It's Autumntime!

Happy Fall Y'all!

The Joys of Motherhood

Too many times I hear that phrase and think....

"Whoever coined that phrase could not have possibly been a mother."

Because, seriously, kids are a lot of work and oftentimes a huge frustration. They never listen, they talk back {not mine....but I've heard other kids do} :0), they complain, they grow out of their clothes too quickly, they break bones or get sick, and scare you half to death when you can't find them....

But then...there are other times, I look at my babies and wonder how I could possibly complain. They are wonderful, adorable, kind, sweet, and giving kids {at least sometimes anyway}. More importantly.....they LOVE their mama.

And I eat it up.

See? The joys of motherhood.....

Kissing Cousins

My cousin, Ryan, was at my Grandparents house for Easter yesterday. He has two adorable little blonde boys. Brennan, the oldest, is four. I think Mackenzee has found a new boyfriend. :0) They had so much fun playing together. At one point, she really wanted to sit in the chair with him, so he scooted over and let her climb into his chair with him. He was even nice enough to share his drink with her, which made her day because there was ice in it. :0)

Such cuties! Yes, I realize they are related...but friends can kiss! And, like Brennan said, "I'm just making friends!" As you can see, Kenzee didn't mind at all. :0)

BTW...lots of posts today. It was a busy weekend...so keep scrolling down! I think there are about five of them!

A Hunting We Will Go

One of our favorite parts about holidays is going to our families' houses. We are so lucky to live so close to both Jaysen's parents as well as mine, and so we can see both sides of the family and not have to miss out on any of the fun. :0)

After I picked up Landon, we were supposed to meet Jaysen and Mackenzee out at my Grandma Casperson's house. They had already done the egg hunting at the Burnham's, so Kenzee had gotten her practice in for the one that my Grandma does for her grandkids. Sadly, she had already filled up 150 eggs before she realized that not only were most of her grandkids too old to hunt eggs, but most of her great grandkids weren't going to make it to the party. By sad, I mean sad she spent all that time on 150 eggs for four kids. It wasn't sad for the four kids who got masses of eggs after the hunt was over. :0)

Landon has yet to learn the fine art of letting the little kids get some too. Do you see how full his basket is? Even if one of the little ones found the egg first, he was such a stinker and ran and grabbed it first. Let's just say that Mamma took about 7 of those big eggs and gave them to little cousin Bailey. NOT NICE! I made him stop looking too. Here is this 8 year old hunting for eggs with two 2 year olds and a 4 year old. Not quite equal there. Sigh.

Here's the four cuties with their Easter Baskets. Again...notice how full Landon's basket it compared to the other children. Sigh. That's ok. It's over...We'll just have to remember for next year and have a little "talk". :0)

Here are the kids checking out their loot. Landon came out of this with almost $6.00! What's up with the money eggs anyway? Seriously...they never had those when I was a kid! Strictly jelly beans man! Oh well. And, you know those big eggs that I gave to cute little Bailey {who is watching Landon in this picture here} they were the ones with all the quarters in them. :0) Landon was more than a little mad at his mommy for giving away all of his money eggs! I didn't feel bad. Like six dollars wasn't enough? He made $11.00 between the two Easter Egg hunts. I don't think he's hurting. Aren't I mean?

Here's Kenzee checking out her candy stash. But, my daughter is not my favorite part about this picture. If you look in the background you will see little Bailey {I keep saying little, but he's the same age as Kenzee} hiding underneath the pool table. His little fist is clenched SO tight. Do you see it? He managed to nab a piece of chocolate without his mommy noticing. :0) Sh! Don't tell her! Anyway...he ended up with melted chocolate all over his hand.

Such fun! The kids always have fun with it. Thanks Grams! We love you!

The Little Princess

Sadly, Landon was gone this year for Easter. So, the Easter Bunny only had one child to leave a basket for.

Mackenzee woke up and the first thing she said was, "treats?" because I told her the night before that she had to go to bed otherwise the Easter Bunny couldn't leave her any treats. :0) She remembered. Luckily, the Easter bunny didn't bring too much candy our way this year. I put in a special request because the person that ends up eating the candy in the end, is trying to make her "end" smaller. Instead, Kenzee was given oodles of Barbie Mariposa fruit snacks. OOOhhhhhh AAAhhhhhh. Right? :0) She also got lots of stickers and a brand new package of Dora panties. The Easter Bunny must have known we were doing well with the potty training. :0) He's such a smart guy that bunny.

The best thing he left was a beautiful new "Princess Dress". That's what Mackenzee called it. She wanted to put it on right away. I knew we'd never make it until church without getting something on it, so she had to wait. That didn't keep her from asking every few minutes though. She carried it around the house with her and everything. Sadly, she wanted to wear her crocs with them. What? She only has three different pairs of "princess" shoes! We did some negotiating and we compromised on her black sparkly shoes. They worked.

Isn't she adorable? She knows it too.....

I hope the Easter Bunny treated all of you as well!

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?

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.

Bee Movie

Tonight was a big night in the Burnham home. After much deliberation, we decided to take Mackenzee to her very first movie. It's a big deal! Landon went to his first movie when he turned 2, but he also sat still all the way through Toy Story at home, so I knew there wouldn't be a problem. Mackenzee can't sit through a 30 minute Dora episode! Anyway...Jaysen wanted to give it a go, so we went for it. We took two cars, just in case....better to be prepared than to throw all of that money in the garbage by having ALL of us go home if she didn't make it. I also made sure to buy the JUMBO popcorn. I was hoping that even if she didn't watch the movie, that the huge tub of butter would keep her busy. ;0)

As far as the movie goes...it was ok. I won't be buying it. It wasn't bad, it was just really slow. And the plot was a bit much for kids I think. The bees suing the humans....kids don't even know what that means. And pollination? What 8 year old understands that? But that is the movie. No bees working...no pollination...no flowers....you get the idea. There were some funny lines in there to get Landon laughing. Like poop-water (the guy got toilet water splashed on him when he tried to flush the bee down the toilet).....yeah. Little boy humor...sigh. But, it didn't grab Kenzee's attention. We made it through the movie, thanks to the popcorn, and two drinks (yes, she drank both of them almost all by herself). But, she moved around a lot. My daughter does not sit still. And yes, Landon and her had to fight a couple of times in the middle of the movie over a drink, or the tub of popcorn. Sigh. But at least we made it!

Honestly, I wouldn't spend your money on this movie unless it was a matinee...dollar theatre even. Better yet, wait till it comes out on Netflix! It's too bad that it was Kenzee's first movie, and it was such a dud!