Walking!!

Ashlyn is OFFICIALLY walking!!!

15 months - 17lb &  6oz

Moving

My dad has allowed us to rent his house from him for the past 2 and 1/2 years, and we are very grateful that he allowed us to rent his home.  

Without getting into to many details to protect both parties involved, He has given us 30 days to move out because we can not afford his rent increase.

I am struggling right now with the fact that my dad would only give us 30 days to move out my family. I understand that this is a business decision on his part. But we were notified via email of his decisions and he has been very cold to us through this process. Even got his attorney involved. Anyway long story short We are moving.

SUPER stressed at the moment with where we are going to go and finding a house in such a short time. Good news is we have found 2 house in our area that we have submitted offers to and should hear back today or tomorrow. Hopefully one of these comes back and we can start the moving process and hopefully try and be settled in our new home before Christmas

Caiden has started acting out big time, i know he can sense the stress in the house but also when we told him we were going to have to move to a new house he did not take it well. He is having a hard time understand why we have to leave. This is really the only home he knows. When we moved here he was only 1 and doesn't remember it.

I have learned the life is not always fair and there are times when you just can't explain why.

But if life was always perfect we would never be able to appreciate the things we do have.

I know everything will work out and i am just having a hard time seeing that now.

Camping at Stoneman Lake

This was our second attempt at camping since Ashlyn was born. The first time was miserable for all parties involved. But this time was so much more fun. We left Friday, October 19th and planned on camping 2 night, but only made it one night. 

We camped at Stoneman Lake and it was beautiful during the day. Low 70's high 60's. The night time was a whole different story. It was COLD! It was in the mid 30's. We were all bundled and the kids stayed warm but me and Chris could not get rid of the chill. Stony lent us his tent heater for the kids which helped a lot. I probably would have stayed warm if I hadn't gotten sick in the middle of the night and had to keep getting up to go outside.

Needless to say we decided the one night was enough and we came home Saturday evening.

Even though the night was cold and we didn't sleep, we still had an amazing time. Caiden LOVED getting dirty and playing with the other kids and just running free. Ashlyn hardly complained we set up her play yard and she enjoyed the out doors as well.

The boys practiced shooting the bows Granddad Tony brought, The girls watched and sat around the fire just relaxing and having a good time. 

Tony and Sherry also knew of a zip line near by, so we took the kids there to have some zip line fun.

Overall it was a good trip =)

Picture from our trip

Nana Sherry and Ashlyn walking around camp

 Me and my love

 Chris hanging out by the fire

 Collecting fire wood

 Target practice

Girls just watching

 Chris working on something and Stony watching

 Caiden's Sword and Gun in his back pockets =)

Playing domino's

My boys

 Ashlyn napping after our long cold night! Tent was nice and warm in the sunlight

Ashlyn loved the backpack

 Waiting for his turn on the zip line

 He kept yelling faster and for me to let go

 I let go and he loved it

 So much fun

Zip line fun

Weight Loss Update

So In October of 2011 i weighed 153lb and today i am at 145lb. Not a huge drop, but a drop none the less.

My goal was 145lb, but now i am going to shoot for 140lb

Now that it is starting to get nice out in the mornings and evening i think it is time to dust off the bikes and start our family bike rides again =)

Caiden's New Sticker Chart

Caiden is like every child out there. He likes to push the boundaries and hearing me yell ;)

We started a new incentive chart to help with his behavior. Instead of me yelling at him all the time. He can see when he is bad and also when he is good. 

How it works:

1. We set up some rules that he must follow and with him just barley turning 4, we decided for now the main and most important rule is "Caiden must do as he is told and LISTEN" (two area he struggles with)

2. Caiden can earn up to 3 stickers everyday.

3. Once Caiden is told to do something, such as clean up his toys. He is given 3 chances to complete this task. If he doesn't do as he is told then he get an X. 

4. 0 X= 3 stickers

    1 X= 2 stickers

    2 X= 1 sticker

    3 X= NO stickers

5. At the end of each day we reflect on his chart and add the correct amount of stickers to his chart.

6. Once the sticker chart is filled up, he can choose from two $5 dollar movies i bought or he can choose a special date with mommy or daddy or both (as long as we can find a sitter for baby sister)

  

As you can see below, yesterday he received 3 stickers for being a Super Star at school and then listening when he got home.

Today he got an X this morning because at swim lessons he wasn't listening to his teacher and had to be put in time out. I also make him mark the X. He also gets to put the stickers on at the end of the day. 

 Caiden's sticker chart

I got the idea from one of the mom's in my mom's group. So far so good we are only on our second day. But seems to be working so far. He really likes seeing his progress. He has been counting the empty squares and telling me how many more stickers he needs. No child is perfect, but with this system i am hoping to give Caiden some more structure and an incentive to be a good listener. 

Peeing Bandit!

Well it would seem we have a mystery in our house!

I was cleaning the master bathroom, and as i was emptying the garbage a TON of liquid came out of the garbage and all over the floor. What was this liquid you ask? Why of course is was urine. UGGGGG. On a side note i was scrubbing the bathroom because after the last time i cleaned i could not figure out why it smelled like pee in there ALL THE TIME.  

I found my answer!

Many things started running through my head as to why someone might be peeing in the garbage can and not the toilet that is about a foot away.

1. CAIDEN

2. Caiden's teacher at school had said he has been scared of the bathroom there. Thought maybe he was not scared of ours.

3. Chris (LOL)

4. Chris had given the kids a bath a few nights before maybe he let Caiden pee in the garbage can so he didn't have to get him out of the tub and forgot to clean it up.

5. Someone had been sleep walking (haha!)

6. Maybe a overly wet diaper was put in there.

This is where is gets funny. So i text Chris and ask him if he knew why there might be pee in the garbage can. Of course he came back with a smart ass answer. But ultimately we came to the conclusion that it had to of been Caiden. He was at school this day so i couldn't as him till i picked him up.

After i picked him up and we got home, i asked him if he peed in the garbage can and that if he did it was OK we just need to talk about it and that he wouldn't be in trouble. (i wanted him to tell me the truth without him thinking he was in trouble) He looked at me and said:

 "NO mommy, you don't pee in garbage cans, you pee in the potty. It was Daddy". 

I had to excuse myself from the room i was laughing so hard!

I text Chris again with this new found information and again he came back with a smart ass comment. I told him that maybe he was sleep walking and forgot where the toilet was. Chris then proceeded to blame it on the cat. HAHA!! The garbage can in under a built in vanity, there is no possible way the cat could get under there and hover over the can and pee multiple times cause this was a lot of pee. 

Anyway Caiden finally admitted to it. But i am still not 100% convinced he did it, because i kept asking and asking him the rest of the night. I think he may have just said yes to get me off his back. LOL but there is really no other logical explanation, other than Caiden for some reason decided to pee in the garbage can. Hey maybe i was sleep walking.

Numbers 1-5

I have one smart 4 year old (just barley 4)! Today he wrote his numbers. 1 to 5 all by himself =)

So proud!