Out of the Mouth of Babes

Brooke just informed me that saying, "Whatever", is indeed both nice and okay to say. I was explaining to her what jobs she had left to do on her job chart, when she looked at me and said, "Whatever." (very nonchalantly I might add) I of course immediately got my stern mama face, and said, "What did you say to me?" Brooke, without skipping a beat, explained, "Mama, it is nice and okay to say Whatever, you just can't say 'Whatever Losers'; it is mean to call someone loser, and no one in our family is a loser." That's good to know, but I still don't want my three year old saying 'Whatever' to me; we will be nipping that in the bud, quick!

You may be asking yourself, what pray tell is all over Emma's face? The simple answer is baby powder, which of course leads to the next question, Why does she have baby powder on her face? Let me direct you to the following picture, and I am sure the answer will come quickly.

Yes, Braden and Brooke were involved; I am sure you had already guessed that part of the equation. I walked into Braden's room on Monday night to see if they were ready for Family Home Evening when I discovered two hoodlums shaking powder all over Braden's bedroom. Their explanation, "We wanted to make Braden's room soft." What?! I counted to ten, tried to stay calm, and went and retrieved the vacuum and of course, my camera. I thought, 'I'll take a picture in the event that I do laugh about this later, and I'm sure someone (not me) will find this funny now.'

The Lip Gloss Encounter

Here is Emma looking cute, adorable, and innocent, but she is bored; she must find mischief to get into, what will she do next? Then it happens, she sets her sights on Brooke and the lip gloss Brooke is continually applying to her already blindingly shiny lips.

Emma makes her move; she grabs for the lip gloss, but Brooke however is triumphant in fighting off the attack and retaining her prized possession.

Emma lets out her signature war cry (to no avail).

Then Emma pulls out the drama card, covers her face, and laments, 'Whoa is me!' 'I have no lip gloss of my own, and I have failed in my plan to acquire Brooke's; what will I do now?' (Okay how scary is that; she already has a drama card to pull out?!)

Finally, Emma realizes her tactics are not working, and exclaims in baby talk, "I'm outta here."

She is on to bigger and better things, and as she crawls away, she wonders, 'What can I get into next?'

Aren't they just beautiful!

Sunday at church we had Ward Conference and a potluck afterwards, and luckily I had my camera with me (I guess I should point out that it is usually always with me, but not usually at church). Anyway, I was walking around (waiting for Rich to finish all of his bishop duties) when I saw 4 of the young women congregating and socializing in one of the classrooms, when the thought 'Photo Op' popped into my head. I can't seem to get the photo bug out of my system; I've had a few people tell me lately that I should do it as a side business, but how in the world do you know how much to charge? I've had no formal training (unless you count a photography class in high school and one in college); most of what I've learned I've learned from reading books and trial and error. Also who would be my first customer? Anyway, I snapped a few pictures of them in the classroom and outside; I thought it would give them a chance to see how beautiful they truly are, on the outside and the inside. I think sometimes girls that age are too hard on themselves; I hope that when they look at the pictures they see their true beauty.

Here are some of the pictures I took:

(feel free to gush about how beautiful the girls are, teenage girls love that kind of stuff :) )

Out of the mouth of babes

Today Braden I guess used a little too much toilet paper, because the toilet overflowed (gotta love that). Rich of course made him help clean up the mess, and you would have thought that would have been enough of a lesson learned; Brooke however felt differently, because she also threw in her two cents. Her words of sisterly wisdom went something like this, "Braden, don't waste all the toilet paper! Daddy works hard to bring that home!" Well, there you go folks, lesson learned and sealed with a little Brooke wisdom.


*As a little afterthought or note, for those who don't know Rich is a reliability engineer at Georgia Pacific, and at the particular mill he works at they make paper products, toilet paper being one of them. In fact, when Rich got out of the Navy, he sent an e-mail out to most of our friends and family explaining that we had decided to go civilian and explaining his new job. I think it went something like, 'I won't be in the Navy anymore, but I will still be covering everyone's butts!' (get it, Navy, protecting the country and our butts, keeping us safe, and Georgia Pacific, makes toilet paper, to wipe our butts; well, I thought it was funny)

Georgia Pacific Company Picnic

Here are some pictures from this past weekend. Saturday we went to the Georgia Pacific picnic at Rich's work, which was actually a lot of fun; the food was good, and they had games and rides for all ages this year. The cuties had a blast, and I had fun watching them. They went down a slide called 'The Screamer', played in a bounce house, ran through a caterpillar, rode a ride with Rich, and got their faces painted; Brooke picked a purple butterfly and Braden picked a rainbow. Truth be told, Braden initially wanted an owl. When Rich asked what he wanted in case she couldn't paint an owl, Braden said, "Jesus"; since neither was an option, he settled on a rainbow. Emma entertained herself by watching everyone and chowing down on some cotton candy on the way home. Once home we rested and got ready for our next activity for the day, the ward game day that was scheduled to start at four; it was a busy fun filled weekend!

They're not healthy for you! They have to go!

Earlier this week Rich was sitting at our kitchen table happily eating his DISGUSTING pork rinds, when Brooke exclaimed, "Daddy, those are not good for you! They will not make you healthy and strong!" She then took the bag from him, sashayed over to the trash can, and threw them away! That's telling him girl!

Emma's 1 year well visit

Well, today I finally took Emma in for her one year well visit. Yes, she is now 13 months and not 12; I had made an appointment for a couple days after she turned one, but I totally forgot the appointment. Yeah, I was not going to be winning any mother of the year awards that day (I would like to point out that it was a first for me, that should help me redeem some mommy points). Instead of taking my cutie to the doctor that day, Braden, Brooke, Emma, and I were in Savannah gallivanting with Traci and her daughter; we did a little shopping, a little eating, and a lot of socializing. I was so busy catching up with Traci (she was back from Utah for a short visit), that I totally forgot all about Emma's appointment. The worst part is that I didn't even realize I had missed anything until a day later. I told my dad about my little faux pas, and he told me that he has a calendar on his fridge where he writes those kinds of things. My problem, the appointment never actually made it to my calendar, oops; hey, everyone deserves to be cut a little slack every now and then. My slackness aside, today Emma got measured, weighed, examined, and received 3 shots (my least favorite part as well as hers). The consensus, my little "chub" (as her daddy likes to call her) is in fact not a "chub" (as I tell her daddy); she weighed 19.1 pounds, which places her at the 10th percentile for weight, and she was 28.5 inches long, which places her at the 25th percentile for height. She is healthy, strong, beautiful, and just likes she needs to be. As my mama would always tell me, "not too big, not too small, just right", and Emma is just right, just right for this family! We love her loving nature, her adventurous spirit, her ferocious appetite, her quick smile, her petite kissable toes, and her sweet laugh!

Don't let her fool you; she can't walk yet. She can cruise like nobody's business, but she is scared to let go. Rich and I have gotten her to take two steps, and then she sits down and crawls to what she wants.