On the 12th day of christmas, Carter said to me.....

As we all know and our wallets can feel, Christmas is just a short 12 days away!!!! So in case anyone is feeling overly stressed about the holidays Carter has graciously supplied us with the antidote! Here are a couple quick stories to hopefully put a new spin on your day!

Over the weekend we had Rob's families Christmas party. We decided to do presents a bit different this year. So instead of everyone buying for everyone we broke it down so the kids each drew a name, as did the adults. Therefore leaving Vicki (my mom-in-law) free to buy just for the grandkids and save the money she would have spent on the adults! As the presents from G-ma and G-pa start flowing the kids very rapidly start losing their minds! *don't you wish as an adult you still felt that way about a pillow pet* Each kid would get to  open while the others watched. Which worked pretty well for the first few presents until the almost rabid children could wait no longer. Then the presents started coming out a couple at a time. Which is when it got really funny, the boys got lego sets and pillow pets, the big girls got an assortment of clothes, makeup and books. Then came out the little girls, they got a big bag which contained everything you need to be a fairy princess! Within minutes Paige, Claire and Lily were stripped down to undies and begging to be wrapped in their glittery wings and tutu's! Everyone was delirious! The air was littered with shouts at octaves only dogs can hear, for their parents to see what they got! At that point Carter must have looked up from his lego's that he had been salivating over and noticed what the little girls had on, to which he exclaims, "Hey, that's not fair! How come only the girls got princess uniforms?"                   ........ Really? 

As per our usual weekend torture, the cleaning of the playroom was underway! I was helping the kids and we were moving along at record speed, when I noticed that Carter had a big ole' bump on his forehead. I asked Carter what happened ? He reached up and felt it and said he wasn't sure? I came a bit closer and realized that it was in fact a pimple! His first pimple! Immediately he became worried that something was very wrong with him. 

(I don't think he know's what a pimple is!) He followed me around for a bit and kept telling me, "that it wasn't a zit, that it couldn't be!" Then with deep concern in his voice he asked, "Mom, are you sure it isn't actually a brain tumor?" That was a new one for me, next time I have a big pimple I'm going to tell everyone that it's really just a brain tumor! 

In our family we are like Christmas music junkies! As soon as thanksgiving is over the Christmas tunes start pumpin'! We were sitting a dinner one night listening as usual to our favorite playlist, which at the moment happen to be playing the old classic "Santa Baby" sung by the glamorous Maralyn Monroe, when Carter chimed in with an observation. Very proud of himself he declared "Hey, guys I know who's singing this song to santa!" Rob and I both smiled, looked at each other very curious to see who he thought was singing the song when he answered! "It's Mrs. Claus! Do you know how I know? Cause' she keeps calling him baby!"

Deck the halls with bells and Hollers!

It really is a good thing we have children! Because they not only make us laugh, but they also help us to remember what Christmas is really all about! For example, Rob and I decided tonite we should fulfill the annul tradition of putting up the tree, hanging the stockings by the chimney with care (aka the switch lit fireplace) and hoping that we don't kill each other or our children before the tree is even up! When Rob and I first got married we purchased a lovely fake tree, now 10 years later it is probably less than lovely and becoming increasingly the bane of Rob's existence! This tree is assembled in alphabetical order starting with "M" at the bottom and ending of course with "A" at the top. Rob had the stand up and already to "L" when Carter looked at him and the "tree" and asked "why don't we get a real tree this year?" that prompted a fast run down to the local Smith's to pick up our ohh so real, pine needles and the works, Christmas Tree!!!! The children were Jubilant! Music bursting from the background, and then came out the lights! Which were the beginning of a very long tirade of words not generally associated with the Christmas season. Once the lights were on the tree and they all finally worked we stood back to look at the sight before us..... which if one was being honest would say that it looked rather skimpy! So I told Rob as much, and asked if he could just add a few more. In my mind more twinkling is never a bad thing. Apparently the ones we had left over were outside icicle lights and turned out to be the straw that broke the camels back! Rob jokingly shouted out "That's it! Christmas is cancelled!" (A Morris family tradition)) but it sent the children into absolute silence! Really if that's all it took to shut them up I might have yelled it years ago! But Carter being Carter, walked up very calmly and put his hand on Rob's shoulder and asked him very softly " But dad, if Christmas is canceled, then why did we go through all that trouble to get that tree?"

A Scout is always pre......what?

Since turning 8, Carter has now been going to scouts! Which he of course loves and can't wait for each week! Today when I picked him up he was rattling off some of the things he had learned and when we got home he flatly refused to take off his uniform. I was getting his dinner ready and had it nicely nuking away in the microwave. It beeped and I went to take it out, but was cut off by a scrambling Carter who informed me, "I'm a scout now, and we know how to take things out of the microwave safely!" I backed off and let him proceed. A bit later I was shredding some cheese and walked away to go change out the clothes in the laundry. Again when I came back I found Carter where I once was, happily grating away. I told him to be really careful since it's sharp and didn't want him to cut his finger. He again replied "mom, I already told you, a scout is aways careful and aways prepared!" I let him finish and sorta chuckled to myself, wondering how long it would be before he came and asked for a band aid. But in the middle of grating the cheese he suddenly sprinted out of the room. I called after to him and asked what was the matter? He yelled back that he needed to go to the bathroom really bad!!! About an hour later I was going to put Paige in the tub when I noticed the all to familiar smell of urine and a nice big puddle on the floor directly in front of the toilet! I told Carter he needed to come into the bathroom and bring some paper towels with him. He was not altogether happy with the fact that he was the one that would be cleaning up the ominous yellow puddle on the floor. He complained that he was not equipped to be cleaning this sorta thing up! So I smirked and said "I thought a scout was always prepared for anything?" He looked up from his unhappily crouched position on the floor and said, "Mom, they don't cover cleaning up pee in our handbook!"

I have something to say to the big yellow thing in the sky!

Paige has a very strong love-hate relationship with the sun! She loves to play outside and really enjoys a nice warm sunny day (although a cold, snowy one doesn't seem to dampen her that much either).  Every morning on the way back from dropping Carter at school, Paige and the sun have a showdown! It's always at the exact wrong place in the sky for her eye level, so no matter how I fix the shades in my car it won't ever quite block the sun for her.  This morning, because of traffic, we had to take a different way to school so while the sun is usually behind her on the way to school, today it was shining in from the side and blasting her in the face. I was alerted to this when all the sudden Paige lets out her usual cry of agony, (much like the Wicked Witch of the West when she gets doused with water).  At this point Paige lets out her usual stream of unpleasantries towards the sun.  I knew that if we could just make it to the end of the  street that the sun would drop back behind her again.  I kept telling her that we were almost there and the sun would be gone. Then I hear Paige in the back, "OK come on jussa few more minutes, we gonna make it and than u sun be gone, almost dare!" We turned right and phewww! Paige also let out a sigh of relief and then said "mommee we made it!" We then drop off Carter and head up the dreaded hill to return back home, which is where the sun usually peeks it's beams on us. It's was really funny, but also sorta pitiful because Paige thought she had already had her dose of blasting for the morning! She was singing "B-I-N-G-ohhhhhhh  NO! IT'S BACK! Mommeee, I don't fink I can do dis again!" I did my best to block as much as I could but it just wasn't enough.  "Sun, u get away, i don't wike u doday! u weeve me awone!" Finally as I turned back on our street where the suns relentless rays can no longer touch her, she quiet's back down. Then in a very small voice I hear, "Sun, we going to Tracie's house, but pwease don't come dere! Ok?!"

"Tails" from the petting zoo

Today Miss P and I went to the petting zoo down at Thanksgiving Point. Which just happens to be one of her favorite places to go! Thankfully the weather today has been gorgeous and we had a free afternoon, so off we went! It was one of those outings where I wish I had brought a tape recorder with me and just caught everything she said cause she was on a roll! So these are a few of the precious things Paige had to say! When we first checked in the lady at the counter gave us a couple of apples to go feed with horses, so we began our journey around the place. We stopped and talked to the goats and then over to the Llamas then came the gigantic Clydesdale horses, Paige walked straight up and started having a conversation with a very large buttercream colored horse. I'm not sure if they could smell the apples in our pockets but when we walked up it was sorta like when a really pretty girl walks by and all the men in the area break their necks trying to look at her. Well the horses did the same, they did an about face and came right up to the fences and started pawing the ground and butting there noses against their fences. I told Paige they were ready for the apples, and all she had to do was throw the apples onto the ground and they would pick them up. So she tossed the first one in for the buttercream horse and starting giggly watching the horse chomp it down. So during this the horse next door who was an even bigger black one starting trying to stick it's head into the others pen. Paige see's him doing this and jumps down off the fence marches over to the next horse and say's very politely, "Now horsey, if u wanna habe a apple, you gotta wait u turn like ebey body else!" It was really funny seeing this little 2 year old stare down a 12 foot horse, and remind him of his manners. The next area was the pigs, and as we started to walk over there Paige commented on the smell, "Mommee, dis don't smell bery good! why day so stinky?" I told her that it was from the pigs and it was because that was also where they went to the bathroom. So when we got up to their pen, Paige looks in and remarks, "mommee it's dat one, he need to change he bumm, he stinky! why don't he's momma change he bum?" We did a few other things and then when we were getting ready to leave we visited the cows, most of them were back in the shade, but one very pretty Jersey was standing up front working on her tan. Paige went running up to her and started to admire her. "Oh she a very bootiful cow, i wike her nose and he tail!" then she noticed the tag in her ear and got very excited, "Mommy wook she gots a earring wike you! Oh you beautiful cow I wove u earring, u wook so nice!"

Oh to be young and self reliant :)

Yesterday Rob, Carter and Paige were all in the car taking Carter to his Hip Hop lessons! (He told us he wanted to learn how to dance like Justin Bieber) They were listening to the "Pink Elephants" song from Dumbo, and when it was over Rob kept chanting "Pink elephants, pink elephants" over and over. Paige piped up from the back and asked "Daddy where da pink ellepants at? where arre dey at?" Rob respond and told her that they were in her imagination! Paige did not agree with his answer because she told him very sternly "No dey not, they to big to fit in dare!"


One of Carter's chores is to clean up his play room, he doesn't like it very much but most of the time he's pretty good at obliging Rob and I. However on Wednesday he had his cousin from WY. spend the night and they managed to pull out every single toy that Carter owns, and Paige's as well. (I really don't want to know what they were doing with the tutu's and princess crowns!) So when I discovered their  handy work I told him that he couldn't have any friends over until he cleaned the whole thing up! He was not happy about it but still went to work. About 2 hours later he came down and had a new Lego masterpiece, I knew from the looks of it that what had most likely happened was he started to pick up a Lego and decide it would be of better use to be put into a new creation of his, rather than going in it's box. I of course was not to thrilled at the progress he made so I threatened to throw away every Lego he had if he didn't get on it right then. That sent him into action, but when I went up to check on the progress he was cleaning but looking very pitiful! He then said "Mom, can you please help me clean the playroom?" I told him that i wouldn't because every other time I've "helped" him I've ended doing all the work and he sorta wonders around the room trying to look busy. He didn't like my response so he countered with "But mom, that's when I was only 7, now that I'm 8 I'm self reliant!" I said well that's great, now you can do it all by yourself with out any help since you are self reliant! He looked at me and scoffed "No mom, that means your suppose to help me!" I smiled and replied that actually self reliant means that you can do things all on your own and that he doesn't need help from other people. He looked at me very thoughtfully for a moment then said "really, that's what that means? Oh well, just forget what I said then!"

The "Dress" code

As anyone who has met Paige can attest to the fact that outside of church they have rarely seen her in anything other than some sort of princess dress, tutu or some frilly pink something or other! ( and possibly nothing but her diaper! I wish this wasn't the case! I know I'm from Georgia and all but the half naked child running around out front is a little cliche') Earlier she had fallen asleep in a pink ballerina dress that btw has pizza stains all over it that I have in fact been trying to wash for the last two days. Her solution to the stain problem on her dress is to simply turn it around, Out of sight...out of mind, Right? Well I talked her into taking it off so we could get some jammies on her. Not 10 mins later she was sitting on my bed very upset because she can't find her dress. Being very distraught, asked me "mommeee, I really need to find my beautiful dress. Can you please help me find my beautiful dress?" I told her that it was time for bed, and we don't wear our dresses to bed! This did not sit well, she hopped down off the bed and went on the hunt. Not to much later I can hear her in the laundry room "Were, can my beautiful dress be? oh no, where did it go, it's lost!!" Then singing, "oh where oh where can my beautiful dress be? Oh where oh where can it be?" I like that she configures the songs to fit her personal needs.