Riley Kate loves to take long showers.  This morning, she was in the shower until the hot water ran out (I am NOT kidding...).  Josie saw Riley get out of the shower and asked to take a bath.  I told her that the water was all cold and that we had to wait until the water got warm again.  Josie thought for a moment and then just plainly said, "Give the water a hat to get warm."  Love that logic.

The other day, our family decided to play a game of Clue.  Riley put all the game pieces out and we were off.  The game went on for over an hour.  Still no answers.  We kept playing.  Finally, Grace and Riley teamed up to see if they could crack the mystery.  Triumphantly, they cried, "We know!  It's...." A guess made.  We pulled the cards Riley had claimed to have prepared and discovered....only a BUNCH of random cards (some of them not even clue cards) stuffed in the secret envelope.  OOPS.  Riley THOUGHT she had made up the next envelope after the last time we played.  Nope.  Just random cards stuffed in an envelope.  All in all, it was a pretty fun game.  Just turns out we were CLUELESS. 

O.K.  We've done pretty well.  However, about the last hour of conference things deteriorated.  In this last hour, we have had:  plastic Easter Egg fight, Grace chasing Riley around the kitchen table,, all of us trying to fit on the better couch, dressed Teddy as the Easter Egg thief and I have been MOCKED at my attempts to make Easter crafts (they don't know what to do--as I can't remember the last time I did this...)  Dad has finally laid down the law and while President Monson speaks, we are to listen reverently.  Good choice.  Will post pictures later.

She looked so stunning!  We hope you are having an amazing time!

Rememer when you were a little girl (those of us that are female) and your biggest wish was for a Barbie, frosting dress birthday cake?  Sidney was asked to prom--she is thrilled to go with one of her very best friends--and so we went dress shopping.  I have never seen more poofy, frosting dresses in my  life.  Sid is so tiny that she looked like she was drowning in frosting.  Luckily, we found one that is minus the frosting cake theme and she looks ABSOLUTELY beautiful!  I can't believe she is old enough to go to prom, but at least she won't look like a Barbie frosting cake.

Monday, I had a quick errand...which left Grace and Josie complaining about getting in the car AGAIN.  Since they were both playing in the backyard, I thought Grace could handle Josie for the few minutes I would be gone.  When I got back, Grace and Josie were happily watching Lion King (Josie's favorite obsession right now).  Upon tucking Grace in that night, I complimented her on how nice it was that she is getting older and more responsible.  Grace simply shrugged her shoulders and replied, "You know, it was easy.  When I wanted her to come in, I just told her that the sky was raining big spiders and the ground had baby spiders all over them."  I know why I save money for our kids therapy...Josie's going to need it.

Claire, to her sleeping parents:

"I got gum in my hair, but it's alright... I just cut it out."

So,  I really should have blogged this a couple of weeks ago, but, 1) I wasn't blogging then, and 2)  It's a long story.

 

Jim was scheduled to go the the Dominican Republic.  He never made it.  At least after a complete FBI check, he's clean.  He started a new job with Interstate (I told you this was old...we like chaos apparently)  He left Utah, Altanta and then proceeded to go through customs in the DR.  He spent the next two hours being questioned about...not really anything and then shipped over to Puerto Rico.  They let him back into the country...a good sign.  Monday morning he went over to the Dominican Republic (in Puerto Rico) consulate and they insisted on seeing all of his OLD passport pages--which meant I had to leave a child with the flu--the vomit kind--, drive in a snowstorm to Staples, have them copied and faxed over.  After several hours of them pouring over his passports, they told him they couldn't do any more and if he wanted to go over to the DR, he needed to have a paper signed by Interpol stating that he had no criminal background. 

 

You don't hear that everyday.  Interpol won't deal with individuals, only government agencies.  So someone at Interstate lives next to an FBI guy that said he would run a check for Jim.  He came back squeaky clean.  We never did find out what the DR's deal was.  Probably never will.  We have decided two things:

 

We will never plan a vacation in the Dominican Republic.

Jim has a twin--or someone by his name--living in the Dominican Republic and he probably isn't nice. 

Josie is getting older.  She saw a sign at a gas station for ice cream and insisted she NEEDED one!  So, in between the Dr. office, Marilee's and Bowman's, I told Sidney to drive through the Artic Circle and order their smallest ice cream cone.  Sidney, upon rolling up to the somewhat out-of-date intercom asked, "What is your smallest ice cream cone'.  We heard, "garble, garble, garble cone."  Sidney said, "Great!  We will take a chocolate one!"  After a pause, the girl asked if we didn't want anything else?  Feeling she was trying to "up-sale", we politely said "No, one will do".  We pulled up and they handed us a very small cone.  Gratefully, we said "Thanks, and how much did we owe?"  With a funny look on her face, the cashier said, "This is our courtesy cone".  We are such moochers.   

Josie has had an ear infection and thus, not sleeping--which means I don't either.  The other night about 3 a.m., Josie wakes up screaming for her "Zebra Cat!"  As a good mother, I mean great, wonderful and dedicated mother, I began the search for the Zebra Cat (really a zebra, but...).  I finally find it under Grace's bed...because it really is Grace's and she hid it in an attempt to prevent Josie from playing with it.  I proudly hand it to Josie, only to hear a fit of anger that it is NOT her Zebra Cat.  I tried several other animals in hopes of soothing her.  In a moment of inspiration, I asked her what color her Zebra Cat was and she screams, BROWN!  Ahh.  It all makes sense...she had been carrying around a brown stuffed leopard the day before.  I go again in Grace's room and began the search.  Again.  Can't find it.  Reasoning that Grace again has hidden this one as well--because all stuffed animals in this house have belonged to Grace at some point--I began pulling out ALL the stuffed animals out of the bin in the quest for the RIGHT Zebra Cat.  There it was, the very bottom, back part of the large bin.  I stagger in to Josie and hand it to her.  Silence.  Goes back to sleep.

 

When I asked Grace about hiding it the next morning, she simply confessed, that yes, she hid it.  It was hers and she didn't want Josie to have it.  Another quest conquered.

Hey Jon!  Here our are pictures, as promised.   I talked with Craig and Brent and they said they would send some also.  Love and miss you and yours.  Merry Christmas!