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