Things a mom should write down.

This is my family journal so family moments have to be recorded.
!Warning long blog!
An awesome day
I did not post about this when it happened because it happened on Amy’s birthday and I didn’t want to take away from her post. Let’s get the day going with a good 45mins in the bathroom arguing with Carson about going potty (he had to do it then because we had errands and I had no time for number 2 in is pants while we were out). Good great lost that battle on to the grocery store to grab a birthday balloon for Amy. Of course I have to grab one other thing and in the process ram my ignoramus rocket cart in to a display of nacho cheese sauce and only broke 4 jars. Next stop a nutritious lunch of fast food for the girls. I pull up to the speaker order their food and then pull up behind the car in front of me. Carson now has to go to the bathroom really bad and is dancing around in the back of the car (if you know my husband you know what kind of h*** there will be to pay if there is an accident in the new car). I am running late and the person in front of me has ordered the entire menu. I get the food and take Carson to the bathroom and finally make it to the school. I take Carli her food and give her a kiss and then Carson and I have to do our weekly volunteer job (Wednesday folders). I sit down in the work room to put the folders together with some of the other mothers and Carson gets to work with the toy cars. I turn around to hear him tell one of the other moms that her bottom doesn’t fit in the chair. A lot of the time you can’t understand what he is saying but this time he was very articulate. I looked at the clock and it was only 11am. Just when I think I have it together enough to leave the house I am properly humbled.

The words kids use
I love it when kids say things the way they hear them. Some might refer to this as speech development. I hate correcting them because eventually it fades as they grow and others correct them. I wish I would have written this down sooner so that I could remember my girl’s langue. I can’t remember specifics now but I always use to say that Carli had a “Carli accent”. Every now and again the girls will still say things in a cut way but now off the top of my head I just remember Carson’s. He is especially good because he has such a strong personality that he often miss-hears something and runs with what he thinks the topic is and won’t let it go. Here are a few of his latest:
Wrench- (Carson) Ranch
Lemonade- (Carson) Lemolade
Any Gun- (Carson) Putchy gun (we don’t know where putchy came from)
Tricycle- (Carson) Tripcycle
Carson thinks that DELL (Where Chet works) is Texas
Carson is not afraid to threaten “Woopens” to any one who is not listening to him. (If you have spent any time with us of late you know that is our thereat of choice)
I am sure there are many other words that I am for getting so I thing I need to start a section that is dedicated to Kid langue. I often forget in the moment when things are vivid that it takes just a short time to loose important detail. I pledge to be better about writing down the sweet (and sometimes not so sweet) moments for our life.

Our Sweet Amy

April 9th was Amy’s golden birthday she turned 9! She is such a sweet ray of light in our lives. She is our easy going and fun loving child. She never takes anything to serious and forgives easily. She loves her siblings and is really good at getting them to work as a team. As Amy was making all of her glorious plans for her birthday I reminded her that she had a big shebang last year and this year would be a smaller deal. I gave her the choice of having just a family party (not living near any family that means just the 5 of us) or taking a friend to do something fun. Proof that she loves us she choose the family thing. My favorite part of the dissection was that her first idea of what we could do as a family was to have her party at the Library. She loves books and always loves to go there so why not? I tried my best to keep that idea on the table but the more adventuresome side of her won out. We took the Family for a night of fun to a place called Main Event. Main Event has a bowling ally, video games, Laser tag, glow in the dark mini golf and a big climbing gym (something for everyone). Amy and Carli choose to climb. They always ask to do it when we are out and you see it just randomly at a sporting goods store or a lame caravel. This was different it was the real thing with real shoes and everything. They had a great time and it was torture for poor Carson who was not tall enough. He has told me about a hundred times today that he is tall and that he is ready now. We love Amy and feel very blessed to have her sprit in our home. Happy Birthday AMY!!!

Bitter Sweet

Well it’s done- I no longer drive a minivan. I have to say it served us well. It was my first brand new vehicle and the vehicle that we owned for the longest period of time. As we drove away leaving the van behind there were tears shed. I held mine back but Carson and Carli just couldn’t help it. Carli said “But mom what if someone else buys it?” It was sad to tell her that, that was the point. There comes a point for a mother of three very young children where a minivan is really just the best option. Everyone always says “I’ll never drive a minivan.” But the luxury of sliding doors (power sliding even better) and the ability to space your kids out so that they can’t physically touch, not to mention when you are climbing into the very back to solve yet another seat belt crises, the convenience of a minivan just can’t be beat. Not to mention the better gas mileage you get in a minivan (compared with other vehicle that can hold the same amount of people and stuff).

Yes, we LOVED our minivan!!!

Good bye old friend.

But it is time to put that stage behind us. My youngest is 4 and can almost buckle himself in and the other two have been taking care of themselves for a while now. The time it takes to load and unload children in a car is important to me. I have always had a thing for Jeeps. Once I entered the car seat stage of life I just assumed I would have to wait until the empty nester stage to have a Jeep and that was a little lame because I don’t even think I would want one then. Then, in 2006 Jeep came out with the Commander (a Jeep with three rows of seats). I have had my eye on it for a while. Yesterday we did it! I got my Jeep (it’s not the crazy 4 wheel drive offroading wrangler that I had once pictured my self sliding out of in my daisy dukes!) While I liked my minivan this truck is much more my personality. This is my "cool soccer mom" car that fits all the kids and looks all rugged (and I’m wayyyyyyy past the daisy dukes stage in life anyway). We have just my truck and Chet’s motorcycle so it will be nice when we are out on dates to not be rolling in the minivan. Carson has been calling it a transformer truck because it has remote start and then this morning he told us he didn't like this transformer truck he wanted Optimus Prime transformer truck. We tried to explain that a big rig just wasn’t practical. This change is good but it is bitter sweet!