A Child's Prayer

Last night for Family Home Evening, Brody said the opening prayer. In the past, he has gotten into the habit of "reciting" prayers. He would have a dinner prayer, a bedtime prayer, and a Family Home Evening prayer. We tried to teach him to think of new things every night to thank Heavenly Father for. Last night, he did great. I don't remember everything, but here is pretty much how it went:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for our day. Bless that we can have Family Home Evening, thank you for our bodies and our home and our toys and our feet and our legs and our nipples (yes, you read that right) and our eyes and our mouths and our fans and our ladders and our chairs and our t.v. and our stars and our pictures and our walls and our knees and for everyone who can say prayers and our family. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

I think he covered about everything. I kept having to cover his eyes because he was just looking around the room naming everything he saw. Except nipples. He didn't see any of those. I have no idea where he came up with that one.

Like Mother Like Son?

Last night we had our Relief Society Enrichment. For part of it, the women brought pictures of themselves as babies or toddlers and we had to guess who it was. It was fun to see everyone's pictures. I brought a picture of myself (the only one I have, in fact. I'm sure my parents loved me when I was a child- there is just no physical evidence of such). I thought it was interesting that we couldn't tell who the person was because they looked like themselves, but they usually looked just like their kids. I have always thought that I look nothing like my small self and that my children don't look at all like me. I was surprised and pretty excited when people were telling me that my picture looked just like Bridger. So here is the picture I brought and a picture of my sweet little Bridger so you can see...what do you think?

Feeling Like a Parry Again

My brother called me last Sunday and asked if I wanted him and his family to come over. Obviously I did. "How about Wednesday?" he asked. I was so excited.

So Wednesday, Zach, Amber, Cadence and Jack got here. The kids were all so excited. We just hung out and visited for the rest of the day. The kids got to go play outside in the sandbox and we caught up.
Thursday we went to Jump City and then to the pizza buffet Stevie B's for dinner. Zach definitely got his money worth, eating 9 pieces of pizza and some bread sticks. That includes the dessert pizza- I think he ate 3 pieces of s'more pizza. Very impressive. He said he was trying to make up for losing a french toast eating contest when we were little when I ate 9 french toasts and he ate like 3 or 4.

(I love Jack's little face peaking under the rim of the car)

On Friday Zach and I took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's (which our kids call Chucky Jesus). I'm not sure what we were thinking. It was Friday night of Spring Break/Masters week. It was so busy and crazy and Brody kept running off and Bridger wanted me to hold him the whole time. Luckily, when we went to cash in our tickets, instead of giving us the 6 tootsie pops that we had enough tickets for, the lady just handed us the rest of the bag that they had, which was about 20 suckers. Therefore, the first 8 minutes of our ride home was quiet. Those kids can down suckers like I've never seen.
Saturday we drove to Columbia, SC to go to the temple. Zach, Adam, and I went in and did temple work while Amber took the kids to the park. Then we all went to the zoo for a few hours and got to see some cool animals. I think the kids' favorite was the elephants, who did their large #2 in front of us. Large is an understatement, by the way. When we got home, we had a little Easter egg hunt in our back yard, which took about 3 minutes.
Also, every night after the kids went to bed, we got to play the Wii that Zach brought. It was so fun! We played Rock Band, which is my absolute favorite. We also played cow jumping, bowling, tennis, and Mario Kart (not my favorite). Poor Adam missed out on most of the adult only fun (that sounds bad, but it wasn't at all, okay?) because he started working mids (9pm-7am), so he was tired and almost not functioning the whole week.
It was so fun to be with Zach and Amber and the kids. I loved having a little girl around that I could paint nails with and play with her hair. She is such a girly little princess and I loved it! I also loved doing things with Zach. It made me feel like a Parry again- like when we lived across the street from each other at BYU and when we lived together when he was engaged and Adam was at boot camp. We did a craft together that was really fun and turned out great. Maybe he'll post it on his blog. Jack is a squishy, yummy, dimply little boy. He gives awesome dirty looks and has a hilarious laugh. It was also fun to have Amber around to talk to and do nails with and help with the cookit. I wish they could have all stayed longer.

Cadence and me in our matching skirts I made. I know next time to make pink skirts. She doesn't really like to wear anything that doesn't have pink in it. Oh- and I dont' have a picture of it, but Jack and Cadence had THE cutest Easter outfits. Cadence had a pretty little dress and matching headband and Jack had a pink church shirt with a blazer, white pants, and SADDLE SHOES! How cute is that? I wish you knew how cute it was.

Child Labor=Awesome

So last month when I was going visiting teaching with my amaz-z-z-zing companion, Cari, she was talking about how she was trying to get a program going to get her kids to do chores. I didn't think much about it at the time, but since then, I have realized that my kids, especially Brody, are ready to have assigned chores. Bridger already loves helping (and I use that term loosely) unload the dishes and Brody can make my bed (he can't make his top bunk bed so I figure he can just make my bed instead!) and do some other things. I was very impressed with the feedback I got from my last post so I am asking for any advice on how the kids' chores work in your homes. I don't want anything too complicated. Just a simple way to teach the boys about responsibility and cleanliness.

Don't chores look good on him?

This isn't related, but Brooke asked me for some Bridger eye candy, so here it is. He is way cuddly and when Adam gets home from work, Bridger can't keep his hands off of him.

"Head-Pants-NOW!"

I know some of you can name that movie!

So anyway, I love my Brody. He is sweet and innocent and charming. His dimpled smile makes me melt (unless he is being naughty- then it's just aggravating).

But here's the thing. He has an over-sized head. I still think he is handsome and yummy, but I know he is very blessed in the skull department. We are trying to find a haircut that compliments his head so we grew it out long and then cut it today so we could see which is best. What are your thoughts? Which is better?

I'm Sick of Being Sick!

Welcome to day 5 of me feeling like crap. Right now, my kids are eating popcorn on the couch and watching Olivia, my house looks like someone picked it up and shook it, and I am on the verge of coughing up my last vital organ.

Hello, death's door. Nice to meet you.

Things to Do in New Tazewell, TN

Have you always wanted to go to New Tazewell, Tennessee but didn't know what was available to do there?

Yeah- me neither. I'd never heard of it until we started looking on a map trying to decide what was in between us and Adam's parents. This seemed like a good enough spot so we booked a cabin and spent this last weekend with the fam before Kimball (Adam's brother) goes off to Iraq.

Here are some things you can do if you ever get a chance to go (grandparents are strongly recommended for some of these activities).

Have a bonfire complete with s'mores and Family Home Evening, even though no one really likes s'mores. It's all about traditions I guess.

Read bedtime stories with Nana.
Throw rocks into the lake. I don't mean a few rocks. I mean make Grandpa make 15 or 20 trips from the shore to the dock with as many rocks as he can carry just to throw them in the water.

Have an Easter Egg Hunt.

Try...ummm...log surfing?

Go pedal boating.

Take a nap with Papa.

Play croquet.

Meet your adorable nephew for the first time.
And finally- get sick. Notice the look on my face. That is my attempt to look happy even though my throat felt (and still feels) like acid is burning through my throat flesh and knives are stabbing me in the throat all at the same time. If you're on vacation and you're going to get sick, make sure that one of your kids is sick too so the whole ride home he whines while you already want to throw yourself out of the car and maybe into oncoming traffic. It's the only way to go.

I just realized that we have no good pictures of Faith, Allen, or Kimball (who was the reason for the whole trip). Sorry, guys.