Happy children mean Happy mama...

David and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary this week, and It was great...hard to top the Mayakoba Resort in the Riviera Maya, Mexico but it was still just the two of us remembering why we were here and enjoying eachother just the same! He is an amazing husband and father and spends each day making sure I am happy, and if for some reason I am not, he helps to keep the kids off my nerves! We are a great team and for once I am enjoying raising the kids with a partner and putting our marraige strength first on the list of necessities. Love that man, and the boy he gave me, and the girls he is raising with me. Seems unreal that it's been 13 years of loving this one man, no matter where I was or how content I was he was never far from my thoughts and I know every day how lucky I am to have him by my side...Love you David if you ever read this...

We are back to normal people, Bradley is taking a nap...not as long as it was before but at least a nap long enough for me to recharge! The girls are being wonderfully helpful as always and no new drama her in the Stover household...well besides some behavior frusterations with the baby I watch, but we are getting back on track with the solution as we speak/read! We are learning new fun things every day...like the color "YELLOW" and new sentences pop out of Bradley's mouth every day as well!

Today he stacked like 10 blocks and when he was done he looked at me and said "Mama, I did it!" Such a great little boy and so sweet...

Katy is really growing up and I am learning with her to let go and that I am now here to guide her, not disipline so much...Even had the "BOY" talk with her and while I was freaking out inside, I was pretty calm inside...all so in 10 years she will feel comfortable talking to me about sex...well, I hope it's ten years from now, she still beleives she won't kiss a boy until college!

Aryn just wants to be loved, and I am realizing that as I get more involved with trying to teach the boys she is getting left behind. She is now my special helper and loved it! By now Katy was in Preschool and I just had to worry about the babies, but Aryn is home with me since Preschool doesn't start until June so a friend is going to come over once a week and be Aryn's partner in crime to help out, or sit with the babies while Aryn and I hang...it's going to be great!

"We were just giving him a hair cut"

...seriously waiting for some random neighbor to call CWS on us the way Brad was screaming yesterday morning when we were trying to cut his horribly long hair...I started wondering if I should leave the clippers out and the hair all over the floor for a while just in case they showed up for evidence that we weren't trying to boil our son or something...I prefer boys/men with short hair so it never get's too far below his ears before he needs a cut...So, as you can see everything started great with a lolipop in hand and sitting on a big boy chair while Daddy cuts his hair...

Of course, he does the simple thing and cuts it all a 4, which is completely boring...I assumed he was going to do the "ear" attachment next so I freaked out about him taking the "4" off and going completely free hand at my child's skin....this clipper things cut skin people and I was not having that. SO my anxiety probably was the culprit of the 1 year old melt down while daddy tried to hold him down and mommy took over and did the "ear" cutting...totally botched it, thanks to one wiggling child and one annoyed father!

So the kid's been wearing a hat since yesterday morning...but I held him down for 2 minutes again whil I used a "2" to even the bowl line out a little and it looks much better...

Father goes back to work to escape crying child...

This is really my life today people!

DAY 1 of getting Brad back on a sleep schedule, he has been all over with his power naps and 10pm bedtimes...but it's been 2 weeks and I am done. COMPLETELY DONE with this child not sleeping normally, and things are back to normal here, so I rocked and rocked and rocked him to sleep at his normal 11am nap...AND HE IS ASLEEP!!!

Been asleep for over an hour now, and I am commited to rocking him to sleep at his normal 7:30 bedtime tonight. I figure if i get the child to sleep at his normal times, then I can start working on getting him to put himself to sleep again eventually! AND GET HIM OUT OF OUR BED! Yes, I said it...the child sleeps in our bed with us. Not by choice, more that we are lazy at 2am, sometimes don't even remember who got him out of his bed and put him into ours it's such a habbit now. And also the fear that his grandparents will think we are beating our child when he is screaming and crying like we just dislocated his arms. We DO NOT WANT this child in our bed, I prefer to snuggle with my husband than be kicked in the ribs by Brad...

Start praying eveyone...I have these horrible visions of Brad in 10 years still snuggled up with Daddy and his T-T of choice (his favorite 5 blankets/1 jacket that are made out of the same material)...or start the King size bed fund. Either way I can get a good nights sleep without a kid who spins circles in his sleep.

So, my foot is down, and Brad is still asleep and if I have to rock him for the next two weeks so be it...This child is going to sleep again wether he likes it or not...

Sleep is not over-rated...

This Hilarious child of mine...below sporting his sisters getto sunglasses her bio father's girlfriend got her trying to make my daughter into what I think is innapropriate...that's a whole other post people! So our son is "Cool" and is secure with his one year old mascalinity that he can pull of fuzzy pink slippers and pink jewel rimmed glasses and my 4inch heels no problem...he is an amazing kid with such a mellow personality just like his favorite cousin Jordan. I am very lucky...
...UNTIL days like today, when my child has been off of his sleep schedule for over a week. I am a firm beleiver in SLEEP. Children need it for their happiness and I need it for my sanity. It's not his fault he is off schedule, I have even tried to spend the day at my parents at nap time...but he needs his own crib without the excitement of hanging out with Grandpa! So, we are working on day 8 of little to no nap...yesterday went better for him, but he woke up SCREAMing from the top of his lungs..today I got him to sleep at the normal naptime and we will see if he gets woken up again or if it is a success!!! Hopeing and praying.

So, what happens when he doesn't get enough sleep? He is as bad as me on a PMS day with mood swings and crying fits over not getting a lolipop. He is attached to my leg begging "UP" and doesn't eat or play well. It also prohibits me from my daily routine. I need that nap time for projects and to clean the house...so my house has suffered, it's still in one peice, but without mopped floors. And that annoys me cause I cannot stand for my house to get like this, it's too small and it just takes one random pile for the walls to start coming in on me.

Bradley will survive missing a few naps! So, this is not really a compaint from me, more of a quik unload of a possible rant that I am getting through one day at a time, cause it's not upsetting me, I just wish Bradley could be normal again...

Just a little update on our not so little family…

We are a typical "large" family consiting of two parents and three children...as my husband would joke "we roll large party" cause we now need a large table at restraunts. The children are the center of our lives at the moment...at least for the next 16 years until they are all on their own. They are definitely the main sorce of entertainment in my life being home with them for the last 7+ years! My husband and I have been together for 13 years with a 6 year hiatus in there which is where the girls came from...trying to forget those years but definitely regret comes to mind alot. We are now beyond happily married for 2 years in a matter of weeks and it's just been so awesome to spend each day with him and raise our children as partners.

…Katy is amazingly 7 and is absolutely thriving in 1st grade. She is EXCELLENT in Math and Spelling and moving up reading levels rapidly. We are very proud of her academic successes! She is always surprising us with some little craft she thought up, and loves to write people letters. Her days consist of school and playing with her cousin Jordan and her best friend Zachary who calls her “Kate”. I just don’t know where the years went with her…

…Aryn is four, and is still funny but we need to add intelligent to that. She enjoys writing/identifying all of her letters/numbers and pretending to spell words! She sits for hours and colors, puts puzzles together, or does “homework” in her workbook, and is awaiting the day when Preschool starts in June!

…Bradley is our entertaining one year old who runs around the house yelling nonsense at everyone and usually has some form of scab/bruise healing at any given moment. He adores his “sistas” and also has a buddy, Keaton, who spends the days with us. His goal in life is to give his mother a heart attack, and to further impress his father...

so many topics, so little time...

I suppose the normal blogger is capable of just opening up their lives to any random person, not I. Worried more about keeping my family safe is more the problem, but wanting to be more trusting is the solution I suppose. So I am going to give this thing a try for a month and see where it goes from there. That is all assuming that anyone even reads this blog so...moving forward to a little about us!

re-write...

so, forever ago I erased all of my posts and rethought my approach to this whole Blog thing.