"What would Jesus do?"

Raising a pre-teen has been a unique experience, especially since Colton is our first. He feels things are pretty unfair. For example, last night he was grounded for hurting Whitney's arm. He felt it was her fault and thus she deserved it. After hearing both sides of the story it was determined that though Whitney shouldn't have blocked him, he still had a choice and he chose to hurt her arm. Because he wasn't sorry or even felt bad that he had bruised her arm I felt I had no choice but to ground him.

He spent two hours crying, pounding in his room and finally playing "Had a Bad Day" on repeat over and over. After explaining why he was grounded I finally had to take the CD cord to end the annoying repeat of the song and started out his room. He cried back. "You want us to be like Jesus but you aren't." After stifling a chuckle I asked what he meant, to which he replied..."Jesus wouldn't have grounded me for not being sorry, he would have looked angry at me and walked away."

Ok by now I was really having to hold back uncontrollable laughter and try to help this poor boy see why he was in the wrong and why Jesus wouldn't have approved of his hurting his sister. In desperation he responded that maybe he should just run away since we obviously don't love him. He'd be better off living at the ditch (a small fort the kids in the neighborhood built near a ditch). I reminded him that he would be cold and hungry and he insisted that is friends would bring him stuff. This is really hard for me. I really don't know how to help him see how much he is truly loved and that he was being punished because we do love him and want him to be a better person. Any ideas I'd welcome them:)

Crazy kids....

Sarah and Luke are showing us how to be reverent at church (some how they forget this when we are actually at church.)

Whitney was Alvin from the chipmunks (everyone thought she was a baseball player.)

Luke was our little "Woody" boy (everyone thought he was a cowboy, it's been a while since Toy-Story came out I guess.)

Here's our crew - of course Colton had the most unique costume as "Joe the Plumber." We could tell who watched the political debates and who didn't, as only 1/2 the people actually knew who he was. He ditched his pipe wrench, tool belt, and flannel shirt, too much to bother with I guess. (I'm sure next year he'll be done with the whole dress-up thing, I was amazed he did it this year.)

Our running lady bug at the Ward Trunker Treat:)

Hope you all had a fun Halloween, we ended up trading our kids candy for a toy. They got to pick 15 of favorite items and traded in the rest. Yeah that's over.

Ouch!

My three year old has a way with words. Today he was using the potty and told me "mom, my poos are pokie like spiders. They hurt." As he grunted to finish the task. I'd never had it described quite that way. Sorry, it was just to funny not to share.

Halloween Miracle....

Whitney & her happy pumpkin!

She got down and slimy in this one... Colton, Luke & Sarah didn't want to touch any slime.

Before the carving began...

The end result....

We had a great time carving pumpkins for home evening. The miracle was that this is the first time in several years that we actually got them carved before Halloween. One year we ran out of time and didn't even carve any. Of course the good side to not carving is they can last through to Thanksgiving:)

We took the seeds and heated a table spoon olive oil for 25 sec. in a microwave bowl and then added the seeds and cooked for 8 more min. We stirred the seeds every couple minutes. After we added sea salt & garlic powder to one batch and nacho cheese popcorn powder to the other. They made a fun, crunchy treat the kids actually liked; well all except Sarah. She isn't a fan of trying new things.

Colton's growing up...

Well, Jason and I were informed not too long ago that Colton didn't need parents. To which we burst out in uncontrollable laughter...let me explain. We were riding in the car all together. Colton had just earned some money from our garage sale and was pretty thrilled. He had his MP3 player and and new bike for his birthday. He didn't know what he should spend it on since he just had his birthday. We discussed a cell phone (which was a no from us) when he informed us "well, what do I need you for, I've got $20." Apparently, if you got 20 bucks then you really don't need parents cause obviously, parents are only necessary when you need money. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long time.

Here we go again...

The other day I had to laugh. Luke was rushing to use the restroom. I heard his little voice hollering "Mom I think I have diarrhea!" I responded back with "How do you know? Does it hurt?" his reply "NO, it's a waterfall!" He was right. Sorry about the potty post but it was too funny not to share.

Don't ruin my prayer!!

Well, having a three year old leaves many opportunities for funny stories. Today we had our usual dinner prayer. I asked Colton, but Sarah jumps in before he can start and says her speed "bless the food" prayer along with her ta-da arms in the air ending as though she put on a grand performance. After Colton finished the prayer Luke insisted it was his turn, Yes our food is often double and triple blessed (we should be the healthiest family ever). Anyhow, Luke began to say his prayer using things that Colton had said (at least he was listening) and low and behold Sarah jumped in and began to pray again. Lukes arms fly out in disgust and exclaims "Oh, now my prayer is ruined!" His little face was scrunched up in and angry scowl, oh boy was very hard not to laugh during this very serious infraction.