President's Day Weekend

I love Sundays!  I love that the kids get creative and have fun with each other.  It's amazing what they come up with when TV, video games and friends aren't an option.  On Sunday Wyatt pulled out all of our rainbow loom supplies and they all had fun making bracelets.  They have been doing it all week.

I cut Jackson's hair and Caitlyn was worried that he was cold so she put his sweater on him.  Yes, we are those crazy dog people now!

Caitlyn and Jonah were having fun goofing around and teasing each other on Sunday.  I had to take a picture of it because I loved watching it so much!

Jonah told me to take a picture of him like this.  I love when the kids are in playful moods.  All the stars aligned and they were all in a playful moods on Sunday!

I loved just watching them have fun together. 

A few weeks ago Emilee and Char asked if wanted to buy a groupon so we could all go to hi tea together.  I wasn't sure what hi tea was, but I knew Caitlyn would love spending time with Cecelia and Baylee and I would love to spend time with Emilee and Char, so we said yes.

I can't believe these girls are 13-years-old, it doesn't seem that long ago that they were little girls having pretend tea parties.  They sure are beauties!  Cailtyn loved spending the afternoon with them.

We had a blast talking and laughing together and enjoying our four course hi tea. 

The kids had Tuesday off of school too so Keith decided to take the day off so we could do something fun. We went out to lunch and then took the kids to Lowes Extreme Air Sports.  We have heard good things about it. 

It is a trampoline park, but they had a lot of other things as well.

The kids loved swinging on these and falling into the foam pit.

I loved seeing Jonah help Wyatt.

It wasn't crowded at all, which was great!  Keith and I were able to walk around and watch the kids doing all of the different activities.  It was great to just be able to focus on them and let them show us all of their cool tricks!  We love our family time.

Trust me Wyatt, chruch gets much better when you are in young mens

Wyatt was telling us all how much he hates church last Sunday and Jonah reassured him that it does get better!  I'm so happy with how much Jonah enjoys young mens. Jonah's Sunday School teacher stopped Keith last week to tell him how great Jonah is and that he knows all of the answers and is so well behaved.  I'm sure proud of Jonah and the respect he shows to his teachers. 

Jonah and his friends have been going to the temple every Friday morning for a couple of months now.  Usually Mary takes them, but since they are moving I am going to start taking them.  I took them once a couple of weeks ago.  It is so fun to see their excitement. 

I'm so grateful that Jonah has such a great group of friends!

Jonah is so funny about his hair.  He always takes the time to comb it and make it look just right and he is constantly asking me for haircuts.  He likes to keep his hair just the right length and he hates when it gets long because then he can't get it look just the way he likes it.  He is such a handsome guy. 

Jonah has been loving basketball season.  His team ended the season 8-1.  They start playoffs on Saturday.  Only the top eight teams compete and it is a single elimination, so it is going to be tough.  His team is doing great and they are having a lot of fun together!

We love to watch him play.  His last game was tense because it was so close.  They were so happy to pull off the win!

Jonah has improved a lot on his foul shots and he usually makes them.

Today Caitlyn got out of school early because of parent teacher conferences so I picked her up and we went over to the temple.  We had 22 family names and they let us do them all because they weren't busy at all.  We each did 11 baptisms and confirmations in less than an hour.  It was fun to have some one and one time with her.

We started play therapy for Wyatt a little over a month ago.  He loves it, especially if he gets to miss school.  I heard him whisper to Jonah, "we don't even talk about feelings, we just play!"  I've been wondering if this is the right thing for him and after talking to his counselor and some things Wyatt has told me, I really think we are on the right track.  I'm so grateful, I spend so much time wondering if I'm doing the right thing, so it's nice when I feel like I am!  Wyatt's counselor is working with him on self esteem and helping him to praise himself and feel proud of hard work.  She focuses on the effort not results and I love that!  On Tuesday he painted while he was in there.  The counselor, Molly, had him show me the picture he painted and tell me about it.  If you look carefully you can see three stick figures, Wyatt is black with a yellow head, I'm red with a yellow head and Keith is blue with a yellow head.  He told me that all of the stuff around us was a volcano, tsunami, a landside, a hurricane, a thunder storm and an asteroid.  I wasn't quite sure what to say and Molly told me that she thinks it a good thing because we are all happy in the midst of all of this.  Wyatt drew himself eating a burrito! I asked him later if that is how he feels sometimes, like everything is crazy, chaotic and overwhelming around him. He said, "Yes, I feel like there are so many things going on in my head and it feels crazy.  And there are always so many things I have to do and it is too much."  I was amazed to see that Wyatt was able to communicate that through is drawing. That is such a good description of anxiety and depression.  You really do feel constantly overwhelmed and constant stress and pressure.  I hate that he feels that, but I love that he could articulate that and help us understand how he is feeling.  When your mind is in constant turmoil it is really hard to have people demanding things of you. This helped me realize why Wyatt gets overwhelmed so easily, the poor boy is constantly fighting battles in his mind.   Wyatt is such a kind, empathetic boy, his struggles make him so aware of how other people are feeling.  For the first time in a few month I'm feeling some real hope for him and confidence that we will be up to the task of supporting him. 

Mom is definitely going out if she is wearing jeans!

Keith and I went to a movie on Valentine's Day.  When I walked into the kitchen Hallee said, "Mom is definitely going out if she is wearing jeans." I might only wear pajamas and sweats when I'm home!

The young women had a winter retreat a couple of weeks ago.  Cailtyn was so excited!  They went to a cabin and had a blast sledding, swimming and sitting in the hot tub.  Caitlyn had so much fun.

Angie told me that she just loves Caitlyn and that Caitlyn made the retreat so fun.  It was good for Caitlyn to go have fun with the young women. All of the changes in leadership and changes in the age groups have been hard for her. There are only three mia maids.  She is sad to be in the small group instead of the bigger classes.

We took mom out for dinner for her birthday.  We went to her house to play games after.  It was a lot of fun.  It's always nice to talk and laugh with my family!

Dad gave us all valentines and said he wanted to get each of his girls a Valentine.  I thought that was so sweet. 

We celebrated the February birthdays at my parents house.  Hallee wrote my mom such a sweet note.

Kyle took a picture of me and EJ.  EJ is so much fun to be around.  He is so easy to talk to and always has something funny to say. 

Grandma gave all of the kids Valentines.  Tonight my kids were talking about how much they love grandma Ham during dinner.  Wyatt said, "she always gives us nice stuff, like 500 Bingo prizes." Hallee said, "I love her because she is so nice."  It was so sweet.  My kids are sure lucky in the grandparent department.

We had Blue and Gold banquet last week.  Wyatt is such a cutie! 

Wyatt was so excited to go to Rockwell's birthday party.  They had a blast at Hang Time.  Boston was there too, so Wyatt was in heaven.

Caitlyn cracks me up.  She loves to pamper herself!  Her newest thing is to use the foot massager/soaker.  

Life Lately

Caitlyn is such a natural nurturer.  Jackson had a cold in his eye and Caitlyn took such good care of him.  Jackson must not have felt good because he didn't seem to mind being swaddled like a baby. 

Wyatt got to go on a field trip to a BYU gymnastics meet.  He wanted me to go so I volunteered.

It was a fun field trip to go on. I enjoyed watching the meet. It was stressful getting the kids from the bus to the Marriott Center and not losing them among the thousands of kids that were there, but it was fun to spend the day with my boy.

Jonah had an awesome basketball game last week.  He had 18 points, he was on fire. He had 3 three-pointers, including one where he faked a two-pointer and then stepped back and shot a three-pointer and nailed it. 

He made three foul shots that night too.  It was such a fun game to watch. Unfortunately, Keith was out of town for work so he missed it!  Keith hates missing stuff, so it was hard for him.

Jonah plays guard and forward.  Here he is bringing the ball down and calling the play.  I think he enjoys playing guard the most. 

He loves to make fast breaks.  He is so fast, you can see that a lot of the team is still on the other side of the court.  He is getting really good at fast break layups.  His team is 7-0!  They are all working so hard and playing so well together.  I love that Jonah is such a team player.  On Saturday he had an open shot, but another player who doesn't shoot very often was open so he passed it to him and Jonah got so excited for him when he made the shot. 

Keith had to go to Las Vegas for a convention for work for five days.  We all hated having him gone!  Luckily he doesn't have to travel very often.  His boss always gives him a hundred dollar bill after convention so we used it to go out to dinner on Monday night.  We haven't been to Chuck-A-Rama for a long time and when we saw the prices we remember why!  It was nice to use that money and go out and enjoy a night with no cooking or dishes!

We had fun watching the super bowl yesterday.  We made some good food and watched the game together.  

Wyatt has been really interested in Science and Geology lately.  He found some geodes in our yard and has had fun breaking them apart with a hammer.  Charlie comes over to play a lot, they have a lot of fun together.