Kate has a birthmark on her back called a “Strawberry hemangioma”  When she was born it looked like a little strawberry kiss and then it grew into a  bluish black bubble the size of a clementine… its slowly going away and hopefully be gone by the time she is 7-8  but she failed to mention that yesterday to a friend of mine who was changing her into her swimmy suit.

Lily:  (noticing the bluish bump on her back)  Oh no Kate did you fall down?

Kate: No, My mommy punched me in the back.

Oh kate! 

I don’t know why she said that unless maybe she overheard me joking that I hope no one thinks I punched her in the back at the swimming pool (her new swimsuit had a cut out right in the middle of her back high lighting it very nicely :(

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!

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 :)

THESE ARE MY CONFESSIONS

not only a great Usher song… and also a great Glee Mash up with the ever powerful Bon Jovi “It’s my Life”

but also something that I must tell you all even if it makes me look like the biggest fudgewad east of the Mississippi.  There is a bigger fudgewad west of the Mississippi.  You know who you are.

well remember when chad and I took Kate to Build a Bear to say “bye bye” to the “binky”  that was awesome right.  Well until Kate had a relapse (about a month later while we were in utah)  and cried non stop while we were driving to Idaho so I drove myself straight to a Target and got her some new binky’s for her. 

So on Monday night on recommendation from my bestie Connie we decided to get rid of the Binky’s once and for all and give them to the “baby squirrels” that live in our back yard.  Kate was very excited and she even dumped about 2lbs of nuts on top of the binky’s so the baby squirrels mom’s could find the binky and take it back to their nests. 

Monday Night was rough

Tuesday Night Sucked

This morning on the way to driving Chad to work Kate was in the back seat saying

“I shoot you” “I shoot you” “I shoot you” over and over.  She was holding a little magic marker in her hand and waving in like a magic wand at her window. 

“Kate” I said “Who are you shooting?”

in the cutest little angry baby voice she says

“The Baby Squirrels!!!”

WHAT HAVE I DONE! 

Now she’s going to hate baby squirrels for the rest of her life. 

this morning at walmart Kate pointed to a movie display and said “LOOK MOMMY IT’S YOU!!!!”

That’s that one kid from Juno in Year One

So the other day I was walking with Kate around the corner to Dallen’s bus stop.  A grandma joined up with me who was also going to collect a grandkid of hers.

She turns to me and says

“What a beautiful little girl”

and so I say

“Thank You”

and she says

“She must have viking blood in her”

and I thought maybe she meant because of the blonde hair and blue eyes… Maybe she meant to say Swedish?  So I just smiled.

and then she added

“You know because you can see her scalp through her hair”

so Of course when I got home I had to google image search “Viking Hair” 

no scalp here… 

full head of flowing locks here

P.S. (note to self- must get this to complete my Willow Tree collection)

and I’m warning you now don’t google image search “Viking Woman” 

because this is one of the first images you will see

YIKES!

But after all that hard work I still have no clue what that grandma meant.

• 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” 

On Saturday we went to costco and Kate had to go potty so I took her to the restroom.  As we were walking in Kate says to me in her little baby voice “No mom I said Girls bathroom” 

me: “Kate we are in the girls bathroom”

kate: “No! See!”  and she points to a woman washing her hands…

Kate is officially potty trained. It took like 3 days and I’m very proud of her. Kate is very very strong willed. Which is a nice way of saying 80% of the day she’s a big brat. Seriously she fights me on everything. If I’m getting her out of her car seat and she says “I can do it” I better just let her do it because if I pull her out she’ll freak out, then climb back up in her car seat, give me death glare and then climb out by herself. I also threw away all her baba’s yesterday and on Saturday we went to build a bear to let her make a bear that wore panties (is it just me but isn’t it the cutest thing in the world to see fuzzy little stuffed bear tail popping out of those little underwear?) but the second catch was that she had to put her binky in the bears back!!!  That way it wasn’t that we were throwing it away or being mean to her… but that she got to keep her binky with her always and a new bear. 

Kate was very good about it. she sucked on her binky one last time, shoved it in the bears back and the lady sewed it up and then Kate picked out hello kitty underwear, hello kitty slippers, and a pink tshirt. Dallen picked out a batman costume for his Buzz Light year bear he had made a couple of years ago.

So on the way home I heard Kate fussing in the back seat. I turn to see her scratching viciously at her bears back. She was trying to get the binky out and I said “Kate what are you doing?” She looked up at me with the saddest blue eyes and just burst into tears. I felt like a horrible mother.  Every night she sleeps with her bear and every morning when I walk into her room I half expect to find a shredded pink teddy bear and a sleeping kate with binky in mouth.  :) 

On Saturday night chad and I went to my favorite mexican restaurant and then to see Star Trek and all i have to say about that is -

I want to join the Starfleet. Seriously.

oh and I also want to say

I love Spock.

lets just say I wouldn’t mind if Spock did a Vulcan Mind Meld on me. 

Chad couldn’t understand why I preferred Spock over Kirk.  and I guess why is because:

1)  Kirk looked like he always had a dirty chin

2) and Kirk seemed like a player

and I guess I like men who are serious and logical and kiss their woman because they really really love them before they get beamed into a Romulan ship from the future where they might die and never see their true love again.  just thinking about it makes me tear up

awwwwww :)