6,477,923

That’s how many words Spencer read this year.  In fact, he read the most of anyone in the school district and was recognized at the board meeting tonight.  Our schools participate in the Reading Counts program and Spencer had 1,430 points!!  If you want to get technical, he actually had 1,443 points (and a few more words) but he selected the wrong author on one test and inadvertently took the test for a retelling of Treasure Island worth 4 points instead of the original book which was worth 17.  In all, he read 75 books, and these are books like the Harry Potter series, the Redwall books, Fablehaven, and the Chronicles of Narnia, to name a few.  Not exactly quick reads!

Fifth grade wasn’t very challenging so Spencer would usually come home from school homework free and climb into his “comfy place” on the couch.  Some days he’d read for hours, always tuning out the world around him.  He definitely inherited his Grandpa’s love of reading.  Way to go, Spencer!

I’m sure Spencer would be up for some recommendations since he’s read everything in our house (at least once) and then some.  Reading is obviously his favorite pastime and we’ve got the whole Summer ahead of us…

Say What?

Last Sunday Sam volunteered to say the dinner prayer.  Savannah mentioned that Sam had said a lot of prayers already at church and that he was sure to have a pretty wife!  According to one of Savannah’s friends, each time you say a prayer it means your future spouse will be that much better looking.

Listening in, Sterling didn’t miss a beat before saying,

“Wow.  My future wife sure must be saying a lot of prayers.”

What a funny (and handsome) guy.

Dancing in Circles

I heard this song in the car the other day.  It’s a good one!  I love the message.

Happy Easter

Say What?

Sadie: “Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Who is the hairiest of them all?  Daddy!”

Tissues are so overrated

 

etc.

My to-do list was sitting on the table and one of the items said something like,

“Do such-and-such, etc.”

Soren saw it and asked, “Mom, what does e-t-c mean?  Does it mean eat the cookies?”

No Soren, it doesn’t.

But it should.

HR

My brother Rob, a.k.a. HR (Handsome Rob), has been asking when I’m going to start blogging again.  I think of things I could post rather frequently, but somehow I never manage to sit down and actually post them.  And now it’s been so long that I don’t even know where to start.  So I’ve decided to roast pay tribute to the only person who seems to miss my ramblings — Rob.

Rob is significantly younger than I.  In fact, Rob turned 5 right after I started my first year of college.  I recently came across this note that he sent me at school:

“Hi Missy How ya doin I miss ya Love Robby”

Awww.  Isn’t that so cute?  He must have forgiven me for the haircut I gave him only weeks before school started.  Mom was in the hospital having baby Jeffrey so I thought I’d help her out by cutting Rob’s hair.  I’d never given a haircut before, but how hard could it be with clippers?  Did you know that you are supposed to attach an extension on the clippers before you begin?  Did you know that your subject will be bald if you don’t?  Um, yeah.  Rob was bald.  But hey, that much longer before he needed another haircut, right?  Sadly, I have no photos of that event.  Fortunately, he’s had great hair ever since.

As if great hair wasn’t enough, Rob is very stylish as is demonstrated in this never-before-seen photo:

Is that classy or what?  Even from a young age he has demonstrated an impeccable fashion sense.  Today you’re more likely to see him in a cardigan sweater or a frightening clever t-shirt.

Another great quality is that he loves loved cats.  We had a cat which was the runt of the litter and rather ugly and so we named him Yoda.  Rob loved Yoda!  And from the photo, it looks like feelings were mutual.  This is how they slept pretty much every night:

I’m wondering if Rob’s love for cats ended when Yoda ran away one year on his birthday.

Oh, and Rob is very talented/clever.  That can be aptly demonstrated by this amazing hat he created.  Again, his sense of style leaves me speechless.

Rob is the self-proclaimed “favorite uncle” to my kids.

It’s obvious they love him!

Rob is also an ultimate frisbee pro, killer bunnies champion, and amazing family historian.  It’s no wonder we put up with him love him as much as we do!

Talented Sheep

Having served a mission in Scotland, and being on the Isle of Lewis during lambing season, I grew to love sheep.  They had the right of way on the roads and it wasn’t uncommon to have to wait for a little lamb to finish eating before Mom and baby would move out of the way.  I remember eating at a member’s home one Sunday after church.  We were having a nice roast, which I assumed was pork, when I announced, “After serving on this island, I will never be able to eat lamb again.”  An uncomfortable silence followed before our host announced that the roast was, you guessed it, lamb.  Oops!

Enjoy the following video of some pretty amazing sheep — or maybe it’s the sheep dogs that are talented and several sheepherders with an awful lot of time on their hands.

In A Nutshell

Here’s a photo journey of some of the more memorable events that have occurred over the past several weeks in our little corner of the world. 

Jeff's bone grafting/rod replacement surgery

Sterling's legos gather for General Conference

Sam's surgery

crazy hair days at school

father son outing

University "Celebration!" - an annual family event

more snake handling

even more

a good way to use up 24 lbs. of strawberries

a better way to use up 24 lbs. of strawberries

weeping cherry blossoms

spring blossoms

Not pictured:  Jeff replacing the radiator in the van, Spencer reading the entire Harry Potter series in 2 weeks, Savannah’s awesome piano recital, Sam’s entertaining Choir concert, Savannah’s clever choir concert/musical, Soren’s cute kindergarten music program, getting rid of ants in the kitchen, finding and fixing the leak that caused our floorboards to buckle, etc…