WHOOO HOOO! Back to School!

Today was the first day back to school...Yes!

Logan is in the 4th grade.



Kalyn is in the 2nd grade.



Brayden is in Kindergarten.





Madisen has the house to herself and her mom.





We have a new schedule. I drop off all the kids at 7:40 a.m. Brayden starts at 7:45and the other kids start at 7:55. I pick up Brayden at 11:10 unless it's Wednesday, then I pick him up at 10:45. I pick up Kalyn at 1:35 and Logan at 2:25. If it's Wednesday, then I pick both of them up at 1:35. Don't even get me started on minimum days! Got it? Good, cuz I don't!

So I asked them how their first day was.
Logan: "GREAT! I love my teacher and it's going to be an awesome year!" I'm glad Logan, that's great I said.

Kalyn: "SUPER! My teacher is so nice and she'll let me go to the bathroom whenever I need to!" That's really good Kalyn, I'm so glad that you're happy I said.

Brayden: "There is a stupid boy named Derrick and he called me a "dip face" and then wouldn't let me talk to my "girl friend"....Mom he's dumb! I do like Miss Key though". Ummm...Brayden, I'm glad you like your teacher?!? I said.



This is going to be.....a year!

What does a bead, toilet paper, and a penny all have in common?

So our summer was interesting. We have had our share of sibling arguments, brotherly brawls, and creative curiosities. I've decided to tell you about the creative curiosities, because you probably have heard plenty of sibling arguments and been in your fair share of brotherly brawls.

One fine hot summer morning, I send Brayden off to summer school. The two older kids argue about watching another Barbie movie and Madi decides to help me vacuum with her nose. At least I hope she was at least trying to help. She comes to me and says, "My nose hurts!" Trying to get some cleaning done...I tell her to try and blow her nose. She starts to wimper and runs and hides. I thought that was a strange reaction from me telling her to blow her nose. I find where she is hinding and crying and asked her what was wrong. "My nose hurts!" "Madi, did you put something up your nose?" She starts pouring out the tears. I tried to get her to blow, but nothing was coming out. I could see an orange coned-shaped bead up her nose. Of course the pedi doctor was closed, so off to the ER I go. $100 later and lots of tears the bead come out. So I paid $100 for a bead that I already owned and they didn't even let me keep it. "Madi are you going to put things in your nose again?" ...."No".

Another fine hot summer morning, the older kids are again fighting only this time it was the Wii, and I hear another wimper. This time it was Brayden. He comes up to me and says, "Mom...I got something in my ear"..."uh yeah, Brayden it's called wax. Go get a Q-tip", I said. "No, Mom I have toilet paper in my ear!" "Brayden why did you put toilet paper in your ear?"..."Uh-e-uh.", he said. I looked and sure enough a tiny wad of toilet paper was in his ear, just far enough that if I tried to get it out, I would've shoved it in farther. So off to the doctor's office we go. I made him keep his head sideways the whole time so that gravity wouldn't make it go in further. $25 later and lots of giggling from all the staff (including the doctor)we left. That is some expensive t.p.! "Brayden, are you going to put things in your ear again?"..."No".

Yet another fine, but hot summer morning, the kids were watching another show, but there was no fighting over the tv this time, it was, "Who ate all the crackers?!?"..."Not me!...Yes you did!...No I didn't!...MOOOOMMMM!" I hear a sound like someone is choking and quickly ask, "Is everyone ok? Is anyone choking?"...."No..No...No..No." I think good...all four answered. Madi walks up to me and says, "Mom, I ate money." "What?!?" (hence the choking sound I heard) I quickly went to my wallet and took out a bunch of coins and told her to point to the type of coin she ate....of course she pointed to the quarter! Geez! (only I didn't say geez!) Called the doctor and went in. They said, "Well, there is nothing we can do, but we want an x-ray and you'll have to examine her bowel movements until it comes out." CRAP!!!! (Pun intended and I really did say that!). So I took her to get an x-ray and asked if they could tell what type of coin I was looking for, 'cause at this point who knows what I'm going to find!' They said that they couldn't tell. Thirty-six hours later, $225 out of pocket, and four rememberable experiences of bowel movement examinations later, out comes a bright and shiny penny!....A PENNY!!!! $225 for a penny!!!!...."Madi, are you going to put things that don't belong in your mouth anymore?"..."No".

UGH! School is finally here...... THANK...YOU!!!

Momma Mia!

It seems this momma bird was having a challenging summer like I was. Her kids were fighting and knocking each other around, they weren't always being very obedient and didn't always stay where they were supposed to. POW! POP!

So I decided to help my fellow momma out. I built guard rails so the kids couldn't fall out anymore. Here is a video of her grounding them, for all the scary scenarios they put her through. A few weeks later the baby bird learned to fly and would hang outside our window as if to say "thanks for saving my life". You're very welcome...now come and help me!

Happy 4th of July!

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Madi's New Do

Madi got bored one day and decided that since her brother had given her a haircut a couple of times that it was her turn. She walks out with a big smile and a clump of hair hanging from the back of her head. I went and looked and found A LOT of hair on the ground. The sad thing is her hair had just grown out long enough and the morning of her haircut I got to put her hair is one big pony tail. Oh well it'll grow, but until then she get to look like this:

Bray's B-Day!

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New Family Photos

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Turning Wheels and Little Deals

See this little girl? She is 2 1/2. She loves her dolls. She likes to take her "kids" with her everywhere. We were recently on a weekend beach trip and she forgot her "kids". She was really concerned. She had to call her aunt "Lissa" to see if she would babysit and take care of her "kids" while she was gone. I guess being the fourth child, one doll isn't enough....she carries at least 3 with her (it's normal to her). She recently learned how to tell people how old she was when people would ask her, with her fingers.
In this picture she is holding a doll that belongs to her sister. She came to me and said, "Mama..Kalyn won't let me doll"...I said, "Kalyn won't let you have her doll?" She nodded. I told her that Kalyn bought that doll with her Christmas money. She said, "Switch?" I told her to ask her sister...she did and of course her sister said no. She thought a little more and said, "Two dollars?" Her sister decided to take her up on that offer and sold her the doll for $2.00.
A few things with this whole scenario:
1. It's a little troubling to me to know that my two -year old is already learning how to bargain
2. She's learned that you can buy almost anything with money
3. There needs to be a new chapter about bargaining toddlers written in parenting books
4. In the future, I hope Madi doesn't think you can buy people
5. HELP ME?!?!

It's Been a While

It's been a while since I've written on here. Time got away from me and now it's been over 5 months. There has been so much happening. Instead of writing about everything I decided to create some photo albums. Enjoy them all. Hopefully, it won't take me as long to update next time.

Pismo Beach

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Camping at the Cabin

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Family Activities

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October 14, 2009!!!!!

After trying to wake some of the kids up all morning, they might have had a better idea...stay in bed! Today was one of those days! Everyday the schedule is the same...get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, etc. Today the kids decided to play, play, play, and some more play. So needless to say the morning did not start off very smooth at all. After asking (and some yelling) to get their clothes on and backpacks together, and lunchbags in backpacks, moods were not good...at all. Here is how my day went:
6:00 get up
6:30 ask kids to get up
7:00 yell at kids to get up
7:15 scream at kids to get up
8:20 Get to school (school starts at 8:20)
8:30 drop off Brayden at preschool(he didn't even hug me...he was mad at me) (me too)
8:40 drive to pick up stuff at scout office (Madi cried the whole time)
10:00 get to school to put up a sign for the teachers (Madi gets 4 cups of water, almost breaks the water fountain, and smashes her fingers in a bathroom door)
10:30 sign two checks (Madi takes the phone off the hook 4 times, sprays whiteboard cleaner twice, and sticks a key in the electrical socket twice)
11:30 pick up Brayden from preschool (he has green frosting-the kind that stains-all over his mouth and up his nose-which was very annoying to him and really let me know...shares a chocolate kiss with Madi (need I say more?))
12:00 fed kids and put Madi down for a nap (Brayden finds Airheads candy in our closet, licks them and pastes them on his wall, then finds stickers to finish off his masterpiece)
2:00 mom (thankfully) picks up Logan and Kalyn. (they immediately go clean their rooms as part of their punishment for their attitudes in the morning.)
3:30 help kids with homework (Brayden cut his and Madi's hair--of course more of Madi's than his)
3:35 notice Madi holding a pair of scissors...take them away. Find cut up homework (Brayden did this one).
3:40 find pile of hair...send kids outside.
3:50 check on kids..Madi's head is wet from dunking it in the dog's water bowl...
3:55 choose to not fight that battle
4:00 check to see if Rob is coming home soon, and continue to help with homework.
5:00 Rob comes home.
5:30 finish helping with homework, make dinner (Madi draws on tile).
6:30 eat dinner, and wonder why their is a puddle of water under Madi when I didn't give her anything to drink yet. No diaper...dang.
6:45 Rob leaves for scouts.
7:00 put kids in bath.
7:30 read story.
7:45 family prayer (pray tomorrow is better), put kids to bed.
8:30 Rob comes home.
9:00 write on blog, and go to bed.

After today, if anyone has the nerve to say to me, "Oh, you don't work? You're just a stay-at-home mom?"...I would probably seriously consider smacking them and then offer to let them borrow my cute little twits for a while. They are very cute, sweet kids....but about every three days or so, we have a day like this one. All is quiet now (they better be sleeping), so I am going to bed! Good Night!

I'm HOT!

A funny thing: I was rushed (as usual) to get the kids off to school, and didn't have time for makeup, etc. After I dropped the older two off, I took Brayden to his preschool. As I turn the corned my wheels squealed (I really wasn't going fast, the air in my tires is just low). Brayden says, "Mom, why is everyone looking at you? I know it's cuz you're hot!" I was laughing! At least I'm "hot" to my 4 year old...maybe he meant hot as in mad...never did clarify that one and don't really remember being mad, must be the "cute" version.;)