holiday spoilers, yankees games, and my brackets are doing horrible.

SPOILER ALERT: if you still believe in fairies, bunnies, leprechauns, etc. then this post is NOT for you!!!!!



So. My kids KNOW me and john are the tooth fairy, T has questioned abt. Santa and since we wont lie to them abt. it he is pretty sure we are Santa (and partly bc we want the credit for all the hard work, darn it!!), they question EVERY holiday or occasion where a animal or older person dresses up weird. M kindly pointed out sat. at an Easter egg hunt that you could see the Bunny's human arm under their costume, and the boys asked again if there really was an Easter bunny, T's voice heavy with disbelief at the time. By Easter, I think he had forgotten all of that and was just excited that he was getting a basket. Anyway. despite ALL of that. St. Patricks day morning, the boys woke up super excited. They were RACING around the house. I got up wondering what in the world they were doing. They informed me that they KNEW the leprechauns had come and were looking for the treat they had left. and then it hit me. Last year, after they had gone to bed, I thought it would be funny to have them "come" by putting green paint all over the kitchen to look like footprints and tons of glitter over that and leaving a candy treat on the stove for them. Well, i had totally forgotten abt that and had nothing for them. They were so upset. I was floored. My unbelieving, cynical children were totally shocked there was nothing for them. thinking fast, i assured them that they would prob. come while they were at school. That appeased them. John ran to the store and grabbed some sugar cookies and green frosting for them, and when they got home from school they got to decorate their own cookies. The next morning, i had moved Jo's booster seat and just tossed it over the back seat, where it landed upside down. The boys were so sure the leprecahauns had played a joke on him. My kids are so weird.
so, in other news: John was one of the 5500 last week who earned a ticket to the yankees/hokies exhibition game last week! He went with a few guys from church and they had a great time! I was so jealous I couldn't go, but it was only open to students at tech who were students last year in April, or current students, which he qualified under both. I am so glad he got to go though, and he got some great pics of Johnny Damon for me!
the hokies wore the coolest pinstripe uniforms for the game, and they sold special Yankees hats that had the yankee symbol in hokie colors. Very cool! A-Rod spent a ton of time in the hokie dugout, signing balls, hats, etc. It was so fun to watch it on tv w/ the boys since we couldn't be there in person. One of the kids at our preschool is the coaches son, who just came from Boston. His boys who were bat boys wore red sox shirts under the yankees uniforms! I thought that showed some nerve!





EASTER!!! I got the ties and the cutest argyle socks for the boys from Children's place a few weeks ago. I love matching them, and I can only get away with it twice a year, Christmas and Easter. John wore a 2 toned blue striped tie, and I wore a blue button down that had all the blues in it. It was fun to match everyone!
M- age 5 years, 5 months, Jo- 7 years, Van- 2 years 6 months, T- 7 years 11 1/2 months.







When we got home from church, it was time to hunt baskets. vans favorite was his Reester bunny. (in fact he liked it so much he did Jo a favor and finished his this morning....) I hid them while John fixed the kids lunch. T found his in the laundry hamper in the laundry room, Jo in the extra shower downstairs, Min the goodwill box, and vans was hidden in plain view in my closet. The boys had a great time hunting, and it took longer then i thought it would.

Later that afternoon we had a few friends over for Easter dinner. Johnny Stackhouse makes the BEST ham, so we put him in charge of that, Others brought green beans, bread, dessert, and the best ranch red potatoes. I made a pot. casserole and John made mashed pot. and we had a feast! It was so great, i love not having to cook a full meal for holidays and sharing the workload! After that we headed back to church for a devotional, which was awesome! A Methodist church sent their partial choir, which was amazing! I played prelude with some friends, and it was just such a great evening! I love holidays that center around Christ. They are just so special!

great self pic. from Ginger!

oh, and before i forget.... my brackets are doing Terrible... I won the ward brackets last year, and this year 25% of my final 4 have been knocked out... Yikes. I am currently in 10th place out of 23rd.... so sad.

On better news: John and I have been clinging to our poor digital camera last leg of life. Sat. morning we went to a fun town egg hunt. WE pulled out the camera, which had been VERY temperamental lately and it would not turn on at all. Sat. night we finally opted to just replace it. We had missed so many awesome things, the egg hunt, Jo's birthday pics came out bad, John wore his army uniform for the first time, etc. We went to best buy for date night and picked out a Cannon power shot. The price was under our budget price, it was on sale, and it has everything we needed! WE are so excited to finally have a reliable camera back in our hands!!!

Catching Up...

I spent a bit of time last week updating, adding photos, etc. and then when I went to publish, my computer froze, and I couldn't even access the saved draft. I gave up and decided to just come back to it, so over a week later, here is my update:

I went to L'burg in mid Feb. for a 3 day scrapbook retreat with 2 of my good friends, Melanie and Elizabeth. We had a fantastic time staying up late, eating GREAT food (mmm, kotos!!!), and running around my home town shopping, browsing, and enjoying great conversation with our friends. This is my third year going, and about 50 people turn out every year. I LOVE it!! Unfortunately, I came home SICK... I spent 2 weeks trying to recover afterwards from catching a flu while I was there. After being great for a week, a stomach bug swept through preschool and I got that too... It has been a long month for us, but John has been AWESOME! He has had to cook, take all of the kids to church by himself, and clean for me while I was drugged up on sudafed (and that stuff knocks me OUT!). THANKS JOHN!!! YOU ARE THE BEST!!! We celebrated Jo's 7th birthday a week and a half ago. He invited 2 friends over and we took them to pizza, then home for a transformers cake, ice cream and tons of pokemon play time! HE had a great time, and I love his friends. It is always so nice when your kids have GOOD friends. (now we have to plan Ts 8th birthday...)

Feb. 24 one of my former students passed away. It was so hard. His family had gone to Switzerland in Jan for sabbatical, and while there, he developed a stomach ache and turned critical in minutes. He stopped breathing, and rescue workers were unable to revive him. (he is one of the sweet boys in the front row of the top picture). His funeral was March 4. It was so hard, as he is just a few months younger then M, and I look at all the things happening in his life right now, kindergarten registration, soccer starting, etc. and my heart just break for the family. 5 years is such a short time.

Soccer stated this week for the boys. T has 1 1/2 1 day a week, 1 hr another day, and games on sat. Jo has 1 1 hr practice/week. M starts on the 28th.

Violin lessons..... well.... we have refused to rosin vans bow. he is just so loud anyway, I cannot imagine how loud he would be. T has a great bow hand, and we start with music tomorrow.

We took a while to get started as the kids who the boys are taking lessons with had parents in hawaii..... so lucky!

Anyway, i really don't know of much else... i feel like we are so busy right now, but that we aren't DOING anything...

odds and ends

Our camera has been acting funny lately but I have been trying to squeeze the last remaining use out of it before having to replace it. So a few weeks ago, we got the most lovely snowfall. All the trees were covered, there was plenty on the group to go sledding, and the kids had the day off of school. We spent over an hour getting everyone dressed and ready to go, grabbed the sled, and 2 extra SETS of batteries (I have yet to get good snow pics of the boys...., plus, sadly, this was the boys first real time ever sledding, we have just never lived in a neighborhood with hills....) I was determined to get great pics, and i had plenty of battery juice to accomplish my task. I got outside, turned the camera on to capture the beautiful evergreens in our neighborhood, and the camera died. I tried every battery to no avail. It is officially dead. It will turn on sometimes, but even when it turns on, the lens cover wont clear the lens. Def. time to get a new one. I recognize a lost cause when I see one. I am planning on selling my 35mm Nikon and get a new digital Nikon, bc I wont have to replace lenses that way, and just throwing the old digital away.... I feel lost without a camera... So, no snow pictures. I am hoping that we will get another great snow after feb. 15, when we can get a new camera. HOWEVER, I am enjoying the mid 50's we are experiencing today, and will be OK if no more snow falls, as long as it stays this warm or warmer....
We went to Richmond yesterday for my grandfathers 80th birthday. We had a great time, and the kids were awesome even thought they spent 8 hrs. in the car. My uncle and aunt, who hosted the party are so fun, and my uncle spent a lot of time entertaining my boys yesterday. Terry is a hunter, and spent tons of time showing my kids cameras he has on his trees to catch wildlife and so forth. He has in his yard a target deer for him to shoot w/ his bow. The boys were all walking around and were pretty close when van noticed it. It must have scared him, and I wondered if it scared him BC we hit a deer a few weeks ago, it rolled across our windshield and flew off the other side, or if he just wasn't expecting to see something like that, but regardless, he saw the deer and back peddled as fast as he could, into taking his eyes off the animal. My uncle walked over to straighten in bc he was going to show the boys how he shoots it when the back half fell off of the deer. van turned around and ran for it at that point. He was so not happy w/ it!
Van has turned into such a 2 year old lately. He is full of sayings like "get out of my room Jo" (Jo shares a room with him) "get off my bed" (as we are trying to tuck him in for the night "get out, my movie" (as he is watching cars, bob the builder, or little einsteins- which is our fault. Van saw cars, toy story and bob for the first time less then a month ago, and he is hooked. I don't think he knew kids shows existed, he has always just watched ben 10, pokemon, or whatever the older kids were watching...) and then at night, when we kiss him, he wants to spit on us. Actually, he tries to blow zerbits on our cheeks, but mostly it is like spitting... such a punk.
So, the violins at the top of the page. I was raised a music nerd. I started violin at age 5, which is considered late for suzuki method, and was switched to cello at age 7 due to my lack of um, ability to stay still while practicing. According to my mom, she switched me to cello due to my tendency to hit everything with my bow, wander aimlessly around the house and attempts to sit on my bow while practicing. She felt that by switching me to a more stationary instrument, my practice quality could improve. I am not sure whether it did or not. However, 20 years later, I am still playing, and enjoying it. The time has come to pass this down! I ordered 2 violins today, a 1/2 for T, and a 1/4 for Jo. I still need to order another 1/4 for M, and a 1/16!!! for van. yes, even van will start, as suzuki tends to start at 3. I will find him a super durable one and let him "practice" for now. I cannot wait!!!! I have done so much research and reading and am so ready for this to start. i will be teaching a class of 6 boys, 3- 7 yr. olds, 2- 6yr., olds, and a 5 yr. old (half are mine) and van will get PRIVATE lessons for now;-) I am so excited for the violins to get here!!!

new years!

WE went to a friends of mine house for new years last night. A family party that started at 8... So, we thought we would go, stay until 10, then head home and put the kids to bed... WE stayed til 1, and the boys ran strong the whole time! we finally got everyone to bed around 130, and T was up by 620 ready for the day, with everyone else getting up before 7. I was so surprised that they didn't sleep in at all.... Overall though, we had a great, safe time ringing in the new years and hope everyone else did as well! ok. so new years means resolutions, and here are mine:
Family: to cut non-student loan debt by 50%
to teach the boys tennis, and spend more time as a family playing sports and being active (we have been such bums lately...)

personal: to lose 5 pounds
to cut all soda (big deal! end of day 1, doing great!)
to catch up my scrapbooks (i am 199 months behind, not even counting mine and johns childhood albums)
to be more patient w/ the boys by planning ahead better and not rushing them as often

ok, off to watch football!

adventures in potty training

So, in an effort to torture myself, I have decided that this is the time to potty train my newly 2 year old. yes. the beg. of winter, when clothes will be layered. the PERFECT time... (what am i thinking??) Please bear in mind the following:
i have NEVER potty trained any of my children earlier then age 3. my boys just wont. T however 3 days after his third birthday when told (by me and john) he was to old to wear diapers anymore. He said ok. We bought him underwear, he potty trained in 1 day. Literally. Jo, due to health issues, was 4, and still has problems. M was a solid three. I would never in my life suggest to a 2 year old that the potty would be a fun project to overtake. my boys at 2 are gross. they think body parts are funny, the touch everything, they put their feet on the toilet when they are supposed to be using it, etc. my 2 year olds are just not mature enough to handle the potty (or maybe that is just me....) on the other hand though, I have had kids in diapers for almost 8 years straight now. When M was born, I had T- 2 1/2, jo 1 1/2, and M newborn all is diapers together for 6 months. it was like an assembly line whenever i had to change them. M potty trained a few weeks after van was born. so maybe that is the reason for me thinking this would be a good idea... after last nights random success on the potty, i choose today as the day to potty train van... (it only takes 1 day, right???) school starts back for him on the 3, and i would love to send him in underwear. we skipped church today (in fact when we sat down for dinner at 6 tonight, T pointed out he and van were the only ones not in pajamas... and van was half naked, so he doesn't count...) and let van wear his new elmo underwear (mostly over his diapers...) and asked him a million times if he needed to go potty. He went a total of 1 time on the potty today (and I am pretty sure he co-operated only to get a treat...) , twice in his underwear, and a lot more in his diaper. He came up to me at one point today grabbing his bottom and said "my butt hurts. give me diaper."
I had van sitting on the big potty, and was sitting on the lid of his little potty that we use as a step stool and I was singing him songs to keep him sitting still longer. after the songs ended, he told me he was all done, hopped off the toilet, pulled me off the little potty, and told me to sit on the big potty. Closing the lid and sitting down, i was wondering what he was doing. he sat on his little potty, crossed his legs like i had been sitting, and sang me the songs i had been singing to him. when i tried to get up and leave so i could start dinner he asked me if i was all done. He carried the step stool into the kitchen while i started dinner and told me his potty was for jumping.
he could so potty train. what a punk. anyway. cute pics, he loves his underwear, and maybe tomorrow will give us more success....






underwear make great hats... (ew.)

out with the baby

In with the big boy! For several weeks now, van has been sharing a room with his older brothers. They all sleep crammed in the same room.

T and Jo's bed

M and Van's (yes... he's on the floor...)




Although he has been sleeping with them at night, at nap time, he has been totally happy sleeping in his crib (and I know his pj's don't match. he has a horrible habit of pulling himself out of his diaper at night time and uh, soaking himself...) but i digress.... yesterday I asked him if he was ready to be done with the crib. he said "des." which means yes. when asked again today, he was still ready so we worked all day switching beds around. Van's crib is in a room where we keep M's clothes, all their books, Van's cars and "little kid toys" like his einsteins. Just stuff in general the older kids don't care about. We took his crib down, moved Jo into a room with van, switched out dressers so we could put the 2 smaller dressers in the room that is now jo and van's (the bedroom is way smaller then the other one) and did MAJOR cleaning! It took all day, but we have 2 kids bedrooms now! M and T are sleeping comfortably in the bigger bedroom, Jo is sleeping in Van's room, and van is calling me from his bed telling me to change his diaper, he's poopy. (hes not, just stalling.) It is 9 pm and he wont go to sleep.... BUT, on top of all the changes in beds, van also decided today would be a great day to use the potty for the first time (at home, he does it in public, must be more fun at school and doc. offices....)

MESSY bookshelf!


Vans new bed!!! Jo shows
him how to jump on it!







Vans bed did have sheets on it, then he peed all over them at nap time...
















We organized closets


and put big kid posters on the wall for Jo




the end result in T and M's room

















all the bedrooms are soooo clean right now! I love that feeling from working hard and being able to see such wonderful results! (even if it is just for a day...)



but.... the bedrooms are the ONLY thing clean right now... playrooms next!

Merry Christmas, our tree is dead, and maintence made an emergency call to our house.

Merry Christmas! We had such a fantastic day yesterday, and hope everyone else did as well. I had my work party on the 17th at Boston beanery, which always ends up being a lot of fun... this year was no exception, with a few interesting elements.... being Mormon, me and my co-worker Seantylle get to be the DD's for the night. Good times were had by all..... and that is all i shall say about my night here...

Anyway. Christmas! We went to Richmond with my parents and sisters Heather and Lyndsay the sat before Christmas to see my grandpa and my moms siblings. We always play a wonderful game of dirty Santa. (pick a present, if it is good, someone else steals it, you pick again, if it sucks, you get to keep it!) I drew a candy jar filled w. candy and gold coins, and my sister heather stole it. I finished the day up with a diaper that had a coupon good for a 24 hour shift with my cousins 5 month old girl Jordan.... She wouldn't let me take her at the end of the day though, but I ALMOST got a girl for Christmas (if only it were that easy!!!) John got a coconut fish that was in a popcorn tin. When you lifted the lid of the tin, a singing card opened at the same tin so it looked like this fish was singing at you. pretty funny! the boys got a TON of pokemon stuff from my aunts and grandpa... 180 mini pokemon figures and the battle dome. We drove to Lynchburg sat night and spent a few days with my parents. They got the boys tennis rackets, sleeping bags, flashlights, and mess kits. They are so ready to go camping, now we need warm weather! Christmas Eve we drove home, and went over to dinner with some wonderful families. We played some cards, ate a ton of awesome food, and had the boys asleep by 8 pm! Not bad for Christmas Eve! The boys were up by 6 am yesterday morning. They were so excited bc we got rid of our stockings last year bc of poor condition, and they were so bummed they couldn't hang stockings Christmas Eve, but when they woke up on the morning, Santa had brought them new stockings, and even filled them with pokemon cards and other fun treats! the oldest 3 boys got video games from grandparents Christmas morning (Thanks, they LOVED them!) and board games and some clothes, but the big gift of the day were Heeleys, the shoes that everyone sees kids wearing in walmart with the wheels in the back. the catch with these shoes is you cannot buy the off brand, they have to be heeleys. In the off-brands the wheels don't remove, they just pop into the shoe, and so they aren't allowed in school... (grrr.) so we bought heeleys, where the wheels actually can be removed and the hole covered. The boys LOVED them. as friends came over throughout the day, several of their friends had gotten them for Christmas as well, and the kids all had fun practicing their moves!

I must have been the only kid on earth who had to do chores on Christmas day. Every Christmas, we would open presents, then spend several hours cleaning the house. I hated it. But I have passed the tradition on to my kids. Every year, my parents would have huge parties that lasted all day. I did love those, and have tried to carry that on. Yesterday we had several families come over to play games and eat a ton of food. We had such a great time, but with one major mishap. Our downstairs toilet has been running ever since we moved in. We try to just not use it very often. Whenever the kids do use the bathroom, we just turn the water on, flush, and turn it back off. recently, the water at the shut off valve has been pouring whenever we turn off the water. John remedied that by pulling the arm up in the toilet so that it wont run at all. not a bad fix, until yesterday. So, a kid used the bathroom downstairs, and we HAD to flush it. when john went to flush it, the arm snapped off, right at the base, where there was NO way to get the water to stop filling the bowl. He tried to tighten the screw in the shut off valve to keep it from spraying. no luck. after abt 30 minutes of messing w/ the toilet, and knowing NOTHING is open that would help is fix this on our own, we made the emergency maintenance call. our guy came and rigged it for now, but everyone watching him fix the toilet kept waiting for the piece he shoved into the broken arm socket to fly out and water spew into his face. that fortunately did not happen, but now we have a bathroom out of commission, and he is talking about coming in and ripping our sink out of the wall in the bathroom that does work so he can access a shower problem... overall though, we had a great day! We had tons of fun, and the kids were just so excited with their new toys and all the friends that came to play!