Our Organization & Chores

Ethan is old enough now where he needs to be accountable for helping out around the house. He can't do a lot, but he can at least help make his bed. We figure it's time he had some regular chores. But we are starting out gradually with easy tasks. You might laugh when you see the chores we have assigned him. They might seem easy, but it has been a daily battle to get him to do them. Now that he gets to put a sticker on each day when he's completed the task, he's pretty excited about it. At then end of the week if his chart is filled up with stickers he gets some sort or reward. Nothing like extrinsic motivation!

I love organizing. I love having to-do lists and check lists. I love calendars. I love being able to see something written out and know what's coming next. Here is how I organize our week. I also make a monthly meal calendar (2 weeks at a time) and it lets Cody have a say in what we eat for dinner. If something sounds good to him he can write it down and I'll make it! It's nice to be able to buy everything for two weeks worth of dinners (except produce) and have it on hand for when I know I'll need it. It works for us!

Obviously I scratched out our last name for security reasons.

Lauren's Finger- Bad Mom Moments

I feel like the worst mom ever. Today we were at gymnastics and it was time to leave so I was going to help Ethan with his shoes. Lauren was lying on her belly on a blanket on the floor. She was almost right underneath the chair and apparently her tiny hand was touching the leg of the chair where it meets the floor. Without looking, I plopped Ethan down in the chair and it scooted it just a little. But it was enough to smush her finger with 42 pounds of force. I have never in her life heard her cry like that. I sat there and cried with her as I tried to console my innocent baby. She was bleeding and now her finger is swollen and bruised. I could not believe I hurt her like that. But i guess you don't expect your baby's finger to be underneath a chair leg. There is not worse feeling than knowing you inflicted pain on your child.

When Ethan was 27 months old he grabbed the whole barrel of my fat curling iron and he had a borderline 3rd degree burn on the entire palm of his hand. I cried for days over that and still cringe when I think about it. His whole hand was a nasty blister for weeks and over time I had to cut away the rotted skin and re-wrap his dressing on a daily basis. My heart still hurts about it and probably always will. My poor boy!

Weekend Update

I am longing for a weekend that has nothing scheduled (other than a 3 hour block for church). We have so many things that need to be done around the house. I should take a picture of our garage and show off how messy and cluttered it is. Why does the house and garage get sooooo dang cluttered during the winter? I wish I had five days to do nothing but clean and de-clutter.

But alas, another weekend was spent busy busy. But it was fun. On Saturday Ethan was invited to two birthday parties. Carson's birthday was in the morning. It was held at this wild and crazy bouncing moon walk/ roller rink/ laser tag/ pizza place. Wow...oh so loud and chaotic. But the kids had a blast.

Then it was off to Jackson's birthday party. It was going to be held at the park, but it was very cold and windy. So they decided to move it to the church just two blocks away. They had the gym set up for the party, but half way through a wedding crew came in to set up for a luncheon. Wow, how Mormon cliche is that? I'm surprised scouts didn't come in to shoot hoops. So then the party was packed up and moved to their house. I can see why Gina wasn't didn't want it at their house to begin with. Lots of people and not a lot of space. But it was fun getting to visit with people. Ethan gave Jackson a fancy robot and was mad that he had to give it away. Kids are funny like that. I remember always being mad when I had to give my friends gifts that I wanted to keep.

Hailey deliberately woke up Lauren from her nap today. She was sleeping in the play pen in our room and Hailey is always wanting to get her out. She flung the door open and said "Wake up baby!!" Then she climbed in and they played for several minutes like this. It's so funny to watch them interact together.

Hailey's Birth Video

I have given myself a goal and a deadline before we have another baby. No, I'm not pregnant. But I want to get picture montages of the kids' first years done and on DVDs. I don't know why, but I started with Hailey. So far I have done her birth.

The Sectional & More Puzzles

We are still trying to figure out the best use of space in Ethan and Hailey's room. I was beginning to wonder why we even have two beds in there. Every night they go to sleep in one bed. The kids cling to each other! So I decided to try making a sectional of sorts. I pushed both beds up against each other to form an "L". This way they are right by each other but are still in separate beds. And it actually freed up a lot of space in the room! It looks kind of tacky, but they are kids so who cares. These bedrooms in our house are so small. I have seen walk in closets that are bigger, but I'm not complaining. I should have taken a picture last night because they fell asleep holding hands. It was the cutest thing ever.
Ethan continues to be enthralled with puzzles. He is getting so good at them! I have a gift card to Barnes and Noble that I need to use (thanks Aunt Lyn) so I think I will take the kids there and let them get some new puzzles. Today they got a package from Aunt Kara and you'll never guess what was inside. More puzzles! I had never seen a floor puzzle before. They have super large pieces that are really thick. There is a dinosaur one and a fire truck one. As soon as they ripped open the package Ethan immediately started putting the fire truck together. Hailey was more interested in the dino puzzle. She is really into dinos lately. Thanks Aunt Kara! These will keep them busy for a while.

Televisionless Day

I have been doing an experiment to see what happens when the TV goes off. It's not that we watch all that much compared to the rest of society. We don't even have basic cable, nor will we ever have it. But the kids do watch more than I'd like. Yesterday they watched about one hour total all day. Today they watched "Curious George" in the morning on PBS then it went off. Ethan is on spring break so I was really feeling brave by not letting them watch anymore all day long. I caved and let Ethan watch his "Transformers" cartoon DVD while the girls napped in the afternoon. Wow, you should see the condition of our house. Total disarray. I think I take for granted how much housework I'm able to get done while the kids watch a movie or two. I think every book, toy, and game was pulled out of every toy basket and closet. We played and played! I am pretty beat. Although out house in bad shape, I feel pretty good about myself because I accomplished so much with the kids today. I am going to try it again tomorrow!

Ethan amazed me again today by writing "robot". He spent a lot of time drawing, writing, and coloring today. Way to go buddy!

This is the tip of the iceberg of what happened to our house today. I should have taken another picture at 5:00 p.m. Enlarge the picture and you can see Hailey is eating a tube of lip gloss!

Lauren enjoying all the playtime! What a silly day.

Kitchen Table

I know it is just a far off dream, but I am dying for a new dining set. We are still using the one we got when we were first married. The whole set cost about $200. It is so tiny and totally hashed. You get what you pay for! But it is so hard to justify spending the money on a new set when kids will destroy it. Our current table is so beat up with fork marks, permanent marker, scratches, etc. But I can still dream. I really would love a big table that can comfortably fit eight people around. I am so tired of pulling out the folding chairs whenever we have even one extra person sitting at the table. Maybe one day it will happen. Here are the ones I have my eye on. I really like the oak finish with the black chairs. I think it is a cool and rustic contrast!

Easter Fun

Easter is one of my three favorite holidays. It runs a close race with July 4th and Halloween. We had a fun time this weekend doing Easter stuff. Leighann came up for the weekend, as she does so much. The Ester bunny left us a HUGE amount of eggs so we invited our neighbors, Anabelle, Joe, and their little girl Brielle over for the hunt. Then they had dinner with us. It was so much fun! We had a blast getting to know them better. Here's a picture overload of our weekend!

The Zoo 3-22-08

Saturday was a gorgeous day. As always we had a lot of housework and chores to do, but we decided we shouldn't waste the good weather. So we renewed our zoo pass and went out there. It was chilly and a little windy, but as long as we stayed bundled up it was fine. Lauren wasn't too happy because it was during her nap time and she was a little cold. Ethan and Hailey were more interested in riding the train and playing on the toys than actually seeing the animals. So we spent most of our time at the play ground. Fun day!

B-U-G

Ethan is always writing letters in the air. That is the way his teacher has been helping him learn to write. I think it's a great method. The other day he said "I want to write bug, Mom". He kept saying this and I figured he meant that he wanted to write it in the air. He got frustrated and then left the room. When he came back he was holding a piece of paper that had "bug" written on it. He had done it himself, all on his own. Got the paper and everything. I almost hit the floor. Then he came back with a picture of a robot with a smiley face. He said he wanted to make the robot happy. (By the way, he draws the bad robot from "The Incredibles") He is getting so smart and so big! He is exploding with new skills and new vocab. He always amazes me. Oh yeah, he wanted to me to take pictures of him with his bug and robot.

Lauren 6 Months

I can not believe half a year has passed. This time is going by way too quickly. I found myself wishing away so much of Ethan and Hailey's babyhood. I was always anxious to get to the next phase. But I'm longing for Lauren to stay little. I am in no hurry at all for her to get bigger. But against my wishes, she continues to grow. She had her six month check up on Friday and she is thriving and so happy! She got 4 immunizations, but barely even whimpered. She was such a trooper! But the doctor found that her ear infection never cleared up and has since spread to her right ear. He said her ears look terrible. That's odd because she hasn't complained at all. She started Omnicef on Friday. Lauren still remains a dainty little thing but she is so healthy and beautiful. Here are her stats:

Weight= 14.75 pounds 26%
Height= 25.5 inches 42%

She still has yet to take solids well. That's totally fine with me an the doctor because she is growing so well. She will start eating them eagerly when she is ready. In the meantime I am starting her on iron drops just to supplement.

Welcome Spring!

I can't begin to say how thrilled I am that spring is officially here!! This is the happiest day of the whole year. Even though it is still a little cold and gray, there is something so refreshing about the first day of spring. It must be psychological. We made it through another winter! I think that when it gets warmer we will have to have a huge block party. I have a list a mile long of things I want to do in the warm weather! Bring it on!

Test Post

This is just a test post. I have been trying to figure out how people upload their pictures so that when you click on them it enlarges them. Let's see if this worked.

Puzzles

A few weeks ago when I was working in Ethan's class they were playing with puzzles; pretty intricate ones for four year olds to do. I noticed how enthralled Ethan was in doing them. Yesterday at the store I ran across a "Cars" and an "Elmo" puzzle. They each have 24 pieces. This morning I gave them to him to do and that kept him busy for almost two hours! He would put them together, break them apart, and then do it again. Each time he kept getting faster and faster. I couldn't believe how they held his interest. He even passed up breakfast because he was too busy (he said). Looks like I'm going to be stocking up on many more puzzles! What a brainiac.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Our little Leprechauns!