Boys will be boys!

Jimmy's dream came true last night! And I had nothing to do with it!! Let's start with a background. My little Jamesy worships his big sister. Anything that Kaylee does, James wants to be right beside her. Kaylee rides her bike, James wants to ride his. Kaylee does a cart wheel, James does this cute try of a cart wheet. This is funny to watch for the most part, until it's Kaylee wants to put on nail polish, James wants to put on nail polish. Kaylee wants to wear a head band, James wants to wear a head band. You can see where I'm going here...not so cute to big, manly daddy!!

Here's the good news...Kaylee has a sign on her door that says "NO BOYS ALLOWED" and now James wants to make a sign that says "NO GIRLS ALLOWED." I, of course, saved this job for daddy. So last night I take Kaylee and Jagger for a walk and Jimmy and James stay behind to make their sign. It was soooo cute!! They drew a picture of a stick girl and then a big X through her. Then they drew lipstick and Xed it out. And then James told daddy to write "no toe nail polish" and the Xed that too (which is really funny because just that afternoon James tried to polish his toe nails with a marker! But whatever!) I think Jim would have to classify last night as one of his favorite nights ever with James! hahaha

Love and Logic

Honestly, so many of you have told me that my blog is so funny that I am now having writer's block from trying to come up with something humorous! Ugh! And I started this thing so that I could see the humor in my life...who knew it was seriously that funny?!!

I was telling my sister, Jennifer (yes, my life is full of wonderful Jennifers!), about this new parenting thing I've taken up. I'm always looking for a better way to parent my kids. I suck at this mothering thing but Lord knows I'm trying! Anyways, I'm reading Love and Logic for birth through to age 6. Phenomenal!! If you have kids in this age bracket...get it. I think it's hard to explain though because my sister got quiet, said I was babying my kids, and kind of laughed that funny laugh that you know someone is doing when they think you are nuts but don't really want to tell you because they are way too sweet of a sister...well, yeah, she did that!

The basic premise of the whole idea is that you allow natural consequences to happen and follow up bad behaviors with a consequence that is in-line with that behavior. So...here's my example of the natural consequence. James decided to stand on a basketball in the living room while holding onto the wall. I mean really...we all know what's coming! I normally would have said "James, you're going to fall! Get off that ball now! Balls are for throwing, not standing on!" (Yes, I'm long winded sometimes.) Well, letting go of the control (which is so very hard for me to do because I'm a control freak) I let the natural consequence happen. Now, I have to say at this point, that had I gone into my speech James would have stood on the ball as soon I left the room just because I told him not to. So, the inevitable happened and he fell off the ball and slammed his head into the wall. He got up, rubbed his head, looked at me as if to say "why didn't you warn me?" and then walked away from the ball. Lesson learned...standing on basketballs is a dumb idea. I let the consequence do the teaching and I didn't have to do a thing.

They have this other great idea that "Love and Logic parents do NOT give warnings." So today when Kaylee was playing Super Mario on the DS and died she let out this high pitched screech in the car that I cannot stand. I said "Uh oh, so sad! I'll take the DS now." (By the way, you have to choose an empathetic line to say for all bad behaviors so that the kids know you mean business and know that mom and dad are about to follow through. Also, kids listen and learn when hit with empathy...apparently screaming just makes them defensive..go figure!) Kaylee looked at me and said "you always give me at least two or three chances!" Bingo!! I obviously needed to switch over to this new parenting style. Now everyone knows I mean business!!

Okay last one...they have this great thing called the Energy Drain. Kaylee and James started to fight (really their lives are just an ongoing fight with some time outs to catch their breath in between!) and I said "Uh oh, so sad! All of this fighting is draining my energy. Now how are you guys going to give me my energy back?" They both looked at me like I was nuts. I said "would you like some suggestions?" With nutball signs shooting out of their eyes they nodded ever so slightly. I then gave the fun part.."Some kids would clean the playroom. Some kids would vacuum the living room. Some kids would dustbust the kitchen." Kaylee opted for the second choice while James opted for the third. The kids thought it was fun which is fine by me. They stopped fighting, I got some chores done for me. Are you kidding me...why wouldn't I sign up for this! Bring on the sibling rivalry!!

Okay so I was rereading and I guess I have to explain why my sister thought I was babying. One more example to explain. Kaylee threw a piece of trash in my vehicle. "Uh oh, so sad! When we get home you can clean out mom's car and then dustbust it." While cleaning the car Kaylee starts to cry and says it's no fun and it's too hard. Instead of yelling "you're having to do this because you threw trash! Maybe if you threw it where it belonged you wouldn't be here! Dry those tears and just get it done!", we are supposed to empathise and say "I know it is hard isn't it. It's so sad that you have to do this." That way the consequence is still teaching rather than the parent yelling which again, apparently does nothing in the teaching department but does build up resentment and grows rebellious children. I get Jen's point too though, as a fellow control freak, this does sound like babying.

That's all the Love and Logic I've got in me for today!

Spring Break Finale

I totally forgot to write about what happened on the way back from the country. I got a ticket. Yup, me! I never get tickets!! I was so mad! I was driving on Hwy 96 and there are some spots that are just so straight and blah and you can see for miles. Speed limit is 70 and I would go about 90. I would have been okay if I got a ticket then. I slowed down when we passed through towns. And I even slowed down for the work zones. I passed the work zone and went back up to 70 and got pulled over...apparently it wasn't officially the end of the work zone (that sign came just a quarter of a mile after I drove away from getting my ticket!!). One hundred and forty six dollars!! Ugh! But better yet, I call the judge this morning to tell him I'm sending the money and he tells me the fines on the ticket are wrong and it's actually one hundred and sixty six dollars...of course it is! Double Ugh!!

We had a blast at family camp. It was so much fun and we were with all the right people. The kids had fun. It was fabulous. Jennifer and Hilde drove up together with their kids and Tricia and I drove up with our kids. We met just before the camp at a small town called Columbus. You should have seen us four women with NINE kids walking around town square...you could just see the shop owners running to put the "closed" sign in the window!! Then we went to Pizza Hut (because they don't serve dinner at camp the first night) and you know when we walked in they were all saying "are you kidding me right now?!" We totally dominated the restaurant. By the time we left we were the only ones in there...why did everyone leave?? haha

The first night at camp we met all of our fellow campers at a mixer. The kids loved the open space. Every time we found a playground there was another one on the horizon. They just kept running and running. When we got back to the cabins the kids all paired up with who they wanted to bathe with. I got Coby, James and Jagger in my room. Coby and James were still splashing around and I got Jagger out to get him dressed. He was in his diaper when Tricia came in to say hi. Then Jagger hurled....and all I could do was cup my hands and catch it ...and believe me, the cup overflowethed!! I ran to the sink and dumped the puke and came back to Jagger just in time to her the explosion (gosh, I wish I could duplicate that noise for you!) from his diaper and he filled up with diarrhea. Needless to say, Tricia found a quick excuse to get out of the room. Hilde took James and Kaylee to her room for a sleepover. Jagger and I got banned from the other cabins and got stuck sleeping in the stinky room by ourselves!

On Friday we took the younger kids to go on the horses. They were having so much fun just waiting for the horses to come. The kids were all climbing on the corral and Jen was taking some great pictures of them. Then my poor James slipped off the top bar. He fell backwards, flipped right over and went down head first. I heard a ping noise (too bad these computers are so silent!!) and that, we later figured out, was his nose hitting the bar. I turned around to see the rest of the fall which was James landing dead center on the top of his head (he even had a grass stain to show where he landed!). It was awful. His first nose bleed. People rushed around and got us ice, towels, and told me how to stop the nose from bleeding. He was fine in about fifteen minutes and was even brave enough to still ride the horses after that. Way to go James!! He must have broke some blood vessels in his nose though because for the rest of the weekend he had this swollen purple and red nose. He's still the cutest three year old in the world!!

I guess it was Saturday when Hilde and I decided to take the boys on the canoe. The girls had already done it and they were watching us take the boys. Jagger hated it from the get-go. He couldn't stand the life jacket. Oh well, James doesn't have to miss out just because Jagger is screaming. I get in the boat. We sit Jagger in front of me, James in front of him, Coby in front of him and then it was Hilde's turn. Hilde pushed off the bank a bit and then got into the canoe. I was like "Hilde, just sit down." She did and that's when we tipped the whole boat over!! I grabbed Jagger and threw him on the dock, then got James. Hilde grabbed Coby and pulled him up. I had to swim over to get James' crocs that had fallen off. I look up and poor Hilde, who I must tell you is completely dry due to the fact that she was still by the bank, is pregnant and is laughing so hard and having to cross her legs so she doesn't pee all over herself. I'm laughing hysterically. All boys are crying...sorry, wailing hysterically!! And this mother off to the side is trying to help us and I'm sure she thinks we all need counselling!!

We all get out of the water and we're on the deck now. James looks at me and screams (I'm really going to have figure out audio for this blog!!) "MOMMY...I AM SOOOOO MAD AT YOU" and then hurls his crocs back into the water (which I can luckily retrieve by lying on my tummy on the dock!). This just makes me laugh harder. Coby has gotten so upset he has peed his pants. I throw Jagger into the stroller and off we go back to the cabin. Now if you know James you know he hates to be dirty and especially hates to be wet. The two boys were walking like they had sticks for legs and they were doing it at a snail's pace! And we had at least a quarter of a mile to walk!! We finally made it though and it was a great story for the rest of the weekend. Kaylee especially liked telling her daddy about it.

It's Tuesday today and I'm just now catching up enough to get back here to blog. I know that the next adventure is right around the corner though! I wouldn't trade a single minute of this life...God always has me smiling!

Spring Break Sickies and Anniversary

Okay, so I had all of these wonderful plans for spring break. We would go to the country for the weekend. Children's museum on Monday, zoo on Tuesday, paint pottery on Wednesday and then off to family camp on Thursday. What it has been is nothing to do on Monday because it rained so bad. Stay home on Tuesday because James has the diarrhea. Stay home Wednesday because Jagger is throwing up and my tummy is queasy. Are you kidding me right now??!! We have to leave for family camp tomorrow and I need everyone better!!

The worst part of everyone being sick is that I had to cancel my cleaner today so that she wouldn't have to clean up while we were all here!! Ugh!

On a happier note...Jimmy and I have been married for nine years today. Woo HOo!! Jim took me to the rodeo last night for our anniversary. It was so much fun. I loved everything...bull riding, calf roping, calf scramble. It was so fun to watch! The highlight was the entertainer...Toby Keith was there!! Can anyone say sexy??!!! Oh my gosh...I am a way bigger Toby fan now than I was before last night. I've always enjoyed his music and I was dying to see him live because they say he puts on a great show...well! He rocks my world!! It was raining after the show and we were parked half a mile away but we were in such good spirits that it was even fun running to our car and getting all drenched. Great night! Great husband! Happy anniversary to us!

Now if I can just get these kids better......

The country and The Crib

What a great weekend we had at the country. Kaylee brought her friend Emily and they had a blast. We got in late on Friday so didn't do much but go to bed. On Saturday the kids stayed busy. They started the day off in the sand pit. They were having so much fun playing in it and mom decided to hide some money in bubble containers down in the middle. The kids lost the fun and started whining about where it was hidden and that they couldn't dig that far. Oh my goodness!! Well, when they finally found it they hid it again and again and again. Then they took the quarters out and hid them also. When it came time to leave on Sunday they actually forget the money. Too funny!

Riding around on the golf cart is always a huge hit. The girls took turns pretty well. Kaylee had to get off when Emily was driving though because she gets nervous with other people driving...too cute! We rode over to see the baby goats and chicks at Ms. Vicky's house and that was great. The goat was so cuddly and all of the kids got to pet her. Of course we gave lots of corn to the other goats too.

We spent the rest of the day just playing and going from activity to activity. We ended the day with a campfire and a warm bath. The kids were exhausted from all of the fresh air and went to bed pretty easily.

My Jagger ran a fever for the whole weekend. I swear that boy gets sick when we travel just so that I won't leave him when we get there! He likes his mommy to be close and this is his way of making sure I don't run off too far. The minute we got home his fever was gone and he is back to normal. Stinker!

We went out and bought bedding for Jagger's new bed on Sunday night. We got a black comforter which looks great with the black ants all over his room but will go nicely when we change his room into a rock n' roll room also.

I have to tell you, this whole moving out of the crib is bothering me more with Jagger than it did with the other two. Maybe not so much moving him as it is not having another one going into the crib. I had three beautiful babies in that crib...I'll be so sad to see it go. I heard my babies laugh, cry and bang toys against the sides. I saw them sleep, play and have so much fun in there. I watched them grow from the security of the confinement to trying to leap over the sides to get some freedom. It's silly that a piece of furniture could mean this much to me. I have to do as they say on HGTV all of the time...hold on to the memories and let go of the furniture. Oh, but what fun it would be to have another baby in there!!

I will say it is harder having Jagger last. Had Kaylee been the last baby I would have been able to say no more babies easily...she was colic and cranky and just a miserable baby. James being adopted at a year old didn't spend as much time in the crib. Jagger though...he was my surprise baby. And not one time have I ever thought...what was God thinking?! Jagger has been a joy. An easy baby. All my children have grown into wonderful children..but if I could have another baby like Jagger...sign me up!

Fun with Friends

I'm sooooooo tired! How is it that I have four kids in the house, every one of them sleeping, and I'm wide awake?! Trust me, I want to go to sleep but I have one of them being picked up in an hour. I would hate to not hear the door because I'm sleeping. Maybe I should go have a shower instead and get ready for our trip up to the in-laws tonight. How embarrassing would it be if mom showed up and I was wrapped in a towel??! Nope, that would be way worse than sleeping!

Jimmy came home yesterday. Woo Hoo!! We had a great afternoon. Went to Chilis for dinner...yummy!! It was fun. Kaylee and James get a kick out of the fact that Jagger will do whatever they want him to do. Jagger bop your head up and down. He does. Jagger swing your head side to side. He does. Jagger scream real loud in the middle of the restaurant. He does. OH MY GOODNESS JAGGER YOU HAVE TO BE QUIET!! Those kids are going to get Jagger into so much trouble!!

Went to Lowes next. Got some stuff for ant piles and sand for the sand box. Of course as soon as we got there the delivery man for the mattress (yes, Jagger is moving up to a big boy bed) calls and says he's two minutes from our house (thanks for the advance notice!). I call the neighbors and luckily they go out and meet the guy for me and we arrive home to find a mattress and box spring on our front porch.

The rest of the night was just getting the sand into the sand box. The bed into the bedroom. Nothing too exciting. Jim and I speed-watched American Idol and then watched Survivor. God bless the man that invented the DVR!

Caroline came over this morning with two of her kids. It was loads of fun. All six of the kids running wild in the backyard while her and I got to talk. The fun activity of the day was by far getting to write all over the Little Tykes house with chalk. Who knew?! It's so nice to have another adult to talk to...even if there are six kids yelling in the background! I would hate to have someone without kids over...they just don't get the talk, yell at the kids, talk, walk away quickly, talk, swing kids, talk, break up fight...it's a rhythm that only fellow moms get.

Well, we're off to the in-laws tonight. And Kaylee is bringing a friend for the first time. Of course it's her best friend Emily, who just happens to be my best friend Jen's daughter. It's going to be a blast and I'm sure I'll have lots to write on Sunday night. For now though, that's all I've got.

Getting Started

Okay...so I'm finally doing it. I have wanted to blog for a while. I live a hectic, not-my-fault-dramatic, crazy life with three wild kids and a fabulous husband who never seems to be home anymore due to work. I NEED to blog. I have so much to get off my chest, so much to say...and nobody still enough to listen to me. I go through life and the craziest things happen to me and I think "Crap! That was funny! I need to be writing this down!" but I never do. I complain about being the only not funny person in my family...but if you could just live my life...who needs to be funny when funny always happens to you?!

So where do I start? Do I have to give a background? Should I start with how a fluke trip from Canada to Texas landed me my wonderful husband after just 11 months of leaving home? Or how about our oh so sad infertility bouts? (Don't worry because even that gets funny...we had Kaylee, then adopted James after three years of fertility treatments that didn't work...(funnier still, we even had to take birth control to shrink a cyst I had gotten while doing fertility drugs...are you kidding me??? Yes, taking birth control while trying to get pregnant!!) and then after five months of being home found out we were pregnant with number three (at bike rally in Galveston..in a Whataburger bathroom, of course!) Maybe we shouldn't go that far back...we could start at three weeks ago when I travelled alone with the three kids from Houston to Canada...the first flight made an emergency landing because a man had a heart attack and then I missed my second flight to Canada...which of course left me stranded at Detroit for 7 and a half hours with three kids and no stroller! No...that story is just talked out. Let's start with yesterday....

So my husband leaves for Fire School yesterday (three day training for his job). I, of course, get the three kids while he runs off to a town laden with college girls and gets put up in a suite and is even given a check to pay for all of his meals and partying with the other husbands that were just handed a golden ticket! I think I will spend some quality fun time with my kids and head off for Cici's Pizza.

We're driving along and my one year old van starts freaking out on me and blinking that I need to get my security theft serviced....hello?? Who services their theft? What the heck is the theft? So I drive to a friend's (who of course isn't home). My husband via cell phone has told me to turn off the car, hit the alarm, disable the alarm and turn back on the car. Doesn't start. Try again. Okay it's started. Going to Cici's..bye honey. My whole dashboard goes blank at the next light...no gas, no telling me how fast I'm going, nothing! I call Chevrolet and I tell them I'm scared to stop but a little scarder (is that a word?) to keep going. I take the car in and they hand over a new car. I ask if we could upgrade to something bigger because I also watch extra kids..they give me a trailblazer...with no third row...so really I just got something that would cost me more in gas but be of no help with the kids. Thanks. Off we go to Cici's and I even remember to go to Target to get milk.

During the whole car thing I left a message on my friend Jen's phone (note to readers...remember Jen, she's my best friend and her name will come up a lot!). I told Jen that I was having car problems and that when she got out of her church meeting she should not leave town or anything because I might need to be picked up. So...after Target I realize something important. I call Jen. She says "are you broke down?" And I reply "nope, I'm locked out." Of course I've left my garage door opener in the car in the shop which is now closed. Lucky for me I lock myself out a lot and no longer own my key because Jennifer drives around with it for moments like these.

"How was your night honey?"

"Oh great. Just had a nice relaxing dinner with the boys. Think I'm going to go up to bed soon and get a good night's rest."

I say "Oh good...have a great sleep. I love you!"
I think...Are you kidding me?! I just had a night from hell and you are going to make sure you get enough rest?! Don't let me interupt you. I'll just go wrangle up our three bundles of wild and bathe them and put them to bed. Then I might clean up the mess that I left from lunch. Then I'll put Kaylee back to bed after she has gotten up for the tenth time. Then I'll give in and ditch the nice relaxing bath I was thinking about so that I can lay down with her and get some quality snuggle time in with her since it is a treat for her to be sleeping with me. And while I lay there I'll think about all of the things I forgot to do today and make a mental list for tomorrow. But again...don't let me bother you...you just go rest from all your hard work at dinner tonight.

So this is what I meant by "not-my-fault-dramatic life!"