Ice cream thief

September 26, 2011
In celebration of Pearl's Primary Program surprise, Jeff treated us to ice cream tonight.

Too bad my bowl was quickly claimed by a little boy who thinks he is big enough to do whatever he pleases.

Primary program surprise

September 25, 2011
Today was the Primary Program... Pearl's first.

For weeks we've been trying to get Pearl to memorize or at least practice reciting her part in the program.... "Jesus loved everyone, served others, and kept all of Heavenly Father's commandments".... but to no avail. It really wasn't worth an argument. I figured if we pushed it too much, she'd just freak out when she had to go up to the stand without Mom or Dad and refuse to participate at all.

Boy, did she ever show us up.

We read her lines twice before going to church, twice. And then right before the program was to start, Jeff whispered them to her one more time. We sent her up with her teachers and class fully expecting her to sing her heart out (she knows all the words to every song and loves to sing) but not knowing a single line of her part. It wasn't a big deal. I was just happy she was excited about singing and being up on the stand.

But then! Wow! She got up and said, without a single prompt from her teacher, "Jesus loved everyone, served everyone, (long pause and deep breath) keep Jesus' commandments." Jeff and I both turned and looked at each other in shock. Jeff was laughing so hard he was actually crying. I was in complete shock and kept asking him, "Did you know she could do that? Who helped her memorize that?" Then Jeff told me he had told Pearl a few days earlier, that he'd give her a dollar if she memorized her part.

To make a long, utterly-shocked-Cole-waving-at-his-sister-from-the-very-back-of-room-praising-Pearl-over-and-over-again-story short, when Pearl and I got home (Cole is teething and got sent home early for a nap), she found this taped to her bedroom door. That kid made us look really good today.

Wild Bill

September 24, 2011
Today was the USU Homecoming game.

We shant recount the heartbreak of the 2nd overtime period. Jeff is still in depression.

But... the pre-game hype and festivities were exciting. We tailgated with the Palmer boys again. Pearl is always on the look out for Big Blue, cheerleaders, basketball players, football players, or perhaps the most famous Aggie celebrity, Wild Bill. We missed Bill the first time he walked by and Pearl was distraught. Thankfully, we heard the neighboring tailgaters say Wild Bill had walked by so we took off after him. He was so nice and once we told him Pearl looks for him at every game, he got down so he could talk to Pearl and let us take a picture of the two of them. Pearl was seriously so excited! We love Wild Bill.

This happy picture almost erases the agony of the final play of the game. Almost.

Best carnival game ever

September 23, 2011
We took the kids to our local elementary school's Fall Carnival tonight. It's a fundraiser for the PTA, which they tried to get us to join. Pearl was very excited to spend her Dad's money on all the games, cake walk (we didn't win a thing), and bouncy house.

But the absolute best game I have ever seen at these types of events was a little gem, tucked beside the dart throwing and bouncy house. A book walk. It was awesome! For a single ticket, the only single ticket game in the whole carnival, the kids could win new books. And every kid won, every single round. The lady running the game was so nice and wanted every kid to win a book. There were two huge boxes of books to choose from and we came home with four new books. The mom in me loved the cheap and educational prizes. And the public health professional in me loved the non-candy prizes.

I just might join the PTA after all.

Orphan child

September 22, 2011
I swear to you, he did not look like an orphan child this morning.

We do bathe our children every day. I wipe their boogers 50 bazillion times a day. Their hair is combed, their clothes clean before we leave the house. And I wipe the crumbs from their faces after every meal. How they come to look like this in a matter of minutes, I have no idea.

Copy cat

September 21, 2011
Cole and Pearl were so funny tonight. Everything Pearl did, Cole had to do too. He was a little copy cat. Pearl was playing with one of her pillow pets and Cole had to have one too. Luckily, we have three... a big one, a medium-sized one, and a tiny one. Pearl sat on top of hers and so did Cole. They both pretended they were riding horses. She took her pillow pet outside, so did Cole. She sat on top of hers to color with sidewalk chalk, so Cole had to find some sidewalk chalk to color with. I know there are days that Pearl finds her little "shadow" totally annoying but on days like today when you can see the love and adoration between them, it sure is wonderful.

Thief

September 20, 2011
Cole is quite a character.

I caught him pulling his sister's pajamas out of her dresser, not once, but twice today. I have no idea how he managed to yank that drawer open but somehow he got it open just enough to grab two pairs of jammies, one in each hand. He'd run into the T.V. room with a big grin on his face and then throw them into a pile in the middle of the room. He did this until all of Pearl's pajamas were on the floor. Then he plopped himself down right on top of them, threw them up in the air a bit, and then laid down on them like he was going to take a nap. Surprisingly, Pearl was a good sport about the whole thing.

I'm just glad he didn't get into his clothes too.