Locked out

We are spending this weekend at the Lucky Leaf! It's very relaxing, and much needed. 

Kyler and I woke up this morning about a half hour past sunrise (early, but not so bad when you have a nice view :).  Kyler and I stepped out on the back porch to snap a few pictures and tried to let Jared catch some more Zzzzzz's. 

The wind was blowing, and Kyler wasn't a fan of it blowing on his ears, so he headed back in the house while I snapped a few more pictures.

Less than a minute later, I turned around to head back inside too.... only to find that Kyler had locked me out.  

Grrrrrreat. I was on the third floor, with no stairs to get down on the outside, and no phone to call Jared to wake him up to help me. So I did what anyone would do and tried to explain to my three year old how to unlock the sliding glass door.

Fail.

Me: (Yelling over the roaring ocean and through the glass door) "Kyler unlock the door so mommy can come inside!"

Kyler:  (yells back) "It's stuck."

Me: "No turn it around the other way, and don't touch the glass!"

Kyler: (turns his entire body around in a circle) "Okay mommy."

Me: (slaps forehead and laughs and takes a few pics of the situation. Then panics. and starts knocking on the window repeatedly for several minutes in hopes of waking Jared up.)

Luckily Jared was already awake, heard me, and came to my rescue!

Discovery

Yesterday, we went to discovery place kids with some friends. I had never been before, and I was very impressed! There were so many fun activities~

I tried many times to get our boys to both look at me for a picture and this is the only one I got...it only lasted half a second before they went back to playing. They were having too much fun to stop!

We spent 2 hrs inside, and didn't even get around to everything. Looks like we will have to buy an annual pass next time we visit!

A mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do

Jared didn't have class tonight. So, for family night we decided to try out a new mexican restaurant that recently opened by our house. Within the first 5 minutes of being there Kyler spilled his chocolate milk all over his jeans. I took him to the bathroom to see if I could dry them off with some paper towels, but that didn't do any good.

So.....I improvised and made him a little dress out of the tank top that I had on under my shirt. Lucky for us there were only 2 other people in the entire restaurant that had to witness this embarrassing sight:

A mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do.

Bossy boy

Kyler has recently entered a new "bossy stage".  His victim? 

Poor dog.

Kyler LOVES scaring the dog. He thinks it's funny. See that lawnmower in the picture above? Bauer is terrified of it. What does Kyler do? He chases the dog around with it, and tries to herd him into places he wants him to go. He does the same thing with other toys that Bauer is scared of inside (basically any toy that makes noise) and then he herds him into the playroom, or shuts him in the laundry room etc. If Kyler doesn't have a toy? He uses a stick, or just simply grabs the dog's collar, and bosses him. Bauer is probably 4 times the size of Kyler, but he is so submissive he just does whatever Kyler tells him to with his tail tucked between his legs.

It's as if Kyler can't resist. I don't know if he just gets a thrill out of making something bigger than him do what he wants, or what. I can't figure it out. I correct his behavior whenever I see him scaring Bauer, but still, every time Kyler think's I'm not looking he is constantly bossing the dog around. Should I be worried? Bauer has never shown any signs of being aggressive, but still I just don't understand why Kyler likes making the dog so miserable.

Hopefully this phase won't last very long, and they will go back to being buds.

Mothering angelically = a good day for everyone

Source

I needed this reminder today. As mothers, we have a powerful influence on our children, and how their day will go. Children, even as infants, can detect what kind of mood we are in, and often mimic our behavior. If we want our children to have a good day, we must first make sure our attitudes our positive. Second, our tone of voice and the way we say things really does matter! When we speak in a loving way to our children, they respond better, and those difficult days seem to disappear and are replaced by positive learning days. We need to use our words with care to encourage and complement them, rather than using our words thoughtlessly.

Words are powerful. Especially when we are raising a children. We help shape and mold who they become by our words. So let's remember to mother angelically by having positive attitudes, and by speaking with a loving tone of voice to our children. I'm not perfect at remembering to use this tactic every time, but when I do, I'm always pleased with the results :)

We have a three year old now!

Today my little boy turned THREE!!

My CAPTION:  Kyler: "What?!?! I'm already three years old?!?"

What was actually being said:

Me: :"Hold up 3 fingers."

Kyler: "Huh mommy?"

My CAPTION: Kyler: "I'm this many years old."

What was actually being said:

Me: "Like this." (I show him)

Kyler: "I did it!"

My CAPTION: Kyler: "Raise your hand if today is your birthday!"

What was actually being said:

Me: "Good! Now raise them up in the air."

Kyler: (raises all of his fingers) "Okay!"

Me: (slaps my palm to forehead)

My CAPTION: Kyler: "I. Can't. Believe. I'm. Three."

What was really being said:

Kyler: "Brr cold! I go inside now. Bye mommy!"

My CAPTION: Kyler: "Don't even think about blowing out my candles."

What was actually being said:

Me: "Stand still!"

Kyler: "Wook! A spider! Ewww!"

Then I gave up, and don't even care that the last one is blurry.

What was actually being said:

Me: "Okay one more Kyler. Smile and I will give you a piece of candy!"

Kyler: "Okay!"

I also thought I would share what I wrote on Kyler's blog (I use it as baby book, and occasionally write letters to him).

Dear Kyler,

Today you are three!

Today you are happy and always have giant smile glued to your face.

Today you are playful. You love wrestling with daddy and playing hide-and-seek as a family.

Today you are talking so much, and I think your pronunciation is adorable with words like: "butt cake" for cupcake, and "swim soup" for swim suit.

Today you are independent. You like to put your clothes and shoes on by yourself, and we often hear you say "My turn. I do it."

Today you are cheerful and wake us up every morning by running into our room saying "HI MOMMY! HI DADDY!" while grinning from ear to ear.

Today you are a balloon lover.

Today you are the boss. You love telling people (and our dog) what to do, and you like to remind us to say family prayers, read scriptures together, and to take you places, like the park- or where ever you want to go.

Today you are learning. Learning how to speak in complete sentences, learning which letters are which, and learning how to count too. You love learning, and tell me everyday that "Preschool is fun!"

Today you are goofy, and are constantly making us laugh.

Today you are still our baby, and we love you!

Five years older and wiser too

When I met Jared, he was 24 years old. Soon after we started dating, he turned 25, and I threw him a little birthday party. Let's throw it back to his 25th birthday:

Now, Jared is 30!! I can't believe how fast the years seem to fly by. 

We celebrated Jared's birthday this weekend with dinner and a movie, and then brownies with just us three. We are so lame with our birthdays now haha.

Kyler tried to blow out Jared's candle for him. He was just practicing for when he gets to blow out his own candles later this week!

He's allergic to cold

I've heard it is extremely rare for a person to be allergic to the sun. I've never heard of a person being allergic to the cold which is equally as rare. When I said never, I meant until today- when my husband got diagnosed (by an allergy specialist) with Cold  Induced Urticaria - which more or less means allergic to the cold.

The last several weeks we have noticed that every time Jared held something cold, his skin would get extremely red and itchy, and then would swell up and get hot. For example, if he holds a cold soda, his hand gets red and extremely itchy, and then it swells up and is hot to the touch. If he steps barefoot onto the cold bathroom tile in the mornings, the bottom of his feet get the same reaction. Exposure to cold air?? Again, same reaction. The doctor told Jared not to jump into a ice cold pool, because if he did....he would die- dramatic, I know- but real.

As part of the diagnosis, the doctor held an ice-cube on Jared's arm for 5 minutes. When Jared developed hives the size of an egg the doctor got really excited and said "That's Cold Induced Urticaria right there!" and then he ran and got all of the other doctors and nurses in the building to come in and take a look at Jared's arm, because this was probably the only time they will ever see this reaction.

It's difficult to tell in the picture how puffy it is, but it's pretty big, for a little ice cube to do. This is 5 minutes later:

It's so crazy that this allergic reaction just all of the sudden developed. Jared has lived in Utah, Michigan and Idaho (all very cold places in the winter time) and has never had this allergic reaction until now. He was prescribed some allergy medication to help lesson the allergic reaction for now. Sometimes Cold Urticaria goes away on its' own...other times it sticks around for life.

Now you know someone who is allergic to cold....! Crazy.

Soaking up this weather!

We've been loving the beautiful fall weather we have been having here in Charlotte lately! 

However, the dead leaves that have been littering our yard are a little bit ridiculous. I tried raking up the leaves in the front yard today...but these boys kept jumping in my pile making the leaves spread out all over the yard again- so I gave up and watched them play.

I feel like raking up the leaves is useless anyways at this point, because 10 minutes later there will a million new leaves on the ground.

His choice

I was going to make Kyler a Halloween costume that involved balloons, but 1) I ran out of time and 2) homemade costumes never look as good as store bought ones (at least when I make them). So, we went to a Halloween store and let Kyler pick out his own costume this year. Jared and I showed him all of the size 2T costumes the store had (which was quite a few) and he picked Cookie Monster. I think it is funny that he picked this costume, because he doesn't even like Sesame Street. However, I'm not too surprised that he picked it, because blue is his favorite color, and when he heard the word cookie associated with it...he was sold- he loves cookies!

Sorry, I turned into photo crazy mom yesterday:

 His chubby tummy looks extra squishable in this costume...love!

His costume was SO soft- I petted him all day long.

His personality these days cracks me up!

We went out to dinner yesterday while Kyler was still in his costume from preschool, and they gave him a free cookie- sweet! It was a good Halloween.