20,000 Bouncy Balls

This was so fun!

This week was Utah State University's science week (aka. Geek Week). A helicopter flew over a parking lot full of people and dropped over 20,000 bouncy balls into a roped off section. We were at the bottom of the downward slopped parking lot. As soon as the bouncy balls landed they came flying our way. The kids had a blast getting pelted with bouncy balls and shoving as much as they could into their pockets!

Here is an article if you want to know more about this story and the science experiment that was conducted:

http://hardnewscafe.usu.edu/?p=4366

Elevator

Kate, Landon and I left the second floor dentist office today. Reminding me, Kate said, "Mom! You said we could take the elevator down."
"Ok," I replied. "Go push the button. Landon come on, let's go down the elevator."
Backing up in terror, Landon yelled, "No! No! No! No!"
"What's the matter? Let's get in the elevator."

(Elevator door opens)

Continuing to back up, poor little scared Landon firmly stated, "No! I not want to get in a alligator!"

It took some coaxing to get him to come close enough for me to show him that it wasn't an alligator. I don't think my laughter helped comfort the child that thought his mother was feeding him to an animal.

Dinner Woes and Wows

As I was cooking dinner, Aunalee asked what I was making.
Sounding excited, knowing it isn't her choice meal, I said, "Spaghetti."
She dropped her head and whined, "Nooooho."
Kate came over and stomped her foot, "I don't like spaghetti!"
Landon joined in with a foot stomp, "I don't like it either."
I replied, "Super! You three go to bed and the rest of us will eat it all."
Knowing I was serious, they went on their way until dinner time.

Needless to say, when we did sit down for dinner they ate it up! The girls even had seconds. Hurray for yummy spaghetti!

Compliments to Aunalee

I was volunteering at the school today and saw a mom of some twin boys that are in Aunalee's class. We were visiting for a few minutes and this mom said, "My boy, Logan, sure talks about Aunalee a lot. They sit by each other and I help in the classroom quite a bit and she is such a sweet girl. The other day Logan said to me, 'Mom, one day I want to marry a girl just like Aunalee.' I told him that would be great. If he can keep this great taste in girls I will be just fine with that."

Later I was in the computer room getting something. The computer teacher said to me, "Oh your Aunalee (she put her hand to her heart) is such a sweetheart. She is just a sweet little girl." She proceeded to show me some of Aunalee's work and told me how much she loves to work with her on the computer.

Those compliments made me feel pleased to know that my child behaves so well at school and is kind to others.
She is a sweetheart and I love her.

Landonisms

I love the language and interpretations of two-year-olds.
Before the kids come to dinner we have them wash their hands. Last night Landon had it in his mind that he was not going to wash. Speaking of dinner I said, "Landon, go wash your hands or you are not getting any."
He stomped his foot and said, "But I want some any."

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 

Last night the kids got some jelly beans. Landon ate all of his in one mouthful. When he finally swallowed he saw that the other kids still had some and he wanted them to share. No one was sharing.
Sweet Kate said, "I will share with you, Landon."
With a smile on his face he ran up to me and said, "Mom, look! Kate shared her belly jeans with me!"

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 

Landon ran in the room and said, "Mom, that freaked me out."
"What did you say?" was my response, unsure if I heard him correctly.
Katelyn chimed in, "He said it freaked him out."

Wow, I did not realize my little ones had such language in their vocabulary.

FYI: Landon gets really hyper at night.

Tonight he stood up on the arm of the couch and raised his arms high and shouted, "I am bigger than Jesus!"

Humorous Honesty

I was driving kids home after school today. The topic of discussion between all the children was buying things and how much stuff costs.
One 3rd grade girl said, "I have saved $100 already."
A bit astonished I asked, "Where did you get all that money?"
"My grandmas both gave me $30 for my birthday. Plus other money I have saved up."
Dalan said, "On our birthdays, our Nana and Grandpa give us as much money as how old we are."
I responded with, "Yeah, just wait until you are my age! Think of all the money you will get."
Aunalee quickly said, "I think Nana and Grandpa will be dead by then."

Cousins and Canoes 

 

Never a dull moment! When cousins get together they combine their creative minds to come up with unique ways of having fun. 

Did you count how many kids are crammed in there?!

At the dinner table one evening Dalan told us that he wanted to go to the moon some day.

Preston said he could go anytime, it would just cost about $300 million.
"Whoa, that's a lot of money," Dalan responded.
Aunalee then chimed in with a big smile, "Dalan!" She pointed to the top of the cupboard at Dalan's piggy bank and looked at him with an excited, pleased that she reminded him of all his money sitting up there, look.
"Yeah, like that would be enough," he so sadly clued her in.
Not to be shot down too quickly, she optimistically came back with, "Plus that other $10 you have downstairs."

Katelyn's Christmas Wish

Our almost four year old has been begging to have her bottom-length hair cut. Her dad is very much loving it.

Mom, on the other hand, dislike the screams and tears every time a brush comes near her head. We both have an extremely tender head so I know her pain.

For Christmas we gave Katelyn her very first haircut, 15 inches in all.

 She loves it and is so cute with short hair.

Aunalee's Vegetable Soup

This recipe makes enough for our family of 6 to all have second helpings. Aunalee decided what she wanted in the soup and so we added whatever sounded good to her. It is delicious!

In a large pot add:

About 6 cups water

5 sliced carrots

1 stalk celery

2 bunches broccoli

1 small head cauliflower

1 small red onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 can cream of chicken

1 can cream of mushroom

3 Tbls. parsley

2 cubes chicken bullion

1 1/2 tsp. salt

ground pepper

Add the carrots to the water so they can cook a bit while you chop up the other veggies. Chop the vegetables to bite size chunks. Add all the other ingredients. Cook soup until the vegetables are tender.

Just before serving, stir in 1 cup sour cream.

We have made it once before and added diced chicken. That was good too.

We all love it!

Katelyn and her cousin, Casey (one month older), were having a breakfast conversation about Halloween costumes.

To preface the rest of this story, these two continually tease each other. They get along great and most of the teasing is fun. When one is in a bad mood, the other takes advantage and sees how much they can get the other to scream and yell. Typical almost four-year old play.

Back to the breakfast conversation:

Casey says all the things he can dress up as and when Katelyn says, "me too!"
Casey replies "nu-uh because you don't have that costume."

After a few back and forth stabs Casey states, "When I grow up I'm gonna need a BIG Batman costume!"

Kate responded, "But you wiln't, so you will only need a little one."

Pumpkin Carving Fun!

We had a blast carving pumpkins this year. 

Dalan and Aunalee did their pumpkins almost entirely on their own!

Dalan and his spider

 

Aunalee's Cat

Katelyn and Tinkerbell (She did help)

Landon and PacMan (He scooped out the guts)

Mom's Goofy

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Dialogue between Mother and Daughter

I had returned home from a three day trip without children (first time in my life).

Aunalee came to me that afternoon, after church, with a very solemn look.

"Mom. I have something to tell you and I know you are going to be mad."

"I'm listening."

"At Farmers' Market yesterday with dad I wore my favorite church shoes and lost one down the river."

"You wore your new church shoes to market?"

"Yeah."

(deep breath) "How did you loose one down the river?"

"I was washing the mud off and it slipped out of my hand."

"Uh-hu. And how did it get mud on it?"

"I was playing on the side of the river."

"And why were you wearing your church shoes to market and playing in the mud with them on?"

"Dad said to hurry and get shoes on and those were the only ones I could find."

"You are right, I am mad."

Needless to say, the two of us went to the river (Logan canal), me in wader boots and Aunalee showing me where she lost the shoe and where "Dalan was watching for it to float by and it never did" (this sounds more intentional than accidental). After a few minutes of searching in the canal the shoe was found, very lucky!

Seven-year old rejoicing and groveling took place as well as lessons learned. 

Together Again

Someday I will be just like mommy!


Katelyn was getting into her jammies and had her shirt off. She said to me, "Mommy, when I have a lot and a lot and a lot of birthdays I will get to be a mommy like you."

I smiled, "Yes you will."

Stroking her bare chest she said, "And I will have big armpits like you."

"What?" I laughed. I poked her in her armpit and said, "that is your armpit."

With a confused look on her face she pointed at her nipples and said, "Well, what are these called?"

"Nipples. When you are a mommy and they are bigger they are called breasts."

"Oh yeah, I will have breast-es."

Reality Hits

The kids have been informed that I will be gone for a couple of days to spend time with the moms in my family. They keep begging to come and get little reaction from me other than a simple, "no."
"Please! I will be good."
"Are you going swimming? I want to come."
"No fair."
"But who will watch us?"
And on and on and on. This lasted for about a day when they realized I was enjoying the attention and my mind was not going to be changed.

Yesterday at breakfast Aunalee asked, "When are you leaving for your trip?"
"Friday."
"This Friday?"
"Yep!"
She turns to Dalan with excitement and concern in her voice, "Dalan, Dad's going to be in charge of us on Friday. Mom won't be here to tell him what to do!"

Follow-up:

Friday morning. . .Aunalee ran up to Preston when he walked into the kitchen, "Dad, today is the day that mom is leaving and you are in charge."

Preston responded, "Yep, mom won't be here to tell me what to do."

Aunalee said, "Yeah,  I guess you will just have to be the dad."

Speeding? Was I Speeding?

The drive home from Shelley, Idaho, on Saturday evening was extremely pleasant. The kids were watching Peter Pan and Preston, driving, and I were able to have a conversation.
Deep in our conversation, I glanced up and noticed a police officer parked off the road, monitoring traffic.
Speedometer read . . . 77mph. . .busted!
Sure enough, he turned his lights on and pulled us over. Waiting for him to return with license and registration was quite a teaching moment about the laws of the land. The kids were perked right up, quizzing us on the details and wondering what was going to happen.
The officer came back with a ticket and said, "slow down and have a nice day."
The ticket was on the dash and Aunalee said, "Can I hold the ticket?"
"No," said mom.
"Why not?"
"Because it isn't yours."
To which Dalan responded in an exaggerating tone (remembering earlier conversations in his life), "That's right. Until we are 18 everything that is ours is actually Dad's, . . . even the bad stuff."
Dad responded, "That's right!"
'Twas a great comic relief moment.

Delicious Dinner

With Katelyn by my side, we were making a new chicken recipe for dinner tonight. As we added the parsley Katelyn said, "Yuck! I don't like eating grass!"
I said, "Kate, this is parsley."
She responded, " I don't like it."

The chicken was the favorite item of the night. I got the recipe from allrecipes.com: Easy-Garlic-Broiled-Chicken
I used thighs w/o skin and cut the butter amount in half.

Super Yummy (and fast)!!!

Kate the Great!

I don't know where she gets it, honestly.
We had some friends over to play the other day and the little girl was bending down getting some colors.
Katelyn came up behind her and said, "Aubrey, your bum is peeking."
A little louder, "Your bum is peeking. You have to stand up so it doesn't peek anymore."

Our New Pet

Meet Slick, or Speedy, or Sticky (depending on who you ask).

 As I was unpacking the van, I saw this snail crawling (slithering? sliming? whatever they do) along the door. I asked Dalan and Aunalee to come and look what was in our van. Aunalee said, "Oh, that is Sticky. We found it on an avocado box at the place where we store produce."
To which I responded, "And you put it in the van?!"
"Yeah, it is our new pet. . . but how did it get out of the cup-holder?"

So here it sits in our window box of peas. As far as we can tell it is pretty content, very low maintenance, and extremely entertaining when it is awake. For now we know that it loves tulips and celery.

Apologies about calling it an it. We do not know if we acquired a male or female snail (I am not about to try and find out) and the kids don't agree on one or the other so, it is an it.