Sleep

I love Brandon's post, esp. the first part, that's why I think he's a good writer!

So I pretty grumpy today due to lack of sleep, due to getting to bed too late. I think there are no morning people or night people, well there may be a litte of that going on, but I think we train our bodies either on accident or purpose and then think that's how we "are". If I get my behind in bed before 11:00 or even better before 10:00 I can pop out of bed the next morning, regardless of how many hours I've had to sleep. I think that even if you get the same amount and get to bed late and get up late, I'm dragging throughout the day. I could still be tired on less sleep, doing the early version but I feel better and am able to function and it's easier to be nice. So I'm vowing to get to bed earlier tonight. It's hard because that's the prime hours kid free, but it doesn't make the next day easier. I think Heavenly Father gives pretty good advice in early to bed, early to rise....now just need to follow it better!
Happy early dreams.

Dad Checks In

I was more than content checking the family blog occasionally, enjoying Jennifer's observations and humor. She eventually made me a contributor to the blog, but I ignored that in favor of continuing my role as a spectator. Then she had to go and make a bunch of ridiculous claims about me, and in true Jennifer fashion, fail to post a single nicety about herself. She has partially rectified the latter, but it is up to me to clarify information about us both.


First I'll dispute some (false) claims about me:

• I'm a "Financier." This is Jen's kind way of saying I'm a tightwad. She's kind--I'm accurate.
• "Father of the years past and years to come." This seems to put me on par with Father Time. If that was the case, I wouldn't be balding as I age.
• "Author." I'm pretty sure authors are required to write--at least occasionally--so I think I'm disqualified. I could make an incision with my pocket knife and poke around your abdomen a bit with a spoon, but that doesn't make me a surgeon.
• "His Worshipfulness." I'm not sure we're talking about the same kids. If somehow we are referring to the same children, there must be confusion regarding the definition of the word "worship." I'd be very happy with "Acknowledged by his children," and ecstatic with "Obeyed by his children."
• "Best boss." Is this a promotion or just a change in title?
• "Biscuit." I think most country folk would be more likely to drawl, "Looks ter me like yer scarecrow is gettin' a bit thin on top an' thick in 'is middle."

Second, I'll have to explain a few of the fine things about Jen that she's too humble to mention herself:

• She's devoted. Every day she remains committed to me, our family, and covenants she has made with God. Certainly it would be easier to let at least one of these go--just for a little while until [fill in the blank]. But she doesn't.
• She's self-aware. She's mindful of both of her shortcomings, and she works to overcome them.
• She is the expert on our children. I am pleasantly surprised at least once a week at how well she knows, how much she knows, and how deeply she understands each of our children. These are surpassed only by her love for them.
• SAHM. I just learned the acronym (and probably got it wrong as well), but I suspect this audience knows what I mean anyway. I'm good for a few hours. I could make it though a few days if I had to. But every day, all the time? Nu-uh.
• 10,000 acts of quiet service. I don't even notice most of them, and of the ones I do notice, I only manage to mention a few. But while I'm thinking of zeros and ones and databases and servers, she's thinking of me. That, frankly, is fantastic.

There's more of course, but I'm not too good with the food metaphors (and I'm paranoid at what you all might read into them!). Bottom line is I think I'll keep her--as long as she tones down the ridiculous things she posts here about me!

Now back to Hanna Nanna

She is so sweet, although she has gotten to the toddler tantrums at times, but she tries really hard to be patient. When I'm going to work or aerobics and she knows I'm leaving she tries to put on a good face and say bye mommy. She talks more than all of us put together. She can say clearly....
Cole
apple
caillou
up high
baby
guys, wait

not so clearly
where are you?
here i am
there it is
balloon
play
jackson

and lots more those are just the ones I can think of. She is not a sweet eater. She will eat ice cream sometimes, froot loops, and chocolate is okay to her, but she prefers spaghetti, broccoli, green beans, cheese. It is hard to find foods for her in the morning. She loves Cole and Laura.

She started to count. Today she was tryting to discipline Laura by counting .... uunnn, tooo, dree, adda (laura). So cute

Oh and side note tonight, Laura was sent to bed and was sad and Cole said. It give me a bad feeling when Laura is sad, I don't like it when she cries. awwwwwwwwww. So sweet. And Cole was having a hard time earlier today and Laura was doing everything she could to help him out. Oh and I have to blog about our summer home school. I'll do another post.

for the fans :)

So here's me in a nutshell, by request :). I'll skip the labels like with the rest of the fam cause it's hard enought to think of stuff for yourself.

I'm a good speller
I remember telephone numbers from the 80s
I adore my family
I try to be charitable/think of others
if I'm in the right mood I'm a hard worker (not afraid to get dirty)
I love to laugh
I play with the kids
I love word games/puzzles
and games in general
I'm pretty competitive
I'm a fairly decent cook, as the years have gone by
I helped produce some magnificent people
I married well
thanks for thinking of me, as with most of my posts I start on one thought and drift off. The previous post started off with wanting to update Hannah's growing up and I thought of the other kid's stuff that I haven't updated and then it made me think of the qualities each child received from Brandon....and here we are. This is good though, the whole point of the blog is to eventually make it into a book for the good ole posterity and they'll want to know where the craziness came from. :)

Our kids in a nutshell of sorts

Cole

Future Donald Trump (minus the attitude I hope, and with how much he thinks about money I'll be shocked if this isn't true)

Game inventor

Animal advocate

Math whiz (the dude can do math faster in his head than I can on paper...seriously)

Youngest author we know (if you need a copy of the limited edition of Monster World by our house renowned author, Cole E. Porter, we can hook you up)

Lego builder

Comic

Laura

Super pretend play girl (aka Miss Ma'am)

Care taker (if ever I wasn't around, she'd take care of things)

Miss Independent (if she needs it done she can get it done)

Dot-to-dot-er (our printer can't keep up with her)

Ballerina girl (self taught)

Fish out of water (literally)

Our street's and possibly others', winner of most freakishly strong (for being an eloquent yet lanky) five year old

Hannah

Youngest salsa lover we know

Belly button enthusiast

Ball player

Balloon spotter/cheerleader

Cat feeder (she feeds our cat)

Milkaholic (we're looking for a 12 step program, even a good thing can be a bad thing)

Greatest sleeper we know almost two years running (minus that first night home from the hospital)

We love them so much and love that they are so different, it is truly a treasure to be their parents!

And who could forget about the man who makes it all possible (cause all good things in our children stem from him) (jk, Brandon, I know you hate that stuff...even though it's true)

Brandon

Financier (it's where Cole gets it from)

Father of the years past and years to come

Author (one day there will be a novel published by him, I've no doubt!)

Most patient person I know (with people anyway, with inanimate objects that he's trying to repair is another story :), people are more important anyways)

Worshipped by his children

and his wife!

Hard worker

Best "boss" a girl could have at home or otherwise, hasn't fired me once (and I probably would have)

Computer guru

Most thorough person I've ever known

So soppable with a biscuit! (that's country slang for seriously hot)

Best stay-at-home mom supporter..hands down!

Completely and utterly the best thing that has happened to my life winner!

Mom Tips Blog

So I've been thinking about trying this for some time. It's a mom tips blogs. Check it out and give us some good stuff when you can, I know you have some!

http://momtipsfl.blogspot.com/

Summer Snafoos

We started out the first couple days of summer on a fantastic note. The kids started swimming lessons which they loved. We went to the library. Cole finally started the getting lost in books thing. He read two books in one day, one of them a 3rd grade level book. We ended the first two days so happy. On Wednesday we're headed to swimming leasons and Cole is complaining of his eyes hurting which he had been a little since Sunday and it would hurt for a little bit and then go away. Well this time it wasn't going away. We rerouted to the closest Patient's First and he was distraught for a good 1/2 hour and then is subsided. His eyes were super red though. So the nurse practitioner said it was probably from the chlorine in the pool, but possibly pink eye as well aggravated by the chlorine. While in the waiting room Cole made a complaint about a tooth and I looked in his mouth and low and behold there's a tooth coming in behind his baby teeth, which are not budging. This was not the tooth that was hurting but I was concerned so Brandon called the dentist for us (cause it was craziness with Laura and Hannah in the waiting room where we were) and made an appt. to see them right after Patient's first. LIz took Laura to the park for play group with her, thank goodness. I chased Hannah all over the dentist's office. They say that Cole's teeth have to be pulled, they're not coming out on their own (at least the bottom two). They just refereed us out to some dental surgery dude.

So we have the eye drops and Cole's freaking out. Every occurrence is not fun putting those puppies into his eyes.

Moving along, today I was trying to put drops in Cole's eyes :( and Laura is helping with breakfast, pulling the waffles out of the toaster oven (I should've known better than to step out of cereal world) and she burns her finger. She's never done or tried this before but she's pretty capable, except this time and she's screaming, Cole's screaming b/c of the eye drops and Hannah's screaming just to chime in. We settle down from all that, go to swimming lessons and I decide everyone needs haircuts...not the greatest of decisions here are the results

he wanted spikey hair, the cutie

she was the inspiration for the cuts, to me you could do anything with her hair and she'd be just fine, the model

told the lady I wanted just what she had just given to her previous customer, mine turned out to be a couple inches shorter than what I recalled seeing in her chair before, the enabler

our sweet Hannah, the kids now call Han cause she needed a boy name to go with her cut, the victim

I love it, but I realize I am her mother, like with mine I'm looking forward to it growing out some

Even with all the snafoos, we're doing pretty good so far. I love my kids and love having them home, with the exception of a few moments. I am blessed!