Argh!

There are a gazillion things I could/should be doing (including finishing the posts about Nathan and Emma's birthdays and the many end-of-school activities.) But instead, I took full advantage of this Sunday afternoon and scrapped a page. Yes, you read it right! I know I said I had given it up, but someone has inspired me to not fully throw in the towel. Not to mention, my computer had a recent overhaul and I now have hard drive space and my Photoshop is once again up and running.

P.S. The WordArt is from here. I just love her stuff!

Nathan, Guest Blogger

I was at my computer, ready to write a post when I got distracted and forgot all about it. (Imagine that!) I came back later to find my post had published successfully. Huh? What post? Thanks, Nathan! (See how smart he is- he wrote the alphabet through the letter 'h'!)

Long Overdue

It's been too long since I posted any Nathanisms. I don't know about you, but I have missed them. So here are a few to brighten your day.

In Primary, the kids are working hard learning the songs for their Primary program (Sept 21st for any of you interested in attending...now you can't say I didn't tell you...) And Nathan has really taken to a few of them. His favorite, though, is 'Called to Serve'. His version is a little more on the morbid side:

"Come to see him, heavy king of gory..."

And to pass the time in the car, the kids have been playing an old classic game. I like Nathan's way:

"I spy on my little eye"


And probably my all-time favorite is Nathanism is his new invention. You see, when you are four, blowing and wiping noses is such a pain. Life would be much simpler if you could just walk around with a disposable snot catcher coming out of your nose.

I think he's on to something!

Silly Nathan

I haven't written because apprently, our Norton expired without warning and our computer was infected. So, here is a quick post...

I was out last Thursday night and came home to find Nathan had almost lost his eye, courtesy of Tyler. Casey had found an antenna in the gutter and Tyler was using it as a javelin. It missed Nathan's eye by a few millimeters. It was a small wound, but one that I thought required some attention. At 10:30 at night, I wasn't thrilled about my options of emergency care. So , I called my neighor who is a sport's....somthing guy....he bandages up the atheltes. So off we go to his house. He fixed nathan up with some steri-strips, much like butterfly bandages, but better. They actuallystayed on until Sunday night. That is much more than I can say for any DermaBond that we have had. So, fast forward to Monday...I was sitting on the couch with Nathan, looking at the progress of his injury. I asked him if it bled when the 'bandaids' came off.

Me: "Did it start bleeding?"

Nathan: "No, it blood watered."

Me: "Blood water?"

Nathan: "It's just water that is red."

Last night, in my summer laziness, I stopped by Albertson's for their 'Cheap Chicken Monday' and grabbed some good 'ol fried chicken legs and wings. This was the conversation at the dinner table:

Nathan: "Does this have skin on it?"

Me: "Uh huh."

Nathan: "Who's?"

Me: "The chicken's"

Nathan: "Did someone die?"

Me: "The chicken."

Nathan: "Jesus?"

Me: "Yes, but the skin on the chicken is from the chicken."

Needless to say, he didn't eat it.

Can You Spell?

I was taking Hannah to kindergarten today when she proudly announced, "I can spell lemonade...L-E-M-O-N-E-D-E."

Nathan, thinking he is every bit as old, and not wanting to be left out says, "I can spell car...G-M-C."

Deja Vu

So today started out as any other. I had high hopes of what I would accomplish. You see, tomorrow is Hailey's birthday. I have certain things I do for each person's birthday, and they usually require a day of errands and other preparations at home. Well, Hailey's birthday is a little more complicated. Throw into it, that fact that Christmas is in 11 days. So, not only do I have birthday errands and preparations- but Christmas, as well. So I had a long list of things to do today, and I had plans to start around 10:00 (meaning out the door by 10:00.) That is until Nathan pulled one of his "split my head open and take me to the Insta Care" routines. Yep. Right around 9:00 AM, just as I was about to get into a much-needed shower, he came to me crying. There wasn't much blood, but his chin was definitely gaping. I was still determined to get my things done, and I didn't know how they would react if I took him back four weeks to the day since the last set of stitches. So, I decided I would just use a butterfly bandage. That lasted about two seconds. That kid won't leave a Bandaid on. So, I hopped in the shower, woke Hannah up, and took her and Emma to my friend's house. Luckily, the doctor was able to glue it closed and so far it has held- that is pretty good. Once again, he was a model patient and the doctor and nurses commented on how good he was. Yes, nurses. They brought two in for reinforcements- probably figuring we would have to sit on him. But Nathan is a veteran. He just laid there. In fact, at first, he was so giggly, that anytime I tried to touch him, he would start snorting and laughing hysterically. Only Nathan. What will I do with him?.....

Aaaaahhhhhh......

That's my sigh of relief. I am so glad yesterday is over. Yesterday was the school's Jr. Engineering day. I somehow signed up to be in charge of it. The USU Engineering Department puts on these awesome fairs at schools around Utah. I had to coordinate with the teachers who would be teaching the modules and make sure they had lesson plans and everything they needed. I also had to advertise, get volunteers and collect some supplies. It was pretty time consuming the past couple of weeks. And those two weeks happened to be Randy's busiest as well. Between I-15, Riverdale Road and UDOT's engineering conference he has been swamped. Yesterday I spent the entire day at the school, and thankfully, my friend took care of my three little ones so I didn't have to schlep them along all day.

All in all, the day was a success. The students loved it. They spent the entire school day in rotations, learning and experimenting with different hands-on science experiments. Some if their favorites included: making rockets, a Van deGraaf generator, playing with bubbles, learning about colors and light, building retaining walls, propelling cars with balloons after learning about the laws of physics, and playing with robots.

One of the stations about hearing, had some voice pick-up head phones. This allowed the students to hear how they sound to others. Hailey was shocked to hear herself. She finally realized that she can't say her 'r's. I have tried for years to work with her. Speech therapists have given me packets and ideas to help her, but she didn't even realize that she didn't sound right. She told me yesterday that to herself, she sounds just like anyone else. But that hearing herself in the headphones, she could tell it wasn't right. Now that she knows what she sounds like, maybe we can make some head-way.

Randy got back just in time to eat before we all headed back over for the Reflections awards. All the kids did a great job. I was especially proud of my own. Hannah and Casey got certificates and a gold dollar for participating. Tyler and Hailey won. They got certificates and 10 gold dollars.

Tyler's cheetah sculpture....

Casey's pencil sketch...

After the reflections awards was the Jr. Engineering Family Fair. The kids could bring their families back and explore any of the exhibits. (During the day they could only see the ones in their grade rotation.) That didn't go as well as the daytime. not that there were any problems, it was just different. The open house style didn't allow the instruction and teaching before the experiments. A lot of them lost the effect. Hailey commented that it wasn't as much fun. The kids still had a good time, but we were ready to leave when it was over. We were rounding everyone up, and Randy had most of the kids in the car, when Nathan decided he didn't want to leave. He kept running from me. He turn a corner and in seconds I heard crying. He and Tyler soon came back and then I saw the blood. One look and I knew this was trip to the Insta Care.

There goes our record. We hadn't had stitches all year.... We washed him off in the bathroom and loaded up in the car. Randy dropped us off at the Insta Care and I called Cyndi for a ride home. Luckily, they were able to get us right back in a room. The doctor wanted to try DermaBond. I was skeptical, but agreed to try it. Unfortunately, it wouldn't hold. The wound wasn't a clean cut (Nathan's never are.) and it was very deep. There was tissue kind of bulging out of it. So he decided to stitch it after all. Nathan was really brave. He only cried a little when they gave him the shot to numb it. Although, I was upset that he didn't use a topical numbing solution before the Lidocaine needle. But I talked to Nathan the whole time and he was distracted enough not to know that they were passing a needle thought his head! It's a good thing. I think if he realized what they were doing, there is no way I could have held him down. He is just too strong. The doctor commented Nathan was his best patient all day. He really was good. After four sets of stitches, I guess he has learned the drill.

Did I mention, I'm glad yesterday is over?

Kids Say the Darnedest Things!

Nathan has been on a roll lately! Here some things he has said in the past few days....

He found a phone and said, "Mom, I have to call someone, seriously."
(I guess I use that word a little too much, seriously.)

I finally cleaned out the microwave. As he opened it to make his oatmeal one morning, he proclaimed, "Wow! It's absolutely clean!"
(You know it's bad when the toddler notices...or when the toddler is making oatmeal, for that matter!)

We returned home from an evening activity and all the lights in the house were off. But somebody forgot to turn off the TV. The room was glowing blue and as he walked in, he said, "Oh, It's so beautiful in here!"
(It's those aliens again...)

I was helping him clean his room and he jumped up, threw his hands in the air and ran out of the room screaming,"Run from your lice!"
(I didn't realize my problem was that bad!)

He says such funny things that sometimes I forget that Nathan is only three. And then he throws a tantrum, and I am brought back to reality...

Hannah walked up to me after church on Sunday and asked, "Mom, are you Dad's life, or his wife?" I answered, "I'm his wife. Well, actually, I am his life!"
(It's all the same...)

Hailey was talking up a storm at lunch one day and a girl said to her, "Your name should be 'Shut Up'!" Hailey made a quick comeback, "You finally learned my name!"
(I'm so proud of her!)

Kids Say the Darnedest Things!

This morning, I was determined to be on top of things. So, as I was getting Emma ready for the bath, I decided I would just get in and shower with her. Nathan and Hannah were occupied in the living room- watching through the window, waiting for the garbage man to come. So this was my chance. I hopped in the kids' bath with Emma and showered. I was very proud of the fact that I was showered by 9:15 AM- in fact, it could be a record! After getting out and getting dressed, I was wrapping my hair in a towel when Hannah and Nathan came in. They looked at Emma, and back at me.
Hannah: "Did you take a shower in here?" (As if it is something strange.)
Me: "Yeah."
Nathan: "You got in all the way?"
Me: "Yeah."
Nathan: "You fit in there?!"

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Last week, Hannah was holding one of the kittens we named "Oreo". She turned to me and said: "I know that 'oyo' is black and goes in cars."


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Tuesday night after dinner, Randy and Casey hadn't returned form scouts yet, so I took the kids to Arctic Circle for ice cream cones. When they got back, Nathan ran up to Casey and yelled, "We got pine cones and you missed them!" (Ah man! I was hoping to get one of those!)

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I will post more of my favorite, all-time classic "Kids Say the Darnedest Things" another day. In the meantime, I would love to hear from all of you and some of the funny things you have heard kids say! Just leave it in the comments below....

Mom, come quick!

Last week, I promised the kids that is they all got their rooms clean, I would take them to a new park in town. So, after dinner, we loaded up the car and off we went. There was not much daylight left, but I had to keep my end of the bargain. The kids were excited to play on the new playground and even better- Daddy was there, too. One of their favorite games to play with him is what they call, "Beautiful Freak" (It used to be called "monster", but the song "Beautiful Freak" from Shrek changed that!) Basically, he chases after them making some moaning and wailing sounds and they all scream and run! It is really quite cute to hear Nathan ask to play "Bootifo Fweek"! Anyway, after playing that for a while Randy was tired and sat down on a bench to rest. I joined him and we were actually having a conversation. Anyone with kids knows this is a rarity. Then Nathan shouts from across the playground, "Mom! Come quick! See what I found!"
"Just a minute," I replied.
"Hurry!" he said.
"OK" I half-grudgingly got up to go see the neat rock or pine cone he found.
"Look, Mom, a snake!" he shouted.
I was looking at the bark trying to find a piece that looked like a snake.
"Right here, Mom." he pointed.

Sure enough, there was an honest to goodness, real-life snake! I don't know how in the world he saw it. It was the same color as the bark, and it was practically dark outside! He was so proud of himself as each of the kids took turns holding the poor thing. After a while, I ruined the fun by telling them we couldn't keep it and making them put it back where they found it.

I am OK with my role as fun-ruiner. You see, they love Daddy so much because he is the "fun one" that it is easy for me to leave them with him.! :) But seriously, I am so lucky to have a husband that values his role as Daddy. He is the greatest! My kids and I are so lucky to have him.

And some day...when my kids are grown, they will call and ask for "Mom". After all, it is my name Nathan called out when he wanted to share the treasure he found.

"It's a 'RIGHT NOW' Game!

With four kids in school in the afternoon, things are very different around here. Emma takes a nap and that leaves Nathan with no one to play with. He has never experienced that before. So last week, he decided he would change all that. I was busy with some things that needed wrapping up, and he came to me. "Mom!" he yelled, "Hurry, It's a 'right now' game!" How could I resist that?! I immediately dropped what I was doing and joined him in playing with his train set. We played for quite a while before I told him we needed to do some chores. He was happy to help me fold laundry for a while until he decided that was enough. Then it was time for another "right now game". I guess he figured that worked so well the first time, he'd stick with it. It reminded me of some poems from some needlepoints my mom did when I was little. I have always loved these...


"Cleaning and scrubbing can wiat 'til tomorrow
For babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow
So quiet down cobwebs, and dust go to sleep
I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep!!"

"Baby is fretting, I can't find my shoe
Ironing piled high, there are dishes to do
I stand in the middle about to cry
WHEN... we sit on the floor and play 'rock-a-bye'"

"I hope my children look back on today,
And see a mother who had time to play
There will be years for cleaning and cooking
For children grow up when we're not looking"

So now, whenever he wants me to stop what I am doing, he proclaims, "It's a 'right now' game!" He is right though. Because someday soon, I won't be playing trains with him.