Wish Me Luck

At 7:39 AM I start the The Whirlpool Ironman 70.3 Steelhead Triathlon. That is a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and a 13.1 (half marathon) mile run.

Fairy First Tooth

Mikey lost his first tooth!! This is quite a big step...though we will ignore the fact that a hard run into one of his friends actually caused his tooth to become loose. (I'm actually not surprised at all. When I was 20 I visited the dentist to see if I needed any work, like wisdom tooth extraction, before getting married and off of my dad's insurance. My dentist looked at my teeth and told me that I had the mouth of a 14 year-old. Then let us not even mention that I was out of the 6th grade and was still missing my front tooth. How could I expect my child's mouth to mature quicker than mine did)
Mikey's friends had all been loosing their teeth recently, so Mikey had been asking about it. After running into his friend during my soccer game, Mikey's two front bottom teeth were loose. The next morning at breakfast Mikey was only through eating half of his waffle when he pushed his plate away and started crying about his mouth. I looked into his mouth, his tooth was very loose and blood was coming from it's root. A few minutes later his tooth came all the way out.
Mikey was quite traumatized about this whole situation. I don't think it really hurt him, but more scared him. To help ease his fret, I told him about the tooth fairy - which I am not totally a fan of, I don't like the thought of lying to my kids about a little fairy that goes around into kids' bedrooms at night taking their teeth away, but I was desperate and it did help him to get his mind off of the gap in his mouth.
The rest of the day Mikey kept on asking about the tooth fairy, like if there were a lot of them, one for each kid, where do they live, where do they put their gold (money), where do they put the teeth, what do they do with the teeth, how big are they, etc.
That night we put the tooth in a little pouch and went to bed. Before going to bed myself, I almost forgot to play "fairy". Then when I went into his room, I couldn't find the pouch. After searching for awhile and almost waking all of my children, I found it.
The next day Todd came home from work and asked Mikey if the tooth fairy had visited him. Mikey said, "No, she didn't give me any money...just two dollars."
I could have saved myself $1.98 and given him two pennies and he would have been happier.

Proof

I found these pictures on my camera.
This is something I am very use to. My boys will grab my camera and take all sorts of pictures. But as I showed them to Lana, she informed me that it was her that took the pictures. She said she took them because that was the only way she could get Grant to jump.I don't know what is worse:
the fact that Lana took these awful pictures,
the fact that Grant wouldn't jump on MY couches without having a picture being taken,
or that Lana allowed, no promoted this behavior!?!?!

Berry Picking

One thing i love about summer is the fruit. I love how cheap it gets, how delicious it tastes, and how much fun it is to go pick the fruit yourself.
So far we've gone picking strawberries with our friends and blueberry picking with my mom and LeNae. these are great times. The older boys get excited about picking and talk about it. Mikey and I had a great conversation about working and the need to work hard. The younger boys aren't much help, but they seem to be able to pick some berries to eat then and there. The worst is that Grant will pick the berries out of my basket, berries that I have worked long and hard to pick.
When we picked blueberries with LeNae she could not fathom that we were doing this for fun. She kept asking why we didn't just go to a fruit stand and buy the berries, or better yet, Costco.

Safety Town Diagnosis

Our community has a program called "Safety Town" where incoming Kindergartners have a two week course on safety. It's a great course, with bike riding, bus riding, fire station tours, and everything else. Roger was really excited to start Safety Town, by the second week though, Roger didn't want to go. He was afraid that during those 90 minutes he would be missing out on something really fun with his brothers.We hung in, and on the last day we had Safety Town Graduation. After the graduation, they let the kids ride on the bikes around the "town".Mikey refused to ride the bikes, he said he was too old - I mean, he did graduate from it last year and never mind the fact that kids older than he were riding around - but I didn't mind for he made it his job to push William and Grant, who couldn't reach the pedals.While I was helping the boys ride around Officer Anna, the head police officer of the program, came up to me. She asked if Roger was feeling alright, he had been coughing the whole two weeks. Yes, he had been coughing a lot the last two weeks, but actually he has been coughing the last 6 months.
During this conversation I noticed that Roger was over at the pavilion with my mom. I walked over to him as he was having a coughing fit, then he puked - right there, in front of everyone. You know all the parents were thinking, "Let's get out of here before my child gets sick".
I decided to take Roger to the doctor's office. Our pediatrician, even though I had originally chosen him because he was the first listed in the phone book, actually works with the Residents at the hospital, so he knows Todd.
Dr. A asked if anyone in the family has asthma. Todd has sever asthma, so after listening to Roger and giving him a couple of treatments, Dr. A diagnosed Roger with Asthma. Because he's too young to handle an inhaler correctly, we got sent home with a nebulizer and a prescription.
Todd says that it breaks his heart to see Roger on the nebulizer, but it's much better than having him have to cough so much. The treatments have really helped Roger's coughing, and his breathing.I should have married someone more healthy I guess.

Precious Eyes

I happened to be in the bathroom putting away towels when William ran in. As he was doing his little "I-need-to-pee-dance", he was pulling down his shorts. He started urinating in the toilet when he realized that the seat was down.

Now, I am so proud of him for wanting to lift the seat to go to the bathroom, I just wish he had the sense, or time-management skills to allow him to lift the seat before using the restroom.

While still going to the bathroom, he was aiming with one hand and trying to lift the seat with the other. As the seat was being lifted up, it caused his - uheemm.. to be lifted up with it. Suddenly there is pee squirting in the air, flying all around the toilet.

I watched in frustration thinking about my bathroom having pee everywhere, but then the worst happened.

"I got pee in my eye" was William's statement. Literally a statement - not a whine, not a cry for help, not a wild, intense comment - a statement that had no strong emotion connected with it.

I guess that's how life goes in a house of 4 boys.

I would've puked, but I myself have reached a point where it wasn't that big of a deal either.

Happy Birthday Roger

Happy Birthday to my big 5 year old!!!Roger is such a special boy. People always comment on how well my boys all play together. I give the credit to Roger. He is such a connector. He loves people and loves having relationships with them. He makes everyone feel as though they are his best friend...and he actually feels that way as well. He is extremely considerate and caring of others. Here's just one story to illustrate that:
On the 4th of July we went to a parade in Hurricane, Utah. Grant had not been feeling well, but he was being good/well enough for us to go to the parade. Even though it was in the morning, it was a little warm. The boys were so excited to get the candy that was thrown at them. When a car threw a twin-Popsicle out, this was the best. Roger ran over and grabbed it. William came running up behind him and started crying, stating that he wanted one as well. Roger immediately started pointing out that there were two halves, one for him and one for William. This of course made William happy.
Roger came to me to have me open and divide the Popsicle. While I was opening it, Grant, who was lethargic and had shown no interest in anything all morning, perked up at the site of this juicy treat. I also realized that Grant could benefit from the Popsicle, especially since I had forgotten to bring him a drink. Knowing how excited Roger was about this treat, I hesitated to ask him to share it with Grant, but I decided to let Roger make a choice without any pressure. I presented it to him, trying to make it sound as though I would be happy with whatever choice he made, but without hesitation Roger sacrificed his share of the Popsicle to Grant.

Between Todd and myself, we have nicknamed Roger "Bruce R. McRoger". He is such a spiritual giant in a small body. He knows so much about the scriptures, can recall many scriptural stories. But not only is his knowledge of the scriptures great, but his understanding of God is inspiring. He is always thinking about Christ, trying to decide what Christ would think about each situation. He will talk of Christ all day, not to show off or to make Mom happy, but just because that is what is on his mind. I overheard him telling my brother once, "I love Jesus.....He's a good guy."

Roger has a lot of confidence in himself. He truly believes that he is the fastest person, can jump the highest, can sing the best, or whatever other thing is ever mentioned. I will have to say, as far as the physical aspects are concerned, he does have great motor skills.

I would say that Roger is somewhat musically inclined. He will tinker on the piano, and it will sound great- no, no prodigy child, but for coming from Todd and I, he really is amazing. He loves to sing as well. He will just sing to himself about things that are going on around him or what he's thinking about. When he's in charge of the song for Family Home Evening, instead of choosing a song for us to sing, he will stand up and sing a song he makes up on the spot. then he will end and ask, "Was that beautiful!"

I love Roger so stinking much. He is a great example to me of what Christ wants us to be.

Happy Birthday Roger!

We had quite the celebrations for Roger's birthday. My sister had 3 wedding parties for her wedding, well, Roger had 3 birthday celebrations, on 3 different days.

The morning of his birthday I asked him what he wanted for breakfast. He wanted mush which is what we call hot oatmeal or cracked wheat. Of course we had to stick the candle in and everything. And of course, Grant insisted on having a candle in his as well.Roger shares his birthday with a very good friend of his and Mikey's - Samuel - so his mom and I planned on going bowling that morning. We had invited several friends to join us, not for a birthday party, but more a birthday play date. We were quite crushed when we weren't able to go bowling because of some miscommunication. But we quickly changed our plans to meet at a nearby park.Yvonne (Samuel's mom) and I brought cupcakes, and we moms all talked while the kids ran around having fun.When I had asked Roger what he wanted to do for lunch, suggesting McDonald's and actually getting a Happy Meal - we usually just order something from the Dollar Menu, Roger turned me down flat and surprised me with his request. He wanted to have his birthday lunch at Jimmy's house. He obviously doesn't understand the don't-invite-yourself concept. Luckily Jimmy's mom is a good friend of mine, and when I asked her about it, she just laughed and welcomed us over.We had lunch then went over to her neighborhood pool. After being there for an hour, Todd was able to come join us. The boys had a blast! Grant and CJ (Missy's girl) hung out in the shallower end with matching floaties as the boys all got to hang out in the deeper end thanks to more lax rules.
After a long day of playing, Todd took Roger by himself to the theatre to watch Toy Story 3. They had a great time together.
The next day we had picked up my cousin, IvyEllen, from the airport. She came to Ohio to go to EFY here with Lana. IvyEllen's birthday is the same day as Roger's so that night we had a birthday celebration. I was waiting to have Roger's "official" birthday cake when Mikey got back from my mom's house, for what is a party without your best friend? But we still wanted to have a celebration for him, so we picked up a small cake from the grocery store, brought most of his presents, and went to the Drive-in theatre. This was Lana and IvyEllen's first time at a Drive-in theatre.Before the movie started, we did the birthday cake, with candles (only when none of the theatre employees were around.Then we did what is tradition in our family, we went around and said what we liked about Roger and IvyEllen.
Roger opened his presents. He is so good at being very pleased with everything that he gets.My mom and LeNae came into town the next week, bringing Mikey home with them. We were so excited to have Mikey back with us, especially since we could then have the "official" birthday cake.
Several months ago the boys were in the backseat of the car having a discussion amongst themselves about birthday cakes. They came to the conclusion that you have what you really love on the top of your birthday cake. Roger said, "Well..I really love vegetables, so ...Mom!!! Can I have vegetables on my birthday cake?!!?"
He did not forget his request, so of course, I made a vegetable cake. I made a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (everything homemade), then I put broccoli on top to decorate it. I usually try to have my kids help me make their cakes, so when we got finished putting the broccoli on, Roger wanted to add more. We pulled out the blueberries and remaining carrots and Roger went to town.Here's the finished product.My mom and LeNae were disgusted that we put the broccoli on top and took off the broccoli on their own slices. The rest of us ate it with the broccoli, and I have to say, it was actually pretty good. But the cake was pretty good to begin with.
Then his brothers had to blow out the candles.Roger has always been very good about sharing everything and anything with his brothers. Including the frosting on the candles.We all went around saying what we liked about Roger. there were many compliments, for he is an awesome boy. In fact, if you were to look in the dictionary, under Awesome would be a picture of Roger.
The funny thing was that Roger wasn't quite sure of how to accept all these nice compliments, so he spent the entire time making faces, very similar to the one shown below. Love you Roger, hope you had a great birthday experience.

Chocolate Hands

While visiting my mom, we went to church with her. Afterwards I picked the boys up from their primary classes. I noticed that Mikey's teacher had given him a fun-size chocolate bar; I really saw no problem with this until the boys started whining that they wanted their own candy bars. After getting them all rounded up and into the van, I was not thinking very nice things about Mikey's teacher. I started to understand more why the church discourages bringing in treats for the kids - it's because we "Mormon families" have way more than one child and it brings contention to have one child get candy while the siblings have to watch with disappointment. I was also frustrated that Mikey wouldn't just eat the candy bar - why make the other boys continue to stare at it? Also, it was really warm and the chocolate had to be melting.
When we got to my mom's house, I sent the boys into get their clothes changed while I helped Grant and William do the same. I noticed Mikey was going to the kitchen, to eat his candy in there.
As I was getting William dressed, Mikey came in, hands covered in melting chocolate, with a piece of the bar in one hand. He came over and put his messy hand in front of William's face and said, "Here William, here's your candy."
I couldn't believe that my boy was so thoughtful. I love that he sees everything that he gets as something he can share with his brothers. The experience made me change my attitude and instead I was grateful to the Primary teacher for giving Mikey the candy; therefore giving me an opportunity to see what a great boy he is.