Just Dance

Today was a half day at school. That means that by 12:30pm I have several boys in my kitchen eating me out of house and home. Today I had just finished making some jam (YUM) when they came in. They loved it. And then, as these boys usually do, they ended up in our theater room playing video games. Only today was no ordinary video game. Today it was JUST DANCE!! That's right. All these deacons at my house were gettin' their grove on. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. First off, these boys can't dance. In the beginning a couple of them were a little shy or embarrassed about getting up and taking a turn. Slowly but surly they tried it, and before I knew it they were hooked. Some of them were dancing without even having a controller. They were just so into that they were dancing along with the ones that were actually playing. They were sweating and laughing for hours!

There were tons of little kids trying to get in on the action, but these boys were having so much they didn't want to share much. I am kicking myself for not getting video to have for blackmail purposes later. But they'll be back, and I'll be ready!

Let the Games Begin

Fall at our house means girls soccer. It means new cleats, new jerseys, and hot, sweaty Saturdays. I don't know how they play when it's 106 degrees! The girls season officially started today. Kennedy's game was at 8:30, so it wasn't too hot. She played awesome and scored 4 goals. That's her record.

This is a shot of one of her goals.

And then there's Whit. Her team moved up a division this year so they could have a little more competition. That means they were playing against 13 - 14 year olds. Our girls were very nervous. The other team was obviously older. Much taller and very intimidating.

However, once Whitley had scored twice within the first five minutes, they all settled in and realized they could beat these guys. And beat them they did. It ended up 4 - 1. Should be a fun season. A hot season, but a fun season.

Global Warming

Kennedy: Mom I really want my own pet. All my friends have their own pets. I want one of those HUGE mice/rat things.

Me: Do you mean a Ginnie pig?

Kennedy: Yeah yeah, that's what I want. And I'll keep it in my room. I'll be really responsible.

Me: No

Kennedy: Come on mom. If I don't take good care of it you can take it back to the pet store.

Me: You can't just return a pet to the pet store like it's a shirt that didn't fit right.

Kennedy: Ah, yeah you can. It's called global warming mom, DUH!

Me: What??

Kennedy: Yeah, when you just return something that isn't working for you, like your pet, it's global warming.

Me: You're wrong, and I'm done!

Ear Infection

Two weeks ago I woke up in the middle of the night with intense pain in my right ear. Aching really. My teeth hurt. I couldn't lay on the right side of my head. I put some drops in my ear on Saturday trying to fix the problem, and by noon was completely deaf in that ear. It felt like I had water in my ear that I couldn't shake out. AHHHHH.
Finally Sunday morning I gave in and went to urgent care. The doctor said I had a massive ear infection, put me on some antibiotics and medicated ear drops and sent me on my way. After three days of being deaf in that ear, the swelling finally went down and the pain went away. I took the 10 days worth of antibiotics and figured I was done. Fast forward to last night. I went and played volleyball with our ward, and felt fine. When I was getting ready for bed my ear started to feel sore. I put some medicated drops in hoping to clear up any infection that might be lingering. NOT. More drops in this morning, and by 3pm on this afternoon I knew I had to head back to urgent care. They flushed my ear, which is a special treat if you've never had that done, and then looked in and said everything looked fine. I wasn't going for that since my ear was throbbing. The doctor gave me another round of super strong antibiotics and sent me on my way. Meanwhile, Landon is suppose to be taking Colton to do baptisms for the dead with his friend, and both my girls had soccer practice. I am sitting there with my ear dripping, giving Landon instructions on who to call for rides, and how to get Colton where he needs to be. Thank goodness our friends just waited for Lan and he was able to go with Colton after all. The girls made it to practice and I got don in time to pick everyone up.

I'm crossing my fingers this round of antibiotics works. This whole ear infection business is nasty. I feel so bad for babies!

Crazy Days

Landon is out of town for work. You think I would be use to this whole single mother thing since he lived in a different state for nealy a year. But he's been home now for a couple months, and I've gotten use to the help. This has been a crazy week as usual, and tonight is not going to be any different Here's the schedule between now and bedtime.

3pm- Coton has football practice
3:40 - Pick up girls from school. Feed them, have them change into soccer clothes, and do homework.
4:45pm - Take Whitley, Kennedy and neighbor girls (my turn for carpool) to activity days at 2 different places
5pm- Pick up Colton from football and get him fed
5:30- Pick up Whit's friend for soccer practice (my turn for carpool)
5:40- Pick up Kennedy and Whit from acitivity days (early) and head for soccer
6pm- Both girls have soccer practice (luckily at the same place)
7pm- Kennedy done with soccer
7:30- Whit done with soccer
7:45- Home for showers! Finish any unfinished homework.
8pm- Bedtime for Kenendy
8:30- Bedtime for Whit
9pm- Bedtime for Colton

Now that I type it all out it seems doable. I guess it's all the driving in between that adds up. Why is it that everything always seems to be on the same day. That is until you get to the next day. Then everything is on that day! I wouldn't trade a minute of it, just wish my help was here!

Air Soft War

As the weather gets nicer and nicer the kids are starting to come out of their houses like rats! This was the scene on my front lawn right around dinner time tonight. 3 of the boys had already gone home for dinner. They were planning a huge air soft war. Whit was knee deep in the war, but Kennedy and her friend Lauren were using moving boxes to protect themselves!

I can't say enough how much I love this neighborhood. Too bad these kids all play football, soccer, have piano, scouts, activity days, oh and homework to get in the way of all their fun!

More Bread

For dinner tonight we had meatballs subs. They are my kids' favorite! I decided, since I'm slightly obsessed with bread making, that I'd make the rolls for them. They were awesome. However, they were huge. They got away from me a little bit.

This picture doesn't do them justice. Colton's bun was huge! Big enough to hold like 12 meatballs. Big shocker, he ate the whole thing.

NEON Love

Seems like when my kids turn 11 their taste in shoes turn NEON! These are Whit's new soccer cleats this year. YOWZA! She LOVES them. I guess they'll see her coming.

Books Books and More Books

I have been reading like crazy lately. My mom started bringing me books that she had read, and before I knew it I had a pile waiting for me. I love that. I love a good book, and I love a good series even better. I think I'm about the last person on earth to read some of these, but here are a few of my favorites as of late. In no particular order...

This was a great series. I love books from the late 1800's early 1900's. Life was hard, yet simple.

I think I was halfway through this one before I realized it was a true story. AMAZING. Makes me want to do more, do better.I am finally starting Mockingjay. My friend Stacy brought it to me a couple weeks ago to read, and I have so many others waiting to go back to the library I haven't been able to get to it. I can't wait! I hope it's as good as the first two.

Grandparents Day

My mom was the only Grandparent that was able to make it to Grandparent's Day this year. She took the girls and had breakfast at the school. How lucky my kids are to have their Grandparents live so close and able to be so involved in their lives! Something I took for granted as a kid.

What a Great Life

When I picked up the girls from school today we went straight to the store for some soda. Buy 2 12 packs, get 3 free. How can you pass that up? My girls were starving, since they hadn't eaten in like 3 hours, so taking them to the grocery store was not by best move. Kennedy spotted some snowballs and went CRAZY! She kept calling them fat cakes. When I tried to tell her they were snowballs, she said that iCarly called them fat cakes, so that's what she was calling them. These are things I don't have the energy to argue anymore. I let her have the fat cakes!

I made her share one with Whitley, and said they could eat them in the car. Better known as a trash can on wheels (sorry Landon). On the way home she is scarfing this thing down. She said to me "mom the only thing that could make this better is if there was cream in the middle". And then not 2 seconds later she screams "there is cream in the middle. My life just keeps on getting better!" You don't really know how great your life is as a kid until you're not one anymore, do you? Enjoy Kennedy!

It's All About Colton Today

Colton is playing flag football at the Jr. High again this year. He loves it. They divide the kids into 4 teams, with 4 different coaches. He got the coach he really wanted, so that is even sweeter. They played their first scrimmage game today, and he did awesome. He play tight end, and is so much bigger than the other boys that he just pushes people out of the way. He ran down the middle for one play, and caught the ball. He then proceeded to drag 3 boys with him as they tried to get him down. Too funny. (number 92) I need to get some better shots of him. I forget what I'm doing at these games.

Later on was his Court of Honor. He worked really hard this summer, and is still playing catch up. He earned his Life Scout awards and 9 more merit badges. He is now finally working on his Eagle. Hallelujah! There's a light at the end of this tunnel.

Colton getting his awards with scoutmaster Dave. I love it when he gets to pin the mothers pin on me for all my efforts. Tonight he chose to pin it on my sleeve. He said he didn't want to hurt me. Really? Have I taught this child nothing??

Labor Day

Lately I have been into yeast. I know that sounds so random, but it's true. I really want to not be so afraid of it. I want to have the smell of freshly baked bread wafting through my house. I decided to start off easy, and not jump right into trying to bake 8 loaves of bread every Monday to have for the week. Maybe someday I'll be that mom, but I doubt it. So I've been practicing. I've tried a couple different dinner rolls, cinnamon rolls, these swedish roll things (which is so far our favorite) and a cinnamon swirl bread (that one sounds better than it was. Needs some tweaking). Anyway today being Labor Day and all, we are having our families over for a BBQ. I decided to make some rolls. I got out my Lion House Recipe book, and found their rolls. My problem with dinner rolls has been the shape. Plain old boring round rolls is just not cutting it. I want to be a bread maker, not just some round roll boring maker. I told you, I'm in to it! So I got online, and found a clip of the Lion House baker and how she shapes her rolls. Now I'm in business.
See how they're all rolled up like that. Almost croisant like, and yet NOT! I'm giddy. I didn't get a shot of them once they were all puffed back up, or baked. Trust me, once they come out of the oven they don't stick around too long.

Whitley my trustee helper brushing these little beauties with butter. Everything's better with butter.

After the rolls were finished, we spend some time relaxing in the pool. These three goons crack me up! We had a great dinner with our families, ate too much, and watched a football game. I'd say we had a pretty great weekend.

PS. Happy Birthday to my little brother Matt. Love you

16 Years!

Landon and I left first thing Saturday morning for our weekend anniversary getaway. Usually I am in on the planning of these little getaways in some way or another. This time, Landon did it all. He picked the hotel, arranged for a babysitter, and even got a sub for our primary class. It took 16 years, but I finally have him trained! We ended up at the Desert Ridge Marriott. This place was gorgeous. We ate, swam, slept, ate some more, floated in the lazy river, ate some more, and just relaxed. It was the perfect way to celebrate 16 years together.

It's funny thing being a parent. You want to get away without your kids and just relax. But we spent the whole time saying "the kids would love this, or they would have a blast doing that". I guess there really is no "getting away". Thanks Lan for another great getaway.

LImbo Lower Now

It's still so hot here, that even though the kids are in school, they still want to play like it's summertime. One of the reasons we chose this neighborhood to live in, is that my kids have tons of friends that live here. Kennedy's friend Anna lives a couple houses down, and they have had a great time playing together all summer long. Anna and Kennedy are polar opposites, but they get along great. They were outside at the park after school today, and one of the neighbors had water in his gutter. Well, who can resist water in a gutter?? They started off just splashing in the puddle, fully dressed. Then they decided to change in to their swim suits. That's about the time Whitley joined in. Then the puddle wasn't big enough, so they brought out the big guns. The hose!Landon had bought me some glass canisters, and they were all wrapped up in bubble wrap, which spurred on this fashion show!

The girls capped of the evening by having a late night and watching Camp Rock 2.

Bundt Heaven

About a week ago I was heading home from the grocery store. I was stopped at a light, and out of the corner of my eye I notice the lady next to me waving and rolling down her window. I realize it's friend of mine, so I roll down my window. I ask her what she's doing, and she holds up this little white box. She is grinning like a school girl! Now I'm curious. She tells me she just made a sweet run, and then the light changes. I didn't have time to ask her where she went or what was in the box!
I wondered about that box the rest of the day. I called her the next day to get to the bottom of it. She says she went to a little place clear over in Tempe, and that the treats were delish. However, she thinks a little place in Ahwatukee is better. I had no idea where this little cake place was, so we make a plan to have lunch and head out there.

This little place it to die for! Now, I love cake. But this cake is crazy good. The best part is, they're a franchise so they're all over. You can get a whole big bundt cake, or just little individual bundt cakes in tons of different flavors. I am in bundt cake heaven.

Thanks goodness this place is 20 minutes from my house, or I'd be stopping in regular!

16 Years and Counting

Today is our 16th wedding anniversary. That sounds like such a long time, and it is. But man has it gone fast.

We left the kids home doing homework, and such out for a quick bite to eat at Oregano's. We hardly ever eat there because it's always so crowded. We figured on a Wednesday night we would be safe. We still had to wait for almost 30 minutes! Anyway, as we were talking we started to try to remember what we had done to celebrate all of our other anniversaries. The first couple were easy. Then of course the big ones 5, 10 and 15. But a lot of those others I just don't have any idea. 8, 11, 14?? I'm sure we had dinner, and cards and gifts were exchanged. I realized that this blog gives me the perfect outlet to record what we did. So that's it. We went to dinner, exchanged gifts and cards, helped with homework and showers, and went to bed. Kind of pathetic! Luckily Landon has booked us a weekend stay in Scottsdale to really celebrate.