Snow Day!

We only got a couple of inches of slushy snow but it was enough to build a real snowman...

...and even make a few sledding runs down the hill in our backyard.

Yes, Grant is wearing his jammies. Fortunately, they are polar bear jammies so I'm sure he was warm enough.
Or maybe not.

I Like Sno Man.

As soon as I saw this I just fell in love with this striped "sno man" that Cole produced at school.

The wonderful depiction of our family, including the two cats, is also quite striking. I'm pretty sure that the orange, egg-shaped object above the snowman's head is meant to be a symbol for both our chickens and our bunnies. Or maybe it's the sun, which has been shining entirely too much this winter, making dreams of family snowman building an impossibility.

You'll notice, of course, that he got a "First Rate!" rating, which confirms what we've always known about this Boy of Destiny.

Who's the Boss?

Well, obviously. Just ask him.

Can You Spot the $25?

Sue invited Grant to help her shred some old bank statements. She was cleaning out our mail caddy and had made two piles on the floor: one to keep, one to shred. She indicated to Grant which pile to shred so of course he immediately went to the non-shred pile, grabbed the first thing that caught his eye and put it into the shredder. Sue caught a glimpse of it as it chattered through the slot. From her shriek I thought he might have shredded the Declaration of Independence or the Magna Carta. Actually, it was a Target gift card we received during Christmas. Once she identified it, I shrieked as well. Without much hope I suggested that she fish the pieces out and see if the numbers were still legible.

Okay, I purposely obscured a few of the numbers in the picture for the hindrance of our more enterprising readers but they were all there. It was the most expensive puzzle I've ever tried. When we entered the numbers into Target.com, they said "giftcard information entered is either invalid or incomplete." We checked the numbers again, made a couple of corrections and voila! $25 is ours.

Go Ye Into All The World

Grant has recently been asking questions about how the government works. Sue has been answering him and trying to help his 5 year old understanding try to grasp why we even need a government. A couple of days ago she remembered that she has several small books about various aspects of the United States, including one that has a short biography of each of the U.S. presidents up through George W. Bush. Since then Grant has insisted on taking the book with him wherever he goes and showing whoever is nearby some of the portraits of the presidents. Not surprisingly, his favorite is our 18th president, Ulysses S. Grant.

Today he took the book to church with him and shared it with other kids, the people sitting in the pews in front of us and behind us, his Primary class teacher and one of our favorite people, Brother Longfellow who walked past us in the foyer.

I thought Cole looked like Grant's mission companion in this next photo, adding his testimony while Grant prepared to present the next topic.

If you'd like a couple of LDS missionaries to visit your house with a message about Jesus Christ and the importance of families, visit mormon.org and submit a missionary request. If you'd like a couple of kindergarteners to visit your home with a presentation about their favorite U.S. presidents, Church presidents (try to guess Grant's favorite), and other interesting historical figures, drop us a line and we'll arrange a time. Either way, cookies are appreciated.

She's Our Sunbeam, Too

Today was Bryn's first day in the "big kid" Primary at church. She was a little shy at first and needed Mom's support.

Dad needed some support, too, but I had to be satisfied with taking surveillance photos through the window. Bryn eventually came around, let Mom go and sat on her teacher's lap for a while, then in her own chair.

By the end, she was excited to find mom to show her the picture she colored and tell her about her first day in the Sunbeam class.