Yee Haw

Today starts Red Ribbon Week at school and today was Cowboy/Cowgirl day. James was PUMPED about today and as he was getting out of the car he told me "I been waitin' for this day for so long!" LOL, bless his sweet little heart!!! Audrey squeezed her feet into her pink cowgirl boots from last year, promising that they weren't too tight. I'll be interested to see what shoes she has on this afternoon, since they had to take their tennis shoes because Monday is a P.E. day. She wasn't too excited about today because she had her heart set on wearing this sequin skirt that someone gave her. I have to appreciate her love for all things sparkly and girly but we had a long conversation about how it's the kind that you have to wear leggings with because it borders on being too short for a 6 year old. And what if some one saw your rear-end on the playground?? That remark just sparked the question of "What's a rear-end?" (and at this moment we are clean out of leggings, tights, socks and any thing else that could be considered cool weather attire for one's legs and feet.)

We have several cowboy hats around here and Olivia loves to put one on and say yee haw and then throw the hat in the air. I wonder just where this child gets her personality from. Every one here at my house is always so dull and boring. As the picture below demonstrates. Dull and boring.

Not pictured below are: Olivia's matched socks, Audrey's hat on her head and James's other cowboy boot and both of them actually on his feet. He had to dig the other out from under a pile of junk in the back of the van and he got stuck on the back of the seat. Oops!

Spotlight Award

Wednesday marked the end of the 1st nine weeks of the school year and report cards were sent home. James and Audrey both received all M's (mastered) and both got excellent remarks on their conduct and progress in school!! This morning the 1st Spotlight Awards assembly was held and we had been informed by their teacher that Mr. Moore, the music teacher at school, had chosen James to receive the Outstanding Music award but that it was a surprise!!

Olivia and I went up there for the assembly and got to sit close to the front and across the aisle, one back from the Kindergarten class and James just happened to sit on the end of the row. We sat through about 20 minutes of perfect attendance (which they missed by 1 day due to their allergy tests!), honor roll, reading programs and a few more for Kindergarten and 1st grade. By the time the music award came up, James had heard so many names that weren't his, when they did call his name he said out loud "James Mizell???!!" and bolted from his seat and ran to the stage. It was so cute and I am so glad I was close enough to him to be able to hear him say that. Haha!! He was pretty shocked and pretty proud of his award and our librarian offered to laminate it for us. Sweet!!

Time Out

I am one of those people that has a serious love/hate relationship with Facebook. I love it one minute because I get to "keep in touch" with family and close friends. But the next I am seriously hatin on it because I sat down for "just a second" and the next thing I know it's been 15-20 min and I've accomplished nothing but finding out what so-n-so had for lunch or reading about how so-n-so thinks America and everybody in it is going to hell in a hand basket.

I have a lot going on right now (who doesn't?) and need to get rid of the distractions of some stuff so I can focus on what I need to focus on for the present time. I am enrolled in an on line class for manual exposure and it seems like every time this week I have sat down to read the pdf or watch the videos or read the forums, my fingers automatically check Facebook first and POOF!!!! What little quiet time I have during the day (and night) has disappeared and I've accomplished nothing. So frustrating!! I think I have a serious problem but I wont take the time to dive into that subject. Talk about wasting more time!!

I have deactivated my account for the rest of the week and maybe even for the month. We shall see. There is really no point in keeping up with Facebook so much any more because I have made the decision to seriously limit my picture share on there. And aside from the fact that I can get instant feed back on Facebook, I enjoy blogging more any way and the pictures usually look better on here than FB. If I can keep my posts short and to the point :) There's another of my problems right there!! I also set myself up a Flicker account and have added a few of my photos on there and plan on doing more at some point. I'm not exactly sure how to find someone on Flickr but you can try to look me up!!

TTFN!!

P.s. I just tried to "look myself up" on Flickr but it took me to a page that has 2 pics of Jon and I at a church meeting in Illinois about 10 years ago. STRANGE!!!! if any one knows how to "search" for someone on flickr, please by all means enlighten me :)

Goodbye, Goldie

Our school had their annual Fall Festival over the weekend and even though it rained and everything had to be moved inside down different hallways through out the school, there was a good turn out. Olivia got to take her first horse ride, my husband was pied in the face a little over 100 times, Audrey got her face painted and James won a goldfish.

It was so crowded in the elementary hall that I was not really paying attention to the "Go Fish" game James wanted to play. I know, I know. The name should of tipped me off but I just thought he was going to be fishing for a prize or something because I couldn't really see what was going on. Much to my chagrin, he won a gold fish and we got to tote it around for the rest of the night. James was SO EXCITED because he's been wanting a pet of some kind for a while now but we just aren't on bored for any of that yet. I have enough to feed and clean up after as it is and most of Jon's experiences with pets when he was little were slightly traumatizing.

Any who, we got Goldie home and in a temporary dwelling place and transferred him to a fish bowl yesterday. James was excited to put this little castle he had painted in there. Well, this morning when I got up I found that Goldie had departed this world. Oh boy, I was so nervous for James to find out. #1 because I didn't want him to be sad and #2 I didn't want to get blamed for his 1st pet kicking the bucket. I knew he would say it was my fault because, well, I'm mama and most things are my fault if they go wrong just because I'm the easiest person to blame!! Well he came in the kitchen and saw Goldie just floating there and said "Hey look I guess Goldie is still asleep." I just smiled at him and then he said "Or is he dead?" I had to break it to him then and surprisingly he din't start crying! He took it like a champ, scooped the dead fish out with his hand and went a flushed him down the toilet. Then came back and said "I know why he died. Cause you wouldn't let me feed him last night." See????

Well, he wasn't angry just matter of fact. But I gently reminded him that DADDY(!!) didn't let him feed Goldie last night because he still had food floating around. When I told him that gold fish just don't live very long usually that seemed to satisfy him. All in all our short lived pet ownership went well and maybe just maybe we will be getting us another one some time soon. Maybe.

Disclaimer: I had to help out at Jon's pie booth for awhile so James tagged along with one of his buddies and they got their faces painted so that why I have no pics of J getting his done. Audrey tagged along with one of her friends and that's why I have no pics of her on the horse. My mom brought Olivia about 5:30 and while I was helping at the Kindygarten booth I was able to snag a few pics of her doing some stuff. James racked up and won a fishing pole, a 2 liter drink and the goldfish. Not to mention the amount of candy they came home with was like Halloween!

When the water bill comes due. . . .

Lately when I am in the kitchen (which seems to be all the time this week) she wants to be in there with me. So I usually give her a "job" to do to keep her busy and out from under my feet. She loves to help me "wash" dishes and even though it can get a little messy (but it's just water, right?!) she adores it and will stand there for 30 min sometimes, like she did this morning. And this morning I figured I'd better snap some pics to remind myself why it's OK that the water bill is so high when it comes due next month :)

What's in the food processor, you ask? Zucchini. It's feeding my new obsession for Zucchini bread.

This was totally caught on accident as I was just trying to catch a shot of her cute tooshie :) I didn't even know the water was there until I pulled these up on the computer. Cause all I heard as I was taking the shot was "Uh-oh I spilled it mama." Pretty cool catch if I do say so myself! And see what I mean about messy? Oh and I assure you it was WATER and not, you know. . . .even though it looks like it :)

Mangos and Pink Ones

I always seem to forget things when I sit down at the computer to blog. Things that I specifically want to document; I guess because there's always so many! Yesterday was no exception.

 Olivia has a nose like a blood hound (just like her mama and her big bro!) and is always picking up on new smells. So she always will ask "What's dat smewin?" As in "What's that smell?"

So I will answer her and she either says "Oh I wike dat" or "I don't wike dat."
Example 1: I wipe down our kitchen counters with a vinegar/water mix. She always comes in and says "Mama, what's dat smewin?" And I will answer "vinegar" to which she crumples her nose and says "I don't wike vinegar."
Example 2: I will be putting on perfume and she comes into the bathroom and says "Mama, what's dat smewin?" I say "My perfume" and she says "Oh! I wike perfume."
These are just 2 examples. We have conversations like these all.day.long.

Yesterday she was reading a new book from the library and kept coming into the kitchen where I was to ask me what something was that she had never seen before. And she always left the room saying "Oh I wike dat." It was presh.

Today when I put her in her chair for lunch, my necklace bumped her in the nose and she said "I sure wike your pwetty neckwace. She makes big comments like this a lot.

She calls Flamingos "Mangos" and Penguins sounds like "Pink Ones."

We went up to the school earlier today to help bag candy for the Kindergarten booth at the Fall Festival this weekend. When we were finished up one of the moms left before any one else and Olivia tells her, "Bye tanks for coming to help."

Her favorite game to play and by far my LEAST favorite, is to run and hide under her bed from me when it is time to change her diaper or her clothes. She thinks it's hilarious and wont stop doing it. I hope her daughter does the same thing to her one day :)

When someone does something she doesn't approve of like take her seat or her book or whatever, she spouts out the most indigniet "HEYYYYY" you can imagine.

When she tries to talk over you (which happens A LOT in this household) and Jon or I tell her to be quiet that it's so-n-so's turn to talk, she depressingly says "OhhhhKayyyy", drops her head and goes back to eating or doing what ever.

She randomly will tell me "I wuv you so much" followed up with a tight squeeze and and a kissy sound. See? See why she's just the best thing since sliced bread???

And when she hugs you she ALWAYS rubs you on your back. Sweetest thing ever.

She does not allow the door to her room to be open while you are singing her songs for nap or bedtime.

Even though her screams can traumatize you and she can cock an attitude faster than she can say "Hey!!" we love her so much and are so thankful and grateful the Lord blessed us in giving her to our family. This Mizell bunch wouldn't be the same with out her. It wouldn't be the same with any of our little wild indians. We have some pretty amazing youngins.

P.S.

The picture below is a great example of why it has to be like breathing to you to always check (or change back) your point of focus. Ahhhhhhh!!!!! It's cute any way but I almost can't look

at it because of how even more cuter it would be if her body was in focus in stead of the patch of grass behind her. . . .

And she says "HUMPH"!!

Olivia has started doing so many new things and saying such big words lately I felt the need to document some things. She's growing way way way too fast and feels so big in my arms at night when I sing to her now that I just want to freeze time. This age is exhausting but so fun!

She stomps her feet and folds her arms and says "Humph it not fair" at any given time. 

She has a bad habit just in the last week of spitting when she gets angry but I've just about got that one "Nipped in the bud."

She still asks for that juice cup first thing in the morning and I still give it to her but we don't take it with us any where any more and she drinks water out of a big girl cup at supper time.

She all of a sudden developed a taste for pickles and now asks for them all.the.time.

She hums 50% of the time lately. Especially if she is concentrating on something or just enjoying her self playing with her toys.

She still loves to read.

She still thinks she is as big as James and Audrey and any other kid she is around. Resulting in a mother who should be skin and bones by now. (get it?!)

She is still the life of the party and has really started making us laugh by making funny noises with her voice while she is talking.

She is scared of loud noises and runs and hides from them if she can. Although Audrey got her to stand still and not be scared of the hand dryer in public restrooms any more which is huge for her.

She still naps and sleep like a champ at night. I had a mild panicking thought the other day when I realized she is inching closer and closer to cutting that nap out.

She loves sparkly things and music and hair accessories. She still talks all the time about being 3 and being able to go dance like Audrey.

She figured out how to swing on her belly the other day and it's just the best thing ever to watch her do it. To watch those short little legs swinging in the air, almost able to touch the dirt.

She was riding in the barbie jeep with Audrey the other day and started begging to drive. I told Audrey to let her at least try it and to help her. Well they switched sides and Olivia took off. She was driving all over the yard; I was so amazed!! Then Audrey had to go in the house so James took over for her. As she was running she shouted over her shoulder "James be sure to press the gas pedal for her!" I laughed so hard. It looked like little Peanut was driving that thing and the whole time her big sister was gassing it up for her. Hahahaha!!!!

She loves to talk on the phone to who ever and loves to play Starfall on the computer. We make pumpkins and dress turkeys and watch flowers grow, just like I did with the twins when they were her age. Remembering things I did with them when they were her age makes this whole growing up process even harder. I look at Olivia and then look at James and Audrey and it almost takes my breathe away. It's happening so quick.

The best thing she's started doing lately is an obsession with hugging and kissing a hundred million times before she goes to bed. I sing our usual songs and put her in her bed, cover her up and say good night. I get almost out the door and she shoots up and says "KIIIISSSSSS!!!!!" So I go back and she throws her arms around my neck pulling me down and kisses me twice on the mouth, then hugs my right side and then kisses me again and then hugs my left side. She does this about 10 times and sometimes, when it's been a long day, I secretly wish she'd hurry up or not feel the need to do it so many times. But I know it wont last forever so I stand there and let her. She also does it with her daddy when he puts her to bed so you know he loves that.

We went to a pumpkin patch with some friends last Sunday afternoon and had such a fun time! Olivia especially. Imagine that! She got to jump in a bouncy house (thankfully there no other kids than our little group in it at the time) and paint a pumpkin. She loves to paint and hummed the ENTIRE time she worked. I need to let this child paint more.