Ezra says Yay!!

Ezra started saying "Yay!" He likes to clap his hands and say it with his crinkly little smile. I love it!

We watched the stupidest movie last night- the best part was when the goat started talking because he was possessed by an evil spirit. I laughed out loud. At least it was free.

Cagey was so stinkin' hyper yesterday- we went to Pier1 and Target for 'date' night and he was bouncing off the walls!! I don't know what his deal was. It was nice to see him doing something other than putting on his pitiful saddy face and whining, but dang! Then today he was back to his pitiful saddy, whining self. I think I prefer the spazoid Cagey.

I was looking for pastel colored candy corn at Target last night. I looked through all the Easter candy and didn't have any luck. There was a girl working back near the Easter candy- stocking CANDY and I said "do you know if y'all have candy corn in Easter colors?" She looked at me like I was stupid and said "If we have any it'll be with the Easter candy." I wanted to say "SERIOUSLY??, IT'LL BE WITH THE EASTER CANDY? wow, I thought it'd be with the cleaning supplies. I just thought maybe while you were STOCKING CANDY you might have noticed some *#&*(# CANDY CORN IN EASTER COLORS!!!" Seriously, am I wrong to think that maybe a person that WORKS at TARGET and STOCKS the CANDY might be able to point it out to someone who is just scanning the candy aisle and might have MISSED it? I mean, heaven forbid you walk your BIG BUM (she did have a big bum too, she needed to lay off the candy) the 10 ft from where you're pretending to straighten the regular candy to the EASTER CANDY and help me scan the aisle in case I am just missing it. OH- it irritated me. Happily- Harris Teeter, my favorite grocery store EVER (except that it is ridiculously expensive), had the candy I needed.

Dear Yang,

I miss you. I wish I could talk to you and tell you all the cute and funny things my kids are doing. Mamma is planning a bbq for Page and Tessa- she needs you. I wish you were here to go shopping with me- we had similar tastes- well, we had style and Mamma doesn't :) I can't wait to go to Page's wedding and be in the temple with everybody. I know you'll be there too!! I wish you could know Cagey and Ezra- they are such sweet, cute little boys. I know you are not far away. Jeebs gave me a blessing when I was having such a hard time being pregnant with Ezra and said you were aware of me and I KNOW that was true. I know you're happy doing whatever it is you're doing because you were always happy- but I hope you know how much we miss you. We pray every night for it. I keep playing "I Stand All Amazed", the arrangement you played for someone on your mission, and I think about you playing it and me singing. It was the last thing we ever played and sang together. Isn't it wonderful to KNOW families are forever because of Christ?

Love,
Nessa

I love Jeebs and even MORE motivation :)

There's a pattern here, can you see it?
Before we were married I made Jeebs' life miserable- really I don't know why he married me. You think I'm joking? I'm not. He's sitting in my apartment lacing the laces on my brand new vans so that I can just slip them on and off. One time when we were engaged I complained that I didn't have anything to hold my hair back or my scrunchies were getting all stretched out- he left for a little while and came back with the biggest package of scrunchies you have ever seen, among other things I had mentioned I needed. Wow. He did that kind of stuff all the time. I love him- and I know Glen is throwing up in his mouth a little, but that's okay, cuz I love my brother too hehehehe. Not in the southern, redneck I LOVE my brother way, I just love him cuz he's an awesome brother- and Page too- I have GREAT brothers.I had to post this picture to make myself feel better and it's one of the ONLY pictures I have when Jeebs and I were just dating. This is in Texas- ya wanna know why I love this picture? You see that shirt I'm wearing? It is a size MEDIUM slim fit t-shirt from american eagle. A MEDIUM - I had a normal size chest- now I couldn't even fit one boozie in there. LOvElY.

My boys and new motivation

Cagey- in the midst of whining about something :) argh.

Taylor took this pic and I love it.

Ezra chewing on Taylor's nunchucks. I don't know what that black gunk is on his nose. I just typed gunk and it didn't underline it. Gunk is a word- who knew? probably all of you out there. [Update: I just googled gunk: any filthy, sticky or greasy matter] At least I know there is no such thing as a snozberry.
Last, but certainly not least, just when you start feeling a little bit good about yourself- your cute little daughter snaps this picture of you. oh the grossness. Compliments please commence!! "no, Vanessa it's a bad angle- you don't really look like that!" "You look way thinner than that in person!" "The camera adds ten pounds!" hhahaaa no really- this is my new motivation..

28 days

I have 28 days to lose 10 pounds. This is the sweetness that helped contribute to my 'problem'. He makes me so happy though. I can't imagine not having him around. Last night I slipped into the bathroom and in seconds here he comes pushes open the door and pops his little super grinning face inside. He had his tongue half out of his head and just laughing so much he could barely crawl. He loves to go in the bathroom. I think it must be a magical place to him because we always keep the door closed so he won't go fishing in the toilet. So, when he gets inside it makes him sooooooo happy! I love how he looks in this little sleeper that my mom got him for Christmas. I love watching him crawl- his little bum waggles back and forth- back and forth- and he is so fast. I just love having babies around- as tiring as it is. I hope upon hopes I get to have more kids!!! I am terrified of having another baby in North Cackalacky. I am so glad my husband works so hard so I can stay home and enjoy my kids- which I don't do enough of. Some days I think back to when I was in college and I could take a nap anytime I wanted to- or I could go exercise any time I wanted to. Then I think about how lonely it was. I had friends, but they were usually involved with their boyfriends or studying- which I didn't do much of either (hint, hint Red :) Now, I have a husband and all my babies to eat dinner with me, go to the grocery store with me, go on walks with me, and yes, wake me up at night. BUT-Ezra has finally started sleeping through the night just after one not so great night of Jeebs and me sleeping in the living room. I love how I get him out of his crib in the morning and he clamps on to nurse and holds on like he hasn't eaten anything in YEARS :) Then as soon as he's done having his morning 'big gulp' he immediately smiles his big grin and starts crawling all over our bed looking for something else to put his mouth on. Then after a few minutes or seconds he wants another morning snack and acts like he's starving to death. It's hilarious. I just love him- worth all the horribleness that was his birth.

Family Olympics FHE

Since I blogged about our total failure of an FHE, I wanted to blog about our totally successful family Olympics. I stole the idea from another blog- since our snow melted too fast we had to opt for indoor (it was raining too) snowless activities. We had the headstand hold, block stacking, jingle bell walk, jog skiing, coinslide curling, and the glovey kiss challenge. Taylor and I made medals- and Tates painted an Olympic sign. She had already painted one for me for my sing time activity at church so she is a pro now :) So, after we had a short lesson and passed the Olympic flame- the games were OPEN! We started with headstand hold- no pics of that because it was a pretty short event and I had to hold feet and jeebs had to hold the baby :) So next came block stacking...


Then- the jingle bell walk... They had to walk through the lines of yarn blindfolded- the bells were supposed to jingle when they touched the yarn, but the bells weren't sensitive enough...oh well it was still fun.

Next, Coinslide Curling- This was Jeebs' idea and I thought it was so creative. He put his laser level on the shelf next to the table to make a line on the table. They each had 3 quarters to slide along the table to see how close they could get to the line. This is Cagey just after he slid his quarter- I think he thought if he stuck out his tongue it would stop his coin from sliding off the table :)

Taylor had great focus and concentration...

Then, our last event was the Glovey Kiss Challenge...We started with Jeebs' snowboarding gloves on Cagey, but he couldn't even pick up the kiss soooo we switched to daddy's socks heeheee. This event had a two-fold mission- 1) see how many kisses you could open in a minute and 2) that's how many you get to have for your fhe treat :)Ezra got some medals for being a super cheerleader...then he started eating them so we had to take them off:)


Cagey was very determined- he loves chocolate. It looks like I'm texting or something here, but yo' I'm not! We used Jeebs' phone as a stopwatch :)

After all the medals were awarded and before we had our closing ceremonies we had to snap a pic under the Olympic banner. Jeebs said Olympics needs to be Taylor's next spelling word- but give her a break she's only 7!! She spelled family right :) (no homeschool comments :) I love how Taylor is all excited- Ezra is just thinking "get the candle", and Cagey is just worried about Ezra getting the candle hehehehe. It was really so much fun. Cagey was genuinely excited for something other than VIDEO GAMES- and that is saying something! Happy Family Home Evening-ing.

If you like taxes you'll LOVE NC

I saw that on a bumper sticker this week and thought it was HILARIOUS. It is so true. This place is ridiculous! In addition to all the regular taxes- we have to pay a CAR tax- not like sales tax when you buy the car- no- like a property tax on your CAR! We are finally getting a refund this year, BUT North Carolina is running low on money to pay out tax refunds so we may not get our refund until April or May! Apparently- people don't like the government having their money, (but they'll cast their ballot for those who openly admit they want to spread YOUR MONEY around) because people who owe don't pay in until April 15th and people who are getting refunds always file early. HMMM the commercial "It's MY money and I want it NOW!" comes to mind. Seriously. Need. My. Money. NOrth Carolina- I think you're cool and all, but your government SUCKS. Texas our Texas all Hail the mighty state! oh excuse me, I was thinking of home :)