I love toothless grins

So my Mom doesn't "do" face book and I don't really think C's parents do either. I like FB because it's easy to keep people up to date with pictures and whatnot, but it makes me slack in blogging which is not a good thing.

Blogging takes just a little bit more effort on my part so it's easy to see why FB would be more appealing, but I like blogging for our Family record keeping sake and I do like to keep my family that we are far away from up to date as well.

So for those of you who do "do" Face book and see repeats, sorry I must post it on here for my Mother or who knows what she'll do to me....Just kidding Mom.....kind of.

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Here she is, our little toothless 6 year old.
And if I do say so myself, I think she looks pretty darn cute with that little gap in her mouth. I love toothless grins!

E got off the bus Thursday afternoon and came running towards me with a HUGE smile on her face and I thought she was coming in for a hug (I was gone for a week at my parents house so I thought she just missed me) but nope, no hug. Immediately she opened her mouth wide and yelled happily.....

"I have my first loose tooth Mommy! SEE!" as she began wiggling her tooth.
I was surprised at how loose it really was.

She said "I was showing everyone...my friends, my teacher, my bus driver!"

It was cute to watch her get so excited over a loose tooth. I thought maybe it had started to get loose while I was gone, but she said that it only felt loose that day at school.

She kept asking when it would fall out. I had to tell her it may not be for a few more days. Then E would say "I bet tomorrow it will fall out and then I can leave it for the Tooth Fairy!" It was all too exciting for her, she just could not wait. I didn't want to break the news to her that teeth usually don't fall out the same day they get loose. I tried to explain it nicely but then she'd just respond "Well, I'll keep wiggling it and then maybe tomorrow it will fall out."

So she did wiggle it now and again. Dinner came and went, no tooth falling out on the dinner table. Bath time came and went, no searching for her tooth in the bath water. Still hopeful and still excited she got ready for bed.... she brushed her teeth even the loose one and.....

suddenly from the other room I hear "Spit, splat, clink.....AHH MY TOOTH!"
I ran to the bathroom to see her picking it up out of her spit in the sink, yum....gag.

Then she looked up at me with that huge grin of "is it really gone?" as her tongue pokes through to check, yep there is a space where the tooth once was.

She was SO excited and of course the camera came out pictures were taken, lots of pictures.

J boy was now sad because there was no attention on him, no pictures of him were being taken....

(I like how his shirt says "happy camper" while he was not a happy camper at that moment.)

Then he became a happy camper when he realized I did still loved him because I was now taking pictures of him, even while he was being grumpy....


I love these new phases each child goes through, but I have to say it's got to be the most fun with the oldest child because it's all new and exciting to them and us as the parents.

So that night after going around the neighborhood to show everyone her missing tooth, she went to bed with her tooth under her pillow with so much excitement and anticipation to see what the tooth fairy would bring her.


She woke up to a note and four quarters. The note from the tooth fairy congratulated her on her first lost tooth and said sorry for not having a dollar bill but that she could trade in her 4 quarters for a dollar any time if she wanted to.

Four quarters was enough for her. Duh, four of some thing is so much better than one of some thing! I didn't....I mean, the tooth fairy didn't think of it that way.

Yay for toothless grins!

Our Big 4 year old boy

Our J boy is 4! I can't believe it, he can't be 4 already?! How did my Baby Boy get so big?


This was the year I decided to let him actually have a party. The last three years he could have cared less if he had a "Themed" party with friends over or not so I didn't worry about doing all that if he didn't know the difference.

I know, I'm a horrible Mother.

All he wanted those years was cake and ice cream and maybe a present so why spend more money when he'll never remember any way. That is just me, don't judge me! I still love my kid even if I don't throw an over-the-top-party every year for him.

ANY WAY....

This year being our last year here with his friends and with him being a little older and understanding more about birthdays and parties, I decided to ask him if he wanted a birthday party. Of course the answer was yes.

His theme? Spiderman, his choice.

I'm not the type of Mom to go over the top, like I said. I try and be creative and try to make it fun yet simple, and really there is no need to break the bank on a fourth birthday party, or any kids party for that matter.

We played two games, which, for four year old's that is as much as their attention spans can handle any way.

One was Toss the spider into the web, it was a big hit! It was so simple but they loved it.

The other was a "Web walk". Played like a cake walk, the web walk was just walking on webs (drawn on paper) to the spider man theme music ("Spiderman, Spiderman, does what ever a spiderman can...") and when it stops who ever is standing on the number web called out got their goody bag. We played until every one had a chance to win. It was simple and the kids liked that they all got to "win".

And that my friends is as "all out" as I go for my four year old's birthday party, and he LOVED it!

The spider toss.

After the web walk they all got their spiderman masks on to pose for the camera, all but Micah. Look at that cheesy smile, that kid cracks me up!

I wanted a picture with their faces in it....can you see who was mad about taking the mask off?

Mr. Diva Birthday boy! He got over it quickly.

This kid was SPOILED this year with presents. I think the last three years he literally got one maybe two presents each year. One being from me and one from grandma. This year, though, he had LOTS and he love it.

This present in the picture below was his favorite and of course the coolest presents came from Grandma. It was a G.I. Joe set with a sword that made the "ching ching" noise as you swung it so it sounds like you are hitting another sword. Pretty cool! Who knew G.I. Joe sported a sword and Chinese trowing stars?

I love his face in the picture he was so excited.

So there ya have it. J boys' first birthday party.

Man I love that kid!

Some days I just wish he'd stop growing up.

It's NOT a weed whacker

I live in a part of the country where we have insects that look like these....

They just fly around our neighborhoods not caring at all that people live here.

No I don't live in the rain forest or any forest for that matter. I live in a big city of 800,000 people, but yet we have LARGE insects that like to fly around my neighborhood.....AND COME INTO MY HOUSE!





In my living room I have one of these classy Walmart Lamps....



So what do you get when you combine that lamp with a large insect that looks like this? You get something that sounds like a small weed whacker.

You also get a 29 year old woman holding her three month old crying baby, screaming as she ducks and covers.

Before it found my lovely lamp it decided to take a few laps around my small living room. As described above, I let out a scream and ducked each lap it took as it came flying past my head. This repeated a few times before I ran to the couch to "save" my baby from the Monstrosity of a bug that this thing was/is.

So here I am with no husband home to kill the gigantic bug, no E to scream with me, no J boy to try and kill it..... All I have is me screaming holding a baby who is now crying in fear of her mother, not the bug that is making her mother scream.



The bug found the lamp after what seemed like a million laps in my living room and has been doing laps in there for the last half hour while I sit in fear in the kitchen. Every once in a while I'll hear it hit the ceiling and fall back in the lamp only to continue its laps of death or at least I'm hoping these laps will kill it soon.



To keep me from further FREAKING OUT, I'm telling myself that there is just a sweaty man out front holding a weed whacker grooming my front lawn.

It's a lie I MUST believe right now.

Now I'm off to dart up the stairs with baby in hand into the bathroom so I can finally get my shower for the day.



It's just a weed whacker.....just a weed whacker......a weed whacker

Back to school, YES!

E's First Day of 1st Grade was yesterday. She was nervous and so was I. I tried to hide my anxieties but I think she could kind of sense them. When she came home, though, she was so happy to be back in school. She LOVED her first day.

So sunny!

It was hard to get a good picture because the sun was right in her eyes.

J boy had to get in on the school action. He put his back pack on and stood next to his sister. I love his face, sun in his eyes too.

Saying good bye to her baby sissy, that was the hardest part for her I think.

The first day of school she wanted me to driver her and not ride the bus, so I did. I also ended up picking her up from school too, which I'm glad I did both. In the morning we had some school bus mix ups and the wrong bus was coming around picking up the wrong kids. Luckily they were going to the same school. Then they had bus issues in the afternoon and her bus got here an hour later than it usually will. I was glad I picked her up.

Today, though, she rode the bus in the morning and she'll be riding it on the way home too. I think she's nervous but she'll be fine. Let's hope it doesn't get here at 5pm like yesterday, YIKES!

Meeting her new bus driver. I met her yesterday and she is really nice, E will like her.

As much as I get nervous for her going back to school, I am also just as excited.....excited she'll stop staying home bugging me all day that she's bored, or that there is nothing to do. I'm also excited that there will be more peace and quiet in our house as J boy will have no one to pester fight with, for now that is, until Lou lou is old enough.

I was SO ready for school to start again. Now I can keep my sanity, Hallelujah!

LOTS of updates below

I was in a blogging mood. I've been behind for a while. My "for the blog" picture file was FULL and none of them had been posted to the blog yet. I hate getting behind on it as this is one of the main ways we keep in touch with some of our family (The Harker's).

So for all you who care about our daily goings on around here, scroll down for several minutes and you'll get lots of updates on us!

Sisterly love

I was mentioning something about "abuse" that our little lady takes DAILY from her big sissy.....Well this is what I'm talking about.....

Make-up time.
Which included: Chap stick, "blush", a home made tiara and some other jewelry.
Also plenty of poking and prodding.

This was her face she made the whole time. She's so patient.

Hi Mommy!

She gets hauled ALL over the house. I can't stop it, I've tried, it's not worth the fight.

Lots of kisses, LOTS and LOTS of kisses.

Bouncing on the knee.
I love her face in this picture it's the face I see almost every time I come to ''rescue" her.
"Mommy! Save me!"

She sure is loved!

Like Mother, like Daughter

Her first cartwheel!

I was watching a little gymnastics on T.V. the other day and E ran up stairs got out ALL her gymnastic Leos (yes she has multiples) and began to teach herself to do a cartwheel and later a handstand (kind of). It was so cute......Like Mother, like daughter.

I'm glad she likes gymnastics :)

Growing boy

This has been happening a lot lately with this boy. He's been falling asleep in the middle of the day, well, usually it's at like 5:30 in the evening which is not a good time. I think he's growing or something. Maybe he's just playing harder, what ever it is, I wish he'd just sleep good at night and stop this falling asleep before dinner thing it's making bed time rough........Like not staying in bed, finally falling asleep at 10:30pm, rough.

Here is the latest position he fell asleep in.....It's our favorite.

My Best friend......Mr. Clean

My best friends today were Mr. Clean's Magic eraser, Mr. Cloth, Mr. Spray bottle.....you get the idea. A wonderful friend took my kids for a few hours so I could just get things done around here. Wow! How much more can a Mother get done with out her kids around? A LOT MORE!


Today I tackled not only the basics but I decided it was that dreaded time......to wipe down the walls/appliances/cupboards etc. I hate this because then I can see just how "slacking off" I really was. AND I have learned from the past that once you start, you CAN'T stop. The fingerprints are never ending!

Along with finger prints on every wall (I just did three rooms today, the down stairs) I found the following:

Pencil/pen/crayon marks
A sticky blue goo that I think just might be either "go-gurt" or blue Popsicle take your pick
Make-up, E has her own "make-up" and it was on every wall
Sticker residue from no doubt E's sticker collection
foot scuff marks
scotch tape
misc. food items
tear marks (yes, these were in our time out corner walls)
AND last but not least boogers, YUM!

I KNOW who those boogers are from....E unfortunately proudly admits she eats her boogers (dry heaving right now) although I tell her often to get a tissue and that she is WAY too old to be doing that sort of thing.

J boy on the other hand will not (good boy) eat his boogers, not sure if he ever did, but he also won't get a tissue. I find him rubbing them on his clothes, the carpet, his sister, and apparently the walls (bad boy).

Every wall I washed down had three or more of those things I listed above on them, no joke! Every wall had that blue goo on it, pretty sure that was my boy's doing.

It's amazing what just TWO children can do to a dozen walls or so.

By-the-way I LOVE Mr. Clean Magic erasers, A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! They literally just erase things. I know I'm one lame Momma for loving them but they make my life easier, what can I say?

P.S. I did not write this blog post or the ones below while my kids were at my friends. Just so you know. I like to write posts and then decide later if I want to actually post them to my blog for all to read. So today I went through and posted a few from the past. So Scroll down and enjoy if you'd like.