Goodbye 2008...

I can't believe how fast this year has gone by. And a very busy year at that. The arrival of Bekah, Erin graduating from the academy, Gavin starting preschool (with a new haircut!), buying a new house...2008 was an awesome year. I can't wait to see what is in store for us in 2009!

Happy New Year!!!

Goodies for the teacher (and aides)!!

Since Gavin is now in preschool, this was my first year of giving the teacher goodies for Christmas. I had fun making these gift bags out of brown lunch bags and paper scraps. (Thanks for the idea, Linda!!) Inside I filled them with "White Trash", a yummy mix of Chex mix, cheerios, popcorn, M&Ms, and pretzels all covered in white chocolate. Yum!!

A project for a class maybe...?

I put these together the other day in hopes of doing a class for the Craftgarden. Well, after they were on the counter for MAYBE a half an hour, a customer came in and ordered ten kits!!! And it used up all the paper we had left in the store!!! So now I have to make new ones, with different paper, in hopes of doing a class. That's okay...hopefully this means I will have a good turn out for the class!

Hectic.

That's how my life has been lately. Hectic. I've been so busy with finishing my Christmas projects that I haven't really gotten a chance to blog much. I finally got my Christmas cards all done and mailed off. Yay! I'm halfway done (I think!) with my Christmas gifts. I still need to finish my baking, though. I can't believe that Christmas is next week! It has totally crept up on me this year.

I did manage to take the kiddos to see Santa. The day before we went, I prepared Gavin for the big day. Last year he didn't sit on Santa's lap, just looked at him from a distance. I was really hoping that he would overcome his shyness towards the big guy this year so I could get a picture of the two of them together. Anyway, I told Gavin all about how Santa brings presents, yadda, yadda, yadda...Well, it seemed to work. He was pretty excited. And the morning of the visit he was all ready to go before Bekah even made it out of bed! I was thinking, yeah! I'll get a good shot this year.

Wrong.

When we got over to the plaza that Santa was at, Gavin didn't want anything to do with him. He didn't even want to LOOK at him. Great. I finally coaxed him into peeking at him, but that was as good as it got. So I took Bekah over to Santa. That worked for about 2 seconds and then she was crying all over the poor guy. At least I was able to get a picture of them together. (even if she is crying all over the place!)




After we took pictures, we walked over to pet Santa's reindeer Rudolph. Once again Gavin decided not to participate. ARGG! Sure does make it hard for mommy to scrapbook properly! Well, I guess there is always next year.
Anyway, I NEED to go get some sleep. I keep dozing off and on while typing this. I'm just so exhausted. I'll get some sleep and then (hopefully) type more tomorrow!
Nite!

Discipline without yelling.

Three easy words. But why is it so hard to do? I've never wanted to be the mommy who yells. But it seems that lately its been happening more than often.
I read an article in the most recent Parents magazine. It's about a mommy like myself, who hates yelling, but feels that its the only way to get the point across. Now, don't missunderstand, I don't ALWAYS yell. There are times, being a mommy of a tenacious three year old, that I just feel like exploding. So I yell. After telling Gavin ten times (I'm not kidding, really TEN times) not to hit, not to wake up his sister, not to stand too close to the tv, not to do this, not to do that...yelling seems like the only (effective?) alternative. I hate doing it. But what am I supposed to do?
The article follows the mommy over a short period of time as she tries to not yell. Does it prove to be effective? Yep.

So I've been trying it for the past two days.

Have I yelled?

Just once.

Does it seem to be working?

Hmmm...amazingly yes it does. It may be too early to tell, but so far it seems to be working. Gavin has been quite tenacious lately and there are many, many times where I would just like to yell and scream, I realize that by doing that it'll just make the situation worse. And by holding back and talking calmly to him about the situation, he seems to be *gasp* actually... listening...to...me. Wow. And I feel more in control of the situation. Hmmm...I think daddy is going to have to try this method, too. I know it'll be a challenge for him, being as he is a corrections officer and yelling at the inmates actually IS effective. :0)

So although I haven't yelled today, its still early, and even if I do slip and yell, at least I am TRYING and THAT is good.
I CAN DO THIS.