103 Degrees and Holding

Wo Wos Not Sick...Yet

Nonna Syek (Conner Sick)

My Latest Hair Color

Chocolate Cherry.

Nya Nya Owens' Tacos

One of Josh's BFFs came into town from Seattle with his wonderful family. We got together at Bapas house for Nya Nya's famous tacos. Josh's whole crew and their significant others were there for the festivities. Josh had a great time being one of the boys again and I got to chat with my girls!

Wo Wo's went straight for the avocado and tomatoes. Messy, messy, messy.

Ha!

Carolyn:
Okay. I've done Internet searches, I've talked to parents. I don't get it. What do stay-at-home moms do all day? Please no lists of library, grocery store, dry cleaners . . . I do all those things, too, and I don't do them EVERY DAY. I guess what I'm asking is: What is a typical day and why don't moms have time for a call or e-mail? I work and am away from home nine hours a day (plus a few late work events) and I manage to get it all done. I'm feeling like the kid is an excuse to relax and enjoy -- not a bad thing at all -- but if so, why won't my friend tell me the truth? Is this a peeing contest ("My life is so much harder than yours")? What's the deal? I've got friends with and without kids and all us child-free folks get the same story and have the same questions. Tacoma, Wash.

Relax and enjoy. You're funny.
Or you're lying about having friends with kids.
Or you're taking them at their word that they actually have kids, because you haven't personally been in the same room with them.
Internet searches?
I keep wavering between giving you a straight answer and giving my forehead some keyboard. To claim you want to understand, while in the same breath implying that the only logical conclusions are that your mom-friends are either lying or competing with you, is disingenuous indeed.
So, since it's validation you seem to want, the real answer is what you get. In list form. When you have young kids, your typical day is: constant attention, from getting them out of bed, fed, clean, dressed; to keeping them out of harm's way; to answering their coos, cries, questions; to having two arms and carrying one kid, one set of car keys, and supplies for even the quickest trips, including the latest-to-be-declared-essential piece of molded plastic gear; to keeping them from unshelving books at the library; to enforcing rest times; to staying one step ahead of them lest they get too hungry, tired or bored, any one of which produces the kind of checkout-line screaming that gets the checkout line shaking its head.
It's needing 45 minutes to do what takes others 15.
It's constant vigilance, constant touch, constant use of your voice, constant relegation of your needs to the second tier.
It's constant scrutiny and second-guessing from family and friends, well-meaning and otherwise. It's resisting constant temptation to seek short-term relief at everyone's long-term expense.
It's doing all this while concurrently teaching virtually everything -- language, manners, safety, resourcefulness, discipline, curiosity, creativity. Empathy. Everything.
It's also a choice, yes. And a joy. But if you spent all day, every day, with this brand of joy, and then, when you got your first 10 minutes to yourself, wanted to be alone with your thoughts instead of calling a good friend, a good friend wouldn't judge you, complain about you to mutual friends, or marvel how much more productively she uses her time. Either make a sincere effort to understand or keep your snit to yourself.

I'm Crying

Sorry I haven't been around- the computer had a virus and I was SOL for a few days...but Super Steve came to help us and tore that nasty virus a new one!
Anyways, it's super duper late at night (or should I say super early the next day) but I came across this blog and had to send you here.
Compare her blog post on Jan 12th to blog post on Jan 25th then please pray for this little precious girl and give your own kiddos an endless hug.

Hey You!

Hey there! This one's for Gram & Gramps W over there on the frozen tundra. Wyatt's totally walking, all over the place...and he LOVES it.

Valkyrie, Kenny, Vegan

Valkyrie. Does anyone else think it's weird that Tom Cruise didn't have a German accent in the movie Valkyrie? I mean, is he that good, that we can just overlook this? I mean, if he's such a great actor, why can't he pull off the accent? I'm just saying...
Kenny Chesney. I love his music. He's one of my favorites...except for his drinking songs. Not a big fan of those. It seems like a conflict of interest to me for him to have both songs "for" and "against" drinking. I mean, pick a side and stick to it...don't just try to make money off whatever. I know he's not the only artist to do this...but for some reason, his indecisiveness bugs me the most. But I still love his music.
Vegan. Our family is NOT vegan. Just in case you were wondering by that one blog I follow about Vegans. It's just that it's way easier to cook vegan for Conner because they don't use eggs or milk in their recipes- aaaaand I can always exchange my meat for their tofu.

Creepy Crawly

Creepy Gonzales!! Check out the Brown Widow Spider I discovered in our fireplace.

I was just sitting on the couch, studying my lesson, when I just looked up and looked right into the fireplace we NEVER use. I saw what I thought was a spider and investigated with a flashlight. I thought it looked like a black widow at first...but pregnant...so I googled it and discovered that it was most likely a Brown Widow. Highly more toxic than a Black Widow but more timid. It has an orange/pink colored hourglass rather than red and it's obviously brown (sometimes even so brown that they look black). They are native to Florida but have been popping up in SoCal due to transport reasons. They like to make their erratic (not symmetrical) webs in secluded places (like unused fireplaces, children's outdoor toys, and closet corners).

Josh and I double teamed him. We sprayed him 3 different times. Each time he would scurry away but then return to the exact same place after about 30 seconds (defending his web). Ewww. Finally, he crawled out and around the front of the wire screen then crawled down (hopefully to die). We shut the doors and taped all the cracks and holes with duct tape . Now it looks like this.

Allergy Free Sugar Cookies

One of my cute little friends gave me a cookie making kit for my birthday, so, Conner and I busted it out today. He helped me mix, roll, cut, decorate, and eat them.

...MMMMMMMM.

Clouds=Painting

Twinkle Toes and I did some painting and glitter sprinkling today. He started out in his own chair then ended up on my lap. We got so close and cuddly. Precious little man melts my heart.

Cool!

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Pioneer Woman

I was touched by this post at Pioneer Woman's Blog. You might be too.

First Ever Owens Family Talent Show (At least for as long as I've been in the family)

Got some pictures here. Just a few out of the 100 we took. Our family, showcasing their talents for all to see. Gram and Gramps starting us off with the magic finger (sorry no pics on our camera). Then Josh, Me, and Conner bored everyone to death with the raisin skit...where Conner beat the fly to death with a drumstick rather than eat it...and then the cowbell skit- a horrible rendition of the SNL cowbell skit starring Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken. Next, Shelby "stopped, collaborated and listened" with Josh as back-up.

All the kids picked out of the hat to see who would be going next.

Wyatt pretty much just had to be everywhere at once...check out this picture...hilarious!

Owen did a crazy dance that Conner and Syd couldn't resist doing themselves.

Wyatt crawls over Miles.

One of our favorites from Owen is his "make me laugh" game that he does with Josh.

Drew pulled off a little Adam Sandler number about a Sweatshirt that EVERYONE (especially Wyatt) loved.

Isn't this picture adorable of Rae and Owen.

Raeley went a couple of times. We got to see her gymnastics and ballet skills. She did a great back bend and forward roll in the splits. Shown here is just a smidge of her heavenly ballet moves. Very impressive Raeley!!

The Carron Family sang a great song using all the letters of the alphabet and naming places all over the world...then Owen did it on his own from memory! No way!! Cool!

Brooklyn got up the nerve to show us some magic legs. First one disappeared, then the other, then both! What? How'd she do that?

We finished off the night with a little Happy Birthday to me. Hee Hee. Rae baked a cake (thanks Rae) and Conner helped me blow out the Dora candle.

An absolutely fabulous day that I hope I'll never forget.

Thanks everyone.

Thanks Luv.

Kristin and Chris

The lovely couple were sealed at the Newport Beach temple on Saturday. It was a beautiful warm day and we were surrounded by family. Bliss. Absolute bliss.