Bay's turn

My last post was about the funny thoughts of Ty's, but Bay's had her own gems lately.
Last night we took our kids to a live nativity - which we love by the way - and on the way home we asked each kid what was their favorite thing. Here's the run-down:

Tyler: the camel

Emily: baby Jesus

Derek: the city gates

Me: the angels

Bailey: the cookie buffet

She must have really been touched by the meaning of Christmas.

And then another gem today: I have been sick all day and it was my turn to drive the kindergarten carpool. So I went to pick up the kids a little too casual, and the kindergarten kids all were asking why I was still in my pajamas - which by the way, I was not in my pajamas! It was a little casusal, but not pajamas. Think more like yoga pants and a hoodie. Agreed, not my best, but not pajamas. So tonight as Bailey was going to bed she said, "I hope you feel better tomorrow so you don't have to wear your pajamas when you pick us up again." That's one sympathetic little girl.

Musings of Tyler

Tyler's had a few gems lately - so here they are:

Today he and I were driving home and we were talking about different stores. He always asks why we don't have a Super Target - ya got me kid.

Tyler: Every store should have everything, so you don' t have to go muliple stores.

Me: Yeah - like Walmart - they have everything.

Tyler: Yeah, and every store should have a gas station.

Me: That would be nice.

Tyler: And they should all be shaped like castles.

Me: . . . speechless . . .

Then a few minutes later we had moved on to restaurants. And he started saying that every restuarant should have food that you not only buy to eat there, but you buy restaurant food that you can cook at home.

Tyler: so that way you could buy a McDonald's patty and cook it at

home when you feel like a McDonalds hanburger.

Me: yeah, that'd be cool.

Tyler: And then, when you're having a real fancy party - like really fancy -

you could cook up some 5 Guys burgers.

Then a few weeks ago we were having dinner and the kids were talking about their day at school. Tyle rtold us that he had seen Emily at recess, and she was "trying to go all popular". What does that even mean?? Now we always ask Emmy if she's still trying to go popular. She gets really mad and insists there's nothing wrong with having a lot of friends.

Kids are too funny.

A Fishy Tale

Yesterday while I was in and out of my girls' room I noticed one of Emmy's fish was not looking good. She was just hanging on on the bottom of the tank, not swimming at all. Everytime I looked at her I was surprised to see she was still alive. Emmy came home and quickly noticed the same thing. She came into the kitchen to tell me the news:

Emmy: Mom, Lolly's struggling.

Me: Yeah Emmy - I saw that too today.

Emmy: Should we just flush her now?

Me: . . . stunned silence . . .

Needless to say Derek and I have reservations about leaving her in charge of decisions when we're in our golden years.

Just as a side note, before she got her fish she was thinking of what she wanted to name them. At one point she was going with Lollipop and Sucker (you know, both types of lollipops), but wouldn't you hate to be the one named Sucker? Luckily she settled on Holly and Lolly (and Lolly's still alive!)

Our Raccoon

We often call Logan our little raccoon. He's always getting into the fridge or pantry and helping himself to whatever he feel likes. My other kids don't do this - they always ask before they get a snack. Not Logan, I just find him eating a cheese stick in his room.

But today takes the cake (no pun intended). This morning he was sitting next to Emmy during breakfast. Emmy had one bite of her waffle left on her plate. She was still sitting there, talking to Tyler. While she wasn't looking he snatched it off her plate and put it behind his back. I was standing there watching all of this, so surprised he just taken food off her plate. Then he waited for his next opportunity of a talking Emmy - and shoved it his mouth. As soon as it was in his mouth, and his snatching-victory was assured, he proudly informed of her what he'd done.

With our raccoon getting more aggressive, you might want to eat fast if you're sitting next to him.

Think She's Excited?

One of our favorite things to do as a family in the summer is to go to the water park.

We'd told the kids we'd go after dinner.

Emmy was ready.

She really ate this way:

Logan's Latest

I have often said that I could write book with Logan's latest antics. Though I've missed the majority of them, here are a few highlights:

Watered my flowers with his bubbles . . .

went to bed with a pen . . .

and cleaned out my frosting bowls . . . all by himself!

What do I do with this kid???

Happy birthday Tyler!

Tyler turned 10 yesterday and we had a great day celebrating. He started out the day with his favorite breakfast - chocolate chip pancakes, homemade syrup, and sausage. He got sung to at swimming lessons and had a fun party with great friends. We went miniature golfing at a glow in the dark course. We had the place to ourselves and had a great time.

What do you want to be when you grow up: video game designer

Favorite book: The Hobbit

Favorite food: cinnamon rolls

Favorite family activity: camping

Favorite free time activity: reading

If you had a million dollars: buy lots of DS games and have an endless supply of cinnamon rolls

My favorite things about Tyler: Tyler is the most creative person - his imagination is always going. Another favorite is that Tyler always has a book in hand, and he will use anything for a bookmark - pencil, CD, spoon, whatever is closest at hand he'll use. I love finding unexpected bookmarks in his books (the library probably doesn't love this trait!).

Funny Side of Bay

Here's a few of Bailey's more classic comments:

Yesterday she was watching High School Musical and Zac Efron was singing -

Bailey: I like that kid. He's handsome and has a good voice.

For FHE last night Tyler was Activity and he picked Open Mic Night - basically everyone got 2 minutes to have the floor, with everyone's goal to make our family laugh. Tyler told jokes, Bailey danced, and then for Emmy's turn she danced.

Bailey: Do something funnier!

Yep . . . we had a heckler at FHE.

Oh baby . . .

Tyler's teacher is pregnant and due this month, so when I was volunteering this week we were talking pregnancy and babies and she said, "You can tell this is old news to Tyler". I asked what she meant and she said "When we were doing our Oregon Trail project Tyler was a father of 3 and his fake wife was pregnant - and had the baby on the trail. In his journal entry after the baby was born Tyler wrote, "the baby kept us up all night!". Tyler knows a thing or two about babies.

Shhh . . .

This is what I found last night hanging on Emmy and Bailey's

door when I went to check on them:

Logan Yells at the Home Teachers

Today our home teachers came over. We have the best home teachers - they always bring a great lesson geared for the kids, and then at the end they quiz the kids about the lesson. Every time they get a question right they get a piece of candy. The kids love for the home teachers to come.
So today we had the lesson and the quizzing had begun. Tyler had the first question and got peanut butter cup for his correct answer. Logan saw that Tyler got a treat and wanted one. The home teachers had gone to Emmy next and Logan was getting nervous about getting his treat. After a minute of fussing about it he went into our pantry where our candy jar (unfortunately) was within reaching distance of him. He found in the candy jar his own peanut butter cup and was quite proud of his problem solving skills. He was showing off his candy to all of us when we all started laughing at him (more with him, than at him). Then he got embarrassed and took his treat into the pantry and shut the door (so he was just standing in their dark!). So then we really were laughing at him (this time, definitely at him). Then he got mad . . . and he'd open the door and yell "Not funny!", we'd die laughing, and he'd yell "Stop it!" It was hilarious! We'll see if they bring candy next month . . .

Bailey Crack-ups

Here are a few things Bay has said lately that has cracked us up:

(The background you need for this story is that in Cinderella 3, Anastasia says, "Stop the wedding Mother!" - and this quote is said a lot at our house -

I don't know why . . .)

Last night we took the kids swimming, and as we were coming out of the gym the kids had wet hair, were in flip-flops, and it was in the 20's. We were all freezing! Derek had just buckled up Logan, and then while he was starting the car he said, "Stop the wedding Mother!". Bailey yells to the front of the car, "Dad, there's no time for that - get the warm air going!"

Today in the middle of Sacrament Meeting Bailey leaned over and asked, "When you were a little girl did you love the number 4?"

Bailey has changed her name to Jailey. In preschool they all say their name with their first letter replaced with whatever letter they're learning that week. So Derek and I would be Jerek and Jamy. For whatever reason "Jailey" has really stuck with her. She came home Thursday telling me to call her Jailey. She's started writing "Jailey" on all of her things (with the J backwards every time), and told her Primary teacher today to call her Jailey. In a moment of frustration this weekend when no one was remembering her name change, she said to me "Why can't everyone remember to call me Jailey?!".

That girl's a crack up.

The Groundhog was Right

Though Puxatony Phil seemed to get his forecast wrong for most of the country, he seemed to get it right for me. Yesterday I saw my daffodils had poked through. Part of me says: oh little daffys, I think you might have jumped the gun a little! I hope a frost doesn't come that does you in! But a much bigger part of me says YAY! YAY! YAY! The first day I see my daffodils come through is really and truly one of my favorite days of the year. I love to think that we are through the worst of winter and spring is on it's way. I love that it's getting lighter and lighter in the morning. I love that soon I will not be fighting coats and socks whenever we go somewhere. I love that soon I will not be cold all the time - I am always telling Derek I've been cold since October. I love that my kids will be playing outside longer than it took us to get them ready to go oustide. Spring cannot get here soon enough.

Emmy is Baptized!

Emmy was baptized last Saturday, February 5th. It was a great day because we had so many people there to support her in this decision (Allyson's family had plans to come from Utah, but their family got hit the flu the day before and they weren't able to make it).
She was the most excited person I've ever seen to get baptized. She talked about it nonstop for weeks prior to her baptism. The night before she was up at 11:30 pm coughing - when Derek went to check on her she said, "it's almost Saturday, and that's the day I get baptized!". She was the most excited to be baptized.
Her baptism was at 6:30 so we had dinner for all of our family before and then were off to the baptism. Only 6 kids were baptized that night so even though Emmy was last it was a quick wait.
Our Bishop was there and had Emmy come up and look around at how many people were there. Then it was finally her turn to get baptized. They had filled the font earlier for a baptism before our stake baptism so her water was really cold. It was so cold that was all she could pay attention to. She got in and told everyone it was cold, she got out and told everyone it was cold, the next day in primary she told eveyrone it was cold - she really got preoccupied with it!
Afterwards everyone came to our house for dessert and to enjoy our great day together. Thanks to everyone who came - we really appreciate it!

It's Great to be 8!

My little Emmy turned 8 a few weeks ago and would definitely say "It's great to be 8". Her birthday was on a Saturday so we were able to celebrate all day. She had her favorite breakfast (eggs and sausage) and then a friend party. We only do friend parties on even birthdays so this was very exciting for her. We had 11 little girls here for games and lunch and Emmy loved every minute.
After her party my mom took her shopping to pick out her own birthday present. This is Emmy's dream come true. The girl can change her mind 1000 times about anything. My mom let her walk up and down every aisle and change her mind again and again. Finally she came home with 2 gold fish, a giant heart shaped pillow that says BFF on it, a giant red teddy bear, and many other treasures.
We met Emmy and my mom for dinner at the restaurant of her choice (Wingers - loves that popcorn). Then we were off to our school swim night at the YMCA.
The next day Derek's parents came and we had another party with grandparents and cousins - it was such a fun weekend celebrating Emily.