Say What?

Noah while Ben pumps gas at Circle K: "Something strange is afoot at the Circle K." (From Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure)

Dad: Thank you for picking up those pencils.
Hope: The Holy Ghost told me to.

Noah: My hair is bouncing up and down.

After Hope crashed on her bike.
Mom: I think she just got distracted.
Noah: Probably by a bird?

While trying to console Hope after her crash.
Noah: Take this as an experience.

Noah lying on two swings: Hope, what do I look like?
Hope: You look like a big pickle.

Mom referring to a fly buzzing around Hope's head: It won't hurt you.
Hope: But...will it stay in here for 59 years?

Mom: Will you hang on to the stroller, please?
Hope: Yes. Cause I am bound to fall down.

Eden grabs and shakes dad's hand in the middle of a high-five game and says: Thank you very much.



"Thank You for Primary"

Last Sunday Hope gave her first prayer in primary! She was very excited about it. When her teacher handed me the slip notifying me that Hope was scheduled to say the prayer I got a little worried because she has refused to say the family prayer for a couple of months now. But, she told me she was going to do it and said the family prayer every night last week to "practice".

The sister announced that the kids would open with a song and then the prayer would be given by Hope. It took the chorister a few extra seconds to get up there and Hope started to get up like she thought she was supposed to go, but I motioned for her to sit back down. She looked a little embarrassed but quickly got over it. I was impressed that she actually knew what was going on. It means that she's been paying attention in past weeks which I am grateful for. I thought I had been doing a good job just getting her to be and stay there, but here it turns out she's been paying attention all along!

Finally, when it really was Hope's turn she got a big smile on her face and went to the little pulpit, climbed on top of the stool and waved for me to come over (I was keeping a little distance because she had told me a couple of times that she didn't want me to help her). I was glad she did want my help though. I only had to help her once, I told her to say, "Thank you for Primary." That got her started and she also said thank you for her friends and her family and then she said "thank you for primary" again. I cued her to say "in the name of..." and she took it from there. She did awesome and was very proud of herself.

I almost got teary watching her pray in primary and doing it HAPPILY, but I didn't. Which is kind of a big deal for me, because I cry over everything. And I do mean everything. I am so pleased that she has taken to primary so well and seems to look forward to it every Sunday. We love you Hopie and are so proud of you and your choices!!!



Say What?

Hope: Can we listen to music?
Dad: You didn't say the magic word.
Hope: Is it 'carrots'?

Hope: Why are daddy's called husbands?

Hope: I just saw a cool trash can. It was AWESOME!

After a brief chat with our neighbor he leaves in his car and Hope says: Why does that guy have to buzz off?

Tonight Hope insisted that I tuck her under all 5 of her blankets. After lying there for a minute she said: Momma, I don't like this pillow. It makes my head all sweaty.
Mom: Well, it's probably because you have 5 blankets on you.
Hope shakes her head: That's not true.

Hope: I'm gonna hit this city. (She really likes Tik Tok by Ke$ha and she randomly said this while in the car. I know, I need to start having her listen to primary songs exclusively.)

Hope: Why were you nice to that man?
Mom: You should be nice to everyone.
Hope: You weren't nice last night at dinner.

You Can't See Me

This is Hope's pose when she is trying to hide from someone.

And every time she makes this face. She does it everywhere: the side of the couch, against walls, in plain sight of whomever she is hiding from. Somehow this pose makes her invisible. Maybe it is the combination of the pose with the face...I'll try it out next time I need a break from the kids and let you know how it goes.



Start of Summer Break

The past couple of weeks I have been anticipating summer break and quite frankly have been pretty concerned that Noah doesn't seem to be making the wonderful childhood memories of summer that I made. Perhaps he is and I am just being paranoid about him missing out. I was given quite a bit more freedom when I was his age and would spend all day away from home exploring my neighborhood. My brother I and were best friends with our next door neighbors and we would find amazing little kingdoms in the woods and give them names. We thought we found some Indian burial grounds once, but looking back I am sure it was just some big dirt mounds. We would walk in the streams for what seemed like miles (I'm sure it wasn't that far though) and find perfect swimming holes. We would explore vacant lots next to grocery stores where once we discovered a huge water pipe that we all climbed through to see what was on the other side. Actually...we all started to climb through, but my friend and I freaked out after a little ways and had to crawl backwards to get out.

I am not saying that I want Noah to go crawl through a water pipe, or get lost in the woods, but those memories are among my fondest and as parents don't we want them to have fond memories? So this year I gave him a sandcastle bucket full of summer time goodies to start the summer off. Inside was a frisbee, sidewalk chalk, goggles, sunglasses, chap stick (he has really dry lips and doesn't like using my chap stick), a squirt gun, a glow in the dark mini-sword and some little candies. While dinner was cooking he decided to break out the chalk and create some art on the driveway.

He turned that blue square thing into the eye of a face, which was pretty cool. Here is another medium for his drawing - sidewalk chalk! I've seen some pretty amazing stuff done with sidewalk chalk.

Hope begged and begged to be able to go out with Noah but she isn't allowed unless a grown-up is with her so I told her I would go out with her for a few minutes.

The drew mazes around ants and what's funny is the ants actually acted like they were stuck for a while. They both got a kick out of that and Hope even narrated for her ant. Something like: Oh no! I don't know which way to go! And other silly things.

After a few minutes it was Hope's bed time and I told Noah that his bed time was going to be later this summer so he could stay out longer. After a while he went to play night games with some friends around the corner and came back all excited because he made a new friend.

Seems like this summer is off to a good start, now if we can just keep the ball rolling.



Teach Me to Walk in the Light Subway Art

Last Sunday as I was listening to an amazing talk on motherhood I was inspired yet again, that my children are and were ALWAYS meant to be MY children. And yet again, I felt overwhelmed at the responsibility that I have to teach my children how to be good and responsible and to know the gospel of Jesus Christ. I started to feel that there was no one less capable than me when I felt I should look in the topical guide of the Hymn book under "mother". There were only a few songs listed, but I turned to page 304 Teach Me to Walk in the Light. It was a song I had learned years ago in primary and as I read through the hymn I realized how simple the truths were that I needed to teach my children. I knew I needed to hang these words up in my home to remind myself often of why these little people were sent to me and what my duty is as their mother. First, I searched the Internet to see if anyone had made a free printable of the hymn that I could use, but I didn't find anything. So here is my secret of the day...I spent about two and a half hours doing this in Publisher. I didn't know what I was doing and I kept being asked to be mommy...you know, apple juice, movies, bananas...nap time. Once I got comfortable with where all the buttons were in publisher (this is only my second project with that program) it went pretty smoothly and what took so long was deciding on colors and fonts. Because I feel like these words are so helpful to all parents and I am inviting you to right click and save as to use in your own home, but please don't sell it.

COLORS

BLUE

BLACK/GREY

PINK

I decided to hang it in Hope's room for now. It may find it's way somewhere else in our home, I'm not sure yet.

Miss Chevious Moments Episode 3

Monday
This morning was beautiful so we spent all morning outside. Eden hadn't been out there for 30 minutes before she had doused herself with sand and dirt. In her hair, in her shoes, who knows where else...she was dirty. I just looked at her and sighed as I watched her sprinkling more sand on her arm and then tossing a handful in her sister's direction. I remember putting sand in my hair when I was about Hope's age. I thought it tickled when it would slide down my scalp. I guess payback is only fair, so I just let her do it. That certainty that they will be clean and smell lovely again is what I love most about our night time routine, even if Miss Chevious only stays clean while she's sleeping.

The girls watched a movie while I made lunch and that is when this happened.

This one is really daddy's fault for leaving his newspaper in such an obvious place for it to meet it's demise. Okay, so it is just as much my fault because I looked at that paper several times making a mental note to move it cause of Miss Chevious, but I kept getting sidetracked. Miss Chevious showed her mercy and the paper remains in tact. You are welcome, daddy.

Eden decided to wash the couch with her macaroni and cheese so mommy decided to wash the cushion covers. No pic of that, but the memory is still vivid.

Then there was lots of tormenting big sister by taking her stuffed animals and running around the house with them (smiling behind her pacifier all the while) while Hope screamed through tears of objection. Yesterday, they had some moments where they got along so well. They would hug each other while they went down the slide and giggle and smile. I tried to soak up as much as possible because I knew it wouldn't last long. I drew on those memories of yesterday for peace and reassurance amidst the screaming and yelling of quibbling siblings today.

Tuesday

Today we met Ben for lunch. Why would I take Ben away from the peace of his work to the stressful environment created by Miss Chevious in a lunch atmosphere? That is a good question and one I ask myself every time we meet him for lunch. I always say to myself, "Poor Ben has been working hard all day and now is being hounded and harassed by this little monkey and then has to go back to work for the rest of the day. I won't do this to him again." But I miss my Bennie Boo and can't help but want to go see him in the middle of the day. I should just suck it up, spare him and let him work in peace until he is forced to come home. :) Anyway...she actually didn't do too bad this time out. She only squirmed and bruised a few of my ribs while we were standing in line, held on to the glass partition between the line and the cooks with a death grip that only daddy could break and then tried to steal Hope's food. After a while of eating what she could snatch from Hope she decided she wanted my drink, but it was laced with caffeine so I wouldn't share. Mean, I know, but the last thing anyone wants is Miss Chevious hyped up on caffeine. She settled for her sippy cup, but grabbed an empty water cup and went to work making her "special juice." This is what Noah calls it when Miss Chevious drinks from her sippy cup and spits it into another container. She did it somewhat discreetly and gracefully though, so I was grateful there wasn't juice spraying all over the surrounding patrons. Her chin rested on the edge of the cup and a steady stream of juice poured from her little puckered lips into the water cup. She reminded me of one of those little statue fountains of the little kids peeing or something. Hey, if a statue of a kid peeing can be a considered a cute fountain why not one of a kid spitting into a cup?

Wednesday

This morning when I looked in little Miss Monkey Pants' closet I was hesitant to dress her in the super cute outfit from Grandma Verla. The shirt is white and this is Miss Chevious we are talking about, but I had waited a long time to dress her in this outfit and it is finally warm enough too so I put it on her anyway. The morning went surprisingly well with no dirties on her clean white shirt, but then came lunch time. I've been trying to get the girls interested in some healthy smoothies and so far Hope refuses to try them and Eden loves them. Today I made a peach raspberry smoothie. I guess Eden didn't like today's flavor cause this is what she did with it.

Raspberries on her cute new outfit!!! I am happy to say that I only had to treat the stain and wash it twice for the stain to come out, but it is out. The outfit lives for another day. Miss Chevious does pretty well with big kid cups (like the one you see on the couch behind her) when there is something in it that she actually likes. Who am I kidding? I bring these moments on myself. You're probably thinking I'm an idiot for giving a two year old an open cup on the couch. I am thinking the same thing and wonder why I continue to do these things?

Here she is having a snack in her second outfit of the day. She loves olives and calls them "tacos" cause we usually eat them when we have tacos. I gave her several in a cup and she sat on the floor to munch.

She found a colored pencil, speared the olives and used it as an eating utensil. I guess putting them on her fingertips is no longer fun.

Thursday
Fast forward through the usual tormenting of big sister and other messes to dinner time. Miss Chevious and Hope sat briefly at the table eating corn when Hope decided she was done. Eden looked at the plate that Hope now left unguarded and went for it. Not only did she steal her corn, but she used her chair to climb up on the table so she could eat the corn like a dog. Precious little thing.

She must not be as seasoned as Hope in eating her food like a dog because after a couple of bites she gave up and resumed eating...like a human.

Friday

I had a headache all Thursday night that lasted until I woke Saturday morning, so when Miss Chevious fought me on getting dressed I just rolled with it and let her stay in her pajamas. I wish I could've done the same with her messy diaper when she fought me on that, but given her history of playing with poop and the inevitable rash that follows diapers that aren't changed regularly I felt I had no choice but to call on my super mommy powers and change her diaper through flailing arms and her squirming body. Diaper changed, but not without a big swipe of the baby powder by Miss Chevious.

While I was cleaning the bathroom she found her potty and dragged it into the kitchen where she stuffed a bunch of toys and paper in it.

At least she isn't scared of it. The more comfortable she is with it the more likely she will be to use it. Right?
Lastly, she was having a snack at the table (shocking that she was sitting at the table, isn't it?) when she decided to turn the yogurt cup upside down, try to empty it on the table and then smear it around with her hands.

Saturday
First thing this morning, Eden grabbed Hope's cup and Hope freaked out even though it was already empty. As I was trying to explain to Hope that she needed to use words to express her feelings instead of crying and whining Eden examines the cup and considers giving it back. Finally Hope asks for it back (such a novel idea) and Eden obliges...but not before slowly and deliberately spitting in it. She didn't even spit juice or milk, it was just plain old disgusting spit. I was so shocked and confused at what had just happened I am sure I stood there staring at her with my mouth hanging open for a good 30 seconds. Why did she feel the need to do that and where in the world did the idea come from????
This evening she got her first goose egg. Hope was spinning her around in the entry way trying to get her to stay inside so Hope could sneak out and see what daddy was doing in the yard. Suddenly I hear a smack and the french door vibrate...then Hope: "Are you okay, Eden?"....Crying. Hope hid behind a chair because she thought we were going to be mad at her. I didn't see  Eden's head right away cause she was looking down, but she hugged me tight when I picked her up. It was after Ben had convinced Hope to tell him about it that we knew to look at her head. There it was. I can't believe I didn't notice it first thing. It was huge and pink/blue/purple with a harsh line down the middle of it which was obviously from the edge of the door. Eden hasn't had many major owies, thank goodness, so I was relieved to see that she got over it somewhat quickly. Hope remained very concerned though and kept asking her if she was alright. While they were undressing for their bath Hope asked, "Are you sure the water isn't going to hurt her owie?" Hope has always seemed to think that getting ANY owie wet is going to make it hurt. Anyway, I was very touched by her concern for her sister because usually it seems like she can't wait to get away from her.
***So I've made a decision about the new Miss Chevious Moments episodes. I will no longer be documenting on a daily basis, as a lot of these moments occur several times daily. Instead of being a diversion of troubles, trying to document on a daily basis seems to be causing more stress. So away with it! Instead, I will do my best to capture the big Miss Chevious Moments and hopefully I will have enough to make a few posts a month. I know family enjoys these posts, but there is so much stress that I can't do anything about that if I have a choice to rid my life of SOME stress, albeit not a huge conductor of stress, I should try to eliminate it, right? Right.***

Say What?

Hope: Wanna see how I get busy? Then dances around the room.

Dad: Don't talk smart to me.
Hope: Did you say SMURF?
Dad: No.
Hope: Yes you did.

Mom to Eden: Do you wanna say the prayer?
Eden: No. I too tired. This has been her excuse for everything lately. For instance when I tell her to get down from the table she says: I too tired.

Hope: Why is that house falling down?
Mom: Cause it's really old.
Hope: Grandma is really old.

After watching Uncle Brian help push a car to the side of the road Hope says: Wow! Uncle Brian is REALLY strong!

Eden: Ice cream Coat!
Dad: Coat? You wanna coat?
Eden: NO!
Dad: You wanna coat made of ice cream?
Eden: ....Yeah!
Hope: Ice cream CONE!
Eden: Ice cream COAT!
Hope laughs: You don't get the point do you, Eden?


Dad to Hope while planting a Big Jim Pepper plant: This plant is called a Big Jim.
Hope: Oh! What's this one's name? (Pointing to a different plant) Can we call it Sally?

More Park Buddies

Today the girls and I went to the park with Uncle Brian's family. Uncle Brian had the day off so he came too. Before we left though the kids enjoyed a Popsicle.

I love Caleb's face...it is too priceless.

The park we went to had a cool little mini forest off to the side of it that had a peaceful little stream running through it. You can imagine what enjoyment this provided. I think the kids would've been just fine if we would've stayed in the mini-woods and not even seen the playground.

I think I would've been fine with that too. This place reminded me of South Carolina and childhood. There was a bridge over the stream so the kids played "Pooh Sticks" from Winnie-the-Pooh. You drop a stick off one end of the bridge then rush to the other side to see who's stick comes out first.

Then each kid grabbed a big stick and just started poking around in the water. After a while they discovered that they could pull out big clumps of yuck that looked like shower drain hair.

Caleb was determined to catch a shoe that was abandoned in the stream. He dislodged it after a few pokes and then chased it down the stream a little ways.

Cameron likes for me to take his picture. Look at that face.

The kids played back at the playground for a bit before we left.

I feel like I am becoming a crazy camera lady, snapping pictures every few seconds. In a way it's annoying, but I also wonder why I haven't been doing it all along?

Wednesday With Noah

Noah and I spent last Wednesday together. These visits are nice because it is just me and him so I can focus on him and he gets one on one time with mom. And, I'm not going to lie, it is a welcome break from my other two. I love them, but let's be REAL; "everybody needs a little time away." Those wouldn't be such great song lyrics if it wasn't true. 

It is expensive to drive to Noah, and time consuming, otherwise I would just bring Noah back home for the day, but because of these reasons we look for things to do around there. So first we had an early dinner at Wingers. Not many restaurant choices around there so Noah chose from places he didn't really care for. Then we headed to the park by Noah's school to play around a little bit. Noah had a school program so we didn't want to get too far. We only stayed at the park a few minutes and then headed over and I got to watch Noah's classmates chase each other around until teachers opened the school doors.

The program was patriotic and mostly songs about things the kids had been taught about our state. The best part was that Noah was one of the boy scouts who carried and held the flag for the pledge of allegiance and National Anthem.

Handsome isn't he?

I am a terrible photographer. I seriously need to take a class or something just so I can take decent pictures of my children.

I'm glad I was able to go. Usually I have to miss these sort of things because they are in the middle of the week and it is just too far and expensive. Not to mention the difficulty of taking the girls on said road trips.

Afterwards the kids got to take home some of the art projects they had been working on.

Noah and I had a good laugh over this picture cause it looks like a mug shot.

There's the smile.

After the program Noah wanted to play laser tag so we headed over to the bowling alley. No other kids were there though so I played with him. It was really fun! I won the first round, but only by a few points. Noah won the second round by a couple THOUSAND points! He was pretty tired by the end of it and was ready to go.

Love you Noah!

 

Miss Chevious Moments Episode 2

Ben took the day off yesterday (5/07/12) to celebrate our 6th anniversary. We went up to Sugar House to the Original Pancake House, a place we used to frequent while dating. It was no surprise to me or Ben that Miss Chevious did not sit still longer than about three minutes. She was climbing under the table running up to the front of the restaurant, where the hostess empathetically said, "You've got a track star on your hands." I just smiled politely and after grabbing the little monkey headed back to my table...but I would soon be visiting the hostess again thanks to our "track star." She also shoved the flatware into the cracks of the stone fireplace that was right next to us. She did this after being told not to bang them on the table. She insisted on continuously picking up and putting down her chocolate milk which resulted in several small spills, even though it was covered with a lid. She took all the sugar packets out of the little dish and after playing with them calmly for about 30 seconds, she rapidly swished her arms back and forth across the pile flinging the sugar packets everywhere. While I was trying to gather them up, she grabbed a few that I hadn't reached yet and started squishing them in her hands. As we were about to leave I dipped her pacifier in the water that the server accidentally filled my sprite glass with and stuck it in her mouth. After a suck or two she smiled, took the pacifier out of her mouth and dipped it in the glass. She did this a couple times. Then she just dropped it in and pushed it under the ice.

Next we went shopping for "creature-free" bed sheets for Hope (refer to the earlier Say What? post). Putting Eden in a shopping cart is quite difficult.  It is in fact, a nightmare. She fights, kicks, cries and screams bloody murder. She is one of those children that you have to look at because it sounds like she's being abducted or beaten. I have no doubts that she can be heard in the furthest corner of the store. She screamed and tried to escape just about the entire time until daddy couldn't stand it any longer and got her out. We went to a couple of stores and in the ones that didn't have shopping carts Miss Chevious would run as far as she could looking back at me and laughing the whole time. Finally, I just tried to hold her, but she pushed and dug her knee into my ribs and wiped her messy cookie face all over my shirt. I didn't even care about the mess all over my shirt...I was exhausted and let's face it, after running back and forth after Miss Chevious several times, I had little pride left.

5/08/2012

Today Hope wanted to draw a footprint with the colored pencils so she sat at the table for a while to draw. Eden got a hold of the pencils after a while and found the one pen that I didn't know was in there and scribbled all over her arm and then came to laundry room where I was folding clothes to show me her art work.

Then she mashed up a banana on the family room floor. Yuck.

5/10/2012

There have been too many incidents to keep track of...this may not have been a good idea. I'm exhausted.

We started the day with Eden having a messy diaper and playing with it in her crib. Straight into the bath! Then she crumbled up a perfectly good hash brown and threw it all over the car.

So this week's episode was kind of a bust. Sorry. But just because I failed to document it don't think that there weren't many many, MANY Miss Chevious moments. I'll try harder next week. But before I go here's something special to think about: While Ben was standing in line at Einstein's Bagels and older lady in front of him got her order and turned towards the door to leave. Eden promptly begins singing "Go Away Scary Witch, Go Away!" and follows her to the door. I'm glad I wasn't there for that one. How embarrassing.

Now you don't need to wonder why my dining room chairs are always put up in my pictures. THIS is why. You can't see it but in the background there was one chair down that she used as climbing device.

Say What?

Hope: I wish I could see Heavenly Father, cause I'm his little kid.

Hope asks daddy a question to which he replies: I don't know.
Hope: Looks like we have a  mystery on our hands.

Eden talking to a skittle that fell in her car seat: Wait, don't leave! Stop it!

I read online a trick to fixing scratched DVDs. You smear toothpaste all over it and then rinse with warm water. Simple, so I thought I'd try it. Hope saw me doing it and asks very calmly and inquisitively: Are you nuts?

Hope smells a bag of mixed peppers: Whew. That's TERRIBLE!

Eden: Pidah! (Pacifier)
Mom hands her pacifier back to her in the car.
Eden: Muah! Muah! Kissing her pacifier.

Dad to Eden: I don't think Muffin likes you all up in his grill.
Hope: Where's his grill?
Dad: Huh?
Hope: Where's the grill?

Eden while looking in a gift bag that was full of plastic that a gift had been wrapped in: Oh! It's beautiful!

Hope standing in my doorway at 3:30 a.m.: Mom! There's creatures in my bed.

Hope: Does that have caff-a-rina in it?
Mom: What?
Hope What is caff-a-rina?

Miss Chevious Moments

Welcome to the first installment of "Miss Chevious Moments." This is a series in which I will recount and display photos of said monkey's destructive, mischievous and some what anarchist behavior spanning the previous week. Hmmm...is "anarchist" the right word?

Anarchist: a person who causes disorder or upheaval. Whoa...spot on. Who'd a thunk I have a two year old anarchist? Rebellious would also be good.

Rebellious: resisting treatment or control; unruly. Anyway, you get the idea. She's a handful. So I will document what I catch her doing and hopefully get a good picture along the way. I find that making photographic evidence of these occurrences delays my frenzied mommy reflex in which I momentarily may lose my temper. Snapping a picture, I feel, is better for mine and Miss Chevious' relationship, and makes for some darn funny posts.

In this first picture, dated 5/4/2012, Miss Chevious hid out in big sister's room while I mindlessly mopped up old sticky juice spills from the kitchen floor. It was here where she started "cleaning" her Eeyore toy by spitting juice onto it and then rubbing it with a wipee. Actually, back up. She started doing that in the hall where she left several juice puddles in the carpet. Then she moved to Hope's room where she spit juice all over the table and apparently her pants. You can't see how wet the table is, but it looked like she pretty much emptied the sippy cup.

Look at that face, so unassuming and happy. She is happy, which makes me smile and makes it difficult to discipline her. It reminds me of when I was little and my dad would swing open the door to the room which me and my three other sisters shared. Making too much noise at night should be expected with four young girls all in the same room, right? He would enter with a stern look on his face and his belt in his hand, ready to snap it for effect, and we would all stare back at him with big smiles and sometimes giggles. After a few moments of staring each other down he would start to smile...turn a little red and then leave. I love you, dad, and now I understand because this happens to Ben and I regularly.

In this picture dated 5/5/2012 (yes that IS one day later), Miss Chevious shows off more of her table manners. The child is hungry. She is a good eater, not too picky, but she knows what she likes and wants and thank goodness she can communicate well enough to let me know without my making 50 guesses. Here she eats Frosted Mini Wheats cereal, her favorite. When she's had her fill she takes the last bite, usually right out of her mouth, squeezes it in her hand until all the milk, and saliva has dripped onto the table and her clothes then she places the lump next to the bowl. I am guessing she learned this next trick from her brother or sister cause I didn't teach it to her, and no I didn't teach her to take her food out of her mouth and squish it either. She lifts the bowl to her mouth and drinks the remaining milk, but of course not without it streaming down the sides of her chin and down her neck getting her all sticky. You can see below that sometimes she can fit her whole face into it. I'm not sure if that is the most effective way of drinking milk from a bowl but she seemed to succeed.

Sometimes instead of drinking it she will splash in it like it's a rain puddle until she sees me coming and then she will say, "no, no, no" and try to run away with the bowl.

In this next picture, taken the same day, Miss Chevious runs around with Hope's tortilla on her head, dropping it on the floor a couple times, picking it back up and placing it back atop her little hairless head. At least it was a plain tortilla instead of a bean burrito, right?

In the picture that I did NOT get, you would see Miss Chevious running around the dining room and family room with two empty corn cobs (hers and Hope's) clinching them tightly in her fists so that the milk from the cob can rain on our already yucky carpet. Finally, she throws them across the family room. Why? I do not know. Perhaps she no longer needed them as microphones which she was using to serenade the family during dinner time. She also pretended to use them as harmonicas. I did find corn kernels in her diaper while I was undressing her for her bath. Sometimes I find the weirdest things in there - things that shouldn't be. Like toys, wood chips from the playground, what ever she had to eat that day, and sand. If if I remember correctly, one night I found a crayon. She likes to put things down her shirt (thank goodness she got over putting things down mine) and I guess sometimes it just makes it's way to her diaper. A little random piece of information for you, but it's been a long day, so I'm aloud to ramble.

I just started documenting on Friday so bear with me as this new series develops. And on that note, look at what she can do in just two days! Of course there was lots that I didn't mention, like scribbling on the wall with a pencil, using mommy as a jungle gym while I was trying to rest on the couch and a couple of grabs at the powder on her diaper area while I am trying to change her. She does that last one purely to annoy me.

Park Buddies

Wednesday afternoon we went to the park with Autumn and the boys. I don't know why we haven't done this before...it was kind of a "duh" moment for me.  So we are going to try to make it a weekly outing, which will soon be even more fun with Noah's summer break coming up!

The park we went to had gorgeous trees all around it so the entire playground was shaded and perfect little rays of sunlight sprayed through the leaves here and there. I miss trees. I can't wait to live in that house in my vision of the old Ben and Lindsey cause it is surrounded by trees like the ones at this park.

 I think this park is suited for kids a little older than 2 years old cause it mostly had bars to climb up on the equipment like Cameron is doing in the first picture. Eden has not mastered those yet, in fact until this day at the park I hadn't even let her attempt them. Maybe we will put "climbing bars" under "swinging in the big kid swing" on our Learn To Do list for Eden this summer.

The kids had a great time but Caleb was disappointed that we would not be going to their house to play afterward. He said, "Aunt Lindsey," (I love hearing him say that) "It's been a long time since Hope and Eden came to my house." Maybe those weren't his exact words but pretty close I think. What a sweet boy. I assured him that we wouldn't let it be a long time again and we'd see him this weekend and go to the park again soon.

There is a story that goes with the top picture in this collage. On the highest tower of the playground was a really big twisty slide. Of course Eden wanted to try it, but once she finally climbed the mountain of stairs leading to it she had second thoughts. She sat up there for quite a while and I tried to get Hope to go up to help her down, but Caleb to the rescue!!! He went up and had Eden sit on his lap (Autumn climbed up to help with that part). When they came out the bottom of the slide Eden had a huge grin on her face. After that she didn't want to slide down unless Caleb was there and would call out to him, "Caleb! Come help me!" And he would reply, "Okay, I'm coming!"

He went to the restroom once and she was looking all around for him and called him for about five minutes. Finally she went down the slide by herself and soon after Caleb came running from the restroom toward the playground. Eden screamed and ran toward him and opened her arms to give him a big hug. Hope screamed about Caleb coming back from the potty too and ran to greet him. He had one of those smiles on his face that he was trying not to let show and it reminded me of Brian. It was the sweetest scene ever. I can't believe I didn't capture it.

Say What?

Eden: WHAAAAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!
This is one of her new favorite things to say. I don't know if she actually can't hear us, or if we've said it to her so much that she just thinks it should be part of a conversation.

Hope: Will Jesus show that people made him die when he comes?
Mom: You mean will He show everyone the marks on His hands and feet?
Hope: Yes.
Mom: Yes. That is how we will know He is Jesus.
Hope: I think I will hide.
Mom: You won't want to hide because Jesus is wonderful.
Hope: When will He come here?
Mom: I don't know. No one knows. It is a surprise.
Hope: Will He bring us surprises when He comes?

Hope to Daddy: You smell funny. It's because of all that coffee you drink.

Dad: Grandma thinks you are a special little girl. She thinks you are funny and pretty and sweet.
Hope: I think I am too.

Hope: Oh, look mom, horsies!
While turning my head to look she says: Pity, you missed them.

Eden after banging a wooden spoon on the wall: Thats better.
Eden has also picked up on giving the "cold shoulder." If someone does or says something she doesn't like she crosses her arms, sticks her nose in the air and turns away saying: Humph.

Noah says to a man standing nearby the RS room which Noah just entered looking for me: It smells strongly of women in there.

Hopie the Ballerina

I am so proud of my little Hopie! Today she FINALLY participated fully in her ballet class and actually did it with a SMILE on her face!!! A few days ago we were practicing the arabesque position and she mentioned how proud her teacher was going to be of her. I had to think for a minute what she was talking about because she seemed excited to go to class for the first time ever. I agreed with her that her teacher would be proud and we practiced a few other positions for her to show her teacher. I thought the excitement was a momentary illusion on both our parts, but this morning she had no complaints about putting on her dance attire and going to class. Part of it, I'm sure, is that I bribed her with a treat for after class if she did everything her teacher asked, but the optimistic side of me wants to believe that bribery played only a very small role in her decision be so cooperative.

Here they were practicing leaving the room like they will leave the stage when they do their part in Swan Lake. I was thinking that Hope would skip the performance this time around since she was being so difficult and didn't want to dance, but after speaking with her just now she says she wants to do it. Yay!

Sorry about the picture quality.

Hope has her back to the camera.  Eden and I took turns distracting the class. She would run onto the dance floor with me chasing after her and then I would pop around a corner and snap a picture. :)

Here the teacher is explaining why the girls can't hang from the ballet bar like monkeys. Hope in on the far right.

And here is how Eden spent most of the class.

Finally I took her outside because I was afraid her crying would irritate the other kids and Hope would decide not to participate anymore.

Here Eden is practicing one of the dance moves. She actually loves to practice at home with Hope and I'm thinking that soon she'll be ready to be in her own class.

Here she said she wanted to go home. I guess that is where she thinks she's headed.

It certainly was a great start to the day, and a million times better than dance class days in the past few weeks. Hope was very pleased at how proud I was of her and said, "I'm awesome, huh?" She is one AWESOME ballerina. Here's to hoping it continues!!! Fingers crossed.