Works for Me

If anyone has ever wanted a pretty good resource for parenting, here is the best one I have found. It is called, Rasing Godly Tomatoes, and it is basically a book online. It is pretty straight forward and easy to read. Here is the hyperlink, I would encourage you to check it out. It has everything from Potty training to sitting still in church to sibling rivalry. There are somethings I actually do disagree with, but it is the closest thing I have found to be, in my opinion, a good parenting style- online. It may not work for everyone, but it works for me!Here is the book, it is by L. Elizabeth Krueger. I have never bought a parenting book before, and to be honest have never really read one either, I am seriously considering purchasing this book, if that tells you how good I think it might be!

Giant Heads

So a few weeks ago Ronni asked me out of the blue, "Mom can we go and see the giant heads?" Giant heads, what the heck is she talking about? But the kids didn't drop it, finally this past weekend, they showed a placemat I had purchased that has all the presidents on there and a picture of said giant heads. Sure enough our kids just requested we go and visit Mount Rushmore! So now, Tim and I are planning our first whole family vacation! The kids are super excited to know that sometime after peyton turns four and Ronni is almost six we are going to get to go. So excited in fact, every morning since Peyton has asked us if he is four. We are gearing up to start homeschooling and I am pretty sure I have found a year long topic in which to study! Thanks, kids, get ready to learn about the giant heads.

To Grandmother's House We Go

Life has been a little crazy around here lately, and when I say crazy, I mean the really overwhelming, when can mommy ever get a break-- kind of crazy. So we are leaving for a weekend. Which is good and bad. Good because mommy gets a break, going to grandma's is relaxing for me and something new and exciting for the kids. The kids will have a new atmosphere to get used to and new toys to play with, I am sure they will get bored and start acting up, but that will take a bit of time, right? Plus my mom and dad are going with me, so that should be fun. It is bad because, all good things come with a price. For me that price is packing and getting ready to go to grandma's. I can't just leave my house a complete and total disaster, which is it's current state right now. My kids' clothes won't pack themselves, and my kids themselves aren't really cooperating with the whole, mommy doesn't want to hear you cry right now, mood I am in. So what am I doing, blogging to appease my sister, while at any given time one or more kids are screaming, the dogs are barking and my house is still messy and my kids clothes are still not packed. Oh the life I am in... The funny thing is, it would only take about an ounce of effort to right this ship, but yet I still can't seem to muster that energy. The pain of being a lazy bones... I'm working on this, some days are just harder than others.

Anyway,I'll post some pictures so this post isn't just a ventfest....
Ronni was hamming it up for the camera once again, this was like the third shot, she decided she liked her smile in this one. This girl is absolutley adorable right now, I don't know why I am having such a hard time. She has a really good understanding of what her body is telling her to do and what her mommy wants her to do, and understands why there is a consequence when she listens to her body over her mom. In fact just yesterday I heard her telling her cousin that she wasn't making a good choice and asked her to stop listening to her body. It was so funny.


Peyton on the other hand is a handful. He understands what listening to his body means, too a typical conversation would go like this: Mommy- Peyton clean up your toys. P- doesn't listen and continues to play, M- Peyton what is your body telling you to do, P- Play with my toys, M- What is mommy telling you to do, P- clean up my toys, M- Who are you going to listen to? P- My body. Go figure. No wonder he is driving me nuts right now! This picture Ronni actually took, she is my little photographer! Notice his first black eye. At this point in Ronni's life she had already had 5 black eyes. I tell people it was his consequence for listening to his body...
Felicity is getting really big as well. She is five months now and not rolling over. I figure it is a combination of her being really crabby most of the time (gas) two siblings and two dogs. She doesn't spend a whole lot of time on her tummy. Another thing we are working on...