The Park

The past few days have been pretty good. I'm battling a cold/sinus infection which just seems to linger longer when I'm pregnant, but hopefully I'll be able to kick it soon. We still had a pretty fun weekend despite not feeling good...thanks to Tylenol. :)Tragon usually pulls this face whenever the camera comes out. It makes me laugh.
He wants so much to be big boy. His latest antics include pulling out the kitchen chairs, which he can now climb on himself and then climbing on to the table to dance a little jig. It's cute, but when I try to get him he runs around and we've almost had a couple falls, but so far been able to avoid that. It's most annoying when I'm trying to get dinner ready and can't get to him really quick if my hands are messy.
On Saturday we took the kids to the park for a picnic. Mostly to get out of the house because we're sealing our driveway and it was messy and then boys wanted to be outside too. We found this little park not too far from our house and it's usually not too crowded and the boys love it. Tragon loves to try and climb up the slides after his brothers.
Those three boys sure keep me busy and on my toes, even at the park. I don't have to worry about Logan and Damon so much, but man, that Tragon, he sure loves to run around and get in to everything.
He's such a cutey and getting so big I can hardly stand it.
Damon and Logan called this one the train slide because they would go down together like a train.
Logan has a fascination with the camera and loves taking pictures. I think he was in the process of saying please can I have the camera now?
Damon is a lot more brave with his climbing and can do most of the ladders on his own.
This is Logan's silly face that he pulls all the time.
And of course Damon has to copy it. :)
Umm..trying to eat here. :) Actually the boys did pretty good to eat first and then play.
I sure love my family and spending time with them like this. The weather has been gorgeous and I wish that the Fall air would stay longer before it got too cold. We're just trying to enjoy it while it lasts. Hopefully next weekend we'll get to do something fun too with it being Conference Weekend. Until next time....

Ultrasound for Baby #4

We had our ultrasound today for the upcoming baby, but before we went in we asked Logan if he wanted a sister or another brother. He said, "a sister because I can take care of her all by myself and feed her and take her to the vet when she's sick" we got a kick out of that.

Damon said, "I don't want anything"

Tragon said, "uh-oh" (His only words right now are uh-oh, cracker, and woof, so I think he picked the best of the three since he will be the one that has to share a room now)

However, they are going to end up with another brother because it's a BOY! :) And really we couldn't be happier. It works out to have another boy first so that they each have their bedroom buddy to share a room with and someone close in age to play with.

I guess we're not done after this though, I still think there is a girl up there, but she just knew life would be a little less complicated for us if she came after her brother. :)

Now I can hardly wait until February!

Ouch!

It finally happened. Living near a new construction site has it's ups and downs, today we experienced a down. There is a pretty big piece of wood out by the side of our house and it had some rusty nails in it. I turned the board over because I couldn't move it on my own, but I kept telling myself that we needed to get rid of it because the kids like to play on it. I usually make sure it's turned over, but this morning I didn't check. It didn't look like it had been tampered with, but it had and lo and behold Damon stepped on a rusty nail that went right through his shoe and into his foot. I knew as soon as I heard the scream what had happened. I ran over, I don't think it went in too deep because he already had his foot off it and there was less than a centimeter sticking out from his shoe that was still stuck. It's probably a good thing that it was his shoes that he could slip out of so he didn't have to sit there with a stuck nail in his foot. Anyway, we got it all cleaned up and there was crying a drama and apparently he doesn't like others besides mommy to witness his pain. Our neighbor was over playing and my friend had just shown up for our Friday morning walk and he screamed at them to all get away. He's fine now and luckily his immunizations are up to date and that included tetanus. He has his 3 year checkup next week so they told me to just keep an eye on it for any signs of infection. Poor kid, he's been a trooper though.

Damon is 3!

My sweet Damon turned 3 today. I can't believe it. I think he's officially potty trained. I haven't reminded him in 3 days to go and he hasn't had an accident. I still worry at night even though for the past three nights he wakes up and goes. (He comes and gets us to help with the diapers, I got pull ups, but he still has a hard time with them, I should probably just go with undies).

His laugh and smile are contagious and his big blue eyes melt my heart. He loves playing with his brothers, but also is the biggest tease at our house and loves to take things and run away and hide them. He definitely likes to push the limits and boundaries when it comes to discipline, but when he makes the choice he is a really good helper.

He loves to ride his tricycle and will pedal sometimes, but can still go faster just running. He loves being out in the dirt and just being outside. He loves otter pops as much as his mom and could probably eat them all day if I let him. He's a mostly good eater and will still eat something he doesn't like if the bribe is big enough. :)

He's very loud (can't imagine where he gets that from) and loves to sing along to his music in the car and it makes me smile everytime. I sure love my Damon and can't imagine our family being complete without him. Happy Birthday!

Wasatch Mountain State Park

We went camping this weekend and we had a blast. Of course we forgot the camera, but the boys had a good time. Morgan was at work all day, so I had to do all the packing. We made a trip to the store before and during preschool time to get everything that we needed. After we picked up Logan from preschool we ate lunch and got Tragon down for a nap so I could pack.

I think I did pretty well. I got everything to fit in the van nicely. I even climbed on top of the car with my pregnant self to tie down the mattress pads. Once I got up there though, I wasn't sure how to get down. You can still see my slide mark as I slid down the back on my stomach/side until I could reach the bumper, my fingers were a little burned because the rack of the car was so hot, but it was secure. My dad would be proud. :)

We picked Morgan up from work and headed to the canyon. It was a pretty good drive. Logan was a big helper and kept Tragon happy and laughing when he was getting fussy. When we got to the campsite the boys were so eager to help unload, they were awesome. I really had a great time camping this time around. We got camp all set up and had hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner. We still had some light left so we went for a little nature hike and found a little river that we kept walking by and across, the boys loved it.

That night we all sat by the fire and the boys did really great staying away and we did some smores and marshmallows. We saw a huge bug in the fire pit that I can't quite name, it had a rear end that looked like a bee, almost cartoonish, it was at least 2-3 inches long, but I'm not sure if it was a spider or an insect. I'm still trying to find a picture. Anyway, it helped us start our fire, but I still had dreams that it snuck in our tent and ate us.

Finally it was time for bed, the boys snuggled in and they all slept pretty well. We thought it would be colder than it was so we had tons of blankets, but it was plenty warm, at least for Logan and Damon, Tragon kept flinging off his covers and getting cold until finally he realized it was making him warmer. Logan pretty much ended up in my sleeping bag with me, but that was actually safer for Tragon. :)

The next morning we woke up and ate breakfast then went on another nature hike. We went back to the river bridge and let the boys play. They loved scrambling over the rocks and through the little stream. It was so neat to watch them having fun and exploring. It made me want to go camping a lot more. We cam back and went down to the Visitors Center and found a couple playgrounds that we played on for a while, then headed back to camp for lunch and to pack up. It took a while longer to pack up, but we made it home.

It was such a fun trip and I'm looking forward to it more next year...although, we are really running out of space in our van to fit everything, this was the first time I've ever really wanted a truck. Next year we'll probably have to take both our cars, just to haul everything up. You really need a whole lot of stuff when you have little kids and babies. We'll see, but man those car seats sure complicate things, I love and hate 'em at the same time. Until next time...

Potty Training Damon-Week 1

Potty Training Day 1 (Sept. 5): The day we got back from Casper....not a good day to start and Morgan even warned me. After cleaning up about 7 messes in about an hour I threw in the towel for the day and hopefully got all my grumpies out before family arrived.

Day 2: Cousins and family were still here, so the morning was a little crazy. Two accidents after trying just about every five minutes. Later, we finally had a huge success, granted he's been sitting on the potty for almost an hour watching a movie and eating a snack, but it was the small step that we needed to continue. I'm not going to give up as easy with him, I'm determined to have him potty trained by the end of the month. (I hope I'm not eating those words later) Final Tally: 2 out of 7 made it in the potty.

Day3: Damon woke up pretty early and seemed to be dry so I got up to get him on the potty, a little too late, he'd already gone in the diaper...that was about 6:15am. All day I tried to get him to go again and pestered him about getting on the potty and he fought me. He stayed dry when we took Logan to preschool at 9:30am and then I went on a walk with a neighbor and got home at 11:00am and he came in and went potty. He must have a bladder of steel and really needs to fill it up to be able to go. I'm going to try and back off a little more today and let him decide if he needs to go. Except that about 15 minutes after the first pee, he had a poo accident. :( We tried and tried after dinner and during bathtime and finally after bath he went. I've noticed that he actually has a potty dance though. Logan never did. Maybe that will help. Overall, better than yesterday, but still frustrating. We'll see how tomorrow goes. Final Tally: 2 out of 5 made it on the potty.

Day 4: So far so good. We made it to the afternoon with a 3 out of 3 record. He was able to stop long enough to get on the potty and only barely got his undies wet, so I count that as a success! And the other two times he went when I didn't even ask him about it. Hooray! Only one small accident in the afternoon, not bad at all and then 2 more times after that. Final Tally: 5 out of 6 I think he's getting it. :) We still haven't had a poop on the potty yet though. Hopefully we'll get that taken care of soon.

Day 5: It's only 7:00am and we are 2 for 2. He's doing such a good job. I'm so proud of him. I wish that I would have maybe given us another week to settle in so I wouldn't have been so grumpy when we started, but what's done is done and he's doing awesome. I'm hoping the next week will be more of the same. We are going camping tonight, so we'll see if we can get him to pee in the woods and not be afraid of standing up, because it sure would be nice to have him going on the big potty instead of cleaning the little potty every time. :) Two more great pee success, two failed poo messes. :( We have yet to make a poo in the potty. But we have been 100% on the pee, which happens more frequently, so I guess that's pretty good. Hopefully next week our travels, eating habits and everything else will become a little more regular and then I'll be able to help more with the poo, but he just doesn't show any signs and then suddenly he's poopy.

Day 6: Camping and having a blast. He used the potty a couple times, but after the first poo accident we decided to just keep a diaper on. Even with a diaper he asks to go pee now. He wouldn't go standing up, but we'll get there. I think we're pretty much good on the pee training, now we just have to figure out how to get him on the potty for poo in time. That will be our goal this next week!

Casper, WY

Over Labor Day weekend we went to visit my brother and his fam. They just moved to Casper, WY and we wanted to go see the new house and visit and play. It's a 7 hour drive. Luckily I was able to borrow a DVD player for the car and my parents drove up from St. George and drove the rest of the way with us. Honestly, we couldn't have done it without them. They helped keep the kids entertained and we were able to switch drivers so one person didn't get too burned out.

We left super early in the morning on Saturday and got there early afternoon. The kids had a blast playing and I wish that I would have brought the camera, but I didn't. And I should have used my phone to take pictures, but I didn't. :( They had an awesome playground/swingset in the backyard that my kids loved.

That night all the kids except Tragon went to bed. Logan and Damon fought a little bit and were hitting and scratching each other until they were threatened by having to sleep in the car. :) Tragon just stayed up walking around playing and loving all the attention. He's not usually like that, so I figured it wouldn't hurt just this once. He would freak out every time I tried to put him in the bed and I didn't want him to wake the rest of the kids up, so I figured oh well. I ended up letting him sleep with me and he is the worst bed sharer ever! I thought my other boys were bad, but they were quiet little lambs compared to him. He kicks, he scratches, he pokes, he grabs, he whines a little, and so on.

We did get some rest though and Sunday we were able to get everyone to church almost on time (even though it was at 1:00) My boys were wiggly and talkative as usual, but Tragon just screamed the whole way home. We got him home and put him down for a nap and he slept for a while, woke up with a dirty diaper and then I got him back to sleep. I was able to get a little rest too.

We played some more games that night and all the kids went to bed just fine Sunday night. We woke up super early Monday and headed back. My parents still had to get all the way to St. George once we made it here. We just barely beat the biggest backups of vacation travelers and weren't slowed down too much.

Ty, Mike, Quel, and the kids were all headed down to St. George as well for the week, so they stopped here and stayed the night. We've seen each other a lot these past couple weeks, but it's been really fun since we probably won't see them too often now that they live so far away. And with another baby on the way, carpooling won't be much of an option anymore. We're really starting to fill up the van.

Overall, kids did great and it was a fun little vacation before pre-school starts this Wednesday for Logan. Hurray!

Forced Fun, the Good, the Bad, the Ugly

So, last Tuesday I decided to be a "fun" mom and do a little craft activity with my boys. My friend had suggested making Froot Loop necklaces, and I thought, yeah, my kids would love that. And besides what kid doesn't love a necklace you can eat.....apparently my boys.This was Logan's expression pretty much the whole time in between, I don't want to do this, I don't want to make a necklace. And me saying, yes you do, we're having fun, so be happy! Finally I was able to get the cereal on and get his necklace done and of course he ate it before I could get a picture of the finished product. He wouldn't wear it (fine by me actually that he doesn't want any jewelry, even if it's edible), but biting them off made a huge mess because he didn't realize that when he bit them, that the other part of the loop was falling all over the place.
Damon pretty much cried and fought the whole process and then was devastated when it was done and I gave it to him. He refused to bite them off and wouldn't wear it. He only wanted to eat it, but only if they were already off the string. So, I cut the string and pulled off Froot Loops for him to eat amidst the tears. We had a blast! (dripping with sarcasm if you didn't catch that) We also had a friend over, but by this time he was gone, at least one person had fun. :)

Note to self: so far crafts or "special" activities have not been a huge hit at our house...is that a boy thing or a mom thing? I'm not sure, but it will definitely be a long time before I try this particular activity again. It was not worth the whining, the tears, or the mess. And really I probably shouldn't have forced it upon them. The only solace was that at least I felt like I had tried and that's something, right?

Today however was a different story. The boys woke up super early...all of them...ugh. So, I decided to let them watch a movie this morning. We went to the library and got some new movies to take on our road trip and I let them watch one. Halfway through the movie, Logan wanted to lay down next to me, but then so did Damon, and Tragon...and they all started fighting, so I sat up and said, okay boys since we're fighting over that, how about we all just sit by each other.

Logan was not down with that idea. He threw the biggest tantrum I've seen from the kid in a while. He spent at least 45 minutes in the back bedroom after throwing around a whole bunch of toys and hitting, so after that 45 minutes I hear him slamming the blinds against the window and ripping the foam mattress we have back there (in case we need to split rooms at night, that's only happened once or twice I think, but it's as good of storage place as any...at least it used to be). I went back there and decided he just needed me to hold him. So I started the mommy hold we sat down and he started slapping me, so I folded his arms and held them. Then he started kicking me, so I crossed my legs over his. Then he started head butting me and had he not been sliding down I think I may have ended up with a broken collar bone, man that kid is tough.

Then came the biting. The first time, not so bad, there is definitely a nice circle bruise on my arm. He seemed to actually be calming down, so I let his arms and legs go and then the thrashing began anew, I held him again, and this time when he bit, he almost broke skin and will definitely leave a mark and I had a knee jerk reaction and smacked him in the forehead (not hard, just enough that his teeth let go of my arm, but I still felt the guilt as bad as the bite). After that I decided that I was doing more harm than good, so I left the room. And I wasn't sure how much more patience I had being smacked around without smacking back. I guess Logan just needs to duke it out with himself and I just have to remove anything he can get hurt with while he's in timeout. He sat in there for another good 45 minutes until lunch was ready when he finally made his way upstairs. It was NOT a good morning. I think we were all tired and hungry and in all fairness because of this, it was a lazy morning and we hadn't really done much to kill the extra energy. As I was getting lunch ready I realized that we didn't have a morning snack which is much needed when we eat breakfast so early.

Everyone except Logan took a nap after lunch, but he was so sweet and played nice and quiet so I could lay down for a few minutes. The rest of the afternoon was great. While Tragon was sleeping we went outside and built a sand castle and tried to do a moat, but the sand soaked up the water too fast, but they loved it we even "melted" our castle with the water after. Then we took turns singing and telling stories with their toy microphone. Later when Tragon woke up we came inside and built a tower with couch cushions and jumped off. Then they just played nice together for the next couple hours until dinner was ready. Really, it was awesome. I guess I just need to figure out what kind of activities my boys like to do. They just like to be more active. Froot Loop necklaces: no, sandcastles: yes, cushion towers: yes.

And tonight, they even cleaned up the whole basement without a fuss so we could read our new stories from the library. So, even though it started out as a bad day, I'm learning and still figuring things out, and we really ended on a good note. I hope that carries through until tomorrow.

I love my boys and they are a blast sometimes. Other times they try my patience and energy that it makes me wonder if I'm doing them any good. There are so many things that I wish I would or could have done different, but that's how we learn to make it better next time. Hopefully by writing these experiences down I can look back and learn more and remember more after I forgotten. And I'm sure that because I'm praying and asking for patience, the Lord will bless us with many opportunities to practice. :) Baby #4, you're going to be coming into a crazy home, I hope you're preparing yourself up there, it's a wild ride. Until next time...