The weather outside is frightful....

But inside it's so delightful. Because we'd no place to go, we stayed in our PJ's all morning.

Baby's First Christmas

Audrey got many new toys but she was completely content playing with the leftover wrapping paper.

White Christmas

What a great day we had!!! It was snowing outside despite weather forecasts that said we should have been done with the snow. The kids got some wonderful things and were very content with what they received. We spent most of the day playing with our new toys and Wii games and then Grandpa and Grandma Eden and Nikki came up for dinner in the afternoon.

All I want for Christmas....

Carter: Legos
Tyler: Remote control car
Olivia: A baby seat and a baby (the plastic kind)
Audrey: Da da da

Underappreciated and overpaid

After a week of living homebound as a family, my boys have discovered the computer once again. I don't know what the appeal is, but they are preferring it to even the TV or the Wii. They spent a lot of time on the computer yesterday and all I heard all day was one question: "Mom, can I play the computer?" from both boys.

Finally, last night, in frustration I said, "All I have heard all day is, ' Mom, can I play the computer?' Not once have either of you come up and said thanks or I love you." They looked at me like, "Are you answering our question with a nag?" Then they looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders and went and found something else to do.

This morning, when Carter woke up, he came and gave me a big hug. He told me good morning and Merry Christmas and was unusually pleasant. Then when I turned on the computer, Carter, who was involved in something else, said, "Mom, I love you."

I smiled because he was so sweet and then I asked, "Carter, are you buttering me up?"

He honestly answered, "Yes."

Snow days

We have had snow on the ground for over a week now. I have lived in Seattle for ten years and never seen snow like this. The kids have been out of school since last Wednesday and last Monday and Tuesday were delayed start school days. We are now on a Winter Break and even that is being disrupted by snow. On Saturday night, the snow started falling in little flakes and blowing around. It reminded me of the Colorado snow that I remember from the days of my youth!!

It has been a lot of fun to play in. We practically have to drag Tyler in everyday and then as soon as he warms up, he wants to head right back out into it. We have never invested in sleds, but the neighbors are gracious to share. The road in front of our house has become a sledding hill and so there is a constant train of kids (and sometimes adults). It is fun to watch their creativity.

Audrey is seven months old!!!

Sassy Pants

Last night at dinner Olivia was talking to Tyler and I. She somehow in her conversation came to the following point: "When I return from my mission to Disneyland..." Tyler interrupted her and said, "You can't go on a mission to Disneyland." She looked at him, tilted her head to one side, huffed and said, "Yes, I can." He stopped arguing with her.

This morning she was playing with her friend, Joey. They were in Carter's room dancing because there is a radio in there. I overheard him say, "Who was born first in your family?" She said very matter-of-fact, "My mom". He said, "No. Who was born first?" She came into the nursery where I was dressing Audrey and she asked me, "Mom, who was born first?" I looked at her and asked, "Who is the oldest brother?" She looked at me and huffed and tilted her head to one side as if to say, "Why are you answering my question with a question?" Then she rolled her eyes and said, "Carter." I smiled and said, "You're right."

She ran into the boys room and told Joey. Then she huffed again and said, "I am mad at my mom." He asked why and she said, "I am very angry." I don't know what she was thinking or what I did. Thankfully, she got over her anger quickly.

Compound words

Carter is learning about compound words at school. He and I have made a game of it so that whenever we are in the car we will try to come up with as many compound words that we can think of. Our list has included words like birdhouse, firetruck, basketball, etc.

Tonight we were driving home and were not talking about compound words when Carter all of the sudden yells, "Mom, I know another one!" With a great deal of pride he exclaimed, "Carpet!"

Locks of love

Yesterday I was getting the kids ready to leave for church. I had already done Olivia's hair but it needed to be redone as she had been playing under blankets. I went to comb her ponytail and thought that it felt kind of short but it wasn't until I went to wrap the rest of her hair around my finger that I realized that she had CUT her hair. She had taken scissors and cut about six inches off each side. She still had beautiful baby curls down her back but now there was half of them.

I about started crying. I knew that eventually we would have to cut off her baby curls but they are still so beautiful and it was so untimely. All day yesterday I was in shock. You would have thought that there had been a tragedy in the family. I never guessed that I would have reacted this way.

She wore it to church yesterday in her haircut and this morning we went to see Stephanie, our "beautician", to fix what Olivia had done. She tried to save some of Olivia's curls by layering the hair, but I am not sure I love it. The layers look a little too grown up for my three year old. We will probably leave it until January when all the hair evens out a bit more and then we will have to cut the rest of the curls off.

Prayer etiquette

This morning, I had served up a gourmet school morning breakfast of cereal and milk. After everyone was served, I asked Tyler to offer the prayer. He offered a very nice prayer but as soon as he closed it, the prayer police officer, Olivia, said, "You didn't bless the food". He looked at her and said, "There was nothing hot so I didn't have to". I started to chuckle and Carter (who is so much wiser than his siblings) said, "You bless the food at every meal so that 'it will give us the strength and nourishment we need'".

We're hunting Christmas trees

As is our annual family tradition, we went yesterday to find our Christmas tree. Carter helped to cut it down. It is now beautifully adorned in our living room.

Happy Thanksgiving

Here is what we are thankful for this year.

Carter: My family, my home and my friends.
Tyler: The earth, Bryant, and my little sister.
Olivia: Grandma and Grandpa, Santa, and the whole family.
Audrey: Da, da, da.
Ryan: A new job, my family, and all of my friends.
Heather: Safety, security and family.

Carter's Children

Tonight Carter told me that he wanted to have ten kids. I smiled and told him that I would love all of his ten kids. Then he said, "That would be hard." I just looked at him, thinking he had caught on to some of the difficulties of raising children. He continued, "That would be hard to name them all. The first five would be easy, but the second five would be hard. They would have to be named Junior or something."

Audrey is six months old!!!

The Plan of Salvation

Tyler is learning to read and is doing quite well. He can sound out most words phonetically. He is constantly looking for opportunities to read.

Each Sunday morning, to keep my boys occupied while I get ready for church, I challenge them to find a scripture story that they can learn something about. Today was no different. When I finished getting ready, I asked the boys if they had found a story and Tyler said he had. As a matter of fact, he was still on the living room couch reading it.

I went into the kitchen to prepare lunch and he came in with the Illustrated New Testament Stories. I asked him what he had been reading and he said he had been reading about Heavenly Father's plan.

"What did you learn?" I asked.

" Well," he started, "I learned that Jesus and Heavenly Father had a plan for us and there was another guy who didn't want that plan and his name was...." He paused as he searched for his name. He was excited to reveal to me what he had learned. His finger led his eyes to the spot where he finally stopped and said,".....Stan."

Audrey's roll

After much anticipation and "coaching" from her sister, Audrey rolled over by herself yesterday. She was laying on the floor kicking and grabbing her feet. All of a sudden we looked at her and she was on her tummy. Mom celebrated a bit too loud and Audrey started to cry. She is so smart!!

A Beautiful Mind

Carter has been studying Leonardo DaVinci on his own. He aspires to be an artist but has been intrigued that DaVinci was an artist and a scientist. He loves to talk about how DaVinci wrote things backwards so that nobody could figure out what he was writing and he is always talking about how DaVinci built wings to fly but never figured out how to build a motor.

Yesterday I received a call from Mrs. Smith, the principal at Hilltop Elementary. She informed me that Carter had been playing in the bathroom and was caught by the recess aide. I was just coming home from running some errands so I detoured to the school to talk with Carter face-to-face.

When I got to the office, there was Carter looking like a puppy who had been kicked. I gave him a hug and asked him what was happening. He told me that he had been putting soap in the toilet. He would put a little soap in his hand and walk over to the toilet and shake it in. The aide caught him while he was doing this. I asked him what he thought would happen if he did that and he said he didn't know, he just did it.

We talked about how scientists have to come up with a hypothesis before they try something. For example, DaVinci had to guess how to fly, that is why he built wings. Carter thought that was pretty interesting. I hope we do more educated guessing before our experiments from now on.

How sweet the sound...

Olivia steals the bacon

Last night we went to the Spjut's house for Family Home Evening. After the lesson, we played a game called, "Steal the Bacon". In the game, two people go head-to-head to answer a question. When a person thinks they have the answer they "steal the bacon" (in this case, a bean bag) and then tell the answer.
Olivia went up against Carter. Amie showed a picture of David and Goliath and asked the question, "What was the name of the giant that David killed?" Olivia stole the bacon with striking confidence. Then she sat there and looked at me with a bit of embarrassment so I tried to prompt her by saying, "David and....?" Her face lit up as she got a renewed confidence and answered, "David and the bad guy."

Halloween

Halloween was a rainy, cold day that ended with a very pleasant, foggy night. It was perfect for trick-or-treating. Carter was Indiana Jones. Tyler was a boxer (with a black eye). Olivia was Supergirl. And Audrey was a cow. They all got a lot of candy that will provide us with a sugar rush for weeks to come.

Miss Communication

A few days ago I got a phone call from a friend in the ward reminding me of a Halloween playgroup party. It was to start in just over an hour from the call so I raced around the house to get myself and the girls ready. Olivia had just received her Super Girl Halloween costume and was very excited to don her new apparel. I had not talked to Ryan through all this and so I called him on the way to the church for the party. I explained that we were going to stop at the grocery store because the invitation said to bring "soup or salad". Olivia, who has keen listening skills, says from the back of the van, "No, Mom, SUPER GIRL!!!" (Read it out loud if you don't get it.)

The new generation

I volunteered in Tyler's class today and his teacher asked if I would label some folders to hold the children's writing. I then had to organize a stack of the stories that the students had written to put in the folders. I came across a story that Tyler had written, and with great motherly pride, I decided to read it. It said this: "Wii went to the doke. My granpa and dad wer ther. My dad almost caut a flundr. Wii had fun." Translation: "We went to the dock. My grandpa and dad were there. My dad almost caught a flounder. We had fun." The funniest part was to see how he spelled "wii". This is a totally new generation.

Audrey is five months old.

Carter's baptism

Carter had a great day yesterday. He was baptized and confirmed by his dad. The Days and Grandpa and Grandma Clark came from Denver. Grandpa and Grandma Eden and Nikki also came to the baptism.

We are so proud of him. He is a good example to his whole family.

"Mom, Malorie and I are best friends."

Psychedelic

Carter loves colors so when I saw a multi-colored tie-dyed shirt in a catalog, I knew I had to get it for his birthday. He loved it so much that he took the shirt he was wearing off during his birthday party and put his new shirt on. I was glad that he liked it so much.

Today he wore it to school. When he left this morning it was cold outside so he was wearing a half zip sweater over his new shirt. He has the habit of wearing his jacket all day at school so when he returned home this afternoon I asked him if he had taken his jacket off today so he could show his class the colored shirt. He said, "Yes, and they stared at me for ten minutes." Wow, that is one powerful swirl.

Eight is great!

Carter had his birthday today. He is eight years old. He invited me to eat lunch with him at school and asked that I bring Arby's. It was fun to be with him in his class element. He is a great kid with a wonderful imagination.

I took him for pictures at JCPenney this afternoon. When we were leaving to come home he told me that he thought we were planning a surprise birthday party for him and he was sure that the house was full of friends. Although that would have been a great decoy, the only surprise he received was to come home and see that there was no surprise party.

He got a guitar for his birthday. The reaction was fantastic from him and Tyler. He also got Indiana Jones Lego for the Wii, a few new shirts, some books, and a clock radio with a CD player. He was one lucky boy.

I look forward to another adventure-filled year with him.
We love our Carter!!

The count is on

Olivia and I went to the store this afternoon. We were on a tight schedule as we needed to be home before the boys got off the school bus. As we got to the van I told Olivia to get in and get buckled. (This is usually an assignment which somebody has to help her fulfill but I ask every time hoping that she will do it herself.) When I came back from the cart return, I climbed into the driver's seat and asked if she was buckled. She said she was and much to my surprise, she was!!! I said, "Good job, Olivia. I knew I could count on you." She sat there for a minute and then said, " But I didn't hear you, Mom." I replied, "You didn't hear me what?" She said, "Count."

Adam and Eve

Carter received scriptures for his upcoming eighth birthday. Tonight he was looking through them with a highlighter pencil and was marking a verse. I asked him what he was highlighting. He told me he was in Doctrine and Covenants 138 and told me the verse which talked about the noble and great ones being present. I asked him what he thought about it and he said that he thought it meant that Heavenly Father knew how his plan was supposed to run and he called his first prophet. "He called Adam as the first prophet," he explained. I told him he was right and I started to explain that he had called all of the other prophets too. Of course, he did not listen to me but kept going with his thought, " and so that would make Eve the Relief Society President of that time." He has great deductive thinking!!!!

And so we begin...

I am blogging to keep a record of the things that my children say that amaze me. Tonight we were watching the movie, "The Other Side of Heaven" about John Groberg's mission. There is a scene where one of the men brings his son to Elder Groberg and tells him to make his son well again. He had fallen out of a mango tree and hit his head and the father wasn't sure whether he was unconcious or dead but he wanted a miracle. Elder Groberg said that he couldn't do it. Tyler looked at me and said, "Yes, he can!! He can do it because Jesus did it and missionaries can do it and anybody who has the priesthood power can do it. Right?" It is moments like this that make me realize that we are not parenting alone.