Say It Like It Is!

There's no doubt about it, kids say it like it is! Whether you want to hear or not, they don't hold back.  We've had a few of these moments lately....

Mason: You know Mom, Misty (our babysitter when I work and who we all absolutely love and adore) is a Real Mom.
Me: Oh really? What makes her a "Real Mom"?

Mason: Shrugs his shoulders.

Me: So am I a "Real Mom"?

Mason: No...you're just a "Half Mom".

Me: Oh...(feeling disappointed) what makes me just a "Half Mom"?

Mason: Misty's a "Real Mom" cuz she doesn't spank our tushies!

There you have it! I'm not the real deal! I didn't know how to react, besides laugh to myself. Although I couldn't help think where this was coming from because my kids don't hardly ever get spanked. Maybe yelled at a little and sent to time-out a lot, but spanking tuishies doesn't happen all that often. I guess I'll just have to be okay with being a "Half Mom!"

We recently attended a church meeting for Madelyn because she has a very exciting birthday this year...turning 8 and getting baptized. We had been in church from 2-5pm and then returned at 7 for this meeting.  So the boys were tired, restless and of course irreverent.  We finally got Jalen to sit still when he chose to sprawl out across the chairs, lying down. At least he was being quiet!! And actually, he was being so still, I thought he might actually fall asleep! The bishop was talking to the kids about the Holy Ghost and His purpose.  He was asking them, "Can your parents always be with you to make sure you're making good choices?" No..the kids responded. The question was thrown out there, "So then if your parents can't always be with you, who can?" The room was dead silent. Then Jalen yells out, "the babysitter!" It was so hilarious! I guess he really was listening.

Last night, the State of the Union Address was on and therefore, American Idol was not. Madelyn was disappointed and just couldn't understand why they wouldn't show American Idol but we could see the President's speech on every other channel! She didn't appreciate this. Jalen overheard Madelyn's frustration and looked up from coloring to simply but very matter-of-factly state, "American Idol got canceled Maddie. Someone got sick and threw up!"

I have been receiving cute little notes left behind from a "secret" person. I have a pretty good guess of who it is, but hey it's a secret so I shouldn't try and guess, right?!  Here is how the last one went...
"You have Rosey cheeks. Your voise is like a cherping bird. You smell like blue blosums. You are the best Mom!!"
Madelyn also is so quick to apologize, to forgive and forget.  When she is sent to her bedrooom for something she does wrong, I almost always get a sweet little note saying something like, "I am so so so sorry. Will you please forgive me? I promise I will do better at listening and not sassing. I love you! Please forgive me."  After reading her sweet words, my frustrations or anger with her completely go away and I truly appreciate her example to quickly and sincerely ask for forgiveness.
These little notes remind me how simple it is to not only express love and appreciation to others around me but more importantly how easy it is to forgive and forget. Whether it's laughter and fun into our home, or love and humility, I appreciate my kids for Just Sayin It Like It Is!!

Family Pictures

I've caught myself several times lately thinking, "Am I really a Mom of 3 kids, one of which will be 8 soon??" How did I get here so quickly? Where has the time gone? Am I doing things right? And even more so, am I really prepared to continue this journey because I realize life's challenges will only increase as my kids get older.  Will they continue to be excited after school to share their day's experiences? Will they still be cuddle bugs and give loves and kisses? How long will Friday movie and pizza night home with Mom and Dad be the coolest thing ever?

There's definately no answers to these questions.  As for now, I cling to my children's unconditional love, easiness to forgive my mistakes, their innocense, and their sweet and precious spirits.  I do treasure them.

We recently had family pictures taken.  Here are just a few of my favorites....

Photography by Bella Bean Photography

Girls Only!

Last month, I experienced one of the best weekends of my life!  I met up with my Mom and sisters in Seattle for a Girls Only Weekend. It was a blast! Although I am a little bias, I do think that I have the greatest Mom and Sisters ever.  I only wish I could see them more often...it truly makes me appreciate the time we do get to share and makes me love them even more.

Kera, Kristyn, Mckell, Meagan, Mom, Me, Natalie

Seattle...one of the most beautiful cities

I have ever visited

My older sister lives in Seattle so we all decided it was definately time to take a trip, visit and celebrate her birthday with her.  Kristyn was the best host! She was the cook, innkeeper, chauffer, and tour guide.  Not an easy job.  Her husband Thomas was such a gentlemen...making sure the fridge stayed stocked with Diet Coke and Dr. Pepper, assisting with transportation and most of all, being Dad so that Kristyn could enjoy the weekend with the girls.  Of course, I can't leave out Aiden. What a sweet boy! I wish I would have had room in my suitcase to take him home with me! He is the smartest, most kind-hearted and one of the cutest boys I know. I am a lucky aunt!

We had so much fun not only touring this amazing city, but also enjoying being together. Our first outing was seeing the sites of Seattle first class style...in a Duck Tour Bus/Boat Ride.  It was a BLAST!! We really had so much fun.

So this bus goes down into water and becomes a boat. First we saw many of the attractions down town on a bus ride and then went to the harbor, down in the water and floated around there.

Aiden with his quacker

We seriously had the best tour guide ever! He was the man with many hats, had clever stories and music that went along with all the sites and attractions. He was a riot!

Being the birthday girl, Kristyn got to (had to?!) wear a duck hat and dance up and down the isles. (I know...just what you want to do for your birthday!) But she was such a good sport and definately had some pretty good moves!

Some of the attractions were Safeco Field, the building where Grey's Anatomy is filmed, the Space Needle and the famous Sleepless in Seattle home.

So I'm going to share a blonde moment I had.  While on the duck tour, one sign caught my attention: "ALL CLOTHING 100% off! Free admission"   I thought, Wow! They're having a great sale and it's free to get in! I leaned over and said to the girls, we need to check that out. Probably some great shopping in there.  Kristyn's response, "I don't think we want to go in there." Why, I ask. "Because it's a strip club!" Of course it is! Now, I do have to say that I couldn't see the top of the sign, the "Lusty Lady's" part. Being in the duck bus blocked the entire view! At least we all got a good laugh about that one. 

We absolutely loved the duck ride tour

The next day we drove to a beautiful city north of Seattle called Leavenworth. It is a cute little shopping and tourist German town.

We ate lunch in an authentic German restaurant. I was the only one not brave enough to try the food...I stuck with a chicken salad. I know boring huh. But the others got the real stuff... wienerschnitzel, bratwurst goulash, and sauerbraten. (I was glad I stuck with a salad!)

We had so so much fun shopping...very cute and original purses, jeans, jewelery, and our biggest treasure the "Beanie Band". We're not sure the real name, but that's what we named them. They are so cute.  My sweet mom bought us all one and we wore them the rest of the day.  We got so many compliments and people asking where we got them. Seriously, when we bought them there were like 30 in the store. When we left to go home we stopped in the store to say goodbye and tell them everyone loves the beanie bands and they already sold at least 20 more! The plan is for us to go into business...we shall see!

More fun shopping...

Thanks Leavenworth for the beautiful and quaint town, fun shopping day, and lasting memories!

So in the van, Natalie found a strap to pull, which surprised us both...it flipped the seat backwards and down we went! We had a good, long laugh!

The first night we were at Kristyn's, we were discussing missing our cousin Mckell and wanting her there with us. She truly is one of us.  So we got planning.  By 1:30am, we had a plane ticket purchased, thanks to Kristyn so willing to share her hard-earned sky miles. "Anything for Mckell", she said. Mckell was pulling an all-nighter studying so that she could be prepared to take a test Friday before leaving for the airport.  Call us crazy, I know, but it was so so worth it! The big surprise was that my mom had already gone to bed when this planning took place, so we decided to not tell her and just surprise her.  We made up a little story...I realized that I had forgotten a gift bag on the airplane. (It was Kristyn's birthday afterall.) I pretended to call the airport and discovered that they had it, so we took a trip back to the airport to retrieve this "special package." My mom believed every word. Here is the anticipation on our ride to the airport...

I went into the airport to retrieve the "special package" and came out with Mckell!! My mom was shocked!

Oh, how I just love surprises!!

We were all so happy to have Mckell with us

The next morning, we visited Pike's Street and the market.

Of course we watched the buying and selling of the fresh fish, which entails the fish being thrown around.  Nat wanted a little more excitment and she got what she asked for! The workers placed a bottle on the top of her head and then threw a fish over her head to the worker behind the counter, with the goal to knock over the bottle but hopefully not smack her face with the fish! It was suspenseful, but good to report the workers were successful...they knocked over the bottle and Natalie didn't leave with a fish smelling face!

 I was trying to stay in the back, out of sight because there was a little old man creeping around scaring and startling people with this crawfish.  Because I was so occupied with avoiding him, what I didn't see was one of the workers pick up a giant squid and start walking towards me. Yikes! It freaked me out! I started running away...and he followed. That was enough for me, we were out of there!

 

There is a famous "gum wall" downtown.  Years ago, they tried removing all the gum and cleaning it up, but people kept coming back and putting their gum on the wall.  Now, it's just accepted and attracts people to add their own gum to it.

Of course, Nattles had to contribute!

One day we took a ferry ride to Bainbridge Island. It was beautiful.  The green foilage is unbelievable (especially coming from the desert!) And all the fall colors...very pretty. By the way, isn't my mom so beautiful? She is such an amazing and talented person. I love her so much! I feel so blessed to have her as my Mom. It is because of her that we as daughters and family love to be together. So thank you, Mom and thanks to my sisters as well for making this trip and all our time together so wonderful!   

Fall Festivities

HaPpY HaLlOwEeN!!

Here's the lineup: Spiderman, a Wizard, and Witch

What a cute witch!

Mason was insistent on being a Wizard for Halloween, with specific details too. Ideally, it needed to be blue, have a wand and of course needed stars.  I was having a really hard time finding a costume that met these specifications. Luckily, I found this at a store in Seattle and only had to make a few adjustments.  We added stars to the hat and turned a broom into the wand (thanks to my Mom for taking it as her carry-on on her plane ride home).  It turned out to be a really fun costume and most importantly, met Mason's approval!

Jalen loves anything Spiderman right now, so of course that's what he chose to be.  For the last year, Jalen has worn Mason's old spiderman costume very regularly.  It has been worn and loved and it showed it! There were several holes and it just didn't look very nice anymore. So I borrowed another Spiderman costume from a friend.  This costume was the real deal...had muscles, better mask, etc.  So two days before Halloween, Jalen got to wear a costume to his preschool class Halloween party.  As soon as we put on the costume, he started crying and freaking out.  Here's how our conversation went:

Jalen: "I don't want to wear this!"

Me: "But I thought you wanted to be Spiderman."

Jalen: "I do!"

Me: "Well, this is a spiderman costume. Look, it's a really neat Spiderman costume!"

Jalen: "No! I'm not wearing it!"

Me: "But it's Spiderman. Why don't you want to wear it?"

Jalen crying: "It has Boobies!!"

Me: "Oh, no...these are muscles! See how cool. There's muscles for your arms and legs. It makes you strong just like Spiderman."

Jalen: "No! It has boobies. I'm not wearing it!"

So Jalen did not wear the costume. He went to preschool dressed up like Batman (A very quickly thrown together costume, which completely looked it!)  Then for Halloween, I sewed the holes and he wore the Spiderman costume he's worn practically everyday for the last year. But you know what....he was happy!! And that's all that matters.

TrIcK or TrEaT!

We love Halloween and especially enjoy it in Arizona. The weather is absolutey beautiful, which encourages much socialization and fun in the neighborhoods.  People really go all out with decorations, activities, and haunted houses...which makes trick or treating very entertaining.

The adults have just as much fun as the kids!

Two spooky witches..Madelyn and her friend Chase

Mason just chillen with a neighbor friend McKenzie

Our neighbors went all out and put together an awesome Haunted House, which attracted many people to our block.  Jalen was so fascinated with it.  He watched from our balcony at night for weeks as they prepared and got it ready.  However, he was also terrified. There was no way he was going to go inside!   Other neighbors dressed up like zombies with masks and all the get-up. Jalen didn't know which was worse...listening to the chain saw and screams coming from the haunted house, or trying to keep away from the wandering Zombies in the streets!  He decided that under a table was best. You'ld think he would have wanted to go home, but no! He insisted on sticking around, not wanting to miss the action.

A few weeks ago, we were lucky enough to go with some friends to their family cabin in Alpine. It was such a much needed break!  It was so beatiful and a treat to see the beautiful fall colors, something we missed out on last year. Here are a few pictures.

The boys were in heaven...dirt, sticks, pocket knives, binochulers, hiking, and tree climbing. What more could little boys ask for!

Becca with her sweet Mom and Dad. 

 It was so fun getting to know them.

So this is what happens when two silly girls get ahold of a camera....

What funny girls! They are so lucky to have each other.

Their family has built a really neat tree house.  The kids had so much fun and spent hours putting together the kitchen, family room and bedroom for the babies. They really have so much fun together.  Thanks Jeff and Becca for a wonderful weekend!

"Sparkle Student"

I recently went to parent teacher conference where I was informed from Mason's kindergarten teacher that Mason was the "Sparkle Student" for the week.  His teacher couldn't compliment Mason enough on being kind hearted, obedient, a good friend and leader, and an excellent student. I am so proud of him!

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching Mason these past few months. Kindergarten has changed him...mostly in good ways!  For example, he is so eager to get all ready in the morning, make his bed, brush teeth, wash his face, and ask what his "job" is for the day.  I never have to ask him twice to get things done.  I think he is discovering being independent and the satifisfaction that comes with it!

I can also see Mason's curiosity and mischevious side developing.  Not too long ago, Mason spent the afternoon at a friend's house.  That evening I asked what they did and if they had fun.  He got a cute little smirk on his face and smiled, saying "Yes, we had lots of fun. We got in trouble, too!"  Of course I needed more details at this point.  He went on to tell me that they threw rocks over his friend's fence and into the neighbor's backyard who happens to be a girl classmate of theirs.  He then said the dad was out in the back yard and so of course he saw and that's how they got in trouble.  However, Mason was not upset that they got caught, rather he had this very mischevious smile, like it was FUN doing something naughty and getting caught!  Of course I gave the whole, that wasn't a good choice talk, but really I was trying so hard not to smile myself.  I had never seen this side of Mason before! I kept thinking, this is only the beginning of little boys being boys.  It reminded me of the neighbor boys I grew up with.  All too often we found pranks at our house...gum and weeds on the door knob; a broken peach tree limb full of ripe peaches, bee bee guns firing at other neighbor boys, missing clothes pins from the clothes line, and rocks being thrown at the front door.  Although I would love having a very obedient, respectful, do-no-wrong kind of boy, the reality is that it's not going to happen! I simply must accept that boys will be boys, with a few "Sparkle" moments in between!

Happy Birthday Jalen

I can hardly believe that my baby boy is 4 years old. Time has gone by too fast. Although Jalen came at a very unexpected and extremely busy time in my life, I wouldn't change it for the world! More and more I am realizing that his placement in our family was at the right time, despite how crazy it seemed to have 3 little ones, all within 3 years.  Simply put, Jalen keeps are family smiling...something that we can always use more of!  He is the entertainer, the silly one, and he can change a stressful or tense moment into laughter.  He has a great relationship with his older siblings; they both adore him and in a way, he gels the three of them together.

He is such a joy to have in our family.  I love him so much and am so grateful for the sweet and good boy he is. I love you Jalen!

Jalen keeps us laughing at the funny things he is always saying.  Here are just a few that have come up in the last couple of days...

The day of his birthday, Jalen kept asking, "Am I 4 now?" After my nod yes, everytime he would say "YESSSSSS!"

I laughed to myself everytime.

While at another friend's birthday party, this was his conversation with his friends while coloring dinosaur pictures.  Jalen very seriously: "I love dinosaur dreams.  Dinosaur dreams are good for your body!"  All the other boys just nodded their heads in agreement like everything he said made total sense!

We recently took down our vertical blinds that went across sliding glass door.  Alan had it all in the big garbage can.  Jalen was so excited to show Madelyn and Mason.  While lifting up the big lid and showing them he said, "That's so damn awesome!"  Alan, quite shocked standing by, couldn't hardly scold him because he was trying too hard not to laugh out loud!

One day when quite upset with me, he said "I'm tired of you not following MY RULES! If you don't then I'm going to cut all your hair off with my clippers!" (meaning his fingernail clippers, which he is obsessed with...keeping his nails trimmed just right!)

He is too funny.

For several months Jalen has aniticipated his big day...turning 4 and getting a whole day to be the Birthday Boy!  The day after we delivered his invitations, Jalen walked downstairs first thing in the morning and with teary eyes, said "You forgot my birthday!"  At first I was a little confused until he stated, "You didn't decorate!" Traditionally the kids wake up to the kitchen decorated with streamers and balloons, which Jalen was expecting that morning.  I quickly explained that his birthday wasn't for a few more days and that we would never forget his birthday or to decorate! That quickly solved his concern!

Welcome to the Jungle

Jalen is very interested in snakes and other jungle animals, so we decided this would be a perfect year to throw a jungle party!

Here are the decorations Jalen woke up to on his birthday...he was thrilled, especially with the snakes hanging from the vines.

When the guests arrived, they each chose an animal (tiger, zebra or giraffe) hat to make.  We even attempted a little face painting.

But when Jalen looked in the mirror at his whiskers, he didn't like it at all! After scrubbing his face clean, he next went to clean his friends' faces too!

We played some fun games...Duck, Duck, Goose, only it was Lion, Lion ROAR! The kids then chased each other to try and grab the Lion's tail.  We also let the kids dance around a "mud pit" to some fun jungle music and try not to get stuck in the mud when the music turned off.  They were all so cute playing these games.

Probably the favorite game/activity (which I was very surprised about) was the "Snake Pit."  I had lots of little jungle animals, snakes, worms, and frogs buried in a big pot of spaghetti noodles.  The kids absolutely loved this! They all kept taking turns and coming back for more.

Gavin...the cutest little guy ever!!

Jalen loves all of his presents! Thanks so much to everyone.

A Snake Cake, of course!

Lovin his cheetos

Birthday hugs!

So So Sweet!

Here they are...

Braden Lunt, Cyrena Dean, Kade Ashton, Hannah Biancamano, Jalen, Cooper Napoles, Adrianne, Ryder Turner, Cameron Lloyd, Breckan Turner.

What an adorable and fun group of kids! Thanks so much for sharing Jalen's birthday with us!

And a special thanks to Shannon for snapping all the great pics!

Picture This

Alan is a pretty easy-going guy and usually doesn't complain about much.  But there is one thing in my family that really bugs him...all the snapshots and family pictures!  A "perfect picture moment" occurs quite frequently, which requires patience and endurance by those involved who would rather not hold their position and pose for another photo!  We've also had some great experiences when trying to capture the perfect family picture. Last year at Christmas time, my mom arranged to have an outdoor family picture on probably the coldest day of the year!  When the temperature is below zero, it creates several challenges:  first, holding your breath during the picture so you don't see the white puffs out in front of you creates red faces; second, red noses isn't usually attractive either; all the planning and coordinating of clothes goes out the window when the kids are freezing cold and don't want to take off their coats. Did I mention this creates unhappy children??? 

And grown men aren't any better.

So when I mentioned to Alan that our friend Shannon, who is starting a new photography business, wanted to take us to a beautiful resort and do a practice photo shoot, I bet you can guess what his reaction was!!

Although we were doing her a little favor as she tried out this location and lots of different settings on her new camera, we were definately the ones who benefited the most!  She did an amazing job! It was like the engagement pictures we never got to experience and have. I have very, very little pictures of Alan and I, so to have a few, is so fun! If you're looking for a great photographer, check out Shannon's website here

Here are some of my most favorites...now I just need to figure out how to make a collage or display of a couple. Got any suggestions?? I would love to hear!