Straight from their mouths....

Completely clueless about smart phones, I called my brothers to get the low down on what they have.  Brad told me in July he'll be getting a Sprint droid when he starts his residency program at the U of U.  While it wasn't exactly what Brad said, this is what I thought I heard over the line, "I'm getting a Evil Android in July."  Huh.  This whole concept of Androids was like a foreign language, so I thought the name might be appropriate.  Too bad they're not that clever at Sprint and he's only getting EVO instead.

Zach's hair was getting crazy long before Christmas.  I pulled out the Flowbee and told them girls Zach was getting a hair cut.  Kaitlyn quickly gave me the 411 on what he needed.  "He needs a short cut too."

All throughout December the girls were singing Christmas song they learned in preschool or primary.  One of their favorites was Deck the Halls.  Brynn's rendition went like this, "Deck the halls with bally seasons! Fa la la la la, la la la la."  I explained to her and Kaitlyn that the words were really Deck the halls with boughs of holly.  Soon Kaitlyn was singing this "Deck the Halls with bows of Hollywood."

Matt walked into the room only to find Zach crunching and smashing his beloved Lego set he has just created. I told Matt how sorry I was. Matt remained calm while we pried Zach's hands from the pieces. Matt gave a wicked smile and said, "I might look alright on the outside, but I'm screaming inside."

What a whirlwind five days we spent with my parents. We were go, go, go the entire time. Just as we pulled away from the curb at the airport and waved goodbye as my parents walked inside, I asked the girls what there favorite part of Christmas was. Brynn quickly declared, "Playing with Grandpa's iPhone!" Reminded me of the time the kids loved the hotel swimming pool more than the amusement park.


New Year's Eve brought a slew of memorable quotes.

During an intense game of Poker Trey and I were in a bidding war over our hands.  After 45 dollars of chips were tossed down from each of us, we showed everyone our cards.  We both had Full Houses.  Trey exclaimed that he had won, but with only 2 kings and 3 threes, my 4 eights were a better hand.  As I saw my victory I screamed with excitement and told Trey unfortunately my hand was the winner.  As I gathered the chips Trey started to cry.  I had not meant to make him feel bad, but I had.  "Trey I'm sorry I won," I told him.  "Mom, it's not that you won, it's how you acted that made me feel bad."  Then came the whammy from my lips, "I'm not trying to be a mean mom, I'm just playing poker."  Sure makes sense why we are NOT encouraged to gamble!

As midnight quickly approached, we were trying to get in two more hands, allowing each of the kids to deal the cards twice.  With just four minutes until the ball dropped I told the kids to hurry so we could finish the game in time.  Rich grabbed the Dish Network remote and said, "We could just pause the ball dropping."  Not quite the same dear.

After we celebrated the New Year outside with poppers, sparklers and some sparkling apple juice, Rich called his family in Utah.  He happily announced, "We are one year ahead of you!"

Not to think we are so far ahead in Ohio, we laughed at the Mark Twain quote we heard the other day, "When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it's always twenty years behind the times."   I might have to agree....