Teenager!

Thanks-Giving Day this boy turned into a teenager.

 

 

Sleepy eyed and eager to open his presents. 

I wonder when they out grow the prebirthday sleepless nights and early morning parent invasion for their gifts. Hopefully not anytime soon, I love the excitement and anticipation they have of what is hidden beneath the pretty colored paper.

 

A sports years for Nolan - basketball shorts, socks and bag.  A shiny new volleyball and AE sweater.

 

Nolan celebrated by getting his dad all to himself - they went rock climbing and exchanged his gifts for the right colors.

 

After a Thanks-Giving meal with his Grandparents he blow out his candles and celebrated a no girls candle victory.  Lets hope it stays that way.

Glimpses

Yesterday I had a glimpse into our future. We were sitting around with friends and Nolan laughing and having such a good time. It projected me 15+ years into our future picturing us sitting around with our adult kids and their young family laughing and having a good time together. 

I remember hearing Sister Beck talk about raising her kids, she realized she had to raise kids that she would want to be friends with when they were adults.

The experience was a sweet little reminder of the long term goals in raising our kids.

Boys

Sometimes I feel like I'm going to go crazy with this house filled with boys.  There is always balls being kicked at my head as I go about doing chores.  There are guitars and drum beats filling the longed for silence as I try to find some sort of quite place to regain a bit of sanity.  There are cars, Lego's, cows, soccer shoes, gym bags, soccer balls, basketballs, rubber balls and volleyballs at every turn being hit, kicked or volleyed.  Our house is filled with everything boy, blue is the main color in the washing and wrestling is the family sport.

There will never be pink in my future or tutus or barbie dolls.  Yesterday as I decorated the table for Thank-giving, I knew that no one would appreciate my efforts to make things look nice, nor would I receive a confirmation of the beauty of the dishes or the decor.  In my need for someone else to join in my appreciation of beautiful things, I went seeking it from one of the boys in the house and received a bit of mocking.  After having myself a little pity party, I decided that even though I have boys I can still teach them to appreciate nice things.  I can teach them to compliment me, as some day their wife will appreciate the compliments. So much to teach these wonderful boys of mine as I continually learn important lessons from them.

A little bit of everything

1. We had our ward camp out at the Magrath Stake Camp ground, so much fun for the kids.  There was a bouncy house, water slide and all the corn and little boy could nibble.

 

2. We are in the process of weaning Barrett off his soother during the day.  Man alive he loves that thing; I love that thing.  It's not gone well; lots of crying and wandering the house calling for his sue sue.  If I had it my way he would get to suck that thing until he left home.  Soothers have magic powers that fix every problem. 

 

3. Nolan made the volleyball team.  I keep trying to get some shots of him serving, returning a serve or spiking the ball, but wrangling a wild 2 year old in the stand seems to take all my time.  Anyhow, this is Nolan's first time playing volleyball.  His coach is awesome and already his skills have improved a ton.  The "Gators" had their first tournament and when Nolan was receiving a killer serve he bumped it and the ball went so high and came down swishing through the basketball net.  Nothing but net baby.  It was awesome.

 

4. I was dreading the start of school, because I knew that with the start of school come a crazy busy schedule.  It happened, we just sort of run from one activity to the next, Spencer and I pass or texting each other as to our where abouts and who has who and who has to be where.  I know it's the life of all families, but it crazy. 

 

5.  Yesterday we got a bit of reprieve from the craziness and I forced everyone into the van to do some geocaching.  I do really like geocaching, but I also find that it's the beginning of family adventures.  We hit a couple caches and then I had to check the price of something at a store that was by Thriftway Village and Nolan wanted to go check it out to see what we could find.  Man alive that place is crazy busy, Who knew.  We all got some bargains.  Barrett found a toy lawn mower, Nolan got a pair of ski pants and Nike sport shirt and Jarom got a rain resistant coat.  Everyone was happy with their finds. 

 

6. Nolan and Barrett are going as Curious George and The Man with the Yellow Hat for Halloween. Now to think of something good for Jarom.