Jump On It

The past couple of weeks, my anxiety has been a bit high and I tend to withdraw and move inward emotionally. This past weekend, I started feeling a bit better so Alan and I decided we wanted to take the kids out. We headed off to Jump On It and it wasn't quiet the experience we wanted. The kids had fun, ran, jumped and climbed and then it took a turn for the worse. Zach sat down with a pained look on his face like he was dying because he was hungry and they both started complaining, so we decided to leave. On the way out we told them we were heading to get dinner (we were going to take them out to eat) and Zach decided to have an attitude because we said we weren't getting pizza. This led to him crying and us getting upset because when you take your kids out for a fun day, the "thanks" you get shouldn't be NO thanks and complaining about what you aren't getting right? I write the true story on here because it's easy to see fun pictures on people's blogs and assume they have wonderfully behaved kids all the time, when the reality is that they probably don't just like I don't. I DO have wonderful kids though...just some ungrateful attitudes. We ended up heading home and hopefully out next family outing wont lead to fits and whining and will lead to "thank yous" and appreciation.

Also apparently my video function on my little camera isn't working...not sound and it's recording in some weird quick mode...hmm...

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This DOES happen

Tiss is a sweet little flat fluffy face, but she isn't very social and for sure doesn't sit on laps (often). Every so often the mood hits her right and she jumps up and lays on (or almost on) my lap, but not for long and is always peeking up at noises that distract her.

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Otto in a drawer

The other night Alissa had me come to her room to see Otto in her drawer...

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What night time "hanging out" looks like

So our nights look pretty similar when it's "wind down time" and I got the urge to snap some pictures because this is real life! After we say goodnight to the kids, Alan and I hop in bed and just hang out! He usually checks Reddit while I play Sudoku (or whatever game I'm liking at the moment) and we'll have a show playing in the background. Alan gets his work clothes ready for the morning and showers and I sneak on a show he doesn't like (right now it's One Tree Hill). So ya, this is just us "hanging out". It gives us the chance to chat about the day or other things while being together but also winding down from the day (well, Alan more so...I get a lot of the day to "wind down").

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Cute Tiss

So Tiss isn't like Otto. She is just really chill and the other day I found her in the sink. She laid and slept in there for a few hours!

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Pretty braid

Alissa has been liking me to braid her hair lately and now asks me to take a picture. She saw what Zach did after he got him hair cut (turn the side, then back, then front) so she wanted to copy that and did a little turn for me!
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What they do...

Conner and Jackson are brothers and quickly became Zach's friends when we moved in. When you are a kid, it's much like how adults choose friends...you make friends with those who have the same interests and these two boys love videos games just as much as Zach does. Minecraft is the game they play lately and although I am not in love with how much they play, I do like that in Minecraft you get to use your imagination to build worlds and other things. It's just kind of fun walking in on them looking so intense.

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perfection

sweet wisp of hair.
pup pup in close.
peacefully dreaming.

perfection.

Cookies for dad

Alissa got a fun book from Grammy this Christmas and inside are some (not so awesome written) recipes and one was princess cookies. She was really wanting to make some for Alan and so I helped her do it the other day (or week). The measurements were NOT typical American measurements like 1/2 a cup etc...they were like 5/8s of a cup and when you don't have the exact measurements in baking, things turn out not as well as they could. It made a small batch and she was able to get a good handful of cookies from it and even frosted them all by herself, making one special one for Alan.

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He chopped it off

Zach's hair was getting pretty long, pretty crazy and I set up an appointment to get it cut. He told me he wanted it short and we took a reference to the salon. Half way through the cut he started getting nervous that it was "too short" so she left it at the length she had been cutting and didn't got any shorter. I think he should have gone shorter like the picture we brought in, but he didn't want to and it's his hair after all. It's just hard not having long hair, but not having short because he doesn't like me to "do" his hair, so this length looks messy ;)

We also had such a fun time at the salson. There were 3 other woman there (2 being hair stylist and 1 being a lady getting her hair curled) and they were joking around with Zach about how cute he was going to look and "what will the girls say at school when they see him" and he was just giggling and smiling. We played "rock, paper, scissors" while waiting our turn and were laughing with each other. We got in the car when we were done and Zach said "I had a fun time there" and couldn't stop giggling about "what the grown ups were talking about". It was fun!

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Alissa's "get her home word done" play

Alissa came home and told me that her teacher mentioned doing a play to help get homework done. Little did I know this was would a 45 minute play where she only got 2 or 3 problems on her homework done ha ha! I sat on the couch and played some games while she "practiced" and then the official play started, but not after she set our living room up with chairs and props! I am sad to say that the video I recorded didn't work (like I have said, the video function on my little point and shoot isn't working). I did manage to snap just a couple pictures though.

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Playing cards

Alissa loves to play games and we don't have a lot of two player games. We do have a lot of cards so we were playing a kind of kid version of "California Speed" called "Ratuki" and I'll be honest I have no idea how to say that, so we call it "RAT" and yell out "rat" when we get a pile. We then played "Speed" which took about an hour and she was a trooper (it can get kind of boring for a kid). She won and I ended up playing with Zach who also won!

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Cursive

I have been reading at night to the kids again. We are more than half way through the lost years blurb book already! This night Alissa wanted to show me how she's been practicing her cursive and could write all the names in our family. Her little determined face while writing is awesome and her cursive is so fun to see!
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The cats are fixed!

I don't know HOW we waited so long to get Chuggles fixed because man, Otto and Tiss have been SO annoying while she was in heat. Luckily, it was only a couple days before we were able to get them fixed, but it was a couple days of bad sleep nights and annoying cats. Alan brought them in on Saturday morning and when he brought them home Otto was just fine (maybe even TOO fine) and poor Tiss was so sad and couldn't even walk. Otto was seriously on a medicine high and spent about 15 minutes playing fetch with Alan! It was the funniest thing, I've never seen a cat do this before. And with a carrier sitting around, both cats have been loving it! They loved it so much, Zach added his bear in there and they just relax and sleep in there. Also, the other day Tiss hopped up and laid on my lap for about 10 minutes (unlike her to do) and it was sweet!

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2013 kids interviews!

This is my second year doing this and it's fun to see how some answers change and how some stay the same!

First up we have Zach:

1. What is your favorite color? Light blue
2. What is your favorite toy? Video games
3. What is your favorite fruit? Watermelon
4. What is your favorite tv show? Star Wars
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Pizza
6. What is your favorite outfit? This shirt, these pants, these socks with my boots
7. What is your favorite game? Minecraft
8. What is your favorite snack? Pizza
9. What is your favorite animal? Cat
10. What is your favorite song? Gangnam style
11. What is your favorite book? Star Wars, no wait, Diary of a Whimsy Kid
12. Who is your best friend? Connor
13. What is your favorite cereal? Chocolate cereal
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play on the trampoline
15. What is your favorite drink? Chocolate milk, no coffee (no, we don't let him drink coffee, but he's tasted it before and likes the taste)
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Pup-pup
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Cereal
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Pizza
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Video game maker
21.What is your wish for 2012? To get better at Minecraft

Alissa:

1. What is your favorite color? Pink
2. What is your favorite toy? My horse named Brownie
3. What is your favorite fruit? Tomato
4. What is your favorite tv show? My little pony, wait princesses and horses...Looney Toons baby, they are so cute!
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Macaroni and cheese
6. What is your favorite outfit? My pink dress that I can twirl around in that I wore on Halloween
7. What is your favorite game? Headbands.
8. What is your favorite snack? Chocolate
9. What is your favorite animal? Horses and kitties
10. What is your favorite song? The dynamite song...Call Me Maybe.
11. What is your favorite book? All of them. Princess and kitties and horses. Misty.
12. Who is your best friend? Katelyn
13. What is your favorite cereal? Chocolate puffs
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play in the snow when it's winter, go swimming in the summer, play in the leaves when it's fall and when it's Spring, go to school.
15. What is your favorite drink? Chocolate milk
16. What is your favorite holiday? My birthday
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  All my stuffed animals
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Coco Puffs
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Cake and Ice cream
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A pet rescue
21.What is your wish for 2012? To be an angle. It means I will be perfect for 2013.