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???

Fish Tales

Last night we kicked off our new summer program at church called "Fish Tales." It is the first time that Cooper has been able to go to a class and I think he had fun. I'm not sure how he acted, but he had a good time! They had story time, craft (they made bracelets), music, and game time. He will start AWANA in the fall, which makes me realize my baby is growing up!

Here he is with Holly and some of the kids in his class. I couldn't resist going to sneak a picture. They had 9, 2-3 year olds!
Kamdyn went to her new class too. Her teachers are Leah and Kristen and they tell me she was great. I think she complimented Leah on the good job she did writing her name (lol!) and even knew some details to the story (Jesus feeds the people with bread and fish) that they didn't talk about. I think it's going to be a great summer with "Fish Tales!"

Mommy and me

I snagged this pic today off of Kam's teacher's facebook page. This was a few Fridays ago. Of course, Kam's not looking at the camera but it's about as good as we get!

Memorial Day Weekend

I have absolutely no pictures to post as I keep forgetting to bring my camera home from work with me. Nevertheless, we had a fun Memorial Day weekend. I was off on Friday so we started our weekend early. The kids and I spent all morning picking up so we could have our house cleaned on Friday afternoon. Isn't that pathetic that I have to spend 3 hours picking up to get cleaned up??

We went to Wal-Mart to buy groceries and let the kids pick out a toy.... we exchanged some duplicate gifts they had gotten so it was about time for them to pick out something new. Cooper ended up with nothing because you can only have so many cars... and he never screamed for any of them so I decided to hold out til we found something different. Kam wanted Barbie makeup only to change her mind and decide on a new Cinderella dress... so we found a cheap makeup kit to go with the dress.... then only to change her mind and end up with a Cars game for her Leapster! I asked her 5 times if she was sure about that decision (those of you who know me well know that I'm not exaggerating on this!). She plays with her Cars game on the way home and then asks me as soon as we get home if she can go back for the Cinderella dress! I knew that would happen!

Saturday was what I call a perfect day.... the kids slept in, we ate breakfast, and then went to Magic Springs to ride some rides. It was a toss-up between MS and the zoo (Cooper's choice) and MS won out. I couldn't even stand the thought of getting into a bathing suit yet so we skipped the water park. Must work on tan so we can go soon because it's getting hot. It's too late to get skinny and my motto has always been that fat looks better tan.

After Magic Springs, we headed to Outback for dinner. The cheese fries (tops on my "last food" list) were to die for! The kids were well behaved and we made it out of there with only one minor spill. What more could I ask for?

I did a little shopping with Mom and JJ yesterday while the kids stayed with Mark. Kam tells me that he watched TV all day, but he says they played. I do know they watched "Madagascar 2" at least 3 times this weekend. They are obsessed with that movie right now and so is Mark. I can't even stay awake to see the whole thing one time through. I am old.

We grilled ribs and had dinner with the fam last night. Do you see a pattern to our weekend? I think my family are gluttons. All activities are planned around meals! That could explain the extra 5 pounds I have gained this last month.

And on another note... I don't think that I've posted that our family will have 3 more additions before the year is out. Yes, the Efirds are pregnant again. We are keeping Dr. G in business!! Derek and Holly will have baby girl in September (don't quote me on that date), Brooke is expecting again (surprise!), and Brian and JJ are expecting on December 26th. What a fun Christmas this will be. My papaw has recently started referring to the great-grandkids by numbers... these 3 new ones will make 16 if I'm not mistaken. I don't care how many more we have as long as they don't come from me!

Will try to take some pictures soon because these posts are just no fun without them!