South Jordan CountryFest

Today we went to the South Jordan CountryFest, which is a city fair. They have a parade, carnival games and rides, a rodeo, and more. Part of the rodeo festivities are rodeo events for children. This year we entered Landon into the Mutton Bustin' competition and Parker into the Stick Pony race. For those who don't know, Mutton Bustin' is where the children ride sheep and see how long they can hang on. Most of the sheep that day were pretty calm, but you'll see in the video that the one Landon got to ride was anything but.

Landon Mutton Bustin'


Parker started strong in the Stick Pony race. I think he got a little too excited about being in front and took out two of the kids behind him. Jessica was so involved with giving Parker instructions that she forgot to watch the camera. Parker ended up finishing second.

Parker's Stick Pony Race

Landon's homework

Landon is in the first grade and loves it. He brings home homework on Monday and has to get it done by Friday. Well, one of his papers for this week was called “Name Something.” So he had to “name something” that’s yellow, etc. One of them on there said “Name something that’s purple.” Landon replied, “Grandma!” Now if any of you know my mother, you know that she LOVES purple and when I say LOVE, I MEAN LOVE!!! I did have to tell Landon that although Grandma does love purple, she herself (unfortunately for her) is not purple. But that we could mention something she has that was purple. I mentioned a few things and he chose “Grandma’s toilet!” No joke! She loves purple that much. My brother calls it scratch-and-sniff. When I talked to mom and told her, she thought it was a hoot and wants me to put next to the answer that it’s not a joke.

Another one was “Name something pretty.” The first thing that came to his mind—and may I mention that it came rather quickly—was girls. I agreed and let him write it, but my thought was oh, great! He’s started early. (remember: he’s in 1st grade and the youngest in his class. He’s only 6 ½ and won’t turn 7 until after he starts 2nd grade!) Joe was shocked and laughed when he saw what he wrote. I told Joe it’s what Landon thought of and wasn’t going to disagree!

The last of his “name somethings” that I want to mention is “name something strong.” Landon thought of dads. I told him that was a good one. Then Parker, my 3 year old who was sitting right next to him, said “Me too or Parker.” I don’t remember which one exactly, but Landon did write it down next to dads. Now what you have to understand is that Parker does this pose where he kinda squats down and flexes his arm muscles and says, “me stroooooong.” So it was so cute and funny to think that Landon needed to write down that his brother was strong too. If I can get Joe to do it or I figure out how…I think we have some of it on video.

Parent-Teacher Conference

Yesterday we had our first Parent-Teacher Conference with Landon's teacher. He is doing great. She loves having him in class. His best subject is math. His biggest struggle is handwriting and paying attention to his own work. Apparently he likes to walk around and see what everyone else is working on. His favorite day is Thursday because that is PE day. His favorite lunch is on Wednesday's...PIZZA!

Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation

Our ward had the Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation today. Gramma Sue came down from Idaho Falls (she was visiting Mary on Saturday). We also had Brandon, Jennifer, and Clark visit from Provo and Johnnie Bobo came from Salt Lake. Landon did a great job on his part. He bore his testimony about the temple.

We had a large, fun gathering for dinner. We made Poppyseed Chicken, but in the crock pot this time, not in the oven. It was DELICIOUS. And so much easier...I don't know why we didn't think of that sooner.

Flu bug

Landon was up sick numerous times on Wednesday night, so we decided not to send him to school on Thursday. Thursday afternoon two girls from his class (and also in our ward) stopped by our house, along with the mother of one of the girls, to see how he was doing. Apparently the word at school was that he had fallen down, gotten a big hole in his knee, and was at Primary Children's Hospital in surgery. Of course, that was not the case, and we assured the girls that Landon just had a stomach bug. Looking to quelch the rumor, and reassure Landon's teacher, Jessica sent an email to her explaining why Landon was not in school that day. She got a reply from Landon's teacher telling her that Landon wasn't the only one out sick that day -- in fact, 12 students were out sick on Thursday. Twelve students out of 24 in the class! Crazy!

Who's Running for President?

Landon has been talking about the election in his class at school. They taught him a little about the election process and what it means. They also taught him who was running this year. So he came home yesterday and asked me, "Daddy, who are you going to vote for? John McCain, or Okabama?" He couldn't remember/pronounce Barack Obama's name. It was so funny. Then today, we were at a friend's house for a birthday party and we were watching the election results and he got Obama's name wrong again, except this time he called him "Broken Mama." I died laughing! :)

Do you want some cake?

A couple of days ago, we were sitting at dinner discussing whether we were going to let the boys have some cake for dessert when Landon did something devious and funny. He said to Parker, "Go like this", and then shook his head like he was saying "no". So Parker copied him and started shaking his head no. When Parker was in the middle of this, Landon said to him, "Do you want some cake?" Since Parker was shaking his head, Landon then announced to me and Jessica that Parker didn't want any cake. I couldn't believe how sneaky he was! :)

Soccer

Well, yesterday was Landon's last soccer game. (I have included a couple of short videos and a picture of him with his participation trophy.) On our way home from the game he said, "Aww man, I'm not in any sports anymore." (Flag football ended a couple of weeks ago.) He really enjoyed playing soccer this year. I signed up to be an assistant coach but they didn't have enough volunteers for coaches, so I was "promoted." He liked having me as his coach. He was my goal scorer. No one else on the team scored a goal until the sixth game (the season is eight games long). Then finally more players started scoring goals. It was really cool watching the progress each player made during the season. I really enjoyed coaching. I minored in coaching while I was at BYU so it was neat to utilize some coaching techniques I learned there.

Flag Football

We signed Landon up for flag football this year. He has loved it, and he's pretty good too. His last game was last Thursday, October 2. We had not gotten any video of him playing so we took our camera to this game. I had the camera sitting in my lap for most of the game and then I realized that it was getting pretty dark and I hadn't taken any video yet. So I decided to film the next play. It just so happened that the coach put Landon in as the running back for that play. They were about 50 yards from the endzone. I will let you watch the video to see the result of the play! (Landon is in the red jersey just to the left of the guy in the "STAFF" shirt.)

Good times!