Out of the mouths of babes--April

Hope you get a few chuckles out of this month's installment.

April 8th--Brandon woke up this Easter Sunday morning and walked directly to the back window. He stood there with his face pressed agains the glass. Andrew was lying on the couch and said, "Come snuggle with me, buddy." Brandon said, "I can't. I'm looking for the Easter bunny." How cute is that? Andrew told him that the bunny had already come to our house the day before, so come snuggle. Brandon replied, "Ok...if you'll open the blinds." He wanted to make sure he wasn't going to miss anything!

On the lookout

April 8th--It was FREEZING this morning when we went out to the car. Whitney told Andrew, "The heater makes me breathe and the cold makes me cold." Deep.

April 8th--Whitney is making up songs in the back seat on the way to church this morning. Here are a few examples:
"And your mommy calls out softly, 'Sweet dreams. Sweet dreams, honey.'"
"High on the mountain top, I saw an angry eel." (Kinda close there, babe.)
"Galaxies. Galaxies. Galaxies. Galax-eee-eee-eees."

April 9th--Whitney just told me, in a breathy magical voice, "I dream about my life. I wish for a magical Belle dress and Aurora dress."

April 11th--I'm not sure what prompted this, but I found this note today in Brandon's bedroom:

Can you make out what it says?
"Mom and Dad are SO mean.
I mean it."
I feel like a real winner.

April 12th--I don't know where W comes up with these things, but she was having a little argument with B and she yelled at the top of her lungs, "You fool!" It was one of those moments where we had to contain our laughter before we could ask her to talk nicely to her brother.

April 13th--B is going through a shark phase right now. He was reading me a book about shark attacks (that was WAY too graphic for an elementary school library, so had to be returned early) and he said, "I think I like sharks about two percent more than Star Wars." Now that's serious!

16% cuter than your average 5 year old
(This was taken after a kindergarten program.
He doesn't always walk around with a neckerchief.)

April 16th--When anyone wished Whit a happy birthday today, she would excitedly reply, "Happy Birthday!" People weren't quite sure how to respond to that.

Happy Birthday, Everyone!

April 18th--We were outside working in the yard today and a fly kept buzzing by Whit's head. She said, "That bug thinks there's nectar in my hair!"

April 21st--I'm afraid Brandon is going to surpass my math skills by the end of next school year. Today he took a nap, so he got big boy time after Whit went to bed. We told him he could have 45 minutes and asked what he wanted to do with it. He thought long and hard and said, "I want to play Scrabble for 23 minutes and color with you guys for 22 minutes." Oh my gosh--he's a walking calculator. (No nerd jokes about him wanted to play Scrabble, either!)

April 23rd--Continuing on the math theme, Brandon's homework tonight was six addition problems. He was SO excited because he has been waiting all year to do REAL math. After he had finished he told me, "Mom, I had math homework today AND I did math with my teacher for centers. I must be MATH-LETIC or something."

This is the look of a boy who is
MATH-LETIC.

April 26th--Whitney is really interested in gender right now. She always comments on who is a boy and who is a girl. In the backseat of the car today she said, "I'm not a boy today. But I'm important because I'm a girl." I thought that was cute. She thinks that she's going to grow up to be a boy. I keep trying to tell her she's always going to be a girl, but so far it hasn't sunk in.

WAY too pretty to be a boy.

4/27--Now that Brandon can read on his own, he'll sometimes shower me with interesting facts from the books he reads in bed at night. Today he informed me, "Mom, did you know that vultures can see their prey from forty miles away?" No, sweetheart, I didn't.

A wealth of knowledge inside
that little helmet-protected mind

4/29--I know I was just commenting about how my kids are reverent in church MOST of the time. Well today, we had one moment that was very irreverent, but it cracked me up. (It got a good belly laugh out of Natalie, too, who was sitting right behind us!) Greg was conducting sacrament mtg and announced the opening song. The organ began playing and Whitney's eyes lit up and she yelled, "The Bobcats!" I'm sure she thought the organist was playing duh-duh-duh-du-du-duh...Charge! (Or George! take your pick) that we'd heard numerous times when we went to Bobcats games.

4/30--Whitney bought a new little Aurora Sleeping Beauty doll with the rest of her birthday money today. While we were driving home, she was holding the still unopened doll and admiring her. She asked Brandon, "Doesn't she look gorgeous? And silver? And clean?" Traits that all princesses have, apparently.

Our little princess--gorgeous, NOT
silver, and usually not very clean.

4/30--Now I know we've been reading too many princess books to Whit. (Is that possible?) We were playing at the park this afternoon and she said, "Isn't it magnificent? Isn't it excellent? Isn't it terrific?" Yes, Whitney, it is a pretty nice park, but I've never thought of it as magnificent.

Reverence

So, we've had a fun weekend involving a high school production of Beauty and the Beast, a baptism at church, Andrew and the kids planting our garden, and roasting marshmallows with our friends.

Yesterday, we had a women's conference at church. They are always worth my time. They offer great classes, socializing, and food. What more could I want? One of the classes that I took was on teaching reverence to children. The woman who taught it is a mother of seven. All of the kids are still at home right now and range in age from 2 to 18, I believe. And her husband is the bishop. And she's the one that got asked to teach about reverence. She's obviously doing something right. She shared some of her hard-won wisdom with us and it was great.

Now I'm trying to decide what things I want to apply to my life and what things are not going to work for me. It's so hard to know. I think my kids are actually at a pretty good place right now when it comes to church meetings. They are quiet for the most part. But, one of the things that this class made me think about is that just because they're quiet, doesn't mean they're reverent. Are they getting anything out of the meeting by being there? Are they learning to feel the Spirit? Obviously they're a bit young to listen to the talks, but how do I make that transition between just trying to keep them entertained and quiet in sacrament, to helping them worship and learn from the meeting?

The sister that taught the class doesn't bring any toys to sacrament meeting, just crayons and blank paper. The kids can draw pictures of what's going on in the meeting or what the speakers are saying. "They can also play with their hands, look around the room, or anything like that." This was a specific quote from the teacher who said these things very enthusiastically, trying to convince her kids that these were FUN things they were allowed to do in sac mtg. It was hilarious, but I don't think mine would be convinced.

What have you found that works for you to keep reverence in church meetings? Do you bring toys and books? What about snacks? (I know poor Amy has already shared her current experience with food in the chapel. I still feel bad for you!) For parents who have older kids (yes, that's you Ang), have they started to listen to the talks or are they still too young for that?

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Just for fun

First off, loved everyone's thoughts on the trophy issue. Sounds like most of us are on the same page--gotta stop the participation trophies somewhere between the ages of 7 and 13. Since the coaches are the ones that usually decide to have the trophies and hand them out, it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years in B's athletic career.

Ok, so I saw something on one of the morning news shows a few weeks ago about the 2006 YouTube Video Awards. Did anyone else see that? So, of course, I got online to check them out. They gave out awards in seven categories. Most of them are worth watching--I wouldn't recommend the Best Commentary. (I didn't make it through the whole thing. It was creeping me out.) And the Best Comedy is pretty funny, but has some potty humor in it, just to warn you. But, this Most Creative video was my favorite and I had to share.



It makes me wish I had eight treadmills and three friends who would choreograph a cheesy dance with me. I'd especially love to try the ice skating move. Hope you enjoy it like I did!

The end of soccer

Soccer season came to an end this weekend. It was sure a fun season. Brandon rocked! Andrew and I loved being the soccer parents and watching him do so well. His coaches were out of town for the last game, so we had a pizza party on Friday evening with his team and they got their trophies.

Brandon was pumped!

Andrew was telling me about a recent PTI where Tony Kornheiser was complaining about how ALL the kids get trophies now instead of just the winners. How we're raising our children to be satisfied with mediocrity because they get a trophy simply for participating--who cares about winning? What are your thoughts on this? I like the participation trophies for the earliest leagues, like Brandon's, where they don't even formally keep score. (I can assure you that all of the competitive parents [read: us] are keeping detailed mental scorebooks!) But once they are old enough to officially start keeping score, it doesn't make a lot of sense to give trophies to a team that went 2-6. For now, I'll just be thrilled with his excitement over the trophies and his cute little collection that he keeps in his room. I think this was the highlight of his weekend.

His last game went well. His team won (unofficially, of course.) Brandon scored 2 goals.

He got to play pseudo-goalie for a while.
(They're still not allowed to touch the ball
with their hands.)

He had a couple sweet goal kicks.

Gimme five!

Brandon's biggest fan, Whitney,
sporting his cop shades.


The house was being shown after the game, so
we killed some time at a local high school fundraiser.
They had some sweet vintage cars parked out front.

Brandon LOVED that and asked if he
could borrow the camera to take some pics.

I thought this was a cute one of the boys.
(Andrew doesn't always wear a white shirt and slacks
to watch soccer games. He came straight to the game
from a baptism!)

The rest of our weekend was occupied by church stuff. It was Stake Conference, so Andrew had meetings all afternoon Saturday. We got to have dinner with the visiting General Authority, which was pretty cool. Then on Sunday Andrew and I both sang in the choir. Major props to Dee, Natalie, and David, who teamed up to watch Brandon and Whitney so that Andrew and I could sit up on the stand to sing and then JUST LISTEN to conference. (Rather than wrestling, feeding, coloring, and taking potty breaks with the kids.) It was a wonderful treat.

Help!

To anyone who has sold a house while there were young children living in it---help!

I feel like I turn into some mean house-cleaning witch before a showing. My poor kids. They're going to hate me by the time this house sells.

How did you do it? How did you keep your sanity? Please share any secrets for how I can keep the house clean without getting so frustrated with my kids. This morning I felt like they were walking around behind me unintentionally messing up whatever I had just finished cleaning. It was rough.

House update

Things fell through with the negotiations on our house. They came REALLY close to what we want to get out of it, but wouldn't quite budge. We felt like since it's only been up for a week, we can probably get what we want out of it, so we told them no. Part of me is relieved because I'll have more time to house hunt and won't have to make a hasty decision. The other part of me has butterflies in my stomach thinking that we let our perfect opportunity pass us by. Hopefully the first part is right.

Andrew and I went together on second looks at some of the houses I liked. We found three good options. They all have pros and cons...not one of them sticks out as the obvious favorite. So, we'll wait and see what happens with our house first. We had another showing last night and one tonight, too. It's good to at least have this interest.

Also, a certain 5-year-old boy was tagged to fill out HIS list of threes and it's pretty cute if you want to read it.

Finally, a big HIP HIP HOORAY because Sanjaya finally got kicked off AI last night!!! And, Shelley, you must've been SO happy that the LOST directors heard your plea to return to the story of Penny finding the island.

Whitney at Three

Whitney had her birthday this week. I feel like the lamest mom ever because I have been so STRESSED OUT over paperwork for new car, selling house, looking for new house, etc, that she had to settle for a less-than-perfect party. It didn't help that Brandon had a kindergarten program at school the same evening as her birthday, either. So we went to the program (which was really cute) and then asked Whitney where she wanted to go out to eat? Any guesses where she chose? McDonalds. Yum??? We let her and Brandon run around the playland for a while and then came home for cake and ice cream and presents. I think she had a fun evening, but I wish I would've put more creativity and planning into it so it could've been something really special. Anyway....

I wanted to try to capture some of the cute little things about Whitney at this age, so I don't forget. The time goes by so fast!!

Whitney at Three Years Old
*Wakes up with wild and crazy hair in the mornings.
I love it! It is adorable on her.

*Eats cold cereal for breakfast every morning.
Her favorites are Apple Jacks and Cocoa Puffs.

*Loves to watch TV. It's a good thing we have
a time limit with this child. I think she could watch
all day. Her favorite shows right now are Curious
George, Clifford, anything with Elmo in it (still),
Dora, and Little Einsteins.

*Looks forward to going to the library for storytime
every week. She sits rather quietly and attentively through
the 30 minutes of stories (most weeks). Really enjoys the
art projects that we do when storytime is over and has
created some masterpieces.


*Loves to have stories read to her. This is one of her
favorite things to do at home and her nursery teacher
at church tells me the same thing. She'll just keep choosing
books as long as you'll read to her. Let's hope the love
of reading lasts.

*Is a complete Daddy's girl. Screams, "Daaaaaa-deeeeee"
as soon as she hears the door open when he gets home from
work. She runs to give him big hugs and will ask him,
"How was your day, Daddy?"
She knows just how to melt his heart.

*Takes a 2+ hour nap pretty much every day.
I thought she was growing out of it for a while, but
over the past few days has been ASKING, "Is it
time for my nap yet?" I don't know if it's because
my stress is rubbing off on her or she's going through
a growth spurt.

*Enjoys doing puzzles and is pretty darn good at them.

*Is very much a social butterfly. Hates leaving
friends' houses or other gatherings.

*Is about as girly as they come. The only thing
she requested for her birthday was a new dress-up
dress. I got her one and she bought another with
her birthday money. (As if she didn't have 10 already!)
You can never have enough dress-ups!

*Gets scared easily. If Brandon gives a loud ROAR,
she honestly gets freaked out and comes running to
us for protection.

*Loves snuggling with her Daddy on Saturday mornings.

*Loves having her toenails painted.

*Has a great vocabulary and sometimes even
uses words in the right context. :)


*Likes for us to sing her a song before she
goes to sleep. Her two favorites right now:
"What's That Noise?" (an Andrea original)
and "High On the Mountaintop" by her
great-great-great-great Grandpa
(or as she says, her "Great Big" Grandpa)

*We think she is just about the cutest little girl ever!
She brings so many smiles to everyone around her
and tons of joy into our home.

Hot Rod, hot housing market, not-so-hot driving

So much to update!

*First, we got another van. Yippee! We've been driving it for 2 days and so far, so good. We still have 3 days to return it to Carmax, so I'm trying not to get too attached. The kids have affectionately named it, "Hot Rod." I think Brandon came up with it after those souped up cars in the movie CARS.

As you can see, it bears no resemblance--
no flames on the sides or fin in the back,
but I guess we'll stick with the name anyway.

It is wonderful to have my freedom back again. And we even took a card table and four folding chairs with us to our friend, Michael's, birthday party and we all still fit in the car. Nice.

*In other exciting news, we had two showings of the house on Saturday and one of them MADE US AN OFFER. Hello! That was 3 days on the market. Crazy. The offer isn't what we wanted, so we're still in the process of bartering with the potential buyers. We'll see what happens. I'm so glad Andrew likes to negotiate because I DON'T.

*And, finally, at Patrick's request, I'll elaborate on the driving record from ages 15-20. I had five accidents in those five years. Knock on wood, I haven't had one since. I hit two parked cars. One was when I was still learning how to drive a stick shift and backing out of a sloped parking spot. Bad circumstances. The other one, I backed my parents Suburban right into a woman who was sitting in her brand new car that didn't even have license plates yet. Ouch. She was irate, but not injured. Then I drove off a fifteen foot cliff (the dike) outside of Winslow. I had 2 friends with me and was just being stupid. Amazingly, none of us were hurt and I even drove that car home after the towing truck fished it out. Then I hit a girl on a bike while at BYU. She was riding her bike the wrong way down the street and I didn't see her. She wasn't hurt that bad. Her husband told us that it was the 3rd or 4th time she had been hit on her bike, poor thing. And the fifth accident was the worst. I was at a stop sign trying to cross four lanes of traffic and didn't quite make it. The car got a good amount of damage that time(but neither of us drivers were hurt). Andrew and I had been married for about a month. I think he was wondering what he got himself into. :) All five accidents were my fault. (Ok, the girl on the bike was partially at fault, too.) I think I was just airheaded and didn't realize what a responsibility it was to drive. I'm just SO grateful that nothing worse happened.

Good things come in threes

Angie tagged me to fill out this fun list, so here you go.

Three Things I Love:
1. My family
2. Warm, sunny days
3. Talking to girlfriends

Three Things I Hate:
1. Used car sales tactics
2. Stains on our carpet/furniture
3. Potty training (yesterday was another BAD day!)

Three People Who Make Me Laugh:
1. Chris Farley
2. Jack Black
3. Jon Heder

Three Things that Scare Me:
1. Bugs
2. Identity theft
3. Sticking my hand down the garbage disposal--ewwww

Three Things I Don't Understand:
1. Politics
2. Global warming
3. "The Others" from Lost

Three Things On My Desk:
1. A phone
2. Printer
3. Mouse (Yes, I have de-cluttered to sell the house. It's not my nature to be this clean!)

Three Things I Plan To Do Today (or Did Today):
1. Walk to Walgreens so Whit and I can get out of the house
2. Go look at houses with my agent
3. Spend an hour studying Physical Science

Three Things I Want To Do Before I Die: (see Nov 5th post for many more)
1. Buy a minivan (at the rate we're going, who knows if it will happen before I die!)
2. Tour manufacturing facitilites to see how things like crayons or toothpaste are made
3. Have at least one more child--maybe two (but don't talk to Andrew about a 4th yet!)

Three Things I Can Do:
1. Play the piano
2. Drive a stick-shift vehicle
3. Public speaking

Three Things I Can't Do:
1. Spreadsheets
2. Cook--at least not well
3. Keep my house clean (this is going to be a BIG challenge!)

Three Things I Miss:
1. The desert--especially sunsets when you can actually see the horizon
2. Cafe Rio
3. Some days I miss practicing dental hygiene

Three Things I'd Like to Learn:
1. Spanish
2. Geocaching with my parents
3. Self-defense

Three Things I Regret:
1. My terrible driving record from age 15-20
2. Some of my high school dating decisions
3. Not being more creative with my American Idol audition

Three Favorite Foods:
1. Cheesecake
2. Grandma Cuca's rice, beans, and tortillas
3. Pasta

Three Favorite TV Shows as a Kid:
1. The Cosby Show
2. Transformers--more than meets the eye!
3. The Facts of Life

Three People I Tag
(and these people can either do this on their own blogs, or comment on this one!)
1. Marianne
2. Shelley
3. Laurie

And for anyone else who's up to it, I'd love to read your "top three" lists, too!

It's official!

Our house is on the market! I'm excited, but I've also felt nervous all day. What if things don't go smoothly? What if we end up homeless for a while? What if it doesn't sell? So many "what if's." It went up yesterday...and Whitney and I had the lamest day ever. I spent all morning cleaning every little corner of the house. I think it's cleaner than it has ever been. Then it poured rain ALL DAY LONG, so we couldn't even go for a walk or play in the yard. It got old really fast. Thankfully, today the sun is shining again, so we got to soak it in a little bit.

If you know anyone looking for a cute little house in a great neighborhood in NC, let us know!

Real quick

I should be getting ready for bed, but I couldn't resist a quick post with two random thoughts.

1. Am I crazy or did Sanjaya actually sing well on AI tonight???? I was completely shocked, but I liked his performance. He even had good Spanish pronunciation!

2. I just found out that Singstar came out with a new version last week--Singstar Pop. As soon as I can get to a video game store (which could be a while since I don't have a car), I am buying it!!

Van update

Ok, so the Nissan Quest we had wanted to drive arrived at CarMax. We took it for a spin last night. (after a 5 minute FHE lesson in the car on the way to CarMax--great parents.) It was roomy, comfortable, silver, and had a DVD player--bonus. We were feeling pretty happy about it...until we took our first left turn. There was a loud clicking sound--I think it may have been a problem CV joints. We had CV joint issues with one of our other cars and we are NOT going there again, so BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD!!

Dang, I'm starting to feel like this whole van thing is not meant to be. But I'm trying not to get discouraged.

So, we're anti-Quest now.

Decided maybe we should just go back to plan A and get an Odyssey. But then after talking it through, we figured that the Honda would cost around $50 more a month for the next five years than the Grand Caravan. Andrew still craves the roominess of that van! Neither the Odyssey or the Quest quite have it. He feels slighty cramped in both of them. We figured even if the quality of the Dodge isn't quite as good as the Honda, we aren't going to be doing $50/month in repairs for the next five years. Right??? So, we are going to have another Grand Caravan transferred in and hope it doesn't make any loud humming noises while it idles.

In the meantime, I'm getting more and more used to being car-less. I've been cleaning and playing games with Whitney all morning. Things could be worse.

Happy Easter

Did everyone have a fun Easter? We did. Here's what we usually do in our family. We do all the fun "Easter Bunny" activities on Saturday.

We colored eggs when we first woke up.
The kids were good at it this year.

Then Andrew and I hide eggs and gifts
in the backyard for the kids to find.

It was fun to hide some difficult ones for
B-train this year. He rose to the challenge.
(Notice the winter coats. It has been FREEZING
here. I think the low last night was in the mid-20's.
Brrrrrrr!)

We had a little egg toss in the backyard after the hunt.
After this "toss" it turned into more of a fight.
I think Brandon won. It was a fun morning, but
would've been even more fun with some cousins!

My mom watched the kids for a while this weekend, so Andrew and I could do some more van-shopping. We drove the Nissan Quest and liked it. Carmax is shipping one here from Raleigh that we're going to test drive when it gets here. I'm SO ready to have 2 vehicles again! You should've seen me SQUEEZE myself into the backseat of Sally(the Accord) while my mom was here. I didn't need a seat belt beause I was wedged in there so tight.

On Saturday night, my mom and I went to a college
production of "Man of La Mancha." It was fun to get
out and do something cultural with her. I'd forgotten
that it's kind of a skanky play. But the music is so good.
The male leads were really good actors, but the female
lead sung too softly. I had to strain to hear her.

One of the great perks of Easter Sunday:
No meetings for Andrew. Yippee!
We dropped my mom off at the airport this morning
and then all drove to church TOGETHER.
What a novel concept.

Here we are all in our Easter best.

I thought the kids looked cute.
Whitney said she was Belle today.
(from Beauty and the Beast, of course.)

A family from church invited us over for Easter Dinner. Wasn't that nice? My mom had made us a nice dinner before she left, and the week has been so hectic that I was just going to call that Easter Dinner and not do anything fancy today. Instead we got to go enjoy a feast that felt like Thanksgiving--turkey AND ham, homemade rolls, stuffing, veggies, jello. We ate to our hearts' content and loved the company, too.

Feast for the eyes

Over the last few weeks, I've had the sweet pleasure of watching the earth wake up from it's hibernation. Spring is glorious in North Carolina. I wish everyone could visit at this time of year and drink it all in. But since that's not possible, I thought I'd share a few pics to give you a glimpse of the beauty all around us here.

Daffodils

The street right around the corner from us
has lots of pear trees. Gorgeous.

This is on the way to the park.

Random beautiful flowers

Tulips

Some more of the flowers at the Biltmore entrance


Here's part of the Great Smoky Mtns that
we drove through on our way home from
visiting Paul.

Sometimes I wish I had cameras in my eyes so I could capture the panorama of beauty, but these share at least a small part of it.

Busy, busy, fun, fun, fun

We have been so busy that I haven't had time to blog! Now I have to play catch-up on the last week, but you'll have to miss out on all the vivid details because that would be a novel of a post if I included them all. So, here's the Reader's Digest version of what we've been up to. First, we bought a van! We decided to get that Dodge Grand Caravan that I had talked about before.

Whitney named it "Honda." Don't ask me why.

Andrew took the day off of work last Friday and Brandon also had it off, so we went down to Charlotte as a family and had a great time. We went to a huge fun mall for the day and then to another Bobcats basketball game at night. It was "Family Fun Night" where you can get 4 tickets, 4 hot dogs, 4 drinks, and 4 T-shirts for $60. Pretty good deal, huh?

Andrew said we could go deer hunting as soon as
the game was over! :)

We had a really fun time at the game. On the drive home, we heard the van making kind of a funny sound. It was really loud when you were idling. It was bothersome. Also, there was quite a bit of wind noise when you driving on the freeway. And the back was supposed to be able to automatically open and it didn't. Having all of those three problems, we decided to TAKE IT BACK. Yep. Carmax has a 5 day return policy, and we took them up on it. No charges, no problems. So we're back at square one. Actually, we're at square zero because we just donated Andrew's car to charity, so now we can't even try to charge his battery and use it. Oh, well. Hopefully we'll find our lucky van soon!!!

Over conference weekend, my aunt and uncle came to visit from northern Utah. What a treat! They actually came out to visit their son who was living in VA, but he moved home after they bought their tickets, so we got to see them instead. :)

Aunt Julene and Uncle Harry

We had a great time watching conference and visiting with them. They left Monday morning. Andrew did, too. He had another business trip, to CA this time. And Monday afternoon my Mom flew in! We're really feeling like the popular family right now. :)

We decided at the last minute to drive down to Georgia to visit my brother, Paul. It was really good to see him, but was WAY too short of a visit.

We went to a park where the boys played
baseball and the girls played on the playground.

And then out to dinner at a yummy BBQ place.

We only stayed one night in GA, then started driving home. We stopped in Asheville, NC. We wanted to drive by the Biltmore, a huge mansion that you can tour. But they don't even let you drive by the outside of it unless you have a $38 ticket. I still hope to pay that much and tour it one of these days, but not with the kids.

These were the flowers outside of the entrance.
Can't imagine how beautiful it must be INSIDE the gates.

We also stopped at a place called the FUN DEPOT where we played arcade games, Whit rode little kiddie rides, and Brandon played laser tag.

He even talked his Gigi into playing with him.

We're back in town now. I'm still trying to catch my breath. Andrew gets home tonight and my mom is staying a few more days, so we should have more fun ahead.

On a side note, Andrew got to go to a LAKERS game last night and sit in a box seat with the retiring VP of HR for Avery. How cool is that????

Out of the mouths of babes--March

Hope you enjoy this month's collection!

March 1st--Technically this isn't something that Brandon said, but I still think it deserves an entry in this post. I was in his bedroom tonight while he was taking a bath and found this:

Front:

Inside:

It's his first love letter!! I thought it was SO cute! I think the inside is supposed to say, "I Love You Girl." This is a girl who is in kindergarten, but not in his class. I met her at the circus because she was sitting in the row behind us and tapped my shoulder to tell me that Brandon is always bugging her in the lunch room.
Me: "What does he do?"
Ashlyn: "He's always calling my name and stuff."
Me: "Maybe he likes you!"
I was totally joking around because I've never heard of this girl before, but I think I was right!

March 9th I overheard a conversation between Andrew and Brandon in the backyard this evening. Andrew was throwing away a piece of candy and Brandon didn't understand why.
A: Because I dropped it on the ground, so now it's trash
B: No it's not. I eat stuff off the floor of my bus all the time!
Ewwww...Remind me not to kiss him on the mouth anymore.

March 10th Sweet little Whitney can be manipulative when she wants to be. She didn't want to clean up her room tonight and was throwing a little fit over it. Through her tears she told Andrew, "I want a babysitter!" Ouch--that hurts!

March 11th At church today, we sat with our friend, baby Clara. She was in a pretty little dress and looked adorable. I said to Whitney, "Doesn't Clara look beautiful?"
She responded (very excitedly), "Yea! We BOTH look beautiful!"
Again, no lack of confidence in my kids. :)

March 11th Whitney is still into pretending she's a princess much of the time. She likes to pretend she's eating a poisoned apple and then wait for her "prince" (usually her Daddy) to come give her a kiss on the cheek to wake her up. Oh, and it doesn't always have to be an apple, either. We've seen her fall victim to a poisoned ice cream cone, a poisoned pear, and a poisoned bouncy ball.

This time the bouncy ball got her.
She's a pretty good actress, huh?

March 11th We love going on Sunday afternoon walks around the block on nice days. This was the first one of the year and it was a gorgeous day. Whitney was sitting in her stroller while I got Brandon's scooter out of the shed. Brandon started pushing Whit and she said (in her angry voice), "Don't push me, old man!" I don't know where that came from. Andrew started pushing her when we were ready to start and Whitney said, pointing to Andrew, "Yea. THAT'S the old man that can push me." Ouch again.

Whit and her old man.

March 13th One of Whitney's favorite words right now is "familiar." She doesn't know what it means, though. She will use it at completely random times. "Ew--this dinner tastes familiar." "Mom, you look so familiar today!" or (angrily) "This toy is so familiar!"

Doesn't she look familiar?

March 18th Brandon is not just into writing love letters to his little girlfriend this month. He is into writing letters to a variety of people: his primary teacher, the pianist at church, his teacher and her assistant at school, and even his bus driver. I only know her(the bus driver) from the 2 or 3 times she has called me out to the bus because Brandon has been in trouble, so I picture her as kind of abrasive. But then I watched Brandon hand her his note and her heart melted. It was so cute. The note said something like, "Mrs. Harris--You are the best bus driver. You take care of everything. Love, Brandon." He handed it to her right when he got on the bus and she had him read to her (his spelling is very creative) and then gave him a big hug. He can be a sweetie.

March 19th I was brushing Whit's hair this morning and she was very restless--moving all over the place. I asked her to hold still and she replied, "I can't because I'm righteous." ?????

March 20th Tonight Brandon asked me if I knew how the rings around planets were made. I didn't. Do you? He went on to explain, "Well, there were these big rocks that crashed into the planets and broke into small pieces and then got caught in the planets' gravity to make rings." Holy cow--when did he get smarter than me?

Oh, this is how he got so smart.
He can read in his sleep!
(Yes, he's really asleep in this picture.)

March 23 Sweet little Whitney has started getting an ATTITUDE. Brandon was the same way--he didn't go through terrible two's, his were terrible three's. I was hoping Whitney would just be sweet her whole life, but I think we're getting set for a bout with a fiesty little girl. Here are a couple things she said this week.
Drew: "You need to go in the corner. You don't talk like that."
Whitney: "YOU go in the corner!"

Me: "Whitney, don't eat things off the floor. That's disgusting."
Whitney: "YOU'RE disgusting!"

Drew: "Whit, you need to stop playing at the sink and just finish washing your hands."
Whitney turned around from the sink with a dirty look on her face and honestly said, "Do you wanna piece of me?"

March 24 He also asks some great questions at times. He was having scripture study with Andrew tonight and asked, "Dad, how can we get to know Jesus? We can't get in airplane and fly up to heaven to meet him." That's deep.

March 24 While we were car hunting today, Brandon told us his three requirements in a minivan: 1. squishy seats 2. good tires 3. a DVD player.

A boy who knows what he wants in a car.

March 25 The kids both got up early today before me. When I finally dragged myself out of bed and came out into the front room, Brandon informed me, "We've been doing our morning exercises, Mom. We did jumping jacks and somersaults and stuff." Oh, to have the energy of a 5 or 3-year-old again. :)

March 28th This morning B asked another good question, "Mom, does the earth have a west pole and an east pole?" Not very easy to explain that one to a 5 year old.

March 28th After Brandon got home from school today he said, "Mom, there are two things I want to change about myself." I was very curious to see what those two things would be. "I want to get glasses AND braces." Is he aspiring to look nerdy? We got a note from his school nurse that said he needs to see the eye doctor because her preliminary test showed he might need glasses, so that part might come true sooner than I would've hoped.