Christmas finery

polly want a cracker? and other stuff

Tyler has this little phrase that he utters when he does something like stubs his toe or slams his fingers in a door. He says, 'son of a uh.' Well having a little parrot around the house has done wonders to this, and many other distasteful phrases that we say. Lucy repeats this like crazy. We're both trying to limit our vocabulary to all kid friendly phrases, but aren't succeeding. So today, Tyler's first day back at work after over a week and a half off, he made it home for lunch. We were discussing our day and Lucy and I were telling him how much we missed him since he had to go back to work today. Ty said, "I cried at work because I missed you so much." Lucy asked every-so-sweetly, "Did you say 'son of a uh?'" And by the way, he clarified to me that he didn't really cry-he was just sad.

We said goodbye to a beloved family member this weekend. It turned out to be such a sad but teachable moment for us all. We got the opportunity to teach Lucy about God's plan when her fish, Nemo, couldn't recover from a dirty tank and too many days without food while we were away. Ty and I were crying as we had to explain to her that Nemo would be living with Heavenly Father and Jesus now. The saddest part of it all was when she asked Tyler if her friends were going to die too. She woke up every morning anxious to check on Nemo and see how he had fared during the night. Even as upset as she was, she told her Daddy as he rocked her before bed one night, "Don't worry, Daddy. Nemo will be just fine. He's going to go and live with Heavenly Father and Jesus now." Last night as we were getting into bed, Daddy gave Nemo a proper burial at sea (flashes of the Cosby Show were racing through my mind) and then I heard the dreaded, 'uh oh,' from Daddy. Nemo wasn't just a goldfish. I'm not sure what he was, but he was big. And he got stuck in the toilet drain. And Ty had to plunge him down. All very tragic (for me, we kept Lucy away from those details). This morning as she jumped out of bed and spotted Nemo's empty tank she asked me, "After Nemo is done playing with Heavenly Father and Jesus, can he come back to me?" So we had a quick lesson on the Resurrection-but she wasn't satisfied with the 'someday' aspect of the lesson.

Yesterday was Lucy's first day at Sunbeams-her new Church class now that she's 'free years old!' I didn't get to be at church with her since Tanner was sick. Tyler is serving in the Primary so he got to see her there and watch her in action.
Her reports from the day:
*Her teacher's name is "Brother Napkin." Actually Sweetie, it's Brother Atkins.
*They played football.
*She didn't get to sing "I Know You" or "Away in a Manger" but she got to sing different songs.

This is the best of the pics I took of her that morning-sorry it's so terrible.

snow, snow and more snow

I told Lucy that we were getting a lot of snow-so much it would be up to her knees. I wasn't lying. This was just a few days before Christmas. It's still on the ground and the snow fort is still there.

Eating the snow.


lying in the snow.
shoveling the snow.

Away in a Manger

We made Lucy perform a few times over the trip. Luckily, she didn't mind at all. She actually sang for anyone at any time of day. Cousin S did a great job singing the alto part!

the kids-December 2009

ho ho ho!

"IwantaMrs.PottstoyandahelmetforTannerandafootballforTanner," she replies faster than you can imagine, all in one breath whenever she's asked, "What do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas."

outtakes

Had a couple of photo shoots with the kids for upcoming Christmas events. Here's what didn't make the cut.

"I'm entering the convent in the morning."

What the??? This was all her. Poser.

Hunched shoulders. Pouty lips. Must be channeling the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Her Little Miss Muffet interpretation.

"How old are you?"

"FREE YEARS OLD!"

Jumping for joy!!

T and his bff

One night as we were feeding Tanner before bed he still had this clutched in his hand. When I took it away so we could get him to sleep, he started crying, struggled to sit up and get away from me so he could see it and get to it. He LOVES this thing!

smarty pants

Lucy was eating her lunch while I was putting Tanner to bed the other day. When I came in the kitchen I found this on the fridge. What can I say-she has my brilliance. We talked about the C and the U but I'm so proud of her for knowing these are the letters in her name and for putting them together!

snow day

Is this going to happen every year? Because if so we might need to relocate farther south.

All three of them on the slide-can't even see Lucy.

The kids went down alone. She sucked on his hood all the way down, he sucked on her glove. I'm not sure where this came from.

Throwing snowballs at Mommy. This is definitely NOT allowed at our house!

My little snow bunnies. At least they enjoy the snow. I guess it can snow once in a while. Maybe.