A funny thing happened...

Oh, my children. They amuse me, they embarrass me, they drive me bananas. For some reason I've had some funny conversations with them lately and thought I'd jot a few of them down.

This summer Bryson has wanted us to get a tramp, a pool like Grandma & Grandpas, a cool air castle thingie that our friend Heidi has, or memberships to Lagoon, Classic waterslides, etc. Apparently this summer hasn't been top of the line in his eyes. So as he yet again asked me why we couldn't do anything fun, I yet again mentioned the things we have done so far. We've gone to see "Wall-E", we did fireworks at home, we went to the parade and carnival, we've swam in Grandpa's pool, we've had birthdays, park visits, etc. Bryson, with as much 7 year old attitude as he could muster, told me very disgusted-like, "We don't do anything. When I go back to school, and everyone tells what they did this summer, I get to say NOTHING. We did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!" Drama drama drama.

We've also been potty-training Garrett who has become very interested in his...private self area. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, and if not, take a wild stab in the dark (but not too wild or you might hurt yourself). Now, everytime we go to the potty, I get a constant questions on what his privates are doing, and how can they do that? and why does it just hang there? and how come when it's cold it doesn't just hang there? And why do we have poop? How come bathrooms in the stores are gross? what happens if I never go potty again? Bryson says when I get big I can stand up and go potty, when am I big enough? Am I big enough now? How come Abby is broken and has to sit on the potty and can't stand up like Bryson? Isn't she big enough? Are you big enough? Am I big enough now? If I eat crayons will my pee and poop change colors? How come it doesn't change colors when I eat an orange or grapes? Am I big enough NOW? On and on and on...and it doesn't matter if we are home, at friend's house, church or in public restrooms at the store--the questions never stop! So, being a mom, I totally make up answers to all his questions. That is totally going to bite me in the butt someday, but I figure, then his therapist can deal with it. :)

Then there's our Abby-girl. We went on a little road trip recently to visit my friend Mary Ann in her new house in Idaho. While we were there, Abby made the comment that "Mary Ann's new house looks like her old house...except upside down." I'm sure she meant the floorplan was reversed, but it was cute. Most of her funny conversations aren't actually with me, but ones that she has with either Garrett or baby Megan. My favorite is when she explains to Megan how to play games on the computer in great detail. The amazing part is that Meg just stands there and watches, all intent, like in five minutes she's going to skooch Abby off the chair and take over on the computer. My silly girls.

I'd have something amazing about Megan right here, to totally brag on her genius-ness, which is really, above and beyond any other baby's genius, but I don't want to make the rest of you parents feel bad. Frankly, the only things she can say right now are "mamamamamamama", "dadadadadad", "ni-ni" (which means bedtime in Meg language), and sign "finished", "bye/hi" and "bed". But she says them all with such conviction, I'm just postive in her mind she's having entire conversations...

Top 10

Now, before I begin, I'm just telling all of you reading this (and I know that's just scores and scores of people), HA! You've been "tagged!". Do you know what that means? I didn't and apparently you can get in trouble so you better do what I say. I'm going to write a little segment here called "Top 10 Reasons Why I Love ...." (spouse, significant other, dog, whatever). Because you have read this, you are now required to do this on your own blog. If you don't, I will contact the blogger police and you are in trouble. So do it. Now. Maybe wait a few minutes and read mine first since I am putting forth the effort here. Ok, here we go.

Top 10 Reasons Why I Love My Hubby--G-rated for those of you with children
10. He always matches and sometimes, even tries to match to me. (cute)
9. Even though he doesn't like to, he will cook dinner
8. He will kill all bugs, spiders, and or other creepy, crawly things without even blinking should I or the kids ask.
7. If I wake him up in the middle of the night because of some scary dream or I heard a noise, he will check it out for me even when he thinks I'm nuts.
6. He likes to clean and will even do laundry. (doesn't always do it, but he does like to...how many of you can say that about yourself let alone your hubby?)
5. He encourages me to have as much quality "me" time as I can get while he watches the kids and sometimes even kicks me out of the house for my own good.
4. He always thinks I look good, even when I look like crap, 9 months pregnant, ankles so swollen they are mistaken for my legs (commonly known as "cankles")
3. When we were dating, he offered to wait for me if I wanted to go on a mission first or finish college before we got married. I'm not the most patient of people, so of course that didn't happen; but the offer still was one of the sweetest ever.
2. He tells me he loves me every single day, at least once, and usually more.
1. He absolutely loves and adores our kids.

Now, just cuz that was so much fun, I'm going to do one more!

Top 10 Reasons Why I Love Email
10. I don't have to call people if I don't want to
9. I love to read.
8. I can stay home, hanging out in my pjs and have meaningful, written conversations, or maybe just conversations without the meaningful stuff
7. I can "talk" with my mouth full
6. Emoticons :) (c: :p
5. If you're aren't sure what you really want to say, you can save your draft and finish it up later. No one has any idea, and you aren't rude cuz you just walked out of the room.
4. I can chat with my sister in New York, friends in Baltimore & Vermont, or brother in PA all in the same hour, without it costing me a stamp or a long distance phone call.
3. I can chat with those same people and not have them hear my yell at my kids "Leave me alone, I'm on the phone!"
2. I can delete messages from people I don't want to talk to and they have no idea. (I Promise, I never do this to any of you....)
1. Cuz it's cool.

4th of July

The best made plans don't generally work at our house. We had planned to go to a parade that morning, but for once, we actually slept in. ahhhhhhhh....you'll hear no complaints from me there. It was hot, so we just hung around the house all day, basking in the slightly cooler breeze from our swamp cooler than the incredibly hot outside. Then, we planned to go watch the big fireworks in Clearfield or Layton, but Megan fell asleep at a fabulous 7pm instead of being my regular little nightowl (again, no complaints from me). We tried to tell our kids we would hit the Clinton Pioneer Days parade, carnival and fireworks next week, so no big deal.

Needless to say, Bryson was not very impressed and whined about "how come OUR fourth of July is going to be on the ELEVENTH of July? That's not faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaair..." (for those of you who have children, insert the amazing voice here that enables all one syllable words to become five, you know what I'm talking about). We felt kinda bad, and since my hubby is a pyro, Travis went and got our own fireworks to have the kids watch out in our cul-de-sac. Abby was the only one we could get to do to the sparklers. Bryson & Garrett held theirs for about 2 seconds so I couldn't even get a picture. They were much more interested in watching rather than being actively part of it. Travis also enjoyed dancing with the fireworks, just like his dad always does. :) The kids LOVE this last picture of their Dad cuz it looks like his hands and arms are on fire like the guy from the cartoon "Ben 10".

Forehead eyes

This is the last post today, I swear. While I was taking pictures this evening of my kids, I apparently kept raising one of my eyebrows. My sweet, goofy child Garrett decided to give it a whirl and this was the hilarious facial expression I got right before he said "my forehead eyes [I guess meaning eyebrows] are movin'!"

Felkins Family Fun

My family is fun.

A week or so ago we had a big bbq at my parent's house while my sister Melissa was in town from New York (unbelievably didn't get any pictures of her--I suck at being a good photographer). Grandpa decided to get out the slip 'n' slide for the kids and it was so stinkin' funny. Not only did the kids have fun, but so did Grandpa and he even got Aunt Sarah to go on it too. The rest of us just checked it out from the sidelines. Check these out:

This was Bryson's first trip down the slip 'n slide. He was laughing the whole way.

Here's grandpa being a "tunnel" for the kids to slide under. He had already gone down it several times to show them how to do it. Cuz you know, slip 'n slides are tough, and you just can't get too much practice!

Aunt Sarah (my sis) can slide with the best of them! That's her daughter Gracie (she's 2) cheering her on.

Abby-girl being shy in front of the camera.

Gracie, Garrett & Grandpa checking out the pool at the end.

Megan and her wild and crazy hair trying to get her cute face in for a pic too.

Lights...Camera...Action!

Yay! I finally have some pictures on my blog. I know you have all waited with bated breath...(is it really bated? What an incredibly lame word that I can't quite figure out how to spell...) Anyway.

I told my children I wanted to take pictures of them specifically to put on the blog. Those pics are the ones you see to the right of your screen. Obviously we were dealing with professional models. Those couldn't possibly be my beautiful, cheesey children! Yes! They are! They just fit right in don't they...bunch of goofballs. Never would guess that Felkins was part of their little genetic makeup would you. Hee hee... You may notice there are currently no pictures of us as a family or even one of my husband and I. There is a reason for this--I didn't want to. No deep dark secret, just plain old honesty. That's how I work baby.

Stay tuned next time for more wild and crazy Oleson's! Seriously. I think I might start getting into this, you poor souls!