Award number 3

Every mother will experience at least one moment with each of their children when they nominate themselves for the Worst Mother in the World award. If it hasn't happened to you already don't worry I promise it's coming.

I got my first award when Samm was about two. Long story short she wouldn't give me the pen she was writing all over everything with so I yanked it out of her hand not knowing that the clippy thing on the side had been broken off and the jagged plastic ripped through her finger.

Award number two was last summer when James almost drowned right in front of my face because I wasn't paying attention. It was hands down the scariest moment of my parenting career. Thank goodness for my overly paranoid about water daughter who simply said "Mom look at James." Yes he was completely under the water. This one still makes me sick to my stomach when I think about it.

And award number three came this morning. It was much sooner than I would have anticipated, but inevitable so I guess I'm glad it's over with. Macy kept scratching my chest with her finger nails and I was already irritated with the other two kids so I decided to clip her nails even though she was tired and crying. Half of the award is for being annoyed at her for screaming the whole time I was doing it.(Like she should have just forgot about the fact that she was tired) The second half of the award is for clipping the top of her finger instead of the nail. After 20 minutes of pressure with a tissue it was still bleeding so I had to put a band aid on her tiny little finger. She seems to be OK this evening but I still felt pretty bad all day when I looked down and saw the band aid.

My source of frustration!

This post is for my sister, because according to her I'm getting a little to cute with my blog.

So, let's talk about potty training.

I have been working with James for almost a year now and I am still washing wet and soiled pants on a daily basis. If I set the timer and take him every hour and a half he does just fine. He will even poop in the toilet for me, which is by far the hardest thing for them to figure out. However, if I leave it up to him he simply does not want to take the time to go. Every couple of months I give up and say "fine we'll do it when your ready." Then I go to the store and have to buy diapers for the baby and pull-ups for him and it's back to "I'd rather wash wet underwear."

This past weekend the kids and I were at my sister-in-laws for our annual Easter egg hunt when her oldest boy came in and informed us that James needed to be changed. Unfortunately,he was wearing underwear not a pull-up. So, as I'm in the bathroom cleaning him up I ask him once again "why did you poop in your pants instead of the toilet?" (I don't know why I even ask him that because the answer is always "I don't know.") His response this time was "Because it makes me happy!"

How do you potty train a kid that says that?

My mom assures me that he will figure it out by the time he goes to kindergarten, but I'm seriously starting to doubt that.

Ultimate hero

This is the conversation I overheard the other day.

Samm. "You'll always protect me right Dad?"

Josh."uh-huh"

Samm."You'll fight lions, jump out of airplanes, and fight twenty robots?"

Josh laughing. "Yes, honey I would fight twenty robots."

After we chuckled all day about Josh jumping out of airplanes and fighting lions I started thinking about how in her mind she really does believe her Dad could do those things. Didn't you when you were little?

I thought my Dad could do anything and fix anything. I don't know that fighting robots was on the top of my list, but I definitely knew that any homework question I had he would know the answer to or be able to figure it out.

Yes Dad, you should have been getting your own report card for math all those years!

And the thing that really struck me as I thought back to when I was little and my Dad was the ultimate hero, is that he still is. Even though I'm a grown women, I still believe that my Dad could fight a lion, jump out of an airplane, or fight twenty robots.

So... how much do I love that this handsome guy is and always will be her ultimate hero!

I'm sure you already know!

Can anyone spare some lumber for an ark?

Spring cleaning and cute pics

Josh is on spring break this week which means of course that we have a huge list of things to do around the house. Today we kicked off the fun with a major cleaning of the garage. We got rid of a disturbingly large pile of junk and Josh knocked out a shelf so we can get a little outside freezer and put up some food storage shelves.

In the cleaning process Josh came across our camping tent and thought it would be fun to set it up in the living room tonight and let the kids sleep in it.

And on a completely unrelated note...

I realized today that I haven't done a very good job of posting updated pictures of Macy for the grandparents to see.

So, here are a few pictures I took and a short video clip. She was making cute little noises, but by the time I got the camera out she had just about had it so it's really short. I'll have to try again later.

Her hair sticks straight up back there no matter what and I just love it.

The Swing

My sweet little Macy, I fell in love with you the first second I saw you. Your beautiful blue eyes and squishy little cheeks just melt my heart. I know you feel the same about me. How do I know this you might ask...

You hate your boppy swing, you hate your car seat, you hate your stroller, and you hate your bouncy chair.

But you love to be in my arms..or on my boob. Mostly the second one.

For the most part that's OK, I love holding you in my arms, I don't so much love the second one, but that's OK too.

The problem with this lies in me going anywhere without you...IMPOSSIBLE. And it's really pretty daunting to go anywhere with you.

Every week we take a trip to the grocery store.

I feed you, I change you, and I burp you, at least three times to insure our trip runs smoothly. We set out in the car where you usually cry but eventually give in and fall asleep. "Ahh" I sigh, a peaceful trip with no toddlers grabbing everything in sight...or knocking over giant toilet paper towers.

At the store I always start at the back and work my way to the front to move things along as quickly as possible. However, about the time I reach for a gallon of milk I start to hear stirrings from underneath the blanket and inevitably an "oh crap" escapes my lips. I quickly push the cart along hoping the movement will put you back to sleep, but by the time I am reaching for a carton of eggs you are beside yourself in a fit of rage. Why? I don't know. Someday please explain.

So, I scoop you up and with another sigh I set off on another adventure of holding a crying baby in one arm and pushing the cart with the other. This works out fairly well until we reach the frozen food isles. By this time the cart is really full and really heavy and although I've been working out I just don't have any arm strength which makes this task very difficult.

If I was your aunt Kory who has guns of steel and can bench press 110 pounds maybe it wouldn't

be so hard. (see picture below.)

(She's not even flexing!)

So, I have been asking myself over and over "will I ever have time to myself? will I ever be able to leave you with your Dad?"

Enter THE SWING

This wonderful mechanical devise came into our lives just a few short days ago, but we already have a bond so strong that I would cry if it ever left us. Because..

You sat in it, you smiled in it, you loved the way it rocked from side to side, you loved the soft ocean sounds and colorful fish, and you even FELL ASLEEP in it!!

And now, I will be going out tonight with Aunt Kory to eat some yummy food and to shop for things that I wish I could have but don't have the money for, without worrying if you are screaming bloody murder because you are tired but don't have mom to put you to sleep. (and by that of course I mean my boob) Love, Mom

To my beloved swing. I promise to love and cherish you always. I promise to change your outrageously expensive D batteries with impressive swiftness. And I promise to never let James sit in you, because I know he will try.

Loving the warm weather

Spring has been teasing us the last couple of weeks. We have 70 degrees one day and then it snows the next. The last few days have been beautiful though and the kids are loving it.

Days like this make me excited to work on my flower beds. I attempted it last year but as this is the first home we have ever owned it was also my first attempt at any type of gardening.

I have decided though that I'm not going to dwell on any of my failures from last year, just look forward to a new start.

...And since I am starting over I was thinking of doing a container garden instead of in the ground. Our soil out here is terrible. I don't know much about either type of gardening so I'm wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom for a beginner. Is there a down side to container planting or is it just visual preference?

A great laugh for all you moms

I received a Victorias Secret catalog in the mail today and came across this while I was flipping through it. I seriously doubt anything other than surgery can help me now, but it did give me a good laugh.

For eye-popping, extreme cleavage and a smooth, dangerously voluptuous bust. The warm, tingly sensation lets you know it's working while the fast-absorbing, creamy formula delivers intense moisture for wow-worthy, visibly sexy results

A really Awsome weekend

I'm a whole week behind in putting up this post, but I just couldn't not share our fun weekend!


We had a bunch of family come in to town on thursday and of course the girls can't get together without doing hair so... Friday night we kicked off the fun in my beauty shop...I mean tiny kitchen. This is my adorable sister-in-law Natalie getting some serious root action taken care of!

Of course there was plenty of video game playing Saturday afternoon. (This photo courtesy of Samm.)

Saturday night we had a big suprise party for Josh who turned The big 30! The best part was that he was genuinely suprised. We went out to eat the night before because it was his actual birthday and he was a little upset that I didn't make a big deal out of such a big day. Ha Ha! Ps.Thank You everyone for helping me with the party and bringing all the yummy food.

And another big thank you to Joni for this amazing cake. It tasted as good as it looked!

And The really really great part about this weekend was having so much of my family here on Sunday when we blessed our sweet baby girl.

(L to R) Brother-in-law Chris, Josh, Brother Keith, Dad, Brother-in-law Corey, and Father-in-law Linne.

The dress that Macy wore is 50 years old! My Mom wore it as a baby when she was cristened, my sisters and I all wore it when we were blessed, and Samm also wore it for her blessing. Josh absolutely hates the bonnet, but I think it is kind of cute so she wore it for some pictures.

And no family get together would be complete without my Dad making his famous omlettes. SO YUMMY!
I feel so incredibly blessed to have such an amazing family. I loved having them all here and was sad that the weekend passed so quickly.

Embarasing Mom moment

Well it was bound to happen...I was in a hurry this morning and didn't have time to pump

before I dropped Samm off at school and hit the gym, so I just left my friend with some

formula for Macy when she got hungry. About an hour into my workout I was sitting at the

bench press machine when the manager walked by with a funny look on his face. That is

when the Oh No hit me and I looked down to find a nice big wet spot on the front of my shirt!

Fortunately I had a jacket with me, so I hurried to the dressing room to slip it on and quickly

finished the rest of my workout.