School Begins Again

I think this was, by far, the fastest flying summer ever that I can remember.  The night before school began, as I was beginning the highly ritual of packing lunches, I said to Joel, "I feel like I was just celebrating packing lunches for the last time."  We had an amazing summer and made unforgettable memories...I just wish it didn't end so quickly.  Our kids were excited to head back and see their friends so I put on my smiling face and held off on the tears until they were all gone! :)

Thomas began High School this year!  The things he is most excited about are Seminary and having separate class periods for Band and Orchestra.  He will have to be excused from his Spanish class, on occasion, to accompany the choir.  He is also going to join Men's Chorus which meets twice a week before school.  This year begins a new chapter in our lives and I am so grateful we get to learn together.  His positive attitude and zeal for learning and serving those around him will continue to serve him well.

Spring begins Junior High and is excited to see her friends each day, play intramurals during lunch, and have music classes everyday instead of a couple days a week before school.  She has an amazing network of really good friends at school. I'm grateful for the example and strength they are to each other.  She is hoping to have many of them come to YW activities with her.  This year promises to bring lots of new and exciting experiences for her.

Sam is the big man on campus as a 4th grader this year in Mrs. DeLorenzo's class.  He joined safety patrol and the school choir. His favorite part of school continues to be gym and recess.  He has the best stories of shenanigans from recess.  I've been very impressed with his desire to work hard at home this year.  He reads each night, without a hassle.  He has set a goal to read his scriptures, write in his journal, and say his prayers each night before he begins his other reading.  I'm grateful for his continued determination and efforts.  

Mary is now in 3rd grade, in Mrs. Miller's class, and continues to be a friend to everyone.  She was most excited to get back in school and be with all of her friends again.  She loves art and music and is super excited to be old enough to join the school choir this year.  Mary comes home with long, VERY DETAILED, explanations of EVERY moment of her school day.  I definitely don't miss much from her day.  I always look forward to the smile she greets me with when she gets home from school.

Joshie is now going to school all day as a 1st grader in Mrs. Elton's class.  He came home the first day as if he was a pro.  I asked him how it was to each lunch at school, to stay all day, etc and he said, "Great.  It wasn't that much different."  Only that evening as I was tucking him into bed did he admit that he had fallen asleep at school on the first day.  This was his story:  "It was 1:00 and our teacher said we could have free time.  The next thing I remember is everyone was cleaning up, I was still at my desk, and it was 1:30!"  I laughed pretty hard.  The following day I got an email from his teacher. I was concerned he had fallen asleep again and she was going to tell me I needed to be sure he got more sleep at night.  Fortunately, it had nothing to do with that.  We are so blessed to have this amazingly sweet and fun loving child in our family.  This is what she wrote to me:

I just wanted to drop you a quick e-mail and tell you how impressed I have been with Josh these first two days. 

We have done several writing activities including our sentence dictation. I told him that he did not need to complete it and that we could either wait until he had his cast off or he could tell me what letters to record and I could scribe for him later in the day. When I went to collect the papers at the end of the assessment, I looked over and he had written the entire dictation with his right hand! He also used his right hand to write during several other activities and completed a rainbow name poster which required him to tear and glue paper. I told him I was incredibly proud of him for trying his best even though it may have been difficult. His self motivation, positive attitude. and perseverance are just wonderful! 

Gideon and Sara are beginning to adjust to having them all gone during the day.  The first day Sara sobbed and clung to Mary as she was trying to get on the bus.  I had to pry her off as she was crying, "Don't leave my friend Mary!"  All day Gideon kept asking when his whole family was going to be home again together.  We have enjoyed opportunities to play at the park and go on walks.  Afternoons prove to be crazy busy and full of energy as they all return home, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I am so blessed.

Finally after a trip to the library and the park on the first day of school we were able to
see a smile on Sara's face again.

Upward Basketball

The first 10 weeks of the year was full of basketball at our home.  Spring, Sammy, and Josh played Upward Basketball this year.  We had practices on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday evenings and 3 games each Saturday.  I love watching them play and I love seeing the improvement they make in such a short time period.

At the beginning of the year Joshie couldn't even come close to the rim when he shot the ball.  By the middle of the season he was scoring baskets with much more ease.  He is quite good defensively as well...especially when guarding his friend, Lily.  It looked more like they were dancing with each other than playing basketball.  He is a goofball and always smiling during his games and practices.  

Sammy is a natural athlete.  He moves with such ease and grace.  He is super fast and scrappy.  He is an incredible defender and came up with steals out of nowhere.  He really improved his offense this season.  His layups improved as well as his range for jumpsuits.  It was fun to watch him learn and try pump fakes during games.  Again, he always has the biggest smile on his face and is excited for everyone on his team when they do well.  

Spring made incredible growth this year.  She finally became more aggressive defensively.  In doing so she came up with more steals.  She also learned how to do real layups this season.  I loved watching her improve her movement with the ball.  She cuts and drives to the basket now and has more confidence in her ability.  Her games were really intense which made it difficult to get many pictures or videos.  Her team ended the season undefeated!  So much fun to watch this girl play basketball.

Mission Accomplished

I realized a few months ago that we had not taught Joshie to tie his shoes yet.  Joel has been the one to teach our other kiddos how to tie their shoes.  He is really good at teaching skills like his to our children and I happily let that fall to him.  Life just keeps getting busier though as our kids get older and the time Joel has at home is decreasing.  I decided I better buck up and teach Joshie.  

Not only am I inexperienced in teaching the art of shoe tieing but Joshie is left handed.  This proved difficult for me and him as I struggled to find the best way.  We started and stopped quite a few times over the course of a couple months.  Finally, in January, I decided it was time to take this task seriously.  We worked each day when he got up from his quiet time when it was just him and I.  To say he was less than enthusiastic about learning would be an understatement.  But, he persevered.  After a couple days he finally started to catch on.  I told him once he had tied them 5 times he could be done for the day.  After a couple days of this, and reassuring him it really wasn't taking FOREVER to tie his shoes 5 times, he started to tie them all by himself in the morning.  We agreed if he could tie them by himself for school then he didn't need to practice anymore.  He was sold.  

He is now an official shoe-tieing kid!  He even got to pick out a toy at 5-Below as a reward.  I think I am almost as proud of myself for being able to teach him as I am of him learning so quickly once we stuck with it! :)

Some of my Boys

Joshie...6 Years Old

Sammy...9 years old

 Thomas...almost 14 years old

Things That Make My Heart Happy

 I love fall.  It is my favorite season.  The changing colors, the crispness in the air, the return of baking after a hot and humid summer, pumpkin recipes, soups, and beauty everywhere I look.  It helps make all my time in the car driving kids places so enjoyable as I can enjoy the beauty given to us by our Heavenly Father.   Joshie came running inside yesterday calling for me.  He couldn't wait to give me this leaf he had found just for me.  I love it and I love the little boy that still wants to give things to his mom!

Mary is such a sweetheart.  She is always wanting to hold Jacob and often rescues him and me in the hectic parts of our day.  Not sure what I would do without her help.

6 Years Old

 Joshie is now our 6 year old!  A neighbor asked him how old he was and he replied with typical Joshie grin on his face, "I'm 5 & 1!"  Love this boy!

 Joshie chose to have steak for his birthday.  Now, for Joshie, steak is salisbury steak.  He didn't want anything but steak for dinner.  He compromised and let me make mashed potatoes as well even though he didn't eat any.  In his words, "I just love steak!"  He wanted a chocolate cake in the shape of a car with powered and chocolate donuts as wheels.  Spring made his cake for him this year as her birthday present to him.  I kinda think it was a gift to me as well! 

Joshie was so excited all week for his birthday.  He loved that he got to take a treat into his class at school and chose to have brownies for this treat.  When the Schnecks came over to our house on his birthday he was in the backyard playing.  He saw them inside so he opened the door and yelled, "Birthday Boy!" pointing to himself and quickly went back to playing.  

 A few nights after his birthday Joel and I took him out for dinner, just him and us.  This is something we have begun this year and we love the special time it gives us.  Joshie chose to go to Steak and Shake for a hot dog, french fries, and a Smores shake.  He was so cute during dinner and kept saying, "This is the best day EVER!"  This kid has the most amazing attitude because he often has "the best days ever!"

Glimpses of Joshie as a 6 Year Old

*LOVES rescue bots. He and Gideon play for hours.

*Wants to be outside no matter what he is doing.

*Is an expert bike rider.  We have to remind him to look before he goes in the street, however,

*His favorite song is "Come unto Christ" from the youth music.  It melts my heart to hear him sing along.

*Crazy, giggly, fall on the floor laughing kind of kid.

*LOVES to wrestle

*Will spend hours playing Legos with Sammy.

*Is the peacemaker of our family.

Another School Year

Somehow it is time for another school year to begin.  This summer has gone by far too quickly and I feel as if I was just rejoicing in not having to pack lunches anymore and in having all our children home with us all day long.  The month of August has been a blur and I really wanted to freeze time...but I can't so off to school 5, yes 5, of our children went this week.  This time makes me so sad because I feel like I have so little time with our children and that the older they get the less they are home.

Thomas began 8th grade at Kimpton Middle School.  He was excited to get back to school and is looking forward to all of his classes.  He has a full schedule with lots of advanced classes and, of course, his music classes.  He came home excited and happy to be in school again.  He is an old pro by now at this school thing.

Spring began 6th grade at Lakeview and was ecstatic to have Mrs. Gillespie and Mrs. Baughman as her team teachers.  She, too, was excited to start school and so happy to find out she will be going to 6th grade camp at the beginning of October.  Hannah is on her team; however, Bella is not and that was sad to her.  She is hoping to get together with her friends more often during this school year even if they are not on the same team.

Sammy is a big 3rd grader at Echo Hills this year.  He was so excited to start school that he was awake at 1 am the night before.  At 3 am he was fully dressed for school and so he went downstairs to watch cartoons.  I was not aware of this until I came down at 6 am. I am not sure how he didn't crash throughout the day but he didn't.  His favorite part of school is recess, big surprise!

Mary began 2nd grade at Echo Hills with Mrs. Tice. Mary's smile will light up a room and her smile was huge her first day of school.  She was asked to help new kids feel welcome and included...the perfect job for Mary.  She came home very excited about school.

Joshie began Kindergarten.  He is attending Indian Trail this year so that he can go to 1/2 day Kindergarten.  I do not want my little ones attending full day Kindergarten.  He was so excited for school and for riding the bus.  It is always hard for me to send off my little guys to school for the first time.  I have to let go and allow them to be influenced by people other than us and that is hard.  Even with Joshie being our 5th child to go to school, it is always hard and I feel like a piece of my heart goes with him.  The highlights for Joshie's first day were recess and riding the bus.  When Joshie came home from school he wanted to know where Gideon was because he missed him so much.  Joshie also told me he was sure that Gideon missed him...and he did!

Grandma Powell was able to be here with us for the first days of school.  Monday night she took the family to  Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  It was a fun way to celebrate the beginning of another school year.

Sara, patiently waiting for Joshie's bus to get home!

Another Chin Injury

So, last night Sammy and Joshie were taking a shower when we heard Sammy yell down to us, "Joshie split his chin open!  He's bleeding everywhere!"  Joel and I headed upstairs to see what was awaiting us.  Yep, another split open chin from bathtime.  I think I am going to ban baths that occur during the hours/days when Doctor's offices are closed.  Joel put a couple butterfly bandages on it to hold it closed while he called a couple residents in the ward to get their opinion on what we should do.  It was decided it would be best to bring him over to one of their homes so they could stitch it up for him.  When we got there the cut was holding together pretty well but when they moved his chin a little it flapped open so it was a good thing for them to stitch it up.

They laid him on the kitchen table.  Joel held his head while I held his arms and legs down.  The two men from the ward gave him some lidocaine in the cut and then proceeded to give him a couple stitches.  He cried hard and it took all we had to hold him.  After it was all done they told us they don't think they got enough lidocaine in it for it to numb so he probably felt everything!  Poor kid.  When they were done he was ready to just come home. Once we got home he fell right to sleep.  I'm grateful, again, for good men willing to share the skills and time to help us out.  

Morning Outing

This morning Sammy was up bright and early taking care of all his responsibilities right away without any encouragement.  His amazing attitude and hard work rubbed off on everyone else, including me, which resulted in a very productive morning with lots accomplished before Sammy and Mary even headed out the door for school.  So, with the extra time we found this morning I loaded up the 3 little ones and we went out to a pumpkin farm about 30 minutes away.  The boys were able to go on all sorts of cool slides...their favorite was the long tubes extending out of the back of a firetruck.  They also got to feed animals.  Gideon was super brave and had no problems letting the animals eat out of  his hand.  Joshie, on the other hand, wanted nothing to do with them eating out of his hands. He preferred to just hold out his bowl of food and let the animals help themselves to as much as they wanted.  While waiting for the little train to start Gideon started crying really hard and I looked over to see a wasp fly away.  The poor little guy got stung inside his ear by the wasp.  He hung out with me while Joshie went on the train ride and then he went a little later.  I felt so bad for him because his ear got really red and super hot.  They also loved playing in the corn box!  Joshie loved diving into all the corn.  When we got home and Joshie took off his jacket a bunch of corn came out as well.  

I enjoyed the morning with these guys.  It's nice to be able to focus on activities that they just love.  The whole drive home they kept telling me over and over thanks for taking them.  These boys are so much fun.

Ladybug Hunt

Joshie has been on the hunt for ladybugs this past week.  We have enjoyed beautiful fall weather and the boys (Joshie and Gideon) can't get enough of being outside during the day.  They find ladybugs on the tree branches and leaves.  This particular day proved to be very profitable for them.  They are very attentive to the needs of their new "pets" and are sure to get them lots of food and things to climb on!  One of my favorite things is to capture their excitement and joy as they play together outside.  I love listening to their conversations...especially when they don't know I am listening!

Trampoline Fun

Joshie discovered last week that he can now do back flips on the trampoline!  Sammy is trying to catch up to him and learn to do the back flip as well.  So far, only Joshie can do them and he thinks that is pretty cool!

Sweet Boys

Joel glimpsed this during the closing prayer of General Conference yesterday and couldn't resist snapping a picture.  Now, if only we could say they were this attentive and reverent during all the sessions! :)  At least they were with us and I know they did pick up on some things.  Today when one of the speakers was referring to a scripture in Joshua about "as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." Joshie piped up, "Hey, they're talking about me!"  Then this afternoon a rhetorical question was asked, "Are we not all children of God?" to which Joshie promptly replied, "Yes!"

I love Conference Weekend and it warms my soul that our children love it and look forward to it.  These weekends always end much too quickly.

Look Who's 5!

Joshie is now a big 5 year old and he lights up if you tell him how big he is getting to be.  Joel and Thomas were going to be on a Camporee the day of his birthday so we celebrated his birthday 3 days early.  When I asked him if he wanted to do that he never hesitated one bit.  He was so excited for his birthday party with the family.  Tuesday morning he woke up all ready to help me make his cake.  He wanted a chocolate race car cake "with a yellow circle with a blue number 5."  His favorite part of his cake was the wheels which were chocolate donuts.  All day he was just beaming and would giggle if I mentioned anything about it being his birthday.  I loved taking him to choose his balloons for everyone and he was so excited he could hardly contain himself when he got to give everyone the balloon he chose for them.  All day long he kept telling me, "Mom this is the BEST day ever!"  For dinner he wanted spaghetti with red sauce and meatballs, white sauce, and homemade breadsticks.  He invited Sue Ann to come as well.  I would say his gift of transformers was a HUGE success for him. It's been a week since we celebrated and I don't think very minutes have passed when the transformers have not been in his hands.  He even sleeps with them in his pillow so nobody hides them while he is sleeping.  He opened a birthday card from Great Grandpa Powell and as he opened the card a $20 bill fell out and he exclaimed in a way only Joshie can, "YAAAA!  Money!"  He carried it around with him most of the day until I finally convinced him it would be safer on his dresser. 

Friday was his "real" birthday and I wanted that to be special for him as well so after Joel and Thomas left for the campout we went to McDonalds for dinner so they could play at the playplace.  He thought it was awesome that they even got an ice cream cone for dessert there!  Such simple joys and pleasures.  He also got a card from Grandma and Grandpa Powell on his birthday.  When I gave him the envelope he said, "I just know there will be something awesome in here...like stickers!  I sure hope there are going to be stickers."  He opened the card and sure enough...STICKERS!  He jumped up and down saying ,"I just knew it would be stickers!"  I love it!  That evening as we were kneeling in the front room trying to get everyone quiet and calm for family prayer there was a knock at the door.  Sister McGarry, Joshie's primary teacher, was delivering him a special birthday cake just for him!  She made his day.  He immediately asked if he could have cake for breakfast the next morning...and he did!

 

In honor of this wonderful kid turning 5...some highlights of Joshie!

 

*He doesn't wipe my kisses off anymore!  I love that!

*His smile and dimple melt me.  He has this way of smiling that just lights his whole face...his eyes shine and it's almost like he is going to burst from being so happy.

*He lives and breathes Transformers.  Before he got Transformers for his birthday he would use blocks and transform them into different things saying, "Transform!"

*He does not like shoes at all.  He had a pair of hand-me-down lime green crocs from Sammy.  Sammy wore them for 2 years and then Joshie has worn them nonstop for the last 2 years.  He had worn big holes through the bottoms where his big toe is.  I finally convinced him to let us buy him a new pair and he agreed as long as they were "slip on shoes" and not tennis shoes.

*He loves poptarts!

*He wrestles any chance he gets and Sammy is more than happy to oblige!

*He loves to do flips on the trampoline and cartwheels in the house.

*He gets really shy in new situations and when there are large groups.  He would prefer to play with a small group of people.  If he feels overwhelmed or there is a new situation, he will just go off on his own to play until he warms up the situation.

*He loves to come and cuddle with me after he wakes up from his naps.  He will often fall back asleep on my lap.  This is one of my favorite times with him.

*He is a great kid with a big heart.  He wants to help others and he wants to share with everyone.

New Pics

Joshie's 5 year old pictures (a few weeks early) and Sara's 9 month old pictures.