1-2-3 Magic

This is a book that was recommended to me by a couple different people. It is about a parenting technique that is surprisingly easy yet VERY effective! It is enjoyable to read which always helps! Any ways, We started using the 1-2-3 Magic with the kids about three weeks ago and we are now enjoying each other more and things are a little quieter with less screaming and yelling going on! The girls responded very quickly and Jaco in the last three days has made a dramatic improvement. Our mornings together are so much better and the kids are more independent in getting ready for school.

So what is 1-2-3 Magic? Here is the short version. 1-2-3 Magic is little talking, little emotion, and a lot of accountability for the kids. Lets say La-La is whining right before dinner because she wants a granola bar because she is STARVING! I tell her no and explain to her why I said no. She continues to beg/whine so I say "La-La, that's one" Then I don't say anything or show any emotion (this is the hardest part!). If she continues to whine I say "La-La, that's two." If she stops, we are all good. But, if it continues, I say "La-La, that's 3 take 6" (because she is 6 years old). La-La then has to go to her room for six minutes but she is allowed to play, read, rest or do whatever she wants in her room except anything electronic. Then when the 6 minutes is up, she is allowed out and here is the most important part. I let her out and don't say anything about why she was in there. It is over, done, finished. Another big part of the 1-2-3 Magic is getting kids to do their chores. One thing they suggest is you do the chores for them with a smile on your face. You are smiling because they have to pay you for doing their chore! So lets say I ask Jaco to clear the table and tell him he has until 7 to have it done. He chooses to play outside instead so at 7 I clear the table for him but he has to give me $.25 from his allowance.
As I said, the girls responded beautifully to the counting. I rarely have to put them in "time-out" because once I say "that's 2" they stop the bad behavior. Jaco has been a bit more stubborn about it and it kills him to not be able to argue with us because if he does, he is counted and has to go to his room. He finally seems to be getting it and we have had 3 great days with him! Not perfect by any means but sooo much better! I am excited to have found something so simple that really works! I was able to buy the book on Amazon for under $10. The author also wrote a kids version of the book to help teach your kids about 1-2-3 Magic and how it works. I bought this one also and it was great. It is illustrated and written like a story book so it is really easy for the kids to understand.
I highly recommend this book for any parent. If you had seen our mornings 3 weeks ago and then seen the last three mornings you would run to the nearest bookstore to get a copy! I know parenting is an ongoing ever changing process so I know we will still have rough days but I am just so excited that this really is helping our family be happier!

The Oregon Caves

After a morning of watching Jaco and La-La play soccer we took a short drive to visit the Oregon caves. These caves were discovered by a man named Elijah Davidson in 1874. He was hunting and his dog chased a bear into the caves so he followed his dog. Elijah found his way through the cave with just matches. Today your path is lit by lights and you can only enter them with a guide.These are beautiful marble caves that are 3 miles long! They have a very strict rule that requires children to be 42 inches or taller before being allowed on the tours so Miss Care Bear couldn't go and I was the lucky one to stay with her! She and I did get to go on a "sneak peak" tour which was just the first room of the caves. She was pretty nervous in the "pitchly back" so it was a good thing she didn't go on the 90 minute tour! Plus, I twisted my ankle the other day so I probably would have struggled with all the steps. Care Bear and I had fun hanging out by some waterfalls and little lakes and chasing Cody around. She is always happy outside!

Warm enough for this?

Oh YES it was! Yesterday hit 90, today was 91. Want proof? Here ya go!

La-La cooling off! She does have a swimsuit on, I promise! It just matches her skin too well but it is her favorite suit!

Care Bear's turn!

I don't think I have ever lived anywhere that we have been able to play in an UNHEATED pool without shivering in APRIL! My only complaint is I have had to turn on the AC by dinnertime or it is just too warm.

Before antibiotics. =( (The picture is not very clear because it is from my phone.)

Poor Jaco was not able to play in the water due to a case of Strep Throat. He woke up Sunday with a fever and sore throat. I knew we would be heading to the Dr on Monday when he spiked to 104. For some reason, Jaco always gets extreme fevers when he is sick. I can't tell you how many times he has gotten to 105+. The bad part about it is at night when he is feverish, he is LOONY! I remember once when he was about 3 he appeared to be hallucinating in the middle of the night due to a high fever. He was as calm as could be (and awake) and telling me all about the crabs and spiders crawling all over the walls. When he had strep in March he woke up screaming so I went in to help him. He would thrash around screaming and then suddenly go dead still like he was in a trance. Then he would start screaming again. I tried to reason with him and got head butted so hard right on my nose. It still hurts! Sunday night when I gave him another dose of advil before I went to bed, he was convinced I was getting the medicine out of the ceiling! When we went to the Dr yesterday, Jaco was so worried about getting the strep test. He HATES that swab in his throat! The Dr checked him out and agreed it looked like Strep. When he pulled out the swab Jaco instantly covered his mouth. The Dr stopped and said, "Oh yeah! He doesn't like this!" He decided to save the 10 minute drama and just gave Jaco the prescription for antibiotics because all the symptoms and his throat said Strep.

24 hours after first dose of antibiotics. Modern medicine is amazing!

My CRAZY 3 year old!!

Miss Care Bear never ceases to amaze me with her vigor and vim for life! She has kept me on my toes from day one. Before I even held her in my arms I knew I had a live wire on my hands. As proof, here is an entry I wrote while still pregnant with her.

"At seventeen weeks I had another ultrasound. Everything on the baby looked really good. It's little hands were up by it's face the whole time. It kept playing peek-a-boo with us. It would cover up it's face with it's hands and then move them away. Sometimes it looked like it wanted us to pick it up because it would reach it's little arms up. I fell so in love with this baby at the ultrasound. It already seems to have so much personality!"

I think I hit the nail on the head with that journal entry! Her primary teacher told us that she is so full of it and very funny. She is starting to show her true colors outside of the home so other people are seeing what we see everyday!

Tonight Care Bear did what I predicted a year ago. She rode her bike without training wheels! She has had her bike for one year now. I blogged about her new ride last year and said she would ride without training wheels even younger than La-La did which was 4 1/2 years old. Care Bear is 3 1/2! Her friend across the street who is 6 months older, rode her bike today without training wheels so Care Bear decided she was ready too. The first time she tried she went at least 50 ft without falling! I couldn't believe it but at the same time I was not surprised. She is scared to turn and needs to work on the stopping but balance is not an issue at all! This little girl never ceases to amaze me and scares me to death at the same time!

Here are a some funny things she has said and done in the last few days.

Care Bear has been loving her Easter treats and sneaks a piece of candy every chance she gets. Today I had asked her to put it away as it was almost dinner time. I went outside and a few minutes later she came out with a sucker in her mouth. I reminded her that I had said no more and she informed me that the sucker was not real. It was just a play sucker!

Yesterday she came to me and showed me how her dollhouse daddy can pick her up. She then put the doll up to her tummy with it's arms "around" her and jumped.

She still is really into figuring out boys and girls. She wants to marry daddy and gets mad at me when I tell her she can't. Now she has decided the boy named Thomas in her church class will make a good "hubsand."

She informed me that if her best friend was a boy she would make out with her.

She pours her own drinks if I don't do it fast enough. Sometimes she does pretty good but as you can see here, she stills needs to perfect the skill.

She has learned that when it comes to sunscreen she needs my help. We have the spray kind and the other day she got it right in her eyes. OUCH!

Care Bear loves to be the one picked for prayer and gets mad if someone else gets a turn. Here is a sample of a Care Bear Prayer!

"Hensey Fader, Sank you for dis day. Sank you for Princess Rora. Sank you for Mommy. Sank you for Daddy. Sank you for Jaco, Sank you for La-La, sank you for Jesus. Sank you for our house. Jesus Christ. Men."

Spring has SPRUNG!

Spring is in the air at our house from peas sprouting in our garden, blossoms on trees, new Easter dresses to baby kitties making their grand appearance.

Our small garden is finally showing signs of life! We have pea sprouts, lettuce, radishes but we are still waiting to see carrot tops. Plus our strawberry plants have lots of white flowers just waiting to turn into juicy red strawberries. YUM!

My favorite part of Spring is the blooming trees. I love the pinks, purples, and whites all over the neighborhood. Our neighbors have a tree that produced beautiful huge flowers that I could enjoy from my couch! I just had to keep La-La from picking them all!

We had a great Easter and tried to keep it focused on our Savior but with little ones it is hard due to all the candy and treats. Our Stake had an Easter Devotional that I sang at so we went as a family. It was a nice way to end the day thinking of the true meaning of Easter. On the way to the church I asked Care Bear what Easter means and she was quick to answer with "CANDY!" I asked her about Jesus and Easter. She told us about the sharp thing mean dads put on Jesus' head and how it made him bleed and how he died. Then that night in her prayer she prayed that Jesus' head would not bleed and that he would not die anymore. I was happy to hear she did learn a little about it this year! Resurrection is a huge concept to understand even for adults. When Jaco was 3 1/2 we had a pet guinea pig that died while we were on vacation. Our friend who was caring for him disposed of his body before we returned so Jaco did not get to say good-bye. He had a really hard time with this so we talked to him about how he would get to be with Slugger again someday. He asked if Slugger would get his body back when we all are resurrected and I told him that I do believe he would. The next day all of a sudden Jaco ran into his room and looked in Slugger's now empty cage. I asked him what he was doing and he said " I am just looking to see if Jesus gave Slugger back his body!" I was amazed and humbled at his innocent understanding of the Sacrifice our Savior made for us.

Finally, Spring has shown itself in 4 brand new black kittens that now reside in our bathroom. I posted awhile back about how I hoped our cat Aurora would behave herself until March 19th when she was scheduled to be fixed. Well, I think she heard about our plans for her and decided to spoil them by going on an overnight adventure within days of us setting her appointment. When we discovered the pregnancy, we talked to the vet and were told we could still continue with the surgery but we just couldn't do it. Even after being lectured to about how hard it would be to get rid of a litter of kittens and how we will only contribute to the overpopulation of unwanted animals, we still couldn't do it. To me life is life and it is not my choice to make! Well, unless it comes to the millions of ants that insist on living with us or other creepy crawlies like spiders and ticks! So finally last night our little Momma cat delivered four healthy kittens. La-La could not be happier. She is the one who noticed changes in Aurora that indicated pregnancy. She has counted down the days and was so frustrated when the babies did not appear when she thought they should. Jaco also is so excited to have kittens and Care Bear is a little unsure about the little black furballs. She woke up first this morning so I showed the babies to her and at first she was so excited. Then I picked one up for her to pet and she shrank back into the corner and said the kitty was scary looking. I think she expected it to look like a mini mom cat so she was very taken aback to see a strange looking thing in my hand. Aurora is the perfect little mommy. I was with her as she gave birth last night which was pretty amazing to see. I have never seen that and it was so neat to watch her inborn instincts take over. It was like she had done it a thousand times before. When I knew she was done, I put a towel over the box and as I covered her she looked at me and meowed as if to say, "Thanks for being there for me!"

Heebee-Jeebees!!! (WARNING! This is disgusting!)

Ever since our first tick encounter a few weeks ago, we have been doing regular tick checks on both man and beast in our house. La-La found one on Cody earlier today so I almost skipped his nightly check but I decided I probably still should. Everything looked fine until I rubbed his floppy ears. I felt a weird bump. Too big to be a tick and a weird color. It looked like a giant skin tag. You know those odd little flaps of skin? Upon further investigation I found this weird bump had legs. At this point I started feeling ICKY. I had heard Ticks become swollen and engorged with blood but had never seen one. I knew I had to take it off but I was so grossed out! I found my tweezers and sat on my poor dog and did what I never thought I could do. I succeeded with the nasty task only to find ANOTHER huge engorged critter plus two that were only just beginning their vampire like feast. I had to take a picture mainly because everyone else was asleep and I wanted to make sure they were able to share in my creep out moment. So if you dare look, here is a picture of my creepy crawly nightmares! EEWW!!! I think it is time to invest in some Frontline Flea and Tick killer for dogs! I am starting to wonder if having a dog is really so great! I didn't sign up for tick removal!!!

Looks kind of like a potato!

I had to get this shot to show the size difference!

Soccer!

Jaco and La-La had their first soccer games this morning! It was a little chilly at 9:a.m. but it was sunny so it felt warmer than it was.

Check out that concentration!! This has to be one of my favorite pictures ever of Jaco!

We gave Jaco the option of trying Baseball this spring but he chose to do soccer again. He played two fall sessions while we lived in Washington. This year he is on the U-10 team and it is a lot harder than before. This year they keep score and will have play-offs at the end of the season plus they play on the full field which looked HUGE. I was tired just watching the boys run up and down the field! Maybe I should run with them! I was really proud of Jaco today. He got into the game so much more than in years past and he seems so much more confident with his own body. He ran faster, payed better attention, and played more aggressively.

Here is a clip of Jaco in action. They came so close to scoring a goal on this play!

Isn't she so cute?

La-La has never played soccer before so she is in the Kinder Soccer program. They don't keep official score, they play 3 on 3, and there is no goalie. So in other words, it is a field of kids who really don't know what is going on except they need to kick a ball into a small goal. It was pretty entertaining to watch. Out of bounds... What is that? Which goal do I kick towards?

I love this shot with La-La's piggy tails flying!

Here is a short clip of La-La in motion!

The soccer games were played on a field at a local elementary school. The girls played on the playground while Jaco practiced. I was helping La-La on the monkey bars and I turned around and saw my fearless Care Bear crawling across the TOP of another set of monkey bars. It was 6-7 feet high! She then proceeded to climb down the other side. I shouldn't say she is fearless because as you can see in the video clip she gets a little nervous but it is not enough to keep her from doing it again and again!