Happy Belated Birthday

Okay, so we actually celebrated his birthday on the day, but I will just now finally blog about it over two weeks later, like I said, better late than never!
Grandpa and Grandma Loraditch kicked off the birthday celebration with the bomber jacket, pictured in a previous post. We get a comment everytime we go out now about that jacket, it is something special! Thanks again. Mitch and Kaela then got the ball rolling, literally, when they came over the Sunday before his birthday for an ice cream treat and a gift of their own. If Peyton makes it big in the majors, we'll owe you!
We try to make birthdays special in our house without a whole lot of to-do. This year we were going to through a birthday party for Peyton, but because we had our not party for the super bowl, we decided to lay low. So we invited just the granparents and aunts and uncles over for a birthday celebration. The local ones were able to come.

Daddy came home from work early so we could surprise the birthday boy with a his birthday gifts. We didn't really want a time where he sat down and everyone showered him with gifts, so we cleaned up the playroom and brought in the gifts that we got him, he was so excited.

Next Aunt Kelly came over and took Peyton out for a birthday surprise. It was very special to get to go somewhere all by himself. Not to mention all the things she spoiled him with.

Some of these balloons are still alive and kicking (and being fought over) at our house! Next Nana and Papa and Mandie and Matt and all the cousins came over. I made chicken tetrazini, something easy for a whole bunch of people. We all enjoyed our dinner and then Nana and Papa gave Peyton his gifts. A really cute hawkeye Jersey, some long underwear, a wallett and a truck just like his uncle Mark drives. They were great gifts and we are very appreciative.

Of course we couldn't forget the birthday spankin's. Papa couldn't quite figure out how to count to three, so he asked peyton to help him after quite a few attempts at giving more than three spankin's. So he asked Peyton, how old are you again? P-Three, Papa- Okay, then count to three for me, P- "Three". The whole room erupted in laughter! They totally thought Peyton was the smartest kid ever for starting at three. Papa didn't even spank him anymore. Little do they all know, Peyton just doesn't know how to count! Oh well, we'll have to take that up with his teacher...

After dinner we all enjoyed the highlight of the night... Banana Splits! I for one am not a big banana fan, but they were delicious. Peyton is not a big cake fan so we opted for a special Ice cream treat instead.

Everyone seemed to enjoy their banana split, but none as much as Tim!

Thanks to everyone who made Peyton's birthday special. You all were so nice and attentive to him, he really enjoyed turning three. The gifts were so not necessary, but we totally appreciate them. Happy Birthday Buddy, we love you. And speaking of Buddy, a final picture to close the post, Peyton dancing on his birthday to his favorite, Buddy Holly!

How do I do this again?

So it has been a while, this I know. Even my sister has blogged twice since I last blogged. It isn't that I haven't been coming to my blog. In fact, I would come most everyday and watch the "got your tickets" video, I just haven't had anything, positive, to say. So I learned from my mother, if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Hence the silence.

It was really hard to blog nice things about my kids when they had been driving me nuts. I am not exactly sure why, maybe it is because we had a taste of spring and then an overdose of winter. Maybe it is because we had a birthday and an overdose of toys, I don't know, but there was havoc in the household. I am not one for letting havoc rule the house so I had to come up with some solutions. So over the course of two days we instituted a no toy day, a spitting cup, a punching pillow and a crying mattress. I also rewrote our house rules on posterboard, explained them to Ronni and Peyton and had them sign it and then put it on the wall of the play room.

So far we have had great results. The no toys thing, surprisingly, worked really well. They had a hard time understanding at first, but then didn't really complain much. In the week since I haven't heard near the amount of fighting over toys as I had heard in the two days before implementing the rule, and if they do fight I simply remind them of their no toy day and encourage them to make good choices because, say it with me kids, "Toys are a privelage!" Today has been a no toy day and it has been awesome! I love how moldable children are at this age, as well as compliant, if either of them see a toy, they don't hide it or try to play with it in secert, they promptly tell me about it and then run to put it on the porch. They have been so great that next week they don't have a no toy day, as long as they continue to be good.

Peyton isn't nearly as interested in spitting (thanks Sadie, for that great advice) and loves to punch his pillow (thanks again Sadie), Ronni still cries but is getting better about being talked through it. The rules on the wall have really helped me to be a better, more consistent teacher. It is also a good visual tool for the kids, especially Peyton, I would take him to the rules each time he broke one, point it out, show where he signed his name and then give him his consequence.

It has taken some work but the house has gotten back under control. Don't get me wrong, it is still crazy, after all it is still a house with three children 4 and under but at least the havoc has subsided... for now.

the toy room on our no toy day, all they had were books and their imaginations, no wonder our grandparents used hard labor to keep their kids busy!

So the long blogging drought is over, hopefully the winter is too. In fact I will probably post again really soon to recap peyton's birthday. Better late than never!

For Sarah

My sister in law taught this to my children. Often our kids will ask us out of the blue if we have our tickets. This little scene unfolded at dinner, so we recreated it for the video camera. Enjoy!

(for anyone that needs a translation: they aks us,"Do you got your tickets,

"tickets to what?" they blow up their muscles and say, "to the gun show")

Also, Ronni begged me to take a picture of her the other day, so I did. Afterwards she asked, will you put that on your blog? I don't know why I was surprised she knows what a blog is, she's always asking me about my email. It is amazing what kids pick up! We had some great weather here a couple of days in a row. We went on a few walks, have had the windows open and generally, the household had a pretty good atmosphere. Yesterday was dry enough for us to get outside and play on the swing set. We had fun while it lasted, reality check- snow is in the forecast for Friday- 6-12 inches.

The Truth Comes Out

So some of you may remember a few weeks ago when I posted "We Survived". Well, I may have fibbed a little bit in that post. It is true that my kids spent the whole weekend eating junk food and watching movies downstairs, but Kaela and I did not. We spent the whole weekend painting my parents house! It was a family effort for sure, and it just reminds me why I love my family so much. Kaela and I got to work friday night after Tim left, we painted all day Saturday, with the help of my cousin as a babysitter. Then on Sunday, Mandie and Matt came over and we painted the rest of the walls, with the help of my sister Kelly as a babysitter! Tim came over after FuTon Weekend and provided Matt with some help, in the form of crappy beer... let me just tell you that the edging in the entry way was much neater before Tim got there! I think Matt had fun though. He really did do the hardest part, which was painting the very high ceiling entry way. The next few weeks were spent putting everything back together. Mandie creatively rearranged the living room and the basement. Then with the help of my aunt Tricia, we decorated the windows and put some other finishing touches on the room to tie everything together.

Everything was all set for when my mom arrived home last night. Here is her reaction!

I am not sure which surprised her most, the painting or that almost all of her children and grandchildren were there to receive her when she got home past 10 o'clock!

A Little Game

This will probably be pretty easy for most of you. Every time whe have a new baby we take pictures of him/her in one special outfit. You may be wondering what makes it special, was it made by someone we love? Or perhaps one of us wore it as a child? Nope and nope. I bought it off of ebay and I am pretty sure we never wore anything like it when we were children. Still my husband loves that I dress the kids in it. Can you guess which kid is which?

Leave a comment if you want and leave your guess with their name labeled child#1, #2, and #3. I am sure that this isn't probably hard, but I think it is fun. I wonder if Tim will get it right!

A Surprise Visit

Nana and Papa Loraditch stopped by last night. It was really nice to get to see them and visit for a while. Their grandchildren were very happy. Here are a few pictures from the night. Thanks for stopping by Tim and Jeannette, we always love seeing you.

The coat Peyton is wearing in this picture is his birthday present from Nana and Papa L. It is an airforce coat, and he loves it! It is super cute! Thanks again.

Super Bowl Sunday

We decided not to have a super bowl party this year. The coversation with Tim went something like this, "Hey honey, should we have a party for the super bowl this year?" "No, Tim, I don't think so since we are going to have a birthday party for Peyton later this month." Well one thing led to another and then all of a sudden we had a big super bowl party on our hands, with tons of food and beverage and lots of good family and friends.
We started off with a little Rock band, and slowly but surely most everyone joined in. We ended up playing rockband until right before the super bowl started. I totally meant to get a picture of our All Saint's band. We had four members of our chuch rocking out together, it was pretty cool. Here is a picture of two of them!

I am really thankful that I have such neat family and friends. It was pretty amazing that we had friends that we know from many different places, as well as all of my siblings, together all night (in our little house) and it was never akward. Everyone just seemed to get along really well and had enough in common that they could find something to talk about. It was the easiest party I have ever thrown, you guys sure do make it easy to be a hostess. Not to mention all the food everyone brought! Tyson sure enjoyed the pumpkin bars, thanks Maria!

Then of course there was the football game. Some people started to leave about half time, not sure if it had anything to do with the half-time entertainment and the beautiful glasses everyone donned. Those of us that did stay to watch the rest of the game weren't dissappointed (except for that whole Pittsburg winning thing) it was a really exciting second half, at least the last five minutes were pretty exciting. All in all it was a great "not" party, and I really have to throw those more often. I didn't really stress about it, except for the day of, and Mandie helped to make it so I really didn't need to stress at all. I hope everyone that came had a good time, although I am not too sure if Leah had much fun, this picture is of her in the midst of Creighton and Bethany playing Rockband around her, she slept through all of the Rockband fun! (if you look real close at the top picture you can see her sleeping, so cute!)