The KAT's Meow

In Primary, the children were learning "Love One Another" with the sign language and when they finished, Jet said loudly for everyone to hear, "I did it so good."

 

 

   

 

 

 

Jet will often ask for help for us to be kind to each other in prayers. When saying the blessing on our dinner one evening, he prayed, "Help us be kind to the food."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom: I love you very much.

Jet: Yes, you do. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom: Do you want to visit Oregon and Washington? To visit Grandma and Grandpa? 

Jet: I want to visit George-grain Washington and go to Grandma and Grandpa's house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jet: Does this game have a zebra?

Mom: Can you spot a zebra? I mean, can you stripe a zebra? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jr. Jr.: Are you okay, Mom?

Mom: No.

Jet: I'm fine. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jr.Jr.: Mom, I have a friend named Nick and apparently, his parents think he's poison.

Mom (looks concerned).

Jr. Jr.: I asked his parents about him and they just went on and on about, "Our son, Nick." 

Mom (immediately pops up to add that to The KAT's Meow). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jet (to Nichole): Are you awake?

Nichole: Yes.

Jet: Why?

Nichole: Because you pushed my head.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jet "learned" the song, "Trogdor," from hearing us sing it. It's from Homestar Runner. In the song, Trogdor is a dragon who burninates all the peasants in their thatch roof cottages!

Jet's version when he sings it has become "Tractor" who burninates the "presents" in their "cabbages." 

Spring Break

Let's talk about Spring Break... for three of our kids. Last week was Spring Break... for three of our kids. Here are some of the holidays we celebrated (besides what I already mentioned in my April 9, 2026 post).

April 7 was National No Housework Day. I didn't tell the kids that was the holiday and asked them to clean. Bwah ha ha ha. But I celebrated.

 

April 8 was Draw a Picture of a Bird Day. This is what Nichole created.

She's awesome. I love that I could immediately tell it was a red-tailed hawk. Gorgeous.

 

April 10 was National Siblings Day. I encouraged a couple of my kids to wish each other a Happy that holiday but forgot to wish it to any of my own siblings even though I planned to.

It was also National Farm Animals Day. For dinner the night before, I made red beans and rice and hush puppies and garlic parmesan asparagus. On April 10, we had leftovers (including the beans and rice that had Polish sausage made out of what? Farm animals!) and I made more hush puppies.

This exchange happened while I was making them.

 

Jet: What are the dog things you are making called?

Mom: Hush puppies. 

 

He's so adorable.

 

Valentine Days

Sadly, we don't have access to some of our pictures from around Valentine's Day so this post is missing some pictures. Oh well. Here it finally is:

 

O.K. Finally getting to it. Valentine's 2026.

I already told you that Jeremy made chocolate covered strawberries for me. Chuckle. He made them early enough that they got eaten up before Valentine's Day even came. 

The week of Valentine's Day, there was a kindergarten Valentine dance at the elementary school, just like when Lucky was in kindergarten and Jet was a baby. 

Jet and I dressed up and went and danced and had refreshments and danced some more and were excited when Daddy came to join us. He had a fair convention that day but made it back for the end of the dance. 

I think Jet has similar moves to Lucky at that age.

 

The day before Valentine's Day was when the elementary schoolers had their Valentine parties and Valentine exchanges. Lucky's class invited them to decorate boxes to hold their Valentines. Since Lucky is preparing for the school play, Alice in Wonderland Jr., many things are Wonderland themed right now. Lucky brought a Mad Hatter's hat as his Valentine box. I supplied the materials (empty oatmeal box, fabric, another cardboard box, cardstock) and Jeremy helped Lucky make it into a hat. 

 

This year, like last year on actual Valentine's Day, Jeremy and Nichole were at Life, The Universe, and Everything symposium. 

Let me stop right here and share something funny that happened during prep for LTUE. Jeremy printed off a list of classes/panels so he and Nichole could see what they both wanted to take and what they had that overlapped.

 

Mom: Nichole, Dad wants you to look through Life, the Universe, and Everything to see what things you want to do. 

Jet: Nichole, Dad wants you to look through the telescope at the university holes.

 

Thank you. Back to Valentine celebrations.

While Jeremy and Nichole were at LTUE, Jr. wanted an excuse to eat ice cream so he rationalized this.

It was Single Awareness Day. Single people eat ice cream when they don't have a date. Yes! Great excuse. And my husband wasn't with me for Valentine's Day so I should eat ice cream, too.

Reminder that I fully support the Daddy-Daughter date at LTUE (my husband did make me chocolate covered strawberries. I love chocolate covered strawberries).

We also had heart-shaped pizza for dinner or broken heart pizza as it is cut.  

I did get a nice hug from Jeremy that night. He didn't completely forget me. Heh Heh Heh.

 

The next day, I made a fancy dinner to celebrate since Jeremy and Nichole were home that day.

A great way to celebrate love with food is by using recipes from Whisk Me Away by Michelle Wright. We had some fun during and after dinner based on the Regency Era. 

For dinner, we had Green Bean Almondine with Rice Pilaf (both from the cookbook). We also had ham but I didn't use the honey glaze from the book. We rounded it out with modern day rolls and ice water to drink.

After the kids set the table in our normal use what dishes are in the cupboard (or dish drainer), mismatched or not, manner, I showed them a picture from the book of how a proper dinner table should be set. Ha Ha.

While we ate, I read to them what the book said about Regency dinner party etiquette, which made some of them do the exact opposite because that's what kids do.

After dinner a few of us decided to play a Regency game from the book. "Forfeit."

We used Lucky's "hat" to hold the forfeits and we had a blast playing together. We had the youngest of us and the oldest of us playing so it was a good game for all ages.

I love family time. And I love that we can have the whole family be involved in a holiday that doesn't have to be just for significant others. 

I do enjoy time with just my husband but we do get to do special things together other times, not just Valentine's Day and anniversaries (and did I mention that my husband made chocolate covered strawberries for me?). 

I would never try to go out for Valentine's Day to a restaurant or something like that anyway. Too crowded. We did stop by the grocery store to get some milk after I picked Jeremy and Nichole up from LTUE on Valentine's Day, though.  

I hope my children know they can always celebrate with us. There are so many reasons to celebrate. 

 

Update: We have access to our pictures again. I put some on another blog post on April 11, 2026. 

Unbirthday

Jet: Is it my birthday?

Mom: No, it's not your birthday. It's your unbirthday.

Jet: It's my unbirthday? Yay. We should make cake for my unbirthday. 

 

Later he told me we should make pizza and cake for his unbirthday. So we made a cake. We made pizza. We blew noisemakers. We sang "A Very Merry Unbirthday." When he asked if there would be presents, my husband pulled out some swag from one of his fairs and put it in a box. We didn't go so far as to wrap it. It wasn't his birthday, after all. It was his unbirthday.

 

We are the Telfords and we love finding reasons to celebrate.  

 

P.S. This was on January 23, Pie Day. Since we were already making pizza pie for dinner, it just all fit... except that we made cake instead of pie for dessert. 

The Beginning of 2026

Happy New Year!

I was so tired by the time I finished my blog post yesterday but it was only half an hour until midnight so I stayed up long enough to toast the new year with the family with sparkling cider then the kids stayed up soooo late and Jeremy and I went to bed.

About 5 o'clock in the morning, Jet finally went to bed (unless he fell asleep in the living room earlier. I don't know. I slept with instructions for the older kids to watch after him. So I guess he finally went to his bed at 5 o'clock in the morning). 

 

I heard this from him, "Mom, go back to sleep."

He said it several times. 

My reaction? "What? Go back to sleep? Oh, thank you for waking me up in order to tell me to go back to sleep."

Oh, I love my kids so much. 

The KAT's Meow

Because I forgot to put it on my post about Maple Syrup Day-

Mom: It's Maple Syrup Day.

Jr.: Oh. Or should I say, "Eh?"

 

 

 

 

Jr. Jr. (after seeing me with the book, Anne of Green Gables): You know they made a parody of that book where they changed the main character to be a turkey. Anne of Green Gobbles.

 

  

 

 

Mom (to Jet): You're so precious.

Jet: Like a strawberry. 

 

 

 

 

Jr.: I'm making pizza and other stuff. They're just lying on the couch. 

Jr. Jr.: The moon landing wasn't real.

I'm lying on the couch. 

 

 

 

 

Jet (while looking at a Christmas letter from friends- he can't read yet): Merry Christmas. I hope you have a very good Christmas with your family.

Aww. That's so sweet.

 

 

 

 

Jet: We'll give cookies to Santa. Then Santa will come and give me presents with toys in them. 

The KAT's Meow

Mom: I'm tired. I want to get my pajamas on, snuggle up with my sweetheart, and go to sleep.

Jet: You want to snuggle up with me?

Mom: Awwwww.

 

 

 

 

 

Mom: Lying is unethical in my opinion.

Dad: That's why I sit up.

 

 

 

 

 

Mom: May I have my phone? It's going to die if you keep playing with it.

Jet: Don't worry, Mom. It's electric. It won't die. 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom (to Jet): You're so adorable.

Lucky (to Jet): You're so lucky.

Jet: I'm so musical.

(proceeds to play with a toy guitar) 

 

 

 

 

 

Jet taught me a new song.

"Turkey run away

Or you'll be eaten for Thanksgiving Day." 

The KAT's Meow

Jet decided he wanted to name the Polish sausage Jeremy was cutting up. He named it "Meg." 

Jeremy: Next time I do mountain man breakfast and I use Polish sausage and bacon, I can say I used Megs and bacon.

Jet then decided to speak for Meg: Oh no. Don't cut me up. Noooo.

 

 

 

In Primary, the children were singing, "To Be a Pioneer." Jet kept singing, "To be a pirate king."  

Mommy, Look

Jet: This is my blanket.

  

Mommy, Look

Lucky: GOAT Haircuts? Is that for kids? 

The KAT's Meow

"That oven is for babies." -Jet talking about the play kitchen in the nursery, not about a gingerbread house owned by a witch.

The KAT's Meow

I told Jet I was going to watch Dancing with the Stars. He said, "Dancing with the stars? Not dancing with the moon?"

 

 

 

 

Heard on a Sunday afternoon-

Jeremy: What is she even wearing out there?

Lucky: Woah.

Jeremy: There's bigger tuna than that.

 

 

 

 

We don't swear in our family. I spilled applesauce one day and this was Jet's response-

Oh, yogurts. Oh, yogurts and cheese.  

Jet: I stole the coins. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine forever!

 

 

 

 

Jr. Jr. (while putting on pizza toppings): You take a few pieces of pepperoni and...

Jet: Put them in my mouth.

 

 

 

 

Nichole: I still have a slight obsession with poisons but I've expanded it into true crime. 

Nichole: I'm more into the torture thing, honestly.

Halloween Drive

October 21 was Reptile Awareness Day. Jet watched some Wild Kratts that day.

It was also International Day of the Nacho so we had nachos.

That evening for Family Home Evening we went for a drive to look at Halloween decorations. You know Jet loves Halloween decorations.

We decided to follow a list of houses put together by the city of Orem. By the second and third house on the route, we realized that another vehicle was doing the same thing as us. The same vehicle stopped at the same houses as us. They got ahead of us at one point so we were stopping at the same houses as them. After a while we didn't keep up because we were looking at other houses that weren't on the list and we needed to head home anyway. I thought it was funny, though, that both of us decided to do the same thing on the same night at the same time.

While we were looking at Halloween decorations, Jet said a few cute things:

"Oh no. That one's not scary. Let's try again." 

"Ooh, that's a scary ghost. It scared me."

 

October 22 was National Color Day. Jet and I looked at different colors as we drove around. Leaves on trees. Traffic lights. We sang the traffic light song. We also looked at the different colors on the American flag.

I have to mention dinner that night because... c'mon... I love A Season of Family Meal Plans (by Jordan Page) and am getting so much use out of those books.

We had Salsa Sweet Pork with Cilantro Lime Rice Bowls. The pork was soooo good. Jeremy said it would be good for nachos so I'll keep that in mind for the future because we just had our nachos the day before.

The KAT's Meow

While we were in Oregon on our vacation, there was a point where my brother Todd, Jet, and I were playing with some dragons and mythological creature toys. Jet was playing with a little dragon and I was playing with a phoenix.

Little Dragon (Jet): I have teeth.

Phoenix (me): Do you have sharp teeth to eat things? What do you eat?

Little Dragon (quietly): I eat Daddy.

Phoenix: What? What do you eat?

Little Dragon: I eat Dad and Uncle Todd.

The KAT's Meow

Jet (in June): Wake up, Daddy! It's time for Christmas!

The KAT's Meow

Mom: Can you get out of the kitchen please? 

Jet: No.

Mom: Why not?

Jet: Cause I love you... so much.

Mom and Dad (laughter laughter laughter)

The KAT's Meow

I was trying to get Jet to use his manners when asking me to open some candy so I said, "Mommy, will you please open this for me?" He responded with, "I will open it for you." Cute cute cute.  

Jr. Jr. had something in his hand. Jet took it from him and said, "That's yucky. You'll get sick."

Lucky: When people give you a shot, they're just making sure you're not a balloon person.

Jr. Jr.: What does a robot get for its birthday? A cake made out of 1's and 0's.

The KAT's Meow

Kristin: Will miracles happen for me? The short answer is, "Yes."

Jr. Jr.: The long answer is, "Affirmative."

 

 

 

Mom: Aagh, I just kicked a dinosaur. That is not an uncommon phrase to hear in this home.

 

 

 

Dad (laughed): Link has allergies.

Others: Why?

Because it went from Breath of the Wild to Tears of the Kingdom. 

Jr. (while looking at the driver's manual): You know what I find funny? The first thing on "Appendix A" is "Organ donation."

The KAT's Meow

Dad: Do you know what frankincense is?

Jr.: It's right there in the name. It's incense that smells like hot dogs.

Everyone: Ewwww.

Jr. Jr.: Nichole, I'm going to make you put out the milk and cookies. I didn't write a letter to Santa. I didn't get a picture with the mall Santa. I'm going to get a ride on the Polar Express!

The KAT's Meow

Jr.: Why is it best to go on dates after you get a sunburn?

Mom: Why?

Jr.: Because while you're healing you're appealing.

Mom: Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. 

Mom: What should we eat for breakfast?

Jet: Cookies.

Mom: No, we're not going to eat cookies. We need to eat breakfast. What should we eat for breakfast?

Jet (takes a moment to think about it): Eat chocolate cake.

*Laughter*

Jet: Eat chocolate cake. Eat chocolate cake.

-a minute later-

Jet: Eat chocolate marshmallows.

-Later-

Mom: We need to eat real food for breakfast. What should we eat.

Jet: Uh... candy.

 

We had fried rice. 

Jet found my phone and pushed the Siri button, saying, "Hey, Siri, text Jeremy." Siri interpreted it as, "Text Tami," (someone else in my contacts) and asked what he wanted to say. Jet again said, "Text Jeremy," which Siri interpreted as, "Taxidermy." I stopped it before Jet could say yes to, "Do you want to send it?" So Tami almost got a text from me saying, "Taxidermy."

I told this story to Tami later and she got a big kick out of it.