{Terrible Twos}

Wyatt is exhausted. It is so taxing to have to fight, whine, throw fits, wail, gnash teeth, get into everything, do EVERYTHING by himself (even if it isn't something he isn't even remotely capable of doing), insist it is his turn all the time and demand what he wants all the time. Oh and lets not forget about his favorite word....NO. If I had a nickle for everytime I heard that word a day. I really don't know how he does it. He must have super human strength to endure such a "hard" life. If you couldn't tell we are in the throws of the oh so wonderful terrible twos. My other kids were fine through the twos it was the three's they almost didn't make it through. Wy-man might get to see his third birthday if his "pleasant" behavior continues!!! We love him we just don't love the stage he happens to be residing in right now. Except when he passes out, then things are wonderfully quiet around here!!

{Snow}

Monday was a snowy one for us. The kids still had school, which is a shocker since around here any sign of snow the town seems to shut down. The little ones enjoyed a little bit of time just the two of them in the back yard. Lauryn was excited to move up into a new winter coat! Simple things bring a smile to her face!!
They had fun rolling around in the snow and Lauryn loved pretending to fall and insist that Wyatt help her up, which was a hard thing to ask since he could barely stay upright by himself.

See I told ya, she had to help him up this time.
Wyatt is at the lovely age of "I can do it all by myself, thank you very much." He wouldn't keep his mittens on but wouldn't let me help him put them back on. Little stinker!!!
He got tired of standing and headed to the fence to sit down for a spell. He doesn't look too happy here but he is.....

He was a happy camper in the snow, even if it was only for 10 mintues before he came in, hands freezing (never did get those mittens back on) and demanded a mug of hot chocolate. We love snowy days!!!

{Spa Party}

Friday night we had a girl party for Meysa's birthday. She wanted to do manicures and pedicures so that is what we did. I was a one woman sweat shop. Massaging and painting, and painting. It was worth it when one little chicka said happily, "This is like a real pedicure, it's kinda like a girls night out!!" So cute, and I'm glad she felt that way. They got to pick whatever color they wanted or mix and match and we had stickers and they got to take home their own polish and chap stick!! After the spa we had pizza and root beer floats and opened presents. Meysa got some roller blades from Mom and Dad and some other fun stuff. After that they watched Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy rescue. I think it was a huge success and as long as Meysa had a good time I'll be happy!!!
All the little darlings waiting on me to get busy!!!!

{Pizza Time}

This last Monday I got to hang out with Lauyrn at Costco for a field trip with her preschool class. They were headed to the Food Court to learn how they make pizza. We are frequent partrons to the food court and their pizza, so even I was excited to go and see the behind the scenes. You can see Lauryn was too in her fancy dancy hair net. I was lucky enough to get one too but darn it there are no pictures to show for it!!
The gal that gave the tour was so awesome. She let the kids really help with toppings and made them feel like they were really doing something. As for the adults we had to stay behind a partial wall for saftey numbers something a ruther and being the "tall" person that I am these are the shots I got on my tippee toes!!

Lauryn couldn't wait to see the pizza make it's way out of the oven and neither could the rest of us because that meant we got to EAT the pizza. While we were waiting we got to go and check out the bakery and the kids got to see the giant mixing bowls that they use to mix up cake batter!! They thought it was pretty cool. Then time to eat. It was a fun and yummy field trip for all!! Thank you Costco!!

I wish I could say that the hair net did this to her hair but sadly her hair is just this crazy!! She looks cute anyways!!!

{Going Fishing}

What do four boys do when they are bored stiff one day after school and can't find anything better to do? They go "fishing" in a little puddle of a pond and harvest these little beasts. Behind our house we have an area that is deemed the run off area. When it rains here in the area, which it does often, to keep our yards and homes from flooding our drains are all connected by some duct and it flows to the run off. So when it rains a lot the area behind our house fills up with water. I have yet to figure out how these little fish got there in the first place but they were there in great numbers. The boys got a plastic cup and filled it up with about 60+ fish. They counted. Oh boy did they stink, the boys and the fish!!!
But it was an adventure that kept them occupied and out of my hair for an afternoon. Too bad some poor little fish had to sacrifice their lives for such a cause!!!

{Birthday Girl}

This young whipper snapper is having a birthday today. Seven is the magic number this year and she could hardly wait for this day to come. She knows that her birthday is 9 days after mine so when my birthday came she started counting down to hers. This morning at breakfast she gladly proclaimed that those nine days were finally over. We are having a fun party for her tonight complete with friends and manicures and pedicures!! I can't believe and I don't like to admit that another year is gone and she is one year older yet again. The years seem to be numbered with each of my children and while I am excited for what each new year brings I can't help but think that it means one less year they are small and tucked safely in my arms. We are going to enjoy Meysa's day to the fullest today!! We love you Meysa Lynn!!! Happy Birthday!!!

{For Marla}

Here you go Marla, I hope you enjoy them!!!

{Sneak Peak}

Here is a little sneak peak for Rachel and her cute little family!! I hope you like what you see!!

{Superstitions}

Being married to an athlete has allowed me an insiders view of what goes on in the mind of one. Don't even get me started on all the stats and dates and names. Mind boggling really. Now that we have a son that is beginning to play sports our home has become a breeding ground for athletes in training. Our evenings are filled with football, baseball and endless hours of ESPN, like 20 channels of it. Our athlete in training is learning some important lessons about hard work, determination and the ever important rules of superstition. Superstition has always been a curious thing to me. I don't think I am one bit superstitious but my dear husband is, when it comes to athletics. Like don't ever, ever step on the chalk line when getting onto the baseball field. It is just chalk, but to them it means something very important, even though they themselves cannot tell you what it means. This is just one general superstition at least in baseball. Each player has his own way of getting prepped for a game or what he does before each batter comes to the plate. As I watch from the sidelines of my son being trained by his father I am finding it rather fun to watch all those rules of superstition being passed on to him. A recent example of this was this football season Ayden just had. Ayden for a while now has been wanting to grow his hair out a little longer, which we usually let him do in the winter anyways. Ayden though wanted it to be a longer than I usually would like to have it. We agreed so long as he didn't look like an orphan and it couldn't grow over his ears and down his neck. This was at the beginning of the season. Well as the season progressed and Ayden's team kept winning (except the little hiccup about week 3 or 4) his hair kept growing longer and longer. But by this time we (and I mean we very liberally) couldn't change what was working or it would throw the whole team off. As if by some magic Ayden's long hair was keeping this team on the winning side of each game, his Dad also wore the same sweatshirt to each game(it is the little things that matter ya know). So the long hair stayed through the end of the season. It was long enough that actually his Dad even agreed he needed a hair cut. So for FHE we had a ceremonial hair cutting night.

Ayden made a wrong move in cutting the very front himself and that sealed the fate of how short his hair was actually going to be. It was a lot shorter than we were planning on!!!

The shag of hair on his head was so long. This is before.

And this is after. You can actually see his eyes, oh how handsome he is!!!

This how Ayden feels about his SHORT hair. Consequences to ones choices are sometimes hard to live by (cutting his own hair willy nilly). I think he looks so much better but I don't think the fight over hair is at all over. Nor is my attempt to understand superstition in sports. I do have a pretty good teacher though so perhaps one day I'll get it!!!

{Trunk-or-Treat}

This year like most years past we headed to the church parking lot for the trunk or treat. They block off the parking lot so no children get run over and it is just a free for all. My kids loved it this year of course and were happy to report that they hauled in a lot of candy. This year we have Iron Man, a cheerleader, a fairy witch and a chicken, kinda.

This is proof that he actually did have the costume on at one point in the day. We took it off so he could fit into his car seat and this is what happened.....

Past out cold. He woke up about five minutes before we headed home and of course had a meltdown. Oh the joys of Halloween.

The three conscious children, ready to hit the trunks for some good candy!! I really can't believe that it is actually November now and I am planning my Thanksgiving dinner. Time is cruising!!!

{Rewind}

I think I should rewind and post about pumpkins and Halloween. Before Lauryn tried to amputate her little toe we carved pumpkins for Family Home Evening. As always it was fun to decided what design the kids wanted carved and watching them reach inside the pumpkin and pull out the guts. Dad's job is carving and Mom's job is getting the guts. The kids help where they can. Meysa this year wanted to save every last seed from her pumpkin so her pumpkin took a little while to carve. The think what the kids love even more than carving the pumpkins is lighting the candles inside the pumpkins. I think next year we are going to invest in an actual pumpkin carving kit, then maybe our designs get step up a notch!!