Phone Videos

These are all random videos I had on my cell phone.  Random snip-its of life. :)

Saying Goodbye to Binkie

With both Tyler and Megan, we told them to throw their pacifiers in the trash and after they did, we never looked back, never offered it again, and that was simply the end of their pacifier days. Tyler threw it in willingly, barely whimpered before bed that night and never woke up, cried, or anything. He was 20 months old. Megan spent 15 months torturing us with pacifier returns in the middle of the night because she was too heavy of a sleeper to put it back in herself but would cry for it. So, at 15 months, we had enough and made her throw it in the trash.  The first night was awful...up every hour. Second night was remarkably better, and by the third night, she had forgotten about it. So, really, not a bad experience with her either. At nap time a few weeks ago, we couldn't find Morgan's pacifier so she napped without it. She fell asleep easy but then woke up really grumpy and it literally took hours for her to recover. I made her throw it in the trash that night, just like I have done with the other two, saying goodbye to binkies. She was BEYOND devastated. Seriously, the saddest thing ever. It took a LONG time for her to throw it in.  She completely understood what throwing it away meant and she was not ready.  We followed through with bed time, sang our songs, gave kisses, and then put her to bed without it and proceeded to listen to the saddest crying ever.  Needless to say, she has her pacifier back and we are going to try again next month. :P

"Morgan, you need to throw your binkie away..."

 
 Pretty sure if she could better articulate herself, she would have said, "in here?!"

 "Are you serious?!"

 "But why??"

 "NOOOO!!!!!"

 
 
 
 "It's GONE!!"

Those these pictures do make me laugh a bit, they do show exactly what we went through that night...though Morgan does a lot of stuff the big kids do, she is definitely not ready to part with that part of her babyhood yet and we aren't ready for her to either.  Maybe we're getting softer with each kid or maybe we are just learning that each one is different and their needs are different.  If her pacifier makes her happy, so be it.  All of the kids will need braces anyway so who cares about her teeth. :P 

Our Valentine's Fun

Not even a week late for this post!  I'm getting there! :)

After such a hectic Christmas season that, I'm not going to lie, was a little disappointing, I made it my goal to try to do some fun things for the kids for Valentine's Day.  Though nothing we did was big or extravagant, I hope the kids enjoyed it and at the end of our two week celebration knew at least a little bit more what love is and why we as Christians have so much to share when it comes to love and loving others.

First, I made this little INCREDIBLY simple heart garland thing that we tore off each day.  Each heart had a verse about love on it.  The kids loved pulling this off every day!

 

 We had some fun craft times, we made heart pictures, colored tons, and even one day let the kids get out the glue, painters sticks, pipe cleaners, and foam butterflies and let them make a fun butterfly craft.  I'm pretty sure Megan's is still drying from all the glue she used. :)

 

 

 We made Valentine cookies...my mouth is watering just looking at that pic!  SOOO good!

I cut out these hearts, pink/red for the girls, and blue for the boys, one for each day, and each one had something Tim and I loved about them on it. So, each day, they woke up to a new one on their door. 

 

 Then, on Valentine's Day, we had heart shaped french toast and strawberries (not heart shaped...wasn't that committed. ;) )

 

 

 Then, Megan, who normally doesn't go to preschool on Friday's, had a privilege of being able to go to preschool an extra day so she could attend her class Valentine's Day party.

Pin the heart nose on the clown

 Getting ready for story time :)

 Playing a bean bag game

 Reading Valentine stories.

Balloon fun!

 And time in the "large motor room" which is basically a place for indoor recess. 

She had fun, and so did I!  It was fun being able to see her interact with her friends and teacher.

The kids really enjoyed all the Valentine's Day fun and I hope we can make a lot more traditions and fun times together in years to come!

Swimming Lessons 2014

 We've had quite the winter here in Ohio...the coldest in years we are told.  I'm sure there will be a post on that later...maybe when I have a better attitude about it (We are currently getting several more inches of snow and I'm not happy about it!!) Anyway, in anticipation for summer and all the fun that will hold, we put Tyler and Megan back in swimming lessons at the rec center.  The first couple classes, they were literally the only two kids in their class with 2 instructors. AWESOME!

 

 She looks so cute and babyish here!  I love it!!!

Now they just completed week three and are one of 4 kids with 1 instructor....NOT HAPPY!  They seriously spend two-thirds of the class on the side of the pool, like this, because it is not safe for them to be in the water when the instructor is working with another child.

 I VERY nicely talked to the head honcho lady after class on Thursday of this week and explained my frustration.  We paid for the kids to be instructed, not sit on the side of the pool and I really felt like it was unsafe to have so many children that can't swim with one instructor.  The lifeguard also literally stood above where they were sitting and yelled at them anytime they moved...not a good learning environment...  Anyway, I really was very nice about it all and never threatened leaving or not coming back or anything so I was shocked when she called me back later that day to offer Tyler a different class (he really needs advanced anyway), free of charge.  That makes me really excited!  Its unfortunate that now we will have to be there an entire hour vs just 30 minutes since their class times will be different, but I am thankful that they see a lot of the issues I brought up and are making steps to make it better.

Here are a few videos to get a little glimpse at what they are up to when they are actually in the water...most of these taken the first week when they were on their own in the class. Though the video doesn't show Tyler doing his best, he is officially swimming, usually with arms out of water and everything! He is just working on  how he is supposed to breathe. :)

Hopefully we will get a video of Tyler and Megan both officially swimming before we are done with the next class!

Newport Aquarium

I said I would be updated by today but I'm still posting about the end of January!  At least I'm only a few weeks behind...hoping to get closer today at least! ;)

With kids admission free, we decided to go to Newport Aquarium near Cincinnati (its actually in Kentucky) a couple weeks ago. To summarize the day, it was SUCH a refreshing, fun filled day as a family...so desperately needed. We enjoyed it all and even though we did decide that going again probably wasn't going to happen for a few years (for a variety of reasons, none of which had to do with our day there), we were so thankful we made the trip down for the day.

It took all of seconds for us to lose the older two kids and have to remind them to stay with us. They were soooo excited and sprinted to see what was up next! :)

 See Morgan's face? She was a little skeptical at first. :)

None of them would actually touch anything...Megan and Morgan were the closest but Tyler wouldn't even touch the water!

 

 

  The coolest part, for sure, in my opinion anyway, was the shark ray tank

 

 

 

 This shark is really old...the workers said that is why its back is arched like that

Lots of fun stuff to look at!

 

 

 I love how Morgan is completely mimicking Tyler's reaction. :)

 

 

  we found him! ;) 

 Tyler had been learning about the letter "o" for octopus at school so it was fun (and kinda gross) to see one in real life!

 See the grumpy rock looking fish?  Hint: those darker brown rock appearing blobs are actually fish!  And the one especially looks rather angry about us taking his picture! :)

 Life under the sea will always fascinate me...such detail, such creativity from the Creator...this did not happen by chance and this is only a simple example of the amazingly intricate colorful creatures in the Oceans

 Morgan FLIPPED OUT while she was walking over this bridge that you could see through (and see fish swimming below)

 Putting her down was not an option...she was clinging on for dear life!!! :-D

 gators

 

 

 Yay!  A place where its okay to play and run around! :)

 

Morgan givin' the penguins some luv

 One tired boy on the way home...he looks so grown up!! 

The girls were asleep too...not sure why I didn't take their pic??

It was such a fun time and we had a great day.  We went out to dinner as a family at a local pizza place on the way home and also stopped at Ikea (my fav!!) and Jungle Jim's to check it out. It felt like a vacation and so for that, we were so thankful. Spring couldn't come soon enough and getting away from home after being stuck in for so long with all these snow and cold cancellations was just what we needed.  We are already ready for another trip like this one!  Spring break is about 6 weeks away...not sure if we can wait that long!!!