Out of the routine

Henry got the 24 hour flu that's been circulating and so we canceled our Earth Day garbage pick-up in the park and I quarantined him in his room so he wouldn't infect Bea or me and it seemed to have worked. This afternoon I was finally convinced that he wasn't sick anymore and I let him touch Bea and the two of them were overjoyed to be able to interact again. They were wrestling, playing and laughing like they hadn't seen each other for years! It's so wonderful to see how much they missed each other. Henry took such a long nap yesterday that he didn't go to sleep until midnight! I was reminiscing back when he wouldn't get to bed until sometime between midnight and one am when we were waiting for Justin to get home. I can't believe he actually had that schedule! I made sure he didn't take a nap today so he went to bed at the normal time of 8pm. I left him in his room to unwind while I put Bea to bed and when I went back in there, he was nestled in his bed ready to fall asleep when I peeked my head in to say good-night when he said in a tired, scruffy voice, "we need to read the Book of Mormon". I had totally forgotten! We sat together and read the story of young Nephi and Lehi while they were missionaries and were protected by a ring of fire and converted all the Lamanite prison guards. He LOVED the story. I can't wait to go down to Washington DC tomorrow and go to the LDS bookstore so I can get some fun things for our Book of Mormon party when we finish. We're going to have a great time. Thanks for inspiring us to read Henry. We love you so much!

American Idol Prayer of Thanks

Lately we have been encouraging Henry to say something new in his prayers since they've begun to get really repetitious. We usually pause before our prayers and tell him to think of the things that we did that day and to thank Heavenly Father for being able to participate in the many fun activities in our lives. It just so happened that our ward had an American Idol night that was an almost exact replica of the show with videos, Ryan Seacrest, the judges, professional stage lighting, a giant disco ball, and 10 fabulous contestants. The activity was awesome and went off without a hitch and since I was on the activities committee I worked hard for months to get it all put together. I was also IN the show....and actually WON the show. I sang "Love Story" by Taylor Swift and played the guitar with my brother-in-law, Franklin, on the piano. I am really flattered that I won, but was more embarrassed because I basically created and won my own show. Anyway, so after Henry saw me win the show I told him that I was the American Idol and I think he really took it to heart because the next night he said in his prayers, twice in the same prayer, "thank-you that mommy is American Idol". Justin cracked up during the prayer, but I was grateful that my son was proud of me:). And for the first time EVER He didn't complain when I told him we were watching it last night. I think he fully expected to see me on the show this week. Now I bet I've really confused him.

Easter Saturday

I tried this year to make the crazy sugar overloaded Easter holiday on Saturday this year instead of Sunday and it worked out so well that I think we'll do that from now on. I am keeping up the tradition that my family started of giving socks and underwear at Easter time and Henry got a ton of new socks, which he needed badly, and some cool new underoos along with a bunch of white undershirts for when it's hot in the summer. We hung out all weekend with our friends, the Romney's and their darling son, River, and had a fun Easter egg hunt and picnic with them in the city next to the river. The weather was fabulous and so was the company!

Also that day we went to the Children's Museum in the morning, went to the Strip District for delicious cheese and bread for our picnic, and then went to the Banff Mountain Film Festival screening that night. Henry, River, and Bea got babysat for five hours and were very good. Easter Sunday we had about 20 people over for dinner and had a wonderful time! Thanks everyone for helping us make such great Easter memories!

Another adventure at Rite Aid

So you remember what happened the last time we spent quality time at Rite Aid? Well this time we went to drop off a prescription and to buy a pull back car with Henry's hard earned money from doing his chores which you would think would be a simple task. First of all, I was looking rather shabby, had not taken a shower in two days, had just worked out, was wearing no make-up and had really greasy looking hair. Henry was in his sweats, a stained shirt and boots that are falling apart, plus he's crying as usual from being cold at swimming lessons. We walk into the store and go back to the pharmacy where Henry drops his ceramic piggy bank and it shatters all over the floor. Pretty soon all the employees are there helping us pick up all Henry's nickles and dimes and making sure no one hurts themselves on the shattered pieces. The owner of the store, through Henry's sobs, looks up at me with a sincere look and says, "I think we have piggy banks on sale." and so I agreed to look at them. He took me to the isle with the lawn ornaments and other hideous items and shows me the kitchiest looking fish/frog piggy bank, something you would expect to see in your grandma's garden right next to the fake flowers sticking out of the ground, and even though it's on clearance at 50% off I tell him that it's too expensive. I was not going to pay $4 for something that hideous. I started walking down towards the check-out counter when the store owner taps me on the shoulder and whispers, "It's okay, I'll give it to you for a dollar", and at that moment I realize that he probably thinks I am some poor white-trash mother that can't even afford to buy my son something that costs so little. Needless to say, I can never resist a good deal so we took the piece of junk and took it and Henry's red truck up to the counter to pay for them. I knew I couldn't argue with their perceptions of me the moment I brought out the plastic bag filled with nickles and dimes to pay for our items. I could feel all the employees give me that look that would translate to, "I know times are hard but you just keep on saving those nickles and dimes and you'll move out of that trailer park someday (imaginary hug)" One thing I can't figure out is that they didn't recognize me from the poo wall painting fiasco, and now I don't want to go in there looking like I usually do because they might think I was faking being trailer trash to get a free piggy bank. But alas, I have no choice since they didn't have my prescription in stock, so I have to go back tomorrow......

Hygiene Kit Henry

We've finally finished the rest of the hygiene kits that we set out to do in the fall. We had so many to finish that we needed to find people to donate toothbrushes because we couldn't purchase hundreds ourselves but through the efforts of the lovely families in our ward and some fabulous dental students(who get discounts) we were able to pull them all together and we assembled the last ones last night together as a family. Henry loved making sure they were all complete with two bars of soap, a tube of toothpaste, four toothbrushes, two hand towels and two combs all in a gallon plastic bag.