Self-Soothing Quirks

Thumb sucking is one of the most common self-soothing habits. I did it, my sister did it, and I always expected my kids to do it as well, but this does not seem to interest them. I was surpised to learn what their self-soothing habits were/are and thought I'd share them. . .

Although Kaleb had a few self-soothing habits, one of the things he would always do, especially if he was trying to sleep, is to pull his eyelashes. I wish I had a photo of this, but of course I don't. He has super long eyelashes so this was easy for him. I thought this was really weird until Kayden.

I threw in these pictures so you could see how long Kaleb's eyelashes are. The one below I threw in, well to be honest, more because I think it is so funny! This is Kaleb when he was 4 months old. I kind of surprised him with my new camera with flash!

It is really hard to tell what Kayden is doing in the picture below, but he is doing his self-soothing habit: picking at his belly button! It is not uncommon to find his zip-up pajamas unzipped to right below his belly button.

Because he picks at it so much, a lot of the time his belly button appears to be an outie! So I had an eyelash pulling kid and have a belly picking boy. What do your kids do?

Haircut Battles

Because Mitch and Kaleb abandoned Kayden and me (they went to watch a state basketball game in Richfield that his brother was helping coach), I decided to hang out with Kendall, Carolina, and their chubby baby, Alex. Both Kayden and Alex weigh the same, but Kayden will be 2 in May, and Alex is only 7 months! While they were here I cut Kendall's hair and also Kayden's. As you can see, Kayden definitely needed his hair cut!

I don't know if you know how difficult it is to try to give a hair cut to a toddler. When Kayden just sees the scissors he goes crazy. I try everything--I give him candy, toys, anything but nothing seems to work. I have this problem with Kaleb as well, but now I just tell him that I'm getting the bugs out and he holds very still. I know. . . that's super bad of me, but I just can't seem to get him to be still! When Kaleb was younger, I'd cut his hair while he was sleeping, but Kayden is too much of a light sleeper!

Although they hate getting their hair cut, they recover pretty quickly! If anyone has ideas of how to make this problematic task any easier, let me know!

Frosty the Snowman

It was such a nice day yesterday that I had to take Kaleb outside to play in the snow. He had so much fun that he didn't want to come back inside. Finally I was able to bribe him with hot chocolate. . . Actually he was upset that I offered him hot chocolate; he just wanted warm chocolate! :) I thought I'd include a few of my favorite snowman comics from Calvin & Hobbes. My favorite is the one above!

Unfortunately, Kaleb had a bad dream last night about snowmen. He said they were kicking him with fire. I promise he never saw these comics! I guess this one will be the last he makes this season!

I Have the Power!!!!!

Kaleb's birthday was a couple of weeks ago and this year he wanted a He-Man cake. We don't have cable so my kids only watch movies. Well, Mitch found the Best Episodes of He-Man and had to get it. Now, it is both of my kids favorite show. It is super funny watching He-Man again--it really isn't as cool as we remembered it! But I must say, I do love the little moral lessons at the end! hahahaha Just a side note, did you know that She-Ra is He-Man's sister. . . I don't think I ever knew that! Anyway, I really didn't know how I was going to be able to make the cake so tried forever to change his mind, but nope... He wanted a He-Man cake!

This year we just a had little get together with my family to celebrate his birthday. Kaleb is now 4 years old! It is crazy how fast he has grown up. He is now in sunbeams and loves it. I have to write a funny story about sunbeams. . . I hate seeing Kaleb pick his nose so I tell him that the bathroom is the only place he can do that. Well, last Sunday we saw his sunbeam teacher taking him to the bathroom so after church we asked him if he had to go pee. He looked at us confused and said, "No! I just had to pick my nose!" We told the chorister lady in Primary and she laughed and said she wondered why when they came back into the primary room Kaleb's teacher was giggling. I can just imagine his teacher taking him in the bathroom, opening the stall & then Kaleb just starts picking his nose and then says, "Okay! I'm done!" Funny kid!

Anyway, last year Kaleb was obsessed with Spongebob and that is what he wanted for his birthday cake. I thought I would include a picture of the cake just because it took me forever to do! I use to think that Spongebob was dumb, but after actually watching a few episodes, I have to say that I love it. It is just so funny! Maybe not the best show for kids, but for me, it's great! Kayden also loves Spongebob too. Infact, he started saying "Spongebob" way before he started saying "mama." How sad is that! Kayden also walks around saying "I have the power!" I think he watchs too much t.v.

Picture of Spongebob sitting and laughing with his pet snail, Gary. Little did they know they were going to be eaten in a few hours! Maybe Spongebob is NOT so ready now!

Tag... I'm it!

What is his name?
Mitchell Ray Labrum aka Mitch
How long have you been together?
6 years married 7.5 yrs total
How long did you date?
Dated 1 year, engaged for 3 months. But we did break up for a month in between. . .
Who said I love you first?
I did after dating 6 months... Mitch was too slow!
Who is taller?
Mitch
Who has more speeding tickets?
Definitely Mitch!
Who is smarter?
We each have our better areas but overall . . . ;)
Who is more sensitive?
Mitch just said I was
When there is a fight who usually wins?
Me! How do you think Mitch REALLY broke his neck!
Who does the laundry?
Always me now that I'm living in my mom's dungeon! :)
Who does the dishes?
We both do
Who sleeps on the right?
Depends . . . Am I looking at the bed, or lying in it?
Who pays the bills?
Me, with the money Mitch makes.
Who mows the lawn?
What lawn?
Who cooks dinner?
hmm... I do... Call me weird, but I like to cook 3 meals at a time and then don't like to cook again until the leftovers are all gone! Sometimes that's a very long time! (by the way, Mitch hates leftovers)
Who drives when you are together?
Usally Mitch. I did most of the time though, when Mitch had his kneck brace.
Who is more stubborn?
Me by far
Who kissed who first?
Mitch kissed me first but I kissed back.
Who asked who out first?
Mitch
Who proposed?
Mitch
Who has more siblings?
ummm... blood related or not? Mitch has 2 brothers and 4 sisters (7 kids total). I have 2 sisters but I also have 3 half sisters, 1 half brother (7 total) BUT, I also have 1 step-brother and I don't know if this counts, but three ex step-sisters! Beat that!
Who wears the pants?
Me, but don't tell Mitch. . . I think he thinks he does
Tag Sara, Janae, BriAnne & Kariah (Looks like you have to get a blog now! :)

Catching Up. . .

I thought I'd just post some of the events that have happened this last year so whenever I think I'm having the craziest year, I can remember this one and say nope! hahah


All the fun stuff that has happened to us literally started off with Mitch's parents coming home from their mission (Mitch's dad was the mission president in the Phillipines). Not that this event was bad though! hahah! We were actually very excited to have them back. They arrived home July 3rd, 2007. I think it wasn't even a week later that Mitch's grandma died. Soon after the funeral Mitch and the kids also got very sick. Mitch actually ended up losing 15 pounds--he was already skinny before he got sick. A few weeks later, my grandmother died from a kidney infection-ironically, Mitch's grandma died from the same thing. Also ironic is that my grandma died during her family reunion so she was able to see everyone before she passed away. Just a few days before she died, our car spontaneously caught on fire and it was totaled! (We had just purchased that car a few months prior because Mitch got hit from a diesel and got some money from that!) The same day my grandma died, Carolina had her baby. We thought things could not get any crazier, but of course it did. On October 22, Mitch was playing flag football. It was the second to last play of the championship game when Mitch was running, and someone tripped him, and he hit is head on someone's hip and... yes... broke his neck. He broke two bones! His breaks were great breaks though! hahaha As if that was possible! Anyway, no surgery was needed. He just had to wear a neck brace for 3 months! He just got it off on the 22 of this month. We also moved out of our townhouse. We were hoping to get this one house, but that kind slipped through our hands. . . and then we were going to get this other one... and then we thought about another and another and ... well, it's a long story. Anyway, we are now living in my mother's dungeon until we get a house!

This picture was taken when Mitch's parents returned from their mission. Little did we know what would happen next!


Kaleb, Kayden, and Mitch with his lovely brace. He wore this brace for most of the time, but towards the end got sick of it. He upgraded to a blue one! After he got the brace off, many people at work said, "Mitch! You're 'necked'! I thought that was hilarious!
This is where the fire happened. It also happened during my family reunion. I think it is safe to say that no one will ever forget this reunion! When we returned home from church, we parked on the side of my mom's house. The fire didn't start until an hour later. Apparently, the hot engine of the car kindled the cut grass and poof! There goes our car! You can barely see another car in that picture that was parked right next to the fire.... yeah... that's our car too! A few minutes later we could have lost both! Mitch's first instinct, when he saw the car on fire, was to get in it and back it up. I don't know if at the moment he was suicidal or what! He even started the car! He tried to back it up, but by that time the transmission was gone. It doesn't look like that much damage, but when we opened the hood the damage was clear!

This picture was taken right after the game where Mitch broke his neck--but he doesn't know it yet! He is the one in the orange. He did make two touchdowns during that game and they ended up winning the championship game. I guess it was all worth it! hahahaha Just kidding of course!

Just Starting Out. . .

Notice the pile of flour on the chair!
This is Kaleb's head--It really took about 4 baths to get it completely out!

Boys will be boys! This happened within 5 minutes while I was distracted doing some work on the computer!