DJ and Bed Time!

The last couple of weeks have NOT been fun putting DJ to bed. I think I've mentioned before that he's entered into the "terrible 2's" stage. It has not been fun. He's decided that he doesn't like going to bed. So frustrating. He was so good at it before. My girls are the easiest to put to bed. But, my mom had to remind me today that we went through this stage with the girls too. I read through some of my old blog books and sure enough we did. It was basically Cadence. It amazes me how much DJ and Cadence are alike. She had a hard time settling down and going to sleep and that's the same as DJ. I don't mind them reading books or quietly playing in their beds but he always comes out of his room, again, and again, and again, and again........you get the idea!

My very cute little boy helping me make cookies with his sisters. He insisted on wearing a apron, since everyone else was! So cute!

Well after a very frustrating time putting DJ to bed last night I decided, enough is enough. When we went through this with Cadence I bought a book on sleeping for kids. It's called, "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child". Anyways, very interesting. Since he is older I skipped to the chapters that are for older kids. So I got the strategy that I'm going to use and got things ready today. I explained it to DJ this afternoon, instead of while he's mad and upset at me tonight. Not sure if he totally understood what was going to happen, but at least he knew what was up. He watched me switch the bathroom (locking) and his bedroom door knobs. I put 3 pieces tape down on his floor so he each time he comes out I shut the door to that tape line. On the forth time, the door is shut and locked. It sounds so mean, but we've tried everything. The book also emphasized to do his normal bed routine with him and after the 1st time laying him down don't have a conversation with him. So when he came out the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time I just gently picked him up and tucked him back in his bed. On the 4th time I put him on the potty first so he could pee then I layed him down. I wasn't very excited about doing this, but knew we had to do something.

He didn't have a nap today (naps have been horrible too) and I knew he was so tired. So at 6:15 I started his bed routine with him. He brushed his teeth, went to the bathroom and I read him some stories. Then we said prayers and I tucked him in with his sippy cup (only time he gets it). I reminded him if he gets out the door eventually be shut. Then I sat on the couch and waited. Richard had taken the girls downstairs so it was quiet up here. He played for awhile then he came out. Anyways that happened 4 times. I then shut the door and locked it. It took him about a minute to realize the door was locked, then he started screaming. I started timing how long it would take. I felt so bad. This is why we haven't done this yet, because we both hate it. Richard was more opposed to it then I was. We put the girls to bed, Cadence went to bed in our room. I was almost ready to cry, because he was screaming, "mum, mum, da eeee (how he says daddy)". So sad. Then exactly 15 mins into his screaming it all of the sudden went silent. I waited for it to start up again, but it stayed quiet. I waited about 20 mins and then I opened his door and he had put himself back into bed and tucked himself in and was sound asleep. The lights were on and he had pulled out all the plugs he could find and had books and toys on his bed. But he was asleep! My cute boy sound asleep. If you look closely to the left you can see my duct tape fix-it job on the railing!

So it took about 45 mins from starting his bed routine to DJ falling asleep tonight and only 15 mins of screaming. Compare that to 2 1/2hrs last night of trying to get him to go to sleep, so frustrating. He just woke up crying and sad but we tucked him in and cuddled him and he went back to sleep. Probably bad dreams from screaming himself to sleep. Hopefully he'll sleep good tonight. That's the thing, when DJ finally goes to sleep he usually sleeps through the night, except when he gets up to go bathroom. So I'm hoping that after a few more nights he'll be going to bed better.

I felt horrible and decided to write a post on this while I was listening to him scream. But now it's silent and everyone is asleep....oh so nice! Oh, another sad thing that happened to DJ is the last 2 mornings he's woken up at about 5:30am SCREAMING. When we went running into his room on both mornings he was laying on his stomach with his head stuck through a hole in his bed rail thing (so he doesn't roll off his bed). The mesh part had a hole in it, so I put it on his bed so the hole was near his feet. But my little boy is a CRAZY sleeper and goes everywhere. My mom says he got that from me. Says I was a crazy sleeper even when I was a teenager. I do admit that I gave myself a black eye once while I was sleeping. I was in high school, so yes I moved around a bit! ha ha! Anyways, I came in this morning to see his head stuck through the hole again. Sad to see, but after he's calmed down and back asleep, a little bit funny! Richard asked me to fix it today. I was trying to think of a way to fix it when I thought of a brilliant way. Duct tape! It worked perfectly! So now he won't wake up with his head stuck. Who knows, maybe he'll get his head stuck through the bars of the ladder now. Hopefully not, but I wouldn't be surprised, because that kid is a crazy sleeper!

There, I'm done my long post on DJ's sleeping. I'm hoping, fingers crossed, that it works and things will get better. You know it's bad when we try to think of an excuse to have a babysitter to come over so she can put the kids to bed! For some reason DJ went to bed with no problem for the babysitters. Crazy boy! I thought of getting a wig and dressing up as someone else in order to put him to bed. Don't laugh, I was quite serious about it. Yup, I was that desperate.

OK this is an add on to this post. It's now Sunday morning and I just have to write down how good DJ did last night. Richard had to put the kids to bed by himself because I was helping out at reception last night. We talked before I left so he knew to do the same thing. When I got back he told me that DJ did great. Richard did DJ's bed time routine with him and tucked him into bed. DJ wanted some milk, so Richard went to get some. He could hear DJ kind of half whining and crying at his doorway (not out of his room). Richard told him to get in bed so the door wouldn't have to be closed. He then came down the hallway to DJ's room and DJ was laying there all tucked in! He took his milk and Richard never heard a peep after that! He stayed in bed. So he slept from 6:30pm to 6:45am! YEAH! I think that was his problem, we were putting him to bed too late. I'm very excited that it's working! He's a smart little boy!

Family Fun Day!

So last Thursday was the girls' Family Fun Day with their pre-school. I thought ahead and had my mom watch DJ for me. We were coming back from Lethbridge so I dropped him off on the way home. Then the girls and I got ready to go to the school.

We got there and the gym was all set up like a safari. The girls got their name tags on and they were in the tiger group. They ended up being the only ones in the group so they moved two more kids with their moms over so that was good.

The first center we went too was the big bouncy house. The girls had a BLAST! Abbi thought it was hilarious that it was so bouncy. She kept screaming, "Mom this is soooo bouncy!" Brianna was having a hard time keeping her new skort (skirt with shorts attached underneath) on her. At one point she bounced right out of them! Cadence just laughed and laughed because she thought her sisters were so funny! Cadence, Brianna and Abbi in the bouncy house! They love their new outfits, and they look so springy in them!!

We then went to the face painting center. This is where I start to run into trouble. Because they wanted the moms to paint an animal face (whatever the kid wants) on their face. We only have so much time and there's no way I can do 3 faces. So, luckily, the teachers thought of us ahead of time and had an extra teacher there to tag along with me. So I painted butterflies on Abbi and Brianna while Mrs. Murray painted one on Cadence. Then the girls got to paint a face on their own balloons. Of course they did butterflies! Cadence checking out her butterfly face. She was happy with it, I think she's just concetrating here! ha ha!

Don't you love Abbi and Brianna's faces! I don't think I'll go into a face painting profession....not my thing!

Then it was on to the snack center. They got to chose a snack and then sit on a blanket and watch an animal movie while they ate. Their teacher, Mrs. Clifton, took them one by one to get a picture by their favorite animal. Then she was taking a picture of families in the zebra bus. So the girls and I got to do that!

Cadence wanted to have her picture taken with the giraffe.

Brianna chose the elephant. That's the pose she gave her teacher, arms folded with a funny look on her face!

Abbi wanted to have her picture taken with the hippo. I love that they all chose a different animal!

Abbi, Brianna and Cadence in the zebra school bus! The teacher took one with me sticking my head out of the window with each girl!

After snack we got to go to the craft center where they each got to make an animal on a popsicle stick. Again, glad I had help. I made lions for Cadence and Brianna and Abbi made a monkey with Mrs. Murray. The girls loved that. Then they each made a pair of binoculars from toilet paper rolls. So cute!

The last center was a game center. First they got to show us how they knew their numbers by rolling the dice and then putting that many dots on a piece of paper. They did very good. Then we got to play different animal games that were set up. It was a lot of fun!

At the end they each got to take a peacock feather home. It was a huge hit and the girls were so proud of their feathers. It was a fun afternoon. So glad that I didn't have DJ with me so I could focus on the girls. It was perfect.

We left to go pick up DJ to see how he did. Mom said that they had so much fun. He thought it was great that he had Grandma all to himself. They had lunch together and played with the toys downstairs. Then came up to watch a movie and had a pillow fight. He loves his Grandma and had a lot of fun! Thanks mom for watching him!

Driving back to my mom's to pick up DJ. The sky was starting to get very dark out. I grabbed my camera and took a quick snap while driving. It started snowing about 1hr later, just a little!

Thursday night we were asked to go to the temple with a couple in our ward to do sealings with them. They had names of 45 couples and their kids to seal together. It was a wonderful experience and I am so glad we were able to go. It's neat to hear those words again when you can actually focus on them and the blessings that we can receive. It was a wonderful evening.

Saturday Richard had to work ALL day. So I was trying to figure out what to do to keep us busy. Stacey dropped off Mikah and Shaylee here in the morning. They were with us all day, it was so nice. We did some quick shopping in Lethbridge then went out to the farm for lunch. DJ had a nap while we ate and the kids played outside. Then I had to wake him up in order to get to Raymond in time for the dress rehersal for show choir. It was fun to watch and the kids did great. DJ got a little antsy but he even liked the fast songs with all the fancy actions. There sure were some cute songs they sang! Abbi was done about 3/4 of the way through. I bribed her with a slurpee if she sat there. She was so hot that she ended up taking off her shoes and socks. She would of taken off more but I stopped her! It was hot in there, but I tried to explain to her that you can't take off clothes just because your hot! Silly girl!

We made it through and we all got some slurpees afterwards. Then we went back out to the farm and played and had Cassi's birthday dinner with her. Then it was cake and ice cream. So it was a fun day for all of us. Except for Richard, who had to work with a mouse as his helper! ha ha! He was in a crawl space for 6 hrs with a furry little friend running around. Yuck. There's no way I would of stayed down there. Brave man!

Sunday we all went to church. It feels like forever since we've all gone together. The last couple months have been a little crazy with sickness. But we are all feeling great. DJ screamed his head off when we took him to nursery, which tells me that it's been too long since he's been to church. But he stopped after a minute and had a blast the rest of the time! We got home and I was determined to keep him awake since it was too late for a nap. Well he had other ideas. The kids all went into DJ and Cadence's room and were watching a movie. I noticed it was a little quiet and went to check on them. DJ was sound asleep and Abbi was curled up on him watching the movie. Cadence was curled up in her bed watching the movie too. It was pretty cute! DJ sound asleep with Abbi curled up on him watching a movie. Cadence all comfortable on her bed watching a movie too!

So that was our exciting weekend. Have a great rest of the week!

Spring....Is That You?!

I'm afraid I'll jinx things if I say too much about the weather, but I think spring might be here. YEAH! What a crazy, long winter. I know I'm not the only one that feels that way...it was WAY TOO LONG! My kids have had a blast playing outside lately. I think every pair of shoes and boots we have are packed with mud! I don't care, at least they are outside playing!

This year has been so bad for us with sickness. It's kind of been an on-going thing the past couple of months. I'm kind of tired of it and am hoping we are done with it! A couple of weeks ago we ALL got strep throat. It was horrible. I had it too. I noticed Abbi and Cadence had these weird sores on their chin, nose and hand. I took them in and they had strep throat and it was strep that was on their hand and faces (there is a term for it that I can't remember). Then a day later I got it and so did Brianna and DJ. We were a miserable bunch that weekend. We ate a lot of popsicles! By Sunday most everyone was feeling a little bit better, except for me! But we all stayed home just to be sure. I just stayed in bed most of the day. Luckily Richard didn't get as sick. The girls did many things to keep busy while we were taking turns being sick. Here Cadence and Abbi froze some water in a cup and were playing "hockey" with them in the bathtub! They thought it was great!

We baked many yummy things too! Brianna licking off the banana bread batter! Yum!

DJ really got into it and was a huge mess afterwards!

The other day I was picking things up around the house. The kids were running around playing. I had a handful of stuff to go in the bathroom. So I went in and was putting it away. Then I happened to look in the mirror and was fixing my crazy hair! At that moment Abbi, who had been quietly hiding, jumped out of the bathtub screaming BOO. Oh my, I think I had a heart attack. I jumped and threw everything in my hands in the air and SCREAMED! It scared me so bad! Abbi started laughing so hard. She was so proud of herself. She kept telling me, "Mom I hide in there and was so quiet, you didn't know I was there." Yes Abbi you did! I had just finished explaining to the girls how to really play hide and seek. I told them that once they hide, they have to be quiet. They always jump out laughing, usually before the person even gets in the room. So I told them how to play about an hour before. So she practised on me! She had to run and tell her dad how bad she scared me! It was pretty funny!

That same night I was laying on DJ's bed and lifting the mattress above me with my feet. So Cadence and Abbi would get a little lift! This was after supper. Anyways, Abbi kept yelling, "Again, again, do it again mom." So I did. This time I happened to lift it pretty high. Well all of the sudden Abbi came flying over the bar headfirst. It happened so fast, she grabbed the railing with her hand, which made her swing onto DJ's bed and she landed right beside me. Of course it freaked her out, but she didn't get hurt. I'm such a good mom, I started laughing so hard, because it had looked so funny. I gave her a hug, but couldn't stop laughing. She then started laughing too! Ooops, maybe I should be more careful!

DJ decided to get out of the tub by himself. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around himself! It was so cute. He thought he was so big!

On Saturday I bought a bedroom set for Richard and I off of kijiji. I love it. We got a big dresser with a mirror and 2 nightstands. So we totally reorganized our room to make everything fit and look nice. We also took the tv out of our room and put it in DJ and Cadence with just the DVD player. We moved furniture around and got rid of some old stuff we had too. I found an old wall mirror that was hiding behind stuff. I was going to throw it away but then decided to put it in Abbi and Brianna's room. Richard mounted it at their height for them. The girls were so excited. They spent all afternoon "dressing up" and doing each others hair in front of the mirror. It was hilarious to listen to them. I would hear, "Oh you look beautiful." or "that looks gorgeous on you." or "do I look like a princess?", "oh yes dear, you are a pretty princess." It was so funny they would talk like that to each other. Richard and I were laughing so hard. At one point I asked DJ if his sister's were princesses, he looked at me then put both hands out and danced up on his toes and sang, "La la la la", while pointing to his sisters. I asked if he was a princess and he quickly said, "Uh uh" while shaking his head. It was cute!

Sunday morning we woke up to a bunch of snow on the ground. DJ and Cadence were excited to go out and play. So after breakfast they both went out for about 30 mins. They had a blast playing outside. It wasn't very cold out, so that was nice. This is what we woke up too on Sunday morning. Not too much, but enough to go have fun in!

Cadence doing a "snow angel" on her tummy! She thought it was funny! DJ playing with his dump truck in the snow.

DJ had fun running around in the snow. Don't you love his pink gloves! His snow pants are WAY too small on him too. I couldn't even zip it all the way up! He's growing up way too fast!

Cadence showing me her snow angels. It's her favorite thing to do!

After they came in we got everyone ready to go to the church to watch conference. We watched Sunday morning conference at the church. I had printed out conference packets for all of the kids. That kept them quiet for awhile. It was cute, because the girls would ask me who was speaking whenever a new speaker came up. They had pictures of Pres. Monson, Pres. Uchtdorf and Pres Eyering, where they had to color in their tie to match what they were wearing. They loved it. DJ had a harder time keeping quiet but he did pretty good. We made it the two hours and got to hear most of the talks! I love conference and can't wait to read them in the Ensign.

The girls have been bugging me to get their hair cut. They all wanted short hair. I told them that it was up to them. So I took them yesterday and they all got it cut to their chin in a bob. They all look so cute. They're very happy with their haircuts! They've got a lot of comments about their matching hair cuts and they love it! Cadence, Brianna and Abbi with their new haircuts and in their new outfits I bought them at Costco! I love their hair and so do they! So easy to do and without all the screaming that usually happens! So nice!

So there's my very random post about a few things we've been up too. Hope everyone has a great week!