Dress Up

The boys love to dress up.  I really need to find a brown cowboy hat (their old ones that were real have been loved to the point of having to be thrown away -- these pink foam ones are all that are left).  I do need to find some new ones, but at the same time, I love that the boys really don't care.  I try hard in our home to not make a distinction between "boy toys" and "girl toys" etc.  I think we're succeeding in that.
 
 I swear I go through kitchen towels 3 times faster lately and it's because these two boys LOVE to have a cape on!  They play "Clean Up Man" with cape and Dust Buster in hand (they got the idea from Curious George), they play Batman and Robin, they play Incredibles, they play pretty much everything with a cape.  I will have a lot of nostalgia for this phase once it passes.  There is so much childlike innocence in what they're doing now.

 While Brig doesn't particularly love skiing yet, he and Cannon do love dressing up in the ski clothes.  This was before church.  I love their little suits.

Must......Post.......Updates........

Conversations

Lily:  Mom, when am I ever going to get my frenum lasered??

Brigham:  Mom, I used to not like your cooking, but now I'm liking your disgusting food!

Brigham in the basement cold storage room:  Is this our house store?

Brigham:  Mom, your face looks like a house!
Me:  What do you mean?
Brigham:  See, the lines under your nose are the roof and the lines by your chin are the house!

Brigham has this funny/annoying way of getting your attention:  he does that loud two-finger whistle... only he doesn't know how to whistle, so he just makes the sound with his voice.

Chloe working on a little craft with her friend:  Mom, how does mine look?
Me not looking at it:  Stinkin' Awesome.
Chloe:  You weren't even looking.
Me:  Dang, you caught me.
Chloe:  Yeah, but nice try.

Response

Great response to the great article I mentioned a few posts down.

Thanks, Jill, for sending the link.

http://blog.cjanerun.com/2011/01/follow-me-here.html

More Math

Fish for dinner + forgetting to start the dishwasher = not the best way to start the morning.

Not Quite Ready...

We took Brigham skiing with us back in January.  It wasn't a great day.  I tried to convince Stanton that Brigham wasn't ready for Gentle Ben, but we tried it anyway.  Well, what is normally a 10 minute run for us with the girls took 45 minutes.  Brigham was like a limp piece of spaghetti the whole way down -- poor Stanton was about ready to lose it by the time we got down the hill.  Brig was cold and wet (of course, since he pretty much spent the entire time in the snow) and did not want to go again.  I took him to the Jeep and Stanton took the girls up for one more run.  Brig ate snacks and listened to stories - he was warm and happy by the time Stanton and the girls finished up.

Needless to say, we haven't taken him back up this season.  He just isn't ready yet.  We may try to get him up one more time this spring and spend the day on the very flat/gently sloping magic carpet.  It's perfect for kiddos who are just learning and we hope Brig can at least get the hang of standing up on his skis this year.

Still cute, though, huh?!

Lovely

I stumbled on this article and found it really interesting...even uplifting.

Visit from Rachel

I am so lucky to have such amazing friends.  Honestly.  Whenever i do a post like this, I sit in awe of how blessed I have been to have lifelong friends -- wonderful, kind, inspiring life-long friends. 

Rachel made time during her visit home to come to Logan and spend some time with me and my kiddos.  Chloe was at school unfortunately.  I would have loved for her to get to know Rachel's great kids a little better.

 (Oldest to youngest) Sam, Isaac, Grace, Jack (Jonas), and Elias.  They are so well-behaved, brilliant, and adorable.  Rachel homeschools them and seriously, they are so lucky.  Rach is brilliant, too.  Just love her and them.

I need to find a picture of Rach and I from high school.  But I do love this one that Sam took.
Rach, I can't remember the exact date of your visit.  Do you remember?

Back to Life

I have loved this short break with the kids home. I'm a big fan of no routine during those breaks and I let the kids be pretty darn lazy if they so choose. It's been a really great break and we had a lot of fun.
BUT, I'm also a huge fan of getting back to the routine.
It was nice to get up and exercise (PS, the Six Week Six Pack DVD is pretty great).
It was wonderful to eat breakfast and read the scriptures to the kids.
It was wonderful to hear Chloe practice the piano again.
It was really great to say prayers with her before sending her off to school.
And it will be wonderful to do the dame with Lily and Brigham later today.

Back to life and happy for it...

Goals for 2011

My first goal is to write 2011 instead of 2010.  It's already proving to be a challenge. 

Actually, this year I have only one goal.  To Lay Off.

I am going to lay off when my kids disobey or defy.  I'm going to lay off the yelling.  I'm going to try to be the kind of parent Heavenly Father is.  He gives me many opportunities to obey.  He encourages me and teaches me the blessings of obedience.  BUT, in the end, He lets me choose and He doesn't attack me with rage when I choose to disobey.  He immediately blesses me when I do and He lays off when I don't.  Because I know He loves me, I try harder and harder to obey every day.  I'm going to work this year to be more loving and more the parent He is.  I'm going to Lay Off.