Bubble gum saved my life...

Avery's school has a fundraiser going on right now and since she sold (I bought) 5 items before a certain deadline, she got a yard stick of bubble gum. Here it is wrapped around like a belt (yes she dressed herself, bow, headband and all. She will be a trend setter or horribly made fun of!).

How it saved my life you wonder? Five minutes prior to her coming home from school, I was gathering sheets off all the beds to wash. I had put them in the washing machine but hadn't turned it on when she came in the door squealing with excitment wanting to know if she could have some gum along with share it with Bella and Zane. I said yes, but let me get a picture of how long it is first! I looked around for the camera and couldn't find it. I had just taken a picture of this hooded towel I had finished during Zane's nap prior to ripping off sheets...(previous one I did had pointed edges and looked like poo. Round is much easier!). Anyway, where in the world did the camera go? It came to me...maybe it's in the sheets in the washing machine. It was. If Avery had not walked in excited about gum that I needed to take a picture of, our camera we just got would be gone. I wonder if it would have ruined the 8 gb card full of pictures and videos too?

Saved on that one...but then this nearly killed me...

It is huge and was found in the laundry room which is conected to the garage. It's like a teenage tarantula. YUCK YUCK YUCK.

Know a 45 year old who acts like a rebellious teenager!?

The other thing my mom wanted to accomplish when she came down a couple weeks ago. And people wonder where I get it from... :)I wonder if my dad has seen it yet!? It is supposed to look like an anklet and the three crosses are for us three kids. Brittany got one too

You should get a tat on your foot...all the cool people are doing it...

Gymnastics and Soccer

We recently tried a new gymnastics. We liked Metro but a new one closer to home started up, so we thought we'd try it. I like how I can see the whole gym from my seat and the coaches seem great. Avery is a level 2 or 3? I don't remember. The kid to coach ratio is small so that is nice.

Avery doing kicks while walking across the beam...My camera was taking horrible pictures. It would probably help if I read the manual...
She LOVES doing handstands...

Kinda resembles a frog doing a cartwheel...

Saturday, Zane had his first soccer game. He actually did pretty good. The definition of good in this house is not crying and not needing his hand held during the game!! It may even be considered excellent as he made contact with the ball a few times!!Look at him running TOWARDS the ball! Such a proud soccer mom here. So he bent down and used his hands for a second. No biggie... Uh oh, did he lift his foot while throwing the ball!!?

Here is Zane in his class at gymnastics! Not sure I like the preschool class as well as Metro...still observing.

It is so hard for me to sit and watch and not be able to participate. I loved sports and miss it terribly. Love seeing the kids having fun and gaining confidence though.

Crazy Busy Friday

Friday started like every other day. I take Miss Isabella and Avery to school and her mom brings them home. Avery usually dresses herself, but occasionally I'll make her wear things she never picks out. You would have thought I was making her wear a garbage bag. I guess black is terrible and not fashinable. She insisted it didn't match. I won. Even got a smile.

Zane and I went to a playdate at the park.

Then it was Music with Susan at the library.

Came home, ate, put Zane to bed, and scrapped for a little while. Then Lisa's parents came to visit me. Lisa was a good friend of mine in HS who died in a car wreck 5 years ago. Her parent's will never get to see her wedding or her kids, so they are always traveling to see her friends wedding's and kids. Very dedicated and amazing.

We then went to the zoo for Family Fun Day. All the rides were free and there were lots of fun activities. Here they are enjoying free Krispy Kreme right before the moonbounce! I really wanted to see the Magic Show at 7 but had to leave and meet Wes at Light the Night. Too bad after we left, he called and said it's tomorrow night. Oh well, we dropped the kids off and went on a date instead. Very tiring day. Very messy house.

New Stuff!

With more school, less naps and more sports going on these days, breakfast has changed up a bit. I have to WAKE Avery up at 8:15 to get her to school on time. She's so tired, I want her to sleep as much as possible. Her breakfast of sitting down with cereal, milkshakes and hot waffles are over. Say hello to Kashi fruit bars! Raider likes hot pockets when we have them.This was probably after telling her she needed to change her clothes. With Zane in his jammies and Avery in her ballerina outfits, I've stopped buying clothes.
Zane learned how to write his name this summer and writes it everywhere. Sometimes he will add an extra line on the E but other times he'll do it right! I had his name all over my car until it started raining.

I had more pictures in mind for this post, but due to broken computers and having to go to the library to use a computer, this is all I had previously uploaded. The only way I'm even doing this is by having Zane listen to Katie sing Annie the whole time! haha AMAZING!

GG's visit

GG came down to watch Brittany play a softball game. It got rained out. She came to go to the zoo (yes SHE wanted to go to the zoo). It got rained out. She watched Zane's soccer practice, but missed his game because we thought pouring down rain meant it was cancelled. Turns out they had a game. We missed it. He seems to like kicking the ball and getting in their more so than Avery did. Can't wait to see how he does during games!
She did get to eat lunch with Avery which was on the list as well. We timed it and Avery gets 15 minutes to eat lunch. Much better than 2. She also accomplished getting running shoes from OK runner and then one more thing....but it's a secret for a little bit longer!!! Any guesses!!?

My guess is Mr. Z-man, in the Living Room, with a Golf Club

Does anyone still have the game Clue!? Anyway, while I was unloading groceries and chatting with Wes, we hear a loud noise and find broken glass everywhere. Good thing I married Mr. Handy Man... $3 later...
I was pondering to send this little boy to live in the Great EscAPE at the zoo, but while we were looking at his Sonshine School scrapbook from last year and got to this page...and he said "Oh wow, that is a way cool fabulous coat." Well, I just had to keep him. He makes his daddy too proud!

Beaver Creek Cabin

The Bean family vacation- Griswald style. Compton, Arkansas. Weekend at the spa...

Friday morning, we went to go canoeing and fishing on the Buffalo River. River was too low so we skipped some rocks and went swimmin' in the crawdad hole. Avery was so brave!

Zane wanted to fish, so we took the hook off and let him practice. After playing a nice round of pictionary and yummy hotdogs around the fire pit, we walked to the owner's other cabin with an "awesome view half-mile round the corner." He failed to mention the entire way you are going up and down, up and down STEEP hills. I think you would need 4wheel drive to get there. Here we are leaving...

It was a pretty nice view. This picture doesn't capture it at all...but oh man the walk back...

We celebrated that accomplishment by eating smore's! I like my chocolate melted...We ended the night playing Zac's Wii.

Saturday morning, we drove quite a ways to see a garage sale and then further away to see a 5 people selling their leftover produce (Don't ask!!). Went back to eat lunch and then the most photographed rock in Arkansas. We went the long way and added 30+ mins to our trip up there. Then we got lost going through the forest and asked this guy in the red truck to help us. He accidentally took us to the wrong place, but found two walkers who were also lost!
He got us there, and after a 3 mile hike up and down hills, ducking and climbing over trees, we made it to the rock! Here is one side view...Here is my crazy brother in law from the other side.Ended the night by interviewing my grandparents and then playing Imagine If and watching some comedy DVD's The Griswalds getting ready to leave...
Can't wait to see what next year will bring...

Random Kid Comments

Sitting in our sunroom, I can hear everything going on outside. It cracks me up when the kids threaten to tell on each other and then the offender will beg for mercy! This week, Zane said "I'm telling on you" and a neighbor girl runs to stop him saying "Wait, wait. Are you ok? Oh let me see. It will be ok. Don't you want to be a tough boy. When you get hit, just say, Oh I'm tough, that didn't hurt!" haha. He quickly got over it...it was an accidental kick from swinging anyway. Like I would have done a darn thing if he would have told!

2 minutes prior however, the neighbor said "Zane, if you take your underwear off, I'll let you swing on my swing." I quickly said nope and threatened not being able to play after that one. You would have thought they would have realized I can hear everything after that one...

When taking Zane to sonshine school, I was telling him how he was getting too big too fast. He excitedly informed me, "I know, I'm going to eat all my lunch and grow really really big so I can reach the gummies without climbing on the cabinets!" You have such high dreams buddy! Wait. What?

5 hours later when it was quiet time in bed, he said "Actually, I don't want to get bigger because I won't be able to hold you mommy" (of course he mean I wont be able to hold him) Aww. Ditto.

I just realized he REALLY IS climbing up the cabinets and getting gummies. I heard him trying to open it on his bed! He is waking up and going and getting them before I am awake! They are now on the refrigerator!

Avery cracks me up when it is time for her to clean her room. She is full of drama, that girl!! Last time we cleaned it, she said "Oh man, I wish I had a boyfriend I could live with so I didn't have to clean me room." WHAT?! Surely this didn't come from Qubo??! And the only big person show we'll watch together (and rarely) is America's got talent! I'm scared to have a teenager. Really. Terrified.

Nothing sounds more awesome than hearing your children sing "I don't wanna spend my spend my whole life askin, What if I had had given everything. Instead of going through the motions!" at the top of their lungs! It's much more beautiful than "You are beautiful my sweet sweet saw. Nu uh, It's song. No its not, you are wrong, It's saw. Stop it. You don't know anything. It's song. AHHH. UGH...."

If anyone sees Wes, be sure and tell him how awesome he looks! He's been getting up early to work out a little before work. He's also drinking V8 tomato nastiness as a snack these days. Barf-o-rama. Very much encouraging his motivation here, however, he bought a package of cookies before he started his new eating plan. They keep talking to me. Everyday. Maybe i'll have a neighborhood cookies at the park party?

Off to be nonproductive. My favorite thing about Tuesday's and Thursdays. You people who blog about having time to work out, clean the whole house, run errands...and sound excited about it!? What? Not me. I do a lot of NOTHING and THAT is much more exciting. I probably won't get away with it for long. It is going to be hard convincing Wes we need to hire my sister to clean the house when I have these days off. Welp, I'm going to enjoy it while I can!

I'll take Around the House for 500.

I have been lagging in the blogging dept lately, but I have more energy now! I don't know if it's the Mannatech I've been religiously taking now that H1N1 is everywhere. Or if it's that I've been reading 5 chapters of Psalms everyday the past week (even on my vacation). Or if it is because I have had 2 Tuesdays and 1 Thursday all to myself!? Either way, I feel great finally!

Here are some pics of the past few weeks.

On Friday's, it is just me and Mr. Z-man. We like to get on pbskids.org and play some games. His favorite is helping Cailou fix the train tracks so the train can move. His first day of school photo. This is the best picture we got after several crazy faced pictures.

Playing with the neighbors while I was busy reading Redeeming Love. Great book. This is the cheapest entertaining activity ever. I just sit in a lawn chair and watch/read (except the day Avery wanted me to show her and her friends a backhandspring. Thanks dad for showing Avery old gymnastics home videos of me. It is wearing me out!) Here is posed picture, face and all, of our newest pet. An iguana that goes from around 6-12 inches to a whopping 3 feet long, after a few days in some water. It is now shrinking. The legs and tail are really small but the body is still fairly big.

While most people were watching the OUvsBYU game, I had a neighborhood movie night where we watched Hotel for Dogs. Here are the boys...And the girls...Little LeeAnn could be Avery's sister.Maycee and Zane...

It was a fun evening. I think we'll do that again!

Tomorrow I will have the house to myself!!! That's a wrap.