Nine more days

Actual conversation between me and Em (she was sitting on the pot)

Em: MOM!
(I rushed in, she sounded urgent)
Me: What is it?
Em: Mom, there is nine more days until a fire drill.
Me: How do you know that?
Em: I counted on the Feb calendar (she has a huge fear of fire drills)
Me: Well, your doing really great, last time you didn't cry and ball up on the floor! Thats good, lets focus on keeping it positive.
Em: okay....
Me: Whats something good you think about when the fire drill goes off?
Em: well, I really like to be the last in line because then I can run.
Me: see, thats great. Why do you like to run?
Em: Because I like to flex my legs. They look good when I flex.
see note


special note: In High school Jeff got "best legs" and to this day he walks around the house flexing them, and to his credit, he does have very great legs. I think I'm going to be in trouble with this kid.

Gilly Schwarzenegger

The other day I called out for Gilly to get ready to pick up the girls from school. He came out of his room with 4 pieces of pajamas stuffed under his shirt, trying to make some muscles...... (you guessed it) to look just like his dad.

(side view actually looks kinda like me)

Lost, or just confused

Thursday night, 7:30PM:
I am not a Lost fan. I am so confused when it comes to that show but Jeff has jumped head first into it this season and has been glued to the television (as glued as you can be with three kids vying for your attention). Our Home Teachers came and we turned off the television. They pulled out the Ensign and told the kids a story of Peter and Jesus. This is the exact picture he used:
Brother Larsen asked the kids "do you know who this is with Jesus?"
Em replied "yeah, I think its that guy on Lost"

Actual conversation:

Emily: Mom, I don't know how to graze the cheese.
Me: huh?
Emily: you know, graining cheese.
Me: huh?
Emily: Mom, I like cheese that is cut in little pieces.
Me: oh! you'd like some graTed cheese.

I just loved when they say what they think they hear, not how its actually spelled.

the Elephant Man

So I started browsing my pictures, trying to find some family photos to add to my header. It turns out that I don't actually know how to add pictures to my header so I'm just going to post this one that I found because it makes me laugh. Garrett made this contraption trying to look like an elephant. The straw was so he could breathe.

the bloody nose

Well, she got a bloody nose sledding but I still love posting pictures of my kids doing stuff that would cause me trauma if anyone saw me with, lets say, a tissue jammed up my nose. Isn't that why we blog? (I actually made her keep that in for a while due to the fact that she freaks out if she sees any sort of blood spewing from her body).

Gilly Jams

Funny things

A few funny things I need to write down before I forget them


Em's primary teacher died. In her prayers that night she said "please pray that sister Hedman is happy in the ground".

Gilly thinks he has a new brother he calls Jason who lives in California. Every time he says something bad he blames it to Jason.......
Gilly: Em, horses are stupid!
Me: Garret Jones! We do NOT use stupid in this house!
Gilly: Jason told me to say it
Me: What? who's Jason?
Gilly: he's my brudder, he lives in Cafonia

The best time of day

I love it when he falls asleep before 10p.m.

Em's big win

As some of you may know, Em won the second round in the Reflections contest. At the awards ceremony they said that there were 1500 entries (and she took first for her age category).

She was a little discouraged that it was a ribbon instead of a trophy, but then I whispered in her ear that horses win ribbons that look just like that. Now she trots around the house with her ribbon on her stick horse.

Fine dining with Chef Jones

We all know how I value nutrition and I only use organic items. Okay, not really. Currently Garretts favorite meal is octopus hotdogs that take much skill in mastering. Notice the ketchup faces.....one smiley, one frownyThis is Garretts imitation of how I should make the frowny face
And how I should make the smiley face.....
I was laughing and he couldn't smile in this one because he was trying to be serious
in this one he told me that their eyes should be closed
Needless to say, its good they make gummy multivitamins or he wouldn't be properly nourished

And there goes another piece of my identity.....

So I made the mistake of letting Em have control of the radio while I ran some errands the other day (I make the comment mistake because she found all the country radio stations and now whenever the vehicle is on it has to be blaring country music and we all know how I feel about country music. Not good). And while this music is loudly blaring I pull up to the drive through at the pharmacy only to have it dawn on me that the people in the pharmacy may be thinking it is my choice to be listening to this. I want to hold up a sign that says..."hey, I'm only doing this for my country obsessed daughter!"

Em's big month

January has had its ups and downs for Em. Some of the downs have been:

1. Having her best friend move (my least favorite person on the planet, yes, my prayers were answered).

2. Her horse moved away from the stables that are very near our home. We are still waiting to hear where he will be and hopefully we'll be able to continue lessons on Nito.

Some of the ups have been:

1. Winning Reflections twice

2. Getting an outstanding student award and going to Golden Corral with Pricipal Denhalter

And the most exciting event..............

Losing her first tooth!!!!

If any of you have been around when this kid thinks something painful is going to happen (like throwing up or having diarrhea) you'll understand what a big event this was. She couldn't eat, sleep or move her tongue in fear of it falling out and bleeding. If its this bad with a little tooth, whats life going to be like when she starts her period? I don't want to go there.....

The Pack Rat

This weekend has turned into a de-junking weekend, which to me is great even if I do need some prodding to get it done. We cleaned out all of Garretts old clothes and baby stuff and gave something like 10 bags to the DI. On my way out the door I told the kids that they each needed to pick out three toys to give away, but I think they heard it as "you need to sever your most loved body part with this dull knife". Whats so hard about giving away toys that have been grown out of? They each went downstairs to the toy room and brought up:

1. one of Garretts toys

2. toys from Happy Meals

3. abandoned toys that other children have left at my house

So this got me to thinking about our Pack Rat, Abby. This kid sleeps with every stuffed animal ever given to her, six blankets, three pillows, a heated rice pack, and many other assorted trinkets.
You'd think "gosh, how does she sleep with all that crap?" but please know reader that I have cleared off her bed for her only to have her drag it all out again and put it back where it was. If something is missing she will call out "mom, I can't sleep without ___________!" and I'll have to search the house until its found.
So I do the only thing a mother can do:

Wait until she goes to school to make a DI run!

From Loof to Like

On a normal day, Gill's favorite saying is "Mom (more often times its Dad) I loof you" and in the span of, oh lets say 3 minutes, he will say it about 12 times. No complaints here! Well this morning on the way to drop the girls off at school the loof turned into like......"Mom, I like you". Hmmmm....Maybe the gun incident pushed him over the edge.