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James’s 5th Birthday
We decided for James’s Birthday cake to do brownies so he and the other kids would actually eat the “cake”, not just the frosting. Everyone loved it! (And Julles loved not having to make a fancy/special cake…)
2004 Easter in St. George
James doing an Easter Egg Hunt in the desert of St. George on the Staheli “farm”. Pictured with cousin Charise Staheli (2 yrs old).
Anthony missed out on the egg hunt, but got a most-needed nap.
James excitedly talking about the Indian house they found on the other side of the mountain.
LaReita and her Benjamin.
Anthony and Benjamin talking and smiling at each other while driving on our way back.
Notes about the trip by David:
St. George was cold. We arrived about 6:00 and had some Chinese food. LaReita took off for her rehearsal and the rest of us played and watched a movie.
Saturday morning the kids played, Wyn and I talked business. Then we went to Paul’s parents house and had an outdoor picnic with 4-wheeler and horse rides. We got pictures of the boys. I will post them on the family website later this week. The adults hid the eggs and the kids found them. James got quite a few (they let him and the other little kids go first).
Anthony fell asleep just before the egg hunt, but he awoke in time for the candy gorging. James and the other kids shared their candy and Anthony helped himself when they weren’t looking.
I taught Jared some HTML and we spent all the rest of the day making a Pokemon and Hillary Duff website. LaReita went to another rehearsal that night. We watched Catch Me If You Can when she got back around 9:30pm.
Sunday we got ready for church and went at 11am. Stayed for the block. James went with Auria to her class. I went with Anthony into the nursery and had Cheeze-Wiz and crackers.
We had lasagna for lunch/dinner and took turns taking naps. LaReita and Wyn went to her performance and didn’t get back until 10:30. Anthony had a cup of milk (not a sippy-cup), forgot it wasn’t a sippy-cup and cried when he dumped it on himself. I cleaned him up and he cried himself to sleep.
Played a race car game on their X-box with James and Anthony, gathered our crap and stuffed it into the car. Drove to Beaver, ate lunch at a pretty good restaurant and drove home.
Ben was a good traveler and seems to be feeling better.
Notes about the trip by LaReita:
Yeah, it was cold and rainy. Thinking that it was going to be warm, all I packed for Benjamin was summer outfits aside from his PJ’s and his Sunday outfit that had pants.
It was fun to see James and his cousins play together. I’m glad I went just for that. Also I’m glad to have gone to see my Aunt Dawna and Uncle Kerry at the performance. They just kept hugging me over and over. Makes me realize how much I’ve missed them. It’s sad to see her in a wheelchair and getting old. But it sure was sweet to see Uncle Kerry take care of her by pushing her around….well in the good sense of that term 🙂 He would actually laugh at that. He’s a pretty funny guy.
While he was playing outside Anthony got stuck in the barbed wire (not cut fortunately) and his pants got all muddy. Seems like I hardly saw James because he was off playing so much with his cousins. On Saturday he was playing on the Xbox (Attack of the Clones) until about noon. When I told him that everyone was going down to the “park” he didn’t want to go. Complained that he was too tired to go…his legs were too tired. (when he really just wanted to stay and play the Xbox some more.)
Anthony was more than excited to go for a walk and play on the swings at the Staheli Compound Park. In fact, he liked the park so much that on Monday when we were packing up the car, he got his shoes on and took off walking (nearly running) by himself down to the park. Dave and I took turns watching him walk/run down. When he started playing on the tire swing and I got my keys and drove down to get him. Anthony has definitely got the middle child syndrome. Just takes off without telling anyone. (But I guess that could also be a “last child” syndrome too…)
At the family picnic/egg hunt, James had a fun time hiking the “mountain” with Auria – Wyn went too. He came back so excited to tell us about the Indian house they found. (It is an old abandoned house built with rock.) James also gave the prayer on the food. I was in the car nursing Benjamin (because it was so cold) so I didn’t get to hear him pray. But when he said “amen” everyone was smiling. I never did ask what he said to warrant so many smiles by the adults. But James was also just beaming when he finished.
Right now (as I write this) James is showing Anthony all the different planets in his room and telling him, “That’s Mars. Anthony say Mars.” “mars” “Good Boy! Anthony, that’s Jupiter. it’s so big.” Anthony responds, “yeah, Biiig Juper”
Benjamin just turned over onto his tummy in the crib and James is so excited!