Singing Time

Chrissy is so funny. She LOVES to sing. I'll hear her humming or la-la-la-ing. Some of her favorite songs are "Boom Boom Pow"- Black Eyed Peas(thanks Nana), which she just says "boom, boom, boom" over and over, and "Hey Soul Sister"- Train. I really like it when she sings this one. I learned the chords to it, so as I start to play the chorus, she joins in singing "Heh-ay, heeeeeh-ay, heeeh-ay. To-niiiight". Although her "tonight" is mainly just "iiiiii..."- cute right?! And I thought Tripp was musical, but she's started singing at an earlier age than the other two. Erick likes to sing "Old MacDonald", but he's a little shaky on the second line of "and on that farm..." so he asks me to sing it with him. I don't mind. I sing all the time. Sometimes I sing about what I'm about to have them do- like take a nap, or eat lunch. I have been known to sing a punishment or two, which was probably a punishment in itself, but it brightens my mood. Tripp has been watching episodes of Speed Racer on huluPlus and sometimes I hear him singing "Go Speedracer" to his own special tune :)
I have always wanted a family like the Von Trapps- you know, everybody sings and it's not just all in unison. I've asked a few mothers that have grown children who attend choir with them, or participate in musical numbers as a family, what their secret is of getting their children interested in singing. One said to sing all the time- I checked my little mental box off on that one. Another said to bring them with you to choir and anything else musical that I might lead or direct or participate in. All good advice. But I also worried- what if my boys take after my husband who, although he sings very well, refuses to sing in public and only sings in the car when he thinks your sleeping? He did that with my mom, and it was so funny when she said, "Wow Adam, you have a good voice," and he said, "I thought you were asleep!"
And yet another mother assured me that her husband never sang, not because he didn't want to, but because he couldn't carry a tune, but he always supported them and came to their performances. I'll have to make sure Adam does at least that!
I guess if I ever record Chrissy singing I will post it on here, it is too cute.

Columbus Stake Youth Conference 2011

I just got back from a youth conference in Columbus, GA. I am now the Young Women's President in my ward (which means church). Symony and I took a couple of our young women down on Friday evening for a dance and then we spent the night at a host's home and got up this morning for an afternoon filled with motivational speakers and a spiritual devotional. I was pretty excited to go for several reasons.

1. I did not have any little kids to look after- I got a mini-vacation from being a full-time mom! I'm so thankful that Adam was a trooper and took care of all the kids and I didn't once get an emergency the-kids-are-driving-me-mad call.
2. I got to know my 1st counselor better. Ok, let me explain. I have two counselors called to assist me in this presidency and even though Symony has been a friend for a while(we attend the same play-dates with our kids all the time and etc.) I haven't really connected with her on a one-on-one basis yet. It was a lot of fun and I think we stayed up later than the girls did talking. I sure was tired for the speakers and devotional that they had today.
3. I was excited for the spiritual uplift that comes with a gathering of this magnitude of christian teenagers, all uniting together to learn more about Christ and his teachings. It was awesome. Their little testimonies that they shared were quite interesting at times and very heartfelt, but it was really neat to see kids rising above the troubles of the world and trying to be different.

I was really surprised to see an old friend there- Ryan Roney. I felt lucky enough to be able to dance at least to one slow song, because I knew Adam wouldn't mind, ha ha. Adam doesn't dance anyway, which is a bummer sometimes but I deal :)

I remember going to these youth conferences when I was a teen and if someone had told me that one day I would be a leader chaperoning at a youth conf, I don't know if I would have believed it. It was neat to view all the future leaders of my church in their little faces.

It's a girl!

So we're expecting a baby girl to the crowd. We've picked out the name Marley Jean Olsen. I am more excited to be having a girl now that I know that it is a girl. I wasn't sure another girl would be good for Chrissy, but I'm liking the idea that, hopefully, they'll be really good friends and maybe Marley will be more like Tripp, and they won't fight over clothes because they won't even be close to the same sizes. Oh well, wishful thinking on my part. As long as they grow up to love and respect each other, then that's all a mother can ask for I guess. BUT I'm going to try real hard to help avoid fights that my sisters and I got into- mostly about clothes. The infamous "Tinkerbell" shirt will forever be in the family history books as a hot topic between me and Sarah. It was my shirt anyway, she should have got her own :P