Rylan's new buddy

Whether he asked for it or not Naz Swift senior Tyler has a new friend. Rylan adores him and constantly looks for him and shouts out his name. Tyler was one of the wonderful guys that helped us move into our house and he also attends church with us. I think that it is so cute to see in Rylan's eyes just how much he idolizes him. Thankfully Tyler is kind to Rylan and always makes a point to talk to him. I'm sure that Rylan will continue to look up to guys on the football team, but Tyler will always be his first hero.

Our weekend turned week....

We spent the weekend with the brothers (as planned) last weekend. This was at the restaruant that we went to on friday. Brooke has gotten really good a feeding herself, yet no one really wanted to share with her, not even grandmomma.

We went to the circus on Saturday. This was the $9.00 snowcone that my kids bought (with Grandads money of course). What mother in her right mind would spend $9.00 on a snowcone?

They really enjoyed the circus and we thought that it was pretty cool, too.

We went home with my parents for the week so that we could be ready to run back to Keller. My sister-in-law went into labor early on the weekend and then everything stopped. We knew that she would have the baby this week so we wanted to be close. We took Brooke home to the grandparents and waited until the baby was born. Here the kids are playing in the water sprinkler.

Bye Bye Beta

Yet, another beta fish has swam his last circle in a Smart family fish bowl. We had the funeral for Joey tonight and then Rylan flushed him away to the ocean. I was afraid that the move would fatally effect the little guy, but it is still hard to watch your kids cry when they loose their fish. Of course, I tried to teach the lessons of life, God, and heaven as the toilet took him away. Rylan cried for about 10 min and then said what every loving pet owner would think of......

"when I get to pick out another one I want him to be blue and green and he will be Joey, too."

Oh well, bless his little fish soul we did love him even if he is replaced the next day for $2.50 at Wal-Mart.

The best day ever!

All kids say cute things and I would be willing to bet that yours says something that just turns your heart. Rylan has this habit of saying "this is the best day ever". The most simple thing can bring out that statement.

Examples:

Letting him drink a dr. pepper

My dad putting up the water slide

going to the park

having our cable installed

going to see my parents

when daddy lets him go to the coaches office with him

using my shampoo in the shower

McDonalds (this is a sure bet)

I have been thinking about that today and have decided that will be my new moto. How can you ever have a bad day if it only takes one thing to make it the best day ever!

Top Ten Tuesday

Top ten lessons that I have learned from my kids......

1. it's ok to ask why


2. getting too tired will make a person grumpy


3. the world is amazing


4. excitement is contagious


5. asking questions helps you to learn


6. it's ok to cry


7. you should have LOTS of friends


8. being too serious is boring


9. it's good to have heros


10. everyone needs their behavior redirected from time to time

What have your kids taught you?

The walk of shame.....twice!

Summer has begun at the Smart house! I have been clipping coupons, scanning the comunity calenders, and planning tons of fun activities. I am determined to keep the cost down with my creativity and time in planning. I have not exactly been off to a good start.......

Shame Walk #1

To kick off summer, I decided that we would hit the local Cici's pizza buffet and take in the newest Shrek movie. I had coupons in hand that would get us two free buffets at the pizza place and matinee price at the movies. The pizza was great and then came the problem. Seems that coupons are only excepted on "not so hot and brand new, everyone wants to see" moives. They told us that we could not use the coupon. Now that would mean that our moive would cost us $32.00 instead of $20.00. So, Yes, we took the walk of shame, back to the car and all the way home. Would you believe no fits or tears. (Except Rocky, just kidding). The kids may have had the right to be a little upset since we had made a big deal about it, but they were great and very understanding.

Shame Walk #2

We went to Abilene for a couple of days. We stayed in a great hotel with indoor pool (with a deal, of course). The kids had a blast. We got up this morning to enjoy our complimentary breakfast (or so I thought) before heading to the pool for one more swim. Ashlynn had already put the bacon on the plate when this hotel employee approached us and asked if we would all be having the buffet. I looked at her puzzled and she said that it was $9.95 per plate. That, my friends would have been a $40.00 breakfast. I smiled and apologized explaining that we misunderstood and again took the walk of shame. And again, the kids were great! Instead we went for donuts ($6.95)!

So maybe we aren't having the greatest start to summer, but I will remain optimistic that there is much fun to be had for a lower cost. I will be reading the fine print a little better from now on!

Kid's in Church

I got this email from my Aunt Dinah. This is too funny to keep for myself!

3-year-old Reese:"Our Father, Who does art in heaven, Harold is His name.Amen."

A little boy was overheard praying:"Lord, if you can't make me a better boy, don't worry about it. I'm having a real good time like I am."

After the christening of his baby brother in church, Jason sobbed all the way home in the back seat of the car. His father asked him three times what was wrong. Finally, the boy replied,"That preacher said he wanted us brought up in a Christian home, and I wanted to stay with you guys."

One particular four-year-old prayed,"And forgive us our trash baskets as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets."

A Sunday school teacher asked her children as they were on the way to church service,"And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" One bright little girl replied,"Because people are sleeping."

A mother was preparing pancakes for her sons, Kevin 5, and Ryan 3. The boys began to argue over who would get the first pancake. Their mother saw the opportunity for a moral lesson. "If Jesus were sitting here, He would say, 'Let my brother have the first pancake, I can wait.' K evin turned to his younger brother and said, "Ryan, you be Jesus!"

A father was at the beach with his children when the four-year-old son ran up to him, grabbed his hand, and led him to the shore where a seagull lay dead in the sand."Daddy, what happened to him?" the son asked. "He died and went to Heaven," the Dad replied. The boy thought a moment and then said, "Did God throw him back down?"

A wife invited some people to dinner.At the table, she turned to their six-year-old daughter and said, "Would you like to say the blessing?" "I wouldn't know what to say," the girl replied. "Just say what you hear Mommy say," the wife answered. The daughter bowed her head and said,"Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"

Summer fun!

Ok, I need some suggestions! We are working on our summer calender with the kids. I want to go, do, and have fun. I also want to give. With both of my kids being over the age of 4, I feel like we are pretty free to have some real "away from home time". We won't be packing any diapers or sippy cups, nap times are only optional anyway, and they both can walk a lot with no gadgets.

So we have plans for all of the "free" stuff in the area and even some visits to all of the attractions on the "half-price" days. That is the easy part.

The hard part is deciding what giving lessons we may need to learn. We have had a couple of brainstorms. First we thought that we would raise money all summer and then throw a big party at the local jump house place and invite the kids from Christ Haven (foster home).

I even saw on everything pink that you can win a limonade stand from sunkist to raise money for a local charity. (Great tip, Kristi!)

Then we thought that we could pay visits to the widows from our church. We could bake them cookies or find a sugar free snack. In order to futher develop Ashlynn's writing skills we thought that she could "interview" them about their childhood and then write about what each of them tells her. At the end of the summer we could put it all together in a "summer memory book" for her. The latter of these two ideas is probably going to be the winner. Do you have any thoughts or ways that we could improve that idea? Or do you have a "giving back" idea that you and your kids do together that is fun?

I think that the imaginary friend needs to move out!

When does the imaginary friend become a problem?

Today ours was "tooting" and trying to "get in the shower with me". Or at least that is what I am told by my son (with lots of giggles). Boys are so gross!

If you are wondering where he came from, well, we bought him when his parents sold him to us. Yeah, he has a VERY active imagination! (And NO, I won't buy yours)

Article about imaginary friends:

http://www.familyresource.com/parenting/character-development/imaginary-friends-should-you-be-concerned

Roly Poly's (Cont.)

Unfortunately, this photo doesn't do justice to the enormous amount of roly poly's that are now imprisoned at the Smart house.

As you can see most don't capture willingly. They curl up and play dead. Rylan is not fooled they go in the cage whether they are playing dead or crawling for their life. He is like the ROLY POLY BULLY!

Holy Moly we're being invaded by Roly Poly's!

Is it just me or are these things YUCKY! The kids are thrilled that they are everywhere. They have been collecting them like they are pricless treasures. Which I didn't mind until I started finding them escaping their confines and roaming our house. I even caught Rylan sitting in his bed with them all around him playing. They have since been banned from the house.

THESE ARE OUTSIDE TOYS FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!

So now we have a roly poly farm, a rock family (collected rocks that have a pile by our front door), and giant collection of McDonalds toys that are the favorites hands down. There is really no need to buy toys for the kids in this house.

The presidential limo

This isn't a great photo because I took it with my phone. Rylan is standing in front of a presidential limo. What you can't see are the black SUV's that were lined up behind it and the men in all black with dark shades. They were all there! They brought it up to show the kiddos at school. We just happened to be at school to deliver food for teacher appreciation lunch and got to take the first photo. Rylan was sort of clueless, but I thought that it was cool!

On another note, thank you all for your prayers and support as I finished this semester. I hope to have final grades by next week. I believe that I could not have made it without all of the prayer. I have a long way to completion, but I have my confidence back. Have a happy day!

Mommy knows best....or learns her lesson!

Well, I wasn't going to post this story so I sent it out in an email to those that would still love me even if I sounded like a really mean person. I am a rule follower and I rarely disobey, but I have a problem with becoming easily agitated and grumbly. There you have it, my confession. Don't judge me; I am hard enough on myself. But in case you can relate, you can count on me to understand. After some encouragement (Trey) I decided to share the dark side of me with you. I sometimes forget that it is ok not to always be "fine" as long as you learn your lesson and move on.

Well surprise, surprise, a mommy might still know what she is talking about!

I got a call this morning at 8:30 from Ashlynn's school nurse saying that she was itching (she has a rash on arms and legs) and that she was not allowed to apply the cream that I sent (OTC) without a doctors note. I get it and I know that she is just following rules, but really it is just a cream. Anyway, I told her that I had applied it at 7:30 and given Ashlynn a benedryl and that she would be fine to please send her back to class. Well about 10 minutes later she called back. She had called the district nurse and they decided that Ashlynn had chickenpox. She told me that I would need to take her to the doctor and get a note if it is not chickenpox so that she could return to school. So off we all went to the doctor. Because I told the doctor what the school nurse had said we even had to enter the back of the office. Well, the doctor thinks that it is either a viral rash or an allergic rash both of which there is no real treatment. They just have to run the course. Trust me, I am relieved and thankful. But honestly, that is what I already knew and had to pay the doctor $35.00 to tell me.

I tell you all of this because I tend to get kind of irritated too easily (as you can probably tell) over these sort of things sometimes. As I took Ashlynn back to school feeling totally irritated, I passed a woman walking her down syndrome boy into the school while he threw a violent fit. I went straight to the van and thanked God for my life and for the gentle reminders that I am blessed.

Paul puts it this way: “We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed and broken. We are perplexed, but we don’t give up and quit. We are hunted down, but God never abandons us. We get knocked down, but we get up again and keep going.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9 NLT)

Monkey see, Monkey do

As a parent, I find myself always beaming with pride when I read about the many great things that Rylan is learning at his mothers-day-out program at Legacy Church of Christ. I love that he is advancing his preschool skills (letters, numbers, etc.). I get excited when he knows his memory verse ***IN SIGN LANGUAGE***. I am daily amazed at all of the wonderful things about this program. But, please notice the top right corner under time-outs. In case you can't read it....in time-out for angrily pointing finger in friends face. Not exactly my most proud moment. I HAVE NO IDEA WHERE HE LEARNED THIS BEHAVIOR, but I may need to go to time-out now.

A little this and that over here and there.

We got to enjoy an extra large weekend so I thought that I would share the details. We did this and this on friday. The bluebonnets are awesome this year so we had to take some photos with the kiddos. I would highly recomend seeing Meet the Robinsons. I honestly was not that excited about seeing it, but the kids really wanted to go. It may be the best Disney movie ever. It had a great message and very little "darkness". I left feeling good.

Rocky and Rylan went here and here while the girls stayed home for me to study this. We then all went together to see our cousins perform their drama at this and got to visit with my aunts and ran into this guy for a little bit.

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday. We are rarely home on Easter so it was fun to be a part of the day at home. The Easter Bunny came and left us this. We went here, of course and listened to this guy. It was a wonderful sermon as expected. We then came home and had breakfast for lunch (pancakes, sausage and biscuits, and eggs) at the kids request. We all did the flight of the bumble bee clean and then took a short nap. Sunday naps are the best! Last night was our care group meeting. We had this and did this with these kids.

I almost forgot....Have you heard this song?

We had all of this fun wearing our jackets!

I hope that you had a great weekend, too!

Funny Day

A little dose of my day of humor for you....

1. Rylan asked me how you eat the kind of eggs that don't have candy in them (hard boiled). I explained that you have to crack them and eat them. He asked if you crapped them on a bowl or on the floor or what.

2. Then he actually painted a hard boiled egg at his school today and brought it to me because it had a crack. I assumed that he was trying to crap it himself so I peeled the shell. At which time he fell to the floor in a complete meltdown screaming "YOU BROKE MY EGG!" I don't think that he gets it. Hmmm.....is it the student or the teacher with the communication problem?

3. The best for last....I was stuck in traffic on the interstate this afternoon. We were driving about 3 miles an hour at best and traveled about 5 miles in 45 min. I noticed that a very feeble old man had pulled to the shoulder and started walking around his car. As I got closer I rolled down my window to make sure he was ok. Suddenly that feeble old goat unzipped and started relieving himself right there on the interstate amongst a million vehicles with no where to go. I had a hard time rolling up that window before anyone thought that I was looking. Poor old thing, I guess your blatter is the first to go.

Well have a happy easter everyone!

Well, you asked!

Last night at dinner we were having the parent-encouraged-conversation (you know the one where the kids are eating so fast that they are barely breathing so you have to ask thought provoking questions so that they don't pass out). Dinner is usually the same two *what was your favorite part of the day* and *what did you learn today*. Breakfast is always just *what are you thankful for today*. Being CRAZY like we are not, we decided to shake it up a bit and ask *if you could live anywhere in Texas (when Daddy's a football coach you only ask about Texas not World) where would you live*.

Ashlynn thought for a bit and radomly answered AUSTIN. I have no idea why she would want to live there, but there was of course no wrong answer to our "little question".

Now Rylan's eyes lit up (that is what a light bulb moment must look like) and we thought we were about to have a very profound answer from him. He said, "my friend is named Austin and I want to live with him, too, 'cause I like Austin and he is my friend."

I wonder how Austin's mom would feel about us all moving in?

I think that we will stick to the more predictable questions from now on.

The tooth fairy

*WARNING THIS IS NOT INTENDED READING FOR CHILDREN*

We are begining the struggle of WHEN to tell our oldest about the non-existance of such characters as the tooth fairy. Especially since she is noticing that there are some injustices, like that her friends get $5.00 a tooth and she gets a buck. I hope that she hasn't turned this scam around and is just trying to get me to stick a few more dollars under that pillow. I am still finding it hard to believe that parents actually pay that much for a tooth. Anyway, I really think that she probably could figure it out if she hasn't already, but she has such an imaginary mind. I know that I shouldn't be so silly about this and just tell her, but that makes me feel like she is not longer my "little" girl. I am looking for some fun way to break the truth so that it hurts us both a lot less. Here is a funny write up that I found about tooth fairy and I would love to hear any suggestions about what worked for you.

How did the whole "Tooth Fairy" thing get started?

Clearly the Tooth Fairy is a disturbed individual. Think about it. Why would a fairy want loose teeth? Even more bizarre, why would she pay good money for them? There are no answers here, only questions. However, we were able to track down a few theories about how the legend began.

The Straight Dope tackled this topic back in 2004. According to their crack staff, "The tooth fairy as we now know her didn't make an appearance until the early 1900s." Her popularity may have hit the mainstream in 1949 when a popular children's story by Lee Rogow was published.

So did Ms. Rogow come up with the idea of a fairy paying kids for their teeth? Maybe, maybe not. As the Straight Dope (and other sources) explain, history is full of rituals involving baby teeth.

For example, some cultures believed in throwing the tooth over a roof. Others believed in feeding the tooth to an animal, often a mouse. In fact, there's a French fairy tale in which a fairy changes into a mouse to help defeat an evil king. "The mouse hides under a pillow to taunt the king, and punishes him by knocking out all his teeth."

At least now the fairy waits for the teeth to fall out naturally before she collects.

A little church song confusion

When I was a kid singing from the hymnal (before I could read) I used to believe that the song low in the grave he lay went like this....."up from the gravy with a rose" instead of "up from the grave he arose". Funny enough, but Rylan topped it all tonight. We were driving to get our friday night hamburger and listening to Richland Hills praise music. We usually ALL sing along. The song playing was "this is how we overcome", but Rylan was singing.....

THIS IS HOW WE HOLD A SKUNK (loudly). Poor thing takes after his mom (sings about as good too, poor soul).

Warning Jumbled Mess Ahead.....






There is a blog that I love to read and today I was inspired. I just don’t understand how she writes about nothing and makes me “belly laugh” this much. I think that this falls into the reality show category. We love so much to feel normal through others normal experiences. So instead of waiting for a blog topic to fall from blog topic heaven, I am just going to write about nothing (worked for Seinfield).

Anyway, moving on….

So, the day started out like it normally does everyone up at 6:00 for a family breakfast. We stress this because it is sometimes our only meal all together. Ashlynn did loose a tooth last night, so she had two dollars under her pillow. I later found out that her other friends get five dollars for a tooth. FIVE DOLLARS, are you kidding! What do their parents do?....surgery? That is the only significant "nothing" that I have after one hour of awakeness on a Thursday.

So....

Thank you all of my blog friends, you are like my morning coffee.

Disclaimer: In case you found this to be the most ridiculous post ever written, please visit again. Sometimes, I actually write about important stuff. And sense you didn't pay for this service, there is no money back guarantee. Just know that I said a little prayer for any of you that made it this far so you should at least have a blessing today (other than the nonsense that you just read).