First stop in NC

Our first stop in NC was in Salisbury to see Grandma and Grandpa Redfern.  We hadn't seen them since the last time we went to NC in August, so it was great to see them again.  Grandpa spent lots of time reading and playing with Caroline and Will.

Caroline also helped grandma make some delicious meatballs!

Tammi and Dave, friends of Grandma and grandpas came to join us for dinner one night too.  It was fun to see them again and it not be at the pool, where we usually see Tammi (she teaches water aerobics too!)

Caroline felt right at home with Dave, as you can see.  He is also a BIG guy!  He make 6 foot 200 lb Justin look shrimpy!
One day we headed a little south and went to a mall that had bounce-y things in it.  We had so much fun playing there.  We raced each other though the bounce obstacles and slide down huge slides.  Caroline was brave enough to jump at the top of the slides and also do summersaults from the top too!

We had tons of fun and thanks for having us!!!

Nana snowfield

This afternoon I decided to make a snowman while we were out playing in the snow.  We have had snow everyday this week but most of the time it doesn't accumulate.  The snow is too dry to even make the roads wet.  Very disappointing!  When the snow is that dry it surely isn't going to make a snowball much less a snowman.  The snow that we had monday or Tuesday was perfect for snowman making and we had about 8 inches of it.  Justin joined in when he got back from walking the dog.  He finished rolling the body ball and then we had to lift it together!

Our snow-woman is decorated with hydrangea hair puffs, grape eyes with mason jar rings around them, a carrot nose, a stick smile, the top of a garden light for a neck piece, travel coffee mug lids for buttons, and curtain rods for arms!  Justin and I had so much fun getting her dressed!  She is my height.

We match!

We both had/have BIG goose eggs on our heads.  Will got his today right before nap time.  He slipped and fell into the door jam.  I heard a big crack and great big cries.  I saw him fall but wasn't close enough to catch him.  the door frame caught is head for sure.  There wasn't any bleeding but it did make a nice indention with a red mark down the center and then it started swelling.  Poor thing only wanted his daddy! Justin got a teary phone call and it calmed Will right down.  I checked him for a concussion and he was fine.  Not sure how he hasn't had one yet considering all the head trauma he has had.  Don't think he would be a good candidate for contact sports since he already hits his head so much!  I took the picture right after I put some ice on it.

On another note, we made it back home Sunday night after traveling to NC and MD.  We had a great time seeing as many people as we could fit in.  I will be back in NC this sumer and hope to see more of you then.  Saturday morning we left MI and stopped in OH to have lunch with friends.  Then made it to Salisbury, NC that night.  Tuesday night we headed to Burlington and then Thursday morning left NC and headed north.  We stopped in VA to eat lunch with friends from Fort polk that are there now.  It was great to see them and was the first time we had seen them since we left LA when Will was 6 weeks old!  Then a stop in DC for dinner with Karen and then on up to MD to Susan and Graham's.  We helped them move out of their apartment and had a great time playing in all the snow they still have up there.  Then Sunday morning it was back to MI.
We traveled though MI, OH, WV, VA, NC, MD, and PA!  The kids travel so well and it is because of how well they travel that those long road trips are even done so many times a year.  Don't forget we had our puppy with us too!  If Justin and I can survive trips like that anything seems possible.  Don't know if we are up to Laura and Matt's level yet!!

Pictures coming of our fun week!

Lunch time

Lunch time, you would think, would be pretty low key since half the family isn't home for lunch during the week.  Well, Will can find ways to make it just as exciting.  There are reasons why I won't sit next to him when we go out to eat!!  But at home I do and that is why I have lots of laundry to do, he adds his fair share for sure!  But on Monday he was done eating and was playing while I finished.  He was playing with his pushing thing/gun (shop vac pieces) and he gave them a giant hi-ya and a piece flew off and hit me in the head.  It instantly popped up and the bruise is now starting to really show.  It hurt!  Will did go get an ice pack to put on my head and gave me a hug.

  Then Tuesday he spilled his milk on his plate.  He still had a few chips left on there so I pull his plate back some and tell him no big deal we'll get you some dry chips.  His response... why?  Then he picks up a wet chips, sucks the milk off it and then eats it.  The only thing that went through my mind was STEPHEN! My cousin was sitting in my house in the body of MY 3 year old!  I have memories of family picnics and going to my cousins house and not believing what I was seeing.  Ketchup on everything and huge messes.  Will reminds me of Stephen.  For his last soggy chip he picks it up, drives it around his plate saying it's a boat.  When it falls over he tells me it crashed into the water.  And of course he picks it up and eats it too!  I took our plates to the sink and he asks for more chips and was upset that he didn't have his plate to put them on.  He wanted more wet chips!!  This can't be my kid!  Yuck!

Lunch time is never a dull moment with you Will!  Even though I will get messy or get hurt you always make me laugh.  Which is also just like Stephen!

Room day

My week wasn't any busier than usual but I still didn't do a good job of blogging!  I have been working on my geek status this week.  I am trying to learn how to take the home movies that my dad made into DVDs for me rip them on to Justin's computer, change the format of the dvd, and then get it into imovie to edit them.  So far so good and I have 4 DVDs transfered onto the computer and have even figured out how to edit some of them (i think!).  I am using the great people at the Apple store and the one-on-one services they offer to help me get this done.  But needless to say it has taken up most of nap time this week.

Otherwise I had a great almost completely stay at home day Wednesday.  Besides taking Caroline to and from school and then gymnastics that night Will and I stayed at home all day.  Why is this news?  Because Will had to stay in his room all day.  He could come out for meals and to go to the bathroom but other than that he was in his room.  Nothing was in his room either.  Justin had taken all the books, stuffed animals, and CD player out of their room.  The closet doors were zip tied together so he couldn't get in there either.  He had his pillow, his lovies, and his blankets.  That's all.  He was done with his punishment when it was time to go to gymnastics at 6pm.  The worst part for him was when Caroline got home from school and he had to go to his room and couldn't play with her like usual.  He cried for a straight hour!  He also cried in the morning too, but it was just on and off not like the SOLID hour that afternoon.
Why did he have to stay in his room?  Justin and I have been trying to get Will to treat Miles nicely.  He has a problem getting excited around the dog and tends to be extremely rough with him.  He pulls his ears, fur, and tail.  He even bites the dogs nose!  He jumps on the dog and we have to make sure Will doesn't land with both knees on the dogs ribs.  We have tried everything you can think of as far as punishment for Will treating the dog poorly.  After he bonked the dog on the head twice on Tuesday that was the last straw.  Since he didn't want to listen to us with regards to the dog and pretty much was having trouble listening to most things we asked him to do we decided take all things out of his room and he would stay in there all day.
We didn't come up with this idea by ourself.  I have used this technique before with Caroline several years ago and it worked so well that just the threat of being sent to her room gets her to straighten up!  My favorite place to get parenting advice is John Rosemond.  My dad has been cutting out his newspaper articles for years and even signed me up for his weekly online columns.  Rosemond give great common sense advice and it always has worked for us.  We have used tons of his ideas and they all worked just as he describes them.  I often refer to his book to see about a certain issue we might have.  So this is a John Rosemond idea.

Did it work?

So far so good!  Will has been a great first time listener, which is what we call doing things the first time you are asked.  He and the dog still have lots of fun but he is treating him so much better.  We also told Will that when Miles gets too rough with him and is biting him too hard will we put him in his kennel for a little time out so Miles can settle down some too.  That seemed to help make things even in Wills mind and I haven't been yelling at Will and Miles to cut it out a million times a day!

He sure does love his puppy!!

Laundry

So I am still catching up on the laundry.  I have done at least 2-3 loads a day since last wednesday.  The picture is just the bed linens and some of the stuffed animals.  It doesn't include all the clothes that get dirty everyday anyway. I should be done and all caught up tomorrow!

Here is a better picture so you can see how small the nits are compared to the louse.  So far so good and Caroline hasn't had any more.

This picture was taken by Will!  I am surprised her head isn't cut off!