Speaking of teeth...

Not to be left out of the events surrounding Emma's loose tooth, Dani told Jeremy a few days ago: "Grandma gave me a loose tooth. She put it in a jar for me and I LOVE IT!!"

Emma loses her first tooth - oh, the drama!!!

So if you ask Emma, she thought she would never finally lose a tooth. Here she is almost through first grade and everyone else in her class has been losing teeth since Kindergarten! Well yesterday her lucky day finally arrived and I'm sure we won't forget it!! Her front tooth has been loose for several weeks and for the past couple days has felt loose enough to pull out. But if any of you have spent any time around Emma, you know she is not only a borderline hypochondriac but she typically refuses to cooperate when it comes alleviating her pain (real or pretend). I have many not-so-fond memories of begging, bribing, threatening and eventually physically forcing her to take whatever medicine she needs. I remember the infamous sleepness night of insanity at Jen's house trying to get Emma to take cough medicine (not one of my better parenting moments as Jen and Ryanne would attest to); and then there was the time that I finally got Emma to take her Penicillin only to watch her gag it down and then up again along with a just eaten Wendy's burger and fries - ARGH!!!
But I digress... back to the drama at hand. When I came to school yesterday to volunteer, Emma informed me that her tooth hurt so much and was so loose that she was having a hard time eating. I spent her lunch and recess time doing my best (in between bouts of tears) to remove her tooth. That darn thing just didn't want to come out! It was so loose, it was bending forward and back, but no luck.
We checked it out after school and that evening, but Emma was not willing to subject herself to the pain required to pull it out. She'd rather complain about the pain her swollen gums were in. Oh, and did I mention she made a trip to the nurse's office at school after I left? The nurse consoled her and called me, but the nurse couldn't/wouldn't pull it out. This tooth was beginning to be a pain for all of us!
That night, Jeremy and I talked to her and made several deals to convince her to let us get it out. One being that if I couldn't get it out, she'd let Dad pull it out, but she insisted that I try first. The second deal being that she and Dad would go get popsicles once it was out. I tried to get it, but I couldn't get a good pull because Emma kept moving at the first sign of pain. Then, of course, she wouldn't let Jer touch it. So - here's where the questionable parenting begins - we finally held her down and Jeremy gave the tooth a good flick of his finger and out it came!! Emma was hysterical and had worked herself into such a frenzy that she ended up puking into her hand and rushing to the toilet. Meanwhile Jeremy and I were trying to find the tooth, which at first Jeremy had thought she'd swallowed. I had seen it come out instead of in her mouth so I knew it was on the bed somewhere. Once we found the tooth, Emma came out of the bathroom her face covered in tears, puke and blood. It was disgusting and hilarious (yeah, I know bad parents) but we couldn't help joking with the now smiling and toothless Emma that she looked like a vampire just finishing dinner.
We cleaned Emma up and all the while she's concerned about asking Natalie to borrow her toothfairy pillow. So I guess we didn't inflict too much lasting pyschological damage. And yes, she and Dad made a trip to HEB to get popsicles! She was so happy the rest of the night that we told her we thought maybe we'd pulled out the tooth that makes her grumpy! In fact, all day today she's been happy and cooperative. Could this grumpy tooth theory be true? Or was it just because the Toothfairy left her $5.00?!

What will she say next?

Either Dani is getting funnier or my memory is retaining more! Here are her latest adventures in the spoken word:

Yesterday evening as Jeremy and I and the neighbors were hanging out in our driveway watching the kids play, Dani decrees: "This is my day! I am the queen! Welcome to my castle!"

This afternoon Dani walks up to me and declares: "Mom, I'm hungry!" Then she makes something of emaciated-like face by pulling her lower eyelids and her cheeks down with her fingertips and finishes: "I think I need fresh meat!"

February - Where did it go?!

So I realized the only post I'd done for February was for Dani"isms". Lame, I know, since this is as close to a journal/family history I can manage. So before my memory disappears as fast as the month did, I'll try a recap.

The girls has three days off of at the beginning of February; so after returning from the cruise to take in one Friday of school, Natalie and Emma road-tripped with Grandma Susan and Keely to Dallas the following Monday. They spent the night in a hotel and then went to the King Tut exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art. They all loved it, but were a little disappointed to learn that they wouldn't actually see King Tut's sarcophagus as it's so valuable that it doesn't leave Egypt anymore. Grandma got in some good spoil-time too - the girls all came home with new outfits!


In keeping with the current trend of only going to school a couple times a week, a few days after they're return from Dallas - Natalie and Emma (and Jeremy) all came down with various versions of the FLU!! We had Natalie puking one day and then Emma crying from headaches and fever the next. Jeremy suffered through his in stoic silence. We think, though, that he actually had it the worst. He told me in the recovery phase that he thinks he actually was suffering from walking pnemonia. Not to be left out, Dani and I each took a glancing blow from Mr. Flu, but managed to walk away with only stuffy noses for a day or so.

For Valentine's Day we passed around the chocolates! Big Hershey's kisses and the standard heart-shaped box of chocolates made their way to our tummies! We spent the day helping out at the Checketts garage sale, and then Jeremy and I and Tim and Hilary split a babysitter and did dinner and a movie. We enjoyed a yummy dinner at the Texas Roadhouse, caught the 7:30 showing of Twilight (yeah, the guys too, and they enjoyed it) and then we finished off the "day of love" with more chocolate -one of our favorite desserts: the Chocolate Molten Lava Cake from Chili's. Mmm, mmm, mmm!

The third week of February got us back into the swing of school. Natalie and Emma attended all five days illness and vacation free! I played catch up on household chores (although it's hard to tell now!), and Emma and I had dentist appointments. Yeah, slow week if mention of the dentist makes it into your blog!

Actually that Friday night and Saturday morning was our Stake's annual Women's Conference. This conference is always inspiring. Friday evening I heard women of the stake tell about their various trials and how they were supported and strengthened by the Lord. While I have to admit it wasn't an evening of uplifting topics (divorce, joblessness, depression, disability, and death - yeah, it was a cry-fest) I did leave with deep feelings of gratitude and humility towards Heavenly Father. But finishing the night off with friends, great discussions, and Red Robin's fries and campfire sauce did make for a good evening.

On Saturday morning I returned to the conference with friends for some mini-classes, speakers and lunch. One of the classes was on food storage and breadmaking both of which have been on my goal-list for this year. I was also thoroughly fascinated by a sister who is a New Testament guru speak on the background and meaning of many of the subjects in the book of Revelation - all I can say is ah-ha and amazing!!!

This last week you would have most likely found me helping Hilary paint a military mural for the Army-themed youth conference next weekend. It turned out to be a lot bigger project than we'd anticipated painting three life-sized men in miliary fatigues holding an American flag. We finished last night and are satisfied and relieved to have it finished. Being the supportive friend that I am, I told Hilary next time she got a grandiose idea like this for another church project to call me - so I could talk her out of it!

When I wasn't learning the art to painting camoflauge, I was at the school watching Natalie's 5th grade musical performance entitled "The Magic Jukebox" and trying out chili at Emma's 1st grade chili cookoff (her class got the award for the "beanieist" chili!) Natalie's show featured various songs throughout the decades. There was everything from swing to the Twist, to Elvis impersonators, to the famous 80's hit "Footloose." Natalie took center stage for the 60's classics Locomotion and Dancin' in the Streets. She made good use of her halloween costume, a hippie, and showed us how to flip her straightened hair and hip-check her fellow dancers. Hopefully, I'll get the video posted soon.

For the last day of February (yesterday) the kids (yep, even little Sunbeam Dani) attended a primary activity where they learned about Nephi's travels from the setting of a large tent in the primary room and then built their own boats out of popsicle sticks. Emma actually chose to stay home and help Dad put up some molding in the den. He's using the molding to run his surround sound speaker wires to the back of the room so, after four years in this house, we can have true surround sound for our TV-watching pleasure. I have a feeling he's next going to ask for a flat-screen TV to go with this great new surround sound. I suppose it's a possibility if he keeps working as hard as he did this month at the practice. I think this last week was a practice-best for him in terms of patient load - 63 is his count. I'm so grateful that he's staying busy during these hard times and I praise the Lord for this and all our blessings.

Well until next month... or sooner if I can get my act together!

She's on a roll...

Okay, this week Dani has outdone herself in the Dani"ism" department (and my memory actually retained three of them long enough to blog them.)

After taking a swig of ice cold lemonade Dani declared: "Mom, my tounge is cold!"
"Mmm, hmm." I answer.
Then a few seconds later she continues: "Yeah, it's so cold it hurts! I think I need to go to the doctor to get a new tounge!"
(I guess "Elmo Goes to the Doctor" really made an impression.)

On Friday, Emma dressed up like a cowgirl for a Texas celebration her class was having. When Dani saw this, she too decided that she wanted to dress up like a cowgirl. So after already having put on her pink shorts and pink shirt, she throws on her red boots and her purple rodeo queen cowgirl hat and moseys on downstairs. She finds me in the kitchen and declares: "Mom, I'm a cowgirl! And Emma is a cowgirl too! And you are a Cow!!!"
(Umm, I'm sure she was just a little confused since I hadn't come down to breakfast with my boots and hat on too.)

Finally, yesterday at the Checketts I hear Dani upstairs say out of the blue to 10-year-old Berkeley: "Berkeley, do you want to eat a booger?"
To which Berkeley replies "Whhaat!?"
(Yes folks, this is one of those rare times when not actually "being there" may make the joke funnier! Imagination is a wonderful thing!)