I wrote this post last Sunday.  I'll add a thought from today though.  Jonathan filled out a Mother's Day questionnaire.  When asked my age, he wrote "12 years younger than she actually is".  I should also note that he smashed his finger in a car door while carrying baseball gear this week so he has a nice black eye and black finger.

Ryan wanted to help me bake cinnamon rolls.  I told him I just didn’t think I was up to him helping me and he replied, “Mom, have more faith!”

Gracie let me paint her fingernails green for St. Patrick’s Day.  Unfortunately, we both forgot that she sucks her thumb before she falls asleep at night.  This posed quite the dilemma, be pinch proof in the morning or take off the fingernail polish.  She finally consented to me putting soft curlers in her hair last night.  Her hair is naturally so straight that it doesn’t normally keep a curl.  However, these pink fluffy wonders worked very well and her hair was quite curly this morning.  She couldn’t decide if she liked it or not.  She said James said, “ewe” and she wasn’t sure if he was referring to her hair or not and the other boys didn’t say they liked it.  I assured her that it was adorable and that her brother’s taste in beauty is most certainly questionable.

Gracie and Ryan like to play pretend.  They pretend to be driving the car from the back seat, pretend to be puppy dogs, pretend house, pretend to be trick-or-treating, and pretend doctor.  People often confuse them as being twins because they are about the same size now. 

Over General Conference in early April, Grandpa D. told our kiddos how Elder Uchtdorf’s talk was “terrible” because it must have specifically been meant for him.  So it was his funny way of saying it was exactly what he needed to hear.  However, Gracie took this to heart and told our Home Teacher from church, “Grandpa said Elder Uchtdorf’s talk was absolutely terrible!”

Gracie had her checkup and she isn’t gaining enough weight.  The doctor told me to give her more calories.  She suggested more butter, salad dressing, and whole milk.  Really?  Yes, she is a picky eater but I never thought I’d have a doctor telling me to give that to a child.  She wants to see her in a few months to see if she has gained any weight.  I guess this doctor would be happy to know how many sweets her primary teachers send home with her every week.

We have a rule that if you get a treat at church you either have to hide it well enough so no one sees it or share it with everyone.  I noticed Ryan sucking on a ring pop last week while we drove home from church and he said “its Gracie’s”.  It’s nice that they take the rule to heart and even share suckers. 

A month ago or so I woke up to a strange sensation only to find Ryan blowing on my face through a swirly straw.  “Well, hello there”. 

The other day Gracie said that it’s important that she doesn’t fall in love with someone that’s too handsome, otherwise, she won’t know if he’s a bad guy.  I don’t know where she got that idea from but I had no idea she had any intention of falling in love with anyone anytime soon.  She also mentioned something about falling in love with a prince.  I didn’t know little girls actually talked this way.  I thought it was just in the movies.

Gracie came in quite upset while playing baseball with her brothers and a neighbor boy in the backyard.  She said the boys just make her play outfield and she doesn’t do anything.  I told her to just come inside and hang out with me but Mike told her to go back outside and tell those boys who's boss.

I had enough one day of the boys fighting over the second week of Spring Break (I should note the James was gone the first week on a snowboarding trip with Michael in Tahoe) and told them that their punishment was that they couldn’t view any screens for the entire next day.  As a side note, I found it to be one of my most effective forms of discipline yet.  The next morning when I reminded them of no screen time for the day, Jonathan in horror said, “You remembered!”  Having a break from school, they felt like this was especially cruel.  They tried to sneak in a screen time while I was getting the mail, jokingly locked me out and pretended to lock Gracie in the toy room so she couldn’t tell on them.  They are such characters.

While at the park a few weeks ago I overheard Gracie playing with some girls.  I heard her telling them, “I’m better at ice-skating than my brother and he’s 11”.  Not exactly the first thing I’d expect her to tell strangers at the park but I suppose that may build credibility. 

Today Gracie told me how she wants to be a singer, dancer, teacher and librarian who reads to kids.  I asked her if she wants to be a mom and she smiled and said “maybe”.  I said, “What?!” in mock horror since I make sure our kids know I look forward to being a grandma and she replied, “I guess so.  I want one boy and three girls.”

I told the kids today that they need to eat healthy foods because it makes a difference in the health of their future children.  James replied that he wants his kids to be “lively” so he needs to eat lots of sugar.

James was Owl Star at school for "Academic Excellence" and likes to swim the Butterfly.  

The other week we were having FHE and were casting a screen from the computer onto the TV.  Anyway, the words were too small so I asked Michael to make them bigger.  Jonathan, who was reading aloud said, “No, don’t.  I want to show off my 20/15 vision”.  

Mike surprised me with how much he enjoys baseball.  It’s never really been a favorite sport of mine but he really wanted Jonathan to play this season.  So despite practically every mom I’ve ever met telling me how it’s the absolute worse sport to put your kid into, I said I’d let him play. Despite forever long games where the kid needs to be dropped off an hour early, I consented to letting him play, mostly for Michael.  It turns out he’s had a few games where he’s done an excellent job at pitching.  So, despite his poor eyesight (We are working on teaching him to use contact lenses), he somehow has been able to play well enough to be on an All-Star team.  Just so this is documented, after his first game pitching, the opposing team’s coach said, “Is that Catfish Hunter’s son?” about Jonathan.  Last Saturday, he pitched very well for three innings, only to be hit in the face with a baseball while batting.  His face was seriously gigantic.  It scared me to death and the Emergency Room doctor said it was too swollen to take a scan.  He fortunately didn’t get any broken bones, thank goodness!

Just so I have my Pinterest-type crafts documented, I was proud of my watermelon cut-outs in the shape of stars with strawberries and frosted sugar cookies (also star shaped) and put them on fruit kabobs for the ward’s latest Blue and Gold banquet.  They were mostly healthy, tasty light sabers.  I usually find a lot of my Primary lesson ideas there.  My latest are laminated Article of Faith cards on a ring, Book of Mormon reading charts.

When we got home from church I told the kids to get on comfy clothes.  So basically, they’ve been in PJs since 12:45 and right now the boys are throwing a baseball in the backyard, while it is sprinkling rain and they are framed by a beautiful rainbow in the sky.