From a kid's perspective....

Kids are so funny. One of my favorite shows is "Kid's Say" I think it aired in like the 80's or the show where Bill cosby interviewed kids. I just love how they talk so matter-of-factly, like everything is common sense. I keep a notebook, like I'm sure most of you do, where I write the funny things my kids say or do. Here are my latest additions:


Today I was helping Chelsea take off her jeans to get into her pajamas when I noticed she was wearing 5 pair of underwear! I said "Chelse! What's with the underwear?!" and she frankly replied "Well, I wanted my bum to be really, REALLY warm at preschool."


Michael and I read "The Foot Book" by Dr. Seuss, and afterwards I got the inspration to continue the foot theme by doing the "5 little piggies" on this toes. So, I ripped off his sock and did it 5 or 6 times whil he laughed and laughed. I decided we needed a fresh foot, so I went to take the sock off his other foot, but he grabbed my hand and said "NO! SHHHHHH!!!! (Then very quietly) piggies sleeping!"

Michael has been getting into the fridge so much lately, and it's driving me crazy! We've tried time-outs, "NO's!", but nothing seems to work! so, dan put him IN the fridge. It seems to be working. :)



Michael is a fairly picky eater, although he loves breakfast! However, when he does eat certain things, it grosses me out. Like the time I caught him sucking on a tube of desitin. (EWWW!!!) And when I make pizza or rolls, he LOVES to lick the flour off the board. Come on now, FLOUR!? It has zero taste AND it just makes your mouth all pastey! At times I wonder where he came from, until I bring out the sweets. Then I know that he came from my genes. (FYI: I am a good mom, I promise! I only give him the sweets when he has eaten a good dinner....well, most of the time)


Although the mini-van is not my dream family vehicle, I am so grateful for it! I love that I can watch other people's kids and take them to places. I can fit FIVE carseats in my van. Check out the Perry Bus. You can immagine the strange looks I get when we walk into the indoor play park...:)

How much would you pay?

HAve you ever seen the picture of the Virgin mary in a piece of toast,
or Jesus in a wooden closet door? Well we had our very own miracle while eating dinner the other night. We were eating one of our favorite meals, frito-chili-pie, when we came across this chip:


I don't know about you, but to Dan and I, it looks just like the swaddled baby Jesus. We were going to put it on e-bay to see how much it would go for, but after sving it for 3 weeks, Michael finally couldnt' stand that a perfectly good chip was just sitting out, and he ate it. There goes his college tuition!

Primary Activity

As part of my calling as a counselor in the Primary presidency, I'm in charge of the quarterly activities. This one really snuck up on me with all the holidays and then who really looks at January until they get the new calendar? We were going to go to a nursing home and do a service project, but that didn't work out. I was starting to get stressed out with the activity date only 2 weeks away, but thanks to my awesome mother-in-law, who suggested that we do an activity around the FRIEND magazine, I was saved! (Thanks Mom!)
So, I dressed up as the "Friendly Lady", something I remember my mom doing when I was in primary. My friend Andrea has an awesome collection of costumes, so it was fun to go through her stuff to find my new look. A few minutes into the activity I introduced as a special guest, but before I could say anything, a very bright 5 yr old boy shouted out "Your just Chelsea's mom with a wig!" I was secretly hoping I could fool them, but I guess they are just too smart. Of course, it didn't help when Michael ran up to me while I was talking with the kids and said "Mama!"

We had a great morning! There were four different stations. The first station was the favorite, since it involved food of course! They made snowballs for the kitchen craft. These are just ricekrispy treats rolled into balls and then rolled in powder sugar.

At another station they read a story from the friend and then drew pictures to submit to the Friend Magazine for the "creative Friends" section.

They also learned a new song that was featured in the January issue about the plan of salvation.

Then we made the Book of Mormon reading chart, that is also in the January issue, together.

At the end we took a group picture to also submit to the Friend. I love my calling and have so much fun with it, but I'm most grateful for the presidency I work with and the support we have in our ward. Our primary is tiny, but we have a good time!

A beautician in the family...

It finally happened...Chelsea cut her own hair. I thought we were going to able to skip that incident that often occurs in childhood, but it happened. I was practicing the piano with Chelsea when Dan came downt he stairs with this wad of hair. WE looked all around Chelsea's head to try to figure out where it came from, and couldn't see anything until we took out the barette she had placed in her hair right before dinner. This is what we found.


Yes, it could have been much worse, so we are lucky. We had a long talk about why it's important that we never cut our own hair again. Dan thought we should just leave it alone, but I thought something needed to be done, so it wasn't so obvious, and besides, Chelse could use a haircut. Well, I chopped it, but for some reason, it doesn't look quite right to me. OH well. Good thing hair grows, right?!

A little help...

So, the search for jobs has began. :) We like the idea of living in Spokane, WA, although neither of us have spent much time there. IT seems like when I tell people this many of you rave about Spokane. HOwever, I can't remember which ones of you I have talked with! We're trying to figure out WHERE in Spokane we would like to settle. WE are going out there in a few weeks to check things out and meet with some people, but we'd like to have an idea of what's out there. So, for you that have been to Spokane or have connections there, we are hoping you can help us out! Our questions for you are:

1) Are there places to stay away from?
2) Are there schools that have a reputation for beeing better than others
3) Where are the "newer" areas where new families might be gathered. (So our kids can have lots of friends to play with. We'd love it if we lived on a street with a plethera of playmates!)
4) Are there some suburbs that we should look into?
5) Anything else you can tell us?!

I know, kind of a wierd and desperate entry, but I don't know where else to start!

Thanks for any info!

What...no camera?!

Yesterday Dan had the day off, so we packed up the kids and traveled to Mt Hood. Driving around in Portland on a clear day is pretty cool, because it appears almost flat except for 2 or three mountains (volcanoes) that pop out of nowhere. This was such a day. It was VERY cold and windy, but it was actually sunny! Perfect for pictures! I made sure to pack lots of extra batteries so I could take pictures to my heart's delight.

We borrowed some winter gear from a friend so we could go sledding. We folded the seats down in the back of our van (LOVE the stow-and-go feature!) and after 45 minutes, we finally had the kids layered enough to hopefully keep them warm. They looked hillarious! Before Michael was dressed he was running all over the van, but once he was bundled up, I laid him down and he couldn't move! (AHA! the secret to sanity!) To be fair, Dan said I was the only one that looked ridiculous. The only coat I have is leather with faux fur lined, so not very good for sledding. I had about 4 long sleeve shirts on with 3 sweaters on top of those, and then a hooded jacket. No boots, just my old tennis shoes. Everyone else on the mountain was decked out in cool snow pants and ski jackets. OH well. :)

Anyway, we finally made it out of the van, I whipped out my camera to start taking some serious pictures, and the camera started flashing "No memory card" on the screen! I was livid! :) But, the purpose of our trip was to have fun, not to take pictures, so we went on our way. The kids loved the tubes and Chelsea went down by herself a few times. When the got cold, we headed back to our van where Dan heated up some water on our camping stove so we could have a lunch of cup-of-noodles, granola bars, wheat thins, and grapes.

I finally couldn't stand the thought of not documenting this fun day, so I went across the street to the gas station and purchased a diposable camera. I took a few pictures, but the kids were getting tired so we headed off for more sledding. After one more run, Michael had had enough of the cold wind, so I took him back and we enjoyed a nap in the back of the van until Dan and Chelsea were ready to go home. Now, don't you wish you had awesome pictures to accompany this blog? ME TOO! :) I only ended up taking 5 pictures, so who knows when we'll use up the remaining film on the camera so we can develop them.

ON the other hand, I realized I never posted pictures of Chelsea and Michael's new play house. My friend gave it to me as her daughter isn't very interested in it anymore. They love it! It will be lots of fun when it gets warmer so they can actually spend some time in it!





Thanks for reading this insanely long, pictureless blog! :)

Quiz on your Right

Okay, so Dan is dying to know the results from your quiz that I'm sure all of you have now taken. (Quiz is on the right of the blog). I think it's mainly because when he did it, his results kept naming Hillary as his compatible representative. :) So, we're wondering, even if it's not who you are actually going to vote for, who did the quiz name as your compatible representative for president in 08. Mine was Obama, which for right now, is correct, but the runners up suprised me as they were all Democrat, and I'm registered as Republican. Hmmm....VERY interesting!