School Picture Day.

Today is the annual School Picture Day. Let me tell you, we usually get some doozies. As we were leaving for school this morning, I was joking with the kids and making them give me theiur smiles they're going to use when they get their picture taken. Noah, as serious as can be, asked me if I thought they would let him do his rock and roll sign for the picture. For those of you who don't know what that is...please see below.

Can't you just see that in the yearbook??? I reply with a very stern, "NO. They will NOT let you do that. Don't even try it."
He replies with a, "hmmmm...maybe I can sneak it in before the flash goes off." This child leaves me in a constant mental state somewhere between exhaustion and hysterics. It's an interesting place to be. It's why he's been nicknamed, "Joe, Jr."

This Is For Emily Ward (part 2).

Our good friend Shadley's daughter, Eden, who is a kindergardener, wrote out a list of 'Things she will someday look for in a husband" and dedicated it to Emily, as she continues to wait patiently for her husband to come along, Lord willing. So, in celebration of that, I sat down with the boys last night and had them come up with their own lists for "Things they would someday look for in a wife". That way, Emily can start working on some of these things in preparation (hee, hee.)

Noah's List Of Wifely Qualities:
1. She would know how to make a garden.
2. She would help him take care of the kids.
3. She would be tall.
4. She would hopefully have yellow hair like him.
5. She would combine her money with his, so they could buy a house.
6. She would make him cookies on his birthday.
7. She would want to spend the night. (what????!!!???)
8. She would make sure their kids didn't get sick. (He has a cold right now. I must be a bad mommy...)
9. She would be someone he would give flowers to.

Jackson's List Of Wifely Qualities:
1. She would be kind and loving.
2. She would be supportive.
3. She would be willing to go through life with you.
4. She would be able to like him for who he is.

There you have it, Em, get to work!!! Thanks for being such a good sport. I thought it was too cute not to post! You will make someone a very lucky man someday just being who you are.

I'm Scared...

Next week, Jackson will be attending School Of The Wild which is a weeklong outdoor education program at one of the local state parks. I kindly offered to be a parent volunteer on Monday. I thought to myself, 'Wow! That will be so much fun! I'll get to spend the day in the great outdoors to enjoy and 'become one' with God's wonderful creations!' (Can you hear "The hills are aliiive...." in the background?).
I pick Jackson up from school today and he takes one look at me and bursts out laughing.
"What?" I ask.
(more laughing...)
I repeat myself. More laughing follows.
"What's so funny, Jackson?" I ask, a little nervously.
Between chuckles, he's able to spit out, "Today, we got our schedules for Wild and on Monday our group is learning how to handle snakes, emptying snake traps and then we are searching and identifying poison ivy."
ummmmmm........This. is. not. what. I. signed. up. for.

Click over to Things With Wings. My sister is doing a free journal giveaway! Leave a comment and your name could be drawn!

Quote Of The Day.

Jackson: Did you know that the amount of pizzas Americans eat in a single day is equal to the size of 9 football fields?

(silence)

Noah: That's kinda wierd. I'd rather eat my pizza off a plate.

Still playing catch up from a crazy, crazy weekend. Our art show was !AWESOME! this last weekend. We had such beautiful weather and it was such a nice atmosphere with a steady stream of people. We were up on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi and was just beautiful. Sales were incredible and we all moved a lot of stuff. I think perhaps one of my highlights was the squirrels in the tree our booth was sitting under. They kept dropping nuts on Mom, no matter where she sat. It was pretty darn funny. Thanks to my awesome hubby for holding down the fort while I was gone!

The Enormous Snowball by Noah M.

Two boys made a snowball out of little snowballs. The next night there was a blizzard and it became an enormous snowball. One boy's name was Billy and the other boy's name was Matt. They got a lot of snowballs and they packed them really hard. After 100 days it was still January and the snowball was still there. Every day they went outside. They kept building and building and building. Then it was summer and the snowball melted and it took two days. The End.

Secret Clubhouse.

The secret clubhouse is actually behind the couch, but "shhhh" don't tell him I told you. I just thought it would be funny to post this, as my sister just got done with a similar post http://willandsam.blogspot.com/2008/09/anti-sam-zone.html

*Translation: No one allowed. Except (actually it says buh-cepts....that there is some mighty good english) Will can come in.

Beating The Cyclowns.

It's almost painful at times to watch Hawkeye sports with my husband. The pictures really don't do it justice. As you can see it ended with exhaustion.

Romantical Date.

Joe and I had a date night tonight thanks to Joe's parents. We decided to go to Los Portales. We've been wanting to try it for a long time now. Tonight happened to be mariachi night. Four super-cool, very talented guys (except you have to watch the little guy with the trumpet...he's a stinker) walked around and played for tables. They get up to our booth and notice its just the two of us and ask us if we would like to hear a "romantic song or a "happy song". Joe pipes up, "The hawks won! We want a happy song!" Yeah....that's exactly what I was thinking. So they begin their "happy song" with high pitched, "Ay-ay-ay-ayes!!!" etc. and the little stinker (trumpet guy) sneaks behind Joe and points at me and motions for me to 'shake what God gave me'. I replied, much to Joe's disappointment "Ummmm....no." Needless to say, it was a fun night. I got to hear lots of tongue trills and "aye arriba's" from my husband the rest of the night.

Quote Of The Day.

"You know what I heard? I heard if you have a uni-brow, it means you're REALLY smart."
-Noah

Bizzarr-o.

I was driving to my sister's house late this afternoon and went past City High. I noticed what seemed to be the girl's cross country team running down the sidewalk. It was a group of maybe 50 girls. Upon further inspection, I noticed they were all dressed as pirates. As in 'Ahoy, mateys' kind of pirates. Eye patches, jolly rogers, ripped pants, etc....All of them! And they were just as serious as they could be running down the street. It was perhaps the most bizarre thing I've ever seen. I was lucky I didn't get into an accident. Can anyone explain this to me???

The Southwest Burritos Were Not Meant To Be.

I'm not sure how my dinner ended up on the floor. It was like slow motion. I couldn't stop it from happening. I was going from fridge to oven and diseaster struck. I stood in stunned silence for a good 30 seconds. I faintly heard in the background a little voice saying, "Ooh. That's not good". Then followed by another voice saying, "Maybe you could make them again sometime. Can I suggest that next time you leave out the tomatoes?" I heard a growling noise and realized it was coming from me. I got myself together and thought, "Hey, I can throw something else together. I've still got my can of corn and my loaf of freshly baked chocolate chip banana bread....then this happened...
The other half is in my loaf pan. I'll be honest with you, I let a dirty word fly. I'm just keepin' it real. (I've since repented and been forgiven).
A little bit later Jackson, like every 12 year old boy concerned about when his next meal would be, asked, "Mom, what are we having for dinner?"
"Corn" I reply.
"What else?" He asks.
"Just corn."
(silence).
"Ummm..when's dad coming home?"

*Dad did come home and saved the day with rotisserie chicken from Fareway. We had our can of corn and our hacked-up banana bread and no one went hungry. The End.

Welcome To The Club, Beckett, You're Gonna Fit In Just Fine.

Little Man Of Many Facial Expressions.

You know how it is when you have a new nephew and you take 119 pictures in less than 48 hours? It's kind of hard to narrow it down to just a few, so these are some of my favorites...

Can You Guess Who The Baby Hog Was?

Cute Parts.

The boy can rock the argyles like nobody's business.

We are off to Kansas to visit our new nephew, Beckett, or as Lily calls him, "Baby Bucket". The camera is coming along, so I will make sure to get some good pics. Have a wonderful weekend!

Well, I decided to turn an ugly abstract piece of art into something much, much better. I painted right over that puppy. I thought I'd show it off a bit. If you want to see it in person, come on over and use the bathroom. It's hanging above the toilet. Yes, it is. Ummm...do you see a foot?

Oh, my. Someone thinks they need their picture taken.

If the camera is out, it MUST mean it was meant for her.
That's the problem with being ridiculously good looking. Everything else, including art, pales in comparison.

Finally! Geesh.

I thought I would give you the full effect. Aren't you lucky? This is purely staged, mind you. No worries.

FINALLY!

Finally, her day has come and not a moment too soon. She's been so patient waiting for her turn to go. She loved it! I think she'll want to go back tomorrow, but I'll have to explain that she has to wait until Thursday. I've been getting tidbits throughout the day of how her morning went, including the R-E-D song. I think I've heard that maybe 30 times. A few times I heard her whisper, "Welcome to preschool!" Tonight before bed she picked out her fancy princess dressup gown and said that she was going to wear it to preschool tomorrow. She wants to look her best, I guess. Grandma (who is the art teacher) says she was the 'model student'. I'm sure there's no bias there!

Birthday Boy.

Best buddies.

Practicing steps like a big boy.
He barely got them blown out.

Grandma doesn't like toads.
Taking it easy.
Mt. Dew is a great gift.
The skateboard he's always wanted. Watch out. Wear your helmet.