5K

Today for our Stake Pioneer Festival, Aaron started out the day by running in the 5k race. It started at 7AM and it was hot. I was sweating just sitting with the kids waiting for him so we could clap as he finished. He did a good job. He ran it in the 23 minute range. The guy who won first place did it in a little over 17 1/2 minutes! Right after the race I had to set up our Primary's nail pounding booth, so Aaron got to work hauling cinder blocks and 4x4's. He's amazing. Now, near the end of the day it's all catching up to him and he looks like me trying to get up and down the stairs. Unfortunately for him I mostly just laugh and tell him where he can find my cane if he wants it-- he doesn't.

Gross Teeth

Talmage's piano lessons started again, after a summer break. His teacher had assigned him some extra song because she knows he's a fast learner and likes to move on to new songs. Talmage learned all she asked him to and then learned another three on his own. I didn't even know about one of them until he came home with it passed off in his book. Because he practiced so much over the break he got enough stickers to get a WOW bag. (They get a sticker each day they practice and when they accumulate 30 stickers they get a WOW bag that contains treats and junk toys. He loves it.) This time his WOW bag contained these gross teeth. He thinks they are so cool. Anya wanted to try them so he washed them off and let her put them in.

Wild Things

For the most part, I think my children are well behaved. They sit quietly at church, they remember their polite words at gymnastic and piano, and they even open doors for others when we go to the library. But some how shopping is a different story. Anya by herself is a great shopper. She gets a little crazy dancing to the in-store music at times but she stays with me, helps me shop, and when we're done with one store she asks if we can go to another. Talmage on the other hand is the ring leader for the wild things. He tells Anya to play hide and seek with him when I look the other way, and she listens. He makes up games like lets pretend we are riding motorcycles all over the store-- loud motor cycles. Two wild things are so much harder to keep track of than one. He is the kind of kid that loves the inside of racks, and between all the clothes better than the isles. He takes off his shoes in the shoe department and tries on all the heels-- the higher the heels and noisier (if there's a hard floor) the better. Once when we were in a store too fancy for our income, he wondered off and while we were looking for him he brought back a manikin's hand. He had unscrewed it and thought it was the funniest thing. I was so embarrassed, I left the store with Anya and made Talmage and Aaron go hunting for the manikin with the missing hand so they could put it back on.

After taking both kids to 5 different stores today (Talmage needed dress shoes) I was getting pretty grouchy. I don't know how many times I had to count to almost three before the kids came out of hiding. When we got home I remembered the things we did to my parents while shopping. Things like Taylor getting his shoe lace caught in the escalator. Hiding in the stacks of tires at Costco. I too was a clothing rack hider-- I particularly loved the circle ones. All five of us waddling in a straight line (oldest to youngest) like ducks behind mom all through the store, stopping when she stopped, going when she went and trying to look as ridicules as possible. So I'm thinking, two wild things have got to be easier than five. I think I'll start counting my blessings. One... two... three... ok someones in time out!

Oh What Do you Do in the Summer Time

It has been hot here. Hot like in the 100's everyday and cooling down to about 78 before dawn. So we have been finding ways to beat the afternoon cabin fever.

The kids staged a battle scene for us. For some reason Anya is pretending to be blind, by pulling her hat down over her eyes. She also has Elmo in her shirt, a tutu, and heals. I guess she'd rather fight in style than comfort.



Anya is being a pink kitty doing ballet. That is why she is meowing. This kitty can also stand on it's hind legs to dance. Pretty talented. Anya loves all things ballet and says she's going to ballet class when she turns 6.



Talmage doing a cartwheel over a hula hoop. We started out just jumping through the hoop (well Aaron and the kids jumped, I just held the hoop) and then we played London Bridges, and eventually ended with tricks like cartwheels.


Here's the kids sword fight scene. At the beginning Anya says "I cut off your hand." That's why Talmage is holding his sword funny. He tries not to play too tough with her, but she usually holds nothing back.

A Fun Age

Anya is at such a fun age right now (closer to 4 years old than 3). She has started using big words, like Talmage, but she still has funny substitute words when she can't quickly think of the word she wants. She uses the word "them" instead of "they" all the time and I have tried and tried to teach her. She just gets talking so fast she doesn't think. On Wednesday Aaron was cooking hamburgers on his new little grill and Anya came running up to him and excitedly asked "Are them hotting up?" Translation: Are they cooking? Then this morning at breakfast she said "Talmage uses that spoon often". I was surprised to hear her use the word often in a sentence. Then Talmage asked her, "Anya, do you know what often means?" Anya replied, "No." and went on eating her breakfast. Talmage is always there to call her on everything she says. My other favorite big word she uses in certainly. Aaron asked if she wanted a specific song at bed time and she replied "certainly not" and then stated the song she wanted.

As not to leave Talmage out of the "fun age" post. He is now at the reading everything stage. He reads things at the stores that I wish he wouldn't and today he ran into my room to tell me "Dad's using Java." Meaning he was programing something for work in Java code. Talmage is also the worst back seat driver I know. He reads the road signs and checks to make sure I'm aware of them. Like the speed limit in school zones and reduce speed signs, left turn yield on green, and even bus stop ahead.