A Really Cool Leaf Project

Lydia had another school project. (I never did post about her "Animals in our Backyard" project, but it was really cool!) This project was about leaves. She was supposed to make a display. I think we did something rather unique, so I'll tell you about it. We went around and collected a bunch of leaves, and pressed them in wax paper (inside a book, under a 50 lb weight. I'm pretty sure you don't need that much weight, but that's just what we did.) for about a week. Next we stuck the leaves between 2 layers of clear contact paper to sort of laminate them. We cut out around the leaves, and labeled them. I found one of those satellite maps of our neighborhood and put each leaf where we actually found it. We had a bunch more leaves that we pressed, but I'm no expert, and I didn't know what kind of tree they belonged to, so we didn't use them. If only my neighbor had been home when we were putting this thing together. He's an arborist. He could have identified them for me in a second. Oh well, we had all that the project required plus a couple of extras for extra credit.

I HATE CEREAL!!!!!!!

I HATE CEREAL, I HATE CEREAL!!! Never buying it again. (Well, that's probably not true, but still.)

Breaking News: The Tooth Fairy is Retarded!

So, Mark lost his first tooth last night. He was very excited about that! Unfortunately, we've come to the conclusion that the Tooth Fairy must be retarded. About 90% of the time she comes to our house, she comes way late. The child wakes up so excited to see if the Tooth Fairy has left them any money, only to be disappointed. She generally makes it in sometime during breakfast. She'll often have some cock and bull story about what held her up. Once she left a note about being backed up because of the Peruvian Annual Tooth Pulling Fair, or something like that. Well apparently she can't count money either, because instead of leaving the usual dollar, she left Mark three quarters and a dime last night. I think we parents should band together, and hire a new Tooth Fairy! Seriously!!

And The Winner IS .....(Drum Roll...)

The results from our "Name That Baby" game are in and the winner is: It's a tie between Jeanette and Kirsten! (And this is the first time ever that Jeanette has commented here on Frog Droppings. Thank you for coming out of lurker land. Or was this your first visit? I'll have to spy back on you now. Yay for new blogger friends!)

The correct answers are as follows: A-Lydia, B-Clayton, C-Mark, D-Justice, and E-Ross. Both J & K got all of them right. I'll get your prizes to you soon!

I Practically Had The Same Baby Five Times!

Please play along! Can you guess who is who?

Answers will be coming after you all vote.

A prize will be involved for the most correct answers.

Brrharroom Fundraisers!

I just paid $12.50 for four little pieces of garlic bread!

Blow Outs

Why is it that babies wait until you are both wearing clean clothes to have a blow out diaper that mucks you both up? That's twice in one morning. He must be cleaning out the pipes today.

Reminds me of my brother, John's wedding. Mark was one month old. I was changing his diaper in the van, about 20 minutes before the ceremony was to start. I had the old diaper off, and hadn't yet managed to put the new one on yet when SSSPPPLLAATT!!!! That stuff came shooting out of there like water out of a fire hydrant. Covered my entire torso in yellow baby poo, plus a good portion of the van seat and headrest. My nice dress suit was ruined.

Another Slideshow

How could I have forgotten about "Bad Babies?!"

Because It Makes Me a Little Sad to See My Hard Work Pushed Off the Page Already

I tried to post YMCA to my sidebar, but I can't figure out how to do it. So, I put a link on my sidebar. Plus, I added a few of my old slideshows too. Now you may enjoy them always. As always turn off the playlist first. You must be such a moron for me to have to remind you all the time!

Why My Daughter Rocks

Advice to anyone who is going to have 4 boys: Have a Lydia first. That girls is awesome! She got up yesterday, and got not only herself dressed for church, but Justice and Clayton too, without being asked. Unfortunately they cancelled church because the roads, and many peoples basements were flooded due to hurricane Ike. Funny that they cancelled church for a hurricane in the exact middle of the continent. (No, it wasn't actually a hurricane by the time it reached us, it was just a massive amount of rain. Duh.) Well, our basement did flood a bit, but I can't complain. At least I still have a basement. Anyway, Lydia volunteered and took a long turn with the shop-vac in the basement. Next she cleaned out the hall closet without being asked. You could say that she's angling for something, and maybe she is, but she is very often like this. She is just the best girl ever!

The Past Through The Eyes Of A Two Year Old

L to R: Renae, Mark, Lydia, Ross, Bruce

While cleaning a closet, Bruce found an old photo album that I had put together for Mark when he was very small to help him get through sacrament meetings. (How's that for a run on sentence?) Justice was looking through it, and he didn't seem to recognize us from a picture of us when we were newly weds. *Sigh* Bruce asked "Who is that?" Justice simply said "No." And moved on to the next picture. When he got to this picture, he said "There's Mommy, and Cwayton, and Marky, and Daddy, and Wydia, and don't cwimb the twee!"

A Quick Observation

A two year old with a magic marker (incidentally, why do they call it a "magic marker?" A better name would be: "The marker from Haties" or "Marker that will ruin your favorite sweater faster than you can say 'Oh ski-dunking booger mongers, not again!" But "Magic Marker?" I ask you "What the ruddy heck is so great and magical about a marker that won't come off of anything under the sun with out taking serious health risking means of action?") Anyway, when a two year old comes up to you with a magic marker with the lid off saying "I found a Q!" It doesn't usually add up to anything good. (Unless you count the fact that he can recognize his letters.) It was only a mouse pad this time, so I'm not upset at all. But it is a good observation.

A Couple of Funny Kid Things

Last Saturday Bruce was cleaning out the garage, and he found a little snake in there. (I don't know what kind it was. It didn't appear to be a garden snake.) He picked the thing up by the tail and brought it around for everyone to look at. Then he walked over to the woods near our house, accompanied by a few of our children, to set the snake free. Bruce put the snake on the ground, and Justice (the 2 year old) immediately stomped on it as hard as he could. "Justice! What did you do that for?" says Bruce. "I have to kill it!" says my mighty hunter of a son.

Last Tuesday, we let the kids stay up a bit on the late side to have a bonfire in our backyard. Ross asked if he could have some Mountain Dew. I said no, because it was too close to bedtime. To which Ross replies "That's what pull-ups are for!"

BTW, I'm glad that I don't live in Galveston TX today! I feel for you all down there! I'll toss up a few prayers on your behalf.

It Ain't Just Me

So, out of sheer boredom, I was checking out who else in the blogger world listed my beloved Michael Ball in their favorite music part of their profiles. Here's what I found: (I didn't actually count or anything, and I didn't look at ALL of them, but I skimmed through quite a few just to see what kind of people share my taste.) It appears that about 80 percent of all Michael Ball fans are women. The other 20 percent are split up between gay and Mormon men. Hmm, interesting. What does this say?

Ross the Philosopher

"I don't think Dad will like it when he is resurrected." says Ross.

"Why not?"

"Because there will be no boxing. If you can't hurt anyone, what's the point?"

Night Time Fun

So maybe I kept my kids up just a tad past bedtime last night, but it was worth it. We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows in our back yard. We even pulled out a few sparklers left over from the 4th of July. Good times.




Here's Justice "helping" me mud seams in the kitchen today.

Two Totally Unrelated Things

Who knew that a musician had to also be a mathematician. Hey John, our roads related after all! This is one single beat from a Chopin Etude that I am learning. The "x"s represent where in the beat the notes fall. You have to divide the beat (not the measure - the beat) into 12 parts in order to figure out where to play the notes. The one on top is what you play, with the right hand at the same time as you are playing the one on bottom with your left hand. It's driving me Mad!
Here's a crazy spider I found by my garage. It's huge! Sorry, but there ain't no way that I'm putting my finger next to it for a size reference! You'll just have to trust me that it's about 2 inches from front legs to back. Anybody know what kind it is? It appears to be making an egg sack. Is it poisonous? Should I get Bruce to kill it? (I'm not doing it. I'm a chicken.)

A Look Into My Future

I was just thinking. In a short four years I will begin the trips to early morning seminary (it's a Mormon scripture class everyday before school) with my kids. This will last for an uninterrupted 14 years!!! Crap, life will be crazy. Bruce will have to get into the getting kids ready for school scene. We will have a 4yr old, a 6yr old, a 10yr old, a 12 yr old, and a 14 yr old. I've already decided that I won't mind driving to seminary, It'll be a great time for me to go running.

Hiking with the Kids and Grandparents and Misc.

Yesterday I got up with big plans to accomplish much in the way of painting my kitchen.

(Before that I went running with my group for the first time since baby was born! Yay! I love being able to get back into my running, but the best part was seeing my running friends again. It made me so happy to hear "Renae, your back! Good to see you." Friends rock.)

Anyway, I have much in the kitchen that needs to be accomplished, so I planned to dig in and work all day, then to go out with my favorite guy in the pm for a date. Well, I was just changing into my painting scrubbies when my mom calls. "Can we take the kids out for a day at the park and some hiking?" "Of course! They'd love that!" is the knee jerk response. Next follows the battle: do I stay and take advantage of the kids being out of the way, and get lots accomplished -hopefully; or do I go and spend a great day with the kids.

My father-in-law has spent many a day over here, breaking his back, out of the sheer goodness of his heart, in order to help me get my kitchen back. He specifically asked me to get some painting done so that we could get the trim hung around the windows. So, yes that needs to be a priority. However, that haunting quote from the movie Hook: "...you are missing it." kept floating around in my head. When my parents showed up, I was still in my painting duds and barefoot. I had almost made my mind up that I'd stay and work. "...you are missing it. ...you are missing it." Mom asks are you coming? Well, I looked a fright, and I wasn't at all ready to go. But come on, how beautiful do you have to be to go hiking? I hemmed and hawed for a couple of minutes, glanced at Bruce guiltily (he was staying home to work on cleaning the garage). Finally, I ran inside, grabbed my shoes, camera and some diapers for the baby, put the baby in his seat and ran out the door with the kids. We had a good day. We picnicked, played at the park and hiked.

Then last night Bruce and I ran away, leaving the kids with Trent (except for Clayton who stayed with Grandma Sever) and we went to a party with my running group friends. Had a good time there too.

Oh, and here's one of Monkey Boy washing his hands.

YMCA

Finally! It's not perfect, but I'm tired of messing with this, and I'm too ashamed to admit how much time I wasted on this piece of nonsense, so you'd better spend four measly minutes watching this, and leave me lots of comments okay! (approx. 500 pics!)

P.S. You'll have to go to the side bar and pause mt playlist before you watch this silliness.

Blast!!! I just watched this on my downstairs computer, and the sync got screwed up.

Ahh, The Joys of Motherhood!

Probably Not the Best Place In the World to Take a Nap