“Blogging is not writing. Blogging is graffiti with punctuation.”

Love this blogging description! Now if only I could get some more blogging done!

Ode to Cindy's Blog

My friend Cindy is a fabulous blogger. You can visit her blog here. She has an amazing perspective on life. She has overcome one of the most devastating tragedies imaginable...the loss of her husband. A person of such outstanding character that words can't really describe the stellar man that he was. How do you overcome a loss such as this? I'm not sure. I suppose we would each deal with it in our own way. I do know that when hardships surface in my life, I think of Cindy and the strength and grace in which she has handled the knocks life has given her. Through all of this she has shared her experiences on her blog.
Through Cindy's blog I often find myself tearing up over the thought of what is lost and cannot be. I find hope that with God's help and tender mercies anything is possible and we are not alone. I laugh a lot. Hysterically. Mostly due to the ridiculous things that her kids are often doing. Or not doing. I learn how to be a better person by the kind acts that are performed by and for Cindy's family. It truly is inspiring.
Thank you Cindy. Thank you for sharing your life with me. You are always in my thoughts and prayers. I love you!

Tyli Tales

I use to be so good about writing down the funny things that the girls said. After all, that is one of the best parts of parenting...when our kids make us laugh. Ty has been on a roll lately! She is hilarious from one minute to the next. I had better write down some of these things that she has been doing and saying before I forget how cute she is, especially during her next tantrum. :)

One thing she loves to do is write. She will write down a bunch of random letters as if she is writing a story. Then she will come and ask me what it says. Usually I make up something about how much she loves me or how I'm the best mom in the whole world. You know, true stuff! Lately she isn't buying it. She wants to know what she is REALLY writing. So I do the best I can and say the letters sounds in order they are written. After doing this the other day she exclaims, "It's Spanish! I didn't know I could write in Spanish!"

So my stomach is getting bigger...you know, because I'm growing a person. Well sweet Tyli is good to look past that and see my positive features. The other day she told me. "Mom, you're legs are really skinny!" If I can't have a skinny stomach I'll take skinny legs! I started going on and on about how that was the nicest thing she ever said to me and thank you so much and I'll buy you whatever toy you want. You know, the usual after a much needed compliment. Unfortunately, the glee was short lived as she went on to ask..."So what is skinny anyways?"

Tyli has just recently learned to buckle her seatbelt. She was trying to teach her friend who doesn't know how to buckle up what to do. Her friend was saying that she doesn't know how to buckle a seatbelt by herself. Ty said, "Don't worry! The Holy Ghost taught me how to buckle my seatbelt!"

Today she said, "Mom, I bess-youd all over my dress." Huh? "I bless-youd all over my dress." I look at her dress and see little wet spots. "Did you sneeze on your dress." Yep! That's exactly what happened.

One day she came and informed me that her hand had passed out but not to worry because she was going to be ok!

Last, but not least, is Tyli's haircutting fiasco!! Tyli for some reason decided to give herself a haircut and the neighbor's little girl. For someone who loves her hair and a mother who loves to do beautiful long hair it was quite the tragedy! Five years of hairgrowing gone in a quick few snips. I never thought I'd live to see the day, especially from Tyli who prides herself on looking like Rapunzel. I've think we've advanced to a point where we can laugh at it (minus the five minutes every morning when I am doing her hair in the same hairdo day after day and I am always able to remind Tyli to NEVER CUT HER HAIR again.) But honestly, wouldn't you be a little heart broken too if you had this....

and this....

and this...

And now I have this...
Don't get me wrong. LOVE the little girl. Just miss the hair. But for a four year old she sure can do the rocker's hair do like no one else!

But Ty's funny, witty personality hasn't changed a bit! She makes me laugh every single day! I love this little girl!

House Cleaning Conversation

I overheard the funniest conversation of my daughter and my friends. I am sure it it one of those things that might only be funny to me, or a "had to be there" type of thing. But I'm still laughing about it so I had to write this one down.

So we have never had house cleaners. Why would we? It's obviously such a talent for me. ;) However, I found a deal on the internet that could NOT be passed up. I scheduled the date and counted down until I might actually have a clean house. Unfortunately, we had a mix up on when the cleaners were coming and they arrived several hours before I was expecting them. My house was full of kids and toys were still covering all of the floors of the toys rooms. I enlisted Madi and her friends to help, bribing them with a snow cone when they were done. The jumped on it.

So as they were cleaning this is the conversation that I heard.

Someone asked Madi, "So why do you have house cleaners coming?"
Madi responded, "Our house is just WAY too messy!"
Macie says, "Well, my mom doesn't want to get a house cleaner because she likes to do it herself."
Brynn says, "My mom doesn't want to get a house cleaner because she likes to make me and my brother do everything!

I had to pass the info along to the other moms!

Can I just say that house cleaners are freaking awesome!! What takes me two days, took two hours. It was beautiful. Now, how to make that happen every month...

I Spy...

So I opened my kitchen drawer and realized that it looked just like a page out of an eye spy book.

Can you find...
A dominoe
a princess
a paintset
a pair of scissors

Ok... I guess I should clean it out.

Now, if the rest of my house could be this organized.

Our "Other" Family Member

Jon and I have had pets in our past. All of which left of scarred and I'll be honest, very anti-pet. However, we had an experience that made us start considering if a pet in our family was possible. You can read about it here. After our Halloween "Black Cat" incident, we started thinking about getting the girls a kitten for Christmas. It was easy to keep on our minds since Tyli asked about when she was getting her dog, or her cat, five times a day. Literally!!

She would tell people matter of factly that she was getting a dog for Christmas. I would tell her that she wasn't and she would say, "Yes I am." In such a way that left no room for argument. Normally I don't let myself get so easily bullied by a 3 going on 4 year old, but the idea of a cute little kitten was growing on me.

So we did it. In hindsight we could have taken away every other present the girls got, because nothing else mattered except the kitten. Tyli and this cat had a special bond from the beginning. She held the kitten all day, and I think every day since.

She did have a couple of bad allergic reactions that made us nervous about our new family member, fortunately they went away so Midnight is apparently not going anywhere. :)

That the name the girls chose, Midnight. However Tyli did go through a name changing phase. My mom loved to visit and see what the cat's name was that day. Other names given were Black Cat, "purrrr"fect, "purrr"night, Leven (I happend to be reading one of the Leven Thumps Books and she thought it might be a suitable name.), Thump Thump (Also book related), and Thump night. And those are just the ones I can remember. Each time it was a new name, if you accidentally referred to it as Midnight you would be strongly reprimanded.

To say Tyli tortures the cat would not be lying. I've caught her dragging it around by the tail, kicking it...hard...in the stomach, burying it with toys, blankets, and towels, pushing it around in the toy shopping cart, and I even found it strapped into the toy baby stroller with a leg through each hole. For her to only come through all this with a few scratches is a testament to what a good temperament this cat has.

Even though it seems like Midnight would avoid this girl at all cost, she seems to be his favorite person. She is the only one who can call him in when he is outside. She'll stand at the door yelling "Here kitty, kitty, kitty!" At first it was a cute sweet high pitched call. Now it is a full on yell. Yet, he almost only comes to her.

Now Madi also adores the kitty. She is just at a different phase in her life and doesn't quite have the time to dote on Midnight. However she won't leave the house in the morning without kissing him goodbye and includes him in every family illustration.

We've all become a little attached and love the thing in our own little way. To see the girls so in love and see the cat so patient with them has one us over for sure!

Life's not all bad for sure!

All worth for these two!!

Why I LOVE kids

Tyli's self-portrait.
Another version.

Madi's picture of Abraham Lincoln.

I seriously love the writing at this age! This is one of Madi's stories.

This story came home with some tears from my tenderhearted girl. Apparently Madi forgot to write her name on her paper so her teacher read it out loud for someone to recognize it. The kids laughed. Can you blame them? It's funny! But apparently it wasn't meant to be funny so keep your laughter to yourself. :)


I guess that Tyli had a lot to do!!