instagrams

My week on Instagram:

Two little cuties with pajamas

 Veda's letter to Santa. I hope he can read her writing. (and when I ask her what she wants, she says she wants a Wall-e toy. But it's only because that is what Hendrix is asking for). And don't get my started on that silly Wall-e toy. Let's just say that Santa might not bring Hendrix what he's asking for because they are no where to be found. I ordered one online, but of course it isn't going to get here in time for Christmas :(

 the kiddos and me on a train ride.

 Veda learned how to eat apples from Quinn

 My dad sent Quinn a dollar for losing her tooth. She was so excited to get the mail- so immediately sat down and wrote this thank you card.

 Purple!

 We had a Christmas movie party after church today.

 I've been sewing up a storm this week preparing for Christmas.

 Carpool line gets sunny

 Finally got some new running shoes! My toes were about to poke through my last pair ;)

 Veda enjoying a cupcake at a birthday party

 Cookies! I went to a cookie exchange last night. I made our favorite pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with cream cheese frosting.

train ride and sleeping Veda

We went with some friends on a train ride this week. We also had a picnic. Hendrix was dying to finally eat his fruit roll up. 

 My cute friends and their kids (and mine)

 Veda was so sleepy. She probably could have fallen asleep

Speaking of sleeping- I had to wake up this little beauty for carpool one day this week. She just looked so sweet.

Thanks everybody for your sweet and awesome advice and encouragement after my last post. I'll do an update on that after a few more days of trying some tricks ;)

Debbie Downer

I try to stay very positive on this blog. But GEEZ. Sometimes a girl has got to vent.

My kids are making me crazy. I feel like they are all going through phases. REALLY hard phases.

We recently moved Quinn into Hendrix's room. We were having to put Quinn to sleep in our bed every night because either Veda wasn't sleeping good enough yet for Quinn to walk in and go to sleep, or Quinn was too worried about waking Veda up so she would refuse to go in there. So we would put her on our bed then move her when I came to bed. It worked, but was kinda annoying. So we put Q and X together and we were hopeful that our problems were solved. Not the case. Hendrix has never ever ever gotten up out of his bed until I come and get him. It's been awesome. But now that he shares a room with Quinn who gets up all the time - to pee - to complain about her brother making too much noise etc, Hendrix now gets up. He gets up in the middle of the night, or 4:30 in the morning just to tell me he can't sleep. Of course the reasonable answer is to just bring him back to bed. But that usually ends up with him screaming his head off which wakes up either one sister or both. Not only that- but bedtime has only gotten worse. Hendrix doesn't want to go to sleep. He whines and cries or screams until we move Quinn into our bed so she can get some sleep. Then Hendrix continues to freak out for a while. I feel like I'm having to go through the 'cry it out' phase all over again. Then my morning routine is often interrupted by a little boy who just gets up while I'm trying to get out the door for a run or quickly take a shower before school craziness begins. So what do I do? Did we make the wrong choice moving quinn into his room? Probably. Should we move her back? I have no idea. I feel like I've always had a good handle on my kids sleep. I'm slightly controlling with that part of their lives, and I'm having a hard time controlling it now. Help.

Not only are we having sleep issues, but behavioral ones too. And maybe these are all stemming from lack of sleep? But the WHINING. I want to pull my hair out. It started with Quinn who can whine like the best of them. About everything. Every time she tattles on her brother, every time she can't find something, every time she wants something, every time things aren't going 100% her way. She lays it on thick. She is often in a sad mood after school- and yesterday I noticed on my way home that she was happy and cheerful with her friends (I drive a few kids home) then as soon as they were out of the car she got sad and whiney again. Is this normal? Is she just a girl and growing out of her little girl sweetness? I KNOW I have been lucky with Quinn. She is honestly inherently GOOD. But lately there's been a switch. And unfortunately it has been rubbing off on Hendrix who has started to whine like crazy too.

And my sweet little Veda who hasn't bit anyone for a few months has started biting again.

So what am I doing wrong, my friends?

Instagrams

More Instas!!

Veda getting lucky at the mall and getting a candy cane.

 Quinn lost her first tooth!!! Can you believe it?! After it came out she said "And I'm not even six!" She wrote the tooth fairy this cute note and the tooth fairy left her a new book

 Painting some ornaments

 Poor little sick boy

 We went to tis reenactment of Bethlehem last night. It was really really neat.

 Shark shirt, shark toy

 Veda climbed up here all by herself.

 Hendrix at IKEA

 Sweet babies watching the rain. My kids have been their fair share of naughty lately, but I sure love it when they are so sweet to each other. I hear Hendrix sometimes in the car ask Veda to hold his hand. Veda is constantly handing out hugs and kisses to both Quinn and Hendrix. It's the best. Now if only they'd stop the arguing and selfishness and biting :)

 Hendrix handed this to me and said "Here mom! There's some left for you."

 Me and Jen BEFORE the race.

 Chris was in town for a few days last week. It was so fun to have him here.

 Quinn let me curl her hair for the first time EVER on Sunday. Mommy/hairstylist dream come true :)

Instagrams

I don't know why I can't keep up with the blog lately. Maybe because it's December. And my kids have been sick. And I've been running like crazy. And sewing like crazy. There are my excuses. And here's my Instagram catch up. 

Veda hanging out at IKEA

 This is how Hendrix eats a sprinkled donut

 Look at how he's looking at Santa

Hendrix had his last day of soccer. Sweet Veda is going to miss it too. She always participated a lot as well, and loved the hand stamp at the end of class (Hendrix never got a stamp. For some reason he never wanted one... weird).

Me and my friend Jen after our half marathon on Saturday. We both placed in our age group (nope- I wasn't in her age group... she's sweet and young and not yet in the 25-29 group with me). But it's a good thing since she finished before me. The race was awesome. Perfect weather- 60's with a light mist of rain off and on. The course was pretty flat too which was nice. I beat my personal goal by 15 minutes, so I was thrilled. I started the race with Jen- knowing that she is faster than me- and knowing that it was probably a bad idea. After about 3 miles Jen took off and I found out that we had been running 8:20/mile. But by that point I realized that maybe I could keep up the pace. And then by the time I got to mile eleven I HAD to finish at that pace because I was so excited that I had already done that much of it that fast. 1:55 and second in my age group- not too bad for my 2nd half marathon. And THANKS Jen- I seriously owe you my awesome time :) (And check out her blog- her husband took a picture of us right at the beginning of the race. And not only do I look pregnant because I have a fanny pack on, but we look like speed walkers in the mall)

 My darling darling baby girl

 Playing "Don't Eat Santa" with Veda is funny. When it's her turn, she just grabs as many as she can before we can have a chance to tell her to not eat him. That girl sure likes her "Mnmnmnm's"

 We made a gingerbread house :)

 Quinn drew this picture of Mary in Primary. A very PREGNANT Mary :)

 Veda eating apples just like her big sister does.

 Veda making a mess at soccer. She is really good at making messes everywhere we go lately.

 And our cute Christmas books all ready for our countdown.

 Veda liking my face. That's normal, right? ;)

random catch up and magic

So much catch up to do. Here are some random pictures from the last week or so.

Take a good look at this picture before Dave takes it down :)

 Sweet sweet baby loves her daddy. a lot.

 We made some button wreath ornaments the other day. I got the idea from my friend's advent countdown. She has some cute ideas on there.

 At the park the other day. Yep- he is wearing lady bug wings.

 That same day we had a little picnic for dinner. I thought Veda's dinner looked so cute.

 She looked cute too

 Hendrix has been loving to play tea party lately. And with babies. See that baby doll sitting there with us? He would pretend to feed her. So cute.

 And this happened today- did you know that if you are the very first person at the Disney Store in the morning you get to dress up like Mickey Mouse and 'turn on the magic'??? How cute is that?

 Veda just stood there and let the lady dress her up. Then we all had to wiggle our fingers and say magic words. (And yes- she wiggled her little fingers under that robe)