Family Fun Friday

We have been dying to go camping and we had it all planned out for Friday night. That was until the rain set in and didn't stop. So, instead of being muddy and wet and miserable at a campsite, we decided to stay home and camp out in the backyard. 

Hot dogs, Marshmallows and S'mores (my favorite part of camping), then it was movie in the tent before bed, Smurfs. 

Well all was going great. They had their lanterns, their glow sticks, their sleeping bags, candy, popcorn, and it was all a go. THEN the rain continued on. It got harder and harder... the sides of the tent were getting moist, and  then wet. We decided to move inside so there would be some sort of sleep that night! They finished up inside and loved camping! I loved camping too. I slept in my own bed!  It was one of the finnest family fun Friday nights we have had!! 

SOOOO, then this weekend got even more exciting! I took a huge step in my life as a US citizen. I have been living in the USA for 10 years now and this is the first time I have ever voted. We voted for the mayor and for our City Councilman and I am proud to say "I VOTED!" It was kinda fun! I cant wait for the presidential election and vote!!  

Wonderful Women

It is that wonderful time of year again to celebrate the women in my life.

I am a mother, and I try every day to be the best mother that I can be. It is the hardest thing I have EVER done. I know there are time consuming jobs and really hard jobs out there, but this is the hardest, I just know it. It is 24 hours a day 7 days a week. You don't ever get a break. You should really make vows for being a parent... through sickness and health, good times and bad, tantrums and happiness, through sticky hands and soaking wet bathtub splashes. I promise to be your mother. ...

So here is a glimpse:

You wake up to little voices and taps on your forehead "mom! mom!" And immediately its  can I watch a show, what are we doing today, or I want breakfast. I am always tired, but I always have to get up, especially when you hear the baby awake or crying in her crib. Then its on to breakfast, where everyone wants something different, cooked differently. There are complaints about everything, then crumbs all over the floor and grease or peanut butter smeared into the chairs. Then there is yogurt dumped on hair, and entire plates or cups being spilt onto the floor.

Moving on, there are arguments about whose is whose toys, and I'm sitting there, and I want this show, or that book etc. etc etc.
Oh lets get dressed! Lets first call you 6 times before you come, then lets argue over what you will wear (or wont wear). Moving into the bathroom for teeth brushing and hair brushing. This is obviously the most painful thing they have ever done and there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. there are tantrums over 1 or 2 ponytails, the gel hurts, the water is hot, the water is cold, you are touching me..  and so on.
SO now we are 45 minutes into the morning. There have been timeouts given, warnings, and sending to the room, and many tears shed.

The day continues on driving here and there. Unloading and loading kids, yelling to get out of the middle of the street when cars are coming, where are your shoes? Why is Courtney crying? please stop yelling. what feels like hours and hours of the wheels on the bus and the eensy weensy spider over and over and over. There will be lots of trips to the bathroom with many reminders to flush and wash hands. More time outs, more messy meals, more waisted food, fighting over who gets to go first into any particular room at any given time. Lots of whinning over Im hungry, Im thirsty, she called me a rat, I want this and I want that.

Bedtime comes far too late and there are again the same power struggles over baths, jammies, teeth brushing, stories, prayers, songs, and lastly lights out. Then there are the night time things you get to deal with. Waking all kids up to pee so they dont pee their beds. Getting woken up 30 minutes after you finally fell asleep to "MOM, I peed the bed." "Mom, Im scared" "MOm, tickle my back and lay with me." Well guess what IM EXHAUSTED. At this point, I have done too much laundry, wiped too many bums, wiped too many tears, broken up too many fights, given too many timeouts, done too many dishes, washed too many anythings, and I am done. GO TO BED. GO BACK TO BED. STAY IN BED! I need to sleep.

Well lucky for me, this wont happen for a long time, and I will cherish each and every moment of every day. You may not believe me if you see me having a mental breakdown in the middle of Target, or screaming in the car, or walk by my house and hear loud noises coming from it... but I love my life. I have the best job in the entire world. I have the most beautiful children who are smart, and funny, and loving, and crazy and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the entire world.
Heavenly Father has given them to me for this life and I will take care of them and do all that I can to make sure they know they are loved and that they learn all they can. With all this bad comes so much good.
Lots of hugs, Lots of kisses, Lots of snuggles, Lots of laughs, and walks, and talks, and tickles, Lots of crafts, and lots of questions, Good tears, hearing first words, teaching a new skill that they actually get, watching them be proud of themselves, and Lots to keep me busy with, and Lots to learn from these awesome wonderful spirits.

I still am amazed at the other women and Mothers around me who do what they do and can be the fabulous mothers that they are. They inspire me to be better, and more patient, long suffering, serve my kids more, and be a good mom. I want to thank every mother who has ever had a part in my life and made me a better mom. I owe you big time!

I have amazing Sister and sister in laws, friends, aunts, grandmothers, and of course a mother in law and mother who have helped to shape me. My Mother in law is amazing. She is kind, gentle, understanding, soft spoken, sweet, has a voice like an angel, raised 4 incredible boys, and is wonderful.

And the most important person of this post... My mother!
She is the kindest person I know, she is funny, and always giving, always there for a hug or to listen, You can count on her for a joke, a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold, she is kind, soft hearted, empathetic,  and super silly, motivating, charitable, a peacemaker, and one of the greatest spirits I have ever known. I am sure that I am the luckiest girl and daughter in the whole entire world. MOM, I love you and thank you for everything you are!

Happy Mothers Day to the women in my life!!

blue and red lights

I am innocent, I have no record, I have nothing to hide, BUT with that being said I hate police lights. I got pulled over tonight and although I know I wasn't speeding and I had nothing wrong, I was still a mess. I was so panicked. Why?! I hate that.  By the way, it was just a tail light out...and no tickets.

Although it feels impossible to get a picture of all of the 3 of the hoodlums together smiling in the same place, I think I came out OK with this. Ill take it. I think they are just so stinkin cute all the time. 

 Our kids might seem little, but I feel it is important to teach them about saving money and spending, and of course tithing. So a while back, they saw some kites at Costco that they wanted so bad. They were 13 dollars each. I told them they could save up for them if they wanted to buy them. They immediately started to save every penny for the kites. I, of course, bought them, and stowed them away for when they had it saved. Well in counting up their money this weekend, We discovered that they did have enough for their kites, and they cashed in. We took them out for a spin.
LESSONS learned:
1. These kites are really cool, and really pretty when they are flying.
2. Don't buy your kids kites. They wont hold them, you will end up flying them.
3. Don't buy your kids kites who have a short temper and get frustrated when you try to teach.

 We have still been battling with Natalie and her temper tantrums. She has been taking some time in the corner or in a bedroom to take a break. She also has been so exhausted that she has been falling asleep in random places. Like this. The blanket was the line of which she had to stay for a small "timeout". When I looked over 5 minutes later, she was passed out. How can you stay mad at a kid who falls asleep and is so peaceful? You cant.

So I am trying hard to overcome these battles. Today it was battles over new running shoes, and church shoes. We dont agree on anything, nothing fits, blah blah blah. Then it was back to the helmets for a new bike helmet for Boots. When he happened upon one with a bell, Natalie was instantly furious that hers was just normal. "Its just so normal"! She did not approve. Ug, I felt like most of the day was spent in tears over this or that. I can deal with one, but when 2 of them are crying and whining and then the 3rd pipes in screaming (just out of attention) that is when it really gets to me.
BREATHE JENI, JUST BREATHE.  They are sleeping now and I have a new day tomorrow. I have to tell myself that every day!

Everything Bacon

We had such a fun date night this weekend. Our friends Aidan and Jeremy babysat for us while we went to the parenting conference a few weeks ago, so we wanted to go out and double for payback. We headed out and the boys decided to go out to Denton. I dont like Denton, I feel like it is gross. SAYING THAT, I will say that it was so fun to go there and I will go there a lot more now. I think I just have driven the main strip of college town area and that is yucky. But we went out to Dinner at this fabulous place called Roosters. Holy Smokes. It was so good. It was BBQ-ish, and we only ordered 4 different appetizers, but it was delish. 

Then we headed to the Local Candy store. It was the coolest candy store with all you could think of, bulk stuff, old fashioned stuff, Canadian stuff, special drinks... which we all shared a BACON soda. Barf. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever had. Like liquid bacon bits in a jar. ewwww. 

Then we headed to the Ice cream shop right there called Beth Marie's. The best part about this to me was that my nickname is Beth. Those of you who know why I am nicknamed that, will think that the ice cream shop named after me is hilarious. 

So we were gonna get the big thing they have there called the KW special. 16 scoops of ice cream, 2 cookies, 8 toppings, 2 brownies, and a banana. We were all in, but Brian flaked out. Lame. But my 2 scoops I did get were awesome. After ice cream, we headed to an old school music store and hung around there till we were kind of hungry again, and we headed to Fuzzies for some to die for Queso. Man, a food fest night. It was my ideal night and so good! 

so peeps in my area, go to Denton, and go to Roosters, Beth Maries, and Fuzzies.

That was Friday, so then Saturday the kids both played their last soccer games of the season, and who knows for how long as we aren't putting them in it again this year. It was sad for me as they have both come so far. Natalie got another goal, great way to end the game. 

Grandma and Papa took us out to Chikfila afterwards where the real live cow mascot was hanging out. The older 2 thought it was radical. Courtney, who doesn't cry at much, bawled and was scratching at me as if to say "MOM! Get this crazy scary looking Cow thing away from me! He is gonna eat me!" I had visions of how Disneyland would go if we went there. haha 

Finally to the pool for some swimming with Friends. We all got a lot of sun, and I do love when it is hot enough for little tanned bodies to come back. I love when I put them in the bath at night see their little tan lines and a white white bum. They are picking up their last years swimming skills super fast again too. 

OHHHH I ALMOST FORGOT... THE BEST NEWS OF ALL. we sold our house! 3 weeks up on the market and we sold. I am soooooo happy! Keeping that house clean all the time with the 3 kids was impossible. And I felt like anything out of place or not swept or wiped would be the reason we lose a sale.
BIG SIGH!

Double up

After spending saturday at soccer and the pool, we got some free tickets to a mavs playoff game. We decided to take the lucky little boots. It was so much fun and boots was awesome. He sat there cheering "go mavs go!" and "d-fence" over and over, and never complained until about 2 minutes to the end about wanting ice cream. He got excited when we would score and learned some new players other than dirk and jet. He decided that Jason Kidd is really awesome. One of my favorite nights out ever. Love ya kiddo!

New littles

Courtney and i took a girls trip out to ontario to visit my sis and her new sweet baby Nina Jayne. Oh she is darling! I just looove holding someone else's baby! Haha
Courtney has loved the baby and always wants to see her and touch her. She has loved her cousins too.
The thing we have done most? Play "just dance" on the wii. We have had a dance party every night and a Few mornings to get ready for school. I sure miss them and can't wait for the day they are close!

It kinda counts

So I have been so busy today. We had another showing and then I had a lot of errands and this and that... Anyway, I meant to go to the gym this morning, so I put on my workout gear. Well about 30 minutes ago I changed out of them (it's almost 1am) and I didn't make it to the gym at all. Soooo I feel like I got a workout, I should have gotten a workout. So really that counts right? I made a half effort. Oh, and I got a salad at chikfila today. Ya, it totally counts.

A 3 hour tour

Brian and I, along with Anna Kathleen and Eric, had the chance to attend a Love and Logic parenting conference this weekend. It was great. I have been looking forward to this ever since I started reading the book “Parenting with Love and Logic” about 2 months ago.  As I have metioned previously, I have been really struggling for parenting methods that don’t make me feel like nothing is working. Timeouts – hate them, they don’t work for me. Yelling, clearly this isn’t a parenting method, but it was my go-to. Then you have the threats, and the ignore, and lastly you have the husband do it method. UG! I was in a rut. Well, I have to say that this book so far has been awesome.

I don’t know if the kids love it, or if it is so great for my kids, but it is helping me to feel like I am a better mom and be more calm and patient.

So we headed off to the parenting conference. It was 3 hours of great tips and advice and methods to use.

We also won the free draw for a parenting package of books on Early Childhood! SWEET! If anyone is interested in my notes or my thoughts in more detail, I will blog about it if I have requests... It was awesome.


So we are still struggling a lot with what to do and how to treat all the situations but we are learning, and we are trying to make good lasting changes for their good and for our good.  

Totally unrelated but adorable note... I cut Natalie some sweet adorable bangs this week too(Courtney's were already done last week) and they look so cute. Her favorite thing about them is that her hair doesn't get in her face at the park, or during soccer, or in the wind. 

On Friday night, we planned to do a family movie night. BUT of course I decided I wasn't going to cook. So I didn't... and we headed to Chuys to eat some Mexican grub and it was so good. Courtney ate so much food! She was fist fulling Salsa into her mouth so much we ended up having to take it away. fist fulls, no joke. Then by the time we got home, it was too late for a movie so The Muppet's had to wait for another night.

Boots has been showing some very sick signs and symptoms in the last few days. He is so funny, because he will complain about something, and then 10 minutes later you think he is fine because he is so busy! Well today was not like this at all. He was out of it and so tired. We got home from the Dr.(with negative results for strep) at 1230 and he went right to bed until 420 when I went in and woke him up. I wanted him to sleep tonight! Poor kid though, 104 fever and just feeling in the pits. I hate that. The only bonus with him is that he is way more chill and snuggly when he is sick like this. 

On Sunday I was asked to do something that was kind of a big deal and  kind of stressful for me. I was asked to speak at a youth fireside for some youth in our stake. I was terrified but it went great and even though I dont know if they got anything from the lesson I taught, I got a lot and loved it! 

AND... the best news of the night... I wont say much as my sister has yet to blog about it and I don't want to steal her thunder BUT... She had her 5th baby early this morning! GO LIBBY GO! Sure cant wait to see you and meet the new addition. You are my hero! I can barely handle 3 kids, and you are an incredible mother to 4 and now 5 kids. 

Its Wild!

temper temper temper.

Natalie's temper has been flyin the last few weeks and days. She is 5 going on 16. Im not kidding. I dont know what to do about it and I am at the end of my rope. She has so much sas and it is wearing me down.

Boots on the other hand is so crazy, it drives me crazy! He is 3 going on six 3 year olds.

Tonight we were reading our scriptures together as a family and we have been working really hard to get the kids to sit still and listen to eachother read. Brian asked them how Kings and Queens sit, and after they explained, he asked them to sit like that. Boots sat still for about 10 seconds before whinning and crying. When asked what was wrong he very aggresively grumpily responded "I dont want to be a queen! I want to be a prince!"

This pic is mid tantrum... There have been quite a few fits coming from his as well. No ice cream, bed time, going potty, leaving the park, eating any food, reading a book... He has been tempering over everything!

I cut some bangs on Courtney and I think they are pretty dang cute! Now that she is over the 18 month mark, she has been starting her own tantrums of her own. She does not like when I fill her sippy with water and then she watches me drink Crystal Light. She throws a fit. She doesn't like to get out of the swings at the park, even when she has been swinging for 30 minutes straight. She does not like to be carried anywhere, she must walk, and she must hold boots or Natalies hand. She is learning from the pro's!

We went to our friends the other night when we were showing our home and needed to get out of the house. They have this little "river" and lake where you can see (and feed french fries) fish and turtles. The kids were all doing this and Court dropped her brand new Croc into the water. Brian had to break into the closed pool and get this scooper. The best is that right after we got Courtney's shoe back and walked away, their little guy did the same thing and we had to get it back out and do it again. It was actually hilarious.

Courtney has had to take a few naps in the car this week since we have been kicked out of our house for the most part. She cracks me up with the way she uses her blanket. She doesn't cuddle it or hug it, she doesn't rub it or snuggle it... She shoves as much of it as she can into her mouth and falls asleep... Can you say choking hazard?!

Around town

Man, it is hard to keep a house perfectly spotless with 3 kids! We haven't really lived at home the last few days, but I cant complain because we have had 3 showings a day since we put it up on the market! Crossing my fingers!

Weve been doing the usual around here though library, gym, school, park, costco, soccer, and it is great. We are happy and healthy without a Dr visit for months! That feels good since sometimes I feel like we are always there! And discovering that the public library is a cool place to be, well that has been up at the top of my list for fun things to do and places to go. The kids all love the library. We get books, DVD's, and music each time and even Court has fun!

Of course when I got back on track to eat well (like ever monday, and tuesday, and wednesday...) There was free ice cream at Ben and Jerry's and we had to go with the kids and cousins. I didn't even eat it. I was proud of myself since Boots got my favorite flavor!

I have to just vent here for a second. I really do try to be healthy and I would love to be at my pre baby weight and goal weight, but it is so stinkin hard. I have been battling the last 5-10 lbs here for months! I go up and down 2-3 lbs each month and I cant seem to kick it. But going right along with that, I love food. I love naughty food. I dont like veggies, and healthy food takes so much preparation that honestly I just dont have time for. But I am trying to be good because I so badly want to just kick the last lets say 7 lbs.

To help me along with this, I have been meeting up with my 2 sis in laws at the gym a few times a week to do Zumba classes. They are so much fun! I am not a class person, and I have no rythm at all, but these classes are so great. We all can shake it and have fun without being scared of anyone judging me! I have also been running on the off days and doing spin classes as well. Those are another great way for me to feel like I am burning a bazillion calories. I walk out of there like someone just dumped a bucket of water on me. I love that!

So monday comes again tomorrow and here I go again! I usually dont like to write this kind of stuff on this blog, I have another secret blog with a few people that is just for eating and exercise success and struggles, but tonight I felt it was ok to share some of my inside struggle cause I am just so fed up with this crap of my spare tire.

1572 miles

1572. Thats how many miles away Nana and Grandad are from us.

We miss them so much and wish we could see them all the time. We also LOVE having them come to visit us. When Brian and I went on our trip to New Orleans, my wonderful mother came down to watch the kids. My favorite was the phone call one night "JENI, they wont go to bed. I dont know what to do." It was serious I could tell, but I also recognised the conversation. It was the exact conversation I have with my mom quit frequently, but I am on that end and this time it was her calling me. I had to laugh. Oh I am so grateful for my mum!
So they came in for conference weekend and we packed everything we could in considering my dad was here for 1.75 days. I am now going back and relistening to all of the sessions that I didn't get to hear with 3 kids crying, shouting, pouting, fighting, laughing, and talking my ear off that day. So far, it is all wonderful!

So We decided to go to breakfast at Breadwinners, yum, and then the Aquarium for the first time. The kids had a lot of fun. Water animals are so interesting! It probably didn't matter where we went though, as long as we had fun with Nana and Grandad (which is anywhere we are together!).

Seriously, greatest mom ever to watch our crazies for us and still love us! And greatest Dad ever to come and spend time here on his few days off his busy life. We sure wish yall would move here!!