Laughing Leah Loves Lilies

There goes another one!

2012-02-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

Connor lost his 2nd tooth over the weekend! He didn't want anyone helping him pull it out, but he finally got so mad during dinner Friday night (it was hurting him as he was trying to take bites of his food) that he handed me a tissue, closed his eyes tight, and told me, "Just hurry up and do it!"

I didn't remember to take a picture until Saturday!

A hair story

2012-02-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Emily Grace, who had LONG, thick, wavy hair. In 2006, when she wasn't quite four years old, she had her very first haircut EVER. The stylist said there was nothing wrong with her hair, and that she would be willing to take off a half inch, but would be saddened to be asked to take off any more than that. Emily's mother happily agreed, and a half inch was removed from the ends of Emily's hair. It was barely even noticeable.

A year or so passed, and Emily's hair had grown even longer, and her mommy was enjoying all the braids and ponytails she could do with the long hair, but Emily was really starting to want her hair super short like her preschool BFF (which was ADORABLE on her blond, straight-haired BFF, but hard to imagine on Emily), and we finally compromised that she would cut 8-9 inches, leaving it just below her armpits. Cutting 10 inches would have allowed them to donate it to Locks of Love, but Emily's mommy was very scared at the idea of cutting that much off all at once.

(Emily BEFORE)

Unfortunately, the stylist this time around had zero qualms about chopping off all those waves, and got a little scissor happy and took off 10.5 inches. Now, not only was Emily's hair shorter than we'd requested, but we HAD cut off enough to donate to Locks of Love after all, only it was totally unusable all over the floor

(Emily AFTER)

Emily and her mommy made a deal to grow their hair out together in order to donate it.

The mommy donated 13 inches in March 2009

Emily donated 13 inches in June 2009 to Wigs for Kids, as well as raised over $600 to help with the process of creating the wigs

Emily is currently growing her hair out in order to be donated yet again! She hopes to work with her elementary school this fall (2012) to do a school-wide fundraiser, and to see if there are any other girls willing to donate their hair. She thinks that she'll have enough to donate by about October (while still leaving enough to pull back into a small bun--the required dance class hairstyle).

Emily's mommy is so proud of her!

SO SWEET!

2012-02-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

Connor asked if he could read Jared and I a bedtime story last night (Emily was reading her own book as part of her homework, and Dan was doing paperwork for work). Jared snuggled up right behind Connor, and Connor was pleased as could be that HE was reading to US! ♥♥♥

Lesson Learned!

2012-02-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

And to think I was worried that CONNOR would be the one to mess up his glasses...

I guess I should give her credit that she went four years in glasses without incident, and at least they were repairable!!

That said, we've strongly reminded her that her glasses go ON HER FACE, OR IN THEIR CASE. Definitely not on the floor at a birthday party. *grin* With any luck, it's a mistake she won't be making again.

Emily, the hairstylist

2012-01-31T05:00:00.000-08:00

Emily does my hair while I read out loud from a chapter book to the kids before bed (We're currently reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh)

(she's getting quite good at french braiding!)

She also occasionally does my hair while we're watching the boys' water polo practice

And sometimes while the boys are rough-housing with daddy in the playroom (notice Connor off pouting in the corner?? LOL)

It's possible I have bald spots from where she's experimented with weird twists and "rats nests", but for the most part, she treats me very gently, and it's nice to have my hair brushed and played with while I read! It's possible I bribe her by promising to read longer if she keeps brushing... *grin*

Science Kit Fun

2012-01-27T05:00:00.000-08:00

Jared got a wonderful science kit from my parents as part of his Christmas present, and we sat down over the weekend and tested out the first few experiments.

The first one was called Dancing Powders. You mix a little bit of citrus acid and baking powder together, then add some water, and everything gets all bubbly. Looked a bit like a cup of Sprite after the bigger bubbling died down! My picture turned out blurry, so I don't have one of this experiment.

The next experiment was called Color Changing Liquids. We filled two cups partway with water and set them both on a plate. We added a tiny bit of red cabbage powder to each of the cups. It was suggested in the directions that we NOT stir the powder in right away, so we could see a "waterfall"

It even got really swirly looking!

After we stirred the red cabbage powder into the water, we ended up with two cups full of purple water. We added baking soda to one cup, and citrus acid to the next cup.

The one with baking soda mixed in turned blue

And the one with citrus acid mixed in turned red

We were then instructed to pour some of the red liquid and some of the blue liquid and mixed them together in a third cup. Can you guess what happened?

Red + Blue = purple, and baking powder + citrus acid = bubbles (carbon dioxide bubbles), SO the red liquid and the blue liquid mixed together turned into a purple bubbling liquid! (which truthfully didn't bubble nearly as much as the first time we mixed baking soda and citrus acid, but I believe that was due to the more diluted concentrations this time around)

It was at about this point that Jared loudly proclaimed this science kit was the coolest thing ever. *grin*

The third experiment was called Acid or Base? We prepared cups full of water and red cabbage powder, then put drops of other liquids from around the house into the cups in order to test of they were an acid or a base. As Jared found out, milk and Coca Cola are neutral, lemon juice is an acid, and dish soap is a base. He had a GREAT time adding drops and waiting for the color change to determine "acid or base?" We'll definitely have to run this experiment again with some other liquids!

The fourth experiment was called Colorful Jiggly Crystals. For THIS experiment, we again filled two cups partway full of water, but this time instead of adding the red cabbage powder FIRST, and then adding the baking powder and citrus acid, we were instructed to mix the baking soda into one cup and the citrus acid into the other cup BEFORE adding the red cabbage powder. Once the baking soda and the citrus acid cups were well mixed, we got to add the red cabbage powder.

The color change was IMMEDIATE! Remember how adding the red cabbage mixture to the water resulted in a purple "waterfall"? Look at the difference when you add the red cabbage powder AFTER mixing in the baking soda and the citrus acid!

After we stirred the red cabbage powder in thoroughly, we again mixed part of the red liquid with part of the blue liquid, so that we now had three cups of liquid: one red, one blue, one purple. The next step was to add in a small spoonful of polyacrylamide (pah-lee-uh-kril-uh-mide) crystals (which looked similar to rock salt!), and left them alone for a few hours.

After the time had passed, we were instructed to pour out any remaining liquid and see what was left in the cups. Colorful Jiggly Crystals!

The hard little crystals had absorbed a lot of the liquid, had grown several times their original size, and were now, truly, jiggly, intead of very hard.

Jared wanted to take the jiggly crystals for his sharing day Wednesday, so we stuck them in a ziploc bag and set them aside. The blue ones started turning more of a moldy green color, and then started turning brownish, so we tossed those ones, but he was able to share the red and purple crystals. I was pretty impressed he remembered they were called polyacrylamide crystals.

There are still several other experiments in the kit, and it seems as if the kit provides enough materials to run the experiments more than once, which is nice. Jared is already chomping at the bit to try out the rest of the experiments, and also to try out some of the experiments in the science book he got!

Yarn Projects

2012-01-26T05:00:00.000-08:00

All three kids in their finished monster hats:

side view of Jared's (he requested a mohawk!)

The main reason I wanted to learn how to crochet was to be able to do different flowers. There are SO many more options for flowers when you crochet instead of knit. I sat myself down in front of some youtube videos and made these pretty flowers!

I was going to attempt a crocheted rose as well, but the power went out. Instead, I sat down and made a little hat in order to attach one of the flowers I'd already made to it.

The hat pictured above turned out to be too narrow for the baby I had in mind, so I ripped out a few rows, redid the ruffle, reattached the flower, and now I have a hat for a much younger baby (which I'll be sending off sooner than later, Kaci!).

Last, but not least, Connor's teacher had pinned the scarf on the left on Pinterest, and I hunted around on Google for a pattern that came close to what she'd pinned, and made it for her (on the right side). Crummy cell phone picture, but you get the idea!

It's much softer than it looks in the picture, FYI!

After the snow...

2012-01-25T05:00:00.000-08:00

And after the snow came freezing rain:

The birch tree out back was bending over practically in half. No surprise when two hours after I took this picture, two of the sections cracked off and crashed to the ground!

The Rhody out back was flopped over to about 1/3 of the height it normally is, and branches off the maple tree which I can usually walk under were bent so far they were touching the ground.

Dan told me to offer the kids the opportunity to bundle up, wear a helmet, and knock ice off some of the plants (nothing we could do about the tall fir tree and whatnot, but we could attempt to rescue the decorative maples, the fruit trees, and the Rhodies!). Emily volunteered, though was NOT happy about the helmet (or how hard I laughed when I saw her!!). Better safe that sorry, though, there were some LARGE chunks of ice coming down on us as we were banging at the branches!

Sledding Fun

2012-01-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

As soon as we could manage to get eat our breakfast, layer on the winter clothes, and gather up the sleds, we were outside and sledding down the hill in the alley behind our house to enjoy the SNOW!!

The kids spent hours sledding, and I spent hours doctoring up the sled run... LOL Patching up thin areas, building up a sturdier "wall" along the one side of the sled run (keeping kids out of the ditch and away from the tree they seemed magnetically drawn to!)

Let there be snow!

2012-01-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

Well, my last blog post showed a wimpy scattering of snow from earlier in the week, but we woke up he following day to real SNOW!

Another inch fell throughout the day, but I forgot to take another photo

This picture doesn't show it very well, but the snow was nearly as high as the top of Charlie's back! You can see the snow all over his chin as he was (unhappily) trying to get through the snow to get to me so I could rescue him

Longer pet fur and snow aren't a good mix. Less than one minute in the snow and he'd already formed snowballs on his legs! hahaha!

It's hard work trying to get three kids and two pets somewhat nicely into the same picture

Emily was far more cooperative!

Snow!

2012-01-18T05:00:00.000-08:00

We got a little taste of snow this week, and while it wasn't deep, and was awfully slushy, the kids made the most of it and enjoyed it while it lasted!

Em hooked up with some kids from the neighborhood

Little Gentleman

2012-01-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

At the kids' school, Kindergarteners attend a full day of class M-Th, and have Friday's off. His teacher works at a local boutique on Fridays as a result. Connor ADORES his teacher and often asks if we can stop and see her at her "other work", and always wants to bring her coffee (it's widely known she likes to drink coffee!). We've gone a few times, and have brought her coffee, but I told Connor we really needed to remember to ask her what her favorite coffee is, and could see her the following week instead. His repy? "Just text her!" (in that lovely "duh!" tone of voice). My reply? "Here's my phone; go ahead."

I figured it would be a good way to encourage him to be practicing sounding out words and remembering to use to spaces, etc. The message he sent looked like this:

wut iz yor favrit flavr uv cofe? frum Connor

She replied and told us her favorite flavor of coffee, so CJ and I made plans for Friday, which included purchasing and delivering coffee to his teacher! He also decided he wanted to write her a note and draw her a picture (for privacy purposes on this blog, I've blocked out her last name and place of work).

(he made sure she noticed he used the word "luv" in the note, too. "Do you see that word above my name?" sooo stinkin' adorable!)

(this is the first time I've seen Connor attempting drawing bodies; they're usually just heads with arms and legs! LOL)

Connor melts my heart with how thoughtful and sweet he is. In addition to wanting to deliver coffee and a note/picture to his teacher, he also ran errands with me earlier that morning and held doors open for me, pushed the cart, told me he loved me 20+ times, gave me numerous bear hugs, AND told me I'm the best mom ever. Yes, he's got me wrapped pretty tightly around that little finger of his! *grin*

knitting, knitting, and a little crochet

2012-01-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

My friend Kaci is due with baby #2 in February, so as soon as I got through the Christmas rush, I finally tackled some of the projects I'd planned to make her for the baby-to-be:

this little hat has a removeable bow, which is actually a hair clip for when baby is older!

I've been seeing a lot of squared off hats lately and I think they're so cute! I made this one big so she'll have it for next year

I've also been seeing these snuggle snacks all over Pinterest and had to give one a try!

I dug out Em's old doll, "Boy Baby", to show off how it looks. He's a little bigger than a newborn baby, so there should be some growing room in real life.

The same weekend I finished up Kaci's gifts, I found out my friend Kristina and her husband had been chosen to adopt a baby, so I scrambled to whip up a few hats to send to her. I stupidly assumed the birth mom (or birth parents, in this case), would choose them a month or so before the birth and we'd all have a little warning, but as it turns out, they got THE CALL and TA-DA, they're immediately new parents! I'd have done a little snuggle sack for baby Mikey as well if I'd had a bit more notice, but since he's already HERE, I didn't want to waste any time getting him his gifts!

And then with a little encouragement from a friend (thanks Kelli!), I got online, figured out how to crochet (at least how to crochet the stitches needed for this particular project), and crocheted Connor this monster hat from Pinterest

The eye is a little messed up, but I'm overall quite pleased for a first attempt at crocheting!! Emily and Jared have already put in requests for their own monster hats. *grin*

Some things never change

2012-01-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

Connor, age 18 months

Connor, age 5.5 years

BFF's: Not just for people

2012-01-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

Vern (my IL's dog) and Charlie are such good buddies. They wrestle together, chase each other, "fight" over toys, snuggle together, "fight" over mine and my MIL's affection, etc. So funny to watch them play!!

$10 Starbucks card to the winner

2012-01-06T05:00:00.000-08:00

On New Year's Eve, we stayed close to home due hugely in part to the fact I'd had a HORRIBLE sinus headache for two days straight (gotta love allergies) and was more in the mood for a quiet, laid back gathering. We ended up watching a movie with my in-laws, and then when our friends "Auntie" Adele and "Uncle" Grant stopped by, we started playing our own version of Pictionary. Lots of laughs and hilarious drawings and guesses. One of my favorites (soooo wishing I'd thought to take a picture!) was when Emily Grace drew the side view of a person with it's arms straight out in the air. My MIL guessed 'zombie' and Emily excitedly said that was the correct answer. Then she said, "Well, it actually said 'dead man walking', but that's the same thing as a zombie, right?" It was totally innocent and adorable, and I laughed and LAUGHED. I love kids!!!! (And now she knows what "dead man walking" really means!)

Due to the fact we were playing with the kids as well, and that one of them was only 5, it was sometimes a little more difficult to guess than other times.

First person to correctly guess what the drawing in BLUE is (lower left corner with a brown 4 next to it) by 11:59pm tonight (Friday, January 6th, 2012), will receive a $10 gift card to Starbucks. Excluded from this contest is anyone who was present in the room the night it was drawn, along with their immediate families. (And those people shall avoid spoiling the fun by CHEATING and telling anyone else the answer... The boys were a bunch of major cheaters that night, so I had to say it! *grin*)

***edited to include guesses which were made via Facebook:

cloudy water, rain cloud, wet towel, piece of bacon jumping out of the pan, rocketship, someone jumping off a diving board, chicken crossing the road, SpongeBob (two guesses for SpongeBob!), Connor riding a sheep, a flying carpet, jellyfish, street sign, trampoline, squid, Halloween ghost, dog with three legs, chalk board, kite, water slide, ET phone home, pancakes and sausages.

AND THE ANSWER IS: "Fork in the road" Danny prompted Connor to draw a fork and a road, hoping to get us to say both words and then say the phrase. We needed an additional hint from Danny, which went something along the lines of, "Imagine that rectangle taller and MUCH skinnier, and then imagine cars on those lines at the bottom." LOL

And for the record, I am not in any way making fun of Connor's drawing abilities by doing this post. I think it is a perfectly good drawing for a 5 year old, and he was so proud to get to get his own turn drawing. He doesn't normally like to do much drawing, so it was really fun to see him taking an interest in participating!

I spy something adorable!

2012-01-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

And it's Connor in his new monkey hat!!!

At the Winter Breakfast event I helped organize at the kids' school, there were vendors selling all sorts of things lined up along the outer walls. One gal was selling crocheted baby hats and Dan bought Connor a monkey one (CJ's favorite animal, in case you haven't picked up on that by now), not even thinking about if it would even fit him. Not even close. I approached the gal and explained the problem and asked if she could either make a bigger one, or refund us, and she said she'd make a bigger one, no problem (she didn't even charge me extra for it!). We met up with her over Christmas break and got the larger version from her. My little monkey wearing a monkey hat... Totally adorable!

Great Wolf Lodge

2012-01-04T05:00:00.000-08:00

Instead of purchasing gifts for the kids this year, we opted to surprise them with a two night stay at Great Wolf Lodge for Christmas. There's nothing they really needed, nothing specific they really wanted, and they've been begging to go to GWL for YEARS. While we most definitely spent more money on the GWL trip than we would have on gifts, the entire outing was focused on family togetherness and FUN, and I couldn't have asked for a better family gift. The kids have zero complaints!

Now I know this may surprise those of you who know me well, but I purposely didn't take a camera. Knowing we'd be spending our time either in the water, or maneuvering through crowded hallways doing the MagiQuest, taking along my camera seemed like a waste of time. That's not saying I didn't randomly remember to pull out my cell phone so I'm not totally without pictures of our trip. There's just not many, and they're of poor quality. Better than nothing!

Storytime in the evenings was pretty cute. Truthfully probably didn't thrill Emily or Jared all that much, but they made the most of it

Em stood in line to get her picture taken with Violet, thinking her brothers would be joining her. When they didn't, she was really embarrassed to be getting her photo, but when she tried to dart off, Violet pulled her back in. LOL!

Due to the holiday season, it "snowed" in the building a few times a day (in the way of little blobs of soap suds, FYI). It was pretty magical feeling!

Kids had a BLAST doing the MagiQuest, but holy cow, do you get run ragged! Find something on the first floor, then dash up the stairs to the fifth floor, then down to the 2nd floor, and back up to the 4th floor, etc. Times three days and two nights. By the last day, even GO-GO-GO Connor was dragging his feet and begging to be done. haha!

On Tuesday (our only FULL day there), we made the list for top points coming in at #17 (pretty impressive in my opinion, considering there were HUNDREDS of other people playing!)

We also came in third top gold (Jared picked our name, btw)

As we were eating lunch on our final day, the kids wanted to test out the drink "bears in the mud", which turned out to be a chocolate oreo milkshake topped with whipped cream and teddy grahams. cute!

That all said and done, we had an AMAZING time, we have no regrets about going, we would definitely go again someday (and I would do a better job taking pictures with my cell phone! I'm totally kicking myself for not getting a pic of the kids in their "kid cabin suite", WHICH I might add, we got into last minute for a pretty sweet deal!), but I do have a few complaints.

1) We expected the food would be expensive, and came prepared for it, but I wasn't expecting the food to be TERRIBLE. First, my burger was served darn near raw, and when I sent it back, it came back out again minus the bacon it was supposed to have, and was so dried out I could barely swallow it. Dan ordered a mushroom burger something or other and said it pretty much tasted like nothing. Another time, Dan and I were picking out slimy bits of rotten lettuce from our salads. $70 for LUNCH shouldn't include rotten lettuce or tasteless, dried out ANYTHING. The kids liked the chicken fingers off the kids menu, and we all thought the $11.99 16in pizza was good. When we go next time, we'll stick to chicken fingers and pizza, or leave the location and eat down the street at DQ or something! We were really disappointed in the quality of the food. Even at Disneyland, the food at least tasted good after it cost an arm and a leg!!

2) There seemed to be very little training or plan of action for blood injuries on the part of the lifeguards or first aid attendants. Jared had three separate bloody noses (apparently due to the high humidity) while in the water park, and all three times we were treated very poorly. The third bloody nose was BAD and happened while Jared was in the middle of the pool. While I didn't expect the lifeguard to jump in and grab him from me, I expected at the point I reached the wall she'd be helpful in lifting him out of the water and onto the edge. NOPE! Then she handed him a very small square of guaze and whistled for help. 2-3 minutes later someone else finally showed up to help. No gloves, no trash can to dispose of the bloody guaze, no cleaning supplies to clean-up what had dripped all over the ground (bloody nose while soaking wet makes for a very large mess). Then he kept encouraging Jared to blow his nose (major no-no!), and also encouraging Jared to put the bloody gauze on the side table next to him, and this all AFTER he had Jared walk several feet away from where he'd been sitting, dripping blood the whole way. Heck, some kid pooped or puked in the kiddy area and they clear the whole section for 2+ hours, but Jared's covered in dripping blood and they're fine with him walking all over and leaving bloody rags on tables? Does that make sense??? Emily also bonked her lip in the wave pool and ended up biting into it pretty deeply. They told her to wipe her mouth, then said she was fine and walked away from us. Never offered us ice, never fully inspected the wound... Extremely helpful first aid station, eh?!!!!

***It should be noted, however, that in regards to their attentiveness to swimmers in the water, and people getting on/off the slides, the lifeguards were FANTASTIC. I was impressed with how they paced the edges of the pools, were constantly scanning waters, etc. My complaint is purely in regards to the dealings with actual injuries/blood.

3) MagiQuest was FUN FUN FUN, but there are times you can't hear your clue properly because other people are opening the big metal doors, or running up/down stairs, and you just simply CAN'T HEAR. But when you wave your wand for a repeat of the clue, it tells you you've already completed that mission. Without the clue, you can't move on to the next step, and the only way to then get the clue is to START OVER. My personal opinion is that clues should also either be written on the wall, OR you should have the option of hearing the clue repeated. After two restarts, we still can't tell you what the darn hawk in the stairwell was telling us about "three things" or something along those lines. MISSION FAILED on that one. We quit! ha!

Three days and two nights was a perfect amount of time. We had plenty of opportunity to use the water park, as well as do the MagiQuest. We found all the runes, and completed 2 (3?) of the Adventures before deciding we were too pooped to continue. We arrived at about 2pm Monday, and left around 3pm Wednesday. And we were EXHAUSTED (in a good way).

Oh, and speaking of the water park, I'll just throw it out there that I'm not a real fan of going down backwards on the Tornado, in the dark of the night, especially not as a first experience down the slide. I'm not ruling out the possibility that I suffered a mild heart attack during the experience. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pinterest.com Projects

2012-01-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

After viewing this idea, I ended up making these two photo holders:

(ps, the wrinkles flattened out overnight... I took the picture too soon!)

After viewing this idea, I knew I had to make one for my snowman-loving mother (I have since added a light splatter of paint to resemble snow falling, and I wrote each of the kids' names/ages next to their footprint, as well as the date in one corner):

(crummy lighting for this picture makes the colors look a little off; the green is actually more like the photo of the "love" project pictured above)

My friend Jami helped me paint the faces and arms, but everything else was my handiwork! I LOVE LOVE LOVE how it turned out, and had to make another one for myself! *grin*

And after viewing this idea, I made something similar for Connor's coffee-loving teacher (to go along with the gift we were giving her):

I have yet to even make a DENT in the lists of "pins" I have saved on Pinterest, but I'm carving out time as I can! If only there were more hours in the day!!!! *grin*

Dance

2011-12-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

Last week was Parent Viewing week at Emily Grace's dance studio, so parents got to sit in the studio and watch class and take pictures/video. The girls put on a short performance at the end.

Emily is in two days of ballet and one day of tap.

the tap studio is so SMALL, I didn't really get any good pictures of her

Then I forgot to take a group picture after I was done videotaping the tap routine!

I didn't take many pictures of the 2nd day of ballet because the warm-ups were all the same, but I got a decent group picture (ignore the random heads at the bottom of the picture, the girls were too close, and I couldn't back up any further due to the wall behind me!)

Elf on the Shelf

2011-12-20T05:00:00.000-08:00

Evlis was having a grand ol' time helping himself to the new container of syrup! Crazy elf was danging upside down from the cupboard while sipping from a straw. The kids thought this was HILARIOUS!

Another night, he picked such a good hiding spot, the kids started getting worried he might not have even come back to our house! He blended right in with the stuff in Santa's sack.

Sunday night, he got them into the Christmas spirit with some red and green streamers zig-zagged in front of their doors, as he hung out in the hallway in a self-made hammock. LOL!

Connor lost his 1st tooth!

2011-12-19T05:00:00.000-08:00

What do you think? Does he look excited about it?? (hahahahaha!)

Always a bittersweet moment when my "babies" reach different milestones, but this one seems especially bittersweet. It's the last "first lost tooth" we'll have in this house! Still throws me off seeing that little space in his mouth, and it's adorable when he lisps that tiny bit while speaking now. *grin*

Quote of the Week

2011-12-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

Connor keeps talking about all the ancient things from the 90's. "Look at this! Doesn't it look ancient, like it came from the 90's?" "Wow! That's ancient! Maybe it's from the 90's!" etc.

If I was born in 1978, I'm curious what that makes me? Anciently ancient? I'm not sure how I feel about this.

And if I'm older than ancient, how does he view his grandparents and great-grandparents?? Sucks to be them! ha!

Christmas photo "fun"

2011-12-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

Here's just a small taste of what I had to deal with the night I was trying to take the kids' picture for our Christmas card this year!

Jared's face cracks me up!!!

Elf on the Shelf

2011-12-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

Elvis Elf got into the "buy 3, get 3 free" candy bars I was saving for Family Fun Night!

Didn't even try to hide the evidence or wipe his face!

We've also discovered him playing a game.

Not pictured: Elvis coloring in a Christmas coloring book, and Elvis drawing holiday scenes on the white board.

Sock Bun Curls

2011-12-13T05:00:00.000-08:00

Our first attempt at sock bun curls flopped big-time, due to the fact that her hair didn't dry overnight...

Our second attempt worked slightly better for two reasons. 1) instead of waiting until her hair was halfway dry after a shower, we started out with totally dry hair and then just very lightly spritzed it with water. 2) we used three socks instead of one, so her hair wasn't rolled up as thickly.

(I didn't pull her hair into elastics first, because I didn't want the crease in her hair, so that's why they look a little saggy and messy)

That all said, I think we may need slightly more water, and possibly a fourth bun (and maybe some sort of gel??) as her hair isn't nearly as curly as shown in the how-to instructions we found.

Biggest disappointment is what little curl we DID end up with pretty much fell out the minute we tried to gently comb through so it wasn't all clumped. She's got more waves naturally than we ended up with from the sock buns when all was said and done!! LOL We're determined to keep fine-tuning things.

Respectful Student of the Month

2011-12-12T05:00:00.000-08:00

Miss Emily Grace won an award at school last week for the Student of the Month program they do. There is a theme each month, and this month's theme was "respectful." Usually the teacher chooses one student, but I guess Em's teacher has the class vote each month, by writing down one person's name. Em and her friend Erin tied, so both won the award. Kind of neat that she was chosen by her classmates!

I didn't find out until less than three hours before the awards "ceremony" that she was getting the award, and was heading out the door to Seattle for the Deck the Hall Ball, so frantically called my friend Jami to see if she'd take pictures for me (her daughter was getting the award as well), and then called and begged grandparents to attend in my place, so she'd have SOMEONE there to support her!

classic nervous Emily expression! If you see her biting her lip, she's nervous, embarrassed, and/or stressed. LOL

posing with Grandpa Dan after the assembly was over

Congratulations Emily Grace! Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you, and we're sorry we didn't get to see you receive your award in person. XOXO

Crazy Sleeper!

2011-12-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

I wish these pictures did justice to just how contorted Connor actually was! His head was in perfectly alignment with the length of his bed, but his body was completely perpendicular (the proof is in the foot poking out from under his blankets and propped against the wall). Try as I might, I couldn't get quite the right angle to show the unnatural angles of his neck and waist! crazy kid!!

As a sidenote, don't you love how he's just buried in lovies? I'm constantly taking the less-loved ones and shoving them in the closet, or piling them at the end of his bed, but when I check on him before heading to bed myself, I find he's gathered them all back up again. Ever the collector of "soffie" (his baby word for soft, which sort of got adopted into our regular vocab) things (stuffies and blankets--FYI Kristina, he totally sniffed out that green&brown monkey/frog blanket you sent home with me, and adopted it as his own; did you see it in the picture?)... One of these days I'll find him sleeping on the floor because he'll have run out of room for himself!

Splashball

2011-12-06T06:37:00.001-08:00

The boys are in the middle of their first-ever session of splashball and they are LOVING it! Splashball is the "micro" level of water polo. It's for ages 5-11, though I think the 6 kids in their class are all under the age of 8. It's been fun to see both boys really take an interest in it, and see some skills improving already. Jared shows more interest and involvement than we've seen with any other sport so far!

practicing catching with only one hand

practicing aiming toward your team-mate and throwing accurately

Connor making a spectacular attempt at catching a ball that another boy threw WAY over his head, jumping way up out of the water and flinging himself backward. LOL!

Zoo Lights 2011

2011-12-05T05:00:00.000-08:00

We took advantage of the rain-free weekend and bundled up and headed out to Zoo Lights Saturday night! We arrived shortly after the opening time of 5pm, and people were already swarming the parking lot. I'm so thankful we were smart enough to arrive when we did, because it was a MAD HOUSE as we were trying to leave around 6:30pm. (Learned our lesson from the year before! *grin*)

My mom took this picture with her camera at the request of Connor, who thought a family picture in front of this tree would be nice:

It was a COLD, but beautiful clear night, with a brightly shining half moon, and tons of Christmas lights for us to walk around and enjoy. Connor's favorites were the lights in shapes of tigers and monkeys (of which there were several); Jared's favorites were the lights in shapes of polar bears, and Emily liked the tigers, as well as a beautifully lit large pink/green tree.

I thought this years' newest display of a wolf howling at the moon was really neat!

Elf on the Shelf

2011-12-02T05:00:00.000-08:00

Elvis Elf showed up at our house for his second holiday season the day after Thanksgiving. I walked into my room and found him sitting on the windowsill above my bed, with the Elf on the Shelf book propped up on my pillow. The kids were THRILLED to see him again! He also left (on the sly) a great link to a website with 101 ideas for Elf on the Shelf so Dan and I would have a heads up what he might be up to this month...

I haven't remembered to take pictures of him every night, but I got pictures of the three that the kids got the biggest kick out of:

He swiped the dry erase markers and spent time coloring on the kids' school pictures from last year (because I haven't taken the time to frame their current school pictures... bad mommy!)

Then he got into the bag of knitting things my mom bought for me at a garage sale recently. Looks like he got partway into a scarf and got a little tangled up!

What do you know? Even our elf is a Harry Potter fan!!

I have a hunch we'll be finding him playing a board game with the kids' favorite stuffies soon, but I could be wrong!

Thankful Tree

2011-12-01T05:00:00.000-08:00

The kids and I made a Thankful Tree last Tuesday, in preparations for Thanksgiving. We wanted to have some sort of table decoration at our table. It's not the prettiest end result (intsead of seeking out really nice looking branches, we were dashing through the yard in the POURING POURING rain grabbing up the first branches we could find!!), but the kids had a BLAST making it! Even Connor, who all but refuses to do any sort of writing at home, was happily writing words on leaves to add to the tree.

One home-grown pumpkin + branches from the yard + paper leaves cut out on the Cricut + a hole puncher + strips of yarn + a permanent marker = super fun Thanksgiving project, and a nice visual reminder of all we have to be thankful for!

And for the record, the idea stemmed from this pin, which I found on Pinterest.com

Getting what you paid for

2011-11-30T05:00:00.000-08:00

Dan offered the boys a $1 to make him his lunch for work the following day (prepping the night before since he leaves at 4:30am!!). I'm kind of thinking when you pay a cheap rate, you get cheap quality:

Mutilated bread, too much PB, ITTY BITTY circle of jelly, with the two slices of bread closed up in opposite directions! LOL!!!! Connor was so stinkin' proud of his attempt though, and both boys loved that they were helping Daddy. Jared was in charge of putting some Pirate's Booty in a bag (a lot of which ended up on the floor in the process), picking out some fruit, and packing the yogurt.

That all said, I ♥ that my little gentlemen tried so hard to help Daddy, and Daddy was thrilled not to have to have to deal with packing his own lunch! Win/win!

Science Fun

2011-11-29T05:00:00.000-08:00

Jared's favorite subject in school is science; he would spend all day in the science room, if allowed! I tried talking the science teacher into having an after school science club of some kind, but she said she didn't have time to deal with one (pout!). After researching the Internet and speaking to different people in the community, and still not coming up with any good leads on a science-based program to enroll Jared in, I finally just purchased him a thick book full of different science experiments.

He and Dan flipped through some of the pages and opted to try this one out the other day.

Have you ever boiled water in a paper cup over a candle? Well, neither had we! The end result was that we got really hot water, which steamed a LOT, but never fully boiled. The steam started collecting as condensation outside the cup (something along those lines), which would then drip and snuff out our candle, but it was a fun attempt and we ALMOST managed to boil water in a paper cup over a candle. The boys LOVED the attempt, and were so excited putting it all together and watching as the water heated.

Jared can't wait to go through the book and pick out his next experiment!

Veteran's Day Assembly

2011-11-28T05:00:00.000-08:00

I came across some pictures I forgot to share! I attended the Veteran's Day assembly at my kids' school and snapped a quick picture of each them performing. Grades K-2 just sang from their place on the floor. Grades 3-5 got turns up on the risers. It was a really neat assembly. Emily Grace said that at the very end, a female Veteran came up with tears in her eyes and shook Em's hand. I'm so pleased that the kids were able to be a part of a meaningful event in honor of those in our community who serve their country.

Connor:

Jared:

Emily:

Connor Snuggles

2011-11-24T05:00:00.000-08:00

Connor invited me on a date to snuggle with him on the couch and watch his new movie (Santa Paws, in case you're interested). He even provided pillows, a blanket, and a stuffed animal for each of us. This kid takes good care of me! ♥♥♥

Baby Hat

2011-11-23T05:00:00.000-08:00

In the past, I have totally avoided making baby hats with a cuff, because I really felt they would be too bulky on a baby head. However, the flip side is making a baby hat that may or may not even fit (or won't fit for very long, even if it fits initially), since babies aren't all born with the same sized heads, and then taking into account how quickly they grow...

I recently decided to go ahead and make a hat with a cuff in order to make it more adjustable to various sized heads. Best I can tell, the hat I made is small enough to work for a newborn, but also worked GREAT on my friend's nearly 7 month old baby. Can't beat getting 7+ months out of a hat! I'm in love!

I'm pretty sure this is how I'll be doing baby hats from now on!

So proud

2011-11-22T05:00:00.000-08:00

After resisting reading the Harry Potter books for a couple of years, Em's hooked!

I found this on the white board after she finished reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. To my fellow HP fans, she's one of us! *wipes tear* So proud! LOL!!

Breakfast in bed

2011-11-21T05:00:00.000-08:00

I am blessed with two sweet little boys who surprised me with breakfast in bed a few weeks ago, without any prompting from anyone! I love my little gentlemen!!

More Knitting

2011-11-17T05:00:00.000-08:00

I knit this scarf over the weekend as a gift for someone, and Emily Grace has been bugging me ever since to make her one as well!

Clean up crew of ONE

2011-11-16T05:00:00.000-08:00

In order to earn back something she'd had taken away from her, Dan put Emily in charge of cleaning up the now-rotting carved pumpkins from Halloween. I decked her out in my rubber boots and some dish washing gloves and she got to work!

I jokingly told her to pretend she was going to eat some of the rotten pumpkin, never dreaming she'd actually pretend to do it! haha! Ever the practical joker...

She wasn't overly thrilled with this chore

(I can't say I was overly thrilled by the fact she spilled all the stinky rot slush onto the porch. GAG!)

She was a pretty good sport about it, overall

Better luck next year!

2011-11-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

As we bring our 2011 gardening adventure to a close, let's take one last look at our efforts.

The last of the still-growing plants gave us 15 pumpkins and two butternut squash (None of which ever really did fully ripen or grow very big, but it didn't dampen our excitement about the whole process of growing them from seed!).

We'll try again next year, as more experienced gardeners, and we'll see what we can make of it. *Grin* We will plant radish and carrots later in the season than we did this year, we'll plant a lot more bean plants, we'll add in some zuchinni, and we'll do a better job keeping the pumpkin vines from getting too out of control so we're able to force the growth of some larger-sized pumpkins. I'm hoping to add a fourth garden box, but that plan may be foiled by the fire hydrant pipe that may be run through that part of our yard...

Do Not Bend

2011-11-14T05:00:00.000-08:00

I think it's time to head down and have a chat with the Post Office... For the entire 11.5 years we've lived in this house, we've had mail frequently end up at the neighbor's house (any variation of three different neighbors), we've had mail and packages turn up missing, we've had a package thrown into our driveway and into a mud puddle (which happened to contain the pictures of Emily and Dan from the Father/Daughter Ball that year), and most recently, we've had Connor's school pictures (which are clearly labled "DO NOT BEND") rolled and shoved into our mailbox. Needless to say, I'm a little disgusted!

Not only is the envelope visibly curved through the middle, but the edges are all crinkled up. THANKFULLY, the picture's edges are not crinkled, and I believe we'll be able to flatten out the curve, but that's beside the point!!

We haven't put in a formal complaint before (minus the time a $50 itunes gift card we'd been sent never arrived) because we've felt the mail person may decide to retaliate by causing more problems with our mail, but this is really getting ridiculous!! I shouldn't have to rely on the honesty and friendliness of neighbors to make sure I get all of my mail, and I shouldn't have to be flattening out my son's school pictures because the mail person apparently can't read. UGH!

Fire Pit Fun

2011-11-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

One of the kids' favorite things to do as a family is hang out down at Gram and Grandpa Dan's at their firepit, making S'mores and telling stories. We got invited down over the weekend, and it was a gorgeous (although chilly!) clear night for the event.

Connor got right to work burning his marshmallows

Jared was hot on Connor's heels

Emily and Katie were going for a less burnt look

We had fun taking turns listening to, and telling, stories

Frankenstein even turned up!

Connor got a little spooked at one point, but perked right up in Daddy's arms!

After getting his fill of marshmallows and S'mores, Jared spent a good chunk of time working on getting that tooth out, while snuggled up on the chair with Gram

Thanks for the fun night; we look forward to the next one!

RIP Olivia

2011-11-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

Sad news at our house yesterday, when we discovered our turtle Olivia had died. She's been a part of our family for nearly two years.

I knew immediately Connor would be devastated; if you remember, it was his tearful plea in the pet store that prompted her purchase in the first place. ("You can't leave Olivia here or I'll never see her again!" How do you refuse that kind of logic? *grin*). What threw me off was how hard JARED took the news as well. Emily was sad, but her sadness was more from seeing her brothers upset, and the fact that our other pets will someday die as well (she was especially worried about our Yorkie, Charlie, with whom she has a close bond).

Once Dan was home from work, we held a little burial service in the backyard, complete with pictures the kids had drawn to bury with Olivia. It was quite late at night at the point plans were coming together, so the pictures were a bit of a hurried affair, but I'm sure Olivia appreciates their efforts anyway.

Connor wanted to put a rock on the ground to mark the place where Olivia is buried, and Jared suggested we do two rocks because we'd had her for two years. Each boy picked out a rock to place on the ground to mark the spot.

This picture breaks my heart, but I took it because I want to have it as a reminder for them in life, that although they may not always get along (they probably DON'T get along more often than they DO get along!), they will be there for each other when it really matters. Both boys were sobbing, and Emily calmly wrapped her arms around both of them and held them close.

Olivia, you were a pretty cool pet, and you will be missed.

Crime Scene

2011-11-08T05:00:00.000-08:00

A small history on Jared before I procede with the rest of the story: When he was barely two years old, in the middle of the night one night, he got the first of what would turn out to be probably at least 150-200 nose bleeds to date (I'm erring on the side of low; I'm sure he's had more). That night, he woke up screaming, I ran in, found him covered in blood, thought he'd been attacked...blah blah blah...turns out he was fine. He now sleeps with a box of tissues in bed with him because most of his nose bleeds occur at night. He's a pro at dealing with them on his own, and they rarely phase him.

As part of the whole frequent nose-bleed thing, he's also pretty much guaranteed to get a bloody nose if he gets bonked, bumped, punched, smacked, etc in the nose.

Over the summer, the boys were arguing over a toy. Connor was trying to get it (it was Jared's); Jared was trying to keep Connor from it; after Jared pulled Connor backwards by his hooded sweatshirt ("and tried to choke me to death!" as Connor tells it), Connor turned around and punched Jared in the face. Next thing I knew, Connor ran back to me at the other end of the house, SCREAMING that Jared was bleeding to death. I rushed out and saw blood POURING from both nostrils (wasn't even dripping, it was solidly running down in "rivers". The drips you see in the picture below are where he was moving around trying to keep the blood from landing on his feet, so the streams were splattering randomly). I grabbed a handfull of tissues on my way over to him and after about 15 minutes, got the bleeding under control.

I wish I'd thought to hold my hand out for size comparison or something because this picture really does not do justice to the reality! That puddle was a good 5-6 inches wide, and all the little splatters spread out more like 4-5 FEET wide. That's how forcfully the blood was pouring out of his nose! (The huge pile of blood soaked tissues in the trash can were very disturbing looking as well, but don't worry, I didn't take pictures of THAT!)

My family room looked like some sort of crime scene.

And in case you're interested, in the last 7 days, Jared has had 9 nose bleeds. I feel so bad for him!

Missing Teeth!

2011-11-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

Jared lost another tooth over the weekend. It makes #8 in the list of his teeth lost, and leaves him with only ONE of the top front four teeth in his mouth

Thankfully, another front tooth is VERY close to coming through the gumline!

It's amazing he's able to eat! LOL

Quote of the Week

2011-11-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

"Grandpa Jeff, will you sponsor me for the Spell-a-thon at my school? I have to know 10 words, and that will be EASY, because I already know how to count to 10!"

-Connor

(because counting is the same as spelling, you know! hahahaha!)

Halloween Festivities

2011-11-02T05:00:00.000-07:00

We started out the Halloween weekend with a mad dash out to find some reasonably priced black boots to go with Em's pirate costume. Scored these $20 beauties at Target:

That evening, we had a themed dinner at my brother and sister-in-law's house. I wish I'd taken pictures of the decorations! We walked through a fog tunnel to get into the house, and then there were "cobwebs" draped down from the ceiling. Lots of other great touches as well!

We were greeted by the cutest little duck ever! (my niece, Eva)

Emily and Ali (my other niece) were lookin' good! Em looks like a shrimp compared to her cousin! LOL

Grandma Marlee and Emily posed for a nice picture

Connor refused to get his picture taken, Jared was too busy making faces, and my dad's eyes came out closed, so my attempt at pictures of the BOYS fell flat!

"Vomit" and "skin slices" for appetizers

Used Goblin Q-tips were one of the dessert choices

The dinner menu. We were allowed to choose two things from the menu

For the record, I chose a pitch fork and the tape worms with monster grease and dandruff!!

After the dinner, Dan and I headed off to the first of two Halloween parties we were attending, and we found these disgusting-but-hilarious-and-delicious cookies set out (bloody tampon cookies, especially set out for any vampires in the room!)

At the last party we went to for the night, Dan met Troy Polamalu of the Pittsburgh Steelers!

On the actual Halloween day, the kids had some fun parties in their classrooms, and then after school, we made a mad dash to visit grandparents before heading off for diner and trick-or-treating with some good friends.

We came by so early, Gram and Grandpa Dan weren't quite ready with the candy (Gram was still on her way home with it from the store!! LOL)

Grandma Marlee had an appointment, but Grandpa Jeff was ready with goody bags for the kids

After taking the LONG way around to avoid the downtown craziness with all the trick-or-treaters hitting up the shops, we finally made it to our friend's house, and the real fun began!

Best attempt at a group photo of all the kids, minus Nicole, who was channeling Connor's evil twin and refused to let us photograph her

Didn't baby Minnie Mouse turn out adorable????

These kids were CRAZY amounts of hyper and ready to get the show on the road!

They needed one short candy break to refuel and were on our way to finish up the last portion of the neighborhood.

There was a nice surprise for the beer drinkers in our group when we came across a house giving out beer to adults, and candy for the kids!

Came back to their house after trick-or-treating, and filled our plates with a large variety of food and stuffed ourselves silly. Good food, good friends, good times!

I'd say it was one heck of a good weekend. Hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween. We sure did!

Fangs!

2011-11-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Good times with my little guy!

Puppy Love

2011-10-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Connor got to hold a friend's puppy last week, and he was in LOVE!!

So that's where he keeps them

2011-10-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

Santa's found the solution for what to do with his elves in the off-season:

Doughnuts, anyone?

2011-10-26T07:46:00.000-07:00

The kids attended a Community Inclusion Program Halloween party at Gram and Grandpa Dan's over the weekend. One of the games was to see who could eat a doughnut the fastest, without using hands, while it dangled from a string. TOO FUNNY!

See the chocolate and sprinkles up his nose?? LOL!

Em's friend Katie

Neighbor boy, EJ

Connor refused to participate (he was too busy roasting marshmallows at the fire pit!), and EJ's sister Lily opted out as well. The participants had a really good time, but I might suggest avoiding the chocolate covered doughnuts in the future! *grin*

Gardens Week 20

2011-10-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

Got carrots? We do!

(And yes, that's me, in my giant fluffy pink-with-white-polka-dots pajama bottoms, because I'd already gotten comfy for the evening when we realized we hadn't checked on the gardens yet this weekend)

We grew some of the GOOFIEST looking carrots you ever saw, but they taste good.

Jared's lettuce is still going strong!

And we purposely left a few beans on the vines so we'd have seeds to plant for next year.

We're still waiting for the pumpkins to finish turning orange. What an annoyingly slow process! Emily took this picture of our biggest pumpkin. The only part that's really turning orange is the part that was resting on the ground.

Em's got two butternut squash we're waiting on as well.

10 things about me

2011-10-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

1. I've finally stopped plucking gray hairs off the top of my head, and am doing my best to embrace the "skunk stripe" that's growing in as a result. I'm just not ready for the expense and hassle of dying my hair, but I have to admit, I'm NOT diggin' the stripe.

2. I have babied my back so much in the three years since the car accident, and backed off so much on working out (partly in fear of messing my back up, partly time issues, partly just lazy), and now I have very little strength and flexibility left at this point.

3. I've finished two classes of adult ballet now, and it's kicking my butt. My leg muscles are shaky by the end of class, and I can barely walk the next day! With any luck, the ballet classes will help with the strength and flexibility issues. No, I'm nowhere near being a graceful ballerina, and probably never will be. Yes, I'm sure it's absolutely hysterical to watch me in action.

4. It's a lot harder coming up with blog posts now that all three kids are in school full day! (Or they're doing homework, or are at an activity). The amount of time I physically get to spend with them each day in order to witness all the former blog-worthy moments is very limited now. POUT!

5. My brain also doesn't retain info the way it did prior to having three kids and getting into my 30's. Connor said something hysterical to me on the way to swim lessons on Tuesday, and it would have been a PERFECT blog post. Except, now I can't remember what he said. All I can remember is that I laughed really hard while driving down the road, while thinking to myself, "That's going on my blog!"

6. I'm in awe of Connor's Kindergarten teacher. She has the entire classroom at perfect attention, without ever raising her voice. She gets them to do their work and stay on task. I had a reading group of only SIX KIDS earlier this week and couldn't even keep six kids on task! Connor kept wanting to talk to me, and kept begging to take his glasses off; another girl kept talking and talking (and talking) over me, over the other kids, over herself (I'm serious! She'd interrupt herself to start a new conversation!); one boy was happier playing with the letter squares we were using to build words with than he was actually building the words. One girl told me at least 12 times she didn't want to work, she wanted lunch. I felt like I was running a 3 ring circus with a broken microphone, and no one had bothered to mention I was in charge anyway. How does Connor's teacher do it????

7. I weigh almost as much now as I did 7-8 months pregnant with Emily. And I truly don't even think I look all that big right now, but it's officially in my chart at the doctor's office. So far, I haven't found anyone willing to believe me, but it's the truth! Either I'm currently way bigger than I think, or I was a lot smaller back then than I remember!

8. I may have gone against Dan's wishes and got the kids each a pillow pet to be gifted at Christmas time... They've asked him several times when we see them in stores and it's always a quick, "NO!" and we continue on our way. But there happened to be a much bigger selection at the Holiday Food and Gift Festival than you typically find in-store, and there happened to be a monkey pillow pet, a polar bear pillow pet, and a lamb pillow pet. All three kids' favorite animals, so how could I pass that up? We're debating a small trip around Christmas time instead of a bunch of presents the kids don't need, so I figure they can open a pillow pet with some sort of card attached, giving them the details of the trip. The pillow pets can be used in the car AND the hotel. Everyone's happy. Except Dan, who I'm sure will roll his eyes and wonder why in the world I would buy the kids (especially Connor!) any more stuffed ANYTHING.

9. Speaking of pillow pets,there was an adorable, colorful, crazy looking unicorn pillow pet, which I would have just LOVED to have gotten as a kid (did you know I had a unicorn obsession when I was little?).

10. I lied. There's only 9 things about me. This was harder than I thought. *grin*

THE END

Where's Jared?

2011-10-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

The bus showed up a bit early yesterday, and my neighbor wasn't at the bus stop yet, and so the driver wouldn't let her Kindergartener off. I told the driver I'd get my cell phone out of my car and try to call and get permission for the driver to just leave him with ME until his mom got there. We got the neighbor boy dealt with, and then Connor kept saying, "I can't find Jared!" I scanned the bus, looked all around where I was standing, etc. No Jared. Then I tried to call the school to see if he was there, but no one was answering the main line. Tried calling my friend from another stop to see if Jared had gotten off there on accident (we get off there on Fridays), but she wasn't answering either. I said I was just going to drive to the school and check for him, then figure out checking some other stops along the route. As the driver was pulling away, and as I was getting into my car, I noticed movement in the back seat of the van, and there was Jared, all buckled into his seat already, hugging our little dog, Charlie. LOL!!!!!! He must have gotten off the bus and into his seat in the van while the bus driver and I were dealing with the neighbor boy. hahahaha! My heart was racing trying to figure out where he could be, but I'm really proud of myself that I kept my cool and stayed calm. Funny that he was right where he was supposed to be the whole time!!!!

Glass

2011-10-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

SO, about a month ago, I opened up the cupboard where we keep the plates, pulled a plate halfway off the shelf, when suddenly something from the next shelf up came crashing down, exploding the plate, and leaving me with a shard of glass sticking out of my wrist and blood dripping down my arm. Turns out Jared (who's chore it is to empty the dishwasher) had run out of room on the shelf where we normally store drinking glasses, so found space on the high shelf, and hadn't QUITE been able to push it onto the shelf fully! It was sort of a ticking time-bomb, and thankfully I was the one who opened the cupboard, versus Emily, who I'd almost put in charge of getting out plates!!

I pulled the glass out (It looked like it was barely through the skin, despite all the BLOOD!), washed my wrist, and put pressure on for a few minutes to slow the blood flow and better assess the wound. It was a little "C" shaped wound (Mid-way in size between c and C)and there seemed very little reason to get it checked out. The bleeding had stopped after about ten minutes, it was tiny, the edges were already trying to stick back together... I put some ointment and a bandaid on, and called it good.

The next day, my wrist hurt worse than I would have expected, and I had a pretty decent bruise, but the actual cut was already scabbed over and was so tiny, it was pathetic that it even hurt the way it hurt. I chalked it up to being a tender bruise, and didn't put much more thought into it than that.

Well, now it's been a month, it's still tender to the touch, AND there's a hard lump. I'm kind of thinking the glass shard went in deeper than I thought and left a piece behind when I pulled it out. Here's me kicking myself for not getting it checked out after all...

Now I'm thinking for piece of mind (and hopefully no longer having a tender wrist) I'll be making an appointment to get it looked at.

See how small it is? Think it's possible it's just a knotted up scar and not glass at all? I wouldn't expect such a small wound to still hurt a full month later, though... Any thoughts?

R2D2 Hat

2011-10-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend knitting like crazy, and managed to finish Jared's R2D2 hat!

Connor was originally going to get the Storm Trooper version, but he decided he really wanted R2D2 like Jared. After a big argument, we came to the compromise that I'd make him an R2D2 hat, but his would have a BLUE "light" instead of red, so the boys can tell their hats apart...

Jared is beyond thrilled with his hat; Connor is dying for me to finish his... And Emily has requested I figure out making her a pink hat with lambs around it. I'd better get busy!

Gardens Week 19

2011-10-17T08:08:00.000-07:00

I skipped sharing garden pictures last week because there really wasn't anything worth sharing! This week, however, more of the pumpkins are finally turning orange, though I highly doubt they'll be fully orange by Halloween. Maybe we'll push to have them orange for November as "Fall decorations"... ha!

Our biggest pumpkin (basketball-ish sized) is nice and green. POUT!

The vines are still dying off and the gardens are definitely looking quite scraggly. I have no idea what Em's two butternut squash should look like to know when they're pickable, but they still look a bit on the green side, so I don't think they're quite ready yet. I'm a little disappointed that with that many butternut squash vines growing, all we ended up with were TWO b.squash. Definately getting an earlier start next year, even if we have to beg use of someone's greenhouse!!

Wrong Elvis

2011-10-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

Backstory: We got the book Elf on the Shelf last year for the kids, and the kids chose to name the elf "Elvis Elf." The kids also know about (and talk a lot about) Elvis the singer.
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Emily: When is Elvis ever coming back?
Me: Honey, he died; he's not ever coming back.
Emily: (practially shouting) He died?!?!? How'd he die?
Me: (feeling confused at this point in time because she's known how Elvis died for years!) Remember? He did too many drugs and drank too much, and he died.
Emily: (first giving me a very horrified look, which turned into a look of confusion, finally turning into a look of understanding, as she burst out laughing) Not Elvis the singer, Elvis our Elf!! You scared me for a minute!

At which point, I burst out laughing at the mental image of what must have been going through her head as she thought I was telling her that our special Elf from Santa died from doing too many drugs and drinking too much... hahahahaha! It's a Christmas story like you've never heard before! Forget the Elf who wanted to become a dentist. Let's gather the children around to hear about the elf with some serious addiction issues... OH MY!

Not having gone mentally anywhere NEAR Christmas yet (I'm still baffled that it's nearly Halloween), it's easy to see where this story took a wrong turn...

And there's your laugh for the day. You're welcome.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

2011-10-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

I never really did get around to sharing more pictures from our ocean trip this summer. I came across these three pictures and had a nice laugh! I'd forgotten all about the boys hamming it up. Serious goofballs, these two!

(now you see Connor)

(now you don't...very well anyway)

Antlers! (jazz hands?)

Those were accidentally taken on continuous shot, so you can imagine how quickly this whole thing went down. Hilarious! These boys can drive me bonkers on a pretty regular basis, but they sure can make me LAUGH!

PS I have zero explanation for the expression on Jared's face! I haven't seen that expression before or since. hahahaha!! He's got a little SASS, eh?

Oldies, but Goodies

2011-10-12T07:42:00.000-07:00

This is back from April 2006. Emily was one month away from four years old and I was testing out a feature on our brand new camera, which allowed you photograph in black and white, but with one color visible. Her fingers are curled tightly around the stem because her bright pink fingernails kept showing up in color as well. LOL!! I love her sweet little face and those THICK eye lashes! This picture is still on my fridge, over five years later! There's nothing even remotely professional or fanc about it, but I love it anyway.

ADORABLE!!

2011-10-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

Seriously, someone local needs to hurry up and have a baby so I have someone to make the following gifts for. The cuteness kills me!!

These could be done in a million different variations... What a fun way to gift baby necessities!! I found both ideas posted on Pinterest.com, my newest obsessions. I've gotten AMAZING crafting, baking, knitting, decorating, and photography ideas off this site. There's something for everyone!

Recent Knitting Projects

2011-10-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

I saw an adorable baby hat online on Pinterest.com and HAD to recreate something similar for "my" sweet Madisen (okay, so she's really my friend Stephanie's, but I see her all the time so get to claim her, too! *grin*)

After completing the hat, I couldn't get the idea of Minnie Mouse of my head, so then I texted Stephanie and pleaded with her to have Madi be Minnie for Halloween, and I'd make a black version of the hat to be the mouse ears (while doing double duty of keeping her little head warm on a cold October night). Steph loved the idea, and I got to work. We still need to tie on the red/white polkadot bow, and I'm strongly debating larger pom poms, but will hold off until I see how they look with the bow, AND on Madisen's head.

Em's hands have been getting cold while playing the piano, so I found a cute pattern online for some fingerless gloves. The pattern actually STUNK and never told you where to start building the cable pattern, but I was determined to make it work because I thought the gloves were so cute, so sort of created my own version of the original pattern and rolled with it from there. I think it worked out pretty well!

I'm working on a green pair for myself for while I'm knitting and still need use of my fingers, but want to keep my hands warm. LOVE!!

My friend Jami ordered an infant sweater/hat set from me to gift to her stepson and his wife, but they aren't finding out the sex of the baby ahead of time. We chose a yarn with multiple shades of brown and a pretty turquoise color, figuring it works for a boy just fine, and if it's a girl, we can bling it up with turquoise buttons and little bows on the sleeves, and a large flower or bow on the hat. Jami is going to gift it at the baby shower, but then keep it until the baby is born and we'll finalize it ASAP and get it to her.

I also knit Emily some BEAUTIFUL leg warmers for during her two ballet classes, but they ended up too loose and won't stay up (FAIL!). I did a coordinating bun cover for her hair, which thankfully DID work out size-wise! I just keep forgetting to take pictures! I've even done a couple of coffee cozies.

I hadn't really had time to knit in MONTHS, and have been enjoying getting back into it, and completed several projects recently.

Multiple Choice Quiz

2011-10-05T05:00:00.000-07:00

Did Connor cut his finger on

A. a blackberry vine
B. a sharp part on the back of Daddy's tailgate
C. something sharp in the yard

or D. a razorblade he took out of the storage container from the back of Daddy's truck (that trail of blood went all the way through the driveway, the garage, and the house, as he got a wad of tissues)

He earned a stern talking-to about getting into Daddy's work stuff (the razorblades, in Dan's defense, were safely packaged and in the bed of the truck where the kids are typically not even allowed to be), but we figured the cut and the scare from all the blood were probably punishment enough in the end.

After he cut himself, he hid, because he was afraid he'd get into trouble. In the few minutes it took for us to hunt him down, his hand was pretty covered in blood and he was sobbing hysterically. It was quite traumatizing to see my baby's hand covered in blood and seeing/hearing him cry like that. I wasn't convinced he actually still had a finger tip at the time I snatched him up and ran into the house to get him taken care of, and calmed down enough to tell us what had happened!! The cut was on the pad of his right pointer finger, stretching from the crease of the knuckle to the tip. It bled a bunch, but didn't end up seeming all that deep. It took a good ten minutes to get the blood flow to slow down, then we cleaned it up and wrapped it tightly for an hour before checking on it. The inner layers had already begun "sticking" together again, so we wrapped it up again and left it alone. By the next morning, it looked more like a bad papercut than anything. PHEW!

We also had a chat about how if he gets hurt in the future, NO MATTER HOW HE GOT HURT, it's extremely important to come straight to Mommy and/or Daddy for help. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, this kid'll be the death of me! Death by heart attack! aughh!!!

CamWow

2011-10-04T05:00:00.000-07:00

The boys and I were playing around with the CamWow app on my phone last week while Emily was at her tap class. They were getting bored and a little restless, so I pulled out my phone and the fun began. I had tears streaming down my face I was laughing so hard! These are a few of our favorites:

Gardens Week 17

2011-10-03T05:00:00.000-07:00

We told Emily once her vining plants finally started producing, she'd probably have vegetables coming out her ears. It worked out that way with the cucumbers, at least!

She kept out four that she wanted for herself (she's turning into quite the picky eater lately, but she'll chow down a cucumber like it's a chocolate bar!), and then scammed friends and family out their money by selling the rest for $1-$1.50/each.

We were able to cut our first pumpkin off the vines. The rest are still in the process of turning orange (with the exception of one pumpkin, which just keeps growing, and isn't even the teeniest bit orange!), but this one is fully orange, so we cut it off the vines. It's not all that big, but it's got some weight to it!

This is the same pumpkin last to this week:

Happy 11th Anniversary!

2011-09-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

11 years ago, I woke up to pouring down rain, the fuse box kept tripping while I was trying to blow-dry my hair, my windshield wipers malfunctioned on the highway during a downpour while driving at 55mph, my make-up appointment ran long, my hair appointment ran long, the photographer was almost two hours late, our ceremony upstairs at the location started without my knowledge while I was downstairs making final preparations, our music to walk back down the aisle wouldn't play on the CD player, the limo never showed, and I didn't get to eat any of my own wedding cake.

11 years ago, I woke up knowing I was going to marry my best friend. I could only laugh at the mishaps, knowing they'd make for a great wedding day story later. I was surrounded by good family and friends, who were ready to help as needed, and who worked really hard to make sure our day was as special as possible.

11 years ago, we'd just purchased a house and had very limited funds with which to honeymoon with. We spent a week in Vegas, and the only money we gambled with was the $20 Dan got from my uncle for singing an Elvis song karaoke. We ate McD's and Krispy Kreme nearly the entire time (it was cheap!), and had to explain over and over again that yes, we were honeymooning in Vegas, but no, we did not get married there. *grin*

11 years ago, I welcomed the beginning of my new life, as a wife, with dreams of the family we would build together. I had no idea where the road would lead, but I was confident I had the best person possible at my side to travel it with.

11 years, 3 amazing kids, 2 dogs, 1 cat, and an aquatic turtle later, I'd say we've carved out a pretty decent path for ourselves! Thank you to those who were there 11 years ago, and thank you to those who have joined us along the way.

Happy 11th Anniversary to you, Danny! The road hasn't always been smooth, but we've always been a team and figured it out. I love you!

Tractor Pulls and Face Painting

2011-09-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

We went back to the fair on Sunday so Connor could participate in the championship round of the Mutton Busting, after qualifying earlier in the month. We got to the fair early in the day, so we'd have plenty of time to get him signed up, and also so we'd have plenty of time to look around at all the stuff we normally don't have time to see because we're too busy on rides! After we got Connor registered, we noticed they were getting ready to do the kid tractor pulls, so we got the kids signed up (it was free!). The farther you pedal, the heavier the weight gets

The starting weight is predetermined based on the child's age. If they make a full pull (reaching the distance of 25ft with the weight at the top of the incline plane), they qualify for another round. Emily came about two pedals shy of making a full pull in the 1st round. Connor and Jared both qualified for the 2nd round. Neither of the boys qualified for the 3rd round. It was pretty funny to see these little kids on pedal tractors, pulling all that weight! The only kid that made it into the 4th round was 7 years old (I think), and pulled 250lbs!

After the tractor pull, we viewed a bunch of the livestock, then got faces painted (again, for free!)

I didn't get any pictures of Connor in the Mutton Busting championship round (I did take video, but it won't load!), but I can tell you he lasted 3.78 seconds. Not quite as good as his first ride earlier in the month, and not good enough to qualify him for the top 10 (who got to ride one last time to "fight" for top 3 places), but he had a wonderful time, and is really looking forward to next year so he can try again!

Dog Gang

2011-09-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

I was out taking pictures of the gardens over the weekend, and when I turned around to head back into the house, I saw my two dogs, side by side, staring at me. (Charlie looked away at the last minute, but believe me, he'd been staring! LOL)

Normally, they're running around the yard together, so I'll be honest and say I hesitated mid-step to see them just standing there, STARING at me! I called them both, but they just stood there. Then I said, "What do you two think you're doing, huh??" then they ran over with tails wagging before heading off to chase each other around the yard. All was right with the world again. But I've got my eye on those two...

Gardens Week 16

2011-09-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

We have one pumpkin that's almost entirely orange

Look at the difference a week makes!

Our biggest pumpkin is probably slightly bigger than a soccer ball? It's not even the tiniest bit orange, so I'm hopeful it'll continue to gain some size for a bit longer. I guess we'll see!

Our tiniest pumpkin is nearly orange as well, and I think the cucumbers might be as big as they're going to get

There's some definate color change since last week, but no growth!

The vining plants' leaves have really started to rot and die off, but I'm assured that's normal at this point. We still have a ton of leafy carrot greens in Connor's gardens, but no sign of any actual carrots beyond a few weeks ago. The lettuce is still producing, but the leaves aren't growing nearly as big as they were just a few weeks ago! I'm thinking there probably isn't much time until the gardens are done for the season!

Bloopers!

2011-09-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

This summer/fall we...

...attended Dan's work picnic and Connor flew out of the water slide so fast he nearly ended up on his head:

...attended Dan's work picnic and participated in a balloon toss:

...had a play date at a friend's house and channeled a bit of Paris Hilton:

...learned how to dive off the diving board, but pulled off a few spectacular belly flops first (with the bright red belly to prove it):

...visisted the dentist:

...went to the fair with friends, who despite the look on her face, ended up enjoying the slide:

...won a creepy doll in a $1 grab bag:

...posed with a creepy doll we won in a $1 grab bag:

Emily the hairstylist

2011-09-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

Em was playing with my hair the other night while I was reading a chapter to the kids before bed, and this is what she ended up doing to my hair:

I think it turned out pretty neat! I'll have to try to recreate in HER hair!

Gardens Week 15

2011-09-21T05:00:00.000-07:00

Some of the pumpkins continue to turn orange... This is a comparison of the same pumpkin from last week to this week:

It's weird, because there is a pumpkin I was originally doing growth comparison pictures of, but after a couple of weeks, it totally stopped growing, so I stopped taking comparison pictures. But then there are some pumpkins that were just "BABIES" at the time I was taking pictures of the one, and they're now considerably bigger! I wonder what triggers some to grow, and some to stop? We have a few pumpkins I was actually planning on cutting off the vines as "babies", because the vines were growing a little out of control, and I'm glad I didn't, because they ended up being the bigger sized pumpkins!

And then there's THIS pumpkin, which is quite tiny (softball size, maybe?), and has been the same size for WEEKS AND WEEKS... The cucumber has grown quite a bit since week 12, though!

Last week, the two existing butternut squash were both the same size. This week, one started dying off, and the other grew like crazy in only a week!

I think we officially have 13 pumpkins, 1 butternut squash, the lettuce is still producing, the beans have died off, 6 cucumbers (we've eaten two, so we HAD 8), and probably around 40-50 carrots should they ever bother to ripen... Not quite as well as we'd thought we'd do, but not bad for a first attempt, and it's truly been very fun!

SSSSSSSSSnake!

2011-09-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

We took the kids to the Woodland Park Zoo just before school started, and we came to this exhibit with a green snake in it. It was just laying there, not moving, until the minute all three kids were clustered around looking at it, and then it suddenly rose up to be face to face with them

Emily said, "Hey, this is just like in Harry Potter!" and the boys suddenly started speaking Parsaltongue (their own little version of it, anyway). And then people started pushing and shoving up to the glass to see the snake, when suddenly the glass disappeared and they all fell in! Okay okay, so the glass didn't disappear and no one fell in, but people DID start pushing and shoving to get a look at the snake as it truly appeared to be interacting with the kids.

We all need little Harry Potter moments in our life, right? (Right, Kaci?? XOXO)

Mutton Busting!

2011-09-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

Connor participated in the Mutton Busting competition at the local fair last week. He was SOOO amped up in line! (I had a video to share of him while waiting in line for his turn, telling me was going to hold on for ten hours, but it won't load! POUT!)

He was happily petting the sheep that WEREN'T in the current line up to be ridden

Last year, when they called his name, Connor screamed, "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" and took off running the other way. This year, he kept telling me, "I sure wish they'd hurry up and let me have my turn!!"

My friend Jami used my camera to get this picture from where she was sitting in the audience

I paid for the professional pictures so we'd have better documentation of the event:

Most kids were face down, clinging on for dear life. Connor was looking forward, SMILING as he rode! hahahaha! The lady who printed out the picture for me even commented on it, while showing it around to the other people working the booth (where you could buy t-shirts, pictures, etc).

After the kids fall off, a cowboy gathers them up and runs them out of the arena back to the parent. Connor was totally laughing! He loved riding the sheep, and immediately begged to do it again!

Winning the GOLD medal for a 5.4 second ride. GO CONNOR! (another purchased picture). According to Connor, "You just ride the sheep to the end, jump off, and then you win!"

Posing with yet another cowboy after his big win!

Connor gets to participate in the championship round on the last day of the fair. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for him!

Tell Me What You Did Today

2011-09-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

Connor's teacher sent home this little poem last week, and I LOVED it!

Tell Me What You Did Today

When children come home at the end of the day,
The question they're asked as they scurry to play is,
"Tell me what you did today?"
And the answer they give makes you sigh with dismay,
"Nothing, I did nothing today."
Perhaps nothing means that I played with blocks,
or counted to 10 with Mr. Fox.
Maybe I painted a picture of red or blue,
Or heard a story about a mouse that flew.
Maybe today was the very first time
that my scissors followed a very straight line.
Maybe I led a song from beginning to end,
Or played with a special, brand new friend.
When you're 5 and your heart has wings,
"Nothing" can mean so many things!

Sigh...

2011-09-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

Doesn't he look too little to be on the "big kid" bus??

Taylor Swift!!

2011-09-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

My friend Jami and I took the three girls to see Taylor Swift in our area last week. What an AMAZING concert! It was everything I'd hoped it would be, and more. It was all three of the girls' first concert (Em's been to some smaller ones with her daddy, but NOTHING big like this was!) and it was such a great experience!

Right off the bat, they got to pose for a picture with the mascott of a local country radio station

Then they got to make signs using supplies provided by a different local country radio station

We stood in line forever and a day to get t-shirts, and ended up bumping into another classmate!

Next, was standing in line to purchase food, and finding our way to our seats. You know you're in the nosebleed section when you literally can't go up any higher because the WALL is behind you! LOL

As high up as we were, we had a view straight down to the stage without any heads blocking us, so I really have no complaints!

Well, I WILL complain about how HOT it was in the building, and probably even MORE hot up where we were, since heat rises... I would have loved a hand-held battery operated fan or something in one hand, but it was what it was. We made the best of it! We were just really sweaty and thirsty by the end. LOL! I will also complain about the $25 parking "CASH ONLY", which was quite unexpected, but again, we made the best of it (and thankfully had enough cash between the two of us! I'd planned for $15 and figured it wouldn't be any more than THAT!).

TAYLOR SWIFT!!!!!

Multiple dress changes (with "side" acts on stage during each change so there was never any weird down-time)

There were even more, but my camera had an "exhausted battery" (so said my camera screen!) 3/4 of the way through the concert. POUT!!!!!!!!!!

Emily LOVED this ballet routine, which happened during one of Taylor's costume changes

The stage was always quite elaborate with background/back-up dancers and "skit" type lead-ups into songs

(Em was jealous of the girl that got to wear this wedding gown!)

Partway through the concert, Taylor moved back onto a platform with a lit-up tree near the back of the audience and did some slower numbers.

The girls wilted quite a bit at this point, from heat, and from all the dancing/singing/cheering/standing they'd been doing

The show was full of fireworks, confetti, flashing lights, etc!

There were also acrobats dangling from giant bells, balconies floating up in the air over the audience, etc. I didn't get any of THAT stuff, thanks to the "exhausted battery"... But it's fresh in my mind, and Em's still talking about it all!

Not everyone was as appreciative of the loud music and cheering as we were! hahaha!

The next day, Em cowgirl'd up for school, wearing her new t-shirt.

Two HUGE thumbs up for this concert!! It was so fun to share the experience with Emily and our good friends.

Gardens Week 14

2011-09-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

The pumpkin and butternut squash vines, as well as the bean plants, are starting to deteriorate, which I guess proves summer is turning into fall...

The lettuce isn't growing as thickly or quickly as earlier this summer, but we've still managed to get a good sized salad once or twice a week, still leaving some leaves on each plants so they don't die off

Lettuce, carrots, and cucumbers, all from our own garden!

We never did get around to planting more radishes to try a second attempt at growing them. I wonder if it's too late now?

Em's butternut squash are picking up in size, but they took so dang long to get started, I'm worried they won't fully ripen before the vines die off

Some of the pumpkins are starting to turn a bit orange. I've heard once they start turning orange, they stop growing... If that's true, then our largest pumpkin is going to be about the size of a soccer ball, with random sizes down from there. Nothing spectacular, but at least we have pumpkins!

Connor says this one looks like a jelly bean!

Hiking

2011-09-09T05:00:00.000-07:00

The kids and I got invited to go hiking with two other moms and their kiddos last week right before school was set to start. It was listed online as family friendly and toddler friendly. My personal opinion is that while the toddler in our group did AMAZING beyond belief, the trail was rather rough and LONG overall for the average toddler. Even the older kids were stumbling along the way (especially on the way back to the car when they were all pretty pooped out! LOL). It was a FANTASTIC hike; everyone really enjoyed it. Great scenery, fun photo opps, etc. We spent about 4.5 hours on the round-trip from the parking lot to the bridge by the waterfalls, and back again. I would LOVE to do this hike again!! My kids all wore their backpacks with snacks, a water bottle, and a sweatshirt. I had my backpack packed with my own water, extra snacks, bandaids, bug spray, sunscreen... It worked out really well!

There was a place at the head of the trail with a sign that said, "take a walking stick, leave a walking stick", so Jared took a walking stick (he got the only one left!)

The first part of the trail follows alongside the river, and the kids had a great time stopping to look at different viewpoints.

After awhile, the trail turns away from the river and you start really hiking uphill, zigzagging up the pathway. Parts were pretty slippery and narrow! We paused for a little break and the kids all climbed up onto this huge rock

We got lucky being able to get so many good group shots considering the amount of kids and the big age range we were working with!

The drop-off from the trail was quite steep at one point, and this sign was posted

We got to the bridge that crosses over the waterfalls/river, and got to enjoy listening to the sounds of the water, and the view!

We could have continued along the trail, but in the interest of time, and not being sure how much longer the kids could all go (knowing we still had to backtrack to the car!), we opted to turn around and head back at this point.

On the way back down, Connor posed inside the hollow of a rotten stump

Then Emily and Katie stood way up high on a rock

Connor wanted to lay down on his tummy for a picture... How cute is he?

The only real downside I can say, is that there are NO bathrooms along the way, and doing the hike with kids meant we were out there for several hours. Despite being in the woods, the layout of the trail didn't even allow you to just find a bush to squat behind either. We sort of just had to pee fast on the trail a few times and hope no one came around the corner! We won't even get into how it went when one of us had to do more than just pee... I'll just say a quick "thank goodness for ziploc bags and baby wipes!" and leave it at that. haha!

We ended the day with 7 filthy, exhausted children, and couldn't have asked for much better!! It was great being with friends, trying something new, enjoying the views, getting good exercise, etc. This is DEFINATELY on my list of Things To Do Again!

Gardens Week 13

2011-09-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

We currently have 7 good sized pumpkins, and several golf-ball to softball sized pumpkins. The vines are still branching out all over, and I'm still struggling to figure out which ones are okay to trim back and which ones I need to leave alone. There's so many!!! I think the kids will be perfectly happy with whatever sized pumpkins we end up with, so I'm not going to stress out at this point about trying to grow them really big. Next year we'll definately have a better idea of what we're doing.

The cucumbers are finally starting to gain size, but I forgot to take a picture of them. They are about the size of a pickle right now.

We picked about 6 carrots out of Connor's garden over the weekend to go along with the lettuce we picked out of Jared's garden, making for a nice fresh salad with dinner. Dan even had some chopped up tomato in his, which came from our neighbor's garden.

Em's butternut squash are finally making some good progress as well. I've only found two so far, and a third REALLY teeny tiny one, which probably won't even flower for another week or two... There might be more hiding somewhere!!

I'm realizing it's going to be sad for the kids and I when the growing season is over and we don't have these gardens to tend and harvest any longer. I'll have to actually start shopping for lettuce and carrots and beans again!! *POUT* I NEVER considered myself any sort of gardener, but I'm already looking forward to next year when we can start again; with some changes in mind, and using some "tricks of the trade" we learned this year, etc. I might even have to talk Danny into building a fourth box so I have one for ME as well. LOL!

Same pumpkin, week 12 compared to week 13 (I know at first glance it doesn't look like it grew since I didn't zoom in enough, but notice on the left my fingers stick up higher than the pumpkin, and on the right, they don't!)

Connor's 1st day of School

2011-09-07T05:00:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that my BABY is already old enough to be in Kindergarten!!! Part of me wants to curl up and cry over how quickly this time has gone. The other part is excited to see what this next chapter of his life will bring.

Goofball wouldn't stop jumping around, so this is the only picture from our yard that didn't turn out blurry in one way or another

His school made the decision to break the first day into two half day sessions, so half the class went in the morning, and the other half went in the afternoon. Connor got placed in the afternoon group, so he and I got to spend one last morning together, had a nice lunch out, and THEN I took him to class.

We LOVE his teacher!

I did get a little choked up on our way down the hallway toward his classroom, but I pulled myself together pretty quickly. It was hard to feel sad/emotional when my Mr. Connor was practically skipping down the hallway in excitement! He told me almost immediately, "You can leave now!" but I told him he was stuck with me until I snapped a few pictures first. *grin* After I took a couple, he said, "Okay, leave already!" That was my cue to HIT THE ROAD!

Connor got to ride the bus home with Emily and Jared! He's been DYING to get on the bus since he was only 15 months old and watched Emily head off to HER first days of Kindergarten...

Big things are in store my for Little Man!!

I'm so glad you enjoyed your first day of school, Connor, and I hope you don't lose your enthusiasm any time soon. The world is yours for the taking! Believe in yourself, always try your best, and remember, mommy loves you no matter what. XOXO

Rocket Balloons

2011-09-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

The boys have been having tons of fun over the last couple of weeks playing with Rocket Balloons. They pump them up as full as they can, then let them go and giggle as the balloons zip every which way across the yard. Jared discovered that after he blows them up, if he adjusts them to not have any curve at all, they will go pretty much straight up into the air

This one ended up going so high my camera wouldn't even focus on it any longer because it looked too small (I also didn't have my zoom lense, but STILL!)

The downside of using Rocket Balloons outside is that our trees and tall shrubs are now decorated with deflated balloons that got stuck on their way back down. *grin*

1st day of school!

2011-09-02T05:00:00.001-07:00

Emily and Jared had their first day of school yesterday. (Connor won't get to start Kindergarten until Tuesday the 6th). Sounds like everyone had a good day, though they weren't overly full of information for me! LOL

It's hard to believe that Emily is starting 4th grade and Jared is starting 2nd! I'm a little nervous about 4th grade because we've already had to complete a homework assignment DUE THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. That can't be a good sign!!

I'm hoping for a fantastic year for all three kids. It's going to be REALLY strange having all three of them in full day school. Thankfully, I still get my Connor Bonnor on Fridays!

"Mom, can I do a pose?"

pretty shoes!

"Emily got to do a pose; does that mean I get to do one?"

Connor said, "Why aren't you taking pictures of me, too?" So I took his picture, too, even though it's not HIS first day of school today. LOL! (PS, that's a head lamp on his head!)

Such an enthusiastic bunch...

Now that's a hug!

2011-09-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Can daddy hold and hug all three kids at once? Why, yes he can!

The Burrow

2011-08-31T05:00:00.001-07:00

Connor got the Weasley's home, The Burrow, Lego set for his birthday and we FINALLY got around to putting it together for him. We've been SWAMPED, and it was one of the first mornings all summer we didn't have to be ANYWHERE all day, so we stayed in pajamas until past noon, and built up some Lego sets.

There's a ton of LITTLE pieces that go together to build all this, and it took a lot longer than I anticipated!

Oh look, Harry's napping!

YIKES! Watch out for Bellatrix and Fenrir!

Connor has played with this set pretty much every spare chance he's had.

There's even a little fire place when you can stand the Lego people inside it, then turn a crank and it flips back, showing green flames (the "magic fire") and dumps the person out, so when you turn the crank back, the person is gone and it appears they traveled by flew-powder. He had characters heading every which direction using flew-powder in the fire place! I loved listening to him creating scenarios and making the characters talk to each other.

Squirter Fight

2011-08-30T05:00:00.000-07:00

The kids had fun in the sun the other day using their squirters! We filled up a 5gal bucket at one end of the yard, and filled the cooler at the other end of the yard, and told the kids to have at it. The "rules" were that you had to alternate which fill-up station you used, in order to keep them running around and not hovering over one and making it difficult for anyone else to fill up with water. It worked out REALLY well!

I have no idea what he's doing, but his facial expression is hilarious!

Smarty-pants Connor was pretty quick to realize that turning on the hose resulted in a long-lasting water supply, with much greater soaking capabilities!

Gardens Week 12

2011-08-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

We have major vines everywhere!! I actually went out the other day to start trimming the ends off some vines so they'd start focusing on the pumpkins that are already growing, but in all honesty, there are so many vines growing every which direction, it was too hard to tell which vines came from which planter box, or which vines where connected to which plant (I knew pumpkin vines got long, but I did NOT know that they all branch out every few feet, and that THOSE vines will then branch out as well!). LESSON LEARNED: we don't need as many pumpkin plants next year!!

I photographed the two biggest pumpkins

Look how much the pumpkin you just saw grew in only one week!

I photographed the biggest cucumber (which happens to be growing on top of a pumpkin! haha! We figure we'll leave them alone and see what comes of them. Might make for some funny shapes!)

I photographed the start of what will hopefully continue to become a butternut squash. I was starting to worry the butternut squash were never going to grow!

Connor's carrots are FINALLY starting to ripen (is that a word you even use for carrots???)

He even got to pick/harvest two that were working themselves out of the ground too much to leave alone

They're funky looking carrots, but he said they tasted really good!

Water Fun!

2011-08-26T05:00:00.000-07:00

Some new friends of ours invited us to spend the afternoon boating and tubing with them, along with another set of friends we've known for a long time. The kids all had a FANTASTIC time! The "tube" held four kids at a time, which really worked out well. They all just manuevered seating locations and turns without any arguments at all! (FYI, the older girl immediately to the left of Connor is who he currently wants to marry, and has asked to have over for a play-date several times now!)

This one made me laugh with the girls' hair all flipped up the same direction!

My friend Jami took this one, and I thought it was neat how the camera focused in on the water spray!

And I absolutely crack up looking at this one of "Friend Emily" (when there are two Emily's in the group, you've got to come up with SOME way of making it clear who you're talking to/about!), which is cropped from a larger picture for easier viewing of her expression. The funniest part is that she was having a BLAST, but we must have snapped the picture right when she was initially startled, and not once she'd started laughing again. TOO FUNNY!

Look at Connor's windblown hair! hahaha!

We played on the beach for awhile after our new friends needed to head back home

We're so thankful for the great weather we've been having, and for getting to share it with some really great friends!! It was a perfect afternoon.

BBQ salmon

2011-08-25T05:00:00.000-07:00

Proud moment for ME, using the outdoor grill all by myself for the first time! INCLUDING starting the "coals"! I don't do well with outdoor grilling because there's less of an exact temp and cooking time-frame, and I find it difficult to predict when cook time will be over in order to plan out having side-dishes ready at the same time as the main course.

That said, my mom and dad caught a salmon and offered to let us have some of it. Dan wasn't going to be home in any reasonable time-frame to help grill it up for dinner, and I was REALLY in the mood for it to be on the BBQ, so I did it. YAY ME!

Add some grilled beans from Jared's garden, and it was quite a tasty meal!

Connor Can Dive!!

2011-08-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

After watching the 12 year old girl he has a crush on trying to learn to dive off the diving board at swim lessons, Connor requested a turn to try for himself. After three belly flops the first day of attempting it, and a perfect dive the second day, I captured this dive on video the third day! GO CONNOR!

After he pulled off the dive I got on video, his instructor begged him to try a flip off the diving board. Not bad for a 1st attempt, in my opinion!!!

A visitor

2011-08-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

We discovered a tiny little frog shading himself on a leaf on Jared's bean plant!

The boys thought he was the greatest thing ever! Connor tried to catch him, but the little frog was too smart and too fast for Connor... Little frogs tend to get a tad over-loved by Connor!

Gardens Week 11

2011-08-22T05:00:00.000-07:00

We have approximately 11 palm-sized pumpkins (and quite a few just-starting-out pumpkins as well). It's hard to dig through the cluster of vines to really see for sure, but it looks like we're on track to officially have a good amount of pumpkins!

I think once the 11 good sized ones get a little bigger, we'll be trimming the vines down a bit. I want the plants focusing on growing the pumpkins to a good size, versus focusing all the energy into vining out everywhere.

There's not much point taking pictures of the garden boxes at this point. Jared's beans are producing nicely, the lettuce has been awesome. Connor's carrots look the same as they have for a few weeks, and Em's garden is so taken over with vining plants that you can't see it at all!!! But I had to at least share one of the larger pumpkins.

Connor, my little monkey

2011-08-19T05:00:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken as we were literally heading back to the car to leave after our "date" with Bojangles, and if I'd realized then how cute this would turn out to be, I'd have taken an extra few seconds to pose my other two as well!

Leave it to my little monkey to be up in a tree!

Bojangles, the miniature horse

2011-08-18T05:00:00.000-07:00

My Auntie's friend Valarie has a miniature horse named Bojangles, whom she claimed was getting a little overweight and needed some good exercise. My kiddos were invited to come ride in the buggy/cart behind him around the yard as something fun for the kids, and as exercise for Bojangles. The kids were THRILLED at the whole idea.

Auntie has emailed out hilarious stories about her and Valarie's adventures trying to catch Bo in the yard, etc. He sounded like quite the character, and I was definitely interested in seeing him for myself!

We arrived Monday, fresh from swim lessons, and were warmly welcomed into Valarie's home and taken out back. What a peaceful and beautiful space. You instantly felt relaxed and at home. I was treated to french vanilla coffee with creamer and whip cream, and the kids were set loose to test out the tire swing (which was in the shape of a horse!) and the hammock, to see Bojangles in his stall, and to check out the flowers in the garden (The long row of sweet peas were AMAZING!).

Emily Grace's friend, Katie, came with us

After we'd sipped our coffee and the kids had played a bit, it was time to let Bojangles out of his stall. He took off like a flash, and Auntie was all but rubbing her hands together and giggling in anticipation of getting to watch Valarie chase Bojangles!! Valarie quite quickly ended up with an apple in hand in order to tempt Bo over and it worked like a charm!

Valarie got Bojangles set up near his stall so he could be brushed down, and she could start putting all his harnesses on him for the buggy/cart. I was amazed at how much there was to put on (LOTS of straps and buckles!). Connor was super enthused about the entire process

Once he was in all the harnesses, it was time to attach him to the cart. Auntie was put in charge of making him stand still while Valarie got everything hooked up. The little stinker kept pawing at Auntie, and we all had a nice chuckle!

Next came the real fun! Each set of kids got three turns around the yard. Auntie and I each took a turn as well (had to say I'd done it!)

Once Bojangles was properly tired, he got to wander the yard nibbling at some grass. Connor couldn't get enough of him! He was brushing him, complimenting him ("His eyes are blue just like the ocean!" "This horse sure is patient!"), patting him, rubbing him... Love at first sight, for sure:

Then Connor asked if he could walk the horse, so Valarie put him on a lead and let Connor have at it! I can truthfully say the mini horse would have intimidated me at Connor's age, but Connor acted like it was something he'd done his whole life. Totally fearless, loving every minute!

The other kids more hesitantly took their turns, but enjoyed themselves!

Group picture time!

On our way back out to the car, we checked out the fish pond in the front yard. Valarie brought out the fish food to try and coax a few to the surface. Connor, in true Connor fashion, was excited about the whole process and wanted in on the action, begging for a chance to throw some food in as well

Thank you, Valarie and Auntie, for a wonderful morning! What a GREAT time! XOXO

Pelicans

2011-08-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

One of the days we were at the ocean, we were AMAZED at how many pelicans and seagulls were swarming the shallow depths of the water's edge. HUNDREDS of birds were floating around in the water, flying overhead, diving down for food, wandering the beach, etc. It was an extremely misty morning, so it was hard to get a good picture, but I did my best! It was soooo neat to see the pelicans RIGHT in front of us like that, diving for food and flying all around. They're really quite large!

Look close at how many were in the water, and that was just one small portion!

They hover for the tiniest of time when they've spotted something in the water, then start to aim their heads downwards

Then they DIVE!

WEEEE!!

2011-08-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

The kids got to test out a rope swing at a beach we visited last week. It was pretty high up, so they were nervous at first, but they all ended up having a really good time!

Gardens Week 10

2011-08-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

At this point, there's not much rhyme or reason to the garden boxes. The vining plants are snaking every which direction, twisiting around from one garden to the next, and all the space around!!

Jared's lettuce and bean plants have been producing wonderfully. We've had large salads once to twice each week, on top of using lettuce in sandwiches. The slugs are getting a fair share at this point, but I'm worried about using slug bait where pets could potentially end up licking it up as well...

Connor's carrot greens are getting bushier, but I still don't see much happening underground. We didn't bother reseeding with radishes yet because a friend pointed out they're more of a fall crop, so we'll wait a few more weeks.

You can't even really see Emily's sign any longer!! (some of the leaves you see are from Jared's and Connor's as well. There's just a giant mass of leaves and vines!)

I'm not sure if the bees actually pollinated for these to fully become cucumbers, but we've got the potential starts!

Jared picked enough beans for daddy to have them as a side dish for dinner last night (the rest of us just had salad)

Some favorites

2011-08-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

I took way too many ocean pictures to attempt to show them all, so I picked out a handfull of favorites to share instead:

(look close, you can see Connor scaring the birds)