Pretty Girls

We got the girls' school pictures back today and I'm quite pleased with the results. I do wish though, that school picture photographers would take just 2 minutes when they see a kid's hair is screwed up. Just replace the darn headband, ya know? Still... pretty girls make pretty pictures -- even with imperfect hair.

Prayer

Dani: ..... and please bless President B. Hinckley and the... 3 presidents... what are they called Mom?
Me: (whisper) The 12 apostles?
Dani: Yeah, and the 12 apostles... what are all their names, Mom?
Me: (whisper) The 12 apostles is good enough.
Dani: Ok... the 12 apostles.... who are really nice old guys. Amen.

Halloween Traditions

After many weeks of being hounded about going to the corn maze and pumpkin patch, we finally caved in and took the kids to the pumpkin patch that is down the street from our subdivision. The kids were so excited to go through the corn maze, which I have never done before, so everyone was a little giddy with the anticipation of the adventure. We got into the maze and found that it was quite complicated. We had this crazy map that was supposed to lead us to points in the maze that would tell us the story of St. George and the Dragon. I was trying to be the leader, but was somewhat overwhelmed, so Jason handed Brendan to me and took over the navigator position. We basically spent the next 40 minutes like this



The girls enjoyed it, but I have to admit, it wasn't my favorite of family activities. Evan got tired of walking and I got tired of carrying Brendan. I put him on my shoulders for a while, but he started pulling my hair, and while I have no problems with pulling my own hair out, it doesn't give the same thrill when someone else does it. Jason was quite proud that he led us through the maze without getting us lost once. At the end, we even had a group of adults following us -- they claimed they were doing it becuase a guy with this many kids had motivation to not get lost!

After the maze, we found the traditional head-cutout pictures and all the kids had to take a turn. I highly recommend clicking on them to see them full size. The one of Brendan is especially cute.





We also found our much desired pumpkins. Emily loved all the warty-looking ones, but every one she picked had rotten spots. She finally settled on a less warty pumpking that still had some of the vine attached to the stem becuase it made it look like it had a ponytail. The kids wanted to carve the pumpkins right away, but we managed to hold them off. Hopefully, being on the front porch will keep them out of sight and out of mind. Their Halloween costumes came in the mail, so they are distracted from the pumpkins for time being!

More climbing

I was frantically trying to get dinner made today, while at the same time trying to get as much done for tomorrow's seminary class as possible in the hour that I had before I needed to leave for a seminary inservice meeting. Brendan was being fussy, somewhere in the vicinity of Jason's office doors and, being closer to Jason than to me, I thought it was only right that Jason should be the one to take care of whatever was bothering him. After several minutes of listening to Brendan complaining about something, I shouted to Jason, "Would you please fix whatever is wrong with Brendan????" Jason came out of his office and said, "Where is he?" "It sounded like he was with you?" "Well I thought it sounded like he was with YOU." We looked around to locate the sound of Brendan's crying and discovered it was coming from the closed bathroom door. Aww... poor kid, he got stuck in the bathroom. Jason opened the door to let him out and we discovered that the bathroom wasn't the only thing he got stuck in!

We have a climber

We've never had a kid that made us worry about climbing -- till now that is. Brendan climbs any and everything. It started with the stairs. Every time we turned around he was heading up the stairs, every time we dragged him down, he headed back up. Then it was the chair. Oh the joy on his face when he figured out how to climb a chair. Of course that was nothing compared to the joy on his face when he pulled himself up onto the table. Now playing on top of the table is a daily, if not hourly activity. Just the other day, he figured out how to get up onto the stool and reach up to countertop level. He especially likes to do this next to the stove, which is my favorite too. What's next? Dresser drawers? Closet shelves (actually, that one has already been tried)? I fully expect, by the time he's 5, to pull him off the roof a time or two. Let the heart attacks begin!

This isn't my kid.... where did my kid go?

After Brendan was so good and cute for having his pictures taken, I brought him home and Jason did THIS to him





Yeah, he looks happy enough -- except now I'm afraid someone is going to try to recruit him into the military. He may be young, but he's got the right haircut. Yeah, he's still technically the same kid. But he doesn't LOOK like MY kid. Has anyone seen my son? Someone took off with MY baby and replaced him with this other kid that looks NOTHING like mine. This kid also walks and is trying to talk (just today, I told him to stop opening the shower door while I was in the shower and gave me a dirty look at yelled, "No No No No!" My other baby respected me, this one doesn't). My baby doesn't do that stuff. He acts kinda like mine....... maybe just too many changes at once for poor old mom to handle. This kid is pretty cute, even without the unique hairsyle... and aside from the green crap running out of his nose, I think I like him as much as the previous kid. I'll keep him for a while... maybe we can grow his hair to look like my old Brendan's.

My handsome boys

I took the Evan and Brendan to get their pictures taken the week that the girls had their school pictures taken. Who knows when the girls' pictures will be back, but the boys proofs are available to see. I'm am so pleased with the way they turned out. The photographer was truly one of those rare department store photographers who can manage to hit the stupid button at just the right time. Almost every shot fell apart a split second after it was taken!

Conversing

A couple of iunrelated, but interesting conversations I had today while running various errands with varous children:


Scene 1 -- in the car with Evan on the way to JC Penny's photo studio
ME: Evan, how much do you love your mama?
Evan: A whole lot of much.
Me: Well I love you a whole lot of most.
Evan: I love you a whole lot of most too.
Me: Well, I love you so much that I WANT YOU TO PUT YOUR SEATBELT ON RIGHT NOW!
Evan: But why?
Me: Because if I crash the car, I don't want you to get hurt.
Evan: If you crash the car, will you have to buy a new Freestyle? (Ev's solution for everything these days is to "buy another one")
Me: Yeah, but I can't buy a new Evan, so put on your seatbelt.
Evan: If your Evan is broken you can buy a new one!
Me: No, I can't get another Evan. I only want THAT Evan.
Evan: But you can buy a new one.
Me: What, I'm supposed to go to the little boy store and pick a new Evan?
Evan: Yeah!
Me: But I don't WANT a new Evan. There's only ONE Evan like my Evan. I want THIS Evan. Can't I just not break this Evan????
Evan: My seatbelt is already back on.


Scene 2 -- driving to pick up pizza with Dani
Me: So, Dani, do you like Kindergarten?
Dani: Yes!
Me: Do you like learning new stuff or is it hard?
Dani: I HAVE to use my JumpStart Kindergarten game.
Me: Because it will help you learn your kindergarten stuff?
Dani: Yes. I'm just a little girl who's in kindergarten and I'm a very hardworking kindergartener!!!!!

Helper Girl

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a hutch for my desk and gave Jason the job of putting it together. When Dani discovered Jason at work at his task, she immediately designated herself as his helper. She was completely delighted with her role. For a good hour, she stayed by his side, finding tools, tightening screws and making amusing comments (over and over and over) such as,

"I'm a really good helper, right, Dad?"
"Mom, did you make my hair extra beautiful today so I could be a good helper for Dad?"
"Where is the blue screwdriver? The blue screwdriver is MINE."
"Am I nice? Huh? Am I a nice helper girl?"

Oh how true, in Dani's case, the old nursery rhyme...

There was a little girl, who had a little curl, right in the middle of her forehead. And when she was good, she was very very good and when she was bad she was horrid!

Ouch

Whilst getting her hair done for school the other day, Dani was quite excited about something or another and started jumping up and down in my bathroom. In her spastic joy, she slammed her chin against the
countertop. At first I was worried that she had bitten her tongue really hard, but within 10 minutes or so, she had a nasty black bruise on her chin, which stubbornly refused to heal for a good week. She was very upset about its appearance, claiming it made her look ugly. Does anyone recognize the significance of this? DANI CARES ABOUT BEING PRETTY!!!!! At long last my little girl has some inclination to be a GIRL! HOOOORAYYYYYY!

0 to 1 in one year

In just 12 short months, we've gone from this

to this
There were a few naps, some formula, a bunch of diapers, hugs, kisses, belly raspberries and a birthday cake invovled too, but it is an impressive transformation, no? I have a hard time with babies. They just suck you try to begin with, but after about 6 months, I start to fall in love and by a year, I am head over heels over my little ones. Bren is at such a great age -- learning and trying so many new things, starting to have a personality. He's not talking yet, but he looks at you and jabbers baby nonsense while nodding convincingly -- we mght not be able to understand him, but he definitely knows what he's saying! He loves clapping and will perform his tricks in order to get applause. He has a new love affair with balls -- he can seriously entertain himself for a solid 30 minutes just throwing and chasing a ball on his own. He is also fasciniated with the process of putting things in and taking them out of containers. Give him some blocks and a box and he's a happy little fellow. He is pretty happy on his own, lately, unless one of the other kids wants me -- then he has to make sure I still love him... usually by shoving the other sibbling out of the way and crawling into my lap. Other than that, Brendan is probably the easiest, happiest, most laid back kid I've had -- and definitely the snuggliest! He is so much fun at this stage that I don't even feel any regret at him being my last baby.