Spirit Week

Adam's school had their SPIRIT WEEK this week!

Tuesday was "Favorite Book Character Day"

Adam was Percy Jackson, at Camp Half-Blood.

Wednesday was "Backwards Day"

Thursday was "School Colors/Shirt Day"

No pic, just in case some crazy figured out where he went to school.

Friday was "Crazy Hair Day"

Adam needed a haircut, so we cut it into a mohawk for 1 day only. Mike buzzed the rest off tonight.

He had a fun week!

St. Patrick's Day

Kiddos in green with St. Patrick's cards from Grandma and GrandpaW*. Doesn't Josh look happy to be hugged/squished?

We had such a fun St. Patrick's Day here on Wednesday!

On Tuesday night, we assembled the trap. The kids made Lego stairs that led to a cereal box that had a hole cut in top (with a green rag covering it). They placed some gold and green items on top to try and lure the leprechauns in, and falling into the hole.

They escaped! And left some (yummy) gold.

They also turned our milk green, left green footprints on the tile, drew green dots on the kids' noses, and gathered the green items from their room and hid them outside.

Sneaky leprechauns!

We had some fun going green the rest of the day:

I made a fun green lunch for Adam and Grace.


We had our green dinner: spinach fettucine alfredo, green beans, and garlic bread for dinner. I forgot to put the green dye in the garlic butter... whoops!

And had rainbow cupcakes for dessert.

We had a great day! As fun as it was, Grace was so happy it was over. She was very worried about getting pinched. ;)

Pi Day

On March 14th (3.14), we celebrated Pi day.

We had homemade chicken pot pie.


And mini apple and cherry pies.

I tried explaining what Pi was exactly, buy Adam and Grace didn't really care.

Who want to talk math when there is pie to be had?

:)

Soccer Skills

Adam is also taking a class at our community center: Soccer Skills.

I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be doing something here. Like running. Maybe they haven't covered the whole not-crossing-your-legs-while-running-for-the-ball skills yet.

In the class he, well, learns soccer skills.Like cool kicks and stuff.

Cool kicks that result in balls being flown across the counter and knocking down various items, before being banned to the outside area.

There he goes!

He wanted to be on a team, but I so can't handle that right now. This class has been a fun way to get us out of bed before noon on a Saturday for him to improve in a sport, get some exercise, and have some fun.

The class brings Grace and I many opportunities, too. She gets to play at the park for an entire hour while he learns said skills. And I get to flash unsuspecting, innocent children when the crazy Las Vegas winds blow off my nursing cover.

Just trying to keep it real here, folks.

Family Pizza Night

On Friday, Grace and I spent the day making pizza crusts and sauce. After we picked up Adam from school we ran to Sam's Club and got cheese. And then after we picked up Mike we came home and assembled our pizzas.

(Pizza night can be quite a production).

We ate our pizza picnic-style on the living room floor and watched Night at the Museum 2.

Approximately 30 minutes into the movie, Mike, Grace, Josh, and I fell asleep.

So much for spending quality time as a family... ;)

Adam really enjoyed it, though, and we all had a fun time eating (and making) pizza together!

Sunday Naps

Sundays are so ridiculous around here.

This is how a typical Sunday goes:

6:00 Wake everyone up; feed Josh and kids

6:30 Shower

6:45 Mike leaves for meetings

7:00 Get kids dressed and do kids' hair

7:30 Blow dry my hair

7:45 Rescue Josh from being mauled by Grace

7:50 Do make-up

8:00 Feed Josh

8:30 Get Josh asleep

8:35 Get myself dressed

8:45 Finish getting ready and come out and find Grace un-dressed

8:50 Mike comes home from meetings to pick us up

9:00 Church is starting.

I am trying to find where Grace managed to hide her shoes and tights while I was getting dressed.

At this point, I'm upset. Grace is upset. Mike is upset.

Adam's happy. He's not a Sacrament meeting fan.

Josh invariably wakes up. And wants to eat again.

I'm not going to say how many Sacrament meetings we've actually made it to since our meeting times changed. But, it's not many. At all. Anyways, today we managed to get to church only 10 minutes late.

I felt like a rockin' Mom.

Unfortunately, I was also one exhausted Mom.

And I still had to do Sharing Time... ;)

After church, we came home. I fed Josh. I fed the kids. We then had to go pick up Mike from his after-church meetings.

When we all got back, we all took a 3-hour nap.

It was marvelous.

I'm totally paying for it now, of course, because it's 1:00 in the morning and half of my family is up.

But, seriously, Sunday naps are just delicious. Totally worth a late night.

Mini Golf

About 2 1/2 weeks ago, we started a behavior reward system in our house. An idea that I totally stole from Adam's homeroom teacher.

In his class, they have an individual behavior reward system, as well as a class behavior award. I'm sure you've seen this around: good behavior in Adam's class results in a link on a chain that is hung from the ceiling. When the class does something wrong, they lose one. When it touches the ground, they get a reward.

I decided to do it at our house because I was sick of the whining and fighting. I also didn't like that I went to bed at the end of the day feeling guilty about getting upset 1,000 times that day, and not pointing out the good that was done.

So, I printed off a family reward, put it in an envelope and hung it up on our wall. When Adam wakes up well, when Grace eats her breakfast without complaining, when Adam gets a "Super Day" card at school, when Grace stays dressed, etc., they get a link.

And then they lose one for all of the wrong choices they make.

I keep a tally for the day on the fridge of all of the good/wrong choices, and we add/take off rings at the end of the day.

So far, it has worked really, really well for us. There is less fighting, less whining, and less disobedience. And WAY less tattling. They are in no way perfect, but things have been better around here. Plus, I feel better that I'm recognizing the good that they do, and not just the bad.

Anyways, the rings finally touched the ground, so we opened up the envelope. It was a certificate for glow-in-the-dark miniature golf.

We went tonight and had SO much fun!

Josh rocked the glow-in-the-dark socks. Blacklights are fun.

The Mummy

And a little cheating at the end. :)

The place had an Egyptian theme. Our favorite hole was one where a mummy rose up after a golf ball was hit under the tomb. Very spooky.

Mike won, but only because he wasn't holding a baby with one hand while chasing a 3-year-old in the dark.

Seriously... what's up with that? :)

We had a great time, and it was made even better knowing that Adam and Grace worked hard to earn it.

I have a bag full of envelopes now with various rewards. Some are big (kids meals at Burger King or bowling) and some are smaller (family movie night or getting to stay up an extra 1/2 hour). Part of the fun is in the surprise, of course. Adam and Grace are hard at work on their next chain, and I hope to keep it up for as long as I can get away with it.

Less fighting in the car (any way I can get it) is definitely a good thing. ;)

Typical Afternoon

In a typical afternoon:

Adam does his homework. On a clipboard. Because clipboards make homework more fun. He has timed math, math worksheets, vocabulary, reading, and spelling to do.

He complains during every second of it.

Grace works on pages from various pre-school workbooks. She uses her left hand for her "homework." She switches to her right hand for eating and drawing on walls.

Subtle differences.

Josh focuses his studies on wild animals.

After about 5 minutes, he gets tired of animals (and Bumbo sitting).

And focuses on his eating and sleeping studies instead.

He excels in these subjects. :)

Ballet

So, in order to:

1) Give Grace a little more structure (and attention)

2) Give Grace opportunities to listen to other adults

3) Give Grace the chance to burn up some energy

4) Give Josh a break from being wrestled by Grace

We enrolled Grace in ballet at the community center.

"Real" ballet classes are expensive and on the other side of town.

But, community center ballet is fun and inexpensive and is just enough to give her some extra attention and learning, without any pressure.

Though, not gonna lie, it won't exactly get her into Julliard. ;)

She loves her ballet class, her new friends, and practicing at home.

I love how she looks in a leotard, tights, and a ponytail with a bow.

The Fifth and Sixth

Before:

After:

He had such perfect, straight teeth when he was little.

I just don't know what happened.

*Sniff!*

So, of the 4 teeth that Adam has lost (prior to this incident), 3 of them had the baby teeth growing up behind the permanent ones. We were able to get 2 of these out on our own, 1 had to be pulled by the dentist.

His top front teeth have been loose for awhile. He (again) tried to get kids to punch him at school. A kickball was kicked in to his face (on accident). Grace has kicked him numerous times.

These teeth were not budging.

I told him to keep wiggling. I told him to eat apples.

They would not would not come out.

Then he began complaining about how much they hurt.

I looked at them a little more closely and saw that they were both crooked. The new permanent teeth had grown in slightly behind and to the side, making the babies push into each other at an angle.

Mike and I tried for days to pull the darn things. The way that they were pushed into each other, made it impossible for us to pull, and Adam was in so much pain.

So we visited our dentist.

Sigh... this dentist loves Adam's crazy teeth.

Some "laughing gas," Novocaine, and a few hard tugs later, they were out!

I think he looks adorable.

He is loving showing off his new mouth and that I am letting him eat pudding, because his gums are swollen and sensitive from all of the pulling.

He also loves that the tooth fairy left fairy dust once again.

The tooth fairy is (slowly) getting back on top of things.

:)

3 Months

It's been both the longest and shortest 3 months of my life.

I can't believe he's 3 months old.

But, then I remember being up ever 2 hours in the middle of the night for the first 2 months, and I totally can believe he's 3 months old.

About Josh:

He hates his Bumbo.

He hates not being held.

He is cuddly.

He hates being left alone.

He is losing the hair on the back of his head. And on the front.

He is darling.

He smiles a lot. Not as much as Adam and Grace did. But, he's smiling more and more. No laughing yet.

He is still slightly too grumpy for that.

The port-a-crib we have has an attached diaper changing pad, and a mobile that hangs above the diaper changing pad. Ooh-la-la, I know. We are pretty fancy here. Anyway, he loves this mobile. His first smile was at the bears on the mobile. The second time he smiled, it was at me. Whenever I change him he just grins and grins. He loves this thing. He now kicks the bears on the mobile that he loves so much. Which makes him smile even bigger.

Adam thinks Josh is going to be a soccer genius someday because of these kicking skills.

He is also starting to bat at objects and put things in his mouth. Downside is that, well, he is starting to put grody things in his mouth. Upside? It keeps him happy for a few minutes.

He loves being naked. And, I know this is terrible, but sometimes when Grace needs help in the bathroom and Adam needs help with homework and dinner needs to be stirred, I totally undress him and leave him naked on the floor on a towel. Normally, he needs to be held or he fusses. Leaving him naked makes him happy. It buys me about 10 minutes.

Being WT is totally worth 10 minutes of sanity. Believe me.

He prefers me over anyone else. This makes me happy.

He does not like Mike. When Mike holds him, Josh won't look at him, and he has only smiled at him a handful of times. It's funny.

I can laugh about this now because I know it won't always stay this way. Adam and Grace did the same thing at first. Eventually they learned that Daddy is more fun (aka lets them get away with more) than Mommy. Then Mike becomes the favorite.

He makes my life insanely, ridiculously hard.

He also makes it insanely, ridiculously wonderful.

And I wouldn't have it any other way.

We all love him so much!