Mads

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What can I say about Mads other than she's our F-A-V that's right I said it .... favorite :) not really but she's pretty darn sweet. NEVER cries. couldn't ask for more really. Even bedtime is getting so much better...between 8:30 and 10 at the latest but I don't mind the alone time with just her...she'll just snuggle the whole time. i just have to cut out the evening nap now. She is starting to sit up...but not very well because she'll smile with her whole body and just tips right over. though she loves being on her tummy...I bet she'll crawl before she sits up :) Zach did but that's because his head was too big. Maddie loves her baths - we take at least 1 a day sometimes 2 just because she loves it....and I love the smell of a clean baby :) Just wanted to post some pictures of her now that she's 5 months!!!

In other news the playroom is now clean and we are back to the Wii. only 5 1/2 days for about 15 minutes of cleaning. Can you believe it?! haha.

Battle of Wills

So most of the time it's too annoying to get my kids to clean up the playroom so I'll just do it during the day while cleaning. or they will help, but then it's messy again by the end of the day. It is so frustrating. I like it to be clean- and they will be more likely to play in there. Well...in the book I'm reading Screamfree Parenting it says to let your kids have their space the way the want to. So I decided to try it ... with strings attached. They are allowed to play the Wii and Barbie.com once it's clean. Kyle's room had to be clean too - which took 3 days but he did it to earn 30 minutes of the Wii. To get the rest he has to clean the playroom. If Sadie doesn't help she can't play Barbie.com until the next time she cleans the playroom. So far it's been 5 days. It is driving me CRAZY. I run on the treadmill in there so i have to look at it. I can't believe i'm actually posting a picture of their mess but it is a little funny- got to keep it real right?! I'm not giving in either. they keep saying I wish I could play the Wii....it's nice not to be me saying no for once...the answer is always You can play the Wii all you have to do is clean the playroom.

A few things

Just a couple of more things to add. The kids enjoy watching movies and building a "boat" while they do it. This comes from us pushing 2 love seats together for all of us to pile in and watch movies...from like 2 years ago. kyle still does it without the loveseats :) Sadie calls it a movie theater...turn off all the lights and have a snack.

What else...Maddie is not being a good night sleeper. I've moved her up from her 12 am bedtime (since vacation that's what she was doing) now it's between 9-9:30 much more doable. but she'll wake up at like 12, then sometimes 2:30is then 5 ish and 7 . ugh every 2 hours is too much for a 4 1/2 month old. I'm not a big one on just letting her cry so I'm not sure what to do.

I feel tired. I've been going to the gym every morning and then running on the treadmill at night.

not much else to say i guess.

Zach is 3

Saturday Zach turned 3. So we are offically out of the terrible 2's. I'm not sure what to call the 3's but so far they have been torturous. On Monday night zach woke up at 1:30 am coming into my room saying "I slept good mom". and didn't go back to sleep till after 3. There was a lot of screaming and fighting in there. not a good night. Wednesday night he did the same exact thing except didn't have anything funny to say. It went on for 1 1/2 until i brought him into my room ... both times he wanted to snuggle. I should not have given in...i was just so tired. Last night again but he wasn't screaming just kind of crying and whining. i think it's getting a cold. i felt more compassionate :)

Anyway Zach had a birthday on Saturday. We didn't really do anything special but he had fun. He's at the perfect age for opening presents...not too little but old enough to be really excited about presents. It was fun

Snow

This year for Christmas we went to Utah to visit Ben's family. The kids really enjoyed the snow even Sadie I was surpised. I really didn't enjoy getting them ready to go out ... all those layers. Zach could have stayed out all day if we let him. He is an out door guy that's for sure. Ben helped them build a snow cave that was pretty cool from all the snow that had been piled up.

Another Dentist Story

I've decided all my teeth should be pulled and I should get dentures. Actually I think ben should do that as well as kyle and sadie. It would make our lives so much better. Maybe I should hope maddie never gets teeth. And Zach...well who knows maybe some pain would do him good :)

I went for my checkup before christmas and as usual i need a few root canals and several crowns (man my dentist growing really wasn't great) anyway same old. Well I also got prepped for a crown. So they put a temporary tooth on there till i got back from vacation. Ok really i think it was just a big blob of a filling but who knows. One week after getting it we were leaving for our trip. As we were walking out the door to get in the car NO JOKE it fell off. I called and they told me just to be careful not to chew on it and i should be ok. They even gave me the dds cell phone number in case the need for Vicoden arose. No problems. Well I went this morning and it was supposed to be a 20 minute procedure...glue the crown on no numbing or anything. OF COURSE NOT. So i guess since the fake tooth thing popped off my gum grew down too far on my tooth and so they have to laser my gum off the tooth to put the crown on. He just got a new one (probably courtesy of my root canal) so i get to look forward to that until Thursday. I've had it done before and it wasn't pleasant and smelled bad. As if that wasn't bad enough. I left the office tripped and fell off the curb in the parking lot and fell completely down and forward on all fours and dropped maddie's carseat. thankfully it landed face up and she was buckled (did you know seat belts weren't just for driving in the car?!) but she hasn't been herself the past 2 hours...i think she's lost some trust in me :)

This year is a NEW year

So I'm feeling pretty motivated this year to make some serious changes. Maybe if I write them down I'll feel more accountable right?!

First is for me....losing weight. We won't say exactly how much on here...i'll just say it's a little overwhelming. After years of trying and being pretty unsuccessful (with a few babies in there too) I'm determined to get it off this year. The year of the NEW wendy :)

And second is for my children. Ok Zach inspired this one, well I have been searching and reading reviews on self help books to help me with Zach. I am absolutely at my whits end. I sometimes dread getting up the morning when I hear him screaming my name. I need to change something, to help him, and help me. ok before I go on let me just clarify I don't want it to sound like Zach is completely rotten...we don't need to go on Dr. Phil for help or anything like that. He's just so different than my other kids and want him to be the best he can be...anyway... So I've found a book I'm pretty excited about hopefully it will come soon. Love and Logic practical parenting birth to 6 years....hope it's good I also got a book called Scream free parenting...i need to yell less. how do i make that into a measurable goal...I can only yell 2 times each day? I hope to quit it completely.

I need to clean less, enjoy my family more. Every day I worry about getting it all done and I just have to keep telling myself to leave it and enjoy the kids.

I'd also like to read and record my thoughts for the entire Book of Mormon. Ben is a real example for me because each morning before he starts working he writes in his journal while reading/studying scriptures. I'd like to do that too, not just read but have a record of my feelings.

That's all I have for now. I'm still thinking of more.

That time of year

Well Ben left this morning for his annual conference for work. It is a bit depressing after him being on vacation for the past few weeks . We kicked the week of being alone off right- as in we showed up 5 minutes late to church (how does that happen when church doesn't even start until 11?!) zach then almost got hit by a car in the parking lot while i'm trying to get the other 2 to actually walk towards the church (what is the deal?!) Then we had a few bathroom trips during sacrament meeting and it went OK for the first 45 minutes (aside from all 3 fighting over who gets to sit by me- usually they want ben, and matchbox cars dropping on the hardwood floor every minute or so, and our bag of crayons spilling 3 times) but when it really got fun was when maddie decided it was time to eat but we still have 15 minutes until my kids went to class. then I take zach to nursery and he goes pretty good.....until the nursery leader brings me him 3 minutes later because he BIT her. She's Glad to have him back in town I'm sure. Then sadie started crying because she didn't want new teachers finally got her calmed down, taken care of maddie and boom there is Zach back from nursery again because he is taking peoples toys. Wow I was exausted. And definitely excited for a week without ben :)

Hopefully some more posts coming soon on what we have been up to lately.