Shaving!

We were getting ready for a Christmas Party yesterday when the boys wanted to shave like daddy.  Dale found some Popsicle sticks and they went to town!  They were very cute and funny!

Will, Levi and Max 

Levi, Max and Will 

Will, Max and Levi 

Levi, Max and Will

A Christmas Party at School sans Will.

The boys had their Christmas party at school today.  Will unfortunately has been sick and has missed school both on Tuesday and today when all the fun Christmas activities were going on.  Luckily his teachers sent everything home for him that Max and Levi got at school.  He is miserable but the doctor has called out a new antibiotic.  Hopefully this makes him feel better.  I was able to join the boys class when Santa came for a visit today.  Santa came and all the kids told him what they wanted for Christmas.  Levi of course said "A John Deere Tractor and John Deere Trailer".  And when it was Max's turn Santa couldn't hear him and Levi made sure to tell him that "He wants a Red Tractor".  Leave it to bossy Levi to make sure everything is taken care of!  Their music teacher then came in and all the kiddos sang Christmas songs and danced.  It was adorable!  Max kept saying "watch Max mommy" then would dance until he got shy again and just watched everyone else.  Levi really gets into the dancing and was so much fun to watch!  This really put me in a Christmas mood and made me want to take back my latest post!  The boys were so precious today!

Levi telling Sant what he wants.  He makes this expression every time he tells anyone what he wants! 

Levi and Santa! 

Max telling Santa what he wants and Santa trying to hear him! 

Max being goofy instead of saying cheese for me! 

A class photo. 

Levi 

Max 

Max and Levi singing Christmas songs!

INSANE!

This post is just me venting so I appoligize!  The kids need to know how much they drive us crazy sometimes!

Insane is the only word that I have for how our lives have been lately. First off we have been having some sleeping issues with Max. Actually I think we have been having sleeping issues with Max for quite a while now, they are just getting worse. Max being in his own room worked amazingly well for the first few days and then it has been nothing but struggles. He wakes up constantly just moaning and groaning and like clock work he wakes up at 5:15 a.m. screaming bloody murder then won’t go back to sleep. He falls asleep at school and frankly is completely miserable to be around. He can’t focus, he can’t sit still or he zones out completely. I’ve tried several things that I had heard from “The Sleep Lady”, but have had no success. We even put him back in the other boys’ room. I am now going to make an individual appointment with the sleep lady. I should have months ago, but I keep thinking I can fix this on my own, but obviously that has not happened! I want to wake up to smiling, happy, well rested children again!
Also we need a word three times worse than Terrible Two’s! The boys are horrendous! They don’t listen to anything and I feel like I yell all day long. When the boys finally go to sleep at night I tell myself that tomorrow will be different and that I am not going to yell and I will use only positive reinforcement and not acknowledge the bad stuff. Well that lasts until about 6:15 a.m. when the boys are already fighting over who gets to poop in the big toilet and who gets to poop in the little toilet. After being nice and using “positive reinforcement” and repeating myself for 15 minutes I lose it and start yelling. What a great start to the very long and tiring day! Time outs don’t work, taking things away don’t work, and awarding the child that is behaving doesn’t work. They can’t even play by themselves for 5 minutes. I constantly have a child climbing, kicking, and knocking me over then when another one sees it they can’t be left out and have to do it to. I can’t get anything done when they are around so I have given up on a clean house and decide to just focus my attention on them. So what happens then, fighting over who holds the book, who sits with mom, who’s puzzle to do, what color crayon they want and this soon turns in to hitting, biting, throwing the object across the room or at each other and kicking and stomping our feet while screaming at the top of their lungs which then result in me yelling, AGAIN! So then I think I can re-charge during nap. Well think again Misti! IF they nap, by the time I get the last child to sleep, the first one wakes up. And when they wake up it is entirely too early for them to wake up because they have only been sleeping for maybe 30 minutes. So then it’s a repeat of the morning until the go to bed at night. And thank God that they eventually fall asleep at night because they look so cute and innocent then and your forgive them, that is until 5:15 the next morning!

St. Nick's Day!

The boys awoken from their nap yesterday to find that St. Nick's had been there!  (Dale and I had to leave before they woke up in the morning so St. Nick was so kind to come during their nap!)  They received Christmas jammies, a Skittles Candy Cane and a Harley Davidson Motorcycle.  They were so excited about their prizes.  They had to sleep in their new jammies and with their motorcycles and of course devoured their Skittles in minutes!  They are going to be so much fun Christmas morning!

Will and Levi 

Max woke up in his usual fashion, a crab! 

Will saying "oooh" about his motorcycle! 

Levi checking out his motorcycle! 

Max quickly changes his attitude when he saw the other boys get a motorcycle and figured there was one for him too! 

Levi 

Will 

Max

Cookies With Santa!

Last night was my MOMMES group annual Cookies with Santa event.  Our gracious hosts have a huge heated shed with tons of toys.  We all bring cookies and Santa and Mrs. Claus come for a visit.  The boys did extremely well.  They all sat on Santa’s lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas.  We didn’t attempt to get a photo of all three of them together with Santa because they were too busy playing and we knew we’d be asking for it if we tried.  However, they did participate in the photo with all of the kids!  The kids had such a great time!

Will asked Santa for an orange tractor! 

Max asked Santa for a red tractor which he has been telling Fred (our elf) that he has wanted since Fred came to our house.  He found a red tractor at the party and told Santa he wanted a red tractor like this.  He carried that tractor with him everywhere the entire night, even to the bathroom!  I don't know how we managed to get out of there without it, but now we just have to patiently wait for Santa to see if he brings Max his red tractor!   

Levi asked Santa for a John Deere tractor and John Deere trailer!  The Hackmann boys are going to keep Santa's tractor elves pretty busy!

A group photo!  The boys that are next to them in the front row are their friends from pre-school!  The girls holding Will and Levi I wanted to take home with me!  They were playing with them and helping all the little one's all night!  They were great helpers!

Dance Party!

So this evening was chaos, as usual.  Around 7:00 p.m. we decided to turn out the lights and find something to watch on T.V. so they would settle down.  Dale landed upon some stupid car show ("Dumbest Stuff on Wheels") that he and the boys think is hilarious.  Well then I'm not sure if it was a commercial or what, but Will got up and started dancing, then Max started dancing, then Levi!  So I turned on the music stations and let me just tell you what a dance party we held at the Hackmann's tonight.  The boys were really getting into it and coming up with some crazy moves!  We had such a blast watching them and even joining in.  These pictures aren't comparable to the real thing of course, but they will always remind us of this fun night.  (And will be great pictures to show future girlfriends too!)

Will was doing this crazy thing where he would run his arms back and forth and get low to the ground!  It was awesome! 

Will and his signature move again!

Max enjoyed dancing in his new cowboy boots and big boy undies!

Max

Levi bustin' a move, of course with his Cowboys boots as well! 

Levi discoved that if you dance on the wood floor his boots make noise!

Potty Training, Days 2, 3 and 4!

Monday came and we put all the boys in underwear.  Levi continued to do great with a few accidents.  (As could be expected, especially since my attention was no longer completely on him.)  Max and Will didn't want anything to do with it at first.  Finally Max sat on the potty and wouldn't sit still.  He was playing with the seat, playing with the TP, and anything else he could reach.  I finally started reading a book to him and he sat still long enough where he started to go.  He realized what he was doing and was so excited.  "Yay Max, Yay Max!" he kept saying.  He continued to use the potty all day with a few accidents.  Will still wanted nothing to do with it.  On Tuesday Levi and Max did great again.  We even went to school for about a half an hour for Parent Teacher Conferences.  They went potty when we got there and came home and went potty again.  Max had only a little pee in his Pull-up when we got home.  They wore big boy underwear the rest of the day with only 1 accident each.  Will finally went potty once for Dale, and then back to nothing to do with it.  He is very stubborn.  I think one day he will decide to go and that will be all it takes for him.  Toady has been going good.  Levi and Max have been going potty and Max even made his first poopy on the potty.  We are making great progress and are very excited!

Potty Training is really a strange thing.  Of course we are so excited that we won't have to buy diapers anymore, but at the same time it is kind of sad.  I know that sounds weird, but when you are watching your babies going potty it's very bittersweet!  Of course you want them to do it, but it just means they are becoming more independent and essentially can do anything now!  It's a crazy feeling I know, but I'm sure all other moms would understand!