Kids say the darndest things!

My little pixies are such a hoot.  They always keep a smile on my face.  I thought that I would tell a couple cute stories of funny things they've said or done in the last little while.

This morning as we were heading to the car to go to church Daddy wanted to see if he could get us their a little quicker and told us, "the last one in the car is a rotten egg!"  Daddy has said this before and actually scare little Kate because she thought that a rotten egg was out to get us.  Well, today I put her in the car and she was kneeling in her seat looking out the back window.  I kept trying to coax her to turn around, but she wouldn't.  Finally she turned to me and said, "Mommy, that's the house that the rotten egg lives in and we better hurry before he gets us!"

The other night we were driving in the car and singing songs.  Ember finally decided to join in with her own song.  This is the first time we've heard her actually sing a song and we actually didn't sing it first.  From the back of the car we could hear, "ean up, ean up, evybo, ean up, ean up..."  If you you need a translation:  "clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere, clean up clean up..."  The first song Ember has learned to sing is the clean up song!

My cousin Adam's father-in-law looks like Santa Claus.  He plays Santa at Christmas, but he purposefully wears red and green all year long so that he always looks like Santa.  I wish I had a picture!  Well, with that background, here's the story.  In August my cousin Katie Jean got married.  At her reception we sat around eating popcorn and we were sitting by my cousin Adam and his father-in-law.  Kately was sitting on the grass and turned to "Santa" and said, "Santa Closet, Santa Closet, look popcorn."  It took Santa a while to realize that she was talking to him.  

This morning at breakfast Kately said the blessing on the food.  She said, "Heavenly Father, please bless my food to be safe."  And then ended her prayer.  Short, sweet and I think the Lord understood.

Grandma Dew went out of town for a week to visit my sister's family in North Carolina.  Kately asked every day if we could go to Grandma's house to play with he princesses.  My girls really missed their grandparents.  One of the days that Grandma was gone Kately came in to the kitchen with her arms folded tight and her head held high in the air.  She looked at me and said, "I'm Grandma Dew, I'm Grandma Dew."  She looked very proud.  For the next few hours we had to call her Grandma Dew to get her to respond to us.

Kately wanted to go on a tiger hunt this day and we had to wear our sunglasses and capes to help us catch him.

Chris was sitting at the computer and Kately found a little button pin that said "I love St. Mark's Hospital" (where Chris works).  Kately brought it to Chris and said, "It says 'together in Paris.'"  Kately really enjoys watching the movie Anastasia and in the movie she has a necklace that says, 'Together in Paris'.

For October Conference we went to Grandpa Myers' house.  They took the girls on a walk to see the pigs down the street.  We got to feed them rotting apples.  The girls loved it.  We have been working on Ember's animal sounds.  While we were looking at the pigs we kept asking what does a pig say and we would say "oink", but she would make more of a snorty, weird sound that actually sounded more like the pigs she was hearing.  I bet she thought that we were pretty strange telling her that pigs say "oink" when in reality, these pigs made no such sound!

I know there are lots more stories, but I just can't think of them right now.  It is so fun to have these little pixies in my life!

Happy Halloween!

Little Monkey

Safari at the zoo on Halloween with our wonderful friends!

The Monkey and the lion on a stroll

Kyle the Giraffe, Ember the Monkey and Reed the Lion (Kate didn't want to come over)

There's our cute elephant and her great pal the lion

Daddy and his Safari catch of the day!

Ashley and Ember

Mommy and the monkey!

Monkey, Elephant, lions, oh my!

Elephant (She is supposed to have a trunk hooked on the front)

Roaring like a monkey lion

The dancing Elephant

Mommy and Daddy were on a safari looking at the exotic monkeys and elephants that magically can change from gray to orange colored skin (silly Kate didn't want to wear her costume at the zoo!)

 

There's that trunk

 

Funny Everyday Moments

This morning both of my girls were being quiet, so I thought that I would go check on them.  Here they are:

I love that my children love to read!

Our neighbor Reed came to play with Kately again.  They were sitting down to eat chicken nuggets.  Kately said, "Mama" for something.  I don't remember what she was asking me for, but she said my name, so Reed said, "Mama" and looked at me.  Kately quickly corrected him.  "No, MY mama."  Then Reed countering her said, "No, MY mama."  This went back and forth several times.  Were these children really having this conversation?  I guess the 2-year-old version of "Yo mama" jokes are "my mama"?  It really went on for several minutes! Silly Kids.

Kately said the blessing on the food for us this evening.  She started out by blessing the lemonade that it would stay pink and be safe.  Then she asked that Jesus and Daddy stay safe.  It was really sweet.

Here is my cute Ember.  She likes to eat her food and then put her nice dirty hands all over her head.  Making for a great sticky hair-do.  Which leads to the horrific bathtime.  Don't know why, but both of my girls hate baths.  Kate has finally decided in the last few months that they are okay, but Emberly still continues to scream and cry through the entire bath.  Ugh!


Chris finally started his nursing position at St. Mark's.  What a blessing it is!  He has doubled his income and is quite enjoying his time there.  Today he texted me and said that he STARTED AN IV!  Wahoo!  Way to go Chris!!  Here is a video of Daddy and Kately on the Wizzer at his work carnival.  I'm so grateful that Daddy was willing to go with Kate and I didn't have to.  What a fantastic Daddy my girls are blessed to have!

Oh, life is wonderful isn't it!

Apples from our very own tree!

Yesterday my husband and I, accompanied by my wonderful mother-in-law, sang Beautiful Savior at church. 

I remember the first time that we sang together in church a few months after we were married.  My mother-in-law made a beautiful arrangement of A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief to the tune of I Know that My Redeemer Lives.  It was lovely.  My cousin Andrew Latimer accompanied us.  I had a solo part and my nerves got the best of me and I started to cry during the song.  My husband had to step in and help me.  After we finished the song I spent the rest of the meeting silently crying in my seat.  I was so humiliated.  

The Wednesday after we sang in church the Stake Presidency came to visit us.  Two of the presidency had attended our church meeting on Sunday.  They said they were at our house to get to know us.  Then one of them brought up our singing.  He told me that I didn't need to feel bad that I made a mistake.  He told me how beautiful our song was and the incredible Spirit that was brought into that meeting.  It's been about 3 years from that incident and I still remember that kind gesture of that man in the presidency who came to help me know that I was a daughter of God and that mistakes happen, but that doesn't mean that I'm worthless.  I sure felt worthless.  I learned that even mistakes can be beautiful!

Well, it happened again, this Sunday while I was singing my solo in Beautiful Savior, I choked and made a mistake because of my darn nerves, BUT, I was able to continue and end the song beautifully!  We went and sat in our seats and my husband turned to me and said, "Hey, you're not crying."  Well, I shed about 3 tears, but he was right, I wasn't overwhelmed with fear and anger at myself for making a mistake.  It was still a beautiful song.  

My husband has a beautiful voice!  It was one of the things that helped me fall in love with him!  He likes to sing in church and he is making me a better singer!

 

When I moved into my house 5 and 1/2 years ago the backyard was a disaster.  It hasn't much improved, but we are slowly, somewhat working on it.  When I moved in, my mother and I wondered what kind of big bush that was near the shed in the back corner.  Well, months later I realized that there was something growing on that big bush in the backyard.  Apples.  I told my mother that I had an apple bush in my backyard.  My wonderful husband has cut the "bush" back and made it look like a tree again.  This year was the first year that I actually picked the apples off the tree.  I think I'm going to make applesauce, or even better, apple jelly.  Last year my mother, my cousin Sarah and I made tons and tons of applesauce, jelly and apple butter.  It was a lot of work, but fun.

Angels, books and Mac 'n Cheese

The other day Kately was trying to take a nap, but her cough was keeping her awake.  She started crying and calling for me.  When I went in there she said, "Mommy angels will come, huh?"  I asked her if she wanted to pray and ask Heavenly Father to send angels to help her sleep.  She said yes and asked me to say the prayer.  After the prayer she said, "Mommy, I will call the angels down."  I sang to her and then closed the door.  From outside her room I could hear her calling, "angels, angels".  It was very tender to know that she has a testimony of angels coming to her rescue.  I truly believe that angels are sent to help us more than we know. 

Kately and all of her dollies

Today I couldn't find Ember, after searching my entire 4 room apartment, I found her sitting in her sister's room with a book laid out in front of her.  She had shut the door behind her.  I went in and sat next to her.  She shut the door after me too.  We sat and read a few books.  Emberly loves books.  She loves to point at all the things in the pictures.  If there are animals she attempts to make the noises, attempt is a very broad word for the sounds she makes.  It was nice to just sit with her and read. Later Kately came and joined us.  Reading with my girls is such a delight.  One of the tender mercies from the Lord to let me stay home with my two pixies every day.

Ember wanting me to open a book for her, I think this one is a little above her level, but its the thought that counts, right?

Later our friend Reed came to play.  He and Kate had lunch together.  I made Mac 'n Cheese with hot dogs, carrots and peas.  It was great.  Kate ate all of the carrots, peas and hot dogs out of her bowl and Reed ate all of the macaroni from his bowl.  I thought of that nursery rhyme about Jack Sprat.

Jack Sprat could eat no fat
His wife could eat no lean
And so betwixt the two of them
They licked the platter clean

Betwixt Kate and Reed, the two of them would eat all of the lunch, too bad they weren't sharing bowls.

Kately

Reed

It was a fun day!  I love being a Mama and playing with my pixies!

The Binky Fairy

Sorry that it has been a while, life has been busy!

If I tried to tell you all of my wonderful stories that have happened to us since the last time I posted my blog would never end.  I think I'll just take it one story at a time.  This story happened last Monday.

Kately, our 2-year-old, is in love with her binky.  She took to a binky right away and absolutely loves it.  I had decided to ween her from it before Emberly was born, but the few months before the baby came Kately was in the hospital twice and it was very nice for her to have the binky.  She then broke her leg last fall and was in the hospital again in March when she was diagnosed with diabetes.  With all of these traumatic experiences in her life I decided to just let her have the binky. 
Well, it has been several months since her last hospital visit and I finally decided that it was time for her to say 'farewell' to the binky.  I have been nervous to do this because I didn't want to put up with the fighting and crying that would come afterwards.  After looking at Pinterest, I decided to have a visit from the Binky Fairy.  We told Kately 3 days before that the Binky Fairy would be coming on Monday at she would take all of her binkies and give them to babies who needed them and then she would give Kately a big surprise.  Kate was very excited!
That morning we found all of the binkies that we could around the house, including the one wedged between the wall and her bed, the one she hid inside her Fisher-Price barn and silo, and the few others that we found in random other places around the house.  It was a blessing that her sister Emberly takes a different kind of binky so we could distingish between the two kinds. 
After collecting all of the binkies, the girls drew pictures for the Binky Fairy and we put the pictures, a note and a box full of binkies our doorstep outside waiting for the Binky Fairy.  My mother came and took us to her house, it took some convincing to get Kate to leave the box of binkies on our porch, but she finally did.

There are pictures of our gifts to the Binky Fairy.

While we were at my mother's house I got a text from my upstairs renter.  He asked me if he was supposed to do something with these binkies and if he was supposed to make something magical happen...oops I meant to call him.  He cleared the doorstep for me.  But, the Binky Fairy was tricky, she came to my mother's house and dropped off the gift. 

 The Binky Fairy gave Kately a Princess doll and sister Emberly a lamby.  The Fairy decided that it would be easier if little sister got a gift as well so there wouldn't be any fighting.  Kately loved the doll. 
Later that night she cried herself to sleep in my arms because she wanted her binky back.  Luckily I could honestly say that I didn't have the binkies and I could not get to them, it was the truth!  She woke up a 3 times that night with a cough, I think she kind of made herself sick from crying so much.  Each time we settled her down and she went right back to sleep.  She never asked for another binky!  I couldn't believe it!
There was never any more crying or fussing over binkies.  She even found 2 of them around the house and was quite willing to give them to me to give to the Binky Fairy. 
I can't believe how easy this was!  I truly believe this was a tender mercy from the Lord.  I've been sick lately and was scared that it would be very tiring to deal with the drama of no binkies, but the Lord stepped in and helped Kately move forward!

What a tender mercy! 

My little pixies!

Could I be any more blessed?

I feel so blessed in my life right now!

Tonight my cousin Eliza came over and had Family Night with us.  It was an adventure.  We learned all about being kind and saying we're sorry.  Jesus likes when we are kind.  We talked about Nephi and his brothers when they built the boat and how the brothers weren't nice in the beginning.  We then built a boat of our own, in our imagination and sailed to the promised land.  I held Kately and Eliza held Emberly as we sailed across the sea and were tossed about the waves.  It was fun.

Father's Day: Kately decorated the frame (which would soon hold a picture of daddy and his girls)
and breakfast in bed with chunky monkey pancakes!

After Family Night was bed time.  Kate kept coming up with excuses with why she couldn't go to sleep.  And every time impatience would creep in, Kately would look at me and say, "I love you Mama."  I couldn't be more blessed!

You know, I have hard things going on in my life:  Chris is gone all the time with work and school - He is Superman I don't know how he does it.  I am fighting depression.  We are struggling financially, a little.  Kate is struggling with diabetes . . . BUT!!!
LIFE IS WONDERFUL!!!
I feel so blessed with my situation!  I get to spend every day of my life with these two little pixies.  My pixies were sent from heaven to make my life wonderful!  I have an amazing husband who works 40 hours a week and goes to school whenever he isn't at work.  We don't see him much, but he NEVER complains.  Wow.  I love my little family!

Life is definitely hard, it is also, SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS.  It is the only word that I feel like could even possibly come close to explaining my life.

Thank you HEAVENLY FATHER for everything thou has given me!