Deep Speed

Kaila was on the track team this year. Yahoo! I've been begging the kids to run track since Kenzie was old enough and this is the first year that it happened. She did great. She did so well, in fact, that she and her relay team qualified for invitationals last week. Here's a little movie of her quickness in that race.

Kenzie's prom "narrative"...with a few comments from me thrown in for funs

Well let's start from the top! Prom announcements started coming out, oh a month and a half before the event and I had my hopes I'd get asked *by hopes she means that she prayed her fool head off every night for hours, begging that somebody would ask her to prom. That's what she means by hope*. When it got to two weeks before I was pretty positive I wouldn't be going with anyone *and by positive she means scream-crying that nobody likes her*. I don't have any single guy friends and boys at our school are too dumb to see how cool I am so I said I wasn't goin' solo and I'd just stay home.*ok, that's all true. they are dumb.* 

Well I got asked! I have a lot of classes with the kid and I like him fairly well but I don't really know him all that much. *BTW, he asked in a super cute way. Him and some guy friends came into class and sang to her to ask her. And she scream-texted me about it immediately. And I scream-texted back. Chris is so sad that he was at work and missed all the excitement and screaming*

So after two weeks of a serious lack of communication (I was ready to track him down and choke the life out of him. I NEED to know what's going on at all times!) it was finally the day of! *Dear Kenzie's prom date: You have no idea what you put me through. She was a nightmare. Work on your communication skills or your future wife will kill you. The end.*

He doesn't have his six months up so he couldn't pick me up and he had to meet my parents so his mom dropped him off at my place and I drove him. He was so embarrassed. *Chris lived out his life long dream. He dragged the boy into the other room and questioned him mercilessly. Poor kid.*

Well we all went and took pictures at a friends house where I accidentally locked my keys in my car. Now I was so embarrassed. I had to call my mom to unlock my car. Coulda died. *crumbles under pressure*

Then we all carpooled to Portland (7 couples in all) to go to dinner at Three Degrees on the waterfront. Really weird food. Macaroni and cheese with crushed goldfish on the top? I don't even know. It was pretty good though. So after we ordered he and I and two other couples took a walk on the boardwalk. We walked and talked along the river and it was so cute. We ended up all sitting on a bench shivering and laughing. *Pssshh...talking and laughing? Suuuure that's all you guys did. I'm kidding. It is.*

As we walked back the other two couples were holding hands and I felt kind of awkward like we should be too or something*I bet he totally wanted to hold her hand. Or he was walking behind her checking out her butt.*. But it was still cute, he was so sweet. So then after dinner we went to the dance and partied it up! It was at the Arista Ballroom and it was so gorgeous! My feet have blisters all over them. And yes we slow danced and it was kind of romantic *She SO tried to make out with him. You know she did. She's a total skank. I'm so proud*. So then we went home. That's that! Prom was incredible! *She's not really a skank. She did take do alot of dirty dancing, though. Kaila and I taught her how. We like it.*

"Official" prom photo

The Future of Politics

Please take a minute to visit the blog that we have started as part of

Kaila's campaign for

Vice President of her middle school.

Kaila4VP

We haven't really started to post yet, but Chris has some great ideas. This is going to be so fun!

Another gymnast is born

AshAsh and VeeVee start a gymnastics class yesterday. I didn't remember to take my camera, but I got a few shots of her in her cute outfit. It's all about the cute outfit at this age, isn't it?

The Kracken goes to Prom or Chris's worst nightmare or "Our" Prom

What a busy 2 weeks it's been! Kiki didn't think she was going to be asked to the prom. The situation was so dire that I threatened to write "Please stop staying up all night crying about not being asked to prom." on her Facebook wall. Not because she WAS crying, just because I thought it would be fun...and it could have prompted an invite, but she wouldn't let me.

Some highlights...

• We got an amazing deal on a beautiful dress
• Our sweet neighbor Kathy went to great lengths to alter it
• On Thursday night, after she had finished the dress, the iron melted a hole in part of it.
• Jenny, Leanna, Kenzie, and I scream cried all the way to the mall that night to look for a new dress.
• After trying on several dresses we all agreed that the first one was totally fixable and still the most beautiful.
• Kathy went to even greater lengths to find an applique that matched the beading and attached it to the dress, covering the hole and adding even more pretty to it.
• Kenzie looked stunning in it
  
  

I googled boutonnieres and realized I could make one myself. Jenny has experience with this, so she assured me that it's a piece of cake and walked me through it. Here it is...
Kenzie was a weeee bit of a wreck on Saturday. She does know herself well enough to know that she would most likely become demonic, so she spent the night out at Jenny's house Friday to get her mind off of things. That was nice. Thank you.

Here's Kenzie letting me do her nails and toes. She's sound asleep.

Hair almost done... The process of picking the hairstyle went something like this...

I trust your judgement, Mom, just do what you think.

Except not that.

Oh, not that either.

After my doing my first choice of a low side pony, then my second choice of a curly up-do, she decided on a half up-do that looked lovely with her thick curls.





In the background you can see the laptop. On one screen we had a picture of the inspiration hair picture and on the other screen we had the menu from the restaraunt they were going to. We didn't want Freak-Show to embarrass the family and order something messy or *shudder* a salad. That kid gets dressing everywhere. I'm mostly kidding, just wanting to see what she thinks of me saying that on the blog. It's totally true. Her and salad are so gross together.

All dressed and ready with at least 5 minutes to go...

Stress face!

Show us how you really feel, Kiki.

See that phone in her hands? She never put it down. Not once. The whole day. Throughout all of hair and makeup, her friends and her texted back and forth

OMGosh, are you, like, SO nervous?

What are you doing RIGHT NOW?

What about NOW?

Now?

Eeeeek, I'm SO excited!!!!!! :):):):):):)

I know!!!

At this point I tried to get a picture with her. Then her phone buzzed and she ran off to answer it and I never did get a picture of us together. So sad.

I had never met her date before. He's a friend from school and all I had seen was a little profile pic of a boy with Mutton chops. I was scared, but it turned out that he was adorable. And nice. Look at that dimple. So cute. Before they left, Chris took him inside to question him while his mom, Mackenzie, and I waited out on the front porch. Chris had big plans to make the inquisition super scary and embarrassing, but I think he chickened out.

Instead of humiliating Mackenzie that way, it was Morgan that did that for us.

We were on the porch with him and his mom when Morgan says,

"So, am I going to be an Aunt now?!"

Killed me.

But it REALLY killed Kenzie.

That got all of the little kids banished to the house, where they watched the rest of the festivities through the window.

They had a great time and didn't get home too terribly late. The formal pictures will arrive next week and I'll post those, too. I'm so grateful that all of our prayers were answered. I pleaded for help finding a dress that we could afford and that couldn't have been more true. Kathy saved us so much money and stress. Eric responded immediately to an emergency need for money to help us cover the expenses. Everything worked out so well and we are so blessed.

And Kenzie is super hot, isn't she?

Finally!

At LEAST once a year we get gorgeous family pictures done. Who am I kidding? It's way more often. But because I love them so much, I freeze under the pressure of how to display them adequately and they sit in a file on the computer for their whole lives.


Knowing that I have this problem, and that I hate it, I finally managed to commit this lonely Ikea frame and some random Wall Words to showing off our kids' pictures from, oh, OCTOBER. Even though it took me awhile, I still love it so much.

Are you tired of bows yet?

So is Chris. Too bad for all of you.

Especially since Beck tipped me off to a big ribbon sale at Michael's last week. Whoo-eee, that's a lot of ribbon on my lap...and in that box...and laying all over my house.

Here is Morgan in this morning's offering.

My goodness, I love her even more when her hair is all cute and looks like we attempted to brush and style it. Normally it looks stringy and unbrushed within 10 minutes of fixing it.

VERY IMPORTANT UPDATE

Not really. I just wanted to show off the bows I made for Kaila and her friends for their volleyball tournament thing.

It was a Friday night thing from 6-midnight. They were the bumblebees, so we made them black and yellow bows. They used puff paint to make their own t-shirts. The were adorable and won the spirit award.

Chris accused me of making him look hateful in my post about my bows obsession.

Then he said he hates them with all his heart and wishes I would stop making them forever.

Then I asked him which of my hobbies he's ever really supported or even not hated. Hmmmm....But, no, he's not hateful.

He's a great husband and I can easily ignore his complaining. I'm good at ignoring him.

Texting with my oldest

Can you PLEASE pick up your sister and her friends at the middle school at 4:30?

I have auditions!

Can you get out early :) There are 7 kids and you have the most room.

ARGH! FINE, but you owe me BIG!

Really? I owe you? Do you want me to text you a picture of my cesarean scar? I will, you know I will.

I guess that was a no.

Rock on, 1st Graders

Creepy Creeper Boy looking up the girl's skirts. That's quite a smile, Perv Junior.

Morgan and her BFF...

Nice bows, huh?

Morgan and her sweet teacher...




There aren't many things cuter than little kids school concerts.

Avery's latest fashion statement

This "hat" is Avery's favorite thing lately. She wakes up and puts it on. Wears it as much as she can get away with. Admires herself in the filthy mirror. It's hilarious.

You underestimate my obsessing abilities

Bet you thought I was over the crafty-craft phase, didn't ya? Nope. I'm not.

This weeks obsession has been hair bows. See, what happened was this, I had bought a bunch of ribbon to make the super-cutey-pie binkey clips for baby Lawson. Suddenly it dawned on me that I could use all that extra ribbon for hair bows, if only I knew how to make hair bows.

I love Google. And sometimes I cheat on Google with Youtube. This was one of those times. Because, you see, I'm a hands on learner. And if I can't have hands on, then I at least need to SEE it being done. On video. Not step by step pictures. Those pictures mean nothing to me.

I love this craft because I can set with the man and make these while we watch tv. That way he doesn't start whining (no, for reals, like a baby) and I get to multi-task.

He's happy that I sit with him, but he's not happy with the bows. He thinks they're ridiculous.

Am I surprised? No.

He is never impressed with any crafty thing that I do. Even if is the cutest thing ever in history.

Even if it makes his little girls even more cuter than they already are.

Even if I make the bow the size of the child's whole head and it involves ten different complimentary ribbons and weighs so much that it gives her a neck ache.

Even then, he's not impressed, so it's a good thing I can at least sit with him while I do it.

Here's my attempt at a picture with Superturd and his sister, Plankton. Prec, right? *apparently Prec is short for precious and miss Keek uses it for the sole purpose of annoying me. I like to pass it on to you*

I had this brilliant idea to put her in front of the mirror so you could see both angles. I didn't even notice the state of that mirror until just now, when I downloaded one million pictures of them in front of it. I'm so ashamed.This is my first one. MoJo didn't know of my obsession until yesterday morning, when she came down to this little number laid out with an entire pink/brown ensemble for her to wear to school.

Not only do I not normally lay her clothes out, I don't even normally put her clothes away, so she gets up in the morning and digs through the clean clothes to find an outfit.

She's loving this bow craze for this reason, but I hope she doesn't get used to it. This too shall pass.

Today's ensemble is a little number that I bought at the beginning of the school year and it's never been worn. Not even once. You can't see the bedazzling all over the front of the white tank, because of all the grime on the mirror, but trust me, it's total glittercrotchie cuteness. Her bows today are a black and white zebra stripe with a black and white polka dot accent. So sad that it took me making bows to get her to wear this cute outfit, but at least she finally did.And, here's a few more to get her through the rest of the school week. Notice that I even learned how to curl ribbon in the oven? I had no idea that was even possible. I thought people just bought it curly like that. Amazing.

Stay tuned, I'm not sure that I have this one out of my system yet.

I try to keep it classy

Let's see if I can do this post and remain on the PG side of the line. Right on the edge of the line, but still not quite crossing it.

A conversation between Chris and KiKi:

Chris said something about Max and Max not being hunted...

WHAT did you say?

I said hunt. Why, what did you think I said.

Phew! I could have sworn you said a different word.

What word?

I'M NOT GOING TO SAY THAT WORD! But it sounds like hunt.

Amy, what word does she think I said? I'm not okay with her even knowing the word that I think she's thinking WHAT IS SHE THINKING!!!

Whatever! I've heard you say that word lots of times.

Okay, we need to be more specific, because I would THROW UP if I said the word you're thinking. What does it start with?

An H.

Okaaay. Hunt starts with an H, too, though.

Yeah, but it doesn't end with an M and a P.

Then we both held each other a cried with relief that she was horrified at repeating the H-U-M-P word. Thank you, Kiki. Thank you.

Grant's first EVER at bat. I love me some tball.

Morganism

Mom, these cake balls are SO good! They took my taste buddies on a whole new trip to a nice hotel!

Amy is GREAT! She gave us chocolate CAKE!

That was meant to be a Bill Cosby imitation. Shut it.

The cake wasn't chocolate. It was half vanilla and half red velvet. Jenny posted a lovely assortment of photos of the cake making process and the finished product on her blog HERE. Thanks Jenny!

I'm just gonna let you check out her post and I'll share one of the photos, too.

That's a RATTLE on top. Not a dumbell or balls or whatever else you dumbies guessed. Maybe the handle part should have been longer and the balls smaller, but it was a very last minute stroke of co-sister genious/tiredness/inspiration and since it was made out of giant cake-ball cake it was probably the greatest tasting think every in the history of ever. So there.

PS...for McGirls weekend, we're doing a fondant lesson for anyone who wants to participate. That will be squeezed in between hottubbing, river floating, and general debauchery.

Longest day ever

I left my house at 8am yesterday and got back at 11pm. The whole day was spent at Jenny's, working on a baby shower cake for her sister in law. It turned out super cute, but I didn't take any pictures of it and she is holding her pictures of it hostage. The ransom is the pictures of our trip to the zoo. It's a smart move on her part, because I never get around to emailing pictures to people.

In an effort to aquire pictures explaining why I wasn't home for 14 hours, I am now posting pictures of the zoo....