Happy Birthday Ben E

Well, my baby boy is 2 today. I can't believe how fast time flies. He has gone from cutsie, wootsie, so cutie patootie baby Ben E into a cute, adorable, mischievous toddler Ben in a flash. I'm so grateful for him. I KNEW even when my 3rd child was just barely born I was suppose to have Ben. It took 3 years of sincere prayers and my husband watching Juno to finally soften his heart and agree that we needed our fourth child. Every time my husband says how glad he is that we had Ben, my heart melts and I'm overjoyed with gratitude and appreciation for my Heavenly Father. It's hard to hold back the words and say to my hub "I told you we were suppose to have him..remember!" But I hold my tongue and I just smile. Ben is a true testimony to me that Heavenly Father answers prayers and knows who I am. He knows my needs and desires and I am so grateful to have the knowledge that He has given me......SOOOOO grateful.

We celebrated Ben's birthday last night. Here are some clips of the celebration.

Happy Birthday Ben!

Repeating Piece of Crap

This is going to start out as a "Sunday" Confessional. I Repeat things. And I am hypocritical about it too. Because I totally point it out and roll my eyes and breathe deep when other people do it. (Not in front of their face of course!)
But here I go again repeating myself:
This Week is Mid-Winter Break. One whole week in February for the kids to be out of school. We just had Winter Break. (aka Christmas Vacation, but they don't dare call it that) And in April we will have our Spring Break. Do these kids ever go to school???
Reassuring Note - I love my children, I would do anything in the world for them (as long as it isn't while I'm reading or playing video games heehee jk) I love the time that I spend with them, and I love the time they are at school so I can plan for the times I will spend with them.
BUT..Couldn't we please get rid of this stupid break in February. Give us the Friday and Monday for Presidents Day break and then throw the other days at the end of the school calendar for extra Summer days. There was a school district survey this year asking us parents our opinions on the length of our breaks. I definitely voiced mine!
I'm hoping, if I'm diligent in my faith and prayers of how I want this week to go, (Yes, I said how I want, ) I will be able to accomplish those things I have my sights set on. Such as: Scrapbooking, Laundry, Deep Cleaning, and ACTIVITIES WITH THE CHILDREN...HAPPY, EASY GOING, FUN ACTIVITIES WITH MY WONDERFUL, LOVING, WELL BEHAVED CHILDREN!!

Friday Confessional

Today I confess:

• I lied in bed this morning and hollered at my kids to rotate the laundry
• I also yelled at them to change the baby's diaper
• And I didn't crawl out of bed till 8:00
• Which is enough time to make lunches, sign folders and do hair style on 1st grader
• No Kindergarten on Fridays which gives me 30 extra minutes to lay around
• But not enough time to have family scripture study
• I will be paying for that one......again
• Yes, I said again.
• Friday, Saturdays and Sundays is something I need to work at
• Saturdays are kinda mixed up for me
• When most people are doing Saturday stuff IE: grocery shopping, birthday parties, ward activities, school events, day trips; I hide in my house until Sunday.
• The hub works weekend nights so I tend to avoid taking my children anywhere without his help.
• I've participated in Saturday happenings before.
• It's getting easier as the kids get older
• Saturday events without children......buahahahahahaahahahh.
• Very, very rare because then you need extra dough for babysitter plus the cost of going out.
• And I can never go to adult dinners, ward temple night, or dances to chaperon.
• I like being a bit different from the vast majority of the world.
• But I kinda like our do nothing, hide away from the world, don't let the sun in or I'll evaporate Saturdays.

Don't forget to link up with Glamazon and confess ;D

I got it....oh wait...I lost it

That is It!! I figured it out! I know why my kids don't listen to me. I know why they don't 'get it'.
I can totally understand where I went wrong. (Yes, I'm admitting that I really screwed it up) And I might have time to fix it with child #4, because I figured it out because of him. But I probably won't because I'm .....come on...you know this....I've said it many many times.....I'm LAZY.
Here's what I figure:
When my kids are 16 months old or so until the time they are 3 they are extremely cute and funny. (Well, they are cute and funny at any age depending on the moment) We (my husband and I) laugh at just about all they do including, making messes, spitting milk, throwing food, running away when we call them, dancing on the furniture, burping/farting in public, throwing freshly folded laundry, hitting us and their siblings, taking apart books and photo albums. The list is continuing in my head but I don't want to bore you. Probably too late for that though...oops.
I use to say that God made my kids so cute so I don't kill them. This is about the 4 or 5 year old age. But now I realize I messed it up because I laughed at them when they were 2. Now it is all just a slammin' good time to tear up the house and not listen to word I say. It's what I find amusing....remember....I use to laugh at this stuff...what happened. It is like they are saying, "Wait, Mom isn't laughing...something isn't right, I must not be making a big enough mess or something. Let's make it bigger."
Where was the point that made it go from funny and cute TO can't you guys clean up after yourself??
Did I mess up by not teaching responsibility at the same time I was laughing at their cuteness?
Why am I asking these questions if I 'figured' it all out?
Oh that's right. I haven't! This parenting thing doesn't make sense, I can't figure these kids out, and I just need chug another Diet Dr. Pepper and pretend.......pretend.....um.....pretend that I have it figured out and tomorrow is going to ROCK because of my amazing epiphany. (Did you catch the sarcasm?...because there was none.....really)

Ben E's First Haircut

My baby is almost 2. I knew it was time for a hair cut. Especially when the hairs (not all, just the ones that have been growing for 2 years) were so long it came half way down his back when wet. My friend who cut his hair did a wonderful job making him feel comfortable. But of course there were still tears. No, not mine. I don't cry over stuff like that. (sniffle). He did amazing. And I think she did a great job too. He looks so grown up now. That's the part that makes me sniffle.

Key to my Heart??

Mr. Riggles spent Valentines Day learning how to unlock my heart with out a key. Sounds romantic huh??? Ok, not really...He just spent all day in a class learning to pick lock on some stupid doors. He was all excited to come home and show us his knew "tools" and "skills" of lock picking. He failed at the back door. But the front door he was able to pick quite quickly without quirks. (I just Had too throw in another 'Q' word with that.)

Say Cheese and Thank You

Dear Mom, Thanks for the Valentines! Especially Ben's. It plays the most annoying cutest song ever over and over and over.

Friday Confessional

I can't believe how long it has been since I confessed. Let's just get started shall we.

• I expect everyone in the house to take care of their shoes...except for me.
• It's ok if I leave mine out because I always need them on more often and more in a hurry.
• I dropped the F Bomb at my children this week.
• I would love to blame Aunt Flo or Satan but honestly I had a choice, I thought about it for a millimeter of a second and I said it anyway.
• The little Kindergartner Whiny Pants sitting next to me right now is going to get her a** kicked.
• She throws fits and whines over the stupidest thing.
• Can't get her to help or contribute to anything.
• Earlier post claimed I was putting her up for adoption
• This is still a BIG possibility
• But I might be leaning more toward Foster Care
• She might just find a more "fitting" family that way.
• Or a Kennel???Hmmmm?
• Maybe I should be put in a Kennel
• Maybe I should quit typing and hug her?
• Maybe I should hug her and then make her take a nap?
• Maybe I should take a nap with her?

Valentines Day vs Economy

Yikes!
What in the hell just happened? I go to Target to pick up diapers and Valentines and walk out wondering how I just spent 70$ on all this crap. Which isn't a lot of crap. Ok it doesn't help to pick up one or two more items that was not on my list.. but.. cheapy paper plates couldn't make that big of a difference in the total cost of the trip right?!?

Here's what I got:

• 3 sets of paper Valentines for the 3 kids in school. (Thank you to my baby's Mama (lady I babysit for) for rubbing it in that her three oldest are now in Junior High and she doesn't have to buy Valentines for classes of 25 and make Valentines boxes)
• 3 sets of 24 count dinky erasers to hand out with their valentines. (No candy as requested by one of their teachers for their Heart Healthy celebration)
• 3 PEZ dispensers to give as a Valentine to children from Me
• 1 bag of Giant candy hearts
• 1 package of Reesus Peanut Butter Hearts for MY VALENTINE
• 1 small car toy for my littlest Valentine
• 3 sets of stickers to decorate their Valentine boxes.
• 1 package size 4 Huggies diapers
• 1 pack of cheapy small sized paper plates
• 1 box of swifter wet jet cleaning pads

All of this for a grand total of $63.92.

Am I being a cheap, anal, nut case? Or does this seem like a waste of money? I just see it as another sign that I need to be more on the ball with my food storage because prices of items (especially food if you haven't noticed) are going up higher each day. And I'm pretty sure that prices will not be dropping for a LOOOONNNNGGG time. This is the last Valentines Day 60$ blowout I will ever do. My children will be making handmade Valentines out of Christmas paper if they have too next year. And if I have no pink paper to wrap a box for them they can use brown, grocery bag paper. Ok this probably won't happen because it all goes back to what I claim in just about every post...

I'M LAZY!!!!!!

So I will buy the all ready made Wizards of Waverly place, Tinkerbell, Batman valentines. I will buy the candy or erasers. I will buy the stickers, paper, and doilies to make cute boxes. And I will whine about it all over again next year too.

A Post for My Mom

Well, as you can see I have posted a whole lot of nothing lately. Maybe its cause a whole lotta nothing is going on here. Like a said before, I blame it on not having a camera. But I guess after I get a camera that can't be an excuse anymore. Therefore, I have promised my mom that I would post at least once a week. (Mom, this means you might have to call and assign me a topic to post about.) Oh I guess I should write it like this (I know she is going deaf but maybe her eye sight is failing too) I will write it big for her. (MOM, THIS MEANS YOU MIGHT HAVE TO CALL AND ASSIGN ME A TOPIC TO POST ABOUT.)

Heres a couple of things with the phone camera.

Ben E has been introduced, by me, oops, to :

So we spend quite a bit of time with Jeff, Murray, Greg and my favorite, Anthony.
Garrett loved the Wiggles when he was a toddler. My mom sent him movie and fortunately it still runs without fail. But because you can only watch a certain amount of the same movie before you go completely loony, and On Demand doesn't update their selections enough, I borrowed a couple of DVD's from the library. Ben E doesn't talk much. But when he needs something he converses with us usually with some sort of sign language. This is what he does when it's Wiggle time.

Another thing that Ben E likes to do is play with cars. It has been about 8 years and I still have these PHAT cars that my mom gave Garrett. Ben LOVES them. You put a little phat car into the big phat car and then push down and the little one pops out and goes zooming across the floor.

As for the rest of the brats kids they are doing good. Garrett really likes playing basketball. He is improving so much. Samantha is still amazing at just about everything she does. Piano, Jazz dance, school. And Aquinna is going to be put up for adoption. So if anyone is interested in a 5 year old kindergartner, who whines, doesn't listen to directions, whines, gets into everything she is not suppose to, whines, and loves Ribs. I'll start the bid low because ribs are expensive.