Random Barfing, Birthday Surprises, Poop Happens

Let me just say poop happens especially at our house!!  Tuesday morning which also happened to be my birthday Noah and Sarah woke up stinky.  I changed them both (happy birthday to me).  I guess that was Sarah and Noah's only present they could give me.  I thought we'd be good for the rest of the day, but, of course, I was wrong.  An hour later the Early Intervention lady was coming to visit Noah.  In that hour I quickly showered and cleaned up the house.  As the time got pretty close I noticed Noah was stinky again.  I changed him, but it made the whole house stink.  I quickly sprayed the Febreeze, but that just makes it smell like perfumed poopy which is almost worse at times.  I can just imagine what the house smelled like when the Early Intervention lady came to my door a few minutes afterward.  Kids have excellent timing don't they?!

Speaking of that stuff as well, we had our very first visit from our home teacher and his wife last night.  They had talked to us Sunday about when would be good to visit and we told them the nights that work best, but that was the last we heard of it.  They decided to come last night right at 6 pm.  I was about to serve dinner (the table was set and everything) when they unexpectedly came.  I turned the stove off, gathered up all the kids and went into the living room to visit.  Now this is the first home teaching visit we've had in about 6 years.  The kids who of course were hungry, were also out of control because we had visitors which makes things extra exciting and brings out all the extra energy in the kids.  Sarah and Noah had just had a shower because about an hour before Sarah came wandering out of her bedroom minus clothes and underwear from the waist down asking me where the wipes were.  I was busy making dinner so when I looked over after she asked me where the wipes were I was horrified to find she had had an accident in her underwear and had tried to take care of it by herself.  The aftermath was not pretty as evidenced by the smearing down her legs where she had pulled her underwear off.  Anyway, because of that 'accident' Sarah and Noah had been thrown in the shower to clean Sarah off.  When they got out they were just in their sleeping underwear and diaper with no clothes on when the home teacher and his wife showed up.  After about 5 minutes into the visit the kids were bouncing off the walls.  In the next five minutes they started dog piling on each other.  The next five minutes Noah wandered off somewhere inside the house.  The kids also kept escaping out of the living room or trying to hide in the coat closet.  I am failing to mention all the loud screaming and fighting that is going on all during this time.  Our home teacher couldn't get together with his companion so he brought his wife who was very soft spoken.  I couldn't hear half of what she said over all the ruckus.  About 10 minutes later Noah was still missing so I sent Matthew to go find him.  When Matthew dragged him back to the living room kicking and screaming because he didn't want to come, I smelled the reason why he disappeared in the first place.  Peeeeeee Ewwwwww!!!!  Now I have smelled some nasty diapers in my time and this one was BAD!!  Now I assumed the home teacher would be leaving soon so I didn't change him right away.  In the next few minutes Noah joined in the dog piles, he climbed all over the piano, hid in the coat closet, fell a few times right on his stinky diaper.  He kept crawling up in my lap and wallering me as well.  About 15 minutes later while trying to listen, but still keep an eye on the kids and being wallered by Noah I looked down a saw a huge poo smear down my arm.  Ewww!!  I gagged a bit and then decided to go change Noah right then and scrub my arm off.  I took him to the family room, laid him down only to find his diaper was full of diarrhea and it had leaked out amongst all his wallerings, playings and dog piling.  YUCK!!!  I was in the middle of his scrub down when the home teacher decided to leave.  I quickly got Noah cleaned up and scrubbed and sanitized my arms and hands and came out to see them out the door.  Funny thing was they didn't shake my hand as they left--however, if I were in their shoes I probably wouldn't have shook my hand either!!  I am sure my house smelled just lovely after that little episode.  I am trying to decide whether perfumed poopy smells better than unperfumed poopy--as for now I am undecided.  The poor home teachers--I hope we didn't scare them off because that visit was pretty rough thanks to my crazy, out of control kids!!!  Also after dinner I looked down to find Noah had not only smeared poop on my arm, but there was poop all over my pants.  YUCK!!!  I quickly changed them, but Ewwwww!!  Good thing I love my kids even if they are literally stinkers!! Parenting is not for the feignt of heart that's for sure!!!

This last Sunday I got to teach my Sunbeam class for the first time.  The lesson was on how we are thankful for birds and insects.  My class is small enough we were even able to take a field trip around the church to try and see how many birds and insects we could find.  I love this age group because they are so excited for everything!!  When class time was over we headed into primary.  Our ward's primary is small enough that there is no senior or junior primary--it is all combined together.  As we all came into Sharing Time my other kids were really excited to see me sitting with my sunbeam class in the front.  Daniel's class sits right behind me so he snuck hugs in all during sharing time until we had to abruptly leave.  For sharing time the teacher did a cranium game, but with church topics.  A volunteer would draw a paper out of a container and either act it out, draw it or mold it out of clay.  Matthew was picked as a volunteer.  As he walked up to the front I noticed he looked rather pale.  He pulled out his slip of paper which happened to say missionary.  He chose to act it out so the teacher gave him some scriptures and told him to act out knocking on a door.  After the gesture MAtthew did was guessed, Matthew promptly dropped the scriptures on the ground took two steps toward me and barfed EVERYWHERE.  Luckily for me, all of it landed on the floor and not right on me.  I jumped up to help him, but his primary beat me to it.  His teacher whisked him off to the men's room to clean him up.  I walked out into the hallway and didn't quite know what to do.  I grabbed some paper towels and tried to start cleaning up the floor since it was my responsibility since it was my kid that puked everywhere.  After I got up the big chunkies, they brought Matthew back out and told me to go help him.  I took him around the hallways in search of Aaron since we needed to go home ASAP.  I finally tracked Aaron down in priesthood.  Poor guy this is only the second time he has been able to attend priesthood in this ward since Noah is so clingy.  Aaron spends most of his time hanging out in nursery with Noah.  Anyway, after we rounded up Aaron I went back in to primary and rounded up the rest of my kids which was very noticable since my kids alone make of 1/6 of the primary.  We headed home and I sent Matthew to lay down.  Luckily he did not get sick again and neither did anyone else.  I guess it was just a random barfing.  How strange!!  Oh well I wasn't sad that I only had to clean up one round of barf.  Barf is the worst!!

Tuesday was my birthday.  I have been in denial for a while now, but Josh and Daniel wouldn't let me forget.  Every morning they would give me the countdown of how many days until my birthday.  They were pretty excited for me.  Of course the night or very early morning before my birthday I woke up at 2 am and couldn't go back to sleep for whatever reason.  I finally gave up on sleep about 6 am after tossing and turning since 2 am.  I got up and showered and was getting ready for the day.  I walked out of my room to the laundry room to grab some socks about 7 am.  As soon as I walked out of my room I ran into Josh and Daniel bringing me breakfast in bed.  Josh was hoping for the surprise factor so he got pretty upset when I saw them before they could surprise me.  However, I quickly ran back and hopped back into bed so they could serve me my breakfast in bed which consisted of strawberry milk, cereal and toast.  Josh even made sure he cut off the heal of the loaf of bread for my toast since that is my favorite part of the bread.  Despite losing out on the surprise factor they were still excited to serve me my breakfast in bed.  What sweet kids!

As the day went on I had another surprise about lunch time.  Aaron had previously unbeknownst to me had arranged for some babysitting (thanks Erin!!), came home from work early and took me out to a kid free lunch.  It was awesome!!  We hardly ever get time without kids so we had to keep telling ourselves to slow down and enjoy lunch!  Usually if we ever go out we are so busy trying to keep kids busy and or quiet, we just shove our own food in so we can continually deal with the kids.  It was nice to enjoy a QUIET, slow lunch.  However, you know you are a parent when most topics of conversation involve your kids even when they aren't with you!!  Later on after the kids got home from school Aaron took 4 of the 5 kids out to do some birthday shopping for me--what a brave guy!!  While they were gone I enjoyed a nice uninterrupted bath.  Daniel was the only one who stayed home, but he was watching a movie so he was occupied the whole time.  When they got back Aaron took his life into his own hands and fixed a yummy dinner of hot dogs and hamburgers.  Our grill is very temperamental and to light the thing you really do take your life into your hands.  At least Aaron's arm hairs will grow back eventually after being singed off by our temperamental grill!  After the kids ate Aaron brought out the birthday cake.  When I saw it I just thought, "LOOK AT ALL THOSE CANDLES!!  I AM GETTING OLD!!" 

Then it got worse when he lit them all--LOOK AT ALL THAT FIRE!!  I had lots of help blowing them out, though.  That's one advantage of having 5 kids I guess!

  As the kids helped dad hand out the presents Aaron snapped this candid picture:

As you can see Matthew is excited about all the action.  Josh is helping me open the presents and Sarah is taking advantage of our inattention and is going to town pulling out all the candles and licking off all the frosting off the candle bottoms.  I got another Willow Tree figurine for my collection.  I also got a bag of Strawberry Frosted Mini Spooners (are we high class or what!!??).  I also got another Bathroom Reader Book.  I love these books because they are full of little facts for your own personal hey how about that fact file.  You can stop and start this book at any time and it's great for when I take a bath.  However, the book Aaron painstakingly picked out is the exact same book he got me last year.  I thought it was funny out of all those bathroom reader books, which there are a lot of, he picked the exact same book out as last year.  When he figured that he had gotten the same one he felt pretty stupid, but I still appreciated the gesture.  I will have to exchange it, but that's not a big deal.  All in all it was a good birthday with lots of fun surprises!  However, I am very glad that I won't be any older for at least another good, long year!!

Josh and Daniel were excited to give me their home made presents.  They both made me a little book with lots of staples.  Here's Daniel's present:  It says, "Mom I love you the most.  You are the best mom in the world.  I love you"  He then drew a picture of me and him together with his person saying, "I love you".  Aren't home made presents the best?!

 Josh's present coincidentally contained a lot of staples, too.  His said, "I love you.  You'r so kind I hope you love you'r present, by Josh."  It is a picture of me with my birthday cake and two presents that say, "good luck".  Have I mentioned home made presents are the best?!

Speaking of surprises I was cleaning up the  kitchen yesterday afternoon.  I picked up this tomato to put it away only to find some little teeth marks in it.  It looks like someone thought it was an apple and took a big bite out of it.  I guess when they realized it was not an apple they put it back on the counter thinking I wouldn't notice the little mouth bite on it.  Don't you love kids?!

Last Friday Aaron had his annual Neurology visit down in American Fork.  He has to see the neurologist every year so the neurologist can sign off on his driver's license and to get a refill for his epilepsy medication.  Aaron has been seizure free for almost 13 years which is awesome.  As long as he takes his medication he's good.  Anyway, since he had to go to American Fork we decided to make it a family break and stay the night at G&G T's house.  We pulled the kids out of the last 30 minutes of school Friday and headed down.  As it so happens Aaron's neurologist's office is right by a Sub Zero ice cream place.  Since the kids filled up their warm fuzzy jar a while ago--which is a jar they can put a cotton ball into every time they do something nice for someone without being asked.  After they fill up the jar they get to get ice cream.  We finally took them out for ice cream on this trip.  We went to Sub Zero because they are the only place that serves Daniel friendly dairy, nut and egg free ice cream.  It is a pretty neat place.  You choose your cream base (in Daniel's case it is soy milk) then you get to choose a flavor and an add in.  When they mix all that up they pour in liquid nitrogen to get the mixture to freeze which gives off a lot of smoke.  The kids think the smoke is pretty awesome:

After everyone had been served Daniel took two bites of his ice cream and announced that he absolutely did not like it.  Well seeing as Daniel gets ice cream maybe once a year, Aaron was the nice guy and took Daniel back to try a different flavor.  The first time Daniel chose soy milk with root beer flavor and gummy bears as a mix in.  The second time around Daniel chose soy milk with strawberry flavor with crushed up oreos as his mix in.  When Daniel came back with his second choice he took a few bites and announced that he did not like that either.  About this time Aaron and I were pretty frustrated because the only reason why we went to Sub Zero was for Daniel and he didn't like anything that HE, himself picked out.  What a stinker!! 

After ice cream and Aaron's neurology visit we headed over to G&G T's house.  Matthew was beside himself with excitement.  He LOVES 'helping' grandpa which just means he loves riding on the tractor.  Of course if Matthew gets a ride so does everyone else.  Here's Josh getting a ride:

Noah even got a ride for the first time and loved it as you can see by his BIG smile:

That night we put all the kids to bed and G&G T were kind enough to listen out for them while Aaron and I got to go to the store to do some birthday shopping for Josh and Noah's birthdays which are coming up very soon.  Again it was nice to have some alone time.  I love my kids I really do, but sometimes it is nice just to get away from the hustle and bustle (and the screaming) of daily living.  Of course Daniel took advantage of his parents leaving.  As soon as we were out the door he snuck downstairs with his blanky and pitifully told Grandma that he needed lubs (loves).  How can you resist that?  So he got to get loves and a later bedtime by pulling out his puppy dog eye's routine.  What a charmer that kid is!!

The next day it was the day of Grandpa's birthday celebration and annual Easter Egg hunt.  The grandkids got to do the first hunt which was on G&G T's side yard.  They were excited.  Here they are all lined up at the back door waiting to hear the, "Ready, set, GOOOO"!

Here's an action shot of Sarah crazily running around:

Here's Noah going as fast as cold molasses running uphill:

Here's everyone checking out their loot afterward:

Then the adults had their turn.  I didn't get any pics because if you snooze you lose and I didn't want to lose ;)!

After the egg hunt we had lunch and then had birthday cake (strawberry shortcake) and sang Happy Birthday to Grandpa who is turning 29 again if you can believe it.

It was a fun time with all the cousins hanging out together.

Monday I made bread.  I, unfortunately, left a loaf sitting too close to the edge of the counter.  That's when Sarah and Noah seized their opportunity--the little opportunists that they are!!  This is where I say the loaf's eulogy--It was a good loaf....

Sarah and Noah like to take turns pushing each other around in this big truck:

They tried it with Sarah's pink shopping cart, but it didn't work so well.  The wheels don't roll very well when they are laying flat on the floor from Bubba's weight.  It was even worse when Sarah tried crawling in the cart, too.

I am thankful for little times like this when the kids are getting along and are mostly happy:

It reminds me that they don't fight and scream all the time only a big portion of it.  It makes me appreciate the quiet, poop free times :).  As you can tell Sarah and Noah are just freshly out of the shower since Sarah had pooped her underwear about 30 minutes previously.  I love my little girl, I love my little girl, I love my little girl....

Bubba's Bad Day, Spoken, IEP With Tough News, Allergist Visit

I swear kids don't seem to have taste buds--especially Sarah!  The other day we were having sweet and sour chicken for dinner.  I guess Sarah didn't think it had enough flavor so she went and grabbed the mustard and the Parmesan cheese out of the fridge and put both of them over her food.  MMMMM  Yummy!!  The rest of us watched in horror as she actually ate it all.  She offered me a bite, but, surprisingly, I declined.

Daniel can be one helpful guy.  Sometimes a little too "helpful", but I can't get too mad at this. Matthew has been struggling with his handwriting.  Our agreement about homework is, if I can't read it then it's wrong and he has to redo it.  This has caused multiple disagreements and makes me just dread homework time!!  Anyway, Daniel decided to help Matthew out the other day.  Daniel grabbed Matthew's homework before I could check it, erased all his answers and wrote them all back in for Matthew using his best handwriting as Matthew watched him and helped him get all the right answers.  I am sure Matthew's teacher was wondering how Matthew's handwriting got so neat overnight.  I felt awful when I told Daniel not to help Matthew so much because Matthew needs to practice his own handwriting in order for it to get better.  However, I was glad that Daniel wanted to help Matthew.

The other day I was having a bad day.  It just so happened to be during Sonic's Happy Hour so I splurged and got myself and everyone else a drink.  Matthew and Josh were excited to come home from school and see their special treat.

Even Noah got his own drink because I, selfishly, didn't want to share mine.  He thought he was pretty big stuff!

Last week Noah had a rough two days.  The first day Sarah shoved him into the coffee table.  He hit his head and got a nice bruise.  The next day I was at a friend's house and Noah rolled down her cement stairs and did a header on the cement patio.  About an hour later he had a pretty big goose egg that was quickly turning black.  When we got home later that evening I got Noah dressed in his footie jammies.  He was running around chasing his siblings and slipped on the floor and fell doing yet another face plant.  When I picked him up he was covered in blood.  I wiped it off to find he had split his lip pretty badly.  He had also chipped three of his teeth (two on bottom and one on top).  This cut was deep enough I was wondering about stitches.  After much discussion between Aaron and I we decided to wait and see at home instead of a traumatic trip to the ER for maybe a stitch or two.  Of course the picture doesn't even do the wound justice!  You can't tell how deep it really was because in the picture it was held together.  Poor Noah!!  At least he had his green on for St. Patrick's day from his bruises on his head.  No pinches for him! 

Yay for almost spring!!  The ground has defrosted enough that they were able to come out and do our final grade on our yard!!  Noah was fascinated with the Bobcat and watched it through his bedroom window.

Sunday Aaron and I had to speak in church.  We had fought I mean discussed at length on whether we should have our kids speak as well.  Aaron won out and we decided just to have Aaron and I speak and have the kids sit with G&G T in the audience.  We did end up dropping Noah off at a friend's house because he is such a mommas boy there would be no way I could speak without him on my hip.  Once he saw me or heard me speaking he would have started screaming and it wouldn't have stopped until I was holding him again.  Luckily, he only screamed for a bit after I dropped him off at my friend's house.  Sunday morning we were still finishing up our talks--nothing like waiting until the last minute!!  Anyway, Aaron had lots of 'help' from Noah when he was finishing up his talk Sunday morning.

We had to get to the church extra early Sunday morning, too at 8:15 am because we were meeting with the bishop.  I was the lucky one who got the calling.  I get to be the Sunbeam teacher aka Sarah's teacher in primary.  I am excited about that because I love kids at that age.  I think they also wanted me in there to help reign Sarah in, too.  Anyway, we did our talks without too much problem--good thing the audience couldn't see my knees because they were just shaking!  I HATE getting up in front of people for any reason!!!  Aaron did great and we are both hoping that we don't have to speak again for a very LONG time.

My birthday is coming up soon and as much as I want to forget that, Josh and Daniel keep reminding me how close it is.  They are very excited for my birthday and every night when they go to bed they work on their home made present for me.  I am curious as to what it is, but I have promised them I won't peak while they are at school so it will be a surprise when they give it to me on my birthday.  However, Daniel came up with a small sample of what they are making for me the other night.  It is a mini book that Daniel made himself.  Let me decipher.  The front page says Daniel--I guess that's just in case I don't remember who made the book for me even though he is standing right next to me as I read it.

The next page says, "You are the prettiest Mom"

The last page says, "I love you".  Oh it melted my heart!!  Daniel is such the sweet little charmer!!  I can't wait to see what they have made me for my birthday if this is a sample of it!!

We have had a rough two days at our house!  A few weeks ago Matthew's teacher informed me that Matthew's IEP (individual education plan) expires March 26 and that we need to update it before then.  Looking at the calendar I decided that Monday, March 19 would be a perfect day to have the IEP meeting.  What I failed to realize up until it was too late to cancel was that Monday, March 19 the kids were out of school for a teacher prep day.  DOH!!!  I had to bring all five kids to that IEP appointment with Matthew's teacher, the regular education teacher, the assistant principle, and the psychologist.  Luckily, Matthew's teacher had Ipads for her regular class that she let the kids play with during the IEP meeting which kept them busy--phew!!  During the IEP meeting it so happened to fall on Matthew's 3 year review this year as well.  They have to re-evaluate Matthew every three years to make sure he is still eligible for the special education program.  What that means is I have to fill out a ton of forms, his teacher has to fill out a ton of forms and that Matthew gets a bunch of psychological tests from the psychologist.  At his IEP meeting we got to hear all the results of his testing--which was not good.  I mean we know he is delayed and has issues, but to see how bad that actually were was quite upsetting.  The psychologist went first to give us his progress report and to explain all the tests results.  Then after going through his progress report they moved into the IEP meeting.  We didn't spend too much time on the IEP plan because we are going to have to totally revise it in about a month because Matthew will be changing programs next year.  That also means changing schools AGAIN.  He will have attended 5 different schools by the time he moves on to Jr. High which is crazy--the poor kid!  Anyway, after everything was discussed they basically gave Aaron and me the option of choosing what we want for Matthew next year--he can either stay where he is (which is definitely not working for him) or he can move into a blended curriculum between functional skills and a learning center or he can be in a straight functional skills classroom.  We have until April 20th to decide what we want.  I think we are leaning toward a blended curriculum where he will be sent out to the learning center for what he can handle like Math, PE, music, etc. and then the rest of the time will be spent in the functional skills classroom.  Once we decide we will have to revisit his IEP plan and make changes accordingly.  However, I must admit after hearing what the psychologist had to say at the beginning of the meeting, I spent the rest of the time trying to not break down into tears--which meant I better not say too much if I didn't want my voice to crack and the tears to start falling.  After the meeting Aaron went back to work and I went home with the rest of the 5 kids.  When I got home I threw a pity party for myself that lasted the rest of the afternoon.  Now every Monday and Wednesday me and friend go and work out at the gym.  As our workout time approached she called me and asked if we wanted to go shopping instead of going to the gym.  She had no idea about the terrible day I'd had.  I was more than happy to do that instead of working out so we went out that evening.  It was just what the doctor ordered--some RETAIL THERAPY.   Luckily I wasn't the one buying which made it that much more fun :).  By the time we were done I felt a lot better and was able to face the news about Matthew without crying (too much).

However, the next day we got another blow.  It was Daniel's semi annual visit to the allergist and this time it was for the skin prick test.  I waited to tell Daniel about his visit until after he got home from school.  When he found out where we were going he got really quiet.  I was busy cooking lunch and I turned around to see why he was so quiet only to find him crying softly into his arm because he HATES going to the allergist.  I felt horrible!  I picked him up and he burst into tears telling me about how much he hates going there.  About that time Aaron came home.  He surprised me by coming home from work so he could come to the appointment with me.  That was a pleasant surprise because trying to wrangle three kids in a tiny room during nap time alone is not my idea of a good time!  Anyway, he found Daniel crying and offered to give him a blessing.  After getting the blessing Daniel felt better.  I am thankful that calmed him down!  We all headed over to the doctor's office--Sarah, Noah, Daniel, Aaron and me.  I took some pictures of the whole process so you can see what torture they inflict on the poor kid.  Here's the beginning shot of his back:

 Then they have him lay down and mark it up and then start putting drops of the different allergens on his back.

 After that they get a needle and scratch each one into his back.  Ten minutes later they come and evaluate the marks.  The bigger the hive the more allergic he is to the allergen. 

 As you can see he has not only NOT outgrown anything including the milk, eggs and nuts, but is starting to get extremely allergic to the seasonal pollens of Utah and such.  As he gets exposed each season to these allergens they will continue to get worse until he is so symptomatic that he will need allergy shots to try and function normally.  Something to look forward to I guess.  Hopefully I can hold off on the shots until Daniel is a little older for two reasons, one being because I think Daniel would be too traumatized to learn he had to get two shots in his arm twice a week for a month, once a week for a few months, then every 3 weeks for 3+ years and the other reason being we have a $35.00 office copay plus the cost of the shots for each visit--yowza that would get expensive!!  As for now I will stop complaining of the cost of two allergist visits a year and the $40 copay for each of his medications.  Speaking of that we still have to carry an Epi pen around with us because he continues to be that allergic to milk, eggs and nuts.  If you want proof he still has marks on his back today from the hugeness of his hives from yesterdays skin prick test in the area of milk, eggs, and nuts (especially pistachios and cashews).  After they wiped off his back and put cortisone cream on it, Daniel had me scratch his back straight for almost the rest of the office visit--poor kid!  It also doesn't help that our allergist has the worst bedside manner ever!!  She definitely does not give anyone the warm fuzzies!! 

Anyway enough of all the doom and gloom.  When we got home I started cooking dinner.  To help out Sarah decided on her own to set the table.  She went over to the fridge and pulled out everything in the shelves that she could reach and put it on the table for me.    That's why there is strawberry syrup and minced garlic as well as mustard and Worcester sauce. 

She gets an 'A' for effort though because right after this I got a reminder call from Josh's old cub scout leader reminding us that we had the Blue and Gold Banquet that night and they would be providing dinner for everyone.  I had completely forgotten so I quickly cleaned up my dinner mess and got all the kids ready to go to the Blue and Gold banquet.  We left to go to the banquet as soon as Daniel got home from soccer.

We decided that even though we have moved we still wanted Josh to get his Wolf award from his old leaders because that's where he earned it.  He could have gotten it last month if they would have had pack meeting, but pack meeting ended up falling on Valentine's Day so they cancelled it  and were going to have it in March instead.  When we got there Matthew and Josh along with some other boys helped the cub master out with his Blue and Gold explanation. 

 Here's Josh getting his Wolf award!!  Way to go Josh!!!

Here's Matthew up to his old tricks--he loves to be the cub master's helper whether he wants a helper or not.  That meant Matthew led the flag ceremony, he helped with the cheers, and he also said the closing prayer.  Good thing the cub master is pretty laid back and rolls with the punches.

 Spring time is here and that means it is time for soccer.  YAY!!  Only Daniel is playing this time, however.  Here he is kicking the ball during practice.

 Here he is as the goalie trying to stop the ball.

Daniel definitely has the advantage of being a lot older than the rest of his team since he is already 6 and most of the others are only 5. 

As for things...they could be better, but I am trying to stay positive.  Aaron and I have to make a decision of what to do with Matthew for next year.  Also even after we make the decision it could be changed since the school district has the final say in where he goes which can be frustrating!!!  Daniel has not outgrown any food allergies and his other allergies are getting worse.  However, thankfully so far he doesn't get too symptomatic to the seasonal stuff....yet.  The allergist said every year it will get worse and worse.  **SIGH**  In trying to stay positive I have to remind myself of my blessings which I have many and that makes me feel better.  I just need to stay positive--easier said than done, right?!

What?! , Chatty Cathy, Disintegrating Wipes IS BAD!!

I thought my kids could properly dress themselves so I haven't been double checking their clothes.  That was until Daniel came home from kindergarten with his shirt on inside out.  I didn't realize that the reason he had trouble doing up his front buttons was because his shirt was on wrong.  What a funny kid!

 All the kids had dental checkups last month and thankfully no one had a cavity.  We even got a call from the dentist's office today saying that Josh had won a $20 Toys-R-Us gift card from being entered into the cavity free drawing.  WAHOO!!  Anyway, during this visit we did find out that Daniel had broken two molars and they happened to be the same two teeth with cavities he had gotten filled last visit.  I guess they give you a three year guarantee on fillings and his fillings lasted less than 6 months so they had to be replaced.  We made the appointment for an early afternoon last week so I wouldn't have to pull Daniel out of school.  When we got to the appointment they led Daniel back to 'the chair' and got him set up with some nitrous oxide gas and some video goggles.  That worked well until they tried to put the ear buds into Daniel's ears.  Daniel has the strangest shaped ears.  He has had these weird ears ever since he was born.  With these 'interesting' ears consequently no ear buds will ever fit into his ears--poor kid.  After trying and trying for a few minutes the dental assistant gave up and taped the ear buds on Daniel's ears because that's the only way he could listen to the movie and not hear the drill.     

Here Daniel is awaiting the laughing gas to relax him.  He chose to watch the movie Tangled (with the ear buds taped to his ears) while he was waiting.

 Once they started work on him, they closed the door so the other kids couldn't hear Daniel whimper once they gave him the shots to numb up his mouth.

Of course I had my sidekicks Sarah and Noah with me.  Since the appointment was during naptime Noah thought he'd make himself comfortable first by pulling off one shoe and one sock, throwing the shoe and sock (because Noah loves to throw things) and then by dirtying his diaper.  Of course I ran out of the house not thinking this appointment would take very long so I didn't bring the diaper bag.  Everyone got to smell Noah's sweet aroma--it was great.

After being there for a few minutes, he either knocked himself out with his sweet aroma or the naptime sleepiness was setting in:

 Noah got his second wind, though and decided to play the game 'come get me while I try to run away from you'.  He kept running down the hall and trying to walk into different patient's rooms.  Of course, I had to try and stop him which made him think I enjoyed playing his fun game.  He would run down the hall and try to walk into someone's room and see how long it took me to come and scoop him up.  I tried to stop him, but he kept sneaking by me.  One point and dental assistant came to talk to me about how to care for Daniel's new fillings.  Noah took this opportunity of my lack of attention to him and took off.  Another nice dental assistant saw him run down the hall and she went to pick him up and bring him back.  I think she caught a strong whiff of his stinky pants and didn't help me the next few times he ran away from me.  I don't blame her, Noah was pretty stinky!  While I was trying to keep Noah contained I gave Sarah my phone to play with.  She stayed quiet and busy with it and it was nice.  However, I found out what she was doing while she had my phone later on when my memory was almost full.  She was playing with this hair salon game and they let you take pictures of your 'clients'.  Sarah had filled up most of my phone memory with her salon 'clients' like this:

Luckily, I have a DELETE button!  It took a good long time to delete all those stupid salon pictures, but it kept her quiet so I can't complain....too much anyway.

Saturday we were getting a strong case of Spring Fever so we headed outside for the day and did some geocaching.  We found a few microcaches which is fun to do.  Of course while we were looking for stuff Noah made his own fun by taking off one shoe and one sock and throwing them as far away from the stroller as he could. 

 The boys had fun and all of them fought for the chance to sign our geocaching name to each cache.  Here's Aaron trying to open one of the micro caches:

 After a while Sarah was getting slower and slower in her walking.  The boys had scooters so they could go a lot faster and she just couldn't keep up.  We did let her try and ride a scooter, but she didn't like it so she just walked with me and Aaron.  Aaron tried to help her by putting her on his shoulders.  She did NOT like that and would only hold on by covering Aaron's eyes.  That didn't work so well so we just had to walk a little slower for her to keep up.

 Daniel is a funny kid.  He came to me yesterday and told me to watch him.  He started pulling all these weird faces with his eyes closed.  When he was done he asked me if I saw that.  Not know what he was exactly talking about I asked what I was supposed to see.  He did the whole weird face thing again (this time I recorded it) and then asked me if I saw his ears move.  I think I saw everything else but his ears move with all that face pulling.  He is so funny!

He is also a pretty friendly kid and will talk to anyone and everyone.  In moving into a new house we have had a few things that we have had to get fixed.  Daniel LOVES the fix it guy that comes.  The fixit guy came last week to fix our back door.  When the fix it guy came in and was looking at the door, Daniel started chatting it up with him.  He followed him everywhere the fix it guy went.  When Mr. Fixit went out to his car to get tools Daniel followed him out there talking the whole way out and the whole way back inside again.  When they were back inside Daniel went over and drew him a picture of Daniel and him standing outside in the sun.  When Daniel was finished drawing the picture he presented it to Fixit.  Mr. Fixit said he loved it.  However, when Fixit left, he left Daniel's masterpiece here.  Daniel was devastated.  I told Daniel that Mr. Fixit had to come back in the morning to finish the door and that I would give his picture to him.  Unfortunately I forgot to give Fixit the picture and I forgot to get rid of the picture before Daniel got home.  When Daniel saw his picture still here, he was upset all over again.  Luckily, Mr. Fixit had to come back yesterday to finish up and he came right as Daniel was getting home from kindergarten.  Daniel was so excited to see him again.  He went over and started talking to him and didn't stop until Mr. Fixit left, but this time Daniel made sure Fixit left with his picture. 

Noah has discovered the upstairs railing and not only that, but he has also discovered how much fun it is to throw toys over the railing to hear them clatter on the floor below.  I caught him just after the fact here as he is walking back into the bonus room to gather another handful of toys to throw over the railing:

I must say the funniest time he did it was when Josh was sitting at the desk below the railing and Noah threw a big truck over the railing and hit Josh squarely on his head.   Josh was MAD, but I couldn't stop laughing in order to get upset at Noah because it was so funny.  Noah, of course, wore his most innocent expression that said, "Who, me?!  I wouldn't ever do such a thing!" when he heard Josh howling after being hit.  The kids now know to watch out down below when Noah's upstairs.

Josh has told Aaron he wants to run the Clinton 5K again this year.  He went out jogging with Aaron yesterday and during their jog he told Aaron that he really wanted to run with him instead of Mom because Mom slows him down.  WHAT?!  Josh also told Aaron that he was embarrassed last year because it was all my fault that the ambulance almost passed us at the end of the race because I was running so slow.  WHAT, AGAIN!!??  When Aaron told me what Josh had said I was bothered by it.  Let me set the record straight here.  Last year when the race started Josh took off sprinting as fast as he could.  As you can imagine he tired out pretty fast, but I did the slow and steady thing.  However, since Josh was so tired he begged me to walk a while.  I kept trying to encourage him to jog with me, but he was too tired so we walked even more.  I was the one that was trying to jog while Josh was begging to walk.  Who was slowing who down here?!  Luckily we did finish the race before the trailing ambulance passed us.  It will be interesting to see what happens when Aaron 'slows' Josh down this year.  I do believe Josh must have a case of very selective memory loss because he was the one begging to walk last year....I promise!!!

Speaking of Josh...they had their end of year pictures taken at school a few weeks ago.  In looking at Josh's picture, it appears he got his picture taken AFTER lunch since he has lunch smeared all over his shirt.  It looks like Josh really enjoyed his lunch at least!

Aaron learned a lesson the hard way last week, however, it was my fault.  Sarah, after flushing the majority of the flushable wipes down the toilet, she left the flushable wipes bag open.  They dried out pretty quickly since the package was left wide open.  I tried to salvage the flushable wipes by rewetting them.  I poured some water on them and left them to soak up the water and remoisten themselves.  A few hours afterward Sarah decided to poop her underwear and Aaron being the nice guy went to clean her up.  He grabbed a wipe and started wiping when the wipe disintegrated in Aaron's hand leaving him wiping a dirty bum with his bare hand.  YUCK!!  Aaron gave up didn't want to 'chance it' with another wipe so he just threw her in the shower and scrubbed his hands.  He wasn't too happy about my trying to salvage the wipes because they don't salvage very well.

I am very nervous because our family gets to speak in church this upcoming Sunday.  It should be very interesting.  I don't know where to have the kids sit or if they should talk or just bear their testimonies.  I guess we will figure it out this week sometime....again it should be very interesting to say the least. We have a hard enough time trying to contain everyone while NOT sitting on the bench it should be interesting to see what happens when we are sitting up there for everyone to see....

Parents and Pastries Disaster, Student of the Month...Again, Bubba's Sweet Moves, I CUTE!!!

Noah (aka Bubba) thinks he is such a big boy.  The other day for lunch he screamed and screamed and I couldn't figure out what he wanted.  It was a little frustrating, but eventually I figured out he wanted to sit at the bar with Sarah and Daniel for lunch.  Once I sat him up there he thought he was big stuff.  Then he started screaming again.  I then realized he wanted his own fork to eat his nuggets with just like Sarah and Daniel.  He is getting too big (and very socially aware which we have been anxiously watching)!!

 Here he is trying to work his fork.  I guess it doesn't matter if you have to use two hands to actually get the nugget on the fork in the first place.

 Ahhh success.  He is quite proud of himself.

I was at the store the other day and they were playing overhead music.  Noah must have really liked it because he started to bust a move.  I love the 'oh so serious' look on his face when he starts dancing.  His sweet moves are some serious stuff, according to his facial expressions!

In other things we are still working with Sarah and the potty.  Let me just say I have not had a kid so stubborn as she is!!  She has the #1 down, but getting her to do #2 in the potty is next to impossible.  The only times she has done #2 in the potty was mostly by accident--it just happened to come out while she was doing #1.  Sorry to be so graphic, but that's the only way to explain it.  I have tried bribing her with 'pretty lips' (lip gloss), giving her a cold shower if she poops her underwear (I know it's mean!), sending her to her room after having and accident, and nothing is working.  I will be trying a chart with her to see if that will work.  I am hoping it will otherwise she may have some problems when she starts preschool later this year.  Maybe they teach #2 training in preschool....how's that for wishful thinking?!  It is SO FRUSTRATING!!  A funny part to this is every time I get upset with her, she looks at me and says, "I cute, Mom!"  That gives her a reprieve of my wrath for a few minutes at least while I try not to smile.  I hear that quite a few times in any given day, too, "I cute, Mom!" Anyway, Sarah loves going pee pees in the potty.  I used to be able to send her by herself and she would take care of everything, but lately she has been needing some parental supervision.  I have found her supposedly going pee pees in the potty, but she has been putting all my flushable wipes in the toilet, swirling them around with her bare hands and trying to flush them all down.  Ewwww!!  She has clogged many a toilet doing this and she has recruited Noah to be her accomplice in all this, too.  I will send her to go potty and after a long time has passed by I will go and check on her to find her and Noah playing in the toilet trying to flush all the wipes down it.  Their guilty faces when I catch them tell me they know what their doing is wrong, but they continue to do it.  AHHHHHH!!  I HATE plunging toilets!!  Here's a side note to that....when we were building this house we specifically requested 'power flush' toilets because between Daniel and Matthew.....well I will just leave it at that.  That was a fun conversation to have with the builder.  I made Aaron deal with that one and here's how the email conversation went:

Aaron, "Is there any way we could get some 'power flush' toilets?  We have some kids that tend to clog them quite often."  What you can't see is how red his embarrassed face was after he sent the email.

Builder, "Uh, sure.  I will have to look into that because we don't get too many requests to upgrade toilets."

Needless to say we did get the power flush toilets even if it was quite embarrassing in requesting them.  However, Sarah has still clogged them more times than I can count flushing all the wipes down the toilet.  I wonder if they make super duper turbo flush toilets that can handle a whole bag of flushable wipes, but that's a whole different situation entirely for a different time.....I am sure everyone will be quite relieved that I won't be going deeper into that situation for now. As for now I am now short on flushable wipes thanks to Sarah and Bubba for taking care of my whole brand new pack just a few days ago.   I should have just flushed the money to buy them with down the toilet because that would have been more entertaining for me and probably wouldn't have clogged the toilet, either.   I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids.....

Matthew received student of the month again for February.  The theme for February was patriotism and Matthew fit that bill quite nicely.  In his class at school they have made him the official Pledge of Allegiance leader and he has taken that job quite seriously.  Even at home he will bust out at random times into the Pledge whether we are shopping, eating dinner, showering, etc.  To quote what his teacher said about him, "Our patriotic, Tenacious Tiger is Matthew Mancil.  Each morning he never forgets to lead the class in the pledge.  If I begin class without remembering to do the pledge, he is there to remind me and asks the class members to get ready and begin with him leading the words."  Somehow I did not find this surprising in the least.  If you give Matthew a job he loves to do, it will definitely get done every day whether you want it to or not.  Good for Matthew, though, and I am glad his teacher is so patient with him, too.

This past Wednesday was Dads and Donuts day at Josh and Daniel's school.  Aaron was able to take off a couple hours that morning to have breakfast with Josh and Daniel at their school.  Of course Aaron had to bring Daniel's breakfast because he can't eat the donuts or drink the milk since he's allergic to both.  Aaron assured Daniel he was going to bring him something good.  When they got to the school and Aaron pulled out some Pop tarts and juice for Daniel, Daniel was MAD!  He thought 'something good' meant fruit snacks.  Aaron got a tongue lashing for that--poor guy.  Anyway, Josh took advantage of Daniel's inability to eat the donuts and ate enough of them to cover his share, Daniel's share and Aaron's share.  Where does that kid put all that food since he is SO SKINNY?!  They still had a fun morning together minus the tongue lashing, of course. 

Last Friday Matthew's school they had a Parents and Pastries day.  Since Aaron went to Josh and Daniel's Dads and Donuts day it was my turn to go with Matthew to his Parents and Pastries day.  Now I kept reminding myself all week about Parents and Pastries day.  When Friday morning rolled around I completely forgot--D'OH!!  I remembered about it at 8 am that morning and it started at 8 am--Double D'OH!!  By the time I remembered Sarah and Noah were already in the shower since Noah and Sarah had already played in the toilet that morning.  I made Matthew pack his own home lunch while I made sure Josh and Daniel were ready to leave for school.  If I hurried fast enough we could make the last 20 minutes of Parents and Pastries--hurried is the key word.  I got myself dressed and ready in 5 minutes flat.  It is so amazing to me that I can get myself ready in five minutes after having kids, when before having kids it took me a whole hour to get ready.  I guess kids will do that to you.  Anyway, after I was ready I pulled Sarah and Noah out of the shower to get them dressed.  Noah I got dressed likety split.  Sarah, however, did not like the clothes I had picked out for her and proceeded to throw a major tantrum.  I tried to put her pants on which was very difficult since she was kicking and screaming.  Every time I would get one leg in she would pull it back out.  I was trying to hurry and this was so frustrating to me.   I finally decided to threaten her and told her we were going to leave her home since she wouldn't get dressed.  Well she called my bluff and just sat pouting and screaming on the couch and still did not even attempt to get dressed.  I hate it when they call your bluff!!  Anyway the clock was still ticking and I was running out of time.  I finally had to hold her down and force her clothes on her.  It was like dressing a screaming, unwilling octopus!  I must admit by the time I finally got her dressed I was broken out with sweat on my brow.  It was hard work dressing and unwilling screaming octopus girl!!  Anyway, I threw the kids in the car and we headed over to Matthew's school.  We got there about 8:37 am which was cutting it close since the school bell rant at 8:50 am.  It was pretty busy so we had to park far away which was not fun since it had snowed quite a bit the night before.  I was pulling Sarah and Noah out of the car when Matthew saw one of his friends and decided to not wait for us and to walk in to school with her.  I grabbed Sarah's hand and was holding Noah and tried to catch up to Matthew.  He was too fast and we quickly fell further and further behind him.  I kept calling out for him to wait, but he had selective hearing loss and I swear started walking faster.  I probably would have too, if I had a crazy lady following me and screaming at me to stop.  Anyway, he disappeared inside the school while I was struggling/half pulling Sarah along on the slippery sidewalk trying to balance Noah on my hip and not fall.  Sarah did not like being pulled along and started screaming and fighting with my grip I had on her wrist.  When I got inside the school he was no where to be found.  I looked and looked and couldn't see him anywhere and Sarah was still screaming which caused everyone to stare at us.  I started walking over near his classroom carrying Noah and pulling a screaming Sarah and finally found him putting away his coat and backpack.  I grabbed him and we started over to where the Parents and Pastries booth was set up which was over by the cafeteria.  Sarah continued to scream all the way over to the booth attracting stares from anyone and everyone.  We even ran into an old neighbor who probably heard us coming before she even saw us.  Again Matthew started walking faster than I could since I was trying to man handle Sarah and Noah through the crowd.  He walked straight past the booth and headed into the cafeteria.  I finally caught up to him in the cafeteria where he was chit chatting with the lunch lady about when he could eat his breakfast.  I turned him around and we went back to the booth where he then informed me that he did not like donuts.  At this time the bell rang and he ran off to class and left me in the middle of the hallway with two screaming kids.  I finally grabbed a donut and gave it to Sarah to try and stop her screaming and, thankfully, it worked.  Well so much for a fun morning of parents and pastries with Matthew.  That was a horrible parenting FAIL.  Hey, at least I give myself a few points for trying even if no one appreciated it.  Again I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids....and yes, Sarah is cute of which I get reminded quite frequently of throughout every day...."I cute, Mom"...

Parenting is not for the feint of heart--that's for sure!!