House Randomness

We are all home today because today is a work day for the teachers. Excellent. Except we are bored and it's only 8:21. I'm trying to decide if it's worth it to take the three of them to a play center in Boise to break up the afternoon....but right now I am wrapped up in a blanket with a large coffee cup. The kids are playing Bubble Birds on my Nook and watching cartoons. Brody of course is going around trying to get anyone to play something with him.


I did, however, download all of my pictures for January and up to 2/14 for my Project Life. And while I'm at it, I thought I would share some of the shots with you.

Cameron came home with a note asking her to bring a collection of 100 items for the 100th day of school. And I laid the note down and forgot about it until the night before. And so we were scrambling between showers and basketball practice and clogging, but we got out all my scraps of cardstock and we started punching hearts. And Cameron started gluing and we ended up with a collection of 100 hearts. Love the bright colors.

This Spot Scrubber has become a staple in the house. I bought one when we had new carpet installed last spring and it has well past earned it's weight around here. This sucks up messes with the best of them. And with cough and flu season thick in this house, I leave the cleaner mixed and ready to clean because we have a lot of spontaneous "accidents". Like when Cameron KNEW she was going to puke and she ran to the bathroom door, laid her forehead on it and puked down the front of it. And she had just eaten red jello. Yep, red jello into the carpet. And this bad boy took care of it. It also works for puke in the car, puke on the stairs, and puke on the couch. Got the picture? If you don't have one of these and you have kids, you should make the purchase. If you are going to ever have kids, you should buy one because they're only cute for so long.....and then they start puking. I keep telling Matt if we had more money, I would start buying one of these for every baby shower gift. I've always been a realist. I can just see the card now..."Congratulations on your little bundle of puking joy!" You're gonna need this. It didn't come in pink.

On to more family fun....a few weekends ago we got to have our neice spend the night. There was a small lul in reproduction between Tucker and Brody and Dallie fits perfectly in that spot. So when Dallie is here we literally have stair steps and it is busy! In fact, this is reassurance that I do not want to have a fourth baby. I had to put them all into the shower at once just to keep them contained long enough for me to put my make up on. Crazy cousin fun!

This is Tucker's staple face when I asked him for a photo. He may have gotten that from his father.

Passing the last of winter off with a little Chutes and Ladders. I've realized that I hate this game.

The best part about January is the cuties. I love that they peel easy. I love that they don't have seeds. I love that the kids will eat them endlessly. I love that they are on sale. Vitamin C! And don't even get me started on my love affair with kiwi fruit. Or fruit in general.

Why the ketchup on the living room shelf? Because I'm too cheap to buy hand weights and these weigh two pounds each. I am currently on day 16 of the 30 day shred. This is the first time I've done it consistently and I'm determined to make it through 30 days. So far I am onto level two and it sucks. But I am sweating and sore so I'm hoping it's worth it. Swimming pool season is right around the corner and Brody did a number on me......18 months ago. Seriously, this is no excuse any more! I need to keep shredding!

Hope you have a great weekend. We are off school till Wednesday and then Matt and I are headed out to Eugene for the annual Logger's Conference. Kidless. For the first time ever. I am so nervous! But so excited for a three day get away.

Valentine's Decisions

I just had to share these cute photos of Tucker choosing which valentine he wanted to give to each kid in his preschool class. Such decisions, as apparantly each super hero has some sort of value or worth that is directly associated with your rank as a friend to Tucker. Anyways, I just sat and patiently went through all sixteen children, two teachers, and one pastor while he tried to cram his cute little name into a space too small for little writers. Notice the sharpie markers on his cheeks? This was intense!

This was my favorite valentine project for the year. Tucker was supposed to bring his own decorated box to preschool so we made a Valentine monster. Trying to do Valentine's day for boys adds a whole new perspective to the event. But I think this turned out super cute. I got the idea from an Oriental Trading kit that you could purchase, but I won't pay for shipping and I never plan that far ahead anyways, so we spray painted a capri sun box and started decorating.

And by decorating I mean I wanted to add more and more, but Tucker was happy with a few random hearts and he was ready for a snack. Again, it's a boy thing. So after he had the snack, I snuck back in and added the anteneas and the arms.

My own personal Valentine Monster.

Sweet Baby Girl

Just wanted to share my latest project. Matt's cousin is expecting her first baby next month and last weekend was her baby shower. Of course I have hoards of girl paper. More girl paper than anybody that has only one girl should ever have, so I decided to share the wealth and put together an 8X8 scrapbook. Each two page spread has space for atleast two if not more photos of baby. Each two page spread is titled with One Month, Two Months, Three Months, and so on. I sewed and distressed all edges and used the MY MINDS EYE line of girly paper. It turned out super cute! Makes me want to make one for Cameron's photos......

Man Food

My daughter is picky. She doesn't like breakfast. So on mornings that Tucker doesn't have preschool, we get her off to school with her routine yogurt and then we come back in our jammies and we bust out the sausage and eggs complete with some fruit.
And my boys love it. And I love these boys. And so I had to take a picture of the two of them having their man food. Every Mom should have boys. Cooking for boys is a lot different than cooking for girls. There is nothing better than the appreciation I get for just frying something greasy and fufilling. Now if only I appreciated this kind of food. But I don't. I prefer yogurt. Which may explain why Cameron is such a picky breakfast eater......

Success!

Well, I hate to admit it, but I was wrong! This girl made it through her first sleepover like a pro! She called to wish me a good night about 10:45 and she was so WIRED that I knew for a fact there was going to be no sleeping for a very long time. They made it until one o clock in the morning and slept until nine thirty in the morning. Pretty cool that she's big enough to start enjoying "Girl time".

Tonight I am vegging and enjoying watching tivo'd episodes of The Big Bang Theory. Seriously, can my love of nerds grow any stronger? I love Sheldon and Leonard! If you haven't started watching this show, you must. Happy Friday!

Science Projects and Sight Words

For the past two weeks we have been tending to two plants in an effort to show the necessity of sunlight for plant growth. Cameron had her first science fair this week at school and this is what we decided to do for her project. We took two plants, placed one in the window and one in a box in the closet. And every three or so days we checked the plants and recorded what we saw. Monday we turned in her project and tonight is NASA night, so we get to go see all of the awesome projects. I'm such a nerd, I love this kind of thing!

Since Christmas, Tucker and I have been trying to do some kindergarten readiness. It's hard to believe that Tucker's "half birthday" was Sunday. Which means he's half way to the big five. And for some reason five just seems so grown up to me. And so we are working on matching letters--upper case to lower case, letter names, letter sounds, and some basic sight words. He's ready for kindergarten and can't wait to go to real school with Cameron. We still have seven months which is quite a while, but will ultimately be here before we know it. Time is a flying! Seems like he's just been little Tucker for so long, and now he's running with the big dogs.....

I guess I had get up and get something done more productive than updating my blog, but it's this weather and I hate January. I'm so unmotivated to succeed at anything. Luckily we are on the countdown for better months. I have even considered buying one of those happy lights just to give me a little boost, but I don't want to spend the money on one.

Laundry to fold, dishes to do, dinner to plan. I'm off.

Girl Scout Cookies

Remember a while back I told you that I was asked to lead a Daisy Girl Scout Troop and I said no? I really did say no. And yet, here we are thick into our second year. And it's fun because I have an awesome group of girls and we do some fun stuff. But really, I don't have time for this and there's a lot of planning and work involved. And so, after this year, I am passing the torch and we are going to focus on running two kids to sports and dance and all the extra stuff that we have to do. But for now, we are thick into our troop with selling Girl Scout cookies and it's a great opportunity for the girls (MOMS) to drive around town asking for cookies and raising money for our troop. Then, in about a month, the girls get to go out (MOMS) and deliver all the cookies that such girl sold. And so I capped Cameron at 100 boxes. We could do a lot more, but whe your kid is six, it's all about me making sure those cookies get delivered, the money gets counted, etc. And Cameron gets the cookie badge for her apron.
So on that note, I had to post this blurry photo of the girls last weekend asking for donations to help restock the food pantry here in town. We only signed up for an hour shift because they have an attention span of about 20 minutes and this was towards the end. The only thing that saved us was one kid's Aunt who came through and bought hot chocolate from Starbucks for all of the girls. Yay for hot chocolate!
This week we are touring the local Police Department in order to learn more about "Respecting Authority" and going out for ice cream afterwards to learn more about "Socializing". If there was a badge for giggles and treats, we would have them for sure! Have a happy Monday!