Wolfcreek

We had a fun overnighter ski trip to Wolfcreek on Jan 25th.  Joseph was on a winter campout with his Scout group, sleeping in an ice cave.  Our accommodations were much better than his as we kicked it in a room that sleeps 10.  After the kids bargained and fought over bed arrangements for 2 hours, we had dinner, snacked on some popcorn just like the good ol' days in Costa Rica (trough style) and then let them watch tv.

Corey got some work done, I read parenting books, and we had a nice do nothing evening. 

Ethan, however, has a goal to practice his sax an hour a day, so he was suffering greatly as he heard the other kids laughing "so hard" and having "so much fun" while he practiced - no fair!  We told him to put a sock in it and he did. (Didn't want bother the neighboring units too much).  Good job sticking to your goals Ethan, he's on his way to becoming a high school music legend!

The next day the kids got up and got dressed and didn't eat enough of the pancakes and eggs I made before they left for skiing with Dad.  Corey up on Wolf Mountain with 7 kids.  Made me tired just thinking about it, but he's amazing.  I got to graciously pass cause I'm pregnant.  I was content to stay and pack up the amazing mess we made in a mere 12 hours while this little face did her best to stop any of my efforts at productivity.  (she's so cute!)

After I checked out of our room, I headed over to the lift and watched Corey in action.  He's amazing.

One kid between his legs, another holding his pole.  He had Lily with him and he helped Abi and Lily most of the time while the older kids helped Wes - one on each side of him, letting him hold their poles while they went down the mountain.  Didn't look very safe from the video footage I saw later, but he survived.  They had a few races and everyone had fun.  Corey took Abi and Wes on a few runs while I swapped ski stuff in the cars, then I took the little girls and got to head home while the rest of them spent the day on the mountain.  It was perfect.  :) 

Ski Injury

Corey took Mel and Ethan skiing on Saturday.  It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining.  Even here in the valley the sun was bright and the smog had cleared.  They had a great day skiing and thought they could get in one more run before the lift closed, but alas, it was cut short when Ethan took a nasty fall that ended like this:

 Poor Eth strapped to a sled and being dragged down the mountain...

They called me around 4 and Ethan told me his leg was broken.  When they got home, they said the x-rays showed it wasn't broken, just sprained.  He's got a sprained MCL.  Pictures a little fuzzy, but look at that defeated little face.

 

After getting his crutches he seemed to have fun, got some attention at church on Sunday.  He crutched to the bus stop and seemed excited for school on Monday, but then some kid pushed Ethan over during recess - they were talking and he said "your not hurt, you're wearing both your shoes, you're faking it" and with the ace bandage was under his pants you couldn't tell, anyway this kid said Ethan was faking and pushed him to prove it I guess, Ethan fell down.  He said it was a terrible day and his tears were ready to prove it when he came home.  The stories they share sometimes make me wish they were all home, but Ethan wants to go to school.  Last year he was picked on enough that he was begging us to let him stay home and he homeschooled the 2nd half of the year, and then he was so sad when he missed "Field Day" and he also wished he could have won the prize for reading the most minutes which he was on track to getting.  So this year he's determined to not bail out.  His teacher is great, but lots of kids are stinkers.  Kinda sad.

Fun news is he's learning appreciation, getting injured always does.  Amazing all the things we just expect to work everyday.  Kinda like the kids in this video.  He's very impressed with his Grandma.  Don't they look cute together?

Ethan's armpits are sore and he's amazed that his Grandma's been doing this for years.  I just tell him "Try to be grateful, cause you should be - your leg very easily could have been broken and you'd have 5+ weeks of those crutches instead of just a week." 

And on the Home front, I'm working on creating a Home Management Book (see Chapter 18 of Large Family Logistics - although I think it's kinda similar to Fly Lady's Control Journal which I started once but never finished)

I have started to type up my Days and Schedules and Routines, but haven't printed them up yet.  But as I've had them in my head and am following them, this week has gone great so far (2 days into it!).  Yesterday I started the day with my routine - up before the kids for some personal study time, then got them up at 6:30 and we all folded laundry cause Monday is Laundry Day.  The lady who wrote this book homeschools all her kids, so everything she suggests isn't going to work for us like it does for her, but great advice.  Today is Kitchen day, Abi has got her apron on and we're vacuuming out the crumbs from the drawers and wiping out the fridge.  Fun fun!

Valentine Flower Wreath

 

Well, we did it again, we did what we planned and said we'd do.  Over the weekend Mel helped me make this wreath for the door.  Made with cardboard, ribbon, fake flowers, and hot glue. Here's the back-

That's what the front looked like too before we glued the flowers on.  Glued ribbon around the edge to cover it up, then plastered it with flowers.  We also cut up more ribbon and glued them in places that needed a little more covering to hide the cardboard.  If I had to do it again, I'd probably spray paint it red before doing any gluing.

 Some of the flowers we just glued on sideways, other we poked a hole in the cardboard to stick them in straight.  It was fun!

We've almost got all the holiday's covered, but might still do an Easter Wreath.  We've got a "spring" one with yellow flowers, but might make one that is Easter and not just spring.  We'll see. :) Valentine's Day Wreath Valentine day door decoration valentine's day heart wreath

Valentine's Day Advent

Saw this idea yesterday on House of Smith's (as I avoided cleaning my house) ~ and I didn't just thunk it, I did it!!!  Abi went to the store with me, we bought more candy than I'd like the kids to consume in 14 days (but I didn't have time to think about or shop around for other options...) and we were off. Abi helped me make our sacks ~

I decided we'd add a Valentines-ish thing to do for each day such as:

I was thinking I'd stuff the bags at night time when there would be no little eyes spying, but decided not to so we could try to keep to our planned schedule.  So into the kitchen with the goodies.  Despite trying to keep this a secret/surprise, Abi ran up the stairs to tell her siblings about the loot, they all came bounding down asking "Can I have some candy?!?!"  No.  And they continued to beg for handouts while we tried to stuff the sacks.  Then one by one I lined them up along the top of the front room window where they can be seen daily and eagerly anticipated.  Anticipation is half the fun you know!

I was worried about having them in view of toddler Lily who might not understand why we can't open more than one sack a day, but I'll try to handle it like a good mom.  And hopefully they're high enough she won't be able to sneak them.  I didn't make them all cute like the House of Smiths lady ~ I'm just leaving myself room for improvement.  We'll see how it goes this year and take it up a notch next year if I like it. 

And I started my valentine wreath, not a day too late.  Sophi held the cardboard in place while I cut it, so helpful.  It's going to be a DIY combination of these ideas 1 - 2 & 3 - fun fun  :)

Magical Forest

With all the snow outside, and since we live next to a undeveloped lot, sometimes I can look out our upstairs window and it looks like the land of Narnia to me.  We are very fortunate, I don't think there are many homes with a magical land of imagination next door.  Last Friday, we were getting ready to go out for a family day of fun, when Lily who was protesting "I never going to go" and Corey who was trying to coax her to come willingly, happened to look up out the window to see a Bambi. 

"Look Lily!  There's a deer!"

Wait, are there three deer?  4?  We called the other kids to come and see, Mel counted seven deer in all.  Lily wanted to go pet them and be friends with them like Snow White, but unfortunately they are scared of people forms.  But as we got in the car and backed out of the driveway, we were able to back up very close to where they were and all take a good look.  They looked at us too.

They aren't scared of mini vans, apparently.  They weren't skittish at all. 

Pretty fun to live so close to nature!  We are in the city but not of the city.

For Your Kids Entertainment

When I look at Pinterest and all the projects to do for/with kids, I'm like "Uh, probably not.  That one's too messy.... that one is too elaborate... Probably can't do that one unless the little kids are outta the way and napping... that one looks like a lot of work and involvement by me, sigh... Oh well." and then I move on to home decor.  I usually want to give the kids things that will send them on their way with a burst of their own creativity that feeds their imagination.  So here is a simple one that is quick, very little mess or clean-up, and I think my kids might be entertained all day at school and get their friends involved too.  When I saw this one, it just said "This is soo Melodie..." What do you think?

When she saw it, she got a quick giddiness in her step and ran to find a pen.  Ethan and Hyrum followed suit.  Yup, that is so Mel.  She's always drawing little stick figures in the corners of paper pads or notebooks and making those flip motion books.  Funny girl.

And I also saw this.  This one is soo me.  I live all day in my pjs. 

My pjs are sweat or yoga pants and a Shade t-shirt.  They also double as my workout clothes, cleaning clothes, and if it's my black ensemble, I can throw on a scarf and earrings and it's my date night clothes! If I workout, then I bathe and clean up and put on another pair of yoga pants and shade shirt.  Hey, no need to mess with it when you find what works for you!

Little Robbers and Helpers

The kids have made up a little skit performance to the Killer's song Who Let You Go - it involves a sneaky robber who gets out of jail and the cop is asking "who let you go" as the cop chases the robber around the room in a silly dance.  Hyrum led out in casting Sophia as the crook.  They dressed her up as a gangster and tied a snow hat full of toy coins to her wrist.  It was pretty cute.

She wore this outfit all day, it made us all smile.  Here she is breaking into the fridge where she liked to rearrange the condiments and occasionally break a bottle or spill something.  My task is to make sure no glass jars get put on the lower shelves and that the lids are all on tight.  It's be better to just keep her out of the fridge, I know.

Yesterday I was struggling to remain calm as Lily got into the fridge and made a "salad" - cut up carrots, cinnamon, a piece of my whole wheat bread that I am super stingy with and was slightly upset to see wasted, and a thing of Capris Sun (only to be used for school lunches) that she cut open with a knife and subsequently splattered a mess of all over the floor.

They like to make salads a lot, which I find adorable (like seeing them trying to help), but I also loathe (hate the waste and mess).  I was already teetering on frazzled, and after that point yesterday I kinda went down hill.  Got dinner on the table, but then kids were off to commitments and basket ball and no one stayed to help me clean up the kitchen.  Time to re-asses our vision and how to get there.  Wish I had more time to think and read and figure it out, but alas, my brain is muddled.  The kids are keeping their educational goals to go to Chuck A Rama on Saturday, but no one is keeping their "Help Mom Clean" commitment that we scheduled from 4 to 5.  If I don't get help around here cleaning, I don't care how much they've practiced music or read, I'm not gonna feel they've earned a lunch date with dad.  I took my concerns to the kids during scripture reading (which was past our 9:30 bedtime).  Don't give up, we'll get there slowly but surely, (unfortunate emphasis on the slowly.)

Charge!

Last Thursday night it was late but I insisted we talked about our family vision.  The kids were drowsy after scriptures, but I promised it would be quick.  I explained basically what a 20 year vision was hoping to just to get it started in our family dialogue and we'd revisit it in detail later. I asked them questions like "Will you be married" and "how many kids do you think you'll have?" and to my surprise they all perked right up and got very excited (too excited for 11pm) telling me all about their plans.  Ethan, always the one to have to out do the others, said he's gonna have 13 kids (He'll only be 30 years old) ~ I told him good luck with that.

We tried to review our vision again last night, something that (committing myself to policy here) we will do every Sunday evening from here on out, cause Sunday is our "Family Planning Night" where we'll review our vision, maybe recite a family motto or pledge, and we'll see if we're on target and talk about the schedule the upcoming week.

Since it wasn't late yet, last night we were able to talk about all 3 visions in more depth - "A House United" suggests having a 20 year vision, a 2 year vision, and a 2 month vision.  Our 20 year vision is a big winter party in 2012 (ski trip or Christmas gathering or both), our 2 year party we're turning into a 2 1/2 year party so we can do something in summer time, I'm thinking it'll be a road trip or some kinda camping and water party excursion.  (Maybe a cruise if Corey makes it big by then!) Our 2 month vision is a fancy dinner where everyone contributes an entree to the menu.

So, getting to my point here, last night, with the book "A House United" and a notebook in hand, we had a great family meeting.  The big insight came after I talked about some fun things I want to do, the kids all got excited again and had tons of ideas too, we were writing them down, and it dawned on me that this is good - the kids and I actually DO have the same vision!  Everything I suggested made their eyes light up and just put fuel on the fire, then they suggested things faster than I could write and I was like "that sounds awesome!  That would be really fun!"   We ARE on the same page!  So no need to be frustrated that the kids aren't with me - they do understand and want the same thing! 

The kink in the system revealed itself again as Ethan said "Mom, we always plan out these things and I get really excited, but then we never do them!"  (Mel and I had that epiphany on her 1 on 1 last week and we resolved "This is our year to DO.") "You are right!" was my reply, "You know why?  It's cause it takes all my energy just trying to keep up with the dishes and feeding you guys.  This is too much for me to do without you guys - I can't do this all alone..." Corey concurred "We need your guys' help.  These fun things won't happen without you guys working hard and contributing."  Corey told the kids everyone who make goals and does them every day this week gets treated to Chuck A Rama for lunch on Saturday.  Kids were sold on that idea easy.  Then we talked more about "doing" and I remembered the Night at the Museum quote by General George Armstrong Custer as he proudly declared: We're Americans, we don't plan, we do! and modified it to be one of our family mottos: We're Wrides ~ we don't just plan, we DO!

So then we made our plan to get there, and after getting the kids to calm down from their excitement for what is in store and "ok, no more suggestions now, let's just take the first two" then we made a basic family daily schedule which starts off with a bang ~ (drumroll) We are getting up at 6:30 (we all did it today!), then I took each of them individually and we made their personal schedule, cause they all have different school schedules and time needed for their goals.  Joe will wake up and head out, the other kids have time to do their goals in the morning.  Mel's already practiced her flute today - wow. I think Ethan is the busiest cause he had to up his siblings' wimpy "30 minutes music & reading" goals and he's doing an hour of each.  I think we can use this sibling competition to our advantage!  So Ethan's schedule is really tight, but with the 2 hours in the morning instead of 1, he got his reading done from 6:30 - 7:30 this morning. Good job, Eth!

Anyway, it was great.  And since Hyrum is my homeschool helper (and cause he doesn't have PE), his 3rd goal this week is "Exercise with Mom" at we planned it for 8:30 am after the other kids are off to the bus.  Win-win, Hyrum's gonna help me stay committed to exercising cause I gotta help him cause it's one of his Chuck a Rama goals this week.  Go team!  As we make our goals each Sunday evening we'll plan a reward for the Saturday, which was one of the kids' wishes, doing fun stuff on the weekend.  We got it planned, and "We don't Just plan, WE DO!!!"

Drawing Lines

Ok, had to come and share this too - chapter 8 "Family Government" -Before the US existed, New Amsterdam was here, a colony settled by the Dutch.  They were left by the king of the Netherlands to govern themselves.  They made good roads, homes, and a popular seaport which was one of the biggest trade centers in America.  Now quoting from page 78:

"After a while of governing themselves, and having no real rules, the citizens of New Amsterdam became lazy.  They let their homes and roads fall into disrepair (sounds like my messy house!), they started letting their animals run loose in the city, they never attended church, and they started drinking heavily.  Crime went up, and the city fell into ruin.  Without a vision of what they wanted New Amsterdam to be like, and without any set boundaries for living and making choices, the people floundered as governors of their city.

"When things hit a low point in New Amsterdam, the king of the Netherlands sent over a new governor to straighten things out.  His name was Peter Stuyvesant.  Stuyvesant immediately drew lines between what was good acceptable behavior and what was bad inappropriate behavior.  He made consequences for wrong actions, instituted days of worship, and rules for how the city must be kept in repair.  People were held accountable for their actions under his rule.  At first the people resisted and mocked his strict leadership, (my kids might resist these changes...) but after a short time of boundaries and standards, the people were happier (Happiness? Happiness is good...), more successful in business and family relationships (Success?!  Well, that sounds good too!) and enjoyed his leadership.  Ultimately a street was named for this hard nosed Dutchman.  The people were grateful for Stuyvesant's rules and consequences, because then they were able to learn that a person, or people, must learn to govern themselves strictly according to what is right an what is wrong in order to find success in their governing.

"After some years, the Duke of York won a battle against the Dutch settlers and new Amsterdam as changed to New York.

"It's easy to see from these Dutch settlers that a people left to govern themselves with no rules, vision, values, or consequences, will eventually stray from the productive path to happiness."

Ok, so there's a quote, and as I read it first and then again as I typed it, I just had bells ringing in my head the whole time - ding-ding-ding!  There's the answer, Tiff!  We've got values, but no real rules or consequences, we kinda just make those up as we go, and then end up struggling to enforce those consequences or defend them as the kids compare them to past consequences we gave (which I can never remember but the kids always seem to).  We need clearly defined boundaries!  We need a plan, a vision!  Kids get anxious if they don't know what the day will bring or what their responsibilities are each day.  "Where there is no vision, the people perish." - Proverbs 29:18

I have 8 kids, and yes that's a lot.  (Feels like more on some days than others...)  And with another baby on the way, I know things are not going to slow down or calm down or get any easier any time in the next 10 years, possibly ever?  So, self, you've got to get a handle on this. We've got to have a plan so we can manage ourselves or we're always going to be surviving instead of thriving.  I want to thrive, dream, have the happiest home I can, a place where there is a feeling my kids love.  Tonight we're going on a little overnight trip up Ogden canyon.  I am going to bring this book and a notepad and we're going to talk about our vision and plan our Christmas party in 20 years and talk about what makes our home happy, what they want, what my kids wish for in our home.  I want their dreams of home to be real, and I bet they are right inline with mine.  We just need to write them down, have a vision, then have a plan of how to get there with rules, values, and consequences.  I liked these Duggar family guidelines, we'll probably modify/merge them with some of the Peck family's rules as we write our family rules.

Vision: Do It

Yesterday morning I had to get my focus if I was going to make a positive contribution to the family.  The good and bad of it:

Good: I typed up my blog post here (which helped me)
  Bad: ...instead of wake up the kids.
Good: they woke up on their own.
  Bad: ...about 15 minute before the bus was coming.
Good: I kept up my typing therapy to clear my head.
  Bad:... instead of making their lunches.
Good: Mel made the lunches.
  Bad: but they missed the bus
Good: I finished my post and then drove them to school.  Luckily we didn't have any of the ice rain up here.

So, it ended on with more goods, so we're good.  After getting the kids off, Sophi woke up, and 8:30 is a little early for her, it's a little early for all of us cause as I said yesterday, I'm not good at managing things and we stay up way too late trying to get things done, cause it takes us so long to get everyone to stop playing toys or their saxophone and go brush and floss and everyone sit down, listen, shh!  So this morning we were all tired, Sophia was so cranky, she cried whenever I set her down, she just wanted to be held.  So I didn't do jack during the morning, but I did try to read to Sophi (drop of awesome) but she wasn't interested.  She finally fell asleep around noon.  She usually sleeps for maybe two hours.  I decided instead of attacking the house I'd figure out a master plan.  Looking over my parenting books pile, A House United spoke the loudest saying "Choose me!" so I did and proceeded to read for the next 4 1/2 hours as Sophia took the longest nap ever and my therapy was complete.  A House United totally hit the spot - Mrs. Peck's going to show me how to get a system of family government going here, Self Government, which I know still includes us leading out as parents, but if we can properly manage ourselves as parents and help the kids learn to manage themselves, boy, things are gonna be good! 

I had read parts of this book before, but I was too impatient to get to her solutions and I skipped over quite a bit.  This time I'm forcing myself to read it completely through so I don't miss any of her insights or tips or how to properly implement them.  The author and her family were on a British Reality show called "The World's Strictest Parents" which we saw and heard about in 2009 which is when I bought this book.  Here are the clips from their episode if you want to watch:

part 1:
 
part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6
(we've watched quite a few of those with the kids which has been fun, opens up lots of great discussion topics!)

Nicholeen had a really good analogy that I liked, about a time she was swimming in a murky lake for a race - she had to keep clearing her foggy goggles and then looking up to keep her focus on the shore's finish line, she was able to find her rhythm when she was alone, but if other swimmers passed her she'd get hit or splashed around too much and lose her rhythm and have to focus again to find it, and I feel like that's what I'm searching for right now, trying to find my rhythm when life is tossing me on it's waves and splashing me a bit more than I'd like.


I'm anxious again to get on to how I put a plan in place to find my rhythm, but going to keep reading through it page by page.  I liked chapter 5 which I don't think I read last time - "It Starts With You" - which made me think of this great post I read "Forget About Time Management, Let's Talk About Self Management" and also she mentions finding your mission or dream in life and says "People who live their dreams, or missions, are infections.  Soon others feel that they have something special to give to the world too... If we live our missions, our children will better understand what it looks like to have a family mission and to live by that mission." (pg. 40)

Which statement reminded me of a book my friend recommended and shared with me called "Dare, Dream, Do" by Whitney Johnson, so going to start with myself.  So much to read and learn and then most importantly DO, I need to start really doing and taking life by the horns.  I took Mel to Hobby Lobby for a 1 on 1 date, we got lots of ideas for knock off projects we want to do, she said "We always talk about stuff and we have lots of stuff (like the sketch pads and canvas boards that were in our cart) so we can do stuff, but we never do it."  Mel and I resolved "This year, this is the year that we stop just having ideas, we're gonna start doing."  This is our year to do.

Mazes

I remember loving making mazes when I was a kid, anyone else?  Although I think I was 4th or 5th grade when I was on my maze kick.  Wes must be ahead of where I was developmentally, cause this 2nd grader is all about mazes right now.  So he has expanded his professional title and is no longer just Mr. Artist, he's Mr. Maze.  Here he is barely out of bed and ready for some breakfast, and it made me smile to see him so sleepy eyed yet wasting no time to get back to work at finishing his maze - I think he fell asleep with it in his hands.

I like seeing the kids busy with their own projects.  Ethan's been busy with his new year's school goals of reading and practicing his sax every day.  Mel's busy with dance, flute, and young women's, Joe with basketball and school, Hyrum doesn't seem as busy but that's cause he gets all his work done during the day homeschooling, so he's able to have some downtime making mazes with Wes in the evenings.  Wes just has reading and math for his homework.  And the little girls just walk around all day making messes. 

I feel like I'm lost in a maze right now, somewhere very far from the finish mark.  Yeah, probably in one of the deceptive dead ends Wesley intentionally makes (how rude).  Kids are busy and I am so not on top of it as a manager of this household.  Maybe it's cause I'm recovering from being AWOL with the flu last month.  I broke out my parenting book library briefly last night cause as I returned spent from Scouts to a tornado of a home, I just thought "let's just turn off the lights and pretend this is all gone - let's go to bed, I'm worthless right now, but I might know where to begin in the morning..."  It's just 8 kids' lives picked up and thrown down wherever, "who knows where, who cares!!! (2:09)" (start at 1:37, but that whole thing is great, maybe I'll listen to that today as I clean to help me laugh at my life).  I told the kids "I am not doing a good job telling you what to do and what to clean, but is there a way that we could all get on the same page and YOU guys would want a clean house too?  And do things to clean and make a nice home on your own?  Cause I'm at a loss of how to do this - You guys are gone all day, Abi and Lily run around making messes, I can't clean this whole house on my own, I don't know how to be a parent, any tips kids?"  I am so not on top of it and need serious parenting survival help.

Large Family Logistics
The Parenting Breakthrough
A House United
How to Talk so Kids Will Listen

And I know that all families are different, different sizes, different environments, what works for me in wintery Utah in a home wouldn't work for us in perfect weather Chile in an apartment.  Still, if there's a book or blog where they just lay out their daily schedule and how they make their kids... successfully encourage their kids' participation in the work, that's what I need.  I'm hoping Large Family Logistics will help me learn how I can be a good manager, The Parenting Breakthrough help me make my plan of attack.  A House United help me give proper negative consequences for kids that are struggling getting on board with the system that I hope and pray I am able to get up and running, and How to Talk to Kids Will Listen to help me know how to communicate these ideals properly, if I figure out what those ideals are and how to implement them.  sigh.  And then maybe after all that I'll finish cleaning my desk or the laundry room and can reward myself by making a valentine wreath this weekend.

Funny Kids

In my bathroom is a scale.  The children like to step on the scale cause of the bright blue light that shines from it and cause it responds with a fun click when you step on or off of it.  I was brushing my teeth last night when Ethan came in and proceeded to weigh himself.  After seeing his weight, he gave a dramatic reaction that made me laugh as I heard it through the ears of a woman who does not like that scale right now (being pregnant) and seeing the rapidly rising number that shows up each week:

"AHHH!!  64 again!!!  It's always 64!  It's been 64 for 2 years!!!  (not sure if that is fact, but again, he was being dramatic) Why can't I gain weight?!?  I want to get to 70 soooo bad!!!"  

So I was trying not to spit my toothpaste on the mirror as I laughed and brushed.  He didn't know what was so funny.  We joined the family on the floor of the girls bedroom for scriptures and prayer, I told them what Ethan said, Corey laughed.  Joseph, being SO much older than Ethan, yet still sympathetic as he remembered when he wanted to grow big and strong, said "Don't worry Ethan, another 2 years when you're grown up like me..." at which Corey and I started to laugh again.  Corey - "Sorry to break this to you, Joseph, but you're still a small fry yourself.  That's like listening to Abi tell Lily stories and say 'when I was a little girl...'"  We were all chuckling.  It was fun.  A few other funny things said yesterday and this morning that brought a smile to my face:

~ Abi, looking outside with little girl fear in her eyes: "I'm never going outside again until the snow's gone."  Amen, Abi, I'm right there with you.  Still, it's not as bad here as it is for my friend in Maine where it was -17 around noon yesterday.  Corey said "Why... why do people live there?"  with a blank look like the student does throughout this video (:43)


(Driver's Ed is really funny too, so there's one more for your viewing pleasure, my kids love these)

~ Wes talking about the indoor recess that they constantly have at school (since it's so cold): "All I ever do at recess is just sit there."  They were each trying to plead their case as to who should be able to take the Rush Hour game to school. 

~ and lastly, Lily's just got the cutest little toddler voice lately, starting to use bigger words and sentences but still sounds so little, she said to me as I gave her a mug of hot chocolate, with a big smile and giving me a hug: "You're my best Mom on earth!"