Oh boy!

Last week was the week that I dread as soon as we find out that there's offspring in utero. It's what nightmares are made of. It's what brings out the true crazy inside of me. Potty training week. Even saying the words, my core tightens with dread and my eyes fill with tears. When I say that I dread it while young one's are in utero, I'm not exaggerating. Truthfully, I've been dreading potty training my own children since sixth grade. My friend Gretchen, not from Sweden, not that I have a friend Gretchen from Sweden, but Gretchen sounds like such a Swedish name and in my mind all Gretchen's should have an amazing Swedish accent. My friend didn't, she was a red head from Orem, Utah. I digress, Gretchen and I were walking around at recess one day and we were talking about having kids. Gretchen said that she didn't know if she wanted to have kids. I said,"Yeah, just think about trying to potty train a little kid." She looked at me kind of weird and said that she was talking about the pain of actually having a child. But even at the ripe old age of 12 I knew that there was NO way I would have a child without an epidural. The pain wasn't the issue, it was potty training. Well folks, the time had come in little B's life. It was ingrained in my brain by my mom that you start potty training your kids the Monday after they turn two. That way they're ready to go to nursery on Sunday without accidents. I was filled with guilt that little B is actually 25 months old was wasn't potty trained yet. On Sunday night I prayed one more time to know if the young one was ready to ditch the diaper. This was one of the few times in my life that I was wanting a no answer. I was told yes he's ready. Monday morning seemed to come too fast. To say that Monday was a truly terrible day would be a gross understatement. We have six pairs of training pants and I did laundry three times to wash them. I had no clue that he peed so much every day. Most of the day was spent in tears and they didn't come from the little one. By 6:00 that night I was second guessing that I was told that little B was ready, because it seemed quite the opposite. We had just finished practicing and I was cleaning up. I was just washing my hands, he was standing next to me and he peed on the floor. I about punched a hole in the wall. We both burst into tears as we practiced again. I looked at the ceiling and said,"Just once! Help him pee in the potty just once today!" We cleaned it up and started the bedtime routine that seems to take forever especially when it's been a truly awful day. I brushed his teeth and told him that he needed to try going potty again. I put him up there and miracles of miracles, he peed in the potty! I started jumping up and down and clapping and hugging him and kissing his little cheeks. He started clapping and yelling "Yay! I did it!" Tuesday was better than Monday. He even pooped in the potty on Tuesday! Wednesday was awesome! I think he only had one accident on Wednesday. Since Wednesday, he's only had one accident! He stays dry during his naps and at night. I was worried about nursery on Sunday and how that would go. I took him potty two or three times during nursery just to make sure he didn't have an accident on the church floor; because that would be awful! One of the times I took him I didn't think that he would go since he had just gone at the end of sacrament meeting. Since I didn't think he would go, I didn't take the time to push his manhood down. Of course he went and it got all over the back of his pants. Thankfully we had brought extra pants. Too bad they were sweats and looked awful at church. But, I didn't really care because we hadn't needed to change them because he had an accident. I take none of the credit. It was ALL Heavenly Father. There is no way we could have started the week out the way that we did and then two days later be accident free.

When we potty train our kids, we don't put pants on them. Thankfully he doesn't like pants so that wasn't a problem for him. There was one of the days that he wouldn't keep his shirt on either, but he was freezing so I put socks on him to try and at least keep his feet a little warmer. I wish I had taken a picture of him in just undies and socks.

This is what I found this morning. He really doesn't like to wear pants. He must have taken his pants off and his undies came off too. When I asked him why he didn't have any undies or pants on he smiled a mischievous smile and said, "I don't know" I am so thankful that he caught on to potty training so fast and that Heavenly Father helped him so much. It makes me so happy to know that we won't have to potty train another little one. Yipee for no more diapers!

Mowing the lawn

Remember this picture from last year? I was mowing the lawn and little B was freaking out because it was too loud and so I had to hold him whilst I mowed? Well, not a lot has changed.

First of all, M wants me to make sure that everyone knows that we didn't mow the lawn the same day we took his birthday pictures, he's just wearing the same shirt. Now that that's out of the way.... I told him that I was going to mow the lawn. I told him that it was going to be loud. He said "K." and went and stood on the little slab of cement we have by our back door. I turned the lawn mower on and Little B burst into tears. He came over to me and held his hands up for me to pick him up. I did and he told me that he wanted to get down. I put him down and told him he could go in with M and K. They were home for spring break and they wanted to go in while I mowed. Anyway, he shook his head, grabbed onto the lawn mower and started walking with me. He cried the whole time he was pushing it. I kept leaning down telling him that he could go play with the kids in the house. He told me no and kept pushing. I turned it off in case it was the sound that was making him too nervous to go in with M and K. As soon as it was off, through his tears he pointed at it and said,"what's that?" I told him that it was the lawn mower. I asked him if he wanted to go in. Still crying he said,"No! And help you."  So, through my sweat and his tears, we mowed the lawn! Thankfully he had had enough of mowing the lawn by the time the bunny incident happened. K had come outside and was jumping on the trampoline. I was mowing along and a bunny went jumping through the exceedingly long grass. It hopped through the grass and settled in right next to the fence. I was watching it to make sure that I didn't run over it. I got right behind it and it just sat there. I walked in front of the mower and stomped my foot right next to it. It jumped away after just a few stompings of my foot. K yelled from the trampoline,"I see it! It hopped under the fence by Rod's house." Rod is our neighbor. I finished mowing the back and went to the front. Have I mentioned that I hate the grass here? It's thick and so long and takes a really long time to mow. Anyhow, I was mowing the front and got next to the fence by Rod's house. Now, when I say the grass is long, I mean really long. From the side of the mower, the wheels are almost covered by the grass and I mow the lawn once a week. It just grows really fast. So, I'm mowing along thinking about how I'm almost done and getting very excited when all the sudden I hear this awful sound. I know that I've just run over something. I hear the sound and think, oh please be a BIG stick and not the little bunny. As we all know thinking is really fast, so I hear the sound, think the thought and see the puff of fur that blows out from around all sides of the lawn mower almost as the same time. I was truly horrified when I pulled the lawn mower back and saw a red puddle in the grass. It was so sad! I prayed and prayed saying that I was so sorry about hitting the little bunny. Why didn't it move? Why would you just sit there when a very large, loud thing was roaring towards you? Why wouldn't you hop away? When I emptied the bag I tried not to look, but it was like a bad kissing scene on TV, I just couldn't look away. To say I was upset as the little ball of fur came tumbling out of the bag would be a huge understatement. When we mow the lawn here, we put the clippings on the side of the road and every Thursday, the city comes and sucks up your lawn things with a vacuum truck thing. I was thinking that I had gotten the clippings there before the truck came. I was wrong. For a week the grass clippings that were now the burial site of a little bunny sat by our sidewalk as a reminder of what had happened. B is a big bully and if something bad happens, like a shooting in a major city, he'll say something like, "That's probably like running over a little bunny with the lawn mower." Then he laughs as I punch him. It's safe to say that now when I mow the lawn, I'm really jumpy and if I see a clump of grass that the lawn mower doesn't suck up, I have to kick it apart so that my brain doesn't turn it into the remains of a poor innocent bunny. Maybe I should just leave all lawn mowing responsibilities to Little B. He might cry the whole time, but at least he would leave the bunnies in the grass alone.

Birthday pictures

Here it is! Here's the best we could get. Ok, not really, this was just on a random day, but I love that he takes his pants off and wears K's slippers. I love that Brandon used to never wear a shirt. I think it's so cute when little boys run around without a shirt on. I have always secretly hoped that our little boys would take their shirts off like Brandon did. Little B keeps his shirt on, but his pants are usually off. No, it's not as cute, but I'll take it! Here are the birthday pictures for real.

I know that we're biased because he's our kid, but, seriously, these are so cute right?! He still looks exactly like B. We even pulled out B's baby book and his baby pictures and Little B's pictures look almost identical. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get him to smile and take the picture at the same time, so we had to wait to take them until B had a post call day and had the day off.  B takes better pictures so I had the job of getting Little B to smile. Truth be told, he's a tough crowd. To get him to look at the camera with his eyes open and smiling is probably comparable to parting the Red Sea. Truth, it's not as easy as it looks. We prayed fervently that he would smile. Clearly our prayers were heard and answered! Yay for good 2 year old pictures!

He's had a Birthday, shout Hooray!

How does time go by so fast? M and K got big fast, but I feel like with Little B, time is going even faster. It's gotta be because I know that he's our last. I want to hold onto all his cute baby things for as long as I can. There are already so many things I miss. Like,when he was little enough that he would sleep on me at church, or his cute bum wagging back and forth as he crawled across the floor, or how he used to love being in the stroller when we would go for a walk instead of now where he MUST push it or the entire walk is filled with a very upset child yelling,"AND OUT, AND WALK, STUCK!!!" He doesn't not like to be strapped into things and will try to get out while telling you over and over that he's stuck.  I miss his open mouthed kisses that he would plant on whatever part of your face his mouth happened to land on. I miss the little baby that is know a wild and crazy two year old. Thankfully, he still has a little bit of the adorable baby chub on the backs of his hands and his feet. He'll still lay his head on my shoulder when I put him to bed, but not for very long. After he has established that M and K are going to bed too and he's not the only one being banished to bed, he says,"Bye, see ya!" He LOVES to go to Target. I know, such a happy mama! Truthfully, the reason he loves it is because of the free cookie he can get at the bakery. As we're at the light by Target, the light that you can't even see the store from, he'll get all excited and in a high pitched, almost scream voice he'll say,"coooookieeeee?!!!!!!!!" Today after we took the kiddos to school we were coming home and he said,"And Target?" I asked him if he wanted to go to Target and he said,"YEAH! A cookie and sicker(sticker)!" I love looking at clearance and he loves getting a cookie and a sticker, which he promptly takes off the paper and sticks on his forehead. He came up with putting the sticker there all on his own. He does it every time and I have gotten used to it. When we were there on Saturday he did it and M and K about died laughing. It is pretty funny and we had a good laugh about it. He loves to play outside and if it's time to come in before he's ready, he'll stand there, bow his head and cover his eyes with one hand while he cries. Watching him do it is truly heartbreaking. I keep hoping that I'll have the camera when he does it so that I can get a picture of it. (I know, I'm a little strange.)  He loves dogs and cows. In his head they're always together. If he sees a dog he yells,"A dog! Where a cow go? Moo!" We're still totally enamored by him and are so happy that he's ours forever!

I forgot to mention that he loves suckers. Loves isn't even the right word. He asks for them for breakfast and all day long. On his birthday he could have as many as he wanted. I don't know how many he ate, all I know is that I was shocked to see that there were some pictures without a sucker.

I don't know who loves this car he got more, him or K. He loves it so much that he wants it parked in the garage next to B's car.

Of course he got a train. He loves it, especially when K let's him have a turn using it. I'm pretty sure we've told K close to a bazillion times that it's Little B's train so it's Little B that should be sharing with him, not the other way around. I wish that we had already taken Little B's birthday pictures, but we haven't. Maybe next time! Happy birthday little boy! 

Pals

 These here little fellas are pals to say the least. What might be more fitting is that they are one in the same. The only differences are their age and one of them has glasses. Other than that they are basically the same person. Just to clear the air, we do not put them in the same jammies. I got little B in his jammies first. K saw what ones he had on and said,"I'm going to wear my Planes jammies too, that way we can match!" They both love cars and trains and boats and balls and to put the marble track game thing together and watch the marbles roll along the thing they just built.

They love to play together, although the dynamics are changing ever so slightly now that little B can talk. Where K used to rule the playing field and do whatever he wants, we now here little B say,"No K! Stop!" The first time little B said it, K thought it was cute and proceeded to take away the car he wanted. But when little B took it back K didn't really like it anymore. Thankfully we have enough little cars to cover three small countries, so there's always enough to go around! (I'm not kidding about the amount of cars that we have in this house. See the wooden box in the background? FULL of cars. We're talking so full that unless the cars are put in there right, the lid won't shut. I know we have a problem. There are days when the crazy in me comes out and I go through it and throw some away because I can't stand finding them all over the house. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to find them in little crevices whilst young ones are in the bath.)

Sometimes when people come into our house that don't really know us they probably think that we never clean up the toy room. We do, it just doesn't look like it. It is totally normal to have the marble track game thing set up standing next to the door. Next in line are the cars that are in a pile next to the little police station and last of all are the trains that are taking up the rest of the floor. I used to have them clean them up as they went, but it was a waste of energy because they just go in circles of things they are playing with. I think that their little brains run on a chant that goes a little something like this," eat, marbles, cars, trains, repeat." If the weather's nice then they throw in going outside, but mostly they spend their days in the playroom together. Little B has become especially attached to rescue vehicles. He calls them all," Wee-o, wee-o's" He can spot them from an incredible distance too. The other week I was just finishing mopping the floor. He had been playing with his little police car. He kept saying over and over, "A wee-o wee-o." I kept asking him if he was playing with his police car. He would answer in a very excited voice,"Yeah! And a wee-o wee-o!" I got done mopping and went to rinse the mop out. I had to pass the window by the door. He was standing there staring outside. That's when I noticed that there was a fire truck across the street. We decided to use the outside water spigot to rinse the mop so we could watch the fire truck.

My guess is that it was a carbon monoxide detector that went off. There were no flames shooting from the windows and no smoke billowing up. People still go in and out of it every day, so clearly it wasn't destroyed in a tragic house fire. Anyway, we loved sitting out there watching the firemen come in and out and when they were able to leave, it drove right in front of our house. Best. Day. Ever! 

As the firetruck was driving by, it stopped, a fireman got out of the truck and walked across our grass. He gave little B this hat and said that they had all noticed that we had watched them. He asked little B if he liked the firetruck. Little B just stared at him with huge eyes. He didn't say anything so I thanked him for the hat. After the firetruck had pulled away little B started waving frantically and yelling,"BYE A WEE-O WEE-O!" I was able to get this semi good picture before he took the hat off his head and ripped it in half. Have I mentioned that he's crazy?! He likes rescue vehicles and K likes to shoot his Nerf gun.

I know he's outside in jammies. He didn't feel good this morning and by the time this afternoon rolled around there was no need to change. Yes we are so classy and let our kids play outside in jammies. Anyway, there's something white hanging in the tree. I don't know what it is. When I pointed it out to K he said that he thinks it's a butterfly cocoon. I told him I think it's too big to be a butterfly cocoon. He told me he would get his gun and shoot it down. As he was shooting at it he said,"Actually, I don't think that it's a butterfly cocoon. I think it's a baby tarantula." Great! In that case please continue to try and shoot it down from the tree! As we all know he gets his skills from me and so the white thing continues to hang in the tree at this very moment. I don't know what's in it and hopefully whatever it is, stays there until it's supposed to come out and then it can just climb down the tree and go away. Little B's job for now is bullet retriever. He doesn't mind it as long as K will let him shoot the gun once in awhile. I just love the fellas in my life and hope that they are always pals.

We love ice!

The other morning the phone rang at the awful hour of 5:45. Truthfully I was getting up to work out, but to hearing the phone at that hour made me one of two things was happening. Number one thought was that there was a family emergency and something terrible had happened to someone that we love. Or, school was going to start late. It had been raining all night and they tend to cancel school when it rains. Well, not just water rain, it has to rain ice. Anyway, I bolted down the stairs to get to the phone right as the machine picked up. Thankfully, no family crisis, just a two hour delay to school starting. If school's not going to be canceled, I'll take a two hour delay! The phone rang again at 6:45 saying that due to the rain that had turned to ice, school was no longer delayed, it was canceled! I clicked my heels together and did a little dance. No, I'm not making that up. If I had any kind of patience, I would consider home schooling our kids just so they could be home with me, but I know myself and home schooling would end very badly, so to school they go. But, I do love when they get to be home with me! The only bummer when it rains ice is the ice. It looks like snow, but it's not. M and K were so excited to go play in it. I tried to explain to them that it wasn't play-in-able, but they really wanted to go play. Out they went. I bundled up and then put little B in so many layers he almost couldn't put his arms down. The sun was out and it actually wasn't very cold. Our house sits at the bottom of a small hill. We had this great idea to go sledding down our street. Not gonna lie, at first I was really nervous to try it because it really was just ice. There was probably two inches of ice all over the road. We tried sledding, loved it and ended up playing outside until the sun had turned the ice to slush and the sled wouldn't slide anymore. We noticed that there were a lot of people using the road at the end of our street. That's a major hill, so we went over to try that one out. Our neighbor from across the street was born in Florida and had never seen snow. She's M's age, so she came sledding with us. At the top of the hill she just kept saying, "I'm going to die, I'm going to die!" I couldn't help it, I laughed at her and told her to be brave. I told her that she wouldn't die, that she was going to love it.

M and K were so excited to go all the way down the hill! They didn't care that they were going to be flying down a hill of ice!

Oh man! I stood there laughing at their happy screams. 

K would scream and then laugh. M couldn't help but scream and E was so scared that she would scream and then scream louder. Once they made it to the bottom and E knew that she had indeed survived, she stood up and said," That was so awesome! Can we do it again?!"

K took charge of this run and instructed me on what to do and how to make it so we didn't go too fast. Little B didn't know what to think. I didn't realize that I was squishing him, at least it kept him stuffed in the middle tight right? The whole way down K and I were laughing and little B was totally silent. When we got to the bottom he said,"again?" I asked if he wanted to do it again. He got a huge smile on his face and said"Yeah!" He started marching back to the top of the hill.

K made it to the top before little B could get there. When I took this picture it was so bright outside that I didn't realize that K was already going down the hill. I put the camera down just in time to see the inevitable happen. Clearly little B got wiped out. K couldn't stop so as he slid down the hill he yelled out sorry. B laid on the ice not being able to roll over to stand up because he had too many layers on him. I tried not to laugh as his little arms were flailing and his legs were kicking trying to stand up. Thankfully, he was more scared than hurt, but when I picked him up he was saying,"and done, and home, and done." Poor kid! It was lunch time anyway, so I rounded up the kiddos and we went home. M and K were not done being out on the ice. By the time lunch was over and cleaned up, the ice on the road had either melted or turned to a slushy mess. They went out anyway and discovered that another neighbor had a perfect sledding driveway! Before you go call DCFS on me, when it rains ice here, everything is shut down. The entire day I saw one car driving in the neighborhood. No one knows how to drive in the inclement weather and so they stay in their house. I knew they would be safe sledding down the driveway because there were no cars out.

They stayed outside and played on their driveway until dinner time. I could hear them screaming even though I was inside the house. I went out to check on them and the one that didn't get to sled was on check for cars duty. The other two weren't allowed to go until they had heard that it was safe to go.

We had bathed them before dinner to help them warm up. Playing out in the ice most of the day is hard work! It was such a fun day! What made the week even better is that the ice melted and the next time it didn't rain ice, it snowed real snow!

The real snow day started out with a power outage. Thankfully, B was off because he had been on call the night before, so he was home. Clearly, it wasn't too warm in our house. Even when the power's on and the heater's going, our house is drafty and cold. I thought it was just me that thought our house was cold, but the other day my friend was over. She was sitting in front of the window. She asked if the window was open. I said no, it just feels like it's open because the windows are so drafty. Anyway, so to have the power out made our house just real chilly! To pass time and to try to prevent the freezing process from starting, we bounced a ball back and forth to each other. I knew it couldn't last long, the snow looked awesome to play in. There were two problems with going out into the snow. #1- The power was out, so when they came back in, there was no way to warm them up. #2- we don't own any snow pants, boots or waterproof gloves. I knew that they would be so cold if they went out there. It was only a matter of time before they would ask to go out. I was truly hoping that they would be so cold inside that they wouldn't want to go outside. Of course I was wrong. The ball game lasted until 8:45 and then they wanted to go out. I hate snow. I hate that it's so cold and that you get wet and then freeze. My hands freeze and my feet get so cold that they hurt. And have I mentioned that they power was out? Oh that's right, the power was out, so there was NO WAY TO WARM UP!!!! That didn't not sound great to me. B loves to play in the snow and he really wanted the offspring to be able to play in it because the forecast for the next day was warm, so the snow was going to melt. He took one for the team and took all of them out so they could play. They had a great time and I was able to get a couple pictures!

This was before they went out. We don't have any gloves for little B, so we put socks on his hands and then put sandwich bags over the socks. He kept them on for the picture and that's about it.

Yay for snow days that there's actual snow and not just ice!

What a cute kid right?!

M is totally nuts and unzipped her coat. She said that she was getting hot. Clearly she's a little sick in the head!

K would pick up huge amounts of snow and throw them without compacting them into a ball. Every time he threw snow, it was like your own personal snow storm as it fell down on you. Little B wouldn't pick up the snow himself with the socks/sandwich bags on his hands. He had B pick it up and hand it to him. He ended up just ripping the socks off his hands. Then he really didn't like to pick the snow up. Maybe someday we'll get real gloves.

What's not to love about this one?! I am so glad that they were able to play in the snow! I'm even more glad that B was home to play with them so that I didn't have to! Too bad the snow was gone the next day. Yes, the next day. It was sunny and warm, so it all melted. Now you know why we don't have snow gear. The snow doesn't stay around long enough to justify buying any. 

   

Kids and food

K(after he had parked 24 cars, four rows of 6, at a diagonal on the kitchen table):"Mommy, guess what these cars are doing."
Me: Parking at the store
K: No
Me: Stuck in traffic
K:No
Me: Waiting in the pick up line at school
K:No
Me: Trying to drop kids off at school
K:No
Me: Basketball
K: No
Me: Gymnastics
K: No
Me: I don't know, what are they doing?
K: They are at a drive in watching a movie because that's what cars did in the sixties
Me: (laughing because that was really random and how does he know that? I didn't tell him that I did that in the 90's too)
Basically kids are awesome. That's all really. Can I just take a minute and talk about little kid food. Little kid food is the best! I love goldfish, the crackers of course, not the real fish. I was at Costco the other day and saw their big box of goldfish. Usually I have enough self control and just keep walking, but that day I had none. I picked up the box and was able to make it to the car before I busted them out. Both little B and I were in heaven as we made the half an hour drive home eating our little fishies. Hot dogs, oh man! I love hot dogs. I always have, pretty sure I always will. I can't look at the nutrition facts. Not because if I look I'll stop eating them, because I won't. Just knowing how much faster I'm getting to a heart attack gives me a little more anxiety. I love hot dogs in almost any form, corn dogs, cut up in mac n' cheese, pigs n' a blanket, really any way they're presented is wonderful and amazing! Grilled cheese sandwiches are a gift from heaven! Although, it has to be made with fake cheese, real cheese is too advance for my palate. Cheese pizza is the only kind of pizza to eat. Man oh man! If there was someway to have an IV drip, that you could taste, of cheese pizza from Dominos I would totally do it! Not great that I love all this food. In my defense, I don't eat them very often. I haven't had cheese pizza in almost a week! Clearly, it's lunch time, so I'm off to eat some goldfish and an orange!