No Cavity Club!!

I wish I would have brought my camera to the dentist today. Garrett looked so cute with his bright yellow glasses and crazy bib on watching cartoons while getting his teeth cleaned. We are not so good at brushing. OK, we only remember to have the kids brush their teeth about once a week. Gross, I know. And we eat a lot a sticky sugary candy around here, not to mention Coke. Yet, somehow we all got out of the dentist without a cavity, -- maybe good teeth genes.
Garrett did get a good talking too about how to brush our own teeth, so he decided to practice on the way home.

Are you ready?

(This is our little family roughing it in our unfinished basement to keep cool during the outages. Note to self- buy a better air mattress)

Lately we've been having some crazy weather out here, which has caused a few longer than I like, power outages. Because of these experiences, it's made me think a lot about emergency preparedness for short immediate situation. I feel like we are rather prepared, and here's a list of things that have come in handy for our 8-9 hours without power in this stinking hot, humid weather.

• Having a basement is the BEST. Not just for hiding your kids toys, but it's always 10 degrees cooler in the basement. I don't know what I would have done right before I had Taryn and we had the fire, and couldn't run the AC. I lived I the basement while Keith cleaned up the fire mess upstairs in the heat. What a guy!
• Batteries. Both of my neighbors asked to borrow matches and batteries during these outages. Good thing I took advantage the the no tax week and stocked up on batteries at Costco.
• Love our Lantern flash lights. It lites up a whole room just like a lamp. We have regular flashlights, but the one ray of light in complete darkness is kind of creepy.
• Portable DVD players. Yes I know not essential but useful to distract young children when you lose power, it's dark, crazy winds, rain and hail are beating on your house, and Dad won't be home till 11:00 to calm everyone down. Pop in "The Cat in the Hat", or a "Barbie" video, and everyones mind goes somewhere else.
• Our $8.00 non cordless phone. It seems like every time the power goes out my cell phone battery is low, and our cordless phone won't work without power. Cheap, easy, and a necessity to call out.
• Board games in the basement. Great opportunity to play Candyland.

Now things I wish we had.

• A generator!! The first thing I worry about when the power goes out is losing $300.00 worth of food in the frig. Not to mention powering a fan or light or my computer or our well so we can get water!!!
• A hand crank power source. Something just enough to recharge my cell phone or our DVD player or run a fan
• Speaking of well for water, I've heard there is some hand crank device to bring up water from your well. Anyone know anything about that?

Here's a few of my lessons learned from small emergencies. I'd love to hear advice from anyone else?

Somethings different about Taryn?

Taryn is the happiest baby. She's so easy-going and had turned into a good little sleeper. All smiles like the picture above, then within a week she became whinny, and not a good sleeper.

She began to come up with some crazy faces.

Or just flat out bored with this whole event faces.

Then last Friday I noticed a little change in her smile. Taryn got her first tooth. Yippy! The second is barely noticeable, but there.
No wonder, while I nursed her I felt much like a chew toy rather than a device to receive nourishment.

Barbie Princess

This is Kendall's favorite song, I Am a Girl like You from Princess and the Pauper, Barbie video. But she would sing so well in front of the camera. Garrett tried to help her out.

New meaning to fresh fruit

In our flower garden we are growing strawberries in a pot. This morning I was so excited that a few of the strawberries had finally turned red. I told Kendall that this afternoon when Garrett got home we'd go pick and eaten. She just couldn't wait. And she turned the hose on in the sand box and made a mud pack for her hair. Yuck!!

First, I asked her to point to the new red strawberries. Then before I could stop her she bent down and ate the top of the strawberry.

Upon closer examination I found that she had already bit the top off almost all the strawberries. And quite pleased with herself too. Garrett was soo disappointed. Heck, I was disappointed.

The BEST yardsale day EVER.

So my crazy foul-mouthed neighbors, who have only been here for three weeks were having a yard sale last Saturday. So I dropped by to make good relations and ask why she was selling so much stuff. She informed me that she was divorcing her husband and now moving to Florida and didn't want to take all this stuff with her. I asked about the red chairs and she wanted $40.00, I offered $20.00, she said OK and throw in the barstools AND delievered them to my house in the back of her truck. Score!!! They are from Thomasville and soooo comforable. Her kids even gave my kids a bunch of toys too. I need to be nicer to crazy neighbors.

Preschool Graduation

The kids all signed the Pledge of Alligance and the song, "What a Wonderful Life." Garrett did pretty good. I was surprised. I love some of the faces on the other kids around him.

As each child recieved thier diploma, they were asked what was their favorite thing about preschool. Garrett's response was painting. I was surprised it wasn't snack.

LOVE this pictures. Garrett couldn't be more proud of himself as a preschool graduate.

The kids after graduation. Tary-tary's is such a good sitter-upper. And Kendall loves to pose with Garrett.


This is the "famous" Bell of Righteousness. Yes, the kids love to ring the obnoxious thing constantly before and after school. Garrett doesn't really like the loud sound, but I thought we'd better take a picture.

Here's my little preschool graduate. I can't even imagine him as a High School Graduate. It scares me to death.