Tonight Zeke had a little alfredo on his face, so Pantera got a wipe and was taking care of it. It was so cute!

Pantera took this picture. I love his beanie!

Aside from the sweet moments this afternoon, Pantera has been a pill the last couple of days! She has thrown so many fits and we can't figure out why. The other night she started by hitting me with her nightgown when she had to get out of the bathtub. I didn't make it any better by putting her nightgown on and teasing her, but she so deserved it! At the end of this hour long fit where she hit me over and over again she told us "You guys are bad parents!" This doesn't mean much considering we were bad parents again for not buying her a toy at walmart the next day. Maybe I should take a class or something...

Ezekiel is so close to rolling over but he still just won't do it. He can turn his body in a clockwise motion to get toys that he wants and is getting up on all fours for brief periods of time. He has been doing a great hungry "war-cry" lately. Whenever the food isn't getting to his mouth fast enough he lets out a high-pitched yell, he loves his food.

Oh RU-U-U-BY!

This is Bertha. Someone gave her to us when we moved here and I swore we would only have her for a month. 6 months later, she is finally gone and has been replaced by...


Ruby, my one true couch love. I went to the furniture store on a budget expecting to settle. I walked through most of the store not finding anything that really caught my eye, then I turned the corner and Jess started laughing as I gasped. There she was, the most perfect couch that matches my most perfect recliner, at the perfect price!!! I will post pictures when I am completely done setting the room up, I still need a new desk and to redo my pictures.

This morning I had a pounding headache so I went downstairs and took some Tylenol. Pantera followed me down and excitedly said "You're getting ready for your day like Papa!" Apparently taking medication reminds her of Don. Lexi and Skyla are over while there parents load up the moving truck:( I gave Lexi a haircut and she was a little worried that I wasn't using my shears. She asked what I was using and I told her it was called a "feather razor" she looked at me and said "Savannah, I am NOT a Feather." It made me laugh. We are going to miss them.

What a good day!

I had a great birthday! Pantera gave me "presents" all day long. Everytime she would do anything for me, like hand me something for Zeke, or hug me she would remind me "that's a present." She even drew me like 20 pictures of myself. After each drawing she would say "You're a lucky girl, are you mom?" I sure am!

Pantera aside, I was spoiled for my birthday! Jess rocked the house with a food processor, some feather razor replacement blades, and a Michael's giftcard(whoop,whoop!). Shawna gave me a breadmaker, beautiful flowers, and a Marilyn Monroe puzzle. My parent's got me another Michael's giftcard(double whoop, whoop!). My brother Alex got me a Wii Fit(I can't wait!). Apparently there was some sort of sibling contest to see who was my favorite because Meredith made my life by coming to see me! And she helped me rearrange me living room and got me a super-sweet clock! Thank you to everyone!!!

I was so happy that Meredith got to come see us. I miss my sister ALOT! We laugh so hard whenever we are together. Although I have to say we laugh the hardest when we have Jake and Jess with us, because "they don't know about...anything!" Pantera said some pretty funny things to Meredith my favorite was "Look he's got some cute on his face!"

A little confession...

I wrote my birthday blog, not Jess.

Happy Birthday Savannah

I thought I would take over the blog for Savannah's birthday. The day I met Savannah was the best day of my life! I was like "Wow, this is the best day of my life!" She is such an amazingly strong woman. She is so much tougher then me that when she was in labor she offered me the epidural and I took it. Everytime we wrestle I have to scream uncle like a little girl because she is so incredibly tough! She is the ultimate wii bowler and wrestle mania champion and I will never compare to her greatness. I am just glad she doesn't work with me cuz she would put me to shame swinging a hammer! My dad always showed my mom his love through poetry so I thought I would give it a shot:

I love you I hope you know, even when I have a fro, and a retartoe,

I love you as much as i love to frac, and almost as much as I loved my snack,

(stupid Hannah, stole my banana, anyways I love you Savannah.)

Love,

Jess

A "bad" cough

Today I had to put away more clothes that don't fit Zeke. I swear I just did this 2 weeks ago, oh that's because I did!!! This kid is growing like CRAZY! I found this outfit that used to be my brother's. It says on the tag 12-18lbs so I tried to squish him in it just for a picture for my mom. So here you go Pizza Grandma; Zeke feels exposed, he told me that the outfit leaves little to the imagination. For all his growing I had to make a trip to the children's place outlet (darn;) to stock up. Luckily Meredith sent me home with some 12month jeans and they fit with a tiny roll at the ankle. So thank you Meredith!

Cute story. The other night we were eating dinner and Zeke coughed when he was eating. We all made a big deal asking if he was alright. So naturally he coughs again on purpose. This was a great new game to him and was cracking us all up. The best was when he forgot how he did it the first time and was moving his mouth without sound trying to get a cough out! He is so cute.

CTW

Lately Pantera has been all about "CTR" which means "Choose the Right." This would be great, except she rarely does CTR and talks about it constantly. She thinks that as long as she doesn't "Eat cigarettes, drink coffee, drink tea, or drink wine" she doesn't have to listen and she is still choosing the right. This morning I thoroughly offended her when I told her that she was doing "CTW" by talking back to me. She was excited until I explained that it meant choose the wrong, then she was mad.

She gets very offended if I make fun of Jess. I make fun of Jess constantly. On Saturday I had said something to tease him and she whispered to him "Do you want me to beat her up?" I overheard her whisper and asked her what she said. She looked at me and said "I said I love you mom." Wow! I am in such deep trouble.

Pantera just informed me that when she grows up she is not going to buy a car, just a horse. And when she needs to go to the store she will say "Horse! go to the store!"

Don't say it!

Today is the most disgustingly mushy day of the year. What others call Valentines day I call Barf day! I never liked this holiday when I was single and refuse to celebrate it now that I am married. Jess knows if he does anything even remotely romantic he will be sleeping on the couch tonight! Instead, in our home, we try to focus our attentions on spreading toughness. These two men are great examples of what we strive to be.

Another reason I don't like this holiday is that it pollutes what should be the best month of the year and distracts from the real reason for February. No, not Black History month (although that is important, ask Nigel) February is of the utmost importance because it is my birth month. Yes the entire reason we have February is so I could be born, so you are all welcome. So everyone please knock off the mushiness and punch someone. Husqvarna!!!

Power Outage

What a day!!! Apparently the electric company encountered something rare and unusual putting us out of power for 15 hours, I think they call it "wind" it's some crazy stuff! The power went out around 3am and Pantera woke up freaking out because it was so dark. I am so grateful that this happened this week when it has been warmer and I know Heavenly Father had a hand in that. All in all it was kind of fun. I had to go to the store to get more candles and ended up looking around at Michael's. Pantera struck up a conversation with an older gentleman who you could tell just wanted someone to talk to. She told him her whole life story about how "our lights, our TV, and our Wii are all broken!" She had also asked me to buy her everything in the store, with me denying each request. When we went to leave that same man came up to her with a Michael's bag and in it the book about Tinkerbell that she so desperately wanted. I still can't believe that he would buy it for her! It was sweet and she just kept saying "I'm a lucky girl, am I mom."

By the way, don't ever listen to anyone in a small town. Everyone I talked to today had a different story on when the power was coming back on. I was hearing Friday night and then Saturday and then when I got home from getting extra flashlights, it was back. The best was the weird trashy lady in line who said to the cashier "Saturday! Saturday! I'm pissed all my @#!%&* meat's gonna go bad!" Classy.

One more week til Ruff-Ruff comes!!!

Oh FRO you didn't!!!

Pantera has been learning to write and sounding out her own words from time to time. The first illustration is of her sitting by Ezekiel and making him "Hape" or happy.

This illustration is of Ezekiel hitting Pantera and that is bad. Jess pointed out that she puts 5 fingers on each hand most of the time. She also started branding her books. Someone was over and opened her dinosaur book up and says "I guess there is no question about who this belongs to!" It had Pantera written on the inside cover about 10 times and a picture of her that she drew. Yesterday she asked me if I would play museum with her. I pretended to walk in and she says "Hello and welcome to the Museum of Natural History. You are going to enjoy this." The things that come out of her mouth!!!

Speaking of mouths, Pantera absolutely mortified Jess and I at a friends house the other night. There was someone who she hadn't met before and he needs some dental work done. Pantera looks at him and says "Hey, what happened to your teeth?" He was embarrassed and told her that he has to get them fixed, then changed the subject to talk to someone else. Needing to be part of the conversation Pantera then says "Did the Toothfairy come visit you?" Yikes.

I don't know if it is genetics or destiny, but after taking off Zeke's beanie last night he had a sweet little mini-fro going. Needless to say Jess had some pretty bad flashbacks and ended up in the fetal position in a corner of our bedroom...poor guy:)

This is what I have been painting and the reason my blogging has been so scarce. I can't tell you how much I enjoy oil paints!!!

Sweet kids

Sometimes I wish I was as cool as Pantera!!!

Pantera quote of the day: "Dad's don't paint...that would be silly!"

Impossible!!!

Ezekiel and I are sick. He had a Dr appointment yesterday for a check up and now he is on antibiotics for his ears. He weighed in at 17lbs. 12oz. and was 26 1/2 inches long. 90th percentile in height and weight. I can't believe how big he is already!!! After his shots he wanted nothing to do with me, Pantera was the only one who could make him happy. She thought this was funny at first, but then she wanted to watch a movie and he would cry if she wasn't looking right at him. She told me "Mom, he cries if I am not looking at him and I really want to watch Mulan. Can you nurse him or something?"
I have always loved this picture of the kiddos. Ryan, Pantera, and Andrew reading a book. I think this was early 2006.

She dressed herself yesterday and I must give her credit...she looked good!!! I had to stop playing with her to change Zeke today and she was very upset. She said "I need someone playing with me ALL of the time." I told her I knew that already. She looked at me and said "Me having fun by myself, that's impossible!" It made me laugh.