Too Much

Sometimes there is just too much in my home. Too much drama, too much fighting, too much noise, and too much testosterone.

But can you ever have too much of this...



Giggles came home from school yesterday sporting this new look. He informed me that his new facial hair was a "prize" he earned from school. He wore it all day at school and wore it the rest of the day at home while doing homework, practicing the piano AND out in public to a doctor's appointment.

Yep. I let him. After all, it made me laugh. Why not allow other people to have a good laugh too? He was sad though when suppertime arrived and he finally had to take it off. He didn't want to get ravioli in it and risk ruining it.

Giggles told me that he hopes I have a mustache one day. Can kids curse their parents like parents curse their kids? I hope not. Otherwise I think I might be in trouble. I better get a good razor just in case.

Too Obvious?

Can something be SO obvious that you just don't notice it? Tonight for our Family Home Evening activity we played a game made up by Wannabe. We had to color a picture and then hide our pictures in the room for one member of the family to find.

I chose to draw a vampire frog face.

I know... I'm no artist.

Smiley is a little slower at doing things and it was getting close to dinner so while he was in the other room waiting for us to hide our pictures I told everyone to keep things simple and not to hide their pictures in really hard places. Brett took that a little too literally and decided to write a giant note and tape it to the wall. I thought it was a little too obvious.

If you can believe it, Brett's was NOT the first one that Smiley found. It was the third. And only after I gave him a clue.

My Sugar Addict

Although Brett was great at making his Super Bowl cake the other day he wasn't the best at cleaning up all of his super mess. He got most of it but didn't wash the pan that the cake was on. It was sitting in the sink yesterday when I left for an evening class. There was dried cake and dried icing on it and I had even poured some water on it during the day to soften up the dried cake in preparation for washing it later. A little voice told me to wash it before leaving for the class but I ignored it because I thought to myself, "who would eat dried cake and dried icing?"

Duh! My sugar addict...

The kids were all in bed when I got home from my evening class but when I woke up in the morning and everyone was eating breakfast the first thing Wannabe told me was that Smiley ate the dried cake and icing off of the pan.

(Keep in mind that there had been dirty dishes piled on and off of this pan throughout the day and the water turned on and off of it several times). Yummy right?

It didn't phase him one bit. Sugar is sugar.

But when I offered to scoop out the icing at the bottom of the sink he recoiled and said, "it's soggy!"

Apparently he draws the line at soggy icing. He does have SOME standards.

Super Bowl Super Cake

I fully admit that I am not gifted when it comes to making desserts. In fact, when it comes to making cookies I leave it to Brett. He does a much better job. If for some reason I have to make cookies for an event I usually have to make 3 dozen just have one dozen turn out. One batch burns, one batch is under cooked and one batch turns out decent enough for people to eat.

Brett and I love to watch cake-making shows and we are fascinated with the incredible cakes that some people can create. For a few years now Brett has been saying that he would love to learn how to make cakes. A couple of weeks ago he decided to take those baby steps in cake-making.

As yesterday was the Super Bowl he tackled a Super Bowl cake.

I thought it turned out great for his first cake.

He made a couple of round cakes for the "football" in case he messed up but the first one turned out just fine. I let the boys eat the second one in the afternoon after church.

As Smiley was eating his piece he said, "it tastes just like cake!"

Huh?

"What did you think it was going to taste like?" I asked him.

"A football," he replied.

Sometimes I wonder about that boy. :)

We Are All Enlisted

My sister and I have an ongoing war. A sock monkey war. She definitely won the most recent skirmish at Christmas as she unfairly gifted my sons with sock monkey mugs. My boys love them which means I can't give them away. I mean really... that's low!

But I find the most recent development to be extremely unfair.

I arrived in Primary on Sunday to discover a sock monkey on the chalkboard ledge. This is the second sock monkey a member of my Presidency has "gifted" me since they discovered my dislike of the ugly creatures. Even the primary kids are plotting to give me monkeys. How is my sister enlisting everyone?

I need a better battle plan it seems.

But never fear... I know just the person to pass these monkeys on to. All my little friends are keeping the guest bed warm for her arrival.

Living with Boys

Life with boys is filled with interesting sights, sounds and definitely smells. Even thinking of my brother's room brings it back in full force and smacks me in the face with a vengeance.

There is nothing like a boy. And each of my boys are different in their own way. Even my husband continues to surprise me with what he can come up with for our Sunday dinner when he is in charge. Instead of just the regular spaghetti taco he changed up the shell. And hey... why not add some jalapeño peppers to it?

But something that all of my boys (and myself) have in common is that we all have to be right. See the problem? And we'll go to great lengths to prove it. Sheriff needed a coat with an inside pocket for skiing on Thursday and Smiley said that his coat would fit Sheriff. Both myself and Sheriff said it would not but Smiley insisted that it would. Sheriff is turning 13 and Smiley is 7. Sheriff grabbed the coat and put it on while the two continued to argue back and forth. "See!" said Smiley, "it fits!"

I couldn't help but laugh.

How to Start the New Year

What is the best way to start the New Year?

Eat

drink

and be merry of course!

And throw in a game of laser tag for good measure.