Oh man...

Okay so...Twilight. I have to say that I didn't get it. I was so annoyed by hearing about Twilight every 5 minutes, Seeing them on TV, hearing and hearing about teenage girls going to watch this 4-5 times when it came out. There was absolutely no part of me buying into this madness. It didn't draw me in at all in the previews. Vampires?? Nah..not into it. It wasn't until coming home from South Africa to London did I discover my inner teenager crying out in delight. I had decided to watch some movies for the 11 hour ride. I hadn't watched any movies on the way out and so as I flipped through the choices I passed right by twilight. I started with the Reader...OK just a little too much nakedness for my liking. Then Doubt..liked this one. Then I thought, whatever I'll watch Twilight and see what the heck this thing is really about. I figured if it was too lame I would quit it and eat some delicious airplane food instead. Ummm...okay so it took about 10 minutes or however long for me to get not only sucked in but LOVING EVERY MINUTE of this movie! Hello Edward Cullen, why do you exist??!! haha Anyway, so now I am finally able to start the books and surely I will blow through all of them like an obsessive lunatic. Like a Jr. High girl flipping through Teen Beat magazine looking for NKOTB posters. Hideous!! But it's true..I can't deny the Twilight power anymore...

Last night's Kindergarten graduation was OUT OF CONTROL! I guess when you have all the Kindergartners in the whole town attending the same school and you are a small town, you can GO NUTS! The graduation was at the High School and it was PACKED OUT!! I knew Kendall would be in a cap with a tassel(because I paid for the tassel before) but I had no idea my baby would be in a gown looking just like she will look in the year 2021...Even the tiny gown was so big on her and she looked so cute I could hardly stand it! We had the graduation official music playing, guest speakers...Nate and I were like.."woah". Getting out of the parking lot felt like a HS graduation too, awesome. On the way home Kendall tells me..." Emma thinks you are cute!" then Kendall laughs a lot. I say," well why is that so funny, do you think I'm not cute or something?" Kendall laughs some more.."NOOOOO I think YOU'RE SO CUTE but I don't know if anyone else thinks your cute, so when she told me that I just laughed." That's when it hit me that maybe kids think about us, how we think about them? We think our kids are ADORABLE and SO CUTE but we really don't know or care if anyone else does! She was telling me the same thing..haha We took her to the store to pick out a cake and we gave her a present and a card. She asked Nate to read it to her while she was eating her cake and he went through and read what Cole wrote, then CJ, then himself and then when he got to mine he got through the first sentence and she burst into uncontrollable tears! She was so overwhelmed she just got up and came running to me and said she really needed a hug! She said she was happy about the nice things we all said but as soon as I told her that she was my heart, she couldn't take it anymore! She held and re-read the card and cried and cried for the next half hour. It was very sweet.... CJ even wrote in the card and said.....congrats Kendall..you aren't a big baby anymore!!! Siblings...they keep it real.

Kendall Jace

Here is my last baby...Kendall Jace. What a way to end the children making in our family! She is quite the finale. Tonight she graduates Kindergarten.... There isn't a day that goes by that I don't catch myself staring at her and smiling. God made her wonderfully and I get to love her, forever. She is overflowing with the funniest personality. I sneak into her bedroom at night and just play with her hair..kiss her cheeks rather hard(I can't get enough of her face!)and then sometimes I'll get lucky and she'll wake up, throw her arms around me and fall back asleep. Can't wait to see her in her tiny cap tonight. Joy and sadness..hand in hand, the duo of our lives.

Life....be in the moment.

Camping...yes I can!

We had the best weekend. We took the kids camping with two of my girlfriends and their families. We had loads of ticks, fun, laughter and snacks! I had the privilege of being in the car and witnessing first hand what driving into and over a giant running wild turkey feels like and looks like(my friend Lisa did it, not me, ya'll!) and it wasn't pretty! haha I have never seen ticks like I saw them this weekend. I was the biggest cry-baby of the bunch, wearing jeans and spraying deet on me from hair to tennis shoe, trying to stay under a tarp(so they didn't fall on me from the trees)and keeping an eye 24/7 on my skin. The spray kept them from attaching to the kids(only a few bit them) who were wildly running through the forest and having the best time. I am so thankful God had me work with these two ladies at the preschool and get to know them and become friends with them. They are such great friends, Mom's and women. Nate had the best time hanging with their men. They are such good guys who had me laughing every second. The memory of having the bed of our truck filled with kids on the way back from the Lake, singing loudly and wildly, laughing and smiling was a good one and makes the bad bug situation totally worth it. And the little girls filling up used water bottles with faucet water and setting up shop on the street to try to make a sale, hearing Kendall yell "WATER BOTTLES FOR SALE, $1.00, CHEAP!!" and then the girls decided they should maybe sell new water bottles instead. Then Kendall yelling... " NEW, NEVER OPENED WATER BOTTLES FOR SALE! $1.00, CHEAP!!!!" The last night the ranger came to tell us, in a scary ranger person voice to be quiet or she would kick us all out and we needed to keep our rotten kids quiet too!! It was such a good trip and my kids are already asking ......when can we go AGAIN??!?!?!

I looked over on the couch and I take a look at this...then another..just to make sure CJ hadn't pulled some harry potter move and wasn't really on the bus this morning. My kids...I laughed pretty good. They are always doing something weird and I am always amused!

Field trips are so painful!

I am not the kind of person that enjoys taking little children on field trips.. I have gone a few times because my children have begged and then that turned into me feeling guilty so I would say yes and then immediately be sad I said yes! I have offered them everything from paying them off..$10.00? Letting them stay home on field trip days..?? We'll play Wii... COME ON! When I moved CJ over to this new school she had a field trip sign up in the first week. She says.. "Mom, please come." I signed it..I felt sad about signing but wanted to do something nice since she was at a new school. Well I totally forgot about it and last night she was telling me all about what I need to do tomorrow for the field trip!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! I tell her," let's stay home and go have lunch and party all day!" CJ, " no thanks, I'll do that on Wednesday though." Me, "nice try." CJ," Mama don't you LOVE ME, YOUR DAUGHTER!" Me, " hmmm..do I still have to go on the field trip if I say yes?" CJ," uh huh.." Me," Yes I love you...see how much I LOVE YOU, I like field trips as much as I'd like someone punching me straight in the face and yet I still put that aside to do something I don't like because I love you so much." CJ," MAMA! Thank you...okay so tomorrow..there are souvenirs and stuff...wink wink" So....off to the wonderful steamboat today. Why can't it ever be something like a food or candy factory.

When Girls play with Pugs....

Bosley is such a good sport! The girls put him in this beautiful outfit yesterday. Kendall is the one who usually tortures Bosley by putting blankets or outfits on him, singing to him, hand feeding him his dog food piece by piece, putting him on a lease to just walk him around the house...ect.ect.. Bosley just goes with it. He is happy to be with the kids and doesn't seem to bother him. If we could only see into THEIR MINDS!

This was a really great weekend.. First weekend with no soccer and we just worked on the house. Well except Saturday night we hit up a pizza place, partied at Walmart and had some late night DQ! Sunday Nate worked in the yard from 9am-8pm and only came in to grab waters and pizza. He had the older kids out raking leaves and helping him burn them in the fire pit. Kendall was so pumped to work outside until she saw a tick on her leg, screamed and smashed it off and then decided helping Mom inside is way more fun. There is still so much to do and we are really enjoying it. The kids had a great weekend hanging outside. Making clubhouses down by the water and Cole running through the yard with his BB gun pretending to be at war.

More painting on my agenda today...