Sarah Breakin' in the New House, Party All Night and the Lead Foot Lucy Busdriver

Oh this week has been a crazy one!!  It has been parent teacher conferences--need I say more?!  Anyway, we had Matthew's on Monday afternoon.  I always have to prepare myself for that one because it never is rosy.  However, I was very pleasantly surprised this time!  He is progressing and has come a long way from the beginning of the year.  In all the testing they have done he is currently functioning on a level between a 2nd and 3rd grader, but that is up from the beginning of the year where he only tested in the range of a kindergarten to 1st grader.  The teacher also told us that he is now used to the routine and is able to do better.  You have to remember that the beginning of this school year he had to change everything about his school routine with changing grades, elementary schools, teachers and rules and that is one tall order for an autistic child who THRIVES on routine.   We are still going to be transitioning him to the functional skills next year, but he is doing well, all things considered.  His teacher did bring up one area she was concerned with--lunchtime.  The past few months Matthew has been requesting to eat home lunch instead of school lunch--so every morning I get up and make him a school lunch consisting of a juice or milk box, applesauce, chips and a peanut butter sandwich--all the things Matthew likes to eat (or so I thought).  Every day after school he would come home and show me his empty lunch box so I just assumed he ate the lunch.  I was WRONG.  His teacher tells me he tries to throw the whole thing away before even trying anything, but she attempts to make him eat at least a little bit of it.  So Matthew takes the most microscopic bite of everything and then throws the whole thing away.  His teacher was concerned about this and wanted me to see that he wasn't eating so she told him to not throw anything away and to put all the uneaten food back in his lunch box to bring home.  Every time they wouldn't let him throw anything away he would have a complete and total meltdown.  The teacher would occasionally get him to save the uneaten food, however, when he would get on the bus to come home he would throw everything away on the bus garbage so I still never saw the uneaten food.  However, I did happen to be outside the other day when his bus pulled up so I got to speak with his bus driver and she told me about him throwing all his food away.  As this was news to me I was interested in talking about it with his teacher.  Luckily, we came up with an awesome solution.  His teacher has a fridge and a microwave in her room so I can send leftovers for him to eat the next day.  Once Matthew heard that he could bring lasagna to school and eat that for lunch he was over the moon.  The next day his teacher and bus driver told me they couldn't get him to talk about anything else, but eating his lasagna for lunch.  He told anyone and everyone he could that he got to eat lasagna for lunch because he was so excited.  It also helped me for when he came home because he was a lot more calm and willing to do his homework without a fight because he wasn't starving.  When Matthew is hungry he gets very agitated so him actually eating a lunch at school has helped a lot.  Now I just got to make sure we have plenty of leftovers of food that he actually likes eating.  We also got a call when we got home after the conference from his principal.  I HATE getting calls with the 402 prefix!!  Anyway, this call was a good one.  It told us that Matthew has been selected as a Tenacious Tiger of the month (a student of the month) because he is so courteous.  He holds the doors open for people, always says please and thank you, helps the duties at recess, is always willing to vacuum at school and is polite.  To celebrate he gets to have a cupcake party with the principal on Friday.  Way to go Matthew!!

As for his bus driver she must have a lead foot or Matthew gets out of school early every day! Since it is early out all week Josh and Matthew get out of school at 1:25pm.  Yesterday I was out running errands and drove up to  my house at 1:22pm to find Matthew sitting on my porch freaking out because the front door was locked and the bus driver parked and waiting for me to get home.  What in the world??!!  He wasn't supposed to even get out of school until 1:25pm and then ride the bus home!  Either his bus driver drives so fast that she can go back in time or Matthew is getting out of school early every day because he is walking through the front door on average of 4 minutes after school lets out.   Matthew's school is about three miles away from our house, too.  I am a little concerned about this, but I don't know if I am concerned enough to make waves...I guess I just need to make sure I am home 10 minutes before he is supposed to get out of school because you just never know when or how early he is going to get home!

We had Josh and Daniel's parent teacher conferences yesterday.  Daniel is doing superb (despite all the allergic reactions he's had at school that his teacher apologized profusely for).  His teacher is under Daniel's charm spells just like the rest of us are.  He is doing well enough in everything that he is able to start the reading program--Wahoo.  Josh is doing good.  He is still struggling with his hand writing as well as not covering his mouth when he coughs.  His teacher also told me to make sure Josh has some tissues in his pockets because when he sneezes he gets double snot rockets out his nose and, instead of wiping them off with tissues, he uses his sleeve or attempts to walk across the room with the aforementioned snot rockets hanging precariously from his nose while he is trying to find a tissue to use--ewwwww! Other than that he is doing well.  He is reading above his grade level and his comprehension is great.  We do have some stuff that we have to work a little extra on at home--his typing speed and math, but otherwise he is doing ok.  I took a big sigh of relief when the conferences were over because I hate going to them, but these weren't as bad as last time--phew!!

The night before last I got to have an all night party thanks to my kids.  Noah started screaming at 11 pm.  I tried to let him just scream it out, but he kept going and going and going.  To help everyone else get their sleep I decided to stay up and hold him for a little bit to calm him down.  Sure enough he calmed down and fell asleep, but every time I stood up to try and put him back to bed he would start screaming all over again.  Finally he fell in a deep enough sleep about 1:30 am that I was able to put him to bed without him waking up.  After putting him to bed I went to bed and got all comfy only to have Daniel come upstairs crying at 1:40am.  He said that his foot was hurting really bad.  I had to get back up and give him some ibuprofen and hold him.  He had to snuggle until 4:15 am until he felt better.  After he went to bed I tried to sleep and was able to sleep until I was woken up at 6:45 am to the crazy morning chaos.  I tried staying in bed and letting the kids take care of themselves, but you can imagine that didn't go over well at all.  I had to get out to break up the fighting, help someone find their shoes, sign someone's homework, help someone find some pants, etc.  I must admit I was a little on the grumpy side as well and I wasn't the only grumpy one.  It appears that Noah kept quite a few people awake, too.  That was one day I was glad I got to send the kids away to school and hope they got their grumpiness out there instead of at home!!  It was early bedtime for everyone that night including me!!

Yesterday afternoon we were walking through the new house and marking all the stuff that needed to be fixed or repaired.  While we were doing that the blinds guy and the hardware guy were busy at work.  A few minutes later the blinds guy came over to me and said, "Uh....umm....So do you have any toilet paper to help your little girl out with ?"   I looked at him strangely and then he said, "I think your little girl needs some assistance in the master bathroom."  I thought, "OH NO!!" as I ran over to the master bathroom to assess the damages.  I could smell it before I saw it.  As I opened the master bathroom door I could hear the movie Psycho's shower scene music playing in my head.  It was bad!  Sarah had decided she needed to go potty, but she had already done half of it in her underwear before she could make it to the toilet.  She was in the bathroom and had worked off her poo smeared pants and was trying to pull off her loaded with poo panties when I saw her.  When she saw me come in she knew she had done something wrong so she hurried even faster to get her poo underwear off.  In her haste she kicked and smeared poo all over the bathroom and toilet before I could stop her.  Also before I had even gotten there she had already attempted to go potty as her evidence was smeared all over the toilet.  It was BAD!!  I made Aaron come and keep her contained to the bathroom while I ran out to the car to find something to clean it up with.  I could only find an almost dried out pack of wipes and a spare pair of panties.  I brought them inside and tried to clean everything up.  We had no toilet paper or soap to use only the half dried out pack of wipes.  NASTY!!!  We left shortly afterward, but not before the hardware guy and blinds guy got a good laugh about it.  Aaron just joked with them saying at least our new toilet has been broken in by Sarah!!  The hardware guy then replied, "Hmmm why don't we break in your new master bathroom fan right now, too?"  Did I mention the whole master bathroom reeked to high heaven?!  Sarah only wore panties out to the car and on the way home because we didn't have any spare jeans to put back on her.  I am sure she was cold, but that's what you get when you try to take care of your poopies without help!!

In other happenings a few days ago Sarah found her hair headband and put it on the way she thought it was supposed to go.  After she got it on she came over and told me she was ready to go running.  What a funny girl!

Another Dreaded Call From School, Getting Stuck x3, Signing, Therapy Mom, Faux Hawk

All the boys are just like their Dad!!  As soon as they walk through the door from school, they take their shoes and socks off and it doesn't matter where they are.  We have spent many a mornings looking for lost shoes because they never got put away.  I swear it must be genetic because Aaron does the exact same thing!!  As soon as he walks through the door off his shoes and socks come.  Luckily, Aaron's shoes are big enough they aren't that hard to lose!!  Even Noah hates having socks on.  Here I caught Matthew before he could get his socks off: 

Noah does not use a bottle anymore, but I haven't gotten around to putting them away, yet, so they sit in a bottom drawer in the kitchen.  Now this bottom drawer is a graveyard for sippy cups and bottles that are not being used anymore or for the sippy cups I can't find all the pieces for.  This drawer is also Noah accessible and he loves getting in it and spreading the contents all over the house.  The other day he was playing with the bottles and got both his hands stuck in them.  When he realized he was stuck he started screaming until I got his hands free.  It was hard to free his hands because I was laughing so hard!!  What a crazy kid!!

Speaking of getting stuck Sarah came out of her room the other morning all tangled up with her arms stuck in her dress up clothes.  She was pretty mad until I had to help her get out of them.  I was tempted to leave her "stuck" because it is so much easier cleaning up without her pulling the messes back out right behind me, but she was too upset to stay like that much longer (aka I couldn't stand the screaming any longer either!)

In the theme of getting stuck, Aaron and I made a trip to Ikea on Saturday.  I was worried about how the trip was going to go when I pulled Sarah out of the car and found that she had peed her pants.  Unfortunately, I had just taken our spare outfit out of the diaper bag and not replaced it.  DOH!!  She had to air dry if you know what I mean.  The bad thing is, it didn't bother her in the least to wear soggy pants.  This girl is going to be the death of me!! Anyway, with our house being so close to being done, we wanted to look at a few cheap decorating/furniture options and there's no better place than Ikea.  Aaron and I saw a few things we liked and we kept trying to talk about them.  However, we kept getting interrupted every time we tried to talk either by someone fighting, someone getting lost, someone running away or knocking things over.  We finally found a solution to our problem when Josh and Daniel climbed into some empty bins.  That's when the light bulb clicked in my head and I put Noah and Sarah inside them as well.  I then put Matthew in charge of pushing the shopping cart--he takes most responsibilities like that pretty seriously.  With everyone 'contained' for five minutes Aaron and I were able to have a decent discussion.  We didn't end up buying anything, but we have some ideas of what we want.  However, that does mean another trip down there....(I am so not looking forward to that!!)  Hope they will have a lot of empty bins for our next trip!!

Noah's hair is finally getting long enough after his haircut that with some gel he can join the Faux Hawk Boy's club.  He thought he was pretty stylin':

 Here's the rest of the Faux Hawk Boy's Club along with Sarah who can't stand to not be in a picture.  She forced her way into this one and there was no stopping her.  However, when the boy's hair gets long enough that I need to comb it that means haircuts will be in the very near future!!  That is one thing that is nice about having mostly boys--really short hair means I don't have to comb it every morning!!  Wahoo--bring on the buzz cuts!!

 Yesterday for Sunday dinner we had lasagna which is a family favorite.  Daniel ends up having noodles with meatballs and sauce so it is like lasagna without all the cheese.  As a present to myself we had dinner on paper plates with plastic silverware.  It is so nice not to have dishes to do after dinner that we do this every so often (well pretty often, but I don't want to show how much I hate doing dishes!!).  I am very thankful for modern day automatic dishwashers!   Anyway, I just fed Noah stuff off my plate, but he was not happy about that.  He screamed and pulled himself almost out of his high chair in order to reach a plastic fork sitting on the table.  He then was content to use it to feed himself.   I was impressed because he did pretty well considering this was the first time he had attempted to use a fork before!

During dinner we usually discuss what we all did during the day.  Sunday we were talking about what everyone learned in their primary/Sunday School classes.  Then we moved on to what the schedule was for the upcoming week.  That's when Aaron asked Josh about his talent show at school.  DOH!!  Josh had brought home a paper a few weeks ago telling us about a talent show his music teacher was putting on.  Any student in 3rd-6th grade could sign up to show off a talent.  I asked Josh about it and he said he would like to participate, but that was the last thing I ever heard about it.  I was hoping it would be something that would be forgotten so we wouldn't have to worry about it (aren't I a horrible mom?!).  I thought it was forgotten because Josh never said another word about it.  However, after Aaron brought it up at dinner Josh informed us that he did indeed sign up and not only to play one song on the piano, but two and that the talent show was tomorrow [Monday]!!  After hearing that I started to get worried.  Aaron asked him what songs he was going to play and Josh didn't know yet.  Josh walked over to the piano and looked around for a minute and then brought me over a copy of Praise to the Man and Called to Serve--pieces that he has not been able to play yet and has not looked at for months and months.  I immediately put the kibosh on that and started looking for anything that he knew how to play.  I finally came up with his last recital song, but he was not happy about playing that.  He tried to play through it and he had forgotten how to play it.  At this point Aaron told Josh that he probably shouldn't participate, but Josh got really upset.  Aaron then made a deal with him and told Josh he would let him play his recital song, but not the second song because he didn't know any other songs to play.  He also told Josh that he could get up at 6:45 am the next morning to get ready and then whatever extra time he had left over before he had to leave for the bus he could practice his talent show song.  I just had to sigh, but at least this talent show was for students instead of families.  Later on that night Daniel finally lost his second tooth, ever.  Aaron has been trying to work this tooth out of his mouth for a LONG time.  Daniel being the kid who can't handle too much wouldn't let Aaron pull it out.  Finally yesterday Aaron asked Daniel if he could look at the tooth.  Daniel timidly opened his mouth and that's when Aaron made his move.  It happened so fast that Daniel didn't know whether he should cry or be excited for finally getting his tooth out so he did both.  He cried a little then giggled a little then cried a little and giggled some more.  What a confused kid! 

He was excited to put his tooth out in the cup on the kitchen counter for the Tooth Fairy to come and make her visit.

As bedtime came around Aaron fell asleep, but I was wide awake.  I couldn't get my mind to stop thinking.  I finally fell asleep sometime after 1:30am.  Early the next morning I was awakened at 6:30 am to someone playing the piano.  That's when I remembered about Josh's cheap alarm clock.  It is one of those clocks that sets it's own time once you plug it in.  We thought that was a nice feature until the stupid thing set itself 10 minutes early and there's no way to fix it because it is all automatic.  So when Aaron told Josh he could get up and get ready at 6:45 am, it was really 6:35 am and Josh got up even earlier than that.  He also must have forgotten that he was supposed to get ready first and then practice--DOH!!   So while I was laying in bed listening to Beethoven and trying to talk myself into getting up, I heard Daniel come screaming up the hallway.  He burst into my bedroom crying that the Tooth Fairy didn't leave any money under his pillow.  After calming him down I reminded him that he put his tooth in the cup in the kitchen and to check there.  He did and came back to let me know that he did, in fact, have a dollar in the cup.  However, with the piano playing and the screaming so early in the morning that woke everyone else up.  I could have cried because I was so tired, but I got my weary self out of bed to combat this fun start of my Monday morning.   I got the kids all up, ready and out the door and I am hoping that Josh's talent show goes ok.  Next one I won't conveniently 'forget' because it doesn't end up being convenient at all--DANG IT!!

Noah's been getting in touch with his feminine side lately--and Aaron is not too pleased about that.  Anyway, an afternoon last week I found him decked out in Sarah's beaded necklace playing Barbies with Sarah's Ariel doll.  That lasted until Sarah saw him playing with it and snatched it back from him, but not before I snapped a picture.

 Of course this morning Noah tried playing with Cinderella, but Sarah was not happy about that either.  Noah is learning, though.  He waited until Sarah put Cinderella down when he made his snatch and run move.  He wasn't fast enough and so here's the resulting tug of war:

I must give him props, though.  Noah is getting pretty good at the snatch and run move.  He is getting away with more and more toys much to Sarah's chagrin (and my entertainment).

Last Thursday I got another dreaded call from school informing me that Daniel had gotten a hold of a goldfish cracker.  The class aid called me to let me know that had given him some Benadryl, but that we were running extremely low on his Benadryl supply.  She also wanted to know what else she needed to do.  She told me she had a nephew who was extremely allergic to dairy as well so she thought she had done everything she needed to.  She then told me that the next day they were having a popcorn party and that Daniel would need some of his own popcorn.  We started talking about popcorn and I told her what kinds he could have and she told me her nephew had found some Butter Lover or Butter flavor popcorn made by Act II that had no dairy in it.  I was excited to hear about that!!  Aaron and I don't really like Kettle Corn flavored popcorn, but it's the only kind (or so we thought) that Daniel could have so we have endured it.  It wasn't Daniel's favorite either, but we have all eaten it just so we could have some popcorn.  I was excited to hear about this new dairy free flavor that will taste like butter (even if it is all artificial).  So this call from the school didn't end up being so horrible after all!!  I didn't end up making it to the store that night so I had to send him to school with another huge supply of Benadryl and some  Kettle Corn popcorn, anyway--poor kid.  However, the next trip to the grocery store I will definitely check it out!!

Noah is getting good at knowing he needs to use sign language to get what he wants.  However, sometimes he uses all his signs at the same time to get what he wants. I guess he figures he signs every sign he knows, he will eventually get lucky and get what he wants.  I will sign drink, help, more, all done, ouch, and candy.  From those 6 signs most of his needs are usually met--oh what the life of a toddler!!

I am happy to say that, as far as we know, Josh has been seizure free.  He is also a happier kid being off the Keppra!  We have noticed it at home as well as his Cub Scout leader.  She came up to me last week telling me she can tell he is a happier boy.  I am so glad this medication transition has worked out and has gone as smoothly as it did!  Who knew that Josh's seizures a few months ago would be a blessing in disguise?!  The new medication he is on, Trileptal, is not only a seizure medication, but it is also used in other patients as a mood stabilizer and an anti depressant--SUHHHH-WHEEEET!!  No wonder Josh is a happier boy ;).  He is more pleasant and doesn't pull an attitude as often.  He is more willing to do chores without as much complaining.  For example he has cleaned out the dishwasher every morning without being asked to all week.  That has been a pleasant surprise every morning!  At school they have increased his speech therapy sessions to twice a week--once in a group setting and once a one on one setting to help with his speech.  He has also started Occupational therapy to help with his fine motor skills.  I am thankful the school can provide such services to help Josh out.  I guess with having such 'special' kids I am more of a therapy mom instead of a soccer mom.  **SIGH**  I guess there are worse things....

Speaking of worse things...this week is parent teacher conferences and early out all week long.  Another sigh....let the craziness begin!!

Workin' the Potty Excuse, A Little Too Talkative, Barbies With Toileting Issues, Early Intervention

Lately our family has gone through more than a week of uneventfulness.  Hey, I am not complaining--the quietness is nice occasionally!!  In the meantime we have been keeping somewhat busy.  Today was Noah's second Early Intervention visit.  The first visit was last week, but that visit mostly consisted of writing up an IFSP (individualized family service plan) and determining how we will be paying for their services by reviewing our last year's tax return form.  That bothered me a little, but I guess they gotta keep their priorities right!  Anyway, today was his first actual visit where they provided services.  Of course this morning before they came Noah decided to do a header in his bedroom and came out with a HUGE black goose egg on his forehead.  Why does that always happen before a doctor visit or any other kind of visit?  During the visit you have to awkwardly explain why your negligently allowed your child to injure themselves.  **SIGH**  Of course, as always, the picture does not do his HUGE goose egg justice.  The huge knot is bigger and badder in 3D than it is in 2D from looking at the picture, but you can only appreciate the lumpy swolleness of it from seeing it in person--poor kid. 

Sarah, of course, had to be part of the Early Intervention action and every toy they gave to Noah, she grabbed it away from him.  Maybe that's why he screams instead of talks most of the time--it's because if he took the time to actually say something his toys would be LONG GONE.  If he screams he gets immediate attention rather than if he tried to take the time to tell Sarah, "Give me back my toy!!"  I tried to distract Sarah with other things and some of the time it worked, but only if she had a toy airplane in one hand and a toy car in the other.

Am I grooming my girl to be girly or what?!  I am not too worried because afterward we did play Barbies together.  However, while we were playing Sarah stopped me and said, "Oh no!  Cinderella pooped in her underwear!"  I loved that she informed me that my Cinderella Barbie had pooped her underwear and she even made me pretend to clean her up and give her new underwear.  Don't you love imaginative play while trying to potty train a toddler?!  You can tell what part of potty training we have been working on (but not succeeding) lately, huh?!  Noah can dish out the teasing, too.  He waits until Sarah is seated on her little potty, then he runs over and pulls out her 'pretty pretty' which is her hair bow and runs away with it.  It makes Sarah pretty upset.  She can't run after him to get it either, because her pants are around her ankles.  It is funny to watch, but I can't let Sarah see me laughing because that makes her pretty mad.  She has figured out how to exploit the potty excuse, though, especially at church.  She has figured out if she tells me she needs to go pee pees that she immediately gets whisked away to the bathroom and out of the boring high councilman's talk.  Aaron is loving having Sarah potty trained. When we first started having kids we came up with the rule that Aaron would take the boys potty and I would take the girls potty in public.  Well as you can see Aaron got the raw end of the deal because we ended up having 4 boys.  I tell him it was his fault we had 4 boys every time he complains he has to take one or all of the boys potty in public.  However, he is loving to watch me have to take Sarah to public bathrooms because he has had to do it with the three older boys he figures it is finally my time to struggle.  He laughs every time he hears Sarah tell me she has to go pee pees and we are not at home.  I just cringe because I HATE public bathrooms and taking a newly trained toddler potty on the toilet where they have to hold on to the nasty toilet to keep from falling in....ewww!!  And then trying to wash their hands without them touching everything--that's a near impossible task!!  I have to restock my hand santizer bottle every bathroom visit since she gets doused in it after every visit--YUCK!!  All the while Aaron just laughs at me while I struggle to take her potty without having an OCD panic attack about keeping her germ free!!  I can't wait until she has been trained long enough to hold her pee pees in until we can make it back home!!
Saturday we got Noah dressed for the day.  Getting him dressed in this outfit brought back all kinds of memories.  We got this outfit from Grandma M. for Matthew and it has gone through all 4 boys and still is in pretty good condition.  Noah likes hanging on to his suspenders and walks around like this a lot of the time:

 I can't believe Noah is big enough to wear this.  I will be sad to retire this outfit when he outgrows it...

Friday is popcorn day at Josh and Daniel's school.  For a fundraiser the school sells bags of popcorn for $0.50.  I think it is a little pricey, but both Daniel and Josh are really into it.  At first I didn't give it much thought, but Daniel came home Friday telling me all about how yummy his bag of popcorn was.  My alert signal suddenly went on high for two reasons.  The first being that I have searched and searched and have only found one brand of popcorn that is Daniel friendly (dairy and butter free) and that is Orville Redenbacher's Light Kettle Corn flavor microwave popcorn.  I started asking Daniel what color his popcorn was and he told me it was yellow.  I then asked when he ate his popcorn and how he was feeling--if he was wheezy or anything.  He told me he ate it at first recess which is around 10:30 am and that he felt great and was not wheezy.  He then told me it was the best tasting popcorn he had ever eaten.  Hmmmm.....the popcorn is either so artificial there is no dairy in it or he amazingly didn't react to the butter flavor.  Either way I am glad he didn't react to it and he can eat it and enjoy it without any ill effect.  The second reason my alert signal went off was because I had not given them any money to buy the popcorn with.  Daniel told me that they were handing out the popcorn for free, but I am still wondering.  I hope it really was free.....This week, however, Josh and Daniel have been scrounging up all my spare change from around the house.  I didn't think I had too much change laying around, but after looking at their stash I need to be more careful--they are already up to $2.50 after only three days.  Who knew I could find so much loose change laying around my house?!  I should start saving up for me instead of unknowingly giving them their popcorn fund!!

Friday night was our family movie night.  We watched The Suite Life on Deck movie.  Not my or Aaron's first choice, but it was Josh and Daniel's so we watched it.  There was one part that was a little suspenseful and Daniel was pretty worried.  It was so funny to see his worried face he was really into the movie.  I tried to secretly take a picture of his worried look, but it turned out crooked.

 I tried to take another picture, but got caught.

Luckily, the movie ended happily so everyone (especially Josh and Daniel) were happy about that--phew!

Speaking of being sneaky, I secretly videoed Aaron playing Barbies with Sarah the other day after he got home from work.  I think it was cute, Aaron was a little embarrassed when he found out, but that's what happens when you have a little girl!!  It is funny to hear what he says at the very end of the video...

Noah LOVES snow.  He loves to eat it every chance he gets.  Saturday we went to the grocery store and by the time we came out it was starting to snow.  Noah was in heaven.  I recorded him eating all the snowflakes off his coat one at a time.  What a funny kid!

Sarah is one tough girl (if you can't tell that from the previous picture with the car and the airplane in her hands).  Sunday when we got home from church she tried to start a snowball fight with dad.  While this intense snowball fight was going on all the rest of the boys ran inside because they were cold.  Oh how opposite things can be in our family.

In other happenings let me just tell you Aaron can be a pretty chatty guy--I think he gets that trait from his dad.  Most the time his chattiness turns out well because I am the opposite of that.  If I ever lived by myself I am afraid I would be very hermit like because I am so shy and socially awkward--hopefully that will never happen.  Anyway his chattiness got us in to trouble a few weeks ago, though.  Aaron went in to pay our water and city bill and got to chatting with the lady behind the counter.  He then asked her why our city bill was so much cheaper in our rental house than it was in our old house.  Come to find out they were only charging us for the use of one garbage can instead of the two that we had.  When she found out we had two garbage cans she made arrangements to come and take our second garbage can away--DOH!!  Oh well, we only have a few more weeks of living here anyway.  Hopefully we can float along with only one garbage can instead of two for the next few weeks....

Noah loves household chores.  He loves it when I sweep.  As soon as he hears the broom he comes running--not to help me, but to eat all the leftover food that I sweep up--YUCK!!  He also loves it when I load the dishwasher.  He loves taking all the dishes and silverware out as soon as I put them in.  Trying to sweep and load the dishes can be a little frustrating when he's around.  I usually wait to do these things when he is down for a nap, strapped in his high chair, or when Aaron can hold him and keep him out of the kitchen.  However, the other day I attempted it alone with Noah unrestrained in any way.  I thought it went ok until I went to unload the dishwasher a few hours later and found some toy cars and a happy meal toy that he had thrown in the dishwasher to be washed without me knowing.  I am just glad the toys came out without being rusted or melted and now I know they are clean.  Wahoo!  What a helper!!

Matthew insists on being a gentlemen and  holding the doors for anyone and everyone.  The only downside is whenever anyone walks through his opened door, he tells them they need to say THANK YOU to him.  He won't let them walk through his door until they have told them thank you.  It can make for a few interesting situations, but for the most part everyone says thank you--thank goodness!!  It did cause a problem the other day when we went to a play land.  He kept opening up the door for people, but every time he did a few kids would escape.  We told him to stop, but when our attention was turned he was back at it.  Oh well I guess there could be worse things to be worried about...What a crazy kid!!

Science Saturday, Public Potty Meltdown, the Noah Whisperer

Daniel is a pretty funny kid.  He was telling Aaron and me that he knows how to speak baby talk.  We asked him how he knew baby talk and he told us that he saw Noah was eating a pop tart and started wandering into the living room.  (At our house we try to limit the food to only the kitchen).  Daniel saw Noah in the living room and he told us he talked to Noah saying, "Blah blah goo goo."  Daniel had to translate that for us which translated into go back into the kitchen--according to Daniel anyway.  We  just took Daniel's word for that.  After Noah heard Daniel's baby talk he turned around and went back into the kitchen to finish his pop tart.  Daniel was so serious it was a little difficult for Aaron and me not to crack up laughing while Daniel was telling us about this baby talk episode.  What a funny kid!!  We have secretly started calling Daniel The Noah Whisperer.  Maybe I can try and get Daniel (aka the Noah Whisperer) to tell Noah to start picking up his toys in baby talk....

The other day Daniel came up to me and gave me a folded up note.  As you can see the top of the note said, "To Mom From Daniel".  

As he gave it to me he told me to open it up.  I opened it up to and it said, "Mom wa rouowes be my mom."  I had a little trouble reading it so Daniel told me it said, "Mom will you always be my mom?"  I told him yes, but that wasn't good enough.  He made me write down my answer.  He then took his note and finished writing something on it below my written 'yes'.  He wrote, "WLIL AV you".  He had to translate that as well which said, "I will always love you."

 I love kids at this age (most the time, of course) because they can be so sweet and they love to show off their new found writing skills.  Daniel can be quite the charmer when he wants to be.

The other day I didn't ever get around to making dinner, but I knew that Smith's grocery store was having a special on their rotisserie chickens including some sides.  I sent Aaron out to pick it up with the one stipulation to only pick it up if everything was Daniel friendly.  He checked over all the ingredients and deemed them Daniel friendly so he bought it and brought them home where he had me double check them just to make sure.  I checked them over and deemed them Daniel friendly, too.  We all sat down to eat for a little later than usual dinner.  Afterward Daniel was a little wheezy, but that's not all that unusual since we have to occasionally give him breathing treatments every so often.  Before we sent Daniel to bed he got a quick breathing treatment for his wheeziness.  Aaron and I cleaned up dinner and I headed over to the gym.  When I got back from the gym I went downstairs to check on Daniel to make sure everything was ok.  Well it wasn't.  Daniel was really wheezy, coughing, his lips were swollen, his nose was so swollen he couldn't even breath out of it, and he was covered from head to toe in hives as you can kind of see in this not very good picture of his hive covered back:

When I saw that, I about peed my pants.  I grabbed Daniel and brought him upstairs.  I gave him a huge megadose of Benadryl while Aaron called the pediatrician's office.  As soon as he took the Benadryl and got his shoes on we were off to the pediatrician's office.  When we got there, they got us right back and seen right away.  About this time the Benadryl had started kicking in so the hives were starting to go away, but they gave Daniel some steroids to take for the next five days to reduce and calm the allergic reaction.  That is one of the worst reactions he's had in years.  Luckily, we didn't have to use the Epi pen this time, but it came close!!

Friday the kids had the day off of school.  We decided to go to a friend's house for lunch and to let our kids play together.  Now Sarah has been doing pretty well with the pee part of potty training, but I cannot get her to go #2 AT ALL.  She waits until she has her sleeping underwear on before she takes care of that.  It can be quite frustrating.  However, sometimes she can't always wait until she gets her sleeping underwear on as evidence by some 'streaking' in her undies.  Now when we got to our friend's house the kids were all playing really well.  I decided I had better take her potty to make sure she didn't pee her pants.  I took her back into the bathroom only to find big streaks in her undies.  I sat her down on the potty and started to try and clean her up.  While she was sitting on the potty she went #1 and patiently sat there while I cleaned her up and got her some clean new undies to wear.  That's when I heard a big "plop" in the toilet.  I got so excited for Sarah and started cheering for her since she finally went #2--or so I thought.  That's when I took a look inside the toilet only to see that her hair bow had fallen in the toilet and that was the "plop" I had heard.  Ewwww!  I had to fish it out amongst the pee toilet water which was gross.  **Sigh** someday hopefully she will learn how to go #2 in the potty...someday hopefully before she starts kindergarten in two years!!  At naptime later that day, with her sleeping underwear on, is when she took care of the rest of her #2.  ** Sigh**

Yesterday was Science Saturday up at Weber State University so we decided to go.  Since Science Saturday didn't start until noon we stopped off at Costco beforehand to pick up a few things to have a cheap lunch for everyone.  You just can't beat a $1.50 for a hot dog and a drink!  After doing our shopping we stopped off at the cafe to grab a hot dog for everyone.  As always the cafe was pretty busy.  We finally got a table and Aaron got the food.  As soon as the kids saw the food was ready, all heck broke loose.  Everyone wanted everything all at once.  While we were trying to get everyone settled and happy (and quiet) another older couple came by and asked if they could share a table with us.  Aaron and I looked at each other secretly wondering why anyone in their right mind would want to share a table with 5 very loud and rambunctious kids and two frazzled parents.  Aaron told them they were more than welcome to share a table with us if they didn't mind all the screaming, fighting and noise.  They assured us they didn't mind.  During lunch they talked to us, mostly to Aaron because I was sitting on the opposite end of the table and couldn't hear most of the conversation over the loud kids.  After they finished their lunch, they asked the kids if they ever liked going to the Children's Treehouse Museum.  Thankfully the kids said that they did like going there.  That's when the couple told us thanks for sharing and table with them and pulled out Treehouse Museum passes for everyone and told us that she was the Chairman of the Museum.  It was a very nice and pleasant surprise.  I can't wait to use them in the next couple weeks--WAHOO!!  Hopefully they enjoyed their not so quiet lunch as much as we will enjoy the passes!

After lunch we headed over to Science Saturday.  It was fun and we learned a lot.  However, Sarah had guzzled her drink during lunch so I had to take her potty a few times.  In between potty trips the kids had fun learning all kinds of stuff.  Here they were learning about sound waves:

 Aaron found it interesting, too, so he tried to listen in as well:

 We went to a few other classes, but as time went on Sarah and Noah got more and more restless.  At one class instead of listening, Sarah decided to try sitting in all the seats while everyone else was gathered around the table watching the experiments.

As you can see Daniel likes to be part of the discussion even though he doesn't have quite the knowledge base as everyone else.  The teacher kept asking questions and Daniel's hand would be the first one up.  The teacher would call on Daniel to answer the question only to have Daniel say, "Oh.....I forgot."  Here's Daniel's hand up just waiting to be called on so he can 'forget' his answer.

There was still more to see, but Sarah had had enough.  I took her potty.  She did her thing and hopped off the potty and tried to flush it with her hands.  Ewww!  I hurried and flushed it before she could reach it and she came UNGLUED!  She was very angry that she didn't flush the toilet and went into full tantrum mode throwing herself on the public bathroom floor---Ewwww again!!  I had to scoop her up and carry her kicking and screaming over to the sink to wash her hands.  She crossed her hands over her chest and wouldn't let me wash her hands.  I finally pried her hands to the sink and quickly washed them while she was kicking and screaming the whole time.  I carried her out of the bathroom kicking and screaming some more and Aaron and I decided it was time for us to leave. Aaron grabbed her out of my hands because I was done wrestling with her.  She SCREAMED all the way back out to the car.  She was really MAD as you can see:

She ended up screaming a lot of the way home before she fell asleep--which didn't come as much of a surprise.  You could tell she was getting tired because her stubbornness and whininess was getting progressively worse as the day went on.  Even with the full on tantrum, I still would have flushed the toilet anyway instead of letting her because that's just gross!!

In other happenings Daniel is teaching Noah the way of fencing.  Noah is turning out to be very BOYISH even though his closest sibling is a girl.  Aaron is breathing a sigh of relief over that.  Noah is loving the foam swords.

Daniel learns all kinds of songs at school that he likes to come home and sing for me.  He even set the video up to record himself singing.  Sarah wanted to be part of the music video and kept sticking her head in the movie.  It is pretty funny to watch.

It was so nice to have everyone well enough to go out and have some fun this weekend.  After a month of being couped up inside the house we all were getting cabin fever and needed to get out.  Hopefully all of us will stay well  and healthy for a while!!  I am keeping my fingers crossed!!

Dreaded Calls From School, Sunbeams, Sickfest and SNOW!!

Kids are so hard on things!!  We have only lived in this rental house for a few months, but the kids have reeked havoc on the place in these past few months!  Josh and Daniel have been jumping on the bed, luckily no one fell off and broke their heads, however, they have broken a few of the bunky boards that were supporting Josh's mattress underneath.  Now whenever Josh sleeps he has to avoid the huge hole that the mattress sinks down in during sleep.  I also have to remember about the huge hole when I go down to tuck them in because if I sit on it, it really sinks through the broken bunky boards.  I am sure we will fix it eventually when we get around to it.  Maybe if he has to sleep long enough in that huge hole he will stop jumping on the bed--how's that for wishful thinking?! 

 Sarah and Noah have broken the vent in their room.  Don't ask me how, but they managed to do it.  We need to buy a replacement, but we have been busy with other things.  Until we do get a replacement I get to come in their room every morning and pull out all the stuff they have stuffed down it the night before--such as toys, clothes, dress ups, jewelry, socks, etc.  Let me tell you, it's a blast--not really.

It really snowed here Friday night/Saturday morning.  This winter has been pretty mild so far, so the kids were so excited to wake up to find a thick, fresh layer of snow on the ground.  All the boys wanted to go out and play.  Once everyone was outside Sarah realized she was missing the fun and wanted to go outside, too.  She went and got herself dressed and ready to go--it was so nice that I didn't have to fight her on getting dressed!!  She went outside only to return a few minutes later and she kept asking me for something, but I couldn't understand what she wanted.  She got frustrated enough she went and found what she needed--some gloves.  She couldn't find the gloves so she grabbed the next best things--Dad's socks and put them on her hands.  After that she was out there to stay and play.

 Of course no one in this house besides Mom knows how to close a door when they go outside.  Before I knew it Noah had gone down the stairs and was trying to make his great escape out the open door even though he had no pants, shoes, coat or socks on.

Aaron seized the moment and through a snowball at Noah.  Noah didn't seem to mind so Aaron threw a few more.  He still didn't care.  He continued to try and get outside.  He is one tough little boy!!

 I love that the boys think it is fun to shovel.  It makes things a little easier.  However, what made things easiest is when our neighbor busted out his snow blower and helped us out by clearing our sidewalk.  Matthew didn't like shoveling as much as Josh and Daniel so as our neighbor was clearing our sidewalk, Matthew went over to him, pulled on his arm and told him, "Hey, you need to do our driveway!!"  Matthew repeated it a few times to make sure he heard him.  Aaron just had to sheepishly smile and pretend like he didn't hear what Matthew had said to our neighbor.

 Daniel took care of the porch.

 Matthew took care of brushing the snow off the bumper of the suburban when Aaron "accidentally" squished Matthew into it.

Noah had quite of bit of fun picking up the bits of snow that had fallen on the floor off the kids shoes and coats and was eating them.  YUM!!

By the end Sarah and Noah were still going strong, but the other boys had had enough.  Aaron grabbed them and tried to start a snowball fight.  Josh and Daniel did NOT like that and they started screaming like someone was trying to cut their arms off.  I wonder what our neighbors were thinking about all the shrieking coming from our house.  About this time everyone came inside to warm up and Noah got really excited because there was so much snow to eat and such little time to eat it before it melted.

In other happenings we have weaned Josh completely off his Keppra.  As far as we know he has not had any nocturnal seizures, but he has only been off the Keppra for about 24 hours.  We will be having him sleep in our room the next few nights to make sure.  I can say Josh is a lot happier after going off the Keppra.  He is not Mr. Attitude about everything and it is really nice.  I hope we can keep it this way--at least until he is a teenager and develops that attitude just by being a teenager. 

Last week I got the call of dreaded calls from the school.  I HATE getting calls from the school!!  Anyway, Daniel's teacher called me to tell me they were doing a counting activity with chocolate chips and Daniel decided to eat some.  The bad thing was those chocolate chips were milk chocolate chips and they made Daniel sick.  I only buy Daniel friendly chocolate chips at home so Daniel thought he could eat all chocolate chips.  Unfortunately, that's not the case because as soon as Daniel ate the milk chocolate chip his tongue started itching.  He immediately went up and told his teacher so Daniel's teacher called me and I told her to give him Benadryl ASAP and to watch him.  She went ahead and got his Epi Pen ready just in case.  Luckily, the Benadryl kicked in for the most part, but by the time he came home from school he was wheezing something fierce.  We had to give him a breathing treatment and another dose of Benadryl, but after that he was good to go.  Have I mentioned I HATE calls from the school??!!  I am just glad it wasn't worse.  It scared the teacher pretty badly so I don't know how many more chocolate chip counting activities they will be doing in the future... 

Wow these last three weeks have been a sickfest at our house.  As soon as someone gets better someone else starts a new round of a new disease.  All around Christmas everyone got the barfs and diarrhea.  I thought we were done with all that so I made sure the kids were 100% well for 48 hours and then sent them to school which happened to be Tuesday morning.  After the kids had gone to school I was cleaning up the house when I got a call from Aaron at work.  He told me when he got up to get ready to go to work at about 5 am poor Josh was hanging out in the bathroom and it did not sound like he was having a very good time of it.  Aaron could only hear all kinds of solids, liquids and gases coming from Josh--poor kid was having some diarrhea.  Aaron said he spent a good amount of time in there before he went back downstairs and got into bed.  Well let me tell you about Josh--He LOVES school.  He did want to miss any school so he didn't tell me he was having stomach issues that morning.  I got up thinking that everything was hunky dory and sent him out the door to catch the bus after he got ready that morning spending an unusual amount of time in the bathroom.  I am sure all the screaming from all the rest of the kids masked the sounds of all the solids, liquids and gases Josh was making so I was oblivious.  Aaron meant to call me and tell me to keep Josh home from school, before school, but he lost track of time and didn't get to call me until Josh had been in school for about 30 minutes.  DOH!!  I had to hurry up and get Sarah, Noah and myself dressed to go and pick up Josh from school.  When I got there I had him called down to the office.  When he got to the office he said, "Um, why are you here, Mom?"  I made up some excuse to say in front of everyone since there were quite a few people that had heard him say that.  When I got outside I asked him if he was having tummy troubles and he told me yes and then he told me he needed to use the bathroom ASAP.  We rushed home and got home in the nick of time for me to hear some more solids, liquids and gases coming from the bathroom.  He ended up staying home the next two days until he was fully over it, but don't feel too bad for him he got to kick back and relax the whole time he was at home minus the running trips to the bathroom.  A few days after Christmas I ended up getting a head cold--not too big of a deal just more annoying than anything.  I am still not over my cold so when I got my turn at the barfiness last Wednesday it just aggravated my cold symptoms since when I throw up it comes out my nose, too.  I know that's probably TMI, but it did make my cold worse because my sinuses got full of stomach contents as well as mucus--YUCK!!  I have not been that violently ill with throwing up for a LONG time and I hope it is another LONG time before it happens again!!  Anyway, when Aaron came home from work Friday saying he was starting to get sick I just thought he had caught my cold that still hasn't cleared up.  However, he started spiking a fever of 102+ degrees and along with that he got the body aches, head ache, coughing and just generally felt crappy.  The poor guy took ibuprofen, but it only took the fever away for a few hours until it came back again before he could safely take another dose of ibuprofen.  He had to start taking Tylenol in between, but the few hours the two didn't overlap his fever was in full force.  He was only mobile when he had both the ibuprofen and Tylenol in his system like when he went and shoveled the sidewalk Saturday morning--poor guy.  He got sick enough he decided to go into the InstaCare Sunday evening only to be diagnosed with Influenza.  Now the funny thing about that is, Aaron and Josh were the only people from our family that got the flu shot this year.  Guess Aaron got a different strain of flu than the shot--poor guy!  He stayed home from work Monday and Tuesday because he felt horrible.  He finally had to go back today because he had stuff he had to get done.  I am sure he will be exhausted by the time he gets home today.  We are going on week 4 of sickness at our house and it is getting OLD!!!  I have a dream that everyone at our house will get healthy and stay that way!! 

Lastly, since Aaron was sick Sunday and Matthew was complaining of a belly ache they stayed home from church while I, alone, took the other four kids to church.  When we got to church, we stopped by the primary room to figure out where their new classes would be at.  We started with Sarah.  I found out where her class was and I attempted to take her to it.  I can't believe she is not in nursery anymore.  Anyway, once she figured out we weren't going to the nursery room and going somewhere else she came UNGLUED!  I tried to pull her in to her Sunbeam classroom to have her sit down, but she fought me the whole way.  It was doubly hard because I was holding Noah, too.  She made it pretty apparent that she was not about to attend her Sunbeam class--I think all the kicking, tantruming and screaming gave that away.  When I got back out in to the hall with her she screamed that she needed wuvs (loves).  I had to put Noah down to give her loves.  Once Noah got put down he started SCREAMING because he got put down.  At that point I had two very loud and screaming kids to try and figure out what to do with.  Anyway, I took her back over to the primary room to figure out what to do.  At that point one of the primary presidency got her interested in some stickers.  When Sarah was sufficiently distracted with the stickers I snuck off hoping they would have better luck getting her to class than I did.  While I was sitting in Relief Society with Noah (who refuses to go to nursery) I kept jumping every time someone would open the door because I was expecting them to bring Sarah back to me.  I thought everything was going great because I didn't hear anything.  I started getting nervous when Sunday School went overtime so I got up and left before the lesson ended to make sure everything was fine.  I walked over to the primary room to see that they had already let out.  I started to get worried since I didn't see Sarah anywhere.  I was trying to get through the crowd of people by the primary doors when I heard Josh yell, "Mom, where have you been?"  When I caught up to Josh he told me he had found Sarah out wandering the halls alone.  Luckily he grabbed her hand and went to find me.  I never got to talk to anyone directly from primary, but from what I can piece together, they couldn't get Sarah to go to her class either.  That's when Sarah attached herself to a little boy who is Josh's age and just hung out with him in his class with his classmates and teacher.  She attended class with him and then when their class got out, she just wandered the hall until Josh found her.  **SIGH**.  I wish they would have come and gotten me instead of sending her to a totally different class.  Oh well, I guess we will try again next week, but I will keep a better eye on happenings so I don't find my daughter wandering the halls alone after primary lets out.  I think 3 years old is just a little too young for that!!

New Years, BINGO, Pig Out, BYU and Potty Training

Last week was our annual Terry Family Pig Out and BINGO party to celebrate my Grandpa T's birthday (the kids Great Grandpa), which so happens to fall on New Year's Day.  We ended up celebrating it on the Friday before New Years, though.  Since the party was down in Provo we thought we would make a day of it, too.  We did a quick clean of our house and headed down to Provo--to BYU campus to be exact.  We first visited the Monte Beane Museum.  It is interesting to see all the different types of animals even if it is a little creepy that they are all stuffed.  The kids liked seeing the hippo and giraffe.

 Here's some more African animals:

 While we were there they were doing a presentation on reptiles and cold blooded animals.  It was pretty busy so we only stopped for a few minutes, but it was long enough for the kids to pet a live boa constrictor.  None of the kids were even afraid of the snake--it makes me wonder why they are so afraid of dogs?!

 We then headed over to the bookstore to check it out.  Here's Noah trying on a hat thanks to Aaron.

 We ran out of time on campus and we still had to wrap our stellar bingo prizes.  Now usually for this BINGO party every family brings all kinds of white elephant gifts so you get a wide range of unusual prizes.  Usually these prizes get re-gifted year after year because you don't have any use for them, but to bring them back the following year for BINGO.  Unfortunately, all our BINGO gifts from last year are packed away never to see the light of day until we move for the final time.  So I had to make a quick stop to All a Dollar to buy some high quality gifts ;).  When Matthew had found out that we were going to BINGO that night all he could talk about is how he was going to help Grandpa T with calling out the numbers.  Matthew loves anything with conducting a big group of people or using a microphone which is what Grandpa T usually does--Aaron and I just did a silent inward groan.  When we got to the BINGO party we feasted on pizza and then the real party started.  Matthew didn't even finish his dinner because he saw Grandpa T getting stuff ready and he had to run over to help--another inward silent groan.  We tried to reign him back to sit with us, but to no avail.  He had his heart SET on 'helping' and there was going to be no way around it.  Luckily Grandpa T rolled with the punches and gave Matthew the job of handing him the number balls and that made him happy--which also made us happy because it thankfully kept him away from conducting and from using the microphone--phew!!  For some reason I didn't get a picture of Matthew 'helping' but he was by Grandpa T's side for the majority of the night.  In this picture it looks like Noah is Grandpa's helper for a minute.  I am sure that was fun for Grandpa.

 With all my aunts and uncles, their families and all that extended family there was quite a few people there--not as many as in previous years, but still quite a few.  After all the bingo presents had been claimed, that's when the BINGO stopped and the present opening began.  Now every year it is a running joke that amongst the presents there are some HIDEOUS macrames that make their appearance.  We try not to get them because have I mentioned that they are HIDEOUS?!  Unfortunately, when the kids get their BINGOS they search out the biggest presents to add to their booty--which usually ends up being those hideous macrames.  And, yes, that is what happened this year as well except we had three kids picking out big presents so we got stuck with not only one hideous macrame, but three!!  Eegads!!  However, we were pretty sneaky and secretly stashed each macrame in different people's present stashes so we didn't have to take them home.  We justified it by figuring we are moving in a month and that would be three extra things we wouldn't have to move, too--right?!  I don't know how the people felt that ended up with their secretly stashed macrames felt, but hey, it's all in fun, right?!  Occasionally you do end up with some decent prizes.  This year Josh in addition to the hideous macrame he also got a DVD player and a FIVE pound (yes I said FIVE pound) Hershey chocolate bar.  He was pretty excited about that gift as you can see:

 I think it will take us the whole year to finish that chocolate bar off.  Josh was pretty adamant that he didn't want to share it at all, but after eating a few squares of it he relented.  He finally realized there was going to be no way he would be able to eat the whole thing by himself without getting extremely ill.  Aaron was more than happy to help Josh out after hearing that. 

Great Grandpa T was able to come to his 92nd birthday celebration.  He has had some dementia start setting in, but he still remains pretty healthy.  He has moved to a care center to assist him in daily living this year, but is still doing pretty well.  The kids were excited to see Great Grandpa T.

To celebrate New Year's Eve and New Years, we had another family over to eat dinner and play games.  Also nothing else says celebration like potty training, too.  Aaron decided to redeem my last year's birthday present and start potty training Sarah Saturday morning.    I had been pretty resistant to potty training her because I just didn't want to deal with it, but surprisingly enough she did really well.  Her first day she only had two pee accidents.  To reward her for staying dry Aaron gave her some oranges which she loves.  Needless to say she got a LOT of oranges that day.  Anyway everything was going great that day and we had everything ready for our party that evening.  Our guests came over and everything was fun and going great until we all sat down to eat.  We had a baked potato bar and croissant wrapped hot dogs.  Matthew LOVES baked potatoes--um let me rephrase that--he LOVES some ranch with a small side of baked potato.  Matthew prepared his potato and stuffed the biggest bite in his mouth causing him to choke on it.  All the choking caused him to barf, but luckily he made it to the bathroom.  Unluckily, he didn't make it in time to lift the toilet lid so he splattered everything all over the bathroom floor.  YUCK!!  Aaron, who is an awesome husband, cleaned it up for me while I helped everyone else get their dinner plates ready.  Everything else went smoothly until after we had all eaten.  I was cleaning up and Noah needed loves.  He needed loves bad enough that he let someone else hold him besides me.  While Erin (our guest) was holding Noah cuddled in his blanky, he decided to spew forth all his stomach contents all over her.  How embarrassing!!   I heard the sickening cough and ran over to help and he also got me pretty splattered as well as the carpet, too.  YUCK!!  I thought our barfing days were behind us since the stomach flu had already gone through our family the week previous.  Anyway, I scooped up Noah and threw him into the shower.  About this time we discovered Sarah had eaten so many oranges that her digestive system was in fiber overload and that's when her first small bout of diarrhea started in her new underwear.  Aaron and I decided to make it a shower party and threw her in the shower along with Noah.  While Aaron was cleaning them up in the shower I had to get the carpet cleaner out and clean the carpet of the Noah barf which did contain all of his unchewed food he had eaten for dinner which was a lot of hot dogs--YUCK!!  It'll be a long time before I can eat another hot dog that's for sure!!  Anyway, after these episodes we laid Noah and Matthew down for bed--Noah because he was sick and Matthew because it was after 7 pm and he is such a routine kid that's what he wanted.  We spent the rest of the evening playing games and letting the kids play.  It was lots of fun.  Surprisingly enough most of the kids lasted until midnight except Sarah who fell asleep about 10 minutes before midnight while sitting on the couch holding her Ariel doll. 

The next day Sarah came out of her room dressed in her princess dress up clothes.  She was pretty pleased with herself:

Hey, princesses need to potty, too:

I also need to say that due to all the oranges she was given the day before, she mastered going diarrhea in the potty, too...or so we thought.  Once we stopped giving her oranges she finally stopped having diarrhea and never went #2 in the potty for over 5 days.  Now if you know Sarah you know that this particular behavior is never heard of.  When she was a diaper wearing girl she was a regular, at least a two timer a day kiddo if you know what I mean.  I kept asking her if she needed to go poo poos in the potty and she kept telling me no.  Well she finally waited until last night when she had her "sleeping underwear" on aka pull ups to have her bowel explode.  Noah joined in the fun and had his own bowel explosion last night, too.  I woke up to one HUGE mess in her room this morning.  Their room was a toxic disaster zone!!  I think I emptied a whole can of Febreze and it still didn't touch the smell--YUCK!!  Anyway, let me just say sometimes being the Mom is not a fun job.  After the world's longest shower, scrub down and load of laundry I think we will attempt the poo poos in the potty.  I got some oranges last night so we will see if that might help her along...

In other happenings our house is coming along.  The kids like to visit and see the progress and test things out.  Here is Josh and Daniel testing out the pantry shelves without us knowing.  Good thing the shelves are strong enough to hold an 8 and 6 year old kiddo!

Here's Sarah window seat/toy box that is strong enough to hold an 8, 6 and 2 year who you can't see at the moment.

Sarah climbing on her closet shelves:

Sarah climbing on the linen closet shelves:

Checking out the railing outside of the bonus room:

Here's Noah and Sarah checking out the flooring being put down:

They told us we have about a month left until our house is done.  We are so excited!

Lastly don't you love it when the kids get a hold of your camera without you knowing?  I found a whole bunch of surprise photos of Daniel I didn't I had.  I chose his pouty look to post:

What a crazy kid!!