SIMPLE PLEASURES!

Sometimes its just the small things in life that make me happy.

The other day Tyson had a little fever and couldn't sleep at all. He was up and down a million times which is not like him at all. He is our sleeper, just like his daddy. After taking him back to his bed for the hundredth time he finally stayed in bed, or so we thought. We kept hearing the sound of his door opening but yet he would never appear from around the corner. Finally when Jared and I were getting ready to go to bed I asked him to check on the boys one last time and make sure they were all safe and sound. Jared went into the twins room and found them snuggled together in Tyler's crib...seriously love these two! This next little story might be a bit gross but I think its a necessity for me to blog it, mostly because I think it will gross the boys out when they get older :) The boys are working on potty training, they basically have it, but we still wipe their bums when they go poop. The other day Tyson pooped in the toilet and he got down by himself leaving a poopy trail on the seat. Like a good brother though, Tyler stepped right in and wiped his bum off and then proceeded to clean the toilet seat all around! Thanks Tyler for cleaning up your brother's poop :)

The twins are in a little play group once a week. I switch off with 3 other moms who all have kids the exact same age and so once a month I have all the kids over to my house to play for 3 hours and then the next 3 weeks they are off to someone else's house. I really love it. While they are gone that is me and Eli's special time. It sounds like it would be really exciting and some day we will do something super fun, but for now I love that my buddy just enjoys the one on one time with me. We usually drop the boys off, head over to circle K for a drink and then he comes with me to volunteer in Emma's class (he just sits in the corner and plays my iPad) or we go home and I clean the house and he plays the computer, etc. But it is our time together and no one bothers him and we get to laugh and giggle just the two of us. Last week we even went out for an ice cream cone together before we picked up the twins and as soon as we got home he put his arm around the twins and said, "sorry boys, I only had one ice cream cone, I don't have any for you, sorry!" He cracks me up! This week Tyson was sick so I dropped off Eli instead and kept Tyson with me, but at first Eli didn't want to go because he didn't want Tyson to get the special drink, ha ha! I love me some Eli.

BACK TO SCHOOL I GO!

I went back to school today for the first time in 11 years. Some might think I am off to get a Md, or PhD or even a BA but no, I just need to get an AA (which currently stands for Associates of Arts, but by the time I am finished it will probably be Alcoholics Anonymous!) I want my kids to know how important a college education is, but I don't want them to not go because I didn't go, or rather because I did go but dropped my classes many many times because it interfered with my social life so I never actually got a degree.

Last April I prayed to Heavenly Father and basically broke it down like this, if you want me to go to school then I need help, I can't retake the classes I have already taken and I cant have a whole bunch of new ones that are now required, I went to the advisor and it was meant to be, I only needed 4 classes and they were even a tad bit easier than I thought I needed. There were a few hic-ups in the process between registering and actually starting school, but not a big deal.

The day finally came and I got on my new outfit, backpack from way back in the day and my mom came over to watch my boys as I headed off to school, but not before taking my first day of school picture, ha ha!I got to school, circled in the parking lot for a few minutes and watched as some people looked at me, they probably thought I borrowed my mom's SUV to come to school, little did they know I was the mom, ha ha! We had to get in groups and meet each other and introduce each other. In the front of the classroom was all the old people - you know the parents, then scattered throughout the room was the nerds, the cool skater boys, the boy with his laptop who was playing video games on it and some dirty girls, then there was me. My partner who graduated in 2007 (after I had given birth a couple of times) introduced me and told them I had 4 kids, there was a gasp and then heads moving around trying to catch a glimpse of me, then I am sure the skater boys were thinking, "hey old lady, get out of our section and go up with the old parents over there!"

Class proceeded and what I thought was going to be an easy breezy class turns out not so much. I signed up for a lecture and lab in GEOGRAPHY...what does that sound like to you? A class that you will learn about the 7 continents and perhaps where Columbia and Rome are located? Ya, I thought so too. It's not. Its about weather, how rocks were formed, how volcanoes are on certain continents and fault lines and crap like that oh yes and if I hear the word HABOOB one more time in there, yikes! Oh and it gets better. I hate math, can't stand it, can't do it, don't use it (other than the basics) and can't pass it (dropped it 4 times already). Um, I had to use MATH in GEOGRAPHY?!?!?! Does anyone else see a problem with this besides me?

We had to convert meters to centimeters, to feet to inches to Celsius to Fahrenheit, etc. The boys in my group who I totally prejudged as being dumb boys were super smart and sailed right through it and I did what I do best, I just sat there and smiled and copied. My group was the first group done and left early. I went up to the teacher afterwards and asked if she had an extra packet I could take home (we had to turn ours in) so I could practice at home with my husband, she said no. Then I asked if we were going to use this all year and she quickly informed me that yes, we would be using it all year and that's why we are learning it now. So like a butt kisser or nerd or whatever it is she is thinking I am, I stayed after and had to learn it. I still don't understand it but I can only hang out with the teacher for so long. The old man in the classroom with the long fingernails and gray hair who wants to be a musician, told me I could join his group because they move at a much slower pace :/

Oh wait, school gets even better. My family vacation is next week and I need to miss 2 days of school and my class final is on Dec 7th and I need to miss that day as well (no biggie though, I can take the test with her other class the following week) but that is already 3 days missed. She has a rule and if you miss more than 4 days, she fails you. Since when did college classes start caring when you attend or not and keep track of your attendance?! That means I am left with 1 random day to miss between now and Dec 7th. Wow. School blows.

I did just find out that a Dairy Queen opened up across the street from CGCC so I took my defeated self over there for a blizzard while I thought about what to do now...

NO PUNISHMENT AT HOME NEEDED!

I was sitting here at my computer getting ready to blog about the boys when I got an email from Emma's teacher. I stopped what I was doing to read the letter and got the world's biggest smile on my face. Emma is having drama and it's taking place at school and I don't really have to deal with it! Ha! I am sorry for her sweet teacher who has to, but man, what a relief it is her and not me :)

Here is the following email from her teacher :

Hi,

So, you have a very upset daughter right now... She has been sitting by Brenna since the beginning of the year when they got to choose their desks. A few times in the past week or so, I have had to talk to them about getting right to work in the mornings on their morning work. I told them last time that if I had to speak to them again that they would be separated. Well, today it happened. Now Emma is in hysterics because she is worried that when you find out she had to move desks she will be "pulled from dance". I tried my best to reassure her that all people make mistakes, and the most important thing is that she learned from her mistake. She cannot stop crying about this, so I told her I would email you so you are prepared and hopefully can send her a calming message. Helllllppppp!!!!! :)

Here is my response:
Is it rude that I am laughing? Ok please send Emma the following message:

Emma,
I am very sad that you made the mistake of talking after being asked to stop over and over again. I will NOT be pulling you from dance. I do, however, need you to listen to Miss Landorf and do what is asked of you. Please stop crying, dry the tears, and apologize to Miss L for not making good choices. Learn to enjoy your new seat girlfriend, that was the choice you made by talking over and over again.

See you at home!
Love you!
Mom

For those of you wondering, No, I will not be punishing her at home either. The mistake was made at school and she paid the price and I will no longer speak of it (I will get sweet satisfaction though, knowing that I have made a permanent record of it on here, our family journal, muhahaha!)

FIRST DAY OF THE 2ND ROUND OF PRESCHOOL

Yesterday was Eli's first day of his 2nd round of preschool. He was soooo super excited to start school. When we got in the car after Meet the Teacher, he asked if we could go home and do his homework :) (to bad that excitement wont last forever).

I was sorta what you call a "lazy mom" on the first day, I had every intention on driving him, but when it came right down to it, our carpool friends volunteered to take him and heck ya, I will jump right on that. He was not nervous or scared, he has been there before and loves his teacher, he doesn't need me! So a couple of pictures later and he was out the door!

When he came home he said, "mom, is today the first day of school?" "Yes, why buddy?" "so I get to go forever now?" After I answered him with a yes he proceeded to jump up and down!

He is very excited to be the only returning student in his class this year so he gets to be Ms. Nikkii's helper :) It's going to be a great year!

VEGAS PHOTO SHOOT!

Here are some of the pictures that Hailey took of the girls while we were in Vegas - they all look so beautiful!

Emma, Ella, Bella, Rylee and Peyton

SUMMER RE-CAP!

I don't have a whole lot to re-cap, summer truly came and went way too fast this year. We had a lot of fun things planned, but then they had to keep getting cancelled due to Emma's dance and Jared's work.We did celebrate 4th of July at Grandma Joyce's house (or as Eli calls her, "Pa's boy" - Grandma calls Eli, "Pa's boy" because Eli reminds her of my dad and he always lights up and waits for her to say that to him, it's really cute!) with a BBQ and swimming party with my family, Kristen's family, Jason's family and that was about it. It was slim pickins this year. Afterwards we went back home and rested for a bit and then ate dinner and grabbed milkshakes for everyone and headed out to watch the fireworks. The kids loved it and we found the perfect place to do it (but if you think I am going to share that info on here, you are crazy, I got to keep the good spots secret, muhahaha).Eli played flag football this summer. This was probably my favorite sport he has played so far. He would practice Wednesday nights at 6pm, then practice Thursday nights at 6:45pm and then have his games at 7:30pm that same night. The weather was perfect, the sun had gone down by then and it was just nice to sit out under the lights and cheer our little buddy on! As usual he was the smallest one on the team and had a ways to go to catch up to the rest of the group (that is the problem when you play your child up with the older kids, but it is so beneficial for him because he fights really hard to get to their level and by the end of the season he is amazing and playing right along side of them!!).

He got really good towards the end of the season about ripping off the opposing team's flags. Sometimes he would rip them off with such force that the other boy would go down too! I went to every game except for one, the game I missed I was in Vegas with Emma. I kept getting play by play texts from Jared. Finally I got 2 texts and they made me get teary eyed, my little man had scored 2 touchdowns, that's right, 2! I was soooo sad that I missed it, I felt bad all night. I did proudly tell all the moms that was with me that night at dinner what he had done.

Every week on the drive home from the games we would give him 3 "hip hip hoorays!". The kids loved cheering for him and he loved hearing it :) The night of the last game his team was playing for the championship, they had only lost 1 game all season and that's who we had to battle it out for 1st place with. We lost. We kinda figured we would. It was a rough way to end the season but the exciting part was they each got the 2nd place trophy. As we were all done and walking back to the car, Eli said to me, "Mom, I'm so happy I did so good at football and I'm so happy I got a shiny blue trophy. I'm so happy!" And that is why we do what we do. Love you buddy!

Elias' first pre-game practice
Grandma and Grandpa Rodgers came to a couple of games and so did the Slys, it was great to have people come out and support him!Getting his trophyListening to the coach tell them how great they were and then after that we headed out for some ice cream to celebrate his great football season! Eli frequently played with his mouth guard. We actually had to buy 3 of them during the season. I won't even tell you how we bought his 2nd one and moments after putting it in his mouth for the first time he dropped it in the toilet right after he peed, yum!Pure intimidation

During the summer we tried to go on a few family walks on Sunday nights, but after our first 2 attempts, we quit. The first time, Emma and Eli decided to ride their bikes and just a few minutes into the walk Jared and Emma decide to race and out of no where Emma crashes hard. Road rash all over her face, arm, legs, shirt, hole in her shirt and oh yes, many many loud cries and tears (she is not nearly as tough as her brothers). I took her home and got her cleaned up and Jared finished the walk with the boys.

The second attempt was even more annoying. We just put the garage door down and then Tyler decided he wanted his scooter so we went to open up the garage and the outside key pad had died. We ran next door to see if they had a spare battery we could use just long enough to get into our house and they didn't. We walked around to a few neighbors to check to see if they had a key pad and they didn't either. We were trapped outside with no keys, no phones, nothing. We walked over to Heather and Dabrielle's house who welcomed us in with open arms. They were pretty surprised to see us there unannounced and then to top it all off, we wanted the keys to their car to go to the store and oh yes, money to buy a battery :) Eric and Jared headed off to the store right away, the girls fed my kids desserts and then while the boys were still gone they decided to paint Tyson and Eli's toes and nails, Tyler would not have anything to do with that :) It was a fun night, but Jared was a little disappointed in the boys with the nails polished but quite proud that Tyler said no! Ha Ha.We went out a eat several times this summer and oh yes! Eli learned to swim without floaties!! We hired "Bells" to come out and give him some private lessons and he LOVED it!!! He is a little fish and swims all over the place now. Tyson isn't to far behind him and next year I have no doubts he will be without floaties, Tyler, well...if he can swim on the step then forget it, so he has a long ways to go :) It was a short summer, but we did have some fun times in there!