Say What?

Hope: I am scared my stuffed animals will come alive when I am asleep.

Hope: Can I have it for Christmas?
Dad: I'll think about it.
Hope: Are you thinking about it right now?

Hope: When I see something crazy I say, 'What the heck?'.

Eden while driving in the dark a.m. for her surgery: It's dark outside. We need a flashlight.

Hope: Once upon a time there was a little girl who stayed up all night waiting for donuts, donuts, donuts, donuts. I LOVE donuts! Everyone used to call her Hopie, but really it was just Hope. Everyone used to laugh at her because she had beautiful curls...

Eden after taking a sip of juice: Hey! This is seawater!!! (A quote from Madagascar)

It Snowed...

A lot!

And the weird thing is that the day before this happened was quite a perfect Fall day in my opinion, even a little on the warm side. But that's Utah for you.

While I was pregnant with Eden, Ben took Noah and Hope sledding. I made a post about it here. As I watched the kids and Ben play in the snow I thought of that post and realized that I was watching what would become one of my favorite memories.

On Friday there was some of this...

 

 

(Hope making snowballs to throw at Zoe) 

and some of this of course.

 

 

They are doing "cheers" with their hot chocolate.

After Eden woke up from her nap and had her drink, there was this.

 

 

 

then more of this.

 

 

Hope told Eden that she looked like a little farm girl in her snow suit.

When we woke up Saturday there was even more snow!!!! After extremely cold and red toes we decided that snow boots were a necessity and we made a shopping trip.

Then there was this

 

 

that turned into this.

 

 

Our neighbor across the street called to say how much she enjoyed it and would enjoy if for the rest of the season.

Then Eden, exhausted by all the fun, took a nap on mommy's bed

 

 

and daddy and Hope went into the backyard to do this.

 

 

We sure missed Noah this weekend. Hopefully there will be plenty more snow-filled days ahead for Noah to join in on all the fun. But in the meantime...

 

 

that is one big snowman.



Halloween 2012

This Halloween was crazy. From the moment I got up till my head hit the pillow I was going, going, going. Usually, Hope goes to afternoon kindergarten, but on this particular day they were having a field trip and combining the morning and afternoon classes to go to a play during the morning session of kindergarten. So I dropped Hope off at school, had about an hour to feed, chase, clothe Eden and finish any last minute preparation for pre-school which I was teaching that day.

Then the little ladies in Eden's class joined us for a while.

 

I love that Eden has these little friends who are also in her nursery class at church. They all get so excited when they see each other. It is precious!

 

 

We learned about the letter "P" so we painted pumpkins purple!

I had to leave as soon as the girls left to pick up Hope from her field trip, which was actually late, so Eden and I waited on the sidewalk in front of Hope's school, where Eden repeatedly tried to run over a woman standing a few feet away while wearing her lady bug costume. It was quite a site. Luckily, the lady was a good sport.

Hope came back very excited from her field trip to see Flat Stanley! She told me all about riding the bus, and the characters in the play. Then we rushed home and had "lunch" and then rushed over to help Aunt Autumn clean her house for a whopping 45 minutes. The girls and Caleb and Cameron ran around in their costumes while we worked on the house. Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera.

Then we rushed back to Hope's school for the costume parade. It was a long wait and a lot of kids in costume. At least the weather was nice, but Hope had a heavy tiger suit and I new she was getting hot. Once again, I forgot my camera, but one of the sisters from my ward works at the school and captured this shot of Hope before they came out to the actual parade.

 

 

The kids walked a pretty long distance...most of it where no parents were even standing...it was weird. When we were walking back to the car is when Hope said to me, "I'm tired. Can we rest in a tree?" Given that she was wearing her tiger costume it was especially cute.

After the parade I dropped the girls off at daddy's work to trick-or-treat there and I drove to get Noah. We were able to spend the evening with him, but he needed to be back by 9 so we decided to spend Halloween in Grandma Verla's neighborhood, which also happens to be the neighborhood that Ben grew up in. Pretty cool to trick-or-treat your old neighborhood with your kids I think.

Noah could not make up his mind about a costume this year, so about 5 minutes before we walked out the door to start loading up on candy he decided he wanted me to paint his face like this.

 

 

He didn't have any reason why he wanted it like this, but he liked it, so everyone was happy and we were now ready for CANDY! Here are the kids waiting to go out Grandma Verla's door.

 

 

As usual, Noah was an awesome big brother and would help Eden up and down people's front steps to get her candy. They even held hands every now and then while walking down the sidewalk. Hope was too busy running ahead with some other family...she was really excited. As we walked I told Noah about the Halloween when he was Eden's age. He would knock on someones door yell "trick-or-treat" and would always walk away with "Happy Halloween!!!"

Before we made any other stops we visited grandpa who was sitting on the front porch handing out candy. This is a great picture. I love the way Eden is looking at Ray.

 

 

Tigger was also out trick-or-treating. Eden is trying to copy Noah's silly face here. It was quite funny to watch her distort her face in a variety of ways until she settled on this one.

 

 

Just before we got to Tigger, Eden decided she was tired and needed some persuading to move forward. Getting to Tigger was a good motivator, and bless her heart, she tried to be a good little trick-or-treator, but it had been a LONG day.

 

 

 

So finally, this is where she ended up after daddy went a little crazy with the camera.

 

 

A week or so before Halloween this year, my dad told me that I did this very thing when I was little. Only apparently I sat down in the middle of the road. At least grandma's house was just across the street. We were finally headed home, but we had to take off the costume's so the seat belts would fit and Eden freaked out.

 

 

Thank heaven for a sympathetic grandma! We were so glad to spend Halloween with Grandma & Grandpa Jones. Thanks for allowing us to intrude your home on Halloween and for making it extra special for us. We love you!

 

 

 



He's 11

Noah, or Mr. Handsome, as the nurses in the hospital where he was born called him, has turned 11 years old. I can't believe I have an 11 year old child...but that is for a different post. Monkey number one is well on his way to becoming a teenager and during his birthday this year he informed me that he is no more excited about it than I am.

Noah has had quite a difficult summer/fall this year and I wanted to make his birthday special and remind him of his many many wonderful qualities. I was determined to have balloons at his party and wouldn't you know that there was a helium shortage just when I needed 11 balloons. Who knew that one could have a shortage of helium? I guess helium is just one of those things I take for granted, but anyway, as I searched for a place that had some left I was starting to feel heart-broken. I know it's silly, and it's balloons for goodness sake, who cares? But I did. I felt very strongly that Noah needed balloons at his party and it wouldnt' be right without them. No where in town had helium, but when I picked him up in Salt Lake I decided to give one of their stores a try and what do you know? HELIUM! Noah would have his balloons! I was so happy I could've cried. As a special, and very cheesy, reminder to Noah of how great I think he is, I wrote a word that describes him on each balloon. After we had cake Noah read each balloon and let them go and we all watched them float away until we couldn't see them anymore. A few of the words I wrote were: talented, compassionate, caring, awesome big brother, artistic, imaginative, loving, athletic and several more that I can't remember at the moment.

 

This year I thought it would be fun for Noah to decorate his own cake. He thought that was pretty cool and wanted to do the Halo logo so we looked up a pic on the Internet and he went to work. Looks great if you ask me, and his sisters and cousins were in awe....drooling awe as they all were trying to taste the blue frosting.

I wrote Noah a special message in his birthday card. One that I want him to remember on a daily basis and as cards get thrown away, or misplaced I've decided to scan it onto our blog which is really our family journal. It's quite personal and really only here for the adult Noah's sake, but read it if you'd like.

 

 



Say What?

Hope: These are my ponies. They are speaking Spanish. I call them Uni and Corn.

Hope: Mom, I need some peace and quiet.

Yesterday Hope had a check-up at the doctor where she had to give a urine sample.
Mom: Thank you for being my helper at pre-school today.
Hope: Thank you for helping me pee in a cup.

Noah: When I grow up I'm going to have my own blimp...and I'm going to ride around in it at night...and live in it.

Eden as she climbs up her changing table: Up, Up and AWAY!

Noah: Why does Eden always go for the tobacco sauce?

Hope: What is that? *referring to a strobe light she sees one night while we're driving*
Dad: Do you think they're calling for Batman?
Hope: Is there a real Batman  in our world?
Mom: That is what daddy does when you go to sleep.
Hope: Why?
Dad: To fight crime.
Hope: Can't you fight with one foot?
Dad: I can fight with both feet.

Hope: Mom, I like you.
Mom: I like you, too.
Hope: But I like Maddox better.

Hope: I am tired of walking. Can we rest in a tree?