Babysitting the Lovells

Damian and Kim came down to watch a BYU game.  They asked us to watch their kids.  How can you say no to faces like those below?

Lexi can read up a storm.  Seriously, check out that stack of books.  She went through the whole thing in less than an hour.  Maybe closer to a half an hour.  Whatever it was, I was shocked when she announced that she was done.  I need to start collecting some longer books for her age to keep her reading longer while she's here.  :)

Parker loves to build towers.  

He especially loves it when BJ helps him build.  (Remember this tower?)

Look how tall they got this one!  I took pictures after every block they put down to make sure I got one at its peak before it fell.  This was the highest it got.  But seriously.  It's taller than Parker!

We started making dinner.  Taegen helped by stirring Kix in a bowl while wearing an apron I got at one of my bridal showers.

Kessa helped by staying out of the way.  And coloring on the table.

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of Parker helping.  But he did a great job.  He washed all the veggies* and after I chopped them, he put them into their bowls.  (We had tacos).

Lexi was our hamburger girl.  She stirred and cooked the hamburger and onions and peppers until they were all done.  I was very proud of how well she did over the stove.

I pulled out my Beauty and the Beast game that I got when I was probably 7.  Parts of it are starting to fall apart (cardboard only lasts for so long) but the kids LOVED IT.  Especially Lexi.  We changed the rules a little so that if Belle got to the top of the stairs, we all won. If Gaston got to the top, we all lost.  But Parker didn't care.  He wanted Gaston to get to the top every time.  So it kind of became a game of all of us against Parker.  :)  Except, we still told him he won, even if Belle made it to the top.  So he won no matter what.  Smart kid.

Taegen didn't understand the rules of winning, but man, he sure loved to roll the die.

Before bedtime, they all got to pick a book and BJ read them.  This pretty much summed up storytime.  Parker and Lexi paid attention.  Kessa and Taegen were in their own little worlds and all over the place.  :)

*A week or so later, Damian called me.  The conversation went something like this:
Damian: What have you been teaching my kids?!
Me: Uhhh… nothing worse than you've been teaching mine, I'm sure.  Why?
Damian: Well, we ordered a Papa John's pizza.  Kim told Parker she'd give him a quarter if he ate the pepper and didn't spit it out.  His response?  "Does it have pesticides on it?"

Bahahahaha.  I promise, Damian and Kim, I was only teaching him that he should wash his veggies before eating them.  I wasn't trying to turn him into a hippie.