It's Official.....He's 7

My " little man" is 7!!!! (that's what mom said he looked like when he was born....a "little man".....actually I think she said he looked like a leprechaun too...which I don't know if that's a compliment or not.)

My friend Rachel Gee gave me this trick of making brownies and turning it into the best cake. You make some brownies.....soften some icecream (I used Snickers kind) and then spread it on top and throw it back in the freezer to harden. It totally tastes sooooo good and it's one less thing to dish up. The kids also liked the crushed cookies for the road.

The serving of the cake w/ all these sweet boys. They were all so good the whole time.

Then we had a Batman pinata (one he wanted and got from a yard sale for free). Although looking at this picture, it makes me wonder why I had a room full of boys and a hard bat in the same room as my computer! At least you know where I sit as I type these things now, huh.

Then they all went down in the basement w/ their pinata stash to watch Camden's new Hotwheels movie. (this is our ghetto room, but if you're lucky enough to come visit us, this could possibly be your bedroom!!!)

The best part of the picture though is Emerson sitting so close to Joshua in the maroon chair. That makes me laugh.

While Royce got to play w/ all the REAL Hotwheels upstairs.

I would say it was a pretty successful b-day for Camden. Man, I love that kid.

Brooks....the loser.

I just HATE titling something like that, but really it felt good.

I'm sure I've mentioned how I can NEVER beat Brooks at ANYTHING before....but let me just say it again..... I HATE THAT HE ALWAYS WINS!

(and what stinks is even if I introduce him to something.....like Scrabble.....he can still beat me!.....of course it doesn't help that his vocab is increasing from work and my is---well----decreasing)

So I'm THRILLED to say, Brooks lost. At what, you ask?

At our friends' TOTALLY awesome Dance Par-tay (on the Kinect, which I've never played before)

We were asked to dress up, and if we didn't, we weren't allowed in. Here are the other challengers.....w/ our ROOT BEER, mind you.

We started off w/ the sports, and yes, Brooks beat me at those...surprise, surprise, I know.

THEEEEEEEEEEEEN came the dancing, and Brooks lost right away.....and let me say, he went STRAIGHT down to the Lo-who-sah-ers bracket.

My new garage sale dress I picked up for the dance party was AWESOME, however.....the heat sensor thingies wouldn't pick up my legs, since they were covered. So I had to do this....

Not terribly attractive, but whatever. While Brooks played around in the Loser bracket, I was loaned a new outfit and continued on and made it to the finals. Here was my ferocious opponent (a girl who can break. it. down.)

(I believe I'm doing the move that I like to call the "Spankin' " as I spank the kids and send 'em to bed)

And well................. I guess you can see what happened. (Yes, we were die hard and had brackets)

And THESE are what I won. Pretty ROCKIN' huh!

And in CASE you were wondering how ol' Brooks fared in the loser bracket, I'm pleased to announce that this WINNER is married the the LOSER of AAAAAAALL the losers.

And I couldn't be MORE pleased.

Leavin'

Brooks is goin' home (to attend his brother's wedding) and leaving for a week. Last night he was packing his bag and the kids saw. So this morning Aleeya saw the bag was gone and asked if Daddy already went on the airplane. I told her no, and that he had to go to work first and THEN he would go on an airplane. Then for some reason I decided to ask her what Daddy actually DOES at work.

She said, "Changes his clothes" (Brooks rides his bike so leaves and comes home in workout-like clothes but when we SEE him there for lunch or whatever he's in nice dress clothes, so she must have made that observation).

Me- "What else?"

Aleeya- "He probably put some stamps on his hands too.......then changes his clothes some more. He changes his clothes EIGHT TIMES AT WORK!"

Me- "So, is that all he does, is play with stamps and change his clothes?"

Aleeya- "Yep".

I was amused by what she thought Brooks did at work everyday (you know, TO EARN AN INCOME), so I asked the others.

Emerson just said he "helped people and gave them shots". Makes sense, that's his only encounter with doctors

Camden said, "he helped people and helped those with hearts that don't work"......well, considering Brooks DOES work with some dead people, I guess that's closer.

Bronson, is the only one who has actually had a tour w/ Brooks at his work and here's what he said, "Well, he gets up REALLY early and rides his bike. Then he goes and exercises and gets ready. He gets there early so he can practice a little (not sure what he would PRACTICE exactly) and read some books. Then he does Autopsies."

Me- What are autopsies?

Bronson- "It's where they cut people open to find out what's wrong with them and why they died"

Hmmmm, not too shabby. Looks like Brooks will have to take the others to work to explain a little more what he does.

And for Aleeya's sake, he BETTER not forget to give them all stamps on their hands.

Here's a BIG GOOD LUCK

To you ladies that have to deal with Aleeya at Bible School tonight.......because here is my conversation with Aleeya as I was getting her ready (let me just point out that she's been sooooo excited to go and giggles all the time about it).

Me- Okay Aleeya, make sure you say "Yes ma'am", and "No ma'am", when your teachers ask you questions.

Aleeya- Like what?

Me- Well, if they say, "Aleeya, do you want a snack?" and you say, "Yes ma'am". Or if they ask you (I tried to think of something that would be an obvious "No" answer and this is all that came out), "Aleeya, do you want to eat poop?" and then you say "No, ma'am"

Aleeya- *giggles* okay.

I was pretty sure I got through to her, because we practice this all the time, and I knew I gave her good enough examples. Well, while I was doing her hair (I wish my camera worked right now because she looks so cute) I asked her:

Me- Aleeya, so WHAT are you going to say to your teachers when you go to Bible School?

Aleeya- That I don't eat poop.

Perfect. At least, I got my point across.

If you're

the cutest, awesome-est, sweetest and most smiley-est kid.... raise your hand!

I guess it's unanimous.

(and yes, he's sleeping w/ a pink blankie........the girls keep "sharing")

And if you ABSOLUTELY STINK at putting nail polish on your toes and completely deny that you got it out, DON'T MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH MOMMY!

Well, I think that just confirmed my suspicion.

The Alphabet

Every Sunday night we have a game night w/ the family and popcorn. This time the game was to make a letter w/ your body and whichever team guessed it first gets a point. Well, THIS is Emerson's letter...........can you guess it? (because we couldn't!!!!!)

Should I tell you?

Okay, he thinks it's "W". Go figure.

L is for Lizzie........the newly caught pet around here.

"B" is for BUSTED. Word of advice, if you're a kid and take Mom's camera to take random pictures of yourself, toys and the neighbors A/C unit, DO NOT take a picture of you doing something you know you're NOT supposed to be doing........like STANDING ON THE PIANO!

"D" is for DISGUST-A-MUNDO!!!! Once again, more advice .......not to say it's from personal experience or anything...........if your dog eats another dog's food and diarrea/poops (REALLY out of character) in the house, try to keep your 7 month old from eating it and crawling it all around the house...........Not that I would know though, it was just a hypothetical scenario.

And on a happier note, "F" is for Flower and Faithful......

Emerson planted this sunflower from a seed and watered and watered it and watched it grow. (That is until a wind storm came and broke the stem)

Speechless

I am speechless now. I realize that rarely happens, but it's not because there's nothing to say or nothing to feel.....because I don't think I've ever felt MORE at one time in my life. So I think I'll just let Brooks handle this one.

"What of Those Children who Die Before They Are Baptized?

It is with a heavy and yet peaceful heart that I write. Away from suspecting eyes and hidden in the cloak of darkness. Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, approached Jesus and asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” (John 3:4) Christ answered, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5) This is but one of the many examples wherein Christ taught that man must be baptized if he is to enter into the Kingdom of God. But, what of those precious children who die before they are baptized?

Who can doubt the innocence and wonder of a little child? In all of man’s wonder, intellect, and skill he has never come close to duplicating a machine or an object quite as beautiful and miraculous as that of a little child. These perfect spirits housed in a tabernacle of flesh and bone restore within us all that we wish to be – sweet, kind, meek, merciful, forgiving, patient, loving, humble, etc. And then, sometimes, too often to be sure, the hand of death hushes their laughter and hustles them away from loving parents and friends before they are baptized. What is to come of these precious souls? Could it be that what was so perfect and Christ-like could, at the moment of breathlessness, be confined to that which is so opposite to all they represented, even eternal damnation? No, the thought makes reason stare.

We believe that man will be punished for their own sins and not for Adam’s transgression. Furthermore, we believe that Christ “came into the world not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance; the whole need no physician, but they that are sick; wherefore, little children are whole, for they are not capable of committing sin; wherefore the curse of Adam is taken from them in [Christ], that it hath no power over them.” (Moroni 8:8) We teach “repentance and baptism unto those who are accountable and capable of committing sin.” Little children are alive in Christ and need no repentance, neither baptism. In short, we believe that children are alike unto God and He loves them with a perfect love and they are all partakers of salvation.

We add our testimony to those of modern and ancient prophets and Christ himself and testify that children are pure and spotless before God."

We know that sweet Beckett Gasser is with his Father in Heaven now and pray that their family will continue to feel His peace which is only His peace to give.

This. is. Me.

Well, maybe not EXACTLY, but super close (minus the hairy armpits, hat and NON-sweated on t-shirt.............hmmm, maybe I WOULD like those calves, and I don't have a watch.....I'm getting side-tracked, back to the issue on hand).

This guy is bear crawling. Why you ask? Because he has decided to go through pure torture as I went through yesterday. Torture comes in many forms and most recently I can sum it up into one word.....

CROSSFIT!

Brooks and his workout buddy Tyler have been doing "Crossfit" for a while and saying how it works them and they want to die, etc. When a groupon came around for a 6-week bootcamp I thought that would be fun for Brooks to have a professional coach. So I emailed him the link. Then he emailed me back and said, "Oh yea, you should totally do it." Um.....I wasn't meaning myself. Then I thought and thought about it... and I DO need a kickstart to lose this last stubborn excess baggage (I'm not sure if it's because I'm getting older or it's my 6th but this weight is a LOT harder to get off). Long story short, I signed up and yesterday was my first day......................OF TORTURE!!!!!!

It's only a 45 minute thing, so I just kept thinking of my peeps on Biggest Loser and how I could do ANYTHING for 45 minutes. And I did. Including that darn bear crawl for 5 laps until I couldn't hold anything up or walk, only to find out we had to do 50 burpees (see? I know all the lingo now), push-ups and squats all under 5 minutes. It's a timed workout method, and seriously, all I wanted to do was CLOCK OUT! But I had to prove to myself that I could.....wait, who am I kidding? I was just trying NOT to look like the weakest link and not embarrass myself even though I wanted to yell, "I HAVE SIX KIDS AND MY BACK/BELLY AND EVERYWHERE HAVE BEEN BUSTED OUT 6 TIMES!!!!" However, I didn't think that would work, and if you whine you have to do more burpees, so I saved my breath. I literally had sweat going down my face, back, mouth and into my contacts (once again, I didn't whine....gosh, I'm so tough sometimes!), but I DID start feeling I was going to puke. "Great", I thought, now I'll just be "the lady who puked!" I kept thinking of something else and it worked.......well, for then anyway.

Then the torture ended and I just sat there talking to other people.....not because I wanted to, but because I couldn't put one leg in front of the other to walk up the hill. And I STILL had to stop by a store and grab Emerson's-chosen treats for Family Home Evening! I made it to my car only to discover I needed gas, and since the pump at the gas station wasn't working I hobbled inside w/ a BRIGHT red face and just squatted on the floor in front of the cashier (as he looked down at me) to tell him my pump wasn't working. I felt awful and knew I was going to puke, so I bought an apple so at least it would taste better coming up. Got the gas and ran to the store for the treats.....but before I walked in, I had to BOLT around the corner (to where all the employees take their smoke breaks) to hurl up my EIGHTY-NINE cent apple!

I couldn't believe I just puked. I mean I'm not in HORRIBLE shape (my hoopio/hoola-hoop classes should count for somethin' right?) and I'm active enough..... I'm thinking it could POSSIBLY be partly because I shouldn't have eaten potroast/potatoes/carrots for dinner as I was walking out the door to go, what do you think? (Man, I can be such a dunce sometimes). So the next day of torture is tomorrow, and I WAS planning on going. The only thing that would keep me from going would be not being able to move, because if today were any indicator of my movement level of tomorrow, it doesn't look too good.

On the PLUS SIDE, I've been introduced to more muscles today ( that have made their presence known) then ever before! Who knew I had so many!? 1 class of torture down, only 17 more to go.

Vacation Bible School

The boys go to VBS from 9-12 every day this week at a local Baptist church. They had so much fun last year (and it's free!) so I signed them up to do it again. Now before I go into a conversation I had w/ Bronson after VBS today, let me give you a little background..........

Life is NOT "fair" here. The kids don't get equal of everything and sometimes you go to things w/ Mom and/or Dad and sometimes you don't. Sometimes your job might even be more hard then your siblings here and sometimes they might even have more Cheerios in their bowl then you! Or heaven forbid a plate has more strawberries on it then your's but your brother got to pick it because he finished his job first. Example: it drives Brooks absolutely NUTS how after the kids finish a sport they all get a trophy or a medal. That's fine and nice, but he never ceases to mention to the kids how they "don't MEAN anything if you don't earn them". It would be one thing if the medal said, "Highest scorer" (is that even a word?) or "2nd place", etc., but every child gets the same thing no matter if they picked dandelions or actually played soccer. I think it's sweet because it makes the kids happy, but I do want them to know that if you work harder for things you'll get a better result. Life really isn't fair out in the "real world" so we really don't want to do a dis-service to let the kids think it should always be "FAIR".

Okay, with that said (I'm really not a post-my-parenting-opinions on my blog type of a person, but I had to mention the background so Bronson's response might make sense!), Bronson came back and said that he had "played a grape-yard.......I mean a vineyard game with grapes and carrying things back and forth. Then they told us about the parable in the Bible how the master had a few workers and he paid them all the same even though some did more work then the others."

Me- "Okay, so what lesson can you LEARN from that"

Bronson- "........um........well........we learn that not everything is fair. But dad already taught me that."

BWHAHAHAHA! I love it.

Oh, then later Emerson was whining and Bronson said to him, "Emerson, remember, don't show an attitude, show GRATITUDE!" :)

Impromptu me

Wednesday morning I woke up, went on Priceline, named-my-price for a hotel by the beach and the bid was accepted. And considering Brooks was on call one day I knew we wouldn't see him too much anyway. So I sent the kids to pack their own backpacks (note: whenever doing this, PLEASE make sure they have enough shirts, because it could get ugly....and homeless looking) and I loaded up the Yeti and we were OFF for 3 days, 2 nights in Willmington, NC. (5 miles from Wrightsville Beach)

I felt like my parents. Loading up a car-full of kids, heading out w/o a GPS and w/o a cell phone and NO internet. I'm just crazy like that sometimes.

As soon as we got there (5-ish) we headed to the beach.

My boys are water MANIACS! They LOVE jumping in/through, karate chopping, flipping over and being knocked down by the waves.

And these 2.........well, um they're more.........sandy maniacs.

The boys DID come ashore while they were finding/catching little fiddler crabs.

Oh, here is one........right before Iris took it over. She may be scared of the water (and most things) but little creatures, she LOVES!!!!!

And Royce? Well, he spent time in my arms,

and crawling around and eating sand.

Guess he doesn't like it much.

Emerson kept going off and farther away then I wanted (mostly because the waves would push him down the shore) so I had to keep a close and I mean VERY close eye on him......because he thinks he's big and Bronson's size and well, he just learned to swim w/o the floaty this summer.

And we spent a LOT of time swimming at the hotel (which as it turns out, Iris likes......much to my chagrin. I liked her better just sitting on a chair steering CLEAR of the pool) and doing this:

(and don't worry, we didn't miss Wipe Out on Thursday night)

Royce crawled around but ALWAYS made it back to his new "shocker" of a girlfriend......he kept kissing the light socket no matter how many times I kept moving him!....look at his little farmer's tan.....guess I missed his arms.

The NC Aquarium was a little ways down the road too and I had a pass to get us in free.....so off we went.

(I took so many fish pictures, but here are just a few)

They actually got to pick up the turtles hanging around.....or maybe they weren't supposed to.....not sure, but there weren't any signs.

Anyone else ever seen an albino crocodile?

Once again, Iris loves her little creatures, she was all about petting the horseshoe crabs and starfish.

Royce would get so excited he would just grab the exhibit and pull himself up when he saw something he liked.

Now THIS picture is monumental, because this documents the last time Emerson was actually with me. That little kid just gets so excited and gets lost/left ALL THE TIME. I know, I know Mom, it's payback from all the times I ran away. I get it.

Running around w/ 5 kids looking for a 6th kind of made me look a little....um....silly, so I played it cool when the random stranger that Emerson was hugging brought him back to me. After that, THIS was Emerson's new job and he was NOT allowed to let go of the stroller.

I guess I don't think of my 6 kids to be "too much" or crazy-looking to some people. They just go where I go.....Mama duck style and I usually don't have a problem. It wasn't until I saw this picture that I can see why the guy taking it would've given me that look of "are-those-ALL-your-kids?" (trust me, I got that comment over and over on the beach).

I guess I'm a little out-numbered......which is why this (stranger) man rushed over to Aleeya to save her from the cactus burs she was walking through. Then comes me with Iris in one arm and Royce in the other saying loudly, "Aleeya just put on your shoes! I TOLD you to put on your shoes!" Wow, Mom of the year, right there......oh, and believe me, she MILKED it with that guy and was just fine when he put her in the van.

Just like my Mom always did, we stopped at Fort Fisher (site of a Civil war battle).......Mom ALWAYS stopped at EVERY plaque along EVERY road that had one.

They had these really cool, gnarly looking trees at Fort Fisher that lead to HUGE mounds of rocks (kid-magnet) and beyond that there was the secluded beach that we found.

They're in their normal clothes, but what the heck, why not jump in........or run, as the case may be.

Emerson proved that he is KING of the ocean. (look behind at these pictures, there was NOBODY there.....except one couple at one time.......it was incredible!)

And Iris (who always has a swimsuit on under her clothes anyway) is queen of the......um......shore.

Here she is, looking, maybe 5 months pregnant.

And Aleeya..........close to 8 months. What a silhouette!

Believe me, I took a gazillion wave pictures, but I'm sparing you the majority of them.

I love this picture of my sweet Camden. He's growing up so fast.

And Royce ended up falling asleep on my lap, just sitting there watching the waves. I'm pretty sure we could've stayed there all day.

OH! WHAT JOY! We found fiddler cracks here too! Oh, I mean fiddler CRABS here too. Silly me.

Iris thought the crabs were hungry and even fed/nursed them! How thoughtful she is.

Someone at Fort Fisher told us there was a ferry right by there, so we drove down and waited in line to go on the ferry in the Yeti. We ended up just feeding these seagulls(?) and turning around to make it back to the Burger King for an Icee and back to the hotel to watch Wild Kratts. (anyone else's kids LOVE that?)

Next day before leaving we went to the beach again and got caught in an AMAZING purple-clouded rain storm. SO AWESOME (and made for GREAT temperatures!)......well, except that now my van was not only FILLED with sand, but WET sand.

I'm happy to report though that we made it home just fine and even had Emerson with us. (added bonus) Sometimes it's just nice to go away and chill w/ the kiddos.............you know, eating Lunchables for lunch and Hot Pockets for dinner. Oh, and the fact that someone else was making my beds didn't hurt either.