Whoa! He's bald!

I have to blog about this today, just because I'll sleep better getting this off my chest. Have any of you ever had one of those days when your husband walks in the door you feel like crying with relief? Because of those sweet innocent little boys you have? Look at these two, so good. Joseph was trying to read a story to Seth. He wasn't exactly sitting still, but I thought it was adorable anyway. Oh, by the way, get a good look at Joseph's hair.

All innocence this morning.

Huh. Yeah, not so innocent now. This is the second time in about half an hour that Seth decided to throw flour all about. I cleaned up the first one, walked into another room to deal with another crisis and, pow, he was back at it. So I took a picture.

So you wanted to know what the other crisis was? I was getting out my clippers. To finish a haircut. That wasn't started by me. Even though it was my SEWING SCISSORS THAT STARTED IT (sorry, just my mom's past admonishing: Don't cut ANYTHING but fabric with your sewing scissors. Huh. Maybe Grandma needs to talk to her innocent little grandson.) Don't you like how he started right in the middle of his forehead. Front and center.

I showed him a mirror and told him (I wasn't even yelling at this point-- that was before-- but I was being good now) we were going to have to cut all his hair off. He didn't really like that idea, but it had to be done. I love the expression in this picture. Very expressive.

Such a stinker.

I had to chase him around to get a picture, he was a little embarrassed. Funny the same kid who streaked in our yard is embarrassed about an (almost) naked head.

The other kids reactions were great:

Felicity: Wow, that doesn't look very good.

Caleb: Whoa! He's bald!

Seth: (pointing) Wow! hee-hee! Wow!

The rest of the night whenever Seth saw Joseph, he would laugh and say Wow! I didn't think he was old enough to really notice, but he thought it was hilarious. He even kept trying to rub Joseph's head. I've had people tell me that if you shave a baby's head they will have thicker hair when it grows back in. Hmmmm, maybe it's too late at age three, but we'll see. What a stinker. At least Seth is entertained.

Party!

It's Christmas Party time! BYU had their family party last weekend. The kids love going to play games, make crafts, eat doughnuts and especially see Cosmo the Cougar!

Posing with their crafts. Felicity made a sparkly wand, Caleb decorated a chalkboard, and Joseph decorated a football ornament.

Caleb and Joseph posing with the cougar. We always skip seeing Santa here because the line is so long, but the boys love Cosmo even when we wait for ten minutes in line. Felicity refused to be in the picture this year, I think she thinks she is too big. Cosmo also signed the back of Joseph's football ornament, he was so excited.

This Santa picture is from our ward party. We didn't say anything to the kids about the Santa's identity, but on the way home Caleb said very matter-or-factly, "that wasn't the real Santa. that was our old Bishop." Can't fool that kid. Our "old" Bishop did a great job, and thanks Nikki for sending the pictures so fast to us.
I've been busy sewing and crafting and trying to hide presents from the kids. Joseph went with Farris to get a present for Caleb, and he proudly showed it to Caleb one day: "Look what we got for you Caleb!" Felicity came with me to a fabric store yesterday, I remeber going to stores with my mom and looking at all the buttons and fabric, now I get to share it with my daughter. Awww, nostalga. And then Felicity declared she was bored, and then I remembered being bored shopping with my mom, too. Luckily I had Nicki and Robert to play hide and seek with and generally drive my mom crazy. Which is what would have happened if Joseph and Caleb had come along.
Seth is walking more and more all the time. He also has a new favorite word: wow. At this time of year there is a lot to say wow about. He loved watching the snow fall right in front of his face. Whenever a snowflake came particualry close to his face he'd jump back, point, and yell "WOW!" It's amazing seeing everything through his eyes. But even though I am excited, I am restraining myself from tipping over the tree, which is more than Seth and Caleb can say. Right now our tree is crooked because we're tired of trying to keep it straight. Maybe Santa will straighten it for us on Christmas Eve.

Africa and other stories

I hardly know where to begin, it's been a couple crazy weeks...maybe I should start with a Joseph story, always a good place to start. I told this story to one person (Farris) and he wrote it in his journal, ha-ha, very funny, then I told my sister and she made me tell my whole family, and now I'm thinking that maybe I'll share it with everyone, just if you need a good laugh today. So I'm wiping Joseph's bum (this is where my sister says "All the best stories start this way..."). He says, "My bum is big, huh, mom!" He's all excited about it because he's three and likes to be a BIG KID. Then I turn around to get something. Yup, you can guess where this is leading. He gasps, "MOM! Your bum is big! Your bum is AFRICA BIG!" Yes, I wasn't as excited about that comment as he meant me to be and yes, we are stopping all geography lessons until he learns some tact.

So then we went to Thanksgiving at my parents house in Idaho. Loads of fun with crazy kids and some crazy adults, too =)

Here's my nephew Tanner catching up on World News (ok, just the comics) with Seth. Seth is apparently reading the classifieds, looking for a good deal. Despite all of us looking through the ads, we didn't do too much shopping on Black Friday. Tasha and I went to Joanne's at 6:00 a.m. and then headed home and then Mom, Nicki, Tasha, Rob, and Farris and I went back later to hit a couple more stores in the afternoon.

This is my brother Robert taking the kids around for horsey rides and getting squashed flat when five of them jump on at once. Don't worry, he's still breathing.

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving my family always goes Christmas Tree Hunting up above Sun Valley in the Sawtooth Mountains. Joseph had fun because he got passed around by at least three of us the whole time he was out there. We found a cute little tree pretty quick, which was good because it was getting cold and we were getting hungry! Joseph discovered his favorite new condiment, Mustard. We had made ham or turkey sandwiches with mustard on them, and Joseph has now tried to put mustard on enchiladas and peanut butter sandwiches. I didn't let him. Can you imagine what his missionary companion would write home to his family in 18 years? I'm hoping he won't tell his companion he has a big bum, either.

On the Monday after Thanksgiving we traditionally put up and decorate our tree. This year we vetoed anything breakable, and that has been mostly successful. Seth has only broke one of the unbreakable ornaments. And he has not yet been able to tip the tree over, we'll see if that lasts.

These are the stockings I made for our variation of an advent calendar. I made 25 little stockings and then put scriptures in for each day. I'm thinking about putting treats in the occasional one, too, just to surprise the kids on some of the days. This year I hung them on branches from our tree, next year I might try a garland or even a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. If you want scriptures for each day of December leading to Christmas, try this web site: http://redhatmandan.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/lds-christmas-scripture-study/

It had a good mixture of BOM, Bible, and D&C scriptures. There is also a Christmas Storybook there that you can download that sounds great.