Kids say the darndest things

Here are some recent funnies that the kiddos have come up with.

Addy: "Kaylee, do we have to obey Barack Obama now that he is our President?"

Kaylee: "Yeah, he could put you in jail if you don't."

Addy: "Well, then mom would shoot him."

The other night I had just said goodnight to Andrew and tucked him in bed. A siren was going off somewhere in town. Kaylee gave him a kiss goodnight as well and asked him, "Andrew, do you hear that fire engine?" Andrew replied, "No, I hear the Holy Ghost."

Andrew loves pretending to be a puppy right now. So the other night as we were getting ready to say a prayer before bed the following conversation took place.

Mom: "Andrew, do you want to say the prayer?"

Drew: "No, I'm Buster"

Mom: "Buster, do you want to say the prayer?"

Drew: "Woof--Woof" (then in a little voice) "That means 'no tanks'."

Robert Burns Night

We had the opportunity to go to a Robert Burns Night Dinner on Saturday. As you might or might not know, Robert Burns is a very famous Scotch poet. He coined the poem, "My love is like a red, red, rose" and wrote the song "Auld Lang Syne" and so many other famous writings. Evidently, to commemorate Robbie, each year on or near the anniversary of his birth, people all over the world hold "Burns Nights". It just so happens that we have some friends who decided to get married at one of these events held here in Moscow. Which is how Jeff and I were invited to attend this years festivities.




They do a Grand Processional complete with Marching bagpipes and everything to bring in the Haggis.


...and yes, I did try the Haggis!



We always make sure that the kids take three bites of new foods that we serve them. One to try it. Two to double check. and three just to make sure. So...I took three bites of the Haggis. One to try it. Two to double check my gag reflex. And three to make sure that I really could make it on Fear Factor.


The rest of the dinner was pretty good although I did have a little issue with the "potatos." Now I happen to love potatos and so as I passed through the line I gave myself a nice-sized portion of them. I was actually excited to taste them. A little further down the line I came upon some more "potatos"--this time with the skin on. (I thought to myself, OK, we are talking about Scotland/Ireland--home of the potato. So I guess they can have as many potato dishes as they want.) These also looked delicious. So I helped myself with just a few of these--after all, I didn't want to be a pig. Much to my surprise, when I got back to my seat and started to dig in, I found that the first dish of "potatos" was none other than cooked turnips! Not exactly what I had been expecting. The second dish really was potatoes but I was so sad because I had piled on the turnips and only gotten a few of the real potatos.

This little guy was a member of the pipe band, "The Border Highlanders". He was SO darn cute. I got a bit of a kick out of him though--I mean really, how many Asian guys do you expect to find playing the bagpipes at a Scottish event?





I LOVE bagpipes! I have always loved them. When played well, they are just so inspiring. Here is a little sampling of the initial procession to start the evening off.

I totally want to be the chick playing the drums with her twirly pompom drumsticks!

Sam gave the "Toast to the Lassies" and Marsha gave the "Reply Toast to the Laddies" They are the ones who were getting married. Most of the guests had no idea that a real wedding was going to be performed there. It was a surprise. After the toasts and the proposal, the pastor came up and they were escorted down the isle by the pipers. They recited their vows and were pronounced husband and wife. They were dressed in full Scottish costumes--Kilt and all. It was very fun and easy. This was a second marriage for both. They had known each other way back in first grade. Just goes to show--you never know who you might marry and fall in love with. It could be the one pulling your pigtails.

After the wedding, there was dancing and some songs performed by the Lewiston Firefighter Pipe Band. They have only been doing it for about a year but they still sounded pretty good. They taught everyone a Scottish country dance and everyone had fun with that.

All in all, it was a really fun night. I love having opportunities to do interesting things like this every once in a while. I even got to wear one of my Tartan skirts that my Scotch/Irish grandmother left me.

Flashback Friday--Rochester "kids"

After Jeff and I graduated from college we took our first job up in Rochester, NY. We were a little nervous--never having lived up there before. We kept hearing all about NY city and all of the chaos that is the big city. I think we expected to see people flipping us off and swearing at us all the time. We were pleasantly surprised to find some of the most wonderfully friendly and fun people we've ever met. We instantly fell in love with the area and our church ward was fabulous. I worked with the 16-17 year old girls and there were 16 of them. It seemed that one or two or ten would tag along with us wherever we went. We loved them!!! We'd hop in the car and go to Niagra Falls or we'd go out to Palmyra and visit the Sacred grove or the hill Cumorah. That was one of the cool things about that area. There were so many fun places to visit. We swam in lake Ontario. We'd take them bowling or watch movies at our house. We even had our very own special swimming hole in Letchworth State Park. You had to walk down the creek and climb (or slide) down the waterfalls to get to the little swimming hole. Our jobs were fairly flexible and so we were always able to work out cool little excursions. Unfortunately, Jeff and I had to transfer to Chicago only a year later. We were so sad to leave that place and especially those friends. It has however, been fun to see those "kids" grow up into amazing adults. Even now as we have come into contact with some of them again via technology and such, we celebrate silently with them as good things happen and commiserate with them, sending out electronic happy vibes when we hear that things are not going so well. Both Jeff and I are so incredibly glad that we accepted that first scary job way up north in Rochester, NY.

Here is a flashback picture for all of our "Rochester-kids".

(I know the picture is a little grainy--Sorry!)

Triple Play/Rafter's Reef

Friday afternoon we drove up to Spokane, had dinner with Dan and Amanda and spent the night. The next morning we drove over to Hayden and went to the Triple Play/Rafters Reef indoor water park. We played ALL day. Andrew was busy as a beaver the entire time. He couldn't move fast enough. It took him a little while before he was willing to go down the slides but when he finally got brave enough to go down once--there was no stopping him after that. He would slide a few times, run to the sprayers and spray everyone in sight, jump in the wave pool, take a dip in the hot tub, take a rest on the dinosaur and then do it all over again. The girls were both tall enough to go down the big slides. Addy was a little hesitant to go down the Vortex (we called it the toilet bowl) at first. But once we went down with her a few times you could hear her laughing and squealing all the way down. We ate lunch there--don't do it--The pizza was quite possibly the worst we've ever had but it was a nice break amongst all of the water play. We got a kick out of the lifeguard who shaved his whole chest area except for one diamond shaped patch right in the middle of his chest. I wonder which girls he was trying to impress. I am still trying to figure out why we all felt a little funky. After being there for a while we all began to notice that we were coughing a lot and had a hard time breathing. I'm not sure if it was too much chlorine in the air or what. I might have written it off if it was just me but we all noticed it individually. It seemed to be the worse every time we went into the wave pool. ---don't know what to make of it. We all had a really great time though. The kids didn't fight. The adults didn't fight. (At least not until the very end) No one got hurt. I'll chalk this memory up to one GOOD day!

You can click on the collage to blow up the pictures. Some of them turned out pretty cute. :)

I Love Faces-Anything Goes Week 2

I have always loved this picture that I took of K. I'm not a professional but every once in awhile even a blind squirrel finds a nut. Hope you enjoy it too.

You can check out all of the other entries for this week by clicking on the above button.

Flashback Friday

I was going through pictures last night and I found this one of Jeff when he was a boy. I absolutely couldn't resist putting it up for this weeks Flashback Friday. He might kill me for it when he gets home and sees it.
Kaylee's Reaction after first seeing the picture: "Who is THAT?"
My reply: "That's your dad"
Kaylee: "No way! That's not MY dad!!!" , "That's not dad, I can tell you that!" "That is SOOOOO not dad!!!

I Love Faces-Anything Goes

I wanted to submit a couple pictures for the "I Love Faces" photography contest.



This picture is fun to me because you see the sheer delight in his whole posture. He is so excited about his little sucker treat. That innocent delight only comes during childhood. Too soon it will vanish away and be replaced with, "Is this it?" (I hope not)



This is my entry for the Adult section.

This is Jeff's grandma who just happens to be 99 years old.

She is still bright and kind, laughs easily and cares about all those around her. This, to me, is true beauty--to be able to look at your reflection, each wrinkle, each mark and know that each one represents moments of shared laughter, hard work, service to others and modeling your life, the very best you can, after the image of the Saviour.

If you would like to check out other contest entries, feel free to visit their website at www.iheartfaces.com

Happy Birthday, Kaylee

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Flashback Friday--In honor of my own Birthday

Since my birthday is coming up soon, I figured that I would dedicate flashback friday to--myself!

Can you believe that I was just turning 15 in this picture?

These were two of my very best friends growing up: Amy Pistorius and Docena Roundy.

I Loved Them! (and still do)

We had SO many fun times together. A big part of who I am comes, in large part, from them.

So, I guess, in fact, I dedicate flashback friday to THEM--and to ALL KINDRED SPIRITS wherever you might find them!

New Beginnings

Every morning I wake up grateful for a "New Beginning". I love that each morning is fresh without any mistakes in it yet. I haven't yelled at my children yet. I haven't been impatient with my husband yet. I havent' kicked the dog yet. What a glorious feeling. I lay in bed and relish those thoughts. No matter what happened the day before I always know that today is good and so far--perfect. I can't wait to be the perfect mom--to read oodles of books to them, to teach Drew to read, to help them with piano, to get them out the door and to school on time and without any fights. I can't wait to cook dinner and have those quirky dinner conversations--you know the ones about "why DID the chicken cross the road" and "what IS at the end of the rainbow". I can't wait to shoot Jeff in the bum with a nerf dart and instigate a full-fledged family war.

................What a Beautiful Morning! Such promise! It's going to be a GREAT day!


Then all of a sudden...all hell breaks lose!

...Drew is in the pantry stealing food AGAIN!
...K is yelling at A for wearing her headband
...A can't find her shoes and is crying about it
...The dog stole the toast off the table
...J has to have his clothes ironed
...lunches have to be made
...I can't find my keys to take kids to school


and maybe, just maybe I think to myself, "Oh, X#!* here we go again."


There's always tomorrow morning!

Powder From the Gods

We have gotten SO much snow in the past couple weeks. It's a little crazy up here right now. I'm a fan of snow though so I'm not going crazy with it just yet although when I couldn't make it up my driveway in my 4-wheel drive truck I had to question my enthusiasm for it. I have captured some fun pictures of the snow though. I thought I would post some of them--just for those of you who are craving some powder from the Gods.

There is a Truck under there somewhere

There is always something special about seeing the sun shine after weeks of grey overcast skies. When that sun catches the snow on the trees and makes them sparkle like diamonds it is even more beautiful.

I took this one from inside my house through the open window. This was one behemoth of an icicle.

Somewhere under all of this snow are some stairs leading up through the arbor.



Kaylee's first "opportunity" to shovel the sidewalks. (Ahhh! My little girl is growing up)

I was sitting on the couch with Andrew, holding him, "like a baby" when he looked up and saw the moon. "look at that moon, mom" he said. I looked and it WAS really a beautiful moon. I just had to try a couple pictures of it.

And of course things like this............. are what happen when you have 3 feet of snow on the ground and freezing temperatures.

Dogs are turned into "UnderDog"

Princes and Princesses are saved by evil Ogres

And massive forts are built right in the middle of the house where everyone MUST pass through 50 times every day.

Ahhhh! These are good Days....Never to be Forgotten!