Tuesday, January 31, 2012

A little bit of this and that.

0 comments Posted by Karen at 7:36 AM



I asked Nathan if we could start making this blog a team effort.  I assigned him the duty of putting the pictures on my blog and then I would write about them.  He stepped right up and nearly instantly had a plethora of pictures all ready to go.  Me on the other hand, I'm still slacking even though the hard part is done. 

So today is the day.  The sun isn't up yet, my kids are still sleeping, I've showered for the day, my laundry is done, my house is fairly clean.  Well except for my floors, they could use a washing.  But I'm pretty sure that there is never a day when they don't need a washing so I'm going to ignore that.  And then of course there's the bathrooms...2 little boys...I need not say more, but I'm going to ignore that too.  So here we go with the pictures Nathan has chosen. 

He's sort of a creative fellow, so the fact that the following pictures have absolutely nothing to do with each other is not real surprising, so I'm going to make the best of it!

Nathan likes to document the moments when he is being superdad...well he's actually superdad a lot, but this day he was a superdad that cooks!  Even better!!!


 This was a testing day at MMA.  They offer these days every now and then, I can't really figure out a schedule to them.  But it's a chance for them to earn stripes on their belts.  See the one way on the far end in the front row?  That's our Jentzen.  He's the littlest one in the class, and everyone always roots for him.  See the one 4th from the end?  That's Ava, looking at someone else...she's very observant and never misses a thing.  See that one in the black uniform with the white belt....yeah that's Quaid??
This was up north at our annual Pahl Family Christmas Ski Trip.  Keira made sure that grandpa was nice and cozy.  Isn't that precious??


This is Quaid, cleaning daddy's car.  Nathan figured that since they are the ones that actually create the disaster in the back that they should be the ones to clean it up.  And what would cleaning be without a Superman suit?  And what would cleaning be without a Dyson?  I love my Dyson!
Well I guess that about sums it up for today.  The sun is now trying to make an appearance, the kids are stirring and my floors are still a mess, and I just had to spell check the word "appearance"...it's going to be a great day!



 

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Backfired

3 comments Posted by DWNUNDR at 7:33 AM

 

I got this idea from Deb, who got it from someones blog.  I'd give them credit but I can't find it anymore.  
It deals with the issue of my kids stuff laying around the house and me telling them numerous times to put it away.  
In comes "the box" and it works like this...
1.  The kids leave their things laying around.
2.  I tell them to pick it up.
3.  They don't pick it up.
4.  I still see it laying around.
5.  It gets put in the box.
6.  They have to pick a slip from the envelope in the box and do whatever it says if they want it back. 
The slips in the box day all sorts of things.  Some of them are fun (run around the house yelling, "I love mommy!!!"), some are not so fun (clean up your siblings room).  Some of them are easy (draw a picture for daddy), some of them not so easy (vacuum under the couch cushions).  

So far it's worked like a dream....kind of.  Since the kids helped me make the slips to go into the envelope, they know what they say.  Like I said, there are fun ones....one being the jackpot of all slips, "Stay up late and have a treat with daddy."  (It would be mom and dad, but I go to bed at 8pm and in my kid's world, that's not late and daddy's more fun anyways.)  So in the hopes of drawing that one, the kids have asked that their things could be put in the box.  "Mom, I left this laying out, can I put it in the box and pick a slip...PPUUUULLLLEEEASE!!!!!"
So maybe showing the kids what was on the slips wasn't such a good idea.  Anyway,  shortly after this started, Nathan thought he was just hilarious, saw my boots laying in the kitchen, brought them into the office, and said, "Well honey, don't you think you should be the example?  These boots were just laying the kitchen, I don't think that's where they belong."  And then proceeded to open the lid and drop them in.  The kids were dying in laughter.  They thought it was the best EVER!
"Ummmm, Nathan dear, do you really want to go there?  Would you like me to put everything of yours I find laying around in the box also...after all, we both are examples for the kids."
He sat for a minute, got up, opened the lid, took them out and stated, "I think your mom does enough around the house kids to make up for her boots in the kitchen."
A wise man I tell ya, a VERY wise man.


 

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Like son, like father

3 comments Posted by Karen at 10:24 AM



Quaid got a remote control helicopter for Christmas from his Uncle Bob.  And let me tell, you I'm totally impressed.  The thing is still going strong despite Quaid's crashing it countless times into walls, floors, and sisters :)  He's getting pretty good at maneuvering it, now that his dad isn't stealing it all the time.  And that's because this arrived in the mail a few days after Christmas.  Seems a certain dad had a little too much fun with his son's present he just had to go and buy his own!



Quaid's is the same model as his dad's except for the 4 channel part I think?  I'm no helicopter expert but I'm told that dad's is a bit more challenging to control.  Or maybe that's just the explanation I got after the head to head helicopter race in which Quaid came out victorious :)

Did you know they make these things huge, for the outdoors, and gas powered??  I just hope this helicopter craze stays with the small indoor battery powered type.  We don't have room in the garage for that...and no honey, that DOES NOT mean we need a bigger garage!!


 

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Love....

1 comments Posted by Karen at 10:13 AM

It makes a momma's heart melt....






 

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

What's a teacher to do....

1 comments Posted by Karen at 1:52 PM

It's January 10th. It's the middle of winter. It's 50 degrees and sunny outside. What is this teacher going to do?

I ditched our afternoon History lesson. Sent the kids to their grandma's paved driveway with a bucket of sidewalk chalk. I'm going to stay inside and clean up their disaster of a toy room for them as a surprise so they can get out and enjoy the freakish weather. They're going to totally dig their mom.

It's a good day serving my children.

PS...I think this is one day I can say I'd rather have January in MN than January in Australia. The weather forecast for the Brewin clan down under is 102 degrees...yep...I'll take it here!!!

 

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Woes of a 6 year old.....

1 comments Posted by Karen at 7:22 AM

While letting out a big sigh regarding the antics of my boys.....

Ava: (following with a big sigh) "Life is full of disappointments, isn't it mom...."

If you're one teaching my child these choice phrases, thanks, thanks so much.

Life is not full of disappointments. It's full of Joys, Fun, Challenges, and Triumphs. Today will not be a disappointing day.

 

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