Miss Livvey

Here are some picture's of our little miss livvey! She's 8 months now and so much fun. She has a little bashful personality that is super sweet! We sure love having her in our family. It's amazing to Brandon and I how each child we have brings their own personality into our family and after we have them we can't believe we functioned before they came... make sense?

Look at this sad little face. The paddle ball she's holding flicked her in the face right before I snapped the picture. Poor thing!

Fall in Michigan is beautiful. This tree is across the street from Porter's school and it's pretty amazing. The picture really doesn't do it justice. I do love fall!

Porter's First Day of School

Porter finally got his turn to go to school today. He POPPED out of bed this morning and grabbed his back pack and was ready to go. Unfortunately for him he had to wait until after lunch.

See how far ahead of me he is... that's not on purpose for the picture either. He had no problem saying bye and letting me leave.

Waiting to go into his class. He had so much fun at school. The only thing he was disappointed about was not being able to play outside since it was raining. Other than that preschool was a success!

Being Released

I hate change!

Really I do. Thursday night the 2nd counselor in our bishopric came over and released me from the Young Women's. I was sad! I knew that it was probably coming but I didn't want it to. I think Brandon could hardly contain his elation that I was being released and no more sunday meetings, or wednesday night activities. There were many times I really thought he was going to ask the Bishop to release me because some months, let's face it, were hard to do it all, and really I didn't do that much to begin with. I was able to work with some amazing women and get to know some even more amazing young women. I was able to witness modern day revelation as the value Virtue was introduced into the Young Women program. I saw girls grow from beehive to mia maid, (and really that is a huge change:).

And I had fun.

After I was realeased I was then called to be a primary worker. Everything in me wanted to scream, "NO!" as I shook my head yes to the calling. With every calling that I have had I've learned that the calling is for my benefit more than those whom I serve. I know I'll learn to love primary,

it's just the change that I really hate.

Pure Joy

Enjoying the last bits of summer

Our kids have been having fun enjoying the last days of summer. We've been going out at night and riding bikes. Both of our boys are getting really good at riding. Porter was really nervous about riding one night, until I started racing him. He then forgot all of his nervousness and started pumping his legs as hard as he could to beat me. Love my boy!

We spent last saturday at Erwin Orchards. The kids all had a good time. Olivia enjoyed gumming an apple while the boys picked apples.

What a mess!

Our apple loot from the cider mill.

Olivia really hates this sling. She had an apple in her hands that distracted her for a minute.

Michigan in the Fall is definitely one of our favorite times. Brandon's schedule has been pretty open and we've been enjoying having him around.

This is how I know Logan thinks about me at school...

This is his first Kindergarten art project, isn't it amazing! I think it is....

Anyway, this is what is on the back of the picture. He said to me when he got home and excitedly showed me, "See what I drew on the back for you mom!" Love that boy!

Another School Story

Logan had his first day of school today. There couldn't have been a more excited, ready to go kid. We started the excitement last night. After talking with a friend and seeing other people have this idea I thought it would be fun for our family to have a shool year theme or motto. So our family theme this year is Patience, and no not the kind when you go to the doctor's office like dad. (That's Logan's definition when I asked him what patience meant.) We are going to work on having patience with ourselves and each other as we adjust to new things happening to us and our family throughout the year. A lot is going to be changing and we need to have patience to get through it together. Brandon gave the boys a father's blessing earlier in the day, he had to go to sleep for his grave yard shift. The boys loved having the blessing and it's one of those few moments where there's something spiritual going on and they actually sit still and listen. I made a special Salmon dinner for the boys, one of their favorites. We then picked out Logan's outfit and went to bed.
Logan is not known for his ability to wake up early so I was a little worried and knew we needed to have plenty of time for grogginess. He did fine this morning and got up and ate his favorite thing, Honey nut cheerios. I told him he could have anything for breakfast and that's what he chose. We got all dressed and ready and took pictures. When I was combing his hair he just had the biggest grin full of pure excitement, while I was fighting back tears.

Porter had a hard time seeing him go and was by his side all morning long. We walked him out to the bus stop right out our front door. Once on the bus Porter and I hopped in the car and met him over at the school.

He got off the bus and said, "That was so much fun!" We walked over and met his teacher with the other parents and their kids. Then the teachers asked us to walk our kids to the door and say goodbye. I walked him to his class and said, "alright Logan we're gonna go." He happily said, "Okay mom." And walked right into his classroom without a glance back. I'm proud that he has the confidence to go forward without me, but I wouldn't have minded a little glance back:)

We love this boy! Porter and I kind of missed having him around today. Porter kept saying throughout the day, "when Logan gets home we'll do this.... I'll save this for Logan... Make sure Logan has one when he gets home... etc..." The boy loves his big brother.

We didn't know exactly when the bus would get back this afternoon. School got out a 4 so around 4:20 I was pacing the hall waiting for the bus. Finally at 4:30 I'd had enough and went outside to pace. Of course Porter was right with me throughout this and waited outside with me. Around 4:40 the bus appeared and out came Logan smiling ear to ear and talking non stop about his day. He spent the next 20 minutes talking and describing his day. About 5 times he said, "It was a long day... Boy it was long." So going from no school to going 7 hours is a big change. But overall school was great the kids were all nice and Logan had a great time. Brandon and I are so proud of him and love his sweet little personality, and everything about him.

Logan's first kiss

Logan: Mom guess what? Addi kissed me last night!
Me: What?! Why?
Logan: We were playing and she was Ariel and I was her prince and we kissed.


Oh no!

Meeting Miss Buller

Logan went to his school's open house the other day and met his teacher, found his locker, made some friends and played with the cool Kindergarten toys. It was fun to see other parents there and the kids getting along really well together. Logan had no hesitation he went right in started saying "hi, I'm Logan," to everyone and got right into playing. He loved everything about it. I've asked him several times what he's most excited about and everytime he says, "recess." It's a little overwhelming and comical, (yes I can laugh at myself) that I'm feeling so much anxiety for this. His teacher handed each parent an envelope that had some information in it. This little story was in it as well and I thought that it was cute so I wanted to copy it down.

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Jack who was about to climb his very first beanstalk. He had a fresh haircut and a brand new book bag. Even though his friends in the neighborhood had climbed this same beanstalk almost every day last year, this was Jack's first day and he was a little nervous. So was his Mother.
Early in the morning she brought him to the foot of the beanstalk. She talked encouragingly to Jack about all the fun he would have that day and how nice his giant would be. She reassured him that she would be back to pick him up at the end of the day. For a moment they stood together, silently holding hands, gazing up at the beanstalk. To Jack it seemed much bigger than it had when his mother had pointed it out on the way to the store last week. His mother thought it looked big too. She swallowed, maybe should have held Jack out a year...

Jack's mother straitened his shirt one last time, patted his shoulder and smiled down at him. She promised to stay and wave while he started climbing. Jack didn't say a word.

He walked forward, grabbed a low growing stem and slowly pulled himself up to the first leaf. He balanced there for a moment and then climbed more eagerly to the second leaf, then to the third and soon he had vanished into a high tangle of leaves and stems with never a backward glance at his mother.

She stood alone at the bottom of the beanstalk, gazing up at the spot where Jack had disappeared. There was no rustle, no movement, no sound to indicate that he was anywhere inside.

"Sometimes," she thought, "it's harder to be the one who waves good-bye than it is to be the one who climbs the beanstalk."

She wondered how Jack would do. Would he miss her? How would he behave? Did his Giant understand that little boys sometimes acted silly when they felt unsure? She fought down an urge to spring up the stalk after Jack and maybe duck behind a bean to take a peek at how he was doing.

"I'd better not. What if he saw me?" She knew Jack was really old enough to handle this on his own. She reminded herself that, after all this was thought to be an excellent beanstalk and that everyone said his Giant was not only kind but had outstanding qualifications.

"It's not so much that I'm worried about him," she thought, rubbing the back of her neck. "It's just that he's growing up and I'm going to miss him." Jack's mother turned to leave. "Jack's going to have lots of bigger beanstalks to climb in life," she told herself. "Today's the day he starts practicing for them... And today's the day I start practicing something too: cheering him on and waving good-bye."

I do know that it's just kindergarten but like the story said, I'm just going to miss him so much.