Stop blossing me!

This morning I was trying to catch up a little bit, but Anaya and McKay kept bossing me around (turn my game on, I want a drink, not this drink, another drink, get me breakfast, we want to watch a movie, not this movie, bring my toy in this room.... and on and on....) So I finally told them to stop bossing me around and let me finish what I was trying to get done. A little while later I was doing my hair, and Anaya came in and said she was not going to "bloss" me anymore. No more blossing mom. She continued by saying "Put me in the tub, I want a bath, the water isn't hot enough, too hot now, cause I'm not going to bloss mom anymore, get the toys, I don't want those clothes! We don't bloss mom!......." She clearly has no idea what bossing or blossing means.


This week has been a little crazy, but we survived. Everyone is feeling better (thank heavens!) When I was running the kids around, we passed a duck swimming in the church parking lot. It looked out of place.... but also made my whole day (in my mind duck=summer). I sure hope Spring gets here soon! This is my favorite time of year: "Cadbury Mini Egg" season!!! Yummy!


Kayden and Malia are doing a ballroom performance for a church party tonight. I am going to round some tools up so we can get going on the basement ("I" meaning Rik...)


We got Taisha's basketball pictures back. Her coach (on the left) had his appendix out.... I can't believe he came for pictures! She had a fun season.

Yucky 3 days....

Sorry for the bad pictures...I was freezing cold and shivering when I took them, and really didn't care about the bad lighting.

Well, that was a miserable three days. It seems all the cleaning in the world didn't stop the flu bug that was making the rounds through our house. Part way through Project Runway I started feeling terrible, and felt that way for 3 days. I still don't feel all that great, but the fever is gone, so I can function. The worst part though, was missing the kids ballroom competition. Malia and Kayden competed on Friday and Saturday up in Rexburg. Individual events were on Friday, and their team dances were on Saturday. I missed both of them.... I honestly was doing good just to get Malia's hair and make-up done. I got a couple pictures of them right before they left on Friday, and sent the camera up with them, but when they got to Rexburg, they both started running fevers, so no other pictures were taken.


There were 800 kids competing at the competition (ballroom is getting insanly popular!) Kayden ended up getting 5th in Waltz, and Malia got 6th in Cha Cha. Not too bad for being sick (Malia said it was a killer just walking to the dance floor, let alone dancing!) And with 800 kids competing, I am really proud of them.


The fever seems to have left the house, but the cold symptoms are still here, so lots of coughing, sore throats, and runny, runny noses. Rik and I were the only ones at church today from our family (and I only went cause I was the musical number in Sacrament meeting, and I had some primary stuff to do.) Hopefully this week everyone gets better!

I'm looking for a good fried rice recipe for the Blue and Gold banquet on Wednesday (Chinese New Year theme this year....I'm in charge of the fried rice....) Anyone have a good one (good means easy and cheap)? I make fried rice all the time, but it's just kind of chucked together... I thought I would try an actual recipe for the scout thing. (I really need to get on the bishopric (Rik's who I go through now) to get me some people in scouts...hehe... (so Rik gets nagged at home and at church!)) Thanks for the help!

Run for cover!

The bug we have running through the house took out Rik, Anaya and Kayden today, and Malia started complaining of a sore throat and head right before bed tonight, so we'll see how she feels tomorrow. I kind of feel like the last man standing. I'm just assuming I'll get it too, so today it felt like I was getting ready for some impending natural disaster. I made sure I was as caught up on laundry as I possibly could be, stocked the house with quick and easy "fend for yourself" food, got my church stuff all ready for Sunday, got me a whole lot of chocolate (well, you just never know, better to be prepared) and tried to get my house in order.... just in case. I also tried to de-grubie the house... no that does not mean I got rid of the kids, but they are all sicking me out, so I cleaned everything. I went to get McKay's bedding to wash and found all this under his pillow:



Ya, those are chess pieces and several DVDs. I honestly don't know how he sleeps with so many treasures under his pillow... that would drive me crazy. About a month ago Rik and I got him an under the bed rolling bin, and I told McKay he had to put all his treasures in the bin, not just shoved under the bed, because it was too hard to find things. This is what I pulled out back then:



So I told him that he could put things in the bin, and when the bin was too full, it had to be cleaned out. I guess I wasn't really specific about under his pillow.

I thought I would share with you a few of Malia's goals, and then ask for some help. Malia says she wants to go on a mission (Spanish speaking), learn to speak Spanish, sing in the Mormon Tabernacle choir, be in Junior Miss and play the piano for her talent, go to college, get married in the temple and write novels for a living. When I was 12, I think my only goals were to get married in the temple and have kids with dark hair and blue eyes, and technically, that last part shouldn't even be considered a goal.... Apparently Malia is a little more driven than I was, but it's the "writing novels" part of her goals that I need some help with. Malia loves to read and write, and her teacher asked me to find writing contests for Malia to enter, to give her lots of practice writing. I don't quite know where to look to find writing contests (I have found 3 so far). When I search online, there are so many, and I don't know how to narrow my search for contests that would work for Malia. She is in 6th grade and will be 12 in May. If you come accross anything, will you let me know? She falls asleep every night with either the book she reading, or the book she's writing in bed with her.

Yippee! Project Runway will be on in about 20 minutes! That's the only show I watch... at least I try to, it comes on so late, sometimes I really struggle keeping my eyes open. But everyone was asleep by 9:30, the house is clean, and I'm not sick yet... so that is a good night for me.... where'd I hide that chocolate?! (See, good thing I stocked up!)

Medicating the kiddies

Well, I said that McKay was perking up yesterday afternoon, but it turns out that was just the Motrin making him feel better. He's still running a pretty good fever and is miserable. Taisha has a sinus infection, so she is having all sorts of head aches as well. She didn't wear her glasses while they were snowboarding yesterday, so by last night she had a huge headache and was nauseated too. I think I am keeping the pain reliever companies in business!

Everyone came home from snowboarding really tired (and sun burned), so no swimming last night, but that didn't stop Anaya from trying her best to convince Rik that everyone else could stay home and dad and Naya could go swimming.



Speaking of Anaya... sheesh, she has got a horrible habit of calling names. She never hits, bites, pinches or anything like that, but if you make her mad... boy, you hear about it! If she is just a little mad, she'll call you "meanie" (I get called that a lot.) A little madder than that, and she calls you a "stupid meanie" (I get called that a lot) and usually gets sent to her room. If she is really mad though, she whips out all the bad words she knows: "YOU'RE A BIG STUPID POO POO PEE PEE BUM BUM MEANIE!!!" (I get called that a lot) and doesn't get sent to her room, but taken to her room.

So I tried substituting silly words for her bad words.... but that didn't really address the name calling thing. So I've been trying to get her to say what she's mad at and why instead of "Naya-swearing." Not working yet, but we're going to keep at it. Malia and Taisha would pout when they were mad (that was at least nice and quiet... like if you were in a store...). I guess at least I always know what Naya's thinking, and that's a good thing.... right? Kayden has been doing some photoshop tutorials. These two pictures (Anaya's picture and Kayden's name on fire) are some of the tutorials Kayden's been doing. Whatever keeps him busy. He's still looking for an eagle project... anyone have any ideas?

Have a good day!

9/11 Literature project

So we got Kayden's literature project done, and I think it looks really cool. Kayden was supposed to take an event from American History and make some kind of a representation (I have no idea why he's doing this in Literature class... instead of history). He decided to do 9/11. We started with the idea that we wanted to make the WTC buildings white, and then the idea changed to making the WTC buildings look like they were angels in heaven, so the buildings have halos and angel wings, and Kayden covered the base with batting to look like clouds.

Rik and the older kids are snow boarding at Kelly Canyon today, then they are coming home and everyone is going swimming. Fun day!

McKay woke up this morning not feeling too good (also could be read: really grouchy!) But he's perked up a little this afternoon.

Bombarded by school projects

This week has been full of school projects. I'm all for fun and creative ways to learn, but it sure would be nice if they were a little more spread out!

This week Kayden had to make a board game using the periodic elements. We used one of our Monopoly boards and covered it with with all the different elements, made cards, and unique game peices.

Then the girls came home and needed to make their Valentine's boxes. We got Taisha's done but Malia wanted to do something original (totally Malia). So we were going to try to make cupid. But after checking a million stores for a cream or light tan solid-colored gift bag in the right size, I gave up on that idea and we ended up making another girl (brown hair/green eyes this time). Then Malia had an idea for these unique Valentine's (totally Malia), so I had to check several stores to find them (finally at the Kmart right by my house).



Kayden came home with another project for science. This time we needed to make a model of one of the elements. He chose Bromine. So we ended up last night putting 46 clear thumb tacks and 36 blue thumb tacks into a racquetball (Kayden's hands were killing him after doing this, but extra credit for elements with higher numbers), then stabbed my metal shishkabob skewers all the way through the ball at 90 degree angles so that 4 circles of wire could hold all the electrons. We finished glueing the electrons in place last night about 11:30.



While Rik was working on that with Kayden, I was helping McKay fill out his Valentine's for his preschool party today. He would only write the " M", "c" and "a" though, because he worried that his "k" and "y" didn't look too good (totally like McKay to worry). So I think it took us 9 hours to get them filled out (my sister says I'm exaggerating, but it sure felt that long by the time we passed the valentines back and forth one letter at a time!)



Valentine's day was really nice though (despite all the homework). We were going to heart attack Rik's car (the kids and I made hearts with nice notes on them for Rik), but we had some scheduling problems, and I didn't think we would have time to get over to his car, get the hearts stuck on (if they would even stick... his car is filthy!), and get home, so we ended up heart attacking the back door, so when Rik opened the garage door, he saw them. I have to tell you how sweet Kayden is.... Later on that night he took some of the hearts off the door and wrote notes to me, and stuck the hearts all over my dresser. When I went in to get my pajamas on I saw them and got all teary eyed.... made all the hot glue burns on my hands feel all better! The kids loved the "red, pink, and heart" dinner we had with them (kind of) ... Malia was babysitting and ate later, Kayden and Taisha were both getting ready for basketball games, so they didn't sit down to eat, and I had to work, so I ate in the car on my way to the office.....so about as together as we get some days!

Coining new words

The other day Kayden was asking me about epilepsy (my sister has it). He was asking when Karissa got it, and if it was "confectious." WooHoo! New word: Contagious + infectious = confectious. Feel free to use whenever it applies. McKay also got into word coining. He has been battling a cold over the past week, and we have been encouraging him to blow his nose often, which he still isn't a pro at doing yet. We have been trying to explain to him that he needs to get the boogers out (yes I know, like you want to know...) so that he feels better. About 90% of the time though, he ends up blowing them the wrong way... not out into the tissue, but back. He told me the other day that he is going to try to stop "snorking" so that he can feel better. So I guess snorking mean sucking the boogers back in.... ew. We have no idea where the word came from, but it does kind of sound like "ssnnorrk" when you suck the boogers in... go ahead and try it..... So now even Rik uses the word snorking. He told me that he thinks that's why he is so healthy.... because he snorks and hoiks (I have no idea how to spell made up words) everything out... (again, I know, you probably don't care to know all this...). I myself, am just hoping everyone gets over their colds, because they are sicking me out. Well that was just about the grossest blog ever. I'll try to stay away from mucus next time I decide to write.

Have a good night!
Alexa

Just how things are at our house

The last couple of weeks Anaya has been showing us her independent side.... her favorite phrases are "I know!" and "I can do it by myself!".... only she has a little bit of a lisp and it comes out like "I can do it by mythelf!"

I'll give you an idea of how this goes at our house. At FHE Kayden was in charge:

Kayden: Welcome to Family Home Evening. After the song, Anaya will give the prayer (groan from the kids).

(Opening Song....hyper version of Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam)

Anaya: I can do it by myself! Heavenly Father, something something blessings

Me whispering (talk louder Naya)

Anaya: I can do it by myself! Thank you for the potty. Something something (talking too quiet again and now spinning in a circle)

Me whispering: (Thank you for our family...)

Anaya: I Know! I CAN DO IT BY MYSELF!! Something something.... Amen.

Malia: Did she say thanks for the potty?

Kayden: Aren't you thankful for the potty?! Try going a day without the potty and see how that goes for you!

Malia: Ya, but you don't have to say it in your prayer.....

Kayden: Grandma says that when mom was little she prayed that she wouldn't wet the bed.....

Me: Um.... thanks... can we get on with the lesson please? (I can't beleive I just typed that...)

Kayden managed to get through his lesson on the Word of Wisdom, without any more reference to the potty.... phew!

I had to take Anaya and McKay to the dentist again (3rd appointment this month!) We got all finished, and got back out to the van, and Anaya told me that she could close the van door by herself. So I'm standing out in the freezing cold forever waiting for her to push the button by herself and close the van door by herself... the whole time she is yelling at me that she can do it by herself! She finally gets the van door closed, but it wasn't tight enough, so I re-opened it and slammed it harder... This was a huge mistake. That meant that I had to listen to the "You're a meanie mom" song all the way home from the dentist. If you don't know that song, it sounds like Jingle Bells, but the words go like this: You're a meanie, meanie mom. Meanie meanie mom. Meanie meanie meanie meanie meanie meanie mom...." You get the idea... Just make sure you sing it really loud. She ended her song with "Mom, and you're and elephant (I have no idea where that came from..... but it got me laughing.... also a big mistake.... don't laugh at a mad 3 year old... that made her sing verse 2 of the meanie mom song.") *sigh

I just finished reading the third Stephanie Meyer book today (Twilight, New Moon, and Eclipse). Malia started reading them and I thought it would be a good idea to pre-read them to make sure they weren't too old for her. I'm still not too sure if I should have Malia read the thrid one yet.... but I sure loved them! I loved the main characters, and actually missed the one main character that was missing for part of the second book. After I finished the books, I had a serious case of post-book depression. I am still having a hard time finding something else to read so I can stop thinking that Edward and Bella's lives are going on without me, and I don't know what they're doing! Yes, I know, they aren't real people....