June

After we got home from our Nauvoo trip, we jumped right into swimming lessons. It made my heart glow everytime I saw my two kids holding hands walking into their lessons together while I went to park the car (cause we always arrive at the last possible minute to everything). I'm so glad my kids are such good friends and look out for each other.

Tane was rather timid at swimming lessons last year, but he surprised me with how brave and involved he was with everything this time. He is very good at following instructions, and he made great progress on his abilities in the water.

Miriam also surprised me with her reaction to swim lessons, which was more timid and cautious in the water. She had practiced sticking her face in the water in the bathtub all spring, and seemed very comfortable, so I don't know what the difference was. She still had a great time, and the kids looked forward to it everyday for the 2 weeks we had them.

Tait was so well behaved and found his own fun watching at the side of the pool. I know he will be ready to join in the fun in the water next year though. He is our fearless one in the water, as we've observed this past summer.

At the end of the month, our little girl was pleased as punch to finally turn 6! She has matured so much over the past year, and in spite of a couple of really bumpy, emotional months in the spring, she is gaining greater mastery over her emotions, and is so enthusiastic about life, and compassionate with people. Miriam has a very expressive way with her words and her body, and I am in awe of her constant energy. She also has a great desire to choose the right, and she often learns quickly from her mistakes. She is a wonderful example to her brothers in many areas, and she has quite the talent with her imaginative play that keep the kids busy and happy for hours on end.

We celebrated Miriam's birthday this year with a swimming party. This was the very first friend party we've had in our family, and it was quite the event! Grandma Henke (who is a guru of party and game ideas and supplies) came to our aid in planning and supplying. We ended up playing water balloon games, seashell hunting in the pool, making fishy craft bags, and much more! Miriam had a wonderful time, and talked about her party for weeks afterward. I was very pleased with the fun she had (and grateful Blair had the day off to help--and make the kids squeal). But the best part about the day, was the miracle we had with the weather, and the experience Miriam had in strengthening her faith in prayer.

The day had donned gray and cloudy, and it ended up sprinkling and chilly all morning. We thought about moving the party inside, but most of the games we had planned were water games. I am not an extrememly adaptable person when it comes to stressful activities (such a kids' b-day parties), and we considered postponing it altogether. However, Blair suggested that we hold a family prayer and ask Heavenly Father for a miracle. Miriam volunteered to say it, and gave a sweet, faith filled prayer asking if He would clear up the weather so we could still have her swimming party. About an hour before the party, the sun came out, and the weather warmed up, and the skies stayed clear until about the last 15 minutes of the party. It was a wonderful experience for all of us, and Miriam was quick to offer our prayer of gratitude afterwards. I feel so grateful for the answer to her prayers, and hope she'll always remember how kind and loving her Heavenly Father was to her and to us that day.

May

We had several significant events/changes happen in our family at the end of Spring. The first being that I said goodbye to my wonderful piano students. It has been a love/stress relationship teaching piano for the past two years. But overall, the experience was very rewarding. I had seven wonderful students, who for the most part I am able to maintain friendly contact with at church or in the neighborhood. This picture comes from our final Spring recital--I don't think I could have felt more proud of each of them if they were my own kids. It was the right decision though, and I am enjoying having more time and flexibility with my 3 1/2 kids now.

Number 4 baby has required more thought and change in our family than I could have imagined. One of the significant changes necessary was to upgrade to bigger vehicle. We had planned on waiting until the fall, but we found a good deal on the model we really wanted, and we have sure enjoyed the comforts of our 2005 Honda Pilot all summer. This was actually the first vehicle we have purchased since we were married. Our kids still ask us if we're going to take the "new" car when we go places.

And last, but certainly not least. Our current youngest turned a whopping 2 years old at the end of May!! Tait has been an the funnest angel of a child since the first day he joined our family. His name means "cheerful", and there isn't a word that fits his personality better. Along with turning two, he has found his voice and his independence. He may have started talking a little later than our other two children, but he has his own style with everything--and it usually means making us laugh! One of the first phrases he started using around that time was "my-Tait-self"--obviously meaning he wanted to do it himself. He uses "my" to describe most of his feelings and activities and desires. Such as: "my hungry, mama", or "my heavy" when he's helping me carry something up the stairs, or "my happy!" when I ask how the kids are feeling that morning. He is the least mellow of our children, and he keeps me on my toes. But he also keeps a smile on my face, and I'm so glad he's part of our family.

We celebrated his second birthday with a trip to Hogle Zoo with Nana and Grandpa Elmo. It was an experience we all enjoyed--especially watching Tait's enthusiasm for animal life and adventure.

Highlights of Our trip to Nauvoo

This past June we took our first real family vacation. We drove back to Iowa to spend time with Blair's sister, Malia and her family. She lives about an hour and a half away from Nauvoo, and we had such a wonderful experience seeing the historic sights, and gaining a new appreciations for the early Saints of the church.

We took two days to drive the 18+ hours on the way out. The kids did great in the car, thanks in part to our "new" used Honda Pilot- equipped with DVD player. We stayed over in North Platte, Nebraska to swim at the hotel, and rest up for another day in the car. We ended up experiencing the craziest storm I've ever seen, complete with tornado warning around midnight. It was quite the experience to see buckets of rain being dumped out of the sky rather than drops--not to mention the wind and the hail.

The next day we stopped at Winter Quarters to see the temple, cemetery, and visitor's center. This ended up being one of my all time favorite parts of our trip. I felt such awe and reverence standing on the hallowed ground where so many died during a perilous winter there. It was amazing to see how the kids felt and reacted to the sacred feeling there as well.

We spent Sunday with Keith & Malia, visiting and letting the kids get reacquainted. And Monday we headed down to Nauvoo. Our first destination was obvious--the Nauvoo Temple. What a humbling and joyful experience to be there, and see the magnificence that came from such sacrifice and service of so many Saints.

Blair and I were able to do a session there the following day, and were even asked to be the witness couple. Unfortunately, between the heat, a lack of breakfast, and the early stages of pregnancy, I nearly passed out not long into the session. We were replaced with a sweet missionary couple sitting next to us (who kept assuring us that they had been through the same thing during the wife's seventh pregnancy on a trip to Manti). It was a sweet (and a little embarrassing) feeling as they stopped the session briefly to see to my physical needs...a glass of water, wiping my neck with a wet paper towel, and at least half a dozen ladies offering me certs, or sweets, or whatever they had in their pocket. What a charitable people we are privileged to be counted among. The upside of the story is that everywhere we went in Nauvoo for the next two days, people recognized us from the temple session, and were extremely open and friendly--especially the missionary couple who took our place. The sister was waiting when we came downstairs after the session, and showed us a few special things and places in the temple that an average visiting couple would not normally get to see--including Joseph Smith's personal saber inscribed with his name hanging in one of the offices. They were also excited to meet our children as we bumped into them around the town, and we got to watch them in one of the many fun shows we went to see.

Our first night there, we stayed in a darling little log cabin that was actually rather authentic looking in many ways-except for the wonderful inclusion of modern facilities. We had such a fun night.

There were several guided tours that we took advantage of--including a wagon, carriage, and ox-drawn wagon ride. The timing was always perfect in the middle of the day to rest our feet, and Tait took advantage of the bouncy mellow rides to nap.

The weather probably should have been hot and muggy, but we were blessed with overcast and slight rain drizzle throughout our visit, which made it pleasant to be outdoors all day. The kids loved learning how the pioneers had lived, and surprised us with their attention to the missionaries during so many presentations and explanations. We came away with new found gratitude for their way of life, and the sacrifices they made.

On our last day, we took a drive down to Carthage to visit the jailhouse where Joseph Smith was incarcerated and martyred. Stepping into the room where he spent his last hours was an equally sacred and hallowed feeling. I am grateful to have learned more about him as a prophet and a man, and to have been inspired to "try a little harder, and stand a little taller" to show appreciation for the way that he and the early Saints pioneered for us.

The remainder of our trip was spent at Keith and Malia's home, where we visited, laughed, ate good food, danced Dance Revolution, relaxed and enjoyed each other's company. Hopefully, it won't be too many years before we are able to make the long trek to visit again. It was definitely a highlight in our family's life!

I'll leave you with a little clip of Tait grooving to the Nauvoo band that parked their wagon by our picnic table and thoroughly entertained us during lunch.

Dr. Seuss anyone?

I volunteered to make 60 posters for the teachers at Miriam's school to track their students reading for literacy week. They are celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday--so thus my design. It ended up being a bigger job than anticipated ( hmmm...that seems to happen to me a lot--I need to work on my time evaluation estimates). It was a fun experience to do something different to be involved with her school, especially with something that I enjoy and support so much--Reading!!

Finally Four!

We celebrated Tane's birthday earlier this week. He has waited so long to be 4 years old (to me he has acted 4 years old for nigh on a year already, and I feel like he should have turned 5). I just loved the pure excitement of every little part of his birthday celebration.

Grandma Henke made a hooded bear towel for him. He absolutely lights up when he wears it. One of our birthday traditions is to wake the person with the "Happy Birthday" song and gifts first thing in the morning. It was fun for us to have grandparents here to share that with Tane this year.

Yeah for "boy toys". We haven't had a whole lot of those around. Thankfully, Miriam and Tane love to play together-- whether it's dolls, or house, or ferocious jungle animals. On a side note...this morning Tane started crying when he found out Miriam was going to a friend's house after school. He said he would miss her too much. That touched sweet little's Mimi's heart and she started crying, and made sure to give him a kissing hand before she left, promising they would play as soon as she got home.

Tane chose to party with his family at Jumpin Jacks. Lots of giggles and lots of excercise!

Tane and Tait cruisin' in a plastic car. Cheese!

Music Box Dancers

I have two music boxes in the kitchen, and the kids usually ask me to turn one or the other of them on so they can dance while I'm making dinner. They were dancing so uniform and precious this particular day, I couldn't help pull out the camera.

It was our ward's year to do the bulletin boards, etc. in the primary room. We decided to redecorate. :) And it turned out fabulous! One of the ladies did curtains out of light blue flannel with "I am a child of God" children all over it. And we added color and fun reminders of the yearly theme all around the room.

My assignment was trying to carry out this idea I had to try to make the gospel a more active part of our primary children's lives. I saw a paper woven quilt on the wall during our Stake Primary training with a similar caption to the one we chose, but I didn't know how the whole thing worked. I decided that a real fabric wall quilt would be more cosy in the room, and also that the quilt needed to be "weaved" in order to fit our purpose. Why, with my amateur sewing skills, did I volunteer for such an undertaking-- to be completed over the holidays between Christmas and New Year's ? I think part of it has to do with how passionate and dedicated I am when I get excited about a project. But most of it comes from 3 years working with these kids and seeing their faces light up when we hit on an idea that brings the gospel home to them and makes it fun.

So after lots of brainstorming I came up with a design (and thanks Mom for your suggestions when I was trying to figure out how to sew it altogether and still keep the open pocketed woven top). And then we came up with the plan to write a gospel challenge to go along with each weekly theme for the year. I'm glad I work with such great ladies who came up with all of the inspired challenges, when all I had to do was the sewing. The challenges are written on the back of each picture attached to the quilt with sticky back velcro--one of my favorite inventions, by the way. The children who complete the weekly challenge get to tell about their experience at the pulpit during opening excercises and then put a colored glass bead into a tall jar we are trying to fill before our program in the fall. We're also gathering ideas for the program as we listen to the kids' experiences they share.

The whole project entailed a lot of stress and a lot of late late evenings, but I am quite pleased with how it turned out. The sweetest reward has come over the past two months though, as my own two little junior "primarians" have come home each week so excited to do the challenge, and to tell about it in sharing time the following week. I'm grateful to have children who are learning to love and live the gospel of Jesus Christ. It makes every effort as a mother and as primary chorister worth it.