Dora saves the Accident Prone Girl

If any of you have been unfortunate enough to experience DORA in all of her glory, you will know that in each episode she is "saving" something with the help of her trusted friend Boots the Monkey and Backpack and her reliable talking Map to guide her on her journey. Her last BIG adventure was saving the mermaids. Yes, Dora saved the entire mermaid kingdom from the wicked octopus. She is so brave.

And, if you are frequenters of this blog, you will also know that my dear Mackenzee is OBSESSED to say the least, over Dora the Explorer. Especially over Boots the Monkey. She even makes the "oooo oooo ahhh ahhh" sound like he makes on the show. Well, just recently, Mackenzee had the opportunity of having Dora save even her. Let me explain....

Now, if we had a map, I'd tell you that the map would start singing

Anderson's, potty, big glass of water!

Sing it with me now! I'm just kidding. I won't force that trauma on you. Back to the story....As you have read, Jaysen was gone last weekend on his golf getaway. Our friends, Zach and Holly, took pity on me and invited me and the kids to their house Friday night for homemade lasagna. Yum! I had planned on cooking chicken nuggets for the kids so I was thrilled! As you have also read, Kenzee is potty training and has been doing smashingly well. I figured we could try a test run on going out without putting on a pull up for protection while we went over for dinner. She NEVER goes in the pull ups anyway. Why not give it a go right?

She was doing so well. She ran upstairs to let me know she had to go and we ran into the potty and made it! Whew! So excited! I explain to Holly that I was giving her a trial on not having to wear the pull up and she was doing so well. She is excited for me. All mommies are excited when less diapers are involved. :0) Not five minutes later, Kenzee runs back up the stairs screaming, "potty mommy potty!" We run in again, but she doesn't make it. She pees her pants. Sigh. Pathetically I sit there thinking, well at least she didn't get any on their floor. Yeah....so I strip her pants and panties off and tell her to hold tight and I would go grab a diaper from the car. Kenzee freaks out. She doesn't want me to leave her in the bathroom. She's half naked, she's not going outside in cold weather like that! Thankfully, Holly saved me and offered a Dora pull up. I gratefully took it from her.

Kenzee is now happily running through the house in just her shirt and a pull up. We all sit down at the table to eat at this point. Can I just tell you how yummy the lasagna was? My girl loves to bake with some garlic! Just the way I like it! She even made homemade breadsticks! I was spoiled rotten. Landon was in heaven because he loves lasagna too. Kenzee....she ate some grapes. Sigh. And, because we were ALL spoiled, Holly gave Kenzee a glass of water with ICE! Now, I need you to picture this. We are all sitting around the table eating our yummy meal. Kenzee refuses to eat any of the green beans I put on her plate and I refuse to give her more grapes until she has eaten at least ONE green bean. Yes, we are fighting over this at someone else's dinner table. I'm grateful that Holly loves me. I'm sure she was laughing inwardly at this battle of wills. My daughter is a quick one though, and I swear she just lunged across the table to try to get to the grapes.... and she knocked over her glass of ice water in the process. There is water all over the table, her chair, the floor, AND her shirt. Holly and I clean up the water mess, Kenzee wins the rest of the grapes, and now she is practically naked. No shirt {because it's wet and she refuses to wear it now}, and no pants because she peed on them. At this point, I'm just SOOO frustrated. I resolve to never take her anywhere again. She's like a wild animal!

Holly, once again, took pity on me and offered some of her daughters' clothes that she had grown out of. Once again, I am indebted to her. She leaves to go get them as I give my daughter the "mean mom" look. It worked so well on Landon....Kenzee doesn't really care. Have I mentioned the word frustration? Holly reappears with a pair of pants and....a PINK DORA SHIRT! Because my daughter needed to be rewarded for her behavior! :0) {I'm just kidding Holly. We love you!} Kenzee is now thrilled! She immediately assumes it is hers. I don't argue, because I'm just DONE at this point and...Dora has SAVED my daughter from her nakedness. It's not worth it.

Holly has just given the shirt to Mackenzee at this point. Mackenzee has a very satisfied look to her when I tell her she can keep it.

Thanks for saving us Dora...I mean Holly. :0)

BBFF

I watched my friend, Holly's, little girl today for a few hours while she went and got her hair done up all sassy. She looks really cute by the way. Ellie is adorable. She melts my heart. Seriously. She can do no wrong in my book. They were sitting here in the windowsill together and Ellie leaned over and gave Mackenzee one of her fabulous chin kisses. I ran to grab my camera hoping she would do it again, but the moment was over. :0( That's ok. I look at this picture and imagine that this is probably what Holly and I would have looked like if we had been friends when we were really little. Ellie looks just like Holly in my opinion. And Kenzee is her momma's little girl. {And yes, she is shirtless...again. What can I do?}
Holly, these pictures are for you. You always say that you don't have good pictures of your girls and it frustrates you. Ellie is just so stinking sweet. She sat here and just let me shoot away on my camera. Of course, she did get up and down a few times...but that's ok. :0) The first one is my favorite. She's just beautiful. :0) Thanks for letting me watch her. I know it was hard for you, but I'm glad you feel like you can. Bring her over any time. Seriously...I'm home. And she's soo easy to take care of. Besides...it keeps Mackenzee entertained and that helps me out SO much more than you know. :0)

Superheroes without super powers

After the death of President Hinckley, there was a surge of emails in my inbox about how we could honor his life. One of the best ones that I got was from my friend, Montay. It was to read the Book of Mormon in 97 days {signifying his 97 years of life}. Well, I didn't get started right off the bat. I'm a slacker. But, our goal is to get it read before our new temple is dedicated. Landon is excited to be able to walk through it during the Open House. So, we started last week on our reading. Landon is such a good reader now that he likes to read it out loud for all of us to listen. It's worked out pretty good, and besides some of the funny "Bible speak" he does a great job.



But that's not what this post is about. We were reading about Nephi and his brothers going back to Jerusalem to get the brass plates. He was really concerned about the whole thing.






Me: Do you understand what that just said Landon?



Landon: He just cut off that guys head!



Me: Right. But why did he do it?



Landon: Because the Spirit told him to.



M: Right. So, if you've prayed and the Spirit speaks to you....{I didn't get to finish my thought}



L: Then I can kill someone.



M: What? No! No, no...this happened 600 years before Jesus was even born. It was a totally different time and different laws and rules. The Spirit isn't going to tell you to kill anybody. That's what laws and the police are for. To take care of the bad guys for you. I meant if you've prayed, the Spirit will help you to accomplish your goals if that's what Heavenly Father wants.



L: Oh. Ok. Cause I didn't think we were supposed to kill anyone.


Whew. Got that one over with. So, we finish the chapter and I'm sending him off to bed and I said:



M: You didn't know there was such cool stories in the scriptures did you?



L: Nuh-uh! He's like a superhero getting the bad guys!

I got a giggle out of that one. But then it made me think about what he said for a minute.

This is what our kids look up to. These are their heroes. Flying men, Dark men in masks....men and women with SUPER powers. Make believe and fantasy. I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Landon loves Spiderman and has for 3 years. Fantasy is fun. It gets kids to use their imaginations, and I love that. But the people they should look up to and revere as HEROES, should probably be more realistic. Don't you think? Nephi rocked. He was a good kid that listened to his parents. He respected his father and was obedient. He had horribly mean brothers that beat him up on several occasions. He never fought back. {that I can remember anyway} He was brave, strong, courageous...and a real guy. A "superhero that got the bad guys". Landon is getting a poster of Nephi for his room. He is enthralled with this man. What a good example for my kid.

I'm not saying that Nephi has to be everyone's hero. This is just what has happened in our house. But there are numerous people in the scriptures that did "super" things that maybe our kids don't even realize. Moses is a great example of a man who did great and awesome things. I talked to Landon about him as well and he was in shock that water would move like that. He told me he wouldn't ever want to walk between water like that because it would be too scary. :0)

It's just something I thought about this last week. Warm fuzzies. My kid wants to be like Nephi. Who am I to stop him from trying?

Potty Party!

So, after many months of attempting to sway my little one into WANTING to go potty, we've finally made it! Hallelujah! What made her finally change her mind? This fabulous Dora toilet seat she saw. {go figure} And no, it's not on backwards {according to Mackenzee}. This is the RIGHT way to put it on.

I'm just glad we found something that works for her. Not only do we have the Dora potty, but there {of course} must be a bribe...er...I mean a reward. "Good job! You went peepee in the potty!" I honestly love hearing her say, "Yook mommy!" She is so very proud of herself. Anyway...back to the "reward". Mackenzee LOVES stickers. Bandaids count as stickers to her. :0) So, we went to the "sticker store" and got oodles and oodles of them, and everytime she goes potty, she gets a few stickers to add to her collection. There are also "special" stickers for if she goes "Numero dos" {some of you will get that, for the rest of you, go watch Elmo's Potty Time}. She's only got one of those so far. Sigh. Baby steps right?

We are currently working on getting these. They are those fun little puffy stickers. She wants them SO bad. She's just really having a hard time.

And, for those of you who read my post on my Random blog of Jaysen's golf trip, you read that we had to return boys underpants to the store on Saturday. Well, she really wants to just wear the boy underpants. Apparently they are WAY better than the princess ones. Sigh. I gave in after 5 minutes of trying to explain to her that they were for boys. She didn't care. So, we went home with Diego underpants. Luckily, when I got home, I found they were a size 4T and her little bottom is just too small for that size. Awww......so, we took them back and luckily, with Landon's help, we convinced her to get Minnie Mouse girl panties instead of the Mickey Mouse boy underpants. Sigh. {I secretly wonder if she does stuff like this just to watch me get frustrated over it. Like she's just sitting there thinking, "I really want the My Little Pony panties, but I know my mom will just GROAN if I tell her I want Transformers, so I'm going to pick those instead." I really think she does.}

So, here is my adorable, yet frustrating daughter in her cute little Minnie Mouse panties. No, I did not tell her to pose this way. She really wanted to make sure that the panties showed up in the picture.

And she wanted to make sure that we properly documented the panties, so she turned around to give us the "fanny" shot.

And this...is THE sticker book. See how many stickers are on there? Look at her staring at the book in awe. I am imagining a church choir singing "Laaaaaaa!" when I see this picture. It cracks me up. She has formed quite the collection these past couple of weeks.

And, she didn't have a single accident when we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house yesterday. We braved the outing without the safety of the pullup and she did awesome! Hallelujah! Landon took FOREVER to potty train. Now that she's into it and knows there's a sticker for her in the end...she's got it down pat practically. I'm soooo glad. I hate diapers.

Golf Getaway!

Jaysen left Thursday afternoon for his much anticipated golf trip with his cousins and a couple of friends. There were six of them that went. They went all the way down to St. George where it was warm so they could still play in the middle of winter. Lucky ducks!

Here are the Burnham's...Odell, Byron, Elmer, and Jaysen. Friday morning was their first game and Jaysen said it was a pretty gloomy day. Only 40 degrees and looking like rain. He said they "braved it" anyway. Such courage they had!
This is Jaysen's long time friend Patrick. No, he's not tons older than Jaysen...he's just going gray early. But let's not talk about gray hair here. Sore subject.
Day two was just beautiful he said. Look at the blue skies and green grass. I am very jealous. He's wearing a short sleeved shirt!
This was such a pretty course. The pictures of it are amazing. All in all, I think he had a pretty good time. He better have anyway! It was a long three days for me without him. He was definitely missed.

Pink

This is one of my favorite Aerosmith songs. It came out around 1997 and I watched it on MTV in my dorm and thought it was hilarious. Just silly words, and an even wierder video. You can check out the music video on the link here. But, this song has now taken on a whole new meaning for me. I'll tell you why after you read on....

Pink - it's my new obsession
Pink - it's not even a question,...
...Pink - it's the color of passion
Ah, 'cause today it just goes with the fashion
Pink - it was love at first sight
Yeah, Pink - when I turn out the light...
...And I think everything is going to be all right...
...'Cause Pink - it's my favorite crayon

Okay, so now let me explain. Though some of the lyrics of this songhave ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with my point here, I selected those in the song that do. I heard this song again yesterday and just laughed.

This, is Mackenzee and "Pink". Pink is what she's named her blanket. I bought this blanket for her before she was born, and then was given another one just like it as a gift when she was born. So, there are two identical blankets in this house. For a while, this blanket was called "mine". And then about 4 or 5 months ago, it became "Pink". Pink is her favorite color. Everything has to be pink. Her clothes, her milk, her ice cream, her shoes, socks, food, crayons, markers, pens, books...you name it...she'll ask for it in pink. It drives me crazy. So, it made sense anyway that she would rename her special blanket pink. And, even though there are two of the same, only one of them counts as the special one. The other one is "different". Why? I'll tell you.

Do you see this PINK corner of her special blanket held by her cute little hands? This is why PINK matters. The two PINK corners of this blanket are not quite PINK anymore. This is the cleanest I can get it, though the corners have been known to get darker in between washes. Getting the blanket from her to be able to wash it is a whole other story....How did the blanket get this way you ask?

Because of this. Those corners she rubs and rubs and rubs on her cheek and mouth to "comfort" herself. Sometimes the corner gets sucked on. It's truly gross. But it makes her feel better. So, what can I do?

Pink...it's her new obsession, cause today it just goes with the fashion, it was love at first sight, she needs it when she turns out the light, and when she has it everything will be all right. And it's definitely her favorite crayon. :0)
Now do you get it?

And Obey The Law of the Pack

Is that what they say? I have no idea for sure. I was never a boy scout, but I'm sure you already figured that out.

Let me first start out by saying that I had NO idea how much it would cost to get my kid outfitted for scouting. And I didn't even buy those funny shorts! I walked into the Scouting Office yesterday with Mackenzee in tow and was so lost looking at the different colored shirts and books and badges and numbers....holy cow. I decided it was better if I just waited patiently for the lady behind the counter to finish helping her other customer and then ask for guidance.

"Can I help you?" Oh yeah...she could help. I explained to her what I thought I needed and she walked around and just kept adding things to my list. I remember reading that I needed a shirt and a scout book. Well, I obviously didn't take into consideration the kerchief and kerchief tie, or the 4 patches that I needed, oh! and don't forget the black thing you hang from your pocket to sew your earned patches on. Umm...ok. So, I guess ring me up then. $50 people!!! Are you kidding me? Sigh. But look how cute he is...

And he was so excited for his first pack meeting. All of his friends were there and they made Chinese Dragon Masks and talked about the Chinese New Year. He wouldn't eat the dumplings though. Go figure. My kid eat something "different"? Not on your life!

I love this picture. Do you see that look on Mackenzee's face? She had some serious shirt envy going on. Now, her shirt is new as well. I got it for a mere $.60 at Target. {love that place} So, it wasn't like she was truly "hurting". But his shirt was just way cooler. He gets to have patches. {though they are not sewn on yet. Still need to get to that part.}

Anyway...Landon is an official Wolf now. He wants to earn ALL of the badges...so get ready Den Leaders! :0)

Whirlwind Weekend...{long post}

It all started Thursday night with the long drive to American Falls.

Landon: "Mom! It's not here! I forgot iiiiittttt! {tears are flowing}
Me: "Well, dump everything out of your case and see if you just missed it in there."
Landon: "I already did! It's not here and my batteries are going to die!"
Me: "I'm sorry. I told you to check EVERYTHING before we left and you said you did. You'll have to do without this weekend."

For those of you that know my son, you know EXACTLY what this is about. I'll clue in the rest of you though {just because I'm so nice}. Landon only gets to play his Nintendo DS when it's his weekend with his Dad Jeff. As it just so happened to be one of THOSE weekends, he was excited to get to play. {Not that he hadn't been playing for two hours already that day because he had no school and I needed him to be quiet while Kenzee napped}

ANYWAY...the poor guy's WHOLE night was ruined. Hug, kiss, be good...call me if you need me! I promise to bring the cord with me when I come get you on Monday! His tears have quieted to just sniffles now. What can you do?

I get home in time to hear the last part of our neice, Jordan's, first game at the Idaho State Basketball Tournaments up in Boise. Rough game that was. We had to listen on the radio again and you could barely make out even the important details. In the end, along with a headache from straining to hear the announcer, we get the final score. The Tigers lost by one point in overtime. We were devastated for poor Jordan. The state title would not be theirs. BUT! Silver lining...if they won their next game at 3:00 on Friday then they could play for the Consolation prize on Saturday morning. Our plan was to leave the next day at noon so we could make it to that next game to cheer on our Tiger.

For those of you that know ME, I don't do well when I'm rushed. I like to plan things out, check and double check my checklists. I can't help it. So, even though we knew we were going up on Friday to watch the game, I had just figured that they would win their first game and play at night on Friday. Which would leave me plenty of time of Friday to get everything done before we had to leave. Now that we had to leave at noon I knew I'd be running around with my head chopped off Friday morning. I hate that. We ended up making it through the door on time, but not without Jaysen wondering if I was "ok" and going to make it. :0) Between rushing to the bank to get cash for the games {and finding I had left my ATM card at home GRRRR!}, running to clean the car out at the car wash {that took a while....my car wasn't pretty}, going to get the oil changed, filling up the car with gas, packing the bags, packing the car....Whew! Done!

Off we go! We made it to the game just in time to watch them warm up.

It was a good game. Both teams wanted it really bad and they both fought hard. It was a close game the whole way through and towards the end a key player on the Tiger team got knocked down by an opposing team player and hurt her knee badly.

This is what a concerned father looks like. {Profile shot...I didn't think he'd like me snapping pics of him mid-game} But look at the non-red complexion. This is Jordan's dad. I was concerned when I found myself sitting RIGHT NEXT to him. I didn't want people to think we were related if he went off on one of the referee's. :0) Luckily, he kept his cool for most of the game, but I could see the tenseness on his face and felt MUCH sympathy for him as a parent.

This is my cute little Mackenzee giving her little "spirit fingers" as Jordan shot a foul shot. Notice the bare feet. Sigh. She just won't keep her shoes on! I digress...She had so much fun rooting on her cousin. With her little orange pom poms she rocked out with the pep band and did a few cheers. Go Jordan! Go Tigers! I fear we've got a future cheerleader on our hands. :0)



Since I know you are wanting to know the outcome of the game, I won't continue blathering on.

WE WON!

Yay! Even with an injured player, they were able to keep it together enough to win the game. We were thrilled! Now they just had to beat Bonneville the next morning and they would still be able to go home with the Consolation Trophy. Looking around the stands at the group that had come to support the Tigers...I swear...half the group was made up of Burnhams. :0) Between aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings, cousins, 2nd cousins, great aunts, and great uncles, it was crazy at home many had come to support Jordan. Us Burnham's don't mess around! :0)



We all decided to go out to Teppanyaki for dinner. Yum! There were 24 of us {I think} that attempted to squeeze around one of their tables. We fit, snug as a bug.

Gage, Jesse, and Kaden...all mesmerized by the flamage. Note the sunglasses that Kaden brought to shield his eyes with. :0)

Here is my dear Mackenzee AFTER the chefs were gone. Notice the red cheeks. She made me cover her eyes while she buried her face in my neck the WHOLE time. She is sitting with Whitney and Breanna.

Here are Haylee and Meghan attempting to figure out the fine art of eating with chopsticks. :0)

Just some of the "grown ups" that came...Dennis and Janie {Jaysen's aunt and uncle}, Kevin and Jamie {Kevin is Jaysen's cousin AND Jamie's going to have a baby in June!}, Steve and Beckie {Steve is Jaysen's brother and Beckie's going to have a baby in April!}, and Rita and Perry {Jaysen's parents}

This is for Jaysen's dad, who felt VERY STRONGLY that we needed to have someone take a picture of the two of us {this is my and the hubby}. Apparently, I'm BEHIND the camera too much and not IN the pictures enough. {According to Perry} :0)

The next game was at 9:15 Saturday morning {groan!} but we made it in plenty of time. And we were all EXTREMELY pumped to watch the Tigers play. Kenzee got her pom poms out again and did a little booty shaking, and we all settled in. The Tigers started out ON FIRE and were up by ten at the end of the 1st quarter. They were given a standing ovation by the Jerome crowd as that buzzer ended. Kudos girls! Let me tell you why....

There must be something in the water in Bonneville. They had two GINORMOUS girls on their team. Over 6 feet tall each and they had freakishly long arms. I'm not kidding. You didn't catch them dribbling around with the ball much. :0) But, under the basket, they seemed unstoppable. So, to have Jerome still be able to one up them in such a short period of time was great!

Unfortunately, this is where the good news ends. Bonneville came back from the 1st half ready for whatever Jerome had for them. It was very frustrating as we watched helplessly from the bleachers. The girl who had gotten injured in the previous game tried to get in on this one as well, but she got knocked down again, and it was over for her. As one of the key players, it was hard to have her on the bench. The ginormous posts kept Jerome's posts from being able to rebound the ball well and as hard as they tried, they just couldn't seem to keep Bonneville from overtaking their lead and then taking a 10 point lead of their own. It didn't get any better and they ended up with a loss. :0( If I could have, I would've given Jordan a big hug because I felt so badly for her. As it's her senior year, this was it for her. And I'm sure she's feeling pretty crappy right now. So, Jordan, just pretend I gave you one ok? :0) I hope you feel better now!

So, all through this entire LONG story of a weekend, my little sister {who lives in the Boise area} was in labor. YES! In LABOR! Crazy! That baby knew we were coming up and decided to make her grand entrance in time for us to see her. I beleive it's because she wanted to see her favorite aunt. :0) She loves me already I'm sure. Anyway...for those of you that know my little sister and having babies, it's usually stressful. My mom was in Utah and so she wasn't able to rush up to help her. So, I was worried all day Friday and Saturday for her. {I think I called her 10 times!} Thankfully, she was able to have an epidural {normally she can't} and so it made the whole process a lot easier for her. Jaysen and I went to see her in the hospital around 4:30 to take her a baby gift and say "Hey!" before we had to head back home. At that point she wasn't even quite halfway there, though her water had broken. Knowing she could have quite a long night left to go I didn't feel that prolonging our inevitable drive was worth it. But, lo and behold..as soon as I told Crystal we wouldn't be able to stay, my mom showed up and baby decided it was time. Like the snap of your fingers. It was crazy. So I ushered the boys and Mackenzee out of the room with me, and we waited. For like 15 minutes. That's all. I'm telling you...my neice REALLY wanted to see me before I had to leave.

Isn't she adorable? She looks just like her sister. And look at her eyes! Already alert and ready to go! Get ready Crystal!

Kenzee fell in love with the new baby as soon as she saw her. She wasn't allowed to touch any part of her except for the little hat on her head. :0) But she rubbed and petted and kissed the babies' little head as much as she could. And when the nurse came to take babies' temperature she was truly concerned that the nurse was hurting her {Kenzee doesn't like doctors OR nurses. She seen them already too much in her day}. Even today she said, "baby sad mom. But I make her happy!" And, she really thinks the baby is hers. "mine mom, mine!" As a side note here: She has been playing with her dolly's ALL day today and talking about HER new baby. :0) It's great.

And here is the happy Nana holding her newest grandchild. This is grandkid number 15 for her.

She is adorable Crystal, and I am so excited and happy for you! I still need stats on length and weight and what you guys FINALLY decided on for her name. So, I will await the baby announcements that I'm sure you already have done. Because you are so on the ball like that. Which I love. :0)

Didn't I tell you it was a whirlwind of a weekend? And that was just from Thursday night to Saturday night! Holy cow! BTW....thanks Zach and Holly for feeding our dog while we were gone. Jaysen was sure he was going to starve to death in the 24 hour period we weren't home. :0)

I hope all of you had a great weekend as well!

Happy Valentine's Day

Just wanted to share the love with all of you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm sorry...we have to make cupcakes

Mackenzee started asking me about cookies early yesterday morning.

"Mom, ont cookies! Do-wah {Dora} cookies! Peeeaaasss!"

We had no cookies on hand. I know you are all gasping in disbelief. My sweets shelf has NO cookies? Landon finished them off last week and I haven't gotten more. So sue me! {Yes, I have a shelf in the pantry just for sweets. Is there something wrong with that?}

So, I explained to Kenzee that we were out. Well, that wasn't going to work for her. So, she said she wanted to make cookies. What? I've just recently gotten out the "helping chair" for her. She shouldn't be asking to actually MAKE things yet. Right?

{Again...some of you will understand that and some will not. So, I'll explain. Landon has been helping me in the kitchen since he was about 18 months old. Mixing, stirring, pouring, dumping....good stuff! When he helped I would get out a step stool that would get him right up to the counter and make him tall enough to do the helping. Nothing fancy. Just a step stool. He eventually named it the "helping chair". Everytime he wanted to help he would ask for his helping chair. So, now you know.}

Back to the story...Kenzee has not been as lucky as her brother. She is 28 months old. I've just barely let her in to help the last month. She's not as mellow as her brother, so I haven't dared to let her help yet. Anyway...she's done pretty good so far so I told her that we could definitely make some cookies today, but that we had to go run our errands first. She agreed on the terms and off to Target we went.

{Another disclaimer here....I don't really like to make cookies. Cookie bars...I'm all for it! But individual cookies take FOREVER! And for some reason, if they are homemade, it doesn't matter how yummy they are, they don't get eaten in my house. Store bought cookies disappear quickly though. Sigh. So, guess who ends up eating ALL of them? Me! So, for holidays I usually buy the Pillsbury holiday cake mix and use the Funfetti Cookie recipe on the side of the box. It only makes a couple dozen cookies and they are super quick and easy.}

I bought the Valentine cake mix and a tub of matching frosting while at Target so we'd be ready. After nap time, we got to mixing up the batter. Apparently my mind had completely forgotten the whole point of us buying that box of cake mix because I followed the instructions for the cake mix....NOT the cookie recipe. Sigh. Too late. I'm sorry Mackenzee....we have to make cupcakes. She wasn't thrilled.

BUT, thankfully Landon walked in the door the next moment and was thrilled we were getting our "bake on" in the kitchen. He grabbed a spoon and started to fill up the cupcake liners with batter and soon Kenzee had completely forgotten about the cookies she had focused on the ENTIRE day. Thanks Landon! Did I mention how much I love you? :0)

Here is Landon showing Kenzee the "right way" to do it. For those of you noticing the dining room table chair and not the "official" helping chair...it is in the black hole that is my garage. I can't find it. Hopefully it will resurface next month when we get to finally empty it out. For now, my nice chairs will have to work. I am cringing as I look at the boots my son is wearing as he stands on it. Sigh. Oh well.

This is Kenzee's version of "carefully filling up the cupcake liners". I think she did pretty good for her first time. Don't you?

"Mom...can I eat ALL the ones I frost?" I let him get away with THREE! And he says I'm mean! Kenzee just wanted to put the sprinkles on top.

"Dad! Help! Heew, it's pink!" Just letting you know that Jaysen did get in on the pink frosting action. He's an excellent froster. :0)

Look at that technique!

The end result. Isn't it beautiful?

After Landon realized I was going to let him eat them right after he frosted them, he piled the frosting on his third and final cupcake. He's enjoying it though! Who doesn't like a cupcake with lots of pink frosting on it?

Even if they're not cookies.

Silly girl!

Mackenzee was just being so silly this morning. I woke up to her and Landon playing in their new "clubhouse". Giggling away. I went for my usual morning cup of hot chocolate and she HAD to have one as well. She didn't drink it. I went to sit on the couch and read the newspaper. She needed the funnies to read as well. I snuck away to hop into the shower and the next thing I know...my little Mackenzee {who is now naked} is CLIMBING into the shower. What? Sigh. Too late...she's in and wet and thinking she is SO smart. Fine...whatever. With that finished....I start to get ready for church with my towel wrapped around my wet hair. She needs a towel on her hair too. Ok...that didn't work out so well. The big towels were too big, the hand towels wouldn't stay on her head. We gave up after the fifth try.

It keeps going like this....except for she refused to get dressed and ran around the house naked much to her brothers frustration. "MOM! She's naked! She's going to poop all over my room!" I assure him she will not. Though she refuses to potty train, if she's found without the diaper on, she'll run to the potty without a problem. EVERY TIME. Sigh.

Anyway...I'm ready for church, Landon is ready, Jaysen..yep....he's ready too. Kenzee.......is still naked. Running around the house. She refuses to allow me to diaper her up. I'm trying not to get frustrated. {are you picturing this?} So, I grab my camera. Why not? It would get her to hold still anyway. I tell her to smile for the camera. This is what I got instead....

Such a pretty smile isn't it?

She's laughing now because she's thinks she so funny for making a face instead of smiling.

All right mom...I'll be good.

Cheese!

Crazy hair, still no clothes....

We were late for church.

Yyyyeeeesss!

I was up late last night. It was the first of our two PTA meetings for the month and I didn't get home until 10:15. {that's normal} My brain doesn't just SHUT OFF quickly. So, after getting into my pj's I grabbed my book and plopped on the couch for a bit of reading to wind me down. After realizing I had read longer than intended {which is what usually happens} I crawled into bed. It was late.

I didn't want to get up this morning because of my late night. The children were good little kids and slept in until 7:30! But I STILL didn't want to get out of bed. So, I'm trying to make my eyes open as I lay there listening to Landon getting his breakfast {I know, aren't I a good mommy?} and all of a sudden I feel a tug on my blanket.

"Mommy, ont nana's. Nana's mommy, nana's!" So much for my last seconds of snuggling in my bed. Mackenzee LOVES bananas. Boots the Monkey from Dora likes the bananas...therefore she HAS to like them too. She eats a lot of them. It's not normal for the bananas in our house to go bad if she knows we've got some on the counter. Unfortunately for Kenzee, it appears our banana's have gone bad. What? I know...

I finish up the morning ritual of making sure Landon is ready to go and rush him out the door to the bus stop and then sit down for my morning cup of cocoa and blog surfing. "Moooommmyyy! Nana's! Peeeaaaasss!" Knowing I had grocery shopping to do anyway, I told her "if you are good {yeah right} we'll go to the store" {I'm interrupted at this point} "and nana's? Yyyyeeeeeessssss!" She jumped up and landed in a crouch, and then rolled around on the floor while screaming this. It was hilarious. She's never done this before, and to have it happen over bananas made me laugh. I attempted to get her to do it all over again so I could get a picture, but this was the best I could get. Apparently the excitement had worn off.

Just so you know......we now have bananas.