Does a three-year-old have any tact?

I would argue NO. Over the past several days I have had some experiences that will prove my point.

1st: All of our crew (Ben, Kiya, Jaynie and I) were at the grocery store shopping. Ben was up next to the cashier, Kiya and I were standing back behind a little bit. Then Kiya turns to me and says in reference to the cashier, "Mom, look at that lady . . . she is sooo fat."

2nd: Ben and I took our girls to see the movie 'The Princess and the Frog'. After the show got over, which was absolutely adorable by the way, we went to the restroom. When Kiya and I were leaving the restroom a lady with crutches walked in. So Kiya asked about the lady and why she had crutches. I explained that she needed help walking all the time, so she uses the crutches. Then Kiya and I were waiting outside the restroom for Ben when a gentleman in a wheelchair pulled up to wait too. Then Kiya asks, "Mom what does he have?" To which I reply "Popcorn" trying to avoid an embarrassing situation. She of course isn't satisfied with that and says, "No, what is he sitting in?" I quickly explain that it is a wheelchair that helps him move. Then Kiya in her infinite 3 year old wisdom says very loudly, "Mom, he can't walk all the time so he needs that to help him move." The gentleman looked up chuckling and showed Kiya how his chair moved and how he could even go on only two wheels. I was grateful for his kindness and being willing to show off to Kiya.

3rd: The whole fam was at the grocery store shopping again. A gentleman walks near us and Kiya asks Ben who he is. Ben just says, " Ummm, a friend?" So then Kiya says to Ben, " Well, he looks really sick." This man turned to us and gave us the strangest look. He looked like a perfectly healthy man to me, but I guess not to Kiya.

Now I just wait for the next tactless incident, and in the mean time enjoy the sweet innocence of my little girl.

So Amanda has informed me that it has been over a year since I last wrote anything on our "family" blog. I will have to admit that it has been some time since I last wrote, but my reasons for doing so were valid. The last time I wrote, Amanda criticized my writing saying that, "I went too far into detail and possibly gave more information than people needed to know about our personal lives". To this I stated that I would take a vow of (blogging) silence. Well I suppose it's time to return and also update about the activities of our family.

As my first posting after my absence, I would just like to echo what Amanda posted about. Our girls have grown up amazingly this last year.

Well, so I won't dive into "too much" detail about our family and our activities I will just share one of the most recent things that impressed me about my girls. On Christmas Eve we have a tradition of going over to Grandma Smith's house, going caroling, having soup, and ending with a nativity program. This year for the nativity, Kiya was asked to be Mary, and so she wouldn't be scared I was asked to be Joseph. We said okay and went and got our costumes on. The program started and when they called us out we walked over next to the manger and I sat/knelt down with Kiya sitting on my lap. When the story announced the birth of Jesus, I placed Jesus in the manger. As I did so, Kiya started to get rather restless. I asked her what was the matter, and she whispered back to me, "Daddy, I'm Mary, I have to go be Mary". After her statement she stood up, walked around to the other side of the manger, knelt down and clapped her hands together like she was praying. Confused, I again asked Kiya, "what are you doing?" to which she again responded by saying "Daddy, I'm Mary, I have to act like Mary." She didn't move from that position for the remainder of the program.

How on earth does a three year old know the humble and reverent demeanor that Mary probably had as the mother of the Savior of the world? We talked about the Christmas story, but never about how Mary acted. She just knew the importance of being the mother of Jesus, and acted like she thought Mary would.

I love these girls, and sorry to just focus on Kiya on this post, but I learned a great lesson from her that night that when we are given a name to represent, we are to represent that person to the fullest, and not just do the minimum. Every week we take a name upon us, and this experience has made me realize that I need to do a better job in reverencing the name I receive every time I take the sacrament and be a better example of that name in all I do.

What a great year we've had!

As I've been thinking over the past year today, I have remembered many great times that we've had in our family, but I am amazed by one thing . . . how much my children have grown.

Kiya is one of the smartest three year olds I have ever seen (and I probably should only say this because I am her mother, but it is my right to think that and I believe that it is true), she picks up on absolutely everything that anyone around her says. Today we were at Grandma Smith's house (Ben's grandma) when Kiya asked me if she could have a treat. I told her that they weren't mine to give away and that she needed to ask Grandma for one, so she left the room to go ask. A minute or two later she came back to me and said "Mom, I'm too shy. Can you go ask for me?" I have no idea where she got that from, but it made me chuckle.

Jaynie has gone from my baby to a two year old with an amazing vocabulary and enormous personality. She is so fun everyday, she is our little singer and will just make up her own words when she doesn't remember the real ones. I like the songs better Jaynie's way, they are more fun to listen to. Jaynie is either the happiest kid I've ever met and keeps us laughing or is a screaming terror throwing a giant temper tantrum. We get one extreme or the other with her, and I wouldn't change a thing about her.

I am grateful to have the chance to be their mother, and thank my Father in Heaven for sending two precious angels to me. I love them very much.

Fun Memory Book Maker

This was really fun and easy to make. Check out the website www.mixbook.com.

| View Sample Photo Books | Create your own Photo Book

Our New Puppy

Ben and I have been wanting a dog again ever since we gave our dog Sadie away. I just wanted a small dog that doesn't shed which is exactly what Sadie wasn't. Well, Ben has been looking for a few weeks for good dog for us and he finally found one. I didn't want to have to try and house train a dog during the school year when no one is home during the day, so I was a little bit hesitant, but once we went and looked at the puppies I was hooked.

Our puppy is a Silky Tzu, which is a mix between a Silky Terrier and a Shih Tzu. She is just so darn cute, and was so fun to watch play with the kids when we went to see the puppies. We named her Tillie, we gave the girls two options and that was the one that they started calling her. Her coat will probably lighten as she gets older and loses her puppy hair, but for now we have a dark gray dog, I think later she will be more tan. The first few days with her have been great and we are looking forward to many more years with her.

My Feelings on Halloween

Some how growing up has made me really come to dislike Halloween.
I remember as a kid getting so excited to dress-up and go trick-or-treating and thinking long and hard about what my costume should be each year. Then I would save my candy and make it last until at least Christmas when I got new candy. My favorite year was when I was Raggedy-Anne and wore an old costume my mom made for her in high school, it has this awsome wig made out of yarn.
But now I just really hate it, especially this year since Kiya is old enough to know that you dress-up (only because people keep asking her what she wants to be for Halloween), and now I have to come up with a costume for her. I just don't want to. Although she does want to be Batman, which is really cute, but I'm too cheap to make a Batman outfit and don't have the time, or sewing skills to make one.

It also boggles my mind knowing that people like to intentionally get scared. There is nothing in this world that I like less than being scared. Why would anyone waste thier time putting up scarey decorations or going to a scary haunted house or put one together to scare other people. I just don't get it.

I do like the pumpkin carving and decorating part of Halloween though. My pumpkins never look really fabulous, but it still delights me to come up with an idea and make it come to life in a orange squash. Even better is watching my kids get so excited about it. For the young men and young women activity in our ward this week we let the youth decorate pumpkins for the ward Halloween party. Kiya and Jaynie kept watching all of the kids painted and they wanted to paint to, so I finally gave in and let them paint a pumpkin too. We ended up with 2 sets of ruined clothes and a pumpkin covered in 20 different colors of paint all mixed together. But my girls thought that it was the funnest thing ever. I enjoyed the pumpkin so much that I actually brought it home to put on our porch.

So I have come to my dilema . . . Do I just give Kiya a black piece of fabric and Jaynie a white one (since she thinks she needs to be a ghost) and let them run around my house having fun being "dressed-up" or do I give in and hurry and get them or make them costumes and take them to the ward Halloween Party and Trick-or-Treating?

A Rocket Lesson

Information you need to know:

1) Okay, so we try and have family home evening every week. We are not very successful at that, but when we have a lesson we just get a church picture out of the file and talk about the picture. I figure just learning the scripture stories is a good way to start.

2) My grandpa worked at Thikol as an engineer on the rockets. So last week when ATK (the new Thikol) had a static test for a rocket he was up and off at the crack of dawn to go see the scheduled 1:00 launch. While there he was given some posters and papers describing the information on the rocket.

The story that makes having Family Home Evening worth my time and wrestling with the girls to sit still and listen:

One evening last week we were on our way home from my grandparents house. My Grandpa gave me some of his posters of the rocket and some of the informational sheets to put up in my classroom. On our way home we had to stop at the grocery store to pick up some milk. Ben just ran into the store while I sat in the car with the girls so we wouldn't have to take lots of time getting them in and out of the car. Shortly after Ben walked into the story Kiya asked me, "Mom, Do you want to have a Rocket Lesson?" I turned and look at her curiously and noticed that she had picked up one of the informational sheets on the rocket. So I told her that I would love to have a rocket lesson. Her reply was, "Okay, but first we need to say a prayer." So we said a prayer and she proceeded to teach me a Rocket Lesson. Kiya taught me all about how Grandpa worked on rockets like that one, not that exact one, but some like it. And rockets can go in the sky and she has a red and a blue and a pink rocket and we can go for a ride in one of her rockets tomorrow. Then our lesson was over and we said another prayer and about that time Ben came back from the store and we made our way home.

All of this probably occurred in a 3 minute time span, but it truly made me grateful for having Family Home Evening lessons. Now I know that despite the wiggly-ness and short attention spans of my girls they are learning something. And that is enough for me.

p.s. I am way behind again. No big surprise, but I will post the pictures of the rest of our summer and Kiya's birthday soon.

p.s.s. School as started again for both Ben and I. My classes seem to be going well so far and I only have 1 rambunctious one so I am very excited about that.