It's 10 pm, do you know where your kids are?

So, I went to check on the kids in bed tonight and this is what I found...

In the Boy's room

Ender's bed

Armour's Bed

Girl's Room

Kindle's bed

Solace's bed Parent's room

Our bed

(Kindle has learned to smile and we almost caught the cute smile in this pic)

Whoops...

In the blog about the office/guest room, I neglected to mention what Armour's role in it was. though it is probably pretty evident...Here's what I forgot to mention. When I came down and found the locked, closed door, Armour was proudly looking at it and he said, "Mom, I dood it! I yocked da door!" (I am typing in his language-that means, "Mom, I did it, I locked the door!") then he looked at me (and I am sure noticed the shock and anger I was feeling and I am sure was showing on my face) and said "I go time out now..." And walked up to time out on his own.

And that folks, is life with a 2-yr-old (OK-not quite 2, but you get the picture).

Moms with Cameras: Aren't my kids adorable? I think so...

Little mama Chillin'
Doesn't this one look like a line up or a weird double mug shot or something?
No body is showing their personality in this one at all...
We are here, we are here, we are here!!!

Kids with Cameras: "Mom, may I borrow Ender and the camera please?"

Solace wanted me to fix her hair in the famous bubbles for a ward girls only picnic we went to. Her plan was to wear it there, and keep the bubbles in until the next day. Then when we took them out, her hair would be curly. This is her hair the second day in the bubbles, after our grocery walk, but before the bubble removal. As soon as I took out the bubbles, and her hair was flowing with beautiful curls, she asked, "Mom, may I borrow Ender and the camera now please?" Intriguing, I thought, lets see what she does with that. So, I sent my camera off with the kids. This is what I found when I got the camera back...enjoy my crazy posing girl...

What a character she is-so spunky, so funny...

she reminds me of someone, if I could just place who it is...

he he he...

*cough*me*cough*

Kids with Cameras: Posing isn't really my thing...but...

After Solace asked Ender to be the photographer for her own little photo shoot of her hair, she offered to photograph him. Note the lack of excitement on his face, but he is willing to play along with his sister's plans... More pics?
Are we done yet?
If I pose can we be done?
" OK this is my favorite pose"
(This was his exact quote before he did this...)
"And here is my sad face."

Kids with Cameras: Learning to dress yourself...

"Look mom, I dressed myself"

Yes, he is in only a diaper and his big brother's belt...dressing himself is a work in progress...

Kids With Cameras: The Fashionista gets some help from big brother

Armour fixed Kindle's hair (seriously) and asked me to take a picture-check it out...

About that office/guest room...

Funny story about the room we now use as an office/guest room...

It is in the basement. It has no windows. It is the room that we had to get re-carpted when we moved is as it had grease stains from the previous owner's exercise machine that he kept in there. Now, we never met the seller/previous owner.

So, the first day we were in the house, the people came over to do our Internet. The guy in charge of the cable installation walked downstairs into that room, and came upstairs with a look of shock and amusement on his face. He asked me if I had ever met the previous owner. I said no. He told me he never forgot this house or the owner cause it struck him as so funny when he came to install the previous owners Internet that he had a huge exercise machine in there. Evidently, the previous owner was a huge, 6'6" blond cop that was obsessed with exercise...that made the fact that there are mirrors all over the house even funnier to me...

So, now, that being said, this is my son...he is almost 2, and he sure acts his age... This is my daughter, sleeping on the bed in the office/guest room. Isn't she cute? The other day she was happily sleeping there while the other kids were watching a movie, and I was trying to get things done. For some reason I thought, hmmm, maybe I should move her to her own bed and get her used to sleeping there. So, I picked her up and moved her.

This is what the room looked like when I came back down...
I know what you are thinking, so what?! The door is closed, big deal. Take note of a few things int his next picture...1-the keyed lock on the door. 2-the hinges are not on this side. 3-the screws on the doorknob are not on this side. I thought 2 thing-"Wow-good thing Kindle was not in there anymore!!" and "What the heck was this guy doing in his exercise room that he needed such security?!"
Well, I called our Realtor and asked if we could track down said seller and see if he had this key (we had already tried to get other keys from him which he did not have, so I thought this was a real long shot). It turns out I was right-he did not have a key, in fact he didn't know there was a lock on the door as he had never closed it because the exercise machine was too big and took up too much room to close the door.

So, we were down to 2 options-break it down ourselves or call a locksmith. Our Realtor, who evidently knows everyone in this city, suggested we call a place called Leapin Lizard Locksmiths. That's what we ended up doing...And look, now we have keys to that room...
And now we can all take a deep breath and a sigh of relief...

Homeowner at last....

This is our house:

This is the big tree in our front yard: When you move into your first house, after years of apartment dwelling, you quickly realize that you do not own near enough furniture to fill the house, nor do you own ANY necessary outdoor items to care for your lawn. It is confusing when the garbage people ask things like "Do you need to add yard waste to your regular trash?" and when you are confused by that question, they confuse you further with the question, "Well, is your lawn mower a mulching lawn mower or a bagged lawn mower?" Oh, you think, I need to get me one of those...So, we did...Here it is in it's place in our garage (take note that we also remembered to buy a weed eater/edger, and an extension cord for that. Also note that although it is not pictures, we also remembered to get a hose and sprinkler to water said lawn...)

Now, I'm not sure how it goes for most first time homeowners, but I do not even know enough about what I have to do yet, to know what I need to get to do it. So, back we went to the store the next day to get the fertilizer so we could get our grass green. Wes has very obsessively taken over lawn care and I am so very, very grateful! So, he wanted to get his grass greener. We very carefully read our instructions, set the little machine (see below) to let just the right amount of fertilizer out. He put the remains of the fertilizer bag in the garage, came back, and he was ready to go. started in the front and quickly realized that the fertilizer was going out much quicker than he expected...little did he know that in the 30 seconds it took him to put away the rest of the bag, our little Ender, interested in what dad was doing had changed the setting to the highest...whoops!
And here is the outcome of over-fertilization...dang!


In our move, somehow our little old TV got ruined, and as we are addicted to TV, we had to replace it. We went to Sears fully intending to buy the cheapest tube TV there, but as we were looking around, we found a GREAT TV that we couldn't pass up and now we own a plasma TV...I think that's the kind anyway...check it out... Picture courtesy or Solace...

Wesley's Birthday present/housewarming gift from my dad...(Sol took this pic too!)
It was less expensive to buy a bed then to get a hotel while visiting, so we now have a guest room/office in the basement...check it out...
BTW-all our furniture is in the basement, so when you walk into our house, it looks just empty-two big empty rooms right in the public eye when you enter...funny...but, that is a job for another day!

Funny looking, yes...but too bad, that is a job for another day!

You are beautiful...

I am not sure that I have ever actually mentioned this in a post, but I have to mention it now...

One of my favorite things about my blog is on the sidebar where I gave it a subtitle that says:

"Beckee's Blog...Where the Beautiful People come..."

I love that and just wanted to note that all of you that read this/are reading this are the beautiful people!

I'd also like to note that a major goal of this blog is to make the world a more beautiful place, one reader at a time, so feel free to remind family and friends where the beautiful people come...

Am I really this funny, or do I just think so when I write after midnight?! I guess I'll have to reread this in the morning and see if I am still funny.

Follow up to Chubby, Out of Shape, ambitious...

First, if you have not yet read my blog "Chubby, Out of Shape, Ambitious," click here and read it before you read this blog post any further!




OK-have you read that blog now? If not, seriously, read it now before you continue down....




Seriously....



OK, now that you've read that, here is my follow-up...

This afternoon I drove to the grocery store to get some sale items, and as I got to the point in the walk where I gave up and turned around, where I thought it was just too far and too hard, I realized, it wasn't too far at all. In fact, had I walked another 2 blocks, I would have been there...that's right 2 blocks. Oh boy...Nicely done...

Yeah, I am a real winner sometimes!

Yeah for another nephew!

Congrats to Andrea, Jeremy, Jaxon, Kyara, & Ender who just found out today that they will be welcoming a baby BOY in December!!! We are so excited for you all!! Congrats! We know Jeremy is already excited about his own personal golf foursome, and that Jaxon and Ender are totally stoked to have another wrestling partner. I just want to say to Kyara and Andrea that although I am sure you were secretly hoping for a girl to even the odds at your house, just think about all the great girly time you 2 will get to spend together! How special for you to just get to have one on one girl time! And how great to have a cute baby boy!! We are excited for you all!!

(Doesn't he make it so the boys outnumber the girls again on our side Andrea? Wow-Dad is finally getting the boys he never had when we were in the house, huh?! Do we have a basketball team yet?)

Chubby, out of shape, ambitious...

So, I was on bed rest for a long time. Not that I am using that as an excuse or anything...But here's the thing, I am kinda chubby, and I pretty much weigh more than my exercise and diet obsessed husband at this point. (I may have mentioned at some point that he has lost over 50 pounds...) Also, I love food-seriously, love it...I basically start looking forward to my next meal as soon as I finish my current meal. However, overall I eat pretty healthy, and I have been trying to watch portions and count calories lately. I also have been trying to get back into the swing of exercising (which I hate). Wes wanted to live where we live so we are near trails and near cool recreation. I like the area as well, but knew it would mean Wes would be wanting to go for a lot of walks, nay, runs, rollerblading, biking...the whole schebang. I like to go on family walks-seriously, but it is also a hassle to do with 4 kids. So, I have to really get motivated and build myself up to going, and generally I don't go without Wes being the motivation.

That being said, I told Wes that I would be walking with the kids everyday to the lake (about 3 miles round trip). However, the first day in our new house, we went for a family walk to the lake, and guess what I remembered?! Near the lake is full of nasty mosquitoes-another thing I hate. It was just one more frustration, and another reason not to go there. Well, a couple days ago (after 2 weeks of me not taking the kids on the daily lake walk), Wes came home and said "Have you and the kids gone on your walk yet? If not we should all go now." So off we went, but this time I wanted to walk on the trail the opposite way from the lake. We did a bit and it was less stressful as there were less bugs, and less busy street involved.

On that walk, I realized that there is a grocery store and a red box a couple miles down the path. We went home and looked up about how far on the trail/streets it would be. We discovered that according to the map it looked like it was about exactly 2 miles from our house, (half on the trail, and half on the sidewalk by a busy street) to the grocery store. A bit long, but do-able. So, I said I might walk over there with the kids this week, fully intending not to.

This morning, I was evidently feeling ambitious because I decided to go for the gold and walk with the kids to the grocery store. Just a couple things I learned on the walk:

1-Because of the twists of the trail, it is definitely more then 2 miles to the grocery store.
2-We walked more then 2 miles (that's one way BTW-not round trip), and were still a ways away from the store before I turned around.
3-For such a flat, flat state, this is quite an uphill walk.
4-My kids do not walk, they only run, and I have to contain a couple of them, so poor Armour ends up stuck in a stroller rather than walking, and poor me, I end up jogging (to keep up with the big kids) while pushing a big kid and a baby in a car seat in the heavy stroller (which also has a huge diaper bag hanging off it).
5-There is a really good sandwich shop not too far from my house that I can walk to (it's actually about a 2 mile walk) or if I am not in the mood for walking, and I totally want a sandwich, they totally deliver!! NICE!! I grabbed a delivery menu-yum!


So, after a couple miles on a trail, then a few uphill blocks on a very old and crazy sidewalk later, we turned around, stopped for lunch, and trekked back to the house. I can testify to all that I am in fact greatly out of shape. It was REALLY hot and humid out. Combine that with my chubby, out of shape body, and I was a gross sweaty mess at the end. As were the walking kids.

Check us out at the end:

You have to see this pic big to truly appreciate how sweaty he is...that hair style is all due to the sweat...oh yeah!
He fell on the way home and insisted we include a pic of his bleeding knee...
Sweaty princess
A
K

Can you tell the difference between the walkers and the riders?!

Will we walk again? Will we ever make it to the Red Box?!
Those are questions for another day my friends!