Thank You

LIFE! the good and the bad. just when i want to throw my hands up out of pure frustration ridge dumps a whole bag of flour over his head that i was using to make a cake. jazzys marker leaks all over her new white shirt and jayvin has just completely taken apart every neatly organized Tupperware container in the cabinet just to put it back in a way that better suits his taste. believe it or not these are not the moments in life that have me in fetal position in bed with a pillow over my face. these moments are what I'm thankful for. its called life and in life things are not perfect, the pieces don't always fit together right away and your not guaranteed 24 hours in a day to accomplish your to do list. instead of cursing life, i salvage what flower i can and finish my cake with a smile on my face while looking at my little marshmallow baby, i change jazzys shirt and turn her newly colored one into an art project and i praise jayvin for actually putting them away, even if its not MY way. in those passing moments life just taught me how to use what i have and be thankful that i have it at all, it taught me that when one door closes another one opens and it taught me how to let go. that's life, the good and the bad and every moment in my life is another moment that I'm thankful for.

When Our Country Goes Down The Pooper, Point The Finger At Yourself!!

when i was younger i use to LOVE playing with barbies. i had over a dozen barbies and about every pet shop, car, house, baby, doctor set imaginable. i would spend a good 3 hours just setting it all up and then a few hours playing with them. back then barbie had cute 50's style dresses, suits, longer skirts and less reveling tops but now that i have a daughter of my own that has caused me to pay more attention to the girlie toy isles of the stores Ive noticed the new trampy style that barbie has taken on, not all but i would say about 95% of them. needless to say I'm no longer a huge fan of barbie.

well a few years ago i noticed these dolls .....

wait...sorry these are go go dancers, their striking resemblance must have confused me

here are the dolls

there called BRATZ. the name in its self is something i wouldn't want near my kids and the skanky clothes just top it off. they look like street walkers for cryin out loud! i wouldn't let my child touch these hideous things with a 10 foot pole.
now if those aren't bad check these new "monster high" dolls. i think this is a new kids TV show. now its not their gothic punk style i hate in fact i think some of them are cute BUT not for my 4 year old. in fact i wouldn't even let my 13 year old play with these. some might think that's a little to extreme but if i dont want my 13 year old dressing like a skanky gothic punk (its the skanky part that gets me) then i wouldnt want her to idolize a doll that expresses that exact style.



here are the monster high dolls. they are accessorized with vampire teeth, hooker make up and trashy little outfits.

now again if i was 18 id be into these but again id be 18 and since these dolls are located right next to the Polly pockets, play kitchen sets and the pretty princess dresses I'm guessing they aren't aiming these towards 18 year olds.

between censoring my kids toys, friends, clothes and movies/TV shows, I've heard plenty of parents telling me i should back off and not be so strict however most of those parents kids ARE the "friends" i don't let the kids play with on regular basis due to their, bratty behavior, diva attitudes and their sense of entitlement. harsh? maybe. but I'm just being honest. now i understand rebellion due to over sheltering however sheltering my kids is not what I'm doing. i show the dolls to my kids, i expose them to bad behavior, and later will expose them to the realities that bad choices bring like, teen moms, ex drug addicts, and people who have commited crimes and i will and do tell them why these choices in life are not proper, irresponsible, and selfish . i was exposed to these things as a child, definitely not in a way i will be exposing my children to them however i still learned from it. I've never done drugs or smoked and have only drank alcohol on occasion. i was a teen mom but i stepped up and took care of my babies properly. now before i ramble any longer my whole point this blog is this. every one keeps complaining about our next generation and how our country is going to crap because of them. its "your" fault ("your" is not meant to be directed towards everyone but responsibility should be taken) between kids violent video games, over sexualized TV shows and dolls, parents who would rather clean house and obtain materialistic objects rather then be hands on or take a part time job and live with in their means, cartoons with to much adult humor and lazy parents who would rather give into their child's every whim then face a tantrum is why our generation will let our country go to crap, because of YOU

The Twins And Their Chores

I've gotten asked a handful of times as to how we do the kids chores, if we use chore charts and what type of chores we could possibly ask out of our four year olds. so i thought i would blog to explain.

jazzy and jayvin each have 2 small metal box containers (whatever you wanna call them) that we just put magnets to the back to keep them on the fridge. two of them have the kids names on them and the other two have "good job" on them. we marked their chores on Popsicle sticks (they decorated the other side).

below is the boxes (jazzy's)

here are her chores that we expect her to do. clean her room, wash their dinner table, take out their bathroom trash, make her bed, brush her teeth, and vacuum (they have a miniature vacuum that is their size).
how it works is in the morning all the sticks start in the box with their name on it. when they complete a chore through out their day they put the completed chore stick in the "good job" box. if at the end of the day before they go to bed all the sticks are in the "good job" box then they get 3 quarters for that day. if all the chores sticks aren't in the "good job" box at the end of the day then they get no money and we have always stuck with this.

here is jayvins chore keeper the only difference between his and jazzys is he has a "put away dishes" and she has the "take out trash" which we occasionally switch up. they are only required to put away their own plastic dishes which we keep in one of the bottom floor cabinets.

the twins each have 2 piggy banks and 1 pouch money bag thing. at the end of the day 1 quarter goes in a piggy bank to save, another quarter goes into the other piggy bank to donate to church, the salvation army people in front of the store etc. and the other quarter goes into their pouch and they are free to do what they want with that money, they usually save it for a couple weeks and they buy crayons, a new book from the dollar store or something they like out of the dollar bins at target.

so there you have it that's how we do the chores and allowance in our home and the kids have always done great with it. we started this when they were 3 and will probably stick with it.

Baby Jax Is Here

Johnny Alexander is finally here...well as of a few weeks ago but this blog is a bit late. Jennifer had a welcoming for Jax and it turned out great! Jax is so darn cute with his fuzzy black hair, round face and tiny little Gerber lips. so far Jen says hes a great baby and she seems to be adjusting well. as far as any other details ill leave that all up to her but i was so excited to finally have a boy cousin that i had to blog about him, and to tell the new momma congrats.

here are a few pictures from Jax's welcoming.

here's Jax's room. she decided to do a Noah's Ark Theme and it turned out really cute. its not your typical Noah's Ark it has a bit of a whimsical feel to it and that's why i really love it!

Here the new daddy. congrats Johnny (Nathan swears this is how your name is spelt so i blame him if its wrong)
here's the daddy and great grandpa

here the new mommy and i caught Jax in a Yawn. look at that spiky hair!

mommy Jen looks so happy! and baby Jax looks pretty snuggled

the food was really yummy. here's Miss Braelyn helping herself to round numero dos

another admirer. yes, calling him an admirer is a cop out since i don't remember who he is...sorry =)

congrats to the Woodworth-Mckinney family. Jax is really cute and i cant wait to watch him grow into his own. love you all!!

Just A Recap

we have had alot of stuff goin on this year so i thought i would do a quick recap.

as everyone knows olivia was born last december and will be one in less then a month!! where has the time gone?? they are all doin well.

nathan is almost done with his first year of school. hes going for engineering and is passing with flying colores. it still amazes me how inteligent he is, and sometimes drives me nuts. i get lost in conversations from time to time and i will just nod and smile. for now hes going for 4 years and he will also be going for a scholorship through the department of defence which will get him a full ride through school with salary and a 2 year contract working for the DOD, i believe as a savilian on base as some sort of scientist.....ill get back to you on that!

jazzy and jayvin have passed a practice test to skip kindergarten with a 100% so will probably start 1st grade this coming august. i have hired a tutor to come to the house a couple times a week to make sure they are on track and doing well. they will attend a montessori school which we have already done a walk through. we now have to select one closer to our house but i have a feeling we will still be driving a good distance but i don't mind at all. ridge will also be attending preschool next year (this may change) he is more active then the twins so we need to find something for him. he gets bored easily and just cant sit still. we may try a sport or something first but i will keep you updated.

the twins will also be taking some sort of tiekwando (sp?) or muytie (sp?) kickboxing soon. their at the right age and i think they will both do well with it!

work for me is doing well. i love the freedom my work provides and the fact i work from home a lot as well. I've been doing a lot of training and managing and marketing. blah blah blah that's all so Boring so moving on!!!

Nathan and i have just renewed our lease for another year. we have no desire to buy a house or move and are totally content where were living now. its so simple.

we will be going on a few trips coming up. were going to Greer with all of the family at the beginning of Dec. Nathan, the kids and i will only be staying a short while (Dec 9th to Dec 11th) since Nathan has finals that Monday. Dec 31st till whenever we decide to come home (prob a week) we will be in Alabama visiting my family. then this coming summer were going up to Chicago to visit some more of my family so it will definitely be a fun packed year!!

Ive also been thinking about being a surrogate again within the next year or so. hopefully rick and Anna may consider having another baby cause i doubt i will find another couple as good as them!! we shall see.

a new addition has also made its way into the family. my future sister in law Jen just had a baby boy a few weeks ago. Jax is so cute and ill have to post some pictures.

also, my sister Gina is getting married this coming April i do believe. her and Simon have been together a couple years and are now tieing the knot! were supposed to go pick out the brides maids dresses in a couple weeks, they have already found a venue (which also provides the tables, cake etc) and its a cute little place in old mesa. its perfect for my sister. she prefers things simple so it really suites her! Simon is a huge sports fan so they were thinking about doing some bobble heads (that resemble them) as cake toppers which i think is a great idea!!!

Ive thought about going back to school as well...don't get to excited mother lol its just to become a natural child birth teacher and become certified as a Bradley teacher. natural child birth is something I'm passionate about and couldn't imagine doing it any other way!! so why not become a teacher?! Ive taken two classes while pregnant already so i don't think it will be to difficult either!!

well i think that's enough for now so ill keep everyone updated on anything new!!

For $#!+$ And Giggles

just wanted to do a quick blog about how quirky my kids (and kids in general) are. so on the way to Costco the kids were in the back naming all the street signs they saw. they named off a stop sign, a flashing hand sign, etc. then we got to the sign above and jazzy asked "bubby what kind of sign is that"? jayvin says "i don't know lets ask mommy" jazzy says "i think i know what it is bubby"....bubby- "what"? jazzy- "its a no PEEING sign" ! Nathan and i were laughing so hard!

This Time Last Year

around this time last year we were having a blast with the kids up north playing in the snow. we took a trip about two or three times a month up towards flagstaff to play in the snow for a few hours. so first I'm going to blog about this trip since a couple of our friends and their kids went with us.

so here is a pic of Nathan and i on our way to the snow. now for my sake since I'm sure I'm the only one who cares lol this is 2 weeks after i had Olivia lol so don't mind the pudginess...now moving on!

while the boys (Nathan and Gavin) were still unloading the truck the kids could not wait to get started. here is jayvin and jazlynn making their way to build a snow man.
jazzy being her normal cute self, in skinny jeans i might add.
Jen and Gavin with riann and ayden (doubt i spelled those names right..sorry)

Jen and i with the help of the kids got started on only THE gnarliest (word?? idk) snow man EVER! this thing took a while but was really fun.

i don't know what i was telling Jen here but i was definitely missing all the action in the back lol what are the boys doing!! i don't think the kids even know what to do. that's Nathan pulverising Gavin...get em babe!!
"what did i miss" ?

theres my baby getting Gavin again. not sure what i was doing but i was so into that darn snow man i prob missed it all!

well i guess Gavin got him back!

poor ayden almost got nailed

so here's that gnarly snow dude with his snow board.

jazzy and ayden. the kids had so much fun. grandma was nice enough to keep the baby since he was pretty young and didn't really care for the first snow experience.

after the snow dude the boys got started on a snow slide. we stole a plastic foot thing that goes on grandmas expedition floors (sorry grandma) so that we would slide faster...trust me it worked!

eventually the slide got bigger and I'm surprised that it held the adults! here's Jen taking her turn and her hubby Gavin being such a gent.

theres nater! kind of a bad idea doing it crotch first cause when he was done it looked like he peed his pants.

id say that's a home run!

this trip was really fun and we really enjoyed that we had friends to join us. to bad the little brats took off and moved to Texas due to Gavin being in the army and we really miss them. anyways, just thought i would share where we were this time last year. soon Nathan, the kids and i will be taking a trip up north with the family then shortly after Nathan the kids and i will be taking a road trip to Bama to see my family for a while so their will be lots to blog about!

Can You Spot The Bear????

ridge has had a little blue bear since he was two months old and it has barely (no pun intended) left his side since. the thing is so raggedy and dirty looking despite its weekly baths. not to long ago, maybe a few months, the tag fell off (there is a little tag on its butt) from ridges constant pulling at it and the fact that when he holds the bear thats usually where he holds it from. so when it fell out the tag came apart making two tags. we decided to put one tag away as a back up tag and the other we sewed back on. kind of ridiculous i know but I'm not ready to face the day the tag or even bear doesn't make it home. we have had a few close calls and even hours of searching for the darn thing but so far its here and intact. we have hundreds (no exaggeration) of pictures dating back to the Christmas of 08 where you can see the bear in the corner or him holding it. its really quite funny! well i chose a few pictures to see if you can spot the bear. under each picture ill share the answer.

its pretty cut off but its right under the pink candy box (Halloween 2010)
i think its pretty obvious (June 2010)
hes holding it while sucking his thumb (Sept 2010)
right after his first hair cut (6ish months ago)

hes holding it while daddy holds him (4ish months ago)

pretty obvious (July 4th 2010)

kind of hiding behind the cup (may 2010)

holding on to it (Feb 2010)

its really hard to tell but if you look close he is holding it (Jan 2010)

holding it (2009)

holding it by the tag (Dec 2009)

bottom right corner (Dec 2009)

above his head (Oct 2009)

under the shoes (10 months old)

The Reason We Dont "Do Santa"!

Call me the Grinch. I know this is a bit of an inflammatory subject so I'm going to say upfront I don't intend any malice towards any of you who think differently than I do.

here are our reasons as to why we don't "Do Santa".

1.) It's a lie. Plain and simple. If that's the only reason that I get to state, it stands by itself. One of parents primary responsibilities is to teach their kids to be honest and truthful individuals. Something that is a little hard to enforce when you insist on the existence of a fat man in a red suit with pet reindeer

2.) Christians may hate or love me for this, either way this reason is a huge importance for us. I'm not much of a church goer, however, I do have my own beliefs in God. Consider what it means to teach a young child to believe in Santa clause. You are teaching your child that a person exists that is benevolent and has super-powers. Who can do incredible things. Who sees their actions while remaining unseen. Who rewards good behavior and with whom (if you encourage letter writing to Santa) the child can communicate. If you are a Christian parent, you are very likely teaching your child at the same time in their life and at the same stage in their development, to believe in God- A powerful and benevolent being with "super powers", who sees their actions while remaining unseen. Who rewards good actions and punishes evil actions and with whom the child can communicate by praying. In fact, you encourage them to pray to this unseen being. To induce belief in your child in both of these teachings, you are relying on the fact that children naturally believe what their parents tell them. But, one is an unimportant falsehood and the other Truth. Belief in Santa is temporary. Eventually kids figure out mom and dad have been telling them a white lie. I don't believe it's that much of a stretch for the astute child to wonder whether the other story about the invisible, benevolent being who is the cause of all things, seen and unseen, has also been a white lie.

3.) This reason has everything to do with all of the unfortunate children in the world whom Santa routinely "forgets". It is simply cruel to coddle belief in a figure who purports to know every child by name, yet is discriminate in his gift giving, showering some children's homes while skipping others. While no one likes to be the source of their child's disappointment, it is far better in this case for the parent to take the blame for the absents of gifts on Christmas morning than St. Nick. As humans we are subject to weaknesses, inadequacies and failings that our children will eventually understand and overcome. Such understandings and acceptance may not as easily be earned from a figure who falls short of his promise to deliver a special gift to EVERY good boy and girl.

4.) Talk all you want about "winter solstice" or whatever just being a secular holiday. Don't care! Why do we call this Christmas? Because (regardless whether it was actually in the spring) it's the time we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

in our family (Nathan, the kids and i) we are teaching our children where this tradition of saying there is a Santa came from (the true St Nichols story). to us Christmas is more about volunteering and basking in our own self made family traditions like cruising around for the best lighted house, drinking hot chocolate, making our own tree ornaments, giving, decorating and of course baking all those scrumptious treats. our children do not feel deprived and i feel confident in our decision to not "do Santa" for the reasons i stated above.

lastly, i know one of our children is going to let the cat out of the bag to a classmate, friend or maybe even cousin. kids will be kids and they are so very honest as we all know. protecting other children from this truth is not our responsibility it is their own parents responsibility to be prepared if they are going to tell their children a fable such as Santa that not everyone is going to agree with their beliefs. we have done the same to our children with god, we have educated them that not everyone believes in god and everyone has their own opinions and they are allowed to those opinions and i feel parents who decide to "do Santa" need to educate their children in the same way. it is not our responsibility to tiptoe around others beliefs and doing so is unrealistic.

so this is why we don't "do Santa" some friends, family and strangers disagree with us and that's OK. the biggest reason why MANY (not all) celebrate Santa is because their parents did and their parents parents did and so on. we have put more thought into it then that and definitely researched it including talking to a child psychologist to see what their take on it was. so like i said we are very confident in our decision!

Reuse and Recycle

this post could probably go along with my last one. i hate throwing things away that i know i can get more use out of, all part of my thriftiness i guess. so i have put together some ideas on how to reuse items you probably have laying around. some of these are my pictures and some i had to hunt down due to a lot of my stuff (holiday) is packed away.

here is one of my favorites. i made them from baby food jars. i put all my spices in them and then painted the lid and labeled them. you can store these several ways, 1. you can clue some magnets to the bottom and then hang a old painted cookie sheet and hang the cookie sheet on the wall in the kitchen somewhere. 2. for those who have little space you can glue the magnets to the bottom and stick them to the side of the fridge or 3, you can just put them in the cabinet.

i hate when hoses get holes in them cause some of those things aren't cheep. i poke a bunch of holes in them and let the kids play in it or they are great for a garden if you put the water on low

I've burnt my share of cookie sheets. so a useful way to use them is paint it and the make a calender. all the pieces are magnets and scrapbook paper glued over it. obviously you will have to make several magnets that have the months but you can keep the same days. another thing you can do is paint it with chalk board paint and then hang it in the kitchen to write notes on.


this is a cute way to use old buttons by just stringing them together and making an ornament. or even gluing them to a cheap picture frame to put in the kids room. you could put your kids own art in it.

this is a life saver for me. i love making bows and this keeps it all organized! its just a shoe box.

i think i mentioned before that the kids and i don't buy extravagant holiday decoration. well this is one way we make our own. its just a painted milk jug. you can use whatever for the eyes and i use felt for the hair.

the kids have SEVERAL piggy bangs and ill explain why in another blog but we made our own out of old water/soda bottles. i just cut i slit at the top for change and you can even make other things like a rocket ship or other animals.

we don't throw away broken old crayons. we use those rubbery shaped molds. you can get them at ikea, walmart, target etc. just put the pieces in (break them up more if needed) and bake them till they melt!

i love this one to. i paint the old scratched Cd's or those Cd's you get in the mail and make coasters out of them. or you can even but some sort of print over it to match a theme. also making ornaments out of them are fun to!

there are lots of ways to use old light bulb and ornaments are fun to make out of these. another thing you can do is make a little herb garden.

baby food jars are great to reuse (i know i already stated one use with putting your spices in) but another way is making Christmas lights a little more year round friendly!

painting them adds a little character to!

and here are some other cute ways to use them.

if you wrap a wire around the top and the then hang it from something (i used a thick metal hoop that i then hunk fro the ceiling along with metal beads and made a chandelier out of)

this is cute for around the house or even at a baby shower

this is an old wine bottle with the gas wick rope in it (forgot what it was called) but the total cost is $5

again old painted wine glasses made into lights (great for over kitchen islands or bar) have not been able to do this for myself yet but i did do it for a friend and came out amazing!!!!

so there you go, just a few cute ideas. obviously there are more uses you can get out of house hold items then just using grocery backs as garbage liners. get creative!!!!

heres another old bottle turned into a lomp. all you need is a lighting kit!