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!!

Oops, Hardware Ranch, Night Action, Meet Bunsie

In unpacking and other generalized stuff I haven't had a chance to catch up blogging until this morning.  It is somewhat of a long, random and jumpy post, but there has been a lot to catch up on!!  We are continuing to unpack, unpack, and unpack some more.  I think it would go a lot faster if I didn't have so much 'help' from little hands!!

In unpacking the toys the kids thought it was Christmas all over again.  Here's Noah sporting Aaron's boyhood Superman cape that we had just found...again:

 Unbeknownst to me it appears Daniel got a hold of my cell phone and took some candid pictures.  Don't you love it when you come across pictures like this?! Um...Thanks for the laugh, Daniel:

 In unpacking we have found Sarah's princess shoes.  I can't tell who was more excited Sarah or Daniel...

 or Noah...

I am sure Aaron will be excited to see his boys decked out in Cinderella shoes (or as Sarah calls them Snow Wipe shoes).

 With our laminate flooring we have a new dust mop/broom that Noah thinks is tons of fun to play with.  He will sneak into the pantry, get it out and play with it for long periods of time.  It isn't until I trip over it later on that I find it again.

Sometimes when home life gets boring, Noah makes his own fun.  I will always wonder what it is with boys and farting noises...They start thinking it is the best thing ever at such a young age!  Geez!

 Noah is just like his Dad and brothers.  As soon as we get home, he pulls his shoes and socks off faster than anyone else that I know.  I have found dirty socks in the strangest of places! No wonder we lose so many socks since they randomly get tossed wherever the wearer happened to take them off at.

This weekend we ventured a trip up to Hardware Ranch.  To learn more about it click here.  Anyway, we try and do this as a family every year.  Last year we didn't make it so this year we really wanted to try and get there this year.  We ended up waiting until the very last weekend it was open to go and, of course, it was FREEZING!!!  The outside temperature was 32 degrees, but the wind was blowing and that made everything feel so much colder!!  Since many sane people didn't want to come out in such cold weather there weren't too many people around, which was nice.  We got on the horse drawn wagon and waited to ride out into the elk field. Have I mentioned it was FREEZING?!  

 Here's the elk just watching the wagon drive by very uninterested like.

 Some of the bulls hadn't lost their antlers, but they should soon.

 The kids didn't want to spend too much time looking around after since it was so cold.  We tried to get another person to take a family picture of all of us standing around the pair of horses that pulled the wagon, but that didn't happen.  Aaron handed him the camera and explained how to use it.  The poor guy thought he had taken a few pictures and assured us that he did, but he hadn't done anything at all.  DOH!!  We didn't realize it until we were all back in the car and none of us wanted to go back outside in the cold for a retake.  Oh well, maybe we can try again next year...Here are the rest of us hurrying back to the car to get out of the icy wind, except for Sarah who is always up for a photo op.

Of course no trip to Logan would be complete without stopping for ice cream (even if all of us were still freezing from the Hardware Ranch visit).  We were excited to find out that Logan has a Sub Zero ice cream shop which is the only place that has Daniel friendly ice cream.  On the way over we were talking up the place to Daniel making him excited that he would be able to eat ice cream along with the rest of us.  You can imagine how horrible we felt when we pulled up to Sub Zero to find it had gone out of business and was no longer open.  Oops.  We decided to go back to our usual ice cream place, Caspers, but to help Daniel feel better about not eating any ice cream we stopped by a store and let him pick out any candy he wanted to eat while the rest of us ate our ice cream.  He seemed to be ok with that because he did give me the double thumbs up sign (I think ordering him the extra orange soda to go with his candy helped a bit, too).

Do you like his HUGE bag of gummy bears?  He also has a big glass of orange soda that you can't see as well.  Nothing like a good ole' sugar high?!!  In trying to keep all the kids appeased we ordered their ice cream first.  Even Noah got his very own first small scoop of ice cream, too.  However, since the kids only got one scoop of ice cream, by the time Aaron and I had sat down with our ice cream the kids' ice cream was long since eaten and we had to endure the puppy dog stares until we gave in and shared our bowls of ice cream as well.  Here's Sarah after her bowl of ice cream ran out:

Good thing Dad was willing to share his ice cream because that was the only way to get her to stop crying.

We try to have family movie night every Friday night.  Lately we have added a hot air popcorn popper to our routine.  We have even found a dairy free 'butter' flavored seasoning that everyone likes to sprinkle over the top of our popcorn.  Isn't it a little troubling to have it 'butter' flavored without any real butter ingredients in it?  Anyway, I try not to ponder that too much as all of us can eat it and enjoy it.

The kids love the popcorn so much that I don't think they have any left to eat when the actual movie even starts.  As soon as we set down the bowl everyone dives in like ravenous dogs.  I fear for my hands when I do set down the bowl, but I haven't lost a finger.....yet.

In unpacking we have found Sarah's barbies.  One of them, however, seems to be missing all of her clothes. I picked that one up and was looking at it yesterday when Daniel just casually mentioned, "Oh you found Bunsie."  I guess that is one name you can call a naked barbie doll in which you can see her naked bum...Bunsie.  Sarah found a Barbie tiara and decided to wear it and make herself princess Sarah.  What a funny girl!

In other happenings Josh had a follow up neurology appointment yesterday morning.  Aaron stayed home to get the other kids up and ready for school while I took Josh down to his appointment at Primary Children's Hospital bright and early at 8am.  We were pleasantly surprised as we were walking inside the hospital to find IHOP making and giving out a free pancake breakfast to anyone and everyone to celebrate national pancake day a day early.  Josh was so excited.  He loaded up his plate with two pancakes he would have taken more, but they limited you to just two.  He doused them in strawberry syrup and was in heaven.  After the appointment he wanted to get another plateful, but they had already cleaned up so he was a little disappointed.  During the appointment Josh is doing great.  His gross motor control is getting better, too which was nice to hear.   When the PA was wrapping up our visit she asked Josh if he had any questions about anything that was going on.  Josh, ever the opportunist, asked, "Ya, what do I get for coming down to see you today?"  Not the exact question the PA was expecting, but she rolled with the punches and ended up giving Josh a word search book for all his 'troubles'.  I was little embarrassed, but what can you do?  Anyway, we don't have another appointment until 6 months barring no problems/seizures before then.  Hopefully this time we can actually make it to the full 6 months before he needs to be seen again.  In talking with a friend she had mentioned something about a nighttime camera to monitor stuff.  Aaron looked more into it and found this nice night vision camera.  It normally is used as a security camera, but it really works well for our needs.  It only records when it senses movement and it does have night vision capability so we can keep an eye on him all night.  It starts recording after sensing movement then it records the movement and 20 seconds after the movement stops.  That way we can really see if he is having seizures or not at night. We just hook it up to the computer and watch the video snippets the next day to see if there were any problems or seizures throughout the night.  It is a blessing since everyone is able to sleep in their own beds which makes for a better night's sleep.  However, when we first set up the camera the boys loved messing with it.  Here's a small sample of what happened the first few minutes it was set up:

The next night we couldn't get the stupid thing to record so Aaron went downstairs to look at what was wrong to find that someone had put a sticker over the camera lens.  DOH!!  Luckily, the newness has worn off and the boys have pretty much left the camera alone since then.

In finding new things to try out for Daniel's strict allergen free diet I came across this little number:

I am always willing to try something new and it fit in perfectly for our family dinner of macaroni and cheese the other night.  However, Daniel's dairy, egg and nut free version as you can see from the box was mac and chReese. After I made it Aaron informed me that he was NOT even going to try it because it smelled and looked  disgusting.  I had to agree it did look and smell gross, but someone had to try it along with Daniel so I was the guinea pig.  Daniel tried it and didn't like it so when I bit into it and almost gagged I didn't feel too bad for not ever wanting to make it again.  It was worth a try, but that's as far as it will get for us--BLECH!!

One thing I did forget to write about was something that happened the first week after moving in to our new house.  That first day we had told Josh and Daniel that they shouldn't ride the bus home anymore because we are no longer on a bus route.  We told them over and over again that first morning that we would be there to pick them up from school.  So when I went to pick up Daniel from kindergarten, he was no where to be found. I parked the car and went in to talk to his teacher to find that he was, in fact, on the bus.  I drove over to our old house hoping to catch him, but the bus never showed up.  That's when I called the transportation office and started in to the explanation when the dispatcher stopped me and just asked me if my son's name was Daniel.  I said yes and she told me the bus would have to make it's rounds and then it would drop him back off at the school.  In further discussion I guess once the bus made it to Daniel's regular stop he realized that he shouldn't have ridden the bus at all and burst into tears.  He tried to explain what happened to the bus driver, but it was a substitute bus driver and she didn't quite know what to do.  Luckily, Aunt Jill stayed at his usual bus stop while I drove over to the school to wait for him.  After making all the stops the bus driver made one last loop around the old bus stop and that's when Aunt Jill was able to grab a very upset Daniel and bring him home.  When we all got home I asked Daniel what had happened and he just burst into tears.  Luckily we got him home in one piece and everyone (including his teacher, the bus driver and dispatch) was now aware that Daniel was not supposed to ride the bus anymore.  It was a pretty traumatic experience for the poor kid!!  Thank goodness for cell phones and that we were all able to stay in contact the whole time to track him down!

Hide and Stink, Moving with Strep, Welcome Me!!

Wow, where to start?  I have been away from the blogosphere for about two weeks now, but I have a very good reason--WE FINALLY MOVED INTO OUR NEW HOUSE!!  Between packing, packing, packing, taking care of kids, actually moving and unpacking, unpacking and unpacking I have stayed pretty busy!!  I will hit a few highlights of the last two weeks.  Last week we were hitting very low reserves as to our food situation.  I had to run and pick up a few things to help us last through the move.  I wasn't at the store very long until I realized that with each turn Noah flopped onto my hands pushing the cart.  The poor kid fell asleep.  Too bad you can't see the drool dripping out of his mouth and down the cart in the picture. 

 During checkout he flopped back to get more comfortable and stayed in this position until I loaded him back into his car seat when we got to the car.  What I wish to be able to sleep that sound in those positions!!  The clerks were all laughing at him.

 Moving day finally came upon us last Friday (as in 10 days ago.)  During the day Aaron and I were packing stuff up.  Noah watched Aaron very intently as he took the dining table apart.

 Later on in the morning we went to pick up the big ol' moving truck.

 We had people scheduled to come and help us move the heavy things later on that evening so during the day Aaron and I made a few trips with the moving truck full of just boxes.  I kept thinking to myself how in the world had we acquired so much stuff (aka CRAP!!).  I guess having five kids will do that to you!  That afternoon Grandpa T came and picked up the kids to take them for the weekend--which was a HUGE help.  It seems while Noah and Sarah were around we had to pack each box three times at least.  Every time we put something in one they would take it back out and cart it off somewhere.  That was a little frustrating to say the least!!  Anyway, once the kids were whisked away for a fun filled weekend with Grandma and Grandpa T the real work began.  We got lots of help from our ward, friends and family and are so appreciative of all the help we got!!  Moving stinks big time!!  By late Friday night our garage and house were FULL of boxes.  Luckily we had some help in setting up our bed so we could crash when all the stuff (crap) was unloaded off the truck.  That night Aaron was completely wiped out.  I was tired, but Aaron was completely exhausted.  The next morning the unpacking began.  We truly had our work cut out for us!!  This is what the three car garage looked like (and that was just the garage and not the house!!):

As the morning went on Aaron continued to be exhausted and could hardly move.   I woke up that morning not feeling the best, either, but we both chalked it up to being old and moving so many things the day before.  However, as the day went on Aaron felt worse and worse.  He finally asked me to feel his forehead and he was burning up with a fever.  I sent him over to the insta care to get checked out because he felt so crappy.  While he was gone I got more unpacking done, but I wasn't feeling the best either.  Aaron came home to let me know he test positive for STREP throat.  Of all the weekends to get sick!!  Instead of messing around with pill antibiotics he just asked to get a shot in the bum.  He took a large dose of Tylenol and ibuprofen and laid down while I tried to unpack.  Unfortunately that night I started feeling really crappy.  I had a fever all night long and knew that Aaron had shared his unfortunate bug.  I ended up going in for my shot in the bum after testing positive for strep as well Sunday morning.  Again could there have been a worse weekend to get sick?!?!  Oh well, at least we didn't have to unpack and take care of kids which was nice!!  Sunday afternoon Aaron's mom, Jill and Sydney came for a visit and to help us unpack.  The kids came back from G&G T's house later on that afternoon, too.  Aaron and I didn't get as much done over the weekend as we would have liked, but we gave ourselves some leniency since we both had STREP THROAT!!  Anyway, we were very appreciative of all the help with baby sitting and unpacking because we really needed it!  The kids had a fabulous time with G & G T's house during their fun weekend visit.  We also now have a somewhat organized house (thank you to Jill and Grandma M who did a TON!) which is nice.  It was also nice to have the visit as well as help from Jill and Grandma M.  Don't get me wrong we are not done unpacking, but we have a pretty good start on it!  We are also feeling a lot better after our double shots in the bum, too.  I am glad I live in a time with antibiotics that's for sure!!

It's really hard moving because life still happens even while your whole house is in chaos and you still have to roll with the punches.  Two weeks ago right before we moved Matthew brought home this fun little paper:

 Aaron and I have been dreading this.  We had discussed this particular matter for a bit even before we got the notice, but hadn't come to a decision of what we wanted to do.  When we got the paper we had to make a decision of whether to send him or to keep him back.  We talked to his teacher and between the three of us, we came to the conclusion that Matthew was not mature enough to attend at this point.  We were afraid he would learn names and use them later on at very inappropriate times.  That's all I need is to have him repeat such things such as penis or other such terms in the middle of primary or some other place like that.  We will take care of it later on when he is more ready to hear things.  As for now we will just give him some deodorant and tell him to use it--and hopefully, he will.

The first Monday night  in our new house we had Family Home Evening.  After the lesson we played hide and seek for the activity.  The first round Daniel found an empty cupboard and hid in it.  It was an excellent place because he was the last one found.  The next round Sarah decided she wanted to hide in that spot.  She grabbed her blankie and hid.  Aaron was the seeker and saved her for last.  He walked around the island in the kitchen pretending to not know where Sarah was.  That's when the smell hit him.  He exclaimed, "P. U.!!"  That's when Daniel fessed up and said he was the stinky one because he had been tooting.  Now the smell had been explained, Aaron opened the cupboard up to "find" Sarah.  That's when Sarah crawled out and Aaron discovered that the smell was not coming from Daniel, but from Sarah's special cupboard.  She must have thought we were playing hide and 'stink'.  Sarah had found her special spot while hiding and took care of business.  The bad thing was she was wearing panties and a skirt.  That meant that when she slid out of the cupboard she "skidded" out if you know what I mean.  YUCK!!!  I got the lucky job of cleaning Sarah up while Aaron got to clean the cupboard.  Ewwwww!!  There's not enough Lysol...  I guess Sarah has taken it upon herself to really break in the new house!

Thursday night we had movie night and busted out the popcorn maker.  The kids loved watching it and every time they know we are getting it out they come running.

Yesterday we decided we needed to get everyone out of the house for a bit.  We decided to head down to Ikea to try and find a cheap TV stand.  While we were looking around Sarah kept sneaking off.  It was really annoying and scary because the place was pretty busy.  In the middle of the store she decided to hide under a dining room table.  I guess once she got under the table she decided to continue her hide and 'stink' game because she was very fragrant by the time we found her.  Again she was wearing panties and again it was a huge mess.  Luckily we were close to the end of the store, so we just bought our cheap TV stand and went out to the car.  I loaded the kids up and then I tried to help Aaron load the TV stand.  Any which way we tried we could not get the stupid thing to fit.  I had to sit out in the very stinky car with poopy girl while Aaron had to return the stupid TV stand.  Very frustrating (and stinky) to say the least!!

We attended our new ward today.  We left our mark, too.  Noah and Sarah were little stinkers today.  Sarah was a literal stinker, too.  I had to take her out at the end of sacrament meeting because she had pooped in her underwear.  Changing poopy panties with tights and a dress is not a fun thing to do.  I had forgotten the pull ups so I had to slap a diaper on her and she was not happy about that, but that's what happens when you poop your underwear!  We had sacrament meeting first and then headed to primary.  This new ward's primary is teeny!!  There are only about 50 kids on the rolls and only half of them attend.  There are only two kids in Matthew's class, four kids in Sarah's.  Because the primary is so small, they only have one sharing time and one class time.  They have class time first and then everyone comes into sharing time.  I went to drop Sarah off in Sunbeams and she would not let me leave.  I ended up staying in class the whole time with her.  When it was time to go to sharing time she made me come with her as well.  As we were all in sharing time someone in the primary presidency was making announcements.  When she supposedly finished she mumbled to herself, "I think that is all the announcements I have."  That's when Matthew spoke up and said in his monotone voice, "Oh, you forgot to announce that everyone needs to welcome me!"  She then agreed and invited Matthew up.  As he walked up he went straight for the microphone.  I was silently screaming NOOOOO in my mind.  He got up to the microphone and spoke in it saying, "Ya, we just moved in so everyone needs to welcome me to primary.  Thanks for all your help!"  She also called up Daniel, Sarah, and Josh so they could sing the Hello song to them.  During the whole Hello song Josh kept pulling stupid faces and Sarah kept inching closer to the microphone.  When the song was over she dismissed Daniel, Josh Matthew and Sarah to sit down, but Sarah refused.  She walked up the microphone stairs and sat there.  The presidency member gave her the chance to say something, but she didn't, but she didn't move to sit down either.  I finally had to stand up to get her, but she wasn't ready to sit down.  When I grabbed her she started SCREAMING because she wanted to talk in the microphone like Matthew.  She screamed for a bit, too.  It was even more noticeable because the primary is so small!!  Anyway, she finally stopped screaming, but insisted on sitting in my lap for the rest of sharing time.  What a crazy girl.  Well I can now say that people know who all my kids are thanks to Sarah, Matthew and Noah.  Oh well it was bound to happen.  I can't hide my light (kids) under a bushel for very long at their insistence :).  While all this was happening in Primary, Aaron attempted to attend Sunday school with Noah.  He was only in there a few minutes when he noticed that Noah was THE ONLY baby in the room.  Of course at that time Noah started screaming so Aaron took him to nursery and hung out there for the rest of church.  I don't think this ward knows what hit them when our crazy family showed up!!





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!!