crazy

5 kids

A power chair

Grand Opening of WalMart

I am officially crazy. and Scott has certified that.

Maybe I'm Not.

Do you remember Thelma Maybe?

She came and spoke to our Young Women's group once.

She lost her arm years ago and I don't remember how.  

Anyway, she came and talked to us about her disability and showed us the many things she was able to do with one arm.  She tied her shoes, zipped her coat, got herself ready, etc.  She was one independent gal.  I was amazed at her abilities.

Well, my Grace loves to be held.  Especially by me :)  However, I have a lot to get done in a day.  So this requires a lot of one armed work.  Loading the dishwasher, gathering laundry, doing dishes, sweeping the floor.  I drop things, spill things, break things.  

I am no Thelma Maybe. 

But with practice I Mightbe.  

Happy Birthday Mom!

Good Karma

When I looked down and saw this while eating breakfast and reading the paper this morning- I knew it was going to be a good day!

I Love Couponing!

I bought some fun coupon books at Hallmark a while back.  They are full of fun coupons that kids just love. We give them to the kids when they are exceptional.  This was a coupon that Aidan was awarded and he decided to cash it in yesterday.  Lucky for me we had a FHE desert ready to go and it became his unbirthday pie!

Isn't it cute that something so simple as a cake with candles can just make a kids day? We even sang 2 songs because we couldn't decide which would be most appropriate.  We sang Happy Un-Birthday to You and He's a Jolly Good Fellow.  

Family Night Food Fun

On our way home from the zoo we decided it was time to do Scott's fun Family Night idea.  We took the kids to the store, Scott assigned each of them a particular part of the dinner.  Asher found a main dish, Chloe a side dish, Me a side dish, Aidan the drinks and Cole the dessert.  They had to bring us their item and we could approve or reject.  They did pretty good.  Chloe immediately knew she wanted fruit salad.  Asher was pretty undecided as he raced around the store.  He wanted lunchables, then chips, and finally with some guidance found some pork chops.  Aidan knew cream soda would be a winner and especially if we each got our own can!  Cole picked popcorn, I decided on a salad.  Then when we got in the car Scott let them know they had to prepare whatever they had picked.  Oh boy!  

I really didn't help anyone hands on, but just directed them with words and they did great!  Of course Aidan lucked out by only having to set out cans of pop.  Asher's porkchops were really good and Chloe's fruit salad was too.  During dinner Scott talked about choices and how they affect us.  I thought it was inventive and fun.  

Homicidal Camel

No, that title is not a mistake. 

Here's the deal.

We went to the Hogle Zoo on Monday.  The Hogle Zoo is a family tradition, and the Rowley's gave us a year pass for Christmas!  Yeah!  We met Mom at the zoo (another tradition but we missed Dad).  It was a  beautiful day! Check out the sunshine in Grace's face.

Our kids really love the animals and we took our time enjoying them all.  We  look for some that we remember every year- like the nearly hairless and barely  moving old monkey.  He's cute in an old man kind of way.  

 (Notice I'm holding on to the "good" story until the end so you'll read my blog.  Unless 

your like my friend Linda who reads the ends of stories first and has no problem with that.  Then you may skip to the end of this blog and read the juicy stuff)

Another tradition is having your picture taken with the lion drinking fountain

 and measuring yourself up against the gorilla.  I'm pretty sure I could dig up a picture of myself in front of that drinking fountain. 

 But for fun I thought I'd post Chloe in front of the gorilla in 2002 and 2009 just to make myself sad about how fast she's growing.  

A new thing we did this year was ride the Conservation Carousel.  It is an additional cost, so I was passing it up, but I think Grandma had visions of a little boy riding the carousel at Disneyland 10 times and the joy it brought and she couldn't resist.  I have to say that this carousel is one of the coolest looking ones I've seen.  The animals are really fantastic.  I especially like the praying mantis.

Cole rode the polar bear and smiled and waved every time he came around. Asher rode an awesome and fierce looking gorilla and Aidan rode the buffalo like it was a bucking bronco.  

He put on a little show every time he came around.  Slapping the buffalo's backside, yelling "yee-haw", riding the buffalo backwards.  

You may have noticed Chloe was not on the carousel.  She gets dizzy like her mother.

This is one of my favorite pictures because I threw Cole in it in a hurry at the last minute.  Notice his seat is one of the rhino's horns.  I love the look on his face, "Whatever Mom, make me sit on a rhino horn. Who cares about my comfort, it's all about you and the pictures isn't it?" 

Do you enjoy these 2 giraffe pictures.  One I took, one Asher took.  Can you tell which is which?

I thought I got lucky when the giraffe seemed to sense my presence and turned to look right at me and my camera.  Asher took my camera inside the giraffe pen and shot this naughty little guy in a giraffe line-up.  

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for and the namesake of this blog- 

Honestly the camel pen is but a passing moment.  They are usually loosing their hair, they just stand there and we are tired and ready to go home at this point.  Today however, two of the camels were fighting and biting each other. I commented: "Oh look at those two naughty brother camels biting and fighting with each other.  And there's the Momma over their getting a drink saying 'You two just fight it out'".  

Well, then the camels broke it up.  But I think the one brother was all riled up still.  He turns from his brother and spots the sweet little goose family wandering through his pen and heads after them.  We are all watching and waiting.  And oh, have you  met my Mom?  She has an extremely loud voice.  This voice was gifted to her to ensure her children could hear her above the roaring crowd, cheering them on at any sporting event.  She used this voice here at the zoo as the drama was unfolding.  "STOP!  NO! GET AWAY CAMEL!"

That testosterone filled camel continued to hunt down those baby geese and began rearing back and stomping his feet in an attempt to squish one of the little fuzz balls.  He kept stomping and stomping. Most everyone was yelling at this point and only that electric fence held my Mom back.  (Scott has an awesome electric fence story by the way.)  One of the baby goslings was flung into the air, but somehow missed the camels hooves.  We couldn't believe they all escaped unharmed.  The mama goose directed them all to the edge of the pen and the grumpy camel went for a drink.  Whew.

It was an adrenaline filled moment.  Of course we contacted zoo personnel, but they told us the geese were wild, they got in and they'll have to get themselves out.  Sing with me now, "It's the circle of life.." Anyhow, that was our adventurous day at the zoo.  

Today

I'll start with the answers to the Friday Fun Questions.  

Picture #1 was Cole's tooth which met up with the sidewalk real hard.

Here's hoping that it doesn't fall out and possibly changes back to white!

Picture #2 is Aidan's mouth.  He received a plastic egg at school and unbeknownst 

to me he suctioned it to his face, hard, for a long time.  So he is now the proud owner 

of a giant face hickey.  

It' difficult to pick a winner, but I'm going to say  Mom because Aidan has already promised her one free super-sage, so I'm off the hook for prizes.

Yesterday Asher and his friend Jake went for a bike ride and found some old wood

in a vacant lot.  They brought it home, got out some of Scott's nails and hammers and

went to work building themselves a bike jump.  Here they are proudly displaying their finished

product.

 Here's Asher going off the jump on his new bike that he saved up to buy. (fyi His bike is the same size as his old bike BUT, it has pegs people). The jump lasted for a good 1/2 hour and then broke.  

I appreciated their ingenuity and "green" vision.

Lastly, notice the picture of the moon at the top of my blog.  It was suppose to have one fantastic owl in the picture too, but it had flown the coop.  We had a fabulous owl perched on our roof night before last.  We heard it hooting while we were in the office and I couldn't believe it when I ran outside and saw it just sitting on our roof with the full moon behind it.  However, I could not get my camera to take a picture of an object that far away with so little light and while I was tinkering it very quietly without my noticing flew away.  So, in my disgust I took a picture of the moon.  

Friday Fun: "What Caused This?"

Happy Friday!

Let's play a little game.

I've got 2 pictures here.

Look at the picture and tell me what caused this child to look this way.

Picture #1:

What caused this?

Picture #2:

What caused this?

The winner wins...something..special.

Games & Magic

Aidan has come up with a new game, and I like it!  When we are running errands I occasionally have a stop that will just be really quick, so Scott stays in the car with the kids while I run in thereby saving time and sanity ( I guess it just saves my sanity, not Scott's).  Anyhow, this happened just the other day, 2 stops I would quickly run in and one everyone was invited.  

When I got to the first stop Aidan tells me, "If you hurry fast enough Mom, you will win a prize!"  So Scott helps him time me and I hurried.  Sure enough I won the prize!!  He tells me I've won a "super-sage" (like massage, but minus the mass and replace it with super). Hmm, that sounds interesting.  

Next store, same routine, if I beat the clock the prize is mine.  I win again- another super-sage. When we got home I was running around pretending to accomplish much and Aidan kept asking "Are you ready for your super-sage Mom?"  I put him off 3 or 4 times and finally he caught me sitting at the computer and asked again.  

Why did I put this kid off!  Do you know what a super-sage is?  It is fantastic!  He started by rubbing my hair, then my neck, my back, my arms, my fingers, my legs, my toes, my eyes, my nose, my knees, my stomach and my ears.   

That my friends is a super-sage, and I have one more to cash in.  

Can't wait. 

I'm going to take this kid and his stopwatch to town more often. 

I knew it would happen sooner or later.  Chloe was holding Grace while she slept and this was the result.  Hot pink nails.  I have to admit, they are cute on her little fingers.  

This outfit may look like just one cute little stripey baby outfit, but it's not- it is a MAGIC outfit.  Molly let me borrow it, but she didn't tell me of it's magical powers.  You see, whenever Grace wears this little number, she does a MAJOR number.  That's right, this outfit + Grace = onesie in the trash & baby in the bath.  

"oh oh she's magic- you know!"  I've got some powerful stain remover-  no worries Molly.  

Guess Who Came to Visit?

Can you guess from this picture who came to visit?  

That's right- Jen!!!

Of course I talked her into helping us do one of her cute crafts.  These are Chloe, Asher, and my bunnies respectively.  It was a quick visit and I'm short on sleep, but oh I love it when a sister comes to visit.  Thanks Jen, love you.

I Had to Pass it On

A friend of mine received this video from her Grandpa.  

I watched it and felt compelled to pass it on. Enjoy.

To read this talk in its entirety click on the link entitled 

"Unleashing the Dormant Spirit".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snAjZ8mfoYw

Unleashing the Dormant Spirit