Lazy Laundry

If you leave a huge pile of laundry on the floor long enough, it becomes a toy! See, I totally did that on purpose….

Seriously Weird…. Seriously

All of the sudden Scott is a too cool six year old. It began over Thanksgiving break…

Humiliation Scene #1

Tootsie Roll came on the radio and OF COURSE Mike and I turned it up and started dancing. Scott is in the back yelling, “People are going to start staring at you.” “Seriously, they are going to STARE. Seriously guys, they will stare because you are being weird.”

So OF COURSE, we turn it up louder and OF COURSE we pull in to the parking lot of the movie theater and Mike rolls all the windows down, turns it up louder and gets out of the car and starts dancing. Actually, I was a little embarrassed by Mike’s roger rabbit, but I went with it.

Humiliation Scene #2

I was going running after I took Scott to school on Thursday so I was wearing my running clothes when I dropped him off (like 95% of  the other moms dropping off)… While getting out of the car:

Scott: What are you wearing?

Me: Ummm, my running clothes (that you have seen me in a million times)

Scott: Are you wearing those into school?

Me: Ummm, well, I am dropping you off while wearing them sooooo…. Is something wrong?

Scott: (audible sigh and eye roll) It’s just a little weird.

Me: Oh babe… I hate to tell you this, but if you are embarrassed by running clothes, you have a LONG road of humiliation in store for yourself.

Scott: (looking at me like I really am weird)

Me: (looking at Scott like I know I am weird and couldn’t care less)

Scene #3

I got bored while Mike was out of town last week and decided to cut some bangs one night. The next morning…

Scott: What is going on with your hair?

Me: I cut it. Do you like?

Scott: It’s a little weird.

Me: Thank you.

Scott: I mean… you kind of look like a teenager… but a weird one.

Me: All I heard was I look like a teenager.

Scott: Uhhhhh.

In the words of my friend Carissa Miller (while cracking up), “If he is going to be a kid that gets embarrassed easily, he was definitely born to the wrong parents!”

I love you Scott. I apologize in advance for all the embarrassing moments in your future.

A picture of your adorableness that you will find embarrassing in the future. PS I have TONS embarrassing pics that I will bust out at any given moment.

Nate loves turtles?

 

 

Nate’s teacher interviewed all the kiddos and compiled a book and each child gets to take the book home for a weekend and read about the class with their family. I love this kind of stuff it is always adorably hilarious.

PS Nate HATES rest time. His favorite food is pizza. I have never ever seen him pretend to be a tiger. I will give him the zebra because I don’t actually know his favorite animal and we have never talked about turtles.

The PP

It has taken us forever to get to the pumpkin patch this year or as Mike calls it, “The PP.” Which cracks the kids up every time and gets an obligatory eye roll from me (I laughed the first time). Of course I forgot my “real” camera… iPhone you have enriched my life in so many ways… Where were you in high-school when I got lost driving home…every. other. day?
PS Siri… I can’t wait to meet you. I think we will have a special bond.

The opening “sit by the creepy scarecrow and pretend your not itchy shot”.

The kids picking their pumpkins and me in no way what-so-ever being bossy and trying to “guide” the decision process.

Cutie booty Nate. (Scott was to cool for school)

Scott’s side. (We are carving the night before Halloween… Last year our pumpkin was rotted out before Halloween rolled around… Sometimes you have to learn the hard way… Sometimes.)

Nate’s side.

This pic has nothing to do with the PP but Mike was super excited my parents brought him AQ Chicken from Arkansas. (and I felt bad he didn’t get in on any of the patch pics)

Artsy

Kindergarten has brought us many hilarious dinner time stories and interesting projects. I really hope Scott’s teacher thinks we are some what capable parents because the stories he tells us makes me personally question my parenting abilities. We have our first parent teacher conference on Monday… I CAN’T WAIT. I have a feeling it will be quite insightful. This is one of the awesome projects that have come home…

Yes. That says hot tub. And the picture depicts a “tank car” with full on guns, missiles, and bomb launchers. Fully equipped with a hot tub to soothe your achy battle muscles.

And Nate… Sweet Nate. I am sure I should double his teachers salary. He somehow gets pee on his clothes EVERY day. At home, totally fine. At school, pee clothes. Not accidents, just always gets pee every where while using the restroom. I hope Henry really is his friend. Nate seems to be the complete opposite of how I would have predicted “school Nate” to be.

Kindergarten Snapshots

Because Scott’s kindergarten teacher is capital A to the Awesome… She texts or emails me a picture of him doing his classroom thing every week. I used to pretend that Scott is her favorite and that she only does this for me, but then I realized that on group pics I wasn’t the only email address in the “to” box. It’s cool though, I am sure he is in the top 16.

Week 1 ("Sooo, I guess kindergarten is ok....")

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5 (first field trip!)

PS After about two weeks of school, Mrs. Mayfield called and said that Scott was having a hard time and getting teary eyed through out the day. Super mom and dad had NO IDEA. He only talked about how much he loved school. We started giving him a daily love note to put in his pocket and when he starts missing us or feeling sad, he can put his hand in his pocket and know we love him and we will see him soon. It has worked like a charm! All that to say, the pictures in which he has his hand in his pocket break my heart and make me proud at the same time. New experiences are hard…. He is brave and strong and got through it.

Nate Cleaner

The kids were hilarious tonight. But the winner of the funniest convo was Nate.

(Nate’s full name is Nate Keener, you will understand in a minute why you need to know this.)

Scott: How did I get my name?
Me: We decided what to name you and gave you a name.
Scott: But Why?
Me: Blah Blah Blah (long explanation about why we chose his name)
Nate: But my name is not good.
Me: What do you mean?!
Nate: It goes…. “Hey are you a cleaner?” “Why do I have to be a cleaner always?”
Me: What are you talking about?
Nate: YOU named me Nate CLEANER. Now I have to be a cleaner.
Me: Your name is Nate KEENER! Are you being serious right now? Did you really think your name was Cleaner?
Nate: (dead serious face) Yes.
Me and Scott and Nate: (laughing so hard I thought I was going to have a waffle come out my nose)

OH Nate Cleaner... I love you.

PS I don’t randomly think about waffles coming out of my nose. We were having breakfast for dinner.

Cute Bracelet

You know when you have a really great week and get spoiled and then when you know it is going to end you get sad before it actually even ends… That is how I feel. Bethany has been in town for the longest she has even been in town since she moved. It has been a blast. Our official girl day was awesome but what I am going to miss the most is the day to day getting to call her at 10:30 and meeting her and Campbell at the mall at 11. Getting to see her so much makes me realize how much I miss her and how lucky I am to have her.

PS (this would be the perfect place to insert a cute picture of our kids running amok or an adorable picture of the three girls on girl day spending money  finding killer deals…. BUT I DON’T HAVE ANY!!!! What is wrong with me. You will just have to use your imagination and picture Nate with crazy hair screaming at baby Campbell in her jeggings, “COME on Campbell! Just race me! Just race me now! UGH! CAMPBELL!” in the Dillard’s dressing room area while Bethany and I pretended we were kidless. Or picture Carissa, at River City picking out the ugliest bracelet ever proclaiming, “I LOVE turquoise. Do you love this bracelet?!”. While Bethany silently made big eyes at each other. Just picture it.)

To cheer myself up, I am going to plan a super cool menu for this week! I am SO excited.

PSS I am kidding. I am not excited and my menu is not super cool. But it is a menu that involves food so I get points for that.

LET’S EAT

Monday: Chicken Caesar Sandwiches with Salad 

Tuesday: Black Bean and Corn Quesadillas Grilled Veggies

Wednesday: Calazones (we had Mexican instead of pizza on Sunday) and Broccoli

Thursday: Breakfast for Dinner and Fruit Salad

Friday: OUT

Saturday: Grilling out BBQ Chicken and Veggies

Sunday: Pizza Movie Night

Heaven in the 417

We let Scott skip school the Friday before Labor Day for a 3 night 4 day trip to Big Cedar Lodge in Branson. It was awesome. So awesome. We had a couple of mishaps along the way but what is a family vacation with out some drama? The kids are at that amazing age where they are old enough to understand we are doing something different and special but still young enough to be excited about EVERYTHING. Our favorite vacation quote was from Scott…. While chilaxing in the hot tub after a long morning of eating pancakes and water-sliding, he leaned back, smiled and said, “Ahhh, This is the Life man.” 

Wonderful family pic. Sorry about your head Mike.

Part I Dogwood Canyon Tour

If you ever find yourself near Dogwood Canyon. GO! We did a 2 hour tram tour/campfire and dinner. It is awesome! You do a tour of the grounds (waterfalls, fish, etc), you get to see the deer and water buffalo, THEN you go to a old fashioned campfire with food, smores, and marshmallow fights. We caught lightening bugs and spotted several bats. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip!

Dogwood Canyon tour.

Scott got to be part of the campfire entertainment!

Scott loves fire. Really loves it.

 Part II Silver Dollar City

MIke and Scott plunging to the water.

We decided to take Gary Busey with us.

This is now one of my all time favorite pics of Scott.

SIlver Dollar Jail. Nate really did have fun despite the depressio pictures of him.

Another great family picture. Sorry about your head Mike.

PS Part III was going to be random Big Cedar pictures and Firework night pictures, but I got tired… To be continued…

Winter and Dentist

Where was I last week? On family vacacation!  Pictures and post coming soon. Try to contain yourself, I know you are the edge of your seat….

While we were on vacation we went on a wilderness tram tour and the guide kept pointing out ground hogs, then he said something that made my heart stop. He said, “The ground hogs are getting fat this year, that means we are in for a rough winter…” I have been secretly worried ever since. Do you think if Branson, MO has a rough winter that means that Tulsa will? I mean we are 4 hours away! Please oh please say that since we had a super hot summer we will also have a super “hot” winter?! It is really stressing me out. As I have gotten older, winter and the dentist scare me more and more.

CHECK OUT THE GIANT GROUND HOG!! (just kidding, that is Elvis the water buffalo, my ground hog pic was blurry)

Moving on to happy thoughts… The Homemade Chick-Fil-a… AAAAMAZING! I added 2 tsp of garlic powder the second time I made it (yes, I made this two weeks in a row, and no, I am not ashamed) and it definitely added an extra yum factor.

If anyone has some new recipes to share, please do! I am feeling bored with my old stand bys….

Let’s Eat

Monday- Pretzel Coated Tilapia (I am going to try to pan fry in a little oil instead of deep fry), Zucchini and Sweet Potato

Tuesday- Crock Pot Chicken Teriyaki, Rice, Broccoli

Wednesday- Meatloaf, salad and bread

Thursday- Breakfast Tacos (egg, bacon, avocado, onion, tomatos), hash browns, and Edamame

Friday- Date Night!

Saturday- Leftovers or Out

Sunday- Homemade Calazones/ Movie Night