General Conference

We've been brainwashing our kids the past few days, teaching them that General Conference is something that's really exciting and important. My mom always made a coffee cake for Sunday Conference (a tradition we've kept), we have a new small set of Legos for Isaac to open on Saturday (playing with Legos during Conference comes from John's family), and last night we had a General Conference theme for Family Home Evening. We played a matching game with the First Presidency and the Quorum of the 12 as our activity.

This morning, Isaac came to wake me up with "Is it General Conference TODAY?!"

I think our sneaky plans worked...

Cute sentences

These are from Danielle.

We were watching a show which had a cow in it, and I asked her if it was a big or little cow. "Big... It's a bigger cow... It's as big as the CEILING!

When she was up for an hour in the middle of the night, needing a new pull-ups, a drink, and everything else, and I was showing her that the pull-ups I chose for her DID have Dora on them (she was quite insistent)... "Oh. [giggle, giggle] I CONFUSE!"

This morning, at the table eating her pancakes... "Mom! My shadow is BEHIND me! It's BE-HIND me!!"

Looking at a Triceratops book from the library, she spent about ten minutes using a new mantra. "Is this a Triceratops? YES! Is this a triceratops? Yes! This is a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Is this a Triceratops? Yes. Is this a triceratops? YES! This is a baby Triceratops. This is the mommy Triceratops. Is this a Triceratops? YES!"

Her vocabulary and expressions astound me. She so typically uses perfect grammar that I was surprised when she said "I confuse." She understands literally everything I say, unless I deliberately try to use uncommon words. She's a joy!

HOCKEY!!!

Isaac had his first hockey practice today! He's never been ice skating before, but today he learned to skate! First he pushed a plastic chair around, and after about 15 minutes he skated the short way across the rink. He made it about halfway across, fell down a few times, then made it the rest of the way. Every time he fell, he got right back up and tried again, and again, and again. I'm so proud of him! He did a really good job! In the car on the way home, he said that his favorite part about hockey was... "the knee pads."

Jeremiah's in the class, too. He tried for about 10 minutes. He'll try again next week. If nothing else, he LOVES the uniform. :)

Here's a video of Isaac, telling about hockey.

Laundry Room Adventures

Laundry is one of those things in life that's fairly inevitable. I can think of a few ways around it, but none of them are realistic for my lifestyle. Although it would be nice if we had a washer and dryer in our apartment, it's also nice that I can do multiple loads of laundry simultaneously, given that I have enough quarters.

I always have certain choices to make when I do laundry: Do I take all my kids with me? What's the best time to do it? If I don't take my kids with me, what do I do with them?

Which is almost silly, because it takes only about 3 minutes to start 2 loads of laundry.

Which isn't silly at all, because in those 3 minutes, many things can happen.

From today:

Choosing to sneak out to start just one more load, I looked up at our balcony, and there was Danielle, standing on a chair pushed over to the side, leaning over... Okay, not quite that dramatic, but within a couple reasonable actions, very dangerous. I had her come help me.

Coming back up with her, Isaac came out to meet us... And Jeremiah locked us all out. (We have an inside-only deadbolt, which means that on key can let us in.) Again. Most times that the three of us are out of our apartment, Jeremiah tends to lock us out. Not the most fun, but we always get back in. Regretfully, I was wearing my slippery sandals--they're not very reliable for climbing up the railing to get in through the patio door. Eventually he opened the door to let us back in.

From other days:

Jeremiah's been known to close himself in the laundry room instead of going into the car when he doesn't want to go to school.

I've started a dryer with someone else's green crayon in it. It was a RoseArt, and we only buy Crayola. The top dryers are high enough that I can reach in, but I can't really see in very well. Only a few items were rendered completely unusable--we kept the green camouflage pajamas.

Laundry has great potential to be more exciting than it might at first seem.

Reading Together

I love to read! And so, I'm happy that that's either nature or nurture, because either way, my kids love to read, too!






I do realize that these pictures are almost identical. I couldn't decide which I liked the best. And Danielle, stealing the limelight...


(It becomes a "no glasses day" when they have taken off their glasses and lost them two days in a row...two pairs of glasses, lost over two days, equals no more glasses to wear.)

Spring Break Fun!

Last week was Spring Break for Jeremiah, and even though I intended to have us go play and be crazy, it was pretty relaxed.

We went to Cerreta's Candy Co, and did a tour, tried some samples, and picked out 2 candies each.






And, Great Grandma Erickson came for a few days for a wedding reception, so we got to spend time with her, too!

Custom gift from John

Here's the deal.

The first five people to respond to this post will receive something made by me! From me, to you. Here are the rules:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I give!
2. What I create or give will be just for you.
3. It will be done this year (sometime, I don't know when)
4. You will have no clue what it is going to be.
5. you can count on me doing something extremely strange.
6. No blog posting necessary; pure freebie!

Homemade Gift

Here's the deal.

The first five people to respond to this post will receive something handmade by me! From me, to you. Here are the rules:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I give!
2. What I create or give will be just for you.
3. It will be done this year (sometime, I don't know when)
4. You will have no clue what it is going to be.
5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
6. You must make the same offer on your blog, to make something for the first five people who respond!

Respond to this post after posting it on your blog (or facebook) , and anxiously await a unique handmade gift by yours truly!

Animals

We were about to read Five Little Monkeys with Nothing to Do, but got distracted with the cover art, and then, well, this.




There's a bit of background noise, some monkeys or something... Listen for it at the end: "My favorite Primary song is...I lived in heaven a long time ago it is true!"



Jeremiah made this elephant mask at school! He was so excited to be an elephant today!