mascara haiku

She applies with care

to become whimsical goth--

causing mom despair.

first grader!

When I picked Lore up from her first day of school, she told me, "First grade is the best grade in the world."

Beaver Bob at it again

of course bryn...she loves to chew wood and plastic like it's a meal.

tricksie ava

I let Bryn and Ava watch Tom & Jerry while I cleaned the bathrooms the other day. After sparkling two bathrooms, I checked on my ladies. Bryn, was the only one, I could find. I yelled to Ava, and she replied, "I'm cleaning it up!" Yeah, she ate a third of the bag before I snapped these. (And yes, if you haven't noticed, Ava is always naked. I can't keep clothes on her; she won this battle.)

Crayola is my new enemy

Somehow, with eight years of motherhood under my belt, I didn't know that Crayola makes markers that are not washable. I just assumed Crayola meant kid-friendly, mom-approved washable markers. Not true, not true. Addy had 2 bucks burning a hole in her pocket and she thought some new markers for $.98 were a steal. I had to agree but I should have been the wiser. Ryan made the discovery when we brought them home and was shocked I allowed another marker purchase. Well, 2 days later Mia found them while Addy was at school and got creative (luckily only on her body). When I suspected they were the un-washable markers I did a test and it was confirmed. I told Mia it probably wouldn't wash off and she freaked out! She went into the bathroom and started scrubbing. Maybe she thought it would stay forever. Addy and Halle were yelling that I better take a picture for the Bravas before it the damage was erased but that made Mia more upset. She DID NOT want this documented as you can tell from her reaction. About an hour in the tub and it's almost off. The markers in question were promptly thrown away.

Sin Juice

Zoe turned to me this morning and said, "I'm sorry your purse is ruined Mommy." She said this very sincere, I might add. Really, I didn't know my purse was ruined. I found a now-empty fountain soda (Dr. Pepper) turned upside down on my purse. She had accidently knocked it onto my purse and didn't tell me until awhile later. I grabbed my purse and started fealing around for moisture and valuables. My cell phone was swimming in a pool of Dr. Pepper. I was not able to revive it. After much drying and more air-drying, it was a lost cause. I guess that is what you get for drinking Sin Juice, but what a way to go.. in pool of Dr. Pepper.

*So don't be offended when I don't answer my phone or call you back!!


We are just full of the Bravas this week.

Foundation for saving make-up

I had to buy a brand new container of foundation the other day because Zoe squooze out all my foundation into the sink. (every last drop) So I bought new foundation, and hadn't even been home for more than ... 4 hours I'd say, when I went into the bathroom and there was my brand new container- half empty- in the sink...



Being the cheapskate (sp?) that I am, and purely for principle that I just bought this foundation today, I tried to salvage as much as possible...



Which I did a pretty good job of... I saved at least a month's worth, if not more...



... but she decided, while on time-out for the previous offense, to finish the job... she snuck back into the bathroom and washed out the foundation I had just saved...



Get me once - shame on you, get me twice - shame on me. I've learned my lesson... make-up stays on the top shelf.

Zoe Kusch Original- we are bringing back Gwyneth

Emily Woo is out here visiting, and I convinced her to let me chop her hair (which turned out really well, if you were wondering). While we were playing salon, Zoe snuck off with some scissors and decided to play salon as well. The pictures tell the story.

The damage was pretty scary. I could not stop laughing. When we took her to get her hair done, we told her she was going to get it done like a fairy. Just like Tinkerbell's. This has made it so she is not even phased. Tinkerbell is her favorite fairy right now. She's taken it like a champ, I think I have been closer to tears than she has over her hair. When we took her to the real hair salon, they cut her a funky mullet... not too flattering. So when we got home I took matters into my own hands. I cut the mullet off and tried to recreate Gwyneth Paltrow's hair from Sliding Doors. I think it turned out pretty decent considering what i had to work with.

Livy a.k.a. "Hair Artist"

He warned me, but do I listen?

One of Aaron's banes in the house is the accessibility of crayons and pens. Bryn, our little artist, knows she should only color on paper, but sometimes the temptation is too great. Today, it was in the car. She found a pen and inked a mural all over the back of my seat. How did she have time to do this? Because I was stuffing a mattress into the car (on my own I might add--I'm starting believe I have man strength). No pictures, just tears. Although I was able to wipe it clean with my constant companion: magic eraser. What in the world did our mothers do without magic erasers?

Deer in the headlights

Liquid foundation. All over his shirt and the carpet in my bedroom. Go ahead and laugh, Brooke! It's okay. Maybe he'll save his best brava for when we come to visit. Only time will tell.
P.S. I know you guys are loving my bras hanging from the door handle in the background. It's a bonus I just noticed.

Luke's latest fun...

Last Sunday evening we were all enjoying "The Sword in the Stone" together while Luke was playing nearby. While no one was watching, he climbed up to the desk and did some "coloring" with a sharpie marker. The damage could have been a lot worse-just a few scribbles on the desk and the laptop keys. For the record, Ryan had used the sharpie on some cd's he burned for Addy. I was just glad it wasn't me who left them out.

Buying Spree

About a month ago Jonathan bought me a wireless laptop so the kids wouldn't be in his den making a mess everyday while I paid bills, email etc.
I would let the kids do their letters or reading programs on the laptop while I showered or cleaned.

So a couple of weeks ago Jonathan noticed that he had some recent downloads from itunes that he didn't recognize. He asked me if I had bought a Wall-E soundtrack or some batman cartoons....of course I said no, and immediately thought someone has hacked into our wirless account and stolen our information! Then a few minutes later I had remembered seeing Ben with a itunes Wall-E window open during his reading program. At the time I had not thought anything of it.

So our little Ben has now figured out how to buy from itunes. Luckily itunes has a oops download grace period. We were able to get our $10 credited back.

We're in trouble

On our first week in the ward, we went to pick up Bryn from her Sunbeam class. When Bryn's new teacher realized we were Bryn's parents, she immediately said, "Bryn's hilarious." These are not comforting words to parents. Who knows what Bryn's warped mind will share with her teachers. She already told her Nursery teachers that Bishop was a bad word in our house. It is only a matter of time.

I've given up on becoming a master thief

Before leaving the condo, Lauren locked one of the bathroom doors and then shut the door when she came out. It was one of those locks that requires finagling a bobby pin through a pin hole. I tried this several times. No luck. Aaron tried, no luck. I called maintenance a few days later. He tried to pick it, jimmy it, and finally just took the door knob off. Good times.

bon appetite

Morgan's favorite place to go is the corners of any room. She knows she can always find delicious six-legged treats. She especially loves vertical blinds and the dirty lint balls found in sliding glass doors.

Sweetarts Make Me Crazy!

I was driving the other day with the girls in the back and we were eating Sweetarts (mmm...mmm..). I was passing them back to Zoe, and being very generous, I might add. I decided she had had enough, and told her no more. She started pouting and said, "Errr... You are ruining my life Mom!" I didn't think this kind of drama started for another 13 years! YIKES! All I could do was laugh. I tried to find out what show she had been watching to give her this line (Heaven knows I didn't teach it to her), but she was too mad at me to say. Apparently I must be doing something right if I am ruining her life already.

(As requested- I've posted here too)

Livy

Candy Raid

Once again the cold storage room was infiltrated. We thought we had a second defense put up by putting all candy related items on the top shelf in a plastic tub. But leave it to Ben to figure out a new way of getting what he wants. This time an empty water storage drum was used to access the candy. Luckily only Half of each of the sour patch kids, a 5 lb bag of M&M's and some reese's peanut butter bars were consumed. At least no chocolate mess was left behind.

Eyebrow Trimmers

Ben came back from brushing his teeth and I said, "Ben what happened!?!" He said, "Mom my hair fell out!" "Ben hair doesn't just do that." He said sheepishly, "o.k., I cut it." I told him it would take a couple of weeks for his hair to grow back and until then it would look crazy. He said, "Mom that's ok, we can just gel it or something." I told him that wasn't going to help it. He replied, "Well I can just wear a hat everyday then." Problem solved.

First Offense

I found Jackson with chalk....then I saw the wall. It wasn't bad. Ben will surely teach him in due time.