in love

Once again, a million thanks to my wonderful, beautiful, generous, and talented photographer friend Julie Kirby for our annual family photos.

Check more of her stuff out at simplyouphoto.com.

artistic interpretation

carson was in charge of treats for FHE last night. his idea was awesome:

the individual artistic interpretation and implementation of said idea was...awesome:

(p.s. addie does this thing now when she sees a camera: she squints her eyes until they're just about closed and sticks out her lower jaw and says something that maybe could be considered a distant cousin to the word "cheese." the look is elusive -- she'll strike the pose for just a millisecond before moving on with her life, but the rest of us could not stop laughing. honestly.)

(p.p.s. i can't decide, though, if she's trying to look like me when she squints up her eyes until they're almost closed? because that's what my eyes do when i smile. nice.)

skillz

haircut: $30

color: $50

style: $15

being a patron to a salon owned & operated by your 3-year-old: priceless

FHE with the Hannis

My friend Jana's husband is gone for many weeks in the Army, and Paul's out of town this week as well, so we decided to do a combined Family Home Evening. Started the night with making personal pizzas, then activity of making the Hannis a "Tom the Thankful Turkey" (who they named "T.J." after much deliberation), fun lesson by Jana about the pilgrims and Thanksgiving, and delicious honey bars dessert.

As is the case with most of my photography, the photos included in this post don't do the night justice.

The kids at some point sneaked into Carson's room to play; I went in with the camera and asked them to show me what a happy family looks like, and Josh promptly pointed the plasma blaster gun at Payton's head, Grace posed adorably, and Carson could hardly sit up from laughing.

Paul & Jeff were missed, but it was a great time had by two moms and a slew o' kids.

carson

driving the other day, carson was quiet (as he usually is before he's about to bust out something deep or hilarious). then he yells, all worried-like, "but i just don't get how they build bicycles! HOW do they get the metal to stick together?" enter: brief description of welding. his reply: "oh. they MELT it? wow. (pause, then HYSTERICAL laughter) good thing they don't make bikes out of PLASTIC, right, mom? hahahaha!!! that would melt so much it wouldn't even stick!!!!" yep. that would be way funny, kiddo.

another driving conversation story:
carson: "mom, can i please have a minute at family home evening? i have something really important to tell everyone. it's about a prophet named king benjamin."
me: sure, carson. that would be awesome. what do you have to say about king benjamin?
carson: "i can't tell you now, mom. it's going to be a surprise for family home evening. but it's in the book of mormon, in mosiah chapter 2. and it says, 'when you are in the service of your fellowman, you are only in the service of your God.' "
me: [speechless -- did my 5-year-old really just quote a scripture?!?!]
carson: "so, it kind of goes along with my primary talk about service. you can read about it in the book of mormon. but i'd still like to share it in family home evening."

thank you, primary teachers.

introspection

sometimes i get a little bummed and down on myself because i'm not supermom, like it seems like all of you out there are (or superdad, as the case may be). i've been thinking about this a lot over the past week or so, when tons of kids were dressed up to the max in these intense, totally awesome costumes.

my kids didn't really care that much about their costumes. maybe it had something to do with having swine flu and being on our deathbeds for the week leading up to halloween. i think carson decided a day or two before halloween that he wanted to be a pirate...just like last year. layla wanted to be princess dora, a.k.a. layla herself in her favorite dressup with a tiara (i guess dora went platinum blonde this year). i put the smallest amount of effort humanly possible into their costumes. i mean, sure, i got excited with them and we made an extra stop at king's to buy carson's pirate sword and i offered to fix layla's hair super-fancy like a princess' (an offer she gently refused), but honestly. zero, lame-o effort on this mom's part.

but my kids were happy and felt dressed up. in fact, before heading off to school on friday morning, carson asked me, "mom, don't you think my costume looks like a real pirate? don't you think my costume will be the coolest at my school? (pause, then somberly) will other kids feel bad that their costumes aren't as cool as mine?" yes, maybe, probably not.

which brings me to my point of reflection/introspection: is it really laziness, or is it just simplifying an otherwise crazy life when you match the level of your kids' excitement about stuff? i've been reading some blogs out there, and some of my peers (you know who you are) are amazing and go hog-wild about every holiday and everything, which, don't get me wrong, is AWESOME and their kids are going to look back on their childhood with extreme fondness.

i sometimes worry that my kids are missing out because of my lack of proactivity and creativity. i mean, we do some stuff and i don't want to be unfair to myself--i don't sit around watching soaps all day. i'm into their lives and we go the park and we have picnics inside and outside and we do projects and we explore and play hide and seek and drink hot cocoa "just because" and we read and snuggle and have family night and play games. but i don't really do extravagant stuff, and i'm starting to worry that, on occasion, it wouldn't be a bad use of my time, for my kids' sakes. but then it comes back to my laziness.

thoughts? perspective? advice?

golden corral

last night, we attended a benefit dinner at golden corral (it's your typical buffet-style restaurant, complete with overly patterned carpet to hide the nastiness on the floor and chipped faux-ceramic plates). carson had earned a gift certificate there (for, ahem, 100% homework so far in his academic career) and was proud to present it to the cashier.

after filling his plate with the most delectable of foodstuffs (popcorn shrimp, steak fries, peaches, and pears), he sat down to munch happily while paul and layla went to fill her plate. two comments made me laugh out loud:

comment #1: wow, mom, look at this ice!!!! (pause) this sure is a faaaaaaaaancy restaurant!

comment #2: layla's been gone a long time. she must be finding some SERIOUS food.

aw, carson. i sure love this kid.