The type of girl I want to marry by Jaxson Packard

Tonight, Jaxson said" The day I get married will be the best day of my life."

(Jaxson as his best friend from Yakima, Justin)

Why is getting married the best day? "This will be the best day for me because it will be a big event, filled with all of my friends. They party will be held at your house mom, if you don't mind. Actually, how about England. London, England to be exact."

Why London? " We will get to ride in an airplane. Then, when we get there we can get a hotel, not just any hotel ...this will be an English one. We can see castles, go on one of those red buses (double decker) and I am pretty sure I read in a book that London is where they sell Matchbox Cars."

What are the colors at this party? "White, blue and peach. Oh, and a little red. "
What will your wife think of these colors? "That they are perfect."
What do you think your wife will be like? "She will be really kind and filled with laughter.  She will like style and board games. She will want me to spend a lot of time with our children, you know in the future.
Children eh? How many? "I am going to say 4. I will need at least one or two boys."
What if they were all girls? "I would treat them with care. I would not let them get hurt."
Back to your wife...what do you not want her to be? "A drinker. Mean to the children,"
What will she look like "Am I allowed to say skinny?? (but not as small as dad).  With blonde hair and I would like if her eyes were blue. I don't know if I will ever find this person though. Her wedding dress will be rose red. I will not be like your poofy wedding dress though"
What is more important to you, how she looks or how she acts? "How she acts."
Is there anything else you want to tell me about it? "No, not really."

After creating this blog post together, Jaxson asked me if I could post it to Facebook. "Because a girl might read this and think, hey I am all of those things! Then we can plan on getting married when we grow up."

Sand

Like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.

(or something like that)

This will be the second beach post in a row.

I have no shame.

We love the beach. 

This was by far the best trip to the beach we have ever had.

Perfect weather. 

Not too hot, not too cold.

Perfect company.

Perfection.

And for coastal beaches, that is saying something! 

The car ride to the beach was full of joy and elation. 

"Go Beach, Mom!"

"Are we there yet?"

And squeals from Penny Lou's general direction. 

These kids never tire of the beach....so we keep going.

I had just worked three 12 hour shifts with only four hours of sleep afterwards.

I almost did not go from extreme exhaustion.

Luckily, I found some sort of miracle. 

Look what I would have missed out on!

#1) I never would have discovered that my kitchen gadget rejects make the perfect tools for sand creations. 

#2) Or that Penny Lou had finally kicked her sand eating habit.

Be still my soul!

This was my sand buddy.

I couldn't get over her excitement. 

Operation dig a hole was quite the success.

It was a family effort.

Many hands making light the work.

Emilee enjoyed jumping over the holes.

I, however, did not enjoy the anxiety of watching that. 

(The nature of a nurse I assume)

She also liked making "eggs" in the sand.

Ice Cream Scoop + Sand = Eggstravaganza

LouLou giggled while learning to walk on the sand 

and

was her typical cheerful self.

 

Jaxson could not wait to  walk near the water and getting buried in the sand.

Andrew enjoyed watching the kids interact with one another. 

He also loved seeing LouLou explore and learn.

Leaving is always the worst part of the experience.

The ride home was full of sand and exhausted children.

There may have been tears, but it was worth it.

Let this be know as the best beach trip yet!

Random things I want to remember from this week:

Emilee calls Frankenstein a "Freaky Shine"

She asks to go to school about every 5 minutes.

In the middle of dinner Emilee put her feel on Andrew's lap and asked him to rub her feet.

Jaxson is obsessed with books on CD and following along in the book. He loves the books Indian in the Cupboard and Flawed Dogs. 

This week he chipped his tooth at recess. Luckily, after some dental work, it isn't even noticeable! That would have put a real damper on the whole dating situation.  

LouLou is the most advanced of my children at this age. Her favorite thing is to touch pointer fingers and say "Bink." She is starting to use her own word and lives on top of my kitchen table.

BcK 2 SKoOl

 

How is it already time for school again?

 

 

We decided to have a crafting pizza party the night before school.

Making messes accompanied by pizza has always made for a fun time, in my experience.

 

I got out the crafting kid supplies and was immediately reminded of my love for Barney the Dinosaur. I remember I loved that show so much because they would always make crafts and what not.

Yes, I watched it until I was like 12.

Yes, the kids teased me.

Yes, I would still watch it today if it were socially acceptable.

 

Jaxson had a particularly hard time with the flash on the camera. It was hard for the poor kid to keep his eyes open.

Wonder where that came from?

(I can't keep my eyes open in the light either!)

 

Emilee on the other hand had no issues with the camera flash.

I loved watching her concentrate on stringing beads on yarn.

 

Here we have the finished project.

I decided to start taking pictures of the little's artwork so that I do not have to feel guilty when it comes time to recycle it!!

 

(Emilee age 3)

 

I really liked the little purple creature Jaxson made for the tree trunk.

I love his creativity.

(Jaxson age 8)

 

Crafting worked up an appetite in these kids.

While we crafted Andrew was hard at work fashioning some homemade pizza.

Did you know mozzarella is considered the best cheese for topping pizzas?

Poor Andrew...cooking with inappropriate pizza toppings!

 



 

Oh LouLou

More delicious than this pizza!

 

Everyone had a balloon to make this an official celebration.

 

Funny how dollar store balloons can provide such entertainment.

 

"Mom, lay off the flash man!"

The struggle is real people.



 

This is where he decided to pretend the pepperoni  was his open eyeball.

 

Emilee was not to be left out.

 



 

So back to the balloons being fun thing.

How long do you think it took before the fights started to break out?

Less than a minute folks.

Don't mess with my kids and their balloons.

 

Andrew and I were on the bed time count down.

Celebrations are hard!

 

As bed time neard, Emilee curled up under a blanket.

Andrew pointed out how cute and tender she look all covered up.

We thought she was trying to sleep.

Nope!

She was hiding the graffiti she was marking on her body!

 

 

Bedtime came and went.

LouLou had some left over spaghetti for breakfast.

It is never to early for spaghetti!

 

 

I would feed her spaghetti for every meal just to see this face!

 

 

The kids had Special Breakfast.

This is another tradition that is made up of eating doughnuts and orange juice on special days.

yeah...

be jealous! 

 

 

I left Jaxson a little surprise in his lunch pail.

How did I ever have an idea before Pinterest?

(He loved this! BTW)

 

Emilee wanted to dress up for the first day of school.

Princess in training!

 

First day of 3rd grade for Jaxsie pants!

Teacher: Ms. McQueen

When I grow up: "I will be nothing, no wait a space guy, no a fireman, or wait was I going to be a police guy?"

Favorite subject: Library

Favorite Book: Flawed Dogs

Favorite Color: Blue "The color of cotton candy"

New friends: Jacob, Nathan, Aiden

Words of wisdom: "#liveyourlife"  "Don't steal and listen to your parents"

Favorite words: "....but dad!"

 

 

The following have nothing to do with back to school but are seriously cute.

 

Emilee wanted to color outside with her dad.

 

Tender