Grrrrrr!

cooling down is hard to do some days!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Ginny!

To my "bigger and bigger" four-year-old:

I LOVE YOU!!!!

from, Mommy

Honesty and the letter L

This entry goes along with the funny things kids say. You know how most kids who don't want to be in bed will come up with excuses why they need to be up a little longer? "I'm not tired." "I'm thirsty/hungry." "I want different pj's on." We all know the stall tactics. Well, Ginny's started to pull this routine once again, but rather than use an excuse, she just calls out, "I don't want to be in bed!" while she's lying there over and over until you acknowledge it. Hey, at least she's honest. :)

The other thing I've found funny with her this week is how hard she's trying to say things right. She's been having trouble saying R's like most kids her age, and I guess she's tired of being corrected by older sibs about it. So, instead of the "er" sound, the closest she gets is the L sound. She sounds like a Chinaman learning to speak English with a southern accent. So, insert and "ell" where there should be and "er" and we've got some pretty crazy sentences coming out. "One, two, flee--let's go!" "I blushed my teef!" "I can't leach it." "I'm like a bleedo (burrito)!"

The even funnier thing is that Aviendha's imitating her speech pattterns and changing some of her already correctly pronounced words to the way that Ginny's saying it. Let's hope that Ginny gets the hang of it before Ne-ne has the words down incorrectly! :)

The best b'day gift (if not the best pic)!!!

Cleaning is not my favorite thing, but I do love the fact that I can use it as pondering time for more interesting and important things. Today while washing the bathroom mirror in the kids' bathroom, I remebered the wonderful gift Sharra gave me for my birthday. As usual the Ward Christmas party was scheduled the night of my b'day, so that was our big event for the evening. When Sharra got home from school she rushed into the bathroom like she really had to go. Ii was busy with baby and other kids and getting things ready to depart for the party that evening. A while later she came out with a big smile on her face and said, "Mom, you have to come see the bathroom." I didn't catch on and expected to find a big mess from her siblings in there. Great--just one more thing to have to do before we leave. Nope! Sharra had cleaned the sink, countertops, mirror and wiped up the toilet and bathtub. Then she even emptied the trash can!!! What a sweetheart and what a thoughtful birthday present!!!

It was a busy, but happy holiday season!

Family parties, opening presents, playing with cousins=good times and memorable holidays!!

Stephen and Kimber share a spot at the head of the table at Chuck-A-Rama.

Stephen's two months old today (Dec 20th)!!!!

The crew--a good pic after about ten crazy ones

Happy Birthday to ME!! (Dec 14th Ne-ne turned two!)

All the kids on Aviendha's 2nd b'day! And, then, Hyrum Holidays up at Hardware Ranch with Grandma and Papa where we got to ride out and see the elk then have hot cocoa, cookies and meet Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Incorrect words are so cute!

At least they are out of the mouths of babes. So, as I was feeding Stephen this morning I was listening to the conversation going at the kitchen table in the next room, and I had this thought--that one of the things I LOVE about little kids is their vocabulary and how much I miss it as they grow. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. Special words used by your child that only your family understands or the incorrect pronunciations that pop out and become standard?

The one that triggered this thought for me this morning was Ginny's use of the word baboons. Not unusual if you're referring to the ape, but that's how she says "balloons". No amount of correcting on our parts has been able to permanently change it. So it got me thinking of others. Sam says "stormtrookers" and used to say "darth mamer". Ginny and Aviendha both call Stephen, "baby teeben". Sharra's lost a lot of hers as she's gotten older and a better reader. But all of the kids still call a sword a "swarg". Aviendha still has trouble with quite a few things move is "moob", stop is "dop", and Ginny is "Din or Dinny".

Cousins get the short end of the stick around here I'm afraid as they are or have been referred to as: No-No (Noah), Tahree (Carly), Madly (Maddee), and Asswin (Ashlyn).

Aviendha's got a lot of cute little phrases, that surprisingly are pronounced correctly. That's prob. due to having so many models jabbering away all the time around here. One that she picked up from Ginny early on was "I want you"--hard to resist. ;) Then there's "not your job!" which she's heard out of my mouth often enough. Adam's favorite "I go to bed?" And the most recent, when someone is bugging her she "threatens" them with "one...two..fee". The problem then is that she doesn't know what to do next to make them do things her way so she starts over just louder and louder until the target gets upset at the annoyance of it all. Then it just becomes a yelling match. (deep breath and I tell myself that someday I'll actually miss this!)