Mullet Girl

You know Paige's hair is bad when Cody starts giving me hair advice for her. His solution is of course to just shave it all off. I haven't been feeling very well lately and the last thing I want to do is Paige's hair. I did her hair on Wed., the day before Thanksgiving and haven't done it since.

After 3 1/2 days I finally pulled out the pig tail. For the last couple of days I haven't done a thing to it. It is so funny because she has such a mullet. I can't decide if I should cut some bangs or just try to comb it to the side. Cutting bangs might dredge up some bad childhood memories for me. When I comb it to the side it never stays. For now, we are just happy to make it through the day without getting on Santa's naughty list. I don't think not having your hair done disqualifies you from his nice list, does it?

Busy, Busy, Busy

We have been so busy lately that I just haven't had time to sit down and update my blog. I have been busy making quilts and capes for my kids for Christmas. On top of that we are finishing our basement. That seems to take any spare time we have and progress is moving quite slowly because we have no spare time.

I think I have hit a new low in my life when perfataping my basement is a reprieve for me. I feel really lucky if I get to go down and work on it for an hour after Cody gets home from work. Cody's parents came up to help us with it, however Cody got sick and wasn't much help. I tried to help but between feeding Brock and attending to some of the other needs of my kids I didn't get much done.

I still have my frustrating days with Ty, but we are starting to be able to rationalize with him. It is nice that he understands consequences and sometimes makes choices based on what the consequence will be. However, Paige is another story. Her favorite thing lately is to take her pants and diaper off. She has also decided that she no longer needs naps.

The other day I put her down for a nap. After about 1 hour she was banging on her door. I decided to give her some milk and put her back down. When I opened the door it smelled really bad of poop. I looked at her and she had no pants or diaper on. She was covered in poop. It was all over her clothes and in a chair that she tried to sit in. I was a bit frustrated. I put her in the bath and cleaned up the poop. I then put her down for her nap, but she never did take one.

Brock is practicing sitting up. I can't believe how big he is getting. He is having a really hard time sleeping. He has a hard time sleeping in the day and staying asleep at night. I have let the poor child cry a lot lately. I feel like he needs to learn for himself how to fall asleep and stay asleep. He has been getting up at 4:00 a.m. and not wanting to go back to sleep.

Last night I decided I was just going to let him cry it out. He started out by waking up around 11:30 p.m. I went and put his binky in his mouth and he slept for another hour. When he awoke at 12:30 a.m. I just shut the doors so his crying wouldn't bother me as much. He cried off and on until 6:20 a.m. I was awake most of the night worried about letting him cry. Finally at 6:20 I decided to feed him. He ate for about 5 minutes and then fell asleep for hours. By the time I finished feeding Brock, Ty was up and going and wasn't about to let me go back to bed. Hopefully tonight goes better. I really need some sleep.

I never thought I could spend my days so busy and be so exhausted by night and get so little done. I sure love my kiddos!!! I received an email from an old co-worker this week and it was a good reminder that there was a day when I actually got a lot done in an 8-hour period of time. However, I realize the things I accomplished then weren't near as important as what I am working for now!

Halloween 2008

We had a GREAT Halloween. We had Grandma and Grandpa Stevens as well as Scott, Becky and their family over for dinner and then trick or treating. Scott got a little more than he bargained for because we just happened to be drywalling our basement the next day. We had the drywall delivered and it was in our garage. So, Scott, Cody and Dad all took drywall to the basement through the window while we went trick or treating.

We also had dinner before we went. It was really fun. The best part was the witch's brew we made with rootbeer and dry ice. Grandma Stevens got the best compliment of the night. Someone told her she had the best mom costume.

Paige really got into trick or treating. She was holding Grandma's hand and it only took her a few times to realize that she would get candy if she went up to the door. She wasn't about to let Grandma take her bucket of candy. She would squish her way up there so she wasn't forgotten.

Spiderman

Flower

Teddy Bear

Pumpkin Carving

There are two schools of thought about pumpkin carving at our house. Cody thinks it just isn't pumpkin carving if you use a stencil. I, on the other hand, never really enjoyed pumpkin carving until I found stencils and a pumpkin carving kit.

With that in mind, Cody had carved two pumpkins before I had poked one eye with the poker. Actually he had carved Ty's whole pumpkin before I even got my stencil taped on. Cody carves as fast as he can and I take my time to make a good looking pumpkin. With that information can you tell which pumpkins Cody carved and which I carved?

Paige was not lucky enough this year to be a large part of pumpkin carving. She basically walked around and dispersed Cody's wallet, keys, glasses, name badge and watch throughout the house. She was a bit disappointed and I think she was just getting back at Cody.

You may wonder why Ty and Paige have no clothes on. Pretty much, I am wondering the same thing. We went to a Halloween party today and I wouldn't let them where their costumes all day and then I just didn't put any clothes on them.

First Snow

We woke up this morning with at least 6 inches of snow at our house. The kids were really excited. Ty couldn't wait to go out and build a snowman.

It was a chore getting both Ty and Paige ready to go build a snowman. A few months ago we went to the DI and found some snow boots for Ty. We were really excited. When we went to put them on him today we realized that they were both right foot snow boots. It is a good thing they are a bit big so he can still wear them on his left foot.

Paige came out with us but cried the whole time. I just let her cry since that is how she spends at least half of her waking hours. I have been wondering lately is there is something such as a colicky toddler. If not I think they should do a study on Paige to see if it is possible. Needless to say, she did not like the snow and was not about to help with the snowman.

I made Paige stay out with us until we finished our snowman so we could get a picture of her with it. After the snowman Ty and I made snow angels and had a snowball fight. I won the snowball fight. We had a really good time. I had to bribe him with marshmallows to come inside. It was a GREAT morning to have the first snow.

Brock's First Solid Foods

Brock will turn 4 months old in a few days. This week we started giving him solid (well as solid as you can call runny rice cereal) foods. He wasn't a huge fan of rice cereal, but he will get the hang of it. I can't believe we are already starting solid foods. Now if I could just get him to sleep until 6:30 or 7:00 a.m. consistently.

Chaos at Our House

We had a bit of chaos at our house yesterday. It was my turn to do preschool for six 3-year olds. I actually survived. The boys with really good kids. We talked about dinosaurs and made dinosaur puppets and dinosaur bones necklaces. I think the boys had a good time.

Ty was really good for me. He was really good at participating with what we were doing. My saving grace for the day was that Grandma Frederickson came up to help me. It was so nice to have her there to help with Paige and keep the kids in line. We are so lucky to have her!