Lot'a love

My favorite Jordyn in the world used to tell her mom, "I love you Mom. All the way up to the sky. Is that a lot?" I always thought it was so cute, so I started telling Aiden and Chase that I love them all the way up to the sky. Instead of reciprocating the thought, they tried (in their own way) to outdo me. I get things like, "I love you as much as the moon." or "I love you like a hippopatamus." In the spirit of "can't beat 'em, join 'em", I've started saying silly things like, "I love you like a giraffe loves crackers." Tonight's exchange convinced me that my comparisons are falling on deaf ears. Case in point:

Me (to Aiden and Chase): "I love you like flowers love sunshine."

Aiden: "I love you like an alligator."

Me: "You love me like an alligator loves a swamp?"

Aiden: "No. I just love you like an alligater."

Me: "Oh."

Chase: "I love you like a swamp!"

Firsts

Today was the first time my little Sunbeams, Aiden and Chase, had an assignment for sharing time. Aiden was supposed to bear his testimony, while Chase was assigned the scripture and prayer. (We do one talk and one testimony because none of the children in our ward bear their testimonies in sacrament meeting, so we decided we needed to help them develop their testimonies.) So, Aiden gets up there and got all shy. Not completely surprising, right?! I prompted him to say, "I want to bear my testimony." No problem. Then I asked (like we'd rehearsed) what do you believe? (Hoping that he didn't talk about carrots and cars... like when we'd rehearsed... hoping that I impressed upon him the "appropriate" things to talk about in a testimony.) His first thought? "I love Jesus Christ." (So far, so good.) Nothing else? Family? Anything? Then this... right into the microphone for all the giggly primary children's amusement, "Mommmmmmmy. I has to go poop!" Nothing like a little "potty" talk to kill the spirit. Thanks Aiden. Way to make your Primary-president-mother proud! We'll laugh about this for ages! :D

In tune

So, this morning before breakfast Chase was saying the prayer. He would thank Heavenly Father for something and then giggle. Then thank Him for something else and giggle some more. He just kept doing it... over and over. I finally interrupted him and whispered, "Chase you're praying to Heavenly Father. You need to be more reverent and respectful." His whispered response?!?!... "What? He's laughing too!" How do you argue with that?!

THIS is Aiden

This is my favorite Aiden photo EVER, so I had to post it. :D

The trail of toys.

I was checking e-mail and stuff online (ok, maybe I WAS playing Mafia Wars) and the boys were playing in their playroom. They were making tons of noise throwing things in the toybox and stuff. They said they were cleaning. Good for them. I didn't even have to ask. What good boys, right?!

Then suddenly Chase was behind me saying, "We don't really want a playroom, actually." Huh?! What?! (A month or so ago we turned MY sewing room into THEIR "sewing room"... in other words "playroom". I didn't find it blog worthy at the time... but... It was impossible to keep the family room clean because of all their toys. Plus, half the time their stuff was all over my sewing room anyway. Hence the decision to consolidate the mess into one "toy room".) Fast forward to today...I questioned, "Well, what are we going to do with all your toys? Throw them away?" Chase said, "No, actually, we're moving them back." All that "cleaning"... it was more like "moving"! This is the trail that greeted me:

The virtually empty toy room:

The cleaning DID take place, after all. Just not the helpful, unbidden effort I thought was going on. It was a group effort (read-mostly Mommy doing the work) of turning the toyroom back into the toyroom... for the second time.

Say what?!

This morning while getting ready for church, Aiden was refusing to put on his shirt no matter how much I coaxed him. While I was persuading, he said, "But MOM..." to which I teased, "Don't 'but Mom' ME!". He then said, "But Cinni." Again I said, "Don't 'but Cindi' ME!" He stopped, looking a little perplexed and said, "What? You're not my mom OR my Cinni?"

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Aiden & Chase's primary class is taught by a couple, the Davenports. During sharing time, Sis. Davenport (who is pregnant) got up and left for a few minutes. Aiden ran to the back of the room where I was sitting and whispered, "I has'sa tell you someping. My teacher runned away!"

Care Bears

Create your own FACEinHOLE

Chase for hire

So last week Chase wanted me to read him a book but I told him I had to make dinner since the missionaries were coming over for dinner. I said that I also needed to straighten up the living room since there were toys all over the floor. Not only was he understanding, he VOLUNTEERED to clean the living room. (Keep in mind, he's only 3.) I told him that would be awesome. So, he did a fabulous job and THEN informed me that he was also going to clean his room, which was a huge mess. He cleaned it to near-perfection! WAY TO GO, Chase!!

Fast-forward to yesterday when I was doing laundry. The dryer buzzed to signal that the load was dry. Chase picked up his own little green toy bucket and informed me that he was going to "pretend this is a laundry basket". He then proceeded to take the clothes out of the dryer, one bucket at a time and dump the clothes on the family room floor. I sat down by the growing pile to begin folding only to be informed in no uncertain terms that HE was folding the clothes. Ok. He didn't want any help. He just wanted me to take pictures. I dutifully complied.

He made neat little piles. (And even thanked me sweetly when I carefully stepped over them to take more pictures without knocking anything down.) The only trouble was when Aiden decided he wanted to get in on the "act". Chase insisted that he wanted to do it all by himself. After a few minutes, he relented and allowed Aiden to help... At which point Aiden picked up one of my t-shirts and threw it around the room for a little while. Then he put it on (sort of) and then sat down on the floor and pulled on a pair of my nylons. THAT was the extent of Aiden's help. ;) (And never mention the panty-hose wearing to Karam!! lol)

And for anyone wondering, NO I did not refold any of it. Even if I was tempted, I didn't have a chance since Chase insisted on putting the clothes away immediately (with a little help from his mom). So, let the requests pour in... just keep in mind, I'm not offering his services for CHEAP! ;)

Aiden. My heart.

If you call Aiden anything else, like sweety or honey, he insists he's just Aidee-heart. :D And he is my sweet-HEART. He makes my heart happy because he's so cheerful and easy-going. He also has a sweet tooth (as witnessed in this picture... we made brownies and when I turned around after sticking the brownies in the oven, I discovered Aiden with his whole head in the bowl trying to lick it clean!). He's just sweetness all the way around. He is very thoughtful and caring. He's also a "thinker"..

I had to laugh the other night when I told the boys, "It's time to go to bed." Aiden looked over at Karam snoring away on the couch and asked, "Can you carry Daddy upstairs?" lol

Then tonight my parents came over to eat with us. After dinner, my dad said he was ready to go home because he was tired. Aiden turned to my mom and asked, "After you take Grandfather home and put him to bed, then you can come back to our house?" Don't forget to tuck him in, Grandma! ;)