What Would YOU Do?

Today my friend Kelli and I went to the park to let the kids play and have a picnic. Sounds nice right? It was, until this woman who was trying to get her little girl to leave the playground started crying because she didn't want to go yet. This lady was yelling for her to "come on, we're leaving now" to screaming at her to get into the car. This screaming was head turning and of course people are going to look because of how out of control she got from a 2 year olds tantrum. As the woman is putting her baby in the car seat she is SCREAMING at the girl to shut up and get in the car and soon comes around and grabs her extremely rough to put her in the car seat SCREAMING "Shut up! The world doesn't need to hear you cry!" It gets worse...she gets in the car and peels out and drives past Kelli and I and flips us off! Speeds off, erratically out of the parking lot. It was really shocking. Now my question is what would you have done? I am kicking myself because I really feel like I should have intervened on behalf of the child because of the way she was being treated for what was really a normal behavior for a kid that age, so what is going on in private if that was that lady's public display of discipline? Next, I should have gotten her license plate number for her erratic driving and endangering her two children all because she is upset that people were looking at her for her all sorts of crazy behavior. If you have ever watched Primetime:What would you do? They have actors to play out those type of situations to see what people would really do if they saw something abusive, neglectful or dangerous going on. I failed miserably. I was just waiting for the host to come out and ask, why didn't you step in and help? I just hope the little kids are ok and their mother may come to a realization that what she is doing is NOT at all acceptable.

BE ORGANIZED. BE PREPARED.

This is actually the second day of school, but she just looked so darn adorable.

Luke was excited for his sissy to go to school, so he could have Mommy all to himself. Not really, he asked about her all day long.

My perfect little princess. She picked her outfit out with Nana Bighouse all by herself and chose to wear it on the first day.

Be Organized. Be Prepared. Our family theme for this school year. Good advice for the Stander's, if you know us. I am starting by taking my own advice to keep up on the things that are important and should be important to me and my family. One is keeping up this blog for my memory sake because it seems as of late, it's just not what it used to be. So with that, here are a few pictures of my Meemers on her first day as a first grader...where has time gone?!

My boy's a champ!

My last entry I was excited for the possiblities of potty training, though not very opptimisic of how it would all turn out. I was ready for the accidents throughout the day, and night but to my complete satisfaction, my little boy--excuse me, my big kid is potty trained! Luke has not had ONE accident since the last entry and and successfully number two'd all by himself! I am amazed. That little stink has been holding out on me probably for months now. He even woke me up in the wee hours of the morn (3 a.m.) to inform me he went pee-pee in the toilet! That deserved the pee-pee song and dance. It goes something like this: "Pee-pee in the pot-tay, pee-pee in the pot-tay, pee-pee in the pot-tay YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!" And you must do a conga-line type dance while singing. He is filling that potty chart up with stickers and filling his belly with potty time treats. Good job son, a job well done!

Pee-Pee in the potty...FINALLY!

Luke turned 3 in March and I have been hoping that he would just kind of potty train himself...no luck. So last Saturday, Mia and Luke had a sleep over at Nana Bighouse's--(Beau's parents house) and we forgot to bring Mia some undies so Nana went to Walmart and bought her some, and when she came back and presented them to Meemers, Lukey-boy got very upset that he didn't get any and so Nana told Luke that if he went pee-pee in the potty that he could get some big-boy undies too. And wouldn't ya know he went, not once but twice! So I kept it going after hearing that spectacular news and he went for me too! A few times in the potty, a few times on the carpet, wood floor, and yes, even my kitchen counter to which Brooke (my niece) promptly came running to me yelling "Luke peeped!" After disinfecting my household and doing many loads of laundry we will continue to press forward--without anger or frustration of the next days, weeks and hopefully not months to come. For I desperately want this child in pre-school this coming school year for both of our sakes. So, if any of you who have gone through such trials as these, please comment of what worked, what didn't and what you would do different.

Side note: We do have a potty chart and he gets to put stickers on it everytime he successfully goes, and we have treaters for him.

Easter, soccer and dance..picture overload!

Fun, Fun, Easter! My little rag-a-muffins Easter morn so excited for what the Easter Bunny has brought... And through the magic of a bath, a little gel and a curling iron...waalaa two presentable children!

This is the best I could do to get the kids to take a picture together.

The second Easter egg hunt of the day! Little Luke the first out of the gate.

Again..the best I could do.

Mia has started soccer this year, and I think she likes it. She is definitely the fastest on the team.

Beau is one of 3 coaches for a 5 year old team...how many do they really need?:)

Great kick girlfriend!

Meemers and her bestie after the big game.

Competition season of Mia's dance class has started. She danced away to "Splish Splash" and was completely adorable.

She is waiting around with the other dancers for the awards.

The pool's progressing..

Just a quick update...the pool will be totally finished this week, however, do you spy that orange faux fence? We still need our fence put back up before we're in business. So the fence posts will be put in this Wednesday, then next Wednesday, they will finish up by putting the panels in. Pool party anyone?

Patio and flower beds.

Lower patio under our deck, and oh yeah Beau needs to put our stairs back on!

The full monty.

Cool stamp they put in. And yes, it is pointing the right direction.

Upper views.

Pool in progress

Here's a little update of what's going on in our backyard currently:

The walls of the pool are up...

Ripping out the grass....

We are digging under our deck so we have another covered area...

Beau doing a little drainage work...

Our yard had to be elevated a ton because of the water table, so we'll be putting in a new fence for privacy.

Get in touch with your crafty-side.

This is a little "pay it forward" blog entry with a homemade craft. I was the recipient of a darling little craft from Mary Jane and it is now my turn to pay it forward to the first 3 comments on my blog. I will make you something and truly get in touch with my crafty-side (which will be a real stretch) and in turn, the 3 winners will have to pay it forward by posting this same type of post and spread the love.

Toothless Fairy

Well it's official, my little baby girl is no longer a baby. Since she's losing her teeth in all. Beau yanked Mia's tooth out and another on was already on it's way in! This ended up very traumatic at first but through the next few photo's you'll see her "magically" transform. Ouch, so sad...

Post tooth pulling...

There it is, in all it's enamalized glory.

The toothfairy came, and man was HE generous! I told Beau to place just one $2 bill under her pillow, and guess what the next morning it multiplied into $10 bucks...WHAT? The toothfairy must have really liked that tooth.

Daddy-O felt so bad about pulling out Mia's tooth he gave her $10 bucks, flowers, and a lovely note.

Someone deserves an award

Recently Luke drew on the walls with pencil in his room and mine...big surprise huh? I tried scrubbing it off with a rag and water and no luck...so I decided to try the Magic Eraser. Holy Crap! It's the most magical thing ever invented I think. So who ever invented this magical device, you deserve every accolade there is, a pulizer, nobel peace prize, and oscar, a golden globe, or a grammy! I know they have nothing to do with it, but still this made my day!

Hello Again

Well HELLO again everybody! I've got some catching up to do! I have to admit that a little thing called FACEBOOK has been consuming my life a bit (well, my internet life anyway). So anyway, here I am again ready to blog!
What's new with us, hmmm...let me see. Beau just got Lasik, yesterday and feels he is already a new man seeing the world with new eyes. Amazing! My little Meemers has her first loose tooth! I can't believe how quickly she is growing up. Her aunt Stephy made her a toothfairy pillow and was sure to give it to her before she left for a trip just in case her tooth came out--how thoughtful. My little Lukester is trying his darnest to get potty trained and he is getting close, it's really me not being on top of it and getting him there more often. And our most exciting news, WE'RE GETTING A SWIMMING POOL PUT IN! They are just a few weeks away from finishing, we are so excited for this summer:)

Naughty little boy...

Did I do that?

The other day I was working on my talk for Sunday, and I left Luke to his own defences. I was in my groove, and totally oblivious to the happenings of the house. When I finally came out of my room, about an hour later, I found chaos had ensused. Refrigerator door wide open for who knows how long, wrappers all over the floor and a little minx climbing on the stool over the dryer. "Luke what are you doing?!" Luke: "NOTHIN" his stock answer when he's being naughty. He had pulled out some cleaner I was suckered into buying from a door to door sales man and the big bottle was empty..."Where did you pour this" hoping the inevitable wasn't true. Before me was the dryer vent pulled out. Luke: "Down there" pointing at the dryer vent. Needless to say, a time-out was in Luke's immediate future. While he cried and screamed "sorry mama" on the couch, my mind and heart were racing trying to remember how much of the cleaner was still left in the bottle. And of course there were clothes in the dryer, and of course they were WHITES! I felt around and felt some dampness on a few articles, pulled the clothes out and started the dryer for about 10 seconds only to open the door and smelled burning lint. Crap. Mia wanders in and says "Mama, Luke got out ink pads, you know, for stamps in his room!" NOOOOO!! Yes, blue ink on the carpet in two spots. I guess I got what I deserved giving him the run of the house.

*Side note* I am going to try out the dryer again today, and hope I don't combust along with the dryer. The salesman I referred to, actually drank a little of the cleaning product to demonstrate how safe it was, so hopefully he wasn't a complete nutjob and the stuff doesn't have any chemicals in it to cause an explosion...wish me luck!

Christmas and New Years!

Rockin' in the New Year with a bunch of nerds!

Luke's new favorite movie! A classic!

Luke and Addee having a great time at Nana Bighouse's.

Wow! It's been awhile...I wish I could say I had some very exciting things going on but nay. We had a super-fun christmas which involved me getting in a bidding war on e-bay because Mia at the last minute, the last week before christmas says "Mama I want Santa to bring me Bendaroos for christmas." Umm...WHAT! I say, "I thought you wanted Lucky the Wonder Pup for christmas. Remember Santa only brings one gift?" Mia: "Ehh, nah... I want bendaroos, they never dry out." So off I go searching ebay, where else am I going to find an "as seen on tv" product that would be deliverable in time? I did win the Bendaroos, and the very next day I went to Albertsons and wouldn't ya know it, Benda-freakin-roos on the table next to the check-out line! So I paid $10 bucks too much, oh well. Mia did say she got everything she ever wanted so that is all that matters to me. We had an impromtu new years bash; I worked that day and so did my friend Kelli so we decided to chill at our house and invited my sister and brother-in-law and some other friends and played games and rockband.