We Heart Surprises

The boys love mail period. They also love surprises. So, when you put the two together and get SURPRISE MAIL it's a great day! They just about flipped out when I told them they had gotten a package today. Then, a little peek inside revealed that it was FULL of Star Wars goodies!! Does it get much better than that in this house?!Grant got the Yoda pen and the Falcon. ( Each one took whichever bag they pulled out.)

Cade was all, "Ohhhhh!!! Coooooollll!" when he saw that he had gotten the Star Destroyer. He also chose the Vader pen. Did you know that pens can fasten to your pants and become mini light sabers? I just found that out this evening.

And Rhett came out with the un-named "coolest ship ever" that "drops bombs" and the R2D2 pen. I'm going to have to keep tabs on that pen. I feel it will be a likely source of wall writings and such. The hands on this little body do some creepy things sometimes.......alot of times.The sticker books were a hit. They spent most of their time flipping through them and talking about which movie they were from.
Little Buddy did try the stickers out on his skin. You can see it on his arm there. And, no, they didn't lie.......they ARE, in fact, removeable. He wore it for a bit, peeled it off, and placed it back in the book for later use.

This turned out to be one of the best days ever! A big thanks to our Surprise Star Wars package sender. You're welcome to come and duel with us any time. You've made some very happy Jedi!

And, by the way, have I ever mentioned to you how much I love Jimmy Choo's and Manolo Blahnik's? I'd LOVE to get a Suprise package filled with that. I mean, I'm just sayin'.

Pure Vintage

The boys had a play day at my mom's house the other day and according to Little Buddy I didn't dress him appropriately for the weather. He told my mother that he needed a long sleeved t-shirt in order to be able to play outside comfortably. She did a little digging and came up with this: It's a t-shirt that she'd saved from my elementary school days! It was either mine or Tracie's.....we're not 100% sure but in any case the little shirt is 25 plus years old! It fit him like a glove which leads me to wonder at what age my parents sent me to school. Surely I was bigger than a 3 year old. Maybe it WAS my sister's. She and Rhett are not far off in poundage even today. Man, the memories that come along with that shirt.......jelly bracelet trading, Mr. Gosney's class (loved that man), playing tag on the playground, kicking tail in tether ball at recess, dropping the thermometer that the secretary used to check my temperature and watching mercury ball up and roll across the floor, puking in the garbage can in the lobby while the entire school was walking through heading back to their classes...... Well, that's not a fun memory but a memory nonetheless. Aaahhh. The good ol' days when life was simple and my biggest concern was if Gwen Turner was still going to be my friend on any given day. Those were the days.....

Spring Has Sprung!

I LOVE when spring comes. The weather starts warming up a bit, trees start blooming, the grass starts greening up. What I don't love is that in recent years I've developed some pretty aggravating allergies. This time last year I took some Zyrtec after sneezing at least 180 times on a school field trip and then I proceeded to fall dead asleep in the car while waiting in the car rider line. It was really embarrassing when the teacher physically opened my car door and nudged me awake. Anyway, last year we had a mommy robin take up residence in one of our bushes. She laid 3 little blue eggs and we got to watch them hatch and grow. Here's a pic of one of the babies. We're hoping she comes back this year to do the same. She may choose otherwise since I kept shoving my camera into the bush to snap photos of her little ones. She probably felt like Angelina and her brood. I'll try to tone it down this year if she decides to come back. The boys loved running out there each day to see how much the babies had grown. I did find myself worried about her and the babies when it rained and stormed, though. Bobby had to gently remind me that she was a BIRD and that she could take care of herself.

Happy Spring! Hope you get little birdies to peek in on too!

Paisley Party

We started off our 2009 tour of concerts with some great friends and a little Brad Paisley. We went to his show last year and loved every minute of it. So, when we saw he was coming back to the Sommet we were all over it. Bobby finagled and got us some great tickets.....again.Darius Rucker opened up at first. You may remember him as Hootie. He did a great job and has made the transition from pop to country guy pretty well. We didn't get to see his entire performance but caught most of it. In an effort to corrupt the Joneses one family at a time, (if you remember, K and T toured with us to Rascal Flatts in '08), we forced Brent and Ashley to tag along and sing loudly to secular music. Don't worry. Brent was very well behaved and is still fully prepared to lead missions. He'll just have some new songs to sing in the shower.Dierks Bentley was the second show opener. He had quite a few songs that I knew. I was glad to see that he had decided to let his hair grow out some. A while back he had gotten all his curls cut off and I personally believe that it was detrimental to his career. Give him about another 8-10 months of growth and it'll be back to good.This is when the concert picked up for sure. Bobby tried to snap a pic of our concert faces but after several attempts this was the final product. I was laughing so hard I was crying. And, yes, there is gum in my mouth. I'm addicted to gum. Have been for years. I figure it's better than being addicted to cigarettes or alcohol........and cheaper. If I were as cool as Misty I would have just photoshopped it out. But I'm not. Dierks had to change clothes. I guess all of his running around made his pits sweat or something. Much to my horror, during the show Dierks went to some total stranger with a beer and took a swig of his drink. Now, my friends, does he not know that I have home churched for the last three weeks due to flu and strep throat??? Did his mama not teach him that drinks are not to be shared......especially when you don't know where someones mouth has been?? Seriously. I had to give him a black X for that. When his hair grows out a little better I'll think about removing it.And, to the main show: Brad Paisley who never disappoints. He is a serious guitar player and I love it.I was able ( with Bobby's help.... because he DID snap a few shots for me) to get quite a few really good pics of him. I'm sure that once this gets posted on the WWW that people magazine with be calling me with offers. Pretty sure. Not positive. But pretty sure.

One of my favorite parts of the concert was when he sat on a stool and just sang by himself and played the guitar. He didn't even sing his own songs. Just whatever. It was great.And, the best picture of all:

Despite your first impression of the picture.....there was no alcohol involved. There was enough alcohol and inappropriate make out sessions surrounding us that there was no need for us to get involved. It was a great night with great friends at a rockin' concert. Next in line: Kanye West and 50 Cent. I'll buy my tickets as soon as my bullet proof vest comes in from Amazon.

Top Notch Reader

Cade got to participate in the assembly at his school this week by being chosen to receive the Certificate of Excellence in Reading. I was really proud of him for being chosen because he really has been working hard on becoming a better reader. This week he brought home his first chapter book and did pretty well with it. I hope he develops a love for reading like I have. The kids that were chosen this time got to compete in a relay race. It was intense let me tell ya.

Cade's team won ( I'm pretty sure) based on the way they were jumping and passing out high fives at the end.

Rhett was the biggest supporter from our family. He wasn't scared to belt out some hoopin' and hollerin'. He was seriously screaming his head off. Grant refused to be photographed but was actually there. He came home and immediately took some Ibuprofen because "all those screaming kids gave him a headache". Way to go, Cade! Keep up the good work!

I Almost Had to Use It

Some things just last a lot longer than you anticipate. In fact, most of the time you forget about said things. And, suddenly, they reappear. They reappear when you'd least expect it. Such as, say, when you are coming back to your home after dropping ALL the kids at school and you realize that you accidentally left the garage door open. Feeling fairly sure that no one actually used this opportunity to let themselves in you walk nonchalantly into your kitchen, walk past the opening to the dining room.........and see this: You must realize that this balloon that just fails to die (not unlike the real Darth Vader) is the exact same height as me and when you see it in your periphery it nearly causes a coronary. After I collected myself and realized that it was a stinkin' balloon and not a crazed maniac trying to get me I laughed and vowed that it would NOT startle me like that again. Until it showed up a couple days later behind the door of my laundry room...

I NEARLY had to pull out my karate skills. What? You didn't know that I know Kung Fu? Well, some I learned from a panda but back in the 90's I made it all.the.way. to yellow belt in Wado Ryu.

I'm just sayin'. I've got some serious hidden skillz. So, if you're planning on attacking me any time soon you'd better give it a second thought. There is no telling when all these suppressed roundhouse kicks and gut punches will resurface.

The Mandatory Snow Post

I love snow like the one we experienced today. It comes in while you're sleeping (so as not to interfere with the day's plans), gives you lots of fun the next morning, and then quickly disappears so you're not stranded at the house for days on end. And, you don't have to fight the crowds at the store in order to get milk and bread. The boys were excited to see the whiteness that covered our yard. So excited that Grant woke me at about 1:35am to ask me if I knew that there was snow everywhere. "Well, son, not really......being that I'm SLEEPING!" I think his original reason for getting up was a bad dream but who knows. Cade was siked because we had bought a new sled about a month ago. I thought for sure that it would be Murphy's Law that since we now actually OWNED a sled, we wouldn't get any more snowfall for the year. If you remember, last year our redneck family attempted to sled down our hill on a piece of box that I had torn. Totally embarrassing.




Bobby tried his hand at a triple decker sled down the hill. It didn't go over too well but that didn't stop the smiles.

You can't hang around this crowd too long without hearing "OHHHH, my TENDERS!!!" which is exactly what Rhett is yelling after receiving a swift moving snowball to the "area" in this pic. Thank you Kung Tu Fanda (Rhett language) for instilling this ever so useful statement into our everyday vocabulary.

I got my turn to try out the new sled before the snow melted away. By the way, I love snow outfits. This jacket of Bobby's really just hugs my curves in all the right places. Makes me feel like a woman.

A great big woman.

Rhett braved the sled alone but then decided to ride piggyback with Bobby. Previously, I would wait for him at the bottom and then stop him before he slid into the creek at the bottom of the hill. This time Bobby was doing the stopping but Rhett didn't get it. I took this pic just as the concern crept upon his face. Seconds later he screamed, "OH NO" and bailed.

He had a lot of fun just surveying the snow and making snowballs.

And, this post wouldn't be complete if I didn't add a little bit of this.

Frigid temps and snowballs can't even keep this crack from surfacing!