Roller coaster

I just have to post and say I'm sick of this roller coaster ride. I took Sunny to school to see her teacher for a few minutes this afternoon. She was so pitifully happy to see her and the few classmates that were there. She hasn't been back to school since Christmas break. Can't wait for this to be over...for a while, at least. We're really hoping she can feel well enough to go to the Valentine's party on Friday.

HSP Updates

Kayanna is still dealing with HSP.  Now, apparently, Sarah is having a flare-up as well.  I am now tracking this on a separate page.  So if you want the latest updates on them and their condition, you can click on the page "Living with HSP" in the right sidebar.

Thanks for your concern and prayers on their behalf.

Chopsticks

At dinner, Sunny picked up her rice with her fingers and ate it. Ben looked at her and said, "Sunny, what are you supposed to use to eat rice?"

Silly Sunny got a big grin and replied, "Chopsticks!"

Lie, Cheat, and Steal

Sunny came home the other day and asked if she could do her homework downstairs.

"Why?" I asked suspiciously.

"Because then Missy can give me all the answers."

I burst out laughing. "At least you told the truth!"

"Well," Sunny answered, "I didn't want to lie about cheating!"

Static Electricity

I had just finished brushing Sunny's hair, and I was asking why it was so staticky. (This, according to dictionary.com, is not a real word. The proper adjective for "static" is "statical." Who knew?)

Anyway, Sunny answered: "It's a good thing it has static because we're studying electricity at school!"

Wiggle Worm

After church today, the kind brother who helped with Sunny during Sacrament Meeting came to talk to us. He looked at Sunny and asked if she was still being a wiggle worm.

"When I was holding her on my lap, she was wiggling all over the place," he continued.

"That's because I had to go potty!" Sunny exclaimed.

"Well, why didn't you tell us?" he said.

Fantastic Christmas

Well, this week has been tough with a cold going around. It's not so much that the cold has been miserable, but it has prevented playing with friends and cousins. In fact, we didn't even go to my parents' house for the Christmas Eve program last night. We dropped by long enough to pick up the traditional pajamas and trade wrapped gifts to open today.

Today was really wonderful, though. Here are a few pictures from last night and this morning.

New jammies from Bama!

The girls' Santa stuff

Buster's stuff

Kandy has her new American Girl Doll in the cradle I fixed up. She has been asking for an American Girl Doll for 3 years.

And Sunny did get her Baby Alive doll.
Abel got a cool ride-on/push toy. I didn't get a good picture of it, though. He really likes Sunny's doll. I missed the picture of him snuggling it.

Buster and his "cute choo-choo."

We took things really slowly. We looked at stuff from Santa and unwrapped a few things. We played with cool toys from cousins.Then we unwrapped some more things.

Missy got "How to Train your Dragon" and a diary from Santa. This book is from Kandy.

If you're interested, there are tons more pictures in my Picasa album, Christmas 2010.

We managed to make Christmas morning excitement last about 5 hours. The kids have had a great time playing with all their new stuff. Now if we can just get over our sniffles and go play with cousins! I think it's one of our best Christmases ever.

Halloween 2010 (Finally)

Woo-hoo! I finally got the pictures offloaded from Halloween. Enjoy!

Kandy as Jeannie

We loved the skin color insert. "So I can still be modest," said Kandy. Notice her classic Jeannie pose!

Missy as a witch

Sunny as a flapper

Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger strike again! I think someone has been Winnie-the-Pooh every year. I'll have to check my pictures.
(Abel and Buster)

A few days after Halloween, I realized we hadn't photographed our jack-o-lanterns. They were a group effort this year. Everyone got to pick one feature to carve.

Buster. "Take a picture of me with the pumpkins!"

Shadows

I didn't hear the beginning of this conversation, but this bit caught my ear.

"Did you know all our shadows are Draculas?" Sunny said.

"No, all our shadows are miraculous." her big sister corrected her.

Link to a Cute Post Featuring Sunny

Sunny has a best friend that moved recently. Her mom did a really cute blog post about these two best friends, and I wanted to share it!

Click Here.

Friendly Offer

The other day, Sunny had a playdate. She found leftover pancakes in the fridge and wanted one for snack. She asked, "Can ____ have a pancake, too?"

"If she wants one," I replied.

Looking right at me, Sunny said, "She does." Then she turned to her friend and said, "Do you want a pancake?"

Sunny's First Day of Kindergarten!

Today was Sunny's first day of kindergarten! It's so weird to just have boys at home. I was up with Abel in the middle of the night, so Ben let me sleep in. He woke me to tell me that the girls had made it off to the bus. I was disappointed that I didn't get to say good-bye to Sunny on her first day, and I was a little mortified that I didn't get to do her hair. (Ben brushed it, at least.) I'm very grateful for the extra sleep, and I'm glad he took lots of pictures.

Sunny is ready to go!

Another picture of Sunny

All three girls on their way out the back door

Sunny, Missy, and Kandy in their matching dresses for one last picture. I'm glad they like to match!

Crazy, Crazy July!

I have been wanting to blog all month about all the fun things we have done. The problem is, we have been having too much fun to have time for me to blog. So here is the month in summary:

July 1: Hosted a playdate for 2-year-old Buster and fed the missionaries.
July 2: Ben had the day off, and we actually had a date.
July 3: 4th of July Breakfast at Jordan Park and hosted a BBQ for a newer family in our ward.
July 4: Baby blessing in Logan and dinner with my brother from Washington at my parents' house.
July 5: Ben and a wonderful friend chopped down a problem tree in our yard. We had 2 family parties in honor of one of each of our brothers from out of state. We had to divide and conquer, and I had to prepare a potluck contribution for both. Also, Abel did not nap well this day. Probably due to all the chaos!
July 6: Ah, peace and quiet and recovery...I thought. Nope, we had planned a zoo afternoon with cousins! Ben left for Pocatello.
July 7: We actually stayed home all day, and I let the kids stay in their pajamas to celebrate the fact. Ben returned from Pocatello late.
July 8: We went to the zoo again because members got to stay later than usual!
July 9: Free day at This is The Place Heritage Park. This day was chock-full of excitement, and I could write a whole entry about it. The most exciting part was losing Sunny. We were there with 2 of my sisters-in-law and a total of 14 kids. We all thought Sunny was with someone else and didn't realize she was missing for over an hour. Luckily, she had the presence of mind to ask for help quickly after getting lost, and she spent the time getting spoiled in the gift shop by employees and patrons alike. We also found her very shortly after realizing she was missing. Wow, did I feel like a terrible mother!!! To lose a child is one thing, to not realize she is missing for over an hour? Yikes! We stayed there almost all day.
July 10: Sunny's very belated birthday party and a meeting with the stake president.
July 11: Ben's new calling as 2nd counselor in the new bishopric was made official at church.
July 12: Took the Green Beast to the shop for new brakes and took the kids to Toys 'R' Us to use birthday gift cards.
July 13: Continuing Ed class for me and kids to Bama's house! We also got to go to the temple.
July 14: Took sleeping bags to the laundromat and did other preparations for the Kendrick Family Camp!
July 15-17: Kendrick family camp at Bear Lake!
July 18: First Sunday with Ben on the stand. Buster actually did amazingly well.
July 19: Dentist appointment for the kids--except when we got there we learned that there were some insurance issues and we came home. It cracked me up because my kids were pouting because they couldn't see the dentist.
July 20: PEACE AND RECOVERY! Well, for me. Sunny and Missy both had adventures with Bama and a friend, respectively.
July 21: Dentist appointment for me.

Ben also had 2 business trips to Pocatello this month. Every time he goes, he teaches just one day. With travel, though, he usually misses 2 bedtimes for the kids.

What's in store for the rest of the month? We had originally planned to go to Vernal this weekend to spend time with cousins. Given how crazy this month has been for both our families, the fact that we have seen them lots this month, and the fact that my sister-in-law has been out of town or had company almost all month, we decided to postpone it and take a rest! School starts in a week and a half, and although I will miss Sunny dreadfully (just me and 2 boys? What???), I am looking forward to things being a little more quiet and routine.

In the first crazy week, I had planned to post at least one picture for each of the wonderful and exciting events. I don't think I'll add all the pictures, but you can see the best pictures here.

I hope you have all had a great summer, too!!!

New Definition

Sunny: Mom, Kandy is exquisive. (pause) Do you know what "exquisive" means?
Robin: No.
Sunny: It means so...cheerful!

The Importance of Being a Princess

Me: Sunny, did you know your name means "princess?"
Sunny: No! Does that mean I'm the importantest person in the house?

The Kendrick Family: We Speak, You Listen

For Mother's Day, Ben and Kandy were asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting. As Kandy got up to speak, Buster piped up (again), "Wanna talk!" My helpful neighbor (sitting with us for just this reason) took him out in the hall so I could actually hear the talk.

Tonight at Family Home Evening, Ben said that if the Bishop asked for one of our children to speak in Sacrament Meeting, he would recommend Missy since Kandy has already done it twice and Missy hasn't. Missy got a thoughtful expression on her face and said, after a moment, "I think it would make me a little embaraththed" (she has no front teeth).

Sunny quickly spoke out: "I want to talk in Thacrament Meeting!" (She has her teeth, she just has a lisp.)

Not to be outdone, Buster rejoined, "Talk Sac-a-ment!"

"Do you want to talk in Sacrament Meeting?" Ben asked.

"Uh-huh!" came the enthusiastic reply.

Oh, sure, Missy is the "shy" one, but only for a Kendrick.

---

Tonight Sunny didn't want to go to sleep. She did have a rather late nap, so we let her stay up for a while. About 10:15, Ben saw her yawn, and he mentioned it.

"That wasn't a yawn," she replied disdainfully, "that was a silent scream." After watching the weather, Ben saw her yawn again, and he called her on it.

"That was just a thing I do when I'm mad." Right. We turned out the lights and TV in the family room and left her there. She was asleep less than 10 minutes later.

Birthday Quotes and More

1.My birthday was last Sunday. As we were dishing up cake, Ben said, "The birthday girl gets cake first!"

"You're not a birthday girl," said Missy, "you're a birthday woman!"

---

2. While the kids were trying to pick which piece of cake they would like to get, Sunny piped up, "You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit!" Just a few minutes later, she started pouting because she didn't get the piece she wanted. When we reminded her what she had said, she said, "I was just kidding!"

---

3. This morning, Sunny was holding her bottom. "Do you need to go potty?" I asked.

"No," she answered.

"Are you afraid your bottom will fall off?" I continued.

"Yes!" she replied, giggling.

Tripping Midnight and Tickles

A new little cat has been adopting us. He absolutely loves to wind around our legs whenever we go outside. Because of this habit, we have decided to name him Tripp! Or, as Kandy calls him, Tripping Midnight. I don't want him inside, but I have no problem feeding him in the garage. (I know, famous last words.) Anyway, Sunny said, "I don't want to adopt him because he's too nice."

Overheard from the playroom:

Missy: I'm not ticklish there. I don't laugh when you tickle me. Well, I might chuckle a little, but I don't laugh.

(Does she know what chuckle means?)

Apples and Strawberries

Missy came home with a missing tooth today.
"How did it come out?" I asked, knowing it had only been a little loose.
"Apple!" came the answer.

---

Sunny spent a day with her grandma, "Bama," a few days ago. She told me a story, so I had her type it up for me:

The other day when I had Sunny here for lunch I made her a sandwich and then sliced some strawberries and placed them in a bowl next to her plate. After a little bit she turned to me and said, "Bama, I think I will like strawberries when I'm 5."

More Quotes

Sunny, about her pajamas: "This dress is perfect for princess and prince-ing. You can be the giant prince, and I will be the tiny princess."