Our Latest Addition

Our Little Comedians

Oh these kids of ours. They just make us laugh all the time (except when they are driving us nuts in their less-than-rewarding moments). Anyways, we've had a good week of funnies around here. Plus, we attended our ward Christmas dinner and party on Saturday and for our two little guys, Santa was such a tramatic experience it could leave scars (see pictures below). We are getting ready for the holidays like everyone else. We are also getting ready to deal with a week of wintery weather. I know for many of you (in Utah & Idaho) this is no big deal, but we are not expected to get above freezing for at least the next six days. And we are expecting some snow this week, as well. That's in addition to the tiny bit we got today, which turned out to be enough to cancel church. Well, on to this week's funnies:

The kids have recently discovered wrestling with their Dad, and they are quite match. So we are wrestling the other day and during a break in the action, the kids got out a bunch of pillows and blankets and had them covering the living room floor. I said, "Wait a minute. Who said anything about getting all those blankets out?" Tyler said: "We said it to ourselves."

When Tyler gets a cold (like he has now), he gets a really nasty, dry, barky cough. Trevin was out on the couch with Carol the other morning and Tyler woke up and headed for the bathroom. He let go of one of his ugly hacks, and Trevin said to Carol, quite startled: "What was that?" Carol said: "Just Tyler coughing." Trevin replied: "Oh, I thought monster."

More bodily noises - While reading the scriptures the other day, Trevin was on the couch next to me. He pushed out a toot, then waited about 3 seconds, and calmly moved away from me over towards the other side of the couch. It almost worked, too. Carol thought it was me.
Speaking of tooters, while in the bathroom with mom at JC Penney's a woman in another stall dropped a bomb. Trevin asked what it was, and Carol just quietly replied "someone else going to the bathroom." He then said, "Was that the toilet?" Carol made sure to get out of their quickly to save the poor woman further embarrassment.

At our house, the kids always have fruit after lunch and dinner. Yesterday, Tyler asked if he could have a whole apple (cuz usually we make them share to make the fruit last longer). We said yes. Bailey then asked for a whole banana. We said no, and of course she said how come Tyler gets a whole apple. Trevin said "Cuz he bigger." We then gave in and let Bailey have a whole banana. Of course, Trevin wasn't going to stand for that and asked: "Can I have whole...grape?" Just so you know, usually we only give them half a grape each. Just kidding. They always have a good handful at a time, so that's why his request even funnier.

Me and the three boys were playing in the playroom and first Tyler knocked Caden down. He kind of whined a little bit so I asked him if Tyler did something. He replied in a whiney voice: "Yes." I asked him if he wanted me to beat Tyler up, to which he replied, again whining "yeah." A couple seconds later Trevin knocked him down on purpose. We went through the same line of questioning, only this time, I looked at his face while I asked the 'beat him up' question, and with a big smile he replied "yeah."

During another wrestling match Bailey jumped on me with quite a force and it hurt. I said, "Bailey, you're cruel." In all seriousness (and not familiar with the word cruel), she replied: "You mean cool?"

And last, but not least. Bailey likes to gather up all her dolls and babies and treat them as her children or school kids or primary class, or whatever else she can think of. She had them all on the couch today and was sitting in a little chair in front of them, while holding one of the smaller ones. Without prompting, she says out loud to herself: "I'm so bored of taking care of these kids all day, while their dad is gone. It's just so tiring." Carol assured me that she has never said anything like that.

Santa (And Spidey) Sitting

Tyler was right at home with the jolly man, and was impressed that he knew all the kids' names.

Bailey was sure to tell Santa that she has been nice...

This could have been the single most horrifying experience of Trevin's life. The picture doesn't show how bad he was shaking.

And for Caden, it was not much better. He didn't know what to do, but he was being held back very tight so he could not leap away. Oh the memories.

And this of course, is not Carol and Santa, rather Carol and Spiderman. She was praying, but I thought she was sleeping so I set up a wonderful pose. The hat is actually a piece of clothing for one of Bailey's babies. Quite cute, don't you think? Carol is a good sport and is nice to put up with my shenanigans...

The Latest From The Livingstons (in The Couv)

So how is everyone? We had a good Thanksgiving (and 10th anniversary) -- first at Carol's parents, where the food was quite good and the football (on TV) was spectacular. You should have seen the fruit tray Carol's mom did. Quite delicious and pretty fancy looking, too. After we were good and stuffed, we headed down to Eugene so we could enjoy some sales tax-free shopping, as well as free babysitting while we hit the early Black Friday sales. The clock in the room where we were staying at my parents had never been adjusted when Daylight Savings ended, so it was an even earlier morning than I anticipated. But we had a good time and saved lots of money.

The kids had a good time playing and NOT going to the stores with us. There is also a new park right by G & G's house, which we had a good time at. We also took them to see the new movie "Bolt" in 3D. It was really good for them and us.

Caden visited his "voodoo" doctor when we returned and it looks as though he is cured of ear infections. He is eating all things wheat now, and it appears there are no ill affects. We still have him abstaining from dairy, though. The whole situation with his ears has been one answer to prayer after another, and it is amazing the change in him. Thanks, Cory!

Tyler is doing well and he got to go see a play production of James and the Giant Peach for a school field trip. Bailey gets to go to the Children's museum in January. Trevin is doing quite well with pre-school. He gets a little rattled at drop-off time each day, but he gets over it quickly. And Caden is doing well on Sunday going to nursery. he could be our first easy one.

We got our Christmas decorations up on Monday for Family Home Evening, then on Wednesday we cut down our tree. We had it up and decorated last night. However, Carol called me at work to let me know that our tree had just taken a dive. What a mess! We got it all cleaned up and re-decorated today, so now it's just another memory for future Christmases.

And now it's that time again:

I was making a phone call that had to do with my church calling, but it was right at dinner time. Carol jokingly said: I'm gonna talk with Bishop about this Bisopric stuff. It's starting to take up too much of your time." Tyler chimed in and said, "Dad you're not in the Bishopric anymore." Then Bailey, who apparently had been doing some contemplating, added: "To be in the Bishopric, you have to be a Bishop and you have to be a brick."I said "a brick?" She said, yeah, you know, Bishop-Brick." So she needs a little annunciation work on that word.

Our Toys R Us store recently remodeled and had a grand re-opening sale. We decided to check it out to get some Christmas ideas for the kids. As part of the remodeling they added a "Babies R Us" to the store. As we were driving up to the parking lot, Tyler was reading aloud: "Toys R Us. Barbies R Us -- Barbies R Us?" I'm not going to that store." We pointed out his error and he was able to set foot inside the store after all.

Caden is quite vocal for a 19-month-old and he is apparently rather observant in his young age as well. The other day, with none of his siblings around, he opened the entertainment center drawer and pulled out a Wii remote and started waving it at the TV. I asked: "What are you doing?" His reply: "Pay Wii."Also, around here, Carol and I don't like to answer the phone. I'm worse than she is, but usually we argue about who it is going to be for, so other person has to get it. On the contrary, the kids love to answer the phone. Whenever it rings they make a mad dash to the kitchen yelling "I got it, I got it, I got it." So the other day it rings and Caden without hesitation, starts toward the kitchen yelling "got it, got it, got it." And lastly, each night when I leave for work, Carol always asks me if I got the cell phone. So the other day, as I'm at the door telling everyone I love them, Caden is saying over and over: "Got phone, got phone?" Finally we realized what he was saying, so I repeated, "did I get the phone?" He said: "Yeah" I told him yes and he said, "Kay (OK)." Quite cute.

As many of you know we have taught our kids who everyone in the First Presidency and Quorum of the twelves Apostles is. Trevin had the chart down the other day and I asked him what the prophet's name was. He started to smile and said "Thomas...(pause)....the Train," followed by a big goofy laugh at his funny.

While in Eugene for the Thanksgiving weekend, Trevin ran upstairs to tell me he was going to McDonald's. I said: "Who's taking you to McDonald's?" thinking my mom had just promised him a trip there. He looked at me, pointed, and replied: "You" By the way, we did take them all that day.

Last, but not least, we have a little Nativity set that we let the kids play with. The other night Trevin was playing with it and apparently let go of a big "tooter" (that's what we call them in our house, although I'm sure the kids have heard other terms for them by now.) Anyways, Carol said: "Whoa! Trevin, did you just do a big tooter?" He replied: "No, it was Joseph." At least he didn't say baby Jesus.

Painting Some Memories

Well, the painting is almost done; just the kids’ room and the three bedroom closets to go. We’ll probably just ignore the other closets. We will be glad to be done. It looks good (we think), and makes our house look quite different. The kids are as fun as ever, but still driving us as crazy as ever. We love them, but you know what we mean. Trevin is quite mischievous and is always getting into things he’s not supposed to. Caden is developing quite an attitude as well. He has his precious moments, like saying his prayers. He’s not even 19 months yet, but he will repeat everything we say for his prayer. It is quite cute and touching. But he also has a mean streak and a defiant streak. Lehi said their must be opposition in all things, and lets just say that Caden is doing is part to fulfill that scripture. I have been busy making a few changes to the blog, as you will see. I have added a playlist and a slideshow. The slideshow is supposed to be longer and I actually have two different ones online that you can check out if you would like. Flickr and Photobucket (there is some overlap). 

So that is about all folks. Here are the latest funnies from the kids, but I have been a slacker and have unfortunately missed some in the past couple of weeks because I didn’t write them down right when they said them. My bad! 

CAN I QUOTE YOU ON THAT?

With election time here, the kids have picked up on things from TV, us, and their ultra-republican grandparents; not that there is anything wrong with being republican, of course. Anyways, on the Monday before the election, Tyler said Go Obama! We quickly corrected him. However, he has heard me tell people that the silver lining of an Obama victory would mean no more Hillary Clinton, for at least 8 years, and quite possibly forever. (Just do the math. In four years Obama will run again. So if he wins again, that’s 8 years without Hillary. If he loses, that means the republican wins and, of course, no Hillary. So after 8 years, her window to run for president is basically over.) Anyways, he said: “But if Obama wins that means no more Hillary Clinton.” Then Bailey interjected: “No, not Obama. If he wins he’ll take all our money.” Well-spoken from the 5-year-old political analyst. 

Trevin wanted a piece of his Halloween candy, but we had just had dinner and he had already had a piece for his dessert. I told him he could have a piece with his snack, but that it was not time for that now. He went to ask Carol and basically got the same response from her. He came back to the kitchen to put it away and said: “Mom, Dad, you wude (rude).” 

Tyler has to be one of the best 7-year-old readers around, but even he comes across a word here-and-there that he’s not familiar with. Carol was on YouTube again showing the kids old TV theme songs (they love that activity), and she was trying to find the Popeye cartoon song. Tyler looks at the computer and says in all seriousness, “Is that “poopy” the sailor man?” 

The kids have come up with a new game they like to play. They pile up all the pillows and blankets they can get their hands on and then bury stuffed animals inside it all. Then they pretend that the animals are drowning and they go in the pile to save them. So Bailey gets in the pile the other day and starts yelling for Trevin to save her cuz she was drowning. She went on and on for a coupe of minutes, but Trevin was preoccupied with something else. Finally, he goes over to assist, and Bailey says: “It’s too late, I died.” 

As part of our home changes we are gradually putting new knobs on all the doors. They have all been off for painting for about three weeks now. Privacy has been tough to come by for the kids in their bathroom, especially with the big hole where the knob was. Anyways, I finally got a new one put on in the master bathroom, after much tribulation. Tyler was in the room as I took care of the finishing touches and I said: “There, mom and dad finally have a knob on their bathroom door.” Tyler said: “Good. Now I can poop without anyone looking at me.”

That's all for now folks. Happy blogging...

The Latest & Greatest Bathroom Humor

Here are the kids gutting their pumpkins and the other photo is a shot of them with their cousin Nathan after he was set apart as a missionary a couple of weeks ago. He heads to Jacksonville, Florida on Nov. 12th. As you can see Caden was pretty sad to see his cousin leaving. ;-)

It's that time again. I know it's been a while. Hopefully that will mean you are more hungry for new material from my kids (they won't disappoint). Let me just say though, that my nephew Caleb has come up with one of the funniest comments of all time. If you want to check it out head to this address http://homemadegingerl.blogspot.com/ (my sister-in-law's blog and it is like the second thing down, called "Lovely boy-truthful and blunt." Absolutely hilarious and a must read, even if you don't know them.) Anyways, things are rocking here in "The Couv." School is in full-swing and we just had parent-teacher conferences. Both kids are doing wonderful, and for the second year in a row Tyler's teacher has recommended that he take a test to enter an accelerated program. So, this year we are going to have him do it. Bailey is also doing well in kindergarten, and we can really see her growing. Trevin still isn't so sure about pre-school, though. It's a work in progress.

We took all four kids trick-or-treating on Friday and they loved it. Even Caden had a pumpkin filled. Carol pushed him on the stroller and he caught on pretty quick. At each house he would hold up his hand waiving while is siblings got their treats. And as he did that, he would say "want one, want one." Needless to say, Carol and I now have a lot of options for late-night goodies after the kids go to sleep.

As for us, we are still very busy with home changes. our Craig's List and garage sale money is almost gone, but we have taken full advantage of it. We have started painting the whole interior and are making progress, but we can generally do just a little at a time. Usually just one of us works on it at a time, so we don't end up ignoring the kids. So that is what's new, in a nutshell.

OK, on to the quotes of the "past few weeks"....

Bailey told us the other day she had a headache. Often, when the kids tell us their tummies hurt, we suggest that perhaps a trip to the porcelain throne will help. So when Bailey complained of a headache, Trevin’s helpful suggestion was: “Maybe you should go poop.”

I know, it seems like 80% of these come from trips to the potty, but that’s life, right. Trevin was in there with Carol and his ever curious younger brother Caden. There was a little fuzzy stuck to Caden’s sock. Carol thought it was a booger, so she picked up Caden’s foot and put it in Trevin’s face, and said: “Here, eat it!” Trevin responded: “No, I already pick my own nose.”

The kids got an old children’s book that had been sitting around on grandma’s shelf for years. And you know that smell that books or many other things get when they sit around in one spot for many years; just that old musty smell. Well to put it bluntly, the book smells like that. Anyways, in this book there is an illustration of a little boy getting out of the tub. You can see his behind, and the kids think it is quite funny. Anyways, Tyler and Trevin were looking at it, and I got too close and got a whiff of the book. “That book stinks!” I said. Trevin’s reply: “Why, cuz that bum crack?”

Trevin was in the bathroom after doing his business and our home teacher showed up right as he was finishing up. As many of you know, the stake president is our home teacher. Trevin said to me, “I hope pre-i (president) Nashif du-int (doesn’t) see my poop.” I laughed and he then said, "Don’t tell him I say that.”

Trevin turned off the computer one afternoon by pushing the power button. He has been told many times that this is not something he should do. He enjoys watching old 80’s TV theme song videos on YouTube, which we introduced to the kids when were waxing nostalgic a while back. So he enjoys Gilligan’s Island, Laverne & Shirley, Dukes of Hazard and many others. Well, I told him he lost YouTube privileges for the next day because he turned off the computer. He said: “So, I’ll just tell Mom and she’ll say yes.” I started laughing quite hard because of his bold statement, to which he responded: “Dat not funny.” Needless to say, I had an even bigger laugh.

So we were watching funniest home videos tonight and they did a whole montage of babies puking in their parents mouths. I don’t know about you, but it almost makes me puke just seeing that. I continued to be disgusted by the whole thing and I told Bailey that she did that to me when she was a baby, and she jumped up and told me: “Oh yeah, I’ll do it again right now.” Anyways, when she did it as a baby it was quite disgusting, and it has forever scarred me (I may need counseling over this in the future). So, about 30 minutes later, after AFV was over, I was playing with Caden on the floor. I lifted him up over me and shook him (in a gentle fun way, not a psychotic shaken-baby syndrome way), to which he laughed whole-heartedly. So Bailey comes over and says “do it to me, do it to me.” I should have seen it coming. As I begin to shake her, she drools right into my mouth. I was grossed out and she was laughing her head off. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” I said. Still laughing at my expense, she nods in the affirmative and says, “yes, I wanted to see you eat it.” Oh my sweet little princess!

Anything You Say, Can, And Will Be Used Against You

Not much new to report this week. Same old stuff going on here, except Carol is pregnant with triplets. Ahhh, just kidding, but I probably got somebody for at least a half-a-second. Anyways, here are the latest and greatest quotes of the week.

Carol has come up with a little game with Trevin when he doesn’t “have to go” to the bathroom, even though we have just witnessed the potty dance. Anyways, she tells Trevin that she can sing Popcorn Popping in its entirety before he goes. So if the kid ever has an accident in primary when they sing Popcorn Popping, then we’ll know who to blame. Anyways, he got up there this week after Carol made the challenge, and as soon as she hit “I looked out” he was doing his thing. Carol pretended to be disappointed, to which Trevin said: “Maybe next time.”

Another recent trip to the bathroom from Trevin brought an argument between mom and dad as to who would take care of clean up, which I’m sure is a common argument at many of your households as well. At our house I like to leave it up to the kids, because they always choose Mom. Oh, too bad for me, eh? So this time, Carol wouldn’t give in and I finally did. But Trevin wasn’t too happy with Mom dissing him, so he said “Mom eats poop…and I don’t like her pony tail.” Crude, but how could you not laugh when it comes out of the mouth of a 3 year old; especially the pony tail part. Who knew he was so interested in how his mom wears her hair, which was indeed in a pony tail at the time.

There is a little Halloween tradition in these parts where people leave candy at your door and run, and then you’re supposed to pay it forward to 2 or 3 other people. Anyways, someone dropped a bag on our porch on Sunday night and it included the classic “Bit-o-Honey” candy. So Bailey kept asking about it and on Monday after her lunch, she had a piece of it for her treat. And her critique after placing the little morsel in her mouth, in all seriousness, was: “This tastes like ‘bit,’ and it tastes like ‘honey’!”

And this from Carol: “We were watching some old video of the kids and Trevin was picking his nose in it. He was sitting with me at the time and I noticed that he was picking his nose again. I said to him ‘Trevin stop picking your nose, you were picking it in the video and your picking it now, stop that. It’s gross.’ His response, without any hesitation, was, ‘I put my boogers on the ground’ as he points to the floor. ‘I said right now you have been putting them on the floor?’ He answered in the affirmative. I said again that that was gross. He said, ‘No one can see them, they are too small.’”

Some more potty humor from Trevin (I know, a lot of this addition of quotes of the week centers around Trevin’s trips the bathroom, but what can I say, kids and potties can make for some good laughs). He has been having some “stomach issues” lately, so I asked him if his Tummy hurt. He said: “Yeah, that’s why I do that much poop.” I said, “Yeah, but it’s real runny.” He also has a little cold, so his response was: “Yeah, I have a runny bum, and I have a runny nose.”

We were listening to the “Dan Patrick Show” on the radio in the car, and turned it on in the middle of the conversation, which apparently centered around one of the staff being a vegetarian. Dan asked him, what he would do if he went down in a crash and had to eat a human, like the movie “Alive.” The guy said he would rather eat a person than an animal. Bailey was evidently listening and said, “Ewe, he wants to eat a person. How come that guy likes to eat people?”

And last, but not least. We were at the dinner table tonight, and Bailey announced that she didn’t want to get married. I said “that’s too bad. You can’t go to the Celestial Kingdom, if you don’t get married. Then you can’t live with Heavenly Father and Jesus. She said “so.” I said “So?” You don’t want to live with Heavenly Father and Jesus?” She replied, “But there’s no way to get up there.” I said, “yeah, once you die your spirit can just fly up there.” A look of unbelievable shock followed, then this: “Whoa, that’s so lucky.” We all laughed, then, she did too, and added “You should put that on your blog.”

Garage Days Re-Revisted

Hey, it's me again. The fire-sale continues here in the Couv. We reached that point in life that all men seem to dread, but that women look forward to like a Pampered Chef party with their best friends. Yes, we had a garage sale and although it was not quite as successful as we had hoped, we have since sold several items (not forunate enough to be selected from our humble driveway) on Craig's List. Oh that Craig, he might be the only man I would kiss. Anyways...it was nice to purge ourselves of more of our things.

On to other news, Caden still seems to be doing well. For those of you who don't know, he was scheduled to have tubes placed in his ears because of never-ending fluid and infections. But thanks to prayer and a huge assist from my brother Cory, we took him to a naturopath (i don't know if that is spelled right) and his ears are doing very well. He now has his second cold since treatments began and during the first one everything functioned properly and no infections occured. So, he goes in next week and we're hoping that the same will be said for this latest cold he has.

School is in full swing and Tyler & Bailey are both doing well and we enjoy their opportunity to spend the day learning. Yes, we all need a little break now and then, am I right? Not too much else is new with us. I'm still looking for work (oh what fun) and Carol keeps doing her work-at-home job very well. Too bad it doesn't pay anything. Dang society!

And now on to the part you've all been looking forward too - The Quotes of the week. Unfortunately, I have not been as diligent to note them all down when spoken, so I'm missing some, but thanks to Trevin we still have these gems to share.

The kids had just had a snack and Carol put the graham crackers up on the counter. Trevin kept insisting he wanted more. So after a bit he took matters into his own hands while Carol was distracted folding laundry. When he walked into the living room with a cracker in his hand, Carol told him to put it back because he already had his snack. Trevin’s sly reply was: “Well it already touch my tongue, so I have to eat it.” Well played Trev-man.

Another one from Trevin recently: He had an accident in the bathroom and while I was on the floor cleaning up the pee, I asked him (because he’s had quite a few lately), “boy, when are you going to stop having accidents?” His response: “Uh, maybe when I 10.” I laughed and said, “Well I hope it’s sooner than that.” “Maybe when I eight,” he replied. No sense in aiming too high, I guess, but I just wish he had a little better aim around the bowl.

And the T-man once again: after several people had shown up and purchased things at our garage sale, a couple more came and Trevin says “I don’t want to sell anything.” I said yes, we’re going to sell everything. We’re going to sell you.” I then quickly said, “no, we would never sell Trevin.” He replied: “we would never sell anyone.” Then, after a few seconds to ponder his statement, he adjusted it with “we no sell anyone…cept Caden.” A few moments later he points to a woman who has just arrived, and says: “we sell that lady.” Luckily, she wasn’t close enough to hear it.

That's all for now folks. We would love to hear from you!

Random Acts Of Life

OK, so it's been much longer than I anticipated since the last time I "blogged". Funny, who ever thought "blog" would become part of our vocabulary. The word blog sounds like it could be used to describe so many other things (just use your imagination). Anyways, we have been busy with life. A couple weeks ago, while in Eugene, Carol found me in bed in a deep gaze. "What, are you like in deep thought, or something?" she said with a laugh. "Yes. As a matter of fact I am." I was contemplating our home and how we could make it a little larger by eliminating some of our "stuff." Well, two weeks later, we have sold our 6-piece bedroom set, our office desk, cabinet and chair, and our entertainment center. Ah, the beauty of Craig's List. We now have all four kids in one room and the office is officially a play room. And speaking of Craig's List, after searching several stores for a dresser that would be similar to the one we did keep, we headed to Craig's List and wouldn't you know it, we found an exact match for only $40 (we bought ours years ago at Fred Meyer). We were thrilled. However, "the Lord gave and the Lord taketh away." Just minutes before we were to leave to pick it up, the lady called to inform us that her son had sold it while she was at work. We were crushed. "I know that anything is possible with the Lord, but we're probably not going to find another exact match, again," I was heard saying to Carol. Whoa now, just minutes later Carol worked her Craig's List magic and found yet another exact match. After some haggling we got the price down to $75 and picked it up the next day. Wow, who is this Craig fellow, and why did he start making a list, anyways? Who knows, but sometimes I think his list would give Santa's a run for it's money. So, our house looks different than it did two weeks ago, and now we are constantly looking for things to sell. The more we get rid of, the more we have to play with and continue to change things around here. So we'll see where it takes us. But we definitely have the bug.

What else is new? The kids are back to school. Tyler is in second grade and Bailey started kindergarten. She even gets to ride the bus and goes to a special program at the high school, where she gets to work one-on-one with high school kids who are taking a class designed to prep them for a career in early education. She likes it so far. And Trevin, well Trevin still insists that he won't be going to pre-school when it starts up again, so things could get interesting there.

Now on to the quotes of the week (or two).

A Bird had pooped on our front door, and Bailey told me that there was something red on the front door. I told her it was bird poop, to which she replied, "Bird's can poop anything?" I laughed and she clarified: "You mean birds can poop any color?"

We were doing our family scripture reading the other day and read 1 Nephi 21:23: (And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their face towards the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me. ). I often ask the kids questions about what we have read, and give them the chance to earn a piece of candy if they answer correctly. Well, the Isaiah chapters aren't exactly friendly for coming up with kid questions. So after reading this verse, I said Trevin (3 yrs): "So what will they lick?" "Uh, a sucker." Good guess and much tastier, but not the right answer.

Last night at the dinner table, Bailey declared her love for water, to which Tyler replied with the time-honored, kid-tested best comeback of all time: "If you love it, then why don't you marry it." The exchange between them that followed was hilarious. We only wished we had it on tape. But this is the gist" B: "I can't marry water, it's like nothing." T: "I'll use magic to turn it into a fat guy." B: "I'm not gonna marry a fat a guy." It went on and on after that, but it was good to know that Bailey hopes to marry someone who takes care of himself. It reminded me of another dinner table exchange between me and Bailey. I was trying to get her to eat kidney beans, and I told her that even when she was older I would call her husband and tell him to make her eat her beans. She said, "Oh yeah, well I won't tell you our phone number." Bailey 1, Daddy 0.

Well, anyways, that is why I haven't had time for blogging lately. Hopefully, I will be a little more diligent. Thank you to all those who have taken the time to read this, and, leave a comment. They are fun to read. Oh, one other thing, as soon as we can get a new computer, I will start adding photos and videos to this thing, which will hopefully make it more interesting. Peace out.

From the Mouth of Babes

Hello again all you in blog land. One thing I would like to do with this is, is to share some of the moments of our lives with you all, including the smiles and laughs our kids bring us on a regular basis. We would love to hear the same from you. On Friday, August 29, we went to Honeyman Beach with Grandpa, Grandma and Monica. The sand boarding was fun and the weather was great. Even Caden loved going down the hill. Anyways, as we were getting set to leave, a car alarm went off. Trevin said: “That train, Mom?” Carol was busy with Caden and didn’t answer, so he continued to ask, probably 3 or 4 more times. Bailey finally replied, a little impatiently: “No Trevin, that wasn’t a train!” To which Trevin calmly replied: “I not tah-ing (talking) to you. …That train, Mom?” It was quite funny.

On that same trip, as we were heading there that morning, Tyler asked: “Mom, is the air conditioner on?” It was, so he asked if she could turn it off cuz he was cold. Carol pushed the button, and Tyler immediately said: “Ah, that’s better!.”

A couple days later Trevin was up in the room where we were staying, with us and said (in Trevin-speak): “Dad I want to play board game…with everyone. Except for Grandma, Monica and Grandpa.” I restated his request to which he replied: “Just with everyone in our family, (pause) except Caden.” “Not Caden?” I replied. “No everyone in our family, except Caden.”

A couple weekends ago we had a family reunion for Carol’s side of the family and while Trevin was playing on the playground, I was ready to do something else. He said: “I want to climb this one more time.” I said: “Wellllll…” And he responded: “Well Nuh-ing (nothing), I want to do this again.”

Just some of those funny little moments our kids bring us, as we’re sure yours do, too. So please share them with us.

Blessings Unseen, But Not Unnoticed

Well, this is my first blog (on the computer anyways), and of course it is inspired by my children. They are great kids -- not perfect -- but great. Tyler, Bailey, Trevin and Caden teach me new things every day. Mostly, each night that I see them sleeping, they remind me of the many mistakes I make each day, and of the many things I need to work on. Tonight, I had the opportunity to put them to bed. As is custom I sit with them until Trevin goes to sleep. He has become spoiled with that, but that's how it is. Anyways, I laid next to him gently rubbing his forehead until he was asleep. Usually, after that I'm outta there right away (got things to do for myself), but tonight I decided to give equal treatment to older brother and sister. In no time at all, I had Tyler asleep, too, then Bailey a few minutes after that. As I lay there, I am always inclined to look back on my day and consider my mistakes with them, as well as the good moments of the day -- and those four are responsible for many. After they were all asleep, I headed to Caden's room where Mom was having no luck getting him to sleep, which is unusual. Anyways, I took him in my arms and rocked with him, and he was out about a minute later. I then took some time to just look at him as we rocked. As I did that, I thought about these past several years in which we have struggled with employment. It has been hard and it has been frustrating. Sure we have questioned the Lord and at times even murmured (yes even that). But when you really start to think about it, we have nothing to murmur about. We have never gone without anything we need, and we have been blessed many times over with things we want, but don't necessarily need. Sure, we would like to have a nicer, bigger home, car, "toys" and many other things. However, that isn't what life is about. I look at others I know who have more than we do, or nicer things than we do, or really good jobs, or any of a number of other things that we don't have, but I would never trade with them. Everyone has problems, including many with their children. But one thing I can always be grateful for is our children. No, they are no perfect and they may not be the "best" kids in the world. But, oh are they wonderful. They do so many things well and so many things right. I cannot count the times we have been complimented for our children, and how many more times they have been complimented themselves. So, although we lack a lot of "things" that others have, there is no way we would ever consider ourselves unblessed. And of course there are many other things, which I could list, and which would go on and on; but really they are our greatest blessing and will continue to be, even when things finally turn around for us in the old employment department. Our blessings may not be counted in "things" but there are many that go unseen to the eye that are known by our hearts and our spirits.