Shopping trip from H-E-double-hockey-sticks, and other random stories

This picture is from Christmas time when we were in California. This is Ryker and his cousins (Jordan on the right and Elias on the left) . Good looking kids, don't you think?

Also from our California trip, Raelin and her cousin Leah got dressed in some leotards and tu-tu's (is that what they're called?) and danced like crazy! Oh, so entertaining! There is no rhythm in this family! Darn cute though!

Daddy and Raelin napping.
Daddy got up for dinner, but Raelin slept right through! After a while, Brice decided to see what would happen if he woke her up with a bowl of cheesecake! That was the happiest she's ever been upon first waking up!

This is Raelin's roller coaster. She rocks back and forth in it and goes crazy!

Ryker is rowing his boat gently down the stream. I guess he must have been planning on falling in and he didn't want to get his clothes wet.

So to go along with this picture of a beautiful, innocent girl, I'll tell you the nightmare shopping trip story. I went to Wal-Mart with my two kids and my friend's one-year-old, Liliana. Lily was GREAT! she sat in the cart and ate crackers the whole time and was a delight! MY KIDS on the other hand were MONSTERS!!!! I'm trying really hard not to be such an uptight parent these days so I let them walk along and gave them a bit of a loose leash. They started off meandering through the isles with me, but little...by...little, they started to meander faster and faster and faster. At some point I realized that my kids were RUNNING all over the place with complete disregard for others or my embarrassment. Try as I might, they would not slow down. Oranges and ice cream cones were suddenly appearing in my cart! Once, I turned around to find Ryker standing there holding an empty egg carton by only the lid! AHHHH! Eggs everywhere! I just couldn't take it anymore when they were playing tag around the produce stands yelling at the top of their lungs! So I grabbed them each by the arm, trying desperately to control my temper (in hindsight, I should have just left, but we needed food and I was almost done!), and I marched them over to the cart and said, "Hold this and DON'T let go!" So the kids started riding on the rungs in peace for, oh, about, 25 seconds, until one inched their way along the rungs to the other kids' side and then... "Ryker, this is MY side! I want to be in the front!" "No I want to be in the front!" "Get off!" together with the pushing and pulling and NOISE! An old guy walked by and said, "Are those all yours?" I said, "No, the good one's not mine, but the one's running rampant around the store are!" So eventually we got to the check out line and when it was my turn, Ryker disappeared. I didn't even care at that point; I'd find him when I was done and just leave already! So after I checked out, I went around the corner and found him sitting on the floor eating CADBURY EGGS! GGRRRR! So I had to pay for those and then we FINALLY left. But, oh, no, the story's not over yet! I got the kids and the groceries loaded in the car only to discover that the car WOULDN'T START! Our car has a chronic electrical problem, so I tried all the stuff that usually works to fix it, but to no avail. Eventually, I found myself standing on my engine jumping up and down on it and kicking things (Brice has taught me well). At that point, I could only appeal to God, so I asked Ryker to say a prayer because I was too frustrated and angry and he says very thoughtful prayers. When I said "amen," Raelin could tell I was crying and she said, "Mommy, why are you sad?" I said, "I'm SO frustrated! You guys were HORRIBLE in the store and it makes me so angry and frustrated and embarrassed! And now the car won't start and I'm frustrated about that too!" She said, in a squeaky little sad mouse voice, as though she were trying to muster up some tears as well, "Ryker, maybe you should say another little prayer." How do they redeem themselves so easily!?! So I called Liliana's mom, who was at my house by now, and asked her to come get us. When we got home, it was nap time--for me. Oh, what a day!

This is the "who's toughest" game that Brice thought up. Take the kids out and stand in the snow barefoot and see who lasts longest. Who do you think won? It was RAELIN! She out-lasted Brice! What a tough girl! She manifested her toughness again yesterday when she was standing on the front bumper of a car to look at the engine, when her feet slipped and she smacked her face on the hood latch! Oh, it looked SO bad! Her mouth was bleeding like crazy! As I started to clean her up, I could see that she had a gash on the inside AND the outside of her lip and I thought her teeth had gone all the way through and that we'd be headed to the emergency room, but by the time I cleaned up all the blood, it had stopped bleeding and it looks like her teeth split her lip on the inside and the latch cut it on the outside. She was SO tough though!