About to freakin' lose it!

I've about lost my mind these last few days and tonight was the straw that broke the camel's and my back! After a nice dinner out with friends this is what Kelly and I came home to...

Bronson has been complaining about how he thought his hair felt dry and brittle. The solution? Dump a BOTTLE of lotion on it. I guess our baby sitter (Logan) was a little on the sleepy side tonight.
Oh, and apparently he was hungry and needed to dump the whole box of granola out instead of eating a few handfuls. The kid is lucky his dad found him and thought it was so funny. I'm not lying when I tell you this is the third box of cereal he's dumped out in two days. Tomorrow is Rearrange the Pantry Day at our house! Not that it will do any good, because he'll just drag the stool over and climb up to whatever he wants anyway. People weren't kidding when they told me boys are different than girls! It's a good thing he's cute, because that's the only thing that saved him tonight:)

Nalani's First Day of Preschool

Nalani started preschool this month. She is so excited. She thinks she should be able to go to school as often as her sisters...twice a week just IS NOT cutting the mustard! She loves her teacher and especially loves all the toys at her school. She comes home singing the cutest songs! Songs about turtles in the tub, songs about washing her hands, even songs of prayer before they eat their snack:) I love to hear her cute little voice! She always tells me how much homework she has to do. She's always coloring and saying, "Mom, I gotta do my homework!" I love to see her little eyes crinkle up with excitement when I tell her it's finally time to go.

Fall weather

After school, my kids love to play outside. Bronson and Nalani can't wait for their big sisters to get home from school so they can hang with them. Here are a few pics I took of them today.

Here is Bronson sporting his new haircut...he HATES getting his hair cut, but looks oh so cute when it's done!
Here are "the girls" playing with "the neighbor girls". They were pretending that the little sisters were sick and the wagon was the ambulance:)

Check Yes or No

Holy Moly! Maika came home with a fist-full of love notes today. They are just starting out in first grade, so they don't actually say anything. Just paper hearts with hearts drawn all over them. When I asked who they were from she said, "Just this boy named Christopher. Ew!" I think she thought they were pretty funny, but insists that she doesn't like any boys yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she'll feel that way for a loooong time:) P.S. Maika is doing a lot better with going to school. She is happy when she wakes up and happy when she walks back in the door. I think she still struggles with the long days because she is practically begging me to go to bed at nights. I'm like, "um, yeah, please go to bed!"

Homesick...

My little Maika...what can I say? The girl just can't get enough of me. Who knew she thought I was so cool? This past week has been pretty tough for our first grader. Every morning she wakes up and almost immediately, the tears start. I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what the problem is and have come up with a few ideas.

1. She is not a morning person. She went to afternoon preschool and kindergarten. This is the first year she's had to get up and going so early. The poor kid is tired!
2. She misses the security of having Logan around all the time.
3. She misses being able to come and go as she pleases. I wouldn't see her all day long during the summer. But, at least she knew that if she wanted to she could come home. She feels stuck at school.
4. She is/was afraid of her teacher or some Duty Aides at school.

We tried coming up with a few solutions as well. The first day she cried at school, the teacher called me to talk about it. Maika told her she felt sick and wanted to come home. Mrs. D. thought it was just homesickness and wanted to make sure. When Maika got home that day I asked her about it. She said, "I just got these feelings that I wanted to come home." Aw, that made me feel so bad for her, but I also knew I couldn't lose this fight!

The next morning was BAD. A full hour of tears and tummy aches, and I still made her go to school. I was throwing all sorts of ideas at her. I finally let her wear my ancient ID bracelet that my little sister gave me for one of my long ago birthdays. It has my name engraved on it, so I told Maika she could wear it and when she got sad she could remember that I love her and want her to be happy at school. That got her to at least stop crying and out the door. I also told her that we could make cookies together after school if she was brave. It worked!

Until the next morning. Then we came up with the sticker plan. I also called and talked to her teacher. We had a very good conversation. She told me that even when Maika was crying she was still doing her work and being a good student. It made me feel a lot better after talking to her teacher; now we are both on the same page and being supportive of each other. Now, when Maika has a good day, her teacher sends home a sticker that she can show me. Then, Maika gets to put a sticker on our calendar and at the end of the week, if she has all stickers.....drumroll....a trip to "Dollar Tree"! This might be the best dollar I've ever spent:) Now, we've had three days in a row of very little or no tears before school and NO tears during school. Yay! I hope it goes as well or even better next week! It broke my heart to make her go to school when she was so miserable, even though it secretly made me feel good to know she missed me during the day:)

Now that I'm a mom

I was tagged to list 10 things about me that have changed since I've become a mommy. The list is vast, but here goes.

1. I have a lot more patience than I used to have. Which, still isn't much.
2. I'm good at spelling things out. I remember the first time Logan broke the code:) I was so busted! I wish Kelly and I spoke the same foreign language, now that my older kids can spell too.
3. I've given up my security blanket and just rub the silky edge of my kids' blankets when they let me cuddle with them.
4. My favorite tv channel is Noggin. I love the Backyardigans!
5. I get choked up when my kids make me proud.
6. I've learned to have simultaneous conversations with two or more people at a time while another person is on the phone.
7. I've grown eyes in the back of my head.
8. I'm a human lie detector.
9. I know I can't do this on my own. I'm glad my kids have a good daddy! And, good grandparents, neighbors, teachers, etc.
10. Even when I go shopping for ME, I always end up looking at the kids stores and they end up with the stuff at the end of the day.

Walk a Mile in Her Shoes

This past weekend our family took part in a really cool fund raising event for the local SARC (Sexual Assault Resource Center). Two years ago, one of my best friends, Rochelle, was raped. During this tragic event and the time following, Rochelle has shown me how strong the human spirit is. Our family wanted to help support such an important cause. Especially now that it has hit so close to home. Rochelle was the top fund-raiser for the event; raising more that $2,000!

Now to the fun part. The point of this fund raiser is to have men walk a mile in women's shoes. Earlier in the week Rochelle and I took a trip in to Nordstrom Rack to find some high heels, big ones. I was surprised at how many size 13 women's shoes they carry:) We found Jeremy some really pretty pink ones and Kelly got some leopard print slings with sparkles on top.

We even went the extra mile and gave our guys a pedicure, flower stickers and all. The morning arrived and the crowd gathered. I was really surprised at how many people were there. They also had a table full of large sized high heels for the men to choose from. They must've gone to Drag-Queens 'R' Us, they had quite the selection. So, since Kelly's heels were hanging off the edge of the shoes we got him, I decided to see if they had some that would fit better. Boy did they! Patent leather, red, and 4 inch heels:)

There was quite the assortment of people. They had lawyers from the DA's office, tv reporters and photographers, police officers, family, friends and victims of crimes. It was pretty entertaining to see tough cops with the standard issue mustaches walking around in platform ruby slippers. They were all such good sports for such a good cause. Thanks for letting us take part!

Kelly and Rochelle even made it on the weekend news casts and did a really good job in their interviews. Here are a few pictures of the fun. I think the boys enjoyed this event a little too much. I hope they don't start borrowing our clothes on a regular basis!