How to make a good impression your first Sunday in a new ward

So we moved into our new home this week. I can't believe that tomorrow morning it will only have been one week since we closed on our house. It feels like so much has happened since then! Well, since we moved across town, our home is now in the boundaries of the "other" ward and today was our first Sunday. (Remember on Lost, when they met "the others.")

Well, our kids embarrassed us today on so many different occasions that I started to make a mental list and thought it would make for some entertaining reading. My pain is your entertainment. Enjoy:

1. The family is 15 minutes late for church. (My fault. I couldn't find the box with the blow dryer in it.)
2. Franny announcing to everyone in the foyer: "The water is coming!"
3. After Franny takes the sacrament, she forces out a very small but still audible burp.

Before I continue, I feel the need to explain that Sophie, who did not attend nursery due to some green nasal drainage this morning, would not sit on our laps during either of the two meetings held in the cultural hall. We wanted to sit near the Crapo's, who unfortunately for us had chosen seats on the first row. It was the 5th Sunday, so instead of the normal one hour for Sunday school, we had to endure two hours of unwanted attention on us thanks to one very small, and slightly wild Sophie. Oh yeah, and the doctor Bobby is rotating with just happens to be in the ward and witnessed the whole thing.

4. Sophie runs circles around the Sunday school teacher AND the bishop who taught the combined lesson during the third hour.
5. On one of my futile attempts to calm her down by bringing her out into the hall, I stop to talk to another lady in the ward and find Franny. (She has escaped primary and is looking for her Dad.) While I was talking to my friend, Sophie gets back into the cultural hall and Franny stops her by grabbing her by the foot and dragging her out on her belly. The good news is I did not have to witness this. Jessica saw it and told me about it later. The bad news is, the door Franny pulled her out was in the back of the room and Jessica was on the front row. If Jessica saw it, that means there were plenty of other witnesses, too. :)
6. She stands behind one of the chalkboards on wheels and slowly and repeatedly peeks her head around the corner and gives everyone "the stink eye".
7. She lays down on the floor several different times showing the whole room her diaper.
8. Oh yeah, and speaking of diapers... at one point I decided to just hold her on the side of the room so I could still listen to the lesson but let her run around where it wouldn't be so distracting to everyone else. Bad idea, because she just starts running from me to the teacher then to Bobby and then around the room. Well, one of the times she was running to Bobby, I looked down at Sophie and to my horror noticed her diaper had fallen down around her ankles! Apparently I hadn't attached the strap securely enough and it just fell off! That one I had to laugh at.

Normally I would have spent the whole time out in the hall, but poor Bobby and I were so exhausted from this past week's activities that we just sat there and watched. I think we were just too tired to really care. We even played "rock, paper, scissors" once during Sunday School to see who would have to get up and walk over to where Sophie was laying on her back in the front of the classroom.

Sigh. Kids are fun.

And the ward was very nice. Everyone was very kind and welcoming and other than our children's appalling behavior, we enjoyed it very much.