*Proud Mama*

I got the girls' pre-school evaluations back.  I have been somewhat concerned about them being ready for Kindergarten.  The good news is that they're both doing great, and they will be more than ready for the big K!  The best part is what their sweet teacher said about each girl.  This proud mom was in tears (of course, knowing me).  I will keep their evaluations in each of their "special boxes," but I wanted it in here too.  So bare with me:

"Ellie is doing great in class!  She is always ready and willing to help and encourage others.  She has a very nurturing heart.  Ellie also makes sure to include her classmates in whatever she is doing.  I  have loved watching her grow and mature over the last year and a half!  Thank you for blessing me with Ellie."
-Ms. Jenny

"Dani is doing awesome in school!  It is fun to watch her little face light up when she is happy about something.  She is one of my little sponges.  :)  She sits back watches/listens and retains everything we are learning.  Dani LOVES to play school with her friends.  Her little personality melts my heart.  She is truly a joy.    -Ms. Jenny

We love Ms. Jenny, and all of us will miss her dearly when it's time to move on.  It's amazing how well she knows the girls and each of their personalities as individuals.  She summed them up so eloquently.

On another happy note, it seems my sweet boy  may be returning to me.  I think Brayden has turned a corner and has his emotions more in check.  I have seen more smiles and less anger in the past week.  It is a great relief, I truly missed my boy.  I hope I'm not jinxing it. 

Have a Happy Valentine's Day and give your babies extra squeezes!  This Mama will!

Too much fun for this old mom!

Wow, Monday is here and I am exhausted.  This past weekend was so jam packed full of fun, that not much sleep took place.  Brayden has officially started basketball!  It has been quite a fiasco with many tears shed on his part.  Our coach has not been the best communicator or planner.  His first practice took place Friday night (boo for Friday night practices!) and his first game was Saturday morning.  I think this worked ok for most kids on the team, but B has never played before.  Who knew a first grader would be so behind if he had not played before?  Holy smokes, things are intense nowadays.  His team is really good and most of the boys have been playing together for a while!!  I think this will be good for B to catch up and keep him motivated!  The poor guy started out clueless.  Before his game Saturday morning I tried to prep him for the game.

Me:  Do you know what to do when you get the ball?  You can't just run with it.

Brayden:  Why?  What do you mean?

Me:  You have to dribble the ball!  Do you remember what a rebound is?

Brayden:  Huh?  What?  Total look of confusion.

Me:  Remember the coach talked ALOT about it at practice?  You have to get the ball after it's shot, on BOTH ends of the court!

Brayden:  Ok mom.

I was kind of a nervous wreck.  He wasn't phased a bit.  He has been waiting for 9 months to play.  Each player wore a wristband (scrunchie) that coordinated with a player on the opposite team.  (Whoever came up with this is a genius, I wish they could have done this when I played).  B had a difficult time finding his man to mark, he started out by running all over the place, it didn't help that his opponent had mad skills and was the point guard.  He did better as the game progressed and I was quite proud of him.  After the game, Kent asked, "So how do you think you did?"

Brayden:  "I think I did GREAT!  I played as well today as I did at my very last soccer game!!"

Umm, ok. This boy doesn't lack confidence, that's good, right?  I think it will be a great season!

On Saturday night Kent and I hit the town with three other couples.  It was a blast having adult interaction, listening to parenting stories and laughing until our sides hurt.  We were out until 10 pm, almost a record for us in our old age!  :)

On Sunday morning we woke up bright and early so we could hit the slopes.  My MIL, graciously offered to watch the girls, so we took Brayden up to Mt. Spokane for a ski lesson.  In January we purchased three groupons that included, ticket, rentals and a lesson. 

It was THE PERFECT SKI DAY!  Being Super Bowl Sunday, no one was there!  The weather was sunny and warm with no wind.  I bailed out of my lesson when the first run took 45 mins to get down the mountain.  I was able to do SIX runs all by my lonesome before I met up with my boys.  Let me tell you, it was heavenly!  I don't remember the last time I skied by myself, let alone have an hour and 15 minutes all to myself!  Talk about a perfect day!

                                                 Brayden during his lesson!  He rocked it!

                                              A shot on one of my runs!  Gorgeous!

                                                                        My boys!

                                                                  Brayden and me!

I was quite proud of my little guy.  He was raring to go after his two hour lesson.  We hit the hill several times before we drug him into lunch at 1:30.  We ate quickly then headed back out.  Kent and I each took turns doing our own runs then skiing with the boy.  He did great, each time he fell he explained what went wrong, and how he needed to fix it.  By the end of the day, at 3:00 he was so disappointed that we had to leave.  He insisted on going up on the chair lift by himself.  I have to admit, there is no way I would have let him, but Kent was with him and sent him on up!  He did great, and met us at the bottom.  That's him in the picture above, he looked so little all the way up there.  Big, independent boy!  I can't believe it, he wants to go back this weekend!

Thank you to Sandy and Auntie and Uncle for watching our little girls!  We went to pick them up at Kelly and Sarah's and ended up hanging there for the Super Bowl.  Thanks for a fun impromptu pizza night!

Our Angels

 Our girls got their dance costumes today!  Their recital isn't until May, but we're ready.  Cuteness wise, not so much skill wise.  That will come, right?

 I picked Ally up today and Sarah asked me to take pics. of them because they were getting their costumes today.  I said, ok, not thinking much of it.  I thought she wanted their reaction when they saw it.  I didn't realize they were putting them on and dancing in them!  Yes, I was the privileged one that got three little girls and all that frillyness changed back and forth, all while keeping the white costumes, plus accessories off the floor!  Good times, but I have to say they were so dang cute it was well worth it.  (My poor Claire Bear (dani) is tall with long, long legs like me, her little tutu barely covers that cute little bum)!

10 tiny, frilly girls, it was a whole different dynamic.  They truly looked like little angels!  Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Wagener for the fabulous costumes!  We are all very excited, mark your calendars for the recital in May!

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!