Funny Happenings

So before I forget these I need to write them down because they were funny.
1. Ben has recently started preschool. At the end of the second day his teacher came over to me to "chat". She said Ben was having a hard time listening in class. (No big surprise here). I told her we were working on it at home too. We started a reward system for him if he does well at school. Yesterday his teacher came out and reported, "Ben had a great day today, right up until he hit "John with a block". I laughed out loud and asked if that was at the end of the day or in the beginning? Apparently it was right at the end, at least he's making progress.

2. Sam was getting ready for school this morning and then came in and told me his side was hurting really bad. I told him to try using the bathroom and he said he already did. He was completely hunched over and you could tell he was in pain. I had him lay down while I was getting the other kids ready for school. He wasn't running a fever but I couldn't send him to school like this. About an hour after the other kids left Sam came over to me and told me he needed to vomit. I sent him straight to the bathroom. Before I could get in to help he hollered out he was going to try to go to the bathroom again. About 10 minutes later he came skipping out with a huge smile on his face. I asked him if he felt better. He said he did. I then told him to get his shoes on. He asked why. I told him he was going to school. The look on his face was priceless! I then told him he did not get out of school because he had to go to the bathroom. We'll have to get some more fiber in him so we don't have the same thing happen again. When I signed him into school the secretary asked if he was feeling better. Sam promptly told her once he "pooped" he felt much better. The secretary laughed and said she had boys too and totally understood.

Red????

One of the items on the to do list while Nana was here was to have Charley pick out fabric for a quilt that would fit her new bedroom furniture. I knew of a quilt store in down town South Jordan so we headed over before taking Nana to the airport. (pictures to come when the quilt is finished, no pressure here Stephanie).

When Charley picked out her bedroom colors she wanted pink and purple. Perfectly natural girl colors right? Well in the last month or two I think she has grown up and changed her opinions considerably. Before going in to the store I told her she could pick out whatever she wanted as this was her room. As we looked at fabric I was pointing out pinks and purples and complimentary colors that would match the wall colors. She would nod and say, "that's nice but Mom look at this fabric" which of course was anything but what I thought she would like and what would match the walls. We eventually enlisted the help of one of the employees in the store that was off showing Charley all kinds of modern and retro fabrics that Charley was eating up. I couldn't believe it! Stephanie would laugh and look at me like "really" that's what she wants....? I would shrug and say I guess so. You should see the fabric that she picked out for the back. Soooo not what I would have thought she would like. As we were leaving Stephanie looked at me and said that Chalrey did not pick out anything that she would have picked for her but that Charley picked out fabric that her aunt Anjanette would pick out. So, in the end I guess she is in good company.

Last week I took Charley to get her hair cut as it was in need of some serious help. As we were waiting I asked Charley if she wanted to get a couple blond highlights put in that would brighten her hair up a little. She shrugged and said she would think about it. I think she was intimidated by one of the hairstylists who had several different color highlights in her hair and was getting more put in while we were there in between customers. (Random!). While she was cutting her hair the stylist who was working with her joked that she could always put some orange and red streaks in to look like fire. Charley perked right up and asked if she could get red highlights put in. Red???? Where did that come from? I said if that's what she wanted as I had already offered the blond highlights. I gave the stylist strict instructions on what color red she could put in. Charley was thrilled. Red, go figure. They really don't stand out too much but when the light catches her hair just right you can see them. Otherwise you really have to look. Can you tell she is my only daughter??? She really wants her ear pierced like her cousin but Ronny isn't having it. I think that is one of his last hold outs on trying to not let her grow up so fast. I don't blame him. We'll see how long it lasts.

Go Cougars!

Nana called a week or so before her visit and asked for the kids shirt sizes. She wanted to know if we wanted the new BYU football shirt for this season. As we are avid BYU and football fans in general we excited told her absolutely. Besides when we were in OR we bought the kids new OSU shirts so it was only right that they BYU had equal representation right??? They arrived just minutes before Nana had to leave for the airport. Just in time for a picture! (I have a feeling that Charley is going to pass up Nana in the height department in the next few months).

It's Great to Be Eight

Joseph turned 8 years old on August 11th. This was a big milestone for him considering how many times he has visited the ER and found himself in precarious situations during these years. We celebrated as a family on his actual birthday and had friends and family over after his baptism the following Saturday. Joseph decided he wanted a lightsaber cake this year which I was happy with. I had a friend who had done this for her own son and just lined up cupcakes and frosted them according to what color lightsaber he wanted. This made the week so much smoother as we were already busy getting ready for his baptism and having family come into town. Not to mention school and karate activities as well.

Joseph's baptism was wonderful. He had been looking forward to it these last 12 months and has been inviting everyone he came in contact with as well. Our great bishop came over to meet us and give Joseph his baptism interview at our home and asked if we would say the closing prayer. The primary presidency also came over that week and gave us the rundown on how the stake baptisms were organized. The Monday before the baptism the Stake Primary presidency called and informed us our family was assigned the musical number during the stake portion of things. I laughed out loud and told her we were not very musical. She said she knew we had 10 year old daughter. I said we did but that had nothing to do with a musical number. I told her we were not the kind of family that could just pull one out of a hat but that we would be more than happy to provide a talk or prayer. She wasn't having it and wanted me to tell her right then what song our family would sing. Yeah Right! I told her I would have to get back to her. Needless to say I was not very happy! It wouldn't have bothered me if we had a couple weeks notice. Its not like they didn't know the baptism was coming up. In the end our family sang a song out of the Children's Song Book and hopefully we didn't embarrass ourselves too much.
As a special treat Nana brought with her all the Cub Scout paraphernalia Joseph would need to start Cubs. I was thrilled as well as this got me out of a trip to the Scout Store. Joseph went to his first meeting last week and came home so excited to work on the various badges. He will be attending a day long Cub Scout activity this weekend and can't wait!

Disney Concert

The day after my birthday Ronny and I headed to the Park City to meet up with my mom, Dexter, Jen, and Mike for dinner and to see the symphony at Deer Valley. They were having a Disney night. We sat on the side of the mountain and enjoyed the cool weather and some great music. They had a large screen set up down by the stage that played excerpts from the movies the pieces they played came from. We had a couple little girls sitting by us who danced the whole night. They were hilarious. It was a great night with great company!

Weekend Trip

This last month we decided to make a quick trip to CA to Ronny's parents house to restock our meat supply, get our fill of Papa's orchard, and see his sister Liz. She and her cute kids had come from New Jersey and we hadn't seen her in several years. Her oldest son is the closest cousin in age to our children. Her son and Sam are only a month apart and the last time they were together they were great playmates.

We left late Thursday afternoon and drove until the sun went down and the kids were done in the car. We made it all the way to Winnamucca, NV. We even found a hotel with 3 queen beds, real beds, not a sofa bed. This is pretty amazing considering how small this town is.

We made it into Turlock about 5:00 Pacific time the following day and were welcomed by all the cousins minus Aaron's family. Our kids were thrilled. They quickly found the water and were drenched in seconds. Anjanette drove up to from So Cal with Jackson and Deborah and Eric came over from the coast with their three so the house was packed. Thankfully a friend of the Bjarnason's offered for us to stay at her home while we were there. We jumped at the chance knowing this would alleviate the stress of so many using one bathroom and allowing us all the sleep in a bed as opposed to the floor, it was great! She also happened to have a pool which our children made good use of while we were there.

Saturday morning was cousin time and then we headed out to Livermore for Jon's 30th birthday party. We didn't quite realize how big the event was going to be and didn't anticipate spending so much time there but we had a great time. The house the party was at had a pool with a water slide from the back hill feeding into it. The kids had a blast. They were tired and worn out by the time we left, unfortunately we couldn't convince any of them to sleep on the way back.

We left right after Sacrament meeting the next day and arrived home about midnight Sunday night. It was a quick trip, really quick! (We spent more time in the car than we did in CA). We made it home with 3 coolers of meat and one large box of the best fruit you'll ever have! It was worth every minute of it!