Preschool

Zach went to CCNS for preschool and I could never say enough about how wonderful it was. He thrived there, it was an amazing experience for him and me. I think it got us both ready for the way we hope his education will continue to be. I loved being involved and he had a wonderful class and a fantastic teacher. It was everything I could ever ask for in a preschool.

Chelsea started there this year and it is a very different experience. She was very excited to start and I was SO excited for her to have the same super beginning her brother did. I even made ALL of our friends sign up there. But it hasn't been as wonderful for Chelsea. I think its still an amazing school and I would still recommend it to anyone looking for a preschool. I cant pinpoint exactly why it hasn't worked for us this year. I don't know if its because they have a new director, we are very good friends with the last director. The new director and board staff seem to have changed a lot of things. Or if it is the class, most of them are on the very young end of the deadline and 2 or 3 that is a big difference. Or if it is that the teacher seems disengaged this year. She has told me that her other classes are testing her this year. Maybe its just the combination of everything. Maybe its just that its not the right school for Chelsea. Just because it was so perfect for Zach does not make it right for Chelsea.

So, I took Chelsea to lunch today, after a very frustrating field trip, and I talked to her about it. I asked if she loved school or if she wanted to stay home with me until next year when she can start her new school. She said she wanted to stay home. Honestly, it wouldn't be a big difference. She basically goes on her co-op days anymore and thats it.

We did find her a new school for next year that seems more Chelsea-suited. Its a preschool located inside of a dance studio, she would start the day with a dance or tumbling class then spend the rest of the time in an academic preschool. We took her in to see it and she is very excited. She is very into anything dance lately. Her favorite line is "should I twirl?"

I really wish CCNS had been a better fit for her. I'm beyond disappointed. It was my <3 school. I could not say anything bad about it. And I still don't think its the school. Its just how it works sometimes. I have to do what is right for my baby though. I know it seems silly but I don't want her to begin her education in a place she is indifferent about. CCNS helped Zach love school, I owe it to Chelsea to find the place that does that for her.

lame

I'm so lame. I want to blog about something and I cant think of anything to blog about. I have no "thing" in my life that seems so extra-special that it deserves its own blog. I could blog about my kids school, since its all I seem to do anymore. Honestly, I think I spend more time in school now then when I was actually in school. Thats really not so hard, I didn't LOVE school. I regret that now, I wish I had taken advantage of learning so much when it was free. No one tells you that after you are 18 you have to pay to learn ANYTHING new. I could blog about how my kids don't sleep. Its 1 am and my daughter just walked out of the bedroom and asked for nachos.  In fact, I could blog about how I don't sleep! But really, who wants to read about that?? I'm bored just thinking about that blog. How about that Chelsea hasn't worn a diaper in a week? We ran out of diapers and I wouldn't buy her more. Even though she was not at all potty trained. She has only had 3 accidents in the last week. Shes doing good with it.

So there ya go. I figured out what to blog about. My daughter wants nachos and is wearing big girl panties. May not be exciting but I sure do love my life!

**Cuz I'm cool like that, thats how I roll**  (totally should have blogged about the guy at Costco who made this my new favorite line, maybe next time.)

long day. frustrated.

dog threw up on the carpet in the middle of the night, staining it again. this time where i cant put a rug over it. not losing weight on my diet as fast as i hoped. so tired of salad already. chelsea and i have been butting heads since we woke up. she fights with me about everything and if she doesn't get her way she has started having temper tantrums. frustrated with the wedding and its not even mine, in fact i'm so uninvolved that i'm lucky i know the date. cant describe how much i hate hearing my mom cry and not being able to do anything to help. have to go buy shower invitations but dread having to take my children with me. fine with brandon having to work nights but its so hard to keep my very loud kids quiet all day so he can sleep. except the part where i'm not fine with it because i don't sleep worth crap when i have to sleep alone. forgot to defrost chicken for dinner. tried to take zach to the store to exchange clothes he got for christmas that were too big, he didn't want to go with me. feeling left out and forgotten, like there is a big joke and im the punchline. my head hurts and my eyes are red and puffy from crying because i don't know what to do. don't know if i have ever know what to do since so much of what im doing seems to be wrong.

Is it Christmas yet??

I'm really so excited for Christmas! I cant wait, I'm like a little kid sitting and staring at the gifts under the tree. Even thought I wrapped every gift under there, its still so exciting to me!

I realized about myself a long time ago that I hate to be rushed. I always try to get everything done so early, sometimes ridiculously early. It drives poor Brandon crazy but I think he secretly appreciates it too. At least I let myself believe that. But if I don't have things done so early then I don't get them done until the last minute and I go crazy. Not a good thing. So this year, I had my Christmas shopping done before December even started. I had to put my tree up just to have somewhere to put it all! I think I did pretty well on gifts this year too!

My family started a couple of years ago drawing a name and buying a gift for just one person instead of everyone. Made a lot more sense when there were a ton of us. We are down to 3 who do this so we only save on 1 gift but its still fun. This year I have KayeLynn. I adore my sister. I think she is so fantastic.

I talked Brandons family into doing the same thing last  year and there are a few more people that way. It makes it a lot easier. I have Krystal this year, I bought her gift months ago. I found something that I loved for her. I hope she likes it as much as I do!

We are doing the same thing with our group of friends this year too. Can I just say, I have the best group of friend. I really love them all. Especially La Dayna. I'm so very glad to have her as my friend. She is so good to me, even though sometimes she really should just smack me. I'm not supposed to say who I have in this gift exchange but I will say I don't have La Dayna and I REALLY wanted to draw her. I already had planned out what I wanted to get her, going to have to save it for another occasion I guess! Our gift party is on the 10th and I can not wait. I get all bouncy when I think about it. =)

Zachs tooth

 Friday afternoon Zach came in to me and was so sad. I thought for sure he had gotten hurt. He came and curled up on my lap, which almost never happens, and told me his very sad story. He had a  loose tooth. He just started crying on me. He knew it would happen. We have talked about it before and plenty of his friends had lost teeth. I had no idea he was worried about it, I don't think he knew he was worried about it, until it happened to him. We talked about the tooth fairy coming and how his bigger tooth was already starting to grow but he just kept telling me that he wanted to keep the teeth he has. He eventually calmed down and went back to playing and by the end of the day he was ok with what was happening. 

La Dayna told him to eat a hot dog, Mari told him to eat an apple. Well, he doesn't like hot dogs so the next day he asked me to go get apples for him. 2 bites into his new green apple and that tooth was o-u-t. Seemed so quick to me. I thought it would be loose for days before he would get it out. Especially since he barely played with it and wiggled it. 

He put it under his pillow and the tooth fairy came through for him. Left his $5 because it was his very first one! He immediately asked if we could go buy a new guy for his Batcave. Which we did! 

Chelsea was a bit jealous of the whole thing. Keeps trying to rip her own teeth out now. Good thing she had birthday money from Gramma Great to buy herself a new princess at the same time!  

Chelseas Birthday

My baby girl turned 3 on Oct. 31. I have a hard time with my kiddos birthdays. It always hits me hard. But I love how happy and excited they get. Having her birthday on Halloween means we usually end up celebrating it in the beginning of November so that people with actually show up! This year since Halloween was on a Sunday and everyone was trick or treating on Saturday we decided to throw her party on her ACTUAL birthday. We celebrated at Sugar Space which is a neat little rental space in Sugarhouse. They set up tunnels and costumes for the kids. And of course, a bouncy house! There were special tables set up for the kids. It was just a really neat place. We had so much fun. They played music and had a disco ball going. None of the kids would do any of the dance games so it was my mom, sister, stepdad and husband doing things like the freeze dance and macarana and stuff while the kiddos sat and stared.

The only disappointment was that my plans didn't work as well as I had hoped they would... We had a pretty small turn out. I way over invited and was a bit afraid that we would have too many people there but a large number of people were no shows. That was a bit sad. Some people that I assume would never miss her party and some who I wasn't sure would come which is why I overinvited. I always plan on people not coming but I was pretty surprised at how many didn't come. But the people who did come are all really awesome so it made up for it!

 Tunnels 

 Playing

 Costumes

 Coloring books

 Princess Vanity 

 Hula Hoops

 Watching weird grown-ups dance

 Freeze Dance

 Macarena

 Princess cake on brown. Exactly what she said she wanted her cake to be. 

 How doggies eat cake

Pinata

Pinata goodies

Halloween

Happy Halloween! Yes I know I am a little late with this but better late then never, right?