Mulch, mulch and more mulch

We just finished spreading 6 cubic yards of mulch this weekend. We ordered it on Wednesday and it was suppose to come on Friday but it never showed up. So I called and they rescheduled for Saturday morning. Well we came back from Yoga at 11:00 and we had not mulch. So I called again and the people said that the truck that was caring our mulch broke down so they would call another store and have them deliver it. So around 1 o'clock a truck came with our mulch. We were excited but it did not look like very much mulch. So we figured that we would have to order more later. Well about ten minutes later another truck came with our order of mulch. I told them that we had already gotten what we ordered but I said that we wanted more and if they dropped the delivery charge that we would take that mulch. So we ended up getting 6 cubic yards of mulch and it pretty much was enough. We did not have enough to cover behind our shed but that is alright we may run over and get some bags at a later date. So the yard looks great and it took two long days of spreading mulch. D was in charge of putting the mulch in the wheelbarrow and I was in charge of spreading it.

Our next door neighbor helped a lot with Nathan on Saturday and then on Sunday our other neighbor boy helped for a little while before Nathan took his nap. It was a nice weekend so the kids just mostly played outside by themselves or with the neighbors so we mostly worked on the mulch with a little kid distractions thrown in the once in awhile.


Before (you can't really see the beds because of the shadow)

After

Another part

On Wednesday we went to D's basketball recreational league game. The kids were really excited and it was fun to see them enjoy watching their dad play ball. Nathan really liked it and for the first half was pretty content just watching the game but the second half was a little restless so they played ball with some other kids.

There he is taking a shot. Look at his form. Good form D.


Here is the beginning of a fit


Here is Nathan watching the game. Too cute.

We had a ton of rain on Monday and Tuesday of this weekend so everything was wet and the Mallory and Nathan decided to go and play in the puddles and get into the dirt. They had fun and I was glad that Nathan got dirty since he is very particular about some things. He enjoyed it and I am glad he was not screaming at me every time he got a piece of dirt on him.

Here is the mud hole that they were occupying. It now has mulch in it so it will not longer be a mud hole.




I bribed Mallory to pose for me and Nathan came along and started asking her questions.


Mallory also went worm hunting and found lots of worms and let Nathan play with them. He was a little scared but he soon liked touching them which was also another big step for him. He is always scared of bugs/spiders and other moving creatures so it was good to see him interested in touching them. Mallory was sweet because she was acting like the worms mother and would take care of them. We finally had to put them away so that they would not get too hot on the picnic table.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-the mulch incident working out in our benefit
-having great neighbors
-a nicely mulched yard
-good weather weekend

Nathan is driving me nuts...

Well he is in and has been in his terrible twos for awhile now but sometimes I feel like it is getting worse each day. (However, today he has been pretty well behaved.) But I have been meaning to vent for sometime. He is very stubborn and strong willed. Those are my biggest complaints. He loves to do everything by himself from getting into the car, walking in the parking lot, changing his diaper or clothes, playing with every toy the girls have or had and eating what he wants to eat. It takes him forever to get into the car and to walk in the parking lot especially when I am in a hurry, which I usually am since it takes us forever to get into the car in the first place. I always set aside 10 extra minutes than when I really want to leave the house since I know that it will be that much more time to get out of the house. There is always someone who is in a mood or forgets something or needs water or whatever the need is. Nathan favorite thing to do lately is run away from us if we tell him to come here. So this usually happens outside when I am trying to leave and I tell them to go outside and get into the car. He goes outside and then stays in the driveway and when I come out and say, "Nathan it is time to get into the car" he runs around the house. So I usually say "Nathan you need to come here right now or I will give you a time-out". So I start counting and he usually ends up coming around 5 counts with a mischievous smile on his face. When I am in a hurry I just go and grab him which makes him very unhappy. What makes him the most unhappy is when he does not get to do something that he wants to do like get into the car himself or stay outside, etc. He is only happy when it is under his control and his efforts. Which I usually let him do but sometimes I don't have the patients or I am in a hurry. I had to slap his hand twice yesterday because he ran away from me in a parking lot. He was not happy with that and neither was Julianne but I told her that I would rather slap his hand than have him get hit by a car. She understood and told him he should not run in a parking lot. Our discipline techniques usually work but he is always getting disciplined so maybe they are not working. I just think he is in that phase and nothing will work right now. As long as I am consistent with what we are doing and know that he is not in any danger than he will grow out of it and then we will be dealing with a different issue.

I think he is more difficult than the girls were at this age. I don't remember them being so strong willed and difficult. We did not have the terrible twos with the girls and I think that the threes were a little worse than the twos but not this worse. I don't know if it is a boy thing, a third child thing or just a Nathan thing. Maybe I don't have enough patience to deal with him during this time since I have so much other stuff going on. I don't know but sometimes he drives me nuts!!! I love him to death and I am so glad that his is so strong willed and likes to do stuff by himself and it is fun to see how upset he gets over certain things. I know this will pass and I will be a more patient and stronger mother and women because of him but he is sure getting the best of me some days.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-My sweet Nathan
-getting into spinning class today
-my loving husband

Easter week

We had a great Easter weekend. The week before Easter was busy with us trying to complete all our Easter crafts and the girls' dresses. I completed both the girls dresses on time and they were not as hard and I thought they would be. They actually turned out very cute and I really liked the way Julianne's dress turned out. The girls also both liked their dresses which is also nice so that I did not have to force them to wear them.
Here are some pictures from the Easter Egg hunt in our yard and the girls dresses.

The kids are waiting downstairs while we hide the eggs.




Detail of Julianne's dress.


Mallory insisted on wearing her black tights and I let her since she thought it looked good. Sweet Mallory.


We finally finished our paper mache eggs which took about two weeks to complete since we had put on several layers of the paper mache. The kids had fun making the eggs and it was nice because they were basically free to make so that is nice. Since the girls enjoyed making the paper mache eggs and we used all recycled materials I will try to incorporate more paper mache projects into our craft schedule. It is amazing how many different shapes, animals, etc you can make from paper mache. The options are limitless and allows for lots of creativity.




I had a great idea, I read an idea of shredding colored paper for the Easter baskets grass, but my dilemma was that I did not have any colored paper and I did not want to buy colored paper for this occasion. So I reached into our recycling box and grabbed a some paper and put it in water with food coloring. Ta..da. Colored paper!! I was excited about the idea and the idea of reusing something. The kids did not care and did not even notice the paper and we did not have thrown always any silly Easter egg paper.

Here is the colored paper. I also used blue KUB envelopes so the kids had a good mix of colors in their baskets.

No a side note, Nathan thinks that Mallory's name is "Girls". We have been calling Julianne and Mallory the "girls" ever since Mallory was born. Well we continued that tradition after we had Nathan. After Nathan it was "the girls and Nathan" or "our children". We when would address the girls in front of Nathan we would say, "Nathan why don't you play with the girls", or "Where are the girls", etc. So this past month and as his language has developed I have noticed that when Mallory is just home or we are in the car he will look over at her and say "girls". It is really funny. He can say "Julianne" but he rarely says "Mallory." So we keep trying to talk to him about it but it sure is cute, even though Mallory does not like it.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Graters Ice Cream. Do I need to say more.
-Having a great Easter with the family.
-Almost fixing our patio door
-Completing the girls dresses on time and feeling happy with how they turned out

An evening at the park

On Saturday evening after dinner I got everyone out of the house and we went to the park with my camera in hand. We had a great time and D put up with me wanting to always take pictures of every moment. The light was great and it was fun to experiment with getting pictures and the light at different angles.

D was tossing our hoola hoop to Nathan and he would catch it. I love this picture because of Nathan's face.

We're off to the park with the girl towing their dolls. Julianne's face is priceless (you can't really see it from this picture but it is a kind of teenagerish look.


D and Nathan. Another priceless facial expression.

Nathan is yelling, "Girls!".

The family.

The only real sight of spring were these blooms. Knoxville is much prettier in the spring than Ohio.

Nathan in the tunnel slide.

This was the beginning of our parental torture, the "spinner!"




Notice the headband.

The result of the "spinner", crazy walking, falling down and good laughs.




I think that Mallory is finished with the "Spinner."

Nathan kept this expression everytime he was coming down from the being high in the air in the swing.


After playing at the park I took some pictures of the kids in the grass. They had fun and I actually got some pretty good pictures of all three of them.





On our way home.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Having nice family adventures, even if it just is going to the park.
-seeing the kids have fun outside.
-Laughing at our kids, it was fun to torture them a little.