What kind of Grandma?

The other day, I was on the phone with my mom. The kids came in and asked who I was talking to. I said that I was talking to Grandma. One of the kids responded, "What kind of Grandma?" It was cute.

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Doing Laundry

My kids are two of the best little helpers in the world. They help me with all the house chores - and are pretty darn good at some of them, too. They are especially good at laundry. They could almost do the laundry all by themselves!

This is a cute video of Michael doing laundry all by himself - with a little audio added :) It sure is hard work when you're only three!

The video was a tad bit too big to put on the blog directly, so just click on this link to watch it on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDakzhyevM8

Hiding presents

The kids bought me Beauty and the Beast today for my birthday This is them hiding my present in between them. They were very careful to make sure I did't see it :)

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Choose The Right

Our church frequently used an acronym - CTR - for "choose the right." We had a family lesson about choosing the right tonight, culminating in the kids getting necklaces with CTR on them. They were very excited. Little Michael especially likes that his is just like Uncle Josh's dog tags.

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It's in the genes...

Part I: When I was about 19, I was good friends with my now-husband, Michael, and his older sister, Rebecca. One evening, after institute, a large group of us went over to their house to watch a movie. Several of their younger siblings were also scattered throughout the living room for this cinematic event. At one point during the movie, we heard a loud, clear whistle come from down the hall. All of a sudden, with no explanation, all of the Shurtleff children in the room, both young and old, jumped up and ran down the hall to their parents' room.

The rest of us sat in stunned confusion as to what phenomenon had just occurred. It was later explained, and I later became familiar with the custom, that when Dad Shurtleff whistled, the kids all came. This call was effective in retrieving children for dinner, at the park if they were far away, or any of various other situations - Dad whistled, kids came.

Part II: Michael's younger brother, Josh, has been staying with us for the summer. A couple of days ago, Michael wanted Josh to come upstairs from the basement. He turned to me and smiled, "Let's see if this works." And he proceeded to whistle, as close to his dad's whistle as he could. Of course, Josh, being the little brother he is, purposely ignored Michael's call. However, not but a few seconds later, our little Michael came bounding down the hall and said, "Daddy, do you need something?"

So I guess it's just in the genes...

Hymn Number What?

I play the organ during church, so I spend most of Sacrament Meeting watching my family from a distance. I have noticed that Becca likes to sing hymns (very loudly, I might add) and is assisted by Mike, who whispers the words in her ear.

Today, during one of the hymns, I noticed that Mike had taken Michael out, and Becca was left alone on the pew. I was busy playing, but suddenly, through the noise of the organ and the singing, I could hear my little Becca sobbing and crying, but I couldn't hear why. Finally, a sweet lady sitting behind her picked Becca up and held her until Mike got back. I later found out why Becca was so heartbroken: she didn't know which page the hymn was on.

"The Friend"

Our church publishes a magazine for kids called "The Friend". It includes lots of short stories that teach kids good principles.

One such snippet included a picture of a girl, holding a candy bar outside a store and looking troubled. I asked the kids why she was sad and helped them notice the candy bar. Becca figured out first that she was sad "because she didn't have any money," and I asked if maybe she took the candy when she wasn't supposed to. I then asked the kids what she should do now. Little Michael's response was worth remembering: "She should give it to us." Then I asked if maybe she should take it back to the store. Michael agreed, but added, "Yeah, she should take it back to the store, so we can buy it."