Mr. Bubbles

I love when toddlers try to copy sounds and skills but they are just not quite there yet. It is so cute. I love when Tot tries to imitate sneezes when his big brother sneezes, how he copies our neighbors dogs barking but says it as "pfffff, pfffff" (he barks convincingly every once in awhile but mostly his barks sound like he is trying to blow out a candle!) and I especially love when toddlers try to blow bubbles with a wand but they mostly eat the bubble solution because they stick their lips and tongue inside the wand instead of holding it a few inches away. Too cute!

It will be no fun to say goodbye.

We were able to have some of TMac's friends over today. We had the L brothers with us at playgroup and later at home to play so their parents could pack their house up to move. People keep moving out of our ward even though it is forbidden! It will be really hard to say goodbye and lose a Sunbeam, preschool and soccer boy, his great brother and a playgroup Mom - Kamalyn. The ward just will not be the same without them and I fear who might replace Jared as the gospel doctrine teacher. Jared keeps things alive with his great sense of humor and various tactics!

Tmac and Tot had a huge day by the way. TMac has been asking to have more friends come over to play at his house so today we made up for lost time! We had the R boys this morning and took them to playgroup, had the big Halloween celebration and brought the L boys home and swam and played hard. TMac fell asleep really early tonight after a fun and sun filled day.

Superman, Batman and the Phoenix Fire Red Power Ranger.

Playgroup Halloween celebration.

Our playgroup Halloween celebration today was awesome. Hot, but awesome! We had a potluck full of yummy food, cupcakes, homemade donuts, etc. One of the moms was smart enough to bring popsicles. The poor kids were all sweaty headed from their costumes but most wore their costumes anyways! The radio has been saying that this is the hottest October since 1965 and 1887! Crazy! Jennifer hosted and was ultra-prepared with games, prizes, goody bags and tons of work. It was quite the scene with tons of moms, kids, babies, costumes and food. Pretty much a ward party minus the men!

Tot with a popsicle wearing his "little monster" Halloween outfit. He was supposed to dress up as a firefighter today and I had the costume with me but it was just so hot and he was happy how he was!

Cousins eating popsicles. They were on the green team since they had the same color popsicles. It's funny how boys notice the colors on their own and divide up into teams.

Pin the mouth on the jack-o-lantern.

The Star Wars boys in their "kayak spaceship". TMac was Obi-Wan Kenobi for this party, his cousin was Yoda and his friend was Anakin Skywalker.

Who can get the last paper game. Thanks Jennifer and playgroup Moms for a great party.

My right to free speech is being violated!

My friend sent me this photo and I thought it was perfect for a post I have meant to type up. The sign on the building says:

Some stole our original "Yes On 8" sign. They tried to take away our freedom of speech. What's next? Take away our freedom of religion?

I get so frustrated when I hear of signs being taken or destroyed. I would never take away someones right to free speech no matter how strongly I disagreed with their opinion. My vote 8 years ago was not respected and now my freedom of speech is not respected either.

While Tracy's car was parked in another neighborhood, someone used a car window marker (at least it was that and not shoe polish or some other horrible thing) to write this on his back window:

Vote No on Prop. 8 because you are gay.

What the heck!? Whoever did it had plenty of time and plenty of guts because it was written very neatly and with two different colors and outlining skills. Tracy washed off the words no and gay and we need to add YES!

People can be unbelievably rude. Well anyways, this just makes me want to do more to propone Yes on Prop. 8.

I urge you to vote!

*****Oct. 29 - I found out that the writing on Tracy's car was a joke from one of his employees. Tracy has been paying the poor boy back all week. I'm sure the boy had no idea he was messing with the king of joking and pranks. I'm glad that someone didn't really put that on his car out of spite.

Red Fridays! Support our troops!

This is from an email that is going around that I fully agree with and I am joining the cause and teaching my son about it. I do have a little problem though! I really do not own any red tops because I look horrible in true red. Hmmmm. I'll figure something out or maybe buy a red shirt. Oh, I do have a red Christmas sparkly sweater that I got from my Grandma. Maybe once it's cold (if ever) I'll horrify you all by wearing it on Fridays. :) Please post this and pass it via email as well to all of your peeps!

RED FRIDAYS ----- Very soon, you will see a great many people wearing red every Friday. The reason? Americans who support our troops used to be called the 'silent majority'. We are no longer silent, and are voicing our love for God, country and home in record breaking numbers. We are not organized, boisterous or over-bearing. We get no liberal media coverage on TV to reflect our message or our opinions. Many Americans, like you, me and all our friends, simply want to recognize that the vast majority of America supports our troops. Our idea of showing solidarity and support for our troops with dignity and respect starts this Friday - and continues each and every Friday until the troops all come home. Sending a deafening message that every red-blooded American who supports our men and women afar will wear something red. By word of mouth, press, TV -- let's make the United States on every Friday a sea of red much like a homecoming football game in the bleachers. If every one of us who loves this country will share this with acquaintances, co-workers, friends, and family it will not be long before the USA is covered in RED and it will let our troops know that the once 'silent' majority is on their side more than ever; certainly more than the media lets on. The first thing a soldier says when asked 'What can we do to make things better for you?' is...we need your support and your prayers. Let's get the word out and lead with class and dignity, by example; and wear something red every Friday.

Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa

Our boy is crazy for Madagascar 2!

TMac has been so excited and can not wait for the movie Madagascar - Escape 2 Africa to arrive in theaters. He started seeing commercials a few months ago and came running in the bedroom one day yelling about Madagascar 2! His favorite movie right now and for the last few months has been Madagascar. He wants to watch it all day long, every day. I finally allowed him to learn how to use some of the buttons on our Dish DVR remote because he wanted me to rewind the very end of the movie a billion times. He likes to move it, move it! I've never allowed him to use the remote because I was resisting what would happen once he learned it but I finally caved because hey - dancing to the end credits 20 times is exercise after all! So, he knows how to use some remote buttons now. He wants to know them all but I refuse. It is super cute to see him and his little brother dancing, shaking and movin' it! They'll happily do that song 20 times just giggling and dancing the whole time.

It's ironic that this is his favorite movie right now (and has been for months) because I rented it from Redbox for him about 2 years ago and he didn't ever pay any attention to it. Now he quotes it and rewinds or forwards to his most favorite parts.

We also discovered the website for the new movie this weekend so of course T has been loving playing around on it. He just laughs and laughs. He wants to make a calendar and paper chain to count down the days until November 7th when the movie is released. He also wants to do jobs to earn money to see the movie right when it comes out which we never do. We're not movie going people unless it's the $2 theater or $1 Red Box rentals. I'm going to try and take him to see it at the IMAX which will blow his mind!

Oh, and T wanted me to put the above widget on our blog. He saw it on the movie website and said,"Hey - let's put this square commercial on our blog." Kids are so smart! I made the mistake of saying, "Oh, you want to post that widget?" So we had a conversation about what a widget is which he understood quickly and he is standing right here by me watching me type - so excited to see the end result on his blog!

Someone's going savage! You maniac! You burned it up! Darn you! Darn you all to heck! Can we go to the fun side now? Excuse me! You're biting my butt!

All of those quotes and more are what we hear around here! We all love it. Even Tracy has favorite parts. We are looking forward to November 7th!

My anthem songs.

We've been listening to a lot of music around here lately and I wish we could listen to music all day, every day. We've been listening to a Primary program practice CD every morning because the Primary Sunday program is coming up. That is a great way to start the day. We've been listening to the Wicked musical soundtrack in the car. I try to turn on Sirius radio kids channel on TV for awhile in the afternoon so the boys can play and listen to music. I've been practicing the flute and hymns since I've been asked to play with our church choir for some songs. A few days ago I let myself have a few minutes to add more songs to my playlist since I wanted some cowboy songs to go with my new cowboy layout. I was reminded of a song I absolutely love by Trace Adkins - "You're Gonna Miss This". Here are some lyrics:

Five years later there's a plumber
Workin' on the water heater
Dog's barkin', phone's ringin'
One kid's cryin' one kid's screamin'
And she keeps apologizin'
He says they don't bother me
I've got two babies of my own
One's thirty- six, one's twenty- three
It's hard to believe
But you're gonna' miss this
You're gonna' want this back
You're gonna' wish these days
Hadn't gone by so fast
These are some good times
So take a good look around
You may not know it now
But you're gonna' miss this.

This song has become my new anthem this week. I have no problem with spending time with my boys. That is what I love to do. I'll put any chore aside to play with them. But, every Mom no matter how diligent, loses her temper sometimes and this song reminds me how very short the young years are. I already can not believe how old my boys are and how fast it has already gone by. I wish I could rewind their ages temporarily sometimes. So hey, someday I will miss cleaning up teriyaki rice that Tot got EVERYWHERE! I know one day my kids will be all grown up and I would give anything to clean a huge mess if that meant having my kids be little again. I really wish I could freeze the boys right now because their ages are really fun. So there is one of my anthems. You can listen to it on my music player at the very bottom of the page.

My other anthem this week is one of my favorite church hymns - "I Believe in Christ". Politics are so crazy and skewed right now. More than ever. I'm no expert but it seems that more and more people are choosing temporary worldly fun over faith, family and values. I'm not perfect. I have a ton of things to work on! But, I do believe in Christ and I know that I am a daughter of God.

So, I keep these two songs in mind and take it one day at a time!

4 x 4 photo tag.

For this tag you go to your "My Pictures" or digital photo folder on your computer, select the 4th folder and 4th picture in it. Fun Heather!

This photo is of TMac and my cousin's husband sitting at the Shamu show at Sea World. They were waiting for the show to begin, prepared with their rain parkas and eating cotton candy - both items from the Dollar Tree! I snapped some photos and then joined my cousins and the babies in the higher up dry section since it was only mid-April. We do love Sea World!

Halloween is going to stink this year...

Our street definitely looks like this. Not quite as bad as some neighborhoods but the occupied homes pretty much equal the number of vacant homes. I used to think back in 1991 that my parents sounded so old when they discussed the recession that year. Now it's my turn to worry and sound old discussing all of the unbelievably crazy financial topics. Aarggh to the evil dollar! I truly hope that all of my readers are happy, healthy and as well as can be given the crazy world that we live in. When I feel the stress rising I just remind myself that Heavenly Father isn't critical about the size of my bank account or my house. He just wants me to be spiritually happy and endure to the end.

Please join me in voting yes on Prop. 8!

The Issue:

California voters passed Proposition 22 in 2000 by more than 61%, saying that a marriage in California is between a man and a woman. Earlier this year, four activist judges based in San Francisco wrongly overturned the people's vote, legalizing same-sex marriage.

The Consequences:

The Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex marriage did not just overturn the will of California voters; it also redefined marriage for the rest of society, without ever asking the people themselves to accept this decision. This decision has far-reaching consequences. For example, because public schools are already required to teach the role of marriage in society as part of the curriculum, schools will now be required to teach students that gay marriage is the same as traditional marriage, starting with kindergartners. By saying that a marriage is between “any two persons” rather than between a man and a woman, the Court decision has opened the door to any kind of “marriage.” This undermines the value of marriage altogether at a time when we should be restoring marriage, not undermining it.

The Solution:

Vote YES on Proposition 8 to overturn the outrageous Supreme Court decision and restore the definition of marriage that was approved by over 61% of voters. Proposition 8 is NOT an attack on gay couples and does not take away the rights that same-sex couples already have under California’s domestic partner law. California law already grants domestic partners all the rights that a state can grant to a married couple. Gay couples have a right to their private lives, but not to change the definition of marriage for everyone else.

Passing Proposition 8 protects our children and places into the CA Constitution the simple definition that a marriage is between a man and a woman.

Here are some great websites to check out for more information...

http://www.preservingmarriage.org/

http://www.protectmarriage.com/

Goodbye old blog design.

I have had the same blog background for 10 months ever since I started this blog in January so it was time for something new. I love my old background and saved it so I can go back every once in awhile to it if I want. I worked hard on it by editing a lot of HTML and using digiscrapping since websites like www.thecutestblogontheblock.com and www.pyzam.com were not widely used way back in the dark ages of January 2008! So farewell my black swirls beauty and hello cowboy theme.

I originally planned this week on changing to a Fall/Harvest theme background but then I found the cowboy background so Fall will just have to wait. It still feels like Summer sometimes anyways. I am proud of all of my blogging buddies. Everyone's backgrounds are looking so good!