Little stories...

Cameron is such a busy little boy. He has recently learned how to get up on any counter top in our house (kitchen, bathroom, laundry, you name it) by simply climbing up the knobs. Yesterday he climbed up and blew out the candle, broke a glass, then put the end of my cellphone charger in the hot wax! Today he has unloaded dirty dishes from the dishwasher, squeezed out a whole tube of Oragel (into his mouth, no less), crumbled an entire corn-muffin on my carpet, and scribbled in a book with a pen. What to do? The only punishment that he even cares about is taking away his blanket. I've been giving him time-outs by closing him into the dark bathroom but the other day I gave him warning and said "Cam,do you want to go to time-out?" and he dropped what he was doing, said "yeah!" , ran the the dark bathroom, and closed the door behind himself. Yeah, that's effective!....

Ava is darling! She loves to play with friends and the other day my friend Darcy brought Bailey (age 5) over to play and watched my kids for me while I went to Costco. Ava and Bailey wanted to go sledding and Darcy said they had to get coats and shoes on first. When Billy got home a little later he went outside to see what was wrong because Ava was crying. She was in flip flops! Apparently Bailey helped Ava find and put shoes on and took her outside. Ava had been begging to go inside for a while with her bright red feet and Bailey said " I'm sorry we got you the wrong shoes on Ava, but we can't go inside now, we are sledding!" So sad! Billy tried to comfort Ava and warm up her feet, but even with a cup of hot chocolate she still bawled for 10 minutes about her "owee itchy feet".

Growing up it was a tradition to have a family prayer Christmas morning in my parents room before going down stairs to open gifts. We have continued that tradition in our home. This year, Billy had fun with the kids by thanking Heavenly Father for everything he could think of! A few minutes into the prayer Cameron just blurts out "Amen" and after billy continues Ava says "No, Daddy, that's not how it goes! Say 'in the name of....Amen'. " Then cam adds his "Amen" and the prayer was over.

The other day I told Ava that I loved her so much this is how our conversation went:

Me: I love you so much Ava
Ava: I love you too, mom
Me: Ava, will you please stay my little girl forever?
Ava: No
Me: Please?!?!??!?
Ava: No, I just can't!.......... Sorry mom.

and that was that!