Don't make me Pull This Car Over!

I can’t believe I did it, but today I turned into my parents! I actually found myself threating the kids that I was going to pull the car over if they didn’t stop fighting. And of course they didn’t stop so I had to pull the car over. But then I burst out laughing when I found out what they were fighting over.

I had given each of the kids a tootsie roll before we left for the store. On the drive, Samuel started getting really mad a Bella.
Samuel: “Mom, Bella won’t talk to me”
I look back to see Bella with her hand in her mouth. Me: “Maybe she doesn’t have anything to say to you.” Then I try to focus again on the talk radio show I’m listening to.
Samuel getting increasingly upset, raising his voice and beginning to cry: “Bella, give me the candy. Bella talk to me. I want the candy.” (This went on and on and on)
I’m really trying to listen to my program, but it’s hard with the crying and loud bursts of anger from Samuel and Bella with her hand in her mouth making loud noises that resemble a "No". So after asking the kids several times to please stop fighting I begin the threats of pulling the car over. And did this help, No! Samuel just started crying harder about Bella not giving him the candy.
So I got upset and pulled the car over thinking Bella had taken Samuel’s tootsie roll since she would not take her hand out of her mouth.
Me: “Bella, do you have Samuel’s candy?”
Bella hand still in her mouth: “Yeah”
Me: “Please give it to him.”
Now at this point I could not believe my eyes. Bella took her hand out of her mouth and pretended to give Samuel several pieces of candy out of her mouth. Then Samuel took the pretend candy and started to play like he was stuffing it in his mouth and eating. By now he had stopped crying and was all smiles.
Me: “You guys are fighting over pretend candy!”
I just had to laugh. And then I switched my talk show to music and turned it up! What imaginations!

Hiking

Saturday was such a beautiful day that we took the kids hiking. As usual, we had a great hike getting to our destination because the kids were all excited and having a great time. But whenever we head back the story changes. They were tired and hungry and all three were crying or whining for most of the hike back to the car. We did have this funny conversation that made Chuck and I laugh.
Samuel: "Hold me daddy"
Chuck, who was already packing Isaac in the bjorn: "You have to walk yourself"
Amber, for some reason feeling the need to reinforce the issue: "Everyone who has legs needs to walk by themselves"
Samuel: "Well, Isaac has legs and he's not walking"
What a smart kid!


We spent forever at this little pond with the kids throwing rocks in. Look at that giant rock Bella is getting ready to throw.

Bella loves to jump off every little rock in the trail.

And Samuel kept stopping all along the way to throw rocks.

I thought this was so cute because Samuel just came up and grabbed my hand as we were walking along.

Kids Happenings

Samuel and Bella were playing a funny game the other day. They had the baby in the stroller and Samuel was pushing the baby around like a wild man. Then he would say the baby got struck by lightening and fling it out of the stroller. Bella would then run pick the baby up and "nurse" it. Then the baby would go back in the stroller and they would start running around the house again. It's fun to watch at such a young age that built in nurturing nature of little girls.

Oh My Bella Girl!

She was supposed to be taking a nap and I heard her crying, "Help me" so I ran upstairs to see what the problem was. A couple of weeks ago during nap time she climbed clear to the top of the closet to retrive something and was stuck at the top and couldn't get down. But this time she had climbed inside her doll high chair and her legs were stuck.
Saturday morning I was brushing my teeth and Bella was playing around under the cupboard. I'm always finding her playing with the lotion, but this time I figured I was standing right there so it would be okay. Then I look over to see that she had dumped half a bottle of baby oil onto the concrete. Talk about a slick mess! I spent the next 1/2 hour trying to get it cleaned off the concrete floor with all the kids crying about something and wondering what was taking Chuck so long at Home Depot.

I love this picture of Bella playing basketball in her pink high heels!

Samuel

Samuel's new favorite activity is "Jedi training". Everyday he goes down stairs to practice being a Jedi. Right now he tells me he's just a Padwon, but if he trains he will be a Jedi. He has us build robots out of the big blocks and then knocks them down. Chuck also throws blocks at him and he hits them with his light saber. He also likes Bella to fight with him, but she isn't quite as excited about it. The other day at Joy School the twins weren't here so it was just Samuel and the girls. During free play time I heard him ask them if they wanted to do some Jedi training - poor guy, they just wanted to play dolls!

Every day I do learning time with the kids. The other morning Samuel came to me and said, "Mom, I need to work on Bella's letters with her". So he sat down at the computer with Bella and helped her with her letters. It was really cute!

Isaac

Isaac's new favorite hang out is the pantry. The door is usually open because we are all snackers around. He really loves to eat and there are usually crumbs on the pantry floor from Bella and Samuel so I think that's why he is always heading that way.

Isaac looks like a little lamb here. Whenever Isaac is crying Bella instantly jumps into action trying to make things better. She gets him a drink, toy or his binkie. Samuel on the other hand is quick to say, "Mom, Isaac needs you!"

The kids like to drag Isaac around by his feet on the concrete floor. He laughs at this for a few minutes, but then gets mad.

Valentine's Day

My Valentine's tradition for Chuck is making him this very yummy from scratch cake with marshmallow and chocolate frosting. It's a lot of work, but oh so wonderful! In all it has 3 sticks of butter so how couldn't it be good.

And Chuck got me pink roses because he thought Bella would love seeing the pink flowers. A funny story about me and flowers - A few years ago Chuck bought me some flowers at the grocery store and the girl made the comment that he better take off the price tag so I wouldn't see how cheap they were. Chuck just laughed because he knows me well enought to know I would love them even more when I saw the price. You see, I like flowers, but they do just die rather quickly, so I just can't stand the thought of wasting a lot of money on flowers. So yes, I LOVE the cheap grocery store kind.

My tradition for the kids is buying them new swim suits. But as they were opening them I realized this was actually kind of a lame gift. In years past we would let the kids open their swim suits and then take them over to the indoor clubhouse pool to swim. Well it didn't even cross my mind until they were pulling out the suits that we no longer have an indoor clubhouse pool. So I quickly told the kids that we would take them to SHAC on Monday.

And the kids loved going to SHAC to swim.

All except Isaac. Poor kid was clinging to me and crying everytime he would get splashed. We just haven't taken him swimming and I just throw him in the shower with Chuck so he doesn't even get in the bathtub. No wonder he was not having a good time!

Valentine's Week

We had a lot of fun preparing for Valentine's day. We made giant heart cookies with sprinkles. Of course the kids always like making cookies. Bella was so excited about eating her cookie I couldn't even get a picture before she bit into it.

What I remember about Valentine's when I was a kid was helping my mom make my Valentine's box for school. She always had such creative ideas. So the kids and I made what was supposed to be a robot Valentine's box, but it actually turned out looking like a crazy bug.

We also made Valentine's cards. It was so fun to ask Samuel what he loved about each person. He came up with a great list for everyone. Sameuls' list for Grandma involved trips to the Dollar Store and gifts that she buys for him. Grandpa's list involved all the fun games he plays with Samuel. When I asked Samuel what he loved about Bella he said, "I like Bella because she plays with me. I just love her that's all." When I asked him about Isaac he said, "I like Isaac because he likes to give me five. He likes to play with me." As you can tell, playing games with Samuel is very important to him.

Weekend Fun

Chuck and I have been trying to have once a month "date nights" with each of the kids. This month it was my turn to take Bella out for a mommy daughter evening while Chuck and Samuel had a stay at home Star Wars fest (Isaac was sleeping). We've been talking about it all week and each time we would bring it up Bella would get sad because Samuel would talk about how he and dad were having a party. When it was time for us to go Bella threw herself on the couch and started to cry. Then I told her we were going for ice cream and the tears instantly stopped. She was so cute because all night she kept saying "Mommy, Bella shopping date". I took her to Target and she picked out a pink necklace and the brightest pink nail polish you can imagine. Then we finished with a shake.

The guys watching Clone Wars.

Samuel and Bella have been wanting to go to Jumping Jacks for several weeks now so we finally took them again on Saturday. They love this place!

We have had various colors of paint samples in our entertainment nook for months now. This weekend Chuck decided he was going to finish this project. I know I picked this color, but I'm not so sure about it now. Chuck hates painting for this very reason. I always have painters regret! Maybe it will grow on me and not be so bold after we get some things in the nooks.

New Blog and Lens

I was so excited to get a new lens for my camera this week! This was my reward for winning our weight loss challenge - an incentive to shed the baby weight fast. I actually won our little contest well over 5 months ago, but it's taken me this long to decide what lens I wanted and then get around to ordering it. I was only able to take a few pictures because Isaac has been sick all week and would not let me sit him down. It's so sad to have a sick baby!

As you can see, Samuel was really excited about being my test subject - that's where the candy bribery comes in handy.

And I did get a few pictures added on my new picture blog. As with many of my good project ideas it turned into a lot more work than I was anticipating. I realized that I am truly a novice blogger and was having a hard time getting my pictures to be big enough size and to look good on the new site. So I did what I always do when I run into these problems - I asked Chuck to figure it out. He searched around and found the answer which involved a lot more time than I was anticipating. So for now there are just a few pictures and I probably won't update it that often because it's a lot of work! But here is the new site www.photosbyam.blogspot.com or you can just click on the My Photos link under Friends and Family.

Another Blog on It's Way

I sat down to blog today and realized I hadn't taken as many candid shots of my kids over the last couple of weeks. And the reason is that I have been busy practicing more formal shots with my nice camera and working a lot on my photoshop program. I took another photo class a couple of weeks ago and loved it! I learned several new techniques and have been bribing the kids so they will let me practice on them. My great friend Janice, who loves photography as much as I do, gave me the idea of starting another blog where I can post all my "practice" pictures of the kids. So when I get it up and going I'll post the link for any interested - mom and Trina!

The photography class was all day a couple of Saturdays ago. I loved what I learned, but the best part was coming home to a frazzled husband! It was the first time I have been away for a whole day from the kids and the first time he has spent the whole day with all three of them. When I got home, the house was in shambles, he was exhausted and very happy to see me home. He was telling me all about his day and how it was impossible for him to get anything "productive" done. All I could do was grin from ear to ear and say I know! Then he said, "I don't know how you do this, it's really hard." He said he always knew it was hard, but he didn't really comprehend it fully until he experienced it for himself. Yeah!!! I think I need to leave him with all three more often! I honestly love being a stay at home mom and wouldn't trade it for anything, but some days it can be a challenge and I was so grateful he recognized that. So my photography class was worth every penny I paid!

Misc Happenings

So I had to laugh when I heard Samuel and Bella in the bathroom this week. Samuel was trying to do Bella's hair and he was telling her to hold still so he could put a bow in her hair. Of course I didn't find it too funny when several other times this week they had rubbed vaseline and hair gel all over in her hair. And Bella was not amused when Samuel got the brush stuck in her hair when he was trying to comb it. This reminded me of the time when I was about 6 and had hair down to my waist. Brady and I were playing and he turned on his stomper truck and let it loose in my hair. It kept going until it had hair wound around the tires so tight it finally stopped. I think I'll take untangeling a brush over a stomper truck any day! You got to love those Brothers!

Last week, Samuel was gone and Isaac was having a nap so it was just Bella and I. She was running around the house with a toy plane pretending to shot fire and saying bomb, bomb. It was then I decided I needed to do a few more "girly" things with Bella. So we broke out the nail polish and painted her toes. I actually can't believe I haven't done it before now! She thought her toes looked really pretty and was excited to show daddy and Samuel.

Bella in her "rats nest". So I had to get a picture of everything that Bella must have in her bed to go to sleep. We were joking that she was building a nest and when Samuel heard us he said, "a rats nest?". So now we call it her rats nest. It's so hard to put her to nap or bed because she knows if something is missing and we spend the next several minutes looking for the missing object. She wants her 3 binkies, 6 blankets, 2 sippy cups of water, 1 pink pillow, various toys (but must have her puppy and Minnie Mouse) and books. I'm not sure how she can sleep with all that junk, but she won't go to sleep without it!

At one point during the week she even put the monkey in the high chair in the crib. It's hard to see from the picture, but she put her pink binkie on the tray by the monkies mouth so he can have a binkie. I did manage to remove the high chair without too much screaming. That's where I drew the line!

So I have about decided that Isaac is just not going to crawl, at least in the traditional style. He has been getting up on his knees for weeks, but prefers to drag himself around commando style. He actually can go pretty fast on the concrete floors. He looks like a little snake slithering along. His favorite spot is under the table, before I sweep, where he can pick up bits of discarded food from the other kids.

We had a fun Saturday evening at the park. I LOVE it when it's the end of January and we can go play with the kids outside! That's why we live here!

Samuel was able to climb the rock wall all by himself and slide down the pole with a little help. This was a big accomplishment for him because he is our cautious child, while Bella is the reckless one as you can see from the picture of her on the slide. She looks like she's going to go over the edge.

Samuel slid down the slide with Isaac. Isaac wasn't sure he liked the ride!