Livingston Life And Times

Happy Number 2, Ammon (And 6, Trevin)

2011-06-21T09:44:00.000-07:00

It has already been two years since Ammon joined our family. Amazing how fast time goes. He has been a wonderful addition to our home and he makes us laugh every day. Ammon likes sports like his brothers and recently has taken a real liking to wrestling. He goes after anyone in the family and really enjoys coming up behind his siblings when they least expect it; he then grabs them in a bear hug and pulls them down. He is quite strong and can even throw Trevin down if he grabs him just the right way. Ammon is also a real Daddy's boy right now. Every time we get out of the van he demands to get out on Dad's side. He also typically only wants Dad to get him out of bed. It is nice to be loved. We celebrated Ammon and Trevin's birthdays on Saturday. So here are few pics of our little guy and one of his older "twin" brother, Trevin. What a couple of handsome boys!

Tyler Is An All-Star

2011-06-15T20:18:00.000-07:00

And this year, they can't take it away from him. Tyler was officially voted on to the Evergreen Little League 9/10 All-Star team tonight. After last year's bitter-sweet selection, it was so nice to make it again this year. And this time, he'll be able to play. Practices start tomorrow and the tournament starts on June 27th. It should be fun and exciting. So congratulations to Tyler. You deserve it!

Life Is Full Of Great Things

2011-06-14T22:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, a couple of exciting weeks in the Livingston family. First, Bailey was baptized on June 11, and it was a special occasion. She gave the talk on baptism and did a wonderful job. The spirit was quite strong throughout and it was a really nice service. Many family members and friends attended and it was just a great day for Bailey and our family. We are so proud of her!

Trevin, who just turned 6 yesterday, also lost his first tooth just last week. Carol surprised him and just pulled it out. His permanent one is already well on its way in. I caught the happy boy just after it was pulled and even with blood dripping don his face, he still flashed that wonderful Trevin smile. The tooth fairy came and left him a dollar and a little Twix bar. We asked him what he got and he said a Twix and a dollar. Then said: "Man, I was hoping for $100."
Tyler had a big week of baseball. His team was the number one seed in the tournament and after barely winning their first game, they lost the second one 1-0 on Saturday. His team got only one hit; a double by Tyler. So with the lost, they had to play another game right after that. They won that game 4-2 and then had to play the team they lost to on Saturday, on Monday night. The pressure was heavy and Tyler wilted. He just couldn't overcome his nerves and had a really rough game, until he pitched and got the giant out (seriously, the kid is 6 feet and 230 lbs). That helped him snap out of it. They held on to win 13-10, which set up tonight's game.

Both teams now had a loss, and this would settle the championship. It was a close game all the way, but they held on and won 4-2. And Tyler looked like a different kid. He didn't look nervous or scared and had a great game. He walked and scored, struck out on a foul tip catch had a solid single to left. He also made three catches at 2nd base, two of which were really nice plays. And then he came on to pitch in the top of the sixth with the bases loaded and only one out. He got the first guy to ground out, then struck the last guy out looking. It was so fun to watch and we were so proud of how he overcame the nerves; because that has been his biggest battle all season long. When he got that last out, he celebrated like a champion and that is what he is; as a person.

The kids did a lot of celebrating afterwards, which the rest of our kids really enjoyed, cuz they got to go play on the field. Here's Caden on the mound.

And this is Ammon at home getting in some batting practice with his brothers.

It has been an exciting time recently, and here's what's coming up: Tomorrow, Tyler finds out if he makes the 9-10 year-old All-Star team. On Saturday, Bailey and Trevin will finish off their baseball season, and then later we will celebrate both Trevin and Ammon's birthdays (he will be two on Monday). And of course, Thursday is the last day of school so summer break should be fun. That's a wrap for now. The Lord has truly blessed the Livingston's.

I'm Lame, I Know

2011-05-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah; I know it's about time. But we'll just bypass all the excuses and get to the bloggin'. It has been since October since I've written, so of course, a lot has happened. We still live in the same house and the same ward and have the same callings. I still work at the same place, but have been greatly blessed in my employment. The kids are growing and they are always involved in something.

Tyler turned 10 in February and he continues to be a good student and a stud athlete. He is presently playing Little League and got drafted up to the Majors division, so he plays with kids who are mostly 12 and some 11. His team has already wrapped up the top seed for the tournament and the regular season ends this week. Unfortunately, he plays for the Yankees. It's tough when we love the Red Sox so much, but I still cheer for him and his team. Although, I have yet to say: "Go Yankees!" all season.

Bailey turned 8 just a couple of weeks ago and she is excited to be getting baptized on June 11. It will be a great experience. She is also very thrilled to be in Activity Days and enjoys doing those girly things with other girls; which gives her a respite from a house full of boys. She is also playing baseball and doing quite well. She enjoys Zumba and will probably take a kids' Zumba class this summer.

Trevin is hard core into sports and right now with baseball in full swing, he can't stop playing, watching, or talking about it. He is obsessed, which is OK sometimes, and others, not so much. He is on Bailey's team and is also doing well. He looked like a vacuum out there at his last game as he made play after play while most of the rest of the kids just stand and watch. He has learned to read very well and he has enjoyed his first year of school. He turns 6 in June.

Caden is as feisty as ever. He turned 4 in April and lately he has become quite a handful again. We are trying to be as patient as possible and enjoy the moments when he chooses to be happy. He really wants to play baseball on a team, like his siblings and he has actually improved quite a bit since last year. He must be a Livingston. He just finished another session of preschool and enjoyed it, especially those days he got to play baseball outside and hit some "big homers."

Ammon is almost 2. Yeah, can you believe it? He is already into baseball like all of his brothers. He has quite the stance and can slide into a base like a real champ. He's got a great arm for a 2 year old, too. He still doesn't talk much, but has finally started to say a few words. He has also shown an interest in the potty, which we are quite happy about. Now we need to do something about it. His birthday is a week after Trevin's, and then we'll be done with kid birthdays for the year 2011, except the one that is due in December......wait for it....wait for it.....wait for it.....JUST KIDDING!

In all honesty, we think we are done. I'll spill the beans and say that we have tried for several months and it seems that it's just not meant to be; and we are fine with that if that is the case. So for all of you who think it's time for us to have another, or want to ask if we are going to have anymore, the answer is: We tried and it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

So there is probably a lot more that I have missed, but when you try to recap more than 7 months, a lot of the details get cloudy. On the plus side, I do have some funnies saved up. And although some of them are about 6 months old, they're still funny. So enjoy!

Much to our dismay, one of the PE teachers at the kids’ school likes to play Justin Beiber songs during PE time; and Trevin seems to have taken a liking to those songs. So he told Carol and all his siblings the other day that he was singing a Justin Beiber song and two girls from his class “were totally laughing. But it didn’t mess me up.”

Tyler was by our back door and he saw a bug and shouted: “Look, a scorpion.” He was totally serious, too. Carol questioned him and he reiterated his claim. So Carol walked over to investigate and said: “Tyler, that’s an earwig, not a scorpion.”

Carol makes these little rib-it sounds (that’s what I call them) from time to time. She has no control over it and it’s kind of like a gurgle deep in her throat. (By the way, she’s not exactly happy that I’m telling you all this, but I have to for this story. So when you see her, don’t speak frog to her.) Anyways, we were saying prayer and Caden was sitting on her lap with his head on her chest. She did one of her “rib-its” and Caden swiftly picked up his head and said with a smile: “Whoa! Who was that?”

So Bailey is totally into teaching. That is pretty much what she does with about 95% of her free time at home; pretend to teach an imaginary class. So Carol asked her for some Christmas ideas, other than teaching stuff, and she responded: “I want one of those things that goes around my neck.” Carol kind of asked for a clarification, and she said: “You know. Mine would say: ‘Bailey Livingston. Staff.’” Then she said she also wanted boys’ and girls’ bathroom passes for her class. She’s not messing around.

Caden was looking through his Halloween candy and was going to have a piece. He pulled out a Tootsie Pop and asked if it had milk. They do. He then proceeded to take out all of his dum dum suckers because he said they had milk, too. Carol came along and tried to correct him. She told him that just the Tootsie Pop had milk and that the others were fine. He then picked it up, looked at it as though he were reading it and said: “No. It says...contains milk.”

Carol told Caden that he needed to get ready for preschool one morning, but he said he didn’t want to go. She told him, he would be fine and he needed to get ready. He then said: “But there will be fat guys.”

We were talking about Tyler being baptized and then we mentioned that Bailey will be taking that step in 6 months. Carol said: “In six months, Bailey, you’ll be giving a talk at your own baptism,” (cuz that is what Tyler did). An then I said: “That means you’ll have to go under water, too,” (which she hates). Bailey then replied: “Yeah, I know. I’m gonna wear goggles.”

Carol got me a card for our anniversary, which you can see here.

I brought it out and said to the kids: “Who wants to see this picture me and mommy took for our anniversary? Don’t we look good?” The kids all gathered to take a look and with Bailey holding it, Trevin said in all seriousness: “That doesn’t look like them.”

Caden’s nursery leader was released recently and put in the primary. So as Carol and the kids got home from church her first week gone, Caden announced to everyone: “Mary wasn’t my teacher anymore.” Then after a pause added: “And I am not happy about that.”

We were leaving the baseball field and arrived at our van, when Caden blurted out: “What the heck?” Then, after a very short pause said: “Why do I just keep saying ‘What the heck’?”

We were finishing dinner and Ammon had been eating a ton, which is quite unusual for him. Earlier, he and his brothers were running around shirtless playing pirates. I made the comment about Ammon: “I guess all that running around naked made you hungry.” I then added as a joke of course: “Makes sense. When I go running around the block naked at night after you guys go to bed, I get hungry, too.” I expected some comments, but this is all I got; from Trevin, in a “who are you trying to kid?” kind of tone: “You don’t jog.”

Who's Ready To Wiggle?

2010-11-06T17:03:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, it's me again. This time I wasn't gone as long, but a lot has happened anyway. To start, the kids enjoyed their visit to the Rose Garden to watch the Blazers play an intra-squad scrimmage. They also really liked their trip to Everett to go see The Wiggles in concert. It was a good show and they enjoyed it, although Tyler and Trevin didn't show it much. Caden, of course, loved it. We also enjoyed seeing our good friends the Marshall's, who let us stay at their home. We sure appreciated their hospitality.

The kids got lots of candy as they went trunk-or-treating last Friday and Saturday night. We went with Leslie and Eric to their ward's, then they went with us the next day, to ours. And when you have five kids, that equals a lot of goodies for dad; I mean the kids. Trevin got to go on a school field trip to a pumpkin farm, and he and Carol had a lot of fun. Two Sundays ago the kids had their primary program, and they all did an outstanding job. The kids also had another cousin return home from a mission, about 10 days ago, as Nathan got back from Florida. Carol and the kids got to go greet him at the airport.

We are all looking forward to the upcoming holidays and look forward to seeing family we haven't seen a while. I'm sure there are things I have missed, but if I remembered them all, that would just mean it would take longer to get to the funnies. So here you go...

Caden likes to play Duck, Duck, Goose and he was trying to play with just me and him. He wanted me to get up and run after him, so I did and when I caught him I said to Carol: “Look Mommy, I got me a goose.” Caden began to pout and then he said: “I’m not Mia Goose.”

The kids were in the process of getting ready for bed one night and Trevin ended up on the couch in his underwear. Bailey shouted: “Mom, look at Trevin; he’s being immodest. He’s on the couch in his underwear.” Trevin smiled big and said: “I have my socks on.”

We play a word association game to get the kids to listen to General Conference a little better. We have certain words that are attached to different snacks. If they hear it, they get the snack. It’s still a little advanced for Caden, so he was going to help himself to a raisin, which had “The Spirit” attached to it. I stopped him and said: “You didn’t hear anything.” He replied: “Yeah, he said raisin."

We were at the table and I was just about to ask someone to say the blessing when Caden leaned over to me and says out loud: “You’re a bonehead.” He repeated it a couple times, then I calmly asked him: “Who taught you that?” Then, much to everyone’s surprise, especially Carol’s, he replied: “Umm, Mom.”

Tyler saw the Wiggles when he was about three, with his cousin Caleb. After the show, with a little luck they happen to run into two of the Wiggles, Jeff and Murray. So a day or two before we were going to see the Wiggles this time he said to us, in all seriousness: “I wonder if Murray will recognize me?” We had a good laugh, then Carol said: “Tyler, do you know how many kids Murray sees?” He replied: “Yeah, like two Tylers a month.”

Trevin has reached the age of trying to develop a sense of humor, but it is a big work in progress. The other night he said to Tyler: “Knock, knock.” Tyler replied “who’s there?” Trevin: “Poo poo.” Tyler: “Poo poo, who?” Trevin paused and you could see the wheels turning; and then he said: “Horse-cow.” We were all stunned at his brilliance, and he got a good laugh at himself. Like I said, it's a work in progress.

Wiggle Time

Hiding behind the couch

Welcome home, Nathan
Having fun at the airport
Giddy-up Horsey

Lots of pumpkin pie filling

Where did I put that tissue?
Drivers beware!
Waiting for the Wiggles to start
More illegal driving
So, do you need a napkin?
Ah shucks...
Not a Mets fan, but it kept him happy at the store
Not so happy about his haircut
Blazers game

Playing in the rocks

Oh, how cute. Tyler even did this pose on his own.

It's OK Everyone; Calm Down...Yes, I Am Still Alive

2010-09-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

OK, so it’s been forever; I know. I can’t possibly recap all that has taken place since I last updated the blog. But I’ll try anyways...just kidding. But here are some of the highlights. We had a good summer, but didn’t do anything major. We built a fire pit in our back yard, which the kids really enjoyed, especially making smores several times throughout the summer. I introduced the kids to Capture the Flag, and we spent many evenings playing that this summer, as well.

In August, we went to Eugene for a weekend to visit as my brother Scott and his family were in town from Utah; including Isaac, who returned from his mission. We decided that this would be a good opportunity for the 4 oldest kids to get their first taste of being away from home. It was with much trepidation (more on their part) that we left. They were just going to stay a couple of days, but ended staying the entire week. It was good for everyone, except maybe Ammon, who was quite bored without his siblings around.

Of course with September here, the kids have started school. Tyler is in 4th grade now, Bailey in Second and Trevin started kindergarten. They are doing very well and all enjoy school. They even help out by making their own lunches every night before they go to bed. It was a little tough for Caden at first, but he has gotten over it, thanks to the Wii and his mother’s iPhone. But of course we read to him every day, before he has those privileges.

Coming up, we are looking forward to General Conference this weekend, and then later this month, we are taking the kids to go see the Wiggles. They are all quite excited. It should be a lot of fun. We also get to go see the Blazers play a team scrimmage this Friday night, thanks to some passes from the Priebe’s. They will all enjoy that, for sure. Overall, we are all doing well and thankful for the many blessings the Lord has provided us with, including a more blessings in the employment department. And yes, Carol and I finally got our own cell phones. And yes the iPhone 4 is amazing and it has changed our life. Well, that’s a pretty lightweight recap of the last two and a half months, but at least I have some funnies stored up (and pics, too), so enjoy!

Bailey noticed a wedding announcement in the recycle pile and asked Carol if she was really throwing it away? Carol told her yes and then I said: “Don’t worry Bailey; we’ll keep yours when you get married.” Then Carol told the kids about the different ones she still had from family members. Bailey then asked: “Will you keep ours when we get married?” Apparently, she didn’t hear me. Carol told her yes, but then Trevin said: “They’ll already be dead by then.” I questioned him, and he said: “I think so.” Bailey then replied: “You can’t say that unless you’re sure they’re going to be dead.”

The kids were playing in the playroom and Caden came into my room and said: “Dad, we’re trying to attack Tyler.” I said: “You are, huh?” He replied, “Yeah, cuz he’s annoying.”

Carol and her mom took the kids to OMSI, a scientific museum, and they have an unborn Baby display, where you can see what real babies look like during the development process. Carol said that some of them during the first few weeks are pretty creepy looking. I said a lot of them are creepy looking. Then I said: “and some of them, when they’re born, are still creepy looking. Bailey then said: “You mean like Ammon?”

Carol and I talked about getting iPhones for a long time, especially the new iPhone 4. In our many conversations, we mentioned that it would not be fun to take all 5 kids to go sign up for the service. In August, we were discussing the possibility of leaving the kids with my parents for a few days. Bailey said: “You guys should go to Blackberry or Verizon or something.” We laughed, then she said: “What? I’ve been listening to your conversations that ‘we need to go when the kids aren’t here.’”

Ammon was walking around in just a diaper and Bailey said: “He looks so cute in that outfit.”

I caught Tyler in a pick and then he went to wipe it on the ground. I said: “You better find that booger and clean it up with a tissue, or I’m gonna pick one and make you eat it; from someone else’s nose.” Bailey heard and volunteered: “Pick mine. I have the driest boogers ever.”

Tyler told Carol that they watched a video in Primary called “A Pioneer Miracle.” She asked him if he liked it and he said: “Yeah, but I knew they weren't gonna die, because it was called ‘A Pioneer Miracle.’”

I asked Caden one morning: “What do you want to do?” He replied, referring to the Wii,: “I want to play sword fighting with not you, so you don’t cry.” This response came because we had played another time and when I knocked him in the water he started to pout. So when he knocked me in, I began to fake cry, which he did not enjoy.

Tyler has the ability to scream at a very high pitch. I often tell him: “Stop screaming like a girl!” So I had him pinned down and was tickling him and he was really letting it go. I said to carol: “Lets record this and show all his friends that he screams like a girl” Tyler replied, while still laughing: “They already know.”

We have been talking about getting another twin bed, so Caden move out of the Toddler bed, as he is really outgrowing it. So we were telling him that each of the kids would move to a new bed up the proverbial seniority ladder. We said he would get Trevin’s bed, unless Trevin wanted to keep it, and then he would get Bailey’s bed instead. He then said with a very concerned and incredulous look on his face: “In the princess bed?”

Where did that boy learn to scowl?
Bailey Lightyear
This is my mess and love it!
Desperately in need of a haircut, which he recently got
You're out
Mario Bros.
Killer Stash
Future Bethoven
One Busy Lady
Keep your eye on the ball
A swingin' good time
First day of school
A piece of waffle that looks like a squirrel. Too much Alvin and the Chipmunks, lately?
That dinner was just too tiring
Hard at work at the office
Opossums
A helping hand
My little princess
Doing the haka to make the ball move
Move over you lousy driver
I think this fits here
Baseball stars
Portrait Shots, by Carol
A Day at Omsi
Look, we're pretty
Bowling with the Priebe's
Ammon gettin' a lift from Claire
The grapes of wrath
Sticky goodness
On the outside looking in
We prepare to sacrifice our kids to the fire gods
I'm beat, what can I say?
Uh m, could someone please close my mouth if I fall asleep on the couch.
I'm a happy boy, cuz I have no pants
Swimming pool fun
Life guard
Watching fireworks from the back of the van
Sparklers
Tyler's brief moment with a mohawk
Good stuff

That's What We Wanted To Hear

2010-07-07T19:32:00.000-07:00

We got the call we've been waiting for, today. The results came back on Trevin's lymph node and everything came back benign. We are grateful to al those who offered prayers in his behalf. We told him the news, and he just shined up a big smile. So, now he will have a cool scare on the back of his neck, which hopefully fades over time. And I guess since I'm on here, I'll add a couple funnies from the past week. Enjoy!

Caden is really into having wheat. He and the three older kids were playing at some friends’ house (the Balch’s) and when the topic of having a snack came up, he kept insisting he wanted wheat. So when Carol got there to pick them up, Pam asked her what Caden was saying. Carol explained the whole story, so Pam offered him some graham crackers. He was sitting next to Jerry, who is 9, and after taking a couple of bites, he held the cracker up to him and said in tone like “you guys aren’t trying to pull one over on me”: “This has wheat, right?”

The three older kids were watching fireworks out the window on July 3 and we were talking about the ones they like and dislike. Bailey said: “I don’t like the ones that fly up in the air and go eeeeerrrrrrr.” Trevin then poignantly said: “That’s basically the point of fireworks.”

OK, this one is not from one of my kids, but it was very funny. I went to Cub Camp with Tyler the first day, and as we were taking the tour of camp, a couple Cubs from another pack were at one of the many outhouses. As one of them prepared to enter, he handed his backpack to his “buddy” and said: “Here; you hold this…in case I die.” And believe me; I smelled that outhouse and he had good reason to be scared.

We were discussing Cub Camp at home because Tyler was complaining about the things his siblings got to do while he was gone. I began to list all the things he had done, in just the first two days, and then I mentioned the never-ending annoying songs by the Staff. I said, they just didn’t quit, I wanted to stand up and yell: “shuuuuuut up!” The kids were kind of surprised cuz I don’t say that. Then Bailey shouts right behind me: “Dad, you just said a bad word. You repent right now!”

Surgery Was A Success

2010-06-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

Well today was the big day for Tyler and Trevin. We got up at 5:30 and pulled them out of bed at 6:00. Check-in was at 6:30 and we finished that at 7:00. That meant we had to sit and wait for 90 minutes for them to come and get Trevin. It was a long wait, but the boys spent most of it watching SportsCenter. Trevin's surgery took about 35 minutes and he did really well. The doctor said his lymph node was enlarged, but that it looked like a normal lymph node. Of course you never know until the biopsy results, but it was encouraging to hear that. Trevin came out of it really well too. He woke up quickly and didn't have any nausea. He was eating popsicles in no time. After I gave him his third one, I said: "Wow, three popsicles." Before I could even throw the wrapper away, he replied: "Yeap. Maybe four." And sure enough, a short time later the nurse brought him another one. Take a look at the picture at the bottom and you'll be able to easily guess what flavor he had.

The boys took a quick break from ESPN to give a thumbs up.
But this was more the norm.
Tyler was taken in at 9:30 and his procedure was only about 10 or 15 minutes long. However, it took him a lot longer than Trevin to come out of it. He threw up several times and he generally felt lousy and tired. Eventually he got the anesthesia out of his system and they were able to leave at around noon. They are both doing well, and feeling well, tonight. It has been really hard to keep them down, especially Trevin. He feels fine and wants to play, but he is supposed to take it easy for a few days; which is going to be very hard to do. Here is Tyler with one of his puke bags, but still able to smile.
What flavor do you want?
So all in all, even though it was a really long day, things went really well. And thanks to Grandma Shirts, who watched the other three. And thanks to Bailey, who pulled up her sleeves and helped Grandma a ton with her other two little brothers. She is so awesome about that. It is just amazing how she perceives the need and just gets it done. Grandma said she took care of everything, and we believe it, because that is what our little mini-mom does. Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers. We'll keep you posted on the Trevin's results, which should come early next week.

Can't Wait To Eat Wheat!

2010-06-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

So big news for Caden. We took him to see an allergist because his skin continues to suffer from eczema. We really wanted to know what was causing it because we have eliminated wheat, dairy, peanut and soy, but he seems to be getting worse. Well, according to the allergist trying to pinpoint was causes eczema is not very easy. So he focuses on treating it. Caden is taking steroids (in a cream form) for the really bad spots. He’s also taking Zyrtec and getting a bath each night. In addition to that, he gets all greased up twice a day to help relieve the itch. According to the allergist, if we didn't scratch it, eczema wouldn't exist. So far, the worst spots on his skin are really improving and he looks a lot better.

Now, here's the real kicker. They did a skin test on him to see what he is actually allergic to. They tested him by poking him with tiny little instruments (not needles) for several foods and a few other things. He did great and in the end, the only food that he tested positive for was cow's milk. Wheat, peanut and soy were all negative. He also tested positive for the grass mix and for dust mites, but the dust mites were a weaker positive. We are very excited because this opens so many food possibilities for Caden. We have already been telling him about being able to eat wheat. We are trying to wait to till his skin clears up completely, just to see if he has a reaction to it, but we have already given in a couple times. And for the record, his skin has not reacted adversely yet. So that is the good news regarding Caden.

And here are a couple funnies from the last week: I mentioned that we have given Caden wheat a couple times already. One of those times was yesterday. We took the kids to Wendy's (their choice) because Tyler and Bailey got good report cards. We let Caden get chicken nuggets. As he started to eat them, we told him he was eating eat. He asked, "Where?' So we told him about the nuggets. After we were all done with the meal Carol asked Caden if he liked the chicken nuggets. He replied: "Yeah. I love wheat."

I was doing a minor repair on our outdoor play set and had Ammon in the swing, cuz Carol was vacuuming the van. I asked Bailey to watch Ammon for a second while I went to the garage for another drill bit. We hadn't asked her to, but she had the push broom and was doing some sweeping. I got sidetracked when I realized I needed to switch the laundry and later, from a phone call. When I finally got back I told Bailey I was sorry for taking so long. She said as she walked off: "That's OK. More playing with Ammon, and less brooming."

The kids take turns riding home from church with me, if I don't have to stay after late. Last week, it was Trevin's turn and it was a hilarious ride. I can't really recap it here, because you kind of had to be there, but I'll try a little bit. As we passed by a car who was going to be turing onto the road we were on, Trevin said: "Ha ha, that car had to wait for us." Later he was saying how he wished the rain would go away and rain on everyone in other states, and then he added in a sinister tone: "That would be funny." I told him that we need some rain, but he assured me that we could just water everything with the hose. He was also keeping track of the traffic both in front of us and behind us. At one point he said: "There are no cars behind us." I said: "Nope, there aren't any cars behind us, but there are some boogers." He simply replied in an "oh please, come on, grow up" kind of tone: "Dad."

And here's a shot of Ammon taking a stand. Not quite walking, but he's close.

That's A Lousy Knuckleball!

2010-06-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

Well, sometimes life just throws you a curveball that you don't have any answers for. We got word today that this whole season Tyler has been playing out of his Little League's boundaries. We specifically asked several times, including when we signed up, if that was the right league. We were assured that it was.

Turns out, though, that we live three blocks outside of the boundary and he should have been in the Evergreen league and not the Central league. So what does that mean? It means that he will no longer be able to participate on the All-Star team; an opportunity which he earned, and for which he has been practicing every day for two hours, for the last week. It's so lousy. Of course, he took it very hard, and Trevin, who adores his big brother and baseball-mate, probably took it just as hard. It just isn't fair, and it really stinks as a parent because there really isn't anything we can say to help ease the hurt.

I wish the people who are making these kinds of decisions would forget about the politics and the winning, and think about the kids. If they could have seen Tyler when we broke the news, maybe they would care, but my guess is, probably not.

Happy Birthday, Boys!

2010-06-21T22:04:00.000-07:00

Well, we had another birthday, actually two; so that means I need to update the blog again. Trevin turned 5 on June 13th and Ammon celebrated number 1 on June 20th. Trevin got a new batting helmet, batting gloves and a Red Sox hat cuz he lost his other one. He also got some new duds, so here's a picture of him in his "birthday suit."

Ammon enjoyed his celebration. We got him a plastic bat and some balls. he immediately started hitting the balls as soon as we got them opened up. He's a Livingston. He also really enjoyed his birthday cake. He is really starting to motor around and it probably won't be long before he's walking.

Earlier, the same day that we celebrated Trevin’s b-day, the kids finished up their spring baseball seasons. They did well, and Trevin even surprised me and decided to bat left-handed in his final at-bat. He got a hit, so I guess his plan to be a switch-hitter is underway. Bailey had a good season, too. Plus, she has recently re-discovered the joy of riding a bike without training wheels.

Tyler’s team finished 14-2-1 and really dominated just about everyone they played. And last week, we got the good news that he made the All-Star team. Only 13 kids are on the team and he’s the only one who made it that didn’t play last year. Plus, he’s one of just three nine-year-old that made it. They are practicing hard for two weeks then playing their district tournament starting June 28th.

In other news, both Tyler and Trevin will be having surgery on June 30th. Tyler will have his adenoid taken out, just like Caden did a couple months ago. Trevin has an enlarged lymph node in his neck that will be removed so they can do biopsy on it. We’re obviously praying that it will be nothing.

Work has changed a little for me recently. I still do the same job, but actually work a couple hours less a week. However, I now work for another shipping company besides FedEx, and actually get paid by two companies to do the same job. It’s all on the up and up, and really an amazing blessing how it all worked out. And, it even has the potential to get better real soon. I’ll keep you posted. Well that’s about all folks, but don’t forget the photos & funnies:

We recently joined Netflix and we were watching one of my favorites as a kid, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. The movie was almost over and Trevin said to Carol in all sincerity: “I’m really enjoying this movie.”

We were at the kids’ baseball practice and Caden asked Carol, regarding Ammon’s sippy cup: “Is it orange juice?” Carol told him it was apple juice. He then asked if he could have a drink, but Carol told him “no.” He then replied: “Why? Is it gonna kill me?”

Trevin got down from the table without finishing his breakfast and said he was full. He was actually just distracted by me blowing up the pool. I told him to get back up and finish or he wasn’t going to do anything else until he did. I added, “You’re not full.” He replied: “I’m serious. My tummy is so full. I think I need to be on The Biggest Loser.”

Caden was using the facilities and he was taking a long time. I mean a really long time. So after asking him many times if he was done, he finally said yes. I then said, “So you’re finally done, huh?” he replied, no joke: “Yeah, with you.” I said: “Heeeeey”, and then he let out a real ha ha ha ha type of laugh.

We have been making Trevin write the alphabet, as well his full name, twice a day for several months now. He has to do them before he gets to play the Wii and watch any videos or baseball highlights. So he was working on them the other day and said: “Oh, that would be a great ‘L’…if ‘L’ were next to ‘B.’”

I was up in the attic and Trevin decided to go out in the garage and keep me company. He was climbing all over my truck and when I got down for a second I noticed he had no shoes on. I said something to him about it and he said: “So, I don’t care. I’m the king. I’m the king of the Jungle.”

When Caden has his surgery, he had a nurse who’s name was Bambi. So the other day we were talking about the boys’ upcoming surgery, and Trevin said he wanted to have nurse Bambi when he had his surgery. However, we told him that he and Tyler would be going to a different hospital, so he wouldn’t get Bambi. Then Caden chimed in and said in a sympathetic, but “be tough” kind of tone: “It’s OK, Trevin. You’ll be fine.”

Oh Yeah, My Blog

2010-06-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

I seem to get less and less frequent at this all the time. And of course, there is a lot to catch up on. First and foremost, our little girl had a birthday. Bailey turned 7 on May 17th and it's hard to believe that she is that old. She got her ears pierced for her big day, and she had several friends from church over for her party; and luckily, it was one of the few days in May that was warm and sunny. They all went outside and played in the pool, which meant they weren't inside driving me crazy. Great birthday party! We are very blessed to have Bailey in our family. She really does a great job of being a mini-mom with here younger brothers. We call on her a lot for help, and she almost always rises to the occasion. Happy Birthday, Bailey; we love you!

Baseball has been going on all spring and will continue this summer. It has been a really fun season watching the kids and they have all done very well. Tyler's team is 12-2-1 with just two games left, and Bailey & Trevin have also done really well in their games, but they don't keep score.

We also spent the week before Memorial Day in California, visiting a bunch of theme parks: Disneyland, California Adventure, Universal Studios, Sea World and the San Diego Zoo. It was a lot of walking, but of course it was a great time. It was so fun to go with almost the entire family. Hopefully we all be able to do it again in the future.

So that's a quick synapsis of the past 6 weeks, or so. The good news, I do have quite a bit of new funnies to share, so enjoy:

We were at the dinner table and Carol had made a pizza that was half pepperoni-half Canadian bacon pineapple. There were two pieces left on the pan; one of each. I asked: “Who wants one of these last two pieces?” Trevin raised his hand and said “me!” I asked which one he wanted and he picked pepperoni. I then asked: “who wants the other one?” On cue, Ammon, who was apparently paying close attention, raised his little hand as high in the air as he could and just looked at me, like ok, now what? We all got a good laugh, which brought a big smile from little Ammon.

Carol was at Wal-Mart with the three younger boys and her mom. They passed by the lingerie section and it was close to a rack with several bras. Caden, who was walking hand-in-hand with grandma, pointed and said to her: “Hey, that’s what my mom uses.”

Caden and I were talking on a Monday morning about his experience in nursery the day before. It is divided into two classes (older and younger). Caden just started going a few months ago so he stays on the younger side, which is where the not-so-happy-to-be-in-nursery kids go. He was telling me that there were no boys in his class. I told him he could go to the other side and that there were boys in that one. He said, “no, they bother me.”

Then, in the same conversation, I told him that next year he would go to primary and be in the Sunbeams. He replied: “Yeah, but I can’t sit in the chair all day long.”

I was walking out of the kids room after putting them to bed and Trevin said: “Dad, I can’t wait till tomorrow.” I asked him: “Why, because you get to go to preschool?” he replied: “No, cuz they’re getting hair cuts on Biggest Loser.” Like Christmas all over again.

We saw the very end of an episode of The Amazing Race and they were in China. The tallest man in the world was there to greet the contestants. I told the kids of his status. The next night while lying in bed, Trevin says: “Tyler, that guy is the tallest guy on the earth?” Tyler replied: “Yep, I think so.” Trevin then asked: “Even taller than Bishop?” Tyler: “Yep.” Trevin then said: “Wow.”

Trevin said to Carol the other day: “I need to do your hair.” Carol asked: “What are you going to do?” He replied: “I’m going to do amazing things to your hair.” After both laughed a few seconds, Trevin then said, “Now, that’s a blogger.”

We had the missionaries over for dinner and Bailey, who has been learning about bugs at school, shared some rather interesting, but not so realistic “facts” about spiders; which she claimed she read in a book in the non-fiction section. Carol and I tried to correct her, then after everyone had put in their two cents, Trevin shook his head smiling and said in a very adult, “are you serious” kind of tone: “Wow Bailey, Wow.”

Happy Birthday Caden!

2010-04-25T22:12:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone. I tried to post a video of the kids singing a few times, but for some reason it just never worked. So it hasn't actually been as long as it seems since I tried to blog. Anyways, the baseball season is in full swing now. Tyler's team is 3-2 so far and they are improving each game. He has pitched a few times and his first time out he struck out 7 batters in 3 innings. He has hit pretty well, too, but his hardest hit ball was caught by the other team, which surprised the kid who caught it. Sometimes it just goes that way. But it was a sweet shot nonetheless.

Bailey and Trevin had their first game on Saturday and both did really well. Trevin is only 4 still, and technically you can't play coach-pitch until your 5 and 1/2, but he already throws and hits like a 7-year-old. So far, it has been fun being their coach.

Caden turned three on Friday and on Saturday his grandparents came over and we celebrated with him. He really enjoyed opening his gifts and we really enjoyed watching him. He is doing well since his surgery which was almost two weeks ago. By noon that day, he was up and around like nothing had ever happened. His snoring has improved, but he still hasn't completely kicked the snotty nose.

Ammon turned 10 months on the 20th and finally, the day before, he started to crawl. He has scooted and turned himself every-which-way to get around for several months. Now, he has finally figured out the crawl.

As for Carol and I, we are discovering that having 5 growing kids involved in several activities leaves little time for anything. Life just keeps getting busier and of course, it will only get worse the older they get. But they are what our life is all about. Well here are some funnies and a of course some pics.

Trevin was cleaning up some of his messes, including my two hats. He ran down the hall with the Cowboys hat, which he got out. I said: “Take this one, too.” He said: “Caden got it out.” I told him: “It doesn’t matter, take this one, too. You’re going down there anyways,” then I tossed him my Red Sox hat down the hall. He said: “Nice Throw.” I said “Thanks,” but as I was finishing the “s” he yelled out: “Not.”

Trevin and Tyler asked me to play hotbox, but I was busy getting some conference info online for a friend. I told them: “Not right this minute; I’m doing something.” Trevin then said: “Every time we ask you if you want to do something, you’re on the computer.” I pleaded: “Every time?” He said yep, every time. Tyler then stood up for me and said: “Not every time, Trevin. Sometimes he’s on the couch.”

Bailey and Caden were at the table eating breakfast and Bailey called out: “I need a napkin.” Caden then said to her: “That’s not how we talk Bailey. We say, ‘Please can I have a napkin?’ That’s how we talk at the table, Bailey.”

We were watching one of Tyler’s baseball games and they were doing really well. Trevin asked me who was winning, so I told him the score. I then said: “If they win you’re taking everyone out for ice cream.” He smiled his big Trevin smile and said no he wasn’t. I asked him why not and he again with the smile he replied: “Because I don’t have a license.”

We were getting the kids ready for bed and saying prayers with them. We asked Bailey to do something and an argument ensued. It had been a rough evening with her and she apparently had had enough. She got up, headed to the hall, then stopped and said: “Dad, I’ve had a horrible day of arguing with you. I’m finished!” Then she stormed off to her room as we all (including her in her room) had a good laugh.

Name That Ailment

2010-03-24T10:01:00.001-07:00

This is our Little Ammon on Monday morning. It actually started Sunday afternoon with a few little blotches here and there. What is it, you ask? Well like the title says; you try to guess it.

And this is Ammon on Tuesday morning. This just proves that he has Asian in him.

Here is how he looked on Tuesday afternoon, still able to smile through it all.
And this is him on wednesday morning. "Cover me, I'm hideous."
And this was how he looked on Saturday during our day at the park on the first day of Spring. It almost reached 70 that day and we had a picnic, played on the playground, and of course, played some baseball.

Ammon gettin' into the swing of things
Bailey unhappy about the fit of her batting gloves.
It's a hit!
Nice follow-through
See how far it flies
Tyler and Caden showin' some love...

Kids, Meet Richard Simmons

2010-03-14T22:03:00.000-07:00

I know, ‘where have I been?’ Spring is almost here and at our house, that means baseball season is in full swing, pun intended. Tyler has started Little League. Games don’t start until April sometime, but right now he practices three times a week. He is so fun to watch. Bailey and Trevin will be starting their coach-pitch league games in April as well, and I will be coaching that team. It should be a lot of fun. It is really supposed to be for ages 5 &1/2 to 7, but we talked them into letting Trevin play. He’s ready, too.

In other news, Caden has made another visit to the naturopath, and returns this week for a follow up. We really hope and pray (all the time) that it will work again, because he’s had fluid in his ears for more than three months straight. As for good news, Caden has gone to nursery the last two weeks and this last one, I left with about 45 minutes to go, and he stayed the rest of the time without any problems. That is so exciting, considering he’ll be 3 in a month. It’s about time. Little Ammon is growing like crazy still and although he doesn’t quite crawl yet, he moves around everywhere and every-which-way. And, he has finally started to willingly eat baby food. Yeah!

One other note, Tyler was supposed to give a talk in primary on Sunday, but he was sick all day Saturday, and still not quite well on Sunday. But he had written his talk out, so Bailey stepped up and nailed it for him. She gave it flawlessly and we were so proud of her. Later that day, I went to give someone a blessing and she followed me out to the car with a note she had made while I changed into church clothes. It had a heart on it and said: “I hope you fil (feel) good.” She is so thoughtful of others. So that’s what’s up in a nutshell, and...

…now to the funny part of the story, to kick off this edition’s funnies: When I got home I told here that the person was grateful and that he and his wife and Bishop Priebe (who accompanied me for the blessing) were all very touched. Then she said to me: “Did Bishop Priebe say: ‘Bless her heart’?” Now if you know Bishop Priebe, then you’ll know that that is one of his most favorite things to say. It was quite funny.

So I was flipping through the channels and came across Richard Simmons as a guest on Dr. OZ. As I flipped to the next channel, Trevin said: “Sweet hair dude.” Carol and I chuckled then I flipped back. They took a wider shot of him and then Bailey said: “Look at his outfit!” We laughed again, and then Trevin topped it off with: “He’s not being modest.”

I had asked Trevin to do something and he didn’t do it. So a couple minutes later he asked me to fill his water bottle. I told him no. He kept pressing me, but I told him that he didn’t do what I asked, so I wasn’t going to do what he asked. He didn’t really think I was serious and he said: “Yes, you are going to fill me water bottle.” I told him no again, and then he finally realized I meant it. He responded: “Oh yeah, then I’m gonna go draw a stinky picture of you.”

Carol and the three younger boys were at her parents one afternoon and Trevin said to Ammon: “Your feet stink.” So grandma Shirts said: “His feet don’t stink. Your mom’s feet stink.” Then Carol said: “Look, Grandma’s feet are right by your head. Do they stink?” So Trevin smelled them and said: “Ooh, your feet stink!” Then Grandma asked: “What do they smell like?” Trevin replied: “Like Korea.”

If you’ve ever seen Trevin play the Wii, then you know that he never sits still. In fact, he doesn’t even stand still. He constantly jumps up and down while he plays (mostly NBA and MLB). So the other day he wanted to play the Wii and we told him no several times. He continued his pleas, then said to me: “Dad, I need to exercise…on NBA.” Gotta give him credit for trying.

We were getting ready to say prayer and the kids were not being reverent, as usual. Caden would not stop talking and he was getting upset at Tyler for trying to share the blanket he was using. Tyler wasn’t saying much of anything to him, but then Caden said: “Stop talking to me Tyler. We’re saying prayers.” Then he let a big sigh and said “Gosh.” Then after a couple minutes of us trying to compose ourselves he said to Tyler: “We’re saying prayers. And we’re not laughing.”

I was pushing Caden on the swing and he said: “Do a wiener dog.” Of course he meant an “under dog.”

I started up my truck to go to my Sunday morning meetings, but it would not move. It started and it shifted into gear, but I found out later that the emergency brake was stuck. But that morning I couldn’t understand why it wouldn’t go. Bailey, in what seemed to be all seriousness said: “Dad, maybe there’s a ghost that won’t let you go?”

I found a crumpled up note on the ground the other day which read: “Tyler needs to get fater (meaning fatter) today. From Bailey to Tyler.” I told you she is a thoughtful sister.

We were shooting baskets and Trevin did the old two-handed under-hand shot, otherwise known as a “granny-shot.” And that’s exactly what Tyler said to him: “What kind of a granny shot is that?” A couple minutes later, Trevin ran up to the hoop, stopped and just before doing it again shouted: “Neda-Shot.” For those of you who don’t know, that is his Grandma Livingston’s first name.

Our little main man, Ammon chillin' in his skivies
Are you serious?
She's Batwoman
Caden discovers that Ammon's baby food is not that bad for 3-year-olds either

I think the look on Mr. Potato Head's face says it all...

Carol got funny with her hair. Not to stereotype, but we see many, many women from Eastern European countries with their hair quite tall. Bailey's reaction was hilarious. But she was a good sport and we got this lovely picture of them both.
I'm telling you Monkey, don't mess with me, again.
Brothers rockin' the night away...

It Was Carol, Not Me. I Promise...

2010-01-31T18:35:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's true another year has passed and Tyler is now 9 (Feb 1.). It just can't be, and yet, it is. We had a good weekend. First, Tyler got signed up for Little League on Saturday morning, which was his main birthday present this year. It will be really good for him, and he will enjoy it immensely. Next up, Carol and I made our annual trip to the Portland Auto Show with my dad. It was good to go, but it seems each year it gets a little smaller and a little less exciting. Dang economy. After the auto show, we went to another auto show of sorts; Tyler's Pinewood Derby. I enjoy cars that look good, and since Tyler really doesn't want to put any effort into making his own car, I have to lead the way (although I've promised him that he has to do it all next year). So this is the design I came up with. I think it looks cool, but as for speed...Well, this year we left the speed tires at home. His car didn't win a single race (and there were a ton of them), but he didn't care. He was a good sport and had fun, as did the rest of our family.

After the racing was over we celebrated Tyler's birthday with both sets of grandparents and we all had a good time, of course.

Other than that, we just keep pluggin' along and enjoying these kids of ours (most of the time). We now have Caden in the toddler bed and Ammon in the crib and out of our room, FINALLY. He is doing pretty well at crying himself back to sleep, so we are enjoying the increase in sleep and space in our room. The kids are doing well in school, and both just recently received awards at school for their performance (as you will see below). And of course, they are still very funny, so without further delay, enjoy the funnies...

So Tyler and Bailey have both earned rewards at school (not the same as the ones pictured below) for a free kids’ meal at Applebees. Carol took them on MLK day for lunch and invited her parents. The kids wanted more after finishing, so Carol told them: “You guys aren’t going to eat your dinner.” Then Carol’s dad asked them: “Are you kids gonna eat your supper?” Trevin replied: “Supper?” Then Bailey explained: “Supper’s like dinner. Old people call it supper.”

Each night I like to call to give Carol a heads up that I’m on my way home from work. Many times Bailey answers the phone, and usually I try to trick her by disguising my voice. However, she almost always knows that it’s me. The other day, I tried again, but she was on to me right away. I made some kind of comment about it, and she said. “Dad, you can’t trick me. I know it’s you.” She then took a shot at her brother and offered: “Maybe you can trick Tyler.”

Carol told Trevin he couldn’t do something, but she can’t remember exactly what it was. Anyways, he proved her wrong and did it, and then he said: “Ah hah, I did do it. You’re not smart.” Carol then asked: “I’m not smart?” he replied: “You’re old.”

So the missionaries were giving us a spiritual thought after eating dinner with us one night and as part of the message they were telling the kids that they should always listen to their parents. Elder Deloach told them that their parents know everything there is to know. So of course the kids’ minds went into overdrive and then Bailey said very matter-of-factly: “Oh yeah, they don’t know the second time when Jesus is going to come.” No one could argue with that.

According to Tyler, how many people know you, is what makes you popular at school. So he informed us the other night that Jordan was the most popular kid in his class cuz he got hit by a baseball and had a black eye. Then he said: “I’m hovering in about fifth.”

When Carol gives the kids a bath at night, she doesn’t have them change their underwear again the next morning. Also, Tyler and Bailey always put their school clothes in the bathroom the night before a school day. Bailey had put another clean pair in the bathroom after just taking a bath and putting on a clean pair. Carol called out to her: “Bailey, you don’t need undies tomorrow.” Of course, I didn’t pass on that and said: “Well Bailey, you do need undies.” Carol corrected herself, and then Tyler joined the conversation and said from way out in left field: “Bailey, if you wear underwear, you’ll be protected from harm.”

Trevin asked me the other day: “Dad, do you like Oreo Double Stuff?” I told him I didn’t. He asked me why, and I said I didn’t know, but I just don’t like them. He then presented a very good argument and said in a pleading tone: “But Dad, they are cookies. And they have frosting.” I really couldn’t come up with a good counter-argument to that.

We have kidney beans whenever we have tacos or haystacks and Caden really likes them. The other night Carol decided to change it up and do black beans instead. She put Caden’s plate on the table in front of him and after one look he said under his breath: “What the heck? Are you kidding me?” I wonder who he learned that from???

Twins four years apart

Love that Tongue
Pull it any tighter and she'll have a face lift
Bailey reliving the good old days
Tyler "not" proudly displaying his award
Bailey earned three on the same day
Caden can really find interesting places to lay down and take a nap

Grandpa Shirts and Ammon
Grandma Shirts and Ammon
Can you take a picture of me?

Self-taken portrait
Brothers in arms
Me and my boy just chillin'

What Would He Think If He Ever Saw “Free Willy?”

2010-01-11T09:28:00.000-08:00

So a lot has happened since I wasn’t lazy. The holidays came and went just like that, but we had a great time. We went to cut down our Christmas Tree as we always do, and found a really nice one. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Eugene with my family. Only one of my siblings who live far away came, though, so it was pretty quiet really. Our kids really had a good Christmas and they always love spending time with their uncle Cory. The boys got baseball equipment and jerseys and several other baseball and football-related gifts. They were pretty happy. Bailey got a new easel as well as magnetic dry-erase board and several accessories for them, which she totally loves. Caden got a little ride-on car (Flinstone-operated) and Ammon got a Red Sox shirt. Gotta start ‘em young. After the day in Eugene, we headed back home so we could celebrate Christmas with Carol’s family on Saturday. The entire gang was present (12 adults & 24 grandkids), except Nathan who is serving a mission. The kids really loved being with their cousins, many of whom they had never met. We spent as much time with them as we could and our kids never got tired of it. It was a lot of fun. There are countless details that could be added, but instead, I’ll just get to the funnies and the photos. Enjoy...

My home teaching companion is named Richard Woods, but everyone calls him “Woody”. His wife and he sent us a Christmas card which was signed: “Marian and Woody.” I read it out loud and then said to Carol: “It’s funny; his name is Richard, but everyone calls him Woody, even his wife.” Tyler must have missed me mention his first name, though, because he asked: “What’s his real name: “Woodurin?”

Caden and I were in the car together and we were going down a street with the giant speed humps. There was a truck in front of me and I did not realize how slow it was going over the humps. As I approached one, I had to hit the brakes pretty hard, because this truck was literally going so slow it was almost parked on top of it, no exaggerating. So I said very quietly: “What the crap? Are you kidding me?” However, it wasn’t quiet enough. Caden responded from the back seat: “Yeah, I am kidding you.”

While taking Caden to the bathroom recently, he said, as I was pulling up his pants: “Can you see my willy?” Before I could I even answer, he asked: “Dad, can I see your willy?”

Caden, Trevin and I sat down to a good old game of Candy Land the other day and after Trevin drew the first card and moved his piece, he said: “Whoever gets to this one first (pointing to the final multi-color square) wins. I’m gonna win. I’m going to crush you guys.”

Then, not even two minutes later, as I was writing the previous comment down, Caden was messing up the game, which caused Trevin a little irritation. He approached me and said: “Dad, can we just give Caden away? Cuz he keeps wrecking up our game.”

I was in with the kids at bedtime, and I climbed up onto Tyler’s bed (top bunk) and said to the other three kids, “I killed Tyler, I squished him.” Tyler started to tell me about his day but Caden said something to me. I didn’t hear him, so I said “what, Caden?” Bailey answered for him and told me that he had said: “Dad, I want to see.” So I asked him: “You want to see what?” He answered: “I want to see Tyler dead.” I told him I was joking, that Tyler wasn’t dead, but he wouldn’t stop till Tyler sat up so he could see him.

I had Ammon and he unfortunately made boom-boom in his pants. Carol was giving Bailey a bath, and Ammon was next, so she didn’t want me to change his diaper. That meant I just had to hold him and wait. I headed into the bathroom and said: “Ammon, your poop stinks.” Bailey, still in the tub commented: “Dad, everyone’s poop stinks.” Before I could even reply, she said: “Well, it does.”

Tyler and Trevin got mini MLB and NFL pennants for Christmas, which are now hanging on their walls. Tyler told me that 19 teams were named after something, then proceeded to point each one out to me. I told him that they were all named after something. So he started picking out some names one by one and I kept explaining what they were named after. He got to the Tennessee Titans, and said “what’s a Titan?” I was trying to write in my journal, so I said look it up in the dictionary. He asked: “You don’t know what a Titan is?” to which I replied “do you?” He then said: “Oh come on, they’re tights.”

Jacob and Ammon
Love that tongue
Alora and Bailey
A bunch of kids

A new Red Sox fan is born
Trevin and Benjamin
Bowling buddies
Devin, Trevin and Kimberly
The "teens & tweens"
Whole lotta grandkids

Dan and Ammon
Kaitlyn, Bailey and Kiersten
Allison and Ammon

Caden couldn't handle the late nights
Rhonda and a sleepy Ammon
Mr. Potato Head

Happy boy in a basket
Pitch it right in here
A boy and his "dum dum"

Santa and the gang
Silly kids Goofy Faces

Christmas Tree cutting

Scary boy

We Were All Just "Wigging" Out

2009-12-03T22:26:00.000-08:00

Hey there; are you ready for some more funnies. I’ve got them, but first just a quick recap. We had a good Thanksgiving in Eugene and the kids were sad to go. Carol and I got up early on Black Friday (not as early as we usually do), but didn’t get anything exciting. Life roles on as usual and we’re getting ready for Christmas like everyone else. We plan to put up decorations Friday and get our tree on Saturday. Many of us are also battling colds: Carol, Trevin, Caden (plus ear infection), and Ammon are all sick. Tyler and Bailey have mild symptoms, and lucky me, I’m still healthy. Well here are the latest and greatest funnies and lots of fun photos, too…

We were in the parking lot of Toys R Us and an old guy on a Harley rode through the lot. He had a raccoon tail (don’t know if it was fake or real) attached to some part of the pack of his bike. It was really old school. Tyler saw it and asked what it was. I said: “A dead rat.” Not picking up on the joke, he asked: “Does he know it’s there?”

I don’t know about your local JC Penney’s, but in our store you have to go right through the lingerie section to get to the kids' section. It really is a bad set-up. So we were on our way out of the store and of course had to go back through there. We had just the three younger boys with us, but we still kind of rushed through. However, Caden still doesn’t keep up that well and while lagging behind apparently he noticed a couple of female mannequins dressed in their skivvies. I turned around to see how far back he was, as he pointed at one and said in his cute little 2-year-old voice: “He naked.” As I started laughing, he then said: “He wearing a, a, a pull-up.”

Carol was getting dinner ready and wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary, but Caden apparently thought so, because he blurted out: “What the heck? What are you doing, Carol?”

Caden is mostly good-natured these days, but he can be very ornery when he chooses. I got home from work one night and the first thing he told me was that Carol wouldn’t let him have any dots candy; and he was not happy about that. A couple minutes later Carol asked him if he had had an accident, because he asked her if he was wearing a pull-up. He told her “no!” I was standing next to him and here is how the rest of the conversation went with me and him. And note that his tone was grumpy and quite terse. Me: “Do you need to go potty?” C: “NO!” Me: “Are those your new jeans?” C: “NO!” Me: “I like them.” C: “NO! You don’t like them!”

We were doing our tithing settlement and Bishop Priebe told us that we love having the Livingston’s in the Oakhurst Ward. I then said to the kids: “Do we love being in the Oakhurst Ward?” The boys started to nod their heads yes, and then Bailey said: “Well I guess Birds didn’t cuz they moved out.”

Tyler is starting to get imaginative with his friends at school. He came home with this little piece of paper that he created and although he meant “business card”, he said: “Look dad, I made my own index card.”

Anyone want to hire him? Apparently he (or his friend “Stan”) can solve mysteries or just knock someone off that’s giving you problems.

We were getting ready to go to the park while we were in Eugene for Thanksgiving, and I told all the kids to go use the bathroom first. So Trevin and Tyler are racing to the bathroom and Trevin said: “Tyler, I have to go really bad.” Tyler then responded: “We can both go at the same time.” Trevin then said: “Oh yeah, I forgot; we aren’t girls.”

I told the kids to put away their laundry and Bailey saw a pair of pants on the ground, pointed to them and said: “Dad!” I told her they were Tyler’s but she wasn’t convinced, so she held them up, and I started laughing and said: “See!” But that wasn’t good enough. She said let me see and actually held them up to me. She finally realized that they really were Tyler’s. Trevin said that’s a blog, to which Bailey said: “No, that’s not a blog. I’ll put it on my blog.” So I asked her: “You have a blog?” “Yep,” she said “on my Barbie computer.”

The kids were in bed and I told them how important they were to me. Bailey replied: “I don’t think parents are important.” Tyler said to her: “Oh yeah, if you didn’t have parents, who would make you dinner?” (He went straight for the important stuff, right) She replied: “I would. I would make pizza.” Then, this is how the conversation went until I finally put a stop to it. T: “Oh yeah, how would you take it out of the oven without a heating glove?” B: “I would put four, no five, pairs of socks on.” T: “What if you didn’t have socks?” B: “I would use slippers.” So I guess Bailey is right, parents really aren’t that important. Who knew?

While we were in Eugene for Thanksgiving the kids were looking at mine and my siblings’ senior pictures on the wall. Carol asked Caden which one was me Trevin said he knew which one I was. I challenged him and he pointed to my picture, and then said: “You have ugly hair.” On the plus side, we can rest easy that Trevin will never sport a mullet.
Self-made hoodies. They call these their football helmets

My special little ones...

Looks like a good spot for a nap
This spot ain't bad either
Everyone, let's try on a wig

Me and the Caden man
Carol and her girl
Swinging with Grandpa
C-squared
Boo and Me
So cool
He just keeps rolling along..."Do you think this will be used against me later in life?"

Happy Halloween...There's An App For That!

2009-11-11T22:07:00.000-08:00

So it’s been a little longer than I planned, but here are some photos of the kids’ pumpkins and their Halloween costumes. Tyler was an iPhone (thanks to a big assist from Jerry Balch), Bailey was a witch, Trevin was a football player; and Caden was a ninja. We, I mean they, got a lot of candy and had a really good time.

Alien, Boo Smile, Skull, and Silly Face

Yes, we have iPhone envy...

He he he he...
No, we do not like John Elway. That's just how it came.
Hai-ya!
One tired out ninjaCaden is doing awesome with potty training now, and he stays dry through the night, already. Trevin still doesn’t even do that every night. He hasn’t had an accident in several days, so he has really picked it up. Our diaper bill just got a lot smaller. Yeah!!!! So here are some funnies and some photos. Enjoy…

Carol met with Tyler’s and Bailey’s teachers for conferences the last week of October, and they both are doing well. So on the way home, Tyler asked her about how the grades work with middle school. Carol explained the timeline for all of middle school, then high school. Tyler then asked what was after that? She told him college, and then he asked again, what was after that? She said the real world, and getting a job. Bailey then chimed in: “I want to work at a pizza place.” Carol asked: “Don’t you want to work somewhere better?” She responded: “No a pizza place; Suprema” (where we used to get pizza). Tyler then said in all seriousness: “Sweet! That means I get free pizza, cuz you’re my sister, right?” Bailey replied: “Yep, you, Mom, Dad…” and named everyone else.

Carol got her haircut (her once every two years tradition) and when she got home, Trevin took a good look at her and said: “You don’t look like Mommy.”

When we recently attended Tyler’s Pack Meeting for Cub Scouts, the Cub Master had several people read silly little jokes, including some “Knock-Knock” jokes. Apparently Caden enjoyed them, but that doesn’t mean he understands them. He was in bed the other night saying little knock-knock jokes to himself, when I asked him: “Who’s there?” he paused, smiled, and then said “poo-poo.” I of course said: “poo-poo who?” He paused again for a few seconds to think about it, and then said: “Halloween poo-poo.” So even though it’s a work in progress, we both got a good laugh from his attempt.

Caden went to Gospel Essentials with me on Sunday and after finishing his snack he was looking around the room and noticed this painting, which depicts Christ visiting the Nephites. He then said, pointing at one of the men in the painting (the guy who is closest to front and center) and said sort of laughing: “That guy naked.”

There is a church hymn called “Welcome, Welcome Sabbath Morning,” which begins with those words followed by: “Now we rest from every care.” Well, Bailey was singing it and she doesn’t always know the words, but says what it most sounds like to her, so with that in mind here is what she sang: “Welcome, welcome, Sabbath morning, now we rest from urgent care.”

Trevin was heading down the hall towards the bathroom and Carol was coming out of our room at the same time. It was dark, and Trevin didn’t see her. When he did realize she was there, it startled him and he said: “Ah, you scared me. I thought you were a monster.”

I was in the kids’ room getting ready to tell them a bedtime story and Bailey started one, but then stopped after being interrupted by Tyler. I told her to keep going, but she wouldn’t. So Trevin told me to tell one. I said: “I don’t know how to tell a story.” He replied: “Yes you do, you’re a dad.”

Bailey was sitting on my legs for prayer and she kept moving around. I said: “Bailey you can’t keep sitting on me. Your boney bum is hurting my legs.” Carol piped right up and said: “Dad has a boney bum, too Bailey. You get it from him.” So I said to Carol: “What kind of bum do you have?” She replied: “One that’s not boney.” So I asked again, then Bailey said: “She has a squishy bum.”

I was unwrapping a Jolly Rancher stick for Tyler, which is much bigger than a normal Jolly Rancher candy. Some of the paper stuck to it, so I said: “Oh no, some of the paper is still stuck to it.” Tyler then asked: “Can paper kill you?”

The other day Trevin said to Carol: “I like Christmas cuz the presents.” Carol then asked: “What’s Christmas really about?” Trevin tried three times each with a big “no” from Carol: “Snow? Santa? Presents?” Then Carol reminded him that it was about the birth of Jesus. He then said: “I like the birth of Jesus; that’s the fun part of Christmas.”

He's a happy boy
Our kids with Wyatt and Wesley Bird
Me and the rugrats
Three pigs in a blanket
Two boys washing grapes

Another “Bird” Leaves Our Nest

2009-11-01T23:00:00.000-08:00

You know life just isn’t always fair. During our more than 10 years in this the Oakhurst Ward we have made many friends; and some of them have become really close friends. But alas, it seems that they all move away and leave us behind. The Chuggs, the Switzers, the Holmes, the Marshalls, and now the Birds (I hope I didn’t leave anyone out). These families have all become very dear to us, and we miss them. We miss their friendship and their kids and the good times we had with them. Of course, goodbyes are a part of life, but we are always sad to see the people we love go, and time and time again it is really tough on our kids; especially Tyler. He always has had a difficult time with goodbyes, and it never seems to get easier for him, even with age.

We have enjoyed our friendship with the Birds, just like with all the rest, and we will miss them, but the lesson to be learned is crucial. Take advantage of the relationships that matter while you have them. I always tell Tyler: “Yes, it hurts when we have to say goodbye to the people we love, and that’s why it’s so important to enjoy the moments with them when we have them.” But unfortunately that doesn’t provide him much comfort in those moments of painful goodbyes. We will see the Birds again, and even in just a couple of months, but still they are gone like all the others I have named, and that hurts. However, the good memories and experiences outweigh the hurt. And that is why we just have to keep putting our hearts out on the line, even though the inevitable pains will occur; because the rewards are worth it when we form these kinds of relationships.

So, so long Bird family. We will meet again, and we will not forgot the good times and the laughs, the blessings exchanged and the spiritual experiences we have shared. They are to be added to that proverbial book of life we are writing every day. You will be missed, but you will remain in our thoughts and prayers and our memories.

What Do Your Kids Draw?

2009-10-26T13:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-10-02T13:50:00.000-07:00

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.

Who Knew Snot Could Be So Much Fun?

2009-09-13T16:32:00.000-07:00

Man, I’m horrible about updating more often. It sure would make them easier to post and read if I was more diligent. Oh well. So let’s see what has happened since we last blogged? We went to my Grandma’s funeral which was a very nice service. She looked really good and was buried with her purse. And, of course, that purse contained lipstick and tissue, two essentials of my Grandma McClellan. It was very fitting. We had a good time together with family and wished we could stay longer. Caden did get croup and we spent the morning of the funeral in ER, but all-in-all he did OK. If you’re a Livingston, this should really interest you. My uncle Dick’s cabin was just about 5 minutes away from the old LDS Catherine Creek Lodge (the site of our annual Livingston family reunion), so we decided to pay a visit; and boy things are different there. We got some good video of it as well as some still shots of the kids, but Carol didn’t think about taking any stills of the changes. They have added electricity to the place, and they are building another structure there, which will be one big bathroom and shower facility. That will be nice. They had a huge 160,000 gallon tank for water, I guess, which will be buried somewhere nearby. The basketball court was ripped out, because that is where the new bathroom building is going to be. The field was all torn up, too so they can lay all the cables and pipes. Quite different than what we have been used, to. Hopefully, we will have another reunion there so we can see all the finished changes.

The next weekend we headed to Eugene for Claire’s baby blessing (she belongs to my sister Leslie and her husband Eric). We had a good time there, too. Also, on the way down we met up with my dad at Wilsonville Honda, where we finally got a van. It is a 2005 Honda Odyssey. It is silver, not one of my top color choices, because Honda's Odyssey silver has a brown tint to it, but it will do (sorry Bird’s, no offense since you have the same color, I just really wanted charcoal gray). We got it back to our house and gave it a thorough cleaning and washing. It looks pretty new, now, so that is nice and it has everything we wanted (leather, DVD and only 48,000 miles). My dad helped us get a good deal on it, too.

We did take Caden to the naturopath again, and his ears were good, but his system was a little backed-up. He got a treatment and is doing better, but we will probably take him one more time. Plus, we are altering his diet once again to help with the skin irritation he has. Ammon is growing like crazy and was 13 lbs 12 oz at two months. He is a good baby and sleeps pretty well at night. In fact, last night he slept through the entire night. Too bad Caden was on our floor having his nightly fights. Oh well, such is life. I’m sure I could add many other happenings, but who wants to bother with those when the funnies are waiting. So here you go, plus we’ve got new pics, too...

As I’ve mentioned before, I do “Day out with Dad” with the kids whenever the occasion permits itself. So on a couple of recent Friday’s I went to the park with Bailey and Caden, then later, to a diamond to play baseball with Tyler and Trevin. So on the night of the second Friday I was writing in my journal in the kids’ room and I asked Bailey: “What do you want to do next time for Day out with Dad?” She quickly replied: “Go to the Dollar Store.” I said something like: “Oh Bailey, you love going to the dollar store.” She concurred, and then I added: “But going to the Dollar Store isn’t really doing anything with me.” She said: “Yeah it is, because we would go together.” I said, yeah, but you’re just going to spend money, not to spend time with me.” She said: “Yeah, but I like to buy stuff, and you could buy something, too.” I told her: “I don’t want to waste my money on junk from the Dollar store.” She then replied: “Yeah, but you could just get a sweet dude necklace.”

We were gone all day on Saturday, August 23; at baseball games, a team picnic, and then Carol’s Family Reunion. It was getting later in the afternoon and I asked the boys if they were ready to go. We were playing baseball, though, so of course the reply was no. however, Bailey must have been feeling tired, too, because she responded: “I am. I can’t even remember what our house looks like.”

The other day Caden stripped down to his diaper while we were reading scriptures, which he never does (in fact this could have been the first time). He came back out to the living room and started pulling his diaper down. We told him he better not. He smiled a wry smile and continued tugging on it. I asked him if he wanted to sit on the potty, and he said no. I said: “Then you have to wear a diaper.” He again said no. So I said: “Which do you want sit on the potty OR wear a diaper?” He replied: “Orrrr, no!”

Don’t ever let Tyler watch the Shopping Network and give him access to a credit card. We were watching TV and an ad for the latest and greatest Oreck vacuum cleaner was on. The ads are a little longer than normal ads, and after a couple minutes Tyler says: “That is so awesome.” Then a few seconds later he says: “We should have one of those. That is the best vacuum thing I’ve ever seen.”

Tyler and Trevin were in the bathtub and Carol and I were both dealing with Caden and Ammon and several other things, so we weren’t there to help Trevin. I called from the hallway and said to Trevin: “Trevin, wash your hair!” He yelled back: “I can’t get the shampoo.” I then said: “What about Shamoo?” (a famous performing killer whale for those who might not know), and he replied: “Well, I can’t get that either.”

I was eating my lunch and Caden came over and asked: “Can I watch you?” And for him that means he climbs up on the table and sits himself down right next to your food, which he proceeded to do. After a couple minutes he says to me: “Can I have chip, real quick?”

Carol was just getting started to cut a honeydew melon and Caden was in the kitchen. He asked, “Can I have a little bite of honeydew?” Carol told him: “It’s not ready yet. I still have to cut it.” He replied kind of “ah shucks” kind of way: “Dang it.” Carol said: “Dang it? Who says that?” He said: “I do.”

We took a trip to Eugene recently and stayed a little longer than we planned or packed for, so Tyler ran out of clean underwear. We always pack extra for Trevin, though, cuz you never know with a 4-year-old when an accident might happen. So anyways, Tyler had to wear a pair of Trevin’s (which actually fit him cuz he’s so skinny). The next evening, as we were back home and I was folding laundry, I grabbed the pair Tyler had worn and Trevin saw me and said to Tyler: “Ha ha, you wore my undies.”

I was saying goodnight to Bailey one night and told her that she had drawn some nice pictures earlier in the day. I said: “You’re a good drawer.” She replied: “Yeah, I think Mrs. Majewski (her teacher) is better than me, because she can draw people that really look like people.” I said: “yeah, but she has a lot more practice than you.” Bailey smiled and said: “Yeah, I’m only six and she’s like 17 or something.” Now enjoy the pics...

You might think that's funny, but it's snot

That's what I call a bubble-boy
Three new cousins Webbles wobble, but they don't fall down
These ladies are really cramping my style

Proud papas
First day of school
Trevin takin' his kids to the bus stop
Where are they taking me?
Happy Caden
Mom and mini-mom

I'm a very happy boy

Goodbye Grandma McClellan...And Farewell To Union

2009-08-23T22:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I suppose it's worth a little time to update those who read my recent blog about my Grandma, and might be wondering how she's doing. She passed away on Saturday, August 22nd at the age of 95. She went peacefully and relatively quick. Of course, we all expected it at any moment and the Hospice nurse pretty much had narrowed it down to the last few minutes. So it was no surprise and in my opinion, I think that makes it a little easier. Although, I would say death is never easy for those who are left behind. I have a lot of memories of all my grandparents, even though both of my grandpas went when I was relatively young. It's interesting, too, because I don't have any bad memories of them.

Oh, I'm sure I pushed their buttons the wrong way on many occasions, yet I don't remember any bad moments with any of them. That must be the sign of a good grandparent. The thing I think remember most about my Grandma McClellan was that I could joke around with her about anything; and I mean anything. As she got older, she became a grouchy old lady more and more, but I could always make her laugh. And she did a good job of making us laugh, too. I'll miss that.

Anyways, her funeral will be this coming Saturday, and we will be in attendance, of course. She will be buried next to my grandpa in Union Oregon, where all four of my grandparents' mortal bodies will rest till the Resurrection. For me this will be a farewell in more ways than one. That's because it will more than likely be the last trip I will make to the tiny town of Union, Oregon. Now that I no longer have family there, I don't foresee another trip there in the future. Of course, I could be wrong, but realistically, this is probably it.

Union has a lot of special memories for me, because it always meant visits to both of my grandparents' houses, plus that is where we got to know and love our cousins. And of course it was the home of the annual Livingston Family Reunion for more than 30 years. It will be sad to say goodbye. I think I could write volumes on my memories of trips to Union. There have been so many to that little town of around 2000-2500 people that there are too many to even start writing them down. But looking back, those trips and things that happened in that town really helped shape my childhood.

So when we pull out of there next weekend, I will kind of be saying goodbye to an old friend and to a piece of my childhood. I will still have the memories, though, and that is really what life's experiences - and life itself - are all about. We live them, we enjoy them (or not), and then we move on to what life brings next. However, we learn from them by remembering them. And in the end, life is really just a big book of memories. Whether or not that book is good reading or not, is really up to us. So this weekend it will be time to write another chapter in that book of memories as our family reunites in Union, Oregon. There will be tears and there will be laughs. And of course, as my Grandma's mortal book ends, we will all be adding another cherished chapter to our ongoing stories. As for my book, I know this weekend will make for some good reading down the road. Goodbye Grandma, and thank you for leaving me some good chapters.

It's Time To Laugh Again

2009-08-18T12:03:00.000-07:00

We have been busy, as usual. The baseball season is now almost over (just one game to go for each of them this Saturday) and both Tyler and Bailey have done very well.

Tyler Behind The Plate

Bailey Goes Deep

Bailey Behind The Mask

It is fun to watch them each week. It is also very fun to watch Trevin and Caden waiting in the wings. Trevin is so ready to play, and he will next year.

The kids are having a good summer but it is passing very quickly, and now almost over. Tyler will be a third grader and Bailey a first grader. How is that possible? So the big news in our family is that Carol is………now the Gospel Doctrine teacher in our ward (some of you thought I was going to say pregnant again, didn’t you?). She is humbled by the call, but I know she will do great. Plus, it will be a good break for her from the kids at church, as I will have to handle both Caden and Ammon during that hour. I’m excited for her, which is good, because at least one of us needs to be.

We took a little three-day vacation a couple weeks ago, to Eugene and mainly to Florence to play at the coast with my parents and my oldest brother Scott and his family. We did a little sandboarding, swimming, canoeing, marshmallow roasting, and of course baseball (when we got back to Eugene). We also had two unexpected “near-drowning” incidents. First, Caleb, who is almost 8, fell off the dock into the lake we were staying near. He probably would have been Ok, cuz he knows how to swim, but I yanked him out of the water as he struggled to get himself oriented. The next day, Trevin ran down the dune and straight into another lake we visited, and I guess Tyler pulled him up. We were not even there to see it. My Dad was close by, but thank goodness Tyler was, too. That’s the third time now that Trevin has had that kind of experience. You think he would learn by now. Anyways, the kids had a great time with their cousins and were sad to say goodbye.

The garden is producing cukes like crazy, and soon all of our green tomatoes will be turning red.

We have several ears of corn, but so far none of them have been bursting with yummy corn goodness. The kids love the garden, though, so overall it has been a success and totally worth doing.

We did Ammon’s baby blessing a week ago and it went well, I guess. It’s not something I really enjoy doing in front of the entire congregation, and would prefer it to be a much more intimate thing.

Almost all other blessings are, so I don’t know why baby blessings aren’t, but oh well. Ammon is growing like crazy. He has his two-month check-up this Thursday and I’m guessing he will already weigh about 15 pounds.

Caden seems to have reverted to is old ways of being grouchy, fussy, and generally unhappy, most of the time. It also appears that many of the same symptoms are showing up that were around before he started seeing the naturopath last year. So, we have decided to take him back and see if the Doctor can help again. Everyone keep your fingers crossed for Caden.

Well, it’s been a long time coming for these, and I know many of you have been waiting for more. So without further delay, here is the latest batch of funnies (sorry in advance to those of you who don’t like potty humor):

We were at the table for dinner and Ammon was close by in his bassinette. He kind of stirred, and then let out a huge blast. We all started laughing, then I said: “Whoa, was that you Bailey?” because, of course, we are used to Bailey providing the “musical” entertainment for our dining experience. She quickly denied responsibility. Then, Trevin said to Bailey, with a wry smile and tone to his voice: “That was you.”

The other day Trevin asked Carol: “Do you still have a baby in your tummy?” She, of course, replied: “No.” Trevin then asked: “Where did it go?” Carol pointed at Ammon and said: “It’s Ammon, right over there.” Trevin responded: “Oh, I’m gonna go see him.”

Tyler recently went to Cub Scout Camp, and each day they would meet up and then carpool over to the site. It was in Portland, across the river, so Carol was asking Tyler if he knew where it was and if he knew how to get there. He said: “Yeah,” then he started trying to tell her how to get there. His directions were, well, lacking quite a bit of info. He did mention that you go till you get to this really tall house. He said “if you see that house it’s so tall that if you go to the top balcony, you would be like two feet away from the sky.” So Carol questioned him: “Two feet away from the sky?” He responded, “yes.” Again, Carol asked him: “Two feet?” He said: “OK, not really two feet.” As I was writing this down, I was questioning him and Carol on the details. He said in all seriousness: “Actually, if you go to the roof, then you would be two feet away from the sky.” He still needs some work on his measuring skills.

Carol was in the bathroom cleaning Trevin up and said, “I’m tired of wiping your bum. When are you going to start wiping your own bum?” Trevin replied: “Umm, I wipe by bum when I 19. First day of my mission, I wipe my bum.” A couple days later, the same scenario occurred and Carol asked him the same question. Trevin replied, emphatically: “I told you; when I 19.”

President Nashif was over to home teach us and he asked Bailey if she had been baptized yet (of course he already knew the answer.) She responded, then he kept asking her questions as to why not? She finally got to the crux of it and said: “Because you have to be eight.” Then Tyler chimed in (and he wasn’t kidding), and said to President Nashif: “You’re a lot older than me. You should know that by now.”

I was changing Caden’s diaper and it was extremely wet. I said “that is one soaked diaper, buddy. Holy Cow! Holy Cow!” As I was saying it I would move my face in closer to him. He said: “Don’t say cow!” I asked: “Don’t say cow?” He then replied: “Don’t say holy!”

We were getting ready to read scriptures and Carol and I were on the love seat. Both Trevin and Tyler wanted to push their way onto it as well. I said: “No, this couch is made for two. It’s a two-seater.” I then told them that it’s called a love seat. After I said it, I thought, so how am I going to explain this one? Of course they asked: “What’s that mean?” Then Bailey cleared it all up, and said: “That means the couch loves you.”

So around here Carol changes almost all the diapers. Caden (and Trevin before him) does not want me to do it. When I lay him down and get ready to, he complains and says: “I want mommy do it.” So the other day I pick him up and he is messy, so I ask him: “Who’s gonna change your diaper?” fully expecting him to say, “mommy.” But he says, “Ummm, Tyler.” I started laughing, but Tyler, who was in the room, quickly said: “No I’m not.” The next day, Caden was ripe again and after a discussion between me and Carol, she asked him: “Caden, do you want daddy to change your diaper?” He replied: “No.” So she said: “Who’s gonna change your diaper?” He replied: “Uhhh, Ammon.”

Bailey asked one Monday night: “So are we ready for Family Home Evening?” Carol said as soon as Dad’s done, but Tyler butted in and said: “No. I’m still looking for a scripture.” Carol, who had asked him earlier and received a positive response, then said: “I thought you already had one?” Tyler replied: “Apparently, I didn’t. I was mistaked.”

So Trevin had an accident as he was getting ready to sit up on the toilet. Thus it was aimed all over the floor and the bathroom mats. I went in to assess the damage and he says: “I had a little accident.” I replied: “Yes, you did.” Then I as I stood there, looking at the puddles and soaked floor mat; while silently contemplating the fun time in which I was about to partake, Trevin, trying to look on the bright side, said: “I only got a little bit on my underwear.”

Tyler and Trevin have to do certain things each day before they play the Wii. For Tyler, one of them is to practice the piano for 15 minutes. Trevin has to be read to for at least 20 minutes. So the other day Trevin had his reading done, but Tyler still hadn’t done his piano practice. We also have to do family scripture reading before they play. We were about to do that, but Tyler wanted to do piano first, because he said: “If we read scriptures first, then Trevin will be able to play the Wii and I won’t.” Then Carol said, “Then you’ll just have to concentrate on the piano and get it done.” Tyler responded very sternly: “Yeah, but how am I supposed to do that?”

Grandma Shirts came down one night to visit. She arrived at about 7:30 and Grandpa was not with her. Usually he comes, so the kids asked: “Where’s Grandpa?” Grandma said: “Grandpa’s in bed.” One of them then asked: “Why is grandpa in bed already?” Bailey replied: “Because he’s an old man.”

Now enjoy some of the latest and greatest photos of this summer...

Fun With The Birds On A Hot Summer Day
What Shade Is That?

Jay-Bird Giving Tyler a Bird Bath
Let Me Get That For You
Dinner With Hayden and Claire
Take us To Your Leader
Cool In The Shade

Mini-Mom in Action

Not a Halloween Mask

Best Mates

Ammon Giving It His Best Shot

I Must Be In The Front Row
Enter Your Own Funny Caption Here
Here, We Wear 'em High

Rope Swing

Good Night, Bailey...I Love You

2009-08-16T23:02:00.000-07:00

I had a very tender moment with Bailey tonight and I think I should share. I was sitting in the kids' room writing in my journal, as I do each night when I'm home with them. Because of the way the lighting is set up, I sit on the floor leaned up against Bailey's bed. I was writing away, then suddenly stopped, looked up at her on her bed and gently caressed her hand. She laid there and smiled. I smiled back and then rubbed her cheek and told her I loved her. I could tell she was getting a little emotional, so I just smiled and sat back down. She gathered herself, while I exchanged some jokes with Tyler, then I finished writing.

Before I left, I sat on Bailey's bed, gave her a big hug and told her I loved her, again. She gave me a big kiss, then I left to put my journal away. I got half way down the hall and heard the sniffles. I grabbed some tissue, then headed back into their room. I handed her the tissue, and said: "You're not sad are you?" She shook her head no, then said through her tears: "When you said, 'I love you,' it just made me so happy."

Now, I have told Bailey that I love her every day at least a couple times a day, for her entire life, but even a six-year-old can sense the difference of that phrase being said, and being said with feeling. My eyes got a little wet, too, I must admit. I then rubbed her back till she fell asleep. It was quite tender, and another reminder that I should never underestimate my children's need of my love and affection. Just thought I would share...

A Visit With Grandma…And A Pause To Reflect

2009-08-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

We had the opportunity to go and see my Grandma McClellan in the nursing home where she has been a resident for a couple years. She is 95 now and this past week she started to bleed for no apparent reason. She went to the hospital and they could not figure out why, or how to make it stop. She received a blessing from my brother and Dad and it did stop…for now. However, the Doctor said that it will probably happen again, and they will not be able to stop it. Basically, she will go to sleep and bleed till she passes away. It is a peaceful way to go, according to what the doctors told my mom. So, being that we were in Eugene, and realizing that this quite likely would be the last time I would see my Grandma McClellan alive on this earth, we decided we needed to go and see her.

It was not easy, because it is very depressing to see her, or anyone else, in that condition. I have visited her several times before and it always makes me sad. But nursing homes also serve as an important reminder for many things in life, at least for me. When we arrived, she was sound asleep. After some effort, we got her to wake up and talk. However, she could not figure out who I was. I kept repeating my name, but she could not come up with it. She is blind in one eye, and the other barely works. She is also close to deaf, so communication is not easy, but her mind is still OK. It just takes a little bit to get going.

After a while, she recognized Carol. Bailey, Trevin and Caden each apprehensively said hi and smiled at her. She was happy to see them. Tyler would not leave the door jam and even enter the room all the way. He stood there and cried, refusing to look at her. Everyone shed tears as we looked at her and continued trying to explain who I was. I gave up and just decided to tell her how I felt. I sat down on her bed, put my arm on her shoulder and said: “Grandma, I love you.” I told her we thought of her and we prayed for her. I kissed her on the cheek (her skin surprisingly very soft) and hugged her, the best I could in that position. She smiled at me and said thank you. We all shed more tears and then, when we were just about to go, she asked Carol: “Where’s Kent?” Then she looked at me and said: “Are you Kent?” I told her yes, and then she said: “Now I recognize you. It just takes me a while. Sorry I’m so dumb today.” Carol asked if we could do anything, and she said she was cold, so I put two more blankets on her. She told me thank you, again. She said: “No one ever covers me up around here.” Again, we told her we loved her and she thanked us for visiting. We said goodbye and departed. She popped her head up one more time to see if we were still there, then laid it down again to sleep.

I don’t know if that will be the last time I see her in this life, but I know I’m glad we stopped. Things have never been easy for my Grandma McClellan, or my Grandpa when he was alive, but I know she loved her family. Oh sure, she complained about a lot of things, but we grandkids still liked her. She always enjoyed our attention, and we always loved to tease her. She enjoyed it, though; like I said she liked the attention.

As we drove away, I told Carol: “It’s funny, death. Many people are taken from this earth much sooner than we think is right and then we wonder: ‘Why did Heavenly Father call that person home?’ And then there are others that live so long, that we wonder, ‘Why does Heavenly Father want them here still?’ We just have to trust him and his infinite wisdom.” The whole situation was tough, but it was also very sweet. I do find it sad that my Grandma is there, just waiting to die, but it’s a teaching moment for me. It makes me think that I need to appreciate what I have more. I need to love my kids more and spend even more time with them. I need to love Carol more and treat her with love and kindness all the time. It reminds me that my parents and Carol’s parents are also getting older and I need to show more love and appreciation for them. I need to love my siblings more and let them know it more. I also need to love my Savior more and trust him more and appreciate every blessing my Heavenly Father has given me. Death will come to each of us, when the Lord decides it’s time. This visit with my Grandma has helped me realize, yet again, that I need to take advantage of every opportunity in this life, while I’m still living it. So thanks again Grandma for the good memories. My prayers are still with you. If I don’t see you again in this life, I plan to see you again in the life to come.

Now That's Not What I Expected To See!

2009-07-12T23:02:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, where does time go? It’s been just over three weeks since Ammon was born, and I haven’t updated the blog since. A lot has happened over these past three weeks, so here we go, time to catch up. We had a fun Fourth of July weekend. On Friday, the kids and I slept in the tent in the back yard.

On Saturday, we wad a BBQ at Carol’s parents with them, and her Brother Chul and his two teenage boys who are still at home. The kids enjoyed playing with their older cousins and I think they (Brian and David) liked playing with their younger cousins, too. Caden really liked the fireworks, and when he held the sparklers, he just laughed like he was an evil scientist or something. It was pretty funny. Later that night, we went down the street to some neighbors from our ward, the Collins and Bird’s, and watched them put on a huge fireworks display, as well as everyone else within a several mile radius. It was really good.

This past week, those same neighbors, the Collins, graciously invited us to come down and pick raspberries from their bushes. Carol and the kids love the little red devils, so we all went over after a trip to the park, and picked an entire flat. Too bad I don’t like them. But I still helped, anyways. So after a while the adults got to talking, and the kids, as kids do, kind of got bored, so they decided to start entertaining themselves. The sprinklers were on, and by the time we left, the three older ones were drenched. I walked home with them, and when we got here, I stripped them down to their underwear and sent them inside to get dried off and changed. I grabbed Caden and set him on the bathroom counter to wash his feet, because they were filthy. Carol was feeding Ammon, and I was trying to do several other things at once. I left the bathroom and when I returned a couple minutes later, this is what I found.

He had underwear on when I sent him in there, but I guess he felt like right then was as good a time as any to try his hand at being a nudist. It was quite a funny site to see him washing his and his brother’s feet, and the sink was completely full of bubbles. Caden just sat there and let him scrub. There was actually a funnier picture than this one, but it wasn’t quite as discreet, so I had to go with this one for Trevin’s sake. Ahh, good times.

The next day, the Tyler and Bailey started their baseball seasons. Bailey is doing coach pitch and Tyler is doing machine pitch. Their games happened to be at the exact same time the first week, so Carol and I, as well as my parents, went back and forth between both games trying to see all the “action.” They both played well and Tyler’s team looks like they are a pretty good team. Bailey’s level is still just a learning level, but Tyler’s will become somewhat competitive after the first three games. It should be a fun season. After their games, we headed to the Collins again. They invited our kids over for a party with their grandkids, the Birds. It was so nice of them to just throw a party and invite us. All the kids had a great time, and I think I speak for all the adults when I say we all had a good time, too. We missed Daniel though, who is off in Utah trying out for the BYU football team, or something (just joking for those gullible, or unknowledgeable readers out there). Anyways, it was a lot of fun and just another example of how the Lord has blessed our family; and more particularly, blessed us because of our kids. Well that’s a brief recap of the past three weeks. Here are a few funnies, but not as many as usual. But after the funnies I’ve added a bunch of photos of the past three weeks as well. So enjoy the pics.

Bailey has always had her weather patterns a little mixed up. When she was three or four, it was January and it had actually snowed a little bit that particular day, but she was running around the house in her bathing suit. More recently, she has been in pants and a long sleeve shirt on 75-80 degree days. So the other day she had a little jacket on and I said, Bailey what are you wearing that for? She said “it’s cold.” I said “No it’s not. Who said it was cold?” She replied: “The weather.”

I think we’re about to have a new blog star on the way, as Caden is getting more funny all the time. He is so talkative and says many things you would never expect from a 2-year-old. The other day he was on the potty, as I am trying to get him trained, quite unsuccessfully, I must add. Anyways, I was using the old “are you a baby or a big boy” line with him, and he said no. I re-explained myself, asking “you’re not a baby?” He said no. I then asked “are you a big boy?” he answered: “I guy.” I said “you’re a guy?” “Yeah,” came the response. So I tried again with my line of questioning, but before I got to the second part, he interrupted me, and said in a tone of --Dad, did you not hear me the first time--: “I just guy.”

We were on our way home from church, and out of nowhere Caden says laughing: “Bailey is pee pee.” Carol said: “Caden, that’s not nice.” He then said in a somewhat repentant voice: “Bailey not pee pee.”

So we were reading in 2 Nephi, the Isaiah chapters, 15:4 to be exact, which says: “What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes it brought forth wild grapes.” Bailey burst out: “Wild Grapes?!!!! Grapes can’t run around and go wild and crazy.”

As the fireworks were going off on July third, the kids were kind of getting both scared and excited at the same time. They kept asking each other: “Did you see that one?” or “did you hear that one?” Bailey asked Tyler again, and he said: “No, I turned them off.” Carol asked: “You turned what off?” He replied: “My ears.”
Ammon was in his bassinette and doing one of the things babies do best; crying. Bailey, apparently not enjoying his singing, declared: “We didn’t ask for this. Why couldn’t we just have a girl?”

Let's Party!

All Partied Out!

Really wanting to be a part of the action

Somebody said something funny, or was that just gas?
Ahh, that's the life...

Which one is real and which one is a doll?

The two baseball junkies watching "highlights"

Sparkler Time!

Mmm, Good Stuff.

Ammon and Aunt Sue
Me and the boys
Tent time!

Just one cute kid posing for the camera...

They are their brother's keeper...

Big sister doing her motherly thing. What a gift!

Five beautiful kids, and I'm so blessed that they are mine.

What's In A Name?

2009-06-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

Well, this might seem a little strange to some of you, or maybe all of you, but it is what is. The naming of our new baby boy has brought much angst for me. It has been bothering me at every turn, and especially in every prayer I offer. I do not know all the reasons why now (although I have some good ideas -- I expect he will be a great missionary throughout his life), but the Lord has a personal vested interest in the naming of this child. Of course, there is certainly scriptural precedence of the Lord having a say in people's names. And, although we call these special spirits "our children," indeed they were, and are, his children first. We are just their caretakers here on the earth.

Personally, I love the name Maddox Ammon, and I really do not want to change it. The rest of the family liked it, too. Even the kids have finally got it down, and they didn't want a change. Also, the legal aspects will probably be a pain, too, since the paperwork has already been submitted as Maddox Ammon. But the Lord has made it clear by the whisperings of the spirit that this son of his needs to go by Ammon. So, he will. If the legal process is too expensive or difficult, then he will remain Maddox Ammon, and go by his middle name. However, as one who has had to live with going by his middle name all his life (and it is a big pain), we will do all we can to legally change it to Ammon Maddox. But if we do ever have another boy, as of now, I would plan on using Maddox as the first name for that kid. That's how much I like it. Anyways, sorry to anyone who has already begun sewing a "cute" little sweater with the name Maddox on it, but again, the Lord has made it significantly clear that he wants the name of this child to be Ammon. And I know from experience that when we align our will with the Lord's, we can't go wrong.

Introducing Maddox Ammon Livingston

2009-06-22T16:22:00.000-07:00

So what has happened lately? Oh yeah, the new kid. I guess the blog needs to be changed now, since it’s five instead of four, but oh well. Anyways, his name was a last-minute entry and squeezed out the other contenders just a few hours before he left the hospital. I found it on a baby name web site late last night after the kids went to sleep. I told Carol this morning and she liked it, so that’s what it ended up being. Now, let me get to all the details.
Some of you have heard some of them (or all of these, maybe), but many have not, so here is the whole story. It started Friday evening the 19th. We did our family baby pool. The days were June 20 – July 4 (due date was July 1). The last two dates available were 20 and 21. I had the last pick so I went ahead and put my name down on 20 figuring Carol would want the 21st. She said, “that’s OK, I’ll take the 20th. I said: “I can just see it, you’ll have the baby tomorrow, just so you can win.” So at 4:00 am on Saturday the 20th Carol woke up with a strong contraction. Again, at about 5:15, another one woke her up. I was planning to go to the temple that morning with Daniel Bird. She assured me that she was Ok, and that she didn’t really think it was anything. So off we went at 6:45 to make the 7:30 session. I called when we got out and she sounded fine. So everything was fine, I thought. No baby today.

We got home at 10:15 and the Bird’s two young boys were at our house, and we find Carol on the chair in the fetal position in the middle of a contraction. Trevin had a sports class at 11:00, and Carol again assured me that we should go and she would be fine. But by 10 to 11:00 she is having the contractions fast and furious. So we load the kids up and take them to the Bird’s at 11:15. I told Daniel: “About two hours.” He said: “Right, yeah whatever.” I said: “Seriously, we’ll have a baby in about two hours.” So we get to the hospital at 11:30 and 20 minutes later, when they finally check her, she was completely effaced and the nurse accidentally broke her water while she was checking for her cervix. They got her to the room and then things stopped for a little while. But this is Carol, so it didn’t take too long.
He was born at 12:58 PM on June 20th (so Carol won the pool). She did have to push for 28 minutes, which was about 23 longer than normal. He was face up, so it took him longer to get through the birth canal. He came out looking really good, though, and looks a lot like his brother Trevin.
Funny side story to that; when we had Caden, Bailey was the only one who wanted a boy and she got one that looked just like her. This time, Trevin was the only one who wanted a boy and he got one that looks just like him. But he still won’t hold him.

Tyler and Bailey were disappointed to hear it was another boy, but they got over it. And everyone but Trevin has been excited to hold him and touch him and look at him.

Trevin will take a little more time. Caden, on the other hand, just loves the new addition. When we got home, today (Monday) he got his blanket, which he is quite attached to, now, and ran to the car seat, saying: “blanky for baby.”

It has been a busy couple of days for me, but I’ve managed to keep my head above water. However, Saturday night was entertaining (or will be for those of you who are about to read about it). I made a big mistake when I put the kids down to bed. They were all bawling cuz they missed their mom. Bailey kept saying: “It seems really strange with just you here, dad.” So after baths and everything else, they got to bed at 10:45. I had a lot of other things to catch up on after they fell asleep, so I was up till 12:45. Then, at about 2:45 Trevin comes in to my room crying. I picked him up to comfort him, but felt that he was extremely wet. At that moment, the Motherly instinct was out the window, and my fatherly instinct immediately kicked in as I set him back down on the ground as fast I could. I got him into their bathroom and discovered that I had forgotten to put a diaper on him (he still wears them over night). He was soaked from chest to toe, so at 3:00 o’clock in the morning I gave him another bath, by the light of a flashlight. I got him into my bed, and then went to take apart his bedding and find him some dry clothes, in the dark. I don’t know what time it was when I went back to sleep, but at 6:00 Caden cried out. I ran into their room and he yells: “I wet!” And he sure was. I hadn’t forgotten his diaper, but he peed right through it and his bed was soaked, too. I changed him, then pushed Trevin over and laid Caden in my bed, too. At one point I woke up and Trevin was laying on top of Caden, and both were still sound asleep. I pushed him off, then I went back to sleep again.

At about 9:00 in the morning, Caden was still asleep and Trevin came out. We were going to go change his clothes and I noticed he felt wet again. I asked him if he peed again. Sure enough, he peed right through the diaper and got his clothes wet and our bed wet, too. I said: “Man, you’re a peeing machine.” I told him he had made our bed wet, too, and Caden was still sleeping in our bed. He said, with a big smile: “Ha ha, Caden sleeping in a pee pee bed.” Oh, that boy, never misses a chance to add another “funny” to the blog. Well, that’s our birth story for number five. Mom and Maddox are both doing well. Thank you everyone who helped us out one way or another throughout these past couple of days. We appreciate all of you and all that you did. Now, enjoy some more funnies…

The kids have certain things they have to do each day before they get certain privileges. So Trevin was talking about playing the Wii. Bailey was still at the piano unfinished with daily 15 minutes of practice. She responded to him, and said: “I don’t care about the Wii. I like playing school and drawing and things like that. I like doing girly things, not boyly things!”

Bailey was having toast with butter one morning and Trevin asked: “Are you having jam?” She replied: “Nope, I’m just having grease.”

A couple more from Bailey, recently: She was practicing the piano and the song was just on a single piece of paper. The ceiling fan was on and the paper kept getting blown to the ground. I told her to put it behind her books, but she said she needed to look at it cuz that was the song she was practicing. She complained about the fan, so I said: “Then just turn the fan off.” Her reply: “I never would have thought of that.” The very next morning I came out from my room all dressed and ready for the day (instead of in my lounge-around-the-house-all-morning-shorts), and she asked: “Dad, did you already take a shower?” I said, “Yep, last night when I got home from work.” She replied: “I just don’t think I can believe that.”

Grandma Shirts watched the kids one night while I was at work and Carol was at enrichment. They were racing around our “track” inside our living room and kitchen and if they took a short cut and skipped the kitchen, grandma said they got disqualified. So the next day Trevin was explaining the game to me and said: “If we took a short cut we got crucified. Bailey got crucified twice, and I didn’t get crucified.” I was thinking “what kind of game was Grandma playing, anyways?” I asked Bailey and she cleared it up for me.

Carol and Bailey were out together and they saw a Ford Expedition stretch limo. Bailey said, “Wow, look at that huge car!” Carol said: “That’s called a limousine.” Bailey said: “That’s the biggest car I’ve ever seen in the world. That must mean they have a lot of kids.”

So we’re trying to get Caden interested in potty-training and we broke out the training underwear. Some the pairs have big trucks on them, so I was showing them to him and trying to get him excited about it. I called Trevin into the room to show Caden that he wears underwear and not a diaper. I told him that Trevin wears underwear and not a diaper. Trevin then said to Caden: “I don’t pee in my underwear.” Caden then said, while rolling his head back: “Ohhhh” (kind like Ohhh, now I understand). Then he added: “Nice!” (kind of like saying cool, or sweeeet).

So we were saying family prayer and Caden was sitting with me. I was the voice for this prayer so I wasn’t paying close attention to what he was doing during the prayer. As the prayer ended Carol was looking at him as he kept rubbing his finger on my arm. Carol asked me: “What is that?” So I looked down and there was something little on my arm that kind of looked like a crumb. He kept pointing at it and pushing it around on my arm. I asked him: “What is that?” Without hesitation, he replied: “Boogie.” And upon further review, he wasn’t kidding.

Carol told us all that Braden Erickson (a kid in our ward) had broken his thumb while doing a blocking drill at football practice. Bailey said in a very serious tone: “So he doesn’t have his thumb anymore?”

A Very Happy (And Funny) Birthday Boy!

2009-06-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

So it’s that time again. We’ve had another birthday and lots of other things have been going on. Plus, I have a healthy list of funnies to share, but first, yesterday (June 13th) was Trevin’s fourth birthday. Man, how time flies. He has grown up a lot in the last year and it is great to witness the strides he has made. He got to start his special day off with the third week of his All Sports class. And they played Tee-Ball. He is way beyond tee-ball, but he still had a lot of fun and really impressed his teachers. That’s my boy. He opened his presents later in the afternoon and then after Tyler’s last basketball game, we had pizza and cake & ice cream to wrap up his day.

He was pretty excited about his new basketball and he got a new Wii video game, "NBA Live ‘09," which he and Tyler will really enjoy.After all that, we still had a piano recital to go to. Bailey was the first of five and played two songs, including “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet.” Tyler was last and also played two songs, including, “If the Savior Stood Beside Me.” They both did really well. We are pleased with their progress.Now back to Tyler’s game. They played their hearts out and kept it close for a while, but they were overmatched and in the end they lost, again. Tyler played especially well this last game which was nice to see. He made a lot of good plays and after the game the coach from the other team sought me out and complemented Tyler to me. He was very impressed at how well he played for his size (he was always one of the smallest kids out there). “He plays way above himself,” was his comment. It was nice to hear.

Now it’s on to baseball for both Tyler and Bailey in a couple more weeks. Trevin will probably do another round of sports classes, too. Carol is now about two and a half weeks from her due date, and we are hoping for it to come exactly then, on July 1st. We’ll see what happens. So that’s about it. Here are the latest funnies from out little comedians.Bailey has been getting more excited about the baby as the due date gets closer. The other day she announced that: “If it’s a girl, I’m really going to be jumping around in that room.” Then she added, “If it’s a boy, I’ll be jumping around just a little bit.” But that is much better than her comment when Caden was still in the oven. She was the only one who wanted a boy and we asked her what she would do if we had a girl (she wasn’t quite 4 at the time), and she said, no joke: “Throw it in the garbage.” So this is great progress for her in accepting things whatever way they turn out. Either way, she will be a great mini-mom to the new arrival, we’re sure.

So Trevin comes out of the bathroom one evening as he’s getting ready for bed. He heads over to Carol to get his diaper on; all the while he’s singing “Latter-Day Prophets.” He gets to Joseph F. Smith and then says: “Joseph F. Smith is funny.” Carol said: “How come Joseph F Smith is funny?” Trevin replies: “Because he says lots of funny things. Lorenzo Snow, too.” (Just in case you’re a reader that might not be familiar with LDS prophets, Joseph F. Smith died in 1918 and Lorenzo Snow many years before that.)

Then, not two minutes later, Carol sent him back to his room to put his dirty underwear in the laundry basket. Generally we put a clean pair in one of the drawers in the bathroom, so when he get sup he can put them on right after using the bathroom. So, on his way back, he loses his train of thought and stops at the bathroom and puts his dirty ones in the drawer. I asked him if those were clean or dirty. He picked them up, paused, then with vigor, held them up to his nose and gave a good hearty sniff. I started cracking up and headed out to tell Carol. When I finished telling her, Trevin said: “Yeah, and they were yummy.” Seriously, he is a non-stop crack-up. I just wish I was more diligent in writing everything down as soon as he said it.

Later still that evening, Trevin comes to sit on the couch with me and I said something like hey, whoa there buddy, kind of in a funny way I guess, cuz Trevin laughed and said: “Dad, you’re funny.” I asked: “As funny as Joseph F. Smith?” He bluntly replied: “No.”

Many of you who read this know our friends the Birds. One Sunday morning, I looked outside and saw three birds poking around the yard for worms. The kids were at the table and I said, look there are the Birds. All three of them; Wyatt, Wesley and Jason (the three Bird boys) are in our back yard. Then Trevin, who apparently saw another bird fly by, said: “I just saw Deon (the mother Bird) flying.”

So for anyone who doubted me when I said Carol is obsessed with getting a new van, I offer you this. About two weeks before Trevin’s birthday, Carol asked him what he wanted for his birthday. He replied: “A new car.” “What kind of car?” came the reply. Not a Hot Wheels, not a race car, not a remote control car, or any other kind of toy car. Nope, Trevin replied: “A Honda Odyssey. A black one.” And just as a side note: Carol said to me the other day, “So, I was thinking about that van in the shower….” I cannot tell you how many times I have heard similar statements over the past few months. It is unbelievable.

I was in the bathroom the other night shaving and Caden came running in. He called my name: “Daaad.” I said “what?” He said: “I going get your bummy.” He slapped me on the bumper and then ran off laughing.

I put our air conditioner (window unit) in during this recent hot spell and I had Bailey close by helping me. She was actually inside and I was up on the ladder putting the board up to cover the window. I used duct tape to hold it, and I had her hand it to me through the window. When I gave it back to her, she points to it and asks: “This tape is made out of ducks?”

Tyler saw Brenna Priebe (a girl in our ward and the kids piano teacher) driving after church on Sunday, and said to Carol, “In seven more years, you guys will be sitting up front with me.” So Carol tells me about it at the dinner table. I said: “Brenna turns 16 in July, huh?” Carol said: “Yeap. Brenna is very excited to turn 16.” Then Bailey chimes in and says: “That’s why Brenna always has a smile on her face.”

We were at Tyler and Bailey’s piano recital, which was at their teacher's house. The recital was done and the kids were outside playing. Trevin comes running in cuz he needs to use the bathroom. So I go with him and as I’m shutting the door, he says: “Dad, the Priebe’s have a nice house.” I said: “Yeah, you like it huh?” He replied in a very impressed tone; and as only a male could: “Yeah, they have A LOT of stuff in their garage.”

Vancouver Kids Sports Enthusiast Tests Positive For PED

2009-05-19T15:12:00.000-07:00

In news that shocked the Vancouver kids sports world, it was revealed today that local father of four and kids sports all star Kent Livingston has tested positive for performance enhancing drugs. Livingston, however denies he has ever knowingly used any PEDs and would not comment on what drug he is being accused of taking. However, according to sources, the substance found in the sample was a indeed a synthetic steroid.

Asked to explain how he tested positive, Livingston quipped: “I don’t know, maybe someone slipped me a Mickey.” In fact, Livingston claimed no knowledge of the test or how, or why, he would have even been tested. He blamed the media and claimed that: “It’s just another witch hunt by you reporters.” He then wondered out loud how someone had even gained a sample from him in the first place. “Maybe someone is out to get me. Who knows, maybe it was A-Rod or Manny trying to get the heat off of them?”

As for his wife and four kids they are standing by Livingston, offering this statement through the family’s attorney: “We love Kent and we believe him. He would never do anything like this.” A close friend, who chose to remain anonymous, also stood by Livingston, saying: “Just look at the guy. He’s not exactly a He-man.”

Time will tell how this turns out, but at this time Livingston is staying out of the public eye and just trying to put the pieces back together as three of his four kids gear up for their latest sports seasons, next month.

Ok, so it’s true I’m on roids, but it was just a one-time thing. I’ve had a bad shoulder for over a year and I feared the worst, so I kept putting off seeing the doctor. I finally went and the good news is that he doesn’t think I have a torn rotator cuff and he didn’t think I even needed an MRI. That was great news, because that would have been very spendy. However, they did give me a shot of steroids directly into my shoulder, kind of like a Cortisone shot. That was extremely painful, but it’s been about five days now and my shoulder is actually starting to feel better. So, even though I couldn’t pass a PED test, my shoulder feels better than it has in over a year.

As for the family, Tyler is in the middle of his basketball season and they are 0-4. There have been two blowouts and two close ones (38-36, 27-26). They are improving though and hopefully we can pick up a “W” before the season is over. He and Bailey both start baseball in June and Trevin is going to take some kids sports classes, which start in two weeks. We will have a busy summer of sports. As for Caden, he is playing baseball with us here at the house more and more, and likes it quite a bit. He can already throw a ball in the air to himself and hit it with the bat. Not bad for a 2-year-old.Bailey turned 6 on Sunday. She got a new bike and several things for drawing, which she absolutely loves to do.The three boys and I went to “Dozer Day” while Bailey had her party and let’s just say it was a learning experience for me. If we are lucky enough to receive free passes again (thanks Jerry), we will do things a lot differently. First of all, I will take some neighbor kids who would actually like to go, instead of my own. But that’s enough on that.
Carol is getting closer all the time to adding one more reason why I won’t sleep well at night, to our home, but we are getting excited. It’s like only 6 and half weeks away now. So that’s a brief wrap on what’s happening with us. There a few funnies below, but either the kids haven’t been as funny lately, or I haven’t been very motivated to write it down. Knowing them, it’s probably the latter. But these are pretty good, plus there’s another one from a half-asleep Carol, so enjoy…

Trevin has a pair of shorts he received from a cousin. They are still a little big but he likes to wear them anyways. They have a really long string on them to tighten the waist, and Trevin has often been found putting the string over his head, and he even had it behind his neck once. So we have told him not to do that because of obvious reasons. So one day, he was doing it again and I told him: “Trevin, don’t put that on your head anymore, or I’m going to cut it off.” He replies: “No, don’t cut off my head.”

Bailey is probably infamous by now on this blog for her gas power. So, on her birthday (May 17th) she is at the table and the kids are about to have dessert. Carol was at the piano playing “name that tune” with them and played “I Love to See the Temple.” Bailey guessed right away, and then did what Bailey always does at the table. Literally, it is like clockwork with her at the dinner table. So I said, “You love to toot. That’s what you love.” She said: “Yeah, but now I’m only gonna do it on special days.” I inquired further and she said: “Like Christmas…well not Christmas because everyone will be there. But like on birthdays when no one else is there, just you guys.” At least she has a little shame left.

Caden has been subjected to potty humor for much of his young life, and he, well, has grown to like it. He cracks himself up often, just by saying: “pee pee or poo poo.” He was humoring himself the other day and Carol said: “Oh Caden, he sure has inherited a liking for potty humor,” not really aware that he was even paying attention. But he retorted very assuredly: “No I didn’t.”

Trevin approached Carol the other day and asked: “Mom, can we have twins?” Carol responded, “No, there’s just one in there.” Then Trevin replied, while pointing to her chest: “But those are getting bigger, too.” Kids are just too observant.

So Carol and I are in bed and she is apparently half asleep again. I was tickling her and she said “go do that somewhere else.” So I got even closer and she said you better not. I said: “Well you said somewhere else.” Again, I thought she was awake, but she lifts her arm, points over across the room and says: “Go do that over by the cars and trucks.” I said: “Did you hear what you just said?” She laughed and claimed she was dreaming about cars because of we are in need of a new van. She is obsessed with it, so supposedly she was thinking about that. Anyways, another good laugh for me right before I went to sleep.

Life Has Really Been Happening Lately

2009-04-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

What’s new with us? Quite a bit actually. It’s been a while since I’ve updated so a lot has happened since then. Tyler participated in a Cub Scout Fishing Derby and caught two very large trout: 18 and ¼ inches and 17 and ½ inches. The only pictures we got were these on the tray after they had been gutted and beheaded. But those are bigger than any fish I ever caught even from Cotter’s Pond (my brothers and cousins will know that reference). So not a bad day for a kid who had only fished once before in his life.

He also has started basketball season. They played well in their first game, but still lost. A friend from church (Jerry Balch) and I are coaching the team together (he has a son on the team as well). I missed the first game though because I was in the hospital. More on that later.

This is what happens when you let a 3-year-old dress himself.

We are probably going to have Bailey do tennis again this spring, then in the summer let her do something else. Trevin is going to do some sports classes with me as well, and he is starting preschool again this week.Lastly, Caden turned two on April 23rd and we finally had a little party for him on Sunday. He loved the Happy Birthday song and sang it to himself. He also enjoyed having cake and ice cream and opening his presents. He especially liked the ice cream, because he hasn’t really been able to enjoy ice cream for many months, since we took him off dairy. However, his ears are working perfectly and we have let introduced dairy back into his diet again. He went to the Dr. last week and checked out perfectly. He has another cold now, so if he avoids an infection this time, then it’s safe to say he has been cured of ear infections. Oh what a blessing it has been that he went to the naturopath. We can’t thank Cory enough, and of course, the Lord as well. And speaking of our little two-year-old, these are some of my favorite Caden-isms at this point in his young life:

Oh my goodness
No I didn’t
Swing and a miss
I hold you (meaning “you hold me”)
What are you doing dad (or mom)?
Bye, hope you find a new job (when I leave for work)
I got it! (when the phone rings)
Lastly, he likes to climb up on the piano bench to sing and play (the best a two-year-old can) “I Am a Child of God.” Quite sweet.

The kids also had a visit from their Aunt Ginger and two cousins Caleb and Ellie, recently. The six of them had a great time together.

Now for my hospital story; we got a call at 6:00 AM on Saturday from Carol’s mom. Her dad has been in the hospital for a week, and from the call it sounded like he was quite possibly on his death bed. They requested a blessing and wanted me and our Stake President, President Nashif. He was busy working out and so I paced around for 45 minutes waiting for him to get back to me. I hadn’t slept much or had anything to eat since the night before, so I was tired and little dehydrated, I would learn later. We eventually met up at the hospital and we gave him a blessing. Then, just seconds later, as we were about to leave, I felt dizzy light-headed and nauseous. I knew I was about to go down, so I headed for Carol’s Dad’s bed and laid down. The nurse quickly took my pulse and it was at an alarming 84/45 or something like that. They wheeled me down to ER and long-story-short, I spent the entire day in observation, taking several tests and several labs. The good news; everything checked out fine and it was most likely just caused from those several factors I mentioned, plus the fact that I stood with locked knees for a few minutes during the blessing. All those things combined and my body reacted. Anyways, quite a funny story now, but not how I wanted to spend my Saturday. On the plus side, I did get to watch most of the Sox beating the Yanks while I laid in bed all day. As for Carol’s dad, he is making some progress and might be able to finally be discharged tomorrow. And as for Carol, be sure to read till the end for a good laugh. Now onto the latest funnies…

Trevin has reached a point in his life where he is all-knowledgeable. Every time we tell him something, he responds: “I know that.” So I told him something recently, to which he replied, of course: “I know that.” I said, “every time we tell you something, you say: ‘I know that.’” He replied matter-of-factly: “Yeah, because I know everything.”

A couple of days later, I told Trevin he needed to go get his teeth brushed. He replied with his new catch phrase. I then you need to go get your diaper on, too. Again, “I know that.” I then said: “well if you know that, then why don’t you go get it done.” He said: “I don’t knew that.” Then, as if he remembered our conversation, earlier in the week, he said: “There is only one thing, I don’t know. I know everything else.”

We had a lesson on foul and vulgar language for Home Evening a couple of weeks ago. We talked about words that qualify as “garbage words.” So the other morning Trevin comes into our room and says, “Dad, Bailey said dumb.” I told him that wasn’t a nice word to say. He asked: “Is that a garbage word?” “I replied, yes it is a garbage word.” He quickly headed back out to the living room to report to Bailey that she had used a “garbage word.” We didn’t hear her response, but Trevin came right back to our room and asked: “Is ‘so’ a garbage word?”

The boys were watching one of the Blazers’ playoff games this past week and as the broadcast came back from a commercial, they happened to show the Blazer Dancers, as they often do. Usually we turn the TV off for commercials, but Carol was changing Caden’s diaper so she didn’t get to it. So Tyler and Trevin were watching pretty intently and Carol said: “OK, you don’t have to stare.” Trevin responded: “Yeah I do.”

Bailey does not like kidney beans. She disdains them. We have them as part of our dinner meals quite regularly because they are so good for you. Anyways, we usually only give her like 4 or 5, but even that is a fight. We always try to tell her that if she eats them with other things on her plate that she won’t even taste them. She complains that no matter what, she still always tastes them. So I told her: “It’s all in your head.” Then, in all seriousness and quite emphatically, Bailey says: “No, actually, it all goes in my tummy.”

Tyler and Bailey were whispering to each other at the table. However, they were covering the mouths on the side and actually talking into each other’s noses. So Carol said: “Where do you hear from, your nose or your ear?” To which Bailey responded: “I can hear from my nose, too. I’m a hearer.”

Trevin was eating some of Caden’s birthday cake and forked basically his whole piece. Of course, most of it fell off and tumbled to the floor. Carol said in a frustrated tone: “Trevin!”, to which he quickly responded: “That was the cake’s fault.”

Carol has too funny habits while she sleeps. She likes to talk occasionally and it always has hilarious results. Unfortunately, when she is pregnant, she tends to snore a lot, too. She doesn’t too often when she is without child. Anyways, recently it has been getting worse, as she progresses in her pregnancy. When she does, and I’m still awake, I gently try to bump her so she will just kind of move herself without waking up. So I did this the other night and she turns over to me with a big smile on her face, but says nothing. So I made a snoring sound to let her know why I had bumped her. She turned away immediately, saying nothing. I said; “I know, you can’t help it.” I then named off several other things that she says “I can’t help it” about, all in a loving way, though. Then I said: “What else can’t you help?” I thought she was totally awake at this point, mind you, but she replies: “When I go to school.” I said “what?” She said, “That didn’t come out right.” Anyways, we both got a huge laugh out of it. So a couple minutes later, I tell her good night again and she appears to be awake, but then literally two seconds after she says good night, she lets out a big snore. I laugh and she says, “What?” I asked: “Didn’t you hear that?” To which she replies: “That wasn’t me, it was the keys.” I repeated it to see if I heard it right, then laughed so hard, I almost started to cry.” She heard the noise, but didn’t even realize it came from her. It was so funny. Carol has insisted that I put a disclaimer in to explain that when she does this, she is half asleep and half awake and usually is dreaming. She says she gets her dreams and reality mixed up and that is why she says the things she does. Whatever the case, I always enjoy a good conversation with a half-asleep Carol.

July Is Coming And Carol's Belly Is Growing

2009-04-12T17:51:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter everyone! The kids enjoyed a good egg hunt here at the house and we made sure to remind them of the meaning of Easter with our FHE lesson last week. Plus, for good measure, some of the eggs had special messages in them to remind them that Jesus died for them because he loves them. We also hid an empty one to remind them that the tomb was empty after the Savior was resurrected. Hopefully they will remember that as they eat all their candy.

They also got a visit from Grandma Livingston and Monica on Saturday and Monica put on quite an egg hunt for them, they really enjoyed it and all the candy. Let's see, what else is new? Just an update on General Conference, I was replaying the first session on the computer one day this week and on two or three talks Tyler said: “Oh, I remember this talk.” And then he repeated what it was about. That was great to hear, and it tells me they indeed were listening at least some of the time. I have started up Wii Fit again, after a very long lay-off. My body has been feeling the pain all week, too. But it’s gotta be done. I need more energy to keep up with these kids.

We planted our strawberry bulbs this week, as well as a tomato plant, and we are anxious to plant the many other things we will try to grow in our first attempt at being Mr. McGregor. Let’s hope that pesky Peter Rabbit doesn’t show up.

Carol is doing well and the tummy is growing. Just three months to go, now, or maybe a little less. Trevin starts pre-school again in a couple of weeks, and Caden will probably be a little bored when he goes. He does well at entertaining himself most of the time, though. And he sure can talk up a storm. One of his favorite things to say right now is: “What are you doing, Mom (or dad)?” But he doesn’t necessarily like it when we ask him the same thing.

Bailey lost her fifth tooth this week, and this time she was biting the piano. Yeah, you read that right, the piano. She was holding up the lid with her teeth, so she could look inside the piano to see the stroke pads moving as she hit the keys. It slipped out of her mouth and her already loose tooth was hanging by a thread. Carol yanked it out and that was that. Hopefully this picture illustrates what I tried to explain.

One more thing; Bailey is quite thoughtful about remembering other people’s birthday’s and other occasions, and she drew this picture for her little cousin, Madison for her 2nd birthday, which is tomorrow. Here is a picture of it. She still plans to send it in the mail, but because it would be late we told her we could post it here for her cousin to see, on time.
Hope you all had a nice Easter. Now it’s on to the latest and greatest kids’ quotes:

Trevin was having some little stick pretzels for a snack and he had evidently stuck all of them in his mouth at the same time. He had a huge mouthful, and barely had enough room to chew. I said: “You need a drink.” He shook his head no. I said yes you do. He began to inch forward in his chair to head to the fridge, with a big grin on his face. I said: “See, I told you, you needed a drink.” He replied with a big grin: “There’s a lion behind you.” I guess that was supposed to scare me into submission.

Carol went in to check on the kids while they were sleeping. When she went to adjust Trevin in his bed, he mumbled something that she couldn’t understand, and then he said loud and clear: “In my royal underwear.” We have another Disney book to thank for that one. When Robin Hood and Little John rob Prince John in his coach they leave him nothing except his royal underwear. I guess that part really stuck with him.

Caden came back to our room and said to Carol: “I pee.” She asked, “You went pee?” he replied “yes.” She said, “It’s OK, you have a diaper on.” Caden replied: “Oh”

Carol got new frames for her glasses a couple months ago, which are kind of reddish. So, she recently updated her Mii on the Wii and made her frames red. She and the kids were playing the other night and she asked them if they had seen noticed the change. They said yes, and then Tyler said: “You should make yourself fatter because your tummy is fatter.”

Trevin left the bathroom light on and I called to him from our room to go turn it off. Nothing happened, so I continued to call for him. Finally, I got really loud; to make sure he could hear me. I wasn’t angry, mind you, just loud to make sure he could hear. He finally responded: “I’m coming right now, for crying out loud.”

Trevin, Tyler and I were getting ready to play basketball and I was helping Trevin get his basketball shorts on. He said: “We gonna win. And Tyler gonna lose. And then Tyler gonna pout.” So I tell Tyler about it and Tyler says “yeah right.” Then about 3 seconds later, Tyler says: “He might be right.”

The kids like tease mom about her growing pregnant belly, but honestly, they really aren’t getting it from me. Anyways, we tried turkey pepperoni on our pizza the other night and Bailey took a couple a bites then said: “This tastes different.” Carol told her it was turkey and said: “That means it has less grease.” Bailey then said: “But my pizza still has grease on it.” Carol replied: “But it has less grease.” Bailey then said (remembering something I once taught her): “Grease makes you fat. Mom, you must have been eating a lot of grease lately, cuz you’re kind of getting fat.”

My mom has done foster care for many years and she has had a little girl who is Caden’s age (2 this month) for most of her short life. So, the kids were asking Carol about when we got married and who was there? Bailey asked if Grandpa and Grandma Shirts were there, then if Grandpa and Grandma Livingston were there. She then asked if Monica was there (my youngest sister). She said yes to all of them. Then Trevin says: “But not Jaylyne, she was still in Grandma Livingston’s tummy.”

Bailey’s bed is made out of wood and kind of creeks when you get on it in a certain spot, at least according to Carol. So one night Carol climbs up on her bed and says: “Geez, Bailey, your bed sure is getting squeaky.” Bailey replied: “Yeah, because you keep getting bigger.”

Don't Pay For Photos Anywhere Else

2009-04-09T16:47:00.000-07:00

These are by far the best photos we've ever taken of the kids. They were so cooperative for the entire shoot and the shots couldn't have turned out better; don't you think? And in case you didn't know, you can click on the photos to see them much larger; and thereby then take in all their glory.
No, this is not a Halloween mask...

By far, the creepiest face she's ever made...

I think he almost pulled his cheeks completely off his face...

Not so creepy, but he saw his siblings having fun, so he gave his best attempt, unprompted by us. In fact, Bailey started the whole thing and as soon as we got the camera out, they all wanted a piece of the action.

Who Was That Four-Armed Man?

2009-04-05T12:55:00.000-07:00

What a wonderful General Conference weekend we’ve had; but first a report on our Spring Break. After several impressions while listening to past General Conference addresses at work, I have felt the need to come up with a way to spend more one-on-one time with each kid. So we have started “Day out with Dad.” One day a month, I plan to spend several hours with each kid individually doing something together away from the home and their siblings. Being Spring Break, we were able to do all three of them this week. (Caden is still not quite old enough for this, but we’ll begin doing a scaled down version for him soon.) On Tuesday, Tyler and I went up to the church gym and played sports together. It was a lot of fun. On Wednesday, we went to Monsters vs. Aliens with Grandma Shirts. It was a pretty funny movie and the 3D was great. Then, on Thursday, Bailey and I went to the Library and checked out some books. However, Bailey is becoming quite the young lady already, and after a short time we headed to Once Upon A Child (used kids clothing store), where she tried on several dresses and then purchased one she really liked. She wasn’t done yet though; we then headed to the Dollar Store where after much deliberation, she bought a bag of bubble gum.

Trevin’s turn came on Friday, and of course, he wanted to do what Tyler did, so up to the gym we went again. We played catch with a football, then shot baskets, played kickball and played a little baseball. He was ready to head home though, after about an hour, so I asked him if he wanted to something else, like go look at toys at Wal-Mart (right across the street). He said he wanted to go where Bailey went and look at clothes. I said: “Look at clothes, really?” He confirmed, then I said: “That’s for girls.” He stopped and asked with a concerned tone: “Really?” I said: “Well guys look at clothes, too, but is that what you really want to do?” He decided to look at toys at Wal-Mart instead. All-in-all it was a fun week with lots of good moments with the kids.

And of course, I haven’t even mentioned Monday, yet. We finally brought soil in for our garden box, which we made two years ago. They were all very good helpers, including their cousin Hailey, who was spending the day with us. And they are excited to plant, and then harvest a garden.

Now to General Conference: We are to liken the scriptures unto ourselves, right? So with that in mind: Mosiah 2:1&5-6 read: “1…the people gathered themselves together throughout all the land, that they might go up to the temple to hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them. 5 And it came to pass that when they came up to the temple, they pitched their tents round about, every man according to his family…. 6 And they pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple, that thereby they might remain in their tents and hear the words which king Benjamin should speak unto them….”
We wanted to get the kids excited about conference, so we read them those verses and then set up their tents. We made them a word find, and came up with a good way to get them to pay attention. We chose about a dozen words or phrases and attached each of them to a different snack. Each time they heard a speaker use one of the words, they got the snack. Of course, they loved that game. Hopefully, over time, as they grow older, they’ll come to love and appreciate conference for its spiritual nourishment and not just the physical. But for now, we were pleased to see them sit (mostly quiet) through four sessions of conference. And Tyler and Trevin even went to the Priesthood session with me. They like to go (and are very reverent), so who am I to say no?

One other note on conference; Tyler gave us a lesson on the importance of general conference on Friday evening. As part of that, we all made two selections as to who we thought the new Apostle would be. Bailey went first and picked two from the 70. She then changed her second choice to Neil L. Andersen. I said, no you can’t pick him he’s my first choice. Of course, it was OK that we both picked him. I have listened to a few of his talks over the past several weeks, and I just had a feeling he would be the one. So, with that in mind, it was really cool to hear his name called.

Well, that is a recap on our Spring Break. Kind of wordy, but for those who don’t have this much time on their hands, remember Grandpas and Grandmas, do. Now, on to the latest funnies:

Trevin was on the couch with Carol and I and he kept stinking us out. Carol said: “Whoa, stinky tooters; point that bummy somewhere else.” Trevin replied: “Point that tummy somewhere else.”

Bailey was choosing her treat after lunch and we still have a few mint M&Ms left from Christmas, in a little container. She asked: “Can I have all of them?” I didn’t think she knew that they were the mint flavored ones, so I told her they were. She said: “Oh, then I’ll save them till next Christmas.”

Trevin wanted a toasted English muffin for breakfast, and he wanted to make it. I asked him how he was going to make it? He said: “You can butter it, and I can put it in the toaster.” I reminded him he couldn’t reach the toaster. He replied that Tyler got on the counter and did it. So I had him come over and I picked him up so he could put it in. He ran back to the table and excitedly said: “Bailey I put my English muffin in the toaster, all by myself.” Bailey remained quiet for a moment, and then said: “Well, I don’t have to be excited about it.”

Trevin likes to push his little brother around, tackle him and knock him over. It’s something we are always telling him to stop doing. That’s not working obviously, because he continues to do it. The other day he knocked him down and Caden’s forehead hit the corner of the couch. It is solid wood and it left a huge dent, which later turned into a huge bump which starts in the middle of his eyebrow and goes close to an inch above it; nasty looking lump. After the fact, Trevin was upset because he had lost some privileges for the rest of the day. He then said he didn’t push him down, he fell down by himself. I told him to tell the truth. He said that was the truth, even though he had earlier admitted to his deed. I said: “You’re supposed to be honest. I’ll bet in Primary they teach you to be honest.” He replied very emphatically: “No, they never tell us that.”

As explained above, we are getting ready to do a garden for the first time this year and just brought in soil. The next day Trevin asked Carol if we could go out and plant the garden. Carol told him we didn’t have any seeds yet. So they were naming some things they would like to plant, and Bailey asked: “Can we plant squash?” Carol replied: “I don’t think you guys like squash.” Then Bailey replied with the wonderful facial expressions she is so akin to: “Yeah, I tried it like 19 years ago, and I just liked it.”

Bailey’s joke with me the other day: B: “Dad, what’s your name?” Me: “Dad.” B: “What color is the sky?” Me: “Blue.” B: “What’s your last name?” Me: “Livingston.” B: “Dad Blue Livingston”, followed by hilarious laughter by Bailey. She’s got a future as a Late Show writer. Later, I learned from word on the playground (Tyler) the last question is supposed to be “What’s the opposite of down?” thus making the answer: “Dad blue (blew) up.” So much more funny, now that the punch line is correct.

During the closing hymn of the Sunday morning session, they showed a shot of the two guys playing the organ. However, it was lined up just right that one of the guys was right behind the other and all you could see were his arms. Tyler, said: “Whoa, what happened? He has three arms. No, he has four arms.” Carol said: That organ is so big it takes two people to play it.” They then showed a different angle where you could see both men.” Tyler goes, “Oh there are two of them.” I said: “Did you really think he had four arms?” He smiled and laughed at himself and said: “Yes.” We all had a good laugh, him included.

A Weekend Of Fun

2009-03-22T10:59:00.000-07:00

Saturday was a busy day for us and it all revolved around Tyler. But first, Bailey lost another tooth this week, while biting a sucker. That’s three teeth lost by biting now; a sucker, pizza and the first one while biting me. This one had been loose for a while and in fact, it had been sitting there so long that her gum tissue moved down inside the hollow tooth and had formed into the shape of another tooth. Quite strange looking, but it is receding now, so hopefully it will take care of itself.

The kids went to a school carnival on Friday night with Carol and her mom and had lots of fun; and of course brought home a bunch of wonderful little goodies (or as I would call it: more crap to fill up the house). But they had a good time, so it’s all good.
On Saturday, Grandpa Livingston came up from Eugene for all the festivities. First, Tyler had his last football game of the season, and they played their best game of the year. Although they didn’t score, they held the other team to just one TD. That same team scored 6 or 7 times against them each of the other two times they played them, so it was a great moral victory. And in fact, the other team should not have been given credit for their TD, because the kid did some major flag-guarding on his TD run, but the refs didn’t call anything. But despite that, we felt pretty good about this game, compared to all the rest.
After his game the, team had a pizza party at Izzy’s (nothing but the best), which the whole family enjoyed.
But we still weren’t done. We then headed to the church for the Pinewood Derby. It was Tyler’s first time, and his car did pretty well. He ended up third overall, and he and I were both pretty happy with that.
He wanted a Blazers car, so this is what we came up with. Carol and Tyler did the painting and I took care of the cutting, sanding and grinding.
Plus, we got an assist from Jerry Balch (a friend in the ward) on the wheels and axles. All-in-all it was fun to watch, and 3rd place felt pretty good.
Plus, his car looked pretty cool, so in my bias opinion it had to have earned a few style points, too.

Here's Caden enjoying a snack at the Pinewood Derby

And here is Trevin doing the same

And this is a rare moment when Caden is actually enjoying being with someone who is not direct family. Congrats Jason Bird, you are one of the very few to have this privilege.

Well that was our exciting Saturday. No funnies this time, I haven’t been as diligent lately, sorry. But at least you can enjoy some new pics. And, if you enjoy faith-building experiences (and you haven’t already done so) read the entry just before this one.

We Have Been Blessed!

2009-03-19T11:32:00.000-07:00

By the way, here are our new e-mail addresses. (Yes, you all know how old we are, now)
kentlivingston71@gmail.com
carollivingston78@gmail.com

Well, I suppose I should give an update to my family on the results of a family fast we had on February 1st. Anyone else that's interested can read on, also. As you know we are employment-challenged and in January we were told by FedEx (my only job) that all part-time employees would have to call in each day to see if there was work. The first two weeks were bad. Although I went in each day, my weekly hours were cut by about a third. So I went from less than 30 a week, to less than 20 a week. We had an extended family fast for this and for other reasons as well. I can't speak for the others, but as for us, here is what happened.

Of course, I was hoping for a great new job which would mean the end of the part-time nightlife with FedEx. However, that's not what happened. But the Lord did hear our pleas and he had an almost-immediate answer. The Thursday after our fast (my birthday coincidentally), FedEx announced that all but four full-time workers would be given the option to be laid off or go part-time. That of course, meant more available hours for the part-timers. So I'm thinking this is really good. I could work 6 hours a night (that's the most they will let you do in a night), which was even more than before. However, then they announced that they wanted to keep every one at 25 hours a week, at the most. Better than nothing, but not as much as I hoped. But, nothing is impossible for the Lord. First of all, there are several people who aren't getting any hours. And secondly, I have talked with several guys, and the supervisors are being very strict with them about not going over 25 hours a week. And they all still have to call in before the shift each day, even the guys who were full-timers. My story is different. First, I do not have to call in before the shift. One of the supervisors told me to just come in every night, and there would be work. And as far as the hours go, I have worked 6 hours almost every night, since they made the announcement. No matter what, there always seems to be enough work for me, and the supervisors just never say anything. I don't know if they aren't paying attention, or just turning their heads the other way and pretending they don't notice. Whatever the case, I attribute it to the hand of the Lord. With limited work available and everyone else being strictly kept to the 25-hour rule, there is just no other explanation.

Again, I was hoping for a great new job, but with so many people losing their jobs and so many others getting their hours cut, I cannot complain about my situation. At least we have some employment, and in fact I now get more hours a week than I did before we fasted and before they made the first announcement about cutting hours. So, indeed the Lord does bless and watch over us, and we never will suffer more than is for our good. Elder Quentin L. Cook quoted President Harold B. Lee in his October General Conference talk: “Sometimes the things that are best for us and the things that bring eternal rewards seem at the moment to be the most bitter, and the things forbidden are ofttimes the things which seem to be the more desirable.” That is so true. Well, I just thought I would update everyone on how things are going and let you all know that we are grateful to you for the prayers and concerns. THANKS!