Say What?

*One night while trying to get the girls to eat their dinner*
Dad: You know how you have to pay for food when you go to a restaurant? That's what we're doing here. If you don't eat your food you have to pay me.
Eden: Well, I will have to destroy you.

Dad walks in on the girls playing in Hope's room. Her big pink bunny is on the floor with animals all around it.
Dad: What's going on with him? (referring to the pink bunny)
Hope: They're eating him cause he's dead.
Dad:.....well that's not good.
Hope: The eagles were eating him, but he had worms.

Mom: Take off your shoes.
Eden: Whatever you say princess.

*Eden has woken up just hours after falling asleep one night and isn't feeling well. I've been sitting on her bed for a good twenty minutes trying to get her to go back to sleep.*
Eden: I wanna go out there.
Mom: No. You need to go back to sleep. It's still night night time.
Eden: But I can't sleep.
Mom: You need to keep trying.
Eden puts her face in her pillow, lifts it again and says: It's gonna be a long night.

Say What?

Eden: I'm speaking Spanish. 'Blah bloo blee'.

Hope: Can I help?
Mom: Why don't you just let me do it cause I'm just about out of patience.
Hope. Okay. But, mom? How many more patience do you have?

Mom: Would you like me to help you put on your jammies or do you want to do it yourself?
Eden as she jumps around her room naked: By. My. SELF!
Mom goes to help Hope brush her teeth.
Eden continues running/hopping throughout the house naked.
Mom: It seems like you need some help with your jammies.
Eden's naked tushy hops down the hallway and mom continues helping Hope.
Eden: HOP. HOP. HOP.
Mom sits on Eden's bed as Eden twirls and hops around the room.
Mom: Would you like some help?
Eden: Yes. Cause I am OUT of control!

Hope: How do you scare a lobster?

Eden: Knock, Knock.
Hope: Who's there?
Eden: It's me, broccoli.

Say What?

Hope is spending some time with daddy at his work and says: I don't understand why you're here. It's boring here.

Same day - One of Ben's co-workers comes into his office and says to Hope: You make sure he's working hard okay?
After he leaves, Hope says to dad: Why does he care if you're working if he's not?

Our home teacher asks Eden: What were you for Halloween?
Eden: A witch.
Home teacher: Did you cast an evil spell on somebody?
Eden: No. I didn't have a wand.

Eden is playing with her McDonald's cash register toy.
Dad says: What is that? (referring to the cash register)
Eden says: Um....a chicken nugget thingy.

Eden: I liked that. I like smiling.
Mom: You're adorable.
Eden: That what I was gonna say.

Mom: Maybe you should try to go peepee.
Eden: Well if I go you have to pay.

Eden singing a song: Patta cake, patta cake, baker's man. Bake me a cake and don't pitch a fit! (It seems like she may have said this before, but I didn't want to go through all my posts to see.)

(2010)

Say What?

Hope sees a crown in the costume store: "Hey look! It's a King's hat! I bet Heavenly Father has one of these."

Noah: "It reminds me of China with all these falling leaves. Oh....I've never been to China."

Hope and Eden refer to Ben's "hair" as "tiny hairs" because he shaves his head. One night he put Eden's tiara on his head and Hope said, "You look like a princess with tiny hairs."

Eden looking at a picture of a friend she hasn't seen in a while: "Is she my assistant?"

Eden says to Hope after Hope tries to take something from her: "It's MY coronation....and I'm running unopposed." *That is a line from My Little Pony Equestria Girls.

Eden jabbers to dad something about garbage.
Dad says: "What?"
Eden jabbers garbage again.
Dad: "What?"
Eden says: "You heard me."

Mom to Eden: "Can we put your ponies on the floor while we eat dinner?"
Eden: "They will be sad."
Mom: "They don't care."
Eden: "Nobody cares about my ponies."

Hope's First Primary Talk

Unfortunately, I am blogging about this several months after the fact, so I can't recall many details, but here are the big parts.

Hope got to give her first primary talk! Apparently she offered to do it instead of being asked, which I think is very cool. She loves to do stuff like that and doesn't get too scared or embarrassed. Hopefully that courage will continue throughout her life. At first, I tried to get her to memorize her talk. After the first line she wasn't having it and I didn't want to turn it into something she was dreading, so I resolved to just whisper the whole thing in her ear. She did awesome. I am so proud of my sunshine Hope and her little testimony that seems to grow stronger and more beautiful every day. I am so grateful that my children know who they are, why they are here and that they have a Heavenly Father who loves them.

This is a copy of her talk.

"There are many ways that Heavenly Father can talk to you through the Holy Ghost. He can speak to you through the scriptures. One very important way that Heavenly Father talks to His children is through His living prophets. When the prophet speaks, he is telling us things that Heavenly Father wants us to know.

Our prophet today is Thomas S. Monson. Heavenly Father uses the prophet as his mouthpiece to deliver messages he wants us to hear. Each April and October the prophet and other general authorities speak to us in a special meeting called General Conference. They tell us things the Savior would if He were here. Their words are like scriptures and will teach us and help us choose the right. I am thankful I can listen to Heavenly Father's messages for me by listening to the prophet."

Last Day of Kindergarten

Before kindergarten started, Hope's teacher gave all the students an assessment test. Hope did not do very well. In fact, her score was very, very low. To be fair, I was sitting nearby when she was given the test and Hope knew more than she told her teacher, but still. You will remember that I admitted in a previous post that I had not prepared her very well academically. Something that I regretted and vowed to do differently with her little sister. Anyway, Hope soaked up everything. So much so that her end of the year score was 
283/289!!!!

 Hope & her teacher, Mrs. Holyoak.

And remember this picture taken on the first day of school?

 

Well, here is one from the last day.

Congratulations to Hope for graduating Kindergarten!

Say What?

Hope making up a song: I am a little child for Jesus. Oh, I love Jesus. I love Jesus. Jesus loves me. Jesus loves me. Why does He have a beard? Who knows, go ask your daddy.

Hope making up another song: Jesus is the nicest guy ever. Jesus is the nicest guy ever. 'Make some music', he yelled!

Eden is upset with me for some reason I can't remember and Hope says: She's thinks your mean. I am just warning you. Are you grateful I warned you?

Zoe just came home from getting spayed and is not feeling well.
Hope says: C'mon Zoe. Aren't you happy? *sings* If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!

Say What?

Hope: Does Heavenly Father get tired?
Me: No.
Hope: Does His son?
Me: Jesus? No.
Hope: Does He like to stay up like His dad?

*Another nighty night talk with Hope*
Hope: How does the Holy Ghost make you feel?
Mom: Sometimes he gives you a warm fuzzy feeling, sometimes he warns you about danger, sometimes he puts thoughts into your head.
Hope: I'm getting sweaty.
Mom: Take the blanket off.
Hope: No. I think it's the Holy Ghost. Why does the Holy Ghost make you feel warm?

Hope: Eden, you are crazy.
Mom: That's not a very nice thing to say.
Hope: I know.

Eden: Can I have a treat?
Mom: Too many treats will make you sick.
Eden: I wanna TREAT!!!
Noah: Eden, did you hear about the kid who ate too much candy? He fell off his porch.

*I have been trying to get Noah to expand his group of friends, but Noah doesn't seem to want to*
Mom: Do you have anything in common with "so-and-so"? (Name omitted to protect the innocent.)
Noah: The only thing we have in common is maps...and we're both human.

Mom: Eden, keep your hands to yourself.
Hope: Keep your face to yourself too.

By Hope.

Eden with a snare drum, Hope singing into a microphone and Noah playing the drums...with his foot???? Love her. 

Say What?

Eden: Look, I'm a bunny! Ribbit, Ribbit
Dad: Rabbits don't say 'Ribbit'.
Eden: Rabbit, Rabbit.

Hope: Mmmm. My hands smell good. I want to eat them.

Hope: I am sadder than sad.

Hope looks in the mirror and says: Hello handsome girl.

Dad to Eden: I'm gonna hang you up by your toes.
Eden: Are you really?
Dad: Don't you believe me?
Eden: No.

Hope: I want to go look at the pregnant people.

Eden to Hope: You are my best friend ever.

Noah helping Eden ride his skate board.

Say What?

Eden: Mom, look! My bum is freaking out.

Hope: Can we get another dog?
Mom: I don't think so.
Hope to mommy: I wish a puppy could come out of your tummy.

Eden: I'm HUNGRY!
Dad: What do you want?
Eden: Chi...Ch....I can't seem to remember.

Mom: Are you feeling better today?
Hope: Yes. But my head hurts. I think it's cause my hair is so long.

Dad is leaving for work one morning and says: Bye. I love you.
Eden: I love you! Come again soon!
Dad: Okay, I will.
Eden: Be careful of the ice!

Dad: Why don't you go poop in the potty?
Eden: It just comes out.
Mom: Well when you feel it start to come out you need to say, 'Oh, I need to go potty.' and then hold it till you get on the potty and then you can let it come out.
Eden: THAT'S A GREAT IDEA MOM!!!

Valentine's Day 2013

This year, Hope needed to make a box for her Valentine party at school. I found several cute ideas on Pinterest and let her pick which one she liked best. Of course she chose the horse. It was daddy's idea to make it a unicorn though. Since it was mostly cutting and hot gluing pieces together, daddy and I assembled the box and Hope drew on it.

 

 

It is hard to see from the picture, but she drew all over it. She gave it a "Cutey Mark" (which is the mark that My Little Ponies have on their hip) and drew hearts and eyes...oh, and a butt crack. :)

 

I also got to help with the party and made sugar cookies and frosting for the kids to decorate cookies. Hope and Eden enjoyed playing with the dough scraps. Amazingly enough they didn't eat the dough.

 

 

Daddy brought home Valentine treat bags for the girls with a balloon and stuffed unicorns. They were quite excited.

 

 

 

But not as excited as daddy. Look at his face. He loves his girls!

 

*On a side note, last week Hope was the spotlight student and on Friday I got to read a story to her class. Since it was also "Dad's & Donuts Day", Ben took the morning off so he could be there for the story too. At one point in the morning I turned the corner to walk down the hall and Ben was headed my way with a big smile on his face. I asked what he was smiling about and he said, "Hope's the spotlight student. That's exciting!"*

 

 



Say What?

Eden has poked and squashed a piece of zucchini to smitherines, puts it back on her plate, picks up a piece of squash and says: Your turn.

When dad gets out of the car to go into the gas station Hope says: Please don't leave your family here all alone.

Noah: What do you call a job that makes nuts?
Hope: What?
Noah: A nut job.

Hope to her friend Mason: Look at this new dinosaur toy. It's from Rob. He's in my class. He looks pretty sometimes, just like you.

Hope: Where did all this stuff come from?
Dad: I don't know.
Dad starts dancing and shaking his shoulders from side to side.
Hope: Is that a clue?

 *Seahorse*

 *The First Vision* She came home with this one Sunday.

*Licked by a Horse*

Las Vegas With the Maxwells

This past weekend Ben's brother, Ian, celebrated his 21st birthday in Las Vegas and Jeff was generous enough to make sure we were there to celebrate with them. The girls have never met their aunts Amanda and Emily. They only met uncle Ian and Grandma Patty once, and they always love to see grandpa Jeff, so they were very excited.

We drove, which we were a little nervous about with Hope and Eden, but they did surprisingly well. There were no complaints from Hope and Eden only had one real outburst on the way there and one on the way back. We were thinking they might sleep for at least a couple of hours, but no one slept on the way there (besides mom cause I was sick and yes, okay, driving makes me sleepy) and Hope and Eden took only a short nap on the way back. Noah had some new books to read so he was fine...until when we arrived home and he learned that he had to get back in the car and drive another hour and half to Grantsville. He was pretty upset about that.

It was dark when we got there so Las Vegas was quite a sight as we drove up to it. The kids were amazed at all the lights and the cool buildings. Then we got to the strip and pulled up right behind a driving billboard with three fully clothes women who wanted nothing to do with anyone being advertised. Imagine the extreme opposite of what I described and then imagine my horror of having my 11 year old son in the back seat. The spiritual assault of the city was pretty smothering until I was talking with Ben about it that night and realized that I just can't let all the bad stuff get in the way of all the good and that it is better for our children to be exposed to this kind of thing with us (so we can talk with them about it), than being exposed on their own or with their friends. Amazingly, the only thing Hope had a comment about was a guy dressed up like a Transformer on the side of the street to which she said, "They have weird people here." Of all the drunken half-naked people surrounding us, she chose that to focus on. Thank goodness! Noah had more of a problem ignoring the "sin" part of the city, but hopefully when he looks back on it, he will mostly remember family and a lot of cool buildings.

The kids thought our hotel room was awesome cause it had hide-a-way beds and two rooms. They ran around till dad decided to be a party pooper and told them to stop. 

The next day, Eden found one of her favorite things about Vegas - the complimentary soap. She carried around till she unwrapped it and I took it away, then she was off to find another...which she did...several times.

When the girls met Amanda and Emily they both became really quiet and just stared with smiles on their faces. I could tell they thought their aunts were beautiful. Right away Hope seemed to want to make up for lost time and be around them as much as possible. She held Amanda's hand for quite a while, walking around the hotels and asking her LOTS of questions.

Aunt Emily and Amanda were both great sports about it, and it was nice to see the girls getting to know more of their family. Hope was very impressed with Grandma and Grandpa's hotel. It had beautiful gardens with ponds full of huge Koi and some flamingos!!! All day and the next morning Hope kept saying she wanted to go back to Grandpa's hotel.

*Grandma Patty, Grandpa Jeff, Noah, a flamingo, Hope, Eden and Daddy*

I know what you're thinking, "Wow, she actually posted a pic with her in it...and her eyes are closed." Well, if I were going to be picky I wouldn't have posted it cause of my ginormous rear, not the closed-eyes...but I need to just get over it. Besides those points this is a very cute picture of my beautiful little family. Eden was trying out some funky new camera faces that day, as you can see.

There was also a big bird cage inside with parakeets in it that the kids thought were cute. One of them tilted it's head all the way over to one side and then back again several times looking at Hope. She thought this was adorable. Okay, me...I did, it was freaking precious and when I think about I still want to say, "awww."

In another hotel there was a big fish tank where we stopped to take some pictures.

Eden and Grandma Patty had a conversation about the statue in the water. During this trip we have learned that Eden does not care for statues. The fact that this one was sunken in a fish tank may or may not have helped. We'll see.

I posted this second shot because I LOVE Noah's pose.

In the next hotel we saw gondola's in a big indoor river. Eden loved the boats and kept saying she couldn't reach it.

There's little sunshine with her hair in her face. On the days she doesn't want to wear a barrette, her bangs fall in her face and are long enough now that she has started to chew on them.

Then we saw a beautiful Chinese garden.

It was wonderful to spend time with the Maxwells and get to know them better. We definitely need to do it more. Especially since the girls are saying how much they miss everyone already. Thanks to Grandpa Jeff for making sure we got out there and to Uncle Ian for letting us celebrate his birthday with him. We love you guys!

Illustrated by Hope

My little Hope has been drawing up a storm. It's a good thing we recycle cause we've killed a lot of trees in the name of art. On top of being a talented young artist, she also has a very impressive imagination. For example: probably a year and a half ago I found one of her socks on the floor and picked it up to put it away when I realized there was something in it. Stuffed all the way in the toe of the sock was an upside down teacup. Then I remembered that she had been crawling around on the floor all day with the sock on her hand pretending to be a horse. She had made herself a hoof!!! At THREE!!! Impressive. Very impressive. She still loves horses. Check it out.

 

 

Okay technically these are unicorns, but I believe they are in the horse family.

 

 

* I love that this unicorn's hair is in it's eye and it has a mouth full of grass, which matches it hair.*

 

 

 

This one may get framed. I love it. While she was drawing it, she looked up and said, "Mommy, how do you spell...." and made the cutest horse sound I've ever heard. I giggled and told her how to spell "Nay."

 

The rider in this one is wearing some awesome glasses and checking out that thing on the ceiling, as she is clearly riding a horse indoors since we can see the sunshine out the window.

 

I call the following the Star Series because she gave herself big "stars" just like her teacher puts on her homework.

 

 

I love how she drew the grass in these pictures. And hey, a cow! And below a giraffe. I admit, when she showed me the picture of the cow I was smitten. That is one cute cow. And it looks like the giraffe is eating from that tree. 

 

And that concludes the star series. At the same time she drew these pictures, Hope also drew this portrait of her T-Rex dinosaur, but for some reason did not give it a star.

 

 

Looks just like it. Only skinnier. She even drew the muscle lines for the hip.

 

These are samples from Hope's school work.

 

 

I laughed so hard when I saw this one. First you need to know the back story. EVERY night, I sit in Hope's room until she falls asleep. I always have and I foresee that I always will. Last night, I pictured her being 18 and wondered how in the world would she ever go off to college, go on a mission, or anything without demanding I sit in her room until she falls asleep. If she had it her way, I would sit there all night even after she falls asleep as you can see from her picture. She even drew her pillows the exact way that we have them situated on her bed. One up like a headboard and the other flat for her cute little head. So yeah, that is me sitting in the chair looking like a sleep deprived zombie. Spot on Hope!

 

Hope and Zoe. LOVE. Also, may get framed.

 

 

This one made me laugh too. I'm not sure what that thing is on the right (kind of looks like a puppet), but I LOVE that that reindeer is turning around to look at it.

 

Last, are pictures from a book that Hope wrote last week.

 

 

This says, "I see a giraffe"

 

 

"I see a tiger"

 

 

"I like my cat"

 

The cat is white and on the right. Look closely at the way it's sitting. She has great attention to detail.

I always look forward to seeing her finished project when she starts drawing. Most of the walls in our house do not have pictures on them, but I am going to start an art gallery in the hall for my talented little artists, Hope & Noah.