Pack Meeting

Jarom was honored at the most recent pack meeting when he completed Bears and moved into Webelos. Ben is cub master now and is getting more comfortable conducting.

Jarom succeeded in fighting the bear!The boys loved the activity Ben planned-they got to plant a tree at the church. Hopefully we can all watch it grow!

Happy 10th Birthday Jarom!!

Jarom's favorite treat to take to school for his birthday is Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Even in Vegas for kindergarten we took KKs to his class- now it is a tradition. This morning was the grand reopening of the Krispy Kreme by us. It opened today just for him! I went at 6am and was in the drive in line for 50 minutes this morning so he could enjoy his doughtnuts today!

My favorite things about Jarom are:
How willing he is to help out with his younger siblings-he especially loves Thomas (and other babies) and has to say goodbye to him every morning, he is my other set of eyes on Thomas and I appreciate his help with him. Jarom loves books-books are extremely important to him-sending him to his bed is not a punishment, he just picks up a book. He reads at least twice as fast as I do. He is a very loyal friend and enjoys being with friends and cousins. He loves to play games-his favorite game when he was 4 was Spiderman, now he loves playing Cities and Knights of Cataan with us. Jarom can be sneaky-a while ago he hid a old alarm clock in our room and set the time to 3am. The first night I wondered around the room trying to figure out what the noise was until it turned itself off. The second night I figured it out. I tried to be mad at him but couldn't- we all had a good laugh!

I love you Jarom! Happy Birthday!

Black River Trip

Last weekend Ben and his brothers took their older boys on a fishing trip to Black River. Fishing there used to be a tradition that would happen several times a season, but doesn't happen as often now as they would like. Hopefully in the future schedules will work out to go more.

Wyatt, Riley and Jarom crashed!

He didn't catch any fish but got good at casting!

Thanks for the great trip!

Evan's Confessions

Evan and his cousin Wade were born a month and a half apart. Since they turned two Jen and I have been letting them play together almost every week (Okay-we might have a few selfish motives). They really get along well and miss each other if they haven't gotten together. Their favorite things to do are going to sports class, playing Wii-especially Lego StarWars, eating, going to the mall, playing outside, eating a treat after clean up and I am sure Jen could add a few more.

Tonight at my parents house we could barely keep a straight face as Evan was talking. He declared that Mickey was now his best friend and that he has "broken up with Wade." He wouldn't go into details just admitted that they were broken up. Where would a four year old get this from?

Egg hunting at Grandma Skinner's April 2006

Dessert after Pizza Night at our house April 2006

Playing outside October 2007

After discussing his friendships Evan wanted to tell us about a dream he had. He had a puppy that could talk and play Wii-in fact together they beat the entire game of "supersmashbrosbrawl" (He has a way of slurring it all together.) We started to move onto another subject and Evan starts crying. He wanted to finish his story and we hadn't let him. We wait a second for him to stop crying and he says he can't stop. He is trying to calm himself down, trying a few times to push a laugh out, but quickly returns to tears. I suspect it was being tired and thinking about this perfect puppy that would help him conquer a video game! In his mind that would be the ultimate pet. I admit that he is probably the child that I will eventually give into and get a pet. At least once a week he asks for some kind of pet-turtle, ferret, cat, dog(although he is still fighting a fear of them), fish-when he learns about a new animal, he wants to love it. He has kept a teddy bear around that was a gift from Aunt Bethany and Grandma when he got ear tubes at 11months that he has found a new attachment to. For the the past three months "teddy" or "super teddy" has been comforting him and occasionally me-

if I am lucky. We love this kind hearted boy!

Recovered?

It is amazing to me how quickly kids bounce back. From this morning on Thomas has been up to is usual- "let's beat mommy to the garbage...toilet...cereal bowl..and chocolate cookie (which is what is all over his clothes)". This morning he beat me to the baby toy and was up and-you guessed it-fell off before I could get him. He cried for a few seconds, then went right back to do it again. This boy definately has no fear. I'd say that he has pretty much recovered from everything yesterday.

Thomas' Surgery

On Tuesday we took a trip to Banner Desert for Thomas to get tubes put in his ears (the fifth pair for our family!) and to have a hernia repaired that he had developed. He was very excited to have the attention of both of his parents and kept us busy as he ran around and out of the hospital. He charmed all the nurses and was still all smiles as they took him off to the operating room. Everything went well and we feel like we are starting new with the hope that he can live without his ears causing him pain. Thanks to mom for helping get kids to school and watching Evan for us!

Camille's 1st grade Musical

All of the first grade classes had a musical at the school last Thursday. She loves to sing and was very excited for us to come. Both sets of grandparents were able to come to support her. Good job Camille!