Guess who Ian is dressed up as?

Some sort of trooper guy from Star Wars the Clone Wars. Note the lego gun. Aren't little boys so funny. If they don't have access to toy guns, no problem, they will make their own out of whatever they can find.

I just showed this to Karl, and, as a Star Wars fan he was saddened by Ian's little costume. He told me he will be buying him a real Clone Trooper helmet asap. (See now that he is home, he was able to correct me that the proper name is not trooper guy, it is clone trooper.)


**Look at those crayon marks still on my wall. I need to do something about that.

Sick day: Take two

Remember Annika's 'sick' day Wednesday? Well this morning she woke up and said she didn't feel well. I thought to myself, 'I am not falling for that again'. So I sent her off to school with instructions to tell her teacher if she started feeling worse. Well guess who called me at noon? The school nurse...Annika had a fever and needed to be picked up right away. Barry ran and fetched her for me. I set her up on the couch with a blanket and pillow. She was sick for approximately 30 minutes. She has been fine ever since. She practiced dribbling with Ian's basketball, once again turned the living room into a skating rink, played computer, colored...she was a busy girl. It was a little funny during that small window of sickness when I asked her if she would like a drink. She told me "No, I tried one of those at school and it didn't work." Huh?????

Papa, this post is for you...

Ian got in trouble for not being very nice to Elizabeth. He was not having a very good day. When I corrected him and told him he needed to treat her kindly he said to me (a little wearily) "Mama, I just only like Papa."

Zabe gets a pick me up...

Nothing much new going on here so I am just posting random pictures.

The second one is Elizabeth in her 'pick me up' pose. Never mind the swinging camera strap. She loves to be held which we are happy about. Since she is the baby of the family we feel it is her duty to allow us to hug and kiss on her constantly. She is usually happy to oblige. Every once in a while she gets her fill of five people pestering her and gives us a "Top it!" but she is pretty good with it overall.

The first is my little brother Malcolm with Elizabeth whom he refers to as "Zabe the babe." He felt that some of the 'Elizabeth' nicknames such as Beth or Lizzie were a little too common, so he picked a nickname right out of the middle of her name- EliZABEth. Unique, no?


I have lots of pictures I would like to post on here, but they have other people in them. People that I am not sure want their picture displayed? (I am pretty sure there are all kinds of grammatical errors with that sentence.)

Annika ruined her perfect attendance for this?

Does this child look sick to you? She claimed she was feeling much too ill for school and I believed her. We have had a little bit of sickness going around so I thought she was catching what everyone else has had. It turns out that although she was feeling too poorly to sit at her desk at school, she was able to muster up the strength to do the following while home 'ill':

Play volleyball
Skate around the house in her Heelys
Play basketball
Play hide and seek.

Alexandria was home sick as well but she had the good sense to at least act puny all day.

Still waiting for Stacy and Clinton from 'What Not to Wear'

Do girls not go through an awkward phase anymore? I thought everyone was supposed to have at least a little period of dorkiness at some point in their lives. But the kids I see today have their act together. They all look so good. I was just thinking about my cousins and nieces and they have gone straight from cute kids to beautiful teenagers with no awkward pause in between. Seriously they are all gorgeous. Their hair has always looked good; their clothes always cute. (Well other than that one incident involving a purple plastic pants and jacket set but I am not naming any names, nor will I post pictures although I could...)

My awkward phase has lasted from 1987 to the present. I still don't know how to fix my hair or what clothes to wear without someone holding my hand (Lucy that would be you.) The absolute worst was my perm phase; my hair was all crispy and ratted so it stood up nice and tall. Oh the fun we could have if only my scanner was hooked up. IT Support needs to get on that right away- if you see him be sure to tell him.

What happens when Alexandria gets ahold of the camera

We're baaaaaack

Well we are back from our quick little jaunt to St. Louis. We had so much fun; I love spending time with all my aunts, uncles and cousins. The kids had a blast too. They have been busy since we got back playing with all their new toys and crafts. I got the Best. Presents. Ever. My aunt Pam gave me a hardbound book of beautiful pictures of the kids. Seriously professional looking pictures. They are gorgeous and totally show the kids' personalities. I love it. I will be showing it off to all of you just so you know. I also got a beautiful A-Z scrapbook about my Grandma from my Aunt Nancy. I got other nice things too but these were so great.

The kids were unbelievably well behaved in the car. I hardly heard a peep out of any of them. I must say though, that may have had to do with the fact that we had to medicate poor Ian. The boy gets so sick in the car it is awful. So we have to choose between him being a little sleepy, or being miserable and throwing up. I know I personally would rather be sleepy than carsick. On a trip we took to Joplin with my mom, he literally cried the entire way home he felt so bad. I bet my mom couldn't wait to get us out of her car!

Anyway, we are home and settled back in. I picked up the dog this morning from the boarders and he walked in the house and promptly pooed on the carpet. So yeah, we are back to our normal routine.

Rock tar wants to take the show on the road

The little rock tar now has his own makeshift drum set. Alexandria hooked him up with an overturned bucket and a pair of rhythm sticks. He has been drumming to his heart's content.

The rock tar informed me that he needed to take his drum (he called it his 'instrument') with him on our trip to St. Louis tomorrow so he "could make muscit in the car." I am thinking 4 1/2 hours in the car with the little drummer boy may drive me over the edge. So yeah, the drum will be staying at home.

Ian, less than thrilled

Look how irritated Ian is about getting his picture taken. He is only slightly better about it than Elizabeth. He will semi-tolerate photo sessions but only if he is being bribed. (He also really needs a haircut.)

He's a (little) Rock Tar

Ian took the sides off Alexandria's little memo board so he had two little sticks he was carrying around. I told him he needed to give them back. He told me "No Mommy, I need them. I have to have them to drum with so I can be a little rock tar(star)"

He and his friend Brodie informed me that they were playing 'rock band' today. Ian of course was on drums, Brodie was the lead singer. Ian said they were going to their constert(concert)because that's what little rock tars do. Whatever happened to playing cars and Cowboys and Indians?

The one with the pen pal letters

Alexandria and Annika each have a pen pal. They wrote their first letters tonight. They gave me permission to share. Here is Annika's:

Dear eve,
My name is Annika. I have a Dog. His name is Max. my school is called ****** elementre school. I'm creeativ. Y'll like me.

Sendserle,
Annika

Alexandria's included the following family description:

"I have a brother, Ian aka Dude. Dude gets in troubel!... Oh I forgot 3 people. 1st, Mom -31 years old very intteligent. Dad -31 years old worcks with computers and my dog Max is 8 months old he is a mess!"

Ok, where did she come up with the description of intelligent for me of all people? She asks me approximately 1,423,298 questions in any given week and I can generally answer 2 or 3 correctly. The rest I give a vague 'hmmm, that's a good question' or 'you should ask your dad'. Oh well, I'll enjoy it while it lasts. I've probably got a few years left of her thinking I know anything about anything.

The baby gets mouthy

I have been avoiding blogging about this because it is a little embarrassing. My sweet 19 month old won't quit saying 'shut up.' She says it all the time. She says it mostly to Max the dog(Shut up Maaaaaa!.) The other day we were taking a walk in our neighborhood and she shouted it from her stroller to the neighbors' dogs who were barking. It is forbidden to say shut up in our house so the older kids are shocked. Well, at least they were the first few times she said it. I am trying to ignore it but so far it is not doing any good. The other day Max sneezed and Elizabeth without missing a beat shouted "Shut up Maaaa!" from the other room. Poor puppy.

So if anyone has any words of wisdom for how to make it stop please share.

The mean police officer

Ian is 'pending' the night with Grandma Goody and Barry. They have fun dress-up clothes there. Grandma just emailed me this picture. She said she called Ian a cop, he told her he was not a cop he was a mean police officer. He does look pretty mean.

How is that?

I've told you has sassy and bossy Elizabeth has been lately. I have been trying to get her to be a little less so. My attempts are not going over very well. Today she told me "Go away!" I simply said "Elizabeth let's talk nicely please." She was devestated. There was a moment of stunned silence. Then she burst into tears. They were real tears too. She was carrying on like I had broken her heart. She had to go to her daddy to be consoled.

Now explain this to me, she can tell me to go away and it is fine. I tell her to talk nicely and I am the bad guy? What kind of sense does that make? Oh wait, we are dealing with a 19 month old, it is not supposed to make sense.

I am addicted

to One True Media. It is where I made our 2008 slideshow. Now I can't quit making slideshows that make me feel sad about how quickly the kids are growing up. I think there might be something wrong with me :) So I was making one for Ian's upcoming birthday and I found one of my very favorite pictures:



How cute are Ian and his Papa?

Ian's new favorite books-

Curious George. I think he can relate to George. We have been reading them every day. Ian is so funny. He gets all serious and big-eyed when we are reading about George's naughtiness. Every once in a while he'll say "George is baaaaaad, isn't he Mommy?" or "George is too curious, right? He is going to get into trouble." He got real quiet when we were reading the one about George getting put in jail for calling the fire department. I think it made him nervous.

Homework vent part II

You know that spelling test Alexandria was up until 10pm studying for? She ended up getting a zero because she forgot to write her name on it. I guess that is one way to learn?

Homework vent

I am not pleased. Alexandria has spent five hours tonight (minus a few short breaks) working on homework. Her homework packet was assigned Monday. She worked on it quite a bit on Tuesday night. Wednesday she couldn't because the teacher gave the class yet another homework assignment that was due the next day so she was busy with that. She finally finished the packet tonight at 9:15. She now has to work on her spelling words for her test tomorrow. She is crying because she is tired and didn't get to play tonight. She is NINE! I understand that homework is neccessary but it just seems a little excessive for a third grader. Next week I am going to try to divide up the packet so she is doing an even amount of work every night throughout the week (we probably shouldn't have taken Monday off this week.)And we will quiz spelling words every night. But if it still comes to her spending hours doing homework every night I think I will be talking to her teacher.

No pictures, please

I just wanted to show you why I don't have more pictures of Elizabeth. I put a cute headband on her and got the camera. As soon as she saw the camera she ripped her headband off and threw herself to the floor, in true drama queen style. She best be getting over this aversion to the camera. That is not acceptable in this house. Pictures are a must!

Child labor

The kids think scraping wallpaper is super fun! They were fighting over who would be allowed to do it. Once this room is done, we only have four more to do, plus the hallway. We are averaging one room per year, so our house should be done by 2014.

Ready for spring

It is currently 8 degrees outside. I cannot bear it. One thing that cheers me up: it is time for Annika's soccer registration! That means spring is coming right? Right? Okay maybe not, but it makes me feel better.

I am toying with the idea of signing her up for softball too (don't tell Karl.) It starts right after soccer ends so they wouldn't overlap. I noticed she is pretty good at batting when we were playing in the yard one day so I think she would like it.

One problem with softball: I foresee meltdowns if she should happen to get a strike. She may burst into tears right there at the plate. Annika loves sports but gets frustrated pretty easily if she doesn't perform up to her own standards. For example she started crying on the tennis courts because she hit the ball into the net. And this was just the two of us volleying, no pressure or anything. She also got a little angry at soccer last year because the other team had the nerve to score goals. So she is a little competitive. I have no idea where she gets this trait from...

Papa the ring bear?

Erin is getting married! The kids and I get to be in the wedding. I think Ian should be a pro at the whole ring bearer thing since he just did it last month. Today I was talking with him about how he gets to do it again.

He told me he does not want to be a 'ring bear'. He would rather be just a bear. I asked for clarification and he said, "You know, a growly bear, not a ring bear!" He suggested that if Erin would prefer a ring bear over a growly bear, maybe PaPa could do it. I told him PaPa is too big to be a ring bearer. Or a ring bear, either one. Ian said, "No he's not too big. We can just get him a big suit to wear. One that fits him."

So what do you think Erin? Would you rather have a growly bear in your wedding or Papa as your ring bear? I think either choice would be good. They are both equally funny options.

Wait.. what?

I just overheard a conversation between Ian and his friend Brodie:

Brodie: Where did you get that toy?

Ian: Oh, it's from Uncle Ben.

Brodie: Who is Uncle Ben?

Ian: Ummm...He's my cousin.

Tuggling with Ian

Ian came into my room early this morning because his "eyes were bleeding." No, they weren't but I did let him get in my bed with me. He is a very good tuggler. (Snuggler, he can't say 'sn'.) We enjoyed a few more hours of sleep and it was very nice.


{He uses the "eye bleeding" thing to describe when he has a fever, when the light is too bright, or when he has any other sort of eye problem. Kind of creepy, eh?}

That's Baby Whiz to you!

Sometimes when I say Elizabeth's name, Ian says "No Mommy, you can just call her Whiz (Liz.)"

Or if he is feeling more formal he calls her "Wibbith Acare" (Elizabeth Claire.)

Let the guilt begin

School starts for me on Monday. That means one of two things in Blogville. Either:

1. I will be writing less because I will be busy with schoolwork.

or

2. I will be writing just as much, if not more, as a means of procrastinating my schoolwork.

I think #2 is a much more likely scenario.

I will also not get to enjoy watching tv and reading. Don't get me wrong, I will still do these things, I will just feel guilt while I am doing them which makes them less fun. That little voice in my head that says "Shouldn't you be studying or working on your paper instead?" is very loud and annoying.

Warning: Long and whiny post

Oh my goodness. The Indiana Jones toothbrush is missing again. How do these things happen? You brush your teeth in the bathroom, shouldn't reason follow that the toothbrush stays in the bathroom? Apparently not.

People, we have issues here. I can't even begin to describe. These little people are wearing me out with their demands and drama. We are also having a major disagreement. They would apparently like the house to be knee-deep in toys, clothes, games, craft projects and the like. I would enjoy being able to find things when I need them and also to walk through a room without tripping would be lovely. Guess who is winning? The four of them can make messes faster than I can clean. Add to this a dog who after four months is not one bit closer to being potty trained then the day we got him and I am just about ready to go insane.



Just to give you an idea, here was my day yesterday:

I vacuumed the living room and organized toys, separating Elizabeth's from the older kids'. While I was doing this I spot Ian out of the corner of my eye carrying a toy teapot filled with water, sloshing it all over the hardwood floor. I confiscate the teapot and wipe up the mess. While I am doing this, Elizabeth is standing on the toilet, with the water running, brushing her teeth with Annika's toothbrush. I rescue her and clean up that mess. I call Ian downstairs for lunch and see that his face is covered in blue goo. Toothpaste. I go upstairs and discover that he has apparently eaten half the tube and spread the other half all over the bathroom and his room. I clean him up and put him in time out, after which I send him upstairs to with a rag to clean up the mess. We eat lunch, while I clear the dishes Ian and Elizabeth are playing. I notice it is too quiet in the other room so I opt not to sweep up the mess they made on the floor from lunch or do the dishes.I go into the living room and discover they have dumped out the tubs of toys I had just organized. I instruct them to pick everything back up, too tired at this point to fool with making sure everything gets put back in its proper place. Also, I notice that there are little tiny confetti-sized bits of construction paper all over the floor that i just vacuumed. I vacuum again. I should also add that during this time, the child I babysat had two accidents in his pants, one a very messy one. Meanwhile the dog was his normal crazy self, jumping all over everyone and nipping at their heels. All of this took place before 1:00. We still had hours and hours left of messes to go. How do you clean under these circumstances? I am literally cleaning in one area while another is being destroyed.


I don't even know what I need. Super Nanny? A professional organizer/house cleaner? The Dog Whisperer? I am not sure, but some sort of professional help is definitely in order.

Here is what I do know: Ian needs to be kept occupied at all times. We do puzzles, playdough, crafts, read books and work on writing but it is not enough. He needs to be constantly kept busy. Here is what I don't know: how to do that while tending to the other children, fixing meals and keeping some sort of order to the house.

Oh Snap!

Or as Ian would say "Oh tap!"

Ian just disinvited Karl from their day of bonding at Coco Key.

Lately we have been letting the kids choose for their birthdays if they would rather have a party or just do something special with Mommy or Daddy. For Alexandria's birthday she went to World's of Fun with Karl. Well Ian decided that he wanted to go to Coco Key (an indoor waterpark for those of you not familiar) for his birthday and that Karl should be the one to take him. Not anymore!

One thing you should know about Ian, he is very particular. For instance, at bedtime he must have a story, brush his teeth, and then have a drink of water. In that order. Last night he was inconsolable because he couldn't find his Indiana Jones toothbrush and refused to use another one and also refused to go to bed until his teeth had been brushed with the proper toothbrush. How do you lose a toothbrush by the way? But that is another story.

Anyway, the kids and I were out late because they had Christmas money to spend. By the time we got home and they briefly played with the toys they had purchased, it was already 9:30. So I hustled them off to bed skipping the usual story. I forgot all about it and amazingly Ian did too. But lo and behold about 10:00 he comes back downstairs begging for a book. Daddy was not amused by him being up that late and told him there would be no book because it was way past his bedtime. (I will spare you the whole ugly scene that resulted from this.) Suffice to say, Ian eventually went back up to his room (albeit angrily.) About 11 I went upstairs to check on everyone. Ian was (still!) awake. He pointed to me and said "I want you to take me to Coco Key." I didn't make the connection between the sudden invitation and his indignance (spell check says this isn't a word,sorry I am using it anyway) over the book incident. But then Ian said, sounding miffed, "Daddy wouldn't read me my story," turned around and headed back to his room without another word.

Edited to add: I don't want you to feel too sorry for Ian. He doesn't only get to hear books at bedtime. We read throughout the day, so it wasn't like he missed his one and only opportunity. :) That is all.

Bossy Baby

Lately our sweet, quiet Elizabeth has become quite vocal with a brand new set of demands for us all. Her vocabulary has become peppered with the following phrases:

"Stop it!"
"NO!"
"Don't!"
"Get off!" (accompanied by a shove)

and my favorite:

"Get out of mine!" ('mine' means whatever it is that she wants at the moment that someone else is occupying- a chair, a ride-on toy, Mommy's lap)

It is a little funny to hear such bossiness coming out of such a tiny body. I sometimes want to laugh but I know it will get worse if I do. It will not be so funny if she is still doing it in a few years. When I feel like I am going to start laughing, the thought of a 14 year old Elizabeth charging at me and shoving me out of my chair yelling "GET OFF!" sobers me right up.

Arms hurt, legs hurt, shoulders hurt, back hurts

Today is my second day of doing my new exercise DVD (Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred.) Oh. My. Goodness. Words cannot describe the pain. It turns out I am a little out of shape. I spend the entire workout feeling like I am going to throw up or pass out. Either or. All the while Jillian is saying stuff like "Come on! Winners don't quit at the finish line!" as her size 0 self prances around.

I would like it better if she said stuff like "Can you believe I am making you do this? Isn't this boring and sweaty? Don't you wish we could quit?"
Now that I could relate to.

Just go to bed already!

Dear kids,
I love you all lots and enjoy our time together, but after 8pm I do not wish to see you (or hear you screaming from upstairs) unless you are sick, bleeding or something is on fire.
Thanks,
Mommy

Year in pictures

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Warning-Picture Overload!

Wasting time

I need to talk about the internet. Has a bigger time-waster ever been invented? (The tv runs a close second.)

I had no kids home last night (thank you Papa and Nana.) Karl and I went on a date but when we got home what did I do? I did not do laundry, clean, scrape wallpaper or do anything else worthwhile.

Instead I spent 20 minutes on the computer trying to find out the name of the breed of dog that looks like it is wearing a wig (It is an afghan hound in case you are wondering.) Then while I was doing that I got distracted by pictures of old english sheepdogs. I decided if we ever move to a bigger house with a bigger yard this is what kind of dog I need. So then I had to look up breed info, to see if they are good with kids, life expectancy, etc. Then I looked up miniature schnauzers to see if Max is acting appropriately (he is not.) Then I had to look up pictures of miniature schnauzers to make sure we got the cutest one. Before I knew it, it was 11pm and I had not accomplished one thing of importance.

Good times...

Chandra and the kids were in town! We had fun with them. We went shopping, saw almost all of the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and went to Malcolm's birthday party. Then we went to see our niece Ella at the hospital. She is so cute and it sounds like she will be able to come home soon. (She was born at 29 weeks, I think.)

Last night Cha-Ba and the kids and I played a rousing game of Nerts. You can never just play Nerts, you can only play a rousing game. Unfortunately, Chandra inherited Mom's mad Nerts skills so I lost nearly every hand. But it was fun nonetheless. Let's see, what else...our niece Bethany came over to play she ate gummy worms, some kind of chocolate krispy thing, hershey's kisses and who knows what else (sorry Ethan and Tricia.) We did give her a banana so I felt that kind of evened things out. Ian read her a Dora book which was pretty funny to watch.

Angry baby alert!!!

Poor Elizabeth. She reached her limit before the wedding even started. Then she saw her daddy at the ceremony, but he was in the wedding so she couldn't have him. This. Was. Not. Acceptable. No afternoon nap+ no daddy+ not being able to shout and run up and down the aisles during the ceremony = cranky baby. I had to hustle her out of the sanctuary real quick like. We could hear and see everything from the lobby though, so it was okay. I am hopeful that no one could hear her as she continued to cry even after I removed her from the situation. She was in a mood!

But look, she and baby have on matching dresses. How precious is that?

She was pretty much equally displeased during the reception. I was happy Karl's sister Natalie sat at the kiddie table with me, I enjoyed talking with her. She even got Elizabeth to sleep. She is the best! We would love to follow her right on down to San Antonio.

Wedding

Here are the cute pictures of the kids pre-wedding. Karl's brother Ben got married and Ian was a ring bearer and Alexandria and Annika were flower girls. See how pretty the older two girls' dresses are? Can you believe Grandma Sharon made those? Yes, she did. I think they turned out beautifully. Why Ian would not cooperate for photo ops is beyond me. I think he tries to look as goofy as possible.

Our nephew (the other ring bearer) and nieces looked super cute too but I didn't know if their parents wanted their pictures on the interwebz so I won't show you. Just trust me, they were adorable. The bride was beautiful, Ben looked handsome and the ceremony seemed lovely from the lobby where Elizabeth and I watched it. More on that later.

Thanks Ian

I have lots I need to post, including some super cute pictures of the kids in their wedding attire, but I am too lazy right now. So I will leave you with my latest conversation with Ian:

Ian: Mommy you don't look very good. I hope you aren't getting sick.

Me: No, I feel fine.

Ian (still eyeing me): Hmmm...I just really hope you aren't getting sick.

Thanks kid. That is just how good I am looking right now that even my three year old is expressing concern. Chandra and I would like to appear on a sister version of "What not to wear," and I am thinking it should happen sooner rather than later. (For my sake, not hers. She looks cute, not sickly like I apparently do.)