Recently...

Trevan - I love this kid and he boggles my mind at the same time.  I love (or am I embarrassed?) that I never check his homework.  Someone asked me how much homework he has a night, and I couldn't tell them.  I was like, "Well, he reads for at least 20 minutes every night..."  I guess I know he will ask for help if he has a question, because he did that for the first time last Thursday.  I have glanced over his shoulder a few times and told him he would have to rewrite whatever it was he was writing because his handwriting was too sloppy.  I was getting tired of having to remind him to put away his shoes/lunchbox/backpack every day after school, so I made a chart for him to check after he does it and I haven't had to remind him once since them.  Realizing what helps make him tick is one less weight on my shoulder.  I'm a chart person too, so I get it.  He has been helping me do the dishwasher almost everyday without complaining and without payment.  I love him for that!!!!

Mallary - This girl is going to give us a run for our money... At back to school night you would have thought she was running for student body president running from kid to kid, not wanting to sit with us because she was too busy talking to everyone or saying hi to everyone.  She was the queen of the carpet while I sat in  her class and I overheard her telling kids what to do and where to go. Hmmm.... I wonder where she got that from??  Her teacher stopped me when I ate lunch with her last week and raved about how much she loved Mallary, what a good listener, helper and wonderful she was, and how she could go on forever talking about her.  Not even ten minutes later, the TA in Mallary's class stopped by and said, "I just want you to know I have to refrain from taking your daughter home with me everyday, she is so adorable."  She went on and on about her, while I listened dumbfounded.  Apparently, she could see it on my face, and said "Well, just be thankful that is how she is at school!" 

Jonah - I love having him home without the two oldest during the day.  He loves to tell me not to feed Everett when I'm feeding him.  He loves his reading time with Mom everyday.  He is potty trained and was a super fast about it.  At the beginning of August one day, I literally had no diapers left for him and decided I wouldn't buy anymore either.  He had one accident everyday for four days in a row.  He pooped in his pants two times. He hasn't peed in his bed once, I thought he had, but he made it out of bed just in time to pee in his pants!! So we had him potty trained with a total of about 8 accidents (to date...), and that included a lot of long drives!  Go Jonah!!  I never even bought a single pull-up!  He was 3 yrs. 4 months!  I'm a firm believer in waiting until your kid is ready then you don't have to worry about cleaning up messes.  For real, I'm just really lazy and don't want to clean up any messes!  We didn't use a little potty or do the let him go naked thing all day.  I gave him chocolate chips for peeing (and cheered really REALLY loud - to the point that he started doing it as soon as he got on the potty for a few days) and told him he could play on the DS when he pooped in the potty - and it worked!!  But, that first day I had to listen to him whining for me to let him wear a diaper because he just wanted to poop in his diaper.  He finally couldn't hold it anymore and the DS was calling his name I guess!!  Yay Jonah!!!  and thank you for making something in my life easy.

Everett - Homeboy is 9 months now and about 23 lbs.  He has only gained three pounds since he was four months!!  He is definitely thinning out.  He now has his first tooth (the earliest of any of my kids), and just started cruising (a few side steps holding on to the edge of something) this weekend.  We just can't keep that baby down.  Unfortunately, all of our traveling and him being sick has now made him think that it is always okay to sleep with mama.  So, now we have to work on training him back to sleeping in his crib all night again.  He started feeding himself Cheerios (broken in half) last week (AND they were FROSTED!)  That just goes to show how much you change as a parent.  I would have NEVER given Trevan frosted Cheerios.  He probably had them for the first time as a five year old or something (IF THAT!)  HA!  He also recently started not liking baby food that he has always eaten and then we started giving him a banana in tiny pieces instead and he was down with that.  So, our baby is growing up!  Fast!  Stop it!  He is so super smiley and during the day loves to follow Jonah around.  He gives you hugs and likes to scratch your arms and his face with his sharp nails!! 

Lately....

1.  Everett is crawling!  8 months.  He is also aware that barricades are being built around him to keep him from things like train tracks, and other toys.  He is not happy about it.

2.  My mother in law during her recent visit gave Jonah an appropriate nickname, "Blast."  Hmmm... It should be written like this I think, "BLAST!!"  Fitting for his one speed (full speed ahead) and his loud volume! 

3.  Mallary has started school.  Apparently, she won't sit next to Trevan on the bus.  She's too cool for that I guess.  I told her if she doesn't sit next to him she won't be riding the bus.  Guess where I saw her sit this morning???  Maybe I should compromise and say across the aisle from him...  She is such a stinker and she's only in Kindergarten! 

4. I've decided I need to put some locks on Mallary's dresser.  I have organized her drawers SOOOO many times - only to find that her drawers threw up a few hours later all over her room!  What is with that?!?!?!?! 

5.  I have yet to figure out what motivates my oldest.  He is a real piece of work.  Obviously, I count my blessings because he is the sweetest of boys.  He loves his little Everett and his teacher even gave me an A++++++ as a mom (after I gave myself an F because I didn't know his bus number) because he was such a good helper and nice kid and student on the first day of school.  I wish I could take the credit, but he is an A+ all of his own making.  I just can't figure out how to make him want to do his best in all he does.  AGH!  He is payback I guess for John and I not always doing our best growing up...  Why put forth effort when you can get by and do well with barely any?!?!?  Curses to the payback karma! 

6.  Four kids is...  that's right, it leaves me speechless.  Some people say three drove them over the edge, but four is mine.  I can't even explain... The lady in the check out line the other day was like, "I have four kids too...."  I responded, "Do ever feel crazy?"  She immediately smiled and seemed to look more relaxed knowing she was in the presence of a mother that understood a feeling she probably never could have imagined she'd ever feel!  We bonded in those few seconds. 

7.  Summer is gone.  It always makes me sad. 

8.  I cleaned my work room earlier this summer, it needs to be cleaned again...

9.  The past few weeks have been sprinkled with sleepless nights and nights going to bed at 2, 3, and 4 in the morning...  They are catching up to me.... Yawn!!!

10.  I'm hoping to get caught up on blogging and get some of my blog books printed off!!!!  One can dream, right????

Friday Flashback

I now think that my mom secretly got back at me for being a smarty pants by giving me these horrible haircuts. 

The other day I was driving and thinking about Trevan's mop of hair.  His hair is so fluffy, thick, and coarse.  I tried a new hair cut on him and I'm not loving it for all of the above reasons listed.   For a very quick second, I thought to myself, "Why is his hair so crazy?"  Before that brief second was even over, I was like, "Oh yeah, because he has my hair...." 

(For the record, Mallary looked at this picture and said, "That's not you."  After me telling her that it really was me, she says, "You look like Trevan.")

 

 

I hated my hair as a kid.  HATED!  I think you can see why...

 

I guess my hair got so tangly when it was long and I was a toddler, and I wouldn't let my mom brush it, or threw a fit when she did, that she just chopped it off.  When I was young, my grandmother would pay me money to sit still and let my mom cut my hair.  Around third grade, I started growing it out. 

 

My  mom finally started taking me to the salon to get my hair cut.  My hair was super thick and very coarse.  I hated it.  I was very familiar with thinning scissors starting from a very young age.  I would always have enough hair on the ground after a hair cut to  make enough wigs for several people.

 

When I had my hair short, people would call me things like, mushroom head, my hair was so poofy! 

 

As I've gotten older, my hair has thinned out almost completely, and even the texture is different. 

 

If only I could get that thick hair back today.... I think I wished it away so much growing up that I finally got my wish!  

Revelations

1.  My wrist has been hurting lately... I JUST figured out it's from holding my 20 pound (!) four month old with only that hand the other day. 

2.  I realized how horrible I must look in the mornings when I wait at the bus stop with Trevan when a neighbor who I stand with a few times a week at the bus stop saw me at an awards ceremony at the elementary school and walked right past me when I smiled at him.  Then, when I saw him at the end, I smiled and said hi, and he TOTALLY DID NOT recognize me, and then you could see the light bulb switch on and he was his super friendly self with me and the other kids.   Wow.  I didn't realize I looked that bad without my hair brushed...  I guess I clean up pretty good. 

3.  My son is always going to be the kid to fall through the cracks.  I've always said that, and it keeps happening.  SINCE KINDERGARTEN!  On Friday, he was supposed to recieve the Principal's Award for having straight 4's (like straight A's) this past term, AND THEY DIDN'T CALL HIS NAME!  I had my camera ready and everything (and I never take pictures at these things like every other parent there does) and when they only called one person from his class to step forward, I just couldn't stop shaking my head in frustration.  I'm trying not to be mad about it, and I'm not going to call his teacher and complain and ask for his award, but I'm tired of it.  I called John and told him that this is what we have to look forward to the rest of his public school life.  You guys, I have had to catch stuff for his teachers since he has started school.  Just last term he got a 3 in reading on his mid term report card.  I emailed his teacher concerned and asked how he could have a 3 when he's over a grade ahead in reading and has perfect grades in his comprehension?  She emailed back, "I'm sorry, my fault, you're right, I'll fix it."  He's just going to be that kid.  Trevan, I'm sorry. 

4.  I've decided I have seasonal affective disorder, just not during the season that most people have it.  My allergies are just so bad it's depressing.  I can't open my windows, I don't want to go anywhere because of the misery it causes.  I can't take what really works for me because I'm nursing, and Benedryl only takes the edge off.  I'm going to get relief in a few days (hopefully, now that most of the trees are in bloom), and then it's going to kick right back in during strawberry season in a few weeks, and then after strawberries die, I'll be done!!  Another reason why I love summer so much, no allergies!!!

5.  I think we just need to move to the beach.  My kids ask every day if and when we are going.  EVERY DAY, people. 

6.  I've JUST figured out that my body gives me anxiety.  If there is anything wrong with it, it makes me worry and it stresses me out.  Getting a filling in my tooth and a crown recently just about pushed me over the edge for a week...  And, now it hurts to chew on the side that I've never had problems with.  Seriously, you guys, just that little thing makes me have to fight the urge to go climb in bed and be depressed about it.  I don't know how my mom did it; lived with cancer and her ailments so gracefully for so long.  I really don't.  I think I would make a horrible cancer patient, and that worries me....  I mean, I can't even get a filling without getting stressed out about it.  I've got some issues!

7.  Kids are expensive.  I think I've mentioned that before, but you guys, I paid about 1,000 dollars in medical bills on Saturday that were just from the beginning of the year!!!!!!!  That's 1,000 dollars that could be used to do a lot more fun things than go to the Dermatologist, use a Biliblanket, go to the doctor, etc. etc. etc. 

8.  Making new recipes is a type of therapy for me.  I don't know why or how, but it helps keep me sane.  I realized I mostly made new recipes for dinners this month and it was great!  I also noticed the days the meal plan had a recipe listed that I had made before I had to talk myself into making it, and I wasn't very excited about it.  Too funny.

9.  I'm weird.

10.  I need a vacation. 

December 2011

We usually put up our Christmas tree the first Monday after Thanksgiving for Family Home Evening. We also give our kids a new ornament to open up and hang on the Christmas tree too, that is symbolic of the past year in someway.
 

Trevan got a baseball because he started playing that year. 

Mallary got gumball machine because she was (and still is) obsessed with gum.

Jonah got a sun, because he was my sunshine that year.  He was my natural anti depressant drug.  Really, before I got help he thankfully helped me keep it together somehow.  My little Jonah was my little sunshine, and since I am almost done blogging 2011, I can see that there were definitely more pictures of him taken.  I love this little boy.

BFF'S Baby Shower

In November 2011 I went to Utah to throw a shower for Becky. I did visit my brother a little bit while I was there as well.  I really didn't take very many pictures while I was there.  I stayed busy helping Becky sew her twins crib quilts, bumpers, etc. with her mom.  We were a little sweat shop, but it was so fun, and I was glad I could help!!  It was so fun to be there and visit and to celebrate her babies coming!!!!  The only pictures are from her shower posted HERE. 

 

John and I loved these jammies we got for Asher! 

Here is the other thing that I remember about this trip:

So, I left John and the kids at home, and normally I have no problem with that, and I don't really miss them.  But, Trevan got sick while I was gone.  He was really sick, and then one day while talking to John I figured out that John had not given him any Tylenol or anything and Trevan had a fever and didn't feel good.  I totally cried thinking about my son being so miserable and I wasn't there to take care of him, and I was also totally mad at John for not going to the store to get something for him!!  When I got home Trevan was still so pale from being sick.  It's probably one of the few times where I was glad to be going home so I could love on him.  (I like to travel, and I like taking breaks from being a mom sometimes too...I am not always excited about going home and getting back to reality.)

I was so glad to go and visit Becky and Chris and to be there to celebrate the twins coming!  And it was fun to be there with her parents too!! 

Loved it!!

Halloween 2011

The above picture was at our church Halloween Party.  You know John, he always comes up with the weirdest Halloween costumes (remember the eye phone?).  Anyway, you can see the games I did for this church party HERE. 
 

My trick or treaters

This is the little neighbor girl I baby sat a few times a week (in 2011/2012)

You see the bowl in that picture?  By the end of the night someone had stolen it!!!!  It was so cute, and it made me so mad!

A worn out trick or treater!

October 2011

Trevan had his cousin spend the night for his birthday - Mallary passed out quick!

Conference Weekend:  Oh look, my whole family fell asleep!

I had this hanging up when I went to pick Trevan up from school!  :) I loved watching Trevan's face when he saw this!  It has now become a tradition.

Trevan's 7th Birthday:

I think he was excited to get these.  For the record, I hate legos.

He was excited to get golf clubs like daddy.  He has since tried to take them on vacations when he sees John pack his....

 

 

 

 

He said his coat made him look like a marshmallow or something... I don't remember.