I Wish Spring Break was Over!!!!!

So today has not gone well at all. The kids are at each others throats and extremely emotional from a lack of sleep. This weekend was great but very busy and today we are paying the consequences. It has been temper tantrums and fighting amongst Ash and Carter. I can't even begin to count the number of times children have been sent to their rooms today.

To highlight the day Hannah has decided to do whatever she can to us pull our hair out. Here is how this afternoon has gone so far. Hannah has decided recently that when she has a messy diaper she will take care of it herself, yikes! So we have been keeping a close eye on her, but she manages to escape us every now and then and today she did it. She took off her diaper and made the biggest mess ever in our room, so I got her a bath and got her cleaned up. Then while I am cleaning up the room she found Ashleigh's nail polish, that of course Ash would forget to put away (Ashleigh swears she put it away, though, which is impossible since the polish goes into a locked drawer that Hannah can't open) so of course Hannah decided to open every bottle and pour it out, the only good thing about this is it was in the bathroom so clean up was pretty easy just incredibly annoying.

Can the day get any worse, of course it can because right at this moment Ash and Carter are screaming at each other about the play station (they don't know it yet, but I will be taking that away as soon as I finish this post), and Hannah is right by my leg throwing herself on the floor because she is so tired she doesn't know what to do and won't take a nap. The week is off to a GREAT start! Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings!

It's a Yearly Tradition!

The monster trucks racing each other



This truck is doing a donut, you can see the tire marks in the dirt
Apparently this is a major event in the judging




This is Grave Digger, Carter's favorite truck!

The first year that Ashleigh had a father Daughter dance Carter was extremely put out that he wasn't able to do something fun with just Dad. So John felt bad and it happened that the Thunder Nationals were coming to Grand Rapids a few weeks later, so he ended up taking Carter to see them and they had a blast!! So every year it has worked out that the Thunder Nationals come to town about the same time as the Father Daughter dance.

This year John, Carter, Grnadpa, Uncle Mike, and Aidan all went. It was Aidan's first time and he apparently had a great time. Sorry no pictures of the whole group. (that's what happens when you put the men in charge of the camera!)

Sorry about th epictures being first, I'm still trying to figure out this blog thing

It's Mine Again!!!

John started his new job this weekend. It's not yet a police officer job to start his certification, but as John say "a stepping stone in the right direction." Anyway today I have to say I absolutely loved that John was not around, sorry Hun (technically he was, but he was sleeping because he works 3rd shift) I have my house back to do things the way I want. I was able to stack the dishwasher the "right way", KEEP THINGS PICKED UP AND TIDY (that's right John I discovered you actually make a lot of the mess, not the kids) and most of all I was able to accomplish everything on my to do list today, because I had no distractions!

I shouldn't be so happy, because John has been a tremendous help while he's been home, but I am ocd and a clean freak so I have always done the house work and loved it. I was so giddy today to be able to do everything my self and my way. With this happiness comes some struggle too. Hannah has her Daddy wrapped around her finger, and I think she gets her way when it's just her and Dad so she and I had some struggles, but she quickly caught on to I am the one she got that strong will from and I have mastered it more than her and she eventually gave in. She actually took a nap today, Yeah!

I don't know how long this will last, but I will enjoy it for as long as I can. We received some very good news this past weekend that it looks as if John will probably be hired in April to start at Kalamazoo County, and this will be a fantastic job and will start his certification. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed because as we have learned from the past nothing is for sure until you have a start date. So if he does land this job and works the 4 -midnight shift like they expect he will, he will be home during the day again and I will once again have to bite my tongue and be grateful for the help.

Potty Mouth

Since John has graduated the police academy his language has been less than desirable. He is much better than he was but still every other sentence usually contains a swear word. I guess its a hard habit to break when you spend 17+ weeks being sworn at by your superiors.

Anyway we have been having a little trouble with Hannah repeating some of these words after John has said them. Not only does she repeat what John says she also repeats after my Dad too. The men in her life are not the best language role models.

Okay so when she repeats the words, we try not to overreact (or laugh) and then tell her its naughty to say and then we move on, no problem, right? let me just say WRONG!

The other day Hannah is upstairs with me, I'm at the computer and she is in my room watching Dora. She then decides she wants to be with me so she picks up her blankie and marches over to the bedroom door, walks out and proceeds to shut the door. In the process of her shutting the door she manages to shut her blankie in the door. And then it happens; all of a sudden I hear her scream and then she says DAM IT. I couldn't believe it I was so shocked I couldn't say anything. I just looked at her, and all she did was smile at me, like it was no big deal. So not only does she repeat the words, she also has an understanding of what context to use them in, what am I going to do? I completely blame this on John and my Dad so it is going to be up to them to be better examples.

I don't know how good they will be a being better examples though, because they just giggle when she repeats a word, because she is so darn cute and her little munchkin voice makes it funny to hear. I will agree she is just too cute, but the language is not funny!