For me to remember

Just some random things I don't want to forget:

Eli got mad at me the other day when we were out in the back yard.  He stormed into the house and locked the door.  Savannah sent me this picture from behind enemy lines.  He built a barricade and said "I'm mad at Mom, so I'm never letting her in!"  Ha!

Speaking of Eli... he has been OBSESSED lately with "crapping" (trapping) birds.  He really wants to "eat some bird meat."   He has spent literally hours trying to figure out how to lure and trap birds so he can kill them.  These are two of his carefully thought out traps:

A nest, complete with play-dough eggs, so a bird will want to come sit on them.

He waited all morning for a bird to wander in there.

He has been stuck on this bird hunting kick for months.  But the other day we were driving somewhere, and I guess the wheels in his head were turning.  He said, very slowly, "Mom, if I crap a bird and it's a mommy, den it won't go back to his nest to take care of da baby birds."  I confirmed that he was right.  "Mom, I'm not going to crap birds anymore.  I'm going to hunt BUNNIES!"

Side note:  Simon was pretty happy to lose his two front teeth.  Especially since Nettie paid him $10 to let her pull one of them out.  That's WAY more than he gets from the tooth fairy!

Simon has gotten up to share his testimony in church for the last two months.  He wanted to get up again this month, but I wanted to make sure his reasons were sincere. (As opposed to... just wanting to get up there so he could hear himself in the microphone.)  I asked him why he wanted to bear his testimony.  His response: "I know that when we bear our testimony, it gets stronger.  And that's one of my goals."  So sweet and mature.  He got up there and said "I like to bear my testimony.  I know the Church is true.  I know that if we never set goals, then we won't get any better."

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And a Jonah story:

Today he was talking about being one of the best basketball players at school.  I was assuming it was going to be a story about how great he was, but it took a really sweet turn.    He said one of the best things about being really good at basketball is that it makes you one of the cool guys.  And then you can use that to help other kids.  "Like, the ones that nobody ever pays much attention to.  If you start to be friends with them, then other people will think they're cool too."  He named several kids that he had done that with, "and now they all have plenty of friends."  What a kind hearted boy he is!