My toothless wonder

You may remember not too long ago, A,P, & H went to the dentist and we got the news that Pete's front tooth was going to have to come out.

I have really been so upset by this, isn't that silly? Here are a couple of the irrational reasons:

1) I didn't want him to have to go through it. I didn't want it to hurt him or "terrorize" him by scaring him from going to the dentist anymore.

2) I really didn't want my cute little baby faced precious boy to be a "toothless wonder" - I know, so superficial, but, hey, I'm not perfect.

3) I started getting scared by talking with people and hearing how missing teeth can cause speech delays. (I mean you would have thought I should have called my SPEECH PATHOLOGIST sister to find out the true story, but once again - I am not perfect.)

4) I really didn't want to pay for it. Yet again, not a very good reason, but we already have medical bills coming out the wazoo from PREVIOUS injuries - I really hate to add to an already daunting pile.

So I kept putting it off. I made appointments, spoke with the nurses and then canceled the appointment (um, that happened twice - don't you know they just LOVED me). Well, finally the decision was made for me - I happened to look at Pete's tooth and saw the tell-tale puss that I had been told to watch for - infected tooth. It had to come out, funny how God makes a decision for you sometimes, isn't it?

Long story short, my little baby was totally unphased by the whole procedure. The dentist (very nicely) told me that I was overreacting, my sister assured me that the chance of speech delays from 1 loose tooth is pretty minimal, my kid got nitrous oxide gased up, his mommy held his hand - and he lost his front tooth.

Say hello to our little toothless wonder . . .don't tell anyone, but I think he might even be cuter now! :)

Happy Halloween!!

It's a bird, it's a plane . . . it's our little superheros!!!









Avery, Pete, and Hailey flew around in their Halloween superhero costumes and were just as cute as they could be! My mom and I spent alot of time perfecting my creation and I couldn't have been happier with how the costumes turned out. I wanted something that would not only be great for Halloween but also great for dress up time throughout the year. Thank you Mom for all your help!








Our trick or treating experience started out a bit tense as BOTH of our cameras were out of batteries. I FLEW (yes, pun intended) to our neighbors who graciously let me borrow their camera. Thank goodness! At every moment, someone had some piece of their costume off, but we all still had fun walking around and seeing our neighbors.




Our fabulous neighbor Russ also surprised the kiddos with a "Halloween Hunt". He put treat filled black and orange eggs in our yard, gave the kids flashlights and the hunt began! They LOVED it, and I think that might have to become a yearly tradition! A few of our neighbors had special treat bags for our kiddos, they are truly loved and well taken care of around here!!!

Country time

We spent another enjoyable weekend in the country at my parent's place. I had so many pictures that truly captured the essence of our family's happiness while we were there.


One of our early morning playtimes! Love the light in these pictures and that it is completely natural,straight out of the camera shots!

Last time there were only two rocking chairs, but lo and behold, Nana and Papa decided to get another one. Imagine that . . .



After looking up what kind of bugs these were we found out they were mayflies (never heard of them - Daddy Pete actually gets the award for knowing that piece of bug trivia). The kiddos created a game of gathering as many mayflies as they could and creating little collections. Poor bugs.

Beautiful foggy morning sunrise - the weather was fantastic.


Papa walking the kiddos to the pier for a fishing lesson.

Pete's first fish! It was amazing - we dropped the lure and bait in the water and it got grabbed immediately! Talk about the right kind of fishing for 2.5 year olds!


Avery's first fish! Her's took a little longer than Pete's but still successful!

Now does this show little Miss A's personality or what. I have about 20 shots of her prancing around with her fishing pole. Such a ham!

We went into town because they were offering horse and carriage rides and we thought the kids would love it. I guess they loved it, they just kinda sat there in awe. I guess they were thinking "Why are we in a car behind a horse?" :)

First Dentist Visit

I have been putting it off and putting it off because I could envision our first dental visit: screaming, crying, yelling and otherwise plain mayhem!



Was I ever wrong! I had prepped our visit very carefully explaining what was going to happen and talking about how fun it was going to be. Our dentist even had take home books that I picked up before hand to read with the kiddos. Needless to say, they were pumped (as pumped as 2 year olds and 1 year olds can be!)



To my amazement everyone did a really great job getting their teeth looked at and cleaned. Hailey was our only screamer, but I don't think she really "got" what was going on. It helped that every single person we passed commented on how super cute the kiddos are (I mean who doesn't like compliments).





Lil Pete even had to get X-rays, which I thought "Oh here it comes", but he did fantastic! But with the X-rays came the bad news: Pete's front tooth needs to come out. About a year ago, Pete pulled a cabinet down on top of himself, loosening that tooth. Well, it re-attached, but now there is an abscess behind it meaning that we will have a toothless wonder on our hands very soon. He is going to have a little bridge with a fake tooth put on to keep the space. And guess what - insurance doesn't cover it (surprise, surprise!) I'm going to try to fight it, but you don't EVEN want to know how much this is going to cost! ugghh!!

EVERYONE goes to school!!

That is right . . . all 3 kiddos are in preschool this year! I felt a little skip in my step as I prepared everyone to go to school the first day (which preparing 3 children is a monumental task!!!)

I found a preschool that I really like at a church that is fairly near to us. It is amazing the difference between a liscensed preschool and a MDO. I get all kinds of reports, notes, artwork, feedback! The kids really do terrific projects and are thriving! They go to school two days a week, for 4 hours each day.

Avery and Pete are experienced pros at this whole school thing. They happily give me a kiss and skip along on their way. Now Hailey, she's a little more attached to her mommy. She has a bit of a tough time watching me leave, but as soon as I'm out the door she calms down. I drop Hailey off first, so after dropping off A & P, I can swing back by Hailey's room to make sure she has calmed down - which she always has.


I guess Avery equates Hailey being around with MOMMA being around. The first day that Avery and Hailey passed in the hall it seems Avery just lost it. She was screaming for her "MOMMMY!!!". I guess she saw Hailey and thought I must be somewhere around hiding from her! But, the funny thing is once I talked to Avery about how I would always come back for her, it just "clicked". We haven't had the passing in the hall problem since. Every once in awhile Avery will ask me, "Momma, you always come back for me???" and I say "Yes baby . . .always and forever!" And then Avery happily skips off singing "Always and forever, always and forever".

Have I mentioned that kids are precious???

Lil Pete's Jungle

When we moved into our new house, Pete was moved to his own room. He got to keep the old nursery decor since he loves animals so much! I didn't change a whole lot in his room, but he still seems to love it! Sometimes when is getting sleepy and we are laying down in his room he will point out some random animal and smile.

Avery and Hailey's room

This summer I worked on fixing up rooms in our house that I hadn't quite finished over the past (almost) 2 years since we have lived here. (In a distant post you will also understand my other motivation for fixing up the house, such a teaser, right?)

I love having little girls. I love dressing them in pink and putting bows in their hair. So little by little I created a pink flower explosion in their room! My first big task, almost a year ago was to paint the flowers on the wall. I keep saying that I NOW know how to do it, and would re-do it all differently now. But the girls love them and that is enough to make me happy!


I had these letters just painted in one with little pink dots embellishments on the wall originally. After getting inspired I took them down and did a "redo" with all materials that I already had. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how they turned out! Now if only I could keep Hailey from ripping them off the wall . . .



We also made them photo boards with coordinating fabric and the kiddos actually love to look at the pics.



I really love this room - it makes me happy every time I walk in!! I'm so thankful for my girls!

Summer 2010 - Avery and Pete's adventures

Ah - once again, Summer 2010, how glad I am that you are over.

Now Avery and Pete didn't have any emergency room visits (Thank God) but they did have a lot of free time since preschool does not run through the summer. At the beginning of the summer I went and bought all kinds of activities, paints, learning manipulatives, ect. to keep us busy. Let's just say by August I think we were all ready to pull our hair out. The kids were tired of being around me, we were all tired of being around each other - non stop, everyday.




About the end of July, the kids and I were at our weekly story time when we ran into twins from their mother's day out. Jack and Hagan had been in their class and their mommy Sarah is so nice! Plus, she has twins + 1, so if anyone understands what I'm dealing with everyday, it is her. Isn't is amazing how God gives you exactly what you need when you need it? So, Sarah and I started having play dates and meeting up at Chick-Fil-A to break the monotony of the week, and boy, did it help! If you can believe it us two mommies took our 6 kids to Chick-Fil-A every Weds! (I still have a hard time believing it myself!!)




Avery completely quit taking naps this summer which I believe was why things were a little rough. Not only did I not get a break, but she was exhausted all the time. Nights have been tough too, but I think they are getting a little better. We even tried slumber parties with her and Pete, but that only seems to complicate matters and creates a whole new set of issues!



I'm going to start with this statement: Swim diapers are VERY expensive. So, this summer if they were playing with the hose or the baby pools at home then we didn't diaper them and just let them run free as little jaybirds. Um, I guess once they hit two this kinda becomes a problem, because we had quite a few discussions about "body parts". Sounds funny right? Yeah, it was at first . . . :)

We have had alot of great things this summer too. A & P are talking up a STORM and completely carrying on conversations. This summer they seemed to turn from toddlers to big kids! This age is great because you can reason with them and they are beginning to understand consequences, ect.

But once again, I will reiterate: I am glad that summer is over!! :)

Summer 2010 - Hailey's adventures

Ah, Summer 2010 - how do I describe you?

I tried to make a list of everything I wanted to blog and journal about but I never seem to have time to blog anymore. My list just kept getting longer and longer. I love writing and keeping track of everything on this blog, but I'm afraid that as my kids become more active my days of keeping track of EVERYTHING are few and far between. So here goes with a brief synopsis of some of the big events this summer.

My sweet little baby Hailey has become the most accident prone, monkey climbing, daredevil leaping 18 month old I've ever seen. In the span of 2 weeks we had 2 emergency room visits, along with pedi visit's. Yes, that's right: pass the "Mom of the Year" award right on by me.


So first visit: Hailey, this summer, discovered that chairs were fun to climb on. So as she was climbing, she fell and hit the corner of the chair (right in that spot that 95% of children hit-above the eyebrow) and it busted it right open. Well, she screamed, and screamed and screamed. You would think a screaming child in the emergency room woud get you in faster, dang that whole triage thing. After a very harried day, I was one frazzled mommy so I decided to go on to Bible study. When I came home, Pete said, "You are not going to believe what happened!" (Always what you want to hear when you walk in the door.) It seems Hailey had tripped, and fallen, and hit the wall right in the same exact spot and RE-OPENED the cut. So, the next day, I took all of the kids to the pedi's office, to try to get it fixed. And guess what, sitting in my lap, she reared her head back and hit the corner of the cabinet . . . IN THE SAME SPOT, RE-OPENING IT ONCE MORE. Nonetheless, when the doctor came back in, not only was Hailey crying but so was this Momma. I tried to find the humor in the situation later. Some day when Hailey is irratated by that little scar above her eye, I will gently remind her that she did EVERYTHING in her power to get that scar, so she better embrace it, because she worked HARD for it.

Second visit: As I was making grilled cheese for lunch, the kiddos were happily watching TV in the living, ALL OF THEM, sitting there watching TV. I'd just put the sandwiches on the griddle, and turned to walked less than a foot to get the spatula. In that short, short time period, Miss Hailey had walked behind me through our dining room and pulled the griddle down on top of her. People, I don't know how it missed her face - I just kept telling everyone it was truly by the grace of God.

It of course DID hit her arm and gave her a second degree burn. Now, if you think she was screaming with the cut forehead, it was nothing compared to the burn. I have harbored alot of guilt about this incident, and am still trying to get over it. I really won't even get the griddle out anymore unless someone is home with me. She's fine, and really it's amazing how the human body can heal. I've been pretty diligent about putting cream on it, and yesterday I had to search both arms to try and find the reminants of the burn.

On another note, this 18 month old is just about the cutest little thing I've ever seen. Even with all our mishaps this summer she is doing so well. She is singing and dancing up a storm. LOVES her brother and sister and wants to always be around them. LOVES talking on the phone and famously says "HI DADA" no matter who she is talking to. LOVES to walk around with a purse and a tutu while prancing and singing.

So really all of these tough experiences are just a drop in the bucket to all her wonderful-ness!!

The fish, the sushi, and the rookie parent mistake

After Avery completed her potty training chart her treat was being able to pick out a real live fish that she gets to keep in her room. She was so excited and we had really been working it up (more to try to get Pete motivated!!)

We spent a very crazy few minutes with three totally excited kids in PetSmart. Avery picked out her "pink" beta fish (that was 14.99), that we promptly returned for a more reasonably priced red beta fish. Who knew they had 14.99 beta fish, ah well, live and learn - ask for the cheap fish before showing them to your kids.

Anyway, Avery was on cloud nine, happy as could be! I was so dang excited to be out of the house after days of potty training misery, I made the rookie parent mistake of thinking that since she completed her potty training chart, then she of course was ready to go to a restaurant. Yes, I believe you know what is coming . . .

My favorite sushi place was right around the corner andI thought "Oh, we'll hurry - she just went potty before we left!" No problem, right???

We had just ordered the kids some chicken nuggets when Daddy Pete very quickly lifted Avery up off the seat as she was having an accident all over it. I swooped her up, but the damage had been done.

So, in this video Avery explains what happened at the restaurant and also gave us another surprise: the name of her fish. I was laughing so hard when she told us, that I could barely keep the camera steady. That kid sure has an imagination on her, not really sure where or why she came up with this particular name . . .

What is your fish's name? from c s on Vimeo.