BoXEs...

When I was in Utah, my sister Linds found these metal boxes at the craft store on clearance.

This is what I was thinking: I don’t get it. White metal boxes with a handle. I mean, I am a sucker for pretty much anything on clearance, but what in the world would I do with little metal boxes?

This is what Linds was envisioning: ooh, cover it with cute scrapbook paper like that green, brown and pink floral backed with a textured bazzil cardstock, a few friendship rub-ons, pink flower embellishments with a rhinestone center, oooh and coordinating (not matching) ribbons on the handle, attached with a tag-punched brown and green tag.

One thing I admire about Linds is her vision. It is amazing! She can see things that blow my mind, and it is like they come to her without even having to strain her brain in the slightest. It makes me jealous, but at the same time grateful that I have her as a resource! So, as soon as she enlightens me, I am sold. I filled my cart with them knowing full well that I was going to hear from my husband about having to pack those things in the car and transport them all the way to Texas. (You know the extra gas money they would cost us, don’t we have craft stores in Texas, etc.)

When I got back in town, I made two or three for gifts. I think they turned out pretty cute, although I am sure they lacked the finesse that Linds would have added. I was surprised to go to church on Sunday and see a larger and very cute version of the boxes, made by my friend Jen, on display for an upcoming craft day.

I must have still smelled like Mod Podge (my decoupage adhesive of choice) because I got talked into teaching the 40 people who signed up to make one how to do it. Good thing I have another friend helping me!

And to make a short story very long, what my friend Bonnie and I did today was assemble all the kits for the class on Tuesday and arrange them so neatly for a photo opp while Damian was at school and the kids watched hours of ‘educational’ television.

7 years old today!

We kicked Eden’s birthday off with a little Hannah Montana wake up call. I wasn’t sure what reaction I would get from my usually grumpy morning girl, but I risked it and cranked one of her favorite HM songs. As soon as I opened her door we found ourselves dancing together and it wasn’t long before the boys joined in. Happy Birthday girl…Hooray! Too bad Damian had to miss out on our little dance party since he was already downtown for a Friday of school.

Our birthday princess requested waffles and pink eggs for breakfast, so that is what we dined on by candlelight as we continued to jam to Hannah Montana. Eden wore her new necklace to school and was excited when I told her we would meet her for lunch. The boys and I found her in the cafeteria’s lunch line and thought it was quite a treat that they got to pick out what they wanted to eat. We bought ice cream for all of Eden’s class and donated a library book to the school in her name. Eden said she had a great birthday. I sure hope so because she is such a great girl!

I feel so lucky to be her mom. Sometimes I feel like she is so mature that she is the mom setting me straight. Eden is so observant and thoughtful. She almost has a sixth sense to pick up on EVERYTHING that is going on around her and EVERYONE’S role in what is happening. When I need to know something, she is my go to girl. She loves learning and is really bright. She often asks questions that I can’t answer. I knew that would happen at some point with my kids, but I didn’t think it would be first grade! Yikes!

Eden is the best helper, and she LOVES her brothers. She is always thinking of things to do for them to make them smile or laugh. They are good friends, and I can’t even describe how happy that makes me! Because she is so responsible, it is easy for me to forget she is only seven. We expect a lot of her, but she doesn’t let us down. Eden is such a sweetheart and I couldn’t be more proud of the seven year old that she is. I love my girl!!!

D is for...

About a month ago, I started a little joy school program we call ABC School for Landon and two of his friends. Every Thursday for three hours the moms take turns hosting the kids and teaching the letter of the week. It’s a toss-up, between Landon and me, as to who enjoys it more. Of course I love the two weeks that I get ‘me’ time, but I really enjoy having the kids over too! It is fun that the curriculum, if you can even call it that, is so wide open that anything alphabetical my brain can conjure up goes. It helps that Landon’s little friends are both such cuties too!

Today we learned about the letter D. I gave them a page with a capital and lowercase Dd and sheets of dot stickers to put on their page. It was so interesting how each of them decided to use their stickers. Hannah was hesitant to use too many of hers, Gavin put at least 30 on top of each other in his artistic version of a ‘dot pile’, and Landon carefully lined the letters with dots.

We talked a lot about dinosaurs. The kids thought it was really cool when we learned about digging up their big bones. I was going to bury theirs in sand, but I ran out of time, so I just sent them home with some. We read books from the How do Dinosaurs…series. I only had three of them, but they wanted more!

When we talked about dentists, the 2 year olds were armed with surprisingly good dental hygiene know how. We got to look at each other’s teeth, pretend to brush our own, and practice using dental floss (translation: sucking the mint off the floss).

We concluded our floss sucking with floss painting. Who ever thought?

We danced and had donuts for treats, and I relished in every minute of washing their chubby little fingers when they were done. (Lately I have had a serious case of sentiment about my babies growing up.) All in all I would say the letter D would be proud. Granted, I am not sure that any of them actually know what a letter D is or what sound it makes, but we had a fun day anyways!

early BIRTHDAY!!!

Eden is turning 7 in two days! Since Damian has commitments every other night this week, we decided to surprise her having our family celebration dinner early. We let her choose wherever she wanted to go and she chose Pei Wei. Before we even loaded into the car, she told us she was going to order honey seared chicken, water with oranges, one of their big chocolate chip cookies and fortune cookies. Sounds like her mama’s girl! That is exactly what I would have ordered, well I am sure I would have only had a little bit of the chocolate chip cookie.

For her birthday we had been planning to surprise her with a keyboard and piano lessons, but we ran that by her and she showed no interest. The only things she said she wanted were makeup, hair stuff to put in her room, a new purse, nail polish, and a couple of cute (translation: sparkly and pre-teen looking) new outfits. Could she be any more girly?

She was ecstatic to open a container filled (mostly from the dollar store) with combs, brushes, mirrors, rollers, clips, rubber bands, a small spray bottle, a manicure set and vanilla hair spray. Damian warned me that I was just feeding the ‘beast,’ but since I have childhood memories of the sheer thrill of getting something I asked for and REALLY wanted. (2^nd grade: the ultimate TRANSFORMER that turned from one guy into like seven different ones. My mom tried everything to entice me with girl stuff, but my mind was made up. I really wanted the transformer. That thing endured hours of play and a trip to school for show and tell. All my ‘boyfriends’ were jealous and the girls didn’t know what to think of me, but I am grateful that my mom caved and made my little tomboy heart go pitter pat.) I had to do something girly for my girly girl!

I also hit one out of the park with the necklace I bought her. At a local boutique I found these necklaces that have a glass locket that you can fill with different kinds of charms and a coordinating (not matching, see Linds I am learning!) bracelet. I knew Eden would like it because it fit all her criteria for jewelry: sparkly. The charms I chose for her were: an ice cream cone (for her sweet tooth), a star (because she is our ‘star’), a heart (cuz we love her), a purse (to represent her smashing fashion sense), a music note (because she loves to music), and a butterfly (to remind her of her room at home.)

Clean Cut...

I love when my boys get their hair cut! I mean I know they are my kids, but could they be any cuter? They actually love going because I splurge and spend the extra $10 to get them cut at 'Cool Cuts'. After Damian reads the last sentence today might be our last visit to Cool Cuts, but let me explain. Why Cool Cuts?

- They have legos & Thomas trains

- The boys get to choose a fire truck or taxi

to sit in while they are getting a trim

- They have video games and dvd players at each station

- They give out suckers for moms too

- Damian don’t read this:

If there is a wait, Children’s Place, Kirklands, Bed Bath & Beyond, Old Navy and Pier One are all within walking distance.

So, in my view the $10 is money well spent, saving me from whiny impatient corralled kids. Heck, most days I would pay a lot more than $10 for that!

bRaIN sLiP...

Most days bath time at our house actually means shower time. The kids all prefer baths and consider it a serious treat when they get to have one. I guess I just got lazy from cleaning up gallons of water off of my bathroom floor after repeating “Sit down,” “No splashing,” “Keep the water in the bathtub,” and the classic “Someone could slip on the water on the floor and crack their head open.” When all my threats fell on deaf ears the kids were banished to the shower.

Today when the boys were taking a shower, I went in to check on them and they were playing a game they made up called 'Slippery Slippery.' It was pretty funny to watch them slip from side to side of our three foot shower. The problem with this game, is that it requires all of the shampoo to be squeezed onto the floor first. Hence the ‘slippery SLIPPERY’ part. When I questioned the boys about their judgment (or lack thereof) Carter looked at me with his big eyes and said, “Sorry mom, I guess I just forgot to turn on my brain this morning.”

For anyone who knows Carter,

they know he is a little boy with a HUGE heart.

He is so much fun but at the same time so thoughtful and

impressively sensitive for a four year old boy.

Today he was getting hungry for lunch, so without me knowing he went down to the kitchen and took care of business. When I went downstairs I found him just finishing up with 3 pieces of PB&J toast. He told me he thought Landon and I might be hungry too. Now how can I get mad at that thoughtful little boy for getting peanut butter and jelly all over the kitchen? CAN’T.. the big cutie!

One more Carter story. Right before we were going to bed, Damian ran into Carter sleepwalking…in the kitchen…he was armed and ready…to pee…in the trashcan. What’s up with my boys and walking in their sleep?

who knew?

You would think that the care of 3 small children would be an easy task to dole out over the span of four days, but oh contraire mujer! I can not believe how many hours I have spent trying to make arrangements for our little munchkins while we are in Ohio for the wedding. Had I known it was going to be such an ordeal, I don’t know if I would have jumped at the chance for a weekend getaway without them in tow!

Now that all the arrangements have been squared and double checked, and I have gotten medical releases to the seven, yes SEVEN, different people who will be responsible for our kids while we are gone.

I HAVE...

Done my homeroom parent duties for Eden’s class

Packed the kids school bags and overnight suitcases

Put together 'sunshine bags' for the kids

(one for each day we're gone with a treat to share

and a surprise from the dollar store)

Written notes to go with each of them

(darn traditions I start!)

Put together a conference package for the Sessions family

(McCall & Eric will have the kids most of the weekend,

which just happens to be General Conference

which is broadcast from SLC twice every year.)

Finished printing the thank you notes for Jeff and Ruth.

NOW…I think I am ready to go!

Wait…I forgot I still have to pack for myself, and most likely for Damian. Blasted. Too tired. Will pack tomorrow.

walk for a cure?

The latest on Landon's sleep walking. Obviously, we are still walking...and snoozing...

...and walking... and snoozing...


Really, I found him in the middle of the night sound asleep on the stairs...agian! It scares me! I am thinking that maybe I should start locking him into his room at night. Suggestions? Crazy kid!

My new DIET...

I have been forced into a new diet. Not so much because of the reasons I should be on a real diet. Let me explain.

You see, my thighs are the same circumference in inches as my husband’s. Really, this is a true fact. A true fact that I should have never discovered.

I would like to take a minute to address all the ladies out there about an important issue. Please read carefully.

If your husband or significant other ever urges you to start an exercise program by measuring your body parts, JUST SAY NO. If you by chance fall victim of his good looks and persuasion, seek emotional support immediately. Especially, if he observes and says something like, “Look our ______ are the same size!” Otherwise, this emotional scarring has the potential to wear your morale and motivation to participate in any kind of physical exercise or intimacy for the next several months. I repeat, never Never NEVER measure body parts and compare them with your significant other, or...ANYONE!

So, the real reasons for my new diet started with Hurricane Ike. That storm took so much from so many people, but some people take their excuses to the extreme. (I actually heard a woman blame her tight fitting pants on the hurricane. The gym must have been closed.) I feel trite complaining about our loss, but due to the lack of power we had for several days, he left our refrigerator and freezers looking like this:

Actually, I would be an ungrateful and horrible friend if I did not document just how all the food was cleared out. When we got about an hour on our way out of town to ‘evacuate’ our powerless house, I called McCall to see how they had fared through the storm. To my surprise, their home phone rang and she told me they were only without power for a few hours. Because she is so on the ball and one of the most giving people I know, and possibly because she thought we probably wouldn’t take her up on her offer, she asked us if we wanted her to go save any of our warming by the minute food. We hesitated and then gratefully agreed. By the time she

made it to our house, I am positive it reeked and there was lots of melted rotten food all over. She and her son, Brady, took care of it all! Now that is what you call a FRIEND! We love you, McCall!

So you are saying to yourself, get over it already and go buy some food. You see I would, but for the past two days I have been spending a majority of my time battling these little beasts taking food out of my kitchen. No, not my kids. (I have grown used to that kind of beast.) These pests are hundreds of fire ants that are coming in through the cracks of the cabinets and underneath the counter tops.

Who knew ants are fatally attracted to oil? The ones that didn't crawl into my olive or canola oil containers were actually building a mound on our kitchen floor. Honestly, I have no reason to joke about this matter. They are truly going to drive me insane! (Can someone remind me why we live in Texas again: hurricanes, fire ants that bite and sting, and swarms of mosquitoes???)

As part of my explanation, I need to explain a little bit about a genetic trait that I seem to have inheirited from my father. If we ever got ants in our kitchen, it didn’t matter who was there or what food on the counter, out came the can of Raid. More precisely several cans of it. I can do spiders. I can do earwigs. I can even do geckos and roaches (birds and bats are a whole ‘nother story), but when it comes to these swarms of ants I’ve met my match. Blasted marching ants taking over my kitchen!

In conclusion, my new diet is caused by power outages and fire ants and hopefully has the potential to last long enough that I might loose a few inches on my thighs. Actually, I think I would rather have monster thighs than hundreds of ants. Hooray for the pest control guy who comes today at 4 pm! Maybe after I will go see my therapist and make a grocery run.

We got one!

A dinner invitation that is! With Damian at school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights, I have been having a really hard time being motivated to provide my children with, ahem, good nutritional meals. Insert phone call from a friend, and I bailed yet another night of slaving over a stove- yesterday just about did me in. Who knew Tuesday nights were kids eat free at Denny’s night?

Below are the five important lessons Mimi taught me tonight at dinner:

1. It’s not nice to swear under your breath at people for not answering their cell phone when you are lost; they might have forgotten to bring it with them. (Just kidding, Mimi. I was just frustrated with myself for driving past it at least 100 times prior to tonight and never seeing it there.)
2. You shouldn’t have to depend on a navigation system when you are less than three miles from home, but come on Garmin update you list of Denny’s already!
3. Breakfast foods at Denny’s are surprisingly yummy, even for dinner. (Or maybe I just need to go grocery shopping and start cooking again.)
4. It is ok that I am oblivious to our 6 kids loudly laughing, climbing under the booth, climbing over the table, throwing food and blowing bubbles in their drinks in a public restaurant while I am having stimulating adult conversation. (What your husband doesn’t know won’t hurt him, but so sorry to all the nice people who don’t have kids who choose to patron Denny’s on kids eat free night!)
5. Friends don’t let friends eat meals comprised solely of canned foods two nights in a row. Thanks, Mimi!

complete meal in 5 cans or less...

This is what we had for dinner tonight.

The Vest family is accepting dinner invitations.

In my defense,

the kids did have their gummy vitamins

with their Fruitloops at breakfast this morning.

Oh wait,

um,

maybe that was dinner last night…

'Hurrication'

Houston, we have power! Well, when we rolled into town tonight we found that we do anyways! Unfortunately though some still don’t, so we are counting our many blessings! One of them being the past week we got to spend with family and friends on our ‘hurrication.’ It was an unexpected reprieve from the monotony that was just beginning to settle into the back to school routine, and we loved every minute of it.

Since today is the last official day of summer, I decided to sum ours up into three words:
HOT, FAMILY (separate words, I mean we are pretty hot and all, so put them together if you wish) & FUN.

SUMMER 2008 highlights:

June: Jami spends a few days as a leader at girls camp, Eden spends a week with Mimi and Pops sewing, crafting, and cooking, Jen and Shayne visit, our day at the beach in Gulfport, walking on the Appalacian trail outside of Gatlinburg, our week in Williamsburg with Jami’s grandparents and family, Vacation Bible School, Eden’s cooking camp

July: Kevin and Megan visit, Our road trip to Utah, Time with Utah family and friends, St. George, Boating on Utah lake

August: More fun with family in Utah, High School Musical Play, Todd’s family visited for a long weekend, Macy’s blessing, Our road trip home with a Colorado Springs pit stop, Eden and Carter got to spend a week letting Mimi & Pops spoiling them, Eden started 1st grade, Carter started his last year of preschool

September: Randy & Kris came to visit over Labor Day weekend, somebody turned 30, Jeff got engaged, we met Ruth, Hurricane Ike, Our ‘hurrication’

It’s good to be back home
and I have to say
I am ready for the monotony once again…
Let the school bells ring!

Caught red handed...stealing AGAIN!

I am a blog criminal. I steal. I steal ideas. I steal stories. I steal complete blog posts. Why am I a blog-clepto? Call me jealous or call me lazy, but I want a record of another one of Jen's posts. So, I copied it and voila...here it is...her account of all the fun we had the past few days. I love you, Jen! Thanks for letting us hang out with you and your cute family, and thanks for forgiving me for stealing...again.

For the past week and a half I've had a lot of family in town... and I am Blissfully Exhausted!! It really is the best form of exhaustion. I love being with my family and seeing my kids interact with their aunts, uncles and cousins. But being off my schedule (and I say "my" because I think I need it more then my kids) and always on the go has left me super tired, ready for a relaxing week... but at the same time leaving me completely rejuvenated.

Rejuvenated, say what?!? Seriously, the rejuvenations starts with watching Ava and Nolan get some good cousin time. Ava just adores her cousins and calls them 'my friends'.... for those 5 days all I heard was "Mom, when are we going to see my friends again!?" or "Are we going to go play with my friends?" or "When are we going to go eat with my friends?" Ava and Carter have their own special bond and Nolan just adores Eden. He got giddy excited when he'd see her and would reach for her. Which he doesn't do too often at all. But the rejuvenation ends with me being able to hang out with Jami and soak up her - love for life, her creative juices, talking projects and Mom stuff with her... and it leaves me completely rejuvenated.

With my brother and Ruth leaving, my Mom and Dad skipping town, Damian in Houston working, Shayne working... we still had 5 days to hang out with them!!! So what do we do but hit up the parks, Let's Jump, hang out around the house, eat and play some Wii.

Jami and I took the kids to Let's Jump bounce house and I don't know who had more fun - the kids or us?!Nolan wasn't too excited about it at first, but after we went to Chick-fil-A to grab some lunch and came back for more bouncing - he was all over that. Huh... imagine that - food changing his mood?! And a run up and down the slide with Aunt Jami made him all about the slides. He'd even climb up them himself, reach the top, plop himself down and take off down the slide. The kid ain't scared!!
Jami and I tried to hide out for a while in one of the obstacle courses to escape our children - didn't work for long... but we sure had fun bouncing each other, chatting and being well - dumb and childish. I told the dude that took our money at the beginning that they really should start charging for adults because I think we'll have more fun then the kids!! {Though I hope he doesn't take me up on that offer!!}

SO good to talk to a Mom that has the same love for what she does but yet has the same trials and frustrations while doing it. You know in high school when the really cool and fun chick wanted to hang out with you?!? Well, my brother married the fun, really cool chick... and I'm just glad that she's forced into hanging out with me sometimes - thank you Hurricane Ike!

We also did a little Wii Fit... and I swear, that thing is the best form of entertainment. It's hilarious to see the concentration in faces, the intensity these games are played at and the violent thrashing of heads, limbs and torsos while trying to compete. And if your part of the family, check these out {they're videos, and I don't know if I have permission to post them on this blog... so I'll play it safe, keep the love in my family and post them on our family blog. Let's just say that Damian's hips don't lie and that Jami got major whiplash from headbutting soccer balls}.

I was so "blissfully exhausted" that on Saturday afternoon when the kids were napping or having quite time - I was napping too. And I was so dead asleep that I didn't hear them both crying/screaming and Ava peeing in her pants {not that I'd normally hear that} because I didn't hear her banging on the door to go to the bathroom {and yes, I feel terribly bad about that!!}. And that it was so bad that it was a good thing that Shayne was working from home and just coming home from an inspection - and could hear them both crying even outside. Now that's exhausted!!

I love, love, LOVE my family and am so glad that they were able to come up and hang for a while... And CUTE park pictures - coming soon...right Jami!?!?