Friday, July 31, 2009

Happy Happy Birthday JP Dear...




So his actual 7th birthday is tomorrow, but since Chuck E. Cheese is way crowded on Fridays and Saturdays with rude and obnoxious people, we decided to go last night. He was allowed to invite 2 friends (since it's not exactly cheap), and I was able to use four different coupons. Yay for coupons! We started with tokens until pizza came. Then we took a break to have pizza. After that we finished games-some quicker than others. JP and his little friend Spencer used all of their's first. His other friend Taige is honestly the sweetest and most quiet boy I've ever met. he still had 12 of his 20 left and decided to split them up between them. I told him he didn't have to do that, but he smiled and said it was okay. There may have been some coaxing on the part of the other two, but I can't be sure. I was helping Peanut and Jo Jo. Peanut mostly wanted to ride cars, but he did some fun little kid games to earn some tickets. B and Bubba were playing a hunting game the entire time. Bubba almost used all of his on that alone and B used all of his. It got a little old trying to help Peanut do stuff and chase Jo Jo around. I lost him a couple of times, but it's a small place and they don't let your child leave unless their stamped number matches yours. It's not like I lost him lost him, he would just be around the corner or climbing in another car. Anyway, I finally made B have a turn so I could play skeeball a couple of times. Then we went and opened presents and ate cake. He chose Harry Potter this year as the theme. Don't make fun of my cake picture. It didn't exactly turn out as I'd envisioned. The burgundy icing ended up more of a purple color. When I was first icing the yellow on, Peanut came over to let me know it looked like cheese. Oh well. His friend Spencer said, "Is it your 71st birthday?" I let him know that it was actually an exclamtion point after the 7 and not a 1. They got a cool goody bag with glasses, bookmark, some candy, sticers, and backpack clip. They also got a little plastic wand that lit up, and I bought the 3 of them a plastic cup for their drink that they could re-use. Bubba and Peanut were a little miffed that they didn't get "prizes." All in all, I would say it was a success-well, except for the hideous cake. JP was happy, though, he didn't even notice. He thought it was a cool cake. B says I have mastered the buttercream frosting. I think he's glad we have leftovers. After we got home, he got to open our presents. We gave him 2 small ones to unwrap first-a bag of plastic golf balls, and BB gun glasses. He was like, "Oh yay," but I think he was confused. Then we brought in the golf clubs (from Play it Again) and a BB gun. Bubba got his BB gun for his 7th birthday, so we figured it was only fair for him to get his own.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Bring the Noise

The boys are home. The volume in the house went up by about 10 decibels. I forgot how incredibly loud they were. It was nice having the peace even if clingy boy wouldn't let me put him down all week. I love my boys and I missed them, but I most definitely didn't miss the noise. They had a fun time. They came home with long hair, taller, and 10 million mosquito bites. B said that farm mosquitoes are like helicopters even when you wear insect repellent. Did I mention the dirt they brought home? I got their socks out of their bag and went to turn one inside out and sand flew all over the laundry room floor. So I nixed that idea and just threw them all in the washer. They seriously could've walked around by themselves.

I can't forget about baby no no. He struck again. Yesterday we were all downstairs-except for him. I heard water running after awhile and told Bubba to see what was going on. He went upstairs to find that baby no no had closed himself in my bathroom and was mad about it so he decided to turn on the bath. Later that night when B and I were going to bed, he went in his closet to get ready for bed and discovered all of his ties had been yanked off his tie hanger thingy and were in a cruumpled mess on his floor. I couldn't stop laughing. I wanted to take a picture, but B was freaking out because he didn't want them to get ruined by getting all wrinkly. I told him to welcome to my world of following around the mess maker everyday. I'll post again after JP's b-day party tomorrow night.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

E-I-E-I-O it's Off to the Farm They Go


He found this mask by himself and put it on. Even now when he looks at it, he growls. Pretty much everything makes that noise.


Swinging at the park like a big boy.


Peanut's grand masterpiece. He goes in his room sometimes and we don't hear from him for hours. This is what he's doing. We think he'll be an engineer.

I haven't really had much to write about lately. B's mom was here last week. She was a great babysitter. We took Bubba and JP to see "Harry Potter" on opening night on Wed. AWESOME movie by the way!! She watched the little boys for us. The next morning I had to take Peanut to the dentist. He had 4 cavities at his cleaning the week before, so he was getting 2 fillings, and she watched the other boys for me. He was so brave! The assistant asked if she could put the clown nose on him (the gas mask) and he really wasn't sure about it. He shook his head for about 5 minutes without saying anything, but was pretty involved in the tv, so I told her just to put it on him and see what he did. He didn't even flinch. The gas never made him silly or even smile. He only said one word the entire time. They asked him if he was still tingly or just regular before they would start the filling and he said, "Regawar." I think it really helps that our dentist is our neighbor/home teacher and has a boy Peanut's age that he plays with. He'll have to get the other 2 done in the next couple of weeks. Then, on Friday night, B and I went on a date. So we really took advantage of grandma.

Sat. we drove the boys down to Papa's farm for the week. Yippee!! They love working and playing on the farm and look forward to it each summer. Although, Bubba nearly had a heart attack because we couldn't drive dad's truck so they could take the 4 wheeler and motorcycle this year. He got busted for the 'tude he was having with both mom and dad. So it's just me and Jo Jo this week. I thought, "Yay, I can catch up on my recorded shows this week and watch movies and do nothing." Not so much. He's been crabby and clingy and won't even let me leave his sight. I guess his world got turned upside down without having brother's to entertain him. Plus, he wakes up too early for my taste. So I've run a few errands- getting school supplies, groceries, attempt at laundry. I guess I'll try to clean the sty that is the big boy's room and do laundry and (major gag) ironing. I seriously hate ironing more than cleaning toilets. In fact, I'd rather give birth than iron. But it's really piled up and my mom isn't here to do it for me. I'm not sure what my ironing issue is. Maybe I had a traumatic ironing experience when I was a child that I've suppressed until now.

Speaking of clingy Jo Jo, he's sitting on my lap right now, banging his drink cup around, pushing on the screen, and pulling pens out, so I think that's my cue to finish.

Monday, July 13, 2009

HUGE Milestone!!!




Yay! Baby Jo Jo went to nursery for the first time yesterday! They let him in a couple of weeks early. One of the leaders has a boy a month older than him, so she doesn't mind. I took him in and stayed a few minutes to see if he was okay. A few minutes later he handed me his bop and went to play with cars so I snuck out. He did really well(even though he saw B check on him once) until almost the end. With about 5 minutes left in RS, I heard a very loud, "MOM!" Yay, he said my name! I guess the other leader had gone to the library and when she came back she accidentally knocked him down because he was in front of the door. So then he and another boy took turns making each other cry. So sad. But I'm so proud of him for doing so well on his first try! Yay! Our last baby in nursery. They really do grow up way too fast.
In other news he's saying a little more
-dat-"that"
-awn for drink had turned into "non"
-Yesterday I had just gotten him out of the shower with B and he heard his brothers and I asked him if he heard brothers and he said, "duh ers."
-He loves doing ring around the rosy at FHE and so every so often he'll say "ahses" (sorry that sounds a little like a swear word ;)
-He also loves to do "love ya," which is a tradition before bed that we stole from B's family. You all put your hands together in the center and as you bounce them up and down, you say, "1, 2, 3" and then yell "love ya" as you let go. So he says, "uh uh."
-He is also jabbering a lot and knows himself what's he saying, but I'm sure it will eventually make sense to us too.
-For awhile he's been saying "ba" for ball. I can't remember if I've mentioned that one before.
-He also says "uh uh" and shakes his head no.. He always uses it in context too.

Oh how I love my sweet baby no no. I mean Jo Jo.

Oh I forgot to mention his latest antics from Sat. night. The boys decided to have a movie party with their friends who live behind us. So B and I decided to play Mario Kart with Peanut. So I heard him in the dining room cabinets. Usually he just takes out the plastic bowl and tin candy cups that are in there. Well, he comes walking in the kitchen and throws our Santa cookie plate on the floor and shatters it. He got so busted for that one. I went and sat him down on the couch and said, "NO!" very firmly so he would get the idea. Boy did I hurt his feelings. There were mostly big pieces, but I had to get the vaccum out for the small, invisible pieces. Oh, how he DAILY tries mama's patience!

Friday, July 10, 2009

Jo Jo Strikes Back (as in Empire)



So I forgot to mention before that earlier this week, we had an accident. B was putting Peanut to bed and Jo Jo was hanging out in the room with them. There was a light saber in there (that should've been in the playroom). So he was swinging it around by the pointed end rather than the handle. You can probably guess the next part; he wacked Peanut right in the eye with the handle end. OUCH! He cut Peanut's eye, which wasn't too bad, but by the next morning his entire eyelid was purple and swollen. It looked pretty bad. My sister told him to tell people that he fought with a bear and he won. He was a really good sport about it. We made sure not to make too huge of a deal about it so he wouldn't totally freak out. The first picture is a little blurry, but I put it in so you could see more of the purple. Just more of Jo Jo's special personality.

Crazy Coconut is at It Again!

Jo Jo has started saying more words:
-He calls me "daw" or "da" which is also what he calls B. He used to call me mom or mama when he was really upset, but not anymore.

-He also says "ow" when he gets hurt, which is also the word for "out."

-He has always used the word "bop" for pacifier, which is the term we have used since JP. When JP was a baby, one afternoon when he woke up from a nap, he pointed to his pacifier on the floor and said "bop," so we have called it that ever since. I have always hated the word "binky."

-Another favorite is "mmm" when he wants food. That one's pretty cute since that's what we say when we're trying to get him to eat.

-Everything else has pretty much been "uh." Which can be hard to interpret unless he's pointing at the same time.

It's funny because sometimes he'll ask B for something and I'll translate because he doesn't quite speak Jo Jo yet. I'm seriously getting sick of having to push all the kitchen chairs around the kitchen so that he won't climb on the table. Because heaven forbid they should be close enough for him to push them over there. We also have to move the computer chair away and put the mouse up or he'll start clicking away. The other night, the computer chair was pushed in still, but the mouse was put up. He climbed in the chair, got the mouse down and started clicking away. Sometimes I think he's too smart for his own good. He also likes to hang on the oven doors now. Hopefully he will stop this before he gets heavy enough to actually open them. We're also just waiting for the day we have to take him to the ER. He likes to jump from the ottoman to the couch and even started to hang over the back to where his body is lifted off the couch. This is NOT good since we have tile behind that couch. B did slap his hand when he did it the last and took him off the couch, and I think it got through because he hasn't done it again. So as you can see, if we weren't already done having kids, he would be very good birth control.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

What!?

JP just had another moment of not hearing what I said correctly. I honestly think he has hearing problems in his left ear. In the meantime, it's fun to listen to his misinterpretations. Here's the conversation-
Me-I have to call Meme (my mom) about the ham. (In regards to what I was doing for dinner).
Bubba-Why?
Me-Because she knows everything.
JP-What? We're going camping?

This is honestly a real conversation we had not 30 minutes ago. I try not to laugh in front of him. I just repeat myself and look at him while I'm saying it so he can hear it correctly.

Monday, July 6, 2009

4 Boy Dogpile and 4th of July


As you can see from the photo, on Sat. afternoon somehow all four boys ended up in a massive dogpile on the living room floor. I didn't even know what was going on with all the giggling until B called me in to take a picture. Notice even Jo Jo was part of the fun. Afterwards, we did a special treat and went and saw "Ice Age 3." It was really a funny movie. The boys were laughing the whole time.

That night we had my sister and her husband over for a BBQ. They left after to watch the fireworks downtown, but we went out front to do some of our own. Something possessed my husband to allow the two older boys to light their own this year. I was really freaked out at first, but they were actually really careful and aware of the danger, especially JP. So here's a picture I got of him lighting. They had a blast. They did almost all of their own. Thanks to Amy my SIL for leaving several bottle rockets from some years back that we still had in the garage. We have done our own fireworks in 3 years. B took the boys camping last year, and the year before my mom was here and I was on house arrest sick and pregnant with Jo Jo and they all went to the baseball game and watched fireworks there without me. They also went to a movie that day without me. They were really rude. Anyway, we had a great time this year and I got an awesome picture of the full moon, which I've never done before.




Lastly, yesterday, B was getting the boys in bed and Peanut's pull-up tote was empty and Jo Jo crawled in it. As you can see, it's very small, so I'm not sure how he accomplished this feat, but of course I had to get a photo of it. The last picture was a silly face he made when I told him to look at me and smile. It's Jo Jo all the way. He also now knows where his eyes, nose and ears are. He said "no" once yesterday when I locked him out of Peanut's closet for pulling all of his clothes off the hangers. I'm hoping he doesn't remember that one. We finally got a lock on our computer drawer last night and he went right over after he saw me putting everything back in the drawer to pull it out. He was a little mad and I said, "Ha Ha!" How will I survive these toddler years? Speaking of surviving-Bubba is seriously a 14 yr. old trapped in a 9 yr. old's body. Oh what I have to look forward too. He let us know yesterday, though, that he had passed off most of the Articles of Faith which we never even knew he was working on. He passed off 2 more yesterday and only has 13 left, which he memorized already today. We are so proud of this sweet spiritual boy!