Fesival of Trees 2013

I love the Festival of Trees and look forward to it all year -- and then I'm fighting four kids to get dressed, ready and out the door, then two fall asleep in the car on the way (Ellie & Isaac) and Owen screams the whole drive because he's teething (and sopping wet from drooling).  By the time we get there in the 8 degree weather, I'm starting to wonder what we were thinking :-)  We did have fun, but we had some cranky kids on our hands . . . also, with the food issues, there was no traditional scones or apple slices and caramel.  Trying not to let food traditions dying make me bah-humbug-ish, but it happens sometimes.  I'm glad we went, but it was like pulling teeth getting them to have fun :-)

 Then, right at the end, they all got a second wind and became goofy and funny and slap happy and gregarious.  Of course, by then, Greg had already gone to get the car :-) . . .

All She Wants for Christmas is Her Two Front Teeth . . .

Look who lost her second front tooth just in time for the Holidays :-)

Two Months of Facebook Updates. High Quality Blogging Here.

December 4th, 2013
Isaac was my last kid left in the tub tonight, and when I came in to get him out he exclaimed, "Wait Mom! Not yet! I haven't finished my experiment," as he frantically mixed 'potions' from one container to the other, "I've almost discovered how to defeat Annie!"

Ellie was telling me about the vision testing -- she was explaining how when she covered one eye she could see better than the other eye, the whole while demonstrating by covering her eyes one at a time. Isaac suddenly cried out, quite concerned, "Ellie! When I cover both my eyes, I can't see very good at all!!" as he had hands covering both of his eyes. Ha!

December 2nd, 2013
Isaac's take on the world always cracks me up . . . he was sleeping over at my parent's house, and was playing with Grandma Karine when upon examination he decided she was obviously ill and needed a shot. She was quite concerned and didn't want a shot, but he assured her, "Do not worry, I will give you a nasal vaccination. It will not hurt at all." Then he pretended to put a syringe up to her nose, and before pressing down on the imaginary plunger to it, he instructs her to 'inhale', then finishes the procedure and assures her that she is well now.
(And I have no idea where he got 'nasal vaccination' from -- he's never had one. If I had to blame someone, it would probably be Sid the Science Kid.)

I love that my 3 year old woke me up this morning, by quietly coming in, putting his face REALLY close to mine, then whispering loudly, "MOM! Can we go downstairs already and watch cellos?" That kid LOVES Piano Guys :-)

Thanksgiving Morning:

November 27, 2013 - Cousin Pictures

 

 November 26, 2013

So, this just happened to me.
I was just finishing up changing Owen's diaper when I made the disgusting discovery that his diaper had leaked out the back and onto the carpet. This is the moment Isaac chose to excitedly burst into the room and exclaim, "Whoa! Mom! My poop just EXPLODED everywhere! I was sitting on the potty and it just went flying all over the place!" At this point is when I hear Ellie, who I'd just sent in to change into pajamas, "Ummmm, Mom? I have poopy panties . . . I need your help."

Isaac, "Mom! I need help with my pants! I want them off, so I need you to help with the thing. You know, that takes them off. The one part that helps them come off if you take it off, but when it's on it helps keep my pants on."
Me: "Your button?"
Isaac: "Yeah, that thing."
I've never met a kid who can use SO MANY words to come up with the one that won't pop into his head . . . he is very much my kid.

Ellie is doing an impromptu survey of all her stuffed animals:
"Do you use drugs?" "No."
"Do you eat tomatoes?" "Yes."
"Do you eat glue?" "No." "Good."
"Do you eat turkey?" "Yes, we love food on Thanksgiving."
"Do you eat paper?"

November 25, 2013

Just got back from the Doctor Who 3D special. Not sure if this makes me incredibly awesome or a giant nerd.

November 22, 2013

Ellie with her "Silly Yak" from Aunt Star.

November 21, 2013

I have spent the last 45 minutes doing nothing but put on and take off various snow gear and boots. Finally everyone's hands are frozen, so we can just throw them in the tub now and not worry about getting anyone dressed for a whole 30 minutes or so :-)

Also, I just received a shipment for 31 pounds of gluten free flours (almond and coconut), and it cost a whopping $150. Aw, I remember back in the good ol' days when I could buy 40 pounds of wheat for $17.99. :-)  In case of zombie apocalypse, I'm pretty sure my kids will just starve . . .

November 18, 2013 

Aunt Talina to Ellie: "Ellie, are you excited to go to the hockey game tonight?"
Ellie, jumping up and down: "Yes, I LOVE hockey!"
Talina: "Do you know what hockey is?"
Ellie: "Yes! There's a round thing that goes back and forth and back and forth, and you hit it into the goals!"
Talina: "That's right! Do you know where you play it? Like on the grass, or . . . "
Ellie: "On a giant table that blows air!"

My 19 year old hockey-fan-self would've been horrified at how little my children know about hockey. My 34 year old self was mildly horrified I was attempting to take four children to a hockey game past bedtime. We made 2/3rds of the way through (well, the last half of that was spent wandering the halls with the littlest ones), but nobody completely freaked out, so I think it was a win.

Isaac just finished some strawberries, pineapple, and eggs with ham and spinach. He brought me his empty plate, threw it in the sink and asked, "So Mom, what are we having for breakfast?"
Um, hello there Bottomless-pit!

November 15, 2013

I'm trying to talk Isaac into using the potty before Grandma picks him up for the evening. He's happily holding a painting he made for her. At my latest insistence, he responded, "Mom, now's not the time for me to go potty. According to my list," as he double checks the paper he's holding, "I'm not allowed to go potty before Grandma gets here. Sorry Mom. The list."
Three year old crack me up. According to my list . . . ha!

November 13, 2013
Trying to get four kids to sing "Happy Birthday" in a video together:

November 11, 2013

Because this rarely happens, I have to brag a little. Today was an awesome day (despite the snotty noses and oozy gunk from various people's ears). We played 'school', board games & Memory, ran around outside, cleaned the back yard, raked the leaves into giant piles to jump in, got the laundry done while the kids helped put away clothes and clean their rooms, played some card games (in which I dominated -- seriously won 14 rounds of UNO in a row -- against a 3, 5 and 7 year old. I'm awesome.) And not a single child was up to a screen until 4PM. Not the TV, iPad, Kindle or iPod. Not one second of screen time for anyone under 8 years old 'til Dad was on his way home from work. ('Cause apparently us 34 year olds can't be held to similar standards. Working on it.)
They may or may not have been glued to the iPad from pretty much 4:00 to 5:45PM. But still, I'm considering it a win.
Not bad for the first day off track. I don't imagine all three weeks will go this smoothly, but it's something to aspire to again some other day :-)

Ellie stopped complaining about her ear hurting before we got to the doctors -- 'cause it'd ruptured. Dang it.
And Owen also has an ear infection now. It's just how we roll.

Owen found, and refuses to take off, his stylin' new sunglasses . . .

 

November 10, 2013

Oh, for the love. First day off track tomorrow, so is it even a surprise that Owen's running a 100 degree fever and Ellie just woke up crying in pain because of an ear infection. (Her second in three weeks.) 'Tis the season.

November 9, 2013

Aunt Star took the three older kids out on an Aunt/Nieces/Nephew date -- she posted the following about it:
Today I had a serious discussion on global warming, which my 7 year old niece broached. After she explained the danger to the penguin and polar bear habitats, my 3 year old nephew stated, "Yeah, this is serious. The polar bears will have to live on the side walk, and then they will eat all the MOST delicious houses." 

Trip to Scheel's with Grandpa Robert & Cousin Bailey

November 8, 2013

Isaac: "Mom, you know dinosaur feet, right . . . "
Me: "Ummmm. Yes?"
Isaac: "OK, I want some."
Me: "Like, you want your feet to be dinosaur feet?"
Isaac, looking at me like I'm an idiot: "No, I want to eat some."
Me: "You want to eat, dinosaur feet?"
Isaac: "Yep, like earlier."
Me: "We had dinosaur feet earlier? What are they?"
Isaac, another eye roll: "They are DINOSAUR feet, Mom."

Took another several minutes to figure out. Anyone want to guess out what they are?

Yeah, walnuts. It took me awhile to get that too.

November 6, 2013

Greg and I have decided that Annie officially gets our entire inheritance -- she was the only human being in our house NOT in our bedroom at 3:30 this morning.

 
November 5, 2013 

Isaac, yelling across the house, "OK, Ellie, you are good in that bathroom! I'm going to go upstairs to use Mom's bathroom, where I will have my very own privacy all to myself!"

Isaac with one of his questions that just stump me: "Hey Mr. Mom," (that's what he calls me now), "How do you sign Cody in Spanish?"
Ummmmm . . .

November 3, 2013

Owen realized that Uncle James had a device with a screen -- and therefore was capable of playing "What the Fox Say". They're now BFF.

October 31, 2013

Kids just left and I was all excited to have some alone time to work on my graphics work -- until I realized that computer is upstairs. And the doorbell and the trick or treaters are going to be down here all night. Oh well -- now I'm planning on an evening of whatever I can find on Amazon Prime to watch, and finding all the banana Laffy Taffy's from the candy bowl so I don't accidentally give away any of that goodness . . .

I need trick or treating to stop for like two minutes . . . my kids are out of the house, so I'm making a quesadilla. Gluten AND cheese, people! GLUTEN AND CHEESE! Mmmmm . . .

October 30, 2013

Deep breaths.

Isaac, realizing he was in the process of pooping his pants, jumped off the couch (which got the first of the poop on it), ran across the front room (which got poop on the carpet), across the kitchen (a line of poop tracing his path), out to the back porch where he stripped off his underwear (leaving poop all over the stairs and concrete), then ran back inside, and up the stairs (yep, now poop covered), through the hall (poopy carpet), across the clean laundry pile (I have a whole load going on 'sanitize mode' now), and across my bedroom floor (little poopy footprints marking his path), into the bathroom, where he calmly said, "Hey Mom, I think I pooped a little."

This is what I get for attempting to shower. Sigh.

 

October 28, 2013

Isaac is quite the back seat driver, constantly pointing out red, green and yellow lights, and emphatically telling me what I should be doing about them. Today though was a little different. We were driving down the road, when my three year old suddenly bursts out, "Mom, be careful out here -- if you hit someone, we will die." Before I had a chance to say anything, he added, "Well, we may die. It may be them. The people in the other car could die. Basically, it could be us, or it could be them." "Um. . . " but before I had a chance to fully flesh out a response to THAT, he added, "Basically Mom, what I'm saying is, just keep going this speed." OK, thanks Bug.
(And yes, he really loves the word 'basically' -- he uses it like his sisters used 'actually' and 'apparently' at this age.)

Aunt Talina babysits:

 October 23, 2013

The nice thing about your kids running fevers and puking is that you don't even feel guilty about them going on their sixth hour of watching PBS . . . 

Look what a genius my baby is . . .

October 22, 2013

Greg was surprised when he got home tonight that the kids were still up and in our room, as it was well past bedtime. But seriously, they were sitting around with Annie reading them scripture stories while they were snacking on plain celery sticks and carrots. Who was I to interrupt? 

October 21, 2013

We decided to take a drive up the canyon for family night . . . at about the highest point of our planned trip, Isaac started puking. Ten minutes by the side of a narrow canyon road cleaning it up, then heading down with crying kids for another 40 minutes. Good times.

Ellie and I are in very different places when it comes to Isaac's potty training. She came running in, in full fledged tattle-telling mode, screaming, "MOM! Isaac took off his underwear outside and PEED!" I rushed to the door, looked outside and exclaimed, "Bug! You took your underwear off BEFORE you peed! Good job! I'm so proud of you!"
Ellie looked very annoyed at me. I was just glad I didn't have to rinse out another little potty or wash another pair of underwear. And seriously, taking them off BEFORE he peed meant he realized he was going to. Hallelujah.    
 

October 16, 2013

Owen smacked me in the eye with a hair brush, then about 30 seconds later, leaned over to give me a kiss and BIT MY LIP. If I have a black eye and a fat lip, just know, it's not my husband who beats me, it's my one year old.

One of Greg's coworkers saw these shirts at the Gluten Free Expo on Saturday, and bought one for Ellie. She's SO excited about it, she wore it yesterday afternoon, all night, and to school this morning.

 October 15, 2013

Ellie came home from school, on red ribbon week, and proudly informed me, "Mom, I've decided to never do drugs again!"

October 14, 2013

On one hand, when you clear all the kids' drawers and closets of all non-fitting clothes, get them boxed up and put away, and bring out bigger clothes and get them all folded and put into drawers, you feel a big sense of accomplishment because you got so much done. On the otherhand, you realize you've spent half the day doing something that a.) doesn't make you house look any better, and b.) the kids have trashed the rest of the house while you were otherwise occupied.

Yesterday at Church, we were about 30 seconds from the Sacrament prayers starting, when Isaac suddenly stood up, cried, "Mom, I gotta pee!" and started pulling his pants off. (He was in a diaper, since we're no where near confident enough in his fledgling potty training skills to go out in public in underwear). I grabbed him, hiked his pants back up, tripped my way out of our full aisle, ran to the bathroom, sat him down on the potty, just in time for him to pee right up and over the toilet bowl all over the floor in front of us. [face palm]

Did you know how ridiculously nonabsorbent those thin paper towels are?! It took like forty of them to clean the floor, and I had to finish with just regular toilet paper so it wasn't a wet slipping hazard. Needless to say, I missed the Sacrament. :-)

October 13, 2013

Ellie showing off for Uncle Cody:

Not to be showed up by her little sister, Annie also wanted to teach Uncle Cody a few new things . . .

October 12, 2013

My niece, Bailey's 2nd Birthday at the Zoo

October 11, 2013

Isaac's playing in the bathtub with Owen and about 47 toy animals. Isaac's dinosaurs keep almost 'falling off' the ledge (i.e., the edge of the tub) and into the water, but Giant Isaac keeps saving them. I just heard Isaac have this conversation with himself, "I got you, I saved you, don't worry!" and then "Ohh, thank you, thank you for saving me from falling! I don't want to die for many, many more years. Thank you, sir."
I love three year olds.

I love Ellie's self confidence. She played at the piano recital last night (where she literally played a 15 second, three note song that she memorized from her 'Mini Music' classes, she's not even in piano lessons, but since big sister was performing, she asked their teacher if she could too.) This morning I said, "Ellie-bells, I was so proud of you last night, you did so good!" To which she responded, "I know, I was totally the youngest one there, AND the very best out of everyone!"
Um, sure, kiddo. I don't know if the teenage girl who played 'Phantom of the Opera' or whatever would agree.

October 10, 2013

The girls both performed in a piano recital tonight, and did really well. I was only a couple minutes late, making it a mere 45 seconds before it was Annie's turn to perform (oops! I was at my grandparent's house this evening helping clear out the spare bedrooms, and it took me longer to get home than I thought it would), and Greg realized after getting there that he'd forgotten the camera, and neither of us have a phone that'll do video right now (since his G3 just broke and he's back to a blackberry for now, and my phone is seven years old and in its old age stubbornly stopped taking videos like a year ago.) They did good though -- even if they were done performing by the time my mad-dash adrenaline had slowed down :-)

 

October 9, 2013

Isaac is playing in the tub, and I moaned about the latest big splash of water on the floor, "Bug, you're making a mess! You can't be getting the floor this wet!" To which he responded, "It's fine Mom, you shouldn't worry -- plus, I'm using the water to make you cake and a stew," as he pointed at his various cups and bowls filled with water and bubbles, 'So, really, you can't even be annoyed with me right now."

October 7, 2013

Owen

October 8, 2013

Looks like the tooth fairy is on duty tonight . . . look who just lost her top tooth! (Three days before school picture day.)

And now Isaac just came running into the room, really excited, "Mom, can you help me get my tooth out now, so I can put it under my pillow!?" He is now crying on the floor after hearing the devastating news that I will not be pulling any of his teeth tonight.

 

Annie was reading a book about the solar system to Isaac. "Isaac, do you know how many times you've been around the sun?" Isaac, super excitedly, "SO many times!" "No, Isaac. Three. Three times." Just as excitedly, "THREE times!" Also, "I love spiral galaxies too, Annie! They're my favorite!"

The girls just got out of the tub screaming and fighting. Ellie knocked Annie in the head, I thought for sure this was going to erupt into World War 3. But 'fortunately' Ellie hit her just right and knocked Annie's front tooth loose. And it's bleeding. Annie's SO excited about having a loose front tooth finally, that they're both giddy and giggly and happy about it. That worked out unexpectedly well . . .

October 5, 2013

Isaac asking me to put 'Super Why' on the Kindle, "Hey Mom, I need you to type in the passageway . . . the passthing . . . the passcode . . . the . . ." "Password, kiddo?" "Yep, that thing!"

Love my little Ellie. Earlier, during Packer's talk, "So, um, how old IS THIS GUY!?!" And then just a second ago, "So, um, are these guys still alive?" Greg tried to explain that people speaking on live television typically means they are still alive, but she seems skeptical.

October 4, 2013

So stinkin' cute
 

October 2, 2013

Two Isaac conversations this morning --
I just got done pulling Ellie's short, short hair into a teeny tiny bun (per her request). Isaac looked over, smiled and exclaimed, "LOVE IT, Ellie! It looks just like a garbage can on your head!"

Then, we were talking about what he loved most about preschool, and he informed me it was definitely painting with dot paints. I commented how I'd been thinking about buying some of those and maybe I should, then he got all wistful and sighed, "Maybe Daddy would buy us some? Or Ms. Jenny could? Or maybe Grandpa KC could get us some? Or maybe Aunt Star?" I was all, "Um, Bug, Mom could buy them . . . " to which he sighed again and responded, "Yeah, I guess that could work."

And there we have it -- all the pricelessly adorable things my children said, all caught up on the blog.  If the roads weren't ice packed, I'd go get myself a mint brownie to celebrate. 

Oh, and a video from September of Isaac: