End of April 2017

Sam is a cub scout no more!  He earned all his final rank advancements and his arrow of light and will now officially move to 11 year old scouts.

Our family officially gets a break from cubs for a whole year until Matthew turns 8.  This mama is a bit too excited for that!

Matthew cracks us up.  More than any of my other kids he enjoys tents and forts.  He has a tent that has been set up in his room for over a week and he sleeps in it most nights.  Sometimes he can convince Lindsey to sleep with him.  Keeping in mind he moves around A LOT in his sleep, she's a brave girl.

Another important rite of passage at our house, Matthew is being trained to mow the lawn.  Sam pretty much has the front yard as his responsibility, so Math and Dad now mow the back.  Teach them to work, teach them to love it and take pride in it.  

The Book of Mormon

We did it!  We finished reading the Book of Mormon as a family.  It was a tremendous accomplishment but an equally tremendous blessing.

Most mornings we'd gather before school and before Stephen left for work.  We'd read a few verses each and discuss them when needed. The project probably took us nearly 2 years.

And when we finished we took a few days to discuss if we should just start another book of scripture or start the Book of Mormon again.  Then in General Conference, President Monson gave a wonderful message about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and we had our answer--we started it again.

I've gained an amazing testimony of the power of this book to bring peace to our homes.  While I didn't see the difference at first, what I do notice is the increase of contention in our home when we DON'T read--it's amazing.  Our home is happier when we read and pray.  I am grateful to learn this.

Easter 2017

Easter 2017

Bunny run breakfast.

Girls wore their "footie" pajamas.

And the one remaining egg they couldn't find just happened to be the camouflage one--REALLY?!

Big boy birthdays

Sam is 11!  Because he is nursing those extractions his birthday treat was an ice cream sundae.  He recently got new glasses (a wrestling incident with Matthew) and they look nice on him.

He was thrilled to spend the day with Dad as a "Watch dog"!

And for his birthday present he got a new pretty sweet mountain bike.

11 things I love about Sam

1.  His vocabulary--seriously off the charts thanks to his constant reading

2.  He works really hard

3.  He is super responsible and can be depended on

4.  He really loves his mom and is always affectionate and respectful

5.  He is brilliant!  Always thinking, always trying to find a better way to do things--super great score on the Texas State Standardized test

6.  He is really neat and is my cleanest kid--the mess is never his

7.  Sam is a good friend--loyal and kind.  And he's kind to everyone

8.  Sam has a very strong sense of wrong and right and always wants to follow the rules

9.  Sam is a saver--never wants to spend money and is mindful of the expenses he incurs

10.  I love to watch Sam play soccer

11.  That he's mine forever!

Sam isn't the only one with a birthday in mid April, Stephen turned 40 on April 16th.

Now I really struggled with this but Stephen didn't want a big deal made about his birthday.  I wanted to invite his family to all come to town and celebrate Easter with us--and when it came down to it, he just preferred a low key at home weekend without any company.  That's his style.  No party, no friends, no family.  And when it came down to it, it was a perfect way to celebrate and the break we all needed.  Whew!

Go Crush!

Lindsey tried something new this season--Volleyball.  Honestly, I think they lost every game.  But she tried and learned something new and I'm proud of her courage and hard work!

Sams extractions!

Sam had a HUGE change today--her had 7 teeth pulled! 

Sam has an interesting mouth.  Nature never created a set of permanent molars on the lower part of his mouth.  In consulting with dentists and orthodontists, we decided to pull the baby teeth and the corresponding upper molars with the intent to push everything together with braces when he gets them.  So that's 4 teeth right?

Well the other interesting thing about Sams mouth is that for some strange reason, his roots of his baby teeth don't absorb really well or quickly, so we've already had a couple baby teeth we had to pull because the roots didn't absorb and the permanent teeth started coming in crazy crooked to the side of the baby tooth.  And these extractions cost $$ each time.  So when the oral surgeon offered to pop out the remaining 3 baby teeth I said, absolutely.

And this meant that Sam left the oral surgery with 7 less teeth than he started.  

Eating was a struggle.  He was on a soft food diet for awhile.  Eating fajitas on his birthday a few days later was impossible.  Poor guy--hope his teeth grow in quickly.

On another note--I LOVE going to the school and seeing notes about my children being kind.  The school counselor has a 100s chart.  There are 100 spaces for kids to get caught by a staff member being kind.  And when it's full, the counselor draws numbers and if your act of kindness is on a number she draws, then you get a prize.