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. 

Spooky happenings

I don't know what is going on with Blogger, but it is being very very very very

 strange today.  I have uploaded pictures to the last post 4 times, and it shows up, 

and the they  just vanish!  Seriously, they are they one second, and then 

I will scroll down and they are completely gone.  So I am leaving the

 previous "topsy turvy" thread, well, um, topsy turvy!

better late than never - Our Topsy Turvy dinner and F.H.E.

I just want to get this on the blog before I post our halloween stuff.  A couple weeks ago, we made our scarecrow for F.H.E.  This year, we made him into a skelton pirate.  All the boys on the street think he is just the raddest thing ever.  Well, what can I say, we are a rad family.  =)

Then for dinner, we did a topsy turvy dinner.  We all sat in different seats at the table and had dessert first.  Peach Cobbler, yummm.  Then we had our water in a bowl, and our dinner (potatoes and onions, my dad's recipe) in cups.  The kids got to use the grown up silver wear, and Don and I used the kid stuff.  

The kids had a great time and have been begging ever since then to do another topsy turvy dinner.    I think we will have to do a once a year tradition or something, April 1st sounds good to me.  

The New Mayor Lives in Our Home!!!

Trenton Lowe is the new MAYOR of Wizardville! 

Last week Trent came home from school and was going on and on and on about running for Mayor.  He showed me papers from his teacher explaining the activity.    The kids were learning about government and elections in class, and were to have a class election of their own.  The kids were told they could run for city council or mayor or just vote.  Of course Trent, being the "shoot for the moon" kinda kid insisted on running for mayor.  He was to make a poster, have a slogan that rhymed, and prepare and present a speech on Monday.  

Trent was very specific on what his poster was to look like.  He said he wanted it to be red, white, and blue, look like an American flag, have a big #1 and lots of stars.  So on Saturday, we got to work.  Donald helped Trent design his poster while I helped with his speech.

Monday he went to school, all ready and nervous yet excited to meet the mayor of our city.  Sadly, the mayor was not coming till Wednesday.  Nonetheless, there were 7 children running for mayor, so they presented their speeches to the class and had a class vote, narrowing it down to 4 candidates.  After Trent's speech, he handed out laffy taffy's with his picture and slogan on them (what a politician right - bribery).  He made it into the top 4.

Tuesday night Trent was feeling kinda sick, and we found that he was running a low temp.  He was shattered.  He begged to go to school on Wednesday because he wanted to meet the mayor.  I told him that we will see how he feels thru the night, and in the morning, and decide then.  He had a very long personal prayer that evening.  When he woke up this morning, he was fever free, and feeling like his normal energetic self.  He practices his speech over breakfast and was all ready to meet the mayor of our city.  

I got a phone call around 10:30 a.m. today, it was Trent.  He just said hello at first, so of course I was thinking that he must be running a fever again and the poor boy was going to be devastated.  Instead, I heard him say "mom, I am the new mayor of our class"  and then he just laughed.  I could his his teacher in the background, she was so proud of him.  Trent is really excited, he even gets to go visit the mayor in his office one day  (not sure when, I will find out details later this week, I am sure).  

Nonetheless, I am so proud of my young man.  I find myself looking up to him more than I ever knew was possible.  He is just so amazing!  So, I say, "way to go Trent, I knew you could do it!"

(btw, Wizardwille is what they call their class, they are "White's wizards of Wizardville".)

The tricks of a 3 year old.

So we all know how a 3 year old can really "work one over" on you.  We all know the tricks:  running to the bathroom at bedtime, needing a glass of water after being put to bed, the tummy hurts so he can't finish his dinner.  The list goes on and on and on.

Well, tonight, Tanner came up with a NEW way of getting out of cleaning up the toys.  Instead of giving us a bunch of excuses, he just goes and WACKES his head on the ledge of the brick on the fireplace.

(by the way, these pictures are taken about 25 minutes after the fall.  

The swelling went down quite a bit with ice and medicine.)

So, does this look like a good excuse for him NOT to have to clean up his toys?  I mean seriously, just look at that smile - he looks fine to me!  

Wheels of Fun

With all the wonderful weather we have been having, we have been spending plenty of time outside playing.  Tanner and Brooklyne love to play on all the ride on toys in the front yard, driveway, and garage.  Of course Tanner prefers the UNconventional way of riding on the car.

Tanner loves to ride Kolby's old bike.  He also likes to fix/fiddle with the training wheels.

Although it is hard to tell from the pictures, Brook was having a lot of fun in the black truck.  She is just being a stinker and wouldn't let me take a decent picture.

"Ahhhh, what a sweet older brother."  Tanner kept trying to push her in the truck so she could go down the hill.  She wanted NOTHING to do with his help.

Soccer Boys!

For the last 2 months, we have been busy with the first half of soccer season.  Sadly, I did not even bring my camera until the last 2 games for each child.  

Here's Kolby playing a game this past Thursday night.  They lost, but it did not seem to matter because the kids had fun anyway.

Here is a picture of Kolby and Colby I "think" shooting spider webs at the other team.
Here we have Trent playing.  I can not remember if they won this game or not - but at least I remembered my camera and did not loose any children that day.

Don't you just love Brooklyne's big orange bow???