Evie-isms... again

Evie has recently discovered the game Hide and Seek. She just doesn't grasp all the nuances of how to play it, exactly. This is how a game with her usually goes:

Evie: Okay! I will go hide and you count!

Caite: Okay.

Evie: Close your eyes!

Caite: 1...2...3...

Evie: THUMP*THUMP*THUMP* (as you hear her running down the hall to wherever she is going to hide.)

Caite: ...4...5...6

Evie: Okay! I am hiding now!

Caite: ...8...9...10 Ready or not here I come! ... Evie? Where are you?

Evie: (as she comes running back) Here I am!

We could play this all day as it requires very little effort on our part.

She is also continuing to be her very verbal and funny self. Last Saturday she got to have some special one on one time with me, running errands. When she was getting dressed for the day she picked out a pair of pink pants that have been scribbled on with a ball point pen. (Who it was that did the actual scribbling is still a point of contention...) On the way home from the store she was looking down at the pen marks and out of the blue from the back of the van I hear, "What is going on in my pants?!" I laughed so hard I almost had to pull the car over. I told her that I thought she meant "what is going on with her pants" and that we need to work on her prepositional phrases.

Today was classic though, Aunt Caite was with me when I picked Evie up from preschool. Evie was, as usual, talking a mile a minute telling us about everything they had done, specifically she was in the middle of a play by play account of how they mixed red and yellow paint to make orange and paint suns. Then she told us that the two boys in her class were being mean to each other and not sharing the paint.

Me: Oh dear, they weren't sharing?

Evie: Nope, they sure weren't.

Me (mostly rhetorically): What are we going to do with those silly boys?

Evie (very seriously): Get new ones I guess.

Caite (repressing a snort): Evie, you are so practical.

Evie: Yup.

Silly girl. I don't want a new one though.

Where does he get this stuff?

The other day Jake was sitting next to me on the couch and playing the Wii. He started to do the "I gotta go to the bathroom but I don't want to stop playing my game" dancing thing that kids do sometimes. So I gently pointed out that he was bouncing on the couch and suggested it might be because he needed to use the bathroom. Without taking his eyes off the TV he said, "Oh no. I am just thrilled and tingling with excitement for this next match!" And went on playing. Not two minutes later he jumped up and ran into the bathroom. His dad asked him if he got any "excitement" on himself in all the rush.

The other night around the dinner table, Brian was enjoying a walk down memory lane. He was regaling the kids with memories and stories from when his family adopted his sister Brooke from Korea. They especially like the stories about how the siblings helped teach her English, like how for a long time she thought that the family dog's name was "Say Scooter" or how instead of saying three days ago she would say, "yesterday, yesterday, yesterday..."

And then Jake wanted to know how old Grandma T. was when they adopted Brooke. (Don't worry Terrie, we won't publish actual dates on here...) So the conversation turned to math as Brian told Jake how old Grandma T. is and how old Aunt Brooke is, so Jake figured out the differences in their ages. Then Brian told Jake that Aunt Brooke was 7 when she was adopted, so they figured out how many years ago that was. Then Brian said, "So Grandma is x years old now, and they adopted Brooke y years ago. So x-y=?" Less than 10 seconds later Jake responds with "38!" I looked at Brian and said, "Is that right?" We took quite a bit longer to figure out that he was indeed correct.

We started to joke about nicknames for our genius son. I said again that I thought Sheldon (from Big Bang Theory) was the most appropriate. Jake looked at me, waggled his eyebrows and said, "Get your geek on."

Just once I'd like to make it through a meal without snorting liquid through my nose...

Happy Birthday Brian!

This morning I decided we needed to do something more with this holiday than sit around and watch tivo. Brian was lucky enough to have today off, and since yesterday was his birthday I thought we should spend the day doing something that he would enjoy. So I let him sleep in while I got the kids ready to go, and then woke him up and told him to get ready to go do something fun. We threw the scooter in the back of the van and headed south. Brian was driving with no idea of the final destination, and as we passed various off ramps and exits he would check off destinations. "Okay, so we aren't heading to Wendover..." With three children? Yeah, right. "Not heading west, so not to Vegas then?" Try to keep it in the realm of possibility honey.

We went to Cabelas. Now some of you might be saying, "what?" But Brian loves that place and unlimited time to wander around and look at hunting/fishing/camping gear was a perfect way to spend a (belated) birthday afternoon. Me? Well, let's just say it is a good way to show that I love my husband. They do have neat displays of taxidermy animals and an aquarium of live fish. The kids thought that was cool. And they have a great cafeteria, so we ate a nice lunch. I had my knitting so while Brian took the kids in the shooting gallery and candy store, I sat with the baby and knit on a sock. Got my share of strange looks, but I don't let a look of contempt from a grown man in head to toe camouflage on a Monday afternoon phase my self confidence...


A very kind man offered to take a picture for us. I was so grateful, it isn't very often that we actually get all five of us in the same photo. In fact I am ashamed to say that I think that this might be the first family picture since we had Lila.


Jake was very interested in all of the displays of animals. Here he is preparing for a bear attack... I'm not so sure this is an approved technique.


Evie is such a daddy's girl. She is never happier then when she is snuggling with him.


Nice catch Jake! Now what are you going to do with it?


Ahh. Dinner.


So of course Evie had to "catch" the fish too.


I'm not sure that's what they mean by "fish kiss"...


Have you been hugged by a moose lately?


Jake, apparently, has trouble interacting with wildlife.


"Mom! A little tent! Just our size! And it has a bench!!" It took all my powers of persuasion to get them back out of this ice fishing tent.

After several hours of wandering and looking and three very tired children we loaded up and headed home. But as a final proof of love for my husband I agreed to drive home through Heber. Brian loves to take drives, especially through canyons and mountains. It really isn't my favorite pastime, as I suffer from both motion sickness and some slight control issues when I am in the passenger seat. But it was his day, and overall, really fun and relaxing for the whole family. Happy Birthday honey! Many happy returns of the day. (I love that phrase...)

Happy Valentine's Day!

As a mom I couldn't ask for better sweethearts on Valentine's. I also have a pretty great husband. He ran an errand with Jake last night. They said they were going to pick up a prescription, but they also came home with flowers for us girls.


As much as I love the flowers, I love even more that he brought one for each of his daughters to start a tradition of making them feel special and loved on Valentine's Day. I also love that he had Jacob help him pick them out and is setting such a good example for him of how to treat the women in his life. Yup, we are pretty lucky girls.

My climbing monkey...

Lila is wearing me out! I've never had a child that treats the entire world like their own private jungle gym.


No horizontal surface is safe now that she has mastered the art of both pushing with her legs and pulling with her arms.


And she is fearless with apparently no fear of heights or memory retention when she falls off them. (Thump, *scream* is starting to be a regular combination around here.)


I am definitely going to have to be rearranging furniture to make sure there are no "steps" for her, as they seem to be an irresistible temptation.


But she is so proud that she can keep up with her brother and sister!


Note to self: We can no longer allow drinks of water by the bed, even sippy cups are no match for a determined toddler.

The subtle art of negotiation...

* originally written on 1/30

Tonight we were driving home from visiting Grandma T. and I made the mistake of asking the kids what they wanted for dinner. A rookie mistake, I know...

Evie: I want Spaghettios!

Jake: Oh... I am really craving Top Ramen.

Evie: No Jake! We are going to have Spaghettios.

Me: Okay you guys, you need to find a compromise... because I am NOT cooking 4 different meals tonight!

Jake: (quietly to his sister) Evie, don't you like Ramen? Because it is really yummy.

Evie: No Jake. I really like Spaghettios.

Brian: Hey you two, a compromise means that you both have to be willing to change your minds.

There was an intensely whispered conversation until we turned down our street.

Jake: Okay, so we both like chicken nuggets. Should we ask mom if we have some tater tots?

Evie: Yeah! I like tater tots!

Me: Hey guys, I also have a bag of onion rings in the freezer.

Jake: Oh yeah! I LOVE onion rings!

Me: I also have mini corn dogs...

Brian: (muttered as an aside to me) Why are you muddying the waters?

Jake and Evie: Yes! Corn dogs and onion rings!

Me: (feeling guilty for steering them down that road, because Brian is allergic to cornmeal and can't have the corn dogs) Okay, how about I cook corn dogs, chicken nuggets, onion rings and tater tots? Then everyone can have a little of each.

Jake: (sounding perplexed) Mom? I thought you didn't want to cook 4 different things tonight...

Hoist by my own petard. No other word for it...

The Haircut

Well, today was the day. I cut off 10" to donate to Locks of Love. Of course I got some before and after shots. (Please excuse the before shot, I really am not ticked off, just tired and emotionally dazed.)

Good bye long hair...


...hello new 'do!


Caite came to the salon with me and was inspired to make a change herself.


She decided to go curly and sassy, so we were off to another salon for a perm and cut for her.


Made-over sisters! (Note that we are both wearing yellow in honor of our mother.)


Admiring each other's new styles. (Plus the closest thing I got to a shot of the back of my hair, as you can see I went quite short.)



The funniest part of this to me is that it doesn't feel like a big change. When I saw myself in the mirror for the first time after it wasn't like "Whoa, I look different!" it was much more like, "Oh yeah, that is what I look like... now I remember... hi me." But I still get the fun of getting reactions from people who haven't known me for very long and haven't seen me with short hair. Jake and Evie both said they liked my haircut and that it looks cute. But Lila just stared at me for the longest time with a confused, "Who IS this person" look on her face. I had to go over and pick her up and talk to her for a good 5 minutes or so before she relaxed, then awhile after that she finally came over to hug my leg. She wouldn't look at my face though. She just clung to my leg like, "This is familiar, this is something I recognize..."

So there you go. Before and after, and back to the same old me.

Today has been an emotional roller coaster. One minute I am fine and laughing with someone, the next I am crying. I put on my favorite yellow shirt (even though I was feeling much more like wearing black) because yellow was my mom's favorite color. She was a yellow personality through and through. I also put on a bracelet that I got for Christmas (you can see it in that last picture) that has an angel charm and the word JOY on the toggle. It reminded me of my mom and her mantra "Find Joy in the Journey." Words that I try to live by, as I lug laundry up and down the stairs, sweep my kitchen floor for the 5th time in one day, or pace the floor with a crying baby at 4 am, "joy in the journey...joy in the journey... trying to find my joy in the journey..."

After the haircuts I went to my mom's grave to put some flowers there. A beautiful bouquet of pink tulips my dad had gotten for her. When I got there, someone else had put a bouquet of pink tulips and (I don't know if it was two someones or the same someone...) an inflatable sun. That made me smile and think of her saying "Winter won't last forever." Then I sat for awhile and felt the warm sun on my face and the cold wind freezing the tears on my cheeks. This was the first time that I have gone by myself to her graveside. I sat and thought about all the stories people have shared with me over the last couple of weeks, and missed her until I thought my heart would break.

I thought that two small bouquets of tulips didn't seem enough to celebrate someone who seemed at times to be a living embodiment of Mother Nature. And then I heard her voice in my head. She said, "That is just my body, Chrissy, my spirit can see all the flowers." And I missed her even more, but my heart didn't break. The bitter eased a bit more and the sweet got a bit stronger. And I came home to a bouquet of pink tulips and some sugar cookies on my doorstep, more beautiful stories and even a couple of tributes to her on other's blogs. Thank you everyone for grieving with us and sharing your love of her with us. I know that I was so lucky to have had such an amazing woman for my earthly mother. I am grateful everyday that her's is the voice in my head, urging me to do better, to love more patiently and to find joy in my journey.