Say what?

As parents, we are always looking to make our kids say what we say. Iex.; "Say ' I'm sorry. ' " "Honey, Say ' Hi Grandma! How are you?' ", "Say 'I love you' ", and so on.

In the last couple of days we've had some funny ones. I asked Nick to sing me the special hug song that we sing at bed time. The first line is "You're my Honey -bunch, Sugar-plum, Pumpy-umpy-upkin". Nicks version was "You're my Honey-bunch Sugar-PUNK, pumpy-umpy-umpkin".. To be honest, his version might be a little more accurate. LOL

Another example: today while Nick was saying the lunchtime blessing on the food I tried to insert a sentence for him to say. I said "Please bless everyone to feel better." (because the boys are currently sick). Nick took my cue, but instead said "Please bless ONE OF US to feel better."

Ah, kids. What's that saying? Kid's say the darndest things? True dat.

My Josh Video

Today, I was feeling a little romantic-ish and thinking of how much I love my husband. (Blame it on February~ All those hearts and mushy poems and stuff). Anyway, I stumbled upon a cute way to show him (and everyone else) how I love him and made a little slide show. It's at the top of the blog on the left side and says Josh~ and all you have to do to watch it is click on the picture. It was a fun thing to do, and I think it was a nice little surprise for him after work. And, just so no one gets the wrong idea, I'm not "memorializing" him... just appreciating him. LOL!

Ohhhh.... Doggone it, baby.

Andrew is currently infatuated with babies. He wants to hold toy "babies" all the time. Since the sibling rule is that "if they have it I want it", Paul and Nick have had enough of sharing their toy babies and informed me that Andrew needed his OWN doll. So the other day we went to the store and picked out a doll for his very own. Andrew was thrilled, but seeing Andrew get his new doll made Nick want a new doll. (vicious circle) So, feeling generous, Josh and I splurged on an additional 2 tiny baby dolls for about $1 each. LOL. Of course we let Nick and Drew choose their own dolls and the darling thing is that they both picked out little black babies. I commented that "they sure were cute little black babies", and was immediately corrected by Nick that they were "NOT black... they were cute little BROWN babies with cute little BROWN eyes." So we came away with 3 dolls. 1 big one and 1 little one for Andrew, and one little one for Nick. Whew.
Anyway, these dolls have been in their hands at all times. It's really cute. Nick named his after himself -so Nick's doll is Nick-- & Andrew's doll is Nick too. LOL.

I like to see how they parent these little dolls. It's a good insight as to how they think they are being parented I think. The other day Andrew told me his baby was sad and hurt. I said something like "Uh oh. Tell him it's ok." I then heard him say to his little baby just as softly and sweetly as he could- "Ohhhhh.. Doggone it Baby..... it's OK."
Josh and I looked at each other and I swear our hearts about broke. It was so sweet.
All their little parenting moments are not as sweet, but the ones that are, are worth writing about. The ones that are not as sweet are for me to keep to myself and work on in my own parenting skills. (giggle)

Rudolf the red-nosed..... Paul?

So funny to me. The other day while riding in the car Paul suddenly shouts "I DON'T WANT TO BE CALLED RUDOLF THE RED-NOSED PAUL!"

It caught me (and Heidi who was up visiting me) completely off guard and so we burst into laughter. And then we realized what was happening. As quietly as he could without being heard by myself or Heidi, and kind of ducking his head behind the seat in front of him, Nick was teasing Paul and kind of chanting the song using Paul's name in place of reindeer. He was being as sly as a 3 1/2 year old can be and enjoying every minute of torturing Paul. I, of course had to tell him to stop teasing, but inside I giggled all the way home at the little twerp. HOW do kids learn to be such stinkers?



Another funny thing that happened was the night that Paul left his tooth under the pillow for the tooth fairy, Nick came out into the front room and worriedly informed me that if he pretended to go to sleep (explanation on the pretended part-- on nights they tell me they're not tired I tell them to pretend to go to sleep... usually does the trick), anyway he told me that if he pretended to go to sleep that the tooth fairy WOULD come.

I assured him that was a good thing... and kind of the idea. He then asked me in a kind of worried/hesitating way... "But Mommy?.... Will the tooth fairy give ME a loose tooth?"
I again assured him things would be fine and he would awake the next morning with all of his teeth firmly in place. He scurried off to bed (again), and I had to chuckle at his interpretations of what the night was going to bring. LOL.

Ahhhhhhhhh....... the laughter and memories these small ones bring.

We reached another monumental moment in our family's history today... Paul not only discovered his 1st loose tooth, but later BEGGED me to pull it out for him! So, tonight he is one tooth less than he was this morning! He's really pleased about it too. He called as many people as he could to tell them about his exciting news before the phone police ordered him off the telephone. LOL. When Paul ran to show Nick and Andrew his treasured plucked out tooth and new straw hole in his mouth they were so excited for him! Nick shouted "That's SO COOL!" and Andrew said "That's AWESOME Paul!" It was pretty dang cute to watch.
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In other news today, we were able to attend the open house at the Rexburg Temple this morning. The temple was so beautiful. Of course you can't go all the places in the temple that you do normally, and so it appears kind of small, but WOW. It was very nice. The tile was shipped in from Jerusalem, and the wood from Africa. No nails, only glue. (at least in the entrance, I guess I don't know the specifics). LOTS of staircases to go up and down. Beautiful artwork!!! Beautiful murals!!! What an experience. The boys really enjoyed it. I learned another interesting thing about the building of temples too... While under construction there is a cleaning crew assigned to keep EVERYTHING clean (such as behind stud walls, no dust piles or stray nails or screws, etc.), while others are building, because there is to be no unclean thing in the house of the Lord. I thought that was so interesting and neat!
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Nick had his follow-up at Primary Childrens Hospital on Tuesday and he is amazing, as usual. ;) The picture posted is of him and the cardiologist who put in the ICD, Dr. David Bradley. We didn't get to see Dr. Cowley this time. His heart is so incredible. They were checking the reports on the last 2 months of having the ICD in and noticing how often his heart is fibrillating! Just last week it fibrillated 5 times in a matter of 2 days. LUCKILY, he was able to somehow pull himself back into a better rhythm before the ICD needed to shock him, and Josh and I are completely unaware of anything even happening, but just knowing how often his heart is acting up really makes us glad that they put the pacemaker/defibrillator in him. Just in case he isn't able to pull out of it by himself sometime.

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The kids recently tried another one of Grandpa Keith's favorite things-- melted cheese on bread. I know. It's not as unusual a food as he usually concocts, but the kids were a little leery of it anyway. However, they tried it and WOW! What a success. They love a lot of Dad's favorites. For instance the Famous Macaroni and Tomato Juice and Cheese is a HUGE hit at our house. I think that the boys ask for it at least 2 times a week. And just the other day we did peanut butter and banana sandwiches like Dad used to make for me when I was little, and that did pretty good here too. When Paul and Nick were a little younger they would pretend to be grandpa Keith and say in a LOW voice "I'm Grandpa Keith... I NEED SOME CHEESE!" LOL
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That's about it. We had someone look at our place last week and that's a good thing. We're keeping our fingers crossed and saying our prayers that things will work out smoothly and soon! We're wanting to get out to Tennessee and get set up and get Josh going back in school soon.
But for now we are also cherishing each moment we have here because we don't know how long we have to be in this wonderful place with all our loved ones and friends. We're going to miss everyone so much!