BEAUTY PAGENT

My kids have been off track for a few weeks now.  They tend to get creative and plan things to keep them busy.  This time they chose to make up a beauty pageant for the little kids in the neighborhood.  It started out with Alyssa and her friend Lexi, and eventually a few of the other girls their age joined in.

The best part was Alyssa and Lexi convinced Boston and Brock to "compete".

They invited Reese to be in the pageant.  They taught her a dance and had her model her 

"evening wear"

 The theme was OLD HOLLYWOOD.  The funny thing is, I didn't really even know what that meant.

 Boston preformed a dance.

 And Brock did some of his break dancing moves.

 Lexi and Mikalee...one of the neighbor girls

 Boston doing his "casual wear".

 Brock did soccer for his talent.

 Brittnie and little Reese competed too.

 They even had awards for everyone who competed.

CHAOS...it seems to be the theme around here.

I decided I need to blog a few things that happen around here.  I just got our blog book from last year printed up.  I love looking back, for some reason it's more fun to look back when it's printed up.

So TODAY:
I got back from exercising and decided to get ready,  my first client cancelled so I thought I'd use the hour to hurry and go grocery shopping.  On my way out of the grocery store I see a mom patting the back of her son as he is throwing up.  Nope she's not running him to the garbage, she's just encouraging him to continue throwing up all over everything...and their cart.  (Which PS someone else is going to have to use later.)  But the good thing about witnessing this is I lost my appetite...for a few minutes at least.

So I come home and I get started on my first client.  She asks her mom to come and hold her baby while I did her hair....and her mom is actually on my schedule tomorrow so I tell her to just stay and I will color her hair now so she doesn't have to come back tomorrow.  Meanwhile still working on my first client all the neighbor kids come over to play.  Which to be honest is sometimes nice because at least my kids aren't whining about how bored they are.  The girls decided to make lunch and as they are cleaning up and I am trying to finish my second client the insurance auditor is walking up to my front door....yes I FORGOT he was coming....and I now have two clients currently here...and two clients who are on their way.  I quickly call my clients and ask if they can come a little later...which they did...thank goodness.

So I get done with the audit, and my first two clients, and get started on my next two clients.  Then my boys come in the house yelling that the neighbors dog has dug a hole through the fence and has come in our yard.  I didn't want to deal with it, so I told them it was OK.  But within minutes I now have the neighbors freaking dog running through my house...chasing my dog.  (And lets remember that I don't really even like my dog...let alone some idiot dog from the neighbors.)  I get the dog out of my house...or rather my kids got it out of the house, and I continue on with doing hair.

My boys came down a few minutes later dressed in their church clothes because they were playing some TV show.  Well they put the ties on wrong and long story short I had to CUT THEM OFF.  Sometimes I want to strangle my kids.

And that was just my day until 4:00....hopefully it gets better.

A few nights ago Alyssa wanted to put her hair in braids so it would be crimpy the next day.  She came in a little while later to show me.  I was so impressed.  And then she told me it was BOSTON who braided her hair.  And I am choosing to still be impressed.

The Boys

 I LOVE MY KIDS ARTWORK!

 GENTRY LOVES FRANNIE

 I woke up this morning to snow.  Wasn't really expecting it, but to be honest I rarely check the weather...and my kids made me aware that it was supposed to snow...they watched the news.  Glad someone pays attention.

 I love having twins.  They really play well together.  (For the most part.)  It saves me from having to go out in the snow.  Because let's be honest, I wouldn't...and I'd have crying kids.

Cruisin With the McInnes Clan

About a year ago we all talked about going on a cruise with my whole family.  I sent a few group emails hoping at least a few families would be able to make it and TA-DA the entire group...(minus my nephew Buster because he is on a mission) came!  It was a fun bunch of CHAOS!  My kids LOVED it.  They kept telling us that this cruise was way more fun than the last time.  (Maybe because this time they didn't get sick...and they had cousins to play with 24/7)

Last minute we found a good deal on flights and decided to fly.  It worked out great...let's be honest none of us do well on long drives.

 Connor supplied ALL of the kids with these awesome sunglasses.  They all wore them!

 The kids ordered escargot...I think Jaron liked it!

 The first stop was Catalina...it was rainy and cold, but we still managed to have fun!

 The kids decided to go in the water with shoes and socks on...about 20 minutes later they were crying and freezing...needless to say we took them back to the cruise ship and our time at Catalina was short lived.

 Ensenada was our 2nd stop.  It was perfect weather.  We did a little bit of shopping and headed back to the ship for some sun time.

 The boys all wanted to buy matching sweatshirts...and continued to wear them the rest of the cruise...even when it was too warm to wear them.

 The ship had waterslides on the back, but the water was freezing and so they didn't spend very much time back there.

 

We all stayed in the same room...yep it was crowded, but my kids all end up in the same bed at home so they didn't seem to notice.

 I played "A Minute to Win It" game...and WON.  OK OK OK so I was the only competitor...but who cares I won a trophy!

 Waiting for the whole group so we can head to dinner.

 Alyssa and Kate said they would "babysit" Jennifer's kids while we went to a comedy show.  I told them just to listen if they heard crying from our room.  They took their jobs very seriously and sat outside the room and put a glass cup to the door to listen in on the sleeping kids.  They did that for an entire hour.  Crazy girls, we told them to watch a movie.

 

Before we left for the cruise we had the kids do chores to earn a build-a-bear day.  They loved it and the boys all picked the same thing.  A monkey with scuba-gear.

 

And that's me...building away!

 A little breakfast on the deck.

 The towel animals!

 

 

And the trip wouldn't be complete if we didn't get a taxi to take us to Chick-fil-a.

I think everyone had a good time.  I know we did!