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Normal Days

Just realized that I've posted ONCE for 2011 so far... and while I was journaling on my iPhone, I didn't put those on here, so... hum. Everything has just been normal. Each day seems to bleed into the next, and so on, and so forth. I can't tell you where the past three months have gone because it's just one big blur. All three boys are so on-the-go all the time that I have a rough time keeping up. Well, that's not ENTIRELY true. haha! I usually manage to be able to squeeze in one episode of some DVR'd show during the morning or afternoon. But pretty much the rest of the day, I'm chasing some boy or another trying to get them to stop doing whatever they just did.

Brayden is just HUGE... he's so tall and his feet are about 3/4 the size of mine. He's doing pretty well in Pre-K... All of his progress reports show him excelling in all the areas. But he has a hard time being good in class more often than not. He likes to do things his "own way." Which means that he wants to be in charge and let you know what he is planning on doing. Not the other way around. He also has a streak of wild energy that he can't contain. It usually comes out in thrashing wiggles and a loud shriek of some kind. He and I are constantly butting heads... probably because he is so much like me. He's beginning to read, which is very exciting.

Tyler is going to be 4 next week! I can't believe he's already that old. We are going to enroll him in Pre-K in a few weeks!! We have a lot of trouble understanding him when he talks. He has a hard time with "s" "f" and "l." Everything sounds like "w." But Mrs. Jennings said that they will start speech therapy with him this fall if he's still having trouble.

Logan is FULL of words. He can say: ma-ma, da-da, ba-ba (Brayden), ta-ta (Tyler), bye-bye, look, go, pa-pa, maw-maw, stop, and he'll try to say anything else that you throw at him (Erin, Jenn, baby, car, shoe, etc). He's a terror around the house, though. He's the troublemaker, instigator, and daredevil. But he will usually listen to me when I tell him to stop. So that's really a great thing. He's a pretty happy baby most of the time.

A MOMMY'S FRUSTRATION

If you are anything like me, when shopping for clothes you've noticed that no matter what store you walk into, the little girls' department heavily outweighs the little boys' department. And not only that, but the things that most stores DO have for boys are the same style just in different colors (e.g. polos, tees, tanks) or maybe a variation between solids and stripes. Today I got the Children's Place flyer in the mail. It was for the spring "stock up and save" promotion. On the first page, it has SIX girls to two boys. Then the next four pages are things for girls. Then there are two pages for boys. And that's it. *Sigh* I was so excited to see this flyer, but the only thing *new* for the boys in it were the polos - which aren't new, just different colors and stripe styles. The other things are their mix and match tees and tanks - which they've had for the last few years.

So I grabbed my phone and gave TCP a call (1-877-PLACE USA). I told the guy how frustrating it is to be a mom to boys and to not have any selection. That every time I walk into their store, I get upset at how the girls' choices outweigh the boys'. I'm figuring that if I can get some other moms to call them and perhaps a few other stores, maybe we can get our boys some cute clothes too. :)

Week Three - Fail

Oh my word. I don't think this week could have been much more eventful. Not to mention stressful. I am just thankful that Mom and Dad had Brayden for the week. But I don't really feelike rehashing all the failed points, so I will say how I really feel about
everything. I feel like God has taken care of and provided for me this week in more ways than I failed. It was a truely trying week, but I feel as though I came through it stronger and more trusting.

A few things I do want to remember about this week... Logan started waving and pointing. And just yeaterday he started immitating kisses - like just popping his lips, but he does it back to someone doing it to him. He is also standing unassisted a lot more often. Tyler swam all by himself this week. He still has a life jacket but I was able to watch him from out of the pool which was very nice. Brayden has been at VBS all week, but I hear he is having a good time. Guess that is all for now.

Whew!

So I just spent way too much time trying to make a new blog background and banner. I think it's cute, but... well, I ended up just having to stop and say, "that's enough." HA!

Today was another flylady day. So far, thanks to the lady, I've been motivated to actually mop my kitchen floor (gasp!), organize my bookshelf (double gasp!), and clean the guest room where Jeremy was staying and move Logan in there!! I also mopped the bathroom floors! Woah, there Nelly! If you keep this up, your family's gonna start expecting it of you! But that's fine. I've been getting on to myself for about 2 years now about how I just don't really have the housewife gene that keeps me cleaning... But I'm trying to get into a routine to where this isn't as bad as I make it all out to be. My sink is still shiny, by the way.

I have to say, my motivation has also meant less TV time for myself, which is super great. It also helps that Dave Ramsey motivated me to downgrade our cable package - so we're basically not getting any channels anyway. ;) But I've been trying to read more, clean more, and play with the boys more. They LIVE outside, though, and I hate nature. So it's been a challenge, but I'm trying to compromise. Today we were going to go to the library, but I stopped in at sonic for a limeaide. The boys decided they'd rather play on the playground there. So they played for an hour while I sat and read some of my book. It was kinda nice.

I still have some random things to do today to go to bed happy, but I think I'll get there... I made two meals at lunch, so dinner is already ready - I just have to heat it up and make some rolls to go with it. YUM.

So... on to that, I guess. :)

My kitchen sink...

So last night a YM friend's wife posted on Facebook about this site called "FlyLady." I've heard of it before and know of a lot of girls who have used her site to get their house in order... WELL... I decided to go check it out for myself. And lo and behold, it all seems like a pretty good idea. So I started with baby step #1 last night - Make Your Sink Shine! I spent the time necessary and finally went to bed with a shiny sink.

This morning was baby step #2... Get up and get your self showered and dressed. Now, to most people, you'd think - Well DUH! But to a mommy of three young boys, usually a shower is something that gets put off and put off and put off until Daddy comes home and can give me a few free minutes. This morning, though, I got up and tackled my shower before John left home. Of course my hair is in pigtails, but as I start getting better at this routine thing, maybe I'll be able to work in fixing my hair and stuff.

Made lunch for everyone, and because of my shiny sink, I didn't want to leave my kitchen dirty - so I actually CLEANED UP after lunch! And wiped down my sink so it stayed shiny. Dishwasher is already being run for the day - along with laundry!!! I feel so accomplished. Baby step #3 tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

Logan's 7 Months!

So today rolls around, and I can't even begin to say how weird it is to think that it's been 7 months since Logan was born. He's such a little joy!! He's still not back to sleeping through the night - quite the opposite, acutally. He's been going on spurts of waking up every 2-3 hours. It seems like about the time I get him back to bed for the hundredth time, Brayden wanders in asking for a new pair of underwear... I don't feel like I ever get any sleep anymore... But that's kind of the life of a Mommy, I guess.

Anyway - at 7 months old, Logan is pulling up on EVERYTHING. Tonight, he was fussing in his pack-n-play and I came in to check on him and he's pulled up on the side with his little head over the top just crying his little heart out. It was almost more cute than anything else. He's still not properly crawling - I'm beginning to think that he's going to be walking before he gets that figured out - but he sits up very well by himself. He can even get himself into a sitting position! He's starting to mimic sounds - he was fake coughing like Tyler today. I'm totally convinced that we have another boy out of the Brayden book on our hands. I don't know what it'll do to my sanity, but it's kind of interesting.

Speaking of Brayden, I got him pre-enrolled for Pre-K this week. Can't believe he'll be starting school this fall. He's REALLY excited about it, though. I think he's going to have a good time.

Tyler turned three this past week. He's growing up too fast, too. He had a really good check-up at the doctor. He was 37.5 inches tall and weighed a little over 30 lbs. 50th percentile for both.

Well, Brayden just came in crying - he had a bad dream... So I'm going to try to get him settled down and back to sleep. :)

Logan's 6 Months Old!

Oh my goodness, where does the time go? My life seems like it's blowing by me... But it's also very odd how each day seems to never end. Life isn't a walk in the park with three boys at home, but it's not dull. I usually end up laughing and crying almost every day. Like right now, Brayden is standing beside me with little stickers stuck all over his face. Now it's post-its. Of course they are all coming off of pictures that I'm trying to organize, so I'm exasperated at the same time.

Anyway... back to Logan. He's now 16.5 lbs (40th%) and 27" long (75th%). He seems a little skinnier than the other boys at this age, but that's probably because he's pretty active. He doesn't hold still when he's awake. We got him a jumper exersaucer thingy and he just goes to town in that thing. He's enamored with his big brothers - you can just tell that he is longing to run around the house with them. He's especially fond of Brayden. Brayden can make him laugh at just about anything. I think Brayden is a little rough with him sometimes, but he's always laughing, and Brayden will then tell me, "It's okay. Logie likes it." He's a happy little guy. He loves to talk and giggle, but when he gets upset, it's like it's the end of the world. He's a sneaky little fellow - he can manage to get into things and places in a heartbeat when you leave a room. He's also a drama king... He can be playing happily, but if you walk into the room, he'll start crying. The second you pick him up, it's all smiles... but don't put him back down, or all gehena will break loose. He's still working on sleeping through the night, but at least he's sleeping in his own bed - neither of the other boys slept in a bed by themselves until they were a year old! He's a pretty good napper, too. But the funniest thing... he LOOOOOVES the tv. He will angle himself to see it wherever he is in a room. It's quite funny. Here are a few pics of us on his half birthday.

Some 2010 Goals

Of course with the new year come new goals (resolutions, if you will). I have never been one to really make these said resolutions, but I figure why not try? haha!!! So here are some of my goals for this year.

1) To read through the entire Bible before June. I was trying the P90X, but it's kind of hard with three small kids. I think I'll do the P180X. ;)

2) To lose that last 5 lbs of baby weight. Of course, this entails eating a little less and drinking a more reasonable amount of Dr. Pepper... 3-5 cans a day is NOT a good thing for one complaining about the size of their remaining baby pooch.

3) To be a more attentive mom to my three boys. I have a tendancy to just let them do whatever during the day... I'd like to try to be organized enough to "do" something at least once every 2-3 days. After all, B starts pre-K this fall and after that, I won't have him all to myself anymore.

4) To scrapbook/journal more! My scrapbooking pages are pretty much how I get my journaling done these days, and if I'm not doing pages, I'm not really journaling!! EEK!!!

5) To stick with Mr. Dave Ramsey through the year and be out of debt by next spring!

6) To try learning some new dishes to throw into the menu mix. The same 21 dishes are getting kind of old.

7) To keep up with friends more. It's been a while since college now, and sometimes I feel like I've kind of lost touch with some of those that I love dearly.

8) TO LEARN HOW TO USE MY EXPENSIVE CAMERA!!!! But I'm getting there with this one... And just to show you, and because he's just so darn cute, here's proof. (This is Logan at almost 4 months old now!)

...and B is for Brayden

God has to help me, cause I know I can't do this on my own. I have one of "those" kids. The ones that throw fits in the middle of a store and cause everyone to stop and see what parent isn't doing their job. The ones that hide cookies under their beds so that they can have them later. The ones that find markers and decide to put their own brand of graffiti on their great grandma's walls. Yep, that's my kid. And the thing is, he is NOT undisciplined. He is NOT allowed to have his heart's whim with the throwing of a tantrum. But yet he behaves as if those things were so. I have a friend that has said that youth ministers make horrible toddlers. If that's so, my kid is going to be the youth minister to head all youth ministers. But seriously, John and I pray constantly that these things that make us pull our hair out right now will be gifts for our oldest in the future. God gave Brayden this trying personality, and we have a job to mold it, but like I said, God help me!!! I have no idea what to do with a kid like this. I can't constantly be monitoring every single thing he does all day long... Well, I COULD, but I'd have one starving child, and I'd probably smell bad. He manages to even get into things in his sleep... *sigh*

But in deeper thoughts.......

I was sitting in bed last night after dealing with a fussy baby, a sick toddler and a typical Brayden and the thought came to me about what love is... Paul says that love is patient, kind and keeps no record of wrongs (among a list of other things). I guess I have some work to do on figuring out how to truly love my big boy. I tend to be short tempered with him, a little on the rough side when he's misbehaving, and have a running tally of how many things he's gotten in trouble for that day so I can complain to John about it all later. Thank goodness that God loves me with a true love. I can't even imagine how similar I can be in my life to that of my trying child. God help me; God love me. Thank you for teachable moments.