Sweet Melliflous Voices

One of my favorite sounds is overhearing Xander and Elodie playing when they don't realize I'm listening. This is a frequent occurence and I just love it. One conversation sounded like it was getting a bit heated, but when I came in to see what was wrong, they already had it worked out. Elodie informed me, "I'm not going to say 'beautiful.'" I reassured her that there was nothing wrong with that word, but she told me, "I'm going to say, 'cool.' That's a cool truck." Apparently Xander took issue with her when she described the passing truck as a "beautiful truck." This led to their heated debate about what words can be used to describe boy stuff. I guess it sunk in--I noticed that today, when Elodie got Xander to play "The Bag Game" as she dubbed it, although she called her pink flower bag "beautiful," she was careful to call Xander's bucket "handsome, handsome, handsome" as she handed it to him.

As Uncle Milan (AKA Brat Child) will attest, it's pretty fun to hear Elodie play the mom, too. She really seemed to relish the chance to discipline her doll Erika the other day. "Erika, I have to put hot pepper on your tongue!" Then Elodie turned to me, nodding her head, "she said S-T-U-..." Hmm, guess what had happened just that morning when Elodie shouted at Xander, "You're stupid and I don't like you!" Yowza, that girl knows how to use her words! Now we're working on word choice and tone of voice! She toned it down a bit later that day when she was mad at Xander again, "You are mean and selfish!" On the bright side, at least she didn't say S-T-U again. And at least she had said "don't like" rather than "hate." And at least she's getting plenty of chances to learn the words to great songs like the Builder song "to speak with kindness in my home," and "Jesus said love everyone, treat them kindly, too," and "I'm trying to be like Jesus, I'm following in His ways."

Speaking of Elodie singing, she just loves to sing her own made up songs. They go on and on, occasionally incorporating phrases from "real" songs, but mostly, they're just her ramblings. Tonight, she whipped out a new one at family prayer. She was saying the prayer, and in the middle, she just started to sing it like one of her Elodie originals. "I'm so, so, so graaaatefullll that I have a mooom and a daaaad!" Oh, my little Elodie! What's not to love?

Qu Eenglix Laangwij

Ever sins Zander storted skwixeeng leterz tuugeqer intuu werds a fyuu munqs ugoo, II'v bin qeenkeeng qat Eenglix speleeng needz a cumpleet ooverhol. Az Zander haz triid tuu riit werdz funetiklee, I'v nootist qat hee'z on tuu sumqeeng.

Ferst uv ol, wee ol noo qat qu speleeng ov vauwul saundz iz unprudiktubel. I hav u suluuxun! Wen qaar iz just wun vauwul, it maaks qu xoort vauwul saund qat wee ol noo and luv. Dubel vauwels wil nau maak qu long vauwul saund.

Sins "c" iz tootulee reedundunt with its sumtiimz [s] sumtiimz [k] nonsens, "c" wil nau maak qu saund foormerlee maad bii "ch." Cildren evereewaar wil fiind it for simpler. "G" wil noo longer maak the saund olredee taaken kaar uv bii "j." Similerlee, "s" wil not be ulaud to saa [z]. And "q" iz raqer yuusless sins it kan kwiklee bee reeplaast. "Q" will nau maak qu saund preeveeuslee maad bii "th." "X" kan eezilee bee kuverd bii "ks," "gz," and "z," soo "x" wil reeplaas "sh." Wee wil need to canj qu alfubet song, tuu. Konsununts wil bee called bii qaar saund folood bii [ee]. Foor egzampul, wen yuu see "q," yuu xud kol it "thee" (riten in oold Eenglix). Qees caanjus maa taak sum geteeng yuust tuu, but kidz and fooreners uliik xud upreexeeaat it in qu long run!

To the rescue!

A young damsel in distress fluttered downstairs, frantically announcing the presence of a spider in the bathroom. Super Xander courageously followed her upstairs, promising to take care of it straightaway. After squishing it with a square of TP, Super Xander boasted dramatically, "I am glad that I saved the world!"

Little Dexter's Birthday

We celebrated Dexter's birthday tonight. There were certainly a few tears, especially while we watched the movie I made of Dexter's little life, but mostly I just enjoyed remembering. What a precious gift he is. I am so glad that he got to come to our family and that I had the privilege of providing him with the physical body that he needed for his eternal progression. How deeply and inexpressibly grateful we are for our knowledge of God's eternal plan. And how determined we feel to keep our covenants that we might be worthy of the great promises! Families can be together forever!

The Joy of the Season

I think my favorite moment of the season is our Christmas Eve Nativity program. Xander and Elodie were so eager to be Mary and Joseph, and of course Aaron made a great donkey.We had nine adults and our two little kids at our house for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, which means Xander and Elodie got plenty of attention and plenty of presents. Xander and Elodie can't get enough of their aunts and uncles. We were especially glad to have Mitchell and girl Erin come into town to celebrate with us.Another unmatchable part was watching my kids' pure delight on Christmas morning. I just loved hearing their shouts of joy as they came downstairs and saw what "Santa" had given them. Both of them are very excitable children to say the least! Xander's exclamations were just as exuberant for his 10 pack of socks as they were for his space shuttle with rocket boosters. And Elodie's excitement over the candy in her stocking surpassed any of the gifts she received. I love how easy it is to please little children.

We certainly felt the joy of the season this year! Our knowledge that the Babe of Bethlehem is the Savior of the World has been deepened and reaffirmed. The gift of His Atonement blesses us daily. We are so grateful for our little family and for our large and loving extended family! Thank you all for your examples, love, and support!

Take your Hobby and Run with it!

I love cooking.
I love baking.
I love Christmas treat making.
I just finished making candy cane cookies to eat with hot chocolate after Christmas caroling. We've gone to Melayna's twice to use her stove (because our stove is acting rather unpredictable of late) to make peanut brittle and carmels.
I've made two batches of toffee on our own stove (it needs high temps and our stove still does that; it's medium and low that the units are periodically boycotting).
We've rolled peanut butter dough into buckeyes.
I've rolled and dipped coconut balls.
I baked Mexican Wedding Cakes.
We've covered the carmels and a pecan in chocolate to make turtles.
And I have all of the ingredients waiting to be turned into a few other Christmas goodies.

I've been enjoying my kitchen hobbies so much that Aaron had to make this rather reasonable suggestion one morning. "How about we get the house all clean and hold off on making any more treats until that's done? And then we can clean up the mess from candy-making right after, and the house will still be clean." Not a bad idea. Any hope of cleaning becoming as much of a hobby for me as baking?

NOT The Man of My Dreams

Last night, in my dream, Aaron was a full-time missionary. We were married, but he also had a missionary companion, as missionaries so often do. We were at his parents house down in Texas. He got a phone call that his dad was stranded somewhere, so he and his companion left to go rescue him. While I was at home, awaiting their return, I began making dinner with Rachael Ray, of course. She was showing me how to make her favorite chicken enchilada bake. We mixed in the cream cheese and salsa, and it looked so good that I couldn't wait to taste it, so I grabbed a big spoonful and popped it in. The sauce tasted great, but I had popped a chunk of raw chicken into my mouth, so I spit it out, disgusted. Rachael Ray seemed not to notice my mistake, since she was busily pulling some strange looking things out of the freezer. They resembled Antarctican Birds, but surely I must be mistaken? She layered them in a huge pyramid on a baking dish and poured the chicken enchilada mixture over them. When I asked her what they were, Rachael Ray was suddenly Samoan, and she couldn't remember the word in English. "Are they...penguins?" I asked. "Oh, yes, penguins, yes, yes," she confirmed as she put the concoction in the oven. Hmm, is that a Samoan delicacy? The so-called chicken enchilada bake was almost done, but still no sign of Aaron. It was only supposed to take a few minutes; where could he be? I was getting pretty annoyed that he was so late and hadn't had the courtesy to call, so I gave him a call and it went straight to his voicemail. Just for me, he had recorded a special greeting, telling me where he was. "Some guy gave us these awesome tickets for the football game tonight, and they are second row seats, so we couldn't pass it up! Don't expect us home; we'll be at the game." I was livid! Missionaries are not allowed to go to football games! And especially not on a Sunday, which it was! How could my husband think that this was remotely OK? I tried to calm myself down by convincing myself that he was kidding. It must have been his idea of a good joke to get my goat. Just then, Aaron called me back and sincerely denied that it was a joke. He completely ignored my reminders about it being Sunday, assuring me that if he had asked, he was sure his mission president would have said it was OK, that it was really no big deal. Which, of course, made it a very big deal indeed. At that point, I woke up, still feeling irritated at my sweet husband, who was sleeping innocently beside me.

For some reason, Aaron is almost always a jerk in my dreams. That's why I lovingly tell him when I wake up that I'm so glad he's not the man of my dreams.