Kickin it with Grif (sort of)

We convinced grif to sign up for soccer this year.  Why we did that i'm still not sure.  It has been freezing most of the games.  It was warm on Sat. but they watered the fields so the kids were soaking.  Nate can never come because he is always working so I have tons of fun juggling all four kids by myself.  You would think it was no big deal because we are at the park and the others can just play.  That is so not what happens.  Dax has been stuck on the weird looking climbing thing, that I swear should not be allowed on a playground, more than once.  Do you know how awkward it looks for a thirty something year old woman to be juggling a baby while trying to climb the before mentioned contraption to come to the rescue of a 2 year old?  If my booty would fit between the bars I could go inside the dome thingy and easily get him down that way.  But really the only thing worse than seeing the thirty something woman climbing on toys is trying to squeeze her child bearing hips between bars that are too close together.  Dilon tries to help but Baylor is just so darn heavy that he can't possibly hold him for more than a minute at a time.  Last week Dax decided to take off and run right into the middle of the game.  Why is it ALWAYS my kid?  I am the mom that everyone gets annoyed with because I can't control my own children.  However, I would rather be THAT mom than the parent who is standing on the sideline screaming at their kid to kick the ball harder or run faster or stop watching the butterflies.  They are 6 for crying out loud.  Get over it.  Which by the way, nate is totally that parent so it's not entirely bad he has to work during the games.  What is great is watching grif.  He doesn't even kind of care about playing.  The ball will literally roll in front of his feet and he will just stare at it until someone else kicks it.  He spends most of the game playing with his gum or shooting his finger guns.  To me it is entertainment at its finest. 

I think he may actually be thinking about kicking it

 

 I'm pretty sure he is watching a butterfly here

 Who needs to spend money on toy guns when you can make your own

At least playing soccer got him to smile instead of scream.  That is a win in my book!

Where do I sign up?

A few weeks ago we had our ward conference at church.  The choir got up and sang a little number and when they were done the stake president stood up and said that they needed more men in the choir.  Dilon, who I could have sworn was not listening, leaned over to me and said "mom, i'm joining the choir.  Where do I sign up?"  He has bugged me about joining for weeks so last week I told him he could go ask if he could be in the choir and stay for practice.  "Never mind" he said.  "I'm too hungry."  At least he had good intentions.  That's got to count for something.

i'm sure it's a delicacy somewhere

What I would like to know is who the heck taught dax to kill bugs with my wooden spoons?

(btw, how the hizzle do you rotate pictures on here? ya got me)

He was so darn proud of the poor defenseless ant he slaughtered.

I really should have stopped him from putting the spoon covered in ant guts back in the drawer but I opted to go for the camera instead.  Who wants to come over for dinner soon?  But seriously, how many times do you think he's done that without me knowing?

My little minions

My house has been a disaster while we have been finishing the bathroom for the boys. It's driving me nuts. That darn dust from mudding the walls has been terrible.  We finally got the walls done and me being the mean mom that I am put my kiddos to work.  I gave them each a rag and told them to start scrubbin.  Surprisingly there was very little whining.  Maybe because they knew there would be a slurpee to follow.  Whatever it was i'm not complaining.  Dilon did tell me that this was something a girl should be doing.  Thinking I need to have a bit of a talk with that boy.  He thinks he is too much of a man to clean the house.  I think not.  To make matters worse for him (and his so called manliness) I am making them have a rug with flowers in their boy bathroom.  I know, I AM a horrible mom.  I went to go get them one on Saturday and they were too blasted expensive.  This bathroom has already taken all of our pennies (and then some) and I have an extra rug just sitting in the closet.  So yes, this cheapskate mom is making them have (gasp)  flowers.  They'll get over it right?  Am I causing years worth of therapy in the future?  The super great part about all of this is I haven't even told them yet.  Why is there a smile on my face as I think about doing so?  See,  I have proved repeatedly just how mean I am. 

deja vu

I have never really thought that my kiddos looked alike.  As I was going through some pics today I had to do a double take.  The top one was taken of Baylor and Dax a couple of months ago.  The bottom one was taken of Grif and Dilon about 6 years ago.  Kind of crazy.  I thought I had already been there, done that.  Here goes round 2. 

These are the moments

Grif and Dax DO NOT play nice together.  Grif likes to do his own thing and Dax likes to bug the crap out of him.  I about passed out when I walked by Dax's bedroom and saw this.  I had to take a picture because who knows if something like this will ever happen again.

 

  Aren't these the moments we live for?  (yes, I stole that line from a gloriana song.  What's your point?)

I think I can, I think I can

Baylor is trying so hard to get places and his little arms just don't want to cooperate. However, I have a feeling he will be crawling sooner than later. That's when the real fun begins.

where's the beef

I believe it is true that you learn something new every day. Today I learned what bovinophobia is. Not exactly sure how to say it, but who cares. It is a fear of cows. Why the sudden interest in cows you ask? Well, grifin came home from school with another 5. His teacher gives them a number every day depending on their behavior. 1 means your kid did awesome, 7 is a get your butt to the school we are going to have a little private parent/teacher conference. We haven't made it to 7 yet but we sure are seeing a lot of 5's and 6's. Not good. I have received numerous phone calls on grif's misbehavior. He called someone the "B" word (where did he learn that? I have never said a swear word, ever! Or at least that's what I like to tell myself so I feel better). Anyway, we have taken privileges away, made him sit on his bed, rewarded good behavior. Nothing seems to really be working to make him want to do better. He came home with a 5 yesterday, nate was not a happy camper. So today when he got home the first thing out of my mouth was "what number did you get?" It is never a good sign when he takes over a minute to answer. Needless to say, he got another 5. So I said "your dad is going to have a cow". He starts to freak out. I'm talking yelling, kicking, screaming freak out. Finally I asked what the problem is and he says "I DO NOT want dad to bring a cow home". What? He literally thought Nate was coming home with a cow. Who knew the kid hated cows so much. Maybe from now on that can be our leverage. If he gets a good number we won't bring a cow home. So when our backyard looks like a farm in the near future you will know why.

Pick your battles

Dax has this obsession with wearing random things. Hats, gloves, bracelets, his cousins princess dress up clothing (don't tell nate), other peoples shoes. Lately it has been baylors hat. It is about 1o sizes too small for his head but he doesn't care. I argued for a good 10 minutes the other day with him over it. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: dax that hat is not yours it's baylors
Dax: no it not
Me: yes it is, it's too small for you
Dax: no it not
Me: go put it back, it's too small
Dax: NO IT NOT!!!!
Me: seriously dax, you are stretching it out. GO PUT IT BACK.
Dax: no.
Me: WHAT?
Dax: NO.
Me: don't tell me no. That's not nice. Go put it back, please.
Dax: no, please.
Me: okay, whatever.

I was arguing with a 2 year old over a hat. Really? I have nothing better to do with my time? Who cares if he is wearing too small of a hat. Who cares if he likes to dance around in tutu's. So not worth arguing over. I really need to learn how to pick my battles.

here comes peter cottontail

I am being tortured here. TORTURED!!!! I have 2 VERY large bowls full of Easter candy sitting at my house. I swear I can here it talking to me. "eat me, i'm soooo yummy, just do it." Leave me alone you stupid little chocolate morsels of heavenly goodness. I love Baylor more than words can describe but the little stinker has left me with a few very stubborn pounds that don't seem to want to go anywhere. Those extra little pounds are at war right now with that Easter goodness. Why must it sit here and taunt me? I am still looking for that little thing called will power. I'm sure it's around here somewhere. Now, if only I could find it.


No, all of that candy did not come from the Easter bunny. Grandma squeaker helped out just a little bit. And when I say just a little that means a lot. Plus I have to give a special shout out to Karissa for helping dax at the easter egg hunt and making sure his bag was as full as it could be. If a package of candy shows up at your doorstep sometime in the near future it wasn't from me. Unfortunately this scatterbrained mom forgot to take the camera to get pictures. We stayed the night at Grandma and Grandpa squeakers house over Easter so I have no pics of my kiddos on Easter morning. I swear if my head wasn't attached it would have been missing long ago. Give me a break though, packing for 6 people for a little weekend get away is hard work. If all I forgot was the camera I think I did pretty darn good.


I did get pics a couple of weeks ago with my family doing an Easter egg hunt. No I don't like my family better than the Wrights, i PROMISE i just forgot my camera.

dilon

grandma taco and gus gus

dax

Jumping with grandpa bernie

the boys thinking they were awesome after some of the goods they found. Doesn't it make you want to sing "bad boys bad boys whatcha gonna do whatcha gonna do when they come for you".....sorry, i'll stop now.

Easter was great. The candy that comes with it, not so great. Actually, that is the problem. It is great which is why it needs to be taken out of my house. I'm not going to eat it, i'm not going to eat it......if I say that enough times maybe it will happen.

beautiful reality

Oh how I love warm days. I think I mostly love them because I can tell my kiddos to get out of the house and go play (hey, I know that may not be very motherly. I'm not trying for a mother of the year award).



I like to imagine them out in the yard playing nicely together. Smiles all around. (i'm pretty sure grif is screaming but i'm just going to go ahead and ignore that and imagine him smiling). So what if I made them stop and pose for the picture. This is how things would be in my perfect world......






.....in reality this is what is happening. Two kids screaming, trying to kill each other, while the third is just standing there picking his nose.


Life is good -- nose pickers, screamers and all.


** Please ignore the shed that so desperately needs painting in the background. I seriously need to start paying attention when I am taking pictures.