Generals and Tacos (A typical Rachel story)

Earlier this week, Rachel came up to me and out of nowhere said, "Mom, I know how it works with captains and generals." 

Me:  Oh.  Okay.  So, how does it work?

Rachel:  Well, the captains are in charge of the pirates, and the generals are in charge of the captains. . . .  But Mom, who is in charge of the generals?. . . . . Heavenly Father?

Me:  Um. . .

Rachel (feeling self-conscious about her guess):  Wait. . .no, that doesn't really make sense.  But, like, you know what I mean!

("You know what I mean" is Rachel-code for "I have no idea what I'm talking about and I know I said something that's not quite right, but as long as I throw this phrase in there, we can pretend we're all on the same page.  She does this all the time:

Me:  Hey, Rachel, what's 10 plus 10?
Rachel:  15?
Me:  No, it's 20.
Rachel:  Well, you know what I mean.)

Anyway, I don't really know what got her on this whole captain/general kick (or why she thinks pirates are also in the mix), but she's been talking about it a lot.  Somehow she has decided that a General = highest level of awesomeness.

Last Saturday I surprised the kids and brought home Taco Bell for dinner.  I got Rachel two soft tacos, and she was ecstatic.  "Mom, you are so nice.  I can't believe you bought me two tacos!  But do you know what would have been even better?  Three tacos!  And do you know what would be even better than that?  Four tacos!  And do you know what would have really been the General?  FIVE TACOS!  So, do you get it?  Like, four tacos would have just been the Captain, but five tacos is the General!"

Yeah, I got it, Rachel.  And there is no way you're getting five tacos. 

I'm thinking maybe we could start a new trend, though - if something is just really, really cool, I'm going to start saying "That is totally the General!"  It would be like instead of saying "the bomb."  (haha - do people still say that?)  Anyway, you know what I mean. 

Milking Old Steady

I love it when Rachel is in her "pretend mother" mode (and ever since she got that new play kitchen for Christmas, she stays in that mode pretty much all the time).  She talks in the best mom voice and calls everyone "little one", and says tons of random motherly things.

The other day when the boys got home from school, Rachel was laying down on the couch with a dreadful look on her face.  Oliver asked what was wrong, and she did a big sigh, and then said, "I'm feeling pretty sick.  I have two fevers and I'm pregnant!" 

I guess she had her baby later that afternoon (although he looked suspiciously not like a newborn, and more like a one-year old named Henry).  He soon proved to be too wild for even her superior mother skills;  I heard her telling Tristan, "Son, I just have one job for you - please don't let the baby talk to me.  I'm sooo busy, and I just don't have time to deal with him."  

Ha!  Now she knows I how feel sometimes.  She really is a good helper to me, though, and I can tell she's going to be a great mom someday because she practices so much with Henry.  She loves playing with him, and she's always willing to read to him or watch him when I need to get something done. 

A few days ago she told me she just wished she was a monkey, because then she could be such a good helper to me.  I was a little baffled as to how a monkey would make my life easier.  She explained, "Don't you get it?  Like, with one hand I could make Dad some breakfast, with one hand I could feed the baby, with one foot I could wash a door or something, I could vacuum with my tail, and with that last foot I could clean up the rest of the house!"

It made perfect sense, of course.

Today she was pretending to be a mother/farmer.  It was a funny combination. 

Here she is milking her trusty horse named Steady (yeah, I know.  At this point I kind of just go with it):

Like any good mother/farmer, she taught her "little one" how to milk her own horse (named Marzipan, I was informed).  Note how they each have their own milking stool/ball.  For some reason these were very important to the whole milking process:

And look!  Marzipan produces chocolate milk:

I'm so lucky to have such good little mother/farmer/helper monkeys.

Sister Trip - December 2009

At the beginning of December, Henry got to come with me to my annual "Sister Trip" with my mom and five sisters.  This year it was in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Henry was such a good little traveler.  He loves airplanes, and he couldn't believe that we actually got to go on one:

We had a layover in Dallas for a few hours, so he had fun playing around at the airport.  Our connection to Phoenix didn't leave until after 10 p.m. - I think that's the latest he's ever stayed up.  Luckily he fell asleep pretty much as soon as we took off. 

Chillin' with Aunt Marian the next morning:

We were all excited to start right off with giving our "sister gifts".  Here we are in our new pajamas from Christine and my mom:

The rest of the gifts:

Henry and his cousin Orva (she's only a few weeks younger than he is).  This window was his favorite spot to hang out - he would stand there and yell about any cars or trucks that went by.

Stuck in the bumbo.  I think this was my favorite spot for him to hang out.  Why have I never gotten one of these for any of my five kids?  These things are awesome. 

My brother Alex had just gotten back from a mission to Thailand a few weeks before, so we invited him to come down to Arizona with us as an honorary member just for this year.  It was so fun seeing him again and hearing about his mission, and Henry was thrilled to have another guy around (he was missing his dad). 

All ready for church - my sister Eliza lives about 45 minutes away from Scottsdale, so we all went to her Sacrament meeting.

The four little cousins who were there.  Alexander, Orva, Henry, and Alice:

Sunday pictures at Eliza's house:

Mom and her girls, in age order:  (L-R) Mom, Laura, Rebekah, Eliza, Joanne, Marian, Christine

Just the girls.  Between us we have 20 kids (and Bekah and Christine are pregnant).  It was nice to have a little break with only the babies there:

With Alex:

All together:

After dinner we drove to the Mesa Temple to see all the Christmas lights.  Henry loved it!

More cousin fun:

Getting a haircut from Aunt Laura:

Enjoying one of the many spinach smoothies we made:

Eliza's husband Brent just bought a chiropractic practice, so on one of the days we all went over to check it out (and get massages from the massage therapist who works there).  Henry had fun playing with all the equipment:

Alex helped with childcare while we were getting our massages:

The seasoned traveler, on his way home:

I love my mom and sisters, and we have such a good time when we're together.  I always wish we lived closer together so we could hang out all the time.

Giving Hallmark a run for their money

As shown on Daniel's birthday, my kids kind of have a thing for making cards for people.  They made several dozen cards over the holidays, and I just scanned in some of my favorites.

Here are some that Tristan made for the girls. 

(front cover)

(inside card)

I loved how he pointed out that she goes in timeouts sometimes - it was like because he was pretending the card was from Santa, he wanted to make sure to include both the "naughty" and "nice" things he'd noticed.  I'm glad that most of all he thinks she's "soooooo" great. 

Rachel got a similar little note from "Santa":

(front cover)

(inside card)

For the record, I'm not sure what the "feeeeeeeww problems with lieing" he was referring to are.  Maybe Santa knows something I don't?  I did think the song he included on the bottom for her to "sing to her friends" showed a slightly more reckless/juvenile side of Santa than I've seen before. 

Oliver didn't bother with pretending to be Santa, so I guess he didn't feel the need to point out any misdeeds.  His cards were full of holiday cheer:

(to me)

(to Rachel)

I love when he says stuff like "you rock!". 

Oliver also experimented with making 3D cards, which I thought was pretty cool.

On this card for Rachel he drew a little wreath on the front cover, and then made a little pipe-cleaner wreath to go on the inside:

And on this card for Elizabeth (with a very sweet message), he made a 3D snowman out of cotton balls on the inside:

(he signed Tristan's name on the card, because Tristan had decorated the front of it)

Since Tristan's birthday was a few days before Christmas, Oliver made him a birthday/Christmas card.  Before starting the card, he asked Tristan what one of his favorite animals was, and Tristan said dinosaurs.  I thought Ollie came up with a really cute idea for a card:

(front cover)

You can't tell this from the picture, but the dinosaur on the right is actually on a little tab, and there is a slit in the back of the card, so you can slide the dinosaur back and forth like it's walking along.

I think this next one is the funniest ever.  I was cleaning up all the drawing stuff from our kitchen table one afternoon, and spotted this card that Oliver had been working on.

Here's the front cover (click to zoom):

(Notice - the sleigh is all packed and Rudolph is ready to take-off, but Santa is still sound asleep in bed.  And the clock says 8:26.)

Then I opened up the card and saw this:

I about died laughing!  Whoosh!  Off they go!  I love how there are little presents flying out the back of Santa's bag.  And how his beard is blowing in the wind and the sleigh is just a blur because Santa's trying to take off so fast.  Notice the clock says 9:53.  I seriously don't know where Oliver gets his ideas.  He has the best sense of humor - I love how he just gets that the idea of Santa sleeping in would be dang funny for a card. 

Christmas Vacation 2009

We decided to do something different for Christmas this last year, so we made the big drive to Utah to spend our Christmas vacation with our families.

It was a long 5 days of driving (3 on the way there; 2 on the way home) for what seemed like a short 5 days spent in Utah, but everyone had a great time, and I think we'll always have really fun memories of the trip. 

We left the Friday before Christmas.  We drove about 8 1/2  hours up to Wichita, Kansas, where we stayed at my sister Marian's house for the night.  I'd never been to her house since she moved there from England, so it was really fun to see her family and her beautiful home.  We put the kids to bed, and then Daniel and I stayed up way too late talking to Marian and Chad.  In the morning the kids played for awhile with their cousins, and then we ate breakfast and got back on the road.

On Saturday we drove across Kansas and into Colorado, where we stayed at a hotel outside of Denver.  The kids were great travelers the whole time (with the help of gas station treats and movies) and were so excited when we started to see glimpses of snow outside the windows.  For the rest of the drive to Utah, they pointed out every patch of snow we saw.  Tristan and Oliver are the only ones who had really seen it before (we moved to Texas when Rachel was just one), and it was funny what a big deal it was to everyone.  They also loved the hotel in Denver (it had a Christmas tree and great waffles for breakfast).  Daniel and I realized what cold-weather wimps we've become when we hit the cold Denver weather, though.

We made good time on Sunday, and got to Daniel's mom's house in Orem before dinner-time.  The kids were so happy to see their grandma, and we were soon joined by Daniel's siblings for a big get-together.  I loved seeing the kids get to know their cousins again. 

On Monday morning, the girls and I (plus Henry) made an early morning trip to the mall to redeem the gift-cards to Build-a-Bear that Rachel and Lizza had gotten from Grandma Nini for Christmas.  They about died with excitement as they each got to pick an animal (pink unicorns), stuff it, and dress it. 

After the mall, we all headed over to my parents house (they also live in Orem, only a few minutes away from Daniel's mom).  The kids were excited to see Grandma and Grandpa and also excited (mostly) about meeting their new dog, Yankee, that they have gotten since we've moved away.  Elizabeth was the most nervous (Yankee is as tall as she is), but tried to be brave.  She would go back and forth from giving tentative hugs and running away screaming.  Henry was a little nervous at first, but quickly became obsessed, and followed Yankee around the rest of our trip.  Oliver got right to work building little snowmen in the yard.

We couldn't go to Utah without taking the kids to our old favorite, the Bean Museum, so we headed over there on Monday afternoon.  We were joined by one of my sisters and her family, as well as some of Daniel's family, so there was lots of cousin fun (meaning there was lots of running around in probably not quite museum-appropriate behavior).  Henry was in heaven with all the animals.

On Monday evening Daniel and I went up to Sundance with his siblings and their spouses to have dinner with Daniel's dad and his wife.  The food was fabulous, and it felt really cozy to be eating in a warm cabin with all the snow outside.

After dinner we collected the kids from their babysitters (some had been at my parent's, some with Grandma Nini) and put them to bed, and then headed back to my parent's to have a game night with some of my family.  Only one of my sisters (out of 5) still lives in Utah, but one other sister was also in town for the holidays.  We had a great time with them and their spouses, and it made me miss our regular family game nights that we used to do.

Tuesday was Tristan's ninth birthday.  I can't believe I have a nine-year old! We hung out at Grandma Nini's in the morning, and then we went to Cafe Rio with some of Daniel's family for a special birthday lunch, because Tristan is crazy about Mexican food.  He got to order his own burrito, and he couldn't believe how big it was (see his special "look at the size of this burrito" pose below).

Tristan didn't really want to do a cake and candles, so for a special birthday treat he got to stay up and watch the BYU bowl game on Tuesday night.  He didn't make it very far, because he was so worn out from all his birthday fun:

On Wednesday we played over at my parent's house for most of the day.  My boys were super excited, because my two younger brothers who still live at home were finally out of school.  Tristan and Oliver have really missed having their uncles around to play with.  Oliver also played outside in the snow with Yankee for several hours.  It made me happy to see how much Ollie loved the snow - he just could not get over how fun it was.  We also had my sister take some family pictures of us, in case I managed to get a Christmas letter sent out this year (I didn't.  But you can see the picture that would have been sent out below):

On Thursday we went sledding with some of Daniel's family and my brother David.  Everybody had so much fun!  I thought the kids would get too cold, and that for sure I would have to leave early with Henry, but they were all still going strong after a couple hours, and they probably would have kept going all day.  Rachel and Elizabeth were nervous about it at first (after Rachel's first ride down the hill she said it made her stomach feel like a roller coaster), but after a little while they were zooming down the hill all by themselves.  Tristan and Oliver thought it was one of the highlights of the trip, and even Henry loved it.

After sledding we went home and changed, and then headed up to Alpine to Daniel's dad's house for a Christmas Eve party.  It was nice to be part of that tradition again - his family does it every year, but it's been four years since we've been there.  The kids were thrilled with their new pajamas and toys. 

On Christmas morning our kids slept in until 8:00.  I couldn't believe it!  (I found out later that Tristan and Oliver actually woke up around 7:00, but had forgotten it was Christmas, so they just stayed in their beds reading books and listening to Nirvana on Grandma Nini's ipod until I went up to get them).  We had left our main presents for the kids at home (to be opened after we got back), but I had brought our stockings for them to open Christmas morning.  After stockings and breakfast we headed over to my parent's house, and everyone got new books. 

We said goodbye after lunch, and then went to pay a quick visit to some friends of ours who moved from Texas to Utah last year.  After that we went back to Daniel's mom's house for one last get-together with his family.  We opened presents around the tree and then had a big Christmas dinner.  After we got the kids to bed, I attempted to do some initial gathering and packing (it seemed pretty impossible, as we were going back with way more things than we had come with), and then we stayed up and played games ("What Were You Thinking?", and the name game, two of our favorites). 

Saturday morning I fed the kids breakfast while Daniel magically fit everything into the van, and then we were on our way.  We drove about 9 1/2 hours to Albuquerque, where we spent the night.  We then drove all day Sunday and got home late Sunday night.  Everybody was so glad to finally be out of the car!

Daniel and I stayed up and set up Christmas presents for the kids, so the next morning when they came downstairs we had another little "Christmas morning". 

The boys had all of last week off of school, so it was nice to have a whole week once we got back for everyone to just hang out and enjoy their new Christmas stuff (except Daniel, who had to work). 

They started school today, so I guess it's time to get back into some sort of a schedule.  Happy New Year, everyone!