Christmas Party!!

Grants annual christmas party is finally here. I have been waiting for this day for a while now. This will be our fourth year. The last 3 have been fun but it was what it was. So first off I want to explain how awesome the Hoover christmas parties are! I used to pick up my parents from previous ones as well so I know how they are! For the past 3 years and now this year the party has been at the Deerfoot Inn and Casino. The food is always so delicious and there is an open bar. There are always speeches, awards and the best part, prizes. I hope maybe we will win something super exciting this year!

So for the past 3 years I have been the DD. Not necessarily by choice. The first year I was pregnant with Dalyce, the second year it was that really bad snow storm and Dalyce was only 4 months old so I didn't trust a taxi to drive us home from south calgary and I had to go get Dalyce from my sisters house (which did not end up happening, we got stuck majorly in the snow). And last year I was pregnant with Drayper. Not that I would've liked to drink profusely but I would like to have the option I guess. This year is finally the year! I won't be tired and bored, sick of the music, and just want to go home and go to bed! This year I get to let loose and enjoy myself! The only thing is that the kids Christmas party is the very next day at 11 am so we have to be careful about how late we stay out!

The other reason why I have been so excited about today is I am getting my hair done! Cut and colored...which has only ever happened 3 times in my whole life! I get to go to the salon and enjoy 2 hours of getting my hair colored and cut and some quiet time! And Then....I get to wear my new outfit! From head to toe I bought a new outfit this year for the christmas party! I was bound and determined to find something this year because I have never bought anything for the party. I have always worn something I already have or borrowed something Miranda has. With the exception of the jewelery and a purse everything I wear tonight will be the first time...YAY!!!

I am also very excited about the kids Hoover Christmas party. I get to take the kids to see Santa and they get a present from him (which is usually a very awesome gift). And we get to do crafts and play games with them. This is going to be an awesome weekend!

Next weekend will be christmas and I dont know who is more excited, Me and Grant or the Kids! We get 3 very exciting gift opening events and time with family! The weekend after that will be New Years eve and then my christmas party (which should be eventful)! And Then.......

My whole weekend away without the kids with only Grant to get to do my favorite thing in the world....SHOPPING!!! This was my birthday present from my sister, brother-in-law and my parents! I have planned since October for this weekend and made sure I dont have to worry about how expensive those shoes are or how much that shirt costs!! I have never done it before so I will enjoy every minute of it! I get to do my favorite thing with my favorite adult!! Yay ME!!!!

So that is my next month of events!!

Christmas is a comin'

Everybody ready for Christmas?? I'm sure not!! I thought I was getting a good head start by getting on my christmas shopping in October but I'm still not any closer than if I had started in December...I think I'm just buying more!!
I started wrapping everything the other night and realized that the kids won't have the same amount of gifts to open. I know that is important in any household no matter what is in the gift. We got Austin something more expensive and so he doesnt have as many gifts to open....when they are this little they wont notice that we might have spent a little more on one than the others so I guess we'll have to find something else to get him. Dalyce has a whole bunch of stuff to open because all her gifts are inexpensive. We also need to figure out what Santa will be bringing them!! ;)
Now that the kids are a little older I understand how my mom felt every year. I know she was probably excited to watch us open our gifts and watch the excitement on our faces but I know she was missing the excitement of getting gifts herself. I know this comes with being a mom. Mom always thinks about everyone in the household except herself! As we got older my mom started getting gifts for herself to open because no one ever thought of her (except for the fact that we were too little to get her anything anyways)! Well I learnt from that! I wonder what Santa will be bringing me for christmas this year?!?!

Who believes in Santa?! As a child I never blieved in Santa. We were always told Santa is not real. My parents didnt blieve in making us believe in something that wasnt real just to break our hearts in the future. I was always set on doing the exact same thing and it took Grant about a year and a half to change my mind! I now make the kids believe in Santa because although he is not real, how exciting is it to believe in something magical who brings you presents? Eventually when they are old enough to ask the questions I will tell them the truth and I'm sure they will get over it very quickly because "Santa" will still bring them presents every year!!

Its funny how when you get married traditions blend together to make new ones for a new family. Grant and I were raised very similar so we are lucky that combining our traditions and beliefs is very easy. Some things are a little more difficult especially with how stubborn I am. No matter what I am usually right (whether I really am or not!). I am excited to begin a christmas season with our new traditions that the kids might actually start to remember!!

Parenthood

I am a little disappointed in myself this morning. I had a little meltdown and should have taken a timeout but instead I overreacted. Let me explain....

The kids decided to take out the reese puffs cereal this morning and start playing with it. It ended up all dumped on the carpet. This was at about 8:30, Which I then told them to clean it all up, it needed to now go in the garbage and we needed to go. I started to continue attending to my frustrating process of figuring out my email and facebook account as I needed to get a new email because my old one stopped working. I know I was already annoyed and frustrated so the kids mess did not help. I then realized what time it was (8:45) and needed to leave to take Austin to preschool. The mess was not only not cleaned up but way worse, as it was not all in one place but the kids proceeded to throw it around, at each other. I lost my temper. I was yelling and screaming at the kids to clean it up now, this was not acceptable and I was furious at them because we needed to leave or Austin was going to be late. It was agrivating because it needed to be cleaned up before we left because other wise the dogs would eat it and get very sick. The whole 5 minutes they were trying to clean it up I was yelling at them. I know I probably did not accomplish any learning from the experience techniques by my yelling. I now know I should've told them sternly to clean up the mess right now and left the room to calm myself down, a "timeout for mommy", but I didn't. I guess we learn from our mistakes.

I know that every once in a while everyone has their bad parenting moments and this was not my finest. Its very frustrating because I knew at the time I should've stopped myself from continuing but I just couldnt. I needed to get my anger out. I'm still very angry at the whole situation but now realize I'm not angry at the kids for making such a big mess but at myself for not supervising the first time I told them to clean it up. It also did not help that I was so annoyed with my email and facebook.

I know as time passes I grow. My patience for sure has gotten a lot stronger ever since Austin was born. Its a learning experience and I need to remember that. When your baby is born and you get to take it home, it does not come with an instruction manual and it should!! I'm glad though that all my children are still very young and probably will not remember this terrible mommy moment.

School

Ahhhh how I love the quiet mornings that I get while Austin is in school. I never thought I would enjoy it this much because his first day was so sad. I knew after I got used to it I would start to like it but man is it ever nice. Dalyce is such a quiet good little girl when Austin isnt here to pick on here or torment her. She plays so well and nicely by herself, it'll be sad when she has to go to school. It helps that right now Drayper decided to have his morning nap at this time so the house is extremely quiet and still.

I'm looking forward to the day when all the kids are in school and I will finally get time to myself. I'm sure I will get bored quickly and I will probably start working during the day part time. My house will hopefully be extremely clean because I will have a lot of extra time to do it! All these things are in the far off in the future but I know it will come before I know it!

Next year I know I will get a little more freedom and it will be nice. Austin will be in Kindergarten (hopefully in the mornings) and hopefully at the school that is supposed to be done by September 2012 at the end of my street. So I won't have to worry about taking him to school everyday especially since the kids across the street will be going there as well and they could all walk together. And then Dalyce will be starting preschool going 2 days a week. Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-11:30. So those days I will only have Drayper. I'm glad in a way because then I will get to spend some extra special one on one time with him while he is still pretty young. I never really got that with Dalyce because there was always Austin to look after as well.

Its crazy to think now that when you have kids they are only home with you all the time until they are 3 and then they start part time school until grade 1 and then it is full time. You have these babies and you raise them until they are 3 and then you ship them off to school to start learning everyday without you. It's weird how this world works isnt it?! So you really only get 3 years to really make an impact on their lives and hope that they know good enough when they start learning things from other peoples kids. In my opinion thats not enough time. I know my children behave much better when I'm not around but when they are around the wrong people they do bad things anyway (I know this because I was there). I sure hope that I make a good enough impact on my children to know right from wrong. Gotta stop writting now I'm getting too upset thinking out loud about it.

Preschool

Well my oldest child has started preschool. I really wasn't expecting anything when I dropped him off, in fact I didn't know what to expect! I knew he wasn't going to cry and be all upset but I guess I didn't think he wasn't going to care either. He gave me a hug and said I love you but then he went off to play! I didn't really think about how I was going to feel! To all those parents who haven't taken their kids to preschool...it's sad! You realize that your little baby isn't a baby anymore and that he's growing up. I know it will get easier and easier and then it won't even phase me that he is going to school.

Now what to do with only 2?! My house is so much quieter! Dalyce plays so much better when Austin isn't around! Next year (or the year after) I will be saying what to do with only 1! Time goes by so fast and I wish sometimes I could slow it down!

It's funny how you hear about moms with older kids who are going into grade 1 (full time school) and they are so excited (usually more than the kids)! I'm always thinking I will be sad when this happens to me, that all my kids are in full time school. But then I start thinking, I could have all this free time to myself...is that when I get a break?? I finally start to realize why these parents are so happy to ship their kids off to school everyday!

All I'm hoping for today is that I don't get a phone call before 11:30 saying that Austin is being bad or he peed his pants or something...and for Friday we'll see what I hope for...maybe that time slows down so I get more than 2 and a half hours?! HAHA!!! My sister tells me I will enjoy this time and he will have so much fun! Lets hope she is right!

How much is too much?

So I know that compared to a lot of parents these days I am pretty strict. I might be a little more lenient when my kids get older but for now I have rules. I may not always know why I instill these rules day after day but I do. I do wonder sometimes if I am too hard on my kids. I wonder if what I'm doing is going to affect them in a good way, a bad way, or not even at all. I know it is affecting them a little because when they go to someones house they are well mannered and far better behaved than at home.

I expect a lot out of my children. I will give them the tools to get what they want out of life so they need not to take it for granted. I want them to be polite, nice and generous to people. I want them to know that I love them more than anything. I want them to know that they can do whatever they put their minds to. A friend told me about her "can't jar" once. She said that when her daughters say they can't do something they have to put money into the jar. It has taught them to say I need help with this or I don't understand. I have taken on this learning tool into my own househeld without the actual jar. It would drive me insane when Austin says he can't do something. He has now learned to say I need help or I have a problem.

I don't want my children to get hurt. I want them to respect their things and people. I need them to understand these things so I made rules. For example, no running in the house, or you trip over daddys shoes and smack your face into the window ledge and get a huge cut in your face. Or books are for reading no throwing them around or I take them away and put them in the basement. These things are hard for me to enforce sometimes because they are having so much fun running in the house. They are also getting excersize. Taking away their books seems a little strange because now they have nothing to read and look at. But if they don't learn to respect them and use them the way they are supposed to what else are they going to wreck? It was hard for me to take away their books but I need them to understand that they can't just wreck things and not care. They might be a little young to understand this yet but one day they will, I hope!

I do these things because I love them and I want them to be great people one day. I can't let them get away with everything all the time because then they will never understand right from wrong. Kids will be kids, yes, but one day they will be adults.

There is a point in your life (and everyone is different) that for the most part you physically stop growing. Your mind never stops, so you are always learning and growing in that aspect but your body stops at some point (I googled it, anywhere between 18 and 25, apparently I'm not done yet lol).

After having children I watch them. I watch them learn and grow every day into these human beings that I created. Their personalities are developing as well as their mind. I wonder sometimes how I was ever that small. It's even crazier to think that one day they will be as big as I am, maybe even bigger. And one day even they might be where I am today, maybe not at the same age but one day they might have children of their own and a spouse who they love unconditionally.

I wonder what they will grow up to be. A plumber like Grant, a lawyer, a doctor, a dentist (like I wanted to be). They might be a teacher or a policeman. Whatever they will be I will love them no matter who they end up being because they are my children and I love them no matter what. Their jobs might not be as glorious as I just listed but they will do what they want, or what they love. I sure can't say that I love what I do (money making wise) but like I've said before I am living my dream. I have the family I wished that I would have. Some days I take that for granted when I am tired or not feeling well but I still got what I wanted out of life so far. I hope my children accomplish the same!