Don't try this at home.....

Don't worry. She isn't really about to fall out of the car. This is her showing me who is boss...and it isn't me.

I think I broke the ultimate code of motherhood (according to Tessa) and didn't provide her a drink within the allotted .02 seconds after said request, so she is mad. Really mad. Mad enough to show me that she is going to throw a huge tantrum. Mad enough to know that I was worried about her hurting herself and so she kept pushing herself further out of the car (and yes, I did take her out of the car and shut the door, but she got back in the car just to demonstrate how mad she was). The more I worried about her falling out and hurting herself, the more she responded by pushing herself further out of the car, so I went and got the camera instead.

The "terrible twos" have nothing on the "tantrum threes."

Now don't get me wrong - most of the time she is a happy and sweet girl. However, there are moments where a terrible monster takes over her body and leaves us searching for the phone number of an exorcist.

I guess I have two options: Work on my reflexes so I can more adeptly respond to her majesty's wishes, or learn to love photos of tantrums.

What can I say...I love tantrum photos.

Sammy is SEVEN!!

Sweet Sammy. Sammy is seriously the sweetest, most supportive, sincere, smiley kid ever. (Mrs. Nelson would be so proud with my use of alliteration!) Seriously though - he wakes up happy and stays that way most of the day. Don't get me wrong, when he gets upset he usually lets us know by saying "You're the worst mom in the world." But, he quickly gets over it.

His birthday landed on a Saturday this year, so we really debated just going out to dinner for his birthday dinner. However, he really had his mind set on what he wanted for dinner: Shepherd's Pie. No, I'm not kidding. Shepherd's pie, Caesar salad, and fruit cocktail. We did try to talk him into steak or salmon - even pizza - but we had Shepherd's pie.

For his birthday he had only one request: Anything Star Wars. So he got Star Wars coloring items, a Star Wars ship, Star Wars figures, and a soccer ball.

This year Sam gets birthday party, but he decided to have an unbirthday party this summer so we can do some outside activities.

My favorite moment came when he saw his birthday cake. Nothing fancy, but his name was written on it and when he saw it he said, "Hey, Mom! My name is written just like Star Wars!!!" Not too bad for the worst mom in the world. :)

Happy Birthday sweet seven-year-old!!!

Tessa turns three!

At our house we have birthdays every month beginning in November clear to March, and it has been making Tessa crazy that none of those birthdays were hers. So on the eve of her birthday was she ever ready. She had been talking about everything that she wanted: pretty much everything she saw on TV which ranged from Bendaroos to chia pets - SHE WANTED IT!

She had the birthday cake planned - princess, pink, and a million candles.

She had her outfit planned - her princess dress.

She had her day full of activities planned including swim lessons, and she was going to swim like a fish.

She had her dinner planned: candy and milk.

She was so excited! Her day was going to be perfect. She even had me practice singing "Happy Birthday to Tessa" so that I would be sure to get it right.

The big day finally came.

She didn't get to wear her princess dress (at least not yet). She had to settle on a pink sweatshirt instead.

Instead of going to Disneyland to meet the princesses she had to go to the gym with mom. She did get to go to swim lessons, but instead of swimming like a fish she squealed like a pig, and not a happy squeal. This was a "this person is trying to drown me!" sort of a scream. It wasn't pretty.

Sadly, she didn't get any Bendaroos or chia pets. Instead she got a doll bed, some doll clothes, a cute bag, and bubbles. She also got a toy cell phone and she did enjoy pointing out to Lincoln that she got a cell phone before him.

For dinner she had yet another disappointment - chicken tacos (hey - if nobody makes a specific request then I go to one of my fallback dinners!).

Despite the fact that the day didn't follow her plan she had a great time. We sang Happy Birthday at least 30 times.

( Sorry for the picture, Emma)

As for her cake: it may not have been princessy or pink, but it WAS covered with candy and she ate it with milk!

Happy birthday, Tessa!

2010 Snapshot

So I saw a friend do this on her blog, and I thought it was a very clever way to capture the memory of what life is like right now (since this is the ONLY form of scrapbooking I do!!). Here is a brief snapshot of what life is like right now:

• We are finally a diaper free family. I would say that I don't have to clean up messes anymore, but we still have a dog.
• We are finally all skiing now. Tessa can go down by herself, but the fact that she doesn't left versus right makes it hard to tell her which way to turn. She does know "pizza" and "french fries" though!
• Emma is amazingly diligent about getting all of her schoolwork done on her own. I never even ask about her homework because she just takes care of it herself. She is a great student with the grades to show it. (hopefully this will continue!!)
• Lincoln is a great student but hates homework. His philosophy is to do it as quickly as is humanly possible. Lucky for us he loves to read, so when he is reluctant to do homework we can threaten to take away reading time and this motivates him to get it done.
• Sam wakes up happy every day. He is dressed, room cleaned, and ready to leave for school before he even comes downstairs.
• Lincoln will contemplate getting out of bed by the time Sam is eating breakfast.
• Tessa loves to play with Jack and pretends he is Bolt and that she is Penny.
• Tessa hates nursery at church.
• Tessa loves the 11-year-old boys class at church (the one Ted teaches).
• Emma loves cooking - especially Sunday mornings.
• Lincoln decided his new motto was going to be "A day without reading is a day wasted," and now his entire class says it too.
• Sam loves anything and everything Star Wars. You can never have too many light sabers or clone helmets.
• Ted gets up between 5:30 and 5:45 every day to work out.
• Although I do get up early, I wait until the last possible second to finally exit the warmth of my bed. I love sleep.
• I love that we do "Best and Worst" at dinnertime each night. It's the only time I hear about some aspects of my kids' lives!
• Every Sunday we take turns picking which family activity we will do together. The hands down favorite is playing Peas in a Pod in the dark.
• I love a dance aerobics class at the gym - and although I love it, I realize I was never meant to be a dancer. :)
• Emma throws all clothes in the wash to avoid having to put them away. The boys never think to wash anything.
• Tessa has to eat off of pink dishes only.
• Our kids will only eat Caesar salad.
• I threaten to get rid of the dog at least once a day.
• I have decided that the kids will now fold their own laundry. For years I have believed that if I folded their clothes they would keep them neatly in their drawers. This has NEVER been the case. From here on out they fold their own clothes. If they won't keep them folded in their drawers then why am I wasting my time?
• I love vacuuming.
• Tessa loves vacuuming with me.
• I love photographing my kids. I could wallpaper my house with their photos. I love seeing their personalities shining through candid photos.
• Emma has been swimming twice a week through the winter, and now all the kids are swimming until soccer starts.
• Tessa just started swim lessons this week. Each session I find myself calculating how much it cost to pay for her to sit on the side of the pool with her feet dangling in the water. That is all she will do.

I find myself wondering how much will change by next year's snapshot. I hope that by next year at this time Jack will be a trained and happy part of our family. I also hope Tessa will have actually gotten in the pool for swim lessons. Hey, it never hurts to dream, right?

Merry Christmas 2009!

Christmas Eve we took all the kids skiing. This would be the first for Tessa. After one run she was doing okay until she saw me, then she needed hot chocolate and a rice krispie treat in the lodge. That was okay, though, because Santa came in and visited the kids in the lodge. She did manage to take two more runs, though. It is pretty fun having all of us up there together (if only we could make the getting ready part a little more enjoyable!)

We were all tired, so the kids had vowed not to come and wake us up on Christmas morning until 7:30. We heard them stirring at 5:00. Then we heard them telling Tessa to come get us. When all was said and done, we were up and ready to head downstairs by 7:15.

Here is a rundown by the numbers:

18 new batteries used

7 times playing games on the Wii

6 stockings stuffed with candy and goodies

5 BYU shirts

4 fights over not sharing

4 new ornaments

4 new Star Wars items

3 meltdowns from one tired 2-year-old

3 board games

3 times chasing Jack so he didn't choke down various items

2 presents opened by Tessa when they weren't hers

2 robots

2 new scooters

1 bike

1 unicycle

AND

0 naps

It was a terrific Christmas! We hope yours was equally amazing! Merry Christmas!

Holy cow, where did the time go?!

Is it already the day after Christmas? I swear Halloween was last week. At least it feels that way. I know that everyone always says that, but seriously. Anyway, here is an update of what we have been up to for the last two months!!!

1. Ted's birthday. I surprised him by taking in several dozen cookies to his office where he happily informed me that they had brought in treats so now he didn't have to share any

cookies. :) (I know - life really isn't fair how he seems to look younger each year and eats candy and cookies like they are going out of style and has NO fat to show from it.....but I digress. That's another post. ) We had a great dinner at home, a rich chocolate cake filled with peanut butter cups, and he got the new bike rollers he had been wanting. Emma also saved up and got him a sweatshirt from "The Killers" concert. She had a friend who was going, and she knew that Ted really liked that group, so she arranged the whole thing by herself. She really is a sweet girl.

(Ted drinking prune juice that the kids gave him!)

2. Lincoln's birthday. Because of the different school schedules Emma leaves for school before the boys are even awake. She had made a simple sign for Lincoln to wish him a happy birthday without any reminding or prompting from us. He woke up, saw it, and he was thrilled that she had remembered. Man, those moments take my breath away. Linc got his favorite dinner of salmon, pasta, and peas, and of course a cake. This year he wanted a cake that looked like a bus riding on a road. I think he just comes up with the most abstract thing he can to see if we can pull it off. It was a visual stretch this year, but he knew we had tried. :) I can't believe he is 10 years old. Man he is a great kid!

3. We crossed to the dark side. If there was ever one thing we were sure of, it was that we were not getting a dog. For years the kids have been asking. Each time we had a great reason why we weren't even considering a dog. We always suspected that there might come a point in time where we did get a dog, but that time always seemed so far away. Our arguments were something like this:

• We just can't have a dog when we have little babies in the house. (Repeat this argument three times to coincide with each child being born).


• We can't have a dog until our youngest is at least a year old.


• We can't have a dog until our youngest is at least two years old.


• Why would we get a dog when I am already cleaning up food and poop from one of my children?


• We can't consider getting a dog until our youngest is potty trained.

Man these time lines seemed so far away when we were saying them.

At any rate, we knew the time was getting close. So, we decided to start searching for a dog. We were determined to get a little dog, and we wanted a grown up dog so as to avoid the puppy stages. Well, we filled half of the requirements. It is small.

Santa delivered him to our doorstep early along with this note. It is a bitter sweet present. Ted and I love him, and think he is a pain. The kids just love him. It was priceless watching the kids see him for the first time. It was also funny because one of Sam's friends was over, saw that Santa had delivered a dog to our house, so he ran home yelling, "I'm gonna see if Santa took a dog to my house too!"

So far all is well. However, just this morning after many nights of not enough sleep and waking up to take the dog out and get Tessa some milk he told me, "You know, it was your idea to get a dog and it was also your idea to have kids." I'm not sure which one he was thinking of getting rid of! :)

Happy Halloween 2009!

Well, it's over. And what do we have to show for it? A couple of empty makeup tubes, some chocolate covered costumes, sparkles all over the floor, and 16.7 POUNDS of candy. No, that is not a typo. The kids are thrilled. Ted is ecstatic. Me...not so happy about the sugar induced frenzy that I anticipate. I've already been coming up with clever ways to at least ration out the candy. So far they have been good about not overdoing it, but man it is so tempting to just throw it all out....but that is for another day.

Right now I'm still over the moon with how fun it is to have young kids on Halloween. It was a great night, and luckily the weather held out for the most part. The older kids had a great time in the haunted house the next block over. Tessa got pooped on our block and then had a blast opening the door for the trick-or-treaters. She thought it was great the way some kids would scream as the ghost by our front door would turn on and "oooooh" with the noise of their "trick-or-treat!" Totally fun.

This year I learned several things.

1. Taking an almost 3-year-old to school parties is a TON easier than taking an almost 2-year-old.

2. Tessa will wear any costume so long as you add the label "princess" to the end. For example, she was not "Supergirl." She was "Supergirl princess." She was sold.

3. Sam will be anything Star Wars. No fighting. No fuss. If it is Star Wars he is all over it.

4. Emma is growing up so quickly, but she is truly Ted's daughter. He has taught them well that you are never too old to love candy. (Hence the stash in his nightstand!)

5. Linc loves to put his own costume together.

This year was also fun for me because I dressed up as a witch for the school parties. (I know - totally predictable and creates an open invitation for Ted to make some obvious jokes!) Sam thought it was great because he thought I would be trick-or-treating for candy which meant even more candy at the Wagner household. He was quite disappointed when he learned the truth. Tessa was observant and when I accidentally pulled too hard on her hair as I was braiding it she turned to me and said, "You are NOT a GOOD witch!" And Lincoln just cracks me up. He was reading a book and when I asked him if he would be embarassed if I dressed up like a witch when I came to his classroom party he didn't miss a beat and said, "No.....so long as you say you are someone else's mom."

Holy cow, I love Halloween.