House Project

We have been sick of our old child hazord, ugly, 70's railing. One of the many issues, is that it is very difficult to put a baby gate on it. Munchkin (when she was a baby) two times leaned up against it and it and fell down the stairs. We had put a couch against it as well so the kids don't walk through it and fall down the stairs. We have wanted to do this for years, but now with Buddy Boy crawling, he has kind of forced us to take measures so he does not fall down the stairs. I was going to take a before shot, but I forgot. I'm sure we can all remember the nasty, dirty thing anyway. ~Dad

Science Experiment

Munchkin enjoyed this Science Experiment all morning long. The fun was wondering if the balloon would get big enough to pop. We are itching for spring and desperately trying to come up with fun stuff to do in the winter. ~Dad

Burns

Today about 4 hours ago, I was cooking bacon. While transferring the bacon to a plate, I lost my balance and fell, dumping a plate full of hot bacon grease right on Buddy Boy's head. He was screaming, I was screaming, and Munchkin was screaming. I thought it had gotten into his eye, but thank goodness it didn't. It went all the way down his forehead and onto his eyebrow and cheek, but somehow missed the eye. Anyway, once I'd soaked his poor little head and face with a wet rag, I got him calmed down a bit. Once he was calm I put a couple of drops of Melaleuca oil on his face. I KID YOU NOT, I can't even see the burn anymore!!! He's been a happy baby ever since!

I'm NOT mentioning this to sell Melaleuca to anyone. I'm not even a distributor anymore. I wanted to share the story for two reasons:

1. Melaleuca oil is a MUST have in my house. If you know a distributor, you might want to look into getting some for your house. It stinks like heck, but I've never seen anything like this...it was worth it.

2. I'm convinced that my children are being watched over, despite my stupid (STUPID STUPID) mistakes. What a relief to know that Dad and I are not the only ones who worry about their well being. To have grandparents, friends, and most importantly, a Savior and a Heavenly Father that are all watching out for them as well means more than the world.


The things that happen to children...it's a wonder any of us survived childhood!

Beloved Prophet, Beloved Man

A touching article about President Gordon B Hinckley can be found at the church website. Here's the exact link: http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/beloved-church-president-gordon-b-hinckley-dies-at-97#continued

Some tidbits that help showcase the amazing things this man did:

-In 1999 the church had 56 operating temples. In 3 years that number DOUBLED, largely in part because of the smaller temples that were being built.

-In April 2001, President Hinckley initiated the Perpetual Education Fund, a program dedicated to helping members receive a higher education who normally would be unable to.

-In 2005, he traveled nearly 25,000 miles on a nine-day, seven nation trip to meet with members of the church.

-He was awarded, among MANY other things, the Distinguished Service award by the NAACP, and The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W Bush.

Those are just some official facts about the man. Personally, he changed the lives of millions. I know, because I was one of them. He will be greatly missed, and the world is an emptier place without him here. However, I get chills imagining the kind of reunion he must have experienced as he returned home, to his sweet wife and so many others.

happy boy

For a couple months Buddy Boy was having a difficult time finding happiness. He was in and out of fevers, and his teeth were bothering him. About a week ago he woke up one morning in a happy mood and has been happy since. I think his teeth have finally stopped bothering him. He even stood up without using the help of something. Yesterday Munchkin was playing with him, and she mentioned that she just loves him so much and wanted to cuddle with him all night. It has been awesome for the whole family to have our happy boy back. ~Dad

It Starts...

Ah, love. Puppy love. Young Love. Twitterpation. Whatever you want to call it, my daughter has it. It began around Halloween. She told me about a boy in school named Isaac who liked to make a click sound with his tongue. She would click back at him and they'd giggle. I thought that was as far as it would go, but I was wrong. Oh, so wrong! Wednesday Munchkin left preschool sad, saying that Isaac didn't want to be her friend cause he spent a lot of time playing with other kids. I told her not to worry about it, he still liked her, etc. Well, today he made it up to her. She came out of preschool with the biggest smile I've seen, and told me that I was right, he still liked her. Turns out he made her two paper hearts at home and brought them to school to give her. One has a picture he drew of the two of them together!! She's been prancing around the house ever since. As you can see from the two videos below, Munchkin's been hit hard by the love bug. And so, much earlier than I expected, the saga begins...