Jokes from the road...

We're on our way home from baby Elliot's blessing in Idaho, and Sam has been entertaining us with some awesome jokes of his own invention: Q: Where does a crazy caterpillar sleep? A: A CUCKOO-n! Q: What do you call a giant mushroom? A: Hufungus! His sense of humor has definitely reached the next stage of evolution.

Happy New Year's! (a little late...)

Hello, family and friends!  I am solemnly resolving to post more on our family blog this year (probably the same as I did last year, but what can you do), so to start off I am posting videos the interviews we did with Sam, Josh, and Eliza on New Year's Eve.  We thought it would be a very fun new tradition to start, so we can see how they change from year to year.  And since none of them are particularly camera shy, there was fun to be had all around.  Please pardon my annoyed whispering at Eliza throughout...

First up, here's Sam:



And now, Josh:



And finally, Eliza, who didn't even want to wait for Dan to start asking questions before she jumped in. :)  I'm not sure if others can understand her very well yet, so let me know if I need to add subtitles.  Dan did a great job of repeating everything she said, though.



These kids crack us up!  Hope you all are having a great start to your new year -- we love you!

The Binky Fairy

Now that Eliza has reached the ripe old age of 3 and her attachment to the binky did not seem to be waning, we decided it was time to go cold turkey.  I had planned on taking her to the store and letting her pick out something fun that she could trade me for the binky, but we still anticipated that it was going to be a struggle.  Probably something along the lines of WWIII + a string of sleepless nights.  I mourned that it would probably be the end of naptime.  But my brilliant aunt Glynis told me about the "binky fairy" -- an idea from the Super Nanny herself.  The gist is this: the kid gathers up all their binkies and puts them in a jar, and then the Binky Fairy comes to get them and give them to the babies who need binkies, leaving a surprise in their place.  I didn't know if Eliza would really understand this storyline, but she was all over it.  I really shouldn't have been surprised -- two of her favorite things right now are fairies and babies.  So she was immediately on board with anything to help babies and completely enchanted by the idea of the Binky Fairy.

Much to our surprise, she felt asleep quickly (after a few more reassurances that the Binky Fairy was indeed going to give her binkies to the poor little babies that didn't have any binkies) and slept almost entirely through the night.  She did wake up about a half-hour before the usual time, crying for her binky. We went in and reminded her about the binky fairy scenario and she reluctantly fell back asleep.  A little later we could hear her crying it her room and it sure sounded like she was saying "Why? Whyyyyyyy?!"

But when she was finally ready to wake up and she saw that the Binky Fairy had replaced her binkies with a jar full of candy (pink Whoppers, to be exact) and a Princess Tiana doll, she was ecstatic.  And she has done terrific ever since.  So yay for the Binky Fairy!

That leads, however, to what I think is the funniest part of the whole story. Early Saturday morning, before she had come down to find her treats, Sammy and I were in the kitchen.  The following is our conversation:

Sam (hesistantly): "Mom, I don't think there's a Binky Fairy."
Me: "You're right."
Sam:  "It's just you, huh?"
Me: "Yup, I just went to Walmart last night after you guys went to bed."
--pause--
Sam: "Is it the same with the tooth fairy?"
Me: "What do you think?"
Sam: "I think it's just you... is that right?"
Me: "Do you want to know?"
--pause--
Sam: "Not until I'm done losing teeth."

He IS a smart kid. :)

Black and white do go together

I made this with only pencil!!!!

Isn't it amazing? Try it somtime. It's very good

exersize. my favorite section is the one with the veiws at the corners.

I did it at church today.

I hope you like it!!!

Stake Art Show projects!

As you may know, I'm on the Stake Cultural Arts Committee for our stake. We do projects twice a year, and it's usually been a performance-based project like a play. For instance, last fall I directed My Turn on Earth. This time around, though, we wanted to try something totally different that would get a whole new group of people involved, so we decided to do an art show. It ended up being a huge success! We had a whole cultural hall full of wonderful things from stake members of every age, and lots and lots of people came to see it. There was such a beautiful spirit, too. I am hoping we can make it a regular thing, because it was just awesome.

I wanted to share the projects that Sam and Josh and I did for the art show (you can click on them to see them bigger):

Here is Sam's colored pencil drawing of Jesus, based on the "Christ in the Red Robe" painting:

This is Joshy's watercolor painting of Jesus. He was not happy with the final product because he didn't think it was as good as Sam's, but I think it's wonderful. Josh really loves to paint.

This is my mixed media canvas:

I am taking an online class called "The SheArt Workshop" where I learned these techniques, and I think I'm hooked. I really loved creating this and adding so many layers of color and meaning. Here's what I wrote on my card:

"I love this quote from our prophet.  The future’s uncertainty can seem scary sometimes, but our faith in Jesus Christ and His love makes it possible for us to move forward with our families  in joy and gratitude and hope!"

One amazing thing that happened -- a man who works as a consultant for an art publishing company came to the art show with his daughter (who lives in our stake) and loved it so much that he wants to show it to a buyer at Deseret Book to possibly sell prints of it! Holy cow. I can't imagine it would actually happen, but it was awfully flattering!

Ctrl I 'o' rama!

I did this on paint with hardly ever adding colors. Isn't it cool?

I put on so many colors by pressing Ctrl I. Why don't

you try it some time?

Joshy's Conversation Hearts

Today Josh had a little packet of conversation hearts and was happily nibbling away at them. All of a sudden he shouted out:

"This one is from Olivia! It says, "MARRY ME. To Josh, From Olivia!"
Me: "Wow! And what would yours say, if you could make one to give to Olivia?"
Josh: "SOON. To Olivia, From Josh."
Me: "Soon?"
Josh: "Yes, as soon as we're grown-ups... Oh, that one was my favorite! I'm eating all my favorite ones first and leaving the dumb ones for last..."
... a minute or so goes by...
Josh: "Oh, no! This one says: 'DON'T marry Olivia! To Josh, from SAM!' SAM HILL!!!"
Me: "Oh, dear. What will do you about that?"
Josh (with great firmness): "I will marry Olivia, I WILL!"
Me: "But why would Sam not want you to marry Olivia?"
Josh: "I don't know, but I'm afraid to tell him that I WILL marry her. He might hit me..."
Me: "But why? I thought Sam and Olivia were friends. Why would he be mad if you got married?"
Josh: "I don't know! Maybe he wants to become an evil scientist... and KILL Olivia!"

A part of me knows that I really shouldn't encourage such romantic feelings in such a young and tender little heart, but Josh and Olivia are just so darn cute I can't help myself!