jeff, jen, cole, anna kate, & caden (wilberforce)
This time it was my mascara. Better yet, waterproof mascara. Obviously she was going to need a good bathing in order to get this off…
…but I needed to leave for a contest that night so all I had time to do was feed the kids dinner before I left. (And dinner happened to be spaghetti.) So this is what I left Jeff with…
…and this was just one of three adorable
monsters I left with him!
It was only a few days after I blogged about Anna not wanting her nails to be painted that she let me paint her nails! Out of nowhere! She started with one color on her right hand and then wanted a different color on every single finger & toe nail. It was fun.
I let her pick out colors for my nails too. However, I forgot to take mine off the next day & left for the dance contest with my colorful hands. I was the only judge there with pink & purple fingernails – go figure.
Lately the kids have gotten more and more sneaky. (For example – they have mastered opening their bedroom door without making a sound, they can figure out what they need to climb to reach desired objects, etc.) There have been several times I turn my head for what seems to be a few seconds, only to return my gaze and find my little munchkins getting into everything.
This picture was from the other day. Anna thought it would be a good idea to pour a bowl of salsa in a glass of fruit punch. What is floating on top you ask? Cole thought it needed a little extra something, so he picked these fake berries off a wreath we have (had) and garnished the drink with them. But he didn’t add the berries until I was distracted with disciplining Anna (in the other room) for playing with and taking glass containers off the counter. It’s like he was finishing up the mission of his fellow soldier who had been captured in battle.
Earlier this month Anna got to go to her first all girls birthday party. It was a glamour party, where the girls put on fancy/princess dresses, got their nails, hair, and (a touch of) make-up done. So this is a picture of the girls in the glammed up process…
And while you would find all the girls getting the pampered beauty treatment on one side of the shop, you would find Anna here…
…chasing bubbles on the floor and driving
with the steering wheel. I tried my best to get her to just try getting her nails painted, or simply sit in the hair chair, but she was not a bit interested. We almost got her to try some make up….
…but ultimately she would have none of it.
Though she did actually have a good
time, we won’t be throwing Anna a
glamour party anytime soon. Here’s
a final picture of all the girls together.
(Note – all are smiling while Anna’s
got her tongue sticking out.)
So his birthday was back in December, but here are the pics from his pirate party! (His theme of choice.) Rrrrr!
The kids grabbed a few pirate accessories
when they came in the door and started
playing outside. Then we lined them up to
take swings at the treasure chest pinata,
but an evil pirate (jeff) stole the treasure.
We had no choice but to follow the treasure
map he conveniently left behind and win
back Cole’s treasure.
The map led us through some dangerous
terrain, and we even ran into a couple of
pirate ships. But they were no match for
our water balloon cannonballs.
We eventually found the treasure stealing
pirate & he challenged Cole to a sword fight
for the loot.
Cole defeated the pirate and won back the
treasure for us all.
After the pinata we completed the whole
birthday party experience with some cake.
Thanks to all our sweet friends & family who
were able to come and help make Cole feel
so special!
After coming home from a bike ride, Anna wanted to ride her bike all the way into the garage. She tried to round the trash can and ended up on the concrete. It was an “easy” fall, so no damage done. However her foot did land on the sticky-pad mouse trap, and she was very distraught that she could not get it off this weird looking piece of paper. Praise the Lord it was only her croc that got stuck and not her actual skin!
(Yes, I realize I went MIA in regards to blogging for the last two months! I’m hoping I am almost out of the “haze” I have been in. So as the next few weeks go by, please tolerate my out-of-order postings from last december.)
So my genius, 30 year old husband figured out how to post a (rather long) video. I feel I must warn all that this was my first video editing project and the sound will most likely drive you crazy because there are several sections where the background music overpowers the person speaking. It’s something I want to go back and change but in order to get this posted as soon as possible I thought I’d just put it up as is.
I must also preface the video by saying you might want to grab a bowl of popcorn; it’s 36 minutes long. When I started out I was hoping to get enough footage to make a five to ten minute video. What a treat it was for me to sit behind the camera and for hours watch other people talk about how great they think my husband is.
Thanks to all who helped!!! Even though you’ve already seen it, happy birthday honey! This one’s for you. Jeff’s 30th Birthday Video
So as most of you know, last Friday was Jeff’s 30th birthday! Thank you to everyone who helped me make a video for Jeff – it was great and he loved it. You might have been wondering where the post is for it since I said I would be putting a link to it on our blog that night. Well, Jeff was going to help me post it that next morning and, as providence would have it, when we woke up that morning all the audio source files had disappeared. (Meaning all the music with the video was gone.) I spent this last week putting the songs back in and making cuts – and it took forever due to my computer being super-snail-slow since I have put hours of video footage on it. So last night I finally finished the music to be at least good enough to watch, and this morning we finished burning it to a dvd. Then when we put it in to show the family after Thanksgiving lunch – it does not work. 
But fear not! We will get this figured out and hopefully posted this weekend. Today I am very thankful to be married to a “tech guy” who can always figure out what to do next, because I would have been stuck several steps ago.
Since I feel I cannot just leave you with a “Sorry” note, I will depart with a short happening at our house this week. The plumber came to do some minor repairs. After coming down from the kids bathroom (which is also our guest bathroom) he said there was no problem with that toilet, “but there’s a lot of urine all over it…it smells really bad.” (Picture an animated, yet serious face on the plumber.) A man who has seen & smelled thousands of toilets was taken back by the sight & odor of ours. I always thought I was doing good to swoosh the brush around with some cleaner once a week. But apparently you should pay good attention to what makes it out and down the sides of your toilet…especially with potty training little ones. That night I gave the kids a bath and I’ll give you one guess as to what I did while they splashed around in the tub.
Happy Birthday Mimi! We all hope you had a wonderful and special day today. We love you so very much!
In honor of election week I am holding my own poll. The item on the ballot: Caden’s Rattail. To cut or not to cut?
See, his hair is coming in evenly everywhere else, even though it’s very little. But the one thick lock he’s got is exactly what’s pictured above. I was definitely going to cut it at first, but now I’m having second thoughts… I mean, when else can someone sport this kind of do? I think Caden’s rattail has become a little bit sentimental to me, when I don’t associate it with an large biker-dude from the 1980’s wearing leather and tattoos. And while there is a small cool factor considering the Jedi padawans wore braided rattails in the Star Wars movies, do I risk my child being associated too much with the movie since the word “force” is embedded in his middle name. Is or is this not one of the embarrassing, yet endearing, hairdos I keep him in for a stage of life so we can look back in pictures years later and laugh?
So what do you think? Let your voice be heard! Do I cut it off or leave it be? Polls are open.
