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.