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.

Tiger Update

After such an exciting game on Friday night, there was no way that Jaysen was going to miss the two teams playing again last night. So, it was a basketball FHE!

It was still fierce, but not like on Friday. Different refs, and better calls for both teams made it a little less stressful {for some of us anyway}. I chose to sit in front of Perry {Jaysen's dad} and was sure I was going to end up needing a hearind aid by the time the game was over. Rita attempted to calm him down, but there was no way he was going to stop until the game was won. He made me laugh so hard. :0) He would start complaining about a call before he even knew what the call was.

Perry: "What? She didn't do anything wrong! She's the one that got fouled!"

Rita: "Perry! That what they called!"

Perry: "Oh. I thought they said she travelled."

Yeah.... {lol}

Anyway...the Tigers started off the game rather sloppy and we were all starting to worry. The Bobcats scored the first basket again this game. Bad passes went from there, and it wasn't pretty. But, thankfully they got their game ON and played hard.

And do you know what I've decided...girls are just MEAN! Ok, so I haven't JUST decided this. I already knew that. But, wow! The Bobcats were pretty upset when they started realizing they were getting outplayed and that they were losing. They fouled just for the sake of fouling. Almost as if they just didn't care anymore. Jerome steals the ball, so another naughty little Bobcat would trip, push, MANHANDLE the poor girl. It was vicious. And, though I'm not a basketball player, I do know that fouling isn't the goal of the game. It's rather frowned upon. Which is why you can get kicked out of the game for it. I realize there are times when you have your team strategically foul and what not...but not so maliciously. Or maybe I'm wrong. Oh well. One of the Bobcat girls even got a technical called on her. The girl! So, you can see how HOT it was getting in there.

No matter, the Tigers kept it going till the end and won the game by around 10 points!

And you know what that means?????

They are DISTRICT CHAMPIONS! We are so happy for Jordan. What a way to end her high school basketball career! She is a senior, so it's a great way to go out. Now, they are on to state in a couple of weeks. We're rooting for you Jordan! Go Tigers!

Happy Birthday Papa!

Yes, another bday in the family! My dad turns the BIG 55 tomorrow! We celebrated this last weekend as my sister, Melanie, {or as I lovingly call her, Smelly} came to help us celebrate it. It was fun to have her here with all the kids. This is Landon and Talon checking out the book I got for Papa. Lots of pictures in that one.

Mackenzee was in heaven and I got replaced as the official "best friend" by Savanna. Sigh. At least I'm back to the #1 spot today. :0)

Yes, this is a picture of my daughter opening up her Papa's bday present. Sigh. She just took it from him. Fortunately for him, it wasn't anything she wanted so she gave it back to him.

So, Happy Birthday Papa! Hope you have a wonderful day!

Tiger Power {clap clap, clap clap clap}

So, I'm a little late in posting this. BUT...

Friday night was the big district finals game between Burley and Jerome. So, we all went over to Jerome to watch Jordan play.

She's #10 here in the picture.

Can I just tell you what a CRAZY game that was? From the first second of the game till the last dying seconds it was FIERCE. I had no idea that a girls high school basketball game could get that way. My brother in law's face was red, eyes watery as he screams at the idiotic referee not protecting his daughter from the barrage of fouls coming her way. Even Jaysen's dad got into the yelling. {not as loudly though} Towards the end poor Rita {Jaysen's mom} was getting physically ill because it was getting so intense. And, I will have to say {though I didn't YELL it} I was "talking loudly" when they missed a shot {oh no!}, or threw a bad pass {good passes guys!}, or when one of Jerome's players got smacked in the head by a bad little Bobcat and the ref didn't call anything {WHAT? Did you just see that Jaysen? Does that happen ALL the time? Holy cow! Is that not considered a foul? It is? So that a bad ref huh? You know, he was my Vice Principal when I was a senior in High School. No, I can't tell him to be nice to the girls. He probably doesn't even remember me.}

Both teams have a lot riding on these games as they decide who goes to state and in what ranking. Currently Jerome is ranked #1 in their district and #2 in the entire state. They are good. :0) Yes I am bragging on my neice. Her little teammate Aubree Callen is amazing as well. They did a great job of holding off the Bobcats and basically driving them crazy. It wasn't a high scoring game, and most of Burley's points came from foul shots. :0) It ended up at the end of the game again, just as last time, though no at the buzzer basket for Burley to send it into overtime. So yay! We won! Barely...but Jerome still won! Mackenzee shook those little orange pom-poms like crazy rooting them on too. :0)

Unfortunately, Burley won their qualifying game yesterday, and so now they have to match up again this next week before they go on to State Tournaments. We will be going again to cheer on our Tiger. Pom-poms and all. Maybe I should bring some Tums for Rita.