We're painting the roses red...

This cute girl started DramaKids this year.  She is loving it!

 The teacher put on Alice in Wonderland for any of the kids who wanted to do it on the side.

 She had practice every Thursday and Saturday (in addition to Wed.'s regular class), but she loved every second.

 She was one of the Queen of Hearts' cards, if you couldn't tell.  They had to march across the stage, "two different ways (says Kas)," and line up so the crochet ball could go through their legs, and shake their knees in fear of the Queen.  No speaking parts, but this was the perfect first time play.

 Here she is coming up to bow, and of course my camera battery goes dead right in time to miss her cute bow.

Here is the whole production.  They all did a wonderful job! (Sorry about the fuzzy picture.)

"THE" talk

Addison had a little "boy" friend over to play today.  As we were driving him back home the car got a little quiet.  I look in my rear view mirror, and saw two little heads leaning across the empty seat between them, going in for a kiss.  Before lips could touch, and I could scream in shock that this was happening already, Addison toots.  Both kids start laughing so hard that she toots again...I couldn't help but laugh too.  It was pretty funny.

Later, after we had dropped her friend off and made it back home, I told Addison that she is too young to be kissing boys.   She told me, "Don't worry mom, we didn't kiss, I tooted and we were just laughing."  That's my girl.

'Tis the Season...of LOVE

I found these rocks at a construction sight, because oddly, rocks are hard to find.

Made my own chalk board paint (add 2 TB unsanded grout to 1 cup paint), and found fun chalk markers at the craft store.

All I have to do is change the writing, put a different color candle in, and I have a decoration for every season.  I thought it turned out pretty cute, what do you think?

Who am I, Mary Poppins?!?!?

 Not an over-sized bag, just medium-sized...

But look at everything that came out:
-wipes
-2 diapers
-2 soft lips, love this stuff
-1 lip gloss, for date nights (that's as fancy as it gets)
-1 tampon, in case
-2 first aid kits, sometimes you just need bandaids
-scissors
-3 binkies
-keys
-cell phone
-wallet
-coupons, do not throw away my 99 cent 44 oz. Sonic drink!
-1 bobby pin
-gum, great for bribing my kids right now
-2 suckers, compliments of CVS pharmacy
-baby food spoon
-48 oz. container baby puffs
-cold and allergy medicine, Reilynn is teething right now
-children's ibuprofen, also for little R
-medicine syringe
-1 crayon, has saved me at many basketball practices
-stake directory
-eucerin, Kas has major dry lips right now
-1 granola bar
-1 protein bar
-1/2 Costco muffin
-1 bag of Multigrain Cheerios
-1 pancake
-water bottle, for doing hair
-1 coloring page from the gym daycare

Are you kidding me.  I tried to clean out my bag, but there wasn't much I could do without.  I guess it's just part of being a mother of 5 under 7...a knot in your shoulder all the time. (:

Do Blondes or Brunettes have more fun?

I'll let you know.

 I have been a blonde all my life, and the hair dresser decided I needed to try being a brunette.

I don't know how much I love it, but I guess we will give it a try for a little while.  Maybe being a brunette could be some fun.

By the way, Parker took these pictures for me.  He is still learning how to hold the camera and push the button at the same time, which is kind of hard for a little hand and a big SLR camera.  He took the first picture and said no mom, do this face...which is what you get in the second picture.  He said, "much better mom."  Cutie patootie. (Parker, not me)

Negative Nelly

Is there even such a thing as a "negative nelly?"  It sounded good.

I was laying in bed last night thinking about how negative with my kids I had been all day.  Then I was reading some past posts on my blog and realized all I do is rant and rave about all the bad things my kids do.  So I made a personal goal to look for the good.  Here goes...

This cute angel, came with me to the library story time today.  Everyone was having a good time, paying attention, engaged in good cognitive learning time, and then I made the mistake of helping this little independent angel with her craft.

I learned that a 2 year old can go from angel to monster in a fraction of a second. (Good knowledge to have for the future....see...me being positive!)

I had to literally drag her from the story time room kicking and screaming. (Good entertainment for all in the room.)

Then since she decided her legs weren't going to work, I continued to drag her, while holding onto Reilynn in my other arm, all the way out to the car. (Which was a good arm workout.)

Then we stopped at Sonic for a much needed Rt44 Diet Coke with Lemon. (Way better than Prozac.)

Then on home for an early nap time..(That one doesn't need any positive comment, it speaks for itself.)

Hurray for being positive....Alright, I'll keep working on it.

The girls who cried wolf...

I'm not going to tell you who exactly cried wolf...

 But I have received 4 calls that go a little like this..."Hello, this is 911 dispatch.  We received a call from this number that was cut off.  Do you have an emergency?"

One of these phone calls just happened to be this morning.  Not only did my alarm not go off, so we were rushing anyway to get out the door, but I got a lovely call from 911 dispatch.

Luckily, our number is on their don't-worry-they-have-5-little-monsters-at-that-house-so-we-don't-need-to-send-the-police-out list.  But I am worried that if we ever did have an emergency they wouldn't come.

Why I haven't been posting lately...

I've been a little busy dealing with a lot of this...

 and this...

 Did I mention this...

 Throw in a pinch of this...

And there you have it people, evidence to support my claim that motherhood is NEVER easy, but then...nobody ever said it would be, so why complain?  We just take pictures of the craziness so we can laugh about it later.

GO BOBCATS!

 Parker is on a basketball team right now.  He is having so much fun being a Bobcat!  It has been exciting to see them improve every single week.  What a difference from the first week!

You might think that I just don't know how to take a picture, but really they are just moving so fast that they are blurry!  It's called good defense. (:

And just a side note:  I have turned into one of those moms...you know the ones..."DEFENSE, HANDS UP, SHOOT IT, REALLY REF?!?!?"  I know, it isn't good, I am going to work on not being quite so embarrassing for my kids.

Big Sisters are AWESOME!

 Reilynn has turned into a new toy.  She is old enough, and sturdy enough, to be more resilient to their antics.  Not that she is always happy about it...look at that face!

 She can finally hold on the the handles of the bike and the sides of the red wagon. (Look at this little cheese ball, she sees the camera and turns to pose on her way by.)

 I love the pouty lip, Reilynn has it perfected.

 "Mom, you are cramping my style.  I am trying to play with Reilynn, and you are making me stop for a stupid picture."

"Baby, don't say stupid, it's not nice. And if you give me a quick smile you can have a treat."

 "That's not good enough, I need a real smile."

There it is!  Stinkin' cutie!

I'm back Baby!

My doctor prescribed me with some good stuff that is making a world of difference.  It has only been 5 days, I am walking, cleaning, driving.  It took me at least a week and a half last time I hurt my back.  Hurray!

So now to catch up...New Year's Eve

 We were invited to spend the New Year eating yummy food and playing games with friends. 

 Yes, I married the one with his tongue hanging out...by choice too.

 All the little monsters had a good time running around, having pillow fights, and of course...

... playing the Wii.

 It wasn't just the kids having fun with the Wii though, everyone had a turn trying to bust a move with the Party Dance game.

Then I got to go over to another friends house while Mark put our grumpy-I've-had-way-to-much-sugar-and-not-enough-sleep kiddos to bed.  It was the best New Years EVER!  Not to mention, I beat the host at his own X-Box game.  Ok, almost beat, I was only 4 points off.  I had an unfair disadvantage though, I was not in the correct attire.  I smell a rematch in the future!!!(:

I have the body of an 80 year old!

What is wrong with me?!?!?  I was starting a Zumba class, just warming up mind you, and my back seized up.  Now I can hardly walk, sit, or lay down...it's not good times!

Girls' Night

 Mark and Parker got the opportunity to go to the Texas Bowl game a couple days ago.

 So the rest of us girls decided to have a girls night.  We started out by going to get the mail when it was raining cats and dogs outside.

They all thought it was the best thing ever to be able to sit in the very front seat all the way to the mailbox and back...no car seats.

 When we got back from getting our Netflix movie in the rain, we started running a gigantic bubble bath and gave everyone a trim.  Reilynn just wanted to drink the hairspray, you know, the usual.

 I also let them take pictures with my camera, which they never get to touch. They thought that was pretty special.

 We filled the tub with bubbles, then turned on the jets, and bubbles were everywhere.

 It doesn't get much better than this!

 Well, Reilynn didn't really agree.  She was terrified of the bubbles.  She was screaming if I even got her near the tub.

 Seriously, I have never seen her so scared.  Big dogs, brother coming at her with a light saber, mom forcing down broccoli...NOTHING compared to the bubbles!

 Are you kidding me?!?!?

 Then we got in our jammies and had some ice cream cones, and popped popcorn.

 Thanks Uncle Dustin for the fun popcorn containers for movie nights.  The kids love them!

 Do you see that dimple?  It is larger than life!  I have already forgotten the screaming and clawing my arm that occurred 10 minutes ago...almost.

We settled in with our new pillow pets, popcorn, and How to Train Your Dragon.  Cute!

We had to pause the movie after Reilynn went to bed and paint fingernails and toenails.  Addison wasn't going to forget.  She loves the pampering!