Toys! Toys! Toys!

I have been lazy with blogs this week. Imagine my delight when I saw 5 minutes for mom was having 2 weeks of toys! This is the perfect contest for someone who has had her kids' toy room publicly attacked as "just awful".
More. Toys.

ANYWAY 5 minutes for mom is doing a 2 week toy contest. These are some pretty cool toys, for all ages, and many of the toys would be a welcome addition to our "just awful" toy room.

Go check out some of the cool contests at 5 minutes for mom

*Please note some of the opinions expressed in this post are not those of the blog owner. Our kids are not allowed to eat, drink, color, marker, playdoh, art, or craft in their toy room. SO... I do not feel our toy room is anything more than overwhelming cluttered.

Tackle It Tuesday--Bunk Bed Style

Jaden is FINALLY out of the crib! He has also skipped the toddler bed.

When given the choice to sleep on the toddler bed or the bunk bed look what he chose.

he helped us take down the crib and move out the toddler bed which freed up a lot of space

This is him practicing for bed. Daddy put him to bed the first night, and then nap the next day Jaden did fantastic. The only downside to not having him "caged" is he is now getting himself up in the morning. Adylynn used to lay in her bed and yell for us to get her up. Heck she was doing this up until last year. Jaden is the total opposite. He just hops out of bed and comes downstairs to find us.
Now to get him potty trained!

Tackle It Tuesday

I haven't done this in a couple months but I would like to get back on the Tackling bandwagon. I have 2 big things for this Tackle It Tuesday.
1. Go to the dentist to get my wisdom teeth looked at, then referred to an oral surgeon who can put me to sleep during the removal of said teeth.
2. Laundry
Check back to see how it goes....I might have pictures:)


*no pictures but I did get xrays! I will be getting my bottom wisdom teeth pulled next Thursday. I don't have top wisdom teeth, and please hold your "half smart" comments as I have heard them all already. Even with only getting the bottom pulled my dentist thinks there is a chance that I will have some permanent damage from having them pulled, something about long roots and the canal and nerve damage etc etc...I will know more after surgery about that. The general is I might be permanently numb after getting my teeth pulled. It doesn't bother me to much - it has to have its benefits, right? Besides how many people are permanently numb?
Update on the laundry is dim--I have done 2 loads but that is it and after my stressful day of pain and worry I probably won't get much more done.

Happy Tackling!

cool contests all month

5 minutes for mom will be having some great giveaways this month.
Check their site frequently for new contests.

Tackle Day

Today's tackle is a strange one. Not horrible like last week. Actually the act itself is Steve's tackle but I have to tackle the intense feelings I have to a) Cry, kick and scream AND b) physically abuse my husband. *note the lack of awesome hubby in previous statement.

So the tackle: Jaden's Locks





Steve is taking Jaden to get his hair cut! Short! Like DORK SHORT! Jaden has had his hair cut at least 2 times before and I used to prefer it short but now he is all Hollywood pretty boy and I think he looks very cute with his wavy locks. He just turned 2, wasn't that enough torture on me for the week or month or EVER?!?

I have all day to come to terms with it. OR maybe call the stylist and beg her to only trim him up a teeny tiny bit. Maybe tell her not to listen to anything "Evil Steve" has to say. I, also, may or may not have encouraged Jaden to throw a fit and move his head frantically but I don't want to incriminate myself so I will just leave that at may or may not.

Stop back by to see how much he looks like a Central Illinois popcorn farmer. Boo Hoo!


AFTER-----

We interuppt this blog for Tackle It Tuesday

I know it has been several weeks since I have posted a tackle. I have no excuses. It isn't like we are sitting around in filth and dirty dishes and laundry. Things ARE getting tackled! Heck I even have pictures of some stuff. The problem lies in finding time to post it. Assuming that Picasa and Blogger are going to work hand in hand like they are suppose to, is another problem. Well, I suppose reading back through this that those are excuses but really I was just explaining my lack of posting tackles! Really I was.

Today I am not bringing you pictures of my dirty rooms that need cleaned, or the art supplies that need organized. Nope. I am giving you a picture of this:


and asking you to help me tackle the problem that is...well...I'm not sure of the problem. Is it her? me? them? him? her? school? life?
She seems to be regressing with her development. She acts like, she acts like her brother.
She throws fits.
Big. Fits.
The kind of fit that if you are walking by you would think someone was preforming an at home appendectomy. She has the most horrible mouth. She talks to me like a teenager talks to their parent. I am truly afraid that I am doing something horribly horribly wrong. What happened? I thought the 1st year of their life was suppose to be the hardest. Then you hear about terrible twos. I tell you the terrible twos are nothing compared to this, this, well whatever it is. I just hope it goes away.
She is 4 years old. We were thinking about starting school next year. If she is like this can she go to school?
I am rambling, sorry. I am stumped.
Let me share with you the last hour of our life
10:30-Time to stop painting(we have painted 3 pictures) pick up and get ready for lunch
10:45- Discussing lunch options of rice, noodles, or ham she says in a very whiny voice "I don't want rice or noodles or ham so I want you to get me chicken nuggets"
10:50-"I said give me chicken nuggets" "I told you I don't want noodles" "Well fine I am not eating" I send her to her room for talking nasty and yelling at me.
10:57 - she is still in her room. still screaming like she is the latest victim of some gruesome serial killer.
11:00-I go up for the 2nd time and tell her when she is done screaming she will have a 4 minute timeout and then can come downstairs.
11:05-she comes downstairs and I ask her if she would like ketchup for her ham chunks. She replies "No I want ranch dressing" we don't have ranch dressing. Now I am trying to prevent another fit so I offer to watch a movie and eat in the living room. She takes the offer and picks out Dora.
11:32 - time to brush teeth and hair. She doesn't want to do this and of course feels it necessary to yell her dislike of listening to me.
11:34 - I have taken over combing her hair and she is again screaming as if I am branding her.
11:35- She screams her hatred of everything in this house and her desire to go live with Grandma Janey
Somehow I managed to get through this. Get her to school and survive yet another day with the Ferocious Fours!

Last Thursday I picked her up from school, the teacher met me at t he door to tell me about "an issue" they had. "An issue came up today" she says to me at the door. I am thinking No shit you don't mean my daughter isn't the perfect little angel you have been bragging on for weeks now.
Of course I remained composed and held in all the I told you sos and I have given you fair warning of her current "issues" for weeks. I just listen and smiled with most likely a very transparent smile. When she was done explaining the issue I asked her if she had any ideas for taming the tiger. Her reply was simple. Not comforting. Just simple. "It is a phase"
yeah. great. yippee. another phase.

If I sit and think really hard I can remember the 4 year old phase of Jonas. We had other excuses to make for him though. New family, new house, etc etc...at the time we never once heard or thought he is 4. Nobody talks about 4. WHY? Why did I spend my time at the bookstore searching the parenting books for help with my 4 year old and come up with nothing?
So what is your advice? Am I the worst mother in the world? Is she spoiled? Do I punish her every time she throws a fit, screams, whines, or repeats what I just said but in the form of a question. - THAT ONE IS GOING TO MAKE ME CERTIFIABLY INSANE!

Going Pink!

It is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Show some support and love...go pink! Click on the ribbon in my sidebar-------------->
It is completely free. Help the 5th annual Pink Ribbon Challenge!


Show some support to Whymommy and any other phenomenal men and women who have battle breast cancer. There are oodles of ways to show your support, not just by donations!


Ways to show support
1. HUG a survivor or the soon to be survivor(if you know someone battling currently)
2. Click the pink ribbon on the breast cancer site everyday
3. GO PINK for the month! No blog? that's ok-change your font color on forwards and emails to pink.
4. Panera Bread has Ribbon shaped bagels so much of each bagel purchased goes to helping local breast cancer research(at least in Illinois)
5. Yoplait yogurt Save Lids Save Lives campaign. I know some grocery stores have drop boxes for lids for those who don't want to send lids directly to Yoplait. Ask your local grocer!
6. Wear a pink ribbon
7. Buy some super cute breast cancer merchandise. They have so much to choose from! Our dog shows her support, with her dog collar, everyday!
8. Join the virtual tea party on October 26th

Sorry for all the links but I wanted to make it as easy as possible to share the pink!


*also check out 5 minutes for mom! They are holding a contest for a pink digital camera this month.

Tackle It Tuesday (Ballet Style)

Today was really busy. I did several loads of laundry and a load of dishes BUT the most important thing was going to Lincoln to get Adylynn signed up for Ballet! She was so excited. After getting papers filled out and getting her shoes we headed to Decatur to get a leotard.
Here are the photos I took tonight.


We have some pretty good video of somersaults with her gymnastic shoes on. However I am tired or lazy or maybe both and don't want to fight with it tonight. I feel like my tackle is a let down today. However it was something that needed to be done and it made my little girl happy. Next week I will really do something---uh ok I just realized next week is dentist visit in the morning and preschool in the afternoon. I might do my tackle on Monday and post on Tuesday.

HAPPY TACKLING!

Tackle It Tuesday

I decided to show the bookshelves some much needed love today. This was a great tackle for me today. It only took about an hour, after the morning we had I needed something easy to do. Ady had an upper GI today, it didn't go very well either. She was so excited about drinking stuff to make her belly glow UNTIL she tasted the stuff:( Poor Girl having to drink that yucky stuff on her birthday. They don't think she drank enough to show anything so we are going to start a 6 month journal on her and see if that will help the doctor figure something out.

Toy room bookshelf:
Before

After

Ady's room bookshelf:
Before

After

Boys' room bookshelf:
Before

After

Tackle It Tuesday--Shining the Kitchen Sink

I FINALLY am getting my Tackle It Tuesday up! My tackle was cleaning the kitchen sink. I wanted to really scrub the sink, too. After soaking in bleach for an hour, I scrubbed it with a SOS pad(below)



I went after all the nooks and crannies with an old Dora the Explorer toothbrush(haha take that Dora)

The end result after scrubbing and scrubbing and finishing up with windex is a nice shiny sink.


Hopefully it stays nice and shiny for a long time...or at least after Ady's birthday party!

Happy Tackling!

Tackle It Tuesday

1. Bakers rack-original purpose was to hold cookbooks, and art supplies. It does very well at holding these items but usually looks like this!
The goal-to put all art supplies into the dresser,(below) and go through the cookbooks(freecycle what we don't use)

2. Take old labels off of dresser. We seem to be in the middle of a complete house makeover this dresser was Ady's until Saturday when Steve and I decided to share a dresser and pass our dressers to the kids. Giving us some dressers for storage. I would rather have the dresser in the dining room holding art supplies instead of having the eye sore of the bakers rack. 2. B. relabel the new art drawers, and the new dressers for the kids.

3. The dog kennel. This is a tough one. I can clean off the top and stop using it as a table BUT we don't have anywhere else to stick the seldom used kennel. She is slowly working herself out of it and I imagine in a year she will not need it at all. So we can either a)deal with the cramped quarters for a while longer or buy a collapsible kennel that we only have to bring out if needed.

I will post after pictures this afternoon!

~~~~~~~~updated~~~~~~~~~~
I have all 3 things cleaned off and the dining room table is clean too. I can't post pictures because I can't seem to get Picasa to wrok right. Darn it! I might try later.

Bathroom, Toys, and Dishes

I have an extra visitor in my little house today. Well, he goes home sometime this morning but he came for a sleepover at 11am yesterday. Having 3 kids all under the age of 4 is busy. Yesterday they ran and screamed and screamed and ran and tossed beach balls around the living room. Made 500 trips to the bathroom. Played, played, and played some more. We have a toddler bed in the toy room, toys stacked in front of the door. Dishes stacked just as high, and a bathroom that wasn't that dirty until I had to spend SOOOOOOO much time in it!

My tackle(s) today come without pictures, again. I. AM. LAZY. With or without pictures I will be tackling just the same. I am going to get the dishes done(probably not the handwash only-the hubby does that, and why kill a good thing) clean the bathroom, and go through the toys.

The toys will probably be more of a slow process through out several days so I don't have to listen to kids whine about getting rid of toys they haven't touched in a year. Ady has a birthday in 23 days, then Jaden is 2 months after that, then Christmas is 2 more months after Jaden, AND Jonas is 3 weeks after Christmas. ANY toys we freecycle, sell, or toss will not be missed for long!

Wow I rambled on and on today...

Happy Tackle It Tuesday!

~~~~~The day thus far~~~~~~~~

Dishes are running in dishwasher

Bathroom is clean.

Toys are...hmmm...well they are still everywhere...I have no idea what to do with all the toys. What to get rid of what to keep. If the room is clean they play with the Dora house alot but it takes up alot of space. They love the Legos, super heroes, cars,dress-up, and dinosaurs. Everything else is filler that seems to get played with enough to make me want to keep it. UGH! TOO MANY TOYS!

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