Natalie's First Birthday

Natalie is such a sweet little girl. It's hard to believe that she is more of a toddler than a baby anymore. She love macaroni and cheese and her pink blankey. She loves to give kisses and snuggle her face in my neck when she plays "shy". Just like the other two, she loves music and has a great sense of rhythm. She walks more than crawls now and is slowly adding some words to her repertoire.
Natalie had a sparkly pink and blue Snow Princess birthday and I think it was nice. I had the flu so I basically sat in a chair and tried not to ruin in. Andy did a great job being Mr. Mom and making the party happen.
Natalie is just so sweet and pleasant. We love her so much!

A Year in Review via FB Status

An Interview with Molly

Molly is 2 years and 10 months old on Christmas Eve 2011. While watching Mickey Mouse, she answered the following questions:

Who is your best friend? Sleeping Pooty

What is your favorite color? Pink

What is your favorite food? I don't know... yogurt

What do you like to watch on TV? Mickey Mouse

Who is your favorite sister? Natalie

What do you like about Daddy? he just drink coffee

What do you like about Mommy? a bunny

What do you think we are going to do today? I don't know. Let me think about this, Mommy.

Who do you play with at Miss Karen's house? Ashley and Caroline and Brian

What is your favorite toy? a bunny

What do bunnies say? I don't know...bunnies say hippity hop

What do you want to be when you grow up? a bucket

What color bucket? orange

Who do you love? Mickey Mouse

What do you do at church? nuffin

Who is your favorite brother? Caroline

Who is your favorite doggy? a purple doggy

What do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas? a butterfly

Stuff

Jack: "Mommy, you are a pancake. I'm going to eat you."

Molly (pointing to Andy's freckles): "Oh no, Daddy, you have sprinkles!"

Molly: "Here Mommy, eat this." (Hands me pretend food. I pretend bite it. She laughs.) "That's doggy food! Ew yuck!"

Jack's new favorite song? Shout, throw your hands up and shout, c'mon now, shout! Now, waaaiiit a minute...

Natalie's recent accomplishments? pulling up to stand, cruising on furniture, saying Mama and Dada discriminately, eating cheerios, bananas, and other random food she finds on the floor.

Molly's new favorite thing? Playing tea party with her daddy

Molly is still convinced that Jack goes to "Pretty school" every Tuesday and Thursday.

Me: "Molly, are you lying? Tell Mommy the truth. Are you lying?"
Molly: "Yes, I'm a lion. Rawr!"

My Little Man

Gushing Mommy bragging ahead...
I can't describe how proud I am of my boy. In the hour that I got to watch him play at preschool today, I felt assured that Andy and I are doing something right in raising these kids. He used his manners with his teachers and with the other little kids, asking them "May I please play with you?" He showed his inquisitive side by exploring every nook and cranny of that classroom. He cracked up the other parents and teachers by singing the ABCs while he washed his hands really really fast and by wearing three hard hats at once.
I know that Jack is going to love preschool. I hope that he always loves school and learning as much as he does now.

Summer Wrap Up

Well, at the beginning of summer I posted about our To Do list of projects and things I wanted to accomplish. Yes, this is very typical of me since nothing makes me happier than a project and my mother says I'm goal- oriented to the point of it being a bad thing. So, I'm now going to virtually cross off stuff!

1. Potty train the big kids: In June, I really buckled down on potty training with Jack and Molly. They are now telling us when they have to go potty, mostly going all by themselves with no help, and staying dry during naps. Molly has woken up in the morning dry several times and she woke up last night at midnight and cried because she had to go potty. All size six diapers are out of our house and we will eventually work on staying dry at night when they are a little more mature (or just start doing it themselves). My only concern is that I think Jack is starting to have accidents on purpose because it makes Mommy come get him.

2. Get rid of sippy cups: They are gone. Jack and Mo
lly drink out of big kid cups very well and I just mop my floor more often.

3. Fence: It's up after many long hours of work by Andy, my dad, and Kyle. We love it.

4. Ensure that we only have three children: The tubes are tied.

5. Attend story time at the library: We did this once and decided the kids are too little for it. However, one of my favorite things this summer was reading them new library books each week. They liked "Someone Bigger" and "Farm Flu" the best, along with the Little Quack series.

6. Go swimming: Oh my goodness, we swam and swam and swam and Mommy worked on her tan.

7. Squelch my type a personality and let the kids get dirty and skip naps if they were having fun: Done to a small extent. The kids got dirty but rarely skipped naps. They just like naptime.

8. Lots o' bike riding and playing outside: check!

9. Tball for Jack: He kinda liked tball and that made us put Molly in gymnastics which she adored!

Natalie started crawling a couple days ago and also pushes herself to a sitting position.

The kids are getting so big and are so much fun! We had a wonderful summer!

Dear People, I'm sorry, Love, Me.

To the child who poured juice on the kitchen floor and then had the audacity to ask for more juice two minutes later... I'm sorry I yelled at you to clean it up and told you that you will never have juice again. I lied. You will have juice tomorrow.

To the lovely patrons of Wal Mart who see me carrying a huge chunk o' baby in a front carrier and hauling two rowdy toddlers in the cart... I'm sorry I didn't scream obscenities at my kids so I can fit in with all the other stressed mommies at Wal Mart. I only muttered them under my breath.

To the child who slapped her older brother just because he breathed her air... I'm sorry I said "Hands are for hugging, not hitting". It's corny and I apologize.

To the guy who lives with me... I'm sorry I don't cook dinner for you when you work but you are welcome to have the crap the kids eat.

To the littlest child of mine... I'm sorry I keep leaving the room and making you emit the ear-piercing, gut-wrenching, shriek of despair, but, honestly kid, what the crap? I'm coming right back and I don't play this whole separation anxiety game. Get. over. it.

To the old couple leaving the YMCA at the same time as me and my chickadees... I'm sorry you had to witness my two-year-old scream "Jackson Wobert Wolfe, You go to time out! You vewy bad!" as I tried to get him to makes his legs work and walk to the car. Yes, she's cute. Yes, I wish he would actually listen to her and go to time out.

To all the congregation at church who saw my daughter's underpants because she wanted to lay down on the steps instead of sing the VBS song... I'm sorry they weren't a prettier color.

To everyone who gets to witness us living this crazy life... I'm sorry if we're loud, distracted, and can't have a normal conversation without needing to take a kid to the potty. Talk fast, get to the point, or come with us to the bathroom.