Camp Bandage

I just started helping my friend at her flower shop every Wednesday but I only stayed for 3 hours today so I could watch what the boys get to do when camp bandage comes along. Every year our local EMT, Firefighters, and Police get together at the Civic Center and teach the children all about safety. If you were to ask most parents about it the first thing that would probably come to their head is how their children come home with broken body parts, stitches, and lots of blood....fake of course. Here is Levi getting his "gun shot" wound dressed from one of the volunteers at the VoTech that is training to be a nurse.

Levi, Austin, and their classmates working it for the camera!

I didn't get to be there for the whole thing but it last for about 4 hours as they go from station to station. They learn anything from boating safety to gun safety, to getting to watch one of their teachers getting "arrested" for a DUI while her passenger has to be rescued from their wrecked van and put into a rescue helicopter.

My favorite part was listening to these kids at the station where they got to pick what injuries they wanted. One kid talked about how he got his wound from falling off the Eiffel Tower. That was probably my favorite. Levi had a knife wound on his leg, 2 gun wounds, and some stitches. But my favorite part of today was seeing Levi with Austin. I worry about him not having friends at school and one of the first things Austin said to me when he found out who I was, was if Levi could spend the night. I never thought an invitation for a sleep over would be so comforting!

Fall Soccer

Last Thursday was Levi and Hyrum's first soccer game of the season. It was extra special because it was Hyrum's first time playing. He has been so funny about it. Because he is so little and it is more about the fun, they don't really have practices. Levi, however, is old enough that practices come a few times a week so every time Levi would have a practice Hyrum would get super excited just to get sad when he found out he would not be playing. So at all the practices that I take Levi to, I have to take Hyrum and "practice" with him. Needless to say, he was thrilled when last Thursday finally rolled around.

Tricia is his coach and if that wasn't cool enough, Preston gets to be on his team! By the end of the night, I felt like we had a good amount of the ward watching the game (Wilson, Thatcher, Bishop, Beck, Bass, and Adams families). It was really fun, actually. The only problem was that Levi's game was during the same time. The good thing was, though that they were right next to each other.

Tonight was a game for Levi and I was so excited to have my camera this time (my battery was dead last week). But he really didn't get much playing time this week so I couldn't wait any longer to get my boys on the blog and had to resort to these 2 phone pictures. Here David is about to get ran over by Levi on the field!

These were the only pictures that turned out well tonight. Lately, I have been taking Preston and Brynlee a few days after school so they can have play dates. I love them both but I have to admit that I look forward more to the Brynlee play dates, probably because I finally get a girl in the house. She is just such a sweet heart and I truly do love her. She and Brigham are in the same grade and I love that he will actually play with her. Brigham is completely all about the boy stuff. Levi would play with a girl but Brigham has been a mans man since birth. So I was delighted when I over heard him say today (at our play date) to Brynlee that she should look for him at recess and that they would play. I caught them doing this while Levi was playing soccer tonight. Here they are trying to "attack" each others shadow.

Oh the imaginations of children!

Nico (a.k.a evil tiddy)

This summer we got a kitten from the Roberts family. Not a surprise to a lot of people because I love cats but a surprise to some because David is allergic to them. We tried in Colorado to keep kittens (with the help of allergy medicine) only to have to get rid of the kittens because of David's allergies. We tried again in Utah (this time with a full grown cat) with allergy medicine again but this time we also took the cat to the groomers every few months to have this special treatment (dip) they put on his fur and used a special brush like thing to cut down on the shedding and amazingly it worked! Sam was such a beautiful long haired, blue eyed, Siamese cat. We were sad when we had to leave him behind when we moved to Oklahoma.

Then came Nico (pronounced Knee-co).....or evil tiddy (that is what Cason called him this summer when I was babysitting him) as I called him up until very recently. For someone who really likes cats, this cat sure annoyed me! Annoyed me so much that if it wasn't for David, I would have gotten rid of him a LONG time ago! He is not like any cat I have ever had! Most cats are known for their snobbishness of coming out only on their terms and loving on you only when they want to be pet. I can certainly see why so many people love dogs, I mean, they are so very friendly and want to please their humans all the time but for some reason they bug me. If I wanted another child following me around, well, I'd have another child! I know! Sounds horrible but dogs really do get on my nerves.......so I guess it serves me right that we got a DOG CAT!!!!! This cat always has to be in our presence, comes to the door when someone knocks at it, when visitors come and sit on our coach he immediately sits on their laps (yes, even strangers!), constantly meows (I feel like he is barking at me!), walks right in front of me when I walk around the house (you have no idea how many times I have stepped on this cat.....and yet he keeps doing it!). He is also not afraid of water like dogs. He tries to get in the shower with us (I mean, what cat likes water.....seriously!). One of his favorite spots to just sit is in the bathroom sink....no joke, if you turn the water on, on him, he will just sit there and look at you like, "What? You want me to move?" Ok, so all of this just might be endearing and all you dog lovers out there are probably saying, "Hey, I could actually have this type of a cat." But don't be fooled.....he really was eviiiiiillllllll! He would hide out between furniture or where ever he could and wait for you to walk by and then attack you! Remember, this thing had claws! You would see him being all sweet looking on the couch just laying there and think, "Aw....I want to pet him." But no! He would seem to be sleeping but the second you put your hand on him he would bite you! I'm telling you, he was evil! David found this all hilarious and made it even more fun for him to play with him. He loved that he would attack him back!

Ok, I guess I should say that in Nico's defence he did come from the Roberts home (with 5 crazy kids) and into our home of 3 very hyper boys.....yeah, Nico pretty much never had a chance.....

Here he is is having to be the center of attention. The boys and Daddy got out the Legos and immediately, Nico planted his body right in the middle of it all.

And since he annoys me......I annoy him! Hey, at least they were clean underwear!

Now, this is actually kinda cute. This is Levi's stuffed dog. He loves this dog but has pretty much given it up to Nico. For some reason Nico just loves this dog. He will carry it around in his mouth until he sees a human and then put it down in whatever room that human is in and just tares into it!

Ok, so about a month ago even the kids were begging us to get the cat declawed. I found some back alley vet to take care of his claws, shots, and neutered all for $65....that is a steal! Yeah, he is an old man that should have been retired years ago and his office was disgusting but once again, I didn't really care for the cat so off he was going! I kept telling people that just maybe the vet would "accidentally" put him to sleep.....forever!

Well, he came out of surgery perfectly and I would say "Darn the bad luck" but he actually has changed quite a bit. I have decided that having him neutered must have drastically changed his testosterone levels or something but he doesn't really attack us anymore. Seriously, this cat used to jump on your face in the middle of the night while you were sleeping! One time I was laying down with David watching TV and he jumped on my face and clawed me out of nowhere!

OH EVIL TIDDY........I am so glad you have left!

Downed Tree

How many hours will a "downed tree" entertain children?

We are still counting!

After this picture was taken, city workers came and used a bucket lift to get to the top of the tree to saw some of the remaining branches before taking down the rest of the tree. By the time they were done, the kids had plenty of branches to move here and there to build their rooms in their imaginary castle.

Shaylee and Elton are spending the night with us tonight and with the added neighbor kids, it was quite the party! Here is Casson (the boy that I babysat this summer) and Levi in one of the many rooms they put together.

Shaylee has never been afraid of getting down and dirty....even in her church dress!

Here is "Prince Hyrum" in his room.

Servants Elton and Brigham and taking a nap after their long hard day at the castle.

As I was out talking with our neighbors while all of our kids were playing, I couldn't help but think of today in sacrament meeting. Sister Bullen gave the opening prayer and in it she thanked the Lord for the rain and cooler weather. I wanted to yell, "Amen Sista!" for all to hear so badly! I was in heaven tonight when I watched as one of the neighbors put on a light jacket. This is the first night in months that I have felt like it is actually "nice" outside. I know it sounds so negative but I am being honest when I say that during this summer there were often times when I wondered why anyone would want to live in this state! Record breaking tornado damage, fires, and horrid, humid heat....well, sounds like hell to me! So, I sat back with my neighbors, listening to them laugh with the wonderful back ground noise of our children out playing again in weather that you can actually do it in without worrying if heat exhaustion will set in......I felt like I just might like this state after all.

Wii Wars

Tonight David and I came home from our date with Wii remotes. One of our remotes has been out for a while now and so they were thrilled to know that we had another one......what they didn't realize is that now all 4 of them can play together. I wish I would have gotten on the video their first responses of, "Your the best Dad ever!" and "This is the best day of my life!" and "I can't believe we FINALLY get to play the Wii all together!" They were so thankful! Even after playing and brushing their teeth, Levi's prayer tonight was full of thanks of the new Wii remotes!

This video is of them starting on the couch and just so you know this is MILD compared to the way Brigham usually plays the Wii. Brigham can make even the PlayStation an active sport! It was adorable to watch Hyrum play the Wii. Every once in a while he will "try" to play on the Just Dance game so tonight watching him "play" Mario Brothers was hilarious!