Jeffrey ~ 7 years old

I thought the other day, rhetorically, of course, what if a poor soul were months behind on their blogging, had given up scrapbooking (with the idea that the blog would suffice for recording family memories), and were way behind with organizing pictures, so the idea of blogging (or scrapbooking for that matter) seemed totally overwhelming?  I would feel so sorry for that person.  As I would feel sorry for myself, if I happened to be that poor soul.  Alas, I live that "poor souls" life, but haven't lost all hope.  Yet.

So, I wanted to take the next few posts to document what the individual kids have been doing lately.  You know, since my last post 10 MONTHS ago.  Here goes lots of random moments from Jeffrey's life:

In January, Jeffrey was in a performance with half of the 2nd grade called "3 of a kind."  He is the billy goat on the far left, which is exceedingly hard to see, but he's there. and did a fabulous job with his part, complete with a 'billy goat voice.'  He's not one to love performances, so he won't ever do it for us at home, but he did manage to do a great job on stage!

Daniel has ensured that the kids have a healthy love for ribs.  Love the bbq covered face.

For a very long time now, Jeffrey has had a hard time sleeping through the night.  He comes out a few hours after he goes to bed and wanders around the house, asleep.  He often comes out and sits with Dan, who is usually still up.  It's not uncommon to see that they have both fallen asleep.

Jeffrey with the awards he won after his 2nd grade year at Valley View Elementary School in Jonesboro, AR.  He excelled in school and continues to love to read.  He is always telling us random facts that he has learned from a book, ranging from facts about salmonella or the tallest mountain, largest body of water or longest bridge on any given continent.

Jeffrey with his teacher, Ms. Shannon.

We had a crazy moment during the addition of our house.  The day after we had the fascia put in, we heard what seemed to be little footsteps in the roof.  Sure enough, after taking down some of the fascia and siding, we found a HUGE birds nest between the rafters (the mother had built the nest, then gotten trapped in the roof when they covered the rafters).  There were 6 little eggs, which sadly didn't survive the ordeal.  It was exciting for the kids.

The kids discovered that it was really fun to blow air into cups filled with water and dish soap.  They looked ridiculous, but spent quite a while out blowing bubble beards.

Always looking for somewhere to play a sport.  Here he is throwing an old water bottle that he found on the ground into a basketball hoop at Craighead Forest Park.

This picture that came home from Primary cracked me up.  It is a drawing a "healthy" and "not healthy" things.  The lesson was on the Word of Wisdom, which usually turns my mind to food choices.  Not so for Jeffrey.  The "healthy" side at the top, includes your usual things like peas and asparagus (not a cigarette as it appears).  Included on the "not healthy" side include (but are not limited to):  a baby going near a pool, throwing a basketball at someone's knee, a large ant running over a person, drowning, falling off a steep roof, coffee, cigarettes, lollipops, falling off a cliff, elves standing on one another's shoulders in order to drop letters to Santa into a mail slot, jumping on a trampoline and breaking your leg, getting run over by a car, getting trapped in a television set, and punching someone in the face.  I think we can agree that these things are indeed, not healthy.

Jeffrey turned 8 years old:

Birthday boy with cake and presents

Trying to catch bugs to put in his new bug catcher.

He requested a water party of sorts.  We use the word "party" liberally as the only people there are family members.  But we were lucky to have Grandma and Grandpa Leckie there for his birthday, instead of the smaller crowd of just parents and sibilings.

Water balloon fight.  Fun until Caitlyn got wet...

Catching fish at Craighead Forest Park.  Lucky kid pulled out about 5 bream.  Grandpa cleaned them and we ate them up!

Jeffrey got baptized into the LDS church.  In preparing for his baptism, we talked about the Priesthood and who could baptize him and give him the Holy Ghost.  At first he wanted Dan to perform the ordinances.  Then he decided that he wanted to have his grandpas take a more active part since we were so lucky that we have 2 grandpas that were going to be there and could perform the ordinances.  At first the traditional side of me cried out that it had to be the father.  After taking a step back, and pondering the significance of the ordinances, rather than insignificant traditions, I was so happy to have Jeffrey be baptized by his Grandpa Milton and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost from his Grandpa Leckie.  I am so proud of Jeffrey and so many good things that I see him doing.  He's often collecting money to pack into a tithing envelope, helping out his younger brothers and sister, or quietly reading his scriptures so he could finish reading the Book of Mormon before he turned 8.  He is truly trying to follow the example of our Savior.

Jeffrey & Grandpa Milton

Three generations of Milton Men.

It was a super stormy morning when Jeffrey got baptized and not many people were able to brave the torrential rains to come.  But his good friends, the Chandlers, were there.  Here's a terrible picture of Eric, Caitlyn, Kebryl & Kovyk Chandler, Jeffrey & Andrew.

Proud parents with Jeffrey.

Jeffrey started scouts.  He wasn't too thrilled at first to go to the den meetings, because he wasn't sure what to expect.  He was quickly won over when he realized that nearly every den meeting ended with the boys playing ball in the gym.

He's a great kid.  We love him to pieces and are so excited to watch him continue to learn and grow!