Oscars

Settling in to get ready to watch the Oscars with my honey. He did dinner for all the kido's and they'll head to bed early tonight. I don't know why but I just love award shows.

Today the Oscar for visual effects and stunt work in our family goes to....Taylor!

I was helping paint in the nursery at church and Jer took the kids to McDonalds and while they were there she literally fell off of one of those little stools at the kids tables and bit through her lip! He of course didn't have his phone on him so he showed up to church to have me help assess what needed to be done. We figured that there wasn't a need for stitches but he informed me that he saw at least 3 teeth poking through her lip when he picked her up, poor baby was all swollen and pitiful. He said there were a bunch of moms there asking 'is there anything we can do to help' he asked them if they'd clean up behind him and he jetted out of there. Here is my little award winner sleeping the pain away with her nap...

And although it's always hard to see in a picture...her impressive, committed visual effects. There is one scratch on her cheek that was pre-existing her acceptance speech can include Hailey for helping out with that one.

Off to see who did better on their ballots...have a wonderful Oscar evening!

Digging for Dinosaurs

Lincoln got this dinosaur digging kit for Christmas and had been begging to dig into it every single day, then I put it on a shelf where he couldn't see and he forgot about it. Well I got home from work last week and when I opened the garage door I saw my two guys sitting at a table having a ball. Lincoln was so focused, I later found out the whole process was a dedicated two and a half hour project...only breaking for lunch, and the girls were around for the start but couldn't hang with him till the end. My little paleontologist, living the dream!

Lunchtime Charades

Oh the joys of having a twin. Someone the exact same age as you that thinks the same things are funny, or idea's are genius, or curative (as my kids say), someone to share comfort of knowing you have a companion wherever you are. It is a delight to get to watch Payden and Lincoln grow up together and learn from each other, they are vastly different but they love being twins. Whenever people ask how old they are they say "5 and we're twins because our birthday is on the same day". It is so cute. Another fun thing about being twins...well I guess all siblings to this but everything feels a little different when it's twins, when the little kids are sleeping they play games together while eating lunch. Here is a glimpse of them this last week, I caught them already halfway through the game but I was too captivated by their giggles and joy to video them any earlier.

Intimidated

Okay, I'm not falling off the wagon of this whole blogging thing, I promise. In fact quite the opposite. I have many idea's and pictures on my camera waiting to be moved to my computer, things have happened, stories are waiting to be shared, but I feel like I'm far behind. So for now I'll share what Lincoln said in the car on the way home from school today while I muster up the energy to put together some posts. He melts my heart.

"Mom, when I get to heaven I'm going to run to God" -Lincoln 2.17.11

Beauty and the Beast

Tonight we went to the play Beauty and the Beast at Putnam with the three big kids. They found the little post card ad last week up on our dresser and asked what it was for because they recognized it from the movie. That is when Jer let them in on the plan, and as things usually go when you tell our kids something exciting too early, we didn't hear much of anything else but 'how many days till the play Beauty and the Beast' all week long. So when they woke up today and Payden saw her special shirt I got her (just a new shirt from the clearance rack at Target that I said she could wear) she was bursting at the seams with excitement ready to tell anyone who would listen.

So tonight was the night. We met Lindsay, Addy, Fran and Lori for pizza and then enjoyed the show. Payden got scared right when we walked in because there was some faint background music playing and she thought the Beast was somewhere in the room and she just couldn't see him. I assured her that the lights would get dark first and then the show would start...but she still wanted to sit in my lap.

There were so many funny moments in how they responded. Our favorite was this: when the old lady set the spell, the characters all froze in their place and one of them said 'I'm frozen, I  can't move' and Lincoln stretched his arms out in a big circle and said quite loudly "I'm not frozen". He was so captivated by the whole thing that he had to test out whether or not he was under the same spell, it got a good chuckle out of the people in our section. And when it was all over Lindsay asked Hailey if she liked it, she said "it was good but it was kind of bad too", so funny. Hailey was kind of confused about the clapping at the end and the actors all coming together and smiling and waving at us. So much of her communication happens in her facial expressions, but she had a hard time seeing them as actors and not the characters. Then came the fun of walking out and seeing them up close or taking pictures with them. Hailey wanted to find Beauty and have their picture taken together, but Payden and Lincoln just wanted to see everyone.

After we made the rounds Payden firmly tugged my arm and said in an urgent whisper 'I don't want to take my picture with anyone but I want to go around and look at them all some more' she was fascinated and didn't want the night to be over. She is so my child. We were one of the last few people to leave and she looked and me with faint tears in her eyes and said 'mom I want to go the other nights and see it again, I don't want to be done', she was so sad it was over, and then I got so sad because that is so me! She had been looking forward to this for a week and enjoyed it so much and just didn't want it to be the end. It was fun and we have to find more of this kind of thing to enjoy together. It was great outing.

Not quite how it works

I debated on whether or not to write about this conversation between my kids the other night but it was just too funny to pass up.
Sitting at dinner Hailey was messing with Lincoln and ended up scratching him and from the other room I hear...

L:"Woah, that was evil Hailey. I think God needs to send another flood"
P:"Lincoln, God promised he wouldn't send another flood like that again!"
L "I know, she's just being evil though, I think he will!"

I was cracking up in the other room and had to type it out cause I was on the computer and couldn't text as fast as they were talking and wanted to remember to tell Jer...These kids, too funny!

Proof

We got to take Lincoln to his first sporting event. The Ducks played the Washington Huskies on Saturday and Lincoln got to join me and Jer (a gift from Roy for Christmas). Lincoln was so funny, as you saw in my other post, when he sees anything Duck he cheers away and the game was no different. We parked on a side street right across from the arena and stopped at the Wendy's before heading in to the game. I took this little video of Lincoln as proof.

I'm glad I uploaded this video when we were eating because while we were at the game my phone froze up and now I have been without it until my new one arrives tomorrow...no phone for me. I don't like it, I feel very disconnected, what was life like before cell phones? I can't even remember. Well I can right now, but it affects me more than it did back then!
I have some more pictures on my phone that I should have access to later but Lincoln was so cute. He would cheer at the right time, yell 'GO DUCKS' boldly and unprompted. He thought the duck was hilarious and loved looking at the score constantly reading it and figuring out who was ahead.
If you ask him what his favorite part of the game was he says 'when the ducks scored the last point and beat the Huskies!' It is so fun getting to experience things through the eyes of your children and Saturday was no different.

Go Ducks!

Whenever Lincoln sees anything green and yellow even remotely near each other he shouts and enthusiastic 'GO DUCKS' or just throws is hands in the air screaming 'Oooooooooooooooooo'. It's pretty funny! For example, at dinner the other night when everything was laid out in front of them like this...

What does he say/see? "Hey Hailey you and me we're GO DUCKS!"

He will see random people in a restaurant or grocery store and whisper (when it's not really a whisper, quite loud actually) "Hey mom, there's a duck fan!"

He colors pictures (or parts of them-the duck parts) green and yellow and refers to them as such...

This reindeer happens to be wearing a 'Duck' tie.

Here is a 'Duck' nest, and another 'Duck' tie.

And here is a 'Duck' book, conveniently housing a 'Duck' giraffe (thank goodness Jer had to spell that for Lincoln, that could have been embarrassing).

And when we pulled up to the coffee shop yesterday and Alissa had on an Oregon sweatshirt he screamed from the back seat with his hands as emphasis 'Oooooooooooooo'.  I think it's safe to say the kid loves his Ducks!

Tickled

Payden wanted to call Uncle Kyle and tell him that she wanted Aunt Gina, baby Jackson Wayne, and him to come have a sleepover at our house. It was really cute I was having so much fun listening to her chat away at him...something she is very gifted at. Well, partway through the conversation she decided to go with an orange smile (I have no idea where she picked up such a thing) and it tickled her so.


My little ham in the background, and Lincoln working his pizza, and Hailey watching it all...they are too much sometimes.

Every. Time.

As anyone who has multiple small children knows, riding in the car isn't a sing at the top of your lungs, rock out to music, enjoy the scenery, take time to pray, have a good conversation or anything you once knew as normal. I mean there are moments where any or all of those things can happen but that's usually it, moments. Then there are the inevitable and much more frequent: whine/pain infliction/hunger/thirst/need for bathroom/lack of agreement on a song to sing or listen to/questions...lots and lots of questions moments that tend to blur together. Don't get me wrong we have fun, just some day's the more attention deserving moments, the moments we all need to realign ourselves to think of each other and not ourselves, take over. There is this hilarious thing that has become a habit now for probably a month. As soon as we turn onto our street Taylor's head flops to the side and everyone informs me at exactly the same time what she's doing. "Mom Taylor's pretending to be asleep!"

Every! Time! I'm not kidding. Some days she's more convincing, other days the kids tattling gets to her and she knows she's funny and giggles herself. This kid, she cracks me up. Who know's how long this will last, it's been pretty steady for a while now.

Adrenaline!

I get such a rush using coupons! You're probably thinking...not another coupon post! Well I was just too excited to not post it!  I know there are so many people who are quicker/more adaptable/all around better at this than I am but here we go, these are my goods from Rite Aid yesterday...

Over the course of multiple transactions and using a 10 gift card I received from this last fall for getting other good deals only spent $6.49 of our own money and I still have 4 dollars in rewards to spend. The only thing that saved that little Cadbury Egg (a filler item) from getting eaten in the car on the way home was the fact that I wanted to take a picture of all of my goods together! I am such a dork. Oh and also not pictured is a thing of Afrin Nasal spray that I gave to my mom who was watching the kids so I could run to the store, and carton of Dreyer's peanut butter cup ice cream that I forgot was in the freezer! But hey, the Cadbury Egg made the picture! By the way have you noticed the size of those delicious little eggs shrinking? Ice cream too, the containers are getting smaller and smaller. Not that it's a bad thing, just seeing if anyone else noticed.

Benihana

Last night we went to Benihana for dinner using a coupon for Jer's birthday, and Grandma Tammi was able to join us. I had never been and neither had the kids, obviously. We had so much fun!

Playing with chopsticks!

The little chef! He was fascinated by Chef Jose and the onion volcano and shouted 'VOLCANO' every time it smoked...which was often.

I didn't get to see Payden and Hailey's reactions as well because I was in between the other two, but Jer said they were very mature about the whole thing. Glancing at each other and smiling...not so much interacting with Chef Jose.

And the best eater award goes to this one right here! Taylor could not get enough, she was so focused on her food and occasionally would glance up or let out an excited squeal at a shrimp tail flying through the air. I'm not sure for me what was more entertaining the Chef/food or the kids.

'Twas a lovely night!