Donovan's in the kitchen!

Donovan is 12 and has to fulfill some requirements in his Faith in God book. One of the requirements is make 2 meals for the family. He made breakfast yesterday with a potato,bacon and egg mixture and tonight for dinner was Sweet and Sour Chicken. Here he is hard at work...

Slicing carrots for the dinner.
Watching him measure for the sauce was quite entertaining...
If you stand any closer Donovan it might be more comfortable! The pan and the contents really won't bite you.
After much chopping, slicing, dicing, measuring and stirring....dinner is ready! Good job Donovan!

Present choosing...

Christopher is not an easy child to shop for. Russell and I really did spend a long time looking but came up empty handed. Hence the shopping trip with dad.

Christopher's choice? A batman vehicle that does all kinds of stuff. He has been having fun playing with it with the younger boys.

He has a birthday, shout hooray! Christopher is 11 today!

On this day 11 years ago Christopher joined our family! He weighed in at 6 lb 8 oz and was 19 inches long.

My how he has grown into a handsome young man!
Christopher wanted all of our family together for his birthday dinner. We had to have it last night as Russell is gone from this morning until late Sunday night for his last National Guard duty. Christopher wanted pizza, strawberry jello and koolade for dinner. Request - granted!

Opening a present from Grandma and Grandpa Rogers.
Very cool! My very own alarm clock!
Happy Birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Christopher! Happy Birthday to you. :)

Chris wanted a jello cake. He must really like jello!

Emergency Preparedness

I have always been into Emergency Preparedness. I had complete bags for each of the boys at one time. Then the food needed to be rotated and I became a slacker and didn't replace the contents. For now...the boys each have the following in their packs...
Water, toothbrush, toothpaste, toilet paper, poncho, first aid kit, crayons for the younger boys, pens, pencils, notebook, 3 pair underwear, 3 pair socks, 2 undershirts, a very large plastic bag and a wool blanket.
There are lots of things that need to be added like flashlights with batteries, pocket knives, small radios, food items, jeans, rubber boots, etc.

But the highlight of the day while contemplating a switchover from the packs I originally had were these babies. (The original packs were far from waterproof and we needed more room.) These are brand-new backpacks. I found them today at Fred Meyers of all places at 60% OFF! AND I had an additional 15% off coupon as well. These should have cost $120 for 4 packs but I only paid $40. WHOOHOO!

I have a backpack in my closet that really should be put to use and Russell has a gigantic fire-fighting yellow backpack in the garage that needs to be redone. Then I will be feeling better about where we stand in our emergency planning.

How are you doing with your preparations?

Super upgrade!

Okay. We were told Nephi would be getting a walking cast. We go to the Fracture Clinic yesterday to see what's in store...

Nephi is excited his cast is coming off.
Here is the saw starting on side of the cast.

Now the other side.
Here are the cool reversable plyers doing their job.
The cast is coming off!
There's the leg with lots of dead skin this time. The doctor came in after the x-rays. Nephi's leg has lots of calcium buildup where the bones broke. That's a good thing. The dr. said Nephi can't be climbing anything for another month (that's how he broke it to begin with) but DOESN'T need a walking cast! AND we don't need to come back unless something happens like his leg starts hurting really super bad. We were told to expect it to hurt a little as he will be wearing shoes and walking on it.
Since we were anticipating the walking cast - I didn't bring an extra sock or shoe. Nephi is using the crutches one last time to get to the car. Castless at last! :)

And he thoroughly enjoyed his bath last night. He said he is never taking a shower again.