First Love

I write posts for many reasons, but mostly because I want my kids to be able to look back one day and relive their childhood. I want them to read all these experience and feel how much I love them.

And that's what this post is about. Feeling love.

I was helping in Ben's class yesterday. I was standing across the room swapping out their books in a bag. Ben's seat is across the room and his back is to me. I'm working away and I stop for a moment. I can feel him staring at me.

I look up and our eyes meet. He holds my gaze. I give him a small smile and he smiles back. He then turned around and kept working. It was a tiny moment, only a few seconds really. But I could feel how much he loves me.

Later that night, I asked Ben about that moment and what he was thinking. After a little blushing, he said he thought I was pretty and he loves me. How sweet is that?

Ben's first love is me, his Mom. And Emily's is her Daddy. Still at 9 years old, she thinks the sun rises and sets with her Dad. We are their first loves and I think that's exactly how it should be.

Worn Out

Today was a beautiful 45 degrees. It was time to get out and defrost with friends. We rode bikes to the park. Played for a few hours and rode home.

Noah came home and fell asleep in the middle of playing on my phone. Look at his little finger still on the screen. He's so sweet. It was a fun filled day.

This is a Test

I'm trying this out...a post from my phone.

I helped in the kids classes this morning and saw this on the bulletin board outside of Em's class.

In Bens class, we celebrated the 100 th day of school.

Fun! Fun!

Update: Okay, that works pretty well and easy, but it has to be for short quick posts. And I can't insert pictures exactly where I want them. They just show up at the bottom. All in all though, I would say it's a success and super easy to do a little post here and there. You know, to make my Dad happy.

Just Hangin' Around

I think it definitely helps to have something fun and active for the kids indoors. It was 0 degrees here with the windchill the other morning. IN ARIZONA! Crazy.

The spider dome is still a huge hit. This is Emily's new trick today.

She's awesome.

Then, I found this scene in her Barbie Dream House.

That's Ken mooning you. I'm not sure what exactly is going in, but I don't think it's rated G. So, I asked Emily about it and she said she didn't pose them like that. She said the Barbies were having a slumber party in the bunk beds, but Ken wasn't invited. Then Noah fessed up to adding Ken to the mix. Figures.

Around Our House

My Dad complained yesterday about my lack of blog posts lately. For him to notice and call to voice a complaint is a pretty serious matter. I must remedy the situation. Plus, it was my Dad's birthday yesterday so I want to make him happy.

Things have been busy lately. Getting back into the groove after Christmas break is not easy. It's always hard having all 3 kids home all day every day, but it's also a lot easier. Late nights, lazy mornings, having no schedule is a beautiful thing.

Our friends hosted their annual adults only party in Phoenix this past weekend. Here are the lovely hosts, Amy and Colby.

They put on a great party with good friends, good food and good conversation.

We do a really yummy fondue dinner. Here's me with my best friend Pam.

And me and my good looking hubby.

We go down for the party and come back home after. It's just easier to wake up at our own house. Of course the kids were up waiting for us at 11:30. My Mom has no rules, but they are safe and have fun and that's all we ask of the Granny Nanny. Ha!

The second quarter of school has ended and Emily had an awards assembly yesterday. There she is in a sea of third graders.

She earned honor roll again! I'm so proud of her.

It's a new thing this year that first grade doesn't do assemblies. They just hand out awards in their class. They do this for Kindergarten which I understand. But, I think it's just lame and a cop out for first grade. In any case, Ben came running out after school yesterday to tell me he got Student of the Quarter!

I'm so proud of him. He's so awesome.

They also got their report cards. Emily had all A's and 1 B. Ben had all O's and 1 S. They are awesome kids. Now we have to go have milkshakes at Red Robin to celebrate!

That's all the news for now..
Happy Birthday Dad!

You Work? and Spider Dome

I had this great conversation with Ben today. It went something like this:

Me: Mommy needs to get back to work.
Ben: You work? But, you don't go anywhere.
Me: Um, yeah, I get to work from my computer.
Ben: Oh, I just thought you were always playing video games.

And there you have it. After almost working for 2 years, Ben finally realizes that I'm not just playing video games. Shows me that he really is in his own little world.

In other news, we sold our teeter totter airplane that was in our living room for years on Craigslist several months ago. The great thing is that it was in pretty mint condition since it was inside most the time. Well, we moved it to the backyard when we got new carpet and then we never moved it back in. Anyway, my point being we bought it for $150 at Costco and because it was in good shape, we sold it for $100 on Craigslist. Sweet.

I saw a spider dome thingy at Costco last week. I asked David if we could put it in our living room to which he thought I was crazy. Maybe I am. What sane woman would want a spider dome in her formal living/dining room? I went to Costco with the kids Wednesday when David was out of town for work. The kids saw it and totally were on my side. All it took was Emily texting David, "please Daddy please". And we now have a spider dome in our living room.


It's a thing of beauty, right? The kids are having a blast and will have the strongest abs ever.

I climbed right up, hung from my knees and immediately got stuck. Apparently, I'm not 18 anymore. Then, I was laughing so hard as the blood was rushing to my head to be effective at all in getting myself down. David had to save me.

If you had the space and 3 small kids, would you put something like this in your house?

Noah

It's no secret that Noah is my most difficult child. He can be rude, mean and completely inappropriate at times. And he can be sweet, giving and lovable at times. You typically don't know if you are going to get the sweet Noah that likes to cuddle or the Noah that's running around calling everybody a buttcrack.

In any case, I feel the need to point out the positives. Like this super cute drawing he did the other day. It's a ninja turtle in case you're blind.  Seriously, this just makes me smile.

He can be so cantankerous. Sometimes, in those bad moments, I scrunch up my nose, gnarl my teeth and give him my best cat hiss. For some reason, he finds this funny not frightening. I had to grab the camera last night and film him trying to hiss back at me. Don't mind David in the back yelling for paper towels. He was changing his car battery and needed paper towels and I was hissing at Noah. It's how we roll.

He makes me laugh. Gosh, I love that kid.