Jaxon's Rank Advancements

Jaxon attended his first court of honor as a boy scout this month.  He earned Tenderfoot, Second Class and First Class rank advancements in addition to a few merit badges.  He has been one busy scout!

 Jaxon's Dad got to present his rank advancement awards to him since he is the scout master.

 Getting "pinned" by Jaxon.  We only made him pin on one of the three pins.  He got off easy.

Proud parent moment.  Way to go Jax!

Josh's Week in Review

Josh has had a big week.  Remember his birthday party last week at Hang Time?  Well apparently he injured himself while he was there.  He had been complaining about his heel hurting for about a week but Jeremy and I just kept blowing it off thinking the pain would go away or that Josh would forget about it.  Well, long story short we were at a BYU basketball game a few days after his birthday party and suddenly Josh burst into tears saying over and over again that his heel hurt.  We decided it was time to do something.  So I took him into Instacare the next morning.  After a series of tests and x-rays, it was determined that Josh has a strained Achilles Tendon.  He now is in a boot for the next 1-2 weeks: 

Stylin'

A close up shot.

As I was taking him to school after he had been fitted for his boot, I told him everyone would want to know what happened to his foot.  He asked me if he could tell everyone that it was none of their business.  I told him he couldn't say that because the people that asked cared about him.  I had him practice over and over, "I strained my Achilles Tendon."  After school, I asked him about what he told people.  He told me, "I said to them that I broke my muscle."  I guess that explanation works too.

The next event in Josh's week was he earned his Wolf award at Pack Meeting.  I went with McKay to Mesquite (more on that later), so I missed pack meeting.  Thankfully Dad stepped in and was there with Josh to receive his award.

While Mom is away, Dad will play.  Jeremy gave Josh a faux-hawk without Josh knowing it.  Josh usually is very particular about the way his hair is combed.  He likes it to look nice.  Jeremy distracted him after he finished combing his hair so Josh wouldn't know about his faux-hawk.  Then to prove he got away with it, he snapped a picture and sent it to me.

The final event in Josh's week was we found this while at church today:

Josh's first gray hair.  Don't you think 9 years old is a little young to be finding gray hairs?

All in all it has been a big week for Josh.  Who knows what will be next?!

Squirm!

Josh and the rest of the third grade put on a little play at school all about things that make you squirm.  It was a cute show and they did a great job.  Here are some highlights:

 Josh is the cute one in the bright orange sweat shirt dancing while singing.

Here he is singing along with everyone in his class.  It was such a cute program.

Here is a little snippet of Josh singing about things that make you squirm:

Nine is Fine

Joshua celebrated his 9th birthday yesterday. He had a great day at school and gave his class his favorite treat: Oreos. Once he came home, the real partying began. He had his good friends come over and we took them to Hang Time in Orem (with Kayden and his friends).  Josh had a great birthday and just kept partying on through the rest of the night.

My nine year old.

Josh with all his friends.  From left to right: Brigham, Jack, Owen, Matt, Josh, Jace, Connor and Eli.

Josh and his friends love playing basketball together.  Add a trampoline and they were heaven shooting and doing slam dunks.  Above is Matt, Brigham and Eli.

Josh doing a slam dunk with some rim hang time.

Singing Happy Birthday with his brother over some pizzas.

The whole gang.

The whole gang being silly.

Present time!

After all of Josh's friends left, Josh opened his presents from us.  He got a big Lego Star Wars set and a glow in the dark Frisbee ring.  One of his friends came back over and he and Josh spent the rest of the night playing with all of Josh's new toys.

McKay giving Josh a nice bonk on the head.  (I made McKay squat so he would fit in the picture.)

Nine Things We Love About Joshua:

1. Josh loves everything sports.  Whatever sports season it is, that is his favorite.  Right now he loves football (he played flag football for the first time this year) and basketball.
2. Josh likes to keep busy.  He is always outside playing with his friends or riding his bike and/or Ripstik.  It is surprising to find him watching TV or playing video games.
3. He is funny.  Just ask all the kids in his class.  He came home with a bunch of birthday cards from his class yesterday.  I would say 85% of them said something about Josh being funny.
4. Josh is sincere.  He always is telling me the sweetest things straight from his heart.  Especially at bed time.  "Mom, I am glad you chose me to be your boy."
5. Josh loves being with his friends.  There is hardly a day that goes by when he isn't with a friend.
6. He loves math and is good at it.  (He definitely didn't get that from me.)  He says it is his favorite thing to do at school.  He comes right home after school and gets his homework done.
7. Josh is a good brother.  He watches out for Kayden and loves hanging out with him.  He loves it when McKay and Jaxon go outside to play football with him.
8. Josh is a Daddy's Boy.  He loves to have his dad come in his room at night and chat with him.  Josh loves having that time with his dad.
9. He is still one of my best helpers.  He will sometime surprise me by cleaning up without me asking and he will do his Saturday job with out complaint--most of the time.  (You can't expect him to be perfect all of the time!)

Happy birthday Josh!  We are so glad you were sent to us and that you are our boy.  We love you!

Kayden is 6!

They say time flies when you are having fun.  It must be true because it doesn't seem like this kid should already be six!  He celebrated his 6th birthday a couple of days ago, but I waited until tonight to blog because he had his friend birthday party tonight.

Kayden on his birthday.  6!

We went to JCW's for dinner as part of Kayden's birthday celebration.  He was being silly by having the bacon from his hamburger dangling from his mouth.

He had to wait all day to be able to open his presents and it was pure torture!  But the time finally arrived and McKay gave him a nice "bonk" on the head.

"I wish you...I wish you....I wish you..."  He was so excited to open his presents that he had a hard time coming up with wishes to give us.  He finally came up with: 1. A trip to Florida.  2. A free trip to the zoo.  Gee, thanks!

This kid has been asking for a dog Pillow Pet since last Christmas.  Finally he got one!

Watching Kayden open presents is like watching your grandparents open presents on Christmas morning.  (Well, at least my grandparents.)  He took forever!  He finally ripped into the wrapping paper.

Kayden got his very own scooter.  He and his friends have been in to riding scooters lately.

Kayden's scooter wheels light up.  He loves it!

We waited for Josh's birthday (more on that later) to have a friends birthday party.  We took both boys and their friends to Hang Time (a trampoline gym) for some fun.  Kayden invited some of his favorite friends.

Bryton making his way through the  foam pit.

Kayden landing in the foam pit after doing a cool trick.

Chase having fun throwing foam blocks.

Kayden doing a flip into the foam pit.

Ian preparing to do a fun trick.

Getting ready to play some dodge ball.

Kayden climbed to the top of the dodge ball arena.

After Hang Time, we went back to the house for some pizza.  But first we had to sing Happy Birthday.  We put some candles in two pizzas instead of a cake and sang our hearts out.

Kayden and his friends being silly.

Presents from friends is always fun!

Six Things We Love About Kayden:

1. His giggle.  Just thinking about his giggle makes me smile.
2. He loves school.  When it was time for fall break at school he was mad and said, "I don't like fall break!  I want to go to school!"  He is doing very well in kindergarten and is a smarty pants.
3. He loves playing with his friends and is always wanting to get them to come play at our house.
4. He is a good helper.  He is great at making his bed and he is an awesome stairs duster.
5. He LOVES playing and being with his brothers and is very loving.  He will stop whomever is leaving the house so that he can tell them good-bye and that he loves them.  He will also add a "Be safe!"
6. He is one stubborn kid.  Sometimes it is hard to love his about him since I am stubborn too, but someday I hope he uses his determination in a positive way.

We love you Kayden.  I am so glad you are our boy.  Happy Birthday!

Kayden's Smile

Kayden woke up the other day and his smile looked somewhat different. It kind of resembled Mater from Cars:

His right front tooth was slightly crooked.  It was so loose it was flapping in the wind!

It took some convincing, but he let his dad pull it out:

His new smile looks completely different!

He immediately put his tooth under his pillow to await the Tooth Fairy.  He was delighted when he discovered a whole dollar under his pillow the next morning.  Man he is growing up fast.

Raingutter Regatta

I was just called to be the Cub Committee Chair person in our ward.  Whew!  I had no idea what went into this calling.  Our last pack meeting was the raingutter regatta.  After building three sets of raingutters, buying awards, delegating out award certificates and pre-activites, etc. the night finally arrived.  Jeremy helped Joshua build his cool BYU boat and we were off to the races!

Josh's boat is the BYU boat that is to the right.  His good friend Matt made the other BYU boat.  (No wonder they are friends!)

Josh practicing his blowing skills before the big race began.

Josh racing his friend Matt.

Josh and his boat did very well.  Above he is in the final race of the night and he won first place!

Josh and his first place metal (pinned to his shirt).

Overall the night was a big success!  Of course I learned a few things that I would do differently as a pack leader next time.  But I was excited for Josh and was happy he won. :)

Naohiro

We had the privilege of having a Japanese foreign exchange student stay with us for a week. We had never done anything like this before and we were quite nervous about the experience. But it turned out great and we had a good time while Naohiro (pronounced Now-Hero) was staying with us.  We received a packet of information about Naohiro before he arrived.  In that packet we learned that he loves to go bowling, speaks a little English, has one little sister, has a calm demeanor, and is allergic to house dust.  I had to laugh because there is nothing I hate more than dusting.  We spent a couple of days getting the house ready for our student to arrive and Kayden graciously gave up his bedroom so Naohiro had a place to stay.  Then finally he arrived.  The night he arrived we took him out for American hamburgers and fries.  When we got home we showed him around and then he showered us with gifts.  He brought us several greeting cards, chopsticks, child's chopsticks for Kayden, Japanese games, handkerchiefs, tons of traditional Japanese snacks, stickers of Japanese currency, gifts bags, and Japanese comic books.  I am sure I am forgetting something!  Despite his jet lag, he wanted to stay up and show the boys how everything worked and to play with them.  He also loved playing with our dog Suki--which is a Japanese name much to Naohiro's delight.

Naohiro showing Kayden how the practice chopsticks work.

I insisted he showed me how to use the chopsticks as well.  I figured it out that night, but I haven't be able to figure it out since.  Even Kayden has tried giving me tips.  Also above, McKay is playing one of the Japanese games that he brought to us.

After his first full day here (he was gone all day on the weekdays), we took him to Trafalga after dinner to have some fun.  He loved the Frog Hopper Ride even though he was nervous at first.  We even ran into another host family that are some friends of ours while we were there and had some fun hanging out with them and playing Laser Tag.  The boys all climbed the rock wall as well.

The second day Naohiro was here was Halloween.  We dressed him up and McKay took him trick-or-treating.

Friday morning, Naohiro when to school with McKay and shadowed him all day.  He liked seeing how McKay's school was different than his.  He really enjoyed McKay's art class.

On Friday night we invited some friends of ours--who were also host families to Japanese exchange students--to roast hotdogs and s'mores over the fire.  While we were setting up, Naohiro discovered the trampoline and jumped on it for the first time.  He liked it.

The kids all had a good time eating, playing catch with the football, playing basketball and playing games.  Above they are playing Duck, Duck, Goose.

On Saturday I guess jet lag caught up with Naohiro and he took a nap on the couch.  He had been going nonstop since his arrival.  In fact, I was pretty worn out myself!

Saturday afternoon we took him bowling which is his favorite thing to do.  It was no surprise that he beat us all.  After bowling, we went laser tagging again.  Laser tagging ended up being his favorite activity while he was here.

On Sunday we took him to church.  I asked him what he thought about it and he said, "It was very long."  I laughed.  After church we took him with us to Grandma and Grandpa White's house for family dinner.  We had homemade pizza and he loved it!

Monday night they had a big thank you social and wrap up.  We had dinner and then there was a program.  The students performed various things and did some dancing.  It was fun to watch Naohiro.

Saying good-bye the night before he left.  We were just about to have family prayer when there was a last minute dog pile on Jaxon.  Naohiro joined in on the fun.

 The boys really enjoyed having him here and they were sad to see him go.

I have to insert here that Naohiro had great manners, was very polite and was such a good kid.  He liked all of my cooking and always wanted seconds.  He and McKay got along great as well and became good friends.  They didn't even need to talk to each other. (Talking to Naohiro was not an easy feat.)  It was like they could read each others' thoughts.  They had a good time together and McKay was bummed when it was time for Naohiro to leave. 

Naohiro left us the following card when he left:

 His card made me smile.

It didn't hit me until I was cleaning up and putting all the things that he had given us away that we would never see him again.  As glad as I was to get things back to normal, it made me sad that he was gone forever.  It was a good experience and we will have to maybe see about hosting again another year.