Five Fun Fellas

I'm still in "recovery" mode from our vacation. Usually trips to the Ranch are relaxing, but this time around I need a vacation to recover from my vacation. . . no, wait I had one yesterday!

BEN is such a great dad. He took the three oldest out for a day at the lake yesterday (a work party at his boss's place). They fished, went tubing/wake boarding, ate tons of junk food, and didn't get home until 9:30pm. I relaxed, bonded with the baby (she learned to say "cheese"), cleaned out part of the basement, and watched a heap of television. Tee Hee! The gift of free time? Priceless!

R. got baptized in Leavenworth on Saturday on the Icicle River at the Ranch. We had a nice baptismal service at Gale and Kathy's home and four grandparents and a great-grandpa (Grandpa Jim) were there--the grandmas even "got to" give talks. It's hard to believe he is eight. What a great kid he is! We celebrated in Leavenworth with a huge cake and then hosted a few of his friends at home on Wednesday for a Pokemon Party. We are glad he is ours.

J. has been busy collecting money from the tooth fairy. His adult teeth were coming in behind the baby teeth, so I was nagging him to "keep wiggling" and trying to tug--it was more tooth nagging than Ben approved of. But on Wednesday morning, J. decided he wanted to try dental floss tied to the doorknob--which, he's been told, is how I lost a tooth as a youngster. It worked! His tooth went flying. It was fun. J. got bonus coinage from the tooth fairy for ingenuity.

S. Sometimes it's so hard to not laugh at your children! We went to church in Leavenworth and were going to skip out on the last two hours and head back to the Ranch. But S. protested "I want to go to primary!" She obviously doesn't know my unwritten rule-- only Sacrament Meeting when on vacation. S. was so insistent that we decided it wouldn't kill us to stay at church. R. and J. were game, so we dropped S. off in the primary room for Jr. Primary and found the CTR classroom for the boys (they wanted to stay together). About two minutes later I was headed down the hall and I popped my head into primary. I didn't see S, but her cousin, Hadyn, saw me looking in and whispered "S. is over there. She's crying!" Sure enough there she is snuggled up next to the sunbeams teacher bawling her eyes out. [Side note: S. has never even whimpered at church--loved nursery, loves primary!! Church is where she is a cutie pie wearing dresses and talking to grown-ups.] What went wrong? R. has been known to cry in church, but only when a classmate hits him or pokes him in the eye. Did someone poke S. in the eye?!? We pressed her to find out what went wrong. I was holding the baby, so Ben picked up S. and whisked her out into the hall. She quieted down and, sniffling, she said "I didn't know anybody in primary. The kids and my teachers were all different!" :)

C. is a weaned toddler (woo-hoo!) and loves the rest of us, her siblings especially. We love her too. She screams when the kids scream, says "Hi" when the kids say "Hi" and keeps us laughing with her Belly Pride. You see, several times a day C. lifts up her shirt to smack her tummy with both hands and stick a wiggling finger into her belly button. "See?"