so happy together

its been far too long, as usual. in all the crazy busyness of our lives, i've finally found a quiet moment. mostly, we've been enjoying the company of everyone in our little family. isaiah is continuing to be one big mouthy kid and there's no stopping him! :) it seems whenever we turn the radio on we hear from the backseat, "its my song!" and the thumping of tiny feet can be heard (and felt) against the backs of our seats. the more he grows, the more i see sam. at costco the other day, isaiah would run in front of unsuspecting passersby, stretch out his arms and legs and yell out, "STOP!!" its at this moment sam and i are struggling to keep a straight face in order to give him a good scolding, but isaiah sees the wavering and erupts into laughter. yes, he's acquired quite a twisted sense of humor, i'll admit. this morning we were on the freeway driving towards salt lake and isaiah insisted sam look back at something off the road. sam said he couldn't but isaiah didn't give up and became frustrated when sam wouldn't look back at him. so sam finally yelled back, "isaiah, i'm driving! i can't take my eyes off the road, do you want us to die?!" it was a couple seconds later, when isaiah had obviously given much thought to this statement and began singing/yelling out in reply, "I DON'T WANNA DIE! I DON'T WANNA DIE!" needless to say, isaiah has been experimenting a little more with his budding musical abilities. in sacrament a couple weeks ago during the closing hymn (if you could hie to kolob), isaiah began singing his version, "everybody's hustle-in, everybody's hustle-in..." its some crazy rap song...i have a vague idea of where he picks these crazy things up.;) even when he's singing his abc's "q,r,s, everybody's hustle-in, t,u,v..." however, i would like to point out, he does know "i love to see the temple" and "i'm a child of God" by heart. what a relief! he's a crazy ball of energy and i LOVE it! he is definitely my SUNSHINE! i've recently been wrestling with the idea of putting isaiah in summer preschool. i LOVE having him around and the more i can push back the inevitable first day of kindergarten...and the inevitable gush of tears, i will. BUT, he has been begging and begging me to go to school. reluctantly, i gave in and we'll be registering him next week. sam and i asked him why he thought he should be able to go to school and he confidently replied, "because, i'm a big man now." duh! well, he is potty-trained now (hooray!), i could see why he would jump to conclusions. whatever shall makayah and i do while he is gone? speaking of makayah, she has become isaiah's little parrot. he'll tell her to say something, and she'll repeat it as best she can. they think its the most hilarious game, the giggles go on forever. i'm so glad they get along. of course there are those instances when they do have their quarrels and makayah will become so frustrated she lets loose on isaiah and smacks him. sam and i don't let her get away with it. yes, she might be a girl, but girls have consequences too. so, as soon as she hits, sam and i tell her firmly, "TIME OUT!" her face falls and her tiny mouth crumples into the most pitiful frown she can muster, and she heads for the nearest corner. a second later she turns around and nods her head (meaning she's ready to say sorry) and bolts for isaiah to give him a hug and kiss. i watch them and thank the heavens for being the luckiest mommy alive. makayah can be one spicy diva to deal with, but the next minute she can be the most charming and sweetest little girl ever. she's already learned that all she needs to do to win her daddy over is cock her head against her shoulder, bat her eyes, and smile. to win me over, she'll put on her sad face and race over to my lap, snuggle her head into my neck, look up at me with her big beautiful eyes, and give me a slobbery kiss. its time's like these when i hear isaiah yell out from his room at bedtime, "cuddle me!" or when makayah wraps her tiny arms around my waist- fitting perfectly into my lap, that i want them to stay my small little babies forever. its always so bittersweet when they finally learn how to say the words right, or they phase out of their baby babble. i suppose thats why i continue to keep "woogly" in our everyday vocabulary. anyway, the past few weeks have gone by soooo fast! i can barely keep up with all thats gone on. a few weeks ago we had to make an emergency trip to arizona to see my brother, chris who is on sick leave from his mission in paraguay. thankfully he is recovering from his pneumonia and bronchitis and will be going back out into the mission field soon. this past week, i spent babysitting six children (four plus my two). WOW! i think four is a good number. i don't know how my mom kept track of us all! it didn't quite help that isaiah has a love/hate relationship with the youngest one his age. they are constantly arguing and tattling on each other, but can't be separated. ??? its baffling. this past weekend, we decided to just hang out as a family. that's one thing i truly love about sam is that he LOVES being with us all. he hates being at work or school or anywhere away from us for too long. of course, that does have its downsides....we can be very distracting when it comes to sam's LSAT studying or his vacation time. today was just such an example. i really needed sam's help today and he willingly offered to take work off to register isaiah for preschool even though it happened to be the wrong day. and since we were already in the car, we decided to keep driving on up to salt lake to have an adventure (sadly we forgot our camera). so we went to gateway and the discovery museum and the imax. we all had such a wonderful time screaming hello to strangers, making horror movies involving a lion, a monkey, and an alligator attacking a school teacher - and eating and spending a little too much (thanks to makayah who spilled chocolate milk all over her shirt on the way up-i'm sure she did it on purpose). anyway, i remember sam's grandma telling me a story of her late husband (sam's grandfather) and how they were so poor but he would use his last dollar to buy flowers for his wife and take her and the kids out to a movie. that story reminded me so much of sam. he is so spontaneous and sometimes a reckless spender...but it is always for a good cause. he always has the best of intentions! and you know, you can never have too much of a good time - and never too many good memories.