The Never Ending Winter...

...and yes it is only January!

Yet another day of cancelled school and activities.  I don't remember school ever being cancelled due to the temperature, but around here it is happening and it is happening a lot.  I have honestly lost track of how many days of school,  swimming practices and dance lessons that have been cancelled.  Last night the wind was howling so strong it actually never stopped.  There was just this constant noise.  We thanked God again for a warm house and roof over our heads.  I couldn't help to think of the people with tarpped roofs and foundations as the wind was whipping around.  I think today's high was -2 and with wind chill it in the -20's.  The numbers don't really mean that much anymore...cold is just cold.  The kids know how to bundle up and sometimes we get brave and venture out :)  On days when it is above 30 degrees they don't even feel like they have to zip their coats because it feels like a heat wave.  Yesterday it was actually was a heat wave.  When we got home from church it was almost 40 degrees.  The kids wanted to ride their bikes.  The snow had melted from the drive for the most part and it did really feel warm we said yes.  Grant really thought he wanted to wear shorts.  We couldn't convince him to take them off so instead we told him to wear pants over the top.  He had to have been uncomfortable, but he did it.  Elizabeth rode her bike with her snow boots on.  And before their outside time was up they and put their bikes away and had started building a snowman.  The Disney movie Frozen is big in our house right now.  We know all the songs and the words.  Elizabeth acts out Frozen at school with her friends.  Elizabeth and Grant played "Frozen" this morning.  (EB froze Grant's heart and had to carry him everywhere!).  The snowman in the movie is named Olaf.  Naturally our snowman in the yard is Olaf and they check on him often.  The wind took Olaf's plastic carrot nose last night.  I told them we would put together a search party to find it when it is warmer.

Let's Talk About....Tattoos

Here is random conversation that took place in the car today.

Elizabeth: Grant when you grow up are you going to get tattoos, you know like the basketball players?
Grant: Yes
Elizabeth: Oh well buddy I won't cheer for you because I like your skin the way it is
Me: Grant, just so you are aware, tattoos are permanent and are put on using needles
Grant: Oh
Elizabeth: Do you want needles in your body?
Grant: No
Elizabeth: Maybe you could just have the kind with water
Grant: Yeah, I will just have the tattoos with water, ok Mom?
Me: Ok with me! (I am sure no one will tease you about a temporary tattoo that you have applied with a moist towel when you are 20!)

Dog Days of Winter???

Dog days of summer are lazy days right?  What do we call long, cold winter days where you really just want to stay in bed all day?  Tuesdays and Thursday we have no regular day time commitments. These days lend themselves to a bit of laziness if we don't have something on the calendar.  Brandon left for work around 6:30 and Grant was already cuddled up in bed with me at 6:00.  Not long after B left Elizabeth made her appearance.  We lounged in bed for awhile until tummies starting asking for breakfast and we emerged from our warm cocoon.  As I was picking up breakfast dishes it occurred to me that I don't have that many lazy days left.  Elizabeth will be in kindergarten next year (small tear), but I am also reminded that this entire year is kind of like a bonus with her because she could be in kindergarten now.  So I said, "Kids? Who wants to go crawl back in bed?!" Cuddling and watching TV was good until Grant got a bit restless so again emerged.  I said we should take showers and get ready but I really wasn't ready yet.  Then I got the idea to make donuts.  Brandon got a Fry Daddy for Christmas so we could have really good fried donuts!  I began searching for a recipe and as I expected all the recipes I found involved a lot of rest time (waiting!).  I was on my 3rd search when Elizabeth pipes up with "Hey mom, Pioneer Woman has a recipe for donuts!" Oh my gosh, of course she does honey!! So I quickly scan the recipe and am delighted to not find hours upon hours of raise time - just a brief one hour.  Ok, so we can whip these babies up, get ready and then fry them.  Perfect plan.  Grant and I start mixing and I have the dough all ready and then read "REFRIGERATE OVERNIGHT FOR AT LEAST 8 HOURS"  What?! How did I miss that the first time.  But I wasn't really going to let a recipe stand in the way of my kids and hot donuts.  I channeled my inner food scientist and revamped the instructions and in an hour we had raised donuts and hot oil!

Grant, our dough boy - trust me this was not good tasting sugar cookie dough - flour and yeast - yuck!

I started with the donut holes first.  Note to any future donut makers out there, don't wait too long to turn them over otherwise gravity is not your friend! I couldn't get those heavy bottomed donut holes to flip the first time around.  But practice makes perfect and I didn't give up! Somehow I failed to take pictures of the kids enjoying this special treat - oh wait perhaps that is because my own fingers were sticky with glaze! I did good on this one! I am really glad I cut out that overnight wait period!

I told Elizabeth and Grant, "If you remember nothing else about your mother, remember this...I let you stay in your pajamas until 2:00 pm on a weekday and we ate donuts for lunch!"  (and that I love you more than all the hot donuts in the world!)

Don't worry Daddy we saved a few for you :)

New Year, New Plan

Every once in awhile I revamp our discipline system.  After reading the Bernstein Bears Forget Their Manners while getting the oil changed today I was inspired.  After lunch a few melt downs I sat the kids down to write our family rules.  This is what we came up with (together!):
1) No hitting/pushing/bitting
2) Do not interrupt
3) Be good listeners (Aunt Amber would add "first time listener," Daddy would add "long time listener, first time caller!")
4) No unnecessary noise
5) No shouting
6) No name calling
7) No jumping on furniture (Grant added this one and elaborated on it several times..."no jumping on the chairs, stairs, bodies, potty, pooppy, Jack, etc..." He was quite entertained by himself :)
8) Sharing/Respect
9) No nose picking
10) No tattle-tellilng
11) Say "please" and "thank you"

As you can guess some of these were customized  specifically for one child or the other.  Mommy also had a really bad headache the other day and realized how much noise was being made.  Sometimes Elizabeth just bangs on things to make noise and then cackles (really loud!) about it!

I gave them each a tupperware with 10 jingle bells in it.  It was 3:00 pm.  The deal was each time you broke a rule you had a bell taken away.  For every two bells you had to sit in time out (built in warning system - pretty smart huh?!).  If you ran out of bells it was time to put pi's on and go to bed!  Who ever has the most bells at bedtime gets a sticker on a chart.  I have no idea why sticker charts motivate my kids, but they seem to work.  And they enjoy competing so why not compete for good manners.

It is now 6:49 and the score is:
Grant - empty tupperware, one broken rule away from bed
Elizabeth - 3 bells, wondering if she won yet

The way they acted is what is funny though.  When we sat down to have the big pow-wow I asked them "What do you think our family rules should be? What do mommy and daddy expect of you?" Grant immediately said "Be good!!"Ok, so we know the fundamentals...let's execute on them!

Grant's first offense was calling Elizabeth a whiner.  Minus one bell.  Next he decided to jump on the bed.  Really?! Wasn't that the rule he brought to the table? To time out he went.  The next few minutes (yes minutes) go pretty smooth.  We do a craft, but then I get a phone call.  Minus one for EB for interrupting.  Grant decides to say "I don't like you" to his sister, plus a few other missteps.  So back to time he goes.  This time of course he has to go potty.  I tell him to go potty and then get in his chair.  He goes potty and comes back with no underwear.  I decide to just have him sit in time out anyway.  As he is facing the wall and I am recounting his behavior he starts humming and playing with himself.  Such a boy! As we progress through the day Grant continues to have bells taken away. Elizabeth is losing them too, but of course she crying and really hurt when she loses a bell.  Grant could care less.  At one point I hear whisper to herself "don't say a peep, don't say a peep" in effort to stop tattling.  The other night Grant wouldn't stay in bed so Brandon took one of his Lego sets away.  Guess who got upset about it? Elizabeth!  The next morning she was still secretly asking me if we were going to give the Lego set away.  Grant didn't even remember what got taken away or why!  Ugh! Why can't the same strategy work for both of them? Instead they all work for Elizabeth and we still search for the thing that gets Grant's attention.

Bedtime bell score:
Grant - in bed, desperately trying to fall asleep
Elizabeth -  2 bells (yes she got a sticker but almost made it a losing tie because she encouraged her brother to spit in my hair!!!) "oh and mom could you make it a purple sticker please?" Sure honey, sure :)

Apparently we will have to start tomorrow with a much larger bell count or we will all be in bed by noon!!

Memory Jar 2013

So these are the little slips of paper that I put into a special jar throughout the year.  I hope to do better with it this year, but here are the things I took the time to write down.

Jan 1 - The kids rode the Kiddie Kat (children's snow mobile) and get sleigh rides.

Jan 5 - Elizabeth: "Let's get this train moving" (while making cupcakes)

Jan 18 - When playing Old Maid Grant declares "I loose!" when getting the old maid.

Jan 20 - Elizabeth "Chicken butt!" (no idea where that came from!)

Jan 25 - Elizabeth: "Jack did you toot? Or is that just my father?"

Jan 25 - Elizabeth: "These waffles are awesome.  Where did you get these cutie oranges from?" Me: "Umm Walmart!"

Feb 17 - Driving home we are telling stories in the car and we ask Grant if he has any stories to share. Elizabeth pipes up and says "No! He's too busy picking his nose!"

March 20 - Elizabeth: "But Daddy when you see the princesses at Disney they ARE REAL.  They can talk to you!"  (subsequently, a week later we booked our Disney trip)

March 30 - Elizabeth: "What?! Tomorrow is Easter? I'm soooo excited!  It will be the best day ever!"

April 23 - Me: "Grant your room stinks!" Grant: "Hot Dog tooted!"

July 13 - Things Grant said today "That really hurts"  "I go potty really really bad"  "That too spicy!"

Sept 29 - Me: "Hey what did you learn in Sunday School today?" Grant: "Nothing...God...Jesus...that's all!"

Nov 13 - Elizabeth "When I take a big drink of hot chocolate it makes my tummy feel warm"

no dates
 - Grant is looking at the tag in his pj's and says "Practice, practice, practice the hot dog dance.  I can read!"
- The Del Monte fruit commercial comes on TV and says "What's inside a can of Del Monte peaches?"  Elizabeth responds: "Peaches!!!!"
- Elizabeth: "Grant I love you so much I'm going to marry you one day!" (she was 4.5 years old)
- After a very rough church service with just me and the kids Elizabeth says to Grant as we are walking out "Are you ready for our super fun day together? We are going to have such a special day!" Are you kidding me? 10 minutes ago they couldn't even share stickers.
- Grant: "Poopy Elizabeth" (we had to break him of saying that) so "Pretty Elizabeth" and "Pretty Bird" took it's place.
- Me: "If you eat a really good dinner I have a special trick up my sleeve."  A few minutes later... Elizabeth "What's in your sleeve Mommy?"
- Grant: "I don't like you" Me: "Really? not at all?" Grant: "OK (jaw clinched) I like you little"
- Grant: "Eat it boy!"

January started pretty strong and then we faded....Grant's talking progressed so much throughout the year too.  This year we should have some real interesting conversations! Maybe there will be less about body functions :)