Night at home

Jon constructs a sword with Lego's. It kept falling apart when he held it by the "handle." Jon told me this picture looks like he is holding the time machine from Napoleon Dynamite. I hope he is not heading for 1982- I would have been 11 and he would know I was a total dork.

Patrick and Mike play Connect Four. That Patrick can be a trickster and set if so you lose no matter where you play.

Nana gave Kelly a lesson in crochet and she thought she would have a new scarf by the end of the evening. Megan was convinced that she would have one too.

Kenny thought he would give it a try too. Come back here with that string Kenny!

Root Beer Floats for a surprise dessert.

Only one wanted their mom?

Adam, Kelly and Mary waiting by the ready line at for Papa to pick them up.

Adam announced he wanted to go and spend the night at Nana's house. Papa called back and invited anyone who wanted to go- so Kelly, Adam, and Mary wanted to go. Kenny needs his mom. Meg and Patrick already were over at friends and Jon wanted to stay home for the quiet. He must have wanted a mom too? Sigh... they grow up so fast.

Kenny breaks the tie

Chocolate milk anyone? I wouldn't personally let Jon pour the syrup- I saw what he did to his chocolate shake for his birthday and that was not pretty.

Kenny's new trick is to find other peoples clothes and jackets and put them on over his head and then try to walk into things. He just took Kelly's favorite jacket. Maybe it's the early stages of the adopt a shirt program?

Patrick and Mary do homework.

I know, I know, the right-hands win.

Jonathan asked an hour after dinner if he could have some chocolate milk and cereal. What kind of cereal? That's a weird combo. No, chocolate milk and cereal. Yeah, a weird combo.

Your name is...

Megan's friend Marie comes to the door this morning and Adam lets her in.

He says, "I don't remember your name."

She says, "It's Marie."

"Maria!"

"No, Marie."

"Well, I call you Maria."

So, if Adam says it- make it so. I don't think Marie was too thrilled.

Boys

Jab, cross with Tony and Jonathan.

Look Mom, I built a bird.

Mike took some empty diaper boxes out of Adam's and Ken's room. Kenny saw the picture boy climbing on the box, so he climbed on the box too.

Kenny, what is in your mouth? Kenny then took that red thing out and hid it behind his back. Nothing of course.

Cold hair day

The one curl in the front felt very special to be alone.

What do you do when it's 5 degrees outside and you should wash your hair (but don't have time to dry it)? Put it up in as many rubber bands as you can find.

And what do you do later- take it all out and look like the Flock of Seagulls band!

Sunday

If you couldn't find us, now we have sidewalk chalk to direct you.

The girls were playing doll house so Patrick and Adam were told to stay away. So they played pirates that were planning on raiding the doll house for treasure.

We ordered 25 pounds of carrots and we got 25 pound carrots instead.

Family Home Evening takes precedence over vacuuming.

After a great lesson on the Sabbath Day and how to keep it better, we went home and tried it out.

Hey, where's my toothbrush?

Kenneth Malm was apprehended with two yellow toothbrushes. Origins and whereabouts of where said tooth cleaners may or may not have been are unknown. Brush at your own risk.

Patrick turns 10

My tradition is to decorate the table with streamers and a table cloth for birthdays.

Patrick patiently waited for everyone to get up before opening his presents (except for his own box of Birthday Cereal which was at his spot at the table waiting for him.)
Hooray for double digits! Patrick wasn't sure what he wanted for his special day so we gave him our traditional gifts (cereal, badge, mints) and then the universal gift card- cash!

Kelly's not afraid to try new things

A few days ago I asked Kelly what instrument would she like to learn when she gets to 4th grade. Today she told me she would like to play the tangerine. I asked, "tangerine?" Yes, I could make beautiful music with one- I said "a small orange would be hard to make music with." OH. Tambourine. Megan (who was laughing hysterically) said that a tambourine is grouped with the drums. Kelly then said- never mind. I guess she wouldn't like all that pounding.

I want to be with you guys!

Kenny finds a rogue toothbrush in the hall and tries to brush Jon's teeth and his own.

He doesn't want to get his pants changed and go to bed, "I want to stay up with you guys!"

Megan tried out for the part of the lion in the Spring production of The Wizard of Oz. She didn't get as nervous (like she was going to vomit) this time. Good Luck Megpi!

Megan's "Mini Me" Mary.

Jonathan will be winter camping on Friday to Saturday. The Boyscout leaders had him bring in his stuff to make sure that he won't freeze to death. With the snow storm coming in tomorrow night I think that he's going to be cold.

Spaghetti and Meatball kind of day

Kenny didn't want the spaghetti he wanted the meatballs. (Food storage premade meatballs... not my favorite.)

Adam refuses to go get dirty bottles under the crib because it is his "day off". When's my day off?

Kenny didn't really want to eat anything until I gave him a licorice stick- all that nutrition and red sticky hands too!

A boring dinner of spaghetti and a salad for a boring day.

Mary and Lily go on a playdate to the 50 cent movies. Mary calls her "My Lily".

My house needs a ten minute tidy

The view from the front door shouldn't scare the Home Teachers.

I found my shoes, 5 pairs under the computer table- no I didn't know that we had a shoe shelf... when did I put that in? (a cough that sounded like 8 years ago.)

We dropped some church stuff off at the Bunkers and Lynette was baking cookies (Hence the plate of home baked- not dropped out of the bucket from Costco Cookies!) That was super timing.

The kids had today off of school and we didn't do pick a jobs. We so need to. All together now, 1,2,3 "Clean up Clean up" Come on Barney!

Mall Crawl

Mike took the boys (minus Kenny) to

play at the mall. They weren't as impressed as the girls.

Why so weepy?

Crock Pot chicken with a spicy rub sounds good for dinner. The onions are making me cry and everyone around me weepy.

Here it is as chicken lettuce wraps for lunch. No children wanted to make a wrap so they had Mac and Cheese and fruit cocktail. Jon begged for chicken but refused to eat lettuce. (Therefore that is not a wrap and I did not let him partake.)

This week has flown by and the weekend is almost over. Kenneth is still vomiting and generally not feeling well. Every time I think he's better I find him wading in vomit, in his crib.

Star of the Week

Adam is the star of the week in his kindergarten class. Even though he did not go to school on Tuesday he still gets to sit in the star's chair and bring in his favorite Teddy Bear, Cutie and ten photos which covered everyone in the family and a family photo.

Also, he told me today that minivans were stupid, he wanted a limo. I told him I'm not a Limo driver. Boy that star is going to his head.

Stomach bug

Seven of the nine of us have been throwing up since yesterday. How awful. Mike said he couldn't wait to go back to work- washing vomit sheets hasn't been a picnic.

Baptism Day

Ken Malm, Mike Malm, Beth McGinnis, Elders that I don't remember their names.

Saturday, January 11, 1992 I was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It doesn't feel like it has been 17 years.

Mike and I had been dating since October 1991. Mike had not been active in the church since he was 13. He went and visited his brother Ken one weekend in October and told me he decided to go to church again. It didn't phase me- I said church is good- go. So he went, and met people there that knew we dated. They set up a missionary appointment for him and me to meet them. I told him I really didn't want to go but for him I would. Next thing I know, I had many appointments set up with the missionaries and I was taking a Book of Mormon class at the Institute and was playing pool at someones house for Family Home Evening! I remember reading the Book of Mormon after classes and I couldn't put it down. I don't know when I did homework or studied but I read insatiably. I would go to my institute class and ask questions and sometimes knew more than students who had been members all their lives. I went to church and it was Fast Sunday, I didn't think anyone in their right mind would go up to the microphone and say anything, but college students did. Another thing that impressed me was Mike and I went to a dance that had all ages there. Families would want to be there together- who knew. Mike and I went to a young single adult dance on New Years Eve and on the way home the driver, Chris Stott told me why he joined the church and I felt the spirit so strongly that I knew that I must join. I told my parents that I wanted to join the church and they asked me to wait a year. I felt like I shouldn't so I ask them to come to my baptism anyway. I asked Mike's brother to baptize me and the next Saturday evening I became a member. Afterwards while everyone was eating cookies and punch in the hall, my mom told me that she remembered my first baptism (Catholic style). I think she forgave me when I supplied her with a lifetime supply of grandkids (Mormon style.)

It's cold outside

Mary found out she loves to ride the stairs. I asked Mike, "Why is she on the ground crying?" He said he didn't know. I asked her and she said, "Don't know." I think we have hundreds of pictures with Mary laying on the ground in the photo. Most the time we have no idea what set her off.

Mary brings the necessities to the mall.

Mike took the girls to the mall to walk around. (Or ride up and down the escalators.)