Heard in the Last 20 Minutes at our House . . .

Annie:
Annie and Ellie were excitedly talking about the future.  "You'll be four, and I'll be six!" Annie said, "Then you will ask me, 'Annie, what is the world made of?' and I will say, 'I don't know.'" 

Ellie:
"I'm just like a Daddy!" Ellie exclaimed, telling me about how she was going to take the little trash can in their room and dump it into the bigger trash can.  Then I heard her as she came out of her room, "Annie, I've done this like 12 times -- I'm done, I think it's your turn."  I had no idea she'd taken on (then grown to resent) the trash duties in their room.

Isaac:
My 19 month old and I had a bit of a miscommunication issue earlier.  He came up to me with a box of crayons.  He pulled one out and exclaimed, "Owens crayon!"  "It's Owen's crayon?" I asked.  "Isaac's crayon," he firmly shot back.  "Oh, Isaac's crayon."  He held up the crayon again and said, "Owens crayon!"  "So, it's Owen's crayon?" If the boy knew how to roll his eyes he would've, "ISAAC'S crayon," he reaffirmed.  "Isaac's crayon," I agreed.  He pulled out a new crayon, held it up, and this time I heard the ever so subtle difference, "Owans crayon."  I looked at the orange and orange-red crayons he was holding in his hands, "OH! ORANGE crayon! Gotcha!" Smart boy.  Not so smart Mom.  :-)

Owen:

He doesn't actually contribute much to the conversation yet.  But he's recently discovered he is very amused by the cow-print bar above his bouncy chair . . .

Completely unrelated:

This is what my walls look like several times a week . . . thanks, Isaac.

Grandpa Robert babysat the other day while Talina and I ditched him with four of our five children.

Kindergarten, Here We Come!

Today Annie went to meet her Kindergarten teacher and see her classroom before she starts school next week.  She is so excited, but was adorably shy and cuddly while we were there.  Fortunately, after a few minutes of introductions and showing me all the papers I need to go through, the teacher was able to take Annie into the classroom for one on one testing with no objection on Annie's part.  Thirty minutes or so later, Annie reemerged and cuddled up on my lap and the teacher declared Annie's testing 'perfect'.  After checking out the Kindergarten doors and where the bus drops off, we headed home.  On the drive, I asked Annie what the test included.  "I don't know . . . I don't remember," she predictably answered.  But then she excitedly remembered, "Oh!  She asked me to count as high as I could . . . so I counted to 100!  Then I stopped, 'cause 100 is like zero all over again, and it just starts all over." 
"Wow," I said.  "What'd your teacher think about your counting?"
"I think she was impressed," Annie said with a smile. 
"Did you read for her?  Does she know you can read?" I asked.
"Oh, I didn't show her I could read!  Wow . . . she's gonna be really impressed when I start school!"
I think she's even more excited to start school now.  :-)

Overthinking

We have the travel Brain Quest books, and Annie loves for us to read her questions from them.  We're working on the First Grade books, and she's really enjoying them most of the time.  (Until she gets frustrated with a question, then she shuts down and starts answering questions crazily.)  But, because some of the questions are a bit tougher, she sometimes overthinks the easier ones and psychs herself out. 

Earlier I asked her one of the weather questions, "What is the name of what blows through the trees?" 

Annie thinks for a split second, then answers enthusiastically, "Air pollution!"

Close, but the answer we were looking for was wind . . . :-)

Sleepy Time . . .

We were driving home from the grocery store shortly before bedtime.  Ellie, who'd already proven herself super tired by falling asleep on the five minute drive to the grocery store, was starting quietly out her car window when she quietly asked, "Why is the sun going down?" 
"Well," Greg answered, "It's getting ready to go to bed.  Just like how Annie and Ellie and Isaac and Mommy and Daddy are tired and need to sleep when we get home."
"Especially Mommy and Daddy," I added.
It was quiet for a minute as Ellie thought about the tired sun getting ready to go to sleep for the night.  Then Annie suddenly adds from the backseat, all knowingly, "The moon is nocturnal." 

Big Sister

"Hey Mom!" Annie cried enthusiastically as I came in to check on the girls in the bathtub (I was in the next room, folding clothes, listening to them play.)  "I was thinking . . . if you were sick or something, and the new baby is a girl, and you couldn't do it, I could brush Ellie's and the new baby girls hair for you!"
"Wow, thanks Annie!  You sure are helpful!"
"Yeah, but it could be kinda hard . . . " then she added kinda forcefully, "I'm only five years old, you know!"

Oh, and the other day, she brought Greg and leaf and said in a reverent tone, "It's very valuable, you know.  It's worth ten hundred eighty dollars!"  Greg commented to me, "I wish we had a tree that had that valuable of leaves . . ."

Annieism

Annie was reaching for one of two orange crayons.  After picking up the closest one, she paused, set it down then grabbed the other (a newer one), and explained to Ellie, "I'm going to take this one, okay?  It's better -- and well, you just scribble and make crayons all short anyway . . ."

Meet My Sister . . .

Annie and Ellie are currently playing in the bathtub.  I swear they are at their most creative and imaginative in the tub -- they can play for hours, making up stories and scenarios that are endless.  They often make up whole new identities and relationships and activities. 

I just walked in to check on them, upon hearing their squeals of laughter and vigorous splashing.  They both turned and smiled at me when I came in.  "Mom, this is my sister Fajita," Annie points at Ellie, then adds excitedly, "It's her name and her favorite food!"

Then she turned back to Ellie and said, "Come on Fajita . . . it's time to go to Relief Society . . . "

Shhh! The Easter Bunny is Coming . . .

I've mentioned this before, but at our house, the Easter Bunny comes on Saturday morning.  It's just how we have it worked out with him.  So tonight, at bedtime, we were telling the girls the good news, that they'd be waking up to Easter eggs and presents in the morning.  Greg then explained, "The Easter Bunny is really skittish though -- he needs it to be quiet to come."  I added, "You know how if you're around a squirrel, and you move around or make lots of noise, it'll run away . . . well, you guys need to be very quiet and go to sleep . . . "  We were pretty sure we'd officially put the fear of the Bunny into them, and they might put up less of a fight tonight and go to sleep without talking, singing, fighting, whining, crying and laughing for hours on end.
"So you guys need to go to sleep . . . " Greg reminds them as we finish up our bedtime routing.
"OK," Ellie agrees.

Annie suddenly turns to her sister and says, in all seriousness, "Ellie. Do not snore."


Ha!

I Want Your Love . . . Blah, Blah, Blah . . .

This is such horrible quality, and it's hard to understand, and it's not nearly loud enough . . . it almost wasn't worth posting -- until I realized Annie sings the line, "I want your love, blah, blah, blah . . ."  (It's at the end).

While Running Errands

Today on our way to the library, we passed a garbage truck THEN a fire truck and THEN a school bus.  All in a row.
Annie squealed and said, "I think that was possibly the COOLEST thing we've ever seen!"

A Letter to my Baby Brother

My little brother's main request of me while he's on his mission is to keep him informed of all the latest Annie & Ellie antics.  So after Annie had her friends over today, I sent him this little story . . .

I did NOT think I'd have to be dealing with this for another 7-8 years or something -- but the little boys from the neighborhood kept coming over today, ringing the door bell and Annie would come to the door and they'd throw their snowballs on the ground (not at her, thankfully! Just onto the front porch.)  Then they'd run away laughing, and high fiving and hiding out of sight.  Annie, and her friend Aniston, would call after the boys, "You're silly billys!" or "You boys are goofy boofys!"  Then they'd shriek and giggle and prepare for the next 'attack', planning on ways to 'get' the boys, going back and forth between shrieking & hiding and giggling & arming themselves.  They'd lock the door and exclaim, "Quick! Quick! Lock the doors before the boys come back and get us!" and if the boys didn't show up again in a few minutes, the girls were out on the front porch armed with snowballs waiting to get them back. This went on for about 45 minutes.  There was much giggling and plotting and such exchanges between the sexes.  It's like she's a teenager already and the flirting is already going full swing!  I hate to tell you this, but at this rate, she may just be married by the time you get back!  :-)

Listed In Order . . .

This morning, after breakfast, I pulled out some cookie dough from the refrigerator that we'd made earlier this week.  I was going to let it sit out and soften up a bit, then have the girls help me make cookies for Sunday dinner at my parent's house tonight. 
Annie came in, saw the cookie dough and squealed, "Yay!  Cookies!  My favorite!"  I explained we'd be making them for later, and she was begrudgingly okay with that.  "You know Mom," she said, "Cookie are my very favorites.  Out of desserts we eat, I mean."
She started to walk out of the kitchen, the suddenly turned and exclaimed, "Wait! Cupcakes!"  She took a breath, seemed to settle on that and then clarified calmly, "Okay, cupcakes, then cookies."  Then turned to walk out again.  Suddenly stopping in her tracks, she spun around again and exclaimed, "Wait! Ice cream!  Then cake!  Then cupcakes.  Then cookies," then after a pause, "then muffins."  She stood there for a second and seemed satisfied with the current rankings, then turned to leave the kitchen again.  Right as she passed the table though, I suddenly called out, "What about brownies?"
She sighed, then said, "Then brownies."  Then left, back into the front room to watch "Dinosaur Train" while I did breakfast dishes.
About ten seconds later though, a streak of blonde came charging back into the kitchen, stopped right by me at the dishwasher and exclaimed, "Brownies, before muffins!  Brownies, and then muffins.  Okay?"  Then without another word she went back to the couch and watched the rest of her show.

Glad we got that all sorted out though!  :-)

Such a Thinker . . .

I typed while Annie talked as we were getting our weekly email off to Uncle Cody.  He gets to check his email tomorrow in the MTC, so we wanted to get it sent today, since our morning is crazy tomorrow.
Word for word, here's how Annie started off . . .

Cody I love you! Hi. I'm gonna draw you a picture. It's going to be pretty. Maybe. I went to preschool today, and how about let's say 'yesterday', since tomorrow he's checking his email and today will be yesterday and it was preschool today so that's why I want to say it was yesterday 'cause he gets to check his email when yesterday was preschool. Cody, I went to preschool yesterday. When you check your email. Tomorrow.

This One's for You Lacy!

Up at Yellowstone, after Grandpa Robert had taught my girls a little song that went, "Buffalo poop!  Buffalo poop!  Buffalo poop, poop, poop!" Aunt Lacy taught the girls "The Scat Song".  Have I mentioned my family might not always be 100% appropriate and sometimes gets a little too much joy from seeing my small children say and sing less tasteful or appropriate things . . . just thought I'd mention that . . .  :-)  And that since teaching my children this song, Lacy calls at least a few times a week to have Annie sing the song to yet another of her friends?  Figured I'd make it easier and just put the song in one easily referenced place . . .

Then, just for fun, some crazy-faced-Ellie-dancin'!

Miss Attitude

Raising children makes one very aware of how quickly time moves. Like it seems like Annie was just born yesterday, and yet sometimes it already seems like we have a full blown (crazy, hormonal and moody) teenager around the house.

I was in the kitchen when I heard Annie & Greg come in, obviously in some kind of disagreement. (Turned out he thought it was bedtime, and she thought it was ludicrous she had to stop riding her scooter and come inside already.) As she turned the corner, into the kitchen where I was doing dishes, I heard her mutter, with a full on eye roll, "If you say so, Dad."

Sarcastic "if you say so's" . . . complete with snotty eye roll . . . she's four, people. FOUR.

This among many other Annie-isms, have me a tad worried for the tween years . . .

Excuses, Excuses

Annie is the proud owner of many, many, MANY purses. And like many people who have far too many accessories, she's loaded with excuses as to why she NEEDS these things . . . my two favorite excuses from today:

"I have so many fancy things I need to carry this many purses everywhere!"

and

"Mom, I have to have three purses -- what if people need help holding their stuff?! That's what I'm here for!"


Unrelated to her purse-obsession, earlier today Annie was singing to Isaac, and telling him jokes . . . and to her delight, these things were making him smile from ear to ear. After awhile though, he was starting to get tired and the smiles weren't coming so readily. At one point I listened to this one-sided sibling exchange:

"So Isaac, here's another one . . . Knock knock . . . Who's there . . . Canoe . . . Canoe who? . . . Canoe come inside and play with me . . . [long pause] . . . OK Isaac, let's try that again . . . Knock knock . . . " She proceeded to tell him the whole joke all over again. He still didn't smile, she was bewildered, and I gently explained that he might just be a little young for word play jokes. :-)

Labeled

Annie and Ellie got two cute little stuffed ducks from the fair we went to on Saturday. Problem is, they're identical. So, after a big blow up about whose is whose, I suggested writing names on the tag. Annie happily ran and got me a pen and declared, "OK Mom, it's A-N-N-I-E, Annie. Write that." Thanks for the help Annie. :-) I wrote hers, then grabbed Ellie's duck and heard Ellie chime in, "Lalee! E-L-O-O-D! Lalee!" She's almost half way there!

(And, no, I'm not in labor yet.) :-)

That's the Point

Last night, Greg went in to remind the girls that they needed to stop talking to each other, because it was bedtime. Annie responded, "I can't not talk . . . 'cause then I'll go to sleep!"

Domestic Goddess?

I've never claimed to be the most 'domestic' person out there -- I mean, I try and keep a clean house and feed my family healthy homemade food, at least a big chunk of the time. I don't regularly steam clean my floor boards, defrost my freezer or scrub out my oven, and there aren't any handmade crafts around, or beautifully decorated rooms (in fact, both of my upstairs bathrooms are still bare after a year and a half of living here.) And apparently my kids haven't missed the fact that I may be a bit lacking in this area . . .

Annie was looking down, sadly, at the wrinkled bow on the front of her dress this morning and said, "Hey Mom, do you think we could go by Grandma's later so she could iron my bow for me?"

My response, rather than get out my iron and take care of it, and prove to my four year old that I am in fact capable of ironing, was, "Sure, we could swing by there later." :-)

I'll Help You With That, Mom

Ellie and Annie spent the day playing with Aunt Lacy. The girls went and fed ducks, went to Chick-fil-A, and played most of the afternoon. When they finally came back home, Ellie had to go down for a nap, but the Aunt/Niece bonding time wasn't over for Annie, who got to do manicures and pedicures with Lacy. After Lacy left, Annie painted my toe nails for me. Awhile later, I was painting my fingernails when Annie came up and said, "You don't really bend so well anymore, huh Mom? That's why it was best for me to paint your toes for you . . . "
Sadly, she probably did a better job than I could've even if I wasn't 8 months pregnant. :-)