Kay talk

Papa John's cheese - This is what Kay calls the Parmesan Cheese when we are eating spaghetti for dinner. "Please pass the Papa John's cheese."

Kid talk

We have a Disney Princess placemat that Kay usually uses at the dinner table.  On Monday, Blondie was setting the table and had decided to give the princess placemat to MJ instead of Kay.  Well, when Kay found out about it she was not very happy.  MJ was very nice about it and had no problem trading it so that Kay could have it again.  Then Kay said to MJ, "MJ you're so nice."

MJ: "Oh, thank you!"

Mystery solved

For the last week or so someone has been putting MJ's shoes away in the closet of Kitty and Kay's bedroom.  I have been quite puzzled as to who it could be that was doing it, but today I solved the mystery.

I took the little girls with me grocery shopping this morning.  When we got home it was lunchtime so once I had brought all of the groceries into the house I asked the girls what they wanted for lunch.  MJ climbed up into her highchair and I went over to her and asked if I could take her jacket off.  She said "yes" and then she climbed out of her chair so that I could take it off.  Then she sat down and took off her shoes as well and put them down on the chair next to her highchair.  While she was taking off her shoes she started singing a song, "It's such a good feeling, a very good feeling, a feeling to know that I'll be back when the day is through.  And I'll have more ideas for you.  And you'll have things you'll want to talk about.  I will too."  I was amazed listening to her sing all of the words to this song!  (This was a song from Mister Roger's Neighborhood which now has an animated version that just started fall on PBS called Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood and has some of the same songs and a similar theme.)

I moved over to pick up the shoes off of the chair to put them on the floor and MJ quickly grabbed them from me and then picked up her jacket and walked up the stairs with them.  I just followed her enough to see where she was going - and she put her shoes away in the closet in Kitty and Kay's bedroom!

Assembly Hall Performance

Saturday, November 24

Time for our annual city Christmas choral program, Sounds of the Season, and I am playing the flute/piccolo with them again this year!  It has been awesome!  I really missed playing with this group last year.  And this year M&M joined our group with the bassoon.  They had a couple of possibilities for bassoon players and they both fell through so I volunteered M&M.  The music was a bit of a challenge for her but she has been enjoying it.  Her band music is a little too easy for her this year and she is getting a little frustrated with the class this year in school.

We had our first concert the weekend right after Thanksgiving day at the Assembly Hall on Temple Square.  At first we didn't think that M&M would be playing with us for that performance because the space is really limited for the orchestra, but at our Saturday morning rehearsal the director said that she wanted M&M to come too.  (And if there was not room for her she would just sit in the audience and watch.)

M&M and I drove down to Temple Square for our performance and she was able to play with us.  About halfway through the performance I spotted DH in the audience with all the rest of our kids.  I was quite surprised that he had decided to make the trip downtown to see us - and to bring all of the kids with him.  We had talked about him doing that a little bit but he hadn't sounded too interested in making the trip.  Afterwards we met them outside of the building and decided to walk over to the new City Creek Center to the food court to get some dinner.  Unfortunately a lot of other people apparently had the same idea for that evening because it was jam packed!  We got some food for the kids but we had an incredibly hard time finding a place to sit down and eat.  We finally found a counter with some stools at it for the kids to sit at.  After that we tried walking through Temple Square to see the Christmas lights, but it was so crowded it was ridiculous...  We ended up not spending much time there and then went back to our cars and headed home.

MJ talk

The other day DH was picking up some of the clutter in our house and MJ asked him, "Dad, what are you doing?"

DH:  "I'm cleaning up."

MJ:  "Oh, what a good dad!"

Nutcracker Field Trip

Thursday, December 13

I was able to go on a field trip with Kitty's class to see a short portion of the Nutcracker ballet.  We just drove to a local middle school and watched an hour long production.  A few minutes into the ballet they had some technical problems with the music that took them a few minutes to resolve and then get back to the right spot.  Then afterwards as we were lining up near the entrance to the school one of the kids from the class that went with Kitty's started throwing up...  Poor kid...

I think Kitty really enjoyed me being able to go with her and a big thanks to one of my visiting teachers and her son for watching Kay and MJ for me!

Kay talk

Yesterday I got mad at Kay about something and she came up to me a few minutes later and was making a face and feeling her mouth with her fingers.  I asked what she was doing and she said, "My mouth is down. Because you almost made me sad..."  (She was apparently feeling her lips to make sure that they were really in a sad/turned down at the corners position.)  Kay does not like to be chastised about anything and gets quite upset if someone is yelling - even if it is not at her.

This afternoon I was doing some cleaning/organizing in my bedroom and came across something that Kay had made in church several months ago.  When she saw it she said, "Hey Mom, you found it! I was so worried!"

MJ talk

This conversation took place today:

MJ:  "Where's Kay?"
Me:  "She's upstairs."
MJ:  "Okay, let's go get her.  Come on Mom!  Let's go!  Come on!  Mom, I'm leaving you!"  (she almost sings out to me)  Then she says, "No, don't worry, I'm not leaving you."


Lately MJ has picked up the phrase, 'one sec' or 'just a sec'.  I will ask her to do something and she'll reply with, "One sec!"

Family Pictures

Friday, November 23

We have been talking the last couple of months about getting our family pictures taken again.  I think it has been about a year and a half since our last ones.  With all of our crazy schedules I decided that Thanksgiving weekend might be a good time to get them done since everyone would be home from school and work.  I talked with my husband about it and then called the portrait studio to see what times they had available for the day after Thanksgiving.  The person I talked to at the studio suggested that it might be best if we come in for the first appointment of the day - 9:00 a.m.  I thought that might be a little early for us to get everyone ready - especially with so many girls - but in the end decided to set our appointment for that time.  The funny thing is that it wasn't until several days afterwards that I realized that I had set that appointment for Black Friday.

After I made the appointment I set about finding coordinating colors/clothes for all of us to wear - and amazingly I didn't have to buy any clothes at all.  Then the morning of we got everyone up and fed and dressed and made it to our appointment on time.  Unfortunately MJ was not in a very good mood...  We had an excellent photographer who did a good job keeping the kids' attention and getting them to smile, but when we tried getting some pictures of just the kids, MJ didn't want anything to do with it.  We ended up getting several good family pictures - mostly because I was holding MJ in my arms the whole time (and tickling her to get her to smile).  The rest of the kids did great and cooperated very well.  The only other problem was Luke's glasses.  There were a couple of cute shots of the kids that we did manage to get but Luke's head wasn't turned quite right and the flash reflected right off of his glasses and did not look good at all.

And even though the experience was quite tiring for all of us - especially us parents - we ended up with a really cute picture for our wall!  And we got a smaller funny one of the kids with MJ screaming while M&M is trying to hold her on her lap and the photographer had the rest of the kids do sad/pouty faces.  It turned out pretty funny - even Kay has a great sad face!

Snow!!!

Friday, November 9

We got our first significant snowfall of the season.  It was a really wet, heavy snow so it was perfect for snowballs and for making snowmen!  (I've been waiting to post this until I got some more pictures off of DH's camera but he is taking too long.  I will possibly post more snow pictures later.)

The snow didn't stick around too long though and we were back to warm weather the following week.

MJ and Blondie

Kay with Kitty running in the background

Blondie and M&M with their snowman.

Christmas countdown

On Friday, November 30, Blondie made a Christmas countdown for her Activity Day Girls' activity.  It was just like ones the ones that Grandma N has made for our family before so I decided to buy some candy at the store and let the other kids make their own.  So on Saturday while M&M and I were making some fudge, the other girls helped make these Christmas countdowns for the rest of the family.  The kids especially love them and look forward to eating their piece of chocolate each day!  I just tied them to a metal hanger and then hung the hanger on our door in the kitchen that leads out to our garage.  They are very easy to make - just plastic wrap, ribbon and candy (or whatever you want to put in it).  I had some red and green plastic wrap that I bought a few years ago for something else so I let everyone pick what color they wanted for theirs.

Woodpecker

Thursday, December 6

The little girls and I had finished eating lunch when I looked outside and saw this woodpecker sitting on our trampoline.  There were a few puddles around the edge of the trampoline and it was getting a drink from the puddles and then sat there for a time preening its feathers.  When MJ saw it she said, "See the birdie?  He wants to bounce on the tramp!"

Kay then pulled a kitchen chair up to the window and both of the girls climbed in the chair and sat there watching the bird out the window for several minutes.

Principal's Pride - Kitty

Thursday, December 6

Kitty received the Principal's Pride award for her great typing and cool rubbing.  And thankfully we got there on time (unlike Blondie's back at the end of August).

Sleeping woes

These pictures have all been taken over the last month.  Ever since we moved MJ out of her crib, she has had a hard time taking naps.  Usually after lunch I will try and lay down with her or put a movie on and try and get her to fall asleep in my lap on the couch, but unfortunately no matter how much effort I put into it, it usually does not work.  She is usually still bouncing off of the walls and will not sit still.  So quite often by late afternoon/evening time she has hit her limit and will fall asleep wherever her head hits.  And we usually don't notice that it has happened until we find her somewhere asleep.  MJ is also having a hard time at bedtime and feels the need to "cuddle" with someone until she falls asleep.  Sometimes I will take the time to lay down with her until her constant moving around drives me crazy and I leave the room (or she actually does manage to fall asleep).  Other times when I don't lay down with her sometimes she will climb in the top bunk with Blondie - and usually Blondie doesn't mind.  Sometimes Blondie will read books to MJ until she falls asleep.  Other times we have found them both asleep in the bed and will move MJ down to the lower bunk so she doesn't fall off (or push Blondie off).  There have also been several times where I have been gone in the evening and MJ will climb up on her dad's lap and fall asleep there.  Some nights when DH and I go up to bed we will find her asleep in her doorway - with her pillow and a blanket wrapped around her.  Hopefully one of these days she will actually have a normal sleep schedule!!

This is one of my favorites - asleep on the hard kitchen tile with a hat, two different mittens and a blanket wrapped around her.  This was one of the Saturdays where I was gone for part of the day and DH came upstairs from his office and found her like this!

Marching Band Wrap-up

Thursday, November 15

The marching band had their end-of-the-season pinning this day.  They had it right after school so I had to take MJ and Kay with me.  They gave the students pins for marching the whole season and then they gave out homemade cinnamon rolls and juice and we watched a slideshow that the band photographer had put together for the season.  MJ is sad that the season has come to an end, but she is already excited and looking forward to marching next year!  We also had to take her uniform and hat home so that we could take it to the dry cleaners and then return it back to the school.  M&M took the opportunity to snap a few photos of her uniform with her piccolo.  The Arabian Nights shirt was the official shirt that they had to wear all the time to games and competitions.  Arabian Nights was the name of their show.  I will see if I can find a YouTube link to one of them marching one of their shows so everyone can see and hear it if they are interested.

Kay and MJ standing next to the school mascot.

Decorating for Christmas!

Wednesday, November 21

DH was really excited to get the tree up early this year and so on Wednesday after he came home from work he got out the tree and had the kids help him with it.  I told him that that was fine if he wanted to, but I wouldn't be able to get the decorations out until after Thanksgiving (since I was busy making some pies and jello for Thanksgiving dinner).  MJ was really excited to help and as she handed the tree branches to her dad she would say, "Merry Christmas!"

Then on Thanksgiving morning we got out the Christmas lights and put them up on the house.  It was really nice weather for it.

Then the following week I went over to my parents' house and got up on the roof for my dad to help him hang his lights!  I was quite nervous at first but it ended up not being too bad and I was glad to help them out.

St. George Trip - Day 2

Saturday, November 3

We ran into a family that we know from soccer, marching band and church at the breakfast provided by our hotel!  What a small world it is!  Their son is one of the drum majors for M&M's marching band and their younger son plays on Luke's soccer team.  After breakfast both of our families packed up our cars and ended up following each other to the band competition that morning.

This competition was a regional Bands of America (BOA) marching band competition and it was the first one that their high school had been invited to.  I think that M&M's band performed the best that I have ever seen them.  We debated staying around to see if they made it into the finals, but we thought that the kids had had enough of marching band for the weekend...  This was their first competition where they actually had judges on the field judging them.  Those are the kinds of competitions that I remember playing in.

See if you can find M&M in these two pictures.

After their band performed we met up with them out in the parking lot where they were having some pictures taken.  DH got a few pictures of M&M in her uniform and then with the other students in her flute/piccolo/oboe section.

After the band performance we drove out to Snow Canyon State Park to have a picnic lunch and then let the kids play in the sand there for a couple of hours.  We brought some shovels and buckets from home with us.  It was nice and relaxing and the kids had a blast!  The weather was perfect and we were really surprised that there weren't more people there.  For a while we were the only ones out at the sand dunes.

This picture makes it look like we are going to lose MJ in a hole!

And in case you were wondering, it is very difficult to get a picture of 5 of these kids all looking and smiling at the camera!  Especially when there is fun sand all around you!

Me trying to get control of those two younger ones...

Yummy!  Sand on the face!

Who was in charge of this girl's hair? :P

** And a note to myself:  Next time you take kids somewhere where there will be a lot of sand, have them wear clothes that don't have so many pockets and cuffs.  When I went to do laundry after the trip there were handfuls of sand pouring out of the kids' clothes!  Apparently we brought quite a bit of the red sand home with us!

We left St. George for home in the mid-afternoon and stopped at Arby's for dinner on our drive back.  M&M texted us as we were leaving St. George to tell us they had made it into the finals for the BOA competition.  It was kind of weird not having her with us on this trip...

Kid talk

This afternoon MJ climbed up on one of the kitchen stools and saw a piece to the Cootie game there and said, "Hey, what's this doing here?"

This morning while MJ was sitting at the table eating breakfast she started singing out the letter 'I' over and over several times and then she would say the letter 'X' and then go back to 'I' again.  I looked over her and realized that she was looking at our clock on the wall that has Roman numerals on it and she was reading the letters on it!

Yesterday during Primary the nursery leaders had me come in and get MJ because they thought she was acting like she was not feeling well.  So I took her with me back to the primary room and went up to the front of the room to start the Junior Primary opening exercises.  Kay's class sits on the front row and when she saw me with MJ she turned to her neighbor and said, "That's my baby sister MJ.  Isn't she adorable?"

We have a Christmas countdown for each member of our family that has a chocolate candy that they can eat each day until Christmas.  MJ loves these and calls them 'candy canes' for some reason.  Today after lunch she asked me for a chocolate from it and I took hers off for today and handed it to her and she responded with, "Thank you. You're the best!"

I'm doing some laundry today and our washing machine just finished.  Our washing machine and dryer both play a little music tune to indicate that they are done and MJ just heard it and called to me, "The driver's done Mom!"

Trip to St. George - Day 1

Friday, November 2

We decided to take the family down to St. George to see M&M's band perform in their competitions.  We kept the kids home from school so that we would have plenty of time to get down there and get to the competition in time.

MJ sporting some cool sunglasses!

Once we got down to St. George we checked in to our hotel and then headed downtown to take a tour of the St. George Tabernacle.  It is a very pretty, old building and the tour guide did a pretty good job of trying to keep our kids engaged.  We also found out that she is from the city we live in and still owns a home up here.  Her kids all graduated from the high school that M&M marches for.  (Small world!)

The kids on the spiral staircase at the tabernacle.

After we toured the Tabernacle, we noticed that there was a park next to the parking lot so we decided to walk over to it and explore a little.  Well, first we came across a water park and then a little bit of a grassy area and then there was a carousel.  MJ and Kay were in heaven and they couldn't see anything beyond the carousel.  We tried walking past it and told the kids that we would ride it on our way back to the car, but MJ couldn't take her eyes off of the horses.  So we decided to pay right then for the kids to ride on it.  It ended up being fairly cheap - $5 for me and all 5 kids to ride on it twice.  At first when the ride started MJ wasn't too sure of it but after a minute or so she realized that it was fun and started smiling!  The little ones were sad when the second ride was over!

Luke having some fun posing for the camera.

After the second carousel ride we walked back through the water area of the park and let the kids play in the water for a little bit.  I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that they ended up getting soaking wet - especially MJ and Kay.  Luckily I had packed a few extra clothes where we could get to them easily so I could change them before we got in the car.

MJ thought it was fun to get her hand wet and then slurp the water off of her hand.  I'm amazed that no one got sick...

After the water park we went and ordered take-out at Burger King and then found a local park with picnic tables to eat at.  After that we made a stop at the bathrooms and then loaded into the car to drive to the band competition.  After one wrong stop, we finally found the stadium and found a parking spot on the side of the road and walked over to it.  The stadium was somewhat small but it was tall so we were able to get a good vantage point up top - although we were pretty far off to the side.  The stadium was all concrete with large walking spaces in front of each bench.  MJ thought that it was great fun to run around and entertain everyone around us - although I don't think everyone appreciated it...  I finally grabbed a hold of her and just held her tight in my lap and she was not very happy at all.  After wiggling and fussing for several minutes and then realizing that I wasn't going to let her down she yelled out, "I just want to go to bed!"

I think M&M's group finished 5th overall in their division, but got 3rd in the state which is pretty good.

After the band competition we went back to the hotel to crash for the night.  We had enough beds for all of us this time but without M&M there I tried having MJ and Kay sharing a bed.  They thought that it was all fun and games though until I got tired of it and threw Kay into bed with her dad and I slept with MJ.  MJ is a very restless sleeper at night and I did not get a restful sleep at all...  At one point she was flopping back and forth in the bed so I grabbed her to try and calm her down and she started hitting me and called out, "No, Luke!  Stop it!"  I whispered to her that it was mom and she opened up her eyes and saw that it was me and then she settled down and went back to sleep.