A Year of Quotes

1/4/14
Logan: Are we going to our own reward this Sunday? (he means "ward")

1/9/14
Logan: I turned on the TV this morning and the bad news was on.

1/23/14
Eli: It's making me frustrating!

1/26/14
Logan: My nose is drooling and it won't stop!

2/5/14
Eli: My tummy ran out of batteries!

2/9/14
s Logan is working on learning to read, he gets annoyed with words don't sound out the way they are really pronounced and he will say, "That word is a lie!" like, for instance, the word lie:)

2/10/14
Ali: My head felt like a giant picked up the house and was spinning it; I was dizzy!

2/12/14
Logan: I'm hatching a plan!

2/15/14
Logan: Do my new teeth grow from seeds?

2/20/14
I picked up Eli from preschool the other day and he loudly announced, "She's mine!"

2/23/14
Logan: I wonder where Santa's workshop is? I think when I grow up I will be a mail carrier, because they must know where it is since they bring him letters.

2/25/14
Ali: I was choking, but don't worry I didn't die.

2/27/14
On two different occasions, when I said, "Uncle JD and Aunty Lianna are bringing over Korrali," Ali and Eli said, "They're letting us KEEP her!?!" and were quite disappointed when I said no.

3/4/14
Eli: Boys don't sing.
Me: Oh? What do boys do?
Eli: Boys walk around carrying bags of money!

3/6/14
Ali: The ugliness has to stop!

3/11/14
Me: Eli put these toys in the bin.
Eli: (laughing) Silly Mommy! Ben is like my friend at church! That is a box!

3/15/14
Logan: I like mud. Boys like mud.
Ali: Some girls like mud.
Logan: Yeah, NASTY girls!

3/25/14
Ali: Mason is getting cubes in his ears.

3/27/14
Ali: I came out of Heaven first.
Logan: That's because ladies are first.

4/1/14
Logan: look at all the legs on that caterpillar! Heavenly Father must have spent a long time making him!

4/3/14

Me: You guys have new cousins named Dean and Neil.
Ali: Hey, we are like them because we were just kneeling!

4/6/14
Yesterday watching conference, every time a new speaker got up, Eli would say, "Is that the Holy Ghost? (then the next time) Is THAT the Holy Ghost?"

4/10/14
Logan (to Jason): "I love you, but I love mom best."
Ali: I love both of you the same height.

4/13/14
Logan: My skin is peeling, so it's a good thing I ordered some new skin.

4/14/14
When I ask Eli to do something, if he's feeling grouchy is response often is, "I'm busy."

4/17/14
Logan: "Mom, don't call me sweets! That would mean there are lots of Logans but there is only one of me. Call me Sweet."

4/28/14
Ali: My heart is wonderful!

4/30/14
Eli:"Someday I will be as strong as Darth Vader

5/1/14
Ali sounded out the word "but" this afternoon in her reading and dissolved into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. Me trying to explain the difference between "but" and "butt" didn't really help matters...

5/7/14
Logan: Mom, are you growing a baby in your tummy?
Me: No.
Logan: Then why is your tummy squishy like that?
Me: (choosing to laugh) Because of you and your siblings!

5/12/14
Ali: Tomorrow is going to be the best day in the whole world!
Me: Why?
Ali: Because it will be warm enough to wear shorts!
It has been a long winter, but how nice to be so easy to please!

5/13/14
Ali: Bees live in bee hives because they have the same first name.

5/28/14
Today is the last day of Kindergarten and this afternoon Ali was telling me about something that used to be hard for her and said, "It was hard when I was little, like when I was in Kindergarten." I guess she grew up a lot in the space of about three hours:)

5/30/14
Ali: (in a family prayer) "I thank thee for Daddy who makes the money and for Mommy who spends it."

6/6/14
Logan wrote me a note that said,"I love you even when you fall into a pumpkin," and another where he promised to love me even if I fell into a watermelon:) Good to know:)

6/11/14
Ali: I'm mad at the clouds (for raining).

6/13/14
Ali: I'm good at walking far; my feet just take me there.

6/19/14
Logan: After my mission, before I get a wife, I am going to be an inventor and I will make machines to help you do things because you will be old.

6/20/14
Eli frequently says, "I look like Nephi," after I fix his hair, when he has a bath or beach towel around his shoulders, or other random times:)

6/21/14
Ali: I'm not a princess, I just look like one.

7/3/14
Eli: "Mommy, when you're done putting on your eyes, can you help me?" (I was doing my makeup)

7/6/14
Eli: You are tickling my bones!

7/7/14
Logan: Mom, what's it called when a great artist can't think of what to make?
Me: A block.
Logan: Yeah, I have a block.

7/11/14
Ali has had babies on the brain (I can't imagine why with all her new cousins and cousins-to-yet-come), and was playing that her stuffed camel was pregnant and about to have a baby. Here is what she was saying as she played, "I wonder when my baby will be here. Maybe I should check...oh, he's here! Yay!" Ha! If only it were that easy!

7/13/14
Eli: Mom, you look like a girl.
Me: I am a girl.
Eli: No, you're a mom!

7/14/14
Ali's excitement about the painters coming was somewhat diminished when she found out they were not, in fact, going to be painting the entryway pink.

7/25/14
Logan was teasing and Ali said, "I can't live like this!"

8/10/14
Logan: Our dishwasher sounds like a wild kid.

8/14/14
Eli got worried every time anyone mentioned that pilots were flying our airplane because he kept hearing pirates instead of pilots.

8/16/14
Eli: Mom, do you want to play Star Wars with me? I'll be Han Solo and you be Chewy.
Me: Sure.
Eli: Mom, Chewy can't talk! (the "duh" was implied)

8/27/15
Ali: what was that noise?
Me: I burped.
Ali: I didn't know parents could burp!

9/5/14
Eli: When I was a baby in your tummy I would kick you. Did it hurt?
Me: No, it didn't. You can just feel the baby moving inside of you. It's really cool.
Ali: (Horrified look on her face) I don't want to be a girl anymore.

9/9/14
Eli: Boys and girls don't go on dates, moms and dads go on dates!

9/11/14
Ali: I love you so much, I just can't explain it.

9/12/14
Eli: Mommy, when I talk I really need you to hear me.

9/25/14
Harry Potter fans will remember in the Chamber of Secrets when Harry asked the journal if it could tell him about said chamber and it's monster the journal writes, "I can't tell you, but I can show you." For some reason this line resonated with Eli and it is his new catch phrase for many occasions. If I ask what he is doing, what he's going to wear, if he's done eating, etc he often answers by saying, " I can't tell you...but I can show you," in a spooky sounding voice:)

9/27/14
Logan: Ah, just look at this lovely earth. Heavenly Father and Jesus are amazing to have made all of this! And they sure must love us a lot to have made it all for us.

9/30/14
Ali: I sit with two boys on the bus, and they are both nine or ten or something like that! Zack is my boyfriend.
Me: You can't have a boyfriend until you're sixteen!
Ali: I know, I know. I mean he is my boy-friend. But I still like sitting with him and paying games with him.
Jason: I think it's time to start driving Ali to school.

10/26/14
Logan: "(in a prayer)... Please bless the baby in Mommy's belly to turn out right."

10/29/14
Logan: When my brain works really hard does it get sweaty? And what are all those lumps on the brain; is that from when I scratch my head?

10/31/14
Me to Eli: you are cute.
Eli: I know. Do you know why I'm cute?
Me: Why?
Eli: Because I am little.

11/1/14
Logan: Girls can be sensitive. 

11/9/14
Logan woke me up at 5:55am to say, "Mom! I just woke up! Can you believe how late I slept?!" And sadly, compared to his normal 5 am, it was pretty late for him!

11/23/14
Me: Logan, I need you to clean up.
Logan: But cleaning is exhausting and frustrating!

12/12/14
Logan: I had a hectic day at school today.

12/13/14
Eli: I can't wait to eat the yummyness.

12/28/14
Jason: One of the boys I drove to the youth dance got a girl's phone number.
Logan: That. Is. Disgusting.

Headstand

Logan has been working for months on teaching himself to do a headstand. He is up to 10-15 seconds now and while it hurts my head to watch him, I have to say I am super impressed with both his skills and determination!

A Very Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! We sure love this time of year, and have had a wonderful Christmas. A few days before Christmas Eli's Joy School group performed the nativity and some songs at a local nursing home. Eli was an adorable Shepard.

Then Christmas Eve we did an family nativity with Eli reprising his role as shepard, Logan as a wise man (he said to me, "Who knelt the worship Baby Jesus? That's who I want to be."), Ali as Mary, Jason as Joseph, Korrali as an angel, and Uncle JD as the inn keeper. I naarated and video taped and Auntie Lianna was an angel's helper:)

We told the kids they could wake up at 5am like normal, but that they had to wait in their rooms until 7am to wake us up to go downstairs. We set up the portable DVD player in Logan's room so they would have something extra fun to do while they waited. A little after 2am I noticed a light on and went to investigate: Ali had her light on in her room and was quietly playing...she mistook the 2 for a 5 in her excitement! I tucked her back in and then noticed the light again at promptly 5am...Logan had gotten up and woken Ali to come in his room and wait with him. Shortly thereafter Eli joined them and I had to get a picture of these three excited kids before I went back to sleep for a little while:)

Everyone was very pleased with their Christmas loot. Ali loves a new puppy game she got for her leapster, as well as her paw patrol toys and horse for her American Girl dolls.

Eli loves the pirate ship and ninja turtles Santa brought him, and often the turtles join the pirates on their adventures. He also loves his ninja turtle costume shell and weapons and paw patrol pups.

Logan made a last minute request to change his gift from Santa to be a magic hat and tricks, and we are so glad the elves hadn't made his first request yet and could make the switch because he is the greatest magician ever! He also loves his Torch lego transformer and loved his remote control helicopter for the few rides until it broke...we're hoping the store will let us get a new one!

Jason and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the kids love every minute of the day. We also loved having JD's family here, especially since they are moving in a week. Ali asked the other day, "Why does everyone keep moving away from us?" and I want to know the same thing! We will miss them so much!

Merry Christmas!

Santa

This year we discovered that Santa visits the little zoo a couple miles from our house every weekend in December, and this is where we will be visiting him every year in the future! There was no line and a very good Santa. We cant wait for him to visit our house in a few days!

Headgear

One of the last days of school was "wear your favorite Christmas hat or headband day" and of course we only had one Santa hat. Ali was very sad that she was't going to get to wear anything, so I suggested making one of her headbands into antlers--in the five minutes we had before the bus came! I was pretty proud of the result and was pleased that she was so grateful and happy, grinning ear to ear as she walked to the bus. 

Wanting to avoid a similar rush on future days, I bought a few Christmas headbands, but Ali still likes her homemade one the best, so Eli and I have been having fun with them instead!

Turkey Trot

Jason ran the Turkey Trot, a 5K in Naperville, on Thanksgiving again this year. He ran this year with a young man that he works with in his church calling, and they both did well and had a great time despite the 20ish degree weather. The kids and I were our unsupportive selves again this year and were sleeping (me) and watching tv (them) while Jason was out running in the cold. It is just so early! And on a holiday! And cold! But I am impressed that he does the run. Well done, Love.

Four-Eyes

A new twist on the term four-eyes?

Cardboard

I don't know why Jason and I bother buying toys for our kids-- they rarely play with them. They are, however, constantly making things.  Cardboard is the new medium of choice around here,which means any and all cardboard boxes from cereal boxes to shoe boxes to package boxes are pretty much all put to use in one project or another. And our recycle bin gets checked regularly in case I have tried to sneak a box out there without them seeing (something I admit to doing as often as I can...I sometimes think there are only so many cardboard creations one home needs at a time, but I am clearly in the minority in this thought.) The project on these couple of days were robots. Logan even helped Eli to make one, something that of course made my heart very happy.

Vampire

Yes, we realize it is nearly Christmas and that Halloween is over, but dressing up in costumes is one of Eli's favorite things to do, and it happens pretty much daily. On this day, Logan and Ali decided something was missing and painted his face for him. 

Welcome Home

Jason went out of town for work for a week, something with thankful happens very rarely. The kids missed him and were very excited for him to come home, and being the kind of kids they are, that meant that they needed to make something to commemorate the event--a welcome home banner. Cuties.

Little Chef

Eli's favorite thing to do these days is to help me cook dinner. I try and find him actually helpful things to do, but when I run out of those, generally he can find some other way to "help" that makes him just as happy.

Christmas Tree

A few weeks ago the kids asked if we could put up our tree. Since it wasn't even Thanksgiving yet I said no. But they are smart, my kids, so they set to work making their own Christmas tree. The cut out about a six-foot tree from the now ruined boxes from JD and Lianna, and then spent several hours over several days decorating it. They tore strips of green paper and then taped or glued them over the whole tree, giving it a cool texture along with the original intent of making it green, and then made a couple dozen individualized ornaments. This was a huge project. It took them probably 10-15 kid hours, four or five entire glue sticks, two rolls of tape, and who knows how many dozens of sheets of paper. But they did it, happily, together, and mostly on their own. The final product truly was amazing, and sure enough got put up in the house long before Thanksgiving.

Toasty Warm

Wrapped in a blanket next to the fire; a girl after my own heart!

Play Time

I am trying to make a conscious effort to spend time actually playing with Eli everyday rather than just occupy the same space with him all day, and here is some photographic proof of the fun we have when I succeed.

Veteran's Day

The first graders at Ali and Logan's school put on a Veteran's Day program that was so cute. Ali had a speaking part because, get this, "she is a little shy" and "could use the practice speaking in front of groups." It is so funny how different kids can be in different situations! She is not at all shy at home or church! I was amazed watching every single kid sing every word to every cute song, many of which I recognized because Logan has been singing them all the time at home lately. I think they had a great time doing it, and we loved watching them.

Cousins

Ethan and Emily had a day off of school one day lately that Ali and Logan still had school on, so Eli got his cousins all to himself. I keep expecting them to act like teenagers one of these times and want to just play on their phones or devices rather than play with my kids (which would be fine), but sweethearts that they are, they keep surprising me. Eli had the best day ever!

20 Weeks

Here I am with little miss or mister at 20 weeks. It seems to have gone fast this time than ever before; I even tend to forget how many weeks along I am and have to ask at appointments. We have our ultrasound in a couple of weeks, but I think we have decided to be surprised about this little one's gender like we were with Eli.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Can you tell which book-made-to-movie we are reading now? I am always impressed with how well the kids remember the plot from day to day and am grateful for the idea to read to them during dinner which cuts down on contention during that meal.

Girl Scout

Ali came home from school the other day full of information about girl scouts and decided to make herself a vest complete with patches like "helping someone do hard things," "taking care of fish," "bird watching," etc. Maybe we need to look into real girl scouts.

Fire Pit

The previous owner of this house left all sorts of random things, which for the most part was terribly annoying, but among them was a fire pit that we have loved! Having family fires in the backyard on fall and spring nights is becoming a fun family tradition that we hope our kids look back on with fondness someday. I know I will. A certain little girl kept photo bombing...so she is in all of these:)

Bus Stop

Eli always walks down the street with us to the bus stop in the mornings. He usually heads out with whomever is ready first and I hang back till the other kid is ready, so I usually get there after Eli. Most days, when he sees me walking up he runs over to me and gives me a big happy hug like it's been days, rather than a minute or so, since I've seen him:)

Serious Apple Eater

When Ali eats an apple she eats the whole thing: apple, core, seeds and all. OK, she usually throws away the stem, but still!

Farewell!

Gary and Tina, aka Mom and Dad, aka Grandma and Grandpa moved to Utah on November 1st. How sad we were to see them leave! And yet, we are excited for them for this new season of their life, are so pleased that Gary is healthy enough to enjoy it, and are so thankful for all the years we had to live near them. 

Our whole family has wonderful memories of this house! This is where Jason came home from his mission to, where I first met Gary and Tina when Jason and I were engaged, where we had one of our wedding receptions, where we had countless family dinners, birthdays, holidays, and Monday visits. How thankful we are that though the house is gone, the memories are still there as well as our relationship with them! 

Joy School Halloween Party

This is Eli with one of his best Joy School buddies Emma at their Joy School Halloween party. They are too cute!

Happy Halloween!

We had such a fun Halloween month, and the actual holiday was a fun way to end it. We didn't let the freezing weather or 25 mile-an-hour winds keep us from trick-or-treating, and Logan and Jason even went back out after dinner. We loved having Ethan, Emily, and Cooper out with us! Our kids went as Darth Vader, Hermionie, and a pumpkin. At various events over the course of the month the older two stuck to their original costumes, but Eli wasted not one time with a repeat costume and was a vampire, a pirate, a fireman, and an M&M at other events.

All the kids loved the houses with lots of decorations, but they especially loved this house.

Gotta count the loot.

They also really loved handing out the candy, and had this little set up right by the door.

We loved having Korali come over with her parents. She knew just what to do with candy. I loved seeing her and my kids all really play together for maybe the first time.

We of course celebrated Grandma's birthday, maybe for the last time in person. They left to drive out to Utah and their new home there early the next morning. A funny side note is that when I told the kids they had finally sold their home and would be moving shortly before Halloween there was a moment of panic--they had never been trick-or-treating anywhere but in Grandma and Grandpa's neighborhood and somehow didn't know that it went on other places too!

I was mean enough to insist on this picture right after the final hugs goodbye, so ignore the red eyes. We will sure miss these two! But I was so grateful to look around at the aunts, uncles, and cousins who would still be nearby.

Halloween Party

Remember that Halloween cookbook we got several months ago? Well, somehow that simple little book spiraled into me hosting a Halloween party for eighteen 3-7 year olds. Having just hosted Eli's birthday party about two weeks ago, I told them I would be happy to have kids over in their costumes and provide lots of yummy food and a craft, but that was all I was going to do; no games or party favors or anything else. This was the first party I've ever done that was all about the food. It was a lot of work, but I was super pleased with the results.

Spiderweb pizza:

Bone Bread sticks:

Witches Broom Cookies:

Spider Webbed Deviled Eggs:

There were also bat and cat chocolate cookies, cupcakes with gummy worms and cupcakes with candy corn, green wiggly jello, and slime punch. Here are the kids awaiting their guests:

And enjoying the food:

This may have been his 5th cup of punch. Can you tell?

We weren't quite sure how many kids would show up, but we knew it would be a lot because we invited tons. When I counted 18 as they came I was sure this would be the longest hour of my life and that my house would be destroyed in the end. I was pleasantly surprised that in general things were super calm. The kids were all really well-behaved and happily moved between the craft, food and toys with always a manageable number of kids at each. And not even all the toys were pulled out, just a few that were shared well. It was amazing!

I wore this wig as part of my costume (which otherwise was a spider cape and bone necklace), and the kids all thought it was hilarious. Ali had to try it on after I took it off.

Anyway, everyone had a great time (including me!) and I may allow myself to be talked into it again next year.