Camera dump before Lake Powell

My poor husband has been up for close to 22 hours now & is outside working on putting new front brakes on the expedition (1 of the many reasons I love that man). I'm suppose to be packing all 6 of us for Lake Powell. I'm not very motivated. I decided I'd better dump all the pix off my camera before I go so I don't have that many more to download when I get home. I know, I should be doing something else! Here's to hoping I'm more motivated when I finish this post!

Last night I went down to my mom's house. Their apricot tree is chuck full of apricots. If you want some or know anyone that does, let me know! Mom has all she wants. Nash of course was scaled up inside the tree (in his flip flops of all shoes).

I stopped at my cousin's house before I went to my mom's house & Caleb fell asleep. When I got to my mom's I woke him up & got him out of his carseat. This is where he stopped...

This picture was taken by Caleb. Bob was very sad.

Yesterday I put this flower in Brooke's "hair". I bought it at Nibley Heritage Days specifically for this dress. It's adorable. Bigger than her head, but adorable none the less!

Girlfriend has been double fisting it lately. Teeth are hurting her most of the time these days.

I bought a package of teething rings the last time I was at WalMart. Brooke LOVES them. She went from me having to hold them to her grabbing them with both hands and shoving them into her mouth in about 2 days.

A few nights ago I had Caleb sitting up at the counter eating dinner. Next thing I know, Nash tells me he's here:

The rest of these pictures are ones I downloaded off my phone.

This is the dress I finished for my cousin's daughter. She turns 3 next week & this is our birthday present for her.

We had much of this this week. I took this picture to prove to Travis that I do use "nose on the wall".

I think I mentioned I bought some stuff from the new Avon line from my sister. Here's Bob in her new piggy towel.

I also bought her a little blanket with a cow head on it. She loves it. She puts the death grip on that thing & doesn't let it go.

Well, I guess I'd better go finish packing for Lake Powell. I'm just not excited to pack for 6 people for an entire week! I know I'm going to forget something...probably something of mine! See you in a week!

Reasons why I'm a good mom

The person mentioned in the post below said I wasn't acting like a good mom in the voice mail they left me. Now, I know that isn't true. But despite my best attempt, the comment has been bothering me all day. Therefore, in an effort to boost my own morale, I've decided to list some of the reasons why I am a good mom.

1-Everything I do is done with the best intentions of my children in mind.

2-I transport (& support) my kids to soccer, t-ball, baseball, and dance practices/games/recitals.

3-I set boundaries for my kids and enforce them.

4-I have high expectations for my children & I help them meet them.

5-I allow my kids to have their own opinion even though I might disagree with it.

6-When I ask my kids how their day was or what they did that day, I actually listen to the answer & follow up with questions.

7-I tell my kids "I love you" every day and I mean it.

8-I don't do the things I tell my kids not to do (most of the time :) )

9-I am involved in my child's education.

10-We have sit down family dinners as often as we can.

11-I am teaching my kids skills that are becoming a thing of the past (sewing, canning, gardening, etc.)

12-We have recently begun teaching our kids about money and responsibility by starting allowance and chores.

13-When my kids tell me they did something, I check to make sure they did. If they didn't, we talk about lying and why it's wrong.

14-I discipline my children when appropriate.

15-I'm teaching my children that family is the most important thing you have.

16-I don't smoke, drink or do drugs before, during or after my pregnancies.

17-I'm teaching my children about tolerance and diversity.

18-I'm instilling a good sense of self in each of my children each time I encourage them to do something on their own.

Drama

There are sooo many thoughts in my brain today. I'd like to write what is bothering me, but I think it's going to take me a bit to figure out how to word it correctly. So frustrating.

For five years I've been tolerating the behavior of a person in my family. It's always about the drama with this person. They insist on being the center of attention whether it's good attention or bad. The behavior of this 20 something yr old reminds me of a 15 yr old spoiled rotten brat (and that's really not too far off of how others have described it as well). I've tolerated this person and the behavior for so long because of the significant other and children involved. Everyone in the family keeps hoping the significant other will finally get out of the situation, but it hasn't happened yet and I seriously doubt it will any time soon. The thing that bothers me the most is how the children are being put right smack dab in the middle. I know everyone else in the family tolerates the behavior because of the kids too, but the other day, things went too far.

It's amazing to me how facebook has become such an integral part of so many people's lives. Some people use it the way it was intended - keeping in touch with others and making new friends. Others, like the person I'm talking about, use facebook in smear campaigns and to look for sympathy.

Here's what happened the other day:

1-There was an argument between the person & the significant other on Monday night.

2-On Tuesday morning there was a smear campaign on facebook. The smear campaign didn't just target the significant other (who isn't even on facebook at all), but rather, the entire family.

3-My husband tells the person (by commenting on one of the facebook posts) that s/he is no longer welcome in our home because s/he has taken things too far this time.

4-I ask the person (by commenting on one of the facebook posts) what my family has ever done to him/her.

5-My sister in law posts a comment on facebook.

6-Person deletes smear campaign from facebook.

7-I get a voicemail (I intentionally don't answer the phone call) that is partially for sympathy.

8-I vent a few times through the day to my siblings (both of who saw all comments of the smear campaign on facebook).

9-My brother writes a status update that does not in any way, shape, form, or color identify the person but if you know the situation, you know the status is a result of the person's actions.

10-I get a phone call this morning from the person (who I still don't want to talk to) so I hit ignore. This happens 2 more times before I just turn my phone completely off.

11-After 10 min. I turn my phone back on and receive a very explicit voicemail that calls me names, threatens me and makes false allegations. I save the voicemail for later reference.

This brings me to now. Here is my dilemma. Which of the following do I do?

1-Let it go because the person isn't worth the time of day.

2-Call the cops to report harassment, threatening me with violence and oh, did I mention, the person has a warrant out for their arrest.

3-Wait until the person calls, texts, emails or whatever me again & then go to the cop with 2 saved instances of harassment, threats, etc..

I know that no matter what choice I make, it's an unfortunate outcome for all. This person is going to be in the family forever because of the kids. I don't want to put the significant other in a bad position, but, since Travis has said the person isn't allowed in our home any more, it kind of already puts the significant other in a hard position. I've said for many years that if I was a good person, I'd call DCFS because this person is a terrible parent. There has been domestic violence in front of the children, there's child neglect, there's emotional abuse, there are drugs done in the house...the list goes on. I want to do the "right" thing, I'm just not sure what it is. I also want to be done with all the drama that's been happening for the last five years. I'd like to see the significant other leave the person because I think it would be the best outcome, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

All suggestions are welcome at this point!

The things this kid says

I'm sitting at the computer uploading pix to the last post & facebook. Caleb is upstairs and is suppose to be downstairs in bed. He took a nap today so obviously that's way too much to expect.

Me: Caleb, come here. What are you doing?

Caleb: Just....being a dork.

Me: What? Why are you a dork?

Caleb: Because I just have 1 eye.

Me: What? Why do you have 1 eye? Where is the other one?

Caleb: It just popped out.

Me: Ok. Caleb, what time is it?

Caleb (with a rather large grin on his face): It's WAFFLE time! Mom, please make me a waffle?

Me: No Caleb, it's not waffle time, it's bed time. What time is it?

Caleb: It's Waffle time!

At least it was pretty dang funny & quite creative. Now, if I can just get the stinker to bed!

Phone Dump

So, I've had the cell phone I have now for quite awhile. Funny that I'm just now figuring out how to get the pictures I take on it onto my computer (no, I don't have an sd card in this phone like I did the last one). So, I've decided I should probably do a regular "phone dump" to get all my pictures from my phone to my computer so I don't lose any. You will notice there is a huge variety. Unfortunately, I've deleted some I wish I would've kept. These ones were my favorites though so they got to stay when the decision had to be made which ones to get rid of to make more room on my card! I can only imagine what my husband thinks goes on around here since this is how he sees his kids growing up (at least for the last 2 1/2 years anyway)!

Caleb & his "gogglers":

Caleb with awesome tub hair:

Nash in the tub (I had to edit the photo) pulling an awesome face for me:

Bob & her freakishly huge bow:

Nash & the fish he caught with Grandpa Larry:

Bob RIGHT after she was born (check out those cheeks! No wonder she got stuck, right?):

Trav & Caleb (the pic was so small on my phone I never noticed the face Caleb was pulling until I uploaded it onto the computer!):

Caleb:

Caleb again:

Nash:

Sam:

Look! Sam has 2 missing front teeth! Now this is what I call face painting! Pretty sure it was at Founder's Day in Wellsville when Caleb was just little:

Caleb making "cowboy cakes" with his dad (no wonder he wants to help cook when his dad goes back to work!):

Caleb the Mud monster:

Bob:

Bob pulling faces at Nash:

First time Nash got to see & hold Bob:

Bob just a few hours old:

Caleb painted one set of toenails green this week:

Caleb the dirt monster: