My Hay

I know it's not her birthday but I wanted to show off some of the pictures we had taken of her when we had our family picture taken.
















When I took her to the Dr awhile back she still only weighs 35 pounds but at least she's gotten taller. She's now in Size 6 clothes. This is the first time in her life she's been in the size clothes that she's suppose to be. She always been a size or two behind. Thank goodness for the pants with the cinch on the inside So I can make the waist smaller for her.



Because she had the flu we missed her parent teacher conference so her teacher called me and we had a phone conference. She said she's wonderful to have in her class. She had to work with her on not tattling, which she said she has gotten better at. I told her to let me know her secret because I still can't break her of the tattling. She is doing good in all of her subject. She is excelling in reading at the beginning of the year she read 37 words a minute, and now she's reading 147 she is officially at the top her class in reading. She is doing OK in Math but not great. She was doing 4 digits a minute at the beginning of the year and now is doing 10. One of her problems is she will write down the answer to her math problem and then go around the paper and find all the same question and put the answer. Her idea is sound but the problem is she's doesn't always have the correct answer. But that's not her fault that's all Ryan's fault he said he use to do the same thing. So it must be genetic. The only other problem Mrs. C said is she likes to play the poor little girl, at the end of the day when they have to put there cubby away and there chair up on the desk, if Mrs. C. isn't right by her she'll start to fuss that it's to heavy, and one of the boys will run over and do it for her. Little stink she has already learned to use her cuteness to work the boys. If Mrs. C. Says anything Hailey will say "Well I am the littlest in the class"


I have started calling her the little mother. She asked me one day why do you call me that and I told her. "Because you think your the boys mother." she said to me "I'm not there mother you are" so I told her. "I know I'm there mother, but you think you are" She's constantly scolding them and telling them what to do. I feel kind of bad for them sometimes. Most kids have 1 mom but the boys have 2 Me and Hailey.

I was going next door to barrow some eggs and the kids were playing and watching cartoons so I told Hailey to watch the boys and keep them from hurting themselves or each other. So I went next door and got some eggs and started back. I was gone maybe 2 minutes. As I start up the walk I can hear Ben and Jacob both screaming and crying. As I run inside I hear Hailey say "And when you can be nice you can come out" Jacob is sitting on the floor crying and Ben is on the other side of the locked baby gate screaming and shaking the gate. I ask Hailey. "What happened?" She tells me "Ben hit Jacob with a toy and so now he's in time out" I check on Jacob his head isn't bleeding, so I comfort him and then I get Ben out of "Time out" and Hailey says to me "Hey he wasn't done with his time out yet"











She's so funny she just cracks me up all the time. She has this big vocabulary, and she says adults words Ryan and I say, and she uses them in the right context. It just cracks us up.

Mommies little cowboy.

Jacob left his Cowboy hat on the floor, Ben picked it up and put it on, and took it off, put it on and took it off. He was so cute. I just loved it. I think he knew how much I was enjoying it because for once he let me take his picture. He kept getting really close to me. But usually as soon as I get the camera out he tries to get on the back side so he can see the screen instead of staying in front of it. I'm not sure why but Jacob doesn't call it his "Cowboy Hat" he calls it his "Cowboy" So Jacob wanted to know why Ben was wearing his Cowboy.

He's a little Monkey

a few months ago Hailey and I were watching a show on baby orangutans and she kept saying how cute they were, and I said they reminded me of baby Ben but with hair. Well I think I jinxed myself because in the last couple of weeks he has started climbing everything.

Our couches can flip up to make recliners, so we sit on them with our feet up a lot. One morning I came out from the bathroom, and he was up on the couch banging on my computer.

I was in Hailey's room wrapping up her breakables to get ready for the carpet guy to come, and he found something he shouldn't have had, so I took it from him and put it up on a high shelf and went back to what I was doing and I heard him behind me, I turned around and he had climbed up on the first shelf, and if he'd been an inch taller he would have been up on the second shelf.

I don't let me kids grunt or yell at me, I do sign language with them it works well but anyway I have been working on "Please" with him and he wanted his sippy cup and he wouldn't sign milk which he already knows and he wouldn't sign please either he just stood there and yelled at me. So I said fine be that way and I sat it on the table. I turned around to go in the other room, and I heard the chair squeak and I turned around and he had climbed up in the chair to get his cup.

The big kids were up on our bed with me they were watching cartoons, and I was working on my computer and he was on the floor playing with toys and he decided he wanted up on the bed but I was trying to ignore him because I knew he would try to get on my computer. My bed is as tall as Ben is, and next thing I knew he was up on the bed with me. So I put him back on the floor which didn't make him happy but I wanted to see if he could do it again. So he used the food storage boxes that are under the bed to stand on, then put his little Monkey toes in between the box spring and the mattress and then clawed himself up the sheets until he got up top.

I don't know what I'm going to do with this little monkey. I know it's hard to believe, I'm so wonderful now =) but I was a horrible toddler. I was my mom's trial. Climbing book shelf's, not wanting to hold hands, standing up in baskets which by the way he also does. He's so skinny that even if I buckle him in he still wiggles his way out stands up and tries to jump out. He's my trial, I think the lord sent him to me to teach me patients.

New Floors

Thanks to a Family friend we got new carpet, and new tile in our bathrooms. It's really nice and it looks so much nicer then what we had. I'm not sure it was worth it though. We had someone come in and put it in but It was so much work getting ready for them. It was all the work of moving because we had to pack everything up and move it to the back porch. Without the reward of a new house at the end. Oh well it's done now , but now we have a gazillion boxes to unpack.

Sneaky little boy

I don't have a lot of storage in my kitchen so we keep our extra food in boxes under our bed. With that being said, Ben was in the living room playing with toys, and I went in to my office and he followed me, but then turned around and ran back into the living room. A few minutes later I hear crinkle, crinkle, crinkle. Concerned as to what he was into, I went back into the living room, to find the stinky little boy with a bag of daddy chips as my kids call them. In the minute he was by himself, he had gone into my bedroom gotten under the bed and gotten a bag of chips out. He was trying his hardest to get that bag of chips open. Lucky for me, he hasn't mastered that yet.

My Valentines Day

My love bugs, I love holidays. I love to buy the kids cute shirts, and take pictures of them. Growning up my parents gave us a book for valentines day so we have continued that with our kids. For valentines day they get a book and some candy. It's nothing huge but the kids love it.

Ryan and I tell each other we love each other all the time, so we don't need a holiday to show our love, but your can never show the people you love them to much. Neither of us our real high maintenance people so we usually exchange cards and a small gift. We happened to buy each other books. Poor Ryan though I gave him an IOU. I hadn't had time to get to the church book store to get the book he really wanted. But Ryan also bought me these lovely flowers. We're not so much about gifts as we are about getting some time together. So we got a sitter and went on a date.

Painting

A family friend gave us a bunch of brand new carpet, so we had to pack up the house to have it put in. So Ryan decided that this would be a could time to repaint the kitchen, bathrooms, and hallway. Those are the only areas of our house that we didn't paint when we moved in. Since we've been in this house 4 years, and 3 kids have abused the walls they were looking pretty bad. So He taped every thing up and started painting while I continued packing box's. Ben really felt like he needed to help every step of the way.

The picture doesn't do this justice. I had used the box to keep the Baby gate closed so Ben couldn't get in the hallway with Ryan. But Ben didn't appreciate that very much, so he climbed up on the box and stood there and yelled at Ryan.

When he got tired of yelling at Daddy, he came in to my office and climbed in the box I was trying to pack. He thinks he's helpful, but he's really not.

When we painted the kitchen we let the big kids help. We had to go back over it with a roller when they were done to even out there painting, but they enjoyed themselves. But poor Ben we put him in the saucer so that he couldn't help us.

Boys in the Tub

Two cute boys in the tub. Do you think they could get more toys in the tub with them?

In Brothers Ball Cap

The big kids put Jacob's baseball hat backwards on Ben. He looked so cute.

Jacob thought it was really funny that Benners had his hat on.

Ben's firstt trip to the Park

I hate to take toddlers to the park. They eat the sand, they wander off, and they are trouble. Poor Ben's always been confined either in the stroller or in my sling. We went to the park with Renee and Lucas, Some of the gals in the neighborhood get together for a weekly play date. But I got brave and I decided to let him loose and see what would happen.

He did really well, he dug in the sand but didn't eat it. The only time he tried to stray away from me was when he tried to fallow the big boys down the grassy hill. The only problem we had was when he wanted to wander away from the picnic tables with his snack and rub his gram cracker in the sand and then try to eat it. He was so cute and good I guess we'll have to try it again.

Super Bowl Sunday

I love Super Bowl Sunday. I don't actually watch the game, but I love the fun food, and having everyone over.

The kids didn't really understand what exactly was going on but they new everyone was coming over and we were having a party. So they were really excited. On the way home from church Hay asked me if she could help me set up for the party, and I said yes, so she asked it she could put the decorations up. I explained that I hadn't bought any decorations. She made a bunch of annoyed noises and a few minutes later asked well can I make some when we get home. I told her of course she could. So i am including pictures of the decorations she made and I think they are great for a 6 year old. She made streamers in the teams colors, and a bird for the cardinals, and a football with the word stealer's.