Back to school lunches

There was a conference talk many years ago (like 4 or 5), it was by a Seventy, I can't find it but essentially he talked about a boy who was telling the Seventy that the boys father took them out to lunch every eyar and told them what kind of things they could expect from life, friends, school, temptations etc that year.  Then he said, "and when those things happen, come talk to me because I have been there." 

Jason and I thought that sounded like a great idea and we have started doing it.  It starts in 6th grade.  They get to choose where to eat.  It is so fun talking to the kids and hearing about their thoughts and have a chance to talk about "real" stuff.  I got a picture of Megan and her lunch but for some reason my phone deleted it (it has been doing that lately).  

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It begins

Brock is playing football for Thunderridge.  He is thrilled.  He has never played tackle football before.  That is not how it was supposed to be.  We had a rule that he couldn't play until he was 12.  The year he was 12 his friend, Cameron, talked him into doing another year of flag football (Cameron wasn't allowed to play tackle).  So, figuring he would play in 8th grade, he decided to play flag. But then.... covid.  8th grade tackle football was cancelled and Brock went into his Freshman year never playing before.  It was definitely a disadvantage, but Brock has turned it into an opportunity to prove himself and work hard.  He has loved it.  It has also really brought he and Jason closer together (not that they needed it).  Brock loves talking his dad about his drills and practices.  It has been fun.

 

Eve

Eve is awesome.  She didn't start walking until about 14/15 months.  But now she is running.  She still isn't talking.  Although just this week she is saying "up" so that is her first word.  Hopefully more will follow.  She loves her dad and books.

Here are some adorable pictures from one day at the park, where I couldn't pick just one.

 

Dane's "things"

I don't' have pictures of all of Dane's "things" but this is definitely one of those times where I put off the post because I swear I will take pictures and then I never do and then it never gets recorded.  So I am going for it.  

Dane goes through "favorites" unlike any of my other kids.  He gets really obsesses with one thing for a week or 2 and then moves onto another.  My other kids had obsessions, and sometimes they changed but he is very different.  I can't really explain why.  But I LOVE this little obsessions.  His first obsession was horses.  He loved horses.  We got horse book from the library, I got out lots of toy horses and he carried them around the house for a while.

His next love was dinosaurs.  We again got books from the library, got out dinosaur toys and of course watched Dinosaur Train.  That then led to trains, which then led to Thomas.  We have a train table, but he wanted bigger trains, so we set it up on the floor for weeks and he played with it all. the. time.

We started setting up "zoos" and "farms" for a little while.  He loved his animals. 

His last obsession was tractors.  He loved Bob the Builder and playing in the sand with his tractors.  Bob the builder led to his obsession with tools and fixing things.  He dressed up like a handy man for days and went around the house with his tool box fixing everything.

From an athletic standpoint Dane basically loves whatever Brock is doing.  His first love was Basketball.  He wanted to be out in the cul-de-sac dribbling balls.  Then this summer it was baseball all day long.  Seriously all day long.  He just wanted up to pitch to him.  It was so "bad" that I would hide his bat, then he would use ANYTHING as a bat, then when I would hide that he had me pitch imaginary balls at imaginary bats.  We did this during all of Brock and Megan's games, and all day at home.  He got out bases and would run the bases and he often insisted on wearing Brock's stuff while he did it.

 Currently he loves magnified glasses and a microphone - like Sid the Science Kid.  He has a lot of "big ideas".  haha

A few other stages he went through.  He used to love his naps.  He would ask to take naps all day.  It was kind of a problem.  Whenever he got stressed out, mad, sad, or hurt he would say, "I want to take a nap".  It lasted for like 6 months.  At the time it concerned me, now... oh how I wish he happily took naps.  He also loves books and loves to read and be read to.  He would sit on a lap for hours and be read to.  He goes through stages of his favorite books.  Usually they are books from the library.  His most recent favorites are "Caps for Sale" and "The Tree House that Jack Built" and "The Bear Snores On".  

It is taking all my strength to not introduce him to super heros yet because that is my FAVORITE stage and I LOVED when my boys loved spider man and super heros.  But I think he is stull too young for that - it seems like once they go to super heros they never go back to "toddler" stuff. 

Back to the temple

Facebook Post:

July 27, 2021

Today is the day. I am humbled, excited, and grateful to go back to the House of the Lord today.

That Facebook post scarcely reflected how I felt.  On one hand I can say that my heart was dying to get to the temple.  But on the other hand I can rightly say... not as much as I thought.  He sustained me during this pandemic.  Before the pandemic i couldn't go 3 weeks without being drawn back to the temple.  I was compelled to go.  I could feel it, I could feel Him calling me there.  When it closed I assumed it would feel like I was starving or thirsting for the temple.  But it didn't feel like that.  I felt full.  I didn't need it.  I had my covenants.  I had the Holy Ghost.  I did family history work.  I could tell He was compensating for the temples not being open.  I went weeks, then months, then over a year and I never felt like I needed the temple.   But as the days drew closer to it being open I was increasingly excited.  My first ordinance was sealings.  It was beautiful.  Immediately I was reminded I was in the Lord's house.  He orchestrated a sacred miracle with a Peruvian family and the sealing being an old Peruvian mission and temple president.  Beautiful.

Then things got a little rough.  You have to make appointments to go.  I could never keep my appointments.  It is not the phase of my life for appointments.  I can't predict how the next 10 minutes are going to go, or tomorrow afternoon, let alone next week.  I reschedule Doctor appointments and dentist appointments at least 2 or 3 times before we actually go.  With 7 people always relying on my stars have to align for me to leave the house for 2 or 3 hours.  And the truth is, stars align quite often, it just isn't predictable.  That is how I went to the temple before.  I got a spare hour or 2 and would just immediately go.  But now I couldn't.  Week after week went my and I would cancel my appointment and reschedule.  It was frustrating.  And my "full cup"?... gone.  He was no longer sustaining me.  That "light" I was walking in all the time was no longer just in my home, He now required me to go to the temple to get that light.  Gladly!  I have figured it out.  I have gone every week for about 2 months.  I am keeping my appointments.  I pray for the day I can go on a whim.  

Also I take teenagers once a month.  It is my favorite.  I don't always get to take a picture (cuz sometimes I don't always want to be THAT mom).  I am overwhelmingly grateful for my boys.  They love the temple.  They take every opportunity to go.  And I mean every opportunity.  Even when it is really inconvenient or if they already went that week.  If someone has an open ticket and offer it up they always take it. I would think they would both hate doing baptisms.  Brock hates getting in the water and Noah hates getting church clothes on (and you have to do it twice in a short amount of time) but so far neither has complained.  Love them!

Swimming

We didn't do a ton of swimming this summer.  I realized that having to make appointments during covid helped me to actually, intentionally do things.  The weeks would slip by and I found that we never did anything.  On one hand I feel like it was a bust of a summer.  But on the other I think everyone was happy and enjoyed their summer, so isn't that the point?   Also, as I mentioned, Eve's nap kind of made everything hard.   But we did go a few times, and the kids went by them selves OFTEN. 

Baseball, we play it all day, baseball

Brock played his last year of rec baseball.   I say rec because I guess he could decide to play for high school over the next 4 years, but he says it is his last year.

He played with Cameron, which was awesome for me because I got to sit and chat with Marisa for 2 or 3 hours every week.  It was heavenly.  

Madison became the team manager.  She would refill all the boy's water bottles and she tired a few times to be ball/bat girl. oh - and Brock insists on taking photos like a football player now.  It is wonderful.

Softball buddies

I am not really a selfie kind of person.  But eve was looking particularly adorable at Megan's softball games.  So I took a bunch.  Eve didn't always get out of the house in the early days of summer.  Because she sleeps a lot and someone is ALWAYS home and she is happy at home I got in the habit of just leaving her home and taking Dane places.  So when I would take her to a softball game and I dressed her all cute it made my heart swoon. 

She had quite a few falls those first few weeks of learning to stand!