I've been Tagged!

So, my dear friend Mari has tagged me for the first time in my blogging carreer (Thanks Mari.)Which means, I have to tell you all 6 random things about me. Let me tell you, this is harder then you think. But I'll give it my best shot. Here goes nothing.

1. I can't STAND it for people to touch my feet. I guess I am very ticklish on my feet.

2. I am training (or should I say "was trying")to run a 5k. I started early summer but then it got too hot. So I am hoping to get back very soon. I think it would be very cool to be able to say "I ran a 5k" and then who knows where it will go:)

3. I LOVE Mexican food. My husband on the other hand... I can't say "he doesn't like it". But I guess he doesn't like to go eat at a Mexican restaurant. He always says "I never know what to order and then when I do order something it is ALWAYS something different then I thought it was". So girls, anytime you want to go for Mexican- let me know. I am always in for a run to Moe's or San Jose's.

4. I would LOVE to open my own bakery one day. It would have home made breads; desserts and maybe even birthday/wedding cakes. This would probably be more of a dream of mine. I am not much of a business woman so I don't know if that would work out for me.

5. I would love to take my family back to Holland. I would love to show them where I grew up and where I went to school, etc. But having 6 people in my family I am not sure that would be happening any time soon. Unless I win the lottery but that is kind of hard since we don't play the lottery. But God is good, and he might surprise me.

6. I love watching Ghost Hunters. My neighbor/friend has introduced me to it and we like to get together every Wednesday Night and watch it together. We have a lot of fun!

So, that's it. Now I have to Tag people so here is goes. Sheri, Erika and Crissy, now you have been officially tagged. Good luck and have fun:)

Pauline

Super Nanny, I need your help!!!!

WOW, what a day. Since today is Thursday, I had planned on going to another Roadrunner Tots program at the school my kids attend. We went last week and it was a lot of fun (after a long warm up from Jesse). So this week my friend Sheri met me at my house so she could come with us (she followed us with her car, which was a good thing-just keep reading). So while we were there, Jesse found his little game he was playing with last week and Josiah is walking around and having fun too. So the lady in charge asks if anybody is interested in doing an art project and Jesse says "ME, ME". So we go to the table and he works on this lamb picture, gluing cotton balls on it. We had a blast. Everything is going great. When he is done, he wants to do the other art project, which is coloring a heart with special glitter glue. Which is a great idea, except the tubes don't work well for adults let alone a 4 year old. So he was getting frustrated. He wanted me to help him with it but yet wanted to do it by himself. So we raising our voice a bit, but he still has control. Then he notices that there is a blue tube and wants to use that one. Well another little boy is working with it so we have to wait our turn. He is finally done with it and gives it to Jesse. Jesse tries again and gets even more frustrated. At this point, I am getting a bit antsy. I tell him to stop raising his voice and ask for help if he needs it. His voice gets louder! So, I take the tube from him (after about 2 or 3 more warnings) and put it back in the box. Well, he DID NOT like that at all. He throws himself out of his chair and trows his picture on the floor. I tried to talk to him some more, and gets even madder. So at this point parents are looking at me and kids are looking at him. So I decide to pick him up and take him outside to talk to him (we are in a portable so they have little steps). I take him outside and tell him he needs to dry his tears and fix his heart so we can go back in there and have fun. He totally ignores me. He puts his hands in his vest and still ignores me after I ask him to take his hands out of it. I then unzip his jacket and take it off and lay it next to us. Well, he picks it up and throws it down the stairs. At this point, I don't know what to do. He is totally out of control. So, I start thinking...what would Super Nanny do? I don't think she would want us to leave because then he gets his way (not wanting to participate)and also his little brother would miss out because of him. So I tell him to sit in one of the chairs in the class room and when he is done to come and join us in circle time. I get Josiah and sit with him in the circle. Well, you would have thought I took a piece of candy from him. He started screaming and yelling. All while the poor teacher is trying to do circle time and sing songs with the other kids. So after about 3 minutes of this, I went up to my friend Sheri and told her that I was going home. At this point he is yelling "I want to go home"!!! So I get all my stuff and the kids and we start walking to the van. Well, now he is walking behind me yelling "I don't want to go home". "I want to go to my class". And he is doing this ALL the way to the car. I don't say a word, get Josiah buckled in his car seat walk around the van put Jesse in the car seat and drive home. Again, all the way home he is yelling "I want to go to my class". I get home, take Josiah in side the house and get Jesse out of the van and take his strait to his room. Of course he is still yelling and screaming. I put him in his bed, take his shoes off and cover him up (still not saying anything); turning off the light and closing the door. WOW! I could not believe that. It was CRAZY. I think he still screamed for about 15 minutes. When he finally calmed down, I went in there and he was almost asleep I think. I asked him why he was in time out and he said, "because I didn't obey you , mommy". " I am sorry mommy, will you forgive me"? I could tell, he was sorry. I did tell him that because of this "episode" we are going to re-instate the nap when he comes home from school. I just think he is very tired. He gets up every day 7am (which usually he sleeps till 8am) and then we also dropped his 2 hour nap. That is a lot for a little boy. So, we will see how the next few days will go. Hopefully better. Oh, you think I am done???? NO my friend, there is MORE!!!

Joel had his very first cub scout meeting today. Well, it was not just the den meeting it was the entire pack meeting. Which is basically a "business meeting". They talk about stuff and hand out badges to kids. Well, that is pretty BORING to an 8 year old who thinks he will be learning and doing things. So when it was all done, we get back in the van we have another melt down. He was all upset that other kids are going to have patches but he doesn't. And he didn't like that the kids were looking at him like, "who are you?". He didn't know anybody,except his friend Philip.I told him that next week will be better because you will be doing things with his den. I don't think he is very sure yet. He kept crying and having a little pity party for himself in the van. So I told him he needed to get a hold of himself and stop the crying. Let me tell you, it was very hard for him. But he finally did. Honestly, he is so competitive that I think he will be catching up with all the other kids very soon.

So, that was my Thursday. I am SO thankful tomorrow is Friday. And there is no school. So I get to sleep in (hopefully). I hope we will have a nice day, no screaming, yelling or other unhappy occasions.

Have a great weekend, everybody:)

Hope you don't feel like this:

'cause I sure felt like this tonight!

My little "Bear".

Wow, another big milestone in Joel's life is starting tomorrow. He will be going to his very first Cub scout meeting. As you can imagine, he is very excited. And another thing he is very excited about is that he is doing it together with his best friend since birth, Philip.
Yesterday we went to the Boyscout store and got him his official uniform. Which really means his shirt, cap, belt and 3 patches that I have to sew on. But lucky me, they have these things now that you can use instead of sewing. It is kind of like glue for the patches. I am very happy about that. Since my sister is all the way in Alabama and I am VERY bad at sewing. So I think this is going to help me greatly.

So, here is my little cub scout. Isn't he handsome? He is looking forward to it-greatly:)

I guess now we have to prepare for lots of camping trips and things like that. I think we are going to like it.

"Joel's Number One!!!

Happy Birthday, big SIS!

Ok, so the other night (Thursday) I was on Facebook and decided to "REMIND" my big brother that it was going to be our sister's birthday the next day and not to forget. You know me, I am on the ball with every birthday/anniversary. So, this morning I woke up and the family was eating our breakfast, I remembered that YESTERDAY was her birthday and I forgot to call her. OOOOPPPS! What a nice sister I am.

So this afternoon, to make things "better" I had a family picture taken in front of our whiteboard with the words "GEFELICITEERD MET JE VERJAARDAG". I sent the picture to her by emaill so I hope you will forgive me. I love you LOTS and wish I could be there to give you a BIG SMOOTCH and hug.

Ik hoop dat je een hele leuke dag hebt gehad. I heb je geprobeerd te bellen vandaag maar het is niet geluks. Mischien kan ik he zo meteen nog even proberen.

Luzze ya,

Pauline

The day in the life of the Rogers kids.

I have been taking some pictures of the kids lately-especially Josiah now that he is walking. And I wanted to share them with you all. Enjoy:)

Happy JoJo... Not so happy JoJo (can you say "Tantrum")

Walking Ty. He loves that dog.

I am ready daddy. Josiah's favorite spot on the stairs.

VS.

Ok, so for those of you who don't know. Daddy and Joel (and I guess Jesse now too) are big Gamecock fans. Because of this Riley has decided that she is going to be a Clemson fan. Daddy has told Riley that if she is going to be a Clemson Cheerleader one day, he will come to her games and he will even wear a Clemson shirt. Well, as you can imagine she is loving this. So she teases Joel and tells him that he has to come to her games and he has to wear a Clemson shirt too.That usually does not go over well. So the other day I was at the Grocery store and they were selling all kinds of Gamecock & Clemson stuff and I found a toothbrush. I just had to get it. She was so excited when I gave it to her. She kept showing it off to Joel.

Then the other day they were eating breakfast and Daddy had gotten the Colleg Football poptarts and guess what Riley got: The Clemson one. She even saved it so she could eat it the next day. She was so excited. We have yet to find a Gamecock one.

And finally, for school she needed an old oversized tshirt for Art and we really didn't have one. So we were looking around, and guess what she found, you got it: a Clemson tshirt. If she keeps this up when she is older, life is not going to be pretty when the Gamecocks play Clemson in the Rogers household. I might have to leave for the day.

Roadrunner Tots program

This morning was the first meeting of the Road runner Tots program. It is a great program that is at the elementary school our kids attend. It is for kids ages 18 months to 4 years old. They do all kinds of stuff with the kids. They start out with center time (free play pretty much) and they also have an art activity. Today they did finger painting and they made Humpty Dumpty. Here is the one Jesse made for Daddy.

It seems like a great program that they are doing and the best thing is, its FREE. After center time, they cleaned up and we had group time. The teacher sang some songs and read some stories. Jesse sat and listend and sang some of the songs. He is not a big singer. Josiah however was having a hard time sitting still so I was walking around with him. And the poor guy, he was SO tired. It has been pretty hard on him having to wake up at 7am to go take Joel and Riley to school. So usually around 9am he is done for the morning and takes about an hour nap. But since we decided to go here this morning he didn't have that nap. After story time they had a snack: good old goldfish and apple juice. and then they played on the playground. It was a lot of fun. We even walked away with a goody bag. They gave us a Mother Goose Board book and some activities to do with the kids.

I am really going to try to go every week. It really was a lot of fun, I am just going to try to put Josiah down for a nap a little earlier those days.

Two weeks in Review...

Ok, so it has been a couple of weeks and it seems like a lot has been going on. On Friday, August 29th, I picked the kids up early for school, picked up Terry from MTC and drove for about 9 hours over to Huntsville, Alabama. WOW, that was a very long trip. I think when we got to GA traffic pretty much came to a stand still for an accident that happened. We had to wait for about 5-10 minutes and finally got going then about 2 miles later there was construction. I believe we drove about 15 mph for about 1 hour on I-26. It was no fun. Thank goodness for a DVD player in the car. I don't think we got to Huntsville until about 9:30 their time. We did have a great time. The kids had so much fun. I believe it had been about a year since we had seen them so it was nice seeing them again. Tom (their boxer) has gotten pretty big. I was very proud of Riley because she really is not fond of big dogs but she did great with him. And Josiah loved him too but I don't know if Tom was too fond of him. I think Tom was not used to having somebody around that was actually smaller then him so he kept nipping at his face. But they had fun:)

Here are some pictures of the weekend.

We came back Monday night from Huntsville. And Tuesday was a BIG day for my Jester. It was his first day of school. He was so excited! He was amazing. He walked right into his class like he had been doing it for year:) I guess he had seen Riley do it for the entire year last year so he knew what it was like. Today was another big day for him (or should I say, me). While we were waiting in the car before school started, I asked him if he wanted to walk to his class by himself. At first he said no he didn't want to. I told him that was fine but to just let me know when he wanted to do that. So when his teacher came outside to "wave everybody in" I got out of the van to open the door for him so I could walk him to class. He said, "No, Mommy I am going to go all by myself". So he walked off. He kept looking back saying, "don't watch me mommy. Get back in the car and go home". I have to say, that made me sad. I did make sure he made it all the way to the door. WOW, my boy is getting big:( He loves it. He has such a good time at school. I asked him the other day who is friends are and if he remembered any of their names and he told me, "Mommy, my friend's name is (long pause)...Mrs. McMurphy (which is one of his teachers). I thought that was very cute;)

So, we are about 3 weeks into the school year with the other kids are enjoying it. Riley came home yesterday and was practicing writing sentenses on the white board. I did help her some spelling but other then that she did great:) Here is what she wrote:
I don't know if you can read it but is says:
Hi!

It is sunny.

It is cloudy.

We went home.

I went to art.

My baby girl is writing sentences. I can't believe it. I know she is so proud of herself. I also just introduced her to the "American Girls" book series and she seems to really like that. We are reading "Meet Kaya". It is about a "girl named Kaya, who is an adventurous Nez Perce girl whose deep love for horses and respect for nature nourish her spirit".I think she really likes it. I can't wait to get the other books for her. I think we are going to have fun reading these books. Some of it might be a little too much for her. But I try to explain to her and also ask her questions about what is going on. And she does really well. I know what Riley is getting for Christmas this year.

Joel finished reading ALL the Harry Potter books this summer so now he started reading "The Hobbit". He was not really interested in it at first. I think he just didn't know anything about it and he had no idea what a Hobbit was. But he sat down and started reading and they actually explained what a Hobbit was and then started getting excited about it. So now he is reading it. I believe he is enjoying it.