My New (to me) Kitchen Table!

I have wanted a new kitchen table for a while now, but I kept telling myself that there were other places our money needed to be spent. But then I thought about looking on Craigslist and look what I found!

(do you love the blue booster seat? We can always tell where Tori sits!)

The table came with 4 chairs so we got the two leather ones at IKEA. There are even two leaves I can put on! It makes the table huge. I used to have to have my leaf in all the time just to sit my little family. Now we could have Thanksgiving at my house! Plus, the leaves store inside the table. How convenient is that? I'm really excited about it. It is exactly what I would have bought if I had been looking at new tables. I got the table and 4 chairs for $175! Yay for me! Now I need to sell my old table. Anyone know someone looking for a table and chairs?

I want a puppy... not really, but they are so cute!

Puppies are magical -- just like babies. When you see a puppy you don't think, "oh my gosh, soon there will be training and visits to the vet and dog food and muddy tracks in the house" just like when you see a new baby you don't think, "ugh, soon there will be potty training and temper tantrums, a billion dollars in clothes and diapers, doctors visits, no sleep, and teething!" Both of them are so sweet and cute and you just want to hold them and keep them that small forever. Every time I see a puppy, I want one. This is probably because (as an adult) I've never had one. When I see a baby, I think, "oh, how sweet, glad it's not mine." Probably because I've done the baby thing 3 times already! Well, my brother, Ryan, has a neighbor with 4 little puppies and we got to play with them a couple of weeks ago. My kids were so cute with them! I hate myself for not bringing my camera so I don't have any adorable shots of the kids with these little fur balls, but Ryan sent me a picture of him with the puppies so I could show the kids.

They love this picture! They ask me several times a day to see it. Tori sees it and says, "aww, cute!" and I love to hear her say it! Ryan desperately wants Tori to like him. I think this might be his ticket. Of course, he's leaving at the end of July to teach science in Bangkok for 2 years, so we might need a few more pictures to keep up the good feelings. :-) It's strange to think that Tyler will be 8, Nicole will be 6 and Tori will be 4 when he gets home! Two years sounded okay until I thought of it like that! That's too long! I don't think he's going to be able to come home much (if EVER) but hopefully we can hang out a few more times before he leaves. I love you, little brother!

Happy 31st Birthday, Ben!

Yesterday was Ben's birthday and since it was Sunday, we mostly celebrated on Saturday. We went to Cinetopia and saw the new Robin Hood movie with Russell Crowe and then went to Outback where Ben ate a New York strip steak, garlic mashed potatoes, a bowl of baked potato soup, and half of my Parmesan pasta. I was so full of soda and popcorn from the movie that half way through my meal, I was stuffed to the brim. Ben also had a drink that consisted of strawberries, Red Bull and Ginger ale. It smelled bad and tasted worse. I will never understand why people drink Red Bull. Seriously, there are less disgusting ways to get a caffeine boost. Anyway, it was a fun night. Pretty much any night where we don't have the kids with us is great. Thanks Mom and Dad for keeping them! Sunday we went to church, hung out, made and then ate carrot cake, and had hamburgers, potato salad, and corn on the cob for dinner. I think Ben was mostly just bored all day, but at least he didn't have to work!
I asked Ben what he wanted for his birthday and his response was "I don't know." Typical Ben. So, I asked the kids what they wanted to get him. Tyler said, "something to wear when he's playing basketball." Nicole said, "a whole new church outfit! (meaning a suit -- but we settled for just a new tie)." Tori said, "weroiublkjweroiuvlksmerniuyblknmbejkrliu  shirt." I didn't get the first part, but I thought a shirt was a good idea so we went with that. Ben knew what he wanted from me for his birthday, but I won't write about that here because I'm pretty sure none of you want to know the details. :-) My mom got him a new basketball, but it's not here yet, so we'll just stretch his birthday out for a few days and hopefully it'll be here soon.
Those of you who see Ben regularly know that he's not a huge fan of shaving. He shaves as little as he can. I sort of love when he's reffing basketball games because he has to shave (I'm not a fan of facial hair -- not fun to kiss). Well, he was pretty scruffy and I didn't think he'd shave on his birthday, but he did. Only, he missed a spot. See?

How am I supposed to take him seriously with this?!?!? This is what happens when he gets bored in the shower. I should put a t.v. in there or something to prevent this from happening in the future. But you know what? I love him. Weird child molester stache or not. He's my best friend and the love of my life. Happy Birthday, Benamin. Imaluvu.

Feel Sorry for Me

We had a little family get-together last weekend and my whole family was there! Ryan came up from McMinnville, David and Sara came from Provo, and Jason drove down from Bellingham. It was so much fun having everyone here! There was just one little snag in the whole shabang: I fell. Tyler wanted me to go up to the barn with him to look for some toy and while we were looking, I encountered this:

 

It felt a little below average. Actually, it hurt like the dickens. The worst party was Tyler. When he heard the sound of my body breaking he looked over and said, "Hey, Mom, you should really watch where you're going." If he had been within my reach, I would have throttled him! (probably not, actually) But then after he saw the rage and pain on my face, he said, "But I know you can be brave." I got really dirty too! There's dirt everywhere and I put a little hole in my new jeans. No bueno.

 Now I have this awesome bruise on my leg. It hurts so bad! I can't kneel down which is difficult when you have 3 kids. 

Let's hope this thing heals soon!  p.s. the picture just doesn't do it justice. The bruise goes pretty far down my leg but it doesn't show up on camera very well.

Thank you for your sympathy.

Make up Mania!

I'm not going to say that she's obsessed with make up, but it's become part of her daily routine. Nicole hates brushing her teeth in the morning so I told her one day that if she brushed her teeth before school, she could wear some of my lip gloss. Well, it's a couple weeks later and she still wants to wear lip gloss every day and now she wants to wear gold eyeliner on her cheeks. She draws a sun on one cheek and then puts a little on the other side to match. One day she wanted to wear purple eyeliner, mascara, eye shadow, blush, lip gloss, and even some of my earrings. I'm starting to think that I have created a monster.