Robots

This morning I was kind of grumpy.  

I was also feeling a little introspective.

I'm blaming it on the rain.  

While helping Hite with a puzzle that might have been a bit too advanced for him, Kinsley kept intruding on my thoughts with a zillion questions. She kept asking me the same thing over and over and OVER again.  I'd answer her.  She would ask me the same question a different way. *eye twitch

At some point I must have completely zoned what she was doing because before I knew it she had taken down the one and only file holder downstairs on the counter and starting cutting all the paper up in it.  The file is a bit misleading because I do sometimes pull out scrap paper from it for them to use for crafts.  

She kept announcing to me that she was making a robot.  Which I kept saying, "Awesome!"  She'd say, "Look!"  I'd glance over and again say, "Awesome!"

Hours later I found this.

That is the remaining balance on a restaurant certificate that has been severed and glued to the body of this "robot."  

"Awesome."

Church With Caleb

I guess climbing onto tables has branched out beyond just at home.

And to think I was just thinking church hasn't been so bad with this toddler...

"Helping" mom with the Primary Newsletter.

Fathers and Sons Camp Out

The boys left for the annual Fathers and Sons camp out on Friday.  I seriously tried just about everything to convince Wesley that Caleb would really love LOVE going camping too.  I even tried the, "Look how cute he is outside" scheme.  Nope.  Didn't work.

I ended up with Sadie, Kinsley, and Caleb (the two oldest weren't with us.) 

I'm not sure why it can't be called, "Fathers, Sons and Daughters Camp out."  I mean that does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it?  Plus it would be more inclusive.  

That's a good thing, right?

Hite had the best time camping with Wes. 

 

 Here at home we got pizza, the kid's favorite food.  We put Caleb down for bed and commenced Operation Girls Night.

Sadie is not girly girly, like at all.  So some of the things I wanted to do, I had to argue to her were necessary if we were going to be able to have a girls night, i,e. a girly movie and doing hair.  

Her pick for a movie was either this super weird lizard movie or Pokemon. 

 Please, for the love!

She also didn't see why we had to brush hair.  Seriously.  Sadie.  Come on.  

We I picked Rapunzel. 

I brushed their hair.  Sadie wanted the bare minimum done to hers.  Of course.

They brushed mine.  

The movie ended.  

They tried to prolong going to bed by being extremely cute.  

Which worked for about five minutes.

I tucked them in and read to them a book.

THEN THE BEST NIGHT EVER BEGAN.

I watched the rest of all the episodes of Heartland on Netflix.  My way.  Which means skipping episodes that don't really look interesting.  Fast forwarding to key parts of others to satisfy my curiosity.  And then watching the season finale to wrap it all up.  It was grand!

Then I played "Frozen Free Fall" on the Xbox until I ran out of lives.  I know it's a kids game.  Don't judge.

I also squeezed in some weight lifting.

Went up to bed and got to sprawl out across our bed!  

This was the best part of the whole night.

Wes sent me this picture captioned, "All tucked in."

Laying in my soft, warm, cozy bed made it really hard for me to feel jealous.

  

Shiner

I picked up the two older girls after school today. Like normal.  

Novalee started talking to me non stop as soon as she got into the car. Like normal.

I gave her about 70% of my attention while trying to placate everyone else in the car and also drive well enough to avoid any accidents. Like normal.

Today's story included a paddle and a ball.  Her friend hitting her in the eye.  Crying.  (She claims this never happens.)  But seriously, I feel like she comes home about once a week and tells me about something minor that happened at school and how she cried.  She can be a bit dramatic.  Today's story also included a visit to the nurses office at the insistence of the gym teacher and her refusing to use ice because she said it hurt. 

Anyways, as the talking continued we decided to go to the library which we visit probably once a week.  

It's typically a nightmare.

Something bad always happens there.

I seriously must love reading for how much crazy has happened at the library.

Today's drama was, relatively speaking, incredibly mild.  Caleb just decided as soon as we walked into the kid's section to mess his diaper.  Fine.  Except I didn't bring anything with me, as this was an unplanned trip.  Fine.  Except his diaper was dangerously loose and I didn't dare carry him around anymore so I strapped him into his stroller.  Fine.  Except he started screaming and crying from that moment on.  And somewhere around this time I looked over at Novalee to see this.

Holy Dang!

"Um, what was it again you were saying 
happened at school today?"

That is going to be one ugly black eye for a few days.

Cheesecake

On Wednesday Novalee and I went to the 2nd Annual Mother/Daughter Talent Show at our church.

Novalee and I aren't performers.  Well, actually, I'm not a performer.  So this year we decided to share our love of baking.  Novalee loves to bake treats and I love spending that time with her in the kitchen. Ever since she was super little, she would love to come into the kitchen, get an apron on and help add and mix ingredients.

Really times in the kitchen with her could be some of our favorites.  (Probably because I spend a lot of time there anyways preparing and cleaning up meals.)  We love to turn on music and have dance offs.  Basically, I do old granny moves and she laughs really hard, then she spins my moves into something cool.

Wednesday we "baked" a No Bake Cheesecake with Oreo crust and danced as well as we could to Meghan Trainer.

 The Cheesecake looked so yummy.

  Too bad I'm on a dessert fast.

Here's my little cuteness at the talent show.

Here Kitty Kitty

Since it has finally stopped raining every. single. day. we have been able to enjoy the outdoors more.

My flowerbeds in the front yard have been sadly neglected longer than it has been raining non stop.

So the kids and I have been spending more time out front.  We have been having some serious cabin fever over here.

The only one suffering from us hanging outside more is our cat 'tilda.  She is the definition of a scaredy cat.  She is afraid of everything.  Loud noises, baby cries, cat toys...you name it.  Wish we had known that before we adopted her from the humane society four years ago into our family of crazy.

Here she is getting lovins from Hite. 

 I would say this is a step up from when Caleb decides she needs food and water NOW and dumps it on her head when she is hiding in our foundation vents.  

The little sisters love her too.

 I feel like she took up the opossum motto to just "play dead" in hopes they would leave her alone. 

Disneyland 2017

It's been almost two months since we went to Disneyland and like pregnancy amnesia, I'm pretty sure I'm having what I'd call "Disneyland Amnesia."  Looking at all the photos just now made me exclaim out loud, "Disneyland was fun!"  

But seriously, I don't know if it really was that fun. It was hot.  My kids complained about being hungry, hot or bored most of the time.  We, me lost Hite for the scariest 30 seconds of my life while I played through all the horrible possibilities of what my life would be like without him, only to find him like 40 feet from me with a lady asking him where his parents were. Thank goodness!

And to top it off, my kids begged to go back to the hotel pool to swim after just a few hours there and then continued their pleading the remainder of our trip...AND if you were to ask them now what their favorite part was, they would say the pool.  So, yeah.  We could have bought a fairly decent pool for our backyard for the price we paid to go to Disneyland.

But in all fairness, I just look at the pictures and think Disneyland really was fun and I'd probably go back...if conditions were right.

Here are some highlights of the trip. Okay really it's more than some.

Here Kinsley is, already tired of walking, heading into Disneyland on our first day. She came up with some very clever ways of not having to walk during the trip. Including throwing so many tantrums that we bought a second stroller at the nearest store after the first day.

Teacups. Gag.

Okay, I promise to be more positive from here on.  

Let's say I like the idea of the teacups.  

It's a small world with most of the Crockett Family.

I do so seriously love this ride.
I could just ride it over and over again.
 PLUS it gets you out of the sun!

All the cousins had coordinating outfits on the first day.  

They were so cute!  

 Don't worry the boys didn't wear Minnie Shirts.

This is where it got real people!

  A storm trooper! 

BEST. DAY. EVER!

The carousal was really the only ride the little kids cared to go on.  

NO LINES!

See the pure joy on this kid's face! 

I just want to squeeze him. 

And this girl!

She's so happy!

The Toy Story Ride, I think. 

 Forgive me if I get the ride names wrong.  

I can't claim to be a Disney expert.

 I have been trying to beat my brother in law at something for years.  He's the punk with his thumb up.  It's kind of annoying that he always wins.  He's sort of super smug about how awesome he thinks he is, which only makes it more annoying when he wins at everything.  So I was super excited to see that I beat him at this ride.  (You get points for shooting things).  I shouted out that I beat him at the end, ready to shove my victory in his face, only to see I had my place values wrong and was off by like 100,000 points.  No big deal, just another awesome chance to look like a fool.  

Oh brothers!  They melt my heart!

 This is a very important moment in Hite's life. 

When all his childhood hopes and dreams came true!

This kid was spellbound. 

McQueen even joked that Hite had bugs in his grill too because he just watched Hite pick up a piece of his Popsicle that fell to the ground and eat it. Haha!

  

You know Captain Hook isn't the nicest pirate when he won't even stop to take a picture.

On the last day, Jared got the thing he wanted most at Disneyland.  A Nightmare Before Christmast snow hat.  Afterwards he proudly looked very out of place dressed in a dark sweatshirt and snow hat in high 70 degree weather.  

Oh well, he was happy, even if he looked a bit gloomy.

 Goofy's Kitchen.  

I didn't even know there were places like this at Disneyland.  

They had PB&J pizza!  

Hite was very bashful when Minnie came around.  

The last day we hit the jackpot of all Character photo ops! 

Three Winnie the Pooh characters!

Okay, really I was more excited than all the kids were.  

But let's be honest here.  They do look super cuddly.  

I love this picture.

  Our kids are so lucky to have so many people in their lives that love them and that they can look up to.  This definitely includes Grandpa and Grandma Crockett. 

 They are so loving and thoughtful.  

It's always hard to say goodbye.  

I'm not a 100% what to say about Disneyland but I loved LOVED the people we were with.  And I really did love having less things to do and just getting to spend time with my kids.  They are growing up too fast.