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Tuesday, June 26, 2012

trying to be cool

So the other day we were talking about what we can do to be better helpers around the house (without being asked) and a bunch of things came up..

"practice piano without being asked"-Audrey, "be nice to my sisters"-Carson
 " pick up my bed"-Jordan

 and then the kids asked Trent and I what we were going to do....uhhh , my first thought "are you for REAL!  look around the house kid, what DON'T I ALREADY DO FOR YOU, you are breathing right? clean clothes on....food in your stomach....."  and then I stopped myself and said ,"we are going to do something 'cool' everyday, starting with setting up the tent and letting you all sleep in it for two nights.

Lucky for me the kids have super memories and so for the past few days we have been trying to do something cool everyday.

Monday for them went like this:

1.woke up in the tent,
2.mom made sausage, eggs and pancakes, (I told you I'm trying)
3.went to the Y to swim...not for swimming lessons, just for fun,
4.mom made picnic lunch and we went to find crabs at the beach, (mom brought a book- there are advantages...)
5.came home so the neighbor kids could come play and let their mom who just had a baby that morning(in her own bathtub) rest
6.mom took us all and the neighbor kids to a park,
7.mom made Audrey's favorite dinner,
8.went to sleep in the tent again.


Trent came home to the house pretty much a mess, four loads of laundry on the floor, dishwasher full of clean dishes, a sink full of dirty dishes and one mommy who didn't do any of her homework.






- I must say that it has been worth it., and now the kids ask every day, "what are we going to do today?" and are more willing to do their chores (hey, I'll take it as long as it lasts.)
- now I'm off to Costco with Jordan for some ice cream, the other two are with the neighbors at the childrens museum (she made her bed and picked up her toys and ate all her lunch.)


Monday, June 25, 2012



Recent Happenings

 Audrey lost her first tooth (May 30th)




Trent and I celebrated our 9th anniversary..even found our 'original' wedding flutes (that we never used cause they were kinda hokey)
Anniversary breakfast at the "red rooster cafe" in Gig Harbor, make sure if you come to Gig Harbor you stop in.   Creme Bruele French Toast....I'm still drooling. (Thanks Kelli for the suggestion..and thanks Mom for taking the kids)
my kitchen for two days...
 outcome, Texas wedding cake for a friend

 um, seriously, how have I not done this before!!  banana bread in muffin tins, half the baking time.


Audrey lost her second tooth, on the bus home the last day of school (thank you bus driver Becky for giving out carmel apple suckers (seriously, we had been trying to get it out for two weeks.))
 this makes me laugh everytime- just watch the first 30 seconds.
background...right after Audrey's tooth came out she asked if she could have a 'Sthnack' and then laughed realizing how funny she was saying it.
 she was checking out herself in her mirror. love her.
 last day of first grade!
 playing around with my months square for my quilting group
and...pretty much all Trent has been up to after work for a month...he asked for a tractor for Christmas this year.  (sorry Trent, not gunna happen.)


Monday, June 18, 2012

I read this article that I saw on a friends facebook link. I just HAD to share it.
This is to all the mommies and daddies that after the kids go to sleep think, "I am the worst parent ever."  - you are not alone :)



This is from Glennon Melten, a mom and writer for the Huffington Post

I let Craig handle last night's round of "Whack-a- Mole" (bedtime) and settled into the couch at 7:45. It's like my victory lap -- that couch settling.
Day is done, gone the son, gone the girls and the the fights and the whiiiiines. All is calm -- Bravo ooooon -- sleep is nigh....
One of the myriad problems with this parenting gig is that they save the hardest part for last. BEDTIME. Bedtime should be in the morning -- when we're fresh and kind and sweet -- and decent parenting still seems like a very real possibility. But no, the hardest parts -- dinner and baths and bedtime -- arrive at the end of the day, when we have nothing left. When the truth is, we are counting the minutes. Counting the moments until no one is the boss of us anymore. Until we can sink into that couch, book, Internet, or glass of wine -- whatever our victory lap includes.
It doesn't help that in our mommy minds, we have this idea that bedtime is supposed to be the most peaceful, loving time of day. That we are supposed to send our lovies off to dream land with songs, stories, soft, sweet voices and strokes of their cherubic heads. Sometimes bedtime happens this way for us. Not often.
Each of our kids gets a story at bedtime. They never pick a good one, they pick the longest one.
And the little one wants to "help read" her book. So, let's see. It takes her about six minutes to sound out each word, and so if the book is one hundred words, well, I don't specialize in math but I am telling you that I am stuck in that room FOREVER. It feels like I will be reading that book with Amma until I die. And I know I'm supposed to be supporting her reading. I mean it's good -- this is good stuff, this wanting to read. I was a reading teacher, I know this is GOOD stuff about which I am supposed to be excited. But for me, exhaustion trumps excitement every single time. And I can't help but notice that the ONLY TIME SHE CARES THIS MUCH ABOUT READING IT HERSELF IS AT BEDTIME. When she can hold me hostage and stay up six minutes later with every sounded-out-word. And so while I'm supposed to be thinking sweet thoughts, all I can think is: OH MY GOD. I AM GOING TO DIE. JUST JUMP RIGHT OUT OF MY SKIN. YOU SUCK AT READING. YOU SUCK YOU SUCK YOU SUCK. PLEASE GOD. PLEASE MAKE THIS BOOK..just..just ...DISAPPEAR so I can take my victory lap. I DESERVE MY VICTORY LAP!
But No. Nope. No help from above. So it goes on. And on. "S....o.......soooooooooo t-h- e....tuuuuu---huuuuuu---eeeeeeeeee?" says Amma. I am held hostage for 45 minutes. When she is finally done. I decide that after that debacle there is NO WAY that the universe also expects me to sing the "song" that is also part of her "bedtime routine." I say goodnight and pray she'll forget.
But they never forget. They pretend to forget ONLY so that they have another excuse to pop out of their rooms and remind you of what you forgot.
So three minutes later, when I think I'm in the clear, here comes my littlest mole. "You forgot my song," she says. And I stare at her for a long second and admit to myself two things.
1. She is unbelievably cute and precious and one day I will miss these visits, especially when she starts sneaking out of her room to party with her friends instead of to find me to sing to her.
2. Doesn't matter. I'm going to lose it.
And so I sing her song. But I sing it like an insane person. Eyes wide, teeth clenched, just a little too loud. No sweetness. Like a robot. "You. Are. My. Sun. SHINE. My. Only. Sun. SHINE." I sing it like there are implied curse words between every lyric.
She gets it. She finally goes to sleep. They know when mommy's done. It's not pretty, but it's effective. And often that's the best I can do.
So last night as I waited for Craig to whack the last mole -- I half listened to the bedroom doors re-open and the typical mole-y excuses -- "I can't sleep because my elbow hurts!" "I need ICE COLD water, not reg-a-lar water" "My closet doors are open." "There's an elephant shadow on my window." Whack- Whack-Whack- Whack. Nothing new. The moles are not too creative tonight, I thought. But then, I hear a door open and one appears to say to poor Craig- mallet in hand -- sitting against the wall in the hallway -- "I can't sleep because my finger smells because I keep scratching my bottom."
Hmm. Not bad, I thought, and I giggled, because it's funny when it's not your turn. Craig says, "Okay. Go wash your hand." I hear the water run, hallway waddling, child returns to her room. Two minutes later, door re-opens, child-mole re-appears. "My finger still...." "GO WASH YOUR HAND AGAIN," Craig says with that very even, controlled tone that indicates the Whack -a-Mole machine is about to BUST. Water starts, child- mole slowly creeps back to her room. A minute later, door re-opens. Mole child says, "My finger still..." THEN STOP SCRATCHING YOUR BUTT. AND STOP SMELLING YOUR FINGER! OR PUT IT UNDER YOUR PILLOW. HOLD YOUR BREATH. WHATEVER IT TAKES. JUST GO. TO. SLEEP!
Mole child gets it. She is out of quarters. Daddy's broke. Machine is done for the day.
No more doors open.
Craig comes downstairs.
He joins me with tea and "Mad Men" for our victory lap. He's asleep within 10 minutes.

Friday, June 8, 2012

acting on genius

Everyone once in awhile you hear a great idea...and actually ACT on it. well today, I acted on one.
first a little history, I have three kids that have never really been into 'toys', the one thing they all love and that lasts is dress up. So we have A LOT of dress up stuff and I've gone through idea after idea on storage solutions..under the bed drawers, bins in their closets, giant tubs in the living room...i've tried it all and lately the girls and I have been having small major blowouts discussions about putting their clothes away and it always ends with "but the dress up is always in the way." 

So yesterday I was telling my mom about how we have been in our house for 4 months and I still haven't figured out what to do with my lame sized closet at the end of our hallway (it isn't deep enough to even hold a monopoly game in. Lame) and my genius mom says, "why don't you put pegboard on the wall with hooks and have that be the dress up closet."  LIGHTBULB turns on.

Today I went to homedepot and spent $24.00 (dang hooks get ya. $6.49 for a sheet of pegboard(48"x48") $17.51 for all the hooks ) I bet I can get hooks at dollar store....hmm.
I spent 5 minutes installing the board and hooks and then hung up all the dress up stuff.  15 minutes and I have more room in the kids closets/under beds and have an organized dress up closet that I  don't care if it stays organized in or not Love.




Thanks Mom for the idea! 

Final Day of Disneyland

Disneyland Part 4
May 26th 2012

We got up early to catch all our favorite rides again, starting with the snow white ride, the only ride Audrey was really scared of so this is how they ended up going on it. (precious)

 Saturday was CROWDED and we spent our time in a lot of lines and made the best of it by playing games, hanging was the most popular
 Peter Pans flight again
 Casey Jr's train, we were in the animal cage..how appropriate
 Waiting our turn for the canoe 'ride' ,no pictures of the actual 'ride' because we were all sweating by the time we finished (you are the ones doing the paddeling) the kids thought it was really cool, especially when Carson found out he was old enough to not wear a life jacket
 Carson, Audrey and Trent went on splash mountain again while Jordan and I stood in line waiting to see Winnie the Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. Carson and Audrey came out of the ride just in time to get in some pictures.


 again, it was CRAZY crowded so we decided to head back to the hotel to swim for an hour and then come back for the fireworks and Fantasmic show, but on the way out we caught Mickey and Minnie dancing and leading a band, the kids thought it was great.
 playing around the few minutes while waiting for our bus
 after swimming and re-fueling we headed back and went to the Tiki Room (Jordan's 4th time-she loved the birds and would dance while they sang)





We all tried our best to pull out the King Aurthor's sword- no such luck





 Then it was time for the Fantasmic show and then we watched the fireworks, the kids all loved seeing Mickey fight the giant Dragon and then during the firework show seeing tinkerbell flying in the sky. We said goodbye to all our favorite rides and charecters and headed back to the hotel for the night.


 Sunday was fly home day



The kids couldn't stop talking about how great the whole trip was and thanking us for such a fun suprise. Best family trip ever, if anything I realize on these kinds of family times how much a really appreciate my kids and how great they really are. 
I've got one great family!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Disneyland part 3


Disneyland May 25th 2012

We met MICKEY!!  and then toured his house..

..rode in his car...
then visited MINNIE! (Jordan was SOO excited, it was pretty cute)

in line for their FAVORITE roller "poster" (as Jordan calls them.)
We rode this about 5 times in a ten minute period. the kids LOVED it and there wasn't a line.  (we went on Saturday to ride it one last time before we left and had to wait in a 45 minute line. )




..yep, they really are monkeys
roger rabbit car spin ride....lame.
Jordan had dance lessons from a very sweet prince...
Carson felt to old...and Audrey didn't like the attention so they sat the dance out.
we rode the Monarail to Downtown Disney

She loved getting her face painted
back to Disneyland to drive some cars


 the finding Nemo submarine ride
..Then back to Downtown Disney to the Lego store to help a Master Builder make a dragon for the stores re-grand opening....Carson was in Lego HEAVEN

(the whole background including sky and tree picture are lego's)

I had a brilliant mom moment before we left for Disneyland, each of the kids had been saving money for whenever we went to Disneyland. So when we arrived we told the kids that the first few days they could look around and see if there was something they really wanted and on Friday or Saturday they could buy whatever it was they really wanted. totally took away the "I Wants" and tantrums for not getting all the balloons, treats and such that are everywhere. Carson picked out a Lego set (suprise, suprise), Audrey picked a watch and Jordan picked a minnie mouse headband (that she wore non stop and is even currently wearing two weeks later)

Next on the agenda was Medievil times, we had a GIANT tour bus to ourselves and the kids thought that was great

The kids loved the horses, hawk show and our green knight even threw a flower to both girls :)
totally captivated (carson was mid-blink :) )

the food was fabulous and the kids (especially Audrey) loved not having any utencils, and we ended up taking back to the hotel enough to feed an army :)

Day 3 was another success!
(one day left )