Dear Grandma...

This is a letter Mallory dictated for my mom and Matt wrote out.

French Braid

I learned how to French braid!!! I am SO excited. This is my second time doing her hair like this and I can already tell I'm getting better and her hair is going to be like this ALOT!

Kid's Corner

I went to my friends house and they had something similar to this up. I got home and got to work right away on making one for our family.

We have an area at the top of our stairs where the kids (are supposed to) hang their coats, back packs, and put their shoes. I thought it would be the perfect place to hang or new "Family Board". I made each one of the kids a personalized, name tags for their hook. Then I created this board with a pictured morning routine--easily read by everyone in our household. A week-day and week-end schedule. A list of new house rules, along with chores. Lastly, a memory verse section where a new verse will be hanging each week for us to memorize.

I am hoping this will help expedited our mornings during school months. Last year I was a little tired of saying have you done this...have you got your.... did you.... Now everything is laid out for them and it is their responsibility(the older ones). I'll let you know how it works!

SKG Date

Avery and I went on our second SKG(secret keeper girls) date on Monday. We went and had a facial with a Mary Kay consultant. We learned about skin care and how to take care of our faces. We also learned that make-up doesn't make us beautiful. Real physical beauty is the unique set of traits God gives each one of us.

We went to Starbucks after our facial and talked about how the magazines and movies are "not real". That is not what we should set our standards by, because those are a lie. I shared with her that people are paid to digitally remove, add, and change things on the people in those pictures. We also talked about our own body image. It was quite revealing to see how Avery(8) felt about some areas of herself, and what makes her most uncomfortable or feel most insecure.

These dates are always eye opening for me about myself and Avery too. They are always fun and such a blessing.

Thinking of Having Kids

My friend sent this to me. I thought it was pretty funny! This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!

Thinking of Having Kids? Do this 11 step program first!

Lesson 1
1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2-- Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their. ..
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior. Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3-- A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM .
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive) Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4-- Can you stand the mess children make? To find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5-- Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out. Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6-- Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment. Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7-- Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air. You are now ready to feed a nine month-old baby.

Lesson 9-- Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Sprout for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Sprout'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10-- Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11-- Start talking to an adult of your choice.. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

Catching up!

I'm catching up on some much needed blogging. Make sure you don't miss any...scroll down!

4th of July

We spent the first half of the day at the pool with our friends the Nauman's. Aunt Kimmer came along too! We packed up a lunch and headed out to the pool about 10:30. We spent a few hour there and then headed home for naps. We knew it was going to be a late night and naps were essential to a hap-hap-happy 4th of July!

After naps we took the kids out to dinner and headed over to the RL Jones airport for the air-show. Well come to find out there was a misprint and there was no airshow. Change of plans! We headed over to a Fireworks stand near our house and bought a couple little fireworks to set off in the cul-de-sac before we headed out to the big fireworks. We got a few classics like the tank, spinner, smoke bombs, and worms. The kids had never seen the worms before. They were a big hit. Those were my favorites when I was little.

After setting off fireworks in the front yard for about an hour we headed over to the Riverwalk in Jenks. They were having a concert and fireworks. We camped out on our blanket and waited patiently (HA!) for the fireworks. After the fireworks there was so much traffic in the parking lot we decided to hang out for awhile at the river and listen to music and look in shops. It was a fun day!

Shake It!

For Christmas this year Matt's grandparents gave us a real authentic 50year old milk shake maker. We actually just picked it up this past time we out to Colorado.

We are putting it to good use. We made shakes on it the other night and the kids have asked every night since then if we can make shakes. I want to say yes... but my scale says NO! We have made them a few more times and they are YUMMY! My favorite is chocolate malt and Matt has me make him a banana shake with nilla wafers. The kids don't care which one they get they love it all!

Happy Birthday Marina!

Matt and I went to our friends Marina's surprise birthday party and I had the honor of being asked to make the cake.