Jodi’s World of Motherhood

I am somewhat moving my personal/family blogging over to a new site. It’s part of a new project I am trying where we do a sort of family journal/blog entry once a week during Family Home Evening. So if you want to keep track of what the Moores are up to … set your bookmarks, rss feeds, blog roll links, etc. over to http://mikeandjodimoore.blogspot.com

I may still post here occasional with my random thoughts about being a mom. But our family news, pictures, and events will be over on the new site. Enjoy!

Things have been pretty busy around here lately. I’m playing on two hockey teams and about to head to nationals with one of them this month. My food storage blog has really taken off (we’re talking 30,000+ visitors per month!). And the rest of life just keeps getting in the way of me updating this blog. Plus it doesn’t feel like that much exciting has happened. Anyway … today was exciting

Mikey’s First Piano Recital

About two weeks ago I decided to let Mikey start “piano lessons” so every day during Lexi’s nap he works with me on his little Alfred Books. He’s been doing an amazing job and really progressing. His biggest excitement was when he got to move from the black keys to the white keys. It made him feel very grown up. He curves his fingers so well, he knows about dynamics, he understands holding different notes for different values, he’s very intense about it, and he wants to pass a song every single day so he can get a Transformers sticker.

Well this morning, my sister (Jessica) and my mom did a piano recital for their students. I happened to mention to my mom how Mikey was doing really well with his piano already so she decided to include him on the recital. First he was really excited, then this morning when he found out he had to get dressed up he told me it was stupid and he didn’t want to do it. Then I told him he could play Wii at Grandma’s house after if he played and did a great job. That convinced him. He even decided he wanted to do it by himself without me doing the duet part. Brave kid. Anyway, we HAD to take a video of him for his first performance so here it is. I sure love this little guy and was VERY proud of him today

Warning: This post is a little churchy … you are forewarned!

So I have hemmed and hawed about New Year’s Resolutions this year. I always feel like they are a little silly, but it always seems like such a good idea to reevaluate your life and have some goals to improve yourself. Well so far I haven’t done much of anything but deliberate about it in my brain at 2:00 am when I can’t fall asleep. UNTIL YESTERDAY!

So my family was on our way out the door to hit the play place and get a treat, when my visiting teaching companion calls me and says “Are we still on for tonight?” CRAP it was my turn for the lesson too! So I rushed back inside and printed the lesson. I read it on the way to the play place, dropped off the family, and rushed back to pick up my companion. Well little did I know that as I was giving this lesson it would strike me so profoundly. If you haven’t read the lesson yet you can read the whole thing here. But here is the excerpt that inspired me:

Julie B. Beck, Relief Society general president: “Latter-day Saint women must be strong and immovable in their faith. They can and should excel in living and sharing their testimonies of the Lord Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. We do this as we:

1. Make and keep covenants with Him.
2. Are worthy and worship in His temples.
3. Study His doctrine in the scriptures and the words of prophets.
4. Qualify for, recognize, and follow the Holy Ghost.
5. Share and defend His gospel.
6. Participate in sincere personal and family prayer.
7. Have family home evening.
8. Live principles of self-reliance and provident living.

These are essential things which must be done before nonessential things. These are simple, indispensable practices that almost seem mundane. … No one can do these things for us—these are personal practices and habits that set us apart as strong and immovable for that which is correct.” (“What Latter-day Saint Women Do Best: Stand Strong and Immovable,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2007, 109–10).

It was like the Lord hand-wrote a list of New Year’s Resolutions for me. I am planning to work hard at all of these things this year (especially item #8 *wink wink*). If I remember to, I will try to share my progress with you on my blog. Although I stink at keeping it updated.

My 4-year old Mikey is quite the rascal sometimes. We are currently fighting with “potty language” and obedience among other things. But every so often he will surprise us with a cute sweet gesture and you remember what a good, loving, smart, helpful little kid he is. Here is an example from tonight:

Mike LOVES to help me set the table and his latest favorite thing is to always pull the food out of the microwave with hot pads and set it on the table (granted half the time it ends up on the floor first but he is TRYING to be helpful). So tonight I am making Kraft Dinner (last easy meal night before I have a husband to cook for again!) and Mikey was setting the table while I “cooked”. I noticed that he was putting out about 6 hot pads and I kept trying to tell him we only needed one. but he was insistent, so I let him do it. I finished cooking and brought the food over to the table and I cracked up at what I saw.

On each hot pad was a perfectly placed can of either fruit or vegetable. And one hot pad remained free for the Kraft Dinner. He even had a coaster for one can and he told me he had to use a tiny hot pad because he ran out of big ones. It was so cute. We didn’t even end up opening the cans during dinner as I already had had some leftovers in the fridge. But he sure was proud of being such a good big helper.

p.s. For any non-Canadians out there Kraft Dinner is just a fancy way of saying macaroni and cheese.

The day after i wrote this blog post Mikey tried to pull my tv dinner out of the microwave for me ...

Mikey has taken his drawings to a new level in the last few days. This morning he informed me that he is an artist. Here are are few of his drawings of late:

1. He drew each member of the family and wrote their names beside them. The people looked more like spiders (he gives them about 10 fingers on each hand and ten toes on each foot). He gave each person a different color of hair. He included our pets and they actually look like animals!

2. I was a bit cranky yesterday and apparently Mikey noticed. He drew a picture and showed me that it was a “mean mom” picture. I had a reeeeeeally long arm and he said it was so that I could spank him. And he drew him in his bed far away from my arm. Hahaha.

3. This morning he drew Lexi and I with our names. Then he made me write down everything that we eat for breakfast because he wanted to draw a checkmark beside the words. I wrote oatmeal, eggs & toast, pancakes, and cereal. Then he got frustrated because he couldn’t make a good checkmark, so I drew the checkmarks. Then he wanted to draw our whole family eating each of the foods for breakfast. But he couldn’t draw a good bowl so he made me draw a bowl but got mad when I drew the oatmeal in it because HE wanted to draw the oatmeal. He got 4 four bowls drawn and then told me I needed to draw each person eating the food with a spoon. I stink at drawing so all of these assignments were quite traumatic for me. But Mikey was happy, and after I drew two people he figured it out and drew the rest.

While drawing these pictures he also decided he should color his fingernails with the markers and then he wouldn’t wash them off because he thought his preschool friends would think they were soooo neat. That’s my little Mikey. Can’t believe he is 4 years old!

Mikey (almost 4) was playing with his sidewalk chalk while we were laying sod in our backyard. He comes over and asks his dad how to make a “U” so we go over to see what he’s up to and he has written the ENTIRE alphabet on our driveway and only got stuck on U and V. When he finished, he signed his name to his work of art

Lexi (just turned 2) has refused to learn how to get out of her crib on her own. I try to teach her how and she sits down and the mattress and says “I just can’t DO IT Mom”. So last night I held her on my lap at bedtime and we had this conversation:

Me: Should we get you a big kid bed?
Lexi: No way Mom.
Me: Why not?
Lexi: Because.
Me: Because why?
Lexi: Because I TEENY TINY Mommy!

If you have heard Lexi’s voice just imagine her saying that in her gravelly little voice with LOTS of emphasis on “teeny tiny”.

If I can snap a picture of Mikey’s alphabet and get a cute video of Lexi I will post them later.

If you want a laugh … check out my Easy Knitting blog post from yesterday. Mikey is at it again.

Since Mike’s birthday will ALWAYS be in August and he ALWAYS wants an ice cream cake … I am doomed to make this once per year. After 5 years of failed ice cream cakes I have finally fine-tuned the process, so at least now I don’t have to be embarrassed every year. I decided to document the process here in case anyone else has ever had the burning desire to make a homemade ice cream cake. Maybe after viewing this you will realize why Baskin Robbins charges so freaking much!

Here are the items you need to purchase:
- Devils food cake mix
- Cookies and cream ice cream (1 quart)
- Vanilla ice cream (1 pint is enough)
- 1 tub of chocolate frosting (for decorations)
- Whatever candles you desire (optional, but recommended)
- 2 cans of diet coke to keep you sane while you cook

Hope you had as much fun reading about my adventures as I had documenting them. If you try to make an ice cream cake using my directions I would LOVE to have you come back here and comment and let me know how it goes.

The Invitation
At church on Sunday, Mikey’s friend Matthew told him he would be invited to his birthday party on Friday. After church Mikey went running over to Matthew’s mom and said “Sister Larson, THANK YOU so much for INVENTING me! I’m so excited!”

The Anticipation
Every single morning this week Mikey comes upstairs and in to my room and says “Mom is it Friday yet?” and when I say no, not yet, he responds “But WHY? I want it to be Friday RIGHT NOW!”

The Presents
We went to the dollar store and I told Mikey he could pick out some things for Matthew. Mikey told me he wanted to get “a bubble machine for Matthew and a bubble machine for me”. I let him get ONE for Matthew and the other things he got were sidewalk chalk with a caterpillar chalk holder, and a gun that shoots bugs out of it. You’d think he was a little boy or something.

The Culmination
The big event was today. All day long Mikey told Lexi that she couldn’t come to the party because she had to have a nap (which was true) and Lexi was NOT happy about that. I picked Mikey up from the party and asked if he had fun, to which he replied “That was my BEST birthday EVER Mom!”

p.s. In this picture he had his face painted as a bear and his mouth is full of candy he got at the party. He was quite proud of himself.

Warning, this is a little bit crude but it’s out of the mouths of babes so I claim my own innocence.

Mikey has decided that when his underwear is stuck in his bum it is called a “wiener”. Now I have repeatedly tried to tell him that the correct word for this phenomenon is a “wedgie”. To which he proudly explains that “Uncle JEREMY says it is a WIENER”. Thanks Jer.

So I have tried to ignore this little quirk of in hopes that it would go away. However, at our family reunion an incident occurred which made it impossible to ignore any more. All the little kids were playing on one of those old swhirly spinner things at the playground (it was an old school playground) and all of a sudden Mikey yells “Wait a minute I have a huge wiener in my pants!” To which all the cousins look at him like he’s disgusting. Aunt Jasmine relayed this story to me (and she knows what he really means) so i asked her if she explained it to all of the people there and she got a sheepish look on her face and said “nope”. Thanks Jazzie.

So to any parents, cousins, parents of cousins, who may be reading this … Mikey thinks that a wiener is a wedgie. Please don’t think he was being gross He was just misinformed. hehe.

Today I finally made Mikey call Uncle Jeremy and clarify. This actually helped. Now he simply says “Mom I have a wedgie, but Jeremy used to call it a wiener, but now it’s called a wedgie”

I guess that is a little better. Maybe I just need to get him some bigger underwear