Christmas and a snow day

I am determined to have a post of Christmas. Now that it is May, here it is.

The aftermath:

Christmas gets more fun every year as the kids get older. Ian wanted to do everything just like last year. It was amazing how much he remembered. We wanted to tone down the presents this year, but the kids still ended up with way too much stuff. Ian got some video games, Hailey got a new scooter, and the twins got lots and lots of mega blocks. Plus a million other things from us and relatives. There aren't a ton of pictures because I think I was so worried about the twins getting into the kitchen and other stuff that I forgot to take very many. Oh well. We had a nice holiday even though some of us were a little sick. As we always are that time of year.

One day in January it snowed. This is a rare occurrence in Las Vegas and deserves much celebration.

Ian making a snow angel.

The finished product, haha.

Since the kids had school, they only got to play in the snow for about 30 minutes. We didn't even get to build a snowman, which was tragic. The snow melted before Ian got home from school.

Daily life around the house

Some random pictures from the last few months for your viewing pleasure:

Typical Brandon.

My little leprechaun.

Hailey's first encounter with make-up.

Our first California Poppy.

A picture Ian took of himself.

These three are something else.

One of the signs Brandon is ready to be potty trained.

One day Ian decided to be a king. All the kids got into it and it was SO cute! They played nicely together for over an hour. Still probably the record.

Ian in his throne.

Cute times 2

The twins are finally starting to play together sometimes. It is so darn cute!

Number 2

Brandon and Jackson turned 2 back in February. Two 2-year-olds, phew!

I'm pretty sure somebody had strep that week (I have had it 4 times since the new year), so we had a pretty low-key party with just the immediate family (since we didn't want to spread germs). They got lots of clothes, which was just what they (I) wanted, and some books. It was just right for 2 toddlers. Happy Birthday Babies!

Some things you should know about Brandon:

Brandon is a little sweetheart. He wants the sole attention of his mommy or daddy and always looks for moments when he can worm his way into our laps. He says quite a few words and understands us exceptionally well for a 2-year-old. He likes to climb things, splash in the toilet, eat yogurt, take his diaper off, cry a lot, scream (whether happy or sad), eat candy, go down the slide, play outside, dump water on his own head, laugh out loud at movies, wear Hailey's dress up shoes, and skip. He can be very moody, and sometimes drives me crazy with his crying, but when he is happy he is just the sweetest little thing you could imagine.

Some things you should know about Jackson:

Jackson is silly silly silly. Sometimes I just don't know where he comes up with things! He speaks gibberish a lot, to other people and to himself. He is putting words together and saying things I don't think I ever taught him! He has a weird relationship with his pants. He will take them off and then cry because he wants them back on. Don't ask me what his problem is. He likes to run around with his older siblings, splash in the toilet, eat cereal, play outside, play at the park, beat up Brandon, pee on the floor, get into mischief, give hugs and kisses, make messes, and sing and dance. He knows the words to most of the songs on his videos and does a cute and funny little dance where he moves his hips around. This kid makes me laugh all the time, even when I am about ready to tear my hair out in frustration.

The twins are currently in the process of potty training. This has been a scary thing for me, but must be done. Jackson has shown more than readiness, and is pretty much trained already. Brandon has yet to go in the potty, but I'm not in a big hurry. Potty training twins is quite the journey, and there is no one way to do it. I figure since Jackson is more ready we will get him done and then work more with Brandon. So far, so good.

Easter and a new pet

I am going to try to catch up with the blog, so I figured I may as well start with the most recent. We had a somewhat laid back Easter, including an egg hunt at a park (forgot my camera) and a few dyed eggs and Easter baskets. My mom was in town for Easter. We had my sister Jill's family and my mom over for a delicious Easter dinner.

Apparantly the eggs are kind of depressing....
Ian is at that awkward stage where he can't smile like a normal person for pictures.

Hailey has candy in her mouth.

The twins wouldn't even look at the camera, they knew they had to shove as much candy in their mouths as possible before mommy took the candy away.

For Easter, we decided it was finally time to get a pet. The only pet this family can handle is a fish, of course. The kids got the bowl and we got it all ready and went to pick out a fish. Ian picked out "Darkos", a goldfish with a little black on the tips of its fins. Ian loved him, and would tell him stories and "spend time with him." I've never seen a boy love a fish so much.
Sadly, Darkos only lasted for 4 days. I went and bought a "Darkos 2" while Ian was at school, but then I remembered that a friend had offered her fish tank a few months ago. I sent her a message and she still had it and wanted to get it off her hands. I told her we would take it, and later that day we went to pick it up. What I wasn't expecting, however, was this:

Three gigantic goldfish that were 3 years old! The biggest one was about 7 inches long. At first I thought the kids would be fascinated by them, and they were, but the fish were obviously way too big for a 5 gallon tank. So I posted them on Craigslist. I got 6 calls in 2 and a half hours and a guy came and picked them up that night. Problem solved! I cleaned out the tank and we put Darkos 2 and two new goldfish in. One of the new ones died, but we still have 2 going strong now. Oh the joys of pet ownership, haha.

The Paint Incident

Every wall in our house is white. Plain, white. I don't really have a problem with this, but I wouldn't mind adding some color here and there. My sister Jill was nice enough to find me some beautiful "purple shimmer" paint for Hailey's room. I was getting excited about actually painting a room in the house, even though I had never painted before. We were going to add sparkles to it too. So pretty! Unfortunately, on March 4th, my dreams were dashed by a terrible and mysterious disaster:

The weirdest part was that I could not find a single speck of paint on any of my children. And no one would fess up to it either. I am pretty sure it was Jackson. I think the can of paint was knocked off of the DVD case I had stupidly left it on and just burst open by itself. Aaaagh! It took 2 hours, 3 rolls of paper towels, a toothbrush, rags, and half a big bottle of Pine Sol to get it cleaned up. And amazingly, I got every bit of paint off the floor and wall! So, lesson learned, never EVER leave a can of paint where children can get to it. You would think I would already know that!

My crazy life, via Facebook

I thought it might be fun to post some of my Facebook statuses over the last few months. Things have been kind of crazy around here with sickness and toddlers running around (thus the lack of blog updates). Enjoy!
1/31
"Winkle winkle Hailey star, how I Hailey what you are. Up above a Hailey high, wike a Hailey in a sky. Winkle winkle Hailey star, how I wonder Hailey are." ♥ ♥ ♥
I could listen to that all night. If it weren't for the fact that she is drawing on my piano with a crayon while she's singing it!!
2/4
GASP! At Target today while I was strapping the twins into the shopping cart, Hailey ran across the front of the store and out the front door. I had to leave the twins with a very nice stranger to chase after her and found her outside, around the corner, sitting on a bench, with only one shoe, crying. I just about had a heart attack. I really hope she is traumatized enough to never do that again!!!
2/16
My babies are turning 2 on Saturday. This will be the first time we have ever celebrated a second birthday without me being pregnant. :) Now if I could just get over this stupid flu so I can make some cupcakes....
2/18
Lunch at the Parrish house: popcorn for the kids, butterscotch pudding for mom. I think we've reached a new low.
2/19
Happy Birthday to my baby boys!! I can't believe I have two 2-year-olds!
2/20
I love that my son has a best friend. I love that they are "tooth twins." I love that they practically sit on top of each other in Primary. I love that when his friend was sick for a week Ian wrote him a 3 page get well letter and gave him cookies. There's nothing better than a good best friend when you're 6.
2/23
I think I have the sickest family ever. Ian and I both have strep again. So frustrating!!
2/25
Took the twins for their well-checkups. Left with 2 prescriptions for antibiotics. Ear infections. Go figure.
2/26
Nice to have Adam home for the weekend for once. We took a trip to the Natural History Museum, and the twins walked almost the whole time! I can't believe how big they are getting and what good listeners they are! They ran around pushing all the information buttons
2/28
I pointed at my cheek for Hailey to give me a kiss. She leaned in towards my ear and whispered "go away" with a big smile on her face.
3/1
Took the twins to story time at the library this morning. Jackson cracked a couple smiles by the end, and Brandon pretended to be asleep.
3/1
Had a breakthrough today! Barbie.com --- you can cut and style Barbie's hair! Definitely a new favorite for a certain little girl in this house, and maybe now she won't feel the need to cut her own!
3/4
Yep, that's a gallon of "purple shimmer" paint on my wall and floor.
3/5
Note to self: Don't let your husband forget his cell phone when you go to Red Lobster, because one of the children might puke in his crib and the poor babysitter won't be able to get ahold of you.
3/7
Heaven help me! Jackson took off his diaper at nap time and peed on the floor. And so it begins. Meanwhile, Hailey was downstairs flooding my kitchen counter with water. I really think those two are in cahoots.
3/9
I just realized I sent Hailey off to school without breakfast. Great start off to the day. I hope those Pringles she snitched this morning will hold her till snack time at school. Oh, and Ian's home sick. Again.
3/12
Despite the sad death of our microwave, and Hailey has a very painful ear infection, and the twins have colds.... we have had quite the productive day. Best thing that happened: we now have chain locks on the front and garage doors so the children cannot escape. Hooray!
3/17
Brandon locked me in the garage this morning. No older kids around to figure out how to open it back up. Thank goodness I didn't put the extra lock on the sliding door in the back last night!
3/17
I took the plunge and bought Hailey a new dress. She has worn the same dress every Sunday for the last year and it is starting to fall apart. When she got home from school I got out the bag. "Hailey look what I bought for you!" She came over with excitement. I started to pull it out of the bag, but when she realized it was a dress, she screamed and cried at it. And now you know why she only wears one dress.
3/18
Pizza is for eating, Brandon, not for hugging.
He was also stroking it while hugging it....and brushing his hair with Crazy Bread.
3/23
I just love how Hailey spends most of the morning before school in time out. What a relaxing, stress-free way to start the day.
3/29
Two weeks ago our computer crashed :'( Today a co-worker of Adam's was miraculously able to recover the 5 years worth of pictures that were on it :) Back up your pictures, people! Don't wait!!
3/30
Why can't toddlers gain a sense of responsibility as fast as they can figure out how to open doors, climb over baby gates, and take their clothes off?
3/31
My twins discovered the joy of sprinklers this morning on our walk. I haven't laughed so hard in a while! I even saw some people driving by slow down and laugh too. Love my boys :)
3/31
I love having a printed out menu for the week, including side dishes and desserts. It sure makes my life easier! No more popcorn for dinner at this house! Well, at least not as often ;)
4/2
And I thought the "naked phase" was bad with just one toddler!
4/5
"My name is Ian. I is for I. A is for ant. N is for no." - the final draft of Ian's poem, which he cut out with "fancy" scissors and posted proudly on the refrigerator. ♥♥♥
4/7
Ian wants to have 3 jobs when he grows up. He wants to be president, a marine, and a chef. He says "if I get a day off from saving the town, I'll cook!" Have I said how much I love that boy?
4/9
Ian is following Adam around the yard as he sprays for bugs, probably talking his ear off. ♥
4/11
And the diaper war continues.....looks like potty training will commence in 2 weeks (after Grandma comes for a visit). Pray for me.
4/13
Ian will be getting his very own library card this afternoon. He is very excited to show it to the Cat in the Hat at school tomorrow. :)
4/14
Well at least one of the kids likes the potty videos....(the one who is already potty trained). She is even watching the parent tutorial right now, haha. Maybe she'll do the dirty work for me!
4/15
I hate it when it's the 4 year old who is getting up 3 times a night. Mommy is tired Hailey! Just stop it already!
4/19
Ian has strep (again) and a very bad ear infection. He has been crying all day and right now has a temp of 103.5 I am so so sad for him! I've never seen him in so much pain :(
4/20
I thought the twins were upstairs playing with Ian in his room. Noooooo. Someone had left my bedroom door open. I found them in my bathroom. They had found a bag of cough drops and were putting the wrappers in the toilet , and the cough drops in their mouths. Then spitting the couch drops into the toilet , then putting them back in their mouths! I am so grossed out right now I think I might puke!
4/20
So I go to check on the twins who are making way too much noise for nap time and find Jackson, diaperless, everything in the bed is wet including his precious blankie. Great. Now he probably won't go to sleep because I have to wash said blankie. All I can think is 'gee, I'm just thankful it wasn't more than just wet.' If you know what I mean. The day just keeps getting better and better!

gasp, huff, sigh, ugh, bleh, and whatever else

So my day started when Jackson started screaming at 4am. There was nothing wrong with him so I left him there, but he cried for at least 20 minutes. He finally went back to sleep, but he woke Hailey up in the process. So I had Hailey lay in bed with me so I didn't have to get up. She squirmed for the next hour. Then I suddenly woke up around 6 to the sound of her in the bathroom doing who knows what. She came out in just her diaper saying she needed to go potty. I dealt with that and Jackson was screaming again by then. I took both of them downstairs and turned on a movie. Ian dawdled to get ready for school, Brandon cried all morning. I had to take the 3 younger ones to Target because they were having an amazing deal on diapers, which we always need, and I would rather take 3 children than 4. Hailey ran away from me in the store and I had to leave the twins with a stranger to go find her. I found her outside the building, sitting on a bench crying, with only one shoe. I was pretty freaked out. Then Brandon hit Jackson in the head a few times, and Hailey threw a tantrum at the check out stand. Once we got home Brandon continued to cry constantly. I tried to feed them lunch, but they just threw everything and anything I gave them on the floor and cried. So off to bed for a nap. A little bit of peace for a couple hours, I talked to my mom on the phone. Once the twins got up, more and more and more and more crying. Piano lessons at 3:30. I had to hold Brandon through the whole thing to keep him from screaming. I finally decided he might be constipated. Half an hour later I decided he was definitely constipated. I gave him a suppository. It worked. He seemed to be feeling a lot better. More screaming from all of them while I spent 20 minutes making dinner. I overcooked it. Ian ate, Hailey went in time out, more crying and throwing food from the twins. Jackson finally ate one hot dog (which was not on the menu). Brandon drank some water. I put Brandon to bed at 6:00. Hailey, Jackson, and Ian ran around the living room screaming and hitting each other with drum sticks. I took those away and went in the kitchen. Hailey spit water on Jackson's hair so she could "style" it. I put Hailey to bed at 6:20. Ian and Jackson continued to yell and scream and throw things. I put a movie on for Jackson to keep him quiet and assigned Ian clean up duty. Ian continued to provoke Jackson and be loud. So he went in time out. Couldn't stay quiet. I told him that because he couldn't settle down after I had told him to be quiet repeatedly he couldn't watch his favorite show tonight. He told me "I wish I didn't have a mom. You are the meanest worst mom in the whole world. I'm never going to look at you again. etc etc etc." He will be going to bed early too.

Unfortunately, lately, this is how it has been on average around here. We've also had bronchitis, strep, ear infections, and the flu for the past 4 weeks. So please excuse my lack of blog updates, or enthusiasm for life. I'm just taking it day by day, one disaster after another.

Red Eyes and Haircuts

I heard noise coming from the living room. And laughing. Jackson has a certain laugh when he is doing something particularly naughty, so I knew it was trouble. I entered the room to find Hailey spraying the twins' hair with Fabreeze and brushing it like she was a hair stylist. Aaagh! It's in Jackson's eyes! So I ran upstairs to the tub with Jackson to flush out his eyes. He actually did very well and let me run water over his open eyes without too much complaint. Ok, crisis averted. As I'm coming down the stairs with him I hear (in a hushed voice) "Keep cutting Hailey!" And I see this:

And this:
She did this with kids' safety scissors?!

AAAAAAAAGH!!!!!! I know it could have been a lot worse. She could have cut a huge bald spot on the top of her head. But to me, this looked unsalvagable. She had cut at least 8 inches off her hair. I cried. A lot. She didn't. But she did have this frown on her face from the time I caught her till about an hour after we got home from the barber shop.

She had cut just the right parts to make it impossible to make her not look like a boy when it was done.

We tried putting a clip in to help it look more girlie. It helped a little, but I'm still not happy with it.

I found out later that there was another victim. Jackson had spots that were cut to the scalp right on top (like I said, at least that didn't happen to her!). I had to buzz it very short, and you can still see the bald spots. I guess she was at it before the Fabreeze incident. Maybe the Fabreeze was to throw me off! Needless to say, a certain co-conspirator will be spending the next week Wii-less. I wonder how long it will take me to be able to look at her without tearing up.