The New Years: Questions of a Six-Year-Old

"Will everything change?"

"Will it look any different?"

"Will everything end?"

Merry Christmas!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas celebration. We sure did! We enjoyed our traditional monkey bread--this year with wheat, millet, and barley grains, and also had our special Christmas morning Egg casserole--this year with quinoa. Yum!

Today was a wonderful day. We opened gifts together, explored our new presents, shared them, and played together. I love it that the girls are old enough to play games with us now--one of my favorite traditions during the holidays. We played Old Maid in the form of National Geographic animals so it was "Old Ellie" the elephant. We also played Kubb--which is a game we originally learned from Maria, the girls' Swedish aunt. While we were shopping a few days ago, we found it at a store, so Claire got it for Rhett. He was SO excited!

But I think my favorite part of the celebration was last night when we did our family gift exchange--which Claire titled "gifting." Last Saturday, we all drew names. Here is who we got:
Rhett got Basil.
I got Summer.
Summer got Pyper.
Claire got Rhett.
Pyper got me.
Basil got Claire.

Then with the money the girls got for trading in their Halloween candy at the dentist (they each got a dollar), we went to the dollar store and shopped for each other. We walked around together for a few minutes, talking about buying something that you thought the person would actually want, instead of what you would want. And then we split up. I took Summer and Claire, and Rhett took Pip and Basil.

What a beautiful experience to watch my little girls actually consider what their people would want. Summer found some dress up clothes--a wand, some fairy wings, and a princess crown--because she knew Pip would love it. (Pyper is ALWAYS dressing up.) And Claire got a bag of chips for Rhett. (His nightly snack.) I picked out a puzzle that Summer could color and passed it off to Rhett sneakily so Summer wouldn't notice. Then we snuck around the store until Rhett and the younger two had checked out. It was so much fun!

Last night, we gave each other our gifts. What a joyful evening! Everyone was excited to get the gifts, but they were even MORE excited to give them! (How exciting is that?!?)

On a side note, all week we talked about not telling other people what they are getting. It was so hard for the girls to keep it all a secret. Rhett and I would both tease, "Pyper, tell me what you got me . . ." Pip would say, "No!" Then "Pyper, I really need you to tell me." Pip would respond, "No!" or "Claire, what did you get me?" Claire: "I'm not telling." Rhett: "I just need to know right now. I won't tell anyone." Claire: "No way!" The girls even picked up on it and began teasing us too. Finally, yesterday, Pyper said, "Mom, will you tell me what my present is?" I said, "No way, Pip." She responded, "Will you tell me after I open it?" I said, "Sure." She said, "Thanks mom." :)  Love it.

Here's the list of what each person got for the other:
Rhett got little bathtub rubber duckies for Basil.
I got the color-able puzzle for Summer.
Summer got the dress-ups for Pyper.
Claire got the bag of chips--and Kubb (we made an exception) for Rhett
Pyper got some decorative rocks for me.
Basil got a glow in the dark kitty picture for Claire to color. (Yes, she actually picked it out. Rhett said they were going down an isle, and Basil reached out and grabbed it. Rhett said, "Basil, you want to get this for Claire?" She said, "Mmm-hmmm." So they did.)

It was so fun to watch each girl just bursting with excitement as they handed their gift to the person they had drawn. And the receiver, realizing the thoughtfulness of the gift, being so excited as well. There was so much hugging going on! And cheering! It was hilarious. I know these things are just dollar store "junk" that will be treasured for a while and then eventually passed on to a new life, but I loved watching it all--seeing that the girls caught a small glimpse of the joys of giving. It was my favorite part of the holiday.

The scene from Rhett's office

The other day, Rhett sent this picture to me. This is the view right from his window. Pretty amazing!

Rhett's Invention

Problem:
EVERY SINGLE DAY the girls would lose their toothbrushes. I'm not exaggerating. Every evening before bed, we would have to search and search, and finally, everyone would end up using one or two--sharing germs and spit and everything else.

Solution:
Rhett got out his drill, grabbed some stick from a broken toy, and drilled two small holes in the drawer, placing the stick in the holes. Then he drilled holes in the ends of the toothbrushes and tied a stretchy string he found to the stick and the toothbrushes.

Sure, this happens:

And this happens:

But I'm totally okay with it because for the past two weeks, we have not lost a toothbrush ONCE!!!

Bonus:

For some reason, the girls always preferred mine and Rhett's toothpaste as opposed to their's--squeezing our's everywhere, losing the lid so it got hard and crusted at the top, sucking on it for flavor, etc. Well now that they can't wander into our bathroom with their toothbrushes, they just use their own toothpaste! Woohoo!

The Things They Say . . .

*"That is so!" "Co!" (Cold), "Bobby!" (Baby) "Pop" and "Poppy" (Pip, Pippy), Shoe, Sock, Ow (Out), Owie, Too tight (too hot), Thank you, Done, Night, Daddy, Mommy, "Top," (Stop), Woah (This list was created about a month ago. Now Basil says things like, "play," and "downstairs." Yesterday, we even heard her sing, "Let it Go!)

*Pip, pointing to animals on the cover of a book: "That's a horse. And that's a cow. And I call that Chicken Nugget!"

*Us trying to convince our friends in southern Idaho to move to Liberty Lake. Me: "You could even come stay with us for a while if you needed to." Claire: "Yeah! We have really great dinners."

*Pyper and Teacher Paige having a conversation about shapes. Paige: "Pyper, what is that?" Pip: "A circle." Paige: "And what is that?" Pip: "A square." Paige: pointing to an octagon, "That's an octagon. Do you know what an octagon is?" Pyper: "Yes! It's when an octopus swims away to the top and turns around and says Bye!"

*Today, I put my dress on for church. My legs were bare, which Claire noticed and said in delight, "Oh! Mom! You're wearing white tights today?"

*Summer was singing "We wish you a Merry Christmas." She got to these lines and sang, "Oh bring us some biggy pudding." Claire interrupted her and said, "It's not BIGGY pudding. It's PIGGY pudding!" Then she paused, "Wait. What is piggy pudding???"


*Me, reading a recipe out loud while preparing dinner: "Two cloves of garlic. One tablespoon of dried basil." Pyper interrupted: "Hey! Not Basil!"

What's new . . . phone pic uploads

For Rhett's birthday, back in October, Summer drew this warning sign for Rhett, then she taped it on the post by our front door. It was warning Rhett that when he entered, she would be hiding behind the front door with a squirt gun and she'd squirt him. Hence, the "Do not entr."

 This was a late-start morning, and Summer was doing the monkey bars before the neighbor girls arrived to walk to school with her. The clouds were incredible, so I got a shot of it all.

Pip and Basil have been doing a lot together lately. This is the first time I've actually seen them break away from the older two to do their own thing. Usually it's all four playing, or all four fighting, but every once in a while now, the two older play, and the two younger wander off together to do something else. I love watching the interactions.

 I love these sticks that Claire's school has. Summer wrote her name with them when she was in preschool, and now here is Claire. So creative!

Grandpa Barney came to visit us. We loved it! I thought this picture was so sweet and tender. Basil was already asleep, and Grandpa was looking at books with the girls. 

Our first snow! This is what they woke up to.

Summer's first grade class was focusing on nonfiction reading and writing. This was a piece they had to write. Each student picked something they knew about, then wrote three things about it. Some chose jellyfish, sharks, soccer, cooking, etc. Guess what Summer chose??? I love it!!!

 And here again is Pip and Basil. Basil was sucking on a candy necklace, letting Pyper bite some from it too. Love it!

And . . . I got my hair cut!

Wow. I had Claire take a picture of it before the cut. It's so long! I love long hair, but it's been feeling heavy lately, so I've wanted a change.

And here's the after picture--all curled up. It's just a little below my shoulders, but when it's curled, it sits right on top. I really like it. It's still thick--something I'll never be able to change, but I like the new look. 

Rhett flew out to Georgia for some work, and when he got there, he realized one of the guys he needed to talk to lived in Florida. So the client in Georgia sent Rhett to Florida in the client's private jet.

Rhett got to be co-pilot. How cool!

Love these girls!

Happy Halloween!

This year, Halloween was a WEEK full of festivities. We had the ward party, dad's work party, Summer's school party, and then THE BIG NIGHT of trick-or-treating.

It was exhausting.

But SOOOO much fun. 

Summer wanted to be a peacock. (A HUGE thank you to my mom and sister for helping me put this costume together. I think it turned out great!)

Claire wanted to be Elsa from Frozen. 

Pyper had a cute little skeleton outfit, but came busting out with our dress up Rosetta costume on, so she was Rosetta, the flower fairy this year.

And Basil was a spider (five bucks from Walgreens!).

This was when I told Basil we were going to go trick-or-treating.

Just kidding. She had no idea what that even meant. But she learned quick!

I think I got a few extra pictures of Summer, just because I was pretty proud of how well the costume turned out.

By Friday afternoon, I was so beat from the festivities that I was about ready to put the kids to bed at 3:30. But how could we pass up getting to use our AWESOME reversible halloween and easter bags? I'd been wanting to make some healthy dinner in preparation for the sugar rush, but was too exhausted, so I did the next best thing and threw a pot of Bean and Bacon soup on the stove. We had that and apple slices for dinner when Rhett got home, then headed out to complete our week.

Trying for a group shot . . .

 At about the third house, Basil learned how to say "trick-or-treat." It was hilarious. As soon as the door would open, she would yell the words, then push and shove her way to the front to grab handfuls  of candy. Most people let her take as much as she wanted, just because it was so stinkin' cute. I think her bag is much heavier than the other girls'!

 

The first few years of Halloween, we'd give the girls a few pieces of candy each day so there wasn't a sugar overload (while Rhett and I snacked on it when they were sleeping . . .). Then one year, we just laid it all out there on the table and let them eat it all. This year, it's a little different. We are letting the girls be in charge of their own candy, but when I say they need to stop, then they need to stop. We've talked about how our bodies give us clues when we need to stop as well, so we don't feel sick (which has happened twice already with Summer, and it's only the morning of November 1st!). If I notice the girls snacking when I've already said they need to stop, that's when I'll take the candy away, and they lose their chance of being in charge of it.

So they are snacking and munching--and they get to--until Monday evening when Kidds Dental does the candy buy back where the girls will take their candy and exchange it for money. Then all the candy is shipped to the troops overseas.

We'll see how it goes this year.
Hope everyone had a fun celebration!