Magic Beans and a big "I told you so"

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to get out our old humidifier because the air was getting so dry with the colder, winter weather.  I have been running the unit non-stop since I set it up.  The other day, Amber was complaining about the humidity in the house and claimed that I was running the unit way too much. 

I relented somewhat and started to shut the unit off during parts of the day.

This evening, Jace came downstairs after we had sent him up to get ready for bed.  He said, "Mom, can you come up stairs, I need to show you something".  Usually that means something bad has happened. 

Amber replied, "can you just tell me?"

Jace answered, "no, I can't, I need to show you".

Amber asked again, "well can't you just explain it?"

He insisted, "No, I don't know how to.  Can you just come up?"

Amber finally went upstairs to find Jace's amazing discovery.

Due to the large amount of moisture in the air lately, a little bean seed that had fallen to the floor and later lodged under the carpet near the humidifier has started to sprout.  I guess Amber was right.  I have been pumping a little too much water into the air lately!

A first class scout!

Last night our ward held a Court of Honor for the scouts.  As part of the event, John was asked to give a thought about scouting.  He is a natural at public speaking.  He told a funny joke about the Mayan-based "end of the world" and how it related to their recent scouting activities.  He then spoke about how Scouting has helped him prepare for his life as a young man and a future adult.  He finally praised his scout leaders for their efforts.  He did an awesome job.

At the court of honor, John received his Second Class, and First Class rank advancements.  He also brought home six merit badges.  

It is his goal to reach the Eagle rank before he turns fourteen.  We have mapped it out and if he works hard, he might just make it!

Always a Party!

Last Saturday, our family hosted about 15 families from our neighborhood to a Christmas party.  We set it up in the form of an open house so that people could come and go.  We estimate that we had about 50 people (counting the kids) coming through the house. 

Everyone brought something to snack on.  During the week, Amber had been very busy making snacks and food of our own as well.  

It was funny because the event was supposed to go from 5pm to 9pm.  Right at 5pm the kids were waiting at the door.  They after ten minutes passed, they started to think no one was going to come.  About 5:15, however, the people started to come one after the other.

Aylee helped the younger kids do Gingerbread house decorating, and Aliece built up several carnival activities in the basement.  The adults had a fun time visiting.

It was a good way to get to know some of our non-LDS neighbors as well. 

Many kudos goes to Amber for driving this.  The kids caught the excitement and really worked hard to make it go off with a bang!

Lost Innocence

Today I took John and Aylee to a fast food restaurant for lunch. We decided to pass the time by playing a game of, "which would you rather".

I would give two scenarios to the kids and they would have to pick the one they would rather do or have happen to them. They then would take turns asking as well.

On one of my turns, I asked the kids which they would rather do if they could either go to Disneyland or Hawaii.

Aylee responded that save would rather go to Disneyland as there is more to do. John chose Hawaii. Aylee started to try to convince John that Disneyland would be a better place.

John argued back that there were great things about Hawaii, including bikinis and hula dancers. That caught me off guard for a bit.

Ha ha...he is sounding more like a teenage boy now. Should I be worried?

It Sucks

The other day, Alayna approached Amber and asked, "Mom, do you know what really sucks?"

Seizing on the opportunity to rid the house of such ugly vocabulary, Amber, intercepted Alayna's conversation and said, "Alayna, that is really quite an ugly word. Why do you stop right there and ask me again when you can find another word beside 'sucks' in your question."

Alayna went silent and Amber waited for her to rephrase her question. Alayna thought for a bit and then went on with what she was doing. Now Amber was curious about what Alayna had to say, and was wondering why she hadn't tried again.

After a few minutes, Amber approached Alayna, and said, "honey, why didn't you think of a different way to ask me the question?"

Alayna replied, "I wanted to ask you about how vacuum cleaner pick up dirt, but I couldn't think of a better word than 'sucks'."

Amber stood corrected....I guess the word "sucks" does have a place in our household vocabulary after all.