more kidstuff

ok, so my blog is quickly becoming a kid stuff blog. But, then again, that is my life these days. As you know daylight saving time ended this past weekend, so I had explained it to Elise and told her how it would get dark earlier in the day and so on. A day or so after I talked to her about it, she said a prayer and said, “and we’re so thankful for daylights savings. We’re so thankful that Jesus created daylights savings for us to have.” It was so sweet. She made it sound like daylight saving time was our greatest blessing. And she was so sweet and sincere, which made it even cuter.
She’s also started reading. She’s been right on the verge as she’s been sounding out words and realizing how letters sounds next to one another and how it all fits together. You could almost see the puzzle coming together for her. But she’s really getting the hang of it now and its so fun to watch. She always likes to read us stories and then turn the book around and show us the pictures like they do at school. I always tease her because she shows the pictures at warp speed. I can barely get a glimpse of the picture before she’s spun it back around. =)
Our primary sacrament meeting program was yesterday and I was so proud to see Elise up there. She was so great. She had learned her songs so well, even the second verses on most of them and sang out is such a strong voice. She said her part perfectly and I thought I would cry. It was just great. it was funny, too, because her cousin, Emmy, was sitting beside her and they made me smile so much. I wasn’t sure if they would be able to sing the words to the songs because they were so busy waving at all their adoring fans. =) but somehow they managed to do both. One of the funniest things was the closing hymn which was “Dearest Children, God is Near You.” They sang the first verse in English and then again in Spanish. When they started singing the Spanish verse, Elise and Emmy looked at each other like, “what in the world is this?” and Elise just shrugged her shoulders. They just kept looking at each other and at the director, like, “I have no idea what these people are singing.” Its hard to describe, but just imagining it make me laugh out loud. Girls are so sweet.

kids are cool

elise learned to tie her shoes yesterday. i'm so proud of her. i'm ashamed to admit that i had never before even talked to her about tying them, much less actually showed her how. but yesterday we got her her first pair of "real" tennis shoes. so, literally, in five minutes time, she had figured it out. i was really impressed that she caught on so quickly.

ian calls noodles "noo-nulls", which is what he ate for lunch. it was a campbell's chicken noodle soup packet and the noodles were small and quite numerous. as he scarfed them down he turned to me and goes, "the noo-nulls are falling down my mouth. they're going all the way to my legs." he's so cute. when he ate his first helping, i brought the now-cooled down pot over to the table to give him some more. he stuck his tummy out until it touched the pot and said, "see mommy. i can touch it. i brave of this pot!" he makes me smile.

merry grace is in to everything, but is still pretty mild. her favorite form of destruction is max's dogfood and water. when she's in the kitchen with me when i'm cooking, she crawls right over to the dogfood & gets handfuls of it out, until its all scattered around her. then she tried to eat a piece or two. after i've pulled her away a time or two, she likes to move on to the water dish and splash around and get her clothes soaked and the floor a mess. we are using a high chair we've had since elise & it no longer has buckles in it. this hasn't been a problem until now. now she has mastered the art of twisting around and grabbing onto the back of the seat and pulling up to a standing position. handy. this morning she was sitting in it while we were all there eating breakfast. i had a few toys on the tray that i thought would entertain her, one of them being elise's lunchbox. somehow she managed to open it and get out a partially eaten bag of gummies from elise's lunch yesterday and get one in her mouth. she totally got choked on it. when i realized she was choking and on what i began pounding her on her back. i was just before doing the heimlich when she got it down and seemed okay again. whew. i was a nervous wreck. kids can do that to you.

but aren't they cool?

kindergarden drama

elise has a friend in her class named jordan, and in recent weeks we have heard lots of drama about her. the first time elise told us a story about her, her face so sad and her demeanor completely melancholy, as she recounted how her mother and brother had moved to florida when she was two and left her all alone. now she didn't have anyone and was a foster child. and she didn't even have a bed to sleep in. i wasn't sure what to make of it. i was pretty sure it wasn't just some pretend game elise was playing, because i didn't think she knew the word "foster child".

the next time we heard about jordan, she lived with poor people and slept in hay because she didn't have a bed. she used to live in the desert and slept in a tent and now she slept in a barn with animals and hay. when i suggested that jordan might be joking with her about some of this stuff, elise insisted that it was 100% true and was devastated for jordan and the life she was living. she wanted to know if we could have jordan live with us, since she didn't have a family.

the next jordan installment came when elise asked me what a robber was. i explained it to her and she said, "well, that is what happened to jordan. robbers came and stole all her money and all her things and that is why she lives with poor people." the last straw came when elise told us how she had met jordan's mom in the office one time when she had to walk up there with jordan. cory & i said, "elise, i thought jordan didn't have a mom." she thought for a minute and said, "well, it was actually her grandma and then she died the very next day." it was all i could not to burst out laughing. who knew there was this much drama in kindergarden?

miscommunication

we were in the car yesterday driving up the highway to visit my parents for the weekend and the kids were talking in the backseat. the actual topic of conversation escapes me, but whatever it was that ian was talking about, elise was unimpressed. so it went like this:

elise: i don't believe you.
ian: yeah! i am.
elise: no!!! you're lying!!!
ian: yeah. i'm a lion. (holds hands up in attack position) ROARRRRR!
elise: (laughing)

its so funny to listen to kids when they talk to each other. how quickly the conversation can turn & us grown ups are just left shaking our heads and smiling.

newly groomed max

max got groomed earlier in the week and looks so handsome!

how cute is he just sitting here?

and here is a picture taken by elise...

max loves giving sugar and it makes the kids laugh. =) 

heroes

cory and i don't watch a lot of tv shows, mainly house, without a trace or a law and order when we have a little down time. but we saw a preview for a new show on NBC called "Heroes", that looked really interesting. the first episode had already come on, so we recorded the second one. saturday night we decided we'd give it a try and see if we liked it. it was one of the worst shows i've ever seen. the preview was very deceptive. the show was dark and violent and quite graphic. we actually didn't even finish watching it because it was so bad. maybe it was redeeming at the end, but from what i saw, it was horrible and not even worth finding out if there were something better somewhere in it. we were both just disgusted with it. needless to say, we will not be watching that one again.

our evening walk

The weather this week has been phenomonal, especially in the evening. the humidity is down, and the temperatures are perfect. so it makes a stroll around the neighborhood wonderful!!!

here the kids are booking it down the street.

here is spiderman and his magnificent bicycle.

merry grace enjoyed her stroll too.

we're quite the troop, but we have a great time.

 

when she talks, you'd better listen!

this week while the weather has been so glorious, we've all been playing outside after supper. several evenings ago the kids were playing on the swingset, when maria (the jungle cat) climbed up the poplar tree and launched herself onto the canopy over the slide landing. it tore a little bit, but she didn't seem to mind and just settled into to her little nest. cory wasn't happy about her being up there, especially since she'd messed it up a little. so he reached up underneath the canopy and semi-gently prodded her to move. elise, our animal lover through and through, goes, "daddy (in her most authoratative tone)! don't you know that she is a living creature?" she never fails to crack us up.

my year in review--yes, its a survey ;)

What did you do in 2006?
JANUARY
1. Did you go out for New Years? i don't think so...
2. Who kissed you at midnight? cory would have, but i'm not sure if we made it to midnight. you know, january was a long time ago!
3. Does it snow where you live? Not as much as I'd like!!!
4. Do you like hot chocolate? oh yeah.
5. Have you ever been to Times Square to watch the ball drop? No and i don't think that's something i'd like to experience. the crowds and the chaos is just not my thing. (and neither is being up late.)

FEBRUARY
1. Who was your valentine? cory
2. When you were little, did you buy valentines for your whole class? Yes. that was so fun.
3. Do you care if the groundhog sees its shadow or not? yes. and usually i'm ready for spring...unless it will mean six more weeks of SNOW!

MARCH
1. Are you Irish? no
2. Do you wear green on St. Patty's Day? yeah. and i make sure everyone in my family does too. i'm a holiday nut.
3. What did you do for St. Patty's Day in 2006? i fixed green shamrock pancakes for breakfast.
4. Are you happy when winter is pretty much over? i like snow, but usually i'm ready for the warm weather and more sunshine.

APRIL
1. Do you like the rain? I do when I can stay at home and snuggle up with a good book or movie or if its warm enough to go outside and play in it and splash in puddles.
2. Did you play an April fool's joke on anyone this year? no. i always feel bad if i really trick someone.
3. Do you get tons of candy on easter? yes. if you count leftovers from the kids hunts & baskets. cory always gets me my fair share, too. did you read the part about me loving chocolate.
4. Do you celebrate 4-20? I would tell you if I new what happened on 4-20.

MAY
1. What's your favorite kind of flower? I love most flowers--but i'm partial to bulb flowers (tulips, lilies, gladiolas, etc), roses, lilacs, & peonies
2. Do you like the spring? Yes!
3. Finish the phrase "April showers"... "Bring May flowers".
4. What is the first color you think of when you think of Spring? "spring" green

JUNE
1.What day was the best in June? one of my favorite things was our camping vacation. but it was a whole week...
2. Did you go on any vacations last June? i can't remember back to '05, but yes in '06.
3. Did you realize nothing special happens in June? Who said nothing happens in June? What happened to Father's Day??? what about birthdays?

JULY
1. What did you do on the 4th of July? a picnic in the park & a cookout w/ family
2. Did you go on any vacations during this month? yes. to myrtle beach
3. Do you blast the A/C all day? no blasting, but keeping us cool.

AUGUST
1. Did you do anything special at the end of your summer? just a couple of day trips to the beach
2. What was your favorite summer memory of '06? I don't think I have on favorite, to many good things happened.
3. Did you get a sunburn? a little bit one time when i didn't get good sunblock coverage on my back.
4. Did you go to the beach a lot? not as much as some summers, but we made several trips.

SEPTEMBER
1. Did you attend school/college in '06? just the school of life.
2. Who is/was your favorite teacher? i loved my piano teachers, mrs. robertson & dottie. i also loved my sunbeam teacher. i loved my aide in first grade, mrs. clarke. i liked mrs. taylor in the seventh grade, my young women leaders, and mrs. eanes & mr. bretz in high school. (and last, but not least, my mom.)

OCTOBER
1. What is your favorite halloween costume? i liked when i went as a jar of jellybeans.
2. What's your favorite candy? Snickers, reese's, twix...
3. What will/did you dress up like this year? i probably will not dress up. it's usually enough work to get three children dressed up! but i might put on some fake eyelashes and a witches hat or something, just to be festive.

NOVEMBER
1. Whose house did/will you go to for thanksgiving? probably cory's mom or grandma. they usually do a big thanksgiving. but sometimes we go to my folks too.
2. Do you love stuffing? it's okay.
3. What are you thankful for? Everything, the gospel, my testimony, family, friends, life in general

DECEMBER
1. Do you celebrate Christmas? Absolutely. i can't emphasize the importance enough.
2. If not, what would you celebrate? N/A.
3. Have you ever been kissed under mistletoe? Yes. we hang mistletoe in our house every year. i try to get caught there often. ;)
4. Get anything special last year? i get special things every year.
5. What do you want this year? i don't know. it takes me a while to think of something.
6. Do you like cold weather? yes. i even like it when a cold wind is blowing if i'm bundled up. and i love snow. i don't like to FEEL cold, so i just have to bundle up.

insomniac

ok, saying i have insomnia might be carrying it too far. but i haven't been sleeping as well/as much as i would like. i have trouble settling down at night and have been waking up around 4:30am and am not able to go back to sleep. i'm not sure what time i'm falling asleep--10pm is my best estimate, which gives me 6 1/2 hours if my math is correct. i'm not feeling exhausted, but not exactly rested either. i'm not sure what is causing this, except that maybe i don't feel like i have enough time to get everything i need to done. there is always, always more to do. but i don't feel an unusual amount of pressure to get things done--no more than is always there. so i don't know what the deal is. even just one more hour would make a huge difference. at least in my head. 4:30 is just earlier than i want to see daylight....

what were they thinking?

this is what i think about the bishopric calling me to be the choir pianist--what were they thinking? today i had the first run-through of music for the christmas program & i feel out of my league. the music is beautiful & not terribly difficult in some aspects. but there is a lot of music and some of it is hard. i just feel like there are so many more talented people than me who could/should be doing this. i feel very inadequate. but even as i typed this, i realized that it wasn't actually the bishopric who called me, but the Lord. and i'm not sure the question i posed at the beginning would be the best one i could ask him....although i'm tempted. so i guess i'll just practice more and harder and maybe in two weeks when we go at it again, things will be better. fingers crossed?

ian's birthday

today i am remembering feeling your first kick inside my tummy. i am remembering a moment in the evening, three years ago when i first saw your dark hair and heard your cry as you entered the world. i can see your tiny fingers grasped around one of mine. i can feel your feet and legs tucked into a ball as you snuggled next to me. i think if i breathe in deeply enough, i will be able to smell that sweet baby scent.

today i am remembering your bright smile, your ready laugh, you long, baby blonde hair almost touching your eyes. i am remembering your little legs as you toddled around the house. i am also remembering the nights you snuggled up next to me as you slept and i held you close.

today i think about your excitement over turning three, your love of spiderman and the simple pleasure of a green cake. i am thinking of your cute expressions, your hugs and your kisses.

today i am thinking of you--who you are, who you were, and who you will yet be. i love you.

funny

my friend susan wrote the other day about kids saying funny things and i thought of a couple of funny things my kids have said recently that i don't want to forget.

ian calls belts "seat belts". i think its a funny play on words.

elise said the funniest thing last night. i don't know if the humor in it will translate well through cyberspace, but it makes me chuckle. she was pooping in the bathroom and i was brushing teeth, washing my face, etc. right outside the door. she opened it and makes this really loud pooting sound with her mouth. the she said, "you know what mama? instead of saying that nasty word "poopy", when we need to poopy we just go, "brrrhgrrrhhhrrrr" (tooting sound). that would sound much more nicer." then she just shut the door back & i cracked up. what a funny kid.

and he makes a mad dash...

my calling in the ward is choir pianist. this means that i have to be at church 1 hour and 15 minutes early and, of course, play for all performances. this past sunday the choir sang a number we'd been working of for a month or so. it's been coming along nicely and everyone was ready to perform. cory happened to be out of town this weekend on business and i was concerned about how to manage my calling and three little ones on my own. so, when all else fails, ask your mom. they graciously agreed to come help out and everything was going as smoothly as anything ever goes. after the second speaker, i headed up with the rest of the choir members, leaving mama & daddy and merry grace at one end of the pew, logan at the other end, and elise, ian, and their cousins kyleigh and marleigh in the middle. about a third of the way through the song, out of the corner of my eye, i see ian coming up onto the stand and proceed to climb up on the piano bench beside me and begin talking about how white the keys are. after a few minutes, he hopped down and took off running down the church aisle. a few minutes later, about 3/4 of the way through the performance, he came back at full speed and was back at my side. he stayed there through the end, talking very loudly about how fast he could run, but wanted to run back to my folks and since i wouldn't let him, had to carry him off the stage and out the door in a mini-tantrum. it was really funny. i should have warned my parents because the last time the choir sang, he did the same thing. but now we definitely have a pattern. what a rascal.

what the kids are up to.

merry grace has had quite the week. she is crawling well--not fast--but well. she's also pulling up onto everything in sight and standing up like a big girl. and she cut her first tooth!!! plus she has her first really bad cold, but is surviving it with her usual cheerfulness. she only screams when you wipe her nose. ;) so she's had many milestones this week.

ian is revving up for his birthday this weekend. he tells everyone he'll be three on his birthday and its so cute to watch him manuever the three fingers up. that ring finger can be quite tricky. i'm struggling with what to get him as his present from us. i'm thinking something spiderman, but i'm not sure exactly what to get him. maybe i'll be inspired at target.

elise continues to brave the world of kindergarden each day. cory ate lunch with her yesterday & she loved that. she's also been taking ballet and tap with kyleigh & emmy, her two cousins who live up here. i think she prefers tap becuase she likes the tappy tap sound. its pretty cute. they look adorable out there.

elise's standards

elise is big on standards and what is right & wrong. we've been talking about modesty and it has made a big impression. one of the first days of school she was telling me about who all brought applesauce for their lunches. she goes, "i had applesauce, abigail had applesauce, and immodest girl had applesauce." the way she said it made it sound like "immodest girl" was some sort of superhero (or maybe super villian, as the case would be). it was so funny. but i was proud of her for paying attention.

she also told me that her teacher's aide has two earrings in each ear. she wondered why she did that since president hinckly said it was wrong. i told her that she'd probably not heard of president hinckley and so she didn't know it was wrong. so elise said, "well, i'll have to tell her about him so she'll know. then she can take her earrings out." it was just so matter of fact for her.

cory has instituted a "turn it off" policy. if there is ever something bad on tv the rule is to turn it off right then. the same goes for the internet. or if you are around something bad, you are supposed to walk away. kind of how joseph ran from potiphar's wife. anyway, this has left a lasting impression with elise and she talks about it frequently. the other weekend cory's parents were here and had the tv on. elise walked by while a commercial was on. apparently she saw something immodest on it. just to be fair, the show they were watching was totally appropriate, but there was something immodest on one of the commercials. you know how they like to slip things in...and if there is something immodest or inappropriate, elise will catch it. it could be a sleeveless shirt and she will see it. we affectionately call her our morality monitor.

the other thing elise is fiercely against is "smoke". this means cigars, cigarettes, pipes...whatever. they are all called "smoke". she will not even step on one that has fallen on the ground. some workers had come to our house the other day and had smoked in the yard and left the butts in the driveway. elise spotted them right off and was furious. we had to get paper towels and pick them up to throw them away. but even that was a challenge, as she wanted no part of them, even at that range. the other morning she saw one across the road from her school where we had parked to walk her in. cory stepped on it and elise let him know it. you would have thought he had stepped on a rattlesnake. it was really funny and cute.

so, in some ways, she might have taken things a step too far. but i have to say, i'm glad she has. i want her to understand what is right and what is wrong and not be afraid to stand up for what she believes in. so far, she seems to be on the right track. maybe we all could stand to be a little more like that at times or regarding certain things. she's definitely made me think about where i stand on things.

life in these parts

life is moving along at a fast clip around our house. i don't know how you other mothers feel now that school has started, but i feel like our little world has just sped up. elise is loving kindergarden which makes us all happy. i love going to pick her up every afternoon and see her little self standing outside waiting with her little backpack on. she looks so small and yet so grown up all at the same time. mostly, sending her off hasn't been as sad as i thought it would be. not that i don't miss it, but she loves school & seems to enjoy her time there. and ian & gracie and i have fun at home. but i have moments where it hits me. on friday i just sat down on the floor in merry grace's room with she and ian and felt all blue that elise wasn't there, too. i just wanted to hug her. but when i start pondering on it too much it makes me too melancholy. and that's no fun. so i just try to enjoy the goodness of it.

we went to the ice cream place after school on friday & had a blast. we all branched out (well, except for ian) and tried some new flavors. elise got a scoop of cookies and cream and a scoop of banana pudding. cory got blueberry and i got a scoop each of cake batter & pumpkin pie. ian went with his staple of cotten candy. its actually a pale blue color, but its borderline green and he calls it green which is his favorite color. so that's all he'll eat. (we kind of tricked him into this because he wanted the mint chocolate chip b/c it was green, but he didn't like the sample. so we conned him into the cotten candy....) anyway, it was lots of fun.

then we bought a movie off of cable, the chronicles of narnia. i thought it was great, really well done. i thought it was a little grown-up, though. ian was a little nervous about it before he fell asleep, as was elise, although not as much as ian. and they typically don't get scared by stuff like that. i think some of it was that we had all the lights off and the music was intense. the mood really affected how you felt about what was happening. even i jumped a time of two. cory made his famous homemade popcorn (mainly for elise who loves it when he does that.) it was a fun night. plus, elise came and slept in our bed last night which i loved. its such a sweet snuggly thing & i miss her doing that. so i was glad she wandered in.

cory went to the unc vs. VA tech game which his heels lost. but he had fun. any UNC game is fun for him. i spent the day "boring organizing" as elise put it. i've been cleaning, throwing out, and straigtening up our closets. i've finished elise's and gracie's and am about 90% done with mine. it feels so good to have it neat and in order. i love it.

after cory came home, we went out in the yard and played for a while. elise practiced cartwheels, ian rode the tricycle, we jumped on the trampoline, played on the swingset, and even did a little tball and kickball before heading inside for baths. elise also went across the monkey bars all by herself several times & was quite pleased with herself. as well she should be!!!

so life is going fast, but we're happy and loving it. so you can't ask for much else.

our adventure

tonight we decided to take the family for a walk. elise was in from school, we'd had supper and it seemed a nice evening to be outdoors. so we trekked out with merry grace in the double stroller, elise in her tennis shoes, ian in his spiderman bedroom slippers, max on his leash and of course cory & i. we called it our adventure and we found what elise called "clues" along the way. everything from wildflowers to pine needles to the driveway rocks that ian & elise threw and chased after. the neatest thing we discovered were the mushrooms all along the road. i guess the recent rains and the humidity and everything had caused them to grow quite well. elise and ian were slightly intimidated by the first ones because they felt kind of weird. but after a while they were picking them right and left. we had such a fun evening together and everyone had a good time. the walk was about 1.3 miles and probably took us 30 or 40 minutes by the time all the discovering, stopping for cars to pass and the general adventure of five people and a puppy out and about was said and done. the funniest part was that when we were about .2 of a mile from our front porch--within sight of the house--the bottom fell out. i mean it started pouring rain and we got drenched. our neighbors across the street who were sitting on their porch had a good laugh as we ran our hardest the last leg of the trip. they gamely called out, "you almost made it" and so on and so forth. but we did have a great time together. my little bunch is just fun to be around!

elise's first day of school pictures

now that is a backpack! it's half her size!
she is all set and ready to go in the outfit she picked out all by herself.

she's so sweet.ian gave her a big "bye" hug.

 

buckling into the car...
walking into school
elise's nice teacher
playing in her classroom