For the love of candy

 I was on the phone with my sister one afternoon and turned around to find Colin like this:

I don't even know where he got this candy!  I just said, "I can't keep up with this kid."

Nana made Eli some pants that actually stay on!  He literally has no butt and is constantly holding his pants up.  His tailored-for-him pants are perfect!  But I had to bribe him with some jellybeans just to get this picture...

 

For your viewing pleasure...

Here's a sneak peak of Alison's recital dance.  She's the one in the blue leg warmers in the back row...sorry it's a shot of her back. 


This is the gymnastics part of the routine.  They do a little dance and then line up to do somersaults and the balance beam. 


So Colin has been showing potty training readiness.  kind of.  Every time he wets his diaper he will say "stinky" and try to take it off.  He is constantly stripping down, so I decided it was time to get out the little potty.  But this video is a perfect picture of Colin.  One moment you think "wow, he's so smart and really getting this" but that thought is quickly followed by "oh Colin." with a huge sigh. 

Sorry for the nakedness.  We're all family, right?

Sure he said "poopy" and headed to the potty, but then he tries to eat it!  And then you notice there's a half eaten apple on the floor...

My Hansome Boys

Time out

I'm not sure how to describe Colin's temperament...maybe calmly destructive with spontaneous bursts of anger?  A friend at church said one of her boys was very similar to Colin and she would put him in a pack in play for time out.  He is a people person, so I thought time out might be a good punishment for him.  So I set it up one afternoon, ready to put discipline into action.

However, I soon realized that maybe more than discipline, Colin just needs periods of containment.  Wouldn't it be great if he would just watch TV for 10 minutes?  He won't even look at the screen and would rather be in the kitchen pulling everything out of the cabinets.

I turned on Winnie the Pooh, dumped some toys in the pack in play and moved it so he couldn't see me.  Worked like a charm :)  Although Alison and Eliot were more excited about the movie, Colin was content to play right there for a little bit.

I have had to use it for time out a couple of times and just took the toys out and we all left the room.  Definitely a punishment for him and he did not like it.

Don't feel too bad for him though, he definitely needed something.  You see, this week he threw a car in Eliot's face and it chipped his front tooth.  Poor kid was just sitting watching the Olympics and was spontaneously ambushed.

Here's proof that Colin can't stay out of the kitchen:

We lost a sweet lady in our church last week.  She battled cancer for 10 years and her 2 daughters often babysit our kids.  I was cooking food to take to the family and the funeral reception and Colin couldn't be left out.  He got out the step stool and the utensils and found a cookie out of Alison's Valentine's stash and helped me cook.  I'm looking forward to the day he really can help me cook, I have a feeling he has Ben's cooking genes.

Valentine's Day '14

Alison and I made our own Valentine's Day cards this year for her class.  I loved her creativity and doing a project together, but the whole time I was thinking how crazy it it that there's 27 kids in her class...that's just too many kids and all with crazy names.  What happened to normal names?

Ben does a stellar job taking care of Valentine's Day for the family.  He surprised Eli and I in the afternoon...he came home a little early from work and with treats for everyone!

 

Eli and I were on the couch and I tried to capture his excitement.  Although Valentine's day is for girls, we want the boys to know we love them...and right now nothing says "I love you" more to Eliot than Angry Birds.

Alison was dreaming of a pink bear.  I have no idea where she gets her ideas, but thankfully daddy was able to deliver.

A tradition has begun that he gets Alison on pink rose and me a dozen red roses.  It was sweet and meant a lot to a little princess.

I decided it was time to start teaching Eli the ropes of Valentine's Day and told him he could pick out a treat for Alison.  He decided to give her a box of chocolates.

I learned this year that 1st graders are serious about their valentines.  Alison came home with so much candy it looked like she had gone trick-or-treating at school.  

Ben and I went out to dinner that night and Alison asked "Why are you leaving us on a holiday?"  We probably should have stayed home because it was crazy trying to eat out!

Strange food

Yesterday Eli asked for a very unusual lunch.  I was curious to see if he would actually eat it, so I whipped out the camera...I just had to bribe him with chocolate to get him to talk.
He ate the whole thing!
Last night we were having left overs for dinner and Colin decided to polish off the salmon dip all by himself.

 It makes me happy seeing them eat, even if it is the strangest of things.

Alison Louise 6.5

Basketball time

Our 'long-run Saturdays' have been put on hold due to snow and have turned into 'play basketball with the kids Saturdays'.

 

It's been fun watching them learn how to play and I even surprised Ben with some of my own b-ball skill...thank you Yoder genes :)

Saturday's are also ballet/gymnastics class day and they're starting to work on recital material.  This is just a beginner class and they're just doing simple stuff, but I'm so proud of her and can't wait to see her on stage.  At the end of class they get rope time and either get to swing, climb or pull up on it.  I'm always impressed with her strength.

A little mischief

 I wonder how many posts have "mischief" in the title?  Maybe I should make a label for it.

We finally thawed out after 6 snow days.  Even Ben stayed home from work!

Being stuck at home had it's ups and downs.  We got lot's of random projects down around the house, down to make-shifting a duster to clean our entry way chandelier.  We worked on fattening up the boys and got lots of good snuggles.

Greek yogurt and granola

guacamole by the spoonfuls

  The downside?  I felt like I was just following around this booger cleaning up his messes.

First, he figured out how to get water to shoot out of the refrigerator...

Then, he dumped applesauce on his head and speared cheese all over our endtables...that was just in 5 minutes of one day.

One morning I was doing some laundry and he decided to help.  Apparently all of my clothes looked like they needed to be cleaned.