Out of the mouths of babes--January

Ok, so the photos don't necessarily correspond with my kids' quotes this month. Instead you get a random smattering of pics that didn't make it into other posts. Enjoy!

1/4--We were enjoying a delicious lunch at my parent's home today. My mom had a friend over who has a daugher Whit's age. Here was part of their conversation:
W: My Daddy's hot!
Hannah: Are you going to marry him?
W: NO! (pause) I'm going to marry my brother.
We've had a few talks to try to clear that one up, but I'm not sure she's convinced. She thinks that since she loves her brother, that's who she should marry.

Brandon or Daddy? Such big decisions.

1/13--Whitney will often have elaborate one-sided phone conversations. It's her new favorite game. Sometimes she'll even ask us to join in and we'll talk on the "phone" from across the room. Today I heard her in the backseat talking to a pretend friend named Brooke. She asked her, "Hey, Brooke. How's that famine goin'?" You know, the normal everyday conversation of a four year old.

Whit the one-eyed baker

1/18--I was being lazy this morning and stayed in bed as long as possible. Whit came in and snuggled with me for a little while. She was staring at me and said, "Your face looks like mountains.... It's keeping me warm.... I like being warm." Uh...thanks?

She didn't seem to mind being cold during
our snow day earlier this month, either.

1/18--B is really into Madden video games right now. Andrew taught him how to play and he LOVES it. So today he tells me, "Look, Mom. It's like all the molecules in my hands are the NFL teams and I can rush them!" He proceeded to make a fist with one hand and punch the other. This is normal 7-year-old-boy behavior, right? Right??

Like father, like son.

1/18--Whit was snuggling with her daddy when he got home from work tonight. She is the snuggle queen. She told him, "I can't stop looking at your face!" When he asked why, she said, "It's so handsome." I'm with you on that one, girl.

Care bear and her handsome daddy

1/19--Whitney and I were talking about nice things we can say and do to others. I said, "We can give compliments." Whit said, "We can give gift cards." She'll probably have more friends than me.

Future Jedi?

1/19--W was singing "Little Bunny Foo Foo" this afternoon. Brandon asked her, "Do you know what a GOON is?" She said she didn't. His answer: "It's like a henchman." What? Who uses that word?

1/19 --At the dinner table tonight, Brandon had some sage advice for his baby sister, Caroline. He told her, "Enjoy this time of life while you can, Caroline. Because pretty soon you'll grow up and you'll have to work all the time like me." Who is this kid??? He must have an "old soul" like his Dad.

Matching cheezy smiles

1/29--A glimpse into Brandon's psyche: "I love nightmares. They are SO cool. Especially if I'm on the bad team." I worry about the teenage years with this boy.

1/30--W's random comment from the backseat tonight, "I met a germ one time." Alrighty then.

Caroline's latest trick: Pulling herself up to standing.
She was still 7 months when she started.
What's up with this super strong girl?

Another back update

Everything went smoothly with Andrew's shot yesterday and so far it seems to be doing the trick. He was so giddy when he woke up this morning that he came down the stairs and starting dancing around the house. Haven't seen that in a while. Or maybe ever. I'm so happy for him.

And me.

And the kids.

Here's the old man on his way in to get his epidural.
(He hates it when I call his shot by that name.
But, hey, that's what the doc said.)

Here he is afterward.
Wait! You made him worse??
Oh, he was just a little drugged up.

Check out his posture during Brandon's
basketball game today. Nice. Very nice.
Looking like a 30-something man,
wouldn't you say?
And Caroline is apparently a b-ball fan, too.

This morning and afternoon were wonderful and he felt like a new man. This evening he said a little bit of the pain down his hip was returning, so that's worrisome. The nurse said it can take up to two weeks to see the full effects of the shot. We'll keep hoping for more pain relief. The physical therapy starts on Wed.

In other news, we finally got some decent weather around here. NC winters always have some nice days sprinkled among the cold ones, but since I've been back from Utah, it has been FREEZING. With no break. Yesterday we had 60 degree weather and jumped all over it. We went down to the park and pretended it was spring.

Whit played in the sandbox.

Caroline had fun in the swing.

And Brandon climbed all over the place.
Yippee!

Andrew and I went to a classical guitar concert last night put on by Music for a Great Space. The performer was Roland Dyens. He was amazing. We LOVED it.

It's nice to feel like we're getting a little culture once in a while.

Tagged and other fun pics

I feel like such a blog slacker lately. Other things have taken priority at the moment. You know, important things like watching American Idol and LOST. (Yea for TV!!!) And other tasks like working on my online English 312 class(finally!), and lots of playing and reading with the kids.

I was tagged by Megan, but the directions were vague. I'm pretty sure I am supposed to post the 6th photo from my 6th folder in My Pictures. So, here goes:

This is Brandon in 2006 using his bug collecting kit.
He looks so small!

In other randomness, me and the girls had a blast using my Mom's mac to take pictures while we were in Utah. I seriously was laughing so hard that my cheeks hurt. Here are a few of my favorites.






And the final random note: Caroline is growing out of her baby bathtub. I'm sad. I love bathing babies when they're at counter height and don't get me all wet. Once they graduate to the real tub, I pass that chore on to Andrew. I hate bending over the tub for so long and inevitably getting soaking wet in the process. Well, I'm out of luck right now because Andrew is SO not going to hunch over in the bathroom for extended periods of time with his back issues. I don't want her to start turning into a stinky baby, so I gave in and threw her in the big tub.

She LOVED it.
And since she looked so darn cute, it didn't
seem so bad for me. :)

When I saw her reflection in this chrome thingy,

it totally reminded me of the photo booth pics above.
I was cracking up all over again.

Quick update on Andrew's back

So we had an appointment with Andrew's orthopedist today.

Last year he was diagnosed with a bulging disc, but apparently it has ruptured at this point and is considered a herniated disc.

And he also has disc degeneration.
Lovely.

The doctor did not recommend surgery at this point, though. Instead, Andrew's getting a cortisone shot in his back on Friday. It's an epidural. (He might be the only man to have had as many epidurals as his wife.) Then he'll start physical therapy next week to strengthen his back and core muscles. He'll see the doctor again in April for re-evaluation.

It wasn't the quick fix Andrew was hoping for, but hopefully this shot will help and we'll be on the road to recovery.

5 bits of good news

I'm officially in the midst of a trial.

I've talked to lots of people before about how I feel like my life is so charmed. I have had relatively few trials and those I have gone through are nothing major. But Andrew's back problems have turned into a trial for our whole family. I would much rather be on my end of the trial(having to pick up the slack where he can't) than his(suffering constant physical pain for months on end), but my side hasn't been easy either.

I'm trying not to let myself have a pity party, so instead want to share some of the good things that have happened around here this week.

ANDREW got to go to the Panther's playoff game tonight with Michael. Woo hoo! Two NFL games in one season? What a lucky guy.

Too bad the Panthers lost.

I officially reached my pre-pregnancy weight this week. Yes! I had one pound to go before we left to Utah. I was SO bummed because I figured three weeks of vacation eating would do me in. But I somehow managed to lose that last pound. Yippee! I rewarded myself with a little spending cash to get some new jeans, but have yet to find any that I like.

My new post-baby diet: Eat Cheesecake Factory
and still manage to lose a pound. Sweet!

BRANDON got two green cards at school this week(out of the five days). That's pretty good for him. He also was the high scorer in his basketball game last week. Way to go, buddy!

Here he is attempting a free throw this week.
I tried to upload a video from last week, but was
having technical difficulties.

WHITNEY got a raving review on her progress report at preschool. In part her teacher said that she is, "mature, helpful, happy and a leader. She does everything she is supposed to and more. All of the children look to Whitney for guidance and friendship. She is a joy to teach!"

Not only does she LOOK like a princess,
but she acts like one, too...at least at school.

CAROLINE has three of her top teeth coming in this week. I'll miss her little gummy smile, but it'll be fun to get to see her new pearly whites. She also learned how to wave this week. All day Wed, she would wave at us when we said Hi to her. But then on Thurs afternoon, she forgot how. I'm sure it'll come back to her. Eventually.

It was the cute little backward wave. You know,
almost like she was waving to herself.

Andrew did visit an Orthopedic surgeon this week. He'll get an MRI next week and go back to the doctor the following week. At least two more weeks of walking around like an old man.

Snow can be...fun?

I hate being cold. I don't like winter. After living in Tucson/Vegas for two years with NO winter whatsoever, I realized I could happily do without it.

But after living in the snow and ice of Utah for the past three weeks, I have to admit, it can be really fun.

At Andrew's parents' house, he took the kids out back to play. I thought they were going to build a snow man, but it ended up being a snow fort. It was the perfect packing snow, too.

Even Grandma got in on the action.

Take cover!

I took Brandon and Whit sledding while we were visiting my parents. Andrew decided to stay home with Caroline. (For his sake more than hers. Bad backs and fast descents don't mix!) As we left the house, I felt like I was making a sacrifice to go out in the bitter cold so that my kids could have some fun. But by the end, I wanted to stay as long or longer than they did. It was a blast!

And also a lot of WORK to bundle up
these munchkins! Thanks again to
Ang for loaning us the snow gear.

Brandon was too cool to SIT on the sled.
He wanted to "sledboard."

This is how he would end up:

down in the snow after a few feet.
Luckily, there were no major injuries sustained.

Whit was happy with the traditional sledding position...

even when she lost her sled.

But after watching big brother go down head first,

W wanted to give it a try.

We had to go down at least once with all three of us on the sled.

That did not go so well.
I'm not meant to be the anchor of a sledding team.
I kept making us sled sideways and crash.
But we always ended up laughing over it.

Whit's face captures the moment perfectly.

Much to my mother's chagrin, one fun day at the sledding park does NOT make me want to move to Utah. I will happily return to my 50 and 60 degree Carolina winters. I got my fill of snow-related fun for at least another year or so. :)

Out of the mouths of babes--December

It's a short post this month, so I'm including some video clips at the end of some of the kids' latest tricks.

12/7--Often when we're reading scriptures with the kids, we try to teach them through questions. "Was he being obedient?" "What do we learn from that story?" "Was that a good choice?" etc. Tonight Whitney dished it right back at us. She used the same tone we do and asked, "Do we get to heaven by biting other people?"

Let's not test the biting theory on each other. Please.

12/8--Whitney is a rule keeper. It's so nice to have one of those for a child. Not that she's perfect, but she likes order and tries to remember to stay in line. Sometimes I'll overhear her repeating rules to herself like, "Don't drink the bathwater." or "Close the door behind me." But today she broke out a rule I'd never heard, "Don't look at robots in the face." Why not? "Because they might attack you." Yikes.

Don't make eye contact

12/17--Here's the story Whitney told me today:
Once there was a unicorn named Unicornia. She was trapped by Dr. Doom. He's the bad guy and he loves to eat unicorns. He lives in a big castle with a machine that slices unicorns. Unicornia lives in a town named Unicorn Town. Elisi is Unicornia's Mom. She can rescue Unicornia. She's perfect for the job! But Unicornia's horn stabbed Dr. Doom and turned him into a nice unicorn. Now there are now more unicorn left in Unicorn Town. They all moved underground to meet the other unicorns that live there.
Wow. I was impressed. I told her what a great storyteller was and she replied, "It's real!"

12/21--Here's the joke Brandon told his dad and grandpa this morning. I think he made it up himself, but am not sure:
What's the difference between french fries and pea soup?
You can go to France and get fries, but you can't pee soup. ha ha

Not QUITE as cute as the baby girls in the tub,
but apparently a comfy way to watch TV.

12/27--While watching Sat morning cartoons, Whit randomly said, "I love butter. I want to lick it. I wish I had a butter popsicle...or butter ice cream!" Ewww.

On a random side note, Andrew's back is still
really bad. He has been very limited
in what he can do. Even walking for
extended periods is painful. I know
it's wrong to laugh at the misery of others,

but I couldn't help cracking up when
he borrowed a Jazzy at the grocery store.
Riding in style, babe.

On to the videos.... They are each just a few seconds
long and have no sound because I took them with
my digital camera that has no mic. :)

Look what Caroline learned to do:

I love that she takes a little roll at the end and
just keeps on trucking along.
Time to take the babyproofing to a whole new level.

I think this might be B's impression of the
famous Bigfoot video.

And I think that fall was on purpose.

Whitney likes to make snow angels.
And she's pretty darn good at it.

This reminded me of a cartoon character.

He's so floppy as he goes down. Silly guy.

Happy New Year! Here's to many more smiles laughs in 2009.