Call me crazy, but this is going to be a blast!!

6pm to 6am

1050 kids.

Paint ball.

Adventure Dome.

LV Ice Center.

Sky Zone.

I'm a volunteer!!!!

Tyler & 9 of his friends in my group.

Can't wait.

I swear I think I'm like 12 too.

All for a great cause..... http://www.joshstevensfoundation.com/

Words to live by...

"The best kind of love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds."

Advice for my kids #2

How to get your kids to NEVER leave clothes & towels on the floor

Tyler yelled there was a scorpion on the floor.

It was late at night.

I went up to his room, he has terrible lighting, but I saw it.

I quickly put a cup over it.

Tell the kids, there may be more, we have to shake out the clothes you all left on the floor,

and hurry and hang them all up. I did the shaking, they did the clean up.

OH MY GOSH, their rooms looked fantastic!

I think I like this scorpion!

Then what?

Lets all freak out, and sleep with Mom!

The next morning, Jordyn says, "Mom, the scorpion looks purple, it's like glowing."

We didn't have time to look.

Off to school, we'll find a guy to take care of it later.

I come home at 2pm.

Go upstairs and as I turn the corner and I too indeed see this guy is purple.

Then I look through the cup closer and realize, IT'S FAKE!

I think I'm letting my kids believe it's real....

There hasn't been one discipline in years that has worked to get these kids to clean up, I think I found the trick. So, we're sticking to... "We found a scorpion in the house!"

Daily Dose of Dylin

Dylin: "Mom, before I tell you what I did wrong, let me tell you how to react... Just think "I'm disappointed in my daughter" but don't actually say anything out loud to me. ok?"

(last week)

If your kids go to school with mine... you'll be relieved to know my daughter asked in her morning prayers to help her not get in any fights today.

Advice for my kids #1

It's discipline time... Kristin's way!

Nothing bugs me more than kids fighting, hurting each other, and the whining.

I'm done.

Over it!

I was thinking of ways to punish them, even when you hear the first whine. I'm just as tired yelling at them.

So I came up with a plan. I likey my plan.

Every time there is an issue, I make them go pull a strip of paper from the "Punishment Jar."

Read all of them. Some are sincere, some will create laughs and groans. They'll give you good ideas! I can't wait for this to start in the morning. I almost want them to hurt each other just so I have the opportunity to film Tyler singing "Jesus wants me for a Sun Beam" while pulling weeds in the front yard. This is going to be fun!

Clean out Tahoe

Organize pantry in alphabetical order
Pull weeds in back yard for 10 minutes & say out loud “I love to pull weeds.”
Rub Mom’s feet for 10 minutes and do, ‘this little piggy’ to her.
Clean a sibling’s room
Wipe down 2 toilet seats
Clean a bathroom mirror while singing any Black Eyed Peas Song.
You are free but this is a WARNING!
Vacuum Macy’s crumbs up
Host FHE and give a lesson on your infraction
Give everyone in the house right now a hug and say, “I will be the best child from now on.” (with lots of enthusiasm)
Write a letter to someone who has done a service for me and thank them.
Write a 100 word essay on how I’m going to make this world a better place.
Find 5 matches in the crazy missing sock drawer
Brush Mom’s hair for 10 minutes while I’ll tell her how thankful I am for her working so hard.
Rub mom’s head for 10 minutes while I tell her I am thankful she cleans up after me 200 times a day.
Clean out junk drawers
Lip Sync a song, and we get to video it and post on you tube
Clean the sliding glass door with a GIANT smile!
You are free but this is a WARNING!
Tell my siblings 3 things I love about them.
Write 50 times … (whatever my infraction was)
Do 25 jumping jacks while singing, “I am a cleaning machine.”
Run around the house for 1 minute and see how many things you can pick up and put away.
Draw a picture of you picking up things and your mom smiling BIG!
Make up a song about a clean house and perform it in front of your family.
Make your bed blindfolded.
Do research on the computer about how to clean with baking soda.
While hopping on one foot, wipe the kitchen counters off.
Choose 2 items of yours to donate to Goodwill.
Hand wash 3 dishes
Scrub my own toilet while singing, ‘whistle while you work’.
Pick up room, do a somersault on the bed and beg your mother for forgiveness.
Sweep back patio & sing “I’m trying to be like Jesus.”
Design a machine on paper that cleans the whole house and gets you ready for the day.
Water the trees in the front yard & sing, “Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam”
Tell us the story, ‘the boy who cried wolf.”
Organize Mom’s shoes.

Mind Blowing Tyler

Ty with his newest niece, Brielle

If you don't know much about our family, go read Dylin's website.

http://www.cureourdylin.org/

My kids and I don't suffer from colds, flus, etc. We get diseases.

No joke. Go ahead... giggle. We do!

Strangely, Dylin and I have a genetic disease called Polycystic Kidney Disease and yet no one in our family/relatives has this. AND NOW... Tyler has it too.

Long story, but the quick version...

He and Jordyn get checked by ultrasound yearly to make sure their kidneys are good.

11 months after Tyler's last check, he is on the floor screaming in pain.

A night in the ER discovers his left kidney has cysts, is inflamed and hemorrhaging.

He's doing a lot better on top of his already horrendous asthma and thyroid that never wanted to function, but hey he's still playing club baseball, we are award winning toilet paperers, and have so much fun over here... I truly think I need to start having parents sign consent forms before their child enters my home!

Tyler is known for his wise mind, WAY beyond his years. To the point, I have to give him the cut throat sign on multiple occasions because he doesn't exactly remember that not every parent wants their children to know how to illegally "jailbreak" your cell phones. 

I swear this kid will either work for the Government cracking codes or be in jail by the time he is 18.

Chill Tyler!

He has definitely maintained his wittiness and sense of humor through this tough health battle.

The other morning I was trying to get the kids ready for school and bake these delicious Granola Protein Balls aka Energy Balls, and so I asked Tyler to help bake.

Without a hesitation... he said, "Mom, boys are not meant to bake, girls are.... your bodies are even made with milk and eggs!!!"

Say what? 

Although, I will say he does have a good point there!

Jordy, Oh my sweet Jordy...

Jordyn on crazy hair day...

I took my kids on Easter morning to see these crosses on a nearby hill. This is my favorite place to be.

It looks over the Valley.

I said to my kids, "Look at these crosses, I've never shown them to you. Isn't it beautiful up here?"

Jordyn said, "Mom, is this where Jesus died????"

Me: "Yes honey, he died on Anthem Hills."

I swear I take my kids to church.

Daily Dose of Dylin

dylin on crazy hair day

p.s. craft paint doesn't come out of hair, unless you buy the WASHABLE kind

Time to catch up on a few from Dylin. She's the one that makes your mouth drop, and you can't help but laugh. The things she comes up with .... is down right shocking for a 7 year old!

Dylin: "Mom, I'm never stripping in front of anyone!"

(so glad we had this talk)

Dylin: "Mom why can't I use my money in my bank account? You say it's for savings... Well I saved and now I want to spend!"

Me: - "Because you need to save it for emergencies! What if I didn't save and our refrigerator broke and then we couldn't buy a new one, what would we do about food?

Dyl - "Well that would be something I need to worry about in 20 years, I'll save later for that, so try again MOM!"

Tyler: "What is your dream job?"

Dylin: "To be a cop, so I can taser people whenever I want."

(we will definitely be going to church today)

A New Life.

My last blog post was May 2011.

Life got hard.

Things happen.

Things change, which forces us to change.

But I'm back and blogging again. A good sign that I'm on the road to being me.

Lots to catch up on, which will take a while.
I'll try and post a few old ones each week, while keeping up on the current craziness.

Remember, this was an online journal for my kids...
It wasn't meant to be public.
But I get it. We were quite entertaining.
The word spread.
Although, I must say, it is a little creepy not knowing who's reading these.
Hmmmm, I may have to turn this private soon.
But for now, enjoy or stop visiting our site. :)
OH and ALSO, the blogger changed and I'm trying to get familiar with
it's new format. I can't figure out how to see who is on my email distribution from last year or beyond.
If you don't want to receive these until then, delete, email me....
cause I have no idea who is receiving updates. ;)

Catch up 1
Sorry Ty, I cut you off....
This was St. Patrick's Day.
I'm a mean Mom. I don't let my kids eat sugar cereal.
So they're only able to enjoy Lucky Charms on St. Patricks Day.
(unless one of my delinquent friends gives my kids them at sleep overs)
Of course Jordyn just smiles cute as always in the background, instead
of looking ridiculous like the rest of us.

We ding dong ditched a few friends with this left on their door...

My little Lucky gal.