Kids say the darndest things...

Marissa absolutely loves her kitty--so much that whenever she is with her, she is holding her--she can't stand to put her down. (This can go on for hours.) I'm not sure if you'd call it "mothering" or "Smothering". So yesterday they were in the back yard "Playing" (she's been holding her for an hour) and I said, "Marissa, Why don't you put Pinky-Pie down and let her go play." Her eyes get big, then she forces a brave and cheerful face and nervously and carefully replies, "Okay..... I'm just going to be like a normal mom--Relax and follow your baby." I ran inside and burst out laughing while I wrote it down for future blogging reference. So hilarious!!

My CTR 5 Class

I got called to be a primary teacher in church a few weeks ago. The kids are 4 year olds turning 5 this year. Since I have a 3 year old and a 6 year old, one a boy, one a girl, I thought my bases were covered. I can handle this age, and I can handle both genders. WEll---My first Sunday was a little rough. I have 2 kids that are absolute motor mouths--I could not keep them quiet for 2 seconds. I would say "Okay, it's my turn to talk. You can tell me your story after class." Then they would keep going and going till I was saying, "You need to be quiet. Please quit talking RIGHT NOW. Close your mouth and don't say anything else." Even the play dough I brought wasn't enough to keep them busy. I thought I was so prepared-and such a fun teacher to bring them each their own little play dough to take home.

The first Sunday there were 6 kids. The funny thing is that there is one boy (who I live across the street from) that was not there. The thing about this boy is that he is a terror. I about died when I saw him on my attendance sheet. He and his brother catch the bus with Marissa. They fight (kick, hit, punch, tackle) all the time. They scream at each other, push each other in the road, refuse to get on the bus, and use VERY Profane language. Well, they are inactive, and embarrassingly enough, I've been kinda glad (I know that's bad of me).

Yesterday, this inactive boy showed up for the first time. That in and of itself would have made the day enough of a challenge, but we had an older missionary couple leaving on their mission. They have 10 kids who all have large families, so I had 5 extra boys in my class. They are cousins and were all hyper and excited to be with each other. So, my class was huge, but we did pretty good for the first little while. At the end, all heck broke loose. We were making little booklets on "How to keep the Sabbath day holy" (Yes, quite ironic) They were supposed to color and cut out 8 pages, then I'd staple them together. So, I have like 4 kids saying, "Teacher, I need help". My terror boy finished very first, and is now standing on top of his chair, with his belt off, swinging it in circles over his head. 2 of the cousins are cutting each others pants with the scissors and shouting "I'm going to staple your bottom." Another cousin has shredded an entire sheet of paper into tiny squares. The whole room is a disaster of crayons, paper scraps, scissors, and kids articles of clothing (shoes, ties, belts) that have now come off. Then, to top it off, a little girl comes up to me with blood dripping down the front of her--bloody nose.

HEEEEEEEEELLLLLLPP!!!!

Just then, 2 members of the presidency peek their heads in--"Do you need any help in here?" Need they even ask? We were in a state of utter chaos.

I was so proud of myself for going to bed early the night before. I was sure I would be good and awake in sacrament meeting and that I would be okay without a Sunday nap. WEll, I was exhausted after 2 hours with these little children of God. You know, they really should have 2 teachers per class--especially in a ward like ours, with so many willing people--so you aren't stuck in primary for 2 of the 3 hours, and you can go to either Relief Society or Sunday School.

Anyway, I'm glad it's conference this weekend.

Peach Glace Pie

Ever since we've had boxes of peaches around for canning, Chandler has persistantly been asking, "Can we make peach pie?" Honestly, I've never made a peach pie, but I have to admit, the idea sounded tantalizingly delicious. So I used fresh, sliced peaches instead of berries in my Berry Glace Pie recipe. The results were NOT dissappointing. It was fabulous.

The kids absolutely loved the project. I let them each make their own little one, and they thought that was awesome. They took a long time getting their crust just right, arranging the peaches in an even layer, and making sure the glaze covered each slice. Of course, while we were peeling and slicing the peaches, I think they ate half of them before they made it to the bowl. We also found an earwig in one of the pits, and we all screamed. The kids were both fascinated with the bug, and terrified with every pit after that. They'd never seen one before.

I turned on the oven light while the crusts were baking, and they sat and impatiently watched the whole time. They about died during dinner while the crust cooled. But they knew the wait was worth it after the first bite of fresh pie with vanilla ice cream on it.

In fact, I couldn't agree more--so the next night for dinner, while Ty was in Salt Lake at a dental convention, (don't tell him) we ate it for dinner. The funny thing was that the next day, we had another interesting dinner. We were making peach jam at my mom's house. My mom likes to make fresh bread to eat with the fresh jam. Well, my dad was also out of town, and we decided to make cinnamon rolls out of part of the bread dough. We had good intentions to make dinner, but we were so tired after making jam, canning peaches, bread, and cinnamon rolls, (and it was so delicious, we didn't really want to eat anything else) so we just had bread with jam and cinnamon rolls for dinner (don't tell dad).

The peaches have been fabulous though--we've also enjoyed peach crepes, peach milkshakes, and peach shortcake. YUM.

The funny thing that day was also that we realized we were all coincidentally wearing green, so Marissa called us "The Green Team" the whole day.

Adventures With Pinky-Pie (the cat)

Marissa spends every waking minute with her beloved Pinky-Pie. She says things like "She wants her mom, and that's me. Chandler is her dad. She is my cutie-pie baby. Her whole name is Pinky-Pie Butterfly Bodily."

The other day, the funniest thing happened. Marissa was outside playing with Pinky-Pie, as usual, and I went out to tell Marissa it was dinner time. She came inside and washed up. We started eating and we asked how the cat was. Marissa said, "It's her nap time. She was tired, so I put her down for a nap." We inquired where she was sleeping, and her method of "putting her down", and asked Miss if she thought the kitty was still asleep.

Marissa explained that she wrapped her up tight in a towel, then put her in the basket of her scooter, and turned off the light in the garage. And of course she's still asleep, mom, I'm her mom and I know what's best for her.

Ty and I jumped up to go save the poor thing. We raced to the garage, opened the door, and turned on the light, only to find the peacefully slumbering kitty, exactly as described. Our laughter quickly awoke the poor thing. We suggested that although she looked quite content and comfy, that we should probably find a more suitable bed, as the scooter could easily tip over, and she was wrapped tightly, and that wasn't a good combination. I did snap a couple of pix to share first, though.

An Update on Mr. Caterpillar

Actually, the kids are convinced it's a girl caterpillar, so it's name is Odette. We also have another green caterpillar named Rose, and a cricket named Smokey the Bear. Chandler named the cricket; Marissa named the caterpillars.

Both of the caterpillars are in jars inside cacoons. I don't know how long they take to come out--I hope not all winter. We'll see if they can survive. I'll keep you updated.

It was interesting to see Odette make her cacoon. She started spinning a white web thing, then she shed all of her black fuzz, and added it to the cacoon. So, you can see her turning around, and she's just a black, hairless, fat wormlike thing. Interesting.

More Canning

Well, More canning has been in our agenda lately--my projects have included sweet pickles, strawberry jam, peaches, peach jam, and watermelon jelly.

So, about watermelon jelly--this is purely experimental. My brothers run a watermelon farm, so since they are in great abundance, we thought "why not?" It seemed to taste good, tasting a little out of the batch. It'll be interesting to see. Maybe we'll become famous and have a booming watermelon jelly business.

I wonder how many people know about making sweet pickles. The process is quite interesting. But this is my great grandma's recipe (it's in my cook book for those that have one) and it's very good. Nothin' quite like them, really. This is how they're made: Wash your cucumbers, cut into bite size pieces. Soak them in salt water for 2 weeks. At the end of two weeks, there is a disgusting thick layer of mold on top of the water (it doesn't touch the pickles). So you skim it off, and pour off the water. Then you do stuff to it for 6 days. 1-pour boiling water on them. 2-drain, pour boiling water with alum in it on them (alum keeps them crisp) 3- pour a boiling syrup made with vinegar, cinnamon sticks, sugar, cloves, and mace on them. 4- drain syrup into a pan, reboil it, pour it over again. 5- do the same as #4 6- drain, boil syrup, then pack pickles and syrup in jars.

I should have taken a pic of the mold, but I didn't think of it till after the fact. Anyhow, here's a few pix of my latest labors.

Last Sunday

Chandler and Marissa had some cute things to say:

Chandler saw Marissa right after she put her dress on for church. He gasps, "Oh Missy, You look PRETTY! Will you marry me? You look like a princess." What a lady's man already, huh? He's such a sweet boy--he frequently compliments people and tells them he loves them.

Marissa turns to her teacher in primary (I teach the class just younger than hers, so she is in the row right behind me)and says, "Sister Hickley, I love reading the scriptures--it's my very favorite book. I want to read it a lot every day." What a pure-hearted girl. Can't say I would've sincerely said that as a child. I definitely need to take advantage of it, and give her as much as she wants.

I sure love my sweet kids.

Our new fence and our View

We wanted to put up a fence to keep the kiddy's and the kitty in our yard. We were a little nervous that it would be too tall and block our beautiful view. Well, the fence is all the way up and Ty and I love it! Not only is it good at keeping things in the yard, but we think it looks really nice too. On top of that, our view is not hindered at all. We can still see the majestic mountains and the fields in harvest. It is such a beautiful scene.

Marissa's 6th Birthday

It's so hard to believe Marissa is 6 years old! Has it really been that long? We feel so blessed to have such a delightful, smart, sensitive, beautiful, sweet girl. I often feel unworthy to be her mom--she is amazing and has incredible potential. I pray every day that I can help her reach that potential. She deserves so much. Anyway, our day started out with a party at school. I brought treats in and we played pin the tial on the donkey. Then we worked on her birthday cake during the afternoon. She picked out and designed her own cake. She wanted a unicorn cake. When I showed her the pan, she immediately said, "I want it to have a white body with a heart with sprinkles on it here (pointing to it's side), pink hooves, rainbow mane and tail, and blue eyes like mine." Marissa was very excited to have a family party, and they all spoiled her. The main attraction was her last gift--we had her close her eyes and then brought out a beautiful calico kitten. As soon as she heard it's little meow, her eyes popped open. She was literally speechless, and I've never seen her eyes so WIDE. She just kept saying, "It's SOO AADOOORABLE." She named her pinky-pie. Since then, she has been with it non-stop. She wanted to sleep with it, eat with it, watch a movie with it, ride her new scooter with it in the basket, etc. After cake, we did a pinata. It was so hard that the teenagers had to break it open.

Savanah's Wedding

I think the funnest part of my cousin's wedding reception was the dance--I love watching people dance. So, here are 3 cute couples:
1-Savanah and Chico
2-My Grandma and Grandpa Baker
3-My Uncle James and his daughter, Madison

Mr. Caterpillar

Right after we got home from our trip, we found the cutest, fuzzy, black caterpillar. The kids are convinced they can feed it till it spins a cacoon and turns into a butterfly. We'll see. But they played with it all afternoon. Chandler was a little nervous--you can see it in his face. Marissa is a total animal lover--ALL creatures great and small.

Camp Bradley for Labor Day Weekend

We went up by Stanley, Idaho for our last reunion of the summer. It's the firt time Ty and the kids have been up there, and they all loved it. We've been having those reunions there for over 20 years. It's actually really fun to see Marissa get to do the same things I did when I was little. It's gonna be fun to compare pictures--I was about her age when we first started going. A few things we did: hike, swim, ride 4 wheelers, catch frogs, make smores, play at the creek, play board/card games, and of course talk and eat A LOT!!

One thing that was different than all other years was that we woke up this morning to snow!!! It's the only labor day of my life to snow. Marissa and Chandler were loving every minute of it. They were enthralled with the kid-size 4 wheelers, and I was a little apprehensive at first, but they got the hang of it so quickly, and the bikes can't go very fast. Marissa, Chandler, and another girl, Avery, literally loved a frog to death. Poor thing. They kept catching the same one over and over, and kept holding it a little too tight (it kept trying to jump out of their hands), then on it's final release, Avery took her dad literally when he told her to throw it back--it hit a rock and died.

It was absolutely gorgeous there. I really love the mountains. It was so fun reconnecting with all my family after not seeing most of them for 4 years.

Potty Training--Whoopie!! I'm a big boy now!

I know--it's about time Chandler was potty trained. He turned 3 in May, after all. But after the first week of him doing AWESOME, I'd say there's a lot to waiting till they are a little older. These are a few reasons:
1- bigger bladder (don't have to go as often, and can hold it longer)
2- better communcation (he can tell me he needs to go, and I can explain things to him better)
3- more coordinated (step up on the stool, hold the wee-wee down, wash hands, not fall in toilet)
4- can dress/undress better (pull pants and undies up and down)
Ya know, as long as they can do it all before kindergarten, who really cares if they're 18 months old and potty-trained?
I came home last Tuesday evening with pullups and put one on Chandler. Within 10 minutes, he announced he needed to go, and he did. I thought, surely this can't be THAT easy, but the next day we went and bought "Cars" and glow-in-the-dartk undies and he only had 2 accidents. He has made all but one poo-poo's in the potty. Even during camping this week, when we thought pullups would be more wise, he refused to ever use them. He would rather stand out in the snow to "peep" (he says peep and poop). In fact, he thought "peeping" outside and not in the toilet was soooo fun--he is such a boy!! First thing in the morning, before anything else, we hear him run and go potty before he has even taken his pullup off from the night. He has also held it really well, when needed.
I don't really care for potty training (at all!!) but I'm optimistic about the whole thing now--so I hope Chandler keeps progressing this well.

Apricot Jam

The apricots we got were tree ripened and SOFT. We ate a ton of them fresh, then got 19 pints of jam out of the rest. Thanks for sharing the apricots Barb.