Could I get a comb here?

Juliet has the most unmanageable hair. Since she's my third kid, she also gets less hair attention than Maxine did. Some days she's got a ton a food in her hair and strands hanging in her eyes. If a clip is ever affixed to control the problem, she often rips it out a few minutes later. *sigh* Sorry babe.

This batch of pictures are from the sand dunes on Saturday. Juliet got to sit in the cockpit for a moment. Mostly she rode in Grandpa Campbell's yellow Jeep with Mommy. She liked that too! Here's a picture of the rest of the gang in the dune buggy. It had a transmission issue so we didn't take it very far. This allowed the kids to get out and play in the sand, which is all they want to do anyway.

Ummmm...what are you two looking at?

The last picture is after church on Sunday. Maxine and I were goofing around while everyone else was having a nap. Well, I've neglected my kids for long enough. Have a nice week. P.S. I changed my settings so you don't have to have a blogger account to leave a comment.

Let's go fly a kite...

We've been waiting since Easter to fly our new kites and there just hasn't been enough wind. (I know, you're all falling off your chairs because there hasn't been enough wind at my house.) But alas, yesterday was the day! Just the right amount of wind. Maxine's kite did really well and Jack's did a lot better after I put it together correctly. :0 This picture turned out so blue for some reason. Pretty sky.

I finally downloaded a program that reduces pictures down so I don't have to wait forever for them to upload to blogger. Yeah!

Oh, and Jack has said some funny things lately. Jacky likes to look at people's eyes and comment on the color. I.e., "Mommy, are your eyes blue?" On Sunday morning at church, Jacky looked at my eyes and said, "Mommy, are your eyes red?" I sighed and said, "They must be." I kept waking up for some reason during the night and felt a little sleepy at church. Apparently, it showed.
Also, I was just making Jack some lunch and from out of nowhere, he started singing, "All you need is love" by the Beatles. Right on, brother! Love is all you need. Tootles.

All-time top 5...

I recently watched our edited copy of a movie called High Fidelity. Throughout the entire movie, the main character, played by John Cusack, rattles off lists: All-time top 5 albums to listen to on a Monday morning, all-time top 5 breakups, Top 5 reasons he loves his girlfriend, etc., etc. As I was doing the dishes, I was inspired to list my all-time top 5 kitchen tools:

1. Kitchen blow torch (I mean come on, that's fun even when you're sober)
2. Pastry cutter/blender
3. Silicon wisk (to protect my teflon pans)
4. Air-insulated cookie sheets (never burn cookies the bottom of your cookies again)
5. Ramekins (only because the best things are made in ramekins: creme brulee, chocolate volcano cakes, souffles, yum, yum, yum)

So there you have it. Go make something yummy y'all!

Typing test

82 words

Speedtest

Maxine slept over at Grandma Campbell's house on Friday and went to the ward egg hunt. We brought Jack and they had fun finding eggs and candy. We got a lot of gift certificates for free ice cream cones! Jack wouldn't go near the person dressed in a bunny suit but I don't blame him. A huge Easter bunny seems creepy to me too. Then we had a huge breakfast back at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Afterwards we were off to Jake and Beka's house for their lunch and egg hunt. We all drooled over Jake's new car (hubba hubba). Here's the link if you want to take a look. http://bekabracken.blogspot.com/ Then we came home and dyed eggs in preparation for the Easter bunny. Juliet had the most fun playing the plastic eggs. Except one of the eggs she was playing with got stuck in her mouth when it separated from the bottom. Her jaw was open so wide I couldn't get it out for a bit. After a few moments, I wormed a pinkie in the corner of her mouth and popped it out. It looks like she's about to cut her first top tooth today too! (Too much alliteration?)

Merril's off fighting the man today. He had a court appearance. He was obeying the speed limit (or mostly) when a car who was really speeding came blasting by him. The car changed lanes as it passed Merril and drove directly in front of him when he spied a cop. The car slammed on his brakes to slow way down and caused Merril to hit the brakes as well. The cop just saw Merril's big, red Dodge hitting his brakes and assumed that he was speeding. The cop didn't show up today at the courthouse and the case was dropped. Merril wins again. I have to say that he is unfairly targeted in his truck. I figured he must be doing something until I drove it by myself one day (Tahoe had a flat) and got pulled over. I was going under the speed limit because the speedometer is off in the truck. The cop said I had a license plate light out. I most certainly did have a license plate light out but I get the feeling the cop was looking for some punk to bust. I got the feeling she was disappointed when she found it was me driving. Anyhoo, have fun coming off your sugar highs. I know I ate too many Jelly Bellys yesterday.

Bloomin' orchids...

I have friends who plant beautiful bulbs that pop up in the spring. They're gorgeous and I might plant some bulbs some day but until then, I look forward to my orchid blooming! It comes into bloom around February or March and I wait all year long for the delicate blossoms. This is a moth orchid and as fragile as the blooms look, they'll last for 1 to 2 months!! I don't know of any other flower that lasts as long. Last year I was able to force a second bloom after the first round died off so that gave me a solid 3 months to enjoy. I love the tropical islands and maybe that's where the love of orchids stems. I need to get a few different colors because they come in greens, yellows, orange, pinks, reds, and whites. I snapped pictures this year because I think they're so pretty. They make me think of summer, sitting on a beach somewhere, and sipping a fruity drink. Aaahhhh and have a great day!

Registration!!!

When I was picking up Maxine from preschool this morning, one of the other Moms walked over and said, "Hey, I called the elemetary school to check when Kindergarten registration starts and its tomorrow!" I was like, "What?? Wow, thanks for the heads up." So I guess I'm registering Maxine for Kindergarten tomorrow! I feel like I've reached an important milestone and I'm excited!! Wahoo!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Green is my favorite color so I love to dress me and all the kids in huge amounts of green for St. Patrick's Day. Juliet was the toughest because so much of what she wears is pink. We had to settle for a pink onsie with a green frog on it. In an attempt to get Jacky to smile I'm saying, "Cheese!" instead of just smiling and I think it shows. *Sponsored by Teddy Grahams*

I've also been making a menu instead of just shooting from the hip when making dinner. It has allowed me to make things that I wouldn't have made otherwise because I wouldn't have had the stuff on hand. So before I go to the store, I think of one or two new dinner ideas that I want to try. Then I can make sure to purchase all the ingredients needed. It also forces me to think about dinner for the next week, which is a bummer at the time, but then I don't have to think about dinner for the next 7 or 8 days. This week's dinner adventures: Coconut shrimp and French Onion Soup (not together, of course.) I wish I had pictures of the coconut shrimp but they went so fast I didn't have time to get the camera out. So I thought making a menu would make me feel restricted but I've had the opposite experience. Making a menu and planning ahead has allowed me to make some really yummy and wonderful dishes.

And in other news, I stopped giving Juliet her acid reflux medicine about a week ago and haven't noticed any difference! So I think we're done with that unless something else develops within the next couple of weeks. And this picture is from bathtime the other night. I love messin' with her hair. So to everyone: HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Anybody else hate Lost????

Okay, I don't hate Lost. In fact, it's one of my favorite shows to watch. It's doubly wonderful lately because it's the only series with new episodes right now because they delay the start of their season until November or something like that. I watch a new episode every week and at the end of the show I always say, "I hate this show!" The reason? It's interesting, thought provoking and complex but gives so little information and leaves me with so many questions that I feel so unsatisfied at the end and vow not to watch the following Thursday. Grrrr.

But here I am, just finished watching and madder than ever. (Madder or more mad? Anyway.) I wish that I could just stop watching and then have someone just tell me the whole story in 6 years or whenever the series finishes up. But it's not going to happen. I'll watch every week, like a sucker, just like the writers/creators of Lost want me to. I'll feel confused and irritated but keep wanting more. I want answers. I want to know what happens!! Man. I hate this show. Love this show. Whatever.

The good, the bad, and the ugly...

I downloaded the pictures off my camera and I felt like there was a range of emotions as I looked at them:
The good:

The bad:

The ugly:

Merril chopped all his hair off last Saturday and that means mohawk or statue of liberty spikes. It's only for a day and then he shaves the rest. What a punk. Now he just has a bald head. He's almost completely healed from his stitches too. I took out his stitches last Wednesday. Thanks to Jessica for the tips on taking out stitches!

Other than that, Max and Jack are sick. Juliet is still unaffected and I hope to keep it that way. But at least it's Spring Break so I don't have to keep Maxine home from school.

Juliet will be 9 months old next week and yesterday she almost pulled off an army crawl. She was on her tummy, pushed with her toes and leaned forward on her elbows. There was actually some forward momentum but I doubt she'll be moving anywhere with any speed for a while. She's barely starting to wave and clap her hands too. I love this age!

Ahhh, and the time change. Today we're being particularly slow to get going because the kids are sick, it's Monday and because of the time change. It's 10:39 a.m. and I have yet to have a shower. Eeeewwwww. All the kids are in pajamas and might remain that way until Noon. Besides, I don't have anywhere to go today anyway.

Oh, watched a movie called Becoming Jane, which I rather liked, which inspired me to read a Jane Austen book that I haven't read before. I started Persuasion on Thursday and finished it on Sunday afternoon. Neglected home, kids, etc. and remembered how much I like reading Jane Austen. One of my favorite authors. Anyhoo, it's shower time!

I've scared her good...

Adventures in parenting: Maxine has always been prone to...fits of bad temper. They've lessened as she's gotten older but to be sure, not gone away entirely. If we're in the car and she's flown into some whining, crying, kicking fit, occasionally I'll threaten to make her walk home. I've even gone so far as to pull the car over and walk over to her side of the car to open the door like I'm going to pull her out. It's worked, but too well. Last week when she was really tired, she started crying about it, saying she couldn't stop thinking about it. Two nights ago, it happened again. When asked what was wrong, she replied,

"I can't stop thinking about when you told me I'll have to walk home! I don't even know the way home! (More sobbing) It would take so long to walk all the way home, what if it gets dark!!" My regret for ever threatening such a thing starts to sink in.

Me, "I'm sorry baby. You won't have to walk home."

"But what if you want me to walk home another time!" (More sobbing)

"I'm sorry. Mommy won't ever leave you."

"Mommy, I want you to take away this punishment for me."

"Okay."

We then said a prayer that Maxine's heart would be calmed. She was immediately soothed and fell asleep. I left her room feeling quite bad and resolved I'd never threaten to make her walk home. Woops. Sorry Maxine.

On a nicer note, we're making strawberry freezer jam today because Maxine asked, "Why don't we have strawberry jam anymore?" I said, "Because we ran out and haven't made anymore." Maxine, " Let's make some TODAY!" Thusly, today's project will be strawberry freezer jam. Yummy!

Oh yeah, one other funny thing. Maxine was reading the back of the Hidden Valley Ranch bottle at dinner and Jacky leaned over and very matter-of-factly whispered, "It's called Ranch." We all busted up laughing and that was the running dinner joke.

Bring on the Piston Cup...

Maxine has always had an affinity for drawing and coloring. She likes watercolor paints lately and has come up with some pretty funny stuff. Saturday she drew Lightning McQueen winning the Piston Cup. She draws the outlines with pen and then uses the watercolor paint to color it in. The color blobs on the bottom of the picture are everyone from Radiator Springs looking on. In order from left to right its Blue Sally, Rusty Mater, Lizzy, Fillmore, Luigi, Guido, Sarge. Flo and Ramone are up in front, just under Lightning. She drew Lightning by looking at Jacky's little Lightning McQueen car.

Next is the scene where Sally and Lightning are talking after Mater and Lightning went tractor tipping. We call it, "Getting cozy at the Cone" You can even see Mater down at the bottom driving away.

Oh, and Maxine said something funny the other day. We were driving through Hurricane and passed a Subway. She said "That Subway stole those letters from Del Taco." Looking at the Subway sign, I noticed it said, "Feed the beast" on the letterboard. "Feed the beast" is the slogan for Del Taco so she figured Subway must have stolen the letters in order to put that on their sign. I thought it was rather intuitive and maybe we watch too much tv. Fish taco, fish taco, fish taco, fish taco...