January 2013

Kai develops an appetite

           Another year and life continues on.  The boys will soon be eating us out of house and home.  When Daniel tucks each of the kids into bed each night, he always asks them three questions:  1) What was something nice that you did for someone else today?  2) What was the best thing that happened to you today?  and 3) What was the worst thing that happened to you today?  When Daniel asked Kai the last question recently, Kai’s response was that the worst thing that had happened to him that day was that two of his favorite food items had been served for dinner (sesame chicken and wontons) and that he didn’t feel that his stomach was big enough to hold as much of both of those items as he would have liked!  I wish that was the worst thing to happen to me in my day!

Kai needs to eat lots of food, apparently, so that he can haul Quin around on the sled in the backyard for extended periods of time.

Kai shoots a muskrat (but does not develop an appetite for muskrat)

            Speaking of Kai, he shot his first muskrat this month.  We didn’t get a picture because the muskrat froze to the bed of the truck and we couldn’t get it unstuck for a couple of days.  Kai decided that a worthwhile use of his allowance money was to pay to have the muskrat hide tanned.  I think the whole proposition sounds disgusting; but, as long as he pays for it himself and keeps it in his room he can do what he wants. 

Due to the fact that three-day old frozen muskrats don't make the best photographic subjects, I have substituted a picture of Daniel with another member of the Rodentia species when he was about the same age as Kai.

McCall tries to find the perfect shoe, has her head checked out and does some insane skiing

            Just as the boys are developing their appetites, McCall is busily working away on her sense of fashion.  Her fetish at the moment is shoes.  I’ll admit that I’m walking on eggshells a bit with this one.  If McCall comes up and asks me what shoes she should wear with a given outfit, I might say, “I think just about any pair of shoes would look great with that.”  Wrong answer.  Or I could say, “I think your metallic cowgirl boots would look fabulous with that shirt.”  Wrong answer.  I’ve even tried, “I’m a bit nervous to give you a shoe suggestion because you usually don’t like what I have to say.”  Also the wrong answer.  We’re working on the shoe thing. 

            McCall had a scary moment this month when she went ice skating with the YW and YM in the ward.  At some point in time, McCall fell down and hit her head on the ice.  The next morning when she woke up she was extremely dizzy and fell over three times.  We rushed her to the ER and they gave her a CT scan.  Everything checked out ok but I think they forgot to check the part of her brain that makes her highly reactive to incorrect fashion suggestions. 

            I took McCall and her friend, Morgan Hurst, to Grand Targhee this month and was blown away by how good the two of them are becoming at tackling insane ski runs.  Those two girls will ski any black diamond and not even bat an eye while doing it.  I’m not kidding.  I only know of a few women who can ski as good as they can.

Why I love Texas

            Can I add a little sidenote here about my dog?  I love Texas.  She’s gotten to a stage of her life where she’s highly enjoyable.  She sleeps in the house at night now and I absolutely love her.  Daniel wasn’t so thrilled to have the dog sleeping in the house, but I claimed it was for “guard dog” reasons and eventually got my way.  

Quin celebrates National Popcorn Day

Quin has discovered the convenient fact that anytime she has a food item she doesn’t really want to eat, she can take it to the dog and the dog will always eat it for her.  How amazing is that?  The other day I gave Quin a bowl of popcorn.  When she got towards the end and was full, she climbed up on a chair and dropped popcorn piece by piece down to Texas.  I heard her laughing from the other room and walked in to find the two of them having a grand time finishing off the bowl of popcorn.

            Quin’s vocabulary is expanding to two-word phrases.  Her best phrase is “Thank you!” and it’s so cute when she says it that Daniel and I give in almost every time and hand her another piece of cheese or gum or whatever the item was that she was telling us thank you for.  Early this past month, Quin walked up to Kai, pulled a book that he was reading out of his hands and said, “No book!”  Then she ran and got one of her board books and made him read her book. 

Jed & Wyatt become karate masters

            Jed and Wyatt have spent the month dressed in black.  Both of them are obsessed with a new Disney Channel show called “Kickin’ It!”  It’s a karate show and the two of them are convinced that they’re both becoming karate superstars.  As soon as they get home from school they’ll run and put on their ninja suits or karate-robe and belt get-ups and then start running drills.  I’ll hear Wyatt telling Jed, “You’ve got to kick higher Jed!  Work until you can kick up to here.  Try kicking my arm.  Higher, higher…”  And so it continues.  We’ve had a few mishaps.  They’ve kicked each other a few times in their drills – Jed accidentally kneed himself in the eye a few days ago.  But overall, they’re highly enjoying their new pastime.

Carson...sugar & spice and all things nice

            Towards the end of the month, we had a FHE lesson on the Plan of Salvation.  Afterwards, Carson came up to me and said, “So Mom, when I was up in heaven before I came down to Earth, did Heavenly Father and Jesus babysit me?”  Carson is always coming up with the funniest comments and making us laugh. 

Carson’s big moment this month was learning how to ski.  I took the all the kids except Quin – plus three of their friends - to Jackson Hole Mountain Resort for a day of skiing on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

I swear, out of the five kids I’ve taught to ski so far, Carson worked me over the most.  Carson loves to be a princess, but out on the slopes she was a drama queen!  I’m pretty stubborn, but I was about to throw in the towel.  Finally, after much coercion, I got her up and going.  For the next couple of hours it was kind of touch and go.  Remember the scene from the Disney movie Rapunzel where Rapunzel has just left the tower for the first time?  In one scene she’s skipping and singing and saying it’s the best day of her life and then, in the next scene, she’s on the ground in tears saying it’s the worst day of her life and why oh why did she ever leave the tower?  Well, that was my little platinum blond princess on the ski slopes.  One moment she was sprawled out on the snow crying and saying, “I hate skiing – take me home!”  Five minutes later she was asking, “Mom, this is so much fun!  When can we come skiing again?”  Three-year olds are not known for their attention spans and apparently skiing is another category where this applies.  Carson would be cruising down the bunny hill and look up to a jet in the sky and say, “Mom, where do you think that jet is going?”  My response?  “Good question Carson.  But aren’t you a little more concerned about where YOU are going?  Like the fact that you’re headed straight towards that tree?”  It was like that all day long – birds, other skiers, buildings – she’ll have to ski with an escort until she can learn to stay a little more focused.  By the end of the day, Carson was convinced that she was the best on the slopes – a fact that she was not afraid to share with any of the other kids.  Her reasoning was that all of the kids had to use “pogo sticks” (ski poles) when they skied and she did not.  Also (and this shows what happens when you have three older brothers), she mentioned to me on the chairlift, “Mom, sometimes when I fall down and get hurt, I just tell myself, “Cowboy up!” and then I stand up and keep skiing.” 

            January 25^th marked the end of duck season.  A sad day for Daniel and his hunting buddy, Rhett – a great day for me and Rhett’s wife, Annalise.  On the last day of duck season each year, Annalise and I make the boys take us out on a date.  We get to choose everything.  This year Annalise and I chose sushi, cupcakes and the new Bond movie, Skyfall.  It was a great night. 

            Lest you feel bad for Daniel not being able to go duck hunting three times a week (or more!) now that duck season has ended, you can stop your worrying.  We also celebrated National Pie Day on January 23^rd and I made that man a pie.  All is well.

P.S. Check out our pics (below) from Celebrating the Minor Holidays of 2013!