Yesterday

Yesterday was one of those days. One of those days when you take a good, hard look at your kids and wonder "where have i gone wrong?" How did I get to this point, and when can I leave!! Oh my goodness, how aware am I that my kids are completly out of control. Its like a bad episode of supernanny where anyone watching is saying "this mom has lost it". That would be me-losing it. I ask my kids to do something and its as if I was on mute. I ask again...nothing. I yell. Oh mom did you say something? How long does it take to get to the point where your kids only listen if your voice is 10 decimals above shrieking? I think im at about a 12-shrieking AND voice cracking. I have one little spoiled monkey who thinks the world revolves around her, one fit throwing 4 year old who doesnt quite understand the meaning of no, a sensitive 5 year old who's only goal in life is to please and when he doesnt do something perfect he breaks down in tears-oh, he also thinks he's nacho. A smart alecy(sp?) pre-teen 7 year old who thinks life is just not fair because she has homework and chores and cant play with her equally pre-teen friend 24-7, and finally a know-it-all who's ears are plugged with something that doesnt allow him to listen to requests and makes him forget just about anything that doesnt involve computers or video games. Days like these require only one thing: a trip to the bookstore for a book on how to get my crap together so my kids can get their crap together!
I remember a while back reading on one of my friends blogs about a book that she had read and was in the process of trying some new methods. I know that im probably the last one in the world to have heard about this book, but it has always stuck in my head since reading her blog and I thought it was about time I read it. Last night I got the book and started reading it. I was the classic "what not to do" parent. Every scenario they presented, i was on the negative side of it. I never really thought that by asking a kid "what did you do that for" could cause them to feel bad about themselves. Yikes!! Im the classic threat yelling parent. "Stop that", "Dont do that or your gonna be grounded". I never realized that secretly, my kids were always thinking "oh yea, what are you gonna do about it?" To my credit, I am pretty good with the time outs and sticking to some threats, but sometimes its just too much to deal with. Bill is a bigger threat yeller than me by like 20 times. The kids know that when mom says no, they can go to dad and he almost always says yes. What has that done?? It has turned our bunch into a bunch of whiny, no listening, unappreciative, disrespectful kids. I think a change is in order.
Ok, so maybe im exagerating a bit, but you get the jist. I really do have good kids who are loving and sweet and love to help out, but boy do we need help.
The book is Parenting with Love and Logic. Im excited to try this out. Ill let you know how it goes!!

Lani Lu

Oh goodness, my sweet Lani Lu. Lani loves to raise her hand and offer any bit of anything that is asked. This past weekend we were at a ward campout and we had a little devotional around the campfire. The Bishop was talking about Aprils conference and wanted a few people to share what they had got out of conference. Lanis hand shot up. She was on the other side of the fire from me, so I couldnt tell her to put her hand down. I saw the Bishop eye her and then he called on her. I closed my eyes and waited. This is what came out of that sweet little girl. "I got out of conference by saying I had to get a drink." Oh Lani-you make me laugh everyday!!!

Randomness

It has been sooo long since I have updated this blog and its time to catch up. Here are just a few posts and hopefully I will get more this week.
I had a bunch of random pictures, so here goes.

Caleb learned to ride a bike with no training wheels. He taught himself when we moved here. He saw the other kids riding fast and he just told himself he could do that too. He jumped on the bike and immediatly started riding. He is such a stud!!! He was so proud of himself.

Lani's class threw her a little going away party, and they gave her balloons and each kid wrote her a letter. It was so cute.

A few families in the neighborhood were emptying their pools so there was tons of water in the gutters. The kids thought it would be fun to go "swimming". Oh my heck, they thought they were so funny and cool. They were dancing and waving at all the cars that would drive by.

These 2 have some serious moves!!

Its been a while since we had seen the sun-so they thought they would catch some rays.

Yikes!! Thats some pasty skin.

I have so many pictures of this little monkey. She loves the camera and always wants her picture taken. But seriously, I couldnt resist anyway-she is just too cute!

She got a new "shim shoop" and decided to go outside and play in the mud. Mmm, nothing like a mouthful of dirt!

What a sweet little face-mud and all.

I thought this was such a cute picture of her-and then I noticed the nice, yellow snot filled nose. Yummy

We had just gotten home from somewhere and Avery decided she didnt want to go home yet. She layed down on the sidewalk in protest.

She seriously was not about to budge for anything. The kids thought it was so funny-caleb almost peed his pants!

Oh goodness, I cant wait for the teenage years. She's gonna be a dream!!

With the Cardinals going all the way this year, there were a lot of fun things to support our team. The kids were so excited to wear their Lutui jerseys and show their team spirit.

Cards day at the kids school


We also went to the Zoo. If you wore Cards gear, you got in for half price. So we met Barb and Mary and had a fun day!!
Taking a lunch break!

My super cute neices and nephew, Maile, Kate and Drew. Oh, and Mary-she's cute too!!

This was also Averys first trip to the phoenix zoo. She about had a heart attack looking at the elephants.

We stopped and took a "hanging" break. Avery out hanged us all

3 little monkeys

Averys favorite-the monkeys.

My poser. She actually asked me to take her picture-silly girl

Avery doesnt like to be told she cant do something, and aint no fence gonna hold her back. She saw the rhinos and wanted to touch them. She kept climbing the fence and was so dang persistant.

Bill just let go of her hand and she thought she was free...

Until she ran into the second fence. Sorry bops, no playing with the Rhinos today. (That picture looks like she is so close, but its just a good camera angle)

I hate pictures, but I couldnt pass it up in all the Cardinals gear.

The kids were in heaven with this great weather. It had been a long winter with no bike riding and they were all out in full force with the bikes every day.

This little guy hadnt learned how to ride a bike without training wheels yet, but he just decided that he could do it on his own. He hopped on his bike and took of. It was that fast. Now he is a bike riding machine!!

Tyson is learning how to do the ramp thing. He got a bit cocky.

He didnt get enough speed

And crashed.

The gang!!

We love no snow and we really love the neighborhood!!!

Weekend in the snow!!

Back in January, the day after I found out about my cancer, Bills family dropped everything and drove all the way to the frozen state of Utah for a weekend of love and support. We went to my sis in laws family cabin and had a great weekend. The kids always have so much fun running and playing from the second they wake up to the time they crash wherever they fall.

The fun part of this cabin is the playroom. There are futons all around the room and the kids get to sleep together. Claire jumped in between Tyson and Caleb for movie night.


One of the nights we were there, the kids had a little talent show. Lani had quite a few things she wanted to do so we narrowed it down to 3. The first one was an obstacle course-i bet you didnt know that was a talent!!!

Her next talent was juggling. With 2 balls.

And last but not least-gymnastics!! She can do a pretty mean cartwheel!

Tysons talent was basketball!

And Noah did some magic!

On our last day, Bud (my sis in laws Dad) took us girls out on the snow mobils. I have never done this before and i was kinda scared that i would crash this huge thing and then have to pay thousands of dollars to replace it, but it was actually quite fun.

Mary, me, Holly, Noah in the helmet, Michelle, Bud and Andrea

I think only like 2 of us had ridden these before, so we got a quick little lesson before we took off. It took us like an hour just to get out.

We look pretty darn tough!!

If you look real close, you can see my glasses under the goggles. Those stupid things get in the way of everything!

This was Averys favortie thing to do. I was so happy when someone else would come and get on the other end. Mason and Avery were a good match!

My sweet sisters suprised me with a bag full of pink goodies. It had a few of my favorite magazines, some slippers, candy and the funniest shirt that Holly and Tiare had made. It said "Hey Cancer, you messed with the wrong beotch!" Soooo funny. I was laughing so hard. They are the best!!

We also got a lot of snow time in. We tied a rope to the back of one of the snow mobils so we could pull a sled. The kids LOVED it. Poor Bill pulled the kids around and around all day long.

Even Ana joined in the fun!

They had the cutest little snowmobils, just the perfect size for the little kiddies. Oh and Sandy too.

Sweet little Lia was chowing down on the snow. She looked too cute to not snap a few shots.

Just a few more shots of the kids on the snowmobils

Action sequence- Tyson tried to get a bit too daring and biffed it.

It was awesome. He thought it was pretty funny too.

This was the theme of the day.

Miss lani-lu

Noah the tough man

Lil scrubs getting a turn

It was such a fun weekend and I cant thank everyone enough for coming up-I had such a great weekend and im so thankful for such a loving family!