Group Ladybug Hug

Sometimes the preschool girls are just too cute!

The random, funny things they say

At the temple today I asked Jell if she agreed that the temple was beautiful. She said, "Yeah. Oh! I should have brought my paints so I could paint it!" Who's daughter is she?

And more proof (for me to remember) that they do love me despite intentionally trying to make me lose my mind daily: The girls were outside weeding while daddy was cleaning the car. He called them "weed-machines" and Jell said, "Yeah, we want to be just like mommy. She's a weed-machine too." So even though Jell has told me that I'm "frusterating" her frequently as of late, I guess we're still friends!

My daughter might have burst into tears when she didn't get picked to help in Primary today. Any ideas on how to make her a little less sensitive????

Lyric issues:
"I bray, I bottle" = "I pray, I borrow"
"Waffle fairies made I ever met" = "You're the fairest maid I ever met"

Coop taught Jell how to cheat today by clicking a hint button that showed you a match on a memory game on the Friend website. Is it worse when you cheat on a church website?? In his defense, she was getting quite "frusterated" at not finding any matches. From then on, however, she didn't even try. She just cheated ... and still wanted us to cheer for every match she found.

Meri pointed at a picture of a little, round, dark-haired, sombrero-wearing Mexican man in a book today, and identified him as Papa (Coop's dad who doesn't look a thing like him but does happen to be in Mexico right now - kinda weird).

In the store the other day Jell asks as loudly as she could, "Why is that lady not being modest? Did her mommy not teach her to be modest? She should put some sleeves on. Someone might see her." I'm blushing.

Jell might ask to listen to Enya in the car. She went through a phase when she asked for Jonny Lang, "the witch and the fairy (Wicked)" and she always identifies Norah Jones whenever and wherever she hears her.

Jell often asks us to call her Giselle. She's a little obsessed with Enchanted. Oh and the majority of the time, Jell writes her name backwards. Like mirror-image backwards. Each individual letter backwards, the whole word backwards. When I point this out, she usually says, "Yeah, I know. I like it that way." Hard to argue with that.

We spell words like "pet store" that we don't want them to hear until we have definite plans. However, Jell has taken to chasing us around the house anytime we spell ANYTHING, repeatedly asking (until someone gives her what she thinks could be the correct answer) "what does that spell?" "what word are you saying?" And you have to be really quick on your feet, because responding with an "I don't know" or "you tell me" or "I was just talking to daddy," doesn't cut it. And when you tell her it means some random, uninteresting word, she totally doesn't buy it although she'll sometimes give up and leave you alone. She so knows we only spell things we don't want her to hear. How do they get so smart?

I wish I could remember more!

Now that's the way to start a day!

What a sweet husband and girlies (Don't look too closely - I look terrible)! The girls sat there and drooled over my shoulder until I had Coop bring their own plates into my room and I allowed them to eat on the floor so we could all be together. That way I got to enjoy comments like, "HEY! Meri! Don't put your foot in my food!" Aaaah. Sweet motherhood.

Que esta arriba?

So I've been grading a lot of Spanish (mostly beginner Spanish from teens) the past week and I feel like I'm either back in the MTC or back in 7th grade with Senora Olson staring down her glasses at us. Sometimes it's just painful to read, and sometimes it's hilarious! So despite the fact that this will only be really funny to Spanish speakers I just had to post it in hopes that someone else could get a few laughs. And by the way, I got all this from just about an hour and a half of work. I'll translate the ones that are funny without knowing Spanish.
Here goes:

mi dormitorio tiene dos corderos en cada lado de mi cama. (My bedroom has two LAMBS on either side of my bed - easy slip of the finger to type the wrong word in English but in Spanish one is cordero and the other is lampara)

Mi Madre es muy aburrido y facil. Mi hermano voy a rósado pantélones. (My mother es very boring and easy. My brother goes to pink pants.)

Ella es trabajadora muchas. Juega la golf con ella pelotas de golf. Ella tiene en la falda y la sombero en la boca. (She is very worker. She play golf with she golf balls. She has in the skirt and the hat in the mouth - what does she have in the skirt and how and why did she get a hat in her mouth?)

En yo casa. Nosotros comemes en el famila roma.

Estoy mucho extadico para tu vey tu.

estoy me gusta cocinar es spicy food

Poner muchas las ropas. Los pantaones cortos, la chaqueta, la falda y la camisa es muy bien para el tiempo. Adídos!

Una ella es juego golf. Ella es usar un pelo de golf. ella es llevar una camisa y pantelones peqenos. el pelota fue en la sanda y ella hices usar el pelo de golf poder el petoa en verde.

En la cosia, tengo un refrigerador, un mesa en el centre, y otra cosas yo no puedo decir. (He meant to say: In the kitchen, I have a fridge, a table in the center and other things I can't say. I know he means he doesn't know how to say them but it makes me think why? are they bad words? would they hurt somebody's feelings? is somebody listening who shouldn't be?)

Mi casa es pequeño. Es mucha fúrnetura. Mi casa es muchas télevisíones. Es un referadora en la mochenta. ???????

Tú shoulda llevar cortos pantalones, camisetas, y camisas con zapatos. (if you don't know a word, you can just add an "a" on the end and it's spanish, right?)

No me gusta pop musica y muy exadroment personales.

Nosotrso son vamanos el parque. el tiempo es sól. Bring los shorts y camisteas. Nosotrso son vamanos a
Hope you had a few laughs. I just had to share!

So amazed by the Tulip Festival!!!!

I am ashamed to admit I have never been to the Tulip Festival before. I don't know how I've so missed out - I only heard about it last year for the first time and I've lived here my whole life. So sad. Because this is what I was missing:
Pictures so don't do it justice ... at least the pictures we are capable of taking that is. When we walked around the barn and the whole view was laid before me, I got teary-eyed I was so overwhelmed by the incredible, indescribable beauty! I gotta say, that whole Big-Bang theory just doesn't add up to me. Those tulips are just further evidence of our loving Heavenly Father. I'm so grateful that he cared enough to not only give us a world to live in, but to make it so amazingly beautiful!! He didn't have to do that, but He knew we'd enjoy it, and I imagine He enjoyed creating it too. I'm so grateful He took the extra time or effort or attention to detail or whatever to grant us such visual feasts. I'm grateful for the hands that prepared such a meal!!
Here's a couple of pictures to sum up our day there:





Cute little girls are evidence too!

Fun with the Bernes

As is everything I post lately, this is a little late - but here's some fun pictures from Passover at Keith and Rosie's house.
Before dinner the girls had a blast outside with their older cousins. Meri loves hula-hooping, or whatever she can do with a hula hoop and a lot of help:
And when that fun wears off, there's always dandelions to spread around Uncle Keith's backyard:

Jell was a bit more adventurous and decided to take up skateboarding (we survived without any new owies - a major accomplishment I think:
But that gets tiring, so time to rest and reflect for awhile:
And be cute:
I love the color of her hair in the sun!
And when the skateboard is just too tricky, run sprints. Isn't that what you do for kicks?
We love Nana and Bopa!

The most important things:

Last night in Jell's prayer, she asked Heavenly Father to please bless her hair to grow really long (long = beautiful). She also prayed that Tayson (her friend that just moved to New York) could move back so they can play again. And even though it was 9 PM she prayed that we could go outside and play and that daddy wouldn't have to go to work, and that she could please play with Paige (her cousin).