stolen identity

So Steve's dad called the other night. Jared answered and asked him to hold on then yelled to Steve "DAD!! Grandpa Wright's on the phone!!" So Jarom looks at me with all seriousness and a disgusted look on his face and says "Mom, Grandpa Wright stole our last name? Ugh!" I just grabbed him and kissed him all over!! He's so stinkin' cute!!

a REAL kid

Jared(11) and Jarom(5) were just wrestling and playing with their nerf sword and shield. Jared lays down on the floor and says "hang on Jarom, I need to take a break...I'm wheezing". Jarom gives him 5 seconds, sighs, and then frustratingly says "get up Jared!! and play like a REAL kid would!!"
It was priceless.

mine

Forgive me for boasting but this kid is soooo freakin' cute!! And he happens to be mine.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

schmucks

Some of my nieces and nephews think I am so mean!! Which totally cracks me up because I think I am such a softee when it comes to kids. Hubby and I have such different ways of dealing with them. My kids totally know what they can get away with when it comes to me. And they know they can't get away with anything when it comes to hubby. Whatever hubby asks of them always gets done...immediately!! However, whatever I ask of them always gets done too. The difference is that when they're done doing it for dad everyones in a bad mood because they got in trouble for trying to schmooze their way out of it. When they're done doing things for me, they're always laughing because I take their schmoozing lightly. I joke with them and tell them what schmucks they are and what they look like when they're mad and pouting. For the most part we have fun. Don't get me wrong, hubby has fun with them too, but after the chores are done. I don't know what even got me thinking of this...other than the fact that I found some photos that one of the schmucks (Jarom) got ahold of in my computer. And thought to myself that even when they're bad...they're so stinkin funny!! Take a look at his handy artwork. Here we've got a beautiful sunset. Taken when we were traveling from Tx to Az one March evening. Apparently, Jarom found it a little boring in it's original state and added his own touch...Next we've got one of my favorite pictures, the legs of the family, including my niece and nephew. Again, another added touch from Jarom...this time a little more agressively. This last one though, has me wondering if we need to put the boy in therapy. Here was a beautiful full body shot of him from this past Christmas. Dressed in his little Christmas suit looking as cute as all get up. Obviously, he didn't like the suit as much as we did. Look at that...you can't see any of him!! Now that I think about it, I wonder if one of those older ones helped...this is too good to have been done all by himself...Little brats. Random fact for the day...I love kids! I really love kids.

the whole family

Last night, I was feeling a bit tired by 9:30. So I shut off the lights, locked the doors and went to bed. I decided to make my rounds though and make sure all of the chitlins were snug in their beds. I checked on Justin...who has the only room downstairs...and sound asleep he was. As I made my way upstairs into Stephs room, then Jareds, then Jaroms I came to the harsh realization...this WHOLE family snores!!

February thus far

OOOOOOHHH, how this blogging stuff has been neglected. I don't know what has changed in my life from last year to now but I can't seem to ever find time for this blog! Every day I tell myself that I will update the blog and every night I find myself NOT doing it. SO, since I failed miserably to blog at all in the month of February, here's whats gone on in my world:

Steph turned 13 - should I be excited about this? Because I wasn't. I no longer have a little girl.

My baby brother got married - on my baby girls birthday!! Wow!! A married man. He's no longer my baby brother.

This is my newest sister in law, Paula. Doesn't she look sweet? She is.Along with the celebrations of the month we did have some tears. THIS is my daughters spine. If you're thinking it's a little curved...it is. So for the next year and a half to two years she will be wearing this.. What a gloomy day that was for her...perfect weather for the occasion though. This was the sky driving home that day. Crazy huh? And this is what it did to our neighborhood parks. But since we don't see too much rain in AZ, we wecome it! And last but not least... Jarom started sleeping in his own bed!!

Weather photos courtesy of my baby girl..on the drive home from getting her brace.

I won't stop trying

I failed miserably at blogging at least 4 times a week. I failed to even blog once this week but hey...I won't stop trying!! This weeks news:
~hubby had a birthday...you don't even want to know so don't ask!! Let me just say this...the smoke detectors almost went off.
~It rained. And it rained. And it rained. Then, it flooded. Now it's beautiful again...for a few days at least.
~I got a new cell phone (same #)...it's pink and really cute.
~Jarom (my 3 year old) has NEVER wet the bed...so when he woke up wet the other day I said "Jarom, did you wet the bed?" to which he replied "uh, No mama, the bed wet me!!" So stinkin' cute!! How do you get mad at that?!

right there on my sofa

Tonight, as I was watching Texas get slaughtered by Bama Jarom decided he wanted to cuddle with me. And with those beautiful little eyes of his, he looked up at me, kissed my cheek and said, "mama, you're a good mom!".

And right there on my sofa...I melted.

2 best friends

Today at work I was craving popcorn ALL DAY. I go thru these spurts when I just REALLY, REALLY, want it and this week I've been in one of those spurts. You see, we have one of those old fashioned air poppers and it really does make THE BEST popcorn. Of course, after I make popcorn, my kids always want to be my best friend...until the bowls empty. Then they could care less about me or what I'm eating. So after work today, I came home and popped me a BIG, FAT, bowl of air popped popcorn with real butter drizzled on top. As all the chitlins gathered around, I realized how I kinda miss them when I'm gone. The way they all have to tell me something really important right when someone else starts talking...yeah...I totally miss them and their eagerness to chat with me. As I popped open my can of Coke and poured it in my glass the following conversation occurred:

Jarom - mama, can I have a drink?

Me - what?! You want some of my Coke?! Are you crazy?!

Jarom - Pleeeeeaaaassseee!! I'll be your best friend.

Me - you'll be my best friend?! Well then of course you can have some.

2 or 3 minutes go by

Jarom - Mom, can I have 2 drinks of your soda? I'll be TWO best friends (raising his eyebrows and smiling ever so intently at me)!

And then I realized how much I REALLY miss them when I'm gone.

This and that

This...

is one of the many reasons we love having mom in town. Can you say SCRUMPTIOUS?!

That...is my 30 year old cousin with my 12 year old daughter. Is she tiny or what? She paid me a surprise visit 2 Sundays ago...made my day!!

This...

is Jarom and Steph in the windstorm earlier this week...it was all Jarom could do to keep his eyes open.

That...is how hard the wind was blowing!! Look at her hair...crazy!

And this... is just a cuter pic of her in that same windstorm. She's growing up way too fast!

what would you serve?

As I'm sure you've read in prior posts, it is tradition in our home to let the birthday boy or girl choose their birthday dinner. It doesn't matter what it is they are craving, I will make it for them. And the rest of us have to "deal" with whatever it is I make that night. It's the same every year...Justin always requests homemade hamburgers, Steph - cheese pizza, Jared - any pizza, hubby - tacos or anything mexican, me - steaks. Well, tomorrow is Jaroms birthday. He will be 3. This is really the first year that he can actually express his cravings and desires. So today Steve says "tell mama what you want for dinner tomorrow....you can have ANYTHING you want!! ANYTHING!!". Without hesitation, Jarom told me what he wants for dinner tomorrow.....Ice Cream!! "That's not dinner Jarom, that's dessert", I said. To which he replied "Daddy said ANYTHING I WANT!!"
Of course the older kids are anxiously anticipating tomorrows dinner. Wondering if Jarom has started something they were never clever enough to start or if I, the wicked witch of East Mesa, will not honor Jaroms wish and serve something "dinner-ish".

Soooooo.....What would you serve???

Only in Phoenix!!

Only in Phoenix can your kids go swimming in February!!

This is how they and some other kids from our ward spent their Saturday!! Is that crazy or what?! So Sunday, I had them jump into our pool and get some rocks from the bottom of the pool. hmmmm, wonder where those came from?

Who's Damian?

For about a year now, Jarom has talked about his friend Damian. Sometimes he'll tell us he wants to go play with Damian. Other times, he'll be playing basketball alone and he tells me he's playing with Damian. When he picks up the phone, he's calling Damian. Whenever something gets broken, Damian did it. At first we thought he was talking about my friend Jana's son because his name is Damian and when this all started we had just seen their family and he was just getting to that social stage. Every time we would say we were going to Jana's he would get so excited to go see Damian. It's actually quite funny though because whenever they would see each other they never even played together which always made me wonder why he was so excited to go see him. Well, it's been quite a while since we've seen them and he still only speaks of Damian. He can't possibly remember him. It's been like 4 months!! So what do you think? Does he remember Damian and just pretending to play with him or is Damian an imaginary friend? If so that's kind of freaky...none of my kids have ever had imaginary friends!! Should I be calling a shrink?

I've done my part!!

So I was going thru some pics on my computer this evening and decided that I have given birth to one of THE CUTEST kids in the world!!

Then I found this and thought "okay 2 of the cutest kids in the world"Wait...there's a 3rd!! Could it be??? More than 3!!
Surprise!! There's 5...
Yep...I've definitely done my part in making Arizona beautiful. Any objections?

Pumpkin Eater

So Steph and I got up early yesterday and made pumpkin bread. Actually, she made it and I just greased the pan. When all of the boys woke up, including Steve, all they could smell was the sweet scent of fall baking in the air. She then made Oatmeal for the family for breakfast. She has become quite interested in the kitchen which makes me very happy. She is also really into shopping with me and has learned how to pick produce so when we are out shopping she is in charge of picking it all for the family. We then proceeded to make homemade bread. Lets just say Steve was in heaven all day. He likes nothing more than to eat fresh baked bread. Anyways, we set all of our baked goods aside for dinner and dessert. After church, we were all sitting in the living room talking and Jarom disappeared. I'm sure you can imagine what happened next...you got it!! This is what I walked in to...a big chunk missing out of the pumpkin bread!! Now how did he know which one would be the sweet one? The Little Punk!!

Mr Clean

Friday night Jarom helped me clean my bathroom. I always have old t-shirts or socks on hand to clean with so I can just throw them away when I'm done. Jarom always tries to put these rags in the hamper and I always have to tell him that these are old rags and we can just throw them away.

Well, Sunday night I went to a baptism and when I walked thru the door I got a strong smell of Clorox Clean Up. What's that smell? I asked. Of course, no one could smell a thing. What smell? they all muttered while being intrigued by whatever it was they were doing. Uh, the smell of bleach!! Where's the baby? I said. Of course, I knew I had left the Clorox Clean Up in my bathroom so I headed straight upstairs...Calling his name as I made my way up the stairs. Jarom!! Huh, he said. What are you doing? He came running out of my bathroom...I'm kweening da fwooa (cleaning the floor, for those of you that don't speak toddler). Wook!! As he pointed in the bathroom...the floor was soaked in clorox clean up and he had grabbed some random clothes out of the hamper and cleaned with them. Wonder where he learned to clean with clothes? And then this morning, I got up early and mopped the kitchen...it smelled so fresh in here. Well, I went upstairs to get a load of clothes and by the time I got back downstairs he had gone in the backyard and brought the dogs water bowl in and was mopping my floor with the dog water!! I couldn't get mad though...he is so darn cute!! Anyways, Here is whats left of Jareds shorts from the Clorox Clean Up incident on Sunday...