Mr. Ben knows Revenge

Ben getting back at Riley and Wyatt. 

I'm sitting in the living room and hear Ben start crying followed by Riley telling Wyatt, "WYATT! YOUR JUMPING ON BEN'S FACE!" 

Mr. Literal

The directions on Wyatt's homework read as follows:

So what does Mr.Literal do?  Names them of course. 

We have Black Alfred and Purple Skylar.

Then there's Purple Cupcakey and Orange Cirlce.

Next let me introduce you to Yellow Stacey and Blue Diamond.

Our final new friends are Red Hearty and Green Alfred.

Well at least we know the child can follow directions.

And of course we can't leave out Miss. Riley getting her homework done this morning as well.

2011 Holiday Letter

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Feliz Navidad, Season's Greetings, or just plain old Happy Holidays! 

Which ever you celebrate, where ever you are we would like to wish you the very best this wintery season.

The Cappert household has had a good 2011 year.  We welcomed our final member to the family, Riley started Kindergarten, Wyatt started Pre-School, Ben started walking and talking, and Jason and I are just along for the ride I guess.

Collin Gene Cappert was born on July 7th and is growing like a weed.  Our little 5 month old is almost 20 pounds.  Shocker!  Another Michelin baby just like the rest.  He is rolling over, babbling, and smiles from ear to ear whenever someone just glances in his direction.  We would love for him to start sleeping better, but our kids just aren't the sleeping type (sad).  

             
Riley, our mother, is such a character.  She is kind, loving, funny, and a bit sassy too.  She's doing great in school.  Wakes up every morning hoping it's a school day.  She is a great helper around the house too and truth be told I'm not sure I could get through the day without her.  Her favorite new saying is, "Really??" and just like every other little girl in American she loves herself some Justin Beiber.  (Although according to Riley his name is actually Justin Beaver.) 

Wyatt, our literal man, follows every instruction to the T.  Once I told him I was going to hop in the shower and his response to me was, "No mom!  If you hop in you could fall."  He also has quite the imagination.  He names all his toys and talks to them as if they were real.  Listening to their conversations is always a good time. 

Benjamin, our engineer, is into everything right now.  He likes to watch, study, and then take action.  Has to turn every knob, open every door, climb every piece of furniture, and stick his hands in every toilet.  Gross I know.  Currently we need to call a plumber because he put a bottle of lotion down our basement toilet.  Typical right?  At least for this household it is.  He's also a bit crazy about having every fan and light on in the house.  I'm hoping we pass this phase soon. 

                               

Jason and I are truly enjoying these moments.  We might not enjoy all of them as they happen, but those are usually the ones that are the funniest to look back on.  All in all we couldn't ask for more than what we have.  We thank God everyday for blessing us with the most wonderful family and we also thank Him for allowing us to have such great friends and family outside our home.  To each of you we would like to say thanks for being you and we hope that your season is as bright as ours. 

With much love,

The Cappert Family - Jason, Erika, Riley, Wyatt, Benjamin, and Collin

 

P.S. Keep up with our family through out the year at www.crazycapperts.blogspot.com

The Power of Prayer

For those of you who think we have it all together around here, your wrong.  From time to time we have some rough days.  Monday was one of those days.  I was home with the kids from 8am to 9pm by myself.  Typical for a Monday because this is one of Jason's long days.  I was able to get the bigs off to school, but the littles just wouldn't stop.  (BTW: "The Littles" are Ben and Collin and "The Bigs" are Riley and Wyatt.  This is how I refer to my children.)  Both boys were sick with colds and just wanted all my attention.  They were whining, crying, and just wanted to be held all day long.  My arms ached as if I had been lifting weights.  I was still in my pajamas.  My hair wasn't combed and my teeth were not brushed.  Around 1pm I lost it.  Collin was in his jumper crying and Ben was following me everywhere with his hands in the air whining "Mama" over and over and over again.  I was done - So I locked myself in my bedroom away from the boys.  I just needed it to stop for a little bit.  I sat on my bedroom floor in tears begging God to make it stop.  Please fix them.  I just wasn't sure how I was going to make it through the rest of the day with any shred of sanity left.  If this continued Jason would come home to kids crying, hanging from the lights, and me rocking in the fetal position in some corner of the house. 

God heard me.  I calmed myself down and went out of the bedroom.  Collin was still crying, but Ben was sitting in a chair quietly looking out the window.  I went to go and make Collin a bottle, look in the door of the refrigerator and there is a bottle of Gripe Water with just enough left for 1 bottle.  Now I'm not saying that God put the bottle in my fridge while I was crying in my bedroom, but my eyes were open to it.  It had to be sitting in there for a month.  It was in the top right corner of the door right next to the butter.  Whose doesn't use their butter almost every day?  And yet I never noticed it there.  After he drank just half the bottle it was like we had a whole new baby. It worked that quickly. He was calm and able to lay down without being held. He actually put himself to sleep laying on the floor under his toy bird. We went to Riley's dance class and he just hung out in his car seat for most of the time.  For the rest of the night Ben needed to be by me, but not held 24/7.  At bed time I put Collin in bed awake and he put himself to sleep.  The transformation was amazing.  All I could say was Thank You.

If you've never heard of Gripe Water it is the most magical, natural additive for a baby's bottle that you will ever find.  It has things like licorice and ginger root in it to help settle the baby's stomach.  We discovered the wonders of Gripe Water with Ben and continued to use it with Collin.  About 6-8 weeks ago we decided to try and stop using it, for we know that all magic comes at a price.  Mistake.  We never put it together that Collin's fussiness started to really kick up after we stopped using this magic elixir.  Needless to say we stocked up on Gripe Water that night.