Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Go Green! 

I don't think I have celebrated this day for quite awhile (I used to be such a party pooper!), so today I decided we were going out as much as we could!  We all wore green today.  Owen didn't understand why, so I just told him it was "green" day and he was OK with that.  Here is a pict of our beautiful green cupcakes we made for FHE.  The boys had green grapes, green jello with marshmellows and green rolls for dinner--I know real healthy.  Poor Jared, he had to eat a chicken sandwich on a green roll.  It's all fun!

Tonight for FHE, Jared decided to dye eggs.  We haven't ever done that yet, and rightly so.  Jared gave us a little lesson on the Resurrection which Owen understood and actually knew from Primary.  (It's nice to know my child is picking something up in Primary.)  Then it was time to dye eggs.  I didn't think it would be such a big deal and would be fun for us.  Jared was getting the dye ready for the dipping and Owen was so anxious to be able to help and ripped open one of the dye bags.  Then Aidan, faster than I could react, grabbed the bowel of red dye and dumped it all over the table, the floor and himself.  I wasn't worried about the table, but it got all over our kitchen, multipurpose floor and even got a few splashes on the carpet.  Luckily we got everything clean, except the carpet and clothes.  Needless to say, we  ended up having a divided FHE for a little while until almost all the eggs were dyed.  I got to dye a few eggs and Owen and Jared had fun.  Always something to remember.  We definitely have left our mark here in Aggie Village!

I hope you all had a great green day and you didn't get pinched.  And happy dying to those of you who haven't yet!

Saturdays...

I can't believe that I haven't written for a whole week!  Aidan was sick for about three days with the flu or the rotavirus.  He threw up for a whole day and night and then I gave him too much to drink and eat the next day so he threw that up too.  It's been so sad because he's been so sad looking, not my little boy.  I felt so bad because he was crying for food and a drink and I couldn't give him any yet.   I told Jared that I was grateful that we had food and water and weren't starving.  I realized seeing our kids starve would be really hard.  I felt for those people who have to do that everyday in this world, (huh, Matthew).  Anyways, today Aidan is finally feeling better and coming back to his normal self.  He's not staying in his bed tonight, so I know he's getting well.  

Now that today is Saturday and it's been a long, tough week, I thought maybe I could do some of the things that I've really wanted to do:  shopping for clothes, scrapbook or watch a good movie.  BUT NO!  I have recently realized that my Saturdays are not very laid back anymore.  Does anyone have this problem or is it just me?  I  look forward to it all week because Jared is home to help with the boys and I think, "I'm going to relax and do something that I want to do."  But all I end up doing is cleaning, dishes, cooking, kids, laundry and most of the time, grocery shopping.  I always swear I'm not going to shop on Saturday in the madness, but I always find myself there.    I've got to figure something else out so that I can enjoy my Saturdays again.

Our house is coming along well, it's pretty much got a roof on it.  Here is a pict of it a few days ago.

Hope all is well with everyone.  Have a good week and hopefully we can get some more great weather this week!

The BIG picture

Friday night, I was able to scrapbook some photos of the boys AND I was able to get in a couple of good movies:  Jane Eyre and Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.   Both good movies, by the way.  As I was finishing up and putting their pages in their albums, I started looking over the other pages I had done. And to my surprise, there were a few that were very inspiring to read.  I know I get bogged down in the everyday little things and sometimes it's nice to find something, like Owen's scrapbook, to help me see the big picture and remind me that being a mom is a very special job.  It's so easy to forget how lucky I am to be able to share these moments with my kids and also to be able to see them learn and grow right before my eyes.  I guess this hit me this week because I've had such a rough week with the boys--always feeling like I'm fighting a battle.  But hopefully I can start on the right foot this week and do better.  Plus I realized that my journaling isn't so bad sometimes and I shouldn't make it such a big deal.  Everything doesn't always have to be perfect!!  So I guess I've learned this week to take a step back and look at the big picture to find what really matters.

Terrible TWOS!

Wow!  I forgot how hard it is to have a two year old.  This is a picture of him in time-out, or "the corner," as we call it, tonight.  It was cute because he actually stayed for 20 seconds with his nose in the corner!

  Aidan, who will be two the end of March, has full-blown terrible two's.  I have struggled this week with him trying to maintain control and manage my child in an appropriate way.  Everywhere I've taken him this week, it has been a nightmare!  My four-year-old, Owen, doesn't help much either.  This week I went to Sam's club to see if they could transfer my Rx.  Well, I wasn't expecting them to take forever!  The poor lady behind me.  I was trying to talk to them, while trying to keep Aidan from climbing out of the cart and Owen from destroying the blood pressure machine-he just kept pushing all of the buttons and "learning" how it worked.  I finally decided to let Aidan out to run on the bench, but that only lasted 30 seconds before he was trying to see how far he could get before I said something or chased after him.  We were there for at least 10 minutes which seemed like a half an hour and all the lady behind me had to do was give them her Rx.  I felt so bad, I just wanted to get out of there!

Then the next day we went to the library to let Owen go to a story-reading activity.  Aidan knows right where the Thomas the train movies are and went to look for them.  So we found one (thankfully only one) and then I went to find some books.  Last time we went, he sat very good at the table, just looking at his videos.  Not this time!  He was running everywhere, pulling out videos and looking at them and then coming back and saying in a loud voice, "Mommy, what doin?"  It's cute, but I was a little embarrassed because we were in the library.  I was trying to stay calm and make sure he wasn't destroying anything.  While I was trying to find some books for Owen, Aidan was taking a Thomas book away from the little boy across the table and adding to the Thomas books he had found.  He screamed when I gave one of the books back to the little boy to read and we went to find another one.  He also wouldn't stay away from the computers--banging on the keys and looking at me to see how long before I'd notice.   When I was trying to get our stuff checked out, Aidan walks right up to the automatic doors, they open and he takes off down the hall.  While Owen stands there giving me a report of what Aidan is doing, I'm trying to get my library card out as fast as I can and telling Owen to run after Aidan and not let him out the second set of doors which lead to Logan main street. Luckily, I caught him just before he headed out of the other doors.  Scary to think what could have happened!  Then he cries and becomes limp (that's his signature move) while I'm trying to hold his hand and get ahold of all our library items to take out to the car.  Whew!   These days I wonder why I go out of the house, but if I didn't we'd all go crazy!  I'm praying for the snow to melt, so they can go out back and expend some energy!!

Bedtime is also a joke.  I try to get him to take a nap early enough that he will be ready for a bed earlier.  But as soon as we shut the door, he's up and climbing over the edge.  I am bound and determined for him to learn to stay in his crib and go to sleep.  But after putting him back in his bad at least 20 times, it's hard not to give up and just hold him or lay next to him until he falls asleep.  This week we have put some soft music in their room at bedtime and he has stayed in the bedroom a little better.  At least he hasn't turned on the lights and started playing under the bed like he used to.  Now, he usually climbs in bed with Owen, but Owen starts getting bugged, because he won't lay there and go to sleep, then we have to get tough.

There must be a reason (for us) for having to go through this and I wish I knew what it was so I could just embrace it and deal with it.  I also wish I would have saved my child development books, so I could know what to do to tackle these terrible twos and why they are so terrible.  I don't remember.

I am trying to savor the cute little moments so I can rack up many of those in hopes to cancel out the bad ones.  I sure hope my kids turn out normal.  It will be a miracle!

PS:  After I wrote this post, I googled, "terrible two's" and found this website that helped give me some direction.  I hope it can help you!

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/toddlers/a/05_terrible_twos.htmh

Sick and tired...

Here is a quick pict of our hole.  It's coming along quite nicely.  They have framed the basement as much as needed to put in our floor boards next week.  It's exciting to see it come along (I'll probably say that more than once).

This past weekend and week, Jared had to go to Georgia for a work conference.  He tried to get me a ticket, but it was too expensive.  I would have loved to have gone to the part of Georgia  I haven't seen.  Jared didn't have a great time.  He was lonely and not too impressed with Savannah.  The only thing that interested him was seeing the ocean and the fact that there used to be pirates there.  

The boys and I were able to visit for a short time with Jared's brother, Tommy, and his family, and we were off to Vernal to visit my family.  The boys have fun with Grandma and Papa, Jordan, Jeremy, Christopher and Emily.  Emily spoils Owen and he LOVES it!  Grandma and Grandpa Merkley always have treats and love to see "their boys".  

Unfortunately, after being there a couple of days, Owen got sick and Aunt Emily did, too.  Owen was quite unpleasant to everyone and they felt bad.  That is Owen.  He is not a very nice sick boy.  It was funny one morning when Owen came in crying.  I asked him what was wrong and he said "I wost (lost) my boice (voice)."  He said he didn't think he would get it back.  As I tried to supress a chuckle, I had to reassure him it happens to everyone and he WOULD get it back.  Luckily, he believed me.  Then after we came home, poor Aidan got sick.  We've had a rough couple of nights.  Luckily they both weren't really sick more than two days.  I really hope we are on the mend and neither Jared nor I get the sick bug.  **Emily, we hope that you get tons better this week too!

So to all of this I am quite tired.  I need a good night sleep.  I want to be out of our tiny apartment.  AND it snowed yesterday and I am tired of snow.  Winter was fun, but now it's spring and I'm ready for snow to be gone, so we can go out and play.  I'm really missing St. George right now and wish there was some way we could come and play with all of our friends.  (I miss you!)

I hope no one gets this yucky bug, and if you do, just stay in bed!  Hope it's a great week for all!