We all got our hair done and decided to take a picture :) Jessica did my hair. Sister Mendoza did Mercedes and Hailey's hair. Jessica also did Hannah's. I love Mercedes curls. It reminded me of what her hair looked like in Ohio.
She's growing up so fast. Sometimes Mercedes will become very thoughtful and you can tell that she feels strongly about what she is thinking or saying. In the bathtub, she looked up at me with wide eyes and said, "Oh, Mom, I really hope that the girl (Hillary Clinton) doesn't get to become president. Joshua said that if she is president then she is going to take away all of the guns and send girls to war. I don't want to go to war!" Sadly, these are policies that she wants to put into place. Of course, the "girls" will be older, but she does believe (along with many others) that females should be a part of the drafting process. Anyway, I said to Mercedes that I agree with her. Hillary Clinton would make a horrible president for this country. She then said that Obama would be better than the girl. Surprisingly, she's probably right. Obama is horrible and some of his policies are based on evil morals, but he probably is better than Hillary. I told her that Obama is not great either and that we needed to pray for our country. That's when she said, "Oh, I just wish that we could always have President Monson!" Different kind of president, but yes, I wish the president of our country would be more like President Monson. How great would that be?!
Because Kevin was in town, we did a lot with the McAvoy side the last week or so. It rained one day that everyone was over at our house. The kids played in the gutter and swam in the retention basin. Ew gross!
This picture is out of order, but this is Hannah's hair that was done by Jessica. Hannah is so sweet. She is happy and animated most of the time. She's got these HUGE eyes that light up when she talks. She asks permission for everything. "Can I eat my food now?" "Can I ride my scooter?" "Is it okay if I lay on my blankie?" She's so sweet!
I love K-Cubby's hair. It curls over his ears and around the nape of his neck. I think that it would be like Mercedes hair was in Ohio if I let it grow. But, it needs to be cut soon. He is officially walking now. On April 13th he decided that he'd never crawl again. He loves balls and his first word after mom and dad was ball. He likes to chase them around the house and carry them. He can even dribble soccer balls (in his 13 month old way). He brings us so much laughter and joy, I can hardly stand it! He loves Jon Mark and is the first to go running for him when he gets home from work. He points at him and says, Da Da! He loves drinking water and guzzles it every time I offer it. You'd think I had been depriving him of water, but I offer it all day long. He prefers it to milk or juice, he just loves water. He also loves apples and grapes. His favorite food is a veggie smoothie.
Do you see the gorgeous double rainbow? I love it whenever Heavenly Father blesses us with such sights!
This is Joshua after playing in the rain. He got to go to conference with my parents a couple of weeks ago. It was a great experience for him and he enjoyed it very much. He really liked conference. Last week his church teacher said that he had been very helpful in class and that he told some stories about me. Mercedes had been in the same class because we were visiting another ward and she wanted to be with him. While we were driving somewhere, I asked Joshua what story he had told. He said quickly, "the one where you listened to the holy ghost while you were running." My mother heart burst with joy. He had been listening and it was sinking in. Then, Mercedes chimed in that she wanted to know the rest of the story. "What happened after you had listened to the Holy Ghost and went home? You turned on the news and saw what again?" This was new to me. I never turned on the news and saw anything. The story was that I had been out running late at night and I kept getting the impression that I ought to turn around and go back home. I ignored it until I reached a certain point in the road and I felt an urgent warning that I needed to turn around and run as fast as I could back home. I listened and was thankful that I had done so. I told the kids that I had never found out why I was warned in such a way, but we need to act when we are prompted. So, Mercedes confused me. I inquired further and soon it was evident that Joshua was caught. He spoke up and said, "I added to your story mom. I told the class that you watched the news later and saw that there were robbers on the street in that exact spot." What????? Jon Mark said that while it makes the story more exciting, that's also lying. We save those sorts of embellishments for works of fiction when everyone knows that it's a work of fiction.
The other day, Joshua asked me what day it was. When I replied that it was Wednesday, he said, "Oh good! So it's the day before the day that I get to look forward to the weekend."
Mercedes was cold.
This is a picture of the TV stand that I built. I used my jig saw and had no plans. It just kind of came to be :) I love the way it turned out.
When Kevin is in town, there's bound to be fun! He put all of the kids up on the ledge in Michelle's house. Hannah was scared and very timid. The other kids loved it.
Luke loves having his picture taken with me. Every time he sees my phone out, he asks me to take a picture with him. He's a cutie pie. The other day, Kevin asked him "if you only had one kiss left to give, who would you kiss?" His answer didn't come as a surprise, he said, "MOMMY!" When we play games, he rigs it so that I win every single time. Even if I am not playing, he says that I won. He changes the rules so that I always win. This is frustrating to the other kids. Kevin also asked him, "If a bad guy came into the house and you could only save one person, who would you save? Me, Mommy, or Daddy?" Luke looked very concerned and you could see his mind turning and thinking about his options. Then, after thinking about it, he pointed each one of us and said he would save us all. I liked that. He's a hero, always has been, always will be.
These are some signs I made for the girls I visit teach.
This is a bunny Mercedes made.
These are the kids having a sleep over.
