Three Little Favorites

Mackayla

What is your favorite color? orange

Favorite food? Corn dog and hot dog

Least favorite food? chicken

Favorite toy? Monkey (no idea what this even is), and a whale

Favorite movie? Dora

Favorite song? Shake your booty

Favorite animal? puppy

Favorite thing to do? Play in the boxes outside and inside

What are you scared of? Monsters

Mackayla - Day Two

What is your favorite color? green

Favorite food? Hot chocolate and toast

Least favorite food? Chicken

Favorite toy? monkey

Favorite movie? Dora Explorer

Favorite song? Giggo

Favorite animal? Deers

Favorite thing to do? Playing with toys, choo choo train

What are you scared of? Dinosaurs

Favorite person? Grandma

A "list" of hers

Mackayla is subtle. People don't know how sharp she is unless they make a point to notice her.

The kids have told her she is shy but I tell her that some kids know how to talk to others and some kids get to learn but she'll be just fine.

Everyday the cross guards at Cody's school wait to hear her cheerful "HI!!!" as we pass by. And she usually updates them on whether or not she has on shoes.

Because she is such a chill child you would never guess that she can chatter NONSTOP in the car. Half the time she says the cutest funniest things but I can't remember them because as I'm trying to stash them in my brain she's yelling, "OK mom?! Ok mom?! Mom!" nonstop.

She loves to interrupt the other two kids when they're excitedly telling me something.

Once she has my attention she'll repeat exactly what they said.

One of her Favorite things to do is draw.

Intricate little pictures that she explains to herself as she draws them.

If Ben isn't home she almost always asks where he is and then says, "Is he at work?" or "Is he at scouts?"

She decided to change right before Cody's baseball game.

Then at the game I realized she was flashing the whole world with her bare bum sticking out of her skirt.

She had taken off her underwear and didn't replace it:)

Luckily I had extra.

 Macey

Favorite color? Pink

Favorite food? Blueberries

Least favorite food? Types of chicken

Favorite toy? My pink dolphin with a heart on it

Favorite movie? My little pony

Favorite song? Shakeable you (from ballet class)

Favorite animal? Cat

Favorite thing to do? Snuggle with mom. Watching tv.

What are you scared of? Dragons. [But really?] Lord Garmedon? (I'm going to add: Flushing the Toilet!)

She puts so much detail and effort into every single paper she does in preschool. 

 One day we were discussing "hobbies."

If you ask me right now, I am going to require my kids to have at least one extra curricular activity to do when they're junior high/high school age. One music and one sport, depending on the dynamics of the kids and how things pan out. I don't know, I'm not there yet.

I asked Macey what she wanted to do for her hobby when she grew up.

She said "school," in this voice that sounded like it would be the coolest thing on the planet if I would let her. So ironically cute. 

Tonight she told me she had decided the earth was a boy. There is a song that talks about the earth, it's a primary children's song but I can't pinpoint it right now, and it says "she" for the earth.

But, she reasoned, the earth is made in boy colors, so it must be a boy.

This girl really wants to be understood. 

She goes to great great lengths to explain things and make sure she's understood.

Cody

Favorite color? Green, blue and black

Favorite food? Cooked tortillas with jelly and peanut butter

Least favorite food? Rice

Favorite toy? All of them

Favorite movie? Imaginext

Favorite song? Radioactive by Pentatonix and Lindsey stirling

Favorite animal? Alligator

Favorite things to do? play legos, chess, Sudoku, baseball, handball

What are you scared of? being lost.

We have hundreds of these drawings.

We always let the kids brings stuff to draw with at church and Cody fills papers with guys, beasts, volcanoes, tornadoes, sharks, you name it.

This is a school project for mother's day. First he used pencil, then crayon, then watercolor. I love it!

Cody's school talks to them about eating healthy.

They must be pretty convincing because one day I put a cookie in Cody's school lunch and he didn't eat it because it's not healthy (that's a big deal for my little food inhaler.)

The kids were discussing Cookie Monster and Mackayla said "I love cookie monster"

to which Cody answered

"Oh, he is so not healthy." 

Favorites Day 26

My current favorite song: All About Us by He is We

My current favorite cooking site: Pinch of Yum

I made dinner from it all week. 

Here's a really good salad: Pomegranate Kale Wild Rice Salad with Walnuts and Feta.

I didn't even use wild rice (just regular) or feta (regular old cheddar!) and it was still awesome. 

We tried brussel sprouts this week (Ever noticed how there are "popular" foods? It seems like brussel sprouts and kale are kind of the cool foods lately so I tried brussel sprouts and...they are not cool, they are gross.) 

Strands Beach

We went there Saturday.

I decided I would take a bunch of pictures. So I took one. bah.

Well, the elevator is up and running now!

A few random pics from this week:

Cody and his friend from school have been playing handball after school a couple days this week.

The girls just play around the grounds.

Today there was a cheer camp going on and they kinda joined in:)

 In primary we had the "priesthood preview" meeting on Sunday at the bishop's house.
Elder Ballard: “This Is My Work and Glory”
"In our Heavenly Father’s great priesthood-endowed plan, men have the unique responsibility to administer the priesthood, but they are not the priesthood. Men and women have different but equally valued roles. Just as a woman cannot conceive a child without a man, so a man cannot fully exercise the power of the priesthood to establish an eternal family without a woman. In other words, in the eternal perspective, both the procreative power and the priesthood power are shared by husband and wife. And as husband and wife, a man and a woman should strive to follow our Heavenly Father. The Christian virtues of love, humility, and patience should be their focus as they seek the blessings of the priesthood in their lives and for their family."

The other day Macey asked me "How do we get babies?" My first thought seriously was "Play Wheels on the Bus!!" but, since we were walking to school, I didn't have that option. I'm sure the other moms walking were smiling. I opened my mouth to say something about a mommy and a daddy, but she had already discovered the answer she was looking for: "I know! They come from God." and she was off to the next topic.

Game Day

 #28 is ours

Favorites Day 20 - Conversing with Kids

Talking to kids

I love the unpredictability and innocence. I realized the other day that I haven't been really listening to my kids- really listening. It's amazing what I hear and even how entertaining it is when I do.
I copied some into my phone yesterday throughout the day.

Me: "I swear he would lose his head if it wasn't attached."

Macey: "I wish it was."

Me: "It is."

Mackayla: "Let's go find it."

I'm confused but the kids have a certain satisfied silence.

_______________________

Mackayla and I were playing a game. She knows eyes, ears, mouth and nose, but I was teaching her eyelashes, eyebrows, etc.
Mackayla: "What is that?"
Me: "It's my eyelashes."
Mackayla: [She carefully touches all my eyelashes.] "I like that. It's pretty. What is that?"
Me: "It's my eyebrow. These are lips."
Mackayla: "Let me see in your mouth...I don't like that. It's yucky."
Me: "They're gums."
Mackayla: [Stabs my gums with her nails. Suddenly, she is aware that it hurts. She glares.] "Don't look at me."
Me: [I look away.]
Mackayla: Very curiously, "What are you looking at?"
______________________
During church in sacrament meeting (the one where we all meet together with our families) one of the speakers was repeating the young women's theme. It starts "We are daughters of our Heavenly Father..." As soon as the speaker said that, as if on cue, Mackayla turned to me and said, "I'm a princess. And you a princess. I'm a princess." Out of the mouths of babes!
______________________
I was rushing off to a meeting as the kids were going to bed. Macey was using mouthwash and going to the bathroom as I rushed in to kiss her. First, she laughed and spit mouthwash all over my face. We laughed and then I quickly kissed her on her forehead and left. Running out the door, I could hear her anguished cries. I had no idea why. Early this morning, way before wake up time, she tiptoed in and said "I never got my kiss last night." She kissed my lips and she tiptoed back to bed. Love her:)

Adventures

The few days before my parents came to town I taught our coop preschool. A perfect way to get ready for visitors...bomb the house!! Actually, it was pretty fun. One day we read "Christmas Day in the Morning" and the kids were so enthralled with it. I explained to them how to milk a cow. One cute little girl thought about this for some time and then asked, "What animal gives us lemonade?"

Okay one more thing I love, then on to the visit: I was listening to Mackayla play with our fridge magnet nativity as I cooked dinner one night. She was talking with the little people and animals. One of the side-ways facing animals hopped up (in her hand) and asked another side-ways facing animal: "Why do you only have one eye?" "I don't know." I especially love this since she loves me to draw pictures for her and if I ever do a side profile of an animal she insists that I still draw two eyes.

My parents came for a quick pre-Christmas visit. They let the kids open their Christmas presents while they were there too. The day we picked them up from the airport we headed over to do a little sight seeing in style:

A bicycle made for Five. Or Six, depending on how you pack em in.

My dad and I got the workout we never planned on for about a mile. Then we took the brake off by fixing the wheel.

It was smooth-er sailing after that.

As we happily cruised along one quaint sidewalk, Macey, as she read the signs, informed us that there were no bicycles allowed on this path. Good thing one of us is responsible.

 

We went to the swap meet on Saturday The weather was perfect for visitors and we ventured over to the park that afternoon.

After church on Sunday we opened grandma's and grandpa's presents.

She made them all soft blankets they love.

This is what Cody really wanted for Christmas.

Our elf brought us a gingerbread house to make.

On Monday we went to Disneyland!!! Our first time as a family and I probably went when I was six. It really is the happiest place on earth!

It was a way crowded day, but my parents were the perfect people to have along. They were so entertaining for the kids in the lines!
Our first ride was on Peter Pan

We hit the parade. Cody and Macey snuck up a little closer to the front and I put Mackayla on my shoulders.

It worked out great until Mickey and Minnie came along and then she started getting so excited that she was pulling out my hair and attacking my face. It got pretty wild when the princesses came by too.

It was quite the Christmas parade!

Grandpa took a turn at the end. No hair to ruin.

The only thing I remember from Disneyland as a child was It's a Small World. So we definitely went on that ride.

The train was a surprisingly way fun ride, we saw the grand canyon and a world of dinosaurs underground along the way.

It's kind of different having my mom take all the pictures...I'm not used to being in them!

This was Mackayla's favorite ride. I had to pry her off as she cried. Later she told Ben the horses were buckin.

We spent most of our time in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland in Disneyland. Macey even went on the Matterhorn Bobsleds. She was pretty nervous, but it was her first big roller coaster and ended up being her favorite ride!

Anyone remember Captain Eo? A little 1986 Michael Jackson music to rock out to in 3D.

Ben cruised over to meet us after work and got there just in the nick of time to run onto Space Mountain using a parent swap (you go in the exit and right on to the ride)!! This was Cody's favorite ride.

Finding Nemo submarines was the last ride of the night.

The only downer was that Cody wasn't his usual excited self and looked a little tired. I realized he had a fever early on at the park. We got him some medicine, and considering, I think he still had a ton of fun! It's a huge bummer that he didn't feel well though.

By the end of the last ride all the kids were dead tired and fell asleep within five minutes of walking back to the parking lot. I carried Mackayla...she is so much bigger than the last time I walked a mile with her! She clung to her Minnie all day long, even in her sleep:)!

We'll be going back again!!