cat's outta the bag

Gwen has adopted a stray.  Kinda.  One day there was a cat on our patio, so we got some meat to offer it, and he's been coming back since.  Gwen let him in the house (and I checked him all over to make sure he's clean) and I can't understand why he comes back.  Because the minute he comes through the door, Gwen insists on holding him like a baby.  And she has to carry him around as well.  But while she's holding/carrying him, Drake's trying to get his turn too by trying to remove the kitty from Gwen with force...by pulling his tail!  This cat is TORTURED the whole time he's in our house, but keeps coming back.  And he's so patient too.  Gwen and Drake each have only had one scratch from him.  

I've been holding off on posting about this because I didn't want my mother in law to know that we were letting a cat come in our house.  But the other day she was here when Gwen attempted to let the cat in, so now she knows.  
The other thing about this is, is it possible to get over allergies?  Because when Gwen first started playing with him, her eyes would turn red and get itchy, and she'd be sneezing.  But since then, her face is buried in the cats fur all the time and I've even caught her licking the cat!!!  (she said she was helping clean him)  And apparently now the cat doesn't seem to bother her at all.  I'm glad too because I don't want my kids to be allergic to animals.  No fun.  Tawnya was allergic to horses when we were younger, and I remember one time she rode a horse and had hives all over her body and had to take an ice bath.   She eventually got over it, but still, that stinks!  Well Gwen's overcome her milk allergy, so maybe it's all about slow exposure?

The other day Gwen thought she saw another cat run underground.  So all afternoon and even this morning Gwen and Drake have been trying to dig underground to get the cat out.  (notice they've only displaced the rocks)    Silly kids.

So Gwenny love her kitty whom she's named Carrotjuice.

crazy cores skittles

I am in love!!!!  I can't stop eating these.  I bought a huge bag to bribe Drake into going pee pee on the potty and would reward him with skittles.  Well, he hasn't been rewarded yet, and the bag is gone.  So I went to the store and got two more big bags today.  One for me, and one for him!  ;)

cabin

We made it to the cabin the week after Easter. Better late than never huh? It was nice to have Ryan the whole time (last week he had a golf tournament), but we missed others who couldn't make it this weekend.  However we still had so much fun being in nature for the weekend.  Tawnya and Kolby taught us this cool new game called Kubb (coob) that we all loved, the kids were able to have their forest egg hunt, we golfed and jumped off a high tower to swing on a rope over the creek bed.  (I always have to stand on the tower for at least fifteen minutes before I can get the nerves to actually jump)  Here's some pictures to prove it.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

easter 09

Easter morning the kids were up bright and early at 6:30.  They found that the Easter Bunny had left them easter baskets full of delicious, mouth staining candy.  

I don't know if you remember this, but Gwen has a funny obsession with eggs.  Often she opens the  refridgerator and looks at the eggs in the carton and asks to hold one.  For hours she can just hold an egg, and carry it around, and talk to it, and love it without breaking it.  But she can break them too.  :(  So being the egg lover that she is, I would guess that Easter is her favorite holiday.  She's asking how many days til easter before Christmas even comes.  

Just look at her during the egg hunt.  She's sprinting!

Drake and Katie checking out their loot.

Eli and Katie taking a slower approach to the egg hunting.

Our family in our sweet Easter shirts.  They have an egg poking out from behind a tree with the funny googly eyes on in, and underneath it says, "the egg you could be eating", playing on Geico's money with the eyes and the line "the money you could be saving".

I had to post this picture just so everyone can see the sweet face Kolby's making!!

The ladies in our Easter shirts.  We're missing Tara and Aubrey.  :(

Drake in a box.

'nuf said.

We've started an Eater tradition that instead of ham for easter dinner, we have a Jerusalem dinner and eat the way Jesus would have, and traditional Jewish dishes symbolic of Christ and the crucifixion.  I personally love it because I LOVE lamb, so I don't miss the ham too much.  

 


So we eat on the floor and talk about each dish and what it represents.  It's a fun way to remind us, and teach the kids about, what Easter is truly about.

I hope you all had a blessed Easter, and appreciate the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made so we can all live again.

mutton chops anyone?

(IMAGE COURTESY OF GWEN - gwen took this picture of herself)

Gwen stuck up for me yesterday. Drake was absolutely beside himself because I wouldn't let him have another pack of fruit snacks. So Gwen goes and puts her arm around him and says sweetly, "it's okay, that's just what moms are supposed to do." Aww, thanks Gwen. Today we were doing some grocery shopping, and Gwen's in the cart, and I'm talking to myself asking if we got everything we need. Well Gwen holds her hand out and pretends it's her list and says "cow, check! (that's cow, not hamburger) Sheep, check! (sheep, not lamb or mutton) apples, check...." and so on. Good thing we got all our animals! 

(ANOTHER IMAGE COURTESY OF GWEN)
This is a picture of Drake wearing an easter shirt from an easter before he was even born.  But he loves his bunny shirt.  Here's the sad news.  It's going to be snowing up at the cabin this weekend.  So we will be postponing our cabin trip a week because who wants to look for eggs, hike, or play horse shoes in the snow?  Not me!  I'm so bummed but you get what you get and you don't throw a fit!  I say that to the kids all the time, but this time it's for me.  :(

  
And here's cute Ryan serenading me at a coffee shop open mic. night.  (He may or may not be singing Britney Spears' Hit Me Baby One More Time)

April's fool

I'll be going private in one week, but I figured I could at least sneak in one last post.

First, last weekend there was a carnival at the Superstition Springs mall parking lot. Gwen had been begging to go for a week and a half, so we caved.

It was fun, but expensive.  For all four of us to ride the ferris wheel it would be $20-for a two minute ride!  Luckily Drake was deemed too short to ride the ferris wheel so Ryan and Gwen rode it alone.  

Then earlier this week, was April fool's day.  This year Gwen got it.  It was awesome!  First the kids thought it was pretty funny that the milk in the fridge was mysteriously blue and pink.  Then all day Gwen would say things like 'mom!  there's an ant on your back! APRIL FOOLS!!' and the thing is is she'd be laughing hysterically from the start.  It was pretty funny and I'd entertain her by acting surprised and trying to get the ant off my back or duck out of my hair.  (yes. she told me i had a duck in my hair)   

Then for my joke on Ryan, I told him I was prego.  He just said funny, you've already tried that one on me before and didn't even entertain me a bit!  I was offended.  So the next day I went to the market and got a couple of pregnancy tests for my pregnant friend Jasmyn to pee on!  I then left the positive tests on the bathroom counter with a note that read, "So you thought it was an April fools joke huh?"  Well the day after April 1 Ryan was at school all day and all night (literally) writing a big paper he had due the next day.  But then the next day after school he was so tired from not sleeping the previous night that he just came home and slept.  So when he finally woke up and saw my surprise it was Friday night.  Boy was he shocked!  It was awesome!  I let him believe it for a few hours, but he was trying to figure things out like when the baby would come, how we'd work things out, too bad we gave away ALL our baby stuff, etc.  I realized if I let it go on much longer he'd be upset so I finally told him it was payback for not entertaining me on April fool's day.  He had to admit I got him good.  

This weekend we are going to the cabin for probably our last easter there.  Stay tuned to see the awesome shirts I made up for us...they're pretty sweet.

going private

That's right.  Despite me calling him out on my blog, he (my cyber stalker) still has been getting on to check back at the comments that people have been leaving.  So unfortunately I need to take this step to protect my family.  So if you read this blog, even if it's every now and then, email me so I can send you an invitation to keep reading this blog, even if you don't know me but you know Ryan (which I love by the way-meeting you and you say 'I love reading your blog'-that's such a compliment and I promise I want you to keep reading it)  hit me up kmcphie (at) gmail (dot) com.