Funny Journal Stories

I have a little journal I keep for each kid where I write down all the funny things they say and do and big life accomplishments. We spend lots of Sunday's reading them outloud and laughing about the crazy things they've done in years prior. Here are two recent Roz stories that were to good to not go public. (and not very PC)
#1
Roz - Mom, if my friends have brown skin does that mean they were born in Mexico??
Mom - Maybe
Roz - so do you think it's a good idea if I see someone with brown skin to say "hola"?
(it made me smile and wonder what her definition of brown skin is, she has every ethnic group in her class and all of their skin is brown, so who knows, there's going to be some confused little cute Indian girl when Roz says "hola" to everytime she sees her.)
#2
Sunday night we were going over the 4th Article of Faith and trying to help the kids remember the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel. They guessed faith, repentance and baptism by immersion but were hung up on the fourth. Chris and I tried to prompt them by singing the song and seeing if they could fill in the blanks. As soon as we got to fourth, laying on...Rozlyn interupts with "a seed" and Chris and I keep singing the right words, laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Rozlyn said in an excited way "oh I was so close, I guessed laying on a seed, but it was really laying on a pan for the gift of the Holy Ghost". Apparantly her whole life she's heard and thought you had to lay on a pan to get the Holy Ghost. She was sure going to be confused in March at Charlotte's baptism, good thing we could clarify. I now can't get the song out of my head, and of course I have to sing "laying on a pan" because it makes me laugh.

Charlotte now has a journal of her own and those entries are precious as well. Here's what she wrote on Sunday. (I left her spelling and grammer unedited, including her lack of periods, I know she inherited these weaknesses from me)
"Mom had a baby it was a girl her name is Mallory Jane Graham she is adorabel she has a breathing whisler in her throght Dad dosen't like it he said it was to sleep wit her doing it mom loves it she said she always falls asleep with her diong it. she was the tallest one and the chubbiest one dad called her chubs in the hospital. then he stoped and strted calling her malpal thats her nickname now caus every buddy in her family calls her that sometimes I call her Malls but not often"
Maybe I need to get out more but it totally cracked me up.

That tricky husband

Yesterday we were hanging out in the kitchen and Chris pulls out an envelope and asks me if I wondered what was in it. Way back when we got our 20 week ultrasound I begged and pleaded to let this baby be a suprise. I'd always found out in the past and knew this might be my last chance to have the suprise. I tried to convince Chris for the 20 weeks prior but he never consented. A week or so before the ultrasound he realized I'd given up my fight to convince him of how fun it would be and he came up with this plan. We have the ultrasound, the tech writes down what it is with a picture and puts it in an envelope for us to take home. This way he could look if he "needed" to and I could be suprised. Part of the deal was that I couldn't know where the envelope was and I couldn't know if he knew or not. A month later I found the envelope, in a drawer all sealed up. I was proud of Chris that he hadn't looked and I guess I convinced myself that he wasn't going to look and kind of forgot about it all together.
So he looked!!! He knew what it was a month early. That rascal, I'm so proud that he was able to know without me ever finding out or leaking any clues at all. The poor guy had to spend many nights up late discussing the impossible boy names. I'm so happy that he was able to know and that I was able to be suprised and it worked out for both of us. What a tricker!!!
Here are some more picutres just for fun. I can't believe it's almost been two weeks!

Presenting Mallory Jane

Here are lots of pictures to introduce you to our newest addition, Mallory Jane. She made it to earth healthy and happy on Monday Sept. 15 at 3:36 p.m. weighing in at 7lbs 14oz and 21 inches. My heart was so full holding my little girl for the first time. The fourth time around was as emotional as the first, probably more so. I got choked up when it was time to start pushing, just knowing I was about to have my baby, that she would soon be safe in my arms. The delivery was the best, I'll share in greater detail in the future. For now here are pictures of what went down.
Pictures taken right after church, before we went to the hospital. (We had a special meeting with President Uchtdorf that day, amazing!!! I was so glad labor held off and I could attend)

Holding Mallory I wondered how she could all fit inside of me and then I see this picture and can see there was plenty of room

Me and my coach. Being induced is such a date!! When else have we had 12 hours with no where to go but to sit there and hang out together? I love this guy!

Our newest arrival all cleaned up


Dr. Leveno with us, he honestly was the best Dr. I'm so glad I found him. (Thanks Amy!)

I love the chubby belly, we were all laughing at her rolls, and check out the size of her extra large juicy cord

The whole gang, it seems like so many people, and they're all mine.

Home and happy.

There's a brief sampling of our joy. So many more to come.

Houston we have a problem!

Hey Houstonians, if any of you need to get away our house is just a short 4-24 hour drive away depending on conditions.(bad joke) It looks like they're telling everyone to hunker down but if you lose power and want to get away you're all more then welcome. We may not be the Holiday Inn but we have clean sheets, warm showers, cold cereal, lizards in our guest bath, air conditioning, clean water, Blue Bell in the freezer and Sprinkles cupcakes close by. So come one, come all and don't hesitate. My big belly is seriously the hurricane tracker, if you want to know when the next big one is going to hit just check out when we're expecting next. My births more accurately predict the hurricanes then those weather guys. Good Luck friends!

Family Pet

So anyone who knows me also knows my fear of all living things other than people. For some reason animals just really scare me. I'm afraid of anything unpredictable startling me. One of my cute friends who I was walking with 6 years ago still has the dog she chased away for me to this day. I know there are many more of you who could tell stories about defending me from the "wild". You're all really better friends because of it! Chris likes to harass me with some article that was in the Ensign a few years back that talked about how we need to learn to love animals on earth because the celestial kingdom will be full of them. I have no comments on that. So a few years back we had our first pet, Vince the goldfish. I'm amazed that I came to love him so much. I don't know my fish well but he had a great personality and we all loved him, even me. The day he died was such a sad one, I didn't know how to tell the kids and how to pay an appropriate tribute to the little guy. It's been a few years since then, the kids continually ask me for a dog, bird, cat, anything. It's funny how kids change you because I've already made an agreement with them that once we're done having babies and everyone in the house is potty trained we can get a pet.
So last Thursday I'm in one of our bathrooms and I see this:

I didn't know what to do with him. Today is his one week birthday of being a member of our family. The kids run in there every day after school to check on him. He only runs down the drain if a shadow crosses him or he hears a loud noise. But don't worry, he soon makes his way out. So while I felt so humane in not closing the drain or turning the faucet on I need to do something more accomadating. Right now he has Mason's toilet seat as his only toy. At some point we'll have guests that need to use that shower. I'm sure at some point the little lizard will need some food. Should he become a part of our family or should Charlotte, not me, find a way to get him outside??

The Proof is in the Pics

It's the final countdown!!! 10 days!!! My emotions really are mixed, there's a part of me that loves being pregnant and I really feel this emptiness when it's over. Of course I'm so thrilled to hold my little one, see what they look like, how they smell, hear their cry sound, look at all their features and assign them to a parent and most of all know what sex it is!!! This really has been so fun keeping it a mystery. I'm glad I did it once. I don't want the baby to be in neutral green/yellow/brown everything so I've resisted shopping beyond the take home outfit (one for each sex). Yesterday I went a little crazy, (remember I had no kids from 9-2) and found myself in the Gymboree Outlet. I guess I accidently stumbled upon it, oops! I now have many neutral items, but still cute, in my possession. When I showed Chris my great finds, I was told to hold onto the receipts because they were fine for a girl but no son of his would be aloud outside the house in them. Why are there such strict rules for boys but we don't care about girls?? It goes beyond clothes and that we dress our girls in blues, it even applies to names, girls can have boy names, but boys can't have girl names. Why can girls be tough, sporty and masculine with low voices but boys can't be wimpy with high voices. I'm off on a tangent now.
Back to names, if you have any suggestions we'll welcome them gladly. Also we welcome any opinions on names we should definately avoid. (and if you feel inclined go ahead and guess the sex, date, weight and any other opinions you have on our newborn)

For documentation sake

It's hard to believe that I have two kids in school. Even though Rozlyn was ready two years ago to go with Charlotte I still had a hard time letting her go. I don't know which would make me more weepy, if they were holding onto my leg, crying and not letting go or if they ran in there as confident as can be waving goodbye without looking back. Rozlyn was definately the latter of the two options and I was definately weepy.
Here's the big girl!!

The PTA threw a "Tears and Cheers" party to cover any emotion a mom might be feeling on that first day. I took home a souvenir of tissues with a poem that said

"It's my first day of kindergarten and I'm excited, aren't you?
I'm going to be just fine Mom and Dad and hope that you are too.
But if you find you're missing me and start to shed a tear,
Take this tissue and remember that 2:55 is near!

I thought it was so cute.
Here's Charlotte in her classroom with a real desk!! She feels like a big kid on campus and had no hesitation about walking herself to class (big stuff I know!). I'm pretty sure she was embarassed that I was snaping photos from the hall.


Day 1 complete!!

On My Own

Here I am sitting at the computer all alone in the quiet of my house. I just went to the store to buy two things, conditioner and trash bags, it took all of five minutes. I should have spent a little more time in the aisles doing something crazy like buying something on sale just because I could. It's been over 7.5 years since I've enjoyed this kind of luxury/lonliness. It's only been an hour and twenty minutes since I dropped Mason off, I still have 3 hours and forty minutes left. Last week when I took the girls to school I was all sad and emotional. Today Mason distracted me by wetting his pants on the way. It offered a little bit of comic relief and feelings of I can't believe this just happened to distract me a little bit. I quickly stripped him down, wiped him off the best I could and pulled out the handy spare clothes in the van. I guess we'll fake it til we make it or he gets kicked out of school.
Here are some pictures to celebrate my guy, my buddy, my comic relief, my sensitive son who is always showing concern for him mamma. Lately I've been taking lots of deep breaths, not because I'm tired or frustrated but because I can't breath. It never fails that he asks me "mom, are you o.k?", "mom, why did you make that sound?" "mom, whats the matter?". Oh how I love him!!!

Here he his playing in his wrinkly shirt that's been shoved in the corner of the van for a few months waiting for an emergency like we had today.
Here's one more cute picture from his birthday, he was very into making his wish. He was very serious when he told his sisters that they couldn't have a wish, only the birthday boy got one. In case you were wondering what the wish was...to go camping. Would I be the world's best mom or what if I pulled that one off at 9 months pregnant?