KIDNAPPED!

REWARD: Eternal Happiness and Possible Brain Mushing

Remote believed to have been kidnapped by the notorious thief, the Megalegs (aka Megan), famous for her amazing hiding skills in which objects are never found again. She has previously kidnapped car keys, cellphones, toys, books, flashlights and watches. Unfortunately, not all have been recovered. Please assist us in apprehending the thief as well as finding our dear Remote.

If you, or someone you know, find the one and only remote to our beloved television, please contact us immediately. Reward is dependent upon location and status of kidnapped Remote.

Potty Posing

I'm sure the title of this post disturbed all of you on so many levels that you may not want to read this. But really, I was just having fun with the alliteration. In fact, it's just Megs who likes to stand on the toilet seat and pose as we walk by. Normally she hooks her arms over onto the sink so she doesn't slip, and then makes faces at herself in the mirror. But here she just kept smiling, waving, and yelling at us as we walked by. She's such a goofball.

Child Labor

So last Tuesday and Wednesday it snowed. And snowed. And snowed a little more. And I must point out that I'm considerably closer to the mountains now in our little fifteen minute move east, so we are now on "THE BENCH" (of the mountains, people) which sounds kind of sportsy but really, it means that the snow here is deeper. And I have to shovel more. And I would like to say that I have fantastic arm muscles after all the shoveling of almost 18 inches of snow that we got in 24 hours...but that would be a lie. I am a firm believer in honesty. So instead, I will exaggerate and say that I made Garrett shovel all the snow. Cuz his little three year old arms can totally handle it.




And then, when he was finished, I allowed him to make a "snowman" all by himself as a reward for working so hard. Here's Frosty (the tiny pile of snow on the right):


And today, seven measly little days later, I'm happy to report that it is 55 fabulous degrees (which still sounds kinda cold if you are one of those lucky people who do not live in extreme weather climates, and while we are on the subject can I move in??) and feels springish. Until this weekend when it's supposed to snow some more. Would all y'all please pray for rain? Rain I can handle. Rain means spring is coming. Snow means...at this point, snow means that I'm hunting down that dang groundhog and roasting him for supper. Save Phil.

Hooligans and such

My kids have been saying some funny things to me lately. For instance, Bryson has been particularly honest in his prayers lately (as noted from the previous post). He has so far prayed that they would not be "hooligans" the following day, that mom would decide to take them to rent a movie because "she loves us as much as Jesus does", and that Garrett will stop pinching him under the table while he's praying. All of these are said, in complete seriousness, during the blessing of food at dinnertime, although on different days. It's becoming quite entertaining, although we are planning on having a little FHE moment on the proper way to pray--apparently this lesson is coming a tad bit late.

Megan finally seems to be catching up on talking a bit. Up until now she was more apt to point and grunt in order to get something. This ALWAYS works with her older siblings, but not so with the mama and dad which is very frustrating for her cuz we have no idea what she wants, and very frustrating for us because she resorts to having a hissy fit. If you aren't sure what a hissy fit is, just imagine this: your child looks like she has become completely possessed by some alien pod creature as she throws herself to the ground, kicking and screaming, all the while rolling around on the floor and her face going bright red. You look around for your just recently adorable child and wonder who zapped this obvious imposter onto your livingroom floor. THIS is a hissy fit.

I believe that is the medical term. You can look it up.

Regardless, she has decided to step it up with the talking. Her favorite saying today has been "There it is" which actually sounds more like "Der'd is!" She says this anytime she picks up anything; books, dolls, pillows, paper, whatever. Or, she covers her eyes and peeks out and says "Der'd is!" meaning herself I guess. She's a crack up. Or maybe I'm the only one who thinks she's funny. Nah, she's so durn cute, I know I'm not biased.

We took the kids to dinner the other day at Dennys, for a kid-friendly meal that would not result in other people looking at me like I was INSANE for bringing my four children to a restaurant. Cuz it is...but they gotta learn somewhere and Dennys is a tad more kidproof than say, Olive Garden, or a local steak place or something. So the waitress takes our orders and says she'll be back in a minute. Garrett says, "In a minute? Like, approximately how long will that take?"

Approximately?

My 3 year old is a genius just like the rest of my kids. It's awesome and I take full credit. It's no reciting of the 12 apostles like my cousin's daughter (see Wally & Lindsey's blog over there on the side to view it in "real life"), but it's pretty stinking genius in its own right.

Then I have Abby, who says that all the girls at her new school like her and all the boys want to kiss her. She is a tad bit too willing for this, so we've had to have some chats about no kissing until she's older. To which she replied, "I KNOW mom. No kissing until I'm at least six." I'm in sooooo much trouble when she's a teenager.

But that's not for a good eight years so we'll just pretend it's not going to happen at all. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm putting in my order for my children to not be teenagers for a good 15 years so I can fully prepare myself. Or hide.

Alright. It's late, I'm tired. You're tired. You yahoos should really be going to bed. Hmmmm, this isn't working. Is it just me or does the ending of a post always feel like...weird? Ok, I'm just going to end it.

'Nuff said (for now, cuz we all know I can keep this going all night).

The end and so on.

There's Something in the Air (aka it's Phil's Fault)

'Ello people.

I don't know if you guys have noticed but there is something in the air, and I don't mean an inversion (for those of you in Utah). I'm talking about something that is making my children act like hooligans, my husband to pace across the floor, and me to just feel antsy. Not to mention, runny noses, night coughing (but not in the day, peculiarly enough), and dry skin. I'm telling ya, there's something. I'd like to say it's spring, but apparently, PHIL the lame groundhog, decided there's six more weeks of winter so that's obviously out of the picture.

Speaking of good old winter-loving Phil, who decided that seeing your shadow is a sign of more winter? I've been thinking about this, which is a scary enough concept I know, and I'm perplexed. If the groundhog sees his shadow...doesn't that mean there must be some sun going on in order to cast the shadow? And if there's sun, then why doesn't that mean spring is coming? Is he just pysching us out? And why IS Phil scared of his shadow? Sounds to me like he's just a wuss, in which case, why are we listening to Phil? If Phil tells us it's spring, then we just believe him? If Phil tells us to jump off a bridge then are we all going to dash for the nearest one?

This is what I mean about something being in the air.

Grouchy Mom

So we sit down to dinner tonight and Bryson offers to bless the food. Here's the middle portion of his prayer:

"Thank you for the food and please bless it so will nourish and strengthen our bodies. And please bless Mom so she feels better and so that tomorrow she isn't so grouchy."

Well. Apparently I was a little more grouchy than I realized today. Here's hoping we all get some sleep and are happy tomorrow!

In a nutshell

January has been...well, insane really. It's amazing the number of things that have happened in three short weeks, but ya gotta run with life or get run over, right? (I'm so awesomely philosophical. I think I'll stitch that on a pillow. Moving on.)

So, in a nutshell this has been our life lately:

** Bryson got BAPTIZED!! Yay!! We are so incredibly proud of him and his desire to become a member of the Church. He is a wonderful son and has a dynamic (and smart alecky--I wonder where he gets that) personality. Bryson does incredibly well in school, loves to learn new things, particularly science stuff, and is constantly making and inventing creations for us. It's exciting to watch him grow older and we are just so happy he is in our family.

**We all got sick again. Just kidding! Only Megs did. Gotta love those double-ear infections. Not that this is really newsworthy, just pointing out all the stuff going on. I was going to comment on the fact that her new favorite pastime is to stick her finger up her nose and then your nose and then back to her mouth, but that seemed a little TMI, even for my blog. :)

**My grandma, Evelyn Flagler, passed away after a long battle with liver cancer. She was 75 years old, and was my dad's mom. We've known for a while that it was coming, but it's hard to see anyone have to suffer through that kind of disease and we are glad that she is no longer in pain. The funeral was exceptionally nice and all of the ward members that attended were so sincere and sweet. I had to give the Lifesketch at the funeral (something I've never done before) and it was interesting to talk to her kids and sister about the different things she did when she was younger. My grandma was in a POSSE! Doesn't that sound cool? It was for parades and rodeos and stuff, not quite the round 'em up cowboys you might first think of, but still...awesome nonetheless.

**We have MOVED. Yup. Picked up our family and moved--not too far, but far enough we had to change schools for the kids. We are getting settled in and the kids start their new school tomorrow. I am unpacking a bazillion boxes and if anyone needs some boxes for their own move or friends or whatever, give me a buzz cuz I don't know what to do with all of these suckers. We hadn't moved in seven years and I gotta say: Moving, with four young kids, in ten days, while attending a funeral, and psyching up your hubby for surgery (that's the next ** you'll come to), is just a tad overwhelming and sucks. But we're liking the place and once I can move around without tripping over these aforementioned bazillion boxes, all y'all should come over for a visit. :)

**Travis had hernia surgery. I'm sure there's a more medically correct way of saying that, just as I'm sure that he's not going to be terribly impressed that I posted it on the blog (hee hee...that's what he gets for going to bed early), but that's what it was. Tried to be macho at work and lift heavy stuff and then had to get himself "fixed" as the kids keep saying--which totally cracks me up and has my hubby thinking "fixed" in a different way might be a nice way to end the discussion on more children. But again, too much information. Hey, you all know me, I'm a talker and a planner (I don't always follow through with said plans but I plan) and pretty much share more information than most people want to hear. Lucky you guys.

That's pretty much our January. Crazy, busy, a tad stressful, but overall a done deal. Let's see if we can get through this last week without anything else major happening and move on to February!!