A Few Firsts

For the past few months Erick has been begging me to go to the zoo. He went when he was a baby in a stroller when I took Emma and Ben, but I am sure he doesn't remember that. So, I think he just knows about it from books that we have read and from shows that he has seen. He literally talks about it everyday and so I decided I had better take the poor boy to the zoo. So, we went with some friends and had a great time!



His favorite was the alligators.



My favorite was the gorillas, it is amazing how "human" like they are! They are fascinating to watch.



While we were watching the elephants, I had turned my head to look for Cami when I heard Erick say "can I pee here Mom?" I turned towards him quickly to say NO, but it was too late! His pants were down to his ankle and there was a nice fountain of yellow pouring out! How embarassing! He just wanted to be one with the zoo animals I guess. He loves to pee outside at home and often does when I am not watching. What a kid. Anyways, we had a good time at the zoo.

On Monday, Emma had a soccer game that had been rescheduled (they are usually not on Monday nights), but our family went to it that evening at 6pm and it was so beautiful outside! The weather was perfect and we basked in it. Monday night agreed with Emma's team as they had a great game. Emma had her best game ever. She was really on defensively and saved lots of goals and even kicked a ball all the way to her team's goal and another girl on her team just tipped it in the goal and scored. We told Emma that it counted as a goal for her. She even won the MVP for that game and got to take home the team's webkin and keep it for a week as a reward. Way to go Em. Here is a pic of her with the webkin.



After our school carnival on Saturday, we went to Sam's club to get milk. While there, we decided to knock out dinner, so the kids got hot dogs and we sat and ate. Ben started crying and complaing about his tooth! This tooth had been hanging by its last thread, seriously, it should have been gone a month ago! Anyways, it came out right there at Sam's Club. My boy's first tooth! Congratulations Ben! The tooth fairy did come and you can bet Ben had lots of questions about that fairy, "what does she do with the teeth?", "how big is she?", "how can she be so quiet and not wake up the kids?"





Finally, do you notice anything different about Emma? (Besides the rose on her cheek?)



Yep, my girl got her ears pierced! The plan was to get them pierced on her 8th birthday because that is when I got mine pierced. But... I was kind of getting annoyed with her wearing her fake earrings. Her "fake earrings" were just for dress up in the house, but she kept asking and begging me to let her wear them to church and parties and out of the house and trust me, she had some long and gaudy fake earrings. So, I decided we would put an end to it and so she and I went on a date and I surprised her by letting her get her ears pierced and then we went to dinner and did some girl shopping. It was so fun! She is so happy! She is constantly looking at the mirror and I hear her squealing with delight every once in awhile. A fun girl thing!

Well, this post is long enough. It was a fun week and I am so grateful for such a fun family. Today in church, both Don and I ended up bearing our testimonies and I am just so grateful for the gospel and to know about our Saviour and His atonement and be able to use the atonement in my life. How grateful I am for the priesthood in my home and that Don and I have common goals and we work together to teach our children. We don't do a perfect job and often wonder if we are doing any good at all, but we are trying and I know the Savior will take care of the parts that we can't do as long as we do our best. We love you all.