Yes that is a Twinkie

Sometimes I say things just to be funny and my kids take me completely seriously.

I brought home a box of twinkies from the store and the kids asked me what they were for. I told them they were decorations for the Chrsitmas tree. The next thing I know they are hung (evenly--not all in a clump) on the tree and then guarded zealously.

"Those are not to eat! They are for the Christmas Tree!"

Any suggestions on what I should bring home next?

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Andrew turned 8!! We had a family party and plan to have a friend party the day he is baptized.




There's been a big dirt field across the street since we moved in and now they are building houses there. The boys are always playing in the dirt and now they like to build their own houses with the construction scraps (the house below is for Rocky - their pet rock). But soon the field will be full of houses and they won't be able to play in the dirt anymore. I do cringe everytime I see them just sitting in the dirt. It's so dirty!



One of the fun things about being 8 is that Andrew gets to go to cub scouts. He loves it! The other day I brought him home after cub scouts and had to run to the store. I watched him walking towards the door and then he stopped and came back.

"what are you doing?" he asked.
"I'm watching to make sure you get inside safely."
"oh" He turned around and walked back to the door and then dramatically fell to the ground as if he was dying. Then he giggled and got up and waved goodbye. I got one of those endorphin rushes I sometimes get when my kids do something tooooo cute.

Some dad's answer the door with a shotgun....

Megan and her friend Kristy like to go to the mall and try on clothes and perfumes. It takes them about 2 hours to get ready just to spend an hour at the mall. A few weekends ago I dropped them off and as I was driving away I had what I thought was a random thought about the girls talking to strangers.

As soon as I got home I texted Megan and reminded her not to talk to any strangers - and by strangers i meant anyone I hadn't met.

About two mintues later my phone rang. I guess the teenagers call this "butt dialing". I could hear them ordering food at dairy queen and then......I heard a male voice talking to them.

Good thing I live 3.7 minutes from the mall. I didn't hang up as I drove over to the mall and headed for dairy queen. (Your heart is no doubt racing about now and you are thinking that they were in danger). Turns out it was a 15 year old boy that was friends with Kristy and he is the number one chess player in the state. He shook my hand and offered to leave after I explained that Megan was too young to be hanging out with boys. I told him he didn't have to leave, I would just hang out with them as their chaperone. I texted Jason to let him know what was going on and he wanted to come chaperone too.



What you can't see is that he is wearing his FULL scout uniform. That includes the scout shorts and the scout socks (pulled up to his knees). He even brought a patch for this young man.

Well that's just LOUSY

So we've had a lice scare. I wasn't too worried about the boys (We can just shave their heads after all). However, Megan and I aren't quite ready to go that far. So after reading about the pesticides used to kill lice we went for the natural method. (Keep in mind I didn't see any in any of the heads I looked through - but better safe than sorry).

We doused our hair with olive oil (slept on it for eight hours) and then washed it out with Tee Tree Oil shampoo. It was fun the first time. We are supposed to do it every three to four days for two weeks though. Something tells me it won't be quite as fun by the third time we do it.

The trees don't change in Arizona

We went up to Utah this weekend and took the kids on a drive in the Canyon. They had no idea the trees change color. This picture just doesn't do justice to the Gold of these trees.

Overheard....

Andrew: What did you do with my human book?
Zac: What's a human book?
Andrew: That! (pointing to the green book I'm holding)
Zac: That's a Hymn Book.

Pure Imagination

It's fall break and the kids are trying to stay entertained with all this extra time on their hands. So they decided to make a Tent! What you can't see is the TV/VCR combo in the bookshelves there. A couple of snacks and they were set for the night. Of course their movie selections consist of "Blues Clues" and a recorded from TV edition of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers"





Once of these days maybe their Uncle Ben can give them some ideas about what they can do with a spool of thread.

Extreme Makeover....Scott Home Edition

Megan went to a motivational conference just for teenagers that was supposed to help them realize that they can do hard things and that the time to do it is actually when you are a teenager.

This weekend she came into where I was hiding in my room and said: "you just don't want to go downstairs and face the mess". Truer words had never been spoken. So she offered to clean up downstairs in exchange for a cheeseburger happy meal from McDonalds. I took her up on it but in my mind didn't believe she'd last very long and told her it would probably be "too hard".

The boys wanted in on the deal and headed down to help Megan. They were excited to show me the finished product.



Andrew mopped the kitchen floor and vacuumed the family room. NOTICE the beautiful flowers in the vases. I've been putting flowers from my back yard in the vases lately and Megan took the initiative to change out the flowers. She also put out the latest Ensign, Friend and New Era. She re-arranged the furniture slightly for a more "pleasing effect". It's all about the details!



Anthony was in charge of organizing the hall closet. Very Nice!



I wish I had before pictures so you could see how TRULY amazing this was. (Oh and I ended up getting Megan a pair of jeans she's had her eyes on. I didn't think a cheeseburger was quite sufficient.)

Megan truly can do hard things (including keeping two young boys motivated to clean).

Constitution Week

Gilbert has the biggest Constitution celebration in the country! They always have fireworks and games and booths and a concert. This year the boys and I went and they had a blast playing on the jumpers, writing letters to the troops, fishing for a prize, gettting their picture taken in a race car, and meeting all four branches of the military. They even got to play with guns! SCORE!




They were of course a little confused when the country artist who was performing sang a song about "taking back our country". They wanted to know who had it.

Andrew brought a paper home from school with fill in the blanks. Here is what he put: "I live in: Gilbert. I like it because: We're Free."

On the Campign Trail.......

I was driving to work and passing all the campaign signs that seem to hang out wherever there is a green patch on the side of the road. Random memories began popping into my head of campaigning with my dad back when I was a little girl.

I remember walking in the Stanley Parade and carrying a banner with my two sisters Catherine and Laura. I even remember the hats we wore (think barbershop quartet from The Music Man with a red white and blue band). I think we also got new outfits that matched (different colors, same style).






I remember my dad making his own signs in the garage – he used silk screens and lots of paint!

And those were the good old days when you went door to door and shook people’s hands. We had flyers to pass out too! I wish I had pictures or even a copy of one of those flyers for my scrapbook. But what would be really cool would be a copy of the ballot with my dad’s name on it.

Vote for DAD!

Just keeping it real...

The following conversation actually took place. The names have NOT been changed to protect the innocent.

Me: I heard that.
Megan: I didn't say anything.
Me: Exactly. I heard that.
Megan: How can you hear me if I didn't say anything?
Me: Because I have very good hearing.

The expression on her face was priceless.

I really have become my Mother

Today my daughter asked me what I want for Mother's Day. I answered "a clean house and obedient children".

Does anyone else remember Mom saying that?

Why do the police always assume I've been drinking?

So my van has been a perdittle for about a month now. I went to visit Catherine at the end of March for the weekend and was 2 miles from home when a police officer pulled me over because I had a headlight missing. He asked if I'd been drinking (it was 1 am but still....)

Then on the way home from Utah when I was about 20 miles from Laura's house another police officer pulled me over. I had Andrew, Anthony, Ashley, and Alona in the car with me (I was feeling outnumbered by all the A's). And that officer said I was free to go without a ticket but only because I hadn't been drinking.

I guess I better get that headlight fixed so that the police don't have an excuse to pull me over just to ask me if I've been drinking.

Here's a pic of Megan with her Grandma at one of the two restaurants in East Carbon. I also snapped a picture of the kids outside the BYU Museum of Art. Their idea of "looking at art" is to run by each picture or display at about 15 miles per hour.

Communication 101

I was sitting on my bed reading when Megan plopped herself down beside me. "Our lesson was on Communication in Young Women's today".

"how boring" (I tried to sound like a bored teenager) "Like, who needs to communicate with anyone"

"family" Megan protested

"families need to communicate?" I joked.

"yeah, that's how we roll"

?????????

So we proceeded to practice our communication (thanks to a game Anthony invented). For the next half hour we buried our faces in a pillow (proper technique includes sticking your derierre in the air) and yelled out random words while we each tried to guess what the other was saying.

Chef Andrew Scott

So yesterday the kids didn't have school. For lunch Andrew decided to make sandwiches. He slapped a very thin piece of ham between two slices of bread, lathered on the mustard (about an inch thick), and because he is not allowed to slice cheese with a knife, he grated some cheese on the sandwich as well. Then he carried it over to Jason and presented his gourmet meal for inspection.

"If you are wondering why there are two small bites, it's because I had to test it first".

And of course every good meal must be accompanied by the appropriate beverage. Andrew's included a tall glass of milk on the rocks.

Who said it #13

"Dethrone the dictaphone, hit it in its funny bone, that's where they expect it least"