Tyler's teeth

When Tyler and Mason were still very small. There was a size issue. Mason, whom I believe was around 4 or 5 was a big boy! Tyler who as around three was a little boy with a big desire to play. When Tyler got excited, he did not just run around, be would bite! We were in the family room at Grandma Murdock's and Mason was on the couch wailing and wadding up his feet and arms to make himself into a small ball , at least as small as his big body could. Tyler was trying to play, but with his teeth, daddy, with his teeth. All Tyler had to do to get Mason to play (yell at the top of his lungs) was run toward him. Tyler never did actually make contact on that occasion, but Mason was going to mention it to somebody! Mason was on the receiving end of those teeth one too many times. Just a note: Tiffy was mortified that Tyler was running around biting cousins and Aunts and brothers and anyone for that matter.

The BEST swing set ever!

When Tiffy was a little girl, she was quiet. She was just gentle. As the story goes, I believe that someone at church was asking the kids what they were hoping to get for Christmas, or a birthday or something. Well, little Tiffy responded in front of Dad, "My Daddy's going to buy me a swing set." Dad - the softy - did just that. But Dad did not just get a typical backyard swing set with 2 swings and a three foot slide. No my dad brought home play ground quality swing set jungle gym equipment. It had 15 foot high swings and 10 foot monkey bars. It had Olympic style silver swivel rings and a tweety bird bar on chains . We used to swing off of it from our knees. It had a yellow glider on one side that had black sponge pads at the back. You know, the kind that keep you from actually knocking out the teeth of the dumb kid who walked behind the thing when it was going at full tilt. It even had fireman polls. (not actually,because they were the support beams and they were on an angle, but we could slide down them just the same). It was the BEST swing set ever. Thanks Tiffy! (Thanks Dad too)

I'm funny!

I have to brag. Natelle loves me best! She makes people really WORK to get a laugh out of her. But, not me. She just looks at me and expects to be entertained. Even if I am not looking or talking to her, she knows I am funny and will sometimes laugh, just because. I am told by her Mom that Natelle gets as excited to see Auntie Tara as she does to see Grandma. Yeah ME! And it is because I am delightful, not because I am funny looking!

Jannie - Big eyed story teller

When Jannie was a little girl, she was very good at inventing stories to tell. Actually she just loved to tell, anything at all. It could be real or imagined or just items in the room. A friend of mine lived around the corner. They were the Price family. Brother John Price just loved to listen to Jannie. She could go on and on. When asked why he loved to hear her talk he said something to effect that Jannie could be telling a story about the three little pigs, but somehow the clock that was on the wall would play a big role in the story and the cup that was on the counter would turn into a hero.... and so on. Jannie would incorporate an entire room full of items into every account. Everything she saw with her big story teller eyes went into her narrative.

Encyclopedia Jayson

Jayson was a bit of a wonder. I remember seeing him sitting in his room at that metal desk, reading an encyclopedia. This was fun?

Moon Balls - How Sweet!

When we were young, Jayson, Aaron, Tara and Summer would go to Grandma Natelle's kitchen. She loved us so much that she would not think of giving us cookies with sugar in them. We would go over to Grandma's house and sit up the the counter in the kitchen and wait for the wonderful treats she made just for us! She had made us Moon Balls. Oh how sweet they were. Just Yummy! We could not wait to get more.

After Grandma Natelle passed away, Aaron found the Moon Balls recipe. Elation! We were about to have the yummiest snack of all! So Aaron and I made up a BIG, BIG batch of dough. We rolled out the balls of sweet peanut butter. But we knew what a savory treat they were, so we doubled, no tripled the size of the moon balls. When they had set for a half an hour or so, it was time to sample our delectable treats.

I could not wait! I took a huge bite of the round ball of peanut butter sweetness and began to chew it up fast, so I could get another one before everyone else ate them all. But what was this....This was NOT the moon balls that Grandma made. These tasted of nasty powdered milk and it stuck to the entire mouth cavity, under the tongue, roof, back of molars, everywhere! I ran to the trash can and spat it out, but it did not all come out! I ran to the sink and ran the water into my mouth straight from the tap. Rinse, swish, SPIT...Repeat. REPEAT again! These were awful! How on earth could this be the same treat that Grandma Natelle made. I accused Aaron of not finding the right recipe or at least reading it WRONG! He assured me that we had followed the recipe precisely.

But alas... the light dawned on me. The only reason Grandma's Moon Balls tasted good was because we were not eating Peanut Butter with honey and powdered milk. We were eating Grandma's love. How sweet it was!

Fits of laughter-- Ice Man?

When Chance and I were dating, I brought him over to play games with the fam. We were having a riotous time. We invited Chance to play King Buck with us. This is the ultimate game of charades. The object is to knock the "King" out of the number one spot by making him mess up with his animal charade. Everyone was playing their character quite well, and the game was speeding up. We had all sorts of animals, elephant, chipmunk, mosquito, fish, turtle, turkey...and so on. Now, Chance was a very serious young man. He would barely crack a smile. When he was relaxing, he would stand in the military "at ease" position. You know the one, hands behind the back with clasped fists and feet shoulder width apart. Well, someone was playing their animal really well, and it caught Chance by surprise. He started to laugh. Not just a light ha ha either. It was a belly buster. When Chance was in mid laugh, he hiccuped, followed by a burp! What! Now everyone was laughing. And Chance continued to hiccup-burp the more he laughed. This was just too good. The ice man cracked. There was not a dry eye anywhere in the room. Just fits of laughter. Who knew! This is when we began to see the real Chance.

Jealousy

Sweet little 7 month old Natelle was at Grandma’s (the OTHER grandma) and was at the end of a good day full of games and friends. When I came to get her, she was sitting on the floor. Her grandma picked her up and said, “Do you see your mommy? Say hi!” She was so nonchalant about my presence, virtually ignoring me… that is until my brother-in-law said hello and gave me a hug. Instantly she furrowed her brow and yelled a loud, nasal “Eeehhhh!” She kept hollering until I took her. The moment she was in my arms, she turned and smugly looked down on everyone almost as if to say, “See? She came to see ME. All her love and affection is for ME.” I’d never seen her act like that! The little green jealousy monster suddenly came out!

"I Stuck!"

I don't know the whole story - but I DO know that Mason was trying to get away from Charity and she gently but firmly held on to his wrist. He started wringing his hand in her grasp. Disgruntled and slightly cranky he said, "Aunt Charity, let go! Let go, let go! Aunt Charity, I stuck!"

Not bothered or burnt

Sidney Jade was about five. As a family we had gone to the beach in California. It was summer time and a nice day, we had fun, but it was time to go. We were walking across a large sand dune, toward our cars. We got about half way across when we realized this was Really HOT sand. It was not just warm, we were burning our feet! Chance, Drex and Tara began to run to the grassy patch a few yards ahead. We jumped onto the grass and could almost hear the sizzle of our feet on the moist, plump, green grass. We looked around to see where Sidney Jade was. She was still walking across the sand at a leisurely pace, not bothered or burnt by the scorching sand. How did she do that?

You ought to start wearing clear

On Drex's last day of Kindergarten, he rode the bus home. He asked the bus driver (who was a male) if he had any lipstick on. When the driver said in a teasing way, "Oh, not much", Drex said in a very matter of fact tone, "You ought to start wearing clear."

Choice time

When Drex went to his first day of kindergarten, Tara wanted a full report on his day. His response was "I am reporting to you all of my favorite things of school." "My first day of school I could play in my classroom and that I could learn. We had a fun time. I made a lot of good friends. I would play with them every day and it is a choice time."

Milk the Cow

Sidney Jade went on a class field trip when she was 5. She went to Dugan's Dairy. The farm hands gave a little presentation on what it is like to milk a cow. Then they let all of the kids try it. Sidney Jade was so excited to give milking a try. She gave a couple of good pulls on the udder and then was DONE! She then looked at me and said, "Yuck!"

The Christus

Sidney Jade was about a year and a half when we went to Nauvoo, Illinois with the Charltons. Sidney Jade was into as much stuff as she could. We had gone to the visitor center and were looking at the pictures and other displays, but Sidney Jade kept running over to the Christus. She just kept pointing up to it and loving it. Sometimes we need to see the important things, instead of just seeing things. We learned what was important to a little girl that day. The Savior.

Doo on You

When Sidney Jade was about 3 years old, there was a popular cartoon movie called "Ice Age". In the movie, some Dodo birds are trying to save the "last melon" for their food storage. A woolly mammoth, a sloth and a saber tooth tiger end up breaking the melon. The Dodo birds advanced on the three unlikely friends chanting "Doom on You, Doom on you, Doom on you." Sidneyjade had enjoyed this movie several times. In her play, she had found a bunch of zoo animals, not more than a few inches high. She lined them and then grabbed the end one and began to chant, "Doo on you! Doo on you! Doo on you!" as she crushed each animal's head, knocking them onto their side.

Don't drop the Baby

Drex was almost four years old when his sister SidneyJade was born. Drex loved being the big brother and helping out. One time SidneyJade was crying. Drex, the big helper that he is, went over to her and picked her up. He then proceeded to take her down the hall to her room. He was going to put her to bed. "AAAAahhh! Don't pick up the baby! You might trip or drop her!" Tara told him. But he just kept at it. Helping... By the way, he never did drop the little girl, even when she was TOO big for him to carry.

Moo...Oink

Drex was about 20 month old. We had gone trick-or-treating at the Fiesta mall. After we finished, we took a look in the pet store. Drex saw some Ginni pigs. He kept calling them cows and saying "moo" to them.

Drex and Katie

When Drex was four yeas old, Tara went to a Home Making night (they were called that before they were Enrichment night). Drex went to the nursery that was provided where he had some friends. One particular little girl was named Katie. She had long blond hair and blue eyes, quiet a pretty little girl. When Tara came to pick him up, Katie's mom was there. Apparently, when she had picked up Katie, Drex came running over to her, Put his arm around Katie's shoulders and Kissed her on the cheek. He said, "She's my favorite!" and ran off to play. Katie had a horrified look on her face. She had been kissed by a boy. She looked at her Mom and plead, "Don't tell Daddy!"

Black Eye

In may of 1999, Drex was rough-housing around Aunt Sundee. Well he decided to "dive" into her. He did not take into account that he would not win a fight with Aunt Sundee's elbow. He got a black eye.

Sassire

When Drex was a little, little boy, he just loved his Pacifier. But Drex could not pronounce it correctly. So he called it his "sassire". He was not allowed to have the pacifier off of his bed after he was about 2 and a half. So we would find him sitting on his bed with his "sassire" in his mouth, looking at a book. The best ones were when Drex was missing. We would go looking to see what mischief he was into and would find him asleep on his bed, sucking on his "sassire" with his Buddy Bear and blanket.

Ninja Turtles

Last October, Boston's friend gave him a Ninja Turtle action figure for his birthday. It was Michelangelo or Mikey for short. Shortly after that, the boys found the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series on TV (Boston figured how to search for shows on the Tivo) and learned that there was a Donny (Donnetello) and a Raf (Rafael) Ninja Turtle as well. But for a long time nobody could catch what the fourth Ninja Turtle's name was. Then one day Tyler came running into my room calling out, "Mom, mom, I found out what the other Ninja Turtle's name is!"

"Really?" I said, "What is it?"

"His name is Crap!"

"It is?" I said. "How did you figure that out?"

"Because after the thing blew up, Mikey said to the other Ninja Turtle, 'Crap, what happened?' And so that's how I know his name is Crap!"

(For all of you who are dying to know, we have since discovered that Crap's real name is Leonardo or Leo for short and I am guessing that Mikey probably didn't use the word crap, but since Tyler's mom does from time to time, that is what Tyler thought he heard)

Cranky Pants

Sundee and Brice were making the long trip from Missouri to Arizona with Mallorie, their baby at the time. Brice was in one car while Sundee had the baby in the other car. Sundee decided to call Mom to pass the time or stay awake or something, and while they were talking, little restless Mallorie was getting sick of her car seat and complaining loudly (like babies do). While Sundee tried to talk over Mallorie’s hollering, she finally said, “Well if CRANKY PANTS here would just…” and she had Mom laughing so hard! Since then, any fussy child is pretty much given the Cranky Pants title.

Eh, Eh, EEEEHHHH!!!

We took a family trip to Nauvoo to see Summer perform when she was on her singing mission. We were having lunch on an old wooden picnic table and bench when little 3 year old Drex decided to get down. As he slid off, the corner of the rotting wooden bench scraped a jagged cut clean up his shin. He hollered, “Eh, eh, EEEEHHHH!!!” arching his little back with each beller.

The sight of this little body arching and “EH”ing was hilarious and the whole family burst into laughter… all except sweet Grandma (Mom) who managed to keep the laughter away, but couldn’t quite wipe the smirk off her face.

“It’s NOT FUNNY!” Drex scolded. We laughed harder. Grandma held Drex to comfort him because he wouldn’t go to his mom (Tara) – she was laughing to hard to even breathe, and that made him all the more cranky.

The Bin Train

The Hills and the Holdaways came out to Arizona for my wedding. While we were going through all the plans, the kids tried to entertain themselves. Mason and Boston found some empty plastic bins that were used to store decorations. They each excitedly got into one! They wanted to give each other rides, but they also wanted a ride themselves. And a solution was born. Boston held onto Mason’s bin while Mason kept his knees inside and used his hands to pull both bins across the tile floor. It was slow going, but wide grins spread across their faces anyway. Then they switched. Mason held Boston's bin while Boston pulled them across the floor. Every now and again, the one riding in the caboose would yell “Choo! Choo!”

Aunt Jannie's Not a Stranger!

On a holiday break from college, I came down to visit the family. When I was at Sundee’s house, I saw little Georgia – so cute, so tiny, too young to remember me, but surely she must love me anyway! I held out my arms and said playfully “Come ‘ere!” With a grimace she yelled “No!” and started to march away. Angrily Sundee picked her up saying, “You don’t say no like that to your Aunt Jannie!” Then she put Georgia in my arms and walked away. I smiled at Georgia, unsure of how good of an idea this was. Georgia took one look at me, our faces just a few inches apart, her mouth turned to the deepest frown and she began to wail in my face, “waaaaAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!”

Babies!

When Summer was expecting Mason and was starting to show a little pregnant tummy, Jessica was jumping around and bonked into her. Lovingly Summer started to explain why Jess needed to be a little more careful. “See my round tummy? There’s a baby growing in there.” In awe Jess replied, “A baby in there?” “That’s right,” Summer stated. Little Jessica ran to her grandpa (Dad), pointed to his stomach and said “Baby in there?” Dad trying to rescue his pride sucked in his stomach. But the damage was done.

Spider Webs?

One day Matthew was looking up at his dad, Aaron. Looking a little perplexed he told Aaron, “You have spider webs in your nose.”

And the Winner is...

This was a seriously tough contest! They were all so creative - I couldn't choose alone. So, with a panel of judges and a big deep breath, one fantastic entry squeaked into first place. And the winner is...

...drum roll please...

TIFFANY!!! Tiffany has the winning entry! A big round of applause for our Winner!!!

(...Yooooouuuuu're the weeeener! Yooooouuuuu're the weeeener!...)

Lets have another round of applause for our very close runners up - in no particular order:

SUMMER!

(...YAY! HOORAY! BRAVO!...)

SUNDEE
(...OOO! AHHH! FABULOUS!...)

SUNDEE (2nd Entry)

(...AAAA!!! DOG TRIED TO BITE ME WITH HIS TEETH! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!...)

TARA

(...WOW! AMAZING! FANTASTIC!...actually, the little catch phrase is really clever!...)

and last but not least, the unofficial non-entry

JANNIE'S COMBO!

I tried to take everyone's fabulous ideas and put it into one picture... I'm pretty proud of myself... no, no, I don't have time for autographs...

A big THANK YOU to everyone who participated!

Because I Love You

4-year old Georgia was chasing 7-year old Mallorie through the house. Mallorie ran into her room and slammed the door behind her. Georgia, upon reaching the slammed door began banging her fists against it and yelled out,"MALLORIE! OPEN THIS DOOR! (then sudden sweet voice) because I love you!"