Do you love me?... check yes or no!

So I was doing homework with all the kids and I saved Nolan for last. I opened up his homework folder and out came this --->


Click on the picture if you can not read it!


Apparently, someone left a "love note" in his folder!!!



It was obviously not done by any of his sisters... none of them write that well! And we do not have paper that small. And it was very deliberately placed.


When I asked Nolan about it he got all giddy! It was funny! He said he did not know who it could be from and was grinning ear to ear and hid his head in the top of his pajamas! He is getting to that age where he is getting embarrassed by things like that!


But look at the top picture! His eyes are glowing! I think he felt pretty special! I really do not think he knows who gave it to him, he just is flattered! He keeps coming up with theories about how it got into his folder that do not involve a little girl who might have a crush on him, but I am not so sure!


My Nolan is getting so big... he got his first love note! So in honor of his love note, I will play his favorite "love song", but the Across the Universe version because I like it the best!

I owe my neighbor...

A Flat of

Yellow

Pansies!

And it is not hard to see why!

My beautiful, pixie-like, mischievous :

Jovie-Lea!

She really was not trying to be bad! She has just entered the "flower-picking" stage! The kids were all riding their bikes along the cul-de-sac and I suppose the newly planted pansies at the bottom of my neighbor's mailbox called to her! And she picked them... for me! Sweet... well, she thinks so! Unfortunately I did not see her in the act until she single-handedly annihilated my poor neighbors pansy patch! She loaded them up in her hand and "drove" them all the way across the street to present them to me!

She adored those mangled petals! She stood there and smelled them for the longest time! Which afforded me the opportunity to take beautiful sun-soaked whimsical pictures of my little pixie! They probably are not ideal, but I love sun lines in my pictures! She was so sweet and so quiet about it!

I was taking pictures of some of the other kids when she was picking the flowers! I was glad I had my camera on me to capture her sweet (but obnoxious) gesture!

She found a basket and put her petals in there and carried them around all afternoon! Tomorrow I shall go to Lowes, and leave a few containers on pansies on my neighbors doorstep! Maybe I will buy a few extra for my Jovie-Lea!

The Mis-adventures of a Princess Teenie!

I think there is something under the bed?!

Is is a monster?!

Is it a Ghost?!

Is it the Boogyman?!

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Nope... it is just a teenie-tiny Princess Teenie!

She was sent to her room by the King for doing rotten deeds! And as evidenced by this photo those rotten deeds may have been done because we had a very tired Princess Teenie on our hands!

She went under her bed to sulk and did not come out for a few HOURS! I tried to wake her up earlier, but had no such luck! I ended up forgetting she was asleep under there until I remembered to wake her up and it was 6:00! Needless to say she had a hard time going to bed that night!

Then this morning I told her to get ready for school! I meant for her to get her backpack and lunch and wait for me by the door! She disappeared for a few minutes and came back all glammed up! She did her own hair and slipped my sports bra over her shirt! I was running so late, but I could not resist taking some time to snap some pictures! I removed the sports bra, but let her go to school with her hair the way she likes it! She was so proud of herself and she took a lot of care and time to di it that way! The pre-school teachers thought it was pretty cute!
She has eclectic taste, but she is always the Princess Teenie whom I love! I get to spend a lot of time with her since she is not in school yet and we have a good time together! She loves to help, hang out, and most of all... she loves being a princess!

Girls just wanna have fu-un!

(Is that the funniest look on Lettie's face or what?)

Levi took the boys out Saturday morning to look at sports equiptment, buy Bakugon's, and just have some male bonding!

The girls wanted to do something as well! So when I asked them what they wanted to do, Ruby said she wanted to dress up, put on some makeup, and go somewhere! And of course, Lettie agreed! They are girly girls and they love any excuse to put on make up! Even I had to wear a dress... and they deemed my church dress acceptable even though it was not a princess dress!

Then we went to the only sit-down restaraunt that you can sanely go to with kids... Panda's Den (of Katie's blog fame)! It is a fast and furious eating experience where you are seated 30 seconds after you get there, the waitor shouts your order, and your good is out before you can even blink!! And if you go during lunch it is cheap and always yummy! And now they have added little clip-on pinwheels to the straws, so the girls were sold on this place immediately! Plus, Lettie has been asking for Chineese food lately... she is a chip off the ol' block! And my picky-eater Ruby loved it as well!

Then we went to the grocery store, but it was Compare Foods and they only had latin candy and they did not want any of that and I promised them candy so we went to Walgreens and got some candy and a 99 cent stuffed animal! It was a fun girls day out and they were VERY pretty!

We'll see how this goes...

So I am trying to give Silas dreadlocks! It took me all of High School the Musical 3 and a Star Ward Cartoon Episode and a bit of Ben 10 to finish! They never look like dreds to start out with, but will eventually "lock" over the next few months. I did a "twise and rip" lock to start out with and we will see how it goes. He looks cool, even though they do not look like actual dreads yet. He was very patient and seemed pleased with the result. For awhile I am going to have to take a little time out of the day to make him sit as I re-twist them. You would think dreadlocks were easy, but they actually require a lot of matinence. We will see how it goes in the long run! If worse comes to worse I just have to cut his hair short, which is what I would have had to to do if I did not dread them since he was getting quite the 'fro!

The 2 baking boys!

For the Blue and Gold Banquet this year they had a father son cake baking and decorating competition! Since we had never been to one, we did not know whether or not people went all-out or not... so Levi went all-out! He researched ideas and then decided he nad Yonas were going to make a cake Capital! Our decorator frosting was more runny than we thought it would be, so they had to use Chocolate chips for the detail work, but I thought it turned out pretty good!

Then they got there and all the other cakes were sheet cakes, still in the pan, and everyone just decorated the top! That's ok though, they had a HUGE good-looking cake to show off!

A Healthy Dad!!!

My dad finished his last round of Chemo a few weeks ago and had his full body scan on Saturday to see if he won the battle! But of course we had to wait until Wednesday to get the results...

... and today my mom called and handed the phone immediately to my dad and he said:

"I Beat This Thing!"

Woo-hoo!

Happy day!

A healthy dad who can now have hair and a 'stache again!

And best of all I now have a dad that can be around grandkids that may or may not have a snotty nose, but it would not matter either way! He can get that hankie out of his back pocket and wipe their nose without fear that a simple cold will send him to the hospital! So... watch out grandpa... you will have many a grand-girl who will insist on wallering you to death to make up for lost time!!!

You Can Lead A Kid To Healthier Eating...

But you can't make them eat!

I made healthy blueberry muffins for breakfast. Oats, half whole wheat flower, and applesauce instead of oil! I mixed it up, baked with with a splash of love... and no one would eat it... I ate mine... but I really did not enjoy it! I usually am pretty insistent that my kids eat what I give them, but this would have been child cruelty! Poor things gave it such a good try! Even Ruby (my pickiest eater) ate 1/3 of hers! I looked over at her and said, "Oh honey! Thanks for trying, but you don't have to eat that!"

It was so not worth it!!! Next time... I am making it the yummy way!

Is there anything else you can think of that is just not worth it to eat the healthy version? Let me know, so I will avoid it in the future!

Oh the Tragety!

Poor Callie! We had been out all day having the 2-year check-up with shots, Wal-mart, hair cuts, and McDonald's and by the time we got home she was so tired... and to top it off when she got out of the van she was walking inside, tripped over her feet, and skinned her knees! And the worst part for me was I had a handful of things that I had to put down before I could run to her!

I got her inside, got her comforted, set her on the counter to doctor her boo-boo, and she immediately calmed down. Then... she got a good look at the damage and boy was she devastated! She was Sooooo tired! (The first picture is priceless... classic devastated Curly Girly!)But fear not, mommy kisses and Casper glow-in-the-dark band-aids make it all better!

By the way, this big girl did not even whimper when she got her 2 shots! Here eyes got wide and she let out a little whine, but that was it! The 'shot lady' was very quick, but very gentle! As soon as she got her shot I popped her up on her feet and she looked at me like "What happened?" She was a very good girl! Just the skinned knees sent her over the edge!

Two Paste!

So...

Today I was running errands with Lettie, Jovie, & Callie. I had to go by Wal-mart today to buy a few random things. One of which was toothpaste! I told Lettie to not let me forget. So... after finding my last item Lettie reminded me to get the toothpaste. The babies were in the cart getting a little impatient. I told them:

"One more stop and then we will go! I just have to get toothpaste."

To which Jovie says:

"No, No! Not Two Paste Mommy! One paste! One paste!"

It took me a second to realize what she was telling me, and then I laughed! I thought that was pretty clever! I explained it was toothpaste because you use it to brush your teeth. Not two-paste. So, then when I jokingly said "So, let's get the two-paste", she said, "No Mom! Toof-paste" and pointed to her teeth! I think she thought it was pretty funny too! She is a smart cookie!

She is talking up a storm now and I love it! I can totally have a semi-conversation with her! And she seems to already get the joke sometimes! She reminds me of Nolan... thinks outside the box... uh-oh... look out! Haha!

And so it begins...

I walk into the kitchen to see Jovie with the scissors held to her hair! And when she saw me... what do you suppose she did? Cry? Say sorry? Run away? Look ashamed? Nope...

She worked FASTER!

As I came towards her she was frantically trying to get those scissors to close on a big clump of bangs!

Luckily in her flustered state she panicked and ended up losing all sense of coordination, therefore opening the scissors instead of closing them, thus not cutting off a huge clump of hair in the middle of her forehead... but I did find this:

I can not pinpoint exactly where that hair came from on her head, which is a small miracle since her hair is stick strait and even when she goes to get her hair cut you can see every snip of the scissors because her hair is so strait!

So... she got a pass this time!

The only thing that would devastate me more is if there comes a day that either Callie cuts her own hair or Jovie decides to cut it for her! And this is why: Callie's hair has to grow around and around before it grows down because of the curls. Therefore her hair is not even to her chin and she has never had a haircut. Her hair straitened actually goes half way down her back. So, to cut off what might look like an inch of curl is actually cutting off half a year's worth of growth. Jovie's hair grows FAST, therefore the situation would be remedied in a matter of months... with Callie it would be a matter of years!

So, my scissors are put away and hopefully I do not absentmindedly leave them on the counter again!

Her is the cutie culprit:

A really good helper!

Lettie is a terrific helper! She is always quick to help me make meals and she is always very thoughtful! Tonight Levi was working on putting together the stool he is sitting on in this picture for his classroom. He commented, "It would be nice if we had more light in here!" (2 of the light bulbs had just burned out and I need to buy new ones). The DJ lights that you see in the background were on the other couch across the room, so in order to help her daddy out she turned them on for him!

Rapidly blinking colored lights across the room really don't help, but who has the heart to tell her that? Plus, it was a sweet gesture. Levi and I just smiled at each other!

Then, Levi had to go upstairs for something and I was in the kitchen dishing out dessert. Lettie was the last one in for dessert (Apple Crumble & ice cream) and she is usually the first one in because she likes to help dish it out, hand it out, and also get some herself. Finally she came in a long time after everyone else and she seemed winded. When I went into the living room I saw why... she had moved the lights all the way from the other couch to the chair next to where Levi was assembling the stool! She had them plugged in, turned on, and ready to go... and those things are kind of heavy for a Princess Teenie! So, of course, he put his stool together by the light of blinking red, blue, green, and yellow lights because his Princess Teenie went through a lot of trouble to help him out! I thought it was sweet and very "typical Lettie"!


When I was putting away the things in the kitchen I saw where another "big girl helper" tried to make her own apple crumble. Apparently Jovie (who was helping me bake earlier) decided to make her own Apple crumble... see the piece of an apple and half my container of cinnamon? I think she took a bite out of it and realized a lot more was missing to make it taste good! Jovie is a "big girl" in a little body!

Have your kids ever "helped" you with something... that maybe was not the most helpful... but you went along with it anyway because it was so darn sweet?

"Stars Upon Thars"

Now the Star-bellied Sneetches had bellies with stars. The Plain-bellied Sneetches had none upon thars. The stars weren't so big; they were really quite small. You would think such a thing wouldn't matter at all. But because they had stars, all the Star-bellied Sneetches would brag, "We're the best kind of Sneetch on the beaches."

My kids were supposed to dress up as book characters in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday! They said "no Halloween costumes". Silas wanted to be Spiderman and I had to explain that it was not Halloween. So, I bought some yellow shirts, some glittery green felt, and some feathers and they became "The Star-belly Sneeches had bellies with stars"!

I ended up staying up until 1am finishing their outfits, but I think they turned out really cute! The only thing is I felt bad about sending my boys to school with feathers in their hair! Do you think that is wrong?

Hooray for the Loose Tooth!

Finally! Nolan lost a tooth! Poor thing was always asking, "Mom! When am I going to lose a tooth?" All his friends at school were losing teeth and he seemed to be the only one with all teeth intact. Then I was thinking this week, "If Nolan does not lose a tooth soon, I may have to take him to the dentist and make sure something is not wrong!" I have heard of kids needing their teeth pulled so the permanent teeth can come in. So I called Nolan over and said, "Let me see if you have any lose teeth" and sure enough it wiggled! I told him to keep wiggling it and by the next day it was very lose and it made it painful to eat. So... I tried my mom's magic string trick...

So... all mothers of kids in the teeth losing stage... here is my mom's magic string trick for painless tooth removal!

If the tooth is so lose that you can slip a string under the ridge of the tooth near the gums, then you can use this trick. You loop to string (or floss) around the tooth. My mom ties a knot (I just cross it over in case it is not ready, you can remove the string easily). Once the string is in place you tighten the knot (or tighten the crossed strings around the tooth), and the tooth will painlessly pop out!

Somehow it seems to separate the skin from the root as it works it's way down the root and in a blink of an eye the tooth is out!

My mom did not learn this anywhere... she came up with it herself... she just thought it made sense! And boy does it work! Nolan and I just stared at each other in shock when his tooth popped out!

(I will do another post sometime where I will draw a diagram for you of how this works in case you need more instruction. I remember when my mom told me about it, I thought it was an unusual way to go about getting a tooth and and 'surely this is not painless'... but it is and it is wonderful)

If anyone comes across this post and it works for them, please comment do me a favor and comment and tell me how it went after you tried it! I would love to know if it works as well for others!

The proud toothless boy!



The tooth had quite a root on it, I was surprised!




Now he can drink out of a straw without opening his teeth! (Look at those fabulous eyes)



The loose tooth! Before Judy's Magic String!

The tooth fairy booty! He for 3 gold $1 coins and boy did he think that was awesome that they were gold! That is my Tooth Fairy tradition!