My husband does listen to me!

I now have proof that my husband does, in fact, actually pay attention when I am talking to him! Here's the proof!

So, I've been gluten-free since just after Thanksgiving last year (just over 5 months) and started a Paleo diet in January of this year. I've been frustrated at the results, but I don't think it's the diet to blame. I think it's that my body just has so much healing to do that it is taking longer than I anticipated to start seeing some results. I have expressed this frustration to my husband several times but I never thought he was actually listening. I recently listened to a talk about going up all grains, sugars and bad fats. I've been pretty good not eating processed foods and gluten, but when I "cheat" on my diet, it's usually with some tortilla chips (grain and bad fats), candy (sugar!!), or sweet potato chips (cooked in vegetable oil). And then there's my diet soda addiction that I just haven't been able to kick (ugh!).  So, I was thinking that maybe I need to stop cheating in these areas and I might see more results.

We have all been a little sick the past week or so. We all have a cough, my husband's seasonal allergies are full-swing and I have my first-ever sinus infection. Fun times. So two nights ago my husband had a dream and he share it with me at dinner last night.

He is an electrician and was working at a job. The electrical inspectors showed up at the job site for an inspection and while they were there, they were talking to him about a continuing dedication class that they thought he should take. It was a one-day, 8 hour class about sugar and the affects on your body. The one inspector cut out sugar and lost 40-something pounds.

But it was more than that. My husband dreamt that sugar could conduct through metal (just like electricity) so if you touch some metal, you would ingest sugar and it would affect you just like as if you ate sugar. Weird. Like I said, he's not been feeling 100%. But the funny part is that he said he thought he had the dream because he was afraid that I was going to get rid of all of the sugar in the house. I think it is a real fear of his.

When I cut out dairy, I stopped buying milk (well, I still bought Almond Milk, but not cow's milk). When I went gluten-free, I stopped buying bread. Because if I have it in the house, chances are much higher that I will cave and eat it...especially at night after the kids go to bed.  So, I guess if I cut out sugar, I will have to give him some to keep as a secret stash!

March 16, 2013 outside US Bank Arena in downtown Cincinnati

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Craigslist gets even more EXCITING!

If you've spent any time with me in the past 2 years, you probably know that I'm addicted to my iPod touch.  See, we don't have smart phones (well, really I do have a smart phone but it is stupid because we have Cincinnati Bell and I can have a smart phone without a data plan.  Which is what I have, and that means while I might look "cool" I can only get online when I have wi-fi access.  But getting online with my iPod touch is SO much easier.).  I just can't see the point in paying for a data plan when I have faster internet service at home.  And really, how many times have I NEEDED to have internet access while cruising down the road?  There have been a few times when I wished I had it, but never have I truly needed it.  Anyway, I love my iPod touch...I have just shy of 5800 songs, 30 audio books, 5 podcasts that I follow and 74 apps (of which I probably use about 25 all the time).

But I digress.  About a 10 days ago, my youngest son found my iPod on the nightstand next to my bed.  You see, I've been doing my "Bible in 90 Days" reading from the iPod (youversion.com app) and had been reading in bed the night before and placed in on the nightstand when I was finished.  So, Ryan found it and for some reason (I really don't know) it got dropped in the toilet.  Which, if you recall, I also dropped it in the toilet on Christmas day.  But this time, Ryan tried to turn it on.  While it was wet.  And water got inside it.  And it fried.  I've tried all the tricks but it seems that it's toast.

So, the past few days I've been scouring Craigslist and eBay and all the stores to see what deals might be out there.  I really wanted the same storage size (32g) but the newest version (4th gen).  I've emailed and texted probably 10 people over the last day or so and I'm currently watching about 10 more on eBay.  But I really wanted to get something locally because it's easier to fudge details or withhold information on eBay but with Craigslist you can check it out and make sure it's as described before paying.  So, tonight I got on the computer about 9pm and saw that a person in Lebanon posted one around 2:30 in the afternoon for a pretty good price.  I texted them to see if they still had it.  They did and said they could meet me tonight because they just needed the money asap.    

So, when I asked where they wanted to meet (not knowing if it was a guy or a girl or anything about the person), I was relieved when he suggested outside of the police station in our town.  Perfect.  Because if anything were to happen, the police were right there.  And it's also across the street from the fire department.  Not that I thought he would set me on fire, but there are extra people there :)

So, I got there, and he asked if we had an older iPod that we weren't using because he just wanted something to run with.  I said we did and went home to get it and meet back up with him.  So, I got there and gave him the old iPod (1st generation classic!), he took some money off the purchase price and it was a deal.  Until the police decided to check out what we were doing!

It makes sense, because why on earth would 2 people meet at 10:00 at night and exchange something?  Once we explained the story, it made sense to the police.  But for some reason there ended up being 3 cars there so it looked like a big deal.  They ran my id and the other guy didn't have his so they took his social.  Turned out he had a warrant in Butler county...something along the lines of failure to show up in court.  They said that since it was in a different county they didn't know the details, but they said it was a pretty big deal.  I guess he said he was drinking and he thought someone took care of his fines but obviously hadn't.  

Anyway, after that little detail was discovered, it took a little longer.  They ended up patting him down, checking his backpack and running the serial number on the iPod to make sure it wasn't stolen.  I had asked him before buying it and he had told me a convincing story, but after finding about warrants, I was really glad the police were able to check it out.  

Turns out, it's not stolen!  I've only had a few run-ins with the Lebanon Police (I had my identity stolen so I had to file a report once, and the other time we left our garage door open one night and they rang or doorbell to make sure nothing was stolen and to shut it), and I must say that every time they've been really great!  It's great to know that they are watching what is going on and spotted suspicious behavior.  

Although, I do not recommend purchasing something off of craigslist at 10pm at night and meeting across from the police station.  Maybe some other public place during daylight hours :)  I guess eBay maybe would have been a little easier this time?!

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What's a Mom to do?

So, I've been to a couple of "girls nights out" in the last couple months.  At a couple of these outings, we have played the game, "What's a Dame to Do".  It's a fun game, kinda like "Apples to Apples" except you are given situations pertaining to women and then everyone picks a card from their hand and the person that has the situation gets to pick the card they like the best.

Anyway, I've had a few of these "What's a Mom to Do" situations in the last couple months and thought I would ask our blog readers..."What's a Mom to Do?!"  This is a blog post I would LOVE to get some responses to, because I really want to know what you would do!

source

Situation #1:  At a family gathering, an electronic device is stepped on and the screen is cracked.  No one saw what happened, but the logical explanation is that one of your children had something to do with it (probably unknowingly, though).  What's a Mom to do?!

Situation #2:  A friend tells you that they have been avoiding hanging out with you lately because they think your boys are too rough for their little girl.  You didn't even realize there was a problem...What's a Mom to do?!

Situation #3:  Your 4 year old starts acting out and regressing in behavior in an effort to gain attention since you are spending time with the 2 year old potty training and with a baby who needs more attention.  What's a Mom to do?!

Situation #4:  A "friend" that lives near you and you run into around town all the time suddenly "un-friends" you (and a couple others you know) on facebook...you are not really sure why.  Talk about awkward the next time you run into each other.  What's a Mom to do!?

HELP!!  If you've ever faced any of these situations, I want to know what you did (or what you wished you had done)!

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Elf on the Shelf....failure.

No, the actual "Elf on the Shelf" isn't a failure.  I am.  Sheesh.  After reading Lesley's post about "Elf on the Shelf" and talking to my neighbor, I decided it would be a fun tradition to start.  If you are new to the "Elf on the Shelf" stuff, it's basically a kit with a book and an elf that you buy and the Elf reports to Santa every night while the kids are sleeping.  They can talk to the elf and tell him (or her) what gifts they want him to tell Santa to bring.  He also watches them during the day to report on whether they were good or bad.  So, your job as the adult is to (1) read the book so they understand they have to be good, and (2) move the elf to a different spot every night after the kids go to bed so they can find him in the morning.  

Easy, right?  Well, for starters, I didn't make it to the store to pick it up to start on December 1st like you are supposed to.  But, my kids are only 4, 2 and 4 months, so they really have no idea what December 1 even means.  So I introduced it to them on December 5.  Yeah, well on the FIRST NIGHT of trying this, I forgot to move the elf.  In my defense, I fell asleep in the chair nursing Molly earlier than I usually go to sleep and then the kids got up in the morning before I did.  And the first thing they noticed?  "The Elf is in the same spot, Mommy!".

So, a couple minutes later, I asked them to look out the front door and see if it was snowing, raining or really hot outside (or some nonsense along those lines) and quickly moved the Elf to a new spot.  You see, the other rule is that you can't touch the elf or he might not come back to your house again.  So, they couldn't see me touch it.  Somehow he magically moved from the fireplace mantle to our bathroom light fixture.  They loved it and at one point during the day Tyler hit his brother and I told him to go in and tell the elf what he had done.  He went in and mumbled something about a toy he wanted for Christmas, but Ryan went in behind him and said, "Elf, bro-bro hit me" and then turned around and looked at Tyler and did an evil "ha, ha, ha" laugh.  :)

Anyway, here is a picture of our elf, "Thomas the Elf" in his spot for tomorrow.  You get to name your own elf, so Tyler picked Elf and Ryan picked Thomas (after his favorite train) and we combined it to make "Thomas the Elf".  Here's to mommy remembering to move it from now on...

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My husband, the baker

I love to bake.  Desserts, casseroles, breads...anything that requires an oven.  So much so that I have an at-home bakery business.  My husband is an electrician.  He can figure out pretty much anything with wires. Computer systems, electrical systems, fiber optics, fire alarms.  He loves that stuff and actually even teaches at a local trade school.

While my husband is great with wires, he doesn't bake much.  Mostly because I love to do it and he just gets in my way when he is in the kitchen.  For Thanksgiving this year, his aunt usually makes a butterscotch pie.  This year, she wasn't able to make it to the Thanksgiving festivities, so he decided to make the butterscotch pie himself.  At 10:00 at night.  After a long day of getting ready for house guests and working.  And after his wife said he could do it but she wouldn't help.

He found a recipe online that sounded good.  Except reading through the directions, he had to ask me to define a couple of terms.  Like "tempered eggs" and double boiler.  It was going to be a long night.

So, the directions said, "In top of double boiler, combine brown sugar, cornstarch, salt and milk".  He read the reviews at the bottom and saw that if you didn't have a double boiler (or in his case, didn't know what one was) you could use a pan over medium heat.  He took that literally and heated the pan up to medium heat for a few minutes and added the brown sugar.  POOF.  The sugar went up in a cloud of smoke and the entire house smelled like burnt sugar.  I don't know how, but our fire alarms didn't go off.  Guess he will have to check and make sure they are working correctly!

Anyway, needless to say, I ended up helping out a little.  But it tasted good (although several of us were banned from trying it because we were laughing too hard during the entire process).  Maybe now my husband will have a little more appreciation for my job in the kitchen?!

If you are interested in trying the recipe, here's the recipe we used.  We also added whipped topping to it (but you could also do meringue) and butterscotch chips and a crushed butterfinger candy bar.  Enjoy!

Photo: Charles Schiller; Styling: Lynn Miller

Grandma's Butterscotch Pie

Ingredients

• 1 cup packed light brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups milk
• 2 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked

Directions

1. In top of double boiler, combine brown sugar, cornstarch, salt and milk. Stir and keep stirring until it thickens.
2. Mix in egg yolks, stir and keep cooking until it thickens.
3. Remove from heat, and add butter or margarine and vanilla. Keep stirring.
4. Pour into cooked pie crust. Bake at 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) for 5 minutes or until brown.

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Wish List for Santa

This year, it seems like everyone is skipping Thanksgiving and going straight to Christmas.  I guess we are guilty of that on the blog as well because we've been doing Christmas posts already!  But, it seems like in years past that Thanksgiving weekend was the kick-off to Christmas...decorations in the store, starting the holiday shopping, Christmas music on the radio.  But this year, most of those holiday markers were already here on November 1st.

Like a lot of you, we got the Toys-R-Us catalog in the mail as well as the Target toy catalog.  I typically glance through the catalogs and then recycle them the same day.  This year was different, though.  The boys saw the catalogs and Tyler (the 4 year old) started flipping through the pages and pointing out things he wanted for Christmas.  Which made Ryan (the 2 year old) start doing the same thing.  Tyler pretty much points to everything and he's not really specific.  He likes the expensive electronics but in reality knows nothing about them.  He's played on a couple of DS's, but not for more than just a couple minutes, as we haven't gotten any of those expensive things for him because the two boys are still so destructive at this point.  Ryan would be happy with anything, but he consistently points to the trains...he's in love with anything Thomas!

This past weekend, I had a lot of cake orders, so my husband got the kids out of the house for me so I could concentrate and knock them out without staying up all night.  So where does a man take his two boys for an evening of fun?  Bass Pro Shops, of course!  The one in Cincinnati is really cool and has a huge fish tank in the center of the store that the kids just love.  Anyway, they have a Christmas setup there.  I've never been, but Steve took them last year and they've had a blast both times.  I think he mentioned coloring, shooting, decorations, etc.  And of course, Santa!  They do one free photo with Santa (and you can order more photos there if you like or online later), so of course the boys had to have their photo done.  After standing in line for a while, this is Ryan on Santa's lap.

It's hard to tell in the scanned version, but he is less than thrilled.  Steve said he wasn't scared, but that his expression didn't change the entire time and he didn't ask Santa for anything.  Tyler also decided to be stubborn and didn't want to get his photo taken.  So, they went to look at a couple things that Steve wanted.  He just got a cross bow this year and needed a few things for it, so they went to the hunting section.

Well, in true Tyler fashion, after walking away from Santa, he suddenly wanted to go visit with Santa.  So after Steve picked out the stuff he needed, they headed back down and stood in line again.  This time, he marched right up to Santa and sat on his lap.

Can you see that grin on his face?  Priceless.  Anyway, after the photo, Santa asked him what he wanted for Christmas.  Tyler's response?  "A gun with a bullet and a scope."  Santa laughed and said that he had come to the right store for that and he told Steve that it was the best request yet this year.  Gotta love my boys :)

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Oh, crap. Literally.

This photo has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but I thought it was cute and
I didn't take photos that go along with the content of this post...for obvious reasons.

Lesley totally jinxed me with her post about poop last week!  I'm totally going to steal her disclaimer...If you are easily offended or disgusted by poop stories, then stop reading.

First, on Thursdays I work at a local church helping with childcare during the Ladies' Bible Study.  It's a great setup because we go for 2.5 hours every week, the boys get to play with other kids and different toys that we don't have at home, I get to go and spend the time with another lady in the room (watching kids, but we get to talk, too!), and I get paid.  Not much, but enough to cover the gas to get to/from and a little extra money for my home improvement fetish.  I also use this as part of my "not sending my 4 year old to pre-school plan" as they do a lesson, craft, games, snack and free play.

Anyway, Tyler was in the room with the older kids.  He loves his teachers, Miss Dee and Mrs. Macrina.  They are wonderful ladies, and I now love them even more.  Because at the end of the shift, I went to pick Tyler up from his room and they told me he had gone to a corner, pulled down his pants and pooped.  Um, really?!  This kid has been potty trained since March of 2010.  We haven't had any issues with pooping in his pants for over a year.  And to top it off, because he didn't have any toilet paper, he used his finger and wiped it on the wall.  Ugh.  The teachers were great and told me so I could have a talk with him about it.  I told my husband and he spoke with him when he got home from work.  I guess the reason why he did it was because they don't allow the kids to go to the bathroom by themselves (it's down the hall and through a couple sets of doors) and he didn't want to have someone go to the bathroom with him.

So then, the next day our puppy, who isn't really a puppy anymore because she is almost 1 year old, pooped on the couch.  WHAT?!  Fortunately, Ryan was there and started yelling right away, so I was able to put the dog out.  Thankfully we have a leather couch and so I was able to disinfect it right away.  Our dog is usually pretty good about not going in the house and typically only goes when I am busy and don't see her standing at the back door waiting to go out.  But she has never gone on the furniture before.  And hopefully never again.

And that same afternoon, Tyler pooped in the potty and then ran out and kissed baby Molly while she was sleeping.  Which is fine except he didn't wipe or put his underwear/pants back on and so he got poop on our chair.  SERIOUSLY?  Steve just happened to call right before I discovered this (and right after the dog pooping incident) and I told him I was going crazy.  Really, if I would have known that poop was in the "job description" for being a mom, I might have reconsidered :)

To top it all off, the next day Ryan (my 2 year old) complained about his belly hurting.  About 20 minutes later he had the most disgusting diaper I think I have ever changed.  I literally almost threw up while changing it.  I really think that we are going to do some potty training in the next few weeks.  With Tyler, Ryan and the dog!

Thanks, Lesley :)

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Messy Boy!

Ok, you would think I would learn.  Do.Not.Let.Your.Kids.Out.Of.Sight.For.Any.Length.Of.Time.  Seriously.

My 2 year old has been making messes more than normal the last week or so.  Probably because with a new baby at home, he just wants some more attention.  Which is now harder to do than ever.  My babies are wonderful sleepers, but they do still take some time during the day.

Anyway, my almost 4-year old came running to let me know that "Bro-bro got into the lotion" while I was feeding the baby.  I quickly stopped nursing and went running to see what this "lotion" stuff he was talking about because I thought I put all the lotion away.  And sharpies.  And pens.  And band-aids.  And....the list could go on and on.

As I walked into the baby's room, this is the sight that greeted me.

He had gotten into the drawer on the changing table and found the diaper rash cream.  And proceeded to smear it all over his clothes, his face and his hair.  But thankfully, he didn't smear it on anything else.

But how could I be mad at a face like this?

Then, a couple days later, he got into the spice cabinet while I was outside doing some yard work.  It was a Saturday and he was inside with daddy, so it wasn't my fault this time!

Anyway, he decided to get the cinnamon and sugar shaker out and not only sprinkle it all over the floor (that I had just mopped the day before), but he sprinkled the dog as well.  Which wasn't a huge deal except the dog decided to try and lick it off herself and then made a huge sticky mess of her hair.  Which resulted in a bath for the dog and another mop of the floor.  I didn't get a photo of the messy dog, but he's a cute shot of her.  She's a miniature schnauzer that is about 10 months old.

The best (and probably only) good thing about this?  I love cinnamon.  And now our dog smells like it :)

And, finally.  This happened a couple weeks ago.  Somewhere, somehow the boy found a pair of scissors and cut his hair.  At least, that's what Tyler said happened.  I didn't see it happen or find him with scissors, so I'm assuming he did it to himself and his big brother didn't do it.

Fortunately, because he's a boy and his hair is so blonde, it's really not a big deal.  He got a haircut the next day and I don't think anyone actually noticed the bald spot.

Despite not being able to trust them for more than 10 seconds by themselves (and probably not even that long), I love my boys!

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Whose children are those?!

To those who live close to our house, I am truly sorry.  You thought you lived in a safe neighborhood.  That is, until you found out that my child is the neighborhood "hooligan" that mothers warn their children not to go near.

In all fairness, my sons have been cooped up in the house way too much this summer.  You see, we had HOT weather (like most of the country) for a majority of the month of July.  So, this momma who was 9 months pregnant during most of the month, stayed inside for most of it.  Which means, my kids were stuck at home with me only going outside occasionally to the back yard to play.  Because there was no way I was going to step foot outside of the AC!

Now that Molly is 2 weeks old, we are starting to get out a little more.  But we have been cooped up for the majority of the last 2 weeks as well. So, that makes it almost 6 weeks since we have stepped foot out of the house other than an occasional play group or grocery store trip.

Anyway, back to my story.  On Tuesday evening after we ate dinner, I went upstairs to change.  I was getting ready to go to a Mom's Night Out with my MOMS Club!  An evening with other ladies, sitting around the pool, cooler weather, no 9-month pregnant belly....can you tell I was excited?!  So, I was getting changed and my husband was disposed at the moment (i.e. on the john) and the boys were playing with their bikes in the garage.  At least, so I thought.

Just as I was finishing getting ready, our doorbell rang.  I quickly rushed downstairs to get it, though I thought it might be Tyler and Ryan playing with the doorbell.  I opened the door, and there stood a lady that I didn't know.  I immediately was kicking myself because our "No Soliciting" sign had come off the door so we've gotten several sales people the last couple weeks, and I keep meaning to put another sign up.  But she wasn't selling anything.

Nope, she told me she found 2 boys playing in the road.  Not only playing in the road, but they were throwing rocks at cars as they passed.  They just so happened to "drill" the side of her car.  She wasn't mad...she said her car was a junker and she didn't care about that, but wanted to let me know that my children were up to.

Now, we live on a cul-de-sac.  But we are the house on the corner, so our side-yard is along the main road.  That is, it's the entrance to the sub division.  So there are a lot of cars.  And it was about 6pm, so there was a lot of traffic from people coming home from work.  Yep, those are MY kids that are in the middle of the road.  Throwing rocks at cars.  Seriously, what kind of parents do those kids have?!  They must take after their father.

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This pretty much says it all...

So, as most of our readers know, I had a baby 2 weeks ago.  Life has been a little crazy adjusting to 3 kiddos, but I have managed to make it out of the house TWICE now and am still living to tell about it.  I'm sure it will get a little easier as I finish healing from the c-section and get more adjusted to being totally outnumbered.

Anyway, I have been "pinning" lots of different ideas on Pinterest recently.  Family photo ideas, crafts, artwork for the house, etc.  I just stumbled across this one and thought I would share.  It applies to most moms, even those who didn't just have a baby!

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Minivan Momma...aka "The Great Vehicle Swap of 2011"

Part of our journey from having 2 kids to 3 included a new vehicle purchase.  In reality, this was probably the hardest part of my pregnancy.  You see, I just always thought that minivans were so *uncool*.  Despite what all my friends that had one kept telling me, I just felt like as a mom in my 20's, the jump from a car or SUV to a minivan was pretty much the worst thing about having 3 kids.

It started back in the beginning of December, 2010.  I peed on a stick and it came up positive.  Yikes!  So, I proceeded to show the aforementioned stick to my husband.  And his first response?  Something like "Oh, great.  Now we have to get a minivan."

So, in January, we had to sell our car.  I guess we could have kept it, but you definitely can't fit 3 car seats into the back of a 2002 Saturn SL2.  As a second vehicle, it wasn't very practical for us anyway because my husband needs a vehicle he can carry tools and a ladder in (he's an electrician) and I need a vehicle that I can fit a wedding cake in.  The sad part about selling it was that it was the first major purchase we made as a married couple (well, really as a couple) and is probably the only vehicle that we will ever purchase brand new (thanks to Dave Ramsey).

The second move in our quest for a minivan was to decide on a budget for our new vehicle.  Once again, thanks to Dave Ramsey, we were out of all consumer debt and started saving in December so we could buy a new family vehicle with cash when the time came.  After scouring craigslist, autos.com and autotrader.com for months, we finally decided that we needed to up or budget and to sell our other vehicle.

It was a 2004 Saturn Vue.  We hated to do it because we loved it, but it had low miles and therefore had a higher value than what we could justify just sitting in the driveway for 90% of the time since we couldn't fit all 3 kids in there comfortably.

In May we finally found a van that fit the bill for what I was looking for.  Not exactly what we wanted to use our hard-earned money on, but we knew it was something we needed to do prior to baby #3 arriving.  So, one Saturday morning we hopped in the car and drove to Akron, OH, purchased the minivan and headed home.

We ended up with a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan.  And you know what?  Despite my hatred for minivans, I actually kinda *like* it!  It has so much space inside, the gas mileage isn't that much worse than our SUV got (like 2-3 mpg less) and the kids love the setup!

It doesn't have a DVD player built in, but we had a portable DVD system (thanks to Steve's parents one Christmas!) that works quite well.  It has power doors...a feature I wanted, Steve didn't understand, but one we use ALL.THE.TIME.  The only downfall is that the boys like to play with the auto doors as well.  I also love the fact that all the seats can go flat into the floor, and when the captains' chairs in the 2nd row are in use, you have tons of hidden storage in the floor!  Plenty of room for a change of clothes for each of the boys, jackets, stroller accessories that only get used once in a while, emergency diaper stash, etc.

yep, we believe in child labor :)

Talk about cutting it close...we ended up purchasing a new (to us) 2nd vehicle this past week.  As in, we looked at the car 3 days before we had a scheduled c-section and picked it up just 2 days before.  It's a 2003 Buick Rendezvous.  It's a little bigger than our Saturn VUE was, but it has twice the miles and therefore fit into our budget better.  It also has a 3rd row seat, so if something happens to our minivan (knock on wood) and it ends up in the shop for a little bit, we can fit all the kids in it.  But with all 3 rows in use, there is absolutely no storage (aka, no room for a stroller!)  We bought it from an individual and it's really dirty right now since we've been a little busy adjusting to life with 3 kiddos, so I'll just show you a photo I found online :)

Anyway, we're usually the type of people who keep our vehicles until they are basically junk, so the "Great Vehicle Swap of 2011" has definitely been out of our comfort zone!  But it's now over and hopefully these vehicles will last a few years so we can save up our cash and buy better ones!

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Freak OUT!

Ok, so I'm less than 7 days until c-section time!  In fact, there's only 5 days left.  And while I hate being pregnant, I'm starting to freak out a little.

It's not the c-section that's freaking me out...this will be my 3rd, so I kinda know what to expect.  I do have a new doctor this time around, though.  The doctor that delivered both of my boys decided to drop his licensing to deliver babies and is just doing gynecology now, so I had to get a new OB doctor for this pregnancy.  I had my final doctor appointment this morning and was able to schedule it with the doctor that will be doing the c-section on Wednesday, so I feel as comfortable as I think is possible with him.

It's not the recovery that is freaking me out either.  I've never had a regular delivery, but I think that c-section recovery might be a little easier.  I don't know since I can't compare the two, but from talking with friends, I think I had it a little easier than they did!

It's not the fact that we are now going to be entering the world of "pink" either.  It's no secret, I was hoping for boy #3 this time around...just because I know what to expect and they are all so close in age that I thought it would be nice for them.  But, after I found out we are having a girl this time around, I've gotten really excited about the idea.  Baby boy stuff is cute, but baby girl things are ADORABLE! In fact, the first thing I purchased for the baby this time was a couple of hair bows from my friend's Etsy Shop, Morgie Porgie Ribbon Works!

It's not that I don't have everything ready to go.  I mean, there are probably a few things that I'll need to run out to the store to purchase that I haven't thought of now.  But, the nursery is ready, I have diapers and I have a few containers of formula just in case.  So I have the eat, sleep, and poop things ready...'cause really that's all they do for a while :)

It's not even the fact that I'm going to be completely outnumbered now.  As a few of my friends have pointed out, I'm already outnumbered all day while my husband is at work...what's one more?  The boys have been playing really well together lately and Tyler has started doing "quiet time" in his room for 30 minutes or so while Ryan naps, so I typically get a little bit of a break.

I'm really not sure what it is that is freaking me out.  It's probably just the pregnancy hormones and there's nothing I can really do about that until after this baby is born...sigh.

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Translation, please!

Tyler (our almost 4 year old) has been saying some funny things lately and I thought I would put them down along with the translation to help us remember them.  Oh, and just in case you ever need help translating what a 2 or 3 year old is saying, this list might come in handy for you as well....

Said to daddy: "Are your tail noses pink?"
Translation: "Are you toe nails pink?" because he just watched me paint my toes.

Said to mommy: "Can you see my crack butt?"
Translation: "Can you see my butt crack?" because he has no butt and I have to constantly tell him to pull his pants up.

Said to both of us:  "Can we go to the yellow eater?"
Translation: "Can we eat lunch at Subway?" because there is a subway on our way to church and he decided he wanted to eat there for some reason.

Said in the car: "I want to eat at the circle res-er-naught"
Translation: "I want to eat at Burger King" because obviously BK is the only place with a circle logo.

Said to his brother: "I'm a yogurt!"
Translation: "I'm an Ogre" because he just watched a Shrek video :)

Said to anyone who will listen:  "I farted on my tongue!" while giggling...
Translation: "I burped" and because he's a boy, this is absolutely hilarious :)

Said to daddy: "I wanna play wee-wee."
Translation: "I want to play wii" but pretty embarrassing when he says this in public!

Said in the car: "I want to go to candyland."
Translation: "I want to go to Kings Island" because we drive by it on the way to the doctors appointments.

Said to both of us: "Nylart"
Us: "Tyler, what does nylart mean?"
Tyler: "Boinkies and Roxie Rocks"
Translation:  Who knows!

I love this kid!  He constantly makes life interesting!

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I'm OLD!

So, this year, my husband and I will be celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary.  Despite the fact that this is LONG time, I'm relatively young still.  At least, I think so.  I met my husband just before I turned 17 and we married just after I turned 19.  Young, yes.  In love, yes.  And still going.

Anyway, my birthday is at the end of May and his was just this week.  He is several years older than me, so I typically tease him about being an "old man", but this year his friends seemed to take over that position so I'm just laying low until he turns 40 :)

But then today, I found out I've either been pranked or put on a random mailing list.  You see, I received a membership card for the AARP.  So, if you added the numbers together above, you would realize that I just turned 28.  What I would consider a LONG WAY FROM 50!  My parents are barely even old enough to be card carrying members.

And to top it off, it came to my parents address...where I haven't lived for 10 years and came in my maiden name.  The info says I have until 8/15/11 to respond by...guess I have some things to think over before then.  Meanwhile, my mom will continue to laugh and I'm sure it will make my husband feel a little better about all the old man jokes he got this past week.

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10 Reasons why I sometimes wish I could trade places with my husband...

I love my husband.  But recently, I've been wishing that I could trade places with him because...

10. He doesn't have the doctor on speed dial...or even have a single doctor's number in his phone.
9. He will never have to get up at 3am to pee because a baby is kicking his bladder.
8. He will never have a "12-week plan" to lose baby weight.
7.  The kids are excited to see him...because he actually gets to leave them for several hours each day!
6.  He gets the easy job in the whole bringing-this-baby-into-the-world process :)
5.  Nesting...what's that?
4.  "Braxton Hicks" is just the name of some dead guy.
3.  His "summer wardrobe" doesn't consist of clothing that is 2-3 times the size of his "winter wardrobe".
2.  His belly will never get in the way of him being able to sleep on his belly if he wants to...
1.  He will NEVER experience how uncomfortable it is to be 9 months pregnant!

Can you tell I'm ready to pop?!

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I wish I could do this!

Our whole schedule has been off for the past week.  My husband was out of town Monday - Thursday and then he was home with us Friday - Monday.  And with this being the 4th of July weekend, the boys have been up extra late the past few nights.  Tyler (my almost-4 year old) hasn't taken naps for almost a year now, but Ryan (my 2 year old) still needs at least an hour nap during the day to make it to his 8-9pm bedtime without being crabby.  

Today, Ryan didn't get a nap.  He wasn't crabby, but I caught this on video and wanted to share.  

Now that I'm 9 months pregnant and sleeping isn't very comfortable for me, I'm so jealous!

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Kids say the darndest things!

So, this past weekend, we went out of town for a family reunion.  Now, I don't mind going to family reunions, and this one was special because we got to see my husband's cousin.  Why is that special?  Because about a year ago he joined the Army.  After basic training, he was/is stationed in Fort Hood, TX and in July he will be shipping out to Iraq.  He doesn't have his exact deployment dates yet, but he does have some of his orders and he will be helping in "turning out the lights" to the Army operations over there.  Scary, but we know he will be in God's hands.

Anyway, this was my husband's father's side of the family reunion.  They are mainly from the Northern Ohio area, between Columbus and Cleveland.  I say this only because the area has a high concentration of Amish and Mennonite people.  The boys loved the last 30 minutes of the drive to get there because they got to see lots of horses, cows and other animals.  It was great because our DVD player decided to stop working and I was dreading the last part of the trip because that's when they have usually had enough.

So, this family reunion is held in a church's gymnasium and has a "business meeting" in which they read the minutes from last year's reunion as well as go over new family information, introduce everyone and their family, etc.  I'm not sure if this is normal because my side of the family doesn't do reunions, but it seems a little odd to me.

Needless to say, the kids didn't want to stay quiet during this portion of the reunion, so I ended up taking them outside to play.  The church is located right next to an Amish farm, so we were able to look at the horses, cows, sheep and watch them get the Clydesdale horses with a plow out.  The boys were in heaven!

While we were out there, the boys said a couple of priceless things and I wanted to share...

After watching the animals for a while, we visited the swing set on the church property.  The boys love to swing and could do it for hours.  While the boys are only 2 and 3.5 years old, they love to go as high as the swing set will allow, so they usually beg to "go higher, mommy!"  Usually this involves going "higher than the trees" or "higher than the sky", but this time my 2 year old wanted to go "higher than his shoes".   He had his legs sticking out in front of him, so going higher than his shoes was something he thought he could do :)

Also, while out on the swings, my almost 4 year old said, "I need more air!"  But this doesn't mean what you might think.  Nope, he's been saying this for the past couple weeks and after further investigating, I have found that it means he is thirsty.  The only connection I can find is that it means he wants some of my diet soda, which makes him burp.  So, while someone else might think that either he wants to be pushed higher on the swings or that I don't allow him enough air to breathe, it just means he wants some pop because he is thirsty and wants to burp!

And finally, after the reunion was over, we went out the door to say goodbye to the animals next door and to get our puppy.  The Amish boy who lived on the farm next door was at the fence watching everyone.  So, my almost 4 year old decided to go say hi.  I was fine with this...I've always been fascinated with the Amish/Mennonite community and I thought it would be neat for Tyler to talk with him.  But the first thing out of Tyler's mouth?  "Are you a cowboy?"  Seriously?!  He had a hat on, so Tyler thought he was a cowboy.  The little boy ended up not responding to Tyler's question and I tried to explain that the little boy was just wearing a hat but wasn't a cowboy.  Tyler didn't get it, though.  I'm hoping that the little boy spoke Dutch and didn't understand what Tyler asked :)

I love my boys and despite some of the embarrassing things they say, they do provide lots of laughs!

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Big Belly

So, I'm 8 months pregnant now and my belly is quite large.  The other day, Tyler came up to me with a ball under his shirt and told me that he had a "baby sister in his belly."

Then, the next day he asked me if he could have some candy and I told him no because "you'll get fat."  I then had to explain to him what fat meant because he didn't know what that means.  I told him it meant he would have a big belly.  His response?  "A big belly like Mommy?  I don't want to be fat."

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3 Year Old Logic

Tyler loves to play games.  He's competitive and very good at sports.  In order to keep him engaged in the car, we usually play some word or visual games.  Ryan likes to join in as well, but at this point he just copies his brother :)

One of Tyler's favorite things to do in the car is for us to play "Mommy & Daddy".  Here's how it went the other day:

Me:  "Tyler, do you love Mommy or Daddy?"

Tyler:  "Mommy"

Me:  "Awe, thanks Tyler!"

Tyler:  "No, I love Daddy!"

Me:  "No way!"

Tyler:  "Yes, Daddy!!"

Me:  "But Mommy Loves you, too!"

Tyler:  "But Daddy loves me SO much!"

Me:  "Yes, but Mommy also loves you SO much!"

Tyler:  "No, I love Daddy.  Ryan loves you.  Baby sister loves Abby (our puppy)"

Apparently everyone can only love one person in this world.  Oh, and since my husband always refers to Ryan (my 2 year old) as "mommy's boy", Tyler thinks that I must love him more.  Geesh, this can only go down hill from here!

But then it continued:

Tyler: "When I was little, like bro-bro (aka, my 2 year old), I loved Mommy.  But now, I'm a big boy and I love daddy."

So, apparently, babies love their mommies but big boys love their daddies. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he loves his daddy and knows that his daddy loves him, but how about showing some love for the momma who gave birth to him?!  As my grandmother always used to say, "I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it!" :)

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Paint, anyone!?

I love to do home improvement projects around the house.  In fact, I'm a DIY network junkie.  I LOVE that station!  And my 2nd favorite?  HGTV :)  My boys both know and love the "Man Store" and refer to our local home improvement stores by either the "Blue Man Store" or the "Orange Man Store".  Their favorite thing to do?  Ride the tractors (aka lawn mowers).

So, my most recent project has been a 4' x 4' wall hanging for in our living room.  I decided to change out a quilt I had made and hung in the living room almost 5 years ago.  Definitely time for a change.  (Photos and instructions to come on that project in a later post...it's not quite finished yet!)

Anyway, I had purchased the 4' x 4' picture frame on Craigslist and there were a couple of scratches on the frame.  It was a black frame and I didn't have any black paint, so I decided that a sharpie marker would do the trick.  It worked great and I don't think anyone would notice it (though now, if you come over to my house, you will probably inspect it and see where I touched up!).

Anyway, after touching up the frame, I sat the marker down on the steps from our garage going into the house.  What was I thinking?  Did I have a moment of pregnancy brain and forget about the 2 mischievous little boys in my house?  Definitely.  Because a couple hours later, I went upstairs to check my email really quick and my 23 month old found the marker and decided to "color".  The hardest part of the ordeal?  He was so proud of his coloring and it made it hard to be mad.

Since I caught it right away, I thought I might be able to scrub it off with some all purpose cleaner or a Magic Eraser.  Neither worked, so I guess I have another painting project in my future!  For now, Ryan's artwork remains on the wall near the entrance to our house.

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