Fencing

So Tues nights, Wed afternoons, and Friday nights are all becoming fencing nights.  It's something that both Jer and I enjoy and it's some excercise too... But the kids are starting to pick up on some of it without directly teaching them.  It's pretty funny.  Friday night we were there learning how to fence Sabre and Sammy (2 year old) starts yelling, "Ready, Fence!  1, 2, 3"  Which as far as I can make out is that he is referreeing... ("En Gaurde, Fence... halt... (then tell the score.)")  I about peed my pants, which then Evelyn did for me... I ended up with pee all down my leg that wasn't mine.  Lovely.

Of Mice and Men

And yes, I hope that in this case the mice end up in the same condition as in the book.  We have mice in our garage... so, Jer cleaned out the garage, we got two cats from Amy and Jon, and put all our dog food into a plastic container.  And today we found a mouse in the house.  Now I'm not an animals in the house person.  In essence, I'm lazy.  I don't want to clean up after animals in the house... so we're trying to trap the dang thing.  Jer put a mouse trap where he'd seen it earlier today, and after church we were in the front room just talking and a mouse ran out from under the couch... saw us... and ran back under.  So we brought the cats inside and scared the mouse out.  Unfortunately, they didn't catch it... but they did get really excited about chasing it and the mouse did run away.  We're going to buy more traps tomorrow though and maybe we can catch it before I get too grossed out.

Happy 4th!

I'm writing a little early since tomorrow I plan to try to spend with my baby! 

My oldest baby's turning 4 in the morning.  I love this girl!  She's happy, funny, helpful, active, and she loves me.  She's the girl that will pause a million times in the middle of getting dressed to tell Sammy a story, or to come say hi to Evelyn.  She loves to learn and loves to do things.  She's my fencing buddy and my cuddler.  She's willing to watch the baby while I'm in the bathroom.  She loves her cousins, especially Rachel, Anya, Mariah, Grace, Aubrey, and Devin.  She loves to read books, jump, and ride her bike.  She loves picnics.  She loves cats.  And she LOVES playing with her Daddy and brother Sammy.  She pretends to be afraid of things but isn't really.  She's able to do a lot on her own, but likes to be with you and asks you to do things for her just so that she can spend time together.  She's very good at picking up her room.  Loves My Little Ponies.  And someday wants to wear a bra.  I love you Ada!  You are a gift and a promise!  Be patient with me!  You're my first, and as Gma and Gpa Wilcox say, "The guinea pig child." or as Daddy says, "Version 1.0".  We're figuring out parenting and glad that you're tough enough to take it!

Communication

Sam came to me distraught after dinner tonight (that was a fun pre-thanksgiving Judy and Jim!).  He'd been playing while holding the paper cube that they'd made today in Nursery and it'd gotten smashed... so to tell me what had happened and that he wanted me to fix it, he threw it on the floor and stomped on it.  "Like that!", he said.  Then he handed it to me and wanted me to fix it.

Teaching moment

So, I saw an opportunity during conference to introduce Sammy to Prophet Thomas S. Monson.  It went something like this:

-"Sammy, look!  That's the prophet!"
Sammy - "Prophet... no prophet."
-"His name is Thomas S. Monson."
Sammy - "Thomas the train?"

I did eventually get him to say Thomas S Monson, but I don't think he has any idea what a prophet is despite the many family night lessons and nursery lessons.  He'll get it eventually!

But personally, this was my favorite talk.  And this was my second favorite.

Sisters

And I love that they love each other!

Don't they look alike?!

I like this last one because they're both like, "What?"

Ada

And this one?

Evelyn

How did I get this cute girl?

three things

ONE:   WAY excited for the new temple to be built out of the burned down Provo Tabernacle! 
TWO:   LOVED spending time with my sisters and mom!
THREE:  THOUGHT that it was hilarious that when we went to meet my friends' new boyfriend... the boyfriend's friend was our mechanic.

more!

More family pictures by Bec...

Love them!

The Body song

"My Bonnie lies over the ocean. My Bonnie lies over the sea."  became "My Body lies over the ocean. My Body lies over the sea. My Body lies over the ocean. Bring back my Body to me to me!  Bring back, bring back o bring back my Body to me, to me... " (curtesy of Ada)

Sammy's version is, "bring back, bring back, bring back, bring back, to me, to me..."