Does it ever get easy?!!

Parenting I mean, does it ever get easier? Someone once told me that boys are hard when their small but they're much easier as teenagers and that girls are the opposite. I hope that's true because right now I have one teenage girl and two small boys that are bound and determined to send me to the funny farm and there's nothing funny about it.
Gavin started the first grade off really well and in the month of September it's devolved into a constant struggle between me/him/and his dad. If he's not whining about something he's mouthing off, if he's not mouthing off he's throwing supreme fits. I'm left scratching my head and wondering where my little boy went and who replaced him with bipolar boy? I'm at a loss as to how to handle it I've grounded him, created extra chores for him, taken away his outside play time, his game playing time, and have even tried reasoning with him but nothing and I mean NOTHING makes an impact. There's a key to this I know there is but dang if it isn't locked up tighter than fort knox and I don't have the cat burglar skills to figure it out. I'd call my mom an ask but she'd just tell me i'm being to hard on him and poor little Gavin. I'm rolling my eyes just thinking about that phone call. My mom had 6 girls and 1 boy so she tends to be biased toward her grandsons any advice she gives is circumspect.
Magnus ugh he's 3 and he's the baby and he's determined to be heard, seen, and felt in every spare second and a few he steals from his siblings. It's gotten to the point that I can't even come in the house before he's all over me. Magnus has also picked up the most annoying habit of grabbing my face and screaming in it when he wants my attention. Repeatedly I've told him to stop, repeatedly I've sent him to his room for doing it and repeatedly he's ignored me and continued to do it. Have I mentioned that he's a nudist as well? No? Oh well let me enlighten you to my typical day. I wake up for work to discover that a naked Magnus has slipped into bed next to me sometime during the night. I dress him and then dress myself and go to work. I come home 9 hours later to a naked Magnus running through the house. I ask him "do you need a bath?" he responds "no" I say "then why are you naked" he says back to me "because I like the way it feels". The days I can get him to wear underwear are a win for me because most days I dress him and he strips five minutes later. It's a revolving door of dress, strip, dress, strip. Some days it's just not worth the argument and I allow him to roam the house naked as the day he was born. I really hope he grows out of this before he starts Kindergarten cause I can just see the e-mails i'd get about that kid.
Andrea's ok she's liking 10th grade a lot more than she did 9th grade and she's got a group of girls that she's friends with. She's getting out more and staying home less. She's excited about the homecomng dance her and a group of her girlfriends are all going stag together. She's really impressing me with her academic skills as well she's taking an AP History course, Chemistry, Spanish 2, Algebra2, 3 dimensional art(whatever that is) and communications. This summer she's enrolling in the University of Missouri St. Louis pre-collegiate bridge program which a free program for high school students that qualify. It's a huge committment that will pay off big for her in the form of scholarships, college credit for math, science, english, and communications. She has a plan to be done with the first year of college by the time she graduates from high school and she's sticking with it. It's a huge undertaking for most college freshmen and she's a sophomore in high school. I think i'm more nervous about her classes than she is. I got the syllabus for the AP history class and about died!! I didn't do that much work when I took the class in college and then there's the AP exam in March to get the college credit for it! She's not worried but I am sweating bullets over this class and i'm not the student. The amount of homework that girl has every night is ludicrous and i've officially taken her out of the chore rotation because no way can she keep up with it all some nights she's up till 10 or 11 just doing homework. Today when I got home from work she bust out in tears and told me she forgot to upload her project for class on Monday. I told her it's Friday chicka you got two days to upload it it'll be fine. Then I sent her out with her friends to RELAX because seriously she needs it, I mean breaking down over a project that's not due till Monday and all you have to do is upload it..girl is need of some R&R.
I wish I could say this parenting journey has been fun but that would be a lie. It's work with a capital W and like work I've discovered that there are moments of fun, moments of joy, and moments of pride, but mostly it's blood, sweat, and tears.