New Year's Eve

We decided, fairly last minute, to invite people over to play games for New Year's Eve. For some reason it's not a holiday I usually get very gung ho about and we usually end up just hanging out watching a movie or something.  This year we made some snacks and had some fun.  Our neighbors the Steils brought their kids over and they and the Metcalfs joined us for some games of Sequence and a really fun game with an unfortunate name called Smart A**.

After a few games, the Steils took their kids home to bed and the Comptons showed up.  We played a few more games and the Metcalf's had to leave to go to another party.  We put our boys to bed and ended up playing a fun game of Ticket to Ride with the Comptons.  We finished just a few minutes before midnight so I brought out the sparkling cider and the fancy glasses and we just visited the last few minutes of 2010 away.  Having friends there meant we actually had someone to take a picture of us so here we are ready to start a brand new year!

The boys did get to stay up later than usual playing with their friends, but this is how they ended up ringing in the new year...

Another Collection of Funny Things

5/24/10

We were visiting my sister Rachel and G made an observation about their family. "Mom, they have three characters: a brother, a sister, and a brother.  How awesome is that?!"

That night H fell out of bed at 5 am and laughed.  When I went in to him he said, "I want to show you something....breakfast."

7/11/10

G was telling me about a dream he had:  "Natalynn keeps teaching me how to dance and I keep falling over.  I was dreaming about woodpeckers that dance."

7/18/10

Getting ready for church this morning.  H walked past the bathroom, stopped and said, "Mom!  You look Beoo-tiful."

7/28/10

Oh the drama we have at dinner time.  Today I asked G if he would like to come help me make some noodles.  He started to cry and said, "Noodles!  Oh Mom, you make me so happy!"  I asked, "Then why are you crying?"  He said, "I'm not crying.  I've been waiting my whole entire life."

8/8/10

G wanted to know if he could watch 'Chuck Normous'.

8/15/10

H says:

Chipitch = Ketchup
Poly-Poly = roly-poly

He frequently says, "I don't know"  in such a cute way.  I need to get it on video.  He also likes to hold one finger up and say, "I too bissy."

8/25/10

G- "Kiwi is my favorite Avocado."

Went in to kiss G at 2:30 a.m. 
He woke up and said, "Hi mom."
"What are you doing?"  I asked
"Just resting."
"I love you so much.  You are awesome."
He said, "I know." Rolled over and went back to sleep.

8/26/10

H's first prayer by himself over breakfast.

"Hen Father.  Thank day. Chee-os for me, chee-os Dornan, chee-os (under breath) no not chee-os,  Chee-os for Tage, Chee-os for Dray (me prompting, please bless the food) Bless food.  Name Jesus Christ, Amen.

8/31/10

G: "I can't see my brain. What if I push my eyes in with my hands?"

G (asking and answering his own questions): "Who is Lehi? Nephi's dad. Who is Nephi? The Good Son."

I can tell which phrases are used a lot around our house by what H repeats.  Whenever H refers to his pants, he calls them 'pantson'. His shoes are 'shoeson' and his pocket is his 'pocket knife'.

9/8/10

G- "I wish I could be a Ford mechanic and H could be a Subaru mechanic."
H- "Daddy be Subaru 'Chanic."
G- "No.  He'll just drive his car and I'll be a mechanic and change his tires."

Later:
G- You're crazy about this!  You're driving me all around this place crazy!

9/15/10

H was sitting buckled in his car seat while I ran into the house to grab something.  When I came out he looked really sad and said, "Mom, I been crying for hours!"

9/19/10

While we were driving in the car I handed H his blanket.  He said, "Thank you very much."  K and I smiled at each other and we both responded "You're welcome."  H got very upset and said, "Not your very much, Dad!  Mom very much!"

9/22/10

The boys and I were watching an old Disney black and white short cartoon called 'The Clock Shop'  They kept me chuckling with their funny observations.

G- "They are marry clocks getting married, like Mary and Terral."
H- "Junior clocks!" (two small alarm clocks)
G- "Look!  a treadmill clock?" (windmill)
H- "Grandma clock!" (grandfather clock)

9/31/10

H stuck two eggs on an apple and said, "Look Mom! A bee!"

10/1/10

H says lots of words really well, but doesn't always use them correctly.  Right now when we get him out of the bath and he's shivering he says, "I'm starving!"  or when he's trying to say 'I'm freezing' He says, "I'm breaving!"

10/10

Things H says:

Big Knockers = binoculars

catty = kitty

I'm wondering...if I could have som-ping

(me: do you have a poopy diaper?)  Ak-shully not.

10/24/10

Getting ready for church.

H- Mom, I need my tight!
Me- Your what?
H- On my neck.

10/31/10

In primary they were having a sharing time about missionaries.  Sis. McCleary was pulling objects out of a bag and asking what they were for, and how a missionary might use them.  She pulled out a women's black Sunday shoe and G shouts out, "It's a Stiletto!  You use it when you're a Spy!"

No less than three of my friends rushed to nursery to tell me this story when church was over.  They were telling me about the shoe and I said, "He didn't call it a stiletto did he?"  Of course they said yes and I had to explain about how he read about Stilettos in an ABC Spy book.  I'm always amazed how he uses his little bits of knowledge.

11/1/10

We tried to go to the dollar shows to see Toy Story 3, which the boys and I have seen once, but K hasn't.  G gets upset and says, "Seeing a movie in the theatre for a second time freaks me out!"

11/4/10

G- "One of those prophets is Me B. Hinckley."

11/14/10

We learned a silly song in nursery about Pizza Hut, KFC and McDonald's.  G was singing it after H and I taught it too him but sang, "Frucky Tucky Chicken"

When I was making G's lunch he wasn't happy with the kind of lunch meat I suggested putting on his sandwich.  He said, "No.  I want regular meat that's in technicolor!"

11/16/10

H words:
Hacacalurlurlur  (Helicopter)
Kah Kahn (Doc Hudson)

11/17/10

After potluck today I was loading all the stuff back in the car to go home and left H in there with some of the food.  I came out to find him eating butter out of the tub.  I took it away and said, "We don't eat just butter."  His response, "Mommy! I just want my butter!"

12/15/10

I was wearing some new sweatpants that had the word 'Varsity' in fancy lettering down one leg.  G saw me wearing them and said, "Hey!  Why is there Chinese on your pants?!"

Later that same day we were snuggling on my bed and he gave me a huge hug.  I told him that I loved him and he said, "Why does your voice smell stinky?"  Even better, was after I stopped laughing I went to write down that he had said that.  He followed me out, watched me write it down and corrected  what I was writing since I had remembered one word wrong.

12/16/10

I was looking at H with really wide eyes.  He stopped what he was doing and said, very surprised, "Your eyes are weasel!"

I was wearing some Christmas jewelry and G and I had the following conversation.

G- "I really love your necklace and earrings."

Me- "Thank you!"

"Do you know what I love more than those?"

"What?"

"You.  Do you know what I love more than you?"

"No, what?"

"Gold!"

12/30/10

G asked for some of his own hand sanitizer for Christmas, cause he thought that would just be really cool.  I found some cute animal bottles of sanitizer that are fruity scented and the boys seemed really happy with them.  H says, "I really love my Hanitizer!"

G was playing at his friend C's house.  C has some speech delay and is not very easy to understand.  G asked C's mom, "Why does C speak Spanish?"

Dinner Talk

While waiting for me to cook dinner, the boys decided to play restaurant.  G made up some menus and asked H to order.

G- What do you want?
H- Christmas card.
G- Christmas card soup?  ok. 
He comes over to me and pokes me in the bum until I say, "Yes?"
G- Christmas card soup.
M-ok
G to H- what other ingredients do you want?  Thermos water?
H-yeah.
G- poke poke poke
M-yes?
G- Thermos water please.
M-why don't you get it for him.
G- I can't.  Your the cooker, I'm the orderer
G to H- Anything else?
H- yes.  Jacket tomato soup.
G- Ok.  I'll go tell the Mrs.

zoo lights

Since we have a zoo membership this year, we decided to go see the zoo lights.  The were offering a free booster night and we are all about free so we took advantage of that.  It was kind of rainy and a little cold, but we really really enjoyed the experience.

H stayed warm and snuggly in the stroller for the first part.  Then we stopped to see santa.  G was such a chatterbox with him. H was a little reserved until right before our turn was over.

One of the tigers was very active and was prowling the catwalk that goes over the walkway.  It was almost creepy the way he would stop and stare at us, but fun to see more than nap time.

Reindeer.

I loved all the animated lights.  I took a few videos of them, but I'm too lazy to put videos on my blog any more.  I really enjoy having these kinds of experiences with my children.   They give me an excuse to be excited about things in a child-like way.

FHE

For our Family Home Evening activity tonight we took a drive to look at some Christmas lights.  We drove down a street in Kearns that had  a lot of the neighbors participating in a 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' theme.  On our way there we saw a house that just had one tree with lights on it.   But those lights were Awesome.  These pictures don't do it justice, it was MASSIVE and all green and sparkly.  I oooh'd and aaaahh'd over this one for awhile and K was very nice to humor me by driving around a neighborhood to find a way to get closer so I could take pictures.  It took awhile to find because, of course, the tree was in the back yard instead of the front.  Lucky for me they lived right next to a church so I could ogle their tree without trespassing.

Party Time

Today we had G's 5th Birthday Party.  This year we decided to do a Winter Party Theme.  We (and by we I mean K and I) made snowflake ornaments that could be used as magnets for an easy reminder. 

The boys and I delivered most of them at church the week before and took the rest around the next Monday.  We invited all the kids from G's combined CTR 5-6 class and the Sunbeam class, our neighbor Vila and good friend Lilly.  Only one of the invited friends didn't come.

Before the party we rearranged the furniture and made sure we had some fun decorations up, including all four of our Happy Birthday banners.  I tried calling G a big five year old, but he said he wasn't five until he had cake.

 We set out the food including the uber fancy (not) snowman cake I made. 

When we were discussing his cake the week before I had asked G if he wanted snowman cupcakes or a snowman cake.  He said, "Cake, and I want Heather to make it."  "Don't you want me to make it?" I asked.  " No.  You can bring me a gift and I'll give you a goody bag."  I am happy to report that he changed his mind later and allowed me to make the cake, which I'm sure my friend Heather was quite happy about. :)

While he was impatiently waiting we decided to let G open our birthday present to him.  We gave him a Moon Sand set with some extra colors.  A couple of months ago all I heard when we went in the store was, "Can I have moon sand, Mom?' over and over and over again.  When I found some on sale I decided to give it a try, so I bought it and stuck it in my closet to wait for his birthday.  This is the problem with buying presents early, for the last few weeks I've heard not a thing about moon sand but Everything about Remote Control.   Oh well.  He seemed happy enough with it, and I hope I can get over my dislike of messes enough to let him play with it sometimes.

When the guests started arriving G would direct them where to put the gifts down and would try to give them a goody bag right away, until he finally understood that they were for the end of the party.  A few of his friends had never been invited to a friend party before and they were all VERY excited.  We had Grandpa Gene and Grandma Marta watching the chaos through Skype and I'm sure they turned the volume down LOW.  I sort of wish I could have.  The first thing we did was let them have a 'snowball' fight.  We'd blown up a bunch of white balloons and they had a blast and a half throwing them at each other.  I wish I would have thought to get pictures or a little video of that.  It was hilarious.

After about 15 minutes of snowball fight I got them to clean up the balloons and we started on our next game, Pin the Stuff on the Snowman.  I had the snowman up on the wall correctly put together so they could get an idea of how it should look

then everyone got a piece and they each took turns putting him back together.  I had them wear a black beanie over their eyes and spun them around a few times, just to make it more fun.  Things were going really well until we got to the eyes.  Colter, not being able to see, ended up putting them on under the carrot nose.  Not a big deal for most people, I even thought it was kind of cute.  G freaked out.  This is why he is not in the picture with all of his friends and their completed snowman. 

After the tantrum was over, we had a relay race.  I divided the kids into two teams.  Each person had to run toward the couch, put on a snow hat, scarf and pair of gloves, then run around through the kitchen and back to the couch, take off the stuff and run back to their team and give a high five to the next person.  As soon as I said go we had tantrum number two, this time from H.  He stormed off to his room, I think because he didn't get to go first?, and stayed there the entire game.  I ran his part for him.  I think the kids enjoyed the game, but if I do anything like that again I'll use mittens instead of gloves.  Too many kids got hung up on getting all their fingers in right.

When the relay race was over we got out the craft.  I had more foam and stickers like we'd used to make the invitations so I let each kid make their own Christmas ornament to take home.  During the craft, I was sitting next to a certain little girl who had never been invited to a friend party before.  She looked over at me, coughed, then threw up all down her front.  I quickly scooped her up and took her to the bathtub where she continued throwing up for a few minutes.  K was left in charge of the kids and their craft, and calling this little girls mom, while I tried to get her cleaned up and changed into some of G's sweats.   Luckily the mess was pretty much contained to her clothes and the bathtub.  At some point while I was taking care of the mess a sharpie marker found it's way into some little crafting hands, but that's another story altogether.  L's mom came and picked her up and we sent her home with a goody bag and wishes to feel better and got back to the party.

We sang happy birthday to G, he eventually blew out the candles and we all enjoyed some cake and ice cream, muddy buddies, and carrot sticks (because that's what snowmen have for noses).

When the goodies were all eaten it was, of course, present time.  All the kids crowded around G, so excited to give him their presets.  He got a pretty nice haul: some books, Nerf guns, iron man action figures, play-doh, goldfish crackers, and toy boats.  The most exciting part of the day was opening the present from Grandma Marta and Grandpa Gene.  He got his very....own....Remote Control Car!  I so wish we had it on video, but when he opened the present he was practically screaming, "It's an RC! I have been waiting my whole life! This is the best present EVER!"  He was one happy kid.   Pretty much talked about that car the rest of the day.  We were glad Grandma and Grandpa were 'virtually' there to see that.

After all the presents were opened the kids ran down to the playroom to jump on the love sac and pull out the dress-ups until their parents came to pick them up.  On their way out the door they got their ornaments and a goody bag with a chocolate candy, a snowman lollipop, a snowflake straw and their own pair of gloves.

It was a super fun party, but I've already told G he's not getting another party until he turns 8.

To finish off the birthday, we did 'looking' at Cabelas, bought batteries for his RC car at Walmart,  went to a little story time play at the library where they sang 'Happy Birthday' to G and then we had dinner at McDonald's, complete with Happy Meal toys for both boys.  We did attend a surprise birthday party that night for my cousin, which G was perfectly happy to do because, as he said, then he got cake twice.

Four No More

My baby turns five tomorrow.  On the one hand, I'm so excited for him to be growing up and (hopefully) growing out of some of the issues that we have.  On the other hand, I don't want him to lose some of those things that have made him such an ADORABLE four year old.   I give you two lists:

5 Things I hope the fifth year brings:

1. No more diapers.
2. No more chewed on sleeves.
3. A dinner without arguing, whining or tears.
4. At least five minutes in a row of sitting still that does not involve watching a movie.
5. Maybe hearing the sentence, "Yes Mom, I'd love for you to show me how to do that."

5 Things I hope will never change:

1. The excitement.  G gets SOOOO excited about things.  Big things, little things, just about anything...except food.
2. Love of letters and reading.  G has done so fabulous with pre-school and really loves learning.  He wants to read on his own more and more.  He is working on his writing, but often doesn't have the patience or attention span to really practice.
3. Generosity.  G can be so caring and loving and really loves to give gifts to others.  That may be his favorite part of going to birthday parties, giving the present.
4. Imagination.  G has always been able to remember movies and books and he weaves the characters and stories into his life on a daily basis.  The thing that amazes me, is how his substitutions are so appropriate.
5. Love.  My son loves me more than I think I deserve.  He forgives me when I yell or don't make the best mommy choices.  I hope I am always worthy of that love and I hope he knows I love him more.

Happy Birthday, G!

the Festival

One of my moms Christmas traditions is to meet whoever can and wants to at the Festival of Trees.  I have enjoyed doing this for a few years now.  When we were younger she would take us one at a time so it was a special mom and me date every six years. :)  I loving seeing all the ways people are so creative.

I bought a couple of tickets each for the boys and said they could use them however they wanted.  H got a Christmas tattoo and a bracelet, G played a fishing game a bought a green sparkly wand.  After that we just wandered and looked at all of the amazing displays.  G still had preschool that day and I wanted him to see as much as he could before K came to pick him up, so I ended up getting separated from my mom and sisters and we saw most things on our own. 

This superhero tree was decorated and donated by my cousin Emilie's Ward in remembrance of one of their Primary Children who died.  It was one of my boys' favorites.

My camera died right after this picture.  We ran into a few friends, which is always fun, and bought a little treat.  The boys picked paper origami ornaments with chocolate inside and I picked homemade toffee and fudge, yum.  K took his lunch hour to pick G up and drop him off at preschool so I could spend more time with my family and I realized that I'd wasted a bunch of time with them hurrying through the displays.  Sometimes I get so focused on one idea in my head, like 'I have to hurry cause G had to go to school', that I miss an even better one.  Like 'who cares if he sees all the trees, he should enjoy spending the morning with his cousins.'  Ah well, hopefully I've learned for next time.

After everyone else saw their fill and browsed through the craft and sweet shops, we went over to a restaurant for lunch.  G and H and I had eaten peanut butter sandwiches while we were looking at trees, so H and I just got a snack to share.  Then I had to leave to pick G up from school.  It was a very fun morning and just the start of a month full of Holiday Activities!