Watchdog Day

This is one of the most coveted days for the kids and myself(Brent). Once or twice a year, I take the day off and go to school to be the Big Dad on Campus. The kids talk about it and look forward to this day for weeks as do I. Preston kept saying, "How many more days until friday?", "oh good, I can't wait, because then you will be watchdog".

I get to help around campus and best of all, I get to go to each of my kids classrooms and help the teacher out in the class and mingle with my children, from reading, to talking about my job, to just observing. Then we get to have lunch together and recess as well. That's the best part! I play whatever activity/sport they want to play and they just love it, and so do I. I hoola hooped with Hailey(I'm not as good as she is) and played football and basketball with Jackson and the boys. We had so much fun! They make me feel like the most important person to them, and I love being with them. I wish I could make it my job. Luckily, Ellen is on campus often, helping out in their classrooms and doing music. It's great that she can be there and enjoy these elementary days with the kids!

Skateboard Kamakazi

The other night the kids wanted me to tell them a story, so I told them about my skateboarding days with my friends. We use to kayak down the street sitting on two skateboards parallel to each other and putting our feet on one anothers boards. We could turn and race others down the street. We ended up crashing into my brother and his friend and I jumped off the skateboard and sprained my ankle. No fun.
Well, Ellen called me at work the other day and she said Jackson had taken a small table and turned it upside down and put it on the skateboard, but the football container on top of that, put his helmet on, and got inside the football and road down the driveway. He almost hit a car across the street. What a fun imagination. Take a look at the photo...

Abby's Two Front Teeth

The other day, I walked by Abby's room and she was holding back her tears, ready to scream, but not sure what to do. I didn't know what happened, but saw some blood on her knee. After a quick scan, I realized that her two front teeth were missing, then I looked up and it appears she tried to bite a piece of string that was hanging from the top bunk bed underneath her bed, and zing! both of her teeth came right out. Just the other day her other bottom middle one came out, so Abby now has a great smile, minus her front bottom and top teeth. She's one of a kind!

Neil Family Reunion 2009 Camp Nauvoo

4th of July Opening Song

This is so cute. Mom Neil helped the kids last week put together this performance, before the neighborhood parade. It was the cutest thing. More pics of the parade to follow. I love how Preston comes marching in. He's ready for boot camp!!

Extra Kisses

The other day I came home from work and picked up Tyson as he is usually excited to see me(he's still young), and then I went to give Ellen a kiss, and after I kissed her, Tyson leaned over to give Ellen a kiss with his mouth open wide.......we laughed. Tyson sure seems to learn quick. We repeated it a few times, as Ellen got a few extra kisses that day!

Zipline??

Last saturday while I was working around the house, Jackson and Preston were working in the tree. They grabbed a jump rope and tied both ends of it to different branches on the tree and had put a toy that had a ring with a ball hanging from it onto the jump rope. The purpose was to have the ring run along the jump rope and they could then hold onto the ball at the bottom of it and use it like a zipline. What a great idea. They were proud of their idea. Things looked well, until they tried it and the ring made out of plastic broke, and the zipline didn't get used. Oh, dang. Pretty creative little ones for only being 7 and 5 years old