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Sometimes we get the pleasure in church to sit behind a very cute little boy, probably about 3 or 4 years old. He has no problem saying what he thinks, at a voice much too loud for a church meeting. A few weeks ago, he whispered something to his mom, she got up to walk out, he followed, and as he passed our row, he said in his cute loud voice, "I'm going to go pee!"
One time recently, the passing of the sacrament was going on. This is a very quiet ritual, with people bowing their heads, or just sitting quietly, pondering. In our church, the young men go around the congregation and pass the sacrament tray down the rows. They stand at the end of the row waiting for a tray to return to them, then they go to the next row. A young man had passed the sacrament to this little boy's row, the little boy took his portion, and then began staring at the young man. He watched him at his row, at our row, and finally at the row behind us. Apparently, he finally made eye contact with the young man, and said - louder than his regular loud - "Thanks, dude!"
What a cutie.
Chelle
We were at a Chel family gathering and were all sharing news about our families. This one struck us as particularly funny, and so worth sharing.
Chel's nephew, who we'll call Jeremiah, just turned 7. Not long ago, he and a few friends were discussing teeth, and likely got to the subject of teeth falling out, as they do when you're 6 and 7. They got to wondering, it seems, if one could actually push teeth out with a thumb. Jeremiah volunteered to be the thumb. Another boy volunteered his teeth. Jeremiah put his thumb expertly on one of the boy's teeth, and pushed. Sure enough, he pushed the tooth right out!
Not to be less than expert scientists, they decided it would be better if there were actually two results. Maybe the first boy just had weak teeth. So boy number two then volunteered his own teeth. Jeremiah again put his thumb expertly on the other boy's tooth, and pushed. Their experiment was a great success!
You can indeed push teeth out with your thumb.
Chelle
A few weeks ago, Sarah and AJ had gone up to be with their dad overnight. They drove back the next morning with Sam in two, Sarah driving. The roads were wet, and I admit I'm a worry wart. I kept checking the commuter link web site, which shows pictures of the road at random places. These cameras update every few minutes. I was initially checking for the road conditions, but hoped I'd see their car in one of the pics. I know that's so statistically impossible. They would have to be on the road at the exact spot the camera was facing and at the exact second the camera was taking a pic. But ... lo and behold ... I saw them. Not once, but three times. Each time I'd text them, "Did you just pass ... " and they'd answer they did. How very odd, but very cool, and amazingly random. I love it when the Universe shows up for me like that.
Chelle
Sarah is a very practical girl. Many times I wonder how she got to be so grounded at 16-years old. I think it's a good thing for the most part, of course. Sometimes I think it just might be a hindrance to building relationships. A good example happened last night.
Someone knocked on the door at nearly 10pm. We fought to get Anna outside (the dog who likes to eat people) and I opened the door. Two of Sarah's friends were there: Mark and Charlotte. I have seen Mark several times when he's come home from school with Sarah for lunch. I think he's an amazingly goofy, weird kid. But as they were on the steps looking into the house, Sarah stood in the living room and stared at them. I finally invited them in. Sarah's first words were, "It's kind of late." I finally broke the weird moment by inviting them to come have a cookie. Mark jumped at the idea and was in the kitchen in a flash.
After much strange discussion, the kids moved into the living room to chat. After a moment I overheard this conversation:
Sarah: You are inviting me to drive around?
Mark: Yeah!
Sarah: And do what? Just drive around?
Mark: Yeah!
Sarah: What's our destination?
Mark: Maybe nowhere. Maybe my house. We don't know. That's the fun of it!
Sarah: Ok ...
She did come ask me if she could go out with Mark and Charlotte and I told her to take her cell phone and be home by 11:30. She got her phone and left with a tentative attitude.
When she got home I asked if she had fun and she said she did, actually. She added, "I even felt like a real teenager."
Thank goodness. It's about time.
Chelle
The other night we went out for ice cream as a family. Sarah is learning to drive and has done pretty well the last several months. So she drove the several blocks over there. We got into the parking lot and the car stopped moving. Sarah looked confused and said, "Why am I not moving?" It took her only a few short seconds to realize she had her foot on the brake.
Chelle
The other night, Sarah was handing something to AJ, but dropped it before it reached him.
Sarah: Oh, sorry.
AJ, looking at her incredulously: I'll take that as a "sorry".
Chelle
Sarah is quite practical at times. This is evident in conversations we have with her. Here are two examples.
We were flipping channels one day and came across Star Trek: Voyager. The scene involved the character Seven of Nine. Being a former Star Trek fan myself, we began a discussion about the show, her opinion, of course, being that it was quite lame.
We then started talking about Seven of Nine specifically. I said that I thought she was cool and even liked the name. Sarah looked at me as if I had lost my mind.
I said, "If I had another girl, I'd consider naming her 'Seven'."
Sarah then was sure I'd lost my mind. I said, "I think it's a cool name."
Sarah said, "I think it's a number."
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Then today I was in another room working on things and could over hear AJ and Sarah in the other room. They were watching a movie with Vin Diesel in it. There was an apparent muscle scene when AJ asked Sarah, "How come he always plays tough guys."
Sarah answered, "Cuz he's a tough guy."
Duh.
Chelle
A few weeks ago we all went over to Chel's parents' house. Her whole family was there. So there were 20 of us in all ... ranging from her parents in age to the two little toddlers. There was a religious discussion about the Holy Ghost. In the midst of it, out comes the younger 3-year old niece, very excited. She was carrying a video of "Casper, the Friendly Ghost." She quite eagerly showed it to the one talking about the Holy Ghost and said, "Here's the Holy Ghost!"
Maybe you had to be there ...
Chelle
The other day, I was exasperated with AJ not doing his homework. I think I must have raised my voice a tad, or I sounded a bit too annoyed. AJ came into the dining room table to do his work and said, "You're not cool when you're like that, Mom."
Funny the only thing that came to my mind was a burning question ... Does that mean I'm normally cool?
Sweet!
Chelle
We splurged and went out to eat tonight. We will be feeling it in our pocketbooks for quite a while. But we enjoyed ourselves.
On our way out of the restaurant, Sam (now 17) held the door open for some people coming out behind us. As we neared the car, AJ (14) yelled back at Sam, still at the restaurant door, "Sam! Come on!"
I said, "He's holding the door open for those people."
AJ said, "Oh! I thought he was just watching those cute girls."
As I was reaffirming to AJ that Sam was really holding the door, Sam came close enough to hear our conversation. AJ told him that he thought he was just watching the cute girls. To which Sam replied, "Well, they were pretty hot."
I'll just keep believing he was being a gentleman ....
Chelle
Last night (New Year's Eve), we were playing games with my family. We had to be the first one to call out an answer to Harry Potter Scene It. One question showed an image from one of the movies and we had to say what was missing from the scene. It was a picture of a Quiddich field with the three hoops missing. We all called out an answer. As we were deciding who said it first, my 7 year old nephew asked what the right answer was. When we told him it was the hoops, he said, "I said 'tubes'. That means 'hoops' for me", fully expecting us to declare him the winner.
How could we declare it any other way?
-Chel
We were getting ready to eat, and my 7 year old nephew was blessing the food. He got to a point where he wanted to bless us too, so he said, "bless us to be.............[very long pause, I could almost hear his wheels turning]..............[and then it finally came to him]............something." Guess that was the best he could do. :)
My little niece has been watching "Night at the Museum" and there is a scene with Sacajawea in it. She really likes princesses, and Sacajawea is no exception, so she pays attention to that part. But it is, after all, a rather difficult name to say, so for her, it comes out as "Sackinawea" And she loves to say it over and over again.
My youngest niece also loves princesses - she loves and knows, "Bell, Cindalella, and Sleeping Booty".
-Chel
So I sent AJ into his room to clean a bit. He is overwhelmed by the task, so I just sent him to put 15 clean clothing items in their drawers. He wondered what if they were dirty. I said, "Put them in the dirty clothes hamper. And no, that doesn't count toward the 15."
Minutes later, I went to check on him - and wish that's when I had the camera. I could only see his feet. The rest of him was in his clothes hamper. No wonder his room is never clean.
 
A couple weeks ago, my sister and her two little kids (7 and almost 3) came over to spend the day.
  I think they are both cute kids, but the 3 year old is at that stage where she says and does the cutest things.
The first thing she did when she came over and saw my dog, Anna, in the house, was let out a full throated, high-pitched scream. It was so funny. I wanted to laugh, but instead I told her it was ok, that Anna wouldn't hurt her. She didn't like it any time Anna got close to her. She would shimmy away, hide under the overhanging counter top, etc. But by the time the day was over, my niece was thrilled to be able to say that she "petted" (touched with one finer) Anna.
She just got potty trained, and so can go potty on her own now. One time I asked her if she needed to go, and she said yes, so she headed upstairs, but the lights were all off. So she came back down and said "It's darkery up there". So I told her to turn on the "lightery". She went back up, but came back down and told me again "it's darkery". I asked her mom where she got that from, and she just shrugged.
We sat down to eat some lunch, and she just had to sit by me, and then said, "Chel, you're my sweet heart." Awe.
Another time, we were swimming at our neighbors pool. She can't swim yet, but feels comfortable in the water, so with just a little floating water tube-thingy, she does ok. And then I guess she feels like she can stay afloat on her own, so she says "I don't need that". And so we humor her, and take her float away, only to have her promptly sink. We catch her and pull her back up, and first she looks shocked, then just smiles. We give her her float back, she hangs out on that for a while, then again states, "I don't need that." And again, sinks when we take it away. She's very determined, I guess.
I think my niece is so cute and funny. And I think its even cuter that I'm her "sweet heart" and when the lights are off, it's "darkery".
-Chel
 Today was free fishing day in Utah. That means lots of people were out fishing today, and I got to help about 85 kids do just that. Fishing was good. Which means only, well, a few things.
1) Kids were having a great time, and some kids caught their first fish today!
2) There were a lot of fish to clean, which I happily got to help with.
3) Fish smell does not come off hands very easily.
So I spent the whole of the morning and afternoon cutting, pulling out fish guts, and covering my hands in fish smell - washing my hands to no avail - and doing it again, and again, and again. Kids loved it! What is it about blood and guts that gets kids all excited? I guess maybe the same things that gets them excited about animal scat.
Kids are fun. And they don't care if they smell like fish guts.
-Chel
AJ has been fascinated with the German language of late. His favorite response to our requests is "nein!" Silly boy.
The other day, though, during Sunday School, of all places ... he asked his teacher, "How do you spell 'no' in German?"
The funny teacher replied, "n - o - i - n - g - e -r -m - a - n".
AJ looked at him in shock, "Really!? Can you spell it again!?"
The teacher did so another full time before AJ got it ...
Chelle
Apparently AJ has some nice new classmates.  History: When AJ was 6-years old, he was hit by a car. He got 55 stitches and a few beautiful scars on his head to show off. One scar on his head comes down under his hair line over his forehead and is visible if his hair is short enough. One new "friend" asked him what the scar was from. He proudly stated he'd been hit by a car. She asked, "Was it parked?" AJ didn't think it was as funny as I did ... Chelle
A few days ago I was visiting with a group of 5 year olds. We were about to embark on a "Nature Exploration" so I wanted to just chit-chat a bit about what nature was. So I asked them, "Can anyone tell me what nature is?"
Blank. No response.
Um..now what? "No body knows what nature is?"
One mom wispers to her daughter "trees" - so she says it.
"Great!" I say, sure the others will catch on with that little hint.
"Be safe" comes another answer. "No pushing" pipes up another (now they are on a roll, but apparently its the wrong one) - "No hitting" says another, "Stay together" shouts yet another.
Well... at least they know how to be nice and stay safe while out in nature.
- Chel
I've pointed out before how gullible my daughter, Sarah, is. She recently talked about the subject and admitted she knows she's gullible.
"The other day I told someone I am gullible. They asked me if I knew they took 'gullible' out of the dictionary. I said, 'Really!?'"
Yeah, she's pretty gullible. Her new quote is "Someone told me I was gullible. I believed them."
It fits.
Chelle
We seem to have the most fun when we don't hear each other well enough.
The other night after dinner, I was telling Chel about my plans for the next day. AJ was finishing up his dinner, so was within ear shot. I said, "I need to buy Sarah some pants."
AJ's head shot up from his meal and he said wide-eyed, "Who's in Sarah's pants!?"
I couldn't think of any way to answer that ...
Chelle
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