Our little Whoopie Cushion

Imagine the sound that a whoopie cushion makes when you sit on it hard and push the air all out at once. Got it? Now add oooie goooie yellowy slime to that. Such is my good morning greeting from Danny.

The day begins with a blow-out;
Danny's own little
way of saying "Wake up world! I am rip-roarin' and ready to go!" This little whoopie cushion certainly leaves his mark on the world!

note: we have tried several different diapers to prevent such blowouts, but you can't fight evolution, this kids bum was built for explosives!

Fall Revelry

From the mouths of Babes

It was one of those lovely clairvoyant moments yesterday at dinner time when you realize that your beautiful child is really a Child of God:
As we sat trying to get some late dinner bites into Faith's mouth, repeating "You want a bite, Faith?" "Faith, bite." Faith looked around the kitchen and saw the picture of Jesus hanging on the wall. With all sincerity. Faith took the spoon from me, offering it upward and asked in her cryptic toddler words (I am so proud of her putting multiple words together) "Want bite Jesus?"
This might be the first glimpse of her testimony that Jesus Christ has a perfect resurrected body of flesh and bones, and maybe he would like some of our potato dinner.

Cabin General Conference

It has been a part of the Hancock family tradition to spend the time uninterupted during the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saints at our cabin. Luckily we get television broadcast and radio transmission to be able to listen to the Prophets speak. It is a perfect setting to bond with family, relax, and listen. Since we all have a certain tendency to fall a sleep if sitting still for to long, we have found some traditional, mostly reverent, activities to keep our hands moving while our hearts are listening. Over the years we have put together many a puzzle, colored thousands of pictures, tied several quilts, crochetted many baby blanket, and this year had a fabulous pedicure.

Couldn't've been pioneers

Traveling with kids is tough. With all the regulations of keeping them strapped in and safe and such while traveling at top speeds across wide open road, it just doesn't warrant the same kind of riding fun of the past. AND, if your mom is a blonde, it is likely that you end up with some pretty scary, hairy, ever wary, travelers.




I appoligize in advance to Danny for not having any other clothes available after his mid-trip blow-out to put him in, but ain't he cute?

Ruba Dub Dub, Too many kids in the tub!

Just a week ago I had one of the most hilarious bathing experiences that is still worth retrieving from my memories and placing it here in history:
Having smooshed too much into Monday to get all the Ricks clan in and out of the tub, we had elected Tuesday evening after dinner for tub-time. Since the girls, Eve and Faith, had earlier bed times, they were in the water first. Faith is definitely a water baby, Eve is a land lover. Eve refused to even sit down in the water. Faith commenced splashing around, putting Eve at even more of a disconcerted disposition. To allow play time and conserve water I have also begun bathing Danny at the same time as Faith. I had all prepared to put Danny in the water when Faith began to "wash" Eve.
Faith knows that I always put a cup in the bathtub to douse her head with water during the shampooing stage of bath time. Having put the cup in the tub in preparation already, Faith began the dousing, only not of her own head! Just as I touched Danny's bum to the water, Faith dumped a good one on Eve, sending her into shrieks. Danny responded to the shriek as a warning not to get in the water and began screaming himself. I hurriedly tried to prevent Faith from dumping any more water on Eve's head by knocking the cup out of her hand which put her into shrieks of disappointment.
All three bathing beauties were now screaming in the echoing corridor of the large tub. Noah was in the shower, adding the rush of water to the din. Hearing commotion and chaos, his companions of all time, Aidan came to join in (and this is my favorite part). Racing to the bath steps, right next to me, Aidan braced himself for this tumultuous event spacing his hands on the ledge of the tub, reared back, and SHRIEKED!! Why not? If everyone else is yelling, he should be too.
I added only my laughter as Grandma came to the rescue, briskly soaping Eve's head and removing her from the tub. Aidan was granted permission into the sloshing and shrieking world of Faith's extended bath time, to her great joy. As I finished drying and dressing Danny, Faith and Aidan dumped repetitive cups of water on each other's heads, shrieking with intermittent giggles. A happy, and clean, time for all.

Privacy without going Private

Aloha illustrious readers - this post is just for you.
I have been wrestling with finding a good half-way point between keeping my family safe on the internet and keeping this blog open for long-lost friends to find me....
Well, today I was happy to learn about "Reading List" on the blogger dashboard. This feature allows you to follow all the blogs you like to visit easily and remember their addresses without posting links on your blog. I have thus removed all the links on my blog to others' to remove the risk of making their family too available to blog-hoppers or internet-stalkers. I would appreciate the same from you.
If you have found Button Factory and want to keep seeing us, please do not put us as a link on your blog, rather leave it in your own "Reading List" so that only you, signed in, will see it, and not the rest of the world.
I have been excited to find some old friends through this wonderful technology and hope to continue sharing our family adventures with you. Please help us keep the cute pictures of my kids a bit more safe.
Mahalos - a concerned mother :)