Joseph's Birthday

Joseph was 1 month old when we moved to Washington. So every year when we celebrate his birthday it's also the anniversary of our new life post our Air Force/Hawaii days. I can't believe we've lived here for 7 years now. It's really starting to feel like we're putting down roots and I love it.

On the morning of his birthday Jacob and Ben woke up early and hid around the corner waiting to get him with silly spray as he came downstairs. I can't remember when we started this tradition in our family but the boys love it and I'm starting to regret it. It makes such a mess! Anyway, we had his favorite breakfast of crepes (my kind of kid) then sent him off to school. That evening Papa and Grandma came over for his birthday dinner and family party. He chose a random collection of some of his favorite foods for his birthday feast: Macaroni and Cheese (the box kind which I hate and rarely serve), croissant rolls, Orange sherbet jello salad, and steamed broccoli with cheese. This was also the first year that he wanted just a regular cake (not something crazy or colorfully decorated). It was much easier for me and much better tasting. I have a great recipe for chocolate cake and fudge frosting that we hadn't had in a while, it was soooooooo yummy! (and yes, I did have a piece)


Aaron and I were really struggling to come up with ideas for gifts this year. One great thing about having kids that don't watch a lot of TV is they don't see all the commercials for the newest greatest things. Consequently, they also aren't much help when you ask them, "what do you want for your birthday?" He couldn't come up with anything more than Legos (which he already has a ton of) so we went back and forth on several ideas until Aaron stumbled upon the best idea ever. Joseph has been studying the solar system in school and has been fascinated with what he's learning. So Aaron found a really good telescope online and had it ordered just in time to arrive on his birthday. He was ecstatic when he opened it and wanted to try it out right away. We had to wait until it got dark but when we did there was a full moon and we were ALL amazed as we looked at the surface of the moon with amazing clarity and detail. You are supposed to be able to see the rings on Saturn too but we are still working on finding Saturn in the night sky....


Joseph's wanted to have a basketball themed birthday party with his friends, which meant we kind of needed to have a basketball hoop. I had no idea how expensive they were until I started shopping around for one. In the end I decided to save some money and found an old free one on craigslist. After I cleaned it up, repainted it and put on a new net it looked pretty good. Aaron sunk it into the ground back behind the garage where there was a concrete slab already poured for who knows what. Now it's our mini basketball court for the boys.

We had so many things going on the Saturday of his party (District Pinewood Derby race for Jacob, birthday party for Lauren's friend, Ben's T-Ball game) that the only time we could fit in his party was in the evening. So we had a pizza party during the dinner hour with a plan to have a basketball game and to watch Air Bud inside the house. Well, things never go as planned. It seems that the big event quickly shifted from playing basketball to running around the property throwing horsetails at each other. We call these "horsetail wars" at our house and our boys play them all the time, grabbing the weeds by the dozens and chucking them at each other as they run around the yard. Who would have known that it would be such a hit when you add a few more boys to the mix. Apparently it was more exciting than anything else we had planned. I was fine with abandoning our party plans in the name of boys making their own fun (really it was much easier for me anyway). However, we did have multiple kids coming in and out needing to be treated with baking soda and water for nettle bites they had acquired in battle. And one boy even fell into the pond and came to the door shivering and soaking wet with pond weeds all over him. It was pretty comical but not at all what we had expected. You just never know what you're going to get when you have a house full of boys.

All About Joseph at 7 years old

Here are some random observations that I want to record about my 7 year old Joseph.

-Joseph is extremely generous. If you ask him to share with you or give you a bite of whatever he has he will always say yes. Recently I was with him at a birthday party of one of his friends and they were doing the pinata outside. After the pinata broke and the rush of kids had frantically gathered every last piece of candy into their Ziploc bags it was discovered that 2 of the kids were off playing and missed the rush. One of the parents asked if the kids might be willing to share some of their candy with these boys and Joseph immediately went to them and emptied his entire bag into their two bags. I was speechless. He is such a generous little boy.

-Joseph is a great student. He is very conscientious about learning and prides himself on his school work. He enjoys doing his homework and has a real hunger for learning. He's an excellent reader and has amazing penmanship. His mind is like a sponge soaking up everything he learns in school. During their unit on the solar system he would come home every day telling me new (and very interesting) facts that he had learned about different planets. One Friday he came home near the end of their unit and started making a book about the solar system. Each page was about a different planet where he wrote several facts about the planet and included diagrammed pictures on each page. He stapled the pages together and gave it a cover and presented it to me proudly. It was amazing. Right now they are studying insects and I'm learning a TON from all of the things he comes home and "teaches" me. I love it.

-Joseph likes to be organized and will often write notes on post-its like To-Do lists for what he wants to do for the day. Recently I was organizing his drawers and after showing him how I had organized the shirts and pants in his drawers he had went back later to label the stacks with the appropriate tag.


-Joseph has a very interesting sense of style. He has these brown pants that he loves and I hate. Luckily they recently wore a hole in the knee so now they are off limits for school but forever he would wear these ugly straight leg/slim fit brown pants that I hated but he loved. I kept trying to buy him other pants to get him to wear but he always complained that he didn't like them. When I questioned him as to why he informed me that cargo pants or pockets on the sides are "ugly" and he hates those pants. He also goes crazy if his pants are too loose fit or too long. He likes the straight peg legs and he likes them to hit them exactly at the bottom of his heel, no longer. He freaks out if I make him wear dark denim or any other pants that he doesn't think look cool. I have to keep reminding myself that he is a boy because my other boys could care less what they wear. I've had to send him off to the bus crying hysterically because he "hates these pants." Even though they're actually the stylish ones that look nice on him. It's crazy.

-Joseph thrives when he is praised. You can almost see him glowing when you compliment him on something he's done. I try very hard to shower him with praise for the good things he does to off-set the many times that I have to correct him for crazy stuff he does. Which leads me to another thing about Joseph.....

-He's very, very quirky and regularly does things that make you wonder "WHAT IS HE THINKING!" I have felt like I'm going to go crazy many times. In addition to his spazzy mannerisms like making this annoying hoarse laugh that sounds like a (I still don't know what) whenever he gets to feeling silly, he regularly does crazy things that make you scratch you head in wonder. Recently, Aaron caught him outside with a nail carving lines into the side of our suburban. We had just gotten it back from being washed and waxed and it was cleaner than it had been in years and for whatever reason our nearly 7 year old thought that using a giant nail and carving lines back and forth, several times in random patterns spanning the entire length of the passenger side door would be okay. UNBELIEVABLE! The whole thing was so shocking neither of us knew what to say or do, we were literally speechless. He told me later that he didn't see "what the big deal was and why we cared so much." Ughhhhhh!

-Joseph is easily frustrated when he is working on something new. If he does not find immediate success he will often become inconsolably frustrated and abandon all efforts. He wants so badly to be successful that if he tries a few times and doesn't get the right answer or can't play the piano piece perfectly he gets very upset and will often begin what I call his self destructive talk. "I'm terrible", or "I'm stupid, I can't do this!" It's very challenging as a mother to try and help him understand that it's okay to make mistakes and to keep him motivated to keep trying and not give up. Each week when he has a new song he's practicing for his piano lessons we go through this. He usually starts out the first couple days barely able to get through the piece and sometimes crying that "it's so hard he'll never be able to play it". I have to deal with him slamming his fingers on the keyboard or storming off upstairs because he got to the last measure of the song and then made a tiny mistake which turns into a huge meltdown. But, by the end of the week he plays it perfectly. He was also having trouble passing a level in his math wizard for subtraction a couple months ago. Each week on the day of his test he'd come home from school devastated that he was still on Level 1 for the timed subtraction test. It broke my heart to see him so frustrated and sad week after week. Finally, I made it a priority (I should have done it much sooner) to work on it with him at home. After giving him a bunch of practice tests with similar problems he began to see himself improve. By the day of the next test he could pass it easily at home and he had the confidence to be able to do it at school. Once he got over that hump and realized he could do it he's been doing great.

-Joesph leaves me little random love notes all over the house. I will find them in the office or on my pillow. Usually they just say things like "I love you Mom" or just "I love you" with a little hand drawn heart. He's a sweetie. Speaking of sweetie, look at what he wrote me for Mothers Day. I saw him excitedly working on something the day before mothers day but he was very secretive about it. Needless to say I was speechless when he presented it to me. It's the first poem he's ever written.


-Joseph has terrible luck. He's like me on this. No matter what, when he's playing any game with an element of chance he is sure to lose.

-Joseph is very social and his relationships with his friends are very important to him. We have already had to deal with "playground friend drama." We are working with him on being a leader and sticking up for the kids in the group that some of the boys are excluding. I was really proud of him when he took a stand against a ring leader bully (that also happens to be his friend) that was being mean to their mutual friend. He abandoned the group for the rest of the week and played with the other boy who was excluded at every recess. When they tried to get him to play with them he told them he wasn't going to be in their group if they weren't going to let the other boy play with them too. Granted, I coached him into doing this but I was still impressed that he chose to do it and stood up to his friends in support of the other boy.

-Joseph is still very irreverent with his body. I am seriously worried that I'll be one of those mothers getting a call from the principal in high school telling me that my son just mooned someone in the school parking lot. He just has no sense of boundaries despite our efforts to teach him modesty and appropriate behavior. I try to get him to keep a towel on after the bath when he goes up to his room but he is completely comfortable streaking through the house naked. I probably wouldn't care so much is we didn't have to worry about Lauren being exposed to his private parts. I'm constantly reminding him to dress in his room and am frequently horrified at his lack of modesty in her presence. I just caught him the other night while he was getting dressed for bed holding a metal slinky in front of his private parts and whipping it around like it was the world's longest you know what. He thought it was the funniest thing in the world and I was mortified.

-Joseph is very service oriented. He does his chores but sometimes he will on his own just do somethings sweet without being asked, like unload the dishwasher or organize the shoe closet. It doesn't happen very often but it happens often enough that I know its unusual because my other kids don't do it.

-Joseph is still writing on things. I see his marks all over the house. Writing on the walls, the window sills, the piano! It's very, very frustrating. I keep thinking....isn't he too old to be doing this! Why does he keep doing this? The latest one I found was on a window sill in black permanent marker. It said, "I love mom." Talk about feeling two emotions at once. That was a weird sensation.

-I have mentioned before that Joseph has a very spiritual nature. He is always talking about God and Jesus and will often ask very deep questions of a spiritual nature. He is also very good about looking at life with a spiritual eye and relating every day situations to a spiritual metaphor of sorts. Something recent that comes to mind was when he bore his testimony. On the first Sunday of the month we have a little family testimony meeting in our home where we each take turns sharing our faith and beliefs. We set up the piano bench in front of the fireplace and use the paper towel holder as the microphone. Usually the kids are kind of silly about it but recently Joseph surprised us all with his testimony about prayer and having faith. This is a brief summary of part of his testimony: "Last week when I was trying to feed the chickens (his chore) I was trying to get in their pen and grab the feeder without them escaping but they kept trying to get out because they were following the food container. No matter what I did they kept trying to get out and no one was there to hold the door for me. So I walked away and waited for them to go back inside their hen house. Then I tried to sneak back to their pen and grab their food container but as soon as they heard me they came out of the house and were swarming me again. So I went back out and prayed really hard that Heavenly Father would keep them in the hen house so that I could get their feeder and feed then without them all getting out of the pen. When I went back they were all in their house and they stayed in there the whole time. So, I have a testimony of prayer, I know it works." I also would like to add however, that almost without fail every Sunday when it's time to get dressed he cries that "he hates going to church".

-Joseph will often destroy something he's made or worked hard on if when he shows it to you you do not exhibit enough excitement or interest in his work. Just the other day after picking the kids up from school he was showing me his hole punch card from the Diabetes walk/run. He was very proud that he had completed 38 laps in the 3 days. I was very proud of him too but because I had just received a phone call that was making my mind wander and giving me stress I responded to his card with a "good job buddy." and not "Oh my goodness, that is awesome Joseph!!!!!" (We had already talked about the run in the car on the drive home and I had sung his praises for being such a good runner and being able to do that many laps). Well, apparently none of that mattered because somehow he interpreted my somewhat distracted "good job buddy" as a lack of interest and and he totally called me on it too. He had a partial meltdown because he assumed I didn't care and later that night I found his hole punched card torn up into tiny pieces in a pile on the kitchen table. I've also noticed him do this with pictures or cards he's made for other people. If he's not happy with it and doesn't think it's perfect he won't just put it to the side and start on another one he'll completely shred it to pieces or take a big marker and scribble all over the top of it.

-Sometimes when I wake Joseph up in the mornings I will find him sucking his thumb in his sleep. He was my only thumb sucker and he started doing it when he was 6 months old. It's a sweet little trait that he inherited from his father who also sucked his thumb. One of my favorite pictures I have of Joseph in my head is him as a little baby/toddler in his dark green sleeper pajamas holding his blankie in one hand and having his other thumb in his mouth. When he got older (3-5) he only did it at night when he would sleep. It was so sweet I just figured I'd let him grow out of the phase on his own but alas his pediatric dentist started noticing that it was affecting his teeth and encouraged us to work with him on it. So we used "Thumb Suck" at night and within a few months he didn't suck his thumb anymore. Now that he's a "big boy" (and I know we're going to have to get braces for him anyway) I just smile when occasionally I see him sucking his thumb in his sleep. It reminds me of my sweet little baby JoJo.

Jacob the Builder

The past few months Jacob has been busy building. The first thing he made was a little miniature pirate ship out of little wood slivers. It had a mast and different levels to the deck with railing on the sides. The whole thing was only about 5 inches long. He then made a catamaran style sailboat with saran wrap for the sail. Then when Aaron framed in the door for the pantry he took the extra shimmy's (little pieces flat wood about 18 inches long) and cut them with his pocket knife (I didn't know he was doing this) and glued them together to make a speedboat. Then he added string and little paper inner tubes to the back. He also made a jet from carefully folding and taping scrap computer paper. Another project he did (with the help of his brothers) was building an elevated race track with 3 lanes for his matchbox cars to race down. The whole thing was about 6 feet long. He used a couple of big cardboard boxes and almost a whole roll of masking tape.


It thrills me to see him working on little projects like this. It makes me wonder if he'll be an engineer or an architect one day. When he got his block of wood for his first pinewood derby car back in January he was excited beyond belief. The race was a month and a half away but he started on his car the next day. Aaron told him to draw the outline on the side of the block of wood. He drew, erased and drew until he got it just right. Then Aaron cut it out with a jigsaw. As you can imagine the cuts were pretty rough but over the next few days Jacob sanded those edges down to perfection. He and Aaron went to the store where he chose the colors he wanted. He had a great idea for a style but the stripes were too tricky do do on his own so Aaron placed the tape and helped him fix the over sprayed parts that got too much paint. In the end he was very happy with his car.


On the day of the race he was very excited and nervous. I told him that since this was his first year making/racing a pinewood derby car that he might not win. "I know mom," he said. "Rookies hardly ever win."

Once the race started I think his brothers were as excited as he was. About half way through the race Joseph came up to me (Jacob was doing really well at this point) and he said in a very sincere voice, "Mom, I'm so nervous, I just want Jacob to win."
To make a long story short I'll sum up the race results with what Jacob told me later that night when we got home. "Well Mom, I guess rookies really can win!"

How a little boy who designed his car entirely himself, with absolutely no influence or intervention from his Dad (I love Aaron for this) built a pinewood derby car that won the whole competition is beyond me. He really is an amazing little builder.

I just have to add here that his race composure cracked me up. Often times I'd be taking a picture of his face while his car was racing down the track so I never knew if his car won or lost because I was zoomed in on him. I thought that he lost the first couple races because I interpreted his "poker face" as him handling a defeat. Later I learned that he had won those races and was working very hard to suppress his excitement because, as he said, "I didn't want to be annoying." He's such a funny boy.

May Mornings

The early light awakens me
rising beyond the trees.
I lift from my pillow to see the view
before settling back to sleep.
The hillside is cloaked in a deep emerald green
lurking in the shadows of the towering trees.
A new day dawning, the house is still
soon he'll be leaving for work.
The sound of songbirds plays in my ears,
a warbling springtime symphony.
The chirping makes it hard to drift back to sleep,
but soon enough I do.

When later I awake, the sky is alight, blazing pink and gold
and the memory of his goodbye kiss
lingers sweetly upon my forehead.
The bed is empty now, or so I think,
until I see an angel sleeping next to me.
Her bare shoulders peek out from her sleeves,
with hands placed perfectly under her cheek.
I shuffle nearer until I feel her little breaths
and watch the rise and fall of her chest.
I can't resist kissing her lips
and brushing the hair from her face.
I gaze at her sweetness with pure delight
sharing a corner of her pillow.
So peacefully she sleeps on his side of the bed,
the thought lifts the corners of my mouth.
I imagine her shuffling in the dark of night
making the trek to the far side of the bed
just to be in her Daddy's arms.
I look up at the clock it's 6:15,
time to get up.
I grab for my clothes and dress in silence
enjoying the beauty of the morning.
Then carefully I creep across the room headed for the door.
I cringe as I carefully pull it closed,
it scrapes across the old wood floor.
I wait a moment, holding my breath....
then exhale when all is still.
I tiptoe to the stairs,
avoiding the spots that creak
but by the fourth step I hear the cry
from behind my bedroom door:
"Mama???........Mama!!!"
I quickly turn and head back upstairs...
a new day has begun.

My Mountain Man

*The caption for this picture is at the end of this post ....

During the work week he may seem like a city boy toting his Mac in his laptop bag, texting on his iphone and working in a fancy Seattle high-rise but on the evenings and weekends he's an entirely different man......

My downtown man becomes my outdoor guy dressed in his farmer clothes digging fence posts, building chicken coops, splitting wood and clearing the land. He thrives on being outside whether working or playing he'd rather be outdoors. His most recent project is making an obstacle course for the boys. He cleared a place back in the woods down by the creek, chopped down a tree (okay, chain-sawed) then hauled it across the gully, dug holes and sunk stumps of varying sizes into the ground staggering them for the boys to try and hop from stump to stump without falling off. If I remember correctly part of his "plan" includes a climbing wall, a zip line and....okay, I forgot the rest. But what I love most is not just that he does these sorts of outdoor guy things, it's that he does everything (whether working or playing) with our boys by his side. It makes me so happy to look out the window and see my three sons working alongside their Dad stacking wood, digging holes & hauling rocks. When they're done working and come inside they take off their muddy boots smelling of dirt and sweat and I can't help but smile with pride.


After they work, they always play. According to Aaron a Saturday would not be complete without doing "something fun." So outside they go again..... off to their next adventure. Sometimes it's fishing down at the pond, hiking or biking on the trails of Banner Forest. The last couple weeks when it was raining they went rock climbing at the Y.



His latest hobby and new found love is mountain climbing. As young men's president he plans and supervises the 16-17 year old boys on their scouting high adventures. This year he received stake approval to take the young men on a 3-day climbing expedition up Mt. Rainier. In preparation for this climb they'll have training climbs as they summit 4 other mountain peaks in the northwest. When I asked him why he was buying all the gear instead of just renting it he said, "I want to have all the gear for when our boys are older so that I can teach them how to climb mountains too".

REI and Sierra Trading post are my worst enemies right now. When the UPS truck comes up the driveway I'm rolling my eyes wondering what on earth he has bought now...doesn't he already have all of his gear? Apparently not, because even after many, many deliveries there still seems to be things he "needs." Ugh!!!
(I can already feel myself getting cranky as I type this). Sooooooooo, before this loving post takes a turn south, I'm going to take a deep breath and focus on the positive.......


I'm happy to be married to my outdoor guy who enjoys snow caving in the winter and mountain climbing in the spring and summer. A man who uses his brains at work and his muscles at home. That lets me dress him up when we go on a date but isn't afraid to get his hands in the dirt when he works. A man who works hard at whatever he does; whether a computer geek during the week or my outdoor guy on the weekends.

Here's to my mountain man husband that I love and adore, I hope our boys grow up to be just like you.

*Shopping for mountaineering glasses at REI on his lunch break, he sent me this (and 2 other pictures) he'd taken on his phone to get my opinion on which he should buy.....Trying to hide my irritation I replied, "whichever's cheapest!"

March Memories

I love Lauren's Fashion Sense.
It cracks me up when she comes downstairs wearing an outfit she's put together. This is one of her better combinations.

Ben loves riding the mower with Daddy.
Actually they all do. They patiently wait their turn to ride on Dad's lap. Aaron's always so sweet to let them hop aboard.

Anyone need a cell phone?
I love finding things like this around the house. It reminds me so much of myself when I was a little girl. My boys actually play with the same set of blocks that I played with as a kid. On one of those blocks you can see a bunch of numbers that I wrote on it years ago when I decided to turn one of them into my phone (this was back in the day before cell phones). I think Joseph was the one that made this wonderful styrafoam phone. Hey, that has a nice ring to it. Wow, I'm on a roll....

Rocket ship for Teddy
Another discovery I found one day up in the playroom. When I asked the boys what they had built they said it was a rocket ship for teddy.

Suma, Suma
For years this has been a fun game that Aaron plays with the kids. Usually it starts out with two opponents facing each other on opposite corners of the rug. "Suma, Suma" they say, then charge at each other trying to wrestle the other one to the floor. Usually it's just one kid against Daddy but as you can see from the picture it usually ends up turning into a huge wrestling match with all of them. Aaron told me once that it's his way of getting extra cuddles and snuggles from the kids.

Campfires and Silly Stories
Aaron is so great about being spontaneous. He loves taking the kids out to the fire pit in the woods next to our house and roasting hot dogs or smores. He'll do this on any given day of the week, just for fun. Part of their tradition includes telling silly stories around the campfire. We each take a turn and everyone gets to pick the name and type of animal that the story is about and then you just go for it and tell the best story you can. It's funny to hear what the kids come up with and Aaron too!

A Family Tradition

Last night was a special night for our family as we read the last few verses of this book of scripture. When we moved back to Washington Jacob and Joseph were 21 months and 2 months old. We knew that family scriputre study was something we wanted to do but were unsure about the appropriate age to begin this tradition. We decided that now was as good a time as ever and so we began.....
The boys were so little we just made it a part of their bedtime routine. We only read a handful of versus each night, then sang them a primary song (usually Teach me to Walk in the Light, or I am a Child of God) followed by a family prayer.


It has been over 6 years since we started this tradition. In that time we have only read through the Book of Mormon twice (last night being our second time). Sometimes the kids are crazy (what am I saying-most of the time they are), and sometimes you're wondering if this is really doing any good. But then there are those occasional moments when you're discussing what's been read and teaching them a principle of the gospel and a sweet spirit fills the room as you find yourself bearing sincere and heartfelt testimony to your surprisingly attentive children. These are the moments we wait for.

You never know when something you read or something you say will sink in or speak to their little hearts. And whether or not it's a spiritual feast (and it rarely is) we have seen many benefits to doing this each night. Now that the boys are older they participate too following along in their own scriptures as Aaron reads aloud. Then each of them take their turns reading a verse or two. I am amazed at how there almost always seems to be something that we can learn from just the short amount of verses read each night. When we apply these scripture stories and gospel principles to our everyday lives we've found many opportunities to have great conversations with our kids talking about a variety of topics ranging from compassion and courage to charity, contention and even chastity.


Probably like most parents we struggle every day, trying our hardest to raise our children in the best possible way. Daily we make mistakes and hope that our kids will overlook our imperfections and forgive us for the things we do and maybe don't do so well. With that said I pray that when all my children have grown and the apron strings have been cut, that they'll sail off into the horizon of their lives equipped with what they need to have a safe journey.


As their mother it is my sincere hope that this legacy of faith we have established will sail with them upon the seas of their lives. That they'll sail with confidence as they navigate their way on this mortal voyage, equipped with the assurance that they are not alone. That their Father in Heaven loves them deeply and that Jesus Christ is their Savior, Redeemer and truest friend. He will captain their lives if they turn the wheel over to Him. By following His gospel and teachings they'll sail on calmer, safer seas finding joy in the journey as they learn and grow through the storms and calms of their lives. Sincere prayer and study of the scriptures are the compass and map that will help them find their way back to God. Daily I carry in my heart the hope that these traditions we set in place for our growing children will one day be the light they turn to when they've left the safe harbor of their childhood home.

For those of you who are not of our faith I pray that you will feel a yearning in your heart to seek the Lord in your life and feel of the peace that following His path brings. He has changed my life in so many ways and continues to be my kind, wise and trusted friend. If you want to learn more about these beliefs I invite you to visit this website that can teach you more.

http://www.mormon.org/mormonorg/eng/

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....