Candid Camera

In our home, Travis tends to be more of the disciplinarian and I, well....not so much. Since school has been out, the kids have been testing the limits a bit and getting away with it since I have been busy with our little meatball, Eli. The other day, I captured an epic meltdown by Jordan on our camera without his knowledge....I showed Travis so that he could see what happens when he is away. When he played back the footage for Jordan and asked him to explain himself, Jordan was beside himself. "How did you get that?", he asked over and over. In answer, Travis geniously told him that we had installed hidden cameras all over the house so that we could see what they were doing at all times. Although it might not be completely moral or honest to deceive our kids in this way, I highly recommend it to anyone who has naughty children on occasion. At first, the kids had lots of questions like, "When did you have the cameras installed?", and "What do they look like?", "Are they in the car, too?" and my favorite, "Do you stay up all night watching everything that we did during the day?"
I was pretty proud of my own genius answer that they were all hidden in the smoke detectors (since they are in pretty much every room). It cracks me up to see them walking through the house with one eye on the ceiling and taking the time to contemplate some of their actions. In the last week their rooms have been a little cleaner, they have practiced the piano with less moaning and complaining, and they have been a little slower to do physical harm to one another. I don't know how long this will last but I just thought I would share in case anyone else is suffering from summer naughtiness, doesn't mind lying to their children, and needs a quick way to enforce the rules.

Select Baseball

Not sure if I have mentioned it before....but Travis coaches a "premier" select 8U baseball team here in Cincinnati. It really is an honor to be asked to coach one of these teams and most of the players who continue on with this organization get scholarships to play at the next level. This is all fine and great except that sometimes honor just isn't enough. It is a very good thing that he loves the game of baseball, really enjoys coaching, and is exceptionally good at it. The downsides are that it is wholly without pay, requires more hours than most full-time jobs, and requires us to deal with a lot of select-sport politicking that goes on between the parents as well as other coaches. It is a very interesting culture to be thrown into and I have been surprised to find that I am one of the few moms who has, gasp!, other interests than furthering my son's baseball career. It is hard to believe that at this young age, they are already practicing indoors twice a week from December until March, then playing 40+ games from April until July......not counting tournaments and the World Series in August. Oh, and did I mention that our game/practice facility are a mere 40 minutes from where we live? It has made for a crazy schedule this spring with a new baby and us dividing and conquering to get to simultaneous baseball and soccer games. I really can't fathom what it will be like when all four of our kids are involved.

Baseball has taken over our household. We have a garage full of bats, helmets, catchers gear, more baseballs than you can possibly imagine, tees, hitbacks, bases, water bottles, Gatorade in bulk, cleats, and dirt. Lots of dirt. Last week was especially crazy with our team hosting the Flames Summer Classic. We had four teams back out at the last minute so Travis had to scramble to find replacements which finally came together on the day before it started. I keep questioning whether all the work, time spent at the field and him on the phone every night reassuring parents and kids regarding playing time, hitting techniques, baserunning decisions....etc, is worth it. Then, when they arrive home, as triumphant victors with smiles and larger than life egos......I can't help but join in and pat them on the back for a job well done.

Congrats to the Champions!

Is it bad that my first thought when I see this trophy is..."Where the heck are we going to put that thing?"

Here are some clips of Jordan from this season.......yep, we have every single at-bat on video.

Here is the game-winning hit with bases loaded in the Championship game. Travis has a parent who mans the camera at the games. We love listening to all of the parents' commentary throughout the footage......we get to know exactly what they are thinking:)

Buena Suerte!

Its so hard to say goodbye! Trav's parents left this weekend for their mission in Phoenix. There have been a lot of bittersweet moments this past week as we have thought about all the things they will miss as well as all the great things they will be doing over the next three years. I know that they will definitely make a huge impact on the missionaries and all of the people they come in contact with. Our thoughts and prayers will be with them. Adios......and buena suerte!

Target Audience

Of all the advances in modern technology that have come about over the last decade or so, I think, sadly, that the Tivo has impacted our lives most of all. We are not big tv watchers at our house unless there is a sporting event going on. Except that there is always a sporting event going on. I know not what I say.

Anyway, what I am trying to get at is that unless there is some sort of sports programming on, we don't really get tied down to the tube. Wait. I meant unless it is sports, The Office, 24, or Lost that is on.......we don't watch a whole lot.

As for my kids, I don't normally let them just turn on the tv to find something to watch. I have picked a few shows for them that I find the least brain-draining and I Tivo them so that when they have finished the items on their daily lists, they can sit down and watch a show that has a definite start and finish time. Right now Halle is going through a Max & Ruby infatuation so we have a large quantity of episodes stockpiled. I realize that watching this show is not going to add a whole lot of smarts but at least it is cute and innocent and the characters are nice to eachother.

I know that parents should not use cartoons as babysitting and that according to Parents magazine, I should be sitting down with my kids and watching the shows together, asking them questions, and making sure that their little brains are working at all times. Alas, I use these precious 30 minute increments of calm, quiet time to do things that require two hands and no distractions.

The only problem with Tivoing the same shows....especially on some cable channels, is that you also get the same commercials for ridiculous products shown over and over again. If I was the ideal parent, I would be sitting with my kids and fastforwarding through these things. I used to wonder why companies were advertising items like Space Saver bags, Mighty Putty, Green Bags, Ab Rollers, Weed claws, Pet Meds, Roll n'Grow, and countless other useless things to kids between the ages of 2-5. I don't wonder any more. Now that my 3 year old can recite the slogans and sales pitches of each and every one of these products...and does so on a very frequent basis. These companies are very clever. They know that my young children are very easily convinced that having their products will greatly improve the quality of our lives. I can easily resist their low budget commercials but when my kids have been fully brainwashed to believe that all of our flowers will die if we do not have Water Globes........these products suddenly have my full attention.

Here is a snippet of our usual conversation during tv time:

Halle: "Mooom, hurry and come see this!"

Me: "I've already seen it lots of times..."

Emma: "Mom, you have to call the number right now!"

Me: We really don't need any of that stuff."

Halle: "But you never have to water your flowers!"

Emma: "We need to go to Sylvan so I don't forget everything I learned in Kindergarten!"

Me: "We can read everyday and do a few worksheets and you will be f i n e."

Emma: "Our vegetables will last much longer if we have those bags!"

Emma: "IT only costs $19.95!"

Me: "What a bargain!"

I realized that we might have a problem when my girls were making signs for their potential lemonade stand:

I am not sure if I should applaud their efforts as future entrepreneurs, buy some ad time on Nick Jr., or crush their dreams with the harsh realities of supply and demand.

I think those As Seen On TV people have definitely found their "target audience".

Cicada Invasion

Every few years we have a major hatching of cicadas . Since my kids are all very bug-friendly, they have been having a heyday with the little critters. We have a great tree in our front yard that has unfortunately been infested and my kids have spent hours outside collecting, squishing, and shaking the branches to watch them buzz around for a few seconds before they swarm back onto the tree. I think the tree is in danger of becoming a casualty soon but I'm not sure what will kill it first......the cicadas, or my kids hanging from the branches or beating it with sticks, garden tools, or hosing it down with our high pressure spray-nozzle. Did I mention that they also make this beautiful buzzing noise that permeates every outdoor space.......and indoors when they manage to sneak in on the back of someone's jacket or bag?

Family Photo

We Mormons can be a peculiar crowd if you aren't up on all our quirks and lingo. We seem to have a thing with matching or coordinating when it comes to dressing our families for photos or church. I don't know how I got sucked into becoming part of this matching phenomenon but bait, hook, and sinker........I'm in.


I think it all started when I had our second daughter and I suddenly felt the need to coordinate outfits, at least with the girls. Which means I couldn't very well buy clothing for Emma and not get the same thing for Halle and if they were matching then the rest of us couldn't very well clash with them. Slowly, this has spread throughout our family so we look like something out of the town of Stepford every Sunday as we leave for church. In my defense, I am definitely not the only one going with a clothing theme each week......(you know who you are, you fellow matchers) I just can't wear a red dress when the rest of my family is going with a brown scheme or have my son wear something that doesn't work with the girls' dresses, or let my husband wear a black suit when it is clearly the week for earth tones.


This was brought to my attention recently as my in-laws are leaving on a 3 year mission assignment in a couple of weeks and as such, there is a need for us all to have a family photo. We, as the women of the family and wardrobe specialists, were putting our heads together to try to come up with a color scheme for our pics and as we discussed the options of casual, formal, blacks/whites, pastels, polos, dresses, ties, patterns/no patterns, and one thing became clear. This was a big deal. A very big deal. I mean, you never know if one color variant will throw off the whole picture and keep everyone from looking their very best. I wish I had a picture of the look on our friend, Katie's face, as she listened in horror to the extent of our plans. When she asked why we were even worrying about colors and not just letting everyone show up in their Sunday best, we all turned to her with blank looks. She didn't get it. Not at all.


I cannot tell you how much time and energy has gone into the planning for what we are going to wear. It is a lot. We have planned for every possibility and have decided to base all of our colors on the little girls' dresses so that we can perfectly flow and blend. I know that everyone has worked very hard shopping for the right clothes and I just had to share my grand experience this week as I looked for some dresses for the little girls formal picture. I decided to take all four kids to Costco since they all enjoy eating lunch there, probably because the XL hotdogs, pizza, and churros are so healthy. It had been a crazy morning already and as a result, I left the house pony-tailed and make-up free dressed in an old KU t-shirt, flip-flops, and very unflattering knit bermudas. I should have listened to my inner voice telling me to reconsider wearing this outfit or even taking this trip in the first place. But I didn't. We made it there, got our food and in order to expedite the trip, I loaded the kids into the cart so I could shop while they were eating. So, we were halfway through the store when I ran into Trav's high school girlfriend shopping in her cute little tank top with her hair nicely done and her kids all perfectly dressed. (BTW, I tend to run into this ex-girlfriend frequently......too frequently) This is the reason I should have listened to my inner voice. I was in all my glory looking way hot with my four kids loaded up into one cart with ketchup smeared ear to ear. I said hello and then proceeded to run into her in every aisle until we both checked out. I just love it when things like this happen....its a real self esteem booster. I did find some cute dresses. They just didn't make the cut. But they should have. Especially with all the hard work and embarrassment that went into finding them.

The pictures are tomorrow morning, the outfits are all laid out....except for the dress I need to make tonight for my little niece, Isabelle, for the "casual" picture. It is going to be an epic experience with 11 adults,10 kids, and two sets of clothes but darn it, we are all going to smile and look perfect so Nana and Papa will have a great picture to hang on their wall for the next three years. I will post some of the pictures when we get them back.

Speaking of family photos, I found this gem and thought I would share some cheesiness.
This was my family about 7 years ago in what we thought was a good idea at the time....a family pyramid, overalls, and lots of different shades of red.

Beck-isms

ELI

Waaaaah, grunt, toot, giggle, repeat.

HALLE Diego my Eggo, You broke my feelings, mapkin (napkin) ,go go girls (overalls), My pinkie promise is broken...I need a band-aid, I have a hachoo, Emma won't share with me, God said I could, Can I have a snack, I don't want to have pretties in my hair, Will you help me find some worms?, Can I watch Max and Ruby?, I don't want you to hold Eli!

EMMA

Mom, Mom, Mom, Mooooom, 20 questions, Do black bears eat people?, Why?, I really want just one more Webkinz, Jordan is bothering me, Halle is taking my stuff, Can I hold Eli?, Can I log on to Webkinz?, Do you think my bus driver will like my haircut?, Did High School Musical r e a l l y happen?, If a dog and a wolf got in a fight.....who would win?, Why?, How?

JORDAN

Don't tell me what to do, I fed the dog last time, I don't want to do my homework, I weigh 50 lbs!, Have you seen my cup?, Where's my mouthguard?, I can burp whenever I want to, Did you see my hit?, Can I play Wii/Playstation?, The girls won't leave me alone, Where's my book?, I didn't do it!

MOM

Make your beds, Brush your teeth, Wash your hands, Clean up the polly pockets, Eat your food in the kitchen, You have got to be kidding me, That is not acceptable, Take off your shoes, Listen!, Don't spill the toothpaste!, I just scrubbed the floor, Get the dog outta here, SHHHH, Seriously..., Don't make me call your dad, I am counting to 3!

DAD

He is on my fantasy team, Jay Bruce is the bomb, Be tough, Who scratched my car?, That's what she said, Have you seen my wallet/keys/phone/sunglasses?, My allergies are killing me, I'll put it away later, I'll wear that tomorrow, Have you heard about the Cincinnati Flames?, Who tooted?, How do you spell _____?, Rock Chalk Baby

HELP!

I want to blog, really I do, but my four kids and the tornadoes that follow in their wakes are killing me! I have lots of great ideas for posts but due to my backlog of laundry, messy house, icky bathrooms, school celebrations, swimming, baseball/soccer games, and unfinished projects.....I can't find any time to sit down and write. When I do, I seem to be a magnet for children to use me as their personal jungle gym. Not fun. So, if you happen to know a good cleaning lady, babysitter, laundromat, chef, or cheerleader who has extra time to spare, please send her my way. The way things are going, I might not be blogging much this summer:(