Family Prayer

In college I seem to remember a member of our Stake Presidency suggesting that we hold hands as roommates while we said apartment prayer. He said that it was hard to have bad feelings towards another person if you were holding hands praying. It sounded like a good idea but truthfully we never really good at the whole apartment prayer thing so we never put it into practice. Well now that I have a family I've decided that we should hold hands during family prayer, after all roommates tend to get along a little better than siblings do.

After putting this into practice in our home I have to tell you that this Stake president must have ONLY been talking about roommates. Holding hands during prayer tends to result in tears in our house. Either one kid is squeezing the other’s hand too tight, or they are elbowing each other, or, even better, they let go of Mom or Dad’s hand so they can more fully hit or tackle their sibling. On more than one occasion prayer has ended by sending both of the kids to the corner. Yes, if you want to learn about reverence during prayer look no further than the Davis family.

Why I am not completely nutso

I woke up this morning to see Alan peeking in my doorway. As soon as he saw I was awake he came in with a big smile on his face and a bowl of cheerios for me. Breakfast in Bed! I vaguely remember him yesterday saying he was going to surprise me today. It probably would have been nicer except that I had some tests being done today that I had to be fasting for (shhh . . . don't tell Alan). So John ate the bowl of cereal while Alan wasn't looking.

But that's Alan. He is always doing thoughtful things for us. Frequently John and I will find construction paper hearts on our pillows. That's just the kind of kid that he is. And thank goodness he is or I would be completely nutso by now.

Going Nutso!

In June we did 4 weeks of swim lessons everyday and a class at the community center twice a week among other things. Summer was fun. The kids aren't signed up for any of those this month because we were going to be traveling and it wouldn't be worth the money to sign them up for this stuff when we would miss so much of it.

I was wrong.

The kids are driving me nutso! They are bored and they are driving me crazy to entertain themselves. I am trying to figure out what to do tomorrow to keep them entertained. Unfortunately the kids have both lost their TV and computer privileges (due to Hyrum's new "haircut" and our new permanent decorations on our recently painted walls among other things).

If it wasn't so hot I would send them outside to clean up the back yard. I learned that if I send them out to play they are back inside in 5 minutes. If I tell them they can't come in until the yard is cleaned up (3 minutes worth of picking up their toys) they will spend hours playing outside just to avoid cleaning up. Unfortunately it's so hot out I think that would constitute as torture. I was considering taking them to a museum but Alan hurt his foot the other day (Jumping into the pool he decided to do a "trick" and slammed his foot on the side of the pool), it's not broken or anything but I think being on his feet for a while would make him start limping again. So I am begging for ideas. What am I going to do with my kids.

FHE Games

We just finished Family Home Evening and I was reminded of some favorite Family Home Evening games when I was a kid. Horse and Swing were the two favorites. I think both of them my parents took a beating for. Horse we would climb on my Dad's back as he would run around the coral. I'm not as old as my dad was when I was little but my knees can hardly handle it (that also could have something to do with a tile floor). But swing was the real favorite. When playing swing one parent would grab our arms and the other would grab our feet "One for the money, two for the show, three to get ready, and for to go!" Then we would be tossed mercilessly onto the couch. I'm surprised no springs broke (or maybe they did, I was probably too young to notice or care). I may not remember any of the lessons but I certainly remember the games!

Fun Fun Fun!

John and Hyrum in Timp Cave

We had a great trip to Utah. We got to see lots of family and had lots of fun. While there we hiked to the timpanogos caves with my sister Natalie and her family. Despite having lived in Utah for six years this was my first time visiting the caves. It was really neat. A steep hike but well worth it.

Cousins!

And the kids got another junior ranger badge. That's 3 in one summer! They were so proud and so excited to get another one and promptly forgot about them the next day.

Hyrum knows how to enjoy his ice cream!

The kids had so much fun with their cousins. They played for 3 hours out in the kiddie pool, and were so sad when they had to come in (we didn't want them to be burnt to a crisp). I wish they had cousins to play with all the time.

smile please!

Does anyone else have this problem when trying to take pictures of their kids?

If you never have this problem, I don't want to hear about it.

4th of July

We had a great 4th of July. While visiting my parents we got up early to take the kids to see the hot air balloon launch. If you ever have a chance to go you should. It’s neat to see them being blown up and taking off.


That evening we got together with John’s family for dinner and to celebrate Michael’s birthday. There were fireworks at the school just a couple blocks from my parents house so we were able to just walk down to them. Nice to not have to worry about parking. Hyrum doesn’t like loud noises but he did pretty well. He kept his ears covered and would bury his head in my chest but kept peaking out to see the fireworks.
Davis Family

Grand Canyon

Note the kids sporting their Junior ranger badges. They were so proud.

What a fun weekend! This last weekend we got to go to the Grand Canyon with John’s work. AAA was sponsoring a service project there. They provided free admittance to the park and 2 free nights of camping, and we spent Saturday morning cleaning up the park. I think this is my 4th trip to the Grand Canyon and I still can’t get enough. We all had a lot of fun but I'm not going to write too much because we are busy getting ready for our next trip. Here are some pictures though!

Hyrum, John, and Alan

Alan loved having big trees to climb. Bonus points if you can find him in the picture.

Smores!