Live each day to the fullest

Sometimes, we get so caught up in the things that don't matter that we miss out the things that do. We had such a reminder this afternoon.

A sweet friend of mine lost her husband suddenly this morning. She's due to have her third baby in about two weeks. She can't be more than 30 with a 2 year old and a 3 year old at home. Through Cub Scouts, I learned that she is a very strong woman, one that I admire for her integrity and her moral compass. I just want to hug her, hug her children. Hug my own children. And pray. Pray for her, pray for Cole and Halle, pray for their new baby. Pray for an even better understanding of the Gospel. Pray to remember what's really important.

Bleeding out your eyeballs...

First off, thanks to my guest blogger that posted Sam's picture below.

Now for the story (so you don't think I poked my baby in the eyes with a fork or something!)

Sam likes to help with the dishwasher. Actually, he likes to help remove things from the dishwasher. You know, the still dirty plates, the breakable stoneware, or just the lower rack in general.
Our problem occurred Friday night with the lower rack. He pulled it out and was scooting it around the kitchen like always. Then, I heard him crying from the other room and the stampede of big brothers rushing to his rescue that follows said cries. I relaxed as they took him into Jared, until I heard Jared telling the boys and their cousins to "Find Mom, find Kelly, get mom!"

This is where a little family history comes into play. I guess people in our house growing up used to fake being sick to miss school.My mom got to the point that she told us no one would be missing anymore school unless they were bleeding out their eyeballs. I had recently adopted this reasoning with my boys that have miraculously been healed from a few
illnesses about 15 minutes after school has started.

So, back to Friday. I walk in to the kitchen and little Sammers is actually bleeding out of his eyeballs! He had fallen on the dishwasher rack and caught the pegs in his face. His left eyelid and underneath his right eye was bleeding, and the right side of his face was scratched.
Luckily, he calmed down pretty fast ans we were able to see that the eyelid was only gouged and not poked through (sorry to my queasy sister). The other owies were just surface. his dilation was fine as well as his tracking. He just ended up with some swollen, black eyes.

Too bad he used the 'bleeding out your eyeballs' card, though. He's not even in school yet!

Sam vs. Dishwasher

Kelly had a really sucky day Friday. BLOOD THAT WAS COMING OUT OF HER SAMMERS EYE BALLS was the icing on the cake. You should wish her a good day. :)

Crush? Yes Girlfriend? No

Shot through the heart,
and you're to blame,
You give love a bad name

This is really what I was expecting! Well, not Bon Jovi, but I was expecting a little bit of arguing when we delivered the news to Jake. I was ready for tears. I was ready for "but you said"s. I was ready for stomping upstairs. The night after he told us about his girlfriend, we explained to him that he couldn't have a girlfriend.
We explained that the Prophets have told us to wait until we're 16 to date and if we let him have a girlfriend now, he could get into trouble later. I don't think he understood what we meant by "trouble", but in a very un-jake-like way, he agreed with us!
He asked if it's OK for him to still like her and we said crushes were allowed. I mean, really, he called dibs and I'd hate for all that pre-planning to go to waste! And, I was so proud that he didn't even think about asking her for his candy bar back!

Fatherly Advice

On the way home tonight, I was made aware of the fact that Jake has a girlfriend! Yeah, he's, ummm, ten! So, Jared has known about this for a week now because that's when Jake extended the offer to Riley to be his girlfriend (she just barely accepted today). So anyways, here's some of the advice that was bouncing around our car on the way home:

• you should give her the big Snickers bar you got for Halloween because 'chicks' like chocolate
• you have to call dibs on a girl to make sure you get to be her boyfriend ; otherwise, one of your friends could get her (I found out tonight that Jared called dibs on me some 11 years ago, how romantic!)
• she's really only your girlfriend when you're both at school because that's the only time you really see her.

So, now that you know the incredible romantic powers held by my husband, please remember that he's taken. I called dibs on him!

P.S. Lock up your daughters - he's teaching everything he knows to my boys!

I needed to turn in a picture for a project for Super Saturday and I realized I really didn't have any that were good of all 4 boys. We tried this after church on Sunday, and I got this shot on the first try! I really have some
cute boys!

Look! They're all 4 smiling at the same time!

A good use for Pokemon cards!

and Bakugan cards, and YuGiOh cards and probably a few Old Maid cards!

Plus, it really helps pass the time when you get sent to your room!

Halloween 2009

Jake - G.I. Joe guy, Cam & Josh - werewolves, Grace - cheshire cat

Since the child that was so appropriately dressed up as a little devil this year broke my camera, I only got this one picture to turn out using Cam's camera. I'm not sure what 'artistic' settings he's using, but everything else turned out blurry and bright! I guess that's o.k., like I scrapbook anyways!