the most amazing thing

Can this little munchkin really be three years old already? His extremely active, mischievous and talkative little body suggests that yes he is three and moving toward four very quickly. He has learned the ropes around here and fits into this family of boys very well.

Now I do find it amazing that he just celebrated his third birthday this past weekend, but that is not the "most amazing thing" that I am writing about. The most amazing thing is the same thing I dread the most.... potty training. It would be an understatement to say that potty training sends shivers down my spine. Taylor was a nightmare to train, Bennett was better but not exactly easy. With both of them I don't know how many loads of pee-soaked underwear I washed. Probably enough for six boys.

The most amazing thing is that this little munchkin is potty trained both night and day and I have done very little to encourage him! About 3 weeks ago I decided I had better start since he had shown no interest in it yet and I knew it was time to just bite the bullet. So I half-heartedly went to the store and bought him Spiderman and Batman underwear. Then for the next week I had him wear them off and on and encouraged him to "pee in the toilet for a treat." He showed no interest and wouldn't even try. This just affirmed to me that I was in for another long potty training road.

Then miracle of all miracles happened. One day I again put underwear on him and again told him what to do if he felt pee pee coming. He again, ignored me. A little while later I was sitting on the couch feeding Chase and he was playing with his toys. I watched him stop playing, grab his privates run into the bathroom and pee in the toilet all on his own!!!! He has had maybe one accident since then. With the exception of last night he also has been dry at night for the past week.

The same thing happened with poop. I told him what he was suppose to do and he ignored me. Then one day I heard him in the bathroom. He came out awhile later and announced he had pooped in the toilet. Sure enough, he did that all on his own as well and has not looked back since.

I am amazed. Maybe potty training is this easy for every other kid out there but I am shocked at how fast this kid figured it out. I know he will still have accidents but he is miles ahead of his brothers. This is truly an amazing thing.

Taylor's Black Belt Test

On 9/20/2008 I had my black belt test. It was hard. I felt nervous. Boy did this kid look nervous. He wouldn't even crack a smile at me. As a mom all I wanted to do was to go over and give him a big hug and tell him it was o.k.



The first part was easy. All I had to do was 5 forms. By the look on his face you would have thought that he was being asked to jump into a pit of hungry lions.



Then it got a little harder. I had to do kicking combinations.



This picture makes me laugh. If you look closely at his kicking foot, it looks like he has no toes. He has his toes curled back.

Then I had to do attack and defense which is a little bit harder.



After that I had to break boards. 2 boards together with my elbow (It didn't break until my 4th try.) Then I had to do jumping horse kick and jumping spinning hook kick. Master Augustine only told them they would be breaking boards, not how. That is left as a surprise. For the black belt test the boards were 1/2" pine instead of balsa.



Then we had to spare. First of all when we spared, we just spared. Which means 1 on 1 for 3 minutes. Then we had to fight 2 on 1. Which was hard for me.



Taylor has been taking for about 3 years and I have never seen Master Augustine do this. Each kid that tested would be in the ring for 3 minutes with 2 other kids going at them. Almost every kid (including Taylor) got upset toward the end of the 3 minutes. This was the hardest part for me to watch. My first reaction is to protect my kid. However, this is one of the things that Master Augustine does so well. He knows how to push these kids enough that they have to struggle, but not enough that you think he has pushed them too far. I know at least part of the reason why he does this is to teach them that when it gets hard and overwhelming, you don't give up. You keep trying.

Then we had to fight with no chest guard. Twiggy kids fighting twiggy kids - nothing to be worried about. They call it a "Korean massage."

I had to read my black belt thesis. Taylor had to write a 2 page paper about Tae Kwon Do. That poor kid. Again he was so nervous. He read the entire thing out loud with his lip quivering. He told me after, that he was having a hard time reading it because his chin wasn't moving right.

Then after that we received our black belt.



I felt excited. I like my belt and uniform because it has my name on it.



He finally cracked a smile!



(We also had a long talk.) He told us about being a black belt and what we are suppose to do. Then he told us that black belts are suppose to love other black belts and be happy. And if you quit Master Augustine won't loose anything or your friends won't loose anything too, you would.

Master Augustine talked to them for about a half an hour about what it means to be a black belt. He primarily talked about the importance of honesty, humility and leading by example in all areas of your life. He then awarded him with his new black belt.



This is his "official" picture that will get hung up at the studio with all of the other black belts.

I am so proud of him! Not only did he do great on his test even though he was nervous, he cheered on his friends and encouraged them as well. What a great kid.

And thanks Mom for the great pictures!

Chase's Blessing

I'm just getting around to posting pictures of Chase's blessing a week and a half ago. He is such a cutie!

the cutest thing

Today Bennett received a journal in Primary. He came home and wrote what he was thankful for all by himself. With his help I have deciphered what most of them are. So cute!



1. His practice letters
2. temple
3. ward
4. body
5. book
6. home
7. mind
8. table
9. bible
10. ?
11. ?
12. Christmas
13. get wet
14. room
15. school
16. battleship
17. gives
18. Heavenly Father
19. cape

Purging

I love to go through my house and get rid of stuff. I hate when papers are stacked and stuffed into every place imaginable. Closets filled to maximum capacity are also a no no. I like empty space. I have found that I am a lot less tense when there is less stuff to look at and deal with. Usually I will go through my house once a month and surface purge. Anything that has turned into clutter or that is obviously not in use I either throw away or put it in the DI box.

Case in point. About 3 weeks ago I was getting fed up with all of the toys that my boys were not playing with. I have two bins that we keep these toys in. The problem is, for some reason they are always all over the floor and yet are never played with. So I put 80% of them into 2 trash bags and put them in the furnace room. By simply doing that I literally felt this burden go away. I don't have to deal with those toys any more! Doing this simple thing reminded me of something that I have always known and oftentimes forget. Having lots of "stuff" can be a burden. You have to store it, organize, clean it, fix it or in this case pick it up over and over. Luckily I am not overly sentimental about stuff and for the most part I am o.k. getting rid of things.

Several weeks ago my friend loaned me this great book. I love books like this because they motivate and excite me to dig deeper and to really purge. I finished reading it last Sunday and this past week I have been going through every box and closet in the house.

I have even ventured into the untouchable stuff that I have passed up in previous purges. I found there were only 2 very difficult things to get rid of. One was the few college textbooks that I had kept from my major and two binders worth of papers etc. I sat there and looked at them and debated. Do I get rid of 4 years worth of hard work? I really felt like I was throwing that degree away. I took a deep breath and put them in the purge pile. The funny thing is as soon as I did that I felt much better and was completely o.k. with my decision.

The second thing that was hard for me to get rid of was unused, but perfectly good picture frames. But they are perfectly good. I may need these. How can I just wantonly DI these? What would my Grandmother say who has kept everything from the dawn of time? I debated for a long time. I honestly don't know why this was so difficult. Finally I compromised and kept one nice 8X10 frame and DI'd the rest. I am proud of myself. As I was going through my stuff I just kept reminding myself to only keep the stuff that I love. I also followed some advice from the book and I took pictures of a few things that I got rid of.

This is most of the stuff that I am taking to the DI. There are a bunch of planter boxes, a playhouse and slide in the garage that are going as well. I also recycled loads and loads of files that I have never looked at.



I'm thinking I need to take all of this stuff to the DI soon before my "a bit overly sentimental and pack rat" husband starts to rifle through them. Whenever I purge I know he gets nervous thinking that I am getting rid of perfectly good stuff. He did begrudgingly read the book and begrudgingly admitted there may be a "few things" he needs to go through and get rid of. I'm not holding my breath that he will do it anytime soon. :)

Can you tell.....

All of these pictures were taken when my boys were between 2-3 months old. Can you tell which boy it is?

the sweetest thing

Taylor: "Mom why can't I be home schooled?"
Mom: "Why would you want to be home schooled?"
Taylor: "So I wouldn't have to leave you..... I miss you when I'm gone......I don't get to see you as much."

Taylor talking to Chase: "Everything is so nice in the world, especially you."

What a sweet boy.

why they should be in trouble, but aren't

These two pictures show clear evidence that my boys are being naughty.


They shouldn't be running around in just their underwear.
They shouldn't be stuffing heaven knows what down their underwear. That is just gross.
They shouldn't be coloring on themselves. Bennett wanted to draw bones on himself and Owen body paints just because he can.



They shouldn't be playing with the cushions. I have told them more times than I can count not to take the cushions off the couch.
They shouldn't have food outside the kitchen.
They shouldn't have torn up the food making an even bigger mess to clean up. Can you guess what the are doing here? They are eating the sacrament.

But I can't punish them. Why you ask? They certainly deserve it. I can't because they are actually playing together nicely. The past several months they have been fighting like cats and dogs. Bennett doesn't have a lot of patience with a 2 years old and Owen doesn't have any patience because he is a 2 year old.

I have been putting them in time-out literally nonstop, but it has had no effect on their behavior. A few weeks ago, Scott delicately suggested to me that perhaps the time-out wasn't working. I was well aware that it wasn't, but with a newborn to juggle I wasn't in the mood to try anything revolutionary, you know like positive reinforcement. I was just easier to throw them in time-out so I could at least feel like I was doing something.

About three weeks ago I decided that I needed to do something else. I went to the party store and bought a whole roll of raffle tickets and a bag of tootsie rolls. Then for family night I explained the new system. Each kid has 2 behaviors they are working on and if I catch them doing the right behaviors I will give them a ticket. When you get a certain number of tickets then you get candy. I know, I know, I should be offering them carrot sticks or apples slices as rewards, but I know that won't fly around here. Sugar is pure motivation for my boys.



Taylor is working on doing his entire "bedroom routine" without being reminded and to do what I ask the first time. When he gets 8 tickets he gets a treat.
Bennett is working on playing nicely with Owen and staying in his bed when the lights get turned off at night. When he gets 5 tickets he gets a treat.
Owen pretty much gets candy when the other two earn theirs since he is too young to understand at this point and throws a fit if he doesn't get candy when someone else does.

I must say that I have seen a huge improvement in their behaviors. This positive reinforcement thing actually works! Not like I didn't know that before. Bennett and Owen still have their moments, but all in all they are playing a lot better together. Taylor doesn't need reminding and Bennett for the first time ever is staying in his bed. So even though they will be cleaning up their messes and their bodies, I will give them a ticket for at least playing instead of fighting.

I don't know what the fascination is with cardboard boxes

but every time one shows up in the mail, my boys go nuts. They will play in them, read in them, cut them up, color on them, anything you can imagine. This one came in the mail today with 21 pairs of jeans I bought from Old Navy for $7.00 a piece. Yes, I really bought 21 pairs and yes, I really did pay only $7.00 each. But that is another story. Bennett decided this was the perfect spot to eat his after dinner Moose Bar. He also added a few blankets in there to keep himself warm. Cute kid.