The Graduate

Watch out world, Mason's on his way, seriously.
My little guy has graduated from preschool. He did awesome walking in, shaking hands, accepting his diploma, posing for pictures, singing his songs and ringing his hand bells. He was so serious during the presentation, so unlike Mason, I guess he's really growing up.
small but mighty
This is a picture of him with Ms. Janee. Everyday she would send home comments about his day. One of my favorites was the day that Mason said "I don't want to subtract, that's to easy, I want to do times".

Piano Recital

This piano recital did not go down as I had planned. The timeline leading up to the event is as follows:
1985-Rainie starts piano
1988-Rainie convinces mom to let her quit
1997-Rainie takes college piano class and try's to get her groove back
1998-Rainie falls in love with an amazing piano player
1999-2008-Rainie wishes that she would have never quit the piano
2009-Charlotte (daughter #1) begs her mom to let her quit piano, because it's torture, Rainie makes her a promise that when she can play better then her (me) then she can quit
2010-Rainie doesn't want Charlotte to quit so Rainie better take more lessons Month before the "big" recital - Rainie masters her piece, memorizes it and all, yahoo!
Recital Eve - Mom has a bad dream, the kind that you think is really true and then you wake up and you're so relieved, that I couldn't play my piece at the recital
Recital - Sometimes dreams come true, even when they're really bad:(
I have no idea what happened but I couldn't play, I was sooooooo scared. How can someone so un-shy be so afraid to do something in front of people. Something that 30 other kids under 10 years old have no problem doing. Why does my body start shaking out of control? Why am I doing this at age 31? So the problem was that I was concentrating so hard on trying to make my legs and fingers stop shaking that I couldn't keep track of where I was, I think I played the same line 3 times and then I called it good(or really really bad) and finished. Who needs to hear the 2nd page anyway? I was so deflated. That my sob story.
The girls on the other hand were awesome. I love how they are both progressing along. Rozlyn just started a few months ago and Charlotte, is doing great. I love to hear her practice(I don't always love getting her to practice) and remember back when she was just thunking keys.

technical difficulties loading Rozlyn and I, maybe later.

Lost Pines

Thursday we packed up abandoned home duties and took off for a weekend getaway to a little place called Lost Pines.
......and enjoyed alot of this!

Some friends and I went back in March to run the Zooma Women's race and I knew that I had to bring the hubby and kids back to experience it for themselves. We parked our car on Thursday afternoon and didn't get back in it until we had to drive home last night. Our days were filled with pool, sun, water slide, lazy river, tractor rides, s'mores by the fire, longhorns, giant huge fuzzy caterpillars, glutenous amounts of food, dessert buffets, movies on the lawn, bike rides, friends, tether ball (somewhere over the past 20 years I've lost my skills), very little sleep, and each other. Happy times!
Tractor ride.
We learned that farmers put straw in their mouths when they need to think.
This was my favorite family pictures because not one person is looking. Typical of the Grahamtastics.
The one pictures where we are all looking just happens to have a shirtless dude in the background.
Ready for "Wizard of Oz" to begin on the lawn.
This is what we look like before we head out for the day.
Mal's ready to cruise.
I really heart a good cowboy.

Sadly we have no water shots which really was the highlight, cameras, water, and four kids floating away in the river don't go together. Especially for Mallory the fearless.......that girl might be part fish.

Saturday mornings at our house

Saturday mornings look a little something like this Pancake breakfast, pajamas, 6 bed heads and some Neil Diamond karaoke. Soon this will be every day, if summer could just hurry.

The lighting in the video is all crazy because I was standing directly under a big light.
Also FYI, kids will eat any amount of fruits or vegetables if you put them on a stick. Kabobs are a new family favorite, and the sticks serve so many functions, weapons, wands, guitars, microphones.
The fun is endless Saturday afternoon and Saturday night wasn't to shabby either, a movie with the kids, Costco, soccer games, take n bake pizza, good weather, a fun babysitter and a really fun date with my favorite person.

Turn on the jets

The girlies participated in the world's cutest school fundraiser today. I'm the least enthusiastic parent ever about fundraisers but their enthusiasm for their "Boosterthon Fun Run" was too contagious to resist. Check out the link for the basics. The staff was amazing in getting the kids excited. Everyday they'd come home with that's days incentive....get two pledges and win a rocket, the class with the most states pledged wins something else, etc. etc. After much persuasion I did allow them to call a few family members, (sorry but thanks for making their day, they were so super excited to be the first students with a pledge from Idaho and check it off the school state map). They had a script that they read over the phone, with blanks to fill in the persons name. Rozlyn was so entertaining to listen to, she might have a future in sales
... "Stewart, I have a question for you...will you pledge me a dollar amount for every lap I run.......Stewart, thank you for helping me reach my goal"
I don't know why it made me so giggly. Perhaps that no matter how hard she tried and practiced she could never say Boosterthon Fun Run, the closest she got was Boomsterthon.
"Stewart, I'm calling to tell you about a cool new program at our school called the Boomsterthon...they'll set up the Boomstertown speedway..."
Mason, Mallory and I provided the cheerleading and the girls ran their hearts out, in their new fancy Boosterthon T-shirts. They each ran 2 miles (32+ laps). Roz loved the water station, I think she made a stop every lap, and Charlotte loved running with her friends even if it meant stopping or running in the wrong direction to meet back up with them. Here are some pics from the event.
Go Roz Go!
Charlotte running. Mason lending support, thanks heavens for hand sanitizer because that little guy was giving out high fives to everyone who passed by.
Finished! The 3rd graders ran last in the day and all they had left were x-large shirts, so she's kind of swimming in hers.
One last highlight of the day. Rozlyn's class won the most pledges for the school which meant that their teacher got to throw a pie in the coordinators face. That was fun, but even better was how excited Mason was to watch it. I finally found something to motivate him (Chores, eating dinner, ditching pull-ups), I'm ready to make a chart, and Chris better prepare for pie in the face (if my plan works). Mason is super excited about the idea.

Mother's Day

I'm campaigning to add a few more of these holidays onto the calendar. I love a day (or weekend) to be pampered, to sleep in, to indulge on delicious food and the list goes on.
There was so much anticipation leading up to a lazy Sunday, last night I asked Chris how long he thought I could sleep in. His guess was 8:00am, I thought he totally under estimated me. I can't remember the last time I could do this, years probably. But with 1:00 church and no meetings, it was heaven. I only made it until 7:45am, not very good. Maybe I was just to excited.
Since I got to sit in bed with all this time I was able to read back on some past journal entries and I came across this gem, which totally made me laugh, and I found all ironic because it was the start of my life as a mother.
July 9, 2010. "The news is in - Chris and I found out I was pregnant on July 7 at the Plymouth Truck Stop. We were on our way to my family reunion in Crystal Springs. I begged for a pregnancy test and Chris finally agreed by making me agree to a verbal contract. I had to promise not to cry either way."
and that's how motherhood began for me. The truck stop bit made me laugh, could I seriously not wait for cleaner circumstances, I hate gas station bathrooms, but no I really couldn't wait. I remember. I didn't remember the contract, but that made me laugh even harder. Poor Chris, he's always been really afraid of girls crying.
Back to 2010. As the day went on I got the usual showering of homemade gifts and cards from school. My favorite laughs came from the card that said "You are so so special because you're my mom"....and the best was the classic "fill in the blanks" they fill out at school, where the teacher is privileged to see what a crappy mom you are by your kids answers. I'm sure they have some sort of correlation with CPS. Fill in the blank #11 was "My mom has a funny habit of....screaming"
Awesome, and just for your info my I look really good in shirts and pants, my favorite food is baked ziti and tomato soup, my favorite vacation is going to Idaho, I look really funny when I get out of the shower just to name a few more.
and now back 10 years again, 2000 at the truck stop... I really couldn't wait to be a mom, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, how hard the work would be, how tired I would be, how uncapable I would feel, how kids could be more stubborn then me, how many nights I'd serve cold cereal for dinner, how dirty my house would get, how many prayers I would say, how many times I would cry and how many times I would laugh til my belly hurt. I wouldn't have it any other way
 

(This is as good as a timer shot gets with 4 kids)
I'm one lucky mom, in so many ways, x4.

Mallory's Big Day

I have to admit I was a little sad on her birthday. The year just went by so fast with our busy lives. I wish it could have slowed down for me to have had more quality one on one time with Mallory. I love this little girl to pieces. She makes me so so happy in so many ways. I feel like the luckiest mom that she's mine. I treat her like she's still a newborn, and here she is one. I guess I should take her out of her rear facing seat and allow her to actually sit in a stroller instead of just being clicked in. She is a big girl now, sniff sniff.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The party was small, just us all sitting around smiling and laughing at Mallory, just how we like it.
We're all glad you joined our family, Happy Birthday Mal Pal.

Mason the superhero

We've got a four year old in our house. I love four, four year old are the best and Mason's no exception. He'd begged for a superhero party forever and these were the results, a house full of fellow superheros and friends:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I can't imagine life without Mason, he's the best kind of energy to have around. Happy fourth!!!
(imagine some music in the background of the slideshow, it's on SmileBox but doesn't come across the blog, my technical abilities are questionable once more)

OKC!

A few weekends back we took a quick day trip up to Oklahoma City. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir was putting a show on in Norman that Chris wanted to go see and so we thought we might as well make a day out of it.
We left bright and early so we could pack in as much as possible. We had breakfast at Pops, visited the Oklahoma City Memorial Museum which was amazing, and sweat like crazy on the Bricktown Canal rides. The heat we endured could probably classify as child abuse, it was miserable. It happened to also be a huge Harley convention there that same weekend. We've never seen so many motorcycles in our lives. These were the same people on our memorial tour with us and boat ride too, sweet. I entertained the kids that night at the mall since you had to be 8 years old to get in. We were going to stay in a hotel that night but decided to just head on back. Here are some of our favorite shots.

Suburban Mamma

I just passed off my last requirement to join the elite, the lemonade stand. I really was dreading it but couldn't deny my kids who'd been asking for quite some time. We invited some friends over to help us so I wouldn't have to endure the pain alone. It seemed like everyone who drove past bought some and would even leave a tip. After I put a stop to Rozlyn's door to door solicitation the advertising became running up and down the street, chasing the cars, yelling and jumping like the house was on fire. We even had a few neighborhood geckos join in the fun that were being passed around. That fun ended when the owner told us to make sure and wash our hands because they carry salmonella on their skin. Gross, as if I'm not paranoid enough about sickness. I was so scared all night that there was going to be a neighborhood outbreak because of our lemonade stand. In the end the kids had a great time, and earned $10.75. Not to shabby, now the money is sitting while they decide what to spend it on.
The preparations for the big day
One of these signs said buy 10 cups get 1 free, ha ha.The source of all my stress - this salmonella dude

My favorite dads!

I'm feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have these two guys in my life.

This picture just makes me laugh so hard, my dad had never heard of the "self-take" picture. He was insistent on using the timer but on top of a mountain there aren't alot of places to set the camera.

These are from this past weekend when we went to visit them in California (post coming soon). My dad is an adventerous guy and Chris is always up for an adventure so it's a great combo. I don't think either one of them are afraid of anything.

I'll admit that I'm spoiled by these two. I can't imagine living life without them. Happy Father's Day to the two best Dads!!!

Veggin Out

I now know where the name came from.
The other night I told Chris that I just wanted to sit on the couch and veg out, sitting there doing nothing.
-and then these beauties came to mind

My first attempt at vegetable gardening. These Earth Boxes promised me great success. I was so eager and devoted to their cause from the begining, they grew so fast, making me feel so proud. It's been a few months now and no vegetables. I think they forgot to grow food. Their sitting there doing nothing, like me on my couch on a Saturday night. My gardening spirits have hit a low, this was my rookie year, this was a small attempt to boost my confidence so I could expand in summers to come. My friend already has vegetables, real life size ones that they can pick and eat. My "learn by experience" has not been a good experience. I've grown rather attached to these plants and they're letting me down. Hopefully I'll have good news, (good vegetables) to report on in the weeks to come.

Help Wanted!!

This is my personal classified ad. Seeking three eager and willing helpers to assist there mom around the house. Jobs are flexbile and change daily. Must not whine, drag their feet or complain about the fairness of the assignments. Even better would be if they recognized work that needed to be done without asking and just did it. Payment will come in the form of food, lodging, clothes, toys, entertainment, story time, pool time, etc.

If only, right?? My kids are getting to be stinkers about helping around the house. Lately the beef has been about fairness and the unequal distribution of workload. Until now, they've been given a daily list of jobs. Their attitude's is what really concerns me. After their token jobs have been done, they give me attitude if I ask anything else of them, like this:
me = "Hey, could you bring me one of Mallory's diapers?"
them = "I already finished with my work today."

me= "Hey sweetie, you left your dishes just sitting here on the table, you need to clear them off."
them = "Is that one of my jobs today?"

So I want this to be a fun summer, I don't want to be a nag, so I think we need to change things up. I'm just wondering the best way to do it. Should I not assign jobs and just have a work time frame where they have to work for a certain time, or assign jobs on a need done basis?
We finished some jobs the other day before heading to the pool. Charlotte asked if we're going to have to do work everyday before we can swim this summer, to which I answered probably. Her response was "I guess I won't be swimming everyday this summer."

I've got a few days left to get my summer game plan together, I'd love any suggestions and input.

4 scoops of raisins

Recently the Kellogs Raisin Bran, 2 scoop, box was on sale, and I bought a few boxes. It's pretty box is such a marketing trick because looking at it you'd think it would taste so much better then the ugly boxes. It doesn't. There's no raisins, it becomes a mission just to find a few. I poured two bowls with NO raisins, not one. On my second bowl, I closed the box and shook it upside down for awhile just trying to get some toward the top. I was complaining to Chris about my dissapointing morning of eating yucky plain bran cereal. The box sat of the shelf for awhile.
A little while later we were having a cold cereal breakfast and our options were skim. The kids don't like raisin bran because they don't like raisins. I assured them it would just be the flakes and if a few raisins fell out I'd get them out for them. You guessed it, tons and tons of raisins came flying out. It looked like it was a 6 scoop box. I really thought I had the worst luck. So as promised I went picking out each raisin from each of the kids bowl. I collectively gathered a whole bowl full of raisins.
Soon Chris walked out and saw that the Raisin Bran made it to the breakfast line-up. He asked if there were any raisins in it this time. In my "you'll never believe this kind of way" I went on to explain how many raisins there were, and how I was so confused that when I want a bowl there's none and when the kids want a bowl there are a million. He smiled at me and told me that after my last experience he'd opened a large can of raisins and poured them in. He showed me the almost empty can from the back of the pantry. I guess he'd been patiently waiting for me to try them again. You know your husband loves you when he pours extra raisins in to suprise you. He's the most thoughtful, funny guy. It made my whole day. Thanks, babe.

Pinkalicious

Today was the conclusion to our family's first experience with soccer. Rozlyn was our first kid to give an organized sport a chance. Through her example, Charlotte has now decided that it looks pretty fun and will start playing in the fall. We joked that team Pinkalicious were the mis-fits, like the Bad News Bears or some other movie worthy underdog story. The team was formed with all the girls who had no other team, who had never played before, and oh yeah, no coach. Luckily a great dad stepped up and gave it a go, with no previos experience himself. The first practice, all of the girls showed up wearing pink (this is before they became "Pinkalicious") so I should of known then that our team style would probably be better then our talent. We had to wait 4 games until our team scored their first goal, we actually got 2 that game. Then we had to wait 4 more games until the last day, today, to score again. This probably is because the girls on the team seem to only care about two things during a game, who's hand is on top during the cheer, and who gets to kick it in when it goes out of bounds. If Rozlyn can see the ball heading out of bounds, before it even gets out, her hand is straight up hoping to get picked to kick it in. Our coach is so great with the kids, and the other families are wonderful too. Team Pinkalicious definately gets the most improved award, and the other teams better beware, because team Pinkalicios will be back next year!!!