The Sassiest Mommy

ANNOYED AND TICKED!!

2011-06-08T14:57:00.002-05:00

I am completely clueless as to why on Kendal's post there is a HUGE gap from the title to the first paragraph. I have gone in several times and put it back to the top as well as fixing the other spacing issues. It has it triple spaced where I put double spaces and it double spaced where I wanted it single spaced. I have spent hours trying to fix it because each time I have had to also move the pics back to the right spot and twice I have accidentaly deleted one so I AM DONE!!! It looks stupid, but I am too mad and irritated to mess with it any longer! Anyone know why it is doing that or how to fix it, I am open to advice and suggestions! Let's see how this one publishes....

All About Kendal...10 years

2011-06-07T07:47:00.002-05:00

10 years ago, I became more than just a daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, and wife. After 6 1/2 years of marriage, I finally earned the best name/title there is. MOMMY!! Before Mommy-hood, I would hear different women talk about the love you feel for your children, but until you enter that coveted, special world yourself, you don't really truly get it. You love that baby that is in your womb and you do everything you can to protect it to make sure they enter this world, but when they finally get here.....WOW!!! The over-powering, instantaneous, take-your-breath away, willing to die for this new little being you hold in your arms kind of love is AMAZING!!! And even that is an understatement!!

I knew from the time I was very little that I wanted to get married and be a Mommy, that was the "career" path I wanted. I don't really recall ever saying I am going to be a ______ (fill in the blank) when I grow up. That 'blank' space for me was always a wife and mommy. And I always said I was going to have four kids. Happy with 3! :)

Jeff and I got married when I was 3 months shy of 21, he was 3 months shy of 22. We share the same birthday. :) I had it all planned out! We would have our first child when I was 23, second at 25, third at 27 and fourth and 29. I wanted to be done before I turned 30!! No problem!! But actually there were two problems. Jeff wasn't as eager to become a Daddy as I was about becoming a Mommy. Men!! :) No problem, we'll just push my time frame back a little. Problem two...God's time frame was not on track with mine either! GRRRRR!!

Needless to say, after a miscarriage and two (very long) years, I finally became pregnant with our first child (who's due date was one day off from the first pregnancy, just two years later, freaky)! I had a great pregnancy (I LOVED being pregnant!), although, morning sickness is a joke! I had all day sickness!! Thankfully, I could still function, but I was nauseous and icky all day through the first tri-mester, but as soon as the second one hit, the icky-ness was gone. Heart burn in the third tri-mester was another matter! :) Wowzers!!!

I worked at my job at a bank up until the day I had her...literally. Her due date was on a Monday, June 11, 2001. On Wednesday, June 6th, I went to work just like any other day. I didn't feel real great, but I was huge and about to pop so, of course, I felt blah. Turned out to be a little more than just feeling blah, but what did I know...she was after all, our first child. :) I thought there was plenty of time to pack a bag and get things ready. My mom was planning on coming from TX to NM on Friday to be there for her birth and help after. (We were also moving that weekend, but that's a whole other story...) She was not due for 5 more days! Kendal, however, had different plans!! I went into labor at work, but didn't realize that's what was happening. The later it got, the worse I felt! My supervisor kept telling me to go home, but I kept telling her I would be fine and that I didn't want to leave. About 4:45, she took matters into her own hands :) and called Jeff and told him that they couldn't get me to leave and that he needed to come get me. I would have never been able to drive home...

8 hours and 45 minutes after walking through the hospital doors, we were the proud parents of our first beautiful, precious, baby girl!!

finally here...4 days early

Kendal Madison

Thursday, 6-7-01, 2:20 am

7 lb. 6.8 oz. 21 in. long

My mom left TX before sunrise a few hours after her birth, so while she didn't end up being there for her birth as planned, she got there as quick as she could. She walked into my hospital room, I started crying, she started crying...a crazy, beautiful moment!

2 weeks

3 months

6 months

10 months

ONE year

18 months

TWO years

THREE years

FOUR years

FIVE years

SIX years

SEVEN years

EIGHT years

NINE years

today...TEN years old!!

(I had to reset the date on my camera and I entered the wrong year....irritating!!)

The years have gone by way too fast! She quickly went from infant to baby to toddler to little girl to big girl and fast approaching the young lady stage. When she could sit up on her own she would sit on the floor playing with her toys and from the back she looked like a little mad scientist hard at work. She would also stop what she was doing to look at the TV while the theme song for the Golden Girls played. I love GG reruns! :) She waited until she was almost 16 months old to officially start walking. She sure could crawl fast!! Her first word was 'hot' which she pronounced 'ot'. She used to say 'gotfor' instead of 'forgot'. She FREAKED out the first time she ever had a band aid put on her. Because we lived with my parents from ages 1-4 and she heard us be called Jeff and Shannon, she went through a stage when she would call us Jeff and Shannon. That was broken when we would ignore her until she used Mommy or Daddy! :) Also, because of living with Grandma and Papa she was pretty spoiled because she pretty much always had someone at her beck and call. If Mommy couldn't do it right away, Grandma could or Daddy or Papa. She has such a sweet spirit, thinks the best of everyone she meets, she loves God, her family, friends, and her dogs. She has such a caring heart for animals that she would take in every stray she came across if we would let her. I love that she still has the same little blanket that she used as a baby and that she still has to have it to sleep every night. She informed me the other night that she will sleep with it forever, even when she is an adult! I love that she will still grab my hand to hold it or wrap her arm around my waist when we are walking somewhere. I love that she is a Daddy's girl and gets upset if he's not home if it's stormy out because she's afraid he'll be hurt. I love that up until just a short time ago she would still climb up next to him in his chair and watch TV with him. Now she's just too big and not in terms of age, but size. She is tall and can now wear the same size shoe as me!! I love that she feels comfortable asking me questions (some that I am not ready for :) ) and talking to me about things she overheard other kids saying or talking about that she knows are wrong. I pray that that is always the case!!! She adores her sisters and is very protective of them, only occasionally do we experience some sister un-love! :)

I ended up having her at the age that I planned on having our third child, but my plan wasn't according to God's plan and His plan is always the best plan. GOD IS GOOD...ALL THE TIME!! I wouldn't change a thing even if I could. We are blessed to call her daughter and love her more than words can say. We are so proud of the person she is growing up to be and pray that she seeks God first in all that she does!!

Back in the land of the living

2011-03-16T23:34:00.003-05:00

A little over one year ago, I went to the doctor because I. WAS. SICK!!! I had a nice case of strep going on. As an added bonus, he informs me that I have a goiter on my thyroid. Well, fabulous!! Thyroid "issues" run on my mom's side of the family and wouldn't you know it...that is the one thing I inherited from her. I called her on the way home to thank her for that! :)

While I was sitting on the table and the good doctor was squeezing around on my neck, he asked me several questions about how I had been feeling prior to getting strep. He wanted to know if I had been feeling very fatigued and low energy. Well, now that you mention it... I hadn't been able to pull my cleaning all-nighters while the rest of the family slept, watch a movie or TV show without falling asleep and really didn't have the energy to do even simple things around the house. He also wanted to know if I had been having trouble losing weight. To this I just laughed around my very sore throat and informed him that I hadn't really been trying, but it sure seemed to be packing on. He told me that with medication I should see my energy level go up as well as some pounds fade away. Energy...not so much, weight loss...yeppers! 30ish pounds seemed to fall off pretty quick.

I went back after a few months to have the lovely needle stuck in my arm to test my blood and let him know that I didn't feel much of a change in terms of fatigue and energy. Blood work came back and it still wasn't where it should be so he lowered the dosage of my original prescription ($4 a month) and added another one at a whopping $50 a month. That only lasted a couple of months before I told him that I couldn't do a $50 a month prescription, especially when I still didn't feel "right". He raised my original scrip higher than it was to begin with and added Vitamin D. That went on for another several months with still not much of a change. I hated it!! Most nights I couldn't get wait for the girls to go to bed so I could go to bed. One night, Jeff was going to be home late so I told the girls at 8:00 that it was time for bed. I was exhausted and I just wanted to crawl into bed myself. Kendal, however says, "But it's only 8, we don't have to go to bed until 8:30". I replied with, "I hate that you can tell time, why do have to be 9???" I was laughing as I said it, though, because she got me! No pulling one over on that girl!!

Let me tell you, it was a horrible existence! And yes, I am aware that I could have been dealing with something much worse than a whacked out thyroid. However, I would wake up in the morning and before I was even out of bed, I couldn't wait until it was time to go back to bed. I felt like everything I did was done in slow motion. Not only was I annoyed with my ailment, so was Jeff.

Well, I finally seem to be back to normal...whatever that is! I went last week and had blood drawn again, told him yet again that I am still just blah and that I was sick of it. Blood work came back with my thyroid still low, my iron very, very low according to Nurse Lisa which could also be contributing with my horrible fatigue. Thyroid meds upped some more, continue taking Vitamin D, added iron supplements twice a day and the best part...he prescribed a diet pill. SWEET!!! Apparently that will help with my energy level and the added bonus of maybe losing more weight is icing on the cake for me!

I started on this new regimen of pills yesterday morning and OH. MY. GOODNESS!! what a difference!! It was instantaneous! I have gotten more done around here in the last two days than I have in months. I've been like the Tazmanian Devil, but in a non-destructive way. I got the girls closets and drawers cleaned out, ceiling fans cleaned, dusted, vacuumed, mopped, cleaned bathrooms, mounds of laundry done AND put away. There is still plenty more that I want to accomplish in the next couple of days, like cleaning the nasty baseboards, purging some items that have been sitting around and selling on Craig's List or donating. My brain is working overtime on all that I want to do.

After over a year (probably closer to two) of the total blah's, it is so great to be feeling back to normal, or my definition of it anyway! Jeff is happy too! :)

Until next time...

I had a ditz moment!

2011-03-08T09:59:00.003-06:00

Saturday, my friend and I and our 5 girls spent the afternoon together. Before we could start the fun, I had to air up my tire. It is something I have done a few times, but usually Jeff does it. When I have done it, I have gone to the Shell station right by our house. I drop my quarters in the machine, it comes on, I air up my tire(s) and I'm on my way. Jeff told me to go to Quik Trip because the air is free and we would be passing it on the way to the mall. No problem!

I go to QT, pull out the little tire pressure reader thingy and check the air. Jeff says it needs to be around 30-35 psi. No problem! I put it on the tire and it spits out the stick and says it's around 25 psi. Kendal is helping me so we get the hose pulled out and I start airing up the tire. I hear a pssssssssssss sound, wait a little while and recheck the pressure. It looks to be about the same, so I put those air hose back on. Psssssssssss some more. Recheck the pressure several time because it doesn't look like it's gone up any and in fact looks like it's a little, teeny tiny bit less. I grouch about how we should have a digital reader because it would be so much easier to read than this thing that spits out a stick. I have Kendal pull the hose back out start airing up some more. Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss some more. This time I left it on quite a bit longer because I had a ways to go and I was tired of checking and re-checking. My tire however does not look like it's getting any bigger. Finally check and the psi reads 20. I'm sure you have figured out what was happening...

I called Jeff and said, "I'm here at QT trying to air up the tire. Don't you put the hose on the tire and it airs up? It doesn't seem to be working." He asks (with a tone that says, surely my wife isn't that dumb), "Did you turn on the machine?" I look at the machine and that is when I see the black button that you are supposed to push for the air to work. I instantly started CRACKING UP because instead of airing up my tires, I had in fact been letting the air out of them. He is at work in the office and tells everyone what I had just done. I hear all the laughter in the back ground. Luckily, I can laugh at myself and am entirely OK with someone else laughing at my stupidity. I will also laugh at yours! :)

I pushed the black button and the machine started roaring. That really should have been my tip-off that something wasn't right...the machine didn't sound like it was trying to take off before. My tire aired up very quickly and we were on our way!

I hope you got a good laugh at my expense. I can take it!!! :)

Until next time...

How much is too much?!

2011-03-05T12:47:00.005-06:00

It seems hard to believe that at one time, not all that long ago, cell phones, smart phones, iPhones, iPads, Kindles, DVD player, Blu Ray player, laptops, e-mail, social networking sites, a home computer in every home (in some cases more than one...or two), satellite dishes, FIOS, etc. didn't exist. Nowadays, it's all about which company can come out with the newest and next best thing. You barely have the newest thing figured out when the next newest thing hits store shelves. 3G, 4G, 5G....just how high are these G's gonna go and quickly are we going to get there?!?!

When I was growing up, we didn't have a TV in our house. **GASP!!** I was probably around 12 when we got our first TV and it was a used one from a guy my dad worked with. We were so excited to have a TV. Just because we got a TV didn't mean that we got cable! Nope, no cable!! We watched whatever came in with rabbit ears and watched lots of movies with the......wait for it......VCR!!! Those are almost non-existent! When I was almost 15, we moved from CA to MI and I think it was there that we finally had cable. A very basic cable. Could you even imagine proposing that to a kid these days. Or not having their cell phone. They would act like you were asking them to cut off an arm!

Cell phones are great a thing! I feel better driving, even if it's just around town, knowing that if I broke down or something happened that I can call for help. At some point in time, our girls will have a phone of their own for safety reasons. Several years from now. Although, if you ask Kendal, she is getting one in June for her 10th birthday. The child is crazy! :) It doesn't matter how many times I explain to her that she has no need for one, she still asks for one. Even when we lived in walking distance of their school, we wouldn't let them walk by themselves and now their school is too far to walk. They are always with me or some other adult. No need for a phone.

Jeff and I have been married a little over 16 years. We didn't have cell phones or a computer at first. He carried a beeper for work. Do those still exist?? Eventually we did get a cell phone. One of those that looked and felt like you were carrying a brick AND we shared it. Can you imagine?!?! How far we have come!!

I am in no way knocking technology! I think it is wonderful! I have been able to re-connect with so many people through facebook, although I am not as hardcore about being on there as some, I do like getting on there to see what's going on in other people's lives. Sending a text is sometimes much better and quicker than making a phone call. ***BUT TO ALL YOU MORONS THAT TEXT WHILE YOU DRIVE....STOP IT!!!*** How many more people need to die from texting while driving before you grasp that it's not safe??!! Does it need to be one of your loved ones???? Hope not!!!!

So what has prompted my rant on technology you might be wondering. Well, I will tell you! Last night we went to dinner at our favorite family owned Italian restaurant. It doesn't sit in amongst restaurant row so for a Friday night when we walked in there weren't all that many people in there. Only one other family in the area we were in, but eventually a party of five came in (1 man, 2 women, 2 teenage-ish boys) and a mom and dad with their little girl. While we were waiting for our food I was "people watching". The two boys sat in a booth by themselves and the 3 adults sat in one together. As I was people watching I noticed that the two boys and the man were messing around on their phones and then before you knew it so were the two women. During the time we were there, at least two or three of them were messing around on their phone. Not at any point did all of them have their phones laying on the table. Same thing with the mom and dad with their little girl who couldn't have been more than 3 or 4.

I am not trying to step on anybody's toes, but really????!!! Are you or anything that important that you can't even sit through a family meal without your phone?? What does that say to that little girl. Those parents were missing out on precious time with that little one and will wonder one day why she doesn't want to talk to them.

It is hard enough for us to have family dinner time together because of Jeff's work schedule, but it's not going to become even less important because what's going on elsewhere is more important. Turn off your phones or at the very least put them on vibrate when you're sitting down to dinner with your family. They are what is important! They are what matter most! Make your kids put theirs away! TALK during dinner! Anything else can wait till later! How long does a meal last anyway??!

Until next time...

Last Year of Preschool

2010-09-13T23:37:00.007-05:00

It's hard to believe that this is the VERY LAST year that we will have a child enrolled at the Child Development Center. I started working there when Kendal was 1, but left her with my mom that first year. At the time, we figured why pay for her to go there when my mom would watch her those two days for free :) plus we had just moved here and we really didn't know what the program was about. I was there less than a month when I regretted the choice not to enroll Kendal, but her age was already full. The program is the greatest! Kendal was enrolled the very next year and Payton and Bransyn were in the infant room as soon as they had had their first set of vaccinations. I LOVE working there, I LOVE everyone I work with and I LOVE that all our girls will have "graduated" out of there into Kindergarten. More importantly, all three of our girls have LOVED it there!

FIRST day of the LAST day of her preschool career

sisters are the best!

pals--they have moved up in the program together and will go off to Kindergarten at the same school together next fall, as of now anyway....

SECOND day of the LAST year of preschool

Didn't work out to get a pic of her with her teachers on the first day...and we HAVE to have that, it is her LAST year of preschool, after all!! :)

Bransyn with her teachers, Ms. M, Ms. M and Ms. D

The second Ms. M and Ms. D also had her when she was 1

I'M A FROG!!!

r-r-r-r-r-r-ribbit!

Until next time...

First Grade Do-Over

2010-09-08T23:39:00.003-05:00

Of course starting school can't remain uneventful for us. On Thursday of the second week, Payton came home with a note from the Principal. Fortunately, we were not the only parents to receive a note from the Principal regarding our first grader. She did not get in any major trouble that warranted a note coming home from the Principal, instead it was to inform us that there was an over abundance of little first graders and an under abundance of little Kindergartners so they were taking the new Kinder teacher who has first grade experience and moving her up to first grade and Payton was one of the lucky ones that got chosen to move to her class. When I talked to Payton, she didn't seem to be the least bit concerned about it and acted like it was no big deal. Good! Great! Friday morning, she became very nervous about it and I had to explain to her (again) that it would be the next week before she changed classes, that she would still be with her original teacher, that her new teacher would be coming in to her class today to meet the students that would be transferring to her class and that next week I would walk her to her class that first day to help her get settled. That day was yesterday. We walked into her new classroom hand in hand and as we got closer, she squeezed my hand a little tighter. I wish I could have stayed with her all day!

with her new teacher, Ms. N

her new locker

settling right in at her new desk

It didn't take long before she let go of my hand and realized it was "no big deal". When she got home and I asked her about her day and her new teacher, she didn't have a whole lot to say. Typical! I did get out of her that she likes her teacher and that she is nice. :)

Until next time...

Safety Patrol

2010-09-08T23:26:00.003-05:00

Kendal came home from school very excited one day because she had a permission slip for me to sign so she could do Safety Patrol at school. This is an honor only bestowed upon 4th and 5th graders. Safety Patrol means several students standing out to help get doors open and closed at the car line during drop off or pick up depending on when your designated time is. This is supposed to help the drop off and pick up line move quicker and smoother. I'm sure it does. Kendal's shift is every Tuesday morning. Which means, instead of leaving our house around 7:25 in the morning, we have to leave by 7:05. She has to be there and ready to help at the car line by 7:20. She doesn't care that it means getting up earlier. I'm not sure how Payton and Bransyn feel about that, but neither has complained yet.

Her first day on the job. In the rain. She didn't care. So cute in her orange vest!

Bransyn turns 5

2010-09-06T21:40:00.005-05:00

FIVE. Age five to me means to me that the "baby" stage is officially over. I don't mean baby like goo-ga-ga, at five, you become "little girl" (or boy). Maybe you don't get what I mean...but, Bransyn hit that stage today, she is five. FIVE!!! There are no longer any "baby" stages left around here...it's all over! If she had been born five days earlier, she could have started Kindergarten this year. I'm glad she wasn't born five days earlier. I'm thrilled that I have her with me for one more year.

Today, she turns five on Labor Day, which would almost be funny to me if she hadn't been a scheduled cesarean....no labor with her. :) Her Daddy ended up not having to work on this blessed day so we got to have the whole day together to celebrate. We took a drive just for fun and then Bsyn got to pick if she wanted a birthday lunch or dinner and where she wanted to go. She chose lunch at Chick-fil-A "because then we can play". :)

"eat more chikin"

nasty feet

birthday ice cream cone...so yummy!

back at home to open presents

Alice in Wonderland from her sisters

she only asked for one thing for her birthday, she really wanted it...

meet kitty cat, Lulu

No live cats allowed here, but we were happy to accommodate Lulu. She blinks her eyes, meows and rolls back to pet her belly.

Happy Birthday number FIVE, Bransyn!

You were our very special surprise and we couldn't have asked for a better one.

You are loved so, so much!!

When I went in the next morning, this is how I found Bsyn and Lulu. She had given her a special place to sleep at night. :)

First Day of School

2010-08-23T18:25:00.006-05:00

Today, Kendal started 4th grade and Payton started 1st. Blows my mind that in two short years we will have one in Middle School. It seems like I just walked Kendal into her Kindergarten classroom. Embrace the time you have with your children! Enjoy it, even the not so enjoyable moments. Before we know it, they will be off living their own lives and we will wonder where the time went.

So cute!

3rd grade was the year that Kendal would only wear her hair in a low ponytail. Didn't want it any other way and would have a fit when I made her wear it down for pictures. Apparently 4th grade is the year to wear it down. :)

Bsyn wanted to be in a pic with her sisters. Thankfully, Grandma and Papa were here so I didn't have to have her up and ready to go.

Kendal with her teacher, Ms. P

She is still OK with me walking her to her class (she wanted me to) and taking pictures. I wonder if 5th grade will be the year that that all changes....

Payton with her teacher, Mrs. M

her locker that she gets to share with a good friend

at her desk

A nice way to end our first day of school...a trip to Bahama Bucks with friends.

Until next time...

Payton turns 6

2010-08-22T20:54:00.004-05:00

Our birthday tradition is that the birthday girl gets to pick where they want to go for dinner on (or around) their birthday. After a week or so of her thinking about where she wanted to go, Red Robin, Texas Roadhouse, Ol' McDonalds (yes, that is what our girls call it, or if your Bsyn, it's McOl' McDonalds) or Burger King. When the day finally came for her to make her choice, the winner was Red Robin. Of course! Papa and Grandma W were here for her special day and Papa was happy with her choice, he really wanted a nice, big, juicy burger!

done with dinner and her bday sundae and balloon were delivered

she embarrasses easily

and this is why....

some good sport employees were singing Happy Birthday to her

***a little side note...at one point in our marriage, I worked at a restaurant and whenever it came time for the crew to get together to go sing to someone, I always had to use the bathroom, stupid bladder! Of course, it wasn't just a simple walk to the table, announce that we have a birthday in the house, oh no, it was a big production of the group attaching together and running through the restaurant like a train. Train noises and all! This chic don't do that!! OK, side note over.***

with her favorite bird

Papa got his nice, big, juicy burger and in true guy fashion couldn't NOT drip it down his shirt :)

Today is my birthday

look, money!

We had gone to Sam Moon the day before and she was upset with me because I wouldn't buy her two necklaces that she wanted. Little did she know that I did in fact buy them and her sisters gave them to her for her birthday. She was happy!

our little ragamuffins

I'm SIX!!!

She got an extra special treat. Since Grandma and Papa were here, after church they took us to Cici's for lunch.

After lunch, we took her to pick out her new, bigger bike since her knees were practically hitting the handle bars on her old one. Now she just needs to learn how to balance the bigger, heavier one! :)

Happy Birthday, Sweet Payton!

Mama, Daddy and your sisters love you very much!

Birthday Celebration

2010-08-17T23:31:00.015-05:00

Payton turns 6 on Sunday and Bransyn turns 5, fifteen days later on Sept. 6 so last night they had a combined party at Going Bonkers, a big indoor play area...climbing equipment complete with slides, bridges, swinging ropes and an upstairs area with a bunch of different games. It was the first friend party for both of them. They were so excited to be having a party and didn't care that they were having one together.

having fun playing all the games

some random boy counting all their tickets

look how many tickets I got!!

LOVE this cute faced little girl!!!

"I'm (gonna be) 5!!"

LOVE this cute faced little girl too!!!

"I'm (gonna be) 6!!"

Payton and friend being daredevils on the motorcycles

Kendal with the older sibling friends that came to play and hang out

When planning a joined bday party, I wasn't sure how it would turn out when picking decorations and a cake. I thought they might end up wanting two different themes, but when walking down the girly decoration isle at Party City, they got to the Hello Kitty section and both pointed at it and said that they wanted Hello Kitty. Perfect!!

Happy Birthday to you....

Mama and Daddy with the birthday girls

showing their frosting stained tongues

time for presents

both were very excited to get their very own color bag...Kendal has one

discussing how they can make bracelets and necklaces

Her very own jewelry box!! Happy!! :)

the birthday gang minus one that was being camera shy

silly faces

our boy besties

he's no longer being camera shy

They each got to have one friend come home with us and have a sleepover. The four of them and Kendal doing Color Wonder papers....at 11 PM! :)

the big girls finally fell asleep between 12 and 12:30 on the playroom floor

the little girls at 12:30...STILL awake

so awake that they wanted me to take pics of them making silly faces
checked on them 10 min. later and they were finally asleep

cinnamon rolls and sausage for breakfast
despite the late night, they were all up between 7 and 7:30

time for friends to go home

A couple of hours later, more friends came over, but this time I got to have friends here too. Us Mamas got to sit and talk while the 8 kids played for a few hours.

After everyone left, we were getting the house back in order and while I was organizing the playroom closet, Bransyn fell asleep on the floor. She wasn't much help!

Payton didn't want to help clean up her room, claimed to have a headache, so I told her she had to lay on her bed. Once I was finished with it, miraculously the headache was gone and she wanted to get up. NO WAY!!! I told her she had to stay there until I told her she could come out. This is how I found her 5 min. later. Both took about a 2 1/2 hour nap. Sweet!!

I am glad to have all birthday parties done for the year. Now just to get past the actual birth days and our birthday tradition of letting the birthday child pick where they want to eat and presents from Mama and Daddy. Payton's is Sunday...so far she started with wanting to go to Red Robin, then it was Texas Roadhouse, then it was Old McDonald's (that's what my girls call it) and last choice was Burger King. We'll see where we end up.

Until next time...

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

2010-08-15T23:13:00.007-05:00

We took the girls to see our favorite baseball team, the Texas Rangers play against the Boston Red Sox Friday night. It was so much fun and not as hot and miserable as I was expecting it to be. I wish we could go at least once a month.

excited to go see a baseball game

Bransyn was so excited she fell asleep on the way there

We got them Texas shirts...they had to be pink, I could not talk them into the Rangers red or Blue

Daddy's favorite player is Josh Hamilton so all of them insisted on a Hamilton shirt. I tried to persuade Payton and Bransyn to get Murphy, Young or someone different than Kendal, but they were adamant on it being Hamilton. We were rushing, Daddy still had to look for his shirt (no Hamilton in his size :( so he got Lee instead), we had to wait in a very long, slow moving lane to pay and the game was about to start. It wasn't until we were in the bathroom and I was ripping off tags and throwing the shirts over the girls heads that I noticed it. When grabbing for the right size needed, I failed to look at the back of the shirt. Payton has a Kinsler shirt. I did not tell her. Bummer!

a packed house...47,159

GO RANGERS!!

having fun

so are they

Josh Hamilton up to bat :)

Everyone still awake and happy, even though it went into extra innings and there were fireworks after the game. It was looking pretty bleak for the Rangers in the 4th, but they came back to tie the score, 9-9 and in the bottom of the 11th inning, Nellie Cruz, first batter up and first pitch thrown, hits a home run to win the game. There were a total of 9 home runs hit between the two teams...IT WAS A FABULOUS, AWESOME GAME!!!! Then to follow that, was the BEST and I mean THE BEST fireworks show we have ever seen!

Payton

Bransyn

Kendal

All of them crashed soon after getting on the road and headed home. It was unfortunate that they had to get bathed once we got home before getting in bed. They were icky!

Until next time...

Seriously Outnumbered

2010-08-13T16:51:00.005-05:00

4 Mama's + 12 kids = a little bit of chaos, but a whole lot of laughs. Earlier in the week, a friend that has a pool invited me and my girls and two other friends and their kids over for a day of swimming. Lots of fun, love those mama's and their kiddos!!

We swam for awhile in the morning and when the kids started having hunger pains, we loaded everyone up, still in our semi wet swimsuits (us Mama's did wear cover-ups...scary...speaking for myself, of course!) and drove across the street from her neighborhood to a little pizza place for Monday $1 pizza. It's a quaint, little place. They have steps that the kids could stand on and watch them make the pizza over the counter, but this is also where they kept the paper plates so at least half of them grabbed a plate for their pizza which apparently they are not supposed to do. We were then told about some kids that were playing with the plates and one slipped on one and hit his head on the floor. Ummmm......don't have the plates where kids have access to them, especially if something like that has happened before or don't have the steps for the kids to stand on. Just sayin'....

We get everyone situated in their seats while we waited on our pizza. The 4 and 5 year olds were in a booth together, the 8 and 9 year olds were in a booth together and us Mama's sat with the 2 year olds at a table. It was a great setup. Mostly. When the pizzas were ready, we each distributed them to our people after sprinkling a little Parmesan on their slices. We failed to take the Parmesan shakers off of their tables. Can you guess where this is going??? The big kids did OK, it was those crazy 4 and 5 year olds. They each started sprinkling some on their pizzas because we hadn't given them enough. After being told to be careful and not to make a mess (yeah right!) they were left alone. After a little bit, my friend Allyson leans over to me and says something like, "I don't really care, but you might...Bransyn is licking the top of the Parmesan shaker". EEWWWW!!!! I go over to the table to tell her not to do that and she tells me that she hit her pizza with it. Oh, OK then...not! The shaker is now just about empty and there is Parmesan cheese on the table, on the seats, on the floor and covering each of their pizza slices. At this point, my thought is "whatever". I'll clean up as much of the mess as I can and I'll tell them they need to wash the shaker before it gets refilled and go finish my food.

After eating, Allyson's boys ask if they can get a gumball out of the machine so she gives them each a quarter to get one. A little bit later, her "Little Middle" comes over and says "Look how many I got Mom!" holding 4 in his hand plus the one that he is chewing. That's curious, so we turn around and look toward the gumball machine to see Bransyn holding up the topper on the machine and her "Baby" with his hand inside grabbing a hand full of gumballs. Oh my goodness! I rush over and tell them that it's not ok to take the top off of the bubble gum machine and confiscate the second hand full of gumballs, which I think is another four. All the while, I was muttering about how stupid it was that they don't have the lid locked in place, I mean really! We gather the amount of money needed to pay for the gumballs and Allyson takes it to the man at the register and explains what happened. He was very nice about it.

Some of the kids wanted another slice of pizza so those got ordered and after the gumball incident, we had most of them back in their seats. Us Mamas were back in our seats having a nice conversation when I saw something a little weird out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and sure enough it was what I thought. This time I got to use the "I don't really care, but you might" line to Allyson. Her "Little Middle" had his head tilted back and was dumping the sugar right out of the packet into his mouth. This was especially funny to me because when they were ordering their drinks, Allyson told them that they had to get Sprite or Root Beer because it's caffeine free. Guess he showed her! Hehehe! Sugar packets were confiscated!

It was an outing with friends that turned out to be a little more event full than planned, but fun to be with our friends. I cleaned up most of the Parmesan cheese that the little kids had emptied out on the table and seats, took the empty shaker to another man behind the counter and told him that it needs to be washed because one of the little kids licked the top of it. I did not tell him that that child was mine. He was also very nice! Thankfully we weren't asked to never come back. :)

I am looking forward to school starting, but the time we've spent with friends during the day is what I will miss.

Until next time...

School Supplies Are Purchased...LET'S START SCHOOL!!!

2010-08-13T16:04:00.002-05:00

ready to start getting their school supplies

ready for Mama to purchase their school supplies

These pictures are very misleading. Both show two smiling happy girls. What isn't shown between these two pictures is the little girls that were complaining, whining, fighting with each other during this shopping experience. It was a miserable trip, they were possessed by something evil during the time that we were there. Either I will totally forget about this and repeat it again next year or I will remember and choose to pay the extra for the prepackaged packs or take them each separately. Probably the latter because next year I will have ALL THREE of them in elementary school. YIKES!!

This is one Mama that is definitely ready for summer to end and school to begin!!

Mama's Little Helper

2010-08-05T14:46:00.005-05:00

One would think that she should be called, Daddy's Little Helper, but mowing the yard is a "house job" that I usually do. Crazy as it sounds, I enjoy it (not so much in the extreme heat we've had lately) and it's about the only exercise I get. For awhile, Kendal has been pretty good about washing dishes and cleaning up the kitchen with out being asked, but lately has BEGGED to mow the yard when I'm out doing it. Sometimes she can, other times I just want to get it done!

she can even get it started herself

She's actually pretty quick. Too bad neither of us can do the edging. That's a job that has to wait for Daddy.

She is growing up so fast!

Until next time...

Special Guests

2010-08-04T19:57:00.007-05:00

My Aunt Nancy spent her two week summer vacation with my parents so they took her on a little road trip to see some family and friends which also included a stop at our house for a couple of nights. It was really good to see them! We hadn't seen Aunt Nancy in a few years so it was great to spend some time with her.

Everyone settled in watching a movie...Old Dogs, pretty funny!!!

Spoiled child!

Nancy with Tank

Jake and Tyson who has a wink and a smile for the camera :)

Kendal holding Tyson and Jake. Kendal can actually lick her nose with her tongue also...pretty gross!! Maybe it'll keep the boys away! :)

This was as close as the three brothers got to be. Tank had to be kept by himself the whole time because of a hurt leg. Doc thought it was a pulled muscle, turned out to be ANOTHER broken leg. This time a back one. GRRRR!!

My Mama, Aunt Nancy and me

saying goodbye

As always, the time they were here went quickly and we were sad to see them go. We had a nice time with them, even if it was a short visit.

Fourth of July

2010-08-02T12:35:00.005-05:00

We spent our 4th of July at church in the morning, followed by a potluck lunch, a little rest and relaxing in the afternoon and then took the girls to watch fireworks.

Daddy and his girls before church....the girls July 4th festive, Daddy, not so much.

It occurred to me on this morning that I never did anything for Father's Day on here because he was out of town, so a little late, but a big hug and lots of love to our awesome Daddy!!

even their toes were festive :)

Waiting for the fireworks to start

On our way to our usual fireworks watching spot...the mall parking lot...there was a change in plans on where we would watch them and ended up being in a grassy lot. Grassy lot=many bugs flying around, mall parking lot=not so many bugs flying around.

still waiting

the girls made a little friend who shared some of her firework streamers

Payton got streamed

the girls sharing their red, white and blue glow sticks (although they don't look very glowy here) with their new friend

Payton and Bransyn went into hiding in the car because of all the june bugs...is it june or joon??...anyway, because of the bugs that kept "attacking" them

FYI----glow sticks attract bugs :)

Kendal soon joined them

Once the fireworks got started the girls retreated from the car. Kendal sat as close to Jeff as she possibly could in her chair. Payton and Bransyn, instead of sitting in their nice, comfy chairs that were brought for them, had to sit in my lap so as not to be attacked by any more bugs. That was not the case, it was hot and I didn't get any more pictures! Next year, I think we will be back to our usual spot or at least some place with no grass!!

Vacation Bible School(s)

2010-08-02T10:29:00.011-05:00

Part of our summer routine is attending Vacation Bible School. Not just at our own church, but the church I work at during the school year as well as a friend's church. This year was no different, however my "work church" and friend's church fell on the same week. Work church was during the day and friend's church was in the evening so it was a tiring, but fun week for the girls. Work church does an extended type of VBS and calls it W.O.W. (Week of Worship). Bransyn didn't get to go to that one (still too young), but next year she will get to go also. Payton was there from 9-12, but Kendal was there from 9-3 and did all sorts of fun stuff like laser tag, rock climbing, bounce house and video games. The theme was Saddle Ridge Ranch so they got to hang out on the "ranch" and hear and learn all about Jesus....the most important part of the week! Kendal and her friend, "Sissy"

waiting to do their end of the week performance

my cowgirls

After Kendal got home from W.O.W. each day, she had a few hours to rest, play, eat some dinner before heading to our friends church for their evening VBS. The theme there was Fire Fighters and "Pulling them out of the fire" from Jude 23. Bransyn got to go with them as well so she was happy about that and all three of them had a lot of fun.

Bransyn and Payton with "Super Christian"

and "Mr. Incredi-Bible"

friends

We had a few weeks "VBS break", but then our church's VBS started. We had an Egyptian theme and were on the "Treasures of the Nile, an Expedition to Jesus". Bransyn was finally old enough to go this year and so this was also my first year to volunteer for the week. It was a lot of fun, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I was put as a helper in the 10-12 age group which was a little different when used to working with preschoolers. I was very glad that it was a man that was the leader for the group because there were a couple of those pre-teen boys that definitely needed that male influence! Phew!!

getting ready to do their end of the week performance

the next Vanna White :)

Kendal's friend "Sissy" came with her

and her brother, our buddy, "JT"

friends since they were babies...awwwww

Vacation Bible School is the best part of summer for us. Not only does it get them out of the house for a few hours each day, but more importantly they are filled up with Jesus. I have "caught" each one of them separately or together singing different songs from each VBS they were at and the other day my friend called me and put JT on the phone and he sang Riches in Jesus to me which was one of our church's VBS songs. It just doesn't get any better than that!!

Slumber Party

2010-06-18T16:09:00.008-05:00

For Kendal's 7th and 8th birthdays, we had her parties at one of our local pools. Lots of fun and the kids love it, but decided to change it up for her #9 birthday and have it at the house. Not only was it at the house, but it was a SLUMBER PARTY!!!!! Her first ever! A somewhat unlimited guest list at the pool...no big deal. A big deal when it's a slumber party at your house. Not sure what I was thinking when I allowed her to invite 13 little girls. Not a typo...THIRTEEN!!!! I guess some of what I was thinking was that most of these girls, while I know them from being in her class occasionally and going on field trips, their parents don't know us so they probably wouldn't be able to stay the night. That is our philosophy on sleep overs, but we are apparently "not the norm". Out of the 13 invitations, one girl couldn't come because of prior plans and one could come for the evening, but couldn't stay the night because they were going out of town. So, that means that there was Kendal, 11 of her friends, Payton, Bransyn and one of their little friends that ended up staying the night as well. Grand total of 15 (16 for a few hours) little girls running through our not-so-big house. It was LOUD, to say the least. :)

the whole gang

the whole gang...again

acting nuts (they all actually are :) )

some trashed, I mean played, in Kendal's room :)

some watched movies in the playroom, sort of

Bsyn hanging with the big girls

Payton crashed early...early being around 10

Around midnight, I finally told them that they needed to get settled on their sleeping bags and start winding down. Jeff had to work the next morning and the last thing I needed was for them to wake him up, surprisingly, they never did. I told them that they could watch a movie and/or talk quietly but that the noise level had to go WAY down, then I got my pillows and blanket and settled in on the couch to hopefully get some sleep. As you can imagine, it didn't take long for it to get louder, a little louder and yet even louder.

Notice Bsyn at the front of the pic (with the monkey blanket), she was still going strong when I told everyone to get settled at midnight. It didn't take her long though and she was OUT!

Some went to sleep pretty quickly, others I don't think had any intention of going to sleep. At TWO A.M., I finally took my pillows and blanket and laid down on the playroom floor as well. That did the trick! Everyone was QUIET and went to sleep. I even managed to doze off and when I woke up an hour later, had to say a little prayer that I could make it up off the floor. I WAS SORE! I am not a kid anymore and sleeping on the hard floor at my age...not a smart move! :) I managed to make it up and drag my belongings back to the couch where I got in a few hours of restless sleep before getting up to make everyone a pancake, scrambled eggs and sausage breakfast. I thought I would have plenty of time to get breakfast made and maybe even have to wake them up to eat. Boy, was I wrong! I have seriously forgotten what it is to be a kid. The first few came out a little before 7 and the rest were close behind. I hadn't consumed enough coffee yet so I really wasn't ready to see those sweet, sleep deprived, disheveled little faces so I told them to get their things together, get dressed and go outside and play till breakfast was ready. I should have had an 8:00 pick up instead of 9:00.... By 9:15, all the sweet, darling, little angels were gone and then the mad dash to get everything cleaned up and back in order began because even though we were all functioning on less than the recommended amount of sleep, we were meeting friends at the pool. Priorities, right?! :)

We spent a few hours at the pool, where as always, we had fun with our friends. The plan when we got home, was to get bathed and then have left over pizza and birthday cake and watch a movie. That did not happen for a couple of exhausted little girls!

This is how I found Bransyn after her bath. I sent her to her room to get her PJ's (which she has tucked under her) and when she was taking too long to come back, I went to see what was taking her so long. I get her half awake to get her dressed and ask her if she wants to eat or go to bed. She wants to go to bed. In the mean time, Payton has already been bathed and is dressed for bed and REALLY wants to eat. She is our dramatic, "I'm going to throw up if I don't eat right now" child. I tell her she has to wait a few more minutes so I can get the sheets back on Bsyn's bed so she can go to bed. A few minutes was too long...

She was sound asleep when I came out of their room. They both were in bed by 5:30 and slept until 7:30ish the next morning. They were obviously WAY tired! Kendal, on the other hand, stayed up watching movies until I made her go to bed at 10:30. She slept until 9:30, very late for her.

Four bandaids, two ice packs, some tears (some from the birthday girl herself) and one splinter, but overall, it was a very good slumber party. They were loud and obnoxious, but very good at polite and everyone seemed to have fun together. Kendal said she had a lot of fun. I am not opposed to any more slumber parties, but next time the guest list will be considerably smaller! :)

Until next time...

School's Out For Summer!

2010-06-17T10:42:00.003-05:00

The girls' last day of school was one week ago. I'm not real sure what the point is to the "last day" other than to say they were in school for so many days of the year. The last day consists of no real academia just some "play time", lunch and class parties. The girls did not want to miss their class parties though! It was a little trickier this year having two in school. I had to divide my time between the two. It'll be interesting when Bransyn starts Kindergarten, how I'm going to swing three parties. Although, when Bransyn starts school, Kendal will be in 5th (say it ain't so!) and the last thing she'll probably want is her Mama showing up in her classroom. Let me tell ya...that'll just be a sad day for me, if that's the case!

first party...Kendal's class

playing sight word bingo

yummy snacks

their teacher, Ms. F telling them goodbye, she will be at a different school next year :(

Off to Payton's class...

making sure her sister has an umbrella in her hair too

little friends...hard to believe they will be in 1st grade next year

"look Mama, a lifesaver ring"

Payton being cheeky, Bransyn raiding the snack table :)

The school year was a success! Kendal had her first experience with TAKS testing (BLAHHHH!!) which involved reading and math. Math is a struggle for her, especially testing and she passed her Math TAKS as well as her reading TAKS. WOOOO HOOOO!! Thank you, God!! That was a huge answer to prayer!!!

Payton loved school and despite my worrying about her being a young 5 starting out, she did very well. She still can't read fully on her own, but we will continue to work on that over the summer.

We are all glad that summer vacation has arrived, although I dread it as well. We were home less than an hour on that last day of school, the girls were playing in their pool, I was on the phone with my mom and was already having the fighting and crying going on. Thankfully, it's been better, if that continued....it would make for a very looooong summer! Of course, it helps that they have stayed busy this week. Payton and Kendal have been going to W.O.W. week at the church I work at. Payton goes from 9-12 and Kendal is there from 9-3. Then all three of them have been going to VBS in the evenings at our friend's church. They will probably crash and burn this weekend. :)

With trips to the pool, hanging out with friends, my part-time job I am doing over the summer and some other fun activities, hopefully that'll keep them occupied and non-annoying to each other which brings peace to me. :)

Enjoy your summer!!

Kindergarten Graduate

2010-06-08T15:22:00.004-05:00

Today, Payton graduated from Kindergarten. Although, they no longer have a graduation ceremony like they did with all the classes together when Kendal was in Kindergarten. Now, it's each class in their own rooms with the teacher and no principal. Now it's called Kindergarten Recognition. No matter how they do it or what they call it, it was still a special moment for our middle girl and her Mama and Daddy. :)

waiting with her friends

her teacher, Ms. L telling us all what a great year it was

getting her diploma and her award for her willingness to help others
Ms. L took the time to say something sweet about each child

reading her card

cute girls

Payton loved her teacher and loved school. She was given the option of coming home with us at 1:30 or staying until school got out. She wanted to stay. She would come home from school each day begging to do her homework, even on days when she didn't have any. I hope that trend continues throughout the rest of her school days! We are so proud of our little "graduate"!

Until next time...

Kendal turns 9

2010-06-07T21:56:00.004-05:00

Kendal now has only one year left of the single digit age. Today she turned 9. I'm not sure where all the years have gone, each one seems to pass quicker than the year before. I am not ready for the two digit age. She is growing up way too fast, I want to keep her little for just awhile longer.

Since the girls are still in school, we celebrated her birthday as a family yesterday. It was a great day.

excited about a check from Grandma and Papa W

opening her present from us

She doesn't really quite know what's happening since her gift seems to be her tennis shoes that she has been wearing the last couple of months. Jeff told her we were to poor to buy a gift so her shoes were her gift. After few seconds of the "I got shafted" look, I told her to see what was under the shoes.

still a little confused

Still not too sure what's happening. She has been wanting roller skates, but we felt that she should be there to try them on and pick out the ones she wanted. We still wanted her to be able to open something and thought this was the way to do it plus it was a little fun to see her face when she pulled out her cruddy tennis shoes. :)

Very happy now. Even got the arm pump and a big "YESSSSSSSS!!!!"

She told us before we left the house that she wanted black and red ones. She got what she wanted!

Trying them out...as best as she could with them attached together

She is much more confident in them standing still than moving. She is very wobbly and needs to be held onto. She spent most of her time in them walking in the grass. :)

Skates in red and black were purchased then it was off to eat. Birthday girls choice...Red Robin, a family favorite!

Apparently the roller skate shopping (one store, one pair tried on) was too much for Payton and Bransyn to handle. They crashed on the way to Red Robin.

Everyone is awake and ready for food

She got sung to and was given the birthday sundae and three balloons which she shared both with her sisters. What a great big sister!!!

YUMMMMMMYYYYY!!!

We will be celebrating with her friends on Fri. night at our house for a SLUMBER PARTY!!! 13 invitations were given out, 6 yes RSVP's and haven't heard either way from the remaining 7. Could be interesting...and LOUD!! :)

Until next time...

Pajamamamarama

2010-06-06T21:12:00.006-05:00

This past Friday night, Payton and I went to my work church (as the girls call it) for their mommy-daughter Pajamamamarama, which is a sleepover at the church for girls entering or completing Kindergarten and their Mamas. It was a 50's style theme and we had a lot of fun!

Dressed in our 50's style and ready to go

she danced with Elvis ;-)

ate hot dogs with friends

watched some teenage girls show us a couple of 50's style dances

got to do a few moves herself

she was having so much fun

being taught the hand jive

yummy treats in the chocolate fountain

decorated a pillow

her finished work

sang a little karaoke

went on a walk through some dark hallways upstairs with flashlights

played in the bounce house

had fun with friends

did not want to wake up in the morning

waffle and sausage breakfast before heading home

I did not get much sleep that night because I spent most of the night trying to keep her from grinding her teeth. She is a horrible teeth grinder, just like me when I was a kid. I was worried she would keep everyone else awake so I was constantly (or so it felt) grabbing her jaw, shaking her or trying to open her mouth. With all that, it's amazing that she got any sleep. LOL! It sounds more horrible than it actually was, I was being as gentle as possible. :) The sleep deprivation was well worth it to spend that time with her without her sisters around.

Until next time...

Potty Antics

2010-05-18T19:21:00.005-05:00

A couple of days ago, I was in Walmart with the girls standing in the long line to return some gauze and tape that I didn't need after all and the sweet relish that I accidentally bought instead of the dill. Instead of waiting to try another day to make my silly return, I chose instead to wait behind the five people in front of me with only one person working the return counter. One person...REALLY?!?! WHY IS THAT??!!?! Of course, this now means that we have been in the store for more than five minutes and it has exceeded the amount of time for which Kendal can go without having to visit the restroom. I swear, this child has a crazy, disgusting obsession for using the bathroom wherever we go. It's so gross!! Needless to say, three people in front of me and four people behind me, she starts...

K: Mama I need to use the restroom

Me: You can wait till were finished

K: No Mama, I really need to go

Me: (totally exasperated) Kendal, I really don't want to get out of line to take you to the bathroom. Look at all the people behind me, we'll have to wait in line again. Let's get this returned and then we'll go to the restroom. You can wait a few minutes.

K: (in a voice too loud so that everyone can hear) Mama, I really need to go. I have to go POOP!

I hear a few chuckles as I am shushing her and telling her not to be so loud. I still choose not to leave with my 3 little items to bring back on another day instead telling her to go straight to the restroom and come straight back to me OR I will meet her in the bathroom if (by some miracle), I finish first. The other two, upon seeing their sister departing from our current location start up. One asking where she's going, the other informing me that she is leaving. I let them in on where she is going (as if it's some big secret) only to have them all of a sudden need to go potty too. Of course they do *sarcasm* because why not?! At one point, Bransyn is holding herself telling me it's starting to come out. Remember, we are in a line with about five or six other people at this point, all seeing what is playing out. I'm sure the line didn't seem like it was taking as long for them as it did for me, they had a live comedy (not at all comical to me) happening right in front of them. Well, I'm not real big on Kendal going to the restroom by herself so I'm definitely not letting the other two crazies go off unattended so I tell them that they are just going to have to wait and deal with it.

P: But Mama we really need to go

Me: It's almost our turn you're going to have to wait

B: (holding herself again) It's really going to come out

Me: Well then I guess you'll just have pee on the floor in front of everyone

P and B: But Mama...

Me: (bending down to their faces with clenched teeth) You did not need to go potty until you found out Kendal was going! You are not going to the bathroom by yourself! You better not say one more word about it! I am next (hallelujah!) , my return will take a minute, go sit on those benches until I tell you to get up and then we will go to the bathroom! DO...YOU...UNDERSTAND...ME??!!

Both little heads nod up and down and they slowly walk over to the two benches and each lays on one. I FINALLY get my return made and head to the bathroom so they can go potty and to see what is taking Kendal so long. When we walk in, Kendal is washing her hands and I tell the other two to hurry up and go potty.

B: Maybe I don't need to go now

I was thinking that it was very possible that my head was going to explode right off of my shoulders

Me: (clenched teeth again) You better get in that stall and go potty after the show you just put on for everybody in the return line

She does and while waiting for them, Kendal has something "important" to tell me.

K: Mama when I was washing my hands, a Walmart employee came out of the bathroom and was going to leave without washing her hands

Me: (not really interested in this conversation since I am still irritated) Really? That's gross!

K: I know. I asked her if she was going to wash her hands because the sign on the door says that employees need to wash their hands before going back to work

Me: (totally interested now and laughing) Oh, no you did not!

K: Uh-huh and she came back, but she only ran her hands under the water, she didn't use soap

Me: How come you didn't tell her that the sign also said to wash with soap?

K: (smiles and shrugs shoulders) I don't know

Laughing together, we made sure the other two got their hands washed so we can now begin the grocery shopping process. You would think that I would have called it quits and just headed home, but there were several things that were must haves, so I said a little prayer and got done as quick as possible. Thankfully, the shopping process went much smoother than the return process. Imagine that!! ;-)

Until next time...

Wordless Wednesday

2010-05-12T21:05:00.005-05:00

My Reasons For Being...

2010-05-09T18:29:00.002-05:00

Becoming a Mama didn't happened the way I had planned or as soon as I had planned, but happened in God's perfect timing, the way He saw fit. I am so very blessed and very thankful for my three beautiful, precious gifts. They are my life, they are my everything!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

Mother's Day

2010-05-07T15:59:00.004-05:00

With Mother's Day coming up on Sunday, today was the day that my girls brought home some Mother's Day items from school. I love them, they make me smile...and laugh! :)

Kendal gave me a card that she made by herself in classYou are the best mom in the world!

Mom thank you for all your work!

Thank you for you prteting me!

"prteting" is protecting, she said she didn't know how to spell it :)

Me......according to Payton

Me......according to Bransyn

I LOVE BEING A MAMA!!!!!!

Until next time...

Who's the Boss?

2010-04-30T21:42:00.003-05:00

This afternoon, I was laying on my bed trying to feel a little less miserable from overstuffing myself on my Chipotle lunch and homemade ice cream that we made today in my preschool class when Payton and Bransyn climbed on the bed and laid with me. Not sure how or why it started, but they started up a conversation about who the boss is. They were each saying that they were, then it moved to mama is the boss or daddy is the boss. After several minutes of the back and forth exchange, Payton finally decided that her Kindergarten teacher is the boss which Bransyn replied with a nuh-uh. After several minutes of the uh-huh and nuh-uh exchange, Bransyn piped up in her most serious voice, "actually God is the more bosser!" :)

Until next time...

LET...US...IN!!!

2010-04-29T21:29:00.002-05:00

No Privacy

2010-04-29T21:24:00.003-05:00

Big Boo-Boo

2010-04-26T16:19:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago today, my mom left with their puppy, Jake. That evening we noticed that Tank was acting a little...not quite right. Jeff and I kept asking him if he was missing his brother and that was why he was acting funny. Obviously, we weren't actually getting an answer from him! :) Later that night, Jeff made a comment that he seemed to be favoring his left front leg so I played around with it a little, but there wasn't much reaction from him so we figured he was fine. The next day, he still wasn't acting right...not playing with Tyson like he normally would and laying around more than usual. I noticed that he really was favoring his leg, to the point of not walking on it at all. I gently squeezed up and down on the leg and the poor little guy started whimpering. Oh, bummer!!! I called the vet and was able to take him in. Much to my dismay, partially because of his pain and partially because of the hit our checking accout took, poor Tankers has a non-displaced fracture in his leg. Oh, BIG bummer! Thankfully, it wasn't a displaced fracture because that would have been more painful for him...and much more expensive for us! :) It took about a day, with some pain medicine and him getting used to his leg being wrapped up to get back to normal. Once he got used to it, there was no stopping him! :) Hopefully he'll be able to have the wrap taken off in a couple of weeks.

Is that face just not cute and pathetic, or what?! :)

Until next time...

Art Show 2010

2010-04-26T16:05:00.003-05:00

I absolutely LOVE the art show that the Child Development Center where I work and Bransyn attends, puts on every year. It is so neat to see the creative things the teachers come up with and to see how each little one makes it their very own "masterpiece".

Bransyn with her Modern Art Collage

Her teachers told me that she didn't want to stop putting things on her picture. They finally had to tell her that it was time to call it finished. :)

Kite Finger Painting

Colored Sand Flower

Bransyn was very excited for the art show and couldn't wait for us to see her art. She did such a great job....all the kids did!

Easter Sunday

2010-04-07T11:53:00.006-05:00

Easter baskets...

ready for church...

playing and cotton candy...

cotton candy mustaches...

dyeing eggs...

first egg and we already have a spill

putting faces on their eggs...

time to eat 'em...

Easter baskets, egg hunts and dyeing eggs are all fun, but the true and most important reason we celebrate Easter is to remember that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and then rose again on the third day.

Until next time...

Oh puppy, or should I say puppIES!!

2010-04-01T14:52:00.004-05:00

One puppy has now become THREE!!! What did I agree to?????

When the girls, Tank and I went to my parents over Spring Break, my parents thought Tank was just so cute and said that they would take one of the puppies if there were any left. There weren't...they were all spoken for the day we got Tank, almost 3 weeks ago. As it turns out, whoever was suppose to be taking two of the puppies couldn't after all. I called my parents and they said they would take one of them. Jeff decided, and I, somewhat reluctantly agreed that we would take the other puppy. Oh my, oh my!! The first day was a little rough, by the end of the night, I...WAS...EXHAUSTED!!! It was a constant pee and poo cleanup, spending several hours outside with them so that they couldn't potty in the house and keeping them from chewing on anything they could get their little teeth on. At first when I showed up home with them, Tank was TICKED!! He even kept growling and snapping at me when I tried to go near him. I had to break up a couple of fights that starting getting a little too vicious sounding for my taste. By the end of the day though, they were buddies and get along great now. My mom will come the middle of next week or we will meet them half way on Sat. to give them their little guy so until then, we have 3 puppies. One for each girl and yet they still manage to fight about them. Now instead of fighting over one and who gets to hold him, now they fight over which one they are going to hold. So ridiculous!!!

Bsyn with the puppies the morning we brought them home

Tank on the left, Jake in the middle (mom and dad's) and Tyson on the right

Tank weighs 3.3 lbs. (turns out he was the runt of the litter), Jake weighs 4.7 lbs. and Tyson weighs 4.5 lbs.

Tank and Jake have similar coloring, but Tyson is all white except for black patches on his ear, over his eye and by his tail. They are all so adorable!

finally getting along and snoozing together on Bsyn's lap

Kendal holding Tank
Bransyn holding Tyson
Payton holding Jake

Until next time...

Easter Eggstravaganza

2010-03-29T22:43:00.005-05:00

This past Saturday, the church I work at held their annual Easter event for the public. It is always a lot of fun and the girls look forward to going every year.

there were games to play...

face painting...

animals to pet...

eggs to hunt...

If not for the crazy amount of wind, it would have been an absolute gorgeous day. Because of the wind, they couldn't put up the bounce houses so the girls were a little disappointed about that. A fun time was still had by all though!

Until next time...

Spring Break

2010-03-26T16:37:00.008-05:00

Spring break consisted of me, my three girls, our new puppy and my friend, Momma Wolg, her two kids JT and Sissy (as they are know in blogosphere) going on an 8-9 hour road trip to visit our parents. Her parents and mine live not too far from each other (small world) so it worked out for us to make the trip together and spend time with our respective families and meet back up for the trip home.

I was a little, ok maybe more than a little, worried how it would go with five kids and a puppy making the trip. I was kind of expecting total chaos in the car, but it was actually a very pleasant trip and I really enjoyed the time with my friend.

the little kids took a nap...

A couple of nights before we left, the girls were giving their reasons why they like going to Grandma and Papa's. One of those reasons is because they LOVE to wrestle with Papa. I explained to them that Papa probably wouldn't be able to wrestle with them this time because he has a really bad knee that hurts him. They said that they were going to ask him anyway. Okie dokie, then.

Papa, being the great Papa that is he his, did not disappoint them.

they thought they were a bunch of models and apparently you have to put your hands on your head when modeling :)

No bathing suits were brought, but they didn't care. When the sprinklers came on, they were happy to play in them in their clothes.

poor fella looks terrified

My mom and I took the girls and Tank to the park one of the days to have a picnic and play. It was a gorgeous day, but just a little too windy for picnic purposes. We had to hold on to everything and eat quickly for fear of it being blown away. There were a few napkins and plates that had to be chased down. The girls had fun swinging, climbing, sliding and running around. A new park is always so much fun.

as always, we had a fun visit with Grandma and Papa, but it's time to say goodbye and meet up with our traveling companions and head home

the gang is all ready to head out

I wish I could say that the trip headed home was as pleasant as the trip out, but it wasn't. Not that it was terrible, just not as nice and "relaxing". I think it had more to do with the fact that they were more tired and cranky. My girls certainly were! They had no bed time at Grandma and Papa's and went to bed when the rest of us did each night which wasn't all that early. And let's face it, when travelling, the trip to where you're going is always much better than the one that requires you to get home. I was "affectionately" dubbed the snack lady. It seemed like it was a constant request for food and the word mommy was said a million times! Alright so that is an exaggeration but it was A LOT!! Momma Wolg joked that we needed one of those clicker counters so we would know how many times it was said. With 5 kids, it was pretty constant and pretty annoying. :)

YAY Texas!! Too bad Texas is so big that we were still HOURS from home.

Bsyn was the only sleeper on the way home

as you can see the trip was just so rough on Tank

big girls being goofy

Choo choo was another thing that we could have done without hearing over and over and over and over and....you get my drift. JT saw the first choo choo and then after that it was all he wanted to see. I had my camera out when we were passing this one and he REALLY wanted me to take a picture of it.

All in all, it was a very fun trip. It wasn't so terrible that we won't do it again. We talked about doing it again this summer, so we'll see...

Until next time...

Meet "TANK"!

2010-03-14T23:44:00.002-05:00

After our dogs had to be put to sleep, Utah 4 months shy of her 12th birthday and Bailey 2 months after hers, we knew we would eventually get another dog. My request though, was that after having two 100 pound Akitas that we get some sort of smaller dog, one that I could take in the car easily enough. We have been dogless for about 13 months now and a new doggie, a MUCH SMALLER 1 pound 9 ounce little fella has joined our family. A guy Jeff works with has a Jack Russell that got out and came home pregnant (oops!) possibly by a Chiuaua. She had six puppies and he was giving them away to a good home. Jeff put our name in to get one and yesterday was the day that we could finally bring him home. THE GIRLS HAD NO IDEA!! We told them that we had to go to daddy's work because there was something he needed to do there. They were not the least bit thrilled about having to go, Kendal complained the whole way there. Their complaints went away when they walked in and they saw the man with all his puppies there. They ran over to them asking if they could pet and hold them.

As they are loving on them, I asked them which one they wanted to take home. They didn't have much of a reaction at first, then all have a sudden, Kendal gasped and said, "We get to take one home?" in a very excited voice.
Kendal's expression when she found out that we were indeed taking one home with us.

Payton with our chosen little fella, Tank

Bransyn and Tank

I don't think Kendal's smile could get any bigger.

What a cute little face!!!

His bed once he is house broken. Thankfully so far, there has only been one accident. For now we have him in a crate, but he did a lot of "crying" last night so hopefully as he adjusts to life with us that will change. I was outside with him at one in the morning. REALLY could've done without that! Jeff ended up putting him on a towel in our bed so he would quit "crying", it worked. It is quite possible that he will be spoiled rotten! We are all very smitten with our little fella!

The girls didn't waste any time getting up this morning. Long enough to grab Tank and everyone snuggle up together in Kendal's bed. As I said, SPOILED ROTTEN! :)

Until next time...

IT'S NOT FAIR!!!

2010-02-24T09:02:00.003-06:00

It's not fair, It's not fair!! Three little words that some days, I feel like if I hear them just ONE more time, I could very well lose my ever lovin' mind! "Why does she get to go to a friends, it's not fair", "why does she get to have a friend over, it's not fair", "how come she gets that, it's not fair"..... You can just about put anything with those three little words, and believe me, all three of my girls do. Some days, I am a sweet, loving and patient mommy that explain in a bunch of sentences how there are things in life that happen that just aren't fair. Other days, I am the completely irritated, not even a little bit patient mommy that barks, "Life isn't fair, get over it!" I would like to say that more often than not that I am the loving mommy, but sadly the opposite is probably true. I don't know for sure, I don't have a list where I check off nice mommy, mean mommy, but in the craziness of life it's not always easy having the patience to deal with those three words numerous times a day. And quite frankly, genetically I didn't get much of the "patience gene". Thanks, Dad! :)

Over the last few weeks, I have found myself saying those same three little words to God...IT'S NOT FAIR!! I have a sweet friend who was told she has cancer...for the second time. It wasn't fair the first time and it certainly isn't fair this time. The first time she didn't have to endure chemo, this time she will. IT'S NOT FAIR! She is young, a wife, a mother to three young sons, a preschool teacher, one of the godliest women I know even in the face of heavy trials, a fabulous cook and baker, who since I met her several years ago has baked me my favorite, carrot cake from scratch every year for my birthday. She is a great person and I am honored to call her my friend! It's not fair, God, it's just not fair! How can you let this happen? How come she has to tell her boys that once again, mommy has cancer? It's not fair! I wonder...if I could actually hear the words of God, would He be lovingly telling me that bad things happen to good people and not everything in life is fair or would he be barking at me to get over it?!

The last few days, I have really started to think about how my thoughts are paralleling the way my girls sometimes act. Yes, I pray for God's will and while I do really want that in everything, it is still really hard to always have the right attitude about God's will. I find myself in prayer sometimes saying to God to make her better, rid her of the cancer. Hey, even better, God make the cancer be gone when the doctors open her up because after all that would be a great way for everyone to witness your miracle. While this is something that God could totally do, it is still not the right attitude to go to God in prayer with. I am working on that. I know I have much to be thankful for and I am praying for God's will in everything. After all, God knows the desires of our hearts before we even know them so I just need to keep praying, trust and have faith!

Until next time...

Snow Day!

2010-02-11T20:35:00.011-06:00

Jeff and I were up about five this morning. Him getting ready for work, me fixing him some breakfast and his lunch. I'm a great wife that way! :) I looked out the back door and said, "Holy crap, it's snowing!" Not too sure why I was surprised by that, we've been hearing that it was going to for about a week now and yet I was still surprised. I also figured it wouldn't be much of a big deal, even though the weather forecasters we watch every morning have been saying we'd get some good snowfall. It was a big deal! Now the watch is on to see about a school delay...I was really hoping for one. I wanted the girls to be able to sleep in. Bransyn was up about 6:20! A little after 6:30, the official word was out...no school delay...SCHOOL IS CANCELLED!! Of course, Kendal and Payton are both up by 7. So much for them sleeping in!! All three of them were very excited about the snow and immediately started asking to go out and play in it.

all layered and bundled up

measured at 9:45

the girls with their snowman, "Happy Face"

I do not have the proper gloves to be handling snow. My hands were wet, cold and numb while working on the bottom part so I told them it had to be a baby snowman. :)

making snow angels, or at least attempting to

Payton called it quits

What a cute face!! Even if it is all red and snotty! :)

Now, Bransyn has called it quits as well

Kendal didn't care! She stayed out there for awhile longer and played by herself.

"My feet are soooooo numb! I want to come in now!!"

perfect time for hot chocolate

everyone snuggled back up in their PJ's and blankets enjoying some hot cocoa

MMMMMM......GOOD!!!!

measured at 4:55

measured at 8:20

and was still snowing

Who knows what tomorrow will bring....school is cancelled again! The girls are excited about being able to stay up late tonight and have a slumber party in Kendal's room. They've already asked if they can play in the snow again tomorrow. Of course they can!! :)

Until next time...

Christmas Break 2009

2010-02-11T08:10:00.034-06:00

Yes, I am way overdue on posting about our Christmas trip. Just been anti-computer lately, don't know why.... There are GOBS of pics here...sorry 'bout that!! I had over 250 to choose from and I didn't want to take the time to do separate postings like I did last year since I've already taken so long to do these.

For the second year in a row, we spent the ENTIRE Christmas break "on the road". As soon as the girls got out of school, we hit the road that afternoon for my parents in NM. It made for a VERY long day and late night, but it was well worth it!

We weren't on the road 30 min. when the "how much longer?" started. GRRR!!! We were all very glad when we finally got to Grandma and Papa's!

As usual, while there, the girls LOVED playing in Grandma's big tub

I love these crazy girls!!

ready for church

we made our traditional gingerbread house

the girls have fun putting it together and putting all the candy on, but the instant they're done, they're asking if they can eat the candy :)

AAAHHHHH!!!!!

got gums?!?!

goofy

The girls and Grandma listening as Papa reads the true Christmas story from Luke 2 before opening presents

a tradition from when I was a little girl that I love to have carried over to our girls

YAY!! Time to open presents

lots of cool stuff

Stopped in Ruidoso, NM to check out the snow on our way to CA. The girls thought it was very cool, but between some snow and an accident, our already long 12 hour drive was turned into a little over 14 hours. Not good!!!

we travel in shoes that are easy to slip on and off at our fuel and potty stops, but clearly not appropriate for snow :)

After a VERY LOOOONG traveling day, we finally made it to Jeff's parents in CA. It is amazing that everyone survived. We were so sick of hearing, "how much longer?", "I'm tired of being in the car", "when are we going to get there?", "she's touching me", "she's copying me".....times three in very whiny voices!

they have so much fun with their cousins

We opened presents with Jeff's parents, his sister and her family Christmas Eve

stockings Christmas morning

all of them asked Santa for a pink Snuggie...

...they were very happy

I am so glad they are so easy to please!!

We had visited the grandparents at their homes, but were glad that both were feeling up to getting out to come to Jeff's parents Christmas day.

the great-grandkids with Grandma H

with great-Papa S

our girls with two of my cousins' kids

on our way to San Diego

WOO HOO!!

free entertainment....watching the planes take off and land at SD airport

they LOVED it!!! :)

We left the airport planning on going to Seaport Village for a little while and then taking the girls on the USS Midway. An aircraft carrier museum in SD with more than 60 exhibits and 25 restored aircraft. Unfortunately, those plans got changed because of a broken camera. We were only able to spend about 15 min. at Seaport Village before our camera quit working and we had to leave and go to Target for a new one. I just COULD NOT spend the rest of our trip without a camera, it's bad enough that we don't have a video camera! I only got one cute pic of them at Seaport Village looking out over the water...

love this picture with Payton's hand protectively on Bransyn's back

got this picture of the big pile of seaweed that Kendal saw and said, "Look, Daddy! A big net!" :)camera quit working :(my new camera...IT'S PURPLE!! and has a nice big screen to view pics :)
Unfortunately, we didn't have time to go back to Seaport village or go on the USS Midway because we were meeting Jeff's parents at Shelter Island to eat some yummy Point Loma Seafood.

The girls ate their McD's in the car while waiting for Grandma and Papa to get there. They said it was too cold to eat outside. However, it wasn't too cold to play...

It was a fun day!! All snuggled up together in bed at the hotel. Excited for the next day...

Kendal was doing a little reading before we left the hotel....from the Bible! :)

We're going to Sea World!!!

slug bug Shamu!

waiting to pet a dolphin

oh so close, but never close enough :(

they all got splashed by a stingray trying to escape

that was some cold water!!

they didn't care!

We went on the Sky Ride...

Daddy and his girls

Waiting for the Shamu show to start...

Yummy cotton candy

we saw Clyde and Seamore

FEED ME!!!!

the girls with the animals they picked out

Kendal got a polar bear, name: Terrabella

Payton got a pink turtle, name: Pinkabella

Bransyn got a purple turtle, name: Purplebella

had to break out the jackets for the rest of the evening

BRRRRR!!!!!

going on a "helicopter" ride

Kendal is clutching Jeff's arm. We had them convinced that it was a real helicopter. hehe!

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!

We took them on the Journey to Atalntis ride.

PAYTON LOVED IT!!!!

KENDAL AND BRANSYN DID NOT!!!!

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

everyones happy now playing in the kid area

Kendal was freaked out about walking across the moveable wooden bridge. The other two ran across to the other side. It took Kendal forever to get to the other side. She's such a scaredy-cat! She gets it from her Grandma W (my mom), I do believe!

We had a wonderful time at Sea World and wished we could spend more time in SD, but it was getting late and we had make the drive back to Jeff's parents. I had the next day to get us all packed back up again to head back home, making a stop at my parents again on the way.

waking the girls up VERY early so we could get on the road for our 12 hour drive...they DID NOT want to get up!!

We made it back to my parents house where the girls enjoyed a couple more days of...

wrestling with Papa

roasting marshmallows

and hanging out with Grandma and Papa

Peace, out

Unfortunately, our vacation was coming to an end and we had to head home

a quick pic with Grandma and Papa before hitting the road

Kendal and Payton are asleep under their blankets

Bsyn sleeps a little more normal :)

We made it home without incident and considering the amount of time we spent in the car on the road over two weeks, we are extremely thankful for God's protection. We had an awesome trip and on one hand, we were sad to see it end, but on the other hand, we were happy to get back to our normal routines...even though that meant school and work.

Until next time...

Stay tuned....

2009-12-18T09:04:00.002-06:00

While I am crazy, busy trying to get things together for our trip, I thought I would take a moment out to do at least one post in December. However, it's really not much of a post other that to let those who read this know to look for some updates in about 3 weeks or so. As I mentioned I am busy getting things ready for our trip. We are leaving this afternoon when the girls get out of school (early release) and headed to my parents for a few days to spend an early Christmas with them. Then we're off to California for a week to see family there as well as take the girls to Sea World again or to the SD Zoo. We haven't officially decided on which one yet. We'll stop back at my parents on the way home to spend a few more days with them again before making it home. We will spend the entire two week break on the road, so to speak, but we are all REALLY looking forward to it. We can't wait to see our friends and family that we don't get to see often enough. The girls are especially excited to see their grandparents!!

As we approach Christmas, my prayer is that you, my friends and readers, will have a blessed Christmas as you celebrate with your loved ones. May you reflect on the true meaning of Chirstmas....the birth of Jesus Christ. Many blessings to you all!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Thanksgiving, Anniversary, Black Friday

2009-11-29T22:10:00.002-06:00

THANKSGIVING
The holidays always make me sad that we live so far from both of our families. It makes me think back to when I was a kid and we lived in the same town as all of my mom's family and my dad's parents. Holiday get togethers (as well as the "just because" get togethers) were always looked forward to with much anticipation and excitement. Gathering at the house of whoever's turn it was with all the family is some of my best memories. Ones that I truly cherish! It makes me sad that our girls don't get to have that with their grand-parents, cousins and aunts and uncles.

This Thanksgiving was, once again, just the 5 of us. Jeff had to work that morning, but thankfully just until noon which was perfect. I did what I could the day before to be a little ahead of the game and was able to have a slow start on Thanksgiving morning. I slept in...sort of and was able to enjoy my morning 5 cups of coffee snuggled up with the girls watching TV before getting showered and ready to get in gear for "chef" mode. I made our traditional Thanksgiving feast. Turkey (of course!), mashed potatoes, gravy, candied sweet potatoes, green beans, deviled eggs, relish tray, rolls and jellied cranberry. Y...U...M...M...Y!!!! Everything went off without a hitch. Couldn't have been more perfect! This was the first time I had done this and felt ahead the whole time. I even stayed caught up on all the dishes as I was preparing things. Very odd for me!! :) When we were done eating, the only dishes I had to wash were our dinner dishes. And can I just say...THANK GOODNESS FOR DISHWASHERS!!

ANNIVERSARY
Jeff and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. Yay, us!! However, that anniversay happened to fall on Thanksgiving day so it wasn't filled with much fan fare about it. I spent most of the day in the kitchen, but we did remember it and we did get to spend it together and that's what is most important. To us, anyway!!

BLACK FRIDAY
I am an idiot!! Last year on Black Friday, I went out to Kohl's at 5am, but with a specific purpose. To get our luggage and the digital frames for our parents. So worth it! This year, I decided to go out again, but this time had no real purpose. I decided to go to Toys R Us at midnight to see if they were having any good bargains on NERF stuff for nephews and anything else for our girls and niece. I left the house about 11:30ish for the 15 minute drive to the store. It turns out....I ended up just taking a nice midnight drive. :) I pulled in one side of the EXTREMELY PACKED parking lot and drove right out another side and headed home. It was INSANE!!! There were easily 100+ people standing outside the door waiting to get in. People that were parking across the street were running out into the traffic to get across. The car in front of me had to slam on his brakes so as not to hit someone. I got back home after my nice, leisurly, midnight drive and sat back in the recliner, set the alarm on my cell phone for 3:30 in case I dosed off (totally did) and sat back and watched TV. I had inteded on going to Kohl's again and this year they were opening up at 4 instead of 5. I had no specific reason for going other than seeing if I would run across some really great deal. However, when the alarm went off at 3:30, I decided that I was too tired, not to mention, too broke to go there...just because. I reset the alarm for 4:30 instead so I could be at Walmart by 5:00. Once again, I had no real purpose for going. Well not for anything for Christmas anyway. They have these reversible bubble jackets that the girls have been wanting and when I got their ad this week, it had them priced at $7 instead of the usual $13 so I figured I would go up there for that at least. Now, you may be wondering, "why in the world would you go to Walmart at 5:oo in the morning and deal with all the crazies for an $18 savings?" The only way I know to answer that is because that's how I am...a cheapskate and if I can save some money, even if it means going out at such a horrific hour, then I will. Plus, I thought I might run across some really great deal, but there were just WAY too many people in there so I paid for my three jackets and the NERF gun (at regular price) one of our nephews wants and headed home. Got home in time to throw on some sweats, wash my face and brush my teeth before the alarm went off for Jeff to get up for work. I fixed him some turkey sandwiches to take for the day, sent him on his way, got my coffee brewing (I was definitly going to need it) and as the aroma of coffee beans filled the air and my body screaming for sleep...the first child emerged from her bedroom. The day had begun! I tried to stay busy so I wouldn't crash, I even walked with the girls as they rode their bikes to the school to play on the playground. It was such a gorgeous day! I made it through the day, even watched my friends girls for an hour or so that evening, but I was so happy when my head hit the pillow that "Black Friday Night". Turns out, I didn't have to be at Walmart at 5:00 in the morning for those bubble jackets, that all three love, by the way. Kendal and I were in there this evening and I took her to see the variety of colors they had in case she wanted to exchange the one I got for a different one (she didn't :) ) As we get closer to them, I blurt out (causing a few heads to turn our direction) "SON OF A GUN! YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!" There on the top of the rack with a big sign was the price.....$7.00!! MAN!!! Sleep deprived for nothing! I will not be participating in the insanely, crazy Black Friday festivites next year. Unless, of course, there is a specific great deal item that I am going for. :)

Until next time...

Funny Girls

2009-11-16T16:29:00.003-06:00

Driving home one night, we were in an area that has apartment complexes on all four corners and in the grassy area by the sidewalk was a for sale sign. Kendal sees the sign and from the back of the van, we hear her (talking more to herself than us) say, "Why would someone try and sell grass? That is just weird!"

While I was fixing dinner one afternoon, I told Kendal to start on her homework and if she didn't know something then to skip it and we would work on it together later. She kept saying that she couldn't do it by herself and after her and I did the multiple back and forth with "Yes you can", "No I can't", she finally said in a very exasperated voice, "No I can't, it's multiplication and I can't multiplicate!!"

The five of us were sitting together watching an episode of Verminators (yes I know that's weird). They were in a house that had a mice infestation and was showing us viewers how bad it was because of all their poo and pee around the house. ICK! Payton was sitting in her daddy's lap and looked up at him and with total seriousness says, "Daddy, how do mice wipe themselves?"

Bransyn and I were in the car and she was in her seat way in the back and kept wanting me to see what she was drawing on her Magna Doodle, so I would look in my rear view mirror as I am driving down the street to see what great thing she has drawn. Each time was, of course, something that looked like nothing, but she had some great description for it. After one particular "drawing" that made me laugh, I told her that she was so goofy.
Bsyn: "I'm not goofy"
Me: "Yes you are"
Bsyn: "No I'm not"
Me: "OK, you're silly then"
Bsyn: "No I'm not, I'm cute!"
Me: "Oh, you're cute huh?"
Bsyn: "Yea, I'm stinkin' cute!!"
Me: "YES YOU ARE!!!!"

Yes, we tell her all that time that she is stinkin' cute.......I fear it may be going to her head! :) I absolutely, without question love being a mom. All our girls are "stinkin' cute" and I adore each one of them!!

Until next time...

Fat Lips

2009-11-07T18:57:00.004-06:00

I gave Kendal and Payton instructions to clean the playroom while I gave Bransyn a bath. Kendal decided, for some ridiculous reason, to have a little plastic play picnic cup suctioned to her lips and chin the whole time she was cleaning. Little did she know what would happen by doing that.....

We got a really good laugh at her expense and I have a feeling she won't be doing that again. :-)

Until next time...

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

2009-11-04T14:11:00.005-06:00

3rd Grade Field Trip

2009-10-31T14:06:00.005-05:00

I typically don't go on school field trips because they are usually on Fridays and since I really only work on Mon. and Fri., I don't ask for it off. This field trip sounded fun and Kendal really wanted me to go with her so I took the day off to go with her and I am so glad I did!

While I could have followed the buses there, Kendal begged me to ride on the bus with her so to make her happy and to save on gas, I did. It occurred to me as I was walking up the steps of the bus that it has probably been about TWENTY!!! years since I have been on a school bus. After the horrible flashback of high school that I had, I thought to myself, "Man, I am old!!!" The ride could have been worse, we had to pull over on the highway because a kid on the bus behind us threw up. Thankfully, that didn't happen on our bus! I don't do vomit unless it's my own child's and even then it's dicey! I was able to have some adult conversation with some other moms on the bus, but that is a little hard when you're crammed like sardines (3 to a seat) on a bus with 40ish 3rd graders. I was more than happy when we reached our destination!!

The field trip was at Elm Fork Education Center at UNT and it was a lot of fun.

The trip started in their Sky Theater which was a room with theater style seating and a domed ceiling where they went through the solar system and everything astronomy. Of course, in a dark room with your head laying back against the seat so you can watch the "show" on the ceiling makes one (this one) very sleepy. :)

Next, they went on an archaeological dig. The kids were taken to a room where a grid was taped to the floor and they were told how it is labeled and what to do on an excavation site. Then they were taken outside where there was a grid in the sand and they were assigned a grid square to dig for an artifact.

she was very meticulous in her digging

writing in her journal where in her grid the artifact was located

examining her artifact to write down important info about it

Next, they went to a room with a bunch of fun crazy kind of stuff in it.

brain teaser puzzles

triangle mirror where there are hundreds of you

thank goodness there is just one of her :)

pedaling the bike to turn on the light bulb

Next they were sent on a "Crow Creek Quest" which involved finding 12 different statues, like the Northern Bobwhites or the Black Tailed Prairie Dogs or the Black-tailed Jackrabbits, and reading their plaques about them and answer the question in their journal about each one.

girls being silly

Their last adventure of the day sent them on an Aquatic Invertebrate study. After discussing what invertebrates are and seeing some, they were given little nets and sent off to find some. Their options to search in were a pond, stream, waterfall and wetland.

Searching through their muck to see if they found anything. They ended up finding some form of a snail (I thought it was a pebble HA!) and a dragonfly nymph.

Kendal holding the dragonfly nymph. EEEWWWWW!!!!!!

bus ride back to school

The kids were well behaved and everyone in Kendal's class seemed to really enjoy it. I even had a good time, but I was definitely glad it was over and ready to get back to the school.

Until next time...

Pumpkin Patch and Football

2009-10-31T13:12:00.003-05:00

Because of the ridiculous amount of rain we have gotten this month, we didn't get to do our traditional bazillion trips to the Pumpkin Patch. :( We probably wouldn't have gone at all were it not for this spontaneous trip one Friday after school with some friends. I was hoping that it wouldn't be too messy muddy since we had gone a few days without rain, but it was still pretty icky. We couldn't even do the hayride, the girls fave, because the ground was too mushy.

house of pumpkins

they had a lot of fun on the merry-go-round, which is where Kendal and Keely spent the bulk of the trip

the haystack maze was a lot of fun for them as well, but it was very muddy in there and the slide they were supposed to go down to get out was a MUUUUDDDDYYY, nasty mess so I wouldn't let them go down it so they had to worm their way through a very awkward space

Bsyn got a shoe in the face...can you tell!?!

the whole motley crew when leaving, they were quite filthy (although it's hard to tell here)

I'm glad we got in at least one trip to the patch, but bummed that that is all we got to do. Hopefully it won't be so rainy next year!!

We got home to clean up some, change out of the muddy clothes and clean as much mud of their sneakers as I could (they went in the washer later) so we could go to the HS football game. Kendal has been asking to go since she started Kindergarten, but we never seemed to make it to a game so this year we said we were going to go. Our first attempt to go to one got rained out, but our second attempt...no rain (yay!), but a little chilly.

yummy football game nachos (bleh!)

Jeff laughed at me when I packed up three blankets, but us wimpy girls put them to use

Bsyn made it through half-time, which I think the girls enjoyed more than the game itself, but fell asleep on daddy soon after the third quarter started. Kendal started having a meltdown because SHE dropped her Sprite under the bleachers so we left before the third quarter was over. Overall, everyone had a good time and want to go to another game. Maybe next time we'll make it to the end of the game. :)

Bransyn starts back at CDC

2009-09-13T23:02:00.003-05:00

This past Friday, marked the first day of "school" for Bransyn. She was very excited to get to go back to school like her sisters. The night before, she was pulling her backpack out of the closet and wanting her lunch box. She couldn't wait until morning!!!

the weather was a little uncooperative for our first day back to school, but she was happy to wear her rain boots and jacket

I AM A PEAPOD!!!

Best of all, her teachers from last year moved up with her. She was very excited when I told her that she was going to be with Ms. Renee and Ms. Gloria again!

Until next time (now that I'm caught up :])...

Bransyn turns 4

2009-09-13T22:35:00.004-05:00

The morning of Bransyn's birthday (last Sunday), I asked her where she wanted to eat when Daddy got off work. Her first choice was Chick fil A, but unfortunately for her, her birthday fell on a Sunday and CfA isn't open on Sundays. I informed her of that and asked if there was somewhere else she wanted to go. Her next choice was Red Robin which is a family favorite! Chick fil A would have been cheaper! :-}

waiting for our food...our yummy, yummy food!!

Bransyn got her bday sundae and got sung to

she got shy (or embarrassed) when they were singing to her

not to shy to dig into that sundae that she shared with her sisters though

HELLO CLOSE UP!!!!

What a cute birthday girl!!

Birthdays and the Zoo

2009-09-13T21:11:00.011-05:00

This year, Payton's birthday was on a Saturday (Aug. 22) and Bransyn's (Sept. 6) was 15 days later on a Sunday. Jeff had to work both those weekends, his off weekend fell the weekend between their birthdays. It actually worked out well because Grandma and Papa W were here for that off weekend as well. We had asked the girls if they wanted to have a party with friends or if they wanted to go to the zoo. Both, very enthusiastically wanted the zoo! YAY!! I also asked them if they wanted to have birthday cake and open presents on their birthdays or with Grandma and Papa here. Both again, very enthusiastically wanted to celebrate with their grandparents here. So we went to the zoo, opened presents and had birthday cake on the Sat. between their birthdays. It was great!!!

I let each of them open the present from Kendal in case they wanted to wear them at the zoo.

everyone's got their shades on, now off to the zoo...

Sun Bears have unusually long tongues.....so does Kendal!!

We had told them that there was going to be no stroller, that everyone would be walking, but when we got there and I saw that it was a $9 rental (considerably cheaper than Disney and Sea World), I changed my mind. I didn't want to have to listen to the whining by Bransyn that she was too tired to walk anymore. I know...I'm a sucker!!

for some reason they loved running back and forth on this

Papa and the girls taking a breather...

wonder what she's thinking.... ???

checking out the penguins, where Payton informed me that she still knew her penguin fact from preschool last April.....chinstrap penguins are the most common penguins.....why yes, she does still remember it

just thought this was pretty

Kendal is a little freaked out in this pic because there was a bee that took a liking to her and wouldn't leave her alone :)

Fun time at the zoo!! Even if the bee kept following Kendal everywhere!

back home and ready to open presents

Payton with more Littlest Pet Shop to add to her "collection"

Bransyn with Tinkerbell and her house that she would have to inform me EVERY time she saw the commercial for it. "MAMA I WANT THAT RIGHT THERE, IT'S TINKERBELL!!!!"

more fairies so Tink would have some playmates

Bransyn hugging the money that she got from Grandma and Papa.

I got a tub to store the growing Littlest Pet Shop and Tinkerbell collection so it's a little more organized and each of the girls had to take turns getting in it and putting the lid on

Bransyn

Payton

Kendal, we ALMOST got that lid pushed down on her

"Happy Birthday to You...!"

mmmm...good, even if it wasn't decorated very pretty :)

It was a fun, between birthday celebration that was even more special because Grandma and Papa were here to help them celebrate. I just can't believe that they are 5 and 4!! :( Love you bunches sweet girls!!!

First day of school

2009-08-24T21:55:00.006-05:00

While according to the calendar (or weather), it may not officially be the end of summer, but summer as we knew it is over!! No more sleeping in, staying up late, going to the pool, staying in PJ's all day, having friends over fairly regularly and living with just about no type of schedule at all. Today summer ended and school started! Life around our house is back on a schedule. One that may prove to be a little more hectic than in years past. Instead of just getting one child off to school, I now have to get two out the door. Kendal started third grade and Payton started Kindergarten. Both were very excited for their first day of school. Everyone was in bed last night on time knowing that they would have to be up by 6:30 this morning. I went to bed praying that it would be a good morning! I got up at 6:00, went to the kitchen to get my coffee and before I even got it poured, I hear, "Hi Mama". Kendal was already up! It was going to be a good morning!!! :)

My big girls excited and ready to leave for school. They started asking at 7:15 if we could leave!!

Bransyn had to be in some pics with her sisters!

Payton with her teacher, Ms. L

She seems so little to be putting things in a locker!! :-/

sitting at her desk

After getting plenty of hugs and kisses and me shedding a few tears, she got right into coloring. I knew she was going to have a good day!

Kendal with her teacher, Ms. F

After we left Payton in her class, Kendal informed me that she could get to her class by herself. She has always been little miss independent! I took her anyway because I am just not ready for that independence. Plus, I had to take pictures...obviously!! :)

I managed to leave both my girls with minimal tears and head home to get a few things done before going for a Mommy playdate with my friends Allyson and Kelly and our "leftover children" as they are being referred to. :) It was so nice to sit at the table drinking coffee and talking with very minimal interruption. We kept commenting on how quiet it was.

The "leftover children" had fun playing together and didn't seem to miss their older siblings at all.

We picked the big kids up after school and they all came out with a smile, got in the car and were excited about their day. All said they had fun and they liked their teachers. We celebrated the day with Sonic Happy Hour. It was a great day...hopefully these kind of days will continue through the year!!

Until next time...

Payton turns 5

2009-08-24T21:33:00.004-05:00

This past Saturday was Payton's FIFTH birthday. Since Bransyn's bday is 2 weeks away, I asked the girls if they wanted to have a party or if they would rather go to the zoo. Both excitedly said the zoo! Since my parents are coming this weekend and it worked out that Jeff has to work both of their birthday weekends, we will taking the birthday zoo trip this weekend with Grandma and Papa. Payton wanted to wait and have cake and open presents with Grandma and Papa so we told her she could pick a place to go for dinner so she would have something special to do on her birthday. She picked Red Robin. YUMMMMM!!!!

Our server (is that the PC term??) and other employees came to the table with balloons for her, announced to everyone in the place that it was her birthday and proceeded to sing to her.

She got a little emabarrassed when they were singing to her.

It was worth the embarrassment. :) She got this ginormous sundae that she shared with her sisters....and well OK, Mommy too!! :)

She loves her bendy Red Robin that they gave to her as well.

Happy Birthday sweet Payton. We love you very much!!

Until next time...

Go With The Flow

2009-08-24T21:02:00.003-05:00

Last Thursday, my friend and I thought we would be fun Mommies and take our kids to Dallas where a train promoting a Disney movie coming out later this year would be. We just knew our kids would love it!! We would get to take a tour of the train and watch a premier of the movie....ALL FOR FREE!! Thanks to Marilyn Monroe on the GPS we found exactly where we needed to go. Us bright Mommies, however, did not think about the fact that you have to pay to park in the city. So, after scrounging through the change in both of our wallets, we managed to come up with the $4 to park in a lot somewhat close to the train station. We trek with all kids to the station and walk inside where we are informed that there is a TWO HOUR wait to see the train!! REALLY?!?!?! Well, now what are we going to do? We have made the drive and paid the last of any money in our wallet to park, we don't want it to be a wasted trip but we are unwilling to stand in a two hour wait line outside in the heat with six kids to see a train. So instead of seeing a train like we thought, we took a little tour of the area with six kids in the heat. The kids were a lot less disappointed than I thought they would be and had a good time anyway.

Payton saw this building and asked if we could go in the palace because of course, that's what any princess would think this was. She's so cute!! :)

After walking around for awhile, everyone was hot and thirsty so we stopped for some cool air, drinks and cookies. YUM!

We went with the flow and had a fun time even though it wasn't what we had originally planned.

Until next time...

A Mommy's Worst Fear

2009-08-10T14:38:00.003-05:00

As a mommy, I think I can speak on behalf of all of us that our worst fear is something happening to one of our children. And by that, I mean them being lost or taken. Sadly, there are families out there having to deal with these sort of things on a daily, hourly and minute by minute basis. My heart breaks for them!

The girls had received a package from Grandma S this weekend containing clothes for each of them. A couple of items needed to be exchanged for different sizes. Yesterday afternoon, we made a family shopping trip and hit several stores which included JC Penney and Children's Place where the items needed to be exchanged. Since the item at CP was a pair of pants for Bransyn, Jeff dropped her and I off at the door so it would be less chaotic (so we thought) and I was to call him when we were done.

Bransyn and I enter CP, I found where the pants were, found the size I was looking for, tried them on her and yep, they were the size that were needed. SCORE! We go to the register so I can exchange them and two employees were busy with something so I was patiently waiting. Bransyn was standing right beside me. I turned around to look at a package of panties for a FEW SECONDS, turned back around and Bransyn wasn't standing there any longer. No big deal...I do a 360 turn, but still don't see her. Now, Bransyn is our child that doesn't like to be left behind so she pretty much sticks right to me. She even gets upset if I get too far ahead of her in the aisle at Walmart so I wasn't overly concerned. I look around the clothing near me and finally one of the morons working at CP tells me, "she went that way" pointing through the (doorless)doorway. REALLY?!?!?! So I go through thinking she will be right there, but she isn't. At this point I am still not freaking out, but I am quickly making my way through the store looking in and around all the clothing calling her name...first and middle! With each call of her name it is getting louder and louder as the panic starts to set in and I AM NOW FREAKING OUT!!!! My heart was POUNDING, I was shaking so bad and started sweating like crazy! Gross!! There were three other women there shopping with their children and not one of them stopped to help me look for her. Now I realize that it is my responsibility to keep an eye or both eyes on my children, but one would think that as a mother and you see someone searching frantically for their child that one would stop holding up articles of clothing and maybe help look. I personally have done that in the past, but not these moms, they couldn't have cared less!! I was so irritated and furious that I would have loved to strangle them with the clothing or beat them over their heads with the hangers! Maybe both!!!

I finally go back to the CP moron, I mean employee, where both morons, man! I mean employees are still working on whatever it was they were working on about 5 minutes earlier. NO ONE was concerned that I am screaming Bransyn's name running around the store in tears like a crazy person. When I finally asked for assistance, they helped look for her. Just as I get Jeff on the phone and tell him (in tears) that I can't find Bransyn and that it had been about 5 minutes, another employee hollers that she had her. Apparantly, she was tucked between something watching three boys whose mother was letting them run around and play in the window display and I kept missing her. Not to judge...but *nice*!! I scooped her up in my arms and asked her what she was doing and why she didn't answer me. She said, "I was right there!" :) and said she didn't hear me calling her. hmmmmm!! She was not even the least bit concerned or aware of the panic I had been in. I exchanged the pants with her still in my arms and carried her out to the car and didn't let go of her until I put her in her car seat.

Not something to be proud of, but I have now managed to "lose" all three of my girls somewhere. Kendal was almost 5 at an outdoor Easter event, Payton was the 2 to 3 range at JC Penney and now Bransyn, almost 4 at Children's Place. Sheesh!!

Thankfully for us in all those situations, it worked out OK in the end...we left with all our kids in tow. Last night though, I could not sleep. I kept thinking about the "CP incident" as well as thinking about all the parents that "that few seconds" has had a completely different ending for them and has forever changed them and their families. I laid in bed and cried for them and prayed for them!! I am so thankful for what God has blessed me with!!!

Until next time...

Ready for school

2009-08-05T09:21:00.002-05:00

We are officially into August and in 19 days, I will be taking not one, but two kids for their first day of school. Kendal will be starting 3rd grade and Payton will start her school "career". :)

Last night I took the girls (all three of them) to buy school supplies. I keep saying that I am going to buy the school packs through the PTA, but I am a helpless cheapskate (I get it from my mom) and I just can't bring myself to do that when I can save money by going to Walmart and getting everything myself. This year was actually a more pleasant experience because I didn't wait until almost the start of school to get everything. Last year I had to go to three different stores...what a pain that was!!! Probably didn't actually save any money when you factor in the gas that was used, but I digress.... :)

With TWO grades of school supply lists in hand, the four of us hit Walmart. I let each of them have their own cart to put their supplies in which was very cute, but was actually done to save in the arguing that I knew would ensue if we just had one and also to save me from having to re-sort everything before school starts. We were able to get EVERYTHING on both of their lists at ONE store. That was great! We only had one minor hiccup and that was the YELLOW PLASTIC FOLDER WITH POCKETS AND BRADS. I couldn't find one! Kendal, bless her heart, kept pulling out yellow folders and saying, "here's one!", but it would be one with pockets and no brads or brads with no pockets or not plastic at all. After several frustrating minutes, I finally resigned myself to the fact that we would have to locate one somewhere else. About that time, a very sweet and helpful Walmart employee (who you usually can't find to save your life) appeared and asked if I needed help finding anything. Thank you, Lord!! I told her that I was in search of the elusive yellow plastic folder with pockest and brads. She disappeared for a few minutes and when she re-appeared, was holding one in her hand and informed me that that was their last one. WHEW!!! God works in mysterious ways! :)

Kendal still has her messenger style book bag that my sis-in-law made her for last year that I absolutely love, but she informed me that she wanted a regular back pack for this year. I tried encouraging (pressuring) her to use that again, but she REALLY WANTS A BACKPACK! :) I decided that in the whole "pick your battle" scenario that this wasn't a battle that I needed to fight. The backpacks were only 10 bucks and I figure the messenger bag can be used whenever she wants to. If only I had realized the backpack she would really want, I may have fought that battle! She picked out an iCarly backpack with the iCarly girl, Miranda Cosgrove (Ithink that's her name) on it! BLEH!!! Not *bleh* Miranda Cosgrove...she's a cute girl, but *bleh* the backpack itself. I have NEVER bought any apparal anything with people or characters, whatever on them and I really didn't want to start with an iCarly backpack. I know, "what's the big deal, there are worse things", but this is just one of my crazy quirks! :) We stood in the aisle "discussing" this for about 15 min. before I finally told her that we would go ahead and get it, but that I reserve the right to continue to think about it and possibly return it. She was OK with that and threw the backpack in her cart. We will continue to look around and see if I can encourage (pressure) her to pick something else. :) Payton had already thrown her cute backpack in her cart, but when she saw that Kendal was getting the iCarly one, went running to the Princess one hanging on the wall...I just couldn't go there so she got a Princess water bottle to take to school instead. She was happy with that!

Payton, as I have mentioned in previous posts, has not been excited about the start of school because of the shot situation. She doesn't want to get shots, so she doesn't want to go to school!! I was at a birthday party last week talking to a friend that works in the school district and she was saying that if she didn't have her shots that they wouldn't even let her start until she gets them. I wasn't sure how to work that since her birthday is on Sat. the 22nd and school starts Mon. the 24th. You can't get shots prior to the birthday so what was I going to do...take her first thing Mon. morning before school to get her shots and then drop her off for her first day of Kindergarten. That just seems way mean, but the only other option was to miss the first day of school, which was also not acceptable to me. I decided I needed to look into the matter.

I went to the office where they get their shots to inquire about this dilema. The nurse pulled her records and low and behold if she doesn't need shots after all! HALLELUJAH AND PRAISE THE LORD!!!! She also pulled the other two and come to find out, Kendal has to get a second chicken pox vaccine. Made me laugh...ruined Kendal's day! :) I can wait and take her in the same time I take Bransyn in for her shots after her 4th birthday next month. I don't know where I got the idea that Payton had to get 5 year shots, but FYI...if the school nurse doesn't inform you that shots need to be given before starting school when you register them, then you're good to go. DUH!!! ;-D

Summer is winding down....I am watching my friends girls three days this week and next, we will have a few more trips to the pool (AAHHHH!!) hang out with friends and before we know it, school will begin. Two kids with homework, not really looking forward to that! With the "shot crisis of '09" averted, school supplies purchased and plenty of school clothes (thanks to my mom-in-law), we will be ready when the day comes. There will just be a few tears shed and all from this mommy!

Until next time...

Long to Short(er) Hair

2009-07-22T19:28:00.004-05:00

Almost two weeks ago, I had finally had enough of all the hair. Washing it, combing it, picking it off the furniture...I had had enough and decided to get it chopped off! Well, some of it anyway. Kendal is insistent on growing her bangs back out, so her hairdo needed a little help, Payton had been asking to get hers cut like her one of her friends (which is similar to mine) and Bransyn just about had to look up to see out from under her bangs. Daddy's only input was that it couldn't be cut above their shoulders...there went Payton's request. :)

FRONT SHOT BEFORE

FRONT SHOT AFTER

BACK SHOT BEFORE

BACK SHOT AFTER

Payton wanted me to take her pic pretending to be sad because she got her hair cut

Bransyn, not to be outdone, had to have one with her pretending to be mad

Silly girls!! ;-)

Until next time...

"Jesus To The Rescue"

2009-07-22T19:12:00.003-05:00

July 6-9, the girls had Vacation Bible School at our church. Always a fun time learning about Jesus, fun songs, Bible verses and being with friends. Plus...Mama got to at least get rid of two them for a few hours each day for a week. ;) Here are some pics of their week...

performing their songs

SWEET FRIENDS!!

Until next time...

Wacky Hair

2009-07-09T01:52:00.003-05:00

Two weeks ago, Kendal and Payton attended Vacation Bible School at a local church and each day had a different "theme" such as camo day, sports day and...WACKY HAIR DAY. I asked the girls if they wanted to wear their hair "wacky" or normal. Kendal wasn't sure and Payton wanted it wacky so while Kendal made up her mind, I went to work on Payton's hair. While doing her hair, Kendal decided she wanted her hair wacky just like Payton's. Here's how they turned out....

The "do" started hurting Kendal's head so one of her leaders ended up undoing hers for her. Poor lady! Payton left hers in until bathtime that night. They even went home with a friend afterwards and Kay had to stop at Walmart on her way home and walked around Walmart with her looking like that. I'm sure people were giving them some funny looks! :)

Until next time...

Kendal's 8th Birthday

2009-07-09T00:41:00.008-05:00

Kendal's birthday was June 7th and fell on a Sunday this year, so this particular Sunday was a little crazier than usual. Last July at VBS at our church Kendal got saved and soon after started talking about wanting to be baptized. We would talk to her about what that means and ask her questions and while she seemed to "get it", we didn't push the issue, we just told her that when she was really ready she would have to go forward at church. About the end of April, she said out of the blue one day that she wanted to go forward for baptism. Jeff wanted to be there, obviously, so we had to wait for his next off weekend which just so happened to be on Mother's Day. She went forward during the invitation and after the serivce our Pastor talked with her for a little bit and felt that she understood the meaning of baptism and told her to "pick a day". Well since her birthday was on a Sunday and Grandma and Papa S would be visiting then, she wanted to be baptised on her birthday. So that's how her birthday started, quite appropriate, I think!

She looks a little nervous

Getting the nose plugged :0)

I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

Mark 1:8

Rushed home to snap a few pics while we still looked nice, scarf down some lunch, finish getting things together and heading to her party which was at the pool again this year. Perfect place to have a summer birthday party!

Kendal with her friend Maggie

friends, friends and more friends

The whole gang ready for cake and singing Happy Birthday

It ended up being a little windy and we couldn't get the candle to light so she had to pretend to blow out the candle. Hope she still gets her wish! ;-)

Chocolate cake...YUMMY, YUMMY!!!!

Too cute Bsyn

Payton, Kimberly and Bransyn

Back home...dressed and ready to open presents

Happy with all of her gifts!!

Payton being goofy with the goggles and she wanted me to take a picture

Even goofier! Boy, she sure can get that mouth into quite the frown!!

Bransyn had to be part of the action with her goggles that are totally upside down. Weirdo!! :)

I made flip-flop cookies out of Nutter Butters and these were what were left. They looked super cute, although in this pic...not so much! The frosting looks like cement instead of the purple color they actually were. Oh, well! :)

Until next time...

Last Day of School

2009-07-08T23:51:00.004-05:00

Yes, the last day of school was a month and 3 days ago. I just haven't taken the time to update, but a certain friend (ALLYSON!) will occassionally give me grief about my un-updated blog so I am finally taking the time for the much needed update even though it means staying up late! :)

The girls and I went to the school for the end of year class party which is fun, but also a little sad. It's means another year has gone by and our girls our getting older *sniff,sniff*, it means homework will be a little harder next year, it means that friends won't be seen on a regular basis, it means that all three of them will be home and will get on each other's (and mine) nerves, it means finding things to do that don't require too much money or having to be out in the heat and this time it even means that on the first day of school, I will be leaving two of my girls there all day.

Picnic lunch outside, which was a little too warm for my taste, but the kids loved it and that's what matters......I guess! :)

First round of sunflower seed spitting contest. It was supposed to be watermelon seeds, but a SEEDLESS watermelon was accidentally bought instead (HA!) so some improvisation was required. One little girl cracked me up because she chose not to participate because she said that ladies don't spit. HAHAHA-HA!!! My "lady" didn't care she was out there spittin' as best as she could.

She made it to the final four and ended up in fourth. But we are talking about a SPITTING contest so fourth is good!

The girls with Kendal's teacher, Mrs. Potter

When we got home, Payton and Bransyn decided to lay random items all over the living room floor. Each piece had it's own place and they worked very hard to get it just right. They are very proud of their "work", can't you tell!?!

They didn't have as much fun filling these buckets back up as they did emtying them.

Until next time...

Our "Graduate"

2009-05-18T22:08:00.004-05:00

Today, our middle baby graduated from the Child Development Center that she has attended since she got her first set of shots and was able to start coming with me at two months of age. I really do not know where the time has gone. How is it already possible that at the start of next school year, she will no longer walk in that door with me and Bransyn every Monday and Friday?!?! I will no longer get to see her pass by in the hall, take a peek at her in her class or Music class or Gross Motor class when she doesn't know that I am even watching her, I will no longer be able to go into her classroom just because I want/need to steal a kiss and hug from her. My heart breaks that those moments are forever gone and will only be sweet memories, but at the same time, I am so excited for the new school "adventures" that lie ahead for her. She will get to be at school with her big sister!! How great will that be?!?!?!

the kids performed a few songs, including a Bible verse song

getting her certificate and "Read to Me Bible" from two of her teachers, Ms. R and Ms. D

Ms. L was sick and couldn't be there :(

During the five years Payton attended CDC, she had 11 teachers that have loved on her, let her be who she is, made her laugh, played with her, comforted her, colored with her, sang with her, been just down right goofy with her and most importantly taught her about Jesus. One of my favorite "things" about this year is that ever since Easter and hearing the Easter Story at CDC (and Sunday School at church), everytime....well, almost everytime....she says her prayers, she includes, "Thank you for Jesus dying on the cross for us and that I will see Him up in heaven."

Payton, we are so proud to be your Mommy and Daddy. I wish I could keep you and your sisters from growing up so fast. I feel like we are missing out on so much because everything is moving so quickly. I can't believe that in a little more that three months we will be walking you into your Kindergarten classroom. Although, according to you, you will not be going to Kindergarten because when you got your four year shots and I was trying to console you, I made the mistake of saying, "It'll be OK, you don't have to get shots again until you go to Kindergarten." Really not my brightest and best Mommy moment. You survived the four year shots, you'll survive the Kinder shots and you'll have so much fun at "big kid school"!! We love you very much and pray for you everyday, sweet girl!!

Until next time...