Our Famous Artist and Other Incidentals

What an awesome day Friday was!!!

It started off by finishing two little things that have been gnawing at me for a while...YAY!!! Then I took the two little boys grocery shopping. IT WAS THE BEST SHOPPING TRIP EVER!!! They were both perfect angels, and we had so much fun together! I told Aeden if he was really good, we'd go buy fireworks after. He kept reminding me every 5 minutes how perfect he was being, so after all was said and done, we went to the fireworks stand. We picked out our stuff, and I noticed coloring contest papers, so the girl told me to bring them back before 8pm because they were picking the winners...the winners would recieve free fireworks. Of course, when we got home, all of the kids were convinced they were destined to be the winners, so for the next 2 hours, they each meticulously colored their pages. Aeden scribbled a bit, but in the end, recruited Zerin to help him finish. Typical third child ;) Zerin was careful to point out that Liah's was pretty good, but his was most definately better. Gotta love humility. We'll come back to that...

Then we had Bryan's brother and his family over for dinner, doesn't matter what you are eating, if you have good corn on the cob, everything is better :) I love watching them with their cute little boy...they remind me so much of us when we first had Zerin, only they are more chillaxed than we ever were, which is SO good! He's the very center of their worlds, and it's so cute to see.

Then a bit later, I was over at Bryan's Mom's house with a couple few of the kids, when Bryan comes racing up the road in the van (mind you, we live 2 houses down!). I could tell something was up...he was smiling so big. He told Liah she had to hurry and get her shoes on, because she WON THE COLORING CONTEST!!!! Kid you not, first words out of her mouth were, "Tell the truth, Dad." When he wouldn't quit smiling, and told her again she had won, she was the one who could not stop smiling! You know that top and bottom row teeth cheeser that kids give you when they can't possibly hope to contain their joy...that was Liah :) Zerin was more than a little crushed, but wait, it gets better. After a little thank you prayer that my requests for teaching him a bit of humility were granted, I hugged him, and told him how proud I was that he had done his very best. Then Bryan invited him to go with them to pick up her prize...he mope-ingly agreed.

Fast forward...both kids come racing up the driveway, each toting a bag of fireworks. Liah had won this big bag of fireworks, and she had split it nearly in half, and given Zerin half of them before he even had a chance to beg them off of her. Man, I love that little girl!

Fast forward...both of the little boys fell asleep, and Bryan was pretty wiped out, so we decided that he'd stay home, and I'd take the kids to see the fireworks up at Eaglewood Golf Course. Bryan's bro & sis were there so the plan was to meet up with them. I had no idea how many people can crowd into those tiny streets, or how far away we would have to park, or how directionally impaired I am when it comes to determining where on a golf course someone is, so needless to say, we didn't find them, but it worked out perfect. Liah and Zerin had so so so much fun! I love their enthusiastic little "Oohs!" and "Aaahs!" Their only concern was that Uncle Alex was lost (I didn't have the heart to tell him we were actually the ones that were probably lost ;))

At some point, my phone fell out of my pocket, so we spent a while after the fireworks were all over looking for it, but to no avail. We said a little prayer, tried again, and still nothing. Usually stuff like that gets my panties in a bind, and I turn into a pretty grouchy cuss, but I really didn't worry about it, which was a HUGE blessing in and of itself. When we finally walked in the front door, I told Bryan about our little mishap. He smiled and told me that the guy just called who found my phone, and he'd get it to me today. I hurried and called the kids and told them...you should have seen them beaming!!! I think they couldn't care less as to if I found my phone or not, but they were each convinced that Heavenly Father must love them more than most to get yet another prayer answered. Zerin now thinks he should be the one to ask for things our family needs because Heavenly Father can't tell him no because he has just so much faith! I'm not ready to tackle that little misnomer yet ;)