Mommy gets the Victory . . .

The day started to wind down, it was 70 degrees so we spent some time outside.

Carter and his snack.

Still quietly eating, No battles, no tantrums, just pretzel sticks and juice. 1 point for Mommy.

Camden starts to drift off to sleep in the warm sun,

Score = 2 points Mommy, 0 kiddos.
Smiling Carter.

Happy Boys, entertaining eachother . . . another victory for Mommy.

Daddy comes home and rips the house apart, normally this would be total defeat since I just spent most of the day cleaning and organizing, however what Jeff actually did was build a fort out of the couch. This entertained Carter for quite a long time.

Yippeeee!

Then he joined Carter inside the fort. When I tried to enter I was warned, "No Girls Allowed"

This meant some time to myself, (well time to do the dishes at least)

Another huge victory for me!

Then Bed Bath and Beyond.
Carter watches patiently as I give Camden a bath.

and the day ends just as it started . . . Carter wants another shower.

This time he's not wearing clothes.

The Battle has ended, Victory is mine!

Choose your Battles . . .

The morning started ok, up at 7:00 to feed Camden, Carter awakes mid feeding and shrieks for my assistance. I put Camden down and he flips out, but Carter's screaming is louder, and over the monitor his sound is projected a billion times, so I have to choose, Continue to feed Camden or listen to the howling child upstairs. I run like a wild woman up the stairs to Carter's room, change him, get him Cheerios and milk and then resume Camden's breakfast. I chose Carter . . . wrong choice. Battle #1 ensues, Carter insists we must play in his room before we go downstairs and we must say hi to every picture on the wall on the way down. "Hi Poppa, hi daddy, hi baby!" Meanwhile, Camden screams "feed me!" He is hysterical by the time I return. Who wouldn't be upset having breakfast ripped from their mouth? After 5 minutes he is finally calm . . . but where did Carter go?

Found him, partially disrobed, spilled Cherrios all over the floor. Good thing it wasn't the milk. I would have cried over the spilled milk. Not so much a battle as a frustration of stepping on random Cheerios that are missed in the initial pickup and found for the next week scattered throughout the house.

Two minutes later, I hear pure joy squeeling from the 1 1/2 year old that rules this house. He has now fully undressed and runs gleefully through the house, butt naked, stopping every few moments to dance to the beat of the music he has some how turned on. I tell him it's time to get dressed . . . "no want to" he yells. Battle #2 is on, However I am distracted by my sweet Camden and lose track of what I was doing.

I have the momentary thought that I better get a diaper on Carter before he has an accident. Uh-Oh, he's disappeared again, into the laundry room. I know what is happening before I round the corner. Arriving midstream, I startle him with my protest of, "We DO NOT pee on the floor, we use the potty." Oh yeah, potty! he remembers and takes off running, still peeing might I add, to the bathroom across the hall. I will now say that pee on a tile floor is fine, but not when you run through it and slip and slide all over.

Onto the potty goes Carter. I clean up. All seems well.

Time to get dressed. Amid raging protests and screams of agony (Battle #3) I manage to get clothes on Carter. We need to head out to run some errands and naptime is quickly approaching. I turn on the shower to let it warm up and begin to dress Camden.

Ummmm, Where did Carter go? I know and I don't even have to look. I hear him vacuming . . . in the shower. Yep, fully clothed, vacuming in the shower. I take the now sopping battery powered vacum and he starts up. Then realizes the shower is still running so he plays some more.

"Carter, get out of the shower." (Battle #4) But what's the point. He's soaked already.

It's only 10:30am, Tell me how many more battles today?

Carter 4, Mommy 0

Last one Mom, this better be it - or I give up

Mom, This One?

My Favorite Moments this week.

I was cleaning up for Wednesday night meeting and Carter got his Vacum out too. He also had to put my shoe on and hold an extra binkie in his hand that he found under the bed.

The many faces of Cam
Hi there!
I'm smiling at you Momma!
Hmmm, I bet you can't guess what I'm thinking.
Yep, I was thinking I wanted to smile again.

New Favorite Song

Mom, I think this is the song you were talking about the other day. . . hope so. It's so true. Makes you think about how time just races by.

Stats

Both boys went to the Dr. for their 4 month and 18 month check ups.

Carter is now 33 inches tall, weighs 26.5 pounds and is meeting all milestones and beyond. While in the exam room he started walking backwards, he does this all the time and has for several months, this surprised the Dr. who said that is something a 2 yr old learns.

He says a billion words, and said he first whole sentence yesterday. We were watching planes at the airport and we kept saying "here comes another one." As we were getting ready to leave Carter said "Here comes nutter one" with a tone that was more like "we are not leaving when a plane is landing."

Camden is also growing like crazy. He is 25 inches long and weighs 14.5 pounds. He is trying to continue rolling, but sometimes doesn't make it onto his back before he is very angry so I have to help him. He smiles and giggles when tickled, loved the same rattles Carter did and his very steady when sitting in your lap.

They are both in the 50% for everything, except Carter is more like 25% for weight. This stumps me because he eats like a horse, just ask Sandy the Babysitter. He eats her out of house and home, cleans the other kids plates and still says "Moor peeez."

Seriously . . .

I had another one of "those moments" today. I came across this picture and got a little misty eyed. Loren and Shanda recently moved closer to her family and I am going through some serious Shanda withdrawls. Yes, I missed you too Loren, but I am SERIOUSLY missing Shanda. No hanging out in the middle of the day, adult conversation, watching her entertain my kids and help with anything and everything not because I asked but because she is just that awesome.

Weekend Getaway

This weekend we went away for the Superbowl. It has become a tradition to skip town on Superbowl weekend and spend time with family in beautiful St George, Utah.

We left Vegas at 4:44 on Friday afternoon and arrived in St George at 6:30. Needless to say I wasn't paying attention to the fact that Jeff wanted to drive at death defying speeds.

The next day started with a brisk walk to the kiddie park.

Then down to the empty lot to watch Jeff run his remote control "tuck tuck" (AKA: Truck)

It ran for all of 5 mintues and the pit crew couldn't figure out the problem.

After much assessing they decided to pack it up and figure it out back at the warm room. (Actually, I decided it was too cold for Cubby just standing around outside, so I pushed for the crew to open repair shop closer to the room)

Kari was also thrilled by the events

Then Bree offered to pose with her, so she was cheered up.

Carter was NOT happy about the plan to head inside.

. . . and spent most of the rest of the aftrenoon asking to go "owside, owside"

"Peeez, peez, owside, owside?"

As ususal Camden was happy just hanging out.

Carter still wanting to get out and then intrigued by the falling white stuff from the sky.

Kari was nice enough to brave the cold and entertain the kids.
Carter tries his hand at shoveling snow.

Bree catches the snow.



After playing outside they came in to warm up and color.



Carter, not so into coloring as Bree, had a snack.

When coloring no longer had appeal, they snuck off to have a pillow fight.

When I found them, Carter was winning.

But Bree was making her comeback.

. . . and Carter was down for the count.We arrived home Monday afternoon and found a box at our mailbox.

Carter's new headphones.


Lovin' listening to my Ipod.

New Ticker

So, to the left I added 2 new "tickers".

Amanda and Jessica are both expecting and I keep forgetting just HOW far along they are. (Jessica, I'm sure knows how far along she is . . to the hour and second, and at this point can't wait for that baby to evacuate) However, I am embarrassed every time I have to ask them again. I just can't keep track of when these new little bundles will join us. (Neither, Jess or Amanda are finding out whether they will give us boys or girls - boooooo - so I didn't want to pick a gender specific ticker, but the car is cute so I picked that. SEE girls, if you would just tell us all, shopping AND blogging would be so much easier) Anyway, Now all I have to do instead of asking is find a quite moment between diapers, feedings, timeouts, and playing trains, get the computer out and away from gremlin sticky fingers, log on, go to my blog and it's right there! Would be quicker just to call them, but oh-well.

and Good Night . . .

After Bath time, Camden loves to coo and talk to us.

If only I understood the stories he tells us.

Lazy Weekend Pictures

Carter and his Play-Doh. . . . and Mommy's nice cookie cutters. Boy, the things you sacrifice for your kids to be entertained for 5 minutes.

I was picking Play-Doh out of those cutters for half the day.

Cam growling at his Puppy.
Wearing Mr. Potato Head's glasses
All ready for PJs. Naked baby fresh outta the bath.

Carter loves to watch Jeff mow the lawn, and he always tells me when Jeff is done.

This is the way we keep track of Daddy.

Rollie Pollie

Camden surprised me today and rolled himself over! I have been a bit wary of his lagging head muscle development (that is a weird phrase) But Carter seemed to hold his head up quicker than Camden has. Cam still wont do a push up, but at least he's rollin'

Pouty lips and smiles

These are my 2 favorite looks from Camden.

Ok, lets face it, at this point he only has 2 looks. But they sure are cute.

Pouty face

and smiles

No Way . . .

Carter has started a new favorite phrase . . . It couldn't just be plain ol' "No."

He now must say "No Way!" to everything. Even if he really wants something, he says "no way' followed by "more peees"

Then, "tank uwww" and "uww wecome" all at the same time.

(and please don't notice his plate full of fries. He got ahold of mine and dumped them on his plate, over his baked potato, corn and black olives - 3 of his) favorites. I promise I don't feed him buckets of fries.

Can you say YEEE - HAW?

The joke I stole

Four football fans–a Colts fan, a Seahawks fan, a Chargers fan, and a Patriots fan–are climbing a mountain and arguing about who loves his team more.

The Indianapolis fan insists he is the most loyal. ‘This is for the Colts!’ he yells, and jumps off the side of the mountain.
Not to be outdone, the Seattle fan shouts, ‘This is for the Seahawks!’ and throws himself off the mountain.
The San Diego fan is next to profess his love for his team. He yells, ‘This is for everyone!’ and pushes the Patriot fan off the mountain.

Then I got this email

After my prior post, I thought this was fitting. . .

THINGS TO THINK ABOUT!

1. You spend the first two years of their life teaching them to walk and talk. Then you spend the next sixteen telling them to sit down and be still.

2. Grandchildren are God's reward for not killing your own children.

3. Mothers of toddlers and teens now know why some animals eat their young.

4. Children seldom misquote you. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn't have said.

5. The main purpose of holding children's parties is to remind yourself that there are children more awful than your own.

6. We childproofed our homes, but they are still getting in.

ADVICE FOR THE DAY:Be nice to your kids.They will choose your nursing home one day.

AND FINALLY:IF YOU HAVE A LOT OF TENSION AND YOU GET A HEADACHE, DO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE ASPIRIN BOTTLE:"TAKE TWO ASPIRIN"AND "KEEP AWAY FROM CHILDREN"!!!!!

A case of IBS

Normally this acronym stands for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

In our home it stands for Irritable Boy Syndrome.

Child #1 is responsible for testing just how far he can push me . . . and then see how much I love him all in one minute. Example: I have a broken finger (slammed it in the door in a rush to get to Sunday morning meeting) Carter knows Mommy has a booboo. He was a bit mad at me for changing his diaper (must be hard having a clean tushy) and looked at me, grabbed my bandaged finger and sqweeeezed as hard as he could with furry in his eyes. Why he gets so mad sometimes I haven't a clue and it seems to be happening more and more lately these little "on purpose" attempts to hurt me. So I promptly removed said monster from my finger and told him "That hurt, Mommy is sad now. When you are ready to say sorry you come find me. Until then time-out" I went into the next room and sat on the rocking chair folding laundry . . . in comes the tyrant. Lays his head on my leg, looks up with puppy dog eyes and says, 'saaawwwy mama" then smacks his pouty lips twice to give me a kiss. After that my finger felt much better but I am still at a loss for why the sudden attack.

Superdad does exist

Friday night, I wanted a girls night so Shanda, Amanda, Shannon and I went out to dinner and a movie. Carter, Cam and Bree stayed with Jeff. What an exciting date night for him! We went to a great Seafood restaurant, Cheesecake Factory for dessert and the movie P.S. I Love You. Jeff got to have Macaroni and Cheese, peas and apples, he played trains and colored with the kids. How lucky am I?

Bree jumping till her pigtails flew, while Carter entertains Camden. Probably telling him all about his train set.

Randomness

So, you see the small speaker on the far right of the shelf? Prior to the shelf, it was hanging in the center of the wall of our bedroom. Just a black blob on the wall, randomly. A total eye soar. I was not pleased. Jeff insisted it stay just there. Something about his need for the music to be symmetrical. He meticulously measured and spaced the speakers just right for proper listening pleasure. To tell you the truth I can't tell the difference between the new location and when it was sitting on the floor, I must be deaf, Jeff certainly thinks so.

With some good advice from my fabulous interior designer sister, we put up this shelf and hid the speaker with pictures of our "oh so precious" children. I like looking at this happy display when they are behaving like wild elephants.

I wasn't going to post this but he seems to do it alot. . .

I just wonder what he's trying to tell to me. . . you figure it out.

Pictures of the week

I was tidying up on Sunday and I collected all the shoes that were scattered through the living room. When I had a pair I put them on the staircase. When they were all lined up it hit me . . . as if I wasn't aware of it before. There are four Shepherds living in this house. I have 2 babies! I'm married . . . where does time go. When you see it like shoes lined up it becomes so real. You would think the endless diapers and meals and bath time bedtime rituals would have made me realize before . . .

Speaking of shoes, Carter loves to put any ones shoes on and try to walk around . . . he was doing pretty good this day.
Sunday morning, Jeff went up and got Carter and Cam and we headed back to bed for 5 more minutes of snuggles. Love these mornings
Carter, his horse and his egg.

(Thanks Auntie Erin for the beeping egg shaped alarm clock that Carter randomly sets . . .

I was awakened at 3:14am thanks to you . . .)

On a sad note, Carter had his first official time out today. Listening is not going well in our home lately. I am trying everything . . . Time out worked . . until he realized he can get up himself and I have to put him right back. Such a little guy, so much work.

Camden talks about trains

3 months of Camden