Day 1 & 2!

Well the last two days have been eventful. On Saturday night Colton came to stay with us until Tuesday because Doug has/had the flu and Kerri was going to D.C. for a conference. On Sunday morning I had to go to the church to sign up for the Walk through the Old Testament and then go grocery shopping before Noel had to leave for the airport. Yes Noel is in Seattle this week taking a class.

Sunday was okay and the "safari" did not do too horrible. Just your normal whining, fussing, tears, being ornery; you know just the normal everyday things that happens when you have a toddler except mine is exponential. The "safari" and Colton went to bed just fine. After bedtime I needed to decompress from the day and usually I do some kind of activity that does not have to do with my children. So I baked last night. I made cinnamon raisin bread, and banana bread. I also worked on on our "prioritizer" for our DVR.

Today was better because my reinforcements arrived, my mother. I am so grateful for her because she is always willing to come and help and it is a nice relief for me because I am not the only grown-up in the house. Also the "safari" always love Nanna and want her to do everything with them instead of me. I am glad that I am not wanted all the time when Nanna is here it is a really refreshing thought.

This morning I walked into Hannah and Esther's room to find that Hannah had her leg on the crib railing, and she had reached her hand over the railing and was trying to pull herself over the railing. Sometimes I wish my children did not want to try and learn new things every day but that there was a day when there were no new discoveries, activities, extreme dare-devil stunts, but just a quiet, sit down and play type of day. I know that in my heart that day will come when they all move out of my house and are on their own.

Noel and I are also counting down the days until we are on vacation WITHOUT our children, which is 32 days tomorrow.

Hopefully we will have a recorded message for Noel tomorrow. God is good and I love that He knows when I need my mother.

Faith

I was thinking in my head this week what blog post I was going to have for everyone this week, since I am not sewing this week. I started to think of things that we could do this week and I would get some pictures of. You know the blog mother in me.

Well God thought it would be funny to just give me this blog post. On Thursday the "safari" went to nap time as usual. Joshua and Jacob got duck tape on and everyone went to nap time. Well about half way through nap I hear this thud. So I am thinking that Joshua and Jacob are jumping off their bed to the floor. I go upstairs to find that they have ripped off the front board to one of the beds in their room and have taken the screws out.

Of course I take the board out of the room and tell the boys that it is nap time and that they need to take a nap. Well not even 30 minutes later I hear another thud but this one is louder. I run upstairs to find that they have taken the spring frame off the bed and have broken the back board off the bed. I split the boys up leaving Jacob in one room and putting Joshua in Elijah's room. They finally go to sleep.

In 10 minutes Esther and Hannah are screaming at the top of their lungs, so I bring them downstairs so that the boys can get some kind of nap and so they do not wake Colton up.

Nap time was horrible yesterday. Of course I have pictures but you have to wait a minute. When bedtime comes around I take the broken crib the rest of the way apart and leave Jacob in that room, I let Joshua know that his bed is broken and now he has to sleep in the playpen in our master closet until we find him another bed. I turn on the monitor and listen to Joshua cry "Please let me out and I want to sleep with Jacob" for about 10 minutes. I go upstairs and let him know that he is sleeping in the playpen and that we will find another place for him to sleep tomorrow.

Well he decided that he was going to make me find him another place to sleep sooner than tomorrow night. He woke up at 2am so I let him sleep with me last night. If you have been with Noel and I through this who sleeps well together and who cannot have a sleep friend then you know that we have been through a lot and all I can do is laugh today and when they grow up. I am honestly looking forward to the day I get the phone call from one of my children and they tell me that they are having a hard time with their child(ren) I will enjoy letting them know that even though I feel their pain that I do not feel sorry for them, because of what they put me through.

After the boys destroyed one of their beds I sent a text message to Noel saying "I quit!" We went back and forth for a few minutes, me reassuring him that I did not need him to come home but just wanted him to know that I was not having a good day and that I hope he felt my pain. You see in my head he is the one to blame because he took everything apart as a kid and he is an engineer so it is in their blood. I know Pops, Nana, and Papa Bobby are all laughing but I want you to know that even though your son took things apart you should feel sorry for me because I have it exponentially more than you had it.

The moral of the story is that if you are thinking of a blog post do not think too hard because God might just think of a funny blog post for you. OK now you can see the pictures.

Pops Visit

This past weekend we spent some time with Pops, Noel's dad, in San Antonio. We left on Friday and returned on Saturday night.

The "safari" was good on the way up to Pop's house except that Hannah is teething and could not keep a pacifier in her mouth and so I had about 10 of them in my pocket for the trip. When we arrived at the gate to Pop's community we bypassed the security guard because we programmed the frequency into our van, the security guard gave a weird look and we just smiled and kept going. The "safari" ate pizza, got a bath and then went to bed around 8pm. The boys slept in one of the guest rooms and the girls slept in the playpens in the bathroom. There was some playing going on but they went to bed pretty well.

The grown-ups watched football, Fresno State vs. Boise. After the game Pops and I decided that it was bedtime but Noel decided that it was time to play Playstation 3 until 3:30 in the morning.

Our "safari" woke up early and was hungry so we had pop tarts on the floor while we watched Noggin on television. As you see in the picture the sun is not even up yet.



After Noel got up we decided that it was pretty mild outside that we would find a nice park for the "safari" to play on. We found a great park and the "safari" loved the park. They liked the big park because they got to climb and do things that the small park did not have. It gave mommy a heart attack a couple of time because my "safari" does not have any fear and will try anything. Of course we got the usual questions about our "safari" but nothing that was out of the ordinary. It was different for Pops because he is not use to random people asking questions that have not been filtered through their brain yet. Here are a couple of picture from the park.




After the park we went to McDonalds for lunch and the "safari" played on the playground there as well. We returned to the house and the "safari" took a rest while we watched some college football. I also saw Pops kill Noel in Madden 2010 and then watched Noel just barely beat Pops after that.

The "safari" played outside and we had dinner and then bath time. By the time we left to go home Pops and the "safari" were worn out. Our "safari" watched a movie on the way home and when we got home everyone went to bed without so much as a whine or a protest.

We had a great time and we love seeing Pops. Noel and I are looking forward to spending some time with Dad when we are on vacation WITHOUT the "safari."

Pages 3, 4, 5 & 6

In September I have tried to split my time between the Quiet Books and the costumes for Halloween. As in previous posts I am done with 2/5 of the costumes. I worked on a Dorthy's costume the first week of September, the quiet books on the second, and the third week was the Scarecrow.

The third page is the page that teaches about snaps, and how to hang clothes. Here is the picture of the third page.



The fourth page is the counting pages. Each string gets the "safari" closer to the number 10. Elijah wanted to throw the beads when I was making these pages.



The fifth page is the color page. This page gets the "safari" to match the colors of the balloons. The balloons snap on.



The sixth page is the shape page. The shapes are to be matched with the outline of the right shape on the page. They use Velcro to match the shape



I have enjoyed making the Quiet Books. It will be very special when they unwrap them on Christmas morning and knowing all the work that I put into to them. It will better than any gift that I could buy because the books are not just the gift but the time and love I put into them. Look for the next three pages next month.

Scarecrow!

I finished the second costume this last week. I procrastinated until Thursday when I started and I finished it last night. I am amazed at how I have picked this hobby up and I am glad that I asked for a sewing machine last Christmas. The scarecrow was pretty easy and did not take hardly any time; the time consuming part was the straw fringe that I had to make because I could not find it in the store.

Elijah is going to be the scarecrow and so here he is in his costume and looking like he likes it. He likes the hat more than anything else. Enjoy.

Elijah part II

As I promised the video of Elijah saying is verses on camera. Let me just say that we are proud of Elijah but apparently he wants to make sure that Nana is around. Enjoy.



He is such a cutie. The other day though he gave us a scare that I do not want to go through again. We were having small group and the kids were watch a movie in the other room. All of a sudden Elijah comes into the room where we were and shows me is "ouie" he had sliced his palm and was bleeding. So I hurry into the kitchen to find another child holding the knife and trying to cut watermelon. You see my son had gotten a chair, climbed onto the chair and decided that he could cut his own watermelon. With the mixture of watermelon juice and blood it was not a pretty site. Everything is fine and Elijah is almost all healed. God gives us these moments to remind us that our children are not ours but His and that we need to cherish them everyday even when they are being hard on the stress level and the sanity.

Elijah

It seems that so much has changed with Elijah in the last three to four months. He is using so many more words than before. Before he knew all the words but was very shy about using his words. Now he can tell you that he is not happy with you touching him and please stop in one breath. Before too long he will be reading and ready for college.

Potty training has happened in the last four months. He is now to the point where he does not even let you know that he has to go he just goes and then you hear the flushing of the toilet. The only thing that he likes to announce is that he has farted and that he has pooped. Every poop that comes out is an announcement.

Since Elijah turned 3 before September 1st he was allowed to be involved in the Awanas program at church. It is his time with daddy and the start of his involvement with other children besides on Sunday mornings. He loves Awanas and loves to come home and show me that he got to stamp his hand several times with a stamp and that he got his vest and that he has a bag with his book in it. Each week he is to learn a new Bible verse and then memorize it and say it in class the next week. After he completes certain stages he gets a patch that goes on his vest. He has learned the following verses:

God loved us and sent his Son
All have sinned
While we were sinners Christ died for us
God is love

We will try to record him saying his Bible verses this week.

The other night he went to bed and when Noel went to check on him before we went to bed this is what he found.



He received the floor mat with the letters of the alphabet for Christmas and decided that he could not sleep without them. He makes me laugh every day with something that he does or says. Remember to cherish these things because when they are older and they do not want to hug or kiss you then you will have to remember these moments to get your love from them until they want to hug you again. I pray everyday that my "safari" will never not want to hug or kiss their mother. I have pretty good odds since I have 5 children. I hope that you all have adventurous weeks with little rest periods to refuel for another round of adventure.

Anger Management

Yesterday was the day that tested all my buttons and made me really look hard at the state of my anger management.

After nap time I went up to let the boys, Joshua and Jacob, out of their room to find the worst mess that I could have imagined. In them being bored they decided to take their diapers off and smear their poop all over the walls, window, floor and themselves. I would love to show you pictures but yesterday was not the day for that. Let you imagination go wild.

So the boys got their first shower and scrub down. Mommy had to hold her anger and clam herself down so that my anger would not be put on them. Joshua and Jacob got to stand in the room while I cleaned up their mess and it took me a good hour. Also they are being duct taped from now on.

God is good I did not sin against my "safari" yesterday even though it would have been really easy to do so. I love my "safari" but some days they really know how to push me to the limit and I have to really watch how I react to that because they feed off of that. Each day is a new lesson in love, compassion, and understanding.

Instead of giving you a picture of them in horrible poop I will let you see them for who they are.




I am working hard on their quiet books and should have some pictures for later this week. It has been a crazy two months and I can tell you that we have been busy and hopefully I can post some more after this craziness settles down.

Customer Service

It seems that customer service is not customer service any longer. You either have to talk to an automated service until you push enough buttons to get a real person. Then when you get that person they only have scripted answers. Or you get a person who does not want to help you until you start dropping names of management to get some help.

Last year Noel and I bought a Roomba through Hammacher Schlemmer. We decided that we were going to go through H.S. because they offered a lifetime warranty on their products and iRobot only offered a 1 year warranty.

About two weeks ago my battery in my Roomba was starting to show signs that it was going out. We contacted H.S. and they stated that we needed to send them our Roomba. Noel and I sent our "Revi" in on a Friday and by the next Friday I had a brand NEW Roomba in my house. I was over excited about it. They did not just send me a new battery but a new robot.

Our new Roomba did not have a wireless control station like my old Roomba, so Noel called them. They stated that they did not offer that model any longer but that they would look to see if they had one around. Well now H.S. is sending me a new wireless control center.

So if you are looking to buy a new gadet please look at this webpage. Their customer service is amazing and they really want to help. Check their webpage.

Dorthy where is Toto?

So being a Type A personality I have decided that doing 15 pages a month for the quiet book was not enough and so now I am making the "safari" their Halloween Costumes. They are going to be the characters in the Wizard of Oz.

Esther is going to be Dorthy, Hannah is Glynda, Joshua the lion, Jacob the tin man and Elijah the scarecrow. So guess what? Dorthy is done.

I made the costumes a size bigger then their measurements and then kept the seam allowances so that next year I just have to take some seams out and I will be ready for next year. I am excited about this adventure and hopefully I am not up all night the night before finishing.

Halloween is going to be great for Noel and I because the entire "safari" can be a movie cast or we could even be the Seven dwarfs one year. The possibilities. I thought that I would share what Esther looks like in her costume.