Everett

Today Everett just cracked me up all day long. This morning, I was in his bedroom which we had cleaned together earlier and Everett was working hard building something at his tool bench, standing up, his back to me. I looked down and saw a pair of underpants on the floor--suspicious. I asked him if he was wearing any. He simply bent over, pulled down his pants, revealing a full moon, pulled them back up and went back to work. No flinching, no words, no looks, no acknowledgement. Too funny.

Later on, he told me that he is really hungry, but that I shouldn't worry. If he gets hungry, he'll just eat his buggers. He can be tough about that.

None of my other kids have been as excited about potty talk as Everett. I am correcting him all day long on potty talk and he is constantly trying to figure out where I draw the line. I told him that it is ok to say poop or pee pee or underpants or any of those words if he is really talking about them. If he is just trying to be funny, they are potty talk. Now, he always starts his potty talk with "I'm not joking around mom." And then proceeds with serious potty talk: "Cooper poopy pants eats underwear on his bottom!" Then he laughs and laughs.

Today he asked me about all kinds of words: "Is 'Wa' potty talk?"

"No."

"What about kleenex?"

"No."

"Toilet Paper?"

"Probably."

"Bottom?"

"Yes, unless you need to use the word, not just joke around about it."

"What about bottom for breakfast?"

"Yes, that is potty talk."

"Oh man!"

Tonight in his prayers, Everett thanked Heavenly Father that "our salad was so delightful tonight and that we could have so much broccoli to eat. Also, thank you for our bones and lots of sugar!"

He is growing up so fast. Just enjoying the fun of having a 3 year old while I've still got one! They are the best.

A few stories to share

My kids all just ran upstairs and are playing superheroes nicely, so I thought I'd take advantage of the time to share some recent stories. We'll see how long I get here.

Everett's favorite thing in the world this summer is our vegetable garden. He goes out several times a day to check out how things have grown. He always comes running in the house yelling that there is a tomato on the bush! or there are flowers on our beans! or there are weeds in the corn! I love watching him watch the growing of the garden. There is something so symbolic about it, because I feel like I am watching him grow with the same excitement, enjoying the thrill of realizing he can buckle his own car seat! or he can read the word "sit"! or he is almost ready to ride a bike without training wheels! I love watching all my children grow and learn--especially to watch them learn to help each other.

Well, I'd better go. I've been interrupted about 22 times while I tried to write that last story, and now Everett is standing by me naked and crying, telling me the story of why he is crying (which I am not listening to yet), and Cooper is standing on the other side of me holding a superhero mask that he wants me to wear so I can be the bad guy for their game. Actually, while I was typing that, Cooper came over and asked Everett if he was crying because someone kicked him in the butt, which threw Everett into hysterical laughter because using the word butt because we don't say those words at our house due to a strict rule about potty talk. I thought I might be able to type a little more, but now Everett is back to me asking me to find his mask for him, and Cooper is standing here saying over and over, "When are you going to play with me mom? When are you going to play with me?" and shoving my superhero mask in my face. He has a pouty look. Looks like the mom is being called to duty again!

Our exciting arrival!

On Sunday, in the middle of the night a 9 week old black lab puppy arrived at our house. She is the cutest thing in the world. Her name is Lucy and she is very loved by my children! The first day she was here, she went to bed for the night at 2:00 in the afternoon! My kids just wore her out! I cannot tear Sammi from her side. Even when she sleeps Sammi is there laying by her. No disasters so far...

You'll notice that there are not any pictures of Sammi with the dog. That is because Sammi is always the one taking pictures of the dog. She thinks that every little thing she does is worthy of a picture, so she is often grabbing my phone to take her picture or take a video of whatever adorable thing she is doing. A dog was never so loved!

Scotti's Schedules

Lately I have been feeling really pushed around by my kids' schedules. Not their actual ones, which, admittedly, are packed jam full. No, I am feeling beat by my kids' pretend schedules. Especially Scotti's. Each morning he wakes up in the morning and plans out his day: soccer practice in the morning, save the world from an erupting volcano mid-morning, race with his cars at lunch, soccer game in the afternoon, bike riding after the game, and exploring after dinner. He jam packs every day and tells me his schedule during breakfast. I love this about him. He is never bored, and is always thrilled to just stay at home for the day, playing. However, what I don't love about this is that usually this is not the same agenda I have for him. He doesn't just get mad that he can't do these activities, but he feels that they are real and that I am actually making him miss it. For example, when I tell him that today he'll have to play his soccer game after school instead of in the morning, he says that the game is in the morning and he can't miss it, because he's the best on the team! I'm not going to make him let down the whole team, am I? Then, after school, he reports to me that his team lost and that if he had been there, they would have won. Now the whole championship is lost.

Today I gave my kids some options of fun things to do: swimming, bowling, children's museum, go to a movie, have a friend over, and a few other fun things. Scotti wanted to do none of them, because he would miss his basketball game. Bedtime always seems to be a scheduling conflict. There seriously is always a race or something that starts at 7:30 pm.

This wouldn't be that big of a deal, except that Scotti acts like I am really making him miss these events. He has a very strong imagination and sometimes, I think he doesn't know that the event is actually imaginary. That means that he really thinks I am making him miss these things and he is literally always upset with me. How can these imaginary events be causing me so much grief?

Sammi in the Choir

We have a Stake Women's Choir going on. We perform 2 songs this Sunday and today I thought "Why not bring Sammi?" She has been memorizing the entire soundtrack to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (ever since her two cousins were in the play and we saw it). She sings every day and has put on numerous musicals for us all. She is the narrator, Scotti is Joseph, Cooper is the Pharoah (the Elvis guy), Ev and I are brothers (which Ev really gets into), and Grant is a sheep. Sammi is constantly trying to get Grant to be a better sheep. She's helping him "baa" and tells him he needs to crawl around and maybe try to be funny or something. (Later I found out that today, while Sammi was giving him a lecture about this, that Scotti came and whispered in his ear that maybe he should just not worry about being a sheep anymore. That he might make a really great goat!)

Anyway, I decided that Sammi would love choir. She did. She walked in there and picked up her own music and then stood there and sang the words, following me for the tune. She just picked it right up! I couldn't believe it. I was so proud of her. She sang out strongly and really tried to learn about the song. She asked me about parts she wasn't getting. She focused for two hours of choir practice. She worked out where she should stand so she could be seen and what she should wear so we could all match. I was just so proud of her. She was so cute. I think ultimately that I love music and sharing something I love with her was so fun. It brought me a lot of joy that she was getting the same joy out of the music that I was. You always hope that your kids will see the same greatness in your hobbies that you do, and when they show interest, it is just so fun. Teaching Sammi how to sing in a choir today was one of the most fun times I've had. I love my Sammi.

35.

Today was my birthday, and there were just too many fun things for me not to mention it on my blog today. This morning Grant let me sleep in and he got the kids off to school (Tuesdays he goes in to work late and stays late.) While I was volunteering at Sammi's and Scotti's school, he folded the laundry (which he would have done had it not been my birthday and there was a pile of laundry to fold, but hey, I'm giving him birthday credit for it!)

Scotti put together a racing boat made out of legoes and wrapped it up for me. Sammi gave me a special rock out of her rock collection. Cooper made me a pile of pictures of all my favorite things. Ev sang me the loudest Happy Birthday ever. Grant and the kids made me a donut cake which had more sprinkles on it than frosting, and Grant surprised me with one of those leaf blower things for a big gift and a day at the Portland Home and Garden Expo next weekend.

One of the best things about the day was that the leaf blower has one of those handles that you have to pull in order to get it started. When I expressed my excitement over this, Grant commented that the salesperson told him that women usually like the one where they just flip the switch and it comes on, though the leaf blowers with the switches are less powerful. Grant told the salesperson that if he got the less powerful for me because it might be too hard for me to pull that handle that he would probably get in big trouble for not giving me credit and assuming that women would choose laziness over effective tools. I thought this was great, because it is so true. I would have been highly offended if I got the watered down version because I am a woman. It looks like a jet pack, and I can't wait to sport it around my gardens!

When my kids asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I told them that what I really wanted was to watch TV and have my kids put themselves to bed tonight. They tried it, but it was just too hard a task to as of them. Sammi and Cooper were pretty dedicated, though easily distracted, but Scotti and Everett were just so completely distracted by their toys that actually getting something done without someone keeping them on task was just way beyond them. It's ok. It gives me a birthday wish for next year!

Here's to a great year gone by and the promise for another one! By the way, thanks so much to everyone for calling and e-mailing and texting me all day long. You guys are all so great.

X Marks the Spot

So I have one of those comforters on my bed that you are not supposed to wash, so you put a comforter cover over it. Well, today I took off the cover to wash the comforter. This afternoon, when I went in my room, there was a huge black X drawn over my comforter. I asked Everett if he knew about it. "Too bad," he said shaking his head. "I thought it was paper, and it was really a bed." This kid has a great excuse for every naughty thing he does and I'm getting worried.

Sammi's Party Pictures

I forgot to publish these. They are from Sammi's birthday party and they are cute, so I didn't want to forget them. I wrote all about them in the previous blog entry!

Spring is here!

I'm thrilled to say that I'm back on the blog. I've taken a little hiatus, but I think I can get myself back in the pattern of blogging every Sunday night again, so look for it. A brief overview of fun things that have happened since I last blogged: Went to SLC the day after Christmas and had a great time visiting with family and friends. We spent some time in Midway and loved it there. Especially loved all the sledding! The kids loved hanging out in the snow.

In January, we had two fabulous birthday parties for the twins. Scotti took his friends to Chuck E. Cheese and had a great time. I've never seen a kid so excited to wear a blow up crown in my life. He was so excited to win tickets and then go buy himself a prize. I think he valued the tatoo he got from the tickets more than he did any of his birthday presents!

Sammi also had a party. She is obsessed with getting a dog right now, so she had a puppy party. All the guests arrived and immediately were groomed with doggie ears and face paints to be puppies. It was fun. We played all kinds of puppy games and had a little puppy cake. We ended the evening with a puppy talent show. Sammi loved it. By the end of the party, I'd had my fill of puppies! After the party, Sammi tried her own hand at puppy painting on dad.

I'm including a couple of pictures of my kids with their valentines that they made. They worked really hard on them and were very proud of themselves!

Over MLK Jr. Birthday, our family finally built our trail that will lead us down our mountain to the wilderness portion of our yard. Our 2 acres of land is divided in two by a steep hill and a little stream. Our side of the stream is all landscaped and from where the slope of the hill gets steep to the other side of our land, it is all just gorgeous rainforest. We love it. We spent our time out building a trail to take us down the steep ravine so that we could finally have access to both the stream and the wilderness on the other side of it. I can't wait to get using it! We had a fun time together. The kids and I cut away at weeds and dug up the vegetation along the trail while Grant dug stairs into the side of the mountain. Sammi named our stream "Bubbling Brook" and our trail "Wilderness Way." The trail isn't done yet, but we can at least get the kids down to the stream now!

Scotti lost his first tooth this month. He was so excited. It was a fun moment as a parent. The loss of the first tooth. Big time. Kiddos getting bigger. Since Everett's b-day is only a few days away, I'm truly enjoying my last moments as the parent of a two-year-old.

Otherwise, things around here are busy as ever. I just got called to be the Primary President at church, which puts me in charge of all the kids to age 12 in our ward. I'm really loving it so far. I am finishing our kids' room that is really supposed to be the office. I painted it "Lime Ricky" green. I'm excited about it. I can't wait for it to be all done. I also remodeled my garage and had special closets installed where I can put my balls and sports equipment where it won't fall out. I'm so excited about it. Pictures to follow. I also had lockers made. Joe Keith did the work and I highly recommend him to anyone in the area! Also, I just built myself a new vegetable and flower picking garden. I'm so excited about it. I can't wait to start planting in that new bed. It is really fun.

Oh! I can't forget my great news. In fact, I'll end on this. I went out to turn my compost and guess what? I have dirt! I actually made my own dirt out of all the food we didn't eat and all the yard waste and all the cardboard boxes and paper that comes through here! I turned it into gorgeous black dirt that is full of vitamins for all my plants. I can't wait to spread it over my garden. Seriously, that was such a fun moment when I realized that all that actually did turn to dirt like it was supposed to! Now, I'm even more diligent about getting my food scraps and anything else compostable to the composter!

Tonight on the way to bed, Ev asked me when that Easter guy is coming. Seriously, he is so funny.