Don't Mess With Me, I've Got Kids

My children tend to be rather protective of their mother. When Justin was two and we were remodeling the kitchen I stubbed my toe on a box of tiles. Justin started screaming at the box and kicking it. I was a bit scared by his reaction; I thought "is this kid crazy, are we going to have anger management issues..." I was a little glad at the same time that he cared and noticed that I was hurt.
Then last week I took Emma and Mia to the store and they both climbed on a mechanical horse ride that has a cactus next to it. I put two quarters in the slot and nothing happened. Then Emma makes a fist and punches the cactus in the eye (it had a face.) She tells it "don't steal my mom's money!" Then both girls start to beat up the cactus. Then Emma says "wait, it has paint on it... It is not real!"

Tippie Canoe and Tyler Too!

This was my little brother's nickname, or at least one of them, when we were kids. He turned 29 this week. Last night we went out to celebrate. We had Mongolian BBQ then met up with friends at Lazerstar. You know the place, where 8-13 year olds hang out... Well we are so cool and Tyler and Candace took me there for my birthday last year. We had such a good time that we decided to go again. Let me just tell you how seriously I take this. I brought "competition shoes" to change into and a rubber band to pull my hair back. I had Charlie put on extra deodorant. Seriously! We like to play the virtual jump rope game, dance, dance revolution (which was broken and only did one player- lame!) If you don't think I like to win just look at how ridiculously high I jump!

We did the spider stomp game too and two rounds of lazerstar. After playing the games for awhile we signed up for the lazerstar. We all sat around waiting and I then I went to the bathroom. Two 13 year old girls came in and went into stalls on either side of me. Then they had this conversation.
girl 1-what is with all the old people ?
girl 2- yeah, maybe they are waiting for their kids.
girl 1- they are just sitting there.
girl 2- Lame!
They go out and wash their hands and I walk out between them and wash mine. Then I go and tell everyone about it in front of their friends. We all laugh really hard about how "old" we are and how we apparently look old enough to have teeny bopper kids. Then I started taking their pictures just to post here. Heather and I decide to "take them down" in our up coming game. We all go in and play. I got 18075 on the second game. That was second place, we don't know who was the first place player, but it was someone from a different group on our team- not a teeny bopper. We enjoyed shooting down the lame kids and when we were walking out the girls walked by and said "those people in there were so mean." That made my night!! Okay, so I am a little competitive and enjoyed wiping the floor with the kids a little too much. No wonder Charlie refuses to play any games with me.

Little Miracles

I am trying to plant my vegetable garden again this year. The last couple years have not been very successful. Three years ago I tried for the first time and it was fantastic and exciting, then the next year I wasn't as disciplined at watering. Last year I planted my seeds and Mia dug them all up. Then I bought plants and she tore them to pieces before I could plant them. I prefer to plant from seeds because I enjoy it so much more. I decided to actually follow the directions on the package and begin some the the planting indoors then transplant them outdoors. I used an empty egg carton and planted my tomato, peppers and herbs. I had the kids help and I have been watering religiously. (I even talk to them.) Then last week my first plant sprouted up. I was so excited and had all the kids come and watch. Now several have come up. Each time I get more excited and have everyone come and see. Charlie looks at me somewhat bewildered and tells me that I am acting like it is a miracle. I inform him that it is in fact a miracle. He tells me that it is just biology. Excuse me, but I understand the process. I don't care how many times it happens or why it happens. It still amazes me that it all fits together and creates a new living thing. It is a miracle every time, just like the birth of a child. Charlie said I have a low threshold for excitement.

Desert or Dessert

Now, I always think dessert has two s's because you always want more. Then what happens when you enjoy the desert enough to want more of that too? What to do... My world has flipped. If I start to misspell desert you will know why. ;)
We recently went out to the middle of nowhere, just past Mojave. It was really fun. I got sick a half hour before we got there and I'm sorry if I got anyone else sick. It only lasted 24 hours so it wasn't too bad. Hopefully I wasn't too antisocial and we will get to go again. Justin told me after the first night that it was the best night of his life. Cade spent the night with us that night. Emma never wanted to leave and Mia had a blast too. Emma tried to kiss Cade, but he was too quick and ducked out of the way. Shane wasn't so lucky and had one planted on his cheek. I later asked her about it and she said she loves them, but kissing doesn't mean she wants to marry them. Well I guess that is good, she needs to take her time and choose someone that isn't married with four kids! These are some of my favorite pictures.


I love this one because Bishop Hull is just standing there like nothing out of the ordinary is happening. The men noticed the kids pulling each other around on a battery powered quad that goes slow, so then Shane decided to step it up a notch.





I also have come to the realization that I am a wimp. I like to go slow and all of my kids kept telling me to go faster and Mia even pressed the gas. This made me scream in terror and she told me it would be okay. Aren't I the one that is supposed to comfort her? Then shortly
after this picture with me and Justin Justin took the wheel and charged up a steep hill with me in a panic. We flipped over backwards, but at least Justin didn't get hurt.













I love this picture of Mia trying to give a thumbs up. She looks so "special." The last picture is not part of our trip. It is just Emma trying to see what she would look like with bangs. She is such a nut.

My Mixed Nuts

This morning Mia was talking to me as she went potty. She pointed to the ground and said that before she saw a spider right there. It was "spiding" on the floor so she took Justin's shirt and "got him." Then she took the shirt and put it in her room and the spider never came back ever again. Mia doesn't like spiders.

Emma threw up again last night. This morning she insisted that she was all better and wanted to go to school. I told her she had to stay home and make sure she was better. Then I took the other kids to school and ran an errand at the grocery store. I told Emma that she had sick germs so she can't touch stuff. She said she wouldn't touch anything except Kitty. Then I gave her some antiseptic cream to kill the germs. She rubbed it on her hands and up her arms. She said she was all better. We went in the store and she wanted to kiss some balloons. (Yeah, I'm not sure why either.) I told her she still had germs in her mouth. Then she stuffed her hands into her mouth to kill the germs. I told her now she has germs on her hands again. In the car I give her more cream. As I drive home she uses it and tells me she is all better now because she put it on her hands and mouth. Luckily not enough to hurt herself.

By The Power of Grey Skull

We rent or buy old cartoons from when we were kids for our kids to watch. Today Emma said "pretend I am She-ra and Mia can be He-man." I asked why Mia can't be Te-la or the Sorceress. Emma said that Mia's hair is like He-man's.

Charlie didn't think this was too funny, but I thought it was. Emma was sitting on the toilet and asked for some tissue for her nose. I told her to just use some toilet paper. She acted disgusted and told me that toilet paper was for wiping bums and she needed a tissue.