Damian Lost His First Tooth

Can you see the tooth in his corn?

Yep, he was eating corn on the cob this evening and all of a sudden he screamed, "Ouch! My tooth came out!" Sure enough, there was a gaping hole in his bottom row of teeth. So, I asked him if he swallowed it. He said no. We had to look for a bit, but we finally found it blending in nicely with his corn. Talking to him about it now he says that it didn't hurt. I'm not sure it was quite ready to come out, but it had been getting loose. So. . .another perfect face--ruined! Just kidding! I guess their toothless and then bucktooth grins are cute too!

Here he is sporting his new mouth, missing tooth and the culprit, his CORN!!

West Fest 2008

This year the boys and I enjoyed our city celebration, West Fest. Friday evening we checked out all of the booths (spinning wheels and winning t-shirts, chapstick, mini flashlights, etc.), ate cotton candy and enjoyed two performances, Josiah Barlow & Abraxas Tribute to Carlos Santana Band. Josiah is a keyboard artist and Gehrig LOVED his music. He begged me to buy his CD (it was only $5, how could I resist? The top right picture is with Josiah Barlow (quick background: he was born with a deformed left hand. His mother was told that he was healthy, but would never play the piano. He started writing music when he was 7 (Gehrig's age).) Gehrig's been listening to his CD ever since (even taking it outside and playing it loud to share with our good neighbors)!

Saturday evening, we went back to enjoy ECLIPSE (Acapella Singers) and the fireworks. They began singing at 9PM, stopped around 10:00 for the fireworks and then finished up afterwards. This is one of my favorite genres of music and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. After the concert, I bought their religious CD and the boys each got a poster for the singers to sign. The top six pictures are the boys with each of the singers (I was pretty good friends with the top middle guy's brother--anybody remember Garrett--big red headed guy? I went to Ricks with him and he was in the Playmill). As you can see in the bottom middle picture, it was WAY past Damian's bedtime. He fell asleep after the fireworks, during the last part of the performance. We didn't get home until almost midnight! YIKES!

The FIREWORKS!!! Check out Gehrig's face in the top left picture and Damian's in the middle. It was so fun to be so close to the fireworks and to hear the patriotic music blaring in the background! By the way, I forgot to mention that we paid $1 to play a game to win a live frog and Gehrig won the game! So, I paid $1 more for a 3 month supply of food and now Flipper Bubbles Shark (our Beta fish) has a companion, Leaping Star (I'm sure pictures will come later!).

Summer Happenings. . .

WHAT ABOUT BOB? Gehrig told me that he caught a caterpillar. Unfortunately, I didn't make it outside to take a look. The next day, I was outside with him when I heard him lament, "My caterpillar is dead!" I noticed that he had put it in a glass jar and I told him that it was probably too hot for him in there. Well, not long after that I came back outside to find him bent over (bottom left picture) something and I thought I might have heard some crying. I asked, "Gehrig, are you crying?" He said, "Yes." He was burying his caterpillar that he had apparently named Bob. (Take a look at the headstone. If you can't read it, it says, "Bob died.") Through his tears he said, "He was even building a cocoon." He "unburied" Bob so that I could take a picture of him (top right). After he was done burying him, he rested on our porch swing and cried a little bit more. Poor kid. I felt for him, but does it make me a bad mother if it kind of gives me the giggles too? He's so cute!

I found this POCKET ROCKET at a garage sale for $20. Lou told me to get it (he had seen one on KSL Classifieds for $45). After a couple of hours of work, he had it running (minus the chain--which is good b/c it can't take off yet, it just makes the sound like it's going to). It's the cutest thing I've ever seen. We all had fun scooting around on it. The boys had fun starting, stopping, and revving it. I'm not sure what I'm going to do when we get a chain. It's apparently really fast and probably too dangerous for our young boys yet. It will be a fun toy for the future though.

Emma wants to be like the big boys! Daddy finally put the purple training wheels on the blue bike and off she went! She's a pro!

Isaiah on Mimi's Slide

The Fort (I give up if this doesn't show this time)

I love how sweet the 14 year old brother was! Look how steep the climb was down from the fort!

Emma's Straight Hair (Posted, yet again--Please Show up!)

So, I can't help trying new things. On Sunday I thought it would be fun to use a flat iron and see how straight I could get her hair. It was quite the process and in the end was not even close to one of my favorite hairstyles on her, but it was fun to try.

It was so funny to see her with straight hair because it got in her face and she had to flip her head to move it out of her eyes, or run her fingers through her hair. I've never seen her do that before, but I guess since it's so curly on its own, it hasn't really been a problem for her yet. Can you believe how long it is?

Just snuggling with Daddy for a minute.

The boys thought she looked like a witch. I told her she was a princess, but I could actually see what they meant by it. The back was not flattering at all. And, as the day wore on and we were outside in the heat, her hair underneath began to curl and mat and the straight hair just straggled over top the curls. The front was cute for a bit though!

Did I Fix all the Picture Problems?

I spent several hours yesterday catching up on my blog (sorry for the MANY posts--I'm doing this for my own records, don't feel obligated to view everything or comment on everything. In fact, I had 292 pictures I COULD have posted. Aren't you glad I didn't?! :) ).

I found out today that there were several problems with the posts. So. . .I've reposted them, but it messed up the order. Hopefully it will make sense to those who care to follow along.

Slip-n-Slide Fun

After having lunch at the park today, we got home a little earlier than naptime, so I decided to be a fun mom and bring out the slip-n-slide and hook it up for the kids. (It's too hot to be outside now without water or shade.) They had a blast. I had fun watching them and weeding my gardens in my swimsuit (need to work on the farmer tan--hopefully none of the neighbors saw). After a little while, I brought Emma and Isaiah in for naps and let the boys continue to play.I'm really sad that I didn't get pictures of what they did next. They have a section of our lawn that they helped kill and now has become their dirt pile. They'll spend hours at a time playing "guys" out there. Today, they brought the hose over and filled little canals they made. Later on, it looked like they had dug themselves a swimming pool! What a mess. They were covered in dirt/mud and were having a great time until the mud fight began and our lovely rocky soil was being thrown. Then, it was time to hose them down and bring them in for "quiet time." I'm hoping that Damian will become a good reader this summer during his daily "quiet times". Sometimes he does them alone and sometimes I let Gehrig help him read or read to him. Anyway. . .we had a pretty fun day today.

I Have a Dream. . .

Generally when so much time passes between my posts, you know that we've been up to some fun stuff and haven't had time to blog about it. Now I'm so far behind and have another fun trip planned for next week, it's going to be hard to give you much detail about our week+ in Idaho! The pictures will tell most of the story! If you follow Camille's blog, you'll have already seen her dream home/property and pictures from our visit there. WOW! Paul was probably afraid he'd have to kick us out after a few days there. We had a blast and the peaceful feeling I got there with big open fields and lots and lots of QUIET. . . .ahhhh. . .yes, I have a dream. . .Maybe someday we'll find something like this for our family! If you're a realtor and want to look for me. . . :)

A steep hike over the hill or around another are Camille & Paul's neighbors. The father is the bishop and they have 8 children ranging in age from 7 to 20 something. The 2 youngest girls and 2 youngest boys were so darling with our children. Pictures to come. Here is their beautiful home and property!! A perfect home, perfect property and perfect neighbors. . .what more could you ask for?? :)

Visiting the Neighbors' New Puppies

I'm so sorry that Quincy's beautiful brown eyes were cut off! OOps! Katelynn was enthralled with the puppies. So were my kids!

I love these shots of Isaiah!

This is what he was looking at!

Riding Sheep

Or falling off them! Nobody really fell off--somebody was always there to catch them.

Gehrig was a bit heavy for the poor little lamb!

Camille was having fun with my camera and the great photogenic, Emma! I really should have done some of these bigger. I LOVE how they capture how much fun she's having on the trampoline at Mimi & Papa's house!

What a mother won't do to keep her kids happy on the ride home. . .I must say, this was the best 3 1/2 hour drive from Idaho or to, I've had! But, towards the end, Isaiah needed something to keep him happy. How about little red licorice?! I had no idea he was wearing it until we got home! :)

Anatomy 101

Lou brought home the remains of a pig our Tongan ward member roasted for a farewell in our ward. As he was cutting it, Gehrig was watching on--fascinated. He was curious about every little thing Lou was doing. In these pictures, Lou is pointing out the spinal cord and the nerves branching out of it. Gehrig had many questions.

I love his expression in this picture. He wanted to take the spinal cord out and keep a "nerve collection" as he called it. I'm not that fun of a mom. I didn't let him. (Neither would Lou.) But at least I have these pictures for posterity. Right?

I wonder what he will be when he grows up? He sure is fascinated by anatomy (human, pig, chicken, etc.).