Christmas Card/Letter 2012

For our Christmas card/letter I had the idea of having it book themed, centered around the books that defined our year, so of course, a library was the perfect location!  I envisioned a picture of us sitting together reading, not realizing that my husband would think this was totally lame (he did it anyway).  Each year I think I'll start earlier, maybe even book a professional photographer and every year... I last minute ask one of my talented friends to snaps some pictures for us.  This year felt like a real photo session, thanks for my wonderful friend Johanna.  I have learned to go into photos with my family with zero expectations, but the boys did pretty good, and even had a little fun.  So my vision all came together, with outfits we already had (I just sewed up some bow ties with fabric I already had) and my amazing friend/sister found my dress at a thrift store! I absolutely love it! Maybe next year, I'll actually write the "Christmas Letter" before Christmas, instead of in February... we shall see.

 

AND... here's some reality!

Meow.

 Yesterday, Brody found the dress ups that I keep in Wyatt's closet.  He put on a 6-12 month costume he wore TWO years ago as Baby Jaquar from Diego (it was too small then)... and he wore it ALL DAY LONG! I thought it was too hilarious.  He even wore the mitten things, and kept telling me that he was a cheetah and could run really fast, and he didn't have any claws, so he couldn't climb very high, and other random facts about himself as the cheetah.  When I showed Shawn the pictures his comment was, "You let him walk to pick up Orin in that!"

Oh, yes I did! Why? Because, who am I to take away from his creativity, and frankly, I have to choose my battles.  Plus, every time I looked at him, it make me laugh!! He sure makes a cute cheetah! 

Meow.

A Kiss...

...to hold onto!

As my children are growing older, as more are added, and now that I'm a stay-at-home mom, these motherhood quotes pretty much sum up my life as a mom...

"Motherhood is not for sissies!" 

"There was never a child so lovely but his mother wasn't glad to get him to sleep."

 -Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Mothers are all slightly insane." -J.D. Salinger

"Being a full time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs- since the payment is pure love." -Mildred Bremont

"There is no way to be a perfect mother, and a million ways to be a good one." -Jill Churchill

"The mother of boys work son up to son down."

"Mother is a verb, not a noun."

"All mothers are working mothers."

There are days that I just feel done: exhausted, patience sucked dry, feeling inadequate, frustrated, helpless, & directionless, physically abused (Wyatt has a mean whack & kick), mentally abused (as I am told, "I don't like you, Mom! You are a meany! I'll never listen to you!" )

And yet...

there are so many moments during the day where I just stop and think how lucky I am to be a mom. The kiss that Ory blows me when I take him to school, the cute conversions I get to have with Brody (today he was telling me all about the farm animals he wants to get for the backyard), the sponteous hugs I get from Wyatt all day (even a kiss if I'm lucky), all make it perfectly imperfect.
Definitely worth it.
I love them more than words can describe.

And, they are all asleep. 

Which makes tomorrow seem possible!

Avengers- family style

Since I started working on my boys' Super Hero room, last February, I had a vision of having large posters of our family dressed in Super Hero costumes!  So, this year the Halloween costumes were a no-brainer!  I let the boys, well Orin and Brody, decide who they wanted to be, and knew Shawn would make an incredible Hulk! After telling Shawn how cool I thought it would be if he painted his face, arms and legs, his response was, "I'm not doing that!"
I was stressing.
Was he going to not go along with my vision?
 I would ask him about what he wanted to do for his costume, and he would just say, "I'll take care of it."  Now that I think about it, I'm not sure why I doubted him.  He is really the one that has the good ideas about things.  He has this ability to just know how to do things!  This was no different!  He looked awesome.  The kids were so excited to see him! I'm pretty sure this was the easiest family photo, ever.  If you want your kids to cooperate for pictures, just dress them up!
So without further ado, my I present.. our version of...

THE AVENGERS!

      

(I was just going to use a tripod, but luckily there was some random workers downtown & he snapped the group shots for me).
My sister hooked me up with the frames (she works at the company that sells frames to KMart, Target, etc) and when I put the prints in the posters frames and showed the boys their response was, "That is AWESOME!"

 Photos of the boys' room coming soon.

First Day of Preschool

Brody started preschool a few weeks after Orin started kindergarten.  I am doing a preschool co-op with some of the moms from Orin's group last year, which for me is just a nice reminder of how grateful I am that I get to stay home with the kids!  Brody was pretty excited to get to go to school too (although, he kept telling me it's not real school because it's just at his friend's house). 

That morning, Brody got to pick his breakfast.  He, of course, wanted pancakes!  So he helped me make pancakes, with colors (food coloring). 

The boys also requested that I make Mickey Mouse pancakes.  Usually, I only make pancakes on the weekends, so this was a nice treat (Wyatt especially looks excited)!  

"New" backpack passed on from his brother. Check!
New shoes. Check!
Pictures by the front door. Check!
School mix. Check!
He was ready.

 Last year, I did Orin's group (see here) and this year some of the same moms are in the group again.  I think it's so fun taking first day of school pictures. Definitely the teacher in me.  And since I no longer have my own first day of school, I get to just enjoy my kids' first days!

I took Brody's pictures first, cause let's face it... my kids are the hardest to photograph by far!  Brody was totally being silly and trying to hide from the camera! Surprised? Not at all.

Two hours later, it was time to pick him up.  This teacher said he was under the table and she had to ask him to be her helper to get him out (but he's not doing that anymore, for now).
I asked him a few questions:

What was your teacher like?
She is nice. She tells us to listen.

What did you do?
Watched "Cheesecake Factory" (Letter Factory, see above) and had a snack.

Brody wanted to wait to go to McDonald's after we picked Orin up from school and Shawn was able to come too.  The boys even got Happy Meals AND an ice cream cone! Spoiled!

Time-Out

I put myself in time-out!  As I watched my boys throw their dinner (mostly Wyatt), and then smash in into my freshly mopped floor, I started to yell.  Having just recommitted to not yell in my home, I announced that I was going to my room for a time-out! 

Immediately, I felt better.  I hopped onto my bed and just laid there thinking that it might take some coaxing to get me out of time-out.

Just then, I feel a little arm around me and the words, "I love you, mom."

There was Ory.

I had been only been in time-out for about a minute, and he came in to check on me.

He then proceeded to tell me some jokes.

"Why did the duck cross the street? To prove he wasn't chicken! Silly!"

It was a cute moment and one I wanted to record...

As a reminder to me that my children do indeed love me (even though they have been telling me the opposite lately),

That it feels nice to have some one come in and tell you they love you when you are in time-out,

and

to remember that when I feel like I can't handle them or I'm going to yell, 

it's okay to remove myself... go to time-out, or count to ten, take some deep breaths, whatever it takes.

The faces of my little men aren't going to stay little for very long, and yelling isn't going to teach them. (Cleaning it up would... which is what their dad did. Yay)!

Kindergarten

So here we are... the day before my oldest goes to kindergarten.  We spent the morning running some errands, I let the boys pick a "special" cereal (we usually only get Cherrios or Chex around this house), so I thought that might be fun.  The boys also picked out a "craft" (wooden planes to paint and assemble) to work on as one last little project to do on our last day of summer.

 

We then spent the rest of the afternoon watching Matilda and snuggling on the couch... I wanted to hold on to him as much as I could.  (Not the best choice in movie to help a new-to-school child feel confident in going to school.  I wasn't really thinking about how Ms. Trunchbull might be kind of scary! But he seemed to realize that his school would be nothing like Crunchem Hall).   

I had wanted to plan a fun dinner with a few of his favorite foods, but I was not organized enough for that... so we let him choose his favorite place... PIZZA HUT!

The school had a little Meet & Greet with Orin's teacher.  It was interesting to see him grab my arm and cling to me a little.  That's not something I expected from him, yet I secretly liked it (mostly, because I knew it wouldn't last)... 

And it didn't!  He was clearly excited to go! 

There it is.  My first packed lunch as a mom. (Thinking it won't be this exciting as the years go on, right!)  When I told Ory I put a note in his lunch, he informed me that he can't read.  One step ahead of you, buddy!

Shawn read the boys a school themed story and they were off to bed.  I think I felt just as nervous that night before school, as when I was a teacher!

I had been thinking about a theme for the year, something that would help Orin remember who he is, and how to behave.  Our church youth theme for the year, is Arise & Shine forth.  I had designed a logo (see here) and thought that was the perfect theme that Orin could relate to.  It was also something I used in my own classroom, "Our Work Shines." 

Let Your Light Shine.

I wrote him a little poem to go with the theme. We'll see if I can keep that up each year... humm.

There is this little boy of mine,

Who has a special light to shine.

He's thoughtful, kind and full of fun,

Whose radiance shines bright as the sun.

As he leave our home each day to learn,

with confidence and love may he always return.

Knowing that the light he has within,

is from the knowledge he comes from heav'n.

Kind of get a little emotional every time I read it.

 Wyatt looks the most excited! :)

I read the book, "The Kissing Hand" that morning.  I, of course, was tearing up and Orin was not at all interested in having me kiss his hand and hold it on his cheek.  He's just way too cool for mom. Sign.

 New kicks from Nana.  Check!

 New backpack from cousins. Check!

 First day pictures. Check!

In my classroom, I used to always play music for the students.  To start the day, as transitions, to match our units, so I made a back to school mix.  It included songs like The Jackson's ABC, to Mika's Love Today, to This Little Light of Mine (gotta match our theme).

Our cousins pulled up right when we did.  Having them there with him makes me feel so much better about sending him off into the world of school!

Yeap, he's ready to start the day!  Now, is the teacher ready for him?

His teacher read "The Kissing Hand" to the class, and Orin having just experienced this book, did not look at me at all during the story.  There were kids bawling and clinging to their parents, but not my son (and I was glad).  He was ready to rock & roll.

Brody and I made Orin a cookie cake (something my mom used to make all the time when I'd have friends over).  It kind of fell apart, but hey, I tried.

We did our traditional McDonald's after school ice cream! Traditional meaning we did that last year when Orin started preschool.  

To me, he just doesn't seem old enough to be in school.  By around 1:00, my heart kind of tugs a little and I feel anxious for his return.  But, I think I'll adjust. :)

Of course, I wanted lots of details about how his day went, but really this is all I got:

What is your teacher like?

She's not old, she's not young, she's just normal age.

She is a instrument player and a scientist.

What did you do?

Ate lunch

Played a game like duck, duck, goose, but it had a mesh pot

Played at the park (aka playground)

What did you learn?

That spiders eat mosquitos

And there you have it.  Orin goes to school.