Sums it up...

   This picture pretty much sums it up. Every time I turn my back these animals do something. This time I looked over my shoulder to see Maggie probably finding every virus to download onto the computer, and Max tearing apart the lid to the laundry basket.

 

Hooligans

   The adventures never stop. A few nights ago I pulled into the drive after a closing shift. When I opened the garage door I discovered a nice little surprise. A toilet. Not a new one, in a box, no. Our toilet. I sighed and left the van in the driveway, came in the house, and asked Rob if I even wanted to know what happened.

    He decided I did, and told me before I could run away.

   I guess the boys got together with the brilliant idea to flush a diaper. It was genius, really! Who wouldn't think that's a great idea?? The sound of the first flush alerted Rob to foul play. By the time he made it to the hallway to see the debacle, Connor was running for the hills and Max was desperately trying to hold the toilet seat down and the water in. Before Rob could make it to the bathroom for damage control, Max decided the wisest thing to do was really get rid of the evidence by flushing again. Rob said it was like watching a movie in slow motion. The water erupted out of the toilet like a fountain! It took him 6 bath towels to clean it up.

   The diaper was stuck in the gooseneck of the toilet and the only solution was to take the toilet out altogether. He would have been able to put it back in, but when he set it in the garage, it busted a bit. So. Brand new toilet!

   We needed one I guess. Thanks boys, for making home improvement immediate. At least they learned how to put in a new toilet.

  In other news! We took the boys bowling for the first time the other night! Connor absolutely loved it. Max liked it for a minute before he was bored out of his mind. We got one game in before we had to leave and make room for a league coming in. But one was enough for Max!

 

Max bumped his eye on a cart in Target and now has a black eye to go with his mushed fingers. The fingers are looking much better now!

 

 

 

This morning Connor came running into the living room. I was at the sink in the kitchen with my back to him, but he yelled, "MOM!! COMMENCE OPERATION I LOVE YOU!!" (They are a little obsessed with the Power Rangers) It was so sweet! So I turned around to give him a kiss, but this is what I saw.

 

 

    This is one of those days I'm incredibly thankful my father is down at the farm and not drinking coffee in my living room.

    So let's just wash all this down with a little cuteness, shall we? I find it helps.
    
            I'm sorry Bobbi, we've officially stolen B's sunglasses...

   Cheesing for the camera. She's actually saying cheeeeeeeeee!

   Really getting into it.

     Cow says moooooooooo.

 

 

Good vs Evil, in which evil might win.

  This has been an unfortunately eventful week. Especially for Max. First off, Connor swung a tension rod at Max and scratched his cornea pretty badly. Poor kid couldn't keep his eye open for more than a few seconds at a time. But by bedtime he was feeling alright and the next day was back to normal.

  Yesterday Connor got hold of the weed killer in our garage and sprayed Max... in the eyes.

   Hmm. I'm sensing a theme here.

  I think I'll strap safety glasses onto Max's head and tell him it's what Power Rangers wear to ensure they stay put. Or maybe a full-face helmet.

  Anyway, I rinsed his eyes as well as I could while he squirmed and fought to get away from the water, which is obviously MORE POISONOUS THAN WEED KILLER MOM!!!! He had red splotches from his eyes down to his cheeks before bed, but he could see just fine and his eyes weren't bothering him at all. And once again, thankfully, he's back to normal today.

   A few nights ago, the kids were in bed, the house was quiet, and I was settling into my bed with my laptop to update this here blog. I got my mug of steaming peppermint tea and poured it onto my stomach. Oh yeah, and onto my laptop. I guess I just felt like burning and screaming and killing an expensive piece of technology. I killed it dead. Fortunately, the hard drive is fine. My dear husband (Who completely ignored my cries of agony) just needs to transfer all my pictures and whatnots from it to his. And I'm not allowed to drink anything near a computer again.

   Thursday afternoon I got stung by a wasp at work. I was in drive-thru that day. I've never been stung by a bee before so didn't know how my body was going to respond. But nothing happened! Until 6 hours later when I got hit with dizziness and couldn't even stand up. My parents picked me up from work, practically carried me to the van, drove me home, and Rob helped me get to bed without throwing up. And then the next afternoon I was back to normal. Thank goodness all these awful things haven't lasted long.

   In the mean time we did crafty things...

 

 

And we bought tents. Connor wanted to sleep in his that night. After he fell asleep this is what I found:

 

 

And Maggie got a tent.

 

 

And we spent 10 minutes at the park before Max was walking around with butt cheeks clenched hollering "I NEED TO GO POOOOOPPPPYYYYYYY!"

 

 

And we started a new tradition with the boys snuggling up to me before bed telling me wild and imaginative bedtime stories. It helps me to forgive them for being insubordinate and crazy during the days. It makes me like them just a little bit again.

 

 

Just a little.

 

I'd say the week was balanced out pretty well. Nobody died. That's a plus.

 

She gets it from her mother.

    The cuteness, I mean. The perfection.

 

I'm pretty sure she's the most adorable girl in the world.

 

 

 

The next big thing.

   I don't know if this is a prevalent thing now, but I've noticed a few kids around here are sporting mullets again.
  
   Because they were so cool the first time around.
 
   Just ask my husband.

  He insists to this day that the hair in his senior picture was 'feathered', while I am pretty insistent that it was a mullet.

   But that's a different story.

  I am so impressed by the hair-do's on boys lately so I decided to start a girl trend.

 

I call it the Chick-Hawk. This is gonna be big people. Get on the bandwagon now. It works for just about everyone. It does help to be tiny and cute though.

 

 

 

I'm in love.

 I've shared a couple pictures of Maggie on Facebook and Instagram recently that I just cant get over! Such cute little pictures of my little girl.

            
             My little sous chef

     Excited by the horses at the rodeo

       Sunday morning perfection

 

Today she's a little princess. She's been eyeing this dress for a while, so it was a special thing to finally fit into it!

 

She's already a vain little thing, no thanks to me! She pats her hat, or whatever she's sporting at the time, until you tell her how pretty she is. Uh-oh.

 

 

Bad Mom

   I'm feeling a cold coming on, so I've been a little under the weather. If under the weather means dead behind the eyes and immobile.

   Which means I have been feeding the kids, but leaving them to their own devices otherwise.

  And then this happened.

 

Poor sweet girl. I have no idea if she hit my bed or my dresser, or if she was pushed or just fell. But we rocked and rocked and I told her how sorry I was that she was stuck with such a mean mom.

Playing catch-up

 I just got in yelled at by my sister for not posting an update for so long! So I figured I better sit down and feed the masses tell the 6 of you how our summer has gone! ;) Our trip to Minnesota and Iowa was fun! But I will never, ever do it again without my wonderful, helpful husband! Mom was with me, with the (pre-travel) agreement that we would take care of the kids together and it would be great! Umm.... well. After about 5 days I could sense my poor mother's nerves falling to pieces. My kids, sweet as they are, are a lot to handle. It's a demanding and draining job. I was so so so relieved to pick Rob up from the airport after being without him for 15 days. I learned just how much I depend on him on a daily basis to keep me sane. I admit, I did cry a little bit when he came down the airport escalator. I'm not sure if it was just the profound relief, or watching Connor and Max run into his arms, screaming "DADDY!!" while Maggie kicked furiously in her stroller. I wish I had videotaped that moment.
  But it was nice to see our families. I used up all my camera memory on my new niece in Minnesota within the first few days of our trip. What a sweet little thing! She loved me right away, and the feeling was mutual.
  We were so anxious to get home, we drove through the night and made it back at 4:30 in the morning! I was so happy to see my bed! I've never been so exhausted in all my life.
 
   There's been a whole lot of nothing going on since then and that's OK WITH ME!

  Now I'm feeling a little excited, because after talking to Rob about it, I'm going to get a part time job! I'm looking forward to getting out of the house a bit. I got an offer from The Children's Place in a nearby mall, but turned them down after getting an interview at Starbucks. I worked in a coffee shop for three years in MN and I miss it every day! So I interviewed today and was told I would get the job! I'm very happy! It will be nice to spend my day talking to grown ups again, not to mention a paycheck, tips, and free coffee! I'll not only get free coffee as I work, but a pound of coffee to take home each week! I'd work for free for all of that!
 
   Connor starts another year of preschool on Wednesday. He had orientation this morning, and he's excited to start. We put him in a different school this year. The school he was in before was alright, but they lost Connor one day in the beginning of the year. They searched the school, but couldn't find him, until another parent walked in and informed them there was a little boy walking all the way down at the end of the strip mall. Along a busy street. All alone. That was kind of a big deal. Then at the end of the year we found out his teacher thought he was Autistic from her facebook page. It wasn't mentioned to us until I asked about it. Of course we had his doctor examine him. She said there's absolutely no reason to think he's Autistic, and suggested a different preschool. So far we are very happy with the system and the *ahem* professionalism.

   Maggie is finally walking! She started walking a little bit in Minnesota, with 3 steps at a time. That's about as much as she would do for a long time, until one day she just started walking all over! That was probably a month ago now. She would have been 13 months old.
 
            Connor, drying in the sun.

                      
               My little kangaroo.

                   Those eyes get me every time!

 
               My favorite cake so far. So cute!!