Homophones

Today when I came down from putting the older kids to bed Monica was all excited to show me Mima's latest trick.
Monica: Mima can you show Mom your elbows?  Do you remember where your elbows are?
Me: Yeah, your elbows.  [Point to my elbows.]
Mima looks at us all like we're crazy and slowly slides off the couch and heads upstairs.
Me: Are you going to bed?  ...Really?  Um, good night then.
All of us look at each other like we're crazy.
Brita (calling from upstairs): Mima's pointing to Elmos on her sheets!
Mima comes back downstairs.
Life makes sense again.

Christmas

This really was a perfect Christmas.  It was so fun how excited the kids were about each of their presents.  

Here's the before shots.  We had two Christmas trees this year because we're cool like that.  And we wanted to wait to get a real tree so it would last longer.  And everyone needs a Christmas tree that looks like a disco ball.  

It took the kids a long time to notice the bikes.  Way longer than we thought it would.  I guess I  can't say anything though, because I walked past the stroller a couple of times before I noticed it.

 Here are the kids and Peter eating breakfast.  We realized late Christmas Eve that we had left all the sock stuff in the car.  The bananas were very green.  We tried to heat them up a bit, but it didn't work.  We choked down one banana between all five of us.

The kids each got a doll.

Benton and Peter made bean bags and a bean bag game for everyone.  It was a hit.

Here's Benton in his "prince costume" from Grandma.  The sword is from Brita.

The kids each got butterfly wings.  Benton might have been the most excited about them.  He was the most excited about a lot of things.

Brita in her princess dress.

The kids love the cash register.  That was one thing that we had been planning to get them since last Christmas.  They liked their stuffed animals that I made them, too.  When Benton opened up his arctic fox he said, "Oh, wow, a fox!  I always wanted a fox!"

The kids got a sled that they pulled various things around in.

Socks went fast.  Mima was the only one I got pictures of. opening hers.

That's what it looked like afterward.

The kids with my fancy new stroller and their dolls.  Benton was pretty much jumping up and down all day long.

Peter pulled the kids around in the sled.  The kids all had perma-smiles.  Peter almost died.  It was way too cold to be running around pulling a sled.

So then he let the kids do it.

This little boy was just so happy with everything he got.  So, so happy.

We did this puzzle.  The pieces were the shape of the countries and it made it a little frustrating when you accidentally bumped something and all of Eurasia was scattered everywhere.

Here's Peter playing "the kids'" clarinet.  You can also see the matching pajama pants I made.

And then it snowed.  Forever.  Two months later the snow has never melted and we're so sick of it.  We have a lot of sidewalk to shovel.  And a lot of driveway that never gets shoveled.  But the kids had fun sledding down the driveway.

When dreams come true

So Peter usually puts the kids to bed because he's good like that.  And he's more patient than I am.

Tonight he comes down and says, "So I was laying up there..with my eyes closed..I don't know, I might have been asleep.  And then..I had this dream..or something..where I was dreaming that my face was being splashed with water and I woke up and Mima was sitting there with her water bottle shaking water out on my face."

Too smart for her own good

Benton: Is a truck a kind of car?
Me: A truck is a kind of vehicle and so is a car.
Brita: Actually it's a (something I didn't understand).
Me: Is that a pretend thing, or a real thing?
Brita: Actually it means transportation in Arabic.

Plasma Car

When Peter got home from work today we had the kids come inside and gave them their new present from Grandma: a plasma car.

Later the kids were playing with it outside.  Brita was taking a turn and Benton thought her turn had gone on too long so he went up and slapped her head.

Peter (sternly): Benton, come inside.
Benton (running inside):  Is there another one?!?

Walking

Mima is officially a walker today.  I'm fairly certain she's been walking when no one is around for a while, but today she forgot to hide it. 

We played ring around the rosies for family home evening tonight and she loved it.  As did the other kids.  For our lesson we practiced the songs for the primary program.  Benton was sad that he didn't know the words, so he requested we sing some "nursery songs" after that.  Brita and Benton are both convinced that there are nursery songs and there are primary songs, but there are very few overlaps.

Journaling

Today for family home evening we learned about journals. Here are some random thoughts we want to remember for later.

Benton: Yesterday we lost a dinosaur at the red park. I love going to the temple.

Brita: Today I picked flowers and put them on the table. We like to play outside and play hide-and-seek. Sometimes we like to hide behind the peach tree. (Brita and Benton are playing "kickies.") We play with blocks all the time and make the tallest buildings. We play almost everything and we go to the grocery store. The thing I like to do most is playing with Mima and Benton.

Mima: (Mima likes eating grapes, riding on trikes and the back of the truck, and playing with computers, the ipad and Mom's phone. Right now Mima and Benton are putting their foreheads together and laughing.)

Mom: I cleaned the counters today. It was monumental.

Dad: We had waffles for dinner the other day. They were really good. There were also tomatoes and grapes from the garden. Mima loves the grapes.

Summer

My baby grows up

So yesterday Mima decided that she wasn't a baby any more.  The kids were outside and Brita said, "Hey Mom--Look!"  Mima was kneeling on the back of Brita's trike holding on to the seat while Brita was riding all over the patio.  Then Mima decided that she needed to ride the trike herself, so she climbed up on the seat and Brita pushed her around the patio.  Then she climbed into the back of the truck because that was "safer" and Benton climbed up above her and Brita drove them around.

All I can say is that it was a scary, scary thing to watch.  Does she not realize that she's just a little girl?

What we've been up to.

Well, many things have happened since I blogged last (how could they not have; it's been forever). But, instead of telling you about all of them, I'll just show you what the kids have been up to the last two days: