Basketball and Back Flips

We had a visit this weekend from Ken’s sister, Cindy, her husband, also Ken, and boys Christian, Jensen, Conner and Jack. The 2 oldest are right around Rachel and Elizabeth’s ages, Conner is Tyler’s age and Jack is 3. What a blast! It was so much fun to spend the day with them on Saturday. They arrived Friday night and left early Sunday morning. Christian and Jensen are both really good skateboarders, so we went to our local small skate park here in Clinton and hung out for a while. Tyler and Conner kicked the soccer ball around and missed the skater’s faces by inches! Jack loved the dirt mounds with a dump truck and Adam wanted to be like the big boys, but hurt himself as he slid down one of the ramps. Adam had a bit of a tough weekend because there really wasn’t a cousin his age, he falls in the middle, and the big kids didn’t want him tagging along, and he didn’t like the 3-year old messing with his stuff!! Poooooorrrr Adam. He did better later in the evening when Ken let him pick out a Redbox movie and watch it alone!
Then home for lunch and a trip to another park—basketball, play structure and tennis courts. I think all of us adults took a nap at some time during the day. We watched football, played cards and the kids played in the backyard. Elizabeth loved to challenge Jensen—in EVERYTHING—basketball, flips, soccer and air hockey.
I think they played Ninja too, but who knows who prevailed there. Of course, Jensen whipped her at everything and she had to quiet her mouth!
Rachel was gone during the day at a debate tournament. At which she took 2nd place in her category of Foreign Extemporaneous. Her first placement at a tournament. Yea Rachel! When she came home, we had dinner and the older kids played night games outside until it got too dang cold to stay out there. They’re coming from Austin, Texas where they’re used to 100 degree+ days all summer long. I hope they used all our blankets at night! That night, we rented 3 DVD’s and everyone watched their movies all over the house, and ate Rachel’s famous yummy popcorn. It’s nice to have computers that play DVD’s now. I have to also say that when we played cards, I emerged the victor. I have to brag a little because Ken wins the game we played, 99% of the time! A series of lucky cards handed me the win! We also got a chance to talk to Ken’s brother, Brad who lives in Newport, OR. He called and we put him on speaker phone. That was really nice for us all.
The last time we saw Cindy and her family was about 4 years ago at a family reunion in Logan. Everyone’s changed and grown so much. They are now moving back to Portland and all the family except for us will be in Oregon again. I must confess to a little nostalgia and jealousy that we won’t be there with them, or in California with my whole family. My one brother who currently lives in Texas, will most likely be moving back to California with his family as well. It’s hard to be away, but so great when we get to see each other. My kids just absolutely love all their cousins. Even though we don’t see them much, they consider them among their best friends. Maybe someday we’ll be closer. I just hope it’s not when they’re all grown. In the meantime, I love it when any of our siblings and grandparents come to visit, or when we get to go there. We will relish in the memories and connections that are formed at these times.

Ken and Cindy, so happy togeeetthhher! Tyler and Jack forever with the Legos

More Legos, only now they've made their way onto

our bed! Conner is such a cute kid! They all are.

One of the few pictures we got of Christian (15) smiling!
He and Jensen are great teenagers!

Ken assuming his normal position of late, sleeping!

Jo-Jo the cat wanted to join him. There's something about Ken,

pets and babies LOVE him! They're very comfortable with him.

Me, preparing early for dinner for 12!

Tank and Rocky II are "helping"

I know it looks like I'm pregnant in this

picture, but I'm not!

Rachel, Christian, Elizabeth, Jensen (13), Conner (6)

and little Jack (3) who didn't want to have anything

to do with a shirt when he got out of the bathtub!

Halloween Pumpkin Costume Carving Candy Week

How this happened, I’ll never know, but Ken and I ended up at home together with no kids on Halloween night!! Rachel worked at a youth council Halloween party for kids and Adam went with her, Elizabeth spent the holiday with her friend from school, Marcie, in South Weber, and Tyler was invited to a haunted house and trick-or-treating with his friend, Zach and his family in Syracuse. Since it was really cold here, Ken and I didn’t mind at all staying inside a warm house and delivering treats to the neighborhood kids. Well, I cannot tell a lie…Ken did the doorbell duty this year. What a guy! My favorite pumpkin is Tyler’s with the Bogart/Durante-looking smile. Ken helped him with that one and it turned out great! None of us is a master-carver, so they are all kid-done. Adam gladly stuck his hand inside them all to pull out the gunk and seeds, a job Elizabeth wouldn’t have done in a million years. Thank heavens for little boys!

Adam’s “story” of the day: Jana called this morning and asked if he got a lot of candy for Halloween. He responded by saying that he didn’t because he was working on a science project and his mom didn’t let him go out until 10:00 p.m. And by that time there was only one person who opened the door, but he got a king-sized candy bar. Hmmmmm…..an 8-year old out at
10 p.m. Sounds a little fishy to me…

Tyler’s funny misunderstanding: On the way to church: Tyler: Mom, what day was I born on?
Mom: What day do you think you were born on? Tyler: I don’t know at all mom!
Mom: Well, what day is your birthday? Tyler: May 22nd……(thoughtfully) Ohhhhhh, is your birthday the day you were born on??? (Lightbulb seemingly goes off in head). The things you think your kids “get”….

Family Home Evening Quote: Dad: “Tyler, how do you know the church is true?” Tyler: “Because it said so in True to the Faith”. So much for feelings in our heart and mind!

Tyler was in charge of the lesson and he wanted to give it on revelation—He had opened his scriptures up to the Doctrine and Covenants where we’re reading as a family and saw the word “revelation” in most of the chapter headings! So I got out True to the Faith and he read over that section with Ken, Rachel and me and Ken helped him put a lesson together in his words.

Not too bad for Wal-Mart pumpkins
See what I mean? Isn't this one cool? I think
Tyler must've had Kool-Aid for dinner!

Adam decided he wanted to "fling" his pumpkin

seeds all over the floor, so he got clean-up duty.

She'll scoop them out, but not touch them
Heaven forbid!

Rachel, always wanting to use some sort of "prop"

Speaks for itself!

The finished products!

Straight out of the 60's. I think my

mom may have had a similar outfit.

Rachel has wanted to be a Disney

villain forever, but she got too big

for kid costumes but not big enough

for adult costumes! When we found this

Maleficent one from Sleeping Beauty,

we grabbed it. She wore it to 2 parties

and trick-or-treating with Adam.

Too bad that car beside him isn't a Batmobile! More

like a kid-taxi-mobile!

He actually doesn't need to do much

to look like Harry Potter. He wouldn't

let me spray his hair black because it

made such a mess.

Sweet Little Lies

I seem to have a typical 8-year old boy on my hands these days. You know the one...wants to make everyone laugh, loves silly jokes and riddles, torments his older sister, torments his younger brother, doesn't want to have anything to do with chores or homework, would sooner get Pokemon cards than eat, THAT one.
Adam is all that and more. His latest foray into wanting to make people laugh, is telling these stories that are unequivocally untrue! As we've talked about this behavior, and I explain to him that he is really lying, not telling a "funny story". He doesn't want to accept that, so he continues. Now, the funny thing is that he doesn't do this at home. He only does it with other adults who he is with or who ask him questions. With a straight face, no indication that he's not the most truthful child, he spews out a complete untruth. The only way I know about it is that the adults ask me about what he's said and I have to keep from laughing all the time. He does this about once a week. I wish I would have recorded all his "stories". This week, he was in carpool with my friend, Sara, and he told her that our whole family was going to Kentucky for Christmas! Now, we know absolutely no one in Kentucky. How he pulled that one from his little hat, I have no idea. She e-mailed me, thinking he was totally serious, asking if we were going there for Christmas! The things he comes up with are not malicious in any way, just completely out of the blue. Very random. On Friday night, we were all at a friend's Halloween party and one of her family members approached me and said, "I didn't know that Adam was allergic to sugar." I rolled my eyes...another not-so-sweet little untruth. Because he's so serious when he says these things, they are taken as truth. What to do?...what to do?... I'm sure he'll outgrow this and head into the next "boy" stage. I wonder what that one is? Belching, yelling out in class, farting, arguing, forgetting to change his underwear for who knows how long, going to bed in his clothes, breaking things and not 'fessing up, sweetly hugging his mother when no one's looking, sitting down at all times of the day to play a new piano piece he's just learned, getting good grades because even when it looks like he's not listening, he really is, bearing his testimony in church--EVERY Fast Sunday, being excited about being a new Cub Scout, and just generally being a good addition to our family. Oh, wait, he's already there.
We are blessed...

Adam's latest joke--Sunday morning, 10:40 a.m. Adam: "Mom, how does a fish say fifty?" Mom: "blub blub?"
Adam: "No, 'Fish-ty!'" Mom: "That's a good one, Adam." Adam: "I know, I just made it up myself." Mom: (In her mind) "Reeeeaaalllyyy, I never would have guessed."