Strangers Amongst Us

The Strangers:

Yes, we did this on purpose. And if you know me, you know this is HUGE. I unrighteously take great pride in my boys' hair. I LOVE[d] their long beautiful hair.

So why on earth did we do this (both were done today - Jonas before church, Miles after)? Well Jonas got a bad haircut months and months ago where the beautician did some heavy layering. I haven't liked his hair since. Then a couple weeks ago Jonas cut his own hair (again) right on top of his head and sheared it about 1/2 inch from his scalp. So today I gave Jonas a trim and Ben thought I made it look too much like a mullet. So I cut a lot from his neck area and he ended up looking like a girl - due to all the layering his haired curled under. It was a good cut. . . for a girl. Jonas had asked us several times to cut all his hair off and so we thought, why not now? We'll purge the hair and then let it grow back in all nice and even and beautiful again.

It's hard to get used to, but Ben and I love it on our children. They look adorable! Of course I still want them to grow out their hair, but it's fun for now. Jonas cried and cried for a bit after the haircut, but I think it was due more to being tired of having to sit for so long and have his cut. He now loves it.

Emmy honestly did not recognize Jonas when she got up from her nap (a nap where you don't nap, I guess, is still called a nap) before church. It was fun. Then she laughed. :)

Miles was jealous of Jonas being able to rub his hands all over his head, I think, and so decided he wanted to buzz his hair off, too. His beautiful curls!? Well his hair is so beautiful and so lovely, but only for the first 20 minutes of his 3 xs a week baths. Then he just gets a big bird's nest in it. (One day I told him birds were going to nest in his hair and he was thrilled! Wrong thing to say to a boy who loves, loves, loves birds.)

Miles loves his hair, as does Jonas. They are silly and giddy. Miles thinks he looks like a monkey. I agree. A very cute monkey.

Memories

So we have gotten a few hand-me-downs from friends lately and, as always, it's a great blessing. We get great clothes.

We got quite a few PJs for Emmy and so that has been fun since PJs are by far the cutest of clothes, I think. There is nothing better than a sweet little child in his or her PJs - getting ready for bed, of course.

So we got this one for Emmy:

We've never had her in a "dress PJ" before and I love it (nightgown?). (The shoes were some hand-me-downs, too. Emmy LOVES shoes - her daddy's girl for sure.)

It reminded me of the greatest PJs that I ever owned - and, well, since my sister and I were pretty much dressed up as twins for the first 8 or so years of my life, my sister had a similar PJ. They were of the nightgown style and had an ice cream cone on it. But not just any ice cream cone - our cones had like 20 scoops or something. All of different ice cream flavors - mint, strawberry, etc. I think, correct me Erin, the PJs had the names of all the ice cream flavors to the side of each scoop.

Tangent: Speaking of PJs, you should see the PJs my husband bought at a second-hand store. Better yet, don't see them. (Ben thought at $5 they were a steal. My only thought: "no wonder somebody didn't want them. . .")

Anways, I love memories.

Tuesday, Tuesday

My day:

5:40 - woke up and did exercising at home

6:30 - said bye to Ben as he left for work

6:45 - said good morning to all 3 kids, as Miles had so kindly gotten Emmy out of her crib

7 - fed and ate breakfast

8 - read "Ramona the Brave" to Miles (and Jonas)

8:30 - showered

9-10:30 - "hosted" our little adorable preschool group today

10:30 - 11:20 - don't know

11:20-11:45 - served Muffin-Tin Tuesday (no longer Monday, and no longer as regular, but requested specifically by Miles) lunch

11:45-12:15 - walked Miles to school, walked home

12:30-1 - read books and put Emmy to nap; read books and put a cranky Jonas to nap (too much sugar, too little sleep)

1-2:15 - ate lunch, got online, made cookies for cub scouts

2:15 - 2:45 - woke up Jonas (like promised) and let him watch the Letter Factory (we were suppose to do our little mommy 'n me school today, but he was too cranky for me to even look at him. so i told him if he napped good i'd let him watch the show.)

2:45-3:15 - picked up Miles from school

3:30 - 4:55 - walked to park, played at park, walked home from park

5:00-5:10 - got dinner ready, pumpkin pancakes

5:18 - Ben came home, I said, "I didn't think you were going to be this late," Ben replied, "I didn't either. . ."

5:30-6:45 - Cub Scouts for me (frosted cookies and made a "thank you" card and delivered items to the Police Station)

6:50 - I came home, Ben left for Elder Quorum visits

6:50 - read books to kiddos, helped brush teeth . . .

7:15 - tried to leave the boys room but Miles wanted a story, "not from a book," I told him the story of a mom who was hungry and needed dinner and wanted to go downstairs and eat. He didn't want that one. He wanted one that "isn't true and includes the words blue, dog, sardines, and dragonfly." Made up a [not-so] wonderful story with said things. Told the boys goodnight.

7:15-7:30 - Ate dinner. Yum!

8 - Checked on the boys: Miles sound asleep, sleeping sideways on his bed with his reading-lamp turned off (Good boy!); turned off Jonas' reading light, turned on the Wall-E night-light, tickled his face and leg, and told him good night.

Now I'm wasting time as there is a kitchen full of dirty dishes and I don't want to do them for the 10th time today. :)

I had a good day.

(p.s. The picture has nothing to do with my post, but it is of me, talking to my sister, taking a picture of me with my new hat I bought in Ouray for a super price.)

The. Best. Halloween. Ever.

That's what Miles said in the car on the way home from trunk-or-treating: "Mom, this is the best halloween ever." Funny boy.

The whole family. Ben and I went as "Ghosts of Ben's football past." We were wearing his jerseys from his days off pee-wee football. I didn't realize how fat, ugly, and old I looked until I saw this picture. Too bad I didn't see this until after. Oh well!

Here are the kiddos: dragonfly, scary ghost, and witch.

Man does she look horrid! And she was - she wasn't too happy when we got her up from her nap. But she really did look adorable - when she was happy - in her cute witch costume. It was the first dress I have ever made by myself. It's only worthy of a costume, however. It was so fun getting her costume together.

Jonas looked great. Jonas likes to look a little "edgy" I think, so Ben did a great job in making him a spooky ghost.

And Miles. Our dragonfly. All his idea. I was actually really, really pleased how his costume turned out. He had a little "tail" in back, too. He made a great "bzzzz" noise to go with his costume. And he even won a prize at trunk-or-treat for Most Creative costume, or something like that. He was a very, very happy boy.

We met up with Batman and Ariel, neighborhood friends, and went to a few houses on our block. Not many people were home, though. But it was fun nonetheless.

Coming home after a full day.

The Best Day, according to Miles.

Tricked

Well not really tricked but surprised. I planned about a month ago to surprise Ben and take him to Ouray to stay for a night. My parents agreed to help out and come over to watch our kids (Ben knew my parents were coming, but not the real reason why). So on Thursday night I told Ben that I had arranged some time off of work for him on Friday. I didn't tell him what we were doing - I guess he thought we were going to go grocery shopping or something together. But when he came home early from work he saw our bags packed and me ready to go and giving instructions to my mom for our kids. So we went to Ouray, shopped around a little bit, ate out at dinner, went in the hot-tub with amazing mountain-views, played scrabble, ate breakfast at our B&B, etc. Oh it was nice. Divine.

This was our hotel/B&B. It was great. I think it was built in the 1890s. Very victorian-styled on the inside. Very beautiful.


Handsome Ben at dinner. Oh he is good-looking.


Here we are in our "sitting area" of our room. Playing scrabble. Love it.

One of the best things for me is to get up in the morning and head out running with Ben. It's so much fun. We such a bunch of deer wanting to run away from us.


Soooo cute. And the mountains are pretty nice, too.

It was a fabulous little get-away. My parents did great, too, with our kids. So it was pretty much perfect.

A Little of This and A Little of That.

A Little of Fall this past Saturday:

And a Little of Winter This Morning:

My kids LOVE to eat the snow. In fact, besides going on shovel-rides, this is all Emmy did. Funny girl.

See?

Miles wanted to help shovel. He decided to make a "parking lot" as he called it.

Too cute.

Why stand up when you can sit and eat snow?

And here goes Jonas, Jonas-style.

Love this boy!

Fun times.

Econ 101

So we started paying the boys some allowance. It has turned Miles into a maniac. Whenever we are at the store he wants to know how much this is, that is, how much does he have ("nothing, you spent it all," is the frequent reply), what can he sell to get enough money, etc., etc. ETC.!

Wow. But it's a good thing (sometimes) and he is learning about savings and tithing, I guess. Jonas just likes to play with his money and lose it, really. But Jonas does enjoy going to Target and picking out that wonderful dollar-toy.

So we had a "garage sale" a while ago and sold a train table. Miles really, really wanted to buy a swan (yes, a swan) and didn't have enough from just allowance. So we thought of something we could sell and put it out with a sign. Lo and behold while Miles was at school, a man came by and bought the train table! That just fed the frenzy.

Every day Miles is trying to figure out something he can sell - usually they are household items, never are they his toys. He even told our good friend that if she has anything she doesn't want anymore that she should just give it to him and he will sell it. And I don't think he was planning on giving her the money. :)

He sometimes draws things and wants to sell them. He did try to sell this one day:

(the top is the picture he created. the pipe cleaners were roads and he drew a front-end loader and buggy cars. a house, too, of course. the bottom sign basically says: "1 dollars. far [for] sel [sale].)"

One day I told Miles that you have to sell something that people want and at a price they will pay.

"Like what?" he asked.

"Rice Krispies [duh]" was my reply.

So every day for the past couple of weeks Miles has been begging me to help him make them and sell them. I've turned him down again and again. . . until today. We made some, dyed them orange, and had them ready for him to sell when he got home from school today.

I had some errands I had to do, but Ben was out there with him while he sold his Rice Krispies.

And you know what?

He (and Jonas - a little bit) made about $4.50 total.

Not bad when you had 12 rice krispies to sell and were only selling them for $0.25. . .

Primary Program

Well I think many primary kids were participating in their Primary Programs yesterday. We sure were. As one member of my ward said, "This is The. Best. Sunday. Ever." :) It was delightful. I got to sit up among the primary cuties and it was relatively stress-free for me. Ben got to sit down on the pew with just Emmy. I think he had a good time, too.

I loved looking at my kids up on the stand, and Emmy with her Daddy. It was delightful. But I had to stop looking at Jonas after a while because every time I did look at him he would loudly whisper to me, "When do we get our chewy-treats?!" (Our kids get chewy-treats once a week - after the sacrament. Since we were sitting on the stands, he wasn't sure when this much-anticipated event would occur.)

I was a tad bit nervous for Miles and didn't want him saying "byebye" at the end of his part. He didn't. He did great. I was more than a tad bit nervous for Jonas. He sometimes talks quite inaudible and incomprehensible with a microphone. But he actually did great and said his line perfectly:

"I can prepare now by following the prophet."

Some of the other adorable sunbeams said, "I can repair now. . ." Loved it.

All in all it was a very sweet and precious sacrament meeting.

Quote of the Week

Jonas: "Mom, I saw a crap airplane!"

Me: "What Jonas?!"

Jonas: "I saw a crap airplane."

Me: "What Jonas?!"

Jonas: "I. SAW. A. CRAP. AIRPLANE."

Me: "Umm, what is a crap airplane?"

Jonas: "It was yellow and it sprays out stuff."

Me: "Oh, a CROP airplane."

Jonas: "Yeah!"

Oh crap, I better be better with my language in front of the children . . .

Where the Wild Things Truly Are

Miles has been out of school since Wednesday this week - due to parent-teacher conferences. As a result of having a teacher that teaches at 2 different schools, and an afternoon kindergarten class, Miles had Wednesday and Thursday and Friday off. So I had thought about doing a fun "field trip" for the kids. I had planned to go to the Dinosaur Museum, then unplanned it. But came Thursday morning I decided to go. It's about 75 miles away, so it's a decent trek there. But my boys (especially Miles) are really into dinosaurs at the moment and so I thought it would be a neat trip. I sort of thought wrong. My boys (again, Miles especially) were beyond scared at the real-looking dinosaurs - especially the meat-eating T-rex that was actually depicted eating meat. The nerve. The boys were pretty much ballistic. Miles kept saying, "I just like looking at the dinosaur bones," as opposed to real-life ones. They even started us out at the museum watching a video, but we had to leave as Miles started freaking out.

We had moments we could enjoy, as long as we weren't too close to the scary-looking dinosaurs or the dinosaurs that moved or even the [funny] dinosaur that squirted water from its mouth. If we had to go past said dinosaurs, the boys would madly dash at lightning speeds. It was insane. They were insane. Literally, I had never seen Miles run so fast as when we were ready to leave and had to go past the T-rex (one of Miles' favorite dinosaurs, ironically enough). Wow, that boy could have a career in track. So it turned out to be a long day for me. But at least it was a change of pace. So it was good. We did have moments of enjoyment and pleasure:

Indeed, the highlight of the trip was the store. Yep, the store. Miles was so excited to find this book - a book he has at his school library. He loved it. The store was neat and very, very un-scary.

See all the books? So cool.

This is what Miles likes - more anatomical views. Emmy didn't really care, nor was scared. A few times, after she saw the boys freaking out and thought she should freak out, she asked me to hold her. That was all. No wild dashes. No screams of terror. If only her brothers could have been "big" like her. :)

This was another highlight: the serene dinosaur "dig." We had fun and spent lots of time in here.

Emmy just goes with the flow - sometimes. :)

Miles was really into this as well. He does want to become a paleontologist. Which will probably be okay since he doesn't think bones are scary.

A non-threatening stegosaurus.

An earthquake simulator. The "floor" shook. It was pretty cool and, again, we spent a lot of time on this.

LOVE THIS!

Miles wants to go back so he can buy some stuff in the store. But I told him at least a dozen times that I am not going back any time too soon. . . not until he's at least 12. . .