Tips?

Do any of you have any good suggestions for getting a kid to sleep in her own bed? Emma likes my bed. Emma likes to sleep only in my bed. This means I don't get to sleep. The last few nights have been terrible, so last night I told her she had to sleep in her bed. I took her from my room back to her room until 1:30AM. She screamed bloody murder the entire time.

Usually Jeremy can sleep through her crying and banging on the door, but last night was so bad he woke up about 5 times because of her.

At 7AM she came into our bed again and I was too tired to fight it. A few minutes later, Megan came into my bed. Megan has not come into bed with us for over a year. According to her, she was "cold." My body heat isn't good for anything, so I know I didn't warm her up.

Then five minutes later, Jeremy came into bed me. By this point, Nathan was up and getting ready to leave for school. Jeremy hasn't come into our bed in months. Last night was supposed to be a kid-free sleep.

I woke up pretty upset and it just got worse and worse. Jeremy and Emma fought over who could lay next to me (Megan had the edge of the bed, there was no making her move), and Megan kept telling me she was hungry. We keep Pop Tarts where she can reach them for just such an occasion as me not wanting to get out of bed yet. Jeremy and Emma like to kick me when they are in bed with me (which was our main reason for not letting Jeremy be in our bed anymore. Emma likes to play with my hair as she falls asleep, which is oh-so-cute when it's in the rocking chair, but quickly loses its cuteness when I'm trying to fall asleep and it begins to feel more like she's pulling my hair out instead of twirling it.

I need help. I hate books and Super Nanny (who I usually love) when they say to keep taking the child back to their bed and they'll get the message, so please don't offer that advice. They don't get it. And if they do, they don't care about the message. Emma didn't used to have a little rasp to her voice--she got that from screaming for FOREVER one day. She's fine with screaming for hours, she doesn't care. So I need some advice for how to get an almost 2 year old to sleep in her own bed that doesn't include the unhelpful, "just keep putting her in her own bed."

PLEASE!

So, If You Haven't Heard . . . .

Nathan called Thursday at 1:30PM to tell me he was in the E.R. He hasn't been feeling well since last weekend and it's just gotten worse and worse with fever, back aches, severe head aches, and more that I won't mention now. He went to the student health clinic to see his doctor and tell her the last round of antibiotic she gave him didn't work and that he was feeling worse. She took his temp and he was over 103. She sent him to the E.R. and there he called me.

Very kindly, a friend came over to be with the kids while I met him at the E.R. a couple hours later (Thank you Claudia! We totally owe you dinner!). I got there in time for some testing, cultures and a CT scan.

Turns out he has a kidney infection from a previous infection he had that didn't get resolved on his first round of medicine. So now he's on a stronger antibiotic that he'll take for two weeks and that should clear it up.

We were finally able to leave the hospital sometime after 8PM. I'm happy to have him home and somewhat healthy.

Love you, Nathan! Get Better!

Book Review, Alcatraz Vs. The Knights of Crystallia

Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia by Brandon Sanderson


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Nathan and I read these books together. We both really like this author and find these books to be very entertaining. Sanderson is really funny and has a very creative magic system in this series. I like how the storyline got more complicated in this book.

Alcatraz is a kid who has the magical talent of breaking things. It's true. His grandfather has the magical talent of being late. That would so bug me. But in the books, it's great. In this installment, Alcatraz is finally home and trying to figure out life outside of librarian controlled lands when he discovers the librarians are about to takeover one of the last of the free kingdoms.

The book was fast paced, hilarious, and is littered with fun characters that are easy to see in my head. I love that this book introduces a "recovering librarian."

My one big complaint in it would be the title. I guess it fits, but it still bugs me. Alcatraz is up against multiple Knights at only one time and it isn't in a way that fits the rest of the books, Alcatraz Vs. The Evil Librarians and Alcatraz Vs. the Scrivners Bones. In the end, he's really up against one knight and doesn't even fight the knight himself, as you can see on the cover.

Over all, it was a great, fun story and it's a series that I can't wait for Jeremy to be old enough to appreciate!

View all my reviews >>

Saturday is a Special Day, It's the Day we do Something Crazy!

We did something kinda crazy yesterday (Saturday). Our friends, Mark and Jess, called us saying they were flying from Utah to Virginia and volunteered to be bumped off a connecting flight from Cincinnati to Virginia. They were compensated with a hotel room and food vouchers. When they called they asked us if we wanted to drive down and stay at their hotel and eat dinner with them. Even though we had a ton of stuff to do, we thought it would be fun to see them. We hadn't seen them since we moved from Logan two years ago and we used to see them almost every day. We played games with them just about every night.

So we quickly packed up the kids, grabbed some pajamas and toothbrushes, and headed out for the four hour drive. And what did we learn? We need a portable DVD player before we make the even longer drive to Salt Lake this spring. And check the weather report before saying you'll drive for four hours in it.

Still, it was great seeing Mark and Jess, getting to play games with them and eating pizza--just like old times! I took the camera, but forgot to take pictures, so the only picture I've got is the one I stole from their blog.

Megan and Jess decided they are best friends forever, Emma warmed up quickly to both Jess and Mark, having only ever seen them as a newborn, and Jeremy was just as crazy with them as he is with everyone else.

We couldn't get the kids to go to sleep until we went to sleep, so they were up quite late, and the time change last night didn't help, either. We ended up having to get up really early so we could get to church on time (barely a minute late). And it's a good thing we did because apparently, we were assigned the opening and closing prayers. Nathan forgot to tell me, so when there was a lull after the opening song, and he looked up to see one of the bishop's councilors looking at him, he poked me and said in a loud whisper, "Kellie, get up there and pray!" And of course I thought he was kidding. I looked up and saw the councilor nodding to me so I shot up, took my coat off (we'd just barely walked in at this point), shook Jeremy off me, and walked up to the pulpit to pray.

I felt pretty stupid, but it was funny. Then at the end of the meeting, Nathan forgot he was supposed to say the closing prayer and I got to poke and whisper at him.

We are all pretty tired now and grateful that we could put the kids down early with the time change. Now we are going to go put ourselves down!

I Won!

I won! I'm so excited! Do you remember me blogging and FB and actually opening a Twitter account (you probably didn't know that last one) just so I could get more entries in the contest for the free copy of Love Your Body by Brooke Parker? Well, I did all those things and more to win this book. And I did!

I'll let y'all know how it is when I get it. I'm sure it will be great. One of the things I had to do for entries in the contest was read all the blogs that were reviewing it and leave comments on the blog. All the reviews raved about the book and how helpful it was.

I love that it is a diet free approach to eating. It isn't starve yourself, or eat only x times a day, or eat only such and such. I can't wait for this book to arrive in my mailbox!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy!

HaPpY BiRtHdAy, MOM!!!

We love you!

***The pictures associated with the description below have disappeared off the blog. I'm still trying to find them. I put these two up until I can find the ones I want.***



I kind of surprised my mom with an impromptu photo shoot today. She wasn't happy about getting in front of the camera, but I think she looks gorgeous, just like always. I won't tell you how old she is, because she isn't old. . .and because I'd like to not be kicked out of her house a day before going back to Ohio.

Anyway, thanks for taking another day off work to be with us, Mom. We loved spending time with you and hope you had fun, even if the kids did give you a headache:)

Blast Off!

I took the kids to Space Center Houston today. They were having a half-off ticket sale, so it wasn't too pricey, especially since Jeremy and Emma were free. There were a ton of things to see and do and we ended up spending all day there. Really. We got there at opening at 10AM and left at 4:30PM.

And we have lift off, Houston!

A ball area like no other. That thing in the middle shoots a ton of balls out every five minutes or so. Really cool!

Learning the bell curve.

Amazing Science Lady who did amazing things with balloons, liquid nitrogen, and a lime! Megan kind of freaked out with the liquid nitrogen. When she saw it boiling she covered her mouth and nose, afraid to breathe it in. I had to work to convince her to put her hands down.

They had a cool exhibit on risk taking. They had uniforms and shoes from jobs or hobbies that are dangerous (firefighting, mountaineering), displays about what would happen if you took certain chances, a bed of nails that you could actually lay down on--just all kinds of stuff. Megan laid on the bed of nails, but wouldn't do it long enough for me to get a picture.
She said it hurt. Imagine that.

Walking the high beam above the busy city streets. Megan and Jeremy walked this twice without falling.

That is one big steering wheel. This was part of a display on the safety, or rather, unsafe old dashboards.

Fireman Megan

Trying on the helmets:)

Lookin' Good!

Copy that, Houston!

My kids now want Nathan to make them a wind tunnel.

Texas Vacation

In order to get here

Daniel, Laurie, Megan, Mom, Jeremy, Emma, Nathan, Dad

We had to ride here first


And since we finally arrived, here are some things we've done


PLAY OUTSIDE


PLAY WITH AUNT LAURIE



SWING ON THE BACK PORCH


MAKE S'MORES ON THE FIRE PIT


GO TO GALVESTON BEACHEmma loves the water. It was almost impossible to get her out of the water.

Jeremy and the Sea Wall

This wave knocked Emma down. She got up and said, "Wet!"

Here's Jeremy freaking out and dragging Emma out of the water. She kept running out to the ocean. She didn't care how cold the water was, which was pretty dang cold.


EAT AT RAIN FOREST CAFE

We only did dessert, but we got a really cool dessert--The Sparkling Volcano