Today.... he is......... 33 years old!

Jeremy is 33 years old today! Happy Birthday! I'm sorry, but all I can think of is this clip from one of my all time favorite movies "The Three Amigos." Maybe I should have gotten you a sweater. (The first Christmas after we got engaged, my mom gave Jeremy a sweater for Christmas and as soon as he opened it and held it up, everyone had to say in their best El Guapo voice "It's a sweater!"... you'll get it more after you watch the clip...)

This is a birthday card Jeremy got from his parents yesterday. It made me laugh.

Happy Birthday Jeremy!!! I love you!!!

Please pass the butter....

I'm soooo excited! Why, you ask?

Today we got a new table! Now, we can have us and the food at the same table!

Jeremy found a place that sells tables for CHEAP. And they are nice tables. Nice, in my opinion. It has a leaf and everything.

Tonight at dinner, we had to get used to how much space we had at the table. It was so nice to be able to have space between the kids. Much less poking and "he wiped his food on my arm!" going on. We actually had to teach our kids how to pass the food around the table now that we're not arms length from any given point.

So the best part is, 2 days ago, Jeremy listed our old mattress and box spring on craiglist that have just been taking up space in our garage. He sold them the same day for $75. Guess how much our brand new table cost us? $75! So we basically turned junk in our garage into a brand new dining table. Yeah!!!

p.s. I'm really excited.

My "little" brother...

This is my "little" (6' 10") brother! How cool is that?!

Perceptions of children....

Liah is such a smart girl. Sometimes I'm amazed at the stuff she picks up on. Then, every now and then, things I thought she totally got, um, not so much. It catches me off guard and I have to laugh.

First, we were in Winco checking out, and Liah asked me something 3 times. I could not understand her for the life of me. Finally, she repeated it again, and I laughed out loud before I could help it. She wanted to know if the guy at the check out stand was named "Beef Jerky." Huh? Then I noticed the sign in the check out line that said "Beef Jerky." It does kind of look like a nametag. Except for the fact that it's in front of all that beef jerky. Of course my kids have no idea what that stuff is because I think it is nasty. My sister used to call it "carcass paper." I'm thinking she wasn't too far off. Anyway, after I showed her what it actually was, I couldn't stop laughing. I felt bad as her cheeks turned red and she told me to "Mommy, you watch your mouth!" Sorry, Liah.

Then today, we were having scripture study, and we were talking about the land we live in and how it is a free country and we don't have a king. I asked her who our president was and she said "Obama." (She came home from school the day after he was elected feeling very smug about her knowledge of this information: "Hey mom. You know who our president is? Obama." Yes, Liah, I know.) Anyway, so trying to make a point that he was not born into this position but that people had to vote for him to be elected president, I asked her if she knew how he became the president. "Yes! He had to run REEEEEAAAALLLLYYYYY fast!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here is Liah with her "Valentine fish" from her school party. I help in Liah's classroom every Friday and it was fun to get to help with her party!

I had fun experimenting with "heart" hair styles. If you have little girls, you have to check out this blog. She has the cutest hairstyles!




We had our traditional heart pancake breakfast, too.

I even made Addy a little one and he ate the whole thing!

Liah made everyone in our family, including herself, a Valentine. She drew hearts on pink paper, cut them out and wrote cute little notes on each one. Then she folded them up and massively taped them. She was so excited to hand them out today. She takes her holidays very seriously.
Here are the messages on each one. I thought they were so cute.

Dad: You are my Valentine.
Mommy: You are such nise.
Emily: You like to play.
Sean: Sean youer such sweet.
Addy: Since you're my brother, I want you to ha-ve a Valenti-ne

Sean loves to request pictures. Of course then Emily wants one too. But I thought these were too cute.


I am so in love with this little boy. How can you resist this???

Isn't he so sweet???

Music to my ears

Finally!!! I have owned this piano for a little over 5 years. Prior to that it lived in someone's garage for who knows how long. And in that time, I have never had it tuned. I know! It was sounding SO awful that I was sure even my youngest students must be able to hear how nasty it sounded. So for Valentine's Day (I know, how romantic, right?) I asked for my piano to be tuned. Conveniently they were running a Valentine's special. Long story short, it sounds SO good now! However, the next time I get it tuned, I will have Jeremy stay home and I will leave. After 4 hours of listening to that thing getting tuned, my musical ears wanted to die. I was ready to pull my hair out listening to the clashing pitches. Seriously. It was SO bad. But now it is perfect! Hooray!

p.s. Fun fact: My piano was built in 1926!

Vote for me and all of your wildest dreams will come true.

Sean has been begging me to build a snowman with him since the first snowfall of the season. But I'm a wimp. I hate being cold. Well then the snow all melted so I promised him the next time it snowed, I would build a snowman with him. This morning when he saw the snow, you better believe he didn't let me forget that promise. So pajamas and all, here is Sean next to his snowman. I guess he will keep me as him mom after all.

p.s. Movies for 1000. What movie is the title of my post from?

The tooth has gone...

"I look creepy without my tooth!!!"

"I'm scared about my tooth being gone! ahhhhhhhh!!! (*wailing*)"

"There's blood! (*more wailing*)"

"That was pretty scary."

"The tooth fairy is going to come to me tonight. It is."

*whiny voice* "I don't think I look pretty when I have a tooth out."

Dad offers to super glue it back in.

"No. That would be gross! Putting glue in your mouth is disgusting!"

Liah just bent over and her tooth fell out. Holy. Drama.

*update: The tooth fairy came and left Liah $1 under her pillow. Also an envelope with her tooth in it on the refrigerator that said "I thought you would want to keep your first tooth." Lucky girl.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...

"Ahhh! I just bit my teeth!"

huh? How is that even possible?? Liah then ran across the house to the bathroom, bawling because her teeth were wiggling. Ah! Her first loose tooth! Liah is 6 1/2. All of her friends have been losing teeth for a while now, and she has been complaining all year "Why don't I get to lose any teeth? I'm the only one not losing teeth!" I've been telling her that she was the last to get teeth, so she would probably be the last to lose them (she was almost 1 before she got her first tooth). Well, now that the big day has arrived, she has mixed feelings.

"Now I will look funny!"

"I can't eat anymore!"

"Hey, I can tell Savannah that my tooth is loose!"

"I'm a little bit nervous about wearing a loose tooth to school."

"I just don't know why my adult teeth are pushing out my baby teeth."

"I sound weird when I say an 's' sound" (she has been looking in the mirror over-annunciating things to see which sounds sound different and which ones are still safe)

"My teeth weren't loose at school!"

Oh, the drama of it all!

p.s. On Tuesday, Liah got to read a book to her whole kindergarten class! I'm so proud!

Enough is enough!

Since we moved here in 2003, our house has been the neighborhood bus stop. Did we ask for this? No, but we have dealt with it. Kids waiting by our house in 3 shifts every morning and afternoon, waiting for the bus or being dropped off. We have had problems with them being ridiculously loud, leaving trash in our yard, running in our yard, getting in fights in our yard, jumping off of Jeremy's truck, having snowball fights in our yard. Jeremy has complained on many occasions to the district, and I always roll my eyes. Just let it be. But today is another story. We walk outside to take the girls to school and etched into the frost on Jeremy's truck window staring us in the face is profanity. Enough is enough. He called again, and apparently the bus driver caught the kids doing this on both our cars and wrote the kids up for it. All I know is my daughter can read now, and this is not what I want her reading. But to walk outside and be confronted with that??? Come on. Okay I'm done now.

Happy Groundhog Day!

My girls both learned about Groundhog day today at school and came home with their own personal groundhog crafts. So very exciting. But not as exciting as what is coming up on Saturday. Liah has informed me that our family will be digging holes in the ground in our backyard this Saturday to look for groundhogs. Any takers??? Come on, you know you want to.

p.s. I hope you all know I'm totally kidding about actually doing this... I just think it is hilarious how serious she gets about things sometimes. But if you see Liah in our backyard digging holes, you'll know why.

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Mastitis=LAME