Siri Humor and Other Randomness

When we recently upgraded our phones, we were excited to discover that we had the Siri app for the first time.   Siri, for those of you who aren't iPhone users, is an app that allows you to verbally ask questions and make requests.   Siri, in the form of an ever patient  female voice then responds to you.  It's great for asking directions, sending texts, or making phone calls hands-free in the car.  

Or if you are Adam, it's also great for asking  silly and rhetorical questions like, "Why are firetrucks red?"   Siri, with her unpredictable humor, sometimes has an awesome answer...

Ellie likes the humor too, however,  recently she has discovered a new favorite kind of request.



She asks Siri to show her pictures of cute baby animals.       

Following the request, we hear oohs and aahs!

After which she goes on immediately to her next request.   

 I have to admit that it's pretty hard to stay grumpy or mad with that kind of cuteness going on around me!   Leave it to Ellie to bring a smile to all of our faces!  

In other news on the home front....

Spencer is home for a little while and we finally got to celebrate his birthday.  

Cami is in the thick of AP exams and other stressors, but got asked to Mormon Prom today by her friend Rex. 

It had been discussed that they were going together weeks ago, but with MoPro happening this weekend, I guess he figured it was finally time to officially ask her.   

And with that...off I go to Spence's 3-year oncology check-up....stay tuned! 

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The Perfect Egg

When my kids were little, they were always saying things that made us smile.
Their cute pronunciations and funny interpretations of phrases were a source of entertainment for us for years.     I still love talking to toddlers and preschoolers just so I can hear them talk and very much look forward to babysitting grandkids someday!

The older the kids get though, the less entertained we are with what they say.   Mostly gone are the childlike pronunciations and the cutesy topics.  Instead I've got maturing kids who say exactly what's on their minds--for better or for worse.

That's why when I overheard Adam telling his sister the other day that he had played with a kid named Lucifer while at a friend's house, I couldn't stop laughing.   To his credit the kid's actual name, Luther, is not one you hear every day, but he still was so embarrassed that he'd remembered wrong.   I tried to stifle my laughter, but deep down inside I couldn't have been happier about his little memory slip.  It had been way too long that I'd been entertained in a truly childlike way like that.  

 On another note, Adam, in addition to being Lucifer's nicest friend,  is also a fried egg artist...

He was so proud of its perfect roundness and the Africa-like shape of the yolk,
that he was even willing to pose for a picture with it!  I considered listing it on ebay for thousands of dollars, but I ate it instead.



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This section is to help me remember some of the cute things the kids used to say.  

Emma would ask us for "purple orange juice" when she wanted grape juice and she always called Cami, "Sammy Ose".   She was also quite the toddler-aged singer who would belt out primary songs all day long...all remarkably in tune.   Spencer would tell us that he loved us a whole whole bunch and like a pecan.  He also would totally butcher the pronunciation of big words, while correctly using them in sentences.  We attributed it to his precocious and prolific reading habits.    Cami couldn't pronounce the "k" or "g" sounds, so she would come up to us and say, "Tami wants a tuddle," when she wanted to crawl in our laps and cuddle.  It took well into elementary school before she could say those guttural, back of the throat sounds.   Adam would throw things off the high chair over and over again, delightfully yelling, "Uh oh!" each and every time.    It was a game he never tired of.   And weirdly, while I'm sure that Ellie had her own cute little things she said, I cannot remember anything specific right now!  She was, however, constantly delighting us with her cheerful and extroverted personality.  She is a girl who has loved connecting with people from day one.

B-Y-me?!

Anyone who knows our family very well knows that we're as true blue BYU fans as they come. There's a giant Y painted in Spencer's BYU blue bedroom...a visit to the BYU bookstore and Creamery is an expected part of every trip to Utah... and each member of our family is required to have BYU clothing that fits them at every age.

Now that BYU football season has arrived once again, all household activities of the day need to be concluded before opening kick-off so that Glen doesn't miss a single play. Last night while Glen was running an errand shortly before the opening of the BYU-Tulsa game, the kids thought it would be really fun if everyone put on their BYU shirts and sang him the Cougar fight song as soon as he walked in the door (totally Cami and Emma's idea!)

I think it's kind of cute, so we put on our BYU garb and practiced singing the fight song for the next half hour while we waited for him to return from Safeway. As soon as he walked in the door I break into "Rise and shout the cougars are out..." with a low chorus of mumbling around me from Cam, Emma, Adam, & Ellie...until the very end, the only part they know well--the arm pumping and the "Rah rah rah rah rah....go Cougars!" when it got really loud and raucous!!!
As soon as they were finished with their rousing fight song rendition and Glen had showered them with the proper accolades, Emma declares, "I know why they sing rah rah rah in that song...it's because cougars say RAHR!"

Later on that night I am trying to teach Ellie the letters B-Y-U, using the plethora of shirts surrounding us as our blackboard. I say, "Look Ellie this is a B--see how it goes around and around like that." Then, "Look at this Y Ellie. It goes down like this and this."

She 's doing great, repeating after me, and tracing the letters on Adam's chest. Then we get to U. I say, "Look Ellie. This is a U..." With great surprise and enthusiasm she says, "Me?"

Hehe...no more letter teaching tonight!