art in all forms

all over my house i have art. samantha art. she makes pictures for us all the time and she used to just give them to us personally. but then she found out where i keep the tape and one day i walked into my room and was almost startled by the picture of her on my bedroom wall. (also taped on my wall: 5 strawberries and a note for ben and i with a picture of the three of us in heaven.)

now her pictures just pop up everywhere and my "murals of samantha art" grow every day, it seems. the fridge is the newest hot spot because she doesn't want to waste the tape!

miscellaneous drawings on the kitchen wall including homemade "stop" and "go" signs

i have a stack of pictures and such that samantha has made that i just can't part with. i didn't have a favorite until the other day. she was busy drawing and asked me, "how do you spell Jesus?" so i told her and a few minutes later she came in and stuck this picture on the fridge. "it's for Jesus. for when we get to go to heaven." (it's a picture of Jesus in heaven) she even held it up for Him to see!

today i received a package in the mail... it was a crazy quilt that my grandma made for me. isn't it beautiful! i wish the photo could justify all the detail in it. thanks gramma ~ it's beautiful!

and speaking of beautiful art, this is what God made for samantha and i on our drive home tonight.....

wonderful children's book..

a few years ago samantha got these little Bible board books at the easter egg hunt. we read most of them to her, but somehow this one got overlooked. samantha picked it for her bedtime story tonight and after ben read the first page of esther we couldn't help but laugh.


here's how it read: xerxes was the king of persia, a powerful and rich man. he was not happy with his first wife, so he started to search for a new one. all the pretty girls in the land were brought to him.


yes, i know that this is how the story is in the Bible, but does the book have to teach little kids to go find a new pretty wife when you're not happy with the current one?!

my babies are growing up

tonight was a very exciting night for samantha - it was her first time at sparks. i am now so glad that i am going to homeschool her because i could've almost cried when we dropped her off tonight. i can't imagine what i would be like letting her go off to school....!

anyway, sparks is totally different than cubbies. when she started cubbies the parents were supposed to stay the first night so that they could see what the kids do and meet the teachers. but tonight at sparks? nope, just drop your kid off and don't find out who their teachers are!

would she know what to do? would she know what verses she needed to say? would she know how to play the games?

i guess i'm either in denile that she's five or i totally underestimate her. she did just fine tonight and had a lot of fun!

here she was at the start of cubbies last year. doesn't she look thrilled that i'm taking her picture?

my cubbie has turned into a sparkie!

and then there's my other baby who is growing up every day! tonight ryan learned how to "roll 'em." instead of clapping all the way through patty-cake (pat-a-cake, whatever), he now tries to say "roll" and moves his hands up and down while making a fist. now we just have to get him to clap again since all he wants to do now is roll!

4 things

i got tagged on nicole's blog so here's my list!

4 things I was doing 10 years ago...
enjoying just having my driver's license
chatting online with my future husband
getting used to having my sisters gone and being the only one at home
having fun with my friends


4 things on my to do list for today...
work on kymie's pictures
clean the house and do the dishes
go grocery shopping
take samantha to her first night at sparkies!


4 things I love about my husband...
(dang nicole, mine are pretty much the same as yours! so besides being a good dad, working hard and loving me, here's some other answers)
he makes me laugh
he puts up with my infatuation with brett favre... lol
he doesn't care if the house isn't immaculate!
he's incredibly smart


4 jobs I have had...
delivery girl at shaw florists... one of the best jobs you could ever have!
itaska community college bookstore... not that it was really work though!
ace hardware. good job, bad boss.
antioch Bible baptist church nursery aka TYKES.


4 movies I have watched more than once...
(or more than 4 times in my case!)
steel magnolias
phantom of the opera
the pink panther
the man who knew too little


4 places I have lived...
the upstairs room in my parents' house
the downstairs room in my parents' house
my house in kansas city
my sister becky's house (ok... so it was a week-long vacation, but i haven't lived in 4 places so that will have to count!)


4 places I have been...
canada
alaska
costa rica
texas


4 places I want to visit...
maine
california
italy
ireland


4 t.v. shows I watch...
dancing with the stars
samantha who
the bachelor/bachlorette
word world and pbs kids



4 things you may not know about me...
i have a moderate case of bruxism, aka teeth clenching
i have come to like baseball more than football
i don't like to clean
i love to shop target clearance


4 people i tag...
heather
katie
breanna
nora

can you say photogenic?!

sunday afternoon i took grad pictures of my niece, kymie. it was a beautiful day and the pictures turned out great! here's a few of them as is. i haven't had time to play around with any of them yet. (that's what i'll be doing the rest of the day/week...!)

ok, so "a few" turned into 12. but that's not too bad a selection out of 788 pictures!

there's more on facebook.
album 1 album 2

ball fights

actually more like wars! i don't remember when or how this started, but i'm gonna take a stab at it!

it was after we had samantha, because we had about 3 or 4 balls. a rubber spongebob ball, a softer princess ball, and some others. and as to how it started? it was probably me. i probably threw a ball at ben for some reason and he probably rocketed it back to me. this of course started our ball wars! every now and then one of us will throw a ball at the other person (in retaliation of something said, etc.), chaos will break loose, balls will be flying everywhere, and we will continue hurling balls at each other in our living room until one of us gives in and calls a truce.

ben can throw those balls so hard that they can give me welts, but he ususally doesn't throw them as hard as he could. i remember when jess and jini (my sister) and priyanka were here for a visit a few years ago jess and ben got into a fight. we were all trying to stay out of the way and i remember jini saying something like, "you let them do this? in your living room?!" after their fight was over they both had some good welts!

it has to be said that we don't do this as much anymore. our living room seems to have gotten smaller with the addition of a fishtank and a baby, and we tend to be a little more careful now that we have a flatscreen tv. but i will say that we havn't ever broke anything!

my own little cookie monster

i gave ryan a golden oreo today and went in the other room to do something. he's usually good with eating food by himself, but when i came back i found this messy boy!

i think he was laughing at me because i had to do the clean up!

open wide!

samantha had a dentist appointment today. it must have been a special occasion because when she got dressed this morning she said she wanted to wear a dress for the dentist! (we opted for a skort!)

she had her 6 month check-up today. everything looked good and her teeth were fine from getting hit with the softball. her bottom teeth are starting to get a little loose, as those are the first ones she'll lose when she's six.

she was so good. not scared or anything! but i guess what's there to be scared of when the hygenist tickles (cleans) your teeth with bubble gum toothpaste and paints sparkle vitamins (flouride) on them? the only thing she's ever afraid of is mr. thirsty, the suction. but she was fine with that today too!

she looks ill in this picture...!

after she was all done she got a new toothbrush and toothpaste, ryan even got his very first toothbrush too! good job samantha!!

playdate at the park

yesterday the kids and i went to smithville to play with samantha's 3 year old cousin, karma. they don't get to play together very often, so they had a lot of fun playing at the park.

ryan must have taken a chill pill before we got there because he was so relaxed in the swing. he looked like he could've fallen asleep!

going for a ride with sissy. that was the extent of ryan's playing on the playground.

this picture cracks me up because the girls both wanted to do a "train" down their slide, but neither of them wanted to go to the other one's slide!! so they were leaning forward talking to each other trying to figure out a solution.

they finally figured it out!

ryan had fun playing with the rocks. he kept trying to eat them though!

samantha and karma. someone asked me if they were twins.

nothin' better than playing at the park then going to mcd's

our anniversary weekend

we had a lovely anniversary weekend together. ben had friday off so we went out to lunch with the kids at a pizza buffet then spent the rest of the day relaxing at home.

~ our scrumptious dinner ~

we decided to go out on saturday and celebrate instead of sunday, which was our actual anniversary. ben's sister and nieces came over to our house at 5pm to watch the kids and we went to independence for dinner and mini golf. about 5 minutes into our drive ben said "it's so nice already. no kids!" it's amazing how different a car ride is without kids!

we had a delicious dinner (can you guess where?!) which included lasagna, fettuccine alfredo, and chicken parmesan. after that we went to cool crest. they had go-karts, arcade, and miniature golf. we decided to just mini golf since they have 4 different courses! it was beautiful. there were a lot of trees and gardens among the golf courses, and the weather was just about perfect! we golfed 3 of the 4 courses and naturally ben won every time. but it was still a lot of fun! we each got a hole in one at the end, so we have 2 free games of golf. i guess we'll be going back with the kids!

waiting patiently on the people golfing in front of us!

there were so many different types of trees at the golf course. this one was my favorite. it looked like a green bean tree!

on our way home we stopped at big burger for ice cream. ben got a crunch blizzard and i got a raspberry cheesecake cone. YUM!!! doesn't it look good?!

sunday morning we went to church, came home and had lunch, and put the kids to bed. then we played a couple games. we hardly ever play games anymore so it was fun. and of course ben won again! i think i need to practice or become a little more competitive!

after the kids woke up from their naps we went out to eat and shopped for a few hours in liberty. we got home in time to put the kids to bed and play a few more games. then just like that the weekend was over. on to a new day, new week, and new year of marriage! happy 6th ben!

the best things

today was our anniversary. the six years we've been married have flown by, but at the same time it feels like sixteen. we had a great weekend together, but i don't have pictures to post yet and i don't feel like staying up super late. besides, it's already tomorrow anyway. =)

so in honor of our anniversary i decided to come up with a list of the best things about being married. this isn't gonna be your ordinary top 10 though (e.g. i get to be with my soulmate.... blah blah blah), these are some of the weird reasons we like being married! yes, i made ben make a list too. i picked the best 10 out of our 20 reasons. so here's the best things about being married (as applies to our marriage!).


1. you have a big, strong, handsome husband to open the pickle jar, kill the spiders, and scratch the itch on your back that you can't reach!

2. you have a beautiful, caring wife that you can count on to do things for you like go to the post office with the kids and ship ebay items.

3. when someone calls and says they'll be over in 20 minutes, you can get the house cleaned up twice as fast. (yes, i know, once they leave it will get messed up twice as fast!)

4. we get to make fun of other people together. (i know.... aren't we bad? but seriously, we were at target and saw this 5 or 6 year old boy following his mom and pushing a play stroller with a stuffed monkey in it.... what boy has a doll stroller and what mom goes to the trouble of bringing it into target with you? the boy's six for crying out loud!! i wish i would've had my camera....)

5. you have someone to play xbox with. and you can beat her most of the time!!

6. you don't have to feel stupid when you do stupid things and you have someone to do stupid things with! (like catching the car keys with your face and soaking in the kiddie pool) and yes, i'm sure there's a couple out there somewhere who has made fun of US!

7. you'll do silly little things for each other (like making a list) even if you don't want to.

8. you don't have to buy cards (birthday, anniversary, etc.) for each other anymore. every now and then we'll buy each other a card but usually what we do is go to target or walmart and pick out the card we'd buy then show each other. cheesy? cheap? maybe so, but we'd rather put that money toward a gift or doing something fun!

9. ball fights. any guesses on this? i'll elaborate on that another day.

10. you learn an amazing amount of stuff from each other that you probably otherwise would not know (like how to take apart a laptop, etc.).


HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, BABY. I LOVE YOU!!!!

my babies' boo-boos

today was a day of boo-boos and almost boo-boos, among other things. here's the run-down of our day.

this morning i let the kids soak in the tub for a while. they were so cute and they always have so much fun in tub. usually when i want to take tubby pictures my camera doesn't have a memory card or the battery goes dead. so today i got some pictures of them.

1st boo-boo moment. ryan pulled the corner shelf in the bathroom over on himself. i think he was more scared than hurt though! i'm glad i finally have a tough baby! :-)

after we got ready we went downtown to margaritas to have tacos with the whole family. di and all the kids (except ethan) went and ben and dave met us there since they were working close. YUMMMM! it was so good!

tonight we went to ben's softball game. he'll only have one game on tuesdays now. yea! samantha played on the playground for most of the game. it's right behind the bleachers, so i could keep a good eye on her. there were a lot of kids there and toward the end of the game i couldn't see her, so i went to make sure everything was fine.

2nd boo-boo moment. right when i got to the playground she emerged from the tunnel crying and blood was dripping from her mouth. i looked quick to see how bad it was and determined that it was fixable and wouldn't require stitches or anything. we went to the concession and i got some water and ice and got it all cleaned up. (thanks, papa mike, for watching and entertaining ryan while i cleaned her up!) after she settled down she told me that someone had a softball and they threw it at her and it hit her in the mouth. ouch!

it cut her lip and she bit the inside of her mouth. she said her teeth hurt, but i think they're fine. she goes to the dentist next thursday, so we'll make sure they're okay then. on the way home we stopped to get an ice cream to ease the pain and keep down the swelling!

it cleaned up very well. it looked like there was going to be a blood blister or something on her lip because there was a big spot of blood i couldn't get off at the ball game. but tonight it wasn't there. i guess ice cream is really healing!

her injury didn't effect her smiling... or her talking!

after we got home we watched the olympics for a while and ryan was sitting on the floor by the rocking chair.

3rd boo-boo moment. samantha was walking and knocked ryan over into the chair. he didn't get a black eye this time, though! he did, however, get a popsicle to ease the pain and get his mind off of it! i'm sure his gums enjoyed it since he's cutting more teeth. (he got his 4th tooth on sunday and is trying to push two more through.)

4th boo-boo moment. something to do with samantha's finger. i was DONE with boo-boos for today, so i sent her to daddy to have him kiss it.

well all three kids are in bed, so unless i trip up the stairs on my way to bed i think our boo-boo day is over.