Hold Still!

I swear, it is impossible to do this girl's hair. When I actually get her to sit still for a few minutes while I do it, I want to document the occasion with a picture. That is easier said than done when she won't turn around!

Please, just come out from behind the curtains. I'll give you a treat!?

Come on! Just look at the camera! I don't even care if you're smiling! Just look at me!!!!

Whatever. I quit. She looked cute, I promise.

Unsupervised Snacking

I have been on some pretty nasty pain killers/muscle relaxants lately because of some random back pain. After taking them I am just this side of comatose. Apparently while I was in my drugged stupor, Tori needed a snack. This is what I found on the kitchen counter:

 Sorry, baby. I'll be better soon and you can eat real food.

Bribery, don't knock it

Yes, I bribe my children. I do it a lot. If you don't approve of bribery, please just keep it to yourself. I don't want to feel worse about my parenting skills. With Tyler I usually have to bribe him with time on the computer/psp/wii/iphone. With Nicole, it's usually something like painting her nails or a quarter for one of those little toy/candy dispensers by the door at the grocery store. Tori has to be bribed with food. Nothing else works. Nothing. Trust me, I've tried it all. If you know me at all or have kept up with my blog over the last 3 years you know that Tori is the greatest trial in my life. I love her more than life itself, but she is certifiably crazy. Taking her anywhere is difficult, but she's getting better so I try to take her places when I can. This usually includes the grocery store. So, yes, I result to bribery in the store. Oddly enough, she always wants the same thing: strawberries. I know! Weird! Not marshmallows or chips or chocolate or something normal. She wants strawberries. She pulls off the stem, hands it to me, and then eats the whole thing. By the end of our shopping trip, she's usually plowed through almost a pound of them.

I suppose I should be thankful that she wants to eat something other than junk. I'm sure that will change someday, but for now I'm trying to laugh at her funny little quirks and not lose my mind. I love you Tori Bug!

Shredded Wheat? Could I be that lucky?

"What do you want for breakfast today?"

"We want Shredded Wheat!!!!!"

Wow, really? Could this be happening to me? My kids almost never want to eat anything healthy. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part they like to eat junk.

For some reason, the kids were unusually worried that they would mix up their bowls of cereal. I thought we could just use different bowls, but then they started fighting over the blue bowls. With a drop of food coloring here and there we were able to satisfy everyone.

Nicole Denounces Dance?!

Yes, it's true. Nicole has decided that she doesn't want to do dance anymore. This is after months and months of begging and pleading for me to get her into a dance class. She did one trial class and decided that she just likes to dance by herself and doesn't like learning all the steps that the teacher tries to teach. She wants to do karate like Tyler. Okay, I guess if we let Tyler do it, we can't say no to Nicole. So, I signed her up and she did such a great job!! She has been watching Tyler and practicing with him at home so she might have had a teeny tiny advantage over the other brand new students. I was so proud of her! She insisted on wearing a flower in her hair so she wouldn't look like a boy. :-)

If any of you are interested in a karate class for your child and you live in the Vancouver area, I would HIGHLY recommend Kanthak Karate. A lot of other places we looked at had extra fees all over the place! Any time you wanted to advance to a higher belt, or needed to make up a class or new uniforms or whatever. Tyler stained his shirt (eating curry with a white shirt is never a good idea) and they just gave him a new one! They do more than just teach karate. They teach discipline, respect, and focus. They also do "safety training" which helps kids know what to do if a bad guy tries to take them. They role play different situations in class and learn different strategies to defend themselves and to avoid being taken in the first place. I love this place! They also do a lot of extra activities like Nerf Nights, Pool Parties, and even a Star Wars night where kids come in costume and use their stick fighting skills with light sabers. With Tyler and Nicole now in Karate I'm there 5 days a week. I love everything about Kanthak Karate.

Go Titans!

Tyler loves sports. He has done T-ball, Coach-pitch baseball, soccer, basketball, and karate. I don't know if karate is considered a sport, but if not, it should be. Anyway, we haven't always had good luck with our coaches. For T-ball, the coach split after just one week. Ben had to step in and coach the team with his friend, Eric. For baseball, the coach bailed because his son broke his arm, so they just found some random guy in the parking lot to coach. Then for soccer we had an amazing coach. She did 2 practices a week when she only had to do one. She encouraged the boys and really helped them with their soccer skills. But basketball, we have truly been blessed with the coach we had. He was amazing with the boys on their team. He was fun, but still taught them. He was encouraging, but still serious. When one of the boys would make a mistake, he just laughed it off, patted them on the head and told them what to do next time. The boys had a blast this season. They were undefeated! (or, as Tyler says, they were unbeatable!) Now, Tyler loves basketball and wants to play every year. I managed to forget my camera every single game, but I took a few pictures with my iphone. I'm sorry they are so blurry, he was moving and I was far away.

My Treadmill

Running sucks.
Running is dumb.
Why would anyone run unless they were being chased?
Running is gross.

If you are a runner and you post about it on Facebook, chances are good that I will comment on it with one of the above statements. I hate running. A lot. I have problems with me feet (bunions - gross, I know) so running is quite uncomfortable for me. I have tried pretty much every other kind of exercise. Turns out I just hate exercising! Who knew?

Well, for my 30th birthday I got a treadmill. Before you all freak out and call my husband an insensitive lout for giving me exercise equipment for my birthday, I asked him for it.

"Why on Earth would you want a treadmill if you have foot problems, hate exercising, and despise running?"

Good question. Because I am crazy. No, actually I thought that I could watch tv on my laptop and walk in the evenings so I could burn a few extra calories and not feel so lazy. Well, I love it. I will shout it from the rooftops, I LOVE MY TREADMILL!!!! Funny thing is, I love running on it. I did the walking thing for a little while, but then I got stronger. I got in better shape. Just walking was too easy. I turned it up a little and ran. The whole time thinking, "what am I doing? I hate running!"

But I didn't. I loved it.

I just spent 85 minutes on my treadmill (while watching LOST on Netflix) and the only reason I stopped was because it's almost 11:00 pm and my pinky toes are asleep. According to my fancy treadmill, I burned almost 800 calories too. Probably a good thing considering the huge brownie I ate tonight.

I don't know what's happening to me. I really don't. But I can tell you this, I will not make fun of runners anymore. People who run marathons, they are a different story. That's just nuts.

Why I Switched to Scentsy

I love good smells. I think I have a stronger sense of smell than most people. I can usually tell which aisle I'm in at the grocery store just by smell. When I was pregnant, I had to avoid certain aisles because the smells of things like garlic or pickles would make me throw up instantly.

(I actually threw up in the grocery store once, it wasn't pretty. I carried ziplock bags with me from then on.)

Anyway, I like my house to smell good. The reed diffusers are good, but Ben and I have a REALLY hard time finding ones that we both like. Candles are good too, but with Tori around, this happens every single time.

 First, she sees that the candle is lit. This usually happens within a minute of lighting it.

You can tell she's contemplating what she's about to. Weighing the pros and cons.

 Apparently she has decided (as always) that the pros have outweighed the cons.

"Oh shoot. Mom totally saw that. Look innocent."

"She's not buying the innocent act. She knows me too well. 

Quick, look cute! Cute enough that she can't be mad!"

She's right. I can't be mad at that -- even though that face is more scary than anything else. Besides, it's just a candle. So now I use Scentsy. My house smells good. There's no flame to blow out. The best part is, I can change the scents whenever I want!

Purse Cupcake Toppers

I was given the assignment to turn a cupcake into a purse. Originally the plan was to frost the whole cupcake, then use licorice for a handle, an M&M for a clasp, and some piped frosting for decor. Simple. Actually, not so much. I couldn't make it work. So, instead I made purse cupcake toppers. I think they turned out much better than my cupcake purses would have. I wish I had a picture of them on the display table (all 70 of them!) but this will give the general idea of what they looked like. (yes, this is inside my refrigerator) Too bad my frosting got warm and droopy. :-(

TV Addiction

This is what happens when the Food Network comes on at our house.

I'm glad my kids like watching cooking shows, but this is ridiculous!

My Neurosis

I'm embarrassed to post this, but I have to show you all how crazy I am. I am not a neat freak. I don't have to have everything perfect -- if you've been to my house, you know this is true. But some things have to be exactly right. When I organize, I have to have everything at right angles to each other. I don't crumple up paper (even at fast food places), I fold it into a square. Here's an example of my neurosis. I dumped a bag of tater tots into a pan. It says to put them in a single layer in a pan. My pan was just a little bit to small. Instead of just getting a bigger pan, I did this:

I wish I cared more about what my house looks like and less about what my pan of tater tots looks like.