Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Lady Bug

Today Gavin watched a show on bugs, so after it was over he decided his life was not complete without having a bug in it. He asked me where he could find a bug and I told him that it might be kind of hard to find a bug in January in Minnesota. But, he was a determined child and went on his hunt for a bug. Low and behold he found a lady bug upstairs in the playroom and came running back to show me that you can in fact find a bug in Minnesota in January. At this point, I had to tell Gavin that the bug he found was actually a dead bug but he didn't like that response, so all day long he took care of his lady bug (that was NOT dead!). He even named his bug - since it was a lady bug he thought the name Laid was very fitting. Okay, whatever makes you happy. He took a leaf off of my house plant and fed the dead thing, he talked to it, he had it sleep in it's container beside him for nap, he played by it, he even let his sister hold it. I forgot about the darn thing but just before supper he went running through the kitchen and said, "I gotta get Laid." That stopped me in my tracks. "You gotta what?" "I gotta find my lady bug." Ahh the innocence.

Water Park

Grandma and Grandpa felt like we needed to do something special on Kyra's actual birthday since we had her party last weekend. So, we went to a local hotel's water park and had a great time! Kyra is the little fish, not caring if she gets splashed or her hair wet. Gavin was more adventurous and tackled the HUGE water slide, but was having none of the head going under the water thing. Carley just wanted to be held unless we were in the zero depth entry - then she wandered around without a care.











Kyra's Birthday Party

Kyra turned 3 on January 27th! We had her party last weekend and she loved being the center of attention.












Friday, January 23, 2009

Beauty School Drop Out

Well, it was bound to happen....

Last weekend I went to get my hair cut and the lady who does my hair was talking about a Mom who brought her 4 year old daughter in whose brother decided to cut off one of her pony tails. So she ended up with a cute little wedge cut but not the hair style her mother was wanting. My stylist said to me, "I can't believe Gavin is 5 and you haven't had any mishaps with the scissors." Well, she jinxed us.

This morning I was baking a cake for Kyra's birthday party that we have tomorrow and all of a sudden I didn't have electricity. So, I got on the phone to call Jed to let him know and got his voicemail and just as I started to leave a message Kyra comes to show me what she did (she was so proud).



I actually forgot why I called Jed and could not think of what I was supposed to say and as I am thinking, "I can't believe this is happening and what the he** did I call Jed for." Carley comes walking around the corner with a smile from ear to ear on her face. (Kyra was also very proud of the job she did on her sister).




Well, at this point I just hang up the phone, heck with the electricity, my three year old just butchered her and her sister's hair. So, I go in search of the barber chair and scissors and I found that Kyra's barber chair must be rotating (from room to room). I ended up finding huge chunks of hair in the playroom, the girls' bedroom and our bedroom. (And just a side note for my Mom who is reading this saying, "why weren't you watching them" they had been helping me make the birthday cake two minutes before this)!




So, I bundled everyone up and we headed to town for an unexpected "First Haircut" for Carley. There was no way I could leave it looking the way it did and I am about as bad as Kyra is with the scissors, so I needed a professional. Thank goodness Carley only cried for about 30 seconds when I put her into the chair and then sat perfect for 25 minutes while the lady did her best to "blend" everything together. She couldn't believe Kyra could get as close to the scalp as she did with just a scissors, but she did - suprise! So, Carley has one spot on the side of her head and a bunch on the back of her head that were not repairable at this time, but it does look a little better??? Her curls are gone and she looks like a boy, I am not seriously contemplating that ear piercing thing just so people won't think she is a boy dressed in pink. There was no helping Kyra's new style, so she now will have to wear her bangs over to the side with a barret for a LONG time to cover her bald spot. Carley's new style is below - I am looking for a positive spin on this story - at least it wasn't a whole pig tail and you can see Carley's eyes better now???
Kids!!! Thank God it's Friday.



Thursday, January 22, 2009

The Joys of Motherhood

Well, to say that yesterday was a frustrating or challenging day may be putting it mildly in my opinion but we had quite the day! I am sure all mothers have those days, where not much goes right and a whole lot goes wrong. Well, we had one of those weeks this week and it all seemed to culminate yesterday. We are trying to get Kyra potty trained and finally yesterday she seemed pretty into this potty training thing, she has her panties on and she even came to me to tell me that she wanted to go, so we run in there but as I am going in behind her I notice her jeans are already wet. Okay, 0 for 1. So, we get her changed and set to go for round 2. In the meantime Gavin and Carley somehow got a whole bucket of little foam shapes that we use for crafts spread throughout the whole bedroom, I literally cannot see parts of my bedroom carpet. So, it began, I fought with the kids all day (all week actually) long to pick up their toys and craft supplies. Instead of stuff getting cleaned up it seemed that every 10 seconds there was a bigger mess. So, I am threatening to throw away all of the toys that are out if they don't get them picked up and my phone rings. It's my sister-in-law, "Shannon you might want to go get Ruby she was chasing us down the road when we drove by and now she's standing in the middle of the road." Okay, so I head outside and retrieve the dog. WhileI am outside Kyra decides she is going to try this potty thing again and of course Carley has to help her (which for whatever reason means Carley has to get completely naked - pants, socks, shirt - everything). So I come back from outside and Carley is naked, Kyra is naked from waist down (wet pants and panties laying on the floor - 0 for 2) and I have an empty toilet paper roll and a toilet full of wet TP that Kyra tried to flush but since there was too much, the toilet is stopped up. So, I send them on their way to get dressed AGAIN and start to work on fixing the toilet all the while yelling at them to get their toys picked up. Got the toilet fixed and much, much, much later the kids finally got their toys picked up. Since I try to instill at least some good qualities in our children I had to stick by the, "if you don't get this messed cleaned up right now you aren't going to eat lunch." So, at 1:35 we finally got to each lunch. So, they take a nap and Mom took a much needed breather. But we were right back at it again when the kids got up. Carley was as crabby as ever and if I wasn't holding her she was crying, but darn it, I was frustrated so I was not going to cave and give her what she wanted - her sassy (pacifier). So she cried. Once again the craft supplies came out and I had 1/8 x 1/8 pieces of little cut up papers all throughout the downstairs of our house, there was glitter everywhere (if you've ever worked with glitter you know that it doesn't go away for a LONG time after using it). There were things stuck to my table because after telling Gavin about 12 times that he cannot use a 3 inch diameter DOT of glue for each piece of paper - he continues to do so - therefore, sticking everything to the table and letting it dry before I realize what has happened. While he is being "creative" Kyra once again is back at the potty thing. This is something that I have wanted her to do and show interest in for a long time and finally we have the interest but not much else. So we go and we sit there and we sit there and we sit there...she will sit there for 20 minutes or more before I can talk her into getting off the potty (I know, I just said I wanted her to use the potty, but after today I might be changing my mind). So, finally she gets off. Okay, she runs into the living room with her panties and jeans (because you know they have to come all the way off every time you go potty). So, she goes in there to put them back on and comes back to me (I am still washing my hands from the previous 20 minute potty break), "Mommy, I peed on the carpet." I really wanted to yell, but I just talked to her about why she would do that and asked her to clean it up (don't worry I was planning on doing the second round of cleaning - once again just trying to instill those values, you clean up what you make a mess). So, she takes a towl in there and sure enough there is a wet spot. When she is done cleaning, she runs back to the kitchen and I yell, "put the towel in the dirty clothes." Well, we have selective hearing at our house, so she chose not to hear that and threw the towel on top of all of my clean dishes that were drying in the rack - "great, another project to REDO today, just what I need." So, I clean up the pee on the carpet and while I am doing that Gavin comes running in, "Mom (and he rolls his eyes) Ruby just puked and it's in her kennel and it's outside her kennel too." Wonderful, I love my job. "Well, it's just going to have to stay there for a few minutes, don't touch it." So, I finish cleaning up the carpet in the living room and go to take care of the dogs needs (thankfully the kids did listen and stayed clear of the dogs mess). And of course, while I am busy with that the girls head back to the bathroom (I really need to put a lock on the outside of that door) and by the time I got done cleaning up the dog mess they had about 1/2 a roll of toilet paper in the toilet again. I am almost 100% sure there was nothing under the toilet paper that required toilet paper be used but none the less, the used it - half the roll of if. I had to take a picture because I literally did not have a toilet bowl anymore I had a huge mass of wet toilet paper. Now, I have had it, I don't even say anything to the girls, I just look at them the way only a mother can look at a child and covey 1000 thoughts in about 2 seconds. They didn't say a word either, they ran to the living room, sat down and started looking at books - they knew.... So, I am not about to touch all that wet toilet paper, so I start thinking and I spot the toilet plunger, I get that out and use it kind of like a shovel and move about 80% of the TP out of the way and hold it back...flush. Let some of the TP down into the water, hold the rest of it back...flush. Let some more of the TP down into the water, hold the rest back...flush. You get the picture now multiply that by about 8 and finally that problem is solved. So, the "clean" dishes are still not washed AGAIN yet, but they are going to have to wait, a t 4:43 yesterday afternoon I was able to get my shower for the day! It was a milestone in my life. :-) But it had to be quick because we had a meeting for Gavin's school last night and I was running about 45 minutes behind and Grandma was going to be picking the kids up any minute. Got my shower, was getting ready and trying to round up the kids and get them all dressed and set to go so they were ready for Grandma. Grandma arrives, the kids have hats, coats, gloves, boots on and they are walking out the door and all of a sudden I smell one of them. "Who's poopy?" Carley always tells me if she is and Kyra won't look at me so I know who it is. "Kyra get all your clothes off and get on the changing table." She had to throw that in there at the last minute just to get on my VERY last nerve that I had for the day. So, with diaper changed and three little monsters on their way out the door with Grandma I could finally take a deep breath and have about two seconds of peace and quiet until the dog starts whining - out she goes. So, Jed gets home and we run right back out the door to head to the meeting and we jump in the car and start on our way and Jed says, "How was your day?" How was my day?...So I proceed to use the 25 minute drive to Owatonna to tell him just how my day was. We got there, I looked at him....and he laughed. Now my WHOLE family on my ____ list. But after all this, when we got home last night and tucked the kids into bed, gave them their kisses and hugs and listened to Gavin's prayers and the first thing he says is, "Dear God, thank you for my Mommy and Daddy and my sisters and me....." (he prays for himseld every night too) I am reminded of how truly blessed I am to have such wonderful, healthy, "creative", entergetic children and a husband who cares enough to ask me about my day and all of a sudden my day doesn't seem SO bad. Having the "job" of Mom is definately not the easiest or most glamourous job ever but it is the best job ever, and so today we start with a fresh slate and we are going to leave the dishes and leave the laundry and lock the bathroom door :-) and have some fun playing!




Thursday, January 15, 2009

Ultrasound Pics

Jed and I went for our ultrasound this morning. Even though the Dr. said this baby does not cooperate real well (great another one) we did come home with the best profile picture that we have ever had out of all the kids.

Profile - I love looking at that little nose and those lips.

Spine.


Foot Print.

Legs.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Sibling Love

This post is mostly for myself. So, on those days when I am at my wits end and the kids will not stop fighting, hitting, pushing, yelling at each other, I can come to our blog and pull up this entry and see that I only have to wait until next Christmas and they will once again all get along again (if only for a day). :-) The annual pose in front of the Christmas Tree (quickly before you spill something on your dress up clothes).
Trying our their new sled from Uncle Brandon and Aunt Stacy.

I am not sure what it is about laundry baskets, but they CANNOT be empty in our house. On the rare occassion that I actually get all the laundry sorted, folded and put away so there is an empty basket - the kids quickly remedy that.

Reading a Christmas story with Grandma.

Who needs gifts when you can just use the boxes they came in to make your very own "train cars". As you can see Gavin and Carley are tooting their horns (even though Carley looks like she is in pain).




A Carley & Ruby Update

Thought I would add this blog since a number of people have asked how Carley is with Ruby now since they didn't start on the best of terms. But as you can see in the pictures, things are doing fine and there is more than enough love between them now!







Wolf Christmas

We spent New Year's Eve/Day with my family - it doesn't happen very often that we are all together, so was a special time for everyone!

Kyra enjoying her new baby who "talks".

Kyra cooking everyone a New Year's Day Meal with her new pots/pans.
Carley and Uncle Brandon checking out a gift. (It was a sled).

Little miss "technology girl".

Gavin & Lacy checking out a new set of tractos - if only every farmer were as lucky as Gavin (getting new tractors every birthday and Christmas).

The gift of Gavin.

I could not NOT post this picture - you know your cool when you are confident enough to let someone take a picture of you with goggles like this. :-)

Grandpa & Gavin playing with the new grain cart - a favorite gift!

The entire family. Look everyones eyes are open and focused on the camera! This happened three times in a row - I still can't believe it.

Lacy & Carley opening a gift with Bryon and Jacque.

Uncle Brandon and Gavin - another farm implement. (Sorry Stacy, somehow you dodged all the pictures - whether that was planned or not, not sure??? - we will get you next time).

Three amigos.


This thing is as big as he is. Notice it's dark outside now. Yup, we spent a whole day opening gifts - much to Grandpa's delight! :-)