Anna Rocks!

She wanted to see if she could break this rock and find crystals inside.

She tried, but didn't succeed.

At least she wore safety goggles :)

The Cutest Little Snowman Ever!

We had a little snow yesterday and Grace made this cute little snowman

on the top of one of the little bistro tables :)

Things our kids say - January

1-2 Dallin: I even licked the bathroom doorknob last night to try and get sick and it didn't work...
That just grosses me out!

1-2 When I picked the kids up from school today I asked them if anyone asked about our trip. Grace piped up and said, "Yes, and I told them it was a failed failure...you know, because it tried to be a failure, but it failed because it was still awesome even though we didn't get to go to Vegas and Utah."

Love her positive outlook!

1-2 Anna: I have a hard time sleeping sometimes because I'm busy.

1-6 Dallin: The outside is just there to keep the inside in.
...pearls of wisdom :)

1-6 Noah: I'm actually surprised with how responsible I can be.

1-14 Anna: China must be really busy cause they make a lot of stuff!

1-17 I asked Dallin if he wanted to go to the store with me and he said, "I'll go with you and maybe I can keep you from buying too many things."
...Oh boy!

1-17 Anna went to write bagels on my shopping list and she spelled it "beagles"

I guess she has a strange appetite!

1-18 Anna: Dad is very self reliant. He can do lots of things and when he has a lot to carry he can do it...except groceries.

1-18 After browsing on his nook for books, Dallin discovered that a book he wanted was pretty expensive, but the Spanish version cost half as much...he said, "maybe I should learn to read Spanish!"

1-25 Isaac: Mom, why do you do the workout. You're not even close to fat!

Oh how I love this sweet boy!

1-27 Anna: Mom, I have the agency to walk right in front of you.

1-28 Noah: If I go into the military I'm going to have to learn a lot of acronyms.

1-29 Anna: Mom at 1:10 I'm going to ask you a question.

...thanks for the warning :) btw, the question was..."can I watch a movie?"

1-29 Isaac: If you could play chess with one of these who would you pick? Chuck Norris, Batman, or Luigi?

1-29 Part of Isaac's prayer...and help us to remember all the bad things we have done so we can repent.

1-30 Dallin: I lost my favorite piece of dust!
...what?

All Tied Up

Yesterday was Tie Day at the kids' school.
They always look forward to these "Spirit Days"

I think they looked pretty "tie"rrific!

...and can i just say yay me...
I think that is the best job I've ever done tying ties!
(just the 2 the girls are wearing, Isaac has on a clip-on and 2 zipper ties)

Things our kids say - November

I know I missed some of them this month with all that was going on...but here's what I did get.

11-2 Grace: Mom, I like our birthday card to you...it's so exotic.

11-7 Isaac taught family home evening tonight and there was quite a bit of laughter...I really tried not too...but sometimes it's just so hard. "It doesn't matter what someone looks like. You shouldn't judge them, you don't know what they could do...maybe they can talk without moving their mouth...maybe they can do cartwheels."

or maybe they can make a human pyramid :)

11-8 Dallin: All words that end in "zoid" are awesome words.

11-9 Dallin: My nose feels like a sweetart...or a rock.

11-10 Isaac: Hey mom, I wish I had the power of nature and time...that would be tight!

...I wonder what he would do with all that power?
(sneak peek of our new floor!)

11-10 Dallin's first attempt at making a fake ID.

11-12 Isaac: My word of the day is lard.
Me: Lard? why? Do you even know what that means?
Isaac: Yes, it means fat...and it was just the first word that popped into my head today...that's how you know it's the word of the day.

11-18 Isaac: Mom, without you life would be no good. If you died, I would be sad.

11-21 Dallin: Spanish is confusinger than English.

11-26 I was trying to get the right color for the pie crust on Grace's birthday cake...at one point I was frustrated because it looked too orange. Grace said, "Yeah, that's like violent orange!"

She looks like she knows what violent orange would look like!

(from our cub scout costume pack meeting back in October...

totally forgot to post pictures from that, shame on me)

11-28 Grace told me that she was adding a paintball gun to her Christmas list. I looked at her kind of funny and she said, "What's wrong with that? Maybe I can play with my brothers. I could bond with them."

11-30 Anna: Mom, I have trouble with chairs, can I sit on your lap?

You try saying no to her...it's hard!

The writing on the wall

My Magic Eraser is going to ignore this for a little while longer simply because it's so cute!

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Things our kids say - December

12-2 Isaac came out of his room this morning after getting dressed with a problem. "Mom, this shirt growed out of me. It goes all the way to my pants." I guess I prematurely put one of Dallin's old shirts in Isaac's drawer and it might be a little big, but Isaac thought the shirt grew too big, cute!

12-2 Isaac has come up with a word for our extended family. He calls them our "Grandpeople." Tonight he was thankful for everyone in our family and all of our grandpeople. I like it, and I'm thankful for them too.

12-6 "Mom, I have a great idea for my science fair project. Are rocks ticklish?" I'm pretty sure Noah already knows the answer to that question, but I think it might be funny to watch him collect his data!

12-8 After tucking Anna into bed and singing to her she looked at me with a very serious look and said, "Mom, I don't like the nights. They bother me...can I just stay up?" Nice try sweetie, but it's time for bed.

12-9 We were visiting my good friend Haleigh, and Noah had some advice for her. "No offense Sister Vance (I held my breath, I had no idea what could be coming next) but you should lock your front door more often because a terrorist could just come in at any time." Haleigh didn't take offense and thanked Noah for his counsel.

12-10 After Noah ran somewhere..."Whew, my heart is beating as fast as a dog barks... well as fast as a dog barks at a cat in a tree!" Wow, that must be pretty fast :)

12-10 Dallin looking for words to explain how hot he was came up with ..."I'm as hot as the sun times 86!" I guess his new coat works really well!

12-14 Some time back in the summer or maybe even last summer I bought a coonskin hat at a yard sale. Recently Isaac has become attached to it...very attached! But does he wear it on his head, oh no...he has taken to using it for a tail. I have actually had to "de-tail" him before he left to catch the bus a couple of times. Well, this afternoon he did something...who can remember what...and so Mike put his tail in time out. I had trouble not laughing as Mike took the tail and Isaac called "no, my tail...my tail!" I didn't even try not to laugh when Isaac finally got his tail back and walked upstairs hugging it saying, "Oh, my beloved tail...I got it back, my beloved tail!" Now, I'm sure that most 5 year olds don't use that word...I guess he's picked up something from family scripture time, so that's a plus. Oh, my beloved Isaac...forever keeping me laughing.

12-16 "Mom, Isaac is looking in my nose...on purpose!" Not sure what he was looking for, or if he found it, but it sure bothered Anna.

12-17 Noah and Dallin were having a conversation that I thought was pretty funny.
Noah: "If you had to be Ryan or Troy (from HSM) which one would you pick?"
Dallin: "Troy."
Noah: "I'd be Ryan cause then you don't have to kiss."
Dallin: "Yeah, but you'd have Sharpay for a sister!"
Then Isaac decides to join in on the discussion.
Isaac: "Well, I'd be Ryan cause he has awesome moves."
So, which one would you pick?12-20 Noah was in the front passenger seat in the Suburban and discovered all the buttons that move the seat every which way...so of course he started moving the seat every which way and saying "Look at me I'm George Washington," this caught me off guard and I had to ask what he meant by that. He said, "Well if George Washington traveled here in a time machine he would probably be pushing all these buttons and saying 'hey look what this does...I wonder what that does...wow!' " By this time we are all laughing. Then the radio station we were listening to did a station identification and Noah continued..."Washington, hey that's me!" We continued to laugh and enjoy this funny moment...especially from this young man who claims to have no imagination.

12-21 I was substituting for Noah's Valiant 10 teacher today at church. It was the Christmas lesson, and we had been talking about some of the signs of Christ's birth. Near the end of the lesson after talking about the new star that appeared I gave each of the kids a couple of Starbursts. I asked them not to open them until the end of class (silly me.) They started opening them and I told them again to wait, then I turned to Noah and said, "Noah, stop fiddling with the wrapper." "I'm not fiddling, I don't even have a cat," was Noah's reply. It took me just a second to figure out the connection, but we all laughed.

12-21 While we were sitting on the couch getting ready to watch a movie, Noah looked at me and asked, "Mom, do you think that after I'm done with my mission and college and getting married and all of that, that I could be the next Einstein?" I love it that he has his priorities set.

12-22 Isaac had been having a difficult time obeying today, I was a little frustrated and at lunch time I said, "Oh my goodness, what is up with you today?" To which he replied, "Everyone keeps hypnotizing me!" I just laughed and so did everyone else.

12-24 While out caroling tonight, we drove past a Hooters. Noah had this to say, "Hooters? What kind of food do they serve there...owl or something?" Mike and I looked at each other and smiled, thankful for innocence.

12-26 Isaac informs us that he has a "mind control, really I do!" It seems last month it was just a mind link...now it's control, hmm...maybe we should be worried :)

12-27 Isaac dropped Dallin's Super Mario Bros. game in the car...he immediately announced to Dallin, "I'm so so sorry, sorry like a chicken or a bullet egg!" Wow, that must be pretty sorry :)

12-27 Today as we were driving in Tennessee Isaac was very amazed by the "mountains."
"Wow, look at that mountain, it's just like Mt. Everest only smaller."

12-27 On our drive today Isaac started several sentences by saying "Mom, my friend..." I thought it was cute.

12-28 Grace told us today "when we get to Disney World I'm going to be so excited I might pass out!" That pretty much says it all...they were all so excited.

12-29 Noah informed us that he is older now and we can say bathroom instead of "potty."

12-30 After coming off of Splash Mountain Isaac said, "That was awesome! It was cool, it was as cool as diamonds!" It was a pretty cool ride :)

12-31 This morning we went on a fun Viking boat ride in Norway at Epcot. After the ride Isaac said, "that was cool. As cool as diamonds and crystals...diamonds and crystals hooked together." I don't know, but I would guess that he like it even better than Splash Mountain.

12-31 During our wonderful Royal Banquet lunch with the Disney princesses, Princess Jasmine stopped by to visit with us. After which Noah came up to me and said, "Mom, two things...#1 Immodest, and #2 Where's the food. I had to agree with him on #1 and then told him that the food would be there soon.12-31 Again during our lunch with the Princesses Isaac had to make a list of his own. "Mom, Questions," he said, "#1 How much pounds do you weigh...#2 Where is the food...#3 We been on a boat that flies." I skipped over #1 and told him food would be there soon and then we talked about the Peter Pan ride with boats that flew.

12-31 On our way to see get a spot to watch the fireworks at Epcot Anna said, "Mom, I just drank some air."