Nathan's Post - Fire Marshall Will

Tonight for family home evening, Will decided that he wanted to a fire safety lesson for us. So he got everyone together (we had put the twins to bed as they were already losing it), and asked us to sit down to learn about fire safety. He then proceeded to say, "Hi, my name is William, and I am going to teach you about fire safety". He actually gave a really good lesson. He marched us through the house and showed us which items were a fire hazard and what things could also hurt us if not used properly. He also told us that lava and bombs could also cause a fire and were dangerous. He then proceeded to teach us what to do if a fire alarm went off while you were in your room at night (get on the floor, crawl to the door and feel if it is hot, if safe go out the back door, if not safe, open the window, punch out the screen and crawl out onto the ground). I then went through with the kids how to unlock their windows. He then taught us what to do if you catch on fire (stop, drop and roll). We realized that we didn't have a designated meeting place, so we established one. We also then went and tested the fire alarms in the house. The kids thought that was neat. We did the "test" button on them, and then I lit a little paper on fire to create smoke and tested that the sensor was working. They do, and Tracey got after us to stop as it was disturbing her and Kate. Apparently if one alarm goes off in our house they all do...who knew!

Will then asked me to give him a blessing as he was sick last night. He said that when he turned 10 and got the priesthood he could give me blessings when I wasn't feeling good. Technically incorrect, but his heart is in the right place. William really surprises Tracey and I at times. He doesn't seem to have much of an attention span, but many nights rather than a picture book he'll ask me to read the Book of Mormon to him. He calls himself William Nathan Stephan - Nephite from time to time. Also, today Tracey showed me a page of math equations that William had done. They were number like 38 + 38 = 76, etc. Tracey didn't see how Will had done them, so she asked him a few times. He just said things like, "with a pencil", or "I'm just smart", or "math is easy". We are going to send it to school for his teacher to look at with a note that says, "do you know how he did this?"

The top is before the reno, and the bottom is after with the new bed!

Its finally done!

I have been working on making a king sized bed frame as Nathan thought I should get a king sized bed for my birthday. With a new born it is a little hard to get things done so the bed has taken about 6 weeks to do, but I got to use power tools so its all worth it! Of course with a new bed frame I had to redo the whole room (haha) so here is the finished results (above).

Mike and Allison are 3!

I can't believe it has been three years we have had these little monkeys but it has.The first year of their life is like a black hole in my memory. On tuesday we celebrated the twins birthday by going to the zoo with all of the kids, then going swimming. The day went pretty well, it always does when we are more laid back and make the day just about having fun with the kids (and you let them have ice cream for breakfast). At the zoo it was about 28 degrees and so we got a screamer (ice cream and slush together) for a treat. The large size is pretty big so Nathan just bought one and when the kids saw him with it they swarmed him and finished the whole thing in about three minutes! I could only get quick glimpses of the cup as their heads were crammed together over the cup, each one diving for the spoon as soon as it was coming up with some ice cream/slush on it. Later, on the way home from swimming I was asking the twins if they had a good birthday, and Emma asked, "is Alli really three because she still acts like she is two?". I asked her how she thought a three year old should act and William said, "good", to which I explained that three year olds are seldom good, but it would be nice if you could describe them that way. I think the most frequent conversation I hear between the twins now is, "shut up" "no you shut up" "you shut up" "you shut up"... then it degrades even further to "you're stupid" "no you're stupid" "you're stupid" "Mike called me stupid!" (mom says)"stop calling each other stupid" (Alli whispers) "you're stupid!"

Nathan's Post - Sunday Fun

Sundays are always interesting for our family. Mikey got a batman t-shirt the other day, and doesn't ever want to take it off. When I got back from my morning meeting, all the kids were dressed, but Mike was having a meltdown because he couldn't wear Batman. So I decided it wasn't worth the battle and threw it on over his Sunday shirt. When we got to church (just as the meeting was starting of course), the 3 older ones sprinted into the building as we got the twins and Kate out of their seats. As Tracey and I walked into the chapel, we looked for our kids, and to our dismay they were sitting down in the center row at the very front of the chapel. Oh great, said Tracey, echoing my thoughts, as we walked up to the front. Will then proceeded to get a fabric Potato head doll that Tracey made out of the kids activity bag and race it on the top of the seat and make crazy noises, much to the amusement / distraction of the people behind us. Mikey looked around and when he saw someone he knew he would stand up and smile and show off his batman shirt. They were actually pretty good for sacrament, but then Katelynn started to cry, and Tracey had to leave. Allison and Mikey then wanted to follow her, and I ended up having to take them out, leaving the 3 older ones on the bench by themselves. When I got back I sat down and tried to finish my talk that I had to give, while Will and Emma kept asking me if I was writing my talk, just so the people behind me knew I wasn't quite done preparing. Then I went up to the front, and of course Tracey had to take the twins out the back as they wanted to follow me up to the front. The 3 older ones were actually pretty good by themselves, as the Gregson's helped occupy them from time to time while I spoke. After I was done speaking and the closing hymn was being sung, William ran up to the front to sit on my knee. Which wasn't too bad, except his nose had been running a little, so he had shoved a whole kleenex in it (apparently it had been in there for quite awhile, so the Bishop and others got a small chuckle thanks to William looking around the meeting room). So I had to smile a little at the sight of him and then took the kleenex out quickly and put it in my suit pocket (note to others: don't be shoving your hands in my suit pockets). Ahhh the Sabbath, a day of rest.

Nathan's Post - Friendship

The other night Laurel, William and I were talking about missions (they had just watched "The Other Side of Heaven" which is a Disney movie based on Elder Groberg's mission to Tonga). The conversation got me thinking about my mission in France and Switzerland and the great experience it was. I was blessed to be able to teach and participate in the baptism of a young man named Dario when I served in the city of Grenoble. Dario was introduced to the church by his future wife, Sandrine. We became friends while I was on my mission, and continued our friendship afterwards, with Tracey, Laurel and I staying with Dario and his family twice when we visited Europe. Over the last few years I hadn't kept up my contact with Dario, even though I had thought about him and his family many times during those years. So last night I looked him up on the internet and found what I was pretty certain was his address and phone number. This afternoon I called him to say hi. It was great to talk with him and catch up on what was going on in his life. He talked about how his oldest son received the Aaronic priesthood a couple of weeks ago, and how he is serving in his branch presidency, and his wife is the stake young women's president. I think I understood a little how Alma felt when he met the sons of Mosiah after their mission to Lamanites, in that he rejoiced in having met his friends, but his joy was even greater that they were still his brethern in the Lord.

The snipe

I am sitting here watching the movie UP with the twins and I was reminded of our trip to the zoo a couple of weeks ago. There are always peacocks walking around the zoo, and one walked past Mike and I as we were going in to see the hippos. Both Mike and Allison got really excited and tried to pet it. Then as it walked away from us Mike pointed at it and said "Kevin!". It took me a minute to realize he thought it was the 'snipe' bird from the movie UP. He obviously related the colour of the peacock to the colourful bird in the movie. I love glimpses into the mind of a child.