Guns, Toddlers, and the Rangers!!

No one ever told me that when you have boys, anything and everything is turned into a gun. Literally. Wrapping paper in our cart at Wal-Mart turned into a lethal weapon and Wal-mart patrons were enemies. A peanut butter sandwich strategically bitten looks similar to a gun and coupled with my favorite *read sarcasm* shooting sound, it's like WWIII in our kitchen. My list goes on and on...play tools = guns, sticks = guns, Tinkertoys = guns, blocks put together juuuust right = guns, sometimes even things that couldn't possibly look at all like a gun, surprisingly will work just fine. I am NOT a fan of this gun phase. Anyone else have experience with this or should I be worried?

I have outlawed gun-play in the preschool with strict consequences, which may seem silly, but public schools are strict on this issue, too, I know, so I am trying to be consistent with what they do. He really didn't get into guns until a new kid started coming to our school who likes to make shooting sounds. Even Sam has started making the popular sound. Should I just throw up my hands and hope the phase passes, or should I continue with the anti-gun-play rule?

Sam is going to be one next week, and he does so much for himself now. He is an excellent walker, almost never falling (unless Jackson pushes him down, which sadly, is frequent), and I even watched him just this week master bending at the waist to pick up a toy and standing back up all without the aid of a nearby table or chair. He says Mama, Dada, claps hooray, and occasionally waves bye-bye, but doesn't say it yet. He can point to the basic parts of my face on a good day, but always knows nose. Lately we have been working on animal names and sounds, but the only one he says upon request is duck, and it comes out "Da" which is just Dada, with only one Da. He loves to play chase and laughs heartily when he is chasing Jack or me or when Daddy is chasing him to tickle him. He also has entered the love for Elmo stage. This is convenient since Jackson loved Elmo, too, and we already have a ton of Elmo gear. He will eat completely on his own, but he is such a picky eater! Jackson woudl anything and everything, so I have struggled with this. His least favorite thing to eat is any kind of meat. I try to hide it in small bites mixed in with applesauce or baby food, but he finds it in his mouth, uses his tongue to hold onto it, swallows the other food, and then spits out the meat. Little stinker!!

This is Sam trying to steal food off of Jackson's tray...so he won't eat his own food, but he'll steal his brothers'!

We have been to two Texas Rangers baseball games this month and took Jackson to both (we got a sitter for Sam). He was really good, especailly considering he was up past bedtime. The second game had fireworks, which, of course, he got super-excited about. Now he walks aroudn the house randomly shouting, "Let's go Rangers...(clap, clap, clap-clap-clap)" or "Let's go, C. JAYYY! (pitcher)" or "GOOOOOO Rangers!!!" I'm glad he is getting excited about sports and I can't wait to watch him play his first game of t-ball. For an almost 3 year old, he is fairly coordinated and athletic. He is a good dribbler, too, so I hope he might find some interest in soccer, but I won't push it.

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Spring Celebrations and Surprises

Two 2-year-olds in "jail" (behind the soccer net).

Everyone loves Sam, especially his self-appointed second mom, Sophia. Although you can't tell from his expression, he loves her, too.

Easter bunny glasses!! This isn't the whole group, only about a third of it, but these were the ones willing to pose for the picture.

Best Friends - Sam hates to be separated from Jack and well, Jack mostly likes to have his tag-along brother with him. They even have a special scream they call each other with.

"Hey! I found one!"

"This Easter egg hunt is wearing me out! I gotta take a candy break..." Sam found the biggest (and might I add BEST) egg ever!

I just LOVE these boys!

In the midst of hunting, look what else Jack found!

and here is his reaction...

This is Sam's new favorite thing. Good thing Jackson still loves Elmo, too, because we had moved past the Sesame Street phase, but he will still patiently watch SS with Sam.

Ben put up a tent in the backyard, thinking he'd sleep in it with Jackson last Sat night. That so did not happen...

but they had a blast playing in it after naptime on Sunday!

How does YOUR garden grow?

After 'me n the boys' got home from the gym this morning, I fed them lunch and put them down for naps. They stayed up very late last night since we made a huge family trip to the grocery store, and Sam doesn't believe in sleeping in no matter what time he went to bed, ergo Jackson was awakened early, too. Anyway, long story short (too late for that, huh?), they are both taking super long naps right now.


Ben was outside doing yard work and it was a beautiful day so I joined him to weed my flowerbeds for the first time this year. When I say flowerbeds, I really just mean beds where flowers should go, as I have yet to plant any this year. On that note, flowers are so dang expensive! What if I planted seeds? Does anyone have any experience with that? What types of flower seeds would I likely be most successful with? I tried to plant seeds last year for the preschoolers to have flowers in the Mother's Day flowerpots they made, but it didn't go so well and I ended up buying some flowers and putting them in the pots with some soil. Any tips you have are much appreciated because my flowerbeds are longing for some beautiful color in them, but I just can't afford to fill them all with already grown flowers.


As I was working in my front flower bed, trimming back the dead canna debris to make room for the new shoots, I was thinking about the state of my flower beds and the backyard in general. (We are having a hard time keeping grass in the backyard since 10 preschoolers are stomping on it for over an hour every day.)


I was thinking about the last house I owned and remembering working in the front yard in my flowerbeds, and how when I moved out, how sad I was that I didn't have time to do more landscaping. I had a beautiful little yard with lots of older developed trees and shade. I had a pear tree in the backyard and some very pretty bushes and flowers in the front beds. My old yard had such potential to be a place of beauty and peace with just a little cultivation, but the marriage deteriorated and I moved out of the house and lost the yard.


As I was reflecting on that and ripping out and trimming back dead debris from my current yard, I noted how quickly things can deteriorate in life if they are not nourished. I was making the comparison (and bear with me cuz I'm no green thumb) that our lives are a lot like plants and flowers. My previous marrige was not rooted in the gospel, and so it had no solid foundation and no continuous nourishment from good things to help it grow and flourish. It started with so much potential, but wilted fast without getting what it needed to sustain life.

This analogy can apply currently as well. Sometimes we get so busy with life that we let obstacles hinder us from stretching up towards the sun's nourishing light. Other times, unimportant objects can blow into our flower beds and trash it up or we neglect to weed our flowerbeds and the focus on the beauty of the garden as a whole (eternal perpsective) is lost. If we don't make time to constantly clear those things out, so that our nourishment can be constant, we will begin to wilt as well.

Anyway, just seem deep Colleen thoughts I thought I'd share. I like to try to make everything an analogy. I don't know why, but it helps me understand things better, I guess.

The best part of my day...

Wow, what a day I had today!

The culmination of all my training: Ab Crunch Challenge! Up till today, the maximum number I had crunched was 1200. My goal was 1500. Today I crunched 3,194 times, and I didn't even place. First place did over 5000, second place did 3700, and third place did 3400.

Ben came to watch me, and they asked him to be my counter which we hadn't planned on, but it was so awesome to feel his support while I tested my limits. For some reason I always feel this need to prove to him that I'm no weak woman! That (among many reasons) is why I always want him by my side during labor. I'll push myself harder if he is there. He was whispering encouragement the whole time and telling me how proud he was of me. He is just awesome!

I was a little disappointed that I didn't place as I'm a pretty competitive person. So after I put the boys down for a nap, (Ben was watching a movie.) I decided to go for a run. I wasn't sure how much I'd be able to run, but my stomach was not sore after crunching, just numb, so I thought I'd just see how it went and stop if I felt like I needed to. I ran 6 miles in 57 minutes., topping my previous record (last week) of 5 in 45 min.

(This competition has aroused a desire in me to compete in something athletic. I'd like to run a marathon, learn to rockclimb, start training to kickbox competitively, or re-join an indoor soccer team. I have always had such a need to push myself physically and I realize it is something I have been missing in my life.)

For dinner this evening, we had homemade shrimp alfredo (YUM) and for dessert I made a strawberry shortcake with strawberry cake, a strawberry and strawberry glaze mixture, and a whipped cream/cream cheese topping (YUM YUM).

After dinner we were able to bribe Jackson to poop in the potty (barely) with some dessert. We made quite a fuss over the smallest poop you ever saw, but at least it was a step in the right direction! :)

Also today, Sam decided to accompish many milestones in one day. (Recently he started clapping. It is super cute! We can just say, "YAY!" and he starts clapping. It is also really cute how he sometimes acts bashful and hides his head under his arms when we clap with him.) Today I asked him, "Where's mama's nose?" and he reached out with his little pointer finger and, with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, he touched my nose! I was astonished that he actually did it, so I asked him to do it two more times and he did. Then I asked him to show me my mouth and my eyes; he did those also! What a little smartie I have! He just barely turned 10 months!!

He also started saying Mama today. Out of the blue, he was sitting in Ben's lap, trying to get down and crawl to me, and clear as day, he babbled, Mamamamamama. Ben put him down and he crawled right to where Jackson and I were playing Memory. Of course, that was the end of the game as Sam wanted to put all the cards in his mouth and we couldn't keep up with his octopus arms, but it was awesome!

But the absolute best part of my day was when Sam and I had a few moments to ourselves as I gave him a bath and got him ready for bed separate from Jackson tonight. We played in the bath, had a one-sided mini-tickle fight, and then I dressed him, read him a story, and rocked him as I sang hymns to him. He NEVER sits still enough for me to rock him lately, so it was such a moment. When we started, I had him facing forward, but he turned himself around and snuggled up to me and buried his face in my shoulder while I sang. In that moment, I felt the Spirit confirm to me that Heavenly Father was pleased with me and my family, and I cried a little because I was just so overwhelmed with love for my child and happiness with my life.

Bad Dream

Do you ever remember things that happened a long time ago and feel like they happened yesterday? And do they make you angry? Like a dream that felt so real that when you woke up the emotions carried over?

I'm struggling today. I don't know why, but things have been brought to the front of my mind today that I wish I could pretend happened to someone else.

Every day I am so happy and grateful for the blessings that I have in my life. That I probably don't deserve. But dang it!! I'm going to hold tight to them and work every day to BE deserving of them.

When these angry feelings get the better of me, I know they threaten my happiness and the happiness of my family and marriage. It is such a struggle to fight them off!

Like the dream, I tell myself it isn't relevant to my current reality, but nevertheless, my mind keeps floating back to the angry thoughts and I get re-angered.

Forgiveness is a daily battle, I'm convinced. I never knew that until I had to do it. I thought you could just snap your fingers and say ,"I forgive you," and that was it. All was restored to a peaceful balance. Not so. At least for me.

And you know what? It is totally Satan. And I know that. My Heavenly Father who loves me so much, and blesses me so much, wants me to be happy, and to let it go. And I want to.

So I'm going to fight the fight.

Potty Frustrations

Monday (our first day back in the swing of things) was a great day and Jackson went all day in big boy underwear with no accidents (made for day 2 of no accidents). Till we got to the gym that night. This is his second accident at the gym and the pee gets all over the floor, so the day care worker asked me to stop sending him in underwear, to put him in pull-ups when he comes to the gym. Sigh...embarrassing.

Tuesday was a horrible day. Accidents all over the place and I finally had to put him in a pull-up because I had changed his clothes 3 times. Today has been better, but still at least 2 accidents, but I just didn't have the energy to put him in underwear today because he has seemed to regress a little and I think it is causing him to hold his poop in and not go. He still tells me when he needs to go pee-pee, but then sometimes he goes and doesn't tell me.

He has yet to poop in the potty. He was so afraid that he hasn't pooped for 3 days. Finally last night we had to give him some laxative powder. Solved that problem and he has been tooting all day - which he thinks is hilarious, and so do the preschoolers.

I think we are going to get through Thur and Fri doing the best we can and have another naked weekend this weekend. Like I said, if we could just get him to poop in the potty, I really think we'd break that barrier. He gets so upset when he has a pee accident! I really think he has been trying hard with the pee, but the whole constipated thing has messed him up. He'll strain, trying to poop, and pee instead. I don't want him to get frustrated because so far he has had such a positive attitude about everything, just not pooping. I don't know why he is so stressed about it, but I don't want to make it worse.

Sigh...