A New TV

The TV in our family room was having problems. After we had the bulb in it changed, the screen went all warped and soon there was a big, bright, yellow circle in the midle of the screen. We waited until the beginning of this month and then finally called Best Buy to fix it (we had the extended warranty and were very glad we got it after we had to have the light engine replaced last year, which was a $1400 part). They contacted the repair place and Wes from the repair place called us and said that he'd send it back in to Best Buy to have them do the buy back thing, since he was pretty sure it was probably the light engine again and he said they don't fix that anymore. So we waited to hear back from Best Buy and finally on Thursday we got a call that said to take our TV in to the store and they'll exchange it. They gave us a confirmation and told us to take in our receipt and stuff too. So when Bryce came home from work that night, he took the tv and went to Best Buy. He came back with a 50" dlp TV and an adapter for our computer to make it go from DVI to HDMI, since the new TV didn't have the DVI port (It had a VGA port, but our VGA output on our computer hadn't been working). He said that at first they tried to get him to take a 46" TV and he asked how it works, if they just trade for comparable models (although our old TV had more ports and they actually didn't have anything there with a DVI port) or what. So they figured out that the TV we had would cost $1200 now, so they were looking at TV's in that range (the 46" one cost $900). Anyway, Bryce set up the 50" TV and we couldn't get the computer to work right with it, so the next day, Bryce took it back and just got a gift card for the cost, since he thought maybe I'd want to help him pick something out. They actually gave him the full amount that we originally paid for our TV with taxes and everything, so just over $1900.
I told Bryce I didn't care what he got, so he could just go back, which he did after we got the boys in bed that night. He kept calling me to see if we wanted 2 46" TV's, a 50" and a 46", or a 65". I told him it was up to him. He decided to get the 65". But they only had the floor model left at the Nampa store and there wasn't enough time to get out to the Boise store before it closed, so they held one for him at the Boise store. Since I had an Enrichment Activity when he was supposed to be out there, he took Ben, Alex, and Chris with him and I had Daniel with me. I got home from the EA at about 12. At 1, Bryce got home and asked if I could keep the boys with me, he was going to go to the Nampa store. He had argued with the people at the Boise store because they wanted to charge him $1999 for the TV when he was going to get it for $1699 at the Nampa store. So he went to the Nampa store and got it for the $1699 price, which had been kind of a mistake in the first place because the manager hadn't switched the tag to say $1999, but since he had told Bryce they would give it to him for that price, they were keeping it there. And since he was taking the floor model, they gave him another 10% off. And Bryce managed to talk them into not charging him sales tax because of the hassle. And the manager who the night before had told Bryce he'd give it to him for that price wasn't there, so they had to call him to make sure Bryce was telling them the truth. So after buying the TV and another extended warranty with it (we figured that it was probably a good idea with a TV this expensive and it really came in handy last time), he ended up with about $28 left on the gift card. So he got a 65" TV that is typically worth $2000 or so for a really good price, feeling like he spent a lot of money, although he hadn't actually spent anything) And if he had taken the one they were originally trying to give him, we'd have ended up with a TV worth $900. I'm pretty glad I sent Bryce to go do the TV stuff. I probably would have just taken the $900 one. And now we have a HUGE TV in our family room that works with the computer (it also didn't have the DVI port, but the HDMI port was supposed to work better with computers). It took a bit to get the computer to work with it and in the end, the VGA output actually started working, and the DVI still wasn't working with the new TV, so we're using the VGA port. Which is actually kind of funny. To sum up, it was a lot of hassle, but we ended up getting a pretty good deal out of it. We went from 44" to 65" and didn't have to pay anything.

Temple trip

We went to the temple for Family Home Evening last night and the boys loved it. They had a good time exploring the grounds and talking about some of the things that happen in the temple. We also had our family scripture study at the temple, and they seemed to like that. They all kept saying that they wanted to stay there and wanted to go back soon. We've told them that maybe the next time we're down visiting family, we'll take them to see the Salt Lake Temple and maybe the Bountiful Temple so they can see the place where we got married. They're excited to be able to see more. It's so fun to see them excited about things like that.

Here are some pictures I took of them at the temple:

3 months old now

I just thought I'd post a few pictures I took of Daniel on his 3 month birthday. He's funny and won't smile for the camera even though he's pretty smiley in between the shots.
The marble and beans system we've been doing with Ben and Ben's teacher seems to be working so far. On Thursday he didn't get to keep any of his beans, so he didn't get to put a marble in the jar at home, but he was very happy coming off the bus on Friday because he had been able to keep 3 of his beans, which meant he got to put a marble (3, actually) in the jar at home. I'm sure his teacher appreciated that he was being better in class. (For those of you who haven't heard about this part, Ben's teacher called on Wednesday to discuss concerns she was having with him. Basically he's been defiant and will do the exact opposite of what she tells him to do, he blows in the other kids' faces to the point where they don't like to stand by him, he yelled at another teacher that she wasn't the boss of him, things like that.)







I thought I'd add this cute one of Chris, too.

Doctor for Ben and Daniel

Ben and Daniel both had doctor appointments today. Ben had his 5 year check-up and Daniel had his 2 month check-up (even though he's almost 3 months now). Both of them are healthy and growing well. Ben is now 45 pounds (75%)and 43 inches tall (50%). His eyesight is good and his blood pressure is good. He got to have another chickenpox booster, which he wasn't happy about, but it didn't really hurt him. Daniel is 13 pounds even (80%) and 23 inches tall (50%). He got 3 shots and an oral vaccine. He's not happy now though, since he's starting to not feel well from the shots. We had wondered about his soft spot on his head since it seems large, but his doctor said it looks fine. And he's like our other boys and we get to try to make him turn his head to the right more. He likes to keep it turned to the left and is making his head a little flat on that side. They're both healthy kids, though, so that's always a good thing.

How do you solve a problem like...Benjamin?

So Ben had a hard time being good this past weekend. On Friday he kind of fought with a kid on the bus on the way home from school. He was putting boogers on the kid and told the kid that he was going to cut him with his scissors. I believe he also called the kid names, but I'm not totally sure on that one. Ben wouldn't really tell us what had gone on.
On Saturday, we were over at our neighbors Brett and Alma's house having a BBQ. The kids ate and then were running around playing and Ben grabbed the top of a small baby tree they have in their backyard and looked at us all with that gleam in his eye. Brett and Bryce both repeatedly told him not to pull off the leaves, but that's exactly what Ben did. So he had to go home at that point.
Yesterday at church, Ben was actually pretty good during Sacrament Meeting, even when I had to leave him in the chapel by himself to take Alex to go to the bathroom. However, for some reason that is beyond my comprehension, Ben decided that he needed to keep pulling down his pants in Primary, getting himself kicked out for the day.
What do you do about a kid who doesn't want to be good and doesn't act like he feels any remorse for what he's done, other than the fact that he gets privileges taken away and ends up going to bed early? The only other thing I've been able to think to do is to try to have us be better at reading the Book of Mormon together as a family every day.

On a different note, Alex gets to start preschool today. He's excited to be able to go, I think because his big brother goes to school, so now this is something he gets to do.

The latest trip to the doctor (with an edit too)

Well, we just got back from taking Chris for his 2 year old check-up. He weighed 23 pounds, 4 ounces. That means that he gained more than a pound in the last 3 weeks. It also means that he's finally back on the chart. Yay for Chris! He's around the 3% for weight now. He's also about 33 inches tall, so he's still on the short side, but he is growing. He's looking pretty good in everything else. He got to have a Hep A shot, which he didn't like at all. We'll take him back when we take Daniel in for his 6 month check-up to check his weight and to check his testicles because one is bigger than the other and it could just be some fluid or it could be something like a hernia. It doesn't seem to be painful to him, so his doctor just wants to watch it for now.

We just barely made it to get Ben to school on time and had stopped at Wendy's so that he'd be able to eat lunch before he went to school. Of course, I looked in his sack when we got home and noticed that he hadn't eaten any of his chicken and not many of his fries, so hopefully he won't get too hungry at school. *Edit: When Ben came home from school today, I asked him if he had gone straight to class when he got there and he said he had, but then he went to the lunchroom. "They were having pizza. So I had some pizza and two oranges." It's just too bad that we haven't actually paid for any school lunches yet, don't you think?

Daniel and Ben both have doctor appointments in a week, so we'll get to go have more fun then.