Cute Corriney

The other day I was changing her diaper and said to Corrine:

"Oh, Corrine, you stink, pe-yu!"

And she replied with a laugh:

"Yah, pee me!"

If I call her honey or sweetpie or something, she says, "No, I Corrine". She can say her whole name now, it used to come out Rine.

She is fiercely independent, and if she wants to "hold you" ( how she asks to be held) and I don't come and get her, she gets mad. I will tell her to just come here and I will hold her, but she wants me to come get her. Even if it is only 3 feet away. So she will just stand there, screaming at me, holding out her arms, but won't walk to me. We have this battle of wills almost daily.

She woke from her nap on Sunday, and we cuddled on my bed before we went downstairs. She was talking softly, and looked at her fingers. She had cut her finger earlier, she called it a "poky". So she examines her fingers, and looking at the wrong finger, whispers "Where my poky go? Where is it?" Then, seeing it on the correct finger, says "OH, THERE'S my poky, I find it!" She then looked at the picture of Jesus in our room, and started talking about "Jesus. I love Jesus. Jesus come home. " And something about God I couldn't quite decipher.

She is such a cute little girl. I love two year olds!

Slime!

A few weeks ago, we made slime. It was really easy and fun! All the girls liked it, which is hard to accomplish with the age spread I have in my kids.


You start out by mixing the Borax into water, then mixing the glue into water. After the glue is mixed in, you put in food coloring, then add in the Borax and water mixture. At this point it gets slimey!

The texture is really gross right now. It even made me wonder if we had messed up somehow. Corrine refused to touch it. She was thoroughly grossed out. You have to take out the slimey mess and work with it to get it to the right consistency. All my other girls had no problem with this, but Corrine was disgusted. She would try, then shudder and pull her hand quickly away, while looking at her sisters like they were nuts.



After you get it to the right consistency, it is lots of fun. The girls played with it for over a hour. Michaela figured out that we had made "flarp". If you haven't had the joy of discovering that product, it is just slime in a little container. When you put your finger into it, it distributes the air inside and makes a noise. You can guess what noise! Well, our slime did that too when placed in a cup.

We had so much fun with it that when the Merrells came to visit, we made some with them too!

Corrine wouldn't touch it at first even after it wasn't so slimy. I kept trying to show her it wasn't nasty, but she wouldn't touch it. Finally, I gave her a cup and put the slime in it, and after that she was fine.


No fear!

This was really fun and cheap, you should try it!

Slime ( recipe taken from Our Best Bites)

1 teaspoon borax powder

1 1/2 C water, divided

4 oz (1/2 C) Elmer's glue, clear or white

food coloring

Add borax powder to 1 cup of water and stir to dissolve. Set aside. Pour glue into a medium mixing bowl and add 1/2 C water. Add a few drops of food coloring until desired color is reached and then stir to mix glue solution until smooth. Pour the borax mixture into the glue mixture and watch the solids start to form. Stir for a few moments and then use your hands to gather the mass. The mixture will be very soft and wet. Keep kneading until it firms up and feels dry. Discard excess liquid in bowl. The more you knead and play with the slime the firmer it will become. Store in a ziplock bag or air tight container and the slime will keep indefinitely.

Halloween 2010

We had a lot of fun this Halloween! On Friday, I took the girls to a shopping place called Gardeners Village. It is a neat place, I think I have been there years before because it looked really familiar. Anyway, they decorate for Halloween with dozens of huge, animated witches. Since Ava was a witch this year, I decided we needed to go check it out! It was totally packed that day, and I woke up not feeling well. I pressed on, however, not wanting to disappoint my kiddos. Boy, did I feel yucky all day! By about lunch time I was questioning my dedication, but we were an hour away from home and still had to go to Jason's office to trick or treat in downtown SLC. Uhg. I made it though. And we still had fun!

Michaela was so excited to find Harry Potter things in one store. They had some pretty neat stuff. They even had a sorter hat!



Here is Ava in front of one of the witches. This one was riding her bike in the sky!


Here is all the girls in front of another witch.

After touring the shops, (me praying not to puke the whole time) and eating lunch (the girls anyway!) we were off to Jason's office. They have trick or treating every year. For the last few years, we have done it at the Poky office. It is huge here! 70 different stations, and the big wigs gave out full sized candy bars. I really felt bad by this point.


This shot is for the grandmas. Look at that cute chubby giraffe butt!


Corrine found another giraffe at the office. There was a ton of people there, it was very crowded. When she saw him, she walked right up to him and started petting him, poking the giraffe nose, and hugged him. I wish I could have known what she was thinking!


On Saturday, we had the trunk or treat, then went trick or treating after. Here is our witchy Ava! She made a great witch. She even had an evil laugh!

Payden was a girlie pirate. She put her costume together herself, even painted the design on the shirt. I thought it turned out very cute.


And of course, Corrine was an adorable, pudgy giraffe.


This is our bishop giving the girls candy. Michaela stayed home; she wasn't feeling well. Corrine really got the trick or treat idea. At every stop, she would say trick or treat in her loud, clear voice, then say thank you! It was adorable.


This is at Jon and Carrie's car.

It started to rain right when the trunk or treat was wrapping up, and it rained pretty hard for a while. So Jason took an umbrella and out they went, into the rain in pursuit of more candy! They only went to a few houses, just for the experience. Payden went with a friend from school.




Michaela stayed home and did her face and hair for our trick or treaters.


I must warn you, the next to pictures are somewhat disgusting.

Each child has this many full sized candy bars:


And as per our family norm, the girls claimed a few candies they wanted to make sure they got, then the rest went into a communal pot. We had to get a new pot. Never have we had this much excess of candy. Oh my.

I warned you. That cauldron is huge, and it is full. I put Ninny behind it for perspective. This will last us for quite a while, though, as our kids only get a small treat after lunch and dinner. They are not allowed to go at it at will. I won't have to buy treats for about a year!
Then on Sunday, we popped popcorn and made wassail and drank it while we watched Babies. It was a nice night. A nice Halloween!

A new name

We have a new name for pumpkin seeds in our house. For some reason, Corrine has them mixed up with the pumpkin patch, so that is what she calls them: pumpkin patches. We had some really yummy pumpkin patches this year. The girls all love to have pumpkin patches for a snack. We are almost out of pumpkin patches. Our pumpkin patches will be missed! Can't wait until next year when we can make some more pumpkin patches.

Repetition

I was reading a blog this morning where a woman was discussing how often the Savior repeated himself when teaching. How often He said the same things over and over. Maybe He said it a little differently here and there, but basically it was the same things over. And over.

This is good for us. We are told that hearing the "plain and precious" truths over and over will help us keep perspective while living in this world, help us on the straight and narrow. I have had clients complain that they hate going to church because they hear the same message. Over and over. To me, that is comforting; an unchanging, a constant I can count on in this unstable and often unpleasant world. In fact, I am looking forward to going to church this morning. I know exactly what I will hear, I know I need to hear it, and I know I will come home feeling refreshed and uplifted; buoyed for the week to come.

So repetition is good. It is reminder. If we didn't hear it weekly, (and daily in scripture study) we might lose sight of our goal, of what is important.

So.

I think of how often I tell my children the same things. Over and over.

Put your dirty clothes in the hamper.

Hang up your backpack.

Put the dog food pitcher away.

Clean up after yourself in the kitchen.

Don't yell at your sister.

Clean your room.

Brush your teeth.

Say your prayers.

Do your chores.


You get the idea. I say these things 3 or more times daily to each child old enough to do them. Usually it is about the third time a day, or after about a week of saying the same thing at the same time that I get sick of it. I mean really, how often do they need to be told? Can't they remember these things on their own? I get so exasperated with this process. I get SO TIRED of repeating myself.

It just might be that this repetition will benefit them someday; I will have drilled into them a sense of cleanliness and organization that they will take with them when they move out.

Why can't they get it while they still live here?

Anyway, after pondering the parallel of the Saviors repetition with that of parenting, I think I can have more patience. After all, how may times has the Savior reminded me of something I have been told over and over? Something I needed to be told again? Even as an adult, I am still working on those basic Christlike attributes and will be for the rest of my mortal life. And where would I be if Christ threw in the towel because I exasperated him so much? So, here's to another week of me reminding my children of the same things I always do, and to me being reminded of the things I need to know.

Happy Sabbath!

Pumpkin Fun

We started out with our usual dinner in a pumpkin. I had to laugh, because the pumpkin we picked up for our dinner was a perfect carving pumpkin. Very thin with little gunk inside. Not so with our other pumpkins! They were very thick walled, and lots of gunk!



Corrine didn't want to touch the gunk. At all. She got grossed out watching us touch it! Look at her face here:

What she would do was scoop out one seed at a time with an ice cream scoop. Not sure why she had an ice cream scooper. But it worked for her!


Nope. Not doing it. You can't make me. Also, ignore the laundry in the corner.

Everyone got to work creating their masterpieces.


Ava had drawn her design for her pumpkin days before and was so excited to unveil her creation when we sat down. She kept saying "you guys are gonna love it, its so cool!" When she showed it to us, we oohed and ahhed, then convinced her that something similar but slightly easier to carve would be better. Here is her design:

Very creative, but that would have been a doozy!


We ended up with some great ones! Michaela was creative and used the stem for her nose, it looks really neat. Corrine is infatuated with Minnie Mouse, so that is what hers turned out to be. Ava settled on an easier design and it looks fantastic. I did leaves, Payden did a skull. Jason's creation is our name and year. Such fun!

Pumpkin picking 2010

The quest for the perfect pumpkin took place in Utah this year, and I must say I find their pumpkins superior to Idaho's.

This friendly little guy was ready and waiting to spook us on our hunt. ( This is a picture of on the way back; since we knew they were there they didn't jump out, just waved hello!)

Throwing hay is a fun fall pastime.


Ah, here they are, the cream of the crop. Yeah, the pumpkins are pretty good too!


Ava tried so hard to pick hers up, but I think it weighed almost as much as she did!

Yeah, a Corriney sized one!

Payden's perfect pick.

Here it is mom!

It was hard to find a pumpkin that wasn't perfect in this field. They were all good shaped, good colored gems. Here is mine.

Jason found his within 5 feet of the tractor!

We were treated to a hay ride out the to field. Our driver was funny and entertaining. He really was proud of that tractor!

Some people just shouldn't take pictures. Oh well, we are represented!



The kids were so excited to do this. This is one of our favorite traditions.

The weather was great, and it was a fun evening. After we got our pumpkins, we went and got a pizza for dinner. Yeah for fall!