Anya "conducting"

Anya loves to conduct the music in family night. She likes to stand on top of a step stool or Aaron's "junk trunk" and conduct us with her hand or a chop stick, if she can get a hold of one. It's so cute we wanted to get a video of it. But the lighting in the living room wasn't bright enough for a video so we had her conduct in the kitchen. She was pretty excited about performing for the camera and decided to put on a show while conducting. Funny girl. She memorized the primary song we are singing because she heard it over and over as I was preparing for our Primary's Sacrament Program. When we did the program she stood next to me and tried to conduct the children. She was so pleased with herself! Luckily she's so short the kids couldn't see her, so she wasn't a distraction. Anya would be so excited to see her Aunt Sarah conducting a whole band!

In our little home school the kids love music time and one of their favorite songs is "Old Aunt Sarah had a band" sung like "Old MacDonald had a farm"--- Instead of animals old Aunt Sarah has percussion instruments in her band. So in her band she has things like a Triangle, finger cymbals, a tambourine, and maracas. The kids love banging away and singing. They have also learned the name of a variety of percussion instruments and what they each sound like. It's too bad that I didn't think to change the words to "Young Aunt Sarah had a band" before I taught it too them. Sorry Sarah but it's stuck as "old Aunt Sarah".

Thanksgiving "Tea" Party

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at home today. After the kids nap we had a "tea" party with fancy tea cups and hot chocolate. The kids loved it. It took some time for them to figure out how to hold their cups. Talmage practiced sipping with his pinky finger up. Anya was nervous about dropping it so she was extra cautious holding her cup. Fun memories!

Sunny Days in November

Talmage and Anya wanted to plant flowers that they could be in charge of. When we went to the store Talmage new he wanted a flower named Cosmo. We had to look at all the flowers and plants to see which he thought looked like a "Cosmo". He picked this pink flower and named is Cosmo. Anya picked hers and of course named it Elmo, like everything else. The kids love watering there flowers! And each other.

Anya chasing Talmage with the sprinkler. Swimsuits and playing in the sprinkler in November, the kids love it. Talmage barely remembers snow and cold weather. Anya thinks coats are dress up clothes.

Swings

The kids love going to the park near our house. They always go on the swings first. Talmage has learned to pump. I just have to get him on the swing and start him going and he does the rest. Anya loves "under dogs" and swinging high. This was a cooler day last week, probably about 70 degrees.

Way to Go Aaron

Aaron has been chosen to be on a new, highly visible development team at work. He will be the "lowest ranking" member of the team and he is very excited to be included. He wont have to do any support or "on call" work anymore. He will be doing what he's most interested in, developing "stuff" from start to finish. He has recently been recognized for an application he built that has allowed specific tasks to be done in a small fraction of time that it used to take. One manager reported it taking him 2.5 hours to complete a task that took 300 man hours to complete before Aaron's application. Everyone that has used it is very pleased. So, they are expecting good things from him. And he's ready to show the company what he's got.

I know my explanations are a bit vague but the "computer talk" I do understand I'm not sure if I'm allowed to tell. There is so much information he's not supposed to share that I try not to repeat things he says for fear it's "classified" information.

I can share though, that his current manager cried twice as she was telling his team that Aaron would be moving teams soon.

Why?

Anya has just hit the "why?" stage. Having two in diapers is nothing compared to two in the "why stage". I love that my kids are interested in the world around them and all but if I hear why one more time I may just have a nervous break down. The epitome of the why frustration is when I'll give the reason for what I am saying and Talmage will ask why and repeat what I just said. Example... "Talmage please don't lean over the railing, you might fall on your head." Talmage then asks "Why don't lean over the railing and fall on my head?" (isn't falling on your head reason enough) in a more patient moment I might respond... " Because if you fall on your head it will hurt and you might crack it open and it will bleed." Talmage--"Why it will hurt and crack open and might bleed?" Then the patient moment is gone and I tell him to get away from the railing. He's not always in the why mode but some days he relapses pretty bad. Then sweet Anya just says why every time I ask her to do something. Example "Anya, come here so I can change your diaper." Anya-- "Why" (does she want to know why we are changing her diaper or why she is coming-- I just told her why she's supposed to come so it must be why we need to change her diaper) I say, "Because it's squishy." She says "Why?". (Does she really not know? I think she just likes to ask why) So I say, "because you wet in it, now get over here." Sometimes she'll respond with an, "Ohhhh", like I just said something profound.

Well now all of this just sounds silly to get annoyed about now. Perhaps I'm ready to withstand a few more whys-- or maybe I'll just start asking them why! Sometimes asking Talmage why he thinks such and such in response to one of his whys actually helps, but it takes energy too.

Talmage's new skill

Talmage learned to tie shoes today! We took 10 minutes during "school" this morning and worked on learning to tie shoes. He picked it up fast and has been practicing off and on all day. He doesn't own any "tie" shoes at the moment so he's been carrying a pair of mine around to practice on. I have a feeling that I'm going to be finding a lot more bows around the house now.

Double Miracle

Yesterday was our Ward primary sacrament presentation. I was put in as Primary Chorister last month along with a new pianist. The primary presidency didn't know that their new pianist has only had a total of 1 year worth of piano lessons and that their new chorister has moderate to severe Rheumatoid Arthritis. I don't think they know about the Arthritis but the lack of Piano playing ability was pretty hard to miss. So yesterday's first miracle was the Pianist was able to play all the songs in the program well enough for the children to sing along. I don't know who prayed more for his abilities to improve-- me, the presidency, or him. The second miracle is I had another flare of arthritis that particularly focused on my shoulders. This made it hard to conduct and hold the picture helps for the songs. The second miracle of the day was I woke up able to move my shoulders better than I have in a long time. I was also able to conduct and hold pictures just fine through the program and then again in the singing time in Jr. and Sr. primary. Again this was an answer to my prayers (I know Aaron was also praying for me). The program turned out very well. The children sang out and had the songs well memorized. I was pleased with their effort and I'm glad it's over.

Today I started really working on the 2008 songs as well as preparing for "normal" singing times for the rest of this year. Oh yeah, I also need to get them ready to sing a Christmas song in Sacrament meeting in December. So much to do, but I'm enjoying it.

AC Ghosts

The random things we do! The kids and I made balloon and plastic bag ghosts one day. On Halloween we took them outside to fly them. The kids ran around the yard with them on a string. Then I thought they would fly better if the string was tied to a stick. This worked better because the kids now had a handle. Then the air conditioner kicked on. . . Well flying ghosts over the AC was a ton more fun then running them around. The kids loved this and were so excited to show dad when he got home from work. He really enjoyed flying them too. I finally had to shut off the AC in the house so that they would come in for dinner.

Video of AC Ghosts

Pictures of AC Ghosts

Ice Cream Cones

Some of you may remember Talmage's adversion to ice cream. He has never liked cold things, including ice cream, Popsicles, cold water... Anya has no problem with cold and often asks me to put ice in her water. Now that I have been feeling better I have trying to see where my kids "childhood experiences" are lacking and then give them those experiences. So I decided that they needed ice cream cones. (All kids like ice cream cones, right?) Talmage tried one once and didn't like it. The chocolate ice cream ended up on the floor, table and bench at Dairy Queen as well as on HoneyGram's (Aaron's mom) white shirt. Anya had never tried one. So for family night we had Chocolate ice cream cones. They loved it. Anya ate the whole thing and Talmage just licked the ice cream down as far as he could without eating the cone. I had to take a picture of this successful venture. Now Anya sees ice cream cones everywhere-- on signs, in books, probably in her dreams. So I think we'll probably have ice cream cones again soon. It's supposed to be 86 degrees out tomorrow. Maybe that will be a good day.

Ready for Church

I had a quick photo shoot with the kids today before church. Their coordinating outfits are so cute!

Brother and Sister

These two sure love each other. They have been getting along so well lately.

Names and Anya-nese

Anya, our dynamic two-year old is revolutionizing our family's English. This new dialect we have fondly termed Anya-nese. We try to resist using "baby words" in an attempt to teach our kids to speak properly but Anya-nese is hard to resist. She has changed Talmage's name to Talby and all of us call him that at least 50% of the time (she does 100%). Talmage even calls himself that when he's talking to her. Next she has named Wheat Thins "daddy crackers" and we all call it that. The other day we were writing a grocery list and Aaron reminded me that we needed more "daddy crackers". "Ani do it" is another standard phrase. Though when I say it, i is an exasperated "Ok, Ani do it" because she has been yelling "No Ani do it, No Ani do it" at me. You gotta love two-year old independence. Other words that we have resisted so far are "wady" (water), "bookoo" (Blues Clues), "puter" (computer), "dipee" (diaper) and "tum ni" (family night). But she did succeed in getting us to call potty "pa wee".

Aside from regular words we all have new names too. Talmage, I have already mentioned is Talby, and Anya is Ani. Lately she has been into the full name thing and was mixing up her name Anya Mae Kay to be Ani Kay Mae. We straightened that out by teaching her that all of our names end in Kay. So now we are Ani Mae Kay, Talby A'n (Aaron) Kay, Daddy A'n Kay, and Mommy A'n Kay. The Aaron part works because that really is Talmage's middle name and Aaron's first but I have no Aaron in my name. The kids are both baffled by the idea that I would be called any thing but Mommy or occasionally Dear. In fact Talmage was calling me "Mommy Dear Kay" last night to teach Anya that my name isn't Mommy Aaron Kay. What a little helper!