Thank you.

Sometimes I forget how fortunate I am to have such loving kids and grandkids! Having had to deal with less loving and far less healthy persons on a regular basis over the past few weeks (years!), I realize yet again that not every family has what our has. Each other. Honesty. Honor. A sense of right and wrong. A desire to do the right thing. I love you all. Mom

At Lise is coming!!

So, I went to put Kam's homework in her backpack tonight after she went to bed and I found this sealed envelope inside. It took me a minute to decipher since it is written top to bottom and side to side and back to front, but here is what it says:

Dir Mis. Davis Doo you thic mome wil let me sta hom to see....

(and on the front) My at lise.

And for those of you who don't have a 6 year old at home, this actually reads: Dear Miss Davis, Do you think mommy will let me stay home to see my aunt Lindsey? I think she thought she could slip a note to her teacher about skipping school Friday when aunt Lindsey comes, and maybe her teacher would say it was OK if she stayed home. Bless her heart, she sure loves her At Lise. Still not sure what the note inside says, I can't open it, its sealed for Mrs. Davis!

Breakfast with the Olsen Twins!!!!

Good Morning all! Just wanted to post some pics of the Little's enjoying there Turkey bacon and toast this morning. I think Evey may have enjoyed her toast more than usual. Maybe cause she didn't eat her dinner last night!



Briceson waiting patiently. Actually he had been standing up in his chair playing the air guitar singing a song about picking up pine cones in the yard with his daddy. It was a nice song, but very loud.

This is what she does when we tell her to take a bite. It is quite the performance.

Sometimes I think she may realy be a living Cabbage Patch Doll. And yes she is wearing truck/car PJ's because Briceson out grew them and I can't bring myself to buy all new girl ones. Don't' worry we don't make her wear his hand me down cloths! Well not usually. : ) Notice the PERFECTLY matching bow. Yeah, I'm that awesome. Not really, it just happen to be the one laying in the floor when her hair was getting in the butter of her toast!

After 4 pieces of bacon this monster was all full and ready to start the day! So the Tornado we call our day began!

Love you all,

Rox

1st Day of School

Kam jumped out of bed at 6:45 this morning and hit the ground running, she was so excited about school! She talked non-stop to her daddy at the breakfast table about how she was gonna have to write so much in first grade, she was worried her hand would hurt. When she got to her classroom she wouldn't let us walk her in, but she gave us big hugs and kisses at the door, so we haven't lost our baby completely, though she seemed so grown up today! Of course, she hugged on her teacher like she'd known her forever and went right in with her! Owen wouldn't get out of bed for anything this morning, we even sent Bear in to sniff him out, to no avail, but when he finally did wake up he was pretty excited! He has Kam's teacher from last year and knows his way around the classroom, so he marched right in like he owned the place, took a seat right next to his best friend, Ryan, and waved us out the door!

It was 58 degrees this morning, we had to bust out a sweater for Kam! The high is still 90...
Kam and her Daddy.
Owen and his best buddy!

The Dollhouse

Well, I think Grandma Faye will be pleased. She really is wiser than we've ever given her credit for, you know. For she was the mastermind behind the Dollhouse - the one that provided hours of enjoyment to you kids when you were little, and does the same for the many kids that pass through my house these days (even in it's slightly delapidated stated).

So, yesterday McKinley and I spent hours (literally) searching the town for all things needed to complete Nonnie's most recent endeavor - "the Dollhouse renovation project".

After trips to 2 Walmarts (one of them twice), Toys-R-Us, Target and Hobby Lobby, we acquired enough new pieces of dollhouse furniture to furnish 3 bedrooms, a nursery, living room, kitchen and dining room. We salvaged what we could from the old pieces (which included an entire bathroom, complete with toothbrush and toothpaste!), and Nonnie even had to get creative and "build" a bunk bed and a twin bed (I was quite impressed with the completed products I might add!). There's a whole new family, including 2 girls, one boy, a baby girl, a mom, a dad, and a grandma! (We'll be on the lookout for a grandpa). And, the Dollhouse has now been moved from it's less than glamourous location in the gameroom to a very elite piece of property known in our tight little circle as "the hidy hole"! (McKinley spent an hour sorting through and boxing up the previous contents of the hidy hole, and Papa moved the house in.)

The Dollhouse is the one childhood toy that every child (male, female, youngest, oldest) seems to want to play with.....which Grandma Faye obviously knew all along! Can't wait to see them all play with it - and Roxie, I wish you and yours were here! EveyLynn and Briceson will surely love it!

Now, here's where you all come in....the place still needs some decorating, so I'd like you to print some miniature pictures of your kids, put them in little "frames" (1 inch or so) and I'm going to hot glue (again, inspired by Grandma Faye) them to the walls in the "foyer"! Roxie, stick yours in the mail when they're done. Lindsey, you can send pictures of George and Ralphie!

I love you!
Mom

On Siblings...

"From the time we're born, our brothers and sisters are our collaborators and coconspirators, our role models and our cautionary tales"

-Jeffrey Kluger, author of The Sibling Effect

I don't think I've ever heard our relationships more accurately described.

"Mom's Kitchen Floor" laughter

Katie's story and pics of the kids in their "not beds" had me laughing! And Lindsey's reference to "Mom's kitchen floor laughing" took me back years, and years. First to recent times with the four of us (me, Roxie, Lindsey and Katie) in my kitchen floor, as fully grown persons, laughing so hard it hurt, hurting too bad to stop laughing, and unable to do a thing about it!! And then back a few years earlier, when you were still little girls, same kitchen floor, same laughter, tears streaming down our faces, holding ourselfves so we wouldn't pee our pants! And then I thought back many years earlier, of me and my mother and my sister, and oftentimes my grandma, in the kitchen floor (it was always in the kitchen that these occurences took place.....), laughing hysterically, unable to stop despite the physical pain in your back and your sides, gasping for air between peals of laughter, and lying exhausted afterwards with the warm glow that only follows a total release of every pent-up bit of stress!

This is apparently something that men are not able to fathom or understand, and thus they always stood by, looking on as if we were absolutely nuts, unable to appreciate the joy of the moment. So, Cody, join the ranks of the mystified men and just be thankful that you were there to witness that act of total abandment and lack of self control that this magical "kitchen floor laughter" brings to the women in this family!

I love you all - especially your laughter!
Mom