Mallory LOVES helping me unload the dishwasher. If I have the door open she's climbing into it the minute I turn around.


The days are long, but the years are short.
Mallory LOVES helping me unload the dishwasher. If I have the door open she's climbing into it the minute I turn around.
Posted by
Stephanie
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2:48 PM
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Last Saturday we all went to my brother Aaron's house to play his Rock Band. Very fun! We all took turns jammin'. Next time I want to get a babysitter so I can enjoy myself a little more! Ross, Elizabeth, Emmaline, and Mary Catherine rocked out to Weezer's "Say It Ain't So."
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Stephanie
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2:28 PM
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Do I have your attention? No, it's not THAT kind of addition - we have a new kitten! The kids have been begging for a pet for a while, so here we go! I found this sweet little 4 month old kitten for free on Craigslist.com. She is up to date on all of her shots (which she might need at our place), she was free, and she was in the town next to ours. We thought we'd give it a try. Edward picked her up from the Smokey Smokerton family on Friday night and surprised the kids with her. He said the guy met him at the door without a shirt with tattoos all over and was missing a few fingers (I really hope that's not why they're getting rid of the cat).
She's still a baby at four months old, but she's not too tiny that I would fear for her survival around here. As some of you may know, we are 0-2 in the cat department here. Our two previous kitty's didn't make it. We thought we'd take a break from cats for a while. Three years later we're ready to give it another shot.
The kids knew we were possibly getting her (we told them we'd pick her up the next day) so we spent the day coming up with names. The final four names were Lucy, Lola, Maxine, and Ruby. I e-mailed Edward at work and asked him to be the tie-breaking vote. He e-mailed back and said he wanted to name her Kate since he didn't get to pick Mallory's name. Oh, our naming tastes vary so drastically. Anyway, the kids pretty much started calling her Shadow the minute they saw her (excuse me, that wasn't on the list!), so it has stuck. This is little Shadow: I think she is such a pretty black kitty! Except for a tiny bit of white on her tummy, she is completely black.
Posted by
Stephanie
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10:45 PM
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Ugh! Out of the last fourteen days, the kids have only been to school for TWO of those days. Yes, TWO! We keep getting sleet/snow/freezing rain, and the temperature has been so cold nothing is really melting. The kids, of course, are loving life. I, of course, enjoy the snow days until about 9:30 a.m. After that time I start going STIR CRAZY until Edward comes home in the evenings. It's not like I really can (or even want to) take all four kiddos out and find something to do for several reasons. 1. The roads have been TERRIBLE. Here in Missouri, we kind of shut down when we get these kind of storms. We're just not equipped to deal with them. 2. A lot of places of business have also been closed because employees can't make it in to work. The kids' practices and games have all been cancelled. That really leaves us twiddling our thumbs because that fills SO much of our time.
Church was even cancelled today. We got up and started getting ready but then got a phone call to inform us of the cancellation. My first thought was, "NO! Another day of being cooped up!" It was a pretty good day though because at least Edward was here all day. We all bundled up and headed outside this morning for a little family snowman building/snowball war.
I just checked and so far we're still on for school tomorrow. Oh please, don't snow/ice any more tonight! I don't think I can make it another day! I also don't want the kids to still be in school until the 4th of July. On second thought....
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Stephanie
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10:33 PM
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So, including weekends, our kids will have been out of school for 10 days when they go back on Tuesday. Man, that's like Christmas break all over! School was cancelled last Monday because of the impending ice storm. We woke up to brown, dead grass. No snow. No ice. I thought, "This thing had better come to fruition." It did. After the storm passed, we ended up with about 4 inches of ice pellets. Let me tell you, that makes for some AWESOME sledding! The first day, Edward came home early to play in the snow/ice with the kids. Oops. I mean, he closed his office early because the weather was so bad. Yep. That's the story. They next day he was thoughtful enough to come home early to stay in with Mallory and cook supper so I could go out and play. Fun! Good times, good times. So by Friday of this week, I was ready for the kids to go back. They still get tomorrow off because of President's Day. Yippee. Oh well. - one more day to sleep in! To all of you Southern beach bums - you're really missing out!
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Stephanie
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11:49 PM
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Posted by
Stephanie
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11:18 PM
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Ben is an AMAZING actor. I don't know how he does it, but he is a natural. He auditioned for Little Shop of Horrors at BYU, and he got the lead role! He is Seymour in the student-directed play. I'd say that is quite an accomplishment since he is only a Freshman! In high school he played Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther and Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast just to name a few. He is outstanding.
The boys in our family definitely got the acting talent. Aaron, Joel, & Ben have all been stand-outs. I suppose Andrea & I got the athletic ability over the boys. I had a semester of drama in high school - mostly because some of my friends were taking the class, and our teacher was EEEEEEAAAASSSSYYYYY - a guaranteed A. I stunk! I can remember putting on a small performance for our parents. I was onstage in an old auditorium that was hot and stuffy. The side doors had to be propped open for some air circulation. As I was onstage reciting my lines, the audience started cracking up. My lines weren't meant to be funny, so I checked my fly. Yep, all good. I turned to look around a bit and saw that a stray cat had entered through the open doors and made its way onstage with me. Being the composed actor that I was, I LOST IT! I laughed so hard and could not stop. I'll just leave the acting up to the boys from now on.
Posted by
Stephanie
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4:54 PM
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After reading a recent blog entry from Edward's cousin, Sarah (The Kirchmann family's blog)I was reminded of this song. She mentioned being held to the floor as a child by my sweet Edward as he teased her with spit dripping onto her face. I might mention he was a child too. I first heard this song several years ago, and it still makes me laugh until I cry. Be sure to pause my music player to the right to be able to listen to the song. Enjoy.
Posted by
Stephanie
at
10:55 PM
1 comments
Ross took another first place finish at a wrestling tournament in Rolla over the weekend. He won three matches (4-1, win by pin, 9-1). Again, I wasn't able to be there as it is now Elizabeth's turn to be sick with strep throat. I'm feeling like I may bring him bad luck since he has won the two tournaments that I have had to miss.
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Stephanie
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1:00 PM
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Stephanie
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1:30 PM
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Stephanie
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1:21 PM
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Stephanie
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1:12 PM
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That is what Drew thinks is said on the Chuck E. Cheese commercial. After four kids we've learned NEVER to go there on a Saturday! Usually it's the restaurant they always choose for their birthday dinner, so off we went last Monday night. We had a pretty good time.
Posted by
Stephanie
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1:01 PM
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So, I accidentally deleted a PRICELESS picture from my digital camera. Dang it! I googled "recovering a deleted photo" and this site popped up:
www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/60
Lo and behold it worked! Yay!!!! I think you'll see why I was so thrilled to get it back... Notice the Grip of Death Mallory has on me. Look at the rigid line of her body as she pulls away from Chuck E. As he began to approach, I felt her tighten up as her entire body squeezed mine. The whole ordeal only took about 10 seconds, so I don't think she'll be too traumatized. Funny!
Posted by
Stephanie
at
12:48 PM
1 comments
So, because Edward is such an awesome insurance agent, he racked up a bunch of points toward a campaign at American Family. You turn in your points and get to choose from a bunch of great products. The Sony Handycam is what I, I mean we chose. We have had our other video camera since I was pregnant with Ross nine years ago. It still works, but it won't keep a battery charged. We've tried several different batteries, so apparently it's the camera that is causing the trouble. Anyway, as I said, there were a lot of products to choose from. Edward really had his eye on some exercise equipment, but being the good man that he is, decided to use his points for something we both would use. ;)
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Stephanie
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12:56 PM
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3:06 PM
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10:01 PM
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3:48 PM
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1:39 PM
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Stephanie
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11:23 PM
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Stephanie
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4:54 PM
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I LOVE this article! How funny is this! If only we had more "Jane Hambleton's" we'd probably have less "Britney Spears'."
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Stephanie
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10:58 PM
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Stephanie
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8:53 AM
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