A Few Fun Things

President Monson encouraged us to find joy in the journey. When you live with three little characters that can be an easy thing to do.

I think Andy was on a mission to see if he could make the biggest possible mess in the shortest amount of time this morning. In no more then 30 minutes he had Sorry Sliders spread across the living room, plus connect four, Yahtzee Jr Toy Story 3 version, Mad Gab (cards dumped out, mixed up and everywhere), a dinosaur puzzle dumped and the pieces mixed up with a Where the Wild Things are puzzle. He was having a great time. My instructions about picking up the first game before we get out another game fell on deaf ears. I asked for his help in picking up and challenged him to use his sorting skills from yesterday in sorting out the two different puzzles. Quick came the reply "My arms are broken." He did help after I got started with Sorry and moved through the rest of them. That poor boy has had more broken arms and legs then anyone I know. He will really feel bad I am sure when he actually does have a broken arm or leg. I prefer that not happen, especially anytime soon.

After picking up all the games I decided we needed another healthy project so we took down Christmas. It was an adventure to say the least. Andy loved pulling the ornaments off the tree and whatever order I was trying to box them up in was completely annihilated by Andy. It was okay though as we didn't really have them in any order when we put them on the tree anyway. He was really excited about putting away the Department 56 Christmas Village. Perhaps most of that excitement was in dressing up as a robot in the Dept 56 boxes. He just kept wandering around, unable to see. Here is his original outfit.



Also with Andy, we were going to pick up Jack and Natty from Jay and Sara's tonight and when I was gearing him up to brave the snow I asked what hat he wanted. He chose his Texas hat. I am certain that would make his Grandfather and Great Grandfather Atwood quite proud. Well, he wears is with all the swagger a true Texas man would. The boy does not play and is quick to tell you "Don't Bother with Texas!" I can't quite get him to catch on to Don't Mess with Texas. Hey, we take what we can get right?



We had a fun day together. I did discover a missing sled from one of the Dept 56 pieces. It is a train piece that the elves move toys from the workshop out to Santa's sleigh. The sleigh was not there and then I remembered him coming to me a week or so ago and saying a sled was broken so he threw it away. I showed him the picture and asked what happened to it. Sure enough that was the broken sled and he tossed it. We had a kind chat about bringing things like that to dad to fix before we throw them away. He wanted to go check in the garbage but I told him it was already gone to the dumps. He wanted to go to the dumps. He was a little upset about it and really wanted to get it back. He was sad that we couldn't go to the dumps to find it. I was sad for my little boy who was feeling badly. He is a good boy and I sure enjoyed him today. Oh yeah, final note on Andy. He helped with the tree, well transporting the tree to the basement. I had moved the box into the hall and was getting something. When I came back he had it lined up at the top of the stairs and let it rip. Not exactly what I had in mind for moving the tree to the basement but it worked and it put a huge smile on his face. Such a good helper. Love that kid.

Natty is really excited right now about the Mii channel on Wii. Special thanks to her cousins that showed her this. She couldn't wait to show me so after I figured out the password to our wireless router we got the Wii hooked up to the Internet (had no idea you could do this until I saw Nigels Facebook post about watching NetFlix on the Wii). Last night she took me on a tour of the Mii Channel and showed me all of these great Mii characters. My favorite was Jack Black. It is quite the likeness. She laughed and laughed because she hadn't seen him previously and just thought it was great that I spotted him. Glad simple things still make her happy. Well, Jack Black is now officially one of our Mii's. Too bad there isn't a Nacho Libre or a Jack Burton. "You know what old Jack Burton would say at a time like this..." "Who?" "Jack Burton, me. Yeah, old Jack always says, ah what the heck." I think one day I will have to do a post made up entirely of movie quotes just to see if I can make it make sense. "Is for fun."

Okay back to the Natty Sue Bug. She has definitely taken after her mother when it comes to reading. If she had taken after me she would be napping in the picture below. No she sits down with a book and manages somehow to completely block out everything that is going on around her. She is also a fairly fast reader. Well, fast compared to some - like me. Anyhow, here she is enjoying a book in her chair.



Jack was on a bit of a roll tonight with his Aunt Amy. I had to come and write some of his material down. It is good stuff. So he walks up behind Amy and gives her a big hug and says "You smell like roses". I think Amy appreciated the comment. They went on to discuss a few things and the topic of birthdays came up. Well Amy is on April 11th and Jack is April 12th. Jack mentioned he would be 7 and Amy mentioned she would be 22. Jack then says "Your gonna be super old!" Not sure what that makes me but we had a good laugh about it. Jack was not done. He spoke about his Grandma Kathy: "Grandma sometimes is very nice and smells like buttercups." Sorry ma, hadn't noticed the buttercup thing but I also don't have a habit of smelling people. Jack did mention that for his birthday he would like a xylophone. Not sure where that came from but it sounds like fun. Here is a picture of him crawling through the Living Room acting like a dog.



I am grateful for the blessings that I receive each day. Grateful also for my children and very grateful for a few fun things that we did today.