Unpredictable

Unpredictable, that is the word best used to describe Olivia these days. We just never know what will come out of her mouth next! It is so hard in public because we really are not in control and there is no telling when something will fly out of her mouth. No curse words or anything of that nature {not yet anyway!} but her spit fire attitude is SOMETHING else!

We were at Costco the other day when she decided to have a toddler fit, she was mad because she dropped her snack on that nasty floor and I wouldn't let her eat it. Then the screaming and kicking started, oh boy! There was a little boy in line checking her out and the next thing you know she yells "hey, don't look at me" oh my goodness. She has a nasty tone to her too I tell ya. Same thing happened at pizza that night, only this time she was being sweet and cute and smiling and the next thing you know she tells the lady behind us to quit looking at her. Oh goodness! So awful! She's so sweet to look at and I'm sure that's not what people expect, but it's what they get. How do you control that?! We get mad and tell her that it's not nice, I don't really think she cares!

Yesterday we went to Eugene for a baseball game and breakfast, it was like carrying a loaded gun. You were on your toes the entire time just incase the gun "accidentally" went off {maybe gun is a bad example, it is not meant to offend or upset}. It did a few times and those innocent victims would say how cute she is and that it's okay... NO it's not okay! Holy crap! She's like an old lady ~ she just says what she wants and gets away with it!

On the way home Jason accidentally ran a red light at a turn signal, he just cruised right through - I told him he just ran a red light and when she heard me say it - she plain as day said "a red one?!!" "good God, Dad!" Oh crap! That was funny! She is completely UNPREDICTABLE! I do not know what the years will mean for us with her, she is going to give us a run for our money. I don't know who will challenge us more, her or Brady. Lord hear our prayers!

Speaking of prayers I found this - it's a prayer from Tina Fey to her daughter.. funny and so true!

A PRAYER FOR MY DAUGHTER - FROM TINA FEY

First, Lord: No tattoos. May neither Chinese symbol for truth nor Winnie-the-Pooh holding the FSU logo stain her tender haunches.

May she be Beautiful but not Damaged, for it’s the Damage that draws the creepy soccer coach’s eye, not the Beauty.

When the Crystal Meth is offered, May she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half And stick with Beer.

Guide her, protect her when crossing the street, stepping onto boats, swimming in the ocean, swimming in pools, walking near pools, standing on the subway platform, crossing 86th Street, stepping off of boats, using mall restrooms, getting on and off escalators, driving on country roads while arguing, leaning on large windows, walking in parking lots, riding Ferris wheels, roller-coasters, log flumes, or anything called “Hell Drop,” “Tower of Torture,” or “The Death Spiral Rock ‘N Zero G Roll featuring Aerosmith,” and standing on any kind of balcony ever, anywhere, at any age.

Lead her away from Acting but not all the way to Finance. Something where she can make her own hours but still feel intellectually fulfilled and get outside sometimes And not have to wear high heels.

What would that be, Lord? Architecture? Midwifery? Golf course design? I’m asking You, because if I knew, I’d be doing it, Youdammit.

May she play the Drums to the fiery rhythm of her Own Heart with the sinewy strength of her Own Arms, so she need Not Lie With Drummers.

Grant her a Rough Patch from twelve to seventeen. Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, For childhood is short - a Tiger Flower blooming Magenta for one day - And adulthood is long and dry-humping in cars will wait.

O Lord, break the Internet forever, That she may be spared the misspelled invective of her peers And the online marketing campaign for Rape Hostel V: Girls Just Wanna Get Stabbed.

And when she one day turns on me and calls me a Bitch in front of Hollister, Give me the strength, Lord, to yank her directly into a cab in front of her friends, For I will not have that Shit. I will not have it.

And should she choose to be a Mother one day, be my eyes, Lord, that I may see her, lying on a blanket on the floor at 4:50 A.M., all-at-once exhausted, bored, and in love with the little creature whose poop is leaking up its back.

“My mother did this for me once,” she will realize as she cleans feces off her baby’s neck. “My mother did this for me.” And the delayed gratitude will wash over her as it does each generation and she will make a Mental Note to call me. And she will forget. But I’ll know, because I peeped it with Your God eyes.

Amen.

Tina Fey, Bossypants, 2011

This & That

Hello! We have been busy as usual.. I think it's time for a post and some pictures! We are now busy with baseball season, Jason and his dad are coaching both boys on a team. It's so fun to see them out there on the field together! Livie and I have missed a few games because it is still so darn rainy and cold here! I know we are lucky to have cold and rainy weather considering what the rest of the country is dealing with.. but I hate it! And I know I am not alone! Enough with the whining! blah!

Brady of course is his usual funny self! A few weeks back we were out to dinner and the boys were asking Livie questions it went a little something like this:

Jack: Livie do you like Cinderella or Sponge Bob better?

Brady: Livie do you like Arthur or Cinderella better?

Jack: Livie do you like Belle or Pinkalicious better?

Brady: Livie do you like Cinderella or African Americans better?

Holy Crap! Jason and I almost choked on our dinner! Where the hell did that come from?! While trying not to laugh we were calmly explaining that you CANNOT say things like that. I just never, ever know what will come out of his mouth! We quickly did a glance around to see who might be sitting close to us {or what nationality} thank goodness we were sort of off by ourselves in a little niche.. Good LORD! That kid will give me gray hair.. I swear he will!

Livie is not too far behind him. If there are 2 of our kids alike it's Livie and Brady. They look the most alike {not that they all look so different, just that these 2 are most similar}, they have the same stubborness about them, they even have the talent to say the darndest things and the darndest times! My MIL and I took Livie out antique shopping recently for a girls morning out and while walking in to one of the shops a man walks out.. this is what the poor man hears:

Livie: EWWWWWW..... that's a YUCKY man!

I could not believe it, plain as day, crystal clear, right at the man! I suppose it would be rude to talk behind his back? Thank heavens he really wasn't yucky ~ you know he was clean cut, dressed nice and overall a very nice man. My face was so red and I couldn't do anything but laugh and apologize to the poor man, who of course was busting up. My sweet, sweet MIL tried to say "oh he is a LUCKY man" nice try Sugar.. there was no way to cover up that sweet little comment! The only thing I can guess is that he had really white hair and maybe that threw her off?! I have no idea.. but "EWWWWW" is one of her new favorite things to say. I hope it's just a phase!

Jackson had stitches recently. I tell you there is never a dull moment around here! The boys were playing in the playroom, jumping over laundry baskets into the wall that was piled up with pillows. I had asked them to stop and told them {literally} 20 minutes before that I did NOT feel like going to the hospital tonight.. then I hear a thump, a scream, quick feet and the words "he's bleeding" quickly followed by screams. I run upstairs to find Jack at the top of the stairs with blood gushing out of his forehead, I knew immediately we were on our way to the hospital. Shit! As soon as I moved his hand there was a nice size gash right through his eyebrow. It seems he missed the pillows and clipped the window sill. 3 hours and 8 stitches later we were back home. I hope they learned their lesson! Uh-huh. We'll see about that.

And last but not least.. Brady FINALLY lost a tooth. Poor kid it took so long! He's finally a member of the club. And from the pictures I think you can tell he's PROUD!

Have a good weekend.

XO, The Muths

It's been awhile....

Things are always crazy around here, my lack of organization and planning does not help.. weird! I have committed myself to volunteering in the boys class rooms during the school week, I love it don't get me wrong.. I just had no idea it would make me so darn crazy! First of all... I will never volunteer my time on a Monday morning.. that is pure hell! My house is usually in complete chaos after a weekend at home running around with my sweet family and I work on Tuesdays, which leaves me no time to get anything done until Weds and then if it's the Weds that I work in Brady's class I am left with Friday to get my house caught up.. all in time for the weekend. That sounds great doesn't it? But in reality I get the house cleaned up for the weekend only to have it trashed by Saturday evening.. poor me! So there you have it my pitiful story of why I never blog!

Anywhoo..

Livie just celebrated her 2nd birthday.. so crazy! She is the funniest little thing you could ever imagine! She loves all things girl and her most recent love is "lic tick" Lipstick! Of course it's really just chapstick.. she loves it and doesn't care what it is as long as she has it in hand. If she's upset and having a moment {she is 2 now} she will ask for it in the midst of all her tears and snot, once in hand, all in the world is good! She even puckers up to show you how pretty she looks {greasy that is}. I love it. She is so absolutely different from her brothers and makes my everyday a little brighter! I just cannot imagine life without her. She got her first haircut recently, I know she doesn't have a ton of hair but this haircut was needed! You would have thought she was going to the prom or on her first date the way her Auntie Me-Me, Gma Sugga and I all fretted over her, it was totally worth it. She sat in a little car at a kids salon, wiggling like crazy while this girl gave her the cutest little cut, topped off with a butterfly hair clip and glitter hairspray! Oh boy! Thanks to Auntie Me-Me she got to take some of that hairspray home with her. We love to use it. ;-) She talks up a storm, doesn't miss a word or a beat. She has to be on top of things in order to keep up with her brothers and cousins! Being the only girl she's not timid in anyway, we had friends over for dinner the other night who have a little boy a couple months older than Livie. William is usually the kid taking toys from the other meek little kids in his playgroup... he learned really fast that Livie is not one of those little girls. She had him pinned on the ground ripping trains out of his hands in no time! Don't mess with her, she's got brothers and cousins! Then she realized that William likes things in a certain order and got more joy out of messing with his order.. rotten girl!

Brady has been full of his usual stuff. This kid has the most funny sense of humor and it comes so naturally. I'm not sure if he knows he's funny, but he is. For example ~ we've been working a lot on tattling around here, every time you turn around one of them is tattling on the other {even Livie!}. The other night Jason went upstairs to see who/what was running around {after lights out for the boys} and when he got upstairs he found Jack playing Legos in his bedroom ~ took care of it and started to walk down the stairs when Brady so kindly says...

Brady: Dad, Jack is playing Legos in his room and he's supposed to be in bed.

Jason: Are you tattling on him?

Brady: No, I would NEVER tattle {waving his hands back and forth, shaking his head}, that's not my style, I am not that guy Dad.. I just thought you should know.

Jason: Thanks

I mean really?! Does he think he can get away with tattling just because he's cute?! He started to tattle last night and we both asked if he was going to tattle and in his ever so sweet little way he says "just thought you were wondering". He is going to give us a run for our money during his pre-teen and teen years.. gray hair here we come! He lost his first tooth this morning, FINALLY! He's 6 1/2 for crying out loud and I'm pretty sure he might be the last kid in his class to lose one. He was so excited he told us he's going to say a bunch of "F" words! I hope he means: farm, fruit, funny, fuzzy, fish, etc.. not THE "F" word! That will not go over well in kindergarten.. and I really don't feel like taking that phone call today.

Jack is continuing to turn into a big kid. He has started to get all of his big teeth and is growing like crazy! He LOVES to compete in sports, you should see him on the basketball court! He is so darn serious and the kid can hustle! Every week his coaches continue to acknowledge his ability to hustle, get the ball and try to make a shot. When he's on the court he's all about the ball, he doesn't care how tall the kid he's guarding is, he will not give up! I love to watch him play, he's got a good heart and loves to compete ~ he totally gets it from me, I play a mean game of Monopoly and I will never give up! He's also a really good sport, when asked to give the ball to kids with less ability or desire, he will continue to give the ball to that kid until the coaches tell him not too. I love that about him. Both of our boys have shown that they are good sports and great additions to any team. They get that from their father! He's the best sport I know. He truly is.. what a great example for our boys to see.

Jack is also very serious about his school work, it comes pretty easy for him {at least for now} he often gets his work done as fast as he can so that he can read or do other "fun" work. His teacher is awesome this year! The kids are continually encouraged to work creatively with their writing and illustrating and Jack eats it up! He LOVES to write and draw stories, they are so creative and detailed.. it's great to see him getting in to this side of himself. He really does love it! The teacher sent home a paper asking that you fill in information about your author and with every book that the kids write, publish on the computer and then illustrate she binds them and types a cover page and an author page. We have been very blessed to have her for Jack this year.

That pretty much sums up our fall/winter. Baseball season is just around the corner, Jason has decided to coach along with his dad. Brady and Jack will both be on the team together. It should be a really fun season! I hope to post more often.. but you know how it goes, don't expect too much from me! ;-)

Love,

The Muths

What's happenin' at our house?

Livie's new princess dress / The boys in San Diego with their buddy Parker

Where to begin.. I haven't posted in MONTHS! That is terrible. The fall is here, kids are in school, my days have a bit of free time every now and again so I'll be posting more frequently.

This house hasn't changed much! There is always a bit of drama and some crazy stuff to report around here. The most recent is that our little Brady has decided he's afraid to die and Heaven is dirty! I know this all sounds so silly, but the other night at bedtime he got hysterical about this. He was so worried that someone was going to die and he didn't want his life to change. Okay, first of all.. we are not a truly religious bunch {though we are faithful} and we do talk about all of this stuff just not in real detail. Well, let me tell you... I have been re-educated in the Bible! I spent an hour trying to console him that it was okay and life was fine, my talking wasn't totally reassuring so I resorted to praying with him. I am not against this at all, however it would add at least another 5 minutes or so to the bedtime routine per kid {don't judge, I like to have my evenings free!} that would be 15 more minutes ~ I just don't think I can handle that. But I will, if that's what he needs! Long, Long story short. We spent the next evening reading the children's Bible {skipped the entire Old Testament.. I did not have time for that!}. We started where God told Mary she would have a baby and ended after Jesus was resurrected. I think we about covered it. Oh man! Those are hard questions to answer for a 6 year old, especially when you have no hard core truth, nothing solid to prove your answers, just simple faith and while that's enough for me, it was not enough for him. Hopefully we have changed that and he can be happy with the answers he has got. Although he did ask if we could go to church and he wants to be baptized.. lets see how this all goes! We may be sending out baptism invites! This has also spiked in interest for Jack and since he's an independent reader he has been reading the Bible every night in bed.. for his home work he has to read 20 minutes per night and record it on a sheet.. this is what his sheet looked like this week.

Mon: Sports Illustrated Kids

Tues: Bible

Weds:Bible

Thurs: Sports Illustrated Kids

Hmmm... he's a man of big faith! Sports and the Bible ~ I just wonder which one comes first?!

All kidding aside.. I will make an effort to include more of this in our lives, I would be sad if Brady were nervous about this for his entire life.

As for the little miss.. she's quite the talker! She can say just about anything and says it all day/ every day! She sings, dances.. if it's girl ~ she does it! She is very bossy these days, often telling the boys what to do. This morning Jason let Jack play the Wii before school {ugh! so against the rules!} and when I found out at 8am that he was doing this I told him to get off! She quickly went in there and yelled "Jack off" hmmm.. that sounds a lot different in print, try to think of how she would say it.. not how it reads! And the other night I told her I needed to tell the boys it was time for dinner she turns around to yell ~ Boys Dinner! So funny.

Keepin' it interesting!

This week has been full of moments at our house. Mostly full of boy moments, Livie always has something to contribute but so far she's the easy one {yes, I do know that will NOT last.. let me keep the dream for now will you?!} ***Warning this is a long post!

Last Friday I got a phone call, when I looked at the caller ID it said Salem/Keizer Schools ~ my first thought was "oh crap what has Jack done?!" But in reality he had just bumped heads with a boy on the playground and was in the office with an ice pack and going to be just fine! My first reaction was to run to the school and scoop him up {that's what we do ~ right? I'm the Mom.. or as my loving husband calls it the "Smother"} I remained calm, asked some questions and was assured by the school nurse that he was just fine, all of this after she called me DR. ~ yep, she did. My kids have this wonderful way of spinning my employment.. they love to tell people that I am a dentist ~ Nice! I always have to explain it.. and it's never as pretty when I'm done. They will be so disappointed when the find out the truth {that I am just the assistant.. and I suck up blood and pieces of tooth.. sometimes gums ~ on a bad day for me! Okay.. I realize for some of you that is TMI ~ back on track}. But in this case the nurse looked at my employer and instead of reading the name Megan she just assumed it was me and that a DMD was a Dr. no nurse.. it's not ~ I hope you will someday know the difference. So that was my first experience with a call from the school. The second happened yesterday when I got a call from Jack's teacher. She had called to talk about an "incident" NEVER a good word to use when calling a parent, it sounds so awful! And don't get me wrong, it wasn't good, but it wasn't awful either.. I guess it was sort of awful. You see there was an "incident" with hand sanitizer and water bottles at school yesterday and because the teacher was out of the room she was not totally sure it involved Jack or his level of involvement but because my son was the only 1 of the 2 accused at the time that had sanitizer and a permission slip to carry it ... the arrow was pointing right at him! UGH! This does sound like he's guilty as charged doesn't it? So we decided that we would sit him down and calmly ask questions about what happened. At first he gave us some line about being in the bathroom when that all happened {Pu~lease, he does not know me yet.. bit will know soon enough that I am the master!} so we asked again and the second or third story he came up with was that Reid {kid #2} punched him in the stomach and twisted and grabbed his arm to make him put the sanitizer in Reid's water bottle. Seriously Jack? Reid is smaller than Brady, maybe as tall but he's skinny as can be. Jack is at least a head taller than Reid.. does he really think we are buying this? Oh he must because he's still going.. okay let him finish and then tell him how crazy this sounds! OK ~ all finished. Point out how completely insane this is. Jack decides to re-tell the story {I know you're surprised... stick with me here} and this time we get the truth. I only know this because he told it over and over with a level of consistency that I believed. If you had only heard the other stories in person... man this kid thinks I am stupid! Even better.. he thinks his dad is too! ;-) So here it goes... Jack came up with the "idea" and told Sam and poor little Sam will do anything Jack says, Sam tried his water with sanitizer and didn't like it.. but naughty little Reid {I know this because he's always in the Learning Chair or at the office} didn't seem to mind it until a little girl saw and ratted them out! So there it is.. my kid is the evil mind behind this master plan {take note that he's not dumb enough to actually do it to his own water.. it is poison for crying out loud!} and the kid packing the sanitizer! My journey today will land me in Mrs. Hildebrant's class after school to see how this all played out. Wish me luck! I have to say that I am proud of the way Jack told the truth, that is never an easy thing and while it was a bad choice it is not the end of the world and it won't be the last dumb idea he has {I assure you}. And he will not be armed with sanitizer for the remainder of the year... maybe in 2nd grade!

Brady has learned something new this week, he has learned to take Military Showers. Some of you are asking what? Well let me tell you. He gets in, gets wet, turns the water off, soaps up {really good I might add} then turns the water back on to rinse off.. all of this because it is good for the earf {earth}. They are studying earth day at school and the teacher was talking about ways you can help keep it together. He is also very adamant about me recycling the cans this week! Funny, funny kid. I just never know what will come out of his mouth.

Livie is growing and changing everyday. She loves the head nod ~ both ways you can get a yes or a no out of her and they are very, very definite. She is super in LOVE with her Daddy and is always at his side when he is home.. I think she gets bored of me! ;-)

We are getting ready to start the baseball season and I will have some pics to post then! For now I need to get ready for my meeting with the teacher.. oh goodness, I know this might not be the last!

♥ The Muths

Happy {belated} First Birthday Miss Livie!

Well year has passed and we have all been blessed by the presence of this little girl. I cannot tell you how much she has changed our lives. It is a little {okay, a lot} crazy around here. My mornings are busier than ever! I work 2 days a week and my office is literally 10-13 minutes from home but I spend 45 minutes in the car on these days shuffling kids around. I never thought it would be this crazy! Thank goodness she is a sweet, sweet little girl. She goes with the flow and rarely ever complains about it! She is now walking like a pro, is into EVERYTHING! Her favorite place to play in the morning is in the wet shower, it's quite a challenge to keep her out! Some mornings she has 2 sets of clothes on before I even have my first set for the day! She talks... baby babble. But a few words like: Dada or even better {his personal favorite} Hi Dada - of course when she's pretending to talk on the phone! Mama, Bobby {Brady}, Jack, dog~dog, ni-night and of course she says nack.. for snack. She's really quite expressive, she can even {almost} whistle. When you ask her to whistle she puckers up and blows air out of her mouth.. one of these days she's going to get it and make us a $100,ooo on funniest videos! That's our master plan!

Our house has been completely taken over by PINK! There is so much pink in this house it's not even funny! Almost all of her toys are pink and of course she has a pink convertable car. What little girl doesn't?! Her brothers are still nuts about her and I think Brady is finally getting told off when he's not giving her enough space... I see a future full of girl screams when it comes to him! He is so funny with her.. actually it gets frustrating, but you can NEVER deny his love for her!

Here are some pics of her with her first cupcake! So cute!

She loved it! Have a great day!

♥ Love,

The Muths XO

My Son Has a Crush and I Have a "Day"

This has been a funny week in our house.  Jack all of a sudden has developed a crush..  He has been writing his crush letter after letter ~ he even gave her some money!  I bet you're wondering who she is?  It's the Tooth Fairy.. yep,  that's right ~ the Tooth Fairy!  He is so obsessed with losing a tooth right now, it was this time last year that he got the itch as well and unfortunately for him he hasn't lost a tooth since!  He has only lost his 2 bottom teeth, the 2 top teeth are making him CRAZY!  He had an accident while playing football in the front yard and now they are a little out of sorts, which makes him only want to lose them more!  And once his 2 best buddies in his class lost more teeth he developed a crush.  He came home from school on Thursday and started writing letters, of course he put them under his pillow and I almost forgot {thanks Jace} to reply.. horrible Tooth Fairy I am!  But I didn't and I left him a nice little note on some really cute pink scalloped paper {which I have to buy a bunch more of because since that one note I have written several others on the same paper!}.  When he woke to find his note he was so excited ~ he even carried it around school with him and then asked his teacher if he could share it with the class {I know this because she called Saturday night to apologize for forgetting too}.  Then the next day He wrote 2 more letters from him and one for his brother.. so cute!  He asked her all kinds of questions.. some of them were pretty specific like "are you a Duck fan?" and "how much $ you leave to kids who trick you?" and "how many teeth have you collected?"  It's getting harder and harder to answer his questions because I'm afraid I will forget what I say from letter to letter...  and he even left her some money to repay back some of the money she has given to kids!  So funny!!  He has stopped writing the letters as of yesterday.. let's see what tonight brings!  

Friday morning I had put out some clothes for Jack to wear and for whatever reason he did not want to wear his pants {navy blue cargo pants.. so cute or I mean cool!} he was so mad at me that he did not have clean jeans.. I then explained to him that they are skate boarder pants and that they are in fact "cool"!  He then proceeded to tell me this... "Tony Hawk would never wear those... that was back in your day ~ so 80's style"  He really, really did say this to me!  What?!  I do not know where that kid gets this stuff!  And Pu~lease.. back in MY day!  I do not have a day yet young man!  I am still hip as I ever was!  And don't you forget it!!  Good grief!  

Have a great week!  I have some pics of Miss Livie to post soon.. she is moving and shaking.  Climbing all the way to the top of the stairs and even trying to ride her toy bike.  ;-) 

Love,

♥ The Muths