Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Birthday Month

First a little background...we have had a longstanding joke at our house about how we don't celebrate birth days, we celebrate birth months.  I think it started as a way to rationalize doing more fun things and eating more fun treats.  If we felt like going out to dinner we would say, "Well, it is your birthday month, so lets do it."  We always do a true celebration on the actual birthday, but we try to have some fun all month long. 

This year James and the kids have stepped it up and are making my birthday month amazing.  On March 1st James came home from work and handed me a new novel he had bought for me and said, "Happy Birthday Month!"  I was very surprised and pleased.  I love reading and was excited to read the book he picked out for me. 
The next morning I was greeted in bed by my kids saying "Happy Birthday Month" as they gave me a bag of peanut butter M&Ms and a coupon book Shelby had made.  The Coupons included: love letter, half hour of nice free cuddles, one night of babysitting, a nice hot bath totally free, massage, your choice of movie at movie night, a warm hug with 50 kisses for free, sleep in one hour late, a good morning kiss, as many pictures as you want, a plate of homemade cookies made by Shelby, kid free hour, free car wash, a plate of homemade muffins, clean up the house by Shelby, breakfast in bed, unlimited hugs and kisses, free dish washing, one chore done for one week.  I loved it!
 On day three, I woke up to Darcy bringing me a present with her own coupon book.  This time it was a silver necklace.  Darcy's coupon book included the following items:  fold clothes, good morning kiss for mom and dad, lots of stickers, 50 kisses from Darcy, 50 hugs, unload laundry, good for 1 hug, clean one room in the house.  Super cute!
 Day 4 I discovered this bag of Swedish Fish with a note from Dallin sitting in my closet on top of my shirts. 
Day 5 brought a set of cutting boards and an adjustable measuring cup.
Day 6 they really outdid themselves.  James got up early and went for a run.  When he came in from his run he was carrying a beautiful bouquet of gerber daisies, and my favorite dessert from Kneaders - a fresh fruit tart, and a loaf of honey wheat bread.  While I was ooing and ahhing over the flowers Dallin came walking in and said "Look what I found," as he handed me a handful of stargazer lilies.  Then Shelby walked in with a gerber daisy and said, "Look what I found."  She was followed by Cody who brought in a handful of red roses and said "look what I found."  Then came Darcy with a handful of fire and ice roses and also said, "look what I found."  James had taken the kids to the florist last night and let them pick out their favorite flowers to give to me, in addition to the original bouquet of gerber daisies they got.  He could have just given me the flowers, but he really wanted to include the treats from Kneaders so he went for the run this morning just so he could get the treats too.  Then he carried them home for the rest of his run.  What a great husband! I also loved the little card they picked out...it said "I just wanted to show these flowers how beautiful you are.  We love you! Happy birthdye love, Dallin, Shelby, Cody, Darcy"
Day 7 - Some much needed additions to our kitchen came as the gifts for the 7th of March. I am pretty hard on spatulas and have been known to break more than a few of them.  Hopefully these ones will last a bit longer since they are steel lined with silicone and the handle and top are seamless.  I'm excited to try them out!  I also noticed the other day that my liquid measuring cup was cracked and didn't hold liquid anymore.  So I was super excited for these three kitchen tools!
 Day 8 - This might seem like a strange gift, but I was really excited about it.  Some of my kids have perpetually stinky shoes.  I really don't like smelling stinky sneakers.  So I am excited to use the shoe deodorizers on my kids shoes!
 Day 9 - Love, love, love this present!  James picked out these new shoes for me and I love them.  They are super comfortable too!
 Day 10 - My rollerblades have been due for a tune-up for many years now.  Today's gift was a new set of rollerblade wheels and bearings.  The best part of it was that Dallin not only gave me this gift, but he also spent quite a while installing them perfectly on my rollerblades.  He's going to grow up to be just as handy as his dad!
 Day 11 - I can  now work out in style.  Today's gift was a new Nike Dry Fit exercise shirt.  Darcy picked this one out because it was pink. 
 Day 12 - Over the weekend Cody had a mishap in our partially finished bathroom downstairs.  All the plumbing is there, but the finishing touches like toilet paper holders and towel bars are missing.  Somehow, the entire roll of toilet paper fell into the toilet while he was trying to wipe.  Then other things ended up on him while he tried to solve the problem.   So now that you know the back story you can appreciate how excited I was about todays gift of a toilet paper holder for the bathroom. 
Day 13 - I decided to grow out my hair for a while.  Having the exact same hairstyle for so many years gets a little boring.  So now that my hair is a bit longer I have been wishing for some hairclips to style it with.  Todays gift was perfect.

 Day 14 - We have two partially finished bathrooms downstairs, so I was super excited when I got todays gift.  Now we can have a toilet paper holder in both bathrooms.  They tricked me with the gift today.  Shelby brought in the toilet paper holder and gave it to me first.  Then Darcy ran out and came back in with another gift.  I thought she was getting the one they gave me a couple of days ago.  But when I pulled it out of the bag I saw that it was a towel holder instead.  I thought Darcy had accidentally given me a gift that was ment for another day.  But they just wanted to mix it up and give two at once.  Double score!

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Funny Quotes

  • Darcy came up to me the other day with a permanent marker and said, "Mom, is it okay if I use this pregnant marker to draw a picture?" January 2012
  • Darcy was in a bubble bath the other day having a great time. She made a beard out of bubbles and put bubbles on her head to make herself look like Santa. When it was time to clean off the bubbles I parted the bubbles to get down to the clear water and she said, "Oh, I didn't know there was water down there!" December 2011
  • Darcy calls hangnails or snags on her nails "Pinchies". She says "Mom, can you get this pinchie off my toe?"
  • Whenever we do something fun Darcy always says, "Lets to dat adain." I love her little voice when she says it.
  • Every morning Cody comes into my room while I'm still in bed and tells me, "Mom, it's light outside. It's time to get up." To which I reply, "Okay, let me get dressed." So now when Cody is getting dressed and I call to him his response is, "I'm getting my dressed on!" I love it. No more getting dressed at our house...its now know as "getting our dressed on".
  • I like to make fruit smoothies for breakfast sometimes. Cody calls them Smoot Moolies, so that has become the name for them at our house. The other day when I was making a smoot moolie Cody asked if he could help me make it. I said he could so he jumped up on the counter and picked up a banana. He proceed to peel it and then handed me the peel and said,"Here's the armpit mom." I wasn't sure if I heard him right so I asked him what it was called. He said, "The armpit...you know the thing that the banana is in." November 2009
  • This afternoon when we were driving to the store I had a funny conversation with Cody. “Does Matt have a house?” Cody asked. “Well, Matt is here to buy a new house.” I replied. “Ooooo, that sounds fun!”Cody said. About a minute passes and then he says “How is he going to carry it?” I’m trying my hardest not to laugh. “I think he needs a big rope.” Cody said, happy that he figured out a good solution to the problem. I just love Cody…he keeps me laughing all the time. January 21, 2010
  • I was really tired one afternoon so I flopped down on the couch and said, "I'm pooped out!" Cody came over and snuggled up to me on the couch and said, "I'm having poop time too!" July 2009
  • When I told the kids that James was going to be going to California, Cody sat up straight and excitedly said, "Like Lightening McQueen! He went to California!" October 2009
  • The other day James said to Cody, "How's my buddy?" Cody got a very serious look on his face and said, "Name's Tody!" (He still can't pronounce C's very well.) The only things he will let us call him, other than his name, is big boy or funny kid.
  • When we were first potty training Cody he said he needed to go to the bathroom during sacrament meeting at church. So I took him to the bathroom and sure enough he did his business in the toilet. This was one of the first times he ever did poops in the toilet so he was really excited. When we walked back into sacrament meeting (we were sitting near the front of the chapel) he loudly proclamed "Daddy, I did giant poops in the toilet!" December 2008
  • Cody comes up with cute names for things. Mostly because he has troubles prononcing some of his letters. Some of my favorite names are "Daddy's Toke-Toke" for Coke, "Dr. Seuse" for Dr. Pepper, the "lurnal" for urinal, and "peanutbutter jam" for peanutbutter mixed with honey in a bowl.
  • Shelby had a hard time saying her G's when she was little. So we were working with her on how to say Grandma. She could make a growling sound pretty well, so we we had her growl then say grandma, so she used her best growling voice to say "GRRRR AMA"
  • The sun was shining in Cody's eyes the other day and he pointed at it and said, "Mommy, that circle is burnin' my eyes!" January 2009
  • Heres a list of funny words our kids have come up with for things: Fwaps (Cody's word for patting Darcy's back), bednight snacks, square noodles (ramen noodles), peeps, giant poops, dishwasher (Cody says this is where we wash clothes), low-low (lawn mower), regular grandma (Shelby's way of describing the difference between Great Grandma and her (regular) Grandma, oopadaisy (Shelby)
  • When we were building our house Shelby and Dallin spent a lot of time here with me working on it. One day when I was putting up the finish trim I couldn't find the hammer. I was looking all over for it and just didn't have any luck finding it. Shelby (2 yrs old) made two fists with her little hands and said, "It's okay Mommy, you can use my bammers!" November 2005
  • When Dallin was 1 yr old, he used to love making car noises. His favorite noise to make was the sound of tires screeching and then a crash. So EVERY time we would apply the brakes in the car we would hear his little voice from the back seat..."errrr kshhhh"
  • When Dallin was about 3 years old, he always liked to sit between James and I on the couch. But his way of saying it was cute. He would say "Can I sit in the tween of you?"
  • When Dallin was about 4 years old, I let him and Shelby skip naps because we needed to go somewhere. As we were driving on the road Dallin said, "Wow, look at all these people who are skipping naps too!" I guess he thought everyone had naps during the afternoon! Summer 2005