Noah's Ark: The Opera

Last night Tristan and Oliver both had baseball games, so Daniel was gone with them and I was at home with the younger three.

I gave them all baths, and then sent Rachel and Elizabeth upstairs with the standard "brush teeth, go to the bathroom, get in jammies, and get in bed with a book" instructions. I told them as soon as I read to Henry and got him to bed, I would come upstairs and read to them (I used to just read to them all together, but now I like to do it separately so I can read chapter books to the girls, and dinosaur/dump truck books to Henry. Plus, I like spending reading time with the girls without Henry climbing all over and demanding everyone's attention. And Henry loves his own special time with me, so everyone wins.)

Anyway, after Henry was in bed, I went upstairs, expecting to find the girls in their separate beds - Rachel with a Boxcar children book, and Lizza with a stack of picture books - but instead, I saw that they were both up in Rachel's bed. Rachel was reading a big Noah's Ark board book aloud to Elizabeth. It was a cute little scene, but not one that would have seemed that out of the ordinary except that Rachel was singing the whole book, instead of reading it.

I went back downstairs, grabbed my camera, and snuck back into their room to take a picture, but when I saw that the singing was still going strong, I decided to start recording it. I didn't think I'd be able to record very much (I thought either my memory card would get full or Rachel would notice me and stop), but I got at least 4 minutes of quality sing-reading. She even finished the book and had started over before she noticed me (Lizza sat up and saw me about halfway through, but to her credit, she just laid right back down and didn't say a word).

Here's the full four minutes and twenty seconds of it. Some parts might not make sense until you read the explanations below the clip:

I loved it when they would stop to chat every once in a while.

At minute 1:07, Elizabeth wanted to try making a fancy little noise whenever it was time to turn the page.

E: Rach, when I say "ding-dong" that means stop. "DING-DONG! tongue-click".

R: No, cause. . . No, cause that's kind of boring.

E (next time it's time to turn the page): "tongue click"

At minute 2:03, Lizza took a moment to point out the picture of all the houses and trees under water (she loves that page).

E: Rachel - the houses are under there. And the trees.

R: Um-hmm.

E: Because them didn't obey!

And my favorite was on the last page (minute 3:06), after Noah and his family found land (you can see the rainbow picture briefly). I noticed that the way Rachel sang some of the lines didn't make sense, like she was skipping words or something (" Noah and his family gave thanks to ___ and ___ made a rainbow in the sky.") I couldn't figure out why, but then she stopped to explain to Lizza, and it all became clear.

R: Guess why I didn't say those? (pointing to some of the words)

E: Why?

R: We're not supposed to say it. (I knew as soon as I heard this that she had been skipping the word "God" any time it showed up in the book. I had to try so hard not to laugh out loud!!)

E: But one time I said it.*

R: When?

R (not waiting for an answer): Should I read it again?!

*This is true. Lizza says "oh, my gosh" a lot, and it wasn't always clear exactly how she was ending that phrase, so we had a little talk about not taking the name of the Lord in vain, and I guess Rachel took it very seriously.

I also love the last 20 seconds or so of the clip -Rachel continues skipping any mention of God ("____ told Noah to build an ark"), and then dabbles in a little bit of opera before finally noticing me (because I climbed up on their bed).

Her opera plus shocked expression at the end just kill me. I love this girl.

March Madness

I know it's not March anymore, and also, this post isn't even about basketball (although it was fun to watch BYU advance to a second game), but our March was pretty crazy, and "March Madness" sounded better than "Stuff we did in March", which is what I had first.

I've kind of been out of the blogging world for awhile.  Henry and I went out of town at the beginning of April for my little brother's wedding, so while I'm waiting to get pictures back from people I decided to get caught up and post pictures from March.  I think I'm getting tired of blogging, because I feel like all I do is post pictures now.  I don't know if it's because I've been extra busy, or just because I'm pregnant with #6 and have no extra energy for writing funny stuff down (how's that for a sneaky announcement?  13 weeks today!).

So for now, pictures is all I've got. 

Rachel has fallen in love with chapter books, and is now on her fifth Boxcar Children book.  I love those books. 

Oliver working on his balance.  He can count to 100 while standing on Daniel's hands.

A good napping spot for Henry.

When he's not napping in the cupboard, one of his favorite things to do is look up sharks and helicoptors online.  He used to just look at pictures, but then he discovered youtube (motorcycle stunts! shark attacks! helicoptors flying around and around in circles!).  I never thought I'd have to put a limit to my 1-year old's computer use.  Also, he picked that outfit out himself, in case you were wondering.  He doesn't usually care what he wears, but that vest has dogs on it, and Henry insisted.  He walked around all day patting his vest and proclaiming "Like it!  Like it!"

Baseball season started.  This might be another reason why things have been busy.

Ollie and Henry coloring together.  Henry loves it when he can get one of the older kids to draw him a tiger/dinosaur/helicoptor/big truck to color in.  He is lucky to have lots of nice older siblings.  I'm lucky that he has lots of nice older siblings, too - they take such good care of him.

The "tackle Daniel as soon as he gets home from work" game.  You can't see him, but Oliver is under that pile, too.

Henry climbs everything.  One time I got a phone call and the number on my caller ID showed my cell-phone.  I couldn't figure out how that could be right (I thought maybe Daniel had taken my phone to work on accident), but when I answered I heard giggling that sounded suspiciously like Henry.  He had somehow climbed up onto the counter and then managed to call the house from my cell-phone that was charging there.  He was so proud of himself. 

The main reason March was crazy was because we finally put together/decorated the kids' bedrooms upstairs.  Even though we've lived here almost 4 years now, I'd never done anything up there, and they were pretty bad - no bedspreads, dressers, curtains, pictures, etc., and Lizza was still in a crib and Rachel was in a little tiny toddler bed.  Embarrassing!  I guess the nice thing about how bad the rooms were before is that after the big changes (a bunkbed for the girls, and a new bunkbed for the boys, plus comforters, new pillows, and dressers) I only had to add a few finishing touches, and they were thilled.

I loved these pictures that I found to go above the girls' dressers.

Elizabeth loves her new bed!

I don't have any final pictures of the boys' room from after it was all done (I still have to move some pictures around), but here are some "during" pictures:

Henry loves the little bed we moved into Tristan and Oliver's room for him (I probably shouldn't even admit that this is the little bed Rachel has been sleeping on).  I haven't let Henry move up to sleep with the boys yet, so he's still downstairs with us now, but the plan is maybe sometime this summer.  We'll see how that goes. 

I hung some animal prints above it and added a Noah's ark quilt - he loves sitting in there and naming all the animals. 

I also hung some of my James Christensen prints in their room (I need to lower the one on the left - I just haven't gotten around to it yet -can you see why these rooms took so long to get done?). 

A glimpse of the boys' new bed and comforters.  Also, I moved my giraffe that is usually downstairs on my mantle up to their room, because it fit with their other stuff.  It might just be a temporary visit, though, because I kind of miss having it downstairs (Anita and Gretchen - do you remember when I got that?). 

Henry helping himself to an extra bowl of cereal after I accidentally left the breakfast out.

Oliver and Henry enjoying some Planet Earth.  The "animal movies", as he calls them, have become Henry's favorites.  He is always trying to re-enact the "crocodile getting the wildebeest" and the "shark getting the seal" scenes.

Lizza tucking in some of her magnet dolls for a good night's sleep.  Their outfits for the next day have been carefully chosen and set up in their little stands.

Oliver reading to Henry.  Henry loves being read to!  Once again, it's nice to have such nice older siblings.

So, that was pretty much our March (plus the St. Patrick's day fun from the post before). 

This was probably the most randomly illustrated pregnancy announcement ever.