My babies

oh how i love them

The life of a 3 1/2 year old

It's time to document some things that Kara is up to. Because she is so dang irresistable in a, "you're driving me crazy but are so cute at the same time" kind of way.

She is one animated little girl. I need to have the video camera rolling all the time so that I catch the hilarious look on her face as she is telling us something super important.

She is really shy around most other people and will barely speak a word. But if, and when, she's comfortable, watch out. SHE WILL TALK YOUR EAR OFF. At our house, the only time she stops talking is to eat.

She still loves to eat and still especially treats. The other day she fell asleep in the car and when I woke her up to get out of her carseat, she started muttering with her eyes half open, "suckers? suckers?"

She follows me around all day saying, "hey mom." And then she'll repeat it over and over until I say, "What Kara?" It doesn't matter if I'm looking straight into her eyes with my best body language saying I'm ready to listen, she'll still repeat, "hey mom" until I say "what." Then she usually responds with some crazy comment about Omie.

Omie is Kara's imaginary friend. She has been around for awhile now (I think more than a year), but as time goes on, Omie makes more and more appearances and gets more and more creative. Eventually, Omie became two people. One is Pink Omie and one is Blue Omie. Kara just told me yesterday that Pink Omie had pink hair and Blue Opmie has blue hair. Huh. So that's where they got their nicknames... Last I heard, one lives in Park City and the other in Bear Lake.

Kara is very scared of monsters in her bedroom. She gets put to bed and freaks if I turn off her room light and lamp. It usually takes 5-10 minutes before she lays out her blanket and pillow on the floor in her doorway. Sometime in the middle of the night, she usually ends up in our bed. There are some nights she gets brave and tells me all the monsters have left her bed and that she'll sleep there that night but eventually she changes her mind and she's in her doorway again.

The other night I was on the computer pretty late, and I looked over to see her wide awake laying on her stomach with her hands propped under her chin, staring at me. When I said "Hi- what are you doing awake?" she said, "Mom. Did you know that Omie's favorite ride is the roller coaster?"

Everyday, this little girl cracks us up. If she isn't talking about Omie, she talking about Jesus. And her favorite song in the whole world right now is Alison Krauss' "Down to the River to Pray." She LOVES it and will listen to it over and over. It's so cute to hear her sing, "Down in the river to pray. Studying about that good ol' way."

She's also been in dance class and is loving it. The other day she told me that her teacher got out some music and it said, "you got to move it, move it." She's always dropping to the floor during random times of the day so show me a new move she learned at dance class. She may be shy, but that doesn't stop her from doing the splits right in front of hundreds of people at Lagoon.

She is a very happy and generally, an easy going little girl and has been since she was a baby. Though her fourth year has brought on more sassiness, some back talk, a little but of lying (with a grin on her face as the dead give-away), lots of mess making, and mischief, it's also brought on more independence, more declarations of love, her soft and cuddly side, hilarious outtakes and a fun, bright, adorable big girl with a great imagination and the sweetest little personality that you could just gnaw on. We love 'er!

Irrational Fears

I have two of them.



Sirens and wasps.



I am a grown woman. Why I have such fears, remains a mystery. Just when I thought I was on the road to recovery (as evidenced in this post), a minor incident puts me at square one.


Picture this. A very confident, fearless, dignified mother...wait a minute, that's not right. A... mother is walking on the sidewalk with her 3 adorable children on her way to afternoon Kindergarten. And out of freaking nowhere, a "honeybee" as Kara so naively puts it, flies into the little puff of bangs that are pinned back on the top of her head.


Honeybee. Calling it that makes it sound so innocent. Does this sucker look innocent to you?





Uh, I don't think so.


Anyway. This isn't the first time a bug or bee or something, has gently "bumped"' into my hair and continued on it's merry way, leaving me with the passing thought, "I sure am glad I didn't wear a lot of hairspray today." This particular time, I had the same thought which was quickly replaced with a sinking feeling that I did go a little out of control with the hairspray earlier that morning.




Very calmly, I asked Colby to look on top of my head to see if there was a bee there. While quickly nodding his head he said, "Oh no Mom. There is!" And that was it. A grown-up fit. A display of pure fanatical madness at it's best. I don't remember exactly what happened but I'm pretty sure it involved me whipping my head to and fro and a convulsing body. I do remember tripping over the stroller and landing on the hard pavement. I have skinned elbows to prove it.
Since I wasn't sure the wasp was gone, I popped up and began yelling at my five-year-old to get it out. By then I was half laughing, half completely beside myself and all I could do was repeat, "Colby! Get it out!" It was then that I realized I would never be able to count on my five-year-old to reach up and swat a wasp from my nest of a head. What a sad moment.



As quickly as I could, I swiped my own hand across the top of my head several times and then through the rest of my hair in case it had burrowed it's evil little body farther in. It seemed to have disappeared but I was not yet satisfied. I saw, nor heard, any evidence of it flying away. Without a mirror or any trust at all in my small children (I mean, come on. Who wouldn't swat a wasp off of their poor mother's head?), I made a snap decision. I would ask the ten-year-old girl who I scarcely knew, who was behind us a small distance, if my head was indeed empty of any "honeybees." It wasn't until I saw the look on her face as she answered, "no," that I lost any dignity that I may have had left.



When I was absolutely certain the honeybee had decided to make it's nest elsewhere, I kept looking around to see if anybody else was around to witness the hilariously ridiculous incident, and then I giggled the rest of the way to the school. Kind of like when you trip while you're all alone. And you look even sillier when you're giggling to yourself. And when I got home, I checked in the mirror. Just in case.


Before you judge me, wouldn't you have done the same if say, a spider had decided to make his home in your hair? Yes. Yes you would.


I am 31. And I am scared of wasps. And if it was late at night, Cameron was gone, and a wasp decided to make an appearance in my bedroom just as an ambulance's siren began to quietly fill the air- I'm pretty sure I'd cry like a baby.

I'd do anything

Do you ever find yourself saying, "I'd do anything for...." and then having absolutely no intention of making any effort whatsoever in actually doing something to achieve it? For example. "I'd do anything for a Wendy's Tagalong Blizzard right now. Except that I don't want to get my butt in the car and drive there." Or, "I'd do anything to have straight teeth. Except get braces." Or, "I'd do anything for my dog to stop crapping in the living room except spend the money and time taking him to dog training classes."

I think a more accurate way of saying it would be, "Wouldn't that be sweet if someone did all the work, paid for, and/or went through the pain, for me, for something I really want because I'm lazy, cheap, and/or a wuss?"