An Exciting Day!

This very excited little boy lost his first tooth last night. With a little help from dad and his dental floss lasso, the tooth (which had a tooth growing in behind it) finally came out.

This sad little boy has not lost his first tooth.....yet. He does have the identical tooth just a little bit loose, so hopefully he will get to take a toothless grin picture in the near future.
And of course my oldest son who is 10 told me I never got as excited about him losing teeth as I did last night. Seriously? How does he remember how I reacted when he lost his 1st tooth? Looks like I'm going to have to go over-the-top when his next tooth falls out!!

Vote for my story!!

TWIN POOP WAR!!!

One Sunday afternoon, I laid my precious twin 3 year old boys down for a nap. We were working on potty training, but weren't there yet. They were tired, and I was ready for them to sleep so I could get some housework done. I did get some housework done, but they apparently never went to sleep. I could hear them talking and laughing with each other, but then it got quiet, so I assumed they were sleeping. After what I deemed an appropriate amount of time for them to rest, I made my way upstairs to get them out of their beds.

As I started walking up the stairs, I noticed a distinct smell of poop in the air. I just thought maybe they both had pooped in their diapers and that's why they never went to sleep. Upon opening their bedroom door, I was overcome by the stench of poop. After the initial shock, I looked around and saw poop everywhere. Three year old twin boy poop. EVERYWHERE. It was in their hair, between their toes, smeared on their mattresses, all over the walls, the crib bars, sheets, and their clothing. Pretty much everywhere except their diapers. So after about a two and a half minute meltdown by myself, I quickly called for help (and bleach)! Needless to say, their room and everything in it received a good old fashioned bleaching. And for about 2 weeks, every time you walked by their room, you could smell bleach and a faint hint of poop.

Thankfully my boys are past the poop war stage! We haven't had another one since.

This story is posted on the Clorox Bleachable Moments contest page. To vote for my story click here. Wouldn't it be great if my boys helped me win a prize!

Name change

For those of you who pay attention to details, you will notice that I changed the web address of my blog. You can still type in my old blog address and be automatically directed to the new sight. Or you can type in the new address. Either way gets you here. And either way it's the same ol' blog.

I changed my address for 2 reasons:

1. I read somewhere that you should have a blog title that is easy for people to remember. I think mom3ways is easier to remember than dgpangburn. No one really knows who dgpangburn is (except for my mom, dad, siblings, and Indiana University....where I graduated from).

2. And these days, dgpangburn doesn't really describe me all that well. Mom 3 ways is definitely a better description. I always joke that I have became a mom every way possible. This makes me a little different than most moms, but I am okay with that. I have four great kids who I wouldn't trade for anything. And I am proud they all call me mom!

3 Boys + 3 Pumpkins

Here are my 3 boys with their pumpkin masterpieces. Moose was a little sad because his pumpkin wasn't scary enough, but he was still able to smile.

Devin's pumpkin was tall, skinny, and very heavy! He was excited to be able to hold it all by himself for the picture.
And here is Noah's pumpkin. He carved it all by himself this year from start to finish. What an exciting year for him. He is getting so independent...sometimes it scares me!

November

I cannot believe it is November 1st. What happened to June and July? I cannot remember what we did. It feels like this year has gone faster than any other year. I don't know if it is because my kids are getting older and more dependent, or if it's the fact that we are just busy. Either way I am not ready for this year to end yet. I need a little more time. I need five more minutes, then five more minutes (like what my kids beg for whenever we have to leave someplace fun).

One of the highlights of October was getting to meet Matthew West. I am now addicted to his newest CD The Story of Your Life! I went with a group of friends and volunteered at his concert. What a great night we had.

My oldest son Noah is growing!! Every week he gets taller and has to get rid of jeans that are now too short. For some reason he wanted me to post this picture of his muscles. Just so you know, I have never had muscles like this a day in my life. This is all his dad's genes! Yes, I married well. Haha!
And to end the month, I got to hang out with two of my favorite super heroes, Iron Man and Spider Man! What a lucky mom I am. Iron Man (Moose) is fully recovered from his femur fracture...hallelujah! He went to see his orthopedic surgeon over fall break and was told "can't even tell where your leg was ever broken"! And Spider Man (Devin) had to get his ear tubes replaced over fall break, but is fine. Actually he was fine an hour after the surgery. So next year (which will be here before we know it), we plan to make up the lack of fall break fun for the boys!

We need a pitcher!

~Noah's first year of baseball~

Last Sunday was the last game of fall baseball. We kept calling it Noah's career-ending game. He tried baseball in 2nd grade and really hated it. But this year, he decided to try baseball again. Like a lot of things we try, Noah started out really excited and tried really hard to get better. Then after 7 weeks, the enthusiasm died down, we skipped a practice, and drug ourselves to the final game.

So at the last game (hooray!), Noah decided he was going to try pitching. I was busy chatting with a few gals when Noah came over and told his dad the plan. So you can imagine my shock when I saw what was happening. What?!? My son has never pitched a baseball in his 10 years of life. The kids who do pitch in his league are really good. I told my husband this was not a good idea. I wanted to crawl under my collapsable chair for that inning. I wanted to walk out to the pitching mound and ask him what in the world he was thinking?

But I didn't. I sat there and watched him pitch to 4 players. I watched him through 16 balls in a row. No player was able to hit any of his pitches. He got 4 players on base in a row. I was starting to sweat bullets. Then the coach called time.

He went over and talked to Noah. Noah told him he must not be cut out to be a pitcher and was ready to go back to 3rd base. Where he spent the rest of the game. (which I was very thankful for!)

So Noah was brave enough to try something brand new. It didn't work out. But he was not afraid. He literally stepped up to the plate, and it is a lesson in courage that I hope I will not forget!

But the voice of truth tells me a different story
The voice of truth says, "Do not be afraid!"
The voice of truth says, "This is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the voice of truth.

~Casting Crowns Voice of Truth

Fall

"I'm so glad I love in a world where there are Octobers. It would be terrible if we just skipped from September to November, wouldn't it? Look at these maple branches. Don't they give you a thrill - several thrills?" ~Anne Shirley ~Anne of Green Gables

Last week I was talking to some gals at work and I was lamenting over the fact that my laundry has grown. As the weather gets colder, the shorts turn into jeans, the bare chests start wearing sweatshirts, bare feet must be covered with socks (lots and lots of socks), and very quickly the laundry piles turn into Colorado sized mountains! I realize anybody who lives in a place where there are 4 seasons goes through this. I am not being singled out by the evil laundry empire. But I can choose how I respond to this.

My friend at work turned to me and simply said, "I think there will always be something to complain about".

My response.....silence. Yes, for once I had nothing to say. No smart comeback, no witty reply. Because she spoke the truth. Yes! There will always be something to complain about. And mountains of laundry in the big scheme of things really isn't that big of a deal. So for today I am going to embrace my laundry. Be thankful for my working washing machine and dryer and for fall and the extra laundry it brings my way.