Primary Program

Drew and Owen participated in their first Primary Program* at church today. Maybe "participated" is a bit of an overstatement; they did say their short little lines (Drew said, "I can keep the Word of Wisdom." And Owen said, "I can pay my tithing."), but other than that, they just stood there during the songs. Didn't even sing one word. Drew did smile and wave at me from the pulpit, which was really cute. The program went off without a hitch this year, which was a little disappointing, because it's always kinda funny when the kids misspeak or when they sit up on the stand poking each other and making faces at their parents and siblings in the audience.

I'm not usually overly sentimental, but I did get a little teary-eyed when my boys said their lines. I was so proud of them (I honestly thought they would chicken out and not say anything at all)!

*For those who are wondering what I'm talking about: In our church the kids ages 3-11 go to Primary every Sunday to learn about the Gospel (and honestly, to give the parents a break so they can learn, too!). They study different themes every year. This year's theme is Strengthening the Family. And toward the last part of the year, they put on a program to let the parents know what they've learned. It's always very sweet, and sometimes quite funny!

Little Miss Mantha

From this...

To this...

in two short years!

I can never get over how fast time flies. My baby is already two years old! It was funny to me how different she looked on Wednesday, the day before her birthday, compared to Thursday. Suddenly she looked so much more like a toddler and less like a baby. And suddenly her tantrums got so much more volatile, too! She's always had a bit of a temper, but it flares up then dissipates much faster now. Last night she got mad for some unknown reason and she actually jumped into the air, both feet off the ground, kicked both legs out and sat down hard on the kitchen floor. Then she sat there and screamed. When no one did anything, she repeated the maneuver. Still no one did anything, so she climbed up on her chair and started eating her dinner. Less than a minute later she was laughing and making animal sounds with Drew and Owen. Silly girl.

We didn't have Mantha's birthday party until Friday, the day after her birthday, because of conflicts with work, soccer and volleyball games. Good thing she's too little to know the difference. I snapped a few pictures of Mantha on her actual birthday, for my own sentimental reasons. Here they are:

In the playhouse.

Coloring in the fresh air.

Special birthday hairdo.

I had a lot of fun making Samantha's birthday cake this year. I wanted to do a Samantha Cake, so my sister Roz helped me find pictures to copy. I liked this one the best:

I wanted the cake to be just about Samantha, though, so when I copied the picture I left out the little boy.

First, I sketched the outline in the frosting with a toothpick.

Then I traced over the outline with black icing.

I added stripes around the edges to sort of complete the old-fashioned look, and to add a "pop of color," as they say on What Not To Wear. It didn't look exactly like the original picture, but I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Samantha liked it, too!

Samantha liked her presents, too. She was so funny when we took her to the store to pick a toy. We would show her a toy and ask, "Do you like this one, Samantha?" and she'd say, "Nooooo," then she'd laugh and run to the next toy. There was a little learning center that she played with the most, so that's what we got her.

She also got some new clothes and a new bed from Grandma and Grandpa Canfield! She loves it now, but when we first set it up and showed it to her, she started crying and wouldn't go near it because she thought we meant for her to go to bed, and she'd just woken up from her nap twenty minutes before! I don't have a picture of the new bed; it's a very cute antique bed that Grandma C. fixed up and bought bedding for. Samantha got sick last night, though, and all that adorable bedding is in the wash so I'll have to get a picture some other time.

If anyone needs a crib or know someone who does, let me know. We have two cribs, but only one mattress (one of the mattresses was really old and falling apart so we junked it).

End of Summer Update

Haven't been to the ol' blog in a while. I still read all my friends' blogs, even though I don't often comment, so I don't feel completely out of the loop. When I first started blogging I thought of events and things that happened in my life from the viewpoint of "I could blog about that." Now I'm so out of the habit of blogging I don't even know where to start. So I'll post a bunch of pictures that I've accumulated over the summer and describe them a little. That should do the trick as far as keeping a record for posterity...

What kind of summer would it be without plenty of ice cream and Popsicles?

We had a family reunion at my house, but not everyone was able to make it (including myself) so we had a second reunion at Bear Lake. It was loads of fun, and the kids had a blast playing with their cousins!

My kids are suddenly fearless when it comes to water (compared to last summer when they would hardly go near it). Drew is especially brave when he has his life jacket on.

Owen, Drew and cousin Ellie on a merry-go-round. If I remember correctly, they all bailed before the ride was finished, which made for some tricky kid-juggling.

We also went to American Falls Reservoir. I don't know why we keep going back there. I guess because it's free and it's close to our house--just 20 minutes away. But the water is always so filthy!

Samantha didn't want to go in the water, so she sat on the shore chucking rocks into the water the whole time.

After we go to the reservoir, we go visit David's grandma. She always brings out this little car garage, which has been around forever and which the kids absolutely love.

I found this bug while cleaning the BLM building one evening. I have no clue what it was. It's body was shaped like an ant's, and it had six legs that it actually used, plus two appendages that just sort of did nothing, and two long antennae on its head. Its head and legs were reddish-brown, and its body was gray. Legs and all, it was about two and a half inches diameter. Huge! I couldn't bring myself to squish it, so I just took pictures, cleaned around it and left the room as quickly as possible.

I had some time off so I took the kids to visit my sister Roz. Roz lives not far from my Grandma Archibald, so we went to visit her, too. Drew was being a pill and wouldn't look at the camera. Oh, well.

The day after we visited my Grandma, we went wakeboarding. Our friend's boat is super nice; even I can wakeboard successfully behind it. (By "successfully" I mean that I can get up and ride. I can't do any tricks or anything.) This is just a picture of the full moon that rose as we were cleaning the boat at the end of the day. It made me think of James' Giant Peach. It was gorgeous and this picture does it no justice whatsoever.

Yesterday we went to a Railroad picnic. They had a firetruck there, which was the boys' favorite part.

Owen hopping down from the firetruck.

Drew sitting in the truck.

Samantha's favorite part was the playground. That girl is fearless! She'll shimmy up all the steps and ladders, and go down all the slides. The bigger the better! This little slide is surprisingly fast, but she seemed disappointed at how short it was.

We had the scare of the summer yesterday. Samantha and the boys were playing on the playground while I helped out with the Railroad picnic. I turned around to check on the kids and none of them were where I left them. A few seconds later I saw Drew and Owen. I asked them where Samantha was. Drew said, "That man taked her." Panic!! My heart almost stopped. I started running around trying to find her. Finally I saw my friend's mom holding her. My friend's brother had seen her on the playground crying and bleeding from the forehead, so he "taked" her to his mom who is a nurse. The mom was on her way to the announcer station when I found them. I'm just glad that the kid who found her happened to be someone we knew, and we got her back safe and sound (if a little bloody from the playground).

Samantha turns two this coming Thursday. I can't believe it! My baby is not a baby anymore! We're going to make a Samantha cake, and I got her some really cute clothes (which she helped pick out) for her birthday. I'll make sure to post some pictures before she turns three!

Oh, I almost forgot to even write about this: I got a new job. Yay! I started working as a Dental Assistant last week. In Idaho, you don't have to be certified to be a Dental Assistant, and a lot of dentists like to hire people with little to no experience (that's me!) so they can train them to do things a particular way. I love my new schedule: it's Tues-Fri, with varying hours depending on when the first and last appointments of the day are. Also, the dentist takes days off every so often, so I have days off dispersed here and there, including an entire week in October (too bad it's without pay). I like the work, too. It's pediatric dentistry, and it's fun to work with kids. A lot of them are scared, which can be tricky, especially with their parents hovering around, but they're all so cute. And it's fun to talk to them about keeping their teeth clean and healthy. I think this will be the start of a good career. I still want to do Dental Hygiene, but it will probably be a while before I get back to school since David's job still doesn't feel very secure yet. But at least working at the dentist office, I know that I'll be dumping all that tuition money into a field I enjoy.