A Longer Then Usual Post.

I catch myself saying: "Beth, leave your brother alone!" or "Beth, stop teasing your brother!" more and more. It's not that she's always the instigator, but most of the time she is.

Maybe this is happening more often because Beth is cutting her upper molars. Yep! They've finally decided to grace us with their presence and they put Beth in the best mood. The molars are almost all the way through the gums and we're just waiting for them to advance.

All in all, teething this time around wasn't as bad at Beth's first batch. This time, when she is in pain she says, "Owie!" and point to where we needed to apply the Ora-gel. Not too bad.

A fun story from last week: We've been covering the First Vision story in our scripture study, and on the drive to church on Sunday, Eric pipes up from the back : "I can't go to this church."

Ryan and I respond with the obvious, "Why not?"

"Because all the churches are wrong."

We immediately knew we'd failed to properly explain certain parts of the First Vision. "Not this one," I said. "This is the one Joseph Smith brought back for Jesus Christ."

Imagine my surprise when he fires back with, "No, if Joseph Smith made it then it's Joseph Smith's church."

"When we get to church," I said, "let's go look on the outside of the building and see whose name is on it."

He agreed and after we claimed a pew (you have to get there early), I took him outside and around to the front of the building to the chapel's sign. I had him sound out the words, and when he got to "of Jesus Christ" he was so excited that he ran into the chapel, yelling to Ryan, "This is the right church, Dad! This is Jesus' church!"

So we've been working on being clearer when we recount the First Vision story to him, and we make sure to go on and explain the Restoration as well.

We had a wonderful Mother's Day this year. It started with the kids getting up around six AM (which is becoming a habit with them) and refusing to go back to bed. We convinced them to play in the toy room off and on until a little after seven. Then Eric overheard Ryan asking me about breakfast in bed. He yelled, "I'll get it!" and took off with Beth at his heels. Ryan and I just looked at each other. The kids promptly returned with a large container of plastic food and proceeded to "feed" it to us one piece at a time. I wish I had taken some pictures.

About this time Eric started asking Ryan about when Mommy could open her presents. I guess Ryan had shown Eric one of them, and Ryan quickly realized that if we didn't open them soon Eric might blab the surprise. We had fun opening the gifts, and of course the kids helped (like we could have stopped them). Then we went down to enjoy a French toast breakfast before gearing up for Sunday.

The kids and I walked to church, and on the way Beth fell and skinned both her knees. She didn't cry but let out one outraged scream and then kept running after Eric. (Thankfully only a little blood got on her dress.) At church I was called and sustained as the new Primary President. What a Mother's Day gift! Then after church, before I was set apart, we tried to send the kids home with Zach and Alison. In her eagerness to get to them, Beth fell and re-skinned both knees. Being so close to nap time, she dissolved into tears and melted into a puddle of Beth goo.

After all the excitement, we went home to have a wonderful "low-fat" dinner (note sarcasm) with Zach and Alison. We had a wonderful time and we are REALLY going to miss them when they move away.

So there is our "short" family update.