Conversations with Maggie and Adam's Mimi Cheer!

What We Learned at the Zoo

Hello Family and Friends. I thought I would tell you about what lessons I learned while staying at Grandma and Grandpas house with Jonas, Adrianna, Preston and Lydia while Mom, Adam, Maggie, Aunt Cami, Aunt Cali, Lily Ransom and Gideon ran off some where for a few days.

I learned there are two types of concrete burns. The kind you get from wet cement and the kind you get when your head smacks a concrete wall.

Preston was the teacher of this life lesson. You should have seen the wall... Ha,ha,ha.
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I also learned it is okay for kids to act like monkeys at the zoo.

Actually, this type of primate behavior is almost expected.

We learned that a full grown tiger is large enough to carry more than half of the Guffey family.

I give us a 6.5 on the group dismount. Some of us had a little trouble sticking it.

Lydia taught us that to control and unruly tiger you just grab it by the ear and squeeze it real hard. Turn it down and the tiger walks forward, turn it backwards and the tiger will sit. Let go and he will eat you.

After several tries we concluded that three Guffey heads are all that will fit in a lions mouth at one time.

"Listen to me you guys, 4 Guffey heads will not fit in the lion's mouth."... "What do you mean drinking fountain? On his tongue? That's just gross!"

Adrianna was fearless when she entered the wild goat pen. She is like a "goat whisperer" and soon had them all calm enough that we were able to brush their fur.

Adrianna is very wise when it comes to dealing with wild goats. She was especially thoughtful and thanked the goats personally for being so well behaved.

She taught Preston and Lydia the secret touch to calm an anxious goat. This one was on the verge of breaking out until Odi Podi worked her magic.

Did you know that Llama's can spit? Yeah... Preston and Lydia asked this guy to demonstrate....

Jonas was a little puzzled about the thinking and planning on the part of zoo officials when it came to the Donkey pen. They put a framed square in the fence for you to reach through to pet the donkeys. Then they put a sign up warning you that if you try to pet the donkeys they may bite. What kind of twisted grown up logic is this? Is it a trick? A test? Well, we were too smart for them. We could care less if we ever pet a biting donkey.

"Pick a little, talk a little, Pick a little, talks a little, ... cheep, cheep, cheep, talk a lot, pick a little more......"

"It's a bird?, It's a Monkey?.... What is it?"

"Then Adrianna, Preston and I hatched a great plan......"

We learned that grandpa Darryl is not really a bird expert,
even though he knows a lot of cool stuff!
"This my grandchildren, is an Osprey. Or a deformed owl, which ever you want it to be."

Just so you know, we are not staring at a fence in the window. There are penguins on the other side of that glass. "The penguin Cabaret" ...sort of. (That was a Metaphor.... or maybe an idiom.)

So, Mom's computer is dying and she can't get online to put up any posts right now. If any of my aunts have pictures from this summer of us having fun, please call my mom and she will tell you all the magic words so you can post the pictures on her blog for all of her friends to see.
I'll talk to you later.
Love,
Emily

Proof that the Easter Bunny Cares About Personal Hygiene

Easter morning we awoke to the joyous sounds of children wondering if the Easter Bunny had visited our house. Now I should explain how this tradition works at our house. The Easter Bunny is a bit of a trickster, he likes to hide things. Our children know that mom and dad get the easter baskets and stuff and the bunny comes in the early morning hours and hides the eggs we've decorated and usually the entire easter baskets too. Everything is hidden somewhere downstairs. No room is off limits including the bathroom and pantry. Occasionally the bunny will bring a small surprise that he adds to the baskets. This year Emily helped me lay out everyone's new outfits on the couch and put the easter baskets, complete with name tags, in front of each one. When the children came down in the morning to see everything set up it was all gone. That silly bunny had even taken their new clothes and hidden them. Well of course they have to wait for Mom and Dad before they were allowed to search, that's just one of those rules.

Now, Adrianna is convinced that she knows who the Easter Bunny really is. When I questioned her she answered me that it is her friend Grady's dad. I asked how she knew Grady's dad was the Easter Bunny and she replied, "Grady told me that he knows his dad is the Easter Bunny and it's not a secret anymore." And, she is convinced she saw a man and a boy running around the corner in our neighborhood that morning (we do live in a neighborhood of several hundred people).

The clencher was when I asked how they knew the Easter Bunny had even come to our house because I didn't see any Easter baskets or anything and Preston piped up with this gem, "I know the Easter Bunny was here because he took a bath in our bath tub!!"

I'm glad I wasn't drinking anything. It would have been out my nose and all over the floor. Instead I just asked how he knew the bunny took a bath. His response, "Because he left fur in the bathtub."

Now that may not make much sense yet, but picture this scenerio:
It's Saturday evening and almost bath time all the boys need haircuts before Sunday. Since it's a beautiful warm evening we take the clippers to the back porch let them take off their shirts then cut their hair and send them straight up to the bath. Yeah, there was "fur" left in the bathtub.

So with that irrefutable evidence we started the great easter basket search. Under tables, behind doors and curtains, in the pantry, and even behind the mini fridge and fishtank. They eventually each found their basket with the new clothes folded neatly on top. The eggs magically got hidden at Nana and Poppa's where we were headed later.

The lesson in all of this? There will always be evidence to support whatever you want to believe in, you just have to find it. The other lesson, The Easter Bunny may care about his personal hygeine, but he doesn't care about the cleanliness of your bathroom.

Coming Soon......

I'm working on several posts, but it's taking me a while so be on the look out for Baby Maggie update, April Fools at School, Easter and proof that the Easter Bunny cares about personal hygiene, and The Legend of the Five Year-Old Would-Be Stunt Man. These should be fun or at least mildly entertaining. I also have a bunch of Easter pictures and family pics to put up. Speaking of which check out the family easter outfit co-ordination in the new pics I already added. Is it normal to get such a thrill out of making my family dress alike? Because it truly is one of the highlights of my year. Anyway, more later.

Brothers and Sisters

All day on Friday all of Maggie's brothers and sisters wanted to see this little cutie. So Friday evening they all got to come up to the hospital and take turns holding her and getting to know her. They also got to take turns talking to mom and telling me all about their day. WARNING - The following videos may show images of me that should probably never be seen by...well...anyone. I had finally convinced the nurse to take me off the IV and hadn't yet had a chance to shower. I had also been sleeping most of the day and was trying my best to look and sound normal for my kids even though I felt only half there mentally. I hadn't seen a mirror in nearly 24 hours and I didn't want to. However the kids were really cute!

Introducing Mary Alice Guffey! (aka Maggie)

After weeks of anxious anticipation Mary Alice Guffey has arrived! She was born at 11:44a.m. on Friday February 5th 2010 She weighed in at 7lbs 9oz and 20 inches long and showed us just how good her lungs were.
(Side note - Aunt Skye, although she is not your namesake, you now get to share a birthday for the rest of your life. Can't you feel the love? Happy Birthday!) I will spare you the labor details, suffice it to say this was a long one.

However, she was born healthy and screaming so we are happy!
Due to the length and circumstances of labor Mom got some pretty potent painkillers shortly thereafter and was pretty much a sleepy and somewhat loopy mess for the rest of the day.
For those of you who are wondering, she is named after Jason's Grandmother, Mary Alice(Sparks)Guffey. To avoid confusion we decided to nickname her "Maggie" since her initials are MAG.
All of her brothers and sisters were very excited and came up to see and hold her that evening I will attempt to put up a video of that in just a little while.

Someday The Baby Will Come

Well I mentioned last week that when I'm in labor it tends to be long and drawn out. This one is no different. Just to update everyone at once I had another appointment yesterday and although I've made some progress (I'm now dilated 5cm) the baby is still not quite ready to make her grand entrance. After another week of steady contractions I haven't gone quite insane yet. (Although a few times I've come close.) The contractions did calm down over the weekend when my sisters-in-law were here. They helped me clean-out, sort, organize and redecorate the "nursery". It was wonderful having them here. And the room looks beautiful! Thank you Suzanna and Heather!

The contractions picked back up about noon yesterday and ranged from 3-7 minutes apart for over 12 hours, but with no real changes in me there's no baby yet. We'll keep everyone updated, but that's it for now.