Our Handful of Children

Hunter, William, and Wyatt

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

six of the sixth



The sixth picture in my sixth folder was of Hunter's 2nd Bithday. Just another reminder that he is two. but look at how cute he is. It is no wonder he can destroy my house and still live!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

St Patrick's Day 2009

So Dallan, Mom is off doing some choir tour with Garrett and that means she will not be forwarding your letter to me this week until after she gets back. So since I am writing this on Tuesday, Happy St. Patrick’s Day. I know you will probably miss it until next Monday when you have P-day again. First af all I need to lay a guilt trip on most of my siblings for their lack of note or letter writing to you. If they have written and not also sent their greeting my way I will forgive them but admonish them to keep me in on the loop. I am beginning to feel as if my kids are the only ones who make catastrophes happen and I need other stories from my siblings to know that my kids are somewhat normal and that Heavens gate is not already shut on the lot of us.
On the subject of my dear little children I need to throw in some disclaimers about Hunters recent mess making behavior. Now the amount of times he has dumped out baby formula seem off the charts. I should be putting the stuff away way up high right. -Well I am. Most of the messes are from the little can of formula that is in the diaper bag which is not always diligently placed up high. It must also be noted that I have taken away Hunters Bottle. He has no interest in a sippy cup he would rather drink out a regular cup which he does quite well but in the mean time the boy is not getting all of his calories from the moo juice so he is HUNGRY! I give him snacks all day long and cook good meals at meal times but he is a grazer and never tanks up so he is always looking for something else to eat. If you look back at the log of his messes they are all food related with the exception of the bucket of mud. I do need to tell you about the strawberry mess this week. I had bought some strawberries and put them in the fridge. Then we all went to bed and Jon and I stayed up and watched a movie. Well hunter stayed up as well and got into the strawberries as well as the wipes and a can of formula (I know he did it again) Well as I was cleaning up the mess in the middle of the night I thought that Hunter must have eaten at least 5 berries though I could only find evidence that he had eaten 2 Well the next morning my kids wake up and come and ask me why they each had a strawberry on their pillow. Hence the 3 missing berries. Hunter was either A) Sharing with his brothers and sister. Or B) trying to plant evidence to cover up his crime. I don’t think he is a criminal master mind yet but you can never be too sure.
William has learned this week how to go from being on his belly to a sitting upright position. No forward motion yet unless you count nose dives when he is trying to get back down on his belly from the sitting position. He has also cut a second tooth to go along with the one he cut when we were in Hawaii. He is very fond of eating baby foods and I think wishes I would find more time to sit down and shovel the goo into his endearing smile.
Stiles and Marcus have been constantly at each others throats for the past two weeks. Stiles is quick to tease and Marcus is quick to throw a screaming tantrum to get Stiles in trouble. Jon and I have come to the decision that they could use their own rooms for a few months and have plans to move Stiles to the room in the basement next week. Hopefully we will have less fights over who is and isn’t doing what and who’s fault it might really be can be determined more easily. Maybe we should just let them duke it out but a breather from each other might be just the thing.
Erica is trying her hand at hand writing. Yesterday she sat down with the calculator and wrote all of the numbers and then we counted them out and is often writing some sort of symbol and bringing it to me and asking what letter it is she wrote. She is actually getting pretty good. Her E are still backward but I can see the rest of the letters in her name starting to evolve.
Marcus is plugging away at his reading. The last few nights we have been turning him a little bit lose with reading scriptures and his ability to sound things out is really good. He is still stuck with the word “the” but that word is so stupid in our language because there is no way in the world that you can sound it out. I amazes me that anybody can learn this language. It is truly messed up!
Jon went snowmobiling with the scouts this last weekend. It was a trip they had planned when he was still with the youth and a few of the boys hunted him down and demanded to know if he was coming with them. Well they didn’t have to twist him arm too hard. He had fun and the other leaders said that the boys really enjoyed that Jon was there because “He is like the rest of the boys”
We had the pine wood derby this week in our ward. We were nervous not having done one before (you realize we are all girls) But it went off with out a hitch and one of our less active but getting ready to be baptized families was there with their boy and their boy took 2nd over all and the whole family seemed to be at ease and everybody there made sure to introduce themselves and make them feel welcome and then they came to church on Sunday and sat in the middle row towards the front instead of hiding out in the back. I can understand now a little bit better why Scouts is Part of the church. Before this it was always kind of a mystery to me. But now I think I get it!
Yesterday we went out to the hot tub for FHE and since the daylight saving time thing has happened it was quite light and warm outside when we ventured out. And as we were sitting there a robin came and landed on our light pole and I pointed it out to the kids and let them know that since we have seen a robin spring is on it’s way. The kids were so excited with this declaration you would have thought that I had said that “we took a vote and Christmas will now be held twice a year!” they have been asking when spring will come daily for quite a while now. We told them that it will still be cold and that we still might get snowed on but that the snow won’t say longer than a couple of hours and we will be able to start working in the yard soon. They were very dishearten with the idea that it could snow again. Little fickle children!
I love you tons and we pray for you always. The church is true. Work hard and the work will be easy

Love Monica
PS Beware the ides of March oh wait, I said that last week!

Friday, March 13, 2009

Hunters latest mess

Jon and I stayed up and watched a movie and apparently Hunter thought he could stay up to. After the movie we found a mess in the hallway. He had dumped out a can of Williams formula (yes I know AGAIN) And pulled out all the wipes and wadded each one up and strew them about. But the best/worst part of the mess was the strawberries. I had just brought home some strawberries and he had got them out of the fridge. As I was picking them back up I decided that he must have eaten about 5 of the berries but I could only find evidence that he had eaten 2. Well the next morning I found out where the other 3 berries were. He had placed one berry next to each of his sleeping siblings. HE was sharing! or trying to plant evidence on his brothers and sister. He really is a good kid, Just a total Tasmanian devil. Oh and one more mess was while my visiting teachers where here and I was complaining to them his magnitude of mess making skills he got out the instant oatmeal packs and exploded about half of them in the boys room. And then he smiles so sweet! I just don't know what to do with that kid!

Monday, March 9, 2009

does the choas ever end

LEtter to dallan.

Most of his letter was my posts below but his is what I added
So that does it for my blogging entries in other news I have a due date for this next little Woodin kid. I am due Labor Day! How fitting is that! So I will defiantly will Not be going to Lake Powell this year. I don’t think IT would be in the best interest of my health to do so. Or my baby’s for that matter. The month of March started out like any other. Nice and warm 60+ degree weather and then just like that it froze and snowed on us. The best you can say I guess is “Beware the ides of March” but I really should save that line for next weeks letter. I am feeling much better. I have managed to get out of bed for most of the days this week. Me and my toilet are not on as friendly terms as we were previously but I still admire the work my toilet does do. And as I get rounder I am sure I find myself being drawn back into the presence of my porcelain friend often. Not that either one of us will much be liking the situation. The laundry has almost got caught back up- well no wait- scratch that. If I let you believe that lie you might be led away by other false doctrine. Erica’s hair has really grown back. Unless you knew that this last summer she was sporting a rather unattractive mullet you would not know the difference except that she seems to have a lot of bangs. I had parent teacher conferences with my boy’s teachers this week. I was nervous to go. But It was all roses and good things. Stiles is the top of his class in math and even ends up explaining to the class how to do problems. He has a 100 on every single AR reading test and has moved his spelling grade of in the 70’s up to the 90’s. I am so proud of him. Although his desk is in a corner by himself because he won’t stop talking! And is kind of a class clown and gets all the kids laughing and giggling and all hyped up. I apologized to his teacher and told her if she figured out how to curb that behavior to let me know. Marcus is totally on track right now. Last time he was way behind. (even though it was the first week of school) Now he is sounding out words and reading small books. He is working hard to learn to read. I think he wants to be able to read like Stiles does and that inspires him to try that much harder. Marcus kindergarten teacher had nothing but good things to say about him except that he will give her a very dirty look when she slips up and calls him Stiles. And we all know that Marcus can throw really mean dirty looks. It is not surprising to me that she mentioned his dirty looks. Anyway I hope you are well and that I made you giggle a little bit. MJ told me yesterday that when he reads his my emails it just makes him think that his children are Angles and that he is so glad my children are not his children. But I am so glad my children are my children I love my little adventures every day but am nervous that my 5 year Warranty on my vacuum might already be null and void with how much it had already had to clean. The church is true. Work hard we will see you in 11 months!

Love Monica, Jon, Stiles, Marcus, Erica, Hunter (MY MUSE), William and Baby.

Still trying to stay caught up!

On Saturday I had my sisters and their kids over and we sorted through a massive pile of girl clothes. For the entire time (which lasted almost 6 hours)we had no major catastrophic events, just one bloody nose and a few hurt feelings. Then it was time to leave and my nephew Seth ran back inside to use the bathroom before departing. He chose the downstairs bathroom and when he came back up stairs let me know that Hunter had mad a mess. He got out a box of baby rice cereal and poured it all up and down the hallway and then danced and played in it. -little monster- My new vacuum defiantly did not bargain for this.
On Monday morning It was like Hunter was in a contest with himself to see what he could destroy in the smallest amount of time. He started with dumping out a box of cereal in his bedroom I picked most of it up then went to get dressed and when I came out of my bedroom like 5 minutes later he had dug through Juliet's diaper bag and Had got out her butt rash cream and was happily painting with it. Then as I was cleaning up the creamy mess I decided I needed to feed Jet some breakfast so we sat down and I fed her then I went up to my room to get a jacket and found hunter in my room he had unloaded Williams Diaper Bag and got into he little can of formula that I keep in there and was spreading it around my bedroom. at this point I am just sitting there going "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!" Well He got the raw and of a spanking and was told if he exploded anything else in the next few minutes I was going to get his car seat out of the van and strap him in. HE waited- about an hour. And while I was mopping up the kitchen floor after I had put my Dyson trough the rounds at first light this morning He exploded the diaper changing drawer which is full of wipes and Little diaper sacks. Yes their were wipes and sacks all over. But at lest this mess did not need my vacuum or water and a scrub brush to clean up. He did get a spanking but I am saving the car seat punishment for something more sticky.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Hunter is at it again

So I'm thinking of renaming my blog page to Hunter's destructive log. Today -so far- he dumped all of the grapes on the floor,after I specifically instructed him to leave ther grapes alone and had put them away in the fridge. Hunter then hauled inside from the outside a bucket of, you guessed it, Mud. from Stiles and Marcus play time as scientist digging for fossils. Then he began unloading said bucket of mud onto the clean floor in the kitchen and down the hallway to his bedroom. Stiles and Marcus had to help clean up since they left their muddy science projects right outside the door and I had to make them take them outside after they tried sneaking them into their bedrooms two days ago. Their resonses were "Well, It was HUNTER!" While I was almost done vacuuming up the muddy mess I pushed the vacuum into the boys room to get some lose bits of mud that had been tracked in there and found that the dishwashing soap bucket has been hauled out from under the sink, AGAIN, and flung all over the room I had vacuumed 3 hours earlier, AGAIN. Yes Hunter got a royal spanking and had to sit on his bed in time out. But for some reason I don't think I am getting through to him. Any ideas on how to reason with a two year old who is so stubborn he utterly refuses to try and talk!?!

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

not too bad today

Well my kids have not made any horredious messes in the past 24 hours. Hunter has only dumped a whole bunch of papers off of the desk into a huge jumble of mess. Painted a ketchup and mustard masterpiece on my freshly mopped floor. Splattered Williams baby carrots all over the counter and accented his hair with the orange goo. Got out all of my femine supplies and popped off half of my tampons and pulled the waxed paper off of the adhesive side of most my pads. went through a whoel pack of newly opened gum. ( I am still looking for sticky goo, I just hope ha swallowed most of it.) Lets me see...Yep he is still living

Monday, March 2, 2009

in the thick of it-again

I went to bed last night thinking all of my monsters were tucked in. WRONG Hunter got up and went back to his old tricks. This morning I woke to find all of the books in his room strewn around and a half a can of Williams formula all over the floor and about half a dozen instant oatmeal packs torn up and bleeding their contents onto the rug as well. I really need a cage for that kid! Well off to clean it up. At least I have a good vacuum now!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Messes and more Messes

Dear Dallan, Have my kids given me material this week or what!?! I’ve got some good stories so get ready to laugh! First of all we will start with Hunter, My little Tasmanian Devil for the time being. Have I ever told you that I do not really care for 2 year olds or the messes they make. They call it the terrible twos for a reason you know.
Last Sunday he dumped out half a can of William’s Baby formula all over the basement rug. Right before church. Not only did he dump it out but spread it out and carried around little scoopfuls and deposited them around the room. Stiles and Marcus pled innocence even though they were right there the whole time. I issued the order for them to clean it up but Jon decided they were not very adequate cleaners and took over the operation of my new dyson and got the brunt of the mess.
We had breakfast for dinner one night this week you know everything, Eggs, sausage, pancakes, Hash browns, the works well I had cleaned up dinner and put just about every thing away. There were a few things still out on the counter but they could wait. American Idol was starting on TV and I settled myself down to listen to the contestants for this week. Well even though the show was not that great, American Idol is not the focus of this story. Hunter decided he was still hungry and climbed up on the counter and got back down off the counter with the mixing bowl of leftover pancake batter and the spatula that was in the bowl. Now you can see the potential. But instead of dumping out the contents in one focused area he took the spatula and flipped, dribbled and in general thinly spread pancake batter all over most surfaces in He and Erica, and Will’s bedroom. Yep he is just a mess master.
Later in the week Hunter drug out from under the kitchen sink the ice cream bucket full of dishwasher soap. And carried it to the living room. I need to mention I had just finished a very meticulous vacuuming job of the room earlier that day, even moving couches and vacuuming under them. Well the scoop that goes with the soap was put to good flinging use and there was dish soap all over. Stiles and Marcus again pled innocence. Erica was the one who ratted them out. And Later that evening when I was giving haircuts I even found soap granules in Stiles hair. I think that Stiles is guilty as an accomplice. But the evidence was circumstantial until Stiles said “Well Hunter started it” I heard this quite a few times this week from my oldest two boys. And Erica was always the one to rat them out.
So on to the next mess. Syrup painting on the kitchen floor. Required a bath with all of the clothes including shoes to go into the water before being removed from the child so as not to spread the sticky work of art. Hunter got out of the fridge a half dozen eggs and broke them all over. Stiles cleaned up some of the mess out of the living room carpet and poured about 10 gallons of water on the floor to clean up the mess. I did not know this fact and Put William down in the middle of the giant Wet spot and then wondered who had poured water all over my baby. Jon came to the rescue and told me the whole story. But It still didn’t warm Williams cold wet body up.
The biggest and funniest , now that it is over, story involves Stiles, Marcus, and Hunter. It also involves about 2-3 pounds of Country Crock slow churned Spread. (aka butter) I was taking a nap and the savages took over. Erica again ratted them out by coming to my room and declaring that Stiles had thrown butter at her and it was “IN HER HAIR! AND ON HER CLOTHES!” The hair was the most stressful part for her feminine soul. I called my offending son into my room for questioning and saw Butter all over his hands. His response was “ Well Hunter started it!” I called up Marcus and he too was caught “yellow handed.” Now I know myself and knew that if any punishments were issued at this moment a police cruiser might have to come and get me. So I ordered my sons to clean it all up. I rolled back over in bed and tried to ignore that my house was all a bit slicker in some areas. Soon I knew I needed to be roused since I could hear them pouring water onto the floor in order to clean up the mess. So Now I had a greased swimming pool. At this point I knew that any spanking of butts, time out, or any other forceful nature to get the messed cleaned up would surely land me in the slammer. I stood at the top of the stairs and ranted a raved for a few minutes and then locked myself in my room again. When I emerged every single clean towel I had washed and folded and careful put away the day before was now on the floor of my kitchen and other areas of my house in an attempt to soak up the mess that Mom was threatening butts and lives over. At this point I locked myself in. I had already resisted arrest this long. I didn’t figure I should dance with the Devil. So I called my friend, Kendra and bawled to her for an hour until Jon got home from what was that…. Snowmobiling! Yes you heard me. -He needed a break- Well when Jon got home I let him help with the discipline he was forceful but kept his cool. The kids had the house in ship shape in almost no time flat with their Dad hanging around with a swift kick for any who lollygagged.
But the very next day, Hunter was scooping Williams formula out of the can and making piles in the Kitchen.
Go ahead Laugh! Laugh out loud. And Stiles still says, “See Hunter started it!”
SO a quick story about Erica. Even though right now she is my top spy and always delivers crucial mess making information I do have a great girly story about her. This week she was invited to an “Incredible Hulk” birthday party. And I was asked if it would be okay if the birthday boys mom put green in everybody hair as part of the party. I said I didn’t care, and all week Stiles and Marcus have been “green” with envy at Erica being invited to this party and have mentioned several times how it will be so cool for her to have green hair. Well the day of the party arrived and Erica was flatly refusing to go. After a week of hype she all of the sudden was desperate to not attend. When I asked her why not she in a very timid and exasperated voice said “I don’t want my hair to be green!” I assured her that she didn’t have to have green hair if she didn’t want it. And she was happy as a clam to have a green headband with a huge pink bow atop her head instead. She is such a prissy little thing!
So I guess this week was full of messes. I hope you haven’t landed yourself in any yourself. I am sure I shall have to clean up a least one more this upcoming week. I don’t think Hunter will relent on his “if you can fling it, fling it now” approach to my house.
Love Monica Jon and the mess monsters