News Flash!!

Things are looking up!  For the past 6 months I have been struggling with Brayden and his attitude and emotions.  It seems like when he turned 7, right when school started, I lost my loving little boy.  My sweet, helpful, happy go lucky little guy disappeared.  In his place was a morose, moody, angry, little man.  I thought maybe he was being bullied at school or on the bus, maybe he was struggling academically, or not getting along with his classmates.  After volunteering consistently and talking to his teacher, nothing was evident.  In the classroom he seemed like a happy little boy, eager to learn and eager to please.  No quick fix there.

Lately I have been talking to friends constantly trying to figure out what is going on, and if their 7 year olds are behaving this way.  Overall, the answer is YES!  Probably not nice to be happy that others are struggling too, but I found solace in this.  We vented, cried, and consoled each other and plugged on to another day of boys boiling with anger, or constantly on the verge of tears.  What the hell?  They are 7!

Come to find out hormones change every 7 years!  That's why I now have curly hair, when before it was stick straight, and why I have more acne now than I ever did as a teenager (hormones and 3 kids probably contribute to that).  A pediatrician told my friend that this is "normal."  My son is adjusting to these hormones.  Ok, so when does this "adjustment" period end?  It has been 6 months and I want my sweet boy back!!!  I want a simple, quick fix now please!

Can anyone out there relate?  Has anyone gone through this, can anyone tell me what to do and how to fix my emotional roller coaster of a boy?  How much longer do I have to endure this?  Help me PLEASE!

Oh, and for all of you with those sweet little babies/toddlers, brace yourself, it does get easier, then KABOOM your whole world falls apart.  :)

Ahh, the memories!

I bought this sweet Goupon in December from a company that is going to convert all of our Hi-8 tapes to DVDs.  I have been trying to sort through them and decide which ones have the top priority.  (There are 14 tapes just from the last 7 years).   Brayden is the all star and half of those tapes are fully devoted just to him, talk about first/only child.  I have been pretty confidant that I gave the girls as much attention, took as many pics. and videos as Brayden ever had.  I have come to realize that that is no where near the truth. Duh!  It is impossible, my whole life/time was devoted to that pup.  When the girls arrived, not only was there TWO of them, but there was also a two and a half year old boy that needed love and attention more than ever!  Ugh, another thing to add to the mom's guilt list!

Anyway, I have digressed, I am  posting about the videos because we have been watching them and they are hilarious!  I am so glad I have forgotten how chaotic and crazy my life was with three kids under three!  Everyday life is much better nowadays!  While we were watching Dani says:

"Mom, your hair is so weird, it's white!"  It was actually blond.  This was back in the day when I highlighted my hair.

My favorite was Brayden's comment:

"Mom the camera makes you look so SMALL!"  Well Brayden that was me before I had twins.  I was smaller. 

Love notes

Most  of you may have seen these, but I thought I would post about them.  I saw these on a blog a few weeks ago and thought they were super cute.  I was thrilled to run across them in the $1 section at Target yesterday.  I personalized each mail box for each of my children.  Last night and tonight I made a Valentine for each of them and told them one unique thing that I love about them.  They were excited to see the mailboxes in the morning and get the note, but they had way more fun making notes for each other and exchanging love letters/pictures/crafts.  I am going to try to put something in there each night so they have a little surprise in the morning.  Last night I wrote:

Brayden:  "I love your belly laugh."
Danielle:  "I love your helpful ways."
Ellie:  "I love your giving spirit."

Not sure how much they understood, but I tried to explain it to them.  I think they will catch on.  :)  I am excited about this, Valentine's day has never been real significant to me.  It's my brother's B-day, so the day was about him (as it should be!), and Kent and I  have never really done anything big for it.  I think it's a good time to stop and appreciate/recognize who you have in your life and why you love them so much.  Give your loved ones an extra squeeze tonight!

SNOW (finally)

Since moving to Spokane 11 and a half years ago, I have come to expect snow every winter.  Usually by November we have had at least a few inches, if not more.  I am thinking this is the first winter that we didn't have a significant amount by Christmas.  We (the kids and me) were thrilled to finally see snow this last week.  I think we got over 10 inches in two days.  This was enough to actually have a 2 hour late start.  I couldn't believe it!  Most people who live here don't even check the news for snow days, they are pretty much unheard of.  (It took me a few years to figure this out, when I started my first job and it snowed, I sat up the whole night waiting for them to cancel school.  I couldn't believe I had to drive to school with 2 inches on the road!)  Spokane clears the roads alot more efficiently than the 'couve though. 

Anyway, on the 2 hour late start day, I was snow blowing the sidewalk so the kids could eventually walk to the bus stop. While I was out there, I had to tell a few kids to go back home because it was late start. I swear they didn't believe me because they stood there for 5 more minutes before I finally screamed at them, "Go home!" My kids took full advantage of the late start and hit our hill in the backyard.

The kids set up a jump at the bottom of the hill, it looks super fun and I really want to try it!  They fly and catch air, I have it on video, hopefully no one gets hurt.  We always did worse as kids though, right?  Happy sledding everyone, enjoy the snow!

Tubing

We went on an impromptu tubing trip with some of our great neighbor friends. 
We went caravan style together up to Mt. Spokane.  It was a good thing we all went together because the mini van didn't quite make it.  We were at the top of the mtn. about 20 feet away from a parking spot  and some jackass was standing in the middle of the road with his door open.  We had to veer to the side and boom, there we were, stuck, spinning in the snow.  Chris and Matt jumped out of their mini-vans (identical to ours), and rescued us.  (They didn't have to veer to the side and managed just fine). It took quite a bit of maneuvering, sand, a ranger and some pushing, but finally we were on our way to our spot.  (We have never been stuck before, it was a bit stressful).

 Our little family, minus Brayden who was off and would have nothing to do with us the WHOLE time we were there.  You will see him soon, flying down the hill with the other "big boys."

                                               All the mamas.  Me, Heather, Julie and Jackie.

                                                 Brayden is in the orange.

                        Dads and the big boys.  Matt, Ryan, Landen, Brayden, Kaiden, Gavin and Chris

                                                    Heather, Austin and Hayden

                                   Birthday cupcakes in the lodge!  Happy Birthday Austin and Landen!

 How come these messes are so much cuter when it's not your child?  Hayden will be 2 in a couple of weeks.  I use her to get my baby fix quite often, but she is getting big now too!

                              After she dug into hers, she tried to steal Ellie's!  That's my kind of girl! 
It was one of those perfect days, that you look back on and smile.  All 10 kids got along fabulously, all the parents grabbed a kid and hit the hill.  I think I got to take each of the little kids a few times.  Ellie monopolized Chris (Jackie's husband), I think there might be a little crush going on there. (I so wish I would have taken a pic. of the two of them, it was hilarious).  It was a good, good day.  Hope you're enjoying your three day weekend!

Christmas and beyond

We have had a wonderful past few weeks.  When I have talked to friends I can't really tell them what we've been doing, but it's been good.  We saw a few movies at the new discount theatre, went tubing with the other Phillips clan and we've been playing lots of games.  Christmas has come and gone and we're back into our routine, which has been nice.  Here are just a few pics. of part of our Xmas.  B was thrilled to get new Spider man jammies on Xmas eve.

 Ellie was just as excited to get a new Tinkerbell nightgown.  Yes, it is ginormous, but I wanted to make sure this one covered her bum.  Her old one is a tad short.  (Dani also got a new nightgown, but preferred to wear her old holey footy jammies.)

 Christmas morning!  The girls got boxes for all of their jewels.

 Grandma Wagener made them quilts that they absolutely LOVE and use all the time!

 We went to Target the day after Xmas and they used their gift cards from Auntie Kalin.  Hello Kitty shirts and a binder.  B plans to put all of his art and papers in his binder.  :)

Then yesterday we hit the slopes (well just B did).   Brayden was so excited for his first day of skiing that he got up at 5:40 am!  I walked out to the the living room and he was all dressed and ready at 6am.  We (all 5 of us) left the house at 6:30 am to get to Lookout pass to sign up for their FREE ski school.  When I called, the guy told me to be there by 8 to register when the lodge opens.  He made it sound like the 500  people that they cap it at would be there waiting.  Yeah, we were the first ones in line, then we had to to wait for 2 hours until the lesson started at 10.  By 9:00 the whole lunch that I had packed was eaten and we had played five games of Uno spin.  Brayden was so anxious to ski, I thought he was going to burst.  We had all the gear on and we were ready by 9:40, which gave him time to get a feel for the skis and practice getting up after he fell.  :)

 Overall, it was a good experience, totally packed out, but the instructors were great.  Next weekend I am going to take him up and try to teach him on my own....will let you know how that goes.  They taught him the basics, then they got in line for the rope tow.  Yeah, the worst contraption ever, you would think there would be something better by now.  He waited in line for 10+ minutes, then his instructor had to go teach another class.  She bailed, but he still wanted to do it.  When it was his turn, the poor guy had no instruction.  The crabby old lady running it just told him to grab on.  FAILURE!  That thing yanked him so hard, his ski popped off and he went face first into the snow.  I have it on video, it will be fun to watch.  :)  BUT this put him over the edge.  Tears were rolling, he was mad, embarrassed and not to mention overtired.  We packed everything and everyone up and headed home.  The girls were great troopers and seemed to enjoy watching all the chaos on the mountain.  Ellie really wants a turn, (you have to be at least 6 for the lesson) but Dani said, "I NEVER want to do that!"

B also said he was never going to do it again.  Maybe he'll be ready by next weekend.

Holiday Happenings

My beautiful, sweet cousin Sarah came for Thanksgiving.  It is a tradition that we look forward to every year now!  The kids get lots of snuggle/reading/special time with her, and each year we get to strengthen our bond/friendship that we have been building as adults.  We were never around each other when we were growing up, so I feel very lucky to have someone who knows me (besides my hubby) and accepts all of my baggage.  Love you Cousin Sarah!

We decorated the tree....and had a visitor

Auntie Kalin, cousin Leila and Grandma Wagener came to visit us last weekend.  My kids just love their baby cousin, poor Leila didn't stand a chance to have breathing room.  They surrounded her at all times.

We went to a Toys for Tots charity event at the Gymnastics center.  ALL the kids loved it!  Leila felt like such a cool, big kid.  She ran and ran as long as she could, then Grandma and Auntie got tired and she had to go home.

                                                                           

 Apparently it's impossible to get a normal pic of all three children at once.  THEIR gingerbread house.  They had a blast, I was completely hands off, it was too painful to help/watch.  They LOVE it!

 Sad to say, but happy to see a screaming child in Santa's lap.  I Have to say I was a wee disappointed when we had a normal Santa pic this year.  So glad Leila could visit and liven things up a bit at our special Santa breakfast.

Dance recital.  Pajama party. 10 three and four year olds.  Major good time had by all!  I videoed the entire show, now I just have to figure out how to get it on my computer.....

 "Come on Ring Those Bells"  I was quite proud of my girls at their school performance.  They sang loud and proud.  I didn't know what would happen this year.  Last year Dani stood silently and GLARED at everyone.  She is my child who enjoys music the most and may have the most talent in this area.  It was nice to see her participating and enjoying the songs that they have been singing/yelling for the last few weeks!

My beautiful girls after their school performance.

We are officially on Christmas vacation. For the first time I am taking the same two weeks off from work.  I am looking forward to catching up with friends, lazy days, movies, reading, cookies and lots of snuggle time with my babies that won't stop growing.  Hope you have a wonderful holiday season!