The time my heart almost stopped...

Most of the destructive things that happen in my house are while I'm either on the computer or in the bathroom. Licking sugar off the floor, taking bikes apart, and a great many other things that I'm sure I've blogged about. Most all of them have either made me angry, grimace in disgust, or just laugh out of sheer misery.

On Tuesday though, it was a bit different. I'm still not quite sure why. I had been working and trying frantically to get quite a few things done for Dave's gym, my work, and for a church activity. I admit, my parenting skills were severely lacking that day. I was on the computer when I heard the familiar sound of velcro being pulled at. That is the sound of my couch being made into a "fort". Anyone that has heard me complain knows that I hate it when my kids make forts out of my cushions. They are just too big, and it is just a mess. I chose to ignore the sound because I thought to myself, "I'll be done in just a few minutes and I will deal with it then."

A few minutes later I descended down the stairs. I made it about halfway when I saw Scout and Lincoln sitting on a cushion that was on the floor with scissors in hand. The foam and batting of the cushion was visible and the batting was strewn about the floor. I immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusion and from my body came a sound that I didn't know existed. Some sort of moan and feverish yell all at once. Whatever it was, it scared the living daylights out of my kids, who had not seen me yet. They jumped up crying and running every which way.

I got to the cushion and found that thankfully it had only been the batting, and they had unzipped the upholstery (which I thought they had slashed), and didn't touch the foam yet. Is it normal to have terror run through my mind just because of a couch? I mean, I love my couch, but come on! Maybe this story only makes sense to someone that has experienced something like that before. Either way, it was cathartic to write this story down. I was quite upset. And for those of you waiting for me to find my USB cord, you got one of my "Katie stories" instead. Thanks for listening to a poor mom whine.

My name is SCOUT!

Scout just recently learned how to say her name more clearly; emphasizing the "Sc" part of it. A hard to thing to master apparently. She is very protective of her name, and her brother is well, quite determined to bug her most anyway he can. Currently, Lincoln is adding "poo" onto everyone's name and pretty much every word that comes out of his mouth. While I continually grimace each time it happens, or chastise him and the like, it still happens. So, now I try to ignore it. Either way, I'm sure I'm reacting incorrectly. So, while Lincoln continually calls her Scouty-poo and poo-bum Scout, she obviously reacts harshly. The other day when I said "Good morning sweetheart," she scowled at me with her famous Scout-scowl and screamed at me, "MY NAME IS SCOUT! MY NAME IS SCOUT! MY NAME IS SCOUT!". It took everything I had not to laugh hysterically, but I did laugh. That didn't go over well either.

Some "isms"

Recent Lincolnism:
While squinting up into the sun, Lincoln released about his fourth sneeze within a few minutes. Exasperated, he complained to me, "I keep bless-you-ing when I look at the sun!" Apparently we don't say "sneezing" a lot at our house.

Recent Scoutism:
Scout loves beautiful things and especially loves putting "my" in front of everything she says. She almost always refers to the color purple as, "my purple" and so on. The other morning when I poured her bowl of cheerios she asked me if they were her beautiful ones. Smiling, I said yes. She batted her eyes and held her hands to her chest and said, "Oh, I love my beautiful cheerios!" She's a littlle on the dramatic side sometimes.

Still can't find the cord...

But I remembered another Lincoln story from last night. We recently started a incentive program for his good deeds and not so good ones. (Thanks for the idea Beka!) He's desperately being trying to save his marbles to get to the first line in the mason jar. It takes 30 marbles to get to that one and he is, well, still learning. Sometimes all of the marbles have had to come out, and sometimes he goes a whole hour without losing one. =) Anyway, his first line means he gets to choose a Redbox movie. He saw a commercial for what I think is called "Space Dogs" and his mouth dropped open. He said, "Mom, that's the movie I want for my marbles...because those dogs will talk to me when I bring them home."

I can't find my USB cord!

So, I finally made it to the computer to blog and I can't find my USB cord anywhere. So, instead I will share a couple Lincoln stories that recently made me laugh. I've been meaning to write them down, so now you get to enjoy them too.

-We were watching a commercial for some cold medicine or something where a woman was walking down the street with a very large stuffed bear head in place of her own head. Once she took the cold medicine her head shrunk down to her own head and it's normal size. I saw Linc's eyes get huge and he looked at me and said, "Woah mom, that scared my crap out." I'm ashamed to say that I'm pretty sure he got that from me...although, I say, "That scared the crap out of me." It was one of those moments when you wish you didn't say some things in front of your kids. It did make me laugh out loud though, and now unfortunately, he says it when he wants to be funny. (If you haven't seen the commercial, this probably sounds really weird.)

-Just the other day he was getting dressed in the morning and I told him to go get his underwear on. Anyone that knows my kids knows that they have a fondness for nakeyness. He was holding a DVD at the time and looked at the letters and said, "J-U-N-G-L-E-B-O-O-K spells I don't have to put on my underwear". How can you not love that?

Future Ski Bum

Lincoln started learning how to ski a couple of days ago. He's been watching "his mountain" from our front yard for several months, waiting for the ski season to begin. On New Years Eve day the weather was perfect for a first timer. Dave said that he loved it, but really loved just playing in the snow too. The first day Dave just took him on the tow rope, but Lincoln was begging for "the chair" as he calls it. So, Dave, Lincoln, and Eliah all went up yesterday, windy conditions and all. I went up and snapped some pictures. I can't believe how many little skiers there are up there. It is an adorable site to watch.

The studly boys.


Dave bought a harness with the intent to help Lincoln learn to ski down. It turns out it just helps him keep Lincoln from skiing down the mountain by himself. Our little daredevil.

A New Year

We celebrated the New Year by doing a lot of hanging out with friends. Dinner with the Jensens was a blast even though we waited about a half an hour for our chips and salsa and my kids didn't eat. That was followed by pure mayhem and fireworks at the Chase's house and way too much eating and playing of games. Can life get better than a cheeseball at 11:45pm?! My stomach didn't agree! We stayed up until midnight without meaning to and paid for it the next day when our kids woke up early. Oh, to be old and no fun anymore. We started the next morning by hanging out again and doing what? Eating again!