Jaden's Photos..8/30/2009

Jaden LOVES having a camera of his own! He takes SO many pictures~I love it! Here are a few pictures he has taken over the past month. We have a lot of creatures come our way. The moth, chipmunk, hawk, and hummingbird were all in our yard.
The family of chipmunks have become our little pets. Harley's food bowl is now set inside instead of outside since they were eating SO much food! Now I feed them one scoop of food a day. We love to watch them stretch, yawn, eat, play, and hang out together on our back lawn!
The hawk actually sat on our wall for a while, then took flight and SLAMMED straight into the window we were standing behind~scared the crap out of me! The window is tinted so the birds see the reflection of the trees and think they can fly through.
Either that, or there are a lot of birds that want out of this crazy world, and are trying to get to the other side as fast as they can!





The New Harmony fire makes me sick! To know it started out as a controlled burn, and now people are losing their homes makes my blood boil. The very thin silver lining of a fire is that it creates the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets! Jaden ran out this morning to take pictures , when he showed them to me he said-doesn't this sunrise make you want to go to Hawaii?

Hummingbird and Liquid Gold! 8/29/2009

Just as Koda finished getting dressed for school Thursday morning, he heard a thump on his window. A bird he shouted!
Jdog and Koda rushed out to see if it had flown away. They found a dazed and confused hummingbird sitting on the rocks! Both of the boys took turns holding it, then it started to fly away, then turned back around and landed back in their hands! They held it for a bit longer before it flew into our tree. The boys said their goodbyes and it flew away!



It is that time of year again, PEACH season! Which can only mean one thing. Liquid Gold. Or, others may know it as peach jelly! YUM! Nan gave me two five gallon buckets of peaches! I froze some, and made jelly with the rest! I finished the first two of my six batches of jelly today, and realized I hadn't put enough sugar in the first two batches ~DUH~ have I mentioned I am so TIRED?!?! It will still taste delicious, it just won't set. So to make lemonade out of lemons~I will say I made two batches of peach syrup, and four batches of peach jelly!

Michael Jackson 8/25/2009

Jaden's costume is almost complete-we just need the sparkle glove and the sparkle socks! He can't wait for Halloween, I can't either because I must admit, he rocks this costume! When he puts the costume on his alter ego comes out, and he is transformed into this rock star who poses like crazy!

Bread, Books, & Saying goodbye to summer! 8/25/2009

Making bread is like riding a bike. You will always remember how, you just might be a little wobbly if you haven't done it for a while. It has been quite a few years since I have made a loaf! After eating a soft, warm slice, fresh from the over slathered in butter and homemade jelly, I can't figure out why I ever stopped making bread! The wobbly part comes when you see that the shape of my bread isn't perfect (although A said he prefers it that way, he likes it more rustic looking then you can tell it is homemade) but it will get better in time. YUM!
As I have said many, MANY times before-this is my journal and "one day I am going to make a book out of this blog". Well that day has come! My first six books arrived yesterday-and I LOVE them! Since the kids started school I have been working non-stop on the books - you should see my house-it is a MESS! Each book contains 100 pages of scrapbook pages and writing, and I am on book number NINE-and that is one years worth of pictures!
One year.
Nine HUNDRED pages.
OK, so when you lay it out like that OCD really hits you in the face.
I am OK with that though. The memories that photos hold are priceless, so even if it takes 50 books a year I am still at peace with my OCD!
While A took the big kids down to putt, Koda and I went for a walk. He has been wanting to use the "UNberella" forever and was so excited that it looked like it might rain! I don't know if he likes using the umbrella, or catching raindrops in his mouth more, but it was such a peaceful walk with the rain sprinkling down!
The weather is cooling down, especially in the evenings and early morning! I am NOT a cold weather person (I have my thermostat set at 78 right now, wrapped in a blanket and my hands are still freezing) but cold weather means warm food. Thick stews and warm bread to dip. YUM! The summer time fruit and vegetables are SO delicious, but the rich foods in the winter are a nice welcome change!
So we went for one last swim before the summer is officially over. The kids all had a blast, and it was nice to just SIT and relax for a few hours!
As Koda soaked up the warmth of the sun, I watched him drift into daydream land. Gradually he had both fingers up his nose! I grabbed my camera and the flash snapped him out of lala land. He quickly covered his face laughing! Such a goof!
The kids have forgotten how to dive since swim class last year. A and I were laughing SO hard watching Jdog and Sis competing to see who could dive better. Bailia won by a MILE with this "dive"-note the TOTAL sarcasm!
Superman-OUCH-major belly flop!

Shoes, Swimming, and Golf 8/22/2009

For Christmas last year we bought Jaden a pair of custom Nike Shox. I designed them with a few of his favorite colors-red and blue. I asked him if he wanted to design a pair by himself for his school shoes-of course he said YES! They just came Thursday and they look REALLY good, and are SO comfortable that I might actually steal them now and then! He couldn't wait to wear them to school on Friday! Good job Big Dog!

Little Sissy isn't so little anymore. She is getting prettier by the day, and acting like teenager to top it off! Maybe it is time we lock her in her room, just until she is 24!
Bailia had a headache last night so her swimming time was cut short. The boys however must have taken a crazy pill. They were acting so silly, making the goofiest faces! Then Koda climbed on Jaden's shoulders and they started meditating together! It was hilarious! They would count together-one, two, three, Hummm! I don't know where they get some of this stuff!

Yesterday after Jaden got out of the shower, he came into me and said, Mom I just weighed myself and I am 74.6 pounds of PURE muscle, because I am STARVING! After I eat I bet I will be 76 pounds for sure!
Since school started I feel like I am going in three different directions at all times. My calendar is PACKED. I bought the MOM calendar at Costco a few weeks ago so that I can keep everything straight. It has helped out so much-my regular calendar just didn't cut it anymore. The sad thing is I always think that things will slow down "after this is over" then it gets even more hectic! We haven't been able to take the kids to practice for a while now, and we finally went over to Red Hills early this morning, before it got to hot!

Learning to read...8/20/2009

So this morning as Koda and I read together, we came to this page. This is how he read the page.

Shhhit Jip. Jip sat.

Wide eyed he looked up at me.

That isn't what it says, try again I say, trying not to laugh.

Shhhhit Jip. Jip Sat. He said again. (he added a little longer Shhh this time)

Wide eyed again, he said, Mom that is what it says!!!

I read what it actually said and he said OH!!! Oops!

Business gets better...

Koda's 1st day & Window Washing Service! 8/14/2009

Koda has been looking forward to finally be able to play on the Kindergarten playground forever!
I am talking YEARS!
He woke up this morning SO excited that he would FINALLY get to play on the tractor!
The kids walked him to his door, and after they left he stood against the wall for a minute not knowing what to do. Finally I hollered Koda you can play! He rushed over to the tractor, where there were three girls waiting in line. He waited until there was just one girl to go, you could see the excitement on his face thinking it was ALMOST his turn. She climbed on and played, and played.
Koda waited, and waited, and WAITED!
After about ten minutes I told him to ask if he could have a turn.
NO, GO AWAY she hollered. This went on for another five or so minutes, he would ask, she would yell!
Finally, he took matters into his own hands, walked over to his teacher and told her about the situation. She made the girl get off, and Cooper was in HEAVEN as he climbed on! There was still a line behind him, and I wondered if he would share, or be stingy as well. He spent one, maybe two minutes on the tractor and his dream had been fulfilled!
As he climbed off to let the next little boy on, a girl tried to butt in front. Koda put his had on her chest, and although I couldn't hear him, he said something along the lines of, no he was next, not you, and the little boy climbed on.
Koda looked so big standing there with his cute little backpack on! Being his first official day of school, my emotions were still all over the place! I am proud of myself for holding it together and not letting myself cry!
As the kids were getting ready to walk into class, Cooper and Alexa were whispering to each other-they looked so cute!
I am already a HUGE fan of Mrs. Pentico! Jaden came home today with a job application that he has to fill out for school. Each person in her class gets a "job". Jaden is applying for three different positions, but REALLY wants to be the window washer. So today he came home from school and asked if he could practice washing my windows. Sure! They were so dirty from all of the dust storms that they surely couldn't look any worse! He loved washing them so much that he did ALL of my windows, and they actually looked REALLY good!
He then decided to start a company! He made posters to pass out, then he even hired help! Koda is now a 50% owner in the Jaden Window Washing Company! His job is "to do anything Jaden needs him to do"-even though I am their only client so far, they KNOW they are going to make it big! So instead of paying the window guys the $40 I usually pay, I paid Jdog $8.00 and that included TIP! It was a WIN-WIN situation!
So if anyone needs their windows washed-you know who to call!

Bailia's batting 1000...8/13/2009

After not sleeping last night I just wanted to CRAWL into bed and sleep tonight! But my name is mom, and with that name, what I want doesn't happen very often. Bailia said she was going to put some powder in her undies-hurry I said, I am going to start reading the story. She took longer than she should have, so I started reading to the boys. When all of a sudden I hear Adam in the other room saying-Oh my living Bailia, what are you doing??
Apparently if a little bit of powder feels good, a LOT of powder will feel REALLY good! After vacuuming, and mopping TWICE I took a picture of my grout. Lesson learned-powder does NOT come out of grout! It will be MANY mops before my grout is clean! I can barley breath in my room there is SO much powder on my carpet! Oh the joys...
Also, remember the new do? Well it turned in to more of a problem than we ever could have imagined! Bailia had secretly vacuumed up all of the WET doll hair! Just in case anyone wondered-wet doll hair and vacuums do NOT mix! We found out tonight that it had clogged my central vac. I thought something was "wrong" with my vacuum. Adam had called the repair man, I had bought a regular vacuum to get me by until mine could get fixed. Then with a little investigating tonight while cleaning up the POWDER, we finally found the clog! What I am holding in my hand is maybe 1/4 of what we got out! It was disgusting!

American Girl Doll, $110.00
New Vacuum, $200.00
1 Bottle of Baby Powder, $2.39
Sneezing, 16 times
Mopping time, one hour, with more to come.
Knowing that everything could have easily been avoided...PRICELESS!

First day of school...8/13/2009

It is hard to believe summer has come and gone, and school is now in session! It is even harder to believe that I have kids old enough to all be in school! Jaden is now in FOURTH grade, Bailia is in the THIRD grade, and Cooper is in KINDERGARTEN!!!

The past three weeks have been rough, with a lot of fighting, whining, and nonsense. The kids wanted to go back, they NEEDED to go back to school.
I have had the nervous first day of school jitters all week. I could barley sleep last night!

Jaden was the first kid up. He had showered, got dressed, had is hair done, and eaten by 6:10 this morning! He was SO excited to see Kenna when he walked into class this morning! He quickly put his backpack away, and sat down next to her. It is always nice to have a familiar face on the nerve racking first day of school! I can already tell Mrs. Pentico is going to be an AWESOME teacher!





Bailia was second, she could not wait to get to school! While we were at the school yesterday for meet the teacher day, Bailia found out that her friend Kyler would be in her class, and that they would even get to sit by EACH OTHER, she giggled with excitement! But I was told "DO NOT EMBARRASS ME and and try to take a picture of me with him today!"
Koda was very disappointed that he wouldn't get to go for the full day today-just 45 minutes to go over how everything works, but can't wait to go tomorrow!

Birthday and Golf! 8/12/2009

Happy Birthday Grandpa Milne! Old Man Milne has turned 87! He is still a grumpy old fart that loves to "bull shit" with anyone that walks through his door. We love you Grandpa, no matter how grumpy you get, and hope you have many more!



Sis, Koda, and I golfed while Dad set gopher traps. Jdog had Gymnastics tonight so he missed out on all of the golfing fun!





After I hit my drive on #7 I look at Bailia, and she has my camera. What are you doing I asked her. I just took a picture of you she said smugly. So I review the picture she took of "me" and this is what I found....