I live with PIGS

SADLY ENOUGH, THIS IS TRUE. This is how my boys room looks 90% of the time. I don't understand it. I yell until I am blue in the face, harp on them until I can't stand the sound of my own voice and threaten to knock them into next week if they don't get it cleaned up and promise to never let it happen again. But it always does. And it is usually trashed again about 2 hours after they have just cleaned it.

I just don't understand it. I was, as a child, and still am as an adult, meticulously clean. Everything had a place and it was always in it's place. I would dust my room, take my light fixture out of the ceiling and clean it, change the furniture around in my room, wash my window and the window seal, and vacuum perfectly straight lines at the age of 8. But somewhere I have missed the mark with my own kids.

If I made a mess, I quickly cleaned up after myself. I never sat there with a smug eating grin on. Basically I was the perfect child!

So I started to evaluate the rearing I have given my children to try to figure out what I have done wrong and where I need to change.

-Have I always taught them to clean up after themselves? Check. Only for some dang reason they don't. They leave it for me to either clean up or to yell at them to "get in here and clean up after yourself!"

-Have I taught them to put their clean clothes away properly? Check. Only for some reason, I end up getting folded, clean laundry BACK in the dirty clothes bins in the laundry room. (this infuriates me!)

-Have I taught them to take their dirty clothes either to the hamper in their rooms or to the laundry room? Check. Only for some reason I end up with mismatched socks that have been soiled and stuffed in the cushions of my couch and dirty underwear stuffed under the bed.

-Have I taught them to put away their toys after they finish playing with them? Check. Only for some reason they are strung into EVERY SINGLE room of the house.

I can't figure out anywhere that I have gone wrong. Only thing I can come up with for why this stuff happens is because of this guy.......

(this picture was taken somewhat by surprise and he wasn't pleased. Then again, the flaring of the nostrils and the pursed lips probably gave it away.)

Merry Christmas 2009!

Molly LOVES Fancy Nancy. So she got a ton of Fancy Nancy stuff for Christmas. One of the first things that she opened was her Fancy Nancy dress and her Fancy Nancy purse and sunglasses. She stripped of her pj's and put on her new outfit. She also got a Fancy Nancy doll.

And a new Fancy Nancy book. She put her doll on the couch, climbed up and read her new book.

Cade got this really neat Razor big wheel thing. It drives like a big wheel but has razor scooter wheels on the back and it can do 360 turns and really neat tricks.

He sat down on his big wheel first thing and opened all his presents there.

Sid has been wanting some boots REALLY bad. Can you tell she was a little excited to get them...

And Jensy got the .22 that he asked for. He couldn't hardly wait to go shooting with it.