It's just been one of 'those' days

Can I just crawl back in bed and sleep the rest of the day away? Then wake up to a spotless house, angelic Toddler, smiling Baby, breakfast in bed, and a good book to read in the tub? Yeah, probably not.

Toddler sure is on one this week. He's had more timeouts, sendings to his room, spanks, and talking-to's in the last few days then he normally gets in a month. I think he's been storing up his naughtiness to use on me on a day that Baby is cranky from shots, Little Baby won't eat or sleep much, and I can barely get around cuz my knee hurts.

Today I've had to deal with him peeing on the floor repeatedly, helping Baby get his first fall down the stairs (he's fine thankfully), coloring with permanent marker on himself and Baby and the table and coffee table, woke the babies from naps early, and made a ton of messes. I can't ake any more terrible twos! Someone please tell me 3 is better!

Now Toddler is napping, but the 2 babies are screaming so I keep going back and forth consoling them. Ugh, I neep a nap!

Thankful Thursday

In honor of getting our satellite turned back on last week, this post is about DVR, Digital Video Recording, like Tivo. I love being able to record shows I only like a litte, so that I will never have time to actually sit and watch them anyway, but knowing they are there if I ever do want to watch them is comforting. It's like having that can of refried beans that sits in the cupboard for years. Nobody wants to eat it but it's nice to have it there in case all other food on Earth is eaten and there's not even grass to chew on, then you will pull it out.

FREE Netflix Rentals!

We don't get to go out to movies or rent movies very often because we can't afford to, so I've missed out on some good movies. Well, if I win one of 5 Free 6-month Netflix subscriptions from 5 Minutes for Mom, I can get caught up! That's right, they are giving away 5 6-month subscriptions for Netflix, so go over there now and enter! I've wanted to try out Netflix, sounds really cool. Does anyone have this or similar rental subscriptions? What do you think of them? Are they worth it and how is their service? Inquiring minds want to know!

Works-For-Me Wednesday: "Mom, I'm bored!" Edition

Today's WFMW has a theme on what to do when your kids are bored. Since my kids aren't really old enough to complain about being bored yet, I was stumped. Toddler occupies himself pretty well by making messes, watching cartoons, or coloring. And Baby just follows us around and wants to be held a lot. So no real complaints of boredom yet. So my little tip is one I'm sure you've all heard before. I know my parents used it a lot! When a kid comes up and says they are bored and can't think of anything to do, mention that you can think of many things they can do and start listing off chores. Guaranteed they will say "Nevermind, I'm not bored!" and find something else to do pretty fast!

Since I was the oldest girl in a large family I was usually in charge of taking care of the kids and a few things I did when the younger kids were restless were have coloring contests and cleanup races. For the coloring contest we would all get a coloring book page and color, then everyone would get a prize for fastest colorer, stayed inside the lines best, most colors used, etc. And for the cleanup races we'd set the timer for 5 mins, give each of us a room to work on, and see who got the most done in that time (this was especially good for me when I was babysitting and the parents were due home any minute and the house was a mess lol). It's amazing how much kids will clean up if you make it sound fun and like a contest.

For more boredom busters and WFMW tips check out Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer.

Free Lunch

You know that saying "There's no such thing as a free lunch"? Well, they were wrong! LOL I don't know if this is common all over but our city does free lunches at the parks during the summer for kids. They get milk, juice, fruit, chips, and sandwich. This is awesome when I don't feel like making lunch lol. It costs $3 for an adult to get one, but I just get 2 for my kids and eat whatever they don't. We went today with Michelle's family and let the kids play for a bit after. It's also a great way to get kids all worn out for naptime. By the time I got home all 3 boys were sound asleep in their carseats. Free lunch and sleeping kids, is there anything better?

Run, run, run

Michelle and I are doing really well on our Couch-to-5k practices. This week we run 90 seconds, walk 2 minutes, for 20 minutes. We did that about 1/2 the time yesterday, then started running 60 seconds, walking 2 minutes, cuz it was hot and we were getting tired. But Thursday should go great, it'll be nice and cool out. It's so nice having someone to run with, keeps me going.

Tuesday To-Do

Here's what I get to do today:

* Go to my little sister's high school graduation, I'm so proud of her!

* Eat yummy food I don't have to cook at the bbq afterwards

* Drive 3hrs back home

Should be a great day!Get to spend time with my family, and the boys will have fun too. The only un-fun part will be driving home. I hate driving, especially 3 hrs!

Picture Sharing

Just thought I'df share a few cute pictures from this last week. I may be biased, but aren't my boys just adorable?! And they love getting their picture taken too.

At the park:


Hubby helped Toddler build a wood airplane at Home Depot's kids craft thing. (Isn't my hubby hot?! lol)

At Baby's birthday party:

He devoured his cupcake:

The Sweetest Thing

Toddler is being so cute lately, giving hugs and kisses, and asking for them in return. This morning as Hubby was leaving for work I overheard them having a conversation. Toddler asked his daddy for hugs and kisses, then said "Give Mommy kisses and hugs?". Yesterday he came up to me and I asked him for a kiss which he kindly gave and then said "hugs?" so I complied. This is so much better than having to chase him down and tackle him to get any affection lol.

Monday Madness

Good morning everyone! Hope your week is off to a good start. Today will mostly be a normal day I think. I might go running today instead of tomorrow, because tonight I'm headed down to my family's house (3hr drive) for my little sisters graduation tomorrow. So tomorrow I don't think I'll be on much. I'm so proud of my little sister, she has worked hard to get good grades in high school, all while going to beauty school too. By the end of summer I think she will already have an associates degree and cosmetology license. I wish I could afford to get her a graduation gift, but I can barely afford to drive down there, so hopefully my presence will be gift enough.

I need to go to the library and bank today and get milk too. I better call Michelle to see if she wanted to go running today or not.

I'm melting!

OK, not really, but it is hot! I'm not a fan of weather that's above 75* (or below 60* lol) and right now it's 88* here. We don't have air conditioning so our house is always so hot in the summer. Guess it's about time to get out the window a/c unit, that will at least keep the upstairs a little cooler. Tomorrow's supposed to be just as hot, but luckily it'll be a little cooler the rest of the week, even around 60* on Wednesday and Thursday. That'll be nice for out Thursday run. I know it could be worse, I'm glad I don't live in Phoenix or Las Vegas or something.

What temperature are you most comfortable at? Do you prefer Winter, Spring, Summer, or Fall?

Potty Training Update

Well, we kind of slacked off a bit this week with the potty training. Whenever we go out we put a diaper on Toddler, and if it's on too much he stops wanting to use the potty. So I'm trying to do more bare-bottom time to get him back to using his potty. But now I think he's holding it in, cuz he has no diaper, hasn't used his potty, and isn't going on the floor. He's gone in his underwear once today, but other than that he's not doing anything. Silly boy.

SMART Habit Saturday

OK, so it's not Saturday, I'm a little late :) Yesterday was Baby's birthday party, plus our cable line accidentally got cut by a neighbor so we didn't have Internet most of the day.

I did good with my goals most of the week, but absolutely teerrible on Thursday and Friday, like really really bad. I'm having a hard time remembering my morning prayers (speaking of which, I'll be right back...) but still reading my scriptures every day, and getting better at doing Toddler's bedtime routine. Besides those 2 days off, I did pretty good with most of my goals this week.

Since I need to work on re-establishing what I let go this last week, I'm just going to add an easy goal to work on. I'm going to work on not leaving dishes lying around the house. Whenever I do dishes I have to wander the house picking up sippy cups, cereal bowls, etc so I want to be able to stop that. Whenever I leave a room and head in the direction of the kitchen I will see if there are any dishes I need to take with me. Right now my cereal bowl is on the desk here, so next time I head downstairs it's coming with me.

Here's my goals:
#1- Clean 1/2hr a day
#2- Keep up with dishes
#3- Brush teeth once a day
#4- Read scriptures daily
#5- Toddler bedtime routine
#6- Bedtime 11:30pm
#7- 50 crunches a day
#8- Take vitamins every day
#9- No computer for 1hr a day when Hubby is home
#10- 1 load of laundry each day
#11- Daily prayers, morning and night
#12- Dinner 3x during the week
#13- Lotion every day
#14- Floss every day
#15- Bringing dishes to kitchen

Check out the Lazy Organizer to join in SHS!

Happy Birthday Baby!!!

I can't believe my little Baby was born 1 year ago, how did the time pass so quickly?! This year has sped by in a blur of laughs, milestones, and sleepless nights. Baby is changing so fast! He walks everywhere now, has 7 teeth, loves giving slobbery kisses, and I'm pretty sure his first word is "pat-a-cake". He loves playing pat-a-cake and likes Elmo. He always wants to help or play with whatever we are doing. Toddler loves to play with him though he also pushes him when they don't want to share toys. Baby really likes buttons, he loves pushing the button on the computer to make the cd drive go in and out, and he learned which button on the vcr to push to make the video come out so he pushes that, pushes the tape back in and repeats. He's so funny. And he's such a momma's boy. He prefers me almost anytime over everybody else and wants me to hold him a lot. He's a bit jealous of the baby I babysit, and has wanted to be held more since I've started that. It's funny how he and Toddler are so alike, yet so different. They look similar but have different personalities. And Baby is a light-weight like Toddler too, at only about 19lbs right now. That's ok, I love my little boys just the way they are. We are having his birthday party tomorrow, just a little one like we always do. Good thing he doesn't care what he gets because we plan to just get him some sandals and maybe some clothes, he doesn't need anymore toys!

Here's a copy of his birth story I wrote after he was born, it was amazing. (It's long and maybe a little TMI lol)

OK, so after my appt Wed I had some random cntrx but didn't think anything was going to happen that soon. Well around 9:30pm they started getting a bit more painful and somewhat regular. I still didn't want to get up my hopes cuz I was scared they would just go away. Around 12:30am they were getting consistently about 3 mins apart so I started letting myself believe this would be it. I couldn't sleep because of the cntrx so I stayed up all night cleaning up and making sure everything was packed and ready to go to the hospital. Around 7am they slowed down, but after an hour they picked up again. I labored at home as they got stronger. They were around 3-5 mins apart. I was having to concentrate through them, but didn't want to head to the hospital yet. Around 9:30 we called our families to let them know the baby was coming that day and my mom started on her way up. I continued to labor at home until my mom and sisters showed up around noon. We left for the hospital and had to wait 1/2hr for a room to be cleared for us. So around 12:30 we get settled in and they check me. I was already 7+ cm and fully effaced! That made me feel so much better that all those cntrx had gotten me that far already. The dr asked if I wanted her to break my water, but I said I'd like to wait just a little longer and see if it broke on it's own. After this point I don't know exact times cuz I was having lots of pain from the cntrx. I tried changing positions and walking but it was getting hard no matter what I did. Probably around 3:30 they checked me again and I hadn't made much progress but the bag of waters was really bulging. I was in a lot of pain and told them to go ahead and break my water. Things continued to get more and more painful and I was moaning through the cntrx while squeezing my moms hand and Nate was putting pressure on my back. I got a little snippy with Nate a few times and told him to shut up once lol. But he was being great and they were telling me how good I was doing. (I had my mom, sis, sil and Nate with me). My nurse was very wonderful. I think around 4:30 she checked me and told me there was just a little cervix and had my try to push the baby's head past it. I was in so much pain that they had to help me with my breathing and I was starting to get pretty load and yelling. ( I later was told that a nurse came in and said I was scaring the 17yr old laboring down the hall lol) I was able to get baby's head moved down a bit and past the cervix so they started setting up the room. I wasn't paying attention to much going on around me because I was hurting so bad and the cntrx were only giving me a few breaths in between them. I started pushing I think around 4:45 and then suddenly they were telling me to get on my side and were putting oxygen on me because baby's heartrate was staying around the 90s and not going back up. Every time they asked me to do anything I was shaking my head or saying no or I can't do it, but I had to anyway lol. I pushed for a while on my side until they got the bed all ready and then I was on my back holding my legs and they told me I needed to get the baby out quick. Everything seemed to be so blurry to me from all the pain but I knew I needed to push as hard as I could. I did not want to have another c/s so I pushed harder than I thought I could and slowly I could see more and more of his head. Finally I gave a huge push and his head came out. His shoulders were stuck because he had one hand up by his shoulder, but my wonderful OB was able to pull out his arm and had me push one more time and out came his shoulders and one more small push and he slipped out. They laid him on my chest and I was able to touch him. I think my first words when he came out where "Oh my gosh!" and "I did it!" Nate cut his cord and they had to quickly take him to the warmer to get his oxygen because he was having a little trouble, but he pinked up quickly. They wiped him down a bit and then weighed and measured him, 8lbs 14oz and 20in long, only an ounce smaller than Toddler had been. He was born at 5:15 pm. They stitched me up and stuff and then they brought him back to me and I got to hold him and I was so happy to have my beautiful little boy. I kept telling everyone "I did it!" I let some of my family members hold him a bit. Then I got to breastfeed him for the first time. It took him a few minutes to get latched on but then he got it and I nursed about 15 mins, and then let family hold him some more while dr finished sewing me up. After that they took him to the nursery with Nate and bathed him and all the newborn stuff. I was taken to my postpartum room and had dinner and was able to get a little rest until about 8 when they brought him back. I nursed again and more family visited and then finally we were alone. The first night went well. I didn't sleep much but Baby slept a lot. We were discharged just one day after he was born. I was so happy to be able to be home so soon with my baby! I can't believe I had an all natural VBAC! I'm so sore and tired but I'm so proud of myself.

Friday's Feast

Appetizer
Name something you think is “the best.”
- Snickers is "the best" candy bar

Soup
On a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 highest), how stressed are you today?
- 4, don't have much to do today, but the house is a mess so I should clean, and today is Baby's 1st birthday so I need to get ready for his party tomorrow.

Salad
What kind of cleanser do you use to wash your face?
- Um, water?

Main Course
Tonight is a blue moon! What is something that you believe only happens “once in a blue moon.”
- My kids not messing up the house lol

Dessert
When was the last time it rained where you live?
- I think it tried to rain on Monday, but barely any came down