Things About My Mom

Michal Thompson had this on her blog and it was so cute. So I copied it. I asked my kids these questions and here are the answers. Hailee's are first, Braden's are second. Some of them Braden didn't understand so he didn't answer.

1. What is something that mom always says to you? "get dressed", " I love you"
2. What makes mom happy? "doing things you don't ask", "not throwing cars"
3. What makes mom sad? "when I don't mind", "throwing cars"
4. How does your mom make you laugh? "make funny faces when I'm mad", "tickles, funny faces"
5. What was your mom like as a child? "funny"
6. How old is your mom? "30", "2"
7. How tall is your mom? "5 feet", "6"
8. What is her favorite thing to do? "summer things - not winter things", "ride her bike"
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? "laundry & shower"
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? "cooking"
11. What is your mom really good at? "taking care of people", "cleaning up toys"
12. What is your mom not so good at? "climbing trees", "cars"
13. What does your mom do for her job? "you don't really have one", "clean up by yourself"
14. What is your mom's favorite food? "salad", "Diet Coke"
15. What makes your mom proud? "me listening to you"
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? "girl in Monsters Inc. (Celia)", "Sally"
17. What do you and your mom do together? "ride bikes", "practice not throwing cars"
18. How are you and your mom the same? "blue eyes", "eyes"
19. How are you and your mom different? "you're older", "you're new and I'm different"
20. How do you know your mom loves you? "you do nice things for me", "you play soccer with me"

1st Day of School

It's official...we have a 2nd grader. I can't believe she is in 2nd grade already! She was so cute. Braden was very sad and confused as to why he is the only one not going to school. Needless to say, I spent half of the day trying to find a preschool that has openings and doesn't cost $300 a month. Here are all of the pictures from the big day!




Hailee and one of her best friends, Sam. They were lucky enough to get in the same class again this year!

Hailee got to choose her own backpack this year. She chose "High School Musical". I just can't get over how big she is. You know your daughter is growing up when "Disney Princess" backpacks are now considered "babyish". Her prerequisite for the backpack is that it had to have something dangley like a key chain or a coin purse. Note the coin purse hanging off the side. This backpack meets Hailee's approval.


Almost time to go in.



Hailee's other best friend, Lizzy, and her sister, Grace.


What?

I guess we get no luck on the pictures today. It's either creepy...


...or spazzy.

He was, however, very excited about his Spider-Man Lunch Box that he picked out.

Hailee's New Do

Hailee got her hair cut for school today. We let it grow out for the play this summer and it got so long! She said she wanted to have bangs but not bangs that go in your eyes, the kind that go to the side. But just make sure they don't look like my mom's (heaven forbid you look like your mom!).


Hey there, shaggy.
Our cute friend in our ward, Stacey cut it. She does such a good job!
Ta-Da! Are you 7 or 17?

The first time she saw her new hair cut she said, "Woah! I look like my aunt Holly!" I guess Holly has cute hair (unlike mom).
She asked if we could go show Aiden, Sam, and Tommy first. She also said, "My dad isn't even going to recognize me! I better tell him who I am when he comes home from work!"

Sleepy Much?

Apparently Braden had a long, exhausting day at church. We tried to wake him up by standing him up in the kitchen. I guess it didn't work because he instantly collapsed and migrated to the tiny rug and curled up and stayed asleep. He's really asleep, too...he was snoring and drooling. Too cute!

We Are The Chamipons (Almost)

One of the highlights of Dane's summer is the softball league he was in. They had a slow start but the last month or so the team really pulled together and started winning. They beat the number 2 team in a 3-game series - very exciting! The championship game was last Tuesday and unfortunately they lost that game. But it was a very exciting and eventful season. Dane can't wait until next year to play again. It is actually nice that he has time to play sports. It has been a few years since he has done anything like that because he's been too busy with school and work. It was really fun to see him as excited as a little kid at Christmas getting ready to play. He is serious about his sports, too. He wore the same outfit for the last 5 games because they were on a winning streak (because it was the outfit that was winning the games). We both kind of forgot how much he loves playing sports. It was so nice that both of us got to do fulfilling things this summer that we are passionate about. We will come cheer you on anytime, Dane!


Dane played Short Stop, 2nd Base, and Pitcher. And of course number 1 hitter. You're the best, babe!


The cheering section (okay, not really...just a cute picture of Bennett stealing my Diet Coke)

The Team - Dane, Jeff, Matt, Ben M., Adam, Hollie, Justin
Pete, Scott, Ben L., Ben N., Jason

An Hour in the Life of a 1-year-old

I was making dinner the other day and Bennett was getting into his usual mischief so I decided to take a few pictures so I can have a good laugh every once in a while. There are a lot of pictures of Bennett but I can't help it...he's so cute (and a little bit naughty)!

Hey Bennett, can I get you something?

No...that's okay...I'll just have some Doritos.

Doritos didn't fill you up? How about you knock over a tray of cupcakes and dig in!

That's why it's okay to let him have free reign over a cupcake...most of it ends up on the floor!

Mmmm...cupcakes! Paper and all.

I can't get in too much trouble with this smile!

No more food for you. Go play!

What did I have after lunch...let's see...oh yea, get tortured by my brother.

Did you know a noise maker can also be used as a torture device? Thanks Grandma Judy!

Pretty Sure I Have A Serious Problem

Is there a B.A. (Bloggers Anonymous) out there? I am sitting here at 12:30 in the afternoon not showered, not dressed reading and updating blogs. The other night I was up til 1:30 in the morning - duh! Why can't I stop being obsessed with everyone? Why do they all have to be so cute and interesting? It's way addicting! I am trying to convince myself that I am catching up from the last 2 years I haven't done this...I don't know. Does anyone else have this problem? By the way I put a posting on that I started on the 10th but just finished today and I didn't realize that it would go by the date you started the post. So if you care and are obsessed like me - there it is!

I'm Grown Up...Now What?

So it's official. I'm 30! I don't quite know what to do with myself...I'm supposed to be a grown up but I still feel like I have a lot more growing to do. I had a great day! I admit I didn't wake up very happy about this whole 30 idea but it turned out to be an awesome day. My sweet friend, Terri, came and watched my kids (along with all 3 of hers and she's 8 months pregnant) while I got my hair done. Thank you, thank you, thank you! When I got home every kid had had some kind of melt down so poor Terri was done! But I had a lovely time. Then we went to our new favorite attraction - a freestanding Chick-Fil-A with a play land. That's an amazing feat out here because there are NO restaurants with play lands anywhere close to us. Dane surprised us by meeting us and taking the kids home. He gave me a gift cart to Kohls and I got to go shopping by myself - the best gift yet! We finished the day by going to Dane's softball game and going to Cold Stone afterwards. My sweet hubby came home and put all the kids to bed so I could relax. I didn't clean a thing all day and I am now paying for it today but that's okay...it was worth a day off! Also, my cute family sent me a "Birthday Party in a Box". I received a package in the mail with all the makings for a great party. Complete with cake mix, decorations, plates, candles, hats, noise makers, and all kinds of fun stuff! By the way, thanks for the noise makers. That was our alarm clock this morning. Braden was testing all of them out and woke up the whole family!


I was lucky enough to get tons of phone calls all day long and lots of hugs and kisses from my sweet babies. Oh, and just as something unexpected and cute. I went to go run an errand this morning and remembered I had no gas. So I pull out and start heading to the gas station and realize that the tank is full. My cute husband filled up my car for me. Thanks sweetie!! I'd like to say I have lots of 30-year-old wisdom to share but for now, I would rather go to bed than think of that. Maybe another day when I'm feeling inspired.

Day at the Zoo

We had a great time at the zoo today. We just HAD to get out and enjoy the 75 degree weather in the middle of August! That's right all you Texans...I have to brag about great weather now so I won't be too depressed when you call me from the park in the middle of February! Perfect weather for the zoo. We met with friends and all followed each other out.


Checkin' out the Kangaroos (I know you can't really see the kangaroos but those faces are cuter than kangaroos).


You know that Hailee loves the zoo. It is still thrilling to see sheer joy as she sees all the animals. She is a TRUE animal lover.


I'm not sure what animal he is looking at but he is more interested in climbing fences and scaling walls than looking at animals.


G'day mate! My name is Bennett and I have a Wallaby. I'll call him "Bennett's Wallaby".


Both Hailee and Braden's favorite part of the zoo was the "Touch" exhibit they had there. You could touch a Sting Ray and a Shark. They are braver than mom!!




Excuse me...little boy...

Um...little boy...you're not allowed to scale the fence.

Little boy...where's your mom? What? Your mom is taking pictures of you about to "pet the ducks"? Nice work mom!


We got to go with Hailee's best friend from school, Lizzie. Lizzie also brought her mom Becky, her sister Grace, and her brother Noah. We had a great time!

Bennett did too!

Kids Say the Funniest Things!

I was reading some friends' blogs and discovering that one of my favorite parts was little random things their kids said that were funny. I have been wanting to get some of these recorded before I forget them so here are some of our All Star funny kid comments. I'm sure there will be plenty more to come! (Sorry about the way random pictures)

Hailee (age 3) was in the bathroom with me at church. She notices a little metal plate on the wall that was loose and starts playing with it.

Hailee: "Mom, is this Jesus' house?"

Mom (preparing for one of those spiritual teaching moments): "Yes it is"

Hailee: "Then why doesn't he come down here and fix his church?"

Not quite the spiritual lesson mom was thinking it would be.

Hailee (age 3) walking through a gas station in a non-quiet voice: "Whoa mommy! Do you see that really huge man? He's so fat. He must have eaten too much candy!"


Hailee (age 2) standing at a gas pump waiting for our car to fill up. A man on a motorcycle pulls up right next to us and starts filling up. Man is in completed biker gear - bandanna and all: "Mom, look! It's a pirate. I didn't know there were pirates where we live!"

Braden (age 3) sitting with mom on the couch at a family home evening. We were looking at a picture of Jesus with children.

Mom: "Who is that in the picture?"

Braden: "Jesus and kids."

Mom: "Did you know that Jesus loves you?"

Braden: "Yep"

Mom: "Did you know he love all children?"

Braden: "Yep"

Mom: "Does he love Hailee?"

Braden: "Yep"

Mom: "Does he love Bennett?"

Braden (thinks for a second): "Umm...No...Jesus don't love Bennett"

Braden (age 4): One week this summer we were very busy and Braden accidentally forgot he was potty trained. So we had several accidents in the week and no time to keep up with all the laundry. At the end of the week he came into my bedroom in the middle of the night because he wet the bed...again. He had just peed through his last pair of underwear and I had no more clean sheets for his bed. I was just too exhausted to try to come up with a better solution so I stuck a pair of Hailee's underwear on him and let him sleep the rest of the night in my bed. He woke up with Dane the next morning. Braden was sitting on Dane's lap while working on the computer and Braden pulls out his pants and looks down. He looks at Dane, then looks down again and says,
"Huh?...Girls underwear!?!?"
He had no recollection of the night before and was utterly confused as to why he had his sister's underwear on.


Hailee (age 7): "Mom, why do brown people always ride in their cars with the windows down and their music so loud?"

Braden (age 3): We had a really long day shopping and at the last store we had a major meltdown. All kids were tired and hungry and crying at some point. Braden was running up and down the isles, climbing on anything he could get his hands and feet on. It was very stressful and embarrassing. Needless to say, on the way home in the car I was discussing it with Hailee and Braden about how we don't act like that in stores blah, blah, blah. Suddenly I hear Braden in the back seat in a very calm and quiet voice:
"Mom, maybe you should eat some poop."
I just stopped and had to laugh. Usually something like that is said in a fit of rage - not a calm, quiet, rational voice.



Bennett (now): The mystery of how they always learn to say "ma-ma" last.

Me: "Bennett, say Ma-Ma"

Bennett: "Weego-Weego"

Me: "Say Ma-Ma"

Bennett: "Da-Da"

Me: "Say Ma-Ma"

Bennett: "Ba-Ba"

Me: "Say Ma-Ma"

Bennett: "Na-Na"

I'll take it - close enough!