Fingerpainting with What???

Kenz is in Kindergarten and his teacher is fabulous for many reasons, but one thing stands out right now. She encourages her students to do chores and good deeds at home. When they do, their parents can write a "brag note" to her and she makes a big deal about it in class. This completely works for Kenz, so he has started to dry the clean dishes and clean the dirty dishes on the nights we actually eat at home. He truly enjoys this and does a good job, but I, of course, have to monitor him pretty closely.

So....I am helping Kenz, Arby is doing his homework and CiCi is happily playing in the kitchen cabinets. At some point I notice she is in the cabinet where we keep all the cooking oils, so I take out all the breakable bottles and continue to let her play in the cabinet with the plastic cooking oil bottles.

Not long ago, I decided to buy all these different kinds of cooking oils like grape seed and Carotina ( Canola and red palm seed oil) -

Looks like the Carotina one wasn't fully closed because all of the sudden I find CiCi bellysliding in Orange Canola oil.

At this point I decide she is already covered, so I may as well let her play in it for a while. She had a ball fingerpainting and bellysliding all over our kitchen!!! It was hilarious. Based on CiCi's silky-smooth-even-after-a-long-bath-skin, I also discovered that bathing in Carotina oil must be very good for your skin. Maybe if I ever find the time to take a bath again I will try it out.....

Sports Illustrated

My husband has an addiction to these magazines. Seriously!!!! Not only does he live for each week's edition, he saves them. All of them. 52 a year!!!! Since 1985. It is crazy!!! He isn't neat about it either. I can vividly remember his mom handing them over to me after we moved into our first house. In liquor boxes - that were falling apart. And the magazines were just thrown in the boxes. All different directions - years mixed up. I couldn't believe it. And I couldn't believe he really wanted to keep these things. Eventually I realized that I would have to deal with this madness and the only way I could handle it was to organize them, so I bought plastic containers. I separated all the magazines by year and then I put them in order. He was missing a few, but not many. We have moved twice since then and I swear between the two moves those magazines have cost us close to $500 in moving expenses. Yet, the madness continues. And lucky me - we now get SI for Kids. He has my sons addicted as well. I have made it a point to throw away those magazines after a week. This is one kid collection I will not tolerate - they already have a pretty healthy collection of baseball cards. At some point you just have to say enough is ENOUGH.

So recently Little CiCi was playing in the den where this years SI's are kept in a basket. She had never even touched that basket before. I get a phone call and before you know it, I find CiCi enjoying one of Daddy's SI's. Then I realize she is wearing her Daddy's Little Angel shirt and I just had to go grab my camera!!!!

Mommy Brain

You might see this title ALOT!!!! Today's mommy brain: After church each week we go out to eat with my entire family (parents, brother and his family) For whatever reason my husband and I took separate cars today. When I first sit down at Olive Garden, I give the keys to my car to my husband. Sometimes these lunches take a loooong time and today we had to get wet soccer clothes moved over to the dryer for an afternoon game. So my husband leaves early... with my keys. Really an understandable mistake.
A few hours later, we are at the second of back to back soccer games - first Kenz then Arby. We arrive in separate cars this time because I stayed home while CiCi finished her nap. The game ends and it is finally time to go home. I have CiCi and her stroller and my game chair, so I ask DH to carry my chair - which he does. He leaves and I get stuck in a conversation. When I finally get ready to leave, I realize my keys are in the cupholder of my chair which is in my DH's car which is almost home.
Thank Goodness for cell phones.
Idiot Award is all mine today...

The picture of Kenz with the missing tooth

Ok so I didn't really know what I was doing when I posted the pictures below. Each of them was supposed to go with each new topic. The one of Kenz with the missing tooth - that should be here...
Anyway, thought I'd tell you the story that goes with that picture because it is just so cute.
Tooth was very loose. Arby really wanted to pull said tooth. We were leaving for Guatemala to pick up CiCi (this was back in June) and Kenz decided that he would wait to lose tooth once in Guatemala so that he could get Guatemalan money from the tooth fairy. SO cute!!!! So we are finally in Guatemala, but he really is just too scared to pull his tooth. His excuse is now gone because we are in Guate, but he decides he will wait another day. He goes down for bed without pulling his tooth, but wakes up in the morning and his tooth is gone. He is an early riser to begin with and this is my second night with CiCi so when he woke up screaming "I lost my tooth", I wasn't nearly as excited for him as I should have been. Not getting the reaction he wanted from my mom he explains the full meaning - no...I really lost my tooth!!!! So at 5 am my mom and both sons are searching for his little tooth. The effort was to no avail and we assumed he had swallowed his tooth. Poor guy was devestated. Luckily my mom convinced him that he could leave a note explaining his predicament and all would be OK. Fortunatley, he did not wonder whether or not the Guatemalan tooth fairy could read English...
and as luck would have it, I found his tooth hours later and he received his Guatemalan money from the tooth fairy.

Shades

Yes, my two sons are biological. You should see the stares I get now. I find it funny. I guess it is a good thing I am not easily offended. I won't be posting a picture of myself until I shed about 50 pounds (so maybe never), but I have lighter skin that can tan, but it also freckles with what I considered to be jet black hair but when I put my hair next to CiCi's I can see the brownish auburn tint to my hair. So our coloring - very pale freckley Kenz, pale red tinted skinned husband, can tan but likes to freckle me, came out tan (like my dad and brother) Arby, and very tan CiCi. Our eye colors: Kenz - blue, DH - green, Arby - brown, Me - hazel, CiCi - black
Going to a restaurant without my husband (and yes I am crazy enough to do this all the time) is hilarious. Everyone is trying to figure us out. I watch people trying not to look, I watch others trying to figure out something they can ask me, and then others just stare. I've had quite a few people ask me if I am babysitting and another jokingly commenting that it looks like I've had three husbands. The weird thing is if I am just with CiCi most people come right out and ask me where she is from. If I am with the boys, DH, and CiCi everyone must assume that all three are adopted because noone seems to stare. But, when it is just me and the kids everyone seems puzzled.

Who am I and why blog now???

Definition of my Blogger name - definitely a take on "Three Men and a Little Lady" - loved both that movie and the ...and a Baby" movie many moons ago. In terms of our family it means my three boys, husband and two sons - not sure if any of them should be considered men yet, and our precious little girl. My boys are 8 and 5. We adopted our (10 month old) little girl from Guatemala and brought her home this summer. While we were in process, I kept a photo history with updates on a different site for friends and family to view. It was a good way for them to know what was going on with our adoption without constantly having to ask us when we would be bringing our little girl home. So why would I start my blog now??? Well, each year I spend a long weekend with my best friend scrapbooking. Lately, this weekend is about the only time I seem to find to scrapbook all year long!!! Sooooooo I decided I needed a way to document all those little things that happen each day and I thought if I had a blog maybe I would, in some way, feel obligated to keep it updated. Each day CiCi (our nickname for baby girl and the name I will use in blogworld) does something amazing and I try to remember when my boys mastered the same extraordinary feat - I can recall a lot that my oldest, Arby (blogworld nickname), did and when he did it, but sadly I can't say the same for my youngest son, Kenz (blogworld nickname). I don't want that to happen again. So guys it is up to you to hold me accountable :)