Too Busy to Blog....

So I have a list of things I want to blog about but we've been so busy with house projects and entertaining visitors that my blog has fallen to the bottom of my list of priorities. It is, however, important to me to preserve these memories so on my desk in the office I keep a running list of things I need to blog about....Here are just a few as I chip away at my list:

Lauren's BAD haircut....

Yes indeed.....I totally screamed.

I was in the kitchen when Lauren came downstairs just moments after her bangs had been lovingly cut by her big brother Ben. Just a few steps behind her was the culprit holding the green handled craft scissors in his naughty little hand. With each step she took I saw how terrible it really was and I literally screamed in prolonged shock as she got closer and closer, revealing to me that this was indeed very, very real. This is the 3rd time my son has cut my daughters hair and the 3rd time EVER that ANY of my children have been caught cutting hair. Why, oh why, does it always have to be on my little girl ? How though do you punish a sweet little boy that each time thinks he's doing something good by making his little sister "look pretty?" (In his defense she was in desperate need of getting her bangs trimmed). Will this be the last time he takes matters into his own hands or did my screams of terror at the sight of his hack-job scar him for life and remind him to keep those craft scissors away from my daughters hair! After I got over the shock I got out the flat iron and multilple hair accessories in an attempt to conceal the missing bangs....this is about as good as it's gonna get for the next 4-6 months.


Speaking of Ben, whom I love dearly (truly), I've been noticing that as he's getting older he is becoming quite the little pessimist. I don't believe in labeling my children, although it can be difficult at times when you have a chronic liar (not Ben) in your household. Or when you have a son like Ben who whines and complains about a great many things. I confess that lately I've been biting my tongue (sometimes unsuccessfully) to keep myself from calling him a "little grump". Just for fun I started writing down on my magnetic grocery list some of the "grumpy things" that he has said....mind you this is just a little sampling. It seems that daily he finds new things to grumble and complain about. I'm really hoping that this is just a passing phase....

Some of Ben's Grumpy Quotes

"This dinner looks slimy..."

"Why do I have to do everything?"

"Oh great, I hope it's not Family Home Evening."

"I don't like this day."

"Why do I always have to say the family prayer?"

"Oh great, I hate this bread."

"This is a dumb shirt."

May I take your Order, please?

I've been keeping busy with a lot of projects around the house since the new year. While I was re-painting the bathroom vanity Lauren was a busy little bee getting into everything. After I pulled the drawers out to paint I couldn't keep her out of that cabinet! She was making such a mess of things I was getting a little irritated but at least she was staying away from the wet paint. My irritation melted away rather quickly though when I came in to find her sitting on the side of the cabinet with her head peeking out pretending to be a drive-thru girl at McDonalds. "Mama" she said, "Do you want ice-cream or french fries?" I nearly burst into laughter. It was just what I needed to take me out of my busy, busy mode of trying to finish the painting before picking the boys up from school. I sat down on the floor and played along for a few minutes all the while smiling from ear to ear at this funny little girl....

Updates

"The Club" is what they call it and we've been spending a lot of time down there lately. The kids love going down to the beach and anytime we have friends over for the day we all pile into the back of the suburban and drive down the road to driftwood cove. I look forward to when they get older and they're old enough to ride their bikes down there to spend an afternoon playing on the beach. It's such a great place to play. This is a picture of Joseph and his friend Hank next to the club they built out of driftwood.



It's been raining a lot lately and when it's a Saturday and it's raining there's only so many things fun things you can do. Aaron's been great about taking the kids to the YMCA to climb the rock wall.

Here's a picture of Jacob at the top.

We were so happy to have a visit from Megan and her family this month. The kids enjoyed playing around with their cousins Tyssen and Trenton. We even got to celebrate Tyssens 5th Birthday! I sure wish she lived closer, I just love my little nephews.

Cute stuff from January

Lauren has been using her tea set from Grandma and Grandpa a lot. The other day I went in to the bathroom and found her just like this. I only hope she didn't get the water in her tea cup out of the toilet!



Jacob has been working on earning his Wolf badge in cub scouts. One of the things he had to do was to learn how to tie a tie. He was very proud that he could do it all by himself.




We took the kids to the Pacific Science Center for the Mission to Mars exhibit. The IMAX film about the Mars Rovers was absolutely amazing and captivated the kids for the entire 45 minutes. Pretty impressive for a scientific documentary.

As we were walking down to see the Mars exhibit I looked behind me to see Joseph and Ben rolling down the sloped ramp down to the ground floor. Ahhhhh, to be a kid again, they find fun in the most unusual places.



This month has started a chess and checkers craze in our home. I dug out the checker board one day and taught Jacob how to play, soon the other boys learned too. Then we got a chess set and Aaron taught them all how to play. Now Jacob is always asking me to play chess with him. He has beaten me more times than I have beaten him. Benjamin is more at my level when it comes to chess. Pretty embarrassing that a 5 year old is an equal match for my wit.




There seems to be a magnetic attraction between kids and water. I love the look on Laurens face. She realized that she was caught before the boys even knew I was there looking at the water all over the counter top, dripping down the cabinet and all over the floor. I think Lauren was probably thinking one word when she saw me in the doorway, "Busted!"