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Samuel had a friend party last year so he had a family one this year. For his birthday he got a scooter, a toy tank and some army guys to go with the tank. He says his favorite present was the scooter, he rides on it everywhere.

BYUFan is gone yet again on another business trip. He says after this he doesn’t have to go anywhere for three weeks. It will be strange to have to start cooking normal dinners when he gets back. This week is full of things to do. Yesterday I had Presidency meeting for primary and then after school I had to take the girls to piano lessons and then I had to turn around quickly and take Emily to stake standards night. I think she had a lot of fun because she didn’t get home until 9pm. Today after dropping Luppin off to preschool I spent two hours at the tire place spending BYUFan’s hard earned money on new tires for my Toyota. I probably could have gotten away with only replacing two tires, but I thought since I was there I might as well get them all replaced so I wouldn’t have to go back anytime soon. It seems that when you think you have lots of cash to go around things like car repairs takes a big chunk of it away. It will be crunch time soon and I will have to buckle up. This coming Sunday is our primary’s sacrament meeting program so late afternoon on Friday we will be having our final run-through. Only two of my kids have small parts so luckily I don’t have to worry about helping them memorize too much. I did however teach the senior primary how to sing the first verse of I am a Child of God in Japanese, so I will be leading them in that at the beginning of the program. Last Sunday when we practiced it the kids seemed to have memorized the song pretty well. I will have to report how we did next week. Next week there is not much going on so it will be nice to get some work done around the house for a change.

Within the past two weeks Sam has lost two bottom front teeth. He was so happy to have money from the tooth fairy because he wanted to be like his big sisters and buy a soda from the soda machine in front of the grocery store. First he wanted to take all his money and spend it, but I reminded him that he had given the lesson in Family Home Evening on Monday about Tithing and that we needed to put ten percent of his money into tithing. At first he was not happy but then he realized that ten percent didn’t mean all of it. So yesterday while the girls were at piano lessons I took him to the store and he went and bought himself a sprite.

This is a picture of Sam after he lost his first tooth.

Nancy worked with Caroline and Sam for a couple of weeks each morning to help them learn how to ride their bikes. After much whining and complaining, a few wrecks, and some threats/bribery/cajoling, they finally learned how to do it within a few days of each other. Their reward was a lunch date with Mom or Dad. Yesterday I took the day off work and paid off my lunch debt to Sam. He rejected all the places that I suggested (Training Table, Chilis, Thai food, etc.) and selected McDonalds. Off to McDonalds we went.

Caroline learns to ride a bike

Now that they’ve learned how to ride their bikes we can’t get them to stop. It’s funny how one day they’re whining and moping along with one foot on the curb and one on the pedal and the next day they’re zooming around the neighborhood and doing “jumps” off the curb.

I have been meaning to help Sam learn how to ride his bike without training wheels for a few months now, but only recently have I really put in some time with him. He is improving but not quite there yet. He will peddle for about two seconds until he thinks he’s going to fall and then he puts his foot down.

When I run with him down the sidewalk and hold his back he does better, but as soon as I let go, down goes the foot. I think he just needs to learn to have the confidence to ride without help and without fear of falling. I think this will happen with practice-practice-practice.

South Jordan is putting in streetlights in for the street behind our house so they had to dig a hole under the back fence to put wiring through. I couldn’t quite explain to BYUFan what they did so I took a couple of pictures. When they finally put in landscaping on the other side of the fence who knows what else they will have to do in our yard.

Because Sam got a friend party for his birthday this year we decided to hold the party a few days early so we could do it on the weekend. Sam invited 5 or 6 friends over – neighbor boys and friends from school. Sam wanted a pirate-themed party and his special request was to do a treasure hunt with an “X marks the spot”.

Waiting for the guests

The plan was to play games like “pin the beard on the pirate”, bingo, and duck duck goose for a half hour before the treasure hunt. Of course, things don’t always go as planned when dealing with a pack of little boys. They spent about 2 minutes playing bingo, 3 minutes playing pin the beard on the pirate, and 2 minutes playing duck duck goose before they were ready for the treasure hunt.

Pin the beard on the pirate – Anne drew the pirate

The treasure hunt involved several picture clues and took them from one side of the yard to the other. The X marking the spot was out behind the rocks along on the back fence. The treasure was a sack of party favors for each boy and what turned out to be the hit of the party – squirtguns!.

Having a blast

After a quick bite of cake and ice cream, Nancy filled the squirtguns and sent the boys out in the back yard to have at it. They spent the last 40 minutes of the party squirting each other and running back inside to get their squirtguns refilled. We should have known that no organized game could possibly be as much fun for six year old boys as simply as running around with squirtguns. Happy Birthday Sam.

I just felt like taking a picture or two of Samuel getting on the bus. I barely got there in time for him to catch the bus today because Emily got done with the orthodontist just ten minutes before I had to get Sam to the bus stop. Luckily the bus was a tad late so I didn’t end up taking him to school myself and I had enough time to feed Emily lunch before she had to go back to school.

Last week Nancy sent the kids over to the playground for a few hours. They’ve been off track for a couple of weeks now and are driving Nancy nuts so she takes every opportunity to get them out of the house. When I got home from work, Sam was in house bawling that he hurt his arm. I don’t know how he fell but we’ve experienced enough broken arms in our child-raising adventures to think he likely had a buckle fracture based on the way he was holding his arm. It was getting kind of late to take him to the doctor that night and he wasn’t in too much pain so we decided to just give him some Tylenol and schedule an appointment with the doctor the next day. Man, it’s tough for a guy to get some sympathy when all of your sisters have had broken arms before you. Waiting also had the added benefit of being able to schedule Diana for the same time.

Samuel’s Broken Arm

When he got back from the doctor Sam had a splint on his arm and a smile on his face. Apparently his break wasn’t severe enough to require a cast (bummer, I always like seeing what crazy color the kids pick for their casts) so they said to just leave it in the splint for several weeks. The biggest problem with the broken arm is that it’s his right arm and the splint they gave him limits the use of his fingers so he makes a mess at the dinner table. Maybe in another week we can trade out for a different splint – one that lets him use his fingers more.

Can you spot the break? I certainly can’t

The other project for today was giving Sam a haircut. He was starting to look a little shaggy. I’ve always been the one to cut Sam’s hair. I think he’s only had a regular haircut once in his life. And when I cut hair there is only one possible outcome – a total and complete buzz. Fortunately for Sam, he thinks buzzes are just great at this stage of his life.

Before

As Sam has gotten a little bit older he’s also gotten a little less squirmy so each time I cut his hair it gets a bit easier. The hardest part is around the ears and the back of the neck. Nancy always gets on my case when I do the back – she thinks I do it too short, too uneven, too dorky looking. Fortunately, Sam isn’t picky and he can’t see the back of his head anyway so he doesn’t mind.

After

I’m sure that some day Sam will probably want something other than a buzz cut but for now he’s got the classic look of a ‘do’ by Dad.

I don’t like Thursday night games as a general practice but it’s fun to have one every once in a while. The main problem with weekday games is traffic. On a Saturday game I leave 1.5 hours before kickoff and usually have plenty of time to spare – time to see the band march up the street, watch warm-ups, national anthem, etc. Tonight the plan was to leave 2 hours early but I was late getting home from work and that put us 20 minutes behind schedule. Traffic was horrible all the way down to the stadium and we found our seats just before kickoff.

Other than the bad traffic, it was a perfect night for a game. The weather was beautiful- chilly but not too cold, the crowd was spirited, the teams were energetic, and my beloved Cougars came away with a win. How could it get better than that? Well, it could get better if the Cougars covered the spread. Last year BYU covered the spread in nearly every game. This year it seems like they’re winning but not covering the spread in nearly every game.

What is that thing?

I think TCU is a pretty good addition to the conference. The TCU fans aren’t completly crass and vulgar (Wyoming), they don’t have an annoying chant (UNLV), and well, let’s just say they don’t bug me as bad as the Utes. The only drawback to TCU is that they have the world’s ugliest mascot. That horned frog costume has got to be the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.

Enjoying the halftime show (the drumline looks good Danny!)

I convinced Nancy to go (she only goes to one or two games a season and only if it’s good weather) and thus we took Sam and Diana (Diana gets bored easily and has to go potty frequently so I don’t like to take her by myself). The kids had a good time and Sam is starting to enjoy the game a bit more – but still not as much as he enjoys hot dogs and nachos.

The other day Samuel saw a BYU hat in Macey’s and told Nancy he wanted it. She got him the hat and purposely got it several sizes too big “so he can grow into it”. I didn’t think Samuel would last very long with the hat but he surprised me. He wore it the entire time and didn’t take it off to play with it or annoy me with it. He still had it on in the car on the way home.

Driving home after the big game