Another round of the Tooth Fairy

Who in their right mind would have thought our little "bird", Evan would lose a tooth so soon? NOT ME! It was only 3 days ago it was barely loose and by today it was really loose. Well, if a tooth is even kinda loose in this house, it's coming out! With a handy-dandy paper towel, and a little muscle from daddy, out comes Evan's first tooth! He lost his lower left tooth and thought it was "cool"! He immediately wanted to call his best friend, Andrew, but it was 10:15pm and we knew Andrew would be asleep, so I said, "Who else can we call?" He got just as excited and said "grandma and grandpa" so we got on the phone and gave them a call. He was so excited to tell them. He made his envelope and has it under his pillow all ready to go (hopefully the tooth fairy can do her part and remember :)... she's been out of practice for a while. He thinks he is big stuff now and as big as his brothers. Way to go, Ev! We're so proud of you!!! (Now if we can just get you a haircut?!!!)

All about MOMMY!

My sister, Tam, had this on her blog and I thought it was a great idea. I thought it would be fun to see the kid's response about their mom! I asked them 25 questions at individual times so that they wouldn’t say what the other one was saying. It was so fun to see the things that they think of this old mom of theirs :). The responses are from T-Tanner who is 11 ½, P-Parker who is 9, E-Evan who is 5 ½, and the M is for “Mom” in this case, not Mason. I thought were applicable, I’d give the right answer. This is a long post, but was interesting for me to find out what I do as a mom and what my kids think I do as a mom!

1. What is something Mom always says to you?
T. Do your chores, T!
P. See Parker, “Easily distracted”
E. Like you and Love you!
M. Everyday….Everyday I will tell them each how much I love them in one way or another and try to give them something positive for the day.

2. What makes Mom happy?
T. chocolate
P. when I’m good and do my chores and homework
E. be good and stuff
M. They’re ALL right! I am happy with all of that and I’m most happy when they’re happy!

3. What makes Mom sad?
T. disobeying
P. when I don’t do chores and pout and get mad about it
E. don’t be good
M. Again, good answers! I try not to get sad, but make sure they know I care when they’re sad!

4. How does your Mom make you laugh?
T. by messing with me
P. when she puts those curly things in her hair (I did this ONCE and he hasn’t forgotten since… he really did laugh hard!)
E. tickles me and my neck
M. I am a nut! I make a fool out of myself and I’m really good at just down right being a dork! It’s a talent I have!

5. What was your Mom like as a child?
T. weird- you have this scar thing on your face
P. she was smart and good and funny
E. like me cuz I be good
M. Tan was referring to my birthmark and I can see how he thinks that classifies me as a “weird” child. I tried to be good and smart and funny, but I do know that I adored my brothers and everything they did. I played sports because of them and loved being with them.

6. How old is your Mom?
T. 34
P. 34
E. 14 (oh I wish!)
M. Yep, 34!

7. How tall is your Mom?
T. 5’6”
P. my guess is 5’9”?
E. 14
M. I think I’m shrinking, so I’m going with 5’7”ish

8. What is Mom’s favorite thing to do?
T. playing with Mason and us
P. eating chocolate
E. play games
M. all the above! Anything with kids and family is great! I will admit I do love my kids, but a good GNO is fun too! Gotta get the estrogen in sometime!

9. What does your Mom do when you're not around?
T. clean and watch mason
P. clean up what mason makes a mess of
E. make stuff like food and stuff for mason
M. Sadly, that is my life. I clean and watch Mason. (and talk on the phone)

10. If your Mom became famous, what would it be for?
T. dancing and cheerleading (oh I love you!)
P. being the smartest person in all of the world. I know for sure it wouldn’t be a bikini model! (Thanks, Park! I know that for sure too!)
E. cuz hers eats cake
M. FBI’s most wanted??? Hawaiian Tropics Bikini contest winner??? Woman folds her 10.000.000th pair of jeans before 35! I don’t know, not planning on being famous, sorry!

11. What is your Mom good at?
T. athletic sports like basketball, volleyball and soccer and dodgeball with me and friends. Just not hockey, she’s not good at hockey!
P. math, cleaning and volleyball
E. soccer
M. I take the compliment and go with sports/athletics. I used to be a pretty dancer too! (don’t be too shocked, I have proof!)

12. What is your Mom not good at?
T. cooking meat (he means grilling… that’s Chris’ job)
P. hockey
E. kickball (what? I rock at kickball!)
M. I can’t believe they didn’t say SINGING! I am not a good singer!

13. What does your Mom do for her job?
T. cleaning
P. cleans the house and takes care of us
E. spidergirl
M. I’m spidergirl who cleans the house and takes care of kids! That sums it up!

14. What is your Mommy's favorite food?
T. chocolate
P. candy and chocolate
E. chocolate
M. Ok, ya got me! I love chocolate!

15. What makes you proud of your Mom?
T. winning National dance stuff- that’s Nationals and that’s cool
P. that she’s always nice to me all the time and my friends
E. she feed my dog for me everyday
M. I need to get tougher on these kids! Doing THEIR chores!

16. If your Mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
T. Minnie Mouse
P. Minnie Mouse
E. Batman
M. really? Goofy!

17. What do you and Mom do together?
T. we talk and stuff
P. we watch movies together and play sports
E. plays a game
M. Yes, Yes and Yes! As long as we’re together…love it!

18. How are you and Mommy the same?
T. we’re both athletic
P. both good at math
E. red, red and black, black (we both had black track pants and red t-shirts on)
M. All the above! I guess cuz they all did come from me, it’s only appropriate that they are something like me!

19. How are you different?
T. she barely eats anything to me… I can eat a lot!
P. she does contacts, and I don’t do contacts
E. she has long hair and I have short hair
M. I a girl who wears contacts and I eat just fine! The biggest difference… I’m a girl!

20. How do you know your Mom loves you?
T. she says she loves me everyday and gives me easy chores sometimes just to be nice
P. she cleans my room and makes my bed a lot and she says I love you a lot.
E. cuz you do my chores for me.
M. Dang! I gotta stop being nice! Haha I do love my kids a lot and try to help them out when I can.

21. What does Mom like most about Dad?
T. he’s a football player
P. that he’s handsome
E. he ride tractors
M. okay…what?!! Dad’s not a football player, he doesn’t ride tractors and everyone says the kids look just like him, so it must be handsome!

22. Where is your Moms favorite place to go?
T. mall
P. hockey
E. playground
M. Yep! Actually all time favorite place… the shower! I love to just “get away!” it’s my time where no boys are allowed!

23. What does mommy say to you everyday?
T. “I love you! You’re a special kid, T!”
P. “Good job! Nice work, Park!”
E. “Good job, Ev!”
M. I guess my kids are good and I love them. I hope they know this!

24. What’s mommy’s favorite color?
T. green
P. green
E. green
M. yep! Green!

25. What’s mommy’s favorite restaurant?
T. Chili’s
P. Chili’s
E. Red Robin’s
M. I love anything with a good steak…. Stony Rivers has the best steak, but for overall and quick fix…Outback.

So I guess all in all there a few things to know about me: I love chocolate, I clean to much, my kids have chores that I guess I do to often :(, and I love them A LOT!

Leaves are falling all around....

The joy of backing up to trees in the fall time is taking some time to rake them and play. Parker, decided on his own one day, that it was time to start raking. Bless his heart, he raked and raked and raked until he got a decent sized pile of leaves. It was just too much fun not to share and have fun with them. He was a little sad when everyone started throwing them because "I worked really hard, mom and now they're everywhere!" So the next day, I went out, raked (only 1/2 the yard, it's a workout!) and got smart and got out the leave blower and made some huge piles for him..... to earn some money by picking up! He and Tanner worked hard and was happy he found out that you can work hard and play and sometimes even get rewarded! I think they ended up with something like 15 of those huge black trash bags full! (Not to mention we could do it all again today).

Parker in his pile of leaves!
Parker and Evan

Parker and Mason (who didn't like this at all!)

L-R Nick, Parker, Josh, Evan, Tanner
The boys enjoying some of Parker's hard work!!

Fall Weather that is CRAZY!!!

We have started quite a few trends in the neighborhood. First, it was everyone came over for the tramp, then the basketball hoop or the Foosball table, but now we have most boys aged 5-12 playing hockey! We have one of those outdoor hockey nets where the guy stands in front of it. They love it!

Kids L-R Parker, Austin, Tyler, Tanner, Ryan, Nick, Evan, and Miles.

The boys on a "Beck Break". Snow cones for everyone...Yeah! It was so nice, I pulled the snow cone maker out we had snow cones.



K, I had to share this pic (and cut as much of me out as possible), but Mason looks like he has hair and it looks like it's curly. But, 1. He doesn't and 2. It's not curly, but I thought it was adorable that it looked like he has hair :)

My snow cone helper. Luckily everyone had one. He loved feeling the shaved ice and had a few brain freezes!

SLAM DUNK! He's getting ready for some basketball with the brothers!

Mason as the goalie for the boys....NOT! He kept walking in front of it and standing right here just like this every time. I hope he's not trying to tell me he wants to be a goalie!

The weather has gone from BEAUTIFUL in low-mid 70's to highs of mid 40's. It's definitely fall and is no longer shorts and t-shirt weather. Just wanted to share some fun outdoor shots!

Trick-or-Treat

How cute is he??!!!!

Getting ready to go out on the night!

My "big muscle Spiderman" and his sidekick....Frog :) Evan was flashing his web sign everywhere we went that night! Totally cute!!!!

Another Halloween year has come and gone and before we know it will be Christmas and that's just crazy! The weather was beautiful to were the first time in I think EVER, I was able to wear a short sleeved shirt and pants most the night (the hoodie did come on, but NO JACKET!) Mason was a frog (that's been past down a few years) and Evan was "Big muscle Spiderman". He really wantedto spidey as his best friend, Andrew was also Spiderman. He put the mask on for the picture, but trick or treated with it off. Mason stayed on the porch passing out candy with Mason because he was just happy to be outside! I took Evan around and he LOVED it this year (last year about 10 houses his "feet hurt and he was tired"), so mom was glad to be getting the exercise, fresh air and some good one on one time with Ev. (Isn't that sad when one-on-one time is trick-or-treating?!) Tanner wore some scary mask and was going to "scare all the little kids" but had a buddy talk him into going with him. So my boy who was "too old" to go trick-or-treating last year and past out candy, went this year! Okay, whatever! And Parker went with his skating posse as a Dallas Stars Hockey player. He and his friends all had skates on so they could "get more candy". Ohhhh....children after my own heart!

Carving the Pumpkins

It's so fun to have big kids who could care less about carving the pumpkin other than it gives them another opportunity to play with knives. Tanner hated the pumpkin patch because he's too cool and carving is "stupid" until he realized he would get to be the master carver. Evan was very serious with drawing on his face this year. It was soooo cute! Parker just couldn't get enough "goo" and thought that getting in a pumpkin seed fight would be "awesome" :) (I pulled out mean mom and wouldn't let that happen!) So here are just a few pics from our carving event!

Tan going in!
Evan's scary pumpkin face...for him and his pumpkin!

This picture should have been first of him scooping guts. You can see his drawn face on this side. Pretty good, Evan!

Parker with a little pumpkin soup ;). The boys had a really good time.

Pumpkin Patch

I can honestly say this was a very bittersweet pumpkin patch visit for me! We always hit the pumpkin patch by mid October, but with Chris constantly out of town and various activities, we hit the pumpkin patch at 1:00PM ON HALLOWEEN DAY! I mean, really?! To top it off, the weather was PHENOMENAL! It was almost too hot for Halloween (did I just say that?!). I usually make sure the kids are bundled up and look cute on the outside, but as you can see it was a free for all and anything goes this year! I had pants and short sleeved shirt which was one extreme all the way to Mason who had on shorts and T-shirt. No socks, no shoes, no jacket....nothing! Chris of course was sweating in shorts and T-shirt, but then again...what's new! Here are some pics of our pumpkin patch visit ON Halloween!

Parker, Evan, Tanner and Mason on the hayride.

Park, Mase, Tan, and Ev in front of the big bale of hay spider. You know me and spiders...this was close enough. LOL

He's so stinkin' cute! He was so happy just doing whatever! He was entrigued by the witches and bats they had hanging in the trees.

By far his favorite thing to do the whole time we were there and not doing something else was to go and push over the pumpkins. If they were standing up, no matter how big or small, he'd go over and push them over. I was having flashes of football practices in the future and plowing things over. I would go and put it up and he'd go and push it over...it was really cute (and comical!)

This is one of my favorite pics and is GREAT in black and white. He loved the tractor and this was a perfect shot!

It's spelled E-V-A-N!!!

I got a lesson in spelling this week. Evan was hungry and wanting a snack. So I gave him the bucket of pretzels and got back to the task at hand...cleaning out the fridge. I could hear him saying "Don't tell me I know what's next!" and start to laugh. He's known how to spell his name for years, but something got his funny bone going. After ignoring him as long as I could I finally turned around to say, "What's so funny, Evan?" I didn't think that spelling "Evan" in pretzels could be so funny...but he did! And it only got more funny for him as he then tried to spell Tanner and Parker and Mason and found out his name was the only one that looked completely normal (come on people...use your imagination and try to make a "round R" or a "curvy S" as he called them)...it doesn't work and apparently to a 5 year old... that's hilarious!

Evan's kindergarten class at the Pumpkin Patch

I got to go with Evan to the Pumpkin Patch and I'm not sure what it is that attracts me to the "bad boys" of the class. I went with Evan's class on Tuesday and since I've volunteered in his class before, I knew most all the kiddos. Well when I get there, I get this "just give me the bad kids" feeling. It happens on EVERY field trip. I used to think it was because Parker was a little hard to handle, but by now, I'm used to it. So yep, got the "handful child" right off the bat (and no it's for sure not Evan. He's one of the "good ones".) When Evan's teacher handed me the info for the field trip and the names, I smiled and said "thanks" with one of those cheesy I know who you've given me smiles. We laughed and she said, "I figured with 4 boys you can handle him." Of course needless to say, we had a great time and he only got lost once in the maze and only had to pee like 4 times and wasn't hungry for lunch and fed "the birds", so I guess it was a success?!?! We had a great time though.
Evan thinking he is SOOOOOO big....cute!
They had this tire horse swing thing that bounced and it was really hard to get
the kids to share and get off! Stay tuned for Parker's field day post!

Cardinals Baseball Game with the boys

We took the boys to a Cardinals Baseball game the end of September and I forgot to post about it. We had a great time. Although we spent a lot of money by the time the night was over, the kiddos had a blast! We were on the 13th row between home and first base (closer to home plate though). Parker thought for sure he'd catch a fly ball :) (didn't) and Evan was infatuated with breaking the peanuts out of the shell and getting them all ready to eat for us in his cotton candy bucket. The night was awesome.... perfect weather, perfect seats, no baby to hold and fight the whole time, it was GREAT!!!! I hope the link will connect you to a few of the pics from the night. Click on each picture to get the full view or do a slide show :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/CondiffCrew/CardinalsBaseballGame#

You and me goin' fishin' in the dark

One of our boys favorite things to do is hit a pond by our friend's home and go fishing. Our friends had said they hadn't had much luck lately, but like days of old... the Condiff boys come and there WILL be some fish to catch. :) I didn't get any pics of Mason hanging out in the stroller or Tanner and all the little tiny crappies he was catching, but tried to get the majority of Evan because he was having a blast!

His poor little Pirates of the Carribean fishin' pole wasn't sure if it could handle this "BIG FISH". (Total man with his hands as far as they could when he told you he caught a fish "this big".) His award winning fish. The pole just couldn't hold the weight of this "big fish" so Chris was teaching him to hold the line.
Evan's award winning bass! Way to go, Evan!!!

Parker with a cute little one on his pole and Tanner was getting about a 5 incher off his line. It was fun and as always the boys had a blast. As you can sort of tell from the picture it was getting dark. They fished until they couldn't see anymore and until lines started to get crossed and we called it good. We're glad we've got some great friends we can call and say "WE'RE COMIN' OVER" and they're flexible enough they can roll with the punches! Thanks, guys!!!

At the carwash...

What a nice man I have to wash AND wax my van... with a lot of help from Evan and little help from Mason. (And yes, I'm sure this was his unconscious effort to get out of the dog house :) haha) It was BEAUTIFUL weather on Saturday that it was screaming water and fun. I don't know that washing the car was fun, but Evan loved it. Mason, OF COURSE, loved the bubbles and was just as happy to play in the bucket of suds. It was so clean when Chris was done, he said "Let's go sell it and get you a new one!" I laughed and said, "Are you ready to start the INSIDE?!" So, YEP! I'm still the owner of one certified M3 Vehicle.... (Mormon Mommy Minivan).

A little taste, Evan?

After the hockey game Friday night I had bought Evan a Fun Dip. Because Tanner and Chris went on a Scout camp out and Parker was sleeping over at friends, it was just me and Ev and Mas going home for "our sleepover". It was about 7:45pm which was not quite late enough for Mason to go to sleep, so I told Evan, "It's your job to do whatever it takes to keep Mason awake until we get home and can get ready for the sleepover, okay?" He was so sweet and said, "Okay mom, I can do it!". So I could hear Mas cry and then Evan say "it's okay, Mas we're going to have a sleepover. Here buddy." and then Mason would make a sound and laugh and get excited. Well it was dark and I couldn't see what he was doing... until I got home.
YEP! My 5 year old was entertaining my 11 month old with GREEN FUN DIP! It was so cute to open the car door and see these big brown eyes guilty as charged. I started laughing and because we had the camera in car from hockey it was easily accessible to get it out and snatch some pics really quick! Evan was so proud that "he even didn't fall asleep, mom!" and that we could all go get our PJ's on for our sleepover! I was so impressed that Mason didn't look worse than this and that Evan could make it in or close to his mouth that well. Way to be a good big brother, Ev!

Evan and Mason at Jump 4 Fun

We had a great time with some friends at Jump 4 Fun. It's a place that has those inflatables that the kids can jump in and slide on. Evan and Alex (his friend) had a blast running from place to place and when Mason wasn't busy crawling on the floor, than he was of course... in with the balls! They had some cool inflatables that kids would like: Batman, Tinkerbell (I think that's who it was... it was a girlie one) and some neat obstacle and slide ones too!

Evan helping wash Jet

Evan has decided that washing our dog Jet is "fun" because he's soft and he has lots of bubbles and feels good. I don't think it's fun... at all! It's worth my $20 to take him down to Petsmart and get him washed up. Please don't be offended (actually be offended, I don't care), but I don't really care for pets. Don't get me wrong, Jet is an AWESOME dog with the kids and is well behaved, I just hate having the responsibility of a dog. So before you judge me and say, "Then why did you get a dog?" please remember I have 5 boys in my life. THEY feed him, THEY play with him, THEY clean up his crap, THEY get to do everything. Let me define "THEY" as Chris and a little help from the boys. When Chris is out of town, yes I am nice and feed him, let him sit by me (after I've taken him to Petsmart :), let him in and out to potty, but the boys are in charge of the poop. We will have had Jet for 4 years in November and I can honestly say, I'VE NEVER SCOOPED POOP! (Nor will I!) But don't worry Jet, you have a 5/6 approval rating and that's good enough to stay around a little bit longer.

PS. I don't know how I underlined or how to take it off (no control U doesn't work), so I apologize :)

Evan's Mohawk

Evan's hair-do was inspired by 2 things. He thinks his "Tony Hawk" shirt makes him "tough". :) Then he saw a picture of his cousin, Blake sporting a stylin' mohawk at 9 months. (You can check out Blake's on Tami's blog at http://www.thedickamores.blogspot.com/ ) So although it only lasted for one day of Kindergarten, here's Evan and his ATTEMPT to be TOUGH! (PS Tam, I tried the link thing and couldn't get it, so maybe next time :)

First day of SCHOOL... already?!

Is Summer really over?! It officially ended this morning when I had to get up at 6am (which mind you I haven't done since high school drill team days forever ago). I had to get my new 6th grader up and ready for his first day of Middle School... yes, you heard me right. Tanner is officially in Middle School and let me just say "WOW". We had locker practice and orientation yesterday and I am officially NOT COOL anymore! I knew it was coming, but boy it hurts harder than I thought it would. I was glad to see that even though we were on the back row of the bleachers by ourselves, his friends came to him and wanted to be with him, so I went down to the first row. The "thanks for leaving, mom" I got later assured me although I'm not cool... I'm pretty cool:)! Tan was out the door to catch the bus at 6:45a.m. which left me 15 minutes to myself before I had to get up with Parker.



Parker was next! He was a little harder to wake up (surprisingly... he's best a.m. kid when it's not summer!) He was up and out the door for his new school in 3rd grade (the Elementary is split into 2 buildings a block apart...k=2 and 3-5 so this was all new to him too!) He was out the door and ready for bus at 7:45am. He was nervous, but found out last night that the girl he thinks is cute is in his class (Faith from an end of school entry in May) and so he was excited to say "hi".

Then we decided to change it all up! Park left for school, Evan woke up and we moved Evan out of Parker's room and in with Mason (he and Parker have been doing bunkbeds togeother). So now Park has his own room and Mason and Evan will share. We'll see how it goes, I'll let you know. So Evan was SO excited to go to Kindergarten and ride the bus. He was happy to hear that he gets to take a snack everyday and excited to meet new friends. He loved putting on his "fast shoes" and was so excited for his Hulk backpack that matches his best friend, Andrew's backpack. He was SO EXCITED he kept asking, "Do I get to go on the bus now? Can I meet my teacher now? Now is time, mom?" He gets the MOST ENTHUSIASTIC award.


Obviously I didn't get Tanner getting on or off the bus (remember, I'm not cool), but here's a quick one of Evan and Parker getting off the bus. They will ride the same bus home together. Everyone's first day went well and Tanner after only one day is realizing he's going to be tired. (and so will his mom!)

An effort for a FAMILY PHOTO!

So we tried to get all 4 boys together and of course the 3 oldest couldn't help but look at Mason as I'm trying to get him to laugh, but this was the best one we were able to snag.

We thought it might be fun to attempt a new family picture and this was the best picture we could come up with. The lighting was not perfect, but we can at least say we tried. We thought we'd go PLAID so that when we look back on this photo, we'll laugh and say, "That was so ugly, I can't believe we wore that!"