Permanent Marker...need I say more?

You know its a high tech world when...

There I was, chatting away on the cell with Lora as I watched over the kids and cleaned up the kitchen. I hardly noticed when little Ethan picked up his play cell phone and started his own conversation. Around through the
living room and kitchen he paced, having his very own, very one-sided conversation with Aunt Lolo. Occasionally our paths would meet and we'd smile in passing without a break in conversation. On one such meeting he looked up and mumbled something about a blueberry. I stopped, bent down and told him that we didn't have any blueberries, but thought he might want something else. "No," he replies, "I have my blueberry." It took me a second, but I realized that he was talking about his phone. "You mean your blackberry?" I asked, not really believing that he knew what he was talking about. He couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. "yes...," as he lifted it up to show me,"it's my blue berry." And off he went talking on his "blueberry" like that is exactly what every 3 year old does with his time.

Earlier, that morning, I was talking eye to eye to Ethan again about some random thing or another. Ethan looked deep into my eyes and had a very confused look on his face. His confusion quickly turned to concern as he blurted out, "Mama! Your eyes are broken! Oh no! You need a band aid?" Curious, I looked in the mirror and realized that my eyes were a little bloodshot. Could it possibly be due to the lack of sleep I've had this week? I wonder if a band aid would help?

A couple of days ago Austin was being a giant pill. Don't let that sweet face fool you, when this guy gets mad, he can tantrum with the best of them. So, off to his room he went, and he wasn't shy about showing his displeasure. He screamed. He pounded the walls. He kicked the door. What a racket! I went in to see him after he had calmed down and I had decided enough time had passed to pay for his crime. There my angel was, sitting on his bed looking truly pathetic. He looked up when he heard the door open and his eyes darted to the closet and back at me. Before I could turn to see, he pointed to the closet and quickly rattled off, "uh oh, mama. Sorry! Sorry mama...uh oh." The closet not just messed up...it was destroyed. Now, sadly enough, he does ransack his closet enough to send me to the loony bin...but the tearing apart the drawers was a brand new one. Don't mess with Mr. Blue Eyes...he goes down swingin'.

Movin' on up.

With the new job and new life on the East Coast, I decided that what we really needed was a new duvet cover. True...our old one was torn up...sewn up...and torn up again. But instead of just getting a plain ol' cheap duvet cover, I thought we deserved a fancy one. So, I found a really nice, shiny, fancy dark gold cover. So pretty. And more expensive than I would normally look at, despite the huge sale it was on. But...we're movin' on up, right?

Last night Robert came storming out of our room and straight into Ethan's room where Ethan had just been put down for bed. Out came a furious Robert dragging a very confused toddler behind him. Robert stormed into our room and I heard a very loud and upset, "Did you do THIS?" I rushed in to see Ethan sitting on the bed looking at a very shredded, albeit, pretty, duvet cover. Apparently Ethan found a pair of scissors while he was waiting for Austin to fall asleep. (We let Ethan read books on our bed until his brother is asleep in their room.) Now the scissors were actually in a drawer in the adjoining room, not just sitting out in the open. (That was me, NOT taking the blame :) Robert was pretty worked up and seemed to get even more so when we realized that the sheets had matching cuts. With a tight mouth, Robert kinda growled out, "Did you cut anything else?!" With a look of dread in his eyes, Ethan slowly turned to look behind him and painfully stretched out one finger to point to a small cut on the pillow case. It was so pathetic that we couldn't be mad anymore. Well, Robert lasted a few more minutes, but I was working hard not to smile. ahh...so sad...for two days we were really movin' up in the world.

As I threw our tattered blanket over us last night and put my head on my tattered pillow, I decided that maybe "fancy" wasn't our style anyways. Robert thought it would have been cheaper just to return the duvet than shred it to pieces. He's got a point.

---------------------

This morning I heard a flush in the bathroom without hearing the usual proclamations Ethan shouts out before he goes to the bathroom, "I'm going to go pee pee in my underwear!" I ran it to see a fully dressed Ethan looking in at the swirling water. "What did you flush?" I asked. "My toy." he stated, quite pleased with himself. "He had to go to his home."

Anyone remember when I flushed that big bug down the toilet and told Ethan he was going to his home? Hmmm. In retrospect, maybe that wasn't the best idea I've ever had.

----------------------

Just one more Ethan story. I told Robert I wouldn't post this one...but I really think it is too funny not to. When he reads it he might make me take it off..but until then...enjoy.

Ethan had just ran out of a bath with his towel flapping in the wind behind him. In a booming voice he shouted out, "I"M BIG!" "Yes you are," I replied. "Yes!" he continued, "I'm BIG! I have a BIG pee pee!" "ok..." was all I got out. Ethan proudly interrupted, "That's RIGHT! A BIG pee pee...just... like... DADDY!" And was that pride I saw flash on roberts face?

Yeah...I thought that was pretty funny. I'm just glad he didn't blurt that out in front of anyone else. (I guess I just did it for him.)

A Redneck Moment

Today we had our first official redneck moment. We started out having a very pleasant day visiting the children's museum, Discovery Place, in Charlotte. It isn't the best children's museum we've ever seen (the Ben Franklin Institute in Philadelphia definitely spoiled us) but it was amusing for the kids. They had a section just for toddlers with water to play in, dress up areas, crafts and train sets. The rest of the first floor had aquariums and some stuffed animals...the real kind.

On the 2nd floor they had a lot of fun experiments, but it was geared towards elementary and middle school kids. There was a fun air chair. Ethan was so excited to go on the contraption, that he could hardly contain himself. Of course, after enduring a 10 minute wait, he got on the ride and was nervous the entire time. By the time the 1 minute ride was over he was ready to cry. Austin didn't even make it up before he was in tears. And, Alaina thought it was really cool. That girl!



Here are my monsters lifting up an ATV all by themselves. And a lot of strategically placed pulleys. I swear, some days they have so much energy that I think they could lift that thing up without the pulleys. Fortunately this wasn't one of those days, and by the time 1 o'clock came around, they were pooped out.


On our way back home the kids fell asleep in the car, so we decided to take a drive so that they could keep sleeping. Because we live on the South Carolina border, we thought we'd take a nice drive through the southern countryside. Even in the middle of January, it is a pretty drive. We passed through a lot of dense forests and passed by several lakes and rivers as we drove. Because this last weekend has been been up in the the 70's, there were even a couple of trees in bloom. Despite the beauty of the country, the small byways and crossroads are littered with small, broken down homes and trailers. Many are actually rotting down instead of falling down. The only visible buildings of any value are the churches that dot the landscape. We followed some signs towards "Great Falls" thinking that we'd find some cool waterfalls. Instead we found a dilapidated, tired town behind a dammed up river. While driving through we passed "Buck's Auto parts," "Paul's" (no idea what Paul sold) "Dee-Di's Hair Salon," and my absolute favorite, "Piggly Wiggly's" It was straight out of "Bill and Ted's excellent adventures." (come on all you children of the 80's, I KNOW you know what I'm talking about.) I decided to call my Dad and tell him how funny it was. Turns out, he was familiar with good ol' Piggly Wiggly from his childhood.

So, we drove on. Rob was driving and I was chatting with Dad and then Mom. During this chat Austin woke up and started screaming bloody murder about having a wet diaper. Robert decided to pull over and help the poor kid out. We pulled over across from a plain, unremarkable mobile home. As Robert got out of the car I realized that next to the mobile home was a very mean looking pit-bull eyeing Robert. He was hunched forward and all his muscles were taut as he sized Robert up. I knew in an instant that he was going to charge on Rob. Before I could open my mouth, that pit-bull was already across the yard and up to the road. I yelled out for Robert to close the door which he slammed shut. The snarling dog had leapt across the street and was one foot away when the door clicked shut. The rabid, salivating, flesh-eating dog then paced back and forth a few times before settling at the edge of the road, tense and ready to pounce on anything that moved. Robert finished with Austin and crawled up to the front seat (no way he was going to step outside.) We started up the car and the dog jumped in front of the wheels, gnashing his teeth and daring us to test him. We kept trying to go but that dog kept jumping in front of us and chasing the wheels. We were afraid if we actually hit the dog that the owner would come out with a sawed off shot-gun. Finally we were far enough away from that precious mobile home that the dog decided we weren't a threat anymore. It was enough that our adrenaline was streaming through our veins, but I was giving Mom a live commentary during each new development. I couldn't help but laugh nervously during the whole conversation(you know..that I'm-about-to-see-my-husband-mauled-to-death-in-front-of-our-children nervous laugh), but Mom seemed overly distressed. She kept saying, "Get out of there!! Why are you changing Austin's diaper? Just leave!" It wasn't until later that we realized that there had been a huge miscommunication during all the excitement. She had thought that the menace that was trying to attack us was a man, not a dog. Poor Mom...she thought we were minutes away from death and casually laughing about it.

So...In honor of our first real red-neck experience, I've decided add a few more pictures of other redneck pictures that were floating around cyber-space. Enjoy, ya'll!

The things we do when we only have one car in the family. Robert has been taking the van to work everyday leaving me and the kids at home. Everyday. Just looking at each other, all day long. That's very boring.

If necessity is the mother of invention, tedium is the mother of all really, really bad ideas. And so it was the other day when Ethan decided to tackle his little brother. You see...he just did it all wrong. I mean, really, if you are going to do something, I just think you should do it properly. And thus started an afternoon lesson on how to give a good powerful tackle. We spent the next 10 minutes working on form, speed and agility. And of course, impact. Ethan is a rather quick study when it comes to all things regarding brute force. And, I know that this little life lesson has a very high probability of coming back and biting me in the rear one day. But fortunately, not yet.

Ethan took his new found knowledge and immediately turned around and gave his little brother and sister the same lesson that I had given him. Thankfully he let them hit him instead of the other way around.

"And now...let the wild rumpus start." --where the wild things are. (our new favorite leisure reading - thanks Robin :)





"oh please don't go- we'lleat you up - we love you so!"

And it seemed like such a good idea...

Austin prepares to catch his little sister on the slide.







Mission completed.





Laina thought that worked so well, that she'd give it a try. Austin thinks this is worth watching.


And it's a strike! Ethan's head bounces of Alaina's stomach, which throws her straight into an unsuspecting Austin. And it seemed like such a good idea.

We spent one day showing Mom and Dad around Charlotte and found this nice little park by Lake Wylie. We were even able to work some of that sugar out of their systems. On the way home everyone fell asleep. Thankfully, Robert waited until we got home before he nodded off...but it was a close one.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!

Santa finally made it to the East coast with the arrival of Mom and Dad Jones on the 29th. Mom started us out in the Christmas spirit by helping the kids make sugar cookies. We ran into a couple of snags along the way. For one thing, I had forgotten that my rolling pin broke before we moved...a problem mom solved by letting the kids hit the dough flat. We also ran out out flour right at the end...which was solved by using some wheat flour. Who knew sugar cookies could be healthy, well...kinda. When our funny shapes came out of the oven, the kids had a fun time frosting and decorating them. Actually, mom frosted them and they would accidentally spill some decorations on the cookies while they were stuffing it in their mouths. Those rotten little ankle-biters. (I don't know why it looks like I'm the only one eating the decorations in the picture. Weird.)

For our Christmas Eve, we read the Christmas story and all the kids’ favorite Christmas books. We actually zoomed through all the books, because for some reason we weren't able to keep our audience's attention for any extended amount of time. Go figure. It was funny when Robert read the kids "The night before Christmas." He started with all three kids around his knees - a real picturesque moment - however, half-way through the poem, Alaina had wondered off. A page later Ethan took off. Austin only lasted a minute longer. By the end of the book, Robert was reading a very animated "Night before Christmas" to me. Mom, Dad and I were cracking up, but Rob was determined to finish the story.

All of the kids were so excited that Santa was on his way, it took forever to get them to go to bed. By the time we were ready to Ethan to bed, we realized that we had forgotten to put our beautiful sugar cookies out for Santa. So Ethan got the privilege to do it all by himself. It actually turned out nice for him to have a special little moment.

Once we finally got them to sleep, the real work began. Putting together those wretched hot rods. Robert, of course, said that he’d get them together in about 10 minutes...easy. A “quick snap and twist” I think were the exact words. Well, with Dad’s help, (Mom and I were the detail crew…gotta love stickers) I think we actually made it to bed before 3 a.m. But not by much. I have to give it to him though, after he got that first one put together, the other bikes were a 'snap.'

Our Christmas morning started a little earlier and a lot louder than I was hoping for, but it was fun to watch how excited the kids were. The kids went straight for the bikes and would wheel through the kitchen and back through the living room between opening presents. The twins would actually sit for a few minutes and check out each present, or the wrapping paper, before they would get back on the bike. Ethan, on the other hand, would screech around the corner, slam on the brakes, bound into the room, rip open a present and throw it up in the air screaming “Merry Christmas.” Before the present even hit the floor he was back on the bike hot wheelin’ it out of the room. Now granted…the only other presents he got were clothes, but still…what a pill! I didn’t buy Austin hardly any presents at all because the poor kid gets all of Ethan’s clothes, so I let him open all of the ‘kids’ gifts. When he opened this fun elephant block, jenga-type game, Alaina jumped right in to stack up the blocks. Even Ethan stopped his paper-throwing festivities to check out the blocks. My sweet little nerd was pretty excited too…to read the directions. That’s right, he ignored the game and studied the instruction pamphlet. He didn’t just browse; he spent a good 5 minutes checking out each exciting, breathtaking detail. Needless to say, the books he got were a very big hit as well.

Alaina thought all the clothes were “boot-y-full,” just like gan-ma and mama (yup, she's trained.) And of course, she was all over the drum/music set. That girl is half rock an’ roll and half little miss priss. I swear, I can’t get a handle on that girl.

The rest of Mom & Dad’s visit was spent watching Robert and Dad check items of the mile long laundry list of projects that Rob had put together just for Dad to help him with. Switching electrical outlets, putting in new lights, replacing a dishwasher. The list went on. And on. And on. Mom and I just watched them go and we even managed to get out of the house a couples times ourselves.

One funny little story. One afternoon we were trying to get Austin to eat at the table and he was way too tired to eat anything. He was so miserable at the table that Alaina and Ethan went over to talk to him.
Ethan, “Oh…Austin? You’re too tired? Oh. That’s right.”
Alaina, “Tired?" her hand goes on his shoulder to comfort him, "That’s right.”
Ethan, “Oh…you need to go to bed.”
Alaina, nodding, “Austin go to bed now.”
Ethan takes his hand and with Alaina trailing half-a-step behind walks him into their bedroom. Austin goes along with his head down and eyes drooping.
Ethan, “There you go. Time for night night.
Alaina gives Austin a hug and says, “Oh Austin. Soooo tired. Night night Austin”
Ethan disappears for a second and reappears with a diaper in his hands, “you need a new diaper? I’ll help you.”
Mom and I watched for a minute until we were sure he was actually going to try and change his little brother by himself. At that point we shooed them out of the room. About 10 minutes later Austin got his second wind and reappeared back at the table ready to eat. Ethan saw him there and excitedly asks, “Oh…you all better now?” Austin just smiles and nods back at him. Ethan continues, “Good job Austin! I’m proud of you! High Five.” Both boys excitedly swing for a high five and both smack each other after a very clear miss. Two more times they happily tried for the high-five before they struck gold. It was a fun brother moment.

Here are a couple of pictures of Santa pictures. Our Santa is an old guy from our ward…and that is his own beard. It is also his own belly. The only glitch is that he sounds exactly like Bill Clinton. It’s pretty disconcerting.

Ethan was very excited to see Santa this year. We couldn't get him to get off that poor guy's lap.

Austin was definitely not so thrilled. He smiled for the quick picture and then jetted out of there.



Alaina was calm but definitely not pleased with the whole event.