A Daily Dose of Mischief

We recently spent a few days in California visiting Disneyland. The fourth day we were there we went shopping in Downtown Disney. There were a lot of fountains there. #3 loves water, and he loves looking at fountains and ponds...anything having to do with water. Heck, he even likes puddles. Downtown Disney had a lot of fountains. He stopped at every one of them. They all had money in them from people tossing in loose change. Who knew every fountain was actually a wishing well? Seeing all the money in the fountains as well as a previous discussion about the high prices of things like water and snacks in Disneyland led #3 to comment that Disneyland has so many fountains because they are greedy and want everyone to give them all their money. Hmm...who can argue with logic like that?

Today was day two of our kids' first-ever trip to Disneyland. That gave them one day of experience under their belt to see the nature of a wide variety of rides and the anticipation, anxiety, fun, fear, and surprises they bring. Learning quickly the unpredictability of some rides, #4 (age 5) was trying to prepare himself to deal with his fear of the unknown as we waited in line for the new Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. After fifteen minutes of curiously watching submarine after submarine 'swim' past us through the colorful, bubbling water...and realizing that riders sit below the water level, he finally asked with sincere, honest concern in his voice, "Will they open the windows?!"

A conversation from today... #5: I wish I was a germ. Me: Why? #5: So I could see inside my underwear.

As D was about to leave for work after lunch we were standing in the kitchen talking. I guess I was standing too close to him or something because #4 came in, looked at us and said, "Are you doing the looooove thing?" I said, "What do you mean? This?" and I kissed D on the cheek. #4 said "Yes!" then ran into the living room which is divided from the kitchen by a blanket that we hung there to keep all the heat from escaping the living room. We heard him yell to the other boys that we were doing the loooove thing...which of course caused the other boys to shout out their disgust. Then, interestingly enough one by one they started to peek around the blanket into the kitchen. I think they secretly like knowing that we looooooove each other. As I walked D to the door I kissed him goodbye and since #1 was standing there I made sure to kiss D loudly. #1 screamed. Then as I walked back through the kitchen #4 came in and said, "I heard #1 scream, I

Sunday is our sabbath-day. The sabbath day is supposed to be a Holy, spiritual day of rest...and for the most part it is except for the weekly four-hour-war: Church and getting ready for church. I imagine everyone understands the challenge of getting young balls of kinetic energy motivated enough to get dressed in uncomfortable clothes in anticipation of sitting through long meetings of people talking about abstract things that are hard to understand. For that matter, maybe that's exactly how you feel getting up every morning to go to work or school. Unfortunately my wife has to fight that battle alone because I'm at church early preparing for the next battle.The next battle, for me, starts out calm and sweet and peaceful as I see five bright, shiny boys in white shirts, smiling wide as they open the glass doors of the Church to greet me. This is part of their strategy...start off disguised as sweet and reverent so the gullible parents will be thrown off guard later. (As a pare

Three Targets! 10 seconds! The Challenge: Hit each target in sequence as many times as possible within the time limit! The Prize: The pride of knowing you did it! -------------------- The Downside: The principal has your dad bring you back after school to clean the three bathroom urinals and the walls in between them. The Determination: #3 (age 7) says next time he will do it without hitting the walls. Oy Vey!

I was doing this post for my other blog as part of Scribbit's Winter Bazaar. When I got finished I realized I had published it in the wrong blog, but decided not to delete it since it was such a fun activity for our family. Its not our usual Daily Dose fare, but here you go anyhow. Do you remember shrinky dinks? Those fun plastic sheets you could color on and shrink in the oven? This last summer, my older sister told me a method for making your own shrinky dinks at home without having to spend a lot of money. Its also a great way to recycle... First you will need a plastic take-out food box. The key is to get one that has a number 6 in the recycling symbol. Many restaurants give these boxes out for leftover food. You can wash it, dry it, and reuse it for making shrinky dinks. We have gotten boxes like this at Shari's restaurants and they also use them at many grocery stores for salads and etc. After my sister told me about this method of making shrinky dinks I went to our loc

Since I have another blog aside from this one, and this blog is dedicated to the escapades of our five boys and the future escapades of #6 (we don't know if its a boy or a girl) who is due to make an appearance in June, I thought I would add my wonderful husband as a contributor to this blog. He also has a blog of his own , and has had many experiences with the mischief of our boys. I hope you will give my husband dmo a warm welcome! I am sorry we haven't had a post up in about a week. We were hit by some big storms and were without power for a few days. We are all doing well and getting back to normal everyday life. The boys enjoyed a week off from school, and today was their first day back to their usual routine.

Last week a friend brought our family some very delicious cookies. By the end of the night only six cookies remained. During the getting-ready-for-bed commotion, we heard him counting the cookies. When he realized there were seven of us and only six cookies, we overheard him selflessly exclaim, "Oh! I guess one of the adults doesn't get another cookie."

When I posted about #4 aka K winning the coloring contest last week, we didn't have his winning picture. Yesterday he brought it home from school, so I scanned it to share with you! A picture is worth a thousand words as they say...pretty good for a five year old.

The other day at dinner #2 was asking us if the boys' shortness is inherited (a couple of the boys are a little shorter than average, but they aren't really that short). I told him that since none of the men in our family have reached six feet tall, it probably would be the same for the boys. Then I mentioned that you have to be over six feet tall to be considered tall for a man. #4 piped up with: "So Dad's not really a man!" I think he misunderstood what I said...

#4 won a coloring contest at school that was sponsored by the fire department. His picture was chosen as the best in his class and as a prize he got to ride a firetruck to school today! He was pretty excited about the whole thing. Here are a couple of pictures... D got to ride along too! A perk of parenthood! Here is #4 all buckled in!

The other day #3 and #4 were washing dishes together and #4 was singing a song from Blues Clues. #3 threw water on him to get him to stop singing the song. #4 cried. D asked them what was going on and #3 said he threw water on #4 to get him to stop singing that baby song. D: Thats not how you get him to stop. #3: Yes it is, he isn't singing it anymore. He's crying instead. Logic my friends...

I have written a couple of times in the past about having pet snails . In fact we even asked for suggestions on what to name the two snails we found and adopted a couple of months ago. I apologize for not getting back about the name decision...there were just so many good choices that we never really narrowed it down. However, recent events in the lives of our snails have made me realize that they needed names...so we decided to go with John's suggestion of Esc and Argot...even though we have no intentions of eating them. A week or so ago I went in to feed the snails and noticed that one of them had been digging way down into the dirt in their fishbowl. Right on the outside corner I could see something through the glass. I realized that it was a clutch of small white eggs. Esc and Argot were parents! As the days progressed we noticed more holes and more clutches of eggs. There are three sets for sure, and we are fairly certain there is another set that we had not been able to see f

I just realized I haven't blogged on this blog for over ten days...the horror! Actually I have just been very sick and mostly in bed for the last week. Because I was in bed I didn't hear the boys say as many cute things as I normally would. Update on #4...the mole biopsy came back clean...so yay ! And he will have that lovely curved scar to show for it the rest of his life! We went to my sister's house yesterday for her annual pumpkin carving party. The kids dress up in their costumes, and we all carve pumpkins and eat good food. Its great fun for all. We actually don't really take the kids Trick or Treating...we just have a family movie night and eat junk food and have fun together. The pumpkin party is like their Halloween so the dressing up is there. Being sick, I had a hard time getting their costumes together but we made do. Here are a few pics. Jango Fett vs the Jedi... #1 being the good sport he is decided to go as a black hole at the last minute... What was

#4 had a mole removed from the side of his head today. It was a relatively small mole, but somewhat new, and had a few things about it that were flags to the Doctor, so they wanted us to have it removed just to be safe. We had to be at the hospital at 7:30 this morning. This involved getting everyone up early and dropping the three older boys off at a friend's house so they could ride the bus to school. Then we were off to the hospital with #4 and #5 in tow. Once we got there, they checked us in right away, took us down to weigh #4 and take his blood pressure (#5 kind of freaked out about that because for some reason he thought they were trying to electrocute #4 with the blood pressure machine). Then it was a waiting game. I had brought some paper, pens and stickers and #4 drew some ninja turtles, while he and #5 watched an episode of Clifford. Finally the doctor showed up, and it was time for the surgery. D took #5 to the foyer (D doesn't like blood) and I stayed with #

Once upon a time there was a glowing green house, and there was this guy with black hair, and a stick, and glasses, and his name was Harry Potter. So Harry Potter went into the glowing green house, and he looked up, and didn't see anything, and then a big oreo smashed him and he was NEVER SEEN AGAIN...

My kids seem to need a lot of attention. Most kids are that way, but it seems like my kids really want the attention right when I am feeling too busy to give it to them. Notice I said the word "feeling". Often this feeling comes when I am trying to make dinner and they are all clustered around me begging for food, dying of boredom, or just bugging me. Last week I was making Cheeseburger Soup (which is VERY good by the way). The boys were restless so I put some of them to work. We have four potato peelers (because if they think something is fun and you never tell them its actually work, they will enjoy it more!) so some of them started peeling potatoes, and some of them started peeling carrots. My four year old is pretty good at peeling carrots (except for the few inches he misses on one end). Their least favorite part is picking up all the peelings that missed the garbage can. I have a small hand cranked food processor. I have seen them at the store advertised as sals

#3 came to me today and said, casually, but in all seriousness, "Mom, did you know our towels, the towels we use to dry off after we take a bath or a shower?...are like tissues for Heavenly Father and Jesus..." I said, "Why is that?" #3 answered, looking at me like I was weird, "Because they are bigger than us..."

#3: Technically, everyone is allergic to being burned up. So true...

Today after I gave the boys their afternoon snack #1 said, "Thank you for clogging up our innards with sodium and sugar." I think that just a plain old thank you should have been enough.

We spent Friday and Saturday visiting family in Vancouver. It was nice to have a little time away from home and to visit with extended family. Saturday morning we were eating breakfast at Grandpa L's house, and #4 just kept eating and eating. He had some omelet, some toast with jelly, juice, and two bowls of cereal. He kept on asking for more. Somebody commented about where he was putting all that food and he said, with a HUGE grin, "Its okay! I have lots of empty space, up HERE!" and he tapped his head. We all burst out laughing. He tried to change the empty space to his arm, but it was already too late. That kid isn't doing much to change the stereotype of blonds .

We stopped ordering school pictures a couple of years ago. This was mostly because school pictures just plain SUCK. They rush the kids through there like cattle and as long as their eyes are open, the rest of the picture doesn't matter. The first year we moved here the photographer that does the school pictures forgot to clean his camera lens and every kid had this thing on their face that looked like a mole or dirt...EVERY kid. We sent our kids for retakes, but due to a miscommunication #1 didn't get to do the retake and we were stuck. I think we returned the pictures, but I am not sure. Aside from dirt encrusted lenses, there are the lovely vacant expressions, weird smiles and yes, even a snarl once that was deemed worthy by the photographer to be printed into school pictures. I haven't even gotten to the cost yet. The package we would normally purchase costs about $24.00 I can print the same number of pictures (minus the 8 useless mini pictures that are about the size o

Two of them! A while back I wrote about our snail Claireford going the way of all the earth (i.e. he/she croaked). I also mentioned that after Claireford's untimely demise there was a mysterious tiny little slug-like creature in the tank. Thinking it may have been a baby snail with an undeveloped shell, I kept it for several weeks, but eventually I gave up on it being a snail and set it free. I know that snails and slugs are pretty much the same thing, but I just can't stomach the thought of feeding slugs for some reason. Snails, I can handle. Near the start of the school year I was walking home from the school with #3 and #4 and I chanced upon a snail crossing the sidewalk. I stopped the boys and had them come and look at it. My intention was to look at it, and then let it go on its slow but merry way. Then I saw a second snail just off of the sidewalk, and I couldn't resist. #1 was pretty sad when Claireford died ( Claireford is named after Cliff and Claire Hu

The other day #4 and #5 were talking about what they want their job to be when they grow up. #4 said he would like to drive a car for a job, so I asked him what kind of a driving job he wanted. He decided that he really just wants to drive and was thrilled when I told him that most grown ups can drive and he doesn't have to get a job driving to do it. He then decided that he would really like to be "The one that cooks dinner" for his job as a grown up. #5 piped up at that point and said, "I want to be the one that plays with all the Thomas (the tank engine) toys when I grow up." I think its good to know what you want and what makes you really happy. I am sure cooking dinner and playing with trains will probably lose some of their allure as the boys get older, but for now I think they are both great aspirations.

A couple of weeks ago #3 asked me about who will get D's PDA when he is gone. I asked him what he meant, and he clarified that after D and I are really old and die, someone would get the PDA , and he wanted it to be him. Here I thought people didn't start fighting over their parent's estate until AFTER they were dead. I mentioned the PDA /death conversation at dinner that night, and it turned into a full blown claiming of our items by each of the kids. I will tell you that none of the items that we would have thought of putting in our will (the grandfather clock D's dad built for us, my Grandmother's painting , the piano, etc) were mentioned. There was a brief struggle over who would get my cake mix doctor cookbook though and #4 decided he wanted our van when we are gone. #5 was content to say that he wanted all of the Thomas the Tank Engine Toys (which technically, are already his). Hopefully D and I will be around for a little longer, at least until #5 outgr

The other day D asked #2 if he would bring him a Philips screwdriver. #2, always eager to help out said "Sure" and went off on his quest to find the needed tool. A little while later #2 came back and said, "Sorry Dad, I couldn't find a Philips, all I could find was a Stanley screwdriver."

Just the other day #4 was noticing how grown-ups (Mommies to be specific) get to do "Whatever they want." We recently had this conversation. #4: I like being a kid better. Me: Better than what? #4: Being a grown-up. Me: Why? #4: Because I get to go to school. I guess I can stop worrying about whether he likes school or not.

#1 wanted to wear an orange T-shirt today but already had put some jeans on. He asked me if orange and blue went together and I said, "Blue jeans go with everything." To which he replied, "Even barf?" Yes...what a sweet kid.

I made this video/slideshow about three years ago when I was first learning how to use video editing software. Its not award winning, but it makes me feel good, and it has all five of the boys in it. I hope you enjoy it!

#4 drew some pictures today and was showing them to #5, explaining what they were. Basically it was a series of babies (shaped like upside down hearts with eyes and a smile) and each one had a certain food they ate, and they only ate that food. I was at the computer when I heard him explaining it to #5 #4: And this baby only eats graham crackers, this baby only eats fruit snacks, this baby only eats icecream, and THIS baby only eats bananas. Then he pointed to the much larger upside down heart on the page and said... #4: This is the Mommy. Mommies eat all the cookies. I asked him why he said Mommies eat all the cookies and his answer was that "Mommies get to do whatever they want..." In other news, today was #4's first day of school. He is in Kindergarten this year! I can't believe he is already in Kindergarten! Excited for School

Today was the first day of school here...for the big boys at least. Kindergarten starts tomorrow. #4, #5 and I walked the three older boys to school today. It was damp outside and the slugs were out in droves. Slugs can become a household pest here if your home isn't virtually airtight. (Its very disconcerting to be walking barefoot in your own home and accidentally step on a slug. Trust me...I know.) On the way to school we walk along a gravel road with grass growing between the tire ruts. There were slugs everywhere. In spite of our best efforts to not squish any of them, I am afraid that some of them met an untimely doom. #5 was fascinated by the slugs and would often pause to watch them. When we got home he proclaimed it slug day. How did you celebrate slug day?

We had the opportunity to go and see a civil war reenactment at Fort Stevens today thanks to a generous friend. She thought the boys would enjoy watching a battle reenactment and seeing the camps set up to show how life during the civil war was. There were cannons, guns, horses and battle, what more could a boy want? (Other than for his Mom to buy him a wooden sword afterwards.) Here are a few pictures from the battle. The boys seemed to enjoy it other than the noise from the cannon fire. All in all it was a great day and we had a lot of fun. Confederate Cavalry Confederate Camp Union Army Our friend who invited us (center) along with her daughter and a friend.

I mean that in a good way of course. #4 loves having his picture taken. If we lived in a bigger town he would probably be snatched up to star in a catalog photo shoot for some department store or another. He is that rare kid that likes to sit still for photos. He eats it up. We always take our camera when we go on walks or hikes, and #4 sees pretty much every large rock or fallen tree as a photo opportunity. He is constantly asking us to take his picture. Last Sunday my parents were in town and went for a walk with us. #4 kept asking for his picture to be taken, and my Dad would quietly creep into the background of the pics and make silly faces behind #4 who was trying to look his best. Here are a couple of those shots for your enjoyment.

It has been wonderful to watch... you grow from a baby your personality emerge. you get into mischief your laughter and smile you start school you grow into a big boy you enjoy the outdoors your sense of humor you just being you. We love you S! Happy Birthday!

I had a bit of a shock this week when I was buying socks for my oldest son for school. I had usually only paid attention to the smaller number on the package of socks...the one that says fits shoe size 3 to... This time I paid attention to the second number. Fits shoe size 3 to 9. No, my son does not wear a size 9 shoe. He is only in a 3 1/2, but the point is that the socks will fit size 3 to size 9 (9 in men's shoes). I wear a 10 in women's , an 8 in men's. My son and I can wear the same size of socks. The tiny baby feet that made the little footprint on his hospital birth certificate are now big enough to fit comfortably into my socks. When did my baby get so big?!

Its true...we all know it. Whether that time is five minutes of uninterrupted peace in the bathroom (haha, that never happens here), a trip to the grocery store sans children, or any other kind of escape, we all have times when we need to be alone, or at least without the kids. I must verbalize my wishes for alone time too often. There is a house for sale right next door to our church, and as we walked past it today #3 said that we should buy that house. "Then when you need to be by yourself Dad can bring all of us here." Now I feel like a bad Mom. My alone time usually consists of going to the grocery store once or twice a week. I did make an overnight escape to hang out with my Mom and Sisters a few weeks ago, and I have to say that doing that once a year just doesn't seem like enough! I hope my kids don't think that alone time is all I think about.

We went to a Birthday Party for my Mom yesterday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! It was a milestone one (I won't tell you which, she might not like that, but I will say she is not 100 yet) so we had a party at my sister's house and the kids had a great time with a water balloon toss, a beanbag toss, and fishing over the fence for prizes. At one point during the party my sister Tara who was hosting the party was nursing her baby. #4 and #5 came in and asked her what the baby was doing. She told them he was eating. They asked what he was eating and she said milk. Then one of them said "You must have his bottle in your pocket!" I guess it has been a little while since they have seen someone breast feeding.

and the time for school to begin is rapidly approaching. In preparation I have been shopping for school supplies. I remember when #1 started Kindergarten. It was so exciting going out and shopping for just the right things for school. I made sure the scissors, pencils, etc. were his favorite colors; paid the higher price to get crayola crayons and markers and lovingly wrote his name in permanent marker on each of his school supplies. I loved how excited he was to see the brand new crayons, markers and other supplies that were just for him. A few days before school was supposed to start, we gathered up all the school supplies and went down to meet the teacher and drop off the supplies. Imagine my dismay when we were greeted by the sight of a long table with plastic bins on it. We were told to sort our supplies into the various bins. That's right, Kindergarten is essentially communism. Everything was going to be shared. I had wasted my time writing #1's name on the supplies, and

Yesterday we did some shopping for school clothes and supplies. #3 was making a pretty big deal about how much he wanted transformer briefs this year, and #2 who is so much more mature at 19 months older asked me what the big deal was. The way he figures it, no one else will be seeing your bum, so it shouldn't matter. I quite agree.

I took #2 with me to the store tonight, on a quest for Ice Cream. On the way there he started talking about boys and girls and who is taller at what stages of life. I started talking explaining how girls stop growing at an earlier age than boys do, and he came up with boys being better at basketball because they are taller. This became a discussion about men's sports vs women's sports, and why there are more professional men's sports. I explained to him how it used to be that women were not allowed to do a lot of things that men were allowed to do. I talked a little bit about women's pro baseball during WWII and how once the war was over, interest in women's ball dwindled and they were expected to go back to their everyday lives. This was his response...(I am paraphrasing...I wish I could remember his exact words...I really need to tape record every single conversation I have with the boys) #2: I think that boys are better at some things because they are allow

#4: Do flies sting you? Me: No. #1: Horseflies bite sometimes. #3: What happens if they bite you? Me: You turn into a fly. #3: MOM! #1: She is just kidding. #4: Do you know what eats bugs? Me: Spiders? #4: Yeah, thats why I don't want to be a bug. Me: You could be a spider. But sometimes girl spiders eat boy spiders, so if you want to be safe you had better be a girl spider. All: EEEeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww!

I was talking with #2 in the kitchen the other day and somehow we got on the subject of kissing (I think it was because he complained about it being gross again). I told him that someday he would like kissing, but that maybe he should wait until he is engaged to kiss anyone. I told him that would make me feel better. And he said, "Yeah, I wouldn't want anyone else's DNA getting mixed up in my kids."

I have been given a non award...I'm all choked up!

#1, #3, #2, #5 and #4 outside the Johnston Ridge Visitors Center Crouching room only at the end of the Lower Ape Cave.

The following is a conversation I had with the boys after I found out that my little sister Heidi is engaged. Me: Boys guess what? Heidi and Scott are engaged! #2: Eeeeeeeewwwwwwwwww! Me: What do you mean ewww? #2: That's DISGUSTING! Me: Do you even know what engaged means? #2: Yeah, it means they like to kiss a lot. Me: It means they are getting married. #2: EEEEWWWW! That's even worse! Well, I'm not going! Me: Yes you are! Not to the wedding because they are getting married in the temple, but to the reception. At this point #5 started to cry (very hard) and wailed I don't WANNA go! I thought it was good news anyway!

This is a video D made of #4 trying to get a drink of water all by himself. The background sound is a recording we made of #2 laughing when he was a baby along with some cheesy music. We are heading out of town tomorrow for our date with doom (aka the dreaded Volcano). I won't be posting for a few days. Enjoy the video while I am gone!

...for a meme. I am going to answer the meme on my other blog though because I try to reserve this blog to be about my family, especially my five boys. Thanks to Michelle at A Happy Heart for the meme.

We are planning a camping trip soon to visit Mt. St. Helens . I love the great outdoors, but I will admit a certain aversion to sleeping on the ground. Our compromise was to reserve a yurt for our camping experience. Call me a wuss if you want, I can take it, as long as I get to sleep on a futon instead of the cold, hard ground. Yurting will give us the benefits of camping (cooking our food over a fire or in a dutch oven, a nice outdoorsy environment, and time together as a family) without some of the things I dislike about camping (setting up the tent-which isn't nearly as bad as taking it down, and the aforementioned sleeping on the ground). The yurt also has one outlet and a lamp. The boys have already asked to take a TV/VCR along, and I already vetoed the idea. We will take a small CD player so that we can listen to Harry Potter 7 on CD before bed. Other than that all technology is out (and if you have been reading this blog for long you will know that my boys have a big add