Grove City Pool

Yesterday the boys and I met Tricia and her kids (they brought Shaylee) at the Grove City Pool. It is only a few weeks old and as you can imagine, the boys have been really wanting to go. I was nervous about going without David but April and her family had went and she assured me that the boys would be just fine. My boys are not good swimmers and water makes me nervous as it is so when we are in water, I always make sure that Daddy is nearby to help me watch. But the "kiddy" section was just as April had described and as you can see we had Hyrum "floatied out!" That boy wasn't going under water anytime soon!Top: Sofie and Brynlee

Bottom: Sydney, Morgan, and Shaylee

I should have known that it wouldn't be long before Brigham was very confident in the water!

We ended up staying for 5 hours! As you can imagine, they didn't really want to leave when it was time to go but they didn't fight me on it which was nice. We all slept very well last night!

Activities

This week seems to have been full of activities. The library has a slew of summer programs this year but we haven't been able to go to most of them due to work and camps. This week was my first week completely free to just play with the kids. Though there were times that I was lazier than I should have been, I think that for the most part we had fun. We did some "homework" workbook stuff that the boy's teachers sent them home with for the summer that they actually really enjoy doing. We swam at a friends pool and had dinner with friends. We attended 2 baptisms. Ate outside - ate in front of the T.V. Water balloons and the list goes on.

Here is Hyrum "pouting" at one of the summer library programs. On Wednesday was "Mad Science." There was a lady there that did a few cool science experiments but as you can imagine, it was kinda boring to a 2 year old as she was explaining the "science" part of the experiments. He kept getting up and walking over to me just to turn right back around and sit with his brothers who were in the first row. This is him pouting after I had just told him that he had to stay sitting down. Elder Sattler and Elder Brooks have faithfully been coming over nightly to set this trap up to catch the annoying critters that get into our trash cans, knock them over and spread out our trash around our yard. They have caught 3 opossums, a cat, and finally a raccoon! We are pretty sure that most of the damage is happening from a raccoon. It was kind of sad though knowing that they needed to be killed (except the cat though.....any one who knows me knows I would NEVER let that happen!) because one of the opossums was a little older than a baby and raccoons are kinda cute. I'm already over it though......I think I've been around boys to long....
I shaved Levi's head tonight but first he wanted to have a little fun with it. He wanted me to shave it like Aang from the show Avatar: the last airbender. I just laughed at myself as I messed it up over and over so then we decided to get some makeup out just for fun...it still looked pretty lame but we got a kick out of it!

Marlana Dempsey is a friend of mine from High School. She is probably one of the very first friends that I made when first moving to Oklahoma as a child. I have so many memories with this girl; driving to her doctor's appointment in St. Louis, MO for a future surgery that would later be named after her (for scoliosis), many a slumber parties where we dipped some poor girl's hand in warm water in hopes of making her pee the bed (and yes, the famous freezing of the bra of the first one asleep), nicknames, girl problems.....if you are a girl reading this, you know the friend(s) in your life that I'm talking about. Over the years we have made many other friends but we seem to find each other over and over again. We may lose touch at times but one thing is always true of Marlana; I have no doubt that she would do anything for me.

She and her family invited us over tonight to her house for dinner and a swim. As you can see on David's face below, it turned out to a night full of "man" fun! Levi got to practice his new "gun skills" as Hyrum watched from inside with me. Sometimes that little guy wants to be so much like his big brothers! He wanted to do what they were doing so badly but of course, over protective mommy wouldn't have anything to do with that!

Here is Brigham and Garland before taking off on the 4 wheelers. Garland was such a good little babysitter all night!
After eating lots of "man meat" we headed off to the lake.

I should have got this next picture on video instead of picture. Hyrum was so stinkin cute trying to "swim" over to John. It took a lot of coaxing but he finally got down in the water and tried to swim out to him. He never did do anything with his feet but he really did try to flap those arms around.

A Brigham Lesson

A few hours ago I had a wonderful teaching moment with Brigham. Though not what expected; rather him teaching me.

Levi and Brigham were suppose to be cleaning their room when they got in an argument over who was lying. Brigham said that Levi told him to put Hyrum's giraffe on Mommy and Daddy's bed. Levi said that he didn't. At this point Daddy was tired of all the fighting that happens when 2 little boys are cleaning a room that they don't want to be cleaning. He sent them both to a corner and they had to stay there until both of them told the truth. Even in separate corners I could hear them arguing over who was lying but they needed to work this out so we left them be. After a while dinner was ready and it was getting cold so I decided to try to coax them into getting this corner thing done! I used the, "If you are not out of the corner in 5 minutes you get no snacks" bit as well as a few others and nothing seemed to work. I was getting irritated but then I started feeling that Brigham was the one telling the truth. Now you have to understand my boys. Rarely does Levi tell a lie. Brigham isn't this huge liar but he tends to be the naughty one out of the two boys and of course he doesn't want to get in trouble so out comes these lies at times. So statistically, I should have assumed that Brigham was the one lying. Levi wasn't acting weird; I just got the feeling that I should calmly explore this. So I calmed down and talked to the boys about how unfair one of them was being to their brother. That because of them lying the other one has to stand in the corner and now as the time goes on they are also losing their chance at getting a snack after dinner. This is where Brigham starts to amaze me. He tells me that he prayed to Heavenly Father on what to do and that He told him to tell the truth. Then he asks me, "If one of us tells the truth, will you be mad?" Normally that comment would follow with him admitting that he had lied but I still felt that he was being honest. So I told him that I wouldn't be mad but still neither one was budging. Then Brigham asked me to do something that I really did not want to do. He asked me if I would pray to Heavenly Father about who was lying. I have to admit that I acted like I hadn't heard him until I realized that I had to answer. Wasn't I just in Primary this morning watching as Levi gave the lesson on the Holy Ghost? I guess I didn't have the faith like this little boy of the Holy Ghost and what Brigham knew could be accomplished. Even though now as I look back on this experience, the Holy Ghost was prompting me the whole time, wasn't he? Anyways, I told Brigham that I would pray about it and then as I still wasn't sure this would work I told both boys that this is what would actually make me angry; If I went to the Lord and found out that way instead of them telling me the truth. Don't get me wrong, it would have made me mad but I think more than anything I was afraid of praying and not getting an answer. Oh to have the faith of a little boy. Anyways, Levi got the message and confessed right away. I was so very proud of Brigham at that moment that there wasn't a single mad bone in my body at Levi. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Brigham's proud smile as Levi told the truth and we praised Brigham for what he did in his prayers and for Levi telling the truth. It wasn't a smile of, "I told you so!" It was just a smile of pure happiness. I sure do love that boy.

Cub Scout Day Camp: Day 2

Day 2! Yesterday was a scorcher! I think my mom told me it got up to 97 degrees and a lady at camp said the heat index was at 105. Oh how I really don't like the humidity here! To top it all off I started my period that morning....needless to say, Daddy is at the camp today dealing with the port-a-potties (Thank you Marlana and John! I've been impressed with how clean they have been!) and the heat and all that! The boys were rewarded with a good ol' hose down after lunch!
They went fishing again and I had to take a picture of this boy in our group. He got all excited as his bobber went down in the water but as he was reeling it in all we saw was this mass of gunk that the boys were calling "seaweed." He was disappointed as he pulled it completely in but then another boy screamed, "There really is a fish in there!" As we moved the "seaweed" around there was a little guy in there after all!
And then our first time fisherman caught his own fish! He was so excited! Only 2 boys caught fish in our group that day and Levi was one of them!

This was Levi's first time shooting a BB gun.

By the time Levi and I got home we headed straight for the showers and scrubbed off our many layers of Off and sunblock. I found a tick crawling on me but so far we have been lucky and haven't had one stuck on us.

We very rarely buy fast food but last night we had the funds and I just really wanted to veg in front of the TV with my little ones. So Daddy did his homework while me and the boys ate Taco Mayo while laughing at Evan Almighty. It was a perfect evening!

Cub Scouts Day Camp

Today Levi started his cub scout camp. It goes from 9-4 for the rest of the week. Not only is this his first cub scout camp but he fished and did archery for the first time.

Levi was disappointed when we had to go to our next station and he hadn't caught a fish yet. I think he thought that you always catch a fish when fishing. And yes, that nasty green stuff you see on the top right hand corner of the picture is the pond we were fishing in....yummy!
Next was our guest speaker...a snake man! I don't really care for snakes but I loved watching this man teach us about snakes. He seemed like such a calm and gentle man for one to be handling and loving snakes all the time! This is a rattlesnake that he has in his hand in this picture and yes that is a brave boy touching it!

I learned a lot from this man today. One being the difference between poisonous and non-poisonous snakes. Poisonous snakes have a triangular shaped head of have those "cat like" eyes. Non poisonous snakes have round heads and round eyes. Though they can still bite and have very nasty mouths so you should clean it right away.

Levi said he liked it all but I think archery was probably the hardest for him. The guy teaching the boys kept forgetting Levi is left handed and would show him everything right handed before he would remember and so Levi kept messing up. I could tell the man was getting irritated with Levi. But I had to remember that it was very hot and humid out and everyone was feeling it.

It's hard to see it but I got a picture of Levi's arrow in the air!

Our next place to go was to the BB guns but we only got as far as the rules when it started pouring down rain. But as you can imagine with a bunch of young boys, that didn't stop them in finding things to do. Before we knew it they were catching water and throwing it on each other!
The storm sent us all home early. Our camp is out in the country in an area that I wasn't familiar with. As we were leaving, Levi got out our directions and tried to get me to use them but I told him that I thought I knew the way home. Well.....I ended up in Vinita.....the town going the opposite direction of Grove! Levi looked up with a funny look on his face and said, "Mom! We should have used this!" as he held up the directions (when I told him that I went the wrong way).

So we pulled in to town where there was a Sonic and we stopped to get us a treat. The time that it took at Sonic and the extra driving got us to an accident that had just happened- just outside of Afton- just in time to be of help. I have no doubt that the Lord wanted me to take the wrong way home. We came up on this car that had hydroplaned into lots of water in a field. As we were passing I realized they were some ladies from the cub scout camp with about 4 kids. They already had someone there trying to pull her car out of the water (the water had risen to about mid-calf in their car) with their vehicle by the time I got there. The kids were out and everyone was safely in another car. But the poor driver was a wreck. Her lip was quivering, she was pulling at her hair and she couldn't get a hold of AAA. During the hustled of getting her and the kids out of the car, she lost her keys in the rising water. They needed to get those kids home so Levi and I stayed with her, Michelle, and her son, Dalton, while we waited for help. But before her friend left with the other kids I over heard her friend saying something about not wanting to leave her without her medicine. I found out that she was on Xanax for anxiety/panic problems. The Lord put me there at that place at that moment for a reason because I never go anywhere without my medicine! It took a little bit but before I knew it, she was actually laughing! I have hoped for a long time that I would be able to help someone else who struggles with the same things I do. I'm really grateful that the Lord felt I could help her today. Anyways, this picture is of Levi and Dalton playing with a crawdad that a guy that was helping us found crawling across the road. Boy was this storm misplacing a lot of us!

Help finally came, as well as my wonderful husband who came to check up on me, and like a crazy person I am on this computer and not chillin!

Splash Pad

Robyn called me not to long ago to get us and Brandi together with our kiddos. It's hot and the splash pad is free...perfect! Of course, when we got there do you think our children spent the majority of the time in the water?Of course not! Off to the playground they went!
In their defense, it was kinda windy.

Here is Robyn's little girl, Jayden. Thank goodness I took Shaylee and Brandi brought her nieces because when us girls get together with our kids, it's usually just a slew of boys around.

As always, I'm grateful that Robyn sets these things up for us. We always say that it is sad that we live so close together and yet we only get together every few months. But I thought about it on the way home and maybe it is good that we do this rarely. I really enjoyed their company today. It was fun to laugh with some girls. And maybe I wouldn't cherish it as much as if we did this all the time.

Our Memorial Day Tradition

Monday turned out to be a very busy day for our family and before we knew it, time had passed and I was burned out. It was time for a break! So we put off our usual Memorial Day tradition and stayed home for the evening. Today wasn't any different. Very busy but we couldn't keep putting it off. So after work today (I worked at Annie's today) the missionaries and the Wilson family came over for Family Home Evening. The missionaries could only stay long enough for dinner so by the time that F.H.E. started it was just the 2 families (minus a few Wilsons). I spoke for a little bit on why we celebrate Memorial Day but we mainly focused F.H.E. on the activity; decorating graves. We usually decorate children's graves that have not been decorated but we didn't have much luck with that (I guess that is good though) so we found a lot of veterans graves. It was kind of fitting because of how well the City of Grove had decorated the cemetery with flags. They were everywhere and it was a beautiful sight.
I really enjoyed having the Wilson family with us because they are in the same boat as David and I were in when we started this tradition; living in a state where we had no family graves to decorate. Plus, it helps that I love the mom so much! Tricia has been so good for me. Have you ever known someone who you look up to so much that you just want to be around them in hopes that some of that goodness rubs off on you? That's how I feel about my Tricia Wilson. I love her so much.

Just as we were leaving I finally found a child's grave that wasn't decorated. It was very old and had something growing on it. It needed our love. I can't imagine the pain those poor parents went through losing this little one. Once again, I am very grateful for my children's health.