One little monkey jumping on the bed

He fell off and bumped his head.

Mommy called the doctor and the doctor said

"bring the monkey in so we can staple his head!"

True story.

(ouch)

(after the staple)

(clearly, he was distraught over the whole situation...)

He was jumping on the bed and fell back and smacked his head on the foot board.  He came to Mike (I was at gymnastics with Chloe), no crying, no screaming...nothing...just very nonchalantlyand said "Dad, I hit my head and it feels funny."   Mike started feeling around on his head, and felt the back of his hair wet with blood.  He called me and I came home and we took him in.  The only time he cried was when he overheard Mike and I talking about him probably needing stitches or a staple.
The funny thing is, when I was about his age, I did the same EXACT thing, from the staple, right down to not crying, but just telling my mom that it felt funny.
I suppose he is like me in some ways, after all.  Take that, Mike!

My 2 happy places

My husband thinks I'm a lunatic.  He may be right.  You see, we were driving together tonight, and out of the blue I mentioned to him that I have 2 "happy places" my mind wanders to every once in a while.   You know, the whole "go to your happy place" thing?  Yeah, I have two.  Let me tell you about them.

The first is a little place called Disney World.  Have I ever mentioned that I could live in Disney World and never tire of it?  Well, I could.  I know, I'm a 5 year old.  Seriously though, it really is the happiest place on earth, as their slogan says.  I honestly don't know why I'm so obsessed with it.  I remember when I was around 10 years old,  a friend was showing me videos of when her family went on vacation there and I fell in love.  Really.  Every single time I went to her house, I would always ask her if we could watch the Disney World video.  I'm totally not kidding.  I was obsessed with all things Disney growing up.  My first visit to Disney World was when I was 16.  My best friend's grandparents stayed on the Air Force base for about 6 or 7 months out of the year, so we were able to stay with them for a week during Spring break.  While we were there, we drove to Orlando for the day and went to the Magic Kingdom.  1st Happy Place discovered.  There are 4 main parks (along with many hotels and such) that make up Disney World - Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. (That's for those of you who aren't familiar with Disney World, and if you're not familiar with all things Disney World, 1-get familiar with it, 2-please, please, please plan a trip there at least once in your life, 3- please, please, please take me with you.)  So, it came as no surprise to my mother when Mike and I chose Disney World for our honeymoon.  The fact that Mike's family knew someone that worked there and could get us awesome deals may have had a little to do with it.  So far, we've been there 3 times since we've been married, and we plan to go back, possibly next year.  

Happy place number 2 is the hospital delivery room.  I don't know what it is about giving birth, but I truly, truly love it.  If you're trying to tell me I'm crazy through your computer screen, I understand.  It's definitely not the first time I've heard it.  Yes, I have had a baby all natural (not by my choice...the epidural catheter fell out of my back and no one discovered that minor little flaw until after I had blood-curdling-screamed my baby out of me).  I really think it's that amazing feeling of meeting your baby for the first time.  Maybe it's being waited on hand and foot for 3 days straight, I dunno, there's something about it that I just love.  

So here's what I figure - my ULTIMATE happy place would be to give birth in Disney World.  

Hello?!?!?  

Does it get any better than that?!

 Nope.  No, it doesn't.  

Mike's right, huh?  Maybe I should see someone about this.

Easter pics

He isn't here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying.  ~Matt. 28:6

I'm so thankful that I serve a RISEN Savior!

5 down...none to go

Jett is potty trained.
Ahhhhh....
It's so nice to think about.  I've potty trained 5 kids.  Five.  And lived to tell the tale.
I guess it would be more rewarding if I'd had some sort of nightmarish experience with it, but alas, my kids made it SUPER easy on me.  They're kind of rockstars at the potty training.
I actually didn't even want to start potty training Jett, but the darn kid wouldn't leave his diaper on and he kept sitting on the toilet.  What's up with that?
So, I figured I should probably do something about it.
It took one day.
One. day.
He had two accidents the first day, and one the next and that was it.
When we're out and about, he tells me if he has to go and holds it till we get to the bathroom.
Rockstars, I tell ya.
He's still in a diaper at night and during nap time, but so far, he's always kept his diaper dry at nap time, and just this morning, he woke up with a dry diaper.  So hopefully, here in the next week or so, as long as he keeps waking up dry, we'll start putting him in underwear to sleep.
I can't imagine not buying diapers.  I think about how, for the past 10 and a half years, I have never gone one day without changing a diaper and it completely shocks me.  OVER A DECADE OF DIAPERS!

I'm a big kid now!

2020 Olympics, here she comes!

This past Saturday, Chloe had a her first gymnastics meet.  She was a little nervous.  I was nervous for her.  None of my kids have ever competed in anything, so this was a first for me and Mike, as well.
She did awesome!  Seriously, amazing!
I'm usually the one that takes her to her practice, so I always watch how she interacts with the other girls in her class and with her coach.  When she first started taking gymnastics, she would kind of rush through things.  Just in the few months that she's been there, I can tell such a huge difference in how she pays attention and now she always tries her very hardest.  Just the effort that she puts into it now is so much better.
She had a vault routine, an uneven bar routine, a balance beam routine, and a floor routine.
She got great scores and placed 4th in all-around!
I was so proud of how focused she stayed the entire time.  Mike and I just kept saying to each other, "I can't believe how focused she is!"
We didn't doubt that she would do a great job, but just how well she actually did went above and beyond what we were expecting.
This is something that she loves to do and I'm so excited for her to learn more and to see how far she goes with it.
And of course, the pictures. :)

{practicing her bar routine}

{getting ready to go}

{and finish!}

{practicing her beam routine...I didn't get any great pictures of when she did it for the judges.}

{She loves it!}

{walking like gymnasts :)}

{last minute advice from her coach}

{waiting to do her floor routine}

{some of the girls receiving medals}

{my sweet girl!}

{her team with their trophy}

{Way to go, Chloe!!!}

Spring has Sprung

...it actually sprung like 2 months ago.  We've had the craziest, warmest weather (along with half of the U.S.) this winter.  It was so nice!
The kids are home this week on Spring break, and it's been raining all week, so we've been trying to find lots of fun things to do inside!
Enter pinterest.
Who knew a boat load of fun things to do/eat/wear/look at could all be in one fun space on the internet?  Seriously.  Why has this idea just recently been hatched?
We've made Easter egg garland, Easter egg pictures made with shaving cream and paint, baked yummy cookies, and made t-shirts with designs the kids drew themselves!
Whew!  I'm pretty much crafted out!  We're having a fun day with grandma tomorrow, Thursday, we're going out to lunch with my friend and her kids, and Friday, Mike is home, so we can do something together!

Jett has not taken a nap today and is showing no signs of being tired.  This can't be good.  I look forward to his nap time every day.  Every one of my kids, well, all but Jett, has napped until they were at least 4 years old, sometimes longer.    Two years old certainly can't be the cutoff point for naps, right?  I'm not used to this!
Lately, it's been getting more and more difficult for us to get him down for bedtime.  Last night, we made him get into bed at around 8:30.  You wanna know what time he actually went to sleep?  11.  Eleven o'clock p.m.
Hopefully this is just a fluke thing and he'll be back to his regularly scheduled programming soon.  With the older 3 are on Spring break this week, I'm hoping maybe that has something to do with it?


Happy Spring!

Say what?

Time for another installment of funny things my kids say.

We were driving past a cemetery the other day and I hear Elijah yell out from the back, "Oh man, look at all those rips!!!"  I'm assuming he was referring to the R.I.P.s he sees on cartoon headstones. :)  

Isaac told me the other day that he loves me more than legos and poopies.  Gee thanks, Ikey!  I can't say I'm surprised though.  That kid LOVES to poop!  Loves!

Anyway, a few days later, this conversation happens:

Isaac:  Mommy, I love you more than behinds.

Me:  Behinds?!?

Isaac:  Yeah, behinds.

Elijah:  Isaac, they're called beeHIVES!!!!  

I still have yet to figure out why they had been talking about beehives, but Isaac loves me more than them.

I was leaving Target the other day, pushing a cart through the parking lot with Isaac riding on the side of it.  We made it to the van, and Isaac hops off and says "Mom, that made my feet feel funny.  It made them go to bed."  I guess the vibration of the cement made his feet tingle, and instead of his feet falling asleep, apparently they went to bed.  

Jett ripped the paper off a water bottle and brought it to me, laughing, and said "Mommy, it's naked!"  

He's talking SO much more lately!  

When we decided to enroll Chloe in gymnastics a few months ago, she was asking me questions about it and the following conversation ensued:

Chloe: Mom, when will I start jinnastics?

Me:  Jinnastics?

Chloe:  What?

Me:  That's not how you pronounce it.

Chloe:  OH!!  I mean JEWnatsics!  

Me:  ??????

Oh child.  You are definitely one of a kind.