Got Kids?

My kids are hooked on Kids History videos. When I was shown one for the first bit I was not so sure, but then before I knew it, I was just a'laughin' away!

This one cracks me up the most.

It's What We Do

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I am discovering that we are a sketchy family. Not that kind of sketchy, the drawing kind. I didn't imagine it to be that way, but it is and I like it.

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Not this past weekend but the one before, my family and I sat and watched 8 hours of TV. It was the good kind of TV though. There was a lot of sketching going on that weekend. That's when Naomi gifted Nolan with a paper corn dog. There were a few more sketches produced that weekend that I felt the need to share.

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Rae drew portraits of the family. This is me. Yikes.

And so did Nolan.

They drew their dad. In his defense, he was quite sick. . Wes was on his laptop throughout conference. In his defense.... there is no defense! In my defense, he is 21 and it's not my computer. Otherwise I woulda'..... This is Nolan's self portrait. You see his frown? And his "cough cough"? You would think he's frowning because he was coughing but no. He's frowning because he's mastered the frown and won't stop frowning! I've been trying to get a picture of it but he wouldn't let me. But the other day I texted him something and he didn't like my text, so this was his reply-

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Zoe saw her older siblings drawing the family, so she drew us all as Robots.

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That inspired Rae to draw the family as vegetables.

And that, my friends, was the best picture of me yet!

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Birthday Wishes

MoM,

Thank you for all you do.You take really good care of us! I hope you have a Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy BiRtHdAy!...So does this mean I have to pack my own lunch?:(

Love,NaOmI!











DEAR MOM

I love you so much you are the best mom that can be! You take VARY good care of me and I made up a BIRTHDAY song for you it goes like this.......... HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU .......... HEY HAPPY 20TH B- DAY





LOVE ZOE









Dear mom,

i hope this is a great birthday for you. your such a great mom and you deffinately deserve a day to yourself. sometimes i look at other people and realize how unfortunate they are because they dont have you to be their mom. nope. just me and those 4 other ones are lucky enough to be able to say we have the best mom in the existence of moms. sometimes when we meet people we say "hi im the owner of the mom everyone is jealous of, whats your name?" or sometimes we say "hi, my name is rae, and yes it is true my mom IS better then yours" or when we're feeling extra sassy we say, "hi, oh no, no your mom does not compare"

Lorinda, i am glad your my mom, i find you inspiring at times. i love you mom

Rae











Female Parental Unit,

Your birthday is coming up soon. And as everyone knows, birthday comes from the Latin root 'bur thday' which comes from the Malayo-Polynesian word 'brday' which means "That one day when you get to act like a brat and you get all sorts of presents and it makes you all spoiled and you know what else? You eat a lot of junk food so it also makes you fat." Although 'brday' might actually mean 'bird'. Scientists aren't completely sure on that one. Anyways I feel like if I buy you a superfly present then you will feel like you have to buy me a present that is equally superfly for my brday. As in birthday, not bird. I don't want you to get a superfly present for my bird. That would be a waste because we all know that animals don't have feelings. As a matter of fact...What?...What did you say Mom?....I need to stop writing? Why?.......Cause I'm taking up too much space?......Oh....Ok....................I just stop writing...........now............Ok now...............................NOW....ok



Nolan


dear mom your awesome, you make the best dinners and desserts a guy could ask for and your the best person to sit down and talk to, thanks for everything you do. love wesley

Parenting Help, Please??

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Two things I've caught myself saying to a child in the past week, out of pure desperation-

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"Do you want to be restricted from your Proactive?"

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And...

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"Why do you have to act so..... twelve?! Do you want me to show you what a 40 year old acts like?!"

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I don't even know what the latter means.

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I think I just need to face the facts- my kids are in definite need of an Attitude Adjuster. I've yet to purchase one of those so I am asking parents to help me. What kind of Attitude Adjuster have you invested in? Do they work? Do you have a favorite?

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I'm kinda leaning toward this one....

But this one is similar and costs about the same.

A friend recommended this Attitude Adjuster.

And I've heard this one works.

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Listen, call me Open and Desperate. I am all ears and anxious to hear what is working for you.

Birthday Confusion

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My huzbands birthday was Friday (as I mentioned earlier). We went on a birthday date (as we usually do). We had some Outback Steakhouse (ever had their Filet Wedge Salad -Tender sliced filet with a cool, crisp wedge of fresh Iceberg lettuce, Blue Cheese dressing, grape tomatoes, red onions, bacon and Blue Cheese crumbles, drizzled with a sweet balsamic glaze? YUM!!!)

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Then we went and saw Despicable Me (his first time, my third).

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Then my toothache came back with a vengeance. (I thought I might die that night)

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But I put on a smile for the kids surprise for their daddy-o (my acting skills came in handy).

I love Naomi's jig that came before the song.

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But the kids kept getting confused about whose birthday they were celebrating.

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(they think they are SO funny)

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Birthday, Family Night, Wrastlin'

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My oldest is 21 today.

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:-O

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No, really....

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:-O

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I really can't believe it.

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Anyways, Wes came over for dinner and family night and a partay. I made his favorite (Asian food), we watched a sweet video, we all looked at his baby book and reminisced and he opened presents and we ate cake (cheesecake, to be exact), we took a bunch of blurry pictures (something is wrong with my camera) and thankfully some not so blurring video.

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And somehow an arm wrastlin' competition got going.

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How was your Monday night??

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Beach Day

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Monday we had a beach day.

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I was constantly counting bobbing heads in the ocean. (& hoping I was counting the right heads)

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Rae and her cousin threw the football a bit.

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The kids were begging to visit the aquarium and since we didn't take them there, they made their own.

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And instead of sand castles, they made sand Sea Turtles.

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Oh, and by the way..... how do you find out if when applying sun block, you missed a spot?

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Sit in the sun for a few hours, and you'll know.

Right along the hair line.... Nice.

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(ignore the bright red lipstick, wouldya? that plays no part in my beach day story)
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Reacclimating

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School has been out for almost 1 week and a half for my kids.

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I think I am struggling with the adjustment more this year than years past.

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I had forgotten how much they eat, how they think we should go somewhere and do something fun every single day, how much I trip over them because they are always in the way, how hard it is to get them to bed at night and even harder to get them out of bed in the morning (with the exception of Zoe) and lastly- how I can't put something off until I get a quiet moment, because there won't be one until August.

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Speedy Quick!

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I have to be super fast with this post. This day seems to have gotten away from me, for starters, and in a matter of minutes, it will be time to pick up the kiddo's. And then the day will no longer be mine!

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You know how that is.

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Anyways, let me first tell you that OHMY, who knew that the very day I posted about Zoe's pants would be Zoe's pants last day??

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I sure didn't!

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I mean, for Pete's sake, those pants have been with us for a while. Since the 1st grade! They were one of the very first school uniform (booooo!) pants I ever bought. They have been with her from the time they fit her as pants, before they became high-waters and then Capri's.

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But Monday night, right after Family Night, me and the bigger kiddo's were gathered around the computer watching the lesson Nolan had just given. Yes, I recorded it.

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In the meantime, Zoe had just broke one of her new dolls (the Lorinda doll to be exact). Her head had become unattached. And without my knowledge, she got into Gary's stuff and got Super Glue and while trying to fix Lorinda, she spilled the glue on the (leather) couch and also on the seat of her pants. She super glued her undies to her pants and luckily did not super glue her pants and undies to herself!

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She also super glued the couch cushion to the side of the couch.

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.............................

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It's just a material thing, right?

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Oy.

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But anyways, the lesson Nolan gave was GREAT! It was on The Plan of Salvation.

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And he said I couldn't share the video of him teaching on my blog (boooooo!) but he said I could share this part. Where Rae admits to some confusion she makes that he thought she should have not admitted to.

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.(just in case you couldn't hear it, she said she's always afraid that she'll say Gotham City when she means to say Gethsemane. The two names confuse her. *snicker*)

I can't believe I am admitting that the word "shut-up" gets used in my house. During Family Night even. My pa would be so disappointed. As you probably are.

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It's just too bad Nolan won't let me post any video of his lesson. He's a super teacher.

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(sh-sh-sh-sh)

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Swampy

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Easter Weekend my family visited a swamp.

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I forgot to blog about it.

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Until now.

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I don't know what more to say about it. Maybe that's why I forgot to blog about it.
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It's pretty swampy though, ain't it?
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Swampyyyyyyyyy.
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FHE at My House

*pic from sugardoodle

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My family has Family Night every Monday night. But.... the above picture in no way depicts what my Family Night's are like.

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Case and point, last night my husband wasn't home (I am pretty sure the kids were purposely ganging up on me because of this) and I was trying to talk about marriage and temples.

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The kids didn't ask questions about the subject matter, instead I had these sort of questions being shot at me like baseballs in a batting cage-

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Which child do you think will be most successful when we are grown up?

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Who do you think is the most obedient?

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We won't ask who the most disobedient is, we already know that.

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Who is the most sassy?

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Which of us is the most clever?

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The smartest?

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The funniest?

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Which of us do you think will be the richest when we grow up?

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Who do you think will get married first?

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Every question followed by, "You can't say all of us! You have to pick one! Who? Who? WHO?!?".

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Self Portrait

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The little story (if you will) that I intended to tell today needs to be postponed to another day.

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My apologies.

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But if I don't post these egg pictures now, it will really be too late.

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Rae made a married couple.

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And guess whose self portrait this is.

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All Easter weekend I was fussed at.... by my kids for how I say egg. I reckon I kinda say it with an A sound instead of a short e.
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Bless my sweet husbands heart, he heard the kids giving me a hard time and he said, "Honey, you can say egg however you want."
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I said, "Thanks, but you really need to stop saying orange wrong." :)
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(He pronounces orange- arnge)
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When Zoe Borrows my Camera

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I rather like it when Zoe borrows my camera.

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;II never know what I will get on my memory card.

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Look, she's practicing for when she's a teenager!

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But do you know what I don't like?

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When she locks herself in her room when she's sad.

Every day should start with the big kids lining up for a spankin' for whatever it is they are about to do to make Zoe sad.
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Each day inevitably becomes her worst day ever and it's always the big kids fault.
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After 14 Years, Snow at Last!

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For the first time in 14 years, Savannah Georgia had measurable snow.

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Zoe had never seen snow and Naomi was a wee wittle baby when we left Salt Lake City.

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So when the news said snow would be here at 3 PM, they were waiting and watching. As the weather person kept making the time later and later, my children were getting more and more impatient.

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After dark Zoe would go out on the porch and yell, "Get on over here SNOW!!!"

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And at last, around 7:30, it did.

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Immediately, from the very first flake, my kids were outside a-hoopin' and a-hollerin'.

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"Snow at last!! Snow at last!!!"
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Nolan, who hadn't seen snow since elementary school, went back to his elementary school ways.

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We are so ill prepared for snow here in Georgia, that we didn't have mittens enough to go around, so Rae had to settle on work gloves to make snow balls.

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And make snow balls, they did!

Nolan so badly wanted a picture of him throwing a snow ball. I mean, he wanted the snow ball in air in the shot. After a million tries, we gave up. (stupid digital camera delays)

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The kids didn't play in the grass, in hopes that over night lots more would accumulate and they would have all the more to play with the next morning.

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Sadly there was more snow the night before than in the morning. They were out playing at 8 AM and so much had already melted.

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Naomi and Zoe walked out in the snow and said, "It's crunchy, I didn't expect it to be so crunchy."

Oh yeah, I reckon they wouldn't have known that.

Then they dropped and gave me two.

Two snow angels, that is.

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They didn't have long to build a snow girl. I am telling you, the snow was melting and fast!

Once there was a Snow Girl, Snow Girl, Snow Girl.

Once there was a Snow Girl, not that tall.

In the sun she melted, melted, melted.

In the sun she melted, small....

small......

small.
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What I Neglected to Blog About in 2009

In no particular order

Zoe bathing her rocks more than herself. (actually, that's not really true)

Zoe getting caught color coordinating her dolls clothes.

My mom's mom sending us ornaments every year and now my mom doing the same for my children.

How long (or not so long) these oranges will last.

(hint: 1 afternoon snack)




How these jumbled lights are much like.... much like.... something.



These delicious Spiced Pecans and the recipe.



Zoe sitting down to do homework, using the desk that I used to not do homework but to do more important things. Write love letters.



The letter I wrote to my future children when I was 16 years old.

The teen aged girls at my church learning to french braid before camp. And my coming to the conclusion that I really didn't need to have my hair french braided at camp.


Possibly my all time favorite art piece from my Zoe. Love the water at the bottom.

My attempts at self portraits and the confusion as to how kids do this these days and make it look good.



The day Zoe needed to take 100 or so pictures of Boo, the cat, because she was laying on a crayon.



This beautiful piece of art that I bought for $1 because some momma didn't realize what her high schoolers art was worth.

Zoe insisting on me taking a picture of her latest creation.

Catching my Sleeping Beauty resting in my room.

This rash.

I'M SORRY!! I hate when people post gross pictures, it's just so... gross!

The time I was a part of a panel discussion but had to use a toy microphone.

The lip gloss inside the mic came in handy though.

A full moon.




My Christmas gift from Nolan.



Spying on Naomi playing B-ball with the B-boys.

A Family Night game of Poor Kitty.

And
Ummmm... This.