Dallin's Chore

He washes the dishes and puts them in the dishwasher. He is very willing and positive about it. Though I can tell he is grossed out by touching wet food chunks. But guess what buddy we all are! He is also the only kid in the family that can make his bed to meet my standards. I just love him!

Addie's Chore

Adelaide is built like her father and her Nana Weeks. She is very skinny and bony. I usually don't notice until we put her in her dance tights and I see that she is trying to balance on toothpicks for legs. Some times she will complain that her jeans are hurting her because her hip bones stick out so far the top of her pants rest on them and rub at her skin. The best job for that kind of body is crawling under beds and pulling out the lost toys, sippy cups, ect...

Olivia's Chore

Olivia is "VERY SPECIAL" right now. Meaning she is going through the terrible threes. My older two kids went through a phase at this age too. Its like they are grumpy old men with no patience. You can't let them sleep too much or too little. You have to feed them right on time. You can't ask them the wrong question or imply that they are grumpy. But no matter what you do they still are impossible to work with. So I had to come up with something simple and easy. Usually my counter tops are cluttered with the items that need to be recycled and can't go into the garbage can. Her job is to walk out anything that is needing to be recycled and put it in the bin. Its very helpful for me and she gets to feel like she is doing as much as the other kids.

My knees went weak

Because Derek is quite the dare devil I often find him crying with some sort of injury. When we first got to Texas I did the perfect parenting thing. I would stay outside for hours supervising as my kids rode their bikes and played with the neighbor kids. I would water plants, wave at people walking their dogs or pull weeds. After they went outside for I don't know like the 100th day in a row I said this is for the birds and decided to hang out inside. I opened the blinds to the front window so I could look out on them but still do what I needed to do inside.(facebook)
I was cooking dinner yesterday and I peaked out the window and saw Derek covered in red. I went weak in the knees, my throat restricted, I wanted to throw up at the amount of (what I thought was) blood I saw. I fell to the ground and screamed as loud and strong as I could. Then I ran out to Derek and swooped him up in my arms. I rushed him inside chanting "Dear Lord give me strength" as I gritted my teeth and flexed my biceps. When we got inside it hit me that he was only crying cause I took him away from all the fun he was having. I don't know if he colored on himself with marker or a neighbor kid did (or why there were markers outside in the first place) but I spent the evening with a raspy horse voice and the WORST headache from screaming so loud. I hope this kid realizes what he does to me. I learned an important lesson though. Next time I will skip the hysterics before I go out to him. It felt like I had a hang over the next day.

Improvise

I grew up in the LDS church. My whole life we didn't skip sacrament meetings or general conference. I guess if I were a convert I would have more patience but I don't. I HATE!!! long prayers. I think its distasteful and egotistical. But thats just my opinion. Prayer is a very private conversation between two people so prayers that are said in public to start a meeting or bless food should be brief and get to the point. I am sure we have all heard the story of the prophet Brigham Young eating his food before the prayer was over. I will do the same thing and not bat an eye. I can't stand it when people pause and take a long deep breath during a prayer. Like they can't seem to handle one thought process leading into another one or they just want to seem that much more spiritual. Either way I think its rubbish. I guess it bothers me to the point where I refuse to bless the food if I have a long winded prayer giver in the room. Think what you want I am happy to chill in a lower kingdom before I will sit for what seems like hours and listen to a slow monotonous prayer. Olivia and Addie go to a Methodist preschool and they have this little song they sing before they eat their lunch. Its perfect!!! I love that its sweet simple to the point and super cute. I decided to give in a little and allow the kids to bless the food with their little song.

Update

Well I am kind of out of things to write about for the blog. I try to make it a point to blog often otherwise I hate that I forgot things and missed out on a chance to keep a memory. On the other hand when I try to blog too much I feel like I make up things to blog about. Lol. Like kids quick look cute so I can take a picture and make up a blog. Any way my only idea was to update about how the potty training is going. He is doing great. Its been a breeze compared to Livvy. I think boys have these giant tanks though. Cause he can hold his pee forever and then unload a gallon at a time. My girls do these tiny pees that trickle out every other min. The only mistakes he seems to have are when my mom is here. I find this so frustrating cause she is my biggest critic. So when I arrive home from the store and she tells me he had wet pants I feel like its all a conspiracy to drive me to the loony bin. I know her and my kids sit in secret and plot against me. The other day we were at the lake and every one was throwing rocks into the lake to make a big splash. The min I pick up a rock and pull back my arm to throw all four of my kids in perfect unison hit the deck. It was like they planned it or my parents payed them $20 bucks each just so they could watch and laugh. Why else would they duck? I am not paranoid!!