Happy Birthday, Callie!

Today Callie turns 4. The day she was born I rode to the hospital in an ambulance after having a lovely nap with my boys in the late afternoon. I’ll spare you the gory details about why I had to go in an ambulance. Anyway, she turned out to be my easiest and fastest birth. And there’s a reason for that. The picture below about sums up my daughter half the time:



We call that her “bully” pose. If she went to regular school, she’d be a Mean Girl cheerleader homecoming queen class president kind of chick. We have our struggles … she’s a lot different than raising the boys. I’m not sure if it’s because she’s a girl, because of her age or because she thinks she’s 25.

I could kill this woman at church who told Callie, “You’re the boss.” Callie pulls that on me all the time now: “That woman at church said I’M the boss.” Strangers: be quiet!

This kid can throw one hell of a fit. She completely melts down when things don’t go her way, and she spends some time in her room to cool down. Thankfully, it happens less the older she gets.

The rest of the time she’s the sweetest thing ever. She paints my nails, does my makeup, sits through ANY movie with me (we saw Bride Wars recently), helps with the baby, helps me cook, yells at the boys for me when they get too rowdy. She is smart and witty and funny and adorable. I can’t wait to see what she grows up to be … I’m thinking good career choices would be Parole Officer or Actress.

I love you, Callie Grace, and I always will.

Ride the Ducks in Branson!

If you ever get the chance to Ride the Ducks, DO IT! We did this last year in Branson, Missouri and the kids DUG IT! Plus everyone gets a duck call, which makes for tons of fun (and parental headaches) in the car and at home later.



We’re going again this summer. We used to go out drinking and dancing at clubs for fun. Now we Ride the Ducks. Aron and I are such geezers that we prefer the Ducks these days!

I’m always looking for good vacation spots: What’s your best vacation spot/activity?

4/17/12 We still have this annoying and fun little duck whistle!

When Kids Crash on Their Mom

This is a rare photo taken January 2. I love having all my kids asleep snug in their beds while I roam the house and check on them, but I also love when they crash all around me.

I Hate When They’re Right

Me: Joel, how many episodes of Tailspin are left on this DVD? Because if there are only a couple, we’ll just start school once it’s all over.

Joel: I don’t know.

Me: Really? You loaded up the DVD and it shows how many episodes are on it and you had to choose the episode you were on from last night. You don’t know how many are left?

Joel: I don’t know.

Me: What would you say if God asked you?

Joel: He wouldn’t ask me because He would already know.

Product Review: Perler Beads

Since today is the 6th time Eva has gotten a Perler Bead stuck on her bottom tooth, I figured I’d better write about how great these things are. Yeah, I know, we don’t worry about our kids choking on things, we worry about them getting them stuck on their teeth.

Santa brought little starter sets of these cool things, and the boys went so nutty over them that I sprung for the tub o’beads at Michael’s (don’t be dumb like me: wait for the coupon to come out because the tub is like $13). Still, I’ll happily pay that for hours of fun and creative outlet.

Basically you put these plastic beads on boards that look like tiny cleats. You make cool designs (you have no idea how many different options there are; even Glow-in-the-Dark Perler beads!!!). Then you have an adult iron the board so the beads melt together.



Sorry about this one ... I forgot to get it flipped sideways for the posting and I'm posting this off-site. Just turn your bean to the left to see it ...


You know how I don’t iron clothes, right? So for a few days the boys would only wait until their dad got home to iron their Perler bead designs. Then I got fed up with being treated like a domestic moron and took over.

Look out! Mommy’s ironing!

Apparently I got the job because the boys now want “Mommy to do it.” Good Lord, next I’ll be sewing BUTTONS on stuff!!!!!!!