Thank you, Billy Blanks.

We walked downstairs the other day to find Andrew and Jackson doing TaeBo.

We quietly watched as they punched, kicked and "hi-YAH!"-ed.

I guess they're training to be PowerRangers.

Castle Park

I took the boys to the park the other day... first park day of the year. This is the first time I let Porter venture out on his own. I love the bottom picture. I took it when we first got there. Jackson ran off and Porter was following him until he looked up, and what glorious scenes his eyes beheld. In the picture, Porter is stunned... stopped in his tracks... taking in the magical world that awaits him. It is so beautiful.

Killer Dog.

The whole time Napoleon was being consumed, the little doll was saying... "You're such an idiot!", and "My lips hurt real bad!" I got a good laugh. Bet you wish you had your bowstaff now, Napoleon!

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Picture Pages

The boys humored me today and let me take some pictures of them. Here a a few...
WHAT CUTIES!!

The second page is my favorite... everyone's looking a different way.

I got skills.

I don't mean to brag or anything, but I am soooo excited! I've learned how to make pasta. It's not hard...heaven knows, I don't DO hard! It does takes a long time, though... just about 2.5 hours! Hopefully I can get good enough to cut that time down. The final product was well worth it. I got the recipe from Cooking Light, so if anyone is interested, let me know. My mouth is watering just writing about it!

Branding in Blanding

Spring is the time of year all the Harris' (all that can attend, anyway.) meet in Blanding to brand cows. If anyone is unfamiliar with this process, it goes like this.... Then the men go to "the field" to find the baby cows in a pen, separated from their mothers. (Grandpa Jim does that part... I don't exactly know how.) They plug in the electric brand-er (a metal do-hicky that looks like a fat hanger.) to get it nice and hot. The cowboys start grabbing cows one by one and throw them to the ground... on it's left side, mind you. Then, depending on the age/size of calf, one or two cowboys sit on it. They give it some kind of shot, pierce its ear with a tag, put a donut on its boy-parts, and then brand it... all the while the cow is struggling and yelling. It's really not pretty, but it's over with really quick. If I had to think of one word to describe this experience, it'd be 'STINKY'... the smell of burning flesh is not easily forgotten... plus there's a lot of stinky poop around. You're all invite next year to the festivities!

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That'll do, Dog.

This is how our day began... a full-on brawl over the vacuum. All I could think about is how much longer these two would FIGHT to do chores. Wouldn't it be so great if they were like this all their life (without all the screaming and hitting, of course.)?

Then I started thinking their fighting must be my fault! Maybe if I vacuumed more, it wouldn't be such a 'special occasion'! Anyway, I went on with the rest of my day, thinking about my cute little helpers and how happy I am they love to help their mom. With a smile on my face I vacuumed, swept, mopped (in some places 3 times!) and dusted. The house looked pretty dang good, if I do say so myself. So with a pat on my own back I decided to take a break from the grind and do some Digital Scrapbooking of my sweet little vacuumers, whom I couldn't stop thinking about. I was on the computer for no more than 15 minutes when Charlie, the dog, came downstairs. I was a little suprised because the dog is not allowed downstairs and he knows that... if there is one thing we have sucessfully traind our dog to do, it is to stay upstairs. So I grabbed him and ran him up to his kenel (time out). Little did I know, Charlie was trying to tattle to me about what my little boys were up to. When I reached the top of the stairs, I saw a HUGEMONGOUS mess... Dog food from the laundryroom, through the kitchen, through the familyroom and down the hall to the bedrooms.

With tears and some yelling, I started sweeping up the mess. After a minute, I decided to get my camera. I'll want to remember this in 14 years... right? I was shaking so much, I only got a couple pics. You can't really see the teeny doggie bits in the second one, but just know they're there...they're EVERYWHERE! I think/hope we've cleaned them all up, but they're so small, I'm sure it will be a week or two before Charlie has found them all.

OH! And the stinkers trashed the DVDs, too. These boys might be grounded for the rest of their lives... I don't know yet. I'm still too caught-up in the fury to tell if I'm thinking straight.

I would like to give a shout-out to Charlie... you may be small, stinky, and have those gross eye-boogers, but you saved the day today. Who knows what those two little boys would have done if they had had another 5 minutes to themselves! You're pretty much LASSIE to me now.

Thanks, Charlie.

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