Moments

Before going to church Sunday Ben fell down a few steps- it was quite tragic. As I was fixing my hair I overheard Steven say to Ben: "Were you mean!? Is that why mommy pushed you down the stairs!?" Thankfully Benny stuck up for me & responded: "No, I pushed myself down the stairs."

If you happen to run into Ben, you should ask him to sing Taylor Swifts "We are never getting back together." I randomly overheard him singing it the other day- totally cute! I had no idea he was paying such close attention to the words.

Valentine's was this week and though I didn't make pink, heart shaped pancakes for breakfast or cut my sons' sandwiches into hearts- I did buy them a little fountain and a little box of candy both of which they loved so kudos to me! 

Preschool was at my house this week. It was lots of fun! We played "Don't Eat Pete", BINGO, made Valentine Bags & Heart Monsters & decorated heart sugar cookies.  When it was over on Wednesday and one of Steven's friends was leaving, Steven grabbed a Coke bottle (Tyler had left them sitting by the door) & said, "Here, you can have this" That gesture was not appreciated by the child's mother.

I was laying down with Ben at nap time and Steven, who doesn't take naps but doesn't want to be left alone, suddenly cracked open the door and started to make whistling sounds through the crack. It seemed he wanted me to come out.

And this week we have been blessed to have Brian, Pattie, Leia & Brice staying with us. When I asked the boys who was going to marry Leia, Steven said, "I am!" and then Ben said, "No! I am!" And so the fighting over her has begun. But Lucy has it easy since she has no one to compete against for Brice :)

This week Lucy rolled over from her tummy to her back! It may not have happened again yet but it was still exciting! She is also really getting into her toys- it's fun to watch her grab a rattle or a doll and try to control her movements with it. (BTW she nursed a little better this week but we're still not 100% free of fussy nursing)

And I will end with a fun picture of my kids all dressed up for a Brian's sister's wedding reception...

A Spooky Birthday

Here's my little thumb sucking, blanket baby on his 5th birthday with his brother & dad. We told Ben to suck his thumb too- pretty great that he did it ;). Steven got to spend 3 hours of his birthday at church but he was super happy about it because he got sung to, and was given a lollipop. His sweet Sunday school teacher also brought over a ridiculously large cupcake- lucky kid!

So Tyler was supposed to make Steven's graveyard cake, he is the cake making genius of the family, but he is a busy guy so I ended up making it. I am NOT the cake making genius of the family but it turned out ok. The ghosts were bananas that I covered with frosting which sounded easy in theory but was ridiculously hard to do. In front there are Sour Patch Kids candy which Steven put there because he said they were zombies.

Steven was SO excited to blow out his candle but at the last minute (mid- birthday song) his cousin blew it out for him!! Lucky for him, his Aunt Melissa saved the day and it was lit again before the song ended- phew!

His gifts from me & his dad were a Penguin Dream Lite, a remote control car & a space shuttle Mater. He was a happy, (and spoiled) little boy.

Lucy looked super cute at his party but my usually happy girl didn't want to smile for the camera.

And Steven was so glad this cute family could attend his party- he absolutely adores his cousin Oliver!

Complaints

I tend to be to wordy when I complain so I will make a few abbreviated complaints- and then I will try to let go and be more positive!

1) My boss is frustrating me because she's giving me grief about paying me $100/month for rent, insurance, supplies. She just wants to pay for insurance and supplies and doesn't seem to think that using my house for her tutoring company warrants rent (Rebekka also tutors out of my home). She also wants to tell me exactly what to buy with the money (like a rug & a divider for the room, neither I feel necessary).

2) I just registered Steven for full day Kindergarten next year and that makes me sad because if I am still on this tutoring schedule I will never see my Steven. But I don't want him to behind academically and he doesn't learn well from me.

3) I cut off a sliver of my thumb this week with a kitchen knife and it was hard to go through most of the week without being able to use one of my thumbs normally.

4) I wish Lucy would just nurse normally again and not constantly be screaming at me when I try to feed her. It stresses me out!

And the complaints are done so I will end with a sweet story:

We had just dropped Steven off at preschool & Ben asked me why Steven had to go to preschool. I told him he needed to go there to learn (about "Sponge Bob" right!?). Ben replied, "But he's my friend and I NEED him!" Obviously I won't be the only one missing Steven next year!

Steven's Sleepover & Bounce-U Extravaganza

For Steven's 5th Birthday I didn't feel like doing a big party with all his friends and family. That would involve too much prepping and stress. Back in December he had really had fun on the bouncy obstacle course so I looked into pricing at Bounce-U thinking he could just go with a few friends and call that his "party". I found out they had an early morning open bounce on Saturdays for only $5 a kid. Since it started at 8am & since the friends he picked were his 2 cousins, Bryson & Miles, and his best friend Colin, I decided it would be easier if they just slept over the night before. Colin declined on the sleepover which is totally understandable but his cousins were in and all Friday Steven anxiously awaited there arrival. He kept making comments about how it was looking dark outside.

When night time came and his cousin Miles arrived (Bryson was late)  they made ghost pizzas (Steven wanted a spooky party). They looked like ghost before they went into the oven, not so much after:

After they ate their pizza Bryson came & they enjoyed some ghost poop (aka marshmallows) while they watched some of "The Nightmare Before Christmas." (the only spooky kid movie he could find on Netflix) They didn't like it to too much so they ended up playing upstairs & running away from Benny monster. 

Then they came back downstairs and had some ice cream. After that the boys all stripped down and took a bath together. It was pretty funny to see all 4 boys (Ben jumped in too) in our little bath tub. It's also pretty funny, how much fun they can have in a bathtub playing with toys at this age. After the bath, they played the Wii & then it was bed time. They were cute all cuddled together on the Queen bed in our guest/play room. Surprisingly they were all asleep by 9:30.

The next day they were up EARLY and ready to go to Bounce-U! Colin met us there and the boys (Tyler included) had SO much fun. And everyone got super sweaty! We will have to go again sometime for sure...

After all the bouncing fun, Tyler got them all slushies at QT and then it was home to wait for parents. While he waited, Steven got to open up the presents his friends got him. Such a spoiled boy!

Tomorrow he gets to take off the final chain and celebrate his birthday with cake & ice cream at Grandma & Grandpa Hatch's home. And he will get to open our presents to him. Lucky boy get's 3 days of birthday fun!

My Silly Life

And would you believe that was the best picture I could get of my 3 children!? Ben, insisted on holding the scissors, "Cause he wants to!"- His new found favorite phrase, that & "Why?" Pretty much all he says these days. Just now I asked him if he did anything funny I should write about and his response, "I just sat down on the couch." Oh, Ben. I love the picture of him below holding his little sister who looks just as big as him :) 

And here he is looking perfectly devious with the scissors....

This week Steven discovered "America's Funniest Home Videos" on Netflix, or as he calls it, "The Owie Show." He loved watching it! And I do mean lovED because today it disappeared from Netflix- completely depressing! But it was fun while it lasted and I loved how he kept purposely running into things and asking "Is there a camera watching me?" I realized we really should be followed around by a camera though- we could provide it with lots of funny moments-- like when I slid down the last few stairs this week, right into Ben or when I tried to shut the microwave door on Steven's head...ooops...

This week I asked Steven what he did in preschool and he informed me that he married Hannah in the backyard...He also watched Sponge Bob...This co-op preschool is super educational ;) Then the next day he told me he wanted to marry Lucy- so fickle! He has also informed me that when he grows up he wants to be a girl. Why? So then he can feed Lucy. I worry about this child.

And for bragging rights- Steven now has the second article of faith memorized! Hearing him say "transgressions" is pretty cute!

Lucy is still being a bear when it comes to nursing but oh, she is SO cute that all is easily forgiven. Hopefully someday soon she will decide she likes to nurse all the time and not just in the evenings and early mornings (hopefully before I lose my milk!) On a happy note Lucy has become so "chatty" lately- I love her baby babble! And really she is a happy baby- she just happens to be a happy, chubby baby that doesn't like to eat. And also she is already becoming a drooler- check out the wet spot on her onesie in the bottom picture.

And for me, this week has been semi-painful. It has felt like a super busy week and I had a mishap on Wednesday that about killed me. I had just finished cleaning the house- a task that used to take 2 hours but now with an extra child takes 3 hours- and I opened up the dryer to find that Tyler's color changing pen had exploded all over EVERYTHING. 2 days worth of clothes, a couple towels and the dryer itself were all very colorful. Here I was thinking I was finishing my last task until dinner time and then pure mess. I melted down, called my mom for advice on how to clean it all and then got to work. Steven was a super helper- he got in the dryer with rubbing alcohol on a towel and started scrubbing it down- he probably lost some brain cells from the stench but I was SO grateful for his help. The dryer is now a light blue. The clothes- I Shouted out & prewashed like 5 times and all the dark colored ones were basically saved. The lighter colored ones were a pretty hopeless case. Oh motherhood...