Fooled Ya!

So I've never been one to indulge my children when it comes to the April Fool's pranks.  BUT, since Jim's birthday fell on Monday we decided to celebrate on Sunday to avoid the chaotic Monday night activities.  Well, my children love to give gifts to the birthday person.  They started by making a list of things they could give dad, most of them included some toy or treasure that they had in their room.  Instead, we decided to prank him.  Jim was working most the day so we had lots of time hatch our small plan.  Which was really just putting together some gag gifts for dad.



Emma presented her dad a cute little poem and just when he was feeling sentimental, he opens up a roll of toilet paper.



Now, he is a little on to us.  Yet, Addy was trying to not laugh as he finds some wood chips.



Brennon being a boy thought it would be most hilarious to give dad a pair of his underwear, I had to talk him into a clean pair at least!

All the kids thought it was great to have girly pink purple gift sacks and Dylan was thrilled to try and shove his gift of dog biscuits into his dad's mouth.

Of course, I got all of them when I said that I made an extra special treat for dad's 35th birthday.  Took a second for them to realize that mom had a gag of her own!  Of course it also took a good couple of minutes before they would actually eat the brownie cat poop.  Jim never did try it and Dylan took a bite but  decided it was to much to think about!

It's a real cake and no, your 35 candles on the cake won't burn the house down, don't freak out, but it will take awhile to get them all lit and yes there will be some wax on the cake.  Oh and don't worry, we did get him a real gift, a nice Rockies travel mug and a day at the game coming up next weekend!

A Gap for my Girl

 

The spacer in Emma's mouth, or modern day torture treatment?

 

Day 1 of this torture treatment. 





31 times we have had to "crank" her mouth.  In the middle of her spacer there is a little tiny hole.  In that we have to insert a key.  Which in reality is a piece of wire that fits nice and snug, we then use that wire to rotate the hole backwards and another hole appears so we can repeat this process.  We have had to do it in the morning and at night.  What are we doing?  Well we are breaking the bone in the roof of her mouth, so that her jaw will be bigger so her teeth will have room to fit.  In a few weeks she will get braces, the spacer will stay in and act as a cast so that the bone can continue to grow and strengthen.  Why? well she was in danger of loosing her permanent teeth as 3 of her molars are growing in sideways and would start to absorb the roots of her other teeth.  She also has teeth coming in in all sorts of different directions.   Basically her mouth is just to small for her teeth.  She has a couple of baby teeth he wants her to get rid of otherwise I think next time we go in he might have to pull them since she just is really out of room.  She has a bit of a mess in there and in about 3 1/2 years she should end up with a beautiful straight row of teeth to compliment her already beautiful smile!



Brennons Birthday

 We had a second child and we named him Brennon.  This is him and his 8th Birthday.  We had a simple day, one friend, a nice lunch at the Texas Roadhouse then home for some cake and ice cream and presents.  Of course at the Texas Roadhouse we did a Texas yeehaw for the birthday boy which this photo does not show just how red his face did get!  This boy of mine is 8 years old.   8 years old.  One more time because it hasn't sunken in yet.  8 years old.  I love him, I love the way his brain works.  I love finding the strange quirky things he does.  Like light bulbs and wire in my freezer!?  Well, that's my boy.  My 8 year old boy!

To calm those fears

Dylan had an eye appointment.  Well technically him and Emma both at the same time, which turned into a 3 hour appointment.  Yeah.  Anyway, were getting ready in the morning to go.  I explain where we are going.  The conversation went something like this:

Me:  "Dylan it's an eye appointment, the Dr. just wants to look at your eyes and see how they are doing"
Dylan:  " Is he going to take my eyeball out?"
Me:  "No"
Dylan:  "But what if we get there and he wants to take my eyeball out?"
Me:  "Well, I will tell him NO! then I would take you away so he couldn't get it"
Dylan:  "But what if he has bad guy guards at the door to try and stop you?"
Me:  "Good thing you have a strong mom, I would fight the bad guy guards, knock them to the ground and     we would escape"
Dylan:  "okay, we can go then"

Snowshoes recommended.

Yes, they were.  We go into the mountains and cut down our tree with some friends of ours.  As always, we check out the website and see what the wheather conditions look like.  Snowshoes were recommended. We went without them.  We laughed with each step that sunk us deeper and deeper in the snow.  So needless to say we didn't walk to far into the tree cutting area.  We walked out with our worst tree ever.  In the end Jim had to use zip ties to hold the base together.  Thankfully though, he used colorful neon zip ties.  Because that makes it all better?!  The tree was dead by Christmas Day.  It was still a good couple weeks with Gma and Papa here to go do so many fun things!

Let the Race begin!

Well, I have to say I am super proud of my kiddos. They picked the design of their own cars, they painted their own cars. They had fun. And they all got a ribbon, and Emma got 2nd place for car design. Brennon was pretty darn close to getting 3rd for speed. Addy and Dylan, well, kiddos next year we'll go for speed, since apparently the only way to win for design is to have your parents do it. I mean really, I saw the winners of design in the younger kids age groups. Yeah right that 3 year old painted that John Deer tractor with such precision! And that's the attitude that will keep me home next year, haha! Oh well it was fun, especially with an ice cream stop on the way home.

Christmas. I mean Thanksgiving.

Oh that's right, Thanksgiving comes between Halloween and Christmas. Well, this year, we were able to try our hand at cooking a turkey. I should say, Jim was able to cook up ole' tom. My mom was in Nebraska and we were able to do it all on our own. I have to admit, we were a little excited about trying it. First the kids needed to make decorations, so handprint turkeys were made to adorn our kitchen and our first thanksgiving feast. I didn't give into the box stuffing or jar of gravy which I did look at closely while in the grocery store. Nope, I made it all homemade! Didn't turn out to bad either and we didn't end up at Ihop. Although I have to say that I wouldn't have minded if we did.

It was a nice laid back, fun, eat till your gut hurts and play some games type of day! And I am so Thankful that we don't do this every year! So FYI: mom and Connie, if we are on our own next year, I think we might go to Ihop, and feel free to join us!

Halloween came and went.

Dear Emma,

Despite the fact that your mom and dad came up with some really fun, cool, group themed costumes and you were so set against them all, I still love you. Also, you made a great bat, and well, dad did a great job assembling your costume from dollar store merchandise!

Dear Brennon,

You are awesome! Love that all you wanted was a sheet over your head for a ghost, and perhaps some eyes, and mouth. Yup, easy is good. Also, you had the scariest ghost noises ever!

Dear Addy,

You were a great cat, even if your tail kept flipping in between your legs when you ran. Don't you think it's kinda weird that we had a cat following us for a few blocks? I think it is because it liked you and thought you were it's friend.

Dear Dylan,

You make a great Buzz, complete with sound effects of lasers and wings popping out. I am glad you decided you wanted to be him. I am glad we found this costume on ebay pretty darn cheap too.

4 years ago (and some days)... I birthed him.

My Dylan, AKA Che Che. My superhero in the making, the kid that turns even a hot dog into a sword. The little boy that wears a super hero cape to the swimming pool in July. My boy who screams, "don't see me naked" , as he runs around the house in the nude. The boy who is into Wolverine and uses pencils between his fingers as his claws. The boy who wanted a Wolverine cake. Yup, not so easy. BUT, that's okay, because I do enjoy a good cake decorating challenge. So thank you Dylan for the challenge. It turned out...okay... there was a little mishap with my new technique but in the end it's all cake. Love my two October birthday kids. Not necessarily that there is 2 birthday cakes in the matter of 2 weeks followed the next day by a house full of Halloween candy.

6 years ago (and some days)...I birthed her.

My Addy Joy, my little girl, my sweetheart, my dancing queen, my spirited bundle that makes me smile, my kindergartner, my now 6 year old. Wow, I can't believe she is 6 already. I can't believe that she only wanted a chocolate cake with whip cream on top. Thanks Addy! I hope you enjoyed it.