My political post.

This video message from a soldier is very emotionally impacting and well spoken. He couldn't have said it better. While I am not ecstatic about McCain and wish I had more options, I am horrified by most ideas and opinions of Obama. I usually don't get involved in politics beyond voting but I really love this video. It is exactly what I would say if I had the chance to speak with Obama.

VOTE VOTE VOTE everyone! It is so important. If I can take a grumpy toddler while big and pregnant (with Tot in 2006 - not currently!) to the county records office to vote early because I would be out of town on election day - you can vote too no matter what your difficulties. Please VOTE! I love free speech and my right to vote.

The Bain cowboys!

Howdy! Here are the Bain buckaroos! It has been killing me to wait to blog these photos but I had to wait until after I gave these photos to my mother-in-law as one of her birthday presents. She reads my blog and I didn't want to spoil the surprise. Tracy's parents made the rocking horses and each of Tracy's siblings has one. I LOVE my rocking horse. It is one of my most favorite gifts ever.

We did this photo shoot the first week of August on one of the hottest days of the year! It was only 9:00 am in the morning but so hot in my sister's backyard. She is prego and was sick so I had her sit in a chair with an umbrella and work the camera while I was the propmaster. Tot hated the sun in his eyes and was persnickety. TMac hated the bandanna but did okay. We have been trying to arrange this photo shoot since March and calendars and problems just kept getting in the way so - hooray - it's done and it's super cute!

Yes, I am aware that in some of the photos TMac is wearing pink boots. My sister digitally changed them to brown in most of the photos and the others we printed out sepia colored. We had to borrow my nieces boots because I had been to 6 stores in the weeks before the photo shoot and no luck for boots for TMac. Wal-Mart was driving me crazy because they had sporadic sizes of boots but all too small. If they had had a bigger pair I would have gotten them out of desperation. Yes, I did go to Boot Barn. Their kids boots start at $30 for really ugly ones and go into the $100's and I didn't want to break the bank. We now own great boots for both boys that I got on clearance at Wal-Mart - they finally had some sizes I needed.

The little rocking chair is the one that my Grandpa Mac was rocked in as a baby and the two wooden candy barrels are from the Joseph Smith red brick store in Nauvoo, Illinois. My sister's husband was such a trooper when she and I each wanted to bring one home from our trip two years ago. The airline staff were not amused! My husband would have forbidden the chaos but he wasn't on the trip! The rope was made by TMac in Nauvoo on a hand-turned rope making machine.

I was a little sad to replace the river hug header with this new one but I'll get over it! They are both the cutest photos ever and I'm so blessed to have such gorgeous little boys. I am so glad that I had two boys first that are such great brothers.

Thank you Heather and Mom and Dad Bain for the horse, help and digital work!

Alan Jackson concert here we come!

I am taking birthday boy Tracy ALAN to the Alan Jackson concert tonight and I am so excited. Tracy is looking forward to it as well. This is one of his favorite singers and he listens the heck out of his CD's. Tonight will be a much needed date night. Tracy has been working ridiculously hard and really deserves a night out that isn't a family party (no offense family!). My sister got the tickets for us and tomorrow is Tracy's birthday. I borrowed my Mom's cowboy boots and I've got my outfit picked out. I am realizing now that I need to schedule more date nights and get the kids babysat more often because I'm not exaggerating - Tracy and I have not gone anywhere alone for at least 2 years and maybe longer. Not good! So beware Tracy - I am going to start planning date nights. We are definitely in the married with children phase now. The last time we had the kids babysat was in June by my parents so we could go to our friend Dr. Todd's party but we were still not alone. I feel bad because I would usually email good friends that also like Alan Jackson and country music to see if they wanted to come along but not this time. You can still buy tickets and go if you want! We will wave at you but we need to be alone! I also haven't been to a concert for about 6 years!

This was supposed to be a surprise but Tracy is too smart and I have no poker face. I've had the tickets for weeks but this past Sunday I was outlining our calendar events for the week like I usually do and when I said that Friday night was a special date night without children Tracy said, "Well huh, I was going to look into that George Strait concert." He knows that wrong words or names drive me crazy and that I would want to correct him so when I controlled myself and said nothing he really knew he had me. He asked if I bought tickets to the Alan Jackson concert and I said no which is true. I didn't! My sister did! Anyways, he's a smart man and knows just how to tease me. Besides, there are at least 3 billboards here in our city so I figured once I told him he needed the night off of work and it was a special birthday night out he would put two and two together. It is really hard to surprise Tracy. I really don't know if I've ever truly been able to surprise him - I'll have to think about it.

It should be a really great concert. It didn't occur to me until yesterday which was September 11th that there will surely be a focus tonight on remembrance and the best September 11th song ever - Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning). I'll wear my flag pin!

TMac is looking forward to playing with his favorite non-family member baby sitters but he is not happy that I am going somewhere wearing cowboy boots that he is not invited to!

Did I mention I was excited!?!? I can not wait to eat a dinner that is still hot that doesn't include baby wipes and dance in the aisle with my man. Yee-haw!

Hopefully everything will go as planned tonight and I won't have to quote another country song by Deana Carter - Did I Shave My Legs For This? :) Gotta go prep and primp!

Joy is...

I'm feeling joyful today which is markedly better than the tired and grumpy of the last several days. I'm still tired but what Mom of young kids isn't? I'm always happy no matter what but today I am downright joyful! Here are some reasons why - joy is...

• Having Tracy home more this weekend than has been the norm lately.
• A good session of church yesterday. Tot slept through 2nd and 3rd hour like I like him to. Several things hit home for me and made me renew my goals.
• A crockpot Sunday dinner which also makes awesome leftovers for today - slow cooked beef roast made into homemade stroganoff. Yum!
• Swimming in the pool and relaxing in the hot, bubbly spa instead of making Sunday dinner.
• An invitation to dinner at a good friend's house tonight! Hooray! We can have leftovers for Tuesday night and I don't have to think about dinner until Wednesday!
• Some fun groceries in my kitchen. I hate same old, boring grocery supplies.
• Waking up to no more headache today after a long, 3 day run of constant, severe headache.
• The huge smiles that come from taking TMac to buy a new superhero costume with his own piggy bank savings. Rest assured there will be a separate post about that outing!
• Working on homemade birthday presents for Tracy with his little men.
• Really looking forward to a long overdue date night this Friday night!
• Looking forward to Super Saturday at church this Saturday with my gal pals.
• September - I love the hot days and cooler nights. The holidays are getting closer!
• The anticipation of Halloween and pumpkin patches.
• A fun swim in the pool with TMac just now.
• Time for a quick 15 minute nap since Tot is still napping - see ya!

Little helpers.

TMac was so excited about the job jar he received in his Sunbeam class today at church. It has job cards with ideas for how little kids can help at home. Once they do they can have a candy. I know that I need to let him do more and I'm not a control freak, I'm just lazy and don't always want to take the time to let him do things. He asked for jobs a few times and I asked him to wait until after I got dinner served. This evening in the backyard he happily cleared all of the leaves and weird tree nut things from the 5 chairs by the pool which was actually hard because the chairs are made of little diamond shaped metal pieces that the tree junk gets stuck in. It was so cute to watch him be so happy to be doing a job. I love how easy it is for little ones to want to follow the lessons from Primary. Tracy made smoothies tonight and when he brought the pitcher and cups to the living room TMac wanted to help set the table which is one of the job cards. He's sweet. He got a new Sunbeam teacher last week and he likes her and says that she is pretty.

Tot heard me tell TMac to say cheese so he came running in pushing his toy and was yelling cheese. Then he kept on doing it and throwing his hands in the air.

Tot had his own little helping session at Winco yesterday. He decided it was his job to lift the little cantaloupes out of the cart and onto the checkout stand. He would not let me help him and he was grunting and lifting away. He was really entertaining the people behind us in line. He lifted out 5 cantaloupes!

CHEESE! Ooh, I just thought of a job! We're getting ready for bed right now and Tot had dropped a bunch of toys in his bed today so I caught myself just now before unloading them myself and TMac is doing the job as I type. This will be good for me and T both. Thank you Sister H! TMac has always been a naturally helpful boy but it is fun to have him asking for jobs and saying, "How can I help?"

Hidden Jedi fighter!

A Jedi fighter was hiding in my rocking chair! Last week TMac was calling me to come find him. He has had the cloak and lightsaber since his 3rd birthday and he plays with them often but lately he has played almost daily thanks to the new movie commercials and Happy Meal toys. My Mom made him the cloak for his 3rd birthday and he and his cousin both have them. The first time we went to the Jedi Training Academy at Disneyland he refused to go up into the show and be a performer when picked but he has informed me that he is practicing so we'll see if he goes up next time. He watched some of the old, original Star Wars movies again this week and of course those bring lot's of questions that I don't always have the answers to. I suppose I should get a refresher course from Mr. Ronnie. I also need to work on better teaching TMac the proper use of "May the force be with you." The other day I asked him to keep an eye on Tot while I went to the restroom and of course he said, "Sure, and may the force be with you." Yeah...thanks son. :)

S'more maker - lame - but cute photos.

Tracy brought home a free and unused S'more "machine" from work. It looked lame and it really is. But, as my Mom would say...it kept the kids busy for awhile. The machine is just a glorified marshmallow warmer but it takes 5 minutes to warm up and then another 5 minutes or more to just warm the marshmallows. TMac is bummed that it is going to be thrown away. But even he said the machine was dumb and that fires are better. He likes his marshmallows with the "black"! So, we knew this machine would be a waste of time but ever since Tracy brought it home TMac has been asking to try it out. We hung out in the backyard this evening after church and dinner. Tot made a complete mess of himself and his hair but it made for some cute photos. If you purchased this machine I feel bad for you!

The BIG day!

Get ready for the super cutest photos and a lot of them because I do not like slide shows! I also haven't figured out how to rearrange multiple photos so that they are listed in the order they occurred so they are all mixed up. :(

The above photo is TMac and his friends doing their GO TEAM chant. So adorable!

At the "Welcome to the Soccer team!" party after the first practice.

More party - I heard the boys saying that they were eating like soccer players!

Tot making a huge mess of his piece of cake. He does not want to be fed at all anymore. He insists on having his own fork.

After all of the work and practice the boys played freely for awhile and they all took turns wearing this puppy costume. It has nothing to do with soccer or preschool but it is cute!

Some partner soccer work. I didn't get photos of the whole scene because I was trying to keep Tot out of the way. He would not stay inside in the play room. I tried to close him in the playroom by shutting the door and he did that sad, break your heart crying like his feelings were hurt. He wanted to play with the team so bad!

Tot is actually really good at soccer and always has been. He was running around like, Yeah - I'm 4, what of it? He was not afraid of the big boys zooming around him at all and got super ticked every time I removed him from the play area. Toddler soccer team anyone? Katherine's son of the same age was doing really good as well.

Pink cheeks and a thirsty boy!

GO TEAM huddle.

The definition of cute!

Snack time break in between preschool and soccer.

The "welcome to the team" soccer cake.

Here they are! The fab 5! Us Moms are tossing around team names but one of the top choices is "The Strippling Warriors". Yeah - that's right - we're Molly. That is a benefit of running your own team. When we were done taking the soccer photos I told all of the Moms - hey, we just saved $200 a piece by doing this ourselves!

My big man. That smile just kills me. This pose was his doing completely.

Tot the great. His hair has bleached in the Summer sun to even more of a white blond. I love that my boys are not redheads! Thank you to the genes of Tracy and my Dad!

Doodle board letter writing time.

TMac in all his backpack glory.

Class photo!

Say backpack, say backpack! Use your Dora map voice!

Snack time. They were already talking about their mad soccer skills that they were planning on bustin' out. I guess boys are just born knowing how to talk locker room talk!

The very first preschool activity - find the letters to build your name.

The smallest and best behaved class I have ever worked with.

Reading time and the matching books.

Worksheet and math time. We did two pages and the rest they take home for homework and practice during the week.

Counting and pattern sequencing.

It was a great day. The boys were really attentive and good. The smiles were so cute when they were proud of their achievements. They of course each got a Thomas the Train sticker on their shirts and lots of high fives and praise from their Mommies. I really immensely enjoyed myself. It was so fun preparing all week and looking forward to it as much as TMac. I have really great girlfriends and TMac has great friends. I do miss teaching but I do not miss working and all of the bureaucracy and parent politics that come with being a public school teacher. For me this preschool is a perfect outlet. Only five students and a Mom helper for each child is amazing. We were able to get a ton of activities accomplished in just one hour! Also our other children are with us and having fun in the play room so it's great.

TMac and I finished the day by getting a Happy Meal at Wal-Mart and some desperately needed work T-shirts for Dad, swimming of course, watching a Star Wars movie and a little of the Madagascar movie together at night. What a great day! Thursdays will be fun.

The morning of the big day.

TMac got his clothes out of his bag and was ready and waiting on the couch for the time to leave the house to arrive. When can we go Mom?





Before I woke them up. They always end up in our bed in the morning. Sometimes they cuddle in their sleep.

Marking off the last calendar square!

Ripping off the last paper chain link!

The big day is here! HOORAY! I crave things that bring that smile!

The night before the big day.

TMac has been brimming with anticipation all week. The night before the first day of preschool and soccer we packed his backpack and soccer bag with all of his gear. He just kept wanting to look at it all. Above is his new soccer jersey. I was able to get all 5 little boys matching mesh athletic shirts at Wal-Mart on super clearance for $1 each!

Hand-me-down soccer shorts.

Hand-me-down Finding Nemo school backpack. Oh how I love you Carrie!

Pencil box with school supplies.

TMac is really, really into Spiderman. The dollar stores and dollar aisles at Target are full of Spiderman gear. Win, win situation! He earned the above new lunch gear from his treasure/ reward box months ago and has been dying to use them but I wouldn't let him until now. I'm so mean!

Matching sports balls PJ's. So cute! But also super red. I discovered the next morning that the red color rubbed off onto the bed sheets. I'm really in love with Wal-Mart. $1 clearance PJ's are unreal! You can't even buy fabric for that cheap.

Can you see him doing the YES arm? We bought this water bottle in January and he has been DYING to use it.

Soccer T-shirt.

TMac wanted to go to bed early so the next day could get here. Not the norm!