Happy Father's Day!

We want to be just like Daddy, cause he's the greatest.

Happy Father's Day to all of the wonderful Fathers in our lives! We love you!

Spelling at the Table

While Cat was eating spaghetti for breakfast, I hear her say...
"I'm spelling, Mom. What does J-E-T-I spell?"

Interrogation Practice

Mom: Cat has a cut on her chin.

Cat: Daddy, I have a cut on my chin!

Dad: What happened?

Cat: I got a cut on my chin. 

Dad: How did you get the cut? 

Cat: Something cut me. 

Dad: How do I phrase the question... 

Mom: She doesn't know.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

We surprised Ben by bringing some additional family to town the weekend before his birthday. We spent a few hours on the beach and enjoyed pizza and cake before the rain chased us out (notice the clouds in the shark visor picture) and loved having so many people to celebrate with!


On his actual birthday, Cat was very excited to make Ben a special Birthday Hat, and she also gave him her entire rock collection, which she has been working on for about a year.

On the Plantation

Ben's parents spent the weekend with us just before his birthday and we decided to go on a little adventure together to a state park called Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation. It's a 200 year old piece of property that began as a rice plantation, survived through the Civil War, and became a dairy farm (see the milking area pictured at left) in the early 20th century, the whole time being owned by the same family. The last living relative died in the 1970's, and left it to the State of Georgia.

Here is a ginormous oak tree, estimated to be 700 years old! The trunk was unbelievably large, and the canopy was several hundred feet in diameter. We tried so hard to get good pictures, but how do you do a tree that big justice?

Cat and I had fun climbing on this oak tree, which was half-way uprooted, but still very much alive.






The grounds were my favorite part of the trip. This is the view of the marsh (where the rice patties were) from the plantation house, with Mema, Cat, Jack, and Me sitting on the bench.

And the Master Scriptorian Award Goes To...

This happened a few weeks ago, but I keep forgetting about posting it. One day Cat wanted me to read to her out of the Book of Mormon Reader and as I was flipping through it, she noticed the story about Alma preaching in Ammonihah. She said she wanted that one, and I said, "Oh, good, I like this story about Alma and...." but couldn't remember his companion's name! But Cat piped up with "Amulek!" before I could even find the name on the page. Yeah, Cat!

Meet Chip

As soon as I saw that a small bird was trapped in our back porch this morning (one of the small screens acts more as a flap than an actual screen), I pointed it out to Cat. I opened the outside door, but we watched the poor thing fly frantically from one side to the other, never seeing the open door. Cat's first response was, "We need to call it a name. His name is Chip." I suggested that we say a prayer, and Cat didn't want to do it, so I said a short prayer. Then we started motioning toward the door and yelling, "Birdie, door! Birdie, door!" After several minutes, we saw that that wasn't working, so Cat decided it was time for her to say a prayer. After her prayer, I thought maybe we should try to lure the bird out with birdseed, so I got a bag of birdseed from the garage and sprinkled it on the deck outside the porch.

Once I poured the birdseed outside, Cat tried to scoop some into her hand so that the bird would come eat it out of her hand. Chip had other ideas, though, and just continued to fly around and around in the porch! We had to leave, but when we got back to the house a few hours later, the bird was gone! Cat immediately said, "Heavenly Father took care of Chip! Thank you, Heavenly Father, for helping Chip."