Food

Guess who had a fun time trying oatmeal for the first time today?

A New Word

We spent a long weekend at a friend's house earlier this summer. They have Monopoly at their house and Mary introduced Grace and Caleb to it. Caleb fell for it and asked for the game on his birthday. Joshua has had a hard time pronouncing Monopoly. He started with Monokuly. But he came up with a new one yesterday. He called it Moneyopoly. I think that captures the true essence of the game, don't you?

Some People's Kids

We have been on vacation for the last few days. We returned from Colorado on Wednesday night. It was a great vacation, but due to the TV situation at our family reunion and my sister's house we did not watch much of the Olympics coverage. That has led to Mary and I watching the Olympics for the last three nights.

Do you want to know how else wants to watch the Olympics at night? It is Joshua. Every night since we have been home he has crept down the stairs to sneak in a little extra Olympics coverage. We have known that he was on the stairs, but it has happened every night. I guess he likes the Olympics, but I was wondering what gave him the audacity to come downstairs after his bedtime. What kind of child would do that to watch the Olympics?

A Bumper Sticker

I saw this one on the way into work:

"What would Scooby do?"

I love it.

Picture

A few months ago, I got this picture in my inbox from my cousin, Derek. It is a picture of my father, Dale, with his brother, Kurt, and their mother. Derek said that there was something about this picture that reminded him of Rebecca. While it is not a perfect match, I would say that they are related. What do you think?

Me and My Inner Sal

Guess where my kids are?

They are outside running around our block (or at least the equivalent for our area). Sally should be proud of me. Sometimes you just end up behaving like your mother.

Parlor Tricks

Joshua, Rebecca and Ruth attended a lot of basketball games the past few months. Caleb played for the in town league and Grace played on an in town and a travel team. Many Saturdays, we had three games. Add in the two tournaments that Grace played in and the youngest three know their way around many gyms. The funny thing about bringing them to games is how their personalities come out. Joshua loves going to the games. He loves it because he wants to play with his friends. And no matter what gym we go to, he finds a friend and plays with someone. Rebecca loves the chaos of the gym. She knows her parents will be distracted by cheering or coaching, so she gets to run around. She climbs up and down stairs, bleachers and even closed bleachers. She craves a little more unsupervised time in her life. (Even though it is not a good thing for her.)

I always thought that was all they were doing at the games. I recently learned how wrong I was. They have both spent the time in the gym working on some children tricks as well. What kind of tricks? Parlor tricks, of course.

Joshua has learned the number of all 30 kids on the three different teams. If you give him a number from one of the teams, he can tell you the player's name. I guess he has a thing for numbers. He just picked them up because we don't really talk about Grace and Caleb's teammates in terms of their jersey numbers.

Rebecca has taught herself how to dribble. Three week's ago, Rebecca, Caleb and I went to Caleb's game. Since I am a coach, Rebecca knew she was in for a serious lack of supervision. Halfway through the game, she came over to the sideline by me. I looked down and she was dribbling the ball. I think I have seen her get four or five dribbles in a row, but I think that is pretty good for a two-year old.

It is fun to watch what the kids pick up.

What's in a Name?

When Mary is out with Ruth and Rebecca, people love to come up to her and ask about the girls. After talking to Mary, they often feel like they should ask Rebecca a question. More often than not, they say, "What is your sister's name?"

This brings an enthusiastic response from Rebecca. She says, "Her name is Ruthie-o!"

The people give Mary a quizzical look. Mary explains that the family calls her Rurhie-o, though her name is really Ruth.

When Mary says that her name is Ruth, this often brings a quizzical look from Rebecca.

Amongst the People

Mary took Caleb and Joshua to the high school basketball games. On the way there, Joshua was talking about how he hoped to see some of his friends at the game. Mary wanted to tell him that wasn't likely, but she just listened.

I came with the girls for the boys varsity game. Joshua stayed by the family, but the I went to talk to a friend. Joshua followed me over there. After I finished my conversation, I went back to my seat. But Joshua stayed there. He talked to some of the high school girls in the pep band and generally enjoyed himself. But that is Joshua.

He has to be out among the people. He likes to go find friends or sit close to others. We went to Chipotle and he sat by himself for part of the time. Joshua needs his people.

New England Kids

My kids are truly New England kids. How do I know? On Martin Luther King day, Grace went over to a friend's house. What did they decided to do? They went outside to shot baskets and jump on a trampoline. Which is what most people want to do when it is 20 degrees outside.

Two days later, I was heading to work at 8:00 am. Caleb was ready to go to school, but it wasn't time to leave yet. So what did he decided to do? He went outside to play some street hockey. Not a big deal except for the fact that it was 12 degrees outside. I guess they have gotten used to the cold.

What Would You do?

The other evening, we were reading the Book of Mormon with the kids. After a few verses, Grace asks, "What is a harlot?"

How would you respond?

Summer, Fall and Winter

We had a great weekend with a Saturday temperature of almost 60. Grace, Rebecca and I were driving to a game with the windows down while listening to a Radiolab podcast. Grace looked at me and said, "Shouldn't it be summer and shouldn't we be driving to a soccer game?" It was a great day.

We got a little bit of each of the three seasons mentioned above. Windows open in the car and grilling out for lunch and dinner was our taste of summer. Raking the leaves and cleaning the gutters was our taste of fall. We did all of that in January which is the winter. And boy did we enjoy the short break from winter weather.

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Ruth decided to enjoy the warm weather by rolling over for the first time. When our other children did that, they did it once or twice and then did not do it for a week or so. Not Ruth. She has rolled over 5 or 6 times yesterday and today.

I guess Ruth is ready to move!

Overheard On New Year's Eve

Mary asked Grace if she wanted a pet rat. Grace replied unenthusiastically, "No, I would actually prefer a little brother to a rat."

I guess we can cross both of those off of her wishlist.

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We were reading a story tonight before bedtime. We were trying to get Rebecca to share the pop-up book with Joshua. I said, "Rebecca, you need to share and let Joshua see the book."

Rebecca clutched the book tightly to her chest and said, "I can't read to Josh, I'm not a mommy."

When Your Mom Sends You This

What do you think she is trying to say? So, is it proper etiquette to send a thank you note?

Some Things Just Make Me Laugh

I just called up the stairs, "Where is Mom?" After a minute's pause, I said again, "I need the beautiful lady."

Rebecca's little voice answered, "Here I am, Daddy."

Favorite Christmas Present

Brigham will be happy to know what my kids' favorite Christmas present is. (Can't you see how excited Rebecca is to be rocking her shirt?)

Though I suspect their cousins won't be happy to know, that Brigham's favorites are my children.

Are you coming?

We still have a few leftovers.

Christmas Baking, Part 2

6:38 pm - The second (and final) round of car deliveries are done.
5:41 pm - The first round of car deliveries have been completed.
4:06 pm - The kids start delivering plates to families on our street.
3:49 pm - We are ready for plating. The fudge is cut, the ginger spice cookies and fruit bars are ready. The bookshelf has the sugar cookies, Rice Krispies treats and mini cupcakes. We have plates and are using envelopes (with a family picture in it) for labels.
3:14 pm - The blueberry and cherry bars have their glaze and are ready to go.
2:52 pm - The coconut blueberry bars have finished baking.
2:39 pm - Another batch of Rice Krispies treats are done.
2:07 pm - The cherry bars are done cooking and we have dipped the orange ginger spice cookies in white chocolate.
1:35 pm - Cherry bars are about ready to go in the oven.
12:44 pm - Chipotle break for lunch. Around this time, Rebecca looked up and said, "Moves like Jagger." It came out of nowhere. We weren't listening to the song nor had we earlier today.
11:55 am - Rebecca and Ruth decided to settle down and watch a movie. Joshua was still going strong in the kitchen and said, "This is wicked fun." He is a true Bostonian.
11:48 am - Icing the sugar cookies is almost done.
11:34 am - Mary and Joshua icing sugar cookies.
11:19 am - Mary and Joshua have finished dipping sugar cookies and I have finished the orange ginger spice cookies.
11:07 am - Dipping in chocolate and decorating the sugar cookies from last night.
10:08 am - All the mini cupcakes have been frosted, so Joshua moved the last batch out of the kitchen.
9:42 am - Ruth wondering why she has such a crazy family.
9:40 am - Mary and Joshua frosting and decorating the mini cupcakes.
9:12 am - Joshua and Rebecca working on the wet ingredients for the orange ginger spice cookies and Joshua working on the dry ingredients for the same cookies.
8:59 am - Mary zesting oranges for the orange ginger spice cookies.
8:41 am - Joshua opening the candy canes and smashing them for decorating purposes.
7:35 am - One pan of Rice Krispies Treats are done.

Christmas Baking

We started our traditional Christmas baking. We made the sugar cookie dough on Sunday night. Tonight we rolled out and baked 14 dozen sugar cookies and made one jelly roll pan of fudge. We managed to do that in just over two hours. Tomorrow we will be working on the rest of the treats. I love making Christmas treats!

Proving a Point

I wrote the post below late last night. Rebecca could not have known what I wrote. But that did not matter. At 4:30 am, she woke up and wanted a drink of water. I got her water, but fumbled passing the small cup of water to her. I told her to go snuggle with Mom while I cleaned up. She did not want to leave me, so I changed her shirt and cleaned up the water.

I asked her if she wanted to go back to her bed, but she had woken up. So we laid down together in our bed. But for some reason, she would not pull up the covers. I figured I would give her a minute and then pull up the covers. After a minute or two, I tried to pull up the covers. She pulled them back down. I told her that I wanted to have the covers on me. She said no. I told her that I was going to have the covers on me, she could do what she want.

She said okay, got out of bed and stomped off to her room. She slammed the door shut. I have to say that I wasn't upset she decided to put herself back to bed. But, I never would have guessed that is how it would have gone.

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If you are interested in a festive juice to drink, I recommend Trader Joe's Pear Cinnamon Cider. It does sound a little weird, but it is quite good. Give it a try.