Just Austin (aka Kitty Food)

Over the 4th we went down to Kerry's sister's house, and the kids LOVED playing with their friendly little kitten.  There were multiple times where I thought how nice it would be to have a cat, but then there's the perpetual dilemma Kerry and I have had about pets, which is whether the pets will indoor/outdoor or just outdoor.  Our yard is too small to have outdoor only pets with a good conscience, our backyard is not yet fenced, and I really don't want to have to deal with potty training an animal when I'm still working really hard to keep the house at housekeeping baseline.  So I dismissed the idea as something that might be great for an unspecified time in the future.

We got home late on the 4th, and we were trying to get all the sleeping kids in the house and into their beds without them waking up traumatized from all the fireworks (Kearns residents take their firework celebrations very seriously, and then with the arial fireworks legal this year it was like being in a war zone), when a stray cat who was also freaked out by all the noise ran in our open door, through the house, and went under our bed.  Kerry got the cat out, and after getting the kids all in bed, he sat outside with the poor cat and fed it tuna fish.

After asking around, we found out that the cat really is a stray, so we kept feeding it, and it's stuck around.  It's the best of all worlds: I don't have to worry about a litter box because as of right now the cat stays outside, but the kids LOVE having it (him? her? I should probably find out) around to play with and feed.  There aren't tons of people outside during the day in our little section of the neighborhood, so whenever we're outside playing or the kids are riding bikes, the cat comes to hang with us, and in the evening when I'm watering the garden or Kerry and I are relaxing on the porch it comes and sits with us.

We started calling the cat Just Austin from a Backyardigans episode, but he is also referred to by Tam as Kitty Food.  The funny things about learning a new language.  I think the ideas of animals and feeding them are too intertwined right now for him, but it cracks me up when he's chasing the long suffering cat around trying to give it some attention and yelling "Kitty Food!" at it.  Kate, meanwhile, just wants to have the cat sit on her lap for more than 2 seconds, which doesn't happen very often, and Yeb likes to watch it eat, but then gets sucked back to playing with something that has wheels.

We Survived Camp and All We Got Were These Orange Hats

I'm trying to catch up on the major things that have happened in the past month, so this is another that happened mid June.  Kerry runs a week long boy scout merit badge camp in Blanding, and I've always gone, too.  After Kate was born we brought her along while both of us staffed, but this year bringing the whole fam was out of the question.  The boys had only been home for 6 weeks, and kids being away from home for 10 days is rough even in the best of circumstances.  We decided for the survival of all family members that it would be best for Kerry to go alone and for me to stay with the kids.  Fortunately, my mom, sisters, and Kerry's sister Nancy all pitched in big time to ensure that survival.

Seriously, it was really rough, and by the end I couldn't believe that we made it, but I know that Heavenly Father cares a lot about the experiences that teenage boys have at that camp and that it was important for Kerry to go, and I know that He seriously helped me out to be able to deal with Kerry being gone for so long.

 Needless to say, we had a countdown calendar in the kitchen for when Kerry would be back, and by the end we were all SOOOOO excited to see him again!  The kids woke up Sunday morning to find him home and he gave them all this year's camp hats.  They were all pretty excited about them.  I was excited that Kerry took care of the kids that morning so I could sleep in (till 7:30, but hey, that IS sleeping in these days).  Lesson: Glad we made it, also glad that next year the circumstances will be vastly different so that hopefully the kids and I can come, too.

4 Teeth Pulled

Before the dentist...

This happened way back in June, but I just barely uploaded pictures from our camera, and wanted to make sure to mention this.  Tam had some major dental work done, including having his four top front teeth pulled, and did amazing with it all.  He was ridiculously excited that just he and I were going to the dentist since he already knew that the dentist's office is a magical place with nice people, stickers and prizes.  I felt guilty enough about it to try and prep him about what was really going to happen during the visit, including showing him his rotten teeth in the mirror and mimicking pulling them out, but even that didn't dampen his enthusiasm.  He started looking slightly nervous when we went into an individual exam room at the dentist's instead of the open group room used for regular cleanings and x-rays, but was still happy to be there.  It wasn't until the dentist numbed his whole mouth that he got really unhappy about the situation, but he still held really still and did what the dentist asked him to.  5 fillings later they were ready to pop those front teeth out, and it went surprisingly quickly.  I was planning on him taking it easy for the rest of the day, but 20 minutes after we got home he wanted to ride his bike, and then was ready for a popsicle.  After one lesson of how to use his back teeth to bite harder things, he hasn't had any problem eating, and his speech hasn't been affected, either.  Now he just has a mischievous smile to match his mischievous personality:

....After the dentist

Going to Church Together

We got to the point as a family where we felt brave enough to bring the boys to church!   For the past few weeks we've all gone together, which has been so wonderful after a couple months of having to switch off with Kerry depending on who was teaching what lesson or was in charge of something.  For now Kerry and I are going with the boys to their primary classes, and hopefully before too long the boys will be comfortable enough that they won't need us to stay with them the whole time.  We're just so glad that overall they're doing great with the church routine, and since there are so few kids in our ward (there were 4 total the first Sunday we brought them), they get to participate like crazy and get a lot more attention than in a bigger primary.  Besides a meltdown from Yeb the first week, lots of wiggles during 3rd hour sacrament meeting, and a potty accident on the upholstered bench today, things have gone remarkably well.  We figure those things are pretty much par for the parenting course for a family with 3 young kids.

Besides the excitement of going with the rest of the family to church, the boys are very motivated to be able to wear their church clothes on Sundays.  Tam acted like life couldn't get any better when I took him shopping and he got to try on clothes to see if they fit.  Fortunately, we had been given some church clothes that fit Yeb perfectly, but we still had to get shoes and socks for both boys, and clothes for Tam.  thanks Granna and Grandad for outfitting them with what they needed!