One of those days...

Today has been one of those days where I feel like I've been yelling at my kids all day.

"Pick up your toys!"
"STOP TEASING!!!"

"Stop screaming!"

"Sit at the table."

"Get out of the street."

and it leads to tons of:
"I hate you!"

"You're not beautiful anymore!"

"You're the worst mommy ever!"

Saxon's been trying his hand at threatening lately too:

"If you don't give me a cookie, I'm going to dump the toys out."

Then, to get back at me, Saxon stole my bra while I was in the shower and lost it.

Then Dalton sprayed me with hair spray while I was doing my makeup.

When I took the hairspray away, he knocked the oxyclean off the sink and the whole bucket of it spilled all over the floor.

Bridger woke up with a horrible allergy attack (slimy watery eyes, puffy face, stuffy nose, scratchy voice, etc.) so he's in an awesome mood as I'm sure you can imagine... 

Dalton took his diaper off and refused to put another one on.

I was too tired to make him.

Saxon chased Bridger around the house with a light-saber making his wail at the top of his lungs.

I finally gave up and just went in the bathroom to finish my makeup.

The house was being destroyed with my supervision, how much worse could it be without?

That's when Dalton came and grabbed my hand with and urgent "Uhhh..." (his word for everything he can't think of the word for.)

I knew what this would be.

"Did you pee on the floor?"

He nodded yes.

Great.  Of course he did.  And the best part is, I can't even be mad at him because I am the one who didn't put a diaper on him.

I let him take me to where he peed and he led me into the bathroom and pointed at the baby potty.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

Dalton peed in the potty!!!

I grabbed the other boys and we all cheered and celebrated!

Then we had cookies to celebrate some more.

Then we went to the gas station to get drinks to celebrate some more.

It's amazing, when you're a parent, the things that can totally turn around your day!

April Artwork

Here's some of Saxon's awesome artwork for April and the beginning of May :)

Cinco de Mayo Art:

The birthday banner.

Saxon celebrated his 1/2 birthday since he has a summer birthday:

Easter Artwork:

I love the little chick/bunny that says:

"This little yellow duck is really very funny;

For when you turn him over, he becomes an Easter bunny!"

I LOVE the fingerprint fireflies :)

Earth Day:

At the fire station field trip, the kids all had to draw a fire truck.

I thought Saxon's was really good!

He looked over at what he saw and copied it.

He's so creative!!!

Last years birthday banner and this years.

I can't believe how big Saxon is getting!

I love reading the different things he says too.

Last year his favorite movie was "How to Train Your Dragon."

This year it was "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones".

His favorite color has always been green, but this year he said blue.

Last year Bridger and Dalton were his best buddies.

This year he added Grammie and Uncle Kasen and Aunt Brookie too!

I can't believe how big my Saxy is getting!

I am NOT ready for him to start kindergarten.

I'm going to miss him when he's gone every day.

I want to do a ton of fun stuff with him this summer!

Saxon had his end of the year evaluation.

He knows almost everything!

His teacher left him this awesome note:

"Saxon, I have loved having you in my class again this year.  You are such a fun, sweet, smart boy!  I will miss your stories and interesting perspective on life.  Love, Ms. Nettie"

I'm so proud of Saxon!  He is such a great kid and he is so talented and so sweet.  He is full of energy and loves life!  Everyone knows who he is because he is so outgoing and friendly.  We've met so many friends in our neighborhood through Saxon.  He gets to know everyone and thinks that everyone is his best friend.  

Saxon, honey, I'm pretty sure that one day you will conquer the world!  I love you!!!

How to Pee like a Big Boy

I've been trying to get Dalton to understand potty training.

Not that I expect him to be potty trained already, but if we start early with the concept, then hopefully he'll be potty trained right when he turns 2 (just like my other boys).

However, Dalton can't seem to get himself to pee.

My other boys would pee on purpose in the bath just to be silly.

Dalton and I were working on it (without success) when I called in reinforcements.

We told the big boys that they could have a sour patch kid if they could show Dalton how to pee like a big boy.

Bridger volunteered for the task.

He walked over to the potty and said,

1.  First you aim in the potty

2.  Then you point it down

3.  Then you pee

4.  Then you shake it off

5.  Then you get a treat.

Those are some pretty helpful directions!

Hopefully Dalton will start getting the hang of it.

In the mean time, at least he likes his little potty :)

Fire Station Field Trip

Saxon's class had their annual Fire Station Field Trip on Wednesday.

The notice specifically said "no toddlers and no siblings."

Well, I had one of each and didn't have anyone else who could watch them.

So I dressed Bridger up in a preschool t-shirt and passed him off as part of the class.

Luckily, Saxon's teacher is amazing and let Bridger be a part of the class for the day.

First they drew a picture of a fire truck.

Then they did a "stop, drop, and roll" obstacle course.

Then they watched a safety video and toured the fire station.

Dalton loved the fire truck. LOVED it!

He kept climbing all over it saying "Vroom!"

Saxon and the fire fighter:

Dalton and the fire fighter:

(Bridger wouldn't pose for a picture for me)

Saxon in his fire hat:

(Bridger had one too but wouldn't pose for a picture for me...again)

Baby Dalton loved the park!  It was hard to keep track of the 3 boys though because it was really crowded and they all kept running in different directions.  Luckily, I knew most of the other moms, so I felt pretty safe.  While I was rescuing Saxon from the monkey-bars, I look over and Ms. Nettie is pushing Dalton on the swings.  I went over to thank her and she told me that Dalton "summoned her."  He couldn't find me so instead he found Ms. Nettie and grabbed her by the hand and instructed her to play with him :)

When she had to go talk to some of the other parents, some of the little girls in Saxon's class took over pushing baby Dalton.  It was really cute!  Girls seem like such good helpers.  What would that be like?  Boys...not such good helpers...

Speaking of boys being boys...

On Friday when I picked Saxon up from school, I was talking to his teachers for a few minutes.  Ms. Nettie said that they took the kids out to play but she decided to come in when someone threw a worm at her and it stuck to her arm.  She had to peel it off to get rid of it.  She said "I think it was Saxon."  Saxon's eyes light up and he started grinning "Yep!  It was me!  I wanted to make her scream and the worm stuck to her!"

Great.  Once again...soooo thankful that he has amazing teachers who think he's cute!

Starting the Garden

It's just about time to start the garden again and I'm soooo excited!

Experts usually say not to start until after Mother's Day (because it has to be after the last frost).  We usually wait until Memorial Day because weather in Utah can be tricky.  One year, it snowed on Memorial Day and froze our whole garden.  A lot of our neighbors have planted their gardens already because we've had such mild weather.  I haven't been able to decide what to do.  If the weather stays nice, we will have missed out on a whole extra month of gardening.  But if it freezes, it would ruin a whole month worth of work!

So, I finally decided to start this weekend.  We spent all day on Friday driving from greenhouse to greenhouse and then to Wal-mart and Home Depot trying to find the best deals.  It turns out that the best deals were the first place we went, so after all of that, we had to go back to the first greenhouse.  When we finally got home, I checked the forecast.  Saturday night was supposed to get down to 36!  Great.  Right when I bought everything to start.  We decided to plant our herbs in the balcony pots and plant the rest of the garden next week.

The kids were good helpers mixing up the dirt and stirring in the bunny poop.

(Jeff gave us a bunch of bunny poop).

Saxon was the most interested in helping.

He dug a little hole, then scooped up some bunny poop and dumped it in.

Then he added a little water...

Then he planted the rosemary.

This is our first year with rosemary.

I want to try the pinterest recipe where you boil rosemary with vanilla to get your house to smell like Williams-Sonoma.

Then he planted the cilantro.

I fail at cilantro every. single. year.

I almost gave up on it, but I decided to read about it and try it once more.

It turns out, there's nothing I can do to keep my cilantro from turning to coriander.

It just has a short life.

Apparently I should re-plant every week or so so I can always have a fresh plant to replace the original once once it bolts.  It sounds like a ton of work.  It really might be more worth it to buy the 50 cent bunch of cilantro at the grocery store...

but I am determined to make it work at least once!

 We also planted some parsley and sweet basil.
 
While we were busy planting our herb garden...Dalton decided to help himself to a box of cereal.  Special K was on sale at Macey's and I had a coupon so I bought 8 boxes.  My kids love it so I knew we would go through it.  I set the boxes at the top of the stairs for Nate to take down and put in our food storage until we were ready to use them.  I opened one box and put it in the pantry.  Dalton decided that he wanted some, but instead of getting into the pantry, he got into the food storage.  He ripped open the entire box and then pulled out the bag of cereal and handed it to me.  I had to take it from him before he got the bag open.  This kid is like a baby mouse.  He can use his little teeth to get into anything!

The clean balcony and my 5 flower pots :)

I LOVE our garden.

I can't wait to plant the rest of it!

In my dream-life (also my pinterest life) I am going to have a house with a big backyard and a huge garden.  Also chickens.  I've heard some debate whether chicken poop is better for gardens or bunny poop.  We're going to try both...one day...