Yikes it's been almost a month...maybe I should update

With Landon having an entire week off for Thanksgiving and preparing for the meal at our house and Black Friday I haven't really had a chance to write, so let's see what's happened the past few weeks....

We had Thanksgiving at our house and had Mark's dad, Henry, and Mark's mom and her boyfriend, Gail and Ludwig over. It turned out good, the food was yummy, well what I could taste of it because I was still getting over being sick. The boys went with them for the night so we could go black Friday shopping. It was the first time Hayden has ever stayed the night away from me but he did fine. I missed them tons....let's just say it won't be happening again for a long time. For anyone that knows me I'm car seat crazy. That's putting it mildly. Car seats are a huge thing for me and I'm very strict about their use with my kids. Hayden is 26 mo and still rides rear facing and will for a long time yet, Casen is in a harnessed booster seat which he will remain in until he outgrows the harness and Landon is in a high back booster and will be for years to come. Well I always install their seats, whether it be in our car or anyone elses. So for their overnight trip with Grandma I did the same. Yet somehow when he came back, Casen was in his harnessed seat (a Nautilus) no longer installed but instead the seat belt taken out of the belt path and put around him as if he was in a booster! I almost died, it didn't fit him right at all and thankfully they weren't in a wreck, I hate to think what would have happened had they been, just by looking at how it laid on him it would NOT have been good. So I'm still recovering from that. Needless to say anyone who plans on taking my boys will go through Beth's Carseat Bootcamp before it happens again. There was another issue but we won't go into that :|

At 11pm Thanksgiving night though we went shopping!!!!!!!!!! First we went to Grapevine mills and stopped in Children's Place and got the boys all some clothes. Then over to Toys R Us, they were having a sale for Batman figures for buy one get two free! So we got six haha. Then while standing in line I saw they had a Melissa and Doug big floor puzzle on sale for $9.99...Casen LOVES puzzles and I LOVE Melissa and Doug so I grabbed it, it rang up for only $4.98!!! Awesome deals. Then we went to Carters and got more clothes. Then we left and went to Old Navy...MORE awesome deals on clothes!! This time for me and Mark too, woohoo! We then went to Target and got some more stuff. We ended up finishing most of our shopping that day and the rest has since been finished minus picking up Hayden's elmo and getting them all a few more stocking stuffers :) I love being done already it's great! Not only did we get good sales that day we also MADE money!!!! Best Buy had some sales going and we ended up getting a gift card and then money back on things we had bought recently. The gift card was $150, well I've been wanting a new digital camera for awhile, I have a DSLR and I love the thing but it's huge and it's not exactly easy to just toss in a bag and bring everywhere and we all know I'm picture crazy too so I found a cute PINK canon on sale for only $149.99 after tax we ended up only paying $12 out of pocket since we had that gift card! So that's part of my Christmas presents...shh don't tell Santa I know what my gifts are already!

This week Landon went back to school, he's now at a level 13 in reading!!!!! I did get a call from his teacher today and they are going to evaluate his speech just to be sure all is normal, there are a few letters he still has troubles with and they want to make sure it's all normal for his age and if not get him some help so it doesn't become an issue with his spelling and such down the road...right now it's not effecting his learning at all though. On Sunday he lost his first tooth!!!!!!!!! It was a huge ordeal, he was terrified but it was hurting his gums when it moved and when he ate so it had to come out. Almost 2hrs later Mark got it out ( it was loose enough Landon just kept closing his mouth lol). The tooth fairy felt so bad about all he had to go through to get it out she left him $10!!!! One lucky kid! He's now so proud of himself though, he likes that it's gone and tells me he likes having a hole in his mouth that it feels cool. Me I don't like it so much lol but it's ok. He's growing up so fast I can't believe in just a few months he'll be 7 OMG!!!!! And Casen will be 5!!! So crazy!

Awesome Melissa and Doug Giveaway!!!

I LOVE Melissa and Doug toys!!!!!!!! Some of the best!!! We got Hayden a few of their wooden food sets that they can slice and they have been a huge hit with all THREE of the boys!!!!!! Right now they are having a giveaway for their puppet theater and 2 puppets of your choice. Check it out here

http://blog.melissaanddoug.com/2009/11/20/giveaway-deluxe-puppet-theater-2-puppets/comment-page-15/#comment-3709

Win a Safety 1st Complete Air!!!!!

If you go to this link

http://theshoppingmama.com/2009/10/safety-1st-complete-air-convertible-car-seat-review-giveaway/comment-page-62/#comment-40141

You can win a Complete Air!!!!!!! This car seat rear faces to 40lbs! Then forward faces to 50lbs!! Go to that site and read her review, awesome car seat!

My children are strange.

I have decided my kids are strange.

First some GREAT news!!!! Landon came home from school today with a LEVEL 12 BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The goal was for them to get him to level 12 "hopefully" by Christmas....it's not even Thanksgiving and he's there! Yay go Landon!!!!!!!!! We got Daddy on iChat so he could tell him, he's so proud of himself!

But then later he informed me that he would like to change his name. Apparently Landon isn't good enough for him. He would now like to be called David. I don't know...I don't ask questions

While writing this Casen came to me with a dish brush, a new one, and asked me to scratch his foot with it. Why you may ask...again I don't know. I'm telling you...STRANGE

Then Hayden...well he's just strange all around. But he LOVES Ellen...like obsessed with Ellen. He will ask me throughout the day "Is Ellen on?" He likes to dance with her, he yells at me if I pause the show, he gets upset when it's over, he applauds when the audience does...it's really cute to watch. But makes me wonder...is that strange too? haha

He's also doing really well with potty training!!! Yesterday from about 2-9 he wore undies with 1 accident. Then today he's been in undies all day long, we have had 3 pee accidents and one poo one...but he's got an upset tummy so I'm not surprised. Maybe he'll be potty trained in a week or so :)

Sleep is for the weak

Or so Hayden thinks.

Why doesn't this child sleep???? It's getting quite frustrating. He didn't sleep through a single night until 15mo. Then he did pretty well for a couple months then it's just been back downhill. He had got into the habit of going to bed at 8 then in the middle of the night sometime he would come to our bed and straight back to sleep...which was fine. But now he's started waking a few times before me and Mark go to sleep, then still the middle of the night thing. I don't get it. He goes down at 8pm...me and Mark go to sleep between 12-1am...by that time he's woken up atleast 2-3 times. Usually it's just wake up, we give him a cuddle and put him back in his bed and he's fine. But it's progressively gotten worse now probably 1-2 times a week he wakes up before we go to sleep and is WIDE awake...not going back to sleep for anything. He's up for sometimes a few hours like this. It's starting to make me crazy. Tonight is one of those nights, he woke up and snuck out of his room and hid behind the wall then peeked his head around and Mark saw him so he got up to put him back in bed and noticed he was dirty...so after he changed him he was wide awake...it's been almost an hour. No sign of him going back to sleep. If I just put him back in bed right now he'd scream forever, and get very worked up....I'm not for that. Then naps lately suck too...most days barely an hour...when he really still needs 2 hours.

Can someone please tell him that nighttime is for sleeping...8pm is bedtime, about 1am is good for him to come to our bed and please sleep til 8am in the morning lol. And a 2hr nap from 12-2 please. Thanks.

The things he says

It amazes me the things that come out of the boys mouth...they are hilarious. Landon still is quite funny but he is a bit more reserved, you know with age, what's appropriate, understands more and all that...so his are more jokes now than him saying something and it just sounding funny. I know when he was Casen's age he said the greatest things, too. Now Casen though, he cracks us up all the time. I should really start writing down the things he says because I don't remember alot of what Landon did and it was hilarious. So this is my start...haha

Just this weekend

Casen's "new word" is frustrated haha. Hayden was annoying him and he kept asking him to stop..but of course he wouldn't. So Casen turns to me and says "Ugh I'm so frustrated!!!" then just walks away to ignore Hayden...no fit, no crying or whining, wasn't mean to Hayden. Just expressed how he felt and left it at that lol. Pretty impressive for a 4yr old if you ask me lol

Later that night we were all playing around, chasing them, tickling them all that. Mark had his electric screwdriver on the counter and Casen picks it up and turns to us and says "Ok who wants to get screwed up?!?!?!" hahaha it was great. He has no clue what it means to be "screwed up" which made it all the funnier

Today he came up to me and asked "Mommy, do you know what 2+2+2 is?", I say no, he says "well it's 3 2's which in other words means it's 6!" He's so damn smart! I love it, he amazes us all the time with the things he knows. I got an email about where he should be developmentally for his age and it said the average 4yr old can count to 10...and that most kids that go higher than that do it from sheer memorization and that they are just starting to realize what numbers really mean. Casen counts to 100...and not just from memory, he KNOWS them, he can identify them all by sight too. My smart little boy :)

Halloween 2009

What a great Halloween!!! I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween!

We had a great/busy day! We got up and got everyone dressed to go to the pumpkin patch. Yes late...I know. We were planning to go to one with rides and stuff but on the way we saw another that looked like it had good pumpkins so we just went there. They didn't have tons left but everything looked great and we found a big pumpkin for carving and each of the boys picked a small one. While checking out Mark was talking to the lady and they exchanged business cards so it might even mean some good business for him! Sounded promising :)

We then took the boys to get something to eat and ventured into CRAZY Walmart to get stuff for our Halloween party. Wow it was completely nuts in there yesterday. You could barely move through most aisles, almost no parking spots, long lines, you would have thought it was Christmas or something. Finally made it out of there and went home to get the house ready for company. I took the boys out on the back porch and they got to paint their pumpkins. They loved it, it was a huge mess. They were supposed to paint pictures on it but they got carried away and by the time it was done they were just completely covered in paint....the pumpkins and themselves. We cleaned up and got changed into costumes. Becky and Brad and the kids came over. They all went out trick or treating and got lots of candy. We made them some "mummy pizzas" yummy. Becky made super cute monster brownies. We all just hung out for awhile talking, the kids watched Monsters VS Aliens. Then Becky and them left around 9:30, the boys watched the end of the movie then we put them in bed.

Now Hayden isn't a fan of sleep. Every night when we put him down we have to tape his door closed...I know that sounds awful but 90% of the time he tries to open the door and can't so he goes to sleep. Some nights he cries and we have to go in and out calming him down. But every single night when I close the door he cries...usually like 15sec..gets up checks the door and is done. But he ALWAYS whines for a second. Last night he was so worn out he didn't make a sound, he just passed out! Then every night he wakes atleast once before me and Mark go to bed...usually more like 2-3 times. When we went to sleep last night he still hadn't woke up. Yay!!!! Landon fell asleep in less than 5min lol. Shows what a good day they had haha

But me...now I'm sick :( It sucks...I hate being sick. Doesn't my body know that moms are NOT allowed to get sick??? I've been coughing for a few days but felt fine, last night I started getting congested. Ugh today I just feel like poo....nothing really WRONG besides the cough and congestion just feel like crap. Now Landon started coughing last night but feels fine too. Casen started sniffling today. Funny cause earlier I looked at Casen and then told Mark "he's getting sick too" and Mark said "we'll see". I can just tell by their eyes, their face, moms just know that stuff. Well not an hour later his nose is suddenly running, he's sniffling. Of course I'm right!

Now Mark took Casen and Landon to the grocery store for me, I made him a list so let's see how he does. And as I'm typing this Mark calls....he's NOT going to the store because our car just messed up...wonderful! He thinks the water pump went out?? Don't as me, I don't know. But it's overheating now. Really sucks because we have both thought something was up with the car for a bit, on Friday he took it to a shop to have them fully look it over and they said everything was fine....now this. Wonder how much this will cost...