December-Speak

A conversation that I had with December today...

December: "I can't wait until I'm seven!"

Me: "Why?"

"Because when I'm seven, I'll lose a tooth!"

"...and you think you'd like that?"

"Yup."

"Why?"

December, matter of factly: "Because of the voice."

Me, very confused: "Voice?  What voice?"

"You know, when you lose a tooth, you talk in a different voice -- you can't talk right anymore."

"Ah.  I see."

"But, Mommy, there is one problem when you loose a tooth.  How do you CHEW things?!?"

How, indeed.

Ice Videos from Our Trip to Michigan

Here's a couple of vidfeos from us playing on the ice on my parents' pond when we went there for Christmas...we had fun. :)

It's Break Time!

I know I haven't posted alot since Reuben was born.  It's been on purpose.  I'm taking a break from blogging while I've been getting used to finangling three children and keeping the house in order.  I'm still not finished getting used to that yet, so I'll still be keeping my blogging break.  But I will come back eventually!  I have not abandoned this blog forever.  I'm just on a blog-vacation, and it's nice. 

If you want to see more updated pictures of the kids, just become my Facebook friend, and I'm uploading recent pics there! 

Here's one little post, though, of some funny parenting stuff...(see following).

Want to Have Kids??

This is something I just read for the first time, and it really made me laugh...alot.  So I am sharing it with you!


11 Step Program for those thinking of having kids



Lesson 1






1. Go to the grocery store.


2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.


3. Go home.


4. Pick up the paper.


5. Read it for the last time.






Lesson 2






Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...


1. Methods of discipline.


2. Lack of patience.


3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.


4. Allowing their children to run wild.


5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.


Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.






Lesson 3






A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...


1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)


2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.


3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.


4. Set the alarm for 3AM.


5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.


6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.


7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.


8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.


9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)






Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.






Lesson 4






Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...


1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.


2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.


3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.


4. Then rub them on the clean walls.


5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.


6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?






Lesson 5






Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.


1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.


2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.






Time allowed for this - all morning.






Lesson 6






Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.


1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.


Leave it there.


2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.


3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.


4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.






Lesson 7






Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.






Lesson 8






1. Hollow out a melon.


2. Make a small hole in the side.


3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.


4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.


5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.


6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.






You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.






Lesson 9






Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.






Lesson 10






Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.






Lesson 11






Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.






This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

Our House

These pictures will have to be put up 4 at a time, since I'm uploading them a different way than usual.

The front of our house

Our backyard, with the garden off to the left (which has nothing planted in it this year, but hopefully next year it will...)

Our backyard, again. This picture is taken from the back door, looking out.

Our kitchen

Our House, cont'd.

More kitchen

Dining area

Basement living room

More basement living room

Our House, cont'd.

Reuben's room

Basement hallway

Basement guest bedroom

Main floor family room

More main floor family room

An Update!

Hello again! Lots of things have happened since the last post. So much has been going on! We've moved to Canada, Brad has started his new job at the church as an Assistant Pastor, we bought and moved into a new house (we're still working on unpacking), we have our baby due in 2 weeks, etc. Life has been very crazy! I'm obviously WAY behind on posting pictures, so I'll work on catching up. Until the baby's born, at least -- then life will probably be all crazy again! :) But here's some pictures from May, at a seminary event.

I was making dessert for the seminary ball game and cook-out, so December got to lick the spoon

Every year, the seminary does a softball game with the teams being faculty & graduating students vs. the under classman. Brad wasn't able to play this year because he was running the seminary library that day, but it's always such a fun game that I wanted to watch with the kids. The faculty / graduates won!

Isaac watching the game.

Some of the seminary wives watching on the bleachers.

We miss being a part of the seminary community! We loved living in California and miss our friends there very much.

Isaac the Elephant/Bear/Cat/Fish

Here's Isaac practicing the different animal sounds. These are probably most of the ones he knows so far, but he does know a few more like frog, duck, etc. This video was taken on Saturday. Hopefully I'll put up some pictures soon. I just took some more, which were the first pictures I'd taken since the Park Day pictures! Things are a bit busy here, and the picture-taking has gone by the wayside, but I really should try to take some more. I'll update you on life here more thoroughly when I put up the next set of pictures.

Park Day

We're still doing the weekly Park Day, where a bunch of the seminary mothers get together at different parks around town and let all of our kids play together. This week I took the camera with me, so that I could get some pictures since there aren't that many Park Days left of this semester!

Isaac on the play set, quite pleased with getting himself up that high!

December and Samuel on this toy that twirls around and around.

Isaac and a couple of his little friends. Isaac is in the middle of the "spiderweb," Oliver is beside him, and Madelyn is in the navy shirt. Madelyn's mom Joanna is standing there. She's new to the seminary this year. It's interesting to see how Park Day has changed from last year to this year, with many of our friends moving away last year, and some new families arriving for their first year here.

December walking Gracie the dog. My friend Della's mom is out visiting right now, and she brought her little dog to Park Day. Gracie was quite a hit with the kids, and especially with December.

December and Samuel again, and there's Della's mom on the left side of the slide and Della on the right side.

Della's little girl Clara with Isaac. I'm going to miss Park Day after we leave! We've really enjoyed going every week.

April Pics

Here's a picture that Brad took of December on Easter Sunday

Isaac, showing off the Canadian side of himself.

The kids playing some sort of fun game under the table. Lately their favorite thing to do together is make a fort in the living room. They can spend HOURS in there, going camping and doing whatever else you do with a fort. It's so easy to do and keeps them super entertained!

December under the table

Brad practicing his photography skills. It's a pretty shot!

These next couple of weeks are going to be very busy for Brad. He has two papers due and two sermons to give. After that will probably still be busy for him, as the semester begins to draw to a close. Brad's also working on stuff for us moving, so he's a busy guy!

The kids are doing well, too, although Isaac's got some kind of sickness or teething going on...runny nose, cough, more irritable, etc. I hope that it's teething so that it can't be passed on to anyone else! As for me, I've got a doctor's appointment later today, and I think they'll be sending me for my glucose test. Ick. But I suppose it's a necessary evil. :)

December & Isaac Playing

I haven't taken many pictures of the kids lately, so I've had nothing to post. But today I thought I'd take some video of them and put it up, since you haven't seen a video of them for a while! In it, December reads to Isaac and Isaac says a few of his words.

Speaking of words, I think I'll give you Isaac's ten most favorite words. He doesn't say a TON of words, probably only around twenty or something, but in the past week he's gone on a spree and added a few more to his repertoire. I'll list his top ten with #1 as Isaac favorite word to say (and is the one we hear the most often), #2 as his second-favorite word, and so on down the list.

1. Dada (by FAR!)

2. Ball

3. Roar (for any sort of animal, even the animals that he knows what they actually say. Like kittens. He knows that they meow and says a really sweet, soft "meooow", but in general, if Isaac sees a kitten, he says in a real growl: "ROARRR!")

4. Car (if it's got wheels, it's a "Ka")

5. Enh (This probably doesn't qualify as a word, but we do hear it an awful lot. It means, "I want!")

6. Aww (he likes to give hugs and cuddles, and whenever he lays his head on Brad, or December, or I, he says, "awww...")

7. Please (if he wants it, he's pleading for it. Only his "please" sounds more like, "Peeeeeeeeeeeeee-eeeeeeeeeeeeee-eeeeeeee-s!" It's incredibly long.)

8. Bird (due to his beloved hummingbird feeder)

9. Moon (I think this was actually the first word he ever said)

10. Gentle (sounds like, "denn-o." I've been working with him alot on this one, because he's trying to hit his darling sister more often, so we're teaching "gentle")

California Adventure

Last week we went to California Adventure and had a good time there. It was nice having a whole day together as a family. Here we are in the entrance area, before getting inside the gates.

Brad and December on the bumper cars. December drove her own car! With a little of Brad's help, that is.

I forget what the name of this ride is, but you can get the gist of it by the picture. It was a fun one that we all could go on, even Isaac and I!

Us waiting in line for that ride. December was able to go on more rides this year than last year, because she'd grown taller! So that made the day even more fun, to take her on some rides she hadn't been able to go on before.

Brad and Isaac waiting for the ride to start.

We're standing in front of a painted wall that makes it look like the street continues all the way down. Pretty cool!

Sitting in the big cart of the Mickey Mouse ferris wheel. We waited in line the longest for this ride and debated several times whether or not it was worth it for us to keep waiting. But I'm glad we did. This was a swaying cart, which was fun and different!

Isaac all tuckered out after lunch time.

Brad and December waiting for the Jumping Jellyfish ride to start.

There they are, jumping away!

The carousel is a classic favorite of December's.

December picked a seal to ride.

Brad and Isaac picked a goldfish.

We went to a little drawing class that California Adventure put on, and they taught us to draw Mickey! Here's Brad's drawing. Pretty good, eh?! (Sorry about it being sideways -- I tried a few times to upload the picture, and I couldn't get it to flip for me....)

Here's Isaac's impression of Mickey.

And here's December's Mickey!

Baby #3

There have been no belly shots yet of Baby #3 yet, so yesterday Brad kindly took some for me. Baby is due on August 3, so I'm 21 weeks along here, almost 22 weeks. Just over halfway and feeling really good! Second trimester really is the best trimester for me (no first trimester sickness, no third trimester giganticness), so I'm making sure I enjoy these weeks!!