Monkey School?

Well, here is Connor after playing at recess yesterday. He and his friend Grahm have started a "Monkey School" where they play on the monkey bars each day at recess and after doing certain tricks or stunts they graduate to the next level. Well, Connor graduated to Monkey High School and made it up to Monkey #1 (apparently that is good?). But yesterday as he tried to skip a bar he slipped and fell, which he does most days. But this fall was not so good. He fell on his arm and had to be taken to the ER. That's right, pretty exciting for kindergarten. Of course the school was unable to get ahold of me so they called Ryan and he had to leave work. I got home a few minutes later and wondered why the school had called me and Ryan, but no one left any messages. So I quickly called Ryan and found out where they were.
Connor had broken two bones in his arm and was looking like he had to get pins put in so we had to take him up to Primary Children's. They debated on what to do and decided to try to put it back in first. So they put him out and got it back in, hopefully to stay. We will have to see next week.
But Connor was a trooper through the whole thing and he was hilarious. He was very happy that his younger brothers were not hurt because "they were to little to handle that." Once the drugs got into him he was pretty funny. He demoted himself to Monkey #0 and does not plan on returning to Monkey School in the future.
When he got home he had a phone call from his best friend and cousin, Coleson. Coleson had been a little sad that Connor got hurt and told him that he cried a little bit for him and said a prayer. Well, that got Connor going and he really started crying, I asked him why he was so sad and he told me, "I'm not sad Mom, I'm really happy that I have Coleson for my best friend and I think I feel the Holy Ghost right now." The kid has a soft heart.
Tate was struggling with all the attention Connor was getting but Grandma saved the day by taking him out for a few hours just him. When he got home he was ready to help out with everything and spent all day doting on his brother saying all along, "I'll serve you Connor." Gage could really care less, he is just bummed Connor won't play on the bikes and scooters with him right now.
So we are in for a fun summer, no swimming, biking, scooters, etc. I think we will go visit the library tomorrow.

A Boy & His Boots

You can take the boy out of the country but, you can't take the country out of the boy. I'll admit it, Gage is an exhibitionist. He gets completely naked almost each day and runs around for as long as he can get away with it. But you can always count on him having one thing on, his red mud boots. The boy loves those boots, if only I had gotten him the complete wet suit outfit to go with them. You may all think this is not so bad, but he is not always at home when he decides to let everyone see his stuff.

Recently we were at the gym and I had dropped him off at the childcare center. About 15 minutes later I got called out of my class to come to the day care. I grabbed diaper and wipes because that is usually why you get called out, but I was quickly informed that would not be necessary. I found my little streaker confined to the bathroom completely naked, his clothes were hidden somewhere in the jungle gym and one of the instructors was crawling in there trying to find them. YIKES! How do you explain that one? I tried the, he sees his dad doing it at home and thinks it is funny, but I wasn't sure they believed me. I have since moved back to dressing him in onesies to avoid the naked truth.

Archaelogical Finds and More

Well, I thought you all should know this as it will help confirm your testimonies of the Bible and maybe even give us an idea where the children of Israel ended up. We had the boys helping us weed the garden over at Grandma and Grandpa's house the other day and Connor came running up to us with an exciting discovery. He found Moses "stick" (staff), just laying in a pile of weeds. Can you believe it? Try as he might though he was unable to turn it into a snake, but this did not deter him at all, he quickly concluded that it was so old that it just didn't work right anymore. So there you have it, Moses was once in my in-laws backyard. Good to know.

Then Tate was telling me about the apples at Grandma's house, they are the best apples in the whole world he said. Actually, I bought them and put them in the fridge for a snack for the boys, but I wasn't going to take the glory from Grandma. Connor quickly interceded with his thoughts on the apples, "they are so delicious it is like they take you to heaven and back with every bite." What? Not sure where he got that from. Probably from his dad who thinks living with me feels like that everyday.

If this wasn't enough fun for one post, I'll add some more. My sister-in-law, Jessica, just graduated yesterday, congratulations! Ryan was out of town so I took the kids over to graduation, which was held at UVSC in Orem. The boys were pretty well behaved, even for my standards, considering it was a 3 hour event! Behind us was a very proud parent who videotaped the entire ceremony, he must have very good arm strength to hold the camera that long. About 2 hours into it Gage climbed up on the chair in front of this "parent of the year" and looked right in the camera and said, "you can see me now". We had such a great laugh and some high school senior will now have a good reason to watch their three hour graduation.

Guilty....

Well, I have a confession to make. I am not a pack rat, I throw out everything because I can't stand to have any clutter around. It really bothers Ryan because I am continually throwing away magazines that he is still reading, giving away books he hasn't finished, clothes he thought were still good, paperwork that we apparently need for taxes (this remains to be proven), etc.
Well, today I had Connor helping me clean up the family room and I asked him to put away a recent art project the boys had made. He picked them up and asked me, "should I take care of them like you do when we aren't looking or should I put them in my room?" Hmmm, didn't quite get what he was asking so I asked him what he meant and he responded, "should I put them in the garbage like you put things away when we aren't looking?" I had no idea he had caught on to this daily practice of mine, here I was thinking I was so sneaky. Oh well, it didn't seem to bother him and he wasn't traumatized so we talked a little about how people are more important than things, which he didn't really care about, he just wanted to know, garbage or book shelf? I said book shelf and then threw them away myself about an hour later. Does this get me a nomination for mother of the year?
Probably not, but neither would anything else I do on a regular basis. Like a few days ago when I hollered at Connor while trying to get out the door for church on time. He point blank looked at me and very quietly told me, "sometimes you really scare me." Well, I got to church on time, humbled and feeling like a manure pile. Only to have the Relief Society lesson be on patience, so another nomination rescinded. I'm not doing so hot, but I really do love my boys and they say they love me, we'll see what therapy they will need as adults.

Living in a world of make believe....

Well, many of you know my boys and their over active imaginations. I have always thought it is a good trait to have in children so I have tried to encourage their use of their imaginations. We have a large costume box that is played with daily and there are new super heroes made up each time. But lately they are only interested in one, Nacho Libre. My nephews, Karli's boys, are infatuated with Nacho Libre right now so my boys chose to buy their dad that DVD for his birthday, of course they needed to watch it right away. I have heard nothing since, it is all about stretchy pants, sweats, orphans, and corn (all with fabulous latin accents of course). I don't know how much longer I can take it, even Gage, our two year old, uses the lines over and over again at the coaching of his brothers. There are continual wrestling matches in my family room, all over the furniture. How else can you body slam someone effectively? So, I want to say thank you to Karli and her boys for instilling a love of such great intelligence in my children.
But I have taken the opportunity to instill the love of a great program in my boys, America's Funniest Home Videos. We watch it on Sunday while dad is at meetings and we laugh our guts out. What is so darn funny about people falling, getting hurt and hit in the privates? I don't know, but it is! We have shared many a Sunday afternoon in front of our television watching AFV. Even Oprah did a special on AFV recently, so now my boys are convinced that she is cool.
I have found one problem with this habit however as I have walked in my boys playing "America's Funniest Home Videos" lately. This entails them playing pranks on each other and trying to hurt each other in a funny way. Hmmmm.... not sure how much I like this, let's just say we have been going through a lot more band aids the past several weeks. At least no broken bones yet. Several times they have asked me to video tape their escapades in the hopes of winning $10,000. I suppose I should oblige them, you never know what could happen. But I do enjoy their scheming to come up with ideas of what to do in order to win the prize money, pretty creative!

Mothers Day....?

Well... happy Mother's Day to all you great women out there. I was awoken today by three boys jumping on my bed singing Happy Mother's Day to you, then smothered in hugs and kisses, which were promptly wiped away, just in case those cooties made them fall in love! Then I was given all the wonderful homemade gifts, thank you primary presidency and kindergarten! I received many wonderful "coupons" from my generous boys. Free kisses, hugs, snuggles, bed making, cleaning rooms, gathering laundry, etc. Only last time I checked, my boys already did all these things for "free", part of their rent for living here. But it was such a nice gesture. They also made "beautiful" bead necklaces at their primary activity yesterday, but both decided only to lend me them today and then I have to give them back because they really like them... Hmmm..somewhere along the line I may have neglected giving the lesson on meaningful giving. Oops, yet another way I have failed as a mother.
Ryan even woke up early to make waffles, his favorite breakfast! Thanks sweetheart. Only to have to leave quickly for a 9:00 sacrament meeting he needed to be at, because he was called into the bishopric yesterday. Happy freakin' Mother's Day. I knew this was coming to, not that I am not grateful for the opportunity, and I know he will do a great job. But yesterday as I was walking through the neighborhood and visiting with neighbors I happened to mention to one neighbor what a great break we were enjoying from being "anxiously engaged" in ward callings, we really loved where we were at and what we were doing.
Add to that Ryan's severe mockery of all things holy! Recently our bishop from my home ward moved and they are now replacing him. So Ryan, being the clever fellow he is,made up a "bishop bracketology", modeled after March Madness, ranking everyone in the ward and putting them in a tournament bracket. Then he forwarded it to our old bishop (who is also a great friend) who was being released, WOW! All fun and games, but his blasphemy caught up to him late last night as we sat in the stake presidents office and he received the call. So here we are again, ready for another life change, ready to tackle sitting by myself with three rowdy boys. Life is beautiful isn't it?

What can I do?

Okay, I know this will not be a popular view by most of you but I just have to get it out. I have been somewhat following the recent news in Texas of the children seized from the polygamist compound and I have such mixed feelings. Now, abuse is abuse and children must be protected against it in all instances. But, are we sure that over 400 children are being abused on a regular basis by their parents? Why is it such a surprise that about 10% of those children have had broken bones? Do any of you have boys? Have they had trips to the emergency room? About 20% of my nephews have had broken bones... hmmmm.. maybe their parents should be turned in. 33% of my children have had stitches, twice! Maybe I am an unfit mother. Why does the government intervene in this case, but not when children are in homes across the country being neglected and abused daily? Is it because of their belief system, their lifestlye?
I don't agree at all with polygamy, I find it to be quite horrific that young girls are married off to older men and begin having "families" at the age of 14 or 15. These girls must be given a choice for their own lives, but also for the lives of their babies. Do those mothers love their children any less than we do? Is it fair that babies are being taken from those young mothers because they are underage? Or is the government forcing all underage mothers or rape victims to give up their babies now? Last I checked there are hundreds of thousands of teenage pregnancies and pregnancies from rape throughout the country and each of those girls are given the choice whether to keep their babies or not. But simply because of lifestyle these babies are taken away. I'm sorry but maybe we should take away babies from other alternative lifestyles then; gays, lesbians, drug addicts, gang bangers, etc. None of those lifestyles appeal to me either, but they have rights. How can we take away children from one "unsafe and debilitating" lifestyle choice and not another?
I have seen firsthand the debilitating effects a lifestyle of drug addiction can have on children, but it is not enough for someone to step in and rescue those children, after all, parents have rights! But what about the children? Why can we take them away from one lifestyle and not the other, neither child chose the lifestyle, they were born into it.
Is it so much better to take these children away from their homes and all they know to be put in foster care? Give me a break, the foster care system is greatly flawed. I personally know foster parents who use that as a full time job and have had their own children taken away from them for two to three months at a time while they spent time in the state mental hospital (multiple times), only to go home and have two more foster children put in their "tender, loving" care.
There has got to be a better way..... I am grateful for loving parents, both here on earth and in heaven above. Our loving Heavenly Father must grieve and feel pained each and every day by the choices we are making here each and every day. The way we treat one another and especially his innocent children he has sent here for us to protect. Are we doing all that we can?