I admit it … I’m a little afraid and intimidated by this particular mountain of a task.  Monkey and Bugs are two and a half now …. definitely time to be considering and entering into this lovely little phase of life. 

Toward the end of last school year, I put it off saying that it is so much easier to potty train when it is warm and they can run around in their little skivvys without fear of frostbite.   But then I decided to put it off again because … well … let’s face it, having 6 children using one toilet is NOT the greatest time to train. 

I tend to do the no potty seat, no pull ups method of training.  They learn to pee sitting, then not too long afterward very quickly go to standing.  I’ll admit though it has been a couple years since the last potty training experience and although I have trained 4 boys already, the thought of training twins who simply must do everything at the same time (their choice, not always mine!) is almost too much to handle.

So I’m joining Works-For-Me Wednesday’s backward edition this week to seek out other moms who have potty trained TWIN BOYS!  Throw it at me girls!

What exactly does a “Dude” look like????  Well, if you are anything like me and never had that image clearly defined in your mind, I’m here to settle that now once and for all .

Today I gave the three younger boys Summer haircuts.  I don’t usually do this by myself with this particular half of my children, but since I was doing the cut on the twinkies using only the trimmer I knew it would move quick enough to avoid too many issues!

In the middle of Monkey’s Haircut, Sir Lion declared that “he looks like a dude now mom”.  “Reeeaaaaly?”  I said, “Who knew?”.   So, without further ado, here’s a few “DUDE” pictures :).  (Bug was NOT a happy camper during the post-haircut photo shoot, so here are a couple of Monkey.)

Although this would be a very appropriate title as my boys play outside most of the time hunting creatures and seeking adventure and imaginary enemies (LOL), I am actually talking about the show on the Discovery Channel. Survival shows are all the rage in our home.  The Discovery Channel has plenty of them throughout their family of channels (mainly on The Discovery Channel and Discovery Kids), primarily on Friday and Saturday nights.

We only get sattelite service where we live and that means we have to watch many shows 3 hours early or 3 hours late - even though we’re pacific time, we get many channels on EST.  Believe it or not, this can actually be a good thing in our boys’ opinion since it gives them more opportunities to catch up on the latest episodes.

Man vs. Wild is always the favorite around here though they have just discovered another show called The Alaska Experiment.  It is funny to me how some of these “similar” survival shows can be so different.  Man vs. Wild is all about the adventure and shock factor whereas Sirwhinerman Survivorman is more about the endless days and nights and all the drama. 

For Heaven’s sake, how many crazy things can one man (ie: Bear Grylls) do, eat and see in one episode?  For instance, Friday night there was a new episode of him in Zambia and here’s a run down of the “adventure”:

Things He Did:
~ Dropped off into raging river from a helicopter (on a body board no less), climbed at least two slippery sheer cliffs (called one of them “irresistible” LOL)
~ Poor man, I’ll list the things he ate in a moment, but the last “lovelies” that he consumed apparently sent his body over the proverbial edge because he spent much of the rest of the show miserable with diarrhea.
~ Built a pyramid fire to signal the helicopter that was picking him up
~ Exited the area by hopping onto the landing gear of the helicopter and hanging on as it carried him out heehee.

What He Ate:
~ Catfish (caught amidst Hippos and Crocodiles)
~ Grubs - not just any grubs either one of them was ginormous, but I’ll spare you the GORY details.
~ A Bullfrog - can I just say EWWWW!  It truly was nasty!
~ “Chargrilled brightly colored worms” - he got sick after eating these so they obviously should have been avoided.
~ Because of his poor stomach he filtered some of the local water and made a charcoal tea to soothe it.

Things He Saw:
~ Hippos
~ Crocodiles
~ Elephants - this was TRULY AMAZING there was a herd of over 80 elephants right in front of him!
~ Leopard prints and kill
~ Hyena prints
~ Many Many Critters ‘n such

There you have the show (can I emphasize here again this was ONE EPISODE) in a nutshell.  Sometimes I just feel like saying “holy cow man you are a little nuts” even if he DOES have a fully equipped camera crew with him.  But I love his truly genuine regard, appreciation and amazement at the beauty around him throughout his “adventures”.  But I’m also always hanging on to the edge of my seat and covering my eyes. 

For the boys it’s all about the gross things he eats.  Believe it or not they actually do have their limits, on one episode he ate a tree frog and that was completely over the top in The Salesman’s opinion, but they love seeing him do crazy things and truly enjoy getting grossed out by his “food”.  If you’re looking for enough drama for even a teenage girl, watch Sir-whiner-man Survivorman.  I’m not saying that I don’t appreciate some of the information and tips that he shares, but he stays in the same place night after night, monologuing about each and every detail about everything around him and what he’s doing and the show is a little like this sentence, going on and on instead of really getting anything done.

I have to say though that these men are probably living the dream of every (almost) little boy.  Life is full of reality each and every day even for children, so it is truly amazing that “reality” shows (we all know that much of what happens on them is edited and staged for entertainment value, but still …) can put a whole new twist on said “reality”. 

What if we looked at our lives through the eyes of a reality show?  We’d see the adventure and take it - we’d notice the incredibly amazing beauty around us and be so thankful for the opportunity - we’d try new things that may not turn out very well, but we tried them anyway and lived to tell the tale.  I think we’d appreciate everyday life and the blessings we’ve been given just a little bit more. 

So today I’m wishing you all a little adventure, maybe even a little drama.  A renewed outlook and amazement at the beauty around you - blog about it, turn your life into a reality show for one day and see if your perspective changes just a little. 

Based on yesterday’s announcement I am hoping that my “regulars” will understand and forgive my “personal” absence this week.  I sat down so many times to post a little piece of our lives through the week, but for some reason none of it ever made it’s way into a full fledged post.  So here I am needing to play a little catch up on the adventures of the week.

Much of my week was spent further twin proofing the house.  This is definitely NOT to be mistaken for Childproofing a house . . . no, no, no!!!  Soooo much different than that!  They are forever finding new ways to climb to the ceiling (no joke)  and break into things and rooms they shouldn’t have a clue how to get to! 

They learned how to open the front door the end of last week which was very scary considering they like to beeline for the road.  We live in the middle of nowhere ladies and have a gynormous back and side yard, but the first thing straight ahead of you as you leave our front door is the road.  People go very fast on this road, there isn’t a lot of traffic, but they go FAST! UGH!!!!  The panic was about to leave me with a heart condition so the only real solution (bolting the door just isn’t that convenient for the bigger boys when they play outside) was to find door knob covers. 

Sir Lion the StrongWilled apparently has decided two things . . . 1. One needn’t change out of their pajamas until they have been asked about 10 times while mom is busy each day and 2. Crying anytime things don’t go your way may be more effective than screaming and stomping our little foot.  Now, truth be told, both of these things annoy me greatly!  Sad, but true!  I’m an “only ask once” kind of mom and don’t consider my requests “optional” (though most of my children do) so when these two things combine he won’t find himself getting a lot of sympathy from me.  In fact, he’ll usually find himself in a “quiet spot” (away from the room I’m in) to “get a grip”.  Lovely!

Then there’s CJ, the 12 year old weed that we call our oldest son.  Yeah that one.  He has suddenly gone moody on us (again, LOVELY! *sigh*).  The biggest issue we are dealing with is actually not all that different than Lion’s . . . he considers requests as either optional or “when I’m ready”.  HUH???  Why is it that they suddenly think it’s ok to try to change the game plan?  It’s different from what Lion is doing only in the sense that he isn’t saying he won’t do it, he just thinks he should be able to get away with the “just one more” attitude.  Enough of that though.

Tater and The Salesman are pretty much par for the course right now which is good for this mama’s nerves!  They have their little issues here and there and will switch places with Lion and CJ anyday now, but until then I’m thankful for the normalcy!

That pretty much sums up the Froggy group update!  Haven’t done one of them in a very long while, so there you have it!

On the Frog Parent front there is only one thing to report, Frog Daddy is starting a new job with a different company next week.  An exciting development for him since it will at last give him the opportunity to finally be in the position he has been working toward for the last 9 years!  We are so very thankful for this and pray that he will be blessed and that those around him will be as well!

Until next time . . . have a wonderful weekend and HAPPY EASTER! 

As you know I haven’t been 100% lately, so tonight I had to call in an order to the only pizza place that delivers out to our house.  I had already called in and paid for the pizza when I remembered that I would need to give the driver their tip . . . ugh!  Who keeps cash on hand anyway, hmmmm, maybe we’re the only ones who don’t. 

So I head for the two jars I keep handy for all of my “income” earned from doing the laundry (in other words the money I find in the dryer from any family members who didn’t clean out their pockets).  I could swear I had at least two dollar bills in one of those jars . . . not anymore.  So I found some quarters and mentioned out loud that I could use a couple dollar bills. 

Suddenly from the bedroom near where I was standing our oldest son (age 12) announced matter of factly:

“I have 5 brothers, 2 dollars and some quarters to offer.”

I couldn’t help myself, I started cracking up!  It was said like it was a normal everyday comment.  When I looked at him he was sitting on the floor looking at me with a silly grin on his face.  So I told him,  “I’ll take a dollar and a couple of quarters but we need to keep the brothers.”

Later on while we were in the living room (still waiting for the pizza) the Salesman (age9) apparently felt it necessary to clear something up with his only bigger brother in regards to the 5 brothers offering and said:

“You know, we’re each worth at least $1,000 or so . . . way more than pizza.” 

OHMYWORD!  Could they be funnier . . . without even trying (though I think that is actually when they are the funniest).

Hey everybody I hope you had an excellent weekend!!!!! What do you think of our new look? I really needed to brighten things up a bit around here and I hope you like it!

I’m over at Twin Journey today - I have been feeling nostalgic about their first bath and the first time they were able to co-bed at the NICU! So, I’d love to welcome you to hop on over there and read this great story and share in the joy of our twins! Oh, and there’s some great pictures too!

I’ve also been over at A Mom’s Faith today writing about Anxiousness!

Happy Monday!

I know that I’ve been absent for a few days, but I really am here!!!! I guess you could say that I’ve been on a mini blogging vacation - visiting other mommy blogs for the last few days. I know that I almost always participate in Wordless Wednesday, and I promise I will return to that next week.

I have been over blogging at Twin Journey and that may explain a large part of my absence - sigh! I adore my precious twosome, but this teething thing . . . ugh! Right now they are trying to rearrange the living room - it truly is amazing what a one year old is capable when you multiply that by 2!!!!! But I digress - that’s the kind of updates that are frequently made in their blog! I simply must say though that trying to keep up with two wiley one year olds can make one feel a little nuts sometimes! The things they do . . . . the training they need . . . the discipline . . . you get the idea. I don’t know if it is multiplied by two or if it is more equivalent to more since every time you talk to one about something not being ok, the other thinks it is their turn and on and on it goes. They look you in the eye and run right back to the naughty, then they stand there and laugh at you or collaborate even more naughtiness - oy!

Oh, then you throw a very strong-willed three year old into the mix and wow! I do understand why our little surprises came as a set of 2 though! If there was only one of them they would be trampled, pushed and tormented, but as a pair they are able to do all of that to him. It is truly amazing to watch this in action. Sir Lion (Son4) is the type of kid that NO ONE messes with, he can pin The Beaver (Son3) in a Heartbeat - keep in mind that they are 4 years apart in age. So when I saw the babies taking Sir Lion on one evening about a week ago I was very interested to see what would happen.

It was a very strange evening and Sir Lion had taken a very late nap and was eating a sandwich at about 8pm (this NEVER happens around here - truly an oddity). He insisted that he absolutely could not be alone in the kitchen to eat so we told him he coule eat at the kids table in the Living room, but that he’d be better off in the kitchen since the babies would think he should share. We went along with it since all of the older boys were in bed. Well, he was a little whiny from it being such a weird late nap and he wasn’t really eating the sandwich, just sort of guarding it.

The babies decided that they HAD to have this sandwich and him trying to keep it from them just made it a game. He was whining about them coming after his sandwich and after a time Hubby and I noticed that the babies were almost using a strategy. One would distract him and the other would swoop in grabbing at the sandwich. You know, the whole divide and conquer thing. It was totally working though, a couple of times they would get a little piece of the sandwich and Sir Lion would wail about that.

I have to say that although Hubby and I were very sympathetic to the pathetic Sir Lion we were both laughing hysterically when he wasn’t looking because this is the first time in his life that ANYTHING has been able to get his goat! In the end, guess who got the sandwich . . . that’s right The Peas - heehee! It truly was an amazing process and in the end their distract and swoop tecnique prevailed! It was like watching a couple of birds of prey. I think we must be easily entertained because this was the highlight of our week! It actually turns out that Sir Lion wasn’t hungry anyway and just needed to cuddle and go back to bed, but I think he learned the first of possibly many lessons about taking on The Peas - we’ll see!

Well, that’s all for now . . . until next time.