Out of the Mouths of Babes--March

3/1--Brandon has a new aspiration in life.  Tonight while enjoying dinner at McDonalds, he announced, "When I grow up, I want to be the Hamburgler."

3/9--Whit randomly said, "I'm fute!  It's a new word.  It means funny AND cute."

Definitely one of the futest girls I know.

3/12--It was pizza night tonight.  Frozen pizza, to be exact.  (I promise I do cook meals most nights!)  When I was getting it out of the box and into the oven, Brandon cracked this one, "You better plug your nose when you cut the cheese...[pause for effect] pizza."

 [Insert Beavis laugh track here]

3/14--B brought in a huge cardboard box from outside.  I asked him what he was doing with it.  His reply:  "Building a supercomputer."  You never know what you're gonna hear from that kid.

3/14--We were in the backyard enjoying our new fire pit.  Brandon asked if we could have our nightly scripture study out there.  I told him I didn't think there was enough light.  He ran inside to get them anyway and on his way said, "Don't worry, Mom.  Carrots are my favorite vegetable, so I can see well in the dark."

 Don't let the glasses fool ya

3/16--Just for clarification, because I know y'all were wondering, Whitney informed me this morning that, "No one can eat a cloud."


3/18--Whitney was having a little picnic in the backyard with her friend.  All of their food was really yummy.  W said, "Everything in the world is yummy!  Except for honeydew melon... and trash."

 Ouch!  Out of nowhere, a huge slam on honeydew.

3/19  Whit walked around the house all evening with this:

She was pushing all the bumps and told us it was her

new cell phone, The Super Texter 900.

3/23--Dinner conversation tonight included this question from Whit, "Do they make flashdarks?  Like flashlights...but wherever you point them it gets dark?"  Not that I know of.

3/24--We were listening to my ipod on shuffle in the car.  A classical song came on and the kids were surprised and kinda confused.  Brandon wanted to know who wrote it.  I glanced at the info and couldn't see the composer, but told him the title was Piano Concerto Number One.  He said, "Number One wrote it?  He must go to the bathroom all the time!" Oh, boys and their potty humor.

3/27--We ate breakfast with the Buongiovanni's before church this morning.  It's amazing how quickly twelve people can plow through cold cereal.  We opened and then completely finished a box of Life.  Brandon said, "It should be called Life cereal until the box is gone, then it's Death cereal." 

3/29--B came up with new words to the Delilah song.  He sang, "Hey there, Saliva.  What's it like in New York City?"

3/30--We were at the dollar store today.  Brandon found this book:

Click to see Goliath's teeth.  He said, "Mom, Goliath is a vampire.  Come on, Stephenie Meyer, you forgot to include Goliath in your books!"  I love this kid.  He even throws out Twilight humor for me.


Bonus Caroline pics:

Loves storytime at the library.

Sleeps with a dozen dolls/stuffed animals.

Some mornings, she takes out as many as

she can hold.  Today, they all got to ride

in the stroller together.

She has grown up so much this month!

She's getting taller, her hair is growing,

and she talks up a storm.

Went through a phase earlier this month where

she wanted me to play the piano with her every day.

She would say, "Doing, Mommy.  Doing," because her favorite Primary song is "Do As I'm Doing." I love feeling her chubby little fingers on mine as I play.  We flip through the Primary songbook, but she only wants me to play songs that have illustrations with them.  The funniest part is when she turns to the two-page pictures at the beginning of each section and asks--no, demands--that I play that song.  I've made up some good ones.  My favorite is, "Girl in a Yellow Dress, Girl."

Loves playing in the backyard now that the weather is gorgeous.

Makes great cheezy smiles for me when I take her pics.

Philly

Spring break!  Yippee!  We met our good friends, the Peos, in Philadelphia for a little weekend getaway.  It went by too fast, but we tried to have as much fun as we could in two days.

It is an eight hour drive to Philly.  I thought it was a great idea to leave Thursday after Andrew got off work.  I figured the kids would be sleeping most of the drive and we'd be ready to start seeing the sights bright and early on Friday.  I just didn't realize just how late we would get there.  The kids finally crashed between 10 and 10:30.  Andrew and I had fun conversation about retirement, LOST, and college memories.  We also scanned through the AM radio stations several times to track the March Madness games.  Fun stuff.  We finally rolled into our hotel around TWO A.M.  And did our kids sleep in?  Of course not.  Thankfully I'm not too old yet and managed the sleep deprivation just fine.

On Friday, we headed downtown.

We checked out the Liberty Bell.

and Independence Hall

History buffs (or fans of the movie National Treasure)

will remember that this is where the
Declaration of Independence was signed.

This is the room where our founding fathers stood.

Andrew and I LOVE stuff like this.

Our kids are a bit young to appreciate it, but they hung in there.

And entertained themselves with the heat vent on the floor

while the tour guide spouted off historical facts.

They were as happy as could be running around

outside in the brisk early spring air, too.

We sometimes hear that Andrew and Christian

look like brothers.  I could see that.

Andrew had to get an authentic Philly Cheesesteak.

The kids and I ate pizza.

After swimming at the hotel pool for a while,

we headed to the mall for dinner.

They had a great little amusement center.

The kids loved the ball pit.

B and W rock climbed.

Whit talked her daddy into riding a super fun but stomach-churning ride.

Then I got ride it with her, too.  Such a rush.  Loved it.

Friday night we stayed up late watching basketball and chatting.

On Saturday morning, we went for another swim before checking

out of our hotel.  Then we got stuck in parade route traffic

on our way back to downtown.  And we didn't even get to see the parade.

We eventually made it the The Franklin Institute.

Philadelphia has beautiful architecture.

This was a fantastic museum.

We got in free with our science center membership--

one of the best purchases we've made.

The lobby is a memorial to Ben Franklin.
I can't believe how many commonly-heard
phrases are attributed to him.
That was an influential man.

We toured a giant heart,

relaxed on a humongous femur,

climbed through enlarged blood vessels,

and built paper whirlygigs.

(Caroline's favorite part.  

We had to eventually pry her off the table.)

We said our good-byes to the Peos and drove down to

Virginia to stay with the Buongiovannis, also good college friends.

We drove through DC and LOVED our view

of the temple along the way.

We stayed up way too late laughing and visiting with Rick and Amy.  After church this morning, we headed home.  Phew.  I'm exhausted just recapping the adventure.  I'm off to catch up on my zzzz's.  Maybe the kids will sleep in tomorrow...but probably not.

Two reasons to smile

Reason #1:  Whitney got a good report from her crush, Dr. Buckley, this week.  Yippee! 

Her eyes are lookin' good.

So good, in fact, that we don't have to go back for a whole year!

That, my friends, is great news.

Except Whitney considers it a mixed blessing.

That's a long time to go without seeing your boyfriend.

Reason #2:  Brandon participated in his first pinewood derby this week.  Yee haw.

Here he is with the Thunderbird.

Or maybe it was the Firebird.

I forget.

I asked him to show me his game face.

He gave me a funny look and walked off.

He won about half of his races.

Go Thunderbird!

(go firebird?)

And his car was named "Most Hands Off Pinewood Derby."

I wasn't sure how to take that.

But it turns out that's the award given to the car that

looks like the scout did most of the work himself.

Huh.  I won't tell them that was MY paint job.

Totally kidding.  

He DID do the design, sanding, and painting all on his own.

And apparently he gets to go on to the district derby now.

Sweet.

Time marches on

Usually when I go this long in between posts, it's because I'm really busy with some big project or planning a vacation or taking a month-long road trip.  Not this time.  Nothing big and exciting.  Not much to blog about.

Don't get me wrong.  I don't believe blogs are only for documenting the big things in life.  You can go back and read my 2006 archives if you want proof.  That's what I've been doing as I put together my blog book.  I apparently thought every nitty gritty detail of our lives needed to be put out into cyberspace for everyone to read.  Sheesh. As soon as the hard copy of my book arrives, I am deleting half of those posts.

While reading through them, I've reflected on the purpose of my blog.

Why am I doing this?  Two main reasons.

1.  To keep in touch with our family members who live thousands of miles away.  We miss them terribly, but blogging helps us feel a bit closer.  I love keeping up with my siblings, nieces, and nephews from afar.

2.  To document our family history as it is happening.  I've slowly stopped scrapbooking over the past few years.  While I miss that creative outlet, I don't want to let my memories of this time in our lives fade.  I want to capture not only the monumental milestones, but also the precious moments and even throw in a few of the challenges and valleys of sorrow.

Thanks for sharing this journey with me.  Keeping this record is important to me regardless how many readers I have, but it is easier to make the time to write up posts when I know someone else is going to read them.

With that, here are some of the moments we've been experiencing.

Indoor light saber hockey

Reading Caroline some of her favorite books...

over and over and over again.

Making yummy cookies.

I even tried a twist on my SIL, Cindy's, yummy

homemade oreo cookies:  Red Velvet Oreos.

They were good.  Maybe a little too good.

Enjoyed a couple of evenings sitting around our new fire pit.

One night we roasted hot dogs and then marshmallows.

The s'mores were awesome.

But the turkey hot dogs were not a hit.

Hey, I thought they were worth a try.

(Easy to say when I'm the one who doesn't eat hot dogs.)

Once again reveling in the start of spring.

The beauty is so satisfying at the end of a long, way-too-cold winter.

Girls' Night Out at the Mellow Mushroom.

Good pizza, great company.

After years of being stored under our shed, decided it

was time to break out the turtle sandbox again.

Not only is Caroline thrilled, the big kids have enjoyed it, too.

We got a new computer with our tax refund.

Andrew talked me into getting a laptop.

LOVE it.  I spend quality time with it every day.
It's like a new child--except it doesn't cry...only

when it needs to be charged.

As part of a cub scout requirement, Brandon planned

a game for the Primary activity yesterday.

It was a tithing quiz game and he was host.

I heard so many compliments about how well he did.

He was confident and a great leader.

We're proud of you, buddy!

A little backyard baseball.

The weather was gorgeous yesterday.

Warm enough that Brandon and Whit decided it was

the perfect time to go swimming...

in the hot tub.

They had a blast and played so well together.

But Caroline thought it was completely unfair that she was left out.

She tried to just climb on in...fully clothed!

It took some convincing, but she eventually decided to

help me with some sidewalk chalk drawings instead.

Lion, lamb, and life

March definitely came in like a lion here in NC.

We started off the month with another blizzard.

OK, it was more of a light dusting of snow.

But that didn't stop the powers that be from calling for a snow day.

It was pretty ridiculous.

The snow was all melted by the time school would have started.

 Anyway, all of us Southerners were SO tired of the yucky weather.

We were feeling down.

But our pleas for spring were finally answered!

Within a week, March had calmed into a sweet little lamb.

Now we're playing at the park (without jackets!),

feeding the ducks,

digging for worms in the backyard,

attempting to make fire by friction,

making jewelry out of leaves,

learning to blow bubbles,

and then trying to catch them in our mouths.

Because they're grape scented and that must 

mean that they taste good, right?

Now I just hope this gorgeous weather is here to stay.

I LOVE spring!

Additional random life updates

The chicken bone science experiment went great.

I thought the Powerade bone was the most interesting.

Check out how blue it got! (Bottom left bone...obviously.)

Whit lost her second tooth.

The tooth fairy forgot to come on the right night...again.

Slacker.

Thanks to our kids' surrogate NC grandparents,

Andrew and I went to the temple in Raleigh this weekend.

It was wonderful.  Just what we needed after his hectic

month of business traveling.

Caroline's hair is long enough for braids!

They don't last long, but don't they look cute?

And, finally, for your viewing pleasure....

You can see where Brandon got his sweet basketball skills.

(It sure wasn't from me.)

Go Daddy #45!