The Haps

My kids are off track now. I'm hoping we can do some wild and crazy things so I have something worthwhile to blog about. Seriously, the day to day hum-drum is starting to bum me out! Here's a few things we've done lately...

Sam pulled out his "memory box" the other day, which consists of pictures from his youth and mission. Carson and Parker were completely enthralled with them. It was pretty cute. I do believe Sam was in hog-heaven!


If you know me, you know how I feel about raw meat. Think of something that makes your skin crawl and then you feel like you are about to hork. Now you know how I feel about raw meat. I've always felt this way. It drives my parents crazy but I just can't shake it. I blame the cadavers I saw in college. I saw muscle and my brain said "that looks like a roast". I've been messed up ever since. However, that's a story for another day!

Carson wanted homemade meatballs for dinner on Sunday. I like the end result, just not the process. I said "great idea buddy....here, put this apron on!"

He was a trooper! I absolutely did not touch one ingredient. He made the dinner all by himself. I could get used to this!



Even better, he ate dinner like food was going out of style. Usually I have to coax my kids to eat. It was quite pleasant!

Tonight my friend and I got a pedicure. I'm loving it! Now my toes are ready for spring. I got sparkly red toes and my friend now has blue sparkly toes. She is pregnant with her first boy so she knew right away she needed blue polish. I wish I could afford to get a pedicure about every three weeks. Pedicures, hair dye, and eye brow waxing. Luxury life right there!

I had my toes painted red so I could look good in these:


I just got them and I think they are real purdy. :)

Since my kids are off track I'm trying to use time wisely. I've been doing some scout stuff with Carson. As part of a Webelos requirement, he had to make a poster showing how he could be a good citizen. We talked about it, read about it in his book, and then I let him loose with poster supplies. Here's what he did. It just makes me smile.


If this poster is true to life, and if it makes you a good citizen to say "you shouldn't do that" to somebody causing trouble, then I must be the gold standard citizen! I must say that phrase to my boys at least a dozen times a day! Oh yeah, where is my gold star??

The Birthday Celebrations Continue...

We had Sam's family and my parents over on Friday night for a combined celebration of Cameron's birthday and Sam's birthday. It was a good time. I made a Texas Sheet cake and tons of cookies, and almost everything got devoured. That makes me happy!

I didn't have the camera in hand most of the night but it was fun to see what pictures were taken, mostly by Sam:

What? Your nieces and nephews don't have a squatting competition when they come over? You are missing out. It's funny. I do not possess the squatting gene. I have no idea how people can do this!


Okay, if you don't have squatting contests, do you at least try this?


Or how about this one: do you take pictures of kids pouring water into a cup, which is placed on the floor, unbeknownst to the child?


Once the child realizes they are being watched, do you all laugh your guts out?


We do. We do all those things. I wouldn't have it any other way! In fact, Sam can always get all his teenage nieces and nephews laughing at the same time. It happens often, and I love to watch the process. His family is great! My parents are troopers to join in the fun and chaos as well!!

Saturday was Sam's actual birthday. The day started off pretty boring. He ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast and then I headed to a baby shower for a dear friend of mine, who is pregnant with TWINS! I came home and asked Sam what he'd like to do. The only thing he could think of was shop for a car....

We have been a one car family for most of our marriage. There was a brief stint for about 18 months or so when we had a Bonneville and the mini van, but a freak spring storm and some black ice took care of that, R.I.P. Bonnie...

Sam and I agreed it was time to get another car, with the following stipulations: We had to pay cash for it, using our income tax return; it needed 4 doors, and it needed to be an automatic. Sam has been searching for about 4 months, and the last few days his search has become an obsession.

He had it narrowed down to 3 cars he liked: Honda Accord, Acura TL, or Lexus IS300.

We had a somewhat small budget, but wanted a reliable vehicle. To get what we wanted, it was probably going to be a 2001 with well over 100,000 miles on it. It was kind of a scary process...for me. It was a fun game for Sam.

On Saturday afternoon, Sam said "I should call Josh and ask his opinion on his Lexus." Josh used to live in our neighborhood and once in awhile he gives Sam a ride home from work, because, shocking....Sam misses the bus sometimes. :)

He called Josh and to his surprise, Josh said "I just traded my Lexus to the dealership 2 days ago!". To make a long story kind of shorter, Josh came and picked up Sam and took him the the dealership. I stayed home with the boys. Our original birthday plans for Sam, were to drop the kids off at 5pm at the sitter's house and go to dinner and a movie. Sam wasn't home by 5 so I dropped the kids off at the sitter's and headed to the dealership. I was met by a very giddy Sam. In fact, I haven't seen him this giddy in a LONG time. It was so funny, I kept laughing so hard at him.

The evening worked out perfectly for Sam. Josh's Lexus is a 2004 IS300 Sport Design. If you look it up on Ebay, KSL, or on a dealers website, they generally run around $12k or $13k. However, because Josh came with Sam, and they worked with the same salesman that bought the car from Josh, everything that was normal in a car-buying situation came to a screeching halt. The dealer couldn't mark the car up in price too far, because Sam knew what they paid for it, especially because Josh was standing right there! Again, long story kind of shorter....Sam stood his ground and insisted they bring the price down, which they did. Sam bought the car, and was able to pay for it up front because it met our original 3 requirements. It only has a little over 79,000 miles on it, it's a 2004, and it's a beauty, eh.

These are pictures Sam found on Ebay. We don't have the car right now, we'll pick it up tomorrow after the dealership details it and obtains the title. However, this is exactly what it looks like:



After we left the dealership, we headed to dinner at Fuddruckers (gotta think before I say that word. I once said it backwards to my cousin. She laughed, I blushed). At one point I was bringing my drink to our table. Sam was already sitting down. The giddy smile on his face, while he was sitting there alone, seriously made me laugh so hard. I will never forget that moment. It was awesome! He kept saying "Happy birthday to me!!!".

So we are finally a two car family, once again. Now to clean out the garage so both cars fit inside......NOT IT!!!

The Best Age Ever!

So far in the lives of my boys, the age of 3 has been my favorite age. Potty trained, developed sense of humor, but still innocent and lovey towards mom and dad. It's stupendous!

Cameron turned 3 on the 9th.

Here's dad wishing Cameron a happy birthday. He's so thrilled, can you tell?


I took him to the party store (that's what I call it because I don't know how to pronounce "Zurchers".) and got him some balloons. We found some awesome sunglasses while we were there:


Then he almost smiled once we had the balloons:


See a theme here? I don't think he enjoyed all the attention to be honest with you. He gets that from his dad!!
The whole time we sang "happy birthday" to him, he never changed his face from this:


For realsies...what is he thinking here?
My mom seriously cannot sing!
The first years were tough, what is 2011 going to bring me?
Did I turn off the iron?
I hope I make it to the bathroom in time...
....nope
This is the face I shall make when my mom is talking to me in 10 years
I already ate one of these ghetto cupcakes at lunchtime. Why is it a big deal now?


Holy cow, that song took forever. Now for the good part!


So far the hardest part about being 3 is telling people how old I am in sign language!




The present theme was definitely "Thomas the Tank Engine". He was happy to have some new books, a backpack, and a Thomas tent for his room. As he opened each present he was happy, but not too enthusiastic....until he opened his last present, the tent. As he ripped off the wrapping paper he yelled "This is what I've been waiting for!!!" Hysterical.



After finally convincing Cameron to quit playing in his tent and go to bed, I collapsed on the couch to chill out. A few minutes later, Parker came out of his room and said "my toes hurt". After trying to suggest what might help and what has helped in the past when his toes hurt (this isn't our first rodeo with this excuse) he got really mad at me and said "BESIDES, I WASN'T EVEN BORN IN THE PAST!" and then he went to bed. And that ended my busy day of celebration for Cameron's birth.

Happy birthday Cameron! I'm not going to lie, I'm sure happy it's 2011 and not 2008!! Phew!! Having babies is hard work!

The Minds Of Kids

I would love to live inside of my boys brains, maybe just for one day each.

What an education that would be!!

Carson's world would be filled with day dreams, ideas on how to hide behind doors and scare me half to death, ways to make brushing his teeth take 30 minutes, and endless possibilities for ketchup uses.


Parker's world would be non-stop laughter. Basically, a live "Calvin and Hobbs" comic strip, mixed with a little "Far Side" and perhaps Homer Simpson. I would find all sorts of ideas on how he could become the next super hero whose kryptonite is people who make him the butt end of their jokes.


Cameron's world would be the PERFECT blend of both Carson's world and Parker's world. A little bit too much wit for a 2 year old, in fact, just enough to be considered frightening. However, just enough innocence left in him that turns his mom's heart to a big melted pile of love-oatmeal. I'd also find some confusion as to why he can relax enough to pee whilst sitting, but standing up makes him freeze and seize up.


I've been thinking about the differences and similarities in my boys a lot lately. As a whole, they are so obviously brothers and I really love that. Separately, they each bring such fun to the whole equation.

Example: Last week was picture day at school. For spring pictures, you get to pick your pose out of 4 examples shown on the brochure. I asked Parker which pose he'd like. He looked at the brochure and "thought" out loud. He said "Hmmm, I guess I'll have to pick pose 4. I really like pose 2, but I am not brown, so I can't choose that one.". I was so confused until I looked at the pose 2 picture and realized it was a little African-American kid! Sam and I laughed pretty hard. Sam had to explain to Parker that pose 2 was for everyone, regardless of your color!

It's tough to be misunderstood. I remember when I was a kid and had a "duh" moment. I received a little purse and wallet for Christmas. Inside the wallet was a card you could fill out so if you ever lost your purse, somebody would be able to read your ID card and return it to you. I could answer everything easy enough...name, address, phone number, age.... but then I came to the next part which read "sex". I was shocked that I had to answer that question on the id card so I wrote "not yet". Oh boy did my family belly-gut-larf-out-lard on that one! Of course, for the next several years, any time that question came up my family was quick to exclaim "BOY, GIRL, or NOT YET?"

The shame.

Good thing I had 3 brothers because I took my embarrassment hits early on. Now, I pretty much try to take everything in good humor. We're still trying to teach Cameron this concept. Look at Carson and Parker laughing at some inside joke! I love it!


He doesn't think his brothers are funny (yet) but at least he knows how to defend himself.


And all is well.


Uh, kind of. If I squint it almost looks like Cameron is considering a smile.