Taj: The Spiritual Giant

Taj is our little guy who seems to be extra sensitive to spiritual matters. He gives loooong, meaningful prayers. He loves to answer questions at church with detailed explanations. He loves telling scripture stories and does well relating them to his life. He’s just a really special boy. On Saturday we had an activity at the church. They had the 7 year olds who are turning 8 this year meet in a room so they could talk to them more about baptism. One of the teachers was passing out booklets about baptism. On the front of the booklet there was a picture of a birthday cake. The teacher made a comment something along the lines of, “Everybody loves birthday cake! It’s the best gift ever!” Now, I wasn’t in the room because Livie was having a meltdown, but when I returned a mom told me that Taj raised his hand and said,

“Um, actually, the best gift ever was Jesus Christ.”

I was proud, impressed and POSITIVE he gets that  from his dad. 🙂

Some goods…

Today I received a Christmas card from none other than… NKOTB. Yes, Danny, Donnie, Jon, Jordan and Joe love me. 😉 It’s appropriate they sent me this since I am getting concert tickets from my man for their NKOTB + Backstreet Boys tour (NKOTBSB). I am takin’ a road trip (Holla Stacy and Nancy!) to Houston to see them since, once again, they are coming to Dallas on a Sunday. I don’t do concerts (or much of anything else) on Sunday. Every time I have seen them I have traveled to do so because they have come here on a Sunday (Oklahoma City and Kansas City– shout out Sara!!). So, yeah… I’m famous.

We are tight like that...

Isabel did a powerpoint presentation for a class about herself. One the part about “THE PEOPLE I ADMIRE” she wrote:

The people I admire the most are my parents! They do EVERYTHING for me. They are the best. My parents have 5 and sometimes 7 kids. The reason I said 5 to 7 is because my 2 step sisters live in Canada, and they visit sometimes. My parents treat us all equally they love us all equally! Even though we can be a handful sometimes, but they can handle us! They are the people I admire most.

Awwwwww!!! And she had pics of me and her and her and Sei. 🙂

The other part I loved was from MY FAMILY:

My family is AMAZING!!!!!! My family has 9 people in it and that is a lot. My family from youngest to oldest and age is……. Livie or Liv is 4 almost 5, Taj is 7, Isabel aka MEEE is 11, Karlea is 12, Kelsea is 12, Alec is 14, Tristan is 15, Tori aka MOM, and then Seiuli aka DAD! My family is the best in the whole entire world! I LOVE THEM ALL!!!

It made me feel awesome. I thought it was cute she put Karlea as younger than Kelsea. They are 18 minutes apart. haha

Seiuli is nominated for the 2nd quarter in a row for OFFICER OF THE QUARTER.  In the letter the chief wrote to him these are of few of the things that supervisors and/or peers made the following comments about him:

• “He has been an outstanding influence on our shift.”
• “He comes to work every day with a great attitude, and his reports and investigations are accurate and detailed.”
• “His ability to translate Spanish has proven invaluable.”
• “He also has made tremendous impact on our DWI enforcement. Again he will either take the lead on these investigations or assist in providing translation.”
• “He has a true passion for his job, and is a leader among our people.”

There was more, but you get the jist… He is awesome. I am proud of him. And I sleep with him. Just sayin’…

This was a first…

I’ve been a mom now for about 15 1/2 years and last nite was definitely a first… I was sleeping– DEEP. I had taken a melatonin and everytime I do that I sleep really hard and have vivid dreams. In the middle of the nite I was dreaming that there was a glittery-looking person talking to me next to my bed. I laid there and listened and was thinking, “This talking is making me tired. Finish already!!” when I realized the glittery-person was saying, “Mom. Mom?” It was Alec. What the heck? I didn’t realize he was REAL. I totally thought he was my dream.

Anyway, he’s standing there holding his sheets and saying something like, “It’s all over me and I don’t know how it happened...” I totally thought he wet the bed. lol  I was wrong. His back, arm, ears, side of his face, and chest were covered in something dark. And in the dark it looked like blood, but it smelt like chocolate. Yes, my sweet 14 year old was covered in chocolate at 3 in the morning. Apparently Tristan had found a bowl of See’s candy sitting in their bathroom (I know- gross.) He thought Alec was snackin’ while he was on the toilet so he thought it was funny and sat the bowl of chocolate next to Alec’s sleeping head… and the rest is history. Alec must have knocked it over and rolled over on the chocolate which melted all over him. He even still had chocolate in his ear at church today. lol It was pretty freakin’ funny, but kind of disturbing that he came in my room and had a conversation with me and I didn’t even know I was awake...

A couple of funnies

Funny #1:

I don’t really watch the show “Glee.” Although it can be entertaining I am bothered by the subject  content and the target audience. My 16 yr old sister watches it. I’m not really ok with a girl getting pregnant by one guy, but telling another that he knocked her up when he, uh “lost it” in the hot tub.  And the scene where this “conception” happens it is obvious he’s about to ejaculate early and the girl starts saying, “Think of the mail. Think of the mail!!” That just doesn’t really seem appropriate for teens. I would hope in my naive mind that my little sister didn’t get what was happening. 😉 But that’s not the point of this post. My point is…. One of the few episodes I’ve seen was when the football team does the “Single Ladies” dance on the field. You can kinda see it here:

I thought the football players dancing was hilarious and showed that one part to my 15 year old football player. Anyway… I play basketball 2 times a week and I brought Tristan and Alec with me to play on Monday. Tristan was bringing the ball down the court when all the sudden he stopped and started doing the “Single Ladies”  hand thing- twisting it back and forth and pointing to his finger. It was so funny. The other ladies I play with must not watch “Glee” either because they just kinda looked at him.  I was rollin’…

Funny #2:

My friend was hosting a bridal shower today and asked if I could come help get her house ready. I showed up early and vacuumed and then started mopping her floor. Livie and Taj were with me. Liv saw me mopping and this conversation took place:

Liv: “What’s that?”

Me: “What? The mop?”

Liv: “Yeah. What is that?”

Me: “It’s a mop.”

Liv: “Oh. A mop?”

My poor child. She had never seen a mop in action! LOL I clean my floor, I just don’t mop. I usually scrub on all 4s, but still… My 4 year old asked me what a MOP was!! Bad Mommy award…

What'd you say?

So, the kids have been attempting to teach me to do “the jerk” or something… Anyway, here’s an example of what it is:

So, we’ve been doing this a lot in our kitchen and the kids all think they’re so hood. Yesterday Isabel comes home from school and says, “Me & Zane were having a jerk-off at recess. I won.”

Um????

Wordless Wednesday

So, we’re painting some rooms in our house and my husband, well… he loves me. A lot. So, I was surprised one morning with this message on the wall:

So I, of course, left him a nice lil message too:

Well, my 5 yr old Taj, seeing all this romantic-ness goin’ on came to me last nite and said, “Mom, I painted you someping on the wall…” Yeah. Hmm…

Alec is rad

My kids are funny. They are. They so totally rock and I love being with them. Alec is a lot like Sei. He’s very social and funny and sensitive. I love it. 🙂 Last week he got to give a talk during church. When Tristan spoke last year we had the BIG DARE where we dared Tristan to use a Napoleon Dynamite quote during his talk. He is awesome and did it, of course. This time was Alec’s turn. He SOOOOOO did it. He even talked LIKE Napoleon. He started his talk with a (true) story. He said, “I went to scout camp this past week and it was pretty much the hottest week of my life. My lips got really chapped so I was digging thru my bag hoping my mom packed me chapstick. I found a ziplock bag that had this Napoleon quote written on it: CAN YOU BRING ME MY CHAPSTICK?… BUT MY LIPS HURT REAL BAD! ”   It was rad and everyone laughed. So cool. I, of course, was the dork who wrote that on the ziplock that I packed his chapstick in. Yesssssssssssssssss.

And then today at church there was a special musical number this lady and her daughter were singing. The prelude music for it totally sounded like “The Rose” by Bette Midler. Sei leaned over and said, “I thought it was The Rose.” Then I look over at Alec and he’s doing his hands like a butterfly…. like at the end of this video (around 1:00). He had me rollin’…

How’d I get such rad kids???

Uprinting Photo Contest

I don’t know about y’all, but I LOVE the summer. I LOVE the heat. Right now Uprinting is wanting to find the best summer photo out there. They are offering $250 in prize money and (yes, there’s more!!) a free 16×20″ Gallery Wrapped Canvas Print!

I love Uprinting. They are a sponsor of this blog and of my Eazy Mealz blog. They are also the company that provided my awesome 16 x 20 print of Seiuli that I won a while back. It’s perfect!  UPrinting.com is a leading online provider of business cards, color brochures and mailing postcards.

This pic is one of my absolute favorite. We took it last summer. We’re going to be taking more awesome pics on our vacation in July, but this one…. Wow, I love my kiddos… all 7 of them. 🙂

Everyone smiling and no stains on their shirts... yet.

Random Pics from Tori's Phone

So, we already discussed the cool video I discovered on my phone (my naked butt filmed by my 3 yr old…) so I thought I’d check out what else I had in my phone memory… There were quite a few pics I thought were funny… cute… weird…  No more butt-shots so that’s always a plus…

So, without further adieu I present to you: Random Pics from Tori’s Phone!! YAY!!!

A funky bug we saw at the park... It was black and white and it's antennas were like 3 inches long...

Taj and Alec at the dr. for their well-kid check ups and shots!

Livie posing and saying, "I need to go potty!!!"

My fave pic of Livie. It captures HER so much. She IS trouble.

Um, hi. I love him.

Me... PMSing

I feel violated

Liv likes my phone. She’s pretty handy with it too. She knows how to leave voice messages and take pics and apparently, so I’ve learned, she knows how to make videos too. She was looking at my phone this morning when she suddenly yelled “Eew! A booty!!” I was like, “Eh?” I took the phone in time to see a lil glimpse of a naked butt on the screen. I thought she must have filmed Sei or something because she likes to burst into the bathroom right as he’s getting in the shower. Um, no. Upon closer observation I figured out the big, wide, WHITE butt taking up the screen was mine. MY butt filmed for 6 SECONDS without my knowledge. SIX seconds y’all! WHEN did this happen? HOW did this happen?? I have no clue. I don’t even know WHY I was standing naked in my bathroom- with Liv. I have NO recollection of this incident. What if she sent it to someone? My big butt could be floating around the internet! It could star in the “Baby Got Back” remake video!! What do I do!?!!? Part of me is laughing and thinks it’s hilarious. Part of me is like, “Ew, is that what my butt looks like? Looks like I need to try some Phenphedrine! ” Another part is like “Cool, my legs aren’t at cottage cheesy as I thought…”  Such mixed emotions. I feel so violated.

Don’t forget to enter my blog header giveaway!! It ends tomorrow nite!!