Happy Birthday, Katie!

Here is a birthday message from Jane:



Here is one from Xander:

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling

This video makes me laugh so hard. Jenn is trying out a new toy we got for Cousins Camp. It works.

Jane Learns Ballet

Claire taught Jane how to do a plie in ballet. I thought it was so cute.

Funny Jane

Jane is constantly making us laugh. She is certainly full of personality! We were at a restaurant and we gave her some ice cream. This is her showing us she's cold. Everyone laughed, so of course she kept doing it.

One day we were at Grandma Adams' house and Jane did her "funny walk." I caught it on video, and it still makes me laugh. When she starts swaying at the end, it's because Claire asked her what a penguin does. If you look closely, you can see my shadow swaying with her. I didn't even know I had done that. Too funny.

Rubber Bands

We discovered that Jane does not like rubber bands. In fact, she's kind of scared of them. She won't touch them, and if one is put on her, she freaks out and tries to get it off as fast as she can without touching it. It's actually pretty funny to watch. Of course all the older kids love to tease her now by dumping rubber bands on her head, etc. One day, Jane kept getting into the kitchen cupboard under the sink, so Alyce came up with a brilliant idea. She put rubber bands all over the handles. It solved the problem. Jane would not go anywhere near the cupboard. Genius!

Daddy Day at Ballet

I found out that Claire had Daddy Day at ballet, so I called Derek at work and asked him if he could go. I jokingly told him, "It says here that you are supposed to wear tights if you have them, but if not, then loose fitting pants are OK." He says, "We're supposed to participate?!" I said, "No, I'm just kidding. I think you just watch her class." Boy, was I wrong! When he got there, he found out that not only do they participate in the class, but they also learn a little dance to perform. He was not happy when he got home, but he was a good sport by letting me video their dance. My favorite part is when he bows at the end. I don't know why, but that makes me laugh every time. That's not the end of the story, though. That night after the kids were in bed, I went to check my email. There was a mass email from the ballet school with a report on Daddy Day. Apparently, someone had video taped the class and posted it on Facebook. Every student at the ballet school and their parents were supposed to watch all the videos from the day and vote on which dad was the best! When I showed Derek, he was livid, but because I was laughing so hard, he didn't stay mad for too long. I guess that's what he gets for being such a good Dad!

Jane Walking

This was about four months ago, but it's still cute.

Mattress Fun

One day the kids took Claire's mattress off her bed and put it down the stairs to use as a slide. The only reason I let them is because Justin, Jenn, and I used to do the same thing when we were little. It was so much fun that I couldn't stop them from having the same fun!

Boys Will Be Boys

We went camping with Derek's family. Xander was throwing rocks into the lake during a hike. I guess the temptation was too great for Derek. He wanted in on the fun, but had to one-up Xander. I guess it's true that boys never grow up.

The Influence of Siblings

I don't know why this video makes me laugh so hard. Probably because Xander just does what he's told over and over again without complaining. He was doing his Airbending kicks, by the way, complete with sound effects. I must not have been home because Xander's diaper is so wet it's sagging, he's not dressed, he has juice out of the kitchen, Claire has free reign of my camera, and the house is a mess. Those would never happen if I was there, right?

The Last Airbender

This is Xander showing me his Waterbending moves.



This is Xander showing me his Earthbending moves. I had to differentiate lest you thought they were the same video. By the way, Xander drew on his face. That's not a scar.

My Little Helper

It was one of those nights. I was trying to fix dinner and get kids ready for soccer and feed Jane and help with homework and stop the crying and break up fights...I had asked all three older kids to feed Jane for me, which cleared them out of the room very quickly. Suddenly Jane stopped yelling. I looked over, and this is what I saw:

Conditioning

I have my kids trained. When I whip my camera out, their posed smiles appear. Apparently no age is too young. Every time I held my camera up, Jane would blink her eyes expecting a flash. I thought it was so funny that I took a video of it, which furthered the problem. Is that mean?

By the way, Quincy put Jane in that little container. We were at Kangaroo Zoo. Alyce is trying to knock her over. Gotta love siblings.

Future Ballerina

Jane crawls with her toes pointed. I think it's so funny. Here is a video to prove it.

Before and After

Oh To Be Small

Shopping Carts

This is what shopping carts are REALLY for:

Claire the Elf

As I was driving some neighborhood kids home from the bus stop, I overheard them talking about elves. One of them said there was no such thing as elves, so I decided to tease them a little bit. I told them that Claire was really an elf and that every year just before Christmas, Santa comes to pick her up in his sleigh and she goes to help him wrap presents and get ready for Christmas. I said her ears started getting pointier as the days went on, and that we had never told them about it before because we try to keep it a secret. There was a long pause, like they weren't sure if I was telling them the truth or not. Claire just sat there and smiled. Then one of them said to her, "Oh yeah, then what are all the names of the reindeer?" It just so happened that Claire had her Christmas program that day in school and one of the songs they sang was "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." Not expecting a five-year-old to know the names of the reindeer, he was open-mouthed when Claire rattled them off without a pause like it was second nature. Everyone was silent. Case closed.

Double Santas

We went to the ward Christmas party, and the kids saw Santa. The next day we went to a family Christmas party, and the kids saw Santa again. In the car, Claire started snickering like she was up to no good. We asked her what she was snickering about. She got a mischievous look in her eye and said, "I told Santa last night that I wanted a baby that cries, and I told Santa today that I wanted Zhu Zhu Pets." She apparently thought that each time she saw Santa, she would add another item to her list, thereby getting more toys for Christmas. I better clear that one up.

Cooking with Kids

I went to a cookie exchange this afternoon, so I baked some cookies this morning...with two kids "helping." Why do I put myself through such torture? Here's a rundown of some of the events:

• Claire was stirring the sugar and brown sugar in a bowl--just the two ingredients, mind you, nothing else. "Whoopsies," I heard her say. I looked over and there was a slight powdering of sugar on the counter. She had flipped some out as she was stirring it, which is fairly normal for a child to do. But it got me wondering, "How does one learn to keep the contents in the bowl while stirring? How do you teach that skill? At what age does it happen?"
  
• We added the flour and other dry ingredients to the bowl. While I was getting something out of the pantry, I heard a gasp and looked over to see Claire covering her mouth with a pained look on her face. I thought she had bitten her tongue, but then realized she had flipped flour onto the counter. "Why am I even using a bowl?" I thought to myself. "I might as well just dump the ingredients on to the counter and mix it all right there. At this rate, as long as she's consistent with her flipping, I'll have half the dough mixed on the counter and the other half in the bowl."
  
• Xander decided he wanted to join us at this point, so I let each of them unwrap some butter and put it into the bowl. Xander wanted a paper towel to wipe his hands off with. Claire just licked hers. (Don't worry, I made her wash her hands again.)
  
• After adding a few more ingredients, Claire decided she couldn't be bothered with a tissue, so she wiped her runny nose on her hand and then on her pants. Once again, she trekked into the bathroom to wash her hands.
  
• A conversation between Claire and Xander: Claire: "Do you know what bees wax is, Xander?" Xander: "Yeah." (He had no clue.) Claire: "There's wax that grows in your ear, so it's called bees wax." (I'm not sure I followed that logic, but hey...whatever works for them.) Xander: "Oh." Claire: "See? I'll show you." (Proceeds to pick ear wax out of her ear and hold it out to him.) For the third time in a matter of minutes, she washes her hands again. I think we've covered just about every orifice on her face.
  
• Claire wanted to turn on the mix master, so I told her to turn it to a 1. She accidentally notched it up to about an 8. All the ingredients splashed, floated, and stuck everywhere. I looked down at my red shirt which was now white with flour, my socks splattered with egg-vanilla freckles, and the counter dripping gelatinous clumps onto the floor, and I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I wondered how much of the ingredients made their way out of the bowl and if the cookies would still taste just as good with half an egg missing and no vanilla.
  
• The second-to-last step of the recipe called for a sprinkling of chocolate chips onto the batter in the pan. "There is no way kids can mess this up," I thought to myself. I gave them each a few handfuls of chocolate chips, and they sprinkled them quite well, I must say. As a reward, I let them each take a few to eat. Breathing a sigh of relief, I started lifting the pan away just as Claire started laughing. "What are you laughing about?" I asked, to which she replied, "Xander just dropped a chocolate chip out of his mouth into the pan." I thought of all the mothers who would be attending the cookie exchange, and then I thought of all the tiny little hands that helped make all the cookies, and of all the tiny little now-empty orifices that hovered above all the batters, and thought to myself, "What you don't know won't hurt you."