Sweets for the sweet...

A couple random things, mostly because I don't want to forget them; but also because I am still trying to get up the courage to tackle the enormous cache of photos that need to be sorted.

* Last night Colby took Barrett with him to pick up a pizza for dinner. While inside the convenience store that doubles as a Domino's Pizza (now that really  is  convenient!!), Colby asked Barrett to pick out "a treat" for Mom. Wonderful husband, by the way! He must have known what my

week had been like. Love my Colby!

Anway, Barrett marched right over and picked out a Cherry Coke and some Reese's Pieces for me.

I seriously love that boy! He knew exactly what to pick out. What a sweetheart!

* Savannah earns piano money as a reward for practicing, learning and passing off her songs, theory and flashcards, etc. She can use the piano money to buy prizes and goodies if she likes. Or she can save them up, and buy something big and grand.

I can't even count how many times Savannah has saved up her piano money to buy something that she knows I would love. She has given me Milky Way Darks, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Twix bars, Junior Mints, and a bunch more that I can't recall. She is adorable.

* Charlotte is super excited to be a first grader. She loves school, and loves recess, and loves school lunch. And, she loves her mom. She is concerned that I am lonely and scared while all of the kids are in school. She is so sweet to be worried about me.

I love my little munchkins. They are adorable, and sweet, and tender.

And sometimes they truly act their age, and they frustrate me.

:o)

But, mostly, they are sweet. Love them.

There's a reason he's The King...

I love Elvis. Old-school Elvis, especially. All of my kids love Elvis.
Actually, my kids love A LOT of older music. I love that!!!

So, this is one of my favorite memories of the past few weeks...

The other night, Savannah had some friends over, and we were all having a good time with our little karaoke machine. Seriously, a bunch of ten-year-old girls with a microphone...funny stuff!
Plus, Charlotte dancing and singing her heart out to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" was awesome! 

Anyway, after they were done, and it was time for bed, Colby put on
the last song.

He popped in our Elvis CD.  Obviously, I did not sing (yikes!), but....I did dance.

Barrett and I danced to "Fools Rush In." I got to slow-dance with my Little Prince, cheek to cheek, to the mellifluous sounds of Elvis Presley.

We danced and swayed, and Barrett fell fast asleep on my shoulder.

The magic of The King.

Truly one of the sweetest moments, ever.

Another Reason My Dad Is So Awesome...

My Dad is awesome. Everyone should know that by now, right?!

Let me give you another reason.

I had to go to work this afternoon, and so my Dad came to watch the kids for a while, until Colby got home from work.

Charlotte wanted to watch a movie, so I told her to pick one out.

Charlotte picked out our "ABBA" concert DVD. She is slightly obsessed with Agnetha, the blonde singer from ABBA, by the way!!

Now, you must understand that my Dad is a cowboy. An old-school, twangy, good ol' boy, gold-country cowboy.

And she picked ABBA.

And so he watched it with them. And he pretended to love it.

I LOVE my Daddy!!!

He is the best Daddy and Grandpa!

Random Kid-isms.....

So, I have been an A.W.O.L. blogger the past few months.

Sorry!

Rest assured, we are still here, still doing well, it's just that I am.....well.....

a SLACKER!!

I am actually in the process of going through all of the photographic evidence of our existence, but it will take me a bit to wade through it all. In the meantime, here are a few things to tide you over.

Random Kid-isms:

**Barrett got some roller-blades for his birthday. He loves them. LOVES them. He really thinks he is just as big as Savannah on those things. However, the other day, he wiped out. Hard. He ended up with some pretty wicked road-rash on his face, and a bit of a bruised ego. I think his ego recovered pretty quickly, though. When my friend asked what happened to his poor little face, this was his response:

"I wiped out on my blades, but that's okay, because chicks dig scars."

**Savannah has been home all summer. This has been good for her. I think she was under the impression that the only thing I did when she was in school was eat cookies, and play "G.I. Joe" with Barrett all day. I make a full confession and acceptance of my cookie obsession, just so that's clear! So, this summer I have had Savannah help with the chores around the house. A couple weeks ago, Savannah had to help clean the bathrooms. 4 or 5 days later, I told her it was time to clean the bathrooms. Her response?

"Mom, we just cleaned them! I don't want to do it again!" (this was said amid much wailing and fake-crying.)

Really, Savannah?! What makes you think I want to clean them again? Or do the laundry again? Or clean the kitchen again? Or vacuum again? Or tell someone to make their beds again? Or make dinner again?

And so on and so on and so on...

She now admits that I do a whole lot more than play around all day while she's in school.

Thank you, Savannah! :o)

**Charlotte is the founding member of a secret fan-club. Savannah has a good friend named Arianna. She is adorable, and sweet, and awesome. Charlotte practically worships her. When Arianna comes over, Charlotte will go in her room, and change her clothes to match whatever Arianna is wearing. Down to the accessories, too. If Arianna has sunglasses on, then so does Charlotte. If Arianna is wearing a pink skirt, then Charlotte will cry if we can't find her a pink skirt, too! It is so funny and so cute!

Seriously though, if Charlotte is going to idolize someone, Arianna is okay with me! So, we now call Charlotte the founding member and president of the "Arianna Fan Club."

LOVE it!

Okay, a couple funnies from my cute little honeys!

I promise, I am getting around to the updated blog.

Soon.

Soon.

Guess what this is....

Yep. It's an X-ray.

Why, you ask?

Well, because Barrett decided it would be a good idea to swallow a magnet.

And, not just any magnet, but a magnet with a Bakugan picture mounted on top of it. The nifty white circle is the magnet.

Yay.

So, today we spent an afternoon at the emergency room. They were concerned because of the size of the magnet, and because he was gagging, and throwing up. Apparently, swallowing a magnet the diameter of a quarter, and the thickness of about three quarters is a bad thing to do!

They were worried it was lodged somewhere in his throat, or in his stomach tube, or something.

Anyway, Barrett was actually pretty awesome at the hospital.

He liked getting X-rays, and he liked the "cool hospital shirt" they had him wear.

But, the magnet had made it's way into his stomach already, so now, we just wait.

That's right, we are on Poop Patrol for about a week.

Hurray.

He is amazing...

He probably will not ever see this, because he is not a big fan of modern technological advances, such as computers, cell phones, fax machines, etc.

However, I must say it anyway-

I love my Daddy.

He is truly amazing.

Love you, Dad.

Thank you for everything that you do for me, and for my little family.

Where would we be without you?

Everything I am that is good or positive or in any way beneficial,

I owe to you.

Because warm is better...

Hey, crappy winter-like weather,

I have a brilliant idea:

GET LOST!!!

Warm weather...

It's getting warm outside. The sun is shining, my kids are begging to ride bikes and scooters, I am happily wearing flip-flops, and the surest sign that springy and summery weather is approaching.... Every single dog in the neighborhood is outside. All of them barking like maniacs. Sigh. I am SUCH a cat person. I love my awesome, quiet, 100% indoor kitties. Nothing personal against all you dog lovers, but... I LOVE my cats. Cats rock.

It's Almost Time!!!!!!

So, we have only 18 more days until.....
That's right! Just under three weeks until the very reason for living commences!
Only 18 more days, and then no more "what should we watch on TV tonight?"
Because, in only 18 more days, we will be able to see this......

this glorious sight on our TV several days a week!
In only 18 more days, we can watch our beloved
Boston Red Sox play baseball in the grand and wonderful Fenway Park.
Only 18 more days.....
I think we can make it!!!

Maybe it's just us...

Tell me that we aren't the only ones who have stayed up way too late because we were totally enthralled with I-Tunes.
Yep, those darn I-Tunes Essentials lists are sooooo much fun!
They really enable us to wallow and almost drown in nostalgia.
Listening to 90 second snippets of songs we haven't heard in more than twenty years, and really laughing and having a good time!
Really, does anyone else ever do this?
Yeah, it's probably just us!

Saturday....in what feels like the Antarctic

Welcome to the Polar Ice Cap!! At least that's how it feels to me.

I don't really love the snow that much, anyway, and I was really hoping winter was winding down. So, I was definitely NOT excited to wake up this morning to about a foot of snow. Ugh.

This is how the kids reacted to the snow:Charlotte decided to play as much island music as she could find, dress as "hula" as possible, and put a "hula dancer flower" in her hair. She made me take a picture of this lovely flower.
Charlotte showing off her hula moves. At least her version of hula dancing, anyway. Cute as ever. She has become quite the fan of anything Hawaiian or island-ish. But, that's not really shocking, does anyone remember when Charlotte was about 2, and decided her name was Surfer Girl?
Savannah and Barrett decided to go out and play in the cold freezing snow while Colby shoveled a bunch of driveways. I had a hard time getting a picture of them, they wouldn't sit still long enough. They were having a blast!

My new favorite...

Honestly, I may never, ever again buy a bag of chips.
I LOVE these croutons.
I am a fan of croutons, in general, but these particular croutons...
ARE. SIMPLY. DIVINE!

Seriously, I have eaten almost one whole bag of these. Just like I would a bag of chips.
Yum.
And, Costco sells these in a huge bag.
I am in heaven.

Poached...

I poured myself a nice, hot, relaxing bath today.

In the 2.5 seconds it took me to get a new bottle of shampoo from the closet,

my dear Barrett had managed to strip off his clothes,

and poach my bath.

Unforgivable...

if he wasn't sooooo flippin' adorable, which he is.

So, I let him steal my bath, and after he was done playing in

the water and making more splashes than Disneyland's Splash Mountain,

I poured another bath for me.

Not as hot.....

not as long and relaxing......

and it still had a few of his toy soldiers in the water.

Good thing, too.

They could protect me from any further bath poachers....

like my cat.

Who, immediately upon hearing the bath water start pouring again,

made his way to the bathtub and tried to drink all the water.

Next time, I'll wait until all the kids are in bed, and Smokey is locked up

before I take a nice, hot, relaxing bath.

But, by then, I'll probably be too tired to wait for the bath to fill up,

and I'll probably fall asleep before I have a chance to relax in the

nice, hot, relaxing bath.

Grrrrr.

Cleaning up....

The soundtrack for today's clean up is...BLONDIE!!!

Charlotte's new favorite. Move over, Lady Gaga, you've been dethroned!
Just in case you were curious...

Charlotte's favorite Blondie song: "The Tide Is High"
Savannah's favorite Blondie song: "Heart of Glass" and "The Tide Is High"
(she couldn't pick between the two...it's a first-place tie.)
Dani's favorite Blondie song: "Atomic."

Come on over next time, you can dance with us while we pretend we're cleaning!!
Well, we usually start out cleaning, but by the end of it, it's more like a disco hall. Straight out of 1978.
Bring your own disco ball!!

14 Years!!!

Even after all these years, I still see fireworks whenever I think of you,

whenever I talk to you,

whenever I see you.

I love you.

I adore you.

Happy Anniversary, Colby!

You're my favorite!