Guns vs. Hoses

Just a quick little post to let you know that we're still alive.  That is, if anyone still reads this.

Hello? 

Hello?

Anyone there?

**crickets**

**crickets**

OK, well I guess I'm just talking to myself here, but  I wanted to share these pictures of Jantzen's field trip to the.....

wait for it.....

wait for it....

Fire Station!

Yeah, like she hasn't already been there a million times.  But it was fun for her to show her daddy off to her kindergarten class.  And let's be honest here, I had a great time watching my hunky husband give the tour.  I can never get tired of my man in uniform.  Well, unless he has more than, like, two days off in a row and he drives me crazy around the house.  But maybe if he wore his uniform on those days I wouldn't be so irritable toward him.  We'll have to give that a try. 

The fire station and the police station are in the same building, called the Hermiston Safety Center (or something like that).  So after their tour of the fire station the kids went next door for a tour of the police station.  Chris' favorite prank to pull on the police is to tell all of the little kids to ask the police where they keep all of their donuts.  What a riot!  The kids head into the police station all excited thinking that maybe they're getting donuts, then the cops have to be the "bad guys" and tell them that there aren't any.  You 'd think that they would plan ahead and just buy a bunch of donuts to give to the kids so the kids don't hate them.  Now I know why people don't like cops very much.  It all starts in kindergarten when they don't give donuts to the kids!

  Anyways, at the fire station they got the royal treatment since it was Jantzen's class.  Everyone got a chance to squirt water at the police cars parked behind the fire station. 

heehee

And Chris showed them how he likes to hide in the ambulance when he should be working.  "These cots are really pretty comfortable!"  He tells the kids.  Actually, he gave a very fun and interesting tour of the ambulance, even telling them details about cancer, big needles and drilling things into your bones. 

 Hopefully there weren't any nightmares that night.

Teeth and Tumbling

It's always bittersweet when my kids start losing their teeth. It's exciting to watch them grow and learn and experience new things, but it's sad to say goodbye to those baby teeth that fit so well into their mouths. The gigantic looking adult teeth are always kinda funny looking for the first few years.

How 'bout that hillbilly smile?

Jantzen had a really hard time saying goodbye to this tooth, because she was too scared to pull it. It hung there for dear life until I finally put my foot down and forced her to let me pull it. She could hardly talk, let alone eat. And let's face it. This girl can't afford to miss too many meals.
See the food on her face? I made her lick it off.

Every calorie counts, right?

Guess what else?!?

Mmm hmmm, that's right.

The girl is in tumbling classes!

Oh yeah, gonna carry on the legacy of her mother.
She loves it.

And would I be bragging if I said that she's the one the other moms always use as an example?

OK then, I'm bragging.

It's pretty awesome to hear the other moms saying to their kids, "Do it like Jantzen does."

Yes, I'm pretty proud...To say the least.
Thanks to some Wrathall genes, I think she may grow up to be small enough, too!
(Heaven knows I didn't bring any petite genes to the table!)

Notice her ribs in the picture? I told you she couldn't afford to miss any meals, and I wasn't kidding!

I guess it's time for an update on what we've been doing, lest you think we've fallen off the end of the earth.

First we have a follow-up on our girls night at the ballet. We had so much fun! Jantzen sat so still through the whole show, which lasted almost three hours. There were lots of little girls about her age there, all dressed up for a night out with their mommies. I was really impressed with all of these little girls and how well they behaved. We will definitely be going to more of these events when they come to Hermiston.

Next we have her birthday. I promise I DO HAVE other children besides Jantzen, but she's had a lot of excitement lately. We had a small party with a couple of friends and our family. I came to a new conclusion on her birthday. Kids love their birthdays! She was such a chatterbox all day long, and kept asking me jokingly, "How many sleeps until my birthday, mom?" When I would tell her none she would say, "RIGHT! THAT IS CORRECT!" And she would get all school teacher-ish on me, looking down her nose at me. It was pretty darn cute.

Last Friday was Carson's annual field trip to the corn maze and pumpkin patch. They go on this field trip EVERY YEAR, and somehow the kids never get tired of it. Carson and his buddies, Parker and Nick were so excited that they just couldn't stand still! They were determined to be the first group to make it through the maze, so we ran the whole way. I was really thankful for all the running I've done lately because that maze is kind of long. Especially when you take as many wrong turns as we did!
After the maze, we took a hay ride to the "pumpkin patch". And I use that term VERY loosely. Check it out:


Yes, they truck them in and spread them out on the ground for the kids to find. Hilarious, huh? But the kids didn't seem to care. They had a blast.

OHMYGOSHTHISISTHECUTESTTHINGEVER!!

***Two posts in one day? Did I mention that my kids are gone? ***

Last Saturday was Jantzen's dance recital. She was in the "baby ballet" class, meaning that these girls are way too young to really learn much, but the dance studio is happy to take our money and try anyways. We all know it's really for the moms. She's been taking this class since last September, and they began practicing their dance for the recital on the very first day of class. So you'd think that they would have it down pretty good. But they didn't. And that's what made them so irresistably CUTE!

Here they are backstage before the big performance. Mine is the cute one. You know, the one all the way on the right. She looked forward to this day for a long time and "counted sleeps" for the last ten days. Mostly because she got to dress up like a fairy thingy and wear an obscene amount of make up.

Isn't she cute? (If I do say so myself.) I am working on getting a video posted, so check back. You won't be sorry!

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