Mom of the Year

I am sure you've all been contemplating who you would vote for for "Mom of the Year". I am at the top of your list, right? Let me do a little campaigning and tell you why YOU SHOULD VOTE FOR ME!
1) Link got about a million ant bites this past week. This is a picture of just his mangled hand. This picture does not capture half of the bites. I am not exaggerating when I say he had 20 just on the one hand. What other mom could manage such a task? Then Jason decided they needed to be popped. Jason is obssessed with puss. Good thing he wants to go to Dental school. They have to pop all kinds of mouth infections.
2) I was so preoccupied getting ready for my last enrichment (HOORAY!!! I am now secretary instead!!!) that I didn't realize Link had walked out the door at my mom's house. They live on 50 acres and have a 1/4 of a mile long driveway. Usually I don't worry too much about them out there, given the proximity to the road. When I finally remembered that I had children, amongst all my hurriedness to get ready, I ran outside to see where they were. Just at that moment I saw a strange man holding my son and walking down my driveway with a truck following him slowly. I guess he thought I might think it careless of him to actually ride in the truck with him. What kind of mom does he think I am?? He said that Link was not at the top of the driveway but in the road crying his eyes out. I say all this in jest...but really, it was terrifying. Now, you're really convinced. I have got this "mother of the Year" election in the bag.




These are just some pics that I took that I thought were cute. Link is adorable and the fall trees at Grandma's are gorg!



And now for my most recent project- redo my living room. We had this hideous, leather mahogany colored couch in our living room. I was persuaded to buy it b/c it was an awesome price and it was leather for goodness sake!! (AKA-childproof). Soon after the pruchase I realized I hated it. We sold it almost for what we bought it for. We still want leather, but until we can flip the bill for it and love what we buy....we are holding out. So here if the temporary living room. I got this awesome retro gold lamp at a garage sael for $2.50. I was stoked. If you look closely at the shade, it's pretty nappy. So I recovered it with this beautiful fabric. VOILA!!! Here it is. It adds the perfect touch. One Q though....I really love the retor look of the gold....but I am beginning to think that if I painted it black it might pop more. What do you think???

6 things about me!

I got tagged. It says to list 6 things about yourself that people may not know.
1) I would love to say here that I am related to Obama. I already said that. Dang it. And it's so interesting. So on to more interesting things.....I am obssessed with ears. Anyone who has floppy ears, watch out! I will play with them all day long.
2) I just got all four impacted wisdom teeth out today and you need to know that I really enjoyed being drugged up today and that the pain is really not that bad. All the people who had said it was the worse experience of their life scared me. I have honestly not felt any pain, but I am already having nightmares about a sharp chip (preferably from El Charo) going into the incision. UGH!!!!
3) I am sooo uninteresting.....I cannot think of anything to say. I hate getting into bed with dirty feet. I wash them before I get inot bed.
4) I HATE smelly children. Who likes them? Right, I know. But I am an obsession with my children smelling good. That's not to say they always do...but I go crazy and start to twitch if they don't. (Just kidding on the twitching thing)
5) One more......hmmmmmm. I really want to get this really edgy haircut. you know Samantha form America's Next Top Model. her hair is soo cute. But I am scared people at chruch will judge me...oh and htat it won't look good. Should I go platinum???

Obama's mama

I made a bazillion cupcakes for our ward activity on Saturday. Link was eyeing them on the counter top all day. He tried as few times to sneak one, but my eagle eye caught him. However, when Daddy was in charge, Link got a hold of the cupcake and halfway through went to show Jason his handy work.


These two above pics are from our ward activity. Link was definitely one of the cutest kids there with all his eye makeup. I probably shouldn't admit this but I have never seen a boy so excited to put makeup on. He stood so still as I put it on and he wanted to look in the mirror all night long. Ella loved being an elephant....or an "ephalant" as she would say. She was very concerned about making the proper noise and so she kept asking us what elephants say.

Link's apple choo choo. So cute.



We finally carved our pumpkins. guess which one was mine? Nope, you guessed wrong. Mine is the weird faced one. Jason made this flowery one for Ella.

Link's Jack Sparrow look. He's been working on it all week. As well as saying, "Arg, matey!".


Now for the real kicker and title of this post. So Jason and I went over to the Allred's for a little lunch and genealogy powwow. The Allred's have recently had a lot of the names in their family researched and organized by someone in the stake. We found out, much to our chagrin, that Obama's mother's maiden name was Allred. Yup, that's right. We, -no, I am not accepting that- Jason is related to Obama. And just to add insult to injury, today Ella was watching Nickelodeon, where the kids who watch their channel were able to vote for whichever president. Sadly, the kids who watch Nickelodeon have had the wool pulled over their eyes and suffer from disillusionment, and Obama was elected. So Obama made a little appearance to say "thanks for voting for me" or whatever. As soon as he popped on the screen Ella said, "Mom, look, it's Barack Obama!" with perfect clarity. My jaw dropped. Who has infiltrated our child with information about him? How does she know his name? She doesn't even know McCain's name and we talk about him all the time. I want to know who's responsible. Grandma? Nursery? Gym childcare?
The top pic is of his mom. So after veiwing these two pics, are there any resemblences? Jason and him definitely have the same metabolism. j/k

Catnaps and cooked cheeks

This past weekend some of Jason's fam came into town so we had a weekend full of events. We went to Stone Mountain on Thursday. There was a pumkpkin patch that seemingly would've been the perfect photo opportunity, but if you have uncooperative adorable kids like me- it turns into a disaster! I took a ton of pics...beleive it ornot, these are the best I got from the pumpkin patch there. Then we rode the tram up to the top and I got some good candids up there. The craters on Stone mountain are so interesting....It looks like what I would think the moon looks like. Check out the pics.







A couple weekends ago we went to good ole Griffin fair. Why do fairs attract such weird people? Maybe it's a Griffin thing....but there are some creepy people there. There was this one guy who was operated a slide ride and he could be scouted for a horror film. He couldn't have weighed more than 100 lbs and was 6 ft and was missing several teeth.I thought about asking if we could take a pic of him just for my blog. The most entertaining part for me is definitely people watching....oh and eating the delicous corn dogs that are totally nostaligic for me. I worked a the booth in High School for the Kiwanis club and ate them constantly. It was so overpriced it almost made me nauseous to think about how much we were paying for a ride htat looked as if it would break at any moment.....but the smiles on teh kids faces were priceless. They are STILL talking about it. Come to think about, Link STILL has caramel onhis carseat from his caramel apple. ew. Guess I shouldn't admit that





Ella has said some really cute things in that past week or so Here they are:
1) Jason was reading a book called "True Love". It's actually about a dog named True Love. Anywho....at the end Ella says, "Daddy, I think Hayden is my true love". This was cute, except Hayden is her cousin.
2) Tonight we were making doughies (the best things ever) over our chiminea and Ella got burnt on her cheek with one of the metal roasting sticks. She cried for a while and then said, "Mom, I don't like cooked cheeks."
3) Ella: "Mommy, remember when you wore a princess dress and married daddy?"
me: Yes. (She's referring to our wedding pic that she gazes at frequently.)
Ella: "One day I am going to wear a princess dress and marry Dee doo" (that's Link's nickname".
4) I said this to my mother-in-law, "I hope the kids at least take a little catnap today." Ella screams, "MOOOOM...I am not a cat!".

Blogging Bubble

Sometimes when I blog i get a little down. Let me explain....I look at everyone's perfect little lives and their beautiful families and I admire how talented all my friends are and I think, "What am i contributing to society?", "what am I contributing to the blogging community?" (that second phrase was a little sarcastic). Don't get me wrong-I know I am blessed. I think blogging is wonderful but sometimes I think it could use a dose of reality. Not that I really expect people to write depressing things.
Here is a little glimpse into the "blogging bubble", as I am going to call it. Every once in a while I work with Jason at the front desk of the dental office. I was perusing the blogs and a co-worker was looking over my shoulder and said, "don't you have any ugly friends? Or weird ones?". Some of you are probably laughing...I did. I know I have A LOT of ugly pics of myself...like I am going to post them and embarrass myself. We all post the most wonderful things about our lives accompanied by the most beautiful pics. I guess that's how it ought to be. Anyway....the point being that sometimes after blogging I get overwhelmed and think about how talented everyone I know is. But if I really think about it, I am combining everyone's talents and comparing those to myself. So it seems like this mountain of talents compared to my molehill. So I went home last night and had burst of creativity...I guess trying to prove to myself that I had something to contirbute. I just wanted to share that little thought process I had. Here's one of the scrapbook pages I went home and made and then Jason praised. I think he could tell I was desperate for praise! :)



I was so excited that we had the chance and cool weather to light our chiminea the other night. I should've anticipated the following event. Link's favortie pasttime was playing in the ashes of the chiminea. UGH. So this is him, caught in the act of taking his first "ash shower" of teh season. He throws them up and then laughs as the ashes fall on and around him. I am sure it's the first of many to come.
Then today it was raining the entire day and was quite gloomy. Around twilight the sun shone through the trees, while it was still raining. It was gorgeous. I just wish I had the skill/camera to really capture it. It was a phtographer's dream. Everything was glistening. this picture does not do it justice AT ALL. I should delete it. oh well. Can you see the rain???

Dr.Jeckyll and Ms. Hyde

Jason rolling down the hills with kids. All the kids in the park (obviously play-deprived form their own parents) would not leave Jason alone and wanted to roll with him and do whatever he was doing. So thus explaining the strangers in this pic.




Here are some pics from the week. We had fun last night after the last session of conference with the Hutchings. We lit our first fire of the season in our chiminea (sp?) and roasted really expired marshmallows and put them on expired rubbery graham crackers. It was wasn't the best smore experience. I didn't want smore. Get it? Lame, I know....couldn't resist. :)
Ella has been seemingly emotionally unstable...I hear it's pretty normal for a three year old girl. Terrible two isnothing conmapred to .....therrible threes???? She can be the sweetest thing then the next second on the verge of a mental breakdown. Jason and I call her Dr.Jeckyll or Ms.Hyde....whichever is appropriate at the time. Anyway, amongst all her tantrums and fits, she says some really cute things. Here are a couple:
1) "Mom, I can't wait till all my dreams come true." Maybe she watches too many Disney movies. I thought it was adorable.
2) "Dad, do you know when I am happiest? When I'm sleeping". Is that a sign of depression or something? Weird. Espeically since it seems the poor girl suffers from nightmares of crocidiles eating her friends. Seriously. She woke up saying that the other morning. Scary. We all know how dreams can be realistic.
3) She put on some new cute pink boots the other day and she said, "Mom, do you like my new boots?". I said, "They're beautiful, I love them!". She said, "No mom, I wanna be cute, not beautiful. Are they cute?". I reply, "Yes".


All the "kids" coming down backwards together.

Not just another blogger........

I am not just another blogger slipping into oblivion. I still value the blogging world and consider it a great hobby. Sadly, there is an enemy to my blogging...Hewlitt Packard is the name. He is so disfunctional. Moody guy. Just when I think we are though our bad times together and he performs for me, he pulls a stunt like freezing and telling me my pictures are too big. He is feeling well tonight and is funtioning according to my desires. Here is what you've all been missing out on. Exciting....I know!


Jason and Link Doodle at the park...enjoying the heaven-like fall weather. Something about fall and the feeling in the air is so liberating and exhilirating. I feel like I can do anything.

I have been obsessed with the park. This is another perfectly pleasant fall day. Jason and Ella have just rolled sideways down the hill. Remember doing that? Jason lives like a kid. I think that would make me sick if I tried doing that.

I enrolled Ella in gymnastics. She was going crazy being at the house with me everyday all day. So was I. This is such a fun break....and she LOVES it.

This picture is NOT upside down. This is her doing the "spiderman crawl". She should be called spider woman...she's a pro at this particular move.

See what I mean about Jason being a kid? The color of this pic is weird...but the pic is so cute. The three of them were in a train and went down the slide together.


Ella enjoying the fall weather.

Ella helping her daddy study.



Before enrolling Ella in gymnastics we tried ballet/tap. She liked it but it was a bit too rigid for her. But she looked soooo cute in her little tutu.


The kids saw these mini pumpkins at the store and were sooo excited that I couldn't resist buying them three weeks ago! I know, a little early. That's when these pics were taken. We painted the pumpkins for FHE. They loved it. The pumpkins rotted pretty fast thanks to the GA humidity so Jason threw them in the vast abyss of our forest. Abotu one week ago I bought some regular sized pumpkins which we'll carve in a week or two. Link kept on saying to Jason, "Daddy, my pumpkin. DON'T THROW!".