adventures with Tony Hawk

Here's a conversation I just had with Audrey (almost 5yrs). Overheard while cleaning Audrey says (pretending/ repeating things they say on TV)
"Do you know who you are?! You are Tony Hawk!"
"Do you know who Tony Hawk is Audrey?"
"Yes, he was on the Suite life of Zack and Cody"
Then she asks...
"Mom, is Tony Hawk your boyfriend?"
"No- Dad is my boyfriend"
"Have you seen Tony Hawk in real life?"
"No, just on TV."
"I've seen him in real life."
"Audrey" I say "TV isn't real life you know."
"Yes I know, but do you know where I saw him? Let me tell you. It was when my great great grandma died but great great grandpa was still alive. Tony Hawk was there and he passed me a note and it said 'the guy who passed you this note is name is Tony Hawk' I thought you might not want to know about this at first, but I decided to tell you. Are you mad?"
"No."

Just a bit confused! BTW we are always hearing about Audrey's imaginary friend 'great great grandma' She showed up around the time I shared a story about my actual great great great great grandma who lived in Nauvoo. I shared this story in a sharing time back in September or so. Now Audrey has a counterpart grandma with quite an interesting history. I hope she will have some sort of grounding influence on my sweet daughter and keep the Tony Hawks of the world at a safe distance until she is an appropriate dating age.

Everyone Knows it!

So A is my 3rd son and has always been a bit on the high emotional side. He is either really happy or sorta testy (that's putting things mildly). T and I often wonder if it's due to how he is wired naturally or if it's a result of the two older brothers constantly pushing his buttons. Nurture vs nature you know. It's probably both. So lately when I send him to his room as punishment he has taken to screaming out all kinds of horrible things. "I hate you!" "My GOSH!" etc. The other day there was a new one in there. He said "You are a horrible mother and EVERYONE knows it!" Ouch! That's really awful. I have to admit I was hurt. When I shared this with my mother in law, she said "yeah that is bad. The worst part being the 'everyone knows it' thing. Us horrible mothers like to keep those things a secret." I had to laugh at this response and soak up some of her awesome wisdom. She can always put things into perspective for me. You just gotta laugh these things off sometimes and live through them. I know I often say things I don't mean in the heat of the moment. Perhaps he is an apple not far fallen from my tree. The other gem A shared was that when her kids would say "I hate you!" to her she would just laugh and say "Well that's okay, because I have enough love for the both of us." So wise!

On an unrelated note. I, being the horrible mother that I am, am bribing A today to drink an entire 8 oz Gatorade drink. (She hates the taste, and has now got the 7-8 day flu that her sister had. The nurse on the phone yesterday was suggesting the ER for IV fluids since they were so booked up. Unless of coarse, I could get her to drink Gatorade). I told her if she drinks the entire drink I will let her watch the Disney Channel. T is convinced that the Disney channel is from the devil, and too teenagerish for my already semi-diva child. I tend to agree, but it's not all bad and it sure makes her happy, and happy is what we need more of today. After all- I have that horrible reputation to live up to...

Crazy Quilt

I know why they called this a crazy quilt now. Because I just may have been crazy for attempting to make it for a Christmas gift for my awesome mother in law. It was way too late in the season when I started it for one thing. (Had the fabric since July-chose December to get it done), and it was a first attempt at such a thing for me- I know, crazy! I have been a sewer since 7th grade (how can a girl who grew up in Utah valley, get through the public school system, and not learn how to sew?). But a quilt is a precise and sometimes (as I found out) tricky business. Here are some pictures of Gma T with her gift- I thought I'd throw one in of Grandpa here since he looks so thrilled to be holding it up. Now that it's over I kinda miss my midnight project. The back ache is still with me however. I guess my next obsessive fix is Big GIrl's 5th birthday party. It's a Cinderella theme and promises to be quite fabulous!

Where have I been?

Well I will tell you where... Knee deep in the throws of having 3 sick kids (and one adult if you include myself). It was less than perfect timing since Troy had to leave for Utah for the weekend. I was one busy Mama! Poor Audrey lost her cookies 16 times. It was worrisome. But not as bad as poor Eliza who would not get better for a stretch of 8 days and 8 horrible nights. We are now on day 3 of being over it and I am starting to feel like a normal person again. Lack of sleep does weird things to a person- It makes me cranky! (OK, I know that's normal, but it still sucks!), We seem to have avoided starting an IV for fluids on our one year old dolly. She stopped nursing for 10 hours and was like a limp noodle. Thanks to some friends who brought in groceries and much needed Pedialyte. Then when the heat in the house also went out, a neighbor brought those easy-light logs for my fireplace. God does really love me to send me such good people to take care of me. Here are some nice pictures I took this morning of our recovered child with a cherished hat hand knitted for her as a newborn by my friend Kathryn Tripp. I have been telling her I would prove to her that it still fits and goes well with multiple outfits- proof in color photos! Incidentally she is doing the sign for hat for you Kathryn....

Christmas follow up

Santa gave the boys itunes music gift cards for their ipods. It took some time for them to figure out what they were. "Did we get our own credit cards Mom?!" Note the sun is not quite in the sky yet outside. I just read my niece's blog where she says they had to wake their kids at 8:00am to start Christmas. This really steams me. I like my sleep in case you can't tell.

Audrey is excited to have her own pack of gum! How did Santa know that whenever I offer her a stick of gum she asks can she have the entire pack?

Evan is excited for some skate action on his new wave board. You can really see it on his face don't 'cha think?

Well we are still coming down from our Christmas high. There's always so much anticipation leading up to Christmas that when it's all over there is a bit of 'so what now?' going on in the house. With everyone home for winter break though, there is not much time to ponder our state of being. The boys have kept things exciting with their new Heelys (someone shoulda called those hellys), I"M KIDDING! They are just awfully loud inside the house and when you have that clompy sound at an early hour when you are trying to sleep. It doesn't help that they are all competing for the same strip of hallway in the house- right under our bedroom. There was a sad realization at the mall when I took the boys for haircuts, that they are banned from using their skate-shoes there. Perhaps that is why when we wheeled our way through Dillards department store the gray-haired man shook his head disapprovingly at us. I wanted to say to him- "Hey grandpa, you try and keep 5 kids happy over 2 weeks at home with bitter cold weather like this in Iowa!" But I held my tongue. Anyways here are some more pictures of our fun on that blessed morning of over indulgence. Next year-less presents! I swear...