies.  Having them right in front of your face and ready to go when you open up the refrigerator has been great this week.  And it's so accessible for the kids...which isn't necessarily always a good thing ;)

(We haven't braved any hummus yet.  I did snack bags of grapes, carrots, and celery along with some yogurt.  Maybe next week we will get a little more creative)

Idea #2 was the FANTASTIC idea for an after school snack found here:

"Fishing" Snacks!

Holy Smokes!  My kids LOVED this!  They gobbled that celery right up with those crackers.  (even I have a hard time eating celery...definitely not my favorite)

And finally, the Third Pinterest Inspired Idea:

These super fun hand print turkeys

this one is Aimers

Mostly the kids were in shock that I was actually letting them PAINT their hands!



Such a Boy! - November 5, 2011

This kiddo has been keeping me on my toes lately!  If it's put away, he gets it out.  If it's in the bottom drawer, he moves it to a different drawer.  If it has a lid, he puts something in it (this includes the toilet).  If it's in something, he dumps it out.  He is BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!

But sometimes I have to stop and take a picture of his little activities.  Like, when he was using the lid to the popcorn popper to store his binkies and then pushing it around the kitchen... 



THIS was picture worthy!

The things I've fished out of the toilet in the last week...not so much!

Clever Little Girl

Lou is always leaving little notes for Greg and me. 

I love all of them, but this one has by far been my favorite...

  It's a note in the shape of a cow and it says "MOORIFIC"!  Seriously, can you get any more clever than that?! Greg and I were laughing so hard.  LOVE IT!  and LOVE HER!

Someone Please Remind Me that This Stage Doesn't Last Forever

 the baskets on his changing table

 his favorite kitchen cupboards

(see that white crock pot?  He loves to take the crock out of the canister and then drag the canister around by the cord from room to room filling it with all of the treasures that he finds)

 do NOT let that cute little face fool you!

clean laundry that was drying on the banister

He has also been known to...

 -empty 1/2 a package of sanitary supplies and a roll of toilet paper into one toilet....AND the contents of the bathroom garbage can into the other toilet. 

-shove an entire box of crayons, one by one, into the fan I use when I exercise...and I have no idea how to get them out.  It just makes interesting noises when I use it now.

-hide blocks in the baseboard heater...which I did notice BEFORE turning the heater on, fortunately!

-move the socks from the bottom drawer of my dresser to the next drawer up

-find the cupboard in the office with all my ribbon...need I say more

-tear apart both lou and wye's cd players, which I was not aware of until he came bum scooting through the entry way with the cords wrapped around his legs.

and the list goes on and on.....

I tell ya, for being a non-walking 16 1/2 month old...this expert "bum scooter" is WAY more mischievous than any of my "normal" walking kids were!  I'm thinking he's just creative...creative in his mode of transportation, and creative in driving his mother CRAZY!!!

Fishing - October 14, 2011

This lucky kid finally got to try out his new fishing pole.  I don't know many of the details, and Greg took all video of their fishing expedition and no pictures, but luckily I snapped this one as the two fishermen were leaving.  I mostly love how excited Wye gets about these little outings with his dad!

Soccer - September-October 2011

 We had another great Soccer season.  Lou played for the Gophers this year.  I missed most of her games since most of them were at the same time as Wye's games, but she had a great time and a great team.  They won most of their games and were so excited when they beat the hardest team on their last game!

That's Lou in the pink shorts

I coached Wye's team, the Hoosiers, this year.  We had a fun little team.  It really is hilarious to watch and coach kindergarten-1st graders.  I had some players that were little go-getters and some that were more interested in being a cow and pretending to eat the grass (seriously!)  Wye surprised me the most.  He LOVED soccer.  For being more reserved and quiet, he definitely has an aggressive side.  He was also very good at keeping track of ever goal and score of every game (even though we don't actually keep score at that age).  Two memorable moments:  He almost got in a fight with a player on another team when the other player insisted that they had scored a goal (because it went near the goal, but not actually in it) and Wye knew it wasn't a goal.  They stood there arguing and I'm pretty sure some shoving would have occurred if I hadn't jumped in.  It was actually so funny to me because I've never seen Wye be that confrontational with another kid.  The 2nd moment...he totally scored a BUZZER BEATER!  His one and only goal was scored RIGHT before the whistle at the end of the game and it was a point that tied us up with the other team.  He is still proud of that goal and will tell anyone willing to listen all about his Buzzer Beater ;)

 Wye, getting some advice from his amazing coach ;)

I never thought to take a picture of both kids together before any of the games (probably because we were always running out of here at the very last minute), but luckily last week at school they had a "team shirt" day at school and both kids got to wear their soccer shirts again...



We don't do very many extracurricular activities at this age, but soccer is definitely something that both kids have really enjoyed.  And even though I had to look up on YouTube "how to play soccer" a couple years ago when I started coaching Lou's team (yes, I really did...don't ask me WHY I volunteered to coach when knowing NOTHING about soccer), I've decided that I really do enjoy coaching.  We already can't wait for next year!