Happy Mothers Day to all the beautiful women in my life. 

I love my Dallen and Kate.  They mean everything in the world to me.  I love that Dallen is my sweetheart boy and will do anything for me to put a smile on my face and if I’m having a bad day he’ll be the first to hug me and try to cheer me up. 

The other morning I was cooking crepes for him and while he was waiting he was singing ” cause it’s 1…. 2…. 3…. strikes you out….”  and I turned from the stove and sang “at the old ball gaaaaame!”  and his jaw dropped open “MOM! how did you know that!”  and I just laughed and he quickly answered “Oh I know because you’re my mom”   :)

On friday Kate and I were babysitting the twin babies and we were out in the driveway with a scooter and the babies watching from the stroller.  I showed Kate how to scoot along, putting one foot on the scooter and the other to push… and then we took turns going up and down this little incline in the driveway.

When it was Kate’s turn she’d say “Okay now introducing Kate Kendrick!!!” and then push her little foot and go down the little hill and at the bottom I’d clap and holler for her and she’d clasp her hands together under her chin and smile, bat her eyes, wave, and bow.  
Then she’d get back to the top and I said “Now introducing Katelyn Sara!”  and she looked at me all grumpy and said “No mom its KATE KENDRICK” 

I love that little sassy pants!

Today Dallen is 7!

when I was pregnant with dallen I would sing this song to him all the time. just makes me tear up a little bit. I love him. he’s such a good kid.

The best thing about being around kids is it gives us the chance to be a kid again.

Here’s some things that Dallen and Kate do that I love doing with them…

1. Playing “Hot Lava”  (stepping very carefully over any crack so you don’t get “burnied”)
2. Blowing the wrapper off every straw
3. Playing tic tac toe on the church bulletin
4. knock knock jokes (even if they get super annoying)
5. Wearing your pretty shoes even if its not Sunday
6. Making kung fu noises and punching the air
7. Making screeching sounds every time you round a corner
8. Spying on people (I love hearing their two little voices whispering in the next room “let’s go spy on mom”)
9. Eating lots of candy
10. Eating ice cream for breakfast (once I made Kate a waffle and we didn’t have any milk so I thought the next best thing was put a scoop of vanilla ice cream right on top.  This happened when she was not even 2.  She still talks about it and asks for ice cream almost every morning :)

Ways I wish I could act like a kid still

• Fuss and cry and then have someone tell me “I guess its time for you to take a nap”
• Have someone read me a story
• Get someone to buy me something just so I stop pouting
• Staying up past my bedtime would be “cool”  (its just not anymore you know)
• Trade up a lunch  (Here’s a tuna sandwich… now I get your grilled chicken salad with asaigo cheese and cornbread croutons)
• I wish someone would shampoo my hair for me every time I took a bath.  I think that is the best feeling in the world.  Better than a massage any day.

So whats your favorite things to do with your kids?

and

What kid thing do you wish you could still get away with?

So this afternoon Chad fixed him and Dallen some Chicken nuggets for lunch.  Dallen looked over at chad and closed his eyes and smiled real big and said “Dad imagine my eyes have hearts on them.”  and Chad said “Okay.  Why?”  and Dallen said “Because I love chicken nuggets”

Kate my little sassy pants McGee helped me put up our Christmas tree the other day and had a great time playing with two reindeer ornaments.  One was the “Mommy”  and one was “the baby”  Here was the conversation she had them have with each other.

“Why did you poop your pants?”

“I don’t know.  Because I wanted to”

“You shouldn’t have pooped your pants.  That makes me sad”

“Well I’m the Mom and Mom’s get to do what they want”

Oh man she kills me… I burst out laughing because the whole time I thought it was the mommy reprimanding the baby for pooping her pants instead of the other way around.   Well at least I get to do what i want :)

This past spring Dallen joined a baseball team here in Georgia.  Midway Venom.  It was Dallen’s first team sport and we all had a great time going to his games. Not only was it Dallen’s first team sport… it was also my first time being a sporty mom.  So basically I had no clue what to do.  And also its important for you to know that Southerners take sports very SERIOUSLY.  even 6 year old baseball. 

Dallen’s coach was a really nice southern guy named Coach Johnny.  He was so good with the kids but wasn’t afraid to get after them if they weren’t  doing what they were asked.  He always made Dallen feel a part of the team and every time Dallen got up to bat Coach Johnny would say “Oh no here comes BIG DADDY K”  “COME ON BIG DADDY K HIT THIS BALL”  Dallen loved that so much and always had the biggest grin on his face. 

Well one day after a game Coach Johnny said to us “Next game I would like for you to give the kids some diet coke and a mini snickers like 5 minutes before start of the game” (for energy?)  I was like you got it coach.  I just wanted Dallen to succeed so badly. 

So for the last couple of games right before the game I was in the dug out with dallen handing him over a can of diet coke and a snickers.  A full size snickers because the snack bar didn’t have just “mini”  So Dallen would run out all hyped up on caffine and sugar (i am the worlds best mom)  (in my defense I was just trying to fit in with all these baseball mom’s who probably know what they are doing)  anyway he would have a great time standing there in outfield.  He probably saw all sorts of hallucinations… neon butterflies and dancing bears :)

So end of season.

End of story.

Except a couple of months later I was talking with one of the experienced baseball mom’s and we started talking about Coach Johnny and she adds “and we (meaning all the other mom’s) couldn’t believe he asked us to give the kids diet coke and snickers!”  and I guess she forgot that it was ME in the dugout smashing a snickers in my boy’s face before every game so I responded “Ohmagosh I KNOW!”  inside though GULP

here’s my son making his mama proud

Running on 1800 grams of pure white stuff and 40 grams of aspertame

• Today was Dallen’s first day as a first grader.  I asked him how lunch was and he said “I drank the white milk because it has less sugar and its not a junk food.”  I told him that was a good choice.  Then he said “GUESS WHAT MOM!”  “What?”  “It’s also LOW IN FAT!!!” 
• While we were out in Utah I noticed Kate (who was naked from the waist down) with her hand behind her  back near her butt area making some sort of sawing motion.  I asked her what she was doing and she turned to let me see the side of her hand was wedged between her butt cheeks and she said “Just slicing my buns” 
• I love that Dallen is very considerate to how other people are doing.   When he’s on a phone call with grandparents or family he always asks “So what did you do today?” or “How are you?”  Some of his teachers have told me that he asks if they had a good weekend and that most kids at this age mostly only relate to whats going on in their own life. 
• I love that Kate has the cutest wedged hair cut in all of Georgia.  Utah knows how to Wedge Cut!
• On that note when Kate got her hair cut when the stylist asked what she thought Kate  dreamily sighed  and said “I look like Miss Connie:)”  Connie is my really good friend that lives down the street here in Georgia who has a very cute bob cut as well.
• Dallen got new glasses and when he put them on he realized he could see so much better that he thought he could also read minds for some reason.  He would look at Chad or I and say (and I’m guessing  because he could see our facial expressions better)  “I know what you are thinking.  You are happy.  I can read minds”
• This morning before school Dallen told me that he had a weird feeling in his tummy.  I told him that it was probably was because he was nervous.  and then he slowly nodded his head to confirm.
• Kate adds the “e” sound behind almost every word.  Like she wants a “smalley one”  or a “cheesy”  or a “grapey”  I think she’s turning into TAMN and soon she’ll be saying “Bestie” and “Rezi” 

Dallen and Kate were in the bathtub the other night.  I was putting towels away in the hall closet. 

Dallen: (very upset)  “MOM!”  “I’ve got pee on my butt!!!!” 

me:  “What!?”

Dallen: “Kate did it!  She put Yellow Pee on my butt!!!”

me: thinking oh great

I walk into the bathroom and both kids are standing in the tub… kate standing behind dallen… their little butts in plain view.  Sure enough Dallen had yellow p on his butt.  Kate had stuck a foam letter P right on dallen’s butt cheek which in fact also happened to be yellow.  I laughed really hard . of course that  has now resulted that every time I put them in the bathtub they look for the letter P and try to stick it on each others behinds.  This morning they were fighting so much over the “P” that I had to “throw” it away. 

So every time I see a dang plastic Easter egg I am reminded that I am very lame.

Last year I got a note home from Dallen’s teacher it said something like:

Dear Parents

Send in 14 plastic Easter eggs filled with candy with your child’s name printed on the outside.

I thought no biggie.  I had like 2 weeks. so I kept putting it off… and off… until morning of the Easter egg hunt.  I had like 10 minutes to put together 14 filled eggs and then write Dallen’s name on all of them and then get the eggs and him on the bus.  I ran and grabbed some eggs that I had and then freaked when I realized I had no candy… oh well… they’re for Dallen (i mean they will have his name on them… he’ll be searching for the eggs with his name)  (cause it was a special needs class… of course the challenge will be to find the one with their own name)  So I grabbed a bag of raisins and a bag of chocolate chips and dumped a couple of raisins and a couple of chocolate chips in each egg.  wrote his name quickly on each egg and threw them in a plastic bag, tied it up and got him on the bus.  

So then after school Dallen comes home with a bag that was shaped like a bunny that he had made himself at school.  Inside I could tell that he had his eggs inside.  So Dallen rips open his bag… and pulls out a big huge purple egg. and In black magic marker read the name “Hunter”  all of the sudden it hit me… no.. no… please no!!!! “Hey Dallen can I see that”  I ripped the bag from him and peered inside…. 13 other eggs were stuffed inside… all different… some bright, some pastel, one was clear…. 13 different names… Isabella, Ricardo, Malayne, Connor….. I pulled a couple out and opened them…  Stickers, Mini Snickers, Erasers, PB eggs, Fruit chews, TATOOS!!!!  then at the bottom a little pastel blue egg… “DALLEN”  I opened it up… three little shriveled raisins and 2 chocolate chips came out looking pitiful and sad.   The only good thing was that Dallen had no clue how lame it was because all he knew was that he got 13 awesome Easter eggs filled with tons of goodies.  oh and maybe this was a coincidence but the next week I got an application for Free Lunch Program in dallen’s folder :[

Today was such a nice day.  I think it was probably in the 70’s here in Georgia.  So when Chad got home and after dinner we all went outside to practice baseball with Dallen. 

Dallen was holding his bat…  and then started holding himself and dancing around.

me: Dallen do you need to go to the bathroom?

Dallen:  No

me:  Are you sure?  It looks like you are holding yourself?

Dallen:  (very matter of factly)  No I’m just itching my tenders.

I seriously was trying so hard not to laugh that I had tears streaming down my face.  I love that little guy.

and Kung Fu Panda :)  (which is where he learned the term “tenders”)

Its gr8t to say good bye to 200eight.

JK :) 

Some of my favorites from 08

 (an idea that I stole from Mel’s blog.) 

Favorite Song:

a veryclose second: Beyonce’s Single Ladies (put a ring on it)

Favorite Movie:

Bedtime Stories- last movie we saw on Christmas day and we all really loved it.

Favorite new TV show:

Kath and Kim

Favorite Book:

Awesome book.  Couldn’t put it down.  A girl and a guy fall in love and live happily ever after. 

*Ian (the guy) beats Edward as my romantical hero any day. 

Favorite Vacation:

Walt Disney World and Utah and Chattanooga

Kate at cocoa beach in FL during Disney World Vacation.

Favorite Outfit of 08

My mother in law bought me this black dress for my birthday and I love it.  but I bet my ward is starting to hate it since I wear it every Sunday practically.

Favorite Website:

I got called to the primary presidency in march of 08 and I swear if it wasn’t for this site I would have been excommunicated for being rotten at my calling. 

Most Drastic Change of 08:

grew a mustache and joined a gang

Best Moments of 2008

disney world

Chattanooga

dallen is a kindergartner

*joy school

*having great friends

*seeing my family

seeing Wicked!

worst moment:

poor jeepie jeep