Just What the Doctor Ordered

My last post was a bit on the negative side, and I decided I needed to do something about my attitude.  Jer and I have been discussing the fact that we are adding to our family and our kids really need some individual attention from each of us.  We spend lots of time together as a family and have daily moments with each kid, but we are really trying to set aside time and adjust our schedules to have a monthly activity with the older boys one-on-one.  Jer took each boy skiing just with him and Luke lucked out with an Aggie game as well in January.  I took February and had such a fun time spending some individual time with my big boys.  These pictures are from my cell phone and terrible but here's what we did...

 Luke and I went roller blading.  He has never been on any kind of roller skates/blades before.  When we got there for some reason he wanted to do the old school roller skates.  Although it was totally taking me back I tried to convince him that the blades would be more fun.  He didn't listen.  After being a total zoo for about 10 minutes and doing several sweet rock star splits he decided to take my advice.  After we switched to the blades he got the hang of it and had tons of fun.  I have honestly never roller bladed before either, but I liked it too.  We ended the night with a game of air hockey.  He just kept telling me how fun it was, and it was so great to just hang out and have fun with him.  Whenever I spend time with him alone like that I'm always amazed at how mature and grown up he's getting.  We are both looking forward to our next one-on-one.

Seth's original idea was bowling but after Luke and I did roller blading he wanted to do that.  I held him off for this month but maybe we'll give it a try next time.  Seth and I had lunch and hit the lanes and had such a fun time.  I am an awful bowler and so is Seth.  Our scores were one point different.  In my defense, he used the gutters and I didn't!

These activities were a refueling for me and were such a good reminder of what great, fun boys I have.  They were both so grateful and excited to get to go and do something fun just with me.  Love you!

Mental Snapshots

I haven't exactly been a blogger extraordinaire so far this year, but I do need to document some things.  My kids have nearly driven me crazy with their arguing lately...with each other...in response to my requests for them to do their chores, homework, etc. but on the other hand there have been a lot of good moments too, and I need to remember those.  In fact, after a particularly trying evening with Luke several days ago I told Jer I needed to go in and lay with him for a minute...just observe him in his sweet, sleepy state and remind myself about all of his wonderful qualities.  I did and it helped my state of mind a lot.  Sometimes I have to remind myself that my kids are just that...kids!  They are not going to be sweet, compliant angels all of the time.  They have minds and wills of their own, and it's not my job to bend or even break them down to what I see fit but instead to recognize and emphasize their God given good qualities and strengths and implement fair consequences for bad behavior.  I am so a work in progress.  With all that said there isn't anything that crazy going on around here.  It's just family life.  Parenting is hard and sometimes I feel like a slow learner!

Before I went on that big tangent I actually meant to blog about a fun night our family spent at The Beav.  We headed up a few weeks ago for an evening of night skiing with our ward.  I hadn't really intended to get Ian on skis but once we got there it was either chase the wild man around the lodge all night or get him out.  We decided to let him ski, and it ended up being a really fun night for the whole family.

I had a kid by the ticket office take a really cute picture of our whole family (rarity) including Ian on the tiniest skis, but before I could load it onto the computer one of my children, who shall remain nameless, was messing around with the camera and deleted it.  I was sad and then I got over it.

So here are a few mental pictures of a fun family night:
**Jer and I setting a new record for time spent getting kids into ski gear.
**Ian telling me and anyone else who would listen how it was "so fun to skateboard" all night.
**Ian wearing skis that were about 12 inches long.  The smallest ones I've ever seen.
**Luke stopping to wait and helping Seth up crash after crash.
**Seth getting off track and piling it up before we even made it from the patrol building over to the lift due to his missing edgy wedgy.  This was followed by Luke attempting to pull Seth (who now weighs more than him) back onto his feet and get him back into his skis.  This was then followed by me carrying/skate skiing with Seth until we were back on track and finding myself out of breath before we even got started.
**Riding the "big chair" up the hill with my boys on a freezing cold night.
**Watching Luke go off the jumps on the side of Little Beav, followed by Seth's version, followed by Ian's request to go off some "yittle jumps too."
**The healthy quad workout I got out snowplowing with Ian "skiing" between my legs.

We all made some good memories of Ian's first time on the slopes, and I'm going to recall these mental images next time I'm about to blow!

Big Potty Trained Boy!

We just hit a major milestone at our house.  No one is wearing diapers!  (Okay, Ian is technically still wearing diapers at night, but he's had a few dry ones and I could care less about that right now.)  For the last 7.5 years I have been changing diapers in one form or another, and I'm going to enjoy this break even though it's going to be short.

Poor Ian had a really rough week last week.  He had a fever and felt lousy all week, but it was just a virus. He was really down and out and just walked around the house with his blanky asking to be held, saying "I hurt," waking up all the time, and asking for "messicine"--all very un-Ianlike behaviors.  The Saturday before that we decided to start with the potty.  He's been going on and off for months, but he got big boy undies for Christmas, so we put him in them.  The result was accidents all day!

Monday when he was sick I was just going to give it a rest until he felt better, but he did not want anything to do with his diapers.  He wanted the underwear.  Amazingly he started holding it!  I could not get the kid to go.  I decided to push on with training, and we spent some sad times on the potty.  He was holding it for hours anyway, so I figured he had to go.  He loved the undies, but not the potty.  I've learned a lot after doing this three times and managed to stay incredibly patient.  After a few days we went without accidents and haven't had one since Sunday when he peed on the carpet before church.  Yep, just stood there and peed through his clothes.

Training Ian has brought back a lot of mommy guilt about Luke's training days (Seth was a breeze).  In my defense Luke was incredibly obstinate, difficult, infuriating...but I was no gem either.  I felt so much pressure to get him trained and kind of felt like a failure that it went on for months with non stop accidents.  I was not a very nice mom and if I knew then what I know now (and wasn't just a mean sleep deprived mom) I would have done things different.  I kind of feel bad for the oldest kid sometimes.  Most of my "mommy dearest" moments and major regrets have been at Luke's expense.  It's sad that I am trying out my parenting on him and then in hindsight I am learning how to be more patient, calm, understanding....yikes.  I've asked for forgiveness for some of my worst moments, but sometimes it's hardest to forgive yourself.

Anyway back to the present, potty training has been a family affair around here.  Luke and Seth have been so cute and excited for Ian.  On Monday when they were out of school all four of us were squashed in the half bath while they gave a play-by-play of Ian's bodily functions and cheered each one.  Afterwards it was "potty dance," high fives, and bumps all around.  Go Ian!

Boys Being Boys

 Seth got "real tools" for Christmas and has been having so much fun.  Jer worked on the framing in the basement a lot over the holidays and Seth was down there helping out a lot.  They are "real" including a saw and several other sharp things.  We are supervising him, and he is doing great.  He is so interested in how things are made and building things.  Ian has been joining in with the toy tools we've had forever.  Don't worry that those blue "safety glasses" don't actually have anything in them--they are purely for high fashion!

Last Sunday night we had one sad little Steelers fan at our house.  Luke was the lone voice cheering for the Steelers and couldn't believe it when they lost.  Luke agreed he would cheer the Broncos on in their next game because they are his second favorite team but his condition was to wear his Steelers stuff.  After Luke and Jer got back from skiing Saturday the boys suited up (complete with soccer cleats), and we watched the Patriots thump the Broncos.  Not much to cheer about.  I have to admit I have become kind of a football fan this year.  I like Tim Tebow, and he's actually a professional athlete I would want my kids to admire!  In other sporting news I gave Jer and Luke tickets to an Aggie basketball game for Christmas.  Luke was dressed in his Aggie duds and pacing the floor waiting for Jer to get home from work.  They had a blast.  Maybe one of these days we'll get season tickets...when we stop doing really expensive things like adopting and finishing the basement!

Exciting Stuff

Well, some things are just so big and exciting they need their own blog.  Check it out....

Click here for... Exciting Stuff

Holiday Fun

The holidays have been quite relaxing and fun with the exception of getting things ready for the new Primary year plus a quick trip to both the dermatologist and the dentist.  We've had fun just hanging out with family and friends.  We did go ice skating with the Burbanks and skiing.  The skiing was awful as anticipated but the kids had fun.  I took Luke up for a half day Jer patrolled and then Luke, Seth, and I went up for another half day to meet Jer in the sagebrush.  Seriously no snow, but we had fun.  Seth took a few major eggbeaters, but he was a great sport.  I took no pictures of any of the above mentioned activities, but I did catch this one.

This is my cousin Troy with the boys.  He is such a good buddy to them--like a surrogate uncle.  The whole Pickett family really has taken my boys under their wing, and we appreciate them so much.  We have had so much fun the past few years attending Troy's sporting events and cheering him on.  The boys really do look up to him so much, and they think he's the best.  He had his mission farewell a few weeks ago, and he leaves Wednesday!  We will miss him, but I'm so excited for him.  I really appreciate the good example he's setting for my kids.  We went to his dad's gym and the kids/guys played basketball and then topped it off with some frozen yogurt.  Luke is already talking about how he will miss Troy and wants to send him some "postcards."  Good luck Troy.  You will be great!

It's the Best Time of the Year

I will mostly let these pictures speak for themselves.  We had a great Christmas this year.  For the first time ever we didn't go to a big family Christmas Eve party.  That whole tradition has been changing and evolving over the years, and I decided it was time to start some of my own Christmas traditions.  We had Christmas Eve at our house and both sets of grandparents were there.  It was different but fun, and I think everyone had a good time.  We ate, played games, and had a little program then ate some more.

Ian enjoyed playing with the sherbet more than eating it.

Luke treated us to a great rendition of Jingle Bells.

Seth sang his S-A-N-T-A song from preschool.

All the kids sang some Christmas carols.  Ian was their echo.  They also placed some nativity figures as Jer read from the Bible and Luke read us a neat Christmas poem.

It was so fun to have all grandparents there.  The kids loved it, and we got a rare picture of each group!

This next set of pictures should be an outtake set but unfortunately there were no intakes.

What are Jer and I on?

Jer looks asleep and I look overly awake...then we gave up.

One of few pictures from Christmas morning.

Seth got these "real tools"--they are just kid sized and has been working with Jer in the basement the entire break.  He loves them and looks so cute in his little tool belt.

Luke got an ipod.  It is the only thing he asked for and Santa reluctantly brought it.  He has had lots of fun face timing his cousin K'Lee who also got one.  I have to admit that has been fun because they don't get to see each other as often as they would like.

Seth got this LeapPad too.  The kids had a great Christmas and have had a great time driving their remote control cars and playing basketball on the arcade style hoop game we got.  It's in the garage waiting for a spot in the basement.

After this all ambition to take pictures was gone.  I just hate being inside and using the flash...oh and I was lazy.  We ate a yummy breakfast, went to church, and had a fun afternoon in Preston opening more presents...including the news that we're going to Disneyland with Jer's family in June.  The kids are stoked.