Let's have a pottie, I mean party!!!

So, I did some math, on paper mind you (I couldn't find a calculator), and this is what I came up with. Nate was 3 years 6 months old when he was pottie trained. Bryce was 3 years 8 months old. Abby and Gracie were both exactly 3 years, and McKay who has just been pottie trained is 2 years 9 months old. That adds up to 15 years and 11 months worth of diapers. Because I am doing the math by hand we are going to round it up to 16 years, which is, not including leap years 5,840 days. Now in the early months of each child's life we could go through anywhere from 10 to 14 diapers in a 24 hour period. As the months went on that number went down to about 4 diapers in a 24 hour period if everything was working right. When we take in to consideration things like diarrhea or those times when you change the poopie diaper before the kid is actually done doin' his business then you have to change it again 10 minutes later, that number can go up to between 5 and 8 diapers a day. So for the sake of this post we are going to take an average and say that we use around 6 diapers a day. 5,840x6= 35,040 diapers. If the average box of diapers has about 60 diapers in it and costs about $20.00 we have spent close to $12,000 on diapers. These are all estimates and my math might be a little off, but holy crap $12,000 is a lot of stinkin money.

Just a few more interesting statistics (I know they are only interesting to me, but whatever)

Nate is 10 and a half. Since he was born we have spent almost 4 years with only one child in diapers. 6 years with 2 kids in diapers at the same time, and a 5 month period after Abby was born with 3 kids in diapers at the same time.

Pottie training Nate was the hardest thing I had ever had to do as a parent up to that point. Abby and Gracie where a breeze to pottie train (mostly because I had learned how not to be a psyco about it), and Bryce and McKay were both pottie trained by my super hero of a mother, Grandma Mary.

The newest member of the "big boy club". Yes that's McKay, on a 4-wheeler, in his undies!

we are siamese if you please. we are siamese if you don't please

Tonight at the back-to-school BBQ my friend Kim came and sat by us. She has 1 year old twin boys. Gracie saw one of the boys and asked "Is he 1 year old?" I said "yes". Then she noticed the other twin and said, "How old is he?" I said, "He is one also. They are twins." Then pointing to my friend, Gracie said, "they where both in her tummy at the same time?" I said, "Yap". Then Gracie said "Soo, their heads were stuck together?" When I was done laughing I let her in on a little secret. Not all twins have their heads stuck together.

Are you interested in couponing?

This news clip features my sister-in-law, Kacey. She is a crazy coupon mama! To check out her website go here.
Good Job Kacey!

Happy Birthday Bryce!!!!

9 years old!

I can't believe that this is my tiny red-headed baby.
Bryce is an amazing kid. He's smart and funny and thoughtful and kind and I am so exited to see who he grows into.
Happy Birthday Brycie! I love you!

First day of school

Yay!!! We survived another summer! School is back in session and not a moment too soon. I've heard lot of complaining from other moms about August 10th being too early for school to start, but I say no way! One more week with all of them at home and someone would not have lived through it. I know, look at them, right? So sweet, so cute, so Innocent. I'm tellin' you, don't be fooled.

But really. We had a good summer, but in the end even the kids were ready to get back to school. They have great teachers this year, and we are all looking forward to a fun, exiting, successful school year.

Nate- 5th grade
Bryce- 4th grade
Abby- 2nd grade
Gracie- kindergarten
McKay- Hangin' out with his mom!

For you Karen

Before and after pics of the basement!

The view coming down the stairs.

inside the door of the storage closet.
and now, three days after the clean up.
a few pieces of trash on the floor that will be picked up in the morning before anyone gets to eat breakfast, but still looking pretty good.
I had the zoom lens on the camera so I couldn't give you the big picture, but you get the idea.

Yesterday morning was BAD. It didn't start out bad. My niece and nephew were coming to spend the day with us and I had planned to hike Castle Rock with all of the kids. I woke up in a good mood and started getting everyone ready. This is were the problems started. McKay need shoes and I couldn't find shoes so I did the one thing that I have been avoiding for weeks. I went to the basement. This is what I posted on facebook after I took a cooling down period,

"natalie cornum tenney just went into the basement for the first time in weeks. i knew it was bad, I never imagined it would be that bad. I'm ready to strangle some kids. Seriously they have no respect for anything. It's all going to good will."

What I would have liked to do is ground the kids from all activities and locked them in the basement until either it was clean or they killed each other, but like I said my niece and nephew where here and that wouldn't have been fair to them, so instead we went to Wendy's, got lunch and went to the pool. (We never did find McKay's shoe so the hiking trip was out.)

We had planned to go to Pirates Cove today. I told the kids that if the basement was not perfect last night that we would not go. It was one of those threats that I regretted as soon as I said it. I wanted to go to Pirates Cove, I like going to Pirates Cove, and the chances of the basement being perfect were slim to none.When Sam got home form work he already knew of the basement situation and had promised to take care of it. So I left to go do engagement pictures, and Sam and the kids got to work.

I came home relaxed and happy after taking pictures, because that's what taking pictures does for me. At that point I would have been happy with any progress that was made in the basement. To may great surprise, the basement was perfect, a vision of beauty, I believe I heard angels singing as I walked down the stairs. All I have to say now is "Pirate's Cove, here we come."

As a side note, I'm still going to go through their stuff and give much of it to goodwill. Actually the kids are going to give it to goodwill, and I hope it hurts.

Another side note, when I went into the clean basement last night I screamed all dramatic like "OH MY GOSH" over and over. McKay thought it was super funny. Just now he went into the basement and screamed "Oh my gosh". He is so stinkin cute!!!