How Our Kids Swear

Conversation in the car this morning...

HENRY: Dad, you know what I say if I get disappointed? I say, "Aw, jackrabbits!"

DAD: That's a good thing to say.

ANSEL: Yeah, and you know what I say? I say, "Oh, geez! I'm gonna kick their butts!"

Halloween

A ninja, Hannah Montana, and Super Why.

Representative Henry

Henry was elected to his student council on Wednesday!

Each class elected one boy and one girl. He was the only boy who prepared the mandatory campaign speech, so he won by default. But we’re sure he would have won anyway. We hear he has a strong female base. Here’s a transcript of the speech he wrote (with a little help from Greg and me):

"When I am elected to student council, I will have promises to keep. I can’t promise to change the water fountains into root beer fountains. Or to give us longer recesses. Or to send a note home to your parents saying we have the rest of the month off. But I can promise to be your friend. And as your friend, I can take your ideas to the principal. That’s what a friend would do. And that’s what I will do for you. Vote Henry Christensen!"

More at Four

One of the traditions in our family is our wooden birthday wheel. The numbers in the center change. Ansel got the #4 wizard this year.

Donuts are starting to be a tradition. And a welcome one, at that.

Ansel Turns 4!

Ansel turned 4 last Monday. Check out this sweet present.

The Texas State Fair

Last night we went to the Texas State Fair. It was huge! Of course it is - it's in Texas. Here we are in front of Big Tex, the landmark annual greater.

We go to the fair to ride a ride and get something fried. This is me with a fried s'more. We also tried the fried Frito pie. If we weren't Mormons, I'm sure we would have tried the fried beer and fried margaritas. But I'm sure fried s'mores is a borderline Word of Wisdom violator.

Elsa and Ansel didn't want to ride the ferris wheel, but loved climbing the flag poles. Maybe because the lines are shorter for the flagpoles.

Every year at the fair, there's a butter sculpture. This year, it was of an Oklahoma Sooner about to tackle a Texas Longhorn with the ball. (The Cotton Bowl is on the fairgrounds, and the OU/Texas rivalry makes BYU/Utah look like a tickle fight.) Apparently, Henry's not ready to put that on his pancakes.

School Fair

We went to the school fair yesterday for a few hours of free snow cones and horse shoe tossing.

Elsa stood in line for about a half hour to get her face painted. When she came back, we thought it was with a cute pink balloon on her cheek. But it turned out to be a skull.

Elsa's New Mustache

Dad's Home!

Greg spent the last two weeks in LA shooting the Christmas commercials for The Home Depot. We're really glad he's back. Two weeks is a long time.

We're glad he got to visit with his family, though. His sister Liz lives in Irvine with her husband Mark. And his other sister Amelia surprised him by flying down from Seattle. We're jealous we didn't get to see them, too!

Sisters

These girls really love each other. It's sweet.

Creepy Crows!

We went to Target the other night, and the parking lot was straight out of Hitchcock.

We didn't want to get out of the car! They were on the cars, the carts, the signs! But as soon as we came out of the store, they were all gone. Weird.

I Call Her Gorgeous!

My friend came over to take pictures of Louisa this morning. She did a most fabulous job.

Transition-Texas Style

"Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible."

We're already three weeks into the school year. Henry and Elsa are doing well. I bet I could even go so far as saying they enjoy it.

I was excited to hear that they still say the pledge of allegiance every morning. And, surprised that after that, they say the pledge of Texas. Then the pledge to Hickey Elementary. Then a moment of silence. I think they need it after all of those commitments!

Hermine makes us green!

Hurricane Hermine was downgraded to a tropical storm. But she is still hitting us hard! Our backyard looks like the Everglades, and our pool is green!

The pool service was scheduled to come out today, but I think they'll just wait until Hermine stops weeping her green tears and moves on.

Greg is a champion!

Greg did his first triathlon on Labor Day. It was fun to watch him. Henry was a fantastic cheerleader, yelling things like, "You're a man! A man, I tell you!" and "Keep swimming! Don't let your fear drag behind you!"

First Day of Preschool!

Today was Ansel's first day of preschool. He was so excited to go, we couldn't get out of the house fast enough. Here he is with his teacher.

A couple days ago, he started to insist that he wasn't going to go and he wasn't going to like it. But when we went to orientation, he started enthusiastically whispering, "Mom, it's great! It's great, Mom!"

We Love Ice Cream

Uninvited guest

Our home teachers gave us a hummingbird feeder last week. The kids love seeing the birds come and go outside our kitchen window. Sunday afternoon, however, we had a different animal at the feeder. I'm still not sure how it got there.

Henry's Sunday morning

Focus!

Ansel knows we need to focus when we visit The Home Depot.

And Elsa needs to focus on not burping so much.