Drama -- literally

Christian and Paige were in their school play last week, which actually consisted of 3 short plays. Drama runs pretty strong in our family and the kids didn't disappoint.

Christian was the swamp devil in one play. He loved playing the bad guy and, according to Paige, brought the house down during the performance for the kids at school.Paige played a chicken in one play. It was overly obvious that she adores being on stage. She strutted her stuff as a chicken and kept pecking at the other actors, even while they gave their lines. Not sure that was in the script but she was having a great time.She was also a townsperson in the last play and sang her little heart out. My mom leaned over and said, "Someone is stealing the show up there..."Many thanks to great parents who pull these productions off with no funding but a dedication to the arts and these kids.

My man can't remember my birthday.

I don't mean that he forgets to celebrate it -- quite the opposite. He's thrown me surprise parties and is an incredibly thoughtful gift giver. What Mike can't remember is the actual date of my birthday, which is March 26th. In fairness to him he's never missed my birthday, but for some reason he seriously cannot remember if it's the 26th or 27th. He struggles with it every year. At first, I was kind of bugged by that. I mean, he remembers everything. He remembers what I wore on our first date (no kidding). He even remembers past girlfriends' birthdays. But now I find it amusing and use it to mess with his head. I'll casually mention the 27th while we're discussing birthday plans, just to see what his reaction will be. His face will kind of glaze over as he tries to pretend that he really does know which date my birthday is on. Love you, honey! :)

True to form, Mike had a fun theme for my birthday gifts this year. Growing up, my mom used to say, "Have a yellow day!" which meant a happy, fun day. Mike handed me 3 packages and said, "These are to help you have a yellow day." I know, right? The first was concert tickets to Michael Bublé (completely awesome), then yellow sandals and a yellow daisy bracelet. Yep -- a yellow day.Other things that have made my birthday festivities yellow: a birthday lunch with the women I work with in Primary, homemade bread from a master bread-maker, birthday cake at book group,a late night New Moon viewing party at The Rachel's house -- she also hand-knitted me a pair of Bella's mittens from Twilight (Rachel totally 'gets' me), a Twilight puzzle from Steph who 'gets' me in other ways but mocks my addiction to Twilight :), a friends lunch this next week, shopping and lunch with my mom and sisters at Nordstrom Bistro, using some birthday $$ to buy Elle a 'blingy' pair of shoes that she fell in love with, dinner alone with my hubby, and lots of great birthay wishes on Facebook .... It's great to be 38.

My girls aren't the only ones with attitude

Found this hanging on Christian's door...

It has begun

Having 3 girls at our house, I'm well aware that someday the girls will have steady streams of babysitting jobs for neighborhood kids or whoever. I just didn't think it would start so soon! Haley's only 8, but she had a paid babysitting job last night for a little neighbor girl. True it was only an hour, and true we were just a few houses away so it was a really good 1st babysitting experience. But she's my first little girl and I'm freaking out just a little bit.

Clearly, the $$ bug has bitten her, though. And bitten hard. She's already asking what I'll pay her next time I have her watch Elle for a bit.

She wishes.

Quotes

Paige walked in on Mike and me kissing. She said, "Awww ... why do you always have to do that? Think of the children!"

On Groundhog Day, Paige asked, "Did the warthog see his shadow today?"

While listening to music in the car, the guy singer said something about "kiss you." Elle said, "He say, 'I wanna kiss you'?! I wanna kiss him!" Trying to steer the conversation away from boy/girl kissing, I said, "No, I wanna kiss yoouuuu..." She adamantly replied, "No, I a big girl. I wanna kiss that boy."

After seeing all of the elderly people at Chuck-A-Rama one evening, Paige said, "We should call this place Chuck-A-Grandma!"

Christian excitedly said, "I know what CIA stands for!! Christian Is Awesome. I have an agency dedicated just to me!"

Trying to explain when she burped, Elle said, "I just tooted in my mouth."

After a recent conversation about genetics and getting certain physical traits from your parents, Paige looked at her winter-dry-cracked hands and asked, "Who did I get these dry hands from?"

While doing homework, Haley said, "I hate the letter 'q' -- it's just trying to be fancy with its pointless little tail."

"I have 7 senses -- sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch, a sense of humor and my fashion sense." Paige

While trying to name all 7 Dwarves, Paige listed, "Happy, Dopey, Sneezy, Gropey..."

Girls' day out

Mike and Christian went skiing last Saturday, so we girls had a girlie outing. Pedicures for everyone. :)That wasn't the first time any of them had gotten a pedicure, but we've never gone all together to get one.Elle was just a tiny bit excited. She sat on my lap and shared my foot bath.Haley couldn't stop giggling when they scrubbed the bottom of her foot. I know the feeling.And the finished flowered and polka-dotted toes ...

Fighting with a 6 yr old

Paige is a dramatic child. I've blogged about that before. Most of the time, her drama makes me smile and makes life funny. But lately, we've hit a bit of a wall in our relationship.

Most of the problem centers on the fact that she has started sucking her thumb again. And that frustrates me to no end. She quit sucking her thumb when she was 4. And it wasn't all that hard, to be honest. I told her that if she would stop, then I'd take her to the store and she could choose a toy. Which we did. It all worked great -- until a couple of months ago when she picked up the habit again.

I've tried gentle reminders ("Paige, thumb."), bandaids on her thumb, constantly painting her nails so the taste would deter her (which it didn't - nor did the bandaids), and finally resorted to scaring her. I've told her about getting teased myself when I started kindergarten and was still sucking my thumb. The peer pressure worked for me. But apparently no one teases her about it. I've told her that she'll have buck teeth. I've pointed out the large bump that has reappeared on her thumb as a result. All to no avail.

Saturday, the girls and I had a little outing to get pedicures (I'll blog more about it later). On the way home in the car, and after dozens of more gentle reminders to stop sucking her thumb, I kind of lost it. I angrily pulled her thumb out of her mouth and not-so-nicely told her to STOP SUCKING HER THUMB!! When we pulled in the driveway, she bolted from the car, turned around and stuck her tongue out at me. All before locking the rest of us out of the house. After she finally opened the door, I sent her to her room. She screamed in frustration and slammed her door.

Once she was in her room, I'm sure her thoughts went something like this: "What can I do to REALLY get back at mom? What would she hate the most? Oooohhhh... I know. Look how clean my room is. Look how spotless my closet is. I'll throw all of my clothes on the floor. Awesome! Everything off of the hangers, too! This is so great. She'll be furious! Now, I'm gonna pull all of my sheets and everything off my bed. How about those drawers, too? She's gonna be so mad!! Lastly, I'm going to scratch off the adorable pedicure I just had. That'll really put her over the edge."

Let me tell you ... seeing the total disaster that was her room was the 2x4 that broke this camel's back. Good thing Mike was home by then because I totally lost it. I knew I absolutely could not deal with the aftermath. Mike was a much better parent than I that day.

She picked up the room, of course. And has since apologized. But we're still left with the thumb-sucking issue and I'm at a total loss. All of you reading this -- feel free to heap on some negative peer pressure. Convince her to stop. Thumb-sucking aside, though, fast forward 10 years with her strong-willed personality and we're in serious trouble. No joke.

5th grade field trip

The 5th graders went on a double field trip this week. They all dressed up and we headed to the symphony. It was pretty fun to hear the ooh's and aah's out of some of the kids who hadn't been to Abravanel Hall before.Also very fun was when Christian saw his friends from his old school. We were one balcony above them and so they were shouting hello's and waving to each other (all pre-show, of course). :)

After the symphony, we ran (I hobbled) to the bus and ate our lunch .... on the way to the Children's Museum. One of their employees, an 18'ish yr old funny guy, met us and proceeded to go over the rules. "Behave yourselves" -- that sort of thing. The following is an account of what happens when you turn sixty 5th graders loose in the younger section of the Children's Museum.Notice the flying building blocks. The kids went from "construction mode" to "destruction mode" in no time flat.Playing Wheel Barrow Chicken. Good times.See the kid in the back? That bale of fake hay was airborn shortly after this picture was taken.Christian and Ben were hanging out in the General Store when ........ the 18yr old museum employee started a fake food fight. No joke.He started hucking fake asparagus and bananas at kids before they even knew what hit them. Kids started picking up fake cans of beans and peanut butter and chucking them right back at their "leader."We parents just looked at each other and said, "HE started it." It was awesome! The employee would stop them occasionally and say, "OK, ok, ok ... wait, wait ... we really shouldn't be doing ... THIS!" And then he'd throw more food and the fake food fight would continue. By the end, the little grocery store looked like this...Luckily, all of the little kids had cleared out long before. (I would have, too, if I'd been there with my little girls.) The employee helped the kids clean up every last bit of food and everyone had a smile on their faces. Priceless.

Doings

Movies:
* Avatar (twice in 2D, once in 3D -- loved it)
* Young Victoria (Emily Blunt is fabulous; how refreshing to see a happy monarchy)
* The Lightning Thief (saw it in a theater full of elementary kids and their parents, arranged by our school. Very fun movie experience!)
* Valentine's Day (little bit naughty - be warned)
* The hubby and I just watched Time Traveler's Wife on DVD

Books:
* The Lightning Thief series (loved, loved it!)
* Boy in the Striped Pajamas (fascinating take on the Holocaust)
* Wizard & Witch (2.5 stars)
* Outlander series (still working my way through it, and loving it)

Volunteering:
* Kindergarten -- Weekly, helping test the kids on reading (I'm absolutely amazed at the extreme differences between what each kid knows and can do at that age)
* 3rd grade -- Playing the piano and helping to teach Haley's class an opera that they wrote. No joke. They wrote the story and lyrics, the Utah Opera Company came in and helped them figure out the tune and then wrote the score for them. They'll perform it next month. I'm totally blown away.
* 5th grade -- Help with reading circle, always about various "creepy animals." We've learned about giant squids, man-eating tigers, etc. Perfect for 11 yr old kids.

Church:
* Newly called to help out in Primary. Didn't realize how many bulletin boards there were in the primary room, all of which get updated often. Love the change and love being there with my kids.

House:
* I'm on a painting kick ... as in painting the walls, not portraits. I've painted the cabinet and walls in one bathroom, installed a new light and changed hardware. Moving on to the front room and the rest of our main floor, all of which has needed an update. My home improvement skills are getting a little better as I go.

Four eyes

Love my Haley's new look. I was 8 when I got my first pair of glasses, too. We bought her 2 great pairs -- one is lime green & blue, the other is this cool black & red number.She can't believe all that she was missing!

That's what she said

Words that frequently come out of my mouth ...

Please speak kindly.
Paige, get your thumb out of your mouth.
Come on, guys, time to go!
Have your brushed your teeth?
Did you change your underwear today?
Go practice the piano ... now.
Put the crackers away.
Don't be the parent here, Christian. I'll handle it.
No, you can't have popcorn right now. Dinner's in an hour.
Shhhhhh...
You can get on the computer as soon as I'm done.
Who spilled this??
You are my favorite (3, 6, 8, 11) year old in the whole world.
Who has my iPhone?
I just need to run to the store for one thing...
Run to the bathroom, Elle -- run!
Clean up that room, Christian. Now.
Turn off the tv.
Take those headphones out, please, so you can hear me.
I'm just going to finish this chapter and then I'll help you.
Please set the table.
Girls into the bathroom so I can do your hair.
Is your homework done?
You need a shower today -- your hair is a rat's nest.
Go brush your teeth. And floss!
Who wants to make cookies?
I need a Diet Coke.
You have some serious morning breath.
Elle, we don't say those words in our family.
Who loves you?

Sunday Afternoon Nap

By Special Guest Blogger Elle Mayfield
and Special Guest-Photographer Haley Mayfield

I love my Daddy. I really do. Now that I'm a big three-year-old, I can do lots of stuff to help him. My favorite thing to do is to help Daddy take a good nap on Sunday afternoons.

For many years, my Dad used to get plenty of rest every Sunday when he was sitting on the stand during church. All of that has changed. Mommy says that Daddy has a "fluff" calling now. I think that means that if he wants to get any sleep on Sunday, he has to do it in his own bed.

I do ALL I can to help him sleep. Today I was really on my game.

When I first saw Daddy go into his bedroom, I took my position standing guard outside of his bedroom door. I didn't want any rogue interlopers to disturb his slumber. The moment anyone even looked like they were going to walk down the hall toward his room, I SCREAMED at the top of my lungs...

"GET OUT OF HERE STUPIDS!! DAD IS TRYING TO SLEEP!"

That's how I keep my noisy brother and sisters from waking Dad up. Sometimes, I even scream at them when they are downstairs just so Dad knows that I am on the job so he can relax. I'm thoughtful that way.

I take my Daddy's comfort very seriously. Today when I thought Daddy was too hot, I pulled the blankets off of him. Then I thought he was too cold, so I climbed on top of him to keep him warm and also just to let him know that I was there watching over him. My presence alone has a calming influence on my Daddy.

Dad is starting to snore a little now, and I don't want the noise from his heavy breathing to wake him up. I know just what to do. I sing him a little song and drum out the rhythm on his tummy. Dad loves to hear me sing the Barney Song when he is trying to fall asleep. When Daddy rolls over and pulls his pillow over his head, I know I am really being helpful.

Oh wait! That's the phone ringing. I'll go get it and put it next to my daddy's ear so he doesn't have to get out of bed. That really helps him to rest well.



Hmmm. I wonder if Daddy is thirsty? I better get him a drink of water. Since he is asleep, I'll just it pour it in his mouth. Uh oh! Now Daddy sounds sick...he's gagging and he just spit up the water I put in his mouth. Poor Daddy. I hope he's not too sick to sleep.

Ooops....hold on a minute. I need to go pee pee in the toilet. Dad really likes it when I give him the privilege of unbuttoning the back of my dress so I can go. I'm always amazed that Daddy can do that with his eyes closed.

Flush.

O.K. I'm back. I just put my wet hands all over Daddy's face so that he knows I washed my hands with soap. He will rest easier knowing that hygiene is very important to me.

I'm getting a little worried that despite my best efforts, maybe Daddy isn't sleeping as well as he should be. I can tell because I am sitting with my face about six inches away from his. He hasn't moved for a few minutes and it looks like he is breathing very deeply--even a bit noisily. There is only one way to really be sure if he is sound asleep. I'll pull back his eyelids and shine this flashlight into his eye.

Unfortunately, my suspicians were confirmed. Dad wasn't really asleep after all. The moment the beam from the flashlight hit his eyeball, Dad got up out of bed and went into the kitchen. He seems a little grouchy right now....probably because he's not getting enough sleep.

I'll have to try even harder next week.

Awards' season

(This post is late in coming, as you can tell by the pictures. No, we aren't still decorated for Christmas.)

Mike has coached many of Christian's teams over the years, primarily soccer and basketball. He has coached little league for years, even before we were married. He's a great coach, knows and understands sports and especially knows how to make the boys understand and love the game.

This past basketball season, Mike and Rob co-coached Christian's team. They lost the first 3 games by a wide margin (the score of the first game was 35-3) but after getting in some extra practices, the team ended up winning 6 of their last 7 games. It was really cool to see the boys start to run a zone defense, execute a simple half-court offense, and even run set plays (or so Mike said since those words all mean very little to me). And true to form for Mike, he went above and beyond by ordering personalized trophies for each boy and then presenting them at an awards ceremony/ice cream party at our house.The boys acted all embarrassed at first as Mike and Rob pointed out their skills, but they definitely loved the recognition. Sometimes, Christian doesn't appreciate what a good and knowledgeable coach Mike is. But guaranteed he'll have a less-than-stellar coach at some point and then maybe he'll realize how good he has it right at home.

A first...

She's even cute in the dentist's chair. And was definitely rockin' the shades.Hallelujah -- no cavities. :)

Hittin' the slopes

I took Christian and Haley skiing Saturday. The kids have only been skiing a handful of times but now that we have Christian's 5th grade free ski pass book, we'll be going a lot more this year. And we had a blast. Well, maybe a "blast" is going a bit too far since we had a wee bit of drama during the day. My kids constantly provide me with drama .. their little a gift to me I guess. :}

Christian started skiing right off the bat like a pro. Haley not so much. The first run was complete with tears and "I hate skiing!" after she fell 4 times. By her 3rd run, though, she didn't fall once and had decided that skiing was pretty cool. We should have stopped right then.

The next hour was spent looking for Christian (who had taken off on his own) and trying to stop Haley from crying once again since I had taken her on a longer, more difficult run. My bad. I also killed my knee when she pulled me down with her at one point. I heard and felt something pop, which I'm sure isn't a good thing.

A little R&R in the lodge with hot chocolate was perfect, and then hitting the slopes one last time with just Christian was awesome. He kept right up with me and even told me that he had "skiied the half-pipe" earlier. Wish I could have seen that!

He loves me

I received these beauties yesterday afternoon. The card read, "Number 26 .. What is your favorite flower? Gerber daisy. I love you, Mike."I seriously love that man. Seriously.

Girlfriend Survey

As sent to me by one of my bestest girlfriends. :)

1. What time did you get up this morning? 5:15am
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds, large ones
3. What was the last film you saw at the movie theater? When In Rome
4. What is your favorite TV show? LOST
5. What do you usually have for breakfast? cold cereal, my fav
6. What is your middle name? Dawn
7. What food do you dislike? watermelon
8. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Glee
9. What kind of car do you drive? Lexus SUV
10. Favorite sandwich? chicken artichoke panini at Paradise Bakery
11. What characteristic do you despise? backstabbing
12. Favorite item of clothing? shoes & purses
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation, where would you go? Someplace warm and tropical
14. Favorite brand of clothing? Not any one particular brand -- I just love clothes in general
15. Where would you retire to? Probably close to my children, wherever that might be. Kind of doubt that we'll ever leave Bountiful, though.
16. What was your most memorable birthday? Mike threw me a fun surprise 30th.
17. Favorite sport to watch? Basketball
18. When is your birthday? March 26th
19. Are you a morning person or a night person? Morning
20. Favorite Color? Red
21. Pets? No thanks
22. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with us? Tentatively scheduling a cruise with the kids this summer -- sounds exciting to me!
23. What did you want to be when you were little? An airline stewardess, until I realized they were waitresses in the sky.
24. How are you today? Sweaty and tired at the moment (had a hard workout this morning)
25. What is your favorite candy? chocolate
26. What is your favorite flower? Gerber daisy
27. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? March 26th
28. What's your full name? Misty Dawn Farley Mayfield
29. What are you listening to right now? Blog music -- Coldplay at the moment
30. What was the last thing you ate? apples with yummy dip
31. Do you wish on stars? no
32. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? red
33. How is the weather right now? Cold'ish and clear
34. The 1st person you spoke to on the phone today ? no one yet -- too early
35. Favorite soft drink? Diet Coke, Diet Coke, Diet Coke
36. Favorite restaurants? Mikado (amazing Sushi), Paradise Bakery (great sandwiches), Bajio (sweet shrimp tacos)
37. Real hair color? dull brown, but my fake color is currently red
38. What was your favorite toy as a child? Barbies
39. Summer or winter? Winter -- love to ski
40. Hugs or kisses? Depends on who's givin' em
41. Chocolate or Vanilla? Definitely chocolate
42. Coffee or tea? Neither
43. When was the last time you cried? It's been awhile. Does that make me unfeeling?
44. What is under your bed? Lots of dust bunnies and other lost items
45. What did you do last night? Played Rock Band with my kids
46. What are you afraid of? Losing my kids
47. Salty or sweet? BOTH!
48. How many keys on your key ring? 2
49. How many years at your current job? stay-at-home mom - 11 years and running
50. Favorite day of the week? Friday
51. How many towns have you lived in? lots -- do mission towns count?
52. Do you make friends easily? Yes, thankfully. I love having great friends in my life.

Fun at church

I take my iPhone to church with me, primarily because I have an app for scriptures. Better than lugging my scriptures to church along with all of my other stuff. The problem with this is that my kids love, LOVE my phone because of all the games on it. So we have a "no phone games" rule during church. All except for one app ... Doodle Buddy, which is just a drawing program. They all take turns drawing me pictures and it's worked so far. But Christian discovered that you can also take pictures in Doodle Buddy and had himself a great old time with the camera before I realized what was going on .... Guess we'll have to make an addendum to the "Doodle Buddy is ok" rule. Cracks me up, though.

The many faces of Elle Grace

Sassy ElleSelf Portrait at 3 yrs oldFully made-up Elle (or as Christian called her, "The Joker")And very sadly, the beat-up Elle. She fell off a chair and landed on her "eyeball," as she describes.Here's hoping for a fast recovery! I much prefer the other Elle's to the beat-up one....