Teeth

We have teeth coming out our ears these days. Well, our mouths really. And not my mouth, or Ben's, our kids'! Izzy lost one of her top front teeth this week. Her last loose tooth she allowed me to pull out but she didn't get to a point this time when she thought it was wiggly enough yet. Obviously when it came out as she ate her cereal she realized it was indeed time to come out! It was kind of gross a few days ago when she asked me if there were nuts in our bread. She said she kept crunching! I told her no and she said, "Oh, it must have just been my tooth!" Yikes. If your tooth folds into your mouth and you can bite it, it's time to come out! It also looked so awkward when she would talk because it would totally get in the way. Her lip stuck out just a little and she would pause sometimes in the middle of a sentence to adjust her protruding tooth! Everyone offered to yank it out and she would say, "Nope, it's not quite ready!" We've got one more front tooth left and it is just a little wiggly. Hopefully it won't hang on as long as it's little buddy did.

When you were a kid did you brush your teeth well? I'll be blunt and say that I remember feeling that slimy, clean feeling only after getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist! I think it is hard to train your children how to brush their teeth well! Even if you've got the habit down of specific times when they brush their teeth, there is no guarantee that when they open their mouths for a teeth check that they will look much different than when they went in? "What have you been doing in there this whole time?!" I ask daily, it seems. Then I take my turn at removing the grime that has built up in that single day. How can I explain how to focus on a certain region before moving to the next? Aiden's teeth brushing is like a tornado. The brush spins and scrubs and only touches down, like, every other tooth. His hand moves furiously but it darts from one side to the other in a matter of seconds leaving small clean patches in it's path. It's like a tooth brush with ADHD. Whatever the heck went on in that mouth accomplished extremely little! We also take turns with Izzy still but thankfully Emma manages to come out with squeaky clean teeth. It took 9 years or so, but we have accomplished something! Thank you, Jesus! I hope we keep all our teeth! (At least the ones we're suppose to!)

Our Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's Day! We stayed after church and had a little snack and social hour with our own version of the Newlywed game that was fun for everyone. Once we got home we decided to get the house picked up as quickly as we could so we could have time to go to the movies together before it was time to make our special Valentine's dinner. We saw The Tooth Fairy and it was cute and fun and a special thing to do together.

Back in the days when we lived in Sidney we decided to make our Valentine's Day a family event. With children, it just doesn't seem easy to do something just as a couple because all those without kids are freely going and celebrating their own special day, which leaves us with no babysitting. :) Why not just make it special for everyone?

This year, the kids went shopping with me and we chose to have fillet minion, pink mashed potatoes, pink applesauce, green beans and chocolate covered strawberries. We set our table with our fanciest and picked the appropriate flowers to go with all the sweet valentine's the kids made. And don't forget, lighting is everything and we are big into setting the mood. Any time we've dimmed the lights and lit the candles in the past the kids have attempted to give us the perfect restaurant title but they must have forgotten or are just getting older...

It was a fun day and a special way for us to celebrate how much we love each other!

Family Fun

I'll have to say that some of my greatest memories are having fun together as a family. I do love having my camera out every so often to capture fun times like playing at the park. These pics are at a park near our house.
You'll notice Ben's butt barely fits in the slide...

This moment was full of laughter because Ben was playing tag with the kids and he had just tagged Aiden. Unfotunately Ben's arms were long enough to tag Aiden right back if Aiden attempted to tag him. the little guy thought he had a chance...
The good old "spider" on the swings.



It's always important for me to remember to make silly memories like these. I am planning on doing something fun for the fam on Valentines day. We'll see what I think up!

First Day of School!

The kids started school this week. Well, last week for Emma and Aiden but Izzy, this week. Izzy has been so anxious to start and said, "I can't stop smiling!" on the morning if her first day. She was so glad when she finally got her first homework today because she has been so excited to have homework. Emma has made her homework pages for a long time and today she had to draw or find a picture of an alligator. Boy, there's nothing like real homework!

Emma has her first boy teacher and is now in 4th grade. She is one of the older kids out in a portable classroom now! Aiden likes his new teacher and they have a pet fish named Oscar. It's interesting when their classes get all mixed up from year to year and after being in the same class with friends for two years they're in different classes this year. They don't seem to care too much but I'm probably more attached than they are! :)

We haven't figured out our routine all the way yet but I think we will not be allowing friends to come home after school during the week. There's just not enough time in the day! We also won't be having the tv on during the week. We'll see how that goes. We did just get a new tv from some friends that makes it that much more enticing to watch! It's 50in! Yeah for us!

Will post more things later!

RATS!

Presenting Baby, Lightning, and Lacy!

Summer Fun!

I wish I had lots of recent pictures and I think I should be taking more pictures than I am but if I have to cart Ellie around ( the baby I watch) I kind of have enough extra things to worry about. I'm going to start taking more. Plus, I need the practice! Here's some pictures from Fourth of July at our house.

This is a puppy that our friends were watching. The kids have a lot of fun trying to play with it. He's kind of lazy so sometimes their efforts are wasted!

We got a slip and slide. It took a while for all of my kids to get the hang of it. The first time we set it up Emma and Izzy didn't think it was much fun at all. Sounds familiar. :) Once we pulled it out again and we had the cousins over, they realized that it was more fun than they thought. Jayson was a pro from the beginning and Cody wanted to be a pro but he would just run and jump and slip at the beginning of the slide or run half way down the slip n' slide. You can see that Yannick started just pushing him.

Here's my nephew Dylan. He's getting so big and can get around now. He's such a happy little guy. I'm sure I'm going to be shocked after having been away from them for a month. They are visiting Switzerland and will be back in less than two weeks.

As a mother, sparklers terrify me! "Here's a stick of fire that will burn you and spits out flares at you. Enjoy!" I seriously let my kids do one sparkler. That's it!


We had a nice 4th. Even though it's "so last month" it's a new post. So there!

Forts

I love forts! I am what you would call a fort lover. A blanket and some accessories make the best play time ever.
I'm not sure if it was Ben's idea or the kids' idea but on a sunny morning the kids transformed our wonderful new trampoline into a secret little home. The cousins were over and it was fun times.
When the cousins needed to lay down for a nap we let our kids have quiet time in their fort. They read books together for an hour and a half or so in warm fort bliss.

I used to love taking naps in the forts we made. I remember many specific forts, too, from growing up. I remember the houses we lived in, the way the chairs were arranged, the secret entrances. Sometimes, I would make the greatest little fort and neither Ryan or Tara would want to sleep in it! What the crap? Why would you want to sleep on the floor when you could sleep in my fort? Sometimes older sisters on NOT appreciated! (I obviously had been a little too bossy to want to take a nap with...)

I remember making forts at the Sherk's house( our close friends/"not-really-cousins" cousins). Sometimes we made two because how can six kids sleep in one fort? Funny enough, when I think of forts I think of the Sherks. And we never lived really close when we were little but we always managed to make time for each other... Maybe next time we take our kids to their house we'll build them a great fort... Ahhhhh...forts.

I used to be funny!

I think I've been a lot funnier lately. Maybe because life has calmed down for me emotionally or maybe the people around me are in better moods. Who knows? I do make Ben laugh a lot more these days and that feels absolutely fantastic. :) I was searching through my blog and was noticing that I made myself laugh in almost every post. Then I thought, "Why am I not so funny on my blog?" So I make a commitment to you, you people who read less and less frequently because I write less and less frequently. This is blog is for me to have fun writing, to be witty and amusing and I commit to remember that! I love you, readers, but even more, I love myself and I will act like it.
Here's a funny picture just for fun...

Best Day Ever, sort of

So maybe all you folks out there know what you're talking about. Who knew there was a "compose" and "html"? A few, obviously! My life will be changed forever.

Since I have refound this freedom, I will share with you some pictures of Wilma and Arthur. We found these two birds in our front yard. Don't know where they came from but you'll be happy to hear that I did not take a picture of the one that got ran over by the bike... Eeeks! It was a sad, tragic afternoon. Poor Wilma, Arthur, and Gideon. May they rest in peace...

Witty moments

So my last post was a cheat of a post so here's another one. I was looking through some of my word documents (don't you do that?) and found a poem I wrote for my dad last year for his birthday. It made me laugh so I think it shall do the same for you.

If I could pick a person…

If I could pick a person who could write with their left hand and their right, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person who could make a game out of a roll of masking tape and a wiffle ball, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person to be my harmony during a game of pounce, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person to entertain a crowd at one of my fabulous events, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person who knew what the opposite color of purple would be, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person to take me rafting in a shallow river, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person to clean my garage and my husband was gone (and I had a garage), I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person to plant my church, I’d pick you.

If I could pick a person to be my dad, I’d pick you.


Thanks for having sex that one time and thanks for not dying yet.
Happy Birthday!

Izzy's friends

I think I'm going to divorce blogger. Or is it my computer? I don't like not being able to see pictures on my post.

I was going to tell you about Izzy's friends but I don't know which pictures are which. So here are some of her friends...

Back in the day...

It's happened. I have noticed lately that, yes, people seem younger and younger. And,I have to think good and hard before deciding if one is in college or junior high because they look so similar. And I have noticed for some time that when I think someone is "about my age" I can assume that I am about 5 - 10 years older. But... here it is, the clencher.

When I was a kid, we only had phones that plugged into walls and it wasn't a collector's item to have a rotary phone still.

When I was a kid we pretended to talk on the phone, not to text. We didn't even know what that word was.

When I was a kid, there was no world wide web. Just mail. Like with stamps. (They're not just stickers...)

And, when I was kid everyone knew what a t.v. antennae was! I bought a new t.v. antennae to go with our digital converter box and the kid who wrung me up said, "What is this thing?"
I said,"You really don't know what that is?"
"Not at all."
"You've never seen a t.v. antennae?"
"I've had, like, an antennae for my radio before.."
"Wow, well, this is what they look like. Now you know!"

He's always had satellite t.v.! Hm!

When will my children get their own cell phones? Will they eventually have their own computer, too? When will I get my first digital t.v.? Will my kids learn what an encyclopedia is? Or just which search engine they prefer? Life is progressing. It makes me want to sing the song from Disneyland from the carousel of progress ride thing. "There's a great big beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day. There's a great big beautiful tomorrow and it's only...."

Life is changing. We may be experiencing a crisis due to our bold decision-making but life is still moving forward. I shall try to keep up and not live "back in the day."

BFFs

Best Friends Forever... That's how Ben and Aaron will remain. Throughout life. No doubt.

And now a song:

When you're the best of friends
Having so much fun together
You're not even aware, you're such a funny pair
You're the best of friends

Life's a happy game
You could clown around forever
Neither one of you sees, your natural boundaries
Life's one happy game

If only the world wouldn't get in the way
If only people would just let you play
They say you're both being fools
You're breaking all the rules
They can't understand, the magic of your wonderland
Hu-hu-hu

When you're the best of friends
Sharing all that you discover
When that moment has past, will that friendship last?
Who can say? There's a way!
Oh I hope... I hope it never ends
'Cause you're the best of friends