A toy and T.V. free day!

I'm sure my kids think I have completely lost it! This morning as I was on the computer checkin things out the kids decided to come in the office(were they no they aren't allowed) and get into things they shouldn't(paint,patterns,books, files boxes just to name a few) while I was distracted by the computer. I came unglued, I probably could have handle it better but, I didn't, I yelled (which I don't normally do) and got myself all worked up, after I made them clean up there messes they sat in time out for a little bit. While they were in time out I kept thinking to myself "Why is it that they have a ton of toys to play with but they would rather get into things they shouldn't,things that they know are off limits?" Not only do they treat the things they know they shouldn't even be touching badly they seem to do it with everything even there toys, those toys are just thrown off to the side broken and disregarded. So I made a decision(a very unpopular decision), to lock up all of the kids toys and on top of that no T.V.!! They whined and cried and made my decision even more final.

Some of you may be thinking "why did she ban T.V. ?" because after a few tears and tantrums they were over loosing their toys and they started to beg me to put a movie in for them. This made me kinda sad, cause as much as I really don't like admitting it I use the t.v. to entertain my kids so I don't have to! I know that's really bad, but I think that all of us do it to some degree it's so easy to pop in one of there favorite movies to keep them out of the way while I get some work done. Well today as much as I wanted to we had no t.v. all day and ya know it was actually pretty nice, the kids played more with each other and seem to not argue and fight as much and they weren't bugging me every few minutes crying. They even started using their imaginations too, Ryne put her blanket over the top of the fan so that it blew outward and called it her "cave", were she put pillows and blankets and her and Kaleb laid under while Dana read them the first chapter of the first Harry Potter book.I missed that I took Ellie to the Dr. for her 6 month well check.

When I got home from the Dr. office Dana said the kids did really well, and guess what? my house wasn't a complete disaster! So one thing I learned ANGRY MOMMY+NO TOYS=NO MESS I am so pleased about that, and the kids didn't really miss them at all. So I figured wow they may earn their t.v. privilege back.........but they didn't. We had to run some errands I got back from the Dr.'s late enough that we decided that we would get something to eat and then do the rest of our shopping and we figured it would be a special treat because we haven't been eating out hardly at all since Dana and I started loosing weight. So we go to IN-N-OUT Burger, and the kids are running wild, Dana's chasing them while I am trying to order. While Dana was waiting for our order I took the kids to pick out a seat, figuring it will keep them from running all over, boy was I wrong!! It took all I had not to walk out leaving my hubby and our food! Poor Ellie was in the car seat screaming while I was chasing around the other 2 kids.Marryne is usually so good and today she was out of control. I finally put my foot down, I found a high chair and buckled Kaleb in so he couldn't go anywhere and then I told Marryne that if she wanted to watch t.v. or have her toys back she better behave and listen, wow that worked like a charm! After dinner we ran over to Wal-Mart to get some essentials, and boy oh boy those kids were horrible! Marryne was running all over the place in front of peoples carts, then she was trying to push the cart for me but really she was dragging her feet making it difficult for me, while Marryne was doing all of this Kaleb was screaming to get out of the cart and then he figured out how to climb out(he was in the main basket), so then I get another basket so I can strap him down cause that seems to be the only thing that works for him and of course he screamed and whined about it. Luckily for us Ellie was so tired that she went to sleep. After we finally paid for everything and were on our way out to the car, I told my kids that they didn't earn their T.V. or toys for tomorrow, they were both upset but ya know if that's what it takes to get them to respect not only their toys but us as parents than that's what it takes. WHEW!!I am tired just from writing about it!

On the bright side ever since we got home the kids have been angels! As convenient as it is to let the T.V. and toys entertain my children I will opt out on this one. I would rather them play together and use their imaginations then to sit in front of a T.V., they enjoy themselves more and they enjoy me more because I am not the "mean mommy" any more, We play and learn together with just our brains and bodies to guide us and it is so much fun. So I encourage you to turn off the T.V. and play with your kids.

Rut free day!

All the kids slept in this morning!! Go figure when I finally decided that I am going to get up when they do, they sleep in and so did I. We all got up at 9, but we went right to work, while the kids ate breakfast I got the laundry started, the kids started doing their chores without me even asking!! By noon we were done at least with cleaning the house, laundry is still going, the kids had lunch at 2 cause they had a late breakfast, and then Kaleb fell asleep. Dana took Marryne with him to return some movies, and Ellie is asleep the house is very quiet and clean!=) Now I can relax a little, I do need to fold laundry, but other than that I am doin good. It's amazing how when ya actually start applying yourself to things ya actually start to feel better and more energized. Even though my cold isn't gone yet and I still feel kinda crappy, I feel a lot better now that I have caught up on things.

A couple of weeks ago a hair blog that I follow had a hair bow giveaway and we won some of the most adorable hair bows ever, we got them in the mail today Marryne was so excited she told me that now she needs a new outfit to go with the bows and she wants to wear them on her 1st day of school. I decided that I could use another project to keep me busy and to keep me out of my rut, so tomorrow Marryne and I are going to go through my patterns and fabric and see what outfits we can make for school!! She is very excited and so am I plus I am sure that we will make more bows to go with the outfits, Marryne says "everything needs to match, that's just how it is mom!" so we will do our best. I will post pictures of all of our creations!!Oh yea and if ya want to see the cute hair bows we won go to my hair blog GoldyLocksandher2Girls.

In a rut =P

I have been in such a rut these past few days and it is driving me crazy! Have you ever felt that way you know you are in a rut, ya kinda know why but for some reason ya can't seem to pull yourself out of it? Well that is how I am feeling right now. I'm pretty sure the cause of my rut is mainly these 2 things 1) I am sick and feel like crap, I have no voice there for I can't really talk to anyone at the moment, and 2) it's so darn hot!!!!Me and the kids are stuck in the house which gets boring after awhile, there's only so much you can do in the house. The kids are dying to get out and be active and I am too I am not one to sit at home and twiddle my thumbs. It also doesn't help that I have been going to bed ridiculously late(12 or 1 a.m.) and waking up late(9a.m.) despite the fact that all 3 kids are up by early (6 or 7a.m.). I'm sure some of you ask what are my kids doing while I am still sleeping!? Well Marryne is really the only on that can actually get up and come out of her room, we keep Kaleb's door locked from the outside so that he doesn't get into trouble and Ellie of course just hangs out in her crib and plays or go's back to sleep until I get her up. I'm not saying I am proud of this, in fact I'm not and that's why I bring it up maybe if it's out there then I will be more motivated to get to bed early and get my butt out of bed early!!

There have been so many things I have been wanting to do with my kids this summer, and today as I was taking a bath I realized that summer is almost over Ryne starts school on the 18th of August! And I haven't hardly done anything fun with them or at least the things that I have wanted to do. So I decided that I am not going to waste any more time sleeping in or staying up late, for the next few weeks I am going to have some fun stuff planned!!Plus I think it will help me too, I really hate waking up so late in the morning I feel like half my day has been wasted and then I don't have the motivation to do anything, so I know by actually planning things out and getting excited about them I will actually do them, and hopefully I will pull myself out of this rut!=)

Pioneer Day

Yesterday was Pioneer day and we didn't really celebrate it because we weren't feeling very good, plus today was the Pioneer Primary activity day(wow say that 3 x's fast!)so we decided to just do some fun stuff today. For those who may be ask "What is this pioneer day she is speaking of?" the answer is on July 24th 1847 the first group of LDS(mormon)Pioneers entered the Valley of the Great Salt Lake,they left Navoo Illinios and traveled west, they left for the first part of their on February 4th. 1846 they journed was Iowa to the Missouri river ,they covered around 265 miles. On April 5th,1847 they began the second part of their journey from the Missouri River to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake it covered about 1,032 miles they traveled by wagons and handcarts. That's just a little bit of the history if you want to know more go towww.mormon.org. So to celebrate the pioneers and their great journey we decided to make homemade bread and butter. We had a ton of fun!!We sang songs and learned about the pioneers and their faith and srength in our Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ.

Ellie even helped, Marryne said "momma look at this baby she is makin butta!"

The kids loved playing hot potato with the jar of cream!
After all that shakin and dancin around we have butter.
Marryne kneaded the bread dough all by herself. She did a really great job.
Here are the mini loafs of bread and homemade butter!

A little R&R and some wiggling too!

So far this has been a pretty relaxing morning. Dana took Ryne to her primary activity day at 9 this morning and Kaleb and Ellie slept in till 10!! Which I expected of Ellie considering she was wide wake and giggling till 1 this morning!! Kaleb is running a fever and not feeling so good and neither am I so we popped in a movie and just relaxed while Ellie played on the floor being very vocal. After the movie was over I decided to get on-line and check my facebook while Kaleb got dressed, after a few minutes Kaleb comes in and tells me "baby Ellie is stuck, uh oh come mommy baby Ellie's stuck" So I follow him out to the living room and oh boy is she stuck, I laughed and then ran to grab the camera, meanwhile she was getting pretty mad, but I got a good picture!!=) That's right she wiggled right under the rockin chair, luckily no one was sitting in it and Kaleb was very worried about his baby sister that he got help right away, he was even trying to lift the chair off of her!!After I had a good laugh I pulled her out and she was still happy as could be!

Dog Pile!

Yesterday my older kids were trying to help me get work done by playing with their baby sister and keeping her happy. As I was going from room to room putting away clean clothes and gathering dirty, I could hear all 3 of them laughing and having a good time. I decided to grab my camera and have a peek at the fun. This is what I found DOG PILE on ELLIE!!!

Don't worry they aren't actually squishing her. Ryne created a kind of bridge over Ellie with her body so she isn't actually laying on her. Kaleb thought this looked like fun and decided to jump on the pile. Ya can't really tell but Ellie was having a great time and she was thoroughly entertained!! They played with her all day and tuckered her out.

Awake!
Asleep!!

These pics were taken with in seconds of each other. =)

She slept really good last night in fact she didn't wake up until 10:30 this morning!!

SUPER SICK!

I thought I eluded this sickness that's been going around in my house. I was so wrong!! As I laid in bed and stretched I took (or tried) to take a nice deep cleansing breathe through my nose, only to discover that I was extremely congested making it impossible to breathe through my nose. My daughter came in and was encouraging me to get out of bed by jumping on me and yelling in my ear, I rolled over to face her and tried to speak finding out that I have no voice only a raspy whisper, Marryne thinks this is funny and exclaims in a very cheerful voice "ha, ha, ha, ha you got sick and I gave it to you, now you can't yell at us!!". As I sat up in the bed I was hit with a major and I mean major sinus headache, so bad that I actually got dizzy and had to lay back down.

Instead of being mad I actually think that it is quite funny. Here I was apparently thinking that I was SuperMan thinking that my super powers (even if they are imaginary) would keep me from getting sick, I think I had that I am the parent I am exempt from all sickness's complex!! Anyway come to find out I do not have super powers to keep me from getting sick (although that would be nice). So far Dana is the only one that hasn't gotten sick yet, I'm sure that it's just a matter of time before he does, it's that domino effect he's the last domino standing and it is inevitable he will fall, I just hope it's after I get better cause there's nothing I don't like more than being sick and then having to take care of a sick whiny husband and 3 kids! No offence to those wonderful husbands out there but face it men a babies when they get sick, at least all the men I know!