Few Words Wednesday

I can't do a "Wordless Wednesday." Let's just call a spade, a spade: I talk too much for that!

My baby is 6 months old!


"Mommy, can I put on my raincoat and play in the rain?" It's 9:00 am by the way!

Monkey see, monkey do!



For me, this is the definition of Summer time: Hanging upside down staring at your best friend! "say-say oh playmate, come out and play with me!"


Again, Monkey see, Monkey do! Andrea indulged our boys and let them swing in the baby swing.




We are so lucky to have kids the same age. Loren is 6 mo older than Celia and Zach is 6 weeks older than Charlie. It's fabulous! Thank God I'm not 6 years older than Andrea!! :)

A New Perspective

So there is no way to phrase this other than I've been a whiny poop lately abut not being able to run. I've really just had this attitude of "my exercise life is over. . ." wahh. A lot of people are like, "You shouldn't run ever again." But I don't think they realize how much it means to me and frankly, how much I love it!

This past weekend Sheri dragged me to see Soul Surfer. All I knew about the movie was that a girl got her arm bit off by a shark. I actually didn't really want to see that part. Gag. Little did I know I would walk away with such a life lesson. Dang it, we are not to learn things from teenagers :)! What I took away was not the cliche Philippians 4:13 or Jeremiah 29:11 (yes, great verses but SHUT UP while you are going through pain). What I got was that the dr. said, "Not now." and the minute he said, "Yes," she was ready. So my dr said, "Not now." My perspective has changed in this: The minute he says "go" I'm going to be ready. It won't be square 1 that I start from. I will be ready the very day he says yes.

So what does that mean? I got my butt up at 5:00 am, strapped on my dust-covered body bugg, my worn out running shoes and I went for a walk! I made it 1.6 miles. That's a huge accomplishment for me!! I actually walked it well.

I need a bit of encouragement! Please ask me if I'm wearing my body bugg. Rejoice with me and congratulate me when I only walk 2 miles as if I ran 6 (cuz I can guarantee it felt like I ran 6!) Also, remind me that this is my stepping stone to where I want to be. It's not failure or half-heartedness, it's just a blip in the journey.
Hey maybe next year or the next, this will be me again:

Last Day of VBS

Today is the last day of Vacation Bible School. We've had a rough time with Zach wanting to stay. He's really excited about it, loves it once he is there, but getting him to stay without having a major meltdown was near impossible. Yesterday, however, Zach did really well. A little bit of "I don't want to be brave." But no tears. Today, he went right in, sat down and began singing. Maybe it's just fear of the unknown, I don't know.

I'll tell a funny Jax story. Yesterday I get home from Once Upon a Child with Jax and I smell poo. So I go to change his diaper and as I lay him down, I notice poo all down the side of his leg. Gross. I clean him up and I still smell poo. Then I start feeling wet on my side. I look at the side of my shirt and I'm covered in POOP! He somehow pooed out of the side of his diaper and pooped on ME!! Oh the gags of motherhood!

So maybe I can get some advice on Lorén. Yesterday we had a play day with the Keens at the park. There were a ton of boys there. She wanted to play with them so badly. They were not being bullies, but they were playing like boys. You know, power rangers vs barbies. So she kept getting her feelings hurt when they would, "Hey, you get out of here (playing)." and when they would chase her she would turn around and push them to the ground because they were trying to "fight her." So what do I do? How do you explain the difference between the way boys play and the way girls play? AND that even though boys play rough, she can't lay her hands on them in anger. She didn't get why I was upset at her for pushing them (when she did it in anger) vs them tagging her in play. Ps, Zach thought it was great fun to pester the snot out of his sister!

Well, here's a picture of what I saw in my rear-view mirror yesterday as I drove home. It's the belt off of her super hero dress up costume. Why is it in the car??? Dunno. I guess she survived despite being "fighted." :)


This is the new teether I got for Jax. Lorén and Zach had one exactly the same except it had a star on the top. Both of them chewed a hole right through it. These kids love this teether. It vibrates as they chew it. Keep your comments to yourself :)

Wordless Wednesday

Father's Day

What a fabulous weekend we had! It was so nice to celebrate Daddy. My wonderful husband has been a father now for 5 years. He is the most loving, dedicated and fun pop in the entire world! He simply LIVES to be a father to his "crib-midgets" and "Muncherkins." He loves to dance with his Cinderella, play Mario with his "Luigi" and make Jaxman giggle till he snorts! Michael, loving father to our precious gifts, I love you!

So the kids took Mike Mini-Golfing this weekend for father's day. Loren actually did really well! She had a great stance and good form! We may have a golfer folks! This will be great since I LOVE golfing! Zach on the other hand was just too eager to get to the next hole! He would hit small little puts down the green until it got in the hole. I'd estimate 15 strokes per hole. He did have a great time though! Jax is honestly THE best baby. He was so happy and content to sit and yell and laugh at us for an hour and a half!







Loren says, "Yes, I live here!" :)

Rain Rain, go away!

I'm so so glad we got an early start to our day! Yesterday's checklist worked so great for the kids that I did it again! We had #1 Make Beds, #2 Go to the Park (Jax poop) #3 Go to Grocery Store (Jax poop again), #5 Do our letter C practice (yes. . .Jax poop again) :)

Oh boy! The kids were so great yesterday that I thought it would be fun to go to the park. Thank goodness we did this at 9:00 am this morning. My logic was to "Beat the Heat" but it ended up being "Beat the Torrential Downpour"!

I thought it was so adorable at the Park. Loren gave up a lot of her play time to push Jax on the swing. Suddenly she has taken a real interest in him and is always talking "baby" to him and loving him. She's a great big sister! Zach on the other hand kept saying "Push me!" He told me not to push him like his grandmas because they do underdogs and fall on their "bootums" (Loren's baby word for bottom).





They were such huge helps in the store too! We have had trouble with them running off and doing whatever they like in the store. I finally figured out a method to keep them more "in check" at the store. They have to have a hand on the cart. If they do, they get to take turns grabbing items for mommy and putting it in the cart. I have no idea what the reward is in that, but for some reason, it works!! They love it. Plus, if they are good, I always take them to see the fish. Today's Fishy visit was a bit. . gross!!! There was a dead fish and the others were eating it. Gag. Zach says, "Mom why are the not dead fish eating the dead fish?" I told him it was because animals are gross. He said, "Well dogs aren't gross." I quickly replied without thinking, "Yes they are, they eat their own poop which is why we will NEVER have one!" DOH! Filter mommy, filter! So I had to listen to "Dogs eat their poop " the rest of the way through Walmart. I finally had to say, "Mommy's sorry, potty talk needs to stay in the potty. Let's not talk about poop any more."

So as I pulled in, the rain started. I heard a loud BANG and looked in our front yard and found our trashcan had hit our porch. Man, this weather is getting expensive! Well, I'm off to make lunch for the kiddos! They are watching Flinstones which is why lunch is Fruity Pebbles. Easy on mommy!



Before I jet out, if you need a cute blog for Mommies and Fitness, check out my friend Amy's blog http://fitmommas.wordpress.com. She's very witty and offers practical advice and encouragement! For example, her Reason to Work out yesterday was "Because even JLo got some of the junk outta her trunk." Classic, right!

Yesterday was plain awful!

OH MY WORD! Can you say DISOBEDIENCE! Yesterday was one of those, "WHY DID I EVER THINK 3 KIDS WAS A GOOD IDEA?" kind of days. They were . . . sorry to say it. . .POOP-HEADS! All Lorén and Zach did yesterday was disobey. Lorén got her new Rapunzel doll taken away for a day and they both lost pool privileges for a week. This is on top of a few spanks and some sassy juice. Jax had a bad day too. He was grumpy from the word GO. I almost resigned as mom when Mike was an hour late getting home. But, the night ended well with lots of "I'm sorry"s and "I love you"s.

Lisa came over and we played our weekly So You Think You Can Dance Bingo. Yes, we are that type of dorks. On our bingo boards are all of the catch phrases for the series. Let's just say that I am the only bingo winner so far! The score is 1-0-0! Oh yes, we make Mike play much to his chagrin. We do let him put on his own phrases such as "Inexplicable Idiotic Crying." This appeases him slightly for me making him play a stupid game. . .well and the skittles I buy as bingo markers for him :)!!

So Lorén is having a hard "Sydney Day." Today she came down in tears telling me that "At Grandma Michigan's there is a sign saying 'Goodbye for now sweet Sydney'. I need my 'Sydney Doll'" For those of you who don't know, Lorén lost her cousin Sydney (6) about a month ago to complications of SMA. She LOVES Sydney with all of her 5 year old heart and really misses her. While she was in Michigan last, her Aunt Kami (Syd's mom) gave her a "Sydney Doll" to help her on days when she missed Sydney. Let's just say that Lorén has not let her "Sydney Doll" go today. We all miss our Sydney so much. I remember the first time I saw that angel baby. She looked like an Angel, literally. She was such a beautiful baby girl.

So as poopie as yesterday was, today has been great (despite Lorén's sad day)! Today I thought I would make a check-list of what we had to get done today. The kids really took to it! They had to make their bed, go to the library, practice the letter "C" and make strawberry shortcake. I just put clipart pictures next to a box. They got to check off each item as we completed it. I think that it has really helped the kids stay today. Plus, making strawberry shortcake was something great to hold over their heads today (hee hee hee!)

We did go to the library and we signed up for the summer reading program. While there, we got started. I ended up reading them 6 books. Barbie books should be outlawed by the way. At least it's reading. I can't wait till they are old enough for Harry Potter :)!






Belinda, Jonas and Hope and Caralee, Ian, Luke, and Lea came over to play for an hour. That was such a nice break in the day!

Since Jax is napping (See, much better day than yesterday) we are off to do our last item on our checklist: Make dessert for tonight! We are lucky and are having dinner with the Carter's tonight! Yipee!

Bet you wish you were here. . .all it needs is fresh strawberries and ice cream!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Aka i have grumpy baby in one arm & hes not going to let me blog today!




ok a few words! I just heard Loren tell Zach he's being rude & uncivilized!! Ha!!

What to do on a rainy day

There are only 4 good things about summer. Usually, I hate summer. I love fall and winter . . .and sometimes spring but summer, I hate!!! I do love 1) My kids home 2) swimming 3) Fresh fruits and Veggies and 4) Andrea being home so that our kids can hang out with mine (and Andrea and I can hang out :) ). so, yesterday Andrea came over and the kids had a blast playing. The boys did dress-up with the girls. I think Zach said he was a Witch Pirate


Then the boys went to Andreas for naps while the girls did naps here with me (aka movie time).

We are truly blessed!

Later on last night we went to moms because Aunt Yelena left all of her teaching stuff for Andrea and I to have. So, after going through all of Aunt Yelena's teaching stuff, I came home with a huge box of goodies for summer-time fun! I got tons of stickers, paper, markers, craft items, etc. But the best find was the box it came in!

One of my favorite memories as a kid was when my daddy made a boat for me out of a cardboard box. Today it is a rainy nasty day and we decided to make a race car. The kids decorated it and are driving it. Now to navigate the "MOVE OVER!" and the "MY TURN"s :)



(Look out the window, it's 9:45 AM! Yes, AM not PM!!)

Jax just jumps around yelling at them and sucking his thumb. Look at that red hair!!

What a Great Weekend!

We really had a great weekend. Aunt Yelena and Uncle Kris were in from California to celebrate Kristopher's birthday. It was nice to relax with them a little bit! I'm really sad that they moved away but they are extremely happy in their new home. Yelena told Loren that she lived next to Cinderella's castle. That Cinderella was her neighbor. Guess who has been giving me nothing but trouble to visit Uncle Kris and Aunt Yelena :)!

So Friday I was so excited to see a small little green tomato on my tomato plant. Oh the joy! The rapture! Saturday I went out and my little tomato plant was toppled over! SON OF A . . .I packed up the family and we headed out to Home Depot. Mike kept suggesting that I stay home. . .something about "every time you go to Home Depot . .can't get out of the store under $100. . .always have a project for me to do when we get home. . ." Pishaw! What does he know!!! Well, I spent $14 getting a tomato-holder-upper-wire-thinger (hey, it's what it was called on the tag :) ) and 75% off bulbs. Now, I planted the bulbs myself and put on the wire thinger :) I figured that if the bulbs grow next year, GREAT! I only spent $10. If they don't, well, I tried! I planted Irises in my front light post bed. Now, call me lazy, go ahead! You know that air conditioning thing that hangs off of the side of your house. You know, the one you can't exactly fit a lawn mower under, nor can you easily weed-whack it? Well, at our old house, we had these gorgeous orange lilies around it and we never had to mow or whack it! So. . well, I planted those all around it so that I don't have to worry about it next year. Yeah, lazy!!


We also gave mullet boy a haircut! I love summer buzzes for boys!!! It's so nice to just buzz all that hair off! I bet it has to be so very cool!! Loren stated that she is very glad she is not a boy so that she never has to have her pretty hair cut off.


Speaking of cutting hair :) I'm sorry but this is blooming funny! Loren fancies herself a hairdresser. Here she is giving Bonnie a lovely hairdo!



Well, while in Michigan, Bonnie had Jax on the floor and was getting him in jammies and getting him ready for bed when all of the sudden she hears and feels "SNIP" Oh yes, Loren had got a pair of scissors out of her cabinet, grabbed a piece of her hair and CUT IT! I laughed so hard I had tears running down my face. In fact, I still do laugh. Poor Grandma. She is a saint!!!! You can't tell at all, it was a small snip but still, the audacity is just priceless!

As far as the Jax man goes, this is what we are working on:
Holding our own bottle

And sitting. He doesn't want to. He can but he mostly frog-sits and then wants to plop over so he can barrel roll wherever he wants to go.


Well, speaking of my chunky Monkey (who is 6 months old today), I think it's bottle and nap time!!!