Beyblades

Notice anything different?? Jarren got a haircut!!! We offered him $5 to cut it all off and he took it.

Playing Beyblades on the tramp

More Beyblades

Jarren has a new obsession: Beyblades. They are these metal tops that have a ripcord that you use to get them to spin. There's a little tool that you can attach and detach different parts to make them different. He has an arena and he has battles with them--they hit into each other and you see which one lasts the longest. He recently discovered that they work well on the trampoline, so he's often out there playing with them. A couple of our neighbors have joined in the obsession and they have so much fun!

PS I LOVE his new haircut!!!

The 5 Love Languages

For my book club this month, we were supposed to read "The 5 Love Languages" by Gary Chapman. He claims that every person has a "language" that needs to be spoken in order for them to feel loved.

Words of Affirmation--this person needs to be told how loved s/he is; complimented often. Words are very important to him or her.  
Acts of Service--this person needs to be shown love. When loved ones do things for this person, s/he feels very valued and loved.  
Quality Time--this person needs to spend one-on-one time with his or her loved ones, with undivided attention to feel loved. Even just doing nothing, but being together is great.  
Gift Giving--this person needs little gifts, even if they are inexpensive or free, to feel loved. Little notes, presents, a flower picked from the garden, etc.  
Physical Touch--this person needs to be hugged, kissed, little touches on the arm, etc to feel the love.

There are so many versions of this book and some have a quiz in it and some don't. I found a super short quiz  to take to find out what your love language is and then a longer quiz. My copy didn't have a quiz, so I took the longer quiz and had Jon take it too. I was very surprised by my results!!! By one point (ONE measly point, people!!), my love language is Physical Touch. In close second, my secondary language, is Quality Time. I'm surprised because I'm not a touchy-feely person. But...apparently with my loved ones, I need that to feel loved. I almost think that Quality Time is just as important though. I mean, really. ONE POINT!!

New Vanities

When we remodeled the kitchen, we decided to have the bathroom vanities and sinks updated as well. The guy got busy and we let it slide--until now. We finally got them done yesterday! We had a little problem with the main bath (the granite guy only drilled one hole instead of three), so that will be wrapped up today. They sure look nice! Here's the master bath--I'll post the other one when it's finished.

Master Bathroom BEFORE

Master Bathroom AFTER!

Bird Show

Two of the cute birds! They had a lot of personality.

Anyone who knows my family, knows we love birds--especially Jon, Kendall, and Jenna. I took the kids to the library about 2 weeks ago and Jenna noticed a sign advertising a bird show there at the library. She begged to go, so...against my better judgment, we went last night. Why I say that is this: I took Kendall and Kristen to story time at the library years ago and it was so crazy crowded that I never went back. Poor Jarren and Jenna never got to experience that. We got there about 10 minutes early and couldn't even find a parking place. We walked in and there were about 100+ people in a room made for 40. It was insane!! They crunched all the kids together on the floor and the adults lined the outside edges. Of course, my kids got crunched behind a tall lady with a dancing toddler and couldn't see a thing.

The lady in the pink shirt is right in front of Jenna (long dark hair with a turquoise shirt)--and her toddler is right in front of her (blond). Jarren is in front of the lady in the flowers and Kristen was already done by this point.

  The lady in charge kept telling everyone to sit on their pockets, but do you think the dancing toddler sat for more than 2 seconds? Nope. And standing up, he was taller than his tall mom was sitting down. After about 30 minutes, my kids decided they'd had enough, so we went and looked at books and checked some out, beating the crowd. The birds were pretty cool!! I'm glad we went so that Jarren and Jenna got that crazy library experience.

Flashback Friday

Our church women group had  Johnny Lingo night this past week. We each had to give them a picture of us from our "ugly" days and then a picture from our "beautiful" days. So...I dug around in my old photos and came up with this one.

It was taken on February 2, 1987. I remember the exact day, not only because I'm weird like that, but because it was taken at my Grandma Walker's funeral--a few days after my 12th birthday. What makes it even more fun, is that I'm pretty much the same age as Kristen is now. My kids thought it was hilarious!!! Yeah, my permed hair that I thought would never be out of style. :)

Egg Hunting

Our church this year is at 9 am. I love 9 am church, but this year is a little challenging. First of all, New Years Day was at 9 am. Try staying up until midnight (or later) and then getting everyone up and out the door that early. Secondly, 2 out of 6 of our birthdays are on Sunday this year, so that makes it a little...interesting...for the kids. Thirdly, Easter Sunday was at 9 am. My kids aren't super early morning kids (aside from Jarren), so that posed some problems. Egg hunt at 7:30 am? Nah...the Easter Bunny came after we left for church, but before we got home, since we're dog sitting a hyper, semi-violent dog who definitely would have done damage to the eggs (and candy). The kids came home and went on an egg hunt and spend the day enjoying the candy and sunshine. It was a very nice day.

Finished Eggs

Jenna's jungle eggs

Kendall just left his sitting in the dye for about an hour, so they were very vibrant

Jarren quickly threw his in and pulled them out, so they were pastel

Kristen had mini monsters and didn't want to mess with pipe cleaners and "hair" so they just got sticker mouths and eyes, but were still really cute

Coloring Eggs

Kendall, wondering what that thing was for

Kristen got pretty into it, even though she didn't want the monster pack

Jenna, happy she got the jungle animals. She took about an hour to decorate hers

Jarren, being silly and quickly

I thought this year I'd buy a couple of those egg coloring kits to change things up a bit. I had one that I got on clearance last year, so I made sure each kid had one. Kendall had no interest in using it and Kristen wanted the one Jenna had. Jarren just wanted to play with his stickers and decorations, so...in the future? I'll stick to food coloring and crayons.

Found

 
Found:
One white tiger that is soooooo adorable!! Goes by the name of Ren. :)

I am in love with this book series, The Tiger's Curse--book 1; (The Tiger's Quest--book 2; The Tiger's Voyage--book 3). My friends and I went and met the author, Colleen Houck, and had our book(s) signed back in December. The girl two in front of us won a big gift pack. Rats!!

I saw a cute white tiger shirt in Forever 21 last month, but they didn't have my size. Double rats!!

Then, a few weeks later, this cute, cute tiger showed up in the mail. I cannot figure out who sent it to me. I've asked everyone I can think of and I have my suspicions, but no one will own up to it. So....THANK YOU to whoever sent Ren to me!!! I love it!!! And if you want to read a fun, cute, fantasy romance (clean), pick this series up!

Just Because....

I went and got Jenna from school one day and came home to find a big box that had just been delivered for me. I opened it and it was a bunch of beautiful roses from....Jon! JUST BECAUSE!!! That was sooo sweet. They sure did brighten things up.

April Fools!

 I love doing food tricks for April Fools. This year was a little trickier than usual, because it fell on a Sunday and everyone was home, but I still managed. Jarren and Jon TOTALLY fell for the trick!!

meatloaf cooked in an aluminum foil liner

colored mashed potatoes added on top to look like frosting

I put these "cupcakes" on a plate with fruits and veggies and had some of the family pretty confused. Kristen's was just mashed potatoes. She was sooo worried that my trick would be to give her meat, so I had her help me make them. They were pretty good!