Cahoon Art!

We LOVE Sundays, but one of my favorite things is the "art" that they bring home from church.

Kienna's last week had me in stitches:

Kaia's this week:


Saryn's additions to Kaia's this week:


Saryn's rainbow on the back of Kaia's art this week:


Evidence of Saryn's new love of drawing rainbows on my couch (I'm fairly certain that there's a path leading up to the rainbow):


In fact Saryn just LOVES rainbows. Today the sun was hitting the peep hole at the right angle and was making a rainbow on the door. It does this every day, but she was particularly excited about it today. She runs upstairs and says,
"Mom, come now!! There's a rainbow on the door!!"
"Okay, just a second...."
"No, (choking up) it might leave. You'd miss it!! (fighting back tears) You have to come RIGHT NOW!!"

Any visitors??

Today, Edmonton was
THE COLDEST PLACE IN NORTH AMERICA!

and the

SECOND COLDEST PLACE
in the WORLD!!
(second only to Dzalinda, Siberia)

It was -46.1C and with the windchill factor it was -58.4C.

Anyone wanna come and visit?

My Little Phantom

She's here.....inside my kitchen.

Saryn came into the living room with this piece of bread over her face and said "Hey Look! I'm the Phantom of the Opera!!" I've never been prouder...

While in my kitchen, my little phantom helps me make cookies! Today she read my my recipe. She uses her index finger to guide her as she 'reads':

"Next is the flour, lots of flour. You ARE flour, you NEED flour."

"Now you need more flour..."


Earlier, the phantom was snuggling with me. Giving me about 100 hugs a minute.

"Because you love me" *hug*
"Because I love you" *hug*
"Because we're hugging" *hug*
"Because I'm silly" *hug*
"Because......" *hug*

The phantom really isn't that scary.
In fact she might be haunting my funny bone these days...

We Love Daddy

Today I woke up for the third time around 7 to Saryn crying. Usually this causes me to groan, roll my eyes and roll over trying to go back to sleep, because it's whining and asking for something or she's just tired and cranky, but this cry had a really sincerely sad sound to it. It nearly broke my heart to hear her so sad.

"Saryn, why are you so sad?"
"Because Daddy's gone..."
"Oh, do you miss Daddy?"
"Yeah, SO much..."

I know this past month of studying for finals has been hard on me. I've missed Jarett desperately and have a whole new sympathy for single mothers, but I realized this morning how hard it has been on the kids too. They go for days without seeing Jarett because he's gone by 7 every morning and doesn't get home until well after 10 most nights. In fact, I have started waking up earlier and staying up later just so I can get a little bit of Jarett time in. Now my kids are waking up in the night just to give him a hug. They sure love their Daddy! He's been sorely missed around here. Sigh, one more week...

PS - Kienna was caught with another water bottle in hand today. I told her that if I caught her with ONE more water bottle she was going to be in BIG trouble! Consoling me, she told me I didn't have to worry about that because there weren't any left! Why didn't THAT help me feel happier?

Thirsty??

Kaia is sick. It's very rare that she EVER gets sick and even more rare that she doesn't want to go to school. So she's home sick with a cold... I had that cold last week and so I'm really sensitive to how she is feeling. This in mind, I was snuggling with her and comforting her while Jaymeson is asleep and left Kienna and Saryn to play in the basement for about 10 minutes. I told Kaia I'd be right back and went down to check on them quickly. As I walked through the kitchen I hear water splashing. The kids laugh and start walking up the stairs to see me standing at the top. Here is what I see.....(I took this picture later)

Please note the water on Kienna's shirt. This is NOTHING compared to the water drowning her pants! Then I continued downstairs to see a puddle on the floor with about 4 books. Of ALL the places in my house to have water on the floor, this is the worst. We have a HUGE rug in the basement and therefore, it's the only place in our house with carpet. Cleaning up a puddle on linoleum isn't that big of a deal.....carpet is a whole other story. How big of a puddle you ask? Well, you do the math....


The orange juice was consumed (luckily), but all the water contributed to the puddle on the carpet. Hope no one was thirsty and needed the water.

"Kienna! Why did you do that?"
"Because I LIKE playing with water!"
"But don't you realize how sad that makes Mommy?"
"Yeah...."
"So why do you do it? Do you like it so much that no matter what toys it ruins, no matter how much work it takes to fix, no matter how sad it will make me, it's worth it?"
"Yes!"

There's no doubt. That girl LOVES water..... Any suggestions on how to break the addiction?

My Laughs for the Day

In prayer:
Saryn: Thank you that Mommy got married in the temple and thank you that she married Daddy...

Kienna: Thank you that Mommy is such a good cook, please help her keep getting better and better. (This has become a frequent in her prayers at meals AND bedtime).

Kienna: 'O' is a cool letter.
Mom: Why?
Kienna: Because no matter which way you turn it, it's still an 'O'


Kienna: I was crying at school today...
Mom: Why, hon?!?
Kienna: Because someone moved into the morning Kindergarten
Mom: Who?
Kienna: Nicholas...
Mom: Wait, isn't Nicholas the boy you didn't like?
Kienna: Well, yeah, but I still liked him even though he was really mean...


Mom: Why do you guys make such a big mess?!?
Saryn: Because, I just like to make things....

I needed Saryn's laugh today because it was shortly after I discovered that she had unraveled Kaia's knitting that she's been working so hard on, took one of the needles and poked a hole into the seat of our stationary bike and the other one was in our water cooler bottle. Sometimes humor can save lives...

Yesterday, for example, I needed a good laugh after my van wouldn't start until we had missed Kaia's hearing screening, Kienna's cello lesson and school. Luckily a friend of mine picked the girls up and took them to the afternoon, and then came over and boosted my car so that I could take Jarett a key to his locker (he had locked his keys in his locker). The van was SO cold that I had to stop and re-scrape the windows at every stop light. Thankfully, my cousin was over so I didn't have to bring my kids with me. It was C-O-L-D!!!

Anyway, so yesterday I needed a laugh. I put on my favorite comedy these days, Brian Regan: I Walked on the Moon!, (this is only the very end) had popcorn and enjoyed a good hour with my cousin! I highly recommend this for stress therapy. It was ALL that I needed.... :)

On the other hand, Saryn just came and patted my stomach and looked at me all excited,

"Mom, I think you have a baby girl in there...."

I don't know what amount of humour is needed to get her out of trouble this time...

Oh, the Madness....

Well, as days go, I was busy and practicing violin with Kaia while finishing up the banana muffins and balancing Jaymeson while guiding Kaia's bow. Kienna was helping Saryn put toothpicks in every single one of the muffins that were cooling (because, apparently, this is necessary) and all was well.
I was so relaxed that I even took a picture of how silly they were to decorate the muffins...
Once that was done, Kienna moved on to cutting out Christmas tags and Saryn and Jaymeson moved to the piano. I was talking to Kaia and as she looked around, her face changed. It was NOT a good change and she panicked. "Saryn, what are you doing???" I looked to my darling little girls, that were in plain view, and realized that Saryn was styling Kienna's hair, but not just playing, CUTTING! Yes, the dreaded day has come. Kienna had cut Saryn's hair! She moved from cutting Christmas tags, to cutting hair. Then it was Saryn's turn with the scissors. Kienna had sense enough to leave some length and only cut once.....Saryn is a completely different story. Luckily there is still length, but there are MANY more cuts. I was LIVID! So livid that I sat them on the steps while I ran for the camera.

I found a sample of the hair (about 4 inches long of golden locks)

Then took pictures of their hair while they were on the steps.

We talked about the consequences of this action and how we were going to have to go to Sister Anderson's house for an emergency hair cut. Oh, thank heaven for hair dressing friends that live only a small field away! I told them that Sister Anderson shaves heads of little girls who cut their own hair. She MIGHT be in a good mood today, but they better hope so! So as we're gathering up to head over, I notice that Kaia is crying. I ask her what is wrong to find out that my sweet little girl is SO sad for her sisters that she is sobbing because she is worried that they will never have hair again. Poor thing didn't know that shaving heads is not a permanent thing. This calmed me down enough to assure her that Sister Anderson was in a great mood this day and that everything would be fine. The only thing that could make this worse, was the 2 feet of snow that fell the previous 24 hours. I had to shovel my way out of my yard after bundling up 4 children for the hike through the field.


Luckily, hair dressing friends can be miracle workers... all is well again and I still have my sanity.


Just a little sad that Kienna had to chop off her locks 2 weeks before she is a flower girl. She looks cute in a bob cut, but she had some gorgeous hair going on before. I was finally starting to do the pig tails and pony tails and braids and being curled....and they were working! Sigh, only another 5 years and I'll be able to do it again.... until then, I'll have to look back at these pictures and remember this day.....

Presents and Surprises are ALWAYS good...

This weekend was FULL of goodness. We had a bridal shower for my sister. Her two big gifts were from my sister, Alanna:

Yep, a full queen sized quilt. It's amazing! I wish you could see the intricate stitching on it, it's AMAZING!!

Then Aunty Beryl gave Hayley a cross-stitch of the Cardston Temple. It's the same thing she made for my wedding and my sister, Alanna. The poem is so awesome, I read it frequently!

Whenever Aunty Beryl and Granny come to town, you always seem to get spoiled. Some of the "little things" from this time are:

A little toque for Jaymeson and myself....
a nativity set... Granny made the figures, I sanded them and added the hemp twine.


Granny Jubber also surprised Kaia with a knitting lesson! It was SO much fun to watch that I eventually joined in and got a lesson for myself.


Hayley showed us her big gift from Troy: Isn't it gorgeous?


More wedding type presents came as the Flower Girl Dresses and Bridesmaid Dresses were tried on. Granny Jubber made some capes for them too!
some of them got fittings too!

Jaymeson also got a baby gift from a good friend. Could it be a more appropriate pattern for my little monkey?

My mom also surprised everyone by taking out the Christmas decorations. We all got to decorate together and it was SO much fun!

Jaymeson was so overwhelmed by all the nice surprises that he started to look everywhere for them:

in the laundry room:
down the stairs:In the bathroom:
but at the end of the day, if anyone looked at him, he'd run back to me and hug my legs:

Finally he found some surprises at Jack's birthday Party!!

It was a Peter Pan Party and they sure had fun....and the cake was GREAT!

Well, after a weekend with that many fun surprises, I had to get ONE not so pleasant one. As I was unpacking the day after we got home, Saryn says, "Mom, I'm down here" (you knew it had to involve Saryn, didn't you?) So, I went downstairs and she was up on a dresser eating her 3rd pudding, her 2nd juice box and couldn't get down. I was really impressed with her "cup holder". Really made me laugh. What a little monkey.....

My mechanic had also given me a "not so good" surprise this weekend. Apparently some mice had decided that our air filter was the best spot for their nest. At least he found it and not me, right?