Just Us: February 2012

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

My Bookworm

Hailey and Shannon Hale.

Hailey devours books. It's more than a past time, it's an obsession. I have actually used the phrases, "If you don't get your chores done then I am taking your book away!" and "Stop Reading..." After she is told lights out at bedtime, she is frequently caught reading by the light of her cellphone.

I know that probably makes me a bad mom, but I never said I was a good one.

Okay, maybe I am a good mom because when I heard that one of Hailey's favorite authors was coming into town for a book signing, I took her! Last Saturday my friend Cassidy, Hailey, and I went to meet Shannon Hale. She's written books both for adults and juveniles. Hailey had just finished reading her Goose Girl series and was so thrilled to meet her.

I do think it's pretty great that Hailey has such a love of reading. And I was elated to get to have that experience with her. She was so happy!

Chatting up her favorite author.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Pizza Party

The common cold has been very common around here. Brandon, Samantha, and Brianna were all hit hard this week. Sammy and Brandon missed church Sunday due to their colds. Brianna was home Wednesday & Thursday sick. Wednesday was Samantha's field trip to Papa Murphy's. That morning the littles woke up feeling better than they had all week so I gambled and let them go. My friend, Alli, took them and I stayed home with Brianna. I was bummed to miss out on the fun but thankfully the other moms snapped some great pictures.

Brandon was just a little excited about making his own pizza.

The whole crew!

Making their personal pizzas.

So goofy!

Sammy with her friend Eliza showing off their yummy pizzas!

Learning about all the machines at the Pizza place.

The kids were so excited when they got home to bake their pizzas. Brandon was pretty proud that he made a smiley face out of pepperonis and sausages. They were sure to tell me that they had made them for us all to share. Considering they had had colds I assured them that they could have their special pizzas all to themselves. And they were happy to devour them!

My ode to Pinterest

I was so slow to jump on the Pinterest bandwagon. The last thing I needed was another time waster, and that is the one thing everyone said about it. But in actuality it saves me time in that I don't have to reinvent the wheel. I'm teaching Preschool this month and it has been fun to use Pinterest to enhance our lessons. Tuesday, when it was raining, we talked about the weather at school. I used something I saw on Pinterest. It totally worked as described and the boys thought it was so cool. Thank you, Pinterest!

Our Gymnast

Handstands on the beam.

There are all kinds of loud thuds heard around my house nowadays. Brianna is constantly doing handstands, flips, back bends, back walkovers, and other gymnastic moves that I don't know the names of! She took gymnastics when she was younger and asked to start again, and she is in love with the sport. All her practice has paid off. She was the only one in her class this session, who was recommended for advancement.

Oh, to be that flexible again!

More stretching.

All smiles and loving every minute!

Somersaults on the beam.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Samantha is 4!

We picked up Samantha's annual portraits. Every year on the kids birthday I get their picture taken and write them a letter. It's a tradition my mom started and I adopted.

Dear Samantha,

This past year you have become such a big girl. You make your own sandwiches, you empty trash cans, clean mirrors, and you just recently learned how to read. You can do so much all on your own and hate when people try to help you. You are still our little spitfire. People sometimes underestimate your spunk because you can be shy around new people and you are tall but tiny. However, there is a definite fire in you as there always has been. And as patient as you are being bossed around by older siblings, you still can hold your own-- when needed.

I love your big expressive eyes. They say the eyes are the window to a soul, how true this is with you. You tell everything through your eyes. Even when you're sick I can tell by your eyes long before you complain. (Although you do have a crazy high tolerance for pain.)

This year you have loved going to Preschool and Dance. You played T-ball this year. And you also had your first crush this year, on Brandon's friend. You've made lots of friends and you love playing with them.

Other loves of yours include; freezing us with your cold hands and feet, singing, dancing, making people laugh, snuggling (also, my favorite), veggies, and all things Princess.

We are so glad you are part of our family. I love everything about you and I can't wait to see what this next year will hold for you. Happy Birthday, Sam. I love you!

Mom

Valentine's Day

It's another holiday, yay for holidays! We celebrated Valentine's Day a couple of different ways this year. The day before Valentine's Day we helped Hailey decorate doors for her Ambassador fundraiser. We decorated 30 homes! We were out til 12:30 Monday night and we did 5 more homes Valentines Day.

On Valentines Day I woke up early and packed the girls special lunches, including heart shaped sandwiches and heart shaped chocolates.

Then, we had a Valentines Day party at Brandon's preschool

Finally for dinner we had heart shaped pizza, red CRUSH soda (Each person got their own bottle with a tag that says, "I got a crush on you"), and peanut butter cookies with chocolate hearts for dessert.

What a fun day celebrating all the people I love most. Hope you had a Happy Valentines Day, too!

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Award Winning Artist

Tonight Hailey had a Reception at the School District Office for an Art Contest she entered. When the invitation came I asked Hailey about it and she said the whole school entered. The invitation said they would announce the winner at the Reception. Thinking it wasn't that big a deal the girls and I went tonight.

It was a catered event with a quintet playing in the lobby. There was a running reel showing the 19 district finalists, Hailey included. We meandered around and found her art framed and hanging in the District Office. Turns out the art teacher selected her piece from the entire school and she was a District Finalist! Her Principal and Art Teacher both came for the event.

Hailey receiving her plaque from the Superintendent.

Sup. Butts, Hailey, Principal Lewis, and Ms. McKinney

All 19 Finalists

Hailey and her Art Teacher

We're so proud of our Hailey!

Super Bowl XVLI

Indy is hosting the Superbowl this year and it is insane! The preparations have been going on for forever but the noticeable ones started about a month ago. The streets have been renamed to NFL teams. Tents have been erected throughout downtown. There are stages and signs everywhere!

The city has done a great job of creating something for everyone. There is a Zipline over downtown, a village with booths and ice sculptures. The convention center is hosting an event called the NFL experience. It is family friendly so we took the whole clan and met up with some friends to experience the Superbowl first hand.

They had models for all the NFL teams. No surprise when Brandon and Brianna wanted to be in the Arizona cardinals uniform.

The lines were crazy long so Brandt entertained the kids by throwing the football around with the littles.

We spent most our time in the Kid Zone. Appropriately named, it was perfect for the kids.

Sammy has great aim!

Hailey made her toss as well.

Sammy was 2 for 2!

Brandon and his friends had fun playing their own football game.

Not to brag or anything, but I made my field goal! Holla!!!

The kids enjoyed getting tatoos.

Friday night Aaron and Tara had a Superbowl party downtown. This time we left the kids at home and braved the 100,000 plus crowds alone. The thing I most wanted to see was the roman numerals at monument circle. And it was just as cool as I heard it was.

The Things Kids Say...

Sammy's favorite saying is "Cause I say so." It can be used to answer any question such as, Why aren't you eating? Why are you crying? and my personal favorite Why are you naked?! Oh, did I forget to mention she loves being naked?

Brianna was crying because Brandon pushed her. I asked why and he said "Cause she's fighting with me. She's trying to kill me!!!" Brianna only got out "nu-uh," before Brandon blurted out "Liar, Liar, fur on fire!"

Last night in family prayers, Brianna blessed Spirit Week at school.

We were outside when I saw a lizard, and pointed it out to Brandon. I asked what it was and he responded a lizard. I told him he was right and he promptly asked, "Can I kill it?"

Sam and Brianna were taking a bath when I heard Sam start to cry. I asked Brianna what happened and she said, "Sam was trying to get out of the bath and she hurt her VIRGINIA."

Brandon told me he loved me so, I told him I loved him too. "No, I love you more," he says. I laughed and said "Brandon, you're a good boy." "Yea," he says.

I told Brandon & Sammy that they were going to have friends over. When I told her it was Brandon's friend Sam and Sam's little brother Max. She complained that she didn't have a friend coming and I told her she was. I said, "What about Max? You are in the same preschool, he's your friend." To which she replied, "Nu-uh, I hate that guy."

Brandon is very eager to grow up. We've had some very odd conversations with him as a result. Most recently he's begun showing us his armpit and asking if he has any hair there yet. The other common occurrence is for him to ask his dad to spray him with "man spray" aka cologne. There was also one other strange conversation where he asked why his weiner wasn't growing. I told him to ask his Dad. He did.

At Brianna's birthday party this year I told her to be sure and introduce her school friends to her church friends. She went in, sat everyone down, and told them to go around the room and say their name and one thing they like about her. She's insane!

We always make our kids try a couple bites of something new before they say they don't like it. One night as I am insisting Sam try some new food and she is protesting adamantly, claiming it was disgusting. Eventually, she took a bite and then exclaimed, "Hey, mom! That disgusting stuff tastes good!"

We adopted a friend's birthday tradition this year. We each went around and said something we liked about the birthday person. Sammy liked everyone's eyes (It was kind of random). But my favorite was when Brandon told Brandt that he liked that his Dad farted a lot and picked his nose. We all died laughing!

At dinner we were discussing the origins of Halloween. Hailey said that it used to be a celebration of the dead and that we still do that. As I was thinking, trying to figure out what she meant when she said we still do that; Brianna scoffs, "Yeah, right. Like we would be like, It's Halloween, let's go to the Seminary." I nearly died laughing. I know she meant cemetery but I went to early morning Seminary and I know I have seen the walking dead there!

Okay, this isn't really something my kids said, but a kid did say it, so it qualifies...

There is a boy at Hailey's school that likes her and she likes him. They've been texting and talking a lot. One text he sent her said, "I have to tell God that he's missing an angel." SIXTH GRADE!!! And so it begins...

We were in the hardware store and got Brandon two of the 5 gallon paint stick stirrers. He loves using them as swords. He handed me one and says, "Here Mom, now we can have an epic battle!"

Hailey is lactose intolerant. She has become a bit dramatic over it. So, an ongoing joke in our family is quoting a movie line wherein the Dad calls for his kids to come and yells, "kids, come and get your flan!" When we yelled this the other night to call Hailey, Brianna quickly adds, "come and get your lactose free flan!" We died laughing!

Sammy and I were working on her reading and she read a hard sentence. I told her "that was perfect" to which she replied, "Holla! I'm awesome!"

Brandon wants to grow up so fast. It's led to many funny stories. Most recently he has realized that his dad always has cash in his pockets. So, he asked Brandt if he could have some "dollars" so he could be like him. Brandt said sure and gave him some coins for his pockets. Brandon is no fool he said no Dad, I want DOLLARS, like you. Brandt caved.

PART 2:

Today Brandon was fishing through Brandt's pockets and happily retrieved several bills. Brandt snatched them back as Brandon moaned. Brandt said, "Fine, you can have a bill if you can name it correctly." (You think he would learn by now) Brandon, again -- no fool, grabs the largest denomination and says this is $20 bucks." Incredulous Brandt says, "Why do you think that's a 20?" To which Brandon replied, "Because it has a 20 on it!"

Today at lunch Brandon said that T-Rex eats meat and that he also likes meat. So, he's a "carnibore." He asked Brandt do you know what that means? Before Brandt could answer Sammy interrupted, "That you're a dinosaur." Brandon went on to educate us all on what "carnibore" and "herbalbore" mean.

Sammy (age 4) asked to watch a DVD. Apparently it was her favorite movie when she was 5?!

Brandon was eating pizza at Sam's club and he was licking the grease off his fingers. Brianna told him that that was grease (with a disgusting look on her face). To which he replied, "mmmm, this is good grease."

We just got a new home line. Brianna gave the new number to all her friends. It turns out she also told them all it was her private number. Oh, that girl!

I was playing Trouble with Brandon. And he rolled a 6 I asked if he was going to get a new man out because he was moving another man along the board. He said "No, I'm living the dream." I don't even know what goes through his head.