Primary

Primary was exciting today... first of all, I was the only teacher with eight 6-7 year olds for the first hour (Sharing Time).  So I spent the hour saying things like, "Go spit your gum in the garbage please." "No talking during Sharing Time." "Why don't you sit over here." "Don't pinch please." etc... But my favorite part was during our lesson.  We had a visitor... she is a really cute little girl with lots of curly hair and very spunky.  There was a question that she started bouncing in her seat and said, "I know the answer because I'm a smarty pants!"

Ada's pretend phone conversation

So I over heard Ada on the "phone".  She was holding her hand to her ear and saying, "Hi!  Um... okay.  Because.  We are. Ummm... Because we can.  Ummm... " Then she turned to me and asked me if we were going to grandma's house.  I told her not today so she turns back to her phone, "No... umm... okay."  It really sounded like a one sided phone conversation.... That must be funny for a toddler to watch mom or dad on the phone and not hear what's going on on the other side.

My cute kids

I just have to say it over and over... my kids are cute! 

Ada... every time I have to tell her no more than once and she finally decides to go with my decision always says, "Okay, okay, okay."  It's always three times and she says it really fast. 

Trying to help Ada be happy today I started teasing her and saying, "Guess what!" "What?" "Chicken Butt" "Guess Why!" "Chicken Thigh".  And she looks at me very seriously and says, "Mommy no Chicken Butt.  No Chicken Thigh."  So, my question here is who's the mom and who's the child?

Sammy... feeding him today was really funny.  He was so intent on being fed that the only move he'd make was to open his mouth.  His hands were very carefully kept on his tray and he wouldn't even giggle when I was trying to make faces and noises at him... dead pan.

Small rant

So I have a small rant to make... you can listen if you want but it's really just the same old argument again. 

I hate when people say that you are stronger in the church if you live outside of Utah.  I hate it because I really don't see it as true.  You are as strong in the church as you want to be whether you live in happy valley or not.  I've lived in Utah, Wyoming (briefly), Ecuador, Kenya, and stayed long enough in Germany to participate in their YW program and play the piano for their Primary a couple of times.  There are "good" mormons in each of the areas I've lived in and "bad" mormons as well.  The difference that I see is that in Utah there is more of a cultural pressure to attend church even if you don't live like a "good" mormon.  I imagine that combined with the fact that you live farther away from your Ward/Branch members and so have fewer neighborhood disagreements and that you rarely see the "bad" mormons in sacrament meetings you have the feeling that you have a stronger testimony outside of Utah.  I will give you an example that's opposite.  In Bahia we had three hundred people on the membership list for the Branch... yes, Branch not Ward even with three hundred members... that's because it was a rare occasion that we'd be able to get over 90 people to our Sunday meetings.  (We got 100 to come to the area Conference by visiting every single house and making personal invitations.) Most of the members still lived in the area.  We even tried focusing on reactivation and retention instead of baptising... Maybe 30 of the people on the membership list didn't actually live in the area anymore... but the rest just stopped coming to church.  The ones that came to church faithfully had strong testimonies... but does it make your chances of becoming a strong member of the church increase or decrease if feel more peer presure to attend meetings?  I think of all the times as a teenager that I just came to church because my family was coming or because if I didn't my friends would ask where I was on Sunday.  It bought me the time and put me in situations where I could build my personal testimony.  And that's coming from the daughter of two good parents that taught her the gospel, and whose dad was not only a Seminary teacher since before she was born but also in the bishopric since she was 5.  I don't regret being brought up in Utah Valley... in fact, I want to raise my children here because I feel like there are fewer physical dangers (at least from big cities and certain countries) and because they are going to have to build their own testimony wherever they grow up anyways... and because both my kids sets of grandparents are here... how often can you live within 10 mins of either grandparents house?

cousins

I took a couple of pictures while my niece and nephew were over... they were cute so how could I resist?

She'd just woken up from her nap... but look at how grown up she looks!  I'm totally amazed!

This wasn't from the same day... but I think it's cute anyways!

girls day in

Ada's been really jealous and grumpy from all the attention that I've had to give to Sammy in the last two months... so I decided to do something fun with her.  She's been playing with everyone's barbie dolls... and she likes princesses... so I found some princess barbie dolls at Target for $10... and we watched Mulan and Little Einsteins while Sammy napped and played on the floor.  Ada had fun trying to get the dolls to hold hands and just giggled when I used Mulan to talk to Tiana.  I think she had fun.  I'm not sure if it did any long term fixes, but she had fun for a couple of hours!

Pictures

Well, it wasn't really an official photoshoot... we were in the church gym... yuck, but here's what we ended up with.  They're okay, but not the best I've ever done.  I suggested a few places for better pictures, but they didn't want to go through the hassel of dragging everyone somewhere else.

This one turned out the best out of the single family portraits that I took.  I think it's because I know all the kids and so they were willing to listen to me and look at me. (Except the one boy in blue of course... he didn't want to smile for any of the pictures except the funny face ones that we did!  Kind of ironic.)

Grandma with all the grandkids

The wholes family

Now that I look at this one... I want to put the little boy on the left into the space on the right between the other two boys so that they are in more of a crescent shape around dad.  Well, now I know for next time.

On this family... I counldn't get both of the girls to look at me at the same time... this is the closest that I got.

They were cute, but the little ones didn't want to stop wiggling and the two older ones didn't really want to go where I asked... so the composition isn't good, but at least they're all there!

huh

So... is there something ironic in the fact that my happy little boy is not happy?  I was trying to get his attention with one of the toys that plays music... it was playing "if you're happy and you know it" and all he did was cry.  hummm.

Yesterday

Yesterday was a good day... It was very much unlike our other days in most ever way.  We took Jeremy to work so that I could have the car for the rest of the day... I know... that means a 30-45 min commute for me and the kids (each way) that we usually don't have (and we did it twice), but it was fun to talk to Jer on the way and the kids got a little more sleep because they slept the whole way there and back.  When we got home, Diane and four of her kids came to visit.  That was a lot of fun and they got to stay for a little while.  I was also babysitting 3 other kids, but they got along great with Diane's kids and for the most part they stayed out of trouble.  Everyone left, I cleaned up a little bit and got Sammy to his 9 month doctors appointment.  His Celiac test came back negative (phew!) and his ear infection is a lot better now that he's been on antibiotics for a couple of days.  When we were done there, my high school friend Aliesha McNeff called to see if I still wanted to get together... I actually had a car so I went out to her house where we got to visit for about 1 1/2 hours while Ada played with her two oldest.  It was fun to see how she's doing and to catch up a little.  I would have talked longer, but  Ada was starting to feel her lack of nap for the day.  We got into the car and the kids slept on our way up to pick up Jer.  We stopped at IKEA on the way home to play in the kids area and eat dinner.  It was fun, and Ada definitely had a blast... she kept sneaking her way back to the kids area after we decided that it was time to leave.  I think her favorite is either the little kids kitchen or the slide or the tent or the rocking moose or the... you get the picture.  we bought a stool to help her get on the potty easier... the one that we have in there right now is actually one meant for me to be able to reach things in our really tall cabinets.  Then we got home and kids watched Monsters vs. Aliens while I did pilates and showered... then the kids went to bed while Jer and I played a 1/2 hour of Lord of the Rings on our computers.  Definitely packed in a lot.  I was exhausted.

cage in my kitchen

The little 4 year old that I babysat today asked me what the cage was for in my kitchen.  I couldn't really figure out what she was talking about until I actually went to see.  I had the play pen in the kitchen so that Sammy wouldn't get run over by all the other three crazy kids while they were running all over.

Her Daddy's daughter

So, I run with Ada around the house and take her for walks when it's nice outside but today she totally blew me away.  We decided to run at the rec center because of the snow outside, so we let her run instead of having to sit in the stroller.  I thought that she's make it about 1/4 mile and then we could get her in the stroller.  1 mile later she's still going and has a break down when Jer, Sharon and I made her get in the stroller.  I'm impressed and very proud of her.  And she's a two year old that can run a mile and still want more... I think she's related to her daddy.