Great Minds

We woke up to snow this morning.  I knew I should have finished putting up the Christmas lights yesterday, darn it!  Kate is out happily playing in the snow, and Faith is in here with me happily watching her.  She just turned to me and said,

"Mom... are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Me: "I don't know, what are you thinking?"

Faith:  "We could get a really big marshmallow [holding up hands in the shape of a baseball], and then, and then...   we could put it in some hot cocoa, and have a contest to see who can drink the hot cocoa and eat the marshmallow at the same time [elaborate imitation of trying to drink cocoa around an enormous mallow], and whoever finishes LAST wins! (Faith is good at playing to her strengths.)  What do you think, mom?!"

Believe it or not, that was exactly what I was thinking.

The Boy

Jace is thoroughly enjoying being 3, and I LOVE this age.  3 year olds always say the funniest things!  Here are a few nuggets he uttered recently:

Upon returning to our car in a parking lot this week, I noticed we were parked next to my friend's car.  I said, "Well look at that, we're right next to Abby!"
Jace's face lit up, "Downton Abby?!"

Yesterday we were talking about foods that are good for our bodies.  Jace held up a picture of bread and grains, pointed at the wheat and said, "That's BAD."  
Suzy: "Actually, that is wheat, and we grind it up into flour to make bread, so it's good for us."
Jace:  "Oh.  Like an octopus."
Suzy:  "...Umm... not... really..."

Jace was king for the day at preschool yesterday, which meant he got to wear a crown and talk about himself a bit.  He told his classmates that he loves cows, and wants to be a cowboy with cows when he grows up.  I asked him what he wants to do with his cows. He has said before that he would ride them, but this time he said he would put them in his red cowboy car.  His teacher praised him for modernizing the vocation.  He will change the face of cattle drives.

Brighton Crawling!

First Day of Preschool!

Jace started preschool today!  Some friends and I are doing a co-op once a week.  He is super excited to be a big boy.  Ever since he turned 3 he talks all the time about being a big boy.  He wants to buckle himself up, put his own shoes on, etc.  He tells everyone he talks to that he's 3.  Then he asks them, "What's your number?"  He asks this mostly of strangers, because he already knows how old his friends and family are.

This little guy is growing up so fast.  He is so sweet, so funny, and so busy (Faith uses the word "destructive").  I'm so glad he is in our family!

Dinner Questions

Last night during dinner, we got out our jar of dinner questions.  The question was:

What three words would you use to describe yourself?  What 3 words would you use to describe each member of your family?

I knew this was going to be good.  Kate's 3 words for herself were "smart, math and artistic." Confident was one of the words I would give her :)

Faith then said, "cowgirl, math, and likes to chase boys."  I asked if those were for her or for Kate.  She said they were for herself, though the last 2 are Kate to a T.  She wants to be like Kate so bad.  I hope being in school helps her be more comfortable with being her own individual.
I then asked them to say words for each other.  They both said things about their sister that described themselves. Huh.

Then I asked Jace to describe himself with 3 words.  He said, "I like cows, I like to milk cows, I like to ride cows, (more stuff about cows) and that's all."  This boy likes cows.

Then it was my turn.  Faith said, "on the computer all the time, nice mom, cooks good food."  Those last two were probably because she saw my face fall when she said the first one.  I was surprised that that was the first thing she thought of.  I had a church assignment a while ago that had me on the computer quite a bit, and that was on top of my normal emailing, reading, or time wasting.  But I got released from that 9 months ago, and have also been making an effort to not waste time on the computer.  So I was disappointed that it didn't seem to make a difference.  It made me realize how hard it can be to change a child's perception.  Poor Faith saw me on the computer a lot for a year and a half, and I think she felt second rate.  It might take just as long for me to show her that she is WAY more important than anything I'm doing on the computer.  I have a renewed motivation to show her that.  Now that she has started kindergarten, I hope I didn't miss my chance.

Ye ought to wash one another's feet...

The other day I was nursing Brighton upstairs while the kids played a complicated game involving fire fighters and something else, probably a princess.  Faith sat down beside me with her fire hat still on and started brushing my hair.  I told her how sweet I thought that was, and she said that she could be my fire fighter servant.  Who doesn't need one of those??

She then propped my feet up on some pillows, and started massaging them!  What a sweetheart, right?  She left the room and reappeared with a damp washcloth and proceeded to wash my feet.  It made me think of the woman who washed Jesus' feet, and how he washed his friends' feet, and I felt a lot of tenderness and love for my sweet daughter, and told her so.

Jace saw what was going on and ran and got a washcloth himself.  It was sopping wet, so I asked Kate if she'd wring it out.  She did, and Jace began to wash my feet, and then Faith's.

I was counting my lucky stars that I have such great kids as I took Jace's washcloth back into the bathroom to wring it out all the way.  Then I noticed the puddles on the bathroom floor.  They led, you guessed it, to the toilet.

Lunch with Jan

 Aunt Jan lives very close to us, and recently we've started having lunch together!  Why haven't we done this sooner?  She is such a generous and sweet hostess!  We all love her cooking and her stories about her childhood.  I sure love this lady :)

Sloppy Joes and Lemonade.  Kate said it was the best thing she's ever eaten.

Jace usually prefers bird watching to eating when we are at Jan's.

May Days

 May was such a fun month!  It has finally warmed up, family came to visit, and school is almost out! Hallelujah!  Here is a smattering of what we did in May:

Kate had "Crazy Hair Day" at school.

Faith got me these sunglasses for Mother's Day.

Mike used his good looks to get the family some tots at Sonic.

The kids jumped on the tramp with cousins.

(And I played with the new camera I got from Mike for Mother's Day :))

Spent time with family.

Cupcakes disappeared.

As did teeth.

And chins.

Sorry Kev, I think Greg wins the disappearing chin contest.  My favorite thing about this picture is that while we were taking it, a lady in an Eyebrow Salon (yes, they exist) was watching the whole ordeal unbeknownst to us.  The giggling tipped us off, though.

Brighton tried on accessories at Build-a-Bear.

Jace tried to keep his pants up while running through the mall.

Brighton started sitting up!

The "kids" rode the thrill rides in the mall.

Faith and Jace finished up their gymnastics classes.

Faith had various adventures in baking and photography.

We went to the zoo.

Is anyone looking for a good sitter?

Because I know one!

Brighton - 6 months

Dinner Questions

I haven't blogged in so long because every time I want to, I feel like I should catch up on everything that's happened since I last blogged, which overwhelms me, so I don't.  But my children are growing up undocumented, so I'm just going to sum all that time up with, "The kids have grown, and I had a baby girl."  There.  Done.

Last night during dinner I picked a question from our "Dinner Questions" and read it to the kids:

If you could be called any name you choose, what would it be?

Jace: "Two."

Faith: "I would like to be called Princess Emerald."

Kate: "Lacey.  No, Ribbon.  No, Silk. Well...  maybe just Lacey."

Princess Emerald