Whining

I can't take it anymore. I have one unmentioned child who has an excessive whining problem. I'm talking to the point of meltdown. This child whines about snacks, whines about what to do, whines about what to wear, whines about what is for lunch, whines about what is on TV. This bad habit must be stopped. Let me reiterate that this is a Good child with a Bad habit.

Begin experiment A

We'll call it "Break the Whining Habit During Spring Break or Mommy is Having Herself Committed."

Actions include. . .

Stopping the child EVERY time whining takes place and CALMLY saying " I would love to listen to you when you can ask me in a normal voice." After being asked in a normal voice I will respond with "Good, now I would be glad to help you."

Also, hubby will be schooled in the ways of dealing with said whiner.

After experiment A has been tested for one full week, feel free to approach me and let me know how my results are fairing.

Experiment B involves thumb sucking and TWO children. That's a whole new post.

disneyland

Last weekend we made the trek to Disneyland with Summer, Spencer, the kids, Grandma Barbs and Grandpa Har. It was perfect weather, and the kids had so much fun!


Tyler found his bravery (and his soprano voice) riding on Space Mountain for the first time. He also somehow came to the conclusion that if he pulled his tooth out, he wouldn't have to get braces on the following Tuesday.


I guess Disneyland can't make ALL of your dreams come true.

Here's a nice before and after. (Braces and lovely monthly payments as of Tuesday March 3rd.)

Mo had her first ride (outside the womb) on the carousel. She also rode Pinocchio's ride, Roger Rabbit's crazy ride, Buzz Lightyear, the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Summer and I thought it was so cute that the girls stopped to pet their horse goodbye when they got off the carousel.

Macey, Maddie, and Paige just LOVED the princesses.

Tyler and Max are the best of buddies. They played hard all 3 days and Tyler was so sad to see Max go.

Paige says that her favorite things at Disneyland were, Mickey Mouse, the princesses, and Toontown.

Here she is at toontown. You'll need a closeup of that face.

Scary, eh! What a goofball!

Waiting in line at Pirates of the Caribbean.

By the end of the night, all of the kids had crashed except for Tyler. He waited in line with us to go on Indiana Jones. He always was a little night owl.
What a fun trip!

colorful day

Yesterday I had one of those colorful days. . . you know the ones where you choose not to say colorful words even though your laundry is splattered with colorful bursts of crayon wax. Dang Mel's Diner. Dang kids who think that crayons in their pocket is a good idea. (relax, I said dang)

Bless whomever came up with this concoction that brought the stains out after 2 hot washings, an overnight soak, and another washing in the morning. Granted, I had to cut the pocket off that held the crayons, but I'd say the outcome was miraculous. Maybe I should make the little culprit wear his pants with the pocket cut out. Maybe the thought of his friends and classmates possibly taking a peek at his star wars underoos will scare him into never putting anything into his pockets again! . . wait. . . why don't I just cut out all of the pockets of all of the kiddy pants! WAAAHHAA HAAA HAA . . . that's my best evil laugh.

Here's the magic potion . . . I hope you never have to use it.

"Getting the Dang Crayon out of the Laundry" Magical Potion

2 max amounts (line 3) of concentrated Tide
1 cup Oxiclean
1/2 cup 20 mule team Borax
1 cup Shout liquid
1 cup white vinegar

Soak the clothes in the washer on the hottest setting. . . make sure you've sorted the laundry so colors don't bleed if you are not used to washing on hot. I soaked, washed, and then soaked overnight, washed again, and then washed it like I normally would

Luckily there was no crayon on the walls of my dryer. If you have that problem. . .you'll have to google it, though I've heard that magic eraser will do the trick.

There are no pictures. I was really mad.

6 month stats

Morgan is 6 months. . . well, technically 6 months and 3 weeks.

height: 27 1/4 inches (85th %)

weight: 15 lbs 6 oz (30th %)

head circumference 42.9 (50th %)

She's showing off these cutsie little bottom teeth. I LOVE this phase! She said Da Da first. . . . . . despite all of my coaching efforts. She's also big into rocking back and forth on all fours. I better watch it. . .she'll be crawling before I know it. I see in my future many hours of fishing barbie shoes and legos out of her mouth.

"Watch mom. . . one handed!"

showoff.

love. . . and a race

We went to watch Tyler at his running club race last week. They ran 1.5 miles and we waited patiently at the "finish line." I use the term "patiently" very loosely since from the minute he took off running, I heard, "WHAT SHOULD IEYYYY DOOOOOO?" I hear that a lot you know

Mo had a grand 'ole time. Her legs don't bend when she's in the stroller :) Don't you just LOVE the little chubby rolls around her knees! She may not be so happy about that when she gets to be my age. Rolls around the knees. . . not so cute when you're approaching your 30s.Paige passed the time by showing me her new "bumpy teeth." They just can't understand why their new teeth are bumpy and ours aren't. You have to do a LOT of chewing to smooth out the bumps. Then she found some sparkly new treasures that I later found banging around in the dryer at 11:00 at night. To sum up. . . there are too many rocks in AZ.Oh! Here he comes now! Whatever you do, don't look directly at the camera. We wouldn't want a picture of your face. . . Heaven forbid! 19th place overall. Pretty good, considering that he's running with 5th, 4th, and 3rd graders who have very long legs.

Now onto some things that we love, in honor of Valentines Day.

I LOVE feeding Mo her veggies. Especially green peas. She LOVES eating them. She also likes to suck on the spoon when we are done. I won't say that she "loves" it, because it always leads to gagging. And. . . I now, guess I have no choice but to say it. .. . gag me with a spoon.Mo LOVES her newfound sitting skills.

Mo also LOVES Paigey. Now, I'm not saying that she doesn't love everybody else too, but just look at the way she watches Paigey. I think I might have two girly girls on my hands.Paigey absolutely LOVES Mo too. Isn't it obvious!It must be because they share the bond of thumbsucking. Paige also LOVES it when she gets a bag from school. Her teacher has made up several fun bags that circulate through the am and pm classes. It usually has an activity and a book to read. On this particular day, it happened to be the cow bag. I think she may have actually kissed it when she took it out of her backpack. Now, Ty also loves Mo, but first and foremost, he LOVES video games. It just so happens that it is tv turnoff week at school.

"We only get 30 minutes of recess for turning off the tv all week, Mom. It's not really worth it.". . . oh brother.

He's not allowed to watch tv or play video games during the school week anyway. He's really only giving up his Friday after-school game time. You'd think, with the way he was carrying on, that they had asked him to donate a lung. Kids these days.

Ty also LOVES scouts. Here he is painting his derby car with a grin. The derby comes with a sad story, but that's another post.

As for me, I LOVE that Shane and Ty Make the same face when they play guitar heroes. AWWW! That little tongue is just so cute!

I LOVE these cute little mailboxes that I made for Paige and Tyler's school teachers for valentines day. I found the tutorial on someone else's fabulous blog a few months ago, and when I went to find it, there were about bazillion posts just like it. Crafty people out there.

I also LOVE the new lens that I got shortly after Christmas. Canon 24-70 L f2.8 L series. It's a beauty I tell ya. All of these pictures were taken with it, and I can't wait to do some family shoots with it. I'm so spoiled.

What do you LOVE? If I type that word one more time I will probably have to gag myself with a spoon.

Happy Valentines Day!