After a rough stretch lately, due to teething, tiredness, and well, just being 5, (Or so we hope. It's much better to have excuses for grouchy, misbehaving children!), I decided that maybe it was time for some more kidisms to remind myself that my children make me laugh more times then they frustrate me.
One day, Cole and Emily yelled that they needed my help with something. When I walked in to see what they are doing, they asked me to put Emily on top of them. As soon as I had, Cole looked up with a grin and said, "Look Mom, we made a kid sandwich. Addy and I are the bread and Emily is the ham." I didn't even know what to say to that bit of creativity!
I love my son, but he is way too inconsistent for his mom's liking. In some things, like his homework, he wants to do it all himself without advice. This is good on one hand, but takes us twice as long on the other hand. Then, when you want him to eat, get dressed, etc., he seems to need/want help with every silly step along the way. I'm hoping that when he turns 6 in a few more months he will grow right out of this stage. I'm pretty sure I'm dreaming on that one, but I can hope, right?
Cole has had some great comments lately, all having to do with sports of course. He didn't go to the BYU-Utah basketball game (which he was not happy about), but as I was leaving I told him what channel the game was going to be on if he wanted to watch it. He looked at me and said, "Mom, I know that. All of the Mountain West games are on that channel." So much for trying to be helpful!
One night when we were at the BYU gymnastics meet, the marketing guys came out and were throwing stuff out to the crowd. Cole was jumping up and down and waving his arms just like everyone else. After the marketing guys walked by him about 4 times and didn't give him anything, he asked Chad what else he had to do for them to throw him something. Chad told him that since those guys were his friends and worked with him, it probably wouldn't be fair for them to give stuff to Cole. The crushed look Cole gave him was priceless. Cole has finally found a downside to his Dad's job!! (On the positive side though, because Chad is the sports administrator for the gymnastics team, Cole gets to play on the mats after the meet.)
My Emily does not like to sleep in her own bed at night, no matter what rewards/punishments/alternatives we have tried. So between her being tired and me being tired, we are having frequent meltdowns. (Her, not me). But she has a sweet personality and good intentions and loves her brother and sister (sometimes more than they like). She loves to chase Cole around trying to give him a good night kiss, which he of course hates, which makes the game all that much better for Emily.
The other day, Emily leaned over to me and says, "Mom, I know what I want to be when I grow up. Mrs. Claus." At least she has a giving spirit?
Emily is also a constant source of head shaking incidents that hopefully I will find funny later on!
She is always trying to help me out. Even if her idea of helping and my idea of helping are different things! One day she came out and told me that she and her friend had cleaned the bathroom for me. Unfortunately I had left a sponge out and they had taken that as a cue that the bathroom needed to be cleaned and not that it had already been cleaned. When I went to admire their work, the bathroom was covered in water (thankfully I previously convinced Emily that she could only use water to clean things, not soap!) that they had used to "clean" the bathroom. As I looked further, they had also "cleaned" the closet, so it was also covered in water. What a helpful child she is!
My teething tormenting baby seems to be growing up way too fast! She has a quick smile, which usually saves her from getting in too much trouble. Maybe one day, she will learn that she is going to have babysitters and she'd better just learn to deal with it!
Addy wants to be big, just like Cole and Emily. She used to love them from a distance, but not so much up close. Now, much to their dismay, she wants to do exactly what they are doing. If Emily is coloring, Addy wants to color. I have had to start hiding coloring objects because she doesn't have good discretion as to what she's coloring on! If they are playing the computer, Addy wants to be right there next to them pushing buttons. If they are reading, she wants to also.
No my child is not a vagabond, she just likes to wear everyone else's clothes and shoes. Here she has on Emily's jacket and Emily's friend's boots.
And in Emily's dress up clothes which are too big for her to walk in.
One day, I was in the bedroom getting ready for the day when I realized Addy had been suspiciously quiet for far too long. I went to check on her and discovered that she must have decided she was hungry. She had taken Cole's bowl of cereal and his cup of milk and combined them into one giant mess! She was sitting their happily eating her milk and cereal.
And of course the biggest kid of all. He was so excited when he opened this Christmas present from Brian. It almost killed him when I didn't rush down right away to help him put it on the wall. But we did get it up, and he has proudly showed if off to everyone new who comes to our house! We love his dedication to his team.
So, I guess once again, after remembering their cuter moments, I can survive through the difficult ones!
I love you guys!
Emily begged all winter long to build a snowman, but we either didn't have wet enough snow or she didn't ask when I had time to go help her. I was afraid winter was over and we had missed our chance, especially when it was mid-50's for a while. But, never fear! Winter was not over. We got several inches dumped on us at the beginning of March and since it had been warm, it was just the right snow for building. So we got all bundled up and out we went!
The snow was perfect. We started with a little ball
and started rolling 
and pretty soon we had a good sized snowball.
Then we stacked the snowballs.
We topped him off with a hat, a scarf, rocks for eyes, a baby carrot for a nose (does anyone actually buy real carrots any more?), a licorice mouth, and sticks for arms.
Pretty Cute!
When our snowman was done, the kids still wanted to play in the snow. So, they then made snow angels (although Emily could not understand where the angel was!).
Emily even tried to catch a snowflake on her tongue while making a snow angel. Pretty tricky!
Then Cole wanted to go sledding, but he didn't have enough time to go anywhere because school started in an hour. So he made his own hill!
Addy wasn't so sure about the weather change. The days prior, she had gotten to swing and slide and go for walks. She tried to do them even with the snow, but discovered they just weren't the same!
The snow at the bottom was a little too cold!
Brrrrrr
After losing her mittens multiple times and her boot a time or two, Addy decided that she much prefers mid-50's weather!
