What Do Your Kids Draw?

Hey everyone it’s that time of year. The kids gutted their pumpkins on Saturday night, but we are still in the process of carving the designs. I’ll have to put those pics up when we finish them. They all enjoyed the slime, except Caden, but he still participated, at least.
Speaking of Caden, we have seen a great improvement in his skin and a slight one in his demeanor, but it appears that things are working with his diet changes. Ammon is growing like crazy and was 16 pounds 10 ounces at his 4-month appointment. He has also discovered his thumb; Uggg$#*!)&%$#&*^%!!! Trevin is doing well at playing with Caden while his older siblings go to school all day, but he does get a little board without his sports buddy, Tyler, around. Bailey loves school and she loves to play school whenever she is home. She involves her little brothers as students, when ever they’ll put up with it. Tyler is part of a book club at school. They are discussing the novel “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” He read it in one day, no joke. He is a great reader, which is so good to see. So that’s a real quick update on us. There are a bunch of new photos at the end, but first, here come the laughs…

So, I was getting ready to make lunch on Conference Saturday and the kids were telling me what they wanted. Meantime, the LDS World Report was on in the background between sessions. Elder Richard G. Scott was on and he was speaking Spanish because they were discussing the new Spanish version of the Bible. The kids immediately noticed something different and started asking questions. I said: “That’s Richard G. Scott speaking Spanish.” Caden heard me (sort of), and still referring to the topic of lunch, said: “I don’t want spinach.”

I was wrestling with Trevin and I guess out of hopes I wouldn’t tickle him, he said: “Dad, kiss me!” So I gave him a big smooch on the cheek and he said: “Good job, Dad. Good listening.”

We were ripping out our garden and I came across a big worm. I pointed it out to the kids and Trevin asked: “Can I step on him?” I said: “No. Worms are good, we need worms.” He asked: “Do we eat them?” I said: “Well, you could if you needed to, but…” Before I could finish my explanation, Trevin interrupted very adamantly: “I need to.”

We’ve been letting Caden run round naked while we potty train him, because he always tells us he has to go when he’s in the buff, but not when we put underwear on him. We put him in one of Trevin’s long shirts to cover him up, and when he sits on any furniture we always wrap him in a towel, for the same reason. So the other day Caden had wrapped himself up in Trevin’s blanket, and Trevin called out to us: “Caden’s on my blanket and he hasn’t covered up his nakedness.”

Caden has been having some of his night fits again, recently, so when he was on my bed the other night I told him: “Caden, you’re sleeping in your bed tonight, and not ours.” Trevin was out in the hall and heard me. He came into the room and said: “Dad, Caden screams and wakes me up every night. Isn’t he a mean person?” Then he turned to Caden directly and said: “Caden, you’re a mean person.”

Caden recently saw me give Tyler a blessing when he was sick. So one recent Sunday morning, after I got home from meetings, Trevin reported that earlier that morning Caden put his hands on his (Trevin’s) head and gave him a blessing. Trevin, understanding the situation and wanting to teach his little brother, said that he asked: “Caden, do you have the priesthood?” But the explanation went no further because Caden replied: “yes.”

We were eating lunch on Sunday just before going to church and while I was preparing mine, I was recounting to Carol the new seating arrangement in the Bishop’s office for our weekly Bishopric meeting. Now that I’m first counselor Bishop wants me on his right side (but I wanted to stay where I was). Anyways, I told Carol how the whole thing went down earlier in the morning, and when I finally got all done, Caden, who was sitting at the table with the rest of the kids, says to all of them: “What is dad talking about?”

We have a belt that Trevin uses for church, but technically it’s still Tyler’s. Lately, Trevin has been using it with his jeans, too. So the other night he takes it off as he’s getting ready for bed, and then with a big grin on his face he puts it in his drawer. I said: “You’re gonna put it in there, huh?” He said yes, and then I let out a big gasp and said jokingly: “That’s stealing!” He smiled, and then said: “That’s not stealing. I just borrowing it.”

This last one includes a picture. Bailey loves to draw and the other day she showed me this one and explained that the picture depicted that there were only two bathrooms at school and they both had people in them, so she had to wait, but she couldn’t, so she wet her pants. This was not based on actual events, but I guess she thought it would be funny to draw it. The mind of a 6-year-old?????
Two Livingstons and two Birds in the cage
We miss you "outside"
Trevin kickin' it old school
Caden doing the same

Rock a bye baby
Oh, I can't believe that
That was so funny
Caden doing his hair
Now, where did I put my glasses?
We played the dress-up game for our Family Home Evening activity and everyone had a great time. I'm sure my siblings still remember, as I do, when we played this game as kids.



A break in the dress-up action...







See, I told you I had a tongue in there
This is not a good thing. I was a thumb-sucker, so I guess at least one of our kids had to be.


Every once in a while, I get real board and I need a little exercise, so I just start throwing the kids around. Here we see that Bailey is not wearing a wig.
Caden nearly hits the ceiling when I throw him

Tyler is a little too heavy to throw up, so I toss him on the couch

Stylin' Ammon

Blessings Abound

The biggest news for our family involves my work schedule. A month ago I trained to be the back-up for FedEx’s off-site loader position at the Subaru parts warehouse. I did it with the hopes of being able to take over regularly sometime down the road. About 10 days ago, I was informed I would be doing it every Monday, and another guy would be doing it Tue-Fri. So I asked if there was any chance we could get that switched. The boss wasn’t opposed to it, so long-story-short, the other guy wanted to work nights on the dock, instead. That means, starting this Tuesday I will be working over at the Subaru warehouse loading their freight onto our trailers. I will still only be allowed 25 hours a week, but I will get that much in four days and work from about 11:00 to 5:00, depending on the day. Our family is very excited about this. The kids and Carol have really wanted me at home at night, and now we will have that blessing.

We enjoyed Conference weekend and used some of the same “distractions” as we did six months ago to keep the kids somewhat interested in conference. We also decided to start a new tradition. Carol took Bailey to the General Women’s broadcast the Saturday before, then they went out to get ice cream. So I took Tyler and Trevin to the Priesthood session with me, followed by a trip to Dairy Queen. It was a good time and the session was awesome.

Speaking of the Priesthood session, I discovered something wonderful on the church web site this week. For years, the only way to review the Priesthood session is to read the talks online or in the Ensign. For some reason, we could not listen to, or watch them online. That has bugged me for quite sometime, because I like listening to them on the old iPod. I was even going to sit down this week and write the prophet to ask him if they could post them, too, because some of the best talks I’ve heard have come from that session. Well, wouldn’t you know it, my prayers have been answered (literally), because we checked this week and sure enough, the last four (2008 & 2009) are on the Church’s site now. Hopefully that means they will include them from here on out. And maybe, just maybe they will go back and add all the older ones, too. Either way, I can’t wait to download them and start listening while I’m at work.

In other news, we have been potty training Caden, and he is doing pretty well. We finally just decided on the “let him run around naked” method and it is working. While we were at the Priesthood session, Ammon rolled over from back to stomach several times up at Carol’s parents. However, he has not done it again, except for one other time last Friday night, again at Carol’s parents’ house. The kids’ primary program was today and they did so well. Tyler got really nervous singing his solo (4th verse of “I Believe in Christ”) with a crowd there, and he kind of broke down a little. He even forgot some of the words, but he recovered in the end. The spirit was still strong and that’s what counts. Also, today, I was sustained as first counselor in the Bishopric. I hope the spirit was strong for that, too. So that’s a quick update of the latest from us.

Giddy Up Horsy!

The latest and greatest news of our “Life and Times”: The kids had the opportunity to ride a horse (named Fergie) a couple weekends ago. Brenda, a friend from work, has a horse and said they could come out and ride it. So we hauled them out to the country and each of them took a turn. The three younger ones all rode with big brother Tyler holding them tight. It took some real convincing for Trevin and Bailey, but they had a good time, after they finally decided to get on.








In other news; Caden has had a cold now for about two months straight, so we finally determined that it must be due to his food intolerances. We visited the naturopath again and he concurred. So we have removed wheat, dairy, soy and peanuts from his diet again. Sugar is not good for him either, but if you take all those other things out, you can’t really make much of his replacement foods without sugar. So sugar will have to remain in small portions. His diet now consists mostly of rice: rice milk, rice bread, rice cream, rice crackers, rice cakes and rice cheese. Good thing he can still eat things with corn ingredients and fruits & vegetables. He is doing better, too, so that is what counts. It can take a while for his body to get rid of it all (up to six weeks according to the naturopath); but we hope that by the end of October he will be back to the way he was the last time we altered up his diet.

The Kids primary program is coming up the Sunday after General Conference and Bailey will be giving a small talk. Tyler will be part of a special music number (I Believe in Christ), including a solo by him for one of the verses. Trevin was assigned a talk, but after two practices and two break-downs we decided he’s not ready for that yet, so someone else will fill in for him. Now, enjoy the latest funnies and a few more pics:

Carol was on her way home from the doctor to pick me, Trevin and Caden up, so I told them to get ready to go. That included telling Trevin to go to the bathroom. So he went in our bathroom. As I headed in to make sure he was done, Caden came into our bedroom from the kids bathroom, with his shorts off, and diaper still on. He said to me: “Uh, I didn’t have to go.”

The other day Caden came out to the living room and he had removed his shirt. I said: “Hey, why aren’t you wearing your shirt?” His reply was simple and direct: “Because I took it off.” So I asked him why, and he said, “Because I put it in the laundry.”

So some of you may have seen the ad for the double feature of Toy Story and Toy Story 2, with a sneak peak of Toy Story 3? The kids saw it and seemed pretty excited about it. We would love to go see them, however, I don’t think our kids could possibly sit still for that long. And that is what I mentioned to them. I said: “That means you guys would have to sit there for more than three hours.” Trevin replies, totally serious: “Dad, I would have to go to the bathroom.”

So Carol and Trevin play a little game where she tries to kiss him on the lips, which he likes but plays hard to get and doesn’t let her do it easily. So the boys were watching the Ducks game on TV and a shot of the cheerleaders came up. Trevin, without prompting, and with a big grin on his face, said: “I could kiss them on the lips. That would be beautiful.” Later she was telling me about it and then she said to him: “Oh sure, you’ll kiss them on the lips, but you won’t kiss me on the lips?” He replied: “Yep, that’s how it goes.”

It was bed time and I told Tyler and Trevin that one of them needed to go brush their teeth (we have two electric brushes and Bailey was already using one). They argued over who should go, then I threatened them with losing privileges. Trevin followed me into my room while I was putting laundry away and said: “Well, I want someone to help me.” I said: “I want you to get in there and brush your teeth.” He asked, with the best pronunciation he could muster: “Immediately?”

Later, when he finally got in there to brush, I put his toothpaste on and noticed that it was different from the last time, and the time before that. I called to Carol: “How come you keep changing the toothpaste all the time?” Trevin then called out in her direction, in a very “can you answer that one?” kind of tone: “Carol?”

Bailey absolutely loves to play school right now and I think she repeats word for word what her teachers say everyday, each day when she plays at home. So she was at it the other day talking to her imaginary students and said something, then said "OK?" So I decided to respond and I said OK. She looked at me and said: “You’re not one of my students. You’re way too big. You should already be in high school by now, or something.”

Trevin and I were playing with these little carved wooden frogs that my brother Cory gave the boys. He said: “Who did we get these from, again?” I asked: “You don’t remember?” He said no, so I told him it was from one of his uncles. He said: “Eric?” I said no. then he said: “That guy who went to the airport?” I repeated in a very surprised tone: “That guy who went to the airport?” He then came to his senses and said: “Yeah, Cory. We took him to the airport” I guess even four-year-olds can have “senior moments,” too.

Bailey told us that a girl at school named Alexis told her: “I’ll give you a pack of string if you’ll be my friend” And according to Bailey, she responded: “Well, I don’t need any string, but I’ll be your friend.” She then added, as she repeated the incident to us: “You know, cuz, I have lots of string already.”

Trevin wearing Ammon's pajama pants
Ammon fell asleep sucking my arm
And he wasn't the only sleepy one
Caden wearing Ammon's sleeper. Believe it or not, this all Carol's doing. Trevin had it on, too, but he just looked too girly for me to post it. I have to protect my little men.
Caden loves his little brother's swing. This particular time he was wearing nothing but a soggy diaper.