Wow, late or what?

Here is our fourth of July post, finally!

Blowing off steam in the motel room before heading out to the parade.
Richard had gone to load up the car, and me being the great parent that I am. Decided it would be better to take pictures of their impromptu cage fight(minus the cage, obviously) rather than tell them to knock it off. What can I say? You can all line up for my great parenting tips anytime! As you can see Jaren is usually the Victor. However, Jace enjoys it no matter what (proof is in the first picture) and every once in a while he gets a good lick in.

Waiting for the parade to start.My Uncle Kenny brought my Grandpa's old truck he restored. I wish I had a picture of the whole thing, but there were to many people crowded around it.
The statue of Liberty was my favorite float.The pyro's were so loud.
My second Cousin Kate won Little Miss Eager last year so she got to ride in the parade this year!Proof I really was there. Me & My Grandma.Some of the girls & Daniel hiding
Jessica,Renee, & Grandma.
Uncle Kenny's family minus Melissa.

You might be a "great parent" if?

(My version of you might be a red neck if?)

You might be a "great parent" if...your 5 year old can use "that's what she said", correctly!

I'm not even kidding folks. Is it a good or bad thing that he doesn't even know what it means?

Future mug shot

HA! My son asked for a mo hawk. His best friend at school has one. Doesn't he look scary, cute, and like a rebel all at the same time? This kid is just about as good as it gets. I have even been accused of being "spoiled". In case your wondering why on earth we would let him have a mo hawk. My reply would simply be this. We choose are battles around here.We plan to save "the hootin'and the hollerin'" for something that really is a big deal.

Jarens first trip to the dentist

Every dentist would aprove, right?

Roshambo & Reverse psychology

The other night my children were fighting over the same toy. This has been a frequent occurrence in our house lately. So many toys, and they always want them same one. Go figure ( In my best Aunt Linda voice)! So tonight I tried a new tactic. I made them roshambo. That's how a mom gets things done! So we quickly taught Jace, who to our surprise won. At first Jaren was really excited by the idea. After he lost, not so much. He left the room, and when he came back he had on his tennis shoes. Mind you its almost 8 o'clock at night. Conversation went as followed.
JAREN: "I'm leaving! I don't like it here anymore."
ME: So many scenarios ran through my mind at once, but this was the best I came up with. "Where are you going?"
JAREN: "To Coreens."
Me: "It's dark, and cold outside. Plus you don't know the way. Maybe you should wait until the morning."
Jaren: "You could show me."
Me: Well I didn't really have to say anything here. I just gave him my Mom look. (yah, I have that super power too.)
Jaren: Left the room with a defeated look.
I think kids forget all to easy. Because around 8:30 he came to kiss me goodnight before Richard put the kids to bed. Or maybe? (light bulb going off) I can talk some sense into my kids after all. "Yah, your right. Probably the first one."

My Motherly Super Powers

We all know as mothers we are blessed with a few super powers. A Mothers Love (yes, it is a super power to love something way above and beyond yourself), multi tasking, the "Mom voice" etc, etc. Today I'm mainly talking about a certain one. Its the one that allows us to know are children. I haven't named it yet. But since I discovered it, I think I should get to name it. Any suggestions? Anyways, let me explain the power a little further. Our children's wants or needs are not always visible to the non mothers of this world. They also take a while to develop. But as you grow as a mother so does your super power. They are usually partial to your own children. But sometimes if you have developed the power enough. You can recognize it in other children as well. For example we learn our babies cries. There is the hungry cry, the tired cry, and the hurt cries. Then within each of these cries we can hear an even more distinguishable cry. For instance the hurt cry.

• There is the - "That really just scared me more than anything" cry.
• Then the - "Well that kind of hurt, but I'll be over it in like 2 seconds."
• Then there's the - "Well I don't think I'll do that again cause that really hurt."
• Then the one that temporarily stops all Mothers beating hearts - Their face turns red, their not breathing. You quickly spring into action. Blow a soft breath in their face, and they quickly catch their breath before letting out the loudest cry they can muster up.

Did you know I can actually distinguish my children's footsteps? That's right. When I hear bare feet barely grazing the floor in the middle of a dead sleep. I can easily distinguish who it is. This one took a little time to develop. But now I can do it no fail every time. Here is the one you are going to get a kick out of. I can actually tell when my oldest needs to poop. No kidding, he would probably die, that I am telling you this. Not that you would ever ask him. But he can testify to my uncanny ability to know when he needs to defecate. There are no words, no actions, no facial expressions. It is definitely not recognisable to the human eye. Or probably most mothers for that matter. It is a look in his eyes. I told you it was a super power. I'm starting to realize I really do need to get a life. So what are some of your Motherly Super Powers? What did you name them? Please do share. I'm dieing to know.

Tates E.R. Saga

When I said Tate survived his first trip to the E.R. I meant mentally not physically, and I really meant myself for the most part. E.R. visits drain me. I'm telling the long versions so you all don't think I am just one of those weird Moms who takes their children to the E.R. for any random reason, and because I really have nothing else to do right now. On Wednesday Tate poked his eye with a straw. He was learning to drink from one. When he took it out, and was biting it. I was worried that he would gag himself more than anything. Turns out I was wrong. Minus 1 for me. I turned my head for half a second, and he poked his eye. He was screaming, and wouldn't open it for me to look at it. After about 4 hours he still wouldn't open it, and he was very sensitive to light. If we were in a room with the light on he would just bury his head in my chest. If we were in the dark he would just snuggle to me. It also would not stop watering. I knew this was no little poke. So I called the doctors office. The on call nurse told me they were closed till Monday. But that I should take him to the E.R. to make sure he didn't scratch it. If he did he would need antibiotics, stat. Okay, I added stat. Anyways, I gave him some tylenol because I could tell it was really hurting him, and we left. When we got there it was poring rain. So now my pants were soaking wet. We waited for 2 1/2 hours. I was freezing, and my arms ached for wrestling with Tate the whole time. I wasn't going to put him down, gross. Then we saw the P.A. for all of... I don't know... maybe 10 minutes. Then he put burning drops in my babies eyes. Seriously, he told me it burned. Then he put dye in it before he looked at it through a florescent light. This is how they can see if their are any scratches. I had to hold him down, of coarse he was screaming. The doctor showed me the scratch. I was shocked how huge it was. He said giving him the tylenol was the best thing I could do for him. Because more than anything it just hurt. Plus 1 for me. But that he needed antibiotics, because that would be bad news if it got infected.

Anyways, I know I sound like the bigger baby. I don't care. I absolutely loath hospitals. Kind of ironic, huh? Plus if you were keeping track. I am back to zero on the good Mom meter. That's how I role. Not negative, because that would mean I'm a bad mom. Not positive, because that's just to much to live up to.

Houston, we have peepee in the potty.

After completely surrendering to my little 3 year old stubbornness. We had given up on potty training for a while. With the attitude "all things in time". I knew he would do it soon enough. Recently he had been asking me to buy batman fruit roll ups. Which I had done before. But I'm not a big advocate of expensive fruit snacks. So they were on sale with the frys mega 10 event, and I had a coupon so I think the box ended up costing me somewhere around $1.00. When I was unloading the grocery's Wednesday night his eyes lit up when he saw them. They quickly shown the look of heart wrenching sadness when I told him he could only have one when he pooped, or peed in the potty. Sucker! So this morning he told me he needed to go pee in the potty. We sat on the toilet quite a few times with no luck. So I hopped in the shower. When I was just about done he came running in my room. "I did it! I did it!" Sure enough he had. I was trying not to get my hopes up. But today he has had 4 fruit roll ups, and no accidents. I was even shocked when he received one for going #2. This took weeks to get down with Jaren. I know we will probably still have accidents, and such. But I am just so ecstatic that he is finally ready, and willing.
p.s. I spared you all pictures for obvious reasons.

p.p.s On another note Tate has started crawling. He hasn't gotten to far, but he is up on all fours moving. He has also started sitting up by himself, YAY!!

Monster spray

It's magic I tell you, magic! Not only does it get rid of "monsters" or "scary's". But it also helps with ironing. It has been in our family for years. But it got it's monster spray abilities a couple years ago when Jaren went through his "there's scary monsters" phase, after watching Monsters Inc one day. I will add, I have still never seen that movie all the way through. But not the point of the post. So I was a little skeptical about the spray bottles abilities to get rid of monsters. But Richard thought since a man with a P.H.D (some guy on the Internet) had recommended it. We should at least try it. So before we went to bed we gave it to Jaren. Let him spray all the places the monsters hide, reassured him he got rid of them all, and whala! They were gone. To my amazement we got our first full night sleep in weeks. We only had to do it a few nights in a row before Jaren wasn't afraid anymore. The spray bottle has been getting used quite a bit lately.

1. Because I don't take Richards work clothes to the dry cleaners anymore. Which means two things. First we are saving money. Second I have to iron all his shirts. Now before all you feminist start hating on me, and leaving the "just make him do it" comments. As much as I hate ironing, and don't even do it for myself. I really don't mind spoiling my husband in this way.


2. Because now Jace is afraid of the "scary's". He hates the dark, and will wake up in the middle of the night screaming "It's scary". It breaks a mothers heart, it really does. But this girl needs her beauty sleep. So once again we pulled out the spray. Which has been dubbed this time to "scary spray". Works like a charm! A full nights sleep prevails again.

p.s. When I opened the door to their room the other morning. This is what I found. Jace sleeping in Jaren's bed with the light on. When I asked why? Jaren said all distraught "well he just got in my bed". ***Also note who has the pillow.***

Let's get ethical, ethical!

Come on what fun is it having kids if you can't do silly things to them, and then hold the pictures for Ransom when their older?

time flies when your having fun

This morning I was laying in bed with Tate. I started to think he will soon be turning 7 MONTHS old. Then it dawned on me today was October 1. He turned 7 months 3days ago. Worst Mommy ever! I didn't even have a 7 month post for him. Will count this. Let's see.... He still remains to be the happiest, cutest, baby ever. I couldn't ask for a better baby. He is getting to big for his 9 month clothing, and today I bought him the cutest monkey costume for Halloween. He loves attention from his brothers, and Daddy. He also gets super mad when Mommy leaves the room. He has also been reaching for me. Oh, it makes my heart melt. What else...? He can't eat baby fruit, cause it gives him really bad rashes. He doesn't mind he loves his veggies. Yesterday he had his first sippy cup with juice. Don't fret I was a good Mommy. I put half juice, 1/2 vodka. Just kidding, half water 1/2 vodka. Still kidding! He loved his juice. But was having a hard time figuring out how to get it to work. Please excuse the bed head. He just woke up.

Jace is....

House trained? That's right my little 3 year old monster no longer wears diapers. He however does not use the toilet either. He goes outside. I know kind of weird. What are we going to do when he needs to go number 2? I don't know either, But for now. I am just going with it. Because 1)I don't have to buy pull ups anymore. 2) I don't have to change them either. So he is petrified of the toilet. I think most kids are at first. Come on it is kind of scary. This is just a start. I think we will eventually get to where we need to be. For now if you come over beware of the grass in the backyard. I kind of liken it to having a pet. If I had to choose I would say a monkey!Here he is scaling the walls. He climbed up the banister, and then got stuck. He was pretty mad when I decided to take a picture instead of helping him down.

Actually, I would say a helper monkey. He loves to be helpful. Here he is the day we finished painting all the doors down stairs. Hooray for finished doors! Now I need to suck it up, and do the ones upstairs. Someday, a girl can dream can't she?