Dear Santa

Dear {fun-pretend} Santa,

I am writing this letter to let you know my opinion before you get a letter from my son, Roderic. He has been a pretty good boy this year. He has learned to play (a bit) with his little brother. He only occasionally gets so excited around his baby brother that he pats his head harder than I would like. When I ask him when he's going to learn to ride his bike without training wheels, he replies, "December 11." When I ask him when we're going to practice his violin, he replies, "Tomorrow." When I ask him to do his homework he says, "Later." He has started to read a verse or two from the Book of Mormon with us when we read as a family each night.

I believe Roderic is going to ask you for Legos, Legos and more Legos. Pirates, Star Wars, Toy Story, Atlantis, City any and all.

He loves to create and build and destroy and rebuild them. We have hundreds of pictures on our computer of his creations, so if they get ruined, he can recreate them. (I don't think he has yet asked to see a picture so he can recreate one, though.) He will happily play for hours with them, especially if it is bedtime and he's been sent to put on his pajamas. He goes to violin lessons each week so he can show his teacher how well he plays the violin builds with the Legos she has out for him during Sabrina's lesson.

They have become the bane of my existence. The stress of keeping all of the pieces so he can build the ships and vehicles and such weighs heavily upon me. I am even more stressed about them being left on the carpet for curious, crawling Leo to get his hands and mouth on. And then there is the whole sharing thing.

I can only hope that the letter you get from him is this:

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.

Sincerely,
Roderic

would you look at that gap!

I'll be prepping for more Legos, though. They're better than Magnetix, right?

Sincerely,
Malauna

Song Writer

Don't you cry Leo,
Don't you cry.
Mom will feed you laterrrrrrrrrrrrr.

(sung to a modified version of Rock-a-bye baby)

Hyrum is a musical child. He reminds me a lot of Sabrina at this age - although she always sang in primary and he only occasionally does. But boy does he sing and make up songs at home! Pitch, rhythm, phrasing to help calm a crying brother.

Missionary Zoo

Hyrum has been singing this primary song for the last week and a half. Finally, tonight, I coaxed him gently enough to get it on film.



If you're reading this in your email, you need to go to my blog malaunagibby.blogspot.com in order to see the video (it's worth it!)

I hope I'm going on a mission, to go to missionary zoo.
I hope I'm going on a mission, to go and go and go to missionary zoo.

Oh, how I love my Hyrum!

Busy Weekend

In costume and with pumpkins

Joy School Party

Leo gets another tooth (6!)

Sabrina receives her medal

Joy School Party. Field Trip to the Farmstead (pumpkin patch) 4 soccer games (1 tie, 2 wins, 1 loss - in that order) 2nd place medals around the neck. Monster Mash at the school. Carve pumpkins. Trunk or Treat (boys went with neighbors). Sick dog visit to the vet. She still won't eat - not even hot dogs, which I've heard is close to doggie nirvana. Activity Days trip to the Boise Philharmonsters concert. Little boy not feeling well (2 naps this afternoon). Crawling baby (see video below). Stake Conference - not sure if I'm going due to little boy not feeling well. End of Season pizza party. New tooth.

We're missing you, love!

Worse than puke

If you've ever wondered what is worse than cleaning up your child's puke, I have discovered it.

Dog vomit. All over the dog bed in the crate. Nasty stuff. And oh the smell. It was raining, so I couldn't hose it off and hang it up to dry, so I used our washing machine (I ran an empty cycle with bleach before using it on our clothes again) and then dried them in the garage.

Good news: Toto is now clean - thanks to the nice people at Petco. Bad news: she's still sick.

Happy Birthday Hyrum!

Low-key party to celebrate Hyrum's birthday. They played hide-n-seek, Wii bowling, ate lunch, opened presents and played with the remote-control cars he received. Such fun.

Four things I love about Hyrum:
1. He has a big, cheesy smile that he likes to share a lot.
2. He likes to sing all. the. time. Except for during the primary Sacrament meeting program, when he yawned a lot. But, he did stand and sit at the right times...
3. He 'reads' the Book of Mormon with us each night. My favorite part was when the Lamanites took their chickens with them to church to learn about Jesus. (3 Nephi 10:4-6)
4. He has an amazing imagination and he uses it.

Hyrum: "I want to be Commander Cody when I grow up. I'm a good clone trooper. I'm Commander Cody."
Dad: "Are you from Wyoming?"
Hyrum: "Well he's an actor. I don't want to be an actor. I want to be an actor, but I don't because I want to stay a Gibby. If I'm an actor, I can't be a Gibby...so...I'll be a construction worker."
Dad: "A construction worker?"
Hyrum: "Yeah, Construction workers can still be a Gibby!"

piles, piles, piles and more piles

I have piles All. Over. My. House.

On the kitchen table. On the kitchen counters. On the nightstands. On the bathroom counters. On the music room floor. On Leo's dresser. On the dryer. On the filing cabinet. On the family room floor. In the hall outside the mud room. On the printer. On the computer desk. On the floor next to my recliner. On the ironing board. (I'm not even going to mention the piles in the garage.) I don't want any of them! And yet, they're here...

When my mom was visiting over Memorial Day weekend, we tackled a few of them, however now more have taken root. Some people have told me that I shouldn't worry about them (or cleaning too much, in general) because I have a baby (and 3 other kids) to occupy my time. However, there is a "Dust Collector's" meeting on Thursday, November 4 and I resolve to have less stuff in my house by then!