I had a SMASHING birthday!

I felt oh so spoiled this year for my birthday. Most years I get sent to a hotel by Corey. Which I adore 1,00000000 million trillion quadrillion times.

But this year I didn't. Never asked why really. It was fun to mix it up a bit. Corey asked what I wanted to do and of course I want to go out to eat Mexican for my favorite cream cheese shrimp and crab burritos.

Heavenly!

And then I wanted to buy a book, buy a purse, spend my Deseret Book gift card (I could spend a 1,00000000 million trillion quadrillion dollars there) and go to two movies in ONE night!

And guess what?!!!!! We did! ALL of THAT! (Actually the dinner we did the night before because the restaurant was in another town) But the rest of it.....We did it. All of it. And I loved it.

My new purse...

My new book....


My cream cheese and crab and shrimp burritos...

My purchases with my gift card...

My two movies in one night. No....I wasn't sick of movies. I could have been happy to go to a third. It was just disappointing that we o.d.ed on popcorn during the first movie. Boo.

We saw Thor

which was adorable and funny,

and we saw Hannah...

which was violent, a little disturbing, filmed crazy and interesting.

I got some other great gifts

Beautiful flowers and new cool vase from my in laws.....

and....chocolate, cookbook, bath fizzy, cup cake tower (yay).

I went to Fred Meyers and did my annual shopping for flowers....WHICH I LOVE!

Often in the past Corey and I haven't been big gift givers. That is why I was buying my own gifts. I guess Corey was sweating it out because this time he did by me a gift.

A KINDLE! WAHOO! He was so patient and quiet the whole time I was buying my own presents knowing he had already bought me one. And he never mentioned it!

The first book I downloaded was The Scarlett Letter. I have always wanted to read that and....it was free. (I spent enough on myself for now!) He also got me the protective case. Which, knowing me, I will need.

We had Baskin Robbins ice cream cake (I chose cool deco) with my kiddies and parents and in laws.

We all gotta get our "Dale" fix.

I love that the little kids kept trying to blow out the candles. So cute.

My birthday lasted three days! It was cool. And we ended the night with homemade wingers (which I made myself. By then Corey was tired of my birthday.) and my favorite show Celebrity Apprentice. Love Donald.

Oh yeah...Bo did a dance for my birthday...

My dad doing a little "thriller" Bahaaahaaa!

Uhhhhh......best present eva!!!!!


Oh yeah! Also my sweet friend, whom also collects salt and pepper shakers, gave me these.

I bust a gut at the following thought...

Kid..."Please pass the salt"

Me...."Okay....(wind wind wind) here you are"

Penguin rolls its little self clear across the dinner table from me to kid. We all sit and wait and stare at rolling penguin. Funny, huh?

Great Birthday! Great life!

<>

Khronicles of Kate

"Kate...get that out of your mouth"

"I a beaver!"

School is almost out! Not organized enough!

I am ALWAYS trying to figure out how to lead a more peaceful life in a home riddled with strong personalities, ADHD, loudness, and many children.



Let me give you an example of what I won't tolerate.



Me: "Kid, will you please go unload the dishwasher?"



Them: "Uuuugggghhhhh" or "eyeroll" or "why me" or "I just did it three weeks ago" or "why do I have to do all the work?" or "pshhhhh" or ANYTHING. OF. THE. SORT!



Here is another example of what I won't tolerate that occurs between the kids...




Them: "jerk" or "buttnugget (FOR REALS?)" or "brat" or "doorknob" or "ugly" or "shut up" OR FIGHTING OF ANY KIND!


It drives me CRAZY! Honest. I can't stand it. I want to MELT DOWN when they start fighting.



So in an effort to contain things when all my chickadees will be in the nest, and the chaos of summer will begin, I am trying a new "thing" to punish the naughty little buggers.



I got the idea from here. Yeah, yeah,... I know. She had a reward system involved for how many jobs they do. And. I. am. not. Mine is just pure unadulterated sassy pants punishment! Punishment for children who deserve it! If they don't deserve it they won't be punished. Simple as that.


I am not BRIBING or incentivetizing THEM to do the things they should be doing anyways ANY MORE! ha ha. Total lie. I will do whatever I have to do to keep Nathan and Rhett in their music. Including cold hard cash.


Anyways, I know rewards are suppose to work better for kids but I am tired of playing that game and they are just going to receive a punishment. Sooooo when the give me any flak or fight with each other they will have to......draw a block.

I tried really hard to think of what I could write the jobs on that would be fun and not too pricey and I finally decided on these from the dollar store.

I wrote mostly simple chores. Ones they could just go and do on their own so I wouldn't have to monitor things all the time.

I even did a get out of job free block.

So we will see how it goes! It will probably be no surprise that I have tried other programs in the past to keep my kids on task and they have failed. Because. I. get. lazy. and. quit.

What? That never happens to you? Boo.

I can't and shan't give up though.

Now I just need a cute big container to keep them in!

Last day of school preparations

I thought I would share something Corey and I started doing in our family about 5 years ago.

I hate school associated award ceremonys. I hate them. They hurt my feelings. I never recieved awards, my kids have yet to recieve awards. They just have always bummed me out.

So one day about five years ago I had an inspired thought. I decided we would have our own family award ceremony.

So on the last day of school we have a family pizza/movie party. And we hand out awards. I make them up and put them on real award paper. They are simple things....made it to the bus on time all year, most imporoved in math, happiest all year, ect... Just anything you can think of. I don't make them silly though. I make them real things.

And then before the pizza/movie party we have a little awards ceremony. And the most important part is.....Daddy reads their name and calls them up and reads their award and presents it to them with a handshake. AND WE CLAP LIKE CRAZY FOR THEM.

And the LOVE it! Seriously. Their self esteem just soars. They love it. Even if they are old. THEY LOVE IT.

I get teary almost every time.

PIG's out, BUNNY's in!

My little girl is growing up. Sad and glad. Normally by this time I'd have a baby on the way or a baby in my arms. Very weird. I know I talk about this all the time, but it is so strange and heart wrenching to be leaving this most beloved phase of my life.

When I spoke of getting older in one of my other blogs, my friend wrote a comment that I really liked. She was talking about an incident that made her realize she was getting older and life was changing also.

She said, "It was my wake up call that I was at the end of the Spring season of my life. But now we're in SUMMER! And Summer is AWESOME! Picnics, beaches... it's playtime baby! :)"

I loved that! (My friend, Aine, is a great writer. You can find her here. She was the one who taught me how to make links, ya know.)

And as much as I mourn for my youthful baby raising self it has been an enormous amount of work. An enormous amount of stress and enormous amount of time. And I deserve some Summer, don't you think? I am excited about Summer! Summer sounds like some fun!

(But I just can't let it go, can I!!! I can't say I am excited about summer without say how beloved spring was! An enormous amount of pure heart squashing joy!)

Oh well....

My growing girl has.......... abandoned PIG. Discarded. Left behind.

Makes me sort of sad.

He has been replaced. The new lovey is now "Bunny".

She was sick for about three days with a fever. It was a grumparamafrest!!!!

Kate loves this little bunny. She snuggles her so tight and I just think it is the most precious thing.

One day when Kate was upset she ran into her room and grabbed "Bunny" and just held him cheek to cheek. And she rocked back and forth with him. Big ole tears rolling down her cheeks.

Broke my heart. But cute. But broke my heart because I think I was the one who made her cry.

When she cries it is the cutest saddest most saddest cutest thing ever! BIG tears just drip from her eyes.

Anyways, Fare thee well PIG. You will find your place in the world with "Bun Buns" now in my junk drawer waiting to be moved into Kate's tub of special things that are in the garage.

You were well loved, PIG. Thanks for your service!

HEY! Speaking of bunnies.....Want some???????? We have some adorable litters!




Netherland Dwarfs-exciting litter! (I'll explain below)


Strange litter! We got some quirky colors. The rabbit on the bottom left is an adopted sibling. His bratty pants mom was eating his real siblings when Justine found them and rescued this last living little guy. And he seems to be doing okay with his new mama. The other babies complain that he is our favorite but we can't help it. His father was $150.00 and we have been breaking our backs trying to get living babies. He is a Holland Lop and they can be challenging to breed. The rest of the babies are Mini Rex.


More Mini Rex. Fun litter

More more Mini Rex. Boring litter but these "blue" rabbits are beautiful.

Back to the Netherland Dwarfs....They are exciting because they are not solid colors, they are white on the bottom. That is called Martin. Martins are way cool!

So this is a Black Martin

And this is a Chocolate (which is already an exciting color) Martin.

This is daddy, "Logan". He is sitting in his bucket. Netherland Dwarfs are very shy rabbits and I had this idea and we hung a bucket in his cage and ALL he ever does is hide in there and peek out super cute just like this!

Did you know there are scholarships out there for kids raising rabbits? That is what Justine is going for!