Peter's 3rd birthday

 A little part of me died this morning when I realized my baby is not a baby anymore.  I can't believe Peter is 3.  Three is no longer a baby its a full fledged toddler. Now that he's potty trained (and doing awesome at it!!) and talking like his sister (he has a good vocabulary) and doing all kinds of things by himself  I have to face the facts.  My sweet Peter Pie is growing up. By the way if you ask him what his name is, he will say Peter Pie. He shares a birthday with his adorably cousin Roxy.  Its like they came down from heaven together because they were almost born at the same time.  He also shares a birthday with my wonderful sister Stephanie, she was so kind to share her birthday with these two munchkins.
I remember a time when I was not happy with the impending arrival of this little guy.  I was worried, stressed, tired, stressed, not enjoying my children, stressed.  You get the idea, I was dealing with a certain child that just took so much extra work I was totally burned out by the time we found out there was going to be another one.  I remember saying in my prayers to give me strength and love for this next child. Now I can say I could never live my life without him.  He's so rewarding.  He's my best buddy.  He is such a sweet person.  He lets me cuddle him whenever I want, he's loyal to his siblings, he is just so genuinely good.  Not to mention how smart he is.  He already knows all his letters and the sounds they make.  He can even write some of them.  He's got most of his colors down and now we are working on numbers.  This kid is like his daddy he loves to learn.  His favorite things are anything Toy Story, Tangled, tools, his fingers, his daddy, and of course his woobie.  (I don't have the heart to make him get rid of it yet even though its a year overdue.)
For his birthday this year all he asked for was a Buzz Lightyear rocket ship and a chainsaw.  He has mentioned this REPEATEDLY for over a month. One thing I love about this kid is that he knows what he wants, and he usually never waivers.
When I asked Peter what kind of cake he wanted he said, "the kind you sing happy birthday and then blow it out." I can do that.
So here's to our sweet Peter Pie.  We love you so much.
What I would do with out you I would never know.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY

medievil projects

Why is it that our kids projects become our projects?  I think partly because we don't want them to fail because if they do poorly then it reflects on us. Partly because we feel nostalgic, or because they are doing it wrong and its driving us crazy to see them struggle, and in my case because they nag and whine and cry and get SO frustrated they start breaking things and hurting people.
Now you all know I love a good project, I practically live off of them, however I only like projects that are MY idea.  So in spirit of warding off all things unholy I jumped in to help. 1st thing was the castle.  Ellie had some grand design but it was a little overwhelming so I suggested we scale it down. The painting took f-o-r-e-v-e-r because I painted each little stone.  I had Ellie paint with me but it wasn't quite turning out to her expectations so that painting was left to me.
Next came the sword. I want Ellie to help as much as possible so she was the designer, I was the "super adult vision" (inside joke) and used the dangers as Peter call them.  I thought I would use my new toy and my brothers belt sander to make one bad A#% life sized sword.  Everything was smooth sailing until I tried to make the hilt.  I had to do it 3 times because the wood kept splitting.  I thought I could just tap it on the sword but apparently my skills are not that good.  Oh well the sword got finished and Ellie painted it a nice shiny silver.
Now we move on to the shield.  This turned out to be the easiest of the projects so we whipped it out in no time.  Not super detailed but I let Ellie draw out the shape and design she wanted, we screwed a handle on the back and voila.



Next I get back from my workout Thursday night (after 9pm) When Ellie says she has to have her family tree done by tomorrow.        Since we already had the idea planned out I couldn't deviate and go the easy way.  So I got a poster sized sheet of water color paper where I drew and painted an intricate tree with roots then I told her to fill it all out with the info we gathered earlier.  This should have taken no more than 2 minutes but she had a hard time with the concept of working backwards. We wrapped it up around 11pm that night.  Scott keeps asking when this whole medieval thing is going to be over.  I find myself asking the same thing.

new respect for my Dad

I got a new toy that I totally could have used at least 5 times earlier this week and it would have saved me so much time and effort.  Its a scroll saw.  I really don't know why it took me so long to get one when I obviously needed it.

I have been doing some projects with Ellie and I now have a new found respect for my dad.  My dad is a carpenter.  He would take us to work with him when we were very little,  teaching us what the tools were and how to use them.  Not just the screw drivers and the drills but nailers, sanders, bands saws, planers etc.  I never realized how frustrating it is to teach a kid the proper way to use a tool.  First they have to know what all the parts are called then the proper way to use them.  It took me 20 minutes to teach Ellie how to use a drill.  Explain what the different drill bits were called and how to change them out, then how to hold the drill making sure it was going the right direction.  Something I had definitely taken for granted because I have always known thanks to my dad.  My dad the Master Teacher.  Every time we asked my dad for help on something he would begin by giving us the history of whatever it was, then help us with it. For example I once asked him to show me how to change a tire and he proceeded with giving me the history of the jack and all the different types of jacks.  I remember being annoyed at the history lesson and just wanted to change the dang tire, but now I know so much more and believe it or not that knowledge has come in handy more than once.
So with Ellie we continued on to sanders and files which  needed MORE teaching.  I was getting so frustrated it was making these projects take so much longer than needed, but if I didn't teach her now then when? 
My dad always said if its worth doing its worth doing right, he showed us if we prepare and do the proper steps the project comes out so much better.  This requires a lot of patience!!! So thanks dad for teaching me, teaching me how to use tools, how to build stuff, and more importantly patience.

fire

The kids really wanted to build a fire in the backyard today.  They cleaned out the fire pit and stacked a bunch of sticks in it then came to ask us if we could build a fire.  I looked at Scott and said "that's your territory."  Now I know how to build a fire.  I have built thousands of fires.  Growing up we had a real wood burning fireplace that was our main source of heat for the winter.  Whoever was the first person awake had the responsibility of making the fire.  Same goes to the first person who came home on a cold day, needless to say my fire making skills are excellent!  However when it comes to our kids I feel like Scott should be the one to supervise and teach all fire making skills.

He went out there a little begrudgingly at first, then thought what a great learning opportunity, plus a great way to clean up all those branches that fall off our willow tree.  I came out after everything was started and moving along.  Peter would pick up a tiny stick and ask if he could throw it in the fire.  "Yes Peter, that's okay to put in."  He would pick up another tiny stick and ask the same question.  This went on over and over again.  I thought about getting annoyed and then realized it was a good thing he was asking about everything he wanted to put in the fire, it would keep him safe.

After all the lawn was cleaned up of debris we asked the kids about ways they can put out a fire.  Water of course was the first answer, then there was a pause, a long pause.  So we gave them some suggestions.  The one they thought was the funniest was what my brothers call the "boy scout fire extinguisher."  Pee on it.  Of course as soon as I said the word pee they all lost it.  What is it with boys and potty words?  After they calmed down a little I ask matter-of-factly "Well do you want to try it out?  William pee on the fire."  Enough said, it was like I told them they just won the lottery.  Brennen didn't even hesitate.  He was not going to take any chances of me backing out.  I asked our newest potty trainer if he wanted to pee on the fire.  A resounding YES followed by a fit of giggles came from the little rascal.  When I helped him with his pants he was laughing SO hard he almost couldn't breathe.  Who knew peeing on a fire was so funny?

Kids descriptives

I love the way that kids minds work.  Sometimes they are very logical.  Most of the time they say things relative to what they know making for some interesting conversations.  For example,  William mentioned that after a large snow fall, the snow looked like Dutch Babies. (sometimes known as German pancakes) what a creative way to look at things.
Today at lunch I was talking to Brennen about preschool.  He was telling me that he met his friends dad.  Then he went on to describe him, "he has hair in the back that looks like a slide". . . I let my brain work on that for a minute.  What would hair that looks like a slide look like?  I finally deduced that he has a little longer hair that curls up in the back.  THAT would look like a slide I guess.  He went on. . ."his hair on the top is a little cool like mine but not as cool as mine."  
What does that mean to a 4 year-old?  I think it meant that he had some curly hair on top but not as much as Brennen's. The conversation went on but I could only follow some of it because he was so distracted his subject matter would change from one thing to another without notice, but the conversation as a whole was really quite interesting. I find myself marveling at the way a child's brain works. If only all life was that simple.

Geek of the Week

Here they are at it again.  Can I just say "Go White Boys, Go White Boys!"  This is the type of Geek behavior I live with. (I secretly LOVE IT!!)

potty training #4

Well I did it.  I potty trained my last kid. Let me tell you it was soooooo much easier than the last time I did this.  I decided I needed to potty train Peter before he turned 3 so with his birthday a week and a half away, I bit the bullet and just did it.  I was hesitant.  Very hesitant,  I was so traumatized by the last kid that I just kept dragging my feet.  I had nothing planned out, no miraculous tricks, I didn't have the energy for it. I just put the boy in underwear, talked about it, and set my timer for every 15 minutes. Basically I went into this thing half heartedly. I did give him a gummy for every successful trip tot the potty.  Brennen saw this and wanted in on the action.  He would go to the potty and said, "Hey I peed, where's my gummy?"  I had to explain that it doesn't work that way for him anymore, but if he wanted to do an extra chore I would be happy to give him a gummy.  This seemed to be fine with him as long as he got a gummy too.

 2 hours later and Peter was still dry with 4 successful trips to the potty I thought 'hey, this one might not be so bad."  He didn't fight me, he didn't have any accidents out of spite (A couple of my others did just so they could control the situation.)  This last one was such a dream.  So we made it through the whole first day with only 3 accidents and 2 of them were my fault. Day 2 came and I had to make a decision, do I keep this up or am I too busy to deal with this today?  I decided to go with it.  Success again!! This time only 2 accidents for the whole day.  Day 3 he had to be babysat so Scott and I could go to our Tax appointment. I was a little worried to pass the buck onto my sister who was watching 2 of my kids plus her 3 little ones.  Turns out I had nothing to worry about this little guy is a pro.  With all newly trained potty goers there are some cleanups to be expected, but I am hopeful.  I was so proud of Peter that I let him have his potty training reward a little early.  He couldn't have been happier with his new weed whacker.  If only they could all be this easy.

Pinewood derby

We had our first attempt at the Pinewood Derby. When we first received the block it just sat there for a long time. I was waiting for Scott to start it and apparently he was waiting for me to, so it sat.days before it was due I pulled it out and talked to Scott about it.  He really wanted nothing to do with it, apparently he had a bad experience with his pinewood derby. Both he and his dad had no experience with wood working and his poor car didn't even finish the race.  So it was left to me.  I had no experience with the pinewood derby. I've never seen a track, but I do have some experience with wood so William and I began the work on the car.  Can I just say how frustrated I was to do something that I didn't have the proper tools for and knew what tools would make the job SO much easier. Luckily I borrowed a belt sander from my brother.  The sad thing was that if I had not procrastinated I could have gotten help from one of my many capable family members. Lesson learned.
So we got it to look cool but to actually go fast was another story. I was having trouble with the wheels, to get them just right.  Then we added some weight to get it to the 5oz limit because apparently heavier is faster.  We taped a washer onto the bottom. (I think this was the downfall of the little car.)  I was so worried that I was going to repeat Scott's experience.  Which was almost the case.  His little car did finish the race but came in fourth every time. My heart broke.  I let my son down.  I pulled him aside and let him know that this was all my fault!  That I was so sorry.  That next year we would do so much better, because I will be sure to get some help.
When they handed out the awards for appearance you would have thought he won the whole race. He was so happy, Ellie and Brennen cheered so loud you would have thought he won the grand prix.

My sweet Will the eternal optomist.  He asked if we could make his next car look the same to fool all the kids.  What could have been a tragedy turned out to be an okay night all because of Williams attitude.  I am so grateful for this kid and his positive outlook on life. I'm proud to be called his mother.

Geek of the Week

This is not really photo in the usual sense, its a video.  I was trying to get Peter's cute little voice on video and his brothers just had to get in on the action.  What a bunch of Geeks.

the big C

We just found out that my dad has cancer.  It all started with a fall at work, he hurt his leg and it just wasn't getting any better, he thought maybe he had and internal bruise or maybe a hairline fracture.  With lots of scans and doctors they determined he has Chondrosarcoma.  This is a caner that starts in the cartilage and works its way into the bone and then into the muscle.  His is located in his right hip. There is not a lot they can do with this kind of cancer.  We are told his options are
 1. operation to cut out the bone-  This is actually not an option for him because of his age and heart health.  It's a 6 hour surgery and they would most likely lose him on the table so that's out.
2. Radiation-  this would only shrink the tumor 10% but would not fix anything.  At best it will help with pain management.
3. Chemo- does not work on this type of cancer and would only make his quality of life worse.  So never mind its not even an option.
His Chondrosarcoma is a stage 2.  1 being the least and 3 being the most severe.
Basically it all boils down to managing pain and giving him an approximate expiration date.  They give him 2-4 years. They believe this tumor has been growing for about 10 years, so that limp he has had for the last 10 years was not just him getting old, not from years of manual labor, and not his gout acting up, it was this cancer.
I remember when I got news of his first heart attack.  We were on our way to visit them for a summer vacation when I got the call.  There is something shocking when you find out the man who you knew could DO anything, FIX everything, leap over small buildings in a single bound is actually a mortal.  It was such an eye opener for me and I was really surprised at my reaction to the news.  This time around I felt like I was a little more prepared, just a little mind you.  I started to contemplate how I felt about this news, denial of course was my first thought then I took a more logical approach.
Now I am at the point of gratitude.  I am grateful that I have had so much time with him.  Grateful that he has been such a good teacher and father. Grateful that we were able to move closer to him so my children could know him better.  Grateful that I am here to help in anyway possible. And most grateful that I have an understanding of the atonement and after life.
Now I am not writing him off just yet.  There is plenty of time for my littlest one to really get to know his grandpa. So here's praying for the 4 or more years will you join me?

snow fun

With all that snow that fell I made sure my kids got out and played in it.  It wasn't really that hard because they have been wanting snow for a while now.  They set out to make snow forts.  Ellie really got into it, she was outside until it was dark.  Her snow fort morphed into an "igloo" which she was so proud of.  I remember building stuff when I was a kid.  It was so much more fun to build a project than to have the actual project.  Ellie found this out for herself because 2 days later it was gone.

Friday. (The jar is a large pickle jar that we dug out of the snow)

Sunday (no snow removal on our part it all melted)

There is a saying here that if you don't like the weather wait 5 minutes and it will change.  We got 18 inches of snow in one night and 2 days later is was all gone and 63 degrees. You would have never known it snowed.  I think I prefer winter this way.

geek of the week

While I don't necessarily think geek when I look at this picture I am defiantly thinking Dork.  Brennen thought he was so cool in these sunglasses, all I could think of was Risky Business and what a DORK go put some pants on.

finally

It finally snowed enough for us to go sledding.  It started to snow when we went to bed and when we woke up there was a foot and a half of snow on the ground.  While I was ready for it to be spring I admit I was glad my kids could go sledding at least once this year.  I decided to make a day of it with Scott not having to work I thought I'd be a good mom, or a bad mom, I can't decide, by checking my kids out early form school just to go sledding.  I invited my sister and her kids who didn't have school to come join us.

 Its always a toss up going sledding with little ones either they have fun or they cry the whole time.  I was worried about Peter because we woke him up when we got to the hill and he was nothing but a whiner. First he didn't want to get out of the warm car and then he was mad that William stole his "slider"  (That's what he calls a sled)  once we took the sled back from Will and gave it to Peter he was totally fine.  Stubborn Peter didn't want anyone to help him go down the hill, so with much trepidation I sent him down on his little saucer all by himself.  He LOVED it, he wasn't scared at all.  Peter would just hunker down on his sled and laugh the whole way down.  When he got to the bottom he would pick up his own sled and climb up the hill.  I was amazed my little two-year-old had the stamina to do it over and over again, He probably went up the hill 50 times.  He had such a great time.  The rest of us had a blast as well. Brennen did great too, as soon as he climbed up he went right back down I wasn't even able to get a picture of that kid.
  As we tried all the sleds I so thriftily bought at DI at the end of summer, we decided the best sled was no sled at all but the boogie board we brought along.  That thing flew down the hill.  The funny thing was that was the "sled" we traded William for so Peter could have his slider and William put up a big stink until he found out how well it worked.  There was no tragic falls or crashes this time until the very end Peter decided to take a different sled that went really fast.  He was going so fast he crashed with another kid and got a bloody nose.  Blood meant times up but we all had our fill, we had been sledding for 3 hours.  After we got him cleaned up Peter begged for one more time down the hill before he was satisfied.   Check out his video.  I decided to let go of my guilt for taking my kids out of school.  This was a much needed stress reliever.  Not quite the beach mind you, but there was plenty of  laughs and squeals of delight to last us awhile.

The golden hour

I try to get to the Legacy center every other day to run the track with my little boys.  I usually go between 10 and 11 am I call it the golden hour, not because of the sunshine but because it seems like everyone there is in their golden years.  I have to admit I love it. First I love old people, I think they are so cute and quirky.  I also get a boost when they make comments of how cute my kids are, (who doesn't want to hear that.)  I love the looks on their faces and the groups that form.  there are the group of old men chatting about politics, weather, and their latest ailments, but when they see Brennen dashing past them they can't help but notice in approval.  Brennen loves to strike up a conversation with them also. They always want to buy him treats but I'm a meanie and don't let them.  There is the gaggle of ladies that chat about everything and just smile from ear to ear and talk to my little guys even offering to push Peter in his stroller for me, and then there is my favorite. . . the couples holding hands as they walk around and around.  It is so sweet to watch them link their fingers together or see one offer their arm as support in more ways than just balance.  I love catching glimpses of these moments and can only hope Scott and I are still holding hands after so many years of being together.
(sorry about the quality.  I was using my phone while jogging. I really wanted to take a picture but I was a little nervous about it because there were people right behind me that could see what I was doing.  I didn't want them to think I was some weirdo, we know that I am weird but everyone doesn't need to know.)