Family Pictures 2016

Scattered Thoughts

1.  We had a few warm days this week - warm enough for shorts and t-shirts.  Guard was so excited to see his shorts again.  He put them on and danced around the house yelling, "I love my shorts!  Where have they been?"  He really does love his shorts.  Winter jeans have been a problem all season.
When he put his t-shirt on, he looked at the sleeves, he looked at me and back to his sleeves.  He said, "Mom, I'm wearing a sleeve shirt!  I can see my skin!"

2.  Our house is coming along.  The kids and I drive by every day after school to see the progress.  We are all excited to see how much they have done that day.  (Here they are putting on the roof trusses.)

 My dad came up for a few days to help us with the pokey weeds at the new house.  He worked so hard!  He pulled up five huge garbage bags stuffed full of weeds!  He also found us a yard machine on KSL and used it to mow down the wild grass.  The yard looked so much better!  Thanks Dad!
Coal absolutely loves my dad.  Aside from Greg, he is her favorite.  Coal knew Grandpa was sleeping downstairs and she spent the entire night on the bottom stair waiting for him.  She was up bright and early, ready to play with him.

3.  While on a camping trip, Greg took a few days off from shaving.  When we got home, he kept growing out his beard.  I asked him what the plan was?  He said he was growing 'a Eugene'.   Greg has always teased Gavin that he has 'a Eugene' beard.  Kate thinks Gavin's facial hair looks like Flynn Rider's (Eugene) from Tangled and Greg ran with it. 
Luckily when Greg shaved his beard into 'a Eugene', Gavin took it well.  He even cracked a smile and posed for a picture.  He's a good sport.  Greg had his 'Eugene' for a few days and shaved it off for church.

Not Graduating??

Gavin is lucky to be graduating.  Arrgghh!  Here's the story:
Gavin decided that he didn't want to take 10th grade PE and that he could easily do it online.  Fine with me, but I left it up to him to get started.  Finally after two years, I put my foot down and told him to get it done.  He talked to his counselor (who is new this year), signed up for the class she told him to, worked hard and finished up in a few months.
A few days after he took his final, he went and talked to his counselor to make sure everything went through.  Umm...he took the wrong class.  She told him to take the wrong class!  Are you kidding me?!  And, no apology, no offer of help, no options, just, "you took the wrong class" - the class she told him to take.  Grrrr!
He had three weeks to complete the right PE class.  After looking at the requirements, he realized he needed to keep an exercise log for 12 weeks.  The math isn't working here. 
Not going lie, I spent a night crying.  My 3.8 GPA son wasn't going to graduate from high school because of a .5 PE credit.
Early the next morning, I called and got an appointment with Gavin's previous counselor, Mr. Bills (we loved him and were so sad when he wasn't Gavin's counselor this past year).  We explained the situation to him.  He didn't seem too surprised.  He worked at his computer for a few minutes and with a few clicks he signed off the PE class.  Such a relief.  We love Mr. Bills!
Now, Gavin is on track to graduate!

Guard's Monsters

Last night Guard asked me to stay with him for a few minutes.  As I was laying on the floor in his room (and Guard in his bed) he told me about his monsters.
These  monsters of Guard's live in his loft.  They work all day making chocolate medals.  (I appreciate knowing where the chocolate medals are coming from - when somebody does something well in our family, Guard gives them a chocolate medal.)   The monsters have three heads.  When they get ready for bed, they tape pillows to the tops of each of their heads.  Then, they brush their teeth.  With mud.  And, they snore.  Really loud.  But, Guard keeps them around because they make his chocolate medals and he doesn't want to run out.
I'm glad they stay in the loft!

General Conference

General Conference is always a bit of a crazy weekend; this year was no different.  Greg was in Lake Powell on Saturday working on the house boat, so it was me and the kids.  I did my best to entertain them, ask them to listen to some conference and try to listen myself.  It went well, but we were happy when Dad came home.
Conference was wonderful!  I loved all the talks and really felt renewed.  I can't wait to reread them.  Hopefully the kids caught a few pieces of wisdom and hope as well.
Guard wasn't in love with Conference.  On Sunday morning, he asked, "Is it preschool today?"  When I told him it was another day of Conference, he said, "Wait.  What?!  We did that yesterday.  That is over!"  He wasn't happy to sit through another day of Conference.  The treats did help, but he found his own entertainment.  Yep, he did this to himself.

He's so fun to have around!

It was a great weekend!  Can't wait until October!

Guard's Arky

Guard is almost four.  And he still has a binky.  What is wrong with his parents??!!

It was so beyond time to get rid of the binky!

When we mentioned it to Guard, he was quite upset and hesitant.  But, we had Kate talk to him about putting his binky in a stuffed animal (like we did with her binky).  Guard was a bit more on board after that. 

We tried to find a time to go to Build-A-Bear, but was just so busy.  And Guard kept his binky every night.  Finally, one day at JoAnn's Guard spotted a cute little arctic seal and asked for it.  After examining it, I was pretty sure I could open the seam, put the binky in and sew it up.  So, Guard went home with his seal and named him Arky.

Luckily for me, putting in the bink was a piece of cake.  It took five minutes and Arky was stitched up without a problem.

Guard loves him!

Not sure what we were so worried and nervous about.  Guard hasn't had a problem at all sleeping at night without his binky.  If he has Arky, he's good.  It was definitely time for the binky to go!

Enoch's Talk

Today, Enoch gave a talk in Primary.  He spoke about the topic of God creating man.  This may sound like an unusual topic, but there is a story behind it.
A few weeks ago, Enoch was watching NOVA after school.  He watched an episode on Darwin and evolution.  I asked him what he had learned.  He told me that humans evolved from fish.  I told him that humans did not evolve from fish, but we were created by Jesus under the direction of Heavenly Father.  He started arguing all his 'scientific evidence' and was quite insistent.  I told him what I believed, what the scriptures say and I invited him to pray about it.
A few days later, Enoch came to me and told me he had prayed about where we come from.  He received an answer that we were created in the image of God by Jesus Christ.  When it was time to give his talk, he wanted to talk about
In Genesis 1:26-27 it says,

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

I know these words are true because I prayed about them. I know that Heavenly Father created our bodies and sent us to earth to learn and grow, to become more like Him. This is part of His plan. I am thankful for this because we can have a body in heaven after we are resurrected and be more like our Father in Heaven and Jesus. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

So proud of him!

Gavin's Senior Pictures

Kate's Baptism Pictures