Mommy Kissing Santa?

While I was cleaning the house, I decided to put on some Christmas music to make the task more enjoyable. Kobe came up to me with the most worried look on his face and said, "that is the saddest song! She saw her mommy kissing Santa Clause! I think the daddy was asleep, or maybe he was at work."

Kobeism

I know I talk about Kobe a lot, but the kid cracks me up. I have been searching for Transformers for a few weeks for Kobe for Christmas but they are sold out everywhere I go. Today, I went to Walmart and they had just got a shipment of Transformers so there were tons to choose from. Of course Kobe didn't have school today, so he was with me. I have been so frantic to find these darn toys, that before I knew it I had like 15 transformer boxes in my cart. Kobe was SO EXCITED. I kept telling him, "they aren't for you... they are for Grandpa Randy and other kids we need to buy for." YA RIGHT. He is smarter than that. (I did sort through and put a few back...). When we put all the sacks in the car he had a little rush of excitement and started whooping and dancing in his seat. He then said "Woa! I can HEAR THE SPIRIT!" I started laughing and said - "what is he saying to you?" He said, "I don't know, he's speaking English." I said, "bud, you speak English." He said, "I DO??"

Ras Christmas Party

Here's some fun pictures of the party. I am totally turning into Grandma Rasmussen. I HATED her camera and picture taking when I was a teen and now I'm totally the annoying camera lady. What has happened to ME? I didn't feel like I even talked to anyone in my family. I'm looking forward to the next on-sunday (I won't have my camera). Did the party feel rushed to anyone else?

Karate Kid

Kobe started Karate about 4 months ago and it's been the best thing for him! These are from his belt test where he could earn his orange belt. He is so cute meditating. He had a really hard time with his chicken jump and he fell on his butt, hard, two times before he got it. It was sad because I could tell it hurt, and he looked over at me ready to cry, but then he looked around at his karate friends and the other parents and decided to tough it out. After he kept saying, "mom, I was SO tough!" His teacher is really awesome and talks to them a lot about being a responsible person. I LOVE KARATE. All the stuff you try to teach your kids, reinforced by someone cool. Plus, anything that makes Kobe a little "tougher" is fine by me.


OOH! That's going to hurt!

Smooth

Just a funny thought for today:

This piano salesman at the music store has the WORST line and he says it everytime I see him. It goes something like this: Him: "Hi, how are you?" Me: "Good, how are you doing?" Him: "I'm not as good as you look!" He seriously says that EVERYTIME. The first time he said that I didn't understand and made him repeat it. My ears could not beleive someone would be so cheezy. Now I avoid him at all costs because that little line gives me the willies. Am I being harsh? I don't think so.

Happy Birthday Tiffi!

I give Zak my camera for 5 minutes one day and look what I find... Is he in LOVE or what? Have a happy 22nd Tiffanie! Don't be mad at me - you are gorgeous.

The best yet...

I love halloween! It has always been my favorite holiday. This year was great, except that we missed out on Water's Halloween yard. BUMMER! Here are some fun costumes - the best is my mom's. I still can't get over how much it cracked me up. Good job, mom!

SERIOUSLY FUNNY PHOTO DELETED - TOO BAD IF YOU MISSED OUT...

Silly Kid

This is just a funny conversation I had with Kobe today:

Kobe: "Mom, when will I get a husband?"

Me: "You are going to have a wife, you are going to MARRY A GIRL."

Kobe: "Oh. When will I find her?"

Me: "Not for a long time. You don't get married until you are like 25."

Kobe: "Is grandma Pam 25?"

Me: "No, she's old." (haha -sorry mom)

Kobe: (panicking) "Is she going to die soon?"

Me: "No, she's not that old."

Kobe: "When she get's really old will she have to bend her knees alot?"

Me: "uh... ya."

Parenting Blues

I have had the hardest time getting Teylor to clean her room without a fight. I have threatened, taken away toys, grounded, you name it. Well, tonight I got it. I asked her to get her room clean and she instantly started crying, yelling at Kobe, tattling non-stop and all together being a big BRAT (and all of this while I'm trying to give a piano lesson, of course). I dealt with her as calmly as possible until my piano student left and then it hit me. Why do we let our kids do gymnastics and dance? To get them to love it, so we can take it away. haha - not really. I sat her down and told her that gymnastics and dance are priveledges and that if she acts like this anymore than she will lose them. So tonight I kept her home from gymnastics. You would think the world ended. She is so desperate to go, she is trying everything possible. She has told me, "You aren't the best mom I thought you were." and "When I tell you to take me, you do it!", and "I don't want you to be my mom ANYMORE!" WOW. Jessie is so loving this because it's usually her wigging out. She and I butt heads so much, it's not hard to practice tough love on her. But Teylor? I don't have to do this very often (obviously I shoulda done) and it is HARD! It just stinks to be a parent sometimes, that's all.

Housekeeping

About a month ago, Jed and I decided to buy a janitorial company in Cedar City, called Cedar Shines Janitorial. Why, you ask? Who knows. Jed is always looking at businesses and this just caught his eye. When he told me about it I thought that this would be a great thing for me to do while my kids are all in school. Why didn't I just enjoy the freedom for one year? So, we went into more debt, which is our specialty, and started a janitorial company. It has been A LOT of work so far getting it up and running. I feel like I have been running this whole month to get things taken care of, but now I can see the light. Another thing I realized after starting this new business... I HATE to clean. I don't want to clean my own house, let alone someone's office. Jed and I have had to clean the SL office a couple of times - it wasn't bad, but I wouldn't want to do it everyday (or even once a week...) The toilet cleaner that we have to use actually kills the HIV virus. Isn't that overkill, or am I clueless? I was out of toilet bowl cleaner at home, so I took some from our SL office and now my toilets are HIV free!

If you know anyone in Cedar City who needs some extra work, let us know! Because Cedar Shines. Oh ya, baby.

WOW - Could it be closer to Jed?

You Are An ISTP

The Mechanic You are calm and collected, even in the most difficult of situations. A person of action and self-direction, you love being independent. To outsiders you seem impulsive, surprising, and unpredictable. You are good at understanding how all things work, except for people. In love, you tend to be very easy going and flexible. The only thing you can't stand for is someone trying to change you or your life. At work, you can stay completely calm under pressure. You handle stress well. You would make an excellent pilot, forensic pathologist, or athlete. How you see yourself: Logical, flexible, and unconventional When other people don't get you, they see you as: Indecisive, flippant, and disrespctful

What's Your Personality Type?

Jaime, the flirty, gushy heartbreaker. yeah baby.

You Are An ENFP

The Inspirer You love being around people, and you are deeply committed to your friends. You are also unconventional, irreverent, and unimpressed by authority and rules. Incredibly perceptive, you can usually sense if someone has hidden motives. You use lots of colorful language and expressions. You're quite the storyteller! In love, you are quite the charmer. And you are definitely willing to risk your heart. You often don't follow through with your flirting or professed feelings. And you do break a lot of hearts. At work, you are driven but not a workaholic. You just always seem to enjoy what you do. You would make an excellent entrepreneur, politician, or journalist. How you see yourself: compassionate, unselfish, and understanding When other people don't get you, they see you as: gushy, emotional, and unfocused

What's Your Personality Type?

He's all BOY.

Just something I just heard from the next room: Kobe just "sang" at the top of his lungs, "Five, Thix, Theven, eight, na na na na- na na na na NAA NAA NAAAAA, You are the MUTHIC in, THE MUTHIC in ME!"

I had to add the lisp - it's too funny. Anyone who has seen High School Musical 2 knows exactly what I'm talking about. What a kid.

Where's Daman Wayans?

Park City Adventure

About a month ago, mom and dad took all 22 of us to Park City for the weekend. They got us a sweet condo to stay in and we just hung out together. It was so much fun!

Grandpa and Kobe at the pool

The men had a who's hairiest discussion at the pool. I think Jed won! Way to go, hun!

Heidi and I started it out by going to the Gap Outlet for a killer sale. We had an extra 30% off coupon so the prices were crazy cheap. I don't know what happens to me during sales, I HAVE to get everything possible because these kind of prices will NEVER happen again (it's a disease). I ended up spending way more than I ever do and I about had a heart attack when she told me how much it was (Where's that damn credit card!). Heidi and I decided to go back to the room and analyze and return. We analyzed but did no returning. Oh well.

One of my favorite activities was the Alpine Coaster. There's no way of falling out of the thing, so you can go as fast as you want. Kobe and I went together and I tried to go as fast as possible the whole way down. I got some great screams out of Kobe (all happy). Ike and Vivi went behind me and went a LOT slower. Ike, being the awesome dad he is, didn't want to scare Viv, so he took it easy. We later saw the guy that was behind them demanding to get free tickets to go down again - haha.

I loved spending time together in such an awesome place. Thanks so much, mom and dad!

SPIDER FROM YOU KNOW WHERE

Two weekends ago, the kids had a party for the premier of High School Musical 2. Jess and Maddie decorated the basement so cute and some of Jess and Teylor's friends came to watch the show and then have a big slumber party. Jed was out of town so when the girls started screaming about a HUGE "tarantula" on the stairs, I freaked. I seriously get paralyzed when there is a spider close by. I think it all stems back to when I was about 5 years old and a little jerk kid put a daddy long leg down the back of my shirt and I couldn't get it out, but could feel it crawling on my back. UGH! the memories... So, I've been pretty happy here because I NEVER see spiders. Now I know why. This GIGANTIC spider is eating all of the other ones. All I could hear were the girls from the basement SCREAMING BLOODY MURDER. The only thing I could think of was to spray it with this nasty bug killer I just got (thank the heavens). I had to yell at the girls to stop screaming and then I heard Maddie saying "don't kill it! Take a picture for the blog!!!" Now that's dedication. I sprayed the crap out of it and then took a picture. It was all shriveled up in the picture - it was WAY bigger alive. SHIVER. I sprayed the whole house inside and out and found the craziest webs - yep, funnel webs the Hobo's make (or as my family call them, Homo's) and I'm pretty sure we had quite the homo family living in our house. I really hope that spray works.

Phase 2

Yes, it has been 3 months, but the yard is coming slowly but surely. About a month ago, Jed, Mike and I went out to The Great Salt Lake and filled Jed's truck up with rocks. It was A LOT of work for me, so I can't imagine what those men went through. It was done that afternoon and it turned out AWESOME! Me and Jed never would have been able to do it without Mike. He can like VISUALIZE it.

So today, I was thinking, you know, I should really start looking into cement curbing. We've wanted to get it done and so let's get some bids. I had a phone number of a curbing place on the fridge that I put there months ago, so I gave them a call and left a message. Rob, the cement guy, called me back a few minutes later and says "we had a guy cancel today so we could be to your house in 30 minutes and get it done." THIS IS THE REASON WHY I HATE PHONE CALLS. Instead of saying, "I better talk to my husband first" or "how much exactly is it going to be?", I just say, "uh-ok." After I got off the phone I tried like mad to call Jed, but the guy never answers his phone while golfing. What's up with that? 3 hours later I have cement curbing and Jed still has no idea. It turned out good and I think I got a good price...

This is what I want to know: How many husbands out there would be; a) appreciate of such an assertive wife; b) annoyed that she didn't do any shopping around and is such a pushover, but glad that it got taken care of; or c) mad as hell. I'm hoping for a, but I really can handle b too. We'll see!

8 Things You are all DYING to know about me...

Thanks to Maddie for passing this list on to me. Here goes nothin...

1. I was a pretty irresponsible teenager (as my parents will tell you). I wrecked a mint green Infiniti Q45 into the owners brick mailbox and did $1500 damage to the car. Ya, I was babysitting and I did NOT have permission to take there saweet car.

2. A few months after that fiasco, I was babysitting again (why did they keep calling me?) and I ran into a big pole with an old and dented truck. I didn't tell anyone about that one. What's one more dent?

3. When Jed and I broke up my senior year, I went a little wild and went camping with 10 boys and just me. I was the only sober person and I slept in a car with a total stranger. I am horrified that I did this now, and I would KILL any daughter/niece who ever followed in my footsteps. ps - the guys were complete gentlemen. I had a gaurdian angel for sure.

4. When I was in college, I worked at Taco Time. My boss was in a huge panic because one of the machines had broken down so he asked me to go get him a Phillips screwdriver. I frantically looked and looked through the tool box and returned empty handed. I told him that I couldn't find any Phillips because they all said Stanley.

5. Me and Heidi went to London and Paris about 10 years ago. While we were in Paris we got in a fight about whether or not to go to McDonalds to eat. Apparantly Heidi can live on a baguette and hot chocolate for the whole day. I left her without a map, or any idea what the name of our hotel was. I didn't speak any french and I was LOST. I called Jed in SLC and cried to him, of course he was helpless. I wandered for about 4 hours and finally stumbled across my hotel. Good times. I now know that I have to be fed at least 3 times a day, or I'm unreasonable.

6. I was talking to Jed just the other night about this trip to London and he asked if we took a boat from London to Paris. I told him no that we had taken the train. I then wondered out loud, "Is there water between London and Paris??" I honestly didn't know and now I am questioning Jeds intelligence... How in the hell do you take a train through water? Please help.

7. I have a phobia of talking on the phone. It makes me so nervous and I always feel like an idiot after I talk to someone. I have one friend who calls me about 3 times a day and I'm finally getting to the point where I answer her phone calls and I'm not so uncomfortable talking to her on the phone. Although, 3 times a day is WAY TOO MUCH. Who has time for that?

8. I LOVE the fall!!! I can't wait for walks and hikes in the cool weather, leaves, baseball playoffs (go Yankees), football (BYU & maybe this year the 49ers will be worth watching- when I was pregnant with Jess I would blow-off my pre-natal classes to watch Steve Young rock the casba. He was my FAVORITE) and Halloween. It's the best time of the year.

There you have it! Mom - You're IT! Good Luck.

Zoey the retard

I'm really trying to be positive about this dog, but seriously. She is HUGE. She is now a full-time outside dog, which is sad. And now she is apparantly a vegetarian. She is picking the zuccini and squash out of my garden and eating it. It makes me SO mad! I have a cute little (like 1 foot high) fence around my garden to keep her out. Ya- it doesn't work. Jed thinks it is hilarious. What do I do with this dog?

Demolition Derby

On Monday, Jed and I took the kids to our first demolition derby up in Kamas. I have never been to one of these, but Jed's dad used to DRIVE in one in Heber and they loved it. I don't know about you, but the cars crashing and men fighting and yelling was too much testosterone for me! The people there were VERY interesting. Alot of men with big steroid muscles and surprinsingly, alot of pretty ladies. Except for the "powder puff" race. Those ladies crashing into each other had no "powder" or "puff" in them at all (haha - I'm such a snob!).

This year, they had an award for the most aggressive driver, so apparantly it was alot crazier this year than it has been in the past. We saw cars start on fire, blow radiater caps (I think....) with smoke and putrid smells shooting through the air, men almost getting run over and the coolest - a car completely flipping over. It was hard to get over the shock of it all, but by the end, we were enjoying it and laughing.

Next year, during the week of the 24th, if you are so inclined to experience a culture shock. We HAVE to go to the demolition derby. Next time I'm wearing ear plugs and getting some temporary tatoos for sure.

Fun Photos

The fourth of July festivities were great this year! The parade, carnival, BBQ, Provo river run and fireworks were so much fun. The only bad part was almost losing Paul and Alex down the Provo River. Paul now has more war wounds to add to his collection.

The Riverton parade was great. Kobe was very cute standing with his hand on his heart as the flag went by. I don't know what Jessie is doing (in the orange) picking a melvin?

The parade was 3 hours long!! We didn't make it to the carnival until about 9:30 p.m., so it was short and sweet.

The Sandy fireworks were good, but not great. I think next year we will just stick to Riverton. The highlight of the night for me was this: They had a live band playing really lively music. All of a sudden the music got a hold of Kobe and he couldn't help but just stand up and dance (he must have gotten that from his mom...) It was really exuberant dancing. I REALLY wished I had a video camera! He had a completely serious look on his face and just went wild. Jed had a hard time watching his son try to dance like a cheerleader, but did really good to just let him go for it. He even had to close his eyes and pretend like he was a sleep for a while, until Kobe's dancing got so crazy that he was drawing a lot of attention to himself and Jed finally yelled, "Kobe, SIT DOWN!" Kobe looked sad and said, "But those girls are smiling at me." I don't know what he was thinking, but it was hilarious.

Thanks for a great day everyone!

The 4th of July

I love the fourth of July. It is my favorite holiday. We had so much fun on the 4th growing up. Lagoon and Dirks feild where dad would play the trumpet in the army band. I LOVED that. They would play all those patriotic songs and then we would watch the fireworks and eat licorice. I'm trying to get my kids (and husband) to love it as I do. Every year so far, all the kids are hiding under the blankets because they are afraid of the fireworks and Jed is asleep. But I still watch and enjoy.

Everone thinks I'm crazy, but I love the parades! I love the flag, bands, royalty, little old veterans, motorcyles, clowns, really everything about it. I guess finding a spot and the heat aren't great, but the rest of it is awesome. Frozen chocolate covered bananas- oh baby. And this year we can cheer for Hillary - the QUEEN. cool.

Yesterday, I got this shirt for Kobe for the 4th and he said -"hey, just like Grandpa Randy." My Dad is definetly a 4th of July guy and I think I got my love of the day from him. We need to go to another Army Band concert!

BUGGED

Do you ever have days when everyone is on your nerves? Today is one of those days and I can't get out of my funk, so I'm using this blog to vent (lucky you). I got mad at Jed over the STUPIDEST thing even after he spent 2 days fixing my sprinkler problems and finishing the honey-do list that I gave him before he was ready for it... My kids are driving me batty and my neighbors/friends are all being so rude and insensitive. For example: my LOVELY next door neighbor came over while I was feverishly working on my garden in the 100 degree heat and said, "I just love your cute little garden!" I gave her the look like "are you freaking kidding me?" You had to hear her tone... And then my friend dropped Kobe off and said - "oh, sorry my son hit Kobe because he got mad at him for calling him dody instead of cody. He just doesn't understand that he can't say K-ody." Well tell your kid to stop being such a sh--. haha. I know it's me, but I'm not even pre-menstrual. What's the deal??? Please don't call me today, or I might be overly rude. Maybe a good night sleep and some chocolate (wow - even chocolate doesn't sound good) and I will be "normal" tomorrow. Ok -I'm done.

PS - posting that picture did make me a little happier.

Your probably a red neck if...

I couldn't stand seeing that picture of me!! Sorry if you missed it.

The result of my falling on my face is my tooth slowly dying and then hopefully coming back to life. It has been a very painful 3 weeks. My front tooth was so sensitive that breathing through my mouth, eating anything not-hot, brushing, etc., about sent me through the roof. And to top that all off, my tooth has turned into a lovely pinkish brown color. So, it's now been 3 weeks and the pain is subsiding, but the color is still there. My very non-red neck friend said today, "haven't you gone to the dentist yet?" I said, "No, it isn't hurting as bad - I think it's healing on it's own." She says, "but aren't you going to get that bleached???" I've decided for the time being that I want to truly be a Hilton (red neck, hillbilly). So I'm leaving it brown. What do you think? By the way - the picture does NOT do my brown tooth justice.

Dooby

Kobe is always cracking us up. I love 4 year olds - they are still little and cute and they haven't gotten t0 the 6 year old buggy stage yet. Here are two things that stand out that Kobe has said in the past few weeks:

We went to Lake Powell with Jed's dad. Most of you know Jody, well we were having breakfast and Jody went to pour himself a 2nd helping of cereal when Kobe stood up and said, "NO! I don't want any of my grandma and grandpa's to be fat!"

Last night we went to Tanner's flat with the kids and Jessie was in one of her sulky moods and we were trying to talk to her about being happy and just having fun with the family. On the way home -out of the blue- Kobe turned to her and said, "Jessie, you always follow Satan."

Last thing: I was in the front yard weeding when Kobe asked me, "How do you pray outside?" I told him that you kneel down and pray just like we do it inside. So he kneels down in the front yard and starts praying. When he was done he looked up in the sky for a minute, then let out a little frustrated grunt and started praying again. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "when we pray outside we look up and see Jesus. I want to see Jesus." They had been taught about the sacred grove on Sunday. At least he's listening!

I just love the kid.

Impatient

I am an impatient mom sometimes (a lot). Monday, we had just gotten home from Lake Powell and we were all dirty and stinky. It was about 8:30 p.m. and the kids needed to get cleaned up and in bed fast. So I made all 3 of them get into the shower at the same time. Well, you know what happens when 3 kids take a shower... about an inch of water on the floor. I told them about 50 times to GET OUT of the shower, and of course they didn't until I screamed bloody murder. I decided to just leave the shower running so I could get in while Jed got the kids in there PJs. I went into the bathroom and noticed all of the water on the floor so I told Teylor she better get in there and clean it up. By then the kids were scared enough of me that they did what I said and Teylor came in and started drying the floor. I then thought I'd better hurry and get in the shower before all of the hot water was gone, so I hurried and tried to step around Teylor who was bent over drying the floor, when my foot slipped while I was half in half out of the tub and I went down hard. I think my hands tried to stop the fall, but it was so wet that instead my face slammed into the edge of the tub to stop me. I thought I had knocked out my teeth and broken my nose because it hurt like the dickens. I let out the most hilarious scream (in between Kermit the frog and Pee wee) and Jed came running in seeing me all bloody sitting in the tub. It was terrible! Turns out I split my lip, knocked my front tooth loose and bruised the heck out of my nose, mouth and forehead. I look freaky. My lip is huge! It's interesting that out of all the people I've seen, they all give me funny looks but no one asks what happened. I wonder what they are thinking... fight? collagen gone bad? I don't know. Good times.

Closet Dancer

This is way nerdy, but I've always wanted to be a dancer and because I never took dance classes, I've never felt like I could be. Those of you who are dance reluctant, do you remember high school and stake dances and how painful they were??? I would dread being asked to dance a "fast" dance because I felt like such a moron. Now that I'm older and just don't care as much, I just wanna dance. Especially after I watched the Academy Award winning movie "Stomp the Yard" and have secretly been going to the wicked "Body and Soul" classes at the gym (I can't stop) I have decided to stop fighting it. Who cares what I look like, right? Well, I have decided to just dance downstairs with the music blaring when no one else is home. Weird? Maybe, but it's fun and keeps me humble. hee hee. If you have the inclination, Wind it Up is the perfect song to get you moving. WIND IT UP!

Phase 1

Isn't it beautiful? Mike, Bronson & Jed got it all done while I was at a mother/daughter party so I got to come home to it all done. It amazed me! I could never have done a flower bed like that - I don't have the imagination for it. It's perfect. We're still going to add some ground cover and I think another rock in the middle and then let it grow. Good job, Mike!

These are my favorite.

I love the rocks! That's something I wouldn't have known how to add - they make it look so great. Mike and Bronson went and got them. He said I needed maybe 5 rocks and came back with 12. Is that cool or what?

LOUDBOY to the RESCUE!

About a month ago, Mike (loudboy) was picking up his girls from piano lessons and once again landscaping my yard in his mind. Jed and I aren't very good at yard stuff so when Mike volunteered to landscape for us I was so excited. Jed will love it when it's done... Anyways, so we've taken out all of our old crap and we are going to start planting new stuff today!!! I'm so excited and so amazed at Mike's generosity. He's come over a few times to prune the trees, add new sprinklers, till the ground (yes - that's a lot) and today we are going to plant. I will take pictures as we go. Between the Rasmussen's, we're going to keep Mike busy. How are the shutters, Mandi?

A Little Girls Best Friend

Teylor came home crying because no one would play with her at school. It broke my heart! She hasn't had problems with friends before - so it was very sad. Anyways, I looked out in the back yard and there is Teylor laying on Zoey, just hanging out. It was the sweetest! All of the hair, poo, smell and digging (notice the nose) was all worth it. At least for today.

Wedding Pics

Tiffanie planned the most beautiful wedding. For there first wedding, they were experts! Her dress was amazing... with that bod though, any dress would be amazing.

He looks wasted. haha.

SOOOO Cute!

Kobe looks so little in this picture. I forget sometimes. The food was AWESOME! I wish I could have that everyday. yum.