Conversations with Kids

I've posted some of these on Facebook, but not all.

 

My kids are disgusting.
Child 1, "Mom, I keep getting boogers off my teeth."
Me, "Those aren't boogers. That's just food that gets caught in your teeth, that's why it's important to floss."
Child 1, "I eat my boogers so it could be boogers."
Me, "Sick! I thought you said you quit eating your boogers."
Child 1, "I did. But then I started again."
Child 2, "Not me! I never stopped eating mine!"

 

 

My niece (almost 5) calls Miss L one her birthday.  This conversation is probably only funny to my mom and me because we were there.  You have to know my niece's personality and spunkiness, tone of voice and sassiness.  It was hilarious in person so I want to remember it. 

 

"L!  Happy Birthday!"

L: Silence

P: "L, it's me P.  Why are you not talking to me?"

L: Silence.

Me:  "Miss P she is apparently not talking right now but she can hear you."

P:  Why is she not talking to me?  L, I am not a grown-up.  It's just me, P.  You can talk to kids.  I'm not a grown-up!"

L: Silence

Me: Miss P she can hear you but I don't think she feels like talking today.

P:  Ok. (Sings happy birthday to her.)

Me:  She smiled P. 

P:  Well, is M there?

Me: No, he's at school.

P:  Is D there?

Me: Yes, but he's napping.

P:  Well I want to talk to somebody.

Me:  You are talking to me.  I will talk to you.

P:  Is C there?

Me: No, Love.  He's at work.

Finally she decided I was good enough to talk to.  She cracks me up.

 

 

Every week Mr. M has to get allergy shots.  It takes us 15 minutes to get there.  We wait 10 minutes for the shot.  Then we have to stay for a 30 minutes.  Then get the shot checked and head home.  It takes 30 minutes to get home that time of day.  It's quite the process.  The nice thing is, that at the Dr.'s office there is a playground (I'll add pics later). 

 

Recently, however, I discovered this was a great time for me just to play with the kids.  The playground can get busy and Mr. D often walks in front of the swings and stresses me out.  So I've started taking them over on the grass and playing games.  It's been really fun and the kids love that time, as do I.  We dance and do cartwheels and go crazy.  Freeze tag is a favorite as well.  Anyway, Mr. M especially appreciates this time of day and I think it is what contributed to the below conversation.

 

This Monday when we got home, we were sitting at the table and he says, "Best.Mom.Ever!"

Me:  Ah thanks, M.

Miss L says, "Mommy?"  (I'm thinking she's going to repeat what he said.)

"I farted three times!"

We should probably not laugh.  We can't help it.  C and I appreciate this type of humor.  She's just so open about it all.

Then D says, "Mommy!  Look!"  And shows me a mouth full of food. 

These kids are nuts.  Haha.

This one is not a conversation but I wanted a picture in the post.  Haha.  We went for a walk last week.  It was only 6pm but it was dark outside.  Anyway, I loved Mr. D's attire. Also, we gave that Barbie scooter to him because L outgrew it and we are too cheap to buy another.  He LOVES it.  He is so proud of his Barbie scooter.  He's been able to ride that thing for over a year.  It was crazy to watch a 1.5- year-old ride a scooter around the neighborhood. 

 

One day L and I were driving in the car.  I've been making an effort to have meaningful conversations in the car and apparently she was catching on.

L: Mom, will you tell me about Jesus?"

Me: Yes.  (I went on to tell her the story of the Tree of Life.)

The conversation was going great for awhile and then I apparently got too preachy or just talked too long without asking her a question.

L: Mommy?

Me: Yes.

L: Stop talking.

This girl keeps me humble.  She calls me on unfairness.  She lets me know when she doesn't like what I am doing.  It's a good thing...I think. We did have a conversation about kinder ways to let me know she was done with the conversation though.

 

 

PinkDelicious Party. Final Post. The Event

The great thing about a PinkDelicioius party right before February is the amount of pink things on the shelves for Valentines.  It was great!

 

Pink Bingo 

Pink Bracelet making. 

 

Decoration of pink goody bags, wrapping of sweet pink treats to take home. 

The opening of presents. 

One very upset little guy that he didn't get to keep a present.

 

 

They all helped her open every present.  It was a frenzy.  She didn't mind though and it was funny to watch.  One of the girls even opened the present before she gave it to her.  It was hilarious. 

 Some cupcake decorating.

Had to have pink sprinkles! 

My friend gave me the idea to have them put their cupcake in a cup and then package it for them to take home.  It was a great idea, especially since we had an ice-cream cake to eat at the party.

Miss L changed her mind quite a few times on the cake.  I found this ice-cream cake recipe from my mission and she finally decided on that.  However, we had to make it girly and pink so we added some cute flowers.  She helped me make them. I think she was better at it than I was. 

Oh how I love this smirk.  I hope she never looses her smirk.

 I can still hear them laughing and giggling on the trampoline.  They had a blast. 

These next pics have nothing to do with the party but are fond memories anyway.

The daddy with his PinkDelicious Butterfly.  Sorry about the lighting it was later that night.

I really wanted a picture of us both in our PinkDelicious outfits but she wasn't co-operative.  I still like the snuggle picture. 

 Of course, then the Little Guy wanted a turn.  The exhausted mommy thinking, "I have no lifting power left." (Don't mind the 5 lbs. of ice-cream cake that went straight to my tummy.  It's not a preggo pic.  I promise.)  

But of course he still got his turn.  Who can resist that guy? Not me, that's for darn-tootin' sure.

 

She's five.  My girl is five.  Wow.  Everything I can think of to say is cliché.  So I'll just end there.

Happy Birthday, My Sweet and Sassy Girl!

Pinkalicious Birthday Party. Part Two. The Photoshoot.

First I have to say that Miss L calls it PinkDelicious. 

I hope she always does.

 

When we named our beautiful girl we thought we had a really unique name.

So did this little girl's parents.

Alas, the two Libs.

They are total opposites in most things except they are both adorable and they both love their independence....fitting.

Miss L in her new PinkDelicious outfit.

These girls love their photos taken. 

So a photo shoot seemed appropriate.

They loved it!

I just let them go crazy. 

I know the umbrella is in front of her face.  I didn't fight them a lot on how they wanted to pose.  It was just for fun. 

My L opted out for a minute or two but she eventually joined back in. 

If I had Photoshop I would have combined these three photos.  But I don't. With each on I thought one girl looked her best.  One day I must get Photoshop.

They are so cute.   

I took individual ones of them all to send home with them soon.  I didn't post them all, but thought I'd share one. 

One more post on the party.  As always I took a ton of photos.  I don't care if less is more.  I can't help myself.

Pinkalicious Party. Part One. The Decor.

Miss Lib had a Pinkalicious party for her 5th b-day!

I will post a pic of the invitation soon.  I was pretty proud of it.

We decided to stick to Miss L's three closest friends mainly because I did not want parents to stay. Miss L's shyness in front of adults would have been stressful for both of us and I wasn't sure I could handle more than four kids by myself.

It was perfect.

It went off without a hitch.

 

In the morning I hit the gym for some street dancing, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

When I came home, the hubs and the kids had cleaned our house.

It was AWESOME!

They even vacuumed and cleaned toilets. 

The house looked amazing and took a huge load off my shoulders.

 

Miss L helped with all the décor.

Here she is pre-party with dirt under her fingernails and on her face and no shirt on.  Haha.  She spruced up for her pink party though!

She even helped bake and frost the cupcakes. 

Those sucker-looking things are actually pink marshmallows, dipped in pink chocolate, with sprinkles and M&Ms on them. 

I took so many pictures that I have to split this into a couple of posts.  

It was a blast.  I'm glad it's over.  But it was a blast.

Happy Birthday, my sweet girl.

This Crazy, Beautiful Place!

 I've lived in four states...sort of.  I lived in Utah for 21 years.  I served an LDS mission in Missouri and Kansas for 18 months.  That's where the "sort of" comes in; life is so different as a missionary than regular life that I'm not sure I can actually claim any sort of residency.  Then I lived in Texas for 4.5 years.  I've lived here one year.  I deem that an appropriate amount of time for a blog about my beautiful new home.

My friends in Texas know I struggled there.  I think it was mostly because it was my first home away from home.  Everything was so new and different.  I was used to Utah's ways. Whether they were better or not was beside the point.  It was just what I was used to.  That being said, Texas was a great place.  It was very family-oriented and I grew to enjoy it there.  I also met some of my best friends and I wish I could haul them all with me on my adventures.

It took me awhile to dig my heels in and allow myself to feel at home in Texas.  I knew when I moved again I didn't want it to take me so long.  I vowed that I would be happy in my new home.  I chose to assume I was never leaving and to live my life as if this was my home for the rest of my mortal life.  I threw myself in and have loved so much of it.  I'm thankful that this time I had a better attitude.  It's made all the difference.

I love the lush greenery.  I love the bodies of water.  I love the vines and unique forestry.  Most of all I love the culture.  I grew up in a somewhat unique culture. My hometown family and friends are proud of their heritage.  I get that same feeling here.  They are a proud people and they should be.  Their culture is rich and deep and fascinating.  Despite my attempts to convince myself that this is where we will settle for good, I am almost certain we will not, and when we do leave, I will be sad. 

There are so many things I probably would never have experienced.  I may not have held an alligator, I may not have seen 17 alligators in one day, in the wild. I may not have eaten alligator, I may not have a seen a boat parade, I may not have eaten frog legs, or boudin (boo-dan), or Po-boys! I wouldn't have experienced the swamps, or my backyard becoming a swamp.  Maybe no Mardi-Gras or king cake.  Having had those things now, I think it would be sad to never experience them! I wouldn't have met that amazing people I've met.  I'm blessed!

Now to share a little bit of this experience with you, my few readers.

The first thing I noticed is that although many of a Southern sounding drawl, most do not.  I'm not even sure what to compare it too.  I can, however, share a few words.  I'll do more posts like this but I'll just do words and phrases for today.  There are many more than this but these are the ones I hear the most frequently.

ball = boil

binhavin = been having

bobo = an injury (long O sound)

boo = term of endearment (my brother calls me this all the time so I'm used to it but I have to admit it was a little weird when my neighbor started calling me boo or sug.

book sack = book bag or backpack

Cher (r is silent) (Sha) honey or dear, buddy or pal

come see = come here (I've never heard any Cajun say come here.)

da = the

dat = that

dem = them

dis = this

make do-do = to go to sleep

getting down = getting out of the car

made one - turned one-year-old (I will make 32 very soon! Ah!)

make groceries = go grocery shopping

noonie = baby's pacifier

Nuttin = nothing

Sha  = Dear, precious (from the French cher).  They use this mostly to say how cute a baby is.  (I hear this A TON!)

Where you at? = Where are you?   (Many sentences are formed similarly. I find myself doing it all the time!)

Save the dishes = put the dishes away.  Also "save the toys" is used frequently.

Many names are pronounced differently than I thought as well.  Duhon is said, Dew-yawn.  Hebert is said, A-Bear.  Any many, many more.  I also need to do a list of names from M's class and share his lunch menu.  So interesting.

I was working out at the gym one day and a cute lady said, "Where you from?"  I said, "From Utah.  Was it my accent that gave it away?"   She said, "Oh honey, it was everything."  I could tell she had lived away for a time too because it should have been, "Oh cher, it be every-ting."

Three Un-related Items

Item #1

I am hosting a weight-loss challenge with awesome prizes such as $1000 dollars!

E-mail me if interested at brimaca at gmail dot com

 

This cutie patootie lost the weight in 12 weeks on my program!  Look how happy she looks. :)

 

 

Item # 2

God has not blessed us with another little person yet and it's going to be so weird starting in August for me to have just one baby at home.  So, so, weird.  And I plan to keep Lil' D home with me until he is 5 when school starts, which means he will be almost 6.  I bet we will have a ton of fun together.  I wish he'd have a playmate though.  My favorite part of parenting is watching the kiddos play together...you know...when they aren't fighting. 

 

It's a good thing we love each other so much!

I wanted to record some quick memories of the little guy.

He loves to pinch the loose skin on my arms and flap it around.  It's a great reminder that I still have chubba lubba arms. ;)

He hates sleep still and fights it for all he's worth.  Once he's asleep though, he sleeps a well and we love that.

He's a lover.  He loves to snuggle and loves to be tickled.

He entertains us all with his silliness.   We can't get enough.

Item #3

I am not shutting down the blog.  My dad reminded me that they only know their grandkids because of this blog.  They feel a part of our lives.  I do send them a blog book, but they like the convenience and instant gratification of the blog.  So it stays.  I think I will do my blurb book at the same time though.  Instead of downloading it at the end of the year I will move things over immediately.  We'll see how that goes.

 

Thanks to you all who begged me to keep it.  That made my day.  I love to feel loved! :)

Pre-school Tidbits

Miss L's favorite food lately?  A whole cucumber. 

Her school lunches usually consists of a cucumber with bits and pieces of other healthy things.

On this day she was upset because I only packed her half a cucumber, not a whole. 

She cracks me up.

We had the letter M last week.

Marble painting was a hit.

I loved their artwork and can't wait to send it to our friends and family. 

 

For Mr D, who cares about marble painting when you can sort and line up paints.

We are just happy when he is happy. 

As a little side-note: It is quite possible I will shutting down this blog.  I am considering (as I have been for years, but I think it may actually happen soon) just doing online scrapbooking and scrapping (haha) the blog.  Unless someone can convince me otherwise, it's going to happen. 

We are In Love

One morning we woke up to itty bitty footprints leading away from the fireplace.

That is when we realized the bunnies had become masters of escape.

And apparently they think they are chameleons.

How they love that gray fire-pit.

It's by far their favorite hiding place. 

Today they were able to try their outdoor cage (because it FINALLY stopped raining for five minutes) and loved it.

But we brought them in to play with us and then sleep inside. That was good because a few minutes later the rain started again.

I know this entirely too many photos of bunnies.

But, like I said, we are in love. 

How could we not be?

They are so darn cute. 

Just like their big brother Mr. M.

Miss L loves to feed them.

Mr. M loves to make silly faces at them.

D loves to squeal and giggle at them.

Daddy and I both love how they stand up on their hind legs and look around expectantly. 

We also love to watch them fight over lettuce.

It's hilarious.

Who knew bunnies could be so entertaining?

 This is Miss L being ticked off that dad is getting a pic of her but I had to include it because she too, is so darn cute.  Lil' Guy was screaming his head off after waking from a late nap and his pic was not pleasant.

 I hope we continue to enjoy them this much.  Usually I regret pet purchases, but so far, so good!