Mele Kaliki Maka

Well, a sad note to all of our blog readers out there (all one of you -- Hey Mom!), we will be taking a short hiatus from blogging for a week or so. Tomorrow the kids and I are off to beautiful Maui, Hawaii with my family. It should be quite an adventure -- everyone in my family is going except for Liz's family and Nick (and Adrienne's and my husband). Which brings me to my next point: Hawaii in two children without husbands? Hmmm ... not sure this is the ideal way to take a trip (rather swap the kids for Scott) but this isn't his "kind of trip" so he's rock climbing in Southern Utah with some friends.

No, we are not staying until Christmas, as the post title might imply, but I didn't know how to say "Happy Halloween" in Hawaiian so Mele Kaliki Maka will just have to suffice.

So without further ado, we're off.

ALOHA!

FHE Mishap

So last night Scott was in charge of Family Home Evening. Lately we've been into scripture story reenactments (aka the only thing that keeps Henry's attention for longer than five minutes) so Scott chose the Bible story of Daniel and the Lions' Den.

Things were going along fine, Henry was getting into the story and actually enjoying playing the part of Daniel.

So we're building, building, BUILDING the excitement as the wicked king (yea, we forgot his name) decides to toss old Daniel into the Lions' den. Henry was up on his bed looking down at us ferocious lions (which consisted of me, Scott, a very intimidating Ruby, a stuffed lion, and a stuffed tiger cub -- very convincing crew).

Apparently our ferocious growls were a bit too realistic though because suddenly Daniel (aka Henry -- wink, wink) was a little hesitant to come down into the den. So Scott and I start encouraging and coaching by saying stuff like, "It's okay. The Lord promised to protect Daniel for choosing the right." "Don't worry Daniel, you were a good boy so Heavenly Father said He wouldn't let you get hurt." "The lions won't hurt you. Just come get in the den."

Yay! Our positive reinforcement worked! Henry comes jumping off his bed, eager to be enveloped by his new furry friends when don't you know, his excitement causes his jumping to become a little unbalanced and WHAM! He smacked his face on the foot board of his bed! And the crying began...

So much for being protected. Hopefully he won't have bad memories associated with the story of "Daniel and the Lions' Den" for the rest of his life. Hopefully he won't think that the Lord (or worse, HIS PARENTS!) lied to him.

As my dad always says, "No good deed goes unpunished." We were trying so hard!

Our little Daniel pulled through after all. He even pet his ferocious lions after all they put him through!

Night of the Living Dead

So I am pretty sure that I become a zombie every night when I fall asleep. Seriously, I become totally delirious and unable to cope if awakened. I am just SO tired that my body must completely shut down.

I try to think back when this all started because I have not always been this way. I was never a super crazy night owl but I used to be quite the morning person (I was the baker at Einsteins Bagels in Logan -- 4 a.m. starting time means serious morning person commitment). I think I can narrow my fall from the graces of the morning gods to my mission. Seriously, I was just WAY too tired. You hear about those people who after their missions cannot sleep in past 6:30 or 7 a.m. Well, I think that's a big fat lie.

So, the point is, I'm a total zombie at night. My mother-in-law said it would change as soon as I had kids. Well, it didn't. I'm still a wreck. Sometimes when my kids cry in the night and on the rare occasion that it breaks through my drug-like state, it turns my dreams into nightmares because I tense up and know that the sound is something bad and needs to be attended to but I'm not quite sure what it is. So much for waking up and rushing to their aid -- I can't even process the sounds of their cries! I'm pathetic.

For instance, early the other morning, I was just sleeping away (probably with my mouth wide open -- poor Scott) and turned to roll over and I head-butted Ruby as Scott was handing her to me to feed her. It was almost 6 a.m., she had been crying in her bed, I failed to hear it (even though the monitor was on MY side of the bed), AND I didn't even wake up when Scott left to go get her.

Oh well, maybe it's a blessing in disguise. At least I don't have to walk up our 27,000 stairs to get Ruby out of her bed in the morning. Sorry Scott.

Reason #87 -- Why Henry is The Wackiest Kid I Know ("The Human Babygate")

Today I asked Henry to watch Ruby while I ran downstairs to get something (Ruby never goes near the stairs and Henry's pretty vigilant when it comes to her whereabouts so I wasn't actually worried about her even getting close to the stairs) so as I'm running back up the stairs, this is what I stumble across:


Henry is so responsible, isn't he? Of course, I'm sure he thought the only logical thing to do to keep Ruby from tragically catapulting herself down the stairs was to attempt this make-shift babygate maneuver.

Ruby, on the other hand, was probably thinking, "What in the H-E-double-hockey-sticks is he doing?!?"

Reason #163 -- Why Henry Is the Wackiest Kid I Know ("Keeping One Eye On")

Sometimes Henry does this while we're saying our family prayer at night and after we're done he says, "Hey Mama...

"...I'm Keepin' One Eye On."

What? Yeah, we don't know either.