When my mother tells me to, quickly I obey!

I was talking to my mom on the phone yesterday. She told me I need to blog more. I started to complain because nothing interesting has happened recently. She said she didn't care. She said all I have to do is put cute pictures of my kids up and she'd be happy. So, that's what I'm doing. Here are some cute pictures of my kids from this past Sunday.

I love dioramas!!

A few weeks ago, Eli had a project in school. The assignment was to pick an animal that lives in Utah, find out some facts about that animal, and make a diorama depicting the animal's habitat. I was really excited about the project. Eli chose the cougar. Mike helped him do the research. I helped him with the diorama. It all worked out perfectly.

I blog about this not to brag about what an awesome job he did on it, but to brag about how proud I am that I didn't just jump in and do the whole diorama for him. I know that he's perfectly capable of doing it pretty much by himself. I just wanted to do the whole thing because I have always loved doing dioramas. I remember making them in school and I just wanted to relive those days.

Fortunately, I didn't. I let Eli help. He actually did a lot of work on it. He did all the cutting, gluing, arranging, and selecting of materials and pictures. I just cut out the cougars, helped him place and hold stuff while the glue dried, and kept him going on it. It was a really fun project to work on. I think next time he gets an assignment like this, he can just do it all on his own and I'll do my own diorama. Do you think his teacher will mind if I send it in to be graded?

Funny things

Yesterday I was having a conversation with Eli about nose picking. He's at that yucky stage where he picks his nose and then it bleeds and it's soooooo gross. I was reminding him that nose picking = gross buggers. So he said, in a very matter-of-fact way, "That's why they say 'Don't pick your nose!' " Then Leah exclaimed in a loud, happy voice, "I pick my nose EVERY DAY!"

Yesterday evening, I was helping Eli floss his teeth. I don't do this very often, so I think Leah was confused when she saw what I was doing. Here's the conversation we had:

L: What are you doing?

M: Flossing Eli's teeth.

L: Oh, are you a dentist or a mommy?

I wonder what she would have said had I told her I was a dentist.

Noah has developed some very nice manners. He's pretty good at saying please and thank you, especially when prompted. He also likes to encourage others to have good manners too. Whenever I burp and forget to say excuse me, he'll say, "Mee mee, Momma." (translation: Say excuse me, Mommy.) If I don't say it right away, he'll politely repeat himself until I do.