1st Article of Faith

For those who don't know, our Church has laid out our basic beliefs in 13 Articles of Faith. We try to memorize them to help us explain our beliefs to others. Here is Liliana's version of the first (We believe in God the Eternal Father and in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost). I figured out that she had it memorized when we were reciting it in primary and she was the only one her age doing it :)

McInelly Girls Rock Song!

The girls learned this song 18 months ago when we used to drove an hour a day to get Kaylon to and from the metro. It's our chick-rock song. Luckily we were able to download it for Guitar Hero! Enjoy!

Gross...

You know someone might be doing something they shouldn't when you hear splashing in the toilet, get angry at the dog that he's drinking in the toilet, and then look down to find that he's laying at your feet. Yeah...

Hiding from Germs

It is 9:30pm. I put the girls to bed at 8pm after letting them finish their movie, completing our bedtime routine, and reading 3 books. The girls are still up. Ten minutes ago we heard Grace crying over the monitor and I sent Kaylon up to instill in them the fact that it was bedtime and they needed to go to sleep. Immediately I heard him call for me. I went upstairs not sure what to expect, but I certainly didn't expect what I found.

I walked into Grace's room and tried to find where the crying was coming from. There was Grace in the blanket cupboard. To understand the full implications of this you need a visual of the cabinet. It's about 2.5 feet tall, 4.5 long, and 1.5 ft deep (course some of you know that I have no spacial reasoning, so Kaylon might correct this later). It has a shelf running the full length, dividing the space inside in half. The front is divided into thirds, with only the other thirds having doors, the middle facade being stationary. So there she was crammed inside on the middle shelf, her head sticking out of one of the doors, without a shirt on. !!!??? Kaylon had already determined that she was doing this in order to get away from the germs that were in her bed and that she was only crying because Liliana refused to shut the door for her (something she couldn't do from inside the cabinet). We had to explain to her that her cough was due to the weather and not germs per se and that she needed to sleep in her bed. Kaylon stayed up to comfort her a bit, while Liliana babbled on about opening presents and telling daddy to "don't worry," and I came down to blog, before I forgot too much. I tell you, these girls are too much!

I'll try to get a picture tomorrow to help the visual :)

Report Card

Grace got her first real report card this past Friday. I've been kinda nervous about this all year. I just didn't know what to expect. I never had a problem doing well at school- it came naturally to me. I'm not bragging, it's just to help explain that I'm not sure what to do if school doesn't come naturally to my kids. I don't want to push them too hard, but I do want them to reach their potential. So anyways, I've been waiting to see how Grace is doing compared to someone else's benchmark (cuz she's brilliant according to me, of course).

I didn't need to worry.

Grace has already mastered ALL of her kindergarten subjects! They tested her reading and she is qualified as a "strong emergent reader." The only things that she needed work on were participating in music class, working out problems with her peers (that was no surprise), and getting her work done on time (I can see her having trouble giving up perfecting an assignment). Her teacher praised her liberally in her comments section, adding that she was a joy to have in class. I can't tell you how proud I am of her. She is doing so well!

Course now I'm afraid of what happens when one of them doesn't excel like this. Will I still be proud of them? Will I be just as excited for their progress? I hope so. I guess we'll tackle that when the time comes. Until then, I'll just be really happy that Grace loves, and is good at, school!

Sunday Funnies

Literally, all day today I have been trying to keep notes of all the blogable things the girls did. I realized that I usually have a lot of things to write about on Sundays, and I figured out that it's because it's the Sabbath, so other than church, we spend the day as a family. And since church doesn't start until 2pm this year, we just lounge around in our pajamas, enjoying each other. So, here is our version of the Sunday Funnies. :)

Liliana is really into picking out people's clothes right now. She'll get dressed and then she expects everyone to follow suite. So we'll be laying in bed watching cartoons and she'll be bringing us shirt after shirt to make us "warm." And she will let you know if she doesn't like what you are wearing!

It's so sweet to see the older two cheer on Moira when she walks. She's getting quite good. She can walk across a room no problem. She does expect clapping after, though. Plus she can use sign language to say "eat" but watch out! She uses it when she wants anything- not just food! Well, except for drink, which she mastered the other day. Oh! And she said Momma yesterday in context! We were picking them up from some friends who babysat for us yesterday and she walked over calling my name. :D

Liliana had an AWESOME day in primary today. A total 180 from a few weeks ago. She got a new teacher this week, whom she attached herself to right away. I think it also helped that I had hall duty and so she couldn't see me. When she walked to class she saw me, didn't say anything, and kept walking. I might have felt slighted, except that I could remember a month ago when she was clinging to my leg as I was trying to teach before she ran to the podium to try to climb up it. Yup, I'm all for her liking primary without me!

Grace is into kissing right now. We've had this problem before- when she wanted to kiss Kaylon. Now she wants to kiss other boys- boys her age. A friend of mine caught me after church to inform me that Grace and her son had been kissing and hugging during primary (which I didn't see since I was in the hall). I guess Grace was even "batting her eyes" at him. We again emphasized to her that she needs to cool down on the kissing, and that kissing in primary is not reverent. And yes, Kaylon is in HUGE trouble in about 7 years.

On the way home Kaylon asked Liliana what she learned about in her class. She said she didn't know but that she colored. So he asked what she colored and she said, "Jesus.... and Nemo." Kaylon said that was good and asked her if she loved Jesus. She said, "Yes.... and Nemo." So random!

The missionaries came over tonight while we were having Family Home Evening so we invited them to join us. One of them had a laser pen that he started flashing briefly onto the floor. When Grace pointed it out, Kaylon pretended that he hadn't seen it. They continued to tease her and she started to get afraid since she didn't know what it was. This escalated until she was backed up against the wall terrified and screeching, trying to convince them that there really was something red on the floor. I don't know if we've ever seen her so freaked out. Finally the elder showed her the pen and she settled down enough to laugh about it. I'm slight embarrassed to admit (as a mother) that it was pretty hilarious to watch.

The girls spent a good amount of time chasing each other, throwing balls at each other, and tackling the other one to the ground (and sometimes off the couch to get there). Liliana also learned how to jump off the couch tonight which she was very proud of. I figured whatever it takes to get them to go to sleep! I have already forgotten some of the things they said today... i should carry around paper and a pencil with me to catch it in the moment. I just know that Kaylon and I raised our eyebrows at each other often today as our girls made comments or told us stories, or told us what to do. It definitely makes life more interesting around here- and so enjoyable. :)

Flashback Friday

She still has the same smile today... I can't believe how curly her hair was. sniff.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here is some video of Valentines Day. There's a lot of Liliana talking for those of you who haven't seen her for a while (with subtitles), and a change in Grace's view of her dad. We sneakily dropped off the cookies to neighbors that night, and got rave reviews. Enjoy!

Moira's 1 year pics

We finally got out last night after a week plus stuck in the house due to the snow. It was so liberating! We decided to hit the mall to pick up Moira's 1 year pictures that were done a week ago, but unreachable due to the aforementioned snow. We also got to hit some clearance sales and go out for pizza. I think we'll go out again today... I'm kinda sick of our house right now. Anyways, here is Moira in all of her cuteness.

Let them kill the cows!

Grace woke up vomiting last night, making for a long night for everyone but Kaylon (who somehow slept through it all). He was nice enough to let me sleep in this morning, and we've been nice enough to let the girls watch movies all morning, since really, what else can you do with 3 ft of snow outside and Grace being sick?

So one of the movies they watched this morning was Gordy, one of those talking pig movies from the 90's. At the end they shut down a sausage factory in order to save Gordy's family from becoming your breakfast. I read the factory closing sign for the girls, and so that they would better understand what was happening, I added, "They aren't going to kill anymore pigs." Kaylon piped in from the background, "Yeah, now all the factory workers have lost their jobs and will go hungry." We didn't know that Grace had really been listening until she piped in 30 seconds later, while watching a farm scene with some cattle, "That's ok, just let them kill the cows!"

Kaylon says she'll make a great capitalist some day, lol.

Dethroned

We learned some interesting things about Grace today. It turns out that she and her friend Byron have decided that they are going to get married. His mother overheard them talking about being boyfriend/girlfriend, kissing, and getting married. Byron has also told her that at school Grace often runs up and hugs him tightly before trying to kiss him.

This funny and cute to everyone but Kaylon. I don't think he had expected her to move beyond him so soon. Since hearing all this he has been trying to find ways to keep them apart and to convince her not to like boys yet. Sadly for him, it didn't work.

At dinner we asked Grace about the marriage/kissing stories. She giddily explained that she liked Byron and wanted to marry him. Kaylon desperately asked her, "What about me? I thought you wanted to marry me!" To which she replied, "Daddy when I'm 18, you'll be dead."

That was quite a blow. I quickly explained that Daddy wouldn't be dead, but agreed that he would be too old for her. She repeated this to him, throwing some more lemon juice on the cut. Kaylon then made her cry by telling her that she couldn't kiss Byron. I had to break things up and tell her that she could only kiss him on the cheek when she was with us or Byron's parents (don't need them playing show and tell in some room).

I don't think I need to tell you how the teenage years are going to be around here.

Final snow depth

We got these pics a little too late- the snow had time to settle overnight. Still, you get the idea. Moira liked the snow a lot more than I thought she would.

2010 Blizzard!

Yes, we have a bit of snow here. I was looking on the internet for snow totals and the only one I could find is 27 inches. Sounds about right Here are some pictures of our fun!

That mound of snow is our van
Stuck in the snow

Out the back

Watching TV- check out the thumbs

moira showing us the snowfall (only half way through the storm)

Gansta Liliana

Grace being silly

view of the deck after the snow stopped

(Usually these branches are horizontal...)

Tonight we had a bunch of the neighbors over to share some desserts and play games. It was a so much fun! We feel so blessed to have neighbors that we like and can count on. We've never had this kind of community before outside of church, and we're really enjoying it. If only there were some bigger houses on the block that we could buy down the line...

Should We Be Concerned?

We found this outside the girls' room one night that they refused to sleep and played instead. It raises a lot of questions...

WALKING!!!!

Moira has officially entered the walking phase! This is the earliest any of our girls have walked. Here is some video so you can see her in all of her cuteness (minus sound, since we can't find our video camera).

Competitive Natures

My children are very competitive. There is a game to be won in whatever we do. I fully realized last night that it must be a gene passed down from both sides.

Kaylon and I have always been competitive. We race, we scare each other, we argue about who did what the best (or worst). The epitome of this relationship quirk was when we took an online IQ test. We took it one at a time. As we were waiting for the 2nd person's results, we got really tense. We both laughed out loud when the 2nd score was exactly the same as the 1st.

So last night I thought that we could apply this competitiveness to something constructive. Kaylon and I have been trying to lose weight for years. Usually it's like a seesaw with us- If I lose he gains and vice versa, not to mention 3 pregnancies. It's always within a 10-20 lb range- nothing huge, but extremely frustrating. So last night I suggested a weight loss competition: see who can lose the most weight before June 1 (bathing suit season!). We're pretty sure we're gonna go by percentage of weight loss. It's funny how changing the weight loss into a competition cured me of my sugar cravings (at least so far today). I even turned down a bite of Liliana's donut. But I figure if it makes us healthier, why not?

Well, as long as it stays a competition and doesn't turn into a war... :D