Drew teaches me a lesson on Pride

Drew has been waiting all day to play with his friend Jonah. He called Jonah this morning and Jonah said he couldn't play until about 4 o'clock. So every few minutes the entire day Drew would tell me what time it was and ask how much longer he had to wait to go to Jonah's.

Finally four o'clock rolled around and I told him that sure enough it was time to call and see if Jonah could play. Drew called and was very excited as he hung up the phone. Yes indeed Jonah could play.

"I am going to get ready to go to Jonah's right now Mom!" Drew said.
"Okay Drew."

A couple minutes later I went into the living room and Drew and Hayden had loaded their snow sled full of bakugans, their pillow pets, and a few extra things and were ready to head out the door.

I asked,"What do you think you're doing Drew? Why don't you just carry those things over there?" I was thinking about how silly they were going to look dragging a sled when there was no snow outside.
"No Mom, there is way too much stuff! We want to take the sled. It will be easier" Drew replied.

I shared my worries out loud, "Drew . . . why don't you and Hayden just carry that stuff? There is no snow out there, and you will look silly! What if someone laughs at you?" I thought that this would get them thinking. I mean who likes getting laughed at?

This was Drew's response, and I promise I am not even making it up!
Drew said, "Mom . . . if someone laughs at us we will just remember that God is smiling at us."
I was kind of taken aback at that, and Drew continued, "It doesn't matter if someone laughs at us if we remember that God is smiling at us . . ."

I wish I could remember that one sometimes! That is a hard one for Miss Mary Mack the wise adult who loves to advise her children to remember. Who cares what the world thinks . . . it's only what God thinks that really matters. I thought I had better write this little experience down to share with Drew when perhaps it's a little hard for him to ignore the laughter of others . . . I can give him his own wise advice!

Needless to say, I let them take the sled over to Jonah's, and I'm sure that God was smiling at them . . . ! I know I was. :)

I think she is like you Mom . . .

I am pretty sure that some of the funniest and sweetest moments that I have listening to the kids are after a scripture story. One day we were reading the scripture story about the widow who cast in her two mites and all of the rich men were casting in much more than that into the treasury; yet Jesus said that the widow had cast in more then them all because she had given all that she had.

I turned to the kids and said, "How is that possible? The rich men were puting in all of that money, and the widow only put in two little mites . . . but Jesus said that she put in more. How is this possible?"

I wasn't really expecting the kids to come up with the answer. I was ready to explain it to them. But then Drew said, "I think I know."

"Ya? What do you think Drew?"

Then Drew said, "I think that she is like you Mom . . . "

I was very curious at this point. "Ya?"

"Ya." He looked like he really thought he had the right answer and he said, "I think she went to garage sales!"

I love it! It makes perfect sense though right? Of course going to garage sales would make it possible!

I don't want to give away all of my stuff!

A couple weeks ago I was reading the story in the New Testament about the rich man who came to Jesus and asked what he needed to do to get to Heaven. Jesus told him to sell all that he had and give it to the poor and the rich man walked away sorrowfully. I then tried to explain to the kids that nothing that we have is really ours because God has given us all that we have. Because of this we should be willing to share the things that we have with others. I told them that we needed to love God more than our "things."

After my commentary Hayden said to me, "Mom . . . I don't want to go to Heaven."

I said, "What? What do you mean Hayden? Why don't you want to go to Heaven?"

Then he started to cry and explained, "I don't want to give away all of my stuff!"

Oh my funny little boy. It's been a couple of weeks since this happened. Last night the kids wanted me to tell them a story. Before I began with my story Hayden wanted to tell a story first.
His story went something like this:
"Chapter one (It cracks me up that he has chapters in his short little stories.) Once there was a little boy named Hayden. He didn't want to give away all of his stuff to get to Heaven."
He was talking in such a quiet voice I didn't catch a lot of what he said after that, but it sounded as if the boy Hayden in the story learned what he needed to learn and the story ended with Hayden getting to Heaven. It was pretty cute I must say. I had no idea that this story that I read like two weeks ago was something that he had been thinking about!
He ended his story like this:
"Chapter 2. The end."

Family Vacation Day 4: Yosemite w/Todd & Betty

Todd and Betty are so awesome! They drove 4 hours to Yosemite with us in order to spend just a couple hours and then have to turn around and drive another 4 hours to get back to their house! We went on one short hike with the kids to a waterfall, and on the way back down this lady passed by us and in passing as she looked at all of the kids with us said, "Wow. That's a lot! You're brave!" I thought to myself, "You think three is a lot? We are barely half way done!!" :)

It is quite an adventure to bring that many kids on a trip somewhere, but it is so worth it. I am so glad that we attempt it.

At the visitors center we had to chase the kids around and round them up a few times before we got out of there, we also took the kids to a semi-nice restaraunt to have some pizza in which they were a little boisterous at times and were the only kids in the room. We got a few looks from people around us. At one point in the day when we stopped to do our hike, Kimball got out of the car and puked all over the parking lot. Poor guy! But who thinks of those things when all is said and done? At the end of the day, no matter how crazy it might be during the experience, we almost always say . . . "Man, that was a fun day!" And it was. Yosemite is a beautiful place to be. We only wish we would have had more days to spend there!

It was funny. When we got home Aunt Suzie asked Hayden what he did on the vacation and Hayden looked up at her and said, " We watched movies. . . We ate crackers . . . and fruit snacks . . . " That is what we did and what we ate while we were driving in the car! Yes it was a lot of driving for four days. But it was fun! Thanks Marybeth for coming with us! And thanks to Todd and Betty for joining us in the fun too!

Family Vacation Day 3: Todd and Betty's and Half Moon Bay

On Sunday morning our plan was to wake up early and start for Palo Alto where we would drive straight to Todd and Betty's Stake Conference. Well, we almost made it on time! When we go there though, we were all still in our camping clothes. We all had to change into our Sunday clothes in the car. Well, except for Marybeth who was the one fortunate person who took a shower and was ready before we left.
Hayden had another one of his meltdowns when we got there. He didn't want to go to church because he didn't want to change into his church clothes. I told Hayden that it was either get dressed and go in with Kimball and Anahi, or he and I were going to stay in the car the whole time. Well he just kept crying, and I sent the rest of the family in while we sat in the car. Hayden finally, after crying for quite sometime, decided that he would get his church clothes on. After getting his pants on though Hayden started crying again. His pants were a little big, and he just threw a fit! "My pants are too big!"

I went on to tell him, "You know what Hayden? . . . I packed myself some church clothes, I brought this skirt . . . and you know what? I put in on and look . . . " I then showed him my gaping open skirt that wouldn't zip up because it was too small. I said, "Hayden, I didn't know that this skirt wasn't going to fit me . . . but you know what? I want to go to church so bad . . . I am going to wear it anyways. Do you think that just like me you can wear those pants even though they don't fit because Heavenly Father wants us to be in church?" So he agreed. Thank Heavens! We were going to get inside! At least I thought so. Suddenly Hayden asked me, "Where are my Sunday shoes?" . . . Oh great! I realized I had forgot them. "Hayden, you are going to have to wear your tennis shoes." . . .

"Nooooo!" Suddenly we were back to square one. Hayden was wailing. "Hayden, it's okay. You can wear your tennis shoes. It will be okay!"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I won't be handsome!!!!!" I thought that was pretty cute. I did finally get him to go in. We had missed like half of the meeting, but the last half was really good! We sat in the room where Todd was translating for the Spanish speaking people in the Stake. It was kind of fun. Drew even got quite lucky. There was a little boy in there who had multiple bakugans that he played with throughout the meeting. At the end of the meeting Drew approached the boy, and was checking out his bakugans and the boy told him that he could have one of them. He asked his mom if that was okay. She said yes, and Drew was in Heaven!

Later in the evening we went to Half Moon Bay with Todd and Betty, and Todd took some pretty cute pics of the kids.

Family Vacation Day 2: Yosemite

After a lovely night (a few hours for Lamon and Marybeth who stayed up late) we woke up and packed up our stuff and left Lake Tahoe. It was quite a shame to leave so soon, seeing that we had such a lovely suite to enjoy! But Yosemite was waiting for us, so we wanted to get off to an early start. It was a couple hours of driving until we entered the park. When we did enter the park we were looking out the windows enjoying the scenery. No one actually admitted this to anyone, but we were all wondering to ourselves what was different about these mountains compared to our own in Utah. And then . . . we got to Yosemite Valley. Oh boy . . . can I just say SPECTACULAR!!! It was absolutely beautiful. We were surrounded by these amazing sheer granite cliffs. The biggest waterfall in Yosemite was dry, which was a disappointment. I can't even imagine how breathtaking it must be when the waterfalls are all flowing at full capacity. That must be a site to see! But we did go on a 2 mile hike to one of the falls. It was really fun. It was a really steep climb, and the kids practically ran up the whole thing. Drew and Hayden were having a bit of a contest to see who could get to the top first. Drew was winning, and I was the lucky one who got to hold Drew's hand on the way up! So needless to say . . . my pregnant self was a little winded when we finally got there! :) I love that my kids love to hike. Sometimes Hayden complains when we are hiking, but he was right behind Drew the whole time on this one. Even Ada hiked almost the entire way herself! I have cool kids.

We had to leave before it got too late because it was going to take a couple hours to get to our reserved camp site. It took a little longer than we expected to get to the site, and we were less than impressed when we got there. It was pitch dark, and when we pulled up to the site it was very small and not very well maintained. We had to move the picnic bench in order to make a spot for our tent. And when we pulled our canvas bag full of our tents, sleeping bags, and camping gear off the trailer in the back of the car we had a bit of a surprise. Unlike some cars who's exhaust goes off to the side . . . our cars exhaust comes straight out the back. And the exhaust burned a hole right through the canvas bag, all of our sleeping bags, our tent etc. After acknowledging that that was going to take a bit of money to replace all of the that stuff, we decided not to let it ruin our vacation! Good thing we had so much luck in Lake Tahoe!

Lamon set up the tent while me and Marybeth practiced our camp cooking skills making instant packaged noodles on the camping stove. After dinner the kids went right to sleep. And if I haven't mentioned it before . . . I have cool kids. The kids slept right through the night not waking up once. Ada slept so long we had to wake her up in the morning after puting all of the camping gear away except for the tent she was sleeping in. She was a sight to behold when she woke up. Her hair was sticking up everywhere. What a cute little girl! :)

Family Vacation Day 1: Lake Tahoe

The Lamon Mack family is not known for their planning skills. But although it was out of character for us, many months ago we penciled in a trip to Yosemite for the second week of September. We even went as far as making a hotel and campground reservation ahead of time! Of course that is as far as we went with the whole planning thing, and the rest of the trips intinerary was sort of up in the air. We decided to make it a quick trip and drive most of the first day and stay in Lake Tahoe. We reserved to cheapest place we could find on the internet. We arrived in Lake Tahoe at about midnight. That was much later than expected. It was a long day of driving, but we were armed with fruit snacks, crackers, pistachios, bagels and cream cheese, and lots of movies. The kids did just fine. That is of course until we arrived in Lake Tahoe. The kids had all been sleeping for a few hours, and suddenly Hayden woke up and was not in the happiest of moods to say the least. He started crying uncontrollably. We were trying to figure out what was wrong, and how we could make him feel better; but he wasn't making a lick of sense at all. We would tell him, "Hayden, don't worry we are almost to the hotel." Then he would respond by wailing, "Noooooo!!! I don't want to sleep in the hotel!"
"Do you want to sleep in the car?"
"Noooooo!"
"Hayden, you aren't making any sense! What is wrong? Why don't you want to sleep in the hotel?"
Crying he said, "It's just . . . I don't know what it looks like!"
And that was it. For the next 45 minutes, or however long it took us to get inside the hotel, Hayden continued crying because he didn't know what it looked like inside.
When we got to the hotel, I was a little worried. It didn't look like the Ritz. We reserved the cheapest room available, so I wasn't expecting anything too grand . . . but after getting there I was a little worried about what we would find.
Lamon went to check in while me and Marybeth listened to Hayden cry about not knowing what the hotel looked like inside, and a part of me was feeling the same way at that point. Lamon finally came out with a key, and was trying to get into our room (which didn't have a non-smoking sign on the door) and after trying for a few minutes the door wouldn't open. He finally went back to the office to have them rekey it, and he came back and tried again. But still there was no luck. He couldn't get the door open. He went back to the office again. At this point I was thinking to myself, "This is really going to be a dive, and we will never hear the end of it from Hayden! But then Lamon came back with a huge smile on his face, and walked to a different room entirely. We were thinking maybe he was trying the wrong room the whole time, but then Lamon came back and told us that the front desk guy asked him, "How would you like a free upgrade? We have this $450 dollar Suite that never gets used because no one can afford it. Would you guys like it?" We were pretty stoked! So here are some pictures of our 79 dollar room, I mean suite, at Lake Tahoe! There was a gas fireplace in the master bedroom, flat screen tv's in every room, a full kitchen and dining area, another bedroom with a nice little couch, and a very nice bathroom with a huge sweet shower.

August: Feed the Fire 50 Mile Bike Ride

Lamon organized a Feed the Fire Event for the family in August. Inspired perhaps by his 100 mile Tour de Cure race, Lamon thought it would be fun to go on a 5o mile bike ride with the family. Unlike Lamon and his in shape buddies who did the Tour de Cure, this bike ride would be accomplished on mountain bikes by some of us who perhaps had ridden a bike once the whole summer . . . and we didn't break any speed records I will just say that right now! I (an out of shape pregnant woman) was in front of the pack a lot of the time. That's about how fast we went. But it sure was fun!!!!! We rode about 30 miles and then stopped at a park in Genola and pigged out on some yummy food that Lamon had waiting for us. Todd and Betty came with their kids and joined us for the last 20 miles. It was a fun day!! The people who participated in our Feed the Fire Event were Mom and Dad Mack, Annie, Janie, Marybeth, Jeanine, Spencer, Aunt Nan, Todd, Betty (and kids) and me. Lamon rode the support vehicle, and for the last 20 miles had a sad Alicia in the car with him. Lamon, you rock! Thanks for the fun!

August: Lagoon

Yes, I know it is October already! I just have been a little lazy at catching up on all the summer events. Every time I have the intention of just getting it all done, I end up being so long winded with each entry, that I give up without finishing. But here goes another attempt at catching up.

In August my brother Jim's little boy Eli visited from Colorado. It is not very often that we get to spend time with that adorable little guy, so we wanted to make the best of it! We decided that it would be fun to go to Lagoon. It's been a long time since I have been to Lagoon!! The last time I went to Lagoon I was a newlywed. I went with Lamon and some siblings and it didn't turn out too well. I kept calling Lamon a partypooper because he wouldn't go on any of the rides. And he pretty much didn't want to go to an amusement park with me again after that. I now know that he really does have a weak stomach! He has passed it on to all of our children. There was no chance that I was going to complain about his partypooperness this go around. This time it would be just for the kids. No big kid rides or anything. It helped that I was pregnant, and couldn't go on any of the big rides anyway.

It was nice because the kids were just tall enough to go on most of the kid rides. And I was really impressed because they weren't scared to go on any of them. The only problem we ran into was when there was a possibility of getting wet on a ride. Everytime that Ada got wet she started crying like a madwoman! It was pretty funny actually because you could tell that she hated it when she would get wet, but if you looked at her with a huge smile and said, "Ada! Wasn't that so fun?!! Did you like that ride?!" She would say, "Ya . . . that was fun!" But oh did she hate getting wet! When we went on the Rattlesnake Rapids Ride Lamon pretty much huddled over her the entire time trying to keep her from getting soaked. She's a trooper though and endured the wet rides, and had a fabulous time. At least we convinced her that she did . . . ! J/K!

The kids loved the waterpark. It was crazy busy in there though, and we got a little nervous a couple times when we couldn't see one of the kids. I think at one point it took us a few minutes to find Drew, and a few minutes can be pretty nerve racking! We thought Drew was tall enough to go on most of the slides, and we took him without any protest from the staff on them. But on one of the tube rides we got to the top of the slide, and I was thinking to myself, "I don't know if Drew is quite tall enough for this one." But the lifeguard motioned him ahead and Drew got on his tube. It is hard to explain, but there is a part of the tube the is big where you would put your head, and a part of the tube that is smaller where your feet would hang over. Well, Drew got on the tube sitting on the small part with his feet pointed towards the bigger end. It made the weight distribution not quite right, and before he even got started he was tipping backwards. People in the crowd were grimacing and saying, "Oooh! . . . As they watched Drew start going down the slide. We were all waiting for him to tip over! But instead of tipping over . . . in the middle of the slide he just came to a complete stop. The lifeguard ended up having to ski down the slide on his feet and push Drew down the rest of the way. Everyone had to wait a long time for the Lifeguard to return, and I just looked at the ground embarrassed vowing to myself that I would never bring a lightweight kid on that slide again no matter how brave we both thought he was!!

At the end of the day I was wishing that it didn't have to come to an end so soon! The kids had such a fun time. And I never thought I would think this, but watching kids have fun on rides is a thousand times better than going on them myself! And that is coming from someone who loves rides! Fun times. Grandma and Grandpa Barksdale, John, Karyn, Gabbie, Charlie, Eli, Liz, Blake and Tyler were all there with us to join in the fun! Hope we can go next year . . . and me and my unpregnant self will be going on some rides!!! Lamon thinks I have a bit of white trash in me for liking Lagoon so much . . . perhaps I do . . . perhaps I do! :)

Hayden's Nightmares

Hayden is such a sweet boy, and there isn't many things I can think of cuter than seeing his lip quiver and hearing him whimper as he tells me about a nightmare he has just had. Which quite honestly his nightmares are sometimes just . . . funny! Not that all of them are. He is scared of spiders, and has had some spider nightmares which is no laughing matter! I hate spiders too!
One night Lamon and I were still awake and sitting in bed when in walked Hayden with his lip jutting out.
"Hayden, what's the matter?"
Then Hayden says, "It's just that . . . spiders have claws!" And then he broke down crying uncontrollably. It was pretty cute. We did our best to calm him down.

Another night Hayden was crying for me to come to him, and when I got there he said, "Mom, what if all of our food was gone, and there wasn't any more food at the store?" He had tears in his eyes as he asked me this. He is always thinking about food! I said, "Hayden don't cry! We have plenty of food in our house." And then he responded, "Ya but what if it was all gone? . . . We would just die . . . " sob sob sob. "Hayden we have lots of food stop worrying. I left his room and he wasn't completely consoled. A couple minutes later he called me to him again. "Mom!!" I came to his bed and he said, "Mom . . . do you think if all of our food was gone that . . . Jesus would give us some more food?" I was thinking to myself that I have one cute kid. I said, "You know what Hayden? Did you know that Heavenly Father wants us to save extra food just in case there was a time that there wasn't a lot of food at the store. Do you think that you could help remind me to buy extra food so that we won't run out?" This seemed to him to be the best idea he had heard in a long time. He smiled and nodded and then turned over and went to sleep. Funny boy!

Two nights ago Hayden was whimpering and called for me and when I got to him he said, "Mom, what will happen if the plants grow too high?" He was completely serious.
"What do you mean?"
"What will happen if the plants grow too high? That would just scare me too much!" He started to cry softly.
I finally calmed him down by assuring him that we would do our very best to make sure that the plants at our house wouldn't grow too big.
The things kids worry about!!

August: Drew Starts School

At the end of August Drew started school at a local charter school. We went to the back to school night on Aug. 19th, and Drew was a little nervous to say the least. We went to meet his teacher and as soon as he got into the classroom he seemed perfectly at ease. He sat right down at a desk and listened to his new teacher Ms. Allen introduce herself. She told the kids some things about her including the fact that she had never been stung by a bee. Drew shot his hand right up and proceeded to tell her and the rest of the kids and parents in the room about how he had recently been stung by a "moth" and that it really hurt. She was a little confused about that one. I was like, "No Drew . . . A wasp . . . not a moth." But he was pretty proud of his story despite the mix up. Drew has been loving school. He is so excited everyday to tell me the things that he has learned and the fun things that they did in class. Having Drew in school has brought some good changes to our family. Having Drew in school has forced us to have a bit of a different routine. Well, I shouldn't say "different" routine . . . I should just say a "routine" period! We have never been a strict routine family. Except for our nightly routine of scripture, stories and prayers . . . we have been quite free spirited. Drew has always responded well to routine though, and he has adjusted to our new schedule very well. We bought him his own alarm clock which goes off every morning at 6:40 in the morning. He then gets up says his prayers, makes his bed, cleans his room, and gets dressed in his school uniform (yes they wear uniforms and I absolutely love it!) Then Drew can come down and we can eat breakfast. After breakfast Drew does his chores, finishes any homework that he hasn't done, and then he practices his piano. The first week was a little rough for him. He had a hard time waking up in the morning, but it didn't take long for him to get the hang of things. He has never been so efficient at getting things done. It's forced us to wake up and utilize our mornings as well, and it has been fabulous. Below are some pictures of Drew at the end of his first school day. He was pooped and practically falling asleep at the table! It's been really great though because since the family is up and going so early in the morning, the kids are more than happy to go to bed at about 8:00 at night.
Drew got a little too comfortable after the first week, and started acting a little silly in class. I talked with his teacher after school one day and she mentioned that Drew sometimes had a hard time listening in class. It would take him awhile to do something when she asked him too. This honestly wasn't too surprising to me. Drew can get distracted very easily! The other problems he had been having was getting into kids space (acting silly) and singing loudly in the bathroom. I tried not to laugh when she told me that last one. I told her that we would definitely talk about those things and I asked her if she wouldn't mind telling me how he does each day in order to hold him accountable. So we went home and we talked for awhile. I talked to him about some people in the scriptures like Noah, Samuel, Jesus, Nephi etc. and about how fast they listened when they heard God's voice, and when God asked them to do something they didn't dawdle they obeyed quickly and how important it was to for us to learn to listen and obey fast. We made four rules and Drew chose the consequence. Drew really has been doing a lot better. In the last two weeks he has only had one day that he has misbehaved. He is so excited to have me read the emails his teacher writes to me and to find out how he did that day.

August: Ward Campout

What a wonderful Ward activity this was! It was great. Our ward reserved about nine cabins at the Heber Valley Girls Camp, and we had a ward campout. They had sign up sheets for the cabins on the Bishops door for a couple of weeks, and we ended up in a cabin with none other than Drew's favorite buddies Jonah and Nicole Dickerson. They were so excited to go. And lucky for us, we were able to use it as bribery for the entire week! In order to get the kids to do their chores all I had to say was "Drew . . . I would do it if I were you! You want to go on the camp out with Jonah don't you? . . . " I know, it's terrible, but it certainly worked.

We drove up that Friday night after Lamon got home from work. We got up there between 8 and 9 just in time for some smores and ice-cream. It was raining a lot of the time we were there, and that kept a lot of the people who planned on attending from coming. Honestly though . . . we were in cabins! Who's afraid of a little rain? I love a good thunderstorm myself! It certainly didn't keep us or the kids from having fun. The kids were in heaven! Fire, dirt, sticks . . . what could be more fun?

"You love hugs, and I do too!"

Tonight we were getting ready for bed and Hayden turned to me and said, "You know what I was just thinking? . . . You love hugs . . . and I do too! I LOVE hugs."

And if anyone knows Hayden, they can attest to that fact! He is quite the tender little boy, and he's not shy about giving people hugs!

Later as we were reading scripture stories and talking about how Jesus referred to himself as the 'Good Shepherd'. I was proud of Drew when I asked, "If Jesus is the Good Shepherd who loves and cares for his sheep . . . who are the sheep?" Drew smiled big and said, "We are the sheep!" By the way he was smiling it was as if he was saying, "How could you ask me such an obvious question?!"

Drew then said, "Jesus knows all of the languages doesn't he." I assured him that he certainly did know every language. I read to them about how Jesus told his disciples that He had other sheep not of this fold, and how when Jesus was resurrected he visited the people in America.

Hayden lit up at the mention of that story, and smiling like he had just thought of something wonderful and exciting he said, "You know what Mom? . . . When Jesus comes down . . . I'm going to give him a big hug!" When something like that comes out of a little four year olds mouth . . . how could it not melt your heart? And I can't lie, I got a little teary eyed as I told him, "Hayden, I think that Jesus would love getting a hug from you. He loves you!"

Boy do I love moments like those!

Oh I have a sweet little boy!!!

I know it may be a lofty claim but . . . I am pretty sure that I have one of the most tender hearted sweetest boys that has ever existed right here in my family. Each one of my kids is so amazing and has unique talents. One of Hayden's special talents is simply that he loves people. And he does! He is always telling me, "Mom . . . I love everyone. I'm everyone's friend." And he means it!

Hayden loves to hug. He is always hugging. It was really cute yesterday at my parent's missionary report in their ward. After the meeting was over, and my parents were making their way down the isle greeting friends and neighbors as the went, Hayden walks up to my Dad and says something like, "Hey! . . . How about a hug?" And then he immediately ran up to and wrapped his arms around Grandpa. It was pretty cute.

Today the kids were running around playing and I was sitting on the couch. All of a sudden Hayden pauses from his playing, runs over to me and gives me a hug and then runs off. As he is running he yells, "I love you!" And then a couple seconds later he continues . . . "Jesus made you special!" It was a sweet moment. But not nearly as sweet as what just occured tonight.

Today was a hard day for Drew as far as being obedient is concerned. At the end of the day we told Drew that from now on every time he is being knowingly disobedient he is going to be grounded from his best buddy Jonah for the remainder of the day. We chose that consequence because it is the one thing we could think of that Drew would be devastated about if it were to happen.

So after we read scriptures, said prayers, and read stories I turned the lights out and was putting away some laundry in the drawers. Hayden started saying something and it wasn't making a lot of sense. I said, "What are you saying Hayden?" And then he said, "It's just that . . . sometimes Drew lies." And then he went on, "Drew was spitting on me and he said it was rain."

Of course I wasn't too pleased about this bit of information and I started saying to Hayden (but really meaning for Drew to hear) "Well Hayden, if Drew spits on you again . . . you tell me! Because if he spits on you I am going to ground him from Jonah!!"

As soon as I said this Hayden burst into tears and was sobbing uncontrollably. I was surprised. I thought Hayden would be happy to know that his brother would be punished for spitting on him. I wrapped my arms around Hayden and said, "Hayden . . . what's the matter? You down want me to ground Drew?" And Hayden weeping said, "It's just that . . . I love him!! And if you ground him then he is going to be out of this world!"I was like, "What are you talking about?" He kept sobbing hysterically. I tried to make him understand. I said, "Hayden I love Drew too, but it is not okay for Drew to be spitting on you. That is why I said I would ground him." This didn't help at all though. He started crying louder. He kept crying trying to find air and stuttering, "I love everyone. I don't want you to ground Drew and his friends." He turned over and seemed like maybe he might calm down. I said, "Go to sleep bud." And I put his blanket over him. I went in our bedroom and was going to tell Lamon about how sweet it was that Hayden cared so much about whether I grounded Drew or not, and then Hayden started sobbing again. Lamon went in and laid next to Hayden and Lamon asked Hayden, "What is wrong?" I overheard Hayden tell Lamon, "Mom said that she was going to 'Drowned' Drew. But . . . I love him." The whole time my sweet little boy thought that I was saying I was going to 'drowned' Drew. That is why he said, "but then he would be out of this world!" I didn't quite understand that when he said it. I came in and grabbed Hayden and hugged him and assured him that I would never ever ever ever drowned Drew. That I loved him too! No wonder the poor kid was so devasted! I said to Hayden, "Hayden say 'GRRR . . . ound' Do you know what grrrround means?" He didn't have a clue. So I explained to him when someone says that they are going to ground their children from something, it simply means that they can't play with it/him. He was quite relieved to say the least. And I just can't stop thinking about how traumatic that must have been for Hayden when he thought I was saying 'drowned' and not 'ground'! He certainly does love his brother though, and of course couldn't bare the thought of not having him here with him for a moment. Sweet, sweet Hayden!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you!!

Drew's dreams come true today . . . apparently.

Drew has a friend that lives next door named Jonah. Jonah is Drew's best buddy. They play so well together. They climb trees and collect bugs . . . all the good things boys like to do . . . And in Drew's book Jonah knows everything.

One night I was reading the scripture story about when Jesus was in the temple and teaching all the men there. I wanted to make a point about how "smart" these men were that Jesus was teaching so that it would show how amazing it was that Jesus, a young boy, was teaching and answering their questions, and I asked Drew, "Who is the smartest person you know." He didn't take long to answer the question. I thought Mommy might understandably be the first answer . . . maybe Daddy. But no . . . he replied, "Jonah!" I then went on to assure him that Jonah was not the smartest person in the world. He is only 8. But then Drew went on telling me all sorts of things that Jonah had taught him. Many of the things were absolutely ridiculous. Among those things was that lighting came from the ground.

"Drew" I said, "there is no way that lightning comes from the ground. That is the silliest thing I have every heard." But he insisted.

The next day Jonah came over and was playing. Jonah turned to me and said, "You know what?" and he continued to tell me the same thing that he told Drew. "Did you know that lightning comes from the ground?" I turned to Jonah and I said flatly, "Jonah . . . you're wrong." He looked at me a little startled and then his Dad yelled for him to come home. He walked off and I was feeling a little bad for putting him in his place.

So later that night Lamon had me come down to watch a weather forecast on the computer. I was wondering why in the world he was having me watch it . . . and then he just told me. Dan Pope just said that 90% of lightning comes from the ground." Boy did I feel sheepish. I was like, "Oh great . . . this is not going to help me as I try to convince Drew that Jonah is not the smartest person in the world." I then stayed up and researched all about lightning. The next day I humbly apologized to 8 year old Jonah.

Anyhow, Drew idolizes his friend that's for sure. Today I was mowing the lawn, and Drew came outside. I said, "Drew, do you want to come out and push the lawnmower?" He has been begging me to mow the lawn because his friend Jonah mows their lawn. So he came out and grabbed on to the mower, and couldn't move it one inch. I put one hand on the mower with him and we started to push it across the lawn. He kept insisting he could do it himself . . . so I would let go, and he would use every ounce of strength to push that thing. Any time I grabbed on he would say, "No, I got it. I got it!" It took quite a long time for him to finish, and despite his insisting, I had to help him push a lot of the time. At the end I said, "Drew, You are so awesome! You can do big things!" He was so excited! He was smiling ear to ear. He was like, "That was hard, but I did it by myself! Now I am like Jonah! I told you I wanted to mow the lawn!" Then he turned to me and said completely serious, "My dreams have come true!"

So what are the chances that mowing the lawn will continue to make his dreams come true in say like 10 years? Wouldn't that be fabulous?

Hayden . . . a boy aware of modesty!

I thought this was pretty cute, so I thought I would share.

This morning the kids were all getting dressed before breakfast. I was in the kitchen and I overheard this conversation.

Hayden very sweetly said to his sister, "Ada . . . your shirt is not modest."

I went into the hall where they were, and sure enough Ada had put on a shirt with no sleeves that needed a shirt under it.

Hayden then put his arm around Ada and said, "Ada . . . do you want me to help you find a modest shirt?"

After a few minutes Ada returned with a shirt underneath her spaghetti strapped shirt. It didn't match, but I let her keep it on because I was so proud of my little boy!!!! What a good big brother! I thought it was pretty good for a four year old! :)

Update--Scout Camp/ July 2010

Every year for the last 5 years Lamon has gone on a week long Scouting Trip. This year was his first week long backpacking trip, and he took the boys up to the High Uintas. He was looking forward to the trip for a long time, and a week or two before the camp he went backpacking in the designated spot with some friends from work to sort of check things out. He came home assuring me that the hike was certainly not as hard as he had previously thought.

The night before they were to set off Lamon packed his pack and brought it down and weighed it. They suggest that when backpacking your pack should be less than a third of your body weight. Lamon's pack? . . . . more than 70 pounds!! Lamon doesn't even weigh a buck 50! So he would be carrying more like half of his body weight. He let me try it on, and I just about tipped over backwards. I was thinking that maybe I might be able to make it around the block. I was a little worried about Lamon's back at the end of a week carrying that thing!

I heard from various sources throughout the week that leaders who hiked in and out admitted that the hike was REALLY HARD, and that some leaders and some of the boys were struggling. So the entire week I was worried that all the boys were having a miserable time, and I even had a nightmare that one of the boys was miserable and left and got lost. Everyone was looking for him, and somehow I was suddenly there and looking for him too.

They did all make it home alive however. There were so many mosquitos up there. One boy got more than 100 mosquito bites on his hands within minutes. Luckily they were smart enough to buy mosquito nets for all of the boys to protect their faces. And they also had plenty of food, which I was a little worried about as well. They were able to catch plenty of fish, and their bags of food lasted them throughout the week.

I sure love Lamon. He is a great example to me. He loves his calling. He loves working with the scouts, and I am just amazed at how dedicated he is. What a man!