So, what have you been doing today?

Oh, you know, the usual...Admiring my son's lipstick art on a variety of canvases...mainly his pants, the carpet, oh, and this well-chosen pad of paper. It's amazing the creativity that comes out during nap time.

So, what have I been doing? Bonding with Oxyclean Carpet Cleaner. Was it successful? I think so, but the real test occurs after Steve reads this post and I dare him to go point out where it happened. Wish me luck!

I know this is "typical" kid behavior and "every mom goes through this", but I don't recall hearing these kinds of stories from my friends...just the older moms. Am I the only one cleanign these spots out of my carpet? There was the story of my friend's sister who was just about to sell her house when her toddler got permanent marker all over the front room carpet. Who wants to buy new carpet when they're moving? There was the paint I spilled on my friend's new carpet in kindergarten...see, I still remember that tragic moment...hopefully Carter won't remember this forever and ever.

Loving the Christmas Season

At last, I got to shop for a little girl's holiday dress!

So much more fun than just another sweater vest!

Alana loved it so much, she sucked on the skirt all day.

Baby, it's cold outside...and in!

If our children look more like Sweatsuit models than Children's Place models, here's the reason why. Our furnace is broken. The temperature in our house can't get warmer than about 63, which sounds good on a nice Spring day, but not inside a house. Nope. There are no meadows of flowers to run through, no lemonade to buy on the corner, and clouds to daze at dreamily. Nope. Just snow to watch outside. And then you are reminded, once again, how cold you are. Yes. It's cold. That's why we didn't invite you over to play. You'd freeze. We don't want to get out of bed. Our baths are longer and hotter. And we are thankful for the dryer that can warm up our blankets before being tucked in at night.

Which is probably what prompted Carter's funny comment today when we got out of the car.

Carter: I'm so cold!
Kerri: I know, we are always so cold today!
Carter: Yeah, but now my eyes are freezing!

Come and Get it!

I never win giveaways, but I liked this one so much I had to enter. Why I'm telling you about it and adding to my competition, who knows, but it's probably because I {heart} you, too, and want you to be just as happy. So go check it out! And the Kitchen Sink Boutique has cool things too!

Fun Daddy!

Where has November gone? Oh yeah, where September and October went, too--DADDY'S WORK! He has been so busy since Alana was born, a lot of late nights and weekend open houses. We were so surprised that we actually had a Saturday morning with nothing on the calendar, so we snuck in some Daddy Time. He's a great daddy! As much as I wish we weren't teaching my kids to play with swords, I couldn't resist the daddy bonding.

We went to a cave..YES, a CAVE in Illinois. It was totally cool.

Steve pretty much is a professional rock-skipper...sans the official certificate.And I took the kids to that mythical place which we call "Work". This unfortunately dashed all of Carter's dreams that when Daddy said he's "Going to work on the train" that he didn't actually WORK on the train.
He's a great dad!
Sorry, Moms, he's taken.

Extreme Sliding

The best stunts always happen when you don't have your camera. Or in my case, when I had my OTHER video camera running, and I don't know how to upload from that (grrr...) Carter's final slide of the day made him look like a Chinese Acrobat! He went down head first, and midway down, his feet toppled OVER his head. At the bottom, his face stopped and his body kept going, and we were laughing our head off!!!! Yes, he could have broken his neck, but he didn't and I WISH you could see the video. I think I need special sotware.

Brought to You by the Letter P and the Number 3 1/2

Tonight, Carter was doing an alphabet puzzle while I was making dinner. After a few minutes, I realized that he had been making up a song all along. I caught on just at the tail end of his composition, which actually had a nice tune and ended with an in-tune resolve. Hear were his final lyrics:

P is my favorite letter

And it makes me want to giggle

And I'm very very proud of this fact

I just thought that was a cute way of putting his words together, plus I felt proud he got his Grandma's genes to sing any thought that comes to mind. Yes, as kids we felt we lived in a musical.

And a funny story:

Missionaries has been a topic of discussion at the Madura household as of late. So, at the breakfast table I declared to the kids,

"Today is P-Day!"

Carter's eyebrows furrowed in curiousity and a little of concern.

"Mom, why did you say that?"

"Because today is P-day, for Preparation-Day for the missionaries, when we get to wash and fold and put away all our laundry."

With the same look of confused concern, Carter replied,

"But do we have to sit on the potty?"

Grandmas do the Darndest Things

Aren't Grandmas the GREATEST!

I ADORE my Grandma,

but I think Carter, Addison, and Alana have the BEST Grandmas in the world! They didn't plan on wearing such coordinating outfits, so I had to take a picture. It turns out they have more in common than their Sunday Outfits:

They do so much to help out, encourage, and support. They also do things that make us laugh.
When Alana was only 1 week old, Gma 1 was changing Alana's diaper late at night. She grabbed the nearest diaper and finished the job. In the morning, we had to laugh when we discovered she had accidentally used Carter's size 4 diaper around this teeny tiny newborn bum! How she had tucked and rolled it in so many ways to get it to fit, I have no idea.

2 months later, Gma 2 was getting the boys ready for bed. Turns out she, like Gma 1, grabbed the wrong diaper and swaddled Addison's 2 year old bum in a 2-month-old's diaper. What a riot!

They both do whatever they can to make my world a better place, including exercising my sense of humor!

Spelling Bee here he comes!

"Mama! Come Quick! I have to show you something!"

"What? What is it?"

"I spelled Penguin!"

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah!"

Sure enough, he did! Phonetically.

I am SOO impressed! Next he spelled "Fun" and "Hulo"[hello], all by himself! And he's getting more excited about reading and sounding out the words he sees. I'd love to list it all, but some highlights have been when the other day, he read CAVE correctly, while we were on an adventure! He also found our Scene It game and said it was like Elder Scott. Things like that are happening every day, and it is so fun!

Thank you Leap Frog DVDs!

Addison's Head Count

6 Scabs

4 Bruises

2 Scars

1 Giant Goose Egg

Life is rough as an exploring Toddler!

The most recent incident happened on Thursday as Addison was laughing and running from Daddy. He turned to look at Daddy just in time to run into the corner of the wall, leaving the goose egg and a line of scratches down his face, from his forehead, to his nose, and below his lip!

Poor GUY!

Making the World a Better Place...3 Children at a Time

CARTER Carter loves to play games online. He became quite concerned that one of the games was not working properly. He decided that we should write them a note, asking them to please fix it. He dictated the emails, while I typed. (The whole email is in the following post and worth reading!). I wish you could have seen how his face lit up with every emailed reply, and ultimately when the game was FIXED! Thank you, Carter, for single handedly changing Toddlers' Online Gaming experience World Wide!

ADDISON

Our peacemaker. Unfortunately, Carter and I were in a fight the other day. I told him that unfortunately Addison, Alana and I had to leave the room until Carter felt better. I was upset, but Addison changed my mood quickly by putting a bucket on his head and smiling and giggling, until I couldn't resist! Then, he went to help Carter smile...he hid under the table, and popped up, hitting his head on the bottom of the table...Apparently this was irresistibly funny, and they were both in immediate hysterics! Thank you, Addison, for single handedly changing the mood in our home!

ALANA

She has started giggling! Need I say more??? Thank you, Alana, for single handedly lighting up the entire world!

Carter's Email to kneebouncers.com

Email #1: November 13

Hi!

I am Carter Madura. I am 3 1/2. I love your games. I play them every day. My favorites are the new ones.

Can you please get the Shapes game to work? It's just not working. It freezes with the Ovals. All the other shapes work, but not the Ovals.

So, we are writing a message for you.

Thank you!

Carter

Email #2: The Response

Hi Kerri and Carter,

Thanks for the heads up -- we will take a look at it.
Thanks again and keep on KneeBouncing!

Jim Robinson

Chief KneeBouncer

Email #3: Gratitude

Thanks! You're the best! You're the greatest!

Carter

Email #4: Techy Gets it to work!

Thank you for pointing this out Carter.
I made a change and I didn't double check my work! It should be fixed now.

Kurt

Email #5: Carter's ECSTATIC!

Dear Jim and Kurt,

Thank you for fixing my game! It's very very well! And so, we wish we could give you a present! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

You're the Best! You are Great!
Carter

Today's Adventure...

We're off to the

"Toy Museum"!

Here's hoping that the name change

will decrease the requests to buy things!

Although I did go to these "Clothes Museums" last night,

and it didn't seem to help ;)

Mini Provo

The kids and I took a trip to Provo yesterday. At least we thought we did. Come to find out we were really at Hobby Lobby, but we were surrounded by decorations that said:

I am a Child of God

Count Your Many Blessings

Faith, Believe, Pray

Now, I know these can be associated with the General Christian Faith. But the kicker was when I found myself humming along to the instrumental music played throughout the store. Yep, they were hymns:

As Zion's Youth in Latter Days

Come to Zion, Come to Zion

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Who knew I could have a spiritual experience while shopping?

In Case of Emergency

1) Have Batteries in your camera
2) Have a Clean Toilet

These are mere suggestions I hope to learn for next time.

You see, while Carter and I were having quiet reading upstairs, I decided to check on the usually-non-mischevious son of mine, Addison. Much to my surprise, I found him dumping water onto the bathroom floor--from the toilet! SO many reactions went through my head as I saw the grossness invovled in this situation, our wood floor soaked with puddles (who puts wood floors in a bathroom?), and my child soaked head to toe in toilet water. Finally I decided to shrug my shoulders and smile. We all need a picture like this, right? DANG IT! No batteries in the camera. RATS!!!! Oh well, we needed to wash the floor anyways.

Editor's note: I know "grossness" is not a word.

For 50 points...

How many things can you name that the Very Hungry Caterpillar ate? 50 extra points if you get it in the right order.

Steve and I struggled with this (Especially remembering the Saturday feast), but Carter blew us out of the water. See if you can beat him.

WHAT A MESS!

Dear Husband who meant well,

Next time you put the boys in their room to "wait" while I put Alana to bed, please give them a more specific activity so this doesn't happen again:

With love,

Your Patient Wife

PS. Thank you ahead of time for resorting all 3 storage bins of clothes.

It's a blogging rule...

You have to post the costume pics of Halloween. So here they are:

Addison, Cookie Monster, whose costume matched his eyes to be utterly breathtaking!

Carter, the dragon, that kept morphing into a dinosaur.

Alana, my pretty pretty princess ballerina

(did I mention I LOVE having a girl?)

I was a pumpkin (sort of) and Steve was Michael Jackson.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN...unless...

...Unless your neighbors' party guests park in front of your--AND ONLY YOUR--driveway. The weird thing: This has happened 3 years in a row, with different cars, and different parties.

Year 1: "Really? Someone parked in front of our driveway?" Politely go to the party and ask that the car be moved so we can go to our party (yeah, we have a life too you know, I muttered under my breath)

Year 2: "Are you SERIOUS? You've GOT to be kidding me." Throw a fit. Just because.

Year 3: "It figures." Figure out how to manuever our car around the blockade...it seems to be a useless battle.

So next year, could you modify your invitation to read: RSVP...oh, and don't park in front of the Maduras driveway...they might slash your tires.

My Toddlers' Guide to Carve a Pumpkin

1) Scoop out all the "Slimy Goo" 3 days beforehand with Mom...actually, decide it would be fun, but then after a few minutes...2) ...Let Mom do all the work while you go do this...which I didn't mind AT ALL. Thanks, Carter, for trying to teach Addison how to pedal! You were so patient and uplifting!

3) Then, on Halloween day, convince Dad that YOUR Jack-o-Lantern must have the BIGGEST smile on the whole block. "Bigger, Bigger, BIGGER" Carter kept making Steve draw it over and over again until finally, Carter gave his approval. "Yep, that's right."

Our Giving Tree

For all you mountain climbers disappointed with the Midwest's Flat Terrain, I've discovered the dream job for you:We watched as the tree-cutters cut down a 135-yr-old tree from my parents' front yard. The tree was massive! A 16 foot diameter, and about 80 feet tall. We never knew it was a climbing tree, but these guys had NO problem swinging from branch to branch to saw it down.

Of course, the boys (of all ages) were fascinated,

and felt this required some kind ceremonial farewell dance. Is it strange to say "We will miss you, Tree?" Probably not, since Shel Silverstein thought the same thing. Sadly, the front yard and the view from blocks away will never look the same again.

Today I've learned..

1) White Oreos dipped in chocolate milk is not nearly as addicting as chocolate oreos dipped in white milk.

2) Don't have weird dreams about people you don't know very well, because then you'll randomly run into them at the grocery store and it will be really awkward.

3) The rain has no mercy on Moms. An umbrella is useless; you don't have a hand to hold it. No use doing your hair in the morning since you'll get soaked getting kids in and out of the car, trying to keep THEM dry, while wondering why you chose to wear a white shirt this morning.

4) Have a 3 year old...they'll tattle on Daddy when he broke a plate. They'll tattle on Mommy when you served cereal for dinner. And they'll tattle on the lady behind us who picked her nose.

5) Alana has a heart murmur, but it's nothing to worry about. Then again, Laman and Lemuel also murmured in their hearts. Perhaps I should worry ;)

Living in Excess

Making fun of myself and my tendency to hoard things,
I said to a friend last week,

"I have 3 baby carriers;
I mean, really, how many do I need?"

Apparently 4,
since right now I can't find a single one.

Yet, this may also indicate I need 2 cell phones, 3 sets of keys, and 10 more sippy cups.

Happy Fall!

This year I've invested in pumpkins.

They've been going up the whole month of October.

And I got a feeling they're gonna peak right around January.

Then BANG! That's when I'll cash in!

--Homer Simpson