NEWS Worthy!

Channel 2 News was doing a story about local teachers who are voicing the fact that they are doing their job with out getting the deserved benefits. Having married into a family of teachers I feel for them. Their job is an important and often thankless one. I am grateful for the teachers who have taught Miranda so far. She has been blessed to have such a great foundation to her many years of required education.

Onto the point...I am sure the news crew scoured the district classrooms looking for the best teacher, the cutest class, and smartest group! The search was over when they came across the Scholar Class. Here is the news clip. I hope you enjoy.

I told Miranda that she would now have to wear dark sunglasses and a baseball cap whenever she went anywhere. People would constantly stop her for her autograph, since she was on the news she will be famous. I wasn't sure if she took me seriously until the next day when she said in a surprised manner "Oh I forgot to wear my shades and hat and NOBODY asked for autograph!" Maybe for the adorable little cuties that got closeups it may be another story!

Thanks to a Technological Savy brother in law who could record and edit this for me!

30 Flirty & Thriving.

I am not quite the big 3-0 yet but real soon. Friday night some super amazing ladies threw an awesome suprise dinner party for me and two other good friends who are slightly older than me! ha-ha! We ate a great dinner and did a birthday girl roast! Each guest brought a gift for the birthday girls. Thirty of something, then they got to make us blush by showering us with deserved ...or undeserved compliments. We then played a few party games. Pin the lips on Timmy (Tim McGraw to all you who don't know Teri). Then the real fun began as we attempted to smash a pinata with the GOOD candy. First off watching April P. try to re-hang the wet pinata back up was comical, luckily no-one was hurt. A few of us gave a reat effort, but the fun continued as I was swinging and the sprinklers went on, holy moly they were impressed that I could move that fast! Then when April P. swung the pinata was scared to make contact but just threw candy at her. Little did we know that sweet Liz packs a wicked hit! She made contact with her first swing but NAILED it with the back swing. It was obliterated. I think the candy landed about 15-20 feet away. After laughing so hard we had a cookie cake and some ice cream. They had a picture of us on a TIME magazine cover framed. All the attendees signed the frame with more wonderful comments. You girls are the best. Thanks for making this a great night.

Once I get the pictures I will post them. I am sure the pictures will not do the evening justice. It was a blast!

Wanted: Potty Trainer

Potty training is the hardest thing as a parent of young kids. I loathe it! I am not good at it. Please remind me that most kids do not enter school in pull-ups. I wish there there was a magic remedy to it. Then if it's not hard enough potty training one try doing two. Two that are different. This is getting complicated. I keep telling myself once I get passed this it is smooth sailing. OK enough whining the truth is I am not trying too hard or being too consistent (which is my nature...lack of consistency). I just wish you could sit down a two and a half year old and say: "Don't let anything come out below the waist unless you are sitting on a toilet" they would respond in a robotic a-firm and that would be that. Well here is to parenting in la-la land!

Remember My Name

It is a requirement that you post these rules before you give the facts.

1. You must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name.
2. If you don't have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
3 At the end of your post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.

D-Dynamite...I wish this implied my looks but it is for my temper, once the fuse is lit WATCH OUT!
I-Inquisitive, I like to know lots of stuff about people so I as lots of questions.
O-Outgoing, this is a new thing for me, so if you've known me a while you may be surprised
N-never uses the phone, well I do sometimes but I use e-mail most frequently and as often as possible avoiding the phone.
N-Nice, well I try to be.
E-exuberant, well I am not sure it fits but I think it is a cool word.

I Tag:
April P.
Hayley
Teri
Brittany
Tammy
Alice (Hello Zurich!)

Haylie and Hannah or is it Hannah and Haylie?

It is so fun having twins. I still have to remind myself that is what I have a set of imaginative, adventurous, messy, intelligent, twin girls. It is so fun to stare at them and compare. Anyways one of the fun little games we like to play is: "Are you Haylie? or Are you Hannah?" Hannah quickly caught on and would get it correct. Haylie, whom I think is the brains behind the operation!!!, started like this:
Me: What's your name?
Haylie: ME!
Me: What's her name?
Haylie: Hannah
Me: Her name is Hannah is your name Haylie?
Haylie: ?
Me: What's your name?
Haylie: ME!
She just didn't get it.

Then went to this:
Me: What's your name?
Haylie: Hannah
Me: You are Hannah?
Haylie: Yah! hee-hee I Hannah!

Now it is this:

Lauren's rockin' and a rollin'

Lauren is so funny. She is starting to roll over. She still has problems with her arm getting stuck. If you remember the baby dolls that you laid down and their eyes closed and you lift them up and they open...well Lauren is similar. If she is on her back she is happy flip her over on her tummy and she cries. It is like her tummy has a little button on it. This little button is highly inconvenient for me. My baby used to sleep through the night since she was less than a month old (I would say like two weeks but you know the first month is a blur anyways). Now she rolls over on her side which she will sleep very peaceful that way. The force of gravity then helps her roll the rest of the way and wakes her up. Well it is either that or she could be teething. As my friends and I have all figured out teething is the cause of all unhappiness in babies!

In true ME fashion here is a little clip of my baby going from happy to ...uh-hmm, upset with a push of the aforementioned tummy button.

Logan's Owie

A story about every mother's nightmare...I guess after the spider in my purse what could possibly worse right? As always I am completely and utterly over dramatic! So as usual I am at the computer and the middle of the Jacobs' Sandwich (Miranda and Lauren are the bread, Haylie, Hannah and Logan are everything else) is outside playing. I hear Logan crying and mosey to the door to see what's going on. Hannah says something like "Gokie, hurt" interpretation "Logan is hurt, Mommy come quick and make it all better." So then Logan comes trailing behind with both hands over his nose covering part of his eyes. First thought "Please don't take you hand down I am not sure I can handle blood in large quantities!" But having several years of maternal experience, I quickly decided to give my self a pep talk "suck it up" I told myself, "it's just thick red liquid." So I finally get the courage to look at it and "'tis but a flesh wound...but my goodness was there a lot of gooey snot coming out of his nose!" I couldn't help but try not to laugh at my son while he is in pain. Truly I was relieved because what I pictured was much worse. It turns out my son was running and slipped on some rocks and skinned his nose up pretty good and a little bit on his forehead.

He is still completely handsome. Now he just looks tough too! Just to let you know his injury did not stop him from continuing to be 100% BOY!

Looking for a dinner Menu...

A lot of people ask about meal planning. So I though I would post my dinner menu for the period. We do our shopping bi-weekly coinciding with paydays. So I make a list of dinners starting Friday of week one thru Thursdays of week 2. I get bored of cooking the same things so I try new things often.

Jacobs Menu
Friday, September 28 Ravioli (Costco)/Texas Garlic Toast/Veggies
Saturday - Chicken Gumbo/Veggies
Sunday - Mom Jacobs Cooks Dinner (we alternate weeks)
Monday - Pancakes, Sausage and Eggs (with yummy Boysenberry Syrup)
Tuesday - Mexican Lasagna*/Green Salad
Wednesday -Heather's Mom's Chicken/Red Potato Casserole/Veggies
Thursday - BBQ Pork Tenderloin**/Grilled Potatoes/Grilled Zucchini
Friday - Pesto Cheesy Chicken Roll-ups/Rice/Veggies
Saturday - Chicken 'n' Biscuits/Applesauce
Sunday - Orange Chicken(Frozen Aisle in Costco)/Rice/Veggies
Monday - Pigs in a Blanket/Tater Tots/Peaches
Tuesday - Chicken Poppy Casserole/Veggies/Applesauce
Wednesday - Chinese Casserole/Veggies/Fruit
Thursday - Meatloaf/Baked Potatoes/Veggies

*I am going to cook it with corn tortillas and use Mexican style kidney beans instead of refried beans.
**When I went to purchase the tenderloins at Costco they didn't have them so I got Pork Country Ribs instead. I am just going to marinate them with my favorite sauce and throw it on the grill. No dishes wah-la!

So this is my plan in a nutshell. Just a few things I keep in mind when planning a menu. Mondays are crazy so I try to keep the meal planned to a 15 minute prep, nothing too hard or that cooks too long. If Jer is not going to be home or we are going on a date I cook an easy meal, such as mac n cheese or fish sticks. Although this is a very chicken filled menu I usually try to do 2-3 chicken meals and 2-3 beef meals per week and then maybe a ham or pork meal, and a breakfast meal. Sometimes things come up so I get to carry over meals to the net meal period.

I love my husband!

I didn't ask permission to post this at first but I did later. Jeremy is an amazing hubby. I think people don't realize how goofy he really is. I hope you enjoy it!

Things that make you go HMMM!?

Yesterday the kids and I went to get frozen yogurt with my sister-in-law and her family. We were at the park in downtown playing and were surrounded by lots of not so pleasant activities. Particularly two men yelling back and forth at eachother across the park then doing push-ups. There were a few other things happening but I don't want you to think we live in the ghetto! It is a pretty great place.

As we were leaving Logan says "Mommy why are there lots of bad people in the world?" I tried to explain that some people just make bad choices and others are born...(I had a hard time saying this part so hopefully it came out OK)...and their minds don't work right so they seem bad but it it not their fault. Logan in turn says, "me too sometimes." I was not sure what he meant and then he said sometimes his mind is bad like when he treats Haylie and Hannah bad. I had no idea how much my little ones do notice their surroundings. It is sad that they come in contact with things that I would rather they didn't but at the same time I am so grateful I can experience it with them and we can talk about it so it makes sense...as much as it can anyways.

A quick funny!

We were walking home from dropping Miranda off at school and this person was pusing some computer monitors to the school. They happened to be Mac monitors. Logan says "Mom look at those coolputers." I though it was soo funny since they are pretty cool looking. Then as the conversation progressed I realized he calls all computers "puters" so he was saying "cool puter."

Yesterday logan was playing out in his favorite "back to nature" location...our backyard. He came in crying saying a bug bit him. We have seen black "weedows" as he calls them so my first question was "is it a spider?" (that would be my luck see preious post on spiders!) He said no and tried, through MAJOR tears and drool, to explain what kind of bug it was that bit him. After he calmed down he said "it was a scorpi! A scorpi bit me." To those of you who are not familiar with Little Einsteins, there is a video The Legend of the Golden Pyraimid that has a scorpion in it Logan keeps hearing scorpi. He pointed out the bug later and it was a pincher bug.

FOUR months ALREADY!

Ms. Lauren is four months today!

We went to her doctor's appointment and I have a long skinny kid. She weighs 13lbs 8oz and is 26" long. The doctor seemed a little concerned but she says Lauren must be doing OK. They will definitely be interested in her weight the next time. She is in the 99th percentile for height but is in the 49th percentile for her weight compared to babies in her age range. For her length though, she is in about the 5th percentile. She also got three shots and an oral vaccination. Other than that she is completely healthy!

In honor of her turning four months I will now commence with the bragging session. Lauren is a dream baby. She sleeps through the night. She talks and squeals with glee. She just started rolling over from back to tummy. She scootches all over the place. This little girl is so sweet I love her very much. She is the perfect calm after the storm I call the twinados! Lucky for the cuties that came before her are so darn cute with equally wonderful personalities...well...keep in mind their ages!

WHY ME!!!!

This real life story is dedicated to Hayley and Brittany, my spider killing friends, where were you when I needed you!!!

So I started the day similar to that of the last few weeks. I got up showered, read...I got Lauren up and she spit up a very pathetic little bit so I went to get the wipes to wipe her up. As I reached for them my arm went through a spider web. Ewww. So I turned on the hood light above the stove so I could see better. There was a spider web from my hood fan down to my purse. As I looked inside there was a huge web, like there was no chance I was reaching in there. By the looks of it you would think that I hadn't moved my purse in a long time, but I just put it there around 8:30 last night and this was about 7:00 this morning. So I got our cob web catcher and cleaned up as best I could without touching my purse. I am so glad the Lord gave me at least one boy.

So bravely I asked Logan to look in my purse and pull everything out slowly. He did it with no problems. Finally I hear him say "There is a big Spider in here" I was not about to place my face over a spider that could spin a major web so quickly. (On a side thought, now I understand how Charlotte could do those fancy webs over night. Spiders are talented! I should have checked for a message.) So I reached over and took a picture to make sure Logan wasn't teasing me (I know he is 4 how would he know how to tease me at my weakest moment). It looks fake but let me tell you it is REAL. So I picked up my purse and threw it outside. The contents spilled out but no spider. So I picked it up and through it again. (This, ladies, is why you should never spend too much money on a purse!) Finally it came out. Here is the kicker...are you ready...it was already dead. I didn't want to chance it so I grabbed Hannah's Flip Flip (or sip-slop as she says) and smooshed it again. So my guess is that I killed a dead mommy spider who just hatched millions of baby spiders. Thank you Charlotte's Web for educating me on this matter.

And to add to this lovely post this is what was happening on the wall right in front of me:

This picture is for Logan who gets a nickle for saving my life!

Some of the pictures are hard to see, if you double click on them it will show you a big preview!

Take 5

I was tagged by Rebecca. Thanks, I've never been tagged before!

5 Things I Was Doing 10 Years Ago
1. Working at IHOP.
2. Waiting for my boyfriend to get home from boot camp.
3. Taking classes at DVC.
4. Writing letters to mt future hubby while on his mission.
5. Driving my first new car, a Saturn Sports Coupe, the year before the three door.

5 Things on my to-do list today
1. Find sitter for Sat.
2. Pull more weeds.
3. Finish Saturdays Laundry.
4. Go to friends house for dinner (...Thanks!)
5. Go to movies and see Becoming Jane...finally!

5 Snacks I enjoy
1. Ice Cream
2. Sour Cream and Cheddar Chips
3. Popcorn
4. Cheese and Crackers
5. Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

5 Songs I know the lyrics to
1. Greatest Love of All-Whitney Houston
2. The Right Stuff-New Kids on the Block (or NKOTB for you youngin's ha-ha)
3. Just Another Day in Paradise-Phil Vassar (My Theme Song!)
4. Viktor Vito & Freddie Vasco - Laurie Berkner
5. I could Not Ask for More - Sara Evans

5 Things I would do if I were a millionaire
1. Go to Hawaii.
2. Build my Dream Home.
3. Invest in BYU to make sure my kids get accepted!!!!
4. Buy a vacation home in the mountains.
5. Buy my hubby the action figures he is missing.

5 Bad Habits
1. Staying too long...on the computer, at someone's house...
2. Yelling.
3. Procrastinating.
4. Baking when I want to loose weight.
5. Over planning.

5 Things I'd never wear again
1. Hammer Pants.
2. 80's Bangs.
3. My wedding Dress...besides it would never fit again!
4. A bikini, O.K. I only wore one twice!
5. Keds. (I looked for a picture and they actually have cute ones now!)

5 Favorite toys
1. Computer
2. My Stampin' Stuff
3. My Scrapbook Stuff
4. Camera
5. My new favorite is the weed puller!

Now for Tagging:
1. Hayley
2. Brittany
3. Teri
4. Hunter's Mom (or Dad)
5. April P.
Just copy and paste into a new post.

Dentist anyone?

While Hannah was sleeping we were playing dentist. At school today Miranda lost her second tooth this week! Her third was barely hanging on. Here is a video of her 3rd tooth being pulled. WARNING: This clip contains blood, preview before showing the youngsters!

Hannah is too...tired!

We got home from a fun day at the park. I didn't think they played too hard but apperantly Hannah was exhausted!

The SUITE life of Lauren

OK I am sure the McKissick family was a little dissappointed to waste a Luxury sweet I mean Suite ticket on me and Lauren, but once in a lifetime, it was great! The McKissick Family gets a Luxury Suite once or twice a year and had two extra tickets. So my friend Brittany and her hubby were offered two tickets to the A's game on Saturday. She thought I needed a break from my kiddos and invited me to go with her. Lauren tagged along. I am not the biggest baseball fan by anymeans but I do enjoy going to the games, and this is totally the way to go. Lauren is definitely finding out what the finer things in life really are and the A's just didn't cut it this game, but the company was great. We didn't bring the A's any luck they lost 6-1 to the Detroit Tigers. Lauren enjoyed her chum Sophie but missed her other good chum Alexandra. Here are a few pictures. Stay til the end to watch Jeff dance...or not!

Logan Swimming at Contra Loma

This is Logan showing us how he swims. If you ask him he will tell you he was swimming like a frog. It was way cute, I hope the video does it justice!

It's a kid kill bug world!

Yesterday I decided it was HIGH time to pull some weeds. I decided since some were taller than our fence we must do something about it. Unless you can recommend a weed fairy?! I took a few pictures, but the fun part was watching all the ticked off bugs. Since I ruined their home they were out in droves. The first bug they came across was a grasshopper, this was pre-camera. I am sorry to say it will never see its family again. I am not exactly sure how it got contorted in such-a way. There were lots of spiders, to many of you this may come as a surprise, I didn't scream. Only once did I jump and tell the spider "you I can't handle" and kicked him back into the dirt. (He may have been another casualty of gardening!) It was fun watching the kids enjoy the bugs. I got a few pictures of Logan and Hannah holding them. They found this green caterpillar. They finally let it go back to its family that is what the three are looking at.As I was pulling weeds and sweating I mean glistening, I realized the benefits of gardening. It is therapeutic cause you get to beat the tar out of something, it is exercise, because of all the bending, pulling and standing up, my legs are feeling it today, and I can see why so many gospel messages are tied to gardening. As annoying and unsightly as weeds are, they teach alot of gospel principals! It definitely made me realize the longer you don't weed the worse things get. We all have weaknesses but we have to work on them when they are small or they will get huge and it takes more work and sweat to get rid of them!

Faster than the speed of Blogging

Life is cruisin' so fast my blog can't keep up. I have lots of pictures, slide shows I want to create but I don't have time and quotes I want to share. I just have other non-computer things to take care of. Anyways the real post is about Miranda. We are loosing her one piece at a time. Actually just one tooth at a time. Yesterday while family was here we pulled her front tooth out. The second will come any day. Here is a picture of her awkward smile and a photo of the most recent tooth being pulled out!