That's me!!! Lucky number 7! I received my Lifetime membership today for reaching my weight loss goal and staying below it for six weeks! I am so proud of me! Weight loss total, you ask? Well, only about 45 pounds!!!! (25 with Weight Watchers, the rest came off at first with exercise, but I plateaued for a llllllooooonnnnnggggg time till I figured out that I had to eat right too!) It is too bad that on such a momentous day I didn't think to put on make up or brush my hair after my shower and opted instead for the ol' hat and messy bun doo instead. Oh well!!!! Yay me!!!

Happy Birthday, Anna Banana!!!

Happy Birthday, Anna Banana!!!

Nine years ago today our precious little Anna was born! So, according to Blogger tradition, I will rattle off nine of my favorite things about Miss Anna.

9- I love her cute little snout. Funny little inside family joke. We love you Grandpa!

8- I love that she loves being a little girl. I love that she loves dolls and pretty dresses. I love that she is clinging with all her might to the reality of the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus. Love it.

7- I love how much she LOVES to sleep. Ever since she was a baby, she has loved it. I have never had to fight with her to go to bed or to take a nap. She used to even rock herself to sleep in her carseat. I know someday soon this will bite me in the fanny as I am sure I am going to have to yank her out of bed for school, but for now, I will continue loving it.

6- I love her cartoon voice. She is a very animated little girl. She reads stories to us and always uses different voices for all the characters. It is VERY entertaining.

5- I love that she is so content. She is very even keeled and happy to be so. Whatever she is doing is exactly what she would like to be doing, except cleaning. That is the exception. But now she is 9. I hear that is the year kids start to like cleaning. Here's to hoping! :)

4- I love that she loves pickles and olives. Not just likes them. She LOVES them.

3- I love what a smart little cookie she is. She gets things. I like that in a kid.

2- I love that she loves her family. She really is a source of peace in our home and I appreciate it so much.

1- I love that she loves her Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I love that she loves the gospel, the temple, and primary. She is a tender hearted little angel, and I wouldn't trade her for anything!

Here we are at Anna's favorite restaurant, Olive Garden, for her birthday dinner. Most of us anyway, Jessica is not such a fan of pictures.

Our FANTASTIC neighbors, John and Elaine, joined us for dinner. We love these two. They have become our surrogate family here in California.



And here is our sleeping little Angel with her Bear named Elaine and her new Felicity doll.

Happy Birthday, Anna! We love you!!

Don't Mess With the Kerns

We are so stinkin' tough!!! Anna and Reese started Tae Kwon Do about a year ago and have loved it! We thought it would be fun to get the rest of us involved earlier this year, so here we are! Jeff even gets in on the action every once in a while! This is a fun, wholesome and healthy activity we all enjoy and can do as a family. We love Merafuentes Tae Kwon Do!!!

I Have to Give Credit Where Credit is Due...

So.....Josie! You are one amazing Chick! Thanks for the inspiration behind all the RAVE reviews I have gotten simply by copying sweet little you!!!


Jeff turned two on the 4th. I cannot believe my baby is 2! He is such a little sweetheart and probably the smartest little two year old out there. He LOVES Elmo and Cookie monster, so I just whipped these little guys up! Not really. Funny story.





I am not usually one to ruin food, I consider myself to be a pretty good cook. This week, however, was a different story. Two Wednesdays ago was a busy day, so I decided to have a freezer meal that night. I took my stoneware cookie sheet out of the oven so it would heat up faster and forgot to put it back in to catch any drips. So, while I was at my meeting, I got a call from Jessica that the house was filling up with smoke. It had dripped all over the bottom of the oven. Oops #1. The following Sunday I decided to make roasted potatoes to go with our steak, and wouldn't you know it...I had forgotten about the spills in the oven and turned on the oven. Once again, the house was filled with smoke. Oops #2. Then last Wednesday, I knew it was going to be another busy day so before I went to my evening class with all the kids, I put the potatoes into the (now clean) oven and put some chicken breasts on the stove to simmer til we got home. We came home to, you guessed it, a house full of smoke. I had not put the chicken on simmer, but HIGH! Yikes!!! Oops #3. I got the house all de-stinked (I'm sure in some parts of the country that is a real word, so I'm going to go with it.) . That was Thursday. Jeffs birthday. I made up the batter and put the cupcakes and cake into the oven, timed beautifully to come out of the oven RIGHT when I got home from taking Maya and Bella to school. It was really rainy that day, so I drove them. And since we were already in the car, why not go fill up the gas tank and get a few things at Office Depot. As I was paying for my things I all of a sudden remembered the cakes in the oven and headed right on over to the grocery store to buy a new cake mix. Oops #4. I am thankful that that oops wasn't nearly as stinky as the previous 3. So there. I guess we all have our troubles and I think I have met my quota for a while.

On to Valentines day...

Another idea kiped right from my dear sister-in-law! I love them! We only had to make about 94, so it was only a little overwhelming.... :)! But fun! The kids love them and are so excited to give them out! BTW, all it is is a box of conversation hearts dressed up a little! With the right link at Family Fun and a few punches, you too, can make these beauties!

Well, there you go! A lovely new post! I have been doing this for 2 years now and have yet to hit 100 posts! I will get there soon enough, mark my words!

Oh, by the way, we are moving in June. I will make another post about that. :). That ought to take the total up to about 70 :).

Whatever you do.....

Kern kids:

"Whatever you do, do not, I repeat, DO NOT take the band off the giant container of grapes or Mom and Dad will think we have been snitching them."

I have been giggling about this for a few days. I really don't care if they want to eat all the grapes, even in one sitting. It is just comical that they don't think to, you know, OPEN THE PACKAGE or, heaven forbid, WASH THEM. It is much more fun to be sneaky! Silly kids!

A Day in the Life of Me....(aka my sorry excuse for not blogging)

I have sure been MIA lately. Every now and then I check my blog and think, "Geez, I am so sick of seeing her wicked weekend, when is she going to change it up, already?!?!" and then I remember that it is me and try hard not to cry. So.....I have a few blog ideas that I am actually kind of excited about, (and you might be too! :)) so hang in there with me. Unfortunately for some of you, you are going to have to sit through another update blog before I can get to the real fun, but it is coming...Maybe even as soon as tomorrow! (There is, after all, no school tomorrow!)


And now for my sorry excuse.


I present to you......A Day in the Life of ME. Starring me, of course.


I'll set the stage: Ben is in Las Vegas til Wednesday when he will then be in Kansas City until late Friday Night. I am enjoying a blissful 4 hours of sleep because of a lovely chat with my dear friend Gina, whom I haven't seen in years.


4 :30 am Jeff wakes up screaming. He can't find his dang binkie. So, I find it for him and lay him back down till he starts screaming again at...

4:48 am Once again, the binkie is lost, it is actually right by his cheek, but he was too sleepy to help himself. I have already pushed snooze, so I guess it is officially time to wake up. I get ready for spinning at the gym, taking my time in case Jeff is going to wake up again. He doesn't, so at...

5:16 am, I leave for the gym and enjoy a sweaty, stinky hour of one of my favorite things in the world.

6:30 am I come home and make sure Jess is up and at 'em. She isn't, so I get her out of bed and go out and sit on the couch for "just a minute" and I proceed to fall asleep until it is just time to take her to her 0 hour Jazz Band. At...

6:55 am, I wake up all the kids and we take Jessica to school. We come home and finish up the homework that didn't get finished with FHE last night. As I am sitting at the table listening to reading and questions about input and output boxes, I doze off, so this homework session lasts A LOT longer than it should have. I race up the stairs at...

7:50 am with strict instructions for the kids to put homework folders in backpacks and to get dressed while I go take a quick shower. At...

8:10 am I finish my quick shower. Yes, I know that 20 minutes is not a quick shower, that is one of my faults. I recycle, I can make a tank of gas last a whole month, my one environmental splurge is my "quick" showers. Oh, and my six kids. Just think of how big my carbon footprint must be. HA! At...

8:12 am I am dressed and have my hair wrapped in a towel. I race downstairs to make lunches and breakfast and get kids out the door. I do this in record time and with a surprisingly little amount of yelling, until...

8:28 am when I am yelling at Reese. "Where are your glasses? Go get them NOW! We have to go!!!" He comes back downstairs and it is then that I realize that he is wearing the EXACT same outfit he was wearing yesterday. (I set clothes out for him) "Go upstairs and change your shirt!! HURRY!!!" As we walk out the door, I realize that I still have my hair wrapped in a towel, and since I am also in sweats, decide that one humiliating mother factor is enough for one day and take the towel off. We get to school at...

8:30 am and that was that. Now on to chores. I was a laundry slacker yesterday, so I had a whole weekend plus a day to catch up on. That would be 8 loads of laundry. Yuck. Beds made, dishes done, laundry everywhere. YUCK. We finish up the twins homework, eat lunch, and get them off to school at...

11:15 am. Since I noticed that I was completely out of diapers and had to resort to my emergency glove compartment diaper, Jeff and I were off to Costco for a few essentials. At...

12:00, I go to drop Jeff off at my friends house so she can babysit while I go help at school and while I am waiting for her to get back from dropping off her Kindergartener, I notice all my gray hairs shining in the sun. It was not lovely. I am pretty sure I am due for a color.

12:15ish, I get to the school to read with 1st graders. Lots of fun.

1:00 pm, I am off to 3rd grade to do SRA (reading comprehension) with Anna and her class.

1:30pm, time to go help with the last of Native American day in Kindergarten, and at...

2:30 pm I pick up Jeff. I go home with really good intentions of changing out of my sweats, but run out of time as I was busy swapping laundry, changing diaper, putting away groceries, and hiding some Christmas presents before the snoops....er....kids get home from school. So, alas, at...

3:10 pm (Well, that would have been ideal, as this is the time school gets out, but I'm not going to lie...I was late.)

REVISED 3:17 pm I am still in my sweatpants picking up my kids and heading over to the Junior High for Jessica's Basketball game. They lost, Jessica didn't play much today (which I am SURE is the reason they lost). Her knee is hurting her and is swollen. We had the doctor look at it, but she was sure it was just that she is growing. Does swelling and horrendous pain usually accompany growing? I don't know. I'm not very tall.

4:30 pm we are done and heading home. Thank goodness for freezer meals, because it was nearly done by the time we got home! At...

5:15 pm I start requesting that the table be set as dinner is just about on. No one listens, so I ask again. And again. And again. Nothing. SOOOOO....in the world of mean mothers, this is what we call a natural consequence.
I have had to do this once before and it worked wonders. It has been several months since I have had to resort to this. No plates, no utensils, and if I was crazy enough to want to do some serious floor mopping, no cups. Oh wait. There are still no cups. They just have to be thirsty.
As you may imagine, there was a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth, mostly from Reese. He was NOT going to eat food that was just "plopped right onto the table. I PROMISE!!!" Right Reese, he would eat gum off the street if I didn't stop him, I am sure. So there I sit (and doze) until...
6:15 pm when everyone has finally finished their dinner and I can clean the table and start dishes and do more laundry before...

7:00 pm when we have to be at Achievement Day/Young Womens/Karate.

8:00 pm we gather the kids and head home for a night of no-school-tomorrow fun. Oh shoot. Reese and Anna are beating eachother up in the car, so...

8:45 pm.... it is off to bed for them. I swap laundry one more time, only seven loads have been washed today. One more tomorrow, plus what we used today and I will be done. We start Mary Poppins for the little girls and Jessica puts the trash cans out....


And here I am.


THIS, my friends, is where I have been. This is why I have such a tremendous amount of gray hair. This is why I often wonder if I will make it through another day.


But then, I go in and check on my sleeping little angels, and remember that it is all worth it. I will go to bed soon and fall asleep hard and fast and wake up tomorrow and do it all over again.

And I will love it.
Mostly.

I may even put on some real pants.

My Wicked Weekend

You may recall that a couple months ago my sweet, yet forgetful husband failed to remember a certain special day commemorating the blessed day of my birth. It happens, I know. He has a lot on his mind. I now know that I may need to email him some important dates so they can be plugged into his Outlook Calendar and be more easily remembered. Anyhoo, I made out like a bandit! I got a nice romantic dinner out of it, an Aerosmith guitar hero game, and last but not least, a romantic weekend away with my man. (It looks like he made out pretty well too!)

He bought 2nd row tickets to see Wicked at the Orpheum in San Fransisco and we spent a quiet night at the Hilton with a lovely view of a fog draped Golden Gate Bridge. The play was spectacular! We could see all of the facial expressions AND the spit that occasionally flew out of the actors mouths! I loved it! I am already planning to take my girls to see it later this summer! We had a great time eating out, have you ever had Dim Sum? Have you ever eaten it in China Town? Fun Stuff!

I think he has paid up now, so I will let him off the hook for his oversight. I love you, Ben!