Then There Were 11

On Wednesday night my big sis arrived in SG with her 5 kids en route to Phoenix. My hubby flew back to join us late that night too. It was so good to have him back with me and to have at least one dad in our mix to help entertain all the children. Even complete mama's girl Sadie warmed up to Joseph after a while and decided to call him "daddy" and snuggle up with him as such.

On Thursday morning I woke up to an excited and full house (yes—after feeding Luke twice in the middle of the night I was worn out and the last one awake :) I loved seeing all the kids playing together—they were only missing cousin Mason to make the group complete.

At one point in the late morning I was downstairs in my room feeding Luke and suddenly heard some serious crying going on. I knew Joseph was around to help any of our kids so I didn't worry about it. When I came back upstairs I discovered that it was my sweet nephew Ethan (oldest of all the grandkids) who had fallen off his long board on the very rough asphalt and ripped up the palms of his hands quite badly. He was in a lot of pain, very upset and very scared. All the younger cousins were gathered around him in shock and so worried about him. One look at his hands and I was quite worried about him too. My first thought was to ask him if he wanted Joseph to give him a priesthood blessing and he readily consented. It was such a comfort and blessing to have Joseph there and ready and willing to bless Ethan. He had to consecrate some oil and then anoint and bless Ethan with healing and especially feelings of calm and peace. Ethan's demeanor changed right after his blessing. His crying ceased and he became much more calm as he and his mom headed off to the nearby clinic. Poor boy ended up with several stitches in one of his hands and a warning against any swimming for 10 days—right during his spring break in sunny Phoenix.

The rest of the day seemed pretty mellow after Ethan's accident. Joseph took some kids on a walk around the golf course, we took the kids swimming (Eth and I sat in lounge chairs chatting in the sun and trying to keep his mind off of not being able to swim with everyone), a big group of kids gathered on my mom's king size bed for a movie before bedtime, and Joseph introduced Ethan and Will to the Draw Something app which the boys (Eth, Will, Bentley and Joseph) spent a long time playing together that evening. In the morning my sis and her family left for Phoenix and the house suddenly felt so empty with a mere 6 kids in it :)