31

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In 2 hours, my birthday will have come & gone.  According to my birth certificate, believe it or not, I am 31.

Its been an interesting week here.  Some sad things.  Some hard things.  Our furnace was broken, again, all week.  Next week I'm starting a new job.  Life is a blur.  And while I'm still patiently waiting for some prayers to be answered & trying to get through each day juggling all the irons we have in the fire, today was a perfect reminder of how blessed I am.  Just embrace all these fleeting moments of insanity.

I spent the day at home with 3 wonderful kids.  Doing nothing.  Just being.
My furnace, in my beautiful home, got fixed.
I had a wonderful dinner out with my amazing family.
{Logan's pizza was the size of that inner circle of that big plate.  And he ate every.last.bite.  He ate his weight in Olive Garden tonight!  Its the only picture I took, but it deserved documentation!}

And you can't beat ice cream cake & snuggling the night away on the couch with my hubby & our 3 little loves for a movie.


I got to live life, my life, being their mommy for another year.  And here is to hoping 31 is as fulfilling as 30 has been.
I guess 31 isn't so bad :)

Target Tantrum

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Please tell me someone just saw (or heard) the scene that was us at Target. Please tell me you got a good laugh. 

The kids got birthday gift certificates in the mail this week from Uncle Jason & Aunt Becky.  We went to Target, and I was going to let the kids redeem their birthday gift cards.  First we hit the bathroom, as we usually do, & ended up leaving after only hitting the bathroom, with Hayden kicking & screaming & tucked under my arm like a football. If 4 years old is better than 3, 4 better come fast. Cause this "I can do what I want, whenever I want" phase is getting old.  I really hated to make a scene, but you aren't going to blatantly disobey over & over & over, then go get a toy.  Sorry.  Hopefully next time you will believe me when I say, "If you do that again, we're going home."

Thank you Logan, for carrying Hayden's kicked off shoes. 

Thank you Olivia, for picking up & carrying my keys which went flying as I tried to dig through my purse & man-handle 41lbs of tanrtum. 

Thank you both for listening & helping, & not breaking down in tears because we had to leave. 

Thank you lady in the parking lot for helping Olivia & Logan across the street & for saying "God Bless you, these days will pass soon."

Thank you patrons of Target for smiling & looking at me with "I'm sorry" eyes & for not making me feel the piercing hateful eyes of judgement.

What a day....

"Smell my feet"

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Got out shirts for school tomorrow that say Trick or Treat, so I recited the "smell my feet" lyrics to Olivia.  And less than 2 minutes later.....


LOVE HER!!

Fun Fall Festivities

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The day before our birthday party, the house was clean & I needed to keep 3 mess creating kids out of it.  So we hit the pumpkin patch with our friends Jackson & Grant.  They showed us this new big slide.  We had no idea it was here!  They would have played there all day!!
 They needed help setting out their sacks, but otherwise did the slide on their own!
 Jackson & Olivia
We also did the trikes.  Something I don't usually do with the 3 of them when I'm there alone.
 He tried so hard to pedal!
 And of course the jumping pillows & the duck races.

The day after our birthday party we went to Kingston's birthday party.  Olivia wanted to wear a scarf like mom.
 As if they didn't get enough cupcakes at their own party :)
 It was a bug hunt birthday party!
 Me & my sweet little girl!


We took Monday off to take long naps... like 3 hour long naps!!  Dreary, rainy, cold weather & 3 hour long naps.  It was awesome!!

Then Tuesday we hit up Vala's with Molly, Analeigh & Grandma GG.  The weather was less than ideal, but with our schedules, we knew if we didn't go, we wouldn't get there together.  We avoided the jumping pillows, duck races & things more "out in the open" as it wasn't too cold out of the wind.  The kids were troopers & had a great time.
Rolling his eyes at me.  This boy gives me grey hair!
 Feeding the goats.
 Love grandma kisses  xoxo
We did lots & lots of sliding....
 The nice thing about the cold weather was we had this place to ourselves!!!
 Hayrack ride!
Olivia, Hayden, Me, Molly. Logan & Analeigh (who I guess was the blanket monster animal)
 And we rode the train in the caboose!

Wednesday it was back to work, school & reality.  But it was such a fun stretch of days!!!

Sing, sing a song..

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How does this girl hardly talk at school?  And just sit on the rug at Sunday School & not sing & dance?  This scene has been going on for 40 minutes tonight & was only put to a stop when it was time for PJs & bed.  Love her to pieces!!



I had to pretend I was just playing on my phone as she didn't want me to video her.  I also got a bunch on the video camera, which I also had to pretend I was just "working" on the camera in order to get it on video.

HAYDEN!!!

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SOOOO close!!!  Just missing his D & backwards!!
He did it!!  All by himself!  We were out to eat after Church at our favorite little diner & he did it!  {Well he forgot the Y, but when I pointed that out he knew exactly where to fit it in!}  Oddly, thats the same place we saw Logan write his name for the 1st time too.  Livi did her first name writing at school way back in Mrs. Beth's class.
And Logan's got his last name down too!!

Party Peek!

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They have grown & changed 'just' a little bit!



Birthday Party #4 is in the books! It was a success & lots of fun photos to follow.

48 hours

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Since Hayden had been taking Singulair before bed, and since we didn't take it last night, by tonight's bedtime it was 48 hours of Singulair.  And you know what, bedtime went great.

Coincidence?  Maybe.

But it all just lines up a little too well for me to not believe it was the Singulair.  If I was insane, I'd put him back on it just to test the theory.  But fortunately, I'm not insane.

Actually it was Logan who had a rough day today.  Something about Hayden & him waking up at 6am just did him in.
"I'm not tired.  I just want to snuggle with my sword a little bit." -Logan


A glimpse at whats been going on with us

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If only this child would talk, she would blow people away.  Her teacher has been trying some new things with her this week as we continue to struggle with her socialization/communication skills in the daycare/school setting.  You might know it all sista', but you gotta speak!
^^Can you see it??
She sits & plays teacher all the time.  Here her & Hayden's lovies are practicing their letters on the leap pads.
Logan, always puts his name on his paper.  Usually on the back.  He's good!
And Hayden's going to get there yet!  His teacher has been "writing" his name with dots at the top of his papers so he can trace it each time.  This one obviously he did on his own.  You might not see much....
But I see an H, Y, A & E (and another H).  Awesome! Still trying to work with him on how to correctly hold a pencil/crayon though.

We've been getting to Sunday School.  And successfully leaving the kids there parent-less.  One weekend when Hayden was so sick with allergies (more to come on this) him & I were up past 2:30am  Saturday night & ended up sleeping sitting up on the couch.  We had NO intention of Sunday school Sunday morning.  None.  But Olivia begged & begged & begged that "I NEED to go to Sunday School & sing & dance."  Begged.  How can you as a good parent say no.  Ugh.  We got all 5 of us ready & out the door in 30 amazing minutes that morning!  They colored.  Snacked.  Listened to the story.  BUT the gal who does the music with each of the classes said to us after "you have the 3 most shy kids."  Apparently they all 3 stood in the back, holding hands.  None singing.  No dancing.  Nothing.  

The following weekend Olivia begged again to go sing & dance at Sunday School.
I hate that her shyness is holding her back so much from things she clearly wants to be a part of!

She does however know a lot of the words from the couple of songs they have sang there.

The boys do know most of the words too & Jeff has found some of the songs on youtube & they do sing & dance to them at home!

What else??

Well, we have been in our house a whole year {can you believe it!!!}.  And the Service One warranty people were calling to see if we wanted to re-sign up.  I really wasn't in the mood to fork out the $400, but on the last day of September, I did.  Thinking about how many times we used them last year for furnace/water heater issues I figured we better.  I signed up just in time, that as the last day we could renew.  Well.... that was Monday.  Friday I came home & found a puddle of water on the kitchen floor.... that came from the kids' bathroom toilet above.  Thank goodness we signed up!  They will be out here tomorrow & I'm hoping I don't have a huge hole in my kitchen ceiling for the kids' birthday party this weekend!  Well, more I guess, I'm hoping we have a working bathroom.

Yes Birthday Party.  A whole month early.  Another reason I've felt so busy!  Hoping October is a safe bet for nice weather vs the gamble that is November.  You'll understand when you see their gift why this matters!  And oh that gift has taken days of my life & hours of my sleep trying to make sure it got here prior to this party.  Honestly!

Since the kids' bathroom is off limits for the moment, they had to quickly get over their silly fear of the jets in our tub, cause that was the only place to rubba-dub-dub!  They have ended up having a blast!
 Its amazing how a little kid shampoo in the water turns into mega bubbles once the jets are on!
 This is an idea of just how crazy it is!  
Please note in this picture of Olivia, that just so happened to catch Logan's back.... the oval shaped red spot that matches the exact specifications of the width of Hayden's mouth.  This picture is 12 hours later & still bright red.  Logan cried so hard that morning, he turned blue.  I can not believe there wasn't blood.  {More to come on Hayden, this picture actually triggered a thought}

Miss Livi, being the little mother she thinks she is, had to bring her doll, Baby Sidney & make her a place setting with cereal & all to dinner.  Yes cereal for dinner, don't judge.  At least they ate.

 Then there is Hayden.  So, back in August his allergies were awful, so we tried Claritin, which didn't work.  And landed on Zyrtec which carried him through until late-September.  Then 'real' fall hit & he started puking & coughing & not sleeping because his allergy induced post-nasal drip was just that out of control.... and we added Singulair to his nightly regimen.   It took about a week before we noticed a real difference, but he was finally back to sleeping & not coughing round-the-clock.  He was rested, happy.  We were happy.  

Then the last 2-3 days happened.
This morning as we were trying to get out the door for work/school, I looked at Jeff, after Hayden refused to sit on the potty & proceeded to pee all over Jeff & said "Something is wrong.  I don't know what it is, but this is not Hayden."  He can be naughty, yes, & I've endured toddler tantrums & such, but this was SO much more.  I don't know how to explain it.  He was completely irate & irrational.  We spent at least an hour each of the last 2 nights getting him to bed.  He was so full of rage.  He could have kicked down a door.  PJs on, PJs off.  Yelling, kicking.  He wouldn't come into the bathroom to brush his teeth.  He cried for 20 minutes because we didn't brush his teeth.  He came in the bathroom & locked his jaw shut standing in front of the sink.  Two nights in a row he went to bed with a spanking & ended up screaming himself to sleep at the top of the stairs.  He would not calm down.  He would not cuddle.  Who IS this child?

Upon discussing it today with one of the pediatricians at work, {followed up with a consult with "Dr. Google"} I learned that behavior changes can be a side effect of Singulair.  She said its something she has seen more than a few times before in kids.  A quick chat with my ped office this afternoon & they agreed.  So the Singulair will go & hopefully the Zyrtec will hold us over until we get a freeze.  {Ugh it kills me to pry for a freeze!!}  The stuff I read online said it will take around a week to see results from taking the med, which it did, so its not surprising that about day 10 we saw a peak of side effects.  I can not think of anything else in our current life that would have altered his behavior in such a drastic way.  Tired, Hayden who hadn't slept in days because of his cough was a sweetheart compared to the thing he turned into this week.  We have not tried Allegra yet, so that will be my next course of action if the Zyrtec fails us & I also have some honey that should be on the way to us this weekend & we're gonna give that naturalista approach a go too.

I just hope his attitude bounces back quick!  

A review of the above bathroom pictures triggered the forgotten moments of Hayden biting Logan twice this week (that I know of).  We have never really had a biting issue, outside of teething 2 year molars.  And the second bite, pictured above, was fierce!  His anger issues were something else this week. If he had been 18, the looks he gave me would have had me scared for my life.  

In between outbursts though, this happened.
He has had ZERO interest in a bike ever.  None.  Cared not about learning to pedal.  Until some little boy not too much older buzzed down the street this week, & Hayden got on a bike & started pedaling after him.

And Livi learned how to use her brakes!


So that's it.  We have just been busy, busy, busy with life. Work, upcoming birthday party, & well, just stuff.