In case you are wondering

If any of you out there are wondering what is in those stress balls that you squeeze with your hand. The very ones that Phil seems to collect at the conferences that he goes to. The very ones that the kids love to play with. Well. . . when they burst, there is florescent green goo in there. And it doesn't look to good on cream carpet, or leather chairs, or a white stuffed teddy bear, or on a yellow t-shirt, or in the hair of a child. Yup, that's what is in there and it isn't fun to clean up. Use this information how you wish. I just told Phil to steer clear of those from now on.

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

Lately I've had a big case of the grumpies. Not sure why, maybe it was being sequestered in my house for so long painting, (post traumatic stress) or the crazy end of the school year stuff, (much too busy) or the lack of adult social interaction with all the kids home for the summer (I really need more social interaction). Whatever the reason I really needed a fun night out. So a good friend and I started planning last week to go out last night. It was so fun to have something to look forward to all week. I was so excited, almost giddy to have a fun relaxing night out.
And . . . it was just what the Dr. ordered. My entire attitude is so much better today! I had such a good time. We laughed continually (in short bursts) the entire night. Laughed and talked through dinner, mostly laughed while in Sears trying to figure out a Fathers Day gift for Phil (the men in there really thought we were crazy). Laughed even more as we sniffed and sprayed our way through Bath and Body works. We came out of there with about 20 different smells all over us. Yummy! Laughed our way to the movie, laughed really hard at silly stuff during the previews, laughed really hard when one of us dumped pop down our shirt, and continued laughing during the funny movie. Laughed on our way home. . . ahhh, what a great night. Thanks my wonderful friend. . . yes, that's you Leslie, love you tons!

The Kids

Our kids are going through a interesting phase right now. There is a clear split, Kaden and Kambrie - Becca and Kyson. They are all playing really well together in this little grouping. I just worry about it a little bit. . . maybe they will all decide they can play together. I'm just happy that Kaden is involved with them at all. Given the age difference between him and the other kids, he tends to do his own thing a lot.
Him and Kambrie both work with the dogs. Kambrie's one dog job turned into two when another puppy joined their house. So she recruited Kaden to help her. He had a hard time being her "employee" at first, and they both had to work on how they treated each other. But now things are going well.
They have all decided that the sleeping arrangements need to be switched, about every night. As long as they sleep and they don't think they can join our bed, I'm pretty much good with it. So Sunday night Kaden and Kambrie slept in Kaden's room (kambrie on the floor). Becca and Kyson in their own beds. Monday night, same arrangement in Kaden's room, Becca in her bed, Kyson in there in Kambrie's bed. Tuesday night, Kambrie in her room and her bed, Kaden in there in Becca's bed. Becca in Kyson's room in Kyson bed, Kyson in there as well, sleeping on his floor. It's kinda funny and I'm trying to be flexible, so as long as they sleep and don't fight, we will see how long the musical beds lasts.

The Tree Project

It seems like there is always some project going on at the Burton house. This is the tree that we cut down on Memorial day. It was just too close to the house and was continually clogging our rain gutters. Thankfully we have wonderful friends who came over and cut it all up, then another one that came and hauled away a ton of wood for firewood. It has taken a while for the tree to all go away, but this weekend while Becca and I were gone, the rest of the family worked hard and got it all out of the yard. YEA.

Memorial Day Fun

I know this post is a little slow in coming, but what can I say, I'm slow. But we had a fun day. It started with breakfast at the church and a bike parade for the kids. They all had a great time bringing their bikes, scooters, etc. to ride. Kambrie still had training wheels on her bike, and sadly some of the kids were making fun of her. Someone even took one her training wheels off, then only put it half way back on so it fell right off when she started riding. I think I was more bugged than she was. We worked through it and she really had a good attitude. At one point she got a piggy back ride from a cute friend, then she just started sprinting around the parade route. I was really proud that she didn't let what others were saying about her get her down. I was of the attitude that when she wanted to learn to ride two wheels, she would. And it hasn't been a big priority for her. But. . . since Memorial Day she is a proud two wheel rider. It took her one day to learn, her nice sister helped her.

Me and my mom. She was visiting for about three weeks. Funny story. A few days after she got here she decided that she wanted me to cut her hair. I thought she was crazy, but she insisted so I did it. I'm so glad that I started in the back because I'm used to cutting Kysons hair, and so the first cut was pretty darn short. So I fixed that, then moved to the front, still just hacking away, not really knowing what I was doing, just trying to get it even. I was pretty nervous about how it was going to look when I was done. I kept telling her not to be upset, but she did ask me, knowing full well that I don't know what I am doing. But after I fixed it, she really liked it. She was a little surprised by how short it was in the back, but liked it. If she never asks me to cut her hair again I won't be at all surprised by that. But back to Memorial day, after the church thing, my mom and I went shopping. Kambrie had a friend over and Becca went to a friends house. Phil cut down our big tree (well a friend cut it down), so he worked on that. Then we went out to dinner with some good friends. It was a fun day all in all. Oh, look, it's the Cat in the Hat, oh I mean Phil.


Me and cute Janus. What a fun friend she is.

Soccer Mom?

Since I was the assistant coach for the girls soccer, does that mean that I am truly a soccer mom now. This is the first time any of my kids have been in soccer and we really enjoyed it. Except for the super cold day. Yuck! I really learned a lot about the game and the girls want to sign up again in the fall. Will soccer become our new thing? I would love for them to be in a sport, especially one that requires so much running. Great exercise.



Me and the girls. I have a strange look on my face, I was trying to figure out what was taking Phil so long to take the picture.





Sister against sister.














Becca loves playing goalie, and the "real" coach who knew what he was doing.

Lame Tooth Fairy and another funny

Does anyone else have a lame tooth fairy? Ours keeps forgetting to come! Last night Kambrie lost a tooth and sure thing, this morning the tooth was still there. I try and explain why she didn't make it, like last night there was a big storm. But I'm finding it hard to come up with good excuses for this behavior. It's a good thing my kids are very forgiving. . . she must be getting older and can't remember or something.
Then to add yet another funny story to the many others in our life: Last night we drove out of town to a graduation open house. On the way there I mentioned to Phil that we should put gas in the car when we got home. For some reason neither Phil or I realized how far we would be driving on a quarter tank of gas. When we arrived at the open house we thought it would be a good idea to find out where the nearest gas station was before we left. We were told there was a gas station at the next town, just a few miles from where we were. No problem getting there. So we pull off the exit to turn into the gas station and realize that it is closed. Not closed for the night, but the tanks were all roped off, the last gas price was 3.76 (that was at least a few weeks ago). We then hop back on the freeway hoping to make it to the next gas station. We see a sign that says next gas station 15 miles. That doesn't seem like too far. . . so we continue driving. When we got to that exit we realize it is the one we take to come home anyway so we have made it. So we continue on our merry way thinking that all is well. . . then Phil says "oh, we just ran out of gas." Great, we still seem to be pretty far out of town and our car has died. I know there is a gas station just up the road, but can't see it from where we are. Phil puts the car in neutral and we continue to coast into town. It's amazing how far you can coast when the hills are in your favor. As we are coasting along at about 50 mph we see Kwik Trip of to the left. We realize that we are going to have to take the next exit, which is up hill. We take in and continue to go and see another gas station off to our right, which is DOWN HILL! Yea, so we really don't stop at the stop sign or red light as we make two right turns to get to the gas station. Thankfully we didn't really need to. We just about make it and we run out of momentum. I'm talking yards away from the tanks. So the kids and I jump out and start pushing before the car comes to a complete stop. I'm sure it looked very strange, but we were all laughing as we pushed our car (van) next to the gas pump! Yup we are all a little strange in this family. But are more than willing to laugh at ourselves.

Cool Dad

Kambrie has been trying to get Phil to dance with her at several talent show type things. Her and Phil do this cute dance and she loves it. Well, finally all the schedules aligned and Phil was able to attend the 3rd grade talent show on Friday. It was really cute and very nice of Phil to step so far out of his comfort zone. What a sport. And Becca sang this very cute song she learned in choir. They both did a great job.

Mr. Baseball

Kyson's current obsession is baseball. He has been carrying his mitt everywhere and even sleeping with it. I guess I need to get him signed up for t-ball.

Girls night out

A tradition we have started in our family is when the boys have their father/son camp out, we girls do something fun. That fun thing the past few years is going to the mall shopping. So off we went, Grandma and all to enjoy an evening of shopping. I have learned that when I take these two shopping divas that I plan on not shopping for myself. I also call them my S.I.T.s (shoppers in training). I feel it my personal responsibility to teach them how to shop. So it is quite an intensive routine, but they are learning really well. This is how the evening went.

1st stop - gum ball machines
2nd stop - Claire's. Ooh and aah over all the cute cute earrings. Pick out several pair, decide to share one pair so they can get the buy 2 get 1 deal. Put those on hold. . . they want to make sure another store doesn't have anything they want more. (good application of one of my lessons)
3rd stop - Icing - walk in and out. Jewelry too big and danglee (I was pretty scared of that store actually)
4th stop - Limited Too. This is their absolute favorite store. Guided them toward the sale rack, told them their dollar limit and let them go to town. We had a great time watching them model the different clothes they picked out. After some time, they made a choice, grabbed a couple pair of earrings of the buy one get one rack and left. Whew it was a whirl wind.
5th stop - Macy's - they didn't stay long. But we lost Grandma, so we waited by the escalator, then they started riding it up and down, then a nice lady made them stop. Still couldn't find grandma.
6th stop - Orange Julius to get a smoothie and walk back to Macy's to find Grandma.
7th stop - Claire's to purchase the earrings they had picked out, and Kambrie found another stuffed animal is just had to have. Convinced them that they didn't need to spend all of the money they had brought with them. I'm pretty much ready to go at that point anyway.
8th stop - gum ball machines again.
Done and heading home. Once we got home they had to rejoice over their purchases once again, put everything away, decide when they were going to wear what and went to bed. We were all tired. But it was a fun night. Love my girls.

Wow, everything is so clear

Several months ago Kambrie began complaining about her vision. Like the good mom I am, I just waited to see if this persisted or was a direct result of being tired and not wanting to do her homework or practice piano (this is when the vision problem would present itself). She did have trouble one day seeing the board at school from the back of the class so the nurse tested her eyes and they had changed a bit from the school wide testing. Still I waited. Finally I decided to make an appointment to see if there was anything really wrong. After an extensive appointment they determined that she was a little far sighted. The nice lady then put the prescription in those funky glasses they have there and took Kambrie out into the hall. She then told Kambrie to look down at the desk, which was quite a way down the hall. Then she put the funky glasses on Kambrie and Kambrie said "Wow! Everything is so CLEAR!" Yup I felt like such a good mom at that moment. So she now has a cute pair of glasses and enjoys seeing the world clearly now.