Cute Faith and John sitting in my bedroom chair. Faith has found her smile and is so much happier as a "big kid" in kindergarten!

Sunday afternoon playdoh. Oh my goodness - is Johnny holding scissors? Oh boy...how embarrassing!

What's Bang-Clock, Mom?

We have been talking a lot about Mimi's blood clot, and what that means. I have also talked a lot about Aunt Mindy and Uncle Jeff who live in Bangkok! So, in John's world, they came together to be "Bang-clock".

Johnny walks around asking "What's Bang-clock, mom?' Each time he asks this, I must (and I mean, MUST) explain about Mimi's blood clot in her leg. My answer is basically "A blood clot is something in Mimi's leg that really hurts!" He'll ask the same question at least 4 times (requiring an answer after EVERY one) until he's satisfied. Then, he'll ask "Mimi's leg feeling better?" And, my answer is always YES...because, Mom, we hope it IS feeling better!

Another "funny" from Johnny today was in the van on the way to school. After we dropped Grant & Faith, he was singing "Follow the Rocket...follow the rocket (instead of "Prophet") and then giggling at himself! It was so cute!

The other morning, we fixed WHEAT for breakfast. Needless to say the kids are never excited for wheat cereal. Clark heard about what we were having, and came into the bathroom and said "Mom, I don't want MEAT cereal!" Neither would I.

Church yesterday was ROUGH! I was very overwhelmed by the otherwise "normal" Sacrament Meeting. I think I was banking on Andrew showing up at any moment, and then when he didn't (he was meeting with the Stk. Pres.) I was put over the edge. As we left the Chapel, and happened to run into Andrew, I just burst into tears! I hit my breaking point! I can't even really put my finger on why it was SO much harder than usual yesterday, but it just was. I made it through and we re-loaded our church bag with some different "readers" and "Friends", so we'll be ready for next Sunday, especially if Daddy needs to be out again! The Lords plan is to have TWO parents in every family! I am a firm believer in that! The kids need us both, and we certainly need each other!

This is a group we saw at the Kennedy Center Open House Arts Festival. They were very entertaining with all his "gadgets" on his chest. This is a video clip - I hope you can watch it.

On Friday night, we went to the Washington Nationals Baseball game! It was Mormon Night, so there were members of our ward all over the place! We had a great time and stayed for the whole game! I'm not a huge fan of baseball, especially LIVE because we were SO far away from the action, and it's hard to tell what's going on, but Grant seemed to get it, and Andrew enjoyed explaining it to him. Clark and Faith liked the treats and the babies nearby. We even saw our friends, the Greers, at the game.

Here is Faith at the end of the game. I'll let you know how it goes next week! Her team is just so fun! There are 3 other girls on the team that she already knew from preschool. The coaches are darling, so we couldn't be in a better situation!. I think "Less is more" when we talk to her during the game. WE're going to try it.

Clark and John on the "Potomac River Cruise" with our friends the Murrays. Their son, Will, was celebrating his first birthday, so they invited us to go along with them on the "cruise". Andrew took the kids while I drove up to my performance at the Temple Visitors Center. They had a great time, but nearly gave me a heart attack while we were waiting for the boat. They each had a bag of goldfish to feed to the ducks, and Clark was looking WAY over the edge to see the duck get the goldfish. He was so interested in watching that he tried to push past me, and stumbled, nearly falling into the water! I grabbed his britches, or we would have both been going for a swim! The Potomac is not known for it's CLEAN water...let's just leave it at that.

Here's Grant with Washington DC behind him. I can't tell if that's the WAshington Monument, but he looks happy. Sweet Grant had to miss his soccer game to do the boat tour, and was such a great sport about it. He has really grown up a lot. Here's a funny fact...when Grant was 3 years old, he absolutely would NOT sing in Primary. When asked about it,he'd just reply "I already know the words!" So, Andrew and I were sure he'd never sing, never carry a tune and never like Primary.
Well, NOW...he sings his little heart out. So loudly, that I have to ask him to sing softer! It's almost a disruption in Primary. What do I do? I'd rather him sing than not, so I think I"ll just let it go! I sure love my big 7-year-old helper!

Faith on Daddy's shoulders. If you look closely, Daddy is trying to read to them from the scriptures...

They were much more interested in wrestling than reading scriptures. Andrew is such a good sport about it, and patient through the whole time. Sometimes when we get this close to bedtime, I just let him handle them, because I am ready to have a little break and move on to my other jobs...laundry, dishes, etc. Isn't my life exciting?

This is Faith at her very first soccer game! She was so funny. She got out there and was running fast and kicking the ball, but something happened, and her demeanor completely changed for the second half of the game...

She wouldn't even go in and play! We were so confused as to what had happened. She was saying things like "They're all better than I am" and "I'm not even fast!" We just continued to encourage her and tell her that this was fun and she was GOING to like it! Hard as a parent not to get frustrated...we didn't know what had changed in such a short time. But, she did finally change and perked up for about the last 2 minutes of the game, did the "2,4,6,8, who do we appreciate cheer" and had a smile on her face when the treat came out!

Andrew's best face! I know he doesn't want this posted, but it shows his silly side!

Grant on the slip n slide at Grandma & Grandpa Croshaws house. Boy, we had fun with that!

Cousins and water...what could be better?

Mommy and my Princess

The kids favorite song right now is "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan. Faith loves it because it's sung by Donny Osmond (big crush!) and the boys like it because it's about fighting!

Clark knows almost all the words, exactly when to sing and kick - he's looking at himself in the mirror on our wall while he "fights" (looks like jumping to me!) They are so hilarious!

Now it's Johnny's turn. They have so much fun together - but when Johnny's had enough, he has learned to BITE! We're working on that one!