Happy Turkey Day Everyone

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. When I went into Kraeton's room this morning to tell him Happy Thanksgiving he said "man I wish it was Christmas" so I got after him a little and told him why Thanksgiving was so important and then asked him what he was thankful for--His reply "I am thankful for my family and I am thankful for God". I thought that was petty cute and thought I should share it. I guess they might have had this conversation at school.

Weekend Madness

Apparently I was super ambitious this weekend because I got a lot done. It started on Fri. night when I decided I was finally going to paint an accent wall in the new livingroom, something I had planned on doing since we added on almost 2 yrs ago (in april). For those of you who do not remember or do not know the rest of the walls are tan. Since that was completed Fri. night, I then decided I might as well do the accent wall in the kitchen, that is where I went wrong. I did not do all the proper researching before I started it, and little did I know that when using a red you may have to do up to 4-5 coats. So I am on coat #2 and think that I will for sure need 3 if not 4, so hoping that I would have it done yesterday or even today is probably not attainable. Oh well to late now I already started, at least it is finally getting done. Oh did I mention that Jake is not crazy about the color in the kitchen, so who knows I may get done w/ this whole thing and we may end up changing the color or should I say HE.

The livingroom--try to look past the messy couch full of folded clothes


the kichen-- the rest of my kitchen is a yellow, I think they call it burnt toast



I had to add this picture of Gracee from this morning wearing Mr. potato heads glasses--she has been up to no good--its probably because she can sense that I want to get something done and she just is not going to allow that.

Finally

Poor Krae has been waiting for this day for sooooooooooooooooooooooo long. Last year in kindergarten he came home one day in tears "because everybody has lost a tooth except for me, Mom" I doubt that was all true, but he probably felt that way. I myself was begining to wonder if he would ever loose one because about every week or two he would have me check for a loose tooth and no such luck until a couple of weeks ago. I just kept reassuring him that it would happen someday and had to explain to him that the later he lost them the better (try getting that point acrossed to a 7 yr old). So on saturday after his BB game we ate pizza and in the middle of eating he starts crying because his tooth hurts. I said "now wait a second boy, you have been waiting for this day forever, don't you dare start to cry." Anyways come tues. same thing happened during dinner at home. With a little convincing and not as many tears as I thought, 5 mins. later it was out. I am sooooo glad it was a good experience for him so that next time he may let us help him from the begining instead of being so scared.

I CAN DO IT !!!!!!!!!

For those of you who do not know I have very LITTLE artistic ability. I had to prove this to my MOM (who is pretty crafty) in Jr High when I took an art class project home and I could not for the life of me get the correct angles on those stupid sail boats I was trying to draw, and after she seen me put a good 2 hours of trying into it, along with her coaching and it still looked terrible, she finally agreed w/ me and realized I just don't see it. My Mom, brothers, husband and even my son have the artsy brain, I on the other hand do NOT.

So the last 2 weekends while the "boys" (Jake, and Ryan) were helping my brother Wes try and finish his Kitchen my Mom decided the "girls" (Amy, Beth, and myself) should do a craft project. When she first told me about it and showed it to me I looked at her and said "Are we just using 1 color and no blending right" her reply was " no Fran its like 3 colors and you can do this" Much to my surprise I did and I love the little thing, its so cute I now want to make more. I think we were all surprised by what we did.

Here is my little guy. I still have to put my name on the sign that the little snowman is holding and add faces to the snowmen, but we have to assemble them first, so I guess that is week #3.


Here is what they are suppose to look like



Amy's is on the left, Beth's in the middle, and mine on the right (my poor mom never got to work on her's, she was too busy keeping the little ones happy and making us lunch (both times).

Kiddo's Update

It has been a while since I have posted anything specific about the kids, so here it goes:
Krae had conferences last week, and overall is doing good. His teacher said he is a respectable little boy who plays well w/ others. He does have a downfall and has had it since kindergarten and that is-- completing his tasks. This is going to be the death of me and him. Everyone has said it is just because he is a BOY but he has to have someone at his side at all times reminding him of what he is suppose to be doing or else he spaces off into la la land. Th poor thing is easily distracted and would rather watch others do it than do it himself. I got a bunch of his writing papers the other day torn out of his spiral notebook because for the last 2 weeks he has been writing in his science notebook and not his writing book. So while all the other little kids are pulling out the correct notebook Krae is probably to distraced by watching them and forgets what he is suppose to be doing and then realizes and by that time just reaches in his desk for whatever is available. I feel so sorry for his teacher because she probably feels like she has to be his own personal babysitter. I sure hope things get better quick.

On a different note, Krae's latest adventure is basketball. At first, I was hesitant to sign him up because that means commitment but, it actually is not that bad. He has always been into football and t-ball, but has never done BB. He is thoroughly enjoying it even though he is not that great. I am amazed at what a couple of these 1st graders can do--maybe that is what a year can do because the 2 I am talking about played last year and this is the first time for all the other kids. Krae was overly excited about his game this last saturday because he actually made a basket along with a couple steels. He is becoming more aggressive and undestanding the game much better. Its amazing what a difference a couple of games can make. They are just too young to get the whole concept though--like this last game the score was 12-14 w/ 10 seconds left and out team gets the ball and this particular kid decides he is going to take full advantage of finally getting the ball and practice his dribbling skills as the crowd is screaming "shoot the ball"--too funny, so yes we lost the game.

I am not very good at action shots, so here is what I did get a picture of. He is #10





As for Ms. Gracee her latest is BOOKS. I know it is suppose to be a good thing to like books, but there comes a certain point when I finally say "Gracee no more books" or "go read your own book". This girl likes magazines, sunday ads, birthday cards-- anything that looks like a book. And yes she would rather you just look at them and talk about the pictures, none of that text crap. So here is a shot of one of her many rounds of looking at books today and it only is 1:00, I still have another 50 to look forward too. Other than books she is walking around like a mad women getting into everything she can get her hands on to. She is talking a little but just recently is undestanding a lot. Like when I tell her to go get her shoes she goes and finds them, or when I say "lets eat" she heads for her high chair. Her lastest though is that she no longer takes a bottle as of Friday night and so far is doing wonderful. I can now say my kids are the easist to wean from a bottle--a binky on the other hand is a different story and yes she still has hers.


I had to get a picture of this. The other night she found the toilet paper and strung it fromt the bathroom to the kitchen--oh a good 20-30 feet. Then she proceeded to shread it into little pieces--thanks to her dad who thought it was so cute

Halloween Fun

As much as I hate Halloween, yes I still took my kids trick-or-treating. Usually I do the driving and I make Jake take the kids door to door, but this year it was actually pretty warm so you could say that we "both" took the kids. I am not sure why I dread Halloween, but I think because it usually is freezing cold weather. One good thing about it is that we have not got Krae into the habit of going to 100 houses so he is perfectly fine w/ the 10 or so houses that we do go to, butif you looked at his bucket you would have thought that we went to 100 houses.


I had to include this picture--she is screaming mad because Jake is trying to set the bucket down so that he can buckle her--Do you think that my 1 yr old knows what candy is....good thing her Mom is a dental hygienist. Actually to be quite honest she had very little candy last night.


A picture of the finished pumpkins. I gutted mine last weekend but never got around to carving it so when I got home yesterday Krae and Jake were carving it for me. Can you guess what one it is?(I told you my husband is creative)


This is the only half way decent picture I could get of the 2 of them. I have had a heck of a time lately being able to get any of Gracee now that she is on the move.





Does he look happy or what?


Hope you all had a wonderful Halloween.

Unfortunately out here in Burbank we had 2 high school boys lose their life to a car accident (and almost a 3rd). Damn semi's blow the red light ALL THE TIME. So a little FYI, if you are ever in Burbank NEVER procede through a stop light without looking both ways, even if it is green. I personally did not know the boys (who happen to be brothers), but it still makes me feel so bad for there families.