Sometimes, I don't think my kids are normal.

So we did the "thankful turkey" thing.  And this was the first year Mitchell seemed to grasp the concept of being grateful.  "What are you thankful for, Mitchell?", I asked.  And his answered ranged from, "Heavenly Father and Jesus" to "my wife" to "underwear pants"  And I think Ali just thought we were listing random things, so she's thankful for "Ali and babies!", "Red!", "'W!'", "Chicken!", "Grammy!"and "Twinkle Little Star!" All good things.  The world *would* be a lot different without "W".  And chicken, too.

The turkey hangs nicely on our fridge.  A good reminder, I think, we can never be too thankful of anything, really.  Including underwear pants.

And then it started snowing.  To Ali, that meant "Snowman! Snowman! TALL! TALL! TALL!" I had no idea she knew the song, and then Mitchell said "Build a Snowman! Build a Snowman!" and then, before I had a chance to say anything (re: "it's a blizzard, out there.  Ali would literally blow away") they were both running/screaming/dancing in circles, chanting "YAY! YAY! YAY!" which is something they both have learned how to do fairly quickly in their little life, probably because it seems to make my protesting invalid.  So we bundled up a lot and put some weights in Ali's shoes, and trekked out into our backyard with high hopes of snowman-building, but what actually followed, was an snowball ambush of me, mom, and then lots of laughter and wide-legged toddling because they both had about 25 pairs of pants on, and 3 pairs of socks+boots each and they couldn't run fast, at all.

However, I, being fearless, only wore one layer+coat so I instantly won the snowball fight (2 against 1, even) but since they have an endless amount of energy that exponentially increases every second of being outside, the snowball fight lasted half of an afternoon.  After I was finally exhausted, they insisted we build a snowman and complete the task that would have been finished hours ago, had Mitchell not started the snowball fight of the year.

And after rolling and lifting and scraping dead leaves off Mr. Snowman's body, I looked ahead to see both kids chilling on the back patio, watching the whole process.  "Why are you not over here helping me?" Ali laughed at me and Mitchell said, "Oh, mom.  You doing a good job! He's so handsome!" And then I said, "This snowman is a girl, Mitchell" Which Mitchell responded, "No you're a girl! Snowmen can't be girls!" Which, after I thought about it, had to be true, otherwise we'd have "snowwomen" and I don't think I've heard anyone say "snowwomen" So I'd start a snow-feminist-movement, but I don't have any more spare time.

And finally, I, finished the snowman, and went inside to find some face-things. Which was a (baby) carrot nose and some grapes.  And finally, we declared it complete.  I bribed the kids to come inside (we were on hour 6, and that's not an exaggeration) with some warm hot chocolate (which we have to call "warm hot chocolate" otherwise it's automatically too hot to drink -ever-) and they both seemed delighted to come inside.  Then I said, "Wait! We need a picture!" Mitchell always thinks this is a good idea.

But Ali....

pretty much thought all the talk of warm chocolate milk were lies.  No smiles. No standing by Mitchell.  Just screams "CHOCOLATE MIIIIILLLLK! CHOCOLATE MILLLLKKK!"  It's coming! Take a picture! JUST SMILE!

The child is such a pre-madonna.  Especially, when it comes to food.

Actually, she refers to herself as "Ali Pin-cess"  (well, also, she refers to herself as "she" a lot lately, which is really funny.  "She likes it! She likes it!")  Every morning, she puts on a little tutu and parades around the house dancing/spinning/declaring herself a princess.  This also means, we watch a bunch of princess movies, and the child loves Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.  We went to the opening of the Outlet Mall by Thanksgiving Point (Actually, we were going to visit the dead animals at Cabelas, but then I we got a little sidetracked by the new shiny mall.  Hello, Coach store.  This is what I want for Christmas, Mike.  No, not the bag, the store.  The whole store.

Anyway, Oshgosh had all the disney princesses (teenagers in pretty dresses) walking around so parents would practically be forced to shop there, but I voluntarily took Ali in to say hi to 12-year old Cinderella. Ali was too excited to say anything so she waived.  And then let Jasmine hold her.  Aw.  And then waved "bye" to all of them when we left.  Fun.  I would love to take the kids to Disney.  Tomorrow, if I could.

Her maternal instincts have kicked in, so she cuddles her babies and puts them down for naps.  I tried to put her to bed, one night, after a long day of Ali being generally a terror, and she looked right at me and  said, in a stern voice, "No!" and looked away from me.  That was the first time she had ever said no to me, so I chuckled and said, "Do you want to try that again?" "NO!" So I went over and picked her up and said, "Bedtime!" She flailed her arms and swung her little body hard enough that I almost dropped her and she said, under her breath, quickly, and suspiciously just like her brother does, "stop it! stop it! stop it!" okay, really? Are we really going to do this?

So this became the general nap-time routine for awhile.  I tell her it's naptime, she yells and me and pretends like she's a teenager, ready to attack.  After putting her in bed for a nap, the other day, she starting crying big crocodile-drama tears and Mitchell came running up the stairs "Ali's awake?"

"No, Ali is mad because she doesn't want to go to sleep."

"Oh, I go cuddle her"

"No.  Don't go in her room.  She's really tired, Mitchell"

"Okay, I go make sure she has her baby and water"

"No.  She has her baby and water, I promise she's fine"

{brief pause of about 2.8 seconds}

"Mom, Ali's awake.  She wake herself up! I go get her!"  And like lightening, ran in her room.  "Ohhh Ali!  Don't cry!"

So I go in her bedroom, and try to lay her back down for bed.  Of course, she's mad at me, so she's screaming for Mitchell to help her.  "Mitchell! CUDDLE MITCHELL!" and me, "Lay down, Ali, you have to take a nap" and Mitchell, "ooohhh baby.  It's okay! I cuddle you! you want to watch the princess movie with me? I hold you and we watch the princess movie!" Ali: "Movie Mitchell!" I'm still trying to get her to lay down at this point so she wiggles out of my arms screaming "Stop it! Stop it! Let go! Mitchell! CUDDLE MITCHELL MOVIE!"

are you serious? This is really happening?

So I say, wimp-ly and a little sob-ish, "you have to take a nap."

and Ali says, "BABY! It's QUIET TIME! GO! TO! BED!" and just like that, puts her baby doll down for a nap, pulls the covers up on the bed.  "Shhhhhh," she says, "it's nap time.  Go to sleep." She leans down, kisses the babies forehead, "Goodnight.  I love you."

And then turns and holds Mitchell's hand and they start walking out of the room, and she turns to me and says, "baby's going night night.  shhh."  and I'm left standing there trying to figure out how she conned me into making her doll take a nap, and not her.  I'm such a push-over.

Oh, yeah, go ahead and watch that movie with Mitchell. You definitely don't need a nap.

 Meanwhile, Mitchell, wanted to relive the snowball fight with dad.  Mike's a pretty good sport, and just stands there while Mitch chucks snowballs at his face.  They both  came inside soaking wet.

And I gave into Christmas.  Mitchell and Ali got sucked into the retail Christmas decorations that were everywhere, and it was too cute to not give into them. And then I found a pretty shelf to hang my stockings that I love, I couldn't resist.  I finished them just in time last year, so I'm really glad I get to enjoy looking at them this year.

And Mitchell started the whole "I need to take a lot of pictures of me." phase, again, that he probably picked up from his Aunt Madeline.  

They're probably related.

The Awesome that is Halloween

This year, I decided to go old school and classic and dress my children as Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.  Along with half of Utah, it seems.   But still, just as adorable as ever.

I was going to make Mitchell furry wolf gloves, but after 1001 mishaps I told him some wolfs have orange mittens instead.  Because that's totally true in fairy tales, I'm sure. Part of the problem is I procrastinate everything, including Halloween costumes, till the night before.  Which usually leads to the morning of, working till 3 am. 

But these might be my favorite -ever- and I really liked Pacman last year.  

Mitchell had a Halloween party at school, which is year round, so he's off track till the middle of November since the second week of October.  So, his Halloween party was around the 12th or something, which means I procrastinated his costume till the 11th (or something), and stayed up all night, because "appliquéing a wolf face" was not as easy as it sounds.  Without any sort of vision.  But it was so awesome looking when we finished.  I ordered a plain grey sweatshirt online, and I'm 99% it was a girls, but that is not my fault.  

And I bought a pattern for Ali's cape.   In my head, it felt like it wouldn't be that hard.   I almost attempted it my myself, actually.  And it was simplicity, which I swore I would never attempt again, but the little cape was a million times cuter than it's competitors, so I ran with it.   And then stitched the "stay stitching" together, after un-picking it (without a seam ripper, by the way, because Ali kept hiding from me, which I realize isn't the best toy for her to play with, but she climbs and she digs.  And I think she uses her nose, or some other sense to find things she shouldn't, because the child finds everything), which, sort of defeated the original purpose of the stay stitch.  And then got so tired of trying to understand the big words, just sewed it together how I felt like.   Which worked, surprisingly.  And then even top-stitched it, which the pattern didn't indicate you should or need to, but I decided to be amazing and do it anyway. And Ali is a perfect Little Red.  And I love the short cape. 

My mom threw a spooky dinner monday, which was delicious and so fun.  She let Mitchell take a rubber black bat home, which Mitchell decided to follow Ali around and scare her half to death.  Seriously, she was terrified of it. And after threatening to throw the bat away if he didn't stop, he gently held it out to her, and said "Ali.  It's pretend.  It's not real.  It's just a toy" welllll, the kid would make a near perfect parent if he wasn't the one terrifying her in the first place.

And then, went around the house, explaining that everything was pretend.  "See Ali? It's pretend."  And soon, she learned the word pretend.  How to say "pretend, not actually the meaning, because then at lunch she held up a hot dog and said "hot dog! pretend!"  

And so, trick or treating, the houses all decked out in Halloween stuff, I said "Ohhh it's sooo scary!" and Mitchell said "MOM.  I TOLD you.  It's PRETEND. It's not scary."  Right.  Well, okay.  

So we all went trick or treating and Mitchell and Ali would walk up to the door.  Mitchell would turn around and say "I ring the door bell?" We'd say yes.  We taught Ali how to say "trick or treat" which sounded like "trick teet!" It was adorable.  They'd drop candy in Ali's bag and she'd say "dank ooo" and hold up her hand for more, haha.  And Mitchell would just talk, and talk, and talk "I a wolf, and Ali is Little Red Riding Hood! She's my sister! We go to another house now, okay? We come back later, maybe.  But not today. Okay bye!!"

It took forever to finish our (really really long) street.  And one street left both kids with a completely full bag of candy.

And we got home, put Ali in bed, turned our lights on and opened the door (we have a storm door) so we could catch trick or treaters before they rang the doorbell.  Even though it was a little past Mitchell's bed time, we let him stay up and hand out candy to the trick or treaters.  Which was just as fun for him as collecting the candy himself.

I told him he could pass out two pieces of candy to each kid.  And when each kid came to the door, he commented on their costumes, "you look soooo nice!" "oh, you're so handsome!" "you are sooo pretty!" "oh, are you so scary?" hilarious.  And after a handful of kids came to the door, he said to me, "mama.  I gave that princess 3 pieces. She was really pretty" haha.  alright, then.

And then the next day, searching his stash, he found a black spider ring.  He held it up and said to me, "MOM! Now I can marry Ali!!! I can marry her in the backyard!"

"What!? No! You can't marry Ali.  She's your sister.  Someday, you'll find a nice girl and..."

"No, mom. I'm not going to get married in the temple anymore.  I'm going to marry Ali in the backyard"

"But why don't you want to get married in the temple?"

"I don't want to be baptized"

"Why?"

"Because I can't go underwater."

"Well, you have to be a little bit older.  And Daddy will help you.  It doesn't hurt."

"Mom, I AM a little bit older.   And I CAN'T go underwater.  People can't. Boys can't.... girls can't... it hurts.  It really really hurts"

I think I just stared at him.  This conversation was happening while he was in his room, taking off his clothes, putting on some different clothes, and then he walked in to Ali's room and found her a nice sweater and a short skirt.

"Ali can wear this to get married.  ALI! COME GET DRESSED!"

And she did.  I buttoned up her sweater and said, "You guys can't get married"

Mitchell said, "Yes.  And then we will dance!"

Which sparked Ali's interest.  "Dance with Mitchell? DANCE WITH MITCHELL!"

"After we get married, Ali.  Come on"

And he grabbed her hand and led her down the stairs.

And at that point, I decided to give up on trying to convince them to *not* marry each other and I yelled "DO NOT GO OUTSIDE! YOU CAN'T GET MARRIED WITHOUT ME!"

And Mitchell said to Ali, "Wait, Ali.  We can't get married without mom.  You going to take pictures of us, mom?"

Oh, yes. Totally.  I may even show this at your *real* wedding.

My children, marrying each other, in the wedding clothes they picked out themselves.

And so I sat outside, and they held hands for a half a second and then started dancing.  Mitchell then yelled as loud as he possibly could "I'M MARRIED TO ALI! YAY!" And then the both started yelling "YAY! YAY! YAY!" and spinning/dancing in circles.

oh, man.

Mike came home about 45 seconds later and I said, "oh, you just missed their wedding."

"whose wedding?"

"Mitchell just married Ali"

Mitchell said, "yeah, dad.  I married Ali.  She's my wife"

Since then, Mitchell refers to Ali sometimes as "his wife".  And he also cuddles her more.  Which, surprisingly, is what Ali usually prefers.  Which is sad for me, because she used to climb on my lap/lay next to me and say "Cuddle mama?" and I always say yes.  And now, when Mitchell is in the room she says "Cuddle Mitchell?" and Mitchell holds her now.  And if I protest that I would like some cuddles from one or both of my children Mitchell says, "No, Ali is my wife."

I thought they'd forget about the whole "wedding" thing, but they haven't.

And finally, Mitchell learned how to ride that bike we got him in July.

And Ali loves her little trike her grandparents gave her for her birthday.