Cute conversations

This morning while lazily waking up, I felt a soft little hand caressing my face, and heard a loving little Sophie voice say in almost a whisper, "it's ok mommy, just go back to sleep..."
At this point, I had already been attempting to sleep for awhile, since Saturday is the only day that holds hope for any amount of sleeping in at all.  But it was 8:00, so lazy time was definitely over!  Then, for some reason, Sophie started talking about "passing out," which she said is kind of like sleeping.  Soon, I realized she was talking about mom.  She talks A LOT about the last time we saw grandma, and I guess it just takes a long time to process watching someone die, especially someone you love so deeply.  I can't blame her, I have thought about it way, way more than I want to admit.  We talk about grandma a lot, but I have noticed that Sophie will often often start talking about grandma dying at a time when I am also thinking about it...which kind of startles me because it is always out of the blue.  We must be on the same wavelength!  I wonder what it would take to keep that similarity of wavelength into her teenage years???  But I digress...

So, this morning Sophie wanted to talk about passing out (which is what mom did the evening before she passed away since her blood pressure was so low).  Sophie was saying it just means to sleep, because she saw grandma fall sleep...and then eventually stop breathing.  I began explaining to her that passing out is more than just sleeping, but suddenly I had no idea how to explain going unconscious.  She could obviously sense this, and said (while again caressing my face), "don't worry mama, just go back to sleep."  Jason, a silent observer of the conversation asked Sophie why she is such a sweet little princess, to which she replied, "because I love my mommy and daddy so much!"  Jason then said something about how that was why he was going to give her a pink corvette (what!?) one day, to which I obviously gave him a look...but since she doesn't know what a corvette is anyway, I guess for now we're safe.

Next thing, this little conversation ensued:
Jason (to me): "I wonder if so-and-so could sue so-and-so for slander..."
Weston: "What is 'slander?'"
Jason: "Oh, he's a guy I knew once from the Ukraine."
Weston: "Oh, did he have a pirate belt?"
Jason: "Yeah, actually, I think he had one very much like the one you're wearing."

We have these cute, entertaining little encounters with the kids almost continually.  They are growing and learning and thinking and expressing so many wonderful things, and I just wish I could remember more of the great things they say!  Here area a few memorable moments, some of them taken from facebook (where I often record such moments):

10/13:
Me: "What is your favorite thing about watching The Other Side of Heaven?"  (because we watch it literally every Sunday.)
Sophie: "Oh, I like it because Jean gets married!!"  (Which happens like the last 30 seconds of the movie...this is just another indication of her obsession with getting married!  Do all little girls do this?)

10/18:
Sophie seems to think "gak" is a unit of measurement...as in, "I had three gaks of soup tonight!" She's been using the term for awhile now. I know I should correct her, but it is just so cute!

10/16:

Sophie wants to be the good witch from the Wizard of Oz, Glinda, for Halloween. Weston, however, is trying to convince her to be "Glinda the gangster."  

While picking out her shoes for said costume, Weston was actually very helpful.  He seemed to have a good sense about which ones most accurately portrayed the look and feel of Glinda.  He told me to get rid of the other shoes, because this one pair just had "the spirit of Glinda!"  He repeated it several times, because he felt so sure that those were the best ones.  I thought it was hilarious that he explained his observation by saying that they had the "spirit of Glinda," lol!

10/12:
I heard Sophie crying and asked what happened:
Weston: "Um, I just moved her skin a little with my foot."
Sophie: "He stepped on me!!"

10/11:

Hello Ladies!

10/10:

Sophie(4 years old): Dad, I will pick a good boy to marry.
Me: What???
Sophie: Dad I'm gonna marry a prince, you know.
Me: Let's just focus on getting through preschool.  

10/9:

Jason (to me): "Why don't we have a song? You know, one that only reminds us of each other?"
Me: "Probably because we don't like the same kind of music..."
Jason (jokingly): "I guess there's just not enough love in our relationship"
Weston (matter-of-factly): "It's because you don't have enough PIRATE LEGENDS in your relationship!" 

10/8:

Tonight after watching The Little Mermaid, we discovered plastic forks in Sophie's hair! Guess she thought she'd try out a dinglehopper and see how it worked. 

10/7:

Sophie: "I am helping Weston rebuild his fort. He really loves me when I do this! His heart is just beeping love for me!"

10/4:

I can always tell what Disney movie Sophie is into based on the name of her favorite baby doll. Her name used to be Rapunzel, but now it's Flounder (go figure)!   

10/4:

Me: "Sophie, I don't want to have to take away your 'Little Mermaid' video!"
Sophie: "It's not a video, mom, it's a MOVIE!"
And that is when it occurred to me that she doesn't know what a video even is!

10/1:

Sophie getting ready to pick her reserved copy of The Little Mermaid.
#mydisneyprincess

9/29:

Jason: "Stop yelling, Weston!"
Weston: "I'm just in that phase of life, dad!"

9/25:

20 years ago today, at the age of 15, I was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was far and away the best decision I have ever made! Every good and meaningful and significant thing in my life has been shaped by that one important choice. I am eternally thankful for all of the people who helped me to take that courageous first step, and the many amazing and beautiful people who have been true friends along my path ever since!! 

9/19:

Me: "Sophie, why did you take your ponytail out at school?"
Sophie (non-challantly): "Oh, I like to wear my hair down because that's my special glory."
I have no idea where she heard that, but I thought it was so cute!!

9/3:

In some homes, you have to be careful where you put your shoes so the dog doesn't get them and chew on them. In our home, you have to be careful where you put your shoes or the BABY will chew on them!! In other news, he took his first small step this weekend and also began saying "mama!"

9/2:

As we were reading scriptures together the other night, the kids asked about the meaning of what we were reading:
Me: "Well, in this part it's talking about some of the really evil people that did terrible things, and warning us to keep such evil things out of our society."
Sophie: "But mom, there's no bad people like that in real life, just in the scriptures."
Me: "Actually, there are some people like that now too in the world."
Sophie (with great drama and emotion): "But Heavenly Father is watching over us! He is protecting us always...mom, for REALS! I am SERIOUS!!"
I have taught her well. 

8/26:

 I'm normally a little nervous with baby drivers, but Brighton is a very serious little boy. so I felt safe. #babydrivers  (Jason)

      

8/26:

First Day of School (First Grade)

 

8/19:

Happy birthday to my sassy, bright, sweet Sophie. I cannot imagine life without her loving, lively, sparkling personality! I wish my mom were here to celebrate with us...but who knows, maybe she will be. 

8/14:

In her prayer this morning, Sophie said the following:
"Please bless Brighton that he'll never throw up again, and that when he grows up he will be a good man."

8/13:

Weston: "Mom, I want to add something to my chore chart...something I need to do every day."
Me (intrigued): "What's that?"
Weston: "I need to learn about pirates and practice drawing pirate ships so I can get better and better at it, even though I am already so good at it....so maybe that can be the first chore I do today. Will I get paid a nickel for that?"

7/30:

Weston (shouting at me through the bathroom door, where I had hoped for 15 seconds alone): "Mom! I want to take a bath right now!"
Me: "We are about to have lunch, why don't you just wait until after you eat? Why are you in such a hurry?"
Sophie (shoving her Rapunzel Barbie doll through the crack in the bathroom door): "To baptize this little lady!!"
Well, I guess the time has come to have that talk with the kids about how inanimate objects don't need baptism...lol!

7/25:

Me: "Please close the door, Sophie."
Sophie: "But mommy, Weston is the one that opened it!"
Me: "Well, you are the one close to the door right now. Weston does lots of things for you, too. We are a family, so we all help each other out."
Sophie: "Actually, mom, we are a TEAM!"
Well that works too. I guess my usual lecture involves telling the kids that we are a team. I'm just glad someone has been listening! 

7/21:

My kids right now are playing "missionary." They are dressed in their Sunday best, with missionary tags on and backpacks too...it is really cute. 

7/7:

This is the conversation we had just now after watching The Other Side of Heaven:
Sophie: "That is a moving movie."
Me: "Did it touch your heart?"
Sophie: "yeah"
Weston: "It didn't touch my heart...it only got to my lungs. My mind wasn't very open this time so it only touched my lungs."

6/24:

Me: "Who ever finds the remote will earn a quarter!"
Weston: "I would prefer a dollar, actually."
You don't say...        

6/5:

Sophie: "mom, did you ever have a boyfriend when you were a teenager?"
Weston: "yeah, mom, what was his name!?"
Me: "well, the first boy I dated was when I was 17. His name was John."
Sophie (bursting with enthusiasm): "you mean like John the Baptism!?!?" 

Last Sunday (8/4)

On Sunday Sophie gave a little talk in primary about prayer.  I had her tell me what she wanted to say, with just little guidance (of course).  The part in parentheses she didn't actually say, I just wrote it down to remember because it was funny. :)
 

Prayer is our way to speak with Heavenly Father. When we pray, we fold our arms, close our eyes, and be very reverent.  We thank Heavenly Father for giving us freedom, giving us love and giving us blessings like our family!  Then, we ask for his help too.  We can ask Heavenly Father to help us be obedient and make good choices.  We can also ask for him to keep us safe and give us comfort when we are scared.  When I am afraid to go to bed sometimes, I say a prayer and Heavenly Father helps me know I am safe.  He sends the Holy Ghost to comfort me (and Santa when it’s Christmas).  I am thankful to know that I can pray any time.  I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus love us.  I know that prayer is important, and will help us return to live with them.  I am thankful that Joseph Smith prayed to find out the truth.  I know that we can always pray to understand the truth and be happy. 

This talk was special because Grandpa Glass was able to come and hear it!

Since it wouldn't be appropriate to take a picture in the middle of church, I decided to take a couple of pictures while daddy was helping her practice (and with Weston being her audience) before church.  I just knew that toy microphone would come in handy some day...

 
 Sophie did an excellent job on her talk!  That night, I took these two of the kids hanging out in Weston's room.  They fight like crazy sometimes, but also love nothing more than to play together!

 

 

This Summer

I don't know how it is all going so quickly.  I am compelled to admit in all honesty that it has been a great Summer so far.  My biggest challenge (as always) is finding balance.  On the one hand I have a lot of goals and ambitions ~ many, MANY things I am determined to accomplish...daily efforts to instill the best habits in my kids, to live more excellently and serve more fully.  I don't want to just "survive" and "make it through."  As my dear friend, Rachelle, and I discussed recently (in a recurring conversation we've had over the 16 years we've known each other), I want to live life deliberately - to grow, make a difference, become better!
 This effort to improve and not just float along requires monumental effort when you have so many constant demands from the precious, needy little people in your home! The push to do what is required just to survive  is sometimes overwhelming all by itself.  And while pushing is good, and while I yearn for improvement in all areas of life, I often feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water...which creates stress...which causes me to some days not even enjoy my incredible life!  I wish I could push a pause button on life so that there could be more time to simply be with my kids...to cherish and enjoy them!

Notwithstanding the constant struggle to live with balance and wisdom, here are some great things that this Summer has been full of so far:

* late nights, watching Fox's "The Five" after the baby is finally asleep!

* splash pads, swimming, and playing with friends

* endless piles of laundry...and I do mean endless

* chapter books!  Okay, we haven't read nearly as much as we wanted to, but we totally loved reading our first "Goosebump" book together.

* the new chore chart & earning nickles

* 80's movies and homemade pizza

* a new obsession with pirate ships

* lots of homemade kefir shakes...for the kids: gagging down cod liver oil & green drinks (Sophie tolerates it all much better than does Weston!)

* lots of crawling for Brighton, the constantly moving baby

* missing mom and talking about her lots and lots

* making new things like cream cheese & yogurt (which was a total fail, by the way!)

* the kids talking about their dreams every morning

* discovering "the magic school bus" cartoon, which is seriously great

* sleeping kids in forts, on the floor, and on couches...anywhere but their beds!

* oodles of silliness

* endless to-do lists (oh yeah, that is not unique to the Summer months...)

Here are some pics of the kids with friends at the dinosaur park looking at the turtles...

 Grandma Laurie has been in town a couple of times.  The kids ALWAYS look forward to her visits!

 Lots of lincoln log building around here...

 Brighton likes to get in on the action too!

 This amazing pirate ship was purchased from the DI for $1.50.  Such a worthy buy!  Here are the kids hanging out with their Uncle Chris.

 Princess Sophie

 My handsome pirate

Swim lessons ~ the teacher is telling Sophie to "zip her lips" so that water doesn't get in her mouth (although it is good advice to keep her from talking everyone's ears off too)!  I am really not one to talk though...

 I don't know if you can tell or not, but Weston is gracefully blowing the snot out of one nostril in this picture.  He and Sophie really liked wearing the goggles.  He kept asking the teacher if they had "real UB protection," which I thought was funny.  Obviously he meant "UV," but I don't know where he heard about it!  The teacher mentioned that in all her years of teaching swim lessons, that is the first time any kid has asked that question!

 Brighton loves being outside, especially when there is a lot going on around him.

 More sit dives...

We also had a pool party for mutual one night.  Oh how the kids love hanging out with the young women!

 Especially when popsicles are involved...

 Swimming at Preston's house, Sophie immediately made friends with Riley

 Weston and Preston

 Making cupcakes at Riley's birthday party...

 And having a blast on the bouncy house water slide...what better way to survive a 116 degree day?

 So happy for a moment with daddy during the busy fireworks season

 Too bad Sophie is so camera shy (yeah, right)!

This little dude just brightens up my life!  It is amazing how well he gets around.  He is 23 pounds and his 6th tooth is already trying to pop through!  He was 7 months old on the 8th.

 And many more pictures to come...

Busy - Mid June

This Summer, so far, can be summed up in one word: BUSY.  I am so busy and apparently forgetful, because at the end of the day all I remember is that is was a blur, that I worked really hard, and that I hope I can accomplish more the next day and have a little more patience with the kids (or maybe when I wake up the next morning my children will somehow be infinitely more well behaved?)

I guess every Summer is the same way, but I still look forward to it and somehow expect it to feel like a break despite the fact that it never is.  Case in point: I am so busy that I am only now sitting down today for the first time at 11:20 pm! I am determined, however, to document our life because these kiddos just keep on growing, learning and changing...and I want to capture the memories.

So, here are some of the things the kids have been up to:

Brighton has ventured into the world of real food...although he's still not sure what to think of it!

He was definitely more interested in the plate than the avocado.  He also wasn't sure what to make of the new texture in his mouth!

Eating egg yolk was a similar experience, although he seemed to be in a better mood (it must have been because we were watching Goonies)!  On a separate note, the kids loved Goonies!  And really, what's not to love?    Weston has subsequently become a little bit obsessed with pirates and has even drawn several maps to lead us to pirate ships.  After asking about 3 million times if I know where some pirates might currently be, I think he has finally given up. 

Back to Brighton...he also just began crawling on the 19th!   He is barely 6 months old and already crawling.  I can hardly believe it!  My mom would be so proud. :)

 My sweet Grandma Knapp lives in Wisconsin and has never had the opportunity to meet her great grand-children...however, she has made each of them a special blanket when they are born.  Brighton's is a beautiful butter yellow and oh so soft...unfortunately, he just wants to shove it in his mouth right now since he is teething.  Did I mention that he has FOUR teeth!?

 There is nothing sweeter than a sleeping baby...

Here is Weston helping me make some butter.  I thought it would be a fun exercise to have the kids help me make butter with the hand mixer...I did not realize that it would take almost 40 minutes of mixing!  It was fun though, so that's what counts, right?

Now doesn't that look delicious!

Since we didn't really celebrate Mother's Day this year (that was the day mom passed away), Jason and I decided to celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day together.  He had the kids each pick me out a little gift from Target.  They got me some yummy smelling candles, and he got me a new crock pot, which was greatly needed.

For some reason I didn't get any pictures of our Father's Day festivities, but we went out for breakfast buffet on Saturday morning which is our tradition.  Jason LOVES breakfast buffet! 

Now that it is Summer, the kids resort to some pretty silly activities to entertain themselves, including (and especially) dressing up all crazy. 

And dancing around...

Weston is very interested in the human body and how everything works.  He drew this wonderful picture from an anatomy book then asked me to label it for him (I didn't point out to him that this picture includes both male and female organs...what he doesn't know can't hurt him, right?) He ended up giving it to his good friend, Jansen.

Just general craziness happening here!

Girls camp was the second week of June.  I wasn't able to stay the whole time, but Brighton and I did go up for a visit one afternoon for a few hours.  I am so thankful for my friends, Jessica and Katie, that let Weston and Sophie both play at their houses while I was away.  I am beginning to understand what it is like to rely on friends more since I have neither my mom or mother in law around to help out as they have so much in the past (Jason's mom moved to Utah about a year ago).  I am just so thankful for friends that I trust enough (and who are so generous and willing to help) that I can have the kids stay with when necessary!

Here is Brighton when we got up to Mount Charleston...boy was that mountain air ever refreshing!  It was almost chilly (a welcomed change, I assure you).

It was so much fun to hang out with these awesome girls...and they didn't mind having Brighton around one little bit. :)

Sisters...

Poor, neglected baby (note sarcasm)...

I swear my friend Sandy looks like she could be one of the young women in this picture!  It is a fantasy of mine for someone to confuse me with a young woman one day...yeah, I know it'll never happen...maybe if they just thought I was 25?  I could settle for that!

My wonderful friend Mellissa and her family just moved to Idaho.  Before their move, some other great people planned a shin-dig at the park to say good-bye.  I struggled to get a good picture of Weston and Sophie with her two kiddos, but that's ok because I will do another post with some pictures of them playing recently.  

Here they are...Weston, Ansley, Sophie and Brodie (who was seriously burnt out on having his picture taken at this point, can you tell?)

Ansley and Sophie were really hamming it up in their pink swimsuits and sassy personalities!  Such cuties.

I have realized that during the summer, we must go on at least one outing every day (sometimes many).  One day, however, I didn't.  The kids were going crazy as I attempted to clean the house, so finally I put a workout video on to try to burn up some of their energy!  Of course, they found something to fight over during the workout video...this is Sophie telling me all about the many injustices perpetrated on her by her villainous older brother (again, note sarcasm)!

I just found it a little hilarious that they (especially Weston) were so into the workout...

Later they decided to make their own wallets...where do they come up with this stuff?

This is Weston displaying his wallet...which is basically fabric glued together.  He spent the next several days showing it to everyone we saw (and I DO mean everyone)!!