Nice Conversations...

So we have a lot of nice conversations at our house.  The first happened in the car 2 days ago and began with Lillie cursing Emma...that she wouldn't have any babies when she grew up.  Nice right?  Emma was sad and said, "Oh! I really wanted to have kids." After scolding Lillie and telling her we never say such things, we got out of the car to go into the house.  Abby climbed out and told Emma, "That is okay Emma, I would still be proud of you even if you don't have any babies."  Oh! That is too sweet.  Emma replies, "If you have twins would you give one up?"  Abby's quick response, "No."  Apparently her sweetness extends only so far.

This morning Lillie stuffed a ball down her pants to hide it from her siblings and therefore ensuring she could keep it.  What she didn't count on was Emma seeing it and saying, "You look like a boy!" And then singing, "Lillie has peanuts! Peanuts!"  If you don't know what peanuts are you might refer to my last post.  I suppose it is time to have a "nice conversation" with Emma about getting older and things we should or should not say.

Honesty is still the best policy.

So a few short weeks after Katie was born I was getting dressed after showering when Lillie walked in to get dressed herself.  She looked over at my stomach and says in a mildly disgusted voice, "What are those?" I explained "those" are stretch marks and most women get them when they are pregnant.
"Good, because you have 1,2,3....like a thousand."
"Yes, dear. Thank you."
"How long will you have them?"
"Oh....forever.  They will get lighter but probably wont ever go all the way away."
Of course I added because she told me I had a thousand I wanted to be honest with her;  "That is just the way things are, you will get them when you grow up and have babies too (hee hee hee).
If kids can be so honest, why can't I?

Lillie is so smart!

Lillie came home last week so excited because she passed off all her number facts (they do it on a computer). Her teacher told me today she is the first one in all the second grade to do it. I'm not saying she is the smartest kid ever, but if you said so I would not object ;) We are proud of her and how much she enjoys learning. She definitely takes after her Mom and Dad.

Spring Bunny

For those of you who don't know we don't have the Easter Bunny come to our house. We have the Spring Bunny come instead on the first day of Spring. We have all the traditional Easter activities but simply attach them to the Spring season rather than Easter. Here are a few highlights:

Lillie: This is the best Spring ever!

Emma: The Spring Bunny brought me everything I wanted from the dollar store! (Apparently she went the other day with a friend. I guess we now know where the Spring Bunny shops.)

Last night at dinner we were talking about how the 21st is the first day of Spring and Lillie looked on the calendar and told us all that it was on the 20th and asked why the Spring Bunny hadn't come. So of course, we told them the reason was because they forgot to put their baskets out and where did they expect him to put their stuff. So they quickly found their baskets and put them out and ta da...the Spring Bunny came that very night. Way to get it done Spring Bunny!

Lillie's First Tumbling Competition

Lillie is on a tumbling team and they had their first competition down in Salt Lake. She took 9th place, but she was so excited. You could tell she was super nervous so we are hoping the more experience she gets the better she will do. Enjoy!

Santa

We had our ward Christmas party last Friday night and Santa happened to stop by. Here are some highlights.

Despite our continued protests against Santa bringing Lillie a real phone she still asked the "Big Guy" for one. After we told Santa we had already talked with him and said no, he asked her if there was anything else she might like. She said a "Cake Maker". Oh come on! Are you kidding me? Santa brought her a cupcake maker last year and Mom and Dad have been regretting it ever since. Thanks a lot, Santa for helping us out!

Emma asked for a lot of dolls.

Abby has a habit of sticking her hands up to her mouth when she is nervous.

Here is Ryan before our turn camped out next to the candy canes.

Yes, the elf has already given him one.

You would think after being at the feet of Santa for a while Ryan wouldn't mind being near him...guess again. Not even for a candy cane!

Lillie Baptism

Lillie was baptized on December 3rd at the Garland Tabernacle. She was baptized by her Dad and confirmed by her Great-Grandfather John Merrill.

Lillie with Brent before the baptism.
Our ward had this cute dress for her to be baptized in.

Lillie with the "Greats".

We were glad to have all of you come.

We are all so happy for Lillie.

Lillie was so excited to have Grandpa Merrill confirm her.

Lillie with all the "Grands".

When Lillie got out of the font after being baptized she walked into the dressing room and said, "That was fun. I want to do it again!"

Birthday Girls

I know it has been forever since I have posted, and I am a bit late for this post since the girls birthdays were in November. I still wanted to record a few things though.

Lillie
Favorite-
Subject: Art and Math
Color: Every color
Food: Hibachi (we took the girls for their birthday dinner)
Thing to do: Ride bike and play with friends
Activities involved in- Competition tumbling team at Tanglewood, piano
Lillie likes to put (y) at the ends of all her words like juice(y), friends(y), etc.

Emma
Favorite-
Subject: Reading
Color: Every color
Food: Spaghetti
Catchphrase:
Thing to do: Play with my family
Activities involved in- Gymnastics, art class at Tanglewood
Emma has started learning to read. She is getting very good at sounding out words and learning her sight words.

Gymnastics Performance

The girls had their performances for gymnastics this last week. It was fun to see their improvement over the last year.

Winner Declared!

Sorry, we really declared the winner of the tooth race months ago, but to those who didn't know...Ryan got his 4 front teeth in first and is in fact working on several more while Lillie is still waiting for those same teeth to come in.

The race is on!

The race began a few short weeks ago to see which of these two children will get all 4 of their front teeth first. We will keep you posted.

Stinky Pants

We have a tradition each night in our house before bed each of our children go to the potty. They then remain in their room until the morning (this is more or less the routine). Tonight Lillie called up to tell us that Emma had to go pee really bad, in fact Lillie said, "Emma says she'll pee in her bed and stink for days!" Well played, that is a pretty good argument. We let her come up to pee.

Pat on the Back

I was in Lillie's class volunteering today just like I do every Friday. Listening in on the class discussion about customs, I hear the teacher ask "What is your favorite custom or tradition you do in your home, something you do a lot?" Lillie was called on and answered, "Family Home Evening!" That's right, give yourself a pat on the back mom. Maybe we aren't doing too bad of a job after all.

Lillie's First Day of 1st Grade

My big girl went off to 1st grade today. That's right she will be gone ALL day. I am having very mixed emotions about this. I am happy and sad at the same time. She on the other hand was all excitement.

Lillie's First Tooth

Lillie lost her first tooth on the 14th. I made her a tooth fairy pillow so she would have a special place where the tooth fairy could easily find it. However, it was the first day of her spring break and she decided she didn't want the tooth fairy to take it until she had shown her class. She put it in a wrapper and we put it up in a cupboard for a week until she went back to school. The night before she returned to school I went to grab the tooth from the cupboard and couldn't find it. Apparently she had Dad take it down for her to show someone. Long story short...her first tooth never even made it to her pillow, we haven't been able to find it. Obviously she is very concerned over her missing tooth since she hasn't mentioned anything about the tooth fairy since the day we lost the tooth (I've been kind of busy lately and keep forgetting to have her write a note to put in her pillow). Hopefully the tooth fairy accepts explanation notes instead of teeth :)

I made this tooth fairy pillow for her. It has a special pocket for her tooth.

Helpful Girl

On Saturday Lillie decided she would be a big helper. When I walked into the bathroom to check the progress of the girls getting ready, to my surprise Lillie was brushing Abby's hair. You can see that both girls seem to be enjoying the sisterly bonding time. It was so nice of Lillie to think to help her Mom. She told me Saturday and Sundays are her day to work because she doesn't have school (if only that were true of the other chores we ask her to do on Sat. and it continued every Sat.). Lillie even did Emma's hair. What a helpful girl!

Lillie gets eaten by a boa constrictor...

While Grandma and Grandpa Peterson were visiting us Lillie's kindergarten class had a fluency night where they presented choral readings and Lillie was the star of the second one. March 3, 2010.

Time for a visit?

The other day we were driving to visit my sister Jamie who was in Utah County for her first grand-baby's birth. We were on our way to Great-Grandpa Merrill's house to visit Craig and Sarah and of course Grandpa, when Lillie asked, "Mom, is your mom and dad dead yet?" "Ummmm....no." I turn to Brent, "Why would she ask me that." We had a good chuckle over that.
Then I started thinking maybe she knows something we don't. I mean, Grandma did slip and injure her ankle which is now not healing. And the doctors did discover a heart murmur when monitoring Grandpa's heart. I think a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Jackson is due.

Birthday Girls

Lillie had her 6th birthday on Friday and Emma had her 4th birthday on Saturday. We are just about birthdayed out. I thought I would write down some things about them.

Lillie
Favorite
color: blue
movie: Beauty and the Beast
food: Chinese food
animal: leopard
thing to do: play with Abby
t.v. show: Cyberchase
Best Friend: Erika and Braxton
Best thing about school: When teacher reads to her
Collects: seashells, rocks, Littlest Pet Shops

Emma
Favorite
color: pink
movie: Ariel 2
food: Ramen Noodles
animal: giraffes
thing to do: play games with family
t.v. show: Maggie and the Ferocious Beast
Best Friend: Chloe Cammack
Best part of joy school:playing with the toys at the end

Lillie's Fun Week of School

The week of Halloween Lillie's school had Red Ribbon week culminating in an assembly about being drug free. She had a fun week!

Pajama/Crazy Hair Day

Crazy eyes to go along with the crazy hair.

Lillie was a witch for Halloween.

This is the entire A.M. class. Lillie's teacher has been out since the second week of school on maternity leave. Her substitute, Mrs. Earl is Glenda the good witch.