i appreciate those of you who appreciate my honesty. those who don't, well, you just don't understand what it's like to be us. and they probably don't read my blog very much. (or they won't after today.)

just wanted to say that we are having a better day. except i keep hearing, "mommy, you have to play with me." and "mommy, will you please play with me?" and no matter where i am i seem to be i have ZERO personal space. and i need that. just ask anyone who knows me.

what is it with little kids wanting to on top of you all the time? i'm losing train of thought. i figured out why the last few days have been so "moody" and that made me feel better. don't you hate that? you feel out of control and yell and stuff and then wake up one morning and think, "oh, THAT'S why!" gotta love it. ok, i better run before i get in trouble for being "too honest" again.

I am ready to get out of town. We are going to the lake this weekend and I can't wait. The kids and I are frustrating each other. I'm not exactly sure what is behind all of it, but I think we are just on each other's nerves. And now they fight with each other. Like punching each other fight. So far it hasn't been hard enough to seriously hurt anyone, but still. They are either being rude, pulling on my clothes, won't stop when I tell them to (after saying it numerous times and getting louder), making dirty messes, WHINING when asked to do anything, rubbing all over my legs (which I find totally annoying by the way) or constantly at my feet. I feel like I have these tiny little yippy dogs at my feet that I'm trying not to step on, but they won't go away either.

Now I want to make clear that I do not find my children as annoying as tiny little yippy dogs, but they are just always at my feet. My poor husband wonders why I don't want to sit next to him, much less cuddle, at night. It's b/c Christopher has rubbed all feeling off of my legs and Sophie has tried to rip my clothes off, literally, or climbed all over me (whether I'm sitting or standing) ALL... D A Y... L O N G.

Did I ever tell you about the time I was ordering lunch at Chick-fil-a and Sophie grabbed hold of my jeans pocket and swung from it? Feet off the ground and moving side to side. Yes, and she's 35 lbs. How this old pair of jeans did not rip I will never know, but I am thankful for me and the poor young man that was taking my order that they didn't.

On the upside Sophie is going potty more often. She went about 3 times yesterday. Maybe this is why I'm so grumpy? I hate potty training. It means extra work on my part, but it's worth it in the long run. I hate diapers even more. Well, maybe not. I'll let you know. I think I'm just worried how long it will take. Everyone swears, "Oh little girls are easy!" or "It only takes a couple days to train little girls!" I have my doubts. Sophie's not very girly.

On the downside, Christopher has been mean to everyone and even got sent to time out at school for calling people names. This trait annoys me to no end and I don't know how to fix it other than putting duct tape over his mouth. He makes up words to call people names, he also uses stupid, poopy, ugly, bad and all sorts of other combinations. He is so mean to his friend William that I don't even want to get together with them sometimes b/c I don't want to deal with the way he acts.

Surely there will be an upside to this weekend. Mostly b/c my family is all going to the lake and it always makes me happier when I'm with family. It will be difficult b/c Brandon is leaving this weekend to go on a 2 week mission trip to the Dominican and I always worry when he travels. I can handle being away from him for a few days, but the kids get grumpier when the "fun" parent is gone. I just have those fears that something will happen and we aren't even in the same country. Thankfully the kids keep me busy enough I don't have time to think about it. Now I feel bad b/c I sent the kids to any room to play b/c I was tired of the crying and constant asking to build something with legos that I have no idea how to build (doesn't care that I just spent 30 minutes building 2 different trucks) and they are back there as happy as they can be reading books to each other.

Talk about guilt.

Love you kids!

Another upside.... when we get back the splash pad on base will finally be up and running again!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Why they wait until the last day of May... in FLORIDA... to turn sprinklers on I will never understand.)

This weekend we took our first trip to Crab Island. We rented a boat with the Ramages and loaded up Saturday morning for our adventure. We'd never been before b/c I wasn't ready to deal with two kids on a boat, with one being a baby. But Sophie has proven herself to not scream "like a baby" when wearing a life jacket so I was finally ready. We had a blast and I could have spent the whole day out there. (For those of you who do not know what Crab Island is, it's an area in the bay that is very shallow and boats just gather there, drop anchor and you swim and play until your heart's content.) Here's the photos:

Christopher and William were "chillin' like a villan" (the kids phrase for the day) up at the front. These boys are trouble when you get together, but so cute at the same time. They love and fight just like brothers. I fear for their teachers if they are in the same pre-school class next year.


Matt doing what Matt does best.... being himself. The phrase for the day was, "I'm on a boat!," but it must be said like a rapper in a music video (do they still make those?) surrounded by booty-licious women with tiny bikinis and high heels dancing around. You got a visual? Yeah, Tiff and I did NOT look like that. But thanks for playing!

Little Miss Regan. She is seriously the quietest baby I have ever been around. The only time she piped up was when Matt would speed the boat up. She would squeal and kick her feet with excitement. So cute!

that's how i feel today. woke up with a strange headache, my jaw feels like i'd been punched by a kid on each side of it and any time i bend over to pick something up i feel slight sinus pressure. none of it is severe, but it's just enough that i notice it. making it annoying.

i've folded some laundry, started all new loads again and now i'm listening to sophie read eat your peas, which is so funny i've got to record it one day. she cracks me up!

here's a funny for you about sophie. christopher and i were reading out of his bible the other day and he wanted to hear the story of adam and eve. there was a point in the story that talks about how God loves everyone, but satan doesn't want us to believe that. i asked him if God loved him and he said yes. i asked him if God loved everyone and he said yes. i asked him (i know, even i'm annoyed right now) if he loved mommy, daddy and sophie. he said yes. BUT sophie was sitting on the other side of me, minding her own business and yells out, "NO JESUZZ WUV ME!!!" i turned to her and said, "Jesus loves you." i get a "NO! JESUZZ NOT WUV ME. DADDY WUV ME!" right back. i tried really hard not to laugh, but egged her on instead and then gave up b/c she was getting upset that i wasn't understanding her.

that girl. she's gonna wear me out.

thank goodness i love her so much!
she has no idea.

Today I'm going to tackle the laundry and try to "clean" the house. Two jobs that are never officially done or even look like they've been done once you are finished. I'm also going to work on Christopher's attitude and Sophie's potty training. I have a LOT on my plate today. Here's what the kiddos are doing.

Christopher has already been in time out a couple times and had a few meetings with my hand. He has become very rude and disrespectful to me mostly, but also to other adults and well, everyone. So today we are dedicating ourselves to begin fixing that problem. I've had it up to as high as my hand can reach in the air of him yelling "NO!" at me and yelling orders at Sophie and saying, "I'm tiiiiiiired" when he doesn't want to do something. After about an hour of on and off fighting we are doing better and now he is playing Mater on the Wii while sitting on top of a pile of sheets that haven't been folded for a couple days.


Sophie has gone potty at least once each of the last three days without me asking her if she needed to go first. She just told me that she needed to go potty so we ran back there and had success. We cheered and clapped together and then got down. Put a sticker on our potty chart that came in the mail (along with coupons for the pulls ups I'd bought the day before - without a coupon) and then she said she needed to go poo poo. We grabbed some books and went and sat down. A little while later she yelled saying she needed more books. I got 3 more. Next thing I know she is in Christopher's room grabbing as many off the shelf as she can and needs help taking them back to the bathroom. Since I started writing this, she has given up and just wanted to bring the books in the den with the rest of us. But she sure was cute sitting there in "the library." (I love when she fixes her own hair! It always looks like this, but a different headband.)

Here's to hoping it's a good day and to knowing I don't have to fix dinner tonight b/c we have leftovers.

We've had some great company over for dinner the last two nights and it makes me very excited about the upcoming year and the new families moving here. I was very upset about our friends moving, but forgot for a little while how God always provides for us when in need. My friend Tiff that you hear about so much still has no clue where, when or if they are leaving. But if they end up having to leave us too, I'm glad that I will have friends here on base to spend time with. I thank God that He gave me the opportunity to live around the people we did and form the friendships we have. Next year it will be us moving, but I'm not going to think about that right now. I am however going to join the yard sale the ones who are moving will be having so I can go ahead and get rid of a lot of stuff. Brandon, just turn your head b/c I'm going to haul as much out there as I can! If we haven't used it in 6 years it's outta here!

I told you I would put photos of the crafts that we made at MOPS this year and here they are. The only one I didn't have a photo of was the ornaments that we made at Christmas. They were really cute, but mine is put away with the other ornaments. I'll tell you how we made them at the end of this post.

Along with the following crafts we try to do some service projects and this year we did Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes, we filled Easter bags (easier than baskets) for families in a neighborhood that a group from the church (SOS) provides supper for on Saturdays and we also made card kits for Kidslink Downrange, an organization that provides cards for children who have a parent deployed so they can stay in touch with each other.

I can't take credit for all of these crafts b/c I searched all summer for ideas and unfortunately I can't remember where I found them.

1) Magnetic note pad: use a 4x6 magnetic photo frame, slide a piece of scrapbook paper inside, add a ribbon for detail, glue a post-it pad on there and add a clip to the top to set your pen on. I forgot to put a pen on it for the photo and just didn't feel like going back to add it.



2) Fridge magnets: I found large glass gems (1.5" in diameter) online and ordered those along with magnets to make these. I tried regular scrapbook paper, but the magnet showed through once you glued them on, so I bought scrapbook card stock that was printed on both sides. I used E6000 glue to stick it all together.



3) Personalized soap bottle: use scrapbook paper, scrapbook scissors and modge podge to make this cute little addition to your kitchen sink. I got some stickers to put on there to make them more personal. I suggest using the glossy modge podge and make sure you paint a layer or two over the whole thing when you are done to make sure it is sealed nicely.


4) Photo albums: use those 4x6 flip books you can find at pretty much any store. Use scrapbook paper and some stickers to personalize it. I made a much cuter one, but couldn't find it so I made this one super quick to just show you an example. I thought Brandon might not appreciate all the flowers and stuff the other one had on it when he goes out of town.


For the Christmas ornaments here's what you need:

- 4" clear glass ornament
- scrapbook paper (suggest the kind that is printed on both sides)
- glitter
- those little table confetti things you sprinkle at parties - in a Christmas theme
- ribbon (about 18 " strips)
- Christmas raffia grass

Cut the scrapbook paper into 1/2" strips and wrap them around a pencil to curl them. Stick it in the ornament and then add the other stuff, except the ribbon. Place the ribbon through the little metal loop in the cap and tie it in a bow with a larger enough loop to hang it with. Here's the site where I got the idea, but they have different examples up now.

If you are interested and have a small MOPS group I have a ton of photos albums leftover and some ornaments as well. Actually, I got a good bit of everything left over and I'd be happy to sell it to anyone. We won't be making any of these next year. Just let me know! I hope I didn't bore all of you, but I remember last summer searching blog, after blog, after blog for ideas and thought that maybe I could help another craft leader out there somewhere. Or just a mom at home looking for something cheap, easy and quick to do!

Here are the photos from our little trip to the beach in AL with Mimi and Papa John. We were so thankful that they let us come crash their vacation and hang out with them. I've already told you that we had fun, so I'm just going to get a move on.

Wednesday we left and met them at the Bass Pro Shop and had lunch. It was yummy!! If you ever make it to the that one (Ft. Morgan/Daphne/etc. area) you must go. Then we drove over to see the battle ship in Mobile Bay. The kids had a great time running all over the ship and insisted on climbing the stairs alone. Yeah, I'm not sure if it was threats or promises of ice cream that got them to slow down and hold our hands, but one of them finally worked.

Papa John, the kids and I forcing a photo at the front of the ship. Brandon and his mom were taking photos and that's the only reason adults made it in any of these photos.


Sophie trying to climb over the chain attached to the anchor.





Hey Mimi and Papa John!! We'd split from them when climbing up and couldn't find them when we came back down. Thankfully they had walkie talkies and we turned around and found them.


We spent the next day at the beach and playing in the pool. Christopher had sores on his underarms from swimming so much. I haven't seen him have that much fun for that long in while. It was great! I was even more impressed with how Brandon and Papa John were able to keep up with him.


Our new little swimmer. Don't those eyes just make you melt? She had so much fun learning how to kick her feet and eventually would only hold onto one of your hands while in the water. I was a little worried b/c the first time we got in the water this year she wasn't liking it at all. Thankfully we got over that quickly.


The kids playing with Brandon. I was so glad they had a pool right outside the condo and that the water wasn't too cold b/c he had hurt his back before we left on our trip and was in a lot of pain. (Why he's not in any photos from the battle ship.) The pool really helped him feel better and made holding the kids no problem. Oh, and yes, I got in, but I don't show photos of me in a bathing suit on here.


These kids (yes 3 of them) played and played and played in the sand from the second we got on the beach to the minute we mentioned going to the pool. They even got me in there and I hate sand. Sophie was so funny b/c she eventually let me take her coverup off, but then realized it was the best thing to wipe her hands on and wanted it back. She was so prissy while digging! And she's not a prissy girl, which is what made it so funny.


Later that afternoon we went and ate at Lulu's, which is Jimmy Buffet's sister's restaurant and if you are ever in the area, it's also a must. But you have to go early, it's always busy (except when we went) but worth it. They have a massive sand pit for kids to play in and a volleyball court and a live band and no walls and it's right on the water so you can watch boats drive by. So yummy!!!


Me chasing the kids after dinner. They laughed and ran and played and slept like rocks that night. It was awesome!!

Thanks again to Mimi and PJ for letting us hang out. We had so much fun! Thanks for coming to hang out with us at our house too. We love you and can't wait to see you again!