My Best Good Helper

What more could a mommy possibly ask for than a child that is overjoyed at the prospect of changing light bulbs and fishing hair balls out of the shower drain together?

And on top of that, my big boy was disappointed when he found out we had all the fun without him.  

Such good boys we have!

-Isms

Lots of our conversations include sounds-letters-make, like this recent one with Noah and Emma.

Hi N-N-Noah!  That's the letter N, like Night!  Or Nurse!

E- Let's n-n-nuggle!

M- Nuggle?

E- Yeah!  (Emma rubs her face all over my arm.)

M- Oh!  Nuzzle!

Although, come to think of it, she probably meant nuggle, which was our family baby-talk word for snuggling.

Pumpkin Patch Traditions

The worst part about traditions is simply that when it's time to honor them again, it means time has passed and we've hardly noticed.  How can it possibly be time to visit our favorite pumpkin patch again?

But last weekend we found ourselves making the annual mad dash after school up to the orchard- where one of these kids was none too happy about having to balance on a wooden post fence.

But there was so much fun to be had!

To swim in the corn pool and race down the slides and through the hay maze, 

 to act out the story of the 3 Little Pigs in Storybook Village, 

to explore the new discovery barn, where the kids spent an incredible amount of time digging up carrots and potatoes and picking apples and grapes (and I spent that same time wishing we had such a farm like that of our own!).

We raced around the tracks and selected fudge and, as always, promised ourselves that we'd be back soon for pumpkin picking and apple cider sipping.

Even though it was pleasant in the 70s during our visit, I have the sneakiest suspicion that fall is almost, actually here.

Look at all that has changed in just two years!

Twice a Year

Twice a year we "skip" church in favor of general conference, a worldwide broadcast attended by all 16 million+ Mormons around the world to sing, learn and listen to the word of God from His prophet on earth today.  

In our home it means two days of puzzles, cinnamon rolls, crafts, nail polish, lots of candy and snuggles.  

And every time it seems like the conference is just beginning when, just like that, it's over again for another six months.

But we always come away with the resolve to be better than we were before.  There were many talks on service, and strengthening families, and being a true disciple of Christ.  We've got work to do!

Homeless Children

Emma once told me that she wished she was a homeless child so that she could eat bread whenever she wanted to.  

....

Today she kind of got her wish because she went to school with a piece of bread in her hand for breakfast.  

Not because she didn't have other options, but because she - and Adam and Leah - are slowly, but hopefully, (hopefully!!) learning about the natural consequences to their decisions.  Including the consequences that come when the decision is to move at the pace of a sloth stuck in honey when it's time to get ready for school.  

But I met her at school for lunch and she didn't seem much worse for the wear.  

So I'm not exactly sure if anyone learned anything from today's life lesson, but it felt worth recording anyway.

Bedtime Story

Last night's story came from a time when I looked like this- 

Look at that beautifully crimped hair!  That was a real labor of love from my mother, I can only imagine!

When I was a little girl, we lived in Alabama where it's really hot and we had a pool.  It was the in-ground kind, not the above-ground kind, and there was a deep end and a diving board. 

Sometimes my parents liked to invite people over to swim in our pool with us. 

One time they invited some teenagers from church over to swim.  There was one boy that came and he was chubby.

And that chubby boy got onto the diving board and he BOUNCED! one time and he BOUNCED! two times and he BOUNCED three times and 

CRACK!!

The diving board broke. 

And the chubby boy fell into the pool and the diving board fell into the pool and he felt really bad and my parents said, "Oh no!" because now we didn't have a diving board.

But Grandpa Mark, he likes to fix things with wood.

(Like if you had a plastic toy duck and it's eye fell out he would replace it with wood?  Yep, like that.)

So he got a big wooden board and he stuck it on top of what was left of the diving board and he drilled it into place and then we had a big wooden diving board that was super springy!

(But didn't you get splinters?  What color was the wood?  Did it ever break?  How high could you bounce on it??)

*****

And tonight's story went something like this- 

So when we were little kids and we had this huge pool and we did all kinds of things in it!  In the wintertime the pool would freeze and we could go ice skating on it!  Even our dog Skipper liked to get on the ice and slide around... or maybe we just liked pushing her onto the ice and watching her slide around...  

In the springtime we had to drain out all of the water and then we could go down into the bottom of the pool and run around and up the sides of the pool and even take skateboards down there and skate around.  

But the summertime was best of all because we had a pool right in our own backyard!  And we could swim in it anytime we wanted to, as long as we had a buddy.  

And then I sang them the buddy rap, which went something like this-

There's a rule about the pool
It's very, very cool.
You have to have a buddy or you will drown!

Having a buddy is the coolest thing around
'Cuz if you have a buddy you'll be safe and sound!

And yes, I still sing that song to my kids when we go swimming.

So in the summertime we would play all kinds of games in the pool, especially mermaids.  When we played mermaids we would take a diving ring and stick our feet through it so our legs were stuck together, just like a real mermaid.  And then we would swim around and flip our hair up out of the water, just like Ariel. 

But what we always really wanted to do was to play with our Barbies in the pool and pretend that they were mermaids.  Our mom said no because there is a filter in the pool that sucks out all of the dirt and she thought the Barbies might get sucked into the filter, but we didn't listen to her.  So one day we took the Barbies into the pool and we played and had so much fun, and then... 

...we forgot about them!  

We left them in the pool and we went inside to have dinner and we didn't remember about them again until the next day, when we ran out to the pool and found them floating in the water- without their heads!!

So we ran over to the big loud filter and took off the lid, and there they were, a bunch of Barbie heads floating around like a big bowl of Barbie head soup.  The filter had sucked off their heads and left their bodies behind.  

And we never took our Barbies into the pool again.

And now we'll see if any of them have nightmares tonight!

Girls Night

Twice a year I get to look forward to a date night with my big girl- the twice-annual kick-off to General Conference is the Women's Broadcast, and that means date night with Leah!

This time around we opted not to join up with friends for dinner, and took ourselves to the tasty Gateway Market downtown.  Although their mac and cheese was not the best she's ever had, Leah declared the grilled chicken panini the best sandwich she's ever set lips on. 

And then we met up with our friends- hundreds of other girls and women in the area that gathered to listen to the uplifting and inspiring words of our general church leaders, and we came home happy with thoughts like this in our hearts and our journals.  

It's always a wonderful time that we both look forward to!  Once Emma is 8 she'll join us, and then once Leah leaves for college Emma and I will have this night to look forward to, but for now it's always a great night out with my big girl.