Joy!

Time for Joy School Round Two!

 starring Eve, Erin, Wade, Connor, and Brighton

This girl cracks me up. She was so excited for preschool to start, thanks to her sisters talking it up so much. And she was REALLY looking forward to wearing new school clothes. Isn't she a cutie!

Back in Class

Much to our dismay, the glorious summer ended. And somehow these little darlings are bigger and more beautiful each year. Can't believe how fast it goes.

Love that they are sisters and best friends. Love that they go to school together (ALL day!). Love that they even play together at recess sometimes. Love them so much.

Planting Seeds

Sometimes when you're raising kids you just hope and pray that they're paying attention, somehow absorbing all the good things you're trying to teach to them. Sometimes you're just hoping to make it through the day without getting poop on your clothes. The trouble is, you never really know what kind of day it's going to be.
Here in our family, we are THRILLED about the Payson Temple. From the moment it was announced, I have looked forward to a new temple, especially because my kids would be able to see it come together. We went to the broadcast of the groundbreaking ceremony last year about 25 seconds after Max was born because we wanted our kids to know how important this temple is to us. I remember one of the speakers saying, "Look at these young children here. They'll be there for the temple dedication, and one day they will come back here to this temple to do baptisms for the dead, and later receive their endowment and be sealed." My mind blurred with the thought of my sweet little ones literally growing up with this beautiful temple.
So, because we already love it, we sometimes go out just to check on it.

There's a great little mound of dirt that you can climb up to look over the fence.

 See the crane in the background? They're doing something over there, like elevator shafts I think.

 Sometimes the best view is up on Daddy's shoulders.

Let it be known that we did take Eve with us to see the temple, but she fell asleep in the car and didn't want to get out. Don't worry, we'll go back. She will still have the chance to "make this temple her own," in the words of our stake president tonight.

So..... we decided to take the kids up to the open house of the Brigham City temple for the same reason. Give them the chance to feel the Spirit, see how beautiful it is, make commitments to return one day.
Only this time didn't go so smoothly. First was the super long drive for which I was woefully unprepared. Not enough snacks, books, and even the converter for Trav's computer was broken (that's because I tried using it for my Crockpot while we drove up to Salt Lake the week before. My bad.) Then we got there and waited in an uber long line, Max was poopy, the kids were hungry.... The temple was nice, but the kids were not exactly inclined to the experience. After we went through, there were cookies that my kids couldn't eat (that always makes them grumpy), we went to Wendy's and waited in a 40 minute line, someone (can't remember who...) had diarrhea all over their clothes. It was rough.

 This picture is a pretty accurate representation of how they were feeling at this point.

Even though it wasn't perfect, I am glad we went. Because we are planting seeds. We are trying to give these kids opportunities, to put them in places where they will feel the Holy Ghost whispering to them of their divine heritage and eternal destiny. Who knows what they will remember from this day? Mighty trees begin as tiny seeds, strong testimonies are built while children are young.
At least that's what I'm praying for.

Let Evie Be Evie

 You know who's awesome?
Eve, that's who.
This little girl has always been one of a kind. She looks at the world in a different way than her sisters or her parents. She approaches problems differently, people differently, even foods differently than anyone else in this family.
For a while, I struggled with it. Why couldn't she just do things my way? Why couldn't she just do what I asked? Then one night, Trav and I were watching "The West Wing" (okay, yes, that show is more than a decade old, but it's pretty much the only TV show we both enjoy. Unless you count Good Luck Charlie.) Anyway, the title of the episode was "Let Bartlett Be Bartlett" and for some reason that resonated with us. We decided to "Let Evie Be Evie" and it has been so fun to change our parenting strategy so that it matches better with her little personality.

 Here's what you've got to know about Eve: She is fiercely independent. She wants to do everything by herself. She also wants to do everything her sisters do, even if she seems a little young for it. For example, a couple weeks ago, we were at my parents' house teaching Anna and Kate how to dive into the water. Little Eve was playing in the shallow end, but once she saw what the big girls were doing, she came right over to the side of the pool and did a perfect dive the very first time. Before her sisters figured it out. There is a quote floating around Pinterest that I am going to hang above her bed: She Believed She Could So She Did. It perfectly describes this sweetheart.
I've learned I can't push her into doing things, but once she decides she is ready and interested in doing something, she will do it right away, and she will work at it until she gets it done.
Eve has also perfected the art of making a PBJ. She does everything all by herself, and if I dare to get in her way, she shoos me out. It's a little messy, but who am I to interfere with her blossoming culinary skills?
One of my favorite things that Eve says lately is "It's better than nothin'." This could be about anything. It's better to get one scoop of ice cream than none, it's better to have shoes that are too small than no shoes at all, it's better to play with friends for a few minutes than not at all. She cracks me up with her upbeat little voice, "Better than nothin', right Mom?

And one of my favorite things is to see how her relationship with Max is changing. He's no longer a little baby that takes attention away from her. Now he's a genuine playmate, and she loves it. They have a game they play called Toss TuttleTim where she throws a little stuffed turtle and he chases after it. It never gets old! They even play Hide and Seek, where she hides behind the couch or something and calls out "Max, where's Evie?" and he will crawl around until he finds her. It is so cute.
I sure do love my Eve. She makes me laugh every single day, she gives the tightest hugs, loves to snuggle and read books, and even melts my heart when she sings Primary songs the wrong way: "Choose the right, when a place is choiced before you." What a blessing in my life!

For the past seven years, my mom has been using her day off to come down and hang out with my kids. SEVEN YEARS! It has been an amazing blessing in my life and in the lives of my children. They adore their grandmother almost as much as she adores them. But times, they are a-changin' and my mom is losing her day off in the middle of the week. We are sad about it, but hope that her new job is a better fit.

Anyway, one of our final Grandma Days was when we hiked to Donut Falls with both of my parents. I remember doing this hike when I was younger, and it was so fun to share it with my own little ones.

 Anna is definitely transitioning to that next stage of kid-dom where she is adventurous and independent and curious. It's fun to watch her explore the world.

 

 My parents are so cute. They have this tradition of taking a picture together at waterfalls. They are a great example to me of what marriage is all about. I love to see how they enjoy spending time together, they sacrifice for eachother, and they support one another. It's an enduring, happy kind of love. Or, in the words of the song from their generation, "a groovy kind of love."

 Grandma and her girls. My kids are the luckiest because of how much love is poured into them-- not just from my parents but from all of our families.

 My mom's biggest concern about taking her new job was giving up Grandma Day. She is especially worried about not having as much time with Max as she has had with the older girls. I assured her that Max is looking forward to lots of sleepovers at her house so she doesn't need to get all worked up about it.

This is such a classic example of why my mom is good for my kids. Because she is always on the lookout for new "adventures" that may delay the original activity a bit, but definitely bring it greater joy. We love you Grandma! And Pappy too!

Boating: Check

Seems like the theme for our summer is We Love Water. We've spent so much time swimming, boating, splashing, slip n sliding, beaching, etc. And it's been a blast.

These photos are from our first boating trip of the summer. After being on the water for less than 30 minutes the lightning started flashing and the waves got rough. We decided to bring the boat in and drove to Heber to get shakes at Granny's. So, you know, at least the day was not a total loss.

Max's first trip on the boat was not a dream come true. This may have been the only minute he was not crying. He was pretty darn mad about the life jacket that zipped up to his cheekbones.

I sure do appreciate my parents always being willing to haul out their boat so we can go. They are the most generous people I know, both with their possessions and their time.

Kate Turns Six

 It is unreal to me that this girl is already six years old. She has turned into such a lovely, funny, caring person. I am honored to be her mother.

 Kate wanted a dog themed birthday party, so we had a dog bone hunt, decorated dog collars, played pin the nose on the dog, whacked at a dog pinata..... the works. It was a blast. Just don't look too closely at the cake, which I tried to decorate like a dog but looks more like a 50 year old man.

Kate had a special request for her birthday party this year. She told me she wanted to "help the poor and needy" by having her friends bring gifts for them. I explained to her that would mean they  would not bring a gift for her, and she told me she would have to think about it. Later that day she came to me and said she wanted to do it, and when I asked her why, she just stated "It's just that we have so much.... and they have so little." Blessed girl.
So we found an orphanage in Haiti that needed medical supplies and told all her friends to bring Band-Aids, Neosporin, and Children's Tylenol. They were very generous and she collected a lot of stuff. I am sure glad to  be her mom; she is a tremendous example to me.