have I ever mentioned my kids are cute?

I just love listening to them talk and pray because they often say the most interesting, cute things. A couple cute anecdotes from the last week or so.

Yesterday, Alfredo had to work so the girls only got to open their stockings, two gifts from friends and their Santa gift (which wasn't wrapped) in the morning. (About noon we went to my aunt's house and opened a couple gifts from them. But all of the gifts from Alfredo and I didn't get opened until about 5 PM last night. I'll post pictures of Christmas later.) Anyway, when Michelle saw that Santa had brought her a telescope and that she had some little things in her stocking, (mostly toothpaste, toothbrushes, and a couple small toys) she said, "Wow, Santa was so nice to us."

Last week, we were in the car and a song came on the radio that wasn't very good. Before I even had a chance to change the channel, Ella said, "That song is bad for Jesus." Michelle agreed and they told me that we can't listen to songs that "are bad for Jesus." Now sometimes they'll ask, "Is this song bad for Jesus or good for Jesus?" when a song comes on that they don't know.

Ella suddenly thinks lots of words are bad words. (She picked up the word "stupid" from some other kids and we've been trying to teach her not to say it. Now, when she gets mad she says, "You're meaner, meaner, macarener.") Last week we saw my dad and stepmom. My stepmom, Monica, said, "Oh my gosh." Ella said, "Ooh, Grandma said a bad word. I want to say that bad word like grandma. .... Oh my gosh." She also thinks heaven is a bad word (I'm guessing that both of these stem from talks we have had about how to use the Lord's name properly.) Also dumb, stupid, and probably others that are slipping my mind at the moment (which I agree... although I've realized that I often call inanimate objects stupid... such as my car when it broke down.)

And now my favorite story. Last week, Michelle wanted to wear one of my skirts and a pair of high heel shoes. She said, "I need them because I"m getting married." I asked who she was marrying and named some of her friends' names. She said, "No, I'm marrying Ella. But (and she puts up her index finger for emphasis), it's just for pretend. If I was getting married for real, I'd have to marry a boy. But I'm just pretending, so I can marry Ella."

Where do kids come up with these things? A couple days later, Alfredo asked her, "Why are you so beautiful?" She said, "Because I"m a girl. You're handsome because you're a boy. If you weren't a boy, you couldn't be married to mommy." My girls crack me up!