What a day!

Sometimes we all have days that we wish could just start over!  

I heard this song and I couldn't have explained it any better!  How easy is it is for me to get so caught up in the little things and all that is going wrong in my day...the thought never crossed my mind that it was Him that was in control, even in all those little situations I face on a daily basis!  If I can trust Him to guide me during the big storms of life, I need to remember to trust Him through the little storms as well!

Thank you for loving us all Lord!

This kid is HILARIOUS!

Yep...I'm talking about my eldest!  Everyday (okay almost everyday) I go to pick him up and his teachers have a funny story to tell me.  Here are a few of the latest ones...

*On Friday February 11th I get this email from his teacher, Mrs. Franklin...

"Hi Erin, when we were playing in the gym today Caiden ran into Johnny and hit his nose on Johnny's head.  He cried and cried and wanted you or John to come get him.  I finally got him to calm down but he wanted me to e-mail you and let you know what happened.  He is watching me now making sure I'm sending it to you.  Lol!"

I mean what kid does that!

*On Friday February 18th when I picked him up he was playing on the playground with Johnny from the above email.  His teacher, Mrs Myrick goes to let me into the school and she tells me that Caiden and Johnny have been arguing and Caiden told Johnny "I don't like the tone of voice  you are talking to me in!"

So we get into the car and the convo went like this:

Mommy:  "So what were you and Johnny fighting about?"

Caiden:  "We weren't fighting, we were having a conversation." (YEAH he said the entire word con-ver-sa-tion!)

Mommy:  "Oh, well what was your conversation about?" (stressing the word conversation)

Caiden:  "None of your business." (with little emotion)

Mommy:  All I could do what laugh!  "Really!"

Caiden:  "Yeah we were just having a disagreement."

Mommy:  "Well, I am very proud of you that you didn't fight with your friend and you chose to talk about it instead.  That was the right way to handle it.  Good job buddy!"

*Then another day the teacher next door, Ms. Sally told me this story...

Caiden was acting up in the hall and I told him that he was going to have to sit by me at lunch if he continued.  After that he turned into the "best student ever!" in the hall (she shows me that he put his hands behind his back and walked with his head held high).  

When they got into the lunch room he saw her from across the way and winked at her and then gave her the old "I'm watching you fingers" (you know the 2 fingers pointed at your eyes and then you point the 2 fingers at them).

I really have no idea where he picks up on this stuff!

What more do you need?

The boys got a new picnic table with some of the gift cards that they got for Christmas.  While daddy was working away, trying to put it together without reading the directions they decided to play in the box!  Fun times were had by all!

 I even decided to get in on the fun!

and yes daddy did have to stop to take our picture..he he!

We have discovered TRANSFORMERS

During the great Blizzard of 2011 we discovered TRANSFORMERS.  John had this great idea to watch the real transformer movies (later we decided to just stick to the cartoons...another parenting lesson learned).  The boys LOVED it!  So since we had been cooped up in the house during the first blizzard, we went to Toys-R-Us to get a few transformers for them to play with. 

The boys had a ball there and of course wanted EVERYTHING and got transformers and toys guns that make way to much noise!  Again this parenting thing just doesn't click sometimes for me :)  Anyway, by the time we got home they both crashed in the car...it was so cute how tired they were and they still had their transformers clenched tight in their hands.

Later daddy came home and all the boys wanted him to do was transform them from vehicles to autobots (good guys)/decepticons (babd guys).  Lets just say it kept daddy really really busy :)  Hey he started it!

This first picture just makes me laugh...daddy looking frustrated, Ethan looking clueless, then there is social butterfly himself, you say cheese and its on!

 Now here we are they are all cooperating for the pic :)  Okay at least the boys are.

The boys talk about the transformers ALL THE TIME!  Seriously I mean it...no exaggeration.  To prove my point here is a funny story that happened this last Friday...

Caiden and I are in the car on our way to pick up Ethan and we are stopped at a stop light.  

Caiden:  "MOM!!!! I see Bumble Bee!" (with all the energy his body can exude)

Mommy:  "Oh yeah, where?"  (with little excitement in my voice and disbelief)

Caiden:  "Right there mom!" (as he points to the lane across from us)

Sure enough there was a car that looked EXACTLY like Bumble Bee

Mommy:  "Yep you are right." (with a little chuckle)

Caiden:  "I can't believe this town has transformers in it!  If there are transformers then there must be decepticons too!" (with his eyes as big as his face, looking around in amazement)

He then starts pointing them out to me as we are driving and tells Ethan all about it when we get him in the car

I love how little minds work!!!  Makes me appreciate the world they live in and honestly sometimes I would like to join them!

Now don't kid yourself...John is just as into them as the boys.  This is their new "bonding moments".  He spent hours looking for the original cartoons and HAD to order them.  Now every time they want to watch a movie I bet you can't guess what it is!

I guess I had wished that the Toys Story obsession would end, so I got my wish :)  

Blizzard of 2011

As you all know (well that is if you watch the news) we had some terrible weather in the month of February.  We were on blizzard lock down for about a 7 day period spread over 2 weeks.  It was pretty cool at first, okay I am lying.  

For most people it was, but this is what our family was dealing with...

Yep, you guessed it!  A bunch of sickness.  Ethan had pneumonia (as I was corrected by my fellow colleagues since I sent out an email that told them he had ammonia) and Caiden had bronchitis.  Luckily we could get in and see our pediatrician before the storms came rolling in.

Needless to say we couldn't go outside and play like everyone else.  We played games (that is so hard for me and you understand if you have ever tried to play any game with a young child), watched movies (it wasn't a variety though, we watched the same five over and over), colored (this ended up being the most therapeutic for me), and played with every toy imaginable to mankind.

Still the kids were CRAZY!

When the weather finally got to where we could leave the house without worrying about dying from exposure to the extreme cold, we made a trip to the mailbox!  Oh yeah baby it was big!  We even got our neighbors mail and brought it over to her too!

Really it was an excuse to get out of our house and she even fed us! SCORE!  The pictures below just show a glimpse of the madness I was dealing with...

(the shovel in the background is what we used to move the snow from her front door)

Before the second storm blew in the roads cleared up and we took a trip to Toys-R-Us.  The the boys got some transformers (later post on that new obsession) and some toy guns.  Those kept us occupied for the next storm trapped at home (not such a great idea for my sanity...lesson learned).

Since we were all better when the second storm passed the boys got to go out and enjoy playing in the drifts.  Of course they had to bring the new guns out...

We really were very blessed during both sets of storms!  We never lost power, we had plenty of food, and got to spend time together as a family (daddy took time off of work to hang with us).  Out where we live it didn't look like much since the winds are so strong it blew it all into high drifts.  I think we got 4 foot drifts out here.

Days later the snow was still around and the boys had a blast playing in it!  Since it was warmer out they played for hours!  They had to mow the snow, dig the snow, and transport the snow.

All I have to say is glad it is over!  We are ready for SPRING!  

Learning as I go

About a week ago my two wonderful sons decided to be independent!  It has taken me awhile to blog about and I have no pictures to show you all {I wish I did because it is so funny now!} because I was rather upset at the time. So here is the story in a nutshell, please try to use your imagination while reading this so you can get the full picture!

I was upstairs on the computer {blog stalking, facebook chatting, coupon printing, checkbook balancing} multitasking and the boys were playing.  They decided to go down stairs and play, which happens often.  BUT THIS TIME IT WAS DIFFERENT!

I got in a zone which was interrupted by a loud crashing noise of glass.  I immediately~in my super mom speed~rushed down stairs the entire time yelling "Is everyone okay?" like they would answer me!  I heard Caiden telling Ethan "Hurry up, hurry up!"  I turn the corner to head into the kitchen and I see both of them, deer in the head lights look/oh crap we've been caught look, sitting on my kitchen counter.  They were wiping up spilled milk.

I began yelling "What are you all doing?!" while ripping them from the counter and putting them in their rooms.  I had to assess the situation.  All I see is broken glass everywhere, they broke my wedding crock and a rooster statue.  I started cleaning up the mess and about half way through I decided, they break my stuff, they lose their stuff.  So "big bad" momma goes into the room and tells them they will have to fill up an entire garbage bag full of toys to get rid of.  Caiden totally understood what was about to happen to all his toys, but Ethan on the other hand didn't get it.  He began putting all their favorite toys in the bag, Caiden was crying "No brother not that one, we like that one!"  So Caiden and I ended up doing it, but he kept trying to put all his "broken" toys in the bag...typical I guess.

While we were filling up the bag I asked Caiden and Ethan the famous question all parents ask "WHY?!"  He told me {not necessarily this detailed of course} that they were thirsty so he climbed the refrigerator, got down the milk, climbed the chair and counter to get the cups down, decide to pour them a glass and spilled the milk, while they were wiping up the milk they knocked off EVERYTHING that was on the counter {and if you have been to my house I am a stacker...trying to work on this habit...so it was quite a bit of things}, and then mommy ran in!

After I got the whole story and we filled up a garbage bag of toys, I put the 2 INDEPENDENT boys to bed and really began to assess the damage.  So the grand damage was: 1 broken wedding crock, 1 broken rooster, sales ads ruined and stuck to the floor, broken fridge door shelf, and one mad stressed out momma!

Needless to say it is all stuff and I am glad that my kids didn't get hurt!  I learned a lot in that fiasco...

• I need to be a better mom and not let technology take the place of my kids 
• I need to listen to my kids when they need me AND when they think they don't
• My kids are going to grow up and not need me like I will want them to so I need to love the fact that they need me now
• And last...things are things plain and simple! 

My kids are my world and sometimes I have moments where I don't feel like I am that great of a mom, but I still try!  I try to "fix" myself on a daily basis with God's help and I will make mistakes along the way!  So now I can look back at this fiasco and laugh and laugh and laugh.  It feels good to know that I can do that!