Grandpa and Grandma Neyens made a visit to the newly seven birthday boy Saturday. Grandma sewed him a bag for his tanks (clearly labeled with embroidered letters, which I think is neater than neat) and he and James have been enjoying the cool tanks included. In fact, the tank bag was seen being discreetly carried into the car on the way to church because of course, a bag of tanks could come in handy at any moment. Grandpa and Grandma Donaldson skyped with birthday wishes and sent him some nice clothes (Being the oldest, he doesn't get hand-me-downs from a sibling so clothes are especially appreciated) and educational/fun books. They obviously know what our curious little bookworm thrives on.

This evening during FHE James decided to pretend he was sleeping. He was snoring with an occasional smile when I tickled his toes. I had just sneaked his smelly “car blanket” into the wash so no level of acting could have fooled me into thinking he was actually asleep without it. On the other side of the couch Jonathan and Gracie were being quite good buds managing to share a cushion while keeping arms folded and the seat reclined. Gracie needed to use the bathroom and returned with the bottom half of her PJs and underwear in her hands. She is still mastering the art of keeping pants on while going potty so this isn’t out of the norm. Anyway, Jonathan sees her coming back into the room, covers his eyes, throws back his head and yells as if in quite a good deal of pain, “Aaah, Gracie, stop running around naked!” She just proceeded to put on her underwear and did a little jig to our effortful rendition of Book of Mormon Stories. For the lesson, our teacher (I won’t name names) decided he would show one of the new clips on lds.org. I couldn’t quite understand why he was showing us a 5 minute clip in Spanish on his small I-Phone screen but figured he must have had some purpose. The kids didn’t seem to mind in the least. I later found out he didn’t realize it wasn’t in English but thought he’d show the entire clip as long as he’d started it. I’ll choose my battles. The evening ended with three children wrestling nicely on the couch so I can't complain.