Happy Holidays!!

Wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday from our family to yours......Love, Michael, Jennifer, Tiler and Sophie

"While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. Then she gave birth to her firstborn Son, and she wrapped Him snugly in cloth and laid Him in a feeding trough—because there was no room for them at the inn." Luke 2:6-7, HCSB

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Our Christmas Angel!

Sophie had two holiday shows this year and I wanted to share some pictures from them. She sang holiday songs with her kindergarten class and the next night danced to "Holly, Jolly, Christmas". Tiler, Michael and I had a blast watching her as she turns into such a princess in the spotlight!

From princess to mountain climber

We went to the Nutcracker and Sophie danced her way back to the car continually pausing and waiting for applause from my Mom and I before she would continue walking . We drove straight to Max's Birthday party at a rock wall gym where we met Michael and Tiler. Sophie had never climbed a rock wall so I was not sure how she would do especially around a bunch of boys!! But here she is-she made it to the top!!

Tiler is great-he can climb to the top of any level and was very helpful with the younger kids!!

A bloody mess...

Do you ever think if you leave your kids alone with your huband he could possibly damage them for life....well.....Sophie lost her first tooth and lets just say I HOPE it was time for it to come out....because Michael YANKED it out.

I was on the computer with my Mom burning some discs and I hear from the vicinity of the bathroom where Michael is supposedly helping Sophie wash her hair, "Mom, Mom, Mom". I completely ignore them because usually they call me all the way downstairs to show me a shampoo mohawk or some other ridiculous thing my husband thinks I haven't seen. I spend every waking moment with these two kids, I have seen everything. So, anyway..I am ignoring them until it gets frantic, "Mommy, come here Noooooooooowwwwwwwww"!

I run downstairs to see my little princess bleeding from the mouth and spitting, yes, spitting, into a cup. Okay, I feel about spitting like I do about nose picking and eating boogers okay, I DO NOT like it, it makes me gag!" Anyway, she lost her tooth, it was so cute as she has been waiting so long for this moment. She says, "Daddy tricked me!! He said let me see your tooth and then he yanked it out", spit, spit. We are all present for this now, Michael, me, Tiler, my Mom and we are cheering. So, Sophie proceeds to do a hoochie dance (I know, I know, can I help it that I like to shake a little booty from time to time around the house). She is buck naked in the tub with a cup full of bloody spit, doing a hip thrust shakey dance arms out in front going in a circle, singing Oui, Oui, I lost my tooth, Oui, Oui (you know the sound you make on the dance floor that sounds like an owl, come on I know you know what I am talkin about), you especially Debbie!! You too Shauna, Becky, Tammie Jo!! Oh ya, all of my girlfriends know this call of the dancer girl!! AND.....

she spills the bloody spit mess down her front. It's okay, as she is in the tub and naked, so no big deal right, oh no, she starts crying and sobbing and freaking out. This child apparently is very freaked out by her blood all over herself. Not good.....so we take pictures and then pull her out of the tub and high five...after we clean her up she's okay, crazy kid!!

She got $2.50 from the tooth fairy. She finds out her brother got $1.00. She thinks she is braver than he was, we just know it's inflation!

Obsessed reader

Okay, everybody!! I am once again selling my books on half.com under read2cope. If you see any book on there you want you can have it for free! I am just trying to get rid of all these books. I read about 1 book every 2-4 days so I get a huge stash. I just listed new books today and have already sold 4 so they go fast. Just let me know.....

Hopefully, Santa will be bringing me a Kindle from Amazon this year and I won't have this problem anymore!!

Thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our family and friends.

Here is what Thanksgiving is like at our house: I love to read the adds for Fridays sales and have coffee before I start cooking. I could never imagine actually shopping in all of the crowds (you know I mean germs), but for some reason I love those adds. I do most of my shopping online so it makes no sense. Just one of my traditions....Then Michael starts the turkey (yes, if you read my Mom's blog, it is true NOBODY touch the turkey it is Michael's domain) and I start all of the other stuff while complaining that everybody better enjoy the food (especially that stupid Martha Stewart stuffing) because I am not doing it again next year. This is also a tradition, me saying it's too much work and my Mom saying this probably won't turn out. Michael does a great imitation of us! But it all turned out great and we had a wonderful day!

In addition to the suprise of getting a homecooked meal the guys also like to watch football! Oh yea, I like to watch it too! Wish I could.......

But, I am busy with the DISHES!!!!!

Tiler enjoyed rooting for USC that night and we relaxed with dessert....

OOPS............did Sophie have too much sugar today?????

On a serious note, I just want to say how thankful I am that God always provides for us and takes care of us and I am so grateful for my family, friends, health, God, our church and our business.

Not hot.....

Okay, this is not hot! Tonight I say to my husband "easy peasy" for those of you who do not know this saying, it is from Charlie and Lola-a kids show. I say this to him while wearing big fuzzy slippers and with only one side of my hair straightened. I had to go get Tiler from soccer practice after trying to cook a pumpkin pie and cornbread for my stuffing for tomorrow and forgot to finish my hair in my rush.

This is so NOT hot!!! I know it but I am too tired to do anything about it right now. I need some chocolate.

Need I say anything.....

Here is our Homecoming Freshman Prince...he was so cute and then he snapped at me for fixing his shirt. I gave him a dirty look that clearly said " I would flip you off if it was appropriate to do that to my child" and then he says "I am just stressed out Mom", so I forgave him...and gave him some money. That's all we do right now drive him around, give him money, and listen to stories about hot chicks! We are actually very proud of Tiler as he has started his freshman year playing football, getting voted to student government, making Homecoming Prince, receiving good grades, consistently forgetting his student ID (usually after washing it), loosing his house key and not bringing a single paper for parents home until the last minute-if at all.......aaahhh life with a teenage boy!

Cute date fact: Tiler's date is a volleyball player so he wrote "will you go to homcoming with me?" on a volleyball and gave it to one of the other girls on the team. She started hitting the ball back and forth with her at practice until she noticed the writing on it. She ran out to the gym lobby and told him Yes!

Permanent Holiday Decorating

My Sophie, crafty little girl that she is, has taken decorating her room to a whole new level. This happened the week before Halloween, but everyday I am reminded of her creativity!

So, we had gone to Michael's Craft Store to decorate for Halloween and fall (since we don't have a fall here in Arizona we have to pretend). After many threats to my sweet child (who is never good in a store and asks for things every millisecond) and antibacterial wipings of our cart we head into the craft store. We navigate the aisles, cart full of fake pumpkins and weird halloween decorations, my arms cradling the fake fall foliage I have so carefully choosen while Sophie does hip hop dance moves knocking things off the shelves and running into peoples carts. Then Sophie insists on buying a foam spider web and I am thinking, okay, I will agree to this seemingly innocent 99 cent item and get us the heck outta there. I figure she will add foamies to it to decorate it or she will just hang it somewhere. Possibly even forget about it-yea right that kid forgets nothing!!


We go home and proceed to get into the holiday mood by decorating the kitchen and living room, so fun. Then I leave my little angel to her own crafting in our loft, well, this is what I think she is doing while I talk to Tiler's math teacher on the phone (which is a whole other story about how my teenager talks non-stop in class and corrects his teacher)....ugh......

So, after hanging up the phone I seek out Sophie who is being so quiet....you know that type of quiet.....and she is sitting in her room and before her is my acrilyic (non washable) black and orange paints and she has proceeded to decorate her walls with her spider web "STAMP" as she is calling it...for HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I burst into tears and so does she.

After I calm down I realize she is telling me through her tears that she is crying because they did not come out perfect.....Debbie I know this will make you proud!! I guess we can just stamp Christmas trees over them next week!

Socialize and Treat

Here are a few pictures of the kids on Halloween. Tiler handed out candy in a costume he had from being a church camp counselor this summer. He said he would sit outside and hand out candy and watch for girls from his school. I actually agreed to this, sometimes I scare myself, am I actually allowed to be a parent? Sophie was supposed to be a witch, but in true female fashion had a last minute costume change and was a High School Musical cheerleader. We took her through the neighborhood so she could trick or treat (which in Sophie's world actually means socialize with all of the neighbors).

This is trick or treating for Sophie:

"Happy Halloween, is that your cat, oh it is so cute, I have a black cat, it is named Shakira, yes I would love to pet your cat, come inside?, okay fabulous"

"Does that have peanut butter or nuts, I am not allowed to have peanut butter, I am allergic, I get hives, sure anything you have is fine, sure I would love to come and visit and have tea sometime, thank you, happy halloween, I absolutely love your decorations"

And the classic of this year "Turn that fog machine off please, oh my, it's messing up my eyeshadow!"

Not sure if anyone else noticed this in their neighborhoods except Lyric and I, but people participating in Halloween has decreased almost in half it seemed. Michael was particulary bummed out because the voluptuous playboy bunny from last year that lives up the street did not have her lights on this year, her porch lights either!

Just an idea.....

Okay, I am joining the ranks of fellow bloggers, finally. I am always about a year behind on anything trendy. I actually am just trying to get on Debbie's links on her blog with the other popular people. I just spent an entire afternoon reading all of her family blogs. They say it takes three days to get addicted to porn, I think it may take one day to get addicted to blogs. I will now have to run around tonight doing dishes and laundry and acting like I was totally busy with errands or something today.

I am starting this blog with the idea that it could replace my annual Christmas letter that I managed to not get done last year at all. Is this lame, lazy, I am not sure. I am sure I will take crap from family members just like when I don't personally sign cards or letters that I send out.

This is what I hope to accomplish with this blog. I would love to keep friends and family updated with the craziness that goes on in my world. You say you don't want to join in on the madness, tough because misery loves company. Actually, I just want to share pictures of my cute, smart, strong willed children and give occasional updates on their activities as well as Michael and I's activities. Is I's a word? I am just going to say right now I apologize for any spelling and grammar mistakes on this blog, don't bother correcting me I know I would fail the ACT now or SAT, whatever we took! But, on the bright side I could pass any test based on a manipulating teenager or a whining kindergartener.

My first order of business after actually figuring out to set up this blog will be to brag about my fantasy football team "Victorious Secret" in which I am leading my all male league and continue to post high point weekly. I will also be posting awesome books I am reading or have read lately. I just finished a book called Drunk, Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair which was created by a blogger named Crazy Aunt Purl (as in knitting purl). I have now taken up knitting....don't ask!