A Child's Reasoning

Experience #1:
Background: Both Jared and I have recently had a little bug (or something) that has caused us to have a headache every day for several days. Yesterday evening we had the following interaction:
Brielle: "Mom, my head hurts."
Mom (assuming she has what we have had): "Oh, I'm sorry. Let's finish this book and we will go and get you some medicine."
Nathan (from the corner of the room where he is playing between the couch and the wall with toys): "My back hurts. My back hurts."
Nathan climbing out from behind the couch: "My nose hurts. My head hurts. Mom, I need some medicine. My head hurts. I need some medicine."
Dad (finally registering what Nathan is saying/doing): "Does your arm hurt too?"
Nathan: "Yep. I need some medicine."
Dad explains that medicine is only for times when we really need it and offers him a piece of candy instead.

Today:
Nathan: "Mom, I want some candy. (pause) My back hurts and my head and my leg. I need some candy."

Experience #2
Background- One of Brielle's favorite bedtime stories is to have Mom or Dad tell her all about when she was born. So, in those retellings she has been told about how we wanted to have a child for a long time and finally after a special fast and lots of prayer we found out that we were going to have a baby and that we were really happy. Recently we told her that a friend of ours is expecting a baby:
Brielle: "How did she get a baby in her tummy?"
Mom: "Ummm." (How do you explain THAT to a very inquisitive four-year-old?)
Brielle: "Did they pray for a long, long, long, long time?"

The official need for a DRUMROLL!

Thanks to help from my Mom and my sister I have FINALLY officially figured out Picassa and made our Christmas slideshow (I was just using the web version--who knew there were 2 different versions?!?--before and it wasn't letting me do what I needed to do for this).

We had a FANTASTIC Christmas and New Years filled with family, fun, and wonderful memories. Life is good.

We spent the week before Christmas in St. George with my parents enjoying all of the usual traditions. My Mom is the best maker of traditions...she makes everything special. On Christmas day, after opening our gifts and taking naps, we piled into the cars and came up to Provo where we were lucky enough to have the Camerons and the Princes join us on the 26th for an all-day Christmas party. It was SO good to all be together! We went back to St. George a couple of days later to celebrate New Years with Grandma, Grandpa, Brian, Michelle and Gabbi. So, so fun.

A couple of experiences with the kids that I want to remember in the future:

• We had to wake Brielle up. Jared woke up at 6:30 am and kept bugging me to PLEASE let him wake up the kids. NO WAY! Nathan finally woke up at about 7:30, so I consented to wake up Brielle. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?
• Nathan's favorite songs this Christmas were "Jingle Bells", "Jingle Bell Rock," and "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town". He would get so excited when one would come on the radio or in the store and would get so mad when it finished. He does great renditions of each one. On Christmas Eve, Grandma played those songs on the piano while the kids and I played bells and danced. We all enjoyed the upbeat feel. Grandma decided to end with "Silent Night." Nathan immediately calmed down, found a "song book", and "sang" that holy song. Everytime we finished it he would call, "AGAIN!" until Grandma finally decided it was time to finish. It was touching to see Nathan feel and revel in the true spirit of Christmas.
• Brielle LOVES the Christmas story and retold & acted it out several times throughout the holiday season. That is still her favorite pretend play choice. She knows that story inside and out and often corrects me if I skip a part. She is always Mary (she does the inn keeper's voice too), Nathan is always Joseph, and I get to be the angels, the donkey, the shepherds and the wise men (unless Dad is around to fill one or two of those parts).
• I loved seeing my children with their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousin Gabbi. I was touched and reminded again of what an important role our extended family plays in the lives of my children. I am grateful that they are surrounded by so many loving role models. Thanks to each of you for loving and caring about us.

Sibling Gifts

This year we thought that Brielle was old enough to experience the true joy of giving a little more. So, we arranged to have her do "special tasks" to earn money to pay for Nathan's Christmas gift. She had gotten a camping chair for her birthday that Nathan loved and she decided it would be a good idea to get one for him for Christmas. She worked hard for several weeks before Christmas, earned $10, and went on a special trip to the store with Dad to get Nathan's gift.

She chose which color she thought he would like. She paid for it with her coins and dollar bills with the somewhat remorseful exclamation, "That is a lot of money!!"

She carefully wrapped and labeled her gift. It was the first gift Nathan opened on Christmas morning. Brielle was very excited and couldn't resist helping him open it.

She set it up for him.

And watched him enjoy it.Then got her reward. "Thanks Bwell".

Nathan went on a special shopping trip with Dad to choose Brielle's gift and INSISTED on getting her a horn for her bike, despite Dad's attempt to change his mind.

"It's a horn! It's a horn!" Nathan was SO excited to watch her open it.

Trying out the first honk.

Side note: It has enjoyed MUCH honking since that day and just today was declared mute. Mom deferred requests to fix it by telling them dad would fix it when he got home. Hopefully? he can.

The First Words...

out of Brielle's mouth this morning as she was tugging at her hair as if to fix it, were: "My hair got funny in the night!!" The first thing she had done upon waking up was run to the mirror in her room to see her new haircut. She was a bit surprised to find:

(And no, her bangs swishing straight up isn't just because her head is tipped down...they are really stuck that way.)

Drumroll Please...

We finally did it!

Did what?

Cut someone's hair.

Guess who...

It is our cute Brielle's!!!

Doesn't she look DARLING?!?

Brielle has been wanting her haircut for WEEKS and it hasn't happened because I didn't know how, who, what etc. etc. Last week I received inspiration from the darling hairstyle of a 3 year old who moved in next door (whose mother just happens to be a fabulous hair stylist), so we called her mom and she cut Brielle's hair today. Brielle was SO excited to go and get it cut and she loved every second of her pampering. She has wanted short hair "like a boy" for a while now because she doesn't like it getting "in her face." She doesn't like all the snarls of long hair either (neither do I!). Hopefully, she will like this better and will allow me to style it now. :) She spent the rest of the day enjoying that "new haircut feel." She would swing her head back and forth, play with it, and look in every mirror or window she could find to see her new do. Here's our cutie:

We had to take pictures today because I'm sure it will never be this well styled again. Thanks Katie for doing such a great job!