I love money...

I know a lot of you are thinking, "Don't we all?!" But what I mean is I love cash and coins. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed counting coins and just holding cash. I always use my debit card or checks anymore. It is very very seldom that I have cash on me. I am sure I would lose it if I carried it.

I miss the smell and the feel. I miss how all of them look. I miss that I had forgotten that Abe's head on the penny was facing the opposite direction then the others.

I'm strange I know.

What spurred these thoughts was sorting through G1's "piggy" banks (one is a bear). He has one for pennies and one for silver coins. Well, an unnamed father of his had been putting silver coins in with the pennies ("Because it was right there"). I have known this for awhile. I just hadn't had a chance to remedy this problem. Until yesterday.

I emptied the bear bank and got to sorting. I found 11 dimes and 3 nickels in with the pennies. Silly, silly man. {{shaking head and saying "tsk, tsk, tsk"}}

G1 wanted to help me, so I let him put the pennies back into the bank. He had a blast. It was nice having that opportunity to try to teach him about money. Granted I'm not sure how much he really learned but it was still a good learning experience.

Oh, that reminds me.

Matt has been showing G1 how to tie shoelaces. G1 can't do it yet, but he knew enough after the first time to repeat back to Matt what needed to be done. Then a couple days later, while we were heading to Iowa, we overheard G1 telling G3 what she needed to do to tie her shoes (that don't tie). Then he said, "Now you try." It was so cute that he was trying to teach her. And it showed me how smart he is.

Rock-a-bye-Baby

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I Am a Child of God

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Valentine's Day

I did not get Christmas cards sent out this past year. So I decided that I would do Valentine's Day cards this year instead (we'll see what holiday I'll send for next year). One morning Matt and I got the kids to sit in their rocking chairs (they got them for Christmas and have their names stenciled on them) so we could try to get at least one decent picture of them. I was amazed because they did pretty well.

Here is a sneak at the pictures I think we have decided to use:

Notice the letters they are holding? Notice that none (except the O being held by G2) are the right direction?

Doesn't this show love? :-P

So disgusting....

First-I don't know why everything is underlined and I'm not sure how to fix that.

Second- WARNING!!!!

There are some majorly disgusting photographs in this post. If you have a weak stomach (cannot handle looking at poop you do not want to continue on with this post.


Seriously I would stop now if you won't be able to handle it.

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Don't say I didn't warn you!


The reason I am posting this is 2-fold.

1) because I know there has to be another parent out there going through the same thing. And they may happen upon my blog. They need to know they are not alone. There are others going through the same thing. I'm not sure what good it will do them to know that but sometimes it is nice for me to know that I am not alone.

2) because we have been questioned by numerous people as to why we put duct tape around the girls' diapers. They just don't understand. And actually the day this happened they both had their diapers duct taped. So you can see what little good duct tape does us now.

Now on to the disgustingness...

This happened about a month and a half ago (slacker I know, but our computer was not working at the time and then life got ahead of me--I have lots more back posts to do). Matt was getting ready to leave for work (he leaves at 2:30 PM* and it was about 2:25 PM). We heard the G2 and G3 being very loud. Matt went up to check out what was going on. Next thing I know he came down the stairs with both girls. That could only mean two thing; one (or both) was poopy and the diaper(s) were off.

It was everywhere. G3 had it all over her hands and hair and one ear. Matt started cleaning up G2 (I think he forgot that we have a working tub now). I started the tub and told Matt I would just throw them in the shower and then let them take a bath.

Now mind you Matt is needing to be out the door. G4 was still not taking naps unless held at this point either. I called Mom and asked her to come help out. She came up and sat in the bathroom with the 3 girls and I went upstairs to clean.

First, pictures of G3:




Now (wow! where did the underlining go?? how do I fix it on the rest????) here is proof that the diaper was in fact duct taped:


I got upstairs and check out the mess. Then I went and got cleaner and the camera. I was going to document it this time.

Here is some of the mess that they made.

One of the windows:

One of the multiple spots on the wall:
Some of the spots on the carpet:

The outlet and baseboard:

And the air mattress that we still had set up from Marcia and Jacob staying with us:
It came down that day. And yes, Marcia, the sheets are nice and clean now so you have nothing to worry about the next time you sleep on them. :-P

After that we have not had any major incidences. I'm not sure what did it. All we did was tell them that that was NOT okay to do.

Now a month and a half later we are no longer duct taping their diapers for naps or bedtime (knocking on wood that it continues to work).

Like I said the pictures are disgusting but such is life.

*Matt is switching to 1st shift (7-3) on Wednesday.

Once there was a snowman...

Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman
small, small, small.

In the sun he melted, melted, melted, melted, melted, melted, melted, melted, melted
tall, tall, tall.

As sung by G1.

Correct words.

Primary

The question came up "What is primary?" I'm not articulate enough to give an answer straight from my brain so I went right to mormon.org This is how the glossary defines Primary:

The organization of the Church for children from ages three to twelve. Beginning at three years of age, children receive two hours of religious instruction each Sunday. One hour is spent with a teacher who provides a lesson for an age-specific group, and a second hour is spent in a combined group of children in instruction and singing.

Before the children enter Primary they are in Nursery.
HTH!

What makes it all worth it...

G1 has given up naps altogether. He told me the other day that he is too old for naps. That has been a little stressful, especially since he is almost unbearable come evening. But we are managing. I am trying to make the most of the time him and I share alone together. Oh, G4 now takes an afternoon nap up in the play pen at the same time G2 and G3 take their nap. That has been nice.

So, to the point of this post. I was just starting to feel a little overwhelmed because G1 has been continually fighting with all 3 girls since they got up from naps (how does he fight with G4 you ask? well, he yells at her for touching a toy or not being in the right place or whatever). I was sitting on the couch cuddling with G3 when she turned her head and looked up at me and said "I love you Mommy!" with the biggest grin on her face. Sometimes G2 will just come up, give me a kiss on the cheek and say the same thing. Sometimes they fight over who can love me.

It is so much easier to stay calm and not get frustrated when they are so loving and cute!

A quick update on the Gs I guess:

G1 is potty trained (mostly) as I've already posted. He loves to sing. Sometimes he will sing me the songs he learns in Primary, other times he makes up his own. Either way it is totally cute.

G2 and G3 are talking up a storm and love learning. They love to go through flash cards with us. They also enjoy singing. I have some posts from December I still need to do about them. When I find the time I will.

G4 is Army crawling all over. We could easily lose her if we didn't keep a good enough eye on her. (We need to invest in some better gates for our stairways!) She sometimes will crawl the regular way, but isn't as fast. She is pulling up on everything and is trying to cruise along the furniture. She waves every once in a while. She loves to walk around holding onto our fingers. How is she old enough to be doing these things?!?!? We have also started her on finger foods, which she absolutely loves.

That's about it for now.

Potty training update

G1 is in underwear full time now. He has stayed dry over night for almost a week straight now (although he did poop in his underwear this morning :-( ). During the day he is doing great also. We are still having trouble getting him to poop on the toilet rather than in his underwear but it's really not a big deal (maybe that is because Matt is normally the one to deal with it :-P ). In the past week he has had very few accidents (I mean less than 5). I'm so proud of my little bug!

What constitutes a large family?

I often joke that I have about a million children, because some days it kind of feels like that, but I don't think I have a large family. I know some people see us with our 4 children and think we are a large family. But I have the thought "I only have 4 children."

Maybe it's because I grew up the youngest of 8 (biological, there are 5 more--steps and half). I knew I was part of large family growing up. How could you not know that?? But I think about it, I've only had half as many children as my mother. That doesn't seem like very many.

Are we a "large" family because we can no longer fit in a "regular" sized vehicle? Is it because we no longer have any extra hands when we are out and about (which we really do)? What is it?

I ask because I have read a few different things that say 4 or more children means a large family. I just don't get it. To me 6 or more seems large. Matt is #3 of 5 and I wouldn't say he came from a large family; that's how I decided on 6 or more.

Sorry, this was just a pointless rambling.

Oh, and sorry I haven't been doing any "real" posts lately. But I am taking a break from really posting much about the children. There is someone that has been following my blog but refuses to acknowledge the existence of my family. Therefore I just haven't been in the mood to have new updates about the Gs out there for anyone. I apologize to my loving friends and family for "taking this out" on all of you also. I know I should be the bigger person and just get over it, but I can't right now.

Guaranteed to make you smile!

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