Last night when I was on my moderate tirade about all the slacking that was going on, Lane could hardly contain a smile and a laugh. I was NOT about to ask him in that moment what he found humorous about it all. So I asked him later. "You looked so funny," was his answer.

"Mom, I know how to spell pernicious," Eliza disclosed at breakfast. "Really?" I queried. "P-e-r-n-i-c-i-o-u-s," she gave. "Where did you learn to spell pernicious?" I furthered. "Gabby's mom taught us memory strategies. I chose 'People eat ramen noodles in Canada. I often use spoons.' " Wow. Good morning!

Today I read Tacky the Penguin to Anna. As I closed the book, she said, "I'm a nice bird."

After recounting a humorous story from school, Peter concluded, "It just makes my funny bone stick out!"

I had just started reading my scriptures this morning in my room (still in my pjs and robe) when Anna knocked on my door. "Can I come in?" she asked in her morning voice. "Yes." I said. She walked in, heading straight to my lap. Spying a book nearby, she asked those words that often come out of her mouth first thing in the morning: "Can you read this to me?" Guess what the book was: Five Minutes' Peace. 

Don't you love being tongue-twisted as a mom? This morning I called out to Nate after dropping him off for school, "Call me on my cell phone, but call me twice in case I can't answer it the first time. Sometimes I just can't get it that fastly!"Fastly?!

Peter just came upstairs after waking up in the morning. "I just sounded out 'cupcakes:' c-u-p-c-a-t-i? No, e-s!"

ALL of our children have been in this trend the last few months of saying, "Yesssssss!" when they are excited about something, such as Sarah today: "Mom, can I have a donut?" (I give the affirmative answer...) "Yessssssss!" I think it is funny to hear everyone from Anna to Sarah use this expression. Guess it's the new "cool" for our family!

Julia: "Mommy, what do you do when you're on page 19 of a book that has 279 pages, and it's due in the morning?"

Rebecca: "READ."

We were looking at Jenny's blog and saw their family all dressed up as a farm family. I saw her husband's outfit and said, "What a hoot!" Anna asked, "Was he a hoot for Halloween?"