Oh, my little pilgrim and indian. Parker made his indian costume at school. He loves school. Natalie had a Thanksgiving program yesterday, Friday.

Busy Month of May

Well, so far this month has been a busy one. The first weekend of the month was a family recognition weekend for sure. We have three birthdays in the month of May and 2 of them are on the same day, so May will always be busy. However, this year were some significant ones. Jayden turned 12 and Natalie turned 8 on May 1st. Seth's birthday was the next week, May 9th.

Saturday, May 2nd were our stake baptisms. Being in a younger stake (the primaries of each ward are usually around 150 or more), they usually have two baptism sessions to accomodate all of the baptisms. But this month was an anomaly. As it turned out, Natalie was the only one from our ward AND our stake being baptized. We were lucky enough to have the whole program. Grandmothers said the prayers and uncles gave the talks, which made for a very memorable baptism. It was a great experience and very enriching to see Natalie make that important step.

The following Sunday, Jayden was ordained to the office of a deacon. Jayden has always been a very caring and sensitive one, especially relating to things of the Spirit. It is great to see Jayden accepting this responsibility and how serious he is taking it. He is excited to be graduated from Primary. Now, he gets to pass the sacrament this Sunday. He can't wait.

That evening, there was a stake court of honor where Seth received his Life Scout award and Jayden received his Tenderfoot, 2nd Class, and 1st Class Scout awards.

All in all, the weekend was definitely busy. We are grateful for all of the family that could come and celebrate it with us. It was one of those "joy and rejoicing in your posterity" weekends. But it does age us a bit, when we realized that 3 of our 6 kids are now in Young Mens/Young Womens. So far, it is fun to have teenagers in the house. Bret likes it, because that is the age of kids he deals with most of the time and really gets along with them. But having kids that same age, helps him understand the problems other parents often have with their teenagers in his classes.

Anyways, all of our kids are all growing up so fast. That also means that Bret and I are getting older and I don't know if I like that very much, especially that I am getting close to that big birthday.....(Like Bret likes to remind me "***age edited*** isn't old....for a tree."

Parker is 5!

I can't believe my little baby is 5 years old. He is growing up so much. He will be going to kindergarten in the fall. He loves preschool. He loves playing with his friends. He is a silly boy. It seems like just yesterday, I brought him from the hospital. He was such a little baby, I still think of him as my little one. He has us laughing most of the time with his little actions or sayings. He knows when he has all of our attention and loves it. Happy Birthday, my little Parker!

Crazy Boys

Well, there hasn't been a lot to write about. We are all just surviving colds and waiting for spring to come. We are working hard on Scout stuff. We have Seth, who just got his Life; Jayden, who just got his Second class and is close to getting his First Class; and Zach, who has gotten his Webelos badge in cub scouts. Jayden also will be turning 12 this year in May. We are now working with Devrianne and her personal progress, so she can get her Young Women Recognition award. Natalie will be turning 8 on May 1st and will be getting baptized on May 2nd. Parker will be turning 5 in April. I can't believe Parker is that old. He will be going to kindergarten next year. He doesn't seem ready to go to kindergarten yet. I still think of him as my baby. Well, as you can see, the kids are growing up fast and are busy, busy, busy.
Bret and Jayden went on a winter camp out. Crazy boys. I think they had fun. Here are a couple of pictures that shows them having fun. I wouldn't do it.

Heidi's Surprise...

Happy New Year!!!
Yes, I realize it is a little late for the well wishes, but better late than never. I had intended to get everything in order and be ready for the new year, but the time just flew by and "life" started again. When I was in college, I always thought I would have more time to do everything once college was over. After college, I thought things would settle down, but then our family started growing. Then the kids got older, etc. What I have realized is that life just gets busier with more demands on time and more responsibilities (or at least it seems that way.) I am sure this isn't news to anyone, but more of a realization to me.

Actually, it is probably more of an excuse to say why I haven't written. I want to put something on the blog that would be fun to read and of interest to readers. I doubt you are here to read my ramblings but rather read how things are going in our family. I have found that I need quiet time to sit and write things and to make them interesting. In order to have that time, I usually wait for the kids to settle down and go to bed. Unfortunately, I often find myself teaching them this by example, much to the chagrin of Heidi. But I know she does find joy in trying to engage me in deep conversations just about the time I am entering REM sleep. It is so frustrating to know what you want to say in your mind, but by the time the words make it to the mouth, they aren't the same words nor are they in the same order in which they left the brain.

Enough of those deep thoughts...... On to our Christmas report. I had some real fun this year with surprising Heidi. When we began our Christmas planning, she thought that getting a Wii Fit would be fun for the kids. I had read some reviews on it and thought they might like it as well, but not quite as much as she thought they would. We asked the children whether they would like to have a shared family gift or individual gifts this year. Heidi was hoping they would say shared. They chose individual gifts. That meant that we couldn't get the Wii Fit. Heidi was disappointed. Later, she begged that we get it anyway. It was then I realized that she was the person who really wanted it ( I eventually pick up on things, though it might take a while.) I told her that we would just have to wait. We discussed it at length and decided we'd get it later. Although she agreed, I could tell she was very reluctant to accept that fact.

Little did she know that I had already decided that I was going to get her one, but I wasn't going to give her any hint of my plan. I dropped by Wal-mart and found one of my former students working in the electronics department. I asked her if they had any Wii Fits. She explained that although they get them in regularly, they don't stay around too long. If I came in the morning after the new shipments arrived, I could probably get one.

Well, I woke up one morning and left early for work. On my way, I stopped and picked up a Wii Fit. It was about 5:30 in the morning. They had received 20 units and by the time I got there 9 had already been sold. Needless to say, I was happy I was able to get it.

Later that very same day, Heidi e-mailed me, trying to convince me to get a Wii Fit. I was afraid I had given her some clue. Why was she bringing the subject up again? Did she know something? Did she know that it was in my office at school? I couldn't let her even think I was going to give in. I replied that we just couldn't get it now and that we had already discussed it and in my mind we had made our decision. Why did we need to revisit the discussion? She had even found someone in the neighborhood who might sell us an extra one they had picked up. I told her no. We weren't going to get a Wii Fit now. End of discussion. Yes, I was rather blunt about it.

To make a short story longer, I hid the present at my parent's and left it there until Christmas Eve. Then during our family get together on her side, I made some excuse that I had to drop by my parents to check on a computer scan I was doing (It was true. I was doing a computer scan, so it wasn't a complete lie.) I wrapped the gift, hid it in the car and returned to the party. I told Zach and some of the other kids to help me out and not let Mom load or unload anything in the back of the van that night. They did a great job.

Later that night, Heidi and I helped Santa set up all of his deliveries and then went to bed. Heidi went to bed first. I was going to stay up just a bit longer. After she was asleep, I retrieved her gift from the van and hid it behind the tree.

The next morning Heidi had already convinced herself that I had given her a "coupon" to go get herself something, since she didn't see a present for her under the tree the night before. She didn't want to show too much disappointment, so she really psyched herself up to be happy for whatever I had gotten. She didn't expect much because she knew I had been pretty busy during the days leading up to Christmas.

After all of the others gifts were handed to their recipients, there was just one gift remaining. The kids handed it to Heidi. As she picked it up, she realized what it might be. Sh e to re part of the wrapping paper and saw that it was indeed a Wii Fit. She was excited and happy. I had surprised her. It was totally unexpected.

Since then she has played it often. Played isn't really the correct word be cause it is more of an exercise game than a video game, but she has enjoyed it. Even though I still hold the record for the most hula hoop points......

P.S. Parker's picture doesn't really have anything to do with the story, but he sure has a great expression.