Ladybugs & Stinkbugs

Grandaddy went to Russia, and he gave Annie a tea set from his trip! She was sooo excited. And, believe it or not, the boys wanted to have a tea party, too. Aren't they sweet? (Andrew was there, too, but I didn't get a picture.)

So, Jeremy's a plumber. Who knew? Andrew evidently feels, though, that Daddy needed a little bit of help:



Or maybe he just wanted to be with his daddy:



Either way, it's cute - and I have a new faucet!

Jacob loves his brothers and sisters:

Experts made the Titanic.

Amateurs made the Ark.

Okay, this is scary. He's 2. Okay, he's almost three, but I'm in denial, so I'm sticking with "2". Yesterday he was hungry. Who knew? =) He decided he wasn't going to wait on slowpoke mommy anymore, so...:







He got the pan out and put it on the stove, then got the hotdogs out, and finally asked for help when he couldn't get the package open. That's ingenuity if you ask me...

Here's our baby:



(By the way, this is us playing with our new webcam...)

You've heard the expression. You probably even thought you knew what it meant. But a recent experience at our house brought it home to me. If something is "like pulling teeth" it must be nerve-wracking, tense, hilarious, and awful all at the same time. Let me explain - or, as Indigo Montoya* said - let me sum up:

Matthew's tooth was loose. He was so excited. Evidently losing teeth is "all the rage" at Awana. Who knew? So, every day for about 2 months we got the daily "tooth-looseness" report. Finally, The Day came. Matthew announced, "I think my tooth is going to fall out today." Little did he know.

I don't know why They say teeth "fall out". Have you ever seen a tooth actually "fall"? No, they almost always have to be extracted by some outside force. But that doesn't sound innocuous enough for this childhood rite of passage. Still, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that Jeremy had to pull Matthew's tooth out. But it was a surprise.

Especially to Matthew.

Poor thing, he had an audience, too. My sister and (soon to be) brother in law, my parents, and my - with my phone. It was tense:


It took about 12 1/2 tries for Jeremy to FINALLY get this stupid thing pulled. Matthew was so proud:



And, like any good boy, the event was successful because there was actually blood. It doesn't get any better than that.



*Any Princess Bride fans out there?*

It was an AWANA theme night: Music Night. The point was to dress up as something to do with music. The choices were endless: music notes, instruments, singers - anything to do with music was fair game. Annie wanted to be a rock star. And, boy, did she look cute:



So, everyone lined up on the Awana Circle, as usual, for opening ceremonies. Jeff S. did the judging, so no one could accuse us (mainly Granny, Mommy or Daddy) of being "biased". (Incidentally, Matthew articulated the reasoning behind this. He said, "I wish Daddy was judging because I know he would pick me!)

Everyone who participated looked ADORABLE, and the choices were very hard. This time, Matthew won - he was dressed up as David the shepherd playing instruments.



Unfortunately, this time, Annie did NOT win. This was how she responded:



First of all, NO she was not posing - this is actually what she did. Second, I know I'm a bad mom - my daughter is bawling her eyes out, and I stop to take a picture before comforting her...We had the "good loser" speech (though I didn't use the word "loser"), and went back to congratulate the winner. In the midst of the conversation, Annie finally let me know what was really bothering her: she wanted the prize. 3 small wooden maraca-type instruments (that did look really cool, actually), had my baby in tears. THIS we could fix.

"We'll save up our money, and you can go to the store and buy some, honey," I told her. This did not appease her. She still continued to cry, so I asked her, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know where Granny goooooooooot theeeeeeem!!!!" she sobbed.

And, of course, what do can you say to that?

The title of my blog is "Ladybugs and Stinkbugs." There is actually a reason for that. In our house, boys are stinkbugs (for obvious reasons), and girls are ladybugs. The guys have rebelled against their title, and call themselves stinkbugs, but we girls are stikin' with what we know is the truth. It's hard sometimes because we're outnumbered, but we manage to stand our ground.

I will never understand why guys think it's funny to make disgusting noises (with or without accompanying odors), so Annie and I try very hard NOT to be around when they start that.

It's also very funny that Andrew is already learning what falls in the ladybug category and what falls in the stinkbug category. We went to dinner at my ALL TIME favorite restaurant ever in the whole wide world, Tokyo Japanese Steak House, and all of the kids ordered soft drinks to drink. We had some friends with us, so there were two girls and two boys. One boy and one girl got Sprite, and one boy and one girl got Pepsi. (This sounds like the beginning of a math problem...if each kid took two drinks of their drink and then declared themselves full, how much money would mom and dad have wasted....)

Anyway.

Andrew got Sprite...unfortunately, though, Sprite was the PINK straw, and Pepsi was the BLUE straw. Whining ensued. "I don't need this one - that's the girl one!!! I need the boy one!!" Whining quickly began to escalate into temper tantrum, when quick-thinking Granny found a solution: trade straws. Things were again at peace.

He has caught on very quickly to Jeremy's motto in life: boys don't wear pink. Annie, on the other hand, is ALL girl, so we have a very interesting dynamic in our home. The teenage years will be very...interesting.

Would you know, the second I clicked the "publish post" button, my husband walked through the door with roses and chocolate? I found out it WAS better than a clean kitchen!

Jeremy, thanks so much for loving me the way you do. We have grown so much this past year, and it's been so much fun to grow TOGETHER - closer to each other, tighter as a family, and walking more closely on this adventure with our Father. What an amazing 8 1/2 years it has been!

I love you.

It's Valentine's Day!! I hope you all are having an awesome day. My husband (ever the romantic) quietly reminded me last night that we didn't have any money to celebrate with this year. Or, as we tell the kids, we have money - just not for that. =) BUT this afternoon when I got home, do you know what we had done?! He had cleaned the whole kitchen and living room - spotless! What a nice surprise to come home to...and let me tell ya, it was better than any chocolate or roses I've ever gotten.

Thanks, baby, for thinking of me.

Okay, there's a post title for ya. I'm uploading a TON of pictures for y'all to see. Enjoy!