Kolee Bean

Oaklee (Kolee Bean or Tainese) is 21 months (tomorrow). She is one solid chunk of a kid and the biggest ham out of all of us. If she thinks it'll get a laugh, she'll do it, and if you do in fact laugh she'll continue to repeat herself until you stop laughing. She's a bully too. But just to Kyndi. She'll shove Kyndi right on her butt to get to whatever it is that she wants. Oaklee is currently 31 inches tall and about 26 Lbs. Her hair finally started to grow in about 3 months ago. (She used to be a baldy) Kyndi is her very best friend, she follows her every where she goes. Oaklee sings to every song. She "helps" mom with laundry and cooking dinner. The other day she actually cleaned her room all by herself. She shoved everything into Dayton's toy drawer! She loves all things "treat" and hates onions and mushrooms.

Here's a bit more on Oaklee and the cute things she does...

*She tries to jump by stomping one foot on the ground.

*When she runs one arm is stiff to her side and the other one swings wildly back and forth.
*When tired she always pulls or holds her ears. That’s how we know she’s tired.
*If Dayton burps (or anyone else for that matter) she quickly says “Ew”
*If she’s cold she says “Brr”

*She thinks "no" means look at me and keep doing it. (Okay, this one isn't so "cute" but I had to

add it to the list anyways. )
*She calls Kyndi ‘Dinndy” and calls Dayton “Dill Due” cuz Kamron calls him “little dude” she

doesn’t acknowledge any of the other kids names…

*She LOVES to dance. Put on any music and she'll dance her heart out.

*She talks on her phone as if having an actual conversation

*She's constantly begging food off people - the minute she's out of her high chair she heads

straight over to Kyndi's seat to steal her food. She also has excellent hearing when it comes

to wrapper opening. If you're trying to sneak a treat, you can open it as quietly as possible,

she'll drop everything she's doing and run to you cuz she knows you have food!

*She loves all things Mickey Mouse (She calls him "mouse")

*And she loves all things baby. Her baby has to go everywhere we do.

*Kyndi is her best friend

*She is terrified of noises... the vaccuum, the hair clippers, the blender, they all cause her to

scream and cry and run away. She absolutely hates them!!

*She loves baths! Anytime the girls are gonna take a bath she throws a fit if she finds out she's

not included!! And once inside she'll stick her whole head underwater with no thoughts of

drowning. (She's crazy-scary sometimes)

I'm sure there are hundreds of other things to add. But for now she is screaming at me to get her a "dee" (drink) (Like mentioned in a previous post, she is the Queen of Hearts around here. All ways are Her ways, and nobody better think otherwise!)

This is how she was "helping" me cook one night...

This is my favorite face she used to pull... I love it!!

The Queen of Hearts

So, now that I am back in school, I find myself diligently working on homework ALL the blasted time!! Oaklee has struggled with me having 'homework' time, as she feels all time should be Oaklee's time (somewhat similar to the Queen of Hearts in Alice and Wonderland..."All ways are My ways!") Anywho, apparently last night she took on a new approach--> If you can't beat em' join em'. :

The Good News

Well folks, as the economy keeps declining and life continues to grow more and more interesting all over, we too have joined the masses and have been bitten by the un-employment bug. Kamron was laid off two weeks ago, but we figure, such is life, we're not alone in this crazy struggle and besides, there is much to be celebrated about it...
With Kamron home all the time now:

*I get more time with my very best friend
*He gets more time to play with the kids and get to know each one better
*We occasionally cook together
*We went together to Parent-teacher conferences last week
*He folds his own laundry for me (and sometimes helps with the other laundry too)
*I get adult conversation during the day (this is HUGE as usually a 6 month old, a 1 year old and a 4 year old aren't much up to date on modern day topics)
*He drives me to work when the weather is bad
*Sometimes he lets me sleep in
*I even caught him cleaning the toilet the other day!! (I'm one lucky woman!!)

So yes, much to be celebrated - and on top of all that, I have now decided there is no time like the present to get back in school to get my degree.

So to my list of job descriptions that looks a little something like this:

Full time mom (to 6 kids, and two of them are under 2)
part-time worker
housekeeper
master chef/chauffeur/taxi driver/crime solver/fight referee/comforter/philosopher/teacher/therapist/doctor/advisor/ and wiper of tears, noses (and bums)

I now proudly add:

Full time student.

You read that right folks, I am one busy woman living in complete chaos and loving every minute of it!!

A Walmart Laugh For You

The following excerpt is from my friend's blog. She works at my Walmart. I thought perhaps you all might find this story disgustingly humorous:

On behalf of my fellow employees I am sharing this story. Now really it is more for you the customer of BEWARE!!I was a CSM last week. One of the cashiers ( name disclosed) had just come in to work. Jodi ( the other CSM) asked her to help a customer out with his groceries. The cashier was glad to do so. Five minutes later, when she came back in, she was gagging. I walked up to her to find out what was wrong. The customer she was helped take groceries to their car was on a moterized cart. When they got to the customers car steam was coming off of the cart. The cashier thought maybe he was hot and sweaty. When the customer stood up his whole back side was wet and steaming. As you are all thinking WT? Well, that is right ladies and gents, this customer had peed on the moterized cart. My poor little cashier had to sit on the seat to bring the cart back into the store. ( She did wait until all the liquid had evaporatyed from the seat) The rest of the night I laughed while she gagged.

Here's a bit more humor to add to this story: the cashier is me. Seriously. It was me and seriously it was miserably disgusting. There you have it. Everybody have a good laugh.

On a positive note, Walmart bought me new pants!!

What We Do For Fun...

So with Kamron laid off and nothing much to do around here, we get real bored on occasion... this was one of those days...

P.S. It would be in everybody's best interest to not tell Kamron you ever saw this picture.... (But it was alot of fun!! For me at least)

Say Cheese!!

Here are just a bunch o' random pictures for your sheer excitement and enjoyment...


This is Oaklee's new favorite hobby or something...


I was trying to get a good picture of Dayton, but Oaklee thought she needed to be in it too. She laid down on the ground and slowly slid into place next to him...


This was on Christmas eve at my mom's house. Jonathan on guitar, James on drums, Tyson on Bass guitar, Tate on vocals and Kyndi on camera duty (self appointed)...

Kyndi and Oaklee wearing princess high heels. Oaklee (the one year old) has walking in high heels mastered, Kyndi still does not.

This is Gizmo (Dayton) and he's so stinkin cute!!

The Wonder that is Color Wonder

When I was a child I think the biggest advance that the Crayola company made was coming up with enough different colors to fill up a huge box of 96 crayons, plus they added like 6 more “outer-space” colors that were neon and sparkly – which totaled the crayon pack at 102! Wow!! For me, this was awesome!! I have always loved a brand spankin’ new box of fresh crayons.

These days though, there are Crayola advances up the wazoo! They first came out with washable crayons like 5 years ago which are entirely all they are cracked up to be. Tate was a toddler at the time and he and I would draw murals on one selected wall in the family room. We’d leave it up for the day and then simply wipe it off with a wet rag the next day and start over. Wow, I was impressed (I am certain that Tate was too)

But hold onto your seats folks, there is a new thing about – ‘Color Wonder’ – it started a year ago or maybe two with markers that only write on special paper. If you write on any other surface it makes a clear invisible line (much like water would). They came out with coloring books for these markers and all kinds of fun stuff – then came the Color Wonder books you’d color and not only did your color appear on the page but so did an awesome pattern (Like a sand texture look on the beach… or waves in the water) Wow, I was impressed but it has now gotten better! Much much better!! For Christmas Tate got a paint sprayer – you put a Color Wonder paint tube in the sprayer and spray the special paper and voila! Its art! It comes with stencils too, to make all kinds of bodacious creations. My favorite though is Kyndi’s paint set. It looks like any other paint set (you know, all the tiny paint bottles with lids connected to each other in rainbow order?) The only difference is hers has colored stickers on each lid to tell you the color because inside each little canister is clear colored goo. (Yes dad, goo) You put your paintbrush in the goo and paint it on your paper and it magically changes to the color you chose. It’s magical and I love it!! It is a little difficult to paint with goo versus actual paint, but the coolness factor more than makes up for it. Even cooler – it came with a fiber optic paintbrush and the bristles actually turn the color of whatever color you are about to dip in. Crazy!! I may have had more fun that Kyndi.

A fresh box of Crayon is still on my list of favorite things in life – but in the absence of that, I’d take this paint anytime. Seriously – you should all rush out and try it!!

The Tater-tot

Tate is in the First grade. He seems to really love school, and not just the social aspect (although I do believe that plays a HUGE part in it) he loves the learning part too! He is on an ‘M’ reading level and is always reading. He comes home almost everyday with something new to tell me. He has a fifth grade reading buddy for reading time because he’s ahead of his class in reading. He’s also ahead in math and spelling and finishes his assignments quickly which results in udder boredom and finds ways to entertain himself. He apparently sharpens his pencil about 12 times a day and quite often goes around the classroom and tells the kids the answers on their own assignments so they can get done faster (“helping them get done faster” was his reasoning for the situation) He’s excellent at math – I can say something like “well I went to the store 5 times last week and then 3 times this week and I’ll probably go 4 more times” and without even blinking he’ll pipe up and say “that means you’ll go to the store 12 times” Another quick tidbit about school… ask him about Regina and his face will go red!
The other day Tate piped up and told us he either wants to be a player for the Utah Jazz or a business man with a briefcase. Wow, those are similar.
Around Christmas I asked him his favorite color (for gift giving purposes)… his answer: black and pink. Yes folks, he likes pink. He told me, “I always liked pink but I didn’t want to get in trouble for it so I never told you” What a goof ball.
When he was younger and it came to food, he “hated green stuff” this included green ice cream, green veggies, green anything. He wouldn’t eat it. He’s slowly outgrowing this – he has decided he really likes broccoli and green ice cream.
A few of the pther things I can remember from when he was little (around age two): When he was cold he’d say “Freezy” when he dropped something or broke something or fell down he would say “Oh shoot” and when he was mad he wouldn’t throw an actual fit, he’d just say the word “fit” and that was your cue that he was very upset. There was a time when I was busy doing something and he kept getting into the fridge (to steal a cheese stick or a pickle) – I would hear the fridge open and say “Tate, get out of the fridge” The fridge would remain closed for about 3 minutes before he’d attempt the thievery again… finally after about 5 times of this I said, “Tate, if I hear that fridge open one more time you will go to your room” Next thing I knew Tate said “Fridge, shhhh” and the proceeded to open it. Another time (when he was just under 3 years old) we came home from the grocery store and I had brought in all the groceries. Tate looked around and said, “mom you’re missing a milk” “I am?” “Yes, you bought 3 red milks and two blue milks but you only brought in 2 reds so one is missing.” He was right, I had left it in the car. Wow. He was a stinkin’ smart kiddo.
Back to now. He is obsessed with all things Pokemon and loves to watch tv and read books. He one day brought a 400 page book home from the school library and had it read in 3 days. Whoa. He is a reader. His favorite books right now are the Magic Treehouse series (he calls these the “Jack and Annie” books) and the Captain Underpants series. I seriously do not see the excitement in reading about a super hero that saves toilet paper and the like all while in his underwear, but Tate is a boy and I suppose that is enough said on that one.
Tate is a very sensitive kid. If he knows I am having a bad day he’ll come give me a hug and make sure I am okay. The other day I was all caught up in a Mario Kart competition with Kamron and I announced “Man I suck at this” and He calmly patted my arm and said “Mom, you don’t suck. All I want you to do is try your best.” What a good kid.
Oh, and he wants you all to know that he has now lost 2 teeth. His bottom front two. (he claims I pulled both out – but the first one I just wiggled it forward to see how far it would go and out it popped, this last time he opened his mouth and I barely touched it with my fingernail and it fell from its spot. He had just eaten dinner, how did this not happen sooner??)

Roni and Moe

Roni and Moe are Tyson and Morrissa. (Somewhere in time I started calling them these alternate names…) (Kamron calls them Little Feller and Baby Girl) What cute kids these two are – they are both very helpful (most times) and quite hilarious. Tyson is 12 and in seventh grade and Morrissa is 10 and in the 5th grade.
When Tyson gets tired he gets hyper and suddenly thinks everything is hilarious that he does. And he has a crazy clapping habit. He’ll clap very loud all day long and not even realize he’s doing it. (Until Kamron finally shouts, “Clapper!” – then it stops)
Morrissa is always making up new dances to songs she has in her cd player. Her and her best friend Jessie do this for hours on end.
They are both sweet kids, there have been many times when I have found hand written notes on my pillow or elsewhere that tell me I’m a good mom, and thanks for all I do and they love me. Morrissa has done this numerous times and one day (about 6 months ago) I found another note on my bed and thought for sure it was from Morrissa again, but to my utter amazement (and joy) I founds it signed “Tyson” at the end. He’s left other notes since then too. Cute kids.
When these two were little Tyson locked Morrissa in a suitcase which required Kamron doing a code to get it to open again. He also at one time shoved a doll finger up Morrissa’s nose which required a trip to the hospital for removal.
Tyson and Morrissa are constantly in some kind of tooth-count competition. Almost daily one of them (usually Tyson) asks me how many teeth I have and then they proceed to count their own to see how far from me they are. Cracks me up. Tyson is proud to have reached 5 feet tall recently and Morrissa is close behind at like 4’ 10” or something very close to that. They wear the same size clothes. We hafta keep telling Tyson he’ll grow one of these days because it seems Morrissa might pass him up. Embarrassing story for the two of them… One day they came running to me to announce which one had more armpit hair than the other – and they were excited about it!!! Yikes! And Morrissa is only 10!!
Tyson is a very good student, actually they both are, but there was one day when we had a wedding to go to and I gave them the option of going to school half a day or just staying home, Tyson was the only kid who voluntarily went to school. What a crazy kid.
We were playing a game recently called “Whoonu” where everyone has cards in their habnd with one word on them – the basic idea is that you look at your cards and decide which player would most like what card. And then from there, the person who just received cards from everyone chooses which is their favorite from that new stack of cards… (there’s more to it than this but not relevant to this story) It was Tyson’s tunr to choose from his stack and it went a little like this: “Not this one. (Forest) Not this one (beach) Not this one (singing) Not this one (dinosaurs) I guess it’s this one” and he proceeded to lay down “Valentine’s Day” ….wonder what that could mean…
Tyson and Morrissa are both shy kids. Morrissa is a little less shy as she’ll dance in front of people and do other such performances – but I think Tyson would freak out over the very idea of it.
Morrissa likes all things Hannah Montana and High School Musical (and has a not-so-secret crush on Zach from the HSM series) And she recently informed me that at her old school she really liked a boy named Chase, and that her friend Jessie told her he’s even cuter this year than last year. Oh the joys of being ten… Her favorite colors are pink and purple and when she grows up she wants to be a cheerleader (at least that’s the most recent information I have – as she is right now at school and I cannot ask her). I like to refer to Morrissa as the “Amelia Bedelia” at our house. Anyone remember those Amelia Bedelia books? She’d take everything literally that people told her and follow it to the letter. Morrissa has very similar experiences quite often – my favorite was about a year ago – the garbage man had just left our house and I turned to Morrissa and said, “Mors, the garbage man just came, will you go bring the garbage can in?” 5 minutes later I turned around when she said “Where do you want it?” and found that she had brought the big black garbage can into our house and was now standing in the kitchen with it. She must have really hated me when she was trying to get it up the back steps and into the door.
Tyson loves Baseball and playing his Playstation and DS. He also enjoys reading factual books, like the ones that tell you fascinating facts about life, or animals or the earth, etc. His favorite colors are black and blue and I’m pretty sure he still wants to play major league baseball (probably for the Atlanta Braves – that’s his dad’s favorite team)
And interesting tidbit on Tyson – he loves everything his dad does. If his dad has an opinion on something, Tyson’s opinion automatically matches. They like the same games, the same sports, the same everything – Until it comes to college football. That’s when it differs 100%. Kamron is anti-BYU, he loves the Utes and Tyson is all for BYU! (that’s right, he is definitely my kid on this one!!) In fact even when Utah played against Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, Tyson was rooting for Alabama with me. I’ve trained him so well!

The Baby is Back

Anyone remember the new baby that Oaklee discovered on the wall? Well, she was back again today and Oaklee tried her hardest to play catch with. When I walked in Oaklee was giggling and throwing the ball. When it'd bounce right back at her she'd squeal and run and get it, all the while saying "baby". Unfortunately my camera was all the way upstairs and by the time I got back down to the baby wall, Oaklee had lost interest or maybe the other baby did...

Kyndi turned 4

Kyndi turned 4 on the 28th. We had family over for ice cream and cake and she opened her presents. She got cute outfits, and a credit card holder, and a little people princess with carriage and a Scooter. Now she loved all her new gifts but the scooter comes with a story… Sometime around October Kyndi and I were running errands and she matter of factly stated “By the way mom, you one time told me I could get a scooter someday and you never did it!” And the night of her birthday as I was putting her to bed she said, “Good thing you finally remembered about my scooter! But I really wanted moon sand” (She still reminds me on a weekly basis that Santa screwed up last year (2007) and brought her the wrong kitchen… she wanted the Dora one, not the green one she got)

Here are some of the fun things we love about Loo-who (One of the many things she is called around here)

She has hopelessly Frizzy hair – we are on a lifelong crusade to find a product to keep it in control.
She is very matter of fact and at times has quite the teenage attitude (in a cute way, not a naughty way)
She loves to dance and sing
She is best friends with Oaklee and is always willing to help her with anything
She often insists that “Oaklee wanted to share her treat with me” when I catch her with a mouth full
She’s good at memorizing my shopping lists
Names for her include: Loo-Who, Noodle and Noodle Bop (I call her those) and Rebelbellski - with variations such as Rebel, and Bellski, and even Beezers (Kamron calls her all of these)
She loves to paint and play tricks on Kamron
Favorite colors (at this very second in time) are pink, purple and blue
Favorite food: Broccoli (What?!?! Where did she come up with this?) (Shortly after this answer she came up with the following, “Soup? Do I like Soup? Hmmm… I like rolls!”)
When she grows up she wants to be a “Cheeleeduh” (Cheerleader)
She’s still a tiny midget and wears clothes smaller than she should but I am proud say that the dr’s office reported recently that she’d grown three inches this year!!
She loves all things princess and Dora (but she doesn’t like Diego cuz that’s a “baby show”)

Oldies but Goodies

The previous story got me thinking back to when I was little and lived in Bountiful… We lived in a nice little red brick house on the corner of a very busy street. And not very far away (about a block) there was an old folks home. Not just any old folks home, this was one with a bunch of crazies living inside and a major lack of good security. Those oldies escaped all the time. I remember many instances of old people running past our house and nurses running close behind. I remember one old lady showing up at our front door asking to go to Salt Lake City (This was a very popular destination choice for the old folks) My mom told her she’d take her to Salt Lake. She strapped her in the minivan, drove around the block and pulled into the nursing home parking lot.
I remember another time when Jonathan was out shoveling the snow in the driveway and suddenly he came running into the house freaking out. He quickly told us all that there was an old man coming down the driveway and it scared him so he dropped the shovel and ran. Within seconds there was a banging on our back door. It was the old man hitting the door with the shovel that was left behind.
Wow old people can sure be a trip! I am so going to be one of the crazies when I grow up!!

Completely Lost

So last night at work (Walmart) I was working the customer service desk and an older lady (probably in her 70s) (for story purposes we’ll call her ‘Marilyn’) came up to the counter and leaned in close and said, “I am so embarrassed” I looked at her with concerned eyes (yes, I sometimes have concerned eyeballs) and she proceeded to tell me she has lost her car. She had been looking for it for well over 20 minutes and cannot find it anywhere. By looking at her I could tell she had been outside in the freezing cold for far too long. Her face and hands were bright red and she was physically shaking. I offered to go help her. I told her to stay inside on the warm bench and I’d go look.
According to Marilyn, she drove a white car, (that narrows it down a bit…) she thinks it’s a Chrysler, and it had a handicap tag hanging from the mirror. I asked if she remembers parking in a handicap spot, she told me she was going to but then a really good spot opened up just two or three spaces from the handicap ones so she took that one instead. Marilyn also recalled that she had entered the building through the west doors so her car should be on that side. Okay, should be simple enough right? Not so much.
I proceeded out the west doors and started my search. I first went down the rows that have handicap stalls and found no white cars near the handicaps; I found a few further down but none that were Chrysler. I checked nearby rows, nothing. I started thinking maybe she got confused and parked on the other side so I ventured across the lot. (Now keep in mind it’s like 10 degrees out there and I have no coat. Brr). Checked every row on that side and still came up empty. In fact I haven’t even seen any car in the lot with a handicap tag hanging from the mirror.At this point I have reached one of two conclusions: She either forgot which car she drove, or her car was stolen. Dang, I hoped it was the first option. I headed back towards the west side door contemplating what to do from here, when out of the corner of my eye I spotted a white car in the distance. A lone white car parked far away. I thought perhaps it was worth a shot and walked that way. Yes, it was in fact white, and had a handicap tag, and when I got close enough I verified it was a Chrysler. Bingo! Here it is folks. And what do you know; it was only two spots away from the handicap. How on earth did I not find this before?? Simple. This car was parked in the Dollar Store parking lot like a freakin block away from Walmart!! I quickly walked back across both parking lots and back inside where it was warm. I asked Marilyn a few questions and determined that yes indeed this was her car. What?!?! How on earth did she walk that far and not realize it? Better yet, how did she not see the blaring green sign nicely stating “Dollar Store” right in front of her car?? These are questions I will never know the answer to. I walked the sweet lady to her car and loaded her groceries in for her, assured her that this kinda thing happens all the time and sent her on her merry way. Poor lady.