Tuck is 1!!!

I decided to put some pictures up of Tucks bday party in October. We had a John Deere party with lots of yellow and green!!

Umbrella

Some sweet pics of my kids because I love them so much in the midst of my blog about embarrassment and consistency.

It's 11:00 and pouring rain outside. The kids and I run through the Walmart parking lot while Jaiya holds our only umbrella from the dollar store that is falling apart. Once inside I immediately trash it. We get the kids walmart stickers then head out to look at curtains. We pass an umbrella, not just any, but a Dora umbrella. It was pretty cheap so I told Jaiya we could get it since it was raining outside and we needed a new one. She decided she would rather have a barbie one. I put some batteries and curtains in the cart then its time to check out. She does what often happens when we go to a check out..she walks away. So here I am in walmart paying for all this stuff, I have Tucker in the cart and my daughter is standing over by the easter baskets. After asking her to come a few times I start to get frustrated. "Come on J," "I am mom!" with a bit of sass. I look at the walmart clerk then at Tucker trying to climb out of the cart.....I go over and grab her hand. She hits me, then she starts to throw a fit. So here I am in walmart. My child is throwing a fit. She starts to ask for her umbrella and get upset that I am not giving it to her. I take the umbrella and walk right over to customer service to return it, the whole while she is crying that she wants a new umbrella. Everyone was looking. I put her arm around her and hugged her and told her calmly that it's not ok to treat mom like that. I explained that she will not be able to get the umbrella today because of her attitude and disobedience. We get to the car and she is still screaming. We talk about it and by the time we are home, she is fine.

This is an example today of me being consitent.....But the battle I feel that I face every day is the consistency when I feel worn down or feel like not following through. Yes I could of handed her the umbrella and she would of stopped crying, but what would that of taught her? That crying and whining gets us what we want. We have conversations about fairness and sometimes are not always going to be fair or easy but its still important to have a good attitide and a happy heart. I feel like I am really learning alot about being the best parent I can to the kids in the moment even if I am embarrassed like crazy or even if everyone is watching my child scream .

Tucker often screams right now because he gets frustrated I think when he cannot communicate something. He can say about 25 words and can sign some too. I am really encouraging that. But this weekend we were around about 100 people at Ben's dads birthday party and it was so much of Tucker screaming.....He was tired and out of his normal nap routine and it was really hard for him. I struggled....alot with what others thought of my parenting. But I am learning that I have some real areas in parenting where I am really insecure. But I am still learning to give them what they need in those hard moments where I need to follow through. Even when I am embarrassed or feel that another parent would do it differently. But I love my children so so much. And I am so grateful for their sweet hearts and am learning that confidence in my parenting comes from love from above.....


Throwing a fit.
Screaming.
Discipline.
Consistency.
Vulnerability.
Embarrassment.
Confidence.
Love. Lots and lots of Love.

Making the Cake!

Spent all day November 6, 2010 making this cake. I am excited to put pictures on my blog about it. You tube has super great videos on cake making! This video was a princess cake video and super easy!

Jaiya turns 3!!! Tinkerbell Tea Party

Jaiya's bday party. Friends came to pixie hollow dressed in dress up clothes and we had a giant tea Party. We sprinkled everyone with pixie dust, colored, opened presents and had cake! It was so much fun! It was a magical time in pixie hollow!

jaiya's second bday, at the park!

jaiya's second bday...at the park

10 K all the way

I was not sure if I could run the St. Pats race I had signed up for, because Thursday night my allergies kicked in and I slept awful and could not breath out of my nose at all. I have been averaging one box of kleenex a day....

But I woke up Saturday and decided that I would wing it. I was excited! So I got dressed and Jenny picked me up and we drove to Aggiville. There is just so much adrenaline in the air on race day...I am not super competitive at all. I mean I got passed by so many runners, almost all maybe...and I was thinking I would just walk what I couldn't do. I ran with my friend Brooke, were about the same pace. It was a great day to run, about 40 degress, cold but once we got running it was fine. It rained on us a little but it felt good. Once I got running I didn't want to stop. So we ended up running it all.....we were both surprised. The last time I ran this race it was 2006 I think, and my time was I beleive 1 hr 15 minutes. I had trained using Hal Higdons 10k program, because that is what Ben's sister Sandi recommended and she is a runner as well. She ran Chicago marathon a few years ago!
This time I did not train but I joined a gym (with a childcare) recently and have gone weekly to classes with strenth training and some cardio Monday and Wednesday. Friday mornings I spin with Camala and this has really strengthened my legs I think. Plus its been so great to get some space away from being mom for a while, and I can do that when I work out, its a huge stress reliever for me. This time my race time was 1 hr. 19 mintues without training, so I thought it would have been cool to beat my time from 06 but I was not disappointed! Thanks to Brooke for running with my and pulling me through the last mile, my legs were hurting!!


Here is a picture of me at home after the race. I didnt take my camera but Camala did so maybe I can post some race pictures later.

It's a sensory thing....

Painting outside with the kiddos. They want to be outside all the time and quite frankly, so do I!! When I taught preschool this was one of my favorite things to do with the kids.

They loved playing in shaving cream! It's an easy sensory activity!
We are working on writing Jaiya's name. She can do it but gets really frustrated with the J for some reason. It is much easier for her to write her name with paint or shaving cream. (even though mom wrote this one!)
Get your hands dirty!
His favorite thing to eat seems to be yogurt lately. He especially enjoys smearing it into his hair. Awesome buddy!
This one was J painting on the KC star. I cut the coupons every week out but sometimes its nice to have some extra big paper around for art. Thanks to miss hilary jane for the shirt. This is one of my old shirts, Kappa best friends weekend to be exact but it works great for an art smock as well!


Springtime is here. It's official. It's spring break. My allergies have let me know that the pollen and trees and mold and all that great stuff is HERE. The misery of springtime allergies hits hard in the middle of march and my eyes burn and i usually cannot breath out of my nose which makes for terrible nights. After a trip to the doctor I am much happier!

We have been loving being creative and playing in all sorts of crazy things at our house...Here are a few of the funnest photos.