A Day in the Life of Jesse

Lately I have been really feeling the frustrations of motherhood.

Maybe it's because Jesse is at that stage in his life where he is into everything!!

Here's how our day went yesterday: Before I can get the breakfast dishes cleared away, Jesse begins his quest - to see just how many messes he can make in one day before Mom loses it.
He wanders into the bathroom and he must be thinking "Hmmm - what can I do with that roll of toilet paper in the cabinet -- I know!...I'll dunk it in the potty and then tear it to shreds and sling it all over the walls and floor....yeah!....that'll be fun!" As I finish cleaning the kitchen, for the first of many times that day (and every day), I decide I'd better investigate the mischeivious giggles from the bathroom. Jesse gets a good scolding and sits down on the couch and cries for a good 2 minutes before he picks himself up and moves on. As I begin the process of cleaning the bathroom mess, Jesse spies the stack of clean, folded laundry on the coffee table and just can't resist the urge to knock it off into the floor. Then the shiny water dispenser on the refrigerator catches his eye, and even though he knows it's a no-no - he starts pushing the button....on and off....watching the bursts of water shoot out onto the kitchen floor and rug. After making a pretty good size puddle in the floor, he runs through it a few times, back and forth from the other room where his play dishes are, bringing back his little tea cups to fill with water.........Now what to do with all those cups full of water....."I know - I'll pour them in Mommy's tennis shoes over there by the door, that way I can drip and spill water all over those clean clothes in the floor, as I step all over them with my dirty feet walking back and forth!"
After this, Jesse got a spanking and spent some time in his room where he stood behind the door sobbing "I sorry, Mama......I sorry, Mama.......don't get me in trouble...."

And this all happened before lunch.....the rest of our day went similarly. I spent his naptime mopping floors. Throughout the day, as I cleaned up one mess, he would sneak off and make another. He dumped half a can of fish food in the fish tank, knocked all of the books off of the bookshelves in both Hunter and Faith's rooms, smeared several kinds of my make-up into the carpet in my dressing room, pulled the clothes out of all of the drawers he could reach in Faith's room, and several other messes of a more "minor" degree!!!

I'm sure some of you can relate to this, others will think that I'm exaggerating.....THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION! THIS IS REAL!.....so get ready for it, Jon & Naomi, and anyone else approaching this stage!

....God knew that it was necessary to make our children cute and adorable.....to prevent their parents from strangling them!

Snowed In at Fayetteville

We spent a long snowy weekend in Fayetteville visiting Kenney and Becky and the boys.....

they got over 6 inches of snow there over the weekend.....

we couldn't get out until late Monday afternoon.....

WE HAD A BLAST!!!!!



































































































We played in the snow, warmed up in front of the fire, played in the snow some more, played games, watched movies, went sledding, rode 4-wheelers, played ping pong, watched some olympics, ate chili, drank cider.......and then played in the snow some more!!

We tried to build a snowman, but the snow was too dry and powdery - it wouldn't stick together - but it was perfect for sledding, and there is an awesome hill for it in front of their house (see photos). We had our own little winter olympics on that hill! The boys built ramps out of the snow and were jumping their sleds over them to see who could catch the most air! ( We judged them on height, speed and landing).

It was a great weekend. I'm so glad we decided to go. We debated because we knew there would be some winter weather, but we just packed some extra food and went anyway. Fayetteville got lots more snow than we got here in central Ark, and the kids got to do lots of fun stuff - they were all hoping we would be snowed in another day. We had some trouble getting over that big snow covered hill in our front wheel drive van when we tried to leave Monday afternoon, and our first 2-3 attemps were unsuccessful.....



then Kenney chained us to his 4 wheel drive and pulled us over - we had no problem from there.

Princess Party

I guess I really didn't need to get Faith dressed up for Lilli's birthday party........








Within minutes, she and Lilli had shed their peasant clothing for something more fitting for princesses!........




It was a great princess party - complete with castle cake (one of Marria's many talents).

Haircuts at last

Becky came and spent the day with us on Friday, and thank goodness, she brought her scissors and got hold of those shaggy haired boys of mine! They were long overdue.

We had lunch at Chili's and then we went and walked their property and she showed us where they plan to put the house and shop, etc...It's a beautiful piece of land - I know they can't wait to get started with the building process.

Re-opening Old Wounds

Before.....














After.....














Wouldn't ya know it.... - Jesse bumped his head on the table and hit the exact spot where the old wound was still healing - the place where he had 9 stitches to close a cut on his head 3 weeks ago. (from the t.v. incident)

It was healing so well, and the pink scar was growing fainter each day.....

now there is a pool of blood in the middle of it, just under the surface, and it is bubbled up and swollen again.....

so the chances for an inconspicuous scar just got a lot slimmer!......Poor kiddo - he sucked his thumb for the rest of the night and just wanted to cuddle (which was okay with me).