What Happens after Bedtime?

Well I am trying to upload a video that we did last night of the kids but as of yet that hasn't happened. It is on a DVD so it needs to be converted somehow. So onto the pictures. The boys were really good in church this week it was nice Emmerlyn on the other hand was a little crazy. I just have a hard time feeling like she is old enough to be consistently crazy at church but she will be 18 months in April so I guess she is to that age. The battle begins right. 

We played with flour again. They loved it and it forced me to mop the floor (I think that is my least favorite chore) so it was a win win.

 Charley made the unfortunate mistake of trying to plow the flour off the edge of his container. He instantly regretted it.

 This is a little book that William brought home. Such a cute boy.

Charley is modeling his snow gear.

  We had to break out these boots for Emmerlyn because she keeps taking Charley's which does not end well. They are a little too big and that means unfortunately they will be too small next winter but she is getting a lot of use out of them since the weather has been so yucky the last little while.

 Just testing out William's boots (she's a little obsessed with shoes right now) they were a little big she could even wear them backwards (with the toes going behind her :). Notice the little clippie in her hair? Her top hairs are getting long enough that they are almost always in her eyes if we don't do something with them. They just need to even out on the sides so she can get rid of her mullet style :)

 Last night we put everyone to bed at about 8 and they all went down really well. Charley only came out once to go potty and then was quiet for about 30 minutes so Ben and I headed down to bed. As I was just falling asleep I could hear somebody moving around upstairs so after a couple minutes I got up the motivation to go see what was going on. I should have stayed in bed.

This is the 9:30 pm fabulousness I came up too. You can see Charley's arm on the side of the picture. When I came up I was shocked so I said "oh Charley" not in a mad or sad voice just surprised. Well he knew he was in trouble and he was super tired so he instantly started to cry. Poor Guy. I felt super bad so we snuggled on the couch for a little bit (the other couch :) and then I put him to bed. Again. This time he stayed in bed but I could hear him kicking the wall for awhile. I left the mess for the morning and went to bed. When I came up in the morning the boys were trying to clean it up little sweethearts and Charley had told William that Leprechauns did it. Little liar. Oh the craziness of life sometimes it is a little much!

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William Says

William just told me that when he grows up he is going to be my neighbor. "I'm going to live next door to you, luckily that woman that live in the blue house is pretty old so when she dies I can move into her house" LOL

Happy St Patrick's Day

The kids were pretty good this last week. Church was a little crazy but overall it was ok. Ben had to bless the Sacrament which makes it a little harder to wrangle these guys by myself when they are supposed to be super quiet. We had a musical number and it was beautiful and Emmerlyn was singing along the whole time it was so sweet. Here are the kids in their St. Patrick's Day outfits Of course they had to wear green and of course all of the pictures are crazy because they were being way less then helpful.

 William was funny all week whenever he would see a green scrap of anything he would take to Charley and talk really quietly and lean in and say "look Charley it is leprechaun clothes, there must be a leprechaun in our house". He was so serious about it I almost believed him and Charley really did!

  So you can't see it but in his hands are 2 white chocolate chips that he was having as a treat. I gave them to him and then I could here him in the living room so I went out to see what was going on and this is what he was doing and he was saying "I got 2 new butt cheeks!" I have no idea where he got that and it was really hard not to laugh. Crazy kid.

Just relaxing. This lasted maybe 10 minutes at the max I was hoping it would last the whole time I was in the shower but no way. Emmerlyn has been having a little bit of trouble adjusting to the time change and hasn't been going to bed until like 9 (which is a big change from going to bed at 6 before). and she has been waking up during the night and I have had to go into her and rock her or talk to her or whatever and am usually up for like 2 hrs in the night with her. I told Ben on Friday night that it was his turn to get up and he said he would so of course she slept straight through so I said it was his turn again on Saturday and she slept again. But of course when it was back to my turn on Sunday night she woke up again. Thankfully it was only for like 1/2 an hour but it was twice. I think it is going to have to be Ben's turn every night because she sleeps when it is his turn :).  So that's the basics on us!

Just FYI

For those who want to see it I put Ben's scrapbook on the blog you just have to scroll down a bit to get to it :)

Cruising

That is pretty much what we have been up to this last week. Just going on. We had Ben's birthday which was a nice break from the norm and then we have just been living. I definitely think this tax season is going way better than the last one. Which is good. There really isn't anything new going on in our lives right now which I guess is kind of nice. 

This week Charley and Emmerlyn got in a little painting time.

 I love how Charley concentrates 

 Emmerlyn loved it and was really starting to get the hang of it.

 I enlisted Ben to help me hang up pictures (we have only lived here for over a year so that's good right)

 And we had church day. Which doesn't she look so cute and a little too grown up? She is 17 months and livin' it up. The first 20 minutes of Sacrament meeting were HORRENDOUS! I seriously wanted to just get up and leave. I had to physically restrain Charley and pretty much cover his mouth to keep him from going totally crazy and Emmerlyn was ALL OVER THE place and she was tired so she wasn't being very nice to everyone. Thankfully it got better. 

 We took her in for the first hour of nursery and she did really well (we have been doing this for the last 3 weeks or so and either Ben or I will stay with her because I don't want to overwhelm the nursery leaders until she is official) she still comes out and goes to Relief Society with me. Some of the sisters in there have said that they are sad that she is going to be going to nursery in a couple weeks and they will miss her. I thought she was more of a distraction to the lessons in there then a helper but it was good to hear that I am the only one who thinks that.

Have a good week!

Happy Birthday Ben!!!

To say at first we LOVE you Ben. You are the very favorite. The kids watch for you when you come home from work and lunch and in the evening and they always give you the best hugs. I love you. Keep it up!

I think the best part of the whole birthday was that Ben came home from work at 6 and STAYED. I wasn't half asleep when he got home so that was nice. Unfortunately the birthday present he requested he didn't request until Sunday or Monday night and I don't have the resources here to make it happen so for his birthday this year he got an I owe you. He was ok with that because it isn't something he will need til it warms up outside but William was VERY upset that dad didn't get any presents and just got cards. Ben was happy with the cards and was happy that people remember him. So we just celebrated the old fashioned way and ate. For dinner he requested Cafe Rio so I made that and it was delicious and then we had cake. I think I could eat this cake everyday for the rest of my life. Even though it had some issues in the making of it it turned out really yummy and Ben had 2 pieces which he usually doesn't eat lots of cake so I consider it a success. The only pictures I took were of food so I hope your not hungry :). 

Dinner all dished up.

The Cake

 The cake with a candle. Yep only 1 because it was his 1st 29th birthday. (Or because I only had 7 other candles and this one so I just went with it :).

 Sliced. Red Velvet is his favorite cake and I have been working on making a good one pretty much every year since we've been married. My biggest hang up has been the frosting (he doesn't love cream cheese frosting, he will eat it of course but it isn't his first choice.) This year I make perfect frosting.  filled it with ganache and used Duncan Heinz for the cake and you can't go wrong with a little Skor bar, chocolate, and caramel sauce. It was good.

 Just a little picture I took of him coming back from starting his car the other Sunday morning cuz I think he's cute.

We love you Ben!!!!!! Happy Birthday!

As I was loading these pictures I realized that I gave everyone a birthday post except for me. Oh well. Maybe next year. 

Ben's Scrapbook.

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Emmerlyn's Red Shoes

To preface these pictures I have to say that these shoes were a gift from Grandpa Rydalch before she was born and we have kept them in her room her whole life so that she could wear them as soon as they fit. As soon as she could move around and grab things she has been carrying these shoes ALL over and trying to put them on at least once a week. Almost every time we sent her to get her shoes out of her room she would bring these ones. The good news is that she can finally wear them!!! She was SO excited when I told her to get her red shoes. They are still long on her and will come off but her feet are really thick so the strap is tight. She wanted them on right away so the first one is before she got all ready for the day so she is sporting her pre-church outfit.

This second one is after she's got her game face on and she was showing her shoes to the camera.

 She walked around all morning and kept looking at her feet or lifting them up or bending down to touch them. Silly little girl. She got a couple comments at church about her ruby red slippers.

Thanks Grandpa, she LOVES them.

We are on the Mend

That is a definite plus side this last week. We are finally getting better; sort of. Ben has the crude now so he is a little miserable and all of the kids still have a yucky cough (I think William is addicted to cough drops. He will pick having those over a treat which he doesn't get. We have been teaching him about medicine and how we ONLY take it when we really need it.) Other then that though things are looking better. Our brief taste of spring is over it snowed and blowed yesterday so we remember that it is still winter. I had a RS presidency meeting on Wednesday at the church and of course Ben had to work and then had to be in mutual for about 10 minutes so I had the kids with me. We met in the classroom next to the nursery which we have done before and William and Charley usually play in there quietly so that we can meet in peace (I keep Emmerlyn with me because I don't know what she could get into in there and put in her mouth). Well that day one of the other ladies in the presidency brought her kids too and they play really good with my boys but really loud and with LOTS of energy. Before we go in there we talk about all the rules and how we don't touch the lesson books or the play-doh (it's all gone anyway) or the bubbles (which are usually pushed back on top of the toy chest). The boys say yes we will mom and then they do. Until Wednesday. We were going on with our meeting and we could hear the kids playing but we didn't really think anything of the craziness until all of the kids came into the room and said they couldn't go back into the nursery I asked why and they said the bubbles had spilled all over the floor and the grown-ups said no kids can come in right now. I jumped up and went in there and the YW presidency and girls were cleaning up a lake of bubbles (because of course they spilled not the little tiny bubbles but the big keg of them) I pretty much felt like the worst parent EVER leaving my kids unsupervised to destroy the church. They brought a shop vac and finished cleaning it up and I went home and cried because it had been a long day anyway and to top it off with that was just a little bit more then I could handle. Thankfully it was just bubbles and I guess they served as a little nursery carpet shampoo (which was a little needed). The boys don't get to go to our enrichment activity next week and then after that I think I will try to hold the meeting at my house so they can play without destroying the church. Sometimes the days are just too long for me AND the kids. Oh well only 6 weeks left of tax season and hopefully we will get some warm days again and we can go outside and play.

Onto the pictures. . . 

 I am trying to be a better parent lately and letting my kids play without me getting irritated about making a mess so we have been having a little more fun these last few days. I think it is helping me to be more patient because now we are doing things that I know are going to be messy and I just let it go and then we can change clothes and clean up when we are done. I think the kids are liking it too.

 Charley LOVES to help with the dishes so when we were done the other morning I pulled up a chair for Emmers and gave them a sink full of soapy water and some little containers and scrubbers and the had a BLAST.  

 When they were done (or I was done :). We just wiped off the counter and of course the floor and chairs and changed clothes and went on with our day. It was easy. I can do it! 

Can you see him in there?

 This is a better picture. Charley was asleep in his closet the other night. Crazy boy. I swear he never sleeps in his bed.

William brought this book home from school the other day and I laughed ridiculously hard so here it is for your enjoyment. He is getting SO grown up. I swear he is growing overnight.

  

  

 Charley and Emmer cutting and coloring. This is what they get to do when they are good at exercising class and stay in the gym.

 We made graham crackers yesterday and I let the kids help and then they each got to play in a little pile of flour and then we all helped clean up. 

They loved it!