Holiday Portraits Are Up!

Hmmm. Which one should I send to all our family and friends? Place your vote! 1, 2, or 3!

She Sees You When You're Sleeping

I caught Lexi's cold and feel just plain blah. Rayna was napping in the crib, Lexi on the computer playing a trivia game, and Mia was watching tv next to me on the couch. I dozed off for maybe 15 minutes or so, and woke up to see Mia standing on the back railing of the couch over my head. She looks down at me and goes, "Shh Mom, don't look at me. Just close your eyes." Yeah, because that's what I'm going to do after seeing you balancing on a couch railing high above my head.

I obviously wake up fully and say, "Mia, get down, you'll get booboos!" Mia replies with, "Mommmm just don't look! Look, watch tv," and points to the tv. I say more sternly, "Mia, get down." Mia says, "But Mommm, I made it safe. Look, I'll land on the elephant over there. I made it safe." Anytime a kid says, "I'll land over there" is a big clue that they won't land over there and it's a disaster waiting to happen.

Kid's gonna give me a heart attack. That'll teach me for dozing off on the couch again anytime soon!

Really?

This is what happens when you send your husband to the grocery store.  Maybe this makes him qualify as one of the stinkers too. I'll have to do a Meet the Stinkers profile for him next.

Scary Monsters

Bragging Moment

As you may or may not have read in my Meet the Stinkers post, Rayna has a history of drawing on the walls. At first her drawings were random scribbles. I would get extremely mad, as most parents would, and yell, "RAYNA MAKENZIE!!!", dragging out the middle name, as most parents would, and Rayna would throw part of the evidence (usually a marker or crayon, but sometimes a permanent marker or pen) across the room and then run screaming and crying like her world came to and end and hide in the hallway closet.

Then somehow, overnight, things changed, and talents evolved. I caught Rayna scribbling on my bedroom walls, and started to yell, and she did the whole toss and run routine yet again. This time my husband came running to catch her in the act as well, being that he was sick of staying up late each night to paint over any new drawings, and he paused, then said, "I know you're mad, but look at what she drew...She actually DREW something!" She had drawn smiley faces all over the wall.

To many people this would seem like no big deal, but to anyone that remembers the repetitive drawings their children would hand them proudly to put on the fridge when they were toddlers, or the millions of trees that were chopped down the year their children were in preschool/VPK to support the need for a backpack full of drawings sent home each day, this would seem like quite the opposite. A 2-year-old usually draws random scribbles. A 4-year-old usually draws random scribbles in the shape of a circle and calls it a dog.

So instead of freaking out and banning all coloring and drawing utensils from the house, as I often thought of doing, we gave her a notepad and pen, and sat with her on the couch. She just went to town drawing, and telling us what she drew. We couldn't believe it. Her drawings actually looked like what she was trying to draw! Since I'm still stick-figuring it up, she must've inherited the artistic talent from her father and his mother (whom she calls Daddy, and NayNay).

And this abruptly concludes my bragging moment.

 

Mommy and Baby Monster

 

 

Mickey Mouse x 4

Moms Can Be Shallow Too

Mia and Rayna were fighting over who got to have their lunchable handed to them first. The argument was getting pretty intense as I peeled open the lid, with lots of screaming and "Me first!!!"s.

Then Rayna turns to me in a panic and yells, "Mommy! You're bootiful!!!!!"

Guess who won? :)

The Amazing Potty

I only have one child left in diapers, and she'll be 3 in February, so I think it's time to start pushing her to use the potty a little bit more. She's definitely interested in the act of "peeping" in the potty, as she calls it.

Mia still needs a little help when she's on the potty, especially after number 2, so I hear from a distance, "Mom, I need your helllllppppp!" I say, "With that Mia?" Mia yells, "I POOPED!!!!"

An excited Rayna goes running towards the bathroom, pushing me out of the way and tripping along the way, uttering over and over again, "Let me see it, let me see it, let me see it." Rayna beats me to the bathroom, so she can get a frontline seat to this potty training action.

Mia stands up and while I'm wiping her, I notice Rayna's face is getting awfully close to the toilet bowl. I say, "Rayna, what are you doing?"

Rayna responds, "I see it! I see it!" and rushes to flush the toilet. Mia used to get mad when Rayna would flush the potty for her, arguing that that was her favorite part and Rayna ruined it for her (with me replying that it would happen again tomorrow and she'd have many other chances to flush), but now I think she's gotten lazy and almost relies on Rayna's bathroom attendance.

The best part is after they wash their hands, Mia yells, "HIGH FIVE!" like it was a team effort on their part, and they both high five and walk happily out of the bathroom. 

Chocolate Is A Girl's Best Friend

Is it considered bad parenting when you interrupt a sibling quarrel with promises of chocolatey goodness? Must be a girl thing, because no matter how bad the fighting is, as soon as I yell, "Who wants chocolate??!!!" all is forgiven. They sit, they eat their pieces of chocolate, and then it's, "Want to play bus driver?" "Ok Mia!" and they're little BFF's again.

Conversation with Mia

Me - *kisses Mia's face* I love this face.

Mia - I KNOW MOM, but you can't take it off, because that's illegal.

Me - *laughs hysterically* Mia I'm not going to take your face off.

Mia - Because you would go to jail Mom.

Me - I'm still going to kiss attack your face though.

Mia - Ugh, Mommmm.

Common Stinker Quotes

"Rayna is coloring on something and it's not paper!!!"


"I accidentally spilled my drink."


"Rayna threw this in the toilet!!!"


"Ew! There's something wet on the floor!!!"


"Big Sissy being a bully!!!"


"Mia's not sharing!"


"Him evil!"


"Look at my butt!!!"

Random Animal Cuteness

 

 

CiCi and Tobias have always gotten along (meaning they never attacked eachother) but this cuddling thing is new, and I love it! It seems that since we gave CiCi a bath snobby Tobias deems her good enough to share some cuddle space. I usually don't let CiCi lay on the couch, but I mean really, would you have broken this up? I'm pretty sure CiCi realizes that she's only allowed on the couch if she does something cute like cuddles up to a cat or baby, so I think we're good.

Meet the Stinkers

Alexis Marie

 

 

Nicknamed Lexi, Alexis is my oldest stinker, born in September of 2004. She is 8-years-old, going on 16.  Don't let the conveniently placed lights in the shape of a halo on the picture confuse you. The smile says it all. Don't get me wrong; she's a very sweet and thoughtful girl. She's also very witty and has the ability to put most adults to shame in the matter of seconds.

 

Lexi's hobbies include singing, dancing, reading, writing, and making short video blogs. Oh yes, be prepared for some highly entertaining video blogs detailing all of our fashion mistakes.

 

 

 

Mia Rose

 

 

Mia is the middle child, but don't worry, she doesn't suffer from Middle Child Syndrome. She refuses to take second priority to anyone and anything. Mia was also born in September (awesome month for my wallet), year of 2008. She is 4-years-old and full of energy.

 

Mia's attitude face is what you see in the picture, and this comes out at least 20 times a day. I really think the "duck face" pictures taking over social media websites were inspired by a toddler's natural instinct responding to an undesired situation. Mia may seem like a tough cookie but she's actually super sensitive and nicknamed "The Gentle Giant" by her father. She definitely has her stinker moments though, and likes to pass on the big sisterly love that she receives from Lexi down to her little sister, which usually ends in her little sister screaming, "I had it first!!!!"

 

Mia's hobbies include drawing, playing, cuddling with CiCi (dog) and Tobias (cat), playing on the computer, and telling spooky stories. Expect some video clips on those too.

 

 

 

Rayna Makenzie

 

 

Rayna is the youngest of the bunch, born in February of 2010. Rayna is in the "terrible two's", but let's be honest; does it really stop at 2? Rayna is definitely smaller than her sisters were at her age, and is finally fitting into clothes for her age. Maybe the smallness of her played a role in it, or a subconscious knowledge that she more than likely will be my last baby, but I'm a little bit guilty of babying her.

 

Rayna was always ahead in her motor skills compared to where her sisters were at her age (I swear she learned to run before she could walk, and you should've seen the surprise on my face to learn she could draw smiley faces that actually looked like smiley faces; especially since she drew them all over the walls), but a little behind on the talking part of things. Now she is getting all caught up and saying more and more things each day. It's a bittersweet moment for most parents. Their child is talking and able to express themselves. Awww, and ahhhh.

 

Rayna's hobbies include taking my sugar, pouring it all over the floor doing "sugar angels", scribbling on her body, dropping things in the toilet, splashing barbies in the dog's water bowl, and getting stuck in random weird places (not as dangerous as it sounds).

 

 

 

 

CiCi

 

 

 

CiCi is our 2-year-old dog. She's calmed down a lot since her puppy days, but she still gets into things from time to time. We got her when she was 2 months old, so she's grown up with the crazy kids and is completely used to a small child trying to ride her like a horse. She's a lot bigger now than in this picture (I just like the fact that she looks like she's winking...add a little personification to anything and you've got a winner) and looks like she could be super scary (our neighbor once called Animal Control because he saw her in our yard and thought she was a wild cayote) but she is the sweetest dog ever. She is so gentle with the kids and cuddles with the cat. She does like to tease the cat when she thinks we're not looking though and place a paw on his back and step down so he can't move, but it's much like what a big sister would do to a little brother, I imagine.

 

CiCi's hobbies include begging for table scraps, trying to jump onto the couch when we're not looking, and guarding the front door.

 

 

 

 

Tobias

 

 

Tobias is the newest addition to our family. I've always liked cats, but having small children, never thought it was a good idea to get one, knowing how jumpy they can be around not-so-gentle kids. We didn't go out and get Tobias. He came to us. Haha, I know, sounds like a Hallmark special. For a couple of days my husband was saying that he would go outside with the girls, and this stray cat would just go up to Mia and rub up against her, and Mia was loving it. Everytime he tried to reach for the cat he would get scared and run off. Mia started referring to this cat as her friend, and would constantly look outside for him. My husband said the cat had to belong to someone because of his collar.

 

To speed the story up a little bit, I came home from work late one night, and too exhausted to muster up any energy to walk across the house, I immediately plopped onto the couch and passed out. I woke up a few hours later to these wide eyes staring at me. After I spazzed out internally for a minute, I realized this is the cat Mia has been talking about. Me being me, I cuddle-attacked the cat for a few, who to my surprise let me, and then went looking for the hubby so that I could question him on how the cat got inside the house. There was a note that he had ran to the corner store real quick, so I waited for him to get back, and he laughed and said, "Yeah, so I kinda felt bad and let the cat in."

 

The plan was to find the cat's owners, but after numerous attempts (calling the pound, putting found cat ads up, searching through lost pet ads) we came up blank. By this time the cat made himself comfortable and the kids all fell in love with him. So did I. I have to say, out of every cat I've ever met, this one has got to be the most tolerant. He has never scratched the kids intentionally, even when Rayna has tried to drag him by his tail. He puts up no fight when Mia carries him across the house in a blanket and calls him her baby. He is the impossibly perfect cat for this family.

 

 

 

And that just about sums it up on the "Meet the Stinkers" portion. Stay tuned for full updates on the daily activities of the stinkers.