Funny Things The Kids Say

I realize these are mostly Marcus quotes. But Layla is most often reading a book these days, lol.

She finished the Harry Potter series this summer!

In the morning, Marcus sometimes chants, "I want Waywa, I want Waywa!" (Layla in his baby voice.)

Marcus's favorite stuffed animal is a cow that wears a blue Utah State shirt. He got it when we opened his bank account as part of the Kids Club promotion they were running at the time. He named the cow Bow Bow (rhymes with cow) and he sleeps with Bow Bow every night. One night he wanted to snuggle with me, but instead of asking he said, "Mom, you can be my Bow Bow."

Something I want to remember: Layla can currently type almost as fast as me. She can also create Power Point (or Sway) presentations that are phenomenal! Last school year she did a research project on Paul Revere. She created a slide show, made a marrionette doll, and dressed like him for the wax museum her class did. Layla is very talented and impresses me with how much she can already do!

One day Layla was telling me that she learned about alliteration at school (when two words start with the same letter or sound). Marcus was in the room during our conversation. About a week later, Marcus said, "Mom, what's the word for when two words start the same?" I told him alliteration (only after I looked it up because I couldn't remember!). He said, "Oh, then that's the opposite of rhyming because rhyming words end with the same letter and alliteration starts with the same letter." Whaaaa??? My kindergartner just came up with that! His wheels are always turning, I tell ya. Sometimes I wish I could hear what his thoughts are, because they always seem so fascinating!


Marcus is really flexible. He can legit do the middle splits. One day I said, "Marcus, you are so flexible!" to which he responded, "Well that's because I'm a rare type of boy!" You sure are, buddy!

We bought some craft supplies while in California this summer. I told the kids to have quiet time and I didn't know what they were each doing while we were having said quiet time, but I assumed they were each quietly crafting away in their rooms. Imagine my surprise when it was over and Marcus said, "Hey Mom, you know how that tape you bought is called 'invisible tape'? Well I put it on a bunch of stuff to see if it's actually invisible!" We found tape on stuff for days afterwards!

While looking for the salsa in the fridge, I finally realized that it was right in front of my face. I commented and laughed at myself for not seeing it. Marcus laughed and said, "I love it when things like that happen. Especially when they happen to other people!"

Our microwave has a very pleasant, but very persistent beeping sound it makes when your food is done. Layla said, "Whoever scheduled the microwave is not a patient person!"

Marcus language: scribble knots= cursive handwriting
                              hair needles=bobby pins
                              wood crumbs=wood chips at the playground

Marcus was sick and his stomach hurt. Then it felt better and when we asked him how he was feeling, he said he's "at a 98." (That's out of 100, by the way.) Later his stomach hurt again, poor kid, and he said, in the saddest voice, "Now I'm all the way down to a 61!" Hahaha, Marcus has always been so funny about numbers and using them to describe things.

February 2019

I'm going to cheat and backdate this post so it says I published it in February! Today is only March 4th, so I'm not too behind my goal of a monthly update. Between finals, applying for my grad program, and everything in between, life just got away from me. But I'm here now- better late than never, right?

So let's see, what happened in February?

Valentine's Day. That was fun. Lame-O me didn't take any pictures of our traditional Valentine's dinner though. Too caught up living in the moment I guess. I did the little mailboxes for the kids again where I put a little note in them every day, for 14 days leading up to V-day. On the 14th, the note said that they could dress up fancy or silly for dinner, like we did last year. Such a simple tradition, and yet the kids love it so much. I love their interpretations of silly. I'm expecting old Halloween costumes, wigs, layers of clothes, etc. But their idea of silly is just an outfit that they think doesn't match. Ha,ha! It's cute anyways and we all had a fun time eating our candlelight dinner.


Layla made her Valentine's box for school and Marcus made his bag in class. They did a great job!

The other big, exciting February happening is that I finished my statistics class! Wahoo!!!!!!!! Oh man, I have never hated a class so much. I have also never studied so hard! It was an independent study class through BYU. I had one full year to complete it, and according to the syllabus, it takes students an average of 9 months to finish. I did it in just under 5 months. Whew- it was a lot of work! But I am finished and it feels sooooo good. And I never could have finished and done so well on my own. There was definitely a lot of praying, a couple of trips to the temple, and some fasting during those 5 months. I truly felt that Heavenly Father helped me do better than I would have on my own- just as He helped me as a missionary and as a mother. I am grateful! Now I just have to finish studying for the GRE, which I am taking early next month and submit the rest of my grad school application. *Finger crossed that I'll make it in for this fall.* I know they give first preference to applicants with teaching licenses, so I might not make it in the first year, but we'll see.

Last week UTA offered free fare day so we joined the Mudrows and Bennetts and rode trax up north. It was so fun and such a great idea from Kellee! She always has the most fun ideas and I love spending time with her and Camille. I don't get to see either of them often enough. The kids were all adorable and total troopers- we walked several blocks to and from the train station to Farr's ice cream shop. It wasn't freezing, but it wasn't exactly warm either. But they were all so good about it and I know my kids had a blast.


Layla participated in her first pinewood derby! She was SO excited! It was done through Activity Days at the church. They hired this guy who brings a metal track and times it all on a laptop. It seemed very legit. Layla and Mitch made her car. She chose to paint it yellow and I could not convince my stubborn girl to decorate it beyond the yellow paint. She definitely had the plainest car there, but she didn't seem to care. And her car was super shiny, which was cool. At first she was really disappointed because her car didn't seem fast. It sped up during the second round thought and she was happier. She didn't place, but she still had fun. She hand Mitch have already planned her car for next year. I'm glad they were able to spend time together doing that.



We had Oakley sleep over for two nights one weekend. We decided we need to hire Oakley to come live with us and be the kids' mediator, haha! Seriously, not even exaggerating, our kids didn't fight once while she was here. They were both so happy and the three of them played together wonderfully. It was great, though I know both my kids missed Oakley a lot after she left. She is so sweet and I love her too!

I was able to visit my friend, Jenn, and her new baby, Thompson. Wow, what a beautiful baby boy! I am so happy for Jenn and Jordan. They will be amazing parents. Liz and I had fun visiting and laughing with her.


What else happened in February? Maybe these pics will help...

Layla and Nikki love baking with the Easy Bake Oven!
Cute girls and great friends.

No filter on the view from our front porch ... sunset over Antelope Island.

I told Marcus he looked handsome for church and asked for a pic.
He posed nicer the second time. ;)

 We love playing with our cousins!

Oh, and HUGE news ... Mammy and Grandpa Miles are taking us all to Disneyland!!!!!!

 Marcus and Levi spent almost an hour on this seek and find. They are so cute!

Poor Layla had to have 3 cavities filled. Boo!

Harvey loves Mitch and has to put his paw on his face.

Marcus's lego creations. 

Went running outside for the first time in a long time.
Felt so good!!!

Marcus has been practicing his writing and drawing on this
Magnet Doodle. It has been great to help him improve
his writing skills! And it helps him wind down before bed.

Took this pic of Layla while she waited for carpool.
She looks like she's 12 in this pic and it makes me sad.
She is beautiful.

2019

So much to catch up on! We're finally in our new home and we all love it so much- even the cat!
When we woke up the first morning here, Layla said, "Are we really living here?!" She said it with so much happiness and amazement in her voice that we all understood exactly what she meant: that we are so blessed and happy in our new home!!!

It was a lot of hard work moving in! I am grateful for ward members and our brother in law, Brandon, who all helped us so much. Mitch's parents came and spent the rest of the day helping us unpack and set things up. We couldn't have done it without all the help! For three days after moving in, I had no grip strength in my hands and my quads were so sore. It truly is so much work and emotional exhaustion too, to move. Never again, I say! Mitch doesn't believe me when I say that, but I really do mean it. Unless he insists that we move for his work, I truly have no intention of ever moving out of this house. First of all, it's the perfect house for us to grow old in, and second of all, moving sucks, haha! But in all honesty, I'd love to live in this house for the rest of my life. There's nothing like seeing deer right outside our window! I freaked out the first time we saw them because I was so excited. It really is awesome.

We had a most wonderful Christmas in our new home. Santa visited my parents' house the weekend before, which is also when we learned that Marcus wanted the shark bite pirate ship toy for Christmas. Unfortunately, this item was not on his Christmas list that he gave us early in the season, and we couldn't find one that close to Christmas anywhere (not even for a high price). I felt so bad that he didn't get the one thing he (finally) decided he really wanted! But, I guess we know what we'll get him for his birthday now, ha! This has happened twice now with Marcus, where he doesn't tell us what he really wants the most until it's too late and he has to wait until his birthday or Christmas to finally get it. At least he wasn't too disappointed this time and was a good sport about it. We told him he'd have to ask earlier next year.


My sweet mom sent the kids advent chocolate calendars in the mail and it made their day!

But, besides that little slip up, everything else was great. Mitch and I weren't supposed to get each other anything for Christmas this year since we just bought a new house and a new (to us) car. But of course Mitch always spoils me so "the kids" bought me the Dyson vacuum I've wanted since fall break when our rental house had one. And I gotta say, I really do love that vacuum! Because now I'm old and I love gifts like fancy vacuums, lol! "The kids" also bought Mitch a couple of gifts too, so I guess Mitch and I know how to get around our own rules. ;)


We did all the usual Christmas stuff and loved being with our families! We also had both sides of our families over (except Brock's family since Natalie's brother was in town) for New Year's. We brought in 2019 at 7:00 pm because we're wild like that.

This year I felt like our kids truly understood the true meaning of Christmas more than any other year. We really tried to stress that this year. They learned a song in Primary that makes me cry. We sang it often throughout December and Marcus requested it nearly every night before bed:
Could I Hold the Baby?

It’s Christmas Eve, I’m tucked in bed,

I’m snug and warm, my prayers are said.

I start to think about the first Christmas Night.

The manger warm, the baby fair,

the star that led the shepherds there,

and what I’d say to Mary

as she smiled at the little Christ child.

Could I hold the baby? Will he smile at me?

Does He know why He is born and what his life will be?

Could I hold the baby and tell him of my love?

How glad I am that Jesus Christ was sent from heaven above.

Now ev’ry day the whole year through

I’ll think of all that I can do

To be like Him and live as He showed me how.

And I’ll remember that Christmas toys

are not as dear as girls and boys,

that Jesus loves each one of us endlessly.

He loves you and me.

Isn't that great? I love the second verse and would often say to my kids that "Christmas toys are not as dear as girls or boys." Not that we don't love gifts around here- we do, just a good reminder of what really matters. Anyways, it was very calming and peaceful to read Luke 2 with the kids this year and center our Christmas around Christ. I am grateful that our Savior was born all those years ago.

Now I can't believe it's 2019. And we're not driving flying cars! Speaking of cars- I still love our Q7. We went to the car show yesterday and saw all the 2020 cars coming out late this year. There wasn't anything that Mitch loved, which is strange for him, but it was fun to see the new models. I can't wait to see the Jeep Gladiator trucks on the roads! 

Said goodbye to our old friend:

And love our new car. Marcus said, "We used to have a BMW and now we have a OOOO."


Anyways, last month Marcus did three days worth of testing to see if he can get in the gifted program for first grade. While he was testing, I learned that there are over 300 kids testing for 75 spots, only 25 of which are at the school we'd want him to go to. This sounds bad, because I do truly believe Marcus is gifted, but I put the whole thing out of my mind after I learned that so many kids were testing and just figured he wouldn't get in. Imagine my surprise when I got an email this month saying he scored in the 80th percentile or higher on the CogAT test and needed to do a one-on-one reading test for the second round of testing! I felt bad that I had just disregarded his chance of getting in. Anyways, he said when he did the reading test that he read the word "ice cream" but couldn't remember any other words, but he read all of them except one that he didn't know. So, now we wait until mid-March when they will let us know if he got in or not. Either way is totally fine with me because I like having him learn French at our neighborhood school and going to class with the group of neighborhood boys. But if he makes it in, that will be great too.

I was pleasantly surprised when he checked this book out of his school library:

Speaking of Marcus, at my parents' family dinner he told us all, "My favorite food is mac 'n cheese. It's so easy to make! It's just two ingredients: cheese and mac'n!" Oh.my.goodness we all laughed until we cried over that one. The other day, Marcus told me his entire kindergarten class was sitting on the rug and the teacher asked them to raise their hands and suggest a word so the class could break the word down into letter sounds. Marcus got called on and said the word, "Doofnugget." And, according to him, everyone burst into giggles and his teacher said, "I don't know what a doof is, so we'll just go with nugget," which made everyone laugh again. The next day his friends whispered to him, "Say doofnugget again!" Marcus told me, "but the teacher didn't call on me!" shocked that she wouldn't ask him a second time. Hahahahaha. Oh man, he really is a genuinely funny kid- I just hope it doesn't get him in trouble! I have heard several of his friends tell him, "You're SO funny!" as they're playing and it makes me smile every time because he really is a character.

HOWEVER, my same Mr. Funny Man who loves to hug me and always tell me I'm pretty and completely melts my heart, can also be completely and utterly defiant, rebellious, and downright awful. If we give him two options to choose between he always comes up with a third option and refuses to pick from the first two. If we give him no options, he refuses to do whatever we've asked. If we let him choose whatever he wants, he doesn't do anything. It feels like we can't win and we're constantly battling him. BUT..... we went through the same exact thing with Layla when she was in kindergarten. I was just reminded while writing this blog that my word for her at this age was also defiant. I don't know if it's the age, or the fact that they both are/were bored in Kindergarten, or what, but man is it ever rough! Good thing when he's not awful, he is the most handsome, thoughtful, funny little guy! I still melt when I see his little big hands in mine, and when the first thing he says to me in the morning as he gives me a hug is, "Love you," in his sleepy voice. I say it all the time, but his wife will be one lucky woman to have such a thoughtful, sweet husband!

Poor kid had strep throat the week before Christmas. I didnt know until he broke out in this nasty rash. Not my finest mom moment.

I truly thought he had eczema since it started on his face.


Layla has been bitten by the Harry Potter bug! She is, as of today, on book five. She talks about Harry Potter constantly and it is so funny and cute. Sometimes it feels like this:
, but mostly it's great, lol.
Layla is doing very well in school this year and I still absolutely adore her teacher. I am proud of Layla for making many new friends in our new neighborhood. While she makes friends easily, Layla can be shy and introverted. But she has put herself out there lately and I am proud of her. She is also learning to cook and has now expanded to pancakes, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, and green smoothies. My parents gave her an easy bake oven for Christmas and she has loved using that too. She amazes me when some days she looks like she's 12 years old and acts that mature too! It makes me excited because I know she will be a smart, kind, funny, and sweet young woman, but it also makes me sad because she is growing up too fast! I love watching her with all of her little cousins. They all ADORE here, especially Carson, and she is great with them. I adore her too!

I love our island table in our new house. The 4 of us eat all of our meals here. Mitch and I sit on one side, across from the kids. I love that because it allows me to look at both of their cute faces at the same time. And the beautiful mountain scene outside the windows. Every morning they each bring Kitty and Bow Bow and Layla usually brings a book to read and Marcus brings a toy to play with. It really is a sweet scene to behold. It helps me remember that we want to keep the spirit in our homes so our home is a refuge from the world, a safe place where we feel loved and cared for. Which reminds me that church is only two hours long now (awesome!) so that we can have more time to study the Gospel as a family in our homes. We have truly enjoyed that and have memorized a scripture each week so far. I feel like we're even more dedicated and talking more about Jesus, Heavenly Father, and why we're here on earth. I love that my kids are growing up understanding that there is a purpose to them being here and it's bigger than just being nice and loving each other. It's eternal, and it's about choices, repentance, hard work, and love. It brings me so much peace during a time when raising a family is hard and scary. But I know deep down that I don't need to be scared or worried because Heavenly Father inspires me in my parenting and is guiding me along the way.

Kevin and Nicole invited us to the Jazz game. Kevin's work gave him 4 suite tickets and it was amazing! We had dinner in the suite and sat on the 6th row to watch the game!

We even made it on TV! My parents sent me this pic from their TV.


Well this is getting long, I can ramble/type forever, and we need to get going. I have a birthday treat to drop off to one of my Primary class members and then it's off to Katie's birthday dinner. I have made many goals for 2019, and one of them is to update my blog every month. So, hopefully I'll update again in February.

And now for random picture dump that I don't have time to organize:

The kids went to a movie with Kate and Mason and then played afterwards. Always fun with the Mudrows! And Kellee was a life saver when I had so much school work to do that day!

 Making Christmas cookies:

 We went and saw the lights at Temple Square. It was not very cold, but WAY too crowded. Beautiful though!

 Played Kerplunk and saw a movie on Christmas Eve to pass the time.

 Christmas Eve at the Botts.

 The kids got a small bounce house for Christmas!

 Christmas morning aftermath/anxiety for mom.

 My mom made us this Santa Cam. Marcus said, "Hello, Santa!"

 Went sledding on the hill by our home.

 My uncle had his Jeepster and motorcycle made into a Hot Wheels! Sold at Target.

 Went to Top Golf.

Marcus likes to match Mitch for church. I call it, "Mitch-matched." haha. 

 Lots of board games around here.

 Mitch presented a paper for his Ph.D. at a conference in San Diego.

 Silly.

 A snowman should not, "Fall in hot lava." Marcus's paper of the snowman saying, "aaaaaaa" So funny!

 Got fans for prizes at the dentist office. Layla had three cavities! Boo!

 Sibling hugs!

 Breakfast table scene: