Grandma

M-Mother - She helped to take care of my brother, sister, and I after my parents got divorced.
Y-Yummy - Grandma's food was always so yummy.

G-Great!  She made the Golden Girls and popcorn on the purple blanket the best treat ever!
R-Reliable - She was someone you could always count on.
A-Able - She was able to do anything in my eyes.
N-Neat - Grandma's house was always neat.
D-Domestic - She took care of everyone (especially my grandpa).
M-Musical - Grandma loved to sing - and she had a beautiful voice!
A-Admirable - She is someone I have always admired.

Her love to others, unwavering faith,  strong disposition, pride, stubbornness, compassion, and sense of family are just a few things that I have always admired about my grandma.  My brother Alex and I went to go visit my grandma today at the place she now lives.  I'd say "calls home", but it's not.  She is, was, and always will be to me such an amazing person it just made me think of all the great times we have had together.

You see we lived with my grandparents for about a year before my parents got divorced when I was 9 years old.  After that my dad lived with my grandparents, so we would stay with them every other weekend.  My grandma helped make it possible for me to be a kid when we were with my dad on the weekends.  She took care of my brother and sister (and me too).  She made spaghetti for dinner ever Friday night (and she made the best spaghetti ever.)  She went to the bakery every Saturday morning before her hair appointment.  She would come home with a loaf of rye bread, 2 chocolate donuts for Alex and Leigh, and an apricot sweet roll for me.  She made sure Alex and Leigh had baths every Saturday night while my dad and grandpa went out for a meeting at church (to prepare for service the next day).  She played church with us on Saturday nights after we'd read the Sunday School lesson.  Every Sunday morning she would make scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast.  While everyone ate breakfast I would always be taking my shower and getting ready.  So while I was on my way out of the door there was always 2 pieces of bacon and 2 pieces of rye toast waiting for me on a napkin.  (I'm not much of an egg lover.)  Then we'd come home from church to the smell of a roast in the oven.

She took care of my Great Grandma Reese (her mom) until she passed away and then my grandpa too.  When Grandma Reese passed away everyone was crying at the wake but us.  She came over to me, put her arm around me, and said, "We have to be strong for everyone else."  When my grandpa died I couldn't be that person.  I cried like a baby at my grandpa's funeral, but grandma consoled others and kept her grief for a different time.

Grandma is not gone, but I feel like too many times we don't say all the great things that we love about a person.

Collin . . . Collin . . . Collin

Collin - The destructer. 

What to do with this child????  

The other day I walked into my bedroom to find Collin and Benjamin covered head to toe with lotion along with it all over my bedspread.  Collin opened it and then Ben joined in, although Ben just wanted to lotion his legs.  As I wrestle with Collin to give me back the lotion bottle Benjamin just sat there rubbing his legs telling me all about how he had to lotion his legs (slowly, stuttering, and in great detail.)  

I walked into the kitchen one day to find Collin and Benjamin on the counter, in the spice cabinet, pouring salt all over the stove.  Benjamin just follows whatever hair-brained idea his brother comes up with.  (fun)

  

I came home from my mom's house with my bag of cookie baking supplies because I went over there last Sunday to bake.  My fault for not putting my stuff away because Collin climbed up on the table, went in my bag, took out the baking powder, and poured it all over the kitchen.

Yesterday he was nice enough to crap in the tub.  Love fishing for turds.

Later in the day I suddenly become aware of how hot it was in the house.  Guess who turned up the heat in the house to 90'.  You guessed it ...  Collin.  This is one of his favorite things to do.  It's super fun coming home to a house that is like 100' because nobody was home to notice it.

If Benjamin is sitting at the table eating and see's Collin walk into the kitchen he immediately pulls his plate to his lap and starts yelling, "NO COLLIN NO!"  because he knows Collin's next move is to climb on the table, take his plate, through his food on the floor, and laugh.

Don't lay on the floor because he'll think you want to start wrestling and come jump on your head.

Don't leave the vacuum out because he'll take the attachments out and start beating his brothers with them.

Don't leave the bathroom door open because he'll TP the house, stick his hands in the toilet, empty out the drawers, climb in the sink and try to rip the mirror off the wall, and then leave with the toilet brush.  This is great because then he'll come and try to brush your hair with it.  (yummy)

You can try to strap him in but he'll figure a way out, you can try to gate him off but he'll climb out over it, you can try to close the door but he'll figure out how to open it.  

Go ahead and try to stop the kid, you can't.  He's like a kid x10.  My mom didn't believe me when I said this.  "He's not really that bad."  I reply, "Mom, he is that bad.  You just don't notice because Jason and I are always buffering for him.  Holding him back and trying to anticipate his next move."  So then we went to her house and I decided not to buffer.  I just sat on her couch playing Words With Friends and let him go.  After about 10 minutes there was yogurt all over her kitchen table with little foot prints in it, granola all over the floor, and Collin literally trying to hang from the chandelier.  Then she looked at me and said, "ok. ok. maybe your right.  You shouldn't buffer so much because people don't believe you when you talk about him."  Yah.  Like that's an option.  Let's just let the kid loose.  AHHHHH.  RUN FOR YOUR LIVES.  HE'S COMING!!!

But with all this going on you can't stay made at him for long (if at all sometimes).  He does none of it with malice in his heart.  He is the happiest baby you'll ever meet.  Smiling and laughing the whole time.  This is just his idea of a good time.

A musical household and more

When I was younger I always imagined a household full of music for my family, then I realized the problem would be I don't play an instrument. So then I always wanted to marry someone with musical talents. So I married Jason who plays no musical instruments at all.  What I learned tonight is that I still got what I wanted. My children are so wonderful they put on a musical concert for me. Wyatt played guitar and sang, Riley sang and danced, and Benjamin sang "jingle bells, Wyatt smells, Riley laid an egg" while  Collin was his backup dancer.  They took turns using their stage (aka their Finding Nemo table) to sing, dance, and play guitar.   After this it was bedtime.  An hour later I hear through the monitor Benjamin singing twinkle twinkle little star.  

THE HAIRCUT......

BEFORE

Notice Makayla's bangs.  I know this may seem like an after picture, but this was actually before I started her haircut.  Riley was nice enough to give me some help yesterday with my haircuts.  I think she may need some more practice.

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Jim and Ivy came over for lunch yesterday and to get haircuts.  Riley and Makayla were like peas and carrots.  Ivy and I thought that this was so nice.  Usually Riley is fighting with the boys and Makayla is just doing her own thing.  Riley was having fun all afternoon dressing Makayla in different outfits and styling her hair.  Side ponytails and headbands were really a hit in their world.  One time they came upstairs and Ivy looks at Makayla's hair and it's wet.  "Riley, did you put something in Makayla's hair?"  "No"  "Riley it looks wet."  "I put water in her hair."  So Ivy and I just let it go.  We know there's more to that, but didn't feel like dealing with.  Ivy looks at me and says, "It doesn't matter to me.  Your the one that has to deal with it during her haircut."  So we laugh and move on.  

Now we go downstairs to start haircuts.  I get to my chair and look down and see a bunch of long hairs on the floor.  All the sudden a light bulb goes on in our heads.  We look at Makayla and finally see Riley's handy work.  "RILEY!  Did you cut Makayla's hair?"  "Yes"  "Why?"  "I don't know?"  Ivy and I are just speechless.  Then we start the nervous laughter.  Ivy's not sure if she wants to laugh or cry.  Makayla just finished growing out her bangs from when her brother did this to her.

So now I'm stuck trying to figure out not only how to fix Makayla's hair, but what to do with Riley.  Since I wasn't thrilled with her lying to us to begin with and then topped with the haircut I decided the only right thing to do was to have her cut her own bangs.  Then however I ended up fixing Makayla's hair is what I would do to Riley's.  So here's the after picture.

AFTER

She woke up this morning and asked me if her bangs are growing yet?

Another Poop Story

Man do you accumulate a lot of poop stories with 4 kids.   So with that being said, here's another one.

The other morning Riley comes and lays in bed next to me.  She very nonchalantly tells me that she had melty poo this morning.  "Ok" I reply.  Then she goes on....  Apparently this happened in the basement bathroom, which happened to be out of toilet paper.  Riley's solution.  "I had to wipe my butt with the shower curtain."  Me, "RILEY!"  Riley, "Well, I didn't want to use the towel."  Jason is in the room listening to this.  He goes downstairs, takes the shower curtain down, puts it into the washer, comes back upstairs and says, "Well, it needed to be washed anyway."

Tales of the Bathroom

So the situation is this....

Riley in the tub.

Collin - Has decided to join her and is still wearing his diaper.

Wyatt - Taking a dump on the toilet.

Ben - Decides to help him wipe and puts his hands in Wyatt's poop.

I walk in to Riley and Collin in the tub, Wyatt on the toilet, Ben just standing there, and poop smeared all over my wall because Ben wanted to get it off his hands.

Mind you this all happened in less than a minute.

Poop has kind of been a theme this week.  My mom got a new puppy and it pooped in her dinning room on Sunday.  Collin was nice enough to grab 2 handfuls of it and bring it to Jason.  Then, he was changing Collin's diaper yesterday and didn't get a diaper on him fast enough.  He pooped all over our mattress (because of course we picked that day to wash our sheets) and all over the floor.  I guess it was my turn.

Breakfast in Bed

Jason and I were reminded this morning how great our kids really are.  This morning Riley and Wyatt (with the supervision of Ben) brought us breakfast in bed.  Breakfast this morning was 2 pancakes each - pre-syrupped of course - brought to us on a cookie sheet - used as a tray.  After breakfast they cleared our laps.  Then I asked Riley to bring me a napkin because I really had to blow my nose.  She wrote this note on it.  You should have seen their faces when I ripped it in half and blew my nose.

Then Sir Wyatt came in and took our drink orders.  Water for Jason and milk for me.  Riley brought us our drinks.  I took a big sip of mine just to find out that she poured me a big ol' glass of Collin's Vanilla Almond milk.  Jason was kind enough to share his water with me.

We were told that this is going to be what they are going to do every morning for us.  yeahhhhh.....  We brought it to there attention that if they do this every morning for us it will no longer be a treat.

Let's Play Dress-Up.

Who needs dolls when you have younger brothers???  This is Riley's thought process at least.  Here are a few of the outfits she has picked for them.

When the Cat's Away the Mice Will Play.

Now that I'm working from home I usually have someone here to help watch the kids while I'm working in my office, either Jason or Cherise.  Last week Friday Jason had to work 9-9, Cherise was on a youth trip in Canada, and I had to get some stuff done.  So I put the littles down for a nap and let the bigs go in the backyard and paint their picnic table with acrylic paint.  Washable paint wouldn't work because their beautiful artwork would wash off with the first rain.  They did an absolutely beautiful job on the table as you can see.

But this gets boring after a while.  So they think quickly about what else to paint.  "Hmmmmm.....  I know!  We'll paint Wyatt!!  Great idea!  Head to toe."  The only thing they left unpainted were the kid's eyeballs.  He came running into my office jumping up and down saying, "I'm a monkey! I'm a monkey!".

The extra pair of legs belong to Riley.  She painted herself too, but not nearly as much.  Just a little on her legs, face, and hair.

Just to let you know a nice, warm, soapy bath takes acrylic paint right off.  No paint thinner needed.

No Tooth. No Quarter.

Riley lost her first tooth yesterday at camp.  Then she lost her lost tooth.  Ms Maggie, her camp counselor, said she looked like she was going to cry, so they wrote the tooth fairy a note.

Our friend Michele came over last night and they started talking about the lost, lost tooth.  Riley tried to explain to us that she read a book, No Tooth, No Quarter, and it very clearly explained that the tooth fairy does not care about notes, just teeth.  We tried to convince her that things have changed since the book was written and the tooth fairy is a bit more understanding these days.  It seemed to appease her, but then this morning Jason asked her if the tooth fairy left her anything under her pillow.  She told him she didn't even bother looking because she already knew the answer.  She wasn't upset that she wasn't getting anything, just very matter of fact about it.  He tried to convince her to look, but they just kept talking in circles.  Finally I told her I have read the book, and was here for the conversation with Michele, but Daddy's just asking you to look and see if maybe the tooth fairy found compassion in her heart for you and left you something anyways.  "Ok.  Mommy.  I'll go look."  Then she came running up the stairs shouting, "I have a tooth fairy dollar!"  She had to show Wyatt, "Look, I have a tooth fairy dollar!!" 

Ben, "Ohhhhhh. You pee in toilet - not the floor."

Benjamin has decided that it is time to pee in the toilet.  He went in the bathroom, took his diaper off, and tried to pee in the toilet.  Then he came back and sat down at his desk next to mine and said, "I don't have to pee in toilet."  Then he went back again.  I went with this time.  "Mommy.  I pee in toilet." Nothing happens.  "Mommy, my pee-pee's not working."  Ok.  We go back to our work at our desks.  Then he goes in the bathroom again.  I follow him and then I was asked to leave, by Benjamin.  He comes in and tells me "Mommy, I pee-pee in toilet."  and he did.  Riley and Wyatt were so excited for him they jumped up and ran to look in the toilet at the pee he didn't flush.  Then Ben told me, "Come here.  I show you."  He stands there and nothing happens.  "My pee-pee not working."  He would then sit for a minute and run to the bathroom.  This went on for about 20 minutes.  And the really good thing is he never peed on the floor!

Water

Cherise, my cousin, is sitting in the recliner reading a book.  Benjamin comes up to her and says something.  Cherise is into her book and just blankly said to Benjamin, "Yah, Sure."  Then she got a glass of water poured in her lap.  After it happened it registered what he had said.  "Cherise.  I. pour. water. on. you."  She jumped out of the chair and he started crying.  Pour guy couldn't understand what he did wrong.  Not that anyone yelled at him.  How could you?  He asked first.

Moral of the story... Always bring a change of clothes to the Cappert house.  You never know when you'll need them.  Cherise was prepared.

Our Morning

Today started at 6 am.  The kids came up in our room.  We were so proud of Ben.  Not only did he sleep through the night, but he did it in his toddler bed with Riley and Wyatt in their room.  I didn't put them to bed until 9pm so we had minimal stand up comedy from Ben this time.

Then Wyatt was so excited.  He had a board book in his hands and informed me, "Mommy!  Uncle Morgan is a teacher and he's teaching me how to read!"  Then he told me to watch him as he looked at the pictures and made up his stories.

I tried to load the dishwasher, but Collin kept crawling inside it.  So I asked the kids for help and Wyatt volunteered.  He took him out of the kitchen.  I could here him telling Collin, "The kitchen is closed."  and Collin was crying.  I asked Wyatt why the baby was crying and he said, "I'm sitting on him.  He can't go anywhere."  He had him completely pinned to the ground.  Ok.  That wasn't exactly what I meant.  Riley took over baby duty and I asked Wyatt to go read to Ben.  When I was done in the kitchen I came out and found Wyatt in the recliner reading to Ben, Riley drawing, and Collin with a piece of chalk in him mouth.  The kid won't each food, but give him dirt, sticks, or chalk and he's all over that. ????

We're Hunting Rabbits

Wyatt comes inside and asks me, "Mom, can I have a carrot?"  "Sure.  Just give me a minute and I'll get up and peel it for you."  Wyatt-"No Mom.  We're trying to catch a rabbit.  Rabbit's don't eat peeled carrots!"  So I go outside to watch them and they are carefully placing the carrot in the last place that they saw the bunny.  They turn to look at me and say, "We're going to catch the bunny for our new pet."  Good luck guys.  Two minutes later Wyatt comes in to give me a report that they still haven't caught him yet.  Patience young grass hopper.

Now they've set a trap.  Still no rabbit.  

Instead of sitting outside they are now watching out the bathroom window so they don't scare it away.

Me and My Shadow

This morning Wyatt comes up to me feeling real sad, "Mommy, my shadow is a girl.".  So I had to inquire about how he knew this.  The answer I got was, "Because I keep blinking."  ok...  Makes perfect sense.  Then he started to wonder.  "Since I'm blinking all the time I don't know if I'm a girl or a boy???"  Riley was standing on the other side of me.  Her response to all of this was, "Yeah! I have a sister!!".  Once this registered with Wyatt he was quite certain that he is a boy.....as are all the rest of us.  I don't think he has a girly bone in his body.

Great Day! Legoland and then Soccer

So we start out at LegoLand today.  Feild trip with Riley's kindergarden class.  So fun!!!  I just love being around these little people and listening to what they have to say.  Half way there, on the bus, banana (names have been changed to protect the innocent :) ) says, "I can smell legos.  We're almost there."  I told her that this was a very rare talent and I was pretty impressed.  It's not everyday you meet someone who can sniff out lego's in the air.  I was lucky today.  Found one. 

So we go about our day.  Ride the ride, eat lunch, go to the 4D movie, and then go to the Lego Factory.  This is where they show us how lego's are made (sort of...).  So the first part of the machine is called something like the Gizmonot.  Ralph, our tour guide, asks the kids if they can say Gizmonot.  They all yell it back.  He answers with, "what?"  They all yell it again.  Same thing.  Ralph does this one more time.  He answers again with, "what?"  Banana says to Ralph, "You know, we're little, and sometime little people can't say everything the right way."  So now we know why Ralph couldn't hear them.  Ralph started laughing so hard I thought he was going to hyperventalate.  Then Ralph started to talk about being brave.  He looked over at Clementine (again changing the names to protect the innocent) and asked her if she was brave.  She told him, "No.  I'm Clementine."  That took him a moment to process.  I guess Ralph wasn't ready for the wittiness of our group. 

So after Legoland we had our first night of Soccer.  Fun!  Much better than last year.  The kids are now playing with their friends on the team and having a great time.

Ben walked around eating Goldfish.

And then the boys decided to play in the dirt pile as if it was a sand box.  Wyatt was actually making dirt angels. 

When we got home I gave them a bath and had to empty the tub 3 times before we actually had clean water. 

I think I'm going to sit by the dirt pile every Friday soccer night.  They boys were contained and well behaved the whole time.





And you thought your family was crazy....

So we decided to have the family and the Preuss's over for a BBQ.  Great idea!  (The Gal's)

So we're kind of silly, what family isn't???

 We're playing wiffle ball.  Nice!

Ivy get's a home run!









Family Bonding.

And Then......

Nobody knows who actually started this, but it seems that Aunt Heidi might be the culprite.

 Jason stills claimes to be an innocent bystander.
Not photographed, but yet part of all the craziness... Alex.

And then we go back to normal.....like nothing ever happened.



Ben Makes A Bottle

4:00 PM - Benjamin comes up to me while I'm sitting at my desk with an empty baby bottle and tells me "Mommy.  UH OH.  Mess."  I ask him, "What did you do?"  He answers, "Make. Baby. Bottle."  I go into the kitchen and he spilled all the baby oatmeal all over the counter, chair, and floor.  The funny thing was the baby was sleeping.  Still can't figure out why he needed to make the baby a bottle to begin with???

5:30PM - He tried it again....  This time I heard the jug of baby water crash to the floor.  I go in there and he has baby oatmeal all over the counter again.  He looks at me at says, "No. Make. Baby. Bottle."  Ya think...

I'm not sure when I started having the 2 year old make the baby his bottles, but apparently I should have given him better lessons.

Mother Son Movie Night

Since Riley and Jason had their Daddy Daughter dance it was now time for a Mother Son movie night.  Wyatt's school invited all the boys and their mom's to enjoy a night out at the Fox Lake movie theater.  To keep with tradition Wyatt and I first went out to eat.  His choice was Friday's, but when he told me he wanted Mac N' Cheese for dinner I talked him into Chili's because it was much closer.  After he found out they have Mac N' Cheese at Chili's too he was game for the switch.

After dinner we headed over to the movie.  At some points of the movie Wyatt had a hard time with finding out the hard truth about how animals have to fight to survive in the wild and how not everyone makes it in the end.  Half way through the movie he was ready to leave, but I pulled him on my lap and we stayed til the end.  Since the movie has a happy ending he was glad he didn't leave.

When we got home I found this really great song that was in the movie, "That Man", by Caro Emerald on iTunes.  It has this great modern swing sound to it.  I highly recommend looking it up.  We down loaded it and danced around the living to it over and over and over.  Riley wanted to keep playing it, but sadly it was bed time.