A Balanced Diet

So tonight Jack and Ella decided that I didn't have to make dinner. Not only did they declare that they were going to make dinner, but they would be hosting a dinner party and I was invited. I didn't think much of it until I saw them coming out of the kitchen with a plate full of ....something. They were so proud of themselves for "making dinner". In case you can't tell from the photos, their dinner consisted of frosted sugar cookies on a bed of Cap'n Crunch topped with a generous serving of Cheez-its. DEEELLLICIOUS.

Twilight Premiere

My sister-in-law Cheryl called me late last night (9:00...yes that's late for me these days) to tell me she had an extra ticket to the midnight showing of the opening of Twilight. Now most of my friends know that I am an old school Twilight fan, and have been reading the books since before it was cool. I, like any red-blooded American woman between the ages of 12 and 70, love Edward and his gang of hottie vampires, so even though I literally can't remember the last time I was awake and out of my house after midnight, decided to throw caution to the wind and go to the movie.

Okay, let me just get this out of the way: The movie SUCKED. Like seriously the single dumbest movie ever made in the history of movie making. Cheryl and I literally giggled through the whole thing because it was so ridiculously cheesy. It was so over the top with bad acting and horrible special effects that I was honestly expecting to see a man in a bumble-bee costume come onto the scene, because it was so much like a Mexican Telenovella.

I swear to you that I'm not just one of those people who was so in love with the books that I was bound to hate the movie, no matter what. It really was just bad movie making. Such potential wasted too. I wish they could just scrap this whole movie and we could all forget it ever happened and then they could try again with a whole new group of movie making folks (especially need to replace make-up artists and dramatic mood music people). I could go on for hours.

Heres the thing though... I had more fun than I've had in a long time. Cheryl was so fun to hang out with while we waited for hours for the movie to start, and theres no way I could have endured the entire movie if I didn't have her next to me to laugh with. Also, my niece Lauren and her friends are so fabulous. Lauren really should have been born to me.

I am totally interested to hear what everyone else thought of the movie. Comments please....

QT: The Land of Milk and Honey

This morning Jack and I got up early before John and Abe and we went on a date to QT. Jack has a love affair with QT and believes that all of the worlds ills can be solved with a trip to QT. When you think about it, it is an absolute wonderland of limitless bounty. Aisles and ailsles of soda, slushies, donuts, ice cream, candy, chips and even DVDs. To a child this kind of abundance of treats is very impressive...heck its impressinve to me! The ultimate incentive for Jack is a promise to go to QT. Here is a hilarious conversation we recently had about the role QT plays in Jack's psyche.

Me: Hey maybe if you are really really good today we can go on a date to QT later.
Jack: Yeah! I love QT.
Me: Let me ask you something, If you had the choice between going to heaven or going to QT, which would you choose?
Jack: Isn't there QT in heaven?

So you can see Jack has some pretty high expectations for the hereafter. Forget streets paved with gold...give him free flowing icee machines and greasy hotdogs cooking on rollers.

First Haircut

Today Abraham got his first haircut. I had such mixed feelings about it because I love his crazy baby hair and its just one more thing that reminds me that my Babyham is growing up. I did however finally come to terms with the fact that my child had grown a mullet. I mentioned this to Kristen and she said, "I don't know if you could really call it a mullet because it's not 'business in the front, party in the back', its just party all over." This was an accurate observation, but mullet or not, it was time for a haircut.

Abe had every woman at Great Clips wrapped around his finger. He was an angel for the haircut and flirted with all of the ladies.

I took some pics of the event for posterity.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

62 IS THE NEW 50!

Happy birthday to the best mom and grandma in the world!
We had a birthday party for Grandma Haws yesterday at Kristen's house and what a party it was! We had pizza and cake and games. Here are the highlights:

PARTY GAMES FOR GENIUSES

The best part was that my mom was in charge of the games and she just made it up as she wnt. It was HILARIOUS to see how much the kids loved these games, one of which involved nothing more than passing an empty cup around a circle. I was sure that the kids would realize that there was absolutely no point to this game, but sure enough, they just passed that cup giggling the whole time. It never occured to any of them that there was no object to the game. no winners or losers, no skill involved...just cup passing. My mom is a genius with kids. she assured me that they would love it and what do you know...they did. Jack said afterwards, "I was a really good passer" Yes Jack, you just might end up in the cup passing olympics.

HAPPY LOSERS

Another hilarious "game was that each kid had to put their fingers behind their back an put up any number of fingers, then when Grandma said so, pull your hand out and show what you have. After they all pull their hand out, Grandma says, clearly making this up as she goes "Ella wins because she has the highest number!" So you can see that this is a fairly beatable game, right. We go for round two, and you expect all of the kids to have all of their fingers up, since now they know that the most fingers wins...nope. Jack went for two fingers, Ella went for three fingers, It didnt occur to either of them to just go whole hog and hold up all five fingers. "Ella is the winner again, because she has the most fingers up!" Jack then folds his arms angrily and makes a pouty face because he just can manage to out-stratagize his cousin on this very cerebral game. Then comes my favorite quote of the night: Grandma Says "Hey Jack, no pouting, In our family we aren't sore losers, were HAPPY LOSERS! She then kicks off the traditional dance party and got everyone to show her their "sweet moves"

Mom, I want to be just like you when I grow up. You are fun and smart and righteous and sassy and accomplished and generous and always happy. I hope I can be half as good a mother to my children as you were to me. You are my best friend and my hero.

My Private Riot.

So I was out rioting last night after John McCain's concession speech because, you know, thats how republicans roll when we lose elections, right? right? I mean, I saw on the news that we could expect major riots in Chicago if Obama lost, and since I am from Arizona like McCain, I thought it only made sense to do some rioting of my own.

Anyway, I was trying to turn over cars and I have got to hand it to the liberals. Cars are really heavy. I then went out looking for people to assault and stores to loot etc. but unfortunately, I live in an area that is heavily populated with other Republicans and so most everyone was at home since they have JOBS and KIDS. I guess someone has to go to work and make some taxable income so that all of the democrats in the country can get their welfare checks and have someone to pay for their healthcare.

Finally I decided that I was tired of rioting and that I should probably get back to my family. One distraught Republican just doesn't make for a good riot.

The great news about the election (besides 102 getting approval) is that the value of our gun collection just went through the roof. I guess there is always a silver lining.

Halloween Chez Nous

We had a fantastic Halloween! John was a pirate (really it was just an excuse to bring our parrot Dude out in public.) And he was a hit at our ward party. Kids were lining up to get a closer look at the bird.

Jack was an astronaut. We got this costume from John's parents months ago when they visited mission control in Houston, Texas. We had bought Jack a really expensive Buzz Lightyear costume for Halloween, but it was made of heavy vinyl and after he wore it to preschool and almost suffered heat stroke in it, he decided to opt for the astronaut, which I think was so cute.

I was a purple Fairy. I decided to get a costume that I could slap on every year with regular clothes. Jack didn't give a crap about my costume, but I had a lot of little girls who were big fans! Ellyse also got a little set of Fairy wings.

Abraham was Yoda. This was the perfect costume for him. I couldn't even look at him without laughing because it just fit his personality so well and he is just the right size. He is so serene and wise. I have always thought that Abe has a little bit of an old man look about him behind that baby face. I was sure he was going to rip that headpiece off right away, but he wore it the whole night and never complained. He is such a sweet little Jedi Master.

We went to the Katie Jones' birthday party right before trick or treating, which is something we do every year and is always alot of fun. There were six of us there from the neighborhood who all had babies the same age. This picture was an incredible feat to obtain, because the babies were all over the place. From left to right: Malachi Joyner, Reagan Allen, Hope Chereck, Obadiah Smith, Abraham Kramer, and Rylee Fleming.

This picture was the best part of Halloween. I recently learned of the existance of a magical Candy Fairy. Legend has it that if you leave all of your Halloween candy out on the back porch before you go to bed on Halloween, She will come in the night and take the candy and leave you money to go buy whatever you want. We gave it a try and what do you know...IT WORKED!! Jack got twenty dollars! The candy fairy didn't have any smaller bills and she was willing to pay pretty much anything to not have all of that candy in the house.