Our African American Heritage

The other day Aiden was asking me what skin was made of and why it was different colors. I did my best to explain it in four year old terms and then he asked, “Well why did you marry a brown man?” I tell you all of our kids have taken a turn thinking Chris is black. Kaylee and Ashton used to think we should have a celebration in our home for Chris during Black History Month. I’m not sure how they thought he came to be that way, they don’t think anyone else from his family is black, but Chris has always wanted to have a Polynesian baby so if we can figure out how his parents had a black baby then maybe we can have a little islander.

Ashton and Aiden like to fight with their dad and Ashton had gotten herself caught by Chris so Aiden came to help her out. After they escaped Ashton said, “Thanks bro,” to which Aiden replied, “You’re welcome.” Ashton had to then go into her cool kid teaching mode I guess because she told him, “No, sis is the cool way to say sister.” Aiden: “Oh. Okay, sis.” Ashton: “No say you’re welcome sis.” Aiden: “Oh. You’re welcome sis.” Those two crack me up.

Chris reminded me of a story I forgot to tell about Disneyland so I’ll leave with that. They were getting on the It’s a Small World ride and Aiden was so excited he was practically dancing in anticipation, the song was making his bum dance. His enjoyment lasted for about the first minute and then he just endured to the end. When they got off the ride he said, “I am so SICK of that song and I NEVER want to hear it again.”

Disneyland

Last week we were able to go to Disneyland. My sister-in-law had a relative who was selling tickets for a fundraiser so we got a really good deal. We had certtain dates we had to go so we decided to go the Tuesday after Presidents day thinking the crowds would be a little less. We were sadly mistaken. There were so many people and the lines were so long and a lot of the rides were down when we tried to go on them, but my brother and his family were there and the kids thought it was fabulous to be there with their cousins. I thought Dalin would love it because he really enjoys being outside and feeling like he gets to do big kid things, but he seemed pretty unimpressed with everything except the carousel. He loved that ride and we got some really cute pictures of him smiling his face off. Overall it was fun and we will probably go again some day, maybe.

Ashton and Aiden love to tell jokes, unfortunately all of their jokes start out, “Knock, knock. Who’s there? Boo. Boo who?” and then they proceed to tell a joke that has nothing to do with the knock knock joke they started out with. If I laugh, Kaylee let’s me know that it either didn’t make sense or it wasn’t that funny.

Aiden likes to sing his A-B-C’s backwards. It goes like this, “Z-e-t-e-e-f-g-h-i-j-k-l-m-n-o-p-q-r-s-t-u-v-w-x-y and A!” He’s so proud that he learned it all by himself and he thinks he is so funny. He and his dad think they are the funniest people they know.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHTON!

HAPPY (belated) BIRTHDAY TO ASHTON!!!

Ashton turned six on the 15th and I can hardly believe it. She fared pretty well in the gift department and we had a joint birthday party with her little cousin Scott who turned one on the 13th. The festivities spilled over to the next day when we went to Olive Garden (Ashton’s favorite restaurant) with Aunt Megan. Since Valentines Day was the day before I sent rice krispie treats instead of cupcakes for her birthday treat at school. Today I asked her how her class liked them and she told me they didn’t have them because she forgot to tell her teacher that she had brought a snack. So much for that.

My sister had a baby girl on Monday and now my parent’s grandchild count is even again, seven girls and seven boys. They named her Lacey Sharon Pendleton and she is a cutie. She also makes the fourth birthday of this week in my family, my dad’s birthday is on the 17^th.

Dalin has been sick for the past couple of days. I thought we were all over our illnesses, but I guess it was just time to catch a new strain of something. The poor kid has a fever and he’s so stuffed up it’s hard for him sleep because he can’t breath. He’s still a sweet boy and he only gets really fussy at night because he wants to sleep. Hopefully he’ll be over it soon.

Kaylee went to a birthday party today and she came home a rockstar. It was at a store in the mall and they did their hair and makeup and gave them a microphone headset. They got to take home the makeup and pick a few things from the store; it looked like a lot of fun. We were watching the cousins when she came home so she shared her newfound knowledge and did their makeup too. My uncle is running for city council again and he passed out his campaign shirts today so all the kids were matching and they decided it was the look they needed to form a band. We even made a music video so look for the rock-and-roll-girls-band, sponsored by Andy Hafen for council, to come to a town near you soon.

Cool Kid Class

Chris is okay! The doctor went over the results of the CT scan with him and he didn’t seem overly concerned with any of the results. His spleen was slightly enlarged but the doctor said that was probably because he had been sick. He wants him to get another scan in six months just to make sure. There were a few fat deposits on his liver which is usually an indicator of high cholesterol but his cholesterol was fine. So he is in good health for now and we are very thankful. I didn’t realize how worried I had been until he told me the doctor said he was okay. I felt like I hadn’t taken a full breath until that moment.

Ashton has taken it upon herself to initiate a “cool kid class” to teach Kaylee and Aiden how to be cool. I’m not sure what the lessons consist of but apparently ten lesson have to be completed in order to graduate, (I’m sure I will be corrected on any of the details I may have confused). One day Ashton was taking Kaylee outside to have class and I could see Aiden following at a distance and then stop at the door to watch. I asked him why he wasn’t having class too, “I got expelled.” I don’t know what exactly happened, but the rumor is there was an incident during spy school.

The other day Kaylee and I were gone and Chris was going to take a shower. Dalin was just waking up so Chris asked Ashton if she would take care of Dalin for a few minutes until he was done. When Chris was done he went into the other room to put on his shoes and Ashton shouted out, “That is so immature, you guys are playing video games and you leave me alone to take care of the baby!”

I’ll leave you with another Ashton and Aiden backseat conversation. I came in halfway through but this is what I heard.

Aiden: “Grandpa Hal has a robot leg. Some people ride in wheelchairs and if they don’t have a wheelchair they break there leg so they can use one.”

Ashton: “I’m glad he has a robot leg, because now he has a wheelchair to give us rides.”

I Hate the Flu!!!!

My entry from last week turned out to be overly optimistic. Ashton and Aiden were still sick through Monday, and Chris didn't go back to work until Thursday. The girls got a paper from school telling the symptoms and differences of the cold and the flu, and after I read it I realized that Chris pretty much gets the flu every year. I guess a flu shot wouldn't be such a bad idea for him. Dalin and I even succomed for a day or two,although our symptoms were fairly mild. This is the first time that it spread through our whole household, and I don't think I need that experience more than once in my life.

Chris thought he felt ready to go back to work on Tuesday, but he has a terrible cough so I made him go to QuickCare. He was planning on going in for the second half of the day but the doctor almost laughed at him and said he would be out at least until Thursday. He had to go to a family physician and they did several tests and sent him to get a CT scan, so now we're just waiting on results. From the questions that the doctors kept asking him it sounds like it may be something to do with his liver, I'll keep you all posted when we find out.

On a little lighter note I rhink Dalin is in training for the X games or something. He loves to get around in his walker, and I have seen him run and then lift up his feet so he can glide across the floor. He doesn't like to show off though, because every time I try to get it on video he stops.

Ashton and Aiden have the best conversations in the back of the car on the way home from school. I'll leave you with one I heard the other day. I don't know what Ashton had, but Aiden really wanted it and this is where I came in on the dialogue:

Ashton, "Aiden you can only have some if you say Ashton's cool and she rules and Aiden is a muckus."

Aiden: "I'm not going to say that. I"M NOT A MUCKUS!"

Ashton: "Then you can't have any."

Aiden: "FINE," (through clenched teeth), "Ashton's cool and she rules, and I am a muckus."

Ashton handed over whatever they were fighting about and a few minutes later, (I assume after Aiden had finished with it) I hear Aiden say, " I was just tricking, I'm not really a muckus and I'm the one that rules!"

Circus Folk and Carnies

Chris and the kids went to the circus with my brother Brandon and Emily and Jayden last week. They all had a really fun time, but this was the report I got the next day. Aiden was eating popcorn off the ground and my brother told him that wasn't the best idea to which Aiden replied, "Brandon you worry about you, and I'll worry about me."

Kaylee got an A on her Italy report, and they had a program this past Friday. It was really cute, and she got to dance to three of the songs that they sang. In honor of her uncle Brandon's mission to Australia she was excited to dance to "Waltzing Matilda." As soon as I can get Chris to teach me how to post pictures I'll put some up.

Every one in our home has taken a turn being sick this week except for Dalin and me. I'm hoping our luck holds out, because things kind of fall apart around here when I get sick. I think Chris got the worst of it. Kaylee and Ashton and Aiden were achey with fevers but they were pretty much done after about one day. Chris has had a terrible cough with fever and he has barely been able to get out of bed for a day and a half. I think he's on the tail end of the sickness, but he's still really tired and sleeping alot.

The Throne

Aiden and I came to an agreement about the pillow from the last entry. He wanted to sleep with it for the whole night and in exchange he agreed that he wouldn't take it off my bed any more. So far he's stayed true to the deal, but that was just one of the battles, the war is still on.

Aiden has now taken over Chris's recliner. He gets all of the throw pillows from the couch and spreads them on the chair. He then puts the foot rest up and leans the back of the chair as far back as it will go, climbs up with his blanket and kicks back. He told Chris, "it's not your chair it belongs to everybody." He is paranoid that someone will take his spot if he leaves so he has started asking me to bring everything to him (i.e. lunch, drinks, toys etc.) When he does get out of the chair he will slowly back away from the chair then sprint to wherever he needs to go. One day he needed to do something that would take him out of the chair and I could see him eyeing Ashton who was sitting on the floor eating her lunch. I told him that she was still eating her food so she wasn't going to take the chair. He looked over at Ashton's plate then looked back at me and asked if I could get her some more food. I guess he wanted to make sure he had enough time to get back to his "throne".

In other news, Chris and I were able to go to the Celine Dion show at Ceasars Palace. Chris did some computer work for some people who are friends with some people that usher at the show who gave them tickets to the show so they invited us to come. (I hope you could follow that last sentence) Now I'm not the biggest fan of Celine Dion, (I know I can hear the gasps of disbelief), but I actually enjoyed the show quite a bit. The sets were amazing. But the real excitement for me was looking for a particular dancer. If any of you watched the summer reality show "So You Think You Can Dance?" you may remember that one of the prizes for the winner was a one year contract for the Celine Dion show. The winner of the show was a guy named Benji, a mormon from Redlands CA. Chris and I really liked him so we spent the whole show trying to figure out which one of the dancers he was. We had pretty good seats but we still couldn't really tell which one he was. When we got home Chris did a little internet reasearch and found out that Benji declined the Vegas show offer so I felt a little cheated.

Pillow Fights

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CHRIS!!!! Today Chris becomes "a 34 year old man!" One of Kaylee's favorite things to do is to point out how old her dad is. When ever he isn't quite acting his age she will exclaim, "dad you are a 34 year old man!!" The Nintendo (from the last blog) was his birthday present as well as Christmas, and he has been making good use of it.

I got a new pillow a few months ago and I don't know if Aiden didn't notice it before or if he just finally decided that he really liked it, but a couple of weeks ago he started sneaking in my room right before bed and taking my pillow to his room to sleep with. I would in turn go take it from under his head and replace it with his own pillow before I go to bed. He's getting bolder every day and one day he announced to me that he was going to sleep with my pillow and I better not take it from him while he was sleeping or he would be really mad at me for alot of days. I took it back anyway. At seven the next morning I wake up to someone tugging on my pillow. I open my eyes and there is Aiden, ready to fight telling me I shouldn't have taken the pillow. I let him have it back but only because I had just gotten Dalin back to sleep and I didn't want the tantrum I could feel coming on to wake him up. I told him he could only have it if he went back to bed. He left still upset and I heard his over dramatic crying, "I wanted to sleep on the pillow the whole ni-i-i-i-i-ght!" He got some money from great grandpa Romney for Christmas so I told him he could get his own pillow, but we can only find a king size one, and that kid is spoiled enough he doesn't need a king size pillow for his four year old head! We'll keep looking and hopefully the battles will subside.

Kaylee's was assigned a report on Italy for school. They have a book to fill out and a poster to make, and then they are going to have a little program and feast. She is pretty excited, and started looking things up on the internet right away. She told me that her teacher said they should bring a sample of food from their country that they liked and Kaylee said, "but I think I'll just bring spagetti anyway." There are few things Kaylee actually likes to eat and I don't think any of them originate in Italy.

Ashton's reading is coming along really well. We got some first reader books from the library and she was able to sound out most of the words. She answered the phone the other day and this is what I heard on my end. "No he's still at work but you can call back when you think he might be home."

My sister-in-law is letting us borrow a baby walker for Dalin and he is quite a little natural. Because we have wood floors he can speed across the room pretty well, but he hasn't quite figured out how exactly to go the direction he wants to yet. He is happy to be mobile, so now I can actually set him down and get a few things done when he's not asleep.