He's been hit on!

Yesterday at church we ended up sitting next to one of Trent's friends.  She is a total southern girl and has always been a bit smitten by Trent (well, come on, who wouldn't).  During the last song, she reached over and put her hand on Trent's hand and left it there.  Trent just FROZE.

Later, while we were out caroling and delivering goody bags, I asked Trent about it (I am just going to call her "T"):

Mom:  Trent, was T holding your hand in church today?

Trent: NOOOOO!

Mom:  Well, what was she doing then?

Trent:  I DON'T KNOWWWWW!

Mom:  Did she put her hand on  your hand and leave it there?

Trent: YESSS!

Mom:  why do you think she did that?

Trent:  I DON'T KNOW WHY SHE DID THAT, MAYBE SHE LIKES ME!

Mom:  Did you like her holding your hand?

Trent: I DON'T KNOW!

Mom:  Does she want to be your girlfriend?

Trent:  I DON'T KNOW.  MOOOOMMMMM, CAN WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE?

Donald and I were just busting  up.  we found it just too too funny.

those beautiful eyes of his

Tonight as we were getting ready to eat, Tanner was asked to bless the food.  I was looking over at him so I could help him with what to say.  As I sat there patiently, I was thinking "golly, Tanner has such beautiful eyes and the longest lashes."  After prayer her wiped his nose with the side of his hand, a black smear appeared on his cheek.  I went to go wipe it off, and then I saw his lashes even closer.  Tanner was wearing mascara!  And even more strange he did a nearly flawless job at applying the mascara.  The only evidence he had left behind was a couple black dots of the make up on his hand, which he then transferred to his cheek.

Tis the season

It took some time to get into the feeling and spirit of the season this year.  Usually I am bursting with excitement to listen to Christmas music non stop and to put up the decorations as soon as Thanksgiving is past.  This year, I have felt 10 steps behind and am finally done decorating.  It is hard to believe that Christmas is less than 2 weeks away, I guess I need to work on my holiday baking now.

Our family Christmas tree.  The other tree in the living room is MY tree, lol.

The boys favorite ornament on the tree.

My favorite ornament on the tree.

The mantle with the stockings I made and the nativity 

glass etching my mom made.

I love my berry tree and candle holder (even if there are no candles in it

 - thanks boys for using those as swords)

Here's my snowman family - minus half a family. lol

Now for my holiday confession:  Mom, dad, Tiffany, Jolene and Katrina, I will  NOT be continuing the pigs in the blanket tradition this year.  Go ahead and disown me now.

Do you know how to burn jello?

Well, tonight I discovered that YES, YES you can burn jello.  As a matter of fact, it can even explode into an enormous mess, smell really strange, and cause billows and billows of smoke.

(this picture was taken after about half of the mess was taken care of.  

Sadly, it does not even do this event justice!)

Tonight I was preparing dinner for the missionaries.  We had a set that was visiting from our Stake (one who served in our ward last Christmas) and our current set.  I was trying to make black beans (the best ever might I add), prepare a salad, and bring the jello mixture to a rolling boil for the Blushing Pears.  Well, I guess I miscalculated how quickly the jello would boil, because before I could even blink I heard a huge amount of noise coming from the stove.  I quickly turned around to see my jello boiling over at a rapid pace.  I quickly grab my large heavy pot as I watched the red jello quickly move to my laptop computer.  So I grabbed it as fast as I could while screaming for Donald.  Moments later Don comes into the kitchen to find the sizzling jello on the burner and jello spilling over onto the floor and the rest rushing across my counter top.  We found a place for me to put the pot of jello and then I quickly inspected my computer.  There was some jello on it and on my camera card, but I was able to save it!  GO ME!  Meanwhile, the jello on the stove top was now forming into some kind of clumpy mass.  The only thing I think I could compare it to would be if you have ever made candy from scratch, and if that experience exploded, I would think it would a similar situation as to what I had today.  I tried to scrape the gooey mess off of the burner because it was smelling up the kitchen so bad.  The room was filled with smoke and we had all the doors open and the fans blowing.   After the burner was completely cooled off, Donald was able to chip away the jello mess  like you would chip away at an ice block. 

After much elbow grease and about 30 minutes of both of us working, we were able to restore things to ALMOST normal.  

Nonetheless, word to the wise would be - DON'T BURN YOUR JELLO! 

You would think, wouldn't you.

One might think that we are twins or sisters, but sadly, I am not related to my friend Kim at all.  

When I moved to Mississippi 4.5 years ago, and went to girls camp for a day, person after person came up to me to ask me if I was related to Kim.  Everyone swore up and down that she had to be my sister.  So for the first year of living here, I heard all these stories how I had a twin sister in Harrisburg Ms.  

Well, I am pleased to report that Kim is a great and wonderful person to be compared to.  If I could ever be half as amazing as she is, I would consider myself blessed beyond blessed.  Here is a picture of the two of us from our Enrichment activity this past week.  I asked Kim if she would come and speak to us on "Serving as the Savior Did".  She drove 90 miles on a Thursday night to come to our Enrichment - that just shows you what kind of person she truly is.

I never really thought we looked "SOOOO" similar until I was able to see a picture of us standing next to each other.  If you cover our eyes, it is very clear that we have the same jaw line, chin, nose, and smile.

Thanksgiving

Doesn't it always seem that there are times when you are a minute late and a dollar short?  Well that is how I feel, but that is not the point of this post.  I want to pull out a few tid bits of things I am thankful  for.  Some are more on the deeper side and some are light hearted.

I am thankful for the home I live in.  We have plenty of room and a great yard.  I love my kitchen and all the counter space.  I love knowing that I have a place to call home.

I am thankful for my husband who works hard to provide for his family.  Donald is constantly juggling many things in the air at once just to keep it all moving smoothly. I am truly grateful for his ability, talent, hard work, ingenuity, passion, drive, patience, and kind and giving heart.

I am thankful for Little Cesar's Pizza that is just down the street.  I have a confession to make: I honestly think we eat Little Cesar's once a week.  Some nights when I am too pooped to cook, or we are running around with sports and don't have time to eat at home, or nights like tonight, where Donald was doing yard work and I was taking advantage of the good weather with the kids - we can hop in the car and be at Little Cesar's in just minutes!  Sadly, one pizza and bread sticks does not do the trick anymore, it is now TWO pizzas with bread sticks.

I am thankful for the Internet.  Twelve years ago I would never have imagined that the Internet would penetrate our lives and existence so much.  From communicating with friends and family, to shopping at stores we don't have here, to checking the weather, or learning about the First Thanksgiving - the Internet is used each and every day in our home.  It allows me to accomplish so much more from the comforts of my home (especially with nap times).

I am thankful for my friends chocolate chip cookies.  For the first 30 years of my life I have not liked my own chocolate chip cookies.  They have always been flat and just kinda crumbly.  My friend gave me the simplest recipe that makes the best melt in your mouth chocolate chip cookies and I can't seem to stop making them.  I seriously crave them every week.

I am thankful for my children.  Sometimes I take for granted how easy it has been for me to be a mom.  I did not have to suffer long months of infertility, or go thru extremely difficult pregnancies.  I have been blessed with having 4 great kids.  Each and every one of them is amazing, and special, and such a gift.  I know I need to focus more on that, and less on my own short comings as well as theirs.

I am thankful for my space heater.  We have a space heater that is just fantastic and we use it in our family room down stairs.  When I am really cold and my toes feel like ice, I grab a blanket and snuggle right up to it.  It does not take long to feel toasty cozzy and that is just so relaxing.

I am thankful for our blower.  Who ever invented the leaf blower was brilliant!  We have so many trees on our property and with it comes millions of leaves.  We use the blower for everything, blowing out the gutters, blowing out the garage or work shop, and of course blowing off our yard.  

I am thankful for the gospel, Jesus Christ, and my Heavenly Father.  My words can not even express my gratitude for the blessing the gospel brings to my life.  I don't even fully understand the Lord's mercy, yet I am overwhelmed with such a deep gratitude for it.  I am so privileged that I was raised in a home where the gospel was taught and lived by.  My parents were valiant examples of fallowing our Heavenly Father.

I think I will stop now.  All sorts of things keep flooding into my mind and if I don't stop now, this will be the longest post in the history of blogger.    Bottom life, there is so much to be thankful for that there is always a reason to be smiling.

the TOOTHPASTE Monster

I think there is a TOOTHPASTE MONSTER that lives somewhere in the kids bathroom, maybe he hides behind the bathroom pipes.  The TOOTHPASTE MONSTER must sneak out from his hiding place in the late hours of the night.  He terrorizes the bathroom smearing toothpaste in the strangest of places.  He smears it on the mirror, on the shower curtain, on the cabinets, on the toilet seat, on the tub, on the walls, on the floor and even on the ceiling.  Some nights, the TOOTHPASTE MONSTER must be in a particularly rambuncious mood, because toothpaste will be found in all these locations all in one night - rather than just a few spots per night.

I know that this toothpaste smearing can only be caused by some miss guided TOOTHPASTE MONSTER because  my children are perfect angels.  They would never get toothpaste anywhere besides the sink, and even then, surely they would just wipe it out and leave no toothpaste in site.

My big question is: Do you have a TOOTHPASTE MONSTER living at your house too?

The things they do . . .

Today Brook was throwing a whopper of a fit.  I guess she really wore herself out because now she is snoring behind the family room sofa.

While Donald was putting in a new bathroom sink in the kids bathroom, this is how the kids entertained themselves.  Trent could barely pull their "train", so I ended up being the engine for a while.

Here is Trent's Reading Fair board.  He traced the pictures, colored the, cut them out, etc.  He did not win in the contest, but that is ok - he won last year.

under attack!

As I was laying on the floor of Brooklyne's room (looking for a quite and peaceful place to hide from the noise and craziness of my children) Tanner came barging in and proceeded to shoot canyons at me from their pirate ship for about 5 minutes.  He got me in the eye, the arm, the cheek, the hip, the foot, - pretty much EVERYWHERE, all the while being held captive by his accomplice, Brooklyne as she bounced up and down on my stomach.

Who says that being a mom isn't painful???

odds and ends

I have not posted in the past week because there has not been anything to report that I can remember.  Maybe that is my problem, remembering things. hee hee.  I think I will just do a brief update on everyone in our family today, so I am sorry if I bore you to a nice long snooze.

Trenton:  Trent has been busy, busy, busy.  In school, he has been concentrating on taking more AR tests, which I am so relieved about.  He also had his reading fair project this week.  He stayed up all week past his bedtime and worked on it.  He did his project on Officer Buckle and Gloria.  He was really proud of his project and was certain he would win first place.  Sadly, he did not.  Nonetheless, it was a great project and we are really proud of him.  Trent has also been heavily involved in building/carving a trail behind our house in the thorny bushes and trees.  They put a plank across the riven have have been working hard with the other kids on our street.

Kolby:  Kolby is such a sweet kid.  His teach adores him and all the girls gush over him.  He loves to write and draw and color.  He has been doing a great job at sounding out words and putting letters together to form words.  His teacher beams about him which is always a good thing.  Kolby has also been enjoying playing cowboys - constantly.  I swear he has guns with him every waking hour and is ready to shoot the next target in his line of fire.  He has also been mildly interested in the trail building out back, but has not participated much.

Tanner:  Believe it or not, last week, I had a good solid 2 hours where Tanner was simply and angel.  He listened and obeyed, he was kind and loving, he was helpful  and cheerful.  It was amazing.  I asked him to clean up his outside toys so we could have lunch, and he promptly started singing the cleanup song and put EVERYTHING away.  He didn't even get mad at his sister who kept getting balls out.  Sadly, his 2 hours of angelness faded after his nap, but I still love that kid.  Tanner has also been going to speech therapy twice a week.  We are currently working on the letters B and P - in the middle of words and at the end of a word.  I am eager to be able to understand what my child is saying - maybe then, we can pass this pistol stage that he has been in ever since he turned 1.

Brooklyne:  Brook is s sweet, smart, silly little firecracker.  She likes to get into mischief and knows she is doing something she in not suppose to.  She cracks me up.  She loves to bug Tanner and take things from him, then run as fast as she can with a death grip on whatever she stole.  This usually ends in some sort of a war where I have to confiscate said item.  Brook also loves to be outside.  She and Tanner adore the neighbor cat and chase her everywhere.  Brooklyne also likes to be independent.  She keeps trying to do her seat buckle herself and gets badder than mad if we step in and help before she is ready to concede to such a thing.  She also is very stubborn and opinionated.  She is not afraid to tell you off and give you a piece of her mind if she feels so inclined to do so.  I do wish though that she used words that we understood.  Currently there are only 4 things that she says that actually SOUND like what she is trying to say.  "uh oh", "mama", "no", and "meow".  Hopefully she does not take after her brother Tanner - I don't know what I will do with another 3 year old that I can't understand.

Camille:  I have been busy as usual.  I have been in a bit of a FUNK I guess, but has maintained the business nonetheless.  I have made so many batches of caramel corn in the past 2 months that I don't want to see another popcorn kernel until next year.  Sadly, I still have to make a batch for Trent's class on Friday (that is the last one, I swear, lol).  I have also been helping out in Trent's class, which I have enjoyed.  I get to read with 6 of the kids and get a feel for things on campus.  I like knowing that my name and face are known there, especially with the issues we have been facing this school year (all administrative).  I have also been busy working out at the gym.  I was suppose to run a 5k this weekend, but chickened out because of poor weather.  I have also been keeping busy with different projects at home, getting together for the kids to play with others, and just spending time as a family.  There never seems to be enough hours in a day to get it all done.

Donald:  Don has been working his tail end off like usual.  He has had 2 trips in the past couple of weeks.  First he went to southern California for a job interview - he was gone for 3 full days.  A few days later, he turned around and had a business meeting/training in Atlanta Ga and was gone for 2 whole days.    Don has also been trying harder to keep his stress and anxiety in check.  He was working out 3 days a week, getting more sleep and trying to eat healthy.  But for some reason, he has been falling off that wagon, I sure hope he doesn't let his stress get too high before it is too late.  Nonetheless, he works hard at trying to juggle the many many many things that fall on his plate - overall, he does a great job with it.

So there you have it, our little clan in a nutshell.  I hope I haven't forgotten anyone.  

. . . There are no words

What kind of 3 year old sticks their tongue out for getting his mouth washed out with soap? 

 What kind of 3 year old sits there, WILLINGLY, and giggles while you rub soap in his mouth? 

 Need you really ask, - of course it is TANNER! 

 I mean come on, if it is going to leave you dumbfounded, it must be from Tanner, bless his little heart.

Trick or Treat! --- Halloween pictures!!!

My boys must have been longing for the "old west frontier" because they were insistent on being cowboys for Halloween this year.  At first they wanted to do cowboys and Indians, but they could not decide on who would be Indians.  So, I convinced them that we could do cowboys and bandits (because they wanted to have someone to fight).

Here's our lovely family.

Before we went trick or treating, several families in our neighborhood got together for a chili dinner first.  We did the actual trick or treating with 2 other families, so about half of this group.

Here are a few random pictures from our evening.

This posy of 4 are some of Trent's good friends.  David, Cooper, Harvey and Turnabell.  Can you figure out which one is the girl??? (hint: she is NOT the shortest one there)

(btw, I could not figure out how to get my pictures smaller - I pulled them from my photobucket account and all the different things I did to change it, nothing changed.)

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We went to a Halloween party a few weeks ago.  We had a great time with the games, hay ride, haunted house, and bon fire.  It was a great night.  Too bad we lost Tanner Kolbys cowboy chaps that night.