RIP Ken

Maybe it's time to stop documenting their behavior.

Fall 2011

First day to school was pretty good this year. The kids were all excited and they each got the teacher they wanted. Another bonus was that they each have a good friend in their classes. Our friend down the street has been hosting an annual pancake breakfast on the first day of school. It is a fun way to start the school year!

This is Justin's before and after pictures. He got braces just a few days before school started. We affectionately call him brace face and railroad. :)

Tough Love

Emma's room has been a mess for the last year. Or as my mom would say "it looks like someone bombed it!" I have repeatedly threatened her, then about once a month when I can't take it any longer I clean it and throw a few things away. This is supposed to be her incentive to clean her own room. Well, this summer has been worse than ever. I told her she couldn't have a play date with her friend, Jenna, until it was clean. Still didn't work. I threatened that I would clean it. I made her stay in her room until it was clean, only to have her stay in her room the whole day.

Today was my breaking point. She was stuck in her room until it was clean again, but this time she took Kitty from my room and put Kitty on her bed. Kitty, either really had to go potty or more likely was pissed at Emma, decided to pee on Emma's bed. Have you smelt cat urine before? I went in her room and said "Whoa, Kitty peed on your bed!" Emma said she had figured that out already. I took her mattress out, poured bleach, vinegar, and some other cleaner on it, sprayed it off, and it is drying. It smells much better; we will see how well it dries.

Then I headed to Emma's room with two trash bags. I said her actions tell me that she wants me to be the one to clean it. I threw away a ton of stuff, then set out all of her toys. She had to pick her favorite thirty toys. Everything else was getting packed up. That seems like a lot, but it was really hard. She tearfully handed over dozens of toys and donated a couple to Mia. Her toy drawers and box are nearly empty. I almost gave in and let her choose a few more, but I was strong. I kept thinking that she needed to learn a lesson- it needed to be tough- for both of us.

Keeping it Real

"Sometimes you are the best mom in the world! Sometimes." - Justin

Updates

Justin graduated from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. Doesn't he look excited?













That's better.













Here is an update on the remodel. It is slow moving. By the time we are done we will basically have a new house since pretty much everything is being replaced. I am very excited about my new shower. It is huge!

















Here is the old bath/ new closet. No more holes in the floor! Yippee!

BFF

Emma let Mia borrow her shoes.
Mia: Thank you, Emma. You are my best friend!
Emma: Okay, you can leave now. And shut the door behind you.
Mia: Okay, and after church I will let you play with me.

Math is Cool

Grandpa wanted the kids to go to a math center. It was really cool. The kids were not excited about doing math during the summer, but they had a blast. When we left they asked why I hadn't told them it was about science too. Science can be fun!

Emma was trying as hard as she could not to smile, but she couldn't help it for long.

We've Been Busy

We have a sewer leak under our house. At first Justin started complaining that his room was stinky. I went in his room and said "Tyler's (my little brother) room always smelt like this. It is a normal boy room smell." Justin and Charlie looked at me like I was crazy, but Tyler's room really did smell the same way. His feet are just wrong. Then a while later he started to get little sewer flies. Well, Tyler never had flies. We called the plumber.














They couldn't find the exact spot of the crack, but thought they knew about where it was. We would have to tear out our bathroom, so we decided to make the layout more functional. Here is the before. (Yes, it's fugly and original to the house. It was next on our remodel list anyway.)













The kids were excited to see us start a new project. Charlie and I started breaking through the concrete and digging down to the sewer line. The more we dug the more leaking we found. Then he had a business trip and left for a few days. I kept digging so the plumber could start fixing. We dug up our bathroom, the closet, the hallway, and finally the kitchen. Then they found more leaks under Justin's room, so now we are digging out and through the front yard. When Charlie was gone, I had been swinging a sledge hammer and shovel for hours. I sat down and cried. This was more than I had bargained for when I committed to do some of the work myself. After some much needed sleep and food it didn't seem so bad. Then I fell in one of the holes I had dug. I was trying to clean some walls and forgot about the gaping hole in my kitchen floor. I scraped up my leg and fell on my back. My kids ran to me and Justin yelled in a panicked voice "call 911!" That almost made me smile.. almost. Let's just say it has been a tough week.

Kiddos

Sometimes I call Mia "Fred". She calls my name and I answer "Yes, Fred?" We were at a store a couple weeks ago and this happened. She looked at me, then said what she wanted to say. Later, when we got home she calmly said "Mom, you know how sometimes you call me Fred? Well, it is okay when you do it at home, but when we are at a store and other people are there it embarrasses me." I am amazed at how well she can express herself sometimes.

I was driving my kids, Ashley, and her kids in my car. Emma asked for me to play Adele's song Rolling in the Deep. I said Dad had the cd, but we could check the radio because it is played pretty often. A few minutes later it came on and all of my kids started to sing along. Then Emma told Ashley that her voice is so good, it just blends in with the music and you can't even tell which voice is Emma's and which is Adele's. This is hilarious if you have ever heard Emma sing. If you have heard me sing, it is pretty close- except she puts her whole heart into it.

I walked into Emma's room and found this... I don't think this is how you clean your room, and it's creepy.

Birthday Babies

July had two special birthdays in our family. Mia came first, then Justin. Mia kept asking in her prayers for a "perfect birthday." That put some pressure on us, but she was happy in the end. She had a special girls' pampering day with her BFFs from school, Emma, and me. We had pedicures and went out for lunch. Then our family went to the movies for Cars 2. We had the grandparents over for dessert and presents. She was pretty satisfied with her birthday.

Two weeks later Justin had his birthday. We took the family to Wild Rivers. I might have had almost as much fun as the kids. I was nervous for a bit because I sent Charlie down the first slide, followed by the kids, then me. As I was going down I was tossed all over the place. I was thinking what did I do. I imagined Mia all beat up at the bottom of the slide, but when I popped out of the bottom Mia raced up to me almost screaming with excitement and asking what was next.