Kyra's Lightbulb Moment

Today, Kyra saw a billboard with a picture of Christ and the words, "Jesus Is Watching You." She asked me, "Mama, is Jesus really watching me?" I answered, "Yep, he is watching you all the time." She was amazed and said, "Really. He is? So, both Jesus and Santa are watching me. Man, I better be extra good."

Magic Nuudles

Oh, have we found something fun. While at Hobby Lobby yesterday, I spotted these little gems. I have seen them before but, thinking they were just colored Styrofoam peanuts, I have whisked right past them. However, a while ago, a friend mentioned that she loved them for her kids. So, instead of walking past them again, I picked them up and brought them home. Yes, I paid first!

The kiddos are now off from school for a few weeks and are always dying to do a new activity. Today, they spent a good deal of time cleaning their rooms and afterwards started drooling over the pictures on the side of the box. I let Kaeson open them up and he hasn't stopped working on them since. Sooo.... if you are looking for a fun off track activity, there are GREAT!

OOOHHHHH!!!!!! I forgot to add the best part of these. NO MESS! You simply tap them on a wet paper towel or sponge and they magically stick together. There is no mess for you and no frustration for kiddos that can't get their pieces to stick together. It gets an A++++ in our house.

On a completely unrelated note, we have had a set back with Kaeson's eyes. His eye sight in his left eye IS improving but, not as rapidly as they would like. Where he was free from wearing the patch for several months, the doctors have decided to start up the patch therapy once again. It is a little heart breaking for me. I just want this poor kid to thrive in every possible way. It is hard to watch your kids go through things when you would give anything to take on their burdens for them.

Valentines Day Anyone

Since I know that all of you out there are already sweating bullets over how you are going to spend Valentines Day, I thought that I would share a link with all of you. Yep, I was out blog surfing and thought that I would spread the news with everyone that there is a blog out there specifically directed towards romance. Let me know how it goes for all of you! LOVE ACTUALLY

New Dress Pattern

Gotta tell you that I found my new favorite pattern. I love this one because it has you cut up old t-shirts and combine them into a new creation. Nena has such sensitive skin that she almost everything makes her itch. So, when I found this pattern I about flipped. It took me less than 20 minutes to put it together! 20 MINUTES!!!! Now, I have made the run over to the local DI and picked up a huge pile of shirts to make a cute set of dresses!

Good Books

As one of my resolutions for this year, I am going to take more time out to read. I have gotten so caught up in life over the past few months that I haven't had a chance to really sit down and take in a good book.

I have tried and tried to get through the fourth book in the Twilight Series but, I just can't. I don't know why I can't get through that book when I flew through the other three. So, with a lot of the trials that I have been going through, I keep hearing people quote this book to me. I finally caved in and bought it. I will admit, I am really enjoying it.

As part of my resolution this year, I am going to post the books that I have read on my blog. Also... if you have some good reads that you would like to share, I would LOVE to hear your comments.

Interview With A Toad

Here is a short interview that I had with Toad a few months ago. Disregard the kitchen and the mess. I was cooking dinner and it is always disastrous when I cook. I will have to add more interviews as I get better at this whole YouTube thing.

Nena Pulling Out Her Tooth

WARNING....

This is a bit of a gag reflex trigger. If you choose to watch it, you will hear me gagging at the end. However, there are people in the family that wanted to see it so, I am posting it.

Toad Dancing

So, I have finally learned to upload to YouTube! Watch out world! Here come the Francos in motion! Here is Toady dancing on Christmas Eve.

Football Fan

Almost every Sunday, the kiddos and I head over to my parent's house for dinner. They are so kind to have us over considering all of the chaos that we can sometimes cause. I am just grateful that the kids are getting to the age that they love to sit and color or do puzzles while at their house.

Toad has picked up a new habit. He sits on Grandpa's lap and they watch the game. This has been a tradition since he was tiny! Dad would hold Toad any time they came over to watch any sporting event. It has just been recently that he has become completely enthralled with sports. He knows the basic concepts of football and basketball. He knows the differences between the teams and he can tell if the team scores or not.

So, now he is determined to be a football player.... all the time. Any time he is wandering around the house or whenever we get into the car, he has to be donned in his make shift football helmet and totes around the football. I need to be on the look out for a better looking football helmet.

I do hope that I will be able to calm this intense lust after sports before he marries and his wife becomes a sports widow. Who knows!!!!

Just A Couple More Reasons.....

That I love my kiddos!

She Lost Her Tooth!

This is my cute Nena. She is 7 1/2 and has been wanting to lose a tooth ever since she learned that she could lose a tooth. Finally, about six weeks ago, she bit into something and her tooth got lose! She was thrilled and knew that she was going to get a visit from the tooth fairy that night. When nothing happened despite hours, days and nearly months of tooth wiggling, she decided to ask the dentist to pull it out at her appointment on Tuesday. Here is the before shot we took before her dental appointment.


The dentist told her that the tooth would come out that day if she was really good at wiggling it. So, she spent the entire day moving that tooth around. This picture is when she was with Harvey and he was trying to help her get her tooth out. She obviously didn't like his methods but, was determined to get that tooth out!



Look at that tooth poking out behind the baby tooth.


Woo Hoo! She got it out.....BY HERSELF! She pulled and twisted and popped it out herself. It was really rather gross to watch but, she was so completely thrilled with herself that she did it all by herself! I was really proud of her too.



She of course had to call every single person that was on my phone list. If you didn't get a phone call, you got a text. Look at that new grin.


So proud of her cute little self.



Lucky for her, she has a mother with a craft obsession and had the perfect jar for her to keep her tooth in.

Haiti

My heart goes out to the people in Haiti. I can not even imagine the enormity of the devastation in that poor country. I have a little bit of an insight and I thought that I might share.

I served my mission in the Dominican Republic, the country on the other half of the island. I have never seen such poor circumstances in my life. People lived in houses made out of smashed tin cans and roofs made of thatched straw. Most homes had dirt floors. I saw families with 8 children all sharing one bed in a house the size of what we would consider a normal sized bedroom here in the states.

I saw children die of malnutrition. I saw people working in sweatshops for 60-80 hours a weeks to earn $100 a week. I saw their hospitals where there would be 12 people in an unconditioned room with mosquito nets and rats running around the floors. I saw prisons so packed full of people that they were literally on top of each other.

The Dominican Republic is an absolutely gorgeous country but, it is considered a third world country. If the Dominican Republic is a third world country, Haiti must be a 5th world country. People there have absolutely nothing. The government is weak and the country has no building codes. They were not at all prepared for a disaster at all let alone one of this magnitude. Housing and census records are not kept and it is nearly impossible to know who lives where. I am sure that it will be a tremendous effort to find, account for and know exactly who all of those people are.

I am heart sick at looking at the pictures of mothers, fathers and children that have lost their homes, their loved ones and each other. I know that they love their families just as much as I love mine and can not imagine what they are going through.

As much as we wish that we could personally go and help, it is not a reasonable suggestion for most of us. However, I urge you to donate to the cause of helping Haiti, if you are able.

Here are some verified ways that you can donate.
1. Text "Haiti" to "90999" to donate $10 to the Red Cross. You can also click HERE for more info from the Red Cross.

2. Text "Yele" to "501501" to donate $5 to Yele Haiti. Wyclef of the Black Eyed Peas has set up this foundation to permanently improve the lives of the Haitians. Haiti is his home country. Click HERE for more information.

3. I am LDS if you didn't already know that. Contributing to the LDS Church Humanitarian Aid fund is a sure way of knowing all your money will go to useful aid, because none is used for administration or fund-raising, and everything going to Haiti will be carefully distributed to those in need, regardless of their religious affiliation. The LDS Church has already started sending down massive amounts of supplies to the suffering nation. Click HERE for more details.

Random Questions That Drift Through My Head

1. Why am I so exhausted that I can barely move at 7:00 p.m. but, can't get myself to fall asleep at 11:00 p.m?

2. Why is it that when I clean and declutter one room, the rest of the house looks like a war zone?

3. At what age do boys learn to flush the potty?

4. How is it that my kiddos can go to bed at midnight on a holiday and still wake up at the crack of Neverland the next morning.

5. What moronic idiot decided that it would be a good idea to build a wonderland candy display at every checkout stand in North America?

6. Why is it that the cutest shoes in the store are NEVER available in my size?

7. Why is it that boys and bleach have a type of magnetic attraction to each other?

8. Is the word "no" really that hard to understand?

9. Is it just me or has putting yourself on the "Do Not Call" registry turned out to be the "Please call me at any moment that you would like" registry.

10. Why is it that whenever I see someone wearing something utterly fantastic and compliment them on it, they almost always reply that they had bought it in a foreign country or a decade previous?

11. Why can't carrots, broccoli, and cabbage taste like a peppermint brownie sundae?

12. Why does everything taste better with butter, sour cream, cheese or salad dressing?

13. How come they haven't come up with a cure for the terrible two's yet?

14. Why is it that we cry on our child's first day of kindergarten and yet we celebrate the day they go back from Christmas break?

15. Why is it that we agonize over giving our children middle names when really, we only use them when they are in trouble?

16. Why can we only have perfect hair days on the days that we never leave the house?

17. Why is it that one day our children are raving amazing reviews about a new dish that we have made and the next week, they say it is the worst thing they have ever tasted?

18. Why do I bother putting clean clothes on my children when I know that they will be covered in something within 10 minutes?

19. Why are my children so eager to obey any other adult in the world...except me!

20. Is it sad that I look forward going to the dentist because I can have a couple of uninterrupted me time to read a book?

Please.... add to my list!

Envy

I know that at times we all have a little bout of envy creep up in our lives. We love someones haircut or we see someone's new shoes and drool a little. We watch others go on fancy vacations or remodel to get their dream kitchen and sigh thinking that someday it will be my turn. We look at how some people are able to keep a perfectly clean home, perfectly behaved children, play piano and sing like a bird, volunteer in the community, be on the PTA board, bake so much that they leave their left over chocolate croissants on your doorstep all the while professing that you are helping them by helping her get rid of them.

Yes, I envy these people. I want to be just like them but, somewhere between envy and motivation to do it myself, I seem to be missing a stepping stone or two. I just can't get it done. I can't seem to fit it all in. Ok, if I was to be honest, I can't fit most of it and somedays any of it in! Then the vicious cycle of envy starts all over again. I know. I am sure that I have completely staked out my little red patch of real estate in a very warm place in the after life :)

Most of the time I really try to focus on how I can obtain these amazing qualities that come so completely natural to some people. Meanwhile, the true me creeps up and takes over and I am left right where I started.

This past weekend, I visited with a friend that is shortly moving across the planet to live in New Zealand with her husband and twin 18 month old children. They are leaving a beautiful home in Texas to embark on this amazing adventure. When I asked her if they were going to ship their things down to the land of the Kiwis, she remarked that all they were taking were 8 suitcases. They had sold almost everything they owned and were only storing a few things that fit into the corner of her mother's storage room. She mentioned that it was rather liberating. I found myself envious. Very envious.

How often are we all so impressed with people that own next to nothing? Not so much. However, in this instance, I couldn't not have been drooling more over the idea of having nothing. In my own life, I have felt that "stuff" has immensely complicated my life and how if I only had half of it, I would be a much happier person.

I say that and then I find some new trinket that I just can't live without. I go through my home on a mission to get rid of things and I get a good start only to become overwhelmed with where to start and soon give up. So many times I have wondered what it would be like to just start over from scratch.

As part of my New Year Resolution of bringing more joy and peace to my life, family and home, I have decided that everything must go. I am taking on the advice of several friends on this matter. I am going to work as though I am moving. Really. I am not planning a move anytime soon but, I know that someday it will happen and I might as well get ready!?!

I am going to hit my envy head on and work with it and see what I can do to make the situation better. I am going to every day look around as I go about my day and see what I would like to take with me and what I don't. If I wouldn't move it, I am not going to keep it! It is gone, outta here regardless of need, monetary or sentimental value. Also, I am taking the advice of design expert Peter Walsh and I am going to take out a bag of trash and a bag of goodwill every day. If I am able to do that, the simplification will come sooner than later.

Hopefully, with these steps, I might be able to redeem myself slightly and turn my envy into something productive and beneficial to my family. Wish me luck!

Just For Today

I am a blog thief! Yes, I truly am. I hopped on over to my cute friend Elizabeth's blog today and sighed a big sigh when I read what she had written. Elizabeth has the most adorable family, blog and card making business. I am in constant awe (and a little (lot) bit of envy) of all of the creativity that oozes out of her. Really, she is amazing and I want to be just like her when I grow up. Too bad I am already older than she is. Oh well, a girl can dream huh!

Anyway.... She found this really amazing way to carry resolutions into crazy, busy, chaotic, oh my word where did today go world. I am reposting this and hope that you enjoy it as much as I did. Thanks Elizabeth. I hope that you don't mind that I swiped it.

JUST FOR TODAY: I will live through this day only. I will not brood about yesterday or obsess about tomorrow. I will not set far-reaching goals or try to overcome all of my problems at once.

JUST FOR TODAY: I will be happy. I will not dwell on thoughts that depress me. If my mind fills with clouds, I will chase them away and fill it with sunshine.

JUST FOR TODAY: I will accept what is. I will face reality. I will correct those things that I can correct and accept those I cannot.

JUST FOR TODAY: I will make a conscious effort to be agreeable. I will be kind and courteous to those who cross my path, and I'll not speak ill of others. I will improve my appearance, speak softly, and not interrupt when someone else is talking.

JUST FOR TODAY: I will refrain from improving anybody but myself.

JUST FOR TODAY: I will gather the courage to do what is right and take responsibility for my own actions.

I Believe In Santa Clause

There are some people out there that firmly proclaim the insanity of those that believe in Santa Clause. We all know one or have met one. Our children have run into their children and come home asking about the validity of this figure that they have grown to love. The great figure that brings magic and wonder to the holiday season.

Everyone can have their own opinion. It doesn't matter to me what they decide to teach to their children. However, I relish in the fact that my children believe in the man and the magic. I get very annoyed at those that try to take that from them prematurely.

Having said that, I can state that I without doubt, that Santa Clause is real. This has been shown to me more this year than at any other time in my life. Let me explain.

This year has not been one that will go into the history books as one of my best. I have had a lot on my plate this year and was having a really hard time getting into the Christmas spirit. I wanted to make it nice for my children though. I didn't want my bah humbug to wear off onto their sugarplum filled heads.

Although my woes were not necessarily those of finances this year, I felt such an amazing outpouring of love from so many people on so many different levels. It still is a lot for me to absorb. This is what happened.

* A friend brought over clothes from a darling store that I LOVE for Nena and Toad. She works with the company and they were casting off their samples. Nena and Toad just happened to be the sized that they were casting off so, they scored with several amazing outfits a piece.

* Another friend was unpacking her childrens toys from their recent move and found several nearly new toys that her children wouldn't ever play with again. They were wrapped up and placed under the tree for Toad. He LOVED them.

* The same friend gifted me a darling art set that she won at a work party. Nena loved it.

* When Zhu Zhu pets were no where to be found and were the hearts desire of Nena and Bear, a friend just happened to find two extra ones in her house that I was able to buy from her.

* Bear ended up getting a big bag of brand new hand-me-downs with the tags still attached.

* While helping a friend wrap gifts, she happened upon two items that she had duplicates of for her own children so, she gifted them to me.

* In a very unexpected treat, I receive a gift from a very old friend that I never could have bought on my own. It was prefaced with the phrase, "Don't be mad that I bought this for you, I wanted to do something nice and will never be able to do this again."

In addition to all of this, my little business received more business than I anticipated and that is always a nice plus.

So, you tell me. If this isn't the spirit of Santa Clause, I don't know what is. This year is the year that I firmly profess that I DO absolutely believe in Santa Clause. It is that spirit of Christmas and giving that made my the end of my year absolutely magical. Thank you to all of you for your love and compassion.

Sledding

I am not a fan of the cold, the snow, or anything of the kind. So, I can say with much determination that I do not like sledding. Does that qualify me as a terrible parent? I just can't do it. Thank heavens the kids have a dad that actually loves to go sledding. They get to have all the fun of sliding down that cold wet hill and I get the comforts of staying home and getting the house clean! Yeah!
Dressed and ready to go... minus the shoes... and plus the Webkins.

Rip Roaring Ready to go.

I still think that they are the most adorable children ever.


Getting to be such a big boy!


The forever Diva.


My boys.


I wonder how well he enjoyed this. He didn't wear his glasses apparently. I wonder how much of this he actually saw.

Nervous????

Freezing!!!!!!!!!

Not sure what to expect on this one~!

Away we go!

The ever present face of Toad.

Running head start.

Love that squishy kid.

I hope that is pure white snow!!!!!

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee?????????

The face says it all.

The race is on.

Kaeson wins..... until he hit the jump. He scraped up his face pretty badly actually

Cutie!

Always devious.

Helping out his sissy!

Classic Toad.