Through the Eyes of a Child

I've noticed lately that Kamdyn talks about Jesus a lot. It doesn't take much to prompt her. Twice this last week, she began talking about Jesus while sitting in Mom's lap and playing with her necklace. The first time was a cross necklace so that was easy... the second time Mom had on a big circle necklace that looked like a flat shell or, in Kam's eyes, the stone that laid in front of Jesus' tomb. Over dinner at Landry's she told Mom, in detail, the story of Jesus dying on the cross and the stone being rolled away. I think Mom was a little blown away by the details that she knew.

She also will occasionally pick up her little NT Bible she got at AWANA and launch into a story about Jesus going up into the clouds and Troy and Graviola (Gabriela from High School Musical) ... it's pretty funny how she mixes the two.

Mark and I have talked about how she seems to be spiritually sensitive which makes me happy thinking about it. I hope she will have a relationship with Jesus one day.

It's as easy as A-B-C:

A - Admit you are a sinner.
B- Believe in your heart that Jesus died on the cross for your sins.
C- Confess and call upon Him to be your Savior.

My prayer is that you too have this relationship with Jesus Christ!

At My Wit's End...

Note: I drafted this post over a week ago thinking that I would post it when I could download the picture of my cut and black eye to go with it. I've been off work, we've been on vacation, and my camera is broke now (another story for another post!) so I'm posting this anyway.

As I was putting my makeup on and trying to conceal the place where Cooper stabbed me with a pen and then the black eye he gave me Friday night, I realized I am at my wit's end with his hitting. Really. I don't know what to do about it now. It's more than a blood sugar problem...

Friday night we were laying on the couch watching "High School Musical" with the lights out. Next thing I know I've been clocked in the eye with a car and I've got blood running down my face. I was so stunned and it hurt so, yes, I did cry. In fact, I jumped up and ran to the bathroom. Mark comes out of the bathroom just in time to see the blood running down my face and he thinks it's coming from my eye. I couldn't talk for a few seconds to even tell him what happened. Did he do it on purpose? I don't know. I just know that I ended up with a small cut and a black eye. Never thought I'd get a black eye from my 2-year old!

Advice, anyone? Everyone says it's just a "boy thing" but I think it's more than that. I know it's a problem when he picks up any object, raises his arm, and Kam starts running and flinching for fear she's going to get hit. We just never know. We've tried timeout, taking his favorite toys away, spanking, etc. What next?

By the way, he is still as sweet and lovable as ever when he's not on one of his hitting sprees. That hasn't changed!

Another note: Cooper was so much better with the hitting while we were on vacation! Thank you, Lord!!!

Me and My Peeps Do Dallas

Friends Don't Let Friends Shop Alone!

My friends and I took our annual marathon shopping trip to Grapevine, Texas earlier this week. We had the best time and it came at a time when I definitely needed some girlfriend bonding. We do nothing but shop, eat, and stay up all night giggling like teenagers. I agree with my friend Leah who said that she hoped we never get too old to do this.

Here we are at the end of day 2 getting ready to head home:
Mary and Sherri at the end of day 1...
Sherri, Kristen, and Jackie... bright eyed, bushy tailed and ready to shop!
Leah doing what she does best... talk!
Leah, Me, and Jackie.... As you can tell, the back of the van was packed full. Thank goodness Mary's van had one of those cameras where you can see without actually looking back there.
I'm sure I ate enough to gain 5 pounds these two days; however, I think I laughed enough to burn the extra calories. We made it home late Tuesday night having been pulled over only once and I think we are now referring to ourselves as "The Seven Dwarfs" or "The Seven Smurfs"... I'm not sure which. That's an inside joke that no one but us will understand. :)

I must say that we all have the best husbands (and mothers) who always keep our kids so we can get together several times a year. That should earn me some brownie points and another outing, huh?

You guys are the best and I love ya! Already looking forward to our next trip!

To further illustrate my point...

We lost a family member this weekend. More on that later...

I want to further illustrate my point I made a few posts back about my kids not being left alone for more than 10 seconds. Nothing good ever comes of it.

Friday night Mom and Dad came over for burgers. I heard someone in the bathroom and I assumed it was Kamdyn, who is big enough to be in there by herself. We were all sitting in the living room visiting when Cooper comes running in there bleeding. I jump up because I see the blood...
Then I ran to get my camera... after I made sure he was fine and realized what he had done.
It was easy to figure out when I looked in his hand and saw this:
Apparently, Mark had left it on his vanity and Cooper decided to begin shaving early. A dry shave is never a good thing!

Later that night I was laying in bed watching TV when I heard Mark shout from the bathroom, "Rob, you have got to get in here to see this." My reply was, "I've cleaned up my share of poop today, it's your turn."

"No, you've got to get in here." So my curiosity was piqued.

This is what I saw in the toilet along with a dump that Kamdyn apparently took earlier that night. I actually took a pic of the family in the toilet but I decided to spare you.
Let me tell you Mark was hot! He even threatened to get the kids up to make them dig them out. When he begins to rescue the family (this is the Dollhouse family, by the way), he yells at me to go find Daddy doll and brother doll because they are nowhere to be found in the toilet. So I go to Kam's room and don't see them anywhere which leads me to believe they were drowned too.

By that time, Mark has plunged enough to see Daddy doll's feet sticking out of the hole and he is able to save him. Sadly though, baby brother doll wasn't so lucky.

Baby Brother, RIP!!!

We assumed that Cooper probably drowned the dolls, but Kamdyn fessed up the next morning when we asked her. I have since caught her trying to stick lipstick down the tub drain. When I told her we don't put things down the drain she told me that she had already stuck a lipstick down the drain last week.

I really need to keep a closer eye on my children!

Take a ride in my car

Riding in the car with the kids is always an adventure. I always tell Mark that he has no idea what I put up with every day taking the kids to and from school. He always rolls his eyes in that "yeah, yeah, whatever" kind of way.

So last weekend we made several trips to Hot Springs for dinner and Magic Springs. This is how a typical car ride goes:

Kam: "Mommy, will you turn the music on?"

So I turn the music on.

Cooper: "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! Turn it off! No music!!! Mommy!!!!!!" Repeat 3x. (Note: this is done in an extremely loud screaming voice because Cooper has no concept of an "inside voice" these days).

So I turn it off.

Kam: "But, Mommy, I wanna hear "I Believe." Please, please, turn the music on. Cooper, I wanna hear the music!! Now turn it back on, Mommy." Repeat 3x. (Note: this is done in an extremely whiney voice that eventually turns into a cry).

So the kids were having one of these conversations on Friday night about the DVD's in the car. One wanted to watch "Cars" and the other wanted to watch "The Little Mermaid." I could see the look on Mark's face and I thought to myself, "he now knows what I'm talking about."

So I look over at him and I say, "you have a whole new appreciation for what I go through in the car with them every day now, don't you?" And he just smiles and says, "you know, I do. I was just thinking that." It was music to my ears! My point was made! Victory!!!

Yesterday was another one of those days. As I was turning to get on interstate, Cooper started screaming, "no, that way!" while he pointed the other direction. Obviously, he didn't like the direction I was going. He threw a full-fledged true tantrum as evidenced by the pictures below:
He screamed for a solid 5 minutes at least. It was pretty hysterical, except for mine and Kam's ears were ringing. I'm serious when I say the boy has no concept of inside voice right now. Both his sitter and Sunday School teacher have told me that recently.
And I made the tantrum even worse by getting my camera out. (Yes, I was taking pics as I was driving down the interstate. Mark, keep your comments to yourself.) Then he started screaming "no pictures!" which made me feel bad, but didn't stop me from snapping away!
I turned the music up to drown it out and I think he didn't like that either. I'm not sure what ended the tantrum finally, but it was over just as quickly as it started. It was just another day... we made it home and he quickly threw another fit with Mark because he didn't want to go inside to eat. About 1/2 an hour later, Mark told me he thought he needed to go get on the lawnmower to "clear his head" after all the fits. Give me a break!!! :)

Canvas

I painted this canvas as part of a baby shower gift. It has stripes on the sides, which I didn't take a picture of. It was my first attempt at a name so it wasn't perfect, but it's much cuter in person. The lighting is terrible in this picture.

Kids will be kids...

A few reasons why you should not leave your children unattended for long:

1. They tattoo themselves. This picture does not even do justice to what Cooper did to himself... but isn't he cute?
2. They tie each other up with duck tape. Yes, Cooper tied Kam up. Refer to picture above. Are you surprised? Nothing this boy does surprises me anymore.
My living room looked like a crime scene. Once I figured out what they were doing, I let them keep on playing. They were having fun and it was cheap entertainment.
And I just want to point out that we know our rug is not placed properly in the living room. We have a furniture arrangement that goes in place when we have company, etc., but when the kids are playing everything is pushed back. It always bothers me when I post these pictures and I feel better now that I have made that point! :)

On Thursday night, Kam decided to stand up in the dining chair only to fall over backwards and break it. We have a bar height dining table so I am grateful she wasn't really hurt, but my chair did get broken. This makes broken chair #2.

Cooper ran to get his Handy Manny tools to help Mark fix it. That's "Pat" the hammer. I think you can see that the "X" is missing in this chair.
A little glue and it was good as new.... well, actually, that's a gross understatement but, it will do.
Kam was dying to use her new paints so I set them up in the garage and let them have at it on Saturday. They were actually entertained for a good 30 minutes!
Then they played in the water for the rest of the evening....
Bring on summer!
I've noticed that Kam has her mouth open trying to drink the water in every picture that I took.
Mark grilled while the kids played and then we had dinner in the garage with the kids little table and chairs. Can you say redneck? Who needs a deck and patio set???