True Emotions

I wish I had time to write out all the crazy thing my children do but I don’t have that kind of time. It might just be easier to list the less crazy things they do each day. Anyhow I thought tonight to amuse you all I would list just a few of the crazy boy adventures that have taken place in my house over the last few weeks.

1-broke a light bulb to pick a lock to ask mom a question (I was in the shower)

2-dug a hole in the middle of the back yard. Why because we can. How deep is it? Well to the center of the earth or at least it will be when we are done.

3-went hunting for gold and since the door handles are gold took them apart to get every last bit of gold. (this one happened while I was doing stuff down stairs since our power was out)

4-became terrified of tornadoes when one came a little to close to our house and now insist on looking at the radar before leaving the house ever….and sometimes 3 or 4 times while outside just in case

5-decided to see what would happen if we took different objects and slid them down the stairs…books, stuff animals in a laundry basket, bin of play food…you get the picture. Results some items go down the stairs faster than others and make a cool mess that at the bottom. Mom told us that riding the laundry basket down the stairs was not a good idea and took away said laundry basket.

Ok that’s all I can think of right this min…all but the first are from the past 4 days <sigh> some days I wonder if I will survive my  boys childhood.

They say think outside the box I say we don’t need no stinking box but we might need additional insurance.

as I was looking through picture on my iPhone to find the one of the table for the last post I came across this picture from the week before and couldn’t stop laughing. Yup those are my boys and a ball of yarn. What are they doing you ask? Well making a lazier beam trap guaranteed to get rid of any and all bad guys….I had this beauty up in my house for about half a day before I just lost it but looking back it really is quite funny. Oh and this is just one room but the trap covered the entire down stairs of our house.

This is what happens when you have an engineer minded son (Ethan) team up with a creative spirit (Dan)

I’m not sure the rest of the world is ready for this team.

Last Sunday my sister came over for a visit and we decided to watch one of the Harry Potter movies together. We kind of have this thing were we go and see all the Harry Potter movies together..I know silly but I love it. Anyhow the boys were playing down stairs and Megan was sleeping so I thought a movie why not. We had just gotten settled in when I decided popcorn we needed popcorn. So pause the movie and down I go to make some. I’m standing in the kitchen watching the microwave because popcorn pops faster that way really. When I notice this smell. Not a good smell let me tell you. I sniff around the kitchen hmm nope not coming from there. So I walk out to were the boys are to find my dinning room table COVERED in hand sanitizer and hair jell. I’m not sure what this was suppose to accomplish or if they were just trying to finger paint. I was so mad that I knew I couldn’t deal with them in  a rational manner and since Jared was suppose to be watching them I told him to deal with it and headed upstairs to furiously eat my popcorn that I now wished had a good dose of chocolate. Hmm maybe I have discovered my reason for not loosing weight. Anyhow I get upstairs and look out the window and realize hey those clouds look kind of nasty. We have a series of tornado producing storms so why don’t I get on my computer and see how bad this storm is. Pull up stuff and realize oh ya the tornado sirens in Dexter are going off again. Basement time! Hmm how do punish kids who are  scared that they are going to be killed by a tornado? So after thinking about this for a few mins I decided that I needed to back off on the killing them thing and deal with the tornado you know at least until we could leave the basement.

I made the decision that Jared could deal with stuff that day but the real punishment would start in the morning. So Monday morning the boys were treated to a day of cleaning with mom. First they got to spend half an hour scrubbing my dinning room table. You see when you add hand sanitizer hair jell and a really old table this is what happens:

Yup that’s right it takes the finish right off. So if you ever need to refinish a piece of furniture this might come as handy knowledge. This is a picture taken with my iPhone of the boys scrubbing the table with soap and water to try and get it cleaned. After half an hour they were allowed to take a break and pick up the floor. After this they earned a short break to have a snack and a little bit of play time while I feed Megan. Then it was more table scrubbing I know I’m a mean mom. The point was that there messes are destructive and it takes me there mother all day to fix them sometimes while they are off making more messes. So to make a long story short they cleaned every room in my house Monday with short breaks to play if they were good. At the end of the day I asked them what they had learned. Ethan told me it’s hard work to clean and he doesn’t want to clean those kinds of messes any more. Dan said he was sorry about the table and that he couldn’t fix it. I really thought that for once i had gotten the point across. I honest to goodness did and I was so proud of my self for not beating them to death for killing my table.

Then Friday rolls around and I’m feeding Megan when both boys disappear. At first I think oh they just went down stairs no worries. Then I hear giggling…hmm ok they are playing in there room still no worries. Megan feel asleep so I took her to her bed which just happens to be right next to the bathroom. Then I smell it…that same smell from the other day and my heart just sinks and all I hear is giggling in the bathroom. Ethan hears me coming and tells dan I need to go and tries to make it out of the bathroom before I can see what has happened in there. To bad for him mom is not that stupid. I opened the bathroom door to find Dan sitting on the bathroom rug paining the floor with hand sanitizer…I mean there was a good cm thick coat on my whole bathroom floor!!! All I could see was red. WHY!?!? yup those were my exact words. I just didn’t understand why they would do this. I needed a min to collect my self so I gave them each a swat on the behind and sent them to their room while I pulled my self together. I went downstairs got the paper towels to clean the mess up and realized on the way back that this wasn’t my responsibility. I mean it is but that didn’t mean I needed to clean it up I had two boys who made the mess and were perfectly capable of cleaning it up. So I marched them both to the bathroom and handed them the paper towels. I stood outside the door and supervised. I did have to get a laundry basket to put the clothes covered in hand sanitizer in as well as the run. Then I got them the mop and Ethan mopped my bathroom. Dan got to put clothes in the washing machine.

So looking back at this week I can’t say that my children have learned anything but I can say that I have learned a thing or two.

I’ve learned that expecting my kids to just suddenly to stop making these type of messes is unrealistic. It is a process and it will take time but it is good to have them clean up their own messes. I am not a maid and it is the only way to make them responsible for the things they do. It is ok if they do the job the way I do it. This one is really hard for me but I guess they are teaching me. Cleaning can be fun. You can laugh while you clean and race to put things away and most of all my kids enjoy cleaning with me. If we clean together it takes me less time even if the end results are not perfect. My house has never been perfect in the clean department and it will get better.

We do have one new rule as of this week. No more hand sanitizer!!! No ifs and or buts. If you are caught with this illegal substance in my house you just might have to be taken out back and be shot.

What’s your latest project? For me it’s been photographing Megan wearing headbands. I totally fell in love with these headbands when I saw them on Etsy and voluntered to take a few pictures of them. By some good luck the etsy owner liked my work and was willing to pay me in headbands:) Great deal on my end. So I’ve turned Megan into my own personal model for the past week and we have been working on this little project. It’s been a lot of fun. I can’t wait for her fairy wings to come next week…did I mention I’m enjoying having a little girl to take pictures of?

Anyhow here are a few pictures of Megan and her new headbands.

Kind of crazy that she is modeling at 4 months but I guess that’s life when your mom is a photographer.

Here are a few sample pictures.

and if you are wondering who made these great headbands here is her etsy store:

Avy’s Boutique

Here are just a few of the crazy things my boys did today just to make everyone laugh.

1- Ethan and Daniel after a hot playdate decided they wanted to go swimming but were rather concerned that it might rain. The solution they both put on bathing suits and went swimming in the bathtub together. The best part was when the bob the builder hat had to be worn while in the tub and the other party was wearing the swimming goggles. Yes I did get some pictures of this but it just didn’t do it justice since I was dealing with Megan.

2-Ethan and Daniels gymnastics class had a summer fun day today so they got to wear there swim suits the highlight was when Ethan informed everyone that he was not wearing any underwear. Yup I felt so proud my face just glowed with it.

3- we have now found that it is important to ask Dan are you wearing underwear before leaving the house. You know it’s the question you ask right after do you have your shoes because chances are even though he has pants on underwear were forgotten. Want to guess who else didn’t underwear today?

4-After gymnastic (for Ethan) we went to Panera Bread to pick up dinner on the way home. So picture this Daniel walks in with shorts t-shirt and rain boots..ok that’s almost normal. Now Ethan on the other hand walk in in his wet suit bathing suit, bug crocks, and a sand pail on his head singing I was broccoli cheddar soup. Daniel on the other hand explained he would like bread and nothing else thank you very much. I did eventually convince him to get mac and cheese at least.

Well I guess I can never say my days are boring.

I said i would let everyone know when the first tip went up well i just posted it here is the link

www.fairytoes.com

This weeks tip is on f stops hope it helps

I used to really enjoy blogging and the truth is I still do but I’ve discovered blogging is hard for me right now. I’ll be honest right now life is a little hard. I am trying hard not to complain about it which is why there have been no blog post here. I’ve tried several time to sit down and write something but always end up hitting the backspace key saying no I don’t really want to say that. I’m just having a hard time focusing on the bright side these days though it will get better it always does. I’m back in the swing of my photography stuff which helps me. I know it sounds silly but photography is really what keeps me sane.

The kids are doing over all good. Megan just had her 4 month check up and is growing like a weed. She is now 12 pounds and in the 25 percentile. Way to go megs! She is also rolling over which has really put a new twist on trying to get things done around here. She flips from back to tummy so she’s not real happy with being on tummy time 24-7. However she is starting to learn that hey there are toys out there and yes I can grab that. She has also become quite the drool monster so I’m guessing a tooth is on it’s way…in a month or so.

Dan is doing great since his surgery and is so much happier. He just finished his first year of preschool. He is sad not to be going anymore and even had a 2 hour fit the other morning because Ethan got to go to school and he didn’t. He is also really enjoying his gymnastics class but we haven’t decided if we are going to take a break for the summer or not.

Ethan has a few more weeks of school left and is having a bit of a hard time with life right now. Church is especially bad…as a matter of fact I just got off the phone with the primary presidency who wanted to know what they could do to help…my response was I just don’t know I wish I did. He has made going to church unfun for all of us and we just keep hoping it will get better soon. I would say more on it but that would quickly go down hill but if anyone has suggestions I’m all ears. We have tried everything we can think of including send him to church with grandma. I still love him I just don’t know how to make life better for us all…and some weeks I’m just tired of fighting everyone.

Last I’m going to restart my 365 again soon. I discovered that starting my days on Sunday was not a good idea because I would forget to start my new theme until ohh 9 or there abouts. Also I needed to get more organized on the back end of things so maybe next week I’ll go for it again:)

I am going to do the photograph thing still so don’t worry people I just am still trying to pick my starting point and waiting to hear from a few more people.

This is one of the most commonly asked questions I get these days. I don’t mind helping others be able to take better pictures of their families so I’m working on putting together a series of blog post that will help people learn a few basics about taking better pictures. Once I get this started I will most likely be posting them on my photography website and will leave a link here when I do. So here is what I need from you all…what do you want to learn?  Leave me a comment saying what type of camera you are using and what you want to be able to do. Feel free to link to examples if that is helpful to you.

I don’t generally think of McDonald’s as a kind place or even a thoughtful one but yesterday made me reconsider my opinions. I picked Ethan up from school then took all three kids to those golden arches for lunch. I showed up and realized I had forgotten the stroller at home. Ok no big deal I would just have Ethan hold Dan’s hand and I could carry Megan. Well we made it inside the kids were totally into what toys were in the happy meals so even getting them to tell me what they wanted to eat was an issue. Finally we ordered our happy meals and diet coke only to have me realize umm how do I carry a tray and my daughter at the same time. I really didn’t want to leave her in the kids play area, yes I’m that paranoid I will admit it. So I asked the woman behind the counter if she could put my stuff in a togo bag just so I could carry it and I could come back for drinks. She gave me the look of oh I’ve been there and offered to just bring my food out to me. So I went and sat in the kids play area and let me kids do there thing and she not only brought us out our meal but came to check what kind of pop I wanted and went and got that for me to. So yesterday I was really grateful for kindness at a McDonald’s that made my life so much easier. Thank you random McDonald’s employee who cares about mom’s.

On also I’ve started a project 365 (this is taking apicture every day for the next year for those who don’t know) This week will have a theme if you interested you can find them at my flickr site

Don’t you just love lazy Sunday afternoons? I know I do. Lately it seems like finding time to just hang out as a family has become difficult. Jared is always going off to someplace be it for work, or rock climbing, or some other function. The boys have gymnastics, school, and Ethan also has swim lessons. Megan has the usual infant Dr visits. As for me, I’ve started up my photography business stuff again and I’m trying to be more than just a body in Young Women’s. Lazy Sunday were we don’t have any set plans seem to be our salvation right now.

Today I’ve so far been able to plan out a few things for Young Women’s next week and our FHE lesson for Tuesday   instead of Monday night (gymnastics and rock climbing are Monday nights). Now that I have that done I’m watching The Muppet Show with Ethan while the rest of our family is napping.

Thank goodness for Sundays that let you prepare for the week to come in so many ways.