WOWOWOW

Last night, Benjamin went poop and potty in the toilet!!
I want to shout from the mountain tops!!
WOO HOO!!
So knowing Ben.......what was the perfect bribe???

Yup, chocolate for his milk!!!
He was very eager to try on his own then when it didn't work so well for him and he was about to give up, I told him I would get him some chocolate for his milk if he was able to pee or poo in the toilet, he got very excited and tried really hard and it worked!!!
YIPPEE!!

We are so proud of him.
Not sure if this will happen again anytime too soon, but who knows, just happy he did it once!!

Crazy Kiddos!

Do you see something out of place in this picture?
Yup, it is the Benjamin on the counter. Crafty little Ben realized he could climb up the chair and onto the counter and reach all those things that we have told him not to touch. YIKES



David put Madison down on the Spiderman couch to hang out. Well, next thing you know, Benjamin sat down beside her and was looking at her, touching her, etc. Too cute! Madison then did the funniest thing......I wish I could read her mind.....



We think she was trying to get closer to her big brother.......she started out leaning then ended up falling onto Benjamin. She actually did this 2-3 different times. Too cute!


Things are well here at the Meier house today. The kids are out of school for the holiday and are just enjoying their time. I am just trying to stay ahead of the mess :).

What a night!!!

Wow, our little 2 year old Benjamin has some amazing LUNGS!!!
Luckily all the other kiddos sleep like ROCKS!
We decided that we need to get Ben to stay in his own bed at night again. He was doing very well with this in Columbia but he was in the crib and couldn't get out. He learned that he could grab his cup of water if needed then lay back down and go to bed. It only took a couple nights this summer to get to that point.....

well, then came the move

I figured that with the move came the time to be a big boy, give up the crib and that becomes Madison's. Ok......sounds great right, wrong......now he has nothing to physically keep him in bed.....so at the temporary places starting with the motels then the furnished apartment, I laid down with him in his bed until he fell asleep then I retreated to my bed (if I was still awake). Ok, not too bad, but now that my back is hurting, AGAIN (gotta get to a chiropractor but that is another story), we need to get him back to sleeping on his own. I bought a baby gate that only gets locked shut at bedtime.

Tuesday night, no problem, he slept through the night without waking up.....YEAH!! We praised him and told him what to expect the next bedtime.

Wednesday night.....oh my goodness........the boy can scream....He was MAD. He also realized that he could turn on the fan and lights in the room......grrr.......going to have David turn them off on the fan that is 9 feet in the air tonight so the switch won't work. After about 45 min he tired himself out (David fell asleep after about 25 min of the episode, man I wish I could sleep as well as the rest of the family but that changed when I had Mark, it's a mommy-thing I suppose.

Hoping that tonight is better.......if it plays out as it did this summer, tonight should be at least half the time or less hopefully.

Sorry no pictures today, I think that taking pictures in that situation would have made it worse. Though being a scrapbooker, don't think that it didn't cross my mind :)

Love you all!
Miss you.

OH MY GOODNESS!!

Wow, I think it is done!!
The move that is......did I say that I HATE moving!! All the unpacking, figuring out where in the world to put things, not finding everything. YUCK.
The kiddos did wonderful, except the first day when I didn't get the computers set up by the time they were home from school. The movers were 3 hours late and didn't get started bringing things in until 1:00pm.
Now we are hoping to get the house sold to move again.........is that just insane to think about or what????

The only bad thing is I didn't get pictures taken of the move because I misplaced the camera. Found it now, but didn't have it then.

Here are some fun pictures of the boys playing a fun game with Benjamin!

New Do!

Sorry, this post is not about the kiddos, but about my sanity. :)
David was kind enough to give me time Sunday after church to get my hair done. It has been well over a year since I have had a hair cut and almost a year since I last did my hair color from a box. I felt like I got the royal treatment!! It was wonderful.
Here is the result......

Poor Madison :(

What a sad sad face.........poor little Madison is teething. Not sure when her little teeth will come in but hopefully it is sooner than later, she is miserable. Luckily it is not all day, it has been hitting her mostly in the late afternoon and evening.

At least she has those little fists to chew on to help sometimes. Poor little girl.

On a positive note, the boys start school tomorrow!!! YEAH!!!!
I am so excited for this week, it will be a hectic one but hopefully one of getting back into routines. School will start Monday. Tuesday we will get the keys to the apartment. Wednesday our stuff will be delivered and cable set up. Thursday should begin some type of regular days (whatever that might mean)

Miss you all, love you all!!!

Christmas!!

Wow, what a whirlwind we have been in since Christmas. So sorry that I haven't blogged our Christmas pictures. The kiddos have been sooooo thankful for all their booty. The Christmas presents have definitely provided hours of entertainment and some peace for mommy :)

Madison is soooo thankful for her new clothes, she looks soooo cute in all of them and it is wonderful that they are the correct size!! Thanks sooo much!

Steven has already eaten through most of his candy, YIKES!! Definitely a joy for him to have candy that he doesn't have to share with this brothers (even though he did) He has also spent much time creating with all his art goodies and loves his whack-a-mole game especially the hammers :)


Benjamin was happy with all the great gifts he got, between hammering and pulling and noise making, he is loving it!! Ben definitely got delight in racing the cars down the ramps, he just giggled and giggled!!


Brian was a happy camper with his gifts! He loves playing Bolt on the Wii, especially after we watched it in the theater. He has been drawing up a storm. Brian especially loves his rubik's cube. He is working to solve it but he has the most fun mixing it up and having daddy solve it. Of course this last week has been spent with David learning how to solve it with online tutorials and videos. Now the rest of us are trying to get the hang of solving it too.


The laser tag game is a hit for all the boys, not just Mark. Even Benjamin will strap on the target and run around and start shooting anything that even looks like a target. Mark is having a blast with Crash on the Wii. He has also set up his spy gear stations around the house, this works great in combination with the laser tag so he has a heads up where his opponents are.

These are just a sampling of all the great things the Meier kiddos got......they love everything! I don't think there is anything that was not a hit. They all love their new shoes, I know, shoes, but they love them and Shel thought the practical gift wouldn't fare well, but they sure did!! The joke books also were wonderful, though you would think we could listen to more that the same 5 jokes when the books are not in hand :)

We love you all and miss you very much!!
Thanks for a WONDERFUL Christmas!

On another note..........
We will be moving into our apartment on Wednesday, January 6th. We will hopefully have it Monday or Tuesday but we are having the movers come Wednesday. With any luck we will get our cable and internet hooked up too by then.
Here is our new address.....oh wait, not the best idea........I will email you our new address.


Happy New Year!!!!

Holiday Fun!!!

Eventhough we are in a new state, far away from family, certain things hold true. (Especially when you have a 9 year old that will remind you of everything that needs to be done for the holiday) We had tons of fun spending our time doing some of these great holiday activities.

Madison is a bit to young to particpate in many of our activities but I thought she deserved recognition of her great behavior allowing us to do these fun thing. Plus, she was great eye candy to look at and smile any time we needed it.

One of our first holiday activities was making Christmas Cookies. Every year the boys get to roll out, cut out, and frost sugar cookies. The kitchen here is pretty small so I had to do it in shifts and the dining room table is over carpet and that sounded like a recipe for disaster so turn taking in the kitchen sounded much more workable.

Another tradition that began last year was making a gingerbread house. We started again this year with a kit due to limited kitchen items, but the thing that did change was Mommy was in charge and decided that the "glue" in the kit last year didn't work right so I made royal icing. This was also a challenge with our little kitchen supplies, the largest bowl was pretty shallow and it was hard trying to keep the powdered sugar in the bowl.

Mark, Brian, and Steven decorated this lovely house with tons of candies, or at least all the candies that they did not eat first :). What a great time!

Tomorrow I will post more holiday happenings, stay tuned!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Meier Fun!

The great thing about our LONG journey out to the northwest was being able to see family. We stopped in Clarkston , WA, a few hours from our destination and we saw Uncle Steve and cousins Tori and Kobe!!


We also stopped in Cedar Rapids and had fun with Grandma Meier, Uncle Charlie, and Uncle Robert. The boys definitely got some wiggles out as the "played" with their uncles. What a great time!


I hope we will able to get back to the central part of the U.S. to see family again sooner than later. I know that now we are so close to Uncle Steve that we will be able to visit Clarkston again when the weather clears up.