Lunchtime conversation

Bram: "When I am a daddy I am going to fight the bad guys!" (He is play fighting in the air)

Me: "Does daddy fight bad guys?"

Bram: "No."

Anders: "Aiden's a bad guy. Daddy fights him."

I shook my head no. He responds: "Saiden is a bad guy. Daddy fights him?"

I explained that we fight him by being good.

Anders: "You're good every day mom. Except for that one day when you didn't get enough sleep.  Satan was telling you to wake up."

Me, laughing, "Actually he was telling me to be angry because he doesn't want us to have happy families. Like how he tells you to make your brother scream some more,  because he doesn't want us to be happy."

Anders: "Does Satan have a family?"

Me: "No."

Anders: "That's why he's angry."

I loved every single minute of this conversation!

Out of the mouth of babes...

Laying in my bed, Anders comes in:

"mom, you want to come to the living room with me?"

"I had a bad night and am really tired."

"What happened? Was it me?"

"No, it was Astrid. She went to bed really late and then woke up screaming in the middle of the night."

"Oh, that is a bad night. That's what grown-ups have to do."

Words of wisdom right there. He made me laugh out loud!

Five

Anders is FIVE! How did that happen?!!

We had a great day for his fifth birthday, going to the zoo and having a birthday dinner at Grandma Kathleen's. Boy, they spoil our kiddos. He felt like it was the Best day, so that is a win in my book.

We also had our EIGHTH wedding anniversary. Eight years. Eight AMAZING yèars! I love my man and am so glad I get to be with him forever. He's a good egg.

Astrid is getting more creative and adventurous. Here are two examples:

Here is the most adorable picture Anders' drew of our family. That boy is just...squishy!!!

Mer-wage

"Mom, are you getting married today?" Bram asked in the car. 

"No buddy, we already got married and are celebrating that we have been married for eight years!" I replied.

"I got married today!" exclaimed Bram.

David queried, "To whom?"

"Nobody."

I explained that marriage doesn't work that way and he is too young to get married. So David asked the boys how old you needed to be to be married.

Anders, "Ten...no, eleven."

We giggled so he knew he said something that wasn't correct.

He tried again, "Twelve?"

Then as we were saying family prayer, Anders expressed, "Thank you that momma was born for eight years."

Maybe they will get it next year.

Looking for a belly button

Hippo Potter and Chudder Cheese

I asked Anders if he wanted to keep reading the chapter book we are half way through. He wanted to do the book we bought today, and suggested enthusiastically, "Let's do the hippo potter book!"

We were driving in the car the other day and the boys were fighting, so we said they needed to just sit quietly. A few minutes passed and we hear whispering, so David says, "I thought we said no talking."

Bram replied, "We are just talking to our own chudder."

We immediately laughed and Anders' says, while giggling, "That's like chudder cheese."

That made us laugh even harder.

Tantrum

I wanted to eat all my food!

Joker or Church Leader?

Anders colored a picture of the prophet in his church class today. He showed me at church, and I had to stifle a laugh. 

Anders also looks very stylish in his sister's sweatshirt.

Tantrum #15 everyday

Vegetables.

Astrid

Astrid loves to climb. 

She looked so adorable at church last Sunday. Everyone told me she looked like a living baby doll. When I look at this picture, I have to agree.

She is always loving up on her brothers.

Painting Teeth

Bram LOVES coloring, painting, drawing, and pretty much anything he can do that is artistic. He just stated, "I want to paint with the new toothbrushes!" He was talking about the new paintbrushes...or maybe he wanted to express himself by painting his teeth?

Felding and Bleed

Anders tripped earlier on the gravel and scraped up his knee. He was telling us about it later, "I don't like felding or bleed coming out." Adorable. 

Tantrum # something

I wanted to give you better hugs and kisses!

(That's really bad - taking his picture...)

Tantrum #13

Anders: "Bram's putting his underwear on in the hall, not the bathroom."

Frozen fan

Bram: "Mom, I'm Elsa."

Anders' Homework

"Mom, I did all the alphabet so fast!"

Astrid is ONE

This year with her has been a dream! We couldn't be more grateful for her joining our family.

"He's so cute!"

We have a new missionary that is 5'3. (Or so he claims). He could very well be shorter. I was telling David, as we were driving to have dinner with the new missionary and his companion, that I didn't know what to make of how short this new elder was. Bram chimes in from the back seat:

"He's so cute."

I stifle giggles as I ask, "Why is he so cute?"

Bram responds, "Cause he's lillul (little)."

He pauses and follows up with, "He not have his burfday yet."

I didn't stop laughing about it the rest of the drive home. 

That is lip balm all over his face.

Feet

Anders: "Mom, my feet are so big! They're huge just like your face."

Tantrum #12

It's been awhile since the last one. 

"I want to be happy!"

Disclaimer: the shower in my apartment is really old, and no matter how much we scrub it, it just peels back layer after layer of black. So is the life of graduate student families.

Brains

Bram: "Anders, I have a brain! ... Inside my neck."

Here he is pointing to the location of his brain.

Midwifery to Toddlers

I have been watching a show called "Call the Midwife". Every episode has several births. Besides boosting a desire within me to become a midwife, it has proved educational for my children.

This morning in the car Anders asks me, "Mom, did you cry when you had us when we were babies?"

He was referring to the births of babies that we have been watching on the show, where the moms cry and scream out in labor pains. I didn't have that experience with any of my children because they were all c-sections before my body ever had the chance to go into labor. Another reason for my fascination with the show.

Bram followed up with, "They had their babies out their bums. That's gross." 

Anders response to that, "And they had blood on them..."

Some other cute phrases of Bram that I don't want to forget:

Ding it (for dang it)

What the hook (for what the heck)

FHE Tidbit

David: "I want Anders to draw a picture of Anders and Bram to draw a picture of Bram."

Bram: "I draw my big head. I have a big head...I draw my neck! I doing a good job. I drawing cheeks. A cheek. A cheek. Skin, I don't know skin. I got blue, it's not the same color of my face. Dark blue, or light blue? It's light blue. She [Astrid] is walking away. I draw a nose."

Anders: "I need skin. And blood. I need white on top of it [red] to be bones."

Great Start to the New Year

Some New Year Goals:

1. Bram potty-trained

2. Anders reading/preschool from home

3. French lessons every Monday morning

Our first official day of the New Year started today. David went back to school, so we are no longer on "vacation". 

We spent the morning building towers out of the Brik-a-Blok's from Uncle Jon, doing our first French lesson, and colouring. After lunch, we started Anders doing his homework sheet (pictured below) and Bram ran off to poop in the toilet ALL BY HIMSELF.

After everyone came to see his pooping achievement, we were jumping around and hollering! It was a big potty-training step for Bram.

This is the first time we have ever done a worksheet like this. He has never written numbers before. I am so pleased with how he did! Gush, gush and more gush pleased!

I think it is a great start to the New Year and I am looking forward to what the rest of this year has in store for us.

Two-Year-Old Time Telling

The clock reads 10:31 a.m..

Bram: "It's eleven past one, two, three, four."

Comprehension

Me: "My job is to take care of you guys. If you ever need anything, you just tell me and I am there for you!"

Bram: "Okay. The sun is going up. The sun is going down. The sun is going up. The sun is going down. The sun sun is..."

I think we reached our zen.