Church In the Bathroom!

I have to say it, the kids were pretty good at church today. We had an awesome sacrament meeting. Our ward struggles and we don't get those super awesome, spirit filled meetings all too often. Don't get me wrong, I love my ward, but... we get a few truly inspired speakers sprinkled throughout the inexperienced speakers and the "oops, I forgot to prepare" speakers. We don't often have a meeting where the spirit is felt strongly by all for the entire meeting. We had 3 youth speakers. Michael and Brendan are 10 and 11, respectively and both did an amazing job speaking about what they can do now to prepare for a mission later. Luke, 16 I think, also did a nice job as well, again speaking about preparing to go on a mission. The primary sang "I Hope They Call Me On a Mission" and then newly returned Elder Brandeberry spoke. I had the great privilege of being Josh Brandeberry's seminary teacher during his senior year. I still remember the flooding feeling of the spirit when I asked Josh, in class, if he intended on serving a mission. He could not have answered faster or more surely then he did with the "ABSOLUTELY, with out a doubt, yes." You can imagine what his talk was like if he was that strong BEFORE his mission. Not to mention, he ended his 30 minute talk by bearing his testimony in Mandarin Chinese. So cool! Anyway, I'm a little of subject here, but the point was it was a good meeting, the kids were good, and, drum roll please, Jaden told me he had to go potty! I took him and yes he was dry. He sat on the potty and pushed for a few minutes. He didn't go, but he did toot a little. He's trying!! About 30 seconds after we went back in and sat down, I felt his bum on my lap go very warm. We would have had success if we had held church in the bathroom!! Success would have been fantastic, but I would have missed out on the wonderful meeting today!

Daily Jake-ism

We went to the baptism of a friend, Noah, this afternoon. This was the conversation this evening while Jake was in the bathtub.
Jake: "Hey dad, I just pumembered (remembered), I know why its called a bafftism (bath-tism aka baptism)."
Dad: "you do huh? Why?"
Jake: "Because they have to plug it up like a baff (bath)"

Easter

Easter this year was amazing. Our dear friend, Audrey Dube, wanted to try something a little different this year. When she was a little girl, he dad would make a treasure hunt with clues that would take her and her sisters all over there 10 acre farm. The final clue would lead them to the stash of Easter eggs and candy. She had this great idea to do the same thing only on a smaller scale of course! She invited our family and 3 other families (the Irishes, the Smiths, and the Greenwalds) and we all went over to her house Sunday morning. We had breakfast first, and then the little kids got to go outside in the backyard and collect the 100 eggs (YIKES!!) that the Easter bunny had hidden in the grass. Then the big kids were split into two teams, boys and girls, each had the same clues, but in a different order and they raced each other to solve the clues and find the treasure. Girls won!! Even though the clues were hard and took several minutes to decipher, the kids said it was the best Easter ever!

Birthday Boy!

Well, a little late to tell the world, but Jacob is officially 5! He had a fabulous time at his birthday. He wanted an "army plane cake". Hmmmm..... ?? We looked at pictures and he was very insistent, he knew what he wanted, and mom just had to find a picture of the right plane. Turns out he was thinking of the SR-71 Blackbird. How does my five year old know these things!?! And why is it always BLACK frosting? Ugh! Anyway, we made a cake that he was happy with and he thought it looked "just right", so mom succeeded. He is happy with his birthday party consisting of Emma coming over for cake and a present. He isn't quite to the age where he is wanting a "real" party. Thank goodness for small favors! He got a new dress-up. Da-na-na-na-na-na-Da-na-na-na-na-na BATMAN!!!

Food and an Attitude!

A few days ago when the little boys, Jake and Jaden, and I got home from the gym, we were met at the van by a couple of surprise "visitors". As I unbuckled and unloaded the boys, 2 very angry robins swooped down in the grass right by the driveway. They were fighting and squawking and pecking and in general being VERY loud. Jake watched them in fascination for a minute and then turned to look at me. He raised his eyebrows way up and tilted his head down so he could peer up at me, put his fist on his hip, which he cocked out to the side and announced, "Mom, they have attitude!"...Do you think he's heard me tell his older sister and brother to "drop the attitude" a couple of times too many? That night when saying his prayers (ah yes, his infamous prayers!), he said "bless the birds that they won't have attitudes anymore and be nice and not screech at mom, I mean at the birdie's mom".
Recently, Jacob has been a very grateful boy. We had talked a little bit about prayers and I had mentioned that sometimes when we pray we can forget all of the things we have been given and we get stuck asking for something all the time. We talked about "thank-you prayers", were we just express our gratitude for the wonderful things we have in life. Jake really took that to heart and night time prayers have been thank-you prayers for several weeks now! He is grateful for a wide assortment of things. "thank-you for couches so we don't have to sit on the dirty floor" (thanks, bud, tell everyone that my floors are dirty....) "Thank-you for doors so we can like go through them... thank-you for cars to help us drive where we need to go to far away places... thank-you for Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ... Thank-you for dads and moms for everyone, to help kids and babies to eat when they are hungry... (and my personal favorites) Thank-you for food to eat when we hungry so we don't have to eat dirt and grass... Thank-you for kids to help clean up the house when really old people are coming over like really old grandpas!" Truly humbling when you realize just how much we have to be thankful for isn't it?!?!

P.S. Check out those water SKIS Jaden has where feet should be!

Vacay Anyone?

I finally figured out how to do it! Jacob and Jaden have too many toys, but every time I even hint that maybe someone else could use some of their toys and that it would be nice if we shared, Jacob would panic and say, "No, mommy!! I would miss them all so very much!" Today he wanted to look at family picture albums and when we were looking at last spring's family vacation he commented on how much fun he had on vacation and how he would like to go again and that "everyone in the entire world has to go to Seaworld and see Shamu. Everyone needs the opportunity (and yes, my 4-year old is still routinely using that word) to get splashed by Shamu." It just hit me. I said, "Hey Jake, let's go play in your room." So we headed upstairs and started to play. Now, every toy is out, every bucket has been dumped, the dress ups are scattered, the play food/kitchen box got stepped on and broken, there are a gazillion hot wheels and assorted other cars hiding under dress ups just waiting to get stepped on, plastic dinos competing for floor space with old McDonald's toys, etc. You get the idea. I told him that some of his toys would love a vacation. We started to divide things up into 3 groups. "Things I would miss too much if it went on vacation", "Things that can go on a little vacation" and "Things that can go on a forever vacation". He was so excited to be sending things on vacations, that he was OK to let go of the old happy meal toys and the cars with wobbly wheels. He let me put a few of the toys that I know he really likes, but only occasionally plays with, up in the top of his closet for a time out vacation. In 2 months when they come back I know they will be front runner favorites again. We gave 6 grocery sacks full of toys to Goodwill for "forever vacations" (not to mention the 2 sacks of toys not fit to pass on that got dumped!) The result? A clean bedroom with enough floor space to hold a hot wheel derby in which Jacob's favorite blue car took first place. I'm so excited!

My poor blue baby!!

Well, Jaden has taken a page out of the Jacob book. Monday afternoon was crazy. The big kids hit the door at 330 and chaos took over. The first day back from Christmas break and we were sadly out of practice with our routine. While trying to get homework done, both the little boys continued to make a nuisance of themselves, causing interruption and hence preteen angst from their sister. I finally said, "hey guys who wants to watch a movie?" Jake and Jaden settled down in front of "Kung Fu Panda" and I thought Jaden might actually fall asleep sitting there as he had refused to nap earlier. After a while of blessedly uninterrupted homework time, Ethan finished his work and then left to go play with his friend, Ben. Kaylee continued working on her excessive amount of 4th grade homework, and it slowly dawned on me that I hadn't heard Jaden in a while. My first thought was oh, he must have fallen asleep, but it keep bugging me and so I hollered to Jake, "Is Jaden in the TV room with you" "Yes, mommy" OK, back to homework. A few minutes later it was bothering me again, so I called Jake into the kitchen and asked him "Are you sure Jaden is watching the movie with you?" and he said "yes, mommy, he's right there" OK. Another few minutes pass and the feelings back. All of a sudden it hits me, duh, prompting, move your bum!! I jump up and run to the family room. Sure enough no Jaden. "where's Jaden at Jake?" The standard "I don't know"was his answer. Great. I call Jaden's name again and again as I go searching the house. I was thinking that I'd find him crashed laying on his bedroom floor or in his brother's closet passed out, but the more I looked, the more the panic took over. He wasn't in the house!! I ran to the backyard. He loves the backyard and the trampoline. That's where he'll be... in the cold... in a t-shirt and a diaper (if he hasn't stripped out of those as well as he did his pants, socks, and shoes earlier!). Nothing. Can't hear him, can't see him. I run back in the house yelling for Kaylee to help me look everywhere for Jaden. We search the house again. I check the front yard and the neighbors front yards: no Jaden! Under the beds, in the closets: no Jaden!! Under the sinks, behind the couch: no Jaden!!! I am sobbing by this time and so scared. I look in the backyard again and still nothing so I turn to back into the house to call the police and the neighbors and I just happened to look over the fence and through the windshield of my van. There sits Jaden, in the van, having a meltdown crying fit in the van. As close as we can figure, he followed Ethan out the door when he left and opened the van door (it's a power door), climbed in and shut the door. He had fun turning on all the reading/map lights and who knows what else, before climbing into his car seat and buckling the chest buckle. One problem. He can buckle, but not unbuckle the car seat!! So there he was, trapped! I ran over and opened the door and he was shivering and crying his little heart out! As soon as I had him free of the seat, he wrapped his little arms around my neck and grabbed a hold of my hair in back and held on for dear life. I brought him in the house and sat on the rocking chair bundled him up in blankets and we both had a good long cry.