3

I love the different stages of life my kids go through.  I look forward to (and fear) what will come in the future as they get older.  It makes me a little sad to know that certain things (like bringing a newborn home from the hospital) won't be happening again.  But I have decided one of my favorite stages of life is having a 3 year old.  Not that I don't enjoy this point in time with my other kiddos but there is just something about age 3.  They are becoming more and more independent yet they still have such an innocence to them.  They are inquisitive and funny.  And they love life and the simpleness of it.  Here are some examples, from my 3 year old, of why I love this age so much.

First of all lets start with a picture (or 2) of the cutest 3 year old I know.

Yes, I am biased.  I should be.  But seriously, look at that face.  You have to admit, it is stinkin cute.  I took these pictures because I thought he was looking particularly cute in his hat.  Little did I know that he had found a candy bar in the diaper bag and was hiding it under there.  Sneaky little devil.

**He is completely ecstatic over finding a penny.  "LOOK MOM!!! MONIES!  Where's my piggy?"

**He will look in the mirror every morning when he is getting dressed and say "i'm sexy and I know it".  I hope that confidence sticks with him throughout life.

**The best part of the day for him is kicking my trash at Uno.  Every time he wins (which is pretty much always) he throws his hand in the air and yells "winner chicken dinner".

**He isn't embarrassed to hold my hand or give me a kiss.

**He thinks I am his best friend and number one girl.  Makes me sad for the day he will have a new number one girl.  A new hand to hold and cheek to kiss. Even though I loved him first.  Makes me appreciate my mother-in-law on a whole new level.  She raised this a spunky little boy (i'm talking about nate here if I lost any of ya)  into a great man then passed him along to me when the time came.  I know my time to do that will come sooner than I want it to.  Until then, I am going to relish in the fact that i'm still Dax's number one gal.

**He thinks he has conquered the world when he gets his shoes on all by himself.  Pure delight covers his face.

**The best things come out of his tiny little mouth, for example:
     -can you hook me up?  (meaning tuck me in)
     -mom's have birthdays too?
     -WHAT?!  dogs get haircuts like people?
     -Can I have an ocosiple (popsicle)
     -Can we go see a whalephin (i'm still not sure if he's talking about a dolphin or a whale)
     -Excuse you pig face (when someone burps)


I know most of this won't mean anything to those reading it.  This post is mostly for me.  Because to me, these are the things that complete life.  They make me happy and whole and I want to remember that.  He reminds me everyday how great life can be if we stop and enjoy it.

burnt bacon anyone?

This is why sick moms shouldn't have to cook dinner

One of the perks that comes along with being mom is even when you feel like you've been hit with 1000 hammers, the little ones still have to eat.  Nate walked in from work to a smoke filled house, alarms going off, me standing in the kitchen trying not to cry and dilon trying to clear out all the smoke. The alarms went off for at least 10 minutes.   When I burn food I burn it good.

Never in my life have I burnt bacon so badly it was completely black.  And muffins.  Who burns muffins?  It's not that i'm completely lacking culinary skills.  I can cook decent enough to feed this family of six.  I don't know what my deal was last night, besides that fact that I thought I might die.  

At least Nate was awesome enough to load everyone in the car and take us out for a family date night to the maddox drive in.  Maybe I should burn the bacon more often.

If you can't beat them......

Yesterday I asked nate to get up early(and when I say early I mean when the alarm actually went off) and help me get dax dressed because I had to get him to a dr. appointment in Logan. I was busy getting me and the other three boys ready.  When I asked dil to go see what was taking dad so long this is what he found.   Nate couldn't get dax to wake up.  I guess he figured if you can't beat 'em join 'em.  Yes, I was late to the appointment (and no, it had nothing to do with me locking my keys in the car after I started it). 

Isn't it ironic?

Today was the awards assembly at school.  I got a note saying that grif would be receiving one (go grif!).  As difficult as it is to sit there and wrestle a 3 year old and a 1 year old I can't not go.  When dilon gets awards he stands on the stage turning bright red while me and the boys wave (how could he possibly be embarrassed of me?).  When grif gets on stage he puffs out his chest and waves as big as he can.  I love that he is so proud of himself.....he should be.

He was given an award that says "Grifin is a kind and helpful boy.  He is always cooperative and easy to work with".

After we got home he was mad because he got grounded from all electronics for throwing a serious screaming, hitting, kicking fit in the school parking lot.  That was fun.  Anyway, I asked him to hold his award so I could get a picture.  This is what I got.  

Anyone else see the irony in the picture and what the award was given for ("He is always cooperative and easy to work with")?

a little bit more randomness

My poor babe (baylor, not nate) has been sick for a couple of weeks now.  My other poor babe (yes, I am talking about nate this time) has been super stressed about his first stats test.  I think they both just needed someone to hold them for a minute.  Try to ignore the big drool spot on nate's shirt.  Bay is having some saliva issues lately.  I love these moments in life.  It makes it all so worth it.

These are the moments I need to keep me going when I realize there are moments trying to pull me down.  For example, hearing that two kids will most likely be needing surgery.  Am I wearing a sign on my back that says I love hospitals/ surgery/ doctors...etc?  If so will someone please take it off.  I'm not trying to complain here.  I really am so blessed.  But sometimes I just need to vent for a minute.

I blame nate.  He is the one that said we were going to have a surgery free year.  We made it all the way to February........so close.  Turns out Dax needs his tonsils out so that one is no biggie.  Of course I can say that because it's not me getting it done.  I'm just happy it's nothing major.  Next week we will find out for sure when.

Next in line will probably be dilon.  I am trying to be optimistic that he really won't need surgery but when the doc is sending us to an orthopedic surgeon it doesn't sound too promising.  He injured his thumb playing that darn football and it keeps getting worse. Something has gone wrong with the tendons by his joint, in his joint, I don't know.  All I got from the conversation was tendons, joint, and specialist.  I'm awesome, I know.  I guess I shouldn't just assume the worst when we aren't even sure what's wrong with it.  Maybe nate should start taking the kids to all these doctor appointments.  Or maybe not.  He had the fantastic opportunity of taking the three older ones grocery shopping last Saturday while I stayed home with Baylor.  He walked in the door looking like he wanted to kill someone.  Here is our conversation:
Me:  Geez, what's your problem?
Nate:  These kids don't mind!
m:  Noooooooo.  Our kids not mind?  I don't believe you.
n: Do you know what it's like to have them grabbing everything in the store, fighting, and running all over the place not listening to a word I say?
m:  no, I have absolutely no idea.  So sorry you had to deal with that.

I just had to turn and walk away so he couldn't see me smiling from ear to ear.  I should feel for the guy, but nope.  It kind of made my day.  I am so going to hell.

Valentine's Day and other random stuff

I've never been a fan of Valentine's Day.  Super big waste of money if you ask me.  Nate doing the dishes or taking care of the kids tells me I love you way more than chocolate and flowers.  I'm not much of a girly girl.  Last night we spent Valentine's Day home with the boys and had our own romantic, candlelight dinner.  Okay romantic is not the word to use there but we did do candlelight and the boys thought it was super awesome that we got to have fire at the table.  I'm pretty sure they all tried to burn their pizza over the flame.  Future pyro's?  By the way, thanks grandma taco and moe for the pizza.  

That's about as fancy as we get at this house but it works for us.

In other awesome news Nate got a letter yesterday saying he made the Dean's List last semester.  Whoop whoop.  My man kick's butt.  Who says hard work doesn't pay off?

I have one more awesome piece of news (this is me being sarcastic just so you know).  I took the boys to the dentist this week.  We found out that all 3 of the older ones are going to need braces. I am super excited about that.  We should have started saving about 10 years ago.  By the looks of this next picture I am going to say that number 4 is going to need them as well.  His little bucky's are so cute right now though.  I love his smile.

damned if you don't

I don't do everything as a mother terribly wrong.  Some days I actually do some things right.  I love Jesus, I want my kids to love Jesus so I try to make sure we are learning about him.  As we were reading from the Book of Mormon tonight I could have sworn not one of the little people in this house were listening.  In fact dax was singing louder than I was reading.  Anyway let me share a little bit of what we read (don't stop reading because I just said that, a little scripture lesson never hurt anyone):

"And whoso believeth not in me, and is not baptized, shall be damned." (3 Nephi 11:34)

As soon as I said those words, grif (who is going to be baptized in a couple of months) threw his hands in the air and yelled "WHAT!? I am damned?" 
Funny thing about it is that he has no idea what damned even means.  He only knows it's a word that he can't say even though mom says it.  I know, I know.....teach by example blah blah blah.  I'm working on it.

The whole point to this is not that my 7 year old thinks he's damned but that they DO actually listen to me.  Throw a couple points on the scoreboard for this mom.

And in case anyone thinks my child still thinks he is damned, don't worry.  I cleared that up as well.  Man I am scoring points all over the place today.

Yes, they are ALL mine

I had to take Dil to get his allergy shot yesterday.  After his shot we have to sit at the doctors office for 25 minutes to make sure he doesn't have a reaction to it.  Wednesday has become the dreaded day of the week for me just for that reason.  I try not to take all the kiddos but with nate having class I don't have much choice.  Anyway it is super duper fun to sit there and wait with them.  We take up a whole corner.  It's awesome.  As we were sitting there yesterday a guy came in for an appointment and sat across from us.  I wasn't paying much attention to him until I heard him kind of chuckle so I looked up.  This was our conversation:

rude dude:  Are all those kids yours?
me:  yep
r.d.:  i've been sitting here trying to figure out who they all belonged to then I realized that they were all with you.  huh.
me:  yeah, I will claim them all
r.d.:  so your days must be very interesting
me:  they sure are
r.d.:  how old are they?
me:  1,3,7,9 (pointing to all of them)
r.d.:  what!?  that kid (pointing to dilon) is older than that kid (pointing to grif)
me:  yep, he's the runt of the family
r.d.:  Wow, you sure have a lot of kids for your age! (should I take that as a compliment or an insult?  I'm not sure)

Then he actually got nice and carried on a long conversation with Dax.  When he asked me if they were all mine I just wanted to say nope, I don't have enough fun sitting in the doctors office alone so I figured I would find some random kids to come with me to keep me entertained.  At least they were being good for once.  Who knows what he would have said if they were acting like they normally do when we are all there.  The funny thing is, 4 kids doesn't seem like that much to me (well, most of the time).  I don't consider us a large family.  Am I naive and completely wrong about that?  Either way, yes they are all mine and I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world.

I love phil....at least this year

It's a darn good thing that large rodent didn't see his shadow yesterday. I am so ready for this pile of white stuff to be off my lawn. 

 There are 2 things wrong with this picture.  1-  I should probably be concerned that nate is trying to bury my kids in a pile of snow.  But instead I just take pictures.  2-  How freakin lazy are we that we used a tractor to move it instead of shoveling it?  After several attempts of keeping the driveway clear, realizing I had muscles that I never had in places I didn't know existed, a broken shovel, and hearing nate cuss 100 times about not having a snow blower, I figured I would shut my mouth and just let him use the tractor.  See, after 11 years of marriage I am learning that some things aren't worth arguing over.  Even though by the time he went and got the tractor and got home we could have had everything shoveled..............twice. 

 I can't take many more footballs to the head because the kids insist on playing it in the house since they can't play outside.  So thank you Punxsutawney Phil for giving us hope that Spring will be here sooner than later.  Phyllis will have to give you a big old kiss from me.  In case you are wondering, Phyllis is his wife.  No I did not just make that up.  She's legit.  I read it off of wikipedia and everyone knows that everything on wiki is real. 

Hug it out boys

This 1 o'clock church thing is killing me.  The boys have spent most of the morning trying to kill each other.  Their screams have hit levels so high they have brought all of the dogs from the neighborhood to our front door.  Since I have decided to tap into my inner calm I told myself I would not yell back at them today.  They have spent a good amount of time on their beds and when they get off they just start fighting again.  So I did what I have heard other moms do (probably those moms who are perfect).   I made them hug it out. 

I let that count as a hug for dilon because his blood sugar was low and he had to eat. He was thrilled about the whole thing if you can't tell.  So far so good!  No more bed sitting yet. 

On a totally unrelated topic, I had dilon come to me yesterday and ask me to smell his pits.  Now let me tell ya, I swore I would be the type of mom that would try to be open and understanding so my kids would come to me with any questions or problems they might have.  However, I think "smell my pits" goes beyond motherly duties.  Plus gross.  Not gonna happen.