October Top Thirteen

13. During FHE one night Weston was making up a far fetched story that he claimed REALLY happened. Rob decided to go with it and added a few additions. Rob said pointing to our backyard, “Do you remember when that big bird came and carried you?” Weston said, “Yeah, he carried me with his feet. He flew me to my statement and I said, 'weeeeeeee.' Did you see me?”

12. Abby brought home a new friend (Kourtney Jackson) from school. They came in while I was sweeping the kitchen floor and I greeted them. Abby whispered to her friend, “That’s our maid.”

11. I was so cold one day and couldn’t believe that Rob was actually hot. I asked him, “How could you be HOT?” He said, “I’m still storing heat that my body absorbed in July.”

10. On the 11 hour van ride home from Arizona, Abby was having a cute conversation with Gavin who is 7 months old. She commented that he has beautiful brown eyes and then added, “Maybe that is why Olivia wants to poke them out.” Olivia is 8 months old.

9. We gave our dog Toby to a family that wanted another lab, and we gave our dog Turk to a cowboy that lives on a farm. Wanting to see one of our dogs again, Bastian remembered an uncle that had visited our home earlier this year that said he liked our dogs. He said we should’ve given one of them to this uncle. When I inquired which uncle he was talking about he said, “I think his name was Uncle Blueberry. Do we have an Uncle Blueberry?” It took me a while, but I finally figured out that Bastian was talking about Uncle Barry.

8. While visiting Shelly’s house in Arizona we often found ourselves in their luxurious massage chair. It was very relaxing…except for one setting: percussion. Percussion feels just like it sounds—like it is trying to play your back like drums. It hurts, really. Abby was sitting in the massage chair and she put it on the awful setting and said with a hint of disdain, “Oh, persecution.”

7. Lawrence brought a talking Darth Vader mask to Shelly’s house one night. The kids loved it. They played with it for a few days. One morning someone pushed a button and James Earl Jones’ voice said, “You don’t know the power of the dark side.” From a far away room in the house I heard Weston’s little voice call out, “Yes, I do.”

6. Abby has been reading a couple of Little House on the Prairie books from the Library. One day Abby was telling me what had happened in one of the books. She said, “Mary and Laura were reciting Book of Mormon verses.” Actually, they were reciting Bible verses.

5. My children love playing with k’nex. They build all sorts of things with them. The only problem is keeping them intact with a Weston in the house. Hayden came upon Weston after he had wrecked Abby’s k'nex car. Abby was coming down the stairs to see the damage when Weston said, “Hayden, I need to hide.”

4. After returning home from school Hayden announced that he was hungry. My new helping my children become more independent self said, “Feel free to get something to eat.” He said, “I loved it when you used to be my servant.”

3. We were leaving to go camping for the last time this year when Hayden exclaimed, “I forgot my stuffed animals!” I was shocked! Since when did my 10 year old boy need to take stuffed animals camping? He gave up his blanket at four and stopped carrying stuffed animals around about the same time. I looked at him incredulously saying, “You want your stuffed animals?” He said, “Yeah, I want to shoot them.” I smiled thinking, “Ahhh, there you are, Hayden.”

2. After the kids asked Rob what he was going to be for Halloween, Rob replied, “I wanted to be a skinny person for Halloween, but I couldn’t fit into the costume.”

1. Bastian came home from kindergarten explaining to me that he can’t tell if his P.E. teacher is a girl or a boy. Yikes! Later in the month while at the school for the Halloween costume parade we saw his teacher down the hall. He pointed the teacher out as his P.E. teacher and I could see why he couldn’t tell the gender. I said, “So you can’t tell if your teacher is a girl or a boy?” He said, “Should we go ask her?”