A Daily Dose of Mischief

This is only the fifth Christmas you've ever had in your life and probably only the third one you even remember. It was hard enough to sleep last night and finally morning came. You ran out to the living room to see all the presents that accumulated overnight. It takes all the strength you possess to resist opening the presents. You barely have an appetite for breakfast, but endure it agonizingly while the adults seem to blab more than eat. Why does there have to be a rule that breakfast comes before opening presents?!! Finally, after an eternity, the adults finish and you run into the living room excited to open your presents. The first present you open is a pretty cool toy. As the rest of the family takes their turn opening one present, you scout-out your next target. Of course! Across the way you see the largest present you can find with your name on it. If that smaller-sized present was so cool, then surely the largest present will be the best thing in the world! When its your ...

I didn't realize just how cultured my 5-yr-old baby boy was until this morning. As I lay in bed contemplating whether or not to get up yet or stay under the warm covers, I overheard him sing, "It's snowing! ♪♫ Ha--lle-lu-jah! Ha--lle-lu-jah! ♫♪" (To the tune of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus.)

I have had a lifelong hatred of split pea soup ever since my Mom made it when I was a kid. D on the other hand, loves it. He recently got some Campbells split pea soup to try to get me to try it and see that it wasn't always the way I ate it growing up. A day or two later I heard the boys talking about it. #4: It looked like BARF! #2: Yeah, that's why I didn't have any. I know you aren't supposed to judge a book by its cover, but it looked DISGUSTING! How are you supposed to eat something that makes you lose your appetite looking at it? My sentiments exactly.

We went on a little day trip to the nearest W*lMart (just over an hour away) last Saturday to do some Christmas shopping. Since we got there around lunch time we stopped at Winco first and ordered a pizza, then did some grocery shopping while we waited for the pizza to be ready. Usually the boys can be a handful (or two) at the store, and they are especially hard to handle when we have driven a long way to go shopping. They were pretty good that day at Winco, with only a few minor incidents. Keeping in mind that we had other places to shop that day and I wanted them to have a good attitude about it, I thanked them all for being good in Winco. #2: Thank you! (I assume for the pizza) #1: Thank you. #4: Thank you! #3: You're welcome! I think #3 was having a delayed reaction to my thanking them, but it came out sounding like he was saying you're welcome to everyone in the car.

Each year we have Tithing Settlement which is our opportunity to meet with our Bishop and verify our financial donations to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Today all eight of us went into the Bishop's Office together and reviewed that paying a full tithe means we donate 10% of our income to the Lord and His church. As Bishop H was talking about being full tithe payers, my first grader, who has a slight speech impediment, piped up (sporting a sheepish grin,) "We're not pears!" Bishop H was stunned for a moment, "What?" Still maintaining his signature sheepish grin, "We're not peyrs--we're not food!" As Bishop H realized that 'payers' and 'pears' were homonyms in my first-grader's vocabulary, he couldn't hold back a chuckle. I have experience and a testimony that voluntarily paying tithing, (which is used for the building and operations of our chapels, temples, and other church operations--bishops and...

We have a lot of interesting conversations with the boys while we are driving places. A while back we were on our way somewhere and we were talking about my Grandma and I told them the story about how I had felt like my Grandmother was there at my wedding. (She died when I was 14). I really love my Grandma and when I married D I felt like she was standing behind me and like I could feel her hand resting on my shoulder. #3 was pretty interested in this story and was asking about it, and he wanted to know why Heavenly Father would make it okay for my Grandma to be there at my wedding. I told him that it was probably because it was a special occasion. He thought about it for a while and then said, "Heavenly Father is a lot like Dad. He doesn't do special occasions very often."

This weekend we hooked up the computer to the TV/Stereo and watched, via the Internet, the World-wide General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Adults soak up the five spiritual, inspiring two-hour sessions of listening to the President of the Church, other living Apostles, and other Church leaders (and listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir). However, for young kids its like sitting in church for two days watching older people stand in front of a microphone talking about 'boring' things all day long. Although they will eventually learn to treasure this twice-per-year event for the spirit that is felt, for now we are hoping the kids will at least recognize the good feelings they get when the leaders of Jesus Christ's restored church speak. I was pleasantly surprised when my middle son gave hints that he was actually listening more closely than I would ever have imagined: T noticed the speakers said the word 'quote' frequently and start...

I was very impressed with my sister-in-law who got married this last weekend. Often times the bride and groom are so focused on each other and all the attention thrown at them, that its hard to watch out for others. In particular, kids seem to get overlooked when it comes to weddings. (By everyone except the parents who walk around with a look of horror on their face the whole time.) Everything about weddings is so formal, and kids are not. My middle son was looking and pointing at the wedding cake, when a concerned adult, worried he was going to touch it, warned him not to touch it. T is very sensitive. Especially when he interprets that he is being yelled at for something he didn't do or wasn't going to do. To cool down, he went outside the building, which prompted more well-meaning adult attention. It took him a while to get over his hurt and frustration. About an hour later, when the bride found out what happened, she demonstrated that her love of people overshadows high-an...

Our son, K's (age 6) insights on Eternal Marriage (pronounced: Etuhno Mehwudge ). Note: Marriage and Sealing ceremonies in a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints can seal a husband, wife, parents and their children together as a family unit for eternity (including after death). This doctrine is a key component of the Church and the gospel of Jesus Christ...and one of the founding principles for the great interest/resources in Family History research. For more detailed information about LDS temples, please visit the official church website about temples :

Babies are so cute and innocent.... ....or so they lead us to believe. Here's lookin ' at you, baby! (If you look closely you can see the gears turning in her mind as she calculates her master plan of future mischief.) Babies are brilliant...we think they are fresh to the world, trying to figure how to use their new bodies and soaking in all the wonders of the world; but really, the first two years of a baby's life are spent calculating and planning out their 'Terrible Two" reign of terror. Here, baby B sits in deep concentration as she plans out her seizure and control of the house and everyone in it. Stealthy, undercover behavior executed to perfection as unsuspecting parents find joy in simple 'innocent' reactions. Its all part of the plan! ----------------------------------- Baby B is now 15 weeks old (pictures taken a week earlier.) She smiles a lot now which is really fun. She loves music and dancing. She already turns towards the TV in a glazed tr...

I was at the store today with our eleven year old son #1 today. We ended up in the cosmetics section because I needed some nail polish. While I was looking for the clear polish he was standing next to me reading the names of some of the lipstick colors. He commented on how weird some of the names for lipstick colors were and said, "I wouldn't want to kiss a girl with lipstick that is named Fatal Red." I replied, "Would you want to kiss a girl at all?" "Well NO, but if I HAD to kiss a girl I wouldn't want to kiss one wearing Fatal Red lipstick." As for me, I was just happy to hear that he wasn't interested in kissing any girls yet.

#4, who enjoyed the first day of school quite a bit, came home even more excited by the second day of school. In his words: "School was great today! The corn dogs made it even MORE exciting!" Ah, school lunches...

"I know a good law..." T (3rd grade) introduced his bill after a serious, but brief discussion about the government and why someone would want to be President of the United States. "If someone has a lot of wall balls,.... " ...they should give one to me." I see what was important to him on his first day of school today.

School doesn't start until tomorrow, but my oldest already has math and vocabulary homework from meeting his teacher the other day. He did really well, but there was one question he answered that jumped out at me (the boxes with 'x' represent his answers): Applying Meanings Directions: Circle the letter of each correct answer to the question below. A question may have more than one correct answer: 4. Which of the following usually learn obedience ? [ x ] (a) dogs [ x ] (b) soldiers [ ] (c) cats [ ] (d) children No wonder parenting is such an up-hill battle.

"Just because Ice Cream takes your tastebuds on a trip to Heaven with a side trip to paradise doesn't mean it fills you up. Sadly, it doesn't fill you up at all." Today's quote courtesy of #1...

D was holding Baby B on Sunday at Church and #5 said "Baby B looks just like you only smaller! (pause) And with different clothes (pause) and CUTER!"

The other day my eight-year-old, tell-it-how-he-sees-it, son got a Mr. Incredible sticker from his older brother who was rewarded for letting the nurse stick him with four immunization shots... Mr. Incredible © 2004 Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. All Rights Reserved. ...after looking down at at the picture for a little bit, he ran to me and said, "Dad...your as fat as Mr. Incredible...you can be him!" On the one hand, I'm not really flattered with sudden reminders of the obvious in this regard, but on the other hand, Mr. Incredible is a buff, strong super hero.

Baby B is two months old already! The other day her big brother T aka #3 was making faces at her to get her to smile. He told #1 what face to make, and when #1 tried it B did not smile. #3 casually said, "It only works when her favorite brother does it."

I've been waiting for weeks to catch this with the camera...

I have been collecting papercrafts on the computer for a while. Some of them are quite complicated and I may never get around to making them, but its nice to know I have them on file if I need them. If your kids are bored this summer, here are a few of my favorite papercrafting sites. Canon 3D Papercraft has a wide variety of paper models to download for free. You can even build a paper town complete with roads, train tracks, people, vehicles and buildings. PaperToys .com has vehicles, animals, and several famous buildings. One thing I really like about this site is that many of their models can be downloaded in black and white so that you can color them yourself and don't have to use precious printer ink. Making Friends is great for younger kids. There is a huge variety of paper doll patterns to be downloaded with various themes. You can download them in color or color them yourself. There are even cub scout and girl scout paper doll clothes and holiday clothes as well as dif...