Bedtime

In preparation for the new baby, we decided to move Ethan and Ellie into the same room together. Now apart, they are little angel children. Taking naps and going right to bed at night as well. Together, they are naughty children from the dark side of the moon.

They play all night long, don't sleep in, and then are terrors all day long. One might wonder, do I feel like a bad mom - saying that my children are terrors?? Yes, I do. But that is honestly the only way to describe them on lack of sleep. Not to mentiong (and my dad would surely agree) patience has never been a gift that I posses.

Our kids go to bed at 8:00 p.m. and that is not something that Jacob and I are willing to move just to make our kids more sleepy before bedtime. But at the same time - does anyone out there have any suggestions as how to get them to just GO TO BED!!

We have a bedtime routine that we have been doing forever. Pajamas, brushing teeth, prayers, and stories. So a routine isn't our problem. And they don't necessarily get out of bed either. Every once in a while that does happen but it's not our main problem right now. The problem is that they are just in there playing. Talking, jumping in bed, playing with the lights/lamps, throwing books at one another and just plain goofing around.

We have tried reading to them lengthy stories but the playing is still going one after a month of sharing a room. We have tried putting them in timeout for goofing around. We have tried spanking - and yes, mom, we spank hard enough that it hurts. But we don't necessarily feel like that is the best solution either. But nothing else we can find, read, think of, or create in our heads is working. We don't want to be putting Ellie to bed early and let Ethan stay up a bit until she asleep, or have them fall asleep in seperate rooms and then move them together. I just want them to be perfect little children and fall asleep immediately when I tell them to!!

So seriously, before I feel like an utter failure as a mother would someone please tell me how this is done! I am beyond my wits end and need some kind of solution.

Oh my children. It seems like the last few months my children have exploded. You might wonder...exploded? Yes exploded, both of them. I swear over the last month we have spent more time in time out than we have out of time out. Both of them have started sassing, yelling, screaming, hitting, kicking, and flat out being normal little kids.

Where did my perfect children go? Who took them!?!? I want them back.

Please, if you have any information on the location of these two loving children - contact me as soon as possible. They are loved and missed very much. We know they are out there somewhere and would really like to have them home

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Leaves

We have lots of leaves

Perfect for jumping in

Perfect for a soft landing (note the rain boots - he really likes them)

I'm not sure why she is so concerned

Maybe it's because she is really sitting next to Ethan who keeps shoving her into the leaves and trying to bury her in them. You would never guess that he would ever do such a thing from this picture. But it is true...promise.

They actually do like each other. By the way, Ellie is smiling, not dying.

She really is a peach, this girl.

Carving Pumpkins

Of course we carved pumpkins! We try to do it just a few days before actual Halloween because otherwise we have to light them for a month beforehand. I let the kids pick out what they wanted. I just showed them a couple on line and let them pick from two or three that I thought would be pretty simple for Jacob and myself to do.

Ethan picked Mickey Mouse.

Ellie picked Cinderella

I actually carved a pumpkin too. I did Jack. Like Jack, the Pumpkin King. Anyway, Jacob was a big nerd and went to play basketball instead of carve a pumpkin with his wife. Party pooper.

Halloween at the Barkers

We all stopped in at Jacob's parents for our trick-or-treating. This is the Molgards. They are always really good to dress up with their kids. I am not.



Grandma Barker gave us all these lovely glasses. Abbi is a great model for them.

We have cute cousins.

And cute kids ourselves.

Trick-or-Treat

Here is my sweet Batman and Cinderella outside Grandma Youngberg's house before we left to go door to door. Ellie is in love with suckers. I couldn't get her to put it down for pictures.


Again with the sucker.

Batman was old enough this year that he was really excited to be knocking on doors. He apparently had a game plan. He would ring the door bell and knock twice on EVERY door. It didn't matter how many times we told him he didn't need to knock, he did. He was going to make sure that everyone knew he was ready to get his candy. We had to keep telling him to slow down and wait for his sister because he kept running from door to door so fast.

This was before we left our house. Ellie's tiara didn't make it out the door. (disregard the dirty fireplace screen - I quit cleaning it last year. It is just pointless to try and keep little fingers off of it.)

Me and my friends had a little party for our kids the Friday before. Here they are all lined up - and so happy too. This was the best picture we could get of all of them

Cute Kaylee enjoyed coloring while waiting for her pizza to cook. Every time I tried to take a picture of her - she just glared at me. I promise she really does like me, for real.

Cinderella colored too. She will do anything that Kaylee will do. Kaylee however often looks at Ellie with a look like, "You are crazy". When Ellie does things like jump down the stairs from half way up, or atempt things at the park that even Ethan won't do. Kaylee is probably right, Ellie is crazy, but we love her.

I (HEART) Shutterfly

Did I ever mention that I love Shutterfly?? They always have great deals on photos and they have amazing photo book offers that I can never pass up. But I also love that they do card designs as well. Every Christmas I walk down the aisles and look at the Christmas cards and decide...that they are ugly. I can never find any that I truly love and really want to spend my money on. And then I look at these from Shutterfly and just fall in love!

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/christmas-cards

And every year my husband's family gets together and makes a calendar of pictures made of the grandkids for his parents. How awesome are these!

http://www.shutterfly.com/calendars

And lastly how could I not love any of these cards for a sweet new little baby. I think I need them all. Any one of these would be absolutely perfect for our little one coming in January!

http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationery/birth-announcements

I (HEART) Shutterfly