so mature

When asked what he wanted for Christmas, McKay requested a lamp and a big clock for his bedroom. He told us doesn't need any toys because he has enough. He also added that he'd like some orange juice for Christmas, "because we're always out of orange juice" and he and dad like it a lot.

How will the train set that Santa's bringing compare to a lamp? I hope he's not disappointed.

Recovering

We are all recovering.

Brian is hobbling around like a ninety year old man. Hobbling. Lets just say that after playing Thanksgiving day football he can't believe he used to do it everyday. OLD man. It's entertaining for me to see him try to get up and down though.

Ellery is recovering from her Thanksgiving day tumble down a flight of stairs at Grandma's.

So scary.

Luckily all she has to show for it is a bruised nose. No harm done, thank goodness,

but- my poor girl.

I'm still very much recovering from this:

Five thirty a.m. comes mighty early after a holiday. My eyes are red, I'm yawning and I still feel sick. Totally worth it.

As for McKay. . .well, no major recoveries going on with him But I could still be recovering from the scary Thanksgiving pirate that hung around our house during the parade.

Brian and I are both recovering from the shock and delight of receiving this from his parents:

I am in love with it. From Israel, sent by Brian's sister Lindy who is studying over there this semester. I might want to keep it up all year.

Overall though, we had a great holiday.

Really relaxing. Really pleasant. Really fun.

Hope your Thanksgiving was great too!

Now, welcome Christmas. I'm ready for you!

nearly every day

These boys eat chips and salsa

These boys watch Arthur. I'm telling you, Brian likes this show as much as McKay. Maybe more.

These boys make green drinks together. McKay is the "flax man", meaning he dumps in the flax and as Brian chops the fruit and veggies McKay drops them in, making sure to take a bite out of each piece he drops. Little snitcher.

The older McKay gets the more clear it becomes to me just how much impact we {parents} have on our little ones. He is already obsessed with chips and cheese, and he's only three.

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

When McKay woke up and 5:45 a.m. I knew what kind of a day it would be. I have been staying up late doing various projects and my usually sweet son has been getting up early, ever since daylight savings, so we were quite a combination yesterday with an even earlier wake up call than usual. McKay usually listens. McKay usually is sweet. McKay usually doesn't do a lot of whining. But McKay was not here yesterday. It was some other boy. Someone I didn't recognize. And I'm afraid I was not very nice to this new boy. I was sleep deprived, and at times acting like a three year old myself. Why does a three year old not understand "If you stop whining and crying about every little thing I would stop yelling at you!"? The new boy didn't stop. And I had to give myself a time out so that I could stop. It was not pleasant. The boy just had specific ideas in his head- very specific- and I was running around like a crazy person trying to help him with them, but they very seldom turned out the way he wanted, so he cried. I did my best to build a barn in the family room, but it was just never good enough for this boy. And he had a horribly mean face on all day. And so did I. And poor Elle witnessed it all, wondering where her family had gone.

After a whole morning of going at it I decided to just go ahead and let him have a donut for lunch at 10:45am and as I slammed the donut onto his plate and said, "Fine. Have it." I knew something had to be done about us. But it wasn't until he repeatedly demanded crackers, denying anything healthy that I suggested to go along with the dumb donut, that things took a turn. As I grabbed a handful of wheat thins and crashed them down on his plate, planning on heading to another mom time out, that I saw how ridiculous it all was. Shock was all over his face and then he cried some more because there were cracker crumbs on his donut. I sat down next to him at the table and took my own advice; deep breaths. Then I watched him eat all the frosting off the donut in little bites and I saw that maybe this could be considered cute. I put my head in my knees and started asking for help. McKay wondered why my head was down and I told him I was saying a little prayer. I asked him if he wanted to say a little prayer for us to feel better and he was starting before I could close my eyes.

"Dear Heavenly Father.
Thank you that me and mom will be better in our minds.
Thank you that we won't give up.
(hiccups begin to start)
Thank you that my hiccups will go away.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."
Note, "thank you" is used for gratitude, as well as asking for things.

I was completely humbled by this little prayer. I don't really know why he said what he did, but it was precious to me because those were his words. He was feeling just as awful as I was and that is what he felt necessary to say. And it's true. We really did need to be better in our minds. And I'm glad we didn't give up. After this, it wasn't a great day, but it certainly started going better than it had been. I stopped yelling and he didn't stop crying. But I stopped yelling, and that's what counts, you know, because I'm twenty-seven, not three.

By the way, those of you who see McKay will probably hear all about the time when Mommy threw the crackers in the air. Don't judge me.

The Right Stuff

How many references to New Kids on the Block is too much for one blog?

Four? Five? Okay, I'm good then.

Several years ago my three sisters went to the New Kids concert at the Marriott center. I was overlooked and deemed "too young" to go and cheaply compensated with a book of paper dolls from Days Market. It was devastating. Yes, I was young, but I was a true fan. I had a Joey doll. I listened to the tape over and over. I had a NKOTB outfit that I wore proudly. And, all my friends got to go to the concert- we were the same age! It was tragic. Well, when we heard the boys were back together and were stopping in SLC, I knew it was redemption time. It was my time. So Krista, Jana and I went. Here's what I have to say about it:

Waiting in line to go in. When I left the house Brian was shocked that I was wearing that jacket. "It's going to get dirty," he said. "Brian," I said, "I'm going to a New Kids on the Block concert. I doubt it will get dirty." "Yeah, but it might get stolen." Me again, "Brian. I'm going to a New Kids on the Block Concert . . . with a bunch of women. It won't get stolen." I had no idea he was so protective of my white coat.

When we first got to our seats, there was no one sitting around us. Not a soul. We started to feel really bad for the New Kids for not selling more tickets. And we wondered how we would feel dancing and singing all by ourselves.

We were getting butterflies with all the waiting we had to do. The excitement was mounting. I felt like a little girl.

And then there he was. In no time I was listening to the sweet sound of Joey serenading me with the old classic "Please Don't Go Girl". It was a big moment.

And look. The stands filled up. . .mostly. And lets just talk for a second about Joey. Joey, is not a good dresser. Out of all the Kids he had the ugliest clothes. It was hard for me. I tried really hard to overlook it. But then I noticed that his dance moves were that of a Broadway dancer, and I looked over at Donnie, the one I hated back in the day. Donnie danced really cool. Donnie was cool. And Donnie didn't have his mullet/rat tail hairdo or his shredded jeans anymore. Then I looked back over at Joey in his v-neck sweater with a matching scarf around his neck and I kind of switched.

Okay, no. I didn't switch. I just added Donnie. Who would have thought? Not me.

At one point the boys took the stage all dressed in white, and we hoped for a second that they were going to get baptised. But then when Donnie got thrown a shirt from someone in the crowd that said, "I Love Mormon Girls" and he replied into the microphone for all us Mormon girls to hear, "Yeah. I do love Mormon girls! And I love American girls. And Canadian girls. . ." and so on, we realized that Donnie thought that being Mormon was a nationality. And we were really embarrassed for him. And we knew he was not getting baptised.

There were some scary moments like this one. When Jordan sang his solo. A wind machine was involved. It was not pretty. This was one of the times that we sat down and took a rest. No one needs to see that Jordan. It reminded me of Michael Bolton.

We rested quite a lot actually. This is Jana actually plugging her ears. The E-Center was filled with mostly a bunch of girls. Like us. But man, could those girls ever scream. It was as if the place was filled with a bunch of twelve year olds. It was loud in there. And the sound quality was awful. So we plugged every once in awhile. And sat. Mostly during all their new songs. We totally grooved to the oldies. And screamed. And all the words just magically came back to us and we sang along. But, overall, we felt kind of old.

I loved my first New Kids concert. There is nothing like seeing those boys do their little side kicking dance step all in a line to "The Right Stuff", you know the one? Oh, oh, oh-oh-oh. Oh, oh, oh-oh. I had to see that at least once.

So glad we went. So fun to spend a girls night with my sisters. So much better than paper dolls.

Apple Tree

Yesterday McKay had a huge idea. While we were getting ready in the morning he just kept spouting off his plans, "And we'll go outside. And we'll get a lot of sticks. . ."

I would humor him and say, "Mmm hmmm."

"And then, we'll make a BIG BIG tree. And we'll get sticks and apples and leaves. . ."

After about ten minutes of describing it to me, I figured it was something he was pretty serious about. It was a relatively warm day, and so when Elle went down for her nap we decided to get going on this big idea.

I did my best to help him create what he was describing.

And I even dug up some apples we had laying around.

He was so proud of the finished apple tree.

And I was pretty proud too.

You see, I've been doing "art" with him for a few months now. I try to have him do one or two projects a week. I got this idea from my friend Shannyn's blog. She did a post about a site she had found called No Time For Flashcards. I LOVE this website. I love it because the ideas are simple, they are easy, using basic materials. (I spent about $10 at the Dollar Store for supplies) I love it because these crafts, or "art" are not for parents to look at or admire, they are not to be"cute"- they are for the kids to create things. I sometimes find myself wanting to tell McKay the correct place to glue a googely eye, or that pumpkins should be painted orange, but because of the no-fuss, simplicity of these ideas I am reminded that those things don't matter at all. It's about him and how he wants to make them. That is what's most important. His ideas.

That's why I was so proud of this apple tree. He thought of it. It was his art.

And just because I really love this picture. Taken at 11:30 one night during one of Elle's private playdates with mom and dad. Every once in awhile she'll wake up after a few hours and want to hang out. And guess what? We totally let her. Brian is incredibly soft when it comes to this child. Like dangerously soft. It's a good thing I'm involved. Anyway, she walked around talking on the phone saying, "Hello," and giving us goofy smiles like this one. It's kind of nice to have some one on one time with her. She doesn't often get it, so we figure that 11:30 is as good a time as any. Love her.

Fourth

My friend Emily did this on her blog, and I decided to join in.

Fourth picture in your fourth file, with the story.

Oh I was excited that it was this picture. This is my family! This was taken outside the Timganogos temple when my Nonnie went through the temple for the first time (look at all Bri's hair and mine and Jana's chunky shoes! Haha.).

Both my parents are converts and joined the church a couple years before I was born. They were the only members on both sides of their families. But, that changed when my eighty year old Nonnie decided to be baptised. In April of 2003 we were all so excited to see her get baptised, and- kinda neat- she was baptised on the anniversary of my parents baptism day.

It was also neat because that meant that my dad baptised everyone in my immediate family. Mom, sisters, and then Non.

The next October my whole family was able to be in the temple with her and it was so wonderful. We were also able witness the sealing of Nonnie and Poppop and my mom to her parents.

Pretty cool day.

Tag, you're it.

Bri

1. That he never gets tired of eating chips and salsa. Never.



2. His hands.



3. How he wears his basketball shorts in the middle of his bum.



4. That he makes me dinner.



5. That he was the only football player in the orchestra in high school.



6. That he is passionate about running.



7. The look on his face when I wake him up in the morning.



8. His blue eyes and long eye lashes. For years I have been begging him to let me put mascara on him, but so far no luck.



9. How he makes up songs on the guitar.



10. The high pitched laugh that only comes out when he's laughing really hard and trying to keep it in.



11. His logic. Sometimes it bugs me because I want him to see the emotional side of things more often, but overall, it's a good balance for me.



12. That he's losing his hair and he doesn't even care. Secure. I like that. I also love how when he sees a picture of himself he's always surprised at how little hair he has left on top. Bald and beautiful- I don't care either.



13. The excitement that BYU football can conjure up for him and how he is overjoyed to share this with his boy.



14. How he always tries to get me to lick his running hat after a long run. Really gross, but makes me laugh every time.



15. That I haven't made a green drink for months. He has completely taken over.



16. That he's tickelish.



17. That he's a good daddy.



18. That he wants to be in the MoTab when he's an old man.



19. His intellect. He knows a lot of stuff.



20. He's cute. Handsome. Hot. Whatever. I like how he looks. And I also like his voice too.

There are so many more reasons why I love Brian. But I've mentioned before that being really lovey dovey in front of others isn't really our thing. I tried to write something really lovey but I just couldn't do it. I will say that I love my husband, but I also like him too. I'm lucky to have him.

my boy

1. His breath. He still has yummy breath. It almost never smells bad, although a few times it's smelled like a horse. But who knows what he eats when he's pretending to be a horse. For the most part, this boys breath is perfect.


2. How he raises both his eyebrows over and over with wide eyes and a big grin at random.


3. How his little bum looks in a pair of jeans.


4. How he often says, "I'll share with you mom."


5. The sweetness he shows to his sister.


6. The look on his face when we're reading a book or telling a story.


7. When he gets a song stuck in his head.


8. When he talks to his stuffed animals after we tuck him into bed.


9. The dance he does when he puts on his Diego underwear and we sing, "Go Diego. Go!"


10. How he always chooses his cowboy boots when I ask him to get his shoes on.


11. That lately he says, "Look in my eyes," when he wants our attention.


12. That he thinks he's friends with every little kid he sees, especially the way older neighborhood boys. Not crazy about the boys, but still think it's cute when he walks up to them and starts chatting, and they look at this little three year old who is talking to them like he's their best friend. Makes me smile.


13. How when he says potty talk and we look at him with "that look" he says, "I didn't say poopoo." In this cute, obviously guilty voice. Or when he gets dangerously close to a word and says it over and over, "Poopaw. Poopaw."


14. His imagination. He would be a duck all day if I played along with it. Although this makes me very tired sometimes, I love his big imagination and I would never change it.


15. Holding his hand.


16. That I can look my very worst and he doesn't even notice- he loves me just the same.


17. The funny stances and motions he does when he's playing football with Brian.


18. The look on his face when he sees Ellery for the first time in the morning.


19. That he is a sweet boy. Sometimes I wonder if he's too sweet and not "tough" enough, but then I think, "Sarah, are you crazy?" Keep him sweet for as long as you can. I'd rather have a sweet boy than a tough boy any day.


20. Hearing him pray. Sometimes rushed, usually entertaining, but always so precious.

breafast

Every morning I get woken up by a wonderful sound, "Mom, lets eat breafast!"


This is hands down my favorite word that McKay says. He says it with almost a southern twang, always removing the k. I even say it like that because I really don't want him to correct this word. I love it. I feel really sad thinking that someday I won't get to hear it come out of his mouth.


Why do I not want my kids to grow up? Why do I feel like raising children is just a bunch of fleeting moments? Why do I get so sad thinking of the day that I don't have a three year old by my side? I don't know. But I am going to warn you now: I am going to be a complete basketcase while raising my last child. Prepare yourself. It might get ugly.

we're choosing. . .

. . . to be optimistic

we're choosing to give him a chance

we're choosing to respect him

because we think that's important

We Went to Halloween

All day on Friday McKay kept asking me when we were "going" to Halloween. He doesn't quite get that it's a day and not an event. But I understand because we did lots to celebrate Halloween the last couple weeks.

Sugar Cookies:

We decorated sugar cookies with the cousins. The kids had fun decorating their cookies with m&m's, candy corns, sprinkles, sugar, and more. We left them to it and after a few minutes we looked over and all we could see was a huge pile of m&m's and sprinkles on McKay's plate. He really got into the decorating part. . .I had to intervene and unload the poor pumpkin. All those embellishments ended up on my kitchen floor when he tried to eat the cookies. Big mess.

I made the sugar cookie dough and when I showed up at Krista's with my homemade goodness I was horrified to find that she had purchased a tub of icing. "Oh no, we don't do that," I said, as I quickly pulled a bag of powdered sugar out of my purse and began making homemade icing before she could even open the package. Krista wondered how it was worth it when she saw the mess that I made with the icing. Have I mentioned that I'm a messy cook? Either way, don't you think that a little mess is worth homemade icing? Especially if you have homemade dough? I know, me too.

Carving Punkins:

Ellery wanted to eat the pumpkin guts, McKay wanted nothing to do with them, and Brian was worried that I was going to lose a finger due to my carving technique. We finished the night with pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, homemade, of course.

Spooky Spooky Boat Ride:

Ken and Missy invited us to join them on the Halloween Cruise on the Provo river. Wasn't the most entertaining for us adults, but watching McKay's expression the whole time was worth every penny. He was pretty much frozen like that the whole time. That picture was taken just as a pirate was trying to board our ship. Needless to say, we were telling him the story of the "spooky, spooky boat ride" for the next three days straight.

The Big Day:

Dinner at Grandma's, playing in the beautiful autumn leaves and trick-or-treating with cousins. It couldn't have been better. And the best thing? We were home with kids in bed by 8:30pm. Brian and I watched the Da Vinci Code on tv and munched on the goods all night. . .and we actually haven't stopped munching. This is going to be a problem. . .

I also just have to mention that this is one of the best times of year to have a grandma that can sew anything. She made McKay's dream horse costume, and she copied Ellery's costume from a picture I found online. Amazing. Thank you Adele! McKay doesn't really know what a Hershey's kiss is, but when asked what Ellery was for Halloween he would say, "a big candy." Oh, precious.