let us all speak kind words baseball

What kind of game is that you ask?  I'll tell you.  First, let me explain how this got started because I want to give credit where credit is due.  I started yelling.  Not at the tv or at cars or at the computer when it was slow.  I started yelling at my kids.  A lot.  I think it increased when Tim began traveling for work.  I'll blame him.  Tim has actually pegged my exact yell and loves teasing me about it.  He says that I start out soft and increase into a yell.  "Please get your clothes off the floor" type thing.

I knew it had to end.  After an incredibly inspiring General Conference I decided that I would stop yelling.  I've done it!  {Okay, except for that one time when Parker was choking Cooper while forcefully trying to put his hood on his head, but I think that my yell was justified as a life saving method.}

I noticed that I wasn't the only one yelling, but mostly I noticed that my boys love potty talk and some a lot of unkind words.  So, I thought it might be fun to challenge the entire family.

We started this challenge on Friday and the weekend proved to be quite hilarious.  The first day the boys were still a little unclear on the rules.  "Is it okay to say butt if you are quoting the movie Shrek?"  Oh boy.  We had a lot of hypothetical questions going on in our house and tons of tattle-telling.  I wondered if this game was such a good idea.

Parked asked, "Mom, can we say bc?"

"Hmm, I don't know, what does that mean?" 

"Butt crack,"  Parker proudly responded.

"Where did you learn that?"

Payton and Parker in unison said, "Grandpa Ock."

Thanks Dad!

Tim is such a good sport to play along with my silly games.  I'd like to think he's playing along, but I'm pretty sure he's mostly mocking me.  He loves to yell "Steeerike" all day long.  After spending the evening with Tim's family on Saturday night they all enjoyed playing/mocking the game as well.  People were striking out left and right while watching sporting events.  My Mom also called last night to see how Parker's game was going.  He was bragging to her that he was the first one to get a strike.

In all seriousness, I love when we can do something that is fun as a family and hopefully {fingers crossed} learn a little lesson while we're at it.  Most of all, I'm happy to report that I'm not yelling.  It's not even a temptation anymore...unless of course we have another life threatening emergency.


A few sidenotes:  We are all umpires.  We decided the time line is way to long and that we will probably all strike out way before then, but we're trying.  We are choosing the prizes together as a family.  Also, we're going to talk about some ways we could possibly reverse the strike {doing something nice for someone}.  Obviously, we're flexible around here. 

I'd love to know if you have some good ideas on how to get a house full of boys and Mom to speak more kind words?  What are some of your behavior modification strategies?