Lyman's Baptism

 I do not think there is any greater fear or anguish a parent can have then to worry that they did not teach, prepare or love their children enough to help those children grow up to be good people and make good choices.  I don't think I can explain adequately how a parents of a child so young as eight could really still feel all this worry but I do.  My son turned 8 and was baptized on October 13, 2012.  It was an amazing, humbling experience for me.  It also made me feel like I didn't have enough time left.  I wished for just a few more hours to like "crash course" him with good parenting.  In our church, we baptize at the age of 8 or older.  This is because we feel like, unlike with infant baptism, the child begins to have the ability to choose for themselves and to be held accountable for those choices.  As a parent, part of me would like to protect him always from his choices and keep him safely tucked in my embrace.  But I am pleased he wished to be baptized and I am grateful for Andy for being worthy and able to baptize him.  I will continue to try to be a good parent to him and teach him as he grows.  I will be watching him because I know what a great potential he has.  

Lyman's Birthday (another one?)

My son Lyman turned 8.  That is eight years old.  As in 8 years ago he was born.  As in where-in-the-world-did-the-time-go!  For his birthday he was lucky to have both sets of his grandparents in town.  He also didn't have school (thank you Green Local SD) and Andrew didn't have work so we all went to a pumpkin patch.  They had hay mazes, monster sized pumpkins, hay rides, petting zoos, pumpkin mini golf and pumpkin bowling.  It was fall-tastic.  It also did a lot to keep my mind off the fact that he grew up so quickly.  I mean really - its 8 this year and 18 the next.  One decade - that is all I have left before I wash my hands of him have to let him go out on his own. 

 This is a few of us with the monster (probably around 800 lb) pumpkin.

 Grandma and Grandpa Mackrory

 Nothing says romance like a giant gourd.  Be sure to look at the background - see Lyman cheating his way through the hay maze behind us?  Nice.  Its cool - he didn't get baptized until the next day.

 Grandma and Grandpa Putnam

 Hay maze - Lyman and Corilynn

 Ruby going through one of the tunnels in the hay maze.

 Of course everyone had to try this.

 I sincerely hope I am not looking into my future with any of the shots with my kids.

 Pumpkin mini golf was super fun. Some of us took it quite seriously (cough, cough - Grandpa Mackrory) and others took to making their own rules (cough, cough Ruby who would just carry it to the hole).

 Pumpkin bowling or as Lyman liked to call it, smash a pumpkin and laugh hysterically.

 Hay ride (without the hay and on hard benches in a tractor trailer) - hello tailbone!

 Ruby loved the animals to see.

 The girls loved playing house in the teepee that was set up to for the kids.  Now I know why there are times I wonder if they are really wild Indians.

Happy Birthday Lyman!  We love you very much.

Kids and Canines

Ruby is settling in to being a two year old with real energy.  She demands independent vote on what she wears, when she does something and just about any thing else in her world.  When her arch nemesis opposes her (her arch nemesis is anyone who opposes her), she has a real talent for the dramatic.  We love this little vibrant, red hot temper prone, still loves to give snuggles and kisses you if you do a sad face  - little girl.  We do love her.  We do.  Sometimes we have to say it to ourselves as a mantra.  We do love her. 

 Corilynn is also settling into the stage she is in too.  In her case it is kindergarten.  I have never seen a girl take to reading like this.  We cannot stop her from sticking her nose in a book, the Friend, the reading magazines from Grandma or anything with words on it (The Far Side book?).  Not that we would want to stop her from reading. Not even when we find her in her room (when she should be getting dressed) in the nude reading.  Or when she should be finishing her business in the bathroom but instead got distracted by the book she snuck in there.  Or when we try to find her for dinner and discover her asleep with a book in her arms in the hammock.     We are so proud of her and glad that she loves to read.  We especially love it when she shares her new found love with her sister and reads her stories.

 Our little doggie, Watson, is a delight (and headache occasionally).  We love his snuggles and love that he will stay little enough to snuggle forever.   Here he is spending time with his Mama while she tries not to loose dinner.

Falling Hiking Spree

Andrew and the kids have been working on earning their walking sticks this fall.  Our county has many beautiful hiking trails and a program that if you hike 8 of them by a certain date you will receive a walking stick with a medal badge to go on it.  Each year you participate, you get a new badge to add to it.  Since I am rendered useless by the pregnancy this has been a great little outing for the kids to do with Andy.  So far they have completed 5 of their 8.  As the fall arrived and the trees started turning colors, it made the walks that much more beautiful for them.  I love hearing about their adventures and what weird creatures, bugs etc they found on their hike when they come home.

Doggy Park Adventure

Watson got to go to the doggy park which he thought was just about the best thing ever.  He visited that hydrant several times and had a glorious time barking and running around with the other doggies.  He also slept quite soundly that afternoon.

Andrew turns 35!

My darling husband turned 35 this year on his birthday.  He joked that he was half way to 70 which I thought made him sound too old, since he looks like he hasn't aged in the last 10 years.  We had a lovely dinner of Cafe Rio pork salads and a relaxing weekend.  I cannot express how wonderfully blessed we feel to have him in our home and as patriarch of our family.  He is an exemplar husband, an amazing father, and an honorable man. We love him and will happily keep him for the next 35.

Lisa Comes to the Rescue

Andrew's brother Sean was gracious enough to spare his lovely wife for a week to come out and pull our heads out of water with this pregnancy.  Lisa came for a week and the kids decided she needed to just move in and not go home.  They haven't stopped talking about her since either.  She came, she cooked, she girl talked with me, she played with the kids, she laughed at Andy's jokes, she cleaned - simply put, she was an angel.  Even Watson (our dog - sheesh I cant even remember if I've blogged that we have a dog now) had a share of her affection.  

 While she was here we had a FHE about Lehi's dream in the Book of Mormon.  Then we gave the kids the challenge to go and try to make something from that dream out of Lego   Lyman made the "great and spacious building" complete with pillars (fancy) and people drinking on the balcony mocking others.  Corilynn made the straight and narrow path that lead to the tree of life.  We were amazed at the detail they added and loved seeing their creativity.

We ended the week with Lisa with a trip to Amish country.  I stayed behind because I didnt want to ruin the trip by loosing it in the car.  But everyone else had a wonderful time picking out fudge and walking through the Amish hardware store etc.  We were so grateful for her visit, me especially.

Kid Chefs

 One of the things the kids like to do with Dad when I am not home is to cook with him.  They call it being kid chefs.  These pictures were from when I was away at a book fair in Georgia during labor day weekend.

Growing in so many ways.

When I logged on today I was surprised to see that I had not blogged in over a month.  Well over.  Now that I am finally getting to the point where my body doesn't want to protest every tiny piece of food I give it, I feel like I should update what has been happening in our lives.  Before I start posting pictures though, I should mention a big thank you to the many friends and family, who over the past few weeks have taken such good care of us/me.  This pregnancy knocked me on the ground harder than we had anticipated but we are happy that everything is going well and so far we have a healthy little tiny miracle still planning on coming to our family.  I am 16.5 weeks and I can hardly believe that in just a few more weeks I will get to find out what we are having.  I can tell you right now I believe it is a boy.  But it will be nice to confirm.  Other than the baby, we have had a lot of happy things happen over the past few weeks.  Andrew turned 35 (wow middle age here we come! ::wink:: jk) and Lyman turned 8 and was baptized   Wow, that was a neat experience and Ill have more on that later.  We had Aunt Lisa come out for a little over a week and fill our freezers with food and our hearts with love.  The kids thought she was just manna from heaven and it was nice for me to get to relax a bit and not worry about food other than trying to consume (and keep) it.  Lastly, I found out that my publisher, Meryton Press, has accepted my second book "Bluebells in the Mourning" for publication.  A timeline on that one is yet to be determined as a few more editors are being hired right now.  But I can say that this little amazing part of my life does not get old.