Happy Birthday to my Dad

Happy Birthday to my Dad! He may be mean and ornery and hard to get along with but we think is he pretty cool!

 

When he was the ward clerk and I was the Primary President we could sit together during ward council and tease each other. Bishop Millett said we could not sit next to each other any more after that - too distracting.

Well, I was always looking for some way to tease him. After all, I did get it from him.

 

Well, for titheing settlement one year they gave us our records to make sure they were correct. Well I got this idea in my head and started to adjust my own.

I changed my father's name to Lil' Way Way

(his mom called him that when he was little).

I then changed his birth date from 1944 to 1904 and turned it in to his box. I made a joke about how he really robbed the cradle when he got married and then went home.

Well, the joke was on me because the trusty, loyal ward clerk did change my records and he printed a copy to show me!

 It took a lot of finagling, begging and general carrying on to get him to change it back!

Lesson learned~

 Never mess with the ward clerk!!!

scout camp and Britt in Benson

Well, Britt and Joey are both home! They had a great time! Britt and Danni even came back with a fan club! Yep, they have 4 new phone numbers from 4 different boys! Nothing serious, of course, but this news doesn't surprise me.
 Joey, on the other hand, came back from scout camp with two new knives! That's all I need for him to have. At least there are no cuts to go with them!!!
It was cute though. He called me twice during the week. He said he was home sick and that when he got home he was going to cry! He never did, but how cute that he said he wanted to! My little man made it though his first scout camp! And he only annoyed a few people! (actually a couple of them kept picking on him. But I must admit he makes it easy but that is still no excuse!)
And now the other two have gone away for the weekend. Travis is picking up his mother in Ramah, New Mexico tonight and bringing her back for two weeks to stay with us. It should be a lot of fun! The kids never see each other, though. And that is kind of sad. oh well, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

so quiet

My house is quiet. Everyone is getting along. The only one yelling is me because Zach is being a numbskull. There is no music blaring from the front of the house or whiffs of perfume permeating the halls. I have money in my pocket that is usually gone by now. And no one is declaring Joey as being the most annoying person on the planet. I don't like it. There are no girlish screams coming from the boys room. No arguing about whose turn it is on the computer. There is no nerf guns scattered across the house with nerf bullet whizzing by. There is no tattle tailing going on at all.
I miss them. I hope this week goes by soon so things can get back to normal! I need my usual chaos!

Meanwhile the numbskull is watching the Tink movie with Mackenzie. It does not do much for his man card but he definitely scores points in the big bro department~

The Bishop's Helper

Again, this post is for Ashley. I promised I would tell her all about our new Priesthood holder.

 

Joey was the Bishop's helper yesterday, which meant he was kind of the leader with passing the Sacrament. We sit in that area so he finally was going to be able to pass the Sacrament to us! He did pretty well until someone was done early and they came to our row. Oh my gosh! If looks were daggers! I smiled and he calmed down a bit and finished with the bread. Then the same thing happened with the water but he handled it very well; his looks were less menacing.

Then he got to sit on the stand. And he did very well. Except for when Mackenzie bore her testimony. After she was done, he made faces at her when she sat with us. I had to keep glaring at him to fold his arms. Then Carli got up to bare her testimony. She kept trying to push him out of his seat so he could go to the stand. I don't think she was expecting someone that small to be the Bishop's helper. But Joey was kind and told her he was not going up and she went ahead and bore her testimony. I was impressed with his reverent attitude until he flashed his cheesy grin at me. At least his thumbs didn't go up! I think we still need to work in his reverence, especially when he is the Bishop's helper again!

My boy!

 

A typical Sunday afternoon. He asked for this himself and Mackenzie was happy to oblige.
And tomorrow he gets to spend a whole week with a bunch of boys his age. Those poor, poor leaders! My heart goes out to them!!!

My birthday!!

I had a wonderful birthday! My family was great! I got a smart phone that is smarter than me ( I know Ash, not that hard). Apparently I ought to be jealous that Tami has one! (Silly Britt!)

 I really didn't want one but Britt has had a lot of fun setting it up for me! I can access almost anything on it. (But why would I want to? I mean, it's great exercise racing to the computer every Monday morning checking my email! )

And I can't say no to her, even if I did loose my Jetson's ringtones.
 (But Don't worry, Ash! We found yours!!! I know how attached you are to it!)
 

 I got an awesome pair of band shoes I am afraid to wear because they are so cool! But I promised Rylee I would at band camp! Thanks to Jana and Rylee for these awesome shoes!!! All the other band moms will be so jealous!

Alex sent some interesting voice mails! But everything he does is interesting!!! He always makes me laugh!!!

 And FINALLY I got a call from David in the afternoon- after teasing me relentlessly for two weeks- calling me every day to wish me a Happy Birthday!  He finally got it right!!!  ...Such a tease!!!

 (And Jeremy called too, lol! Just like his dad!!!)

 And at the very end of the day I did get a text from Idaho wishing me a Happy Birthday

 And yes, I cried!

All in all it was a great day! I love my family!!!

The Fourth of July

 

Sister Robie was in charge of looking for volunteers for the Fourth of July celebration and, of course, I can't say no to Toni! So we all volunteered except for Mackenzie. They said she could hang out with us. She kind of did but then hit the bouncies! There were slides, even ones with water so we can't top that! Joey was able to help, but looking back, I think I would not have signed him up. But he tried and that was the best part.

 And don't worry, he still got to go down a few water slides too!

He was happy.

 

 Tanks with big guns. Yep, my boys were in heaven!

 Britt working hard. You can see Joey in the background on the Left. I never did get him!

 He is such a good sport! I dragged him into this and he came out smiling!!! Even though it was so hot!

 

Leave it to Zach to catch up with an old friend from elementary.... a girl! He even got her number!

 

 Mackenzie had a lot of fun and tried out all of the games.

 

 Look, Ashley! It's your Sarah Bell! She wanted to make sure she said hi to you!!!

 

I ran into an old friend, Korilynn Walwrath, and it was so great seeing her! I was her visiting teacher when Ashley was born and we have been in two wards together since! We lost touch about 5 years ago. It was great talking with her! Her kids went to Franklin for a few years and she also attended Academic Accolades with Miss Greta. She looks the same but her kids don't, that's for sure! Time does not stand still!

 

No pictures of me! I was in the sun the whole time and I was not picture worthy, but it was a lot of fun and I hope we can do it again next year!!!

 

Kenzie and I finished the day out going to see the fireworks downtown, except we cheated and went to the temple and watched them from there! We found a sweet family that shared their glowsticks, played in the puddles of water, and had a great time! Loved going to the temple! Going there next year too. And this time we are dragging Britt with us. She ended up going with friends and had an okay time! Next year is going to be different!!!

 

We had sparklers the next day, in between the wind gusts and it was awesome!

I love spending time with my family, especially with a hose and three pyros trying to light fireworks and praying the truck in the street does not catch on fire from a stay spark and go up in smoke along with them!

Yes, there was a little sarcasm in there, but I still love spending time with my family!

Next Week

I am sitting here listening to my two young men sing 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman?' from Frozen thinking about what is about to happen this week. Joey will get to experience Scout camp as well as being away from home for the first time. Besides for the fact that he is driving me crazy with his packing abilities, his inability to distinguish the difference between 'get your shoes' and 'get your gameboy', and the need to be right about everything, including those things he really knows nothing about, I really will miss the kid! What is he going to do up there without us? What is he gets into a fight? Will he be easy to calm down? How did I handle this with Zach?

Britt is off to Benson this week to babysit for Girls camp. Her and Danni are going down. I am sure Ashley is honored that two have to replace her as instead of one! Britt is looking forward to it! The peace, the quiet, and Caden! If she thought Joey was the most annoying person on the planet, she is in for a treat!!!

No, he is a sweetie! Just don't fall asleep before him!

I love you, Caden!!!

Yep, it's going to be a great week. But that leaves Zach and Mackenzie. How weird is that going to be? Two kids out of 6? I am really not looking forward to it. If there is not a certain amount of chaos at my house I cannot exist! Thank goodness the Myers come over a lot!

Britt leaves tomorrow morning and I pick her up Saturday. Then she gets to spend Sunday with us but first thing Monday morning she is boarding a plane for Lubbock, Texas to spend the week with her boys, The Whitings! She is so excited! And she will be surrounded by boys who adore her and love her so much! Just what she needs, especially since she has decided she is taking the year off from a boyfriend and I get to help with that!

 Yep, I am screening boys! It's kind of fun except those who pass are few and far between right now. Ironically, we are both pretty happy about it. Besides, her plan is to get through senior year single and then as soon as Ashley gets back they will hit the singles scene together! One year and the single adult ward won't know what hit them!!!

And it's my job to scare away the boys!!! I have a pretty good track record so far so I am not worried. LOL!!!