Edjumaction

Hunter just came home from school and brushed his teeth. He normally only brushes them at morning & at night so I asked him why. He told me a dentist came to school today & told them they should brush their teeth after they eat snacks at home. Then as we are eating popcorn, he goes to get the box. I told him to put it away cause we have some in the bowl still. He told me he was trying to see if there was lots of sugar in the popcorn. I pulled out the box to show him where it listed the sugar (less than 1 gram..whew). Apparently, the dentist was also educating them on how to see if there was too much sugar in their snacks. I guess that's the extra stuff all-day kindergartners learn with all that extra time they are at school, as opposed to half-day K. When I was 5, I sure didn't know what food labels were or that they even existed! All-day kindergarten didn't exist back then either so maybe that's why. Not that I think it's a bad thing, but having a 5 year old checking our food labels for too much sugar is kind of intimidating!

Letters

My boys frequently make drawings & cards for people. The other day, Jacob made a card for his aunt Tiffaney & her roommate Kathleen, who is often called Kath. I could not stop laughing when I saw how he spelled Kath.

Oh Geez

I have been after the kids this whole day to get their rooms & basement clean. It's pretty ridiculous that an hour chore tops, turns into an all day ordeal. I was sick of nagging them & sick of them fighting every time I try to get them to clean. They get along great until I ask them to clean. Then it is like World War III between them...every time they are asked to clean. It is so exhausting. I finally got frustrated enough & told them it was just best to get rid of their toys if they couldn't take care of them. I said they could find other things to do with their time than play with toys. Especially since clean up involves so much fighting & drama. I have no girls! I should not have this much drama in my house!!! After I made this threat, Jacob, the ever-manipulative one came to see me with this picture. "Mommy?" He asked, "would He want you to take away all our toys???" Then he told me he was going to leave the picture here so I could look at it and think about how He wouldn't want me to do this.

Warm Fuzzies

Hunter is in my closet with me as I go through one of my chests with old letters & things. He found an old address book of mine and asked if he could have it. I told him no because its mine. He said, "I'll just have it when you die." Awh! What a warm & fuzzy moment!

Sweetness

I wish I could have babies come out and already be 2 years old. This little guy melts my heat multiple times per day. I love listening to his cute little voice talking and trying to say words. Sometimes he gets mad at me for not understanding what he's trying to say right away. That makes me smile too! This is my favorite age. I would have 10 kids if I could only skip the baby stage of exhaustion & go right to the cuteness of a 2 year old. I could spend all day watching him in action and still not get enough of his sweetness!

Doughnuts

Adam was eating this cereal today and was calling it doughnuts. Oh how I wish I could fill my bowl with doughnuts every morning and eat it without the guilt!

Shared Parenting

Hunter & Adam have come to an understanding regarding this stuffed chipmunk ("Chipper" to Hunter). Hunter got this stuffed beanie baby at a visit with Santa this last Christmas. Chipmunk has recently become a favorite of Adam, resulting in a few squabbles over it. Hunter has been very generous to share his chipmunk with Adam and they have come to an understanding. Every morning, when Hunter goes to school, he hands his beloved Chipper over to Adam for the day. After school, when we go to pick up kids from school, Adam hands Chipmunk over to Hunter in the car. Adam will then lurk after school for the moment that Hunter puts Chipper down. Then Adam will quietly pick up Chipmunk and sneak off with it. I am very impressed with the way they are learning how to share happily on their own. Is there anything more wonderful than when your kids get along?

Snow!! Snow??

We brought some snow back from Flagstaff to share! It may have melted soon after it hit the ground, but it was truly falling in flakes. Such a rare occurrence!  We had to be outside to enjoy it. I even let the kids quit cleaning the basement so they could go outside and enjoy this rare experience.

I'm not sure why we have a trash can in the middle of our yard. I'm going to go with my gut and blame the boys.

Jacob had fun jumping on the trampoline with all the snow it caught. He was drenched from head to toe when he came inside.

Brrr! Adam told me after he went inside that his hands were cold.

Yes, Hunter's pants are falling down. At one point, Hunter asked me if he could go get in the shower. I said yes. Next thing I know, he is back outside with new, dry clothes on, geared up for more snow fun!

It is so funny how the sky will so be dark and gloomy one minute, then the sun will just pop out of no where.

Rainbow..courtesy of heaven!

Boys Will Be Boys

I have 3 boys. Life gets a little rambunctious over here sometimes..most of the time. Tonight some of these boys were fighting so Trevor made them hug for 2 minutes.

Adam felt left out and turned it into a group hug.

Hunter is usually happy to serve his hug time.  He just has to survive Jacob's attempts to break the hug.

We threaten Jacob with more hug time if he doesn't cooperate. It usually gets him back in line, because the last thing he wants to do is hug his brother for longer.  Adam's faces in these pictures crack me up!

After hug time, it usually turns into silly wrestling time.

These boys sure keep it lively over here!

Sad Milestones

It is official. Adam now knows how to climb out of his crib. I had hoped he would just be satisfied to wait for me to come collect him when he called for me for the rest of his life. I think he figured out it was possible because of our trip. We brought his pack 'n play for him to sleep in and he found he could easily climb over the side and did so quite a few times when it was bedtime. This morning, as I was getting kids ready for school, he just showed up in the kitchen all of a sudden. It is such an odd feeling when your baby starts to get out of bed himself. He did it again for nap time today. Luckily, it only happened 4 times before he settled down. But it freaked me out again when he came walking into my room after I had laid him down. I'm not ready for him to move to a big bed!!

Another unavoidable milestone I am not ready for, is Hunter losing his first tooth. That day is rapidly approaching as it is getting looser every day. He keeps telling me it hurts him and wants me to pull it out.  I just can't do it! Please stop wiggling it! Keep your baby teeth for as long as possible! They are the cute teeth I have come to know and love! Now they are disappearing and being replaced with their gigantic adult counterparts with little jagged bumps on top that are too big for your precious little mouth! While Hunter has been SO excited for this rite of passage and a visit from The Tooth Fairy, I SO dread it! It just means he is growing up and I don't like it. I just want him to be 5 forever. I may or may not have said the same thing when he was 1, 2, 3 & 4 years old. Just quit growing..please!!

Valentines & President's Day Weekend

We celebrated this last weekend (and Valentine's Day) by tagging along with Trevor on a business trip to Flagstaff. It was originally going to be just the 2 of us, but we decided it would be fun to bring the kids. There were a quite a few times during our trip that we questioned what the heck we were thinking when we decided to bring them along, but for the most part, it was a fun weekend getaway with lots of snow & sledding. The kids had a BLAST!

They were SO excited to see snow all over the ground. We couldn't make it past this snowy area in front of our hotel without all three boys (and sometimes Trevor) tromping through the snow and having an impromptu snow ball fight. It was FREEZING when we arrived but we were happy to find that it got warmer each day throughout our trip. It went from being in the 30's & 40's to being in the mid-50's, which we can definitely handle.

The night we got there (Valentine's Day), it was about 11:00 p.m. before we got the kids settled in their beds. At 4:00 a.m, we woke to the kids talking and the light on in the other room. We both jumped out of bed to find Jacob and Hunter wide awake and playing like it was Christmas morning. Adam was still conked out, thankfully. We quickly got them back to bed and warned them that the sun better be shining next time they even think about getting out of their bed!

The next day, the boys & I went shopping at Target while Trevor went to work for a few hours. Target was conveniently located just across the street from where he needed to work, so we stayed there until he was done. Our best Target find was an inflatable sled on clearance. When Trevor was done, we took our new sled and headed to Wing Mountain, near Snow Bowl, for some sledding. This turned out to be the highlight of the trip. The boys were in LOVE with sledding, including Adam. Every time the ride ended, he was saying, "Gain Daddy!" Trevor carried him up the hill multiple times.

Hunter had his heart set on making a snowman. He made it all by himself!

I wasn't as brave as Adam when it came to sledding. I started on the small hill for my first run. After gaining some confidence, I moved to the big hill. My 2nd run down the big hill, the sled turned sideways, then backwards. I was screaming like a little girl, afraid the whole sled was going to tip over. I let Trevor take over as sled chaperon for the rest of the trip, while I happily snapped the photos.

Adam waved and said bye to me every time Trevor carried him up the hill, which was almost every run.

Toward the end of our sledding experience, Trevor decided to teach the boys to go down the hill on their belly. I don't know if this happens to all mom's, but when we do activities where my kids could potentially be hurt, I have a small knot of worry in my stomach the entire time. When it's time to go, the knot melts into relief because nobody got hurt. I told him we had been lucky to not have any accidents or injuries so far, I didn't want to jinx that. He ignored me and sent Jacob flying down the hill, face first. Luckily, it turned out fine.

Hunter was the next to go on his belly. Jacob thought it would be fun to run down the hill as Hunter was going. The sequence of the next few photos make me bust out laughing every time I go through them.

Luckily, he was not injured and got up with a smile on his face. PHEW!

The next day (after everyone slept great that night), we went to a snow area for some snow play.

I found that my kids really enjoy throwing snowballs at others. Unfortunately, they found that it's not so fun when the snowballs are thrown back. 

Jacob got his feelings hurt almost immediately.

Hunter was a good sport until he bent over when Trevor chucked one at him. It smacked him in the back of the head and he started bawling. I declared an end to ALL of the snowball fighting. Adam wasn't ready to stop throwing them. But he sure did NOT want them to be thrown back.

He continued to throw snowballs at people the entire time we were there. If anyone threw one back at him, or even sprinkled a little snow over his head, we got an earful.

We headed home once the kids started fighting. That's when we know it's time to move along.

We all slept like logs in our own beds that night. We had a fun time making some new memories!