Blessings

We blessed the TP on the last Sunday in August. It was so nice to have all 4 of my brothers there, and fun to have all the family (sans Elder and Sister missionaries and my sister and her fam). The LG was up to his usual antics, devouring half of the Better-Than-Sex cake with his cousin right before everyone was to walk out the door. I must give credit where due, however, and mention that they were at least considerate enough to get most of it in their mouths and not on their clothes.





I also really wanted my brother to photoshop my bangs into place on that first photo, but in his laziness the quick job resulted in me looking like part of a toupee had dropped from the sky and landed on my forehead. So much for his mad photoshop skills.

In other news, the TP slept through the night last night after throwing an expected tantrum for about 2 hours the previous 2 nights. I am a stickler for weaning them from that 3am feeding as soon as the experts say they won't starve. It's amazing how different children can be at even 3 months. The LG only cried for 20 minutes one night and then we were done. The TP's fits put him to shame. (That said, I realize many parents have a much harder/longer time in dealing with this. I hope I never have to understand. Just don't start sending hate mail!)

Lastly, the LG is as amusing as ever, keeping us laughing in those precious and few moments between our impatience, his craziness, and time outs. A few LGisms for your amusement:

After waking from a nap, he rambles up the stairs to exclaim, "Mom, the monsters are coming, they're going to eat my bum."

"Hurry mom, there's no time to lose", he says as he punctures holes with a pen in a cardboard box.

After asking my brother to go pick up a box of books at the neighbors' house, I see that the LG is sneaking out the door. As I impatiently question what he is doing he replies, "I have to go mom, I'm going to get the books at Marilyn's." Ahhh, mommy's little helper.

Finally, perhaps the most amusing thing he has done all summer (so far) was when he was playing Hide Seek and Destroy (thanks for teaching them this one Uncle M - you know who you are) with his 5-year old cousin. Big R (cousin) kept trying to get the LG to drop to the ground when he received a fatal blow indicated by machine gun noises and a croquet mallet that was pointed his direction. The LG wasn't really going along/paying attention/interested, much to Big R's dismay. In an effort to demonstrate, the Big R tells the LG to shoot him (the LG was suddenly paying attention). As Big R is laying there, dead, with both eyes closed, the LG slowly raised his mallet over head head and planted it smack down in the Big R's man part. You may think I am so cruel for laughing, but it was one of those moments where all the adults knew exactly what was coming, but were unable to either stop the event or stop lauging. It took a few seconds for me to compose myself enough to put the smack down myself (minus the smacking becuase not even I can see the logic behind that response in this case). Sorry Big R, he'll outgrow this someday, right?

One more thing...These are the passport pics for our kids. Yes, we were planning to use them to move to China. We were one email away from doing it. Who knows, maybe in January. Until then, we plan to use them to take the kids to Canada next month. Thanks Homeland Security for giving us a good use for a passport for a 3 month old ; )