It is my duty to provide entertainment here right?

Well this has provided a good hour of entertainment for me today so I thought I would share.

Check this out! Here my family has been elfed! Here is an even funnier one! And a big thanks to the big elf and his family! Here is his elfed family! And while we are at it we might as well elf the entire neighborhood!


I can't stop laughing!

What do you do when your 4 year old needs to burn off energy?

You give him a hammer and tell him "Here knock down this wall. K? When your done take out the floor too." No really! I have the photographic evidence to prove it! See...

The best part is that he got the whole wall down and really did start on the floor in less than 30 minutes! HE LOVED IT!

Oh yea, we are remodeling our bathroom so his daddy won't even be mad when he gets home from work. Well, maybe a little sad that there is less for him to hit out. :)

What are the kids up to?

Little Dude has really been trying to control himself and his temper. He still has his moments, but he is doing SO much better. I have been VERY proud of him lately. We have started giving the kids 5 chores to do every day. Dude has been very good at trying to accomplish these things. The other day he did a handful of things that I told him that I wanted him to help me with ALL BY HIMSELF WITHOUT ME ASKING TWICE! Amazing! Really! He unloaded and then loaded the dishwasher. He washed the mirror in the bathroom, he cleaned his brother's room and his own room. Then yesterday I was doing laundry all day and he took it upon himself to change the laundry over. He unloaded the dryer then put the wet clothes in. He even put the two dryer sheets in and started it. I knew what he was up to but stood in the other room and just listened. He was so proud of himself that he knew what to do and was even showing his sister how to do it. When I walked in I noticed he even had another load of dirty clothes waiting to load into the washer. I was so touched that he did this and I hadn't even expected him to do it. More importantly I was shocked that he knew how to do it correctly. It is amazing what they really do pay attention to and learn from just watching me. Then to top off the day he helped his sister get scrubbed, out of the bath, dried off, dressed, and even combed out her hair while I was gone to Young Women's and Daddy was super sick on the couch. I can't express to him enough how proud I am of him!!!

Princess has been busy learning her routine for her gymnastics show in a few weeks. She absolutely LOVES gymnastics! She dances, hops, and rolls all over the house. Not to mention the handstands she does next to EVERYTHING. I think it is very funny to watch her! She is super flexible! She has always loved to sing, but after we went and saw a play at the High School, she has been performing. She tells me that when she gets big she wants to be on stage and she wants to sing and dance. No surprise to me, she loves to be loud and the center of attention. She makes up her own songs and will make sure that I sit and listen to all 5 minutes of it. She makes me laugh!

The baby is getting so big! He is 8 months old today! He has 1 tooth and 1 more almost in. He can roll over FINALLY and will probably learn to crawl once the other two learn to leave him alone when he is playing on the floor. He LOVES to eat his least favorite is peaches. He will eat anything else though. His favorite toy is the remote control. We had to give him his own because he will do everything he can to get one in his hand. We are working on him going to sleep in his bed instead of being rocked to sleep. Yesterday he cried in his crib for about 45 minutes while I rubbed his back and his face and tried to get him to sleep. I felt really bad for him. He is VERY MUCH a mamma's boy and I knew that he just wanted to cuddle. So I got the idea to take my t-shirt that I wore to bed the night before and put it next to him so he could maybe feel like I was next to him. Wouldn't you know that he put both arms around that old dang t-shirt and fell right to sleep! Mamma's Boy FOR SURE! It was cute though, and he took the longest nap he has had in over a week!

Well that is about it for what the kids are up to! Things have been much better around here and I am really proud of all of my kids! I love them dearly and I am so happy that I have the opportunity to learn and grow with them.

My new workout routine.

Arms: Other than lugging around a heavy baby and car seat all the time I have found a great new workout for my arms. It has started off by a few hours (I will not say exactly how many hours) playing Guitar Hero III for my new Wii. Then a little while of boxing and baseball and topping it off with Donkey Kong.

Leggs: Dance Dance Revolution of course! Rockin' on Guitar Hero for long amounts of time does good for the calves too!

Every workout needs cardio right? Well Dance Dance revolution has a workout mode on it....nuf said.

So as you can see our Christmas presents came early and we are LOVING our new Wii! Talk to me in a few months to see if this routine actually works! I guess that I will have lay off the Christmas goodies though. OR I can add a few more hours of Guitar Hero each day!

I miss him....

Life in the past few weeks have been really rough, I am not going to lie. I realized what everyone was saying to me about setting too many goals was right. I still want to work on all those things, but a bigger and more important issue came up.

See my little dude? He has been a big trial of mine in the last couple of weeks. There really isn't a need to get into all that has been the problem because we could be here all night. It isn't important because he is four and we are just alike, bad tempers and all. What is important though is that he has been at his at his grandma's and grandpa's house all weekend (because they thought that we needed a break from each other) and all that I have been able to think about today is how much I love him.

Four and a half years ago I could look into his eyes and make him smile. We slept in "our" chair every night because he just wanted to be held. I would sing to him to calm him down and every touch was so soft and so sweet. It hurt SO bad to leave him every day and go to work. I couldn't ever bare to be away from him for very long.

Today the quiet and sweet moments almost never happen. Lately it has been nothing but a battle of wills between us. But in the moments that he will sit next to me and twist my hair, or climb into my bed in the middle of the night. The times that he comes to me when he is sad and wants to talk, or wants me to help him build a bigger and better fort with ALL the blankets in the house I want to cherish them. I miss him right now. I want to give him a big hug and let him know how much I love him and how I am trying so hard to be a better mommy, and that no matter what he will always be my little dude.

While he has been gone I have been able to reflect on the last little bit and be able to really see what has been happening. I hurt. There are so many things that I wish I could take back. The future is bright for us now though. The entire family received a blessing and that has made the world of difference. It has truly helped me to remember that he is a gift to me from my Heavenly Father. He has such a strong spirit, and I can see that he is trying.

I love him dearly. I am happy with the progress that we have made. I hope that we can just learn from this and be able to become better. Although I am grateful for my parents for helping out, and the time that we have spent apart, I miss him like crazy (even though he is less than 3 miles away).

I take that back...

They turned out better than I thought!

The baby is getting two bottom teeth. It was no wonder that he was grumpy. He wouldn't let my take his picture in his cute hat. Oh well, he can look cute no matter what!

Well there is just one.

Oh boy!

I know that it isn't Monday yet, but I have done a crappy job at my goals already. I feel really bad about it. I want so bad to accomplish these things and I feel that I am falling off the wagon only after a few days.

I tried to take my kids pictures tonight for our Christmas card and I really think that all of Gardner Village now knows how impatient I am. My poor kids tried at points, but they really weren't being very good. I tried to be patient, I really did. But then we were there longer than 20 minutes and I think with every step I lost it even more. I was determined though. I had purchased new clothes and hats for them to wear. I had a vision and they looked so cute! Well, as any good photographer knows that the more you push a kid the less willing they are. (Maybe this is why I feel that I am not so good.) My vision never happened. I got some ok poses in just ok lighting and left with a crappy attitude.

The goal of keeping the house clean, getting the kids to bed on time and eating better has been going a little better, but no one would know it. My house is still a mess. I have tried to keep it clean but I just can't keep on it. The kids fell asleep before dinner so they are passed out on the couch. The will wake up in an hour or so and be hyper I just know it. Then there is eating better, well I can say that I have MADE every meal. I even made something in the crock pot today. I guess that is a big step.

A little depressing, I know. I am open for suggestions, and thoughts. I know I need to give my self some credit, but I hate the feeling of failing just as I am getting started.

Goals

I have been thinking lately that I need to set some goals for myself. I have had so many things going on and time management has never been one of my strong points. I am feeling overwhelmed with all that needs to be done, so maybe a few goals are my solution.

Any time that I have made a few goals for myself all I have ever done is made a mental note of them and a few weeks later tried to evaluate how I have been doing. Then shortly after I give up. This time I will be different. Some of these goals will really make life easier for me so I really want to stick to them. I thought that posting them will make it fresh on my mind every time I think about my blog. So here they are:

I got out of the shower the other morning to my little princess trying to burn down a tree in the back yard with some matches she found. This gave me an idea for two goals.

#1 I want to be dressed and ready for the day every morning before the kids wake up. That way we will not have any catastrophes while I try to shower. And I will hopefully feel better about my appearance and not be caught in any embarrassing moments in my jammies anymore.

#2 Guess it is time to clean out all closets and drawers and organize a bit. I didn't even know there were matches in the drawer for princess to find. It is always nice to be able to find what your looking for anyway.

I have realized that my little dude has inherited his bad temper from me. I am so bad at not resorting to the same fits as him when he is in trouble. This totally needs to stop on my side and on his. So my goals here are:

#3 I need to be a better example to my family. Trying to control my temper, and being slow to anger is a must around here.

#4 Praying to have guidance with my parenting skills and patience. More personal prayers as well.

#5 Spending more time with the family instead of worrying about all the things that need to be done and making sure that no matter what my kids and husband know that I love them.

My house has been an out of control mess. I feel that I just have so much work to do and cleaning the house is always last to get done. We have been eating crappy and we haven't been getting enough sleep. So the normal stuff like:

#6 Trying to clean the house and have dinner ready for when Daddy comes home, then getting the kids to bed at a decent time every night might help so I can work for an hour or so each night.


Well there they are. I think that each Monday for a month or so I am going to give myself a report card and post it here. If you know me or see me each day, or feel that you need to comment, please do. I am so hard on myself that I end up missing the little things that might help me feel better. Any ideas will help too!