Thirty Things to be Thankful For #2

I love colors. Whenever anyone asks me for my favorite color, I can never answer. Here's how my monologue in my head goes:

I love yellow, my room is yellow, and my quilt is yellow and purple...oooh I do love purple, I love any shade of purple...red goes so well with purple. I love them together. Red is so vibrant and I just love red....Ooooh I do love orange though. Orange is the most underrated color, in my opinion. Not many people love orange but I do!...Green and blue have never been my favorite, but they've grown on me. I don't enjoy all shades of green or blue, but there are some modern shades that I absolutely love...oh and what about pink. The new pink and brown combination is so cute...oh brown, I love brown clothes and some browns look so rich on the walls...but black is classic for accents and trims..........................

Was that too long to read? In summary, I love every color. I love colorful paint jobs (tasteful, of course), I love colorful clothing (with great neutral accents like browns, blacks, and grays), I love colors. Maybe that's why I love sharpies so much. I have every color under the sun. I also love a fresh box of Crayola with ALL of the colors. Regular markers don't do it for me though. So, yes, I'm thankful for colors.

Thirty Things to be Thankful For #1

I saw on a friend's blog that she was listing 1 thing that she is thankful for each day in November, so I thought I'd steal her idea. So here is the first one...

My husband. Jared is an amazing husband and father. He puts the kids to bed every night, goes out of his way to shower me with gifts for every important occasion, has changed more diapers than I have (I think - we don't have an exact count), lets me sleep in late and take naps (I can hear him telling the kids not to wake me up), cleaned up after me when I was sick as a dog, gets the kids meals, takes the kids fun places, provides for our family, plunges the toilet, cleans out the garage, mows the lawn, cleans out yucky kids' swimming pools, puts together toys/desks/anything, changes the light bulb in the porch light (ewww!), takes care of bloody owies and vomiting sick kids because he knows I'm squeamish, wrestles with the boys, takes care of the kids anytime I need to run some errands or go to class or do homework or go to bunco or...you get the idea.

On top of all of that, I'm pretty sure he knows me better than I know myself (that can be BAD!), shows me love in MY love language even though it's not HIS love language, puts up with my hording and grumpiness, shows me how to be happier and kinder, and lots more! Often, if I don't take his advice, I live to regret it. And not because he makes me regret it. But because I realize that he had the right idea to begin with (I hope he's not reading this...)

I guess I should stop gushing before you all get too jealous! Needless to say, I love him and am extremely grateful for him every day!

"Halloween Season '09"

It seems like Halloween is just as busy as the Christmas season. Getting costumes ready, Phelps Party, Phillips Party, Preschool Party, Halloween night, plus miscellaneous activities make October an extremely busy month. My kids love every second of it though! Here are some pictures from the "Halloween Season."

Phelps Halloween Party: Booths and games, Halloweeners (hot dogs), witches' brew (homemade root beer), "trick or treating" to the doors in the house, spook alley







(My niece Mara)

Phillips Halloween Party: spook alley, chili, decorating pumpkins, sugar cookies (my favorite part), "trick or treating" to the doors in the house






Halloween Night:




The Aftermath:

Run, Kellen, Run!

For as long as I can remember, Kellen has walked on his toes. Actually, I never really noticed it. But other people pointed it out regularly. At 3 years old, the doctor said not to worry about it. At 4 1/2, the doctor said I should take him to see the orthopedic specialist to determine if there was a cause and how to correct it. This was back in June.

So, I took him to see Dr. Carlen. Dr. Carlen stretched his feet and watched him walk and said that he needed about 10-15 degrees more movement in his calf and ankle muscles. The doctor explained that they can't usually determine which came first (the chicken or the egg)...did he start walking on his toes because his muscles weren't long enough, or did his muscles not stretch because he walked on his toes? I think the toe-walking came first and with his growth spurts (the bone grows first), the muscles never had to stretch. So he prescribed physical therapy 2-3 times per week, as well as some leg braces to force Kellen to push his heels down.

He started physical therapy shortly after. His therapist is really nice and sweet and she showed me how to stretch him each day to increase the movement. He sees her a couple of times a week and she does exercises with him to increase his muscle. They do really fun stuff inside and outside. They have a Nemo room, Mickey room, play kitchen, cars, even real horses that Kellen got to feed his first time.



He was finally able to get his leg braces today. It took a while to get an appointment, then I thought they were making the braces, and it turned out they were trying to get a hold of me to approve the balance not covered by insurance. Once I approved that, they had to make them, and we barely picked them up today. The office was really nice and waived my co-pay though. That saved me over $200. So they fit his braces on him and some special shoes that go over them. He has to wear them a couple of hours a day and increase in time until he can wear them all day. But he can take them off if we go somewhere.



His first time walking in his new braces:


So now we continue physical therapy and stretching several times a day and remembering to put the braces on every day to try to get this issue corrected. He's aware that we're trying to correct it and I try to remind him to "walk on his feet" but his habit is deeply ingrained, so it will take some effort. With some time, walking with his braces won't be such a chore.

And these pictures I took to show typical Kellen:
Here he is asking what the fake foot is and what it is for:



And here he is asking what the ruler/knobs are and what they are for:



He asked about 300 other questions and made almost as many comments. When Derek handed Bridger and Kellen each 1 sticker, Kellen asked, "Why did we get one sticker?" He's such a sweet and friendly boy. Some people are taken aback by how friendly he is. But most of them time, people are friendly back and think he's adorable. I think he's pretty darn adorable too!

He's Definitely Almost Two

Our little "baby" of the family is almost 2. And he's trying to prove it. He loves to throw tantrums these days. Here's a picture of him from a few weeks ago. He's in his swim shirt and I don't even remember what the fit was about. But he always takes his hands and covers his eyes and refuses to be calmed down until he's ready. He often throws himself on the floor as well.


This is one from the zoo. The other two boys were eating pudding. He wanted some. You can see here he has the spoon in his hand:

but he has to share and he's dripping it so I took it away. I offered to spoon some into his mouth, but he threw a fit because he wanted to do it himself. If he couldn't do it himself, he didn't want any!


And when I try to get the tantrum on video (so when he's older and he asks what he was like as a child I can pull out this video to show him :), here's what happens:


Within a few minutes, he went from content, to distraught, to distractedly happy. I guess I should count my blessings...

Here are some things he's prone to throwing a fit about (Hello, Improper Grammar):
-Getting dressed
-Getting undressed
-Taking his diaper off
-Putting his diaper on
-Refusing to let him wear underwear without a diaper
-Taking his shoes off
-Putting his shoes on wrong (or the wrong shoes on)
-Buckling him in his car seat
-Not letting him do something himself
-Sharing something (Yes...he will voluntarily share it and then throw a fit that the other person has it)
-Having something taken away (sharp knife, anyone?)
-Sitting/Laying/Reclining while holding him

And here are some things that distract him or resolve the fit:
-Where's your nose? Where are your fingers? etc.
-Letting him do something (like buckling himself or feeding himself)
-Where are your nipples? (He lifts his shirt up and we tickle him - haha)
-Giving him the sharp knife back (just kidding...maybe)
-Silky
-Putting underwear on over his diaper (once you force the diaper on of course)
-Promising shoes
-Candy or soda, of course
-Give me your silky game (pretending to take it away while repeating "give me your silky")

Our Zoo Trip

We were able to meet up with some friends and go to the zoo on Wednesday. The best part? Our friend Rachel had some free passes and so we all got in free (for those of us who didn't have memberships)! Thanks Rachel!

The monkeys were swinging really close to us in Monkey Village, but only one boy would stand still long enough to pose for a picture.


I stupidly expected nice cool temperatures in October and it didn't even cross my mind to put swimwear on the boys. It was very warm, so I let them play in the water in just their shorts.



And the boys in some of their more photogenic moments (in my unbiased opinion):




(Rachel was also kind enough to share her chocolate pudding with my boys. Thanks again Rachel!)

Girl and Little Boys' Night In

While Jared was gone tonight, the boys and I had a slumber party. We ordered pizza, made caramel corn, and laid on the floor in our sleeping bags and watched Monsters vs. Aliens. It was a lot of fun.