I.Hate.Potty.Training.

Who would have thought, but JW is the first to begin the process.  Two weeks later he still isn't full on potty trained.  Hmph.  (Why he couldn't be an overnight potty-trainer like his sister?)  This morning he woke up at his usual 6:30 wake up time.  Butt naked.  Pajamas laid neatly on the floor beside his bed.  Nearly dry diaper with them.  Pee on the carpet.   Said area rug is now sunning to bleach the smell out. Later we went for a walk where he stayed dry the whole time.  Yay!  Everyone got a bath to wash off the humid southern sweat that one gets even at 9:00 in the morning.  While drying JW off on his bed it smelled a little like pee.  Hmmm? 

Me:  JW, did you pee in the bed?
JW:  Nope!
Me:  Well, it smells like pee.  Are you sure you didn't pee in the bed?
JW:  Noooo (laughing the whole time).  I peed in da grass! 

So I am guessing the carpet was his grass.  I suppose it is true that peeing in grass is inate in boys.  And in case you really just have to know, he didn't pee in the bed.  I am supposing that after peeing in his grass he sat on his bed where he air dryed.  A quick change of sheets and all is well.

And Micah, well, she is nowhere near PTing.  Unless you count wearing panties as a diaper cover *roll eyes*

October 2011

This is going to be looooong, so bear with me.

October 2011 started out with fun at Steed's Dairy Farm.  This bouncy thing was the kid's favorite thing to do.  They kept coming back to it over and over.

JW's "look".

Jordan on the bouncy thing. 

Time out in public is just no fair.

We didn't get much together time.  Honestly, Scott got stuck running after babies most of the time while I chased Jordan and TJ around from place to place.

You tell me, does that bow (which happens to be Jordan's fave at the moment) look a bit like Minnie Mouse or what?  

One of my all time favorites. This will be canvased.

Once again, back to the bouncy thing.

Then it got COLD.  I mean, butt freezing cold.  I am willing to bet that this was the only cold snap we had all fall and winter. 

Bad parents.  Girlfriend needed a bike.  Bad.

Such a boy.  And yes, I realize that some of these are a bit blurry.  I was just starting to get back into photography after my 2 year hiatis.

Jordan took this picture.  She is very artistic.  Her drawings amaze me.

These very big and not so cute pigs bravely went to slaughter and made wonderful sausage :)  Seriously...350 lb pigs.  They were huge.  Bob just got some more babies and even they are ugly.  Charlotte's Web they are not.

Jordan went to her first Halloween party with mom and Bob, but mainly with TJ.  It was at their church.

Eventually, the whole family turned into pumpkins.

 

Halloween party #2 at ballet.

 

Micah sitting with "Bob Bob", as she lovingly calls my mom, watching Jordan's ballet party/presentation.  On a side note, Bob Bob used to be Grandma Pat.  Then my niece started calling her Grandma Bob (along with Grandpa Bob).  Then Miicah dropped the Grandma and now she is just Bob Bob.  And it has stuck.  Even my mom calls herself that.

Halloween party #3 (school party was squeezed in there somewhere).  This was at church and it was miserably cold.  Uncomfortably cold.  Halloween around here is unpredictable, but it has never been this cold.  It was windy and didn't get out of the 40's that day.

We got to see sweet friends.  This is one of my BFF's kids.  They live in Tampa, so imagine how cold they felt.

BFF's other kid, who was also cold.  But she is so cute it didn't matter.

 

Medlins minus dad.  We love them.

Jordan's twin in boy form...and white form haha!  These two gravitate to eachother no matter where they are.

Jordan got her face painted.

Cutest.clown.ever.



How a man carries a huge kid.  JW has his 3 year checkup next week, but last I did a rough estimate he was 41.5 lbs and 41 inches.  Big kid, no?

Best friends forever.  These two are pretty much joined at the hip.  But when Jordan wants to play rough, she runs to Big J.  He is her wrestling buddy.

Our church steeple where this freezing cold party was held.  But you know what, kids never notice they are cold so fun was had anyway.  And, I feel so blessed be be able to be a part of this church.  It is nothing less than Christ centered and giving and evangelism driven.  Love it.

 

My only trick-or-treating pic.  I wanted more, but it is hard to take pictures and wrangle 3 kids going in different directions.  This was taken at my sweet, and favorite, grandparents' house.  I adore my grandma and grandpa.  In some ways I feel like they are cheerleaders for us.  And they love my kids.  In fact, these are the grandparents that Micah RUTH and Jeremiah WADE are named after.  We joke with them and tell them that they have changed color ;)

 That is it for now.  See you on next month's post.

September 2011

I think this catching up thing is going to take a little longer than I thought.  Hmph.

Jordan's hair down, natural, and gorgeous.

Micah's love of these particular boots began.  To this day she wears them with everything.

Pretty girl :)

Jordan's love for ballet  waned.  She ended up quiting and going for tumbling/cheerleading.  This kills my modest heart.  Scott and I decided that if she keeps up with it, which let's face it, she is 5 so who knows what she will keep up with, she cannot cheer for school.  She can only cheer for the cheer academy.  No butt shaking for boys in this house allowed!

JW became ALL BOY.  He decided that the Crayola Colorwonder Glow Dome top made a perfect robot hat.  And for days it was just that.

One of many daily disasters in this house.  I think my day is summed up by one huge mess to clean up accompanied by many smaller messes.  I have finally gotten to the point where video taping or taking pics happens BEFORE cleanup.  These kids need to know later what they put their poor mom through.  This particular day was baby powder and it was everywhere, especially on Micah. She cried because she knew she was caught and I was especially livid.

Loving This Age

As Jordan has grown up, my mom always toldme if I could get to the age of 5 or 6, then things would turn around.  She was a very difficult toddler.   That would be putting it lightly.  But like  most things I have learned with age, is that mom is usually right.  Just a little conversation I had with Jordan today:

Background noise is the babies fighting.  (What's new?)
Jordan:  Mom, the babies need a new heart.
Me:  They do?  Why is that?
Jordan:  Because they fight all the time and are mean to eachother.  They have black hearts and need new ones.
Me:  Well, while that is true I have news for you.  Even when God gives us new hearts, we still sin.  That is the way things go for people.  But if God gives us a new heart, it means that he lives in us and we can ask him to help us be better people. 
Jordan:  Yeah mom.  They need God to rip out their black hearts and put new ones in.

I love that she is learning so much about how God and how he works in our lives.  Thank you God, for your covenant promises, for your Son who died in order that we might have new hearts, and for working in my children's hearts even when I am not.

PSA for the day

Unattended children and paint do not mix.

Oy, JW

I forgot to tell you on the video post that the same day, a Saturday, I was on my way to Mayfest in Columbia County so dear, dear Micah could watch ballet.  She is pretty hell bent on becoming a ballerina.  So as soon as I get off the highway and onto Riverwatch, Scott calls.

Scott:  "Your boy just emptied all your paints on the kitchen floor."
Me: very calmly, offering to come home, "Okay, well, what do you want me to do?  Do I need to come home?"
I am thinking "Welcome to my life."  I just had a paint disaster an hour before that.  Every day consists on one big JW disaster with little ones thrown in along the way. 
Scott: not so calm resplies "I gotta go clean this up." Then he hung up on me.  I went on to mayfest and he cleaned and took the other two to a park, where they crashed a sweet little girl's tea party.  Scott tells me that the girl's mom said the girl made out invitations at school, complete with an RSVP.  So it wasn't exactly planned by her.

Okay, back to the paint.  From what Scott says JW was in an ocean of fun ACRYLIC paint which went all over the floor, fridge, cabinets, countertops, dishwaster, and stove.  Isn't he so sweet to leave a mess for daddy to clean up?

Boys!

I love mine, and beyond all resonable explaination, I want another.  That is, if this one doesn't tear the house apart piece by piece first.
For your viewing pleasure I somehow got it pasted twice.  Okay, this is a video from Saturday.  It was two days after JW took Jordan's fish out of her tank and manhandled it to death.  Not in a sociopathic way, but in the same way boys like lizards, or bugs, or whatever their fascination is.  His is fish.  I have no doubt that he is the reason some in our big family tank haven't been seen in quite a while.  So this was Saturday.  Moms of all boys, I admire you.

August

August, 2011 that is. 
And now I am reminded even more of my slackness.  This catching up thing is going to be hard work.

The girls discovered the joys of dressing alike.  And Micah finally began to grow hair.

There was a family birthday. Doesn't my little sis look like she has fire coming out of her eyes?  Well, sometimes we belive she just might. 

 It was a luau, if that isn't obvious enough.

 Since then I have figured out how to tone down the orange in Jordan's skin tone.

Jordan conqured her fear of water, finally.  It only took a couple years.  JW, on the other hand, only went in the pool when he fell.  Luckily he was wearing a polo style shirt and I was able to grab his collar on his way to the depths of the water.  Oh I did it one handed because Micah was simultaneously playing the "Catch me mom!" game and jumping off the side.  I was proud of my "save" haha! He is still scared of the water, but did not cry.

Jordan started Kindergarten :(  It is so sad to have a girl going to big girl school now.

Micah's love of eating toothpaste began.

Jordan posed.  Isn't she pretty?

She also collected a rather large set of smurfs from Happy Meals.  In her smurf world, they live in shoes and sleep in socks.

 

I think that about sums it up.  August was a fury of a month.