The Rowland Family: CHRISTMAS!

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

CHRISTMAS!

The kids on Christmas morning.

I wish I had taken more pictures!!

A week before Christmas we had a Christmas dinner with Bryan's parents and his side of the family. Kim, Marlene, Grandpa Oscar, Shawn, Mady, Erik, Moana, Kiah, Krew and Kobe were there. Marlene had prepared a delicious meal that we all enjoyed at the house in Sugar House on Ramona Ave. (we refer to it as the Ramona house). Afterwards we went to see the lights at temple square (should I admit that Cecily threw a huge fit and kind of ruined it for all of us?) But after that we went back to the Ramona House and Grandma and Grandpa let the kids open a few of their presents. Kid Snuggies! and cool lasers for the boys.

On Christmas Eve we were lucky to enjoy another Christmas dinner this time at my parents house. Bryan made the famous Rowland beans and everyone brought something or other. My mom had the house decorated very beautifully and had put a lot of work into the dinner. I thought a lot about how grateful I was that my dad was there with a good prognosis for his cancer being gone. He even has peach fuzz hair growing back on his head! The last time we were all together as family at his house he had just been diagnosed. We didn't know what the road ahead would bring but knew that it would be hard. This time we were all together with most of that road behind us and it felt good.

We reminisced about our trip to England and shared some funny driving stories with my Mom and Dad, Melissa and Allen because they weren't on the trip. We laughed really hard remembering how we all tried to keep four cars together on those crazy London streets.

We have been able to get some skiing in and the kids enjoy that as well as suiting up and sledding in the back yard. They like to come inside when they are done and Bentley mixes up some hot chocolate for the two of them. I love to see them play nicely like that together!

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KID'S QUOTES

June 11, 2014:
Bentley commenting on his new backpacking shirt with microbial treatment, "Wow that shirt works, my arm pits don't even stink."

June 4, 2014:

Cecily: "You know what would be the best white elephant gift?"

Me: "No, what?"

Cecily: "An actual real white elephant. Now that would be a surprise."

August 2011:
On the day that Cecily and I met her 2nd grade teacher at back to school night Cecily had the following to say:

"I thought she would look different. She is not very old... It doesn't look like she is married yet. She's probably just dating on the weekends."

May 2011:

Bentley loves to watch 'America's Funniest Home Videos'

Cecily HATES it.

One night when he wanted to watch it Cecily strongly voiced how she did not want to watch it.

Bentley shot back with:

"You don't even know what it is."

To wich Cecily replied:

"Yes I do, its when people break their arms and legs!"

October 16th 2010:

At breakfast this morning Cecily asked if we had any chocolate in the house. Then Bentley said; "Cecily you need to lay down on the chocolate." (I think he meant to say lay off the chocolate). Ha ha ha!

March 12th, 2010:

"I don't mind wearing the same pants again. In cowboy times they used to wear the same pants for days until their wife would clean them because they were doing other things"

-Bentley

November 16th 2009:

"Can I bring my duct tape wallet to school Mom? Except I will take my pocket knife out of it because there was a kid that brought a pocket knife to school and he got kicked out. But when you get kicked out of school that doesn't mean you actually get kicked. It means you have to leave the school and you are not allowed back."

-Bentley

September 9th 2009:
"You can make up lots more pictures in your mind when you read a book than you can when you watch a movie."
-Cecily

September 5th 2009:
Bentley likes to flip the pancakes when I make pancakes and he does a really good job. He told Bryan this morning why: "Dad you know why I am really good at flipping pancakes? Because I watch sponge bob." (sponge bob knows how to flip those crabby patties).

September 1, 2009:
While I was driving down main street I noticed that the road was covered in a whole bunch of newspapers. Cecily noticed it too and asked what happened. I said that I wasn't sure but that the papers sure where everywhere. Cecily responded in an annoyed tone; "Teenagers." As if she knew with certainty it was a punk teenagers prank.

August 2009:

Cecily- "Not all fairies are real. Just the tooth fairy is real."

Me- "Cecily what if your tooth comes out in Lake Powell? Do you think the tooth fairy can come to Lake Powell?"

Cecily- "Yes but it would be really sweaty."

August 4th 2009: Bentley and his cousin Krew were looking through some newspaper advertisements. (Why the interest I'm not sure) I listened to a conversation of theirs that went like this:

Krew- "Look strawberries are one hundred and forty nine dollars." (reading $1.49 as if it were $149.00)

Bentley- "They just want money."

July 9th 2009: "No more nice girl for you Bentley!" - Cecily's come back during one of Bentley and Cecily's arguments today.

May 26th 2009: "When I was sick it felt like there was something crawling around in my stomach. And when I woke up my head felt like it was fat." - Bentley on being sick with the stomach flu.

April 2009: "They are good actors... I think they practiced." - Cecily speaking about The Wizard of Oz.

January 29, 2009: Today Bentley missed the bus and on the drive to school he started a random conversation about play houses. He said that "those big wooden play houses always get full of spiders. If you buy one it gets full of spiders and stuff and you can't even play in them so it really is a waste of money because they are very expensive."

Now that is wisdom. It looks like Bryan and I won't have to buy any big wooden play houses.

January 23, 2009: You know the Barbie animated movies. One of Cecily's favorites is the Princess and the Pauper. Of this very movie she declared: "They have really good barbie actresses."

January 15, 2009:

Bryan: "I had f-r-e-a-k-y dreams last night."

Cecily: "That's because you are a Dad and your not scared of freaky things."

January 9, 2009: When I turned on the movie "The Little Mermaid" Cecily said: "When I watch this movie I feel like I can't breathe."

"Really Why?" I responded.

"Because it makes me feel like I am underwater."

January 2, 2009: Cecily was playing in her room with her cousin Maggie. I called her to the kitchen and I heard her say; "Wait Maggie! PAUSE YOU!"
I didn't know you can pause a friend like the tivo.

November 11, 2008: Direct quote from Cecily the other day when we were driving in the car:
"We drink water and the people that drives crazy.... they drink beer."

Then a couple minutes after that one left her cute little mouth she asked me if Aliens were real. I told her I didn't think so. She then stated;
"Well we can just go in a rocket ship and see."

Ah. The innocence of a child. They believe in magic.

November 9, 2008: The kids began their morning today with the usual bickering. Bryan gave them a firm "I'm not going to put up with fighting today." To which Cecily replied, "Tomorrow?"

October 22, 2008: Cecily and I were jumping on the trampoline this evening and she said we better watch out for the mosquitos. I told her we didn't need to worry about them anymore because it is so cold. She replied: "Oh so the mosquitos moved down to St. George where it is warmer?"

October 3, 2008: My conversation with Bentley;
B-"Mom would you like to be king of the North Pole?"
"I don't think so."
B-"Why not?"
"Well, that would be a big job making all of those toys for Christmas."
B-"Well mom the ELVES do all the work."

September 24 2008: Bentley went with Bryan on an architectural photo shoot in Park City. On the way home Bryan told Bentley that when they got home they needed to work on the pictures on the computer down in his office. Bentley responded that "it was a school night" and he needed to get to bed. (Where did that come from?)

September 22 2008: "Why did Heavenly Father make bears anyways? Sharks are mean too! But not dolphins." - Cecily

September 7th 2008: My conversation with Cecily this morning:
C-"Mom when my fish dies can I have a pet rabbit?"
M-"No rabbits have to live outside and they need a special cage. (that was all I could think to say. When I was a kid I had rabbits and they had babies and ate their young. Besides Cecily is not old enough to take care of a rabbit)
C-"Then can I have a seal?"
M-"Well you can't have seals as pets because they live by the ocean."
C-"WE CAN GET SOME OCEAN!"
M-"Where can we get ocean Cecily?"
C-"The kind that is at the pet store!"

August 30th 2008: When asked how much her dad works each day Cecily yelled out; "100!"

August 30th 2008: At swiss days today Bentley wanted a wooden gun. I wouldn't buy it for him though because he already has a wooden gun and he never plays with it. Bryan told him that if he gave us all the money he has (which is about 10 dollars that he has saved up) we would pay for the rest. That wasn't worth it to him. He didn't want the gun that badly. Then he informed us that he wanted a "job" so he could make money. I told him if he does his chores each week he can make money. He kind of broke down to tears and said; "no I need a job at a STORE!"

August 28th 2008: The neighbor, Jordan was over and Cecily was blowing on a new whistle Grandma Hill got her from Swiss Days. She stopped long enough to say to Jordan; "Go get your instruments! We're gonna start a band!"

August 11th 2008: Sometimes Cecily gets quite creative with her threats when she doesn't get what she wants. Today these were two of the threats she used on me:
"I'm letting black widows get me!"
and
"I'm just going in the woods........Mom which way is the woods?"

June 12th 2008 Cecily said: "I am not bossy! I just want to be in charge!"

June 10th 2008 Cecily said: "Mom if everyone in the world lived in Heber it would be squishy!"

June 8th 2008 Cecily said: "Dad I love mommy more than you. Except when you light fires and fix things".

May 7th 2008: Bentley and Cecily were jumping on the trampoline this morning with their cousin Annabelle. They each were taking turns sliding down or jumping off of the slide on to the trampoline (a favorite past time of theirs).

I was cleaning up the yard and heard Bentley say to Annabelle and Cecily "Let me show you how a MAN does it!" This got my attention and I looked over in time to see him do some trick of the slide. It was hilarious.

April 23rd 2008: (Referring to Mrs. Butterworth's syrup) Cecily said:

"Is that new syrup? That syrup is sweet! It has a face and it's in the shape of a human!"

April 13th 2008: I was standing on one leg putting lotion on one of my feet and Cecily said, "Mom you look like a flamingo."

Bentley was doing something he shouldn't and I said to him something about stopping what he was doing and Cecily said "Let me take care of this!" as she stomped off in his direction.

Recently Cecily has taken a liking to dusting everything in the house. She told me she wants to be a "cleaner" when she grows up. With this decided she asked Bentley what he wanted to be and he replied "I have a long time to think about that."