Kids say the darndest things!

I did have these stories on the previous post, but it didn't feel very organized to me that way, and it was bugging me. So I decided to make it separate.

I have to share a couple hilarious things Joni said after the Mayan the other day. She really had me and Tom laughing. Right after we left the restaurant, we decided to do a little shopping. When inside a nearby clothing store, Joni and Tom were sitting on some chairs together near the dressing rooms, waiting for me to pick some stuff out to try on. Nearby there were some pretty pink, lacy bras on the racks. Joni asked Tom, "Should we get mom one of those?" Tom said, "I don't know, why don't you go ask her." Brilliant, Tom... just brilliant.

So Joni goes running across the store to where I was and yelled loud enough for pretty much everyone there to hear, "Mommy! Do you want to buy one of those things to hold your 'oo-boos'?!?" (her word for boobs, by the way). I kind of froze, answered "no" and told her to go back to daddy.

Then about five minutes later she insists that she has to go potty. So while Jackson and I keep shopping, Tom takes her to the nearest bathroom, hurrying quickly because Joni insists that she is going to pee her pants. Apparently this is the conversation they had once they got in there:

Joni: "Dad, why is this bathroom different? Why is it black?"
Tom: "Well, that's just the way it is."
Joni: "I can't go potty in here. It's black. Black smells like poop!"
Tom: "Are you kidding me? I just brought you all the way here and you can't go potty because the bathroom is black?"
Joni didn't exactly answer the question... she just grinned from ear to ear.

She never did go potty, and for the record, the restroom wasn't stinky or anything... just black in color. I tried to talk to her once she got back to where I was, but she continued to insist that "black smells poopy" and she was NOT going to go potty in a black restroom.

The Mayan

Today we went to the Mayan to eat dinner as an early celebration for Mother's Day. For those of you who don't know, the Mayan is a one-of-a-kind restaurant that has fire-throwing "Mayan" divers that actually dive off fake cliffs, inside the restaurant, into water. Joni loves it there and we were wanting to do something fun and different tonight, so we drove up to Sandy for the evening.

Here is Joni getting a taste of her first Sprite, at least that we can remember. We didn't capture her delight on camera, but she was pretty pleased, to say the least.

We were lucky enough to be seated right up front where the show is, but it put us in the "wet zone." This sign was right in between mine and Joni's heads. I was half expecting something like what you experience at Sea World's dolphin show where you leave dripping from every hair, but it wasn't bad at all. When they turned the waterfalls on really hard we got a little damp from the mist, but that was about it.

I tried really hard to get good pictures of the divers' show, but it was so high and so dark, they didn't turn out. But here's a picture of one of the guys walking past our table.

Both kids couldn't have been happier. Joni got "cheesy noodles" and Jackson sucked on Tom's french-fries. Jackson showed us his I'm-thoroughly-excited sign by kicking and shaking through most of our time there.

Joni the beautician

In an effort to get rid of the last little bit of Jackson's cradle cap, I put olive oil in his hair last night. Then this morning while talking to my mom on the phone, I looked over at the kids and Joni was brushing Jackson's hair with a play hand broom. He really seemed to be enjoying it, so I let it be.


It actually turned out pretty darn cute in the end, if I do say so! I've never seen such a cute mohawk!

Also, just as a little side-note, I wanted to document something cute (and I'll be honest, a little annoying at times) thing that Joni ALWAYS says lately. EVERY SINGLE TIME I get off the phone with someone, Joni and I have the exact same conversation, and it goes something like this,

Joni: "Who was that?"
Me: "Grandma" (for example)
Joni: "What she says?"
Me: "Oh, she wanted to know if we're coming to visit this weekend."
Then Joni says in an extremely annoyed voice, "But mom! What is ALL she says?!?"... meaning she knows we talked a lot longer than the time it takes for grandma to say that one thing... she wants to know it ALL!

I just have to laugh because I do the exact same thing with Tom. Whenever he gets done with a long phone conversation with someone, I always ask what that person said. When he tries to give me a quick, one sentence answer, I have to probe further to get all the juicy details! :-) Like mother, like daughter, I guess.

Simply Gooorgeous!

Joni has been a dress-up girl for as long as she could walk. She loves it, and today is no exception. A few minutes ago she quietly went into her room, didn't make a sound, and came out looking like this a few minutes later, with a big grin on her face.

This outfit includes many layers - a Snow White dress, an old Cinderella skirt (inside-out), fairy wings, a froofy matted pink wig, a princess wand, sparkley pink purse, and don't forget her purple feather shoes.

Those were the days!

Everyone please forgive me while I take a trip down memory lane. I'm not feeling well today and taking full advantage of Tom's strict instructions to "take it easy". So I busted out my old photo albums and couldn't help but chuckle at the old pictures of me and my friends from back home. With the possibility of moving overseas becoming more real, it makes me wish I would have made more effort to take trips back home to see my beloved girlfriends, many of which I have known since I was a little girl. My friends were always such an enormous part of my life... whether we were making weekend trips to Salt Lake or just partying all night at a friend's house, we were always planning out what we were going to do next and how we were going to make it as fun as possible. There may be better pictures I could share, but these were the ones that really made me smile/laugh as I flipped through the album pages.

A few of my closest amigas: Me, Geana, Amy, Lori, and Amy (there were three of us Amys that did pretty much everything together - yup, a little confusing). If my memory serves me correctly (which it may not), both this one and the one below are at a going-away party that a good friend held for me and "Moyes" before we went away to Dixie. SO fun!

A few of mi amigos: Lyle, Gary, Tim, Ryan, Carson, and Steve.

This picture brings back a lot of fun memories. It is a bunch of us at Erin's house the day of (or after?) high school graduation. We stayed up all night long celebrating.... I have some choppy memories of a weird card game where everyone was making weird noises... or was it singing weird songs??? I can't quite remember. I do know we were all extremely sleep deprived and that everything was a little funnier than usual. I'm near the bottom left-hand corner with my mouth wide open.... not sure why... again, I'm sure it has something to do with sleep deprivation.

Avocados and ice cream anybody?

No, not together! They are Jackson's two latest foods, and he loved both of them! (For the record, Tom was the one who was naughty and gave him the last little stub of his ice cream cone - I would never do such a thing *wink*)

Here is Jackson just starting out with his avocado. It was pretty slippery so it kept popping out of his hands, but he didn't give up.

He kept waving his hands up and down, smacking the tray in between bites. He worked and worked at it until it was completely obliterated.

I got a side-shot, trying to get a good picture of his tongue but it didn't work. I never knew he had such a long tongue until he was trying to lick ice cream!

I had to include this picture because he was so excited about the ice cream that his feet were straight up in the air, and both his arms and legs were shaking (that's how we know he's truly excited).

Cousins Make My Kids Happy

My kids have been very lucky to have cousins their own age. Jackson has two cousins on my side of the family, and two cousins on Tom's side of the family. The picture above is Daniel (Kristin's), Jackson, and Lilly (Andrea's). The picture was taken this last weekend at the BBQ for Tom (all 3 of them are a little annoyed at the bright sun, which is why they're not looking too happy).

This is Jackson, Eva (Tara's), and Shaun David (Megan's), shortly after Shaun David's baby blessing this last Saturday.

This is Eva, Jackson, and Shaun David again, at the end of their stay this week. I really think Jackson is missing his cousins, which is what gave me the idea to do this post. He has been fussy ever since they left town. I thought several times as Jackson and Eva played together (quite well, actually) that they seemed to know each other. I think their sweet little spirits recognized each other and felt right at home. I hope they all turn out to be great friends, just as I am great friends with their parents. (I'm really missing them right now, by the way... wipe away tear, *sniff, sniff*)

And here is a picture that was taken at Easter of Joni and two of the cousins that are her age - Ava and Abby. Unfortunately we're missing one, Kendall, who was also born the same year but lives in Oregon. This picture demonstrates perfectly how much they love each other. They love to play together, and even call each other from time to time just to chat when they haven't seen each other in a while.