Thanksgiving

"I am thankful that it is fall because if it was winter, I would have to go south before transforming into a shark."
Jimmy, age 6

Oh the JOY!

To quote Lewis and Clark: O the Joy!

Today was our ward's primary program. Jimmy and Amelia each had speaking parts. And they said them into the microphone. End of story.
(Stop here if you aren't in the mood for my venting.)

To fully appreciate what happened today, we must revisit last week when (horror or horrors) Amelia was forced to wear tights to church. She hated tights, but at least they kept her underpants covered better than her (flipped up) dress. She put up such a stink over the tights, I took her to the store to buy bloomers this week, hoping to solve the modesty issue this way. Unfortunately, she didn't like bloomers any more than she liked tights. This put her in an unfortunate mood for the primary program today.

Gary always handles behavior issues at church. He says it's a man's responsibility and what ever he says to them in the lobby always seems to work, so I keep out of it. We haven't had an incident at church for months. Unfortunately, he was out of town today, (leaving for California after lovingly strapping the rest of us into the van to go to church.)
I lead the music in sacrament meeting, so I rushed the family in so I could put up the hymn numbers before the meeting. As I posted the numbers, two of my four children began crying loudly. The third was punching the others and the fourth was under the bench. I quickly asked someone else to lead the music and ushered the kids to the overflow section where we would be less of a distraction. The howling stopped, but Amelia would only stand on her chair and Jonathan kept tipping over chairs so we vacated to the lobby where I carefully explainned that the Halloween candy would be going in the trash unless they shaped up. We made another attempt at the overflow section but ended up in the lobby again. They were lined up on the couch with Simon crying, Jimmy punching Amelia (for saying "tina you fat lard, come get your dinner-" we read it on a t shirt the day before and she still thought it was funny. Why it inspired violence, I'll never know.) and Jonathan out the doors. When Jonny escaped, Jimmy thought that was hilarious and Amelia thought it was a good idea. She followed suit. Some guy offered to hold Simon while hauled the 2 squirming escape artists back into the church. Then the bishop announced it was time for the children to come forward for the primary program.
Jimmy and Amelia went to the front. Jonny, Simon, and I calmly took our places in the back. Amelia wouldn't sit down. Everyone stood up to sing. She sat down. Everyone sat down, she got up and started jumping around. Her teacher tried talking to her. She ran around in circles on the stand. Finally, sandwiched between two members of the primary presidency she sat until it was her turn to go to the microphone and say "I am thankful for Italian food." Then she bolted out the door. I caught her and she "sat" with me. Jonny got tired of Amelia having all the fun, so he decided to try some antics of his own. Fortunately, he wasn't able to figure out the door to leave. The relief society president, realizing I was outnumbered, offered to take one of the kids. I handed her Jonathan, and he sat quietly on her lap for the remainder of the meeting. Simon got fussy, so I discreetly fed him in the back of the meeting room. I didn't want to miss Jimmy give his part. Amelia amused herself by taking off her shoes and socks. At this point, Amelia decided to "haunt" the aisles by walking up and down them with a blanket over her head. Fortunately, she didn't make the "WOO" sound that real ghosts make. So I dashed up the aisle to catch her; when I caught up, I realized that I couldn't carry her and Simon so I deposited him on a nearby bench while I hauled my ghostie to the back. Then I went to retrieve my poor baby boy. Then it was time for Jimmy to say his part. We stayed long enough to hear him say "I can serve my brother Simon by giving him a hug." A nice lady I was sitting by took Simon and I firmly marched Amelia out to the lobby, where we sat VERY REVERENTLY until the end of the meeting.
I cheerfully sent the kids off to primary and nursery and settled down to enjoy Sunday School with Simon. Really, I was cheerful. Simon started to whine and I remembered "oh yeah- you have a dirty diaper." After changing his diaper I settled down in the stinky solitude that is the mother's lounge. Amelia's teacher stuck her head in the door... Drat, she found me!

I suppose I should have been mad, but I wasn't. Just a little frustrated that I didn't have enough arms!

Catch Up: Photos from the last 6 months

Jonny's other birthday suit. He was busy watching Shark Boy and Lava Girl when this photo was snapped. The morning ride to the school bus.
Halloween pumpkins- Jimmy's has an identical smile on the other side.

August was occupied by bargain Tae Kwon Do lesssons.
Take a picture of me with my ponies!
Take a picture of me with my brother!

A couple of weeks ago, I took my kids and the children of a friend to the temple grounds and visitor's centers. Here's a few photos from the trip. I really like this picture of Henry touching Jesus feet. Don't we all wish we could do that?

The kids enjoyed a quiet moment, taking in the statue of the Savior. (L-R Jonathan, Amelia, Evalyn)

Many Saturdays were spent waiting for Daddy at the airport last spring/summer. Thankfully the travel has slowed down.
One of the precious bouquets that 4 year olds give their mothers. Enjoy them while you can!
Hiding the evidence: Jonathan has a goatee of Qwik (from eatting it out of the can) and sat on the can in an attempt to hide his mischief.
Our first family fishing trip. Notice the stylish matching do rags!
Everyone has a hobby- Jonathan's happens to be spinning salad.

Halloween Lingers On

RIght before Halloween, Jimmy came home from school talking about his classroom jack o lantern. It was really gross, he said. It was totally disgusting and slimy inside. Given his comments, I figured he didn't want to carve his own pumpkin, which was decorated with Halloween-y stickers.

Two days ago, almost a full week after Halloween, he asked if he could carve his pumpkin. I was surprised, but agreed to carve out whatever he drew on the pumpkin. Our knives are REALLY sharp and I didn't want him to get hurt (as an aside, I sliced through my finger about a year after we got married and had to have it stitched- same knife, still sharp!) He drew two mouths on the pumpkin, one on each side. Similarly, I carved Amelia's pumpkin. She opted for the whole face.

At lunch yesterday, the kids amused themselves with the jack o lanterns. Jonny fed Jimmy's pumpkin rice, alternately feeding one mouth and then the other. Then he took of the lid and shouted "Hello!" I was surprised when he also provided an echo "hello!" Amelia thought that was really funny, so she did it too. Who knew jack o lanterns could be so much fun!

Book Reports

Last school year, Jimmy wrote a couple of book reports (one liners- not too much for a kindergartener) that had me laughing. His school was doing a program with a passport, where you got a stamp in your passport everytime you read a book that took place in another country.
Book Report #1 The Trojan War (He LOVES this book and told his first grade teacher all about it in great detail. She asked to borrow it and we still need it back. I think she was trying to gauge his reading level. )
Back to the kindergarten book report:
The Chrogin Horse. The griks won the wor. (The Trojan Horse. The Greeks won the war.)
Book Report #2 about the Titanic
"It wasn't the safest boat."

The memory of these book reports make me smile, and I wish I had saved them so I had them written in his cute handwriting.

PS Thanks, Mom for sending these books. He loves them so much, as well as the King Tut one. He is fascinated by things that REALLY happened.