Moo

Peter (holding a toy cow): "Moo, I'm a cow." Brita, can you make the cow talk?
Brita (taking the toy cow): Talk, cow. Can you talk, cow?

Addition

We were counting and adding apple slices this morning with Brita. She was having fun and starting to get the hang of it. She could count three apples on one side and one on the other. I'd ask "So what's three plus one?" and she'd count them all up and get four.

When there was just one slice left, she counted one slice on one side and no slices on the other. I asked her, "So what's one plus zero?"

"10!"

The Activity

Brita calls the nativity the activity. Yesterday she decided that we needed to act it out. So she was Mary and she designated Benton to be Joseph. I was supposed to be a shepherd, but we don't have any sheep at our house so I had a stuffed dog that was dubbed a sheep. Then Benton stole my sheep and so he was the shepherd and I was Joseph. then we switched back. I was pretty exciting. Mary took a couple trips to Bethlehem with baby Jesus and she even got Joseph to go once. She kept coming up to me and saying, "Little Shepherd, it's time to go to Bethlehem. Little Shepherd, it's time to go." Unfortunately during all this I was finishing a book, so I never went to Bethlehem. It's a good thing I wasn't around in the time of Christ.

Temple Square

We figured we should get around to hyping Christmas at some point this year so last night we went to Temple Square. It was pretty fun. Both kids hadn't taken naps, so they fell asleep in the car and took a while to wake up once we got there, but they did pretty well. It was mighty cold.


We had a really good time. We saw lots of lights and quite a few statues. We spent some time in both visitor centers looking at pictures and displays. I love the pictures depicting the life of Christ in the north visitor center. Peter liked the big nativity display with the wisemen..and Jesus. Benton loved the Christus. Brita was really into all the statues, too. It was jolly good.

Messes

Sometimes Benton makes messes.
He usually tries to help clean them up, though.
This is from today's pudding adventure. Who knew a little boy could open a box of pudding that fast?

Sunday

Here is what my kids look like on an average Sunday. Or Monday, really, because I seldom get around to changing them from their church clothes. Brita is kind of obsessed by umbrellas ever since a lady shared one with Benton and me on the way to stake conference. I was excited when we finally found her parasol again. Benton's pretty funny about the butterfly wings--anytime you put them on him he starts spinning and dancing. You'd get a video, but Blogger is stupid. I like my kids.

Sometimes I'm productive

So I've always wanted to make clothes for my kids. Unfortunately I'm quite lazy so if there is no need, I don't do things. This summer Brita needed a short sleeved nightgown so I started making her one. Then she got one, so the project was put off. But I finally finished it! (Unlike all the others I've started.) So anyways, here it is. It's definitely not perfect, but I like it and she loves it. So happy day.

It's a bad picture, but my camera batteries were giving out again, so I only got one shot.

This is the pattern I started from. It was too small for her and way too short and I'm just generally bad at following directions, so it got some major changes made to it. I should have paid a wee bit more attention in my pattern drafting class fifteen years ago. And my stitch in the ditch skills are sadly lacking. And hopefully it doesn't just fall apart because my sewing machine definitely won the you-can't-make-my-tension-right battle.

Anyways, there you go. Yeah for me. Yeah for time with no kids in which you can get things done. Yeah for Brita liking it.


This just in: Pictures of a real live girl in the nightgown. Isn't she cute?


The back.

Benton and Brita.

At the pet store

To give Andrea a break from the kids, which I don't do nearly as often as I should, I took them to the pet store to look at fish, birds, cats and rats. Brita thought the guinea pig was a mouse until I told her what it was. As we continued browsing, an employee approached and politely asked if there was anything we needed help with.

Brita: We're just looking at the animals.
Employee: We like having people come and look at the animals.
Brita: We looked at the pig.
Employee: Oh, the guinea pig?
Brita: Yeah, I don't know why you guys have a guinea pig.

-peter

Playing outside...

... isn't as fun as it used to be. The kids were excited to go out, but after a few minutes in the cold they were ready to go back inside.

A couple weeks after this, a huge winter storm was forecast for the valley. As everyone around here already knows, it got plenty of hype but didn't amount to much. The weatherpeople weren't completely wrong though, just about when. We got well over a foot not too long after that.

Brita and I made a snowman with the dry, powdery snow. I didn't take a picture at the time, and now it's just a small lump of snow. I'd go take a picture now, but it's dark outside. Sorry.

-peter

Perspective from Brita

Brita: Today is a special day.
Me: Why is today a special day?
Brita: Life is special, so today is a special day.