The Liahona

Today, Harry spent a good portion of the day trying to figure out how he could get his hands on the Liahona. (For anyone wondering, we recently inherited the entire set of Living Scripture Videos...thus the preocupation with all things Book of Mormon)

Anyway, on the way to school he asked if maybe I could bring it back with me from Utah when I went next week. When I explained that that probably wouldn't be an option, he suggested that "maybe you could ask the Lord to give it to me as a gift when I get baptized." I said, sure, I could ask for him, but maybe it would help for him to ask too.

Later in the day, he decided that a replica Liahona might suffice until he could get the ACTUAL Liahona. And so, tired of hearing about it, and knowing that I wouldn't stop hearing about it until he had one, we got in the car and headed off to Michaels for some supplies. He had gone through lots of options, and about a half an hour, and had about $20-25 worth of Liahona making supplies in our cart, when a voice came over the loud speaker at Michaels. It announced that there was a possible fire in the building and could we all please leave our purchases where they were and evacuate the building. On the way out, much to Harry's delight, we saw two firefighters on their way in. AND, they were actually carrying axes! It was just about the best thing Harry had ever witnessed. Telling the story to everyone at home was almost enough to make him forget about why we had actually gone to Michaels in the first place. ALMOST. So, as a last resort, I rifled through the Christmas decorations in the garage and pulled out a glittery golden bulb-type ornament. Shockingly to me, this seemed to fulfil the requirements of the Liahona (so glad I found this out before I spent the afore mentioned $25.00). He wrapped it in a dishcloth, packed it up in his Pirates of the Caribbean treasure chest, and was completely content for the entire evening. I was happy too, because he took me very seriously when I reminded him that the Liahona would only work if he was obedient.

As he was going to bed, I noticed that the glitter had rubbed off and was all over his face and chest. He looked and himself in the mirror, completely pleased, and said, "yeah, now I look like Moroni." I can already feel a costume headache coming on. :)



PS - here's the picture of Charlie as Indiana Jones...you can just see the look of satisfaction on his face because everyone thought it was so cool.

The Mysteries of Blogging

This is what I don't get....the times when we are really busy and do really fun things (like having Grandma and Grandpa come for a visit, taking my nine year old to a Michael Buble concert, going on the Father Son Campout, etc...) I can't seem to find anything to blog about. I mean, these are the things I should be writing down, right?

So then I was thinking about what I do blog about...just the silly, daily, mundane things we do. And I thought, well, maybe that's right - maybe those are the things that need to be documented. I mean, the kids and I will always remember the vacations and the visits, but will we remember what it was actually like to live a day in our home? ( And on the flip side, do I really want them to remember some of it?) I can't say I remember that kind of stuff from my childhood.

So, for now, I'll stop feeling guilty about not documenting all those fun things, and focus on those little things, like Harry praying every night, saying, "Dear Heavenly Father, oh Please Heavenly Father, let me have a dream about Nephi", or Harry coming out of the bathroom in nothing but his little whitie tightie underwear, a toothbrush in one hand and a tube of hydrocordisone cream in the other and asking loudly, "what in the HELL is this stuff?" ( ala Dad, I have to admit).

Or, seeing the look on Charlie's face after dressing up like Indiana Jones and going to show his brothers, who were for once, so excited for him because he looked so cool.

Or changing my cell phone ring tone to the Indiana Jones theme song, and having my kids think I'm pretty dang cool when they hear it ring. "Wow, mom, cool ring tone" was Joe's comment.

These, and so many others are the things that make up the joys (and sometimes agonies) of living in our home, and I'm so glad I have the chance to be able to remember them. :)

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This

Well, my mama didn't say there'd be days JUST like this, but somebody's mama must have...or where did the song come from? I don't know if anyone can predict days like these. Here are a few snapshots of what we've been doing today.

First, is it a bad sign when your eighteen month old thinks this is a perfectly acceptable breakfast? I think we've gotten just a little bit used to on-demand ice cream.

Here is a great activity Charlie and I learned at speech today. Get a block of styrofoam, a multi-colered pack of golf tees, and some toy hammers (or in Charlie's case, my meat tenderizer - we must have 10 toy hammers, but could I find them when I needed them, NO!). Print a template - star, heart, house, tree, etc... and let the kids hammer the tees in. Maggie and Charlie spent quite a bit of time today working on the pattern for their star. Easy, cheap, and fun....plus, you can just pull the template off and do another one!

Next, Harry has picked up a new hobby. Costume maker extradornaire! Of course, it makes perfect sense that he would do this...now he doesn't have to wait around for me to make them for him. Let's just hope my sewing machine survives! So, why, you ask, is Harry making a costume? Well, the ward talent show is tomorrow, and Harry will be performing a skit/song of the story of Nephi and the Brass Plates. He'll be singing "Nephi's Courage" from the Children's Songbook. And by singing, I mean mumbling into the microphone. Anyway, costumes are of course necessary for all the players...Nephi, Laban, Laban's Guard, and Laman and Lemual. So look forward to seeing more of that later!

And finally, just to add a touch of multi-culturalism to our afternoon, Charlie dressed up as the italian Mario Brother, Luigi...complete with mustache. He was pretty sad that no one wanted to be Mario today, but there's always tomorrow!

You Be The Judge

There is a boy at my house who thinks, at the ripe old age of five, that he has surpassed his seven year old sister in height. I think it's pretty much a tie, but as you can tell from the second picture, he thinks he's the winner. You be the judge.

John's Growth Spurt

No, John is still at the bottom of the growth charts for height and weight, but his hair has seen some recent improvement. You can't tell too much from these pictures, but we haven't seen curls like this at our house since Maggie was his age! Enjoy!

PS - from the side view, you can also see he seems to have inherited the Earnest receding hair line!

PPS - Man this kid is cute! I mean, really, he's pretty cute, right?

Spring Break

Yes, Spring Break was over a month ago....but I've just now found the time to download the pictures and blog about it!

Being business owners, I find that leaving town for any lengthly period of time is a tricky thing to do.(espcially during times when all your employees want to leave town - holidays, spring break, etc) But I hate for my kids to just be bored the entire time they're out of school, so I tried to plan a couple of day trips to keep them busy.
One day, we went to Gilroy Gardens, about two hours north of us. This is a small, family oriented theme park up in the hills between Gilroy and the ocean. We had so much fun! My kids are not big thrill seekers, so the rides here were perfect. Some of them even had height restrictions where you had to be UNDER a certain height. (Joe did not find this amusing, as he was too tall to go on a couple) But, I've figured out the secret to going to a theme park and actually enjoying it - here it is: leave the baby at home with grandma, and take your babysitter with you!

This picture makes me smile - it's like a flash forward to days when I'll be sitting in the back seat while my children drive. Notice my crossed arms, in an effort not to reach up and take the wheel!

We also took a quick trip to the Family Fun Center in Santa Maria, for mini-golfing and go-kart driving... The kids really enjoyed this trip as well.

And finally, Harry baked a pie. He doesn't like pie - in fact no one in the family does, but for whatever reason, one day it was just SO IMPORTANT that we bake a pie. So, that's exactly what we did. Sometimes you just have days like that.

Kidisms

Yesterday Charlie asked me what was for dinner. I said, "casserole", he said, "oh...I don't like "cass-a-rolls", ...I like cinnamon rolls". I thought that was pretty amusing.

Today on the way home from school, Joe said he got a 97% on his math test....he only missed one problem. He said the angle was obtuse, but it really looked like a right angle to him. He said it must have been like "90.1 degrees or something". I said, "don't you have a protractor?", to which he wistfully replied, "I wish!". I just thought that was a funny thing for a nine year old to wish for. It made me smile.

I also came home from piano lessons to find Harry in his underwear and Charlie wearing Harry's clothes. I asked for an explanation. I got one. Apparently, they had been playing Nephi and Laban. Charlie, as Nephi, had "killed" Laban (Harry) and taken his clothes to disquise himself in order to get the plates of brass. The most amusing part, I thought, was that they weren't wearing costumes, just their regular clothes. Still, it seemed an important part of the game to exchange clothes, costumes or not.


Someday I'll catch up on all the Spring Break Stuff....but I had to record these little bits of our day.