Indian Princess the first

I sewed this! Me! Sienna cut the fringe for her shawl. I made the headband! I made the dress! I'm having a breakthrough in creativity.

Grace's Self Portrait

A fine Halloween Success

This Jack-O-Lantern is a symbol of greater things in my life. It represents the possibility of me creating something, on my own, and having fun with my children while doing it. This is the first Jack-O-Lantern I've ever done on my own, and he is wonderfully hideous.

Pizza and Sunflower

"Mom, can I call you Etsa? That's the Indian word for Momma."

"Sure, hon. And, I'll call you PearApple because you are so sweet."

Sienna now, "Mommy, can I call you Pizza?"

"Sure, honey, and I'll call you Sunflower."

All afternoon, echoes rang through our house, "Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!"

"Yes, Sunflower?"

"Etsa, Can we watch a movie?"

"Yes, Pearapple."

Our Mormon Code of Health

So, my sweet elderly neighbor asked me across the fence yesterday, "Are you all Mormon?"

"Yes!"

And, after a discussion about our temple here, which she walked through during the open house, she asked, "I don't want to be ugly, but is there anything you aren't allowed to eat?"

Grace immediately piped up, "We don't drink coffee, green tea, sweet tea, or alcohol. Other than those three, we can eat anything." Then, after some thought, she added, "Well, unless your parents won't let you eat something. Like Glow-in-the-dark gummy worms."

This is a hilarious and surprising reference to an incident at a birthday party months ago, where Grace won some glowing candy as a prize, and I immediately forbid her eating it. I just don't think our food show glow of its own accord.

Basement "Organization"

I have a friend who has a very clean house. All the time. Her name is Tisha.

So, we have a basement, a huge basement, that we have basically filled up by piling things on the floor over a 1400 sq ft area.

So, I say to Tisha, "Won't you please come over and tell me what to do?"

Today, she did. But before she came, our little 4 yr old friend Jade visited.

"Jade, today I'm having a friend over to help me organize the basement."

In a very flat tone, she quickly said, "Thank goodness. You can finally clean up all that junky Monkey." You can tell, she's spent time playing down there! ;-)

The Butterfly House

For Residents of St Louis County, the Butterfly House is free once/month. You don't want to miss it, either! SO cool.

How You Really know its True Love,

When you come home to a note taped on the front door like this, you know its the real thing.

Missionary-lytizing

We fed the missionaries Dinner tonight. I talked to the girls about how the missionaries represent Jesus Christ, and so they are our very special dinner guests. Grace decided she wanted to play restaurant, and I encouraged her to play the waitress tonight. So, she dressed up, including silver high heeled sandals. She served the Elders their dinner graciously.

After dinner, we had the Elders join our Family Home Evening. We like to have them over for Family Home Evening as often as possible.

So, Mom was the MC and song leader. Grace gave the lesson about the Holy Ghost. Jim and Mom made Hot Chocolate for treats. Sienna performed reading Too Much TV by the Berenstein Bears, followed by a Daddy's rousing game of Follow the Leader. Daddy likes to be the silliest ever when he is in charge! You should have seen those Elders following him while holding on to their ankles!

So, great, right? Yes, we have very simple and very fun family nights as a rule.

But, then, after Royal took the Elders home, he told me what one of them had to say about it. He said, He'd had one FHE in his life. It consisted of a terribly boring night where his mom read the scriptures in a monotone voice, and then gave up forever because everyone hated it so much. Who knew we could influence missionaries for good?

First Grade Art

We recently moved our Keyboard upstairs, and the girls love to play songs on it and dance around our den. They are sooooo cute, and no picture could capture it as well as this lovely drawing Grace did. She is full of Grace, I must say.

My Life

Hello, Friends.

I've started School just now. I'm studying to be an American Sign Language Interpreter. I'm taking classes 2 nights a week, when Royal is home to enjoy our children. (And enjoy reflecting on how this was all his idea in the first place. ;-))

The classes are lovely, and my life feels very full. My children are lovely, my husband is the center of my universe, and the one thing I'm always glad to revolve around. He has just started another blog. Please enjoy his handiwork at http://goodcleancrazy.wordpress.com/

My weekday evenings are now full, all of them.

So, I send my love out to you. It will be here for awhile, if you need to come back and read it again. Because I probably won't be posting for another month.

Caught Red Handed

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Well, Toddlers and inkpads mix very well indeed; yea, even permanently.

Here is what we looked like after scrubbing up Jim with water and soap, then water and vinegar, then alcohol, then olive oil. It won't come off. Period.

And the entire mess happened in less than 3 minutes of Mommy's attention (in the SAME ROOM) being elsewhere.

Tape on a Cat's Foot

Okay, here's a hilarious video, albeit a little slow. I've only seen it without audio, so I cannot give you any promises that the audio is child friendly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-mmjCDHzFQ

So, anyway, Today we put Sandal's on baby Jim's feet. They about 1/2 thick at the sole, which is probably equivalent to a 2 1/2 inch thick sole on one of us big people. So, he's been bravely charging around with really big steps. It reminded me of the cat thing, although Jim doesn't try to shake off his sandals. He just lifts each foot pretty high, and takes extra big steps. It is so cute! I hope you all can imagine. Happy Saturday!

Part II. Visiting Great-Grands

Rocket in Alabama

One fun stop before arriving at Grandma's!