Secret about boys

I went to get my hair done today--it's been a long time and it was looking pretty bad. When I came home I had this conversation with Eli.

Me, "Eli, does my hair look different?"

Eli, "Yeah, it looks pretty."

Me (imparting wisdom), "Eli, let me tell you a little secret about girls. If you ever notice their hair is different and it looks nice, you should tell them that it looks pretty. It will make them happy."

Eli nods. "Your hair looks pretty mom."

Me, "Thanks."

Eli ponders.

Eli, "Mom, let me tell you a little secret about boys. They really like to get lollipops when they get their hair cut."

The sad thing is, I think he's right.

Eli's Future Career

I told Eli that after he and Dora took a nap, we could have an egg hunt.

He just came down (without having taken a nap.)

I said, "I guess we aren't having an egg hunt because you didn't take a nap."

He said, "Well, I laid up there really quiet for an hour." (True.)

I said, "I told you we would do an egg hunt only if you took a nap--I specified that we'd do it when you WOKE UP."

He said, "Well, I would have taken a nap but the sound from the vacuum kept me up. That's not my fault."

I said, "It doesn't matter the reason--I said an egg hunt after your nap."

He said, "Well, Dora is taking a nap because her bedroom is further away so the vacuum didn't wake her up. That's the reason I didn't take one and you turned on the vacuum so I should still get an egg hunt. And it's a rip off (new word we just learned) for Dora if she doesn't get one since she took a nap."

While I type this, he's still arguing for why he should get an egg hunt with some other alternate reasons why he should still have one. I will admit-I was hoping he'd go into medicine, but law is seeming more and more likely.

Happy Easter!

Hope you all have a very Happy Easter! We are pretty excited at our house. Expect some photos of an Easter Egg hunt!!

Finally someone smart

This is the first I've heard of a good plan in the past few years coming from anyone in Washington. We need to figure out how to get this plan some support. I kept reading and nodding my head. Spend less, tax a little less, and cut the deficit. Yes, yes and YES, finally. Also, it doesn't hurt that the new budget doesn't include the $800 million in additional spending for Obama's crap medical plan.

Seriously though--$6 trillion dollars in savings? Kind of a no-brainer...

Cello Lessons

Eli was sure jealous of Lawrence's cello practice, so Aunt Teresa gave him a lesson too!

And Emerson treated us to a performance. He's great!

Haven and Whitney never smile unless coerced! This is the only shot I got of both of them the whole weekend!

Well and this one... arms twisted and all.

Conference

We managed to listen to every single conference session last weekend--hooray! I think Elder Scott's talk was my favorite, although there were several really good ones. You wouldn't think listening to conference would be a big accomplishment--but wait until you have 7 kids (5 under 5) running around and tell me what you think then!

Uncle Haven had a headache, so he lay down on the floor. Eli grabbed a pillow and made himself an area right by Uncle Haven--pretty cute!

Here's Teresa and her handsome son Ethan.

Daddy and Dora--she refused to wear anything but those pajamas on Sunday> Good thing we didn't have to go to church!

Here's Eli being cute--You can sort of see his poor nose and his fingers in one shot. He followed the big boys down a hill on his bike and rammed into a fence hurting his nose and ankle and then 2 hours later fell over and a table smashed his fingers. It was a rough few hours. The next day he fell getting water and split his lip! Poor Eli--bad two days!

Poor fingers!
He's still happy though!

Egg Hunt

While we were there, we did an egg hunt and the kids had so much fun. Dad helped...

So cute--tiny Dora's first egg hunt!

Poor Eli's nose... He got the most eggs though. It was all the sympathy from the other kids that helped him get the most, so maybe he planned the bike crash/nose bonk!

You can see here, we told Eli to let Dora get it...

And Eli was not very happy to be denied!

With a little help from Dad he got the last egg...

Dora then wanted another one--but they were all gone...

Cousin Time

The cousins, by and large, got along really well. It was really loud in the house with 7 kids, but they had a fun time!

Here's Clarissa, Dora and Emerson.

Eli called Emerson the "biggest boy cousin."

When he wasn't falling and breaking something, Eli had a great time.

Dora wanted to lay on Lawrence's lap... It was really funny! He was so confused until I explained she likes to lay on my lap.

They got along great--and played really well.

Elise liked Uncle Whitney...

The boys would all congregate around the computer if it was on... (Which didn't happen a lot).

Eli and Emerson played so well--Emerson was really nice to Eli.

Biggest Sandbox Ever

Haven's new house has a full sand volleyball court--right next to the immense (and nicely landscaped with like 100 tons of rocks) pool. The kids are a little small to appreciate volleyball, but they love to make monkey sand, as Eli calls it (or mucky sand), which is what happens when you run a sprinkler or hose in the sand.

They started out just playing in the sand, but it quickly turned "monkey"... Especially since the first two days we were there were in the 70s. (Nice weather!)

It's hard to get good photos when the kids are really interested in something because they just won't look at you! Whit went with Emerson and Haven to a shooting range, so these photos feature Ethan, Lawrence, Clarissa, Eli and Dora (and sometimes Elise.)

Someone is very happy! And you will note--for the record--fully clothed at the outset.

Here's Elise contemplating taking a little swim.
By now Eli's lost his pants... Dora immediately wanted hers off when he took his off (because they were sand and water logged) and Clarissa had hers off before I could get Dora's off! Ha.

A little water, anyone?

Check out Eli's brown bum--he decided to slide down the dirt hill (sand mound) by the sand court after playing in the water puddle. Kinda funny!

Elise was just happy to be around the other Big Kids. You will notice she too insisted on going pantsless.

Brown bum!


Dora was having a ball... We thought maybe we should build a big sandbox at our house...

All the sand in the house decided us against it...

Thanks for letting us fill your house with sand, Aunt Teresa. We had a great time!