I overheard Andrew asking his brothers tonight, “Hey, do I have a water mustache?”

Jacob found me weeding in the garden.  He sat down, ate his otter pop …

and asked me that age-old question – “Mom, what’s for lunch?”  My classic response followed – “what sounds good?”  {You know, looking for ideas.  ;)}   Jacob came back with his usual, “what do we have?”  {aw, no love.}  So I said, “I can make mac-n-cheese”.  ”Anything else” was the reply.  ”Um, we have chicken strips in the freezer.”

“You just said magical words Mom!”  Now we’re talking.

He continued to finish his frozen goodness and we talked.  He said he likes to talk with me “without the craziness of the other kids”.  There are times.  :)

One of the funniest things he said that cracked me up was, “I don’t like the smell of grapes.”  ”yeah?”  I said trying to decide if grapes are really that smelly.  ”Well, grapes are okay.  I don’t like the smell of grape juice.”  okay, now grape juice does have an aroma.  Not a bad one to me, but okay.  Jacob then proceeded to explain, “It’s just part of my personality.  It’s in my DNA.”

Heh – I think that’s my favorite excuse yet – at least from a nine-year-old.

p.s.  I think those way happy smiles are from the fact that I asked him to go back out to the garden for a photoshoot after I cleaned my dirty hands up.  That’s right, a whole ‘nother pop to enjoy.  The original was blue.  :)

Andrew was supposed to be taking a nap.  His mind was obviously just racing though.  I came into the bedroom and he asked “Do bats have batteries?  … because they fly.”  Hmmm, not sure if he was thinking about Daddy’s remote control bird man that has batteries or something else that flies with the aid of batteries.  Battery-aid, ha that’s funny.  Anyway after a nice discussion about bats eating food and getting energy to fly (thus not needing batteries) he asked another important question… “Mom, do jet packs have batteries?”

In Primary today the chorister had “mystery mom” visitors for Mother’s Day.  The mystery moms took turns hiding behind a big cloud sheet while wonderful and amazing things were said about us.  Written, . . .  um, . . . by us.  ;)  The chorister asked us ahead of time to write down a lesson we learned from our mothers, reasons we love being a mom, things we often say as mothers and some fun details about us.  Then the children got to guess who was behind the sheet.  Then we were given two beautiful roses and got to sit at the front of the room as the children sang to us some songs they were working on.  Beauty!

My list was as follows:

Lesson from my mother:  Greet each day with a smile.  You are as happy as you choose to be.  It’s a lesson she learned from her grandma (Grandma Alder).  Another lesson from Grandma Alder is to always have ice cream and cones on hand.  ;)  I’m so thankful both lessons have been passed down.

Some favorite foods:  apples, strawberries, salsa, popcorn, chocolate chip cookies

Favorite music:  big band jazz

Reasons I love being a mom:  Snuggling babies, rock-a-byes and lullabies, reading lots of books with lots of little ones on my lap, running around and acting silly at playgrounds, secrets at bedtime – “I love you more than . . . ”

Things I say as a mom:  Have you washed your hands?  ;)  & I love you!  :)

It was in Jr. Primary so Joshua, Autumn and Andrew were all in there.  I think they had an idea, but when it got to the secret part they knew for sure!   I’m okay with that being the defining part of my mothering.  :)  They all ran up and hugged me.  And then again after the first song,  . . . and then again right before I left.  What a fun Mother’s Day activity.

And this one is for Katey Belle because she found it so hilarious.  I can’t wait for her to look through my blog and start giggling again.  :)

The day started with two sweethearts bringing me breakfast in bed.  (And one more behind the scenes ).  Fresh o.j., cereal, toast, and pina colada yogurt = yum!

We stopped at the temple on the way home from church for Mother’s Day photos – a fun tradition (2 years running now.  :) ).

LOVE this one of Katey!

Autumn and Drewby crack me up!

My favorite overall.

At dinner time we had Cafe Rio salads with the fam and got to talk to Erin on her mission in the Philippines.  Hurray!

A few of my favorite Moms.  :)

Happy, Happy Mother’s Day!

A whole handful of bright yellow dandelions was sweetly handed to me this afternoon.  Followed by an oh-so-innocent question from Andrew:  ”Is it your favorite flower Mom?”

I said “Yes” and in that moment, it truly was.

For Family Home Evening tonight we planted some seeds in little peat pots.  Each of the little ones picked something to plant.  Corn, basil, radishes, green beans, pumpkins – each had something they wanted to start.  We’re still not sure how some will do if they’re not planted directly in the ground.  I guess we’ll see.

We did enjoy two beautiful American traditions – gardening and Girl Scout cookies.

Daddy was the brave one with the pitcher of water and dirt.

After Andrew planted his corn he said, “Now what?  Love?  and Sunshine?”

Pretty much bud.

Joshua:  I love Jacob because he’s a great wrestler.

Jacob:  Yep!  Including Kung Foo.

Daddy:  Kung Foo isn’t wrestling.

Jacob:  Kung Foo and wrestling mixed with karate.

Autumn:  Well, I like that Jacob gives me piggy backs.  And don’t forget horsey rides.

Andrew:  I love that Jacob plays the Wii with me.  Mario Kart and sometimes I fall down holes and when something wiggles it means holes are coming.  And your balloons pop.

Katey Belle:  Jaaa-cob!!  Fun-ny and silly.  (This comment leads to silly, funny faces from the two of them.  Katey calls them “monkey faces”.)

Mommy:  Jacob has very nice hair.  And he is very good when I cut it.  He’s a patient guy.

Jacob:  Yeah.  Just don’t cut it too short.  I don’t want to be close to bald.  Or even close to close to bald.  Just cut it to a good length.  Okay Dad, your turn.

Daddy:  I love Jacob because he is such a good helper around the house.  Any job I have to do, he does without asking any questions and is cheerful about it.  He loves to help!

Jacob loves soccer, pizza, pokemon cards, the Wii and the treehouse.  His favorite dessert is cherry cobbler.  He is very good at math, spelling (he gets 100% almost every time), and reading.  He says he’s “extremely good at reading” and he’s right.  We love our smart, handsome, sweetheart of a boy.

Daddy:  I love Autumn because she is the embodiment of the word exuberant.

ex·u·ber·ant [ig-zoo-ber-uhnt]     –adjective

Andrew:  I love Autumn to keep our house and temple clean.  (Can you kinda tell what our Family Home Evening lesson was about?)

Joshua:  I love that Autumn makes up great songs.  When she goes to the potty she sings and makes up beautiful songs.  My favorite is “Sunlight Over the Water”.

Autumn:  (*singing*)”I love my Heavenly Father…”

Daddy:  She does sing lots.  ”Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, “Jesus Once Was a Little Child”, “Beautiful Savior” and “I Love to See the Temple” are ones I hear lots.  (Those are her very favorites right now.)

Jacob:  I love that Autumn loves to have little parties and mini-campouts in her room.

Daddy:  That’s true.  There have been some good tents in her bedroom lately.

Andrew:  Sometimes I make tents for Autumn.

Mommy:  Autumn is my big helper.  She is always willing to grab a diaper or a kleenex or a drink of water for someone.  She is my biggest kiddo when the boys are gone to school and she really helps out.  I also like that Autumn tells and shows me what she’s learning in dance class.  She tells me all about her beautiful purple costume with white umbrella and I’m very excited she has a recital coming up.

We love our beautiful, silly, often loud, smiling, happy, dramatic, wonder of a little angel.

Drewby was talking in his sleep just now.  Just a-sleeping on the couch.  He said, “Is there anything on me that starts with the letter T?”  I said, “Nope.  No wait, you have toes … and they start with the letter T.”  He must be somewhat coherent because he said “Oh good” and fell back asleep.

Is it a sign that perhaps at least his subconscious is watching too much TV?