Very, very punny!!!

Hahahaha!  You know you have been watching too much of the Muppet Show when your oldest child turns to her brother (who just sat down next to her with a giant bowl of popcorn) and says, "Make sure you don't try to go to town on that!"  When we all look at her to start objecting, she just smiles and points out "It doesn't have any tires." Hahahahahaha!

Caelen cracks me up!!!

Hahahaha!  I've just gotta say, my son's imagination cracks me up!  He lost a tooth last night, so we put it in an envelope to put under his bed (to make it easier for the Tooth Fairy to collect) and out of pure habit I licked and sealed it.  He was cranky at me "because the Tooth Fairy is tiny, how is she supposed to open it mom?!"  Well, we kind of fell asleep working on things last night and missed the switch...so when he came out from checking to see if she came, I apologized and said that daddy and I must have scared here away.  He said, "Nope, she came all right...but I told you she wouldn't be able to get that open!  There is a tiny tear in the corner of the envelope and even a little fairy dust...we just need to open the envelope for her before tonight!"

The other hilarious part: the last two teeth he lost (including the one last night) were his canines.  So after all this about the Tooth Fairy, he came back out sucking in his lip and saying "I get to be the Easter Bunny!  My new name is Bucky!"

Where does this kid get these?!  Hahahahahahaha!

Buppets?

Hahahaha!  I just have to share the cutsey chuckle....today when I walked in the door from work, the first thing I saw or heard wasn't "Momma!", wasn't "Wuv oooo!", wasn't "eat unch?" or any one of the normal phrases ready to great me.  It was "Buppets?" complete with remote controls in hand! :D  Hahahaha, that kid is SERIOUSLY muppet crazy!

Heap Big Mighty Bug Hunter

I just have to share the funniest thing that happened with Damon earlier.

With how cold things have gotten around here (we're talking below zero a couple of times this week), and with how early this is in the year, the bugs have been doing their best to find a warm place to hide.  So we've been finding and killing bugs right and left, though the kids are generally soo freaked out they don't accomplish much except for scaring themselves and yelling for Mom or Dad.  (Can I just say...ugh...)

Along with that, Damon has begun talking more and more (probably picking up anywhere from 3-8 words a day now).  His little baby talk is sooo cute to hear, though hard to understand at times.  And like most other totally "unbiased" parents, we are convinced it is a sign of his future genius, lol.

Having said all that, when he turned around the other day to start his usual gibberish while we were working on getting his shoes taken off after being outside for something or other.  He kept lifting up his foot and saying something insistently....we just couldn't understand what.  But we smiled and encouraged (brilliant translators that we are, we kept saying "Yes, good job..that IS your foot"), and tried to move on.  John laid the little guy down to change his diaper and all of a sudden he (John) flinched and yelped slightly.  When I started to look/watch, all of a sudden I heard (clear as a bell, really) in Damon's little toddler's voice "Bug...kill....ewwwwww, slimy!" at about the same moment John growls about finding a squashed earwig.  lol, Damon was sooo proud of his moment of triumph!  He had killed the thing even daddy thought was too ewww to not flinch at!

Needless to say, ever since then Damon makes us giggle by lifting his foot to show everyone how he squished the nasty little thing....and runs every time someone yells about having found another bug!  My heap big mighty bug hunter...he is so very cute!!! :D

Back to School?!

Ok, so here is the realization for today: Only 26 more days until the First Day of School!!!  Yep, you heard me: the end of summer break is now peaking over the horizon, and parents and young children everywhere are starting to plan for their day of celebration...I mean, separation.  (You know you too have been dying for this little bit of peace from each other!)

However, this also means that while we are all, parent and school children alike, anxiously awaiting some gleeful separation to do what we each do best when alone (here it comes) there will also be several tension moments of emotion knowing that for those few hours every day we will not be able to see each other.  (You knew there had to be a sappy moment, right?)  But, dry your tears (they are too early).  There are still 26 whole days before you jump on the roller coaster ride of emotion watching as your children begin to celebrate as much as (ok, probably more than) you as they skip (also known as run) their way to class.  But not to worry...there are only another 9 months to get through before they will once again be there, 24/7, peeking over your shoulder to see what they can "help" with next!  Happy End of Summer, everyone!

How simple encouragement can be...

So we managed to survive the open house Saturday more or less intact. By the time everything had happened way too much sleep had been missed by both John and I, but we made it. The open house itself wasn't a huge crowded success, but we did manage to get our first paid orders! Hurray for friends willing to take a risk! Now, the next challenge: a friend of mine has proposed joining forces and having a stall at the Home and Garden show at USU March 19-20. One down, one to go I guess. But at least this time I'll be a lot more prepared and aware of things to prepare for. Plus I can finally say that we are starting to see a little money. A little, but hey encouragement can come is small and simple forms as well as great and overwhelming!

On a more familial note: the boys are still alive as well, plus I'm being an evil mom and making Dad feed Damon sometimes just to get him more open to a bottle for those times when we have babysitters here. He seems to be taking it...from Dad at least. Caelen and Kieran have also more or less survived, though they are mostly just exhausted from driving Dad nuts while Mom has been gone. Tia got to spend a couple of hours with me during the open house to "help"...she's actually learning to crochet and having a blast to see how long it will take her to crochet the skein she got from Santa for Christmas. I promised her that after she practices for the whole skein that I'll teach a granny square next, and she's anxious. But her excitement persists, and she can't wait to start making projects as well. I guess we'll see how long it lasts, but I figure that since crochet projects usually require a lot of patience (as well as time), this is a good a way as any to see if she is going to stick with it long enough to learn the patterns so she can start designing her own stuff. I guess we'll see. I sure am proud of how quickly she seems to be picking it up, though. She's sure doing a lot better than I did when my Grandma began to teach me!

The luckiest Mom ever...

This is definitely one of those "Mom" moments but:

The last few weeks have been completely nutso. Between the fact that I was dumb and over did during the holidays, plus trying to get some things caught up sorting through the business stuff and trying to get stuff ready for our Valentine's open house (more details to follow), and the kids getting back to school...things have been crazy. Then last week Caelen started to sniffle and wake at night with a super sore throat that would then leave him grumpy the next day. Couple all this with the inversion, and the kids were starting to climb the walls (literally in Caelen's case). So I was a little worried earlier this evening when I had to go to a meeting for Headstart. A sweet girl from our ward was brave enough to agree to babysit (I take the baby with me) for the 2 hours necessary, and I deliberately wouldn't let the kids sit and drool at the t.v. before hand in case she needed the chance to catch up with some of their energy. So imagine my surprise when I walk in the door to a clean house, calm kids, and three beautiful pictures (I wish I could scan them for you to see, but you're just going to have to take my "unbiased" word for it) full of art, stickers, glitter, and "I love you"s. If that wasn't enough, after taking the hero of the hour home I get a late dinner running. Not only do the kids actually let me, they start playing with the baby...each taking a very careful turn in holding his hands and making him giggle. Kieran even came over to the edge of the kitchen and waited ever so patiently just to show me how he could make the baby smile at him...

I know, I told you. It was a night of "Mommy" moments, but it really did help remind me that I really am the luckiest Mom ever...

Merry Christmas!

I know it is a little blurry, but at least with this one you can see everyone's gorgeous smiles! Christmas this year was amazing and wonderful...and quiet. This is the first year we've had as just our family since John and I's first Christmas after we were married. It was different, that is for sure. Different in a good way, that is. We invited everyone over for our traditional Christmas Eve feast (Christmas Eve pig out might be a better way to phrase it...), which was so wonderful. Thanks to everyone who came, it meant a lot (especially to Rachel, who is still hyper emotional after the baby and all the lovely hormones that come with...). After that, we mostly just got dinner cleaned up, dishes done, Christmas cartoons watched, Christmas stories read, Santa's milk and cookies (and of course carrots for the reindeer) put out, and kids put to bed. The next morning there was no mad dash to prep anything, so we just took it easy. At our house, Santa doesn't wrap any gift he just puts your stash in a pile with your stocking in front to identify who's whos and covers it all up with blankets. The next morning, the rule is that the kids can't wake us up before 7 am...little did I know that I was going to wake up at 6 and not be able to get back to sleep! Everyone finally woke up about 7:30, and after shuffling around to make sure their rooms were all clean we got to uncover everything. Oh, what joyous rapture, can you believe it? Santa came! He ate all the cookies, fed his reindeer, drank his milk, and even left stuff for everyone...everywhere! After managing to sort out who's stuff was who's, Rachel spent the morning helping to unpackage toys while John made breakfast (you know how the Who's down in Who'sville would "feast, feast, feast, feast"?). After that, the kids had so much fun playing we couldn't get them to get things completely cleaned up until about 4 pm. Then we finally got to the business of unwrapping all the gifts under the tree and we were off again! At least we didn't have to worry about cooking anything...

Anyway, since then we've had ever so much fun playing and watching and playing some more. Thank you to everyone for all the wonderful gifts and thrills, not to mention all the goodies and treats. And that doesn't start to mention how much we've loved all the phone calls and e-mails and Christmas cards!!! We love you all, and give our thanks to God every day for all the wonderful people we have in our lives. We send our love out while wishing every good thing for you this next year, and since I'm feeling terribly original I'll just end by quoting Charles Dickens: "God bless us, everyone!"

Yikes!

So, I walked out to the living room a couple of days ago to find that Caelen wanted to be "fancified" (his term, not mine). Apparently, he had gone in and grabbed the comb. When he came out to ask me to fix his hair, Tia was the only one around. So he asked Tia to "fix him up"...that way he was fancy enough to see Grandma and Grandpa (my parents were here in the valley for a couple of days). The crazy thing: it really worked! He actually held still while she played to her little hearts content!

Medusa lives!!!

Ok, I have to tell people this. I know it sounds silly, but I've been trying for ages to find a way to curl Tia's hair the way that she likes and that I can live with. It has been a little bit of a chore just because her hair is sooo long, but I finally found it! I found these really cool curlers at Sally Beauty that work from a kind of "memory plastic" that is formed into a flattened mesh tube. It works by sticking a kind of giant, elongated plastic crochet hook up through the mesh tube, grabbing the hair with it and pulling the whole thing back down and out of the tube. I've been told by a few hair stylists and friends that they like using this method because it lets your hair try 10x as fast. I just like it because it will curl Tia's hair in a spiral with out ratting it. Here are some before and after pictures:



There is what my own little Medusa looks like with the curlers newly placed.



Isn't she just adorable? I can even say I have my own "Curly Sue"! (Heaven help us all!)

Aren't they cute?!?!?!?!

I just have to show off the kids! I had a cake left over from a project (long story), along with some icing, so I decided to let the kids try their hand at decorating. So we separated the cake parts in half, labeled the areas with their initials (with a knife), and gave them some m&ms and smarties and told them to go at it. These are the results (don't blame the kids for the bad pictures, Mom is still figuring out the delightful camera settings!). Don't they look like fun!

"Let's play pirates!"

Hello all! I just have to tell everyone of the cutest thing Caelen pulled the other day. Please bare with me, I am the mother and therefore tell everyone 'the cutest stories' that I'm sure will someday be a massive embarrassment. But at least this way you will all know the stories and hence be able to help me tease him..hehehehe.

Basically, he and Tia have a new game where they pretend to be pirates...good pirates, they say. In the game they take the stuff that the bad pirates steal and return it to people. So the other day when he heard me telling Tia something that disappointed her (and hence started her sulking) he decided to help cheer her up. She and I were in the kitchen talking, and the next thing we know Caelen has jumped out from between the dishwasher and freezer with a 'blade' in hand (ok, it was a rolled up poster about bees the kids got from AWHC, but it works) yelling, "Come on Tia, lets play pirates! I want to go give good people junk!!!" And off he went running across the apartment yelling "I'm going to get you, bad guys! You give that back!"

I have to tell you, I was having such a hard time not laughing. Especially when Tia started smiling and chasing after him, yelling "Arrrggh!" for good measure.

If I'd only been able to somehow capture that on camera...