how random my kids are...

So we had tithing settlement tonight with our Bishop. He wrapped up the discussion by asking the boys if they had any questions. Peyton replied "YES! How old do I have to be to be a grown up? And what do you think I should become when I grow up?" Bishop suggested fireman and he declined. That was the start of a very weird car ride home. Peyton told the story of the first Thanksgiving, Squanto, and pilgrims and Indians complete with details of how many adults got sick and died, leaving kids all alone. His Thanksgiving story ended up sounding remarkably like the Lord of the Flies. The subject changed to missionaries (thanks Carson) and Carson told us that he'd go on a mission even if he got hit by a car. This led to "How exactly do you die when you get hit by a car?" and I found myself explaining how the brain sends signals to the rest of your body's organs. *SIGH* THEN Peyton had a hypothetical question "What happens if you fight with someone, kick and hit them and they fall INTO the road and get hit by a car. Do you get in trouble? Do you have to talk to the Bishop for a long time, like ALL DAY? " At this point Carson interjected and told Peyton he'd go to "Juvee" which made me lol. He thought I thought he was making it up, so he proceeded to tell me the life story of Louis Armstrong, who evidently spent a brief period of time at a juvenile detention facility. That's what happens when you have four boys in a car for 20 minutes. Hope you enjoyed the rambling as much as I did :)

You know what stinks? Finally updating your blog after 3 months and having it delete itself not once, not twice, but THREE times. Not a fan. Anyways, at least it was therapeutic for me to write everything out. Stupid ctrl shortcuts :(

if I ever look exhausted....here's why:

Things overheard at the Brown home:
-"It doesn't matter if he took one of your invisible Go Fish cards, they're invisible...don't punch him, just pretend you have more"
-"Well, ARE you a girl? Ok then."-Mom
-"Dont' jump off of that! No, you cannot fly. Nope, not even with cardboard wings. Because you aren't really a grey slider flying squirrel"-Mom
-"No nunchucks in the house!" (obviously, that's an OUTside toy)-Dad
-"That's what happens when you don't listen!"-Dad
-"WHY aren't you wearing any underwear?!" (probably a whole sub category for the ones that start with "where". We can never find anything)
-"Mom, I need wood glue so I can make this block of wood into a surfboard and try it out in the pond"-Carson (the inventor)
-"Mom, why does the mom on 101 Dalmations get so mad at Cruella deVille for smoking, but Roger can smoke a pipe?"-Carson
followed by...
-"Mom, why don't they just GIVE her one of those dogs? They've GOT a hundred of them!"-Peyton didn't quite understand the movie
-"Mooooom, I need you to make me a ninja mask"-Peyton
-"Do not bend his arm (or leg, or neck, or finger) that way!"-said daily
-"Mom, whatsa for nunch?"-Ryan, he's in a slight Italian accent phase
-"Dad, you in MY house?"-Ryan waking up from nap to find Daniel at home
-"I wike to moob it moob it"-Ryan singing "Move it Move it"
-"I come in pieces"-Peyton said this to the librarian on the summer reading registration day...with his hands in Star Trek sign...and his eyelids flipped inside out
-Jackrabbit vs Dragon fight (Carson and Peyton) "Fine, I'll rub my fluffy tail on you (sits on Peyton and rubs his butt on him) Peyton shoves him off and replies "So, I'll set your tail on fire" (breathes pretend fire)
-"Mom, who is Lee Bron James"-Carson

so I'm not a good blogger

For those of you who read this (Johanna) I'm getting better at remembering my password, so that will help, and my neato little Blackberry has an app for keeping passwords, so I MAY actually get better at this, but don't count on it. What's been going on? NOTHING. And I love it! My boys have said some funny-ish stuff. Like our Presidents Day FHE. I got ambitious and tried to go solo since Daniel had a meeting at work for some dumb reason. Regardless, I decided it should be about being honorable and telling the truth and Presidents. Good in theory only. I told the story of George Washington and the cherry tree. Before I got to the part about telling the truth I had Carson asking who would give a kid an axe (what irresponsible parents!) and Peyton begging for an axe and not accepting "You're five" as an answer. Fast forward to yesterday in the car on the way home from Edyn's baptism. Carson fibbed about being buckled up and Daniel said "Carson, I don't like lies" Peyton chimed in "Yeah, like Abraham Lincoln" After some confusion, Carson clarified to us (giving us the "you are an idiot" face) that Abe Lincoln chopped down the cherry tree and lied about it. Well, at least they got the idea even if they got the wrong guy. Poor Honest Abe. Carson told me he told his friend about baptism. Originally the friend said "That sounds boring, I don't want to talk about it" but good ole Carson sold him on the idea by telling him how awesome it is and you get to go under water. He also told us we are holding him back: the song says "I hope they call me on a mission, when I have grown a foot or two" He says he is over two feet tall and he should be going already. My very literal middle aged 7 year old. They also have their own very distinct styles of humor. Exhibit A: Carson thinks the Uranus jokes are awesome. He likes to ask people which planet is the gasiest. Thanks Aunt Beck. Peyton is more fun to watch in action. Exhibit B:He discovered the Pete and Repeat jokes. He does great until you actually say "Repeat" and instead of repeating the joke he says "ok, I'll repeat it..." and gives his super cheesy embarrassed big tooth Peyton grin that I love so much. They crack me up. Ryan is just as funny, but he is definitely a Daddy's boy. I don't want to say he's Daniel's favorite, but, well, yeah. Sorta. He walks around saying "Swipe your nose, Swipe your nose" This only makes sense if you are a Dora fan and you understand that he really means "Swiper, No Swiping". He hates potty training and totally panics if he isn't wearing pants. So if you take his pants off and try to let him run around naked...not gonna happen. I tried putting him in underwear alone so I wouldn't have a ton of pants to wash....nope, he found Peyton's pajamas in the drawer and put them on. Not awesome. He was doing great until he asked to go to the potty at Walmart and the auto flush toilet scared the crap into him...literally. He wouldn't go #2 for a few days after that experience. Ben is just a great baby. He flinches instinctively anytime his brothers come close, which is probably a good thing. He hates being on his stomach and his head is starting to show the signs of it. He also likes eating baby food, but not applesauce. What the heck?! That's the best. He even ate peas, but not applesauce! He also looks like Daniel 100%. I had absolutely nothing to do with his genetic code. But that's cool because Ryan is the boy version of me. I would show photo evidence if I knew how to get pictures off of my Blackberry, but I'm not so good at using my new phone.
Daniel had a sales conference in Texas so I got to keep all four boys by my lonesome Sun to Wed and it was blah. I survived. I didn't enjoy him being away, but I DID enjoy Ramen noodle dinners. It also helped that we went to the temple in Memphis the weekend before Daniel left. Always helps to be in a good frame of mind when you take four boys and try to sit through church.
As for me, I've been going to Provident Living classes on Tues at church and learning how to do awesome stuff with food storage and money saving tips. I love it. I didn't think I would until I ordered some cans of bell pepper on sale and they jumped in price from 50 cents each to 1.70 each. Go me...I don't have to buy those. I took a portion of our tax refund and we now have a 3 month supply of food, which also made me plan a monthly meal menu. Note: make sure you have a place to put 3 months worth of food in your Walmart cart. Ryan got booted out of the buggy and had to walk, which was VERY eventful to put it nicely. Additional note: make sure you have the cabinet space for aforementioned food as well. Ok, so that should catch me up, right?

snow day!

Theoretically speaking, I will be updating on Sundays.....maybe. It's snowing!!! I can be excited about it right now because the kids haven't gone outside, then inside, then back outside, etc. That will happen tomorrow because school is cancelled. Waiting on laundry right now....exciting! Carson's basketball games started Saturday. He is on a team with three boys from church and some other kids I don't know yet, but they all seem to have fun together. Peyton thinks now that he's five he can do anything he wants. He tries to make his own peanut butter sandwhiches, pour his own lemonade (both bad messy ideas), and he also decided that he was in Carson's primary class (also a bad idea). Ryan is a dancing machine. For New Years Eve, we went to a party where we all played Just Dance 2 on the Wii. Ever since then, he has been dancing anytime he hears music. That game is super fun. He memorized two of the dances (Viva Las Vegas and I've Got the Power) and tries hard to do the moves accurately. He is so smart. Reminds me of how Carson was at that age. Carson also loves that game, but hates songs that are "for girls", so of course, I made him dance to "It's Raining Men". Boy do I regret that! We were in Walmart and passed through the underwear aisle. There was a man posing for what appeared to be a thong for men and he looked at me and said "Wow, that's inappropriate" then proceeded to bust into song, singing....yep, you guessed it "It's Raining Men, Hallelujah" We may need to start a blog for things Carson says in Walmart underwear aisles, or at least avoid that aisle. Ben is growing up fast and likes to smile at Carson, but not so much the other boys. Other random stuff: The stomach flu that we thought we have been passing for the past two and a half months is not a stomach flu, but is actually contaminated beef from the cow we had butchered. BOOOO! At least we know how to stop the stomach issues everyone has had, but that was our food storage. OH wait, we had thousands of blackbirds fall dead from the sky here in Beebe on New Years Eve and everyone thinks it's the end of the world. Very weird incident, but I don't care because there are probably 5,000 more sitting in every single tree by the boys school and I'm really not exaggerating. A few thousand won't be missed! We had Stake Conference and I kept the Anderson boys for the Saturday night meeting. We made homemade cheezits out of chickpeas, wheat flour, and cheese. They loved using the cookie cutters and the crackers weren't bad. It might help if the top of my oven worked, crackers taste better if they are crunchy. We also watched the Razorbacks play in the Sugar Bowl and they lost, so Daniel was quite upset. It was down to the wire and the Hogs made some dumb mistakes, so there was yelling at the tv. Laundry is done, so it's time for sleep!

yeah, it's been a while

I decided to update mostly b/c I drank an orange soda full of caffeine in order to finish up some Christmas gifts for the boys and now I'm...still awake. The boys have been pretty good so far on vacation. Haven't tried to kill each other yet, but we are only on day 2. They have mostly been entertaining me with the junk they say. For instance, Carson has recently become obsessed with jaguars "or any other large jungle cat" He invented a Christmas jaguar. Basically he wore a Santa hat, crawled down the hallway, and attacked Peyton. He also requested a jaguar birthday cake next month, but when I explained that I can't draw a jaguar, he asked if I could make a bobcat or African wildcat instead. He briefly decided he wasn't sure if Santa was real because some friends at school suggested he was fake. I asked him how I got a gift from Santa if I WAS Santa. Two days later, he tells us he has convinced 4 kids at school that Santa is the real deal, and "one of them doesn't even celebrate Christmas" I guess he managed to sell Santa to a Jehovah's Witness kid in his class...OOOPS! He also accidentally made up an inappropriate joke at school and wrote it on the whiteboard during spelling. Let's just say it's waaay worse than when he was 2 and referred to a sports bra with a zipper as a "boobie jacket"

Peyton has been a handful lately, very dramatic and quick with his temper. He is in Pre-K now and has been keeping his teachers on their toes. He is absolutely hilarious though. In Nashville over Thanksgiving vacation, we pulled up at the condo and Carson excitedly asked where the indoor pool was located. Peyton rolled his eyes and said "It's INDOORS Carson" Love that kid and his one liners...hard to find a comeback for those. He also thought the escalator at the Opry Hotel was the best part of the entire vacation. He begged to go on the "steps where you don't have to step". When we finally figured out what he meant, we took him and he looooved it.

Ryan is a busy busy boy. He knows he has the cute factor going on and uses it bigtime. He talks nonstop like his big brothers, and loves to go to nursery. After the "Amen" of the closing prayer, he yells "I go to class!" This is great, except for fast and testimony Sundays when he doesn't understand that there are several "amens". He loves his Daddy and constantly begs him to ride the "bowheelah" (four wheeler). Who can say no to that grin? He also thinks he is the same size as his big brothers,and usually gets injured during their fights. He frequently tells us that "Peyton hibnid (hitted) me!" It is absolutely always Peyton's fault even if Peyton isn't home. He is excited to celebrate "Swissmas" in a few days.

Hmmm, what else has happened since our last post. Daniel had debilitating headaches and we spent the summer at various doctors until a neurologist diagnosed him with SUNCT/SUNA headaches.

We had Benjamin Tate on October 21, 2010, and he is an awesome baby....of course! Maybe my goal for 2011 will be to post at least once a month. The boys usually have some great stories that I should be keeping track of. Yeah, we'll see how that turns out....

Forget Simon Says....Peyton Says Is AWESOME!

So this week Peyton has been full of Peyton sayings. Sunday night Daniel was watching an old Abbott and Costello movie with the boys. It's called Buck Privates. Naturally, Peyton loved it and has been begging all week to watch "Butt Privates" without cracking a smile. He genuinely thinks that is the name of the movie. This was followed by a family home evening on Monday that Peyton was in charge of. Fantastic thing about this is that he continuously referred to the Brass Plates as paper plates! Not sure he will ever live that one down! Another crazy thing going on around here is that Ryan actually likes me now. Since Daniel went on his business trip he became fond of me and now he breaks his Daddy's little heart because he prefers me and cries if Daniel reaches for him. Kinda melts my heart. I also went slightly crazy when the kids didn't clean their room last night and boxed up and removed every toy in the room. Terrible for them, but the house is clean, I can walk in their room, and they have plenty of extra time to do additional chores. Woohoo!!