Miss independent, Miss self-sufficient....

This was a normal day of Rhi and I, just hanging out while the other kids are at school. She eats breakfast, she helps clean up, and she takes a shower. On days we just stay home I just let her go pick out whatever she wants to wear. This shirt is usually the one she picks, it has little pink birds on it, and its her favorite. And in typical 3 year old fashion she HAS to do everything BY HERSELF! Every time she wears it... her screams of agony can be heard throughout the house, and yet refuses to let me help. So don't think that I'm a bad mom, and just let my child suffer, I tried to help her several times she is just too stubborn to let me help her!





When she realized I was taking pictures of her, she stopped screaming. (I should pretend to take pictures of her antics more often)


Finally! Got that big ol' head through the hole! (no thanks to me of course!)

I had to take one of her actually happy, hair combed, and looking cute. I can put up with a little screaming now and then as long as I get to see this happy face when its all said and done! Love you Rhi!

School Supplies.....

So far this school year I have purchased 3 boxes of crayons for Aubryn. She is always asking me for a nex box of crayons. "I only have 6 colors", "I couldn't finish my penguin because I don't have black" "I looked in the lost and found box, but they are all broken" etc. Mrs. Gillen always sends a note home if they are out of supplies, and I haven't seen one lately so I haven't bought her new crayons (she can be pretty dramatic). However, I went to her class today to visit for a minute, and then to go have lunch. She's in the middle of an art project involving her sight words (which are the names of colors) She is using tiny little pieces of broken crayons, borrowing colored pencils.... I was embarrassed! I apologized to Mrs. Gillen for not sending new crayons... she was not concerned, because she says its not that Aubryn has broken her crayons, its that she doesn't clean up after herself most of the time. And ALL the left over supplies go in the infamous "lost and found box". So after talking to Aubryn about taking care of our stuff, and being responsible for our things especially at school, I go to Walmart and buy her new crayons, I also bought a pack of address labels. She thinks she's just getting a regular old box of crayons to take back to school, but I'm not just sending crayons... I'm also send little reminders.

I figured if they do end up in the "Lost and Found" she'll be able to tell which ones are hers.


AND, since she is super dooper smart and can read really well.... I figured a little reminder couldn't hurt.

Sweet little Aubryn

Yesterday we had a snow day... I was so glad since I hadn't felt very good for a few days. Not really sick, just been fighting a migraine on and off for a few days. So I'm being lazy trying to get motivated to get out of bed, because I can hear the kids starting to stir around the house. All of the sudden Aubryn comes in my room with my huge lasagna pan (which has handles on the sides) inside sits a bowl of cereal filled with milk. She brought me breakfast in bed!! It was so cute, and even though migraines make me nauseous I proudly ate my delightful breakfast with my sweet daughter. I'm very blessed to have such a thoughtful, and kind daughter. LOVE YOU AUBRYN!

Dino hatchlings

My mom saw these weird little eggs at the dollar store, and picked one up for Jaden Last week. Jaden loves all things dino, so he thought this was great. The girls thought it was so cool so she went back and got them an egg too; so we documented this joyous occasion.



You can see where Rhi tried to poke a hole in her egg... she's very impatient.





Rhiannyn's came out a little deformed, but just like a true mother she adored her baby dino... birth defects and all.

Weird, I know but the kids had so much fun watching them hatch.

Valentine Fun!

To start with Stef and I spent most of Thursday making about 50 of these.....CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIED...Yum! We put them in vases and made them look like a bouquet of roses,and took them to Aubryn and Kayden's classes. They turned out really cute and weren't as hard to make as we thought they would be. The kids loved them and so did the teachers. Me and Stef enjoyed being "cool" moms that day... apparently a rare occasion for us.

Because we are such fantastic multi-taskers, Stef and I also had a little BFF party for Rhi and Lexy. They made "Balentines's" little pizzas, and of course cookies! The next day Rhi was so excited to get to go the the school for Jaden and Aubryn's parties. She thought she was pretty cool hanging out with the big kids, and Aubryn and Jaden were so excited we came! That night at dinner I asked Rhi what her favorite part of the day was and she says "da little baby toilets at Jaden's schoo" (They have really low sinks and the smallest toilets I've ever seen in the Pre-K hall at the school... pretty funny actually)

Aubryn was super excited about the chocolate covered strawberries, and all the kids thought she brought the coolest treat. They had a sub that day, so they didn't really do a lot besides get a plate of goodies, and watch a movie but they had fun anyway. When I asked Aubryn what her favorite part of the day was she said "when you brought the strawberries to class, and everyone was like..."oh cool"" (in true teenager fashion)

Jaden, who doesn't like chocolate; was equally excited to get his plain strawberries that I also put in a vase to look like a bouquet of roses. The kids loved them, Jaden ate 4, but I did sneak 2 chocolate ones in for his teacher and E.A. Of all the kids I think Jaden was the most excited to have me and Rhi come to his class. When I asked Jaden what his favorite part of the day was at dinner that night he said. "uhm my party, and you were there with Randy, and strawberries at my friend party." (he's so sweet)

The best part of the weekend for me was my tulips that Shawn got me, he also got the girls some flowers too. We were kinda spoiled this year, and we loved it!

Sometimes I go crazy

If you ever came to my house you'd see piles of books, papers, and all other forms of clutter EVERYWHERE; and I would secretly feel embarrassed. In most cases I have made an attempt to make my clutter look as organized as possible, but I have come the realize that this is one of the prices I pay by living in a small house with absolutely NO STORAGE. I promise that my house is not dirty, but I feel like it always looks messy despite my best efforts to consolidate, and/or eliminate clutter!! I am not OCD by any means... although I wish I were! Usually small isolated messes do not bother me that much as long as it get taken care of shortly thereafter. However I think I must be experiencing the Spring Cleaning bug a little early this year. I'm in cleaning overdrive... I can't stand to see a stray shoe that never made it to the closet, on the floor, beds HAVE to be made. I can hardly stand to let the kids get toys out to play with them, simply because I don't want to see them all over the floor in the toy room. I know I'm going crazy, and I feel like I'm constantly cleaning, and picking up... yet my house does not look the way I want it to!! My poor little kids who stay home all day, (or at least 1/2 the day before pre-school)are subjected to hours of vigorous cleaning. I only hope that these photos of my little helpers don't get me arrested for violating child labor laws. However they are actually really good helpers, and I really appreciate them doing there share around the house! I love my little helpers!!

Ha!

Oh Aubryn, you bring so much laughter to our home... like the day you were catching up on your BusinessWeek readings, securing your investments for the future. I also see you are sitting on the Two Grey Hills Rug that your Great Grandmother gave me!! But perhaps the best part of this whole picture is that you are wearing pants that are about 6 inches too short...you do like to pull all of your old clothes out of the Hand-me-down box. You are always trying to convince me that clothes from 2 years ago fit fine, I appreciate your frugality. Love you

Babies...

Tonight we are sitting around talking about Tim and Shay's new baby that was born tonight. (YAY! for Jay Wyatt!!!) And we were talking about when the girls were born, how the 2 births were night and day. Aubryn's was so chaotic, and scary, and PAINFUL, and it was so crowded in the delivery room, the stupid Dr. had the TV on a soccer game, and had the volume turned up so loud (probably to drown out my screams of anguish) over 2 hours of pushing finally she comes into the world in a completely chaotic moment. The only thing that was quiet in that room when 5.95lbs Aubryn came out was Aubryn... she never made a sound. It was honestly one of the worst things that I have ever been through. I didn't get to hold her in my arms until she was 3 days old, she was 7 days old before they let me keep her crib in my room. The nurses were not very optimistic about her making through the night, it was the single most worst experience ever, and yet I left that hospital less than 2 weeks later with my little miracle in my arms.
Rhiannyn's was so easy, so quiet, I had my epidural, I had fantastic nurses, there was no pain, the dr. and nurses barely spoke above a whisper... 17 minutes of pushing her came Rhi... S-C-R-E-A-M-I-N-G!! we got to hold her, I got to feed her... the complete opposite of Aubryn.

So I as I'm telling the story to Aubryn I say...
"Me and daddy didn't get to hold you when you were first born because you weren't breathing very good and they took you away really quickly to hook you up to breathing machines."
--Aubryn gets a really weird, puzzled look on her face. I say "You were really scary and we weren't sure if you were going to make it"
--Aubryn is now utterly shocked, but says nothing. I tell her "Papa Wheeler, and Daddy gave you a blessing you were only a few hours hours old, and 11 days later she got to come home."
She was quiet just for a minute, then says "LONG LIVE ME!" as she throws her hands up in the air in a victorious pose. Hilarious... way to put a humorous twist into a very serious topic, Thanks Aubryn!
Love my girls, and wouldn't trade them for the world... and so glad to have a new baby in the family!!