Just like that

So I”ve been complaining about my son who really had no interest in being potty trained. Well last week he went in the potty for the first time. Boom! He gets it. The kid’s potty trained. It’s been about a week, and I think he’s had 2 or 3 accidents. I don’t even have to ask him, he just goes and does it. Now if I could get him to hold it while he’s sleeping… that might take a little longer I think.

HOT HOT HOT

Let me preface this journal entry by saying, we don’t have an air conditioner, because it’s usually not hot enough here in Ohio to need it.
Can I whine? It’s really stinking hot here. The whole month of June has been hot and muggy. The weatherman is predicting 94 with 50% humidity for today. I heard on the news that we’ve already had more 90+ degree days this month than we had in the last two years combined. It’s not even July! Man it’s going to be a long summer.
Takes me back to the apartment we lived in before we bought the house. It was quite possibly the hottest apartment in Ohio. We did have an air conditioner; it cooled the apartment to 90 degrees, but only in the living room. The rest of the apartment never got that cool. 100+ degrees with humidity was normal. Jory and I thought of many inventive ways to keep ourselves cool, frozen wash cloths, frozen water bottles, squirt bottle fights… I could go on.
I’m happy to say that this house (with no AC) is much cooler than the apartment than with AC. Our thermostat read 87 at it’s highest yesterday. Which yes, is still very hot. I know. But now our arsenal of cooling techniques has improved. We own a baby pool and have ceiling fans in every room. They’ve both been a godsend in dealing with the heat. So I guess I just need to remember how bad it could be, and wait for the heat to pass.
And no, I don’t plan on getting an AC any time soon. We have a window unit in the garage that can be installed, but knowing us, we’d never turn it on.

more flowers

Some new things blooming in my yard, lets see if I can remember the names of these things. The yellow one is choriopsis (sp?), orange is a lily, and the buds on the bottom I think are beard's toungue, but I"m not positive.

Mini Vacation

So after the hair fiasco yesterday morning I decided it was a good day for a mini “vacation”. A trip to Grandma’s lake house was in order. Laying around by the lake while the munchkins splash (well alex splashes the rest of us, the girls cry because they don’t want anything to do with the water, and I yell at alex because he’s getting my book wet) But I didn’t have to clean anything, my “to do” list was at home, and Mom cooked dinner. Sounds like a vacation to me!
We took a trip over to the Boy Scout camp (the one my mom volunteers at, by her lake cottage) where we took a little nature walk, climbed on a bull dozer (the highlight of alex’s trip) and chased the camp dogs (the highlight of the girls trip). All in all, it was a fun little vacation.
The best part for Mom? Playing with the kids. I love playing with my kids, but there are so many things around here that need to be done, that I never really get to. Take care of them, yes; play with them, not really. Another bonus to our mini vacation: the kids all slept past 8 am this morning. ahhhhhhhhh

Jory takes matters into his own hands

Jory takes matters into his own hands
To preface the story, jory is always complaining that annie’s hair is in her eyes (which is why it’s always in a pony tail of some type). Last night I went to a meeting for VBS, and left Jory in charge of getting the kids to bed. This is what Annie’s hair looked like when I woke up this morning.

Jory insisted that he didn’t cut it (yeah right!) (love you sweetie~)
maybe it'll look ok when I get it up in a ponytail...

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmm

A collection of kiddo stories that just make you wonder
Alex and the potty
I have to wonder about that kid, for months I’ve been trying to bribe him into sitting on the potty with candy, stickers, cookies, pop sickles, you name it, I’ve tried it. Nothing was working. You know how I get the kid to sit on that chair? Offer him a story. He’ll sit on that thing as long as I read to him. I mean who doesn’t love to read when they “go”?

Alex and the toys:
He is a contradiction in himself. He lines up his toys, grouping things by color or object. Very nice and orderly… Then turns around and dumps all the toys out of the toy box. Lovely

Yes or no?
The girls are doing really well with communicating whether they want something. Louisa is the “yes baby”. She will wait until you offer her the correct item, then says “yeah!” Annie is the “no baby”. She shakes her head when you’re offering her the wrong thing. When she stops shaking her head, then you know that’s what she wants.

Going up?
The twins have learned to climb. When I mean climb I mean the sky’s the limit. It’s not uncommon to walk into the kitchen and find a girl sitting in a highchair, or standing on the kitchen counter (eek!). The best scare was the time they were both standing on the computer desk (which really isn’t big enough for a computer and two 17 month old children). Where did they learn to do this? Alex never did it. You gotta love twins, one does something, the other imitates.

what the.......

my home page is blank! I can still read previous posts by going to my settings, but I can't see any of my posts from the home page. This isn't good! Lets see if this posts fixes it...
Never mind! I fixed it, what a relief!

Done

Done
Fed the kids breakfast
Washed the dishes
2 Loads of laundry
Caught up on emails
Shower
Finish set of cards for next weeks ebay auctions
Louisa’s “7 month old” layout for her baby album
Start new scrapbook page kit for next weeks ebay auctions
School for kids:
Alex’s lessons: fine motor skills (coloring, cutting, stringing beads)
Science experiment (wind power)
Girls: coloring
Watered plants that my mom planted for me yesterday
Fed kids their lunch
Did some research for my preschool science curriculum

To do before bed:
Make cornbread (another science lesson for Alex)
Fold and put away laundry
Pick up all the toys (this could take a while since the kids decided to dump out every toy box in the house.)
Do research for next year’s Sunday school curriculum
Pull weeds?
Last but not least…… read the scrapbooking magazine I picked up at the library (ahhhhhhhhh)

Is it my birthday?

Alex: Is it my birthday yet??
Me: No, not until July 15th,
Alex: Oh ok.
(5 minutes go by)
Alex: Is it my birthday yet? Do you have any presents for me?
Me: NO.
Alex: Why not?
Me: Today is not your birthday.
Alex: Why not mommy?

I think I’ve had this conversation 3 times this morning and it’s only 8:30. I hope we don’t keep this up for 3 more weeks…

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Jory and I had a date on Saturday. We went to see the new Star Wars movie, and had lunch. I’m pretty sure the last movie we saw in a theatre was when Alex was a baby, so it was time to see another one… Sunday was pretty uneventful. After church, Jory and I took the kids to the park for his father’s day treat.

Kiddo profile

(more journaling that could end up in a scrapbook at some point)
these are little known facts about my munchkins. I could think of a bazzillion things that the girls both do, but I had to think pretty hard to come up with stuff they do that is unique to them.

Alex:
Always asks to watch a movie when sisters are sleeping
Will sit and listen to stories for an hour or longer
Will occasionally sit quietly through an entire church service with nothing to play with (our service is about 1 hour long!) but generally prefers to play in the nursery
Hates sleeping in his own bed, he’d rather be on the couch
Nickname: Alex J


Louisa
Loves stuffed animals
Weighs 18 pounds
Is very much like her mother
Tends to cling to mommy, but will willingly go to a stranger
Gets bored with the baby pool, but enjoys the lake at Grandma’s
Doesn’t particularly like coloring with her siblings (who both love coloring)
Nickname: Louisa – bean
Normally wears blue or purple

Annie
Weighs 20 pounds
Freaks out in the morning if you don’t give her Alex’s empty yogurt container
Doesn’t like walking through the grass
Isn’t quite ready to play in the lake at Grandma’s, but loves the baby pool
Always has a ponytail in her hair
Likes to pull the sheets off her bed if you leave her in it too long
Nickname: Annie – bell
Normally wears pink or yellow

Progress? Maybe…

I’ve decided it’s time for alex to start potty training. Enough of this ‘he’ll let me know when he’s ready’ crap. He IS ready, he’s just lazy. He’d rather poop in a diaper because it’s more convenient than going to the potty. I’ve been trying to motivate him with stickers, candy, cookies, etc. but he doesn’t want any of those things.
So we picked up some Thomas the Train underwear at the store last weekend. Which he loves. (BTW he doesn’t watch the show, but he loves the toys and his underwear – go figure) He’s really concerned about getting Thomas yucky, because that will make Thomas sad… So in the last 3 days he’s only had 1 accident, (he forgot he had Thomas on). Here’s the kicker. When it’s time for him to relieve himself he’ll ask for a diaper. “No it’s not time to sit on the potty Mom, it’s time for a diaper”
Progress? I sure hope so. It’d be so nice to only have 2 in diapers…

after the rain

yesterday morning after it stopped raining I went out to pull weeds. I was struck with how beautiful all the flowers were after the rain. Of course I had to run for the camera! Here's my favorite.

Checking in

Lets see if I can remember what I did this weekend…..
On Sat. Jory and I took the kids out to shop at target, lots of fun stuff to purchase…. After target we took the kids to the park (the one next to the Holland library) – Jory and I both wandered over to the library and found treasures, while the kids played. Saturday evening I watched High Noon with Gary Cooper (a western filmed in the 50’s) – which I enjoyed.
Sunday we went to church. We stayed for both services because Jory had to serve during the second one, so I played (socialized) in the nursery. After church we had lunch with my mom, and came home. While the kids napped I watched my mandatory Sunday afternoon movie. The Dirty Dozen (military film, filmed in the 60’s) CRACK ME UP. One of the better military movies I’ve seen. It would have been even better if John Wayne had been in it (my hero!). On Sunday evening Annie and I went over to my mom’s to help her work on some cards for her card swap. It was nice to be crafty with my mom, and be able to spend some quality time with Annie.
It rained quite a bit this weekend, which is good for my flowers, but it looks my weeds have gotten a little out of control… You just can’t win can you?

Morning chuckle and a flower

Last night I woke up around 2 am and heard one of the girls saying “uh oh” over and over. (which in my opinion, is one of the cutest phrases they have) so I go in to see what’s wrong, it turns out that she dropped her pacifier. What a cutie.
IN other news, look what I found growing in my ditch! (that’s where all the good stuff grows on my property)



I’m fairly certain it’s an iris. When I found it, you better believe I got a shovel and dug some of them up to replant in my garden. I left a bunch down there (with a huge crop of tiger lilies) that I’ll go back after when I figure out what I’m going to do with them.

Stylin

My new favorite pic of my son.
Winter boots in 90 degree heat. Very festive with the shorts and sunglasses.

feeling sleepy

I don’t know if it’s because I woke up way too early this morning (6:15) or if it’s because I did a ton of yard work yesterday, but today I’m really stinking tired. But sleeping doesn’t help me get my to-do list any shorter.
Enter caffeine. My dear friend.
Maybe by mid afternoon I’ll have gotten enough accomplished that I can take a nap during my afternoon project time (aka the kids nap time)

OUr weekend

I don’t think anything out of the ordinary happened on Friday
On Saturday we went to a community garage sale in town. I found a boxed (home school) curriculum set for 5th grade for $2. Yes I realize alex is only 2 years old, but when you consider that the whole set was probably worth a few hundred dollars (used)… you really can’t beat that.
Jory and I had fun walking around the neighborhood admiring other peoples gardening abilities. Well I had fun, I don’t think jory particularly cared about the flowers that much. I wish I’d had my camera with me, I saw some great gardens.
Sunday was realllllllly hot. I’m talking 90 degrees! Yeah, yeah I know some of my friends put up with that type of heat all the time, but it doesn’t get that hot around here very often, and when it does we’re all pretty miserable. To beat the heat, I took the kids out to the lake. It was the girls first time playing in the water. Louisa had a ball splashing her feet in the water, and playing in the sand. Annie wanted no part of it. She would much rather sweat in mommy’s lap than be cool and comfy in the water. We also got to try out my parents new pontoon boat, which everyone enjoyed. Sadly I forgot my camera, so I have no pics to share, but I know there will be many more trips out to the lake before the summer is over.

4 years ago today

4 years
3 kids
a new house
a motorcycle
lots of ups and downs, twists and turns
thanks for the ride
Love you

No more pics!

Please mom, put the camera away!