Unproductive

Ahhhhh.....the DS. The boy's favorite handheld game. The pint sized toy that provides hours of fun...... The absolute thorn in my side. Yes. Yes, it has yielded some quietness in the morning that in turn has allowed me to sleep an extra half hour. This is what I see when I walk out of my room nearly every morning of the summer and pretty much any free moment that they have:

You may be wondering what the big hairy is. The hairy deal is that when this contraption is open all ears close off. I have to repeat every thing at least 15 times.
We're leaving! Put your shoes on! Put your shoes on. Put your shoes on. Put your shoes on. I'm in the garage in the car! Put your shoes on. Put your shoes on!

Huh? Did you say something?
This DS addiction has certainly gone to another level with the teaching of the younger offspring. I caught Grant teaching Tee-Tiny all about his DS the other morning.
Surprising enough, she was paying attention. I must divert her attention from now on and remind her that she doesn't love DS like her brothers. She loves shoes. Yeah, shoes.
And, of course, Justin Beiber. Just a few more days until the DS goes back into it's special place only to be played on the weekends. School is just around the corner and as much as I hate to see summer go, I'm ready to see my kiddos doing something productive!

Hmmmm?

Hmmmm.......I wonder where my glasses are? I sawed them like 4 days ago or somethin'....

Wellllll, good grief.....beef. I don't have a clue......boo. Maybe they're inside......or outside in the grass....flass. Why don't YOU look for 'em......book snore 'em.
The preceding is an actual conversation with an actual child that for the past month has stuck a rhyming word (or collection of letters that may or may not classify as a true word) to the end of nearly every.single.sentence that flows from his mouth. I know it's taken it's toll on the family when I hear Bobby call out, "Rhetters! Go get in the shower......bower!" It's all about communicating on their level, you know? About the glasses, I'm one day away from making good on my Target Optical Insurance. Please let me know if the rogue glasses are floating in your back yard. Nothing would surprise me at this point.....boint.

Summer Slumber

Since the beginning of the summer Cade and Grant decided that they were going to be bed buddies and double up on Grant's spacious full size mattress. I didn't mind them sharing just as long as everyone was getting appropriate sleep and not being whine-bags the next day due to exhaustion. After being up late one night feeding Elaina, I decided to hop on over and just check on the boys one more time before I hit the sack. Cade was snug as bug in Grant's bed.

I scanned, looking for Grant but didn't see him immediately......probably because he wasn't there. He had opted for a more unconventional sleep area.
Fast asleep. Snoring in his skivvies.
I picked him up (which, might I add, is much harder these days) and placed him back in the bed. Cade rolled over immediately and gave him the hand of submission. I would have gone out on a limb and said it was a "love pat" or a "glad you're back" caress, but I know these two too well. It was most definitely the hand of submission.
The next morning I questioned Grant about why on earth he was in the floor. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, it was a regular nighttime occurrence. I guess it's just cool to camp somewhere else in your room. I had to break up the party and create some sleep time rules: Cade needs to be in his own bed, and if I catch Grant sleeping in the floor again I'm taking his bed to GoodWill.

The Fever

My Little Tee-Tiny has started throwing out some smiles and I couldn't be more happy about it. I do find it slightly aggravating though that I am with her ALL day, changing her poop diapers, feeding her on a nice, tidy schedule, cuddling her for no reason other than I like the way her little baby body feels in my arms, and did I mention changing her poop diapers? Anyway, and I can talk to her for 10 minutes straight with nothing but this expression:

Then her daddy walks in the door from work and gets the full mouth grin. What's up with that? I've finally found something that works 99.987% of the time to get a great grin out of this baby girl and really has nothing to do with me at all. She's got the fever.......
The Beiber Fever.

It all started after we watched the E Entertainment channel special "Justin Beiber: In My World". It was riveting. What got her hooked though? His "Baby, Baby, Baby" song. Don't act like a thirty-something and pretend you're all, "Who is Justin Beiber?" He's only like the biggest tween phenomenon giving the JoBros a run for their moola.

So, you want a smile and a lot of cooing? Sing a little "Baby, Baby, Baby, OHhhhh" and this is a small sample of the reward:

Yep. My baby girl gots the fever. Looks like Bobby and I will start our 2010 Tour of Concerts with Lanie in her Baby Bjorn rockin' it out with Beiber. That wouldn't be weird. at all.

Extravaganza Celebration Jubilee!

Freedom Celebration Day rolled around again and I LOVED having Tee-Tiny here to celebrate with us! I got our usual patriotic t's at the Tarjay but there was nada for the little one. Luckily, her favorite mocha friend had saved hers and we were able to make use of it! Here's the best we could do for a sibling shot......and as in many of my pictures, someone has gum in their mouth. I've created a gum addiction that runs deeply into this family.

Bobby had worked for nearly a year collecting explosives for his arsenal. The night before the 4th Rhett said, "When I wake up will it be the forf ub July?"..... I responded "yes." Rhett, with fist pump, "Yessssssss. I can't wait to blow up somethin'!"


I had a little fun myself this year pulling out some head gear that I had purchased years ago for a photo op for the day the child we brought home via international adoption became a US citizen. However, being that our babe was born in the good ol' US of A, I whipped them out as celebratory head garb. One of us loved it. One of us didn't. You decide.
A definite small people crowd pleaser is always the little firecrackers Bobby gets. This year it was tanks vs. fire engines vs. helicopters.

Everyone was surprised when the fire engine ended up being the winner.
All eyes were on the street......well, almost all eyes. Some little little people were inside and didn't partake in this set of festivities.
Mostly boys. With a few gals thrown in for good measure.
My fav picture of the entire night is this one. Sista's from a different Mista: Mmmmmm. Couldn't you just eat this up??
The kiddos had a great time running out in the yard and playing a quick pick up game of wiffle ball.
And, as every year, there is always a picture that someone, unbeknownst to you, sneaks into and you don't realize it until the pictures are downloaded. This time it was Ashley stealing my thunder......
usually it's Jon. In the women's picture.
Our night sky was lit up like downtown Nashville. Minus the river front. And the music. And a couple thousand people.

We had a blast eating steaks (and chicken for us white-meaters) and laughing with our friends. We are praising the Lord for another year down without third-degree burns or missing appendages :) And, for the love of all that is good, and right and true, remember how much you love celebrating freedom come November. That's all I'm going to say about that because this here blog doesn't do deep :)

Happy 4th of July, folks!

Important Words

So many things about having a daughter make me smile. This particular conversation (albeit pretty much one-sided) is definitely one thing that made me smile and Bobby sigh all at the same time.

Me: "Lanie, can you say 'MaMa'? 'MaaaMaaa'?"

Elaina: nothing.

Me: "Well, how about 'Dada'? Can you say 'DaaaaDaaaa'?"

Elaina: nada.
Me: "Okay. Let's practice the most important word of all: Shoes. Can you say 'shoes'??"

Elaina: "Ooooooo. Oooooooo."

I'm not even kidding! This is the first indication that Bobby is in real trouble with this gal. So, in my "nature vs. nurture" questioning........check one for nurture. This baby girl is showing definite signs of being ALL mine!

Desperate Measures

Even though we live in a pretty close quartered neighborhood, we've been blessed with a really large back yard. I find that many times I'm standing on our back deck yelling my head off at the boys with little to no chance of them ever responding. Now, mind you, some of that may be selective hearing. However, since my children are near perfect obeyers and listeners (humph....), I will chose to believe that it is the breeze carrying my sweet voice to places unwanted. So, in my desperation to keep the kids out of the tiny creek water with their good shoes, and to get Bobby to retreat from his golfing green for dinner in a timely fashion, I broke down and bought:

A megaphone.

Now that baseball has concluded we are once again going to have time to spend out in the back yard chasing rabbits and scoping out the area in the trees that the boys are convinced would be a great spot for Grandpa to construct the perfect secret clubhouse. I'm sure this new purchase is going to cut down on the time I spend overworking my vocal chords. In fact, not only does it work when the boys are far away, I've also found that it's not too shabby in close range either. Looks like mom's voice won't be ignored around these parts any longer!