Killers for Date Night

Excited to go to a concert tonight with Corey.  I've been to only one "rock" concert in my life - REO Speedwagon in 1996.  Corey was in the MTC getting ready to go to Chile for his mission, that's how I can remember the year.  I wasn't impressed with the concert and haven't felt the desire to go to another concert since, although we just didn't do concerts in my family growing up (my older sister did go New kids on the block!  woo!)  - although I do still like REO's song "In My Dreams" as my little bro introduced me to that song at the same time in 1996, the time that Corey'd left on his mission, so it was a good teenaged lovesick song for my anxious heart as I wondered over the real possiblity of not seeing him for 3 1/2 years, which is how it did in fact turn out - (2 years for his mission, then I left for a mission of 18 months before he came back, makes for a good courtship story!)

Anyway, so we'll see how this goes tonight, I think it should be fun. So, hope the venue and the crowd are both good, don't know what the UCCU center is like.  I'm sure it will be hard to compete with Europe's crowds, still I but hope we're more like the crowd in the vid below...:
and not like the crowd watching them here in this Jimmy Kimmel video.

Found out a little while ago that the Killers performed in Chile while we were there in April 2011 at Lollapalooza, too bad I didn't know about them yet, doh.

Flash Cards

 Lily got a hold of Hyrum's Spanish cards today and put them in the following order on the floor:

I thought it was funny and it made me smile.  She came up with this all on her own.  Pretty good, little 3 year old!  If you're so smart, do you think you could learn to use the toilet now?  (She's being difficult, I don't have it in me to put my foot down yet, trying to get there...)  Any advice is welcome.  :)

A.P. Pictionary

On Sunday we played a game of Pictionary with the kids.

Although we got to call it "Advanced Placement Pictionary", and you can too when you play, if it involves atleast 4 small children in the room, and two of them are constantly interrupting your thoughts, one of them is sitting on your lap at all times, and another small child climbing on the table trying to steal the dice.

Corey'd say in a little bit of frustration "Sophi, we're kinda in the middle of a game...  ...so are you apparently."

(as in she's in the middle of our game, sitting on our game board...)

Still it was a good game of skill, intrigue, and competition.  Everyone wants to be on Mel's team, and I admit she is dangerous.  "She even rolls good!" her teammate Corey gloated as she rolled another 6, our team kept rolling 1s and 2s.  Just not fair.  Joe would roll a 2, Corey'd tease "Two. ...too bad for you!!!  Haha!!"  (Everyone is a bit competitive and talks smack)  Mel and I both had to draw a "mermaid" and get our teams to guess it, Mel won and Corey had to rub it in... "...she didn't even get to the shells!"  Yup, I admit it, she's good.

It was Corey, Hyrum and Mel against Me, Joe, and Ethan.  Ethan kept making me laugh by asking me in all seriousness everytime it was my turn to draw: "Is it an idiom?"  Hyrum was a very detailed artist.  It was cute.

We also let Wes and Abi draw pictures and everyone got to try and guess it.  They did pretty good.  Wesley was super detailed and would carefully sketch his piece.  We didn't put a time limit on their drawings, which was good cause they averaged 3 minutes.

Joe's a little competitive, so our poor performance was getting under his skin and he seemed close to tears during parts of the game.  But miraculously near the end, we were on a winning streak and were guessing pictures left and right AND rolling high numbers.  When we were both on the last space of the board it meant next play would decide our winner.  Hyrum and Joe are on their marks, get set, and GO!  Who will win?

Joseph pulled out a great doodle of a face with his eyes scribbled out - "BLIND!"  The underdogs came back from behind for the win!!!

And Hyrum had to go to his room for some time alone.  Our true objective was achieved: "Teaching the kids how to handle tough times and trials when the consequences are small."  He recovered after a mere 45 minutes, and we learn once again that, despite disappointments, life goes on... 

(Chin up, Hyrum!)  Although we didn't follow him around trying to comfort him or pester him to be happy, we gave him time to grieve his loss, it's part of the healing process.  And everyone's ready for a rematch this weekend.  :)

Yogi Sophi

Joseph had to do some PE homework over the holiday weekend.  Two 30 minute workouts.  For the first one he and Corey went running.  For his other workout I put him through a "Killer 600" - 60 reps each of 10 different exercises.  After doing his first 20 burpees, he decided he'd do 20 reps of all the exercises first, then do that all 2 more times.  When Sophi saw him doing pushups, she waddled over to him and assumed the position, which made us all laugh. 

If anyone is exercising, she'll come join in by putting her head down to the floor. I think she does a pretty impressive downward dog for a 1 year old!

Sophi, I'm so impressed with you!  She seems pretty proud of herself too, those endorphins making her feel pretty good.

She's just a pair of eyes watching all of us all the time and taking notes.  Here's the other trick she learned and took care of after the workout - get those teeth clean, Dad:

Glad we have Sophi here looking out for us.

Hunting Boys

So Hyrum and Ethan were pretty much cracking me up as they mastered their bow and arrow skills over the long weekend by hunting game in the backyard. 

Pretty cute and fun, love their creativity.  Ethan wants a bow for Christmas.  Hyrum made this bow but Ethan made most of the arrows.  On day two of hunting, Ethan informed Hyrum that he will not be sharing the bow he gets for Christmas with him which made Hyrum cry and then it wasn't so fun when they were playing bows and arrows cause it was resulting in more than a few fights.

The other little people spent this weekend doing all the things that little people do - playing legos, dressing up in character,

and of course let's not forget a certain child's favorite activity... drawing on the carpet.

Luckily it was crayon instead of permanent marker, was a little easier.  Still felt like screaming.  Good news is she only has to do this one more time before my camel's back is broken and all drawing instruments take a one way trip to the dump.

Holiday Weekend

Well we've been having loads of fun around here this fine holiday weekend.  (Can hardly believe that the Christmas season is once again officially upon us.)

I've tried posting a few times over the past few days, but I get interrupted and don't seem to be able to finish my thought.  I have a few seconds now, but don't have my camera.  Oh well.  I'll post pictures on Monday of the kids' activities this holiday weekend.  Ethan and Hyrum especially have been lost in their own world, running off to the tree farm to find more sticks to make more arrows for the bows and quiver's they've been creating in the basement (which is an absolute mess right now.)  But the upstairs is clean.  About time to call them all in - they've been outside playing night games for the past few hours with our wonderful back fence neighbors.  They've got a family of 6 kids, so it's a major party when they get together and everyone's got a playmate.  So fun, I love hearing them creating childhood memories.  Life is good, so much to be thankful for. 

The kids have found me again, so we just watched a kid vid. haha!

(Going to see the Killers next Friday! Pretty excited! :)

Lil' Helper

Sophia is starting to pull her own weight around here.  Time to join the real world and do some chores kid.  She's happy to do it and has been nominated as the #1 eager helper for unloading the dishwasher. 

If it's open, she's standing on it.  ...Which doesn't help when it's dirty dishes on the rack and I'm trying to load.  Can't load it if she's awake.  Still, she gets points for trying.  It also takes about 10 minutes longer for her to unload it, cause she does one item at a time.

"Here's a fork ~ here you go Hyrum... looks like next we have one spoon ~ there you go... one knife, here you go... and here's another spoon ~ there you go..."

 

Super slow, but super cute.  Every few items she gives herself an applause.

We love this little girl so much, she is pure joy.  I'll take a hundred more just like her.

Gingerbread Houses

Yesterday at church Sister Christofferson invited us bring our kiddos over to her house to see the gingerbread houses she made this year.  This one has a super festive smell with the cinnamon gum all over the roof - I love holiday aromas!

Sometimes their schedule is too busy to make it happen so she might skip a year here and there, but almost every year she makes gingerbread houses around Christmas time.  Usually she donates them to the Festival of Trees for Primary Children's Hospital or toward some other charitable cause. This year instead of making one large one, she's made/making 4 small ones for Christmas for her kids.

This one below is a replica of the actual home of one of her kids, if you look at the bottom left picture of the photographs on that paper to the right of the gingerbread house (she said the roof was super tricky on this one):

That one above she is going to very carefully package and reinforce and then mail to Arkansas - sending it off with a "good luck" prayer hoping it arrives in one piece! (Her first time mailing a gingerbread house...) Pretty impressive how much work goes into these - all the planning and measuring left us in awe, it's like a real architect blue print for a home, just on a smaller scale and with no plumbing, just a little electrical work - each of the butterscotch glass windows has an individual light put up to it on a strong wire - those are put up first after much planning and then the house is built around it.  Here she is explaining some of the details to us on the last house she's doing:

Pretty amazing talent, and what a fun tradition!  It's a special treat for our family to be invited to go see her houses each year (thank you!)

Cleaning Tip: Permanent Marker on Carpet Solution

Permanent Marker on your carpet?  My solution in a nutshell - Get USAdvantage and a scrub brush from the dollar store and scrub away.

Here's the details: I'd already had a busy morning ~ up at 5:30 to make breakfast, took Joe to band at 6:20, back home at 7, kids awake and doing homework, Mel was doing a book report comic strip for which said report she was using a HUGE BLACK PERMANENT MARKER which I didn't like, but tried to let it slide since she'd already started drawing with it and it wouldn't look right if she switched pens mid-completion, she's old enough to take care of it, breath.  Got everyone else their breakfast, made lunches, Mel also needed a "current event", then hurry off to school, Melodie forgot her book report, I drive over to the school to deliver that, come back, try to take a break for a little bit at the computer reading news...

...did I mention my husband's out of the country? 

...as I'm sitting at the computer, Hyrum walks by and casually informs me "Lily drew on the carpet" - I feel my shoulders tighten, stand up and go to assess the damage and LILY freaking drew a stick figure portrait on the front carpet with that BLACK PERMANENT MARKER that stinkin' Melodie DIDN'T PUT AWAY and I did not handle it well, I freaked out.  I screamed out loud and throw my head back and yell "AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!" and turned off the Barbie movie and told Lily NONONONONONO!! and walked around picking up all writing instruments and held their little bin of markers and crayons in my hand and almost ran outside in a rant to throw them as hard as I could into the garbage can.  Instead I got the cleaner and scrub brush, towels and a cup of water and said over and over again as I began to clean "I SAID DON'T DRAW ON THE CARPET!  ONLY PAPER!!!!"  

and I told Hyrum to get the camera, so that I can laugh at this memory a year from now.

Ugh.  WHY!?!?!  The single lines she drew came out pretty well, but that hair on her little figure that she colored in nice and dark?  That... that's gonna be a challenge.

Been scrubbing it for a half hour now.  I'm taking a break to type while I let Abi and Lily continue scrubbing.  Looks better, that Advantage stuff works really well, my carpets were already glad I bought that from the door to door salesman over the summer, but darn it, stupid permanent marker.  Ugh.  And Lily just had to color in that hair and that balloon or whatever above her head, those parts ain't scrubbing out.

Had to call my 9-1-1 emergency person for therapy - Nicole - for a listening ear as I rant and try to breath. She sweetly listened, then after I let it all out and am calming down a little bit, there was still just listening silence on her side, and feeling ashamed from what I think is my rather poor dealing with the situation, I asked "Can you feel the evil spirit in me flowing through the phone?" and we both laughed.  I said "I'm done, I'm done.  I'm ready to go" (done with earth life) but then I said "I won't kill myself..." then she said "But if you get translated tonight you'd be okay with that..." and we laugh, then I say "But seeing how poorly I just handled this situation, it's pretty obvious I'm not ready to go yet..." she said "So you just added atleast 15 years to your time!"  Breathe, scrub, spray, breath scrub scrub. 

Looks a lot better, but you can still see it, not so much in the photo though.

We'll see how it looks after it dries and maybe I'll wash it again.  sigh.


Yesterday Lily got in my makeup.  Ruined the eyeshadow, cut my bronzing powder brush with the hair scissors, what else...

...she used another small brush in the lip balm like paint and colored herself, and smashed my lipstick on our balcony door window.  The terrible two's come a few months late around here, since she's 3 1/2. Here she is enjoying a snack she fixed for herself, a carrot dipped in hot chocolate powder, made me laugh.  

It's the law of opposition - cause she's such a cutie and she's driving me sooo crazy!  Grin and bear it.

Little People

Look at that little face, that little grin.  I love these little people.

Well, this little Sophi has discovered pens and pencils and has discovered that she's got a natural knack for holding a pencil -

 

A pencil in each hand!  looks like chop sticks.

Perhaps she'll be ambidextrous?

Lots of work to do!! Sadly for the wannabe tidy homemaker in me, she's also discovered how to use these writing instruments on walls, floor, carpet (sigh) and speaking of messes, I just discovered that Lily got into my makeup.  I didn't freak out, but Lily is really trying hard to up her score on the "Kid that keeps mom on her toes the most" ranking.  (sooo irritating, but 'tis the life of a mother, comes with the territory)

So after I took a lot of pictures of Sophi drawing, Lily was making some grunting noise that was making her laugh -

Sophi's got the giggles, which made all of us giggle too, she is so cute

 

Sophi ready and waiting for more hilarious entertainment

Love these cute kids.  Their little hands holding pencils and little voices making little laughs.

Power Out

With the record breaking snow fall over the weekend our power went out two times.  The first time was for an hour, the second time for about 3 minutes.  Yup, big excitement happening.  Nothing compared to a friend in New Jersey who was out of power for 13 days from Hurricane Sandy.  Yikes.  The kids didn't complain, they thought it was kinda fun, although I know that enthusiasm would have worn off if they'd been in the dark for 2 weeks...

 Wesley kept drawing in the darkness, can't keep that kid down!

 Hyrum unloaded the dishwasher by candlelight - He loves doing chores ~ so romantic.

 We had pb&j for dinner, Eth, your shadow eyebrows look a little freaky.

 Sophi didn't get the game that we were playing but decided to roll with it anyway

Mel tried to crochet in the darkness, but then she lost her hook.

So it was fun, and now I'm got a list of things that I wouldn't have been aware of otherwise: get candle sticks, more ready to eat snack foods, and get a lot more flashlights and batteries.  I was able to give the kids a quick lecture about why I've ranted in the past when I found them playing with the flashlights, "Cause then we don't have them when we NEED them, like right now!"  Luckily we had 2 little lights from when we hiked the Y. I facebooked my friend to see if she has any words of wisdom to pass along to us, I'll update it here later.  :)