The Best Present

The other day while the girls were eating breakfast, I sat down with Mini Man to play. I started talking to him in that silly, high-pitched voice we all use with our babies, and he sat there giggling and laughing at me. But Miss Priss did not like it at all when I looked at him and said, "Mama loves her little baby!"

She looked over and said, "Mom, he's not just your baby. He's my baby, too. And he's my sister's baby, too."

And Devil Child got this sweet look of surprise mixed with confusion. Then she asked, "Mom? He's my baby, too? Did I got him for my birthday?"

If only it were that easy, babe.


And since you didn't believe me that he cries, Kendi, this one's for you. ;)

Hello, My Name is She

Did you ever think about how strange a telephone conversation can sound to our kids, who are only hearing our side of it? I often say things on the phone that I never thought the girls would pick up on. Here's another example of how wrong I can be ...

(Phone rings)

"Hello?"

"This is she."

"Oh, hi! How are you?"

"We're good."

"Really?"

"SHUT UP!!!"

"Yeah, I can do that."

"Sure. Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it today."

"Okay, sounds good. We'll talk to you soon."

"Thanks, bye!"

As I hang up the phone, Miss Priss asks, "Mom, do you have the name she?"

Me: "What?"

Miss Priss: "Your name. What's your name?"

Me: "You know my name. My name is The Woman."

Miss Priss: "Then why did you say, 'This is SHE.'"????

Hmmm. How do you explain proper English to a five-year-old?

I Guess I Am

Devil Child's favorite primary song is probably the most popular "favorite" of all the primary kids I know. She loves to sing "I Am a Child of God." She sings it throughout her day while playing, while doing chores, and especially when taking care of her baby brother. It's her best way to stop him from crying. He LOVES to listen to her sing, and that is always the song she chooses for him. It's very sweet.

Like a lot of little ones who are learning the words to songs, she often misses a few, or replaces some with what she thinks she's hearing when we sing it to her. So when she sings her favorite song, it goes like this:

I am a childa God
An He has senme here.
Has given me anerthy own
With parents kind of dear.

Lee me, guy me, walk aside me
Hewp me fine da way
Teach me all that I love you
To live a Him someday.

So I'm only kind of dear? Well, I suppose that's true.

Yes, We Did it Too

Since The Man is such a fan of the show, I just had to try this. So here we are, as Simpsons ...











See any resemblance????

Just an Idea

For those of you that have your own kids in school and have to deal with your own fundraisers for them, you have my permission to completely ignore this post. Actually, even if you DON'T have kids in school, and you're NOT dealing with fall fundraisers, but you get totally irritated when kids try to sell you things, you may also completely ignore this post.

I am not trying to get anyone to buy any of the stuff Miss Priss' school is offering for their fundraiser, but if you happen to be browsing around for Christmas gift ideas (or maybe just a little something for yourself), you can take a look at the catalogs that she brought home last week. JAXCO has two catalogs (The Gift Book, and Seasons Greetings) that actually have some great stuff that I want! Shocker, I know.

So feel free to check 'em out. Or not. But if you do happen to decide to purchase something, Miss Priss would be very grateful if you would use her student code (749473) so that she can get credit for the purchase and earn prizes like this totally awesome crazy chicken that does the chicken dance. You lift him by the neck and he squawks and clucks like he is choking.


Or maybe you'd like to help her earn a Fear Factor stunt drink set...

or a soda hat...

Every kid needs a soda hat; right? Seriously, who comes up with these prizes?!? When she brought this home and showed me all the "amazing prizes" (her words) she could win, she looked puzzled as I laughed my way through them all.

Anywho, they've made it really easy to browse through their stuff, and the items you buy get sent directly to you! The fundraiser ends September 17th, so happy shopping!

Hopefully some of you will find this helpful for your holiday shopping. And for those of you who are completely annoyed that I would do this, I'm sorry.

Shape Up or Ship Out!

That's it. Do you all know how much "free time" I have during the day? Well, I'll tell you, sometimes it feels like I have a total of about ten minutes to do what I want to do before someone is crying for my help, or screaming at their sister, or torturing their brother. And what do I do in those ten blessed minutes each day? Why, I check all of your blogs for updates, of course. In those few minutes I have a chance to feel like I actually got to visit with my friends, and have some interaction with adults.

In the beginning, we were all pretty darn good about posting updates at least once, if not a couple times a week. I know you all get that same feeling I do when you click on someone's link and find a new title or new picture that you haven't seen before. Ah, the excitment! Now, I know I can't come down too hard on you, for I, myself, have been known to go a couple (or maybe more) weeks without a new post. I know that your lives are busy, and sometimes you just can't find a few extra minutes to let us all know that you're still alive and your family is well. But for heaven sakes, people, if you haven't posted since FEBRUARY (not to mention any names, MICHAEL), I'm going to assume you've given up blogging.

And that's okay. Really. I mean, I won't be too sad (sniff, sniff). I won't miss our online connection too much. But I may replace your link with other ones that I (secretly) check everyday. Okay, I probably won't have the heart to do that to my family members, but I may move you down to the bottom of my list. Feeling guilty yet? Guilty enough to, I don't know, maybe write a new post??? Really, though, I miss hearing about you and your families. So come on. Won't you just take your ten minutes of "me time" today to share a thought or a picture with us?
Okay, I'm done now. And I'll step off my soap box.

The Fruits of Our Labors

I know I should be writing a fabulous post with pictures of Devil Child's birthday party and Miss Priss' first day of Kindergarten, but while I'm selecting which of the plethora of pictures to put up of our latest momentous occassions, I thought I'd share with you all the results of our hard work out in the garden. Now, keep in mind that we planted back in, oh, what was it, March? I knew it was a little late in the season, but I checked all of our plants, and we were assured fruit before the sun would burn everthing up. Also keep in mind that this is my first attempt at a garden, period.

We've been harvesting tomatoes and the occassional strawberry for months now, and it's been so exciting for the girls to check every day to see what has changed out in our garden. Some of the plants didn't make it due to the excessive heat out here, but the tomatoes did okay, the strawberries survived (thanks to the shade of the tomato plants), and the carrots had stems growing bigger every day. Today we decided to finally pull out the carrots to see how well they did. The biggest stalk was almost a foot long, and the rest were each a few inches shorter.

Now that the season for harvesting is over, we're thinking about changes we'd like to make next year; what we can improve on, and what different fruits and vegetables we'd like to plant. I don't know, you take a look and tell me if you think gardening is something I should stick with ...




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I'm at a loss. What in the heck did we do wrong? We pulled them out and sat there laughing our heads off until we decided to head inside so I could wash them off and we could help ourselves to a healthy snack. A snack, indeed.

And the Award Goes To ...

Last weekend was our first annual family reunion campout with our extended family on The Man's side. Since we are the only "out-of-towners," naturally we went camping up in the Utah mountains. Now, when asked the question, "Do you like camping?" I'll be the first to say, "Oh, yeah! Who-hoo, we LOVE to camp!" And then after a few minutes I'll decide I should let you know, "Um, but I don't really like being dirty. And I don't really like my kids being dirty, either. Will there be a toilet, um, that flushes? And possibly a (dare I ask) shower?" Of course, not having these lovely amenities will not keep me from a camping trip, but oh, how I LOVE flushing toilets.

So last Thursday we were off; car loaded to the hilt (who knew it would take about half of our household belongings just to camp for one weekend?), kids buckled in and watching a movie, The Man jammin' to his iPod, and me reading Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix - yes, I'm two and a half books behind the rest of the world. But hey, I'm reading them. Get off my back.

We arrive in the middle of the night to Grandma Darlin' and Grandpa's house to catch a few winks before we're off the next morning out to, uh, wherever it was we went camping. The place was beautiful. A nice open campsite with a creek running through the back. It was pretty hot during the day, so the creek was awesome to have for the kids (and adults) to play in and cool off. The nights were cold, but since I'm the family wuss, no one else seemed to mind. Plus, I made sure to bring plenty of snuggly clothes for the chitlens for nighttime, so I wasn't too worried about them.

The kids had a blast playing with all their cousins that they don't see nearly enough. Friday night we had a great little show where each of the families shared some kind of skit, act or game with everyone. Not everyone stayed over Saturday night, but for those that did, we had a great time staying up late and talking by our "campfire" after the kiddos went to sleep.

So to everyone who helped make our camping trip fun, delicious and memorable, we're giving out some awards to thank you all for the efforts you put in.

The award for making my camping trip pleasant by providing a camper with a flushing toilet, a shower to hose of my filthy kids, and a warm (mostly) bed at night for my 4-month-old baby and me .... Grandpa and Grandma Darlin'

The award for the best dutch oven banana crumble ever ... Shawna!!!

The award for a face so dirty you looked like a chimney sweep ... it's a tie between Christian and Little E!!!

The award for killing the most moths so they wouldn't fly at my neck and make me throw ANOTHER bottle of water on my loving husband and tick him off again ... Spencer!!!

The award for staying such a short amount of time that you can't even consider it "camping" (but we're so glad you came anyway) ... Glenn, Kristen and Max!!!

The award for brilliantly putting together a bunch of lanters to form our make-shift campfire (since we weren't allowed to have a real one) ... Grandpa!!!

The award for the greatest bathroom tent that took 4 hours to set up just so that no one would use it all weekend ... Brett and Mike!!!

The award for the best (or worst, depending on how you look at it) whoopin' of a misbehaving child ... ME!!! Sorry to my little Devil Child, but sometimes you make mommy just LOSE IT!!!

The award for providing the most super fun activity that will most likely cost my family thousands of dollars in the future because now we HAVE to have a four-wheeler ... Scott and Shawna!!!

The award for the scariest real-life ghost story where your grandma basically told you she was going to hell instead of heaven ... Rheina!!!

The award for making sure that Devil Child wouldn't be the ONLY one up screaming and crying multiple times in the middle of the night ... Brett and family!!!! (Thanks, Little E, you always got my back)

The award for the most talking ... Jessica!!! (She even beat out Miss Priss - and that's sayin' something!)

The award for the best kid game in the wild (nature bingo) ... Schmindy!!!

And last but not least, the award for the best kids-say-the-darndest-things-story, and the beginning of a lifelong tradition of asking someone who is sick or just mean if they have a "rope in their bum" ... Me and Miss Priss!!!

***Sorry to those of you who missed out on Saturday night stories around the campfire and have no clue what I'm talking about. Those who were there are now laughing hysterically again. I'll fill you in next time we get together.***

Anyway, it was fun, it was rough, it was dirty, and I ate too much junk. Ah, I do love camping. So now the question is ... Will there be a SECOND annual family campout? Only time will tell.

Fun with the Fam

We've recently returned from a fabulous 10-day trip to my beloved home town of San Diego.

Note: This was, in fact, a trip, not a vacation. You can't call it a vacation when there is absolutely NO down time for yourself, or when The Man doesn't come along.

That's right, the kids and I braved the road alone this time. It actually wasn't bad at all -- may the good Lord bless whomever invented portable DVD players. Mini Man slept almost the whole way. Babies are usually great like that. Although I must say, our usually 30-min. lunch/gas stop turned into almost an hour and a half with just me to pump gas, take everyone to the potty, order food, nurse the baby, make sure everyone ate at least a few bites, and feed myself. I discovered having just one other adult cuts a tremendous amount of time out of all of our travelling chores.

We skipped on Disneyland, Sea World and the Zoo this time so we could spend our time visiting family. We spent our first week swimming, playing with cousins, eating at The Pit (a deep pit bbq restaurant owned by my brother-in-law's dad and run by my brother-in-law), shopping, and going out on Papa's boat.

(Devil Child fell asleep sitting up. There's something about sailing that makes everyone sleepy.)


At one point when Papa was getting the sails ready and I was steering the boat, Devil Child looked up at me and said, "Mom, you like a pirate! You drivin' a boat like a pirate!"


(Passing by some seals on a buoy - the girls thought they were so awesome!)

And I even captured pictures of Miss Priss' biggest acheivement while we were there ... SHE LEARNED TO SWIM!!!!





I think I might be more excited than she is. Having three kids that don't swim made it nearly impossible for me to take them swimming by myself. I always needed someone else to help out a little. Now that Miss Priss can swim, and Devil Child is fine by herself with arm floaties, I can actually take the kids to the pool WITHOUT a panic attack! Hooray!

It took only two days at the pool before she caught on. Yes, she's had swimming lessons before, but she's NEVER done it by herself before. I'm so proud!

Devil Child's biggest acheivement while we were there ...

She stopped using the potty. I guess that's the opposite of an acheivement, but whatever. It was a HUGE pain. But I'm happy to report that after returning home, she's back on the pot again. Now, if we could only get her on it in time for #2. But I digress. That's another story for another day.

(Mini Man LOVES his grandma!)

We had a birthday party for their cousin at my sister's new house where she has a pool, and it was awesome. More practice for Miss Priss. Our last three days were spent at her house where we swam some more, played with their cute little puppy, Sammy, went shopping, and rode Plasma cars. The girls had so much fun on those things! We might be asking Santa for a couple for Christmas this year.

The weather was so great down there. It was nice to get away from the heat. Unfortunately, we were gone for the beginning of the monsoon season at home, so we didn't get to see some great lightning storms, and missed a bunch of rain. I love those summer storms where it's raining like crazy but it's still warm outside, and when the lightning lights up the sky all night long. I've never been one that's afraid of lightning. I've always just thought it was really neat. The trip was a lot of fun, but it's the longest we've been away from The Man, and it was SO GOOD to get home to him! We talked every day, but sometimes that's just not enough. Next time we'll make sure he gets to come along!

This weekend we're off again (this time WITH The Man) for a reunion up in Utah. We're going camping, and we're all really excited. Cross your fingers for us; it's the first time we're taking a 4-month-old camping in the mountains. We'll post pictures when we get back.

No Such Thing

This morning while getting the girls ready for the day, I noticed their fingernails were getting a bit long, so I asked if I could trim them. I sat with Miss Priss in my lap, and we talked a little while I cut her nails.

About halfway through the second hand I said to her, "Do you know how much I love you?"

"Too much," was her response.

"There's no such thing as loving you too much."

"AND," she continued, "there's no such thing as aliens, either."

I Had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!

Yesterday was my birthday, and it was so great! I was awakened early by the sound of The Man's voice calling my name. I figured something must be wrong. He NEVER wakes me up before he leaves for work. I rolled over and opened my eyes to find him standing there with a tray full of french toast, eggs, sausage and orange juice. YUM!!! Nothing beats a great breakfast in bed. And oh, the very best, most fabulous part was the sausage. Anyone who knows me well knows that I almost never cook sausage or bacon. I can't stand how the smell lingers for more than a day. And then you try to shower and get ready, and the smell gets into your hair, so you continue to smell it ALL day long. Yuck. That's also the reason my kids bathe in the mornings. Yes, it makes our mornings a bit more hurried than some, and a little more stressful than those of you who give baths at night before bed. But when we go out, I know my kids don't smell of bacon or syrup. Anywho, back to my breakfast. The Man knows how I feel about lingers smells, and so he barbequed the sausage for me so that I wouldn't be able to smell it in the house. What a guy!

He made breakfast early so as to give me a peaceful meal with no kids. And it was nice while it lasted. The girls came in just a few minutes into eating, and they all started singing "Happy Birthday" for me. Then they crawled into bed with us and shared bites of french toast and eggs while they took turns opening presents for me. What a great way to start the day!

I asked The Man if he was going to be late, and then my day got even better ... he had taken the whole day off! I LOVE having him around all day. So we all finished breakfast and got ready for the day. Then I called and got a sitter so we could go out to lunch and catch a movie. Although our plans were to see the new Harry Potter this weekend (which would have given me time to finish the book), we decided to see it that afternoon. It was a great movie, but, like all the others, the book is SO much better. As we came out of the theater, we ran into some friends of ours who invited us out to dinner to celebrate my birthday. I had already gone to lunch with her the week before for my birthday, and they came over Saturday for a BBQ for my birthday, so I felt like I had almost a week full of birthday celebrations.

On Saturday we went to pick out my gift; a new rocker. We have one downstairs, but we put it in the baby's room when we finally started having him sleep in his crib so that I could rock him at night when I fed him. I never realized how often I sat in that chair during the day until it wasn't there anymore and I had to go all the way upstairs to use it. So we found an awesome chair that goes perfectly in his room, and I adore it. It's a nice big rocker/recliner that's huge and comfy, and I swear I could sleep in it. Now I can't wait to finish Mini Man's room. Yes, I'm lazy, and we haven't painted it yet. But it's going to look so great once it's finally done!

I wanted to say thanks to everyone who sent cards and gifts, and to all those who called or send emails or text messages (and pictures!). It means a lot to know that you remember my birthday and were thinking of me (especially old roommates and friends from high school!). I need to be better about that. So to all of you who I've forgotten your actual birthday dates, I'm sorry, and I'll be calling you soon so I can mark it down on my calendar for next year. You forgive me, right?

Speaking of forgiveness, I'll leave you with a funny incident from last week. I was driving with the kids down to my sister's house for dinner, and the girls were in the back misbehaving. Shocking, I know. I use our trip to visit their cousins as bait to get them to start being nice to each other.

"Girls, if you can't be nice, we're not going down to Aunt K's. I will turn around and we will go home. "

Yes, by the way, I have just turned into my mother by threatening to turn the car around.

And so they are good ... for about two seconds.

"Girls. I mean it. If you can't be nice to each other, we're not going. I'm not going to listen to this anymore. If I hear you being mean one more time, that's it. We will NOT go."

And it works again ... for about two seconds.

"Fine. We're not going."

Then the screaming and crying starts and they realize I truly am turning the car around. "Mom! Pleeeeeease! I won't be mean anymore, I promise! MOM! PLEEEEEASE!!!"

Trying to be firm and follow through with my threat, I say, "I'm sorry, but I warned you. I gave you plenty of chances to be nicer, but you wouldn't do it."

More screaming and crying and begging.

"I'm sorry, Miss Priss. I really wanted to go, too, but you just won't behave, and something's got to change. There has to be a consequence for the way you're acting. What am I supposed to do? What do YOU think I should do?"

Through her tears she looks at me and pleads, "You should forgive me."

Aawwww. And I did. Geez, I'm such a softy.

Whirlwind Weekends

We've had so much fun these last few weeks with family coming here to visit, and then a couple trips out of town for us.

We've been busy playing at the park...


Getting haircuts ...


Graduating from preschool ...


Playing on the beach in San Diego ...



Collecting seashells ...


Attending the blessing of my sister's baby (who was born one day before our little Mini Man) ...


Surprising Grandma Darlin' with a party to celebrate her retirement after 26 years of teaching elementry school (Sorry, I forgot to take pictures!).

More playing at parks ...


Taking family pictures (I'll post them when I get them).

Visiting Great Grandad ...


Watching Mini Man grow up (He is FINALLY smiling at us!) ...


And despite the hours and hours we've spent in the car going from San Diego to Salt Lake and back, we've just been having TONS and TONS of fun!!!

Sunshine and Summertime

Summer has officially hit us here in the desert. We're lucky if we get a day now that dips back into the upper 80's. Looks like he 90's are here to stay until we hit triple digits. Thank goodness the really hot temps only last a couple of months. On the bright side, along with the high temperatures come the best part of summer ... water fun! Last year I shopped the "end of summer" clearance at Target and got some great deals on water toys and camping gear. I picked up a Finding Nemo slip-n-slide for just $2! The girls had a great time running through the sprinklers and sliding across the lawn. Our backyard was almost entirely flooded by the time we were done playing. But with the sun and the heat, I knew the water would evaporate quickly enough that it wouldn't cause any damage.

(The Man had as much fun - if not more - than the girls did!)

I made some signs for the garden so we can tell which plant is which; but as you can see (or not), the squash and canteloupe didn't make it. :( I'm not quite sure what I did wrong. Not enough water? Too much? Too much sun? Who knows, but I"m thrilled about the tomatoes and strawberries and carrots. They're doing great.




The girls and The Man had a campout last weekend in our backyard. (Another great find from last years' clearance (a four-person tent for just $14!). I had the house to myself -- well, just me and the little man. We stayed inside popping popcorn and baking cookies to bring to the campers. The girls would cheer each time I came out with a new treat or snack. They brought the portable DVD player and watched a movie. And to my great surprise, they lasted all night! I thought for sure someone would be back in the house before sunrise. When they came inside in the morning, we had pancakes for breakfast and The Man took off to play some basketball. What a fun Daddy/Daughter outing!

Miss Priss' preschool class had a Mother's Day Tea Party on Friday for the kids and their moms. It was so much fun to be in the classroom with her. They made gifts for us (hand towels with their handprints on them), drew pictures of us, sang a song for us, and played a game where the kids answered questions about their moms, and we had to guess which mom it was. It was so funny to hear the kids' answers to questions like, "How old is your mom?" Our ages ranged from 4 to 90.

And, as promised, here are a couple pictures of our Little Man. He's growing so fast! At his appointment at 4 weeks old, he had already gained two pounds! What a porker! He is just the cutest little baby ever, and I am so completely in love with him. He's my worst sleeper of all the kids, but that won't last forever. It's hard getting only 3 to 4 hours of sleep each night. His schedule is just turned around. Not to worry, I have a plan to switch it. It's worked for the girls, and it will work for him. I'm determined to make it work for him.