No School Days

Yesterday and today were parent teacher conferences at Landon's school. This means...NO SCHOOL for the kiddos.

Be prepared for this post. I'm going to reveal how bad of a mommy I am....

Now, if you know anything about me, I have OCD tendencies. :0) I like routine. I like to know what's going on, and when it's going to go on so that I can prepare for the going's on. Got it? On a normal weekday, it's just me and Kenzee at home, hanging out. A couple of times a week there are errands involved. But, for the most part, we just hang out. Well, let me clarify on the hanging out...I blog, check my email, do the laundry, wash the dishes, pick up endless piles of toys..you know the drill. As for Mackenzee....she gets in a lot of Dora and Boots, Curious George, and Kai-lan. {My daughter can say Ni-hao [which is hello in Chinese] because of dear Kai-lan!} She also likes to try to drive me crazy by bringing ALL of her toys from her bedroom to the living room and getting into things she's not supposed to. There are usually a few temper tantrums thrown in there as well. {there are also tickle monsters, singing songs, dancing, and lots of trips to the potty} It's our routine. We've got it down pat.

Then comes the Parent Teacher Conference Days. Landon is home. And, as much as I love having him home with me...he seriously throws off my routine. I had plans yesterday. Bank, post office, grocery store, and Target. Guess how much I got done? Let's see...bank? nope! post office? nope! Target? nope! I did make a quick run into Smith's while Landon was at Cub Scouts.....at 4:15. My morning was shot. Between play dates, and fighting siblings...my plans were shot down. And to top it all off....Landon told me earlier in the week that I didn't have to go to P/T Conferences because it was just an open house. His report card was sent home in his backpack, and there was also a note that said I could just come anytime on Thursday and Landon could show me how he does his 50 in a minute and what not. Well, if I'm not required to go, and all I'll get out of it is to watch my kid do math problems {which we do every night at home anyway} I'm going to skip this one. Dragging my mischevious little toddler in there was horrible enough last time. If I don't have to deal with it, I'm not going to. So, I didn't even think about it yesterday. 4:05 comes and Landon says, "MOM! We were supposed to go to P/T Conferences today!" I remind him of what he told me and he said "Yeah, if you were SICK you didn't have to go." What? Then, when I checked the caller ID, I saw that his teacher had tried to call me from the school. Sigh. Good job slacker mom Ashlee. :0( Holy cow. So, not only did I not get anything accomplished, I was probably the only mom that DIDN'T show up to school yesterday. Nice....

Now, for a cute happy thought. Sort of. It's 9:30 in the morning. My kids have already been fighting. I remind Landon that he is in desperate need of a shower. After reminding him THREE times, he finally goes to do it. Mackenzee stars crying and pounding on the door. She strips naked while doing this. She wants to come and play in the shower too. I tell her that she can't. Landon is big and needs to take a shower by himself. She keeps crying and climbs into my lap and I tell her I'm sorry. After a few minutes of her being sad, she looks up at me, puts her hands up on top of her head and says, "I on't be big TOO mommy" It was sad and cute at the same time. She wants to be able to do what Landon does. She adores him and idolizes him. He's just so much bigger than she is, so it makes it hard for her. Sadly, she'll be big soon enough. As frustrating as she can be sometimes, can't she just stay little forever? I mean seriously, she posed for this picture after it all happened. No 16 year old is going to do that for her mommy. :0)

Family Bonding.....

My older sister, Melanie, came up from Rexburg for Paige's baby blessing.

It's so fun when they all come to visit. Especially for my kids. They miss their cousins SO much. What was even better, my nephew Austin was able to come and stay with me for the weekend too while his parents went up early to help out Crystal. So, the boys especially had a good time. There were two birthdays in our family in March, and so I was able to pass along the presents in the actual same month as their birthdays. Last year, I think poor Emily got her present in September. :0(She was so cute about the present too. I got a great big hug from her for it and she immediately went off to play with her new Blendy Pens. {by the way, they are nifty little pens!}

No hug from Nathaniel, but that's ok. He's 16 now....hugs aren't expected. :0) He did get excited over his iTunes gift card. Please use it on GOOD music Nate. Please? No screaming songs....for at least a couple of them. Try out Jack Johnson or even Panic at the Disco. Good stuff there! Just some suggestions anyway.....

Mackenzee ate up all of the attention that she got from cousins and her aunt Melanie. She actually fell asleep in Melanie's arms as she was read to. I was grateful as otherwise there would have been no nap for my little girl and it made the night bearable. She was getting pretty whiney :0).

The last time they came to visit, I took our Wii and Guitar Hero over to my mom's house for the kid's to play with. Nate and Jon were amazed at my wicked awesome guitar playing skills {I can only play on the Medium level} and so they went home and bought Guitar Hero for themselves to practice up. My sister prepped me before they came, letting me know that Nate was going to BRING IT so I better be ready. I rarely play the game, but figured it was all in good fun anyway. So, I took over the Wii again this last weekend with our Guitar so we could battle it out. They brought their guitar and so this time two people could play at a time.

Austin was really uncertain about playing it and wouldn't for a while. But Talon said he would help him, and after that first song, he was hooked. He didn't need any help.... ;0)

Landon got crazy with it. He was dancing and singing along. He does think he's the expert at the game....but then again....he thinks he's the expert of everything.

The little girls wanted to join in on the fun, but couldn't play it by themselves. I helped Savanna and Stephanie play...and actually sat Kenzee on my lap and help her strum along to a song as well. Emily was finally talked into playing and had Stephen push the colored buttons while she strummed. She did pretty good!

Stephen got a little hooked on the game as well. {Melanie, you're really going to have to buy one now!} Here he is playing against Nate. Don't they look fierce?

Stephen nabbed a shot of me as I was playing against Nate. He wasn't content with me just playing on the medium level against him, so I told him I'd give the 'hard' level a go. {He plays on the expert level} Do you see the concentration on my face. The hard level really is HARD! All those buttons to worry about! But, I will let all of you know...that I am still Queen of the Guitar Hero around these parts. Which is saying something since I never actually play the game. :0) I'm pretty impressed with myself. I barely beat Jon though...by only about 600 points {which isn't very much in this game}. Next time they come I may have my work cut out for me.

Talon got pretty good at the game as well. He played a couple of songs on the medium level by the time the day was through.

All in all it was a fun weekend. I love hanging out with the family, and playing around with the kids. Even if they do think they can take me in Guitar Hero.

Truly Blessed

My sister blessed her baby this last weekend and so the WHOLE family went up to Boise for the special occasion. It's the first time that all of us have been together since Christmas, so it was fun for all the cousins to get together and play.

This is my baby sister, Crystal, with her adorable baby, Paige.

This is Paige. The newest member of our crazy family. She is so tiny! She weighs almost nothing {at least compared to my baby} and is such a good baby. She slept most of the afternoon.

This is my Grandma, holding her newest Great Grandbaby. She won't be the newest for long as my cousin is having a baby in about three weeks. :0) Lots of babies around here! My Grams made the blanket that Paige is snuggled in and she just loves it. She would turn her head so that she could feel it on her cheek. Such a cutie!

And these are ALL of the crazy kids. My mom's 15 grandkids. Good looking bunch of kids if you ask me. :0) I think it must be genetics.

I figured we'd better get a picture of all of them together because it doesn't happen very often.


Sadly, I realized I didn't end up with a single picture of my parents with their newest grandchild. So, if any of you have a copy...I'd love to get one from you! Thanks!

Anyway...all in all such a good day. I ended it with TWO yummy brownie concoctions that my sister made. I'm going to post the recipe on my baking blog, so if you want to check it out.....you won't regret it. They are SO good. :0)

She is adorable Crystal! We love her to pieces!

Baby Love

So, my sister has gone home. She left this morning. I was sad I couldn't spend more time with her. She came over on Monday and hung out for a few hours while my mom taught her piano lessons.

And then on Tuesday they were gone all morning shopping for things they needed for a project my mom was working on. So, I didn't get to go out and visit until 2:30ish. But then I had to leave at 5:00 because of Landon's scout meeting, so it wasn't for very long. And yesterday, my dear son decided he needed to be sick and stay home from school. I didn't want to get new baby sick, so there was no way we were going out to visit with my sicko. Miraculously, he felt better around dinner time so we were able to go out around 5:30ish. But, it just wasn't long enough! :0)

The short time we did get to spend with her was nice though. I know my mom LOVED having them stay with her so she could be a grandma to them all. We miss them so much since they moved away last summer. I enjoyed holding Paige immensely as well. :0) She loves me. Seriously...I'm her favorite. :0) Landon was quite taken with her as well.

He was dying to hold her on Tuesday, so we got him all set and he just stared at her for a while with a big goofy grin on his face. Kenzee held Paige a few times as well and "helped" Nana rock her to sleep last night. She couldn't get enough of her. Crystal got Kenzee to tell me that she wanted a baby sister...but just so you all know...this is still not going to happen! I will enjoy holding my new neice and soon to be new nephew {Jaysen's brother is expecting a new addition to his family in a few weeks as well.} and be content.

Anyway...it was great to have you here Crystal! Sorry we couldn't visit more! But I'll see you in a couple of days!

I've been pinned!

My son is now a Bobcat. Not a real Bobcat...in the cub scout program. :0)
I am clueless when it comes to scouting stuff. I' m a girl. SO, obviously I haven't had any experience in this kind of stuff. So, when my friend {who is also one of the den leaders} called to tell me about the Den Meeting, and that Landon could get his Bobcat if he finished the stuff in the book I was totally confused. You mean we're supposed to do some of this stuff at home? Yeah....Clueless. She kindly explained it, and so I was all set to get Landon in gear during Spring Break so that he could get his Bobcat at the Den Meeting.

I explain all of this stuff to Landon, and we started going over the little "pamphlet" that is attached to the front of the manual. It took a little time as there was a lot to cover. Part of me was truly sad that part of the required curiculum now contained 'How To Protect Your Children From Child Abuse: A Parent's Guide' because it shows what a truly sad world we live in. My kid is 8. He should be able to live in innocence and not even have to know that there are bad things in life like this. But, I understand the reasoning behind it. It's better to make them aware to prevent horrible things, than to keep them in innocence and have it be taken from them. It's just sad is all.....

Back on topic here! We went through the pamphlet...it took some time. Then we started to get into the memorizing stuff. After about 20 minutes of attempting to get both the Cub Scout Promise and The Law of the Pack memorized, Landon wanted to quit Cub Scouts. :0) Sigh. I'm sure he was figuring it was Spring Break and he just wanted to go off and play. So, I told him fine. I wasn't going to force it. I reminded him that all of his friends would be getting their Bobcat at the meeting, but if he didn't care, it was up to him. He was shocked that I gave in so easily, but merrily went on his way to play. I figured he would change his mind about wanting to do it all after the Den Meeting when he saw his friends getting their awards. Imagine my surprise when not 10 minutes later he came back to me and said, "Ok, I've got it this time." And said the Law of the Pack from memory! Kudos to you Landon. He didn't give up. {which is unlike my son...he'd rather take the easy road.} So, we finished up the requirements for his Bobcat and even got some of the requirements done for a few other areas in the Wolf portion of the book. So, we were all set!

The Den Meeting was last night. We played a few games and at the end they got to break the pinata they had made at the last pack meeting. Landon had the final hit to the pinata that broke it open {Sadly, he later told me it was because he could "kinda" see and knew where to swing. CHEATER! Melanie...we should have put that blindfold on tighter! It wouldn't have hurt him...too badly anyway.... :0)} Anyway, during the "awards ceremony" Landon was able to get his Bobcat patch {something else for me to pretend to know how to sew onto his uniform!} and unknown to me...the mommies get little pins too! I assume it's because everyone knows that behind every little boy who has accomplished their scouting goals is a mommy who helped him do it. So, Landon "pinned me" last night in front of everyone. It was cute.

AND...he saw that a couple of his friends got their little Wolf badge to hang their beads on. He immediately turned around and said, "How come they got those?" Yes, he is addicted to scouting now. I don't know if it's for the right reasons...but hopefully he'll at least learn something in the process of getting all those little beads and arrows. :0)

Thanks Jodi and Melanie for being such great Den Leaders! Landon is having so much fun with it thanks to all your hard work.

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!