Double Trouble

So this post started out as being part of my "fill you in on everything that happened in Oct." post when I realized all of these things really deserve a post of there own. Get ready to laugh...or cry. I've done a mixture of both.

The first weekend in Oct. our CHURCH had it's semi-annual General Conference where we get to hear from our prophet and other church leaders.


Living in UT we get to watch conference at home, eating a nice big breakfast in our pajamas. It's a family tradition we love and hope the kids will learn to love as well the older they get. We had them sit in and watch the opening part of conference and then decided we would get more out of it if we let them off to play instead of trying to force them to sit and watch the full 2 hours. I know, I'm a bad mom, blah blah blah. After about an hour we were so impressed that we hadn't had to break up any fights, deal with whining, or put anyone in time-out. During the intermediate hymn we went back to Tyler's room to check on them.

What good artists I have, don't you think?


Outside of the closet.


I was told Kylee's color of choice was black.


Inside of the closet.




Tyler's desk and chair


His magnet board.


So guess where we spent the second half of Conference? Testing out child labor. We're a fan.




And while we're on the subject'; here's a few more examples of why you never, ever leave a child unobserved for longer than...2 seconds.

Do you see those 2 little footprints in the middle of the "dust"? Hmmm, what could that be?


Oh just mom's make-up powder.


A full container-GONE. Kylee gave 'Cover Girl' a whole new meaning.


One day for Tyler's pre-school the theme was Autumn so we made leaf mosaics out of different colored/sized beans. I made the mistake of leaving the bags of beans on the counter close enough to the edge and while I was changing the laundry over my cute little devils decided to make pretty leaf mosaics all over the kitchen floor.


And this wasn't even half of it. After I saw this and took the picture I thought, "Good mom's let their children explore their creativity. Good mom's aren't uptight and let their kids make messes because it helps develop their sensory skills. But the bottom line was...well they already made the mess, I want to finish cleaning the bathroom, and it will only take me 5 seconds to sweep up, I'll just let them keep playing if it'll keep 'em occupied for a bit. " BIG mistake. Or I must be a really good mom. They got more bags off the counter, that I swear I had pushed far enough back that they couldn't reach, and poured them EVERY. WHERE. Like literally my entire kitchen floor was covered in beans. Let's just say...I wasn't as calm and cool about this mess so there is no picture. Ha ha! It took me forever to clean it up and I am still finding beans on the floor. I can laugh about it now, but oh man...those two together are TROUBLE.

And just to top it off, because you can never have too many 'my kids are awesome' stories, I'll share with you my day today. It actually started great. Bobby's first class was canceled this morning so he didn't have to leave until 9:00 which meant not only did I get to shower before he left for the day (every shower I got last week was after midnight), but I also got to dry my hair, put make-up on, get dressed AND make the bed! We were all ready for the day and my house was respectively clean by 9:30. Since the kids were playing good together in Kylee's room I started my "Monday laundry" and then headed for the kitchen to attack the dishes that had been happily neglected from the previous morning. After the kitchen was sparkling clean (I LOVE a clean kitchen. Seriously I get all warm and fuzzy inside when my kitchen's clean) I headed back to see what the kids were up to. Let's just say, as ironic as it sounds, soap is something that should be used to clean, but is impossible to clean.

In the bottom drawer in the kids bathroom I keep the kids extra bottles of shampoo. (Cause we buy the 4 packs at Sams so the extra get put in that drawer...I know-duh!) Apparently they thought it would be fun-and I'm sure it was-to pour the soap over the entire bathroom. The floor, the toilet (with closed lid), the tub, the counter, their clothes...everywhere. I didn't take a picture cause the shampoo is a clear, whiteish color so you wouldn't have been able to see it, so you'll just have to trust me that they did a KILLER job giving that bathroom a makeover. I mean that should keep me set on bathroom cleaning for at least a month right?

I was literally speechless and after stripping them down sent them to play in Tyler's room-with the door closed-so they could be contained to one area where they couldn't possibly get into trouble, so I could clean up their attempt at cleaning. I repeat: soap is impossible to clean. The more water you add, the more it bubbles and spreads. Even the washcloths I used to try and "absorb" the soap just got so full of soap the only thing I was doing was spreading the soap into more places. Quickly losing patience. 30 minuets later, after 10 towels, a tub full of water, and an extra load of laundry I was done. Just as I'm closing the washing machine door I hear Kylee laughing while saying repeatedly, "I NAKED! I NAKED!"

In my head I'm thinking, "No. She couldn't possibly be naked. She can't take off her jeans by herself. Oh no! I totally forgot to put clothes back on her after I stripped her of her soapy clothes!" So I run in there to see her, with more joy than a kid on Christmas morning, jumping on Tyler's bed absolutely naked. She laughs when she sees me and says, "BOO! I naked!" I quickly check for signs of pee-pee and pick her up to get her dressed. On our way out the door Tyler says, "Ha ha! Kylee took off her diaper because she was POOPY!" What?! I ran back to her diaper tossed, with what I can only assume to be the thrill of freedom, onto the floor next to the bed. Sure enough-poop. Wonderful. I run her to the living room, clean her bum, get her dressed and head back to Tyler's room to re-check for signs of any type of excrement when I notice, for the first time, his curtains are lying crumpled on the floor and the curtain rod is dangling vertically from it's anchor on the wall, the other anchor ripped out of the wall with a huge nail hole in its place. Patience lost. I spanked Tyler. 3 times. I hate myself for doing that. I've NEVER spanked him. I didn't even know if it was his fault, I just lashed out. We just agreed from before the kids were born that we weren't going to spank. I promise I don't judge anyone who does, but for us we decided it just wasn't something that we wanted to do because of this very reason. I knew that if I spanked it would be out of anger, not because I was trying to discipline. I know myself well enough to know that I would not be able to control my emotions and if I spanked it would simply be a way for me to have a physical representation of my anger which I just don't think is right. And that's exactly what happened. I was angry so instead of walking away for a minute, counting to ten, saying a prayer, whatever it is that you good moms do, I spanked him. I'm not proud of it, but it happened and I think we both learned a lesson. Tyler won't be trying to "climb the mountain" anymore and I won't do the dishes.

Once I came back to planet nice mommy, I apologized and kissed and loved all over him (but we still talked about how we don't climb anything that's not stairs!) when I realized I didn't hear the sound of laundry running. Ya, totally forgot to start the dryer at the same time I had started the washer back when I was listening to my little girl proudly declaring she was naked; so I had to wait an extra hour (we have a really old dryer) for that load to dry to finish up the other 3 loads of laundry waiting. Ahhh, the life of a mommy.

The rest of the day consisted of lunch that didn't get eaten, a stubborn little girl that spent an HOUR playing in her crib before she finally fell asleep, refereeing between Macey and Kylee (when they play they play hard, when they fight they fight hard :) ), reading books, building robots, airplanes and towers with blocks, a load of laundry here and there, a yummy subway dinner with friends (no way I was cooking after a day like that) and watching my little boy fall asleep while I sang I'm a child of God. It was a such a great day AND I have a clean kitchen! What more could I ask for? Maybe two kids that don't love trouble?!