Busy, Busy, Busy

I know it's been almost 2 months since my last post. Just give me a couple more weeks. We are moving and I am too busy. But when I get back, I have plenty to blog about.

Memorial Weekend

Dad and Kennedy

(She is holding her favorite toy she owns)

These kids played hard all weekend. So Fun

(Don't mind Mason's PJ top)

Kennedy and her friends playing in her bed.

(After a few minutes the other two girls came out of the tent and Kennedy stayed in there crying and one of the girls went up to her Mom and said Kennedy wasn't sharing her toys. I went in and asked Kennedy what was going on and she was sobbing saying "My friends won't play with me.". So I guess she expects her friends to sit there and watch her play with her toys. I hope she learned her lesson.)

Loving those marshmallows

She played in this mud all afternoon. I swam here at the river all growing up and now I can't even stand to get my feet in. So gross.

We didn't take enough pictures so we don't have everyone here. (Sorry). Even though it rained all night one night, and we had earwigs in all of our stuff, we had a blast camping.

Thanks friends for an awesome weekend.

Fingernails...

Kennedy, like all little girls, loves to have her fingernails painted. Today she saw some polish on the desk and asked me to paint her nails. When I looked down, I saw that she had clearly been biting her nails. I haven't seen her do this and we clip her nails often so it must have just been in the last couple of days. So I asked, "What happened to your fingernails?". Kennedy said, "I don't know.", while glancing down at her hands. Then I said, "Did you bite them?". Her response...."Noooo, I ATE them!".

hmmmm.

God Bless The USA

Don was on a business trip a couple of weeks ago and when we went to the airport to pick him up there was a Soldier returning home from IRAQ. I was so glad that we were there at the airport at that time.

There were all these people (that didn't know the soldier) there to welcome him home and thank him for his service. They had lots of flags and they had the song GOD BLESS THE USA playing while he was shaking hands. I was standing there crying like a baby, so proud to be an American.

I was impressed by all the people that took time out of their Saturday to drive over to the airport to let this serviceman know that they appreciate him. I am thankful that people are willing to serve and sacrifice so much for our Country.

There are lots of people in our government that are corrupt, I know this. But I feel like one of the luckiest girls in the world to live in this great Country.

Mason was so curious about the whole event. He has asked many, many times about where he was fighting and why. It is very hard to explain to a 4 year old. Mason is so blessed and he doesn't even have any idea. He has a home, a bed, toys, all the food he wants, clean clothes, fancy pre-school...the list goes on and on....

GOD BLESS THE USA

Just a Spoon Full of Sugar...

Mason was singing this song this afternoon and I thought it was cute. He is always dressed up in some way or another, he LOVES costumes. I love this boy.

ANNOYING...

Okay, so I just wrote the post below and the top picture you can click and enlarge and the bottom one you can't. What the heck?

WORKING HARD OR HARDLY WORKING

The weather here in the TC has been so wonderful. I LOVE springtime. We spent all day Saturday working in the yard and I have to say that I don't mind yard work on a beautiful spring day. I actually enjoyed myself.

Kennedy doesn't mind bugs if she sees them from a distance and then she will walk up and take a peak, as long as she feels totally in control. However she gets just a little frightened when one surprises her. There is always surprises when your doing yard work so she spent a chunk of time here and there in her car seat in the car. She felt more safe there. (Don't worry, we had all the windows down and it wasn't too hot. Oh, your probably wondering why she didn't just go inside...we were at one of our rentals.)

I tried to take a picture of the little rascal after a day in the dirt. She was sticking her face up really high and I said, "Can you hold your head just a little lower for me.". Below is the result. :)

THE HAIR
I know I have brought this up before and its a little embarrassing to even be bringing it up again....Mason has had several trims, but never a big cut. I finally decided it was time. My stomach hurt and I walked into Monkey Dooz and saw the lady working, and asked, "Is there anyone else working?" Why would I say something like that? So rude.

She said "No, just me". I actually told her we were in a huge hurry and would have to come back. What an idiot. So I had time to go in and then suddenly, I didn't have time anymore. Whatever. I never had to see her again and my boy still had his hair.

I did take him to my friend and his hair has since been chopped off and I don't like it. I think I will just wait until we go down to Disneyland and my awesome haircutting sister can fix it.

So, yes, his hair has been chopped off. You can see a picture on the next post down. I have to say though, now that it is cut, when I look at some of his old pictures, he looked a little like Billy Ray from the back....whoops. Sorry Mason.

THE POINT OF SEPARATION AT COSTCO

Costco can be so traumatic for young kids. You go all through this HUGE store that has tons of fun things, lots of food, and fill your cart to the brim, usually having the kids hold some items, (nothing that they asked for of coarse) and then.....you get up to the front.

The kids start getting a little anxious, they know whats coming. "Mama? Mama? Mama, hold me?" They know that they are going to be pushed onto the other side of the aisle and some strange man or woman is going to touch the cart and talk to them. (When you have 2 kids, you can't hold one and send the other alone, so I just let them suffer together). My kids hated this when they were younger (they are thankfully, fine with it now). They would put their head down and hope that no one talked to them and then when the boxing/bagging lady or man would excitedly say hello, the tears would come. They would sit there in total fear with huge tears streaming down their faces.

Well last week at Costco there was a black guy working. And he had dark, dark black skin and the little girl in his aisle was going crazy. She was so scared and anytime he came even close to the cart this girl would start screaming hysterically. "MAMA, MAMA, MAMA." She was kicking her legs and thrashing around. When he was done filling the cart and pulling the cart around to the end, she was so loud that no one else in the store was making a sound. I felt so bad for the bagger. He was smiling and trying not to look at her, but she would turn around and see if he was still there and scream louder. (Yes, I was trying to act like I wasn't staring just like everyone else in the store, but I totally was, just like everyone else in the store.) Apparently she has never seen a black man before and the line at Costco was not the best place for her first experience. We need more people of different races in our little community.

On another note....be proud my friends, very proud. As I was walking past the camera's at Costco I grabbed one and put it in my cart. No consumer reports reviews (yes, I have an online subscription) with me or anything. I just grabbed it. I was so proud of myself. Hopefully I don't regret it. I just bought the $170 nikon so not a huge deal if I don't like it.

First picture with my new camera. Kennedy did not want her picture taken....

I bribed her with a piece of candy....what a turkey

Does anyone know why sometimes when I upload pictures to my blog you can click on them and make them larger and sometime you can't? This drives me nuts.

HELPING A GOOD CAUSE

For every vocab word you get right 20 grains of rice are donated to the UN World Food Program.

Go to the website and start donating. It is fast and easy, I have been trying to donate one full bowl a day. You can do it very quickly.

http://www.freerice.com/

(Thanks Amberly for the information.)

Kennedy

-Sweetheart - Little Monkey -

-Rootin' Tootin' Fartin' Girl - Kenna - Princess-

It seems that I often post about all the bad things my kids do because I am so nervous about my blog being too braggy. But, I guess it is MY blog. So here's to being positive...

I love this little girl. I love her sassy little attitude and her sweetness. She is so cuddly and is just like a little monkey. When you pick her up she is so light and she just clings to you. Everyone loves to hold her.

I love when after I put her down for a nap and I leave her room she always yells 'I love you more!". I love how she looks over at me during swimming lessons when she knows she did a good job and she wants to see a thumbs up from me. I love seeing all 24 lbs of her floating in the water unassisted.

She can play well independently and that is so cute to watch. I love how she looks at her older brother to make sure she is doing things correctly.

After she would open a present on her birthday she would say, "Is this for ME? It's my FAVORITE!". So cute. I love how when she feels cute she walks with long strides, her head held high and smiles. (Don't we all do that a little?)

I love watching her little hand wipe her hair out of her face. I love how she puts her lip gloss ALL over her upper lip.

I am going to miss her sweet little voice when she gets bigger. Tonight we got home from the gym and Don had gotten home and cooked Spaghetti and when we walked in the door she said in her cute little high pitched voice, "Dad you cooked us SGHETTI?".

LOVE HER.

Random....

-Still searching for a camera. I need to do it. I have got to get myself a camera because not only is it effecting my blogging, but I have no pictures of some important recent events. (... Kennedy's 3rd B-day, Easter, Mason's soccer team, Don's b-day,....I could go on and on.) Do you want to know why I haven't found one yet? I always have to make sure I get the best deal for my money. Need a stroller? I'll tell you the best one, because you can believe that I researched it for hours. Car seat? Same thing. Washing Machine? You bet. Baby gift....I drive myself crazy! Libbie (who's baby was born March 2nd) has still not received a gift from me and I have gone looking 3 times. I have spent so much in gas that I could have gotten her my favorite outfit at the GAP full price....I annoy myself. :)

-Mason wants a new baby in our family, he has mentioned it several times lately. This morning he asked if the egg in my belly was cracking yet.

-Lately if Kennedy is doing something she shouldn't be and you correct her she says, "Stop talking to me".

-Kennedy got a doll house for her birthday and she loves it. It still doesn't top the princess's that she got for Christmas though. (Thanks for the idea Laura). They were $10 for 8 or so little plastic princess's at Target and she LOVES them. She has a little Dora lunch box that she keeps them in and they go everywhere with us. She even takes them to bed.

-I'm so glad it's Monday because Don and I had to speak in church on Easter and then I had to teach combined YW yesterday and I'm glad it's over...I can start getting my house back in order.

-My MODBE BOUTIQUE went great!! Thanks to all my friends who came and spent their money. This is what I got for FREE - 2 swim suits, 1 swim skirt, and 2 shirts!

modbe boutique

I am having a modbe clothing boutique Tuesday from 6:30-8:30. Everyone is invited and if you live to far away you can still place an order. Just email me and let me know. taramhatch@hotmail.com

Check out their website. They have such cute swim suits....I can't wait to order one.

http://www.modbeclothing.com/

Derek and Lacie

Here are a few pictures (stolen from other people's blogs) from my brothers wedding. He got married February 2nd in the Seattle area. Lacie is so cute and we are excited to have her in our family.

Family Picture

I think it might be time to have a talk with Mason.

The first time Mason drew a family picture with so much "detail", I thought it would be a one time thing, but it's not.

In case you don't know who is who.....The picture order is Mason (with curly hair), Dad, Mom, and Kennedy.

(When I saw the picture I told him it looked nice and he said, "Don't you think Kennedy looks funny?". I said "No, she looks cute." He said, "Well, I think she looks funny because she doesn't have any hair but there isn't room for me to draw some.")

INAPPROPRIATE?

Okay, so I debated about whether or not I should post this but I think it is so dang funny. Don said that I might not want to post it because then it will be printed in a book later. But, I decided some of you would enjoy it....so it is worth it. (I got this from Libbie, so thank you for the good laughs Lib)

IF YOU ARE OFFENDED EASILY DO NOT READ THE REST OF THIS POST

HOW TO SHOWER LIKE A WOMAN:

Take off clothing and place it in sectioned laundry hamper according to lights and darks.

Walk to bathroom wearing long robe.

If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.

Look at your womanly physique in the mirror -- make mental note to do more sit-ups/leg-lifts, etc.

Get in the shower.

Use wash cloth, long loofah, wide loofah and pumice stone.

Wash your hair once with cucumber and sage shampoo with 43 added vitamins.

Wash your hair again to make sure it's clean.

Condition your hair with grapefruit mint conditioner.

Wash your face with crushed apricot facial scrub for 10 minutes until red.

Wash entire rest of body with ginger nut and jaffa cake body wash.

Rinse conditioner off hair.Shave armpits and legs.Rinse off.Turn off shower.

Squeegee off all wet surfaces in shower.Spray mold spots with Tilex.

Get out of shower.

Dry with towel the size of a small country.

Wrap hair in super absorbent towel.

Return to bedroom wearing long robe and towel on head.

If you see husband along the way, cover up any exposed areas.

HOW TO SHOWER LIKE A MAN:

Take off clothes while sitting on the edge of the bed and leave them in a pile.

Walk naked to the bathroom.

If you see wife along the way, shake wiener at her making the woo-woo sound.

Look at your manly physique in the mirror.

Admire the size of your wiener and scratch your butt.

Get in the shower. Wash your face. Wash your armpits.

Blow your nose in your hands and let the water rinse them off.

Fart and laugh at how loud it sounds in the shower.

Spend majority of time washing privates and surrounding area.

Wash your butt, leaving those coarse butt hairs stuck on the soap.

Wash your hair. Make a Shampoo Mohawk.Pee.Rinse off and get out of shower.

Partially dry off.

Fail to notice the water on floor because curtain was hanging out of tub the whole time.

Admire wiener size in mirror again.

Leave shower curtain open, wet mat on floor, and light and fan on.

Return to bedroom with towel around waist.

If you pass wife, pull off towel, shake wiener at her and make the woo-woo sound again.

Throw wet towel on bed.

If there is anyone who did not laugh at the truth behind this, there is something SO very wrong with you. Have a great day..... and woo woo!!!

Crazy Day...

Sometimes I think of something that I want to blog about for my journal but then I think, no that's so boring, no one wants to read that. But really I am blogging for myself (okay, and because I LOVE to keep in touch with all my friends) and once I get enough blogs I am going to have it printed in a book from http://www.blurb.com/. I love to look at old letters that my grandparents have and an old old journal that my Mom kept from when I was a child. (There isn't many entry's in that one, but I still love it.) So my blog today is really just for journals sake, so you might not want to waste your time reading about my crazy day.

So this morning Don came in at 6:40 asking if I had seen his keys. I hadn't and I could hear him searching downstairs and so I couldn't sleep. I went down and we searched for 2 1/2 hours. We never found them. We are assuming that one of the kids took them and they are in some random toy somewhere but both of the kids say they didn't touch them....whatever. (His spare key was at our car mechanics house...ya, ya, we need more spares.) So Don dropped the kids and I off at the gym with the double jogger and he headed to work (The gym is only about a mile or so from home). He works about 25 minutes from home. Anyway when it was time to head home I realized I had not taken a key to get back into the house. Most people have a window they can break into or some way to get in. Not us.

So my great friend at the gym said we could hang out at their house. Which is great except my other great friend Libbie had her baby girl and was coming home from the hospital tonight and I had told her I would bring dinner, and I really wanted to. (Not to mention that when you take a friend dinner after having a baby they always think that you are a great cook because they are starving after giving birth. :)). I needed to go to the store to get all the stuff. So my friend took us to the store, then we went to her house for awhile, then back to the gym for the girls swimming lessons, then she took us home and helped me make dinner for my family, her family and Libbie's.

I also had a meeting tonight and I had to bring refreshments. I showed up at my meeting smelling like homemade chicken noodle soup, in my workout clothes, with chocolate on my shirt. However, Libbie got dinner and I was at my meeting on time, with refreshments. And now that I am home and can relax, I just finished eating my 4th Seven layer bar. What a day.

Oh, maybe you would like the recipe for these. They are super healthy. (kidding) :)

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup butterscotch chips
1 cup chopped walnuts (I used pecans)
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 1/3 cups shredded coconut

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Place butter in 13 x 9 inch pan and melt in oven. Swirl to coat bottom and sides with butter.
Spread crumbs evenly over bottom of pan. Layer chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and nuts over crumbs. Pour condensed milk over nuts. Sprinkle coconut over condensed milk.
Bake until edges are golden brown, about 25 minutes. Let cool.

LOVE

Mason: "Mom, I love you as long as a bean stalk." (pretty creative)

Me: "I love you all the way to the moon." (copied from the book because I have no imagination)

Mason: "I love you all the way to heaven."

Not sure how far that is, but I sure do love him.

Funny Story...

We went to my parents house for dinner tonight and my Mom had bought both of the kids a pair of sunglasses....Kennedy wore hers all the way home (it was completely dark outside).

Anyway, it made me think of a time when I was a kid and I had gotten a new pair of sunglasses and I looked sooo COOL when I was wearing them. We were on a short road trip to Spokane (2 1/2 hour drive) and I had the window down and had my head slightly out the window letting the wind blow my hair and the warm sun shine on my face while I was sporting my new shades.
And wouldn't you know, a gust of wind took those sunglasses right off my face and they were somewhere on the side of the highway. I yelled for my mom to stop so we could get my ($2) sunglasses and she said we couldn't stop but that if I saw them on the way home she would stop. mmmmmmm....... Is that mean, or smart? Not sure, but I was quiet all the way home as I kept my eyes peeled looking for my shades. Nope, never found them.

ummmm, no thank you.

This morning I was trying to empty the paper shredder into a garbage sack and I said, "Kennedy, do you want to help me empty this?". Her response, "Ummm, no "sank" you".

Oh, okay. Thanks for your help, you turkey. Mason tries this every once in awhile as well. I really didn't NEED any help and maybe she just knew that I was trying to distract her and make her forget that she had just found the DVD of a movie she wanted to watch.

(I scanned in this picture Damon took of my sassy little turkey. I need to have him email them to me so they are better quality and legal. :) )