Gratitude=sister on timeout, daddy going potty,....and beans

Yesterday Jack said the lunch prayer and Jayci said the dinner prayer. They are to the point where they pray unassisted and actually say their own words. While it can be the sweetest thing in the world, sometimes it's just hilarious. Jess and I were literally shaking trying not to laugh out loud. (The potty part was so out of the blue, we have no idea where that came from, but it was so funny!)

Jack's Prayer:
"Our dear Heavenly Father, we're grateful for this day, and that Jayci's on time out so we can eat. Bless the food to nourish and strength-uh-bodies. We're grateful for Mommy, Daddy, Jack, and Jayci, and that daddy go potty. We're grateful for.........................(mumbles).....................and our drinks. We say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. "

Jayci's Prayer:
"Our dear Heavenly Father," then whispers, "oh wait, I need a bean." She eats a bean off her plate and the rest of the prayer is indiscernible because she's chomping the bean that she couldn't wait 30 seconds to eat.

Dear Dune Buggy Hat...

Jack misses you! Please come back!

*If anyone has any info on this missing hat or if we left it at your house and it's just floating around there please let us know. Your reward will be a four year old's euphoria!

Delight

I finally went grocery shopping. Our fridge was empty. Milk, gone. Bread, gone. Eggs, gone. Meat, gone. Cheese, gone. Cereal, gone.

Costco's produce was simply unforgettable. I had to bring most of it home and was still sad to leave the melons there!

(this picture was taken with my nice camera, then the battery died and the pics below were taken with my old one. I'm just noticing how much better all the colors look in it. I think I'll be keeping my battery charged from now on.)

Then even more from Maceys.

Didn't think about where I'd fit everything.

PS- Maceys is having awesome sales on their meat. (and food storage items such as rice, wheat, flour, sugar, honey. I didn't take pics of that, but I got some killer deals!)
(Yes, I know, we are carnivores!)

Swimming Lessons

These are pictures from the kids' first day of swim lessons. I've wanted to do them ever since Jack was a baby but just never got around to signing up and finally this summer I called my friend from high school who teaches and asked if she'd come do private lessons. Sarah wanted her kids in private lessons too so we are doing them in their pool.

Jack's favorite part is diving for the blue rocket.

Gwendolyn (aka former Miss Orem. She's gorgeous!) is 7 months prego and you can't even tell!

Here Jayci is learning to flip from back to front. Gwen sings a cute pancake song and when the pancake gets flipped she flips them over. Jayci loves it!

I am completely amazed at what my kids have learned in just 3 lessons! They are already ten times braver and do things that I've never been able to get them to do. Why is it that kids listen to other people so much more effectively than their own parents? It's been so fun and cute to watch them and see them learn.

Opportunity's Knocking

I don't normally do this on my blog but it's just an amazing opportunity. For all those who have ever thought about making some extra money on the side or for those who are as obsessed with children's literature as me this is worth reading.

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Happy Birthday Jack!

We started the day out with Jack's favorite breakfast: PANCAKES

and then had to quickly get dressed up and ready to go to Daybreak for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. (see previous post for more on that)
Jack loved being shuttled in on golf carts even though it was only a 30 sec ride because we had good parking.

When we got home we let the kids find their big presents. This was one gift I was really excited about because it took me a lot of time to track some of these down. I looked online but shipping was outrageous and they wouldn't have gotten here in time, and only three stores in Utah even carry them. Of course the two closest stores were sold out so I drove to a bike store in Salt Lake and purchased their last ones. I was definitely more excited than the kids and was expecting some huge reaction out of them, but Jesse accidentally left them in the garage the day before and while I was watering my front lawn all of the sudden they both come out of the garage riding them, so I told them they weren't ours and hid them in the motorhome. Sure enough, there was very little surprise and reaction the next day for the big reveal. It also didn't help that Jack went tearing into the motorhome and jumped on the couch where they were hidden under a blanket, probably thinking it was a pile of blankets and he'd have a nice, soft landing. He had little interest in finding the surprise that gave him bruises (and I'm sure lots more to come!).

They still had fun and have loved learning to ride them.

Jesse's parents came over to give Jack his gifts. I love Jack's face here; tongue out and everything!

This boy's new obsession is legos. He LOVES them and is surprisingly good at building them. Must be Jesse's son!

Later that night we headed to Dallin's house (in the process of being built) and had Jack's pool/pizza party. It was sooooo much fun!! Many many thanks to Dallin and Sarah for graciously letting us use their pool.

Here's Miss Independent who won't let anyone touch her. She insisted on swimming by herself the whole night.

Here's Grandpa Kenny's dive. Not bad!

The whole gang who could make it (+me behind the camera)

I took all this time to make Jack a lego icecream cake, but obviously wasn't thinking very clearly as I had no way to get it to Dallin's and keep it frozen because their house is under construction and no freezer was available in the 95 weather, so we stopped at Macy's and cleaned out their donuts.

I thought it was cute that all the kids chose the same kind. I'm pretty sure the sprinkles affected their decisions.

Thanks to everyone for making Jack's day so special!!!

What?!?

Do I seriously have a four year old?!?

I know I'll say this every birthday, but wow, where does the time go? Four years ago I was in the hospital having just given birth to my first little angel. Oh how I love him!!!

One of my most favorite things about Jack is his sweet, gentle side. This morning we took him to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house with my parents and some of the non-members in our neighborhood. There was also an elderly woman my parents brought along, Sister Krey, who is an active member in our ward who need to be pushed in a wheelchair throughout. Jack, who never knew her before today, went right up to her and held her hand and chatted with her the whole time in the temple. He showed her all the paintings of Christ hanging on the walls and when we got to the baptisimal font, which is a point of fascination for Jack, he got so excited and opened his brochure to show Sister Krey the picture of it. "We found it!", he kept saying. He was also quite the little gentleman. When we had to go through doorways that wouldn't fit a wheelchair and a little boy side by side, he'd go in first, turn around, take her hand and lead her through. Seriously, it was precious. He has such a good heart.

To be continued......
(I'm pooped! Also pics of the party coming soon. We had a blast!)