The Bottomless Pit

I have been reading Parenting Illustrated with Crappy Pictures. It is the funniest.thing.ever! She just blogs about her daily life with her 4 and 2 year old boys. She did a post about the contents of her purse before and after kids and it reminded me of this....

This is all of the stuff I had in my diaper bag at one time. As I was taking everything out it just seemed like a bottomless pit! Stuff kept coming out. I no longer have that diaper bag. And I can't even remember what I had in my purse before children. I know one day there won't be a need to carry all of this stuff as the kids get older. But there is one thing I don't think I will ever be without....

WIPES!!!! Those things are amazing. :) 

So, if you are ever having a bad day with the kids, just go check out her site and have yourself a good laugh, and know that you are not alone. (even though you may be outnumbered!) 

Hurricane Irene

Here are some pictures of the aftermath of hurricane Irene.

 In the above picture you can see 3 of our trees that fell. On the right are 2 trees that were about 10 feet from the side our our house. The top of the tree that goes straight to the left is against the neighbors house. It hit another tree on it's way down and that one is leaning against the neighbor's house. All you can see of the 3rd tree is the root ball. It fell across the road.

Here is the third tree as it blocked the road.

Here is the neighbor's yard. This tree tore up the water line to their house which is why the hole is so full of water. I found their shutoff valve and closed it so it would stop flooding the yard. This tree also fell across the road, blocking it completely.

 This is the neighbors house with our tree against it and another leaning on it.

The root ball of the third tree with M standing in front for perspective.

We were very blessed that none of the trees fell on our house and that we were only without power for about 24 hours. The eye of the storm passed by around 8 or 9 pm Saturday night about 60 miles to our south east.

Dinner Conversation

We had spaghetti last night for dinner and here are a couple of things we heard:


Milaya: I don't want to eat it. 
Brock: Sorry, too bad, so sad. (mom and dad laugh) 
Brock: What? That's what you two say! 


A little later


Hayden: Whoa that's a big one! With his eyebrows raised (meaning the big bite on his spoon)
Family: laughing
Hayden: doh, I broke it! (his food fell off of his spoon onto his plate)


These kids are funny somtimes. :) 


I love them. 

Calling All Superhero's!

Yes, this is way overdue, but I had a minute or two and thought...post. JUST DO IT!

So, Brock's birthday was in March and we did it at the end of Feb because I had a client due and I didn't want to miss his party! He wanted a Superhero themed party. I tried once again to make a cake that I saw online. Well, now I can't find the link to it anymore. Maybe that isn't such a bad thing ;) Anyway, here is how mine turned out.

I didn't realize that you didn't have to put the fondant in the fridge. When I did, it dried it out pretty good. Again, lesson learned. 

So anyway on to the fun stuff. B had some of his little friends over and we had one of my hubby's friends be the "bad guy". He came in dressed in black and threw "bombs" (black water balloons) at the kids to defuse by stepping on them. They also got to decorate their own superhero mask and take it home. Somehow, I didn't get any pictures of them doing that. :(

 Some of the kids weren't too sure what to do. It was so loud with the popping and kids yelling, but it was hilarious. Thanks George. 

After we ate cake, we went outside and the kids sprayed their "spider webs" (silly string) on the bad guy and chased him around the yard. 

 This one was right before Brock sprayed me and the camera. Silly boy. 

Carl knocking the bad guy (A.K.A. Dad) down. 

He was so excited to open his presents and to find all the good stuff he got. Thanks to all. :) Over all, I think we had some pretty happy superheros on our hands! 

P.S. Pictures of the decorations coming soon. Gotta get them off of my phone! ;) 

Resolution and Randomness

Does anyone still make new years resolutions and keep them? I have never been one to do that, but I do want to be better about keeping up with my blogs. I have a family one and a crafty one. I need to start another one for my Doula stuff, but I keep thinking of the upkeep of that too and that seems overwhelming sometimes. I sometimes forget about the blogs because I post things to Facebook that everyone is addicted to posts too!

So, it is February already and a lot has happened. I had a birth at the beginning of January. Went great. Mom and baby are doing well. I had a birthday, went on a date with my hubby to an Italian place for lunch. SOOO GOOD! I could eat there every day if my budget allowed. Got a new calling at church to teach in Primary with Brian. Met with more clients. Went to a Hypnobirthing class. Then proceeded to catch the flu and have it pass to everyone in my family but one. That was one expensive week! We spent $350 just on Tamiflu. It helped and is continuing to help. I got it first then two days later Brock and Brian. Two days after that, Hayden. Then two days after that, Hali! CRAZY! I am so glad that Milaya hasn't gotten it. I hope that she doesn't. It is really frustrating to have sick kids and be sick yourself. Oh well, I know...suck it up!

Anywho, we are all getting better. So I am just going to put up some random pics of the past few months. I will probably do a separate post for Christmas pics.

Yes, he is in the dryer. What possessed them to do that I have no idea. At least they can't reach the button to turn it on.  

His usual craziness.  

I don't remember why I put the skirt on him, but it was funny to see Brian's reaction to it! Hmmm...maybe that is why I did it! ;) I wore that skirt when I was like 5. He isn't quite two. Sad. 

Isn't he just the cutest! 

I know...random. I had the windows open and kept hearing things. Looked out the back porch window and saw this. DANG SQUIRRELS!  They crawl across the screened in porch all of the time! 

Again...isn't he just the cutest!  

His new eyebrow trick.  

Drop your sword!  

I love my chicken...gotta have my chicken!  

Milaya helping clean up the leaves in the yard. She was so excited to use the blower.  

Cheese! 

Happy New Year!

Hayden wishes y'all a Happy New Year!

To play or not to play?

 Photograph by Milaya Bealer on my Droid phone

 

As I was reading a blog that I look at quite a bit lately, I saw this post by Miss Mustard Seed about Raising Creative Children. Brian and I have been trying to get Milaya to practice her piano and enjoy doing it. She HATES to practice. Throws a fit every time we say it is time to practice.  She is really good and can even play some things by ear, but she gets so frustrated. Then we get frustrated with her because she is being too hard on herself. She is good. Why can't she see that? We tell her that, her teacher tells her that. I just hope that as a parent I haven't failed in teaching her that she doesn't have to be perfect. So hence the reference to Miss Mustard Seed. I think that she did WAY too much. Her parents must have been COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED! But she did have a good point that her parents wanted her to try different things. She didn't have to be good at them, they just wanted her to try. That is all that we want for Milaya. 

She begged to let me let her take ballet when she was younger...I did. Then she wanted to quit halfway through the year saying she was "bored". So I got tired of the throwing fits and whining, so I let her quit. Then last year she BEGGED me to let her play the piano. We enrolled her in lessons and she was cruising through the books doing really well. Then after one year she wanted to quit. We didn't let her. Now we are going through the same thing of not wanting to practice, crying at the piano, sulking and wasting her practice time, begging me to let her quit. We have tried setting a specific time for her to practice and that hasn't worked. We have tried to reward her with money if she practices. That didn't/isn't working. She really wants an Ipod or mp3 player and we have discussed that as a reward at the end of the year. Something to be working towards. That doesn't seem to be working either. We have asked her why she wants to quit and we get the same answer....it's boring.

WHY DO KIDS NOT UNDERSTAND YOU HAVE TO LEARN THE BASICS BEFORE YOU GET TO THE FUN STUFF?!?!? 

I mean, I want to ring her little neck, I love her so much, but geez louise! I remember taking piano when I was young so I called my mom the other day and asked her if I ever did that. She said sometimes. I remember not liking to practice. Now I wish I would have practiced. I wish I would have stuck with it. I can sit down and pick things out, but I can't play well. I chose another path. Dance. She said that I never complained about going to dance class. I never felt that way. I loved it. One day I hope to find out what that one thing is for her so she can start to develop her talents that I know she has. 

Brian even asked his mom (since she teaches piano) of what to do. I think that she had some great suggestions on what to try next. At this point I am willing to try anything to just get her to practice and try. Here are some things that she suggested.

*Is she getting too many songs to practice?

*Is there something bothering her about the lessons or learning to play?

*Maybe we need to let her take a break and revisit the issue when she is older.

 * play through their songs 3 times each every day.  

*have them play one song each day 3 X then the next day play another song 3 times. ( The trick is is have them practice a little every day for short periods of time so that it establishes a routine. 

Can I just say that I LOVE MY MOTHER IN LAW! She said some things that made complete sense. Hopefully we can try these things and it will make a difference. Like she said too...I just want them to have a love of playing the piano and an appreciation of music. 

That is all that I wish for you sweetheart. I love you.

But the question is still there...to make her play or not to play? 

This is Milaya playing "Fur Elise" by ear. After hearing me play it. She has also figured out part of the theme song to Harry Potter.