The Nutzo Week in Review

First things first, today is my sister LeAnne's birthday.  So.... here we go!!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to LeAnne......

Happy Birthday to you!!!!

I love love love you sista!

2.  For some reason this week, the kids have not been so fond of naps!  No matter what we do, they just are not getting sleepy!  I do not know what is going on with them!  So, we have been doing a lot of extra curricular activities.  This week, we have gone to walk on some nature walks.  These walks have been miles!  yes, miles long!  We were so excited about our adventures because we saw frogs, a deer (which I believe if we had something besides cheeto balls for it to eat it totally would have come to hang out with us... it was so not afraid!), some salamanders, and squirrels.  We were right in the middle of the woods. Crystal Bridges trails, and these kids could not have been happier!

Bray before the walk began!

Red stopping to say cheese for the camera!

 Yes, this is a glamorous photo of myself, proof that I did in fact walk the miles that I am claiming!

 My super awesome brother Richard!  He was willing to go and help me with the monkeys, I mean the kids.  Yeah, the kids!

Here are the kids just touching the art.

And, here are my children taking it a step further by hitting it and then beginning to climb it like it was Mt. Everest or something...

So yes, with the all of the walking this week, I walked about 7 miles!  Go me!  Hopefully, I can keep it up for the following week.  In fact, I should start a walking group for mothers that need to break out of the house with their kids, but are too scared to take them to a restaurant or store or something.  We should all meet up at the trails, and let the kids run/ walk a few miles and act like crazy animals, kids.

3.  Meet our fury chicky friend!

 Yes, we went on a trip to the fair.  By far, the most exciting thing to do there was pet the baby chicks, and I desperately wanted to keep one and take it home, but then I saw how Sophia was attempting to hold it (by the neck!! Yikes!), so we left Chicky there with her brothers and sisters:(

4.  I am not sure if it has anything to do with all of the outdoor time we have been having, but the kids have started to have a horrible runny nose.  Snot is so the worst!  Yesterday, the snot turned into a barking cough!  So, now we are spending some time at home with the humidifier, cool drinks, and playing.  We have been playing a lot of Jake and the Neverland Pirates (Disney cartoon).  I never get to be one of the kid pirates, I have to be Hook or the bird... BOO!

 Sophia was very excited that her map led her to a buried treasure!  I was hiding play jewelery and she was so proud to wear her new stuff!  (although, none of the stuff is in the photo, I really thought that she liked it!?)

5.  With all of the yuckiness at our house, we will be missing church tomorrow.  In the morning the kids will be promoted into their new Sunday school classes.  Sophia will be in the 3 year old Sunday school.  Two of my girl friends are teaching the class, and I could not think of two sweeter Christian women to teach my baby about Jesus.  They even sent their kids in the class a note in the mail (which Red was so glad to open) introducing themselves as her teachers and how they were glad to be spending the year learning about Jesus.  Awesome!

 6.  With all of the craziness that is my life, I just really need to reach out to another mutha, that could be just as tired as I am....  please view the picture and then continue on with the story.. Pray for me

I used to be a cute girl.  I would shower everyday, brush my teeth before noon, not use my t-shirt that I am wearing that day as a snot rag for children, and for pittys sake I would not wear an outfit during the day then sleep in it that night and then wake up in the morning and wear it to Wal-Mart!!  Well, Friday was just one of those days where I wore an outfit for a few days and then dressed it up with a headband and my nice flip flops (the ones that do not have paint on them).  As the kids were watching Super Why, I saw my moment to quickly go and get ready....

Humpf!

Well, I slapped on my bra, did not take time to change out of my previous days/ night time outfit, tried to pull my hair back (as you can see in the above photo I did a pretty poor job), I put on concealer (under my eyes and a line down the middle of my head, I do this and I do not know why.. it makes me feel very Last of the Mohican's), and all of a sudden Red comes in and starts going through the make up brushes and lipsticks, then Brayden comes in pulling stuff out of the cabinet, the Red says she has to pee, so off we run to the other bathroom... (which that was successful!!), we all ate a Skittle for her job well done, put on our shoes, changed Braydens diaper and then off we went to the store, Wal-Mart, the main store in our town, at lunch time (okay 11, but close enough), there are always people at Wal-Mart... always.  Anyways, we were in and out in about 25 minutes (diapers, wipes, toilet paper, bread, apple juice, coke, chicken nuggets, yogurt, bananas... ya dig.  We leave the store get the kids in the car and I look in the rear view mirror to make sure I am not going to run over anyone...... and what do I see?

Mirror Mirror on the Wall, who is the fairest Mommy of them all....

$5 says the mirror did not say me!!

Why would it?

I was sporting concealer (not rubbed in concealer all over my face)!  I even tried to blend it in, but it was dried on my face... very much like paint!  I looked like a football player with pale skin tone paint blotted all over my skin!  Needless to say, the concealer was not concealing anything that day, it was much more the high-lighter of every facial flaw I had that day!

I looked ri-donk!!

Why would someone not say, hey hey looker, check your face paint, or maybe ya got something right there!  Nothing!  All I could do was sit in the parking lot and call my mother.  All my mother could do was laugh!!  (It was okay, by that time I was laughing too!)

 7.  I saw this picture on my friend Cara's face book page, and I just had to steal it!  I was talking to my Bucky (grandfather) this week and the kids started yelling and singing right when our conversation started!  This always happens.  When you need to get on the phone or go to the bathroom, the kids have to be right at your side acting nutty!  At one point in the phone call, Bucky said, I will let you go it sounds like your busy at your house, and I said not busy at all, it is always like that!  So, when I saw this I had to put it on the blog!

 Do your kiddos do this to you?  Or is it only mine that are doing this?  Too funny!

 8.  Last thing.  This is our kitchen table.  It has 4 chairs and right now 2 of them are in the process of being painted!  I am going to do the bottom of the table and the 4 chairs red and the top of the table a dark wood stain.  Hopefully, this will be done by the end of the week.  I am having a few girl-friends over and their kids are coming for a play date, and they may need a place to sit and eat dinner!  So, project out with the old and in with the new is in the works this week!  Update soon!

 Loves!

3 Day Potty Training, Yes Please!

If you are not the least bit interested in potty training, pee, poop, sticker charts, and a princess toilets, then maybe you should check out the blog another day (this will not be reading material for ya)!

What a week!  Two weeks ago, I stated that I would begin the potty training with Sophia.  I was a little nervous about it, but I figured the girl is 3, and it is time.  I had a lot of information from girlfriends who had recently done this with their children and it looks like they all survived and their kids are doing what they need to!  So, 2 Monday's ago, I put Red in panties and every 20 minutes would drag her to the potty.  She would sit and whine and nothing would come of it!  I know!  I even showed her a sparkly chart that I had created and glittery stickers to put on whenever she mastered the task, then I showed her all of my M&Ms and Skittles, and NOTHING!  She wanted nothing to do with my dazzle me chart and handfuls of sweets.  Like any defeated mother would do I took my handful of sweets and ate them while rethinking my game plan.  During this rethinking time I cleaned up 3 accidents (which happened to be moments after we left the potty after our 20 minute intervals)!  Geez!  So, I went and got out our trusty size 6 Pampers and put them back on Red... she could have cared less.

So, after a recent post I had done on how I was going to potty train the tot, a friend sent me an email telling me about this super genius mother who had written an ebook about, 3 Day Potty Training.  Umm, yes please!  3 days and she will be going to the bathroom, okay, now we are talking.  I read the book, a little skeptical, but I read it.  My friend had read it and it worked with her children and she had given it to her friends and not 1 of them had not been successful!  So, either I try the technique and have Red potty trained or not try the technique and Red not be potty trained.  So, I try.

So, I read Lora Jensen's words of wisdom and the whole time, I was like DUH!  She says that if your child is 22 months of age, they are ready and this will work!  Hello, Red is 36 months!

 Last Monday, Red and I said goodbye to her diapers and hello big girl panties!

I will not lie.  There were accidents.  In fact, the whole first day there were accidents.  In fact, every hour there was something, but I just stayed positive, kept reminding Sophia to tell me when she had to go (so much that she told me many times, I KNOW!!)  After a sappy phone call to my momma after the end of day 1, oh, woe is me!  She will go to college in diapers.....

Red ran into the room and said she had to teetee in the potty!!!

Well, she did!  We cheered, there was dancing, I even teared up (I'm a sucker), there were glittery stickers, and Skittles, and the Hungry Hungry Hippo game.  It was bliss.

Ten minutes later.... she pooped in her panties... but I just clung to that 1 success!

Day 2, no lie, it was hard.  The first part of the day, there was a lot of soap and blotting on my carpet.  Late that afternoon, the girl finally got it!  After her nap (which she slept in her panties) she woke up we tee-teed, and then the rest of the day was good!  There was even poop!

Day 3, we left the house for 1 hour, and she did not go in her panties!  I had the potty in the car and that worked for her!  Yes, there was probably 2 accidents, but she was getting it!

So, in 3 days, girlfriend had it figured out.

We still have about 2-3 accidents in the day, but that is okay, she is still learning her body and figuring this all out.  I could not totally throw out the diapers (like the technique says to do), she sleeps in one at night, but it is pretty dry in the mornings.

So, would I tell my friends to read this?

Yes!

Did it work for us?

Yes!

Will you have to totally devote yourself to your child for three days?

Yes, I thought I already did that, but this is constant time with the child.  No checking emails, talking on the phone, cooking, laundry.  Just sitting with your child, playing, reading, talking, coloring, the whole day and night (never left her side)!

Side note:  we did go to church on Sunday, I was told by Sophia's teacher that she was not in fact ready for panties at church!  She went through 3 panties and 3 outfits, in fact she came home in some sad put together outfit that had been given to the nursery and another child's diaper!  I really thought that she would be able to do the potty thing at church!  It's a tot size pot, and being able to see that her friends do the same thing would help, but sadly it did not!  We are still working on this, but I am positive that when college comes along we will be out of the Pampers!  Yes!

3 Day Potty Training by Lora Jensen!  Read it!  Live it!  Love it!!

If you try it let me know if it worked for you!

Summertime fun inside??

I have seen this on Facebook so many times lately, and I just thought it was too funny not to post!

Seriously, it is so hot outside!  So hot, that me and my little ones are constantly hanging out in the house!  Is anyone else doing the same thing, day after day?  I have been trying to find fun blogs or things on Pinterest that show lots of indoor entertainment ideas for toddlers, I am having some luck, but I just thought I would see what you and your peeps are doing.

Art time, lots and lots of art time!  Everyday, we color, use the big dot markers, do water colors, and play with stickers.  I am a HUGE fan of the 1+1+1=1  blog site and The Confessions of a Homeschooler blog.  I have printed off some of there worksheets with numbers, tracing, and the alphabet, and laminated them so the kids will color and color and then just wipe away (this is saving me from printing the same thing over and over again!  These women are so great and always have fun ideas for tot entertaining!  I also recently came across a blog, Play at Home Mom of 3 site that had super fun things to do with kids of all ages.  The mom even blew up a black tarp in her home (with and oscillating fan) and then threw in glow in the dark sticks and balls and light up stuff.... who thinks of this stuff??  These gals are genius!

 Using play dough to shape the letters.  We are playing and learning, LOVE IT!!

Yesterday, since watercolors are getting pretty old, and they all look black and brown in the tray, I broke out some finger paint, which turned into body paint and then hair paint and then a little bit of floor paint (which is where I drew the line and this normally laid back mom became cray cray lady and decided paint time was OVER)!

They loved being able to use "mommy's brushes".

Last week, I painted one of our kitchen walls with chalkboard paint.  Well, this has turned out to be so fun for Sophia and Brayden!  It was so worth the 45 minutes that it took for me to paint it, and the fact that it is a tiny side wall that is all black, does not bother me in the slightest.  It adds a lil something fun to the kitchen.  I have even chalked out a calendar and the Razorback football schedule.  Aron is excited to write WIN next to each game when we come home from the big match-ups!  Woo-pigs!

 Beans.  Who knew.  A couple of dried beans, some shovels and bowls on a blanket would keep these people busy for an hour!  An hour!  Yes!  The clean up was not bad either!  I just gathered up the sheet and poured it into that blue box then poured that into a very large ziploc baggie!  Tada!

 More chalkboard!  Red is writing her name.

 We have watched countless hours of Disney Jr and PBS, but I start to get worried when my kids know the words to some of the intro music for their favorite shows!  So I am trying to limit the television and movies.

We have a slide that I brought in from the outside and that has been good and bad (seeing that they cannot slide at the same time, a few fights have broken out)!

This morning, I even took the kids outside (but it was 8)!  Yes, I am sure that my neighbors love me after listening to a shrieking match with the kids and me constantly yelling, "don't touch the dog's poop!"  The joys of motherhood!

I am also working with Red on potty training.  I have started that just today, and I cannot wait to write the biggest blog post ever about that!  I was going to start it last week, but a friend, Raven sent me informed me about this E-Book, 3 Day Potty Training website here, and I have a whole new outlook on this experience!  So far, it has been a long day, but there has been 1 success!  More to come on that.  Anyways, I have been so close to her all day, reading, playing, and singing (she even told me to go to my room)!  As you can tell, we are in very close quarters, so if you are doing something super fun at your home, please help a mutha out!

Oh Rana

Today, my friend Rana, was in town for her baby shower.  I met Rana when we were in high school, and I loved her instantly!  She was snappy, and funny, and loud (so loud!), definitely my kind of girl!  Anyways, she is expecting in late October, and I am so excited to be an auntie!

The baby shower was gender neutral!  Can you believe that they are not going to find out if it is a boy or a girl!  They will just let it be a surprise!  We were also asking about names, and nothing, she just would not reveal a thing!!  I am such a planner, I had to know everything ahead of time!

Laura, Amanda, Rana (she does not even look like she is with child, it looks like she just ate a BigMac before the shower), me, Amanda

I went to high school with all of these girls!

 Rana relaxing in the chair!

 This is when she was telling me to STOP taking pictures and to NOT put them on Face Book!  I said I would not put them of FB just my family blog!  Ha!

It was so good to be with her again!

One funny thing about the shower (there were many funny things about the shower):

As I was sitting with my friend Amanda, discussing Rana's birthing plan and Rana not being able to spell half of the words on her birthing plan, I found my eyes watching the woman sitting next to Amanda.  I know it is so rude to stare!  Anywho.... I am sitting, chatting, staring, chatting, eating, and then it clicked!  HOLY MOLY!  You are the news lady!  (Yes, I said it out loud, as if she were a room away from me) It was Neile Jones!  She is the news anchor for our local news, KNWA.  We watch her in our house, and I just had to say hello!  When I was leaving the shower, I started to think that I probably looked like a stalker, but I just thought it was fun to have a brush with fame!  (I hope that she gets that a lot!)

Where a kid can be a kid!

Last night, Aron and I decided that we would take Sophia to Chuckee Cheese to celebrate her turning 3!  We invited our family and had a fun time eating pizza, playing games, and chasing Sophia and Brayden!  After 2 hours of that place, we (me and Aron) were beat, but the kids..... not so much!  They did not even tire out until about 9:45!  Geez!  Where in the world do they get their energy?

The birthday girl!

Annalee, Aunt Kitty, Uncle Jason

 Jason and G-Daddy

(J was posing as if it was a silly senior portrait, remember all of the funny poses that you were told to do for senior portraits?) 

playing games!  I got to play a few games of skee ball and pinball!  Love them the best!

Aidan and Aunt LeAnne

 dinner time!

Games

 I just thought this was so funny!

 I think that he was having a fun time

 Uncle Richard and Mercedees!  Her birthday is in a few days, so maybe we can go back for hers!!?

 He loves Barney on television.  Not so much in real life.

 and here we are..... our family picture to remember the fun time we had at Chuckee Cheese for Red's 3rd birthday!!  This was as good as it gets, we could stand together only to play a game!! Ha

Where did the time go??

Where is the time going?  This was us, 3 years ago.

You and me and your dad holding the camera.

We could not believe that you were on your way, a month early!  We were not ready, but we managed.  Right now the time is 3:50, this time 3 years ago, I had already been pushing for about 30 minutes!  Who knew baby pushing could be so difficult (not I).... I pushed and pushed and pushed until 6:21!  I know!  Longest time ever!  What?  I didn't know nothing bout birthing no babies!! (ha)

Finally, you decided that you would make an appearance!

We had no idea the happiness you would bring into our lives.

You have made us smile every single day for 3 years!

Everyday, for the past 3 years, you have filled our hearts with so much happiness (sometimes I feel like I could just bust at the seams)!

We have thanked God everyday for you

We are so proud of everything that you do and that you will do.

 We just love you so much Sophia!

 Happy Birthday to our precious Little Red

 Love, Daddy, Mommy, and BuhBuh